#20

For every punch I sent her way, she had this damn shield that gave her an incredible advantage, I couldn't land any physical hits with my fists. I was in the air looking down at the thick dust created by the most recent explosion, waiting for Celestia to reappear, she launched a sun-like attack that I luckily directed back at her with my sword. In a matter of seconds, beams of light escaped through the dust before the dust was completely blown away as Celestia made her appearance once more. I grinned down at her as I raised my sword up to my face, I was going to give her a great battle to remember for life.

"Hey, Celestia! Prepare yourself, cause I ain't losin' this fight!" I yelled as I quickly charged up my energy to an even stronger level. One important rule of fighting is to never start at full strength, and I still wasn't about to go all-out.

Celestia wouldn't answer back, she was hiding something behind that cold stare, oh, but I was going to get her to speak sooner or later. I ran my fingers through the sharp end of the blade before nodding at her playfully and letting myself drop to the ground.

"Okay Celestia, it's about time I get on the offensive-" I taunted before quickly raising my sword over my head, stopping this long line of fire that resembled a sword. I shook my head with my grin growing ever so slowly, "You should allow others to speak before trying to decapitate them!"

I quickly turned myself to the offensive quickly swinging at her as she turned to the defensive, she met every swing with more of her fire swords but they quickly disappeared on impact, this was good. I continued my swings, becoming faster with every swing and a little more excited. I quickly began to acrobatically spin, get on my knees, come at her from different directions to attack as my speed reached a level where she couldn't deal with the attacks anymore. She spawned a late sword as I stopped my sword on her neck just half a centimeter from cutting her, I wasn't looking in her direction and I was using a knee to support my stance, she gave me a look of shock as I looked back at her, had I impressed?

"Surrender!" I exclaimed holding onto my grin as I remained in the same position. She stayed shocked for a moment before looking down to the ground with a grin, I nodded my head as I threw myself away from her and looked back at her waiting for anything, "Come on Celestia, I'm not the only one who should speak highly of themselves!"

She seemed to chuckle a bit before looking back up at me with a malicious smile as she flicked one of those fire swords up to her face, "Maybe you should consider surrendering!"

"What...WHAT!?" I yelled as I looked down to see that I had lost my shirt, she destroyed them without me noticing! I quickly looked back up as I raised my sword to her and seriously clenched my teeth, this shirt took so much awkwardness to make and I wasn't going to let them die in vain. I slowed my breathing and entered my state of complete focus to avoid this again.

"I will never surrender, especially now that I look like this!" I firmly stated, tightening the grip on both of my hands as I placed my sword back into the holster, now I will result to a little more fun. I flexed my fingers as I waited for her to make a move, she quickly created two more swords making three and launching them towards me.

"Then I'll make you surrender!" she yelled as she quickly spawned more of the sun like bombs behind me. She became a bit too confident but I'll show her not to take me easily.

I smirked as looked up to Celestia as the swords that were inches away from impacting on me slowed down. I quickly made my move and moved to my new location as I looked back at the site where I was become full of explosions. Celestia grinned as she stared at the destruction being created in front of her but she had no clue I had moved away, exactly how I foresaw it.

"Ha! A direct hit! How about now Ben!? Surrender!?" She yelled out to the area of impact as I tried to conceal my laughter inside. I looked up at her as I placed my hand on her chest making her widen her eyes and stop her breathing, I chuckled a little before smiling widely.

"What do you do when I shirtless guy gets under you and touches your chest?"

"WHAT!?"

"Oh right…that partially works for you…oh well, SURRENDER!"

"N-NEVER!" She stuttered a little objecting to that, I had finally hit a weak spot. I instantly began dodging her fire swords with my head as they stabbed into the ground around me. After dodging for a few seconds, I got a bit annoyed with her swords and extended my arms to my sides.

"STOP THAT!" I yelled as I unleashed an energy blast to all areas around me, making her fly up into the air and use her wings to stop herself from going any further. She stared down at me as I quickly got on my feet and used one hand to massage the other as I prepare it for the finale. I let my eyes quickly go from playful to dead serious as I tightened my hands into fists.

Celestia nodded at me and knew what was coming, she instantly prepared herself by creating a tiny ball of light that balanced on the tip of her horn. The ball began to rapidly grow, it wouldn't stop in becoming bigger and gaining more power, but I wasn't fazed by such a thing, this was all planned out in my mind. The ball of light finally reached its max and looked about as big as I could imagine it, it was like she was about to throw the sun at me, maybe she was!

"ALL RIGHT BEN, LET'S SEE WHO WILL SURRENDER NOW!" She yelled as she raised her hoof up to the sun like energy force and flung her hoof in my direction making the energy ball follow and rush at me. I slowly looked up to the ball as it came at me, I waited for this, and now it presented itself.

I evenly parted my legs with my hands tightly gripped and my arms to my side. I closed my eyes for a few seconds before quickly opening them widely and stiffening my body as I raised my hands up high and brought them down to my side followed by the strongest yell I could muster up as the reddish aura surrounded me. I continued to grunt as I allowed my body to go to its max, among the last grunt I finally let out my last yell followed by a white aura over the red one, I had successfully combined the Kaio-Ken with my normal strength, unlike before in which I just let the Kaio-Ken go over everything.

I looked up at Celestia who was staring down at me, shaking as she quickly used more power from her horn to make the energy ball stronger and bigger but by know, she knew it was impossible to deny who was going to win. I gave the ball of energy at coldest look as I lifted one hand up to it and spread all fingers out as I charged up the blue sphere in my hand that made the wind violently bend trees and the clouds in the sky part. I grinned once more before reaching my hand back and placing it behind me as I charged up my energy even more, she wanted to see this, all right then, she'll see it!

"Alright then! Celes-"

Something stopped me, my breath cut off and my attack fainted out as I fell to my knees, tightly holding my neck, trying to get air flow. This wasn't the Kaio-Ken's doing if it was I would feel pain, not suffocation! After a few seconds of no breathing, my face began to hurt and a burning began to appear from inside my body. I clenched my teeth as I saw Celestia's attack coming at me, all I could do was fall on my back as I raise one hand at the energy ball, begging for it to stop.

BREATHE! BREATHE DAMN IT!" I thought as Celestia's attack refused to stop, she couldn't see me over the energy ball. My hand began to violently shake as I couldn't take it anymore, I felt my body lose itself and I finally accepted the idea that I would die. I observed the final seconds I had as I saw the ball near me and the burning heat touch my face as I let my head bang against the hard ground, I had left her…

"Am I dead?"

Wait a minute…if I'm dead, then why the hell am I still conscious of my thoughts?"

I couldn't feel anything, it was as if I was just a floating "thought", with no control over nothing. This was strange, I couldn't tell if I was dead or alive and worst of all it was completely pitch black. I could think I was looking around but it didn't feel like I was, this shit was way too confusing and deep, I basically lost all five of my senses.

It felt like minutes had past and still no sign of light or anything different. I could feel my feelings begin to quiver as I thought about quivering, it would actually feel nice to quiver right now. I remained in this state for a while as I began thinking of some songs that I knew at the top of my non-existent head, it helped me get rid of the stress.

"Okay...how did it go? Pressure...yeah!"

"Pressure! Pushin' down on me…Pressin' down on you no man ask for! Under Pressure!"

"Hey, you shut it!"

"The hell?!"

"I said SHUT IT!"

I felt something quickly hit the side of my face strongly, it felt like a solid rod had jacked my face, waking me up. I stared in all directions as the world of color returned and I could easily see everything clearly again, I began to rejoice!

"I CAN SEE! TALK! FEE-GAH!" I felt something quickly poke my stomach strongly as I lost my focus and tightened my stomach in pain.

"I SAID…SHUT IT!"

I looked up to see who was poking me, it was K, who was being restrained to a stone wall from the legs and hands with chains, he held in his hands his wooden sword that seemed to have been broken in half. I quickly shook every feeling joy away as I looked up to K again to see that was linked to a chain on his wrists and ankles, the chains were a bit long and allowed him to move, unlike the ones on me that pinned me to the wall tightly.

"What the-?" I whispered as I began to move both arms and legs, I was really in chains and worst of all I was in some type of jail cell. I quickly looked to K who was playing with his feet as he moved them side to side.

"K! WHERE IN JAIL!"

"NO SHIT! DUMMY!"

I looked all around to see if I could spot a sign of a single pony but nothing. After seconds of struggling, I finally let my body rest from all the movement and began to breathe quickly as something was clearly wrong. I turned to K again and he turned to me with this look of "don't look at me like that!"

"K…What is happening?" I asked taking a deep breath to calm down but maybe I shouldn't have, K raised his chained hands and aimed it to the ceiling of this place and began with, "You shouldn't have hurt her…"

I froze, he just stated something that made no sense to me, who did I hurt?

"Hurt who!?" I asked becoming a bit annoyed with the fact I knew nothing about what he was speaking.

"Celestia, you dumbass!" He answered back, scolding at me. I lifted my shoulders the best I could in these chains to express I didn't know shit about what he meant but the fear that I did something wrong began to fill me. He gave me a look of disbelief as he looked down and pondered something before getting back to me with a question.

"You serious?!"

"YEAH! I DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT HURTING CELESTIA! Well beside what we did while we fought..."

He looked down at the ground again before getting back to me and beginning to explain. I knew I wasn't going to enjoy listening to this since he looked up and around himself before beginning the story.

"Okay then…we observed your fight through Luna's magical sphere thing and boy were you getting praised for your consistency until that final moment. Celestia came at you with most of her strength into that one attack but you charged up even further and surpassed the power of that energy attack. And then you began to have some weird seizure shit…"

"A DAMN SEIZURE!? I WAS STRUGGLING TO BREATHE!" I defended myself, but he ignored it and continued.

"Well…now listen…You passed out and were about to get destroyed by Celestia's attack when…"

He hesitated for a moment before shaking it away.

"When you lost your damn mind…"

I paused to take in what he'd told me, this was all wrong, I had passed out and probably died. I shook my head denying what he was saying, he looked glanced at me and back at the floor before getting back to swaying his feet side to side. I struggled a bit more with the chains before giving up and sighing deeply.

"So…what did I do?" I asked letting my body hang from the chains, K gave me a small smile before turning it serious. He shook his head in disapproval as he picked his broken sword again and used it indicate things as he spoke again.

"You see…(fuck, they broke my sword)...passed out and was about to get turned into a human bar-b-que but you…somehow…raised up and punched the ball of energy so hard it parted the sky and knocked Celestia to the ground," - I stared strongly at the ground as I tried to imagine the scene-, "So she's on the ground and you looked down at her before teleporting in front of her, you had this cold look and most importantly your eyes became blank with nothing but a glowing white!"

I shook my head as I continued to hear these things, it's hard to believe something that I can't even remember doing. He proceeded despite my efforts to deny it.

"She called your name out so many times but you were…immune to it, you picked her up by the neck and held her high over the ground as you used your other hand to charge some sort of red-blue like attack, you tightened your grip every time she cried out your name…"

"FUCK! THAT'S ENOUGH!" I yelled stopping him from continuing, I was holding breath while taking in all this information, it wasn't good for me to bottle it up like that. I panted heavily as swallowed down on the dryness of my throat and pulled on the chains harder in my distress. K looked down a few seconds before looking back up and nodding.

"Don't worry about it before you could even harm her you passed out for real… she teleported you back but for her sister's safety Luna locked us up, she put these damn chains on that don't allow us to use any form of magic," he ended as he let his body fall loosely and cross his chained arms.

I glanced at him before looking up to the ceiling and back at my hands, they chained us pretty well. We both settled in for silence for about a few minutes before realizing we were pretty bored in this dungeon. K seemed to whisper out a song and tap his feet to the beat of a song, the tune was all too simple for me to not know the name: Paint it black by The Rolling Stones.

"You like The Rolling Stones?" I inquired making him straighten his posture as he nodded back.

"Yeah…"

"AC/DC?" I asked next trying to make conversation, it seemed to work since he grinned and answered back with a chuckle.

"That too…you like Queen?"

"Under Pressure," I responded, he nodded to that too.

"Yeah…Bohemian Rhapsody."

We began to get somewhere with this, he began to slowly hum out the beginning of the first few lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody and I sooner or later followed along. The humming slowly morphed into us whispering the lines before going into an actual rendition of the song. The one thing I liked about this song was that it related to my position right now and even expressed how I felt right now.

At the end of the final lyric, we laughed out admiring how well the song actually sounded when in an actual situation. Our laughter turned faint as we began to realize that we were still locked up but I was now a bit more encouraged to get out now.

I couldn't remain locked up and not do anything. I quickly looked behind me at the chains, they were sturdy and locked tightly but this was now child's play now that I looked into it a bit more. The chain may be harnessed tightly to my wrist but the wall it was connected to just needed a dent and I would pop out free.

"Psst…K…is there any guards around?" I whispered as I scouted around with my eyes.

He looked up to me puzzled before shaking his head, I nodded with a smile as I focused on his wooden sword and told him to throw it at my hand. He caught my drift and lit up with excitement as he threw it, I caught it easily and did my best to stick it into the small gap between a chain link, it wedged in perfectly. I placed my teeth onto the handle and began to pull strongly using my cheek as a fulcrum, despite the tight pressing of my cheek, the crackling of the wall and with K cheering me on, I knew I was doing something right. I stopped to catch my breath before quickly forcing it once more, this time a slight metallic 'clank' was heard as my body fell, hanging from one hand now.

"Way to go, Ben!"

"Shh!"

I continued to dislodge the rest of them with the sword and then proceeded to K's chains. We massaged our wrists as we broke off the cuffs and chains to allow our magic to flow through again, K chuckled as he played with his magic a bit, I did the same to get a feel for it.

"Don't know how much you need it till it's gone…" He said as he looked up the ceiling and at me, I agreed before looking up as well, I sighed as noticed that getting out through there would lead to guards and probably back into the cell if they found us. I pondered for a moment before K spoke from within my mind, he got back inside, the chains probably restrained such actions before.

"I got this!"

I felt my hand force itself onto my forehead with both the middle and index finger on them, I instantly recognized the maneuver and agreed with him as I allowed him to take over for now.

"Ha! I found the rest of the ponies, let's go to…Luna!"

Poof*

I felt myself land over something, I remained with my eyes glued closed as gasps were heard throughout the area, I was face first into something soft. I slowly blinked my eyes open, a dark blue color covered my sight…a very warm blue color. I placed my arms to my side as I lifted my face off the warm surface, the first thing I noticed was the ponies that stared at me then Luna who was at a completely lost for words as she blushed strongly. I blinked my eyes once more widely and threw myself off of Luna and landed on my bottom with my hands out behind me.

"Umm…Hey ya…Luna!" I awkwardly greeted with my hand making a kind gesture. She slowly lifted herself with her front hooves but stayed laid down on the floor, I glanced looks at everyone, they all looked rather shocked to see me.

"How? How did he escape?" She asked whispering it to herself, I turned my full attention to her and began to explain how I needed to see Celestia but she denied me any access to see her. The ponies around me did nothing to support me as I bickered with Luna about it.

"Please!"

"No! You nearly killed her!"

"Luna!" - I placed my hands around her shoulders- "I never meant to do whatever I did! I want your sister's forgiveness and every ponies', so please! Let me see her!"

"But…but, you…you…" She stuttered but I had to see her now, I was going to. I brought Luna up close to my face and bopped her muzzle with my nose.

"I know, I thought the same thing when I came to senses…please, Luna!" I begged.

She paused for a moment and looked down at the floor before widening her eyes as a shadow appeared over us, I did the same as Luna as I quickly rose my head and looked aimlessly in front of me. That motherly voice from before had entered through my ears and through Luna's, we both turned around to see Celestia, she had that a joyous smile.

"Oh, there you are! I've been searching for you!" She happily explained as she separated me and Luna with her magic and lifted me to a standing position. I stared at her confused out of my mind, considering what I did when I wasn't aware, she should be angry or frightened, but no, she was happy to see me. I began to stutter in my confusion as I wondered what was happening.

"You're not…angered?" I asked, she quickly let out a creepy laugh that made me jump with and cover my face a bit. I stared at her chuckling nervously as she shook her head and giggled a bit, I looked to her left and saw my sword along with the bag of bits hovering with her magic. I wanted to have them by my side, especially now that everything was not making sense.

"No! I looked for you to return these things!" She happily stated, I chuckled a bit more as she hovered the items to me. At last, I had my sword on my waist and the small sack of bits as well, everything was good with me but what the hell was going on with Celestia?

"HE NEARLY KILLED YOU!" Luna interrupted yelling all her disbelief out, I regrettably nodded at Celestia but she quickly covered her mouth with her hoof to hold in some laughter. By now, I, along with every pony became unsettled by Celestia's strange attitude, I leaned away from her as she lowered her hoof and waved as if to say, "No! No!"

"That was just a simulation! I was testing Ben to see if he passed the test!" She said in an apologetic but amused tone as Luna's mouth hanged wide open with shock along with every pony in the room, I would do the same but quickly looked down to see that my shirt was fully back on me and realized it wasn't at all damaged.

"You see, Ben's shirt is as good as new!" She hinted placing her hoof on my shirt, I looked down and laughed a bit noticing I was worried over nothing but a simulation. Luna also joined my laughter before covering her face with her wings getting both my and Celestia's attention. She lowered them showing her look of disappointment

"What's wrong?" Celestia asked her, Luna lowered her head below her shoulders in embarrassment.

"I kinda threw Ben into the dungeon…I thought he would've hurt you…" She answered ashamed of her actions but both me and Celestia felt the same about her actions, she looked out for her older sister and that is something special on its own. I couldn't be mad at Luna for this, but then again it's hard to be mad at her to start off.

"No worries Luna, I would've done the same if someone tried to hurt you!" I consoled, making her smile and feeling less tense about it. Celestia gave her a similar response that made her smile widely. After a few seconds of small making up for wrong decisions, Celestia changed and began pondering something, we all quickly caught on and waited for her to express her thoughts.

"But, it was impressive how Ben burst into a full-on berserker mode, luckily, I stopped the simulation on time! Pain doesn't follow you when you leave the simulation," she said making me ponder my own questions, the rest gave their signs of relief but I wasn't going to let it rest.

"You mean that could happen here too?" I asked, she raised a hoof and nodded happily.

"Yes! But not to worry, this happened because you let the power consume you and you had no way of knowing…this also causes some damage to the body-"

"Like my breathing ceasing!"

"Right!"

I guess I now knew what to watch out for next time, I sighed in deep relief as I sat down on the floor. I let myself rest a few seconds before Twilight spoke from my side.

"Did he pass?" She asked giving Celestia her faithful look, Celestia smiled down at her and nodded.

"He surprisingly did! Thus, explains my excitement!" She said ruffling my hair with her magic, I shook my head to get me hear back in place as I lifted myself up and smiled.

"Well, I passed…what exactly?" I asked, Twilight looked like she about to answer but Celestia's glowing magic appeared around her mouth forcing it shut. I lifted an eyebrow as turned to Celestia who shook her head.

"It was a personal test…just to see who was stronger!" she answered, I nodded accepting the logical answer but shutting Twi up wasn't necessary. I got Celestia's attention once more and asked my last question hoping to finally get the rest I needed.

"So why did I have Luna try to attack me earlier?"

"Oh…you did that?" Celestia asked turning to Luna who looked away to me, she rubbed her hoof on the other.

"I didn't want you two to fight, so I thought I could've stopped him for you…" She replied looking back her sister, Celestia smiled again and picked Luna's head up with her magic.

"I have a very thoughtful sister!"

I stared at both of the princesses as they comforted each other before bag hanging by my side began to glow a bright pink. I picked up the bag and opened it before seeing the glowing stone from before, it was glowing red from both sides, this color is probably love or joy. I smiled before closing the bag and returning it to its place, everything seemed to be going right as of now.

"Ben…" Luna called me over, I looked up quickly and moved in front of her, she seemed to want to say something but was a bit hesitant about saying it. Celestia persuaded her to speak pushing her a bit forward from behind. I calmly waited for her to answer as she lifted her head up giving a small chuckle, she was pretty nervous.

"Umm…we would like to get to know you better-" She paused and looked back at her sister who signaled her with her eyes to continue speaking. She nervously smiled before turning back to me, "So…we wanted to know if you would join us for dinner…"

Her eye twitched a bit on that last statement, I couldn't deny such an invitation coming from Luna I would do nearly anything for her, nearly anything. A smile made its way up my face and Luna had her answer, I nodded proudly as my mouth followed.

"Yeah! I would love to!" I replied and glad I did since Luna nearly jumped from the excitement. Both Luna and Celestia gave each other a look of accomplishment as I turned to the rest, they had been awfully quiet up to now.

They discussed with each other something before noticing me and giving me their full attention. My hand went up and waved at them, some smiled others giggled but it was good enough for me to know they were fine.

"Geez, Y'all are the best!" I complimented making them all smile widely as chuckled my happiness back into me.

They all seemed to await my presence but this on its own was slowly going to turn into a problem, I can't be somepony's and then somepony else's…or can I? I shook the thought away focusing only on the present which seemed to be this dinner that I was invited too after a near screwup.

"Ben" Flutters spoke, "We'll leave you with the princess, have a great time!"

"Yeah!" The rest followed.

I rose my head quickly and turned to look at the ponies disappearing into a glow, at the moment I hadn't expected their leave to be so early and I quickly raised my hand. They disappeared before I could stop them, I stared at my hand that looked stupid waving at nothing and retracted it whispering only a few words under my breath, "See…ya."

"Don't worry you'll see then again, and it's almost dinner time!" Luna squeaked with joy, I liked the reassurance and agreed with her judgment.

We were alone, excluding some of the guards and servants that roamed around. Something was strange, it was just me and two princesses and it's almost dinner time, next thing you know they let me sleep here.

"Oh, and Ben…"

I widened my eyes looking downward before normalizing them and looking up to Celestia, she had this strange exotic smile, "yes?"

Oh no…I jinxed it, didn't I?"

Luna looked at her sister with a small blush going, as she stiffened her back and rolled her eyes nervously. Celestia nudged Luna's behind a bit making her turn to Celestia with an embarrassed pout. This was all adding to my suspicion, will I cope? I don't know. Celestia cleared her throat and turned to me.

"We have prepared a room for you if you wish to stay the night here…" Celestia said bringing up a decision, I always hated decisions because they both have consequences. I mentally thought about it before an unwanted smile appeared over my face.

"Thanks! I'd love to stay!"

"Great…such enthusiasm is healthy for you, see you in the royal dining room!" She praised before trotting off with her sister to the dining room I suppose.

I quickly regained control of my body again and let my shaking hand show my emotions to me.

"K…"

"Yes…?" he teased, emphasizing the word.

"you and me are gonna fight one day!"

"Place, date and time, I'll be there…enjoy your night, I'm gonna get more cupcakes, see ya!"

I felt him leave my body, it was strange but I kinda felt more secure with him around, now I gotta face these two in dinner and overnight. I sighed as gave my self-permission to survive this night.

"Ben, are you coming?" Luna asked from beyond the open doors. I sighed deeply at how wrong I made that sound in my mind and shook my head, disappointed in myself. But who could blame me…I'm honest with myself.

"Yeah, I'm coming!"

lots of strange things happen at night but what might happen to Ben?

You'll find out next time!