“I got the letter from Twilight inviting me to come along this morning,” Sunset said with a smile as we looked over the training yard. “Pretty amazing, right?”
“Very,” I agreed with a nod, “Luna said it’s the first one.”
Sunset blinked at me. “First one?”
“First child from an alicorn,” I clarified. “Neither her nor her sister has had one before.”
“…But Prince Blueblood's family…”
“By marriage,” I said and shrugged my wings. “Their titles are from elsewhere and they have refused to let them go.”
“Huh.”
I nodded and looked out over where my guards were training in groups of three. They were practising against each other with wooden weapons and low powered spells.
For having done this for less than a month, they weren’t half bad. Things were difficult for them, the trainers had taken about half of the normal guard handbook and then thrown out the rest. Right now they were throwing shit at the wall and saw what stuck.
Seems like they went with my suggestion of teams of three though, and so far, it seemed to be working out, but practice wasn’t real life.
I knew how to defend myself, but I wasn’t military. I could fight, but this was a whole different kettle of fish.
I mostly kept out of it and let the professionals handle it.
Then I cringed as a pegasus below got rapped across the wing with a wooden sword as she flew past too close to an earth pony and went rolling across the dirt.
Ouch, that got to smart. Wings are sensitive and contained all kinds of nerves, they had to be to read the air currents.
Sunset nodded and then stretched. “We should get our own training in too.”
“…True, I have been slacking off since Celestia went away.”
“To be fair, we were both extremely busy,” Sunny said with a smile. “Come on.”
“Just something short today, maybe target practice,” I said and walked back inside with her. “Don’t have time for a bath later, there is some kind of dinner thing tonight.”
Sunset nodded. “Sounds good,” she said and led the way down the stairs. “Well, can’t say I envy you then.”
“It’s nothing special, just one of those goodwill things for the nobles,” I explained. “Both Luna and Celestia need to be there and I’m not about to make Luna go there on her own. Least I can do is to be bored with her.”
“And Clear Skies?”
I shook my head. “Celestia wants to keep that quiet if at all possible and, quite frankly, I don’t blame her.”
I didn’t like the attention and dating a princess got you a whole lot of attention. Of course, not quite as much as wings and being engaged to one.
…But Celestia also got more public attention than Luna in the first place. Might not be fair, but it’s the truth.
To be honest, if I could have avoided it, I would have.
We made our way to the training area we and the guard usually used as a spell range. It was one of the smaller training areas and there was a pair of unicorns there already, sending spell bolts towards the stone targets at the other end.
“Did you ever figure out that fire spell thing?” Sunny asked and picked out a target of her own.
I shook my head. “No, I’ll follow Celestia's advice and stay away from them for now. I’ll stick to ice and force for a while. Not that I get why I can do semi-advanced ice spells but fireballs, nope.”
“Wasn’t it a realm thing?” Sunny asked and sent a ball of flame flying down the range to splash against the rock.
I frowned. “Maybe? I mean, it’s possible but Celestia didn’t think so. It might just be that I suck at fire spells. Why would ice be easier than fire if it was a realm thing? It’s still just thermal energy!”
“Now that I still don’t quite get and I went to school for a while where they taught that stuff,” Sunset said with a frown. “Never made sense to me.”
“Fast atoms hot, cold atoms slow.”
She rolled her eyes. “Thank you, Lord Obvious. I know that’s the same thing but it’s not quite in magic.”
Nodding, I sent a bolt of force down the range, hitting close to the centre of her target. “I guess that might be where I do things wrong.”
Casting a Spear of Ice spell, one of the more moderately difficult ones, I sent it flying down the range to shatter into a thousand pieces against the enchanted rock target.
It may not have pierced a normal rock, but it should have at the very least chipped it.
“This is always too easy,” Sunny commented and bumped her shoulder against mine. “Come on, let’s head to the swinging targets instead.”
“Fair enough.”
She had a point there, a stationary target was kind of easy and mostly for learning to aim new spells rather than improving your aim in general.
“So, when do you leave for the Crystal Empire? Twilight said the Crystalling was in a couple of weeks.”
I shrugged my wings and walked along. “In a week or so, takes time to get two princesses moving unless it’s an emergency. Tons of stuff that need planning.”
“No kidding,” Sunset agreed. “Sounds like we are all taking the same train.”
I frowned slightly. “How do you feel about going back to the Crystal Empire?”
Sunset sighed and looked over at the magically swinging stone sphere on a chain. “I’m not sure, to be honest. I feel bad about what happened there, but… I didn’t actually hurt anyone. Will be mostly strange to be back there.”
“I guess it would be,” I agreed and frowned. “…For me too. Not that good memories last time I was there either,” I said before I grinned at her. “But hey, maybe we are lucky and we get another big world ending monster. Maybe you can get your own wings!”
“Why would I want my own wings when I can always admire yours?” Sunset teased with a grin, “Come on, let’s finish this so you can get going, you have a dinner, remember?”
“Ugh, don’t remind me. Be nice or I’ll bring you along.”
Page is going to be on Crystalling? So MUCH things are going to be smoother than in canon in this case. And Sunset with wings must be a thing, as she would rub this fact into Celestia face for rest of eternity.
Another great chapter. Short and sweet too. Though, it might be a nice idea if, every one in a while, there was a larger chapter around the 3,000 word range, just to have a change of pace. Just a thought though.
Hi Sunset, good to see you.
Page heading to the Crystalling, why, what could possibly go worng?
As always, thanks Hiver for the continued updates.
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Part of what makes this new, extra-spunky Sunset attractive is she's learned to be happy with herself and doesn't seek a crown anymore.
Except maybe Twilights. In private. For... reasons.
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She may not seek it anymore, but any reason is good to annoy your fellows in immortality, to make it more interesting.
Is this Clear Skies in this story? vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/c/cb/Clear_Skies_ID_S5E5.png/revision/latest?cb=20150425225858
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Unless rainbow rocks happens.
If Tia finds out about page doing a background check on her new girlfriend... She's gonna be displeased.
I wonder if "a-firin' his lazor" counts as fire magic.
The Crystalling eh? Can somebody remind me again what's happening with Starlight Glimmer in this universe?
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Yep.
Who needs flaming spell when you can blast elemental spears at an opponent?
I can't wait for Twilight to show up soon with an idea of how to help Page with his fire spells....
Twilight Sprarkle: "Page! I've got a great idea we should try! I read a medical manual about how to do an emergency magical recharge of unicorns!"
Page: "Uhh... what's the lightening rod for and why is Rainbow hauling that storm cloud around?"
Twilight Sprarkle: "It says to do an emergency recharge, we should connect the rod to the unicorn's horn..."
Page: "Uhh... So why are you attaching it to my tail?"
Twilight Sprarkle: "Well... since you're so attuned to cold magic, all we need to do to let you perform heat magic is reverse your polarity..."
Page: "'Reverse my po---'? OhfutaNO!"
Twilight Sprarkle: "HIT IT, RAINBOW!"
****ZZZZOT****
Oh? Is this foreshadowing?
Nice chapter, good work.
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I don't think it will happen. The Dazzlings were drawn to the school due to the magical blast of the elements vs Demon-Sunset, without that to get their attention there is no reason for them to go to Canterlot High.
In before she gets her wings for no apparent reason.
Sunset shimmer, the alicorn of colds.
this reminded me of a fan-comic i saw somewhere: Sunset Shimmer saves Equestria by tricking Tirek with an illusion spell that makes him think he'll die unless he gives all his magic to her. she then restores everyone EXCEPT Celestia and Luna, and effectively takes over. but, surprisingly, she makes Twilight her adviser.
the rest of the story is complicated, but she does become an Alicorn in the end.
For a little while I thought they were going to make Sunset the Element of Redemption, then maybe the Alicorn of Redemption, but then they decided to go in a different direction with the geode powers. Now it looks like they've committed themselves to slice of life stuff so we may never see any further magic shenanigans.
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Link please
I THINK I fugred it out. It's about handling said energy. It's harder to hold something moving in your grip, than something "inanimate". Hot air wants to expand, it has greater diffusion so to speak, so, while it would take the same amount of energy to cool or heat something for the same amount of degrees, hot items need to be controlled more, they require more energy and finesse.
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Actually, no. You're thinking of them as two substances, while in truth it's presence-vs-absence. Heating something up is adding energy, then holding that energy in... but cooling something is removing energy... and then holding the surroundings out. And I'm pretty sure it should be easier to contain a lake than to hold back an ocean - so by all means, if one of those should be more difficult, it should be cooling.
I can think of a few event to get Sunset her wings 👍
Uff... Many complain about regulations and procedures, but coming up with them and getting things to worth is a chore to archiving.
Maybe Thunder is better than Fire in matter of compatibility?
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I think the peoblem is that he is lookong at fire as thermal when it is energy like thunder.
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Sorry to come back only now, but it's not about two SUBSTANCES. What is harder to hold? A cat that tries to jump out of your hands, or cat that is calm and doesn't twist around? Hot air is harder to control because it has more ENERGY, and presses against your control more. Iceball - you only need to cool down, and don't need to control the energy once you done that. Fireball wants to "jump out" of your grip more. Or just expend energy out and cool down.
Practice makes perfect, bruh💀
Magic hard or sift rules, they are always lose for the heros