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// Foreword - Cato 
// Story: Calling Card 
// by TheGathering 
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When I had that nightmare after the Friendship Games, I could never have realized that it meant that 7 months later, for at the time I had it was in late October, I would find myself in the crosshairs of the heart of the very evil I saw in that nightmare. Of course, there were the adventures, the fights, the dramatic moments, and the terrifying nights that all led up to this point, which included among other things, a ruined Spring Formal, a ruined Winter Formal, a winter break of research, a showdown on the roof of Crystal Prep High School, and much, much more. I never wanted to have my family drawn into this, but that night, I did pull my family into this and had to explain everything. Needless to say, the fact that there was another world full of magic wasn’t truly surprising to my parents, given that they had seen some of the magical outbursts from afar apparently. 

As for the weird sword I touched right before I transformed, I never gave it up after that. It sits on a wooden rest in my room, along with a special glove that the user has to wear to protect against their body getting sent like a rag doll into the wall due to the shock waves the sword can emit. The blade was an extremely long length, spanning about at least over three eighths of the length of my room. I don’t really know why, but I took a placard that I placed next to the sword and wrote a name on it that I would call it by. I know this name might sound funny to some, but I decided to call it “The Zanketsuken Sword Of Tengu.” 

After the Friendship Games Incident, two students from Crystal Prep transferred into Canterlot High. These were Twilight and a guy named Sunburst. Marvel and I made fast friends with him, and he has become one of the regulars in the friends circle of the Careers, us 24 transfers from Panem City. Turns out, the name Marvel suggested that we call ourselves stuck. We were like the most popular group at Canterlot High, and the most talked about group at Crystal Prep. Like, aside from one group of assholes that refused to believe we existed, most kids there were actually surprised by our existence. In their minds, the belief that Canterlot High could only produce weak competitors for anything the two schools butted heads in had been shattered. In Crystal Prep, the word “Careers” would become a slang term to describe Canterlot High students that possessed exceptional skills equal to, rivaling that, or exceeding that of a Crystal Prep student. In their eyes, there only existed 38 students of Canterlot High that were considered “Career Tributes”: me and the other transfers, Jackie and her friends, Trixie, Adagio, Aria, Flash, Twilight, DJ Pon-3, and Sunburst. Sonata was nearly on the list, but wasn’t quite there. 

In Canterlot High, the term Career came to have a different meaning. In there, a Career Tribute is someone who goes above and beyond protecting other people and students. On that list, there only existed us transfers, Jackie and her friends, the Dazzlings, Shadowbolt 5, and Flash. Only 39 people were what Canterlot High would consider “Career Tributes” from their eyes. Basically, being a Career Tribute in Canterlot High came to be seen as like a badge of honor. 

In the days after the Friendship Games, I received a special citation for above and beyond service to my school from Superintendent Faust. My family was extremely proud of me, as were my friends, and especially Jackie and Clove. Those two girls.. I am so extraordinarily lucky to be the guy that they fell in love with. Really, I am. Like, having those two around after that nightmare I had, I slept fine. Having two girlfriends did mean that my parents had to move some stuff in my room to help fit in a bigger king sized bed so the three of us could all sleep together, but overall, it didn’t really impact much negatively. 

Cinch went on trial four months after the Friendship Games, and no surprise, she was convicted. She will spend the rest of her life in prison. Apparently, the thought of acquitting someone who had blackmailed a teenager with her college application didn’t sit well with the jury. I honestly was relieved. I already had bigger fish to fry by then, so the fact that Cinch could no longer harm Twilight or the rest of us was a relief. 

But, there was still the nightmare. A dream of weird and epic proportions that was engraved in my brain so completely I could still see it go from start to finish to this very day. How was I supposed to know where this nightmare and the blood chilling audio from my computer that night would lead us to, as of right now, literally running two trains on top of the water trying to stop a runaway cruise ship and save our friends? I know it sounds weird, but believe me, given the series of events that lead up to this, weird can just describe every twist and turn this took. 

In the aftermath of the Friendship Games, I started recording down information about my adventures in this notebook. As of this time, I had used over half of the pages describing the times of this adventure. As Marvel and Jason try to line the train up with the Cruise Ship as Thresh and Ryan shovels coal into the fireplace and Noah and Urchin direct another train into position on the opposite side of the ship, a more modern train than this one, my mind drifts back to where it all began, 7 months earlier, in the aftermath of the Friendship Games. So yeah, there’s a whole lot of info that stretches between there and now, so this is going to take a while. A really long while, from the looks of it.

So, you’re now wondering how a single nightmare and blood curdling audio file from 7 months ago led to this physics-defying rescue attempt in the present? 

Well, let me tell you a story..