//------------------------------// // 4: Self-Discovery // Story: The Chaotic Touch of Harmony: The Stars // by law abiding pony //------------------------------// Aquaria and Aurora squared off against each other in a remote part of left field, near the stands. The anthro princess used her magic to discolor the grass to form a large ring. Aquaria’s heart was pounding in her chest at the coming fight. Aurora was a few meters away, facing a flying drone that had delivered a staff-like weapon. The drone took possession of both mares’ headsets not only to avoid damaging them, but their mana assistance hardware was forbidden in duels. Aquaria recognized the weapon instantly as an official composite duelist staff used by humans to channel simple spells and to protect them from telekinesis. It bore emergency kenetic dampening fields on the tips to avoid serious injury. Aurora gave it a few deft twirls, reminding Aquaria that she should be mentally preparing herself. Unfortunately, Aurora didn’t give her a chance before she began speaking. “I suppose we’ll go with the standard rule set. No unicorn detection magic, leave the ring and you’re out, no sleep or instant KO spells.” She didn’t bother mentioning the forbidden practice of the more lethal spells out there. “Agreed,” Aquaria choked out while trying to hide her fraying nerves. “Fight with your own style, Duelist,” Aurora offered warmly, yet with an edge of command. “And don’t hold back on my account.” She took a large plastic jug off the flying drone before throwing it at Aquaria who caught it out of instinct. “You’ll need that.” She only barely acknowledged it was filled with water before trying to focus on the fight to come. While someone would have to dig for footage on one of Aquaria’s matches, the records on Aurora in Duelist circles were plentiful. This was largely due to the fact that non-natural anthros, due to it not being their original form, were generally forbidden from participating in duels unless they reverted back for the match. Since Aurora was the only one of her bloodline to have an interest in dueling, that made her mix of human and pony styles unique, and therefore extremely tricky to counter. She’s had a full lifetime to master it, and still has her youth. Aquaria thought worriedly. Not wanting to keep her demi-goddess waiting, Aquaria opened the jug and magically pulled the water out to form three spheres around her. No doubt she’ll refrain from using her full strength, if only so that she won’t always overpower my parries. Aurora allowed her two coat tails to flow freely, a self-imposed handicap, and thrust her staff forward into a ready position. “Fight with honor, Duelist Aquaria,” she stated the traditional greeting. “Honor guide us,” Aquaria replied. They bowed to one another before adopting combat stances. The robotic drone flew over to the center and started a three second countdown. “Three… Two… One… Go!” With a single, heavy flap of her wings, Aurora exploded forward with her staff held high. Aquaria used two water orbs to shove herself out of the way while forcing the third to expand into steam. Instinct made Aurora want to use her unicorn style magic-sight, but remembered the rules forbade it. Instead she used her earth magic to root herself in the soft grass and gathered her pegasi mana to flap her wings with enough force to cause small concussion wave to push the steam away. However the steam only moved briefly before being reformed into a sphere around Aurora, obscuring her vision even further. “I always loved fighting water magi,” Aurora announced. Thanks, Aquaria thought, not willing to get baited into speaking and giving away her position. She took a stable stance and started forming her other two orbs into a spear of ice. Yet she barely got started when Aurora charged straight at her, still obscured by the ball of steam. Aquaria scrambled away, throwing the useless steam away so she could see the staff flashing towards her. She rapidly formed a flurry of ice and flung it at Aurora, slowing her down just enough to roll away from the staff as it came down hard on the grass. “How did you find me?” she asked as Aurora flapped her wings hard to leap above the swirling hail storm and behind Aquaria with her staff coming in for a follow up strike. This time, Aquaria was ready for it and jumped to the left and sent out a brief but massive shockwave to shove Aurora back. The alicorn’s answer was to stomp a hoof into the ground, causing the grass to rapidly grow and root her legs in place to keep from being thrown back. “Your hoofsteps give you away,” Aurora instructed. The grass let go as soon as the shockwave passed by. “I like to think of myself as a pure Terran. All three tribes: Earth, pegasi, unicorn, and humanity in one body. Today, you fight an Athrocorn!” “Really,” Aquaria deadpanned. She had heard the term in the past, but still found it weird. “Anthrocorn?” A kinetic bolt from Aurora’s horn shocked Aquaria back into action, enough to form a water shield in front. The next bolt blasted the water apart, but the barrier quickly reformed. “I thought it was fitting,” Aurora teased with a mischievous grin. By now, dozens of party guests had taken notice of the duel with most of them running or flying over to investigate, including Violet and Alexia. The growing crowd started to gather in the stands at the impromptu dueling match. Aquaria barely noticed any of that as Aurora leapt through the air again with her magic curled around the staff to her side while her glowing fists were poised to strike. The younger mage pushed all of her water into the torn up soil and bounded away at the last minute. Aurora pounded her fists into the muddy ground with enough force to nearly drive her arms in up to her elbows. Aquaria tried to press the advantage by rapidly freezing the mud while distracting Aurora with a kinetic bolt. Yet her concentration was broken by the staff sailing towards her in Aurora’s telekinesis. Aquaria pulled enough water from the humid air to encase the staff within enchanted ice, severing Aurora’s grip over it. Aquaria barely had time to lockdown the staff before Aurora tackled her, causing the pair to roll before she found herself in a neck hold. “You keep forgetting my earth magic,” a mud drenched Aurora chastised. “Mud can’t hold me.” “Maybe,” Aquaria admitted through her clenched teeth before the soil-laden water raced over and slammed into Aurora’s face. The mud’s slipperiness allowed Aquaria to get loose of Aurora’s grip, but she was tripped up by a leg sweep before putting any distance between them. Aquaria rolled to avoid a hoof stomp and recollected water for her orbs, now up to five. While on her belly, Aurora quickly pushed herself up with help from her wings. She began weaving a spell. The glint in her eye made Aquaria focus her water shield forward. Aurora heaved a fireball at her staff, instead of her opponent, flash melting enough ice to telekinetically grip it again and pulled it over into her hands. She took a moment to look down at her mud caked blouse. One of the coat tails were badly torn and both were drenched in mud. Even her actual pony tail had a heavy dose of dirt caked onto the edge. “You got mud on my favorite blouse,” she announced with veiled amusement. “Heh, and here I was, embarrassed for not having anything to wear tonight,” Aquaria shot back as she used a bit of water to wash some of the mud off her face to prevent it from getting in her eyes. Grinning widely, Aurora planted both hooves solidly on the ground before vaulting into the air preparing another long downward slash. Aquaria huffed at the repeated attack and charged her water with explosive mana and brought it up to shield the blow. Right at the peak of Aurora’s arc, the ground under Aquaria’s hooves surged upward, pushing her towards Aurora and ruining her water shield. The unstable earth threw her hooves out from under her, causing her to roll onto her back. She tried to scramble away, but Aurora kept the unicorn locked in place with her telekinesis applied to the ripped up blobs of grass and soil around Aquaria’s hooves. Aquaria panicked and tried to send her water in for an attack to draw her off, but it wasn’t fast enough to reach the anthrocorn. Aquaria’s world came to a sudden stop when the mountain of dirt halted. Aurora’s staff swung just to the right of Aquaria’s face, embedding itself in the dirt. She hovered there with an approving grin. “Do you yield?” Aquaria’s heart was trying to beat its way out of her chest. The staff had been so close it brushed the fur on her face on the way down, and the impact made the large pillar of dirt shift under her head, and threatened to pull a chunk of her mane out by the roots. “Y- yes, I yield. Well fought,” she said automatically. The crowd roared in applause as the two combatants returned to ground level and waved in reciprocation. Alexia, Violet, and Discord, who was now a pegasus, hovered above it all as the original drone blew a whistle, calling the match officially over. “I must say, Alexia,” Discord pondered with pride, “you’ve done quite well with little Sky’s fisticuffs training.” “I can’t take that much credit,” Alexia said with beaming pride. “Crimson, and her father were paramount in both my daughters’ training.” “That’s why Aurora is so proficient with aerial acrobatics and earth style magic,” Violet clarified. “But she’s no match for me in unicorn style.” Discord watched the muddy duelists make their way towards the showers. “This culture of yours fascinates me to no end on, ladies.” Discord wanted to cruise around on a less mana intensive avatar, but that wouldn’t do in public. As fun as it would be to cause rumors she’s doing drugs, I’ll just have to pass since she’s going off to the Koridost soon. In the end, he opted to just orbit the alicorns. “Sure, you have an alien menace to worry about, but even in times of peace you terrans always express such natural chaos it’s enough to make a grown draconequus cry.” He wiped a tear away which turned into a frog and landed on a mares’ back down below. “The chaos of battle, but none of the death that usually goes along with it.” “Are you going soft on us, Uncle?” Violet teased with a prodding hoof. Discord almost looked insulted. “No matter what your Aunt Twilight says about me, I wasn’t ever one for murder and killing.” His tone shifted towards jolly in an instant. “But I can appreciate the chaos of battle as much as anypony.” “Well I for one would like to go back to the chaos of partying,” Violet announced as she noticed the crowd doing the same thing. Alexia and Discord watched Violet go for a moment before Alexia turned to Discord and spoke. “Any luck on finding Fluttershy’s new incarnation?” “I did actually.” Alexia grew concerned when Discord’s tone didn’t remain joval. “But she’s barely out of diapers. I don’t even need Twilight’s request to stay away until she’s a full grown mare.” “Believe me, I know your pain. A least she lived a long and happy life.” Discord knew Alexia was just trying to be comforting, but he wanted no part of an emotional event. “Yes, well, such is the way of things. I’m off to join Vi, ta ta!” Alexia blinked a moment before realizing why he left. Friendship really is all he wants now. It’s too bad his fount of power is rooted in Equiss. Living here would mean leaving him even more magic-less than a human. Casting such dark musing aside, Alexia teleported over to the party to join in. Within the mostly empty locker rooms, Aurora basked in the comforting hot shower with Aquaria on the opposite side of the narrow room where the pony height shower heads were. With ponykind’s already nearly nonexistent personal modesty, the pair didn’t even question sharing the room, even with one being a demi-goddess. Both mares’ minds were on anything but hygiene though. Aquaria absently scrubbed herself as she kept replaying the duel over and over in her mind. She was so engrossed in her musings that when Aurora spoke it made her jump. “How’s your gehirn?” Even though Equis had become an unofficial world language, Aquaria was flattered that Aurora attempted to use some German, even if her inflection was terrible. “I feel… clearer, I think.” She turned to find that Aurora had put in a lot of effort to have what amounted to a furry woman’s torso. Curiosity aside, Aquaria actually saw Aurora in a different light. “I’ve watched your duel matches dozens of times before, but back there… It felt like I knew what you were going to do sometimes, and that I knew that you could predict my movements as well.” “You have a lot of the same tells, my father did. We sparred often enough that I learned most of them. Yet you have your own style, Duelist Aquaria,” she added with professional accolades. “While learning the fact that you used to be Conrad Tune in a previous life is certainly a revelation, it ultimately doesn’t change who you are.” Aquaria searched the princess’ face for a deeper meaning than what she surmised. “I’m still me, regardless. Because Conrad’s always been a part of me.” “From birth,” Aurora finished. Giving a soft smile, Aurora turned back around to finish washing her tail and hair. “What you do with that knowledge is up to you, Aquaria.” We keep having to tell Nova that a bunch, but she’s as weird as Loki. Aurora was glad that her sudden frown was hidden from Aquaria. The blue unicorn sat quietly under the running water, staring at the drain. The conversation died out as Aurora decided to leave her to her thoughts. Not another word was shared between them until long after both of them were clean. Aurora dried herself off and found her still mudcaked blouse, the rips in the fabric were gone. Gotta love the miracle of regenerative fabric. I’ll still need to take this to the dry cleaners though. Summoning some emergency clothing, Aurora donned them by the time Aquaria left the showers to dry off as well. “Be safe, Aquaria. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow before I set off for the Koridost mission.” “I will, thank you. For everything tonight.” she added at length with a terse smile. “It was my pleasure,” Aurora answered back with a warmer grin. It’s the least I can do for the heir to my father’s soul. While the party was still in full swing, the two duelists were exhausted enough to call it night.