//------------------------------// // Further Complications // Story: An Interesting Arrival // by Moongaze14 //------------------------------// Further Complications Twilight held a steady gaze as she glared at the troublemaker, who was awkwardly floating in her magical aura. She was having a nice time with her friends and now this unicorn had to show up and ruin her fun. As a Princess of Equestria, it was her sworn duty to protect her subjects and that was what she was going to do. Despite her anger at him, Twilight could not help to ponder on who was the stallion that she was apprehending. Rainbow Dash seemed eager to attack him based on the eerie way on which she was cracking her hooves, much to Rarity’s apprehension. But Pinkie Pie was waving at him in a friendly manner so there was a chance that he was not that bad. Think, Twilight. What is the best course of action to apprehend this criminal? Analyze the information that you gathered about him and the crimes that he committed. She quickly shook her head when she remembered that he was running away from the Pegasi Royal Guard based on what Rainbow Dash told her. What caught her attention was that he somehow used a spell that allowed him to walk on air. As much as it fascinated her to think of the mechanics behind the spell, she was confident that he was using it on his escape. Before she could ask him a question, the prisoner lighted his horn and disappeared in a green flash. Twilight and her friends gasped before he reappeared again, a few inches to the right on where he had been levitated. Growling at him for attempting to escape, Twilight tried to levitate him again, only for him to disappear in another green flash and then reappear on a nearby location. She tried to capture him a couple more times, only for her to get rewarded with the same results. “Stop moving around!” she growled at him in frustration as she kept trying in vain to capture him with her magic. “No,” he responded as he teleported away from her magical grasp again. “Here is a little piece of advice. It is possible for anypony to escape the levitation made by somepony else by teleporting away from the user’s aura. You may attempt to pick me up but I’ll always be away from that magenta magic you’re using.” Under normal circumstances, she would have asked him questions regarding his discovery. Using teleportation to counter the restraining power of a levitation spell was indeed a fascinating concept that could be applied to battle magic. However, the smug and somewhat condescending expression on the green stallion’s face was irritating. “That does it!” Rainbow Dash slammed both hooves together. “I say we charge at this jerk and teach him not to mess with Equestria!” Twilight considered the option. Teleportation required an extensive usage of magic and she had already counted him using the spell five times, and that was excluding any other spell he may have used prior the confrontation. On the other hoof, there was a chance that he may have a few more spells hidden beneath him based on what Pinkie Pie told her about their sliding. However, before she could decide what to do, Applejack took charge of the situation. “Hold on a minute, Rainbow Dash!” Applejack bit on the rainbow mare’s tail. “We don’t know anythin’ about this fella over here! There is somethin’ fishy about him.” “What’s the big deal, Applejack?” Rainbow Dash glared at her friend. “We took down chumps worse than him. This guy is only a plain old unicorn! We six can take him on! Heck, I bet I can take him down on my own!” Statice narrowed his eyes at Rainbow Dash. He was not the kind of pony that enjoyed getting into conflicts with others, but that didn’t mean that he tolerated being looked down on. If push came to shove, SHE was going to be the first one to fall. “Static is not a bad pony, silly!” Pinkie Pie bounced close to Rainbow Dash. A spring noise was heard with each bounce, making Statice tilt his head as he tried to hear it again. Where in the world did that noise came from? “He is a very fun guy. He and I went belly sliding and we had a blast!” “Maybe we can convince Mr. Static to come peacefully,” Rarity suggested as she walked in front of Statice with a seductive pace. “Excuse me, maybe we started with the wrong hoof. My name is Rarity and I would like to ask you to come with us and explain what happened that got you in the run from the royal guards. We won’t do anything to you that you’ll regret.” She finished her promise with battering her eyelashes at him. The stallion blushed at her gesture, making her giggle as she saw her charms working on him. She was certain that he would surrender himself peacefully and save her and the girls the trouble of capturing him. In his mind, Statice was chastising himself for blushing. He found the act embarrassing and avoided flirty females like a plague to focus on his work, as they tended to bring problems to his doorstep. It seemed that retirement allowed him to finally be attracted to mares as his life was no longer in danger by thinking about them. Despite her distracting allure, he gave Rarity the same answer he would always give to anypony that tried to sweet talk him into giving up. “No!” he punctuated with a firm hoof stomp. “What did you say?” Rarity asked, taken aghast by his resistance to her charms. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to willingly deliver myself to be arrested?” Statice looked at her as if she were dumb. “Just because you’re pretty it does not mean that I’ll throw away my freedom for you, babe!” Rarity’s shock turned into anger at his refusal. “Such nerve! How can you turn down a lady’s words like they were dirt?” “Because they are words from a mare with the manipulative spirit of a Changeling,” Statice countered, making the white mare gasp and recoil at the insult. “That does it!” Rarity screamed in anger. This sleight against her honor was not going to be left unpunished. “Give the signal, Twilight!” Realizing that a fight was incoming, Statice levitated several tables on a nearby restaurant and floated them in front of him and his new rivals. He brought one of the tables closer to him and stood on top of it before levitating it back to the other floating tables. In the good old days, this was one of numerous battle tactics that he used in fights. He never thought that he was going to use it again after retiring. “Brace yourselves, girls!” Twilight ordered, flaring her wings and lighting her horn at the stallion. “He is ready to attack, so don’t let your guard down!” “Let’s see how well your guard is then!” Statice challenged as he eyed the six mares that opposed him. Five of them were ready to fight him, with the exception of Fluttershy, who was cowering in the background. He knew that Twilight was good at magic, saw Rainbow Dash’s flying and fighting abilities, and had been stunned by Pinkie Pie’s surprise appearance. The only mares he didn’t know about were Rarity and Applejack. Despite getting a view of her personality, Statice did not know about the white unicorn’s fighting prowess, and the orange mare’s abilities were a mystery to him. The only way he could find about them was to test them out a little bit. I better take advantage of my first attack to see how good are those two. “Let’s start this!” he bellowed as he threw a table at Rarity and Applejack. Rarity squealed at the thrown projectile while Applejack leaped forward. She turned around, raised her hind legs, and then obliterated the table with a mighty buck. Statice felt his jaw drop as he saw such explosive power. It was official, the mare was stronger than him, so close quarter combats was off the table. “Nopony attacks my friends!” Rainbow Dash charged at him immediately after that. She quickly flew at him and turned around, ready to give him a good buck on the chest. Her hooves ended up shattering a table that the green stallion used as a shield to protect himself from her attack. Statice growled in frustration. It was obvious that Applejack and Rainbow Dash had him beat in physical strength. Furthermore, he was sure that Twilight surpassed him in magic based on their short altercation. To make matters worse, he was still unsure of what Pinkie Pie and Rarity could do in battle. This is bad! At least half the group surpasses me in physical and magical strength. The remaining half is still a mystery. To make matters worse, I'm still outnumbered! “Surprise!” Pinkie Pie yelled as she brought forth some sort of cannon out of nowhere and used it to shot confetti at Statice. The stallion yelped as he levitated the table on which he was standing away from the party projectile. The pink mare repeatedly kept shooting at him with her cannon, preventing him from going into the offensive. Much to his annoyance, every time that he dodged an attack from Pinkie he had to sacrifice a table as a shield for protection against a mighty punch or kick from Rainbow Dash or Applejack. If that wasn’t bad enough, Twilight was throwing magic blasts that were blowing his makeshift table shields into smithereens. Curse that pink menace! She's making me waste my resources! “Get out of my way!” Statice yelled as he attempted to throw a table to Rainbow Dash instead of using it as a shield. “Make me!” Rainbow Dash challenged him as she flew to the side of the table and delivered a flying kick to his chest. It was a complete agony for the green stallion. He had his share of fights in the past and he had been hit by worse, but that didn’t make her kick a pleasant experience for him. The mare’s kick had knocked him from his table and into the ground, making him lose focus on his magic. The surviving tables that had been floating in the air fell to the ground, shattering from the fall. “That hurt!” Statice growled as he clutched his chest. There was a nasty dark bruise on the center of it. He was going to make that rainbow witch pay for that kick! “Well this is gonna hurt a lot harder!” Applejack’s voice called out close by. As the stallion turned around, he saw a pair of orange hind hooves fly on his direction and striking him in the same spot where Rainbow had hit him. The buck was strong enough to lift Statice off his hooves as a pain, one far stronger than Rainbow’s blow, overwhelmed him as it joined with its predecessor. Of all the places where she could buck him, why did she decided to buck him in a place where he had been kicked a few seconds ago? The bruise that Rainbow gave him was now two times bigger than before and its sting grew worse. She was right...that hurt a lot worse. Landing on the ground, he slowly stood on shaky legs, clutching at his chest in pain. This was by far one of the most unpleasant battle experiences that he had ever felt in his entire life. The combination attack that Applejack and Rainbow Dash had pulled on him was an effective one. “You and I still have a score to settle, you ruffian!” Rarity charged at the downed stallion as she jumped forward with a battle cry and delivered a flying kick to his nose. For the third consecutive time, Statice had been knocked off his hooves like some chump and he fell once again on his back. He groaned in pain, not from the pain on his chest but from the sharp agony of his sore muzzle. He was certain that his nose was bleeding and that it was going to have a sharp red color when he took his hooves off of it. Even though my chest was not hurt worse again, it doesn't make this kick to the nose any better. “I told you we could beat him!” Rainbow Dash cheered as she did a hoof bump with Applejack and threw a smug look at Twilight. “You saw that Twilight! As long as we are together, nopony can beat us!” “Ah agree with Rainbow Dash over here,” Applejack winked at Twilight. “We all took down that varmint quite easily.” “You can say that we did teach him some manners,” Rarity raised her chin, trying to act like a lady now that the barbaric act of fighting was over. “I say we bring him to the guards and let the princesses decided what to do with him, Twilight.” Twilight cocked her head to the side to look at Statice. The green unicorn was not moving unless it was to groan in pain. Still, her instincts were telling him that the fight was won too easily considering the innovative way on which the stallion was fighting. That was easy. It was a little too easy. We don't win our fights that quickly. Even minor threats give us a harder time than this. No, Twilight. Don't overthink this... Her train of thoughts was interrupted when she heard Applejack yell. She quickly turned around and saw Applejack sinking into the earth. “Applejack!” Twilight and her friends cried out as they went to help the orange mare. Rainbow Dash and Rarity were trying to pull out Applejack out of the trap, but failed despite their efforts. They were immediately joined by Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. The five mares pulled Applejack again and again but to no avail, watching as their friend was slowly being devoured by the earth. “Help me!” Applejack screamed and begged, almost in tears, as her whole body was sinking, only her head was visible. “Ah don’t want things to end this way.” “And who says that you are getting completely swallowed?” Statice’s voice came out as Applejack turned her head, basically the only body part she could move at the moment, to stare at the green unicorn. “You did this to me?” Applejack asked, her voice carrying a bit of shock and anger at her enemy. Statice glared at the six mares, rubbing his nose to alleviate the pain from Rarity’s kick. “I sure did. I used my Quicksand spell to sink you into the earth from the neck down. Consider that payback for bucking me in the chest!” “I knew that was too easy of a victory!” Twilight pointed an accusing hoof at Statice. “You were faking defeat to take us down!” “As a matter of fact I was wallowing in pain before I got mad and decided to get serious,” Statice explained as he glared venomously at the five remaining mares. “Just you wait until Ah get out of here!” Applejack roared, infuriated at him for his surprise attack. “Don’t worry, AJ,” Rainbow Dash pounded her hooves together. “We’re getting this chump for you.” “Bring it!” Statice lighted his horn, a green aura surrounding his body as he spoke and assumed a fighting stance. The bruises on his chest and in his nose disappeared almost instantly as he looked at his remaining enemies intently. “He healed himself?” Rarity gasped upon seeing it. “That’s impossible!” Twilight was stunned at the magic she was witnessing. “I’ve seen spells like this in hospitals but this one is entirely different. Healing spells are supposed to reduce the damage done by injuries. They’re not advanced enough for instant regeneration.” “My Healing Spell is unique in the fact that I can repair any injury that has been dealt to my body,” Statice admitted in a somewhat bragging attitude. “You don’t get to survive in my line of work by letting injuries put you out of commission.” “You can heal yourself all you want and the result will be the same!” Rainbow Dash charged at Statice, unfazed by his spell. The green unicorn quickly placed a barrier around himself and her. Rainbow Dash did not deter from her attack and kept moving forward. The moment that she collided with the barrier, she let out a scream of pain as electricity surged across her body and knocked her several feet away from her opponent. Her friends gasped as she fell close to their hooves, twitching and with green lightning surrounding her body. “Did I forget to mention that I specialize in elemental magic?” Statice grinned smugly at the three mares that remained to be defeated. “I use earth magic, except that my specialty is lightning magic. The best part is that I can apply lightning to some of my battle spells for additional damage.” Twilight growled at Statice. How dare that jerk hurt her friend like that? The worst part came from guilt of not capturing him when he was groaning in the floor. The only way to make things right was to beat him and take him to justice. “You are not getting away with this!” Twilight declared as she assumed a fighting stance. “Nopony hurts my friends!” She analyzed her possibilities. The first thing she knew was that her opponent used elemental magic, which made him a real threat in magical combat. Throughout her studies with Celestia, Twilight learned that elemental magic was complicated as one needed to have a strong affinity towards an element of nature. It was rare to see a unicorn with mastery over elemental magic, but that was what made them a real threat in combat magic. Their ability of fusing elemental magic with offensive or defensive spells created a very versatile fighting style. “I think I can take care of this, girls,” Twilight turned her head to Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. “I can figure out a strategy to defeat him, but I need you to take Rainbow Dash and Applejack out of here.” “We can still help, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash protested, her limbs twitching and suffering spasms as she spoke. “You’re hurt, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight looked at the electrified pegasus with guilty eyes. “I can’t let you fight in these conditions.” “Ah’m afraid that Ah’ll have to agree with Twilight, Rainbow,” Applejack hung her head low in defeat. “We can’t fight like this. All we need to do is place our faith in Twilight.” Rainbow Dash tried to protest, only to find herself unable to argue with the orange pony. They had lost and now it was Twilight’s turn to make things right. “Take care of them!” Twilight looked at her remaining friends with a steady gaze. “We will do that, darling,” Rarity gave Twilight a reassuring smile. “Show him whose princess, Twilight!” Pinkie Pie cheered excitingly as she somehow used her mane as a drill to dig underground and try to get Applejack out of her burying spot. “We’ll take care of the others,” Fluttershy flew to Rainbow Dash, putting some rubber gloves on her hooves to protect herself from being electrocuted as she tended to the prismatic mare. Twilight smiled at her friends before confronting Statice, who stared at her with a bored expression on her face. Her face turned into seething anger as he stared at her with a passionless look on his face. On the meantime, Statice looked at her and the scene that she had with her friends with growing boredom. In all the time that she wasted having that touching scene, she could have ordered her remaining friends to surround him and attack at the same time. Instead, she challenged him in a one to one fight rather than rely on numerical advantage against him. Seriously, what was up with good guys and their pathological desire to prove themselves to their friends with sentimental speeches and honorable duels? “Are you mocking me?” Twilight demanded, blushing as he was mimicking her question with lip movements and hoof gestures. “You do realize that you wasted valuable time with that friendship speech when you could have just ganged up on me?” Statice asked her as he rolled his eyes at the purple mare for committing such a stupid mistake. Twilight blushed from his response before feeling indignation from his lecture. “What would you know about that? I bet you probably don’t even have friends!” Pinkie Pie immediately came up from the ground, close to Applejack’s side and winced. “Ooh, that was a low blow, Twilight!” It was just as the pink mare said. It was indeed a low blow. Statice snorted in anger at the verbal retaliation the purple mare threw at him. Forgetting any strategy that he was thinking in the spot to fight Twilight, Statice charged at her. Twilight quickly lowered her head, aiming her horn at the charging stallion. A magenta magical blast was shot from her horn only for the unicorn to sidestep it. She kept firing shot after shot, watching as each of them kept missing her target. By the time she was preparing another shot, Statice grabbed her horn with his hoof. “Let go off me!” Twilight shrieked, outraged at the stallion for touching her horn like that. She moved her head in any direction as her horn started shooting magic out of control. For his part, Statice was gritting his teeth at the pain on his hoof. Grabbing a unicorn’s horn was an excellent way to prevent them from using magic. At least that was his experience with other unicorns. Twilight was different in that she had a lot of magic inside of her and was capable of shooting consecutive blasts from her horn. It turns out those shooting magical blasts actually heats up one’s horn as Statice’s hoof was personally finding out on its own. By the stars, this thing is hot as an oven! “Let go off my horn!” Twilight demanded, thrashing her head back and forth as she continued firing her magic in random directions. She hoped that one of her blasts would immediately hit her captor on the face rather than enduring the disappointment that she was feeling when he still kept grabbing her horn as if his life depended on it. How long does he intent to keep holding on to my horn? LET GO! Twilight’s magic blasts were turning erratic as they hit several buildings and left small scorch marks from the impact. The situation got more out of control when Statice, unable to handle the pain in his hoof any longer, decided to just put her on a headlock and redirect her magical attacks rather than trying to block them. As the indignant mare kept thrashing around, her blasts were starting to hit where Statice desired them to hit, mainly in the direction of her friends. A blast hit Rarity, leaving her with a sizzled mane that caused her to shriek and faint at her new hairdo. Another one nearly hit Pinkie Pie, who immediately slammed her head through concrete in a curious imitation of an ostrich. Several were focused on Fluttershy, only to divert by a few millimeters away from her. Despite controlling Twilight’s blasts, Statice couldn’t bring himself to hurt the yellow pegasus. He didn’t know why other than she was too adorable to hurt. As he stared at her, Twilight used this to her advantage to push Statice away from her. She quickly threw a blast at him, one so fast that he barely managed to defend himself against with a magic shield. Although the shield took the blast head on, it broke against its power, leaving Statice to get hit and be sent a few feet away from Twilight. The battered stallion stood up again and used his Healing Spell on himself, more specifically on the right hoof he used to grab Twilight’s horn. The hoof was all black and charred from the ordeal that he put it through. He winced as he felt the heat that had been absorbed from Twilight’s magic. It was a lot of damage, so he employed more magic to return his hoof to its pristine condition. Pouring all his focus onto his hoof, his magical aura surround it and slowly returned it to its original green color. He sighed in relief as the pain went away only to be replaced with exhaustion after casting the spell. That was a lot of damage. I'm never trying that move again when a unicorn is casting. “Give up,” Twilight ordered with a stern gaze. “The fight is over. Just go with the royal guards and I will promise you a fair trial.” Statice stared at her. The correct choice would be to do as she said and let it all end with no further provocations. But, once again, he already assaulted a prince and resisted arrest so how worse could it get if he continued fighting. Rather than answering her, Statice charged at her. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!” Twilight sighed in disappointment. She prepared to fire another magical blast only for Statice to quickly cover the distance between them. The second she saw him raising his hoof, she knew that he was going to try to grab her horn again. “You won’t get away with it this time, Static!” she screamed as she met Statice’s attacking hoof with her own. The green stallion was unfazed as he tried to use his other hoof to grab her horn. Twilight immediately retaliated by meeting his second hoof with her other hoof. “Now you cannot do anything!” Twilight grinned smugly as she lowered her head and prepared to do a spell. This was her victory. She was sure about it. Even if he managed to escape from their locked position she was confident that he was not going to escape the royal guards that were approaching them right now. Her celebration was cut short when she felt something warm, moist, and sticky on her horn. She felt shivers at the unusual sensation and raised her eyes to see what was wrong with her horn. The thing that she saw coming out of her forehead was not her horn. It was gone. Instead of that, it was inside the maw of the green stallion she was fighting. He was literally sucking her horn. Twilight gasped as her face took a red hue. Everypony in the battlefield saw what happened and they all had different reactions. Rarity, who managed to awaken from her unconsciousness, gasped and immediately fainted upon seeing her. Rainbow Dash felt her jaw drop but a muscle spam made her close it immediately. Pinkie Pie quickly took her head from the ground and stared at the scene with a confused frown on her face. Applejack modestly moved her head to make her hat cover her eyes. Finally, Fluttershy started whimpering and blushing furiously at the scene, her shy mind finding it too much for her to handle. Even the arriving royal guards broke out of their stoic expression to stare at the pair in shock as what their eyes saw was too powerful for their training to handle. Statice went on biting and sucking her horn. It was a tactic that he used and was used against him every time that he fought a unicorn. By having something uncomfortable happening to his horn, a unicorn was not capable of concentrating enough to use magic. It was a theory that he used over the years and today was no exception. Soon, Twilight would not be capable of using magic and he was going to win the fight. It's not the method I intended ot use. Then again, as long as I win, it will suffice. Twilight’s mind raced several thoughts. The most common was that the jerk she was fighting was sucking her horn. No, he was sucking her horn in front of her friends and the royal guards. She gritted her teeth in anger and shut her eyes in frustration humiliation. She was going to make him pay for this humiliation! Statice kept biting onto her horn expecting her to give up swiftly. Instead of that, he saw her purple hoof coming straight at him. A resonating echo was heard as Twilight’s hoof slapped Statice on the cheek so hard that he was lifted off the ground, his mouth letting go of the horn it had captured for a few agonizing seconds. Everypony winced at the slap and were surprised at its power. Twilight was always the studious type of pony so it was a surprise for them all to see her knock somepony that hard with one slap. As Statice was once again on his haunches, he couldn’t help but place a hoof on his stinging cheek. That blow was harder than he expected. As he raised himself to prepare to fight again, Twilight’s magenta glow once again surrounded him. He was now suspended into the air, staring at the face of a very livid Twilight. She was snarling at him and glaring at him with unbridled anger. Tears were coming out of her eyes and a blush was still present on her cheeks, two responses that Statice was unable to understand. “You…you…jerk!” Twilight screamed as she slammed Statice into the ground with all of her strength. The slam knocked the wind off of the green stallion, preventing him from concentrating in a teleportation spell that could help him escape her grasp. “How dare you do that to me?” Twilight screamed as she slammed him against buildings and the ground. “You humiliated me in front of my friends!” She slammed him against the buildings and the floor. Everypony watching was wincing in sympathy for the poor stallion. The rest of the Elements of Harmony were stupefied at Twilight’s reaction. She was always in control of her emotions and never expected her to get that violent with anypony, even if that somepony had it coming. For their part, the royal guards were scared out of their wits. They were trained to respect the authority of the princesses and to fear their wrath should they ever bring harm to the citizens of Equestria. They’d never witnessed a princess’ fury before and it was now making them doubt if they ever had what it takes to be guard the princesses. With a final cry, Twilight slammed Statice into the ground with all of her strength. The green stallion could only moan in pain as his vision started turning black. He was losing consciousness. It was not the first time that he had been knocked out, but it was his first time since his retirement that this happened to him. As his vision faded to black, one thought crossed his mind. This is really going to hurt in the morning.