The dying sun bled crimson across the fractured landscape, casting long, jagged shadows as Twilight skated along the rough terrain. Her gold hoof cuff regalias generated sparks as they dragged along the crystal ground, her wings slicing through the air, giving her enough lift to glide but staying close enough to the ground where her control of her movement against the torrent of sluggish magic missiles sent her way was smooth. Next to her was Pinkie, who was literally skating on all fours through the rough and cracked crystal ground, giggling all the while.
Twilight retaliated with a volley of her magic missiles. Some met their mark, erupting in brilliant starbursts of light. Others, however, swerved erratically, falling short of their intended target – Starswirl.
Skidding to a halt, Twilight channelled her magic, focusing it into a searing beam that erupted from the tip of her horn. She aimed it directly at the ancient unicorn and blasted it towards him.
Starswirl opened a magic circle before him; as the beam connected with the circle, it dissipated into nothing. Twilight furrows her brow, levitating several boulders nearby and chucking them at Starswirl. As the boulders were about to make contact, the same number of magical circles manifested around him. Circle after circle materialised, each one perfectly positioned to intercept a boulder. Upon contact, the enchanted circles drained the momentum from the projectiles, sending them crashing harmlessly onto the crystal floor.
Conjuring a magical line, Twilight whips her head forward, the lavender whip following the flow. But as with her previous attempts, a shimmering circle flared into existence, swallowing the magical line whole, dissolving it into nothingness.
Flash lunged forward, his body crouched low, and his spear pointed at Pinkie from below. Swiping up with deadly intent, Pinkie swerved out of the arch with a Pirouette, landing on her hindlegs with an elegant bow directed at Flash. In the distance, three crystal ponies peeked their heads from behind a piece of debris. In perfect unison, they raised three large whiteboards. Bold red numbers, a giant "10" displayed on each with matching, toothy smiles, were scrawled across the boards.
Another barrage of magic from Starswirl flew towards the three officials. Still, they never found their target as Twilight teleported them into the Crystal Castle before the attack hit any of the three ponies.
The missiles corrected their course, bending and curving to target the alicorn princess. With a shine of her horn, her figure morphs into a swirling kaleidoscope of butterflies. The missiles, bereft of a target, slammed into the ground where Twilight stood moments before, leaving behind smoking craters.
Emerging from the flurry of wings, Twilight reformed back into her alicorn form. Landing gracefully atop Flash Magnus, she planted her hooves firmly on his back, causing the stallion to grunt in surprise as she pinned him to the ground. A surge of magic coursed through her, pointing the tip of her horn at the back of Flash's head. It glowed with a quick knock-out spell.
Just as she prepared to fire, a shimmering circle materialised between Flash and her attack, effortlessly swallowing the spell and dissipating it into harmless sparks. Frustration begins to etch itself onto Twilight's face.
Flash heaved Twilight off his back with a shoulder shrug to his left, causing her to fall rightward. Taking his spear, Flash jabbed in the same direction where Twilight fell. However, his spearhead was intercepted by a giant cupcake slammed by Pinkie. Pinning the weapon to the ground and rewinding her leg, the party pony kicked the cupcake into Flash, propelling him back in an explosion of sweets and sugar.
The impact sent Flash reeling backwards, tumbling unceremoniously onto the ground with a few bounces before he unfurled his wings and caught himself beside Starswirl. The Sorcerer lifted a hoof towards Flash as his lips moved soundlessly, his horn glowing a milky white.
Twilight begins to light magic of her own, her horn flaring in a lavender glow, forging a mental bridge with Pinkie Pie. Words flowed silently through the newly established telepathic connection,
"Pinkie," Twilight's voice echoed directly within Pinkie's mind, bypassing the limitations of spoken language. "Focus on Flash Magnus. I'll divert Starswirl's attention and join you later on."
"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie replied out loud.
Dashing behind Twilight, Pinkie reappeared behind Flash, along with a giant, cartoonishly oversized whack-a-mole hammer. With a playful shout, Pinkie brought the hammer down with surprising force on Flash's side. The blow resonated across the battlefield, sending a shockwave through the air; thanks to the various enhancement spells Starswirl placed on Flash, he took minimal damage.
Twilight, meanwhile, turned her full attention towards Starswirl. Flaring her magic once more, she channelled it into a powerful spell. The air crackled with energy as a deep chasm ripped open in the ground before Starswirl, a fissure of pure magic splitting the crystalline landscape. The earth rumbled again, and another magical white disc formed protectively before him. Shielding him from the brunt of the blast.
Taking flight, Twilight unleashed a potent smoke spell, a swirling cloud of lavender mist billowing outwards and flooding the battlefield in a sea of cloud and haze.
Starswirl instinctively stepped back, narrowly avoiding a blast of magic that erupted from the swirling haze. Another magical beam, swift and silent, materialised from the opposite direction, slamming into his side with a jolt of raw power.
Confusion momentarily clouded Starswirl's face before he reacted with lightning speed. With a silent incantation and a wave of his hoof, a powerful gale force burst forth, ripping the smoke screen apart. The battlefield reappeared, revealing a sight that startled even the seasoned unicorn.
Two Twilights stood before him, their horns glowing with concentrated magic. One to the left, the other to the right, they had woven shimmering light ropes, effectively entangling Starswirl's hooves and torso.
The two Twilights split into four, their forms shimmering momentarily before solidifying. Starswirl's eyes widened as the process repeated, the Twilights doubling with each iteration. Eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two. The battlefield became a swirling sea of lavender princesses and glowing horns.
Each used an identical light rope spell, weaving themselves around Starswirl with practised efficiency. With his movements restricted by the ever-tightening bonds, he could only watch in frustration as his magical defences failed him.
High above the swirling mass of Twilights, another one stood poised, her horn crackling with a concentrated power. She pointed her horn down at Starswirl, ready to fire.
A blinding white light erupted from beneath Starswirl, momentarily stopping the final Twilight's attack. It was like a miniature sun emitting at his hooves, the sudden brilliance forcing all the Twilights to shield their eyes with raised hooves. The light rapidly expanded, forming a shimmering dome encompassing the battlefield, including all sixty-four illusory Twilights.
A chilling crack resonated through the air, followed by a series of splintering sounds like shattered glass. The illusions flickered, and their forms shattered against the made-up skies and the fake battlefield.
The over-numbering crowd of Twilights was gone, leaving only the original Twilight standing amidst a swirling haze of dissipating magic.
The remnants of Twilight's shattered illusion shimmered like heavy rain, each shard of light reflecting the faint glow of the dying sun, hitting the ground and shattering into powdered glitter.
Twilight stood among the raining stardust. Admittedly, she was impressed by Starswirl's display of magical aptitude.
'As I thought, Starswirl's ability far exceeds that of the highly trained mage as one of the progenitors where magic is derived from and studied. He understands the foundation of close to every spell traversed to the modern-day. Given enough time, he can...'
A searing heat forced her to cut her thoughts short. With a nimble side-step, she dodged a blazing fireball that erupted behind her, leaving a smouldering crater in the crystalline ground. The smell of burnt earth filled the air.
'Disrupt any magical spell with a single cast!'
Taking a hoof forward, Twilight planted it firmly on the ground. As her hoof made contact, a pulse of vibrant purple energy erupted, rippling outward in concentric waves like the echoes of a bell in still water. The energy crackled across the fractured crystal, emanating from Twilight with a force that seemed to resonate with the landscape.
With each deliberate step she took, another wave pulsed outward. The ground quaked, and soon, water geysers erupted from the fissures, spewing forth in unpredictable jets. The arena was instantly transformed as the ground was slick with water and the air thick with the spray.
Flying forward, Twilight channelled her magic into the ground beneath her, her horn glowing with an icy blue light.
Below, the water, churned by the unexpected geysers, began to react. Where Twilight's magic touched, a rippling wave of icy blue spread outward, freezing the water in its path. The once-fluid liquid solidified into a growing ice sheet, rapidly expanding across the ground like a glacier.
Starswirl reacted swiftly and created another disc to protect himself, with mixed results. The disc deflected most of the freezing waters, impacting the surrounding area and creating a small bubble of unfrozen water around the unicorn as the water splashed off the disc. All except for the ground beneath them, untouched by the disruption spell, the waters succumbed to Twilight's magic.
The ice hardens around Starswirl's hooves as they drop in temperature, sending a cold chill up his legs. He redirected the disruption circle down to his hooves to reform the ice back into water, but to no avail. Stumbling slightly from the immobility. His expression momentarily flickered with surprise.
True to the name, Starswirls' disruption magic disrupts magic or spells that he can correctly identify the foundation and inner workings of. That applies even to changing water to ice; however, it doesn't have the property to restore a naturally changing state to the form it once was.
Since the water Twilight erupts is from the Crystal Empire's water pipes and is not magically generated from her magic, aside from using magic that converts water to ice. The ice is considered to be naturally formed without the aid of magic, even if magic is used to harden the water into ice.
Therefore, in this instance. Starswirl's disruption magic only works to cancel out the process of turning water into ice, not changing it back into its liquid state.
Starswirl's momentary lapse in composure and acknowledgement of his magic's limitations provided an opening. Capitalising on this opportunity, she aimed a concentrated blast of icy magic directly at Starswirl's head, hoping to end the conflict swiftly.
But the world seemed to shudder beneath her hooves, the ground trembling with an unnatural force.
Then, with a series of deafening explosions, the ground erupted. Pillars of rock and crystal, jagged and menacing, shot skyward from the shattered ice. The newly formed pillars trudged circles around the old Sorcerer, breaking the fragile platform beneath Starswirl's hooves as it came to a grinding halt.
Twilight, losing her footing, fanned her wings in a struggle. Resorting to just teleport herself several feet in the air instead.
Once inert, the towering pillars began to tremble, then vibrating violently. They tore themselves free from the ground with a series of deafening cracks, launching themselves towards Twilight like monstrous projectiles.
Without wasting a moment, the alicorn poured magic into the tip of her horn. Unleashing a blinding light towards the flying rock construction, intersecting them and metamorphosing them into flocks of colourful birds.
The speed they travelled slowed as the birds coalesced into a graceful V-formation. A chorus of gentle chirps and melodic songs filled the air, replacing the tense destruction that had gripped the battlefield moments before. The birds circled above the two ponies, observing with silent stares.
Landing gracefully on the uneven ground, the exertion of the battle left a bead of sweat clinging to Twilight's chin. It's been long since she had to apply herself this hard. Regardless, a gripping feeling deep inside simmered, saying that defeat was a tangible possibility if things continued on this path.
"He's too intelligent, too skilled. He wouldn't fall for the same trick twice." She thought, bringing a hoof to wipe away the sweat.
"Picture it," Twilight murmured, her voice barely a whisper. "how he used it back then."
Just as Twilight closed her eyes, wings outstretched, preparing to dive deep into her memories, a streak of pink lightning crashed into her, sending both ponies tumbling across the uneven ground. The sudden impact knocked the breath out of Twilight, forcing her to open her eyes and scramble to regain her footing.
"Pinkie?!" she cried out, her voice a mix of surprise and relief as she recognised the other pony sprawled beside her while she used her wings to help Pinkie off the floor.
"Hiya, Twilight!" Pinkie chirped, her usual bubbly enthusiasm slightly subdued. "Sorry I barged in like that, but I really need some help! Flash Magnus is unusually super-duper strong and really really fast!!"
"That's it!" she exclaimed, a grin lighting up her face. She re-established the telepathic connection, sharing her plan with Pinkie in a flurry of mental images and whispered words.
Pinkie hesitated, leaning her head back slightly and furrowing her brows. "Are ya sure, Twilight? That sounds pretty dangerous..."
Twilight squeezed her hoof reassuringly. "Trust me, Pinkie. It's our best bet."
Pinkie nodded, scrambling to her hooves. Without hesitation, she made a daring dash straight towards the two pillars. Twilight covered her movement with a torrent of magic projectiles flying alongside Pinkie. Leaping into the air, Pinkie pulled out her larger-than-life hammer and swung it downward at Starswirl.
Flash quickly intercepted, brandishing his shield to defend Starswirl from the giant weapon, and braced himself against the blow. The resulting impact sent shockwaves through the ground, causing fissures to spread outward from the point of contact. The deafening clang of metal meeting metal reverberated throughout the arena, momentarily drowning out the chirping of the birds.
Twilight's magic projectiles followed up with the attack, twisting and aiming to hit Flash at his exposed sides. Of course, Starswirl covered him in disruption circles. Effectively dissolving most of the homing projectiles before they could reach their mark. The few who managed to evade the discs exploded harmlessly against the ground, leaving small craters that smoked faintly.
The rock and debris that flew out from the impact were promptly caught by Twilight's telekinetic touch without the notice of Starswirl or Flash as she moved them away from the fighting trio.
Unfazed by this, Starswirl charged another spell but was stopped by Pinkie grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him close to her. His spell fizzled harmlessly, the magical energy dissipating into the air, and his stoic expression faltered.
"Heya!" Pinkie chirped, "I couldn't help but see you charging your spell over here. That's really dangerous! What if you hit some creature with that thing?!"
Flash snapped his head back from the commotion, and his eyes widened. Peeking his head over the shield, his eyes widened even wider in disbelief as they met one of the buttons - a life-sized stuffed toy of Pinkie Pie, curiously hanging on the opposite side of the shield, gripping Pinkie's actual hammer.
The moment his gaze landed on the plush doppelganger, the tension seemed to vanish from its cotton limbs. The toy, which had been pressing down on him with surprising force moments ago, suddenly went limp, its grip slackening.
Grunting in annoyance, Flash heaved his massive shoulders and pushed the shield upwards. Sending the stuffed Pinkie and her hammer flying through the air.
"Hey! How dare you treat Pinkie Toy like that!" Pinkie playfully reprimanded while she smashed a cream pie into the dumbfounded wizard.
It landed squarely on Starswirl's face, the sugary white gloop splattering across his beard and eyes in a sweet explosion.
The excess cream splattered everywhere, getting onto Pinkie and Flash's faces. The warrior couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in surprise. Starswirl, initially stunned and silent by the unorthodox assault, sputtered and blinked as he tried to clear the mess from his vision.
"Oh yum!!" Pinkie exclaimed with childlike delight, her tongue extending an unnatural length to lick the cream off her face.
Outstretching her hoof, the hammer sent flying moments earlier landed perfectly in Pinkie's grip. Giving a maniac swing, she battered Flash into a nearby building at the edge of the plaza.
Jumping back, Pinkie stuck her tongue out at Starswirl and pulled her eyes down in a playful manner.
"C'mon, old timer! Hit me if you cannnn~~!!" Pinkie teased.
Pissed, Starswirl levitated the cream off his face and flung it on the ground at the same time, sending a blast of magic at where Pinkie stood. A simple side step caused the magic to miss her completely.
"Miss me!" Pinkie taunted,
Starswirl launched another blast of magic, only for her to repeat the action.
"Miss me again!!"
A third blast followed, this time aimed with a calculated precision. Pinkie contorted her body in a near-impossible backwards bend, giving way for the magic to streak past just a hair's breadth from her body.
"Ohh, so close!"
A dazzling interruption sliced through the sky, stopping their tango. The glowing light emanating from a high point above the battle reaches the height of the apex. Arching down, it falls onto the earth like shooting stars, streaking downwards with incredible speed, converging upon Starswirl's position.
Seeing Starswirl's attention steered elsewhere, Pinkie took the chance to jump back, creating a clear path for the incoming projectile.
As the light drew closer, it materialised, revealing itself as a concentrated volley of magic, twinking with vibrant hues fired by Twilight and slammed into the spot where Starswirl stood.
The air crackled with the aftershock. The spot where Starswirl stood moments before erupted in a dazzling display of energy. Shards of cobblestone and pebbles rained down upon them, kicked loose by the sheer force of the impact. A thick cloud of dust billowed upwards, momentarily obscuring the scene from view.
Twilight scrunched her nose as the dust slowly settled and gave an audible "tch." In the centre of the cratered ground stood Starswirl, seemingly unharmed. Above him, the shimmering white disc of his disruption circle pulsed faintly, protecting him from the onslaught.
Suddenly, a flicker of movement at the edge of Twilight's vision caught her attention. It was a faint blur, almost imperceptible in the fading light. Her gaze darted sideways, her eyes widening in a flash of recognition. A gasp escaped her lips as she jolted her head back in a desperate attempt to dodge the incoming attack.
A glinting spearhead screamed through the air, aimed at Twilight's neck. The tip grazed the intricate metalwork of her chest regalia, sending a shower of sparks flying as it deflected harmlessly away.
Twilight's heart hammered against her ribs, and a cold wave of terror washed over her. Flash Magnus juttered to a stop before the princess and swung his spear towards her.
Just as the spear's tip seemed poised to pierce her fur, a wave of distortion rippled around Flash. His eyes widened in surprise as the flat surfaces around him seemed to warp around him, his movements becoming sluggish.
His entire body slammed onto the ground with a sickening boom, the spear digging itself an inch deep into the ground. A ragged gasp escaped his lips as a force unseen, a hundred times heavier than normal, pressed him down. His muscles screamed in protest as gravity, seemingly amplified by an invisible hand, threatened to crush him into the very ground.
Through the haze of pain and confusion, Flash forced his eyes open. Across from him, Twilight Sparkle stood tall, her horn glowing faintly with a soft, menacing light.
Flash coughed up air from his lungs, a metallic tang of blood filling his mouth. Twilight's magic wasn't just holding him down but actively pushing him further into the unforgiving earth. Agony lanced through his body, his vision blurring at the edges.
But before he could succumb to the overwhelming pressure, a stone shaped like a hoof pulsating with a vibrant pink light erupted from the ground beneath him. The unexpected blow sent him flying upwards in a surprised yelp, the agonising pressure momentarily released.
Flash could only muster a flap to regain his bearings when a dense gust of wind materialised around him. A swirling vortex of lavender slammed into him with incredible force, propelling him backwards in a graceless tumble. The winds dissipated as quickly as they appeared, leaving Flash sprawled on the cold stone, his armour dented and his chest heaving.
"The enhancements on Flash seemed to be wearing off." Twilight clasped her hooves together, her metal cuffs clinking together upon contact. "I'll do it now."
Flash and Starswirl looked around them; Twilight's magic had gathered a colossal dome of rock and debris, effectively imprisoning them within a precarious sphere. The air grew thick with dust and the smell of freshly fractured stone.
Flash instinctively spread his wings in a desperate attempt to escape the crumbling cage. Starswirl, on the other hand, reacted with a surge of magic, his horn crackling with the raw energy of a teleportation spell.
But their efforts were futile. A blur of pink fur rocketed through the debris before it either broke free or vanished in a puff of displaced air. Pinkie Pie launched herself at them with a resounding "oof!" as she wrapped her impossibly strong forelimbs around Flash's and Starswirl's necks, squeezing them in a suffocatingly tight bear hug.
Twilight's horn, still glowing faintly as she maintained the magical dome, watched in disbelief. "Pinkie! Get away from them! You'll get hit by it!!"
Pinkie, however, remained undeterred. Her face, flushed with exertion, held a defiant grin as she snapped her head back to look at Twilight.
"Don't worry, Twilight! I've got this!" she yelled back, her voice muffled by the combined bulk of Flash and Starswirl. "DO IT!!"
Gritting her teeth, Twilight unleashed her reserves. Flooding the space with her potent magic.
"Picture it." She thought, her mindscape conjuring an image of her own innate territory. "Like how he performed it back then, constructing it from an enclosed space and pushing it out, ALL OF IT!!"
"DOMAIN EXPANSION!!" Twilight yelled, the words echoing in the chamber around the four ponies.
The dome of rock and debris is blurring and warping at the edges. The reality within the confined space began to bend to Twilight's will, mirroring the techniques she had previously witnessed The Pony of Shadow use.
The apex of Jujutsu Sorcery, domain expansion, requires the user to bring their innate domain into reality using cursed energy. In this case, Twilight copied The Pony of Shadow's use of an enclosed space by using her magic to hold up debris from across the battlefield to act as her barrier.
Furthermore, her magic, though potent, was a substitute for cursed energy. This fundamental difference, coupled with Twilight's limited understanding of Domain Expansions, the immense strain of manifesting one, and her multi-casting spells to hold up the barrier's exterior foundation and imbuing it with her technique, created a volatile situation. The fragile domain could only hold for a fleeting fraction of a second, a mere 0.1 seconds.
Yet, Twilight wasn't aiming for a prolonged fight within the domain. This desperate gamble was for a sure-hit effect. Every ounce of her will focus on perfecting that single, decisive moment within the fleeting existence of her makeshift domain. This feat was only made possible with her talent and aptitude for magic.
The fragile reality crumbled. Once held aloft by Twilight's desperate magic, the cobblestones and rock shards rained down in a chaotic shower as the makeshift domain dissolved. A gasp escaped her lips, blood trickling down her nose, a crimson stain blossoming around a burst vessel in her right eye.
In the aftermath, an unsettling silence descended. Starswirl and Pinkie lay sprawled on the ground, unconscious. The sure-hit effect of Twilight's gamble had struck true, her channelled magic targeting their entire body, potent thundershocks shaking from head to hoof, rendering them immobile.
Across from them, Flash stirred. His pegasus physiology, naturally resistant to thunder magic, had shielded him from the full brunt of Twilight's attack. With a groan, he pushed himself onto his hooves, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs.
Twilight rocketed towards him and launched a haymaker of a right hook towards Flash's jaw. The blow connected with a sickening crunch, the sound echoing through the dust-filled chamber.
Flash was already reeling from the residual effects of Twilight's sure hit; getting caught entirely off guard was the icing on the cake. His head snapped back with the force of the impact, his eyes rolling back into his skull.
A strangled gasp escaped his lips as the world blurred around him, his pegasus strength offering no defence against the raw power of Twilight's desperation. With a heavy thud, Flash crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
Twilight shoulders went slack, as she begins to huff and puff from the exertion. Stumbling a few steps, she shuffles over to the unconscious Pinkie and peeks her head above the party pony, who, although got hit by Twilight’s sure-hit effect, seemed to come out relatively unscathed. Her sleeping smile and drooling saliva were indicators that she was enjoying her nap.
Satisfied that her friend was all right, Twilight sighed, her entire body trembling with exhaustion as the excess blood from her right eye trickled down her cheek. Casting a quick healing spell, she stopped the internal bleeding caused from her using her domain. Though not really making an effort to use another spell to cleanup the leftover blood.
Just as Twilight allowed herself a sliver of respite, the ground began to tremble with a low, ominous rumble. Instinct jolted her upright. Her horn glowed faintly while she scanned the battlefield, her gaze darting across the debris-strewn landscape, searching for the source of the threat.
In the distance, a tremor ripped through the earth, the ground splitting open with a booming crack. Dust erupted in a swirling cloud, momentarily obscuring the sight.
But as it settled, Twilight's heart lurched in her chest. Like claws gripping the earth, a colossal tree's roots sprouted from among the constructions. It dwarfed the surrounding buildings, the only structure that rivalled its height being the distant Crystal Castle.
Squinting her eyes, worry etched itself onto Twilight's face. She could've sworn she saw the faint figures of Fluttershy and Rarity being sent upward from the tree's growth.
She glanced at Flash and Starswirl, both still unconscious. With a flick of her horn, a pink bubble emanated from her horn, enveloping the two fallen figures. Twilight places multiple seals to protect and keep their vulnerable bodies in one place.
Next, her horn glowed brighter, and a softer, pink magic bubble formed around Pinkie Pie. Gently, the bubble lifted the slumbering pony into the air, carrying her towards Twilight's side.
Just as she was about to cast a teleportation spell, a beam of concentrated magic sliced through the sundown sky, its origin pointing to the Crystal Castle itself. Twilight's jaw clenched while the spell fizzled out, replaced by a surge of alarm.
Her gaze snapped upwards, following the beam's trajectory until it landed on a monstrous bird curse circling high above the colossal tree, its underbelly full of pulsating eyes, one of them even finding themself staring at the alicorn and her unconscious friend.
Shooting down the hulking beast, the magic projectile sent it careening down to the tree, it's body dissolving into ashes as it puffed harmlessly against the tree’s emerald leaves.
Seeing no other choice, the purple alicorn focused her remaining magic. The world dissolved into a swirling vortex of colours as the teleportation spell took hold, engulfing her and Pinkie in it and sending them over to the base of the giant tree in a flash of light.