At the sound of the bell, Astral pounced, throwing herself up and over two of Shining's Shards, twisting awkwardly to avoid the other three. While all this happened, she aimed four of her Shards at her uncle, distracting him long enough for Astral to land and start running.
Seeing Shining's Shards zooming over to her, Astral sent out hers to counter them while she lunged at him.
It was a straightforward tackle, and once he hit the sand, Astral used his stomach as a springboard to get off, smiling slightly when she felt two Shards cut off a millimeter of her mane. She landed on a smooth, polished surface with a light thud.
Looking down, Astral realized she was standing on Shining Armor's shield, which he had put around himself. Quickly she attempted to scramble down, but it was too late. Shining used his magic to overload the bubble, causing a small, outwards explosion that threw the filly.
Hitting the sand with an ungraceful thud, Astral spat some of the yellow substance out of her mouth in disgust. She had a couple of small cuts from the blast, but nothing a good ol' healing spell wouldn't fix. Dazed, she attempted to get a hold of things, only for a shadow to fall over her.
Shining Armor stood over her, pointing Sentinel down at her with a cool expression. "Forfeit?" He asked, tilting his head slightly.
Astral spit the rest of the sand out of her mouth, and gave a small, mocking laugh. If that was all he could give, it was a wonder Equestria was still standing.
Instead, she pushed off the ground with her front hooves, disappearing in a small flash of light. Shining reacted quickly, spinning a full circle, only to find her on the other side of the ring, completely healed from the blast- Twilight would kill him for that, he was sure.
He also noticed the twelve Shards racing towards him, and he put up another force shield in protest, grunting as the solidified magic cracked the shield and sent him back a few steps.
When he refocused, a chill ran through him. Astral Plane was missing. He aimed a frantic glance around the ring, before throwing himself backwards to avoid a punch from above. Not missing a beat, he charged at her.
She was a good fighter, he noted, karate if he was right. But her style was very . . unorthodox. Instead of simply stepping out of the way, she would cartwheel, and she had a habit of somersaulting out of the way. It was oddly agile for a unicorn.
Like right now, when the filly landed on her hind legs, using her front hoof to brush the hair out her eyes. He barely had enough time to fully realize what was happening before he was punched solidly in the face. He rolled backwards and sent out his Shards to knock hers out of the sky.
He jumped up, and punched back, only for Astral to catch it in a block. Her hind legs were pushed back from the lack of strength in her body, but she grit her teeth and continued on. She managed to catch the next one as well, and trip Shining up by kicking the joint of his back leg.
Shining rolled backwards, falling back into a crouch, and expertly blocked a kick from Astral. He caught her punch with one hoof, and summoned Sentinel to block Aegis, before throwing Astral towards the circles circumference.
He waited for her to teleport, only to watch as Aegis separated once again, with eight Shards working together to hold back Sentinel while four went racing to Astral. Shining separated Sentinel and easily knocked the Shards out of the air, only to turn and recoil.
He looked in time to see Astral standing on her Shards, using one for each hoof. She was standing almost completely vertically, so he had no idea she did it. Their eyes met, and Astral's expression was one of determined concentration. His probably resembled disbelief.
The other eight Shards zoomed over, and she started using them as a walkway, pushing off at the last ones to throw herself back onto the ground.
She rolled and came out of it by cartwheeling over Shining. Aegis went swinging down, but Sentinel went swinging up, blocking it almost immediately. Shining took a couple of measured steps backwards to get distance between them, with Astral closing the distance almost immediately.
He narrowed his eyes. Defense was usually his preferred strategy, but this girl was clearly just as well trained in the offense. He needed to stop playing around.
He is not playing around!
Of course Astral knew he wasn't exactly going to go easy on her, but she also never thought it would be this hard. She had practiced that walking on Shards thing, dammit, but no go, he still managed to stop most of her attacks.
Shining Armor stopped backing away. He separated Sentinel.
Oh crap!
She jumped backwards, using two of her Shards to knock three of his out of the sky. While distracted, Shining spun around on his front hooves, and, in a move that would make Aunt Applejack proud, kicked her straight in the chest.
She flew- almost literally flew. She was also pretty sure she might have internal bleeding, but that was just a guess.
Astral used levitation to stop herself from leaving the ring, and quickly dropped to the ground, rolling as she did so she could avoid the Shards being sent her way. She jumped up just in time to be put in a headlock courtesy of Shining.
Shining Armor shoved off with his hind legs, and slammed Astral into the ground. The filly headbutted Shining, not enough to make him let go, but enough to make him recoil slightly. Enough that Astral could place her hind legs on his stomach and shove, sending him stumbling backwards, and she pushed off into a teleportation spell once more.
He didn't even have time to search for her before he was hit by a lightening bolt.
Oh, she knows the lightening spell.
Shining Armor didn't even have enough time to pull up a meager shield; the lightening seemed to come from everywhere at once. He could actually feel his blood boiling as his fur started to singe.
When it was over, he didn't even have the strength to cast a healing spell, instead he attempted to block Aegis with Sentinel, only for Sentinel to shatter into nothingness.
Ah, hell.
Astral came out of a teleport by rearing onto her hind legs, and aiming a front kick for Shining's jaw, putting all her strength into it.
It wasn't as powerful as Shining's kick, but it was enough.
He stumbled back, over the edge of the circle.
Instantly the crowd, who had been watching all this in shocked silence, broke into loud and spontaneous applause.
Rainbow Dash patted the gobsmacked parents on the back. "I didn't know you guys taught her Bladecasting!" She said, impressed.
"We didn't" Twilight said, eyes wide.
"Maybe she learnt in secret" Fluttershy suggested, after uncovering her eyes.
"Probably that" Starlight said faintly.
"Huh" Pinkie contemplated this for a moment, before brightening. "Hey, you know what that means?"
"A party?" The others asked, completely monotonous.
"What? No, I was going to say we should go congratulate them. Why would we have a party?" She shook her pink head. "You guys are just so silly!"
"Uh . . ."
"Yeah, let's not go there."
"Agreed."
It was quite the exhibition later.
Ponies would gather around, asking questions like, who trained you, where did you learn that, are you taking over as the head of the Guard?
Finally, Astral stomped up the steps to the balcony that overlooked the Crystal Empire. There was already a crowd of ponies
, all wanting to see the young filly who beat Emperor Shining Armor.
The last time she had done something like this, Astral had been a nervous wreck. Now she just nonchalantly straightened her scarf before casting her sound spell.
"Attention everypony!" As if she didn't already have their attention. "Thank you for letting me duel your Emperor, it truly was an experience I cannot forget! Sadly, I will not be taking over as the head of the Guard. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and be grounded by my parents."
With that, the filly turned and marched back into the castle, leaving a bewildered crowd behind.
After getting an earful from her mothers, Astral said goodbye to Uncle Shining.
"Good duel Uncle Shining" she said, holding out a hoof for him to shake.
His large, hairy hoof completely dwarfed hers. "Good duel Astral" he said warmly, smiling, and had it been anypony else, she might of have missed it.
The fear in his eyes.
Shining Armor was scared.
Uncle Shining was scared of her.
She smiled, a huge smile, all teeth.
Good.
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