//------------------------------//
// An Intense Duel 
// Story: The Ties that Bind 
// by the7Saviors 
//------------------------------//

A slight shift of a hind leg and the pegasus mare was charging with the speed and force of a cannonball.

Fast! Ancient Scroll thought, almost too fast... but...

Ancient Scroll's body disappeared in a brilliant flash of light and Wild Evergreen's hoof went sailing through empty air at top speed. She didn't even have time to register that she'd missed before another flash of white light sent her flying in the opposite direction.

With a cry of surprise and anger she hit the ground, rolling a few yards before righting herself and skidding to a stop. She glared at the old stallion who leisurely trotted back to where he stood only moments ago.

"A speed most pegasi would kill for, as strong as any earth pony, and an impressive resistance to magic to boot," Ancient Scroll commented with a genuinely impressed nod, "you're really something else, Miss Evergreen. If it weren't for the obvious lack of a horn, I'd think you were some kind of lesser alicorn."

"Flattery won't keep you alive, old timer," the mare shot back before taking to the air, "I'm here to do a job and you're in my way."

With a heavy flap of her wings, Wild Evergreen launched herself further into the sky and off to the stallion's left, disappearing behind the trees. Ancient Scroll looked on with a cautious curiosity, wondering what the violent mare would do next.

Pegasi couldn't use magic quite like unicorns could, but both they and earth ponies did have their own instinctual magic. 

It was a rare thing to see -- extremely so in fact -- but with some natural talent and a supreme amount of effort, a pegasus or earth pony could learn to tap into the mana in their veins to perform feats reminiscent of a unicorn's magic -- albeit limited to their own instinctual magic.

With what he had seen of this mare so far, Ancient Scroll wouldn't have been at all surprised if Wild Evergreen had learned to do just that.

An odd chirping sound reached Ancient Scroll's ears and they twitched and swiveled to the right.

His nostrils flared at the sudden smell of ozone.

His eyes widened in surprise and he snapped his gaze to the side just in time to see Wild Evergreen shoot out of the trees -- her wings completely enveloped in what looked like bright golden yellow lightning. Her furious golden eyes shone bright with that same energy and Ancient Scroll momentarily found himself caught off-guard.

When did she-- 

Ancient Scroll had no time to finish his thoughts. 

Even with his Speed Casting he only barely managed to raise a Natural Barrier. The mare flew past Ancient Scroll, her wings grazing his bright green bubble of magic and causing dozens of streaks of lightning to dance across its surface for a few seconds.

The beleaguered stallion grunted as Wild Evergreen made another pass.

Then another.

And another.

"ENOUGH!"

The instant the pegasus had made her next pass, Ancient Scroll dropped his Natural Barrier and sank into the earth -- Wild Evergreen's lightning infused charge passing just overhead.

The mare stopped mid charge and scanned the ground. She grit her teeth and let the lightning surrounding her wings dissipate as she rose a bit higher into the air.

"Betcha weren't expecting that were you, you old bastard!" she taunted, "well there's more where that--"

She narrowly ducked a beam of light that shot out of the trees nearby, then dipped and swerved erratically to avoid several more. She frantically looked left and right, trying to find the source of the unexpected assault, only to cry out in surprise as the thin beams of white light she thought she had avoided curved back around and shot after her again.

She cursed and took off in a random direction, too distracted by the homing lasers of light to notice the old stallion trotting back out into the clearing -- his eyes and horn aglow with an ivory light. Several miniature magic circles slowly rotated above him -- one for every laser that followed Wild Evergreen.

He kept his gaze locked on the desperately dodging mare as she flew this way and that. One of the beams would occasionally hit her and she would cry out in pain and anger, but they never managed to actually stop the mare.

With a slight shift of her wings, the pegasus rolled to one side to avoid an oncoming laser and happened to spot Ancient Scroll on the ground as she came out of the roll. 

She gave an angry snort and flew into the thicker part of the forest -- the many beams of light following close behind. As soon as she disappeared into the trees, Ancient Scroll cut off the spell, the magic circles above him blinking out of existence. He then took a step back and sighed. 

"Getting too old for this," he muttered somewhat bitterly, "that took a bit more out of me than it should've."

His horn glowed once more and a large, green magic circle formed on the ground around him briefly before disappearing again. With that done, he sat on his haunches and waited. He looked up as Wild Evergreen suddenly burst through the top of the trees and flew higher and higher into the sky.

He watched in concern as the pegasus mare flew to and fro gathering nearby clouds at a breakneck pace.

That wasn't natural lightning she used before, Ancient Scroll frowned, she was somehow able to electrify her own mana and attack me with it directly. Rare but not unheard of...

The bigger question in Ancient Scroll's opinion was how she had learned to do such a thing in the first place. Did she have a teacher, or was she self taught?

His frown deepened as the gathered clouds darkened and gave off an ominous rumble.

While the mare's mana lightning attack was powerful, it had nowhere near the strength of a natural bolt of lightning. The old stallion wondered if she was attempting to strike him down with an actual lightning strike.

He grimaced and lit his horn, adding another Pure Barrier on top of the one he had already cast over the caravan. He winced and rubbed his horn as he returned his gaze back to the clouds.

"This isn't good," he murmured as the dark grey cloud drew closer, rumbling and flashing with the natural lightning no doubt held within, "I need to end this... now."

He gave another sigh of resignation and shook his head.

"It's a good thing the girls aren't around to see all this..."

He raised his head and shouted out to the approaching mare -- his voice magically enhanced.

"WHAT IN BLAZES ARE YOU THINKING?" he shouted incredulously, "ARE YOU TRYING TO CAPTURE THE FILLY OR KILL HER?!"

Wild Evergreen flew out from behind the large cloud and over to the old stallion, stopping mid air just a few yards away.

"Of course I'm not trying to kill the filly you moron! The boss needs her alive," she replied with an annoyed frown. She looked back to the deadly looking cloud hanging overheard and smirked before looking back to Ancient Scroll, "I'm not an idiot, you idiot. This cloud ain't for you, it's for me."

Ancient Scroll furrowed his brow in confusion.

Then it dawned on him.

"Are you insane, filly?!" he cried in disbelief, "you'd really go that far just to take me out of the picture? You say you aren't an idiot, but I've yet to see any evidence pointing to the contrary!"

"Meh, it ain't like I haven't done this before," Wild Evergreen replied matter-of-factly, "and I'm doing this because it's the fastest way to get you out of the picture, old timer," she shook her head and looked back to the cloud as she spoke, "you're a lot stronger than you look, I'll give you that."

She fully turned to face the cloud above and glanced back at the stallion from over her shoulder.

"I've done this before, but I don't really get to do it as often as I'd like," she said with a smug grin, "thanks for makin' this fun, you old coot."

Without another word, she launched herself towards the cloud at top speed. She vanished into the dark grey haze and the cloud darkened even further.

Ancient Scroll fell back to his haunches and rubbed his temples with another weary sigh.

"This is gonna put me out of commission for awhile, but I have no choice at this point," he muttered irritably, "gonna delay our trip by quite a bit..."

The cloud darkened from dark grey to black. The flashes grew more frequent and intense and the rumbling increased in volume.

Then the cloud suddenly dissipated, leaving a dark green pegasus to float in a clear sunny sky.

Ancient Scroll looked up at the manically grinning, violently twitching, electrically overcharged mare with tired eyes and slowly shook his head.

"You're going to ruin your mana veins with stunts like this, filly," the old stallion said with a sad frown, "whatever your boss's plans are, I doubt they're worth all this."

He looked back up to the mare with steel in his eyes.

"Alright then, whelp," Ancient Scroll challenged, "strike me down if you can, I'm not going anywhere!"

That was all the motivation the pegasus needed it seemed.

"You asked for it, old timer!" she called back in a voice distorted by the intense current running through her body, "I ain't a cannibal, but I do love me the smell of a deep fried pony!"

With a manic laugh and another series of violent twitches she cleared the distance between herself and Ancient Scroll in a single blinding flash. The spell the stallion had cast earlier kicked to life and Wild Evergreen's assault was slowed to a complete stop mere inches from the stallion -- lightning and all.

For a heartbeat, the two stared at each other, the mare's expression frozen in a look of utter disbelief. Ancient Scroll grimaced and his body shook with the effort it took to hold the mare in his Chrono Trap, yet he didn't stop there.

With her resistance, this won't hold her for long... 

Taking a risk, he dropped the two static Pure Barrier shields covering the Vardo to reduce some of the strain on his mana and stepped forward towards the frozen mare. He touched his glowing horn to her forehead and closed his eyes, opening them a moment later to reveal both glowing with a bright green light.

I have you to thank for thinking of this one, Trixie...

"I think it's time you took a bit of a rest, Miss Evergreen," Ancient Scroll grunted, "I know I'm gonna need one after this..."

The glow of his horn intensified briefly before completely dying out. There was no visible effect on Wild Evergreen at first, then Ancient Scroll stepped to the side and released the Chrono Trap field.

The mare resumed her charge and hit the ground, sliding several yards across the dirt before coming to a stop in front of the caravan -- small arcs of electricity playing across her prone form. Aside from an occasional twitch or spasm, Wild Evergreen didn't move.

Ancient Scroll fell to his knees and panted heavily, his limbs shaking and his horn throbbing painfully.

"Uncle Scroll!"

He could barely muster up enough strength to turn around -- his extremities feeling like lead weights dragging him down -- but turn he did. The severely exhausted stallion was greeted with the blurry, darkening image of three very worried fillies galloping towards him. 

He managed a small relieved smile before resting his head on the ground and closing his eyes.

"Uncle Scroll!" he heard Fia cry from somewhere nearby, "you... y-you're not... please tell me you aren't gonna--"

"Relax, little filly," Ancient Scroll murmured tiredly, "I'm not... gonna kick the bucket just yet," he let out a soft sigh, "just... need some rest is all."

"Alright come on, pups, you heard the stallion," Yojimbo said from somewhere above, "he put up one Tartarus of a fight. Give him some space."

Ancient Scroll suddenly felt himself being lifted up and tucked under something warm and furry, but he was too exhausted to care about it at the moment.

"I'll put Scroll to bed," he heard the husky explain, "then we can find out what to do about Little Miss Super Soldier over here."

One of the fillies said something in response, but Ancient Scroll didn't hear it.

As his consciousness faded, so too did the noises around him.