"Iolai!" or "Heroic moments Are Cheap."

by Daxn

Fourth Chapter

The next day came.

Appiano, after some careful pondering, had decided to sctually bring the amulet to school and show it to Sunset Shimmer, in case she wanted to see its powers with her own eyes.

"Dè, thanks Pinkie for the tapes," Appiano said, as he took the CD given out by Pinkie Pie "I take that your attempts at everslrdrop the guys at the Crystal Academy went very well."

Pinkie nodded, as she stood by the lab's door.

"Yeah! Got lotsa of things, while I was disguised as a tree, and when I pretended to be a member of the Pink Brigade with Rainbow Dash."

Appiano grinned and nodded, as he hid the CD inside an internal pocket of his white shirt.

"Only problem, they started speaking in some weird language all of the sudden and..."

"That's worrisome," Appiano interrupted, as he walked to the lab's door, pushing it inwards "but I can deal with that, in a way or another."

When Appiano actually enetered in the laboratory, he found kt in an odd srate of disarray and disorganization. Many glowing butterflies flew aimlessly about the room. In a corner next to the room's window, there was a pile of sparkling apples. All over the floor, confetti amd streamers, and several scorch marks all over the place, from the cocrete floor to the white walls. In the middle of one of the aforementioned scrorch marks, there was Sunset Shimmer, who was wearing a singed lab coat and, much to Appiano's appreciacion, half-destroyed trousers limply resting underneath her, thusly leaving Sunset's lower body mostly naked, save for the orange panties (poorly) disguising a diaper.

"Dè, rough day, isn't it?" Alpiano said with a chuckle, as he reached Sunset. As soon as he did that, Sunset Shimmer fell off the scorched part of wall on her knees, leaving a hole in the sing shaped like her.

"M-maybe..." Sunset said, rubbing her face clear from sooth with her torquoise rubber gloves, a faint blush on her face "I didn't factor explosions in this, but at least the worst damage here are the scrorches all over the place."

"And your pants are gone," Appiano said with a chuckle as he extended his hand towards Sunset so to help her to get up. Sunset Shimmer blushed harder, as she grabbed Appiano's hand and lifted herself up with a sigh.

"Don't remind me," Sunset said "it was embarassing enough when Pinkie pointed it out. I just hope my lab coat will cover it.."

Appiano looked at Sunset while she dusted off the last traces of ash and sooth on her face and arms and removed her gloves. Her coat was singed enough to the point that, instead of arriving to her knees, it arrived at her thighs, which threatened to reveal Sunset's undies at the minimum flap. Appiano let out a little smile.

"Dè, I don't think this will," Appiano said, as he turned to his left towards the coat rack next to the door "but a new one should."

"Silly me! Why didn't I think of that?" She said with a small chuckle, as she removed her burnt coat, throwing it on the floor, just before taking a new coat. She inserted her arms in the long sleeves, buttoning the coat up before turning around back again.

"Dè, guess you're ready ready to start. Or do you want to clean up the place a bit first?" Appiano said, pulling the jewel from his trousers and the copy of the Mirabilia from his coat, setting them on a desk and then leaning onto it with his left had and lifting his right leg up. Sunset shook her head.

"N-no, it's better to wait for me to be done with this, before cleaning up," Sunset Shimmer said, going for the desk where Appiano had laid his objects. She bent to look more closely at them.

"So, I recall the jewel, but why that book? Is there anything related to the pendant inside?" Sunset shimmer said, as she twirled around to the other side of the desk, her coat flapping about. Appiano nodded, as he then took the amulet in his hand.

"Now, do you happen to have some dumbbells around?" Appiano said' as he smirked and followed the amulet's shape by passing his fingers on the edges and sometimes caressing the mostly smooth metal surface, as if he was petting a sleeping cat. Sunset tilted her head, before speaking up.

"No, I don't, but I have some other weights. Why do you ask?" Sunset Shimmer said, taking up paper and pen to note everything that happened down. Appiano adjusted his shirt's neck eith his right hand and lifted the amulet up to his chest with his left hand.

"Dè. This," he said "is the so-called Alicorn Amulet, better known as the Subotai's Jewel. It's said that it can improve one's strenght, sight and other abilities tenfold, and I'm here to show it does work like the legend says."

Sunset Shimmer nodded as she scribbled, before lifting her head up, away from the notes' paper block towards Appiano's amulet. She shrugged, as she then pointed at the fifteen kilograms weight resting on the main desk of the room, just next to the scale and a pile of confetti.

"Alrighty then. Try to lift that up first, then try again with the amulet on." She said. Appiano nodded and grabbed the weight's ring, lifting it uo with a grunt, before holding it by bending over towards the hand that kept the grip on the weight.

"Okay, got it," Sunset wrote down as she said this, and Appiano immediately put the weight back on the table "I take that this jewle should improve your strenght."

Appaino nodded, as he proceeded to spit on his index and medium.
"As I've said, it does imorove strenght," he said, as he passed the spit on the ruby, making it sparkle "but not only that. I'll show you later."

Appiano then made the sign on the cross on his left arm. Once again, Appiano felt his arm beating and electricity passing throught his arm as it grew in size, but, since he was expecting that, he only flinched due to the sensations. Appaino then moved his left arm towards the weight, lifting it effortlessly and holding it up towards Sunset Shimmer.

She was looking at him with widened eyes and mouth agape.

"Dè, impressed already?" Appiano asked with a chuckle, while he played around with the weight as if it was a pen "I can show you more."

"Yes! Do it!" Sunset said hurriedly, scribbling rapidly as she did so "I want to see more of this!"

"As you wish," Appiano said, as he went to Sunset's desk, took the Mirabilia up and browsed around within section he had marked with two stripes of red cloth. "Do you want to see how I can improve my balance? Or perhaps my sight? How to briefly fix up broken bones and stirred muscles? How to get an anaconda in your pants?"

Sunset chuckled and then sighed, as she kept writing and as he muttered the instructions for increase one's sigh and coordination.

"Appiano, if you didn't exist, we'd need to invent you."

---

Sunset Shimmer adjusted her hair a bit, as she laid on her bed wearing only her black underwear, browsing about some sites, waiting for a message to come.

"I hope that Rarity, Pinks and Appiano will actually be online tonight all together, even if it's a bit late," Sunset Shimmer muttered, looking at the upper part of her phone's display, and seeing that a new day had techically started four minutes ago. She nodded at her own statment, as she then went back to read an article about the future of the rise of Manchuria and the decline of Tlaxcalia. Sunset read it without paying much attention to it, stopping only to make some snide remarks at certain sections that descended in conspiratory delirium.

"They may be near to half a bilion people in such a small space," Sunset Shimmer muttered to herself with a snicker " but say that they'll outbreed anyone else? That's only a tiny little bit less ridicolous than those guys claiming that taxes are a conspiracy by itself..."

All of the sudden her smartphone emitted a shrill trilling sound. Sunset, understanding, quickly closed the tab and entered in the chat program, where the class' chat was highlighted in red. Sunset Shimmer tapped on it, reading Appiano's words, coupled with the other two's messages.

"I have some info from Intestinal Beetle; Rarity has gossiped around for info about the Champions and Pinkie Pie recorded some things. What do you have, Sunset?"

Author's Note:

characterization: something I feel I cannot do consistently.

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

Interesting how you incorporated the first two Friendship Games shorts.

[Starlight Nova]

How do you pronounce Iolai?

[Daxn]

6334107

Ioh-lay