Celestia awoke with a pained groan. Her head was pounding like somepony had repurposed it as a drum, and a stiffness in her neck suggesting that she’d slept in the same position all night. A probable result of her desire not to crush her student with any ill-advised movement, but no less frustrating for knowing its origin. Even the bandages that the doctors had wrapped around her chest, despite her objections, chafed and irritated.
She blinked a few times, trying to moisten her eyes so they would stop feeling like sandpaper, and looked around the room. The medical wing of the castle was almost completely empty, save for some of the night staff who were finishing up their shift. The sun had yet to rise, and for just a moment, she wished that she had created some sort of back-up to do it for her.
One brief moment of concentration and a spike in her headache later, the first light of the morning began filtering through the windows. Upon which she realised that her surroundings had changed. Or, more specifically, that the purple filly that had been on her bed for most of the previous day (and subsequent night) had vanished.
From what she knew of Twilight, the filly was nothing if not a heavy sleeper. Having her wake up before Celestia herself (and more importantly, before dawn) was worrisome. Or she hasn’t slept at all because of the nerves. Celestia sighed. It certainly explained why Twilight wasn’t on the bed. Inquisitive was a good trait for a student to have, but Twilight definitely balanced it out with impatience and restlessness. She needed to be challenged.
Which... did not explain where the filly had gone.
Celestia hoisted herself out of the bed with some difficulty and made for the door, stopping only briefly to tell one of the nurses to pass along a message. Outside the door, she caught Aegis’ eyes. The guard pony looked much more worried about the state she was in than she did herself, but did not protest when she asked him for Twilight’s whereabouts.
That stoic silence which was so characteristic for the Royal Guard was somehow off-putting. Perhaps it was due to the fact that, while he did not speak, Aegis kept looking back at her, as though he didn’t trust her to be able to follow him. “I’m fine, Aegis,” she said exasperatedly when he turned his head for the fifth time since they’d left the infirmary.
“With all due respect, Princess. I’m not so sure.” Aegis stopped walking and turned to face her completely. “I know it’s not my job to question your decisions...” He petered out and licked his lips.
“But?” Celestia prompted him.
“But between making Twilight fight in that duel, and the fact that you end up hurt more often than not when you try to teach her magic...” He sighed.
A tightness warred with an intense anger in Celestia’s chest. “Please don’t tell me you believe the crackpot theories that reporter has been spouting...”
Aegis shook his head in response.
“Then what? Convinced that Twilight is ‘too powerful’?” She gave Aegis no chance to reply, taking a step towards him while she talked with an ever increasing intensity. “Tell me something, Aegis. Did I, or did I not tell you that I would bleed if I were stabbed by a spear?”
The guard gulped and nodded. “Yes, Princess. Although technically—”
Another step. The air around her mane and tail sparked and sizzled. “And tell me, would it matter if that spear was held by a minotaur or a young colt?”
“I guess... somewhat. Minotaurs are significantly stronger, although their lack of agility would make it much easier to—”
“It was a rhetorical question, guardsman,” Celestia growled, taking one last step that put her muzzle inches from his. “The answer is no, it doesn’t. Just because Twilight hasn’t learned how to control her magic, doesn’t mean that any of my injuries wouldn’t have happened had it been somepony else!”
She towered over him, easily twice his size, and stronger than anypony alive, but dammit, that didn’t mean that she was invulnerable! She noticed his eyes dart from hers, down to her lips and then back up again. It created a spark of unease within the swirling maelstrom that was her mind. High tension situations tended to draw out subconscious, or even conscious desires and she could not handle any of that right now. There was too much on her mind already.
Luckily, what Aegis found instead was his spine. He straightened his back and looked up at her with steel in his eyes. “Permission to speak freely, Princess?”
Celestia pulled back a ways, reigning in her anger. It wasn’t without difficulty, however. Her ire still boiled under the surface, and her teeth were beginning to ache from the gnashing she was subjecting them to, but at the very least she wasn’t about to set the air around her on fire anymore. She nodded curtly. “Speak.”
“The question you asked me wasn’t rhetorical at all,” he began. “Circumstances always matter in combat, as they do anywhere else. If you were stabbed by a spear, yes, I believe you would bleed, but there are a multitude of decisions and actions that could have been taken before you got to that point. A Minotaur would do a lot more damage because there is more muscle behind the stab, but they are generally less accurate because of it, meaning you could have avoided his attack altogether.” Celestia opened her mouth with a retort on her lips, but Aegis pressed on. “Similarly, while I believe that there are some things nopony can foresee happening, I don’t believe for an instant that you would have been injured yesterday, had that spell come from anypony other than Twilight. I’ve seen you defend yourself from magical attacks with ease, even if that was just for show.”
Celestia regarded her bodyguard, with a newfound respect. Her anger subsided. He had taken the wind right out of her sails.
He’s right. “Perhaps.” Her reply was tentative at best. She wasn’t ready, or perhaps willing, to let go of her anger just yet.
“Maybe you didn’t see it coming, or couldn’t get out of the way fast enough...” He took a deep breath. “But I’ve seen you use magic often enough that I know you could pull up a shield faster than I can say the word.”
“Your point? Are you suggesting you want to be present for all of my lessons with her? Throw yourself in front of me should something else go wrong?” The fire in Celestia’s chest had died out, and all that remained was a profound feeling of exhaustion.
To her surprise, Aegis chuckled. “No, Princess. Not like that. I doubt it would do any good. But pushing Twilight into something she’s clearly not ready for, and having accidents occur as a result... might not be the best decision you’ve ever made.”
Celestia plastered a passable smile on her face. It had been lost in her anger, but now she felt a dull pain in her chest with every breath. “You... might be right.”
“What I’m saying, Princess... Is...” He opened his mouth, closed it again, and looked down at the floor for what felt like forever. “What I’m saying is, everypony counts on you. We’d be lost without our Princess to lead the country. So perhaps it would be a good idea to take a few more precautions? While teaching Twilight magic at any rate...” She noted a faint flush peeking out from behind the face-protection of his helmet. “Although I wouldn’t mind watching your lessons with her...” He flushed further and shook his head. “To look for possible areas of improvement, if nothing else.”
A cavalcade of possible responses from the dismissive to the outright insulting paraded through Celestia’s head, spawns of her anger, no doubt. Rather than choose any of them, she said, “Forgive me, Aegis. I have not been having the best of times lately. You’re right, and I would be pleased if you helped me make things a little safer for everypony involved. Now, if that is all... I’m tired, I’m in pain, and I’m hungry. So unless you have more to say, I would like to get to the Dining Hall.”
Aegis smiled. A little sheepishly, if Celestia read him right. “Yes, of course, Princess.”
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately depending on the perspective, they ran into the ‘yea or nay’ crowd on the way there. The crowd whose questions had grown in volume and urgency for every moment she had managed to evade them. So by the time they arrived at their destination, ‘breakfast’ had become ‘brunch’.
She was used to a ripple of silence accompanying her entrance, which made it all the more curious when it didn’t happen. The stares, on the other hoof, were new. Not exactly unexpected, but new. As was the self-conscious feeling that crept up on her. Did she feel that way because of the obvious signs that she'd gotten hurt? She swallowed her trepidation and shook her head, walking across the hall with a renewed understanding of how Twilight felt.
When she came to her table, she found a Twilight... made of waffles. And across from the waffle-Twilight, she found the genuine article. The two seemed to be locked in a contest of wills, Twilight trying with all her might not to blink, while her confectionary counterpart tried its hardest not to droop under the enormous amounts of syrup that had been poured all over it.
“Mr. Mead? Do I really need to eat all of this to win the duel?” the filly asked, looking past the floury facsimile of herself.
Mead, who’d just left the kitchens with over a dozen plates stacked on his back in a very intricate pattern winked at Celestia and indicated Twilight with his head before giving her a big smile. “Completely sure,” he then told the filly with a completely straight face; “it’s an old Earthpony training ritual. ‘Beating yourself by eating yourself!’”
“Who came up with that?” Twilight yelled after him, picking up a fork with her magic and hesitantly poking at the food with it. “It’s bigger than I am! How would it even fit?”
Mead laughed out loud, and even Celestia had to suppress a giggle while she stepped up behind Twilight. The filly didn’t seem to have noticed her, engrossed by, and hesitantly poking at her pseudo-meal. It provided her with a moment to study the non-Twilight. Up close, it was clearly made out of waffles, with all that entailed. The horn drooped, the eyes lacked pupils or even any real depth, and one of the ears was missing a piece, to name but a few of the flaws. None of which detracted from the fact that it was modeled after Twilight. It made her wonder how many unicorns Mead had asked to assist him with that little project, and to what degree his uncanny ability to make food turn out in the way he desired had played into its creation.
She also worried that its consumption might send Twilight into a food induced stupor.
“The magic of fine cuisine, Twilight. ” Mead declared with a grand flourish after he returned. He smiled again and made a small gesture to Celestia with his chin. “And in case it doesn’t, you could always ask the Princess to help you with it.”
Twilight turned around so quickly that she almost fell off of the chair she’d been sitting in. “Good morning, Princess!” She chirped, with a smile that was a lot happier than what Celestia had expected.
“Good morning, Twilight.”
“Mead made me breakfast!” Twilight continued, presenting the waffle-Twilight as one would present the star of a catwalk modeling scene.
Celestia smiled goodnaturedly. “So I see.”
“Do you know who it is?”
Stepping in close, Celestia took the time to deliberately inspect the breakfast pony from up close. “Hmmm...” She pulled her face into a thoughtful frown and watched Twilight from the corner of her eyes. “I have to say, it does remind me of someone... I just can’t put my hoof on who.”
“It’s me!” Twilight hopped up on the table and stood next to the wilting statue and looked straight ahead for about three seconds before she turned back to Celestia. “You see?”
Celestia made a big show of comparing the breakfast and the filly, letting out the occasional ‘hmmm’ or ‘I see’ as she did so. After a moment, she nodded. “Yes, I see the resemblance. Although it seems more... sticky, and it also seems to be drooping more to the left than you are.”
“That’s because it’s waffles,” Twilight replied with the infinite wisdom that only children possessed.
Celestia chuckled heartily. “So it is.” She turned her attention to Mead while internally debating whether to praise him for his artistry, or scold him for the sheer notion of a waffle-pony. The spot where the chef-cook had been was empty. He had, perhaps wisely, gone back to work, so she looked to Twilight instead. “Have you decided what you’re going to do with your lookalike yet?”
Twilight shrugged. “Mead said that I should eat it...” She looked to Celestia in confusion. “Is there anything else I could do with it?”
The idea of preserving the confectionary lay on the tip of Celestia’s tongue but she swallowed it. “Nothing, Twilight. Forget I said anything.” She finally took her seat and let out a sigh of relief when the pain in her chest eased up a little. Twilight had gone back to looking at her breakfast, but wasn’t otherwise making a move to get started. Understandable, it was a rather monumental task to entrust to one filly. Much like the duel you’re having her fight. Celestia thought sourly.
She had spent most of the previous day explaining the theory behind the runes to Twilight, which the filly seemed to respond better to than a practical demonstration had. By the time evening had rolled around, she’d switched topics, or rather, talked with Twilight about the duel and everything she thought the filly should know. In between, she’d carefully quizzed her student on the how’s and why’s of her motivations pertaining said duel, but hadn’t come up with a satisfying answer.
Twilight didn’t seem worried by the upcoming fight, which made Celestia all the more sure that she hadn’t explained herself properly. While unicorn duels were no longer fatal (she had outlawed that very possibility centuries ago) there was still a very real danger of injury, especially on Blueblood’s part. While she wasn’t entirely sure if Blueblood could muster anything powerful enough to cause any lasting harm, Twilight most certainly could.
If Twilight won, the Duchess would make a big stink about it. She’d accuse Twilight (and perhaps Celestia herself) of cheating, and would find some other way to make Celestia’s life miserable. That would be the least of it. If Twilight lost however...
Celestia looked up from her thoughts to find Twilight looking at her, with the vague notion that she’d missed something. “Um... I’m sorry, Twilight, did you say something?”
“I said: ‘Will you help me eat it?’” the filly repeated. “It... it looks yummy but I think my tummy would explode if I tried to eat all of it.”
“I think you’re right about that. Of course I’ll help,” Celestia replied. With all the food that had been brought to them in the medical wing the previous day, she wasn’t exactly hungry. But she could do with a little treat. She quickly plucked the knife from Twilight’s magic with her own, and proceeded to cut the waffle pony into pieces that actually fit on a plate. She hadn’t forgotten the incident, and wasn’t keen on a repeat performance.
Mead was the best cook. Twilight had suspected that he might not be as good as her mother when she first came to the castle (mothers were magical that way), but now with a mouthful of Waffle-Twilight, she was convinced that he had to be the best chef in Equestria, maybe ever.
Surprisingly, eating her way through half of her breakfast was a cinch. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the Princess ate two plates for every one she did, but it was still easier than expected. Perhaps Mead made it hollow? She let her gaze drift across the room while she munched on a mouthful of waffle, until she came to the bandages that were wrapped around the Princess’ chest. “Princess?” she asked, sending bits of waffle flying across the table.
The Princess looked at her and shook her head. “Don’t talk with your mouth full, Twilight.”
The Princess sounded like her father, which briefly distracted Twilight with thoughts of her parents. Her mother’s visit had made her realise just how much she missed them, and she wished that her father would show up today, if only so she could give him a hug and show how much she’d already learned. Once the contents of her mouth were on their way to her stomach, she focused on the Princess again. “Princess, why did you lie to all those ponies?”
She had to wait until the Princess had swallowed her own bite of waffle-twilight, and giggled at the thought of the Princess eating her, waffle clone though it might be.
“Because ponies have certain preconceptions, Twilight. And letting those persist could create a lot of problems for the both of us in the future.” She sighed and speared another piece of Twilight to her fork. “It’s not something you need to be worried about. You should to focus on the duel.”
Twilight didn’t know what preconcepters were, but she understood enough of the answer to know that the Princess wasn’t happy about it. Perhaps she shouldn’t continue asking questions if that were the case, she didn’t want to upset the Princess after all. Twilight frowned. But if the Princess was already upset, how could she help if she didn’t know what the problem was? The conundrum occupied her for a good long while, without leading to any kind of solution.
“Are you ready to go Twilight?”
When she looked up from her plate, the food was gone, and the Princess was smiling again. Perhaps it hadn’t been a big problem after all? She shook her head. Of course it hadn’t been. The Princess always knew what to do.
“No? What’s wrong?” The Princess scooted closer to her seat, and draped a wing over her back, making Twilight feel like one of the luckiest fillies alive. “You don’t have to go to the duel if you don’t want to Twilight,” she said, looking a little worried.
Twilight shook her head again. “I can do it, Princess.” She knew she could. She’d been trained by the Princess herself after all, and Blueblood was just a meany. Getting off of the chair took her a few seconds, dangling feet and all, but after she had accomplished that task, she skipped to the doors that marked the entrance to the dining hall. She came to a halt there with the realisation that the Princess hadn’t told her where the duel would be taking place. “Where are we going exactly?”
“To the duel, Twilight,” came the reply from the Princess who seemed in no hurry to follow her.
Twilight groaned. “I know that,” she said deliberately. It was as if the Princess thought she’d forgotten what they had talked about the previous night. She hadn’t, of course, hearing that she had to be careful and use the runes the Princess had shown her a dozen times was more than enough to make understand the importance of the request. Eleven more times than needed as far as she was concerned. “I mean... where are we going? Do duels happen in a special dueling room? Or maybe on the guards’ training field?”
The Princess smiled at her and said, “Something like that. Follow me.”
Following the Princess was something Twilight only managed half the time while they made their way through the castle. The rest she spent skipping ahead, waiting for the Princess to catch up, and imagining how proud the Princess was going to be when she won the duel. They followed the purple line indicating the path to the observatory, and for a while, Twilight believed that was where they were going. Right up to the point that the Princess took a right, and then another right, went up a flight of stairs and...
There were several more twists and turns in their journey but Twilight had no idea where they were by the end of it. Obviously her ‘Color Coded Castle’ initi- inita... idea hadn’t been extensive enough and would have to be extended in future. As it was, she recognised the surroundings as belonging to the castle, but wondered if they saw much use. It wasn’t a grand dueling hall, nor was it a military training ground of sorts. No, all she could figure was that it was an area mainly used for storing old things. Lots and lots of old things.
“What are we doing here, Princess?” she asked when she ran out of real-estate to skip through. Turning back, she found the Princess following her at the same sedate, almost hesitant, pace that she’d kept up the whole time.
The Princess stopped at the last door Twilight had skipped past. “This is where the duel will take place, Twilight.”
“Oh.”
Twilight walked back to the door, watching the Princess look herself over for seemingly no reason. Perhaps she wanted to look good for the ponies that would be watching the duel? She looked as pretty as ever as far as Twilight was concerned, but then, she always thought the Princess looked pretty.
“Make sure that the duel stays private,” Celestia said, turning to Rook.
It made Twilight aware just how little she thought about the guards that followed Celestia on any given moment. Both Rook and Aegis seemed like nice ponies to her, and the fact that they would have to stay outside disappointed her. She wanted them to see her win too.
“Are you ready, Twilight?”
Twilight was ready. More than ready in fact. She had been ever since their conversation from the previous night. She had been taught the difference between the old runes, and the ‘new’ ones she’d been taught at school; how the system had evolved alongside ponies’ understanding of magic; and last but not least, told the Princess just how she thought about magic. She was ready for this. Sure, there was the occasional tremor in her left hoof, but that was because she was excited, and nothing else.
The Princess was still looking at her. “Remember the runes, Twilight. No throwing ponies through walls today,” she said with a wink.
Twilight looked up at her and nodded, her own smile hesitant, but definitely present. “Okay.” She closed her mouth, only to realise that she hadn’t yet said that she was ready. “I’m ready,” she said, perhaps a little quickly.
The Princess nodded and grabbed hold of the door with her magic, winced, and then used a hoof to push it open. Her wince made Twilight flinch as well. If not for her, the Princess wouldn’t be in pain...
“Alright then,” the Princess said with a deep intake of breath. She looked as though she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, and Twilight felt more determined than ever to make that weight just a little lighter if she could.
The first thing Celestia noted when she stepped into the room, aside from young Blueblood, was the fact that neither of the two ponies behind him were his parents. His father’s absence was, perhaps, not surprising, given that he had left both him and his mother for a mistress several years prior. The Duchess’s absence was worrying, however. If anything she had expected the mare to violate their agreement to keep things secret and show up with as many friends as she could cajole into coming along.
The Duchess was very much a mare who loved to gloat.
“Blueblood? What’s going on here?” She said, focusing her attention on the young colt.
Before he could open his mouth to respond, one of the two stallions standing behind him stepped forward and spoke up. “Forgive us, Princess. The Duchess very much wanted to be present for the event, but was otherwise engaged. Bladed Edge and I,” he gestured to the stallion beside him. “Have both worked tirelessly to prepare the young master for this duel, along with Double Cross who is unfortunately running late. We humbly request that we be allowed to stay and watch.” He made a vague gesture. “To monitor his progress as much as to provide moral support.”
Blueblood grimaced and shot a dirty look at the stallion before adding, “I was about to say that very thing.” He then looked at Twilight and managed an impressive sneer while looking smug at the same time. “Mother hired some of the best dueling teachers in the country to tutor me. Do you really think you have any chance of winning? You’re just a stupid filly that doesn’t know how to use spells properly.”
Despite his bravado, Blueblood looked tense. Wasn’t he as sure of his victory as he made it seem? Or was there something else? Celestia eyed the stallions standing behind him. The two were sharing a look, and she didn’t recognise either one. But then... she hadn’t kept up with the dueling circuit for the last two-hundred years. Perhaps he was just put off by the fact that his mother was absent. The two were rarely seen apart, and today especially, should be no different.
Celestia stepped forward. Thanks to Blueblood’s own mother, she’d had a conversation with Twilight’s and learned that she had been a victim of bullying since she’d started school. Celestia was not about to allow him to use that against her.
Twilight, beat her to any sort of reply, however. “Well,” the filly said, pausing to take a deep breath. “If I’m stupid, then you’re a double stupid, stupid, meany who is stupid. The Princess taught me lots of spells, and she knows magic better than anypony.” She stuck her tongue out for good measure, which only seemed to incense Blueblood further.
Celestia cut them off. Breaking their line of sight with a wing. “That’s enough, both of you.” She looked at Blueblood with a disapproving frown. “I expected better from you, Blueblood. You were supposed to be the more mature contestant here.”
The colt calmed down, and shrugged. “Everything is allowed in a duel, if you can put the other pony off balance you’ve already put the odds in your favor,” he said, earning him an approving nod from the two stallions behind him.
What has the dueling scene come to? Celestia wondered silently. There had apparently been a lot of changes in the time since she’d stopped participating in the scene, and not all for the better. “Well,” she said. “For this duel, insults will not be allowed. From either of you.” She spared a glance at Twilight who nodded up to her.
Blueblood, eventually, nodded as well. “I understand,” he said begrudgingly.
“I take it your teachers,” she looked at both stallions while speaking. “Explained the rules to you?”
“Yes.”
“Very good. You will both be expected to keep to those rules. Are you ready to begin, Blueblood?”
The colt stepped into the chalk outline that had been drawn on the ground for the occasion. “I’m ready,” he said confidently.
Celestia looked down at the filly beside her. Twilight was frowning and muttering to herself about colts being stupid. “Are you ready, Twilight?” she asked gently.
When Twilight looked back up at her, her face was a mask of grim determination. “I’m ready, Princess.”
Again, Celestia wondered if she was making a mistake. She’d worried about Twilight for the longest time, but she hadn’t given much thought to the damage her student could cause if she ignored the older set of runes. As much as she disliked Blueblood, she didn’t wish him a multitude of broken bones, or worse.
Leaning down while keeping her wing in place felt awkward, the bandages doing a good job of restricting movement. She ignored the feeling and lowered her head towards Twilight. “You can do it, Twilight,” she said softly. “Kick his flank.”
Twilight nodded, and stepped into the ring, brushing against the lower feathers of Celestia’s other wing as she went.
Before Twilight had good and well stepped into the ring, a blast of compressed air whizzed past her head. Only the fact that she'd skittishly jumped to the side as soon as it happened, prevented the next blast from hitting her. The second blast had been just as poorly aimed as the first, and would have hit the Princess square in the face had she not pulled up a quick shield. That made Blueblood hesitate with his next attack, which gave Twilight barely enough time to construct a shield of her own.
The fight was on.
Having to thread magic through runes one by one felt slow and cumbersome, like trying to stitch two pieces of cloth together using nothing but her hooves; and while Twilight dutifully paid heed to her mentor's warnings, it wasn’t without a dose of panic. She was used to the orderly rhythm of practice, wherein the Princess waited for her to construct a shield before beginning her assault. Doing it the ‘right’ way under fire, was more akin to keeping pace with a dance she didn’t know the steps to. It took longer because she just wasn’t used to thinking about spells that way. Much longer. The longer it took, the more panicked she became. And the more adrenaline coursed through her system, the harder it was to get the spell right.
Blueblood had no such problems with his casting, and his next attack exhausted its energy on her freshly created shield. Despite the awkward casting method, and her flustered state, it seemed easier to actually get spells to actually do what she wanted. Was that why everypony learned to use runes? Another spell slammed into the shield leaving a little crack that quickly spread. She gulped, and quickly got to work on creating a second shield. Perhaps the questions were better left for later. Blueblood was sneering at her again. “What’s the matter, filly? Too afraid to attack?” He fired another salvo of magic. This one even less accurate than the last. “I bet you couldn’t even land a hit.”
Twilight wasn’t too sure either, but she was surely going to try. As soon as she got the chance, anyway. Blueblood’s spells tore into her shields just as soon as she created them, and he didn’t seem to let up. She was, however, starting to calm down a little. None of the spells had actually hit her yet, and she had some time if she was smart about it. While Blueblood’s attacks whittled down her fifth shield, she got to work on preparing two blasts of her own at the same time. It took her longer still, but if magic could levitate multiple things at the same time, why shouldn’t she be able to create two simultaneous attacks? Or even three?
As soon as cracks began to appear in her shield, she leapt out from behind it and threw her spells at the colt across the room. She watched them soar, the first missing Blueblood by a hair, and the second one hitting him square in the chest. It accomplished little more than pushing him back several inches towards the chalk outline, but she still whooped in joy.
Apparently she could land a hit.
Unfortunately, she had been so focused on the trajectory of her own spells that she had forgotten to mind her surroundings. The last of the bolts Blueblood had fired before she’d hit him came in from an odd angle, hitting her in the leg, which made her lose her footing.
The world tilted sideways, and she hit the floor with an audible ‘thunk’. She was up again in an instant, wordlessly berating herself for not paying attention. The fear was all but gone, however. She knew she could beat him. The theory she’d talked about with the Princess hadn’t gone beyond a simple attack, and a simple shield. She hadn’t seen Blueblood use anything else either, but it seemed so... restrictive.
With half an eye on Blueblood who, curiously, hadn’t resumed his attacks either, she began rearranging the runes in her head. Perhaps she could use them to make a spell that she hadn’t learned about yet.
Blueblood created a shield that was easily twice his size, and the moment it was done, he cast a questioning glance at his teachers. They, and the Princess, had moved along the outer edge of the circle, positioning themselves halfway towards the outer wall, sitting together in front of the window while they observed the duel. Twilight thought she saw a nod from one of them, but she couldn’t be sure.
She did not get the time to ponder why. Blueblood quickly renewed his assault and she was forced to dodge a rapid fire succession of spells. There was no more talk from the colt. No more taunting. Blueblood was fighting to win. The way he went about it though, she found questionable on several levels.
He kept a layer of two shields in front of him at all times and pressed his attacks time and time again. Even after moving to the dead center of the ring while he flung spell after spell at her with increasing inaccuracy, he still kept up both an impressive offence and what looked to be an impenetrable defense. It wasn’t entirely ineffective, as he did manage to hit her twice more — each hit feeling like somepony had punched her — but the rate at which he was going would tire him out before long.
All she needed to do, she realised, was wait him out. It would be as simple as keeping up a shield or two and hunkering down while he exhausted himself. As soon as the thought came to her, however, she shook her head slightly and set her jaw. This duel was her chance to prove to the Princess that she could take care of herself, and that wasn’t going to happen if she cowered behind a shield.
She dodged to the side when her latest shield faltered and tried a rearranged series of runes in her head. The iteration put the rune Celestia had told her meant ‘shield’ together with the one for ‘power’ and ‘movement’ and four others whose purpose she didn’t quite understand. The effect wasn’t as useful as she’d hoped, or at all for that matter. Rather than create a shield that moved with her, the barrier moved on its own in seemingly random directions. It almost shoved her out of the circle in a sudden sweep, after which she quickly circled around to the other side of the room. Apparently there was another rune she needed for that to work, or perhaps it had something to do with the sequence in which she activated them?
In the brief respite in between attacks, during which she heard Blueblood’s panting and saw the sweat drip down his face, Twilight tried again. She changed up the order into one that more closely resembled the attack sequence she’d been taught and wove her magic through it in quick succession. The effect was as visually spectacular as it was dangerous. Rather than a painful, but reasonably small pocket of compressed air, the much larger shield she created shot forward. It impacted with Blueblood’s shields, creating a loud crack like a thunderbolt striking the earth, and causing an explosion that distorted the vision of everypony in the room.
Once the dust settled, Twilight blinked and shook her head, trying to get the ringing out of her ears. The first thing she found was the window, which had unfortunately shattered. Second, was the mare the stallions had been talking about, head bowed and whispering things to both of said stallions. Third, but certainly not least, was her opponent. Blueblood looked just as dazed as she felt, but after he too shook it off, she found something in his eyes that she hadn’t seen there before.
Fear.
“T-that’s cheating!” he stammered, looking around for their spectators. “That’s against the rules, right?” he asked, his voice cracking when one of his teachers shook his head. “She’s not allowed to blow up the room like that is she?!”
“As long as it does not permanently injure or alter, most any spell is allowed during a duel, Blueblood,” the Princess replied coolly. “Surely you remember that much from your lessons?”
Twilight found the perfect opportunity to win the duel staring her in the face when Blueblood actually turned away from her to shout at his teachers. And even though a small voice in the back of her mind whispered about the ease with which she could take home a win, she already knew that she wouldn’t do it. She was going to win fair and square, and the Princess would be proud of her.
It didn’t mean that she remained idle, however. While the first one had been a bust, and the second one had proved effective though dangerous, she was already combining and recombining the runes in her head. She prepped a new sequence and waited for Blueblood to turn back around so the fight could resume. She did not have to wait long.
Without any official proclamation of the duel continuing, or even any real warning for that matter, Blueblood stormed towards her as soon as he turned around, preceded only by the spells he had apparently been preparing while turned around. It caught Twilight by surprise and she ate two consecutive blasts of magic to her torso and face respectively. Her head spun all over again and it felt like her teeth rattled in her mouth.
His attacks pushed her dangerously close to the edge of the circle as well. Her left hind hoof all but touched the line, and from what the Princess had told her, even a single step out of the bounds of the arena meant a loss. Panic blossomed in her chest and she unleashed the spell she had been preparing without making sure it had been correctly threaded through each of the runes.
The resulting spell did little more than create a pocket of frigid air that turned each and every exhalation in the room into a wispy white cloud. Fortunately, it bewildered Blueblood just long enough for Twilight to dance out of harm’s way. She hopped, skipped, tripped, and skidded around him until she landed in the center of the circle face first.
Before she had a chance to recover, Blueblood lunged at her, and she had to roll out of the way to avoid being flattened beneath his hooves. She stumbled back onto her own and was immediately hit by one of his spells. Even though he didn’t have the same array of spells, or the same creativity, Blueblood’s dueling style was both aggressive and consistent.
Twilight, in the meantime, had her options reduced severely because she didn’t want to disappoint the Princess: she had to try and keep herself from getting hurt, while simultaneously trying not to hurt him. Worse, he didn’t seem to care if he hurt her at all.
She could hurt him too, she realized. It would be as easy as forgetting the runes. It probably wouldn’t be too bad, right? The Princess had acted as though her spell the previous day had caused little more than a scuffed knee and some bruises after all.
Besides, she wasn’t going to try to hurt Blueblood. She just needed something to quickly push him out the the circle. And she had just the thing. With a half smile that brought the corner of her mouth up an inch, she began weaving a spell outside of the rigid runes that were more constraining than helpful.
Celestia’s attention was laser focused on the goings-on inside the ring. Forgotten were all of her injuries, aside from the occasional twinge. Blueblood’s aggression hadn’t escaped her notice, and neither had Twilight’s experimentation. She’d expected the later, given Twilight’s inquisitive nature, but the former was a complete surprise. For as long as she’d known him, Blueblood had been a gentle soul. One that had developed quite a mean streak after his mother had taken a more active part in his upbringing, perhaps, but generally an okay kid.
She was only dimly aware of the heated argument taking place next to her, or the mare that had joined the two stallions in said argument. She was made more acutely aware of their presence when one of the stallions angrily shoved the other, causing him to jostle her side briefly.
“A thousand pardons, Your Highness.”
She brushed him off absentmindedly. The thrill of Twilight’s all too brief moment of dominance had been exhilarating and she had almost screamed at the filly to take the easy win. She was a spectator, more than she was a mentor at that moment, and a small altercation amongst Blueblood’s trainers didn’t interest her. The only thing holding her back from outright cheering Twilight on, aside from the poise she had drilled into herself so hard it had become ingrained, was that she did not want to taint her student’s win with unsolicited advice. Though that didn’t stop her from subvocalizing both encouragements and warnings, trying to get the filly to follow directions that her battle tested mind came up with.
She watched Twilight and Blueblood continue to dance around one another, visibly tiring while they followed their own ideas on winning. It wasn’t until she felt the ambient magic around Twilight swell into a full fledged tide that she acted. Even a harmless spell with that much magic behind it would flatten Blueblood into a pancake. A not so harmless spell would obliterate a decently sized chunk of the castle.
“Twilight. Stop.”
She blinked in confusion, her voice not having come out as loud or as commanding as she had intended it to. Twilight thankfully seemed to have heard her, but that left the question of what happened to her voice. A slow, insidious, numbness that crept up her flank provided a clue, and when she looked over she came face to face with three wickedly smiling ponies brandishing knives, and some sort of dart sticking out of her side.
Assassins!
Her reaction was immediate, getting rid of the dart with a swipe of her wing and wiping the grin of the first stallion’s face when she hit him in the face with it. Spreading out from the right side where the dart had been, her veins felt like they were on fire. Poison. And a particularly, potent, nasty poison at that, given that she had been building up resistances to all poisons that allowed for such a thing since before the great war. To her dismay, she grazed the stallion, the poison slowing her movements by the fraction of a second he needed to dodge out of the way. He repaid her attack with another dart, this one in her foreleg.
She scrambled to her hooves and felt the cut of a knife near her hock. A mistake by the other stallion, who got a solid kick for his troubles. He impacted the wall on the opposite end of the room with a dull thud and slumped over. At the very least unconscious, probably worse, courtesy of her powerful hindlegs. However insignificant in the face of the threat still at hoof, it gave her a measure of grim satisfaction to hear the thud. She paid for her action with another dart that landed in her side somewhere between her ribs, sprouting another blossom of fiery pain that coursed through her veins at three different points.
Both the mare and the remaining stallion jumped onto her back when she stumbled, intent on driving her down to the ground and finishing the job with the daggers they had pulled from stars knew where. They would have succeeded, were it not for the two young ponies whose presence they had apparently discounted as being unimportant.
“What are you doing, you idiots?! Get away from the Princess!” Blueblood shouted, flinging the same spells he’d used in the duel, but turning them on his supposed ‘teachers’ this time around.
Twilight said nothing, but Celestia could see the mix of fear and anger in the filly's eyes that accompanied another moving shield that slammed into the stallion, throwing him from her back.
“Idiot!” the mare on her back growled towards the stallion that quickly got back up. “I told you to keep an eye on those two. Take care of them!”
“But the Duchess—” the stallion began, before the mare cut him off.
“I know. Just knock him out.”
“And the filly?”
“Dispose of her. Then we’ll take care of our precious Princess.”
Celestia could practically feel the smug, wicked, grin of the mare on top of her. She struggled, but their respective positions and the poison wreaking havoc on her nervous system didn’t make it an easy proposition. She could only watch as the stallion stalked towards Twilight, menacingly licking his blade.
It was cringe worthy for a battle hardened mare like Celestia to see. It just meant that they weren’t above trying to intimidate, and gave away the fact that they hadn't poisoned their blades. It worked on Twilight, however. The filly nearly stumbled over her own legs as she tried to back away from the big angry looking stallion.
The mare above Celestia groaned loudly. “We don’t have time for this, you bloody idiot. Just finish her off already.”
Hearing that, the stallion kicked it up a notch. Rather than advance on Twilight further, he flicked the blade up and focused his grip on the tip. Celestia wanted to shout at Twilight to get out of the way, but she got a hoof in her face before anything came out.
Struggling again, she watched as, almost in slow motion, the dagger arched downwards and left the stallion’s aura. It cut through the air towards Twilight and Celestia’s heart cried out to the filly, even if she physically couldn’t.
She didn’t want to see. Didn’t want to lose the filly who had conquered a place in her heart in such a short amount of time. With a surge of adrenaline born strength, she hefted the mare from her back and managed to toss her away with the broad of her wing. It wasn’t anywhere near powerful enough to incapacitate the mare, but at least it gave her some breathing room.
Twilight!
She turned back to the scene of her student’s demise, only to find that the knife had missed Twilight completely. Likely on account of the fact that the filly was no longer where she had been. What she saw instead was Blueblood looking down at the killing implement sticking out of his chest for a second before he keeled over. Sweeping her gaze across the room, she found a confounded stallion in the center, and Twilight at the far end of the room. The filly looked charred from head to toe, but otherwise unharmed.
Even through the haze that began to settle over her senses, Celestia could clearly feel the buildup of magic that she had tried to stop before all this began. This time, however, Twilight unleashed it all in a ball of magic that must have been very much like the one Celestia herself had been hit with the day prior, and, much like it must have done with her, the magic hit the stallion like a full on collision with a train. Without any protective shields, or even time to try and dodge, the blast put the stallion straight through the door leading out into the hallway.
“Did you see that, Princess?!” Twilight asked excitedly, cantering up to her with a smile.
The filly foolishly believed that their troubles were over, which came to a quick end when Celestia, instead of responding, looked back at the mare who had gotten back up and pulled more knives and daggers from her clothing.
Twilight’s horn sparked as she tried to hit the mare with a similar spell that had so effectively dispatched the stallion. Nothing happened.
The mare growled. “Not good enough, one hit wonder,” she sneered and advanced on the pair, throwing another dagger at Twilight.
Celestia brought up her wing and caught the dagger in it. It hurt like hell, but she wasn’t going to let Twilight get hurt if there was anything she could do about it. “Twilight! Run! Teleport! Hide!” she shouted. Once more, her voice was sapped by the poison, and came out as little more than a whisper.
Twilight’s ears perked up and swiveled back towards her, but without looking back, the filly shook her head. “N-no!” Rather than stepping back, she walked in between Celestia and the mare, and shakily created a shield between them and the assassin. A shield created with intentionally weak runes that would no more stop the professional killer than a paper towel. Celestia could feel the rigidity in Twilight’s body when her rump backed up into Celestia’s side. The filly was terrified, and yet, refused to budge. “L-l-leave us alone!” she shouted.
As expected, the shield hardly slowed the mare down and she backhanded Twilight, sending the filly sprawling over the floor.
“Don’t you dare!” Celestia croaked at the mare when she turned and walked towards the dazed Twilight.
For the briefest of moments, the mare stopped to smirk at Celestia. An evil grin that Celestia cursed herself for. The mare was obviously as deranged as she was dangerous. Why hadn’t she seen this coming?
“Oh I dare, Princess. It’s so much more fun when they scream, don’t you think?” she asked coldly. “I normally wouldn’t bother. You were the target, after all, but she...” the mare scoffed and spit on the ground. “She just had to make everything more difficult. I despise ponies that get between me and my pay day.”
In three quick paces she made her way to Twilight. Before she could bring any of her weapons to bear, however, two massive frames slammed into her.
The poison was beginning to take its toll and Celestia had difficulty making out what exactly Aegis and Rook did to the mare. She’d realised that it could only be them through a haze of heavier and heavier thoughts, but anything beyond that was becoming borderline impossible.
“Princess? Stay with me, Princess,” she heard Aegis’ voice say moments... had it really only been moments? later. “Help is on the way.”
“Save Blue—” she whispered. Thinking of the poor young colt who had been used as a distraction by his own mother. The audacity of it made her heart thunder in her chest, and with a surge of will she lifted her head to look at her bodyguard. “Get that colt to a doctor right now, Aegis.”
Aegis looked down at her. “Already happening, Princess. Save your strength.” She belatedly realised that she’d collapsed somewhere along the way, and that Aegis cradling her head was the only reason she could keep it somewhat upright at all.
“What about, Twilight?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. She couldn’t sustain holding her head up any longer, and surrendered herself to Aegis’ hooves. Darkness gathered at the edges of her vision, and for the first time since all of this had started did she fear for her own life. Probably Manticore poison... she thought bitterly.
“She’s—”
“Princess!”
She could feel somepony nuzzle into her neck, but found it impossible to move her eyes, much less her head. So tired...
“Don’t die, Princess!” a panicky voice squeaked at her.
She found a chuckle somewhere within herself. “I’m fine, Twilight.”
“No you’re not! You’re bleeding!” Celestia blinked. It seemed as though Twilight’s words and sobs blurred together, and she was having increasing difficulty parsing them. “And I couldn’t...” “Your wing!” “They...” “Stupid meanies...” “Blueblood’s bleeding...” “Don’t die!”
“Hang in there, Princess," came Aegis' voice, somewhere in between Twilight's sobbing.
“Did I do okay?” Twilight asked. The question was probably aimed at Aegis, but it broke through the haze that hung over Celestia’s senses much more clearly than Aegis’s response did. Clearer than all the rest, in fact.
“You did wonderfully,” she replied, closing her eyes in the knowledge that everypony would be okay. Twilight was truly a one of a kind filly. She knew she should feel something for the way the young filly had done everything to protect her. Bravery was one word for it. All others escaped her. It felt like trying to hold on to slippery eels with her mind. All she felt was the ache that screamed through every fibre of her being, and an all encompassing darkness that weighed on her eyelids.
“You did... wonderfully,” she repeated languidly. After that, the weight became too much, and she could carry it no more.
Darkness engulfed her.
Only a tiny point of light remained.