Chapter 25: The Razing
Huffing and blowing, Spike finally passed through Sweet Apple Acres' gate. It had been a hard run for the young dragon. His forelegs weren't yet quite developed enough to allow him to run on all fours, but his body was starting to get rather top-heavy, which made retaining his balance while running a tricky business. It didn't help that he'd barely gotten outside of Ponyville itself when the ground had begun to shake and jump beneath his claws. He'd thought that the fight had ended, from the temporary silence that had descended just as he'd left the library. However, the fighting had started up again, this time even more intense than before.
That must be Arkenstone, thought Spike as he ran. He hoped that Twilight's coltfriend could handle things...or at least buy time until other ponies who could handle the situation had arrived.
Spike had gotten so caught up in finding Ouranos' feathers to send a letter to Spitfire, he'd temporarily forgotten that he should've sent a letter to Princess Celestia as well. However, he'd barely gotten halfway to Sweet Apple Acres when he belched out a letter from the Princess saying that she was on her way. That was reassuring, though not quite reassuring enough. Even flying directly from Canterlot was going to take some time, an hour or more at the very least. Depending on how things went, the battle could be well over, for better or for worse, by the time Celestia arrived. Right now, he could only hope that Arkenstone would win the fight.
"Can you hurry up?" demanded Scootaloo, her wings buzzing with anxiety as she watched the nurse checking over Dawn.
"If you can't be patient and wait, I'll need you to step outside," snapped Nurse Triage as she continued to carefully feel along Dawn's body with her hooves. The colt was still alive, but clearly unconscious. What troubled her was that there seemed to be no visible response to any external stimuli, even involuntary ones. It worried Triage as this was closer to a coma than simple unconsciousness.
"You said he needed a transfusion," remarked Triage, looking up at Scootaloo finally.
Nodding frantically, Scootaloo said, "That's right! That's what Arkenstone said. He said this is even worse than Wing Exhaustion."
"That matches up," mused Triage, "Um...this might be a little tricky."
"Can you do it?" asked Scootaloo.
"I think I can," said Triage, "It's a fairly simple spell. But...to be honest...I'd trust the doctor more. It's not something I've had any practice with. Most ponies aren't even capable of pushing their bodies to this extent. I've only learned about the spell in theory. I've never actually had to use it."
"Then what about the doctor?" asked Scootaloo.
"He's...occupied," said Triage, glancing inside the barn at the white cube where Doctor Stable was currently trying his hardest to save Red River and Storm Front after their encounter with Terra Heart.
"Then you're the only pony we've got," said Scootaloo, tears welling up at her eyes as she gazed pleadingly at the nurse, "Please! Dawn can't stay like this for too long."
"Alright!" said Triage in as placating a tone as she could manage, "I'll do it." Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself. "Okay...This is a bit tricky. I need you to stand above Dawn."
Nodding, Scootaloo did as she was told. Dawn was currently lying on his back, his wings spread out beneath him. Standing over him, Scootaloo took a deep breath and looked down at her coltfriend's unmoving body. "Okay...now what?"
"This is the tricky part," said Triage, "I need you to lower yourself down so that you can touch your wings to his. The outlets and inlets for pegasus meridians are located along the wings. I'll need to have you channel your magic out of your wings while I guide it down into his. We need to be careful because Dawn has other injuries. Don't put any pressure on his chest."
Slowly, Scootaloo bent her legs down, lowering her body as much as she dared. She felt the hair of her coat brushing against Dawn's coat and stopped. Moving slowly, she lowered her wings and rested as much of them as she could against Dawn's. "Alright," she said, "I'm ready."
Triage swallowed and nodded. "Okay. Good. Hold it there. I'm starting the spell now." Her horn glowed and her magical aura washed over Scootaloo's wings before stretching across to Dawn's wings as well. "Connection established. Start channeling your magic now."
Scootaloo did as she was told, taking a deep breath and reaching out with her magic, sending it out through her wings. Instead of blending into the air around her, she instead felt the magic begin to flow away from her wings, being pulled away like water down the drain. The pull was incredibly strong and Scootaloo could feel every ounce of magic she released being sucked down into Dawn's wings. She began to sweat as more and more of her magic was being taken. Just how much did he use?
"Aaand...done!" said Triage. The magical connection vanished and Scootaloo sighed in relief as the force that had been siphoning her magic away vanished. Carefully, she stepped off from Dawn, feeling lightheaded and dizzy.
"Easy now," said Triage, coming to Scootaloo's side and supporting her, "Lay down and don't try to move for a bit."
"Okay..." Scootaloo felt a bit hazy. Lying down sounded like a good idea.
"Rest for a little bit. I need to see to the rest of Dawn's injuries," said Triage.
"'Kay," said Scootaloo, her eyes drooping as she watched Triage turn her attention back to the colt.
Arkenstone and Terra Heart tore a swath of destruction through Ponyville. Even though the two stallions fought hoof-to-hoof, clashing against one another in a fierce melee, their movement across the town sent them tearing heedlessly through buildings, smashing through wood and plaster with contemptuous ease. A hoof stamped down, cracking the ground and causing a nearby house to collapse. A deflected blow released a shockwave that tore up a line of fencing. A razor-edged sword, moving so swiftly that it might as well have been invisible, sliced through a lamppost. The path left behind by the two battling stallions was covered by rubble. The air around them was choked with dust. The ground was littered with cracks and crevasses opened by the immense force of their hoofsteps.
Even though they were fighting just as fiercely as they had in the beginning, the battle was beginning to take its toll. Terra's body was covered by numerous cuts and lacerations, many of which leaked blood that scattered in scarlet ribbons around his body as he moved. The worst of these wounds was an ugly, black line across his hindquarter, running directly beneath his cutie mark. It was deeper than any of the other cuts on his body. However, fortunately for him, the cut was also cauterized, which kept it from bleeding as Terra moved. But the injury still ached fiercely and Terra had to resist the urge to grunt in pain every time he put his hind leg down wrong. His forelegs were also in bad shape. Trading blows with Arkenstone's hard armor, which sported numerous sharp edges, had left Terra's forelegs crisscrossed with numerous cuts and several severe bruises as well. Though the magical reinforcement of Terra's body kept the edges from cutting too deeply, it still left his forelegs sore and covered with blood.
Arkenstone's injuries were less readily visible. Though his armor ablated most of the force of Terra's strikes, it wasn't always a perfect form of protection. As a result, some of the impact of Terra's blows had made it through. Though it didn't show on the outside, Arkenstone's skeleton sported numerous small fractures through his bones that sent jolts of pain through his body with each step he took. With each successive blow he took, the network of cracks through Arkenstone's bones spread a little farther as he used the entirety of his own body to disperse the remainder of the impact, which kept any of his bones from outright breaking, but left him feeling a little more fragile with each subsequent exchange. On top of that, he was sporting a nasty headache courtesy of the headbutt he'd taken from Terra earlier.
Terra kept the fight close, clearly intending to keep Arkenstone from using his blades by keeping the battle hoof-to-hoof. However, Arkenstone wasn't going to abide by that plan. Instead, as they crashed through the side of another building, Arkenstone channeled his magic through the splinters of wood that flew through the air, transforming them into swords directly behind Terra, slashing at his croup and haunches. Terra bucked out with his hind legs, breaking the swords before they could actually cut into him. However, Arkenstone surged forward, ramming an armored shoulder into Terra's chest. The impact sent Terra skidding back, but he reacted almost immediately, slamming his own hooves down and coming right back at Arkenstone's body.
Arkenstone planted his hooves into the wooden floor, using the jagged edges of his greaves to anchor him into place as he took the force of Terra's return shoulder strike. The force of the collision between the two of them shattered the floor, causing it to crater around them. The armor covering Arkenstone's body shattered at the point of impact. However, the fragments of broken armor quickly dissolved into a black dust as Arkenstone reached out with his forehoof, curling the fetlock around the dust, which had formed itself into the handle and hilt of a massive sword. Swinging, Arkenstone brought the sword down at Terra, who skipped to the side of the blow, which then went on to cut a line through the remainder of the house.
Having avoided the strike, Terra surged in once again, aiming to crush Arkenstone before he could rebuild his armor. However, the fragments of wood thrown up by Arkenstone's attack also became swords, which tumbled towards Terra from a variety of angles. This time, rather than try to stop and deflect them, Terra bulled right through the blades, crushing the ones directly in front of him and suffering only glancing blows from the rest.
Arkenstone clicked his tongue in frustration now that it was his turn to fall back from a flurry of strikes. He's beginning to figure it out. Arkenstone's magic was based on scent. Scent is produced by particles that are inhaled through the nose, particles that are first carried through the air. By using those particles as a medium, Arkenstone could connect them like the links of a chain, sending his magic into objects connected to that scent. The magic then manifested, thanks to the strong image Arkenstone carried inside his mind and will, transforming those objects into blades that struck out at his enemies. The items he normally based that magic on were pine needles, which he carried concealed in the hairs of his tail. The needles had the advantage of being quite fragrant. Light enough to be carried by a decent wind, as blades he could control them freely, almost as an extension of his will.
Furthermore, when those blades struck outwards, they spread the pine needles' scent along with them, spreading the scent into anything they cut into. That spreading scent created even more connections, allowing Arkenstone to form even more blades from the objects broken apart by the original swords. On top of that, Arkenstone could channel his magic into objects directly by grasping or touching them. The larger the object, the larger a blade he could manifest. To Arkenstone, the resulting blades, while massive, carried no more weight than the object that originally formed them, while, to his opponents, the blades struck with the power and weight of their apparent size.
However, the technique had its limitations. The heavier the object used as the basis for the sword, the harder it was to manipulate. Pine needles, tiny pebbles, and small splinters were fine. But simple rocks and fragments of wood and plaster were almost impossible to control remotely using his magic. The most Arkenstone could generally do was modify their trajectory slightly and induce extra acceleration. The resulting blades might have been more powerful, but the tradeoff was that he couldn't manipulate them at the same level he could the smaller and lighter ones.
Terra had apparently realized that. He now understood that, if he knew the basic trajectory of Arkenstone's blades, then he could anticipate their attacks and either intercept or avoid them more effectively, thus eliminating the need to divide his attention to keep track of the individual blades. With that out of the way, he could make his primary focus avoiding and parrying the blades Arkenstone had more control over and chipping away at Arkenstone's armor.
However, there was another tool in Arkenstone's arsenal...the dust. Composed of fine particles drifting in the air, the dust was practically a ready-made medium for Arkenstone's magic. Able to serve as the base for weapons as well as the connection needed to manipulate them, it was an almost endlessly versatile tool. The issue was, the majority of it went into the fashioning of his armor. To make matters more difficult, what extra remained in the air was frequently dispersed by the shockwaves of their continuing clashes. Terra had noted this and clashed with Arkenstone as often as possible to keep him from amassing enough dust to create any substantial weapons. It also served to slow the rate at which Arkenstone could restore his armor when it was broken.
I may have played my cards a bit early, mused Arkenstone as he spun about, whipping his tail at Terra. The armor across his croup extended out along his tail, forming something like a bladed chain. Terra was forced to duck before the whiplike motion of the weapon beheaded him. Arkenstone whipped his tail about more, sending the weapon slashing about in unpredictable movements that drove Terra back.
Meanwhile, Terra grit his teeth in frustration as he retreated from this latest fusillade of blows, forced to jump, skip, and twist to keep from getting tangled in the bladed segments. He had never faced an enemy who fought the way Arkenstone did, much less an earth pony who wielded the magic of their kind in such a fashion. In the past, Terra had fought and beaten earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns. He had faced numerous lesser martial arts and endured the absolute pinnacle of battle magic. In spite of his teacher's warnings, he had yet to meet any foe whose power could match that of the Mountain Root. All of his experience had taught him that, compared to the might of the purest expression of earth pony magic, anything else fell short.
Harmony between the tribes was all well and good. But, as far as Terra was concerned, that extended merely to social affairs. When it came to practicing magic, it was best that each tribe stuck to what they did best. Trying to incorporate concepts and ideas from other forms of magic simply muddied things and reduced a given magic's overall effectiveness. It was the same with weapons. Depending on an object for attack and defense instead of the strength of one's own body, will, and magic was essentially an admission of weakness. At their base, weapons were lifeless steel and wood. Their strength was arbitrary, going only so far as the materials they were composed of, while a pony's body was capable of endless improvement. In the end, weapons and foreign magical concepts were both crutches, gimmicks that ultimately weakened those who relied upon them.
And yet...Arkenstone was different. He used his magic to bind the matter around him. His armor was a powerful protection yes, but it was more than a mere defense. In his strongest state, Arkenstone literally cloaked himself in his own power, hardening and sharpening his body into a living weapon. The blades he struck with, even the ones that he couldn't control and manipulate directly, all carried the full weight of his killing intent, each one capable of biting into even Terra's reinforced flesh. When the fight between them had begun, Terra had expected Arkenstone's blades to be easily broken and blocked, only to find out that they were infinitely more formidable and that Arkenstone was stronger than any enemy he had ever faced before.
What made matters even worse for Terra, was the reason behind their fight. Arkenstone was fighting to protect Dawn Lightwing, a demon, the servant of Nightmare Moon, who openly bore the mark of his true nature in his eyes. Even though Arkenstone was blind, a warrior of his caliber couldn't have possibly been unaware of Dawn Lightwing's true nature. However, he still fought in defense of the colt, attacking with an unrivaled ferocity, his blades seeking to pierce and carve the flesh of one who had come to bring justice and deliverance to Ponyville.
Terra stood on the side of right. The will of Her Radiance, Stewardess of the Sun, and Mother of All was behind his cause. That knowledge filled him with a boundless fervor that drove him on. His will did not falter. He could not be swayed from his course. In the end, the rightness of his cause would see him through to the end of this grim endeavor.
And yet...his foe still stood before him, taking Terra's blows and striking back in equal measure, his fervor seeming to rival Terra's own. To make matters worse, Terra's body had been marred by the demon's power. The cut burned beneath his cutie mark ached and stung with every movement, reminding Terra with every pang that Dawn Lightwing had struck and wounded him, even though such a thing should have been impossible. Every sting of that wound reminded him of Arkenstone's taunts at the beginning of the battle.
I will not give in, thought Terra resolutely, I will see this task through to the end. I will return to the Holy Father with victory in hoof. Then, together, we will see Nightmare Moon's will purged from this world once and for all!
Blades flashed, hooves clashed. Armor rang, cracked and crumbled. Again and again, the two stallions clashed together. One driving the other back for a brief moment before he rallied and returned to the battle. Their battle seemed to meander all across Ponyville. Any object or structure in their path was ripped apart. The force of their blows sundered the earth, opening cracks, collapsing entire buildings dozens of meters away. The whole of Ponyville rocked and trembled as though shaken by a continuous earthquake. With each second, every minute the battle progressed, the shockwaves spread farther and farther, spreading throughout the surrounding countryside. In the Whitetail Woods, deer and other animals fled. Even in the mysterious Everfree Forest, the monstrous creatures that called it home fell back away from its edge, their instincts telling them that straying too close to the mysterious disturbance in Ponyville spelled death.
Amid all this turbulence, there was a single place that remained stable and undisturbed. Held fast by the power of all Ponyville's available earth ponies, Sweet Apple Acres remained an island of peace during this troubled time.
Applejack sweated and panted. She'd never drawn this deeply upon her innate earth pony magic, never tied or bound herself so tightly to the earth, feeling as though she'd taken root like a tree herself. Her body was getting stiffer with each passing second. She wasn't the only one. All the earth ponies around her were showing signs of strain as the battle in town dragged on. The growing pressure in the earth was a mounting threat that only grew with each passing moment. Her mind found it almost impossible to grasp the notion that it was two individual stallions fighting one another. It had a feeling more like a cataclysm than a brawl.
A wry chuckle wormed its way out of her lips as she remembered all the stories Granny Smith used to tell her and Macintosh when they were little; stories about the Celestial Knights. They were stories of ponies that could take on entire armies by themselves and win, ponies that could split open mountains, ponies that could set the sky on fire. Applejack had always felt that such stories were mere products of fantasy. Even when meeting Arkenstone and learning that he actually was one of those legendary Knights, Applejack couldn't reconcile the image of the polite, soft-spoken stallion with the image the stories inspired. But now she understood that the stories of the Knight's capabilities were a surprisingly sober truth.
Applejack couldn't afford to lose focus, so she kept her eyes glued to her own hooves as she continued to force herself to breathe, drawing the power of the earth into herself, shaping it with her will and sending it back out, binding her power with that of all the other ponies doing the same. Together, they held back the unrelenting pressure of Arkenstone and Terra's battle.
Had Applejack or any of the others looked up from their task for a moment, they would have seen something that would have inspired awe and dread in equal measure. In the center of their group stood Granny Smith. However, few would have been able to equate the mare who stood there now with the doddering old mare who was often seen puttering about the farm or around town. Smith's wrinkled skin had smoothed, the lines around her body fading as she seemed to lose entire decades worth of age in a few minutes, her youth seeming to return the more of her power she exercised.
However, it was also something of a disturbing sight. For all that Smith looked newly youthful, there was a sense of wrongness about it. Her skin was smooth, but it was drawn tightly about a body of bone and not much else. It gave Granny Smith a gaunt, stretched-out appearance, the look of a starved pony. Her ribs stood out starkly on her barrel. The bones of her legs were clearly visible. The musculature that had once filled out her youthful appearance seemed to have withered away. As a consequence, Granny Smith looked more dead than alive, despite seeming to be young again.
However, nopony looked and nopony noticed. Which was the way it should have been, as far as Smith was concerned.
Arkenstone winced internally as their battle took them through yet another building. However, the smells of sugar, yeast, and flour that reached his nose told him that they had just plowed right through the middle of Sugarcube Corner. Sorry Pinkie...
They crashed through the wall of a storeroom. Arkenstone's nose picked up the smell of flour all the more intently. He called fourth a sextet of swords, feeling Terra tense in preparation to stop them. However, instead of attacking Terra, Arkenstone instead launched the swords at the bags of flour heaped around them. The swords sliced open the bag and scattered the flour through the air, filling the entire space with white dust. Terra paused, hesitating in confusion. That gave Arkenstone just enough time as he completely sealed his armor for a second, covering nose and mouth, sealing all the joints. For just a moment, Arkenstone's body became like a statue, unmoving. One of the blades scraped against a metal surface, sending up a few sparks...
What remained of the Sugarcube Corner was consumed by a fiery explosion. Heat and flames washed over the two stallions. Terra hardly even noticed them, his magic easily resisting the heat and concussive forces of the detonation. Arkenstone's blows had carried more force than that. However, as Terra prepared to mount a counterattack, he realized that the explosion had done something he hadn't noticed before. It had consumed all the oxygen in his immediate vicinity.
The consequences would last only a few seconds. However, for those few seconds, Terra was unable to breathe. Unable to draw in air, he simply couldn't continue to draw in the earth's power. He faltered. At that moment, Arkenstone's armored body sprang back into motion and slammed into Terra with all the blind stallion's strength.
The explosion and the resulting lack of air had caused Terra's magical protection to falter. As a surface like steel slammed into him, Terra cried out in agony. The edges of Arkenstone's armor bit into his skin and the force of the impact caused something to crack, then snap. Terra felt the most intense pain he had endured yet. However, the force of the blow knocked him clear of the explosion's epicenter, granting Terra access to air once again. Taking a deep breath, Terra drew in an enormous amount of power, sucking the earth's strength into his body, using its power to strengthen him, solidify his muscles and hold broken bones in place, even as the bones themselves became like steel rods. His strength regained, Terra once again surged forward to clash with Arkenstone, the resulting impact driving the rest of the flames away.
Arkenstone had apparently changed up his strategies. More swords appeared in the air around him, vanishing as they moved to slash at Terra. This time, instead of simply throwing them at the dark-brown stallion, Arkenstone maintained his hold on the blades, wielding them as an extension of himself, slashing back and forth, up and down, in an attack that was coming at Terra from all directions, even as he waded in with his armored body to attack more directly.
Terra found himself driven back, being forced to backpedal as he tried to keep Arkenstone's blades from surrounding him. The blades struck and withdrew before Terra's hooves could meet them, keeping Terra from shattering them as he had done on previous occasions. They also kept him from effectively countering the attacks Arkenstone delivered with his armored body. Growling, Terra jumped back, transforming to a blur as his form blurred back a considerable distance in an attempt to gain more distance so that he could gather his strength for a counterattack.
However, the blades that Arkenstone was wielding came together in that instant, their forms merging together into a giant sword that practically leapt after Terra, aiming for his stopping point. Terra came to a rest, his eyes widened as he saw the gargantuan blade flying straight for his head. For an instant, both Terra and the sword vanished in an explosion of dust.
Even before the dust had cleared, Arkenstone's nose and ears told him that the attack had missed. Terra had deflected the blade at the last second, causing it to bury itself in the earth right next to him. Thrusting out his elbow, Terra struck the side of the blade and shattered it like glass.
There was a momentary lull in the battle as the two stallions circled one another warily. The fight had taken its toll. They were sore, battered, and wounded. Blood dripped to the ground, limbs trembled, bones creaked. Nerves burned, having been strained almost to the breaking point by being forced to fight so hard for so long.
Neither spoke, whether to offer mercy or ask it. No such speech was needed or wanted. At that moment, both Arkenstone and Terra had the same thing on their minds...death. The air between them literally crackled with pure, unrestrained killing intent. Even though they were not clashing or exchanging blows at that moment, the ground beneath their hooves hummed and trembled with tension.
With a flick of his tail, Arkenstone released more pine needles into the air around him. This time, over a dozen of blades appeared to hover beside him, all of them aiming straight for Terra, who closed his eyes and breathed deeply, once again drawing in power from the earth.
In the blink of an eye, Arkenstone's blades leapt into frantic motion as they lanced out at Terra. Terra vanished as well, his body seeming to disappear as he charged straight in at Arkenstone, seeming to cover the distance between them in a single step. Terra completely ignored the blades, allowing them to gash him from right and left as he aimed directly for Arkenstone. Arkenstone braced his own body, setting himself to take Terra's next blow as all four of the massive dark-brown stallion's hooves slammed into the ground simultaneously. For the second time that day, Terra Heart and Arkenstone literally went head to head. The impact between them completely shattered the armor around Arkenstone's head, a shockwave running down the length of his body and causing the rest of his armor to seem to dissolve.
The ground beneath their hooves cracked and split and exploded outwards in a shockwave that left another shallow crater in its wake. A the crater's center were the two stallions, their heads still pressed together. The swirling black dust that had once been Arkenstone's armor gathered into two serrated-looking whirlwinds, one over each of his shoulder. They condensed and, in the space of a fraction of a second, two long, slender blades stretched out from them, thrusting rapidly at Terra, piercing him in the flesh of his shoulders and emerging to draw lines of splashing red along the length of his body before they pierced into the ground behind him.
Everything to stop. The entire battle seemed to briefly freeze in time as the two stallions remained in their position. Finally, something seemed to give. Arkenstone's swords crumbled away as the blind stallion slowly stepped back from Terra, his body swaying almost drunkenly. As he watched this, Terra's eyes narrowed and he lifted one foreleg, as though he planned to press the attack, only to freeze in place. His foreleg came back down. With a loud, gurgling cough, Terra let out a spray of blood from his mouth as he nearly collapsed down onto his belly. It was all he could do to remain standing.
The two stallions staggered and stumbled, each attempting to gather his senses before the other could. Both of them drew deeply on the earth's power, strengthening their bodies, overshadowing pain, focusing their remaining strength in a race to recover from their latest exchange. For both of them, it was a painfully slow process that seemed to stretch on intolerably.
Arkenstone's power stretched out into the air around him, once again drawing in dust, gathering it around him to reform his armor. However, because Arkenstone's recovery required that one extra step, Terra was able to fully recover first. Setting himself, Terra charged straight at Arkenstone once more, slamming his shoulder into the armor forming across Arkenstone's chest. The bladed edges of the armor crumpled under the impact and Arkenstone was thrown off his hooves and sent flying back. However, as Arkenstone was knocked into the air and sent flying through the wall of another building, his lips curled back into a triumphant smile.
"Terra Heart...eh..." Granny Smith smiled as she sipped from the mug of cider in front of her. "Now there's a name Ah haven't heard in ages."
"He was my...senior...correct?" asked Arkenstone.
"Ah suppose ya could say that," said Smith, shaking her head slowly, "That lad had so much potential. It's a shame things ended the way they did. That darn colt was too stubborn for his own good."
"He was a student of the Mountain Root under you," said Arkenstone, "and, unlike me, he did not...branch out, as it were."
"That much's true," said Smith with a nod, "He might've done much better if he had."
"How so?"
"Do ya think yer any weaker 'cause ya went from learnin' the Mountain Root to creatin' yer own style?" asked Smith, raising an amused eyebrow at Arkenstone.
"I don't believe so," said Arkenstone, "It just didn't quite suit me."
"And that's the way it's always been," said Smith, "The biggest mistake ya can make about any 'o the Three Pillars is that there's one 'right' way to learn any 'o 'em. Ya start out by learnin' the basic form. But that's to help ya learn the the principles of the Art. Once ya learn those, ya can start shapin' it in a way that best suits yer traits as a pony and a martial artist.
"Terra's mistake was gettin' all hung up on the form. Mighty obsessed with the 'purity' 'o the art, that one." Smith sighed. "He'd have a hard time learnin' to do some technique or other and get mighty frustrated. When Ah suggested that he try adaptin' his movements to somethin' that might suit him better, maybe look to other kinds 'o pony fer inspiration, he refused, said he had to learn to do it the right way."
"He was a tribalist?" Arkenstone raised an eyebrow.
"Nah," said Smith, waving a hoof dismissively, "Got along perfectly fine with any unicorn and pegasus he met, that fella. But...fer some reason, where the Mountain Root was concerned...he was obsessed by masterin' it as it was. Ah don't know what happened to get him fixated on it like that. He didn't talk about his reasons really. Mighty stiff boy."
"A form over function type," suggested Arkenstone.
"As good a way 'o puttin' it as any," said Smith with a nod, "If ya end up fightin' 'im, that's where his weakness is gonna be. Ah tried mah hardest to teach that boy, Ah did. He certainly learned the technical aspects 'o the Mountain Root. But there's somethin' deeper he plain didn't care enough to learn. Once Ah taught 'im the form 'o the Four-Point Strike, he skedaddled, sayin' he'd learned everythin' he needed to; was gonna go out and use the Mountain Root to change the world."
"So he knows the Four-Point Strike..." mused Arkenstone.
"He knows how to do it, but he never really learned what it was all about, just figured it was the way an earth pony could hit their hardest." Smith sighed. "He thinks himself a master 'o the Mountain Root. For most ponies, he may as well be one. But there's some things missin' in his trainin' that ya can use."
"I see," said Arkenstone, "I'll keep that in mind..."
The building that Arkenstone had just been thrown into was none other than his own teahouse. He skidded to a halt in the middle of the serving room, having crashed through a pair of tables after his explosive entry through the wall. Getting back on his hooves, Arkenstone slowly turned his head, inhaling deeply, taking the familiar smell of the place; the wood of the walls and furniture, the ponies who had passed through the place in the months since it had opened, the faint scent of the mild cleaning solution he used, the smell of tea and spices that had sunk in and permeated the entire establishment. For the past few months, this place had been his home in Ponyville. Arkenstone had sunk more time and effort into this one building in the past months than he had in any other place he had stayed in all the years he had been a Knight.
He could pick out the scents of ponies who had passed through there, including the ones closest to him. He smelled Twilight and Spike, both of whom smelled of paper and ink. He smelled Dawn, Scootaloo, and the other Crusaders, who carried with them the scents of all the places they had been around Ponyville and all the things they had tried to get their cutie marks. He could smell Red River and Storm Front. He could smell Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. He could identify the scents of the dozens of other ponies he had come to know during his time in Ponyville. Their scents were as much a part of this place as the walls and furniture that made it up.
That sense of familiarity washed over Arkenstone, clearing his head like a blast of fresh air mixed with a bucket of cold water. The haziness brought on by his mounting injuries pulled back and Arkenstone was able to appreciate the world around him with a brilliant clarity that made his body feel at once lighter and more solid. The building fatigue seemed to leave him entirely as Arkenstone stood up straight, heedless of the burden his body had been under previously. This is exactly what I needed.
The strong sense of familiarity that pervaded the teahouse, the feeling of being on his home ground was exactly what Arkenstone needed to get that critical edge over his opponent. Just as Sweet Apple Acres was for Granny Smith, the teahouse was a place that Arkenstone had Cultivated and made into a place of power for himself. Taking a deep breath and basking in the familiar scents around him, Arkenstone filled the teahouse with his power. The entire building began to creak and groan. Invisible power seemed to crackle through the walls, passing all the way down to the foundations.
Terra Heart's hooves clicked on the wooden floor as he passed through the hole Arkenstone had opened in the wall. Terra said nothing as he came in, glaring at the blind stallion. Arkenstone's armor had completely reformed, leaving him fully protected once again. Terra growled and set himself in a crouch, preparing to charge in once more.
Arkenstone made no movements in response, simply breathing deeply, continuing to immerse himself in the familiar scents around the building. The power he drew in from the earth continued to mingle with his own power, which had sunk into the foundation of the building itself. The entire place hummed with his magic. Arkenstone breathed in, drawing in still more power.
Then it was gone. A single breath from Terra and the connection between Arkenstone and the earth directly beneath his hooves vanished. In that brief second, Terra charged forward, ramming his shoulder into Arkenstone's armored chest. Arkenstone was knocked off his hooves and sent flying backwards, crashing through the room at one of its corners. He ended up crashing into one of the storerooms where he kept his teas and spices. The burlap bags exploded around him, filling the air with fragrant particles. He managed to land on his hooves, plowing furrows through the wooden floor as he skidded to a stop.
Starting at the point where Arkenstone had come crashing through the wall into the storeroom, the wood making up the building seemed to crumble to pieces, splinters and fragments mixing with the airborne spices and dried tea leaves. They all began to swirl around Arkenstone like a typhoon. Some of it melding with his armor, making it more solid, more substantial. It merged with the greaves over his hooves, anchoring him to the floor and the ground beneath it. With each passing second, more of the building seemed to crumble away into minuscule pieces that continued to whirl around Arkenstone.
Like a runaway locomotive, Terra Heart came charging in, his head lowered to deliver what he no doubt thought to be the final blow, having taken the absence of Arkenstone's counter as a sign that the blind stallion was on his last legs. Terra was prepared to use the infamous Four-Point Strike for the third and final time.
The Four-Point Strike was the final technique taught to students of the Mountain Root, not because it was the most powerful blow an earth pony could muster if used correctly, but because using it required that the user had fully mastered all aspects of the Art to their fullest extent. Without that mastery, the technique was more likely to harm the user than her enemies. Naturally, using one's own cranium to deliver such a powerful blow was not without its risks. The transfer of power, kinetic and magical force, from the user into the target had to be managed perfectly. If there was any disturbance in that transfer of force, the technique could not connect properly and the consequences could be disastrous for the user. At best, a concussion might be the result. At worst, a user who had executed the technique wrongly would not live long enough to realize her mistakes as her brains would likely be splattered over everything in a ten-meter radius. A mistake would result in the user's skull shouldering most, if not all of the force of their own attack. It was a technique designed to allow the user to show that she had fully mastered and understood the principles that lay at the foundation...the root...of the Mountain Root.
Terra Heart, who had focused merely on the technique's destructive power, could not fully realize the ramifications of using it in his current condition and state of mind. Tinged with anger at the obstacles that had forced themselves into the path of what had been a supposedly simple mission, he was not fully immersed in the execution of the technique itself. That Arkenstone had already endured that very blow twice already was especially galling to Terra. The wounds he'd received over the course of the battle hurt more than they should, but one wound in particular stood out.
The ugly, black line drawn along Terra's hip, just below his cutie mark was especially distracting now, not in the least because it was the only wound on Terra's body that he hadn't received from Arkenstone. It was the wound that Dawn Lightwing's final attack had engraved upon him through all of his defenses. Throughout the fight, the painful sensation of that burned cut had tormented Terra like a barbed thorn buried beneath his skin. Now, with all the mounting frustration of this battle, its impression was magnified in Terra's mind, which was reflected in his body. As a consequence, his hind leg faltered as he planted his hooves to execute the Four-Point Strike. That small error distrupted the flow of power generated by Terra's hindquarters, throwing his posture off just slightly. As focused as he was on delivering the final blow, Terra ignored the sensation and pressed forward, determinedly slamming his forehead against Arkenstone's own.
A loud crack echoed through the air. The two stallions froze for the briefest of seconds. Then blood sprayed outward from the point of impact. Terra reeled back with a cry of pain, stumbling as he shook his head, splattering more red everywhere. Terra's mind, along with his awareness of his current situation was all but destroyed. His mind was a jumble of confused thoughts, completely scrambled by the impact of his own technique.
Arkenstone struck. The swirling dust of tea and spices in the air around him, mixed with fragments of his home, all of it saturated with his power and presence, crackled visibly with energy. They merged together, forming numerous blades, countless blades, a veritable storm of blades that swirled outwards to engulf Terra Heart from every conceivable direction. As they moved, more of the walls, the ceiling, and even the floor beneath Terra's hooves, crumbled away to become even more blades. There was no opening to escape, no weakness that could be exploited. This was different from the deluge of relatively unguided blades Arkenstone had relied upon earlier. Each one of these moved as an extension of his body and will, guided as perfectly and precisely as if they were his own limbs. They closed in on Terra and buried themselves into his flesh, cutting deeply, sending even more blood flying through the air as Terra cried out in agony.
Before the storm of blades could close completely in on Terra and hack him completely to pieces, Arkenstone pulled them back, merging them all together into the largest sword he had yet wielded with his own hooves. The blade stretched up, smashing a hole through a section of the unbroken ceiling above Arkenstone's own head. As he did this, Terra fell, his body turning away slightly so that he was almost perpendicular to Arkenstone, presenting a perfect target. Arkenstone brought the sword down, cleaving through his own teahouse and home in the process, bringing the blade down at Terra's neck.
In that instant, the battle that had rocked Ponyville came to an end.