My spell screamed through the air, a construct of pure force lashed out and the bottle exploded in a thousand pieces.
"Not bad," Shining Armor said as he looked at our improvised spell range. It was early, the sun setting towards the horizon but if we wanted to do this it was much easier when he could actually see.
"I was a bit to the left," I said with a small frown before I shrugged my wings, "...I'm a bit out of practice," I admitted.
It's been years since I had daily practice on this sort of thing. Paperwork and sitting on a throne thankfully didn't have much use for slinging combat spells around.
If that was a fortunate thing or not was up to the beholder however.
Shining nodded and magic shone from his horn as he sent his own spell across the range, a second bottle exploding, "You need to practice to keep your skills," he warned me, "I do mostly office style work now, but I still make sure to get a couple of hours a week."
Which was the reason for this entire thing. He was going to practice and to my surprise asked if I wanted to join.
"Time time time," I said and then smiled wryly, "If we ever get an alicorn of time, I will be so jealous. They might actually be able to squeeze enough of them into a night."
Shining grinned, "I know. I have hopes for Flurry, maybe I can mooch some of it if she does, but she's more likely to take after her mother."
"Not necessarily, maybe she'll be the alicorn of protection or something," I pointed out, "Shields and all that you know. Cutiemark themes tend to run in families. More or less."
Shining nodded, "That's true," he agreed, "But not necessarily. I mean, neither of my parents has anything to do with shields."
"Good point," I agreed and then shrugged my wings again, "Also, alicorn. Who knows how that works out with domains and such."
Shining made a sound of agreement and then sent a spear of fire at the last bottle, causing it to explode into fragments.
"Oh, nice one," I said, "I always had trouble with fire magic. Even now I can barely do a burst of it. Just keep getting away from me and... well... Twilight banned me from using it without supervision."
Shining grinned, "Didn't like when you smelled like burned mane, huh? Cady may have said something similar at some point."
"Yep. I'm better with ice magic for some reason."
He frowned, "But that's harder."
"I know, right!" I exclaimed and sighed, "And neither has anything to do with my domain either, so how that works, don't ask me."
"You have some training," he said, "Did you get as far as playing whip snap?"
That was a common training technique for guard unicorns.
I nodded, "Sure, my wife taught me when we worked on shields. Been a while though."
Shining nodded and walked some five meters away from me across the grass before turning to face me, "Ready?"
Facing him in turn, I gave him a nod.
Magic shone around his horn and a snap of magical energy flew towards my chest. I responded with a shield, the bolt hitting it with about the force of a hoof tap.
I dropped my shield and responded in kind and he brought up one of his own. Instead of my half sphere, his was the size of a diner plate, just intercepting the spell and nothing else.
That was the goal of this exercise, alternating shielding and casting spells as quickly and accurately as possible, the spell used just enough to let you know if you bucked up.
We slowly sped up as we got into it, and I had to say... Shining was good.
Really, bucking, good.
Small accurate shields took less energy to cast, but they took a lot more focus and concentration to manage.
Which meant that in a real fight, alicorn or not, he might be able to outlast me if it came to a spell to spell duel with no other tricks.
Of course, this wasn't. And it wouldn’t have been.
"Try a smaller shield," Shining said, holding his spell.
"Never did manage that before," I warned him, "Not against spells anyway."
"It’s why we practice."
Which was fair enough so I nodded.
He sent a spell flying at me and I focused, managing to bring a meter wide shield disk up before it just in time.
"Good," Shining said and blocked my return cast, "Don't try any smaller, focus on good form," he said before firing a spell back.
I brought a shield up again to block, "You miss being active guard?"
"Sometimes," Shining admitted and blocked my return spell, "But on the bright side, no more slogging through mud in the rain."
"There is tha-ow!"
A spell slipped through and marked me in the shoulder. Damn, I forgot how much those sting. Felt like somebody had smacked me with a puppy sized bee.
"Focus."
I sent a spell back at him. He blocked it with a shield the size of a hoof, looking smugly at me.
Bastard.
Now that would be interesting
Thanks for chapter!
Have a good day!
If Nocturnis does get a public bath house, we need at least a mention of Fern enjoying floating around in the bath. Bonus if somepony uses him like an inflatable raft.
Shining: Well lets practice it then. You won't get better unless you work on it.
Page: I dunno. Even in the dream realm, I tend to have a difficult time.
Shining: I'm here and I'm pretty good at fire magic. You'll be fine~!
TWO HOURS LATER...
Midnight: Seventeen. Acres! Why is seventeen acres of forest a frozen wasteland?!
Page: Well it was a burning inferno at FIRST..
Shining: I threw water spells at it but that spread it FASTER. I have no idea why the buck it did that..but the water managed to sweep most of the animals to safety! T-that's a plus right?!
Page: After that I used my ice spells and that fixed everything? It should thaw out in a couple of weeks...ish.
Midnight:
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I imagine he'll start sprouting some lotus flowers if he does that.
Shining can shield a lot. But his heart is still unguarded vs Chrysalis Bugwaifu Flanks
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I totally see him Swarmed by Foals
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Is Fern male or female?
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Page uses Grice Fire. Water makes it only spread
*Luna enters Page Dreamscape*
Luna: "Why is everything on Fire and Shining Armor flash frozen?"
*Shining Armor shakes and mumbles something with his body frozen solid on he outside*
Page: "Well... He insisted we practice Fire magic, than suddenly everything was on fire. Unfortunately did his Tail started to burn at some point and me being the responsible one trying to putting it out... ended in him become the coolest Stallion in the Dreamscape."
Luna: "But his Tail is still burning even when he is frozen Solid!"
Page: "Yeah... Still trying to figure that one out ..."
Luna: So he is still a Stallion Fire and flames despite being cool as ice?"
Page: "I am so tempted to take you with me for double the Luna fun..."
Luna:"Hmmm... Careful Prince Page, you might get your dream just yet..."
Page:
Luna:
Discord:
Hey! I've got an Alicorn of Time and an Alicorn of Protection! Stop stealing my characters!
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We reader regret to inform you that this idea is to awesome to Trademark it...
Please continue with your 20% more awesome storys.
In love: Anyone loving good storys on Fimfiction ♡
A fair fight is the result of insufficient preparation. Even sparring, because training is a form of preparation and you generally only prepare because you aren't prepared enough.
Now to see if Shining Armour can do the thing from the first matrix film
great chapter
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My man, you speak of wisdom many never acquired during their lifetime. Impressive 👍
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- Download knowledge into his brain via floppy disc?
- Bullet time?
- Dying and coming back more powerful?
- Jump from one building to another by the power of faith and h@X ?!
- Waking up in a Goo-Pod?
- Shooting guns?
- Punching things and getting punched back?
- F -L-Y-I-N-G
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fern is described as male but I'm inclined to say a timberwolf which is a magical plant wolf probably doesn't have sexual reproduction in that sense...
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Id say 5 and 7 are the most likely ones to happen.
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Very reasonable since 5 almost happend and there are other Queens... Page might want to mention that incident...
7 is a given in peaceful or chaotic times
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"Page what was that"
"I showed you a virtual dreamspace representation of Nocturnis."
"OOOOOO LIKE THE NEIGHTRIX"
"da wut.."
"Ooh did you teach me wing-chun!"
"What are you boys doing in here?"
"CADDY, I know wing-chun! like in the neightrix!"
"NO he does not know wing-chun!"
"Page did you do to my brother, why is he running around shouting he knows wing-chun and why is he shouting about the neightrix"
"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"
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O my favorit Pony or Bugwaifu plot...
The Pony puns are beautiful
Nice
11346082
Pretty sure fern is a guy. But with him being a magical semi-construct made of wood, anything goes.
Now, would he dirty the water? Or would he act like a water purifier?
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Both, first get all dirt of him, than detox the water.
11346082
I think Fern is normally referred to as male. I'm not sure if Timberwolves actually have separate genders in this fic, but I am pretty sure that Page normally uses male pronouns for Fern.
Best series here, change my mind
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'Off the Mark' just to make one example...
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Who's to say for certain? For all we know of Timberwolves Fern could be both, considering how genders of plants can be.
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That's what I assume is the case, would certainly make them feel more unique.
You know, it would be kind of funny and adorable if Page were to discover Fern with a pile of timberpups, sometime after a brief encounter with another timberwolf. Timberpups for all Nocturnis citizens!
11346543
he's a good wood boi, so he'd make things better
11346937
Might not even need another Timberwolf, some plants (not all) can pollinate themselves.
Yeah, Page might want to take Shining's advice on board, lest he get worfed sooner or later.
One grammar jackboot today, leaving aside the localisation mistake:
Just keeps getting away from me and...
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Twilight was very suprised that the translation for the murals around the statue just kept refering to it as 'The Ideal Stud'
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I am aware, but that hasn't happened in story. Also, self pollination is one of, if not the worst reproduction method from a genetic diversity standpoint. Which is why most plants that can self pollinate try to attract pollinators.
If Timberwolves are a mono-gender species, I assume they aren't normally able to self pollinate.
At the same time, they could also be living, self propagating enchantments who don't have to worry about genetics. They are able to fuse into a single larger organism after all.
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You make some fair points.
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11347624
As far as i can remember from the early stories timberwolves are genderless constructs made by funky everfree magic surges. They go mad when the timber that makes them starts to go rotten. That's my constant worry about Fern. That he'll get too neglected and a wood rot sets into him somewhere.
Why do people keep thrwoing responsability on the poor Beholder?
Dude is all eyes, even being really intrlligeny doesn' make it possible to regulate everything in the universe like that...