Glaive and Falcata stand in a clear area, in the center of Dawnpick. All the other ponies are keeping their distance, for fear of accidentally being hit. The lovers are clad in all their shining steel, and face each other, looks of deep concentration on each of their faces. Sweat runs down each of their faces as they circle each other. Suddenly Glaive thinks he spies an opening in the pegasi's defense. He lunges with a war-cry swinging his blade for his lover's head.
She spots the attack coming a mile off, and sidesteps the swing with a touch of smugness. However, she fails to account for a certain variable in the equation of combat; namely, the relatively unassuming rock by her left foreleg. The rock happily sits still, tripping the battling pegasus easily as she tries to evade Glaive's blow.
Crashing to the ground with a thunderous clang of metal, she is acutely aware that for all her agility, not even she will be able to dodge the unicorn's next attack.
As Falcata dodges the downswing of Glaive's axe he smiles to himself. 'Just what I knew you would do dear.' As he twists the blade in the air turning the downward swing into a horizontal strike. The blow would surely have connected if not for Falcata's luck in stumbling on the rock. Glaive's swing goes over her head as she falls, leaving him open with his shield and axe on the wrong side of him from Falcata.
Not quite sure why she hasn't been finished off yet, Falcata is nevertheless grateful for it as she scrambles to her feet in a frantic flurry of flapping wings and tries to regain her bearings. Noticing Glaive's shield and weapon twirling in a confused sort of fashion off to her left, and the unicorn himself off to her right, she quickly darts forwards at him, her axe making a pleasing whooshing noise as she launches her assault.
Glaive manages to stumble backwards barely avoiding the first strike by a hair's width, his shield to far away to be useful and his axe is twisted the wrong way in his mouth and unreadied, he drops his concentration on the shield causing it to drop to the ground with a thud and instead he reaches out with his magic to grab hold of the shaft of Falcata's axe, beginning to wrestle with her for control over the weapon.
Suddenly Glaive is hit by the white pegasus and they tumble together to the hard ground. Glaive lies on his back with the mare on top of him. The blow knocked Glaive's axe away from mouth, but he maintains his telekinetic grip on Falcata's weapon and knowing he can't beat her in this position begins to pull it in close from behind her, hopefully before he get's a face full of hoof.
Yes! Yes! Victory!
Already with a triumphant fanfare playing in her head, Falcata savours the moment, trying her best to work out exactly where to plant her forehoof after Glaive's little display of cheatery. The face would be good, she decides, flashing him an insufferable grin as she prepares to let her leg drop.
"I'm disappointed, dear. You couldn't even lose fairly, could you?" she quips, her eyes glinting like those of a predatory animal.
Falcata's victory is cut short as she suddenly feels the gentle touch of her own axe's blade on her neck glowing faintly in Glaive's magic grasp. Glaive had pulled the axe around behind her back and caught her unawares. They had each other at each other's mercy.
"Sorry dear, but I guess this time it's a draw. Maybe next time."
The smuggest grin Falcata had ever seen beams across Glaive's face.
Eyes widening in surprise and irritation, Falcata hits him in the face anyway, hoping to remove that unspeakably annoying smile from her lover's face before her blood pressure got any higher.
"You cheated, you stole my weapon with your magic! She spits the word out as if disgusted by it, though privately she knew she was just making excuses. Another nasty thought crosses her mind, and she narrows her eyes.
"Is that my axe scraping the back of my neck, dear?"
Glaive takes a second to recover after being hit in the face. After making sure his jaw was still in the right place, he levitates the axe around to give it back to his beloved, and sure enough it is her own weapon.
"Indeed it is my dear. You let it go but I still had a grip on it. And I don't apologize for 'cheating.' One day you may have to fight a tentacle pony*1, or an Underlord*2, or something else with similar powers, and I couldn't let you be unprepared for that. Besides, without my magic I wouldn't be a match for you and you wouldn't have had nearly as much fun."
Glaive is clearly tired and out of breath from the sparing and rests his head back on the ground, looking up the sky above, while Falcata is still sitting on his chest.
Scowling petulantly, Falcata knows perfectly well how right Glaive is. She places her axe gently on the ground after having it returned, resting atop the unicorn afterwards.
"You're right, as always. At least one of us is sensible, hm?" She smiles, the tension and serious demeanor that accompanied her sparring washing away in a wave of fatigue and quiet contentment.
"Sorry about your jaw," she murmurs guiltily, placing a gentle kiss on his lips in an attempt to make amends.
"Aw my jaw will be fine, although, hehe, a few more kisses might speed it's recovery."
(Several minutes later:)
The two ponies relax in the grass cuddling up to each other and looking at the sky, watching the clouds lazily float by. They are still in their armor in the same spot where they tumbled together minutes ago. Glaive speaks, "Falcata, what's it like? I mean being able to fly up among the clouds and the stars in the sky. You pegasi have such luck to be born with wings, while the rest of us are forever held captive by the forces of gravity."
She ponders briefly, wondering how best to put her feelings into words. Even just thinking about flight is enough to imbue her voice with a dreamy tone.
"Flying is, well, glorious. I sometimes feel more at home soaring through the clouds above than anywhere on the ground. To be so free, so unbound...I wouldn't have it any other way. Some pegasi actually prefer the ground, but for the life of me I can't think why. For me, every flap of my wings, every inch soared far above the ground is cause for joy. I'm not sure how to properly explain it. Maybe you feel the same way about your magic?"
"I'm sure it is." Glaive thinks to himself for a moment, not sure how to explain the senses and feelings that sounded his magic. "Magic is, well, hmm...When a Unicorn is using their magic, they can sense the world in a whole new way. You can see the connections in everything around you, and by pulling on the different threads of fate you can change reality itself. It's beautiful to see how the whole world is intertwined like that. The heavens and the earth, predators and their prey, ponies to each other, and everything to everything else. It is difficult to explain. It's like trying to tell a blind pony what "red" means, or actually more like trying to describe a symphony to a deaf pony."
Glaive pauses for a number of seconds before adding, "My magic may not be all that great in the larger scheme of things, but I'd not trade it for anything in the world. Still, I do wish I could see the skies the way you do, at least once."
Most of the explanation going rather predictably over her head, Falcata nods slowly, still trying to process Glaive's words.
"I see. Or, well, I don't see, but I sort of understand. I'm not sure I'd prefer magic to flight, though. Wonder what it's like for an alicorn, having both. Or an earth pony, with neither."
She looks like she's about to continue speaking, but stops short, instead looking thoughtful once more.
Glaive ponders for a moment, "Yes, the Alicorns, they are truly blessed to have been born with both. Though for the most part, in my experience they either take their powers for granted, wasting away their potential, or act like just having wings and a horn makes them better than other ponies. Not that there aren't exceptions to that. And the earthponies, well I've been told that they have some more subtle magics, things to make their plants grow better and to better understand the rock they mine, or the trees they cut, but I still pity them. I can't imagine growing up and seeing your friends learn to fly, or to harness powerful magic, while you can only make the apples grow a littler bigger, or little faster, with months of effort and work. It must be hard."
"Hmm. I agree; I don't think being an earth pony would be for me, personally. I wouldn't say I pity them, but...I can't help but feel lucky."
She shuffles her wings proudly.
"I'll tell you one thing, though; Alicorns can't match us pegasi in flight. Maybe for long, endurance flights, but they're way too bulky to match even a weak pegasus flier's agility and grace. I know they have really strong magic, though. How do you feel about that?"
Glaive considers the implications of Pegasi being faster than Alicorns. 'Square cube law, affecting the ratio between mass and surface area of the wing? Or maybe Alicorns have denser bones like an earthpony creating a more dense pony overall? Probably both. Maybe ask Stiletto later, don't want to bore Falcata with that.'
Glaive's thinking is interrupted when he realizes that Falcata had just asked him a question.
"Well to be honest, it would probably bother me more if more of them really used it. As rare as Alicorns are, there's what one in all Dawnpick, combined with the fact that not all of them are really all that strong with their magic, they don't really rule the magic circles. A strong, or heavily practiced, unicorn can be much more magical then an average Alicorn. Still the strongest of Alicorns are beyond the powers of any unicorn. But, Unicorns have them beat in shear numbers. I suppose it doesn't much bother me, since I know their are a lot of unicorns more powerful than me. I know a few simple spells, and could probably learn more if I put my mind to it. But mostly I've just focused on using my telekinetic powers to help fight. Though if I had invested more time and effort into it and found I was still not as good as some naturally talented Alicorn, who worked half as hard for half as long, and that I could never catch up, I'd probably be envious. That's probably why a lot of ponies don't like them much."
"Why wouldn't you learn as many spells as you could? It seems a shame to waste any of your potential, and you never know when it could come in useful. Especially in our profession."
An idea begins to form in Falcata's mind, based off something Glaive said earlier and something he'd just said tying together all of a sudden. Gazing up at the sky above has catalysed a couple of stray thoughts in her mind.
I wonder...
"Glaive?" she queries, with a hint of excitement. "Did you really mean what you said about wanting to see the skies the way I do, even just the once? Surely there's a spell of some sort that could help? I don't mean, like, one designed for proper flight, but even some kind of...makes-things-lighter spell; could that work?"
Glaive detects the excitement in Falcata's voice and realizes what she is suggesting. Glaive sits up thinking for a moment before excitedly adding.
"A proper flight spell is probably beyond me BUT, unicorn foals for their first year or so sometimes get powerful magic surges, this can occasionally create a little flying incredibly powerful magic foal. Has driven more than one non-Pegasus caregiver insane. But that does prove it's possible to lift ones self with magic. I could probably harness something like that to make me seem lighter, at the very least. Then...we could... uh, fly together...if um...you'd carry me."
"Of course I'd carry you! I just wouldn't feel safe to do it if you weren't, eh, lighter. I mean, I wou-"
Cutting herself off, Falcata decides not to mention the many and varied different ways that things could go wrong, instead choosing to focus on the positives.
"I hope you can find the right spell somewhere! It would really be special to sit on a cloud, so high above the ground and sharing the view with you."
She has a few less gentle ideas in mind, depending on how stable any possible featherweight spell might be, but she intends to keep those as a somewhat cheeky surprise for her lover, should they ever become possible.
Already feeling tingles of anticipation, she resolves to practice on her part as well. While she's well aware of her own exceptional capabilities in flight, heavy lifting isn't something she's had much cause to practice.
I wonder if I could help out at the trade depot, next time there's a caravan. Hmm.
Mind already racing with a thousand different possibilities, she takes off and heads back to the barracks, smiling all the way. Now this was going to be fun.