Chapter Two:
Starting Training
The chill wind of the night air blew over the cemetery of Manehattan. Tayson was wandering aimlessly around the graveyard; not paying attention to his surroundings. Everywhere were blank tombstones. An owl occasionally disturbed the quiet of the cemetery as did the occasional laughter of foals. Shadows walked past the fields and over the tombstones, but never coming near Tayson.
Time seemed not to progress, and neither did Tayson. He was still walking on the same spot—he moved but it was not by his own actions. His surroundings moved on their own—whirling around Tayson and pushing him forwards like a river carrying a leaf towards the ocean. No matter if he tried to turn right or left, he always moved towards a hill in the middle of the cemetery.
On the top of the hill stood a mirror with the image of a pony on it; and as Tayson came closer he could make out that the pony in the mirror was his image. However, instead of the dull eyes and emotionless expression his reflection wore bright eyes and a warm and gentle smile. The two looked at each other for a few moments, until the surroundings shifted. The graveyard made place for a taiga, the tombstones were substituted by snowed trees and the hooting of owls was replaced by the howling of timber wolf.
The smile of Tayson’s reflection now shifted into a manic grin, while behind him Malicious Edge emerged from the shadows of the forest. Tayson turned his head to look where Malicious stood, but he was nowhere to be found. As he turned his head both his reflection and Malicious Edge had vanished, instead, now facing him was a light-green horse with a bone-white mask which looked like the head of a dragon. His turquoise mane went all over his back and his breath even permeated the mirror and enveloped Tayson in a dusky haze.
His mouth opened and showed some teeth and saliva dripping from his mouth. “You will free me!”
“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH” Tayson’s eyes shot open. He was covered in sweat and struggled to get grip on what just had happened. Crystal ran towards Tayson and tried to calm him.
“Tayson, don’t worry, it's alright. It was just a nightmare.” She shushed him, Tayson’s heartbeat normalized and his breathing stabilized. That was until his gaze shifted and caught a face he hadn’t expected to see anymore. “YOU!”
In front of him, on a chair, sat a steel-colour coated stallion; eating—unbothered by the colt staring at him—a bowl of noodles. He looked up with a dumbfound face. He looked right, then left, then back right, trying to check if the accusation was directed at somepony else. When he was sure that he was meant he pointed at himself. “Me?” He asked with a bundle of noodles still hanging from his mouth.
“YES, YOU! YOU WERE DEAD! CUT IN HALF BY THAT PSYCHO. What was his name?” He looked questioningly at his grandmother.
“Malicious Edge,” Crystal responded flatly.”
“YEAH, THAT GUY.” He threw his glare back at the Stallion in front of him.
Steel Needle swallowed the noodles, looked up and thought about what Tayson had said for a few minutes.
“Huh, yeah. Completely forgot about that.” He turned his attention back at the bowl of noodles and slurped another bundle of the wheaty deliciousness.
Tayson groaned in agony, first because of the obliviousness of the metal god (let's call him like that since he is a god who does stuff with metal) and—after a few seconds—as a response to the headache that was tearing his brain apart.
“Are you alright?” There was a tone of concern in Crystal’s voice as was there an undertone that stated that she knew the answer.
“Yes… just a little dizzy… what happened… yesterday? Was it yesterday? How long was I out? What happened to that psycho?”
“There, there,” Crystal interrupted the train of questions, “it’s still Saturday, you were just out for a few hours.” This was confirmed by the orange light of the setting sun that streamed through the windows. “And about Steel Needle, let’s say that we call him the “Iron Will” for a reason, but that is a story for another day.”
“Indeed it is.” A new voice entered the room.
“Good evening Doctor Tender Daze, nurse Anne Sthetics,” Steel Needle Greeted the doctor and nurse.
“Hello Mister Needle, are the injuries healing?” He gave a warm doctor-like smile to Steel Needle.
“Sure.”
“Well that is good to hear, now let’s head to our new patient shall we?” The nurse gave an absent nod while she looked over some papers.
“Good evening Miss Clear, haven’t seen you here for a while.”
“It’s good to see you too, doctor.” She gave a warm smile.
Doctor Tender Daze turned his attention towards Tayson. “And you must be Tayson? Right?”
Tayson nodded. Anne Sthetics gave the doctor Tayson’s dossier. Tender Daze looked through the pages with the occasional “hmm” and “aha” and after a few minutes he gave the dossier back to nurse Anne Sthetics and gave Tayson and Crystal a warm smile. “Looks good, completely healthy. But we’d like to keep you in for one night to see if your energy flow has regulated.”
Tayson looked worried at his grandmother, who in her turn just gave a comforting smile. “Don’t worry about that, it's just routine.” This,—slightly—calmed Tayson’s nerves. “I’ll be here tomorrow to pick you up, ok?”
“I hate to interrupt this emotional family thingy, but the visiting hours are over. So could you…” Tender Daze waved his hoof at the direction of the door. Crystal frowned at first but the frown vanished as she understood that the doctor was just doing his job.
“Of course,” She replied with a smile. She gave Tayson a kiss on the forehead and left the room together with the nurse, doctor and the metal god.
Tayson let his head fall in his cushion and stared at the ceiling. The image of the dragon helmet kept reappearing before his eyes. YOU WILL FREE ME! Tayson cringed at those words, but wasn’t sure why. It was just a dream…just… a dream…
He looked at his hoof and noticed that it was bruised, as were his head and other parts of his body all were covered in bandages. At first he thought that those were remains from the rough handling of the brutes but after he looked a little closer he noticed that some were new and especially sore and covered in bandages which had darkened brown stains on it. What the fudge happened? His head hurt as he tried to conjure the memories of what had transpired hours ago. After a while; however, he decided that it wasn’t worth the headache and just let the matter rest and kept on staring at the ceiling.
So… I’m a god… my family consisted of gods… and of course my grandma is a god too… I have really no idea what to think of all of this. Malicious’ face reappeared before his inner eye and he could see him hit Crystal in the face. A burst of anger went through his body. That piece of filth. Tayson felt the same snapping sensation he had felt then. He saw the clouds cutting through Steel Needle and cringed. Why does he want me? He saw Maya spasm in agonizing pain as she got electrocuted by the dark clouds. Why does he go through all that trouble just to get me? Now he saw what could happen, he saw Octavia and Vinyl being tortured while Melody had to watch, he saw Lily and Silver being beaten to death by those brutes, Pick Up being killed on the street, Greymane being pushed into an alley where he would never get out. All his friends were in danger. Everypony he had ever known, they weren’t safe as long as that psycho roamed free; and this was all his fault, because he was too much of a coward to learn how to defend himself and his friends. Tayson got angry, all the anger flowed through him and made a gear turn, and with every rotation of that wheel he got more and more angry; and all of anger was turned towards one specific pony.
Himself.
He wanted to tear this room to bits, he wanted to find Malicious and end him for being a threat to his friends. It’s his fault! I could have had a family, a normal life, a life where I shouldn’t be afraid to lose everything I’ve ever loved. The gear started to spin and spin until it risked to break apart—but instead—it stopped.
I guess I’ve made up my mind, haven’t I?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning, Tayson was up early. He now just waited for his grandmother to pick him up.
There was a knocking on his door, followed by the entering of Doctor Tender Daze and Crystal Clear. Doctor Tender Daze looked through Tayson’s file and spoke, “Well looks fine to me, there was a little excitement in the energy flow around ten o’ clock but nothing to be worried about.” He showed the graph to state his point and smiled.
“So, I can go home now?”
“Of course. Now if you excuse me, I have non-god patients to attend too and, well, let’s say they’re not as durable.” He gave an awkward smile and left the room.
The two thanked the doctor for his time and smiled. Now Crystal turned to Tayson. “Ready?”
Tayson shifted his weight awkwardly and bit his lip, this made Crystal worry. “Is there something wrong?”
Tayson left the bed and took a deep breath. Come on, yesterday I was so convinced. “I’ve been thinking and… I would like to talk to Time Gale a second time.”
Crystal’s face fell and there was an awkward silence for a few seconds.
“You want… to… talk to him?” There was an uneasy pace in which she said those words.
“Yes.” Tayson nodded.
“I… But…” Crystal forced a smile. “Of course. If you want to…”
Tayson smiled and gave his grandmother a hug. “Thank you, granny.”
The two left the hospital and made their way towards the town hall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was a knock on Steel Needle’s door. “Come in.” He said absently while going through some paperwork. The door went open and on the other side stood Crystal Clear and Tayson. Steel Needle looked up and put his glasses aside. “Hello, come in, how can I help you?” He gave a warm smile.
Tayson looked around the office. “You’re an official?”
Steel Needle shrugged, “I’m in charge of KAMI in Manehattan, and somepony has to do the paperwork. But never mind that, what brings you here?”
“Have you seen Time Gale? He wasn’t down in the KAMI building,” Crystal said.
“Time Gale?” Steel Needle cocked his head. “Why? Do you need to talk to him?”
“I would like to talk to him about yesterday,” Tayson said.
“Oh, well, he was only here because I asked him to come over to discuss your kidnapping. It is possible that he has already left for Canterlot.”
Tayson face fell. “But I really have to talk to him…”
“Don’t worry, I can always send him a chalk message. I think he could be here again next week if that is ok with you?”
“That won’t be necessary.” Time Gale’s voice entered the room, as did Time Gale, however he had to duck, so he didn’t hit his head. “I was just taking a walk through Manehattan, it has been a long time since I was here last time.” He smiled in nostalgia. “So, what did you want to talk about?”
Tayson gulped and took a more assertive posture. He took a deep breath in. “I would like to reconsider your offer to join KAMI.”
Time Gale’s face was stoic as ever, however, there was a hint of surprise in it. “Miss Clear, Steel Needle, could you leave the two of us alone?” The two looked at each other for a while until they nodded and left the room without saying a word. Time Gale took a seat in Steel Needles chair and motioned for Tayson to take a seat too.
“So…” Time Gale began, “you want to join KAMI?”
Tayson nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“You know that it will be dangerous? We’re handling more than just other gods.”
Tayson nodded. “Yes, I know.”
“You also know that you have to get very strong very fast?”
Again, Tayson nodded. “Yes, and I am certain that that won’t be a problem.”
Time Gale cocked an eyebrow. “Is that so?”
“You wouldn’t have asked me if it wasn’t possible in the first place.” Tayson grinned a little for a second until regaining his serious face.
Time Gale chuckled. “I guess that is true. Very well then, may I ask what made change your mind?”
Tayson dragged a hoof nervously across the floor. “My friends.”
“Your… friends,” Time gale said sceptically. “Do you care to explain?”
Tayson’s ears perked up. “Well, you see… uhm… well…” Tayson inhaled and gave a long, calming sigh, “After what happened yesterday, I couldn’t stop thinking about Malicious Edge, and what he was willing to do to ponies that I didn’t even know just to get to me; and after a while I couldn’t stop thinking about the things he would do to the ponies I really care about.” His eyes began glistening with a film of tears as he continued. “And I don’t want to rely on anypony else to save my friends from the danger I bring upon them.” He winked the tears out his eyes and replaced his face with one of sheer determination. “I want to get stronger to protect anypony who is important to me!”
After that it was quiet for a few minutes. Time Gale stood up and sighed. “Very well.” He then walked towards the door and opened it with telekinesis. On the other side was an eavesdropping Maya and the two other gods. Maya fell as the door she rested on was pulled away and fell in front of Time Gale. She shook her head and rubbed the sore spot of her head for a few seconds until she noticed the shadow over her. She looked up and gave a little squeak as she saw her boss looking with a disappointed gaze. Maya sprung up and made place for her boss to walk through, she saluted and tried her best to not give an awkward grin. Time Gale looked at Steel Needle.
“I’ll be staying for another day,” he said, “Please send a message to inform Circadian Rhythm. She is to inform the princesses that our dinner has been postponed−” He walked past Steel Needle. “−We have a little rescheduling to attend to.”
Steel Needle saluted. “Yes, sir!” He then turned towards Crystal Clear. “Well, I guess you should leave now. Unless you anything else to discuss?”
Crystal looked at her grandson. “No… we’re fine. Thank you.” She gave Steel Needle a smile and left the building together with Tayson.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was Monday and Littlehorn academy was once again filled with uninterested adolescents. Well not all of them were uninterested, but a lot of them were. Tayson, however, was one of the interested adolescents since it was nice to have a regular day after all he had been through. The weekend, which was supposed to be peaceful had turned into the biggest plot twist of his entire life. Not only had he been beaten, kidnapped and almost killed, no, he also seemed to be a godlike being who’s family was a clan who had pledged their services to a secret organisation that stretched over the whole planet… so yeah. The only thing he wanted to see now was the smile of his two best friends—who now, hopefully—were in love with each other. Well, at least one of the two was. Tayson smiled as he saw Silver Breeze walking towards him.
“And there he is, our little Casanova. How did…” His playful tease ended as he read Silver’s body language. His gaze was cast down, he walked slowly and there wasn’t any sign of happiness in his trot. “Oh no, don’t tell me… I’m so sorry…” He stretched his front leg in an attempt to comfort his emotionally broken friend. But he got stopped as Silver grabbed him in the tightest hug in recorded history.
“SHE SAID YES!”
“Hubajewah?”
“Lily, she said yes. I got a fillyfriend! A fillyfriend!” The glee in Silver’s face was so intense that Silver had to utter a fanfilly scream. Otherwise he would have suffered an intern meltdown of happiness.
“You flankhole! You had me worried for a second. You looked like she—I don’t know—had laughed you in the face.”
“Oh, but she did.” The glee intensified.
“Come again?”
“Well at first she though it was a joke and it was like super awkward but after I explained what my feelings were for her, she was like super serious she just blushed and it was awkward for another five minutes and then she just kissed me and…”
“Breath!” Tayson punched Silver’s shoulder in an attempt to get the—now blue—Pegasus to breath. Which he did, he inhaled a few litres of air, which made his chest expand three times its original size and exhaled and grinned. “I’m so happy.”
“I can see that.” Tayson nodded sarcastically.
“There was also a pink pony who just appeared, gave her congratulations and then just disappeared.”
“Well, that is weird.” Tayson shrugged.
“Yeah, I know. BUT WHO CARES! I GOT A FILLYFRIEND!” The shouting attracted some annoyed glares but Silver was in a too big euphoria to care.
“♪Hey guys.♪” Lily’s sing-song voice travelled from the front gate towards the ears of the two colts.
“LILY!” Silver moved so fast towards his new fillyfriend that one could have sworn that he had broken the spectrum barrier and performed a mini-sonic rainboom. He then grabbed Lily, in what would now be the new tightest hug in recorded history.
“Whoa, calm down, Casanova. You don’t want to crush her barrel, now do you?” Tayson said.
Silver released Lily, who gasped a little for air. After that, she gave him a nuzzle. The two then turned towards Tayson.
Lilly’s face fell as she looked at the bandages that covered Tayson’s body. “Talking about crushed ribcages. What the fudge happened to your face?” Lily pointed at the several bandages that covered Tayson’s face.
“Your face looks lovely too,” Tayson replied sarcastically.
Lily’s face drooped in an unamused fashion. “You know what I mean, Zweistein.”
“Yeah dude, looks like you were in a fight,” Silver said in a worried fashion.
“Well, that is partially because I was in a fight. Some drunks at the festival were bothering me after I left you two lovebirds alone”− The two blushed a bit at the notion of lovebirds − “They took my phone and broke it. Luckily a guard found us. Those drunks were arrested and I was brought to the hospital.”
The two looked a bit guilty for not knowing that their friend was beaten up at the festival, while they were—well—doing couple stuff. “Well that explains why you didn’t reply on my message.” Silver pointed out. “You sure you’re ok?”
“Yes, don’t worry about me. It’s just a scratch.” He gave a reassuring smile.
The school bell ended their chat.
“Whoops, looks like we’re out of time.”
“Indeed.−” Silver turned towards Lily “− I see you during lunch break, sweetie?”
“Yes, honey.” She gave Silver a kiss.
Tayson looked at his friends and did his best to not throw up at their public expression of affection. “Oh, get a room you two.”
The two interrupted their kiss and turned a bit embarrassed away from each other. Lily galloped towards her class and waved at her two friends. “See you later!” She winked at Silver.
Silver just flushed, and the two trotted off towards their class.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The rest of the day was an ordinary school day. Well, except that Tayson had to explain to every teacher and classmate where he got those injuries. And during lunch break, he had to deal with his friends/lovebirds.
Ok they are cute together, but still, it is icky to see my friends being all smoochie woochie.
After school the two came together at the school gate.
“Tayson, do you want to come with us? We want to watch a movie at the theatre,” Silver asked.
“Sure, why not? What movie is running now?”
“Oh, I wanted to see the filming of hard reset,” Lily said with a glee.
“Oi, Tayson!” A new voice entered the conversation.
“Uhm, Tayson, do you know that filly?” Silver looked sceptically.
Tayson looked around to see who was calling, only to see Maya with a glee trotting towards the group. "Oh hey, Maya, what are you doing, here.”
Maya wanted to answer but saw Lily and Silver staring at her. “Oh, sorry, am I interrupting something?”
“No, not at all.” Silver reassured the mare. “Uh, Tayson? Who is she?”
Tayson thought quickly for a fitting lie. Let’s see, she knows me. I haven’t ever told my friends about her. Family? No, they know that my family is dead. Got it!
“I—” Maya wanted to introduce herself but was cut off but Tayson.
“She's Melody’s cousin. Octavia and Vinyl were visiting Octavia’s mother in Canterlot. She is from Ponyville and wanted to see Manehattan, so now she takes care of Octavia and Vinyl’s flat and in return she can stay in Manehattan for a while, and she is probably here because I promised her a tour through Manehattan. Am I right?” He gave Maya a just-roll-with-me-for-a-minute smile.
Maya frowned for a while at Tayson and then gave Silver and Lily—who were waiting for confirmation—a smile. “What he said.”
“Oh, well, I didn’t know you had a date today Tayson.” Silver gave Tayson a conspicuous smile.
“WHAT? NO! I’m just doing her a favour.”
“Yeah, right—she can join us—I heard the book was awesome, but I’m not the reading type.”
Maya shook her, head. “No, sorry, I prefer to read. Tayson,” she turned towards Tayson, “the tour can wait. And—if you want—I can always send you a message.”
“That would be nice, but my phone is broken.”
“Oh, well, in that case, I’ll leave Crystal a message.”
“That would be nice, I’ll see you soon then?" Tayson gave an awkward smile.
“Sure, have fun at the movie.” She said goodbye to everypony and then left.
“Well, she sure is cute.” Silver gave Tayson a grin.
“Keep on smiling, I dare you! I double dare you!” Tayson glared daggers at his friend and then tried to use the most feared weapon of wars between friends… his fillyfriend. “Did you hear what he said? He said that she looked cute!”
Silver gulped, but Lily just smiled slyly. “Don’t even try to do that. Besides, he is allowed to look at it, as long as he doesn’t touch it.” Lily walked past Silver and smacked her tail in his face and gave him a little seductive smile.
“Fine,” he groaned, “sorry. But she is just a friend.”
“Yeah, right.” This time it was Lily’s turn to taunt Tayson.
“ARGH!”
The two laughed a bit at their friend’s misery and after a while Tayson couldn’t help but to join the laughter. After a few minutes they realized they were later for the movie and started to gallop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was late when Tayson came back home. He had a good relaxing afternoon with his friends.
“I’m home.” Tayson didn’t supress his voice, since there was no little filly above their flat who could have woken up, and neither was there a temperamental white unicorn who would have kicked his flank for waking her up.
“Ah, Tayson, welcome back. How was the movie?” Crystal was reading something in the living room and looked up from the page she was reading, so she could see him entering the room.
Tayson gave his grandmother a synopsis of his afternoon with his friends, and asked if Maya had left a message for him.
“Oh it is on the chalkboard,” she said nonchalantly and looked back at her book.
“We have a chalkboard?” Tayson cocked an eyebrow.
“Yes, of course.” Crystal didn’t look up.
“Since when?”
“Since we moved in.”
“Come again?” He turned around and cocked his eyebrow even further as he saw that a chalkboard hung at the wall.
“Yeah I put a little perception filter on it.” She put the book aside and walked next to Tayson who tried to solve the riddle of the sudden chalkboard.
“Perception what now?”
“Oh don’t mind it, it just means that if you don’t look for it, you won’t find it.” She pointed at the chalkboard. “This is how KAMI communicates with its agents,” She continued, “and how gods in general communicate with each other. You just take the piece of chalk, write to whom you want to send it, the message and then the sender. After that you draw a circle around it all and the chalk will burst into green flames and appear on a surface where the receiver will see it. You can do the same with ink and pencils, but you’ll learn that soon enough.”
“And why did you keep this board a secret?”
“Well I didn’t want to explain why there was a message on it that stated that I have to take out an assassin, or something like that.”
“Point taken.” He shrugged.
To: Tai Ichi.
You are hereby officially a member of the KAMI organisation.
You have been assigned a team and teacher and you will get a message from a member of KAMI—who is stationed in Manehattan—with further information.
Please confirm that you have received this message after reading.
Welcome amongst our midst
Sincerely,
Circadian Rhythm, Secretary of Canterlot HQ.
From: Circadian Rhythm
“So, I should reply to it now…” He took a piece of chalk, followed the instructions of his grandmother and started to scribble under the message from Circadian Rhythm.
To: Circadian Rhythm.
Thank you for informing me, I have received your message.
From: Tai Ichi.
He drew a circle around the short confirmation and waited… and waited… and waited. And after an awkward five minutes—in which Crystal had walked over to the kitchen where her kettle with tea had started boiling—he looked at the piece of chalk and started inspecting it. “Hmmmm…”
“Is something the matter, my dear?” Crystal left the kitchen with a tray with tea on it on her back.
He hold the piece of chalk into the light to see if there was some hidden switch. “I think this piece of chalk is broken...”
Crystal put the tray on the coffee table and chuckled at the reaction of her grandson. “No my dear, you’re not infusing any energy into it.”
Tayson looked in confusion at Crystal. “And, how do I do that?”
“Well, it is one of those standard techniques that every god can learn. Let me think, it has been a while since I taught somepony how to do that −” She rubbed her chin in a thinking manner. “− Ok, focus on the piece of chalk.”
Tayson did as told and focused all his attention at the piece of chalk in his hooves, a few vanes started to become visible on his forehead as were a few drops of sweat. In the meantime Crystal wiped the former circle from the board. “You have to do this until you feel a little spark coming from the chalk, or whatever medium you’re writing with.”
It went on for a few seconds until Tayson felt a weird tingling sensation coming from the chalk. “Ok... I think it is ready.”
Crystal nodded. “Ok, you can relax now.” − This is what Tayson did − “Now energy alone doesn’t make a technique, you have to give the energy a purpose,” Crystal continued. “Just imagine how the letters will ignite in green flames and that it will be sent. Sent towards Canterlot,” She now stood behind Tayson, looking expectantly. “Sent towards Circadian Rhythm.”
Tayson focused on the imaginary road the message had to take, of course he didn’t know the real road, but that seemed to be irrelevant, what now counted was to imagine that it will be sent somewhere. He put the chalk on top of the message and continued to think of Canterlot. It went on until he had Canterlot in front of his inner eye, the mountain castle in all his glory. He then drew a circle again in a fluid and rapid motion, almost forming a perfect circle around the message.
Now he waited again… and waited… and waited... and waited… and then looked back at the piece of chalk. “You sure that it isn’t broken?”
Crystal let loose of an exuberant laughter and wiped a tear out her eyes. “Well, the message said that you’ll be assigned a teacher.” − She patted Tayson’s shoulder − “Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it quite soon.”
Tayson showed a defeated grin. “Hehehe, well Canterlot wasn’t built in a day, am I right?”
Crystal took the chalk piece and drew with a loose hoof a circle around the message, and after two seconds the letters burst into flames. Tayson’s ears now drooped. “Well…”
“Don’t let it bother you, it took your sister a month to learn this, and even that was considered to be fast. Well she was five back then but never mind that, she was also just introduced into the world of gods.”
Tayson smiled warmly and looked at the other message.
To: Tayson. (Oh, so it also works with nicknames too.)
How was the movie?
By the way, you never guess who’s team you’ve been assigned to, don’t worry I’ll give you a second or two to figure out.
Ok time is up. It is mine :-D, and Steel Needle is your teacher/team leader.
Isn’t that awesome?
Anyways, I’ll meet you tomorrow at school to pick you up for your first training session.
Cya.
From: Maya.
“Looks like you made a new friend.” Crystal chuckled.
Tayson spun around. “She is just a friend!”
Crystal looked confused back. “Did I say something else?”
Tayson gulped. “No… It’s just, I’m a bit startled. She came to my school to tell me the news, and since I couldn’t tell my friends who she really is—I had to come up with a lie; and well, you can imagine how they reacted to it. They were teasing me the entire afternoon.” Tayson rubbed his neck in awkwardness.
“Oh, I see…” She walked back to her seat and picked her book and resumed reading. “I think you two would make a cute pair though.” She chortled.
Tayson sighed, "Excuse me, for I have to bonk my head against the wall for the next five hours.”
"As long as you don't damage your wall, my dear," Crystal said—again—without looking up from her page.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had been four days since Malicious Edge returned from his failed mission; and his anger hadn’t cooled down yet.
Borealis was looking over some paperwork concerning new missions for the agents, like drugs transactions, theft, you name it. However, his concentration was constantly interrupted by the sound of something breaking and/or exploding.
In the rare case that the boss did a mission himself and in the even rarer case that he actually failed, he had the habit to destroy everything in his office (which included the office itself) and since Borealis didn’t want to be considered part of the office, he stayed as far away from it as possible.
To: agent 465.
Make sur—
Borealis’ writing was interrupted by another explosion. He closed his eyes and massaged his temples in an attempt to dull his frustration.
“Is he going to keep doing this?” He asked rhetorically (since the answer was more than obvious).
There was a green flash, and as he opened his eyes he could see a new message on a paper on his desk together with a scroll with the label of the research facility on it.
To: Lieutenant Borealis.
Test results were more than satisfying. Agent 745 is still alive and well, we managed to infuse the new chems without any major health problems. Please report this to Captain Two Face.
From: Bunsen Burner.
Borealis crunched his teeth. “Oh, no problem, of course I will report to Two Face,” he said to no one in particular, “it’s not like I had some major business to attend to, like—oh, I don’t know—having my intestines NOT removed for rope skipping!” He sighed. “Well at least it is good news… in the worst case the death will be at least short and hopefully painless.”
He took the letter and made his way towards what might be his certain doom… again. Maybe I should ask… no, beg… no, let’s stick to ask to be replaced to, I don’t know, somewhere away from those two freaks. Borealis stood now again in front of the black double door with the golden circles on it.
It was weird. No matter where he looked, Two Face didn’t seem to own his own office, and no matter who he asked, nopony seemed to be able to answer where his office was or why he didn’t have one. If you looked for him—and that was never in free will—then you found him around Malicious’ office.
Borealis also found it weird that he worked in an office. They were criminals, not bureaucrats. Of course he had heard of organized crime, but this was ridiculous. At least it helped to be, relatively, safe. Remember you're doing it for her.
What was also annoying was how you found Two Face. Well, if you could call it that; in fact you searched for him, but he was the one who found you.
“Oh Lieutenant Borealis, how lovely of you to visit us again.” If you speak about the nightmare, you’ll hear her wings flap.
Two Face had the annoying habit of stepping out of the shadows and scaring the crap out of you with that gentle tone of his. Borealis, who was confident… no hoped… no, who was in a sense confident that he would survive, tried his best to salute in a way that he didn’t look like he was waving at the mad Pegasus. He still trembled though, but at least it looked like he wasn’t peeing in his pants. Not that he wore any.
“H-Hello Captain. I have a letter concerning the tests you had ordered on agent 745.” He gave a little smile.
“Oh, is he still alive?” Two face looked interested. But Borealis couldn’t make out if his concern was genuine or artificial.
“Y-Yes, you can read the full report.” He handed the report over.
“WELL, TELL THEM THAT THEY ARE TO TEST EVEN MORE ON THAT PIECE OF FILTH!” He slammed the scroll out of Borealis’ hooves.
“Y-Yes sir.”
“Well fine then, you’re dismissed Borealis.” Two Face gave Borealis a warm smile. Borealis didn’t question it and ran away as fast as possible.
Two face sighed, picked the report up and smiled slyly. He then walked towards the black doors, knocked and entered. “My lord—” A vase was thrown and scattered next to his face.
“WHAT IS IT?!” A dark cloud materialised in front of him. Two Face didn’t even flinch at the sudden appearance of his master. He kept his composure and handed over the scroll which Malicious then suspended in a levitation field. He opened the scroll and read it, suddenly all the anger and rage were replaced by a manic grin.
“Well it was about time that they fixed that formula. Let that brave agent of mine come over here, I have to reward him for his loyal sacrifice for our purpose.” He chuckled a bit.
“I will personally send the message my lord.” Two Face made a mental note to visit Borealis’ office after this.
“Good… very good…” He kept looking and smiling at the paper, “Thank you for bringing this to my attention Captain…”
Two face bowed in a humble way. “It was my pleasure my lord.”
“You’re dismissed, Two Face.”
“Thank you, my lord.” He opened the door and left the room.
Malicious looked at the paper and grinned, the grin slowly transformed into a chuckle and gradually turned into a manic laughter.
“Looks like my plans are just a little bit delayed.” His laughter eventually resonated throughout the entire hideout.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tuesday was like any other school day. The last bell had rang a few minutes ago and released the students of their daily ‘torment’.
At the school gates, Tayson was talking with his friends about today’s events. Lily had learned about the ‘want-it-need-it’ spell and why to never use it. Tayson and Silver had gotten their results of their last tests and... well...
“HOW DID I GET A “D” IN MAGIC?!” Silver mourned about his grades.
Lily patted his back. “There there, it’s not that bad. I mean, you just have to review the part about the Ponything-vector and, well, maybe review maretricess. –” She gave a forced smile. “— I could help you with that?
Silver smiled at her and nuzzled her. “Thank you. –” he looked back at the paper. “– But why do I have to learn this stuff? I’m a Pegasus for Celestia’s sake!”
“Well, a lot of earthpony engineering depends on magical aspects as does almost every Pegasus device and—of course—every piece of arcane technology,” Tayson said flatly. “Like the rainbow factory majorly depends on the working of the Ponything-vector, if they don’t get the right amount of friendship in it, then the rainbow won’t be intense enough to be seen at big distances.”
Silver took the argument and sighed. “I guess you’re right…”
“Oi, Tayson!” A familiar voice rung in his ear. He turned around and saw Maya approaching, he quickly stared at Silver to silence his chuckling and then turned his attention back at Maya.
“Hey, Maya.”
“Are you ready for your—I mean, my tour through the city?” She smiled nervously and glanced at Tayson’s friends. “Oh hey, sorry we haven't been introduced yet. I’m Maya.”
Both Lily and Silver introduced each other and tried to start a little conversation to elicit some information about the brown mare. Yet, Maya just smiled and nodded awkwardly at everything.
After a few awkward minutes Tayson finally decided to stop his friends’ subtle interrogation. “Ok guys, we have to go now. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The three said their goodbyes and waved goodbye as Tayson and Maya trotted off.
“Have fun you two!” was the last thing Tayson heard as they rounded a corner. He tried his best to not to facehoof at his friend’s snicker.
“So… where are we going?”
“Well, it is your first training session. so we’re going to meet up with Steel Needle at the gym.”
“And what are we going to do there? Stamina building?”
Maya grinned. “Yeah, you could say call it like that.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the gym the two were waiting for Steel Needle. In the meantime, Tayson had the opportunity to see some balloon animals—I mean body builders—working out.
“So, where exactly is he?” Tayson asked as he saw another body builder with obese muscles enter the gym.
“He’ll be here any second.”
“The two of you don’t take punctuality serious, am I right?”
“I said! He’ll be here any second!” Maya hissed.
“I can see that.”
“Remember, that I’m the girl who finished those brutes without even flinching!” She took an intimidating step towards Tayson, who in his turn took a step back.
“Hehehe.” He forced a smile. “That is actually a pretty good point.”
Right before Maya could physically harm Tayson, Steel Needle entered the gym.
“Maya!” Steel Needle scolded. “Didn’t I tell you that hurting the weak is cowardly!”
Tayson—who was happy that his flank was saved from the rage of the forest goddess—couldn’t help but feel a bit offended. I’m not that weak.
“Wait and punch him when he is stronger!”
Tayson ignored that last remark of his deferred doom.
“Do we finally have the room?” Maya asked.
“Yes, sorry that it took so long, there was some paperwork related to last minute reservations of the dojo –” Steel Needle sighed. “– Stupid bureaucracy! Why do they need five papers on why I want the dojo when nopony else wants to have it? Anyways let’s go.”
The three walked across the building until they stood in front of a door with a big red ‘NO ENTRY – AUTHORISED PONIES ONLY”
“Err, Steel Needle? It says only authorised ponies only.” Tayson pointed at the sign.
Steel Needle smiled slyly. “Oh, but we are authorised.” Steel Needle opened the door and motioned Tayson to enter.
Instead of four grey walls and tatami mats—what one would expect of a dojo—there only was the one wall—where the door he just entered was—and a big meadow with some trees and a lake. There were birds twitching and real sunshine instead of the artificial magical light. Instead of the smell of sweat, blood and other body fluids, there was a smell of flowers and clean fresh air—the kind you normally didn’t breath in the city. Tayson looked around, analysing what was wrong with this picture. “Steel Needle?”
“Yes?” He smiled.
“We were on the second floor, right?”
“Yup.” Maya grinned.
“Is there a particular reason why there is a whole meadow here?”
“In fact there is—I can’t give you the technical details but it was a gift from a friend. This is the fourth dimension. You could say that the room is bigger on the inside.”
Tayson stared for five seconds at Steel Needle but then just decided to shrug. “Ok.”
Maya looked confused. “Ok? That’s not the normal reaction! You should be astonished, your mouth wide agape! You should stutter or start rambling nonsense!”
“Yeah, because getting kidnapped by a criminal organization, rescued, invited by a secret organization, getting to know that I’m a godlike being and that some kind of mad god—who does stuff with clouds, while being a unicorn—wants me for Celestia knows why. Isn’t weird enough. And did I mention the puppeteer minotaur? Seriously, I would call this one of the normal things that has happened lately.”
Maya’s ears drooped a bit in dull disappointment. “Fine...”
Tayson spun around so he faced Steel Needle. “So, what are we going to do?”
Steel Needle whistled—which made a cloud float towards him. He jumped on the cloud and smiled. “Our first lesson will consist of learning how to walk on clouds.”
Three smaller clouds floated down and formed a makeshift staircase. Steel Needle nodded. “Now you try. All you have to do is making the energy exit your hooves at a constant and controlled rate, that way you create a layer of energy that will exert an upwards force on you. In other words, you’ll be walking on clouds.”
Tayson looked sceptically, but none the less tried. He jumped and his hooves touched the moist fluffiness of the clouds. He balanced for a second or two and stood on the cloud like a foal for the first time on a frozen lake. One of his hooves lashed out, which made him lose balance and fall straight through the cloud.
Maya giggled and helped Tayson back to his hooves. “Well, that didn’t work.”
“At least you’ve seen that you can stand on clouds. However, energy alone—”
“Doesn’t make a technique. I know.”
“Exactly!” – Steel Needle nodded – “However you had your purpose, so you got the same problem like most foals when they start training. You need to remember that you just have to use enough energy so you can stand on the clouds. Use too much and you hover, use too little and—well—you fall. However you also have to make sure that you make your energy flow at a regular rate. And that is exactly why this exercise is perfect to learn it. We can completely focus on how to control the flow, since the purpose is already there. If you do it wrong you fall, and to make your training more effective –”He nodded towards the nearest lake and flicked his tail, which made the clouds float towards it, “– we’re going to practice here.” He gave a big gleeful smile.
Maya chuckled at the juvenile joy of her father. “You're way too happy to be tormenting him.”
“Wouldn’t you?” He threw his hooves in the air. “I hadn’t a new student with who I could start from zero since—well—you. I’m a teacher Maya, so it is completely normal for me to take joy in teaching.”
He jumped of the cloud. “Maya, please go and fetch every last towel you can find.” Steel Needle stomped his hooves and made a metal staircase shoot out of the ground – which led towards the cloud. “And Tayson, you start training!”
Tayson was unsure at the beginning but didn’t question it. He ascended the staircase and looked down at the lake. He looked back at Steel Needle—who just nodded—and took a deep breath. He jumped and plummeted straight towards the lake.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Celestia walked through the halls of the castle. The day court had just been finished for today and she was completely worn out from still having to deal with issues from the Tirek incident. There were complaints from the mountaineering club, due to the increase of inaccessible mountain sides due to landslides. The nature reserve committee, who wanted to plant more trees to restore the forests around Ponyville.
Ponyville also wanted a bigger budget to restore the library where her student had resided until lately.
Also the nobles—who were suddenly very interested in Discord’s reformation—kept demanding that Discord should be sealed in stone again. But telling them that they had to propose their worries—concerning Discord—to princess Twilight Sparkle fell on deaf ears.
The only thing Celestia wanted to do now was to spend some of the rare moments with her sister during her dinner and Luna's breakfast. She entered the dining hall and saw Luna already sitting there, absently munching on an apple.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Celestia said with a grin so big that it threatened to tear her face apart.
Luna looked up with a deadpan face and didn’t say a word.
“Oh come on sister, you need to lighten up a bit.”
Luna let her head thump against the table and grumbled a bit.
“Excuse me, but I couldn’t quite catch that.”
Luna shot up. “I’m sorry sister, but the last few nights were more draining than I had anticipated. I still have things to catch up with since we went to the Moon Fest. And the clan fight is coming up in a few months and Time Gale has asked me to plan this year’s tournament.” She let her face fall again.
Celestia chuckled. “I’m sure you will be able to fulfil everything, dearest sister.”
“But why do we still have to organize this tournament. I mean there are no wars between the different clan houses, why do they seek battle? And why is there more fuss around it than a thousand years ago?”
“For the same reason we still organize the Equestria games, sister. Prestige.”
Luna sighed, “It can’t be helped then.”
“Your majesties!” A new voice entered the conversation. Both princesses turned their heads to see a khaki-coloured unicorn with a short pitch-black mane and a setting sun as cutie mark. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I got a message from Manehattan.” She floated the scroll towards Celestia and bowed.
“Thank you, Circadian.” Celestia gave her usual warm smile and dismissed Circadian Rhythm.
Circadian Rhythm bowed and left the room.
Celestia sighed to which Luna cocked an eyebrow. “What is it, sister? I thought you’d be more enthusiast to get a letter from your friend.”
Celestia frowned a bit. “Normally I am, Luna. But I know that when Time Gale sends a message via Circadian Rhythm, then it most likely is something unpleasant.”
She unfurled the scroll and began to read. Her eyes opened wide in shock. “Malicious Edge has become active again.”
Luna looked quizzical. “Malicious E…–” She slammed her hooves at the table. “– You mean Night Sky? Is he ok?”
“If you redefine ok, then yes.”
“Where is he?” Luna pressed
Celestia sighed, “I’m sorry Luna, we don’t know. All we know is that he has laid his eyes upon the last blood-member of the clan of light and dark. And that he recently has attacked the HQ in Manehattan.”
“He attacked? But why would he—” Luna’s ears dropped.
“I’m sorry Luna, but he isn’t the colt you once used to spend time in the laboratory with I’m afraid.” Celestia cringed at having to break the news of Luna’s best friends… once again.
“But we were just experimenting that day. I just don’t know what happened that he snapped.” Tears were forming in Luna’s eyes but she quickly dismissed them.
“Luna, we’ve talked about this,” Celestia said in a comforting tone. “What matters now is that we have to stop him.”
“But we can still help him. I mean there is a chance that whatever turned me into Nightmare Moon has affected him in some way too.”
Celestia shook her head. “I’m afraid that won’t be the case Luna.” She immediately regretted saying those words.
“WE CAN STILL SAVE HIM!” Luna bellowed through the room. Though she calmed herself as soon as she realized that she was using the Royal Canterlot Tone against her sister.
“Luna, please… I didn’t say that I don’t hope that we can save him. But I’ve seen him, he doesn’t seem to have the same symptoms as you did during your time as the Nightmare.”
“I’m sorry.”
Celestia gave a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about it. I understand that you have a lot to do. We all get overburdened from time to time. We'll do our best to save your friend, but first we have to protect the poor colt he has laid his eyes on.” Celestia teleported a feather and an inkwell out of her study along with some parchment.
“Are you going to reply already?”
“Of course. And it looks like there will be a sudden increase of guards around the site of Manehattan. That should keep Malicious Edge away for a while.” She turned her head towards Luna. “Say, sister. Could you spare some of your night guards?”
“Of course!” Luna exclaimed. “Everything to save Night Sky." She stood up and walked for the door. "Anyways, good luck with that. I’ll go and explain to the dignitaries of the clan houses that we can’t just let anypony fumble around with the seals of Tartarus.”
“Why do they want to look at the seals.” Celestia cocked an eyebrow.
Luna shrugged. “They’re afraid that—since Tirek was able to escape Tartarus—something stronger might try to escape too.”
“You’re not going to tell me that actually believe in the fairy tale of the twelve demons.” Celestia chuckled until she noticed Luna’s iron look.
“Celestia, we both are old enough to know that those stories have a core of truth.”
“But even if the legends are true, they’re imprisoned by Hades herself. There is literally no way that they could escape her.”
Luna shook her head. “Celestia, even if Tirek’s escape was an accident. I share the worry of the clan houses, we have to avoid another prison break. Or at least we have to defer it.” With that she left the room.
Celestia thought about what Luna had said for a while. Another prison break, huh.
She then looked back at the piece of paper. She drenched her quill in ink and started scribbling.
To: Time Gale…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was late in the night when Tayson came home after—what was his seventh training session, and it looked like he had made little progress. The last six trainings sessions had consisted out of running, balancing on clouds, kata’s and—strangely enough—learning how to stand on two legs.
Steel Needle had also brought him a weighted hoody. And it was heavy—like humongously heavy—first time Tayson had tried it on, he thought he’d never move again. However, after six days it felt like a second layer of skin. Yet it didn’t help with balancing on clouds. Steel Needle had said something about letting more energy flow through the hooves, but Tayson didn’t really get what he meant with that.
And that is what the next session was for. But instead of going to the gym, Maya would drag him to the library. Of course not the normal one, but the one he hadn’t seen yet. Tayson had planned on seeing it earlier. but aching limbs, joints and energy conduits—of which Tayson wasn’t aware that he even had them—withheld him from doing so. It was a miracle that he was able to pay attention in class, despite feeling like being run over by a train-pony squad.
“I’m home,” Tayson mumbled throughout the apartment—his nose picked up a wonderful mouth-watering scent. Ever since he started training, Crystal had made the habit out of it to make a nutritious meal for him after training; for which he was ever thankful. Since Steel Needle’s training redefined the concept of draining.
Crystal came out of the kitchen, wearing an apron and balancing a tray with a few bowls of rice with goulash.
“I hope you’re hungry.” – A question that was answered with the drool escaping Tayson’s mouth. – “Because I’ve cooked enough to sustain Celestia’s entire guard with food for a while.”
Tayson rubbed away the drool and smiled sheepishly. “Thank you. I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse… figuratively speaking of course.”
Crystal set the tray on the table and Tayson almost dived in the food. He took some chopsticks and began eating.
“How was the training?” Crystal asked while she took herself a little bowl of rice.
Tayson swallowed. “Good, actually. I mean, there hasn’t been a lot of progress but I can feel that I’m getting stronger.” – He looked at his hoodie. – “And you got to admit. The hoodie looks nice. It is heavy though.”
“I can believe that. I used to train with those too, you know?” Crystal smiled proudly.
“You did?”
“Why yes. Of course. Wearing weighted clothes was a common training technique back in my days. But it isn’t that used anymore.”
Tayson cocked his head, to which Crystal raised an eyebrow. “Is something the matter, my dear?”
“I never really thought of it before now. But—if you don’t mind—Maya is a forest god and Steel Needle is a metal god, But I still don’t know what kind of god you are.”
Crystal looked dumbfounded at the notion of Tayson’s question. “Oops, completely forgot about that.” She gave a sheepish grin. “Well, I am a glass god.”
“A… glass god?”
“Yes.”
Tayson cocked an eyebrow. “And… what does that mean?”
“Well, mostly summoning glass objects like lenses. But I managed to use it in a more metaphorical sense, I’m able to see through lies.”
“I KNEW IT WAS MAGIC!”
Crystal startled by the sudden outburst. “Sorry, what?”
“You could always see through my lies, and I knew that you had to use some kind of magic!” Tayson said with a juvenile glee.
Crystal looked for a few moments at Tayson and began chuckling. “No, you’re just a terrible liar.”
Tayson raised his hoof in protest but was unable to find a counterargument. Instead he just focused back on his food.
Tayson finished his meal and yawned. “Damn, I think I’m going to hit the hay now. It will be a long day tomorrow; Maya is going to show me the ‘part of the city I don’t know yet’ and after that Steel Needle is going to torture me for another six hours.” Tayson sighed until he noticed how Crystal stared at him. She looked worried but she didn’t want to show it, which made it even more obvious as she stared at Tayson. “Grandma?”
Crystal was snapped out of her stare, she shook her head and her frown was replaced with a—slightly—forced smile. “Of course. Figuratively speaking I hope.” She chuckled awkwardly and started to clear the table. Tayson cocked an eyebrow and let his gaze follow Crystal.
“Sure…” he said sceptically. “Is there any reason to think otherwise?”
There was a long silence coming out of the kitchen. “Of course not. You said you had a date with Maya tomorrow?”
Tayson startled and blushed a bit. “It’s not a date, grandma! She is just going to show me the city!”
“I’m just saying that it is completely normal to having feelings for a mare.” It didn't matter that Tayson couldn’t see her face, he knew that his grandmother had a wide teasing grin on her face. He bonked his face on the table and groaned.
“You’re evil you know that.”
"Oh don’t be so sensitive~ I just like to see that my grandson gets his first fillyfriend.”
Tayson groaned again. “I’m going to hit the hay, though. Sleep well.” With that he went for his bedroom and went to bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Why are we in front of a confectionery?” Tayson looked sceptically at Maya as the two stood in front of Bon Bon’s Confectionery.
“Because, I need new equipment for our next mission.”
There was a little awkward silence until Tayson spoke again. “Again, why are we in front of a confectionery?”
Maya facehooved. “Just come inside, I’ll show you.” The two entered the confectionery.
Even though the two were in the city, the confectionary had a mountain styled theme and a strong aroma of candy and wood went through the room. At the end of the room was the counter, with a glass showcase—framed in wood—to show the latest artesan created candies. Maya looked around to see if the shop was empty and walked for the counter and rang the counter-bell. After five seconds a pink unicorn with a cupcake as cutie mark popped up behind the counter. “Hello and welcome by Bon Bon’s confectionary and—” She looked at Tayson and inhaled a few liters of air while hovering a meter above the ground. “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! You’re the new one.” Her face wore a giant smile.
Tayson took a step back. “Um… hi?” He awkwardly waved his hoof.
“HimynameisBubblePiebuteveryponycallesmeBubblesandIwanttowelcomeyoudoyoulikecupcakesmyauntiellooooovesthemyouprobablywanttoknowwhythisshopissoimportanttoKAMI—”
“Bubbles?!” Maya interrupted the rambling of the pink unicorn.
“Whoops, sorry.” She smiled sheepish. “I got that from my auntie. Anyways, here’s a free sample.” She put a candie—wrapped in a yellow paper—on the counter.
“A bonbon? Um, thanks? I guess.”
“It isn’t a bonbon. It’s a BOEMBOEM!” She said with a bit of a manic grin. “You chew on it for about three seconds and infuse some energy in it. Then you spit it out or throw it, and after five seconds contact with the air it goes BOEM!”
“So, this is made out of explosives?”
“And sugar!” She grinned.
Hoof steps were heard from behind the door and through it a light-yellow mare with a candy coloured mane entered the room “Bubble, dear, who’s there?” She then noticed Maya and Tayson standing there. “Oh hi, Maya, how is Steel Needle?”
“Hi, Bon Bon. He’s fine, we’re here to pick up our order.”
“Of course. Bubble, dear, would you mind getting Maya’s order.” Bubble saluted, zipped of and came back with two boxes on her back.
“Here they are, two boxes containing combat candy, weapon-keychains, and health licorice.” She put the boxes on the counter.
“The usual price I assume –” Bon Bon just nodded so Maya took a pouch and threw it on the counter, took the two boxes, balanced it on her back and she and Tayson left the shop. “– See ya.”
“Bye-bye, new one!” Bubbles yelled after them as she waved at them.
Tayson gulped, "is she always like that?"
“Yes, but you get used to it. She is actually very nice if you know her better.”
“So, where are we going next?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“OI! LOGARITHM, WHERE ARE YOU?!” Maya yelled through the Manehattan library—which resulted in an angry librarian almost threatening to throw her and Tayson out and some more glares as they walked through the bookshelves. After a few minutes they found a grey unicorn—with a short blue mane and a Möbius strip as cutie mark—reading between the bookshelves, sitting on a pile of books, suspending two books in a levitation field. “Logarithm?!”
The unicorn didn’t look up which caused Maya to grit her teeth. “LOGA!” She yelled again but got quickly shushed by nearby readers.
“I’m not deaf, Maya. I can hear you.”
“Well, normal ponies would be so polite to answer!”
“What do you need?” He looked around and his eyes started to gleam. “Oh, you must be the new one, right?” He stood up and spurted towards Tayson and started inspecting him. “I’ve never seen somepony from the clan of light and dark.”
“Dude! Ever heard of personal space?”
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude. But you see, your energy is a special kind. Since it is divided in two parts. And since your family is dead—which makes you the last one with that special energy—I could only study it in books. And I was dying to measure the energies inside of you.”
Tayson stared with a frown at Logarithm, and then turned towards Maya. “Can I hit him in the face?”
“You can try, but he is stronger than me. So recommend not.”
Logarithm cocked his head. “Why would you want to hit me in the face?” He looked at Maya questioningly until he noticed how she looked at him. “Oh, don’t tell me that I crossed the line again.”
“A tinie-tiny bit, I’m afraid.” She said while awkwardly biting her lip.
Logarithm quickly looked at Tayson and bowed. “I’m so sorry, you see. I am a genius when it comes to advanced magical theorems and alchemy and every other art of pure logic. But when it comes to social interactions, I’m a…” His face distorted while he looked for the word.
“An idiot, moron, cretin, imbecile, bone head? A beginner?” Maya finished his sentence, the last word saying with a taunting smile on her face.
“I wouldn’t call it like that.” Logarithm flung back.
“But I would.”
Logarithm’s ears dropped and he glared annoyed at Maya until looking back at Tayson. “You could say that I have my problems when it comes to social interaction. But, please let me be clear that I didn’t mean to offend you or your family.”
Tayson just looked at him for a few seconds. “Fine, apology accepted. So, you’re going to help me with my energy flow?”
Logarithm smiled gleeful at Tayson. “Yes, of course. When it comes to explain the properties of energy and how to use it right, you'll find nopony who is better fit explain it. Please follow me.” Logarithm trotted of with a hint of genuine happiness.
“He sure seems sure of himself,” Tayson said with an annoyed undertone in his voice.
Maya just shook her head. “Don’t worry, he is as smart as he thinks he is. He can be rude sometimes, but he never means to offend anypony. He is actually very nice as soon as you know him better.”
"Are all members of KAMI weird?"
"I'm not weird!"
"Yes you are." Tayson said flatly.
"OI! WATCH IT!" Maya leaned in to smack him in the face, only to be interrupted as the shadow of the librarian casted over her.
The librarian shushed the two as nopony had ever shushed anypony before.
"Quiet! Or leave!" She huffed and went back to her desk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“And if those two react with each other, they’ll cancel each other out and produce humongous amounts of energy.” Logarithm cited while pointing at the blackboard that stood in the middle of the KAMI public library. In the meantime, a few other gods had gathered around and sat in front of Logarithm’s lecture. But not in front, they sat two rows back. Since in the front there sat a confused Tayson, looking with a dumbfounded face at the chalk drawings of circles that should represent energy packets called quanta.
Logarithm had explained to them that he was explaining to the last member of the clan of light and dark, how to use his powers. However, this only boosted the popularity of his lecture, as everypony wanted to know how one of the most powerful clans in history got their tremendous power.
Tayson massaged his temples. “So you’re telling me… that if light energy and dark energy react with each other… they create more energy?”
“NO!” Logarithm groaned. “Come on, I just explained that every god has alchemic attributes assigned to their energy. Take Maya as an example, she is a forest god, so her energy has attributes like life, earth, and plants. Which is also useful since she’s an earthpony, so she is also able to transform her earthpony magic into combat ready energy when needed.”
“Ok? So, why don’t they cancel each other out?”
“Because they’re not opposites of each other! –” He pointed at a confusing diagram. “– I just told you that only complete opposites of each other cancel each other out.”
“But, doesn’t that mean that I shouldn’t have any energy at all? I mean, they’re in me. How can they not react with each other?”
“Ok, maybe I didn’t explain that part right. First off, you're confusing them with waves. They’re not waves, so forget everything you’ve ever learned about waves, ever! Next, ever heard of antimatter? –” Tayson just nodded “– Like antimatter, if the two react with each other, they annihilate each other and everything that is left is energy. But the difference is that opposite attributes don't destroy each other, they just cancel each other’s effects. And the attributes itself become energy. And we’re talking about massive quantities of energy.”
“But why don’t I then just burst into flames. I mean, if I got that much energy then I should burst from energy, why isn’t that so?”
Logarithm sighed, “Well one of the problems is... that we don’t really know. Light and dark act very strange. They never appear alone, that’s why you’ll never find a light god or a dark god. But what we do know is that you’re clan has a safety mechanism built in. A dam—if you like—that keeps the two separated, only to react in small quantities.”
“O…K… I think I begin to understand what you’re saying. In fact I only get as much energy as I can handle.”
“No! That’s no true either, it’s not a physical barrier. In fact, right now, light and dark are fighting inside your body to get the upper hand. Releasing massive amounts of energy.”
“Look, you keep explaining things but revoke them as soon as I start to understand them.”
“OK! Forget the dam, there is no dam, there never was! Dams are stupid!” Logarithm yelled, “What’s happening inside is that your clan uses the energy it gets from the reaction to control the reaction itself. Luckily you get more energy from it than you use to control the process.”
“Good, now I see where you’re coming from. But I still have a question.”
“Yes?” Logarithm asked skeptically.
“What happens when—theoretically—that limitation falls away. Like in, I suddenly get all the energy.” As he asked the question, the whole library fell silent. Even more quiet than it should be. Tayson looked around and saw that everypony was looking at him. “Did I say something wrong?”
Logarithm quickly broke the silence and attracted all the attention while doing so. “That—my friend—is an excellent question.”
“Why, I mean, it’s just theoretically. It’s not like it could actually happen, right?” He looked at Maya who cringed a bit. “What?”
“Well, you know how I told you that the main hall has to be renovated after the fight with Malicious Edge?”
“Yes,” Tayson said, not sure what would come next.
“Well, most of the damage was done by you…” She cringed a bit.
“Come again? I can’t even walk on clouds properly. How—in Celestia’s name—would I be able to destroy an entire room. Besides, wouldn’t I remember that?”
“And that’s what our next topic will be about.” Logarithm smiled in a determined fashion. “Rage shifts.”