This was it. The day Flash had been waiting and dreading since he first regained his memories a year and a half ago.
Currently, the reincarnated pony was in his classroom along with the rest of the graduating class. A bunch of rowdy eighteen year olds, who were waiting to see what their future would hold. Many of them were simply hoping for a passing grade, but Flash was determined to a grade high enough to apply for a scholarship.
The teacher had just entered the classroom with their final scores, the students all going stiff as they waited for her to hand them out. As she did, Flash thought back to the last year and a half. Ever since regaining his memories, he had done everything in his power to become the best Adventurer he could be.
Whenever he wasn't in school, he was training or studying. The training part he had no problem with, his body already being physically fit before he regained his memories. But now he was proud to call himself the most athletic member of his age group. He had trained with his father and several of Trail's guard friends, who had taught him a lot and told him he was highly skilled with both a sword and a spear, whilst his abilities with a bow were adequate enough to pass.
He had also been teaching himself flight techniques that would be useful in a fight, now able to do several barrel-rolls without getting dizzy and turning on a dime midair. He was confident enough to think he could handle pretty much anything the world could throw at him in a fight.
Flash looked over at his shoulder, which was covered by his jacket, that had the image of a blue shield with a lightning bolt on it. Flash smirked as he remembered not two weeks after regaining his memories, how he saved a young Equestrian from being crushed by a falling ladder. Doing so had earned him his cutie mark, which his parents had been very proud about.
However, where he fell short was the studying part. He tried and he had never been in danger of failing a class, but his scores had never been considered exemply. He had spent the last month before the finals held up in the library his mother worked at, studying as much as he could. He probably would have ended up sleeping there if Misty hadn't pulled him away whenever she was closing up the library. And now, the results of all that hard work were about to be revealed.
"How much do you need to pass?" A magi in front of him asked the terran next to him, as the teacher placed their score down in front of them.
"Seventy-two," he replied before they looked at their scores and groaned.
Flash felt like he had ants in his pants, as the teach stepped in front of him. And when he saw her expression, his stomach dropped. She knew what he wanted and clearly, she knew he would be disappointed. And sure enough, when he took his final score his heart stopped for a moment.
He would need a ninety percent in both physical and theory to even apply for a scholarship and his physical scores had a nice ninety-two next to it, his theory score only had an eighty-four.
Flash's brain couldn't fathom it. An eighty-four was the best theory score he had ever gotten, but it still wasn't enough. All he could do was sit there as the rest of his class got their scores, many appearing happy with them whilst others moaned about failing and needing to repeat the year.
After a while, he finally got up and left the room. He made his way through the school whilst looking down at the score, unable to believe he had failed to reach his goal. Now there was no chance of him getting into the Adventurer's Academy. He tried to think of a way to maybe still get in, but unless he had a rich relative that somehow passed away and left him everything, that was not gonna happen.
"Flash!" He stopped and looked around, seeing several members of his class running towards him. One was a magi name Streak, another was an avian named Guster and the last was a terran named Stomps. Though Flash barely hung out with them, he guessed they could be considered friends.
"Hey man!" Streak grabbed his scores out of his hands with his magic, seeing his score. "Couldn't get what you wanted, huh?"
"Yeah," Flash took it and kept walking. They all left the school and headed out into the town.
"Come on man," Guster told him. "Don't be so down. So you couldn't achieve your dream. It's not the end of the world." Flash frowned at him, knowing he was trying to help but not doing a very good job.
"It's still a pretty high score," Stomps pointed out. "You could go into almost any prefession with those kind of score. I bet you could even get into the Royal Guard with these scores." The others laughed, as Flash sighed.
Everyone knew the Royal Guards were a joke. A bunch of Adventurer washouts that Celestia had felt sorry for and given positions near her that made them think they still had a purpose, but they were completely useless. Flash remembered last month, during the Summer Sun Celebration, when Celestia had apparently been kidnapped by an ancient evil right under the guard's nose.
It had been a bunch of Equestrians their age that had saved Celestia, which apparently included her personal student, as they had found a bunch of ancient relics that they used to not only save Celestia, but free another Omni named Luna who turned out to be Celestia's sister. Even though everything turned out alright, the guards didn't look too good with that hanging over their heads.
But now it seemed that Flash would have to make do with the guards, since it was clear he wouldn't be getting into the Adventurer's Academy.
"Hey," Streak's voice caught his attention, "who's that?" They glanced around and saw the Equestrian he was looking at, since they had never seen him anywhere in this small town. He was a white magi with blue hair similar to Flash's, who was wearing a purple shirt and black pants under a white overcoat with silver trim. On the shoulder of his coat was a dark purple heater shield with a purple six pointed star within it and three blue stars above it. On his back, he was carrying a large shield.
The magi was heading towards them and seemed to notice them staring, the four looking away as soon as they saw they were caught. "Hello there!" He called out, making them look back as he got in close. He then reached into his coat and pulled something out. A wallet.
He opened it up and showed them a card inside, the lot of them realising it was an Adventurer's Licence with a large S on it. "No way," Flash whispered. "An S-ranked Adventurer."
"That's right," he nodded. "Name's Shining Armor. I'm wondering if I might ask you a few questions."
"What kind of questions?" Guster asked.
"Nothing serious. We've got word of a rogue in the area." That worried the four, since rogues were names given to adventurer skilled criminals that did whatever it took to get paid. That included theft, blackmail and even murder. If one was here, that wasn't good.
"Seriously?" Flash asked. "Why would one be here of all places?"
"Not sure," Shining replied. "That's why I'm here. To investigate. Have any of you gentlecolts seen anything out of the ordinary? Somepony you didn't recognise walking through town?" The four thought for a moment, with all but Stomps shaking his head.
"I remember seeing something yesterday," the terran explained. "A figure who was wearing a dark blue cloak. I bumped into him in the market place and he didn't seem happy I did. He ran off with a bag of food towards the western gate." The other three frowned, since that meant he was heading into the woods.
"Why would he go there?" Guster asked, "nothing in it but a bunch of monsters." They nodded, only for Flash to realise something.
"You don't think he went looking for the sealed relic, do you?" This surprised the trio, whilst Shining raised an eyebrow.
"Sealed relic?"
"An urban legend here," Stomps told him. "Every foal in town learns about it before they can even walk. Supposedly, a powerful Omni created a mighty weapon that could defeat any opponent. And when he died, his children chose to seal it away. Apparently, they sealed it in a rock somewhere in the forest. Many say this town was built by the ponies that went searching for it. But it's just a myth."
"Yeah," Streak nodded, "that forest must have been combed through over a hundred times. Nopony's found anything." The others agreed as Shining shrugged.
"Well it wouldn't be worth finding if it was easy to locate. Either way, it's possible this rogue thinks he can locate it. I'd better go investigate the woods." He gave the group a thanks and headed off, the four watching him as he headed for the western gate. And as he disappeared, Streak turned to the others.
"Let's go after him." The others were shocked by this, as Streak began heading in the same direction.
"Are you nuts!?" Flash cried, "we can't go into the woods."
"Don't you wanna see a real life S-ranked Adventurer in action?" Streak asked, "this might be our only chance to see what it takes to be one. We'll get to see him kick monster or criminal butt. It'll be awesome." Guster and Stromps liked the sound of that and the three ran, or flew in Guster's case, towards the western gate.
"Guys!" Flash cried, but they didn't listen. He groaned, knowing he should just leave them to get in trouble out in the woods to teach them a lesson. But then he thought about what might happen if they ran into something like a chimera or even the rogue himself, which made his stomach roll.
Spreading his wings, he took to the air and flew in the same direction. He spotted the three as they were heading towards one of the gates, but not the gate itself. Instead, they had gone to a section of the wall where the sun had cast a shadow. This allowed them to sneak over the wall, Guster carrying the other two over one at a time.
They made it to the other side right as Flash reached them, the orange avian jumping down next to them. "Huh," Streak smirked, "glad you could make it."
Flash frowned, "I know I can't talk you out of it. But the second I think something bad's gonna happen, we go back. Got it?" The three nodded and rushed towards the forest, spotting Shining enter it a ways off whilst they got through the trees.
This was the first time any of them had ever been in the forest. They very rarely left the town itself, usually only heading to a meadow south of the town where kids played, had picnics or Flash trained with his weapons. This was a big moment for the lot of them.
"I can't believe we're in here," Stomps smirked as they looked around.
"I know," Guster nodded as he tried to fly above them. But the forest's canopy was so low, he was having trouble so eventually gave up and landed with them. "I don't see why the adults told us not to come in here. This place looks like a great time just waiting to happen."
"If it wasn't full of monsters," Flash pointed out. "Who knows what we could run into?"
"Would you stop worrying?" Streak told him. "This forest is huge. What are the odds we'll run into anything?" Flash wanted to say they were high, but at that moment Streak ran off. "Come on. Shining should be this way. Let's find him before he takes out the rogue." The other two ran off and Flash sighed before following, hoping they got lucky and didn't run into anything.
They headed in the direction Shining had entered the forest and tried to stay quiet so he wouldn't notice them, but Shining seemed just as stealthy and they couldn't find any sign of him. It got to a point they were sure they had accidently passed where Shining was and wondered where the heck he was.
"Maybe he went back," Stomps guessed. "He could have found the guy already and took him down."
"There's no way he was able to beat him that quickly," Guster told him. "And even if he did, we would have heard the sounds of the fight. He's gotta be in here somewhere."
"We'll just have to go deeper," Streak stated. "And who knows, maybe we'll find the legendary sealed relic in here." The three laughed at the absurdity of that and headed deeper, Flash frowning since the canopy was getting thicker and thicker. This made the light of the sun grow weaker, placing them deeper and deeper into darkness.
They continued through the woods for another few minutes and eventually, Flash heard something that put him on edge. "You guys hear that?" The three lifted their eyes, but nothing caught their attention.
"No," Guster shook his head, "you're seriously paranoid." Flash glared at them as he continued forwards. But then, they heard something. A snapping sound coming from their left. They all jumped at the sound of this, as fear started to enter each of their hearts.
"I'm sure that was nothing," Stomps gulped
"Yeah," Streak nodded, "probably...just a rabbit or something." But in that moment, something appeared in the darkness they were staring at. A pair of large yellow eyes.
"That's one big rabbit," Guster quivered as the eyes slowly started moving towards them.
The three wanted to run, but Flash stopped them. "No...sudden...moves." Then, a large lion paw appeared out of the darkness. This was followed by another paw, then a face that was that of a lion with bat ears. It was a large creature, almost three times their height, being a giant orange beast with red hair, bat wings and a long scorpion tail. "A manticore."
The manticore glared at them, slowly stalking forward and then circling them. The three others all shook and started sobbing, whilst Flash did his best to hold his nerve. He just hoped they did what he said and didn't make any sudden moves.
But they didn't. As soon as the beast licked its lips, Streak screamed and ran in the opposite direction. The others did the same and Flash gasped as the beast charged, the avian leaping straight up as it ran under him.
"Wow!" He cried, barely avoiding the scorpion tail that almost stabbed him as the manticore chased after his friends. He gasped and flew after them, trying to think of a way to save them.
As he flew after the beast, he spotted a large vine hanging off a tree.
An idea formed in his head. An absolutely crazy idea, but an idea nonetheless. He grabbed the vine and quickly tied it into a lasso as he approached the manticore from behind, managing to get just behind its head as it was moments away from clawing at Stomps.
At the last moment, he looped the lasso around its neck and pulled it back. This caught the beast by surprise and it choked for a moment, stopping it and allowing the others to get away. They looked back and gasped seeing what he was doing. "GO!" They didn't argue and rushed away, whilst Flash continued to pull on the vine and keep the manticore away. As he did, a faint glow suddenly appeared around him that he didn't notice.
But then the beast swung its large tail around and slashed through the vine, causing Flash to be sent flying backwards and crashing into a tree. He fell to the ground with a moan, the glow disappearing, whilst the manticore pulled the vine off of it and glared at him.
Flash picked himself up and began to panic, fearing this might be the end. But as the monster charged, it slammed into something.
A forcefield, which had appeared around Flash and protected him from it. The avian wondered what was happening, only to hear a familiar voice call out in a roar before somepony flipped over the dome.
Shining Armor landed in front of him, now holding up the weapon he had been carrying on his back. It was a large heater shield, that was the same shape as his cutie mark. It was white in colour, with golden trim around the edges. And in the centre of the shield, embedded into the metal and running from its top to the bottom, was a golden blade.
The manticore roared and swung its tail at Shining, but he used his shield to block the attack as his horn glowed. "Lustre Burst!" The horn unleashed a bright light, which shot into the manticore's eyes and made it scream with pain before it staggered back, allowing Shining to act.
Suddenly, the blade embedded inside the shield glowed before extending upwards. The shield now had a large sword sticking out the top. Shining ran forward as the blade glowed, building up power as he spun around and swung it at the beast.
The manticore was suddenly bombarded by a powerful wave of light, which had flown off the sword and struck it head on. It was knocked backwards by the attack, which exploded and caused it to fly through several trees behind it. It fell to the ground and the trees fell down upon it, Shining staring at it for a moment to make sure it wasn't gonna get up.
Once he was sure it wouldn't, he retracted the blade before turning to Flash.
The teen could see he wasn't happy to see him, Flash giving him a nervous smile as the forcefield around him faded away. "I can explain."
"Really?" Shining crossed his arms.
"Kinda. My friends were actually the ones who came here first. I was trying to tell them not to, but they weren't listening. They wanted to see you in action and I tried to get them to go back, but then we ran into that thing." Shining sighed as he turned away, Flash getting up and following him. "I'm really sorry."
"Honestly, this isn't the first time some stupid kids have followed me into a dangerous situation. Comes with the Adventurer territory. Anyway, let's get you back to town. I've still gotta find that rogue before it gets too dark to see anything." The pair made their way through the forest, trying to locate the path Shining had been using before. As they did, Flash thought back to the fight Shining had just had.
"That forcefield that appeared around me. That was you, right?"
"Yup. Normally, Lumino and Shadow magic can be used to create them. But that was my Null Magic, called Fortress. So far, nothing has even been able to scratch my shield."
"Cool," Flash smirked, "wish I had a Null Magic. Then maybe I would have been able to get into the Adventurer's Academy." This surprised Shining.
"You want to be an adventurer?" Flash nodded, as Shining gave him a suspicious look. "Why?" Flash looked shocked at that question. "Do you want to be one because it's the best way to get rich? Or because you want a life of adventure and excitement. Or do you only wanna be one because you think it'll help you get with the mares? Trust me, I've met adventurers who have become them for those exact reasons. So which is it?"
Flash thought about this and knew he couldn't tell Shining about his reincarnation. Instead, he simply thought about the best way to describe his situation to him. "I wanna help others." This seemed to surprise Shining. "Adventurers do a lot of good, don't they? They quell monsters that threaten Equestria, hunt out rare items that can be used to make people's lives easier, or catch rogues that have done terrible things. Like the rogue you're chasing. He's done stuff that must have hurt other ponies, right?"
"Yup," Shining nodded.
"Well that's why I want to be one. I wanna help those that can't help themselves. Like a true hero."
Shining smiled at this, able to tell this kid was being honest. He could tell he was a good pony and would be a good adventurer, but then remembered what Flash had said. "You failed to get into the academy?"
"I can't even apply. My parents can't afford it and I was six points off being able to apply for a scholarship." Flash sighed, "my dream of being an adventurer's ended before it could even start." Shining felt sorry for him, never having that issue. He had gotten into the academy on a scholarship and even if he hadn't, his parents would have been able to afford it without a problem.
He wanted to try and comfort the teen, but then realised something. "Where are we?" They looked around and both saw they were nowhere near the edge of the forest, nor were they on the path they should have reached at this point. The two were well a truly lost.
"How the heck did we get lost?" Flash asked, as the pair looked around.
"Too busy talking," Shining sighed. He was so busy looking around, he didn't notice Flash beginning to glow again. And then, the light flew off him and into the ground. This caused a path to appear where they weren't looking as by the time they finally looked in that direction, the path was formed and the light was gone.
"That wasn't there before...right?"
"Right," Shining nodded. He took off his weapon and held it in a ready position, moving down the path with Flash following. They were so focused on the path, they didn't notice somepony else step out from behind a tree.
They followed the path, expecting something to jump out at them. But it didn't. Instead, they noticed a light up ahead of them. And when they reached the light, they blinked at the bright sun as they stepped out into an area without any trees in it.
Said area was a large clearing about the size of his school's Buck Ball Field, which was a perfect circle that Flash doubted could have been made naturally. And in the very centre of the clearing was a large rock, which was flat on the side that was pointing at them.
The pairs shared a glance and moved closer to take a look, doing so allowing them to see a strange array of symbols etched into the stone.
"What is this?" Flash asked, whilst Shining had an idea.
"The sealed relic." Flash was surprised by those words, turning to look at him in shock.
"But...but that's just a legend."
"Legends have to come from somewhere," Shining pointed out. "But I'm betting the reason it wasn't found until now was because of some kind of protective magic. That would explain why that path just appeared. We must have somehow undone the protections on this place."
"So what happens now?" Flash asked, before another voice called out.
"Now you die!" The pair spun around and Shining noticed something flying towards them, too fast for him to put up a barrier. Instead, he pushed Flash out of the way before he was slammed by it.
Flash grunted as he slammed into the ground, then heard Shining cry out and looked up to see the magi was trapped in some kind of cocoon. It was made out of green slime and covered everything except his face, with even his horn being stuck in it. The substance had hardened as soon as it trapped him, sealing him completely.
Flash then turned to see the one who had fired the slime at them. A figure in a dark blue cloak stepped out of the darkness, Flash remembering what Stomps had said. He was also carrying a magic staff and pulled his hood back to reveal he was a magi.
Flash stood up and glared at him. "Are you the rogue Shining was after?"
"Maybe," he smirked, "not that it matters to you." He raised his staff and Flash panicked for a moment before noticing Shining had dropped his weapon when he got trapped. The avian leapt over to it and grabbed the shield before rolling back to his feet. However, he quickly found he couldn't get it to activate.
"It only works with Lumino Magic!" Shining told him, Flash hissing since he didn't have that affinity.
"Icicle Shot!" The rogue roared, as water flew out of his staff and morphed into spears of ice. They shot towards Flash and the teen barely managed to protect himself from them as they collided with his weapon. "I don't have time for this." He then took something out that worried Flash. A clear crystal orb that Shining seemed to recognise.
"A Golem Heart!" The Rogue smirked before imbuing it with magic, causing the orb to turn blue.
"Take this water magic and summon all the water you can!" He threw it into the air and the orb started floating, "give form to my new servent!" The orb started spinning as water began to be pulled out of the grass and surrounding trees. Hundreds, maybe thousands of drops were being sucked towards it.
The water began to swirl around the orb and form a giant water sphere, which then started shifting its shape to form a more humanoid shape. Flash gulped as he clutched Shining's shield. Within a moment, a five meter tall Water Golem stood before him. It was entirely humanoid with the Golem Heart acting like an eye in the middle of its head, whilst its arms were a mass of swirling water that looked like whips.
"Kill him!" The Rogue cried, as the golem raised its arm before swinging it downwards.
Flash gasped and raised the shield, the whip slamming into it with enough force to make him stagger backwards as the water exploded. Said water quickly returned to the golem and reformed its arm, whilst its other one began to swing sideways towards him.
Flash gasped and leapt into the air, flying over the arm as the Rogue moved around the golem towards the rock. "Now," he examined the etchings, "how do I unseal you?" Flash saw this and wanted to stop him, but couldn't since the golem was constantly attacking him. It swung its arms continuously around at him, Flash barely managing to avoid or block them with the shield.
"Flash!" Shining cried, "get out of here!"
"I can't just leave you!" Flash cried, blocking another attack and flying out of range of the whips. "If I leave, that guy might kill you!" Shining was amazed by this. Flash might have been a kid, but he had a good heart. Shining was almost reminded of his sister, as Flash dived down with his shield thrust forward.
He managed to avoid the water whips as he shot towards the golem's head. But it seemed to know what he was up against and seconds before Flash splatted its head, the Golem heart was pulled down its neck and into its body.
"Oh come on!" Flash spun around and skidded along the ground, whilst the golem swung its arms around. Flash tried to block it, but couldn't raise the shield in time and it struck him hard enough to knock him flying with a cry. This also caused the shield to go flying out of his hands and as the head of the creature reformed, it swung its other arm around and slammed it into Flash. "Augh!" Flash was suddenly trapped inside the water, everything but his head sealed away.
"Flash!" Shining looked terrified, as Flash struggled to try and get out. But the golem slammed its other arm into him and completely submerged him.
Flash had barely any time to take a breath before he was trapped, the teen attempting to swim but this was like no water he had ever been in before. Ever passing second, he could feel his air less and less. 'I can't breath,' he groaned as he felt himself getting closer and closer to drown. 'Is this how it ends? A year and a half remembering my old life and now I'm gonna die again.' As he thought that, he looked over at Shining and the criminal.
"Come on!" Said rogue cried as he punched the rock, "release yourself. You will give your power to me."
Flash glared at him, as he thought about what someone like him would do if he got such a powerful weapon. 'I can't let him get that weapon. Whatever it is, has gotta be dangerous in the wrong hands. Who cares if I die again, I'm gonna stop him if it's the last thing I do.' As he said that, a white light suddenly appeared around him without the avian noticing.
Shining saw this, then noticed another light coming from the rock. "Finally," he heard the rogue smile as he looked around and saw the symbols in the rock glowing. "Now, come to me." As he said that, the rock began to slowly crack apart. Second after second, more and more of it broke away from it.
Flash didn't notice this either, too focused on finding a way to free himself and stop the criminal. 'I can't give up yet. There's gotta be a way out and I'm gonna find it. Then, I'm gonna stop this guy before he can hurt anyone else.' That thought did it.
The light from the rock suddenly exploded outwards to blind Shining and the rogue, as a sphere of light flew out of the crumbling stone and shot towards Flash. It slammed into the water around him and vaporized the liquid, making the the golem stagger backwards as Flash was completely consumed by the light. "FLASH!" Shining cried, wondering what the heck was happening.
Flash moaned as he opened his eyes and found he was inside a white void, the teen finally able to breath now that he was out of the water. But there was just one question.
"Where am I?" He got his answer when a sphere of light appeared in front of him. That sphere quickly began to take shape, growing larger as it did so. When the shape solidified, the light faded to reveal an object that Flash couldn't quite identify.
Starting in the middle, it was a round glass window of sorts that was surrounded by a metal ring. That was surrounded by a white box-like object that was split in the middle going sideways, with each side having a button on the edge of it. Surrounding the box was a metal frame that appeared to have handles on the edges that would let him pull it apart. Shape-wise, the whole thing reminded him of the Matrix of Leadership from that robot show he enjoyed watching as a kid.
"What is this thing?" He asked, only for the device to suddenly spin around so it was facing the other way. It then moved towards him, Flash panicking as he was unable to move away from it. It finally attached itself to his stomach and when it did, a light shot out the sides that wrapped around his waist. When the light connected on his back, they combined and became tight enough that it stuck to Flash's body.
The light then faded to reveal it was now a belt, with the device acting like a buckle. Another light on the left side of Flash's waist then appeared and formed a metal book of shots, that was connected to the belt.
Flash stared down at it in shock, as he suddenly realised what this must have been. "The relic," he whispered. "This is the relic?" He touched the buckle and felt it, the metal parts feeling strange. He then grabbed the handles on the side and realised they could be pulled outwards. And when he did so, the white section of the belt spun ninety degrees. This revealed a slot that was not pointing upwards, confusing Flash.
He then reached down and touched the metal book-like object, which he could unclip from the belt and examine. It opened with a click and in doing so, he found the inside had a bunch of slots inside holding cards. taking a card out, he found the card was white on one side and black on the other. To his surprise, the black side had his cutie mark on it.
"For a relic, this is kind of a let down." He continued to examine the card, "why couldn't it give me something more useful? Like Shining's shield, but using one of my affinities." He imagined a version of Shining's shield that used his Sky Element. And as he did, something happened.
The card suddenly glowed. Flash was surprised by this and even more surprised then the light suddenly exploded off the card and revealed something was now printed on the white section. It was an image of the weapon Flash had just been envisioning, a blue shield with a yellow lightning bolt blade in the middle and lightning themed trim.
"What?" Flash asked, amazed by the sudden transformation. Then, an urge came over him. The urge to put the card inside the buckle slot.
Deciding to do it, he slotted the card in with the image pointing outwards. He then pushed the handles back in, which caused the buckle to spin back into position before lighting up. The light came from the central glass window, which shot out and formed a sphere of light in front of him. And inside that sphere, the weapon on the card materialised out of nothing.
Flash was amazed by this and reached into the sphere, grabbing the bladed shield before pulling it out. The sphere vanished and Flash looked the weapon over, amazed by how light it was. And when he channeled his magic into it, the weapon activated and the blade extended before sparking with energy. "Awesome."
The light continued to glow brightly, but was beginning to fade.
"What happened?" The rogue cried as he looked around, "where's the relic?" It was then that he heard the crackling of electrical energy and looked towards the light, as Flash suddenly flew out of it wielding the Lightning Shield.
"Right here!" He cried, swinging the blade through the golem's side. This sent a surge of lightning into the beast and caused the slashed area to smoke at it staggered back. Flash had a feeling it would be screaming if it could. The beast eventually got its footing and charged again, swinging a water whip at him. But this time, Flash retracted the blade and used the shield to block it.
Lightning shot into the whip as it made contact and caused the water to explode, Flash smirking as he extended the blade again.
"Take...THIS!" He leapt forward and thrust the blade into the golem's chest, unleashing as much electrical power as he could. This caused the golem's body to bubble and boil, evaporating almost entirely as the Golem Heart was revealed. Flash quickly reached out, grabbing the Heart and flying up away from the rest of the water.
The crystal kept glowing and would have summoned the remaining water to it, but Flash quickly tossed it upwards. When it fell back to him, he swung his blade around and cut the gem in half.
"NOOOOOOO!" The rogue screamed as the Golem Heart was shattered, the water falling to the ground and drenching the ground. And as Flash flew down, he growled and held up his staff. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT! ICICLE SHOT!" The water exploded from his staff and became the spears, which shot towards Flash at high speed.
The teen raised his shield and let the ice collide with it, the impact knocking him backwards a bit. Flash flinched, realising this guy wouldn't be so easy to beat as his golem.
He then noticed Shining and had an idea, dodging another icicle spear before extending the blade and swinging it at the rogue. The figure prepared himself, as a blade of lightning shot off Flash's weapon and flew toward him. But the electrical crescent flew over him and he laughed. "See, you can't even use that thing." He heard the lightning hit something behind him, "now give it to me."
"No," Flash smirked, "and I used it perfectly." The rogue looked confused and spun around, only for his eyes to go wide seeing the slime cocoon holding Shining had broken off of him. The lightning had struck it and broken part of it off him, freeing him enough for him to use his magic.
"Oh no," he gulped before summoning a ball of slime and firing it at Shining. But the Magi's horn glowed as a barrier appeared, protecting him from the slimeball before his weapon flew towards him.
He caught it and the blade extended, allowing him to cut the rest of the slime off of him. "Much better." Shining then pointed the sword at him. "Now, are you gonna come peacefully?" The rogue growled before firing more ice at him, whilst Shining ran forward. He put up a shield that blocked the ice, allowing him to get in close. And in the blink of an eye, Shining was suddenly on the other side of the rogue with his blade pointed forwards.
The rogue stood there for a moment, then moaned before falling to the ground. He wasn't dead, but he wouldn't be waking up for a while.
Flash sighed as he lowered his weapon and looked down at the belt, wondering how he took it off or got rid of the weapon he was now carrying. He reached down and felt the buttons on the box, touching one of them and accidently pressing it. This caused his weapon to suddenly vanish, exploding into light that quickly faded away. He then pulled on the hands to spin the buckle, allowing him to remove the card from it.
As he was doing that, Shining moved over to the Rogue and took something out of his coat. That something was metal disk that was silver on the outside and red on the inside. He spun the silver part around, which made the red part glow. He then pressed that part in and threw it onto the rogue's back.
The red part started blinking for a few seconds before it stopped and unleashed a red light that completely surrounded the pony. And in a blink, they were gone.
Flash saw this and was surprised by it, "what did you do to him?"
"Transported him to a prison," Shining explained. "He'll be held there until he's tried and sentenced." Flash nodded as Shining began to head out of the clearing, Flash following behind. "You were pretty good back there." Flash smirked, "though it's clear you still need a lot of practise before you could be considered Adventurer ready." Flash's smirk vanished. "You could have run and saved yourself, so why didn't you?"
"It's like I said," Flash told him. "I couldn't just run and leave you in the situation you were in. I couldn't live with myself if I saved myself and left you to die."
"Even though you could have easily have died? You shouldn't throw away your life so recklessly."
Flash thought about those words, as they continued through the forest. "It's not like I want to die or anything. But if I had the choice between dying a hero and living as a coward...I'd chose to be a hero any day." Shining smirked at this, whilst looking down at the relic he was wearing.
"Any idea how that works?"
Flash nodded and held up the card he had used before, showing the weapon. He then slotted it into the belt and when it light up, the sphere appeared and created the shield sabre. Flash took it out as the sphere vanished, then pressed the same button he had pressed earlier to make it disappear. "The card was blank before," he explained as he removed it. "But then I thought about an electric version of your weapon and it suddenly appeared. And there are other cards in this case on my side."
"So the cards embody anything you imagine, and slotting them into the belt allows it to actually make them." Flash nodded, though he was only guessing that was how it worked. "Pretty cool. I can see why the relic was sealed away." A few minutes later, they reached the edge of the forest and the town was a short ways off.
And as they reached the town's gate, Flash panicked when he saw his parents there. "Flash!" Misty cried, rushing forwards and pulling him into a hug. "What were you thinking, going into the forest like that?"
"I can explain," Flash told her.
"Save it," Trail told him. "The other teens told us everything when they came screaming out of the forest. Including how you tried to stop them from going in and how you saved them from the Manticore." Flash smiled at this, "don't think this means you're not in trouble. You still should have told an adult." Flash frowned.
Shining stepped forward, "I should also take some of the blame. I should have known those kids would try to follow me into the forest." Flash's parents nodded as Flash pulled away from them. "But your son actually saved my life, even though he did it by putting himself in danger. You should be proud of him. You've raised a brave and noble son." The parents smiled, as Shining turned to Flash. "Sorry kid, but I'm gonna need to take that relic. It's way too powerful to let a kid hold onto it."
Flash sighed, but had no idea how the heck he was supposed to remove it. He tried to pull it off, but the belt refused to give. Shining then took a closer look at the device and saw that the four buttons had something on them. One button said dispel, another button said disenchant, another said scan and the last one said release.
He hummed for a moment before pressing the release button, only to suddenly get zapped. "OW!" He pulled back, wondering what had happened. Flash then pressed the button and didn't get zapped, as the belt suddenly turned into light and vanished along with the card case.
Flash removed the buckle and looked it over, sighing as he thought about how cool it was to use. He then handed it to Shining, who took the device and nodded.
"Thanks," he told them, "I should really get going."
"You sure?" Misty asked, "it's gonna be dark soon." Shining nodded and turned to walk off, staring at the relic as he did so. But as he did, the buckle started glowing. "What?" Then, in a flash, it vanished and Shining gasped.
"Er...Shining." He turned back to Flash and saw the teen was once again holding the relic, Flash looking shocked. "It just...appeared in my hands." Shining frowned and moved over to take the relic, moving away again only for the relic to vanish and reappear back in Flash's hand. Shining tried using his magic to summon it too him, but it warped back to Flash before it got too far.
"Put it on again." Flash did so, placing it on his stomach as the belt reappeared. He pressed the button to take if off and Shining took it again, placing it on his own stomach but finding the belt wouldn't appear. He handed it to Trail and the older Avian placed it on his stomach, with the belt not appearing. Misty tried with the same result and Flash did it again, the belt appearing and locking onto him. "I see."
"What?" Flash asked, "what's wrong?"
"Whatever this thing is, it's somehow magically bound itself to you. That means you're the only one who can use it and if anyone tries to take it away, it'll just warp right back to you. It wants to be with you."
This shocked Flash and his family, the lot of them sharing a confused and amazed look. Misty then turned to Shining. "What do we do?"
"I don't know," Shining told her. "But I think the Princesses are gonna have to see this." That shocked them again, the family staring down at the belt and wondering just how powerful it really was. Flash also wondered this, but also felt new hope washing over him. If he was the only one that could use it, maybe this was his chance to become an Adventurer. Only time would tell.