Celestia's Tiny Student

by CommanderX5

Bonus Ch - Magic Duel, Round 2

Celestia calmly walked through the doors to the training area of the barracks, supposedly there to inspect the guards and the equipment. Though she wanted to join her student in visiting her family along with Spike and her bodyguards that night, there were still a few important matters to attend to.

The princess walked slowly past each individual guard, lined up perfectly and immaculate in their shiny uniforms. She reached the end of the line where Captain Brave Blade stood, strong and proud despite his age. It was going to be matter of weeks before the old pegasus would retire and Lieutenant Shining Armor would take his place, so Princess Celestia had filled him in on the last adjustments to her plan.

“Captain Brave Blade,” Celestia said, her voice professional and even. “You wished to speak with me in private?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” the old captain replied. “If you are finished with your inspection, we can move to my office to discuss this further.”

Celestia simply nodded, and Brave Blade quickly ordered his troops back to their training before trotting with the princess back to the Royal Guard’s main administrative building.

The stallion closed the door behind him before he turned to Princess Celestia, already seated in front of his desk. “Your majesty, I do not think this kind of drastic action is necessary,” he said, walking around and seating himself in his chair.

“I’ve already made up my mind, Captain,” Celestia said authoritatively, her voice firm. “I have only two years before I will face my sister in battle. I must be prepared.”

Captain Blade looked around, ensuring that no pony or guard was eavesdropping. Turning back to Celestia, he cleared his throat and spoke. “Your Majesty, with all due respect, I can hardly imagine how you can spend so much time down here with your royal duties to attend to.” He coughed before adding, “I mean, you already have difficulties reserving just two hours of your free time for your student. Finding time for training simulations would be practically impossible.”

Celestia smirked before levitating an scroll prepared by Silver Scroll herself, pointing a hoof at a chunk of time labeled ‘Inspection of Royal Guards.’ “Officially, I will be inspecting your officers and the training methods you are employing in guard barracks located all over Equestria. It’s a perfectly fine excuse for training myself, and this is the perfect place to do it in private.”

Brave Blade looked through the windows in his office at the walls surrounding the castle barracks, their main divide between the royal grounds and the rest of Canterlot. “I see. Both this area and airspace have been secured strictly for military personnel, which means no pegasus or pony will notice their ruler training like a knight.” He shifted his gaze to the training ground, where soldiers performed exercises in unison. “And the guards will keep it a secret.”

Celestia nodded her head. “Correct,” she said, before she noticed the uncertain expression on the captain’s face. “Is something the matter, Captain Brave Blade?”

The old pegasus pointed a hoof at her. “You forgot about one important detail, Your Majesty. Battle simulations and training almost always result in bruises and cuts. You can’t exactly present yourself in court sporting an unexplained injury or out of breath.”

Celestia leaned back into a relaxed position, a faint smile on her lips. “I can cover my wounds effortlessly with an illusion spell. In addition, I have almost two thousand years of experience ruling, so hiding my own pain and exhaustion isn’t exactly new to me.” She smiled warmly before continuing. “As you can see, Brave Blade, I can still train myself everyday without causing a panic among my subjects.”

Brave Blade looked at his princess intensely before breathing a deep sigh, giving his ruler a defeated look. “I see that I will not change your mind, Your Majesty. But if I may ask... Why? What pushed you to take such drastic action?”

“I learned about a certain… flaw in my character, my loyal Captain,” Celestia said, her tone calm, though slightly wavering.

Brave Blade raised his eyebrows. “Really, Your Highness? I don’t believe you have any flaws, but out of curiousity, what is this flaw you suspect yourself to have?”

Celestia sighed, looking absentmindedly at the desk. “Overconfidence. I was overconfident in thinking that by only planning ahead, I could be prepared to capture my sister and separate her from Nightmare Moon. After hundreds of years of gaining power by raising both sun and the moon, I thought that I could weaken Nightmare Moon by using raw power alone,” she said, before raising her head to look back at Brave Blade, her eyes hardened in resolve. “It took a simple duel against my student to prove how wrong I could be.”

She straightened up. “Despite my attempts to make the duel against my student as fair as possible, I was still more powerful. I still had the advantage, and yet I was defeated. Everything that I thought I would have over Nightmare Moon—all my magic and my wisdom—was useless because I could not use it effectively. If I were to face my sister now, she would no doubt defeat me even more easily than my student had.”

Brave Blade looked silently at Celestia, before giving a soft chuckle. “I understand, Your Highness. Ruling Equestria in peacetime for so long did nothing to prepare you for a direct confrontation, and you are worried that your weakness will ultimately hurt the ponies under you,” he stated firmly before considering how such a long period of peace had affected his soldiers as well.

Princess Celestia nodded. “That is correct. In the past, before I banished my sister, back when we were far younger and not nearly as powerful as we are now, Equestria was still a dangerous place. Monster attacks and war threatened our little ponies from the moment we dealt with Discord’s reign. Back then, we were able to pass any obstacle, face any foe, fight against any odds to protect our subjects, even… even without the help of Elements of Harmony,” Celestia said calmly.

Brave Blade simply nodded. “I know, Princess. I’ve heard this particular story more than once, but times have changed. You no longer need to be our champion. All Equestria expects is for you to be a wise and fair ruler.”

“Peace does not last forever, Captain!” Celestia replied with serious expression on her face. “Ruling Equestria for so long helped me learn how to make my subjects happy, how to plan in advance, and how to guide my subjects to solve their problems without my assistance, but what if a threat showed up out of nowhere, so suddenly that I had no time to plan or prepare? What if this powerful foe showed himself in front of me right now? You see, I’m not going to take the risk of going unprepared.” With that, she lit her horn, shrinking herself into what could have easily be mistaken as a tiny princess' shaped doll.

Brave Blade simply nodded. “Then I will respect your decision,” he said, bowing to the tiny alicorn. “I will assign an opponent for you, princess, and I will take Lieutenant Shining Armor to one of our meetings before he will take my place as Captain of the Royal Guard. I just hope that he will not refuse to cooperate once he learns that his little sister is being trained to be our weapon against Nightmare Moon. Imprisoning him in the dungeon or even erasing his memory of the meeting would be a huge waste of a pony with his raw power and leadership skills.”

Celestia groaned when the captain called her student a weapon. She felt a surge of guilt, unsure of whether she should gamble the life of the student she had learned to love so much, even if it meant that she may get back her sister. She had considered not allowing Twilight to go to Ponyville until Nightmare Moon was captured and imprisoned, but for now, she needed to prepare herself so she could at least weaken Nightmare Moon enough to give her student a fighting chance.

Celestia could feel her barrier starting to crack under the pressure of her foes’ attacks as the brawny pegasus guard repeatedly struck it with his enhanced sword and the lean unicorn guard blasted at it with his offensive spells. It was turning out to be quite a mistake when she had requested two opponents rather than one, just another trap her overconfidence had led her into.

Unlike her duel against Twilight, where she had more raw power than her opponent, being the size of her student means that the unicorn guard was significantly more powerful than her, towering over her breaking barrier. Celestia had spent some time reading about combat magic, trying to remember the spells she had neglected for so long in order to prepare herself to fight against Nightmare Moon. Her pride demanded it, in a sense.

Celestia didn’t hesitate to use her protection spell on herself, considering the size of her opponents, but the odds were still against her. Her foes had not only a size advantage, but a skill advantage as well.

Her duel against Twilight a few months ago had, however, taught Celestia a few tricks to use against stronger and bigger guards. She lit her horn and teleported, bringing up her memory of the battlefield as she made her barrier opaque, blocking off her view of her surroundings.

The guards had felt a little wary about hurting their ruler, but unlike Twilight, they were trained to keep their emotions in check and to follow orders, and if their orders were to fight against their tiny princess, they did not hesitate. Celestia’s barrier cracked as the pegasus’ sword hit it one final time, but the Princess was nowhere to be found.

Before the pegasus could react, a small, incredibly hot beam of golden magic caught him in his wing, burning many of his feathers before he could turn. The unicorn guard quickly noticed where the princess had teleported to, shooting a raging fireball at the Princess of the Sun.

If Celestia learned anything from her duel against her student, it was that the best way to defeat a stronger opponent is to evade his attacks and without missing her own. Being the size of a young rabbit with a teleportation spell certainly helped her accomplish just that. One wing down. Just one more.

She charged up her horn and flashed out of the path of the fireball, landing on the pegasus’ back. She wasted no time in charging another attack, drawing her beam over the right wing of the guard she was standing on and making sure that his biggest advantage was neutralized.

With both wings half-burnt, Celestia charged up another powerful spell, but the guard she was standing on was now attempting to flail her off. She began to lose her balance, so she clutched tightly to the pegasus’ wing as she continued to charge her spell.

One decisive strike in his weak point and this battle is over. She finished charging her spell and fired it directly at an exposed area on his neck. The pegasus guard yelped in pain before tumbling to the ground, unfortunately landing on the burned wing that Celestia was hanging onto for dear life.

Celestia roared in pain as the weight of the guard slammed her into the ground. With a flare of her horn, she punted the pegasus fifty meters away, a feat impossible even for her tiny student. She tried to rise to her hooves, but was once again pinned down to the ground, this time by a steel clad hoof planted on her stomach.

Once again Celestia tried to push her opponent back with a levitation spell, but the moment she had freed herself once more, a huge beam of magic shot from the unicorn’s horn, catching her when she was unable to react or dodge. The beam completely enveloped her, burning through fur and feathers as it hammered her into the ground.

The unicorn guard landed heavily on his four hooves as his opponent lay motionless in the crater his spell had made just a moment ago. With a quick glance, he noticed that his partner lay motionless a distance away, leaving him alone to defeat the raiser of the sun.

The unicorn guard approached slowly, his horn charged with magic as he kept close watch on the princess’ motions, ready to counterattack at any second. Several moments passed before he was ready to assume that Celestia was unconscious. The unicorn guard lowered his head to take a closer look, preparing to announce his victory, only to be blinded by a sudden bright flash of light. He reeled back, discharging his spell in a random direction

“Fell right for it. I thought that my guards were better trained than this,” Celestia said, smirking and standing on her four hooves once again. “If there’s anything you should know about the sun, it is that it can both burn and blind, but don’t worry, you won’t be blinded for long.”

Without wasting a moment, Celestia teleported to the unicorn’s back, conjuring magic ropes and tying herself to his neck so she wouldn’t fall off. She planted her hooves into him and began charging her spell. Despite my tiny student’s display of incredible strength and endurance, the unicorn body is still far weaker than that of an earth pony. In exchange for their fragility, their bones are structured to be an efficient conduit of magic, something I can exploit.

The unicorn guard’s eyes finally recovered, and he looked around frantically for his target. He quickly realized the princess had latched herself to his back and attempted to draw his sword with his magic, only for his levitation spell to fizzle out in black sparks and a murky purple aura. He looked quickly to his horn, which now had dark crystals growing from it like tumors.

“This is a little spell I’d learned a while back. It creates dark crystals on a pony’s body, slowing down and even stopping the flow of magic,” Celestia stated confidently. The unicorn guard began to panic, attempting futilely to buck the princess off.

“It was not easy to cut off your magic, considering your size, but compared to the rest of your body, the horn is very small target, making unicorns particularly vulnerable to this spell,” Celestia continued, before she threw a magical band around his neck and began to tighten it.

“P-princess?!” the guard shouted in panic. “Princess, what are you doing?!”

Celestia put more and more magic into her spell, squeezing the thick neck tighter and tighter. “My strength may be pitiful at this point of my training, but my magic is not! Surrender and I will release you!” she ordered confidently, grinning in victory.

Unable to use his magic and slowly losing his breath, the guard attempted to dislodge the princess with his hooves, though the awkward angle meant that his efforts were ultimately in vain.

He fell to his knees, feebly attempting to tap out. Celestia grinned widely as she dispelled her magic and the unicorn fell heavily to the ground, unconscious only moments after his surrender.

“It seems that I have emerged victorious!” Celestia said happily, standing proudly over her fallen foe, her body covered in injuries and more than a little singed. However, she quickly turned when she heard hoofsteps right behind her. The pegasus guard, his charred wings hanging limply at his sides, charged straight for her, his sword in his teeth. With a groan, Celestia took a few flaps of her wings, wincing from the pain, and once again flew into battle. She angled herself up, keeping her distance from her grounded foe.

However, even with his damaged wings, he was still a pegasus, and his inherent pegasus magic meant that motion made him lighter than most ponies his size. With a powerful leap, he easily made the distance between him and the princess, swinging his sword with all his strength. The blade made contact with Celestia’s beaten body, and the princess yelped in pain as the sword, so much larger than her, drew blood and batted her through the air.

Celestia used her damaged wings to slow her fall and regain her balance, charging her horn to send a healing wave of magic into her bleeding wound. Tiny drops of blood splattered on the battlefield before she could stunt the bleeding, while her spell was interrupted by a solid jump kick from the pegasus guard, sending her crashing into a wall.

The pegasus guard sprinted towards his target, ready to seize the opportunity to end the battle. He immediately slugged Celestia with all his strength into the impact point on the wall, stopping her from casting any spells. The princess slid down to the ground, barely conscious.

His eyes calm and stoic, he carefully tilted his head so as to touch the edge of his sword across Celestia’s neck.

Despite her pain, Celestia blinked her eyes open, noticing the giant sword under her neck ready to strike. The message was clear enough. She sighed. “I surrender,” she said, trying to hide the exhaustion and weakness in her voice.

The pegasus guard took a few steps back and saluted before returning to the line of guards, drawing up the unicorn guard who had regained consciousness moments later. Celestia worked out a few kinks in her neck, thankful for the alicorn magic that protected her, before standing up and following her guards our on her shaking hooves.

Of course, to ensure the secrecy of this training, Princess Celestia and her two opponents went straight to the medical facility in the barracks. Due to the sheer number of doctors and medics trained to keep the guard in peak condition, it didn’t took long until the pegasus’ wings and the princess’s wounds were taken care of with bandages and healing magic. However, it came down to Celestia herself to cleanse the dark crystals from the unicorn guard’s horn.

Once again back to her normal size, the proud princess hid her bandages and any marks from her recent battle under her illusion magic while she attended to her royal duties, hiding any lingering pain behind her emotionless mask. She advanced towards her throne room, murmuring to herself. “My training may mean I have to endure being cut by swords, pierced by spears, or struck by all manner of magic spells, but when the time comes to face you, Nightmare Moon, I will not be the weaker one.”