I soon heard a sound that most would shake upon hearing. The sound of an angry Twilight. "Phoenix!"

However, before I could hide anywhere, a flash of magic appeared in front of me, followed by a slightly ticked off librarian.

"Why are you so eager to not tell me anything?" She said with a sly smile as she slowly walked up to me. She looked like she was about to fuckin pounce on my ass!

Raising a hand up to my chin, I spoke in an inquisitive tone. "Hmmm, let's see. Maybe for fun? Maybe due to boredom? No that's not it...." I was slowly turning to the left as I spoke, pretending I was thinking long and hard about the question. Snapping my fingers, I span around to her and pointed. "I got it! It's because I'm a dick!"

Twilight sighed, probably realising that there was some other reason as to why my lips were sealed. And she'd be correct. Earth was a shitty place. And I mean, getting Ice Climbers in a random kind of shitty. Practically every country was on bad terms with each other before the incident. The ship was built by the Americans, with the unwilling help of the Japanese, so on normal circumstances, an Englishman like me wouldn't have a chance in hell of boarding the ship. Lucky for me -well lucky isn't the exactly the term I'd use in any other case- I played a large role at the end of the war, meaning I was given special treatment by the American army. So, with humanity being the shit stain on the sheets of the galaxy, I'd rather leave as much of it behind as possible. Especially the technology and the weapons. But if the time ever comes, I won't hesitate to build me another sniper rifle.

But I digress, telling Twilight the name of on musician won't change the fate of the earth......or the Equis, I guess? Although, this whole interaction did show me a few things.....

Placing a hand on Twilights head, I smiled at her as I answered her earlier question. "Cavetown, Twi. His name was Cavetown." In response, the egghead conjured up a pen and a notebook labelled Phoenix, before writing something down. Probably the name I gave her.

After she was done she looked up from the book and beamed at me. " Much appreciated!"

"Sure..... Now um, mind telling me why you have a notebook with my name on it?" Leaning over and tilting the book down with my finger. "You writing poems about me or something?"

She took a step back, pulling the book away and slamming it shut. "N-No, it's uh...uh...research!" She spoke with a small blush, putting the book behind her back. I probably should have been more surprised, but it was just more evidence I was building up to a certain conclusion. One I wasn't too happy about.

"Right, right. It's completely normal to do research on one of your friends who you definitely trust. I understand."

The blush faded from her face. "Yeah. Of course. Completely normal to...." She looked like she came to a realisation, but I cut her off before she could express it.

Walking past her, I patted her head as I made my way over to the door and spoke. "Whelp, see you later Twi!" Shutting the door behind me, I made my way to the top deck. My face dropped as I walked, I wasn't annoyed at Twilight, just slightly ticked off with a pair of sisters.

Exiting the stairs leading up to the top deck, I found Rainbow, Spike, and Snipe, along with their respective guards. The two little shits (Still haven't forgiven them) were facing each other with a few meters inbetweener them, whilst the others were formed in a circle/triangle around them.

Walking up to Rainbow, I tapped her on the shoulder to gain her attention. She turned around around to look at me before speaking, "Oh hey Phoenix! Need something?"

I slightly laughed to my self at what this looked like. With a large smile on my face, I rapped an arm around her shoulder and spoke in a voice only she could hear. "Wanna explain to me why you and two other grown adults are circled around to small children? If I didn't know any better, this seems like a dog pit."

She gave me a confused look and a head tilt before turning round to look at the picture. I had gained the attention of the of the other four now, as they were all staring at me. Rainbow then turned back around at me, obviously understanding what I was getting at, and failed to suppress a burst of laughter.

I sniggered at the confused looks we were getting from the others present. Waving a hand to them, I spoke. "Don't worry about it." They all just shrugged and turned back to each other.

Hearing less laughter, I turned back to Rainbow to find she had calmed down, but still had a small smile on her face. "You know Phoenix, you have a really dark sense of humour."

Ruffling her hair because I know she hates it, I retorted with my arm still round her shoulders. "Says the one that almost pissed them self from laughing." One punch in the gut later, and we turned back to the group. However, what I saw surprised me quite a bit.

In the two boys hands were held a wooden sword each, pointing upwards in an oh so familiar stance. The two boys were no longer facing each other and were instead side by side, with Thundy behind Snipe and Blossom behind Spike. Each of the soldiers had there arms around the teens, evidently making small adjustments to their stance. Stuff like foot work, eye level, angle of the sword and all that jazz.

Deciding not to interrupt what I can only assume to be a quick lesson in swordsmanship, I turned to Rainbow and Spoke. "How did this come about? Working on recruitments to take over Celestia?"

She giggled before explaining the events leading up to it. Apparently RD was teaching the little shits some judo she learnt at a young age -seeming as neither of them had combat experience- and whilst Thunderlane and Blossom were over seeing it, the lieutenant snapped after half an hour and stated that he couldn't bare to witness such horrible form any longer. So, he asked to burrow a couple wooden swords from the armoury before correcting Rainbows attempt at teaching self defence. To be honest I didn't picture Thunderlane to be the impatient type, but I guess he's just passionate about the topic.

"I see." I nodded in understanding, knowing I'd probably have done the same. However, this was a bit counterproductive regarding my future 'plans'.

Stepping over to Snipe, I stood in front of him, looking at his posture with the sword. He was a bit off but pretty good. Grabbing the top of the blade, I raised it a bit before walking over to his side -Thunderlane watching me with intruigement as I went. I had a look at his stature from the new point of view before nudging his right foot a bit further away from his left. I was very familiar with the style, as it is the very style Ayato Amagiri used in 'Asterisk war'. I like the technique, as it was a nice balance between offence and defence, but sadly there were no teachers of it. The Amagiri Shinmeiryuu Style.

After I was satisfied, I stepped over to Spike (who now looked a tad nervous) and began looking over his form. Though to my surprise, I found almost nothing to correct. Just his feet, which were a few centimetres out of place. I scanned desperately around the boy, doing many circles, trying to find any flaw in his stance. But nothing came up. I began forming many ideas in my head for the solution. Maybe he had already learnt it? No, Rainbow said he had no other experience with combat. Maybe Blossomforth was just a great teacher? No, no offence to her but Thunderlane was clearly more fluent in the style. So why is it perfect.

I was brought out from my thought process by a hand being placed on my shoulder. Snapping back to reality, I turned to my left to see RD. "Yes?"

She gave me a worried look and gestured to the boy in front of us. "Dude, you're scaring him." Turning back around, I found Spike still in his pristine form, but now sweating bullets. "You've been staring at him for a couple minutes now." I heard from behind me .

It was true, only then did I realise I had been staring down the kid. To be honest, I know exactly why I was as well....

Placing a hand on his shoulder, he dropped his stance and turned to me so I could speak. "Sorry about that, just slightly pissed with you." Shaking him a bit, I gave him a large smile, though that didn't calm his nerves considering my last statement.

"W-Why are you pi-," He cleared his throat. "Annoyed?"

Beaming at the beautiful bastard, I wrapped my arm arm around his shoulder and gave him a noogy. "Now where do you get off having a more precise stance than me, a guy who's studied the art for the majority of his life?!" The worst part about it all was that it was true. Now, I've never been a huge sword fanatic, and he did only show one stance (no real combat or strikes) but it was still massively impressive. This kid was a genius.

My words caught the attention of the other two, who walked up to me and Spike with curious looks. Thunderlane looked down at Spike and then back up at me. "Is that true?" I nodded, still punishing Spike for his brilliancy. "And you're one hundred percent certain?"

Finally letting go of him, I leaned into the lieutenants ear and spoke. "I have studied the art of combat for the majority of my life. I was considered a prodigy by my peers. Granted, not once have I ever actually used a sword in real combat, and it is one of my weaker points, but none the less I was considered top of my class. And this boy, who has never picked up a sword in his life, has a stance similar to that of my higher ups."

I leaned back to view his reaction, and he simply stared at the boy in astonishment. Who in response blushed up a storm from the praise he rightfully assumed he was getting. In complete aw, Thunderlane walked up to the boy before speaking. "Mr Sparkle, would you mind taking that stance again?"

"Of course!" Spike smiled and took the stance again as Thunderlane began repeating my earlier actions. I went to join him, but I noticed something in the corner of my eye. Snipe was stood to my right near Dash, with a sad smile on his face, and barely holding the sword that was drooped down next to his side. I saw how hard he was trying to be happy for Spike. I knew the feeling all too well, as it once riddled me.

That was when I decided to finally test my theory. "Snipe." I called out, looking towards him. He turned his head and saw me gesture with my head to follow me. He didn't say anything, but just trailed behind me as I put some distance between me and the group. "So," I began, turning back to the boy with a few meters between us. "Ever used a bow?"

Hey guys! Thanks for reading! This chapter was a tricky one to write and I am 99% sure I completely and utterly fucked up with the pacing. It something I've always struggled with, but I had an epiphany recently! I'm writing the story for my own enjoyment, so I'm not too worried about the layout, timing, or pacing. But, if you guys do have something you think that would make the story better, and or tips for the things I mentioned before, Please let me know!

As always, any critisism is welcome, good or bad. Hope you enjoyed!

Also, if you see (R) after a chapter number, it means it's one that I had written previously and decided to completely scrap and rewrite.