//------------------------------//
// A Book and its Cover 
// Story: Timeless Rulers 
// by Arcanum -Phantasy 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 6 A Book and its Cover

Twilight and Nevermore flinched as a massive surge of magical energy filled the air around them. They immediately took flight and a chill shot down their spines as they saw the barrier.
Fluttershy!
Twilight pored all her strength into her wings and bolted towards the orange dome, Nevermore keeping pace. As she got closer, Twilight aimed her horn at the barrier, magic gathering at its very tip. With a fierce roar, she stabbed her horn into it. She was immediately blasted back, her magic reflected like light on a mirror into its source. Before she could fall to her doom, Nevermore caught her with his magic and gently set her on the ground. The second he let go of her, she ran to the barrier and slammed herself against it. Like before, the force of her attack was thrown back at her. Frustrated, she slammed her hoofs into it in a futile attempt to punch through to help her friend.
“It is no use Twilight Sparkle,” Nevermore said as he touched down next to her. “This is the Grand Coliseum, one of Morning Star’s most powerful spells. Not even First Princess Celestia can break it.”
“B-But,” she sputtered. “Fluttershy!”
“I know,” he said, his normally blank face showing signs of anger. “I never thought that she would take this so far. How could Morning Star fall so low?”
Twilight gave the barrier one last pound before breaking into tears. 
“What can we do?”
“Pray,” Nevermore said, returning to his normal state of emotional neutrality. “Pray that you friend can get through this, and have faith in her abilities as an Element of Harmony.” 



*** 



Fluttershy dove to the side as Morning Star charged at her with an orange sword. With a snarl, the Alicorn materialized three more blades and fired them at her with pure murderous intent. Just like with the last strike, Fluttershy sidestepped out of the way than took to the sky. Unknown to her friends, since the Tornado Day incident, Fluttershy continued her flight exercises to try increasing her wing power.  At a result, she now had a level 9.75 wing-power rating, a solid 10 in short busts when she needed it. This gave Fluttershy the added boost she needed to avoid Morning Star’s wild attacks, but that wasn’t the only trick the yellow pegasus had her disposal. After dodging a few more attacks, Fluttershy flew towards Morning Star’s right and landed a light jab with one of her forelegs before flying away to avoid another sword swipe.
“Is that all you have?” Morning Star snarled, throwing one of her swords at the canary yellow pegasus. “Is that the limit of you so called ‘strength of friendship’?” 
Fluttershy didn’t answer. She was to busy keeping track of Morning Star’s weapons and openings in her defenses.
Two inches below the neck, Fluttershy thought, avoiding an attempted decapitation. Six inches above the left side of the flank. One sixteenth of an inch towards the spine between the primary wing bones. Three inches above the knees facing out to the sides. And finally, one inch below the base of the horn. 
“DAMN YOU!!!” Morning Star roared, taking to the air. “I’VE HAD ENOUGH!!!”
With that she poured a massive amount of her magic into her horn. In a brilliant orange flash, the ceiling of the barrier was filled with countless magic blades, all pointed at Fluttershy. 
“DIE!!!”
On cue, the mass of orange death rained down, ready to end the life of a lone pony. This should’ve terrified the poor mare. By all rights, she should’ve been begging the furious Alicorn for forgiveness and mercy. She didn’t do any of these things. She was as calm as a saint walking through a flower garden as she stared down the incoming barrage. 
Now!
As soon as the first sword was a foot above her, she reared up on her hind legs poured some of her magic into her wings, and flapped her wings together. On contact, her wings let out a thundering burst of sound, the force of which blasting all of the swords coming at her away in random directions, the rest getting planted harmlessly into the ground.
“H-How did you do that?” Morning Star stammered her rage momentarily replaced with astonishment.
“I used my magic to create a small thunder clap,” Fluttershy answered calmly. “It’s not that difficult. I could teach you how to do it later if you want.”
The compassionate smile she gave the war Princess filled her with unbridled fury. 
She had the gall to think she could teach me something? What nerve! Let’s show this worthless fool true magic!
With a roar, Morning Star channeled more of her magic and pulled all of her swords back into the sky, but instead of returning to their former positions, they gathered into a single point, merging into a massive ball of magic. She grinned wickedly as she asserted her will over the orb and shaped it into her signature weapon, an engine of destruction that won her countless battles. A titan that granted her her cutie mark. A massive spiked ball the size of Canterlot Castle hovered at the highest point of the barrier’s ceiling a thick chain anchoring it to a glowing orange handle held in Morning Star’s mouth.
Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she saw the moon-like death tool hovering above her, a slightly shaky “Oh my” passing from her lips.
Morning Star glanced down at Fluttershy, her eye narrowed.
Block this!
Using both her magic and strength, she tightened her grip and swung her goliath of a weapon down towards Fluttershy. The canary yellow mare wasted no time getting out of the morningstar’s path as she took to the air. A massive explosion filled the countryside as the weapon hit the earth. With a soft grunt, Morning Star pulled her namesake weapon out of the ground to take another swing at her prey, but paused as a strange feeling passed over her. Portions of her right side started to feel numb, making maintaining her center of balance more difficult.
What’s happening? Did I use too much magic? That can’t be it. Some kind of poison?
She didn’t get long to ponder this, as Fluttershy suddenly appeared in front of her, foreleg reared back to strike. She tried to move back to give herself the distance she needed to use her weapon safely, but the numbing effect on her body prevented her from moving the way she wanted and Fluttershy lightly jabbed her just below the base of her neck before flying to her left side.
Oh hell no!
She didn’t know what Fluttershy did to her, but she didn’t like the end result. In an attempt to ward off the mare, she swiped at her with one of her own forelegs, but Fluttershy dodged it and landed a light tap onto the space below Morning Star’s left front knee. She tried to buck her when she flew towards the empty space behind her, but that faired about as well as the Alicorn’s last attempt. When Fluttershy gave the space above her flank a firm slap Morning Star let out a mortified growl and abandoned her weapon.
“HOW DARE YOU!?” She bellowed, a slight blush on her cheeks as she tried to punch Fluttershy.
Looking slightly sheepish, Fluttershy dodged it and whispered, “I’m sorry” as she tapped her foreleg just below her right knee. Morning Star yelled in fury as she tried to plunge her only useable weapon, her horn, into Fluttershy’s chest, but before she could land the fatal blow, Fluttershy tapped her right between the eyes, just below the base of her horn. A sharp jolt shot through Morning Star’s body and she made a shocking discovery; she couldn’t move.
Impossible….
As the shock of her current condition set in, Fluttershy flew above her and tapped where Morning Star’s wings connected to her body and those too became useless. For a moment, Morning Star felt the familiar feeling of falling just before she felt a set of teeth bite down on her tail. Slowly, she was lowered onto the ground. The look in the warhorse’s eyes was a mix of fury and confusion.
“How?!” she growled. “How did you do this to me?! What did you do to me?!”
Fluttershy sighed.
“I spend a lot of time taking care of animals. Birds, mice, bears, even other ponies when things get desperate. Nursing so many sick creatures can make somepony very familiar with anatomy.
Morning Star’s eye widened as the pieces started to fall into place.
“You attacked my pressure points.”
Fluttershy nodded.
“I hate hurting ponies,” Fluttershy sighed sadly. “But I also know that I need to defend myself. When I asked Twilight what I should do, she told me that I needed to find a way to end a fight without hurting anypony more then I had to.”
“So you turned to your study of anatomy,” Morning Star growled, struggling to get to her hooves.
“Yes. That way, even somepony as frail as me could handle myself when I needed to.”
Morning Star let out a frustrated roar as she forced herself to stand, her legs straining in the attempt.
“And you think that makes you strong?!” she snarled. “Don’t make me laugh! A pony born in an era of peace has no idea what it truly takes to be strong! To put you own life on the line, end the life of those who dare stand against you and your army. To endure countless cuts, burses, sacrifices, betrayals, and still make it through to see the next day; that is true strength!”
Now fully standing, Morning Star towered over the pony that crippled her.
“A pony like you,” she continued. “Can never understand what I had to go through. You can never know the significant of the scares I bare. OF WHAT I HAD TO SACREFICE TO BECOME AS STRONG AS I!!!”
Suddenly, Morning Star flinched as if she had just been struck. With a pained grunt, she raised a hoof to her patched eye.
“No,” she growled. “Not her. She’s not worthy.”
“Miss M-Morning Star?” Fluttershy asked, backing away cautiously.
With an agonized scream, Morning Star looked into the sky and a blood red dome of magic formed around her like a bloody cocoon. Before Fluttershy could react to this sudden development the red dome shattered like glass, revealing a being that made her blood turn to ice.
Morning Star’s cote turned a muddy shade of red and her wings were midnight black. Her horn looked like an obsidian dagger that matched her silver mane and tail perfectly. Her good eye looked like a dragon’s eye dyed with flames of hatred. She smiled, revealing multiple pointed teeth. But what made Fluttershy cringe wasn’t her adversary’s resemblance to a former enemy, but the scars. All of the scars covering Morning Star’s body were glowing and dripping steady beads of blood like fresh wounds
“Now,” she leered, her voice sounding like a demonic echo. “Shall we begin the next round?”