Chomhrac
A red sun dawned over Cadance's Court.
The rays stretched through skies speckled with clouds, gray wisps of vapor that would later be heavy with the promise of snow. They stretched over glistening peaks and through shadowed valleys, splintering into a hundred tiny beams of light as they reflected off of the rooftops of Dawndale, and soon, they appeared to bathe the city itself in rosy light. It was apropos. Today, a brave pony would likely die.
There was not much in the way of idle chatter in the banquet hall that morning. The Princess and her niece were not exactly on speaking terms at the moment, and they both looked haggard and worn at their seats on the high table, each having attempted to reach an amicable conclusion to the conflict that existed between their warriors, and each having failed to do so. A young pony, roughly the age of the young Lady and dressed in the black robes of a mage's apprentice, was apparently deep in discussion with her cat, whose tail twitched in slight annoyance.
At a nearby table, the captains of the Royal Guard were in deep conference with the youngest of their number, offering last minute advice and being sure that he was eating, though he looked as if he would rather be doing anything but. He stared across the hall towards the table where his opposite sat, who was attacking a plate of roasted peppers with unabridged relish and alacrity. His face became perhaps a few shades paler at the sight of one of those peppers being neatly skewered on the older pony's fork, and he rose a little from his chair, only to be seated once more at a word from his senior.
“Maybe he won't kill him,” Cobblestone murmured to Hob, before draining her cup of watered wine, wishing it was something stronger as she clutched at her head in discomfort. She was no stranger to fights, even scheduled fights, but for some reason, the prospect of watching the duel unnerved her. Maybe it was the ceremony, the anticipation, or maybe it was the way Vino and Brightsteel looked at one another, like a cat sizing up a vicious hound. She had seen cats get the better of dogs before, but somehow, she suspected that it wouldn't go nearly as well this time around.
Unlikely, Hob replied. I have watched the captain for quite some time. He is quite confident he will kill Vino today. I happen to agree with him, his skill with a blade is the match of any I have seen so far.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Cobblestone grumbled. She popped a potato into her mouth, and surreptitiously slid an extra one off of her plate for Hob, who devoured it in the blink of an eye. “Well, I hope Invictus taught him something that the captain hasn't seen before.”
“Did you say something, Cobblestone?” Libra asked, her ears perking up as she broke away from her conversation partner, Cadance's court medic and chief Cleric. She'd hoped to convince him to be on standby during the duel in an effort to improve Vino's odds. “It sounded like you were talking to somepony.”
Cobblestone shook her head dutifully. “No, Magus,” she replied. “Just Hob, is all. He's a good listener.”
Libra looked at Hob, who yawned at her in a brazen display of nonchalance. “I'm sure he is,” she said, sounding not at all like she believed that Hob was as indifferent as he looked. Libra had grown accustomed to Hob's seeming attachment to his keeper, and while she still privately thought that there was something unusual about Hob, she had resigned herself to the fact that Hob was a good deal craftier than her when it came to being observed, and she had simply settled in for Cobblestone to tell her if something truly was dangerous about her supposed pet.
Cobblestone, in the meantime, had shot another glance over to the table containing Cadance's captains. “What kind of pony can just polish off a breakfast that big and then go out and try to kill somepony?” she asked, as Captain Brightsteel finished the last of his eggs, raising a mug of coffee to his lips. “Ain't natural, is what it is.”
“It isn't natural, Cobblestone,” Libra corrected her. “While I happen to agree that Captain Brightsteel's actions are somewhat callous, the word 'ain't' is not proper, nor is it polite grammar. And I imagine he's so calm because he's done this before. I'm sure that when he had his first duel, he was just as nervous as Sir Hedera.”
“You look just as calm,” Cobblestone observed as Libra took another small bite of her buttered toast, washing it down with an almost dainty sip of tea. “Aren't you worried?”
Libra set down her cup and saucer with a clink. “The young Sir Hedera should have kept better control of himself when he stepped into the fight,” she said, “And his corporal shouldn't have worn that pendant in public, where it might have been seen by anypony. The Captain, however, should have simply let the matter pass. Simply stopping when Vino asked would have sufficed, as his honor and the honor of his Lady had been satisfied with the corporal's beating. Frankly, I think this entire business should have been avoided, but it wasn't.”
“What's done is done, then?” Cobblestone asked, wincing at the clatter of nearby plates.
Libra nodded as she tucked a strand of grayish-brown mane behind her ear. “Essentially. I am calm, simply because I realize that there is nothing to be gained from my not being calm. You'll learn that lesson in time, Cobblestone.”
“Well, Magus,” Cobblestone said, avoiding looking at either Vino or Serale as she did so, “I still think that if you can do something, and you see the opportunity, you should do something. I just wish there was something I could do.”
The duel was not a public affair, and as such, it was not held in the usual place for such encounters, in the public square of Dawndale. This was a quarrel between gentry, and as such, it was held in the courtyard of Cadance's Court, a place that each of the combatants had known rather well. Before such things had gone out of style, heavy armor had dictated the necessity of sturdy posts to mark the edges of the dueling ring, which was marked with large oaken logs that were hewn from the mountainsides nearby.
In this, the age of the silk shirt and the light sword, the dueling ring was marked with a simple rope, stretched between poles of gilt steel, and as such, honor was counted upon to ensure neither participant left the ring. In the time since this change had been made, there were only two instances of a combatant leaving the ring. Both had been killed soon after re-entering the boundaries of the dueling circle.
On opposite sides of the ring, the combatants made their final preparations. Captain Brightsteel was clad, as he had been for many of his duels, in the sky blue of his Court, only a single heart embroidered in gold over his breast showing his rank, and his favor with the Princess. He had removed his cap, a wide-brimmed piece with a single feather in soft pink, and was smoking a long pipe as he waited, the rapier which normally hung by his belt twirling lazily in complex patterns through the air.
Vino, in contrast, was the picture of nervous energy. He was clad in a tabard of rich green cloth, across which a pattern of vine in white spiraled in complex curlicues. He wore no mail, nor any plate, and was engaged in a terse conversation with his second, the hulking pegasus which had so captured the attention of the Court in recent weeks. With a deep breath, he slid the bladeband around his foreleg, the reddish-silver steel staying put for a moment before it rose, easily, into the air as a longer and slimmer version of an arming sword.
“Vino!” a voice called, and he turned around to see a face he had almost forgotten in his nervous, hazy focus on the impending fight. Serale Everstar stood there, clad in a dress of somber, simple black, holding what appeared to be a kerchief of light purple in her hoof. She swallowed nervously before stepping forward and pushing it at him all at once, her cheeks reddening, and not because of the cold.
“Here,” she said. “I know favors aren't exactly in style anymore, but...it felt right.”
Vino said nothing, merely bowed, presenting his sword as he did so. Serale tied it to the hilt, which was quite solid, and stepped back. “Rise,” she said, her voice a bit husky as she did so. “And make sure you come back to me.”
“Combatants!” the judge, a Cleric clad in gray, called, tossing her head. “To the ring!”
Vino stepped forward, as did the captain, who put his pipe aside and swished his rapier through the air as he went. It was not a long walk to the center, as the ring was perhaps twenty paces across, if that. Both ponies stopped at the same time, three paces away from one another, and waited.
“Vino of House Hedera, in service to the Lady of the Wood, you have given grievous offense to this stallion, Captain Curia of Clan Brightsteel, in service to the Glorious Dawn. As the injured party has refused recompense outside of the field of honorable combat, I must ask him, in the name of mercy, to rescind his challenge and refuse combat.” the Cleric said, her face expressionless.
Brightsteel's lip curled. “This whelp abandoned mercy when he stood up for the heretic who besmirched the honor of my lady,” he said with contempt. “He'll get none from me.”
The Cleric merely nodded. “Sir Vino,” she said tonelessly, “Have you made your peace?”
Vino nodded once, his face drawn with worry. “I have,” he managed to get out.
The Cleric turned to Captain Brightsteel. “Captain Curia,” she said in the exact same tone, “Have you made your peace?”
Brightsteel rolled his eyes. “What peace I thought needed made, yes,” he said. “Can we get on with it? I promised I'd meet the Princess to discuss the Condottiero's contracts in her tower in fifteen minutes.”
The Cleric stepped back. “Then I can find no fault with these proceedings,” she said. “Combatants, you may begin on my mark. And from this moment, may your souls find peace, in this world or the next.”
From the crowd, for despite the “privacy” of this duel, there were still more than a hundred ponies present, there came a sound partway between a roar and a sigh, a peculiar rushing sound that seemed to Vino to embody the sound of steel rushing against steel and the groan of a dying pony all at once, though it all came out muffled and from far away.
Such a recollection nearly cost him his life.
Captain Brightsteel's sword came plunging towards his breast with unerring speed, and it was thanks to an unconscious reaction on Vino's part that it was knocked aside, though through no thought of his and more clumsily than anypony save perhaps the Captain would have liked. Vino's awareness of the crowd dwindled and vanished away, replaced only be a peculiar rushing in his ears and a throbbing in his chest.
He raised his sword back from the parry, seemingly in slow motion, and flicked the point back towards the Captain, whose rapier was now drawn back, close to his own chest. The point was turned aside with perhaps a bit more difficulty than the Captain had intended, and the two danced back from the center, clearing space for themselves as each reevaluated his opponent.
Vino began to notice things straight away. The Captain was fast, faster than anypony or anything he had seen fight, and confident in his ability. But he was no fool, and Vino could sense from the practiced motion of his circling that he was no stranger to playing long games, waiting for a critical error from his opponent. But he was at a disadvantage, for while his sword was longer than Vino's own, it was also much thinner. If Vino could land a solid blow on the Captain's sword, it would undoubtedly shatter.
But Vino was no fool himself. He'd lay his odds ten to one that the rapier was adamantium or a similar magically-reinforced metal. For such a blade to break was nearly impossible under the normal conditions of combat. Still, if he could not break it, perhaps he could bat it aside long enough to score a lucky hit and force the Captain to reconsider, or accept that Vino had drawn enough of his blood to consider the matter dropped.
The circle, already tight, tightened still more. Suddenly, the Captain's blade swung inside of Vino's guard as he stepped deftly forward, and the point whistled through the air as Vino's own sword chased is desperately, scoring a solid blow alongside Vino's shoulder and digging out a small clump of flesh as it did so.
“Hold!” the Cleric called, as Vino staggered back and the Captain brought his rapier back to his chest with a smirk. “First blood to the Captain.” She turned to Captain Brightsteel. “Will this satisfy your honor, sir?”
“I'll be satisfied once I've spilled all his blood on the ground, and not before,” Captain Brightsteel called back.
“Very well,” the Cleric said. She gestured. “Continue.”
Vino, his shoulder stinging and his strength flagging, stepped forward once more. The rapier darted towards him, and his parry was slow once again, leaving a sliver of blood along his other shoulder as the Captain grinned and began to press him in earnest.
His sword swept up, knocking the thrust aside, and with a twist, his sword was suddenly hurtling towards the Captain's head. His eyes widened as he stepped back, but it cost him precious moments. Vino's sword tip severed the very top of the Captain's ear as it passed over his head, and the Captain stumbled back with a stunned expression on his face as Vino continued to press his attack.
The second swing was more ably blocked, but it still cost the Captain a few precious steps, so that he had to turn his body to one side and begin to step around Vino's guard. Vino pivoted to accommodate this, not letting up on the pressure, and the Captain's sword strike was knocked again to one side, keeping him off balance.
The unicorn's face twisted unpleasantly, and with a snap, his sword came back to the guard position, and with a series of quick, short thrusts and chops, he began to strike back at Vino, easily switching the tempo of Vino's attack to a more cautious defense. The sword blows came much quicker now, and Vino's own attacks found fewer and fewer opportunity. Forward and backwards they fought, hooves clacking against cobblestones as each searched for an opening.
Vino's sword began to work against him now. The rapier was nowhere near as able to hold a blow, but it was far lighter, and Vino's own arming sword seemed positively massive in comparison. Each swing took effort, and it was only the slightest of touches which was needed to draw blood on the rapier's behalf. Vino realized that if something were to be done, it would need to be done now.
Suddenly, the Captain's sword came in, high and fast, for a killing blow. Vino, suddenly sure he was going for an eye, swept his sword to one side, catching the barest impression of the favor around its handle. The blade managed to catch the rapier, and Vino gave a twist out of reflex. There was a jerk, and Vino suddenly realized what he had done.
Fighting with a longsword revolved a lot around a practice called “binding”, which involved catching the blade of your opponent's sword in the space between your own blade and your crossguard. If done correctly, you could control the path of your opponent's sword with your own, making it difficult to maneuver and allowing you a significant advantage. Vino stared at the rapier, caught as it was between his blade and guard, and with a single practiced motion, gave it a twist.
The rapier shattered easily, the adamantium, hard as it was, unable to cope with the strain, and Vino grinned as the pieces fell onto the courtyard below, his sword point flicking up towards where the Captain should have been. However, the Captain was instead three or four paces back, and Vino gulped nervously as the Captain's bladeband, identical to his own, slid off of his hoof, forming the twin of the sword he had just shattered.
“A fine binding!” the Captain called. “One would almost be impressed, if it weren't for the fact that I held it out just for you!”
There was a chuckle from a few ponies as Brightsteel stepped forward, swinging his band in a much more fluid fashion than he had the rapier. Vino had the impression of being toyed with as he raised his sword. The Captain's thrust was neat, twisting around the head of his blade and burying itself in his other shoulder, setting another trickle of blood to flowing down his foreleg.
“Really,” the Captain said as Vino backed up, sword in front of him, “I should be congratulating you. Last pony that managed to break a rapier of mine was a far better duelist than you, sir knight. But I'm afraid I really do I have a meeting to attend. Give my regards to him when you get where he went.”
And with a ferocious sweep of his blade, the Captain began to rain down blow after blow on Vino's defenses, driving him back as the young knight desperately searched for any way to prevent his imminent demise.
“Come on, Vino” Cobblestone said as the third attempt was blocked by Vino's swing, followed shortly by his own attack, the sound of steel ringing throughout the courtyard. “Wipe that grin off his face and fight.”
She flinched at another staccato call from the swords, like bells ringing in quick succession as Vino made an attempt to draw blood from the Captain, who warded off the attacks ably. She shook her head, biting her lip. Vino had improved, but it was clear to her that the Captain was merely testing how far he could allow Vino to go before ending him.
“Serale,” she said, tugging at the hem of her friend's dress, “This has to stop.”
Serale's face was white and still as she watched Vino take a third hit, this one to the cheek, drawing a small red line below his ear. She shook her head. “This isn't right,” she said, “There's no way he should be losing this badly! He was practicing all month, but it's like it doesn't even matter.”
Cobblestone shot a quick glance at Libra, who was sitting a few chairs away, engaged in a fervent discussion with the court's Cleric, obviously preparing for the worst. She let her gaze roam back over the crowd. There were no eyes on her or Serale, all of them were watching the duel with rapt attention.
“Serale, I don't mean to be a pain,” she said quietly, “But if you don't do something soon, Vino's going back home in a box. So do something.”
Serale finally tore her gaze away, meeting Cobblestone's eyes. She nodded. “Like we practiced?” she asked.
Cobblestone felt the side pocket of her robes, where she had stashed her morning dose of Dragon's Kiss. She'd been nursing the headache she got from keeping memories out all morning as a result. The plan they'd had wasn't a great one, but it was better than nothing, and what's more important, it wouldn't be detectable.
With a grunt of effort that would more closely resemble pain to the casual observer, Cobblestone let her mental defenses slip just a bit. When she opened her eyes, she could see the faintest threads of color surrounding her, drifting from pony to pony. Gently, she seized hold of the strings, being extraordinarily careful not to grab at them too harshly and draw attention to their manipulation, and, with said strings at her disposal, she reached for the small magical signature on Vino's handkerchief.
“Ready?” she asked quietly.
Serale nodded, removing the necklace from around her neck. “Ready,” she said, as it fell to the ground.
Several things happened in very quick succession past that point. Every pony in the crowd had the distinct impression of their perception shifting about two inches to the left. The favor on Vino's sword burst into flame. Serale's magic manifested itself quite unintentionally as a very slight tremor in the earth.
And then, with a loud bang, Serale, Cobblestone, and Vino vanished quite completely and without a trace from the courtyard.
Stats
Page generated in 0.041 seconds
Total duration
1,069 users online
1,894,831 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I was going to keep this one longer, but that last sentence was just too good to pass up.
Dangit, Brightsteel needed his blood spilled.
Amazing chapter, and I'm impressed with Cobblestone's craftiness.
Nice chapter, I would have wanted to see how the whole debacle ends, but I guess that will take a lot more time.
How is 'three ponies vanishing without a trace' undetectable? was that what they planned, or was it unintentional? how is that supposed to help Vino?
6686207
6685161
Given your usual disposition, I had imagined Vino would do something completely ridiculous, balls to the wall dangerous. My specific guess was that he would try to get himself impaled on Brightsteel's sword, catch him in close, and then stab him in the neck.
...that would've been super cool.
6686261
Whaaaaaat? Pfft. No, I would never...I mean, that would be completely ridiculous...
Shit, I should have gone with that.
6685233 he cut off a part of his ear there was blood spilled
While I do like the speedy chapters, I think I'm both impressed and disappointed by this. It doesn't resolve the Brightsteel conflict, but I suspect they just dishonoured Cadance enough to help along the motivation for war.
6685161 You bastard.
6686750
It's a lifestyle.
So we finally get to the Duel and you don't even let us finish it? Typical.
Can we at least expect the next chapter, and at least some resolution, relatively soon?
Excellent.
6687652
6689009
Since Cadence had asked Brightsteel not to duel Vito, or at least leave it on a first blood match, does that mean he actually did it for the sake of satisfying his own ego?
Also, why does Cadence allow honor duels in her kingdom? Not only she was raised in the more peaceful Equestria under Celestia ' wing, but we know by reading European History how often honor duels caused more problems that resolved, and for that reason rulers and legislators took pain in making laws to ban them (19th century).
6686207 Perhaps they all went to another dimension or something, where time flows much slower, so it would appear as if they never left at all?
That or it could be a mental thing, where time is sped up, where they are taken somewhere else in their minds, but time as effectively stopped for everyone not in their mental hideaway?
Then again maybe they disappeared without a trace, as in nobody would be able to trace them to where they teleported to!
Frankly I am just DYING to know what happened and what will happen as a result of this!! <3
Huh, honestly I expected the soul sight to somehow detect Vino's 'bug'.
Anyways, you are evil leaving it where you did.
6697535 One might consider it evil, or one might realise that belief is a result of the programming we receive; we're taught (either intentionally or unintentionally, directly or indirectly) that manipulation is evil — childraising is manipulation, ergo childraising is evil.
The thing is, that's just how humans work. There is absolutely nothing anyone thinks that wasn't influenced by other people or by instincts and reflexes otherwise, and true "free will" is imaginary. The only difference between Celestia's vision, Twilight's kingdom, and living like wild animals... is that one of them doesn't include hatred, senseless violence, or other unnecessary strife.
Seriously, her "mind control" is more like putting a schizophrenic on medication than making people into slaves; it doesn't take away their freedom, it gives them freedom. If nothing else, imagine a world without the need for airport security.
6699210
See, I've been looking at this question since I started this story, about four years ago. The question of safety versus security and whether or not ends justify means is a timeless one. But I would like to point out that I did create a story that might be considered a terrifying dystopia, depending on whether or not I take this the way I think it'll go.
Regardless, if I were to have a dictator, I think I'd prefer it be one like Celestia.
6699707
Yes, I'll be continuing it. Mainly I'm trying a few different "filters" on how I want to present the story. There's a lot of potential for it to go extremely well or extremely...not.