A hermit appears, as does a new hero and a new crime boss. Are they connected?
Traveling Tide, a fish selling ocean hermit, arrives in Canterlot City. Coincidentally, a strange new hero appears at about the same time, as does a new crime boss, so Sunset Shimmer and her friends try to find out what's happening to try and help. Of course, theye were tied in even before they knew it.
At the Canterlot City harbor, an interesting thing was happening, especially this late at night, although no one was around to see it. What appeared to be a small floating house was flowing towards one of the piers. Something appeared to be pulling it from under the waves. Something that only had a slight silhouette. Something big. As the house neared the pier, the thing jumped out of the water and landed on the houses lawn, reveling it to resemble a humanoid sting ray with a glowing deep blue circle in the center of its chest. Then there was a flash of the same blue light and a towering human figure appeared. He paused for a second, then bent over and picked up what seemed to be some lengthy rope lying on what could be considered as a sort of lawn. As the edges of a lawn of sorts bumped into the pier, the figure set to work, tying the rope around the piers wooden beam. He stood up, stretched, and stared at the city.
"Where are you?" he muttered with a Jamaican accent. "He's been right so far." As he finished with his muttering, another figure emerged from the shadows.
The next day, after school had finished, Sunset Shimmer was beside the statue portal with her friends, listening to Applejack.
"Ah just need to go to the market after this," Applejack was saying. "Yer welcome to come along, Sunset." Sunset Shimmer nodded.
"Thank you," she said. "I'm not sure if I need anything, though. I'm fine for the next week."
"Yes, but there's supposed to be a new fish seller," Applejack said. "Ah've heard that he catches thousands of fish before 6 months are up with his bare hands!" Sunset Shimmer snickered.
"I doubt that," she said. "Even as a unicorn, that kind of magic is hard to do."
"Ah'm just telling you what Ah heard," Applejack said. "But that's not the only thing: Ah've also heard that he doesn't even use a boat!"
"Then how does he get around?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Well, that's where the thing is," Applejack said. "It's not a boat in yer typical sense, but more like a house, with moving space around it." To say the least, the other girls interests were aroused.
"Ok, now this I have to see," Sunset Shimmer said.
The house boat was such a strange idea that the girls almost missed it, until Pinkie noticed it and pointed it out. There was a crowd of people around it, but one man in particular stood out in particular. He was tall, really tall, probably around 7 and a half feet tall, had sea blue skin, and seaweed green dreadlocks. And he was very athletic. He was muscular, but not so muscular that would interfere with all the swimming he supposedly did. It was when he started talking that Sunset Shimmer realized that he was the owner of the house. Interestingly, he was wearing long black gloves on his arms. The went up to his elbows, which was weird.
"All types of fish," he said with a Jamaican accent. "Cod, tuna, carp, goldfish, you name it, I have it."
"Nice," one of the people said. "Where do you catch all these?"
"All over the world," the seller said. He gestured at his house. "With this I can travel anywhere on the ocean, and thanks to several dozen containers, I can keep my fish from rotting."
"And how does it float?" Sunset Shimmer asked.
"The entire structure is made of bamboo," the man said. "You want some fish?"
"No," Sunset Shimmer said. "It's just very interesting, all of this."
"Yeah, a lot of people have doubted I live on the ocean," the man said. "But I manage to do it anyway."
"So do you go from city to city?" Pinkie asked.
"Yes I do," the man said. "Except for this time. I have been hired by a couple of the schools in this city. Who knows, perhaps I will see you lovely ladies?" Sunset Shimmer blushed.
"Well, which school's are you teaching at?" she asked.
"I am working at Crystal Prep and Canterlot High," the man said. "As I can see that none of you are wearing the Crystal Prep uniforms, I can tell you are going to another school."
"Yeah, actually. Canterlot High," Pinkie said. "How are you working at both schools?"
"Let's just say that I am smart and fast moving," the man said with a grin. "My name is Traveling Tide, by the way. I cannot wait to meat you in my class on Monday." Sunset Shimmer and the girls got the hint and started walking away.
"Well, he was certainly interesting," Rarity said. "I wonder what was under those hideous arm gloves."
"I know it was definitely not an advanced alien device that allows you to transform for a period of time," Pinkie said. Everyone stared at her.
"Pinkie, where do you get this stuff from?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Definitely not through the internet on the other side of this story that's being written," Pinkie said. "Why?"
"Darling, it's Pinkie," Rarity said. "By now, you should know not to question how Pinkie does any of this." As they continued to walk away, Traveling Tide watched them.
Could they be the girls that he was talking about? he thought. Perhaps he really did find some candidates. He glanced at the cities buildings and sighed. I can't let this city die. Not like the last one. He made sure that his gloves was covering his arms before he started advertising all the fish he had.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, a storage building trembled. Suddenly, something burst from the ground and blew air through his nose with such pressure and heat it would've cooked a crab.
"Hmm, it's here," it said. It inhaled for several seconds before turning towards a corner. "Found it. He'll be pleased." The rhino looking human grabbed a large box with his large cracked hands and released it into the hole, hearing it crash onto the stone ground several meters below. He jumped into the hole after it, picked it up, and started following the trail back to where it started.
Later that day, after diner, Sunset Shimmer had gone out to get some milk, paper and other things for school. She was second in line for checking out, and the guy in front if her seemed to be taking a some kind of private order or something. He was wearing a black hoodie, with the hood covering his head, and he and the cashier were whispering in hushed voices until the guy in front of her made some kind of screeching noise, making everybody in the room clap their hands over their ears, and pulled out a pistol. His hand, strangely, was grey up to his wrist, were it shifted to black. Sunset Shimmer, and the people behind her, backed up.
"Just give me the cash!" he yelled with a strangely garbled sounding voice, like he was underwater. "Give it to me! All of it!"
"Please, sir, calm down," the cashier said in a surprisingly calm tone. "Let's talk about this before you do anything rash." The man aimed his pistol at the cashiers head.
"I have a pistol aimed for your head!" the man screamed. "I think we're past talking at this point!"
"Shoot me," the cashier said cockily. The growing crowd of people gasped. "You'll never find the key for the lock." The hooded man lunged and grabbed Sunset Shimmer by her shoulder and aimed the pistol at her head. Sunset Shimmer screamed and tried to get away, but the man wrapped his arm around her, which was surprisingly strong. And wet. Sunset Shimmer hadn't noticed it before, but his hoodie was extremely wet.
"Maybe you're fine with me shooting you, but are you fine with me shooting her?" the man yelled. With trembling hands, the cashier raised his hands in surrendering.
"Ok, ok," he said. "Just don't shoot her." The cashier reached down below the counter, rummaged for a few seconds, and brought back a key. He put the key in the lock and turned it, bringing the lock of off the register, opened the register, and handed the man the tin. He grabbed it with the same hand that was holding the gun, and instead of doing what everyone had expected to do, which had been to let Sunset Shimmer go, he started running, with Sunset Shimmer still in a headlock. They turned a corner, and suddenly there was a flash of deep blue light. Sunset Shimmer had been temporarily blinded, and when she could see again, there was a man standing in front of them. There was just one problem. He was on fire. Or rather, he looked like he was the fire. Most of his body was covered in red rock, but through the cracks, on his feet, hands and head, were flames. And there was a circle in his chest, with what looked like a blue hourglass with grey outlining on it on his chest. The man holding Sunset Shimmer screamed and aimed his gun at him, and a crowd of people gasped.
"Let the girl go!" the fire guy yelled.
"No! You're a myth!" the man screamed. "You aren't supposed to exist!" The fire guy spread his arms.
"Well, guess what?" he said. "I exist! And I want you to let the girl go!" The man answered by firing his gun at the man, nocking him back. People screamed and started panicking. But then the fire guy started to rise.
"Ow," he said. "The bullet didn't actually kill me, but hitting my head like that actually kinda hurt." The nodded man screamed again and started rapid firing his gun, money and change flying out of the register tin. The fire guy, expecting the bullets this time, stood his ground, and didn't fall over as the bullets hit him. When the hooded man's gun started to click, the fire man hurled a ball of fire at them. Miraculously, Sunset Shimmer was able to get out of the man's grip, and with only a slight hair burn. However, the fire blast had also knocked down the hood. Sunset Shimmer gasped. The man had an anglerfish bioluminescence orb, and a face that looked like a cross between a shark and a cat fish. His head was grey, and he had what looked like a fin going down his neck and back. He had freaky looking fangs and Sunset Shimmer wondered how she had noticed none of this.
"You will tell me where he is!" the fire man yelled.
"Never!" the fish man yelled back as he slowly started backing away. "You all will serve him eventually!" The fire man pointed a finger at the fish man.
"You will tell me where he is!" the fire man said. "Or else...well, I still don't know how hot I can burn. Would you like to find out with me?" the fish man screamed again, and then did something that the fire man didn't expect to do. The fish man grabbed one of its fangs, pulled it out (apparently it was prosthetic, if you can apply that to teeth) and stabbed it through his heart. The crowd gasped and the fire man yelled "No!" He ran towards the dying fish man and slapped him.
"Where is he?" he yelled, his voice cracking with his body flames. "What is he planning next?" The fish man stared at him, and Sunset Shimmer didn't think he was going to answer. But he did.
"He's found......a power source......" the fish man managed to say before he coughed and died. The fire man stared at the fish man for a few second before standing up again. Sunset Shimmer and the crowd of people stayed silent.
"Well, that sucks," he said before looking at Sunset Shimmer and walking a few steps forward. "Are you ok?" Sunset Shimmer nodded, dumbfounded that this was happening.
"W-who are you?" she croaked out. Her mouth was suddenly very dry.
"Well, as this I'm Heatblast," he said.
"As this?" Sunset Shimmer asked.
"Oh, I'm not always in the same form," Heatblast said. "Now, I have to go." He turned around, and started walking away. Then, as the crowd started to surge forward, he threw down his hands, started blasting fire from his hands, and started to fly. Everyone watched him fly away, then looked at Sunset Shimmer.
The rest of the weekend went by fast, especially with the fast traveling news of the new apparent hero in Canterlot City. Sunset Shimmer had been asked many times about the mysterious burning man, and by the time school had rolled around, her story had been told so many times that she was begging to grow tired of telling it. When she finally got to school on Monday, people had started gathering around her, asking if what the news was saying were true or not. As she answered, she checked the schools announcement board. One of the classes had been replaced with a survival class. Her first class was replaced with it.
That must be the class that Traveling Tide was talking about, she thought. She started walking towards the class room that it was in, and when she arrived, she realized that it was going to be an intense survival class. Traveling Tide was standing at the front of the class with a couple of other men that she didn't recognize. And they were holding weapons. One of the men was snowy white and had stone grey hair and beard. The other wore glasses and had metallic looking skin, and had hair that strangely looked like moss. Both of their eyes were covered, either by glare or hair.
Who is this guy? Sunset Shimmer thought as she stared at the various weapons that the men were holding. Interestingly, each man was wearing similar gloves to Traveling Tide, except they were shorter, only going up halfway past their wrists. Sunset Shimmer looked at the growing class and saw her friends. She sat down next to Rarity.
"Those are some sweet weapons," Rainbow Dash said. "Are we going to learn how to use them?" Sunset Shimmer shrugged, and was about to say something when Traveling Tide started speaking.
"Hello, class," he said. "This is your introduction for survival. If you survive this class, you pass. If you don't......lets just say you want to pass."
"Really?" one of the guys next to him said with a heavy Chinese accent. "You phrase it like that?"
"It's better than what he suggested," Traveling Tide said. "Do we really need to get into this?"
"No," the Chinese man said.
"Good," Traveling Tide said and turned back to the class. "Now, in here you will learn how to survive on your own, in case you decide to live a life style like mine, which for those that don't know, I live on the open ocean, in a little hut, hunting for fish."
"Is that why your hair is so terrible?" Rarity asked.
"Yes it is," Traveling Tide said. "It's also in part why I wear these gloves. It's because over the years of hunting fish, I have developed some nasty scars, and you don't want to see them."
"How bad?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Think Wise Fool's face, but worse," Traveling Tide said, gesturing at the Chinese man.
"Hey!" Wise Fool said as kids started laughing.
"Anyway, in this class, you'll learn how to hunt animals, make shelter, hold your breath for long periods of time, and how to spot weaknesses," Traveling Tide said. Sunset Shimmer raised her hand, and Traveling Tide nodded at her.
"How are these going to help in another life style?" she asked.
"Life throws curveballs all the time," Traveling Tide said. "It's better to know this stuff then to be in a situation and not know anything." For a moment, his face showed great pain, like he was remembering something from his past. But only for a moment, and his face changed back to normal. "And these other fine people standing next to me are going to help me teach you." Wise Fool waved slightly.
"As you heard earlier," he started. "I am Wise Fool. The man standing to my right is Snowy Torrent, and we will be helping you pass this class." Suddenly the intercom turned on, and Principle Celestia started speaking through it.
"Traveling Tide, can you come to the front office?" she asked. "We have a small plumbing problem." Traveling Tide frowned.
"You two have it covered?" he asked Wise Fool and Snowy Torrent. They nodded and he left the class.
"Now, your first lesson will be aim," Wise Fool said. "You will be throwing these spears at some of the targets on the walls and ceiling."