Note: This chapter may seem like a deviation from the main 'story' but it's somewhat important for the eventual story 'arc' [or rather story drop] I'm aiming for.

Odd. I've don't remember walking here. I thought.

Where I was looked like a dimly lit chapel of metal, with the only source light coming from a single hanging lantern on the wall behind me. Before me was an alter of spikes with a painted red eye, drawing attention to the numerous letters (at least that's what I thought they were) that were written around the pupil of the eye. [Real subtle.] The walls were made of what looked to be blue tinted steel, with cords hanging out from the numerous punctures in them. Where I was reminded me somewhat of Geth structure, if it was a little bit more rustic.

I wasn't exactly sure why I was here, or if I was somehow in a meaningful vision of the future. As I tracked back in my mind, I remembered that I had fell asleep in the barn and I was in fact, either in a dream [I won't even begin to tell you how terribly cliched dream lands are.] or for some reason, kidnapped, brainwiped for the last few hours, and then for some odd reason placed in a freezing cold metal church. [Those are the best possible explanations you can come up with? Personally I would have just killed you instead of going through the effort of having to drag you somewhere] (You do know if I die, the part of my brain which handles cynicism would die too.)

I took a few steps back from the spike... alter... thing, picked up the lantern, noticing that my vision was unusually high, and that I was walking on two legs. I shrugged and decided, 'what's the point anymore', and went back to the matter at hand.

From where I was standing, there were dual stair cases in semi spiral form going down to main floor of the church. I didn't know what else to do so rather than waiting around any longer, I took the exploration route instead. I ran down the stairs [odd that after becoming used to walking like a pony that you can walk just fine after getting your two legs back.] (I've played enough games at the same time to become used to 'damn it muscle memory' issue.) [What? I don't think that's it's actually physically possible to do tha-] (You do see me running right?) [...] and came across a large black circular plate that was engraved into the floor of the church. It was engraved with a large symbol of a what looked to be a triskelion. When I walked up to inspect the plate, I noticed that it also had the same sort of lettering that the eye had. My eye also saw a a small divot in the plate where a tiny lever could be pulled.  I looked around and saw no clear doors or path ways out.

I thought to myself, is there any possible way this could be a trap, or rather a puzzle? If it's a trap, then I really rather not deal with it any longer and just spring it since it's not the trap that kills me, [tell that to me after you get a spike impaled through your chest] but the waiting, and if it's a puzzle, then why the hell aren't I solving it already? Whenever something like this happens there's always some sort of significance whenever you're trapped in a room with an obvious 'switch' and weird ominous symbols. If experience has taught me anything [it obviously hasn't] it's that if life gives you switches, you pull them.

I set down the lantern and I reached my arm and flicked the tiny lever inside of the plate (Which was not easy, I chipped my nail three times trying to get it!) [Of all the things that you could be worried about right now, you decide to worry about your nail?] and almost instantly, the plate started making rapid tiny clicking sounds, with the church around me coming seemingly alive. The dead cold walls were now being invaded with flowing stripes of orange light, bringing light once more to the worn down place.

I stepped back as the plate began to slowly spin. It gradually got faster and faster until it started to secrete a light which looked similar to the ones flowing on the walls. The plate then flashed the orange light incredibly brightly in a single burst, leaving my eyes blinded for a few seconds. As my vision start to crawl back, I noticed that the plate now had a hooded pony made up completely of faint lines of the orange light. Before I could think any farther [you weren't even thinking to being with], the figure began to speak.

"I am the curator of the Divide's archive." said the figure, "I have been given instructions to let you access a small fragment of our knowledge to aid you in your future endeavors." Sweet, that means some shit IS going to happen! Which probably spells bad news for me because I'm a sniveling coward. "We will only allot this amount of information to you now since if we were to give you any more at this moment, your small brain would probably give up and exploded into tiny little bits." said the pony without even flinching a small step.

I thought on what the spectral figure had said so far, and the existence of said figure. I could be going crazy [I believe it's 'even crazier', as apparently you fell into a world of ponies and magic] or just in a dream, but the figure did say something about being the Divide. From that, the name 'the Divide' [who named it that? It's about the fourth least subtle name I could think of for an unknown place that is suppose to be somewhat dreamlike, coming right after 'The Fringe', 'The Fade', 'The Land of Vision', and of course 'Wonderland'] (I found that last one to be a little out of place.) [That was the point...] told me that I was probably not in the realm where normal people would or even could traverse [like say your room for instance?].

"Now, there's no point in you simply being idle." said the outlined pony, "Here, step onto the plate." I was a little reluctant to step on the black circle since I was going over the last statement that the pony said, but I decided to go with it anyways, since I wanted to see what they had to offer me for whatever danger might be coming [they never said danger specifically, who knows, you could just need whatever they teach you to learn how to grip a pen with a hoof.]. I stepped up onto the plate and once I had both feet on it, the light in which the orange spectral pony arrived by flashed in a burst, with a large, ear splitting *BOOM* which accompanied it about half a second after the flash.

During the flash, I felt an enormous impact hit my whole body. When I came to my senses, I found myself in a blank area with a background of light gray with the same letters that I saw on the plate and eye floating around, appearing and disappearing randomly. A robotic feminine voice which I could not locate said "Welcome to the Divide's testing chamber. Here you can hone in your skill which was implanted directly to your brain and already coordinated with your muscles. For this exercise your avatar has been altered to a form which is compatible with this ability." I looked down at my feet and noticed that i once again had hooves. I was honestly disappointed that as soon as I got used to my human form again, I was switched back to my pony form.

"First, we'll begin this exercise by setting up a few targets for you to hit." said the voice. After the mechanical voice had spoke, the area around me flashed (why does everything keep flashing! My eyes can only take oh so much!) and there appeared 3 target dummies made of bags of straw. "To begin, focus your magic inward, and run at the target. When you think you are at an adequate distance, release your energy to accelerate yourself into the target." said the voice.

I thought to myself for a moment. I have absolutely no idea what to do and how to do what the voice is asking me. I decided to take a shot at it anyways and lined myself up straight in front of one of the targets, with about 90 feet of distance between me and it. I started to run at it and tried to use my horn to do anything, really, since I've never used my horn before.

After I had ran about 50 feet blindly, I was placed back 90 feet again followed with two short sounds, *BEEP BEEP*.

"Focus your magic on yourself and then run at the target. Release your magic in a single burst to accelerate yourself into the target." The voice repeated.

Oh boy, this is a tutorial isn't it, and until I get this mastered this god damn annoying voice is going to keep repeating itself. The last reason gave me all the incentive to put all my effort into trying to use the move that was somehow 'taught' to me already.

I closed my eyes and breathed in hard. I can do this. Just gotta find some way to focus my magic.

I backed up a little and starting to charge at the dummy again.

Focusing... Focusing... Focusing... More focusing.... I thought while running at the target.

*BEEP BEEP*

"Focus your magic on yourself and then run at the target. Release your magic in a single burst to accelerate yourself into the target." Said the robotic overseer

I was once again, teleported all the way back from the dummy. Alright, I can do this, I learned how to walk in this body in less than a day, why not learn how to charge.

I bent my legs and I took my front right hoof and swiped the bottom of the transparent floor repeatedly, getting ready to try again.

I just need the right mindset. That's all it'll take.

I took off towards the target once again, picturing a person checking someone else to the ground. I kept running, I know I'm getting close, I can get this!

*BEEP BEEP*

DAMN IT! [Oh I have a feeling this is going to be quite amusing]

"Focus your magic on yourself and then run at the target. Release your magic in a single burst to accelerate yourself into the target." Said the tortuous voice.

I was plopped back to the start by the maleficent tutorial overseer and forced to start once again. I thought to myself, what is someway that I would try and control a power like this? If I was already technically 'taught this', how would I imagine doing this? I sat down for a minute thinking of ways of how I would have taught myself.

20 minutes later

*BEEP BEEP*

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? DAMN YOU TERRIBLE CONTROLS!

I have tried almost every method of doing this that I can imagine.

I decided to not think about what to do, and instead just do what feels right, or at least that's what someone kept telling me to do back at home who got that advice from a number of movies and games he'd played [If I remember correctly, wasn't he the one who ended up being permanently disabled from a parkour incident?] (Yeah, thanks for bringing that up). I stood back up and looked at the target with a look of malice. I took a few short breaths, and started to run.

In my head, I pictured a star burning brightly [That's the best thing you can try to imagine?]. As I came closer and closer to the target, I pictured the star starting to collapse.

I was approaching the fated 40 feet mark of the target.

In my mind, I continued to imagine the collapse of a star. Then, a voice inside me said, release.

I imagined the star going supernova and as I did, I turned my attention to the target once more, and when I did, my vision became suddenly blurry with blurs of blue flying past my face. The blurs started to slow down slightly and a moment after they did,

*BOOM*

I had made contact with the target, and for a split second, everything seemed to be slowed down with blurs of red flying forward right after I hit into the dummy.

Time started to flow evenly now, and after transferring even more of my force, the dummy flew back about 30 feet (success!) and I came to a dead stop. I wondered about why I didn't feel any pain from preforming the move.

"Congratulations, you have preformed the Vanguard Charge. By preforming this move, not only do you charge at a speed of around 120 mph, you also form a barrier of magic to protect you from almost all of the damage of the impact. Though, this barrier is not meant for extended use and only stays up for about .5 seconds even with constant focus, so you cannot charge over too long an area." said the robotic voice.

Yes! Am I finally finished with this tutorial?

"Now we will put your skill to work."

Damn it.

A flash of light covered the testing area once more.

There was a bridge about 200 feet with 4 dummies littered in a zig zagged position.

"Blow back all the dummies in less than 3 seconds." said the mechanical voice.

"Three. Two."

I readied myself. I did not want to go through another minute of this torture!

"One, go!"

I put the process of imagining the star in fast forward, and quickly charged into the first dummy, and then the second, the third, and finally the fourth.

After I hit the fourth dummy, the bridge started to disappear into white lines and wiped it self away completely. I felt mentally and physically exhausted after using the power four times in succession.

"Congratulations. You have completed this training exercise."

SWEET FREEDOM!

The blank testing area suddenly started becoming lighter and lighter, until a bright flash of light (what is with these guys and blinding people?!) wiped away the whole area.

I blinked my eyes a few times and saw that I was back in the chapel on top of the black plate. I saw the orange spectral pony appear next to me out of nowhere.

"You took your sweet time." It said, "But never mind that. You belong back into the realm of the living."

The chapel started to become transparent and before I knew it, it had become an outline of what it was, and just like the testing area, it turned into tiny white lines and disappeared, with a final god damn flash.

I opened my eyes in a jump and saw light flowing in from the crack of the barn door. I checked my watch which said 7:00 [Do I even need to point out the various inconsistencies that make up your life?], today would be the first day of my new job.