> "Iolai!" or "Heroic moments Are Cheap."
>  by Daxn
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> First Chapter
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Appiano, dressed in a sey of sharp clothes that however retained the colour scheme of his everyday clothes, was fiddling around with his pen, as the brightly-lit sober and yet elegant meeting room of his large house was slowly filled with the members of the Students' Council of his High School, the general murmur and noise of chairs being moved signaling that not everybody was there yet

As Head of the Council, it was his duty to organize the conferences, along with begin the one actually petitioning to the Principal for certain major changed to the school. Appiano also had the duty to organize the events and contests the school was involved in.

The Friendship Games where one of them.

Appiano stopped making his pen click, when he realized that the noise stopped. He lifted his head up, and saw five of the twenty Council Members sitting on poplar chair with green velvet cushions, which were next to the circular oak table of the room. 

"Dè, two quarters of the Council is missing," he said out loud, as he opened up the already turned-on red laptop in front of him. Piano quickly opened up the program that connected via bluetooth the computer to the projector encased in the wall at the opposite side of the room and made the projector start up with a whir and a white light being projected.

"Mayhaps be because our attempts to win the Friendship Games have been proven to be a pointless endeavor?" Octavia said with a grumble, as she looked at her right hand's nails while holding her head with the other one. Appiano sighed, as he put up the first image he wanted to show, namely the Wall of Scholarship Honor in Tenochtitlan, a wall covered in bronze plates and symbols, one of which, a golden winged "s," recurred frequently on the wall.

"And yet we beat the rest of the schools without breaking a sweat, how's that?" 

"Maybe because the other schools aren't the Crystal Academy, Violet Blurr" Octavia replied, as she looked with half-cloaed eyes towards Violet Blurr, who crossed her arms and sighed.

"Dè, but we beat Acapulco's Minor Officers School last year in sports," Piano said, as he zoomed upon the plates with the winged "s" engraved "I think that we have the cloth to beat, a least in sports, a school supposed to form the offspring of the Old Money."

"That's because the Acapulchians were too tattered and worn out by their teachers to perform well," Octavia commented, as she turned her eyes towards the projector's screen behind Piano "Oh well, let's see what do you have in mind."

Appiano rose up from his seat and then stepped aside to allow the ten councilors to see.

"Dè, as you can see," Appiano said, pointing at the image "of late, the Crystal Academy has had a pretty much an unbroken record of victories in the Friendship Games. Their prowess seems to be based on their morale and number of victories."

Everybody in the room hummed.

"But, after some research, I figured out a system for be the final victors in this competition," Appiano went back to the laptop and passed to the next image, which showed the portraits of twelve different people. "Namely, study our enemy."

"And how that differs from what we have done in the past years?" Octavia interrupted, speaking in a monotonous tone, which made Appiano clench his first before grinning.

"Dè, until now, we just studied their performance, but... did we ever studied their personalities and behaviours outside competition?" Appiano said, putting his left hand closed in a fist over his chest. Everybody in he rooms tilted their heads.

"And how does that help?" Billy Cobra asked, as he adjusted his glasses, before lifting his right index up and hunch forward, as the other councilors nodded in agreement and whispered between themselves. Appiano's smirk grew in size, as result of Billy Cobra's comment, as he went back to the laptop to lick on the photo of one of the people depicted, specifically a girl with lavender eyes, dark pink hair collected in bums with turquoise stripes and light orange skin.

"Dè, it's easier to find exploits. For example," he said, going back to his previous position, while the new image loaded to show off a full-body photo of her leaning against a target pierced by multiple arrows, all next to the center "this is Sour sweet, and she will be the Champion for Footed Archery and part of the team of Horseback Archery."

"And so?" Octavia asked, as Billy Cobra, Carrot Top and Nolan North approved with a "Yeah, so?"

Piano chuckled, as he sat on the table, pointing at Octavia.

"Dè, she isn't one for teamwork, or is ever in a good mood. Pretty much like you" he said with a chuckle, causing Octavia to glare "Anyways, her skills in archery, according to the people she practices with, is strongly dependent on how she perceives somebody's skill to be, as she will be a very fast and precise archer when she feels that the opponent is unskilled, but will easily cower if she feels that her skills may be in any way inferior."

"The problem is, she's really good, and it's difficult to show yourself to be above her level," Nolan North said.

"That is true, unless we hire an ex-olympionic to train us..." Billy Cobra said, the mention of which made Appiano have a sudden idea.

"Or we pretend to have done so!" Appiano said with a snap of fingers that echoed in the room "I was thinking to use her phobia of dogs at our advt age, but I guess that could work too."

Some snickers came from the councilors, while other stared at Appiano with wide eyes. Then Violet Blurr exploded in a roaring laugh as she stated to beat the table with her right hand.

"She is afraid of dogs?! She's afraid of dogs!" Violet Blurr said in-between laughs, bringing Octavia to grit her teeth and poke her annoyed.

"First of all, I am too. Second, maybe she isn't afraid of poodles or chiuauas, just big and mean dogs."

Appiano snickered, as she recalled the incident that made him discover that.

"Dè, actually, Sour Sweet fled screaming bloody murder when she saw me walking my chihuahuas, and, trust me, it was hilarious!"

Octavia groaned and crossed her arms, as she glared at Piano, while the rest of the council started to snicker or laugh.

Once the hilarity died down, Appiano said.

"So, either we pretend to hire an ex-athlete, or we get ourselves on the field with a dog, possibly barking." He said, as he passed to the next slide, while Billy Cobra and Nolan North wrote down on the papers they had brought from home.

"Dè, I think that last year's rooster will be good enough even for this year's competition, so it still will be Jean-Baptiste D'Arc, Apple Fritter and Zipporwhill or however that dog-loving gal is called." Appiano said, as he passed to the next slide, showing a girl with orange-yellow spiky hair and turquoise skin, wearing a blue jumpsuit and looking at the camera smugly "This is Lighting dust, Champion of Horseback Shooting and part of the Motor Horse competition."

Nolan North snorted and crossed his arms, as Lighting dust's picture showed up on the screen. "She used to be my girl. Emphasis on 'used to'."

Appiano shrugged at Nolan's statement, as Violet Blurr whispered towards Nolan North, likely for ask him more information about his relationship with Lighting Dust.

"She's one that studied each and every piece of motorbike, before using it, and there are suspects that she may be rigging her motorbike in ways against the regulations. Should we manage to get her motorbike checked before the actual race or swap vehicles around, if the rumors are true..."

"We would be able to stop her." The rest of the council continued, which made Appiano sigh.

"However, even if the rumors aren't true, we still can play around with her pride, and make her either purposefully damage her motorcycle or do things that would expel her from the race. The Horseback Shooting part, setting aside the solution presented before, is completely crapshoot for now, thought."

And Nolan wrote it down while the rest listened.

"I will be the champion of Horseback Shooting this year, as Blueblood can't directly participate due to trouble with the law," Piano shield gleefully at the last part, remembering how he had humiliated him spectacularly "and I've beaten him. As for the rest of the team, I think that Photo Finish and Noi would be good teammates still. The Motor Horse Competition inevitably will be different, now that Spitfire, Soaring' and Flatfoot have graduated last year, but I think that I have in mind the right people for this, namely Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer."

The councilors nodded, as he then went on to change image still, now showing a girl with bright yellow and green hair and shocking pink skin, huddling together and smiling alongside a burly bald guy with an unkempt black beard.

"This is Lemon Zeist and his adopted brother from Zululand, Intestinal Beetle." Appiano said, as Octavia, Violet Blurr and Coco Pommel, the latter of which had been silent up to that point, gagged loudly and visibly.

"What kind of name is that?" Coco Pommel shrieked.

"What? Just what?" Was Octavia's response, while Violet Blurr simply stuck her tongue out.

"Well, that's just what his name means in his homeland's language." He said with a shrugging motion "Anyways, Lemon Zeist and Intestinal Beetle will both participate in the Flower Wars. Lemon Zeist has a very martial discipline, and Intestinal Beetle, as I've learned by my own expenses, is very tough."

"You know him?" Nolan North said as he recoiled a little, While Billy Cobra tilted his head and Coco Pommel stared. Piano chuckled at this scene, being used to it by then.

"Yeah. We met two years ago, at the gym where I used to and practice my fighting skills, and we've been on pretty good terms since. I'm not sure if he will cede to my requests to let us win, thought." Piano said, which caused the councilors to sigh in defeat. "Hence why I've tired to find a solution."

Then Appiano smiled and hunched his back a bit and spoke up again, a slight hiss of deviousness in his voice.

"However... I have a team composition in mind that will ensure great probabilities of victory."

For of the five councilors went on the edges of their seats to listen, while Octavia kept her demeanor and turned her head around.

Piano spoke up.

"Sunset Shimmer, me and Flameboy Shy are the perfect candidates for that," he said, making some of the councilors to scratch their heads in confusion "While it seems odd, to pitch a disabled into a fighting competition, I've studied it enough to tell that his disability has, indeed, advantages in that kind of fight. I'm one that does not fear a good old club fight, and Sunset Shimmer is a girl that expressed her wish to try."

The councilors looked in-between themselves, still a little confused.

"I don't know, to be honest... sounds like a bad idea..." Nolan North said "I mean, wouldn't let the ones that actually chose to specifically get in this competition do this? I'm sure they know what they were doing when they chose."

Appiano snickered, as he leaned against his chair.

"Hence why no-one besides me and Sunset shimmer has joined up. If we are going to try to be somewhat underhanded, then let us go the full way and try."

Nolan North and Billy Cobra shrugged, while the rest of the councilors shook their heads.

"I take that you'd need more proof, before approving. Oh well, this was the end of our meeting, sadly, as I haven't found any other weak points we could exploit for our own benefit. Consilium Solutum, then."

Nolan North nodded and quickly scribbled on paper, as the others got up from their chairs and left in a hurry.









Sunset Shimmer, Fluttershy, Appiano and Applejack were walking side-by side outside the school into the yard, wading through the crowd of students that were getting out of school due to the end of the lessons.

"So, you are telling me, I should focus myself on grooming the horses, not on training them directly?" Applejack said, holding her rucksack on a single shoulder, as she looked at Appiano with a hint of frown "But why?"

"Dè, don't get me wrong, you're good in taking care of them," he said, closing his left palm to then raise it to the air while opening it up slowly "but you mostly train horses of burden, not race horses."

"And with that?" Applejack asked with a groan "I can change my ways, y'know? Maybe with some help from Fluttershy..."

Fluttershy smiled weakly and Sunset Shimmer nodded. By then, the four students had reached the statue where, Sunset said, she had came from in the first place. As if they had decided so by telepathy, the four stopped next to it, with Fluttershy sitting down on the two steps, Applejack and Sunset Shimmer directly on the ground, and Piano stood up on his legs.

"I think that Fluttershy is better at taking care of smaller animals," Sunset Shimmer said, putting her left hand under her chin and looking at Fluttershy, who silently nodded, which in turn made Applejack sigh.

"Can't I train them with Blueblood?" Applejack asked "I mean... two heads think better than one, right?"

"Dè, Blueblood accepted to do that for me only because he wanted to still feel part of the school, even after getting his police record dirty." Piano said, looking up at the sky briefly, then looking back down "He may be an asshole, but he's good in these things, and, since he hates to work with people that feels of a lower social class than his..."

Applejack crossed her legs and glared at Appiano.

"His words, not mine," Piano said, as Applejack let out a little grunt and looked away.

"Well, see the bright side, Applejack," Sunset Shimmer said with a shrug "you cold've been forced to tame a wild horse and ride it to the competition!"

"But at least it would be something I've done," Applejack muttered, making Piano chuckle a little.

"Okay then," he said "If you really insist, I can make you try to train my spare horse Bucephalus, but I'd rather prepare Akhmad-Daichin myself."

Applejack sighed, bowed her head and moved her left hand forward before retreating it, saying "I'll take it."

"Dè, very well," Appiano said, his hands on his hips as he looked over the four girls "any other questions or requests?"

Fluttershy rose her left hand slowly and with a litte quake in the gesture.

"Yes, Fluttershy?" Piano said with a slight bow, which made Fluttershy let out a high-pitched squeal, before speaking.

"Why am I listed in the singers' group?" Fluttershy asked in a very low tone of voice, which however was not low enough to not be picked up by Appiano's ears. He put his right hand closed in a fist over his chest.

"Dè, I thought you signed up as 'whichever group needs it,' but if I'm wrong, them I'm sorry, and I will try to fix that as soon as I can," he then pretended to dust his shirt's chest "A pity, because you've got quite a good voice."

Fluttershy cowered and blushed, causing Sunset Shimmer and Appiano to chuckle, while Applejack shrugged.

"That's only the truth, sugarcube," Applejack winked "Believe me."

"Um..." Fluttershy muttered, blushing even more "I'm not sure if I can do that, Thoth... I would have really liked to just be an actor for the mime play organized for the Drama Contest."

"Dè, if you want," Appiano said "I can change your listing right away. Naturally, after checking that there's at least one empty spot or that somebody hasn't made a mistake in signing up." 

"Okay, very well." Fluttershy said with a nod, as she then got up and looked at her wristwatch. "Oh, it's getting late. I have to go, by-bye!"

"Bye Fluttershy!" Sunset Shimmer said, while Applejack waved and Piano shouted "Vale!"

"What does that mean, Appiano?"

"It means 'goodbye' in Latin and Spanish, no more, no less," Appoint answered to Sunset Shimmer, which made her nod. There was silence, as wind blew in the nearby trees... and a droning sound followed by a jingle came from one side of the statue, putting Applejack and Appiano on high alert and making Sunset Shimmer freeze.

"I recognize that sound..." Sunset Shimmer said, as Applejack and piano turned their heads towards her "That's the sound the portal made when I walked in."

"Walk in? What do you-" Applejack asked, before stopping, raising her right index and mumbling before letting out a "Oh." Meanwhile, Appiano had already walked towards the sound's source, kneeling next to it.

There was another jingling sound, as Appiano spoke up.

"Dè, this jewel looks really weird... the look matches perfectly with the description of amulet that Jacopo the Third of Piombino bought from the count of Saluzzo..."


> Second Chapter
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Sunset Shimmer did not recognize any of the names mentioned by Appiano. Well, except for "Saluzzo," which, united with the mention of a jewel, remidned her of something she had heard during History class and, a long time beforehand, during a time Sunset only remembered in passing.

She quickly rushed next to Appiano, and saw him holding up a jewel made of dulled metal encasing a ruby in the middle, and with two wings and a unicorn head with ruby eyes and horn tip as decoration.

"Dè, look at this!" Appiano said, holding it up with his hands shaped like a cup, slowly goign from kneeling to crouching as he turned around towards Sunset, making it give off a small reflection and projecting red-coloted light around "I cannot beleive this!"

"Neither can I," Sunset said, looking at the jewel, frowning a little, as she vaguely remember what the actual identity of the jewel's thrief was but not exactly their name, and not even complety ure she knew its function "I've read somewhere they had been stolen away a long time ago and never retrieved..."

Appiano then looekd around him as he stood fully on his legs, but still hunching over his hands.

"Dè, do you happen to have something to wrap this into?" Appiano said, as Applejack extracted a white red-dotted napkin from her skirt's pocket, giving it to Appiano, who grabbed it quickly. "I don't get what's the big fuss, but okay."

Appiano glared a little towards Applejack while he wrapped the jewel inside the napkin, while Sunset turned towards Applejack before letting out a little chuckle. Applejack tapped her boot on the ground and frowned more strongly, glarign towards Sunset.

"What's so funny?" She asked, prompting Appiano to fix his shirt's neck hastily and vigorously.

"Dè, I have what looks like a copy of an historical object that has shaped the world's history and you do not even flinch?" Appiano said, as he put the napkin-wrapped jewel into his trousers' right pocket. Applejack groaned and sunset shimmer stopped chucklign at applejack.

"Well, sorry if I don't pay too much attention to your ramblings," Applejack said "And, still, what is that?"

"Dè, it's a copy, o at least a look-alike, of something that Jacopo III, Prince of Piombino and one of my ancestors, bought from the Marquis of Saluzzo Manfred III. According to legend, after buying this, his oratory skills were so great, that he could bend all of the nearby cities' mayors and princes to do his bidding with a single word!" Appiano said, inflating his hcest a little as he spoke along and making Applejack sigh.

I'm pretty sure that that wasn't actually legend, but the truth... Sunset Shimmer thought, biting the knuckle of her left index for concnetrate But I'd need to be compeltely sure... let's see if he is going to let us borrow it. Who knows, I could figure out the whole story.

"Well, that's interesting. Maybe we could test it, one of these days," Sunset Shimmer said, stopping to bite the knuckle and swishing her arm behind her back "Who knows, maybe it acutally works tha way."

"I'd be tempted to say it won't work at all," applejack said, crossing her arms together "but, then again, last tiem we played a song we started to glow like fireflies for seemingly no reason whatsoever, while also knocking out three gals that somehow managed to create a line in the stalls for them, while also enragign everybody with some gas..."

"Oh, I remember them. Adagio Dazzle had to kick me out because I was begin too rough and she said she was going to lose her arms like some kind of cheap plastic doll," he said, bendign forward whiel chuckling a little "Good times."

Sunset grinned and nodded, as she remembered the events of the Midday Invasion and how she, along with her other five friends, has thwarted it by playing music.

"Yeah. Who knows what this thing can do..." Sunset Shimmer said, lookign at Appiano, who then said.

"Dè, I will let you test it, but onlyafter I'll be one hundred percent sure this is actually a copy of it. Okay?" Appiano said, and Sunset Shimmer nodded.

"Okay Appiano." Sunset Shimmer said, before quickly glancing on her wristwatch, and seeing that it was a quarter to one, and, thus, it was time to quickly go home.

"Well, I have to go now. Bye Appiano, bye applejack." Susnet Shimmer said, walking away and waving, as Appiano made a theatrical gesutre with his left hand moving his hair away, and Applejack simply waved and said "Bye-bye."





Sunset was laying on her bed whilst wearing a long light blue shirt and a white diaper, while reading a novel, crinkling about as she shifted her legs from time to time, immersed in her reading.

Her reading flow was interrupted when, all of the sudden, a loud sound of a trumper going off came from her bedside table. Sunset Shimmer jumped startled, as she quickly put down her book, before realizing the soruce of the sound. Sunset, as result, put her left hand on her forehead and chuckled.

"Silly me!" she muttered to herself, as she quickly grabbed her phone and swiped the scren to fully activate it "Let's see who has messaged me then."

Sunset tapped onto the chatroom program and let it load. In the midst of all contacts and chats, Sunset saw one higlighted in green, and, looking up at the name, she read "Flameboy." Sunset smiled, as she tapped on the name, revealign that Flameboy had written.

"Hey there! You said you wanted to see my newest onesie? Well, lookie here!" Below this, there was a picture that, when fully loaded, showed Flameboy laying in bed, wearing an orange hooded onesie, with white cheeks and belly and black cat moustaches. He was holding a baby bottle of milk next to his mouth with one hand, and smiling behind it.

Sunse Shimmer giggled and smiled at the sight presented, as she quickly typed up  her response to Flameboy's photo.

"You look really cute in that, Shy!" Sunset wrote "Do you plan to bring it to the Daycare someday?"

Flameboy immediately answered with a blushing emotion con and a "Maybe..."

"You definitely should," Sunset Shimmer said "I mean... what's the worst it could happen?"

"Ehehehe." Was Flameboy's answer to Sunset's message. "Be right back, I'm going to get a changie now."

"Bye Shy!" Sunset Shimmer wrote, before putting the phone away and grabbing her book again, ccrinkling all the way.

"Speaking of which, maybe I could try to soak and go around for a bit with it." Sunset muttered to herself, as she went back to read and pushed at the same time.



> Third Chapter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appiano, after a rather quick and simple lunch, was quickly walking down the carpeted hallway that lead to the family's library. As he walked, he saw one his manservants, a lean light green guy with azure hair wearing a brown and rust red suit as uniform, bringing a black ebony cane.

"Arcibaldo, please tell to the others that I will be busy in the library," Appiano said, quickly passing by him "and to not start to clean it 'til I am done. Understood."

"As you will." Arcibaldo answered back, increasing the pace of his walking. Appiano sighed, as he then turned around in a short dark corridor that lead to a solid door with a morrhead-shaped bronze handle and a couple of plates with Appiano's great-great grandfahter monogram engraved onto them made of the  same material. Appiano turned  the handle left, making it clang loudly, and then carefully pushing inwards, revealing the library's interior.

"Very well," he said to himself, as he scanned the shelves full of books of all kinds, ceramic decorations and framed photographs and portraits, just next to the door, from the top to the bottom. "If I remember correctly my parents stored our family's chronicles on the top shelves, just next to a photo of granpa holding a flag in a landscape of ruins..."

Appiano now looked more closely, starting from the fourth shelf from the ground. He saw a photo with a smooth and rounded silver frame standing in-betwen some books.

"Maybe it's there?" Appiano said to himself, as he turned his head away form the shelves and towards his right, there a foldable rolling ladder stood by. He went to take it, kicking the folded steps away to fully extend it, and lifting it up with a grunt into the metal rail just above the fourht shelf.  He tried a couple of times, until the wheels entered in the rail, at which point Appiano simply gave a pull to the ladder and then stopped it where he needed it.

"Okay," Appiano said, rubbing his hand togehter, before putting his left foot on the first step and his right hand on the fifth "Time to check if I was correct."

Hopped up and climbed the ladder until it was halfway throught, at which point he stopped to look at the photo. It was a photo of Appiano's father sitting on a zebra-striped sofa, holding a cocktail glass in one hand and keeping his other hand around the neck of a chubby woman with long curly hair and five different kinds of necklaces around her fat long neck.

"That woman kinda looks like Aunt Filomena... but didn't Aunt Filomena used to live in a dump as home or something?" Appiano muttered to himself, as he went back to climbing the ladder up "Anyways, this is not the shelf I'm lookign for, moving on now."

He did so, passing by a small porcelain set in an Orientalist-like style representing a decapitation, an etire row of books about culinary arts and another row of classic novels. Finally, when he gripped on the third-to-last step with his right hand, Appiano saw another photo. The photo was framed by a golden wreath, topped by a brass plaque held by a eagle of the same material, and with the plaque engraved with writing and the oblique checkered stripe of the family inside a circle.

"Field Marshal Francesco Odoacre Appiani-Tholosano; Torrelavega 1955." Appiano read at low voice, as he then looked at the photo itself. 

It was in blakc and white. It depicted a tall man, looking no older than thirty-five, wearing a uniform, with a coat too large, trousers seemingly too seemingly tight and a softcap on hsi head and the officer's hat in hsi right hand, standing with legs and arms crossed against a tank's side, while the landscape beehidn him and the tank showed three ruined houses and a bent streetsign reading "Calle El Cid Campeador."

"Well," Appiano muttered to himself, as he started to look at his left onto the long row of leather, silk and cloth-paper boudn books "That's my grandfather standing next to a tank alright. Let's look for the family's chronicles then."

Appiano took the very first one in his left hand, spreading his legs a little to keep up his balance and not fall off the ladder onto the floor. He then turned his head towards the book's cover, seeing a coat of arms, held by a rampant lion and a rearing pegasus, and divided inn two halves, with one half depicting the familair oblique stripe and the other one depicting a double-tailed sea siten holding its tail fins. The chracters, seemingly carved in the leather cover, were ornate, almost overly so, with a style that resembled stylyzed classical columns and triangular roofs.

"History of the House Appiani-Tholosano; 1809-1911." Appiano read, as he quickly put the tome back into the row "Too late in time." That  begin said, he then extended his right hand, putting it on the rail, before dragging himself and the ladder precisely where he had laid his hand, and also allowing him to see the books' backs and thus recognzie them much more quickly.

"Historia 1720-1809; Historia 1655-1720; Historia 1600-1655..." he kept looking at the books' backs  until... "Historia 1410-1469!"

Appiano grabbed the book, finding it surprisingly light, compared to the weight the first one he had tried to lift. Appiano silently noticed that oddity to himself, as he moved the book close to his chest, almost embracing it. He slowly climbed down the ladder and then hopped off it, moving towards the Reinessance-style poplar table covered with a piece of dark green crude cloth with white hems covered in intricate designs. As for the armchair, it was dark red, with two ebony moorheads on the arms' end and a complicated vegetal motif on the frame of the padding, topped by an oval containing the Appiani's personal emblem.

Appiano lifted the book over his head, and put it onto the table, and, for good measure, he moved away the bronze head on the left side, so to have enough space for open up the book, before putting the silver tray with the purple inkpot and the feather on the right side. Appiano then sat down and quickly shuffed in his pockets, until he found the napkin that cntaiend the jewel.

After taking it out of his right pocket, Appiano unwrapped the napkin carefully and slowly, moved it carefully in front of him, so to keep it under his watch while he browsed the book for information.

Appiano opened the book to the frontespice, then quickly flippign the page and creating a small rip in the page. Appiano recoiled a little, as he then frantically opened one of the foru drawers of the table he was sitting behind. Looking inside it, in the midst of old papers and vintage trinkets, Appiano saw a small couple of shiny tweezers just laying htere.

"Oh Tengri, that was really close!" Appiano muttered to himself, as he then lifted the next page up and flipped it "had I applied more force to it, it would have been ripped away! And, likely, my life shortly after, albeit due to my father's wrath."

As he said that, he looked upon the text, but, seeing no dates anywhere close to the year when the jewel had arrived in his ancestors' hands, he kept flipping with the tweezers, but still taking great care in doing so.

When it was obvious that it was goign to take more time than he could afford to spend, Appiano sighed, closed the book again, and then opened it towards the end. Looking inside the page, he read the first date.

"Fifth of April 1432. I think that I will find what I'm looking for in ten pages," Appiano said to himself, as he grabbed the tweezers again and flipped ten pages, then he scanned the pages' writings. Halfway trhougth the page, Appiano stopped his scanning to actually read.

"Okay, this seems to be it. It's the sixteenth of March 1440 and it mentions a 'res insolita mercata'." Appiano said, as he then started to read the text.

"On the sixteenth of March of the Year of Our Lord 1440, Jacopo III bought from Ludwig I of Saluzzo, as mean of payment for his mercenary armies, four golden chandeliers said to have been made in Catai, armour from the finest ironsmith of Saluzzo, and a most interesting trinket said to have been owned by the Mongol Lord that has brought so much grief to the Empereor and to his ultimate fall."

Appiano grinned and nodded, as he skipped the part talking about the chandeliers and the armour to focus on the object he interested him the most right now.

"The trinket is similar to an amulet of old or a necklace of a poor maiden, as a thick rope serves to tie it around the neck. It's a quite refined ruby encased in dented steel, likely result of involvment in battle. Two waterfowl-like wings of the same material as the case are at the sides. On the top, there it lies a unicorn's head, which however seems to have been tarnished in its meaning from the Tengrist infedel, as it looks like a symbol of evil, rather than purity, as proven by the menacing traits given to the head and the glowing red small rubies as eyes."

Appiano glanced and looked up at the jewel he had brought back from school.

"Alright," he muttered to himself, as he took it in his hands and moved it closer, moving his fingers around the smooth and cold surface "the ruby is there. The metal indeed looks like steel and the wings actually resemble the one of a bird, not quite sure about a waterfowl thoguht. the unicorn head is there, so do the ruby eyes. I don't know what he meant by 'looks like a symbol of evil' thansk to the 'meaning traits,' but I guess we can check those off the list too."

Appiano then went back reading the book, skipping the already-read description of the look to read the rest instead.

"Legend has that this amulet is capable of improving the strenght of a man ten times over, make his sight as sharp as  Linceum's, to turn the worst of the Thersites into warrier that can keep up with Achilles, to make a stuttering one able to capture the hearts and souls of a crowd with oratory, to control the mind of a man with not a weak will, and many other wonderous things." Appiano read this slowly, following the text with his right index, so o not miss any line.

"If the tales are to be believed, all of this requires the user to spit on their fingers, touch the ruby, and make the sign of the cross on the limb or organ that it is wished to improve, and, should one wish to have control upon a mind different from their own, they must follow with their index and their middle fingers the cuts of the ruby, then extend the fingers and say their command accomapined by 'e così sia fatta la mia volontà"

Appiano nodded,smiling, as he then grabbed the amulet in his hands and put it atop the book.

"Well, that's interesting. Let's see if it actually works." He aid, as he then put his index and middle finger of his left hand in frotn of his mouth, spat on them, then he touched the ruby, before moving the two fingers away, creating a small strand of saliva from his fingers to the ruby. Appiano could notice that his spit had taken a slight reddish tint and that it was sparkling, even if the only source of light in the room came from an open window and, currently, the sun was not shining on that side of Appiano's villa.

"Uh-oh. That's interesting, guess this means it's working." Appiano said, rotating his wrist around to look at the reddened spit that was on his fingertips, waiting to be applied like an unguent upon a wound. Appiano then looked down at himself.

He looked at his crotch, smirking as he thought to see if the amulet was going to increase his potential piercing power or his propulsion. 

"Nah, I have better options than that." Appiano shook his head and started to look elsehwere for a part of his body he could improve with his allegedly enchanced saliva, from his arms to his legs, to his ears.

"Umm... I'm not sure if I want to hear mosquitoes fart, or the actual smell of old books," He looked at his right arm "But I sure want to see if I will be able to lift this table and the book easily!"

That said, Appiano started to rub the saliva upon his biceps in a shape of a cross, and, almsot immediately, the site of the cross started to shin lightly and sparkle red, which made Appiano recoil and look at his arm with widened eyes and flailing it a little. his arm felt beating, as it it was growing an hearth of its own and, at the same time, electricity-like feeling crept from him arm to his shoulder, as his biceps, triceps and deltoid visibily grew in size, a if they had been throught intensive training and showed the signs of that in mere seconds.

"Woah..." Appiano muttered, as his arm stopped pulsating, and instead only felt tingling "I didn't expect to see this work this fast ... or actually working!"

Appiano, for test his strenght, set his hand udner the table, before pushing up. To much of his surprise, he lifted with very little effort, causing him to recoil in surprise once more and, thus, making the bronze had fall off on the floor and sending the tray across the table, spilling a couple of ink drops on the green cloth. Appiano blushed, as he put the table down slowly, and causing the amulet to move to the table's edge.

"Let's hope that the manservants will be kidn enough to not mention thei nk blots on the cloth..." appiano muttered to himself, before switching his mind to the other task at hand "Anyways. Yes, it works, and, yes, it's authentic. I can't wait until I will be able to show what this thing can do to Sunset."

With that said, Appiano got up from his chair, grabbed the book from the table with his right hand and put it in his armpit, before walkign in frotn of the table to grab the statue with his empowered hand, thusly lifting it with no trouble at all and putting it back on the table as if it was made of cardboard, smirking a little as he did so.

"I wonder... is there any other neat action I can do with this amulet?" Appiano muttered to himself, as he set the foot on the rolling ladder, holding the book with his stronger right hand "Maybe I could look at the other chronicles, or in the Mirabilia of Jacopo VI. After all, I'd think that he would've mentioned this amulet somewhere." He kept climbing while he thought about the next stop of his research on the jewel found at school.

Once he put the large tome back into place, Appiano rapidly climbed down the ladder to then look up scratching his unkempt short beard on his chin, trying to remember where the book he wanted to read was.

"Historical yes, but where? Family History, or General History? I only remember that it's not definitely a chronicle and that many, my parents included, treat it like a fiction novel, so it may be in the section dedicated to fiction written by my ancestors..." He kept scanning, passing from the Family History section, signaled by his grandfather's photo, to the General History, signaled by a silver chandelabre shaped like an elephant, and finally in the last part he mentioned to himself, which was signaled by a small portrait of a mustached man in Reinessance clothing with a poplar frame.

"Um, if I remember correctly the Mirabilia is considered a fiction novel by some, due to the presence of certain items that have no other sources of their existence and/or that cannot be replicated at all." Appiano said, before pushign the ladder foward to destination. Appiano climbed up the ladder, reaching the shelf where the portrait was, before actually looking around him.

He looked at his right, but, seeing that most of the books there were written by his maternal great-uncle, he ditched to look at his left. Lo and behold, he found what he was looking for at an elbow's lenght.

"Oh what a coincidence," he said, grabbing the somewhat thin book from its slot and pulling it out, climbing down the ladder at top speed, and, with the same velocity, going back at the table and sitting on the chair.

> 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?"

> Fifth Chapter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunset quickly wrote down the thruth on the matter.

"Still nothing, but let's see if I can figirue obscure parts from your findings." That beign said, Sunset decided to turn aroudn and lay on her belly, instead of her back. As she did so, the soudn of two drops came from ehr phone, sign that someone was posting. Sunset started ot read down.

"Intestinal Beetle, as I've guessed, says that each and every Champion is capable of doing exactly one thing in a competitive way in a team. Suppsoed to be an advantage in the past years, it has came to the point of begin compeltely crippling, in case of injury or absence, as they never plan for replacements. Instestinal Beetles also claims that most of the Champions in the non-sports competitions tend to be very bullied and/or shunned, which means lower morale, lower sense of cohesion with other stundents of the Academy and, thus, higher chances of successful bribing. Rarity's research below has only given us confirmation on the matter."

Shortly after, Rarity's nickname popped out with another long message.

"So, these are the facts. The Champion of Philosofy of the Crystal Academy, Curly Winds, gets his books frequently stolen and thrown away, which is irking him a lot. He sounds like the perfect turncoat, althought it'll be hard to convince him to go agaisnt his dearly beloved Stoicism's principles. The Champion of the Melodies, Cherry Crash, really wants to break one of her hands just for spite the Academy's Principal and his obsession for Spanish Nueva Falanges Marches unware, or maybe in spite, of the connotations, and it's easy to guess what to do now. Twilight Sparkle, which is the Champion of Math for the Crystal Academy, is a scolarship student ostracized by most and that usually remains at home for her studies, going out only recently and mostly armed with various scientific contraptions. She has been focused on our school's yard, so perhaps we could work on that right away. Moondancer, the Champion of Mongolian Translation, is a loner, so she won't join us, but, if manipulated well enough, won't serve them well either."

Sunset stopped reading, havign a de-javù at that name.

"Twilight Sparkle? As in, the same gal that stopped my rampage?" Sunset tried to think about the implications, the Twilight she remebered, and everything else "That's impossible. She was in our school and then disappeared alright, but how did she got inside the Academy, if it doesn't accept mid-year transfers? And why the heck she would do that anyways, if she was oign to go around our yard anyways?"

Sunset sighed. Just another mystery she had to solve. She then went back to read.

"So far, Twilight Sparkle is the most likely candidate for buy-out, along with Cherry Crash. A simple talk with the two should suffice. Also, rumor has it that Professor Artemisia, which is also one of the judges for the Al-atl throwing competition, is an ephebophile, an information that a certain person here would really appreicate to exploit."

Sunset Shimmer grinned and winked at the screen.

"What? Can't I get soem satisfaction? XD" Appiano wrote, as he then said "Anyways, Pinkie Pie's turn with the recordings."

Around a minute of radio silence later, the audio message arrived from Pinkie Pie. After a couple of loud static sounds, which made Susnet cover her ears quickly, the recoding actually started, the radio distortion quite audible.

"Lemme get this straight," a gruffy male voice said "Canterlot High's higest council member has decided to take part to six different competitions as either Champion or squaddie, all at the same time?"

There was a crackling beat.

"I don't get it. What does he think he is?"

"A very good player. Or an over-confident one." A suave female vocie said "Besides, it's not like the Principal didn't choose the Champions carefully."

"But he can be wrong sometimes."

"He's hardly wrong, trust me on that, I've been in this school for seven years."

"Seven years?" The male voice asked.

"I was rejected three times, two in my frist year, one last year." She siad with clear annoyance "Don't remind me of those years, please."

"As you wish."

There was static, as the message clsoed off, quickly follwoe by another audio message. Thjis one lacked of static, replaced by the sound of radom ongoing chatter around and the cacophony of steps in the halls. After some more hcatter, the first recognizable voice came about.

"Lighting Dust, tell me, why didn't you choose Horseback Shooting and picked Motorbiking instead? You rock in the first!" A deep but clearly female vocie sai.

"Why? 'cuz the Principal told me that he wanted me to replace my brother, and,since I know my way around a motorbike, I guessed I couldn't refuse." Another, shriller ovice said.

"Is refusal ever an option at any time, when he 'offers' something?"

"Don't think so." The girl answered back, leaving behind a beat of steps, as the voices slowly faded and a crinkle could be heard "But, for all I care, it doesn't matter at all."

There wa another crinkle, then a sound of a lighter.

"I'd rather try to smoke tomato leaves, than refuse his offers," the other vocie said "Also, you there, you better no-"

The covnersation was cut off abruptly, but, from the girl's words, what they were doign was crystal clear. 

"Druggies? Well, Guess that's one way to deal with stress." Sunset muttered to herself "I take that appiano would exploit this too, thought. Also, those leaves taste awful."

Appiano wrote up again.

"And with that we're done. So, Sunset, do you think you cna help us there?"

Sunset grinned at herself, knowing well what she was going to do.

"Yeah. I know Twilight, perhaps I can speak to her, and see what happened to her, since the last time we met." 

"That is," Rarity wrote "if she's the same girl and not an omonym, as weird as it sounds, considered that Tlaxcalians are rather rare aroudn this parts."

Sunset nodded at Rarity's statment, as she went back to type.

"Anyways, aside from that, I guess I could get some Tarascan herbs and try to sell it to the potheads..."

"That'd require major efforts just to get the main active principle," rarity answered shortly after "I'd suggest you to refrain from that."

"I could try," appiano said "but I don't think that trying to sell them certain drugs will serve us well at all, especially ones that are technically military equipment."

Sunset sighed.

"I tried," she typed "But I guess that is all. I'll go to bed now, goodnight." And, with that said, she quickly shut her phone off, before geting up and moving away her pillow, where her purple night wear was folded. Sunset took it up and, removing her underwear, she wore her payajamas instead.

She then moved the covers away and covered herself with them.








> Sixth Chapter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appiano sighed, as he walked down the stairs of his home, wearing a blue fine cloth pajama trousers and an old orange shirt, as his steps on the staircase echoed in the darkness.

"So, what did I plan for today?" Appiano muttered to himself "I have two hours of Mongolian, then an hour of Maths, History and then, allegedly, Religious Education, but I skip it, so it's off to home for me. Then, if he's actually free and not, as I call it, 'Zulu free', I'll practice with Intestinal Beetle after lunch 'till half past three."

Appiano leap forward off the last step, before making a sharp turn towards the kitchen as he kept muttering to himself.

"After that, I'll go do my homework, which should take me less than two hours. The rest? I think I'll pass it between organizing people for the Friendship Games and my own pleasure."

Appiano entered inside the kitchen, where the smell of cooked meat lingered on, but the pans that cooked it were already hanging by the hooks next to the rather large selection of stoves; and where a white linen cloth atop the crudely-cut wooden table showed stains of curry and wine but no dishes or glasses from where they could come from.

"Eh, could clean it up a bit," he said to himself passing past the table and going to the oak door that lead to the larder room "but, honestly, who cares right now?"

Appiano turned the key already in the door's socket, then he slid it away on the right, revealing dimly lit shelves full of food. Appiano groaned, as he clicked onto the light switch just next to him, making the four neon lamps inside to light up to reveal the larder's supplies in all their colours, shapes and overall variety.

"Let's see what do we have here," Appiano said, knelt towards the their shelf to the ground, one that contained mostly breakfast foods "chocolate snack bars, dietetic fruit cereals, apple jam, strawberry jam, pepper jam, zwiebacks, some ham, a handful of Bologna ham, and ten buns."

Appiano grabbed four buns, the Bologna and a snack bar from the shelves, turning around and setting them on the table. Appiano, after a quick look around, found a clean knife next to the stoves and took it, while with the other hand he grabbed one of the nearby poplar chairs covered in a yellow baize-like cloth and moved it closer to the table, so that he could sit down close enough.

As he cut a bun open and set the Bologna into the bun, his mind had a little errant thought that struck him like a lightning during a clear day.

"What about the Appiani's Amulet?"

"Now that I think about it," he said, nibbling the bun "what about it? I've seen what it can do, how and for how long. But did I think of any useful applications, except as party trick or something? Doesn't seem like so."

He then actually bit the bun and, as the chewing allowed him to enjoy the salty and somewhat spicy taste of the ham, he kept thinking.

"I should use it for the upcoming games! Sure, there's anti-doping, but try to catch me cheating with this!" He thought "The judges would need to figure out how this works first, and, in the meantime, I can wipe the opposition off the floor."

As he finished the first bun and proceeded to pass to the next, he kept thinking about it.

"The most obvious application would the Flower Wars, as it requires me only to enhance my and my fellow fighters' strength, and maybe their agility." Appiano took a bite of the bun he had in his hand "Maybe the guys I've assigned to Archery could use some help with their aim, but I'm not sure if they would like their eyes touched by my hands covered in water. Horseback shooting would require something that improves both my aim and my reload speed, but I cannot put my finger on what would I need to improve to do that. Maybe I could try to use the amulet's powers on the mind to give Bon Bon and the rest of the translation squad an edge over the adversaries..."

Appiano felt his fingernails begin bitten by his own teeth. He stopped his train of thought, then he sighed, as he opened the snack bar.

"Anyways, let's get moving faster, for tide and time wait for no one." He muttered, as he started to munch on it while getting up and walking to grab his rucksack.





Sunset was sitting down down in the schoolyard, holding a block notes on her knees, a pencil in her right hand and an hand held vocabulary in her other free hand, while her phone sat nearby her, playing some remixed traditional music.

Once Sunset was done with translating an entire paragraph, she rose her head, away from her efforts in translating Mongol. she looked at the neatly-cut lawn of the yard, and the four roads paved in stone that lead to the statue where Appiano found the jewel and where Sunset recalled to have had her first clear life memory.

"She didn't show up yet..." Sunset muttered, as she looked at her wristwatch "It's half pas three. I'll wait five more minutes, then, if she doesn't arrive, I'll get up and go home."

After saying that, Sunset went back to her text, flip-flopping the pen around in her fingers, as the music changed and a light breeze grew, refreshing Sunset and making the grass rustle lightly.

"This is the verb..." Sunset muttered, as she underscored the word "This is the subject, and these are the relative pronouns."

She kept underscoring words and write their function ontop of them, until most of the two-line paragraph was done for, at which point Sunset moved the hand held vocabulary closer, before browsing it, looking up the principal verb.

"Tulaldakh: to fight. To Struggle. To engage battle. To wage war. To clash." 

Sunset then went on to read the complements and the adverbials, until she figured out the tense and the mood, at which point, recognizing the other words, she started to write down.

"We fought in the vast plain before Samarkand, hundreds upon hundreds of men and horses creating a tumultuous circular movement around the hopeless and confused enemy..." She whispered, writing these words down on the notepad, until she stopped to look onto the text again. however, as she did so, she noticed a shape passing by in front of her.

"Wait, could be it Twilight?" Sunset whispered to herself, as she immediately rose her head up, and saw a girl wearing a turquoise fleece with a big horizontal pouch on the front and black long trousers. Her skin was lavender-purple, and a lock of magenta hair peeked out from the hood.

"Well, she looks like her..." sunset muttered to herself, as she cautiously put the pen back in her skirt's pocket, closed the vocabulary and put it aside, along with the notepad.

"I don't understand this, why does placing the EMF measurer directly on this surface causes it to signal the presence of a strong non-ionizing radiations, but it does not pick up anything at all in the surroundings, or even at few millimeters away?" The girl said, leaving no room for doubt in Sunset.

"Hello there Twilight!" Sunset said, waving at the fleece-wearing girl, who immediately froze up at the mention of her name.

"Who are you?" Twilight said, turning around with a snap, revealing a boxy-looking device she previously kept in her right hand and that now she was holding with both hands like a broomstick used against a burglar. "And what do you wish from me?"

Sunset recoiled and held her chest with her right hand, as her eyes widened a bit.

"Don't you remember me?" she said, moving closer to Twilight as she gestured towards herself "It's me, Sunset Shimmer. Don't you remember me? I've pushed the Dazzlings away with your help."

Twilight took a deep breath and pulled down the hoodie, revealing an unkempt mess of dark purple and magenta hair coupled with black teardrop-shaped glasses, before adjusting her glasses on her nose. "I can't say I do," she said "I was aware about the presence of singing runaways in this town who called themselves 'Sirens' or 'Dazzlings,' but never paid too much attention to it."

Sunset nodded, frowning a little, as she processed Twilight's words properly.

"But... how? You used to go to school here, in my same class and all.."

"I never did," she said, before letting out a bitter-sounding chuckle "but sometimes I wish I did chose this school." Twilight then retook her serious stance "In any case, what do you wish from me? Please be quick, I'm in a hurry."

Sunset titled her head, her frown growing at the same time as her confusion about the situation.

"But... I remember you pretty well, name and look and all." Sunset held her right temple with her right hand "I mean, I know that homophones do exist, and so do homodoxes, but both events happening? What are the odds?"

"Three in a billion." Twilight said, adjusting her glasses yet again and quickly dusting her trousers "the likehood of both meeting are two on three billion. As you can guess, it's very unlikely statistically, but seems that this has happened in this particular case."

Sunset Shimmer sighed, as she put her head back in the proper position, frownign still.

"I don't know, it still sounds too unlikely to me." Sunset said, as Twilight let out a sigh.

"Let us cut this short, what do you want?" Twilight said brusquely, as she put the measurer in her fleece’s pouch, causing Sunset to recoil a little, taken aback by Twilight's behavior.

"Well..." Sunset said, fiddling with her fingers around and weakly whistling, as she quickly mentally scanned the list of questions to make to Twilight and how to lead the conversation to her goal "II think you know that the Friendship Games are upcoming..."

"Yes," Twilight said with a heavy sigh "I know. And the Principal has told me to get over there and make the Academy win, even if I don't want to. After all, what do I have to gain from it?"

Sunset Shimmer scratched her chin, then she nodded.

"Yeah, I can understand that. But, did you tell him you didn't want to do that?"

"No, I didn't, not that it would be of any use." She said, scoffing and crossing her arms "I'm begin told to do this for my schoolmates, but, honestly, why should I care? I'm perfectly fine begin alone in my studies."

Sunset lowered her head and nodded, before glancing at Twilight's face. It was trying her best to keep her phlegm and stiff upper lip, but Sunset could tell- or at least feel- that Twilight wasn't quite sure about her statement. 

"I can understand that," Sunset said, grinning a little "do you wish to go against them in some way."

Twilight chuckled bitterly yet again.

"I'd like to, but I have no idea how, as they pay attention to me only when Math tests come up and, as punctual as clocks, they didn't study anything at all, or when they do the equivalent of not discern their index from a maggot during Physics' class." Twilight Sparkle said "i guess you want me to do something against them for petty revenge against somebody there, correct?"

"Yes and no," She moved her left hand forward, flip-flopping it. "On one hand, there's a beef ongoing, on the other hand, it's a beef between this school and yours, not a personal one."

"What do you, and they, need from me, then?" Twilight said, pushign her glasses all the way up her nose, before crossing her arms. Sunset went back to her previous stance.

"It's simple, really," Sunset said, shrugging. "Just help us in improving our skills in Math, maybe try to apply what you know about it to other things, and, quite obviously, do your worst when the competition comes."

Twilight humphed, before undoing the arm cross.

"I can do that, yes," she said, moving her head forward and squinting her eyes at Sunset, making her back down a little "but what do I get in exchange?"

Sunset moved her hands closer to her chest, as her mind looked for a quick answer to Twilight's question.

"I wasn't expecting that! What do I do tell her? What?" She thought, fiddling with her fingers and biting her lip. "She doesn't seem to care all that much about new friends... not now at least. Maybe he'd like money? Or sexual performances? or maybe..."

She slapped her forehead and groaned lightly.

"Silly me, why didn't I think of it it before?" She thought, before chuckling lightly, while Twilight looked a her with a tilted head.

"I'd find a way to allow you in this yard even during school hours," Sunset said, making a rapid bowing gesture towards Twilight "and keep researching whatever you want to research here. Maybe give oyu materials too, if needed."

Twilight Sparkle nodded, before putting her left hand under her chin and looking up lightly, mumbling lightly. Sunset clenched her right fist in waiting, gritting her teeth a little and closing up her eyes.

"I can do that. Now leave me alone." Twilight said bluntly. Ignoring Twilight's response, Sunset grinned widely and walked away, taking up all of her stuff she left behind.

"Bye-bye Twilight!" Sunset said, taking an hopping stride down the schoolyard's stone path to the exit gate.


> Seventh Chapter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunset Shimmer, after coming back home to complete her homework, took her phone up and  flopped onto her bed with a faint sigh.

"And Khnebish Bokhirnokhoi's rants about philosofy, Tengri willing, are done for the year," She muttered to herself, as she pressed the phone's main button to turn the screen on - revealing the screensaver depicting the sun setting over the Great Temple in Tenochtitlàn - before fully turning it on with an index swipe, and then she then tapped on the chat program's icon. "Let's see what the others have been up to, while I was busy talking to Twilight."

The chat loaded up, showing five alerts and the exact number of messages for each chat, making sunset widen up her up her eyes.

"Four hundred and four messages in the main chat? In three hours?" Sunset muttered, as she tapped on that first group chat "People must've been up to something interesting for sure!" Only to greeted by several walls of text written in Arab by somebody called "Tahabba," which kept repeating themselves with no apparent change for several messages, causing Susnet shimmer to scroll past them, only to be greeted by more of them. With a sigh, Sunset made a strong swipe downwards, which brought her to the end of the chat, revealing yet another couple of Arabian walls of text, followed by the message "User Tahabba has been banned from the chat."

Below, TengriRoadkill's message, which read "nice try, but noone of us live anywhere near Nejd and I already own a lifetime supply of Viagra."

Sunset chuckled, as she typed up a message quickly.

"I take it was a spambot spamming adverts? :P" She wrote, before sending it. Shortly after, Appiano/ TengriRoadkill wrote back.

"Oh, yes, he advertised alright. He also kinda said you'd need to get in Nedj to get all of that shit it promised." He wrote, follwoed shortly after by yet another message "Btw, sent you a pm."

Sunset nodded to herself, wrote "Okay" and changed chat with the pression of the only button avaible. She then tapped onto the private chat with Appiano, bringing up the message he had wrote to her. Specifically it said:

"I've organized a party that, if a comet isn't sighted in the sky, should be hosted at my house in two days. Do you think you be able to come over?"

On such a short notice? Oh well, it'll be Sunday in three days and Appiano's parties are said to be really fun, so I think I'll come! She thought, as she typed down her affirmative message as "Yes, I'll come. Just tell me where and when it starts and I'll be there for sure!"





Two days of regular school and daily activities - and a quick trip to the outskirts of the town on a motorbike - later, Sunset walked in the front yard of Appiano's will, looking around for sport where to park her motorbike. As she looked around herself, she heard the music's vibrations and loud chatter coming from inside the house and, as she turned her heard from left to right, she caguht glimpises of shapes drinking and gesturing at other.

"Well, seems that they started already," Susnet said with a shrug, as she brought her motorcycle next to blue bike and, with a push, parked it nearby, leaving just enough space for the bike owner to pull it out withotu scratching out the motorkbike's chassis or break the handle in half. 

Done so, Sunset quickly walked the path paved in cotto tiles that lead to the burly oak door covered in bronze bas relief depicting battle scenes of the Conquest of Tlaxcalia - specifically from the founding of Vera Cruz to the raze of Tzintzuntzan and the resulting Purèpecha/Tarascan Diaspora - which caused Sunset to frown a little, before ringing the plain brass bell hanging next to the aforementioned door.

The bell rang and, shortly after there was the sound of boots approaching.

"Dè, who's there?" Appiano said very shortly thereafter.

"It's me, Sunset." She said. The door produced a loud bang, as it opened inwards, revealing Appiano, dressed with poofy white and red trousers akin to his ancestors' tastes and his usual white shirt with red chkered and oblique stripe, opening the door while bowing at the same time.

"Dè, come in, we've started not too long ago!" Appiano gestured for Sunset to follow him into the house proper, which she did. Looking around her, Sunset saw on her left four black sofas set in a quadrate shape and a short neocolonial-style coffee table covered in plastic and papers glasses in the center of the sofa square. Some of the guests laid or sat on the couches and chatted, other stood upright and drunk from the glasses or, in certain cases, directly from the bottles, and a couple of guests tried their best to dance at the music that a stereo inside a semicircular niche in the wall played.

On her right, Susnet saw one long oak table covered with a green tablecloth with golden arabesque decoraions and, on top of the tablecloth, silver dishes covered in mini-sandwiches of all tastes, beef and dog jerky, accompained by colorful and minioutsly-decorated bowls full of popcorn and potato chips, and bottles of both water and mid-range wine and hard drinks. Along with those, there were two small piles of paper dishes and bigger piles of paper and plastic glasses.

Sunset immediately headed for the table, picking up five wuster and mustard sandwiches from a plate. 

"And this will be my dinner," Sunset muttered to herself, as she now looked at her left, paying more attention to the guests. Sunset saw Fluttershy smiling as he Flameboy's head as he held a glass of water with one hand and Fluttershy's skirt with the other. Appiano was meanwhile speaking with a burly show brown bald guy wearing a leopard-skin shirt that barely held on his torso with a dark red sweatshirt underneath and dark green long trousers, with Appiano gesturing with his right hand occupied by a glass clarly full of spritz. A yellow girl with cherry-colored hair was laying on the couch while eating up a handful of chips while she spoke to Rarity playing around with a black and purple cigarette holder with an unlit cigarette at its end. Applejack was standing by a column in between the two halves of the room, drinking the airag straight from the bottle. She also saw Lyra and Bon Bon holding hands while dancing and a load of other people Sunset did not recognize right off the bat.

"Well, what am I waiting for? Let's meet the new guys!" Sunset muttered to herself with a shrug, as she then grabbed a paper dish, setting her food on it. She took one of the sandwiches, eating it, before walking towards Appiano and the bald guy, wearing a friendly grin in her face.

"Hello there! What's your name?" Sunset asked as she waved her right hand towards the bald man, once a lull in Appiano's covnersation happened. Appiano turned around towards Susnet with a small jump, as he then gestured with his right hand, and he opened his mouth, only to be interrupted by the guy.

"Oh, hello there, good lookin', my name is Intestinal Beetle." He said, furiously adjusting his shirt's neck and puttign a button back into place after it had popped out "Okay, actually my true name is another one, but I'll kill you if you pronounce it."

Sunset recoiled a little at his declaration, as she then nodded. 

"Oh, don't you worry, he's a bit short-tempered, but he isn't that violent, an, unless you provoke him, he doesn't go the step below either." Appiano said with a chuckle "So relax."

"Oh yeah. I know when there's a honest mistake or somethin' behind it." Instestinal Bettle said, before buttoning up his shirt again and pulling up his trousers. "Anyways, what's your name?"

"My name is Sunset Shimmer, ncie to meet you." Sunset said, tending her right hand forward, feeling relieved but still a bit nervous about Intestinal Beetle now. He gripped on her hand and shook it strongly, causing a fit of pain to go up her arm into her pain and making her yelp.

"Ouch! Too strong!" Sunset said, making Intestinal Beetle to chuckle and undo his handshake. 

"Sorry, I keep forgetting that not everybody has my same strenght... or resistance, for that matter." He said, before walking towards the table "That begin said, nice to meet you too. I take you're one of many girls that friendzoned Appiano?"

Sunset Shimemr blushed and looked away, as Intestinal Beetle grabbed a plastic glass and the rhum, pouring some in it.

"No! What made you think that?" Sunset said with a sligh squeak that betrayed her flustering. Intestinal Beetle grabbed the airag bottle, shrugging as he poured the yellow ish white liquid into the glass.

"Just a hunch."

Sunset stomped her left feet, opening her mouth, before closing it back upimmediately.

Anger him would be unwise. He's giant, for one, and he hasn't exactly called you a whore, but her rather called Appiano a womanizer. Sunset thought, still blushing, as she took the bottle of water to drink from it.

"And how did oyu meet Appiano, if you don't mind answering me?" Susnet Shimemr asked, attempting to get away from the previosu topic as quickly as possible. Intestinal Beetle gulped the airag in one sip, then he wiped his upper lip clear, before burping and then adjusting his shirt's neck.

"See, six years ago we were just two guys learnign how to fight and gettin' some muscles..."






> Eight Chapter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appiano sighed, sipping his glass half-full of spritz as he looked at his guests drinking, eating, chatting and overall enjoyign the party he had set up. Specifically, Appiano was looking to Cherry Crash, who was drinking airag hile sitting alone o n the sofa, and Curly Winds, who was looking Flameboy Shy from top to bottom while scratching his rather well-kept goatee.

"Alright, Curly Winds and Cherry Crash are here," he muttered to himself, as he finished his spritz "Which is how I wanted this to be. Now, how do I get to break Cherry Crash's hand? And, would give Curly Winds a little speech work?"

Appiano went back to the table to grab the prosecco and use it fill his glass.

"She will surely get drunk soon, but I don't know if she would arm-wrestle me, and, without the amulet, I am pretty sure I cannot break any bone," He muttered to himself, as he put down his glass quickly grabbed a stripe of dog jerky and started to slowly chew on it "Besides, I think that my arms' muscles suddenly swelling up would like like a thumb in the eye. I have to be a little more discreet."

He mumbled to himself, repeating his points for several minutes, until he finished his jerky, raising his head at the same time, only to see Curly Winds carefully nibbling on a sandwich.

"Maybe I am better off trying to deal with Curly Winds first, as I can at least improvise something while we talk." He said, as he downed his glass of wine, before walking next to Curly Winds and patting his back.

"Dè, how things are going, Curly Winds?" Appiano said. Curly Winds stuffed the entire sandwich in his mouth, then- as slowly and carefully as humanly possible- turned around towards Appiano.

"Good. At least, I guess." He said, gulping his mouthful, in a vague monotone "They have stolen my copies of 'On the Sublime" by Posidonius and 'Nicomachean Ethics' I had bought for the upcoming Philosofy Competition at the Friendship Games."

"They?" 

"The people that have done it today, and in the past, are variated. I never found out any names, and, honesly, it matters not. The thing that matters, in this case, if to me to succeed in the competition for my school's, Principal Cinch and her husband Sombra's, and maybe my own, prestige." He said, his face relaxing in a small frown, his voice still a flat monotone, one that made Appiano's left hand twitch a little.

I swear, if he keeps using this tone, I'll feel his pulses to check if he's even alive or not. Appiano thought. However, forcing a little grin on his face, Appiano sighed and spoke up again.

"Sure they are quite ungrateful for your efforts, if they try to sabotage you," Appiano stated "Perhaps you could show them wha've got and how your contribution to their victory matters."

Curly took a crane-like stance and adjusted his hair.

"And fail? You are quite amusing." He said, letting out a small snicker, before going back to his monotone, as he then took the airag bottle to fill up a glass "Besides, my personal philosofy tells me that the wise man knows what is the order of the Universe, and what is his place. I am not the dog dragged on by the cart described by Zenon."

Appiano smirked.

"And how can you be so sure you aren't dragged by said cart? After all, I have heard that, in other occasions, you've been complaining about this sort of thing happening to you often. Maybe, if you were to react, despite sounding against your princiles of ataraxia, it may bring you to the happiness you sought for." He said. Curly Winds' face wrinkled and recoiled, before going back to composure and shrug.

"Maybe." And with that, he walked away hastily. appiano chuckled and made a toast to himself.

Dealt with! Appiano thought, as he then went to put some white wine inside his glass, so to actually toast with something.





Hours went by. Some of the guests had went back home, leaving only a few of them around.

Appiano sighed, as he watched a somewhat wasted Intestinal Beetle improvise a dance over the notes of the Saltarello, only to look like an hippo trying to do the same. From his position next to the table- now cleared of any kind of bottles or foods- Appiano could see Sunset, Fluttershy, Flameboy, Lyra and Cherry Crash spectating Intestinal Beetle's dance, and trying their hardest to not laugh or giggle too loudly.

Everyone there, except Cherry Crash, who, hunched forward and with a red nose, laughed loudly.

"Hey Shaka! You're *hic* like a hippo!" Cherry Crash said loud, before breaking in another loud giggle, before standing up and stumbling backwards. Gasps came from the crowd, Intestinal Beetle stopped o dance abruptly to turn his head around towards her.

"How did ya call me?" He asked, rapidly moving towards her, who, with another hiccup, stood her ground.

"You look like a hippo when dancing'round Shaka, my man!" Cherry Crash cheerfully declared. Intestinal Bettle grabbed Cherry Crash by the shirt's neck.

"My name is not Shaka, it's Intestinal Beetle, ya hear me?" Intestinal Beetle declared, as the onlookers stood by, clearly frozen with fear, at his display of strenght and rage. Cheery Crash, seemingly not understandign the danger, shrugged.

"Oh, osrry Shaka. Not just chi-" She said, before begin interrupted by Intestinal Beetle throwing her onto the sofa and rushing over there. Cherry Crash started to flail around and kick the air under Intestinal Beetle's weight and strenght, while he grabbed Cherry Crash's left arm and forcefully pressed it against the sofa's back.

"Say it one more time. I dare you, I double dare you!" He screamed in anger, while Cherry Crash flailed around.

"Shaka, what the fu-" Intestinal Beetle, with a one, isngle, fluid movement, pushed Cheery's left arm over the edge, cauising a faint cracking osound to be heard "Oooowww!"

"That'll teach ya!" Itestinal Beetle said, getting up and dusting his own arms, while Cheerry Crash carefully moved his damage arm closer to her. 

"I'll call an ambulance!" Lyra loudly declared, as she scrambled in her pockets for the phone. Flameboy had ran away in the bathroom, while Fluttershy went towards Cherry.

"That was unexpected, but good for my plans. Still, poor gal." appiano muttered to himself, as he ran away into his kitchen.

"Dè, I will fetch the ice!" Appiano loudly declared, as he went in the kitchen to do just that.



> Chapter ??? (Ending)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunset Shimmer kept her spine stright up like a scarecrow, as she looked at the paved ground in front of her and at the formation of the Crystal Academy at alternate times. Her nervousness, coupled with the cold weather of the overcast day, made her shake a little.

As the notes of the "Viva la Decìma Brigada" badly played by the Crystal Cademy's band faded, Principal Cinch, Twilight Sparkle and the five Champions of the other disciplines of the academy walked forward in the middle ground.

"This is the moment of truth..." Sunset Shimmer whispered to herself.

However, her whisper did not fall on deaf ears.

"Dè, relax. Remember, I have this under control," Appiano whispered as he poked Sunset's shoulder, prompting her to look in his direction. appiano was arching eyebrows, while smirking and pointing at his amulet.

"I may have given up in using it for attract chicks, but that doesn't mean I forgot how to use this." He said. "As soon as Cinch starts to say anything to Twilight, I'll make sure to make her speak up about her errors."

Sunset Shimmer nodded, not calmed down one bit.

"If we need it and he fails..." Sunset cringed.

There was a tense silence, as everybody stood still, the only movement comign from the cold breeze blowing from northeast. 

Principal Cinch nudged Twilight forward, causing her to stumble forward, for then turn around to look at the Principal. The Principal went on to set her head on Twilight's shoulder and whisper something in her ear.

Sunset watched, as Appiano spat on the amulet, moved his finger around on the gem rapidly, then pointed his sparkling red index and middle finger it towards Principal Cinch.

"You'll tell everybody the truth and only the truth to me. E così sia fatta la mia volontà!" He said with a hint of triumph. Tehre was a quick red spream that traveled from Appiano's hand to Principal's Cinch heaad, before wrapping itself around the Principal, thusly giving her a turbant-like headgear. Everybody gasped, as Appiano then moved forward.

"Dè, that's interesting," Appiano said, as he walked with swung steps in the middle ground "Are you perchance telling your student that her enrolling in university is in jeopardy because she didn't want to partake to this Games?"

Principal Cinch nodded.

"Exactly. If she wants to have higher education, she will have to obey me, unleash the power contained inside that amulet and thus make my own school win yet again, proving my methods right." She said, inflating her chest.

Appiano grinned, as he went next to Principal Cinch, makign a shruging gesture.

"And what are you methods? Incentives on the mechanical arts and implicit declaration of their superiority over the Trivium and Quadrivium, persecution of the Renaissance Men and Women of tomorrow and glorification of people that will either little more than Instrumenta Vocalia or creators of inefficent systems, like the ones from where your beloved husband, Sombra Franco De Compostela, came from?"

"Indeed. The Spain of the past is my model of my education, and Skottland of the present gives me new ideas." she declared, with a little bow and a snicker "It did them a lot of good."

Appiano gestured with his left hand, making his wrist rapidly turn back and forth.

"Yeah. Just look at World War Two and the fate of many falangists, and at the fake cities the Skottish have set up next to their border, in the pathetic attempt to impress the English and prove that their policies did not make them backwards." Appiano said mockingly.

Sunset Shimmer smiled, now that he understood what Appiano was talking about. From the Crystal academy a loud murmur came. Principal Cinch recoiled.

"H-how dare you?" She said "What do you know? And what is your authority?"

"History is teacher for life, and even my quite limited knowledge of it makes me think that your way has a point in its basis, but it's completely wrong in any passage of its execution," Appiano said brushing against Principal Cinch as he walked around her.

"As for the authority," He took his glowing amulet off and held it up high "I do not recognize me as my liege, my boss, or any position of power, but as a woman that has done wrong and hidden her sins away. The fact that I had to use this gem, one that has shaped the world in the past, for do it matters little."

He then turned towards the crowd of the Crystla Academy, spreading his arms out.

"Since it would be hycritical for me to hide my own faults in this competition, I shall expose you what I have done to reach victory, not unlike how your Principal tried." He said, as he then listed all of his ploys and plots.





Once appiano was done telling the entire thruth, from how he had strenghtened his body during the Flower Wars, to how he had gotten two of the Academy's champions out of the way by the means of staged pub brawl, passing throught his attempts to get a dog to walk around the stadium, so to unnerve some of the sportsmen. 

"I have done this for my own school, and for my will to be victorious. Admittedly, I have went over the edge of the acceptable.  I, Appiano Appiani, as Head of the Council, will propose to give up our victory, and instead give it to you, knowing well how it came to be." Appiano said. "Such an action, I'm sure of it, will be approved by the ones Principal Celestia delegated to me, and I am sure that my fairness and honesty shall leave a mark on you, and remind you why these games were made. ot to push for crystallization and create wedges, like your Principal and her despicable husband seem to believe, but the compelte opposite."

Appiano bowed, and turned towards his school's formaion, slowly and triumphally walking. There were cheers and boos, whisteles of both apprecciatory and shaming kind, insults, dirty and underwear thrown at appiano, who however stood immobile. Then, the two formations broke down, as the Crystal Academy rushed forward, towards theirformer adversaries.