Lessons in quirks

by Mike84

Chapter LVI

Low above the roofs of Ponyville they dashed as fast as they could, the mysterious alicorn in the armor of one of Princess Luna's guards and Princess Twilight Sparkle in hot pursuit. Her mind was focused only on that shape ahead of her, blinding out everything else. There flew the answer to all the unanswered questions of the last days, she was sure that there flew the one who was behind the attacks on Mr. Rich, Miss Cheerilee, Inkhorn, possibly Featherscribe and possibly Frank. There flew the reason of her failures of the last days, the framer and deceiver who had so far misled everypony and who might have succeeded in much more foul deed but for the warning provided by Pinkie Pie's inexplicable sense for some things future. There had been plenty of clues that all this was about much more than some bags of money, but they had not prepared Twilight for the attempted murder of Frank and much less for an alicorn stooping to such sinisterness. She had to put an end to this now to redeem herself for earlier mistakes, to restore the order and, most importantly, to protect other ponies from being attacked by this ruthless fiend and his dark magic.

Much to her dismay however, the attacker was gaining distance. There was no doubt he was the more experienced and faster flyer and if she just kept trying to follow him like this, he would ultimately leave her behind and disappear into the night. Twilight cast a purple ball of magic energy after him. It missed and therefore didn't deal out the fall inducing punch that Twilight had hoped it would, but at least it caught the attention of the alicorn. He cast a look back and began to gain height.

A dart of greenish light suddenly shot towards Twilight. She hastily flapped with her right wing several times while she didn't accelerate the flapping of her left wing so she tilted a little to the side and the spell missed her. Twilight began to ascend after the alicorn, but he outflew her in ascend as much as in straight flight and with increasing despair she recognized that she would not be able to catch up with this elusive enemy unless she managed to coax him into accepting the fight.
In rapid succession, Twilight cast three more magical purple balls after the shape. It was difficult to tell for certain, but as the three balls burst into magic flames, she was pretty sure that at least one of them had hit home. The shape however only staggered a little and started flying in zigzag lines to make aiming more difficult for her. Twilight couldn't suppress a grim smile. While the unsteady flight of her enemy made aiming very difficult, it also allowed her to gain distance on him again which was exactly what she had intended.

As she was drawing closer, Twilight realized that by now they had left the roofs and lights of Ponyville behind and there was only darkness below. Suddenly the shape ahead whirled around and similar to her own previous attack, he shot several bolts of greenish light in her direction. The scatter of these bolts didn't allow Twilight to avoid them like she had avoided the single dart before. She quickly cast a shielding spell similar to those her brother was so masterful with. The magic darts were consumed as they hit the sphere of the shield, but their impact made her gasp at the ferocity of the spells she could sense. These spells, if they hit, would not stop at merely dealing a punch or slow her down a little. In spite of her having seen the unrestrained magic of this attacker in the storeroom of the town hall, the renewed realization made Twilight feel rather uncomfortable, even anxious. For a moment the thought crossed her mind of flying back and informing Princess Celestia about this attacker. Maybe she knew what alicorn and what kind of foul magic was behind this.

She shook off the thought right away. The attacker was here and if she let him escape now, who knew where he might turn up again and who would be his next victim. Twilight continued her pursuit and cast spell upon spell after the attacker, purple magic balls and also some that should have stunned the other alicorn if they had hit. It didn't escape Twilight's notice that her enemy cast but very few spells back in return and still seemed to be more intend on making a getaway than actually getting involved into this fight. Maybe he was drained already by the spells he had cast against Frank before. Maybe she had an edge over him in this respect. The attacker cast some orange flashes, but they passed by way below Twilight, so she didn't need to take any evasive maneuver at all. She cast a short look after them. The momentary distraction caused Twilight to notice the next dart of green light too late to still cast a shielding spell against it. She flew a quick corkscrew spiral around it and only after she had finished it, it occurred to her that she had never flown such a corkscrew spiral before. She regretted that Rainbow Dash hadn't been there to see it. Her friend was right with what she had said yesterday about her flying being a lot better when she didn't focus on it. Come to think of it, all the previous magic casting while flying and focused on pursuing the attacker had also been very little trouble for her, Twilight thought.
Twilight thought!

"Stop thinking about it!" Twilight implored herself as she felt her flight was getting less steady. Another dart of green light was flying towards her and this time she only just dodged it with an improvised dive that made her loose a lot of altitude. Moreover, the dart had passed so close above her head that she felt it had scorched her mane. For the first time since she had first seen this attacker, Twilight felt actual fear. Still he was flying away from her.
All her previous magic attacks hadn't achieved anything but slowing down his flight. Maybe it was time to try something she hadn't done before, something the attacker didn't expect.
"Celestia!" she thought as an orb of yellow and white light formed at the tip of her horn before she cast it to a point in the air in front of her enemy. The moment before the orb reached that point, Twilight squeezed her eyes firmly shut.

The orb burst into a short flash of extremely bright white light, illuminating the night sky like a lightning. Even through her closed eyelids, the flash dazzled Twilight somewhat, but certainly not as much as her opponent. As Twilight opened her eyes again, she spotted him drifting around in the air, showing every sign of being spacy from the unexpected light. He had fallen some distance and was now below her. Twilight swooped down towards him and as she did so, she prepared a levitation spell to fix her enemy to one spot in the sky just like she had tried to fix Rainbow Dash.

"Just like I tried to fix Rainbow Dash", she thought as she cast the spell, "And just like in my dream last night."
Her flight became uncoordinated as she concentrated on the spell and the memory of the previous outcome in both waking time and dream. She cried, tried to pull out of her dive and at the same time drag the attacker along with her spell. What were the dark trees below? Was that... Everfree Forest? And what about the orange lights she saw there? Fire? Fire! Flap!
Her left wing hit something solid and immediately contracted. A heavy blow hit her forehead, numbing her. Another stroke hit her torso, knocking the breath out of her. There was scratching and the snapping sound of breaking wood. Another hard blow as she landed heavily on her back and passed out.

It landed once its eyes had recovered from the flash of light and readjusted to the darkness. Things were not going to plan. It had pushed luck by making Princess Twilight a witness, but it still didn't know how she had come to turn up in time to save the distraction from Fillydelphia. It had been particularly unlucky about the dispatching of the distraction that had become a risk. Its spells had been of very poor accuracy, even though it was certain its aim hadn't been any less careful as it always was. The colt had also turned out to be surprisingly resilient. It didn't know if Frank Blanket had by now informed others about his findings in that book which he had shown. The princess' untimely arrival might have been a coincidence, however. She appeared unaware of what the colt from Fillydelphia could have told her and her immediate pursuit hadn't left any time so he could have told. The many spells back there and during the chase had drained it badly. But maybe the development could be turned in its favor after all. By the sound of things she had crashed somewhere here in the forest. If the element of surprise was still on its side, it might succeed here in what had failed the previous evening. There were no pet birds of the princess here to protect her. If successful, she would prove a much needed source of information, magic and nutrition and perhaps her position could be exploited more effectively on behalf of the endeavor than that of any other pony. It would have to use a different approach now. There was sufficient magic left for one more disguise to keep the princess unprepared once she was found. And if her position was not to be taken, taking her life might prove beneficial enough by itself.

Author's Note:

Last edited on December 17th 2015.