• Published 25th Dec 2012
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Balance of the Mind and Body - Swift Blaze



Ever wonder if that Mayan Calendar prediction actually came true? What the world be like if everyone panic? Then come and read the following tale of a human that this happens to.

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Chapter 52: Lesson #1, Obey The Instructor

The next morning, Blaze exited his mind space. He didn’t go to sleep as the conversation with Princess Luna was still fresh in his mind. After a quick shower and change of clothes, it was now time for the morning exercise. With ninja style, he made it outside without a noise. After the front door was closed, a voice behind him shouted, "Morning Cap!"

The black hair human spun around to see who said that. It was Al as he had the biggest grin. The others of the newly formed regiment were standing in formation next to him. The captain walked down the steps and stood in front of them. "Ahh, I see everyone is eager for the training I have in-stored," he said.

"SIR, YES, SIR!" They shouted.

"That’s what I like to hear. 10k run. GO!"

The soldiers about-face and started to run down the road to town. Blaze followed, after increasing the weights a little bit.

They did their best to keep the noise of the run down to avoid waking any sleeping pony. The black hair human tested the team as he had some obstacles of rocks, pop up from the ground, ahead of where they were running. None of them tripped or stubbed through that portion. The course was to the far side of town, to where they entered, and circled back to the house.

When done, each team member was breathing a little hard after not doing any warm-up routines. Blaze too was panting a little bit. "Well done. You’ve successfully taken care of the first part of the new training, move fast and quietly," he said once he caught his breath.

"We figured you might do something like this," Star Dust said.

The captain raised one eyebrow and said, "Oh really?"

Al replied, "You called the group, Phantom Regiment. Not hard to tell we’ll need to be stealthy on missions."

"Was a little surprised when all those rocks came out of the ground just ahead of us," Fang added.

"Guess I can increase the training as you seem to know what I’ve planned. Triple Morning Exercise Routine! BEGIN!" Blaze said.

None of them made a sound of complaint, but their faces showed they weren’t going to like it. Two hours later, the routine finished and everyone was sore and hungry. The sun came up thirty minutes after they started. Each one slowly walked inside for breakfast as Al made his way to the kitchen to get it going. He was doing better than the ponies as he was used to the positions.

Blaze had gone up to use one shower and Dragon raced Cancer towards the other. Caner won as he slammed the door into his brother's muzzle. Blaze was out first and in a different gi that was clean. Dragon was about to step into that bathroom, but Fang stopped him with her blade. "Ladies first."

The younger Zebra gulped and slowly nodded. Colorful Sparks, Star Dust, and Lightning Trails were lined up at the other bathroom door, waiting for Cancer to finish up. The black hair human shook his head and thought, ”Need to remind the Princess to install a mass style bathroom so multiple ponies can wash up.”

I already have it in the plans. Princess Celestia’s voice was heard in Blaze's head.

Are you spying in my head now?

No. I just opened the link to talk with you when you thought of that.

So, what is it that you wanted to discuss with me? Blaze said in his mind as he sat down on the couch in the living room.

Just a couple quick things. The engineers and their crews will be down this afternoon to begin work on your team's living space. Would you mind taking care of the foundation? It will save them a week from having to dig and pour concrete.

Sure, that much won't be taxing on my chakra levels. What’s the next point?

Princess Luna informed me of the vision you had. With you knowing Discord is going to come back and this vision, I fear for what exactly is going to actually happen.

I know you’re as scared of me as I am, but we cannot dwell on that. Remember the episode about time travel of knowing the future, I’m not going to something like that as it might very well cause him to come sooner. I don't know how he was able to convert me, but I’ll make preps to try and prevent that. I’m not going to tell you exactly what. This is my burden and I’ll share this with Al, seeing he wasn’t converted.

Blaze could hear a sigh from the Princess, before she responded with, I know you have every intention to protect us from threats and now, from you. I just hope it would not lead to having to kill you if it comes to it.

The future is never set in stone. It's created based upon our actions and how we react to them. Try not to dwell on it and stay focused on the present events. That’s all that I can ask.

I’ll do so, Captain Swift Blaze. One last thing.

What’s that Celestia?

Someone is at your door.

Sure enough, one second later, there was a knock at the front door. The black hair human got up to see who it was. Once the door was opened, he was engulfed in magic and lifted off the floor. The pony standing there was Twilight Sparkle.

"Well, good morning Twilight. I take it you’re mad about something?" Blaze asked.

"You owe me BIG time on teaching you magic. Now then, will you come with me so we can begin? Or am I going to have to knock you out and drag you to my library?" Twilight asked with a stern voice.

"Can I at least have breakfast? I'm starving." His stomach then growled to confirm.

"I saw you training already, so I know you must have already eaten."

"I train BEFORE eating so I can replenish my strength for the day."

"That doesn't make sense. My brother told me the Royal Guard always eats before training. Why would you change that?"

"Maybe because I want to do something different for MY squad."

The Unicorn then looked confused. "Your squad? You just became a member of the Royal Guard. How can you already have your own squad?"

"Maybe because Princess Celestia made me CAPTAIN for winning the tournament and for also kicking your brother’s flank during training."

"Captain? Princess Celestia must really like you to promote you all the way to that rank."

"She saw good talent and did not want it to go to waste."

Twilight set Blaze down gently and released her magic hold on him. "I'm so sorry! Please don't report me to the Princess!" she said as she begged.

"I'm not going to do that. Besides, I do owe you some time to teach me magic. I was going to come over all week for a couple of hours in the morning and in the afternoon. Let me have breakfast first."

The purple mare nodded as they made their way to the dining room. She began to sniff the air. "What is that odd smell? I have never smelled anything like it."

From the kitchen, Al said, "That would be bacon."

"Hay bacon never smelt like that before. What herbs are being applied to change the smell? I can't pick any up."

"That's because it's not hay bacon. It's the bacon humans eat, and we never add anything to it. That's blasphemy."

The Unicorn looked queasy after realizing she was smelling meat. Blaze saw this and put a hand on her shoulder, before saying, "Twilight, would you like me to meet you at your library after I eat? I can see you are having a little issue with the smell of cooked meat."

She nodded her head. Her horn lit up and she quickly teleported out of the house. Not wanting to spend another second there.

The white hair human came in holding a plate and a platter of food. He looked around the room for a sec. "I thought I heard Twilight. Was she here, or was I hearing voices?" He asked.

Blaze responded, "She was here. The smell was bothering her after realizing what it was. I’m going to head over to the library after eating to start the magic lessons. I’ll take care of the foundation for the team's living quarters first."

"Yea, they are great and all. Just didn't want to do so much shopping for food. I thought you ate the most. Them combined have beaten you."

"I’ll reimburse you, once I get the next pay from Celestia."

A big bright light flashed on the table. Once done, it revealed eight sacks of bits. Seven of them are the same size. The last one was a little bigger. Luckily, none of them landed on a food plate.

Blaze looked around above while trying to look like he was searching for something. Once he spotted the spy portal near the ceiling light, the plan began to form for the payback. His hands were under the table so making jutsu signs was easy to do. The black hair human raised his arms out from under the table and stretched for a yawn. The index finger on his right hand pointed to the portal. In a quick blast, a jet of air was launched, from the finger, towards the portal. It made its mark as a woman could barely be heard screaming before it closed.

Al looked towards Blaze and asked, "Celestia trolling you again?"

"Nah, I think it's for the fact she is worried about the vision I had," he responded.

"What vision?"

"That night you came running in when I was screaming."

"I thought that was a nightmare?"

"I did too until I chatted with Princess Luna about it last night."

Blaze discussed what they went over when viewing the vision. Once done, Al placed a hand on the Captain’s shoulder. "Listen, whatever we need to do, we’ll make sure that vision never comes true. Or, we’ll find some way to bring you back. We humans have to stick together in this world. Right, bro?" he said, then stuck his hand out that was on Blaze's shoulder for a hoof bump.

The black hair human smiled and returned the gesture. "I know you will. First thing first, we have to find those Elements of Order. I know they have an important role. I feel it in my gut."

"Mmhmm, the gut is strong in you," the white hair human said in a Yoda voice.

Blaze laughed and Al joined in. As they were laughing, Fang and Cancer walked into the dining room. Both were still a little wet in some spots of the fur. Fang spoke first, "What are you humans laughing about?"

Al was still chuckling when he replied, "Oh, it's nothing. Just something human-related. By the way, breakfast is served and your pay sack is on the table."

"Who gets the bigger one?" Cancer asked, reaching a hoof out to it.

Blaze slapped his hoof to stop him. Then snagged it before anyone else went for it. "That would be for the Captain. If you would excuse me, I need to get the foundation made for your place before I head off to Twilights."

The black hair human sent his sack to the weapon storage in the basement for safekeeping. Then got up from the table and walked out the front door.

Outside, the scenery was beautiful as usual. Blaze then noticed the Pegasi were busy getting clouds into position to cover the sky. ”Hmm, looks like they scheduled it to rain today.” He made his way over to where the area for the barrack was going to be built.

Over at the site, there was a chalky color Unicorn looking over some blueprints. His mane and tail were a slick solid blue and was wearing a white hard hat. Once he saw the human coming up, the blueprints were placed down on a workbench. "Good morning. May I help you, sir?"

"Good morning to you too. I’m actually here to help you," he replied. "My name is Captain Swift Blaze."

"Ah, yes. Princess Celestia was going to ask you to see if you can help out. I take it, with you being here, that you accepted to help?"

"That I did, mister . . ."

"Oh, how rude of me. My name is Square Edge. I’m the architect Princess Celestia hired to design and build the living quarters for your squad. I must have to say, your home looks amazing. Mind telling me who designed it?"

"That would be me, Square Edge. Did engineering work back in my world. That design is the basic concept for my dream home. Had to modify it based upon what’s available here."

"How were you able to afford all the material and labor to build it?"

"I did it all. So no cost, in terms of bits."

"How?" The Unicorn stallion asked with a very confused look.

"The same way I’m going to take care of the foundation. Now then, are these the prints?" Blaze asked as he pointed to the blueprints.

"Yes, they are." He used his magic and brought the plans to the human.

Blaze said, "Thank you." He then rolled it open and began to look at the design. "No basement?"

"Nope."

"Crawl Space?"

"Yes."

"Height for that?"

"Three feet, minimum."

"And these posts here are for floor stabilization?"

"That’s correct."

"Alright, I think I have the layout down in my head."

"That's good. So how long will it take you to get this done?

"Give me about ten minutes. Then your crew can begin putting the floor down."

"I still don't know how you can do that with no tools. What, you're going to magically have a stone foundation pop out of the ground?"

"Sort of, but not with magic." Blaze walked up to where the building corners are marked out. The chakra started to gather inside as the human was in a stance to keep a good balance. While doing the hand signs, he shouted, "Ninja Art! Earth Style! Stone Wall Jutsu!"

The ground was rumbling and shook around them. Square Edge grabbed hold of the workbench to say on his hooves. Soon, stone walls and pillars rose out of the ground. It matched up to what was on the print. Once they got to the desired height, Blaze ended channeling his chakra into the jutsu.

He took a couple of deep breaths as the stallion looked over his work. "You sure you want to be in the Royal Guard? I can see you have a great job in the construction field," he said.

"Appreciate the offer, but I see more of a need there. Plus, I don't want other ponies to lose their jobs over me."

"Well, if you are ever looking for a change in career, look me up in Canterlot."

"Will do, Square Edge. If you excuse me, I have another appointment to get to. I’ve already delayed meeting with her for the lesson. If I put her off anymore, I’m afraid what she will do if she goes and hunts me down."

"Then you better get running before you face the wrath of a mare," the Unicorn said with a joking attitude.

"Why run when I can teleport." Blaze placed his hands together. Then, disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Square Edge looked around to verify he had left before saying, "Great, another creature that can do magic, or something close to it. I can't wait to return back to Canterlot where everything is normal. What's next? Are pigs going to sprout wings and help manage the weather clouds?"

------Outside Ponyville Library-------

The black hair human reappeared outside of the tree. He went over to a window and looked inside to see where Twilight was. She was busy looking back and forth from a book next to her and a moveable chalkboard. A piece of chalk was floating in her magical field, writing different things. Blaze saw she was very focused on her task. He believed this would make another good time to scare her.

Using a wood jutsu, the human merged with the tree to pass through it. Inside, a small shadow slowly moved along the floor. It circled Twilight once before approaching her from her right side. Once close, Blaze's hand emerged from the shadow. It reached slowly to her back right hoof. Just as the hand was about to grab it, the wooden head bust that was on a table in the middle of the room, it slammed down hard on the human's hand.

The pain was intense enough, he jumped out of the shadow, knocking the bust over, and grabbed onto the ceiling with his feet and chakra. "OWWW! That hurt!" Blaze said as he cradled his injured hand.

"YES! IT WORKED! MY DETECTION SPELL WORKED!" Twilight said as she jumped up and down, clapping her forehooves together.

The human was rubbing his injured fingers, seeing them start to swell up. "I take it you came up with that spell recently. How does it work?"

The purple mare stopped jumping and looked up to Blaze on the ceiling. "It works by placing a field over the area you want to protect. When something goes through it, by a different means from what you’ve indicated safe paths, like a door, it will alert the spell caster within their mind about the intruder. It will then track their location so you know exactly where they are."

"Very clever. Guess I can't sneak in here and startle you anymore."

"Not without your hands being crushed by this." The Unicorn waved the bust in the air with her magic.

"You crush my hands with that again, I’ll blow it up into toothpicks to pick the meat out that might be stuck between my teeth."

"Then I’ll upgrade to a metal one and have it slam on your head."

Blaze raised his hands in the air and said, "We’re getting off track. I’m here to learn about magic. Unless you want to reschedule again so we can talk some more about nonsense?"

"No! We’re going to cover magic today. Please, take a seat at your desk student." Twilight pointed to it with her hoof.

The human released from the ceiling and landed on the floor. He then walked over to the desk and looked at it. The size of it is what he sat at the Ponyville school last week. A desk designed for a little colt or filly. Not intended for an adult human.

"Um, Twilight, I think this desk is too small for me. You think you have anything OUCH!" Blaze cried out.

The mare just wracked him on the back of the head with a ruler with her magic. "It's Professor Twilight or Professor when class is in session. For now, you’re going to have to make do with that desk. It’s the same one I had when Princess Celestia taught me."

The human rolled his eyes as he thought, ”Of course she would keep the desk she sat at. She practically worships the ground she walks on, literally.” "How about I just used my jutsu to make my own desk. It won't take OUCH!"

Again, the mare struck him in the same spot. "Nope, that desk will do fine. Another thing, you are to learn magic in your pony form first. From there, you can figure out how in your human form. Now then, are you going to change yourself, or will you have to change you to your pony by me?"

"NO! NO! NO! I can take care of that! My way is less painful and I don't like being changed against my will. No offense."

"None taken."

Blaze placed his hands together and transformed into his pony version. He carefully took a seat, trying not to break it. Once comfortable in the colt chair, the legs gave out and his flank came crashing down to the floor with it.

Twilight came over quickly and said, "Are you alright? I have never seen one break so easily."

"I'm fine. These chairs are just not designed to handle the magical weight I’m currently at."

"What’s the total weight at?"

"I’ve increased it to seven hundred twenty-five pounds of additional weight over my own body this morning. I was surprised you were able to pick me up with no issue."

"I had a little issue with the Ursa Minor. They weigh roughly around five to seven tons at that size. You would not think a celestial animal would weigh that much."

"Your magic is indeed strong. Can't wait to learn what you have in store."

The Unicorn paced in front of the desk Blaze was sitting behind. "Now then, did you happen to read any of the books I sent to your house?" she asked as her eyes looked at the stallion with a stern face.

"Um, no. OUCH!" Another hit with the ruler.

"No, what?"

"No, Professor Twilight. I haven’t read any of them. OW! What was that one for!"

"That was for not reading the homework I gave you."

"You gave me over fifty books to read while I was stuck as an Earth colt. How the heck can I read that in that allotted time. OW! Quit hitting me!"

"Mind your language. At least we have covered how to access your magic. Let's review that, shall we? Please try and pick up that bust and place it on the table over there."

Blaze stuck his hoof out toward the bust and began to concentrate his magic. Just as his hoof started to glow, Twilight struck it with the ruler. "OW! What? I’m doing what you asked, Professor."

"Don't channel your magic to your hoof. Channel it to your horn. It's closer to your magical font."

"Excuse me, I never had one before. Also, all my other abilities, I either use my hands or hooves. Why not with this?"

"Because it's not normal for the magic to come from one's hooves."

"I'm not normal, remember?"

Twilight smacked Blaze again with the ruler against his head. This time, it snapped in half upon impact.

"Hah! Now you can't hit me with a broken ruler."

The Unicorn used her magic and opened a draw underneath one of the bookshelves. What came out was another ruler. "You were saying?"

"Damn. OUCH!"

"Bad language. Now then, concentrate your magic to your horn and move the bust onto the table."

The stallion mumbled some words that no creature could understand as he turned his gaze to the bust laying on the floor. He could feel where the magic is within his body, trying to drive it to the horn was the difficult part. After minutes had gone by, Blaze relaxed and looked to the mare.

"Professor, how am I supposed to move magic to my horn when I have no feeling where it is? "

"This will help you then." Twilight quickly took the ruler and smacked it against his horn.

"OW! That hurts worse!"

"A Unicorn's horn has more nerves within it to help direct magic through it."

Blaze mumbled, "It's not just for magic." The purple mare struck his horn again. "HEY! What was that for?"

"That was for your comment. Now get your mind out of the gutter and get back to the task at hand."

The red Unicorn turned his head to back to the target. With the pain coming from his horn, he could now feel where to send the magic energy to. The horn lit up with a red glow. Remembering how he took care of the books, Blaze repeated the process. He focused his mind hand on the bust. The aura around the horn grew brighter as the bust got the same glow. Blaze was sweating a little bit. It was a different feeling than using chakra or ki, but that did not stop him. The wooden horse head started to rise off the ground and make its way to the table in the center of the room.

After ten minutes, the bust was placed in the center of the table. The magic aura disappeared from it and Blaze’s horn. He slumped down on the desk and began to breathe hard. “That was tougher than I thought. I underestimated how heavy that thing weighs,” he said.

Twilight smiled, then said, “Oh, no you didn’t. I had magically increased its weight before you arrived.”

“WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!”

“To see what level of control your magic is at. You did struggle but maintained control the entire time. We can now move onto the actual lesson.”

The mare started to explain how magic works for a Unicorn. Going on about the different types of spells. The basic ones where you think of a word and cast the spell. Next level involved saying a chant in order for it to work. Lastly, the most difficult spells require special ingredients at the precise measurements, or the spell will backfire.

The next topic was how some Unicorns can do some spells while others can't do them. All involving the cutie mark they received. As Twilight continued the discussion and wrote stuff on the chalkboard, Blaze was getting bored listening to it. He was even drifting off to sleep. Without warning, the ruler slapped against his desk, waking him from his daze.

"Blaze! I'm trying to teach you magic and here you are, falling asleep." Twilight shouted in the stallion’s face.

"I'm sorry. I thought it would be interesting learning magic. The thing is, and don't take this personally, your teaching method is a bit dry. DON'T HIT ME!" Blaze said, then covered his head on the last part.

"Explain."

"You see, I’m more of a read and try it style of learning. You're teaching more of the theory of how it actually works and not going straight to the spells themselves."

Twilight looked at Blaze with a stern face. He could see in her eyes that she was processing what was just said. After a few minutes, she closed her eyes and walked back to the chalkboard. "I guess your right. I was so excited about this task, I didn’t consider the actual teaching method I should use. I wanted to cover everything that I read and was taught, that I didn't consider it was the same knowledge you wanted."

"It's ok, Twilight. I’ve seen similar things to others back on my planet. They would get so deep in projects and assignments, they forget the actual principle they were supposed to go after."

"Seeing my lesson plan is out the window now. What exactly do you want to know?"

-----Hours later-------

Blaze was still at the library, back in human form, and was reading a magic book on locating spells. He thought it would be useful in help trying to track down those Elements of Orders. With that vision in the back of his mind, the drive to find these was higher than before.

The Unicorn mare also had her muzzle in a book on the other side of the library. She was reading parts of it, then wrote some notes down on a scroll that was being held in her magic.

The human closed his book and looked towards the pony. "Hey, Twilight, what are you researching now?"

While still looking at the book, she responded, “With the Gala coming up this weekend, I’m looking for a way to magically create a chariot to take us to it. The Princess won't be able to send any to us as they have already been rented out by other ponies in Canterlot."

Blaze smiled as he said, "Well, good luck with that. I'm sure you will find what you are looking for." An idea popped into his head. "Oh! Um, if you would excuse me, I just remember I need to inform Al about something."

"Alright. I expect to see you back here tomorrow morning to go over the homework assignment I gave you."

"I will, Professor Twilight."

With that, Blaze got up from the chair he was sitting on. He grabbed his homework assignment, which was to read six books tonight. The other part is a demonstration of some of the spells within them.

Doing a one handed sign, Blaze teleported out of the library and headed back to his place. He arrived outside the front door. Before going inside, he looked over to the construction site nearby. They were making some progress. A basic frame was done, the first floor was covered in plywood, the second floor was in progress, and they were almost done with the roof. No inner walls were put up yet. The black hair human thought they must want to get the roof on before the Pegasi started making it rain.

Sure enough, rain drops started to fall. Started out at sprinkle level, then increased to casual rain. The workers were moving inside where it was dry to continue their work.

Blaze quickly headed inside to avoid getting soaked and damaging the books with the rain. Once inside, he walked to the living room. Where he found Al, reading one of the magic books Twilight sent last week.

"Ah, just the human I wanted to see," Blaze said as he placed the books on the coffee table.

The white hair human closed the book. Then, looked at his roommate and said, "Dude, I'm the only other human besides you that is in this world. Woah, what’s with the bruises on your melon? Did you get into another fight? How come you didn't invite me?"

"First, how often could you say that line, hmm? Next, I wasn’t in a fight. Twilight hit me lots of times with rulers."

"Rulers? Exactly how many?"

"I think she went through at least thirty of them before she decided to enchant them to not to break."

“You have one thick head to take that slaughter. I'm surprised you're not in the hospital getting those healed."

"Thanks for reminding me." Blaze puts his left hand close to his head. He then used his chakra to heal the bruises and make a slight headache go away. After several minutes, they were all gone. "Ahh, much better."

"How come you didn't do that down at her place?"

"I tried, but she just hit me again with the ruler."

"Those must really hurt like hell."

"You tell me." Blaze pulled a ruler out from behind him and tossed it like a dagger. It nailed Al right between the eyes.

"OW! What was that for you bastard!"

"I thought you said you like pain. I mean you went to sleep on a bed of nails and asked me to create one in your room."

The white hair human picked up the ruler. "I can handle pain when it’s expected. It still hurts out of the blue." He then tossed the ruler underhanded at Blaze.

The black hair human reacted quickly enough to snag it out of the air. He twirled it between his fingers as he said, “I also managed to grab them before they hit me. That was until she brought out more than I could stop.”

“So, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Oh yea. Quick question, what was your job back on Earth?

“A mechanic. Why?”

“Perfect. I have an idea for something for the Gala and you can help me. We have no time to waste if we want to get it done on time.”

“So, what are we doing?”

Author's Note:

Here's the latest chapter. It was proofread by Darksoul85.

Alright, start making your guesses on what you think the humans are going to build. I believed I left enough hints in this chapter to reveal what it could be.

The next chapter will be the last of the rewrites. Who's ready for new content?

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