//------------------------------// // A Full Moon // Story: Honor Above All Else // by Honored Service //------------------------------// Honor Above All Else Chapter 25 By Honored Service “AAAAHHHHH- I need to stop this shit.” I cracked open my eyes to the wooden ceiling over my head. I was still inside the library, just now instead of on the floor; I was resting on the couch in the corner. Groggily I stood up and swung my legs over the side onto the floor. “Twilight?” I asked the empty room. I reached an arm up and banged myself in the eye with a metal fist. “The hell?” I looked down at my left fist and saw the new black gauntlet covering my arm and hand. “Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about you.” The black armor glinted off the early morning light seeping in through the library’s windows. In the center of my palm, where the open wound was, now rested a clear diamond. Or it would have been clear if it wasn’t sticking inside of the wound. The shiny diamond was now reflecting the dark red blood inside of my hand. “That’s kind of cool… I guess.” I shrugged and walked towards the kitchen to get something to drink. Fainting repeatedly can leave you parched. Nopony was up yet. I was left to fend for myself. I looked around the small kitchen for a glass or cup but couldn’t see one. I opened cabinets and drawers, trying to find the elusive cup. “There you are!” I finaly lifted the glass cup out of the last cabinet I looked in and filled it up at the sink. I was raising the glass to my lip when a yell startled me. “Honored!” Spike shouted, just a little too loud for so early in the morning. I jumped in shock and threw the cup into the air. The water spilled out and into the air as it came racing down towards the floor. I reached out my hand to catch the cup when something amazing happened. The center of my palm glowed blood red and a magical chiming sounded through the kitchen. The cup and the water itself stopped mid fall and became surrounded in a similar blood red aurora. I just stared in awe at the two floating things. “Wow.” Spike said walking towards the levitating objects. “This is amazing. It looks like Princess Luna and Twilight were right. You can do magic now!” He pumped a little purple claw into the air, before racing out of the room to get Twilight up. I stared at the floating cup. Carefully I guided the water over to the sink, where I let it drop into the drain. The cup was still floating, totally at my mercy. I focused my magic on the glass cup and slowly began to make a fist with my hand. I was rewarded with small cracks beginning to spread across the cup. With a smirk I quickly balled my fist and laughed as there was a loud snap and the glass crumbled into itself and formed a ball of glass. A ball composed of razor sharp shards of glass. I turned to one side of the kitchen and threw my hand forward, releasing the improvised weapon at the wooden wall. The shards ripped into the wall with the sound of hundreds of darts striking a dart board. A smile slowly began to spread across my face. Oh this power. This power was nice. This power was good. Watch out Day Terror. Johnson’s home. “Honored! Did you do it? Did you use magic?” Twilight skidded into the kitchen and stared at me, and then to the glass reflecting off her wall. “Honored…?” “Yes.” I beamed at Twilight before showing her my levitation trick. I picked up a pan from the sink and floated it in the air. “Amazing!” Twilight exclaimed. “Okay now try lowering it onto the stove. Carefully please.” I focused my hand on the pan, the blood red shimmer around it growing brighter as I lowered it towards the stove. But then it began to change shape. With a sound of groaning metal, the iron pan jerked in midair. It twisted and turned, bending at strange angles till it represented a spiked club. The handle was still the same, but the pan head itself was now a wicked looking mace. “I didn't mean to do that!” I shouted, as the pan, now turned mace, swung up into the air and crashed down onto Twilight’s kitchen table, shattering it into bits of wood. “I didn't do that either! Hold on I can fix it!” I dropped the mace to the ground and turned my palm onto the shattered remains of the oak table. “No stop!” Twilight commanded, but I was to determine to fix my wrong doing to her table. Slowly the pieces of the table levitated into the air where they floated caught in a blood red pool of energy. Twilight watched with fascination and horror as small bits of the wood began to fall of the larger pieces. “Twilight I’m not doing that!” The wood splintered and fell to the ground leaving twelve wooden spears floating above her kitchen floor. “Oh dear.” Twilight said before ducking behind her refrigerator. The spears pulled together in midair before exploding out wards, propelled by my magic. TWHUNG TWHUNG TWHUNG TWHUNG TWHUNG TWHUNG TWHUNG TWHUNG TWHUNG TWHUNG TWHUNG TWHUNG The spears embedded themselves all over the walls and floor. I stared at them shocked by the raw power I had, and by the fact nothing was doing what I wanted it to. “I can fix it.” “NO!” Twilight roared tackling me to the ground. “Okay, okay, no more magic.” I sighed. What the hell was wrong? “Honored, I have a few experiments to run on you that should help us get a better understanding on your… um… unique magic.” Twilight said as the other girls gathered around us behind the library. “Okay test one,” Twilight nodded to Rarity, “complete the task Rarity has for you.” “Now darling take this needle and thread and thread these two pieces of fabric together.” Rarity held up the pieces of light blue cloth and the spool of thread with a needle tucked into it. I held my hand out and with a magical chime, lifted the objects into the air. I focused on the spool and needle and was happy to watch as the needle was threaded and began to stitch the two pieces together. But then it stopped and the cloth twisted into a long piece of solid cloth and began to wrap around itself and twist into a large looped knot. “Oh come on.” I groaned as a perfect light blue noose was dangling in front of Rarity. “Sorry.” She promptly fell backwards onto a rolled out bed roll covered in pillows. “Okay, um well Pinkie, you’re up next.” Twilight stepped aside as the pink party pony bounced forward with a bag clasped in her teeth. She dropped the bag and a mixing bowl, spoon, egg whisk, and assorted cooking supplies tumbled out and onto the ground. “Alright Honored, let’s see your weirdo magic make some cupcakes!” Pinkie smiled, and I felt a boost of confidence wash over me and I levitated the supplies into the air. “I got this.” “I don’t got this.” I was now wearing the mixing bowl as a helmet, war paint and small branches covering the sides. It was hardened too, using some of the unknown magic that was now residing inside of me making it as strong as concrete. The whisk had been easily turned into some kind weapon. The thin wires spread out and joined to a point creating a wicked looking hook of death. And the eggs… well the eggs and the spoon had been crafted together to create a replica of a German ‘potato masher’ hand grenade, except this one didn’t explode, it just stank. Really bad. Poor Pinkie had thought it was game of catch. She was now sobbing to herself against a tree far away where the stink couldn’t reach the remainder of the ponies. “Um well Applejack, would you care to try?” Twilight asked. Applejack brushed her hat off and strode forward, dragging a bushel of apples behind her with her tail. “Okay mister, let’s see you levitate these apples and peel them. Simply and easy.” Applejack said with a curt nod and a smile. “Sure. No problem. I cracked my fingers in front of me and aimed my hand at the apples. There is no way I could mess this up. One by one the apple began floating into the air, caught in the menacing looking magic aurora. “See its going good!” I said happily as the wooden bushel floated up next. “Aw crap.” The wooden planks wrapped around the side of the basket slipped off and joined the apples while more planks began to create a very familiar shape. Two triangles connected by support beams. Small nails that had once been holding the basket together began stabbing themselves into the wood, holding the new contraption in place. Finally the last bits of wood floated together to create an arm with a small basket on one end. The new weapon floated to the ground in front of me. I was staring at a miniature catapult, just big enough to hurl apples. I slapped both my hands to my face and fell to the ground. “Why does everything I touch turn into a weapon?!” I sobbed into my hands as Rainbow Dash smiled and dropped an apple into the basket and pushed the arm back, releasing the apple into the air. It sailed over the group of ponies and directly at the lone pink mare resting beneath the tree some distance away. I looked up just in time to aim my hand at the incoming projectile and fire a blast of pure blood red magic at it. SPLAT The apple exploded into chunks and liquid, that rained onto Pinkie Pie. She leapt into the air and ran over to us, no longer smelling of rotting eggs, but of apples. “Wow Honored! That apple was totally going to smash into me, but you were all like BLAM and the apple was all like KERSPLAT!” Pinkie was bouncing with excitement. I looked at my hand. It had done what I wanted for once. I looked to Twilight, who was busying flipping through pages of a book and making notes on another sheet of parchment. “Honored, I think I know what’s going on.” “Thank the lord!” I flopped backwards into my back in relief. “So is thing just malfunctioning? Can I get a refund?” “Not exactly. I'm happy to announce that the raw power of the Elements have finally stopped trying to decide if you're good or evil. And they also have given you your special talent.” Twilight was beaming at me, and the other ponies gathered around whispering to each other about what my special talent could be. “Okay Twilight.” I sat up and crossed my legs, “I’m ready to hear it.” Everypony took a breath as Twilight cleared her throat. “You have been deemed good by the Elements. Since you haven’t had any massive reactions to the magic, I’ll take it the Elements have entered a state of peace inside of you.” She levitated a book to me with further explanations of the Elements and their properties inside ponies. Granted I wasn’t a pony, so I didn’t read too hard. “And as for your special talent, I believe your cutie mark should show it.” Twilight stated confidently. I stared at her and burst out laughing before rolling back onto the ground. “Yeah hahaha a cutie mark haha. Good one Twi.” I wiped a tear from my eye. “I’m a human. We don’t get those. We’ve been over this.” “Yes you are, but you also now are magical. Infused with pony magic at that. So I'm assuming that it should work on you now.” Everypony just stared at me. “No.” I crossed my arms. “No.” “I'm not showing my ass to everypony here.” “And why not?” Applejack said. “Ah’ve already seen it. Twilight saw it in the hospital. And y’all see our ‘asses’ every day.” Applejack smirked, her logic was flawless. “Um well…” Shit come on brain think. Come up with something witty. Get me out of this situation. “Okay.” Fuck you brain. I gripped the belt around my pants and undid the clasp. Turning around so my backside was facing the ponies I shuddered and lowered the pants just low enough so that my bare ass was hanging out for all the world to see. “Well Ah’ll be.” Applejack gave a low whistle, trying to cover up the various snickers coming from the other ponies staring at the sight before them. “Pffft Looks like a full moon.” Rainbow Dash fell onto her side laughing. I looked over my shoulder and jerked my pants up. No cutie mark. But I did just flash six mares. “Sorry.” I muttered under my breath. I tucked at the collar of my dirty button up shirt, trying to hide my burning red face. I heard a chorus of gasps coming from the ponies. “Look I'm sorry okay? I didn't mean to flash all of you for nothing!” I sputtered out, growing even more red in the face. “No, your arm!” Rarity pointed a hoof at my left bicep. I looked down and saw a faint black line coming to a point just under the sleeve. I slowly rolled up the cloth and gasped along with the rest of the ponies. I did have a cutie mark. It was a five pointed star with a solid black outline and a gold orange inside. On the top most point was a blue ribbon. And surrounding the main star were three smaller four pointed orange stars. “Wow.” Was all I could say as I stared at the magical marking that now showed me what my talent was. “I'm a star baby!” There was the sound of six hooves contacting six faces. “Let me explain again.” Twilight was rubbing a hoof along her face as the other ponies lounged around the library. Rainbow Dash was asleep, Fluttershy was reading a book, Applejack and Rarity were both playing a not so fair game against each other, and Pinkie Pie was continuing to play with the apple basket catapult. “Your magic is focused on your special talent.” “Yes.” I said again while levitating my knife in front of me, spinning it around in mid air as the late afternoon sun reflected of its blade. “And your special talent is…?” Twilight gestured in circular motion with her hoof. “Protecting ponies?” I sighed as I levitated the knife back into its sheath. “Correct.” Twilight nodded her head. “And put two and two together…” “The only reason my magic is turning things into weapons,” I stood up as the bored ponies around me gave me their full attention, “is because my special talent is fighting. Fighting to protect everypony. So the magic inside of me is giving me the tools and the ability to do just that!” I struck a pose raising my armored hand into the air and blasting a bolt of blood red magic into Twilight’s roof. “Oops. Sorry.” “We’ll keep working on that.” Twilight shook her head. “But at least now we know what your magic is.” Outside of the library, at the side window, a dark shadowy figure watched as the human launched a bolt of magic into the air. The shadow human stumbled back from the window and transformed into a cloud of fog before disappearing into the air, heading straight for Canterlot castle. “Well, well, well. My little human is alive. And stronger. This will be fun. So much fun. Muhahahaha.” Day Terror laughed deeply as a seemingly endless army of Shadow Humans began marching from the castle, into the city and towards the small town of Ponyville.