Fire vs. Love: A Battle for Supremacy

by UnweptSchlipps

Malice at the Palace

Rainbow Dash hovered over the crowd getting the best vantage point she could, not even caring that she was obscuring other ponies’ vision. “Hey, down in front!” a donut vendor yelled angrily.

“Hey buddy! Shut up or I’ll stick one of those éclairs right up your ass!” the pegasus replied with such force that it shut the stallion up. Satisfied, she returned her gaze to the towers.

But before doing so, she noticed a certain purple unicorn making her way through the crowd. “Hey Twilight!” the pegasus called. But the unicorn kept moving through, despite giving a quick worried glance.

But Dash was not to be ignored. She flapped her way towards her friend until she was hovering right above Twilight’s head. “Yo Twilight! I wondered where you went!”

“Oh…hey Rainbow Dash. How-how are you doing?” Twilight stuttered.

“Hey egghead, you don’t look too good.”

“What? No, no, I feel absolutely great. What would possibly…make you say that?” the unicorn said with an unusually huge grin. Rainbow remained silent however, mostly because she couldn’t stop watching Twilight eye twitch.

“Weeellll, I think I should get going,” Twilight finished with a nervous laugh.

“Where are you going? Aren’t you gonna watch with us?”

“Oh I’m just…going to watch with my-my parents! I’m not going to do anything shady or anything…heh…heh.” Immediately after a bout of nervous laughter, Twilight immediately disappeared in another flash of light, leaving Rainbow hovering over nothing.

“Whatever, her loss,” she uttered as royal fanfare blared overhead. The pegasus looked to see an official-looking pegasus flying high above the courtyard, a microphone attached to his black and white cap.

“Welcome everypony to the duel of the decade, the fight of the century, the battle of the millennium!” the stallion announced over the raucous crowd. “This. Is. The Divina Duellum, MALICE AT THE PALACE!”

Just the mere mention of this sent the crowd into a frenzied uproar. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie screamed and whooped along with crowd, while Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy continued to watch in hushed suspense.

The pegasus motioned toward the western tower, and began, “For the challenger, we have fleet-winged flier whose magic burns with the intensity of a thousand suns…the Divine Destructor, the Regal Retaliator, our very own, PRINCESS CELESTIA!”

On cue, the princess slowly but confidently made her way out into the open. Despite the rather strenuous conditions before her, Celestia still kept a proper air about her, giving a curt wave or two for the crowd. A sure smile graced her face, showing that she was not at all afraid of anything or anypony.

Then the pegasus pointed towards the eastern tower, everypony’s eyes following his hooves. “And for the defender, we have the graceful alicorn whose powers were able to defeat an entire hive of evil doppelgangers…the Changeling Killer, the Pink Punisher, the Queen of Tough Love…PRINCESS CADENCE!

xxx

She heard her name being called, and Princess Cadence stepped out onto the windy tower in full view of the massive crowd below. She was caught quite off guard from the sheer mass of ponies watching her, and she found it quite hard not be a bit nervous. And normally she was good with heights, but standing up on an unprotected precipice with gusts of wind trying to knock her down can make anypony unnerved.

The referee pegasus motioned the two competitors to come forward, and they obliged. Cadence flapped her way over, battling the harsh wind, while Celestia levitated calmly to meet her. Cadence locked eyes with her aunt, and all the defiance started to rush back. For a few moments, the two stared at each other so intensely, a mental duel already taking place.

“So here are the rules,” the pegasus finally said. “No punching, kicking, bucking, biting, scratching, or gouging. And absolutely no murder or forbidden spells. Other than that, it’s no holds barred. Any other questions?

“Yes,” Cadence uttered. “When do I get to smack her senseless?”

“How cute,” Celestia replied with a smirk. “Well Cadence, I’ll give you one last chance to give up. Surrender now and I won’t have to humiliate you in front of the entire populace.”

But the niece replied, “I’d rather eat my own horn. Then vomit it up so I could eat it again.”

“That’s…disgusting,” the ruler answered, raising her eyebrow. “Unfortunately, you’ll just have to settle with being embarrassed for the rest of your long, LONG life.”

“On the contrary, it will be you who will be embarrassed for your long, long life,” Princess Cadence returned defiantly, flames burning in her eyes.

“Look at you, trying to be brave for your hubby. Almost makes me feel sorry for having to beat you. Well, almost.” The ethereal-maned alicorn began to slowly levitate back toward her targets, saying, “Surely, you don’t think you can actually defeat me.”

“Oh, I know I’ll defeat you,” Cadence replied as she returned to her place. With a final glance, she said, “And DON’T call me Shirley.”

The two alicorns perched on their corresponding towers, waiting for the referee’s signals.

“Ready…”

The pink alicorn set her sights on the red targets spread out behind her enemy, while taking note of the five blue ones behind her own.

“Set…”

The eyes narrowed. The muscles tensed. The heart pounded on. The brain began to calculate the first move…

“DUEL!”

Princess Cadence shot into the air and released a flurry of quick, magical spurts toward the targets. But Celestia proceeded to easily brush them off with a few bursts of her own, leaving her targets completely unscathed. “I hope that you aren’t planning on doing that the whole time,” Celestia said. “Otherwise, this could get boring.”

The ruler’s horn began to glow as magic began to surge through her veins. Bright rays of light began to merge together, as though she was drawing power from the sun’s rays themselves. The light swirled into a large shining ball at tip of the alicorn’s horn. With an evil laugh, Celestia sent the shimmering orb straight towards her niece.

Cadence attempted to dodge out of the way, but unfortunately for her, she came to realize that a thing moving at the speed of light was…well…impossible to dodge. The orb struck her in the chest, sending her spinning out of control. The smell of charred mane filled her nose, and her vision became blurred as the sky and the earth melted together.

By the time the princess regained her balance in the air, it was too late. She watched as her aunt sent a red beam straight through one her targets, causing the floating piece of clay to shatter.

Celestia readied another red beam for launch when suddenly, a violent gust of wind knocked her off-kilter, sending the magical projectile off into the distance. The ruler looked over to where the gust had originated to see Cadence grinning happily.

“What are you going to do now?” Celestia spat. “Make me fall in love with that tree?”

“Why does everypony think all I do is make ponies fall in love?” Cadence questioned, annoyed. She then sent out another gust of wind, which sent Celestia aback once again. “See? Told ya!” the pink alicorn said with a smirk.

“Oh, don’t get too cocky dear. I make tornados when I sneeze!”

“More like when she farts,” a voice muttered from the crowd below. Applejack whirled around to see none other than Princess Luna standing there, watching the spectacle above.

“Princess! Ah-Ah didn’t know you were gon’ be here!” the cowpony said, attempting to make a quick bow.

“There’s no need for formalities, Applemac, I’m just a spectator like you,” Luna replied, keeping her eyes trained on the sky.

After mumbling, “Mah name’s…err…nevermind,” Applejack, too, returned to the duel. For now, the two Princesses were going back and forth, trying to hit the other with a magical burst. Celestia was easily slithering around her niece’s shots, not even looking the least bit tired. Cadence, on the other hand, struggled to dodge the rapid flurry of Celestia’s beams. One actually grazed her hindleg, causing it to sting. But the newlywed found the strength to ignore the minor injury, and continued to weave around the divine projectiles.

“Well Mi Amore, I’m surprised. Are you getting tired?” Princess Celestia shouted as she released another rapid-fire beam.

After proceeding to (rather sloppily) dodge them, Cadence answered defiantly, “Are you getting tired…of spewing things out of your butt?”

“Oh, I’m so insulted. I should just go in the corner and cry.”

Cadence gave a small happy giggle, feeling quite successful with her insult. Celestia rolled her eyes at her niece’s nonexistent grasp on sarcasm, and while Cadence was distracted, let off another of her light orbs. The orb hit its mark once again, spinning the pink alicorn out of the way. She collided into one of the towers, her head knocking against the cobblestone. When the dizziness finally left her vision, Cadence looked up at Auntie Tia. And her horror, she saw the sun goddess smiling sinisterly, and only three blue targets floating behind her.

“Oh no, Celestia’s already gotten two targets! Looks like she’s got the upper-hoof!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

But Princess Luna was not at all worried. She calmly whispered, “Not for long,” as her horn began to glow so faintly it was almost invisible. But it was there, and the same invisible force began to surround the jewel tucked safely into Cadence’s vest. Luna could only smile slyly, her newest plan for vengeance about to take place.

---

And so it has begun! What will happen next? I have absolutely no idea! But remember to click that there thumbs-up button up above and/or leave a comment down below! You will have my undying gratitude, and we all know how valuable that is! Right?

Comments

[Municipal Engines]

798261

So you're trying to impose your headcanon onto someone else? Cadence can be whatever the hell she needs to be. She can be as immortal and powerful as either the sisters if the author so wishes.

[Twilicorn]

I'm really hoping Celly wins, just because as much as I love Cadance, Celly does rule Equestria...

[Darksoul]

798589 I am not imposing shit but making certain whether the author knew or not. There are many different realities and universes in these fics so getting upset at my simple statement is quite stupid. Many authors that I have communicated with have never heard of Pegacorns and never got to use em.

[Municipal Engines]

798897

You do know your reply doesn't make much sense, both in sentence structure and grammar and in the context of the now disappeared comment? From what I remember of it, you were saying something like "Uh, you do know she's a pegacorn, right? Not powerful and has a mortal life-span?" which sounded very much like you were trying to tell them that they are wrong in their interpretation of her being a full-blown alicorn. Your reply is trying to tell me that you were trying to "make certain whether the author knew or not", but your initial comment didn't sound like that at all. And what does it matter that authors haven't heard of or "got used to" pegacorns? I wasn't arguing over the concept of such a thing, I was just kinda miffed at the fact that your post sounded a lot like you were saying Cadence wasn't a full-blown alicorn and that such a view should be applied to every story with her in it.

Now I'm not going to get into an argument over this, but you should really check your comments to make sure they get across what you want them to get across, because it's pretty hard to understand you and that might be part of the problem. If English is not your first language, then I apologise for my forwardness, but my words still stand.

[Darksoul]

798973 The same can be said when Twilight or some other pony character becomes an Alicorn (There are fans that would get extremely upset without a proper explanation [Be it Ritual or takeover based]). There are people on this site that go way beyond the rudeness said and I haven't rated this fic one way or the other yet. Because my wording is misunderstood doesn't need to be rudely replied to but need to be reassessed and corrected.

[Lenora Goff]

Where did you get this information about her not being an alicorn?

Faust said she wasn't "originally an alicorn". To me, that says "Okay, I had this idea... but things changed". Notice how she said "originally". That implies that it changed. No. Such. Thing. As. A. Pegacorn.

[UnweptSchlipps]

800152>>798973>>799008
Calm down, broskis. Don't want people starting arguements on my story, only love and tolerance. I just thought that, since Cadence is niece of Celestia, she'd probably have the same powers. That being said, she is undoubtedly younger than Celestia, and therefore not as powerful since she's got much to learn. That is what i believe, and I'm not going to disagree if somepony else thinks differently.
And even if you do have a different headcanon, that doesn't mean you still can't enjoy the story!