//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 - Training Montage (Day IV) // Story: Ghosts from the Future // by Pix //------------------------------// Chapter 12 – Training Montage (Day IV) The daily routine was coming naturally to Applejack now, and she found that she rather liked it. It had been a while since she last tended to Sweet Apple Acres, and in the absence of those chores, she hadn’t really had an opportunity to work up a sweat until now. This guardspony training was actually quite relaxing in a way. She was currently sitting to one side of the activity, taking a well-earned break. She passed the time by looking around the stadium at all of the ponies training at each of the different stations. It was strange. She had expected, as a simple farmer, that she would be struggling to keep up with the guardsponies, but not only was that not the case, she felt she was one of the most skilled ponies here. It didn’t seem right somehow. And from what she had learned when talking to her friends, most of them had been finding the same thing. Rarity had been parading around her fancy new diamond arrowheads nonstop since she had been given them a couple of days ago, and from what Applejack had overheard, the other unicorn guards felt that she definitely deserved them. Rainbow Dash had been unusually quiet about her training sessions, but Applejack had overheard the other pegasi commenting on how good a flier she was. And the previous evening Applejack had shared a few drinks with some guardsponies, including a mare called Winter Tempest who had been incredibly complimentary of Fluttershy. In a way this made Applejack proud for her friends and herself, but it did not exactly fill her with confidence for Equestria if a few ordinary mares could outperform the royal guard. Although, she supposed they weren’t exactly ordinary mares. Nevertheless, this did go some way towards explaining why the guard had never seemed all that helpful in any of the previous calamities that had faced Equestria. In her case, she had to admit that her experience with rodeos was proving very helpful. Plenty of the stations that had been set up were almost identical to events she would consider herself an expert in, such as horseshoe bucking, which she was now greatly looking forward to using to take out a Shard or two. Maybe she could even take a leaf out of the book of that random pony she had met in Appleloosa, and try to take out five Shards in one buck. Or was it six Shards? Her competitive nature had been working its way to the fore over the last few days, despite her best efforts. She knew that this wasn’t the best time for it, but she couldn’t help herself. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) she had definitely met her match, for about half of the activities at least. When Maud Pie had come to Ponyville, Applejack and her friends had got a glimpse at the mare’s strength and speed, but she could never have imagined the full scope. And Maud was proving to be the absolute worst pony to try and compete with, because not only was she outdoing Applejack without even seeming to try, she didn’t even appear to care. Applejack looked around the neatly organised stadium, trying to locate the grey mare. After not seeing her at any of the stations, she suddenly spotted her towards the edge of the arena, talking to the new captain and both Princess Cadance and Twilight. What were they doing here? After the short conversation had finished, Captain Jade Softhoof, who over the last few days had proven that it wasn’t just her first name that had been poorly chosen, stepped towards the crowd of busy guardsponies. “Alright you lot, listen up! You have fiVE MORE MINU-” She stopped, confused at the increase in her volume, and stared suspiciously down at the megaphone that had popped into existence in front of her mouth. Next to her, Twilight grinned sheepishly. “Uhm… Ahem. AS I WAS SAYING, YOU HAVE FIVE MORE MINUTES TO WRAP UP ANY TRAINING YOU ARE CURRENTLY DOING, AND THEN WE ARE TO EVACUATE THE STADIUM. GET TO IT!” Applejack got to her hooves and started to walk towards Twilight and the others. It sounded like something interesting was happening. --- If Fluttershy had thought it was cold before, that was nothing compared to how the air felt now. She had been making a couple of trips north per day since she had first been assigned to this role, and it had not stopped snowing in the mountains the entire time. Winter, who had been her partner for each of the flights, did not seem even slightly bothered by the inclement conditions. The white crystal pegasus was zipping through the falling snow and angry clouds as though it were no more than a gentle drizzle. Several times Fluttershy would get hit by a particularly chilling gust and fall behind, rapidly losing Winter in the haze. At that point, the fact that the ground was now completely blanketed with a layer of white would start to haunt her, as it would be impossible to tell just how high up she was. Her traitorous mind would then inevitably start to imagine falling, and she would freeze up, almost literally. Fortunately, on each of those occasions, her nimble partner would quickly rediscover her and they would continue their journey, Fluttershy feeling more and more embarrassed each time. She had no idea how Winter was able to navigate. The snowfall meant that no landmarks were visible, and Fluttershy couldn’t even tell where the mountains stopped and the sky began. Combine that with her chilled body, beaten wings, and tiring eyesight, and Fluttershy wasn’t sure why she was even joining Winter on these flights. She put on an extra burst of speed to get alongside the crystal mare and decided to ask just this. “Wh-why am I even h-here? Y-you would be s-so much faster by y-yourself…” Winter didn’t even look over at Fluttershy as she replied. “Technically we fly in pairs so that if something happened to one of us, the other could go and get help.” “Oh…” Winter turned her head to face Fluttershy, with a fierceness in her eyes. “Of course I don’t intend to let anything happen to you, so don’t you worry your pretty head about that. In fact, I’m not gonna let anything happen to me neither.” She turned away and started to pick up speed. “Maybe I just like your company, Floaty.” Fluttershy didn’t say what she was thinking, namely that Winter had an odd way of showing it if that were the case. The crystal pegasus was already a good distance ahead of her, and Fluttershy was once more straining every sinew in her body to keep up. In the end, the flight only gave them the same information as every previous flight had. There were no tracks visible in the snow anywhere, and the only Shards were hours of flight away, and seemingly further away each day. Fluttershy might have found it either disappointing that the trip had been mostly pointless, or a relief that they had seen nothing bad, but in actuality she was too exhausted to feel anything much when they landed back in the fields to the north of the empire. A small camp had been set up out of the range of the snow, where fliers could warm up and rest before returning to the city, and the pair trotted over to it now. Fluttershy sprawled herself messily onto the ground, too drained to care about how unladylike she must have looked. Winter disappeared, to make some hot drinks, or so Fluttershy hoped. While waiting she closed her eyes, thinking of drifting off into a quick nap. Her plans were ruined by a voice that suddenly called out her name. The word seemed to take an age to work its way through her chilled brain, but when she had made the connection that somepony was trying to talk to her she jumped to her hooves with an ‘eep’ and spun around in a panic. “Whoa there, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Fluttershy came to a rest as she saw a pair of ponies standing over her. One of them was a blue pegasus stallion she didn’t recognise, but the other was a sky blue mare that she remembered talking to when she had last been to Cloudsdale. And actually, as she looked at the two of them together, she recalled another scene she had accidently witnessed on that trip to Cloudsdale. She flushed and instinctively ducked her head behind her mane in embarrassment. “Hey, it’s really you!” The tall blue stallion smiled warmly. “I’m a big fan of you. Nice to meet you.” He didn’t approach, just continuing to smile, and Fluttershy couldn’t help but relax somewhat. The mare glanced at her companion with what looked like an impressed expression, before turning back to Fluttershy. “It’s been a while! You’ve probably not met Wave Chill before?” “Oh, um, no. Hi Fleetfoot, and uh, Wave Chill.” “So what are you up to this far north?” “I’ve been, um, flying into the mountains.” Fleetfoot nodded encouragingly. “Yeah, I heard about those Shard things. Nasty business. Nice to know you girls are out there dealing with them. What have you been seeing up there?” “Oh, not much.” “Aw, come on Shutterfly, we’re friends right? You can tell me what’s going on.” “It’s Fluttershy,” the stallion hissed. “Ah yes, dammit. Fluttershy, right.” Fluttershy was not feeling quite so relaxed now. For some reason she felt like she was on trial, despite not having done anything wrong. “Uh, well, there’s really nothing in the mountains. Only snow. The nearest Shards aren’t for miles.” Fleetfoot nodded thoughtfully. “Fair enough. So I assume you’re here with Rainbow Dash and the others? What are you girls planning to do? Hunt the Shards down? Where did they come from anyway?” “Oh, um, we don’t know where they came from, but I think we’re going to go north soon to try and find out.” That had been the plan anyway, and with no Shards visible nearby, it was likely that they would be making that trip sooner rather than later. “You’re not worried they’ll attack the Crystal Empire while you’re gone?” “Um, well, we’ve not seen them anywhere near here. And some guards blocked all of the nearby tunnels, and apparently they didn’t see any Shards in the caves anyway…” The two pegasi exchanged glances, and then Fleetfoot turned back and smiled. “Well I wish you luck! Nice to talk to you again Shu… I mean, Fluttershy.” Then they both launched into the air and started to fly away. Fluttershy let out a deep breath and sat back down. There had been no reason why she shouldn’t tell them any of that, since it was all common knowledge anyway, but she had felt nervous about it all the same. She was just about to leave to see where Winter Tempest had got to when there was a slam from beside her and she looked over to see that Fleetfoot had returned. “Sorry Fluttershy, forgot one other thing I was going to ask. You remember that stallion we met in Cloudsdale that appeared out of thin air? How is he? Did you manage to get him the help he needed?” Concern was etched in her features. Fluttershy gulped. The time travel thing was not common knowledge, and Twilight was still of the opinion that it was best if most ponies didn’t know about the potential horrors the future might hold. “Oh goodness, um, yes, he’s fine. I, um, took him to a hospital and he’s all back to normal now. Yes.” She affixed a wide smile to her face, inwardly berating herself for how awful she was at convincingly lying. Fleetfoot narrowed her eyes slightly, and Fluttershy could feel herself starting to sweat. She certainly didn’t feel cold anymore. After a few seconds though, hoofsteps sounded from behind them, and Fleetfoot glanced over Fluttershy’s shoulder and shifted into a more casual pose. “Good to hear!” she said cheerfully. “See you around.” And she shot off after her companion. Winter took a seat beside Fluttershy and passed her a mug of tea, staring suspiciously after the diminishing dot of blue in the distance. “Who was that?” “Oh, just somepony I know.” “In what way? Acquaintance? Friend…?” She twirled a hoof in the air. “Um, sort of?” Winter raised an eyebrow and for some reason Fluttershy felt like she should clarify. “I mean, I’ve only met her a couple of times before. Rainbow Dash knows her better than I do.” Winter seemed satisfied with this and got to her hooves. “Drink up, Floaty. We’ll be reporting back to the palace soon.” --- As he watched the row of unicorns flinging arrowhead after arrowhead at the distant targets, the majority connecting and a decent number landing centrally, Lance Arcus allowed himself to feel pleased at his ponies’ progress. Okay, so he had moved the targets closer after the first two failed days, but everypony was definitely improving. The platinum stallion made another pass, offering the occasional word of advice. More than once he suggested that a guardspony should move up to trying to launch two barbs at once, which was an achievement he would never have imagined after their first session. After he reached the end of the line he stood back to admire the results of their labour once more. “Yoohoo, Lieutenant Arcus?” And his good mood vanished. He turned and frowned at the white mare who was slowly approaching, unsurprisingly tailed by Cut Lustre who was pulling a cart piled high with Celestia-knows-what. “Miss Rarity,” he began, jumping straight into his sternest, most disciplinary tone. “Where have you been this morning? You are expected to be at these training sessions like everypony else!” In truth, she was barely needed here. He had to admit that there was likely nothing he could teach her, and when she was here she tended to show everypony else up, but he’d be damned if he let a pony get away with less work just because they had more natural talent. “Sorry darling, but I just had to get these ensembles completed before I joined you all.” At this point Lance noticed the jacket the mare was wearing. She had been threatening to create something of the sort for the last few days, but now that he saw it, Lance was surprised at how functional it looked. He had been expecting something flamboyant and impractical, but it was a simple affair in a pleasant golden-brown colour, with a little padding and a couple of pockets. And laced along the edges, in easy to retrieve locations, were the diamond arrowheads she had been so fond of. “What do you think?” She twirled around. “Not my finest work, but if I’d spent any more time improving it I wouldn’t have been able to finish all the others.” “The what?” Rarity smiled and motioned to the colt beside her, who pulled the cart along towards the archery range, where everypony had stopped their practicing and were all stood watching with interest. She then lit her horn and levitated out of the cart another dozen or so jackets identical her own, which she began passing out to each unicorn present. “They’re all fully adjustable, so they should be able to fit any frame. And the flint arrowheads really clash horribly with these jackets, so Cut Lustre and I put our heads together and he’s created enough diamond arrowheads for everypony.” “Well of course, I couldn’t deny a request from such a wonderful mare.” Rarity beamed and leant down to peck him on the cheek. Lance wondered whether all it had taken to persuade the colt to work harder was another couple of kisses like that. “Where did you get all the material from?” he asked, astounded. “I have connections,” she said as way of an explanation, waving a hoof airily. Lance glanced around at the gathered unicorns, who were all examining their new jackets with appreciation. There had to be some sort of catch. “This… is amazing Miss Rarity. But we could never afford…” “Oh nonsense,” she said dismissively. “I couldn’t accept payment for these. We’re all in this together, after all.” “Well, then…” He felt speechless. He might have to re-evaluate his opinion of the mare once more. “That’s very… uh…” Cut Lustre smirked at the stuttering stallion. “I think the word you’re looking for is ‘generous’, lieutenant.” Lance nodded blankly, and then tried to clear his head. “Yes, well, excellent work Miss Rarity, but you still have training to catch up with.” “Of course dear, I’ll not let the team down.” “Good. Cut, you’re done here. And, er, good work as well.” The colt saluted and then disappeared off into the distance. Lance would have to remember this for the future. It seemed if they ever needed Cut Lustre to put some extra work in, they just needed to find the nearest attractive mare and get her to ask him in their stead. Turning, Lance found that he had a jacket of his own laid out on the floor beside him, but this one was a little different to the others. It was thicker, and had bright golden trimming, along with a couple of extra pockets. “Miss Rarity, what is this?” “Why, that’s a special number for our brave lieutenant of course. I talked with your wife to make sure I got the size correct.” “You… you talked to my wife?” “A wonderful mare, if I may say so. And your young fillies. So! Cute! In fact, your wife very graciously invited me over for dinner with you all this evening. I am ever so much looking forward to it.” Lance Arcus grumbled and walked away, head down. He would not need to rethink his opinion of this mare. She was just as insufferable as always. --- Attempt number seven was not going to plan. Neither had any of the six previous attempts, but this time Rainbow was really annoyed. She had been so convinced that she’d come up with a way to catch Flash Sentry out, but he always seemed to read her like an open book. She’d tried everything she could think of, from pure speed to rapid changes of direction, and had even gone through all of her aerial stunts in case they would help. But no, every time he would be there, hoof against her skin in a way that said ‘you would be dead if this was for real’, and with that irritating grin that said ‘Gotcha!’ She’d yet to even get close to striking him in return. This shouldn’t be happening! She was Rainbow Dash, fastest mare in Equestria. How could this… this infuriating stallion be doing this? She rose higher into the air and then attempted to plummet towards the orange pegasus, but once again he smartly dodged out the way and flitted around behind her before she could react. “Shall we take a break for now?” he suggested, hoof to her neck, pinning her in place once more. Rainbow grunted. “Fine.” She dropped to the earth without even waiting for him to follow, and stomped over to a table nearby where there were drinks available. After quenching her thirst she slumped onto the ground to watch the other few fliers who were still practicing. They all looked as though they were moving in slow motion compared to what she had just experienced. Flash took a seat next to her, but she resolutely ignored him. It was possible she was not the most gracious loser. “You got closer that time.” Rainbow snorted. “I’m serious. That barrel roll you did caught me out. If it had put you next to me you’d have got me for sure. Shame it only took you further away from me…” He waved a wing in front of her face. “Hellooo? Are you listening?” Rainbow reluctantly turned to face him. “It’s no fun listening to gloating.” He looked genuinely taken aback by that. “Gloating? That wasn’t my intention. I’m trying to help you. In the same way you’ve been helping me.” “Me helping you? Ha! You’re so much better than me I can’t believe it. How have I been helping you?” “Every time we’ve jousted I’ve learned from you. This might surprise you to hear, but you’re a pretty good flier.” He grinned stupidly, which just made Rainbow want to hit him. “You’d easily beat any of the other pegasi here. I am nowhere near as fast or agile as you are, the only reason I keep winning is because it’s really easy to read what you’re going to do.” “That’s why I tried that roll, I thought you wouldn’t expect it.” “Well it was definitely unexpected, but just because I didn’t expect it doesn’t mean it was a good move. It took you away from me and facing the wrong direction. What use is that in a fight?” Rainbow shrugged. “I don’t know, okay! Flying fast has always been enough for me before.” “And it might be enough against Shards too, who knows? But there’s no harm in being over-prepared.” He stretched his legs out and lay back on the ground. “The reason you’re so easy to read isn’t because you’re predictable, it’s because you advertise everything you’re about to do before you do it. A good practice for a showmare to have, but not so good in a fight. You’ll want to rein that in if you come up against a smart opponent.” “Yeah, well, Shard’s aren’t smart.” Flash just laughed, which only irritated Rainbow even more. “True,” he said, and then he fell silent, closing his eyes as the mayhem continued above them. After a few minutes of watching the tangling pegasi, Rainbow decided she was done for the day. She was sick of this stupid training, and sick of this stupid stallion. She stood up without a word, although she did reflexively give the lieutenant a salute, and then trotted off to find some way to clear her head. --- “Ready?” “I suppose so.” “Okay then. On my count.” Twilight took a deep breath. You would have been able to hear a pin drop in the stadium right now. “Three… Two… One… Begin!” At the same instant the two alicorns launched themselves into the air, simultaneously readying spells. Around them the arena was mostly deserted, although Applejack, Maud and a couple of persistent guardsponies were sitting in the stands, watching with interest. It wasn’t every day you got a chance to witness a duel between two princesses. The stadium had been the obvious choice of venue for it. Despite the fact that they were obviously not going to be using their full power, anywhere else would still have had the possibility for collateral damage. Twilight flapped her wings cautiously, flitting around so as not to present an easy target. The duel had been Cadance’s suggestion, and she had agreed to it, but she was not sure she was willing to attack her sister-in-law. She could see the sense in it: Based on the story her brother had given, the alicorn Shard they were calling Black Fractal was incredibly powerful, and he had been fortunate that she hadn’t used any magic during that confrontation. It seemed likely that only another alicorn would be able to take it on, and what better way for Twilight and Cadance to practice than against each other? Nevertheless, Twilight had decided that she would stay on the defensive. She had taught Cadance a variety of offensive spells, and it would be good practice of her own protective magic to try and ward them off. Strangely, Cadance was not attacking either, instead mirroring her movements in the air on the other side of the arena. Was she feeling the same reluctance? Was this entire idea going to fail at the first hurdle? And then she saw it. The ‘Cadance’ she was watching opposite from her was not quite moving naturally, and if she peered closer she could see that its expression was blank and its eyes were lifeless. Twilight was impressed. Not once during their sessions in the last few days had either of them mentioned illusions, but Cadance had pulled one off without her noticing, or at least without her noticing straight away. Twilight was not well-practiced at using illusions herself, which was perhaps something she should address in the future, but she did at least know how to dispel them. She was about to do so when another idea occurred to her. At the moment, the real Cadance was likely somewhere else nearby, concealing herself somehow, and was assuming that Twilight was still fooled by her illusory replica. Twilight could gain the advantage by letting her keep thinking that. As surreptitiously as she could, Twilight cast a detection spell, looking for any indications of a pony nearby. It only took a few seconds to identify that Cadance was invisible in the air above her, and Twilight did her best to continue looking at the fake across from her as though she had not worked this out. But now she had a decision to make. She could not make the most of her discovery without changing her mind and going on the offensive. Was that a good idea? As it turned out, she didn’t get the chance to make that decision. Still casting her spell, she was able to detect a shift in the air above her as Cadance started to dive towards her. It appeared she was not going to use any spell on this occasion, and just fly at her directly. That made things easier for Twilight. At the last second before the invisible alicorn would have connected, Twilight launched backwards and cast a fairly gentle shock spell at the plummeting princess. The jolt was enough to dispel Cadance’s invisibility and illusion simultaneously, and she spun around in the air, clearly surprised that her sneak attack had failed. In an instant however, she had cast a retaliatory spell of her own. Twilight had not been expecting her to recover so quickly, and only just dodged the fireball that had been launched back at her with surprising force. As it passed her body, she felt the searing heat on her skin and narrowed her eyes. Cadance was playing like that was she? Then Twilight would not be holding back much either. In the stands nearby, there were cheers of excitement from a recently arrived Pinkie Pie, who seemed to have brought half of the Crystal Empire with her. Some of the newly arrived crystal ponies were mystified to see two princesses facing off in their stadium, but equally as many were selling snacks and taking bets. Princess Cadance was the clear favourite, although whether this was down to careful calculation or just a sense of pride in their own princess was unclear. Twilight tried to ignore the crowd. She didn’t want to start feeling like she was putting on a show. Hadn’t they asked the captain to keep the stadium clear? Fat lot of good that did. Twilight would have to give that mare a talking to. She spun in the air to face what she knew to be the real Cadance this time. Both of them had summoned simple clear barriers in front of them, which allowed them a bit of breathing space. Twilight decided to take this opportunity to talk to her sister-in-law. “Nice illusion! That almost caught me out for a moment.” “Thank you! I’ve been practicing over the last couple of days when you weren’t around. But it only fooled you for a moment? Honestly Twilight, you really are a magical progeny aren’t you.” Twilight scrunched up her nose. “Uh, do you mean ‘prodigy’? Because ‘progeny’ means-” She was shocked out of her lecture by a sudden blast impacting with her shield, and in her moment of distraction that was enough to cause the barrier to break. She immediately recoiled, and flew away to re-cast her shield. “You said the wrong word on purpose!” she accused, feeling as though some sacred rule had been broken. “I was only following your own advice. You said that distracting your opponent should always be the first priority.” “But tricks like that won’t work on Black Fractal!” Cadance shrugged. “Maybe not, but I’m not duelling Black Fractal, am I?” Twilight swooped around to face the pink alicorn, shaking her head in amusement. “No, I suppose… NOT!” As she finished talking she let loose a concussive blast at Cadance’s shield, with as much power as she could muster. As she released it, she realised that if it connected there was a chance she would have to fly and catch Cadance as she started to fall, and the presence of so many spectators became more unnerving. As it was, Cadance merely flew out of the way, not even bothering to try and ward the spell off. “Honestly Twilight, that was the least subtle sneak-attack ever. Your magic may be strong, but your tactics are rather basic.” “If I really wanted to hit you I could,” she said sullenly. “Go on then,” Cadance challenged. “Isn’t that what we’re here for?” Part of Twilight wondered if Cadance was trying to rile her up on purpose, but if so she was falling for it completely. Without giving any warning she teleported over to beside her opponent and, forgetting magic for now, slugged her across the face. As the Princess of the Crystal Empire tumbled away through the air, to the sound of groans from the spectators, Twilight suddenly realised what she had just done. Alicorns like herself were strong. “Oh my gosh! I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry…” She flew over to see if her sister-in-law was okay. Cadance had caught herself in the air, so there was no risk of her falling to the ground, but she still looked somewhat dazed. “I didn’t mean to… Well, I did, but… I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m so-” A blare of light and sound cut through her rampant apologising, and Twilight had to blink rapidly to clear the stars from her vision. As the world returned to her she found she was staring into the grinning face of her opponent, and teleported away in a panic, before instantly raising a shield around her in case it was necessary. Indeed, it seemed Cadance had been expecting her teleportation, because no sooner had her shield been summoned than it was battered with an array of smaller fireballs. “That’s more like it Twilight!” Twilight did not appreciate the feeling that she was being toyed with. Forgetting her surroundings, and any idea of smart tactics, she started launching spell after spell at the grinning pink alicorn. Cadance seemed to understand that any playing around was over, because her face distorted into an expression of fierce determination, and she started dipping and diving through the air to dodge the cavalcade of spells. Meanwhile, the stadium was now more packed than ever. After Pinkie Pie had done her best job of explaining that this was not the emergence of Nightmare Dawn or Nightmare Dusk, and that the two princesses were only duelling to learn to defend the empire better, the congregated ponies were eagerly enjoying the show. As the spells continued to fly overhead, mostly from Twilight to Cadance, the betting was starting to shift in the younger alicorn’s favour. After a while, Twilight was starting to grow weary of casting spell after spell, and she paused warily, making sure to keep an eye out for any retaliation. Cadance had avoided most of her attacks, whether by dodging or casting a shield in time, but it had clearly taken a lot out of her. She was visibly relieved at the momentary ceasefire. “I don’t think I’ve ever even seen half of those spells Twilight,” she huffed as she tried to regain her breath. Twilight hadn’t even really been concentrating on what she was casting, and as she thought back over the spells she had chosen, her stomach tightened. There were some which it was very fortunate that Cadance had successfully dodged. Perhaps she wouldn’t tell her the details. “My turn then?” Cadance suggested, before lighting her horn threateningly. Twilight was just preparing to launch herself through the air to dodge, not really feeling up to summoning a shield, when a vast pink barrier suddenly appeared between the two of them, splitting the entire stadium in half. As one, the two princesses looked down sheepishly into the disapproving face of Shining Armor. “I think that’s enough,” the prince said, to audible groans from some of the spectators. The two alicorns caught each other’s gaze, and then relaxed, dropping their guard for the first time since they had begun. “I really got caught up in that Twilight, it was a lot of fun,” Cadance said, sounding surprised with herself. “I never would have thought it would be something I enjoyed. Perhaps we should do this more often?” “I think there’s somepony close to both of us who might take issue with that,” Twilight muttered, as they flew down and landed next to Shining Armor, who was still frowning at them. Shining was not alone. Next to him stood a pegasus guardspony wearing the distinctive armour of the Canterlot Royal Guard. He bowed as the princesses landed and glanced over at the prince, who nodded at him. “Your majesties, I have a request from Canterlot.” “Ask away.” The pegasus stallion cleared his throat uneasily. “Princess Celestia has not been at court for the past week. She has, um, barely left her chambers in fact.” It was clearly paining the guardspony to speak ill of the princess. “We do know the, err, situation, and so we can understand why she wants some time to herself, but Canterlot needs its princess.” Twilight and Cadance exchanged anxious glances. “What do you want us to do?” Twilight asked. “We are not requesting that you stay in Canterlot any length of time, just that you would speak with the princess. We are sure that one of you might be able to comfort her and, um, remind her of her duties.” Twilight’s heart sunk. She was not sure she wanted to face Celestia yet, with the memory of Luna’s death still relatively fresh. Cadance seemed to notice this, because she spoke up herself. “I could try, but I ask that it wait for a few days. The climate in my empire is delicate currently, and I would rather not leave if it could be helped. Surely Canterlot can survive a little longer? Is there nopony else to hold court in her place?” “Well, Prince Blueblood has been-” There was a flap of wings and Cadance was gone without another word.