Gong Yi Tem Ponies

by TrombonePlayingPony

But I'll try anyway

I woke up the next day without feeling any need to get up. Not like I have anything useful to do. It wasn’t long though before a knock came on the bedroom door.

“Go away Rarity.” The knock came again. I tried blocking it out with pillows but the third knock still managed to reach my ears. With a growl I jumped up and headed over to the door before ripping the door open. “What?!”

Turns out it wasn’t Rarity, but Gongniu. He gave me the same neutral gaze he always did only this time I wasn’t in the mood for this basura. “What do you want? Didn’t Rarity tell you I was done?”

“She did. That does not mean I must stop teaching, and from what I’ve seen you could use guidance.” I ran a hand across my face. Will this guy just get the message?

“Don’t you get it old man? I lost. I suck. Get someone else to collect the Shen Gong Wu cause I clearly ain’t the right guy for the job.”

“There is only one lesson in victory, yet a thousand lessons in defeat, young apprentice.” He turned and headed down the hall. “Follow me. I have something I must show you.” Now I was done with this. All I wanted was to spend the rest of the day under the covers. There was… something though. Something pushing me to follow him. I turned to the scroll, still where I had thrown the thing last night. Not a dent was made in the metal cover.

I must be loco to be doing this. I grabbed the scroll, throwing it over my shoulder as I rushed after the old man.

* * *

We arrived at the same field we were at the previous day, though this time there was a notable addition of a large pile of lumber, tools, and other things. I paid them little mind as the old man stopped and turned around. “So what? You don’t want me to quit because you already bought all the stuff?”

“Monetary value was never my goal. I was told there was one in need of guidance.”

“Well ya, in fighting. I needed to be able to beat Flim and Flam in showdowns.”

He waved a hand in front of him. “You are lost in more ways than one, young apprentice.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever old ma- woah!” Suddenly Gongniu had moved behind me, sweeping my legs out as he did so. I hit the dirt face first, continuing my falling trend. How do ponies eat this stuff? I thought as I spat out grass. “What was that for?”

“Respect. It is a simple concept, one you had yesterday but now lack. If I am to teach you, we must build a strong foundation, just as one does when constructing a building.”

I seriously considered just flying out of here, but yet again that small, crazed voice in the back of my head managed to convince me. “Fine. How should I show you proper respect than?”

“You will address me as Master Gongniu or master. You will bow when you greet me and when you leave. More importantly, you must put your trust in the fact that whatever task I give you, I do so to help you grow, not to take advantage of you. Is that clear?”

I rolled my eyes but went along with it. “Sure thing ol- I mean, yes Master Gongniu.” Oddly enough he seemed pleased at this despite the lack of facial change.

“Excellent. Now, before we begin working on the temple, there is something you must figure out about yourself.”

“And that would be…”

“In the ancient art of Xiaolin monks that I will be teaching you, everything centers around an idea of chi. Everyone’s chi is different, some in more subtle ways than others. All monks learn to use this chi, to channel it through their bodies. Before I can teach you how to channel your specific chi though, we must figure out what element your chi represents.”

“I thought everyone’s chi is different?”

“That is true, and as such, results in variations between different users of the same element. Whatever element you are might follow a similar path to another monk, or you might follow another path entirely. Nothing is set in stone.” He walked over to the large stone from before and sat down crosslegged on top of it. “Take a seat before me and we will begin.”

I was skeptical about this whole ‘chi’ nonsense but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a go. Course, that’s what I thought about going into the forest with the others and what a pain that ended up being. I sat down in the grass in front of him and waited. For a long time nothing moved but the wind and the grass as the two of us just sat there. After awhile I couldn’t help it and began closing my eyes from tiredness. Enough of this mierda. Just before I felt like I was going to fall asleep, a bright light flashed within my closed eyelids, causing me to jolt and fall over.

“Que demonios was that?” I grumbled as I got back up.

“That was your chi, but only a glimpse of it. It showed itself because of the peace you felt just before you nearly fell asleep and because I was here coaxing it out. The fact you saw so little of it shows just how far we have to go.” He got up and walked over to the pile of building materials. “Tell me, what was it you saw?”

“Well… it was just a flash of light. Nothing fancy really.”

He nodded. “Very well. I would like you to think about what this ‘flash’ was as we begin work on the temple. Now, let us begin with the outer walls. You will need to take these stone bricks and place them where they must go over there.” He looked toward a section of the field that had been marked off, a dirt square drawn in the field. “I will watch your progress from here.”

Alright, now I’m sure I’m crazy if I’m going to go along with this. Strangely enough, the light I had seen gave me a strange hope that this wasn’t all for naught. I got to work laying stone, the entire time thinking about that flash.

It was so short, but I think I saw something. More than just a white light. Like there was something drawn into it. Bricks upon mortar upon bricks were moved from one place to the other, myself barely noticing the strain the large stones were putting on my less than athletic body. What was that? Is it the secret to my element or was it just a smudge on the lens? And why is this bugging me so much?!

“That will be enough young apprentice. It is getting late.” I glanced up from the stone I had just laid down to see that it was just as Master Gongniu had said. The sun was setting, just a sliver above the horizon. A look back at the wall I had been building showed I had built practically half of it. Did I do that?

“Come.” Master Gongniu waved me over. “I will show you where you can rest your head for the night.” I was about to question what he meant but the load of work I had just done hit me like… well, like a pile of bricks. I’m going to be feeling this in the morning. I followed Master Gongniu to the nearby trees. There he had a small camp set up, though lacking in tents, a fireplace, or really any of the usual amenities. It was just a mat with a blanket and pillow to go with it.

“This is where you will sleep until you have completed one of the temple rooms. Sleep well.” And then off he went to wherever I assume he was sleeping. How uncomfortable the mat was didn’t even bother me as I crawled in.

I didn’t see the light this time, but that only seemed to increase my want to figure out what it was.

* * *

The next morning I was woken up by Master Gongniu just as the sun was rising. We spent the entire morning doing the same meditative exercise we had done the previous day. After lunch I went back to work on the temple, finishing the wall and even managing to get the gate on it before going back to sleep.

The next few weeks went just about the same way. Training of some kind in the morning, construction work in the evening. After the first week some ponies took notice of what was being built and started coming by to look. A few were ponies I knew and would often want to speak with me but I was focused and told them I couldn’t speak at the moment.

Second week was when the measure of my focus was tested. Not only was that the week I had to build the gardens, meaning a lot of stone pathways being laid out as well as digging to create small ponds, but it was also the week Twilight and her friends kept coming by, worried that I was pushing myself too far. It just also happened that there was a really nasty storm that week. Some error in the weather factory according to Rainbow Dash.

I persevered though. Through all of it. Every night I was tired, and every morning my body ached from the previous day’s work. My training began to become more physical as Master Gongniu began teaching me in earnest, though we still began the day with meditation. Construction became more complex as I moved onto the actual building itself. By the time a month had past we had a single porch and half the room connected to it built as well as the grounds and wall surrounding it.

It was that morning a month later that I was in the middle of meditation with Master Gongniu that the scroll began to glow once more. I’ll be honest, the glow scared me at the time. It felt like lead up to another failure, another bad end. I was about to go accept my likely horrible defeat before Master Gongniu spoke up, his eyes not opening.

“You are not ready yet, young apprentice. One more stone in your enemy’s fortress will not give them the advantage. Not when your own fortress is built with steel.” I nodded despite his eyes not being open before returning to my meditation. Master Gongniu was right. One more Shen Gong Wu would not cause the world to fall.

Another month passed and I started to feel different. In a good way. My body grew used to the constant strain I had been putting on it as the morning’s meditation helped to calm my unruly emotions. My combat training with Master Gongniu left me feeling lighter on my feet as I began to use my senses in ways I hadn’t before. What surprised me though was when at the end of the month Master Gongniu stopped our morning training session early.

“That will do. You have built the strong foundation in yourself just as you have done for the temple.” He motioned to the building, about a third of the way done now. “You have been diligent and focused in your endeavours, but even a warrior should have time to talk with friends. Go speak with them, let them know how you are doing. It will be good for them and yourself.”

I nodded and bowed. “Thank you master.”

Comments

[Serefin]

Hooray, Allen's learning ancient Chinese magic powers! Soon he'll be flooding people's homes/causing earthquakes/burning foes alive/blowing down houses with the best of 'em!

[Archmage Ansrit]

One more Wu won't cause the end of the world.

Unless it's the Heart.

[Mr Good Guy]

5553406
Or the Emperor scorpion, or the sands of time, why did they even make those anyway?

[Mr Good Guy]

Also, what's the deal with this, some of this stuff is falling in a little to nicely here to be considered coincidence, among other things....

This is kinda good, but could be better...

[Lord_01010000]

Wouldn't it have been funny if that Wu Gongniu made Allen miss was like the Golden Tiger Claws, the Moby Morpher, Sands of Time, Emperor Scorpion, or even the Heart of Jong. OOH! Or even the two, that when used together, lets you see the future! I know one was the Falcon's Eye, but I can't remember the other one.