Now then, where were we? Ah, yes, we got the Grand Galloping Gala tickets just the day before this. It was a fucking disaster that ensued after Twilight received the tickets while having worked the whole morning at Sweet Apple Acres with Applejack and Spike.
You would think people would let the person that got the extra ticket decide who they took with them, but no, everyone had a say in that and tried to bribe the poor woman with so many promises of things and such that it ended up with her being totally stressed out over a problem that could have been resolved with a letter to her teacher from the very beginning.
Not to say the problem didn’t get resolved in the end, though. It was actually through their guilt of forcing Twilight into making a decision that we all came to an agreement. Don’t force your friends to give you stuff that belongs to them. Our very first friendship lesson, yay.
I could have done without all the drama, honestly.
Anyway, after a great evening at a restaurant to round out a pretty shitty day and chatting about this and that, I was left with a night full of nightmares and getting over budding feelings for a certain seamstress. It wasn’t easy, but for the best in the end.
That brought us to today. My epic fight against myself. Didn’t think that would ever happen, eh? Well, let me tell you: I was having fun fighting against myself. That was probably very confusing without the context of me having two bodies, but whatever.
So, there I was, staring at myself from across the field. Rainbow Dash was sitting on a low hanging cloud with a bag of popcorn as she watched on as Sol deflected every arrow shot at him, while I practiced my aim with Lux.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t the epic fight you expected from the start of my explanation, but I needed to get the practice in. And the best practice is with a live dummy. It was actually quite relaxing to go through the motions and acquire the muscle memory.
That I was getting better at my aim was pretty nice to boot. I missed my shots now only about one in four times while moving. I was a natural, I could tell.
What? I missed one in four times while standing still? Lies! Lies, I tell you! Don’t listen to those liars, trust me on this.
Okay, maybe there was truth in that statement, but that was still pretty good, right? I mean, for someone that hasn’t ever used a bow before in their life, I had a pretty good aim. And with more practice, I would only get better, I knew it.
Rainbow actually wanted to try her hand at using a bow herself, but she was abysmally bad with it. Sure, she had no problem drawing the string, something that even I had trouble at the beginning, but she couldn’t shoot even if her life depended on it.
Which it might, at some point in the future. Perhaps she was better suited to a melee weapon? Something with a bit of a longer reach and light enough to not hinder her ability to fly.
For that matter, the other girls should also get something to defend themselves with. It was all nice and dandy that they got through the Everfree without any weapons, what with me fighting in the background to stop anything bad from happening, that luck would only get them so far.
Food for thought, I guess.
Now then, at some point Pinkie dragged Rainbow away from me and at last I didn’t have to listen to her chew so loudly as I practiced. I felt like cutting a bit loose and started infusing my arrows with magic like I did in the fight against Nightmare Moon.
And boy, let me tell you the difference was night and day. No pun intended.
The arrow guided by light actually flew without losing a bit of altitude or speed. It even seemed to be the slightest bit faster, if you catch my drift. Not light speed fast, but fast fast.
Like a bullet, strangely.
It was a good thing that I missed my target, or Sol would have a shiny new hole in his face. So I got a different idea on how to continue my practice. It was still a foolish idea, but not as dangerous as aiming at my own head.
Yeah, no one ever said I was smart, to begin with.
There I stood, sword at the ready and new arrow nooked as I drew the string back. Focusing the magic through my hands into the arrow, it took on the familiar glow of gentle moonlight. A breath escaped my lips on Lux and I waited for the moment my heart synchronized with my breathing. At the end of the exhale of the awaited breath and heartbeat, I let loose.
The arrow flew true and I struck at the same moment with my sword in Sol’s hands. Looking behind me, I was actually surprised I managed my feat with stunning accuracy.
I mean, I didn’t hit the arrow with my sword, but the bottle on the hill I was practicing with earlier was shattered. Playing baseball with arrows wasn’t the greatest idea, but I managed to hit something else from at least half a football field away.
Must have been a fluke, really, but it left me proud nonetheless.
Cutting my practice short after looking for the position of the sun, I judged it to be around the time it should be for the end of school. I still needed to have a talk with the local headmaster for a job there. So I packed up all my things, including the destroyed bottle, and the arrows littering the ground around me. Time for a job interview!
Lux went back to the library in the time it took me to reach the idyllic schoolhouse. Reminded me of those old schoolhouses from pictures I had seen on the internet. Sadly, that was the only memory I got this time. Well, better than nothing.
I actually just arrived as the kids got let out of school and saw Sweetie Belle amongst them heading home. Huh, that was interesting. So she went to school here? I mean, I wasn’t sure if this was the only school in Ponyville, but it was nice to know. It wasn’t that big of a school, so it stood to reason that it was just one of the ones in the area.
Heading inside after the gaggle of kids ran past me, I found a woman grading papers at her desk.
“Knock, knock,” I said, also actually knocking on the doorframe. The woman looked up at me and gave a friendly smile. I think I actually saw her at the party Pinkie held the night of the Summer Sun Celebration. Something with a ‘C’ in her name, if I remember correctly.
“Why, hello there. How may I help you?”
“I came here looking for the headmaster? But considering this school isn’t all that big there might not even be one. I was wondering if I could offer my service as a teacher?” I answered her, rubbing the back of my neck. Now that I thought about it, it seemed like she was the only teacher here. She may not even need the extra worker here. She was probably able to handle herself well enough alone.
“Oh? Have you taught before?” she asked and her question caught me a bit off guard. I mean... I actually had no idea, for all I know I could have studied to become a teacher at the university at home. Now there was a thought, what did I study? My memory came up blank.
Considering my knowledge, spotty as it was, it had to be something technical. Thinking on it, the prospect of programing in magi-tech didn’t even leave me stumped, but excited. So most likely computer science. In which area I couldn’t tell though. There were many that required knowledge on programming.
“Not that I can’t say, but I would like to prove my worth, if you would let me,” I told her. I was at least sure I could teach mathematics to a bunch of kids pretty reliably. And judging by the size of the class, there weren’t many kids I needed to teach to begin with. A smaller group would prove to be easier to teach individually.
“Well, that would depend on which knowledge you are informed of. It wouldn’t do to have you teach something that you’re not that intimately familiar with.”
Yeah, there was also that. But at least I had a good grip on mathematics to follow Twilight along in her tirades. That was what I told the woman and she promptly gave me a test on math that she said was university level here.
And it wasn’t that hard as I found out. Imagine what you learn in university on Earth and then compare that to highschool. She gave me a skeptical eye as I finished it with way too much time to spare. She began to go over it with a critical eye, writing some things at the margin of the paper. But the further she got, the more surprise was shown in her expression.
Was I a friggin’ prodigy before I lost my memories, or why did she look at me like that? Hah, surely not! There was no way, I would remember at least that much by now. And considering the stupid stuff I did all the time, I could only be called knowledgable at best.
“Well, Mister Sol, aside from some small mistakes, this is pretty much all correct. May I know where you went to university?” Cheerilee asked after I finally remembered her name, took me long enough.
“I’m from Manehattan,” I said and she nodded along, not even asking for the specific name of the university. Not that I could give one. Curse this damn memory block.
“I would like to see you here tomorrow morning if that is okay with you? I seem to recall you working at the library,” she told me and I gave an affirmative to that. She probably wanted to see how I would do in front of a class, but that couldn’t be too difficult.
“Well then, until tomorrow.”
We shook hands and I departed from the schoolhouse seeing a few kids still at the playground playing with their friends. Some looked at me curiously but returned their attention to what they were doing previously.
On the way back to the center of the town I noticed Rainbow flying overhead and a low tremor coming from the earth below me. Suddenly I was glad I wasn’t still out in the fields practicing as we all saw a stampede of cows in the distance headed for Ponyville.
A familiar woman rode alongside them on a horse with a lasso as she directed them away from the populated area. Well, it seems about right that Applejack would know what to do with a raging herd of animals.
Seeing the crisis averted I made my way back to the library and got to work on the books that were discarded on the table. It seems Twilight or someone else did a bit of reading. After all the books found their way home on the shelves, I settled down on the couch with one of the Raiding Tomb books.
By the time Twilight returned home I was through the first few chapters and only just managed to scrounge up enough willpower to get away from the book to enter the dining room where Lux and Spike were already hard at work making the meal for today.
During dinner we discussed the plans we had for the improved magi-tech batteries, Twilight actually getting the idea to ask her teacher for funds to get the project rolling. Considering the improvement we had in mind, it wasn’t that difficult to get her to agree. The batteries and the gems weren’t the most expensive thing to get ahold of, but the equipment to modify the technology was another story.
It took four days for the first things to get delivered to our doorstep and another one for the right gems and a few batteries to start us off. Tomorrow would also be the day that Luna would arrive in town for a few days to see to our training.
And I meant our training, as in Sol, Lux and the Elements. So, it seemed Celestia was of the same mindset as myself. Better to be prepared. It didn’t sit well with Twilight that she now needed to get exercise of the physical kind in, but she didn’t complain much, what with her teacher telling her to do this.
Also, she was starting to get annoyed by my teasing her getting too lazy reading books all day. No idea why she got all red on her face, though.
At least she was distracted for the day by tinkering with the batteries as I went over the gemstones to see which ones would be the best to start with. The manual for the batteries was also quite fascinating, but I won’t bore you with the details on that as we started drawing up the first blueprints for the improved batteries. At the end we would have something that would look a bit like a sonic screwdriver from Doctor Who. The gemstone would go into a socket, after that we would have a tube with the runic circles on them and after that the actual battery. Currently it still looked a bit clunky, but we were sure we could get it to be a bit slimmer.
Even if not, we could work with that as it was now.
The celebration for Applejack’s accomplishment was almost completely forgotten as we got to bed that night. Twilight actually reminded me to also attend it, to show our support for our friend. Not that I would miss that.
Oh yeah, the job at the school. Turns out I’m a passable teacher, I just needed to be able to, ahem, ‘dumb down’ my explanations a bit. But the kids loved me for the few days I was already there teaching. It was quite refreshing imparting my knowledge to those little kids.
I was pleasantly surprised that Sweetie Belle was actually able to understand what I taught before I started to, gosh I hate to say that, ‘dumb it down’. There were a few kids that I didn’t like, just because they teased a few of the kids that didn’t have their talent mark yet.
Mainly two of those little twerps. But I digress.
Tomorrow we had the award to look forward to and Luna getting here. I haven’t seen her since the dream problem I had and it seemed after her visit my dreams got a lot more calmer and I actually started to remember them. And with that Horse God dreams. Man, I loved those.
Even though she hadn’t struck up a conversation since, it was still great. Sadly this night left me with no dreams at all, so I was a little cranky come morning. Not something a little tea and coffee couldn’t fix. It was great being able to drink two different drinks at once, without them actually mixing.
Twilight dragged us out to the town hall after we finished eating and we arrived just as the finishing touches were made. The town center gradually filled up with everyone, even the kids from school. Sol was left supervising them with Cheerilee at his side and I watched on with Lux as she stood beside the rest of our friends minus Applejack.
The stack of cards Twilight levitated over was way too over the top for her speech as I saw her neat them up a bit. Leave it to Twilight to write the longest speech in history.
As she finished with the first card and tried to continue on, Rainbow Dash interrupted her as she pushed her aside. I groaned internally as the award ceremony got hijacked by our friends. It was simultaneously hilarious and sad to watch her trying to get back control of the speech she had planned out.
In the end, she gave up as our illustrious mayor came up to the stage to announce Applejack. Without Applejack actually being there to present the trophy to. Ah, well, we could always give it to her later, right? It started to become a trend in this town to present someone without them being there, it seemed. Didn’t anyone look if she was there beforehand?
The crowd grew silent, well besides Spike as he continued to cheer our missing friend on. It left me feeling a bit uncomfortable as the silence continued to grow, but to our relief the missing woman arrived, dragging a cart full of apples along with her. She did know there was no market today, right?
We all watched on as the obviously too tired girl went to the stage and promptly made a fool out of herself. What did that woman get into to end up this tired? I cringed as she played with the reflection in the trophy and Pinkie encouraged her on by joining her side.
I would have expected such behavior from the pink god, but not Applejack. Twilight didn’t seem to see anything wrong as she personally thanked the sleep-deprived woman.
At one point Applejack even slept while standing up for a moment, before she caught herself from completely nodding off. Then she began dragging the damn thing along with her, carving a small trench along her path. We all watched on in concern as she left us standing here talking amongst ourselves.
“Yeah, she definitely was out of it,” I chipped in after Rarity mentioned Applejack looked messy. Well, everyone thought so, besides Pinkie Pie. I left the issue to Twilight as I went back to the school with Cheerilee and back to the library with Lux to await the arrival of Luna.
The school period was almost finished as Luna knocked on the door. In her levitation was an assortment of weapons, as well as armor, books, and whatnot. Spike was actually the one to let her in, while I brought out some tea for us and the girls once they get here.
“Well met, young Spike. Where do we find the Element bearers and young Sol as well as Lux?” Luna greeted him and set aside all the stuff at the edge of the room. She spotted me as I set the tea down on the table and she came to my side to embrace me in a hug. A painfully hard hug, as it turned out. I liked her soft hugs better, to be honest. Perhaps she was more gentle in the dream world? But wouldn’t it make more sense for it to be the opposite?
“Sol should be back any minute, regarding the girls I have no idea. We told them to be here on time, but it seems Applejack seems a bit out of it,” I told her as she let go of her crushing embrace on my spine. At that point I spotted Rarity with Fluttershy as they approached the door to the library and Sol wasn’t that far behind them.
For a bit of fun I opened the door with my magic, just as they were about to knock and enter. The expression on both of them was hilarious, but we paid that no mind as Sol also came in, followed shortly by Rainbow. Said woman instantly began to geek out over the assorted weapons, paying no mind to the books that also rested amongst them.
We all were surprised to hear giggling come from the outside as Twilight dragged a bound Applejack behind herself with Pinkie hopping in happily after her, laughing like a madwoman.
“I told you Ah still have work to do!” Applejack complained, struggling against her restraints and thrashing around wildly, trying to get free. It was a sight to behold, the normally headstrong woman flailing around helplessly.
“Work?” I asked on Lux confused. “What is so important that you couldn’t leave that alone over the meeting with Luna?”
Applejack glared at us as she grunted trying to break through than give us the time of the day. She probably didn’t hear what I said, or she would have noticed the princess in the room.
Luna sighed as she watched the display continue on and walked over to her, touching a finger to her forehead. A little bit of magic later, we saw Applejack sleeping soundly on the ground.
“We should have known better, seeing her so sparsely in the dream realm over the last few days,” she told us as she removed the ropes around Applejack and lifted her to the couch. “For now, we will have to do without her.”
“Not to go against you, Princess, but is it really for the best all of us learn to fight? I couldn’t possibly imagine dear Fluttershy being able to fight, let alone hold onto a weapon,” Rarity said as she eyed the variety of weapons at the wall.
“Fret not, Generosity. For we shall find a style for each one of you that will be comfortable for everyone. If not, there might be other ways we shall get you able to fight. We fear what might become of you if you will not be able to defend yourselves.”
“If you insist, I dearly hope Fluttershy will be capable to handle herself in that case,” Rarity gave in, the demure woman herself giving a small shaky smile. Even I wasn’t that sure about Fluttershy learning about, essentially, better being able to kill another creature or person.
Luna gave each one of us a book on combat and first aid, telling us to read them thoroughly as soon as possible and made us wear each type of armor, trying to find the best fit for each of us.
Sol ended up with heavy armor, seeing that I preferred to stay in close combat. I had a feeling Applejack would also get the same type, once she was rested enough. Lux got the leather-like armor I was also familiar with in my actual armor, as did Fluttershy. Pinkie got mail armor mixed with the leather type at her insistence and Rainbow followed suit on that, citing that she liked the flexibility of the faux leather and the protection of the few plate pieces from the mail armor set that were light enough for her.
That left us with the enchanted cloth for both Rarity and Twilight. Twilight was actually already familiar with the type of armor, as she learned a few combat spells already under Celestia.
I was loath to admit it, but she might be better at fighting than myself, even if she hadn’t shown it before. She mentioned she couldn’t cast them as fast as she liked, though. And something you couldn’t do quickly in a fight is to give the enemy a chance to interrupt your spells, so there was that.
With the type of armor out of the way, we all followed Luna out to the park just outside the library as she brought the assortment of weapons along with her. We left Applejack back on the couch, obviously. She wouldn’t wake anytime soon.
We found a good tree to put all the things away as we concentrated on the next part. With Luna providing us with the weapons, Sol and Lux left the bow and short-sword back at the library. Sol was the first called to step up to the princess, as she gave him the first weapon he would use. It was a halberd, much to my confusion, but Luna had a glint in her eyes.
Frick, this was another test for the Chosen One thing, right?
What came next surprised me even more. Luna summoned three similar copies of herself, reminding me of the mirror image spell from World of Warcraft. I totally wanted to learn that spell now.
One of the clones stepped forward, a sword from the assorted weapons floating to herself with levitation. Great, they could cast magic, they were true mirror images of the original. I already knew this would hurt.
Luna’s mirror image began the fight by directly teleporting into Sol’s reach with the weapon, leaving it useless to me unless I could gain at least a bit of distance. It plain to see why Luna did that, as she knocked one of my feet out from underneath me. Rolling with the momentum gave me the chance to dodge her next attack and give me the opportunity to parry with the staff part of the halberd.
A halberd wasn’t just the pointy end, you could use every part as a weapon to fight. With more or less success, at that. It worked out for me, though, and that was all I needed to make a counterattack. Making short stabbing motions, making sure to not leave myself open, I kept her out of reach for her weapon to cause me any damage. She was nimble, though, and that kept me on my toes until she suddenly knocked my weapon away.
“Crap!” I screamed a bit in fright as her sword was nearing me fast. Thinking quickly, I sidestepped into her motion as she overextended and I brought my palm up and jabbed the clone into the throat, surprising her.
Who said I could only fight with my weapon? All the girls watched enraptured by the move, only to wince as the mirror image also did what Twilight did to me. I should have seen that one coming as my male part laid there on the ground groaning.
“An excellent move, if not for your cockyness getting the better of you, thinking you would have stunned your opponent for long enough,” the real Luna commented, a slight smile gracing her lips and a twinkle was in her eyes, having found something in the move that I just performed.
What it was, I had no idea, but I was certain it had nothing to do with the Chosen One thing.
Next up was Rainbow Dash as she excitedly got into position against the next mirror image. Luna gave the woman two short swords at first, before rethinking her decision and switching them to two daggers that were on the longer side of the spectrum. Rainbow made good work with those two things as she flitted around the mirror image with incredible speed, aided by her wings.
For a moment I thought Rainbow had it in the bag, that is until the mirror image predicted the movement pattern of Rainbow. It felt like it was analyzing the speedy girl until now before she struck. And struck she did with the pommel of her sword, ending the match just as fast as it began with a whimpering Rainbow Dash on the ground next to Sol. She rolled quite a bit to end up there.
Luna’s mirror image struck the base of her ethereal wings, a notorious weak spot for the Pegasus-Blessed. And that brought us to the next opponent, Lux. I wasn’t looking forward to the punishment she would inflict upon me with her.
I was at least fighting with a bow, although, Luna saw fit to give me zero arrows. She was planning something and I didn’t like it.
The fight was a struggle on my part. Sure I could still use the bow somewhat as a melee weapon, but inflicting any damage was next to impossible.
I liked to say it was possible, but I wouldn’t probably get to find out how.
Now, there was the problem that Luna could bring to bear more force with her sword, but speed was on my side in this little game of ours. So I used it to stay the frick away from her while thinking of a way to break her guard. There were actually a few things I wanted to try and I paid special attention to Luna’s mirror image with the eyes on Sol. Cheating, I know, sue me.
Casting a bit of magic, I let the rest do the trick. The girls watched on as Lux dodged left and right, that is until I stood still, but the Lux fighting continued her movements. Hopefully she wouldn’t see through this illusion until it was too late for her.
Seeing my opportunity arise, I swiftly tried to bring my bow down on her head as she stood with her back to me. The problem was, I was too fast in bringing down the weapon.
How could that be a problem, you ask?
Well, let me tell you: when your weapon suddenly makes a loud swishing noise, your opponent knew they weren’t fighting the real thing. And Luna gave a grin as she caught my arm with her hand before I could connect. Stumped on what to do, I went with the motion of Luna trying to twist my arm away.
That gave me the opportunity to elbow her in the gut as she spun me around on my other arm, causing her to let me go. So there we were again, back to square one. I couldn’t manage that surprise again, I was certain. And she couldn’t get to me due to my quick evasion.
A typical stalemate for the moment. I had the feeling though, that she was holding back a lot. I had yet to see her use any magic, like the teleportation she used against me on Sol.
Evading her next strike, I was left growling to myself as I came up empty on what to do. All my tricks were useless on her and she wouldn’t let up the pressure for myself to make a good counter. I tried predicting where she would strike, but that was still something I took too long for. When I thought I knew what she would do next, I would be left open as she was already on her next move.
Desperately trying to correct my mistake was giving her ample opportunity to close the gap between us, making me parry her blows with my bow again. At one point I drew back the string in reflex to let loose an arrow that wasn’t there. That turned out to be the right move as the string smacked her right in the face when I let go and rotated the bow just enough in my hand.
A tackle later had us rolling on the ground, but she was the better brawler in this case. She didn’t give up until I admitted my loss to her. I would have so many bruises after this was over, I just knew it.
“A brilliant use of the bow. Although, try to be more subtler in your use of illusions or learn to use your weapon silently. Were it not for the tackle at the end, we would have fought on for quite a bit,” Luna told me, as she helped me to my feet. I just nodded silently, making note of my mistakes.
If I just had one arrow, this would have gone so much differently.
I’m reasonably sure she couldn’t have dodged an arrow traveling as fast as a bullet. Well, no use in crying over spilled milk. I’m sure I would do better next time.
Pinkie happily took my place next, hefting the massive warhammer like it weighed nothing. It was funny to watch her ‘play’ with Luna as said woman tried anything and failed in the face of the pink menace. Pinkie babbled on about knowing where Luna would strike, causing the mirror image to get more frazzled in trying to get a hit in.
On the other hand, Pinkie didn’t even attempt to attack. She just jumped around like she had been drinking from the juice the Gummi Bears. At the end she just booped Luna’s mirror image as said clone simply gave up.
The next duel was between Rarity and Luna’s clones. As in all of them. Rarity held a staff in her hand while around fifteen daggers were given to her. Initially I was confused about why she got so many, until Luna told her to levitate them. And considering what Luna knew of her, she didn’t disappoint in the slightest.
The daggers began to circle her in a deadly storm. It made sense why Luna would get to use all of the mirror images. At the start, Rarity was unsure if she had even a chance, but got slowly more confident as she expertly managed to deflect any attempt from Luna to break through to her.
The battle continued with Luna’s clones using shields to try to get anywhere near Rarity, but the woman quickly cracked those, one after another, with either the floating blades or the staff in her hand. Luna began to change her tactic by using mana bolts and arcane missiles to get a few shots through, but even then the defense of Rarity’s weapons was quick to correct their position to block the attacks.
The first mistake Rarity made was trying to go on the offensive. As soon as a few blades left her storm was Luna able to freeze the blades to the ground as they tried to pierce the mirror images. And slowly dwindled Rarity’s defense away with every blade incapacitated. She did manage to destroy one of the clones in the end but lost quickly after that.
The last duel for the day was against Fluttershy just as the sun was about to set over the horizon.
Fluttershy got one knife one could generously call a dagger and a one-handed crossbow. Suffice to say, she didn’t really put up a fight, frightened shooting aside. She was the fastest to loose to Luna but said night goddess gave her a consolation that she would find something that would help Fluttershy out in a way that didn’t entirely rely on the woman herself, while also muttering something under her breath.
I was very curious about what that was about.
And as a bonus, we all got to watch her raise the moon as her sister lowered the sun from the capital. We all got back to the library and I showed Luna to the apartment. I gave her the bed in which Lux normally slept in and said goodbye to the girls after they put away the gear and took their new books with them.
That left me with the couches in the living room for beds with Sol and Lux. I could deal with that for a few nights and Twilight brought the still sleeping Applejack upstairs to her room, where she got out a spare bed. The woman needed her sleep even more than all the girls and I combined.
During the night I dreamt of the battles I had with Sol and Lux and tried to actually improve on my moves, even though I had no idea if that would help. Considering I actually activated my blessings through the dream world, it stood to reason that my actions while asleep did at least amount to something. If that was in a meaningful way had to be discovered as of yet.
It was at least fun not being exhausted from physical activity in the dream, being free to move as I wished. It probably screwed with my perception of the world, but it was helpful nonetheless.
The next day started with an irritated Applejack coming down to the kitchen, grumbling about having to work. That was promptly shoved out of the window as she saw Luna sitting with us at the dining table.
Reluctantly she apologized for her behavior and after our nagging, she finally admitted that she may need help. I actually forbade her from going to help the rest of our friends in their little problems as long as she wasn’t fully rested. She was a bit miffed about that, not fond of the idea that she would have to go back on her word, but even Luna told her that it was anything but helpful to her friends while she wasn’t entirely there mentally.
Luna had a better idea to solve all our problems. We all would go and help out at the farm as part of our training, after Twilight and Applejack had their turns in the combat assessment with Luna, though. We would all go over there once we had our own work covered, I couldn’t just not go to work today at the school.
While Sol headed outside after breakfast, Twilight, Applejack, Luna, and me with Lux, went over a few things. For one thing, Applejack got caught up to some of the information we received yesterday from Luna and had her plate armor adjusted to her.
Twilight retold the combat assessment from most of the girls, while I bugged Luna to teach me the mirror image spell. It wasn’t that advanced of a spell as one might think. The difficulty of the spell was more in maintaining it than casting it.
A novice like me could perhaps hold the spell for about thirty seconds if nothing struck the images. It was actually a popular spell among battle mages that fought from behind the tanks and such back in the day. Most mages were the typical glass cannons and required people to keep their foes away from them. Only war mages were bold enough to fight on the front lines. And if you ever fought against one, you would see why they are such feared opponents. Luna spoke of some that could hold an invading force back for quite some significant time.
Once some of our other friends started arriving at the library we began to prepare for moving all the gear towards Sweet Apple Acres. Today would see Applejack go first against one of Luna’s clones and after that would come Twilight and then the actual training would begin.
Around the afternoon we were all gathered at the farm and watched as Applejack got herself a sword and shield from the pile of weapons. Ready for her turn in the test of abilities, they started the match with quite surprising ferocity.
Luna was relentless in her powerful strikes, as was Applejack. Luna had the advantage of mobility over her, but Applejack had definitely the better defense. Not only that, but her strength rivaled Luna’s own. It was like watching an immovable wall getting struck, again and again, Luna being unable to penetrate the defenses enough to weaken Applejack.
The few jabs and strikes Applejack attempted never connected with her target, so it was half an hour later that Luna decided to add magic into the mix and promptly ended the duel.
“A good defense, fair Applejack,” Luna praised her with a smile. “Perhaps we need to teach you how to work the shield as a secondary weapon. A common misconception is that the shield only provides defensive means.”
“Aw, shucks. No need to put me up on a pedestal, if Ah couldn’t even get a strike in, Princess.”
“The role of the tank is to minimize the damage your foe could inflict upon you and your allies. We need only work on your ability to keep your foe focused on you,” Luna said as Applejack joined the rest of us in the shade of the trees, while Twilight took her place facing Luna.
The thing is... she didn’t take any weapons with her and declined Luna’s offer of a staff. Well, it seems this duel was about to get interesting.
Luna’s mirror image began the fight with a quick teleport in front of Twilight but said woman already teleported to the side and fired a beam from her hands a second or so later. The energy crackled against the conjured shield spell from Luna, so Twilight bombarded the shield with arcane missiles from every direction as she teleported around the field. At one point the cloud of dust and debris got so thick, we couldn’t see Luna anymore in the midst of the chaos.
That is until she appeared behind Twilight and kicked her across the ground. Twilight teleported away before she could hit a tree and came face to face with Luna once more. She quickly threw up one of her own shields, watching as it began to crack from the assault of Luna’s weapon and magic.
One thing Twilight seemed to be good at in a fight was delaying her opponent long enough to cast her spells, even though her fighting style was just as quick to disrupt once the opponent got the upper hand. With a quick mutter of words, energy flooded Twilight as she drew massive amounts of magic to her from the ley lines.
And what a spell it was. The sight was majestic to behold as her eyes shined a brilliant white and a nova of arcane might erupted in every direction from her. The shockwave of the spell reached us a moment later as we saw Luna’s doppelganger getting flung away, directly in the path of Twilight’s next attack as she teleported to her destination and fired a devastating beam of raw magic at her.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! Well, considering Twilight was too weak to stand at the moment, it might have been more of a draw. If you couldn’t continue after defeating your opponent on the battlefield, you might as well have committed suicide. Anyway, for now it was a win for Twilight. Luna berated her for the excessive use of magic, though. And the decision to forgo taking a weapon with her into the fight.
So, that got Twilight and Luna into thinking about what might actually be a weapon that could be of any use to the fighting style she employed. It was actually Spike that gave them the idea of a focus, saying that the heroes in his comics oftentimes used something that supplemented their fighting style and helped focus their powers.
And thus, the idea of a wand for Twilight was born. The actual crafting of such a tool would take some time, seeing that it was a very complicated process of acquiring rare materials and working them into something the user would be able to channel their magic through. It was an art not many knew in this day and age, so Luna had to actually find a suitable craftsman first.
The idea of a focus got Luna thinking about the situation with Fluttershy’s disability to fight without seizing up in fright. She disappeared for a few moments, leaving us in the clearing alone. Some odd minutes later, Luna came back with a bowl and various ingredients I saw in the basement of the library. Not the gross ones, more like herbs and such.
The princess began to carefully mix them with mortar and pestle, actually ripping some grass from the ground and adding it to the mix. Once she was satisfied with her work she set the other ingredients up at the side of the bowl and asked Fluttershy to join her at her side. Said demure woman did so hesitantly, confusion showing on her face.
Luna began guiding her through the process of what we saw was to be a ritual of some kind. Once she knew what to do, Fluttershy was left to perform a small sacrifice in pricking her finger on a needle and filling her blood in a vial.
“With an offer of cotton, I give you a place at my home,” she began to speak, as she added said ingredient to the bowl.
“With an offer of straw, I give you a place to sleep,” Fluttershy said, also adding the straw to the bowl in front of her, after that she took some cloth in her hands. “Giving you a piece of cloth, I promise to care for your injuries.”
“Herbs and fruits, I give you for a healthy meal,” she uttered and put the mixture of herbs in while taking one of the apples and placing it in the middle.
“And to you who answers this call, I offer you a piece of myself to show my dedication and willingness to stand by your side,” Fluttershy spoke, at last, dripping the content of the vial into the bowl.
Smoke started to billow from it and once it cleared away, we saw a small golden fox with two tails sitting at the bowl munching on the apple. It cooed in delight of the sweet treat.
“Feed me more of this delicious morsel, mortal!”
We all stared at the fox in astonishment. I mean, I think it was a fox, but considering it had an extra tail, it might be something from a myth I vaguely remember from Earth.
Fluttershy smiled and gave it another apple, stroking its fur as it happily devoured the fruit. It was a very cute sight to behold.
“We will consider this contract you proposed in your summoning,” it said as it curled up in her lap, staring up at Fluttershy. “It has been quite a few millennia since someone dared summon us from the spirit realm.”
“Oh, my...” Fluttershy whispered astonished. “I hope I didn’t take you away too suddenly.”
“Fret not, it was quite boring,” the spirit animal said. “It is a welcome change of scenery. We would like to have more of the morsel, please.”
Man, how big of a stomach does that little thing have? Fluttershy took the last apple at her side and held it in front of the little guy. I was feeling a little jealous of the easy bond they already shared. Once it finished with the fruit it gave a little shake of its body and hopped out of her lap.
“Alright then. Let us do battle, as the ancient rites dictate,” it proudly declared as it sat in front of her.
“What?” Fluttershy squeaked in fright.
“A battle! A test of might, a show of strength! We want to test your mental fortitude against our own!”
“I don’t... understand?” Fluttershy whispered, shaking like a leaf.
“Do your people not have a way to show their intellect against an opponent?” the fox asked, looking confused at her. “Something that shows their mental ability to cow other creatures to their will?”
“Oh... I think I might have something like that,” Fluttershy admitted timidly. “Are you certain you want to be subjected to that?”
“You are a strange mortal, mortal,” it said, tilting its head to the side. “Why wouldn’t I be sure to demonstrate my mental might against yours?”
“All my little animal friends always seem frightened by my Stare,” she said, looking slightly ashamed. “I wouldn’t want you to be afraid of me.”
“Hah! A mere mortal could never shake us! Let us begin!”
“If you’re sure...”
The eyes of the fox began to glow as it stared directly into the depth of Fluttershy’s soul, its paws beginning to burn with bright blue flames. The tails standing up and bristling.
For a moment we all feared what might happen next, but as Fluttershy turned her gaze to the little fox in front of her, it seemed to falter. It was an intense battle judging by their expressions.
Second, after second, we waited for an outcome. Fluttershy looked very fiercesome with her stare, I was slightly afraid of what would happen if she were to ever direct it at me. Scratch that, I would probably shake in my boots, begging her to stop.
A minute passed and sweat started to pool on her forehead, but her opponent didn’t look so good either. The little fox grunted here and there as if he was slowly losing ground.
The first change to appear after that was it beginning to pant in exertion. Then we all saw its ears splay back, while Fluttershy actually began to relax more and more.
“What?” the fox said dumbly. “This.. this strength! By a mere mortal? How?”
The fox snarled in a fashion that gave me the impression of something more akin to a demon than whatever it was supposed to be. But even that failed to make Fluttershy falter in her resolve.
So, as this continued on, it slowly began to cower down towards the ground, shaking slightly. Whatever this ability of Fluttershy was, it had an obvious effect on the little guy.
“We surrender,” it said, breaking eye contact with Fluttershy.
After their little contest stopped it gave its body a quick shake and it sighed a little dreamily.
“To have such a strong summoner! It gives me tingles all over my body,” it said as it hopped back into her lap and Fluttershy began to pet it once more. “Very well, then! Name us, mortal, and we will lend you our strength until your demise!”
“Oh.. Uhm,” Fluttershy muttered taken off guard. “How about... Brightpaw?”
“Hmm... it seems fitting. As you wish, henceforth we shall be known as Brightpaw, the Heavenly Fox!” Brightpaw sighed, crooning at the ministrations Fluttershy’s fingers gave him. “Tell us your name, Master!”
“My name is Fluttershy,” she said. “It is nice to meet you.”
It was kind of easy to forget that they just held a battle with their minds alone, seeing them sitting there.
Luna was the first out of the group to shake herself loose of our collective stupor. She went over to them and studied the fox for a moment. Then she asked Fluttershy if she was in need of any refreshments, or anything really, to help her relax. But Fluttershy simply stated that stroking the fur of the little fox was enough.
So, Luna wanted to know if their little ritual was complete or if they still had things left they wanted to discuss. Brightpaw apparently was happy as long as he got fed the ‘delicious mortal morsels’.
“Shall we test your capabilities in a fight?” Luna asked him.
“A test of physical strength?” Brightpaw wanted to assure himself that it was that, what Luna asked of him. At Luna’s nod he gave her a scoff. “You would stand no chance against our might!”
“Come on! How can a little thing like you best the princess?” Rainbow interjected in disbelief. Brightpaw stuck his nose up at her.
“You would not now strength if it spit you in the face, mortal,” he mocked her, turning his attention back to Luna. “Very well, then. A demonstration is in order, let us fight.”
Luna and Brightpaw went into position in the middle of the clearing, Fluttershy at his side, holding her one-handed crossbow in the hand and a few bolts in the other.
“At your command, Master!” Brightpaw said giddily.
“Uhm... attack?” Fluttershy said uncertainly, squirming at the thought of hurting the princess.
We all watched as the little fox suddenly was enveloped in a puff of smoke and from it emerged Brightpaw, twice as big as a wolf and fur glowing slightly as fire spewed from his maw, paws, and tails. It crouched slightly, as if ready to pounce. Then he was already atop of Luna, his teeth dangerously close to her face. The shockwave of his movement rustling the leaves on the trees around us and blowing our hair around.
Gaping, we were all too stunned on how to react as Luna struggled to get out from underneath his paw. Evidently by the way Fluttershy blinked at the sudden turn of events, she didn’t see that coming, either.
“Surrender!” Brightpaw growled, his voice a lot deeper in this form. “Admit to the superior might of our Master and us!”
Luna tried casting her magic, but he was quick to disrupt her plans with his other paw.
“That’s enough, Brightpaw. We don’t need to bully her,” Fluttershy said sternly, like a disappointed mother looking down on him as she came to his side. He gave in to her judgment and let the princess free from under his paws. Helping her up, we all saw Luna desperately gasp for more air. The little fox returned to his little form and found a seat on Fluttershy’s shoulders while holding on with his front paws on top of her head. She didn’t seem to mind and it looked cute as hell.
“Remind me to never get on his nerves, again,” Rainbow whispered to us and we all nodded dumbly along. That fox was something else, alright. Fuck, I wouldn’t want to be his enemy for real.