//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11 
// Story: Battle Magic 
// by Gaekub 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight ambled down the bar's stairs late the next morning to find the front door propped open by a hunched pony body. As Twilight approached the figure from behind, the acrid smell of smoke reached her nostrils, causing her to wrinkle her muzzle.

The tables were still a mess, strewn with half-eaten snacks and partially empty mugs. One table had a long trail of dried cider stretching from a tipped mug to the edge of the table, what was left of the drink slowly dripping on to the floor.

She hadn't meant to sneak across the room, but the stallion didn't seem to notice her. His one wing stretched out slowly, and Twilight could the see the flight muscles on his other side tense against nothing. More surprisingly, she spotted a limp cigarette hanging from the side of his mouth.

"I didn't know you smoked," she said quietly, moving forwards to sit on the stoop next to Flurry.

The pegasus started in surprise, but relaxed again as the mare sat next to him. He spat the smouldering smoke on to the ground and stamped out the cherry red tip. "I don't, I quit," he answered. "At least, I thought I did. It's been eight years, and I still..." he sighed, and rubbed at his bloodshot eyes. Large bags sat underneath them, and it was obvious to Twilight that he hadn't slept. "I'm sorry. Would you like some pancakes Twilight?"

"I wouldn't say no, but you look like you need-" Twilight paused, an alarm bell ringing in her head. "Did you just call me Twilight?"

"...Shit."

"You know I'm..." Twilight glanced around, and lowered her voice. "You know I'm Twilight Sparkle?"

Flurry heaved himself to his feet. "You and Silver don't speak as quietly as you think you do," he said shortly. "Don't worry, I'll call you Dusk in public. Pancakes?"




Flurry and Twilight sat at the bar, one stool between them. A plate of pancakes sat in front of each pony, with a larger platter in between them. For the first time, Twilight saw Flurry eating, and he ate like he was starving.

Twilight's progress was much slower, as she found she was having trouble stopping herself from looking over at Flurry. Her eyes were particularly drawn to the nub of twisted scar tissue that was all that remained of his wing. She was just watching it twitch with the movement of his hooves when he glanced over at her. She quickly looked back to her meal, hoping he hadn't seen her staring.

"What?" Flurry asked.

"Nothing," Twilight said quickly. "You just... you look tired."

"I am tired," Flurry sighed. "Couldn't sleep."

"You should take a nap," Twilight suggested around a mouthful of pancake.

"I can't, I have to clean this place up in time for opening, and then I have to..." He paused to yawn. "And then I have to tend the bar until everypony goes home."

"Don't you have a... a janitor, or a waitress or something?" Twilight asked, suddenly realizing she'd never seen any such thing in the Lopsided Pegasus.

Flurry shook his head and swallowed his mouthful. "I'm afraid not. It's just me."

"You run this place all by yourself?"

The pegasus nodded.

"When was the last time you had a vacation?"

Flurry thought for a moment. "Well, about... four years ago I fell down the stairs and broke a leg. I closed down the bar for a week while I was in the hospital."

"That's not a vacation!" Twilight protested. "You can't run a place like this by yourself, you're what, almost forty?"

Flurry looked over at her. His forehead creased, and the wrinkles around his eyes became even more pronounced. "I'm twenty-eight," he said.

"What? But you look-" Twilight cut herself off before she could stick her hoof even further in her mouth. "I'm sorry, I just thought... because you're such good friends with Silver..."

"It's fine, Twilight," Flurry said. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I do need to take better care of myself."

"So you go take a nap, and I'll clean up the bar!" Twilight said brightly.

Flurry shook his head. "No no no. You're a paying customer, I can't let you do that."

"Well..." Twilight thought fast. "I actually think I forgot my money back in - back at home, and could I maybe clean up the bar as payment for the room and breakfast?"

"Uh..." Flurry thought measurably slower. "I guess that would be okay, yeah." He yawned. "Alright. I'm going to try to take a nap." He started towards the swinging door into the back. "Just put everything in the sink behind the bar. Call me if you need me."

Twilight finished her own plate and lit up her horn to begin clearing the bar, table by table. A stream of mugs and plates hovered across the pub and into the sink, a feat of telekinesis that would have exhausted most unicorns but was a mere light warm-up for Twilight.

A half-full mug floated past her nose and she stopped the train. She sniffed at the amber liquid curiously, and then tilted the mug to take a small sip.

"Blech," she said, wrinkling her nose at the unexpected sting the alcohol lent to the drink. "Why would anypony drink that for fun?" she asked the air as she poured the drink down the drain.




It was around six hours later. After clearing the bar, Twilight had sat down to rest for a little while. Since Flurry didn't come back within the next half hour, she had cleaned the dishes she'd cleared and stacked them next to the sink. She had then gone out for lunch, come back to an empty bar, and swabbed the tables with some rags she found near the sink.

She was just pouring out the bucket of dirty water she'd used to wash the floor when Silver came in through the front door. "Hey, Dusk, I got - were you mopping?"

Twilight glanced over at the handle sticking up next to her, the mop head and bucket hidden behind the bar. "No," she lied, for no real reason. "And keep your voice down, Flurry's sleeping."

Silver nodded slowly. "FLURRY!" he screamed abruptly. "GET YOUR LAZY ASS UP!"

Twilight sighed heavily. "You're such an asshole, Silver."

"Hey!" Silver grinned happily. "You're swearing! Properly!"

"You're much too excited about that," Twilight said, stepping out from behind the bar. "Is it time for the tournament already?"

"Nah, not yet. That starts at around sundown. I've got someone I want you to meet though, c'mon." He gestured to follow him and stepped out the front door.

Twilight followed him, leaving the room just as a bleary eyed Flurry entered it.




"I thought you said we weren't going to the arena?" Twilight asked as they trotted through the building's halls, although in a place Twilight had never been.

"No, I said we weren't going to the tournament," Silver said, tracing a convoluted path through the narrow corridors. "The guy we're meeting is at the arena."

"Who is it?" Twilight asked, craning her neck to look into a nearby room. A bustling kitchen lay beyond, and she made brief eye contact with a chef before they both moved on.

Silver stopped at a certain door, larger and much more ornate than every other one they had passed on the way there. It was outlined in rather tacky brass trim, but the metal was tarnished and dirty. "Bluejay, the owner," he answered, knocking on the door.

"It's unlocked," came the response, slightly muffled by the thick slab of wood.

"Owner of what?" Twilight asked quietly as she was pushed through the opening.

Silver stepped in after her and shut the door. "The arena," he whispered back. "Jay, it's me. Silver."

The room they had stepped into matched the style of the door they had stepped through perfectly. Dirt and age had covered up what had clearly once been a spectacular chamber. A huge window took up one entire wall, the glass the only clean thing Twilight could see. It looked out over the arena, the best seat in the house.

She overlooked the plush chair sitting in the middle of the room until it slowly spun around to face her. A withered old earth pony, perhaps Granny Smith's age, sat in it. "Hello," he said with a kindly smile. "And who's this pretty young mare?" Despite his apparent age, his voice was still strong, with only the barest hint of a crackle.

"This is Dusk Shine," Silver answered smugly. "She's the pony who's going to be winning the competition tonight."

"I -  well, we don't know that," Twilight answered awkwardly. "You're... Bluejay? The owner?"

"Expected a unicorn, didn't you?" The old pony laughed good-naturedly. "You don't need to be a contestant to love the sport."

"Bluejay built this place," Silver said from her side. "With a little help from me and the other players, of course."

"You? Helped? Ha!" Bluejay shook his head. "If you call watching construction and drinking 'helping'." He waved away Silver's objections and gestured towards Twilight. "Come here, filly. Into the light, let me get a look at you."

Twilight hesitated, but felt Silver's hoof on her back pushing her forwards. She stepped forwards into the afternoon sunlight pouring in through the large window, and squinted against the bright light.

"A little young, isn't she?" the old pony said.

"I'm an adult, both legally and biologically," Twilight responded defensively.

"She's old enough to compete, which is what she's doing," Silver answered.

It took Twilight a moment to realize that Bluejay was staring over her shoulder, and she turned just in time to catch the tail-end of Silver mouthing something. As soon as she spun, his mouth snapped shut and he shot her an innocent smile. "Come on, we should go get ready."

"It was nice to meet you, and good luck," Bluejay said, and turned back to watch the upcoming matches.




"In the blue corner, at this time of day she's sure to gleam, Dusk Shiiiiiiiine!" the announcer called.

Twilight just rolled her eyes and rotated her shoulder joints nervously. She did her best to block out the roars of the crowd, but some part of her felt proud that she was causing the cheers.

"And in the red corner, he'll shatter your spells, then shatter your bones, Spellllll Breaker!"

Twilight sighed heavily as the gates opened and she stepped into the arena. The familiar husky pony at the other end gave her a curt nod and then broke into a run.

Twilight reached out with her magic to pull a weapon of stone and earth from the ground. She had just felt out the chunk of dirt she wanted to grab when Spell Breaker's horn lit up mid-stride and Twilight felt the magic sucked from her.

The mare stumbled for a moment, blinking rapidly in an attempt to regain equilibrium. She had had her spells interrupted before, but this felt different. Every other time, it had been something external to herself, another spell cancelling out the energies she was forming. This felt like the power had been sucked straight from her brain, her horn used as a straw.

She didn't have time to consider the sensation any further however, as Spell Breaker was upon her. She deked left and then dodged right, leaving the larger, slower stallion lunging towards a place she wasn't.

Twilight tried to grab the dirt out from the feet of the spinning stallion, hoping to at least send him tumbling to the ground, but once again her magic was drained. She snorted in frustration, the wrongness of the draining sensation only adding to her annoyance.

The stallion charged her, and she launched a panicked blast of force. That spell wasn't cancelled, but it wasn't effective either, washing past the large pony like water. Twilight faked out to the right before leaping left, but Spell Breaker saw through the feint this time. He leaped in the same direction, and the two ponies slammed into each other.

Spell Breaker was much larger than the mare, and his mass proved to be the driving force in their tumble across the sandy floor. Twilight did her best to avoid being crushed under the heavy stallion, and although she succeeded, when they finally stopped moving he stood over her as she lay on her back. One plate sized hoof sat on either side of her head, trapping her underneath him.

She tensed herself to roll in the direction of whichever hoof he raised to smack her, but instead he drew back his head. She only realized what he was doing a split second before he brought it down, and, thinking fast, she slammed a hammer of force into her own flank.

The crunch was sickening and the pain made her grunt, but the force sent her rocketing out from between his legs. She felt a moment of satisfaction as his head connected with the ground, and she rolled back onto her hooves.

This time, her attempt to pull out a chunk of the ground got far enough to see the earth bulging, but again Spell Breaker drained her magic and the spell failed.

Twilight suddenly felt enraged for reasons she couldn't quite understand. She felt... violated was perhaps the closest word. "Fine," she snarled. "You want magic? Here's some magic."

She took a deep breath, pulled every ounce of strength she had into her horn, and held it there. Spell Breaker's horn lit up in response, and again Twilight felt her magic flow away, but this time it was the stallion who blinked in surprise and stumbled to the side.

Twilight grit her teeth and pulled in more, the light from her horn becoming blinding. Spots began to swim in front of her eyes, but she still managed to see Spell Breaker fall to his knees.

The purple mare squeezed her eyes shut and cranked up the power another few notches. She was vaguely aware that the crowd didn't quite sound right, but dismissed that as well. She reduced her entire being into magic, and her senses followed.

Abruptly she saw the world in an entirely new way. The stress of bringing up that much magic melted away, the effort becoming as natural and automatic as breathing. With her mind freed up for thinking, she felt around the new world she'd found. The sense she used to explore wasn't sight, exactly. It was more like she was touching this entire new world at once.

It was a world of thrumming power and whirling hotspots. A complex web of magical lines crisscrossed through the world, carrying magic at impossible speeds. Among those inter-crossing lines of white-hot power lay strange points that bent and broke the wires. Unicorn horns, she realized.

She could sense the star of her own horn, lines of power coursing out from it like a supernova. Across from her sat what she assumed was Spell Breaker's, providing a stark contrast. Every line that crossed that point (including a large majority of her own) broke and swirled into it. It was oddly beautiful, a constant stream of power between her horn and Spell Breaker's, connecting them through their opposed magic.

Although her own horn and Spell Breaker's were by far the most prominent points, she could feel dozens of others spread out among the crowd, some brighter than others, some-

"DUSK, YOU WON!" screamed the announcer, abruptly bringing her out of her self-induced trance. Spell Breaker lay on the ground where he had fallen, eyes closed, ears and nose dripping blood, and one leg occasionally twitching.

Twilight felt something drip from her muzzle and brought up one hoof to find her own nose was bleeding as well. She turned to see Silver gesturing at her from the arena entrance, his muzzle also coated in dry blood.

As she walked back to the opening, each footstep deliberate and heavy, she looked around the arena. The audience itself seemed to be in a state of confusion, and she spotted more than a few unicorns with matching nose bleeds.

"Do not panic," the announced boomed, usually confident voice quavering slightly. "Ponies are coming around the bleachers with napkins, for those unicorns with... who have been affected."

"Here, drink this," Silver told Twilight once she got close enough, offering out a clay pot.

"What just happened?"

"Drink it, Dusk," Silver insisted.

"Why is your nose bleeding?"

"Because, Dusk, you just pumped out an insane amount of magic. Every even moderately sensitive unicorn in a two block radius has a nose bleed. More importantly, pumping out that much magic has a tendency to make your heart stop, which is why you really need to DRINK THIS!" he said quickly, and then shoved the brew at her. "And no magic until you do."

Twilight stopped her natural instinct to grab the pot with her horn, and instead held it between a hoof and her chin. The potion was thin, watery, and tasted what strawberries would taste like if strawberries tasted terrible.

She choked it down. "Is Spell Breaker okay?" she asked.

Before Silver could answer, the unicorn that usually led her to the gates (his own nose bleeding) spoke up. "He's moving. He walked back to his gate a few moments after you did."

Twilight sighed in relief. "Oh, good. I was worried."

"Are you alright?" Silver asked.

"I'll be fine," Twilight answered quickly. She really did feel better, the potion had revitalized her more than she'd realized at first.

"...Do you want to talk about what just happened?" Silver asked quietly after a moment. "You were... it looked like you were in a trance or something."

"No," Twilight answered. "I think I need some time to figure out how to explain what happened."

Silver nodded. "Alright. Well, you've got a few minutes before the next match. Just... don't do that again. The ref called it in your favor, and nopony was seriously hurt, but you might not be so lucky next time." He handed her another clay pot. "Drink."




Twilight did her best to push the strange experience out of her mind as the announcer went through her introduction. She would investigate thoroughly later, she reassured herself, but now was not the time. She perked up her ears just in time to hear the introduction of her opponent.

"And in the blue corner, cape, cowl, horn and all, it's the elusive, the mysterious, Mare! Do! WEEEELLLLLL!"

"What?" Twilight asked nopony as she heard the name called. The gates shifted, and Twilight found herself facing a pony wearing a duplicate of the costume she and her friends had once worn to teach Rainbow Dash a lesson. Both ponies paused for a moment.

"WHAT!?" Twilight yelled.