Gems I: The Sun Princess

by Pen Dragon

Chapter Two- The Duel

Chapter Two- The Duel

It was shocking for Watcher as he looked at the board with his name next to Stardust’s. Out of all the students he had to face it had to be her. The only mare that was both beautiful and skillful in the magic arts and it only made him confused and saddened by this. He could only ask himself, Why her?

“Well that can’t be good… on the bright side you get to have one on one time with her like you wanted-” Midnight tried to make him laugh, but only received a deadly glare. “I’ll just shut up now.”

“Why does all of this bad stuff have to happen to me?! Now I have to choose either to win and break Stardust’s dream of being a guardian, or let her win and crush my own.” Watcher said, growling at the board in front of him.

“I know what you mean, but you’ve been dreaming about this your whole life. So why should you have to give up on it for some mare?” Midnight reminded him as the two walked out of the mess hall. Watcher for his part could only nod and think, he agreed he shouldn’t lose his dream, but he knew she wasn’t just ‘some mare’ to him.

‘Damn… out of all the magic users I could have faced, it had to be her! What the hell am I going to do? I can’t take her head on… she’s someone I care about! To make matters worse, if I win I deny her the rights to become an Alpha-class magic user, but if I let her win… I lose the only chance I have to become one as well.’

The two were able to arrive at one of the training courses where a couple of other Beta-class students were chatting or training in some way. A few were sparring with one another while others reviewed their spells and practiced separately. It made Watcher smile as he looked at the training course as many of his fellow classmates were working with one another or having fun. Still that grin disappeared the moment he saw Stardust talking with a green unicorn.

‘Just great, another guy is flirting with her… again!’

“I told you that you should’ve said something to her,” Midnight said with a sigh as Watcher’s eye began to twitch.

“Why does every stallion have to make a move on her the moment she’s seen?” Watcher said aloud as he watched the two off in the distance.

“The same reason why you have pictures of her in-” Before he could finish Watcher clamped his mouth shut with his magic.

“Midnight I swear I’m going to kill you if anypony finds out about this,” He whispered as Midnight nodded, but kept grinning nonetheless. “Besides at least I’m not like those two idiots who walked into the mares’ room the other day.”

“Hehehehe… I know, and those two got expelled after what they pulled.” Midnight added, soon the two began laughing . “Anyway, even if she is taken, there are plenty of mares who’d like to go out with you.”

“Name one mare that would, Midnight...” Watcher said, raising a brow.

“Well there’s… what about that mare… Uh, Umbra I believe, she was in Alpha-class who’d hang around us when we graduated from Gamma-class?” Midnight said as Watcher slowly faced hoof himself as his entire face turned cherry red as images of Umbra appeared in his mind with that same seductive smile.

“Midnight? Did you forget what happened two weeks after we started Beta-class? She broke into my room, tied me to the bed and… Urgh, have her way with me… Not to mention it wasn’t the first time she jumped me… I literally had to have security make improvements to my doors and windows, just so I could sleep,”

He wasn’t going to lie saying that Umbra wasn’t extremely attractive, because she was and almost every stallion on campus drooled over the sight of her when she was around, before she became one of the youngest magic users to graduate. But even though she was hot and sexy, she was the biggest pervert he had ever met and she only had her eyes on him. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but Watcher also figured it didn’t help that she was a descendant of King Sombra.

“Oh, right I forgot about that… still you have to admit that you were lucky to have a girl like that after you! The guys around here were pretty jealous, heck even I was… well a little bit anyway,” Midnight admitted, but that didn’t help his case.

“Well besides Umbra? I doubt there are any mares that would be with a guy like me. I mean just look at me! I’m bigger than most stallions here. Not to mention that they’re intimidated by me. What about those jerks that thought that I was a demon that crawled out of Tartarus? So do tell me there is one mare out there who isn’t a total freak, who isn’t afraid to have a conversation with me, and who is single? Last I checked there isn’t!” Watcher explained clearly with a snarl, while Midnight returned it with a snarl of his own and a glare.

“You know you don’t have to be act like a foal to explain!” He shouted, despite the differences in size, Midnight’s strength rivaled Watcher’s, one of the reasons why most stallions don’t pick on the two.

The two could only stare each other down, but with a deep sigh, Watcher looked at his friend with regret. “Look I-I’m sorry… it’s just been hard with me lately and not only do I have to face Stardust in a duel, she’s probably already agreed to go out with that guy.”

“It’s alright, I know what you mean Watcher, but at least this gives you a reason to not lose right?” He asked as Watcher looked back at him, before nodding. “Than let’s show those councilers that we’re meant to be guardians!”

“Yeah you’re right!” The two bumped their hooves together.

Soon the entercom began to make a loud humming sound before a mare's voice began to shout through it “ALL BETA-CLASS STUDENTS! FINALS SHALL BEGIN IN FIVE MINUTES!!! PLEASE HEAD TO DUELING ARENA FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS!!!”

“Well, that looks like our cue.” Watcher said as the two head down to the arena to not only finish their finals strong, but to become the next guardians for the Order just like so many others before them.

---

Beta-Class Arena

It took almost an half and hour for every student to arrive in the arena, but Soul Writer was pleased nonetheless. “Now I hope that you’ve used your time wisely and practiced your best spells, because now it’s time for you to demonstrate your full capabilities. As you may have already noticed our bracket system, each one of you has been paired up with an opponent. You shall compete against one another in a duel.”

“As for who’ll go first, well we have a list of every round that shall be held today… since there’s so many of you we shall only be doing half of you today… the rest shall be held tomorrow afternoon. Now our first student that shall be entering the arena shall be… Midnight Blaze and our new transfer student, Blackstar,” Soul Writer said, as Midnight stood up from his seat and teleported into the arena. While Blackstar hopped off his seat and leaped in instead.

‘Well at least I shouldn’t have to worry about going out so soon.’

“Now, none of you are allowed to use dark magic or forbidden spells in this match, you’ll have only three minutes, other than that anything else goes in this duel, you shall begin the moment the timer hits zero,” Soul Writer said, exiting the arena as he placed a large magic dome around it. “let no one interfere with this match!”

As we all sat silently, a magic barrier formed around the arena, sealing us out as we watched the two unicorns circle around, waiting for the timer to hit zero. It was a large brass clock with a countdown of 20 seconds written on the face, each second causing the silver pointer in the middle to tick ever closer to zero. Midnight and Blackstar made eye contact, quickly shifting back and forth from each other to the clock, both wanting the opening salvo in the fight, as they were both offense-oriented battle casters.

A small eternity passed, and then, the bell in the center of the clock rang, the unicorns froze for a split second as their tensions made them forget everything, and then…

Midnight Blaze’s horn glowed a furious cyan as a ball of energy formed at the tip of it, and he launched a wicked bolt of glowing plasma at Blackstar, who instantly jumped to the right. The powerful projectile of excited particles impacted the floor of the arena, exploding and leaving behind a thick black burn mark on the arena floor. Blackstar retaliated with a darkened crackle of electricity, a zig-zagging bolt of infused lightning, meant to quickly disable his opponents. Midnight tried to move out of the way, but the bolt kept wiggling back and forth, tracking his movements. It seemed unavoidable, but the blue unicorn noticed his opponent was having to hold perfectly still to control his beam, and with a flick of his head after placing his horn to the floor, he sent out an arc of blue energy, which smashed into Blackstar’s front, making him lose control of the electric attack and filling the air with static.

“Not bad Midnight,” he answered, his left eye shut, possibly bruised, “of course, now that the air’s full of that null lightning… you won’t be able to use your plasma bolts anymore.”

Midnight felt the twinge of horror and gave a dry swallow. The null lightning beam was a somewhat advanced, but versatile spell that would either shock the opponent or fill the area with free electrons, which would mess with any kind of excited particle spell, including Midnight’s plasma. He’d have to figure out another way to deal with Blackstar.

“How’d you know to use null lightning?” he asked his enemy, “You’ve never used it before, why’d you study it?”

“I decided that instead of studying some stuff that was going to get predictable, I’d just see what everyone else was studying and learn to counter them,” chuckled the other unicorn, “I saw you practicing all those plasma attacks, so there ya go.”

Blackstar charged up another shot and fired an elongated, sparkling bolt of ions that seemed to be sped up by the new aura in the arena, narrowly missing Midnight’s head as he ducked. The beam impacted the shield around the arena, creating a ripple in it and a dampened explosion on the surface that made a strange twang like sound, making the students outside cheer. The shield also provided a bit of sound protection for the combatants, but Blackstar could tell he was gaining favor fast.

“Come on Midnight, just think of something else…” whispered Watcher, hopeful for his friend.

The thought came to him, ‘Wait… if Midnight wins… will I… no, I can’t get my hopes up… It doesn’t change the fact that I still have to face Star. My best option is to play defensively until the time runs out. But for now I can only hope Midnight can win this match.’

Watcher’s thoughts got interrupted by Blackstar’s wicked grin and slow approach to Midnight, who nearly had his tail pushed up against the edge of the arena. Midnight had the wave attack, but it wasn’t going to help him the moment Blackstar got close and emptied whatever strength he had left into his shaking body.

“That stupid electron field,” muttered Midnight, “come on, there’s gotta be something I can do about it. Think positive!”

A moment later, and the unicorn had it, and laughed nervously, “Oh yeah, positive.”

Blackstar paused as Midnight’s horn sparked, and formed a rectangular shield in front of him. It was obviously the most basic energy defense known to the magic school, and he scoffed at the pitiful defense.

“Midnight, come on, that little barrier won’t stop direct lightning attacks,” he said, “just lower it and I promise you it won’t hurt, I’ll keep the voltage down niiiiice and safe for you.”

“Well that’d be nice Blackstar, but the shield's not for magic, it’s for… an explosion,” he answered, grinning.

Midnight’s horn split off a separate kind of attack, a purple sphere which rolled out from underneath the shield. Instinctively Blackstar thought it was a grenade of some kind and jumped back, covering his face. But the purple sphere did not explode, it just sat there in front of him, and started to slowly rise.

“Ok, ok…” he laughed, pointing at Midnight, “trying to run out the match time by scaring me with a fake bomb. Good one, champ.”

The purple ball slowly lifted up towards the electric atmosphere of the arena, and just before it touched, Midnight made sure that shield of his was right in front of him.

“Heh, who said it was fake?” he quipped.

Blackstar watched as the purple ball touched his electron field, and a mighty explosion consumed the inside of the arena, making the students scream. Soul Writer seemed unfazed by the explosion, simply nodded once in understanding.

When the blast cleared, Midnight dropped his shield, Blackstar stood in front of him, most of his coat and mane damaged badly, his legs clearly beaten up, and a sputtering cough indicated a little internal damage. He fell over, landing on the floor as his consciousness was suddenly lost from the pain. The bell rang, and the shield lowered, the barrier disappearing from over the arena, and the students cheering.

“Midnight, I’ve seen you use magic bombs before, but I’d never think one that tiny would go off so big,” demanded Watcher, quite surprised, “What was that?”

Midnight explained, “Blackstar filled the arena with electrons. I cast a ball of the opposite particle, positrons. When they touched… boom! Guess I learned something in chemistry after all.”

But before long, Midnight was shot in the back by a red, thin streak of energy, which burrowed into his back, scalding his flesh and making him cry in pain and terror. The brutal backstab with the dark magic he had just been struck by erased any remainder of his coat, scarring the tissue and boiling the local veins into nasty patterns. Students were screaming, Soul Writer stood frozen, not knowing how Blackstar could have conjured and launched a Ray of Boiling so quickly and without any charge time.

Things only got worse from there as the writhing Midnight, now bent down and trying not to scream, steam escaping from his back, was being approached by Blackstar with mortal hatred in his eyes.

“Had to be this way, Midnight,” he said, shaking his head and growling, “it’s a shame, you could have gone down easy. Now I’m going to have to make a mess.”

Blackstar’s horn sparked red, and a crimson daggers of pure energy appeared, wicked in appearance with jagged edges and a notched back. It looked like an ancient sacrificial knife, eager to remove Midnight’s heart and put it on display for his terrified peers.

But before he could deliver the final blow, he was confronted by Watcher, who had broken the rules of the arena to face him. There was anger in his eyes as well, but for a completely different side of morality, a type of rage that Blackstar had never seen before. It startled him slightly, but he spun the knife again around once.

“Fine, two stabbings it is then, Watcher!”

Watcher’s front hoof began to glow, which Blackstar took note of, slightly curious as to why the aura wasn’t coming from his horn. In short order, a long blade of bright energy formed around the hoof, extending out like a glorious sword of light. Watcher gave a loud shout, and stepped forward at Blackstar, bringing the blade across, and then down in a diagonal slash from left to right.

Blackstar panicked and attempted to block with his dagger, but went cold as the blade of light met the blade of darkness, the dagger shattering into dozens of shards as the sword passed clean through the destroyed blade and cut clear through his neck and chest, leaving a glowing, pulsating slash across him. A moment of silence happened, not a pony in the room uttered a word, as the glow dissipated. Blackstar’s eyes, frozen in shock, glazed over slightly as he puffed out a thin mist of blood before dropping on the arena floor again. The energy blade disappeared from Watcher’s hoof, and he stood there, barely understanding what he had done.

“Watcher!” Soul Writer called out as he stepped into the arena with a terrible scowl across his face. “Do you have any idea what you have done!”

“I was protecting my friend from a lunatic! He could have killed Midnight!” Watcher argued only to receive a slap across the face from his peers.

“And what makes this any different?! We would have dealt with Blackstar the moment he created the dark dagger, but you intervened and performed one of the deadliest forbidden spells in the school.” Watcher could only stare at the ground in shame as the paramedics arrived with a stretcher in hoof.

“I-I’m sorry Master Writer, I wasn’t planning on killing him or anything like that-” But before he could finish, Soul continued to lecture him.

“It doesn’t matter now! I hereby strip you from Beta-Class and Expel you from our institution!” Soul declared, before turning his back on the charcoal unicorn. Watcher’s eyes widened in shock as he looked at the condition Blackstar and Midnight were in.

‘No, no this can’t be happening? I-I’ve worked so hard?! This just can’t be true?!!’

“Master Writer, please reconsider! I was only protecting my friend! How is that justice?!” Watcher asked, trying to reason with Guardian as some ponies from the crowd began to agree with him. Noticing this, Soul simply sighed as he looked back towards his fellow council members in agreement, before facing Watcher again.

“Even though you did break the rules… I won’t expel you, but you will no longer be moving up from now on. You’ll remain where you are as a librarian. We shall discuss this tomorrow, but in the meantime…” Soul soon turned his attention towards the other Beta-Class users. “All of you return to your dorms and remain there until the wounded have been taken cared of! Finals shall continue first thing tomorrow!”

As Midnight and Blackstar were taken into the infirmary, everypony left the arena, whispering about Watcher as he collapsed to the ground in defeat. He tried his best to not cry, but tears still managed to have escaped his shut eyes. Watcher couldn’t believe that after everything he worked for was all thrown away because he saved his friend’s life.

‘I wish there was something I could do….’

---

One Week Later

A week had passed since the incident and Watcher wasn’t doing so well as he kept a melancholy expression ever since he was forced to become a librarian for the Order. He hated it and even after saving Midnight’s life, the thankless council still prevented him from moving up to Alpha- Class. It was as if his leaders had preferred that his best friend die over him interfering with the match.

The charcoal unicorn could only organize the books by section and check out books to other students now. To make matters even worse is that rumors have spread claiming that he had killed a pony on purpose, even though Blackstar was alive and well thanks to the medical staff.

As he grabbed a stack of books the sounds of the library doors opening echoed throughout the library. Stardust and Midnight entered the library, concerned from the looks of it, but Watcher didn’t pay them any mind as he continued to put away the stack of books that were brought in. “The library is closed, so if you're here to check out any books, you’ll have to wait until morning.”

“We just wanted to know if you’d like to join us at the mess hall? You know for a bite to eat?” Stardust asked, but Watcher could only scuff before setting the remaining books down on a nearby table.

“I’m not hungry.”

“Watcher, I know that it’s been rough for you lately, but you’ve been in this library for almost a week now. Come on, it's just a little snack.” Midnight tried to convince the charcoal unicorn, but to no avail as he slammed his hoof against the table.

“I said I’m not hungry! Now Go! I have a lot of work to do now!”

“Fine!” declared Stardust, turning around, “Keep wallowing in self-pity. We’re going to go eat, shame you don’t want to go.”

Watcher wanted to say something, but kept to himself as she exited the library, leaving Midnight and him alone. The two remained silent for a brief moment before Midnight began to head out, taking a final look at his best friend.

“You know if it wasn’t for you, Watcher, I wouldn’t be here today. I just want you to know that I’m grateful for you saving my life, friend.” Midnight said, before following after Stardust. Watcher wasn’t a fool to notice that he has been spending a lot of time with Stardust, but he didn’t care anymore. Even though he had saved his life, this was his reward for his efforts.

‘Maybe I do need to get out of this dusty, old library… but after that little stunt I pulled, I doubt they’ll just let it go. I could head out to the city and get a bite to eat there. Who knows… It’s not like I’m a student here anymore.’

Without a second thought, he began to head out with a bit more confidence in his step as he finally exited the library. He looked up towards the sky to see that it was already night time in Baltimare as he trotted through the campus, but took a moment to look towards the glass of the mess hall, seeing Stardust and Midnight laughing together before hugging one another.

‘Ouch… As much as that stings I’m not that surprised by this… I was too upset to even leave the library that those two have been spending a lot of time together. As much as I hate you right now Midnight… I wish you two the best of luck.’

Watcher simply turned his head away and returned to his lonely volumes and with each step he took as he exited through the campus gates and out into the city. He couldn’t help but feel a little depressed as trotted past many other ponies. The city of Baltimare was always busy, even at night as ponies would either return to their homes or head off to the nightclubs to drink and party.

He soon found himself at one of those old diners called the Late Bite and with a loud growl coming from his stomach he couldn’t help but enter the diner. Soon the smell of hay fries and tasty sandwiches hit his nostrils, almost making him drool, but he held his composure as he took a sit at a nearby window and awaited for the waitress to take his order.

---

Two Hours Later

After having a full course meal the unicorn could only sigh in satisfaction as he left his pay and a few extra bits for the waitress and headed out to return to the library once again to finally rest, but as he exited the diner he was soon rammed by another pony to the ground.

“Ow! Hey watch wher-” Before he could finish his sentence all he could do was gawk at a unicorn with a beautiful white coat and pink mane and mesmerizing purple eyes. The two unicorns could only stare at one another before she hopped off of him and ran in the opposite direction, leaving Watcher with a bewildered look, before noticing two officers approach him.

“Excuse me have you seen a white unicorn run by here? She’s been stealing food from a local shop downtown and we’ve been trying to catch her. Have you seen her?” He asked, as Watcher shook his head before responding.

“Uh… yeah I think I saw her running that way!” He said pointing towards an ally before the two continued their pursuit. Watcher himself was surprised that he lied to the police for a pony he didn’t even know, but he couldn’t help but think of how pretty she was. “Get a hold of yourself! She’s a thief and what’s the chances of meeting her again anyway?”

But what he was unaware of is that the same mare had been watching in the distance and couldn’t suppress a smile of her own.

Author's Note:

Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, there will be more to come in the future.

Comments

[hakim35]

Nice chapter but need more chapter

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Yeah the Council shows their ineptness. They couldn't prevent Blackstar from doing that but a student showed he could and they didn't like that.

[Drake1703]

Yeah, this is more or less how I remember it. I wonder if Umbra will play a role in the future.

[Pen Dragon]

9897377
She will play a big role my friend. XP Most of the chapters are pretty much the same, where the real changes occur.