#5

"Ben…"

Not this again

"Ben… wake up its time to meet Twilight."

Twilight…TWILIGHT!

I quickly jolted awake, startling Flutter Shy who was now in the air, observing me as I quickly put on my shirt, vest, and boots. I tightened the gloves on my hands, and rubbed my sword's grip, and looked a Flutters.

"It's challenge time! Let's go!" I stated as I got out of my room, but was quickly stopped when I smelled something like tea. "Umm…what's that!"

"It's green tea, it's good for relaxing," Flutter Shy said seemingly more calm than usual.

"Darn, I'm so fired up! Can you make me some later once I've got this challenge over and done?" I asked hoping she would say yes.

"Sure, do you like tea?"

"I love tea! Or yea I do"

"Great, I'll make sure to make some once you've got this challenge over and done with"

She really was calm.

"Ok let's go to the train…umm…where is the train?" I asked realizing I didn't know where it was.

"Just follow me, but before that how about some breakfast?" She inquired as she flew over to a table with food already served. I didn't realize how hungry I was until then, so I decided to sit down and enjoy the meal. It appeared to be scrambled eggs with toast and a side apple juice. A well-cooked meal.

"Wow, thanks, I haven't had eggs in years, let alone a well-prepared breakfast!" I thanked as began to enjoy the meal. It wasn't like the eggs I've tasted before, these were tastier and made you feel like your full the instant you bite into it. "Wow, these are great! Did you put something in the eggs?"

"No, just salt and some spice" she replied, as I finished the eggs, and toast.

"Well then, you're just a good cook then" I stated as I finished the juice, she looked at me smiling.

"Thanks"

"No problem"

"Ok how about we see to it that we make it to the train station," Flutter Shy said as she got up, and flew to the door.

"Alright! Let's go!" I yelled as we got out of the house, and headed over to the train station.

After a small discussion about Flutter Shy's hobbies, we arrived at the train station. Every pony I've met was there except Derpy, but she's probably working the mail.

"Alright, looks like everyone's here, let's start moving!" I said with my game face on, everyone also looked excited.

"Ok, all aboard the train," I said as the door opened.

We all entered the train and took our seats, I sat next to Flutters since we sat down in order. The train was pretty cool considering all the trains I've ridden either led to pain or torture. I made myself comfortable, and leaned my body forward, and started tightening my gloves again.

"You ok Ben?" Asked Vinyl as she leaned from her seat, which was to my right.

"Yea, I'm just excited, a challenge from a princess isn't something you get everyday" I replied, she nodded her head in agreement, "but I'm confident I can beat it"

"Yea, you seem to be confident enough to take out anything," she said sitting back again.

After more conversations about how I'm gonna do this challenge and other stuff, we arrived at a stop.

"Ok, were here!" I heard Twilight say, I quickly picked my head up, and started to make my way out of the train. I let the ponies go first, and then I followed. I first I couldn't see much but then I notice the architectural beauty right in front of me. It was like a castle in the hanging off a mountain, truly a beautiful sight.

"So, this is where Luna and Celestia stay?" I stated as I kept looking at the castle.

"Yup!"

I turned to face Luna standing there in front of me, I was surprised to see her waiting for me. Every one of the ponies looked at us as we were greeting each other. I was still wondering what this challenge was, and every pony here might have been wondering too.

"Hey"

"Hey ya"

"So, are you ready?" Luna asked with a grin. I looked here in the eye and nodded.

"Alright then, I'll transport us all to the grounds of the challenge," Luna said as she raised horn, and wrapped us all in a blue glow, and transported us to another place.

I felt my feet touch the ground, and I looked around to study the new area. The more I looked around the more I saw some unique objects start to grab my attention: A sword rack, training dummies, and hay bales with spears on them. My eyes widened at the sight.

"Luna, what is this?" I questioned with a shocked expression. She didn't stop grinning.

"This is your challenge, a sparring match!" she said as I turned to her, I no longer had a game face, it was more of a serious look now.

The ponies looked at me with worried looks, but Vinyl and Dash had excited expressions.

"Ok, who will I spar against?" I asked as I looked at her. She grinned even wider than before.

"She's right behind you"

I quickly looked behind me and noticed a pony in an outfit resembling Luna's, the pony had a serious look as well, causing me to grin.

"Ok, it looks like we're ready" I stated as I looked at the pony, who switched stance and was looking at me from a diagonal angle, I as well placed myself at an angle. We stared each other down, while Luna explained the rules.

"Ok now listen to me: you must never underestimate your opponent, you can't use magic to hurt your opponent but it can assist you and protect you, you can't severely injure your opponent, and you absolutely can't hurt the spectators," Luna stated as she observed me, I slowly closed my eyes and open them to reveal I was ready.

"Ok…Begin!"

I slowly began to pace around the training ground and once I found my place, I stopped placed my hands down to my side. That got an immediate reaction as the pony used its magic to catapult off the ground, and quickly lunge at me with one hoof out. I quickly placed my hand in front of the hoof and caught it before it hit me.

"Wha…" I heard the pony say under her breath, as she quickly retracted back to her starting place.

"Don't underestimate your opponent," I told her, causing to growl. "Uh oh!"

She lunged herself again at me but now followed by a series of more consecutive kicks and punches. I quickly dodged it all and threw myself backwards, there was force in those hooves of hers. What surprised me is that they can actually fight using their hooves.

"Ok now it's my turn," I said as I charged at her with a fist in both hands. She quickly used her magic on my incoming fist and created a shield. I stopped my charge and kicked the shield to push myself backward. Her shield disappeared, and so did my attack, with a shield like that I couldn't possibly do anything to her.

"So, I'll just slash right through it," I said getting her attention, as I pulled out my sword. I flicked my wrist and she prepared herself for the incoming attack.

I quickly charged again, and she put up her shield. I jumped upwards and rammed the sword against the shield, resulting in a huge number of sparks flying everywhere. I could feel the sword getting pushed back, but I kept applying force to the shield. I growled as I tried my best to keep my sword on the shield to penetrate it.

"HAAAAAA!" I yelled as the shield began to crack, the pony gave me a look of anger as she tried to keep the shield active. I began to feel tense, and my arms started to shake under the pressure.

"ALRIGHT THIS IS IT!" I shouted as I balled up my fist, and swung it behind me. The pony smirked and laughed.

"Do you think that'll work? IT''S USELESS!"

"WE'LL SEE WHO'S LAUGHING ONCE I'M DONE!" I yelled as I threw my fist at the shield, causing it to explode, throwing me and the pony to the walls of the training ground.

"Gahh!" We both groaned as we struck the walls and fell face first.

"OH MY GOSH, ARE YOU BOTH ALRIGHT?!" I heard Twilight yell out.

"Yea," I said as I started to stand up off the floor. I looked at the pony opposite of me, she was in pretty bad shape, but still had some stamina in her, since her horn started to glow, and thunder started to clash.

"Oh shit, this is bad," I cursed under my breath as saw my sword stuck on a wall, I tried but couldn't pull it out, it was too deeply engraved.

"That's enough! I said no offensive magic!" Yelled Luna standing up from her perch. But the pony didn't listen and kept charging her horn. I quickly look around for something, but nothing was present. I could feel the pressure of the magic she was charging up, I felt like my insides were about to melt.

I quickly looked at my hands as I started to wonder a strange question. Do I have power as well?

I focused my attention on the pony in front of me, and stared her down, before posing in a position I've always wanted to do in front of others. I'm either gonna embarrass myself, or win this challenge discovering an incredible power. I started to feel my emotions turmoil again as I hovered one hand over the palm of another, and looked at the pony.

Everyone stared at my actions and wondered what was going on. Luna was also among those intrigued by my actions, she didn't say any more about stopping the match. I instantly started screaming at the top of my lungs and felt a crazy surge of energy fill my body. I could feel my body tensing up with a feeling of power, and then I noticed and orange-red field begin to manifest around me.

"WHAT!" Yelled everyone except the pony in front of me.

"BEN WHAT IS THAT!" They yelled in unison.

"KAIO KEN!"

"KAIO WHAT!?" They shouted.

"TIMES THREE!" I yelled as I felt the huge tension in my body release.

"OK, ITS TIME TO FINISH THIS" I yelled as the energy field around me increased, radiating wind causing everyone to grip onto something. Luna and everyone else stared in amazement as I continued to power up. The pony in front of me just stared with an evil-like smile.

"ALLLRIGHTT!"

"KAAAAA! MEEEEE!"

I could feel tension increasing in my hands, as the words escaped my mouth. Then I felt a warm ball form in my hands.

"HAAAA! MEEEEE!"

"BEN WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Yelled Twilight as she rushed to the middle of the battlefield, the pony on the other side of the field I didn't stop her attack as she aimed her horn for me, blinded with rage, and fired the rapid beam at Twilight.

My eyes widened as I quickly put myself ahead of Twilight, and extended my hands out at the beam.

"HAAAAAA!"

A huge beam of blue light erupted from my hand and swallowed the pony's attack, and went directly to her. I quickly rememb that I couldn't use magic to injure my opponent, so I stopped the attack redirecting it into the sky causing a huge explosion of lights in the sky, leaving the pony wide-eyed. She probably gave up the moment she realized she couldn't do anything to stop the Kamehameha. Thanks, Goku.

I panted one last breath as I felt my body give up on me, and my mind become blank.

"Oh…fuck," I groaned as I fell to the ground, completely out cold.

"Oh yea, kaio ken fucks up your body, now that I remember"