Without a Plan
"Do you actually have money this time?" asked the bristly Mr. Cake.
"Uh-huh" replied the caffeine deprived Rainbow Dash.
"As do I" added Twilight.
"Me too!" squeaked Pinkie; desperately trying to see over her two friends.
The three ponies ordered their drinks (black coffee for Rainbow, hazelnut for Twilight and a whipped cream drenched-in-caramel-sugar-rush-in-a-cup latte for none other than Pinkie Pie) and found a seat by a window to nurse their caffeinated life elixirs.
"So, how did Lyra react?" Rainbow finally asked after the caffeine began to pipe up her nerves.
"Like a good sport, of course" Twilight replied.
"So she didn't rage out and try to horn-stab you?"
Twilight blinked. "Horn-stab?"
"It's when they stab you with their horn." Rainbow informed.
"I had assumed." Twilight took a sip of her coffee. "She was obviously a bit disappointed, but she didn't show any hostility towards me."
Pinkie Pie came up for breath from her long draft of latte to add; "Good, nopony likes a sore-loser-meanie-pants" before diving her face back into her liquid sugar coma.
"Trixie also won her duel" Twilight added as she wondered how Pinkie hadn't burned her face off yet.
"Oh, of course she did." Rainbow exaggerated. "Why wouldn't the Great and Powerful Trixie win her round."
"Why don't you ask her, Dashie?" suggested the whipped-cream covered Pinkie.
"Wh—"
"Hello, Twilight" said Trixie.
Rainbow stared at the light blue unicorn as if she was a changeling that had suddenly materialized in front oh her.
"Hi, Trixie!" greeted Pinkie, cheerfulness glazed over her tone like warm icing.
Trixie ignored her. "That was a clever spell that you pulled off on Lyra."
Rainbow feinted choking on her coffee. "Did you just compliment something that wasn't your own flashy a—"
"Rainbow!" exclaimed Twilight.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. According to her friends, she had developed a swearing problem. After she had taught Scootaloo a plethora of 'new words', they had insisted that she stop swearing. What's the fun in anger if you can't use potent words to describe it?
"What does 'pull off' mean?" inquired Twilight.
"Well, an improvised move like th—"
"It wasn't improvised, Trixie." Twilight forced out Trixie's name with the same disdain as she did with the Archmages'. "I created that spell in no less then an hour."
"Yeah, and she tested it on me" Rainbow remarked, slightly too proud of being a punching bag than she should be.
Trixie bit her lip. "Magic like that won't work on any anypony with any degree of intelligence, Twilight."
Twilight flared. "Are you saying that Lyra isn't intelligent?"
Trixie's expression failed to change. "Yes."
Rainbow Dash stood up. "Get the hay away from us, and keep away from Twilight, witch."
Trixie blinked at the angered pegasus, and walked off towards the counter.
"Well, she isn't very nice." Pinkie chirped.
.............................................................
"Spike! Get the hay off of that game! Dinner!" yelled Twilight.
"But we're at the Shoggath fi—"
"Now!"
Spike mumbled excuses into his microphone, and hopped down into their kitchen.
"I honestly don't know why I let you keep that game" Twilight sighed.
"Because it was a present from Princess Luna?" Spike suggested.
"Yeah, a present that was your fault in the first place."
"How can a present be somepony's fault?"
Twilight rolled her eyes at his innocence. "Celestia wanted you to introduce Luna to some more modern things, to make up for all the time she lost on the moon" She began. "You decided that video games would be a good thing to show her, and you got her hooked on them. Now she gets you a new one to play with every month."
Spike batted his eyelashes. "It's not my fault that Luna is so generous."
Twilight sighed, again. "Just eat your quartz, and feel lucky that I didn't make you a daisy sandwich and salad for dinner."
Spike made an 'ew' face, and dug into his translucent chunks of draconic delicacy.
Shaking her head, Twilight took a bite of her own dinner.
"When ishur next dueleen clashe?" Spike asked through a mouthful of gems.
"No talking with your mouthful, Puff." Twilight said crossly.
Spike blushed at her pet name, but swallowed. "When is it?"
"In two days. I have tomorrow to practice, and I have no idea who I will be paired up with. I'm guessing it's going to be Trixie, knowing the Archemage."
"Is Trixie any good?" Spike was examining his next morsel with the face of a connoisseur, before downing it like a hungry wolf.
"Yeah, and she's friends with the Archemage." Twilight's appetite faded at that thought.
"Of course she is. She's the bad guy, so she's friends with other bad guys." Spike reasoned.
Twilight lovingly thumped Spike. "You're a useless chunk of hungry scales."
"Are they pretty scales?"
At that, Twilight laughed.
.............................................................
"Again!" yelled Rainbow Dash.
"Rainbow..." panted Twilight. "Can I take a break?"
"Hay no. You need to be in shape if you want to win your duel tomorrow."
"But it's... a... magical.... tournament." Twilight had already ran two whole laps around Ponyville, and felt like she was going to melt.
"So? If you're more fit, you weigh less, and will be able to float easier." reasoned Rainbow.
"That isn't how magic, or exercise for that matter, work, Rainbow." panted Twilight.
Rainbow made a "Pfff" gesture, and poked Twilight's flank. "You're made of gelatin. Lavender gelatin."
"Thanks, Rainbow. I thought you wanted to help me train?"
"I do. My kind of training." She smiled smugly.
"But I don't need your kind of training" Twilight whined.
"I know" Rainbow admitted.
Twilight stared at her blue friend. "What?"
"You don't actually need to be fit at all."
"Then why in the name of Celestia did you make me run circles around Ponyville for an hour?" Twilight fumed.
"Because now you're going to try and hit me." Before Twilight could register what had been said, Rainbow had launched herself out and over lake hardtack.
"Come n' get me, Gelatin Flank!" screeched Rainbow.
Twilight narrowed her eyes at Rainbow. "Oh, you're trying to put me into difficult situations" she thought. "Yeah, won't work on me, 'Dashie'."
She focused on where Rainbow was flying, and tried to figure out a pattern to her motion. There probably was one, but she was way too tired to find it.
"Damn you, Rainbow Dash." Twilight muttered. "Making me tire out to the point of nearly fainting. Forcing me to hypocritically swear... you're gonna get it."
Twilight tried to focus in on the speeding pegasus, but she just couldn't bring up the energy.
"Alright, brute force it is" She thought savagely. Twilight blasted a wall of course wind at a location several feet in front of Rainbow Dash, hoping to hit her.
She zipped right past it.
Trying again, Twilight aimed slightly farther than she had originally.
Again, she zipped passed the wall of air.
Twilight growled. "Stay still!"
She threw a third gust of wind, and it was perfect. Rainbow was going to fly right into it's path...
And she dove right under it, without even thinking.
"Damn!" Twilight yelled.
"Stop using brute force, you're better than that" whispered a voice.
Twilight yelped at the sudden noised. Who the hay was that?
"It doesn't matter who I am, Twilight, but I'm helping you.
"Why?" Twilight thought upon realization that the voice was in her head.
The voice ignored her. "stop trying to hit her. Use the weakness she gave you to your own advantage.
"How?"
If mentally sighing was possible, the voice did it. "There is a method of mind magic called Blight Sharing. It sounds evil, but it is completely legal"
Twilight blinked.
"It's why most unicorns, while they probably can take you down with lasers and whatnot, try not to" the voice explained. "It makes your target feel the pain that the caster is experiencing. So if you are tired..."
"Then I can make Rainbow tired" Twilight was mentally beaming at the voice.
"Yes, try to isolate your exhaustion into one point of your body—your horn is a good choice, and afflict them with it."
Twilight nodded, as if the voice could see her. "Isolate the exhaustion..."she muttered. Closing her eyes, she focused in on the lactic acid buildup that the running had caused in her legs. She felt each energy drained ounce of her quiver with it's own individual loathing of her target; Rainbow Dash.
She channeled the pain into her horn, not feeling it melt away from her, but sort of feeling it be lifted into the horn, like when you hurt your leg and rest it on another one; it still hurts, just not as much as when pressure is put on it.
When the buildup of exhaustion was at its peak, she scanned the sky for Rainbow Dash.
"Hello, little pegasus" Twilight murmured, excitement boiling over in her mind. "Getting tired, are we?"
She released the spell, throwing her pain right at the pony who had caused it.
Immediately, there was an effect. Rainbow's speed was nearly halved, making her much easier to hit.
"Gotcha'" Twilight whispered, mimicking Celestia's favorite phrase.
Twilight released her fourth and final gust of wind at Rainbow. The tired little pegasus had no chance, and was thrown into the icy cold waters of Lake Hardtack.
She removed the spell immediately, hoping to stop her from... well... drowning.
A few seconds later, Rainbow popped up out of the water.
"How... did... you..." She stammered.
"I gave you a taste of your own medicine." Twilight chirped proudly, raising her chin into the air mockingly.
Rainbow clucked her tongue. "You're flank is still gelatin..." She grumbled angrily.
Twilight giggled.
.............................................................
"Amethyst Star and Royal Ribbon" the Archemage called out. "Lemon Hearts and Diamond Mint."
The Archemage had thrown something new at the duelists; tag team duels.
"Allie Way and Comet Tail" he continued. "Trixie and Graphite."
"Oh, so you didn't pair me with Trixie." Twilight thought, slightly surprised. "What the hay are you planning, Archemage?"
The Archemage passed by Twilight without as much as a glance. "Twilight Sparkle and Quartzite" he said plainly.
"Quartzite?" she thought. "I'm being paired up with Spike's dinner?"
The Archemage rattled off a few more names that Twilight didn't recognize, and then walked off.
"'Scuse me" a gravelly voice spoke. "Are you Twilight?"
Twilight turned around to be greeted by a stark grey, well built stallion. He was older than most other ponies in the dueling club, but there was a spark of young mischief in his eyes.
"Yes, I am. Are you Quarzite?"
He grunted. "So, I came here to duel against powerful Mages from all 'cross Equestria, and I get paired up with a purple teenager?"
Twilight bristled. "Quite a rude awakening, isn't it?"
He blinked. "What?"
"It's an idiom."
He blinked again. "Did you just call me an idiot?"
Twilight sighed. "Nevermind."
Quartzite's natural color was an almost beautiful stark grey, but there were rusty brown spots nearly covering his lovely coloring.
"Did you fall into a muddy hole or something?" Twilight asked.
"Hm?"
"Your coat, it's covered in mud. Did you fall?"
The muddy stallion chuckled. "Just you worry 'bout yourself, child, I assure you I'm perfectly fine." His voice had a southern twang to it, but his gravelly tone and manner of speaking refined it into what a wise old grandfather should sound like.
"You two shall be dueling Solar Wind and Colgate" the Archemage said quickly, not even glancing at them for more than a moment.
"You haven't forgotten me, Archemage. I know you're planning something" Twilight thought. "I just don't know what it is yet.
"What kind of magic do you think they use?" Quartzite whispered.
"What?"
He rolled his eyes. "Solar Wind n' the one with toothpaste for a mane. What do you think they cast?"
Twilight had never really considered strategizing like this. "Um. I know Colgate has worked with that new pony in town on some magic. Nopony knows his real name, so we just call him Timeturner."
Quartzite's expression was solid. "So she does time magic?"
Shrugging, she replied "I really am not sure, and I've never even seen Solar Wind before.
He grunted affirmatively. "Time magic is tricky, but considering the limit on these duels, she won' be able to do much."
"What type of magic do you do?"
He grinned. "Earth magic. The mud on my coat you saw? Ammo."
Twilight beamed. "That's brilliant." Quartzite was completely caked in the rusty brown mud. Considering his size, he probably had a decent amount of ammo.
"An' you?" he asked.
"Oh. Erm. I don't really have a specialty... I guess I like wind and water magic. Oh, plus a little bit of energy manipulation.
Quartzite nodded. "Your spells are faster than mine, but my magic can hit a bit harder. I've got enough earth on me t' encase Colgate in solid rock."
"Really?" Twilight asked skeptically.
"Yup. It's all dried clay that I packed super tightly, so once I add water, I can make a little spread over a large surface." he glanced at the other pair. "Got any signature moved of your own?"
Twilight thought for a moment. "I did invent a way to control huge amounts of water. Other than that, most of my stuff is... textbook." Twilight blushed a bit at herself.
Quartzite smiled. "We'll be fine, don't w—"
"All pairs, report to your sections of the lake" barked the Archemage.
Quartzite's ancient face lit up at the Archemages words. "A purple teenager and an old fart? Victory is ours."