Live by the sword

by bonamb

Ride by the - no, wait, that doesn't sound right.

Celestia quickly twisted her head as the rapier hissed past her ear. Dancing backwards she parried two lightning thrusts aimed at her horn and neck, then riposted in kind, aiming her blade towards his horn only to have it slapped away and her on the defensive again. This, definitely, was Luna's fault.

Lean, Riposte, Parry, Step Back, Parry, Lunge, Feint, Slash to parry, Riposte - Ahah! Lock!

The fencing master, Sabre, smiled disarmingly through their locked hilts at her. Disengaging, he stepped lightly backwards and took a quadruped's low en garde stance again, beckoning her on with a toss of his head. To her, he was a taller than average, svelte unicorn with a very light, faded lime coat, and a shock of dually toned wavy green hair combed back. A fencing sabre in the apparent action of an uppercut was his mark.

Celestia huffed inwardly. Of course, everybody was small compared to her, but he was a bit - her rapier whipped up to defend her face, eyes narrowing at the violent action not an inch from her horn. His hilt was far too close for comfort, with her blade barely managing to keep it away thanks to her shoddy positioning, but sliding her sword up she twisted it sideways, batting his rapier away then drawing him down with a low slash. That would teach her to daydream.

Side parry, Dodge, Deflect, Riposte!

Unicorn blades were not, contrary to common belief, held in the telekinetic grip of the unicorn in question. That would allow for any magus with a stronger grip to simply overpower the holding and claim the weapon for their own.

Celestia grimaced as her own rapier, Aurora, danced in front of her, barely holding Sabre's darting attacks at bay. Parrying and appearing to press her advantage, she found herself on the back hoof as a flurry of attacks, seemingly from all angles, halted her attack and forced her backwards.

A unicorn's blade, or weapon in the case of blunt tools such as Luna's warhammer "Noctem", was bound to it's owner's magical signature. The pommel was then anchored to the caster's centre of mass, to allow for pivots, leverage and force that would otherwise be impossible in a simple telekinetic grip. While this did allow for heavier and faster strikes using the wielder's weight, and a very large amount of control, and a more natural fighting style -

Celestia ducked a high strike, flicked his weapon behind her and lunged.

- It also had the side effect of increasing the effort needed to hold the weapon exponentially with distance, meaning a unicorn couldn’t simply levitate their weapon behind an opponent and strike them from there, and not only that, the pommel would be facing the wrong way, meaning that there would be no leverage, and any attempt at a substantial strike would be near impossible.

In an astounding display of flexibility and balance, Sabre twisted sideways out of the path of Aurora, and pivoted around her on a forehoof, reclaiming his rapier from behind her in the process, and came up at her side, 'Tacitum' to her throat.

Ah. Foiled again.

Her moment field sparked as Sabre tapped her neck and took two steps back, giving Celestia the fencer's salute, which she returned in kind. The corner of her mouth quirked upwards as his returned to resting, a switch from the expressions of the bout.

Celestia sat down heavily, twirling Aurora, and huffed with exhausted amusement, the adrenalin not yet gone from her system. "I do believe that is three to you, yet again."

Sabre nodded. Concentrating briefly his horn flared a deep green. An illusory pony holding a rapier came into being before him, bearing a passable imitation of Celestia's figure. Indicating the facsimile of her with his rapier, he pointed to a back hoof, and then down the angle of the sword. Concentrating again, the illusory pony shifted positions to a more correct stance and he looked at it, then her.

Celestia murmured her understanding. "My stance was too... defensive, this time? Yes, I have to say I noticed that myself." She hummed "A change from yesterday, after court, wouldn’t you think?"

Sabre rolled his eyes elegantly, if such a thing was possible, then stepped forward and tapped her nose.

"Oh. My expression as well?"

He nodded the affirmative, then indicated her face, and Aurora.
Celestia sighed, dispelling the moment spell on Aurora. "The life of the princess is a busy one, Sabre. I don’t get to practice nearly as much as I would like."

Sabre merely assumed a deadpan expression and stared at her.

"And no, I'm not as nearly as fit as I should be, thank you. That is the root of the problem." She raised an eyebrow at him and stood. "I thought I might clean off the sweat, then retire for the evening. Care to join me afterwards for some tea?"

Sheathing Tacitum, he shook his head, and the corner of his mouth twitched upwards.

"Ah, he has the evening off today doesn’t he?"

An affirmative nod.

Celestia chuckled. "I remember that passing along my desk a few weeks ago. Well you two enjoy yourselves, I think I might seek the company of a simple book -" Sabre cocked his head "- or Advanced Fencing Hoofwork, book five, which my good sparring partner gifted me for Hearth's Warming."

Nodding his satisfaction, then bowing, he cantered lightly over to his kit, and exited the room, making for the staff showers in this wing of the palace.

Celestia simply stood staring pensively at the doorway, floating her sheath over and sliding Aurora into it.

Hm.

---

She lay upright on one side of the large cushion that was Luna's bed, reading the book on fencing hoofwork. Luna herself occupied the other half, although as of that moment, her head was resting, half asleep on Celestia's back, who had let her mane down to avoid giving Luna a face full of magically charged hair.

This was the interim between when Celestia went to sleep, and Luna took over for the night. A generally peaceful two hours, which they valued as approximately half of the little time they spent together. Some days they had activities, split in the middle by the moving of celestial their bodies, but today's was apparently for relaxation, by universal consensus. Or at least by Celestia's, who, after her sparring match had simply joined Luna in her bed, who hadn't protested too violently. Although, she was still mostly asleep.

The door opened and a cotton candy blue maid poked her head in, seeming startled by the presence of another princess. Celestia beckoned her in with a toss of her head, and after only a little hesitation, the maid trotted a further into the room, revealing a tray balanced on outstretched wings. Smiling kindly, and mouthing a silent "thank you" Celestia levitated the tray off her back and nodded to the maid, who bowed and exited the room, seemingly in relief.

Coffee and toast with... she sniffed Jalapeño spread? Oh, Luna.

Floating the tray over to the nightstand, and pouring a mug of coffee from the press, she bought it carefully nearer to Luna's face, well aware of her position on her back. A quiet giggle came from the ruler of a nation.

"Luuuuuunaaaaa. I've got your coffeeeeeee."

"Hmm? Aaah! We thank thee most kindly, mine subject!" Her glazed eyes locked on the coffee. "Mmh. Come to thine mother." Languidly tilting her head back, Luna chugged the entire mug and belched. "Ah. T'was excelle – wait."

Celestia looked back at her and raised an eyebrow. "Good evening sister dear."

Luna looked confused but recovered quickly. "Good evening indeed. May I enquire as to the occasion?"

"Oh-" Celestia flashed a smile "I was simply curious as to why you had not yet risen, but I also had this book to finish, so I thought I might join you."

"Hm." Luna nodded, seemingly in deep thought as she floated the spicy toast over to her. "A good reason then. What, pray tell, is the book?"

"Advanced Fencing Hoofwork, book 5." Celestia rolled her eyes. "I still haven't managed to beat Sabre yet, aside from when he is handicapped."

"Bah. Sister." Luna folded the toast and tore a bite out of it. "We have told you, your fault is not in your hoofwork but instead in your fitness. You are simply out of practice."

Celestia closed the book and gently bopped Luna on the nose with it. "Yes, you have told me. This being the eleventh time."

Luna shrugged, inscrutable, and took another bite of the toast, flaring her horn. Beside her Noctem materialized, and fell out of the air, hitting the carpet head first and likely leaving a dent in the floor. Celestia flinched slightly, a motion that would have been unnoticeable to any pony but Luna, given she was still lying against her, devouring toast.

Chewing and swallowing the last bite Luna smiled slyly. "Scared, Sister mine?"

In lieu of reply Celestia rose, letting Luna fall sideways, and walked to the door. Aurora formed in the air beside her and she raised an eyebrow. "Best of three then?" Giving a grin with a few too many teeth, she disappeared in a flash of light.

Luna laughed and sprang out of bed toward the door, coffee press, hammer and toothbrush trailing her. As she darted through, she exclaimed to herself, and any pony who cared to be listening. "Never! This fight shall last... FOREVER! AHAHAHAH!"

Author's Note:

I actually used to fence when I was younger, so this is a bit of a nostalgia trip for me - I may have romanticized it a bit for the weapon though.
Was a fan of the foil, not the sabre or epee so that colors my perception just a tad too. That was all about the thrusting (heh), with the sabre I'm pretty sure you did a bit more swatting (What? I don’t know what those crazy people did). 
You've probably noticed that this wasn't on a piste (the strip thingy that fencers go along) and instead they're free to roam the room, which is a tad more realistic in the context of an actual fight.

Feel free to do a heckin' comment, and criticize it! It feeds me. Metaphorically. I've still gotta work to pay for my teabags and sandwiches.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

While I did very much like how the fight kept intruding on Celestia's inner monlogue, your explanation for the mechanics of unicorn weapons wasn't at all clear. I feel like there are several assumptions involved that you forgot to mention. Also, what exactly did you mean by the "moment" spell and field?

Aside from those ambiguities, it's good to see Celestia mixing things up after all these centuries. Thank you for presenting more of this world.

[Penalt]

You might want to consider looking up your local SCA and seeing about getting into Rapier Combat. Did it for several years myself and loved it. There really isn't anything quite like the clash of steel on steel.

It also employs mainly thrusting attacks, is fought in a ring as opposed to a strip, and you are allowed one of 5 offhand weapons: Gloved hand, buckler, cape, baton and dagger.

[RedX-100]

So, is Sabre mute? Might want to include that detail. GREAT story, nonetheless.

[deathaanator]

Was a pleasant read.

[bonamb]

8251925
Huh. Ok. I did mean to imply quite a bit, but yeah, may have gone a tad too far xD
Whelp. Guess its time for anOTHER CHAPTER :D

8251998
Yeppers he is. Also, over the course of other stories (and maybe one for him) I'm going to be expanding on his backstory, and exactly who he is in relation to the diarchy. He's a fun character heh.

[SoaringJe]

I personally had no problem with your not explicitly stating that Sabre is mute. He reminded me of Vinyl Scratch in the show: there's that ambiguity of whether they are mute or simply prefer not talking -shrugs- it's not that big a deal.

Anyway, this was a fun story: Cakeflanks is out of shape? Perish the thought xP
She probably won't make as comfy a pillow once she's in shape though :P

It's interesting seeing Luna with a hammer rather than the sword she was animated with in the Fall of the Crystal Empire, but I can definitely see why she'd choose one xD

Would delight in seeing more; thanks for writing :)