A Colt to Forget
The lunar goddess stepped into her chambers with an elongated sigh. She had been tending to the needs of her subjects in the nighttime court for hours with little rest. At the end, on her modicum on remaining energy, she lowered the moon to make way for the sun to be raised by her divine sister. The feat took great effort, and she couldn’t imagine what it was like for her sister to do it all on her own.
Rather than plop into her bed and rest her eyes, however, she went to her small private library in the back of her chambers. Unknown to anyone else, however, it was much more than that. She coolly walked to the circular bookcase in the center and looked up. This particular case had all her favorite books from her childhood; tales of dragons, previous alicorns, books of life lessons, and her favorite books of all; fantasy.
She loved fantasy. Even in a world of magic, there were still some who could think of things truly outlandish and impossible, and make them seem so real. What other place, then, could be more perfect to hide her little secret than the home of its very subject?
She positioned herself in a braced stance and pointed her horn at the round bookcase before her. Charging her horn, she closed her eyes and breathed slowly. Upon releasing her third breath, she fired off her spell at the bookcase. It shimmered like a mirage, and slowly disappeared. When it was gone, there was a small staircase; too small for her sister, but big enough for her. She had done this to keep the secret within exclusive to herself.
She stepped forward, taking one last glance back to ensure that none had potentially seen her secret. When she concluded that it was safe, she quietly made her way down the stairs. Halfway down, she looked up, and felt reassurance as the bookcase reappeared, as it always did. With that last little bit of business taken care of, she started thinking about what she would see today.
“I’ve almost figured out his routine,” she thought. “but I still don’t know that much about him.”
She was referring to the subject of her secrecy; she had found a way to look into other worlds using a magic pool beneath her chambers. The one she had found herself enthralled with the most was the world of an Earth dominated by a race called “humans”. She had been studying it for quite a while, and concluded that there were many different humans, but that many were the same. There was one, however, who seemed... odd. A colt, in his later adolescent years. He lived in a fairly wealthy town, where being the same was the norm. He didn’t care, though. When kids broke the rules, and tried to get him to do it, he was steadfast in the morals he was taught and did not follow the other kids. He believed that rules are meant to be followed. This colt never gave into pressure from his peers, but did apply it when he wanted to. He took correction well, a result of his upbringing in the Martial Arts and his family lifestyle.
His hobbies were uncommon among his kind; he did something called “SCUBA diving” (whatever that is), martial arts, and deeply enjoyed military related studies and events. Due to the last one, she suspected he would be a soldier one day, thought he said he wanted to be a “SEAL”. Why would a human want to become a seal? They live in the cold, something clearly not suited for humans.
The colt fascinated her; even in this world, the trait of self assurance that was within this colt was less common than she wished. He cared little for the thoughts of people he didn’t know and respect, and had no desire for fame. His concerns, like hers, were for the people rather than himself, and this is what continues to draw her to study him.
Of course, if her sister found out about this, she would want to use it, which would mean less time for her own studies. Her sister could have all the books in the land; she could learn more from the pool, anyway.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she looked into the center of a fairly small room. There, dominating most of the floor, was the pool. It was about one and a half meters wide and a circle. The lunar goddess smiled to herself as she stepped up her pace, eager to see what the colt was doing now. She grabbed a pad, pen, and ink from the ground next to the pool and held them up. She liked to take notes on this colt; he served as an interesting social commentary, both for his world and hers.
Before she began prying into his private life (of which there were certainly parts she wished she HADN’T seen) again, she looked over her notes. She looked at the list:
Name: Ryan
Age: 17
Health: excellent, very fit
Family: Mother, Father, Brother in advanced level schooling
Social status: respected by many, though disliked by some others, feared by some and made fun of by others
Personality: enjoys raunchy humor (all people are subject to being part of his jokes), honest (except on occasions where it may hurt someone unnecessarily), steadfast in beliefs, opinionated but does not find interest in conflicts of politics, thinks logically in moral dilemmas (psychological defense mechanism), enjoys work, doesn't like discrimination/injustice,...
This was what she had on him so far, profile-wise. She had learned interesting things from him, and wanted to learn more about this colt.
“Let’s see what you’re up to now, Ryan...”, she said as she looked into the pool.
He seemed to be getting up from bed.
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Ryan groaned as his alarm went off next to his head. It was a watch alarm, though, so it didn’t hurt his ears. He groggily turned to face the source of his anguish; “6:15...” he thought to himself. While he had grown accustomed to it, he still dreaded getting up this early just to force himself to do his run. “The SEALs do a helluva lot more than this, though...” he thought, yet again using that as a comparison to get going. Reluctantly, he got up, got into his running clothes, and went out his front door.
The humidity of this particular morning was hellish. It hit him like a brick to the jaw. His clothes, being wicking fabric, were already starting to stick to him. “It’s not like I can’t do this.” he thought. After all, doesn’t the average soldier have to deal with this all the time? He plugged his earbuds into his ears and went for his daily 3 mile run.
When he finished his run and was back in front of his home, another thing hit him like a brick that morning. “Dammit! Today is MONDAY!” he thought. The start of the week was always tough, because he had to get back into “academic mode”, as it were. His head drooped down as he walked back into his home.
His mother was at the kitchen table, fully able to see the front door open. “How was your run?” she asked.
“Good, good...” he replied. She always asked that, and he usually responded the same way, sometimes including a small event that occurred on his run. After, he went upstairs, took a 2 minute shower, and got dressed for school. He never particularly cared about what he was wearing; he simply had no desire to please people with his outfit. If they didn’t like it, that was too bad.
He basically wore the same thing every day; a digital Casio watch, his silver Shen pendant, a shirt that was either from his dojo or dive shop, and a pair of light brown shorts. His hair hung whatever way he woke up with it, he wore long socks, and he always wore running shoes.
He was tall, right around 6 feet tall, had long arms (down to his knees), and rarely shaved, giving him a scruffy appearance.
After dressing himself, he went down for breakfast and the news. Every morning, he would either have yogurt or Cocao Puffs with milk, whatever he had time for.
He pulled a yogurt out of the fridge and sat at the kitchen table. NBC was on the TV, and they were talking about international crime and terrorist organizations. Ryan’s mother was watching intently, but Ryan was more focused on his yogurt. Matt Lauer was speaking. But still; yogurt.
“According to a new report by the United Nations Counterterrorism Committee, terrorist activity is actually moving away from the Middle East, and moving towards Southeast and South Asia. The Philippines have requested military aid from the United States in fighting the new found threat to their national security. Crime rings like human and drug traffickers are also becoming more predominant in this area, likely funding the terror cells so as to keep governments distracted from their illegal business.”
Ryan took that part in only half caring. “I can’t say that I’m particularly shocked that this is happening. With decreasing care about terror in the middle east, why would the terrorists want to stay there and be forgotten?” He rhetorically asked.
His mother nodded, adding, “It’s a real shame.”
Ryan got to thinking about his friend Harris. He had moved to Cairns, Australia about a year ago. What could all this mean for him? “I’ll ask him later on Facebook.” he decided.
After an uneventful morning, he went off to school. Living within 2000 feet of the school, he could walk there in a few minutes. Not that it mattered now, though. It was June 13. School was nearly over. All that was left was finals. Even with that, he didn’t really care. He got mostly upper B’s and some A’s, so he wasn’t worried about grades. The University of Miami had accepted him already, so he just needed to avoid failing, basically.
These thoughts and more went through his head as he briskly walked to school with his earbuds in, blasting Theory of a Dead Man. He always loved the raunchy and sexually implicative songs by them and other artists. They suited him well.
He reached the school with ten minutes before first block, so he went looking for his friends, who usually hung out around the main lobby bathroom.Upon approach, he could see several already there; Chris, Sean, Noah (aka “The Doctor”), and Kyle. Chris noticed Ryan approaching and shouted out, “Ryaaan!”
Ryan threw his arms to the side, yelling, “Chriiiiis!” They chest bumped.
“You getting psyched for this summer?” Chris asked. Ryan chuckled.
“Helllll yeah, man. I have absolutely nothing planned for this summer. Total freedom.” he said proudly. Truthfully, of this, he was not proud. He hated not having something to do.
They continued talking for a few minutes before the bell rang, making plans to get women that would never be enacted (they would never work anyway). When the bell rang, they went to their separate classes.
Ryan zoned out in all of his classes, thinking about what to do after school. During 5th block, he thought about Harris. “I wonder how he is? If the trouble in southeast Asia is affecting his life?” he wondered. He paid attention to his teacher for a couple of minutes before thinking, “I wonder what Australia is like?”
Fifth block ended, and 6th block was study hall, letting him go home. When he got there, he immediately went to his computer to go on Facebook to talk to Harris. Then he stopped. “It’s...” he looked at his watch. “1:53 here. That means it’s the middle of the night there.” He rubbed his eyes. “How on earth did I not realize he would be asleep?” he reprimanded himself. After this bothersome realization, he decided to play Skyrim until 7:00 to pass the time.
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The lunar goddess got up and stretched. She had enjoyed seeing how the colt followed his routine, and she wished to keep watching. Still, she needed to raise the moon and get some rest. She had nodded off a few times while observing the colt.
As she walked up her stairs, she thought about the colt. “These things, video games... they are most intriguing. An entire world, on a screen, being controlled by one being.” Then a thought occurred to her. “What if I could influence him? I can’t control him, but could I communicate, perhaps?” The thought made her giggle. “How interesting that would be!” she exclaimed.
As she approached the top of the stairs, the bookcase disappeared as it always did, allowing her to exit her hidden lair.
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It was now 8:15. Harris could be on, so Ryan logged into facebook and looked him up. Luck was with him tonight, and Harris was posting a picture. Ryan shot him a message. ‘Hey. What’s up? How’s your life?’ he asked. After a couple of minutes, he received a reply.
‘Our short break just started. 7 weeks. You?’
'Not much. School is almost over. I heard that there is problem in southeast asia with crime and terror rings. That affecting you?’
‘Not particularly. We are pretty safe here.’
‘Good good. I’m glad you’re safe. Wish I could go to Australia. Great Barrier Reef, Outback, lots of cool stuff.’ A good ten minutes passed before the next response.
‘Dude, if you want, I could have you over. Since my break is on for a while and yours is starting you could totally take a trip over here.’ Ryan was surprised.
‘That sounds really cool.’ he replied.
Over the next half hour, the two friends discussed plans they could do. Nature trips, Scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and other activities. When they concluded, they said their goodbyes and Ryan went to his parents. His father had just gotten home from work; he was head of HR at the company he worked for.
“Hey, I just talked to my buddy Harris on Facebook.” he informed them.
“What did you talk about?” his father asked.
“Harris was wondering if I wanted to go over to Australia and stay with him for 3 weeks during the summer.” he said. His father nodded and his mother turned around a bit quickly. “I was wondering if I could go?” he asked.
His father spoke first. “Well, I won’t object. You can defend yourself from danger; 13 and a half years of martial arts gives you that.” He looked to his wife. “Honey, if you don’t object, I say he can go. He’s responsible and smart, and he’ll be with his good friend the whole time.” Ryan silently celebrated. He always thought his dad was reasonable.
His mother spoke. “What about the trouble in Asia? What we saw on the news?” she looked like she would continue, so Ryan jumped in.
“I actually asked him about that. He said that it isn’t affecting Australia almost at all, and that the only trouble is illegal immigration to Darwin from Indonesia.” Upon hearing this, his mother seemed less tense, which slightly surprised Ryan.
“Well, I suppose it won’t hurt. We’ll send you there with money. As long as you let us know you’re alright with reasonable frequency, I’ll allow it.”
This time, Ryan let his glee show. “Awesome! Thank you so much.”, and he went off to tell his friend the good news, forgetting that they BOTH logged off.
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The Lunar Goddess sighed openly on her throne. The two arguing before her were trying her patience. She sat up and spoke out, “For mine sake, what is this grievance even about?!” she demanded.
One of the two before her spoke up. “He won’t give me the money he lost in our bet!” he yelled.
She was visibly annoyed before; now, she was outright angry. She stood. “Why dost thou feel a need to come to me with thine petty grievances?!” she yelled. The two before her shrank back. “Take it up with the lower authorities before coming to the highest court!”
She turned to the case holder. “How many more cases are like this?” she asked.
The case holder looked through and, with weak knees, squeaked, “All of them...”
The Lunar Goddess turned back to her subjects. “This court is meant for the highest of offenses! Take you petty cases elsewhere.” she announced. All her subjects before her fled the courtroom, their grievances with them.
She turned to walk back to her chambers, and her personal guard followed in close suit. He snickered. “You finally got them to deal with their own problems, princess. I must congratulate you; these snotty jerks really get to me.” he said.
The princess smiled. “I am just glad that I will no longer have to deal with them. That I helped my loyal guard is a nice bonus.”
They reached the door to her chambers. “Remember?” she asked him as she pressed her hoof against the door.
He saluted and stood next to the door. “NONE SHALL PASS!” he announced. She chuckled.
“Thank you.” She went in and climbed into bed, thinking about the boy and how he was doing.
She looked at the clock; 3:30. The boy was asleep and would be for a couple more hours. If she slept a little bit later, she wouldn’t miss too much, hopefully. Just another day at school.
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She awoke at half past ten. As the princess got up, her joints cracked and she batted her eyelashes to get the accumulated gunk off of them. She had slept well; telling off nobles was a good achievement to go to sleep on.
There was a knocking at her door. Groggily, she got up and walked over. Couldn’t the visitor wait? She wanted to see what the boy was doing.
As she approached the door, she said, “Come in!” Her steps slowed as she took in what was about to potentially happen.
Her older and more powerful sister stepped through the door, thanking the guard as she stepped through. The Lunar Princess stood stock still; her solar sister had a smile on her face. “So, I heard you told off the nobles last night. Got out of court early.” the Solar Princess recounted.
“Indeed, sister. Their cases were all petty and could easily be handled by leser courts.” she replied.
Her sister sighed. “I wish I could do that; but our citizens view me as too kind for that, and I cannot afford to destroy that image.” The Lunar Princess breathed a sigh of relief. Then her sister continued. “I have noticed that you are spending much time here in your chambers.” she said. The Lunar Princess froze up. “Any reason why?”
“Just reading.” she replied. A deep chuckle escaped the Solar Princess.
“By now, you must have read everything. You’re not experimenting in dark magic?” she asked in a mock serious tone.
“Welllllllll...” she replied in her own mock tone. Both sisters giggled.
“No hidden stallions in here, I presume?” the Solar Princess asked. The Lunar Princess’ face became red, even through her blue tone.
“No!” she responded promptly.
“Fun!” the Solar Princess thought. “Come, now. Don’t keep them all to yourself! You should share!” she pretended to whine. The Lunar Princess became redder and stammered. At this, the Solar Princess couldn’t help but laugh. “I only jest, little sister. Oh, don’t look at me like that. I know your interests are not of romance, Little Luna.” Luna huffed. “Anyhow, I do hope that your reading is giving you what you want.” the Solar princess said.
Luna, still flustered by her sister’s teasing, replied, “Indeed, my studies have given me most helpful insight into how to handle life, and how the world has changed since I’ve been gone.” she said honestly. “They are what inspired me to cease addressing all the petty court cases brought before the Royal Court.”
“Ah, now that is productive studying! Good work; I do hope that you continue to learn from your studies.” her sister said, expressing her gladness for her sister. “Just be careful that they do not keep you in too often. I would love to see you interact with other ponies.” she said as she turned to leave. “A leader must have good communication with her subjects.”
After her sister left, Luna dropped to her knees. How nerve-racking that exchange was! It almost seemed that her sister would discover her secret. Her secret about watching that colt from another world...
She needed to see what the colt was doing!
She immediately made her way down to the pool, going quickly and nearly tripping on the stairs. At the bottom, she pulled up the notepad, pen, and ink, and listened to the conversation below her. The colt was telling his friends about his plans to go to Australia for three weeks.
“When did this happen?” she asked aloud.
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“So, yeah. In two weeks, I’m heading to Australia for three weeks. Should be pretty awesome.” Ryan shared.
His short friend Kyle spoke. “Lucky. I get to spend the first half of my summer with my parents. They don’t trust me because my, ‘grades aren’t good enough’. I have a frickin’ 3.5 GPA!” he complained. “That trip sounds like it’ll be pretty sweet.”
Ryan nodded to this. “Yep. It all happened last night.” he stated.
He and his friends continued to talk about their summer plans; camps, events, and trips. The lunch bell rang, and they went their separate ways.
Ryan went through the rest of his day at school as he would any other day. He thought about what he would do after school. “I need to work out, and then I have Karate later tonight...” he thought as he walked home. He loved Karate; It was why he had been practicing it for thirteen and a half years. By now, he had become a Nidan, a second degree black belt. Getting his Shodan, first degree, had taken nine years of fairly intense study. “I wonder what we’ll do tonight?”
When he got home, he tossed his backpack on the ground next to the front door as he walked in and immediately went upstairs. When he came back down, he was wearing a whicking fabric shirt and athletic shorts. His father was pretty into being healthy, and consequently, his family had many weights and gear for exercising.
“Time to lift.” he said to no one in particular.
His routine was pretty standard; bench, incline, and decline press, bicep and forearm curls, tricep lifts, shrugs, sit-ups, chest flyes, and shoulder lifts. It typically took him around an hour and a half to finish it all since he liked to take his time. Upon finishing, he removed his shirt and flexed, looking at a large mirror next to the weights. “Not bad. Still a long way to go, but not bad.” he said to himself. He was still a skinny dude, though.
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As princess Luna watched him, she found herself interested the colt’s physique. He had little body fat, and significant muscle mass. Remembering what her sister said about her hiding stallions, she blushed. The brother of the Element of Honesty had invaded her mind. “You do not give yourself enough credit.” she said, also to no one in particular.
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Ryan went upstairs, showered, and got into his casual outfit again, then went back downstairs to his computer. Logging on, he went to the internet and opened up Google News. The first story that popped up was about a seized shipment that had over three dozen people on it to be sold as slaves, euphemised to 'Detained Workers'. Ryan frowned and furrowed his brow.
“Disgusting.” he said.
After scrolling through the news , he went down to his basement and turned on his Playstation 3 to play some Skyrim. “Is this more productive than the crap we do at school?” he asked himself. “Possibly.”
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It was 6:00. Class was at 6:30, so Ryan and his parents were getting ready to go. “Everyone has a gi?” his mother asked. They would never want to be those guys who forgot their gis, so each checked their bag.
“Got mine.” Ryan said.
“Me too.” his father replied. With that confirmation, they loaded up the car and went off.
The dojo was not a traditional style place; the floor was padded, there were large mirrors on the wall, and it had an office for the owner, Mr. Whitely, plus changing rooms in the back. Ryan and his family always got changed at the dojo, as did most other black belts.
The number of black belts wasn’t particularly huge, because there was a long and arduous test to become one. The cloth around the waist is meaningless; it’s the trials battle through and the experience gained that makes a black belt, a Dan. Many who went to test did not realize this, and were unable to pass. There were a couple dozen Dans at the dojo out of over 120 who tested.
Ryan was waiting for the 5:30 class to end, so he decided to stretch himself. If he stretched, he could kick most people in the head with ease. But he did have to stretch.
“Ush!” Sensei announced. Class had ended. The students lined up and bowed to the picture of the founder of their shared style, Isshinryu; Tatsuo Shimabuku. With that, they were excused and allowed to leave. “Next class, bow on.” Sensei announced. Ryan and the other students bowed on, giving respect to Shimabuku and his teachers by doing so.
Before class started, the students (Kyus) and Black Belts were given some time to stretch out. Some did this; others practiced Kata; and others merely talked. Those ones didn’t often go in to test, and only two like that had passed.
“Ush!” Sensei called. “Line up!” The Kyus lined up in the middle, facing the pictures of Tatsuo and his teachers on the wall. The Dans faced them. Sensei nodded to the highest ranking Kyus. “Rei!” he yelled. Respect! Everyone bowed. The Dans turned to the wall. “Rei!” Sensei yelled again. They all bowed again. “We’re gonna do our Kata today.” he instructed. During the course of the class, they performed and dissected all the hand Kata; Seisan, Seiunchin, Naihanchi, Wansu, Chinto, Kusanku, Sunsu, and Sanchin. By the end, at 7:27, they were all sweating.
Sensei lined them up and bowed them out. After shaking his hand and thanking him for a good class, Ryan went to change. “See you again at 8:30” he said. Sensei waved to him, and Ryan went into the changing room to get changed to get some pizza for dinner.
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Luna knew that this was her best opportunity to raise the moon and hopefully not miss too much, so she ran up the stairs and made her way to the balcony where she would raise the moon. Once there, she saw her sister already lowering the sun from the sky.
“You seem to be here a bit early.” she said. “And you’re all sweaty. Are you sure there’s no one hiding in your chambers?” she joked. Luna smiled, blushing again. Her sister loved to tease.
“I assure you, no one is in my chambers... right now.” she responded. Her sister did a double take, bringing Luna to bellow with laughter.
The Solar Princess smiled warmly. “Well, you’ll be interested to know that Cadence has had a certain stallion in her chambers for some time now.”
Luna’s smile didn’t fade. “I had a feeling. It’s good for her; the Captain is a good catch. She really deserves him.” she said. She turned to face her sister. “My dear sister Celestia, does the time not fly?” she asked.
“That it does, sister. That it does.” Celestia responded. Her face grew slightly more neutral. “Luna, I must ask you something.” she said.
“Yes?” she asked, wondering what she would ask.
“Do you want to come to the wedding in a few weeks? We, as in Cadence and I, will understand if you are uncomfortable.” she said.
Luna thought for a moment. “Perhaps it would be best if I was there for the after party. Many ponies still fear me, and I would hate to ruin the ceremony. Though, I would love to be there that night.” she said. Celestia positively beamed at this.
“Excellent!” she said.
With that, they moved the sun and moon through the sky, and made their separate ways, each to her own chambers. Luna, once out of sight of her sister, had upped her pace. She had not actually seen any of the colt’s “Black Belt Classes” yet, and she was excited to see what the elite fighters of this dojo did when in their own class.
She made it back to the pool just in time to see Ryan change back into his gi and get ready for class.
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The Dans bowed onto the floor and took a short time to stretch. It was a good thing, too, because the first thing they did after bowing on was sparring. “If you’re good to spar, please get your equipment on.” Sensei requested. They all put on their gear; gloves and foot-gear. These were to prevent severe injury that results from large knuckles bashing the side of a person’s skull.
Ryan paired up with a boy about his age, but who was slightly bigger. He liked to do this, because it was more similar to what he could actually encounter. They bowed to each other and took their guard. When Sensei yelled, “Hajime!”, they went at it.
Ryan moved in first, starting low. He went for a roundhouse kick, but his opponent’s guard took the hit. While Ryan was open, his opponent moved in to go for a backfist to the face. In response, Ryan brought his arm up and blocked the strike with the meat of his forearm. He countered with a quick punch to his opponent’s uncovered gut, where he scored a hit.
This all occurred in the span of about two seconds, fairly normal for two long time martial artists.
They disconnected from each other, going from cold bore to heated barrel. Ryan stayed back for a moment and his opponent maneuvered quickly to get around his guard. In response, Ryan lightened his stance for his own quick maneuvering.
It proved to not be enough, though. His opponent got too close for comfort, and Ryan had to prance backwards. Taking advantage of Ryan’s flight, the boy threw non-stop punches and kicks, sending Ryan off balance. When Ryan was starting to tip backwards, his opponent threw a sideblade kick at him. Ryan’s guard caught it, and he went tumbling backwards.
Not to be taken out so easily, Ryan did a basic roll-up fall, only backwards. Back on his feet, he didn’t waste a moment catching his breath.
The boy he was sparring against fif not foresee this development. He stood in his spot a moment too long, appreciating the fall Ryan had just completed. Taking advantage of this, Ryan studied his guard as he advanced toward his opponent; he was keeping it high, and used his legs to block kicks. The only way that Ryan was going to succeed was if he moved his opponent’s guard and made an opening.
He subconsciously began to formulate a plan to do just this. When he had closed the distance, about a quarter of a second, he started throwing low techniques, going just above the Obi (Belt). Throwing them in rapid succession, he brought his opponent’s guard down to meet them, and took away any time he may have had to counter. He began to include kicks in his onslaught. His opponent was totally on the defense, and defending nice and low. This was what Ryan was hoping for. Throwing three powerful kicks, he forced his opponent back, giving him room for one last shot. He sent a roundhouse kick careening up toward his opponent’s head. With the emphasis on control in the dojo, Ryan stopped it on his opponent’s shoulder. The boy was shocked; not many people in the dojo were really capable of that.
Disconnecting once again, they reared up to go again. Instead they heard, “Ush!” With that call to stop from their teacher, the two bowed out and shook hands.
“That kick was crazy.” the boy told Ryan. Ryan chuckled lightly.
“Thanks. You were good, too; anyone without notable amounts of training would have been doomed from being taken to the ground like that. In a real fight, I would probably have lost then and there.” In all truthfulness, he wasn’t sure about that. But, he had made it a thing for himself to always be humble about his own abilities, and so liked to play down what he was capable of. He didn’t even go all out usually, now not being an exception.
The rest of the class went with weapons katas. While Karate literally means, “Empty Hand”, their founder had learned weapons, and Sensei’s teacher had learned knife fighting as a Marine serving in Vietnam, so they liked to learn weapons. Also, they liked to learn how to fight opponents who had weapons while they did not. There were some weapons, though, that they learned that you wouldn’t typically find on the street; Bo, Tuifa, Sai, Kama, Nunchaku, and Aku. Another, that can really be anything, was the Escrima, which is just a stick. Learning all of these things provided many disciplines and self defense applications, so they learned them well.
Before long, class ended, they bowed out, and everyone went home to go to sleep.
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Luna stood up, cracking numerous joints as she did so. Nothing else would likely happen this night, so she decided to get some rest herself. Earlier, the colt had mentioned to his friends that until he went to the land of Australia, that nothing particularly interesting would be happening.
“I hope he’s right.” she thought. “That would give me time to find a spell to communicate with him, or project myself into his world.” At this, she smiled and started trotting up the stairs faster. “I can’t wait!” she thought. Unknown to her or the colt of her studies, his trip to Australia would be quite eventful.
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Over the next two weeks, nothing had been hugely groundbreaking, just as the colt had said. His routine was followed well, save for the end of school, but Luna knew enough about that from seeing the young ones leave school in her own world. She had spent those two weeks researching spells to project her mind or an image of her body into other places or beings, hoping she could do it to another world. She had also done as her sister asked, and tried to socialize with her subjects, She went to visit the home of Celestia’s star pupil and actually had a good time. She had even gotten some assistance in researching her spell. The girl had quite a talent and a thirst for knowledge. This was why Luna didn’t explain the pool; she would want to use it.
It was the day before the colt was to leave for the land of Australia, and Luna was quite excited. Tomorrow would be the day that everything changed, and she could see another culture of the colt’s world, thousands of miles from his own. It would provide a most helpful contrast.
It was 9:00 P.M. and Luna was anxious for the night to pass in the colt’s world. In his world, the sun and moon moved on their own, so she could not manipulate how long his night took. Even her own, actually, as her sister would become most suspicious. Deciding that too much thinking would not help, she decided to simply lie down and close her eyes. Then a thought came to her.
“Guard!” she called.
He burst in. “Yes, ma’am?” he asked, saluting. Luna put on a putty face and puppy eyes and said, “Will you tell me a bedtime story?” The Guard was slightly taken aback by this, but responded,
“I... suppose... so?” He walked over to her.
“Be my pillow?” she asked with the same expression. Not wanting to turn down such a face, the guard laid down on Luna’s pillows, and she rested her head on his side. He shifted, feeling like his personal space was being violated, and she responded by moving herself. He began, with a sigh, saying, “Once upon a time...”, and with that, she soon slept.
He extricated himself from under her head and went out. Looking back, he thought, “I feel sorry for anyone who gets all the attention of our princesses. Why they love to make us feel so awkward if simply beyond me.” He took back his post at her door and stood ever vigilant.
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Ryan got up easily today. He didn’t need to run, as he was preparing to go on a flight and would need his energy. He was all packed, only a carry-on and a personal item, and just needed to eat. Before he went down to eat, he checked again to make sure he had everything.
Shen pendant, he always wore it. Digital watch, always wore it. Deck of cards, never know when the occasion may arise. Wallet with money and I.D., very important. Global Entry Pass and passport, very important as well. Some clothes, his Ipod, and dental items were all there, so he had everything. He went down for breakfast.
Already 8:20, his mother was downstairs eating and watching TV. As he entered, she turned to greet him. “Morning, goob. You all set?” she asked. Ryan went and made himself a bowl of cereal.
“Yep. Just checked before I came down. I have everything.” He sat down and started eating.
“Just remember to message me every night. Or else I’ll have to come looking for you.” she said.
“No worries, I’ll keep in touch.”
His flight was at 11:00, so they decided that they would go early to ensure that they had enough time. After breakfast, they went to the airport right away. Before leaving, Ryan said goodbye to his father, who was on a conference call and couldn’t go to the airport. Once there, they said their goodbyes, and Ryan went to get on his flight. It would be roughly 18 hours.
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Luna’s jaw dropped. “I have to wait until tomorrow?!” She yelled. Her frustration flared; she had been so excited! No matter; she would simply go out and see her subjects today, and tomorrow, when the colt was waking up at his friend’s house, she would be there for it. As she ran up the stairs, she thought, giddily, “This will be quite the adventure!”
Yes. Yes it will be.