Gaia

by Puking Coyote

Chapter 11 Duel of Magic

Chapter 11

Duel of Magic

Morning came quick for the girls who staggered out of their beds feeling a light buzz from last night’s party “Not the best idea we had” Trixie stated to a fellow champion who was a changeling. The changeling nodded in agreement knowing full well what Trixie meant. The games the second day seemed to be even louder and more energetic than before as word of the close race between Celestia and Chrysalis’s champions spread. The ponies were more ecstatic though to see a rematch between Trixie and Twilight in the magic duels later in the day. The medal count stayed very much the same throughout the whole day where the girls worked hard against the other champions in their fields. LightningDust had won more races that day but these were less numerous than the ones the day before. The girls however were putting up a strong and very successful front to defend their lead from yesterday’s games much to Chrysalis’s delight. As the day wore on Chrysalis had her fun teasing the Princesses relentlessly while they watched the games in the stands.

“Ohh, were two medals up now! Look Celestia!” Chrysalis called as Wildfire pulled Applejack into the mud in the game of tug of war.

“Sister?” Luna began “can we please…”

“No” Celestia stated.

“But she is driving us insane! Just a little smack on the head.”

“No.”

“Fine! Have it thy own way.”

Chrysalis hearing what Luna said gave a little laugh “Such a sore loser you are Luna, I would think a princess would be more dignified than that.”

Luna gave her sister a pleading look “No” Celestia replied.

Twilight gave a nervous laugh with the rest of her friends as AppleJack crawled out of the mud. This was the last event before they came to the Magic Duels. They quickly made their way to the arena where the royal guards were busy preparing the magic field to protect the crowd from the duels that were going to take place inside. Shinningarmor being one of the strongest magic wielders was one of the ones putting up the shield “Good luck today Twily” he called from a platform “make me proud.”

She waved back “thanks, I will try” she then looked back at where she was heading, the champion’s quarters. “You can do this, you can do this! Just remember what Celestia taught you” She began to chant to herself. As she looked up though at the already large crowd that was gathering she was struck by her nervous fears once again. The long wait until the champions were to come out did not help either but Luna, who for some reason seemed to be in a sour mood, was there with her and helped keep her anxiety down.

The magic duels were not limited to magic but also allowed creatures to use other means to beat their foes but since magic wielders always seemed to win, it was named the magic duels.

“You ready young Princess?” Luna asked Twilight as the first two champions were called out. The first two champions were a griffin and a unicorn from The Crystal Empire who was immediately tackled by the Griffin and surrendered.

“I think so” Twilight answered back not sure, she was not so scared by the others in the rings or even the very large crowd outside but instead she was afraid of disappointing Princess Celestia again. The next two champions who were a Minotaur and a changeling came out to fight. The changeling was quickly flicked off the arena by the Minotaur’s finger.

“That’s one changeling down and one to go, then all that’s left will be Trixie” Luna stated with a grin of satisfaction. She thought about what Chrysalis’s face must have looked like seeing her minion flicked out of the arena in such an embarrassing fashion. The next champion was Trixie and a unicorn which she put to sleep in the same fashion as Twilight from before.

“That’s the spell!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Yes, but thou needs to fear it no longer. Our sister has taught thou well to make sure of it.”

Luna soon went out and faced her first champion a griffin and knocked her out with a karate chop to the back of the neck after the Griffin taunted her to fight with no magic. Luna came back to the astonished Twilight “What? After thousands of years one tends to pick up a skill or two.” Luna replied to her. “Thou art next!” she exclaimed and literally shoved Twilight out into the screaming stadium.

“This must be what Fluttershy feels like all the time” she thought to herself as she nervously waved to the crowd. Her opponent was another unicorn and as soon as the whistle blew the unicorn shot a magic blast at her. Twilight out of reflex grabbed the spell with her own and slung it back at the unicorn knocking him out.

“The winner is Princess Twilight!” the referee screamed as the stadium cheered.

She went back to where Luna was “Well done Twilight! Thou will make a fine warrior” Luna said patting Twilight on the back.

After the first couple of rounds six champions were left the first fight of these last six champions was to be Twilight v.s. Trixie the second the Minotaur Strong Hammer V.S. The Griffin Talons and the third was Luna V.S. the last poor changeling. “This is it Twilight” Luna coached her “remember thou must beat her and get whatever information thou can. Celestia will also question her when she is sent to the hospital wing to be checked out after losing.”

“Yes princess” Twilight replied and stepped out into the coliseum where Trixie was already waiting for her. Both of the girls were nervous but were determined to defeat the other. They stared at each other both recognizing the other as a true challenge “Ready for this twilight?” Trixie asked.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

The whistle then blew and Trixie immediately sent her sleeping spell underground knowing that Twilight was expecting it and would block the spell. She began to charge a second spell and as soon as Twilight blocked the first one Trixie hit her with the second causing Twilight to fly in the air and smack against one of the padded walls. Twilight looked up just in time to see Trixie rushing at her horn blazing but before Trixie hit her, Twilight vanished into a cloud of purple sparkling mist. Unfortunately for Twilight Discord had shown Trixie the weakness of this form. Trixie used her magic to create a bubble that surrounded the mist and forced Twilight to abandon the form to break the bubble with her magic.
Luna and even Celestia who was in the stands looked on dumbfounded at how well Trixie was handling Twilights actions and with such power! She had a mastery of magic such as they had not seen since Starswirl. Twilight looked at Trixie as they circled the arena sizing each other up. “Tell me Trixie, why are you wearing Starswirls symbol on your back?” Twilight asked. It was a silly question but it had been on her mind since she first saw it.

“I am his direct descendent” Trixie replied.

“Really? I had no idea” Twilight replied amazed by the news.

“Yeah, I just found out recently myself” Trixie replied as she shot another beam of magic at Twilight who repelled it.

“Is that why you are with Chrysalis, did she tell you that she would reveal who you are or something like that if you joined her?”

“Ha! No.”

“Then why?”

“You will have to beat me to find that answer, that is if you can” Trixie then crouched down horn glowing.

“Fine” Twilight replied then started to summon one of the more powerful spells Celestia taught her. They both fired their magic blasts at each other and to the everyponies amazement they collided with equal force then exploded sending the blast towards both ponies sending them flying.

Celestia stood up in shock “It isn’t possible!” the spells that hit both Trixie and Twilight casted them both against the walls of the domes shield that were there to nullify and block magic before it escaped into the crowd. When Trixie hit the barrier the spell to keep her wings hidden was neutralized revealing her alicorn state in all its entirety.

Twilight looked up at Trixie who was now floating above her wings spread out ready to fight “Trixie?”

Trixie looked at Twilight with her glowing pure white eyes, she didn’t expect the spell hiding her wings to be broken and it took her a few seconds to get her thoughts together. She then hoofed palmed her head “So much for making them think that a unicorn beat her again” she thought to herself.

“Trixie, how did you…?” Twilight began but Trixie flew at her cutting her off. Twilight also took to the air as they began a dance in the sky shooting their spells at each other. “Aughhh!” Twilight screamed as a partially strong spell hit her in the wing causing her to fall to the ground.

“Gotcha!” Trixie screamed but as she charged at her, Twilight summoned all her power and shot a final blast at Trixie. This spell which was one of last resort that she was taught by Princess Celestia and one of tremendous power. The spell used all of a ponies magic for an intensified beam of power and as a result caused the pony that used it to be left with no magic for a short period of time. The blast struck Trixie who barely even saw it because of its speed and sent her flying with such ferocity that she hit the wall and was knocked out cold.

The crowd began to roar as the nurses put the knocked out Trixie on a stretcher and took her to the hospital wing. “The winner is Twilight!” the announcer called making the crowd cheer even louder than before.

Celestia looked away from where the fight happened and realized that Chrysalis was gone. She took one last look at Twilight and teleported to the hospital wing determined to question Trixie.

“An alicorn” Luna stated in surprised. “We would have never guessed that’s how she beat thou last time.”

“No, her magic last time was nothing like what it is now” Twilight replied. “That change was recent.”

Luna looked out at the press who were still writing in their notebooks furiously “Do not tell the press that if thou is asked.”

“What of Trixie?” Twilight asked.

“Our sister is questioning her now, thou will shortly have the answers thee seeks.”

“She will be gentle with her, wont she?” Twilight asked. But before Luna could answer her back she was called away for her next match.

Trixie opened her eyes in a dark hospital room with a large bright light shinning in her eyes obscuring her view. She tried to get up but couldn’t it seemed that she was strapped down with magic cords. “Hello, anypony there?” she called.

“You are awake” a soft gentle voice answered behind her.

“How long have I been out, what happened?” Trixie asked trying to recall what happened in the duel.

“You have been out for almost fifteen minutes” The voice replied. “You fought a magnificent match but Twilight beat you in the end.”

“I was afraid of that” Trixie replied.

“Were you an alicorn when you beat Twilight the first time?”

Trixie grinned “Nope, I was all unicorn.”

“I see” the voice continued “how did you become an alicorn them?”

“It was because my ancestor left the clues to break the secret of the alicorn.”

“You mean Starswirl’s book?”

“Yes.” Trixie didn’t know why she was answering the voice it was as if it was interlaced with magic compelling her to answer it. Wait a minute, it was magic! Trixie quickly found the magic enticing her and guarded herself against it.

“Why are you with Chrysalis?” the voice continued but Trixie did not fall for its trick again.

“She offered me cookies” Trixie replied sarcastically.

“I see you had found my spell then Trixie” Celestia replied walking into view. “Only a highly trained magic user could do such a thing, who taught you?”

“Trixie looked up at the clock on the wall “you said that I have been out for fifteen minutes?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Ok” she replied. “I will tell you who it was, it was Gaia. I am Gaia’s apprentice.”

Celestia took a step back “I knew that Gaia had a part in this! What is he and Chrysalis planning?” Celestia then took a few steps forward “You know that Gaia is evil don’t you? If he is not stopped all of Equestria will suffer. Please for all the innocent ponies in the land what is their plan?” This answer though Trixie did not know. Gaia had instructed her to give one last piece of information but after that she did not know what would happen. Would Gaia abandon her to the dungeons after that? Why did he not tell her? No, she told herself. Gaia would never do that and whatever was going on she trusted him.

“Gaia wants to get rid of the monarchy in the country” she began giving her scripted message to Celestia. “He already defeated Discord and I would imagine Luna has been defeated by now as well.”

“What?!” Celestia replied.

“Why else do you think he had me fight in the duel? He had two plans one if I won and one if I lost. If I lost he knew that you would come to question me and leave Luna all by herself.”

“The larger changeling!” Celestia said to herself in fear. “I was wondering why he didn’t participate in any other events than the Magic Duel!” Celestia then took off out of the room with wonderful speed, speed that could be from one thing fear of being too late.

Right after Celestia left a pony nurse came strolling in but to Trixies delight the pony turned into Chrysalis. “I was wondering when somepony would rescue me!” she replied.

“Gaia wanted me to wait until Celestia left you to find Luna; it makes the rescue easier that way.”

“He planed it?” Trixie asked impressed.

“Of course he did, this is Gaia, he has a plan for everything” Chrysalis replied. She quickly unstrapped Trixie and they made their escape from the hospital wing.

Luna looked at the cloaked changeling “I am going to enjoy this little bug” she stated. “Then after you I will take down your arrogant queen.”

“You’re going to have a hard time of it then, because to get to her you have to get through me, little loon” the changeling replied.

Luna felt a shiver go down her spine and her skin go cold when the voice spoke, soon little beads of sweat appeared on her forehead as she slowly backed away but she was trapped by the shield. “Gaia” she hissed.

The changeling took off his cloak revealing the full image of Gaia underneath it “Your sister seems to be busy elsewhere” he grinned looking up at where Celestia was sitting before she left to question Trixie. “You’re on your own now little loon.”

“I’m not afraid of you!” she shouted but her trembling voice gave her away.

“Well then, shall we get started?” Gaia asked. Luna gave a frightful scream at this and shot a magic blast at Gaia who simply faded away letting it pass through him. “Come now little loon, you will have to give it some effort!” he replied fading back with a large grin on his face.

Luna went straight to her big guns and summoned three huge meteors flinging them down from the sky towards Gaia. Gaia, to show off his powers and to save the ponies that were going to get caught in the blast split a huge section of the ground wide open moving the ponies away from the meteors and letting the meteors have a place to fall to. As soon as the meteors fell into the earth’s crack Gaia snapped it shut.

“Please Luna let’s keep it civilized so not to hurt the spectators” Gaia stated.

Luna who was filled with an ancient fear of Gaia seemed to lose all her senses and went to fly away but a huge hand of rock shot out of the ground and caught her in its grip. A giant golem then appeared from the soil breaking the magic seal around the stadium, Luna tried to break free but the golem held on tightly as it stood towering over the crowd. “You remember my golems, don’t you?” Gaia asked.

“How could I forget? Your army of rocks all but destroyed our country” Luna sneered.

Gaia flew up to Luna “that’s enough from you" he then cast a spell on her “sleep.”

Luna fell to his magic and went into a deep deep sleep; the golem then melted into a rock cage and sunk deep into the Earth.

“What did you do?” Twilight yelled running up to where Princess Luna had been.

“Taking a hostage” Gaia replied like nothing just happened.

“I know you, you’re that alicorn Celestia warned me about, your Gaia!”

“Give the pony a prize!” he called out to the now petrified spectators in response.

“I will get you for what you did to the Princess!”

“I know what spell you used against my apprentice; you cannot do anything even if you wanted to. Besides, I haven’t done anything, yet” Gaia replied slanting his eyes. “Nor will I as long as you help me accomplish my goal.”

“Why should I help you?”

“Seriously, I just told you. Or did you forget about your precious Princess Luna so soon?”

“No, of course not!” Twilight answered defensibly.

“Good, then follow me” Gaia then used his magic and teleported them to the top of the Crystal Empires tower where the crystal heart was. “Ahh, I missed the view from up here” Gaia replied looking out into the crystal land glistering in the sun.

“Why are we here Gaia?” Twilight asked.

“Patience young one, patience. I thought that would have been the first thing that Celestia had taught you.”

“Don’t even speak about her!” Twilight yelled. “When she finds you…”

“I will bring him to justice” Celestia finished the comment floating down onto the ledge in front of them.

“Princess!” Twilight shouted with joy.

“Celestia, my old friend” Gaia replied. “How are you this fine evening?”

“Better than you will be Gaia, if you hurt my sister” she replied.

“Your sister is safe in my Earth; just as I am sure I was supposed to be safe in your sun, Celestia.”

“You will give her back Gaia, right now!”

“Not until my demands have been meet, then she will be free to go where she will.”

“What demands are those Gaia?” Celestia asked circling him.

Gaia suddenly became very serious “I will have Twilight and her friends work their Elements of Harmony for me.”

“What! I will do no such…” Twilight began but Celestia put her hoof up stopping her.

“Why? What will you do with the Elements power?” Celestia asked.

“If I tell that, you will then know my plan then try to stop me.”

“If it’s any consolation I was planning to stop you anyway.”

“I know.”

Suddenly the two alicorns took off into the sky in a great display of power. Twilight spread her wings to help the princess but a sudden voice from behind made her stop “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Twilight turned around to see Chrysalis, Trixie, and the rest of the girls. Along with them were Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkypie, Fluttershy, and AppleJack all trapped in separate floating green magic fields.

“What did you do to my friends?”

“Gaia told me to bring all the elements so that’s what I did” Chrysalis replied.

“What is Gaia planning?!” Twilight demanded.

“Even I do not know, Gaia always liked keeping things close to the chest. Personally, I think that the old boy has trust issues” Chrysalis replied with a chuckle. “Wouldn’t trust his own shadow if you ask me.”

Twilight was about to respond but a sudden eruption from the ground as three huge volcanoes in the distance rose from the ground and erupted. Above the smoky black volcanoes away from the city were Celestia and Gaia fighting in the sky. Above the sun’s rays seemed to pour from the sky into Celestia who was now shinning with such brilliance that most ponies couldn’t even look at her. The ground beneath the two alicorns were moving with hundreds of stone giants flinging rocks at Celestia who repelled them with pure power as she glared at Gaia. Suddenly they both dissipated into two huge clouds of mist and began to rapidly shoot spells at each other which collided between them with huge impressive explosions. Already they showed such masteries of magic that it left both Twilight and Trixie awestruck as they wondered how such a feat was possible.

“Look well little ones” Chrysalis stated. “This is a battle between the two most powerful alicorns known to ponykind. Such battles are rare to witness even in alicorns lives.”

“Such power…” Twilight stated in an awe struck tone.

“This is just a warm up for what is to come.”

The ponies all stared at Chrysalis not seeing how that was possible however time soon proved them wrong.

“Don’t you see Celestia? This is how it was meant to be!” Gaia laughed. “You and me, the sun and the Earth, just the two of us in an epic duel to see just who is the most powerful.”

“Your plan will not work Gaia. Whatever it is I will stop it then rescue my sister” Celestia replied then summoned huge columns of light which shot out at Gaia. Gaia seeing this summoned from the three volcanoes huge streams of lave which flew into the air like long tornadoes of fire and meet the beams of light stopping them. Soon the sky was filled around the two alicorns with these and formed a loose cage around them. Then in a sudden wave everything escalated and the very air around the girls who were far away from the fight began to be drawn towards Gaia.

“Here we go” Chrysalis stated to the now scared group. Shinning Armor thankfully sent the guards to set a barrier around the empire but even with that in place the power from the fight could still be felt.

“Look!” Rainbow Dash shouted pointing towards the sun. They all did and saw that it had intensified and was now throwing out huge solar flares as if boiling on its surface. Suddenly the ground began to shake and felt as if the whole Earth was shifting in its sleep. The tremors did not stop but intensified as the battle continued. They looked out at the battlefield and were shocked to find that around the entire area the Earth was being lifted up into floating islands as if the sheer power under its surface was pouring out into Gaia, which it was.

Gaia ground his teeth and in a show of raw power, the Earth shot up in huge pillars of rock, water, wind, and fire towards Celestia who at the same time was drawing power from the sun. She shrouded with power flew at Gaia like a missile steadily cutting away the elements he shot at her. As she approached Gaia who was shrouded by tornadoes of fire she began to stagger as vines shot out of the floating rocks entangling her. “Same old tricks Celestia” Gaia stated.

“This is a new one though” she replied and shot a huge beam of energy at him not from herself but from the sun itself.

Gaia took the brunt of the attack being engulfed by the light. The vines around Celestia however did not slacken but grew stronger as the airs flow began to increase. When the attack was done and the light dimmed she gasped at the fact that Gaia was still there seeming unaffected.

“How?” she asked.

“The most important thing about the Earth is the life on its surface, and how does that life get its energy to grow, Celestia?”

“The sun!” she gasped. “You used my own power against me!”

“Exactly right” Gaia replied. He then flew at Celestia and slammed into her with his own body and drove her into the Earth which opened up like a hungry mouth of lava to receive them. The ground then trembled even more for a few minutes then dissipated to a slight rumble.

“What happened? Trixie asked Chrysalis.

“I managed to stall her for a little while but cannot hold her and Luna for long” Gaia replied melding out of the ground before them. “We must act quickly!” He then went to the crystal heart and began to activate it with his horn. “Trixie, Wildfire, Lyra, Lightningdust gather around, come on come on, we haven’t more than a few minutes.” The girls quickly gathered around.

“What is going on Gaia?” Trixie began but was cut off.

“Questions take time apprentice, something we right now do not have” Gaia replied. “Girls focus please; pour your elements into the spell I am casting.”

The girls reluctantly did so for even though Gaia’s actions were questionable they still trusted him. “No!” Twilight suddenly screamed seeing what was happening “he will trap the princesses in the Earth with that sort of power.”

The thought had occurred to Gaia and as tempting as it was to finally defeat the royal sisters he would not. Being true to his word to bring about democracy by peaceful means he decided long ago to use this power for another reason. The girls looked at him questionably as he started to rip the very fabric of time and space before them opening a channel to who knew where.

“What are you doing?!” Twilight shouted. Suddenly a force so evil that it would give Parliament itself a run for its money could be felt coming from the rip. “Don’t let those creatures in here!”

“Too late, once opened the portal cannot be closed, it is made of chaos” Gaia replied.

Twilight who had a moment ago regained some of her magic popped the barriers surrounding her friends “We will stop it!” She along with her friends started to glow with the Elements of Harmony.

Gaia laughed on the inside for this was the last key needed for his plan to succeed. If Twilight would have even thought for a second about why he brought the Elements of Harmony here instead of letting her emotions cloud her judgment then she would have thought better of what she was doing now. Gaia keeping up with the act started to light his horn as if about to stop her “No you don’t!”

“Too late Gaia!” Twilight screamed as the elements collided with a magic beam that Gaia shot then into the portal closing it with a snap.

Gaia’s magic was never designed to stop the Elements of Harmony like the girls thought but it was meant to redirect it to his main target in the rip. “How about that Gaia? We stopped your evil plan!” Rainbow Dash mocked.

Gaia just stood there and grinned at them as Twilight and her friends celebrated. Trixie and the girls however knew all too well from Gaia’s expression that Twilight had done exactly what he had planned. “Gaia, what are you doing?” Trixie asked afraid of the answer.

“Correcting a mistake” he replied.

Suddenly the Earth began to quake with such intensity that it forced all the girls onto the ground as the grounds surface behind Gaia shattered into a gaping hole. Coming out of the hole eradicating the vines and magma rock trying to draw them back in were Luna and a very angry Celestia. Gaia teleported in front of them “Looks like you two had fun” he stated.

“We will get thee for that!” Luna replied.

“Emboldened you are with your sister by your side. I guess that in this fight you will not scream and try to run away?”

“It is true that we fear thee but with our sister by our side thou stands no chance. Now prepare yourself Gaia.”

Comments

[Puking Coyote]

>>I'm excited!

[HaoKyruss]

Dissapointed trixie lost, but since it seemed planed for an endgame it works