“In this corner we have the Master of Shields! The Prince of the Pink Pony of Plentiful Pleasure! The White Knight of all White Knights! The...”
“Pinkie!” The pink paused in her commentating to look at the other alicorns, one of them blushing, as they sat in the stands of the Crystal Coliseum.
“I really don't think we need you to tell us who they are. It's just Flare and my brother having a sparring match. Though why they are doing this now when we should be heading to check on these so-called worshipers of ours I'll never know.” Pinkie Pie turned to the peeved purple pony princess with a pointedly pitiful pout.
“Aww, but he finally let me talk for once and you know how hard it is for me to not say anything when I have something to say and he had better let me talk during the party and...” The other alicorns tuned the pink party princess out as she started to go off into her own little world, though Cadance was confused about much of what she was saying, before the other pink princess turned to her sister-in-law.
“Well Shiny has always wanted to face your friend ever since he heard about her deeds during our wedding. There are very few unicorns that are specialized in shield spells like they are and he has wanted to see how well another practitioner would be against him. He really hasn't had a good challenge since he became the Captain of the Royal Guard and this is the first chance they've had to test each other without some major event taking up their time.” Twilight raised an eyebrow at her fellow princess before she shook her head.
“Seriously? The fact that we have ponies building a shrine to us and doing Celestia knows what else doesn't count as a major event?! I mean, sure it's not as bad as say Sombra or the changelings, but it's still pretty major!” As Twilight's mane started to pop out of place due to her annoyance, Applejack moved to place a hoof on her shoulder which calmed her some.
“Calm down, Sugarcube. It's not like we don't' think it's important, but that we have no idea what we are dealing with. Well, Flare seems ta know something but she said she would tell us after this.” Twilight just started grumbling to herself as she looked around the arena at the small number of crystal ponies gathered there. There were surprisingly more than would have been expected at such an event, yet considering who was fighting it may have been understandable. When she looked back out onto the field her jaw dropped at what she saw.
“What?!” Looking out on the field her eyes locked onto her brother as he pulled out a set of seven spears and took his place on one end of the field. “He's actually going to start with using his Orochi style?! I helped him practice for a couple years before moving to Ponyville and he never once brought it out when facing me!” The others blinked at her before Rarity cleared her throat.
“Um, darling? Isn't that name for a monster with eight heads? Shining Armor only has seven spears.” Twilight's eye was twitching as she looked at the two competitors stare at each other over the field as a crystal pony checks in with both to see if the are ready.
“The eighth is his horn, and we are so going to have words once he is done.” All conversation stopped as the referee moved to the center of the arena and raised a hoof to the sky. The two ponies in the arena spread their legs to the sides in preparation before the referee's hoof dropped, signaling the start of the fight.
As soon as the hoof hit the ground the two sprang into action. That action being of lighting up their horns and a dome of energy surrounding each of them. For the next few seconds nothing happened as the two stared at each other until Aegis Flare rolled her eyes. Walking forward to the edge of her shield, she walked through it causing it to mold over her before the larger part of it shattered away leaving her in a shell of energy. As she cautiously advanced on Shining Armor's shield she called up a half dozen orbs of energy which she set into floating around her head as she looked over her opponents barrier.
Shining Armor watched as she advanced, curious as to what she would do, though his interest was also piqued by the spells she was using. When she turned around at the edge of his shield he frowned in confusion until her legs pulled back sharply before slamming into the glowing wall. On impact, a shockwave spread out from the point of impact sending dust flying from the area. Shining Armor winced at the impact before his eyes widened in realization of just how bad it was to allow her free rein like that.
After retracting her legs with a wince, the alicorn mare looked back with a frown before her own eyes widened at the sight of seven projectiles flying towards her. She quickly rolled to the side to avoid the first two while using her floating shields to knock the next four off to the sides then retreating away as the last hit in front of her. Coming to a halt a distance away she smirked at the unicorn, knowing she had at least rattled him before charging in once again as he started to retrieve his spears.
Seeing the mare charge in once again before he was ready, Shining Armor quickly spun his spears around to fly back at her yet again, just to watch her orbs spin around rapidly in front of her to knock them all away yet again. When she planted her hooves just before his shield and started to spin her rear around for another buck his eyes widened before he retracted hi shield out of her bucking range. What he wasn't prepared for though was that she expected something like this and as the wall of energy retreated her wings flared out and swung around in a motion to propel her backwards towards it allowing her to unleash a flying buck into the shield, causing a web of cracks to appear in it.
Seeing this Shining Armor reacted by expanding his barrier outwards, sending her flying a decent way across the arena. As she landed at the midpoint she quickly rolled to her hooves and stared across the arena and tried to plot out her next course of action. Shining Armor wasn't going to give her a chance though as he started to march across the field, moving his shield as he went. He didn't give the alicorn time to react as he moved to drive her into a corner by harassing her flanks with his spears.
Aegis Flare frowned as the unicorn advanced on her while trying to drive her back. The cracked portion of the shield had been rotated away and was slowly repairing itself so she couldn't exploit that but she did have an idea. Faking a charge towards her opponent she made as if to buck the shield again but used her rotation to hide the fact that she conjured up to more orbs and sent them under the ground at her hooves. As she expected, the pink bubble expanded to throw her away, forcing her to flap her wings to push herself away again.
With her trap in place, she slowly retreated once again using her other barrier orbs as a distraction. She kept a pair of them trying to go for the cracked part of the shield but it constantly rotated away from them. When the shield passed over the area she had tampered with she grinned as the ground exploded upwards on the inside of the shield and two orbs darted towards Shining Armor.
Seeing an attack inside of his shield caused the stallion to panic and dive to the side to avoid them, making him lose his concentration and causing his shield and spears to fall. The spheres chased him back to his end of the arena before his horn lit up and another shield expanded out from him, knocking the attackers away once again. With everything back to where it started the two looked across the arena at each other.
Deciding to up the difficulty, Shining Armor not only sent out his spears but also started firing energy bolts at his opponent. Aegis Flare also stepped it up since her earlier gambit more than likely wouldn't work again so she doubled the number of orbs flying around. Keeping four of them on defense, the rest she sent to repeatedly batter at one point on the shield. Shining armor frowned as he steadily reinforced the area being attacked, each of the orbs hitting the precise area.
The alicorn payed close attention to the shield and noticed that the area she was attacking was starting to take on a more solid appearance while the rest of it faded. Bringing up two last spheres she quickly sent them high into the air before causing them to spin and lengthen. Soon the two spheres had lengthened into a sharp point before the plummeted towards two points in the shield. Just before impact, Shining Armor noticed the new angle of attack, but it was to late to react as they hit the weakened parts of the shield and barreled on through.
With no other course of action the stallion was forced to dodge out of the way before they impaled him. Once again he was sent on the run as his shield was once again penetrated and he had to regroup at the edge of the arena. The two frowned at each other at the way the match was going, but for different reasons.
The stallion was surprised that the shield he had taken pride in had been bypassed twice so far, which very few had been able to do. The mare on the other hoof was starting to feel weary as her magic was starting to run low, not being able to recharge like the stallion could. They both knew that things couldn't go on much longer like this, so decided to put everything into the next attack.
As Shining Armor brought up another shield, the alicorn decided to bring out the other side of her magic since the stallion had already used magic outside of his shields. Taking a wide-legged stance, Aegis Flare began to call up her flames and send them to wrap around the stallions bubble. Shining Armor frowned at this new angle of attack, but he started to panic when he felt the magic he was putting into the shield draining out of it.
He began to pour more magic into his shield, but soon ran into a problem as he started having trouble pulling more magic in. Soon he had to rely on his own personal magic to keep it powered, yet there was still a massive drain, more than should have been possible from simple fire. Eventually he had to dispel his own shield before he ran out of energy and prepared to dive away when the attack closed in on him. So imagine his surprise that no attack came when he dropped his shield, carrying the flames with it.
The two stared at each other across the field, panting in exhaustion at having to go all out. Seeing that their opponent was in the same state they were, they each turned to the referee and raised a hoof to him. With a surprised look, the crystal pony ran to the center of the arena. “By unanimous agreement, this match is a draw!” As muttering passed through the observing ponies, the two made their way towards the exit. Shining Armor glanced over at the alicorn with a frown.
“I really have to commend you. Not many have been able to actually get through my shield, yet you did it three times.” Aegis Flare returned his glance as she limped out of the arena.
“I'm guessing that Twilight is probably one of the few that got through. I probably would have done better if the terrain was something other than a flat plain, though I'd guess you probably haven't faced single opponents with how I was able to get through like I did.” Shining Armor nodded at her guess, though he frowned about the first part of her observation.
“Hmph, be that as it may, Twilight cheated to get through. She couldn't even batter through with all of her power and then she starts hijacking my magic.” Unbeknownst to the stallion, a certain purple pony was standing behind him with a peeved expression on her face.
“Cheating was I? You were the one that forgot about Xerox's Law of Simulacrum Semblances and Similitudes!” Shining Armor jumped when his sister yelled out behind him but quickly turned around to glare at her.
“And other than you who would even be able to do that?! You were supposed to help me train for any possible enemies that I may face! Not try and embarrass me in front of the other guards!” Cadance groaned as the two started arguing back and forth and waved the other alicorns forward.
“Oh, not this again. Come on, these two will be at this all day and you wanted to see that church. Honestly I thought those two would have grown out of this years ago.” Applejack chuckled as she trotted up next to the taller alicorn.
“Aww let them be. Ya should see me and Big Mac when we get into it. It's just how brothers and sisters act sometimes. But no matter how much we fought we always loved each other. I'm sure that it's the same with those two as well.” Cadance sighed before she nodded in agreement.
“True, and sometimes getting them to start in on each other was the only way to get Twilight out of the library. It's just annoying how they always seem to get like this at the worst times as well. But that can wait, what's important now is what all of you know about the churches, especially you Flare since you seem to know a bit more than the others.” Aegis Flare frowned for a moment while everyone turned their attention to her.
“Well I probably don't know much more than the others, but I did learn a few lesser known things. The worst is the fact that it is impossible to stop it from forming, though I was honestly hoping for a few more years. Also trying to stop ponies from worshiping us would be a bad idea unless you'd like them to go underground and possibly go out of control. We don't need another Nightmare Cult rising when worshipers of Luna were forced into hiding a thousand years ago.” She pauses in thought as the group approaches a familiar looking guard. “Oh yeah, and the changelings.” Cadance froze in place at the word as she looked around fearfully.
“Changelings?! What do they have to do with the church?” Aegis Flare smirked as she moved towards the pair of guards they were about to pass.
“I don't know, why do you think that changelings would be around a bunch of ponies in a church?” The familiar looking guard rolled his eyes before returning her smirk. With a flash of green flames the pony's form burned away revealing Thorax to the group.
“Why are you asking me? Why would I know why a bunch of changelings the feed on emotions would be in a highly emotional environment?” Most of the mares were shocked at the appearance of the changeling until they recognized who it was, but Cadance had yet to meet him so let out a shriek of panic. At her shriek a blur of white and blue sped past the group and the changeling was encased in a pink bubble. The changeling rolled his eyes before looking at the form of Shining Armor who had rushed forward at his wife's scream.
“Seriously?” Staring at the glaring unicorn for a moment the changeling eventually sighed before his form was covered by a flash of green flame yet again leaving him in a pegasus form. With a casual wave of his wings a burst of air flew out from him and disrupted the shield around him with a pop. Shaking himself off he changed back to his previous form and looked over at the prince and princess that were staring at him in shock.
“Did... Did a changeling just use the Breaking Wind skill!? How does a changeling know how to use the pegasii anti-unicorn technique!?” Both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash started chuckling at the name of the technique, with the other mares shaking their heads at them, before Aegis Flare stepped forward to introduce the changeling.
“I would have thought you two would have heard of him, but I guess not. This is Secret Agent Thorax of the Black Guard. Also I'm still learning just what all he can do, but only my mother seems to know all that he knows.” Shining Armor frowns at the changeling, but still nods as he had heard about the illusive secret member of the Black Guard and it being a changeling made an odd amount of sense. Cadance though was still wary as she lifted a hoof to wave at him from behind her husband.
“If you say so, but are you really sure about him? You do remember their queen, right?” Aegis Flare had to facehoof at this and just wondered where the lines of communication were between Canterlot and the Crystal Empire.
“I would have thought that Celestia would have told you. We found out that Chrysalis, the so-called queen, is actually a renegade changeling. Blueblood is in negotiations with their actual leaders, though it's unlikely that they'll reveal themselves anytime soon, especially those practically running the churches.” Twilight had caught up by this point, though she continued to glare at her brother, and cut in on the conversation.
“Well, the emotions that come with feelings of worship are one of their primary food sources so it makes sense that they would want to keep that hidden. From what my research says it is one of the more filling types of emotions they can harvest, though it is supposedly very bland. Now do we really have time to waste here when we have a church to get to?” The other royalty looked at Twilight as her eye began to twitch due to her impatience. Looking to each other they nodded as they continued on the path to the exit of the royal palace. As they didn't want to draw much attention to themselves, they boarded a carriage and had some of the guards pull them to their destination.
“So, just how did you get through my shield like that back there? The first time was so obvious that I'm ashamed that I didn't realize it, but what about the other two times?” The bat-winged alicorn looked from the window to the unicorn that had taken a seat next to her in the carriage. Gazing past him for a moment she noticed Cadance on his other side talking with Twilight, and Fluttershy past her. On the opposite bench, starting with in front of her and toward Fluttershy, were Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. Thorax happened to follow along as well but was on top of the carriage, along with his student Dies Horribly.
“Well the first time you mentioned I was unsure if it would work. I could see how you were moving it through the ground, but I wasn't completely sure just how much you were blocking under it. I was pretty sure you couldn't do too much though otherwise you would be getting caught on everything underground that you weren't expecting. So I just dropped a couple unmoving shields down there and let you walk into them.” Shining Armor frowned at this information but nodded as he promised himself to fix that little problem.
“The other time I had to resort to using one of my special spells. I've managed to come up with a flame spell that feeds off of magic, so once it was wrapped around your shield it just constantly fed off of it until you used up all the magic contained within and could no longer draw on an outside source. It's still not fully complete, but it only causes things to blow up one time of of ten now.” The stallion leaned away from her at her revelation and wondered just what type of friends his sister had. The carriage soon came to a halt as it arrived at their destination and the alicorns all looked out the window with a gasp.
“What did they do to that beautiful statue of us?” All eyes were glued on the spot Rarity pointed out that once had a statue commemorating their efforts in saving the kingdom. In its place was a statue of all of them with their backs towards each other, wings spread and forehooves in a praying gesture. Each of the seven were also adorned with a plain robe that Rarity would never deign to wear or allow her friends to wear either.
“That's only the start of it. While the building is still rather plain, you should see the plans they have for it.” Cadance gestured a hoof towards a crystal building that was indistinguishable from all of the others around it. The rest of the area was rather empty considering the time of day, but they could hear the sound of a large number of ponies coming from one of the buildings.
“All praise the saviors! Those that have risen beyond their mortality to join the ranks of the gods! All hail the Goddesses of Harmony!”
“All Hail!”
“Now, I shall read from the Great Book of Friendship.” The seven mares listened in on the pony leading the gathering from the back of the room for a few minutes when Twilight realized why the passages they were reading sounded familiar.
“Those were the Friendship Lessons I sent to Princess Celestia! How did they get those!?” Her cry of surprise was enough to draw the attention of some of the ponies in the back of the room who gasped when they turned to see who was making so much noise. Word quickly passed from pony to pony until the entire room was looking at them. Moments later the entire room was bowing to the seven alicorns as Cadance looked on from behind them, her husband waiting outside, with a combination of pity and amusement as she remembered her own experiences.
The reactions of the seven alicorns varied as they took in the sight before them. Fluttershy was hiding behind her mane and Applejack her hat as they had no idea how to deal with the situation. Rarity was little better as her face reddened from embarrassment while Pinkie Pie just looked oblivious as she bounced in place next to the others. Lastly, both Twilight and Aegis Flare were face hoofing as Rainbow Dash false whispered to the rest of them in a tone audible to most of the gathered throng.
“Wow, for a bunch of ponies reading from something called 'The Book of Friendship' they sure aren't that friendly.” As her words registered with the ponies in front of them, a gathered gasp of shock rang out from the crowd.
“Oh, we are so sorry your Loyaltyness. Tell us what we must do to appease you!” The alicorns exchanged glances as Rainbow Dash shrugged at them before Twilight shook her head, starting to understand a bit of what Princess Celestia went through and she made a note to talk with her about it when they met again before stepping forward.
“Well you could start with not bowing like that. If this is all supposed to be about friendship then what kind of friends would be if we had all of you bow like that?” Her words sent another wave of muttering went through the crowd before it parted and the pony leading the congregation stepped forward.
“That does sound like the friendly thing to do. We bow to your... I mean... uh...” The stallion drifted off as he tried to figure out how to pull his hoof out of his mouth. The rest of the ponies slowly rose up and approached the alicorns as they each made their way to different parts of the room. Each of them managed to gravitate towards the alicorn that they felt that they identified most with or needed help from.
“So I keep finding her in bed with ponies that I can't stand. I want to stay loyal to her, but she never comes home anymore and I just don't know what to do.” Rainbow Dash frowned at the stallion as her head began to ache before she sighed.
“Honestly I have no idea what to do when it comes to relationships, but I do know that loyalty works both ways. I can't make the choice for you since it's all on you, but you should really talk to her. But you really need to remember that at the end of it all, you need to be loyal to yourself and what you believe in.” The stallion looked thoughtful as the gathered ponies nodded and smiled as they began sharing their own problems with the cyan alicorn.
In her corner Fluttershy's group weren't sure what to do as the shy mare cowered away from them all until the pet of one of the ponies snuck out of her mane. Seeing this broke the yellow alicorn out of her shell as they began talking about the various pets they each had and the things they did with them. While it didn't strictly focus on kindness, their talks occasionally drifted towards it.
“Now ah don't know much about all this worship business, but what I do know about is farming. Ya see honesty is everything when it comes ta farming as the land tells no lies. Trying ta lie ta the land is like believing a fox will protect a hen-house. It just won't work.” While the ponies were rather confused about what she was saying they still payed attention as they felt that there were some words of wisdom in what she said, some of them taking notes.
On the other end of the room Rarity took time to help out in the design side of the things for the church, while commenting all the while. “While I agree that being fabulous is important, you have to know just what it is you really need to be able to help. Now this really is a nice design, but, while I think it is spectacular, it doesn't fit all of us. Let's see, add a bit here, remove that, and.... Done! Now can anyone tell me if there is anything I missed? There's no point in being generous if you don't know just what your recipient needs. Of course, the opposite is true as well, there's no point in giving if it's something they don't want.” She was soon bombarded with ideas and suggestions as the design slowly evolved into what they considered to be a perfect design for the future building and uniform designs.
“Where did you get all of this!? I mean, not that I'm not flattered, but I thought all of this was private between me and Celestia?” Twilight sat with the congregation leader who looked around worriedly at her intense questioning.
“There are many believers in you and one of them reclaimed the teachings from its imprisonment in the sun palace. There have been many that have lost faith in the Sun Goddess and your ascension has been the sign they have been looking for as the rise of a new world order.” Twilight's eye began to twitch as she heard him talk against her mentor. She was starting to see what the major problem Cadance was talking about, especially if it was the same with both her and Luna as well.
“We need to talk about that as well. You can't really talk about the other princesses like that, especially if you want this all to be about friendship like you seem to be wanting.” Twilight began to start lecturing the stallion and other gathered ponies into how things should be organized as well as how things outside of the church should be treated.
Aegis Flare sighed as she sat at one side of the room watching the others. She had been noticing lately that she could sense fear, or smell it she wasn't quite sure which, and she was feeling a lot of it in the room. Slowly it started to settle as the ponies got to know the other alicorns, but it was still at uncomfortable levels for her, especially from a mare that was sidling up to her.
“Oh, um, do you think that maybe we could talk for a bit?” The alicorn looked at the mare, with a white mane on black coat and wearing the outfit of an assistant, before her eyebrow rose. She could detect the mare's fear increase as she stood there and she had a realization as she looked around to see if anyone else was near enough to hear them. With a smile at the mare, which seemed to increase the amount of fear from her, she took a seat next to her.
“Well there does seem to be a lot of time, though I'm not sure why a changeling would just come up to me like this.” The mare froze in place as her fear skyrocketed and her eyes darted around the room to see if anyone heard the alicorn. Seeing none of them paying attention to her she turned her attention back to the alicorn.
“Please don't say things like that in the open, it's... I mean... How did you even know?” Aegis Flare shook her head as she looked at the rest of her friends.
“It is mostly a guess, but lately I've been able to sense fear and your just felt unnatural. You probably have less to worry about than you think though, at least around here. Thorax was out in the open the entire way here from the palace and I don't think any of the crystal ponies blinked an eye at him. Them being out of touch for all those years is a big advantage for your kind as they didn't have to deal with that renegade, and they are still trying to catch up so they will just think that you are something new that showed up. Besides, I think you all have a lot in common with them. You just need to have the courage to take a chance.” The disguised changeling just sat their silently in thought at her words before sighing.
“It's not my decision, but I'm sure the leaders will take it into account. I'm not sure if I'd just go out in the open, but there are a couple ponies that I want to trust with my secret but... Well, that's where the courage part comes in I guess.” She sighed as her fear battled with what she really wanted until a shriek sounded from the other side of the room. Looking up the two saw Rarity flailing around with her main covered in whipped cream. Soon a volley of pies flew across the room and they backtracked the trajectory to Pinkie Pie and a few other laughing ponies.
“Pinkie Pie! You get back here right now!” Rarity began chasing the pink pony around as she laughed and tossed more pies back at the mare, but more often than not missed and hit other ponies in the area. Soon the entire building interrupted into a vast food fight with the participating ponies laughing in joy as Aegis Flare sighed and took cover with her cousin to enjoy the show as the ice was truly broken between the alicorns and their worshipers.
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“Ugh, what a long day. While things could have been worse with that church, I'm still not sure how I feel about it. At least Pinkie managed to cut through all the tension so we could actually have a decent conversation with them in the end. Maybe if they can actually talk to us like normal ponies it won't be so bad.” With a sigh Aegis Flare pulled her covers up to her neck as she settled down for the night. The peace of the night was soon shattered as an explosion shook the building causing her to groan. Climbing out of the bed she made her way to the window and looked out to find a cloud of smoke illuminated by a fire out near the guard's sparring ring.
“Really Twilight? Did you really have to get into it with your brother at this time of the night?” With a sigh the alicorn lit up her horn and put up a shield around her room for climbing back into bed once again.