The War of Equestria

by rainbowtiger00

Backward Numbers

The afternoon sun glinted on the stone walls of the Rowshield house. Lena giggled as she chased an eight-year-old Corina around the street in front of the house. Her raven black hair flew behind her back, and her feet flew as she ran. Trisha smiled as she watched the two run about. Then she glanced at Felix and Jonathan.

Both were standing on the path to the house, holding wooden halberds. Jonathan's crystal halberd was near completion, his ability to use it would come on his nineteen birthday. Elder Onyx Ashstone had, however, insisted that Jonathan learned how to use a halberd so that when he finally had the crystal halberd, he could use it. Felix had learned the basics from Jonathan's father and therefore had taught Jonathan them over the years. However, Jonathan was now being faced with a new challenge.

To create his own combos with the halberd. A far bigger challenge than it would seem. The best way to do this was by practicing with Felix. Felix decided to allow Corina to play near them, but not too close, in order for Jonathan to learn to not allow himself to be distracted. Jonathan slowly circled Felix, waiting for him to make a move.

Felix's eyes skillfully watched him, and when Jonathan became too close to his open back, he turned to face him. Felix made a move, his wooden halberd swinging towards Jonathan from the right. Jonathan swiftly dodged left, and swung his own toward Felix's open back. Felix quickly blocked it with the halberd's handle and pushed Jonathan backward. Jonathan fell back two steps.

Felix struck at him, causing Jonathan to dodge once more. He took a deep breath, then charged forward and swung at Felix's left. Again, Felix blocked, pushed him back, and struck. This time, though, Jonathan blocked him with his halberd's handle and pushed him. Felix, however, dug in his heels so that he was not pushed back as far.

He leaned forward against Jonathan, so that his weight pressed onto Jonathan, pushing him back instead. Jonathan blinked in surprise as he stumbled backward. Felix charged. Jonathan tried to block but ended up crossing his handle with Felix's. A glint went into his eye.

He twisted around on his feet, yanking Felix's halberd out of his grasp and tossing it out of his reach. It landed on the stone wall of the house and fell to the ground with a clatter. Jonathan grinned. Felix wasn't done yet, though and lunged forward to grab Jonathan's handle with his bare hands. Twisting around on his feet himself, he pushed Jonathan backward.

He fell onto his back. "Hey!" Felix took a deep breath and ran a hand through his raven black hair. "Whew! You're getting quite nimble my boy." Jonathan glared at him as he picked himself up.

"That's cheating." Felix chuckled. "No, it is seeing an opportunity and catching it. In a battle, that is being smart. Slightly underhanded maybe, but I'd leave that fancy stuff to the ones who wield swords.

With a halberd, though, you've got a lot of options that a sword wielder doesn't. A nice balance, since they got a sharp blade." Trisha clapped. "Good work! And you didn't even give Lena or Corina a single glance during the whole thing!"

Jonathan smiled at her and looked at Lena and Corina. They were now weaving flowers into bracelets. "Hey, Lena. Have you seen Argon anywhere?" Lena looked up from her flower bracelet.

"I think he was at the market, getting Trisha some new blankets. The babies wore through them rather fast."

Trisha looked after some babies of mothers who couldn't look after them. All women of the town, poor and rich, were responsible for those children, but most were too busy looking after their own families to give them much attention. So Trisha used her spare time to give the youngest one's food and rest. They gave them the nickname of 'the baby' or 'the babies' if it was more than one since most of the time they didn't know the baby's name. Jonathan's aunt used to look after them herself before she died.

Trisha frowned. "He should have been back by now." Corina looked at Johnathan. "Do you think that he got into another fight with Rayon?" Jonathan sighed.

"I'd better go check." He went through the gate, and out on the street. Corina looked at Lena. "You better go after him." Lena nodded, handed her flower bracelet to Corina and ran after Johnathan.

The afternoon market crowd made walking difficult as they had to grab onto each other's arms in order not to lose each other in the mass of people. Jonathan allowed Lena to take the lead as she looked around for a possible fight in alleyways. He looked at stalls for Argon in case they were wrong, and he was just buying something at a stall. Lena stopped before an alleyway, then cocked her head. She rolled her eyes and groaned.

"Oh no." Jonathan looked at her and heard what she heard. "Get back here, you!" Argon's voice came from the alleyway. He sounded mad.
Sounds of feet running echoed in the alleyway. "You have to catch me first, you widdle rich kid!" Rayon's taunting voice came out as well. Lena sighed. Jonathan growled.

"Not him, again." Lena took two steps forward into the alleyway, but then quickly scrambled away as Rayon ran past her clutching a brightly colored blanket in his left hand. Argon appeared right behind him, panting for breath. An angry look was on his face, and he glared at Rayon. "Give," he panted.

"That back." Rayon laughed and twirled it around. "First, you have to catch me!" A sneer twisted his face. "Are you tired, already?

Aren't you going to get me?" Argon snarled, and took a step forward, only to trip on a rock and fall onto his face. Both Lena and Johnathan bent down and helped him back onto his feet. Rayon snorted, then laughed harder. "Are you that tired?

I must be faster than I thought! No wonder Johnnie boy here has to protect you!" Jonathan snarled. "Don't call me that Rayon!" Rayon stuck his tongue out at him.

"Make me." Jonathan made a move to punch Rayon but was stopped by Lena. "Wait, Johnathan." She pointed out two of Rayon's gang members nearby. They hadn't seen anything yet, but if Jonathan punched Rayon they would be alerted.

Lena took a step forward, clenching her fists. "If he wants to be chased, then let him be chased." Rayon's face changed from a sneer to surprise.

"You're going to chase me?" Lena cocked her head at him.

"Do you think I can't keep up?" Rayon opened his mouth, then closed it. He chewed on his lip, thinking. Argon looked at Lena. "Are you really going to chase him?"

Lena grinned slyly. "Why wouldn't I?" Jonathan gritted his teeth. "As long as he doesn't call you names." Lena turned to look at him.

"Ya know, Rayon knows better than to call me names." Argon looked at Johnathan. "I bet he does. Lena punches hard." Jonathan glanced at Argon.

"You know this, how?" Argon snickered. "One of his gang members punched me in the face once, and Lena punched him back. Knocked him out for most of the afternoon too." Jonathan looked back at where Rayon was standing.

"Hey, he's gone." Lena turned around as well, to see that Rayon was no longer standing there. Where he was, the blanket lay. Lena smiled. "Good.

He's gone." She picked the blanket up, and went back to Argon, handing him back the blanket. "There you go." She elbowed him in the gut. "Next time, don't chase Rayon.

He is as nimble as anything." Argon rolled his eyes, but Jonathan could see the smirk on his mouth. "And what if you chased him?" Lena grinned. "I would have knocked him to the ground.

Then he couldn't have run away." She pulled at Jonathan's and Argon's hands. "I'll race you to Argon's house." Argon grinned. "Oh, it's on."

Jonathan was already beginning to run. "Last one there is a rotten piece of meat!" Argon chased after him. "Hey, no fair!" Lena ran behind him, laughing as she followed her friends...

Thump! Jonathan started as the loud noise awoke him. "Sorry Jonathan." Spike apologized as he began to shuffle through the books that he had dropped upon the crystal table. Jonathan yawned, and stretched.

He remembered going back to the house and collapsing on the table as Twilight and Spike began to figure out the code. "Perfectly fine. What time is it?" Spike glanced at the clock. "1:30."

Jonathan groaned. "Is it me, or am I falling asleep much more often now?" Spike chuckled. "I bet your necklace is using some of your energy to give you the dreams. Therefore, falling asleep would not only give you the dream but also create energy."

Jonathan sighed. "Great." Spike turned to one side and handed Jonathan an apple. "Something for lunch." Jonathan smiled and took it.

"Thanks." A loud clang sounded out, and Twilight's voice called out. "That's not right either!" Spike sighed and shut the book he was reading. "Great." He opened another and began to flip the pages furiously.

"Another dead end." Jonathan took a bite of the apple. "What are you guys doing anyway?" Spike lifted a piece of paper. "We figured out the symbols.

They were an ancient Griffon way of putting numbers. So, by figuring out the symbols, we got this." Jonathan took a look at the paper. It read.

"8-15 14-15-15-13 20-1-8-20 19-5-14-9-8-19 14-9 5-8-20 25-11-19 5-8-20 14-15-15-13 9 5-5-19 5-8-20 14-15-15-13 9 5-22-15-12 9 11-19-1 21-15-25 25-4-1-12 14-15-15-13 8-20-9-23 18-21-19-25 19-7-14-9-23 23-20-19-5-2 14-15-16-21 5-13 5-8-20 25-22-5-22-1-18-2 9 4-5-5-14 15-20 18-5-21-17-14-15-3 15-20 14-9-23 15-20 15-4 7-14-9-8-20-25-14-1 15-19 7-14-9-18-2 5-8-20 7-14-9-8-20 9 11-5-5-19 25-4-1-12 14-15-15-13 8-20-9-23 5-8-20 19-8-9-14-4 8-20-9-23 25-8-20 20-8-7-9-12 20-19-1-3 14-15-16-21 13-5 9 8-3-19-5-5-2 21-15-25 20-19-1-3 25-22-5-22-1-18-2 18-21-15-14-15-21-8 4-14-1 14-9-1-7 15-19 20-8-1-20 9 25-1-13 7-14-9-19 5-11-9-12 5-8-20 6-12-15-23 20-1-8-20 19-12-23-15-8 6-12-15-23-5-14-15-12 8-15 14-15-15-13 20-1-8-20 19-5-14-9-8-19 14-9 5-8-20 25-11-19 5-8-20 9 5-5-19 5-8-20 9 5-22-15-12 9 11-19-1 21-15-25 25-4-1-12 14-15-15-17 8-20-9-23 18-21-19-25 19-7-14-9-23 23-20-19-5-2 21-16-15-14 5-8-20 25-22-5-22-1-18-2 9 4-5-5-14"

Jonathan blinked. "What is that?" Spike shrugged. "That is what we are trying to find out." He put the book down and ran a claw along the words.

Twilight's voice groaned again. "Ah come on!" Jonathan looked in the direction that Twilight's voice came from. "What is she doing?" Spike made a few notes on another piece of paper.

"Trying every math problem she can think of. While I try to figure if the numbers are, in fact maybe hiding letters." Jonathan cocked his head. "Letters? How can numbers hide letters?"

Spike pointed at the paper. "If you look closely, the numbers only go up to number 26. No higher. And there are only twenty-six numbers in the alphabet." Jonathan took another bite.

"So maybe the numbers stand for letters? Like 1 is A, B is 2?" Spike groaned and thumped his head on the book. "I've tried that. All I get is this."

He shoved another piece of paper toward Jonathan. It read. "Ho noom taht senihs ni eht yks." Jonathan stared at it. "What is this?"

Spike thumped his head onto the book again. "This feels impossible to solve. That language is not in any textbook we have!" Scootaloo trotted in, her wings folded at her sides. In her hooves was a cup of apple juice. "Hey, Spike."

He lifted his head slightly from the book and grunted. "Where were you?" Scootaloo sat next to Jonathan. "Had to practice some awesome new flying moves." She slid the cup of apple juice over to him.

"You look like you need this." Spike grunted his thanks and took a gulp. Jonathan crunched on his apple again. Scootaloo glanced at the paper. "Oh, moon that shines in the sky.

Interesting." Spike's eyes widened. Jonathan stopped mid-crunch and began to choke. Spike's claw thumped on his back. He quickly swallowed, and looked at her.

"Wait, you can read that?" Scootaloo nodded. "Its written backward, me and the girls wrote notes in this language so that Miss Cheerlie couldn't read what we were saying." Spike grabbed a pencil and paper. He turned to Scootaloo.

"Scootaloo, teach me how to read this language please." Scootaloo laughed. "It's easy to do. Take the word 'ho'. Switch the 'o' in front of the 'h' and you get 'oh'."

Jonathan looked at her. "What if we get bigger words?" She pointed at the next one. "So then we could take the word 'taht' and do the same thing. Switch around the 'T' and the 'H'.

You get 'that'." Spike grabbed the piece of paper with the numbers and began to quickly copy them into letters. "Jonathan, go get Twilight. Scootaloo, we are going to need your help if we are to get this done by sundown."

Author's Note:

Sedoc era nuf.
Tell me what you think.

Comments

[Blackdust]

Sedoc era nuf deedni!

[HolidaySpree]

Ej esnep cnod issua!
Taking it one step further.

[rainbowtiger00]

7224316 That's pretty clever.