“Look who showed up late to the party.”
Garden Gate didn’t respond to Aria’s griping, knowing that it was perfunctory. What concerned her more was the pained note in the other mare’s voice, as though she was still recovering from whatever spell she had been under. “Are you okay?”
The question left her lips without Garden ever taking her eyes off of the purple unicorn across from her. She might not have been Fencer anymore, but Vanhoover had left too much of a mark on her for Garden to look away from an enemy. But whoever the newcomer was, she didn’t rush to attack, instead regarding Garden – and the knives she was still holding aloft – with a wary expression as she rubbed the cut on her forehead.
“I’m fine.” Out of her peripheral vision, Garden saw Aria move up next to her. “No, scratch that. I’m ticked! That nag put me under an enchantment! Me! A Siren!” As much anger as she was trying to inject into her voice then, there was an undercurrent of disbelief – and fear – that was impossible to miss.
But Garden was less concerned with that than she was with the larger implications of what Aria had just said. “Is that what’s wrong with Sonata?” she asked, keeping her voice low. Risking a quick glance to the side, she confirmed again what she’d glimpsed right before her surprise attack: that Lex’s girlfriend (or rather, one of his girlfriends, according to what Aria had told her previously) was biting her lip, looking back and forth between Aria and that purple mare as though worried about both of them. Huddled around her were a group of four other ponies, all of whom had the same cutie mark for some reason…
Aria nodded, a sour expression on her face. “That idiot won’t be any help until the spell’s broken,” she murmured.
“Can you do that with your magic?”
Aria considered the question for a second before giving a frustrated sigh. “I don’t know. If Starlight’s strong enough to enchant us in the first place, it’ll probably be tough.”
Garden raised a brow at the unfamiliar name. “Starlight?”
“Starlight Glimmer.” Aria spat the name hatefully, glaring at the mare in question. “She takes cutie marks, replacing them with these…these…equals signs.” She turned to glare at the mark on her flank now, baring her teeth at it. “Once you have them, you lose your natural abilities. I can still cast the new magic I learned, but I can’t sing anymore!”
Garden let out a slow breath, considering that. “So does that mean you can’t power me up the way Sonata did when I was fighting those ghouls?”
“You catch on quick, don’t you?” Aria’s sarcastic remark was followed by an angry look. “But that might have been different if you’d gotten here sooner! Where were you?!”
“At the memorial site.”
“The what?”
“The mass grave on the other side of the camp,” explained Garden. “Some ponies went there to lay down tokens for their loved ones. I went along because a fight broke out there a few days ago between those who were grateful to Lex and those who blamed him for killing the ghouls instead of saving them.” The curl of her lip made it clear what she thought about the latter group. “I came running once I realized something was happening over here.”
“Next time run faster,” came Aria’s withering reply.
Garden didn’t respond, instead keeping her eyes on Starlight. The mare was still standing there, holding that forked staff in her telekinetic grip and watching them, but otherwise wasn’t doing anything else. Why wasn’t she attacking? Was she waiting for something? It was enough to make Garden nervous, but she wasn’t about to let the opportunity go to waste. “Listen, when fighting a unicorn, you want to aim for their horn. If it’s disabled, so is their ability to use magic.” She smirked as a memory came back to her then, recalling a certain confrontation in a warehouse in Vanhoover. “Lex notwithstanding.”
But Aria shook her head. “Her powers don’t come from her horn. They come from that staff she’s using.”
Garden risked another glance at Aria, just to make sure she was being serious. “Her staff?” Looking back at it, the thing seemed more like a twisted piece of wood than some sort of magical weapon. But then again, it’s not like I’ve ever seen a magical staff before, she admitted silently.
“We get that thing away from her, and she’ll be completely defenseless. Or we just knock her around until she's too punch-drunk to use it.” Aria’s tone made it clear that she found either option acceptable, a smile growing on her face a second later. “In fact, I have an idea…”
Starlight kept a close eye on Aria and Garden Gate as they murmured to each other, clearly trying to work out a battle plan.
But that was fine. As far as Starlight was concerned, they could take all the time they needed. It gave her a chance to make her own preparations.
She had known, thanks to Sonata’s endless series of stories about her boyfriend, that things would almost certainly come down to a fight once she met Lex Legis. His philosophy, after all, sounded like it was the opposite of her own. But Starlight wasn’t afraid of magically mixing it up with some King Sombra-wannabe; even if Sonata’s stories about Lex weren’t exaggerated, Starlight couldn’t imagine herself losing to anyone, not when she was fighting for something she knew, down to the bottom of her heart, was right.
Running into Aria first hadn’t seemed like a big deal at the time. If anything, it had been convenient. A quick cutie mark removal here, a suped-up charm spell there, and there’d be one less pony to worry about interfering when she finally took on Lex.
And for the most part, things had gone that way. Although Aria’s magic had been more combative than Starlight had initially expected, she’d been able to bring the troublesome Siren down without too much trouble. That was important, since if Lex didn’t know that she was here already, Starlight felt certain that he would soon; with the audience they had, somepony was sure to tell him, if they hadn’t already. Starlight wasn’t worried about facing him, but that didn’t mean she wanted to go solo against him and Aria together.
Except now this new pony, Garden Gate, had messed things up.
The new girl doesn’t look so tough, Starlight decided at length. Despite how serious it would have been if that surprise attack had injured her horn, Starlight had no fear of Garden's knives getting that close again. All she had to do was start laying some defensive spells on herself ahead of time to minimize the threat of the blades, and both Garden and Aria seemed more than happy to give her as much time as she needed.
Fortunately, since she was still holding her staff in her telekinesis, her horn was already glowing, meaning that Starlight gave no outward indication as she powered herself up. One low-grade shield spell, just to be safe. It wasn’t as strong as the ones she could conjure when she put her mind to it, more of an impact-dampener than a barrier, but on the plus side it wouldn’t require any concentration on her part either. And an accelero spell of my own, in case Aria rushes me again. Plus a little spin on that to boost reaction speed in addition to movement speed… Coming up with that last one had taken her a minute or two of working out the calculations in her head, but it hadn’t been too hard to do. More importantly was that those were all easy spells to cast, not requiring her to push herself. And with any luck, this will be more than enough to put those two down.
If not, then she’d have to start getting serious, and she wanted to save that for when she faced off against Lex.
Across from her, Garden and Aria had stopped talking and were starting to circle her. The former was heading to her right, while the latter was moving toward her left. The sight made Starlight snicker. “Finished your little strategy session?” she taunted.
Neither mare answered her, instead moving until they were about ninety degrees apart.
Then Garden Gate charged her, knives raised, as Aria began casting a spell with her mangled singing voice.
No surprises there, snorted Starlight to herself, moving right to try and put Garden into Aria’s line of fire. Both mares adjusted their course to keep her triangulated, however, clearly having expected her to do that. But that’s fine.
Aria was clearly more comfortable hanging back and tossing out spells at a distance; her earlier attempt to rush in and punch her had clearly been done in a fit of pique rather than any sort of strategy. Garden, likewise, was obviously a close-range fighter. The fact that she’d barreled right past her during her surprise attack made it clear that she wasn’t comfortable telekinetically wielding her knives at long range, at least not with the manual dexterity required for quick, precise movements. That was common among unicorns, since telekinesis didn’t allow for tactile feedback.
The two of them were clearly hoping to overwhelm her by working in tandem, with Garden pressing her attack while Aria sniped at her. But they're dreaming if they think that'll be enough to defeat me.
Then Garden was on her, one knife coming in high, the other low.
Smirking, Starlight ducked under the first strike, adjusting her staff to knock the other blade off-course. Nor did she stop there, bringing the base of the staff around in a sharp blow that caught Garden across the side of the face, clearly not having expected her to retaliate physically. Stumbling, she fell back, bringing her knives back around to try and ward off a follow-up strike, but Starlight thrust the butt of her staff between them, catching Garden hard in the chest and drawing a grunt of pain from her. The sound made Starlight chuckle. “Don’t worry,” she sneered. “Once this is over and I’ve removed your cutie mark, I won’t hold a grudge.”
Rubbing her jaw, Garden Gate spat on the ground. “I’ve killed flesh-eating ghouls with nothing but a pencil. Taking out one nag with delusions of grandeur about equality won’t be anywhere near as hard.”
Starlight was about to reply, but Garden didn’t give her a chance, stepping forward with her knives zig-zagging in. Hopping back to give herself some room, Starlight waved the forked ends of her staff toward the flying weapons. She managed to collide with one, deflecting it, but the other zipped past her defense and delivered a painful cut across her side, managing to get through her minor shield spell. Biting back a grunt of pain, Starlight reversed course, stepping in to try and batter Garden again, but the vermillion mare was ready for her this time, sidestepping the quick jab she made and raising her foreleg to catch a return strike.
Meanwhile, Aria had finished casting whatever spell she’d been crooning, and had started on another. That was enough to worry Starlight, sparing a glance at the other mare even as Garden’s knives flew around her from either side, forcing her to rear up on her hind legs and twist her body to avoid them, her shield spell saving her from a painful slice across her belly. What did that first spell do? And what’s she casting now?
“Ready?” yelled Aria suddenly. Starlight blinked, surprised as Garden suddenly broke off her attack, stepping backward in anticipation of…something.
She found out what a moment later, as all of a sudden she was surrounded by a thick bank of fog.
What the…? Stumbling backward out of instinct, Starlight glanced every which way, but there was only mist in every direction. She could still hear her friends, their voices calling out her name in alarm, but the fog was thick enough that she could barely see the end of her staff out in front of her. But as disorienting as it was to suddenly be surrounded by mist, Starlight found herself more puzzled than afraid. This is their big plan? To blind me with fog? What a joke! They won’t be able to see me any more than I’ll be able to see them!
But she was proven wrong a few seconds later.
There was a loud clapping of hooves, as though somepony was applauding, and then Aria’s voice could be heard. “Ten feet ahead, ten feet left!”
What? What’s she talking- Starlight had her answer as Garden Gate suddenly emerged from the fog, snarling as her knives suddenly zipped in. Starlight wasn’t able to react in time, even with her reaction speed enhanced, and this time couldn’t stop herself from crying out as the sharp blades sliced into her, drawing painful cuts along her foreleg and chest. Circling rather than falling back, she tried to put some distance between herself and Garden Gate…only to find the other mare already in retreat, recalling her knives and vanishing into the mist, the thick fog obscuring even the light from her telekinetic aura.
The entire exchange had taken only a few seconds, leaving Starlight dazed. What just happened?
Another set of hoofclaps were heard. “Five feet back, fifteen feet left!”
She’s tracking me! Realizing that Aria was somehow monitoring her position – no, the positions of her and Garden both – and calling out directions to her partner, Starlight whirled, trying to calculate the direction that Garden would be approaching from. If it’s her left, then it should be…here! Not content to wait for the other unicorn to slash her again, Starlight immediately lashed out with a spell to catch Garden in a block of ice. Not a bad plan, she grinned to herself, but you’re still not able to play at my-
Her thought was cut off as Garden Gate emerged in a completely different direction than she’d anticipated, giving her another cut across her cheek and one across her hind leg, just below her fake cutie mark, a moment later. Again Starlight couldn’t stop herself from crying out, stumbling backward and nearly dropping her staff as she struggled to retreat…only for Garden to immediately fade back into the fog again, leaving Starlight desperately trying to recover from the sudden assault. "Told you it wouldn't be hard," she snickered as she slipped away.
Starlight had no answer, still trying to figure out what was going on. How?! She shouldn't have come from that direction!
Another series of hoofclaps rang out, followed by Aria’s voice once again. “Ten feet directly left!”
Knowing that Garden was about to attack again, Starlight tried to figure out where those instructions would make her emerge from…only to hesitate, recalling how she’d been completely wrong just a moment ago. As such, she was caught off-guard when Garden emerged from exactly where she would have expected her to otherwise, dealing another pair of painful cuts to Starlight before fading back into the fog.
Now bleeding from more than a half-dozen wounds, Starlight finally realized what was going on. The hoofclaps. They’re a code. The instructions Aria was calling out were deliberately jumbled, with the number of hoofclaps she made before she announced them being how to decipher them. One set means that the distances are real. Another must mean to reverse the directions. And there are probably more.
There was no way to break their code in time. As intelligent as she knew she was, Starlight had no illusions about being able to figure out what the hoofclaps meant before Garden Gate carved her to pieces. At this rate…
More hoofclaps, four this time. “Twenty feet ahead, ten feet right!”
Starlight immediately plunged into mist ahead of her, rushing forward without stopping in a random direction in an effort to dodge strikes she knew were coming. Luck was with her, since she didn’t plunge headfirst into Garden, but she’d barely gone more than a few steps before the blood running down her legs made her slip, almost losing her balance. Leaning on her staff now, her breath coming in pants, in occurred to Starlight then that, as confident as she’d felt at the start of the fight, these two had her on the ropes…and weren’t going to stop.
If she didn’t change the situation soon, she was going to lose.
Hoofclaps again. “Five feet back, fifteen feet left!”
Rushing in a random direction again, Starlight knew she no longer had the luxury of conserving her energy for her match with Lex. If she wanted to beat these two, she was going to have to go all out.
It was time to cut loose.