Training Session
We all knew Twilight Sparkle was a powerful sorceress, but none of us had ever realised just how powerful she truly was. It is no underestimation if somepony said that she’d be able to challenge an immortal to a battle and come out as the victor. The possibility was there, of that there was no doubt, the only thing that was needed for her to actually defeat an immortal, such as myself, was for her to realise her full potential, for her to realise just how much power was stored in that small body of hers. I dread to think of what she would be capable of if she knew how to channel that much power. It’s dangerous as it is when unshaped and without purpose other than simple destruction.
I look down at my body, noting how half of it is covered in bandages. I can only remember two times where I had been damaged more than I was now, and one of the in particular is a memory I do not wish to re-visit. The other one is filled with mad cackles and chocolate rain.
I stretch a wing, carefully to avoid straining it or knocking anything down besides the bed I’m lying in. What I see is a mass of charred feathers and more bandages where there were none. Only a very few feathers were left that were not charred or otherwise damaged, they were only ruffled and in serious need for some preening.
I turn my head to look at the other bed in the room. The unicorn I spoke of earlier lies there, Twilight Sparkle. She’s sleeping at the moment, recovering as much strength as she can through sleep. She looks so peaceful, ignorant to what she had done as she was safely hidden away in her own dreamscape.
I was about to go back to try and go back to sleep when I was interrupted by the voice of ‘Tabby’' as we call him. He’s never told us his real name since he’s embarrassed about it, or so he says. He’s an old unicorn stallion, old enough that he’d retire in only a few years. A shame really, he’s the best doctor in the medical wing in Canterlot castle. Not to mention that he’s a very kind stallion. He has a half-long grey mane -due to age-, a light coat with a red hue and a stethoscope for a cutie mark. But the most striking part about him is his kind, brown eyes.
“How are you doing, Princess Luna?” He asks, a small genuine smile playing at his lips.
“I’m doing fine, Tabby,” I reply with a smile of my own, “I don’t feel much pain. The only thing really annoying me is the sight of my wings; they’re awfully ruffled and could use some preening.”
‘Tabby’ smiles at this and walks closer. I unfurl my wing again to let him inspect it. He grasps it gently in his pale red aura which also surrounds his horn and looks it over. “I’m afraid I cannot help you with the preening, your majesty, but I can assure you that the wing is healing well enough. Of course I can’t see the wound without taking the bandage off, and I’d prefer not to until it has to be changed again, but apart from that you’re already far on the road to recovery.”
I nod, thankful that my wing wouldn’t suffer any permanent damage. I turn my head to the other bed not far away, again. “What about her?” I ask quietly.
Tabby looks over to the lilac unicorn lying in the other bed, a small frown on his face. “She’ll do fine. She only had a few very minor burns and scratches as well as magical exhaustion.” He pauses for a moment before looking back at me, confusion and worry evident in his eyes. “I can’t help but wonder, Princess, how did she do it? I mean... You’re an Alicorn, an immortal goddess. How did a mortal Unicorn such as her wound you this much?”
I smile, a thoughtful, sad, and happy smile at the same time. “Do you want me to tell you?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“Very well, it was yesterday when...”
----
Twilight Sparkle was standing just outside the large dome shaped arena that was used for the guards to train in, unicorn, earth pony and pegasi alike. It had been large circular area in the middle with tribunes all around, the circle of seats only breaking for the entrance. The ‘front rows’ were a series of small ‘outcrops’ where up to 20 unicorns could stand and power a magical shield that would protect the audience from any stray spells when the unicorns sparred with each other. There were 22 outcrops in total, the last two were used for a unicorn to stand and cast an ‘inner’ shield. A shield, when struck thrice, would decide who won the match. The fighting unicorn would have to take care of their own, outer, shields.
On either side of her were her five friends, Spike and her BBBFF, most of which looked slightly nervous. The only one that wasn't very nervous was Shining Armor, as he had every bit of confidence that what was about to happen, wouldn’t be dangerous.
“Don’t worry, Twily, it’s going to be fine. Remember that we’ve made sure that nopony will ever be hurt during a magic duel.”
“I know Shiny, but I’m just worried. I know that there’s the a shield, but I’m worried that I might hurt you.”
Shining Armor chuckled, patting his sister on the back with a hoof. “Don’t worry about that, sister, I’m the best with shields in the entire guard after all. I don’t think you’ll be able to hurt me. In fact,” he leaned in and playfully told her, “I don’t even think you can beat me.”
Twilight, taking his teasing jab as a reassurance, smiled. Her insecurities somewhat lightened now that she was reminded of her brother’s proficiency with shields and barriers. Realistically, she wouldn't be able to lay even a single strike on him.
“Remind me again,” Dash piped up as the silence got a little too boring for her as they waited to enter, “why are we here? And why’s Twi gonna fight her brother?”
“Tradition.” Shining replied calmly. “It’s a tradition in our family that we’re all trained in combat, at least self defense. Twilight has yet to learn anything but the basics. I asked mom and dad if I could teach her some more, and they agreed, as did Twilight.”
“Does tradition say that the teacher has to be a family member?” A voice asked from behind.
Shining, lost in his own thoughts for a moment, thought it was Rainbow Dash asking yet another question and replied in his usual casual tone. “No, it doesn't. Anypony with sufficient experience and ability could teach her. Why?” He turned around to where he believed Dash to stand but instead found somepony else entirely.
“Princess Luna!” the entire group of ponies (and a single dragon) exclaimed as they too turned around, and immediately bowed before her.
“Pardon my tone, Your Majesty.” Shining Armor apologized. “I did not know to whom I spoke.”
“Do not fret, Captain Shining Armor, I was simply asking a question. Now, I understand that any unicorn can teach Twilight Sparkle, so long as they possess sufficient knowledge and ability, is that correct?” Shining Armor nodded. “I assume the same rules would count for an Alicorn such as myself? That I could be the one to train her?” He nodded again, slowly piecing together the puzzle and figuring out what the princess wanted. “I would like to see what the Element of Magic that freed me from the nightmare is capable of. Captain, might I have the honor of training Twilight Sparkle in magical combat?”
Twilight stood mute, watching with open mouth as the lunar diarch offered to personally train her in magical combat, as if being Celestia’s personal protegé wasn’t prestigious enough.
Her friends, all five of them, and her number one assistant each looked at her then to Luna and back again, hardly believing it themselves. That the princess of the night had even come here was strange enough, but that she was offering to train, and effectively do battle, with Twilight was very strange indeed.
Well now she had no chance of winning anymore. As if her brother wasn’t tough enough, now she’s got to fight an alicorn. Rainbow thought, her mind centered around competition as always.
“Y-You want to f-fight me Princess?” Twilight asked in disbelief and with some fear creeping into her voice at the prospect.
“Not fight, Twilight, train. I wish to be the one to train you in the arts of combat. That is if your brother agrees to it.” She turned to give the white unicorn stallion an expectant look, her face neutral yet not demeaning as it could be mistaken as.
“I have no qualms. My only demand is that I will stand for my sister’s inner shield. Other than that, you are free to take charge as her trainer, Princess.”
Luna smiled gently and motioned for them to follow her as she made her way through the large arch that functioned as an entrance. A large set of stone doors closed with a muffled bang behind them, as the last of their small group passed the threshold.
Inside were numerous ponies, all of them guards, situated on the seats all around the circular arena floor. On either side of the entrance was a small staircase that lead to the seats; Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Spike made their way up the right one after giving Twilight a few words of assurance each. Where Rainbow had encouraged her, telling her to ‘beat the feathers off Luna’s wings’, Pinkie Pie had hugged her so tight she thought her ribs threatened to break. The others had settled for more polite words of reassurance, the obvious exception being Fluttershy whom just asked her to be careful, not wanting her to get hurt.
“Thank you, all.” She told them all with a smile playing at her lips just before they went up.
Shining Armor turned to the staircase to the left, explaining that he would be on the small outcrop in the far end of the arena, making sure that Twilight had shields to stop any spell that’d break through her own defenses. “Princess,” he turned to Luna, “I will have a unicorn for you as well, he will be here momen-”
“I thank you, Captain, but I assure you that I do not need help. Forgive me for sounding boastful, but I believe that I will be capable of defending myself.” She smiled at him with a sort of kind and hopeful smile, apparently hoping that Shining Armor wouldn’t think ill of her for denying his offer of assigning her guard to get her inner shields.
“Of course, Your Majesty,” he said, bowing his head slightly in a show of respect. “I did not mean to insinuate that you weren’t capable of protecting yourself, but old habits die hard. I’ve assigned ‘shield-stallions’ and ‘shield-mares’ to colleagues for so long that i just didn’t think of offering you the alternative.” He shot her an embarrassed smile before hugging his little sister, wishing her good luck and went for the place where he’d stand.
“Ready?” Luna asked after a moment, looking down at Twilight.
“No,” she half-laughed, “I’ll never be ready to fight a princess, but I don’t think I have a choice, do I?”
Luna just chuckled and made her way into the open floor of the arena. She stopped a few meters in and motioned for the unicorn to make her way in too.
Twilight took that as her ‘cue’ and trotted in, walking in a brisk, self-conscious pace to the other side of the arena where she could see Shining stand on the small outcrop from the stands just two metres above the ground. He flashed her a reassuring smile, and she returned with a nervous one.
When Twilight made her way to the other side of the arena and turned around to face Luna only thirty metres away, she saw a brief flicker of magenta around her before it quickly disappeared. Looking up, she saw her Shining Armor’s horn glowing a soft colour the same that she had just seen flicker in the air around her. He smiled down at her and she returned it again, slightly less nervous.
“The training battle between Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle will soon begin. The rules are as following; Each combatant has an inner layer of shields, those are held up by another unicorn, except in the case of Princess Luna, once the inner shield is hit, it counts as a strike for the victim. Once you have taken three strikes, you lose. Other than that, destruction of the interior is forbidden, save for the ground you are standing on, which can be used to perform geomancy.
“Any stray spells will be caught by this shield-” as if on cue, the twenty unicorn mare and stallions situated on the other 20 outcrops similar to the one the Guard’s Captain was standing on lit their horns, and created a shimmering blue field of energy that shielded the crowd. “and will be protecting everypony outside, so do not be afraid of using large scale spells as they will be caught.”
“May I request something?” Luna asked, having turned to the green coated mare speaking from the outcrop behind her. The mare nodded. “I would like to have a total of fifty unicorns shielding the arena floor, would that be possible?” The mare adopted a puzzled expression, not quite understanding. Luna elaborated. “I do not quite think any of you realise just how powerful Miss Sparkle here is, I would prefer to make sure that she, nor I, would break the barrier and harm anypony by accident.”
“...If you say so,” she turned to the crowd and raised her voice, “Oi! If you’re a unicorn and know the shielding spell, which you should, get your flank in gear and start powering it!” Several unicorns stood up and walked to the front rows of the seats, the other ponies having moved back to give them space, and lit their horn one by one.
The total number of unicorns numbered upwards of sixty if Twilight’s rough calculations were anything to go by. She knew she was a bit more powerful than your everyday unicorn, but she had never expected her to be so powerful that Luna would request three times the number of guards to power a shielding spell to keep her from harming anypony outside of the shield.
I’m sure she was talking about herself, but mentioned me to give me a boost of confidence. Heh, thank you Luna.
“Ahrem, now that the shield is powered by sixty-effing-eight unicorns, can we be on our way?” The green coated mare asked once again, her manners forgotten in the mix of confusion, not to mention her doubt that Twilight could possibly be strong enough to even attempt to break the 20-unicorn barrier.
“We are ready.” Luna assured her and turned to Twilight with an unreadable face. “Art thou ready Twilight?” She asked, momentarily resuming her archaic speech pattern.
Said unicorn gulped and nodded, taking a wider stance with her horn lowered slightly so that her horn was pointing in a more even line towards the lunar goddess. She lit her horn and started gathering power, preparing for whatever Luna would throw at her.
Luna, on the other hoof, barely moved. She had neither taken a wider stance nor lowered her head. She was simply standing still as tom, obviously awaiting Twilight’s first move. She didn’t move. It made Twilight highly nervous.
I guess she’s waiting for me to make the first move. She thought after a few minutes of just staring at the alicorn. Using the power she had gathered, and held, in her horn Twilight fired off a simple missile of raw magical power. It went right through Luna -or- what should have been Luna.
“Be perceptive, Twilight Sparkle, that is your first lesson.” Luna’s voice said from behind Twilight.
By pure instinct, Twilight teleported to the other side of the arena with a pop and a small burst of light. She looked at the princess with a horrified expression. Her heart was hammering in her chest so hard that she could feel it, not to mention that she could practically hear the blood rushing through her veins.
“You-But... I... HOW! Did you get behind me!?” the unicorn exclaimed, the horrified expression slowly morphing into one of disbelief.
“The night is deceptive, Twilight Sparkle. Do not think it will give away its secrets that easily.” This time Luna moved, her head lowering ever so slightly as her horn started to glow a dark blue. Two medium sized discs appeared in the air in front of her. One was made of spinning fire that formed the disc, the other of water.
The fire seemed real enough, burning bright and dangerously. The water, however, seemed slightly off. As if something about it wasn’t quite as it should be. Something, some piece of knowledge long forgotten, tried to make its way into her mind’s limelight and make itself known, but she just couldn’t really remember what it was.
The discs were fired towards her. She had to react quickly as they moved with surprising speed. She conjured a shield of light orange, a fire shield to block off the fire disc and was about to summon a water attuned shield when something clicked in her mind.
It is possible for a sorcerer to wield different elements at the same time, but it is never possible to wield two opposites at the same time, as the energies would clash and backfire.
It was at that point that she noticed something else that was slightly off with the water disc; it was transparent, and more so than it should be. Thinking quickly, she quickly raised a light purple shield in front of her, dispelling the orange one from before.
The two discs crashed into the shield, leaving a spiderweb of cracks all over it as they dissipated.
“Water and Fire elemental spells are not castable at the same time.” Twilight said with a small smile. “Shields, however, are as they aren’t elemental spells, but only attuned to the element in such a fashion that it would block them. It is still impossible to mix such shields, as is why I only raised my ‘standard’ shield, mixing air and fire attunement into it, to block the discs.”
Luna reared up on her hind legs and clapped her hooves. “Congratulations, Twilight, you passed the first lesson. You successfully looked through the small illusion I had used on my wind spell to make it look like a water disc, using the knowledge you had of the elemental school of magic. You’ve proven to be perceptive. Now, I want you to attack me. This time, I will stay in one place so do not worry about me appearing behind you.” The hint of a smile teased at the corners of her mouth.
The lilac unicorn nodded and gulped again. To say she was nervous would be an understatement, her pounding heart made sure of that.
Focus, Twilight. You have to calm down, you’re fighting against a princess and she wants you to attack her. A simple blast of magic won’t do, I’ll have to do something different, something that would impress her. How about...
She drew a deep breath and lit her horn, conjuring water out of nothing but the air around her. It formed a globe of water roughly the size of her head. The globe hovered above her head,
perfectly circular.
Luna raised an eyebrow at this, not quite knowing what her opponent had in mind.
She soon found out, however, as seven streams of water made their way outwards to each side of Twilight before turning towards Luna, speeding towards her as seven beams of water.
The beams never hit. Just as they were within one meter of Luna, she lit her horn diverting their course and making them loop around her, speeding back towards Twilight, though they had been frozen to be seven spears of ice rather than seven beams of water.
What!? Twilight exclaimed mentally, throwing up a magenta barrier in front of her. Each of the seven frozen spears impaled the barrier, poking out several centimetres on the other side of it. The shield shattered under to force and the spears fell to the ground, thankfully stopped by Twilight’s minute thinking. How did she do that? I barely saw her horn lighting up... She’s better than I thought.
She mentally went through a large list of all the offensive spells she knew. There weren’t a lot as it wasn’t the type of magic she had focused her studies on, but there were still quite a list. Enough to defend herself should she ever need to. There were even a spell or two with enough power to be lethal to a normal pony. The majority, however, would only deal minor to moderate damage, restrain or the likes.
Twilight had learned from foalhood that hurting others was a bad thing, something you shouldn’t do. More than once she’d gotten a scolding by Celestia when she’d used her magic, primarily telekinesis, to pick up and throw away other foals that were annoying her. Being a student in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns or not, the other foals didn’t come close to matching Twilight in raw power, so they were never really able to break something as simple as her telekinesis. It was those scoldings, the times she was told that doing things like that to others was a bad thing, that held her back.
She knew that Luna could bat aside anything she threw at her, but she didn’t want to risk hurting a pony she considered a friend, regardless of whether or not said pony was an immortal demi-goddess.
“Twilight Sparkle! I told you to attack me!” Luna said, her voice retaining a normal level of volume, but spoken with the authority that only she could muster.
“I-Okay, Princess. I will.” Twilight muttered and lit her horn, casting the first spell that came to mind.
It was a roaring fireball, easily enough to cause severe burns to a normal pony if they didn’t get out of the way or couldn’t defend against it. The ball itself easily measured the size of half a pony. It was three quarters way towards hitting Luna when it disappeared. It wasn’t blocked, it wasn’t extinguished - It was dispelled.
The unicorns jaw was practically lying on the floor. That just isn’t fair.
“Twilight, your spells are straightforward, simple and purely destructive. They are too obvious and predictable. If you wish to strike me, be unpredictable!” Luna said, a bit more force behind her words this time.
How am I supposed to be unpredictable? I’m fighting against a millennia old demi-goddess! I can’t just be unpredictable against somepony who’s probably already seen everything there is! Twilight hung her head, almost accepting defeat at this point. However, she perked up soon after, one spell formula making its way to the surface of her mind, one so difficult that only the bare minimum of mages were capable of casting it.
Temporal shift - Teleportation. Of course! It’s so difficult and so rare that she can’t possibly have seen it enough times to know how to counter it, there will be ways to hit her even with her thousands of years of experience. She can’t have seen everything from a spell that rare and difficult.
She drew a breath and lit her horn, preparing the teleportation spell.
Before she had time to cast, Luna shouted; “If you want to win you have to come at me with the intent to kill!”
She wants me to go at her with the intent to kill? I-I... I suppose. It sounded like an order, so I have to.
Twilight teleported, disappearing in a flash of magenta light and reappearing on Luna’s left side, then teleporting again to her right side, behind her and finally in front of her.
Each time she teleported she stomped one hoof against the ground, each time the princess turned towards her immediately, sending out a beam of indigo magic that impacted harmless with the ground behind Twilight as she had already disappeared by the time it reached where she had stood.
Twilight teleported one last time and ended up where she had been standing before; on the other side of the arena. Her horn was still lit, shining bright.
“What are you doing, Twilight Sparkle?” Luna inquired with a raised eyebrow.
Twilight didn’t answer, she instead powered the spell already ‘present’ in her horn and unleashed it. A small black orb with purple markings shining with a dim light, about the size of a golf ball, was fired from her horn. It surged forward towards Luna with impressive speed.
The Lunar Princess quickly erected a barrier to stop it, but it went straight through, much to her surprise, and touched her on the chest. The impact itself did nothing, nor did she feel anything but a small tingle.
What is she planning? Luna thought. She arched an eyebrow at the small orb, taking a cautious stance and a single step back. Just as she was about to swat it aside the earth around her started to rumble. She looked around and saw four massive boulders, each easily being the same size as her, breaking free of the ground from each side of her and sped towards her with a speed that shouldn’t be possible for something that big.
She immediately created a barrier around her, constantly feeding it power. The boulders collided with the shield, but they weren’t beat aside or crushed -no- they kept on pushing, trying to break through the navy blue barrier that kept them from their target.
What did she do? Why -ngh!- aren’t the boulders being pushed away... How much power does that girl have? Luna thought to herself as she kept fighting against the boulders that continued to try and break through her defenses.
She stood like that for almost a minute, trying to beat back the force of four massive boulders. It felt like she was trying to move a mountain. Instead, she chose to teleport out, roughly ten metres to one side. She appeared in an indigo flash of light and was immediately greeted by the four boulders flying towards her.
“Not this time.” She whispered and fired four beams of midnight black magic in rapid succession, reducing the boulders to gravel mere metres in front of her. She turned to look at the lightly panting unicorn whom she was currently training. “Twilight Sparkle, how did you do that?” She asked incredulously. “I have never seen magic like that before.”
Twilight smiled, trying not to outright beam with pride. “Gravity magic. First discovered three centuries ago. I figured you wouldn’t know about it, or at least not very much. With each teleport I left a small imprint with my hoof, ‘telling’ my magic that I wanted to use that piece of ground. The small orb was a collection of pure gravitational energy; it can’t be blocked by conventional means. It touched you and made you ‘magnetic’ for those four pieces of rock, causing them to want crush you.” Her face turned slightly more serious, remembering that she might very well be attacked in a seconds notice. She was supposed to be fighting Luna. “You told me to come at you with the intent to kill, so that’s what I did.”
Luna thought this over, careful to keep her expression entirely neutral. She was genuinely impressed that the young unicorn had managed to come at her with the intent to kill. It was that barrier that most ponies had trouble overcoming, to attack others with the express intent to end their life. The worst part of it was that Twilight may very well have killed her had she not defended herself.
“You know, Luna,” Twilight began, bringing Luna out of her stupor, “I don’t mean to sound degrading or try to insult you, but... I’m impressed that you held the boulders back that easily. Each of them easily weighed three tons, coupled with the gravitational pull from the other spell... I’d say you held back roughly a hundred tone combined, 25 ton from each side.”
Thousands of years of experience came in handy at this very moment, every single point of experience she had was used to keep her jaw from dropping. To think that a mortal unicorn could project that much power in two simple spells. The Lunar Diarch couldn’t help but admire the immense strength that apparently resided within Twilight, more strength than she had anticipated. The impressiveness of what she’d done was only increased by the fact that she hardly seemed winded. Sure she had been panting moments before, but she had cast five teleportation spells in a row, combined with the four markings on the stone floor and the the gravitational orb.
“I see,” Luna commented slowly, silently considering what to do next. It didn’t take her long to decide. “Twilight, I think we have covered what lessons we needed. You’ve shown that you can be unpredictable and that you’re perceptive.”
“Does that mean that we’re done here?” The unicorn asked, secretly hoping that they were. She wasn’t a fan of trying to hurt the princess, even if she had somehow found the courage to do so.
Luna smiled, a small and almost devious smile. “Nay, it means that now we’re going to try your limits, see how strong you truly are.” Having spoken her piece she and Twilight disappeared in a blue flash of light, both of them reappearing in their respective ends of the arena. “This is no longer training, this is a fight. Prepare thyself!”
Twilight barely had time to think before she was assaulted by a series of deep purple bolts came surging towards her. Halfway towards her they spread out, coming from several different directions. In response to this Twilight conjured several small barriers around her, blocking each bolt, though not without making spiderwebs of cracks along every single one of them.
She can’t be serious? She wants to fight!? That attack just now I only just managed to block. An ounce of power more and they would’ve broken through.
Luna gave Twilight no pause and grabbed every piece of rock from the four boulders from before and flung it towards the unicorn.
That’s an approximate of seven ton material right there! And that’s only if I’m lucky and she didn’t get everything-
“I asked you to attack with the intent to kill me, Twilight Sparkle, I intend to do the same.”
Twilight blinked, she didn't have time to think, there was only time to act. She focused the magic in her horn and whisked out of existence, appearing only two metres in front of where she stood before, the rock and sand safely impacting the edge of the arena beside her. Some of it hit the barrier around the arena, causing it to flicker.
She lit her horn once again, causing the ground around Luna to shake. Two stone pillars came shooting towards her from either side attempting to impale her. She disappeared before they were even close to hitting her, gone in a flash of blue magic.
She reappeared in front of Twilight and bucked towards her face. Said unicorn only just managed to block the attack but she was still pushed backwards a goodly distance from the force alone.
In a purple flash, she was gone, reappearing to the princess’ right. As quickly as she could gather it, the water around her started to condense, shaping four tennis ball sized globes. They stretched into ovals and frozen, then aimed at luna, arching out to hit from each side, and upper left and upper right corner.
They melted before impacting and changed course at Luna’s bidding, only to be evaporated by a spiralling strand of fire conjured by Twilight.
The strand of fire grew to a sphere and rose to be above the unicorn controlling it and a little forward. It grew steadily, and somehow it caused the few attacks Luna had tried to sent towards Twilight to be diverted, hitting the dome barrier instead.
I don’t know exactly how I do this, but I seem to have grown stronger just from fighting her, Twilight thought, a pony sized sphere of fire and a gravitational orb inside it is no laughing matter.
She was forcibly brought out of her reverie by a sudden amount of magenta around her. A voice called out that Luna had scored one point against Twilight. An attack of some sort had struck Shining’s shield around her, the shimmer of it died down after only a moment.
She took in a deep breath started shaping the fire sphere; the gravitational orb inside of it hadn’t been enough to divert this attack it seemed .
Twilight closed her eyes and opened them again as well as letting out her breath at the same time. Her eyes shimmered a pure white for a moment before the sphere of fire, now twice the size of a pony, sent a massive stream of fire towards Luna, the stream was formed as the head of a dragon with its maw open wide. It was met by an indigo half dome. The sphere shrunk as the fire continued to pour from it. It was gone in a matter of seconds, the small black orb with purple markings in the center was dispelled as well.
Impressive. I had not quite expected her to be able to control the most unstable element that easily, nor to that extent. Time to push her to her true limits. No more holding back.
It was then that she closed her eyes and took a stance that could only be described as powerful. A cloud of energy surrounded her horn, the dome above them flickering from just her gathering power.
A small grunt could be heard from one of the unicorn guards.
Her eyes snapped open, shining with a bright white light. Her horn erupted at the same time, sending out multitudes of raw energy beams, followed by roaring fire, jets of water, rocks being ripped from the ground only to be sent flying towards the purple unicorn.
Twilight herself stood with wide eyes in disbelief. How was she supposed to defend against that? In the panic of the moment teleporting was the last thing in her mind, she had to shield herself. She dove into her self and reached for every scrap of power she had available, every single morsel of magical energy that she could find within herself, and put it into a dome around her.
The attacks impacted with a violent boom, causing the shockwave alone to cause the dome above to flicker, but Twilight stood her ground with gritted her teeth, clenching her eyes together in concentration. A crack appeared in the shield.
More... Dig deeper, I need to hold the shield strong... can’t.... let it break... can’t...
The shield held for the duration, but it left Twilight panting. She fell to her knees and the small magenta dome around her flickered out of existence. She lifted her head and looked at the Lunar diarch with a tired look in her eyes. Luna looked no worse for wear.
“Stand up, Twilight, we are not yet done."
She stood up, her body shaking from exhaustion. “W-Why,” she forced out, looking at Luna with as much of a questioning gaze as she could.
“To test you,” was the simple answer. She offered no other explanation, she instead let knocked the air out of Twilight with a telekinetic slap, sending her sprawling on the ground. She still has more power, I can feel it without problem. I just need to force it out of her.
"Two strikes against Twilight, one more and Luna will be deemed victor," a voice rang out from somewhere.
On the right side of the arena, Twilight's friends sat with bated breaths and worried expressions. Applejack was holding her hat between her hooves in worry, Fluttershy was curled up in a ball, too terrified of violence to be able to bear witness to Twilight and Luna fighting like this. Rarity constantly had a hoof in front of her mouth, trying fruitlessly to keep her shock at what was transpiring at bay. Pinkie Pie was looking with an uncharacteristically worried expression, her mane and tail not quite as voluminous and curly as it usually was. The last one was Rainbow Dash; her wings quivered slightly in nervousness every now and then, a faint whisper inaudible to anypony but herself escaped her lips.
"Come on, Twilight... You've got to stand up. Don't let the princess beat you like this, show her what you're made of."
Twilight groaned and stood up, her gaze again fixed on the alicorn. She saw that her horn was shining again, undoubtedly preparing for another assault. She clenched her eyes and went into herself once more, digging around for as much power as she could, collecting everything to power a shield.
Deeper and deeper she went into herself. She went deeper than she had ever gone before, down into her untapped potential. She let out a gasp in her mind, she had found something. What looked like an entire lake of transparent silvery liquid. This was her power, this was her very center.
She knew immediately that this was her only chance for blocking Luna’s next assault, she simply did not have the presence of mind to teleport out of the way, nor did she think it’d work. She tapped into it.
…
…
…
And went out of control.
In the arena, her eyes had snapped open, shining with a strong white light. She was surrounded by a bubble of magenta energy, almost identical to the one that she had used earlier. The difference being the arching lightnings of energy running along their surface.
Luna’s eyes were transfixed on the smaller unicorn having what appeared to be a power surge. She had attempted to yse too much power, so much that she couldn’t control it. Luna’s earlier attack, a beam of concentrated moonlight had been swatted away by the shield created by Twilight.
Lavender hooves rose from the ground, carried into the air by the sheer power coursing through her body. The bubble around her expanded, the lightning reaching out to and striking the barrier.
“Twiley! Stop it! You’re going to harm yourself!” Shining Armor called, having abandoned his shield around his sister.
“T’is of no use, Captain! She cannot hear you!” Luna called back over the booms of the magical lightning impacting the dome. Several of the unicorns looked strained.
Luna’s words were true, Twilight didn’t hear anything. She was too far lost in her own magic. Stone around her was ripped loose and sent flying, impacting the dome when they weren’t stopped by Luna. Telekinetic shockwaves forced the princess to shield herself. There was so much power behind them, more than anything Twilight had shown before.
The worst had yet to come.
Twilight’s white eyes locked onto the princess of the night, her features set in a completely neutral expression. “You tried to kill me. She said, her voice thrumming with such power that it felt like a force of its own, “tried to stop me. But nothing will stop me,” she stopped momentarily to sent a massive lightning towards a pair of shadow creatures summoned with the purpose of trying to tackle her from behind, to try and pin her, “not puppets,” another massive lightning, this one aimed at the magical dome above them, shattering it completely and making several of the guards fall over unconscious. “not ponies.”
This wasn’t good, not good at all. Luna hadn’t thought that Twilight could shatter the protective dome so easily. It was like a piece of glass.
Twilight was gathering power again, this one for a larger strike than ever before. The protective bubble the unicorn had put around herself had disappeared, replaced by an aura of energy, similar to the one she had during her very first power surge.
“GET OUT!” Luna shouted at the guards in the tribunes, panic evident in her voice. Those that could teleported out of the building, the rest were scrambling towards the exit... but they weren’t quick enough. Twilight seemed close to have gathered enough power for whatever she intended.
Just needing them all out, Luna gathered every single pony in her magic and teleported them out, leaving only her and Twilight in the arena.
“Not gods.” Twilight said with such finality that it was chilling. The entire stadium filled with the unicorn’s energy, lightning striking everywhere when they weren’t stopped by Luna.
The Alicorn herself cast up a bubble around her, lightning and stone crashed against it harder than ever before, so hard that she struggled to hold out against it.
There was no room for words, no room for thinking. She needed to act. She extended her barrier, successfully encompassing Twilight in it. It was then that she felt pain.
Her magenta lightning was everywhere, striking her wings and legs, coursing through her body. Smaller stones caused the sound of cracking bones when they hit.
She screamed.
And opened her eyes that had closed from trying to keep herself and Twilight protected, as well as the building itself. It was just in time to see a massive beam of energy come from Twilight’s horn, hitting her dead on.
Then, everything went black.
----
Tabby is standing with wide eyes after my ‘story’ was finished. I had explained everything from before our ‘training’ session to when I went unconscious myself. I may be immortal, but I can only take so much before I, too, black out.
“You are not kidding me, are you Princess?” He asks with some suspicion, as well as reluctance for doubting my words, I suppose.
“No, Tabby. I assure you that I am not kidding,” I reply with a kind smile. “As much as I wish it was, it is the truth.” Tabby nods to himself a few times as if to try and get it all sorted out in his own head.
“Right then,” he says slowly, “what about the arena then? I wasn’t told very much, only that you and Lady Sparkle were hurt and needed medical attention, you the most.”
I smile. Not the kind smile from before, but more of a sad smile, though not quite. There might be some small inkling of pride hidden somewhere deep in it. “Nothing but rubble.”
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hey, this was actually really good! much much much MUCH better than alot of first timers do. the spells that were mentioned were creative. the combat wasn't severely lacking, although i personally feel that luna should have held out a bit longer than she did. and also, i love how you described twilights power surge! you made it sound like she was another person all together! all in all, i'm seriously hoping there's some sort of continuation of this. maybe an adventure! you could bring in foreign powers that hear of her abilities and kidnap her or something.
2662833
Making Twilight sound like another person entirely was very much deliberate. In fact, it was her magic talking, not her.
That is to say; Twilight was so overwhelmed by the power coursing through her that there was only one thought in her head: Make sure she would survive. Her vision on everything was pretty much screwed over, completely distorted by uncontrolled power. That is why she says and acts like she does.
As for Luna: That final attack is what drains all of Twilight's magical power, everything that she has left. I think it's fair to say that she's capable of putting Luna to sleep for a good few hours with that.
2662895
ah, now i get it. oh, and sweet cover art!
2662903
Thanks :)
But you should pay the creator of it a visit as well. He's quite good.
2662920
how do i find them? mind sending me a link or something?
Awesome
Well, for your first attempt at writing combat.
Well done, Well, well done.
I was on the edge of my seat to see just , how much might be happening and, just wow.
Not bad, not bad at all.
Not everyone can write a good combat scene good job would like to see you try something longer
Think you succeeded at writing a good combat scene
Twas very exciting and made me want more.
"Not puppets. Not ponies. Not gods."
Glorious reference! This was a great fight scene!
There were occasional typos and linguistic slip ups, but nothing drastic enough to detract from the story. Overall, I found this a thoroughly entertaining read.
If you're a fan of dark/action hybrids (such as The Immortal Game, as you so epically referenced) feel free to look at my own story, which will eventually develop into one. Not on the level of The Immortal Game, of course.
2665880
Reference? What reference? I don't know anything about any reference.
images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130324025631/wordgirl/images/9/92/Liarjack.png
In all seriousness, though, I was just waiting for someone to point it out
Believe it or not, that sentence was half the reason I started writing this.
2665885
Erm, dorp, I actually edited my comment after you'd replied to it, so if you're not like me (who reads back over comments obsessively) you may have missed my follow up. xD
But yeah, I'll reiterate - this was a good fight scene. It wasn't lacking at all!
2665885
Curious question. Why did you tag it alternate universe? That's a tag I generally don't fully understand, but it's not one I'd have pinned for this story.
2665921
I used AU because I needed Luna to be a bit out of character. That's basically the gist of it.
I feel like this would have been a great scene in a long fic. I bequeath upon you a moustache!
Twilight's speech at the end seems like the kind of speech you would give to an arch-enemy right before you defeated them it was little out of place in this context.
2666339
Take a look at this 2662895 it explains why she spoke as she did.
Well, you didn't overuse barriers and teleporting, and it wasn't all "magic lasers pewpewpew". Props for gravitational magic; it's a favorite of mine. Using elemental magic and placing restrictions on it was another good move. You could have done more with Luna's puppets, but they seemed like a last resort kinda thing anyway. All in all, your combat scene was alright.
Just a shame there was no trash talk! But I guess friends don't throw curse words back and forth as they try to kill each other.
2666739
...
...
...
Tast commented on my story?
Wooo!
On a more serious note, yes the puppets could probably have been used for more, but I view creating puppets out of pure shadow is a pretty high level thing, and since she didn't expect Twilight to be as powerful as she was, nor go out of control, she didn't want to go overboard.
As for the entire teleport/barrier thing, I can't help but feel that that's meat in a slightly sarcastic way.
And on a final note: Trash talking really has no place when it's on a *cough* training session
Epic fight scene! I love stories where Twilight is just super over powered.
Immediate favourite and follow, great job!
2666940
haha, thanks^^
I think you can do without the second "that is".
weren't
I think the comma after "hard" should have been a period to make it easier to read.
You forgot to capitalize that "i".
And you started with first person present tense and then shifted to fp past tense when Tabby entered.
2666991
Thanks for pointing this out ^^ It should be taken care of now
2662895 I think you need to explain who is speaking in the italics clearer
2667180
They're thought, not speech.
2667195 Yeah I know, but on each one I am not sure whether or not Luna is thinking or Twilight is speaking. It seems that you had them both thinking during it.
2667206
Could you point out where that is?
sure if you want
I guess this is the only one, oh well I could tell on most of them though. Might be a bit confusing to some people though.
2667241
Ah, that one.
Hmm... Look at the rest of the paragraph. It's an unwritten rule (well, probably written somewhere) that you make a line break every time a new character speaks, the same goes for thoughts. Earlier in that paragraph, Luna spoke, it was her that slapped Twilight with TK, hence it can only be Luna's thoughts.
Hue hue hue, featured I see?
a.imageshack.us/img814/9857/chucknorrisapproves.gif
2667256
fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2009/348/f/3/Bruce_Lee___Chuck_Norris_who_by_Hafu_Inuyasha.jpg
But thank you anyways
The Not Puppets/Ponies/Gods thing was a steal from Immortal Game right?
Twilight says the exact same thing when she's fighting Esteem/Titan's Puppet in Canterlot Castle.
2667376
Not so much a steal as a reference & tip of the hat to one of the best 'Dark' fics posted on this site
Overall, an interesting read!
Redundancy might be a problem, though; take this for instance:
Perhaps cutting it into several full sentences or making it less repetitive would be a good idea.
This one I'm not sure about, since it could've been used to show Twilight losing conscious control of herself:
Again, I don't know if that was deliberate or overlooked, but cutting it apart or cutting part of it out might work better.
Definitely a very good attempt at a combat scene. Those are difficult- so many things to keep track of, not to mention finding a balance between describing the action and still making it interesting. You did well!
2667417
I'll get it fixed xD
Those were blunders on my part.
I really enjoy reading about 'badass twilight'...
Have some music to go with the fighting scene.
I also hope to see more fanfic stem from this one.
2666817
Excited about me commenting? Did I do something noteworthy while I wasn't looking? I have a bad habit of doing things behind my back... Curse me!
2667382
Then do you know that it's a recursive reference? The Immortal Game didn't even invent that line. The original is from Prototype, where Alex Mercer says "Nothing will protect you from me! Not MEN, not WEAPONS, not ARMOR!"
can someone please give me list of stories like this.. you know twilight being really badass and defeated ponies like luna or celestia (no evil twi please) this one is the best ive seen and i need MOAR
Awesome, really really awesome, faved and thumbed up.
2667254 OH didn't really know, but thanks you learn something new every day!
I think the best thing that can be said is that I'm very curious as to what happens next. I too am a fan of the concept that Twilight can, if need be, trash a god. Not that she would normally. And I don't even think Luna's too OOC here either; if nothing else, she might just be more used to combat as a way of testing a pony out. Wasn't that a thing ten centuries ago? (I think it was, but I might be wrong.) And nice touch on gravity spells, too. 9.8 m/s/s is your friend..
But yeah, the main thing is wondering just how Twilight would feel about finding out she put Luna in hospital.
DUDE!!! CONGRATZ ON THE FEATURED!!! I totally didn't even realize you were the author at first. I checked it out because you mentioned that Twilight is a sorceress in the description, and to my knowledge I am (was) the only author to label her as such. Then I caught sight of your avatar, and I'm like, NO WAY! If anyone deserves the feature, its you.
I'm afraid I have to stick this on my read later list at the moment, as it is late, I'm swamped in my own projects, and I still have issues that will need to be resolved in the morning. However, the premise sounds fantastic.
Finally got around to reading this gem of a story.
I can see why it got featured. Very well done, man, very well done.
~Skeeter The Lurker
2668186 yeah I would like some more as well. The moonstone cup is the only other thing I can think of that is even similar to this in terms of plot. This was great too though. Thumbed up and faved
Good story! Two things:
1. Twi's friends are on the sidelines, right? It would be nice to hear them gasping and such when Twilight is taking heavy hits. Kind of like how you had that one stallion grunt when the audience-shield was strained.
2. It'd be nice to have a follow-up story where Twilight wakes up after the fight, and freaks out when she remembers / is told what she did. (this would be from Twilight's perspective.)