//------------------------------// // Battle of Perception // Story: Equis: Interlude // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// Twilight sat calmly in the library, reading through a book Princess Celestia had recently sent her. Word had gotten back to the Princess that she had been having difficulty getting through her emotional baggage post the war, and knew from experience that the quickest way to help Twilight to deal with an emotional issue was to give her something to study. As a result, she'd taken into account the possibility of Twilight having to get into another such fight or situation - with the increase in contact with extra-Equestrial beings, that possibility unfortunately became more and more likely - and had delved into the books she hadn't intended to let Twilight study for fear of her following in a former student's path. The book was Starswirl's Treatise on Combat Magic: Power Corrupts Itself. Twilight was absolutely fascinated. Not only was it one of Starswirl's works that she'd never thought she'd get a chance to study, it was also considered the fundamental work on battle magic, like that which Luna had trained the Magickakorps in. Ever since it had arrived - by regular Equestrian post, as this was an original copy, penned by Starswirl himself, and had been enchanted for preservation and thus could not be sent via dragonfire mail - Twilight had been lost in its words. The latest chapter she was reading from covered why Magical Duels - in the traditional sense of the word Duel - had been discontinued back in Starswirl's day. The purpose of a Duel is to determine who is the strongest. When Earth Ponies duel, it is a contest of physical strength, and one can frequently determine who the winner will be early on in the duel. As a result, the winner can be declared long before somepony is in danger of collapse or grave wounding. When Pegasi Duel, it is a competition of flight, whether in speed, endurance, or skill. Again, the result can be determined long before either competitor is in danger of falling from the sky in exhaustion. Unicorns, on the other hand, are more tricky. The Magic Duel is a battle of spells, where each caster tries to overset the others abilities and achieve dominance in the match. This can be achieved in many ways. A unicorn with a great deal of magical reserves might use brute force to break their opponents enchantments, while one with less will more likely rely on deflection and misdirection. As a result, it is almost impossible to determine a winner in a true Magic Duel until the last spell has been cast...frequently when one or the other competitor dies from magical exhaustion. However, the truly clever combatant will use neither brute force nor deflection. Enchantments of any sort are beautiful, delicate creations...but the more power is put into them, the more flaws become apparent. The skilled magic user can find the flaws in an enchantment, work their magic into those flaws, and peel the enchantment away a layer at a time, using a few thaums worth of magic to undo an enchantment that cost a great deal to set up. This is why most protective enchantments are layered by different mages, making it harder and harder to find each successive layer of flaws. Few have the concentration to achieve this. As a result, the more modern form of dueling for unicorns has been established. Each competitor takes turns casting a spell, and the opponent attempts to duplicate the spell, or counter its effects with their own. For those who seek to compete in such events, be warned. It is not enough to have a large magical reserve, especially if said reserve is not drawn from ones own body. Magical exhaustion is the greatest danger of the Magic Duel, which is why I will be pushing for such practices to cease, and instead have the strength and skill of a unicorn be determined via a standardized test of some sort... Twilight gasped as she read that last line. "Starswirl the Bearded pushed the idea of tests?" she asked in shock. "I'm...I'm not sure how to feel about that..." "Skree!" Twilight's head jerked up as she heard that sound. She saw Sapphire floating in through the window, coming to hover around her. Her normal bright blue of love and contentment was streaked by yellow curiosity and red hunger. Once Twilight had discovered that the various colors of light Sapphire gave off reflected how she was feeling, she'd compiled a full chart of what every single color and shade meant for reference. "Oh, it's my turn to feed you, isn't it Sapphire?" she asked. "Skree!" Sapphire continued to hover back and forth, having not understood a word Twilight had said. Twilight chuckled as she saw this. "Right..." She thought for a time, then gathered her magic. She'd been trying to figure out what, exactly, Sapphire was, and this seemed a perfect opportunity. Casting a low level analysis spell over Sapphire before letting her feed should enable her to gather information about the exact nature of the feeding process. Focusing, she shaped the magic and settled it over Sapphire. To her surprise, the spell vanished as soon as it touched Sapphire, who skreed happily. "That's weird," Twilight murmured. Focusing, she cast a stronger analysis spell on Sapphire. This time, she felt the magic being sucked away before the spell collapsed inward. "You're...you're absorbing my magic!" Twilight said in shock. "I knew you could absorb magic through contact, but I didn't know you could absorb spells being cast at you." She scratched her chin. "If I want to study you better, I'm going to need to somehow change things so I can examine you magically." Closing her eyes, she cast a transmutation spell at Sapphire, trying to turn her into a pony. However, that spell too was absorbed before it could take effect, the magic drained right out of the spell form. "Rrgh!" Twilight growled. "Can't you turn that off?" Sapphire floated around for a bit. "Skree?" she asked, nuzzling the base of Twilight's horn. Twilight sighed. "Go ahead," she replied, tapping the spot. Sapphire immediately latched on and began to feed a bit. Twilight was unsurprised to see primarily the purplish-pink of the Element of Magic in her rainbow of feeding colors. As Sapphire fed slowly, Twilight settled down to think. Sapphire was a bit confused at the actions of Twilight Sparkle. Others had simply let her feed, but Twilight had thrown Food at her first. While Sapphire had been happy to discover she could eat thrown food, Twilight Sparkle seemed to get upset over it. Afterwards, Twilight Sparkle had allowed her to feed normally. This behavior confused Sapphire, and concerned her more than she thought it should. Some of the concepts the Queen had been explaining to her were beginning to make more sense, but not quite yet. Before she could think more on it, though, another not-Food who had far too much Food of the throwing sort inside her entered town. There seemed to be some kind of conflict between the new not-Food and Twilight Sparkle, as they threw Food at each other for a time. There was a lot of stray Food as a result, and Sapphire tried to eat what she could of it, but it slipped through her tendril-teeth, much to her frustration. The Food Fight seemed to reach a climactic point, and Sapphire did her best to pay attention. Twilight focused her magic as she struggled to reverse the age spell on Snips and Snails. Unfortunately, she hadn't actually studied age spells yet, and didn't know how to cast one of her own. Even if she had, layering a second age spell on top of an already existing one was just asking for trouble. After a time of struggling, however, she thought about what was going on. Each time Trixie had cast a spell, Twilight had countered it not with an identical spell, but with a different spell that counteracted it. This wasn't the modern duels of competitive magic. This was the more traditional duel, the sort Starswirl had pushed to have banned. So there were other options available. Remembering what she'd read in Starswirl's book earlier that day, she focused her magic on the age spell itself, rather than Snips and Snails. It was difficult, and not what she was used to as far as casting...but before too long she found the first fault in the spell. Grinning, she pushed her magic into the fault. As the spell started to buckle, Snips extra long mustache began to fall out, and Snails began to get bigger. The next fault became more visible as the spell buckled under the pressure Twilight was applying, and she forced her magic into it as well. A few more faults later - each one coming faster than the last - the spell broke away, leaving Snips and Snails at their normal ages. Trixie stared at the result in shock. "Impressive," she said at last before gathering her magic for her next assault. "Why don't I set the next challenge?" Twilight suggested. "After all, it hardly proves you can do things better than me if I'm working to counter you." Trixie paused for a bit, then smirked. "Very well," she proclaimed. "Set your challenge." Twilight managed a wide grin. Trixie had a lot of power, somehow, but she didn't seem to have the knowledge to back it up just now. "Sapphire!" she called out. "Skree?" Sapphire floated up beside Twilight, hovering over a tree branch. Trixie's jaw dropped. "What is that?" she demanded. "The next challenge," Twilight replied. Turning, she cast her spell. In a flash of light and smoke, a bluebird stood on the branch where Sapphire had hovered, twittering. Trixie smirked. "Transfiguration? Is that the best you can do?" Glowering, Trixie cast a powerful spell at the bluebird...but nothing happened. "What?" Trixie cast again, with the same result. She cast again and again, but no matter how many times she cast her spell, there was no change in the bluebird. Twilight watched Trixie as she cast, and began to notice something. Each time she cast, the amulet around her neck glowed first, and then her horn. And the more she cast, the weaker she seemed to become physically, even though the power of her spells didn't seem to decrease. While she didn't recognize the amulet itself, she quickly recognized an external magic battery like Starswirl had discussed. If she didn't do something soon, Trixie would burn herself out trying to reverse the spell, and likely die. Moving carefully, she waited for her moment between one casting and the next...and hit Trixie with a stunning spell she'd learned from Shining Armor, right at the base of her skull in the back. Trixie jerked and fell limp, her eyes rolled back into her head. Moving forward, Twilight removed the amulet from around Trixie's neck, deciding to keep it under lock and key until she'd figured out what it was. The color of the magic it had produced reminded her too much of Sombra to be entirely comfortable with leaving it out in the open. Noticing Fluttershy paying close attention to the bluebird with a worried expression, Twilight released the spell she'd been maintaining, revealing an unchanged Sapphire. She then turned to the unconscious Trixie. Trixie groaned as she slowly regained consciousness. "What...happened?" she asked, struggling to think. "Where am I?" "You're in the Golden Oaks library," Twilight replied. "How much do you remember?" "I..." Trixie paused. She wasn't going to let herself seem weak in front of her enemy. "Trixie remembers putting the amulet on. She...she remembers coming to Ponyville for revenge...she..." As the memories bubbled to the surface, she shuddered. "Did Trixie really terrorize the entire town just for...a duel?" "The Alicorn Amulet is a dark magic artifact," Twilight explained, showing the page in Starswirl's tome that described it. "While it gives a normal unicorn the power of an alicorn, it slowly eats away at their soul and life force as it does so. If left on too long or used too much, the wearer becomes a slave to the collar, and eventually they can't live without it. The longer you wore it, the more corrupted by its power you became. You could have gotten much worse." Trixie shivered at the very idea of it. Just remembering what she'd done to some of the ponies was unpleasant. Trying to imagine worse... "So are you here to gloat over how you've proven better than Trixie again?" she demanded. "To rub Trixie's nose in how...how weak and pathetic she is compared to you?" It hurt to say the words, but Trixie wanted to get some sort of reaction out of Twilight. Something, anything... Twilight sat down in front of Trixie. "Actually, I'm here to apologize," she stated simply. At Trixie's shocked expression, she continued. "For how my friends and I acted back at your first show here." Trixie's jaw went slack. "W...what?" "You were a performer, doing your show," Twilight explained. "It was wrong of Rarity, Rainbow, and Applejack to insult your show or try to upstage you in your own performance. If we didn't like your show, we should have just left and let others enjoy it. If we'd done that - if we'd respected you as a performer rather than treated your act with derision, you would have enjoyed your time in Ponyville without any problems...because Snips and Snails wouldn't have brought the Ursa Minor for you to 'vanquish' if Spike hadn't been so derisive of you, which wouldn't have happened if we hadn't been." She sighed. "I know it isn't much...but I hope you can forgive us." Trixie stared at Twilight like she'd grown a second head. She wasn't sure how to react. At that moment, a loud, "Skree-ECH!" noise heralded a blast of magic tearing through town. "Do it again! Do it again!" Pinkie shouted happily. Racing to the window, Twilight gasped at what she saw. "Pinkie! What do you think you're doing with the amulet?" Pinkie looked up innocently. "Well, the Amulet's dangerous magic, and you said Sapphire eats magic, which is why you couldn't enchant her earlier, so I thought we'd feed the Amulet to Sapphire...except she belched up a laser. It was awesome!" "Pinkie!" Twilight shouted in rage and shock. "What part of 'dangerous dark magic' did you not understand?" "Wait!" Trixie demanded. "If that thing eats magic and can't be enchanted, how did you turn it into a bluebird?" Twilight giggled. "I didn't," she replied. "I cast a perception filter on the air around her that made everyone see and hear a bluebird where she was. Sometimes the real trick in magic is just that...a trick. What ponies think happened, rather than what really happened." She smiled warmly. "I learned that from your performance." Trixie blinked for a time, then returned the smile shyly. Sapphire settled slowly to the table in the Queen's cottage. She was feeling very tired. So many things that happened that day didn't make sense - especially the Queen's explanation of the discussion with the new not-Food. Apparently, a wrong had been done a long time ago, and was being made right. Sapphire didn't understand it. Her mind was hurting. There was too much in her core. She couldn't think. However, as she started to drift into slumber, her outer membrane hardening slightly, something inside seemed to click. The way the Queen and the others interacted...it was like Us but without the Us bond...except sometimes the bond was there. As Sapphire's consciousness slipped away, and she felt the Queen wrapping a blanket around her, she began to grasp the concept of 'Friend'...