The Other Side

by DJ Bronified

The Challenge Of The Arena

Chapter 5

I had a rude awakening by Glowstick. “Hey get up. Your gonna miss breakfast.” he told me while shaking my leg.

“fiiiine I'll get up.” I groaned. I would love to stay in bed but I haven’t eaten since Celestia knows when and I was really hungry. I sat up and looked over to Glowstick. He also looked really hungry, so that was my cue to get out of bed. I slid off the top bunk, and looked at Shadows bunk. He wasn't there. “hey, where did Shadow go?” I asked Glowstick.

“hes already at the dining hall. And I would love to join him just as soon as your ready to leave.” Glowstick told me with a sarcastic smile.
I gave him the same “really?” look I gave him back in the Everfree. I turned away from Glowstick and walked to the only sink and mirror in the room. There was no more rooms to where we were living, it was just one room. 2 bunk beds in the corner, a sink at the end of the bed on the left. The closest we had to another room, was a closet at the end of the bunk me and Glowstick were sleeping in.

I walked over to the mirror and used levitation magic to pick up the comb on the side of the sink. I combed my hair back in the way I always have it. Boy, sleeping really does a number on your hair. I forgot about small problems like that since Queen Chrysalis took over. I miss the post-apocalypse world. I thought “ right when the world goes back to normal. I'm taking a 24-hour long nap.” I then finished with my hair, turned to Glowstick and said “I'm hungry lets go.”

“finally.” he exclaimed, rolling his eyes. I ignored that gesture and headed for the door.

As I opened the door I realized, I'm not dead. Back in the Everfree, I was so sure I was gonna die there. But look at me now. Alive, and in somewhere were no one wants to kill me. This made me really happy and my mood went from exhausted to “i wanna hug everyone”.

“Are you ok?” Glowstick asked worryingly.

“Absolutely. Wonderful” I replied. I could tell he was weirded out by my happiness. But I didn't care, today was going to be wonderful.

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The dining hall was basically a cafeteria. Legit. There was a line on one wall, were ponies who looked as if they haven’t slept in days were serving food. Tables scattered around full of a mixture of citizens and guard ponies. I walked to catch up with Glowstick who was already in the line for breakfast.

“there’s Shadow and Musical.” Glowstick said, interrupting my train of thought.
“oh?” I say as I turn to look. Then I see her. Sitting with Musical and Shadow was. By far. The most attractive mare I've ever seen. She was a light brown unicorn, with a darker shade brown hair. Her cutie mark was 3 gold stars, with a pencil below the lowest one. “who's. That.” I asked Glowstick, still mesmerized.

“Her name is Star, why?” he answered.

And then, I was pretty sure he noticed me drooling over her.

“OoooOooo, beat has a crush.” he said with a smug look on his face.

“shut up.” I said while punching his shoulder. I was blushing profusely and I was embarrassed as hell. “is it really that noticeable?” I asked myself, if it was that was not good.

We finally got to our food, I got 2 haycakes and a hash brown. On the way out of the line I picked up a cup of hot cocoa.

I walked and sat down with Glowstick, Musical, and Shadow. I was reminded of Stars presence by Glowsticks smug smile. I glared at him giving him the “keep your mouth shut.” look. I turned my head down towards my food and started eating, vigorously.

Shadow started a conversation with the rest of table, while is stare at my food. The butterflies in my stomach were out of control.

“Beat, when's the last time you had a crush?” Shadow asked me.

I dropped my fork and looked up, blushing like crazy “oh. Oh. Not for a while, heh heh.” I answered nervously.

“You sure?” Glowstick asked with a smug look on his face.

“yes.” I answered glaring at him. I looked back down at my food, everypony else continued talking about Celestia knows what.

After breakfast we all parted our ways to explore the castle. Glowstick and Shadow left earlier to apply for the guard. So it was just me, Musical, and Star leaving the Cafeteria.

“ I'm going to the Library right now, would you like to come Star?” Musical asked.

“Um. Sure.” she replied. They walked off without even a goodbye.

Well, now I was all alone. I was still tired, so I decided to go back to my room and try to sleep.

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I couldn't sleep, so I decided to go check out the enormous library everypony was at. It was massive, and luckily it wasn't as busy today. I wanted to learn more magic spells. All I knew are Magic Bolt and the head spike one. I wasn't able to perform that one anymore. It seemed almost like a one time thing. But I knew that it will return when I need it. The magic books were on the right side. Right next to some tables. I took a book that’s title read Magic Barriers And Basic Protection Spells. I levitated it and walked over to a table to read it. I sat on one of the pillows and opened the book up. I only read 2 words before hearing a voice across the table from me

“um. hi.” I heard a familiar voice. I looked up to see Star sitting across from me giving a nervous smile. My eyes widened as the butterflies in my stomach returned. My face was blushing. Again. Like crazy.

“oh. hi. I didnt see you there heh.” I responded nervously.

“yea I saw you walk in. have you eve-” her words were cut short by 3 ponies standing over us. Our gaze was directed on them. There were 3 guard ponies. But one was wearing a golden colored armor. She was a orange unicorn with a blue mane.

“Beat Drop?” she asked.

“Yes?” I responded

“My name is Captain Sofia Hawk and your presence is required by the General in the training room.” she answered.

“Um. Ok” I said nervously.

“if you would follow me please.” she directed as she turned away and slowly walked away from the table.

I stood up quickly and started following her. I turned my head and shot Star a “sorry” look. She responded with a “it's ok look” and shook her hoof.

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the training room was just the old throne room with a few targets and dummies around. There were more guard ponies in leather armor practicing on the dummies and some shooting magic and the targets that were covered in burn marks. I looked to my left to see a white Unicorn wearing the same armor as Sofia. But it was purple and the top mane part was blue.

“Beat Drop?” he asked me with a stern look in his face.

“Y-Yes.” I answered nervously.

“ The pony over there will get you suited up. Your buddy Glowstick says your a good fighter. I wanna see u fight.”

I walked over the pony. He was at a long black table. He was green with white slicked black hair and seemed intimidating to me. As soon as I got there he pulled a normal sword out and put it on the table.
“use your levitation magic to lift it.” he had a deep voice that sounded like a war veterans.
“Actually. Can I have a Arm Gauntlet?” I asked
“um. Sure?” he responded pulling a silver Arm Gauntlet out from under the table and placing it on the table. I put it on. It fit perfectly in place and the cord up my leg was surprisingly comfortable. I walked back over to the General pony and nodded my head.

“extend the blade.” he ordered. I jerked my hoof out as the blade slid down my arm with a surprisingly soothing noise. He moved it to check if it was in place and pointed to the middle of the room.

“move to the white marker on the floor.” he instructed.
I walked over and stood on the white marker.

“these are some training simulations to test your ability.” he yelled from the sidelines. There were ponies lined up behind a white line. The line was in a circle around me. There were 4 towers surrounding the circle. Each held a Unicorn. I looked around me at the surrounding ponies. They were cheering like this was some sort of sport. I noticed Glowstick, Shadow, Ice, Musical, and. Oh Celestia, Star on the sidelines cheering for me.

“what if I make a fool of myself?” I thought. I really didn't want to embarrass myself in front of Star.

“3!” one of the ponies in the tower yelled. His voice snapping me out of my trance.

“2!”

“1!”

“Start round one!” he finally yelled.

“well. Here goes nothing.”

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The Unicorns in the towers were using there magic to make holographic ponies with weapons. The holograms were purple and had no eyes, mouth, tail, or mane. The ponies all rushed me at once. I got down in a defensive pose and my mind went blank. All that was important was beating these holograms. I went for the one who was in front of me. it was jumping at me. Lifting its hoof to stab me with his Arm Gauntlet. I shot a magic bolt at it right before it landed a hit on me. It exploded into little blocks that rained down on top of me. I heard trotting to my right and swung around. There was one of them charging at me with a spear. When he reached me he thrusted the spear at me. I swung my leg up. Knocking the spear up with my Sword Gauntlet. I then thrusted my Gauntlet at its chest. Stabbing it and causing it to crumble over my sword. The last 2 holograms were rushing me at once. one had a Sword Gauntlet and the other was using its horn for magic. The one with the sword reached me and swung its hoof at me. I ducked down, letting the sword go over my head. I then jerked my head forwards, knocking the hologram back, and I swung my sword at it. Hitting its neck and causing it to crumble. I was reminded of the danger or the unicorn hologram by a magic bolt flying by my face, dangerously close. I felt the wind and heat of it as it passed my face. I ducked for cover. Soon finding there was none. The area was a flat stone floor. No fallen rocks or anything. I swung my head at the hologram, readying my horn. As my horn was about to shoot, I was greeted by a barrage of magic bolts. I canceled the shot and jumped to the left. I then sprinted straight at the hologram. I ignored the magic bolts and I kept running. I was getting a lot of burns as the bolts scraped past my skin. I didn’t care though. All that I care about was getting to this hologram. As I reached it, it was gonna try to shoot me straight in the face. I swung my hoof up, punching it in the chin and causing the magic bolt to go straight at the ceiling. It tried to punch me, but I jumped back. I landed and looked up. It was charging for a shot. A massive one! It was forming a ball of light on its horn that seemed to its own object. You see, the ball was forming on the tip of the horn so, it must to a danger to him to. If it were to backfire, I could win this. I acted fast, I ran at the hologram as it was charging up. I dropped onto my back, with the momentum of the run, I was sliding across the floor. As I slid past it I put a hoof out. Tripping it. I spun onto my stomach and looked ahead. It fell face first on the ground, pushing the ball of light into its head. There was a split second of silence then, BOOM!!! I put my hoof out to cover my eyes from the blinding light of the explosion. When it dimmed, I walked forward, bruised, burned, and tired. But I was victorious. The tiny cubes of the hologram rained down from the sky and bounced off my body.

“Beat wins!!!” one of the tower Unicorns announced.

There was cheering as I fell to the floor. I was exhausted and didn't want to move anymore. My eyes started to close as I saw Glowstick and Shadow running up to me, looking concerned. I let out a little “heh” before my eyes shut and everything fell silent...

Comments

[Musical_madness27]

I swear musical is so boring