//------------------------------// // Ch. 29 - The Past is Present // Story: Equestria World, Book 1: Surviving Canterlot High // by Gear Works //------------------------------// I was able to get some extra rest after last night dance. When I finally woke up, I noticed that it was ten o’clock. I guess I was really tired. But waking up at this time really felt like a huge weight was lifted from me. Of course it’s because I was able to help Sunset open up and Twilight to accept Sunset’s forgiveness. I was able to bring everyone together in understanding my gift, and we were able to hand Crystal Prep its first loss. Having Sunset as my girlfriend and becoming the homecoming king was a bonus. Now I knew we would all be tested the next two weeks in hopes that we will face Crystal Prep, and we need to find a way to deliver a fatal blow to the school’s ego. Easier said than done. I heard a knock at my bedroom door to see Chrysalis standing there. “About time you got up,” she said. “You were out late with Sunset last night. Did fireworks go off between the two of you last night?” I threw my pillow at her, hitting her face. “Very funny. Like that’s going to happen anytime soon.” She grabbed my pillow from the floor and threw it back at me, allowing me to catch it. “I know, I know. One day at a time. At least you had a great time. Feeling better after all that?” “Better enough that I should enjoy today, because tomorrow’s a new mission.” “You plan to call Indigo today while you have it? I know you’ve been wanting to catch up with her.” Just then, my cell rang. I looked at it and said, “Might have to wait. Sunset’s calling.” I answered my cell and said, “Morning Sunset. Got a good night’s rest?” “After spending time with you last night, I did.” “So, checking up on me?” “Yea, and was hoping you have enough energy to hang out at the park today.” “What, another date?” “Kind of. I just know we’ll be busy the next couple of weeks, and it would be long before it gets cold outside. I was hoping that we could hang out there and maybe grab a bit to eat while we’re there. I know some food trucks that show up there every day.” “Even on a Sunday?” “Some of the people there live by themselves, having to earn a buck or two when they can. Beside, we may not get another chance to enjoy this moment in weather like this.” “I guess it wouldn’t hurt. It would help to relax and remember who I really am before I start losing my mind with Crystal Prep.” “Then be here in an hour.” “Make it an hour and a half. I just got up.” “Sure. See you then.” I hanged up and looked at Chrysalis. “Looks like Indigo will have to wait. I’ll try to call her tonight. Make things easier for the two of us.” “Well, good luck on your second date,” she said and left my room. I finally got to Sunset’s apartment to pick her up. By the time she got into the truck and give me a kiss on the cheek, my cell went off again. I rolled my eyes and said, “It’s Applejack. Better see what she wants.” I answered my cell and placed it on speaker, saying, “What is it, AJ?” “I’m sorry. Did you get a hangover last night that left you grumpy?” “Nice one, AJ,” Sunset said. “Oh, Sunset. I didn’t know you were with him.” “It’s OK. Any reason you decided to call him?” “I was hoping he could give me a ride to the workout room at school. Mac’s gone out with Cheerilee today, and I don’t have a ride to get there. Need to stay in shape again. But if you’re with Sunset, then don’t bother. I can wait another day.” I asked, “Did you call anyone else?” “Can’t get in touch with Twilight, Cadence, Dash, and Fluttershy. About everyone else is tired from last night.” I said, “Dash could be with Soarin at the workout room, but I’m sure not everyone will work out after last night.” “I was thinking the same thing, but I’m not sure.” “Hey AJ, if we come to pick you up, think you can train me on the basics. Would be nice to be able to defend myself,” Sunset recommended. “Heh. After seeing the way you fought Friday night, it wouldn’t hurt.” “Then we’ll be there shortly,” I said and hang up. Sunset said, “This will be great. I’m sure she hasn’t seen your new truck.” “I like what you’re thinking.” We drove to Sweet Apple Acres and pick up Applejack. When I honked my horn, she got out and stopped in shock at what she was seeing in front of her. Sunset got out and said, “Are you coming or what.” Applejack made her way and got into the back seat of my truck. “Now this is a surprise.” “That was my reaction last night when he picked me up,” Sunset said. I said, “Got it from my dad’s boss.” “Well, that’s mighty generous of him to do that.” Applejack said. “That’s just half of it,” I said. “I never had a chance to tell you, but Chrysalis is getting her own mini house next door.” “No way. Was Trixie with her at the time?” Applejack asked. I nodded. “She must have gone crazy at the sight. She always tells us that she wanted to live in one of those mini homes that she’s seen on TV.” “Well, Mr. Fix-It wants to add some mini houses on the subdivision. Get a mix in the area. We can talk about it later with the others.” And we drove from the farm and made our way to the school, stopping by a mini-mart to pick up some peanut butter crackers and juice for brunch. Sunset explained what we had planned before, but we agreed to take this route and use the time to prepare for next week’s challenge. And it was a wise choice, because when we arrived at the school, we saw Twilight and Coach Iron Will outside the workout room, looking over something in Twilight’s hands. “Hey Twilight. What’s going on here,” Applejack said. Twilight placed her finger on her lips and quietly said, “Quiet. They’re mediating in there.” “Mediating?” I asked Twilight. “Tree Hugger and Fluttershy are helping Shining Armor deal with his injury with mediation,” Iron Will said. “Cadence is with them in helping out. Flash and Thunderlane are also in there, but on the exercise bikes, which is the only quiet equipment to use.” “Dash and Soarin are also there, but decided to rest while it’s going on,” Twilight added. “Iron Will isn’t one for this mediation stuff. Iron Will prefers to motivate, not mediate.” “Is Coach Spitfire coming here?” I asked. “We hope so. Might change the pace in there,” Twilight said. “Seems like our plans keep changing every time,” Sunset said. “Might as well have our brunch while we wait.” We walked toward the gym, since it was near the weight room, and decided to sit on the bleachers. The gym was a bit cleaner since last night, so the crew was able to do their part very fast. Sunset explained to Twilight why our plans kept changing today, and she believes I’m starting to rub off on her. Twilight said, “Hey Jack. When you said that Crystal Prep’s QB was gifted, there’s a great chance that you could be right. We looked at the video from the game and noticed that he didn’t even look all around him when he ran for the touchdown. All he did was look straight ahead and just went, avoiding our players in the process.” “That’s just leaves the question of how to stop him in the process,” I said. “Let’s just hope that Blade’s diary could give us some answers, if there is any,” Twilight said. I was thinking for a while, and Sunset caught on to me. “Still think that there’s more to it than this?” This raises everyone curiosity. “Yea,” I responded. “I mean, what about the Soul Arts? You’ve seen the first art here, and the third one when we broke into Crystal Prep. I know the second one would be similar to the first. All three of those, if I were holding a blade, would be used for deadly combat. Add the fact that it can be used as a political tool, and you have yourself a future dictator, tyrant, or even…” “A God,” Iron Will finished. “I knew that my father’s stories would come to life once again. Forgive me if I talk like this, but when it comes to the serious, personal issues, I don’t like to act like I’m motivating others.” “I think we can understand that,” Twilight said. “Trixie can change like that when it comes to serious issues.” “So what did you father told you that would raise concern?” I asked. “I’m sure you have yet to come across the last Great War in your history class, but my father once served in the military when he was young. This was also the same with Tirek’s father. But they never met at the time. My father once told me stories years after he retired. It was a way to keep us talking on the weekends when I visited him. He told the best war stories that kept me motivated in what I do here. But it was one story that caught my attention. “His troop was paired with a special ops group on a special assignment to take out an axis military training center. The special ops group wanted to help with breaking in and sabotage. Then, with the help of my father’s troop, they were to take out any axis soldiers that were in the way, clearing the area out and leading the ops to setup and destroy the place. But my father came up to what was the captain’s meeting room and took out all forces. That’s when he saw something that was out of place. Most of the soldiers were ahead of him, but he was able to get the special ops captain’s attention to show what he found. Turns out they were experimenting on kids and teenagers to make them into super soldiers and generals. That’s what their real mission was. “He heard on the radio that they found kids in area rooms below. He agreed that this place needed to be destroyed, but he wanted to make sure that the kids were safe from axis control, and that they needed to be sure there are no other stations that do these cruel acts to kids. The captain knew that the axis army was doing experiments on others, but on kids was an act of desperation for them. The captain requested that all the captured kids would be escorted out of the station by my father’s troop, while they grab the locations of other stations that needed to be destroyed, and any records of the kids that they had. After the area was cleared, the station was destroyed. “My father was told that all this needed to be kept under wraps for the safety of his special ops group. In return, he would allow my father’s troop to assist them if heavy firepower was needed. This lead to the creation of two special groups: the Equestrian Knights and the Equestrian Riders. My father’s troop became the Riders, with him as their new captain. The special ops group became the Knights, lead by their same captain, who was Tirek’s father. That’s how they got to know each other, and how I got to know Tirek.” Twilight asked, “Wouldn’t some of this be in the history books, because I’ve read stories of past wars, and I don’t even heard of anything about these groups.” “That’s because it was never in the news reports.” We saw Coach Spitfire walked in. “Sorry if I’m late getting here. I guess you were busy telling your father’s war stories?” He cleared his throat and said, “Iron Will felt the need to tell them this.” “That’s good, because I recall Tirek telling me that story while I was teaching at EU,” Spitfire said. “So you father was part of a black ops group, right?” I asked Iron Will. “That’s right. A black ops group is a group of soldiers who are kept off the records. No one knows that they exist back then.” “So, you think this could be a repeat of what happen many years ago?” Applejack asked. “I hope not, unless they came across their research and decided to do so to the students of Crystal Prep,” Spitfire answered. “And that could explain Star Swirl’s disappearance, right?” I said. “Maybe, but that would mean that there’s someone connected to the old axis group on our nation’s soil doing all this,” Spitfire said. This made me wonder about what Coco and me discussed Friday during school about that one woman we came across. But I knew connecting the dots would be hard to prove. “I think we should take notice that someone must be experimenting on them and have yet to find the way to create the perfect student, since we know that they start to lose their gift when they arrive at college. And if there’s a connection to past events, then we’ll worry about that issue later. For now, we take this one step at a time. I’ve already had to jump several steps to get where we are now. I don’t want to jump several more at the same time.” “We’ll deal with the game planning,” Twilight said, “while you focus on finding our insider in the school who helped with the break in.” “Best you get with Pinkie on that,” Applejack said. “She might be able to point out any possible red flags in the school for you to focus on. Trust me, it’s worth it.” “And I’ll help Luna on the materials that she got from Master Blades,” Spitfire said. “This should make it easier on you, now that we have a big group to help you out.” She looked at Applejack and said, “Ready to get some training done?” “I was hoping to start training Sunset. Since I dragged them over here, she wanted to get some training done to improve her fighting skills, both offense and defense.” “The group’s been in there for over an hour. Iron Will wants to see that come to an end and start getting motivated.” All of us made our way into the workout room, where whale sounds were coming from the CD player. Rainbow Dash was reading a Daring Do book while Soarin was taking a nap. Flash and Thunderlane were on the exercise bikes on the other side. The remaining four were sitting in a circle near the CD player, focusing and stretching. Spitfire made her way to the CD player and pressed the stop button. Then she started to tap her fingers in the counter, getting the attention of Tree Hugger. “Wow. It’s like you calmly turned off our focus and help us regain concuss.” “Good,” Spitfire responded. “Because we need to get to training. Can’t rely on a perfect mind to stop a physical threat.” “That is true,” Tree Hugger responded. “How’s the shoulder?” Twilight asked Shining Armor. “A bit better.” “Well, let’s take it easy,” Iron Will said. “You can workout on the exercise bike for now.” So the workout room went back to being what it was meant to be. Twilight, Cadence, and Fluttershy with to jog on the treadmills, Flash and Thunderlane got to the weight equipment with Iron Will to spot them, and Applejack started training Sunset with Spitfire to watch over. I went to one machine to start working on my throwing arm, and Tree Hugger decided to join me. I can see that she wanted to ask me some questions. “So, these strange powers that you have, what does it feel like when you’re on the field?” I stopped for a moment and said, “It’s like a…sixth sense, without seeing dead people.” “And when you sense someone’s emotions, can it be any emotion?” “Only the negative ones. You know, like bad vibes. It doesn’t work when someone’s happy or excited, unless you plan to sneak up on someone.” And that got me to thinking. “Twilight, did you get a chance to look over Star Swirl’s book?” “Principal Celestia let me borrow it for the weekend, and Moon Dancer was able to come by yesterday to explain what she learned from it so that I was more up to date. She’s with Miss Luna today, helping her in taking notes on the new items she’s received. And I must say, I can see why you had to be put under those tests. Letting your powers awaken when they need to the most might be the best way to learn what you have. There were a few that I want to talk to Principal Celestia about that I think would be better if you learned instead of waiting for it to happen.” “Hey Tree Hugger, how would you like to see it in action,” Spitfire asked. “Why do I have a feeling that you want a rematch after last time?” I said. “Better.” Spitfire went to the counter and brought out a blindfold. “I want to see how you react while blinded. A real test as to how your powers have improved.” “Alright. I’ll give it a shot,” I said and went to get out my fingerless gloves out of my bag and walked onto the practice mat. Spitfire went and placed the blindfold over my eyes, leaving me in the dark. I just started to stretch and relax, waiting for someone to act. That’s when I felt my first incoming attack and just bended down to avoid it. “Reverse high kick swing. Nice start AJ.” “Now how did you know it was I?” Applejack asked. “Well.” Another attack came from my other side. I dodge and grabbed the attacker’s wrist. “Yours is more aggressive while Spitfire’s is more focused.” “So it can detect any attack that’s coming its way, even if it’s not negative?” Tree Hugger asked Spitfire. “Any attack can be sensed as a hostile attack. Doesn’t have to be negative. And from how he described the types of attack, it would give him an idea of the type of attacker he’s facing.” “And since Coach Spitfire has more training in this style, I have to be careful as to how to react,” I said. “AJ fights in a freestyle fighting form. And it’s more aggressive than others, because she still wants to get back at me after I took her down.” “Applejack, I need you to control yourself this time,” Spitfire requested. “I want to see if we can throw him off as to who his attacker is.” In a few seconds, Applejack’s anger started to die down, masking me of her location. “OK, I’ve lost where AJ is, so it must be working. Ready when you are.” And that’s when the testing began. I was able to sense every punch and kick, if it was high or low. I’ve dodge and blocked, and when I was able to grab their arm, it was the only way I can find out who it was. Applejack was firmer than Spitfire, but they were able to switch sides at times. As the fighting went on, it got more intense. While I was able to sense each attack, keeping up with two attackers became more of a challenge. And that’s when it happened again. That feeling inside of me that snapped, sending me a command to call on. “SOUL ART #5: SOUL SHADOW…TIMES 2” I felt my body split into two, yet I still felt like I was one person. I was able to take on both attackers and started to counter their attacks. It was enough to throw down Applejack first, and then take down Spitfire. When the attacks stop, I became one person again. I took off my blindfold and looked at both of them. Applejack tried to shake her head from the blow and asked, “What the hay just happened?” Spitfire asked, “Jack, was there anything similar to what just happened now?” “If you mean like what happen Thursday morning, then yea, there was,” I said to Spitfire while helping Applejack up on her feet. “This is twice that he executed a soul art that was new to us,” Twilight said. Spitfire asked Twilight, “Did you catch what soul art it was?” “The fifth soul art, soul shadow times two.” Spitfire got up and said, “Dash, hand me my cell. I need to tell Luna what just happen and confirm that soul art.” Dash grabbed Spitfire’s cell from her bag and handed it to her. Spitfire dialed Luna’s number for her to answer. “Luna, it’s Spitfire…Something new just happened…first, can you find soul art number five from what you have…I know, just find it.” She waited a moment before she spoke again. “You have it…OK, let me put you on speaker phone.” “OK, it says, Soul Art #5 Soul Shadow. Focus on splitting your body and soul into multiple forms. Multiple?” “This is Twilight. Jack was able to split into two. He mentions in his command ‘times two’. Could that have anything to do with it?” “A multiplier art, I presume. At his state, he might only execute up to times two. But it’s possible that he can go up to times five. But how is he able to know this without reading it?” There was some talk in the background. “Hold on. Moon Dancer has an idea. Let me put mine on speaker.” Moon Dancer spoke. “Twilight, is Tree Hugger still there?” “I am,” Tree Hugger replied. “You have better experience than me on this matter, but is it possible that a soul could be…reborn?” Tree Hugger thought for a moment. “I know that people’s spirits can be reborn when they die, but if a soul is similar to a spirit, then it’s possible.” “Isn’t that odd that we could be reborn whenever we die?” Applejack asked. “Well, there’s no scientific knowledge on this matter, but there have been strange theories on the matter in connection to history,” Twilight said. Spitfire asked, “You think his soul could have been a re-incarnation of a past person who carried this gift?” “I’m just taking an educated guess on this,” said Moon Dancer. “Perhaps Dr. Whooves would have an idea on this matter,” said Luna. “I’ll call him up and explain the details to him. If anyone knows about past history on this matter, it’s him.” “Tree Hugger, I want to throw some ideas towards you tomorrow before class,” said Moon Dancer. “Maybe we can get to the bottom of this if we work together.” “I’ll be happy to lend my knowledge if it answers all of our questions,” Tree Hugger said. “Looks like we have more tasks to work on,” Spitfire said. “Luna, I’ll talk to you later.” “Thanks for telling me this. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” Twilight said, “Jack, don’t worry about all this. We’ll take care in finding these answers for you. You just focus on school and Friday night’s game.” “Thanks. It’s nice for things to be easier on me.” I knew this because I need to start talking to Indigo and get her side of this, since I’m the only one who can talk to her.