Secrets of the Past
Story 6
Chapter 1: Awakening Power
By: FluttersIsAwesome

What the hay did I just see? I was completely out of it. I thought that I was safe from any more hurt, that is until three bodies collided with mine and I ended up nearly falling.

Rainey was the first to speak. “Wow, Dust! How did you pull that off, that was amazing!”

Never one to keep quiet, Stone put in his two cents. “Yeah, man, I’ve never seen you do anything like that before!”

Bringing up the rear of the comment train was Ginger. “Who cares how he did it, he won! Keaton didn’t even know what hit him.”

I looked to the broken piece of wood on my arm, then back to my friends. “Yeah... I’m not sure I even know what hit him.”

For a moment, Stone looked at the hut I had crashed into and began laughing. “Whoa, dude! You’re not gonna believe whose house you broke through.”

Almost as if he was guided by a script, Keaton’s voice rang out down below. “My house! What the hay happened?!”

Hearing this, everypony, including me, burst into laughter.

* * *
That evening I stayed up a little later than I normally did. It was about 11 p.m., and typically I went to bed at 10. Sitting at my desk, I began to think once again about what I had seen that morning. However, my thoughts were interrupted by a loud thump from behind me.

“Hey Stone.” Only he would be so careless as to jump through somepony’s window in order to get in their house.

“Hey Dust. What’cha doing?”

I leaned back in my chair a bit. “Just thinking.”

Whenever Stone’s head tilted to one side, it either mean that he was confused or curious. “About what?”

“Today.”

He put an arm around me and I found myself caught in a headlock. “Why worry about it, you won! Not only that, but Keaton’s still cleaning up shattered ceramic off his floor.” That big, goofy grin of his was always a pleasant sight. “Anyways, Rainey wants to meet at the secret spot, you coming?”

The “secret spot” of ours was a small island centered in a large lake beside the waterfall not too far from the village. It was a decent trek, and Braveheart always warned us not to go through the forest at night, so I thought it would be a good idea to go armed. “Yeah, gimme a sec.” Reaching for the uppermost drawer on the left side of my desk, I opened it up and took out my bracer, clamping it onto my lower right arm. It had a switch on the bottom edge that I could push by bending my wrist down, and that in turn released a lever that kept the blade in the bracer. My father always told me to test it to make sure the switch wasn’t broken before taking it anywhere, so I did.

The blade came out over the top of my hoof quickly, so I knew the release was working. There was another switch on the side that, when pressed, brought up a hooked lever that latched onto a hole in the blade and pulled it back in. I tested that out too, and everything worked smoothly. Finally, I grabbed my circular wooden buckler off of its wall mount and latched it to my back with a leather strap. There was a hook on the inside of shield that latched onto the strap; it may not have been the best way to secure it, but it worked.

Turning to Stone, I nodded. “Ready.”

I looked around, but Stone was nowhere to be seen. Peeking out my window, however, I saw that Stone sitting on the grass looking up at me. “Well? Come on.”

I turned around to the ladder behind me that led up to my roof. Once I was on the roof, I jumped down and used my wings to slow my descent. “Let’s get moving.”

“So you are coming, sweetheart?”

I jumped at hearing two things: Rainey’s voice come out of nowhere from behind me, and that very voice call me “sweetheart”. Normally hearing her call me “Dust Devil” was the only thing that freaked me out, but hearing this new name for me sent a chill up my spine and back down.

Before I knew it, she was behind me with her arms around me, giggling. “Scared ya, didn’t I?”

Nodding, I turned to her and saw that she was carrying her hunting spear, and also that Ginger wasn’t with her. “Hey, where’s your sister?”

As she let me go, she did a little twirl and began walking in the direction of our island. “She’s already asleep. Come on, let’s go.”

* * *
It was extremely difficult to see in the darkness of the night once we reached about the midpoint between my hut and the island. Luckily, Rainey cast a quick illumination spell that fixed our problem in an instant. However, with the casting of the light, I began to feel like we were being watched as we approached a small clearing that marked the legit midpoint.

Rainey sat down and set her spear against a tree. “Whew, give me a minute, please. You guys know I’m not as good with long walks as you.”

Turning to her, I grinned. “Maybe I should just pick you up and carry you then?”

Rainey hardly ever blushed, or if she did her red coat hid it well. However, the bright red on her cheeks was somewhat easily visible against the dark red of her hair. “S-Shut up, Dust.”

I’m pretty sure we all would have laughed had it not been for the quick rustle we heard from behind us. On instinct, I released my blade and unhooked my shield to latch it onto my left forearm as I stood up. “You all heard that, right?”

Stone nodded. “Yeah, and I don’t like it.”

Almost as if she just woken up, Rainey jumped up and levitated her spear at the ready. “Be wary...”

The minute she finished speaking, two large, bipedal, green-scaled lizards jumped out at us. One had a leather bag on its side, and the other was wielding a decent sized scimitar.

“Komodo!” I heard Rainey shout.

As they both lunged at us, I rolled to the side as Stone punched the sword-wielder in the face. Stone was regarded as the third strongest colt in the village, being able to shatter rocks with a punch or two; that’s why he was allowed to enter the forest unarmed. However, this Komodo seemed unfazed by it.

Rainey tried to speak while avoiding strikes from the other beast. “What the hay is going on?!”

I assumed the Komodo with the scimitar was a Gonzo, an “upgraded” version of Komodo that was normally known to lead a pack. That obviously meant he was tougher, so I decided that Stone would be more useful helping Rainey.

“Stone, go help Rainey, I’ll handle the Gonzo myself.”

Stone knew not to argue with me when it came to situations such as these, so he ran to Rainey’s aid as the Gonzo lunged at me again.

He was fast but somewhat clumsy. Every time he made a move, I either dodged it by a hair or had to block it, which never left me with a long enough opening for an attack. The Gonzo got smart, he sent a swift kick my way, which I parried with my shield, but the minute I stretched out my arm, his blade came down.

I left this world again and was now observing the same colt from the flash I had that morning. He was on a long stone bridge, and was facing some sort of Minotaur-like creature. The beast was extremely agile, but I watched the hooded unicorn avoid each of his maneuvers almost flawlessly. As I watched, I felt like I was “taken into him” as I saw the battle through his point of view.

The beast, from a third person view, was extremely fast, but as I watched it from the unicorn’s perspective, it was slower than Stone’s thinking process. The world looked incredibly odd, like a photo negative. Whites were black, blacks were white, and everything in between.

Again, reality came crashing back, but suddenly my own vision became negative, and it seemed like time was slowed down. The Gonzo’s sword was still descending down on me, but it looked like it was moving at half the speed it was prior to my flash. As I avoided his strike with a somewhat clumsy roll, I realized that time had not been slowed down, but my own speed and reflexes had been dramatically boosted, making everything else seem to move in slow motion.

Now I had an opening. With a quick thrust of my blade, the Gonzo fell to the ground, blood trickling from the gash in his neck. My vision returned to normal, and I felt exhausted. “Stone, Rainey, are you guys alright?”

“We’re fine.” Said Rainey as she sat atop the back of a now dead Komodo with various stab wounds and two dislocated shoulders.

“Uh... okay then.” Taking a moment to look around, I notice that we were down one Stone. “Where’s Stone at?”

“Right here. Guys, come take a look at this.”

I walked over to where Rainey was and saw that Stone had taken the bag off of the Komodo. The bag was open, and he was holding an open envelope and a sheet of paper.

“Can either of you make something of this?” he held out the letter to us, and Rainey took a look at it.

“I feel a rather disturbing presence. If it is what I think it is, you must destroy him before he has the chance to become an issue.” She looked back up at us. “I have no idea. Dust?”

I shook my head as she turned to me.

Stone took it back and stood up. “Alright, I’ll take it to Braveheart. You guys go on ahead, I’ll catch up.”

Stone was trustworthy, and we knew he could handle himself, so Rainey and I continued on our way while he went back to the village.

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