I stood in front of the professors, who are also my judges for the next few minutes. I was trying to get into the most prestigious school in Equestria, and I have no idea what they’re going to ask me to do, but I’m confident I prepared enough.
An assistant brings in some kind of military training dummy, and they simply ask me to break it as spectacularly as I can. The problem is, not only can I not break it spectacularly, I don’t know any spells that can even break it. At all. It’s as if I studied everything except breaking things. I start to panic, naturally. My mind races for anything I might have studied that I can use, but I get nothing. As I’m about to say I can’t do it, an idea hits me. I throw together a simple, destructive spell in my head, say a silent prayer, and cast it. My horn charges with energy. Lots of energy. Too much energy. I release the giant bolt of lightning at the dummy, shattering it and throwing me into the back wall. I hear a few glass somethings break, but I don’t exactly pay attention to it. I’m convinced I’ve failed.
“Why cast such a dangerous spell if you haven’t mastered it yet?” One professor asks
“Well, I-I made it up,” I manage to stammer. All three professors get wide-eyed.
“Just now?” Another of them asks.
“Um, yes.” They look at each other for a moment, then nod.
The last professor turned to him and said “Welcome to Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. Oh, and you have a cutie mark.”
My studying continues over the years, my special talent in writing spells. My life gets and stays pretty good. Then he showed up. Don’t get me wrong, I like him, but him appearing is what started making my life just a little bit complicated.
His Arrival
At the moment, I’m pretending I don’t see the group of thugs following me. Readying one of my favorite spells while keeping my eyes glued to the book floating in front of me.
“Hey, bookworm,” the lead thug says. I’m halfway turned around, halfway to answering him, and halfway to blasting the guy with lightning, when a multicolored rift opens above the poor guy I was about to incapacitate. A black pegasus with a white and light blue mane drops out and onto the unlucky unicorn, knocking him senseless. Small round metal orbs tumble from the pegasus’s wings, roll under the thugs, and just so happen to explode, of all things.
“What th- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH” says just about everyone present, excluding the black pegasus, who is still dazed.
“Who are you, where did you come from, and WHY in EQUESTRIA are you carrying explosives?” I ask. He looks at me, looks ready to answer for a second then gets a confused look on his face.
“Well, I’m pretty sure my name is Blitz Spark, I have no idea where I’m from, and what explosives?”. Another orb falls from his wings. “What’s this?” he asks, kicking it. It rolls to a fruit stand just as I shout a warning, and, you guessed it, explodes, scattering splinters and pulp everywhere. “Oh, you mean these explosives,” he says as he spreads his wings, showing line upon line of inactive orbs.
“Well, you know my name, what’s yours, and what’s with your horn sparking so much?”. I quickly powered down my horn and responded.
“Power Switch, but most people just say Switch. So you really don’t know where you’re from? Do you know anything else about yourself?”
“Um, well, not really. Other than people apparently trust my skills enough to let me carry explosives, so- well, still no.” He says. I’m extremely curious about him and especially that rift he fell from, so I invite him to come with me back to my home/lab to see if he can figure out where he came from.
That’s when my life got interesting.
Blitz and I walk through the streets of Canterlot towards my house.
“So, where are we anyway?” he asks. I’m amazed he doesn’t recognize the capital, until I remember he probably doesn’t recognize anything.
“Canterlot, home of Princess Celestia and Capital of Equestria. Also my hometown.” I hear a crunch, and look to see that he’s eating an apple. “Where did you get that?” I ask him. He looks at it.
“I don’t really know. I think I took it from one of those stands.”
I sigh, and walk over to a random fruit stand and put some money on it.
“Try not to do that again.”
“Um, do what?” he says as he’s eating a banana. I just shake my head and keep walking. We make it to my home and walk in as I tell him not to touch anything. “Why not?” he says as he puts down a helmet that I am sure he wasn’t wearing before.
“Well, I’m pretty sure you don’t want to get incinerated, turned into a potato, driven mad, or any combination of the three.” He loosens and takes off some body armor that he wasn’t wearing a couple seconds ago. “Where is all that equipment coming from?” I ask him.
“Well, I, uh, don’t know.” he says as he un-attaches a couple of blades from his front legs. “They’re just kind of appearing,” he says, “but I’m pretty sure they’re mine.” He takes off a few more blades and some weird kind of wing armor. Then he drops those explosive orbs, and I panic and shield myself. “Don’t worry, they aren’t active,” he says. I take my shield down and cast a basic stabilize spell on the orbs just in case.
“Anyway,” I start, “We need to try and figure out where you’re from. And why you’re here. And, well, you get the idea.” I hook him up with a few wires to see if he’s generating any kind of magic. He’s pretty much normal, but there is a small irregularity. Then he drops a couple of books that came from nowhere and the flow stops. “Something about you was drawing your equipment through, um, somewhere to you. Do you know how to use all this equipment?” I ask as I look through the books, which turn out to be instruction manuals for his equipment.
He quickly says “Yes,” then thinks for a moment. “At least, I think I do, but I don’t remember learning how.” To test him, I crumple a piece of paper behind my back, then fling it at him. I don’t see much but a blur, and he has one of his arm blades back on and the paper is skewered on it.
“Your reflexes say you know how to use them,” I say. “Why would you need these skills and equipment?”
Reflexively, he says “That’s classified.” He thinks. “I don’t actually know.” He’s got to be military. Or something similar. The problem is, the world is in peace, so there still isn’t a need for him to be this good. I decide to test his wings. It might help determine what they use him for. Whoever they are. I bring him outside, set up a machine, and tell him to fly away, then back and past the machine as fast as he can. Once again, all I see is blurs and the needle on the machine jumping. He measures a 16.8. “Wow. You should just get a job racing.” I say to him as he flies back.
“So, after all these tests, I really have no idea how to help you. The best I have is that you’re probably military. Kind of obvious. Are you sure you can’t remember anything?”
“Nothing,” he says. “But, why, exactly are you helping me? And for Equestria’s sake, could you slow down?”
“Slow down how?”
“Your head is moving faster than I ever have. Well, almost.”
I sigh. “Sorry, I think fast. You’d think it’d be nice, but it’s usually more of a hindrance than a help. As for why I’m helping you, It’s fun, and it’s my job. I solve magic problems. Write spells, research phenomenon, that sort of thing. And you, sir, are a phenomenon. An amnesiac pegasus falls out of some kind of rift with no warning. I want to know where you came from, Blitz, and I’m sure you do too,” I say.
He says “Fair enough, but in the meantime, I need you to tell me about the world. It isn’t any fun not knowing anything about where you are and the people around you.”