Knights of the Realm

by Kinni

Wedding Activities

Since the possibility of chaotic interference on the operation was far too great to be ignored, many plans had been made in order to deal with such inconveniences. But simply trying to reduce the problems wasn't really the best they could do. So why not create plans that took advantage of the disadvantages?

It was from those thoughts that the protection plan Chaos Realm was born. The initial idea was as simple as it was gutsy: Using the chaotic interference itself as a way to bring Shining Armor and Venus away from danger. But of course, that definitely would not be something easily accomplished.

Chaos magic was notoriously difficult to wrangle, to make do what you wanted it to do. That was the case even when it came to chaos magic produced by one's allies, as Trixie and Sunset had learned over their childhood. Of course, the difficulty of doing the same with enemy magic was much greater.

So instead of merely turning the chaotic magic into a beneficial state, the solution they had reached was to have it both ways, driving the magic into causing a problem that would also be an advantage. That was the basis of what Sunset was trying to do.

She shot spell after spell into the evershifting mass of the Tendril of Chaos. Most of those were spells which had already been prepared before, their formulas extremely familiar to Sunset, only needing minute alterations to suit the flow of things, while others were pretty much improvised on the spot, less precise creations which relied on power to break through the momentum when the Tendril was going in an unwanted direction.

That was the reason why Sunset was the one doing that, instead of Trixie. While the illusionist's magic was far more precise, Sunset's magical potency and endurance were two aspects that resulted in a higher chance of success for her. The possibility of the two working together had been raised, but discarded, as putting extra pressure on the chaotic Tendril would actually have the opposite effect, in most cases.

For Sunset, what was occuring was nothing less than a true battle, as she used all sorts of methods, including the magical equivalent of reverse psychology, in order to make the Tendril's magic move little by little towards the result she wanted.

And it was difficult. Even after one whole minute of intensive spellcasting, Sunset still felt that things could go either way. But at that point, another variable was introduced. Spike and the Crusaders had arrived.

"Sunset, what's the situation?" Spike asked, while flying above the Tendril.

As if his words were a spell, the chaotic conglomeration started to twist and change madly, causing Sunset to scramble to keep up. And yet, the unicorn's expression showed a rare smile. Luck was on her side, as the appearance of four more Knights had caused the tendril to deviate a little further towards her chosen outcome.

"Cover me!" Was what Sunset ordered. The bride and groom were getting closer and closer, so it was nearly time for the play to be acted.

The play where the Tendril of Chaos would become the Chaos Realm.

+0+

Trixie was doing quite a few spells simultaneously. As the one in the commander position, she had to keep up an oversight of the main areas of the battle, send messages with orders to every group in order to move more effectively, and also conceal her spells with illusions to avoid any interference from the chaotic energy that was still running rampant at the molecular level. Still, she was more than aware enough to react to Applejack's warning.

'Enemy teleporting towards your position.' Was the message that came through Fluttershy's empathic network.

In the next instant, Trixie reached her magic towards the spells she had previously prepared and altered them slightly to suit the situation before casting. The first was an illusion layered on top of the environment, designed to interfere with the opponent's awareness subtly. The second was a trap for releasing a targetted illusion that would act directly on the opponent, attacking their mind to make it harder to detect other spells. The third was a small teleportation, designed to send Trixie away from the space disturbance that heralded the opponent's teleportartion, and thus away from immediate danger.

In the following instant, the enemy arrived, and they immediately showed that it wouldn't be an easy battle. As soon as the space warped and the pony appeared, they released a spell in a wave all around them. The magic immediately gathered at the position of the illusion trap, revealing and breaking it at the same time. Then, it dispersed into the environment and did the same thing to the layered illusion.

It had barely taken a second. Trixie couldn't help but widen her eyes at that. She also finally saw the appearance of the pony, which had the head shape of a mare, but a slightly mismatched body shape.

'Rarity, how fast can you take over the command role?' She asked via the network.

'If nothing bad happens, about thirty seconds. The Realm is getting close to completion.' Was the answer.

'That should be fast enough. Applejack, any intel on the enemy?'

'It's another one of those living constructs, definitely' Was the farm mare's reply.

Trixie had a sinking feeling. She turned her attention back to her opponent and started preparing several spells at once, for any possible case. She was sure that was going to be a hard battle.

Then the construct took a step forward, and its skin started to glow with power. Trixie realized with a start that this was due to a hidden magical circle inside her body, apparently engraved on the very muscles and bones. A moment later, it activated, plunging the world into darkness.

Or so it seemed. Trixie soon realized that instead, she had been thrown into a small created dimension, cut off from her allies. And considering how it had been done, there was no way for her to leave without defeating that opponent.

+0+

'Almost... Almost...' Sunset thought, while she was frantically delaying the mutation of the chaotic tendril. She just needed to hold out until...

"We're here!" Rarity declared, galloping next to the pair of bride and groom, already having reached the point to where Spike and the crusaders had retreated to.

At that moment, Sunset finally 'lost control' of the chaotic spell, and it expanded in a silent wave of purple that engulfed everyone around. Including Rarity.

Thankfully, they had a countermeasure for that, too.

In an explosion of light, Rainbow Dash dove at supersonic speeds directly towards Rarity. Coated in a layer of pure harmony magic, she cut through the chaotic space and carried Rarity away before the purple wave shrunk back down taking all of the living beings still inside into the Chaos Realm. Where they would be out of reach until the spell was broken.

Just as planned.

Rarity sighed in relief as Rainbow placed her back down and flew off. The unicorn immediately started casting spells to take upon herself the role of Command. The worst case scenario hadn't happened, with Chrysalis not having attacked before they could get bride and groom to safety.

However, from there onwards, things would become a lot more inexact. The Changeling Queen was a strong opponent, even with all the preparations they had done. How well things would end up in the end would ultimately come down to how well they managed to deal with her.

+0+

Trixie was annoyed. It had been the first time in her life that she had been in such a stiffling battle. Even during mock combat battles against both Twilight and Sunset at the same time she still felt like her spells were having some effect, even if it wasn't enough to stop her from being overwhelmed by their combined forces.

The construct she was fighting, on the other hand, was capable of disabling each and every one of her attempts with contemptuous ease, even she wasn't simply shrugging them off. Trixie soon determined the magic she was using to be a form of similarity magic, manipulating particles of magic energy to form patterns and using their simbology as the basis for her spells.

That meant the construct had an extremely precise awareness, on the level of particles, which made it difficult for any illusions to be detailed enough to fool her. But even worse than that, the construct had spread those particles over the entire area of the subspace, meaning they were always in contact with Trixie, preventing her from hiding. The subspace spell seemed to have been designed specifically with that in mind.

And trying to fight straightforwardly wasn't any use either. The construct body was abnormally tough, much more than that of any other construct. That meant a greater difficulty in transmitting magic, which meant a greater strain on the materials, and subsequently meant the construct wouldn't last on the long term, but it was devilishly durable on the short term.

The fight was pretty much a succession of trying things only to see them not work or directly backfire. Trixie could only fool her opponent with adaptable constantly shifting illusions that managed to ride out the magical detection, but those were so astonishingly difficult and draining to do that she could only use them for very simple illusions, barely enough to keep her opponent off balance.

Any physical attack was immediately countered by omnidirectional magical shots that were quite a pain to dodge or block. And yet she had to keep up her offensive, as that meant the opponent couldn't simply muster up its attacks enough to gravely wound her. It was a dance at the edge of death, and Trixie was sure that, if things kept going the way they were, she would run out of energy and subsequently die.

Yet, Trixie wasn't fully concentrating in the battle, but actually devoting quite a bit of attention towards trying to figure out what was the deal with her opponent. That might have sounded like a mistake, but she knew that it might end up being the key to her victory. Simply focusing on the fight and not thinking about anything else meant ignoring other possibilities, and Trixie couldn't afford such.

And truly, it was difficult to figure out. All previous Artifact Beings they had faced where clearly based on real historical warriors, from either side of the good versus evil spectrum. However, Trixie couldn't match that particular enemy to anyone she had ever heard of (and the group had done a lot of extra research upon seeing that fighting historical figures was a possibility).

And the fact that this being had abilities which seemed to have been designed specifically to counter her made this even more odd. What were the chances that Radiant Hope would have found out about an unknown ancient warrior which just happened to have that specific set of skills?

That thought was the one which led Trixie into figuring out the truth. Such a thing was exceedingly unlikely, but much more likely would be the possibility that Radiant Hope's ability wasn't truly limited to historical warriors.

'So that's the case. This Artifact Being is completely original, custom designed specifically to kill me.' Trixie thought 'I must have really scared her last time.'

But knowing that led to a few inquiries, like about the limitations of the enemy's creation ability, which might be the reason why this one Artifact looked notably hodgepodge. Maybe the template itself was flawed in some way, since it was original instead of following the similarity of something that actually existed.

Trixie then got an idea about how to use her new knowledge. That idea might be her only chance to win, but it would require some set up.

If it worked, however... Trixie would be able to reach a whole new level.

+0+

The chaotic realm where the ponies and the dragon appeared was very different from the subdimension where Trixie was fighting. It was far larger, for one thing, and it didn't have clearly defined borders, but simply regions where moving past would cause one to teleport elsewhere in the space, or change their personal gravity, or simply be incapable of covering any more distance regardless of how much they moved.

Those regions weren't delineated with any consistency either, some parts being longer or shorter, with the limits forming all kinds of weird shapes that overlapped with each other in the tridimensional plane. Essentially, it was weird, though thankfully, it didn't seem like those border zones changed over time.

The area where they could be was also pretty strange, while still being surprisingly stable. There were floating lamp posts, inverted trees and all kinds of other bizarreness, but there wasn't the kind of constant transformation that caracterized many of the chaotic events.

The five Knights, the alicorn and the guard had more than enough time to make those observations, because the main threat in this realm hadn't actually had time to materialize. They could feel it, however. They could feel the power focusing itself and shaping out a form to be used for combat. The chaotic tendril was truly a powerful and complex spell.

Of course they tried to attack it before it even finished forming, but it wouldn't be so easy. Their first round of spells was absorbed and turned into extra energy for the tendril's combat form. So they did a bit of analysis and managed to figure out that it wouldn't really be possible to negatively affect the tendril before it was done.

So they used the time they had in the best way they could. Preparing themselves mentally and focusing, as well as talking with each other to develop some general strategies to fight against the threat (as they didn't have enough information to prepare specific strategies). And that was when Sunset dropped a bomb on the others:

"I'm going to leave this fight to you four." She said to the other Knights "And you two would do better by acting as support." She said to the bride and groom.

"But... Why?" Spike was the first one to cast off his shock and respond.

"It's just in case." Sunset explained "Just dealing with this chaotic realm isn't the end of the mission." She shook her head "Chrysalis is a dangerous opponent, so saving my strength for facing her if necessary is the best course of action in my opinion." Then she smiled "Of course, if you guys end up having too much trouble I'll step in, but... I believe you are more than strong enough."

There were a few seconds of silence before they responded with a "Yes!" all at the same time.

Venus smiled as she looked from the side, then both her and Shining Armor voiced their agreement of the idea.

The shaping of the battle form was already halfway done.

+0+

Despite the fact that Rarity had taken up the position of command, she didn't really get to do much commanding, as only half a minute after that, Applejack sent a hurried message to her:

'Chrysalis diving at your position!'

"Four Barrier!" Rarity shouted, invoking the power of her four Ruler Swords to create a multi-elemental shield. It was the best she could do with such limited time.

Chrysalis appeared from seemingly thin air right in front of Rarity, who had just enough time to see her expression of rage before the impact.

Chrysalis attack was extraordinarily violent, and Rarity felt like a mountain had been thrown at her. She was swept along Chrysalis flight and her barriers broke one by one. Then her armor started to break, and the sheer impact was about to reach her actual body when she shouted:

"Rebirth!"

And the broken pieces of her armor flowed back into the frame, forcefully interposing themselves in the path of Chrysalis attack. And not only that, but the material seemed to have changed, becoming thicker and with several layers, exactly designed to deal with that specific attack.

That was the ability of Rarity's own Armor. The Rebirth Armor. As long as she was alive, the Armor could repair itself and adapt to whatever opponent it faced. That was the only reason Rarity managed to avoid injury. The armor managed to hold Chrysalis back for enough time for help to arrive.

"Vortex Crash!" It was Rainbow Dash.

She dived at Chrysalis, punching with a vortex of wind at the end of her hoof, a vortex that was almost like a tiny hurricane. The hit connected, and Chrysalis was forced back. And before she could recover, Applejack suddenly appeared in front of her, looking like she had always been there.

"Myriad Steps." She announced, before pulling her hoof back for an attack "Myriad Blows."

And she attacked. Chrysalis grew shields to block, but Applejack's hoof seemed to disappear, and suddenly Chrysalis was hit from the other side unexpectedly.

At the same time that was happening, Fluttershy was also doing her spells:

"World's Standard." She announced, as the world for a moment seemed to consist of only her and Chrysalis "Animal Spirit."

And the eagle animal spirit manifested itself around her. But instead of being just an energy form, the spirit had manifested itself in a more solid and physical form, one that looked a bit like an ordinary eagle, except that everything in it was More. It was like the absolute ideal of eagles, with glistening feathers, claws that could cut the air, and eyes that saw through endlessness. It was a version of an eagle powered up by the world itself.

Fluttershy then dove at Chrysalis at speeds that even Rainbow Dash would find challenging to achieve. She slashed with the powerful claws and managed to rake a visible groove on Chrysalis' shell.

At that point, Chrysalis had enough. she charged her magic and unleashed a devastating shout, using sonic magic for an attack on everyone at once.

Pinkie reacted instantly. She took a deep breath while her Armor shaped itself into a megaphone (it looked very silly), and then shouted "NOPE!".

Her shout carried a big amount of chaos magic, and it interfered with the sound wave of Chrysalis' attack, reducing its speed to a comparative crawl. That gave Twilight the change to do her spell.

"Reaction." She spoke solemnly, three rings of power spinning around her "Magical Denial."

The three rings shot out and spread into countless strands of power that fused with the enemy sound waves and canceled their magic.

Chrysalis saw that, and her eyes narrowed. The Knights had the advantage, but the fight was only just beginning.

Author's Note:

Yeah. That took a while. However, I'm gonna put this story in priority from now on, so expect a little more consistency in the updates.

Comments

[Greenhorn]

The activities were all over the places. Is this just a reception or an actual wedding?

[badninja]

Poor Chrysalis she just tries her darnest and just cannot complete, yet. I bet she has her “trump card” and she doesn't want to play it yet but she is going to be playing it when it is all she has left.

[Pinklestia]

Well, this is gonna be fun to watch.

[Kinni]

9283095
Remember that Chrysalis was weakened by a lot during that fight. Also, the Knights aren't the only ones who can grow stronger.

[AyanamiRei]

Well now that was rather epic! I am VERY curious to see what this New Level will look like for Rarity! Also I can't wait for Trixie to face off against Radiant again, and thank her for the power boost! At least that's what I would do >=)

[DualKitsune]

9285112
Yup. The Romans occasionally kept things simple. But that was actual a very bad Sailor Moon joke on my part...which was based of Roman god's and goddesses.

[AMuffinlover]

What a Pinkie thing to do. I'm surprised that Chrissy is getting her flank kick. Well I mean the knights are badass but all the hype around Chrissy would be meaningless if she cant make a move.

[The Faceless Maker]

Pinkie reacted instantly. She took a deep breath while her Armor shaped itself into a megaphone (it looked very silly), and then shouted "NOPE!".

*In the tiredest, most dead inside tone*
Would you like some of our complementary NOPEsauce with your NOPEburger, NOPEsoda, and NOPEfries?