//------------------------------// // Chapter 23 // Story: Consequences // by Hiver //------------------------------// Jumping to the side I avoided most of the blast of yellow energy, the rest being redirected into the ground, knocking up dust by a angled shield. Only the exertion kept me from smiling as I panted softly. I had been right before. Sunset Shimmer hit like a girl. Oh, she had power to spare. She was one of the strongest unicorns I ever practiced with. But her strategy was basically 'throw enough power at the problem and hope it get the job done' with some teleports sprinkled in. The Twilight Sparkle school of dueling. I didn't have much experience in magical duels. Oh, okay, Luna had been training me and I sparred with Swift from time to time. Oh and Thunder Cloud and Shining Armor when they were in town. I was good, but I was hardly what you would call a professional duelist or something. What Sunset was throwing around felt at least twice as powerful as anything I used. Hell, she might ever be stronger than Shining Armor when it came to offense. But she had no clue about what she was doing. “Stand still, damn you!” Fine. How about this then? The next blast rushed towards me and this time I didn't move. My horn lit up and I focused. Her kinetic spell turned into sparkles, dissolving into nothing before it reached me, my own answer spell blasting through the remains of her spell, catching her of guard and she scrambled to get out of the way. Giving credit where it's earned, Sunset almost made it. The spell clipped her rear with a lout smack, sending her tumbling onto the dusty ground. Coming to a stop in a small cloud of dust, she stayed still, panting softly. I stayed still watching her idly as I caught my own breath, enjoying the cool autumn air. This was the best time of the year in my opinion. Cool without being cold. A warm summer day was nice, but I liked this time too. For one thing it made exercise a lot less of a pain in the tail. But following the nice and cool came icy and snowy which was even worse than the heaviest summer heat. But that was still weeks away. For now I could enjoy the cool weather while kicking the shit out of Sunset. For educational purposes of course. It was actually Luna's idea to further my own training. According to her, the best way to hammer your own lessons home was to teach somepony else. Now, I had not been at it for long. I was still an apprentice according to Luna. ven so, I was clearly better trained then anybody I'd met who wasn't in the guard. Besides, we kept to spells that didn't hit harder than perhaps a strong kick so it's not like we were going to accidentally kill each other while still practicing. I thought it rather rewarding. Sunset didn't seem to share my opinion on the matter. The glare she was shooting me while slowly struggling to lay on her stomach, panting heavily said it all. It would have burst me into flames if it could have. “Yes?” I asked, getting my breath under control. She ground her teeth together with a glare before she snorted, “How did you do that?” “Do what?” It was all I could do not to smirk at her renewed glare. It was strange the relationship we developed. She didn't like me. I didn't overly like her either. She had threatened the security of not only Equestria but a version of Earth. I stopped her together with Twilight. That didn't exactly cause her to like me even if she had settled down a bit. I don't think she was actively hating me anymore. While I was the one that brought her back... by threatening to stab her until she stopped resisting no less... I was also the one that intervened with Celestia a month or two ago to get her released and took her suppression ring off. We didn't like each other, even if I must admit she had been growing one me, but we had some things in common that we didn't share with anypony else here in Equestria. Both Sunset and I knew what it was like to survive and adapt to an entirely new world. That gave a certain connection. Twilight didn't count, she was barely on Earth for a day. “Cancel my spell!” “Oh that. I used my own magic to ground it out.” She frowned at me at that, blinking, “But.. you need to know the spells meta frequency to do that. You can't do that in the middle of a fight. Especially not while it's cast at you!” I smirked at her, “Yes it is. Well, unless you are immortal alicorn good with hundreds of years of experience.” Oh yes, that turned her glare up to eleven. Shrugging I settled down next to her, crossing my frontlegs on the ground before me as I gave in to the unspoken question, “You cast the same spell again and again. Each time it hit my shield, I got more and more pieces of the puzzle.” Sunset Shimmer blinked at me and looked thoughtful, “...Oh.” “Vary your spells up.” I said with a shrug, “Or at least cast them a bit different every time. And stop with your stupid teleporting.” “Just because you can't d...” I sighed and shook my head, “It doesn't matter if you can teleport if you stay in my line of sight when doing it. Yes, you avoid the spell in question, but you also disorient yourself for half a second while you reacquire my position. Shield or simply get out of the way of the spell if you can't use the teleport in a more tactical manner.” “What do you know about using teleportation? You can't even do it!” “I know what works and what doesn't because Luna likes using teleportation.” I explained with a smirk, “The result from her tactics of always appearing somewhere out of my line of sight and not just of to the side of the spell is rather clear.” Sunset sighed but nodded, “...The further you have to teleport, the more difficult it becomes. When you only have a split second, you can only go so far.” she admitted. “Yeah, I know.” I agreed, “Which is why I and Luna recommend not using it until you are that good. Until you do, it's not an advantage. Not unless it give you a ground advantage, like getting onto a roof when up against a earth pony.” She bit her lower lip with a frown before she nodded, “I guess you may be right,” she admitted before she glanced back at herself and made a disgusted sound, “Ugh, I'm covered with dust.” Couldn't argue with that. She was more brown than golden now. I made a show of looking her over before I nodded with a smile, “Yep. Perhaps avoid rolling around on the ground so much? It's really dusty here.” The look I earned for that lived up to her name. She is fun to tease! “Go take a bath and then grab a pizza?” I asked with a grin as a peace offering, “It's about dinner time.” Sunset blinked at that, her ears perking up as she apparently forgot her anger, “Pizza? You know where to get pizza?” “I know how to make pizza. Took me months but I finally tracked down all the correct ingredients of substitutes about... six months, nine months ago? Haven't gotten around to showing the royal kitchen yet though so if I want it, I have to make it myself.” “...Yes please.” She quickly answered and scrambled onto her hooves, “Let's go!” Chuckling I trotted along to the castle staffs public bathing facilities. They were closer than heading all the way up to the tower.