Live by the sword

by bonamb

Thrive by the-? Nah.

Celestia mused upon the difference of fighting against a heavy weapon with a rapier, dodging as Noctem nearly took a chunk out of her hair. It could almost be compared to music. Within an orchestral context, the rapier was a conductor's baton, and the battle was not one of aggression, but one, instead, to dominate the tempo of the fight. Once you controlled that, you could win, as otherwise you would be consistently forced onto the back hoof.

Celestia rolled as Noctem created a small crater in the stone floor where she had been standing.

Fighting against a hammer however, was an entirely different situation. The hammer set the rhythm, a steady beat in the base. The rapier was the treble above it, the clarinets, violins and piccolo. Quick, darting, layered over the top of an terrible, unfaltering beat.
They were unmatched weapons, in that in a duel, and in open space, the rapier should win.

The key word there being 'should'.

"AHAHAH! IS THINE BLOOD NOT YET SINGING, SISTER DEAREST? OR ART THOU ALREADY TIRED OF THIS BOUT? HAH! HAVE AT THEE!"

But among those who wielded the hammer, some being fighters, knights, paladins, battle-masters and even priests. All could consider themselves proficient to varying degrees. Then, there was Luna.

Luna was in a class all of her own.

Every attack Celestia made, with a speed that had been streamlined by centuries of experience, backed by the massive mana pool of the most powerful alicorn in the world and channelled through a blade forged by what was possibly the greatest mortal smith ever to exist, was rendered null. Her paltry feints were ignored, Luna reading them through a mask which had slipped, pulled away by her exhaustion. And -

Seeing an opening, she stabbed at her, but Noctem's metal studded handle, moving in the midst of a seemingly natural swing, caught her blade, flinging it sideways, and Luna barrelled cackling towards her, hammer in tow.

Any effort she made to attack her sister directly, with her own, superior size, was simply countered by the mechanics of unicorn weaponry. Since a bound weapon was thaumatically tethered to the caster's center of mass, it allowed the unicorn, or alicorn as the case was, to put their weight and speed behind it. This worked very well for light weapons, such as her own Aurora.

Heavy weapons functioned the same way, in that they were bound to their caster's weight. More importantly, the weapon's weight was bound to the caster. So as Celestia utilized her own momentum, and (admittedly large) weight to add force and speed to her rapier's strikes, Luna could do the opposite, and lean on the momentum of a swinging hammer to increase or decrease her own, relative, velocity.

In essence, if Luna couldn’t hit her with the hammer, Luna would hit her with Luna.

Celestia deflected Noctem, which Luna had aimed at her face, over and behind her, and used the resulting momentum to drive a knee down at her sister. She disliked the lack of sophistication, but that was how each little practice, or 'brawl' with Luna turned out. Distinctly unsophisticated.

It was little wonder that she had earned herself the title of "Nightmare" among the venomous ranks of Moamer's legion even before her... fall. A dark alicorn clad in full earth pony plate and wielding a massive warhammer, moving as a whirlwind of momentum and death, cackling all the while was enough to send a chill into even the hardiest of serpent hearts, despite their thaumatically charged veins already being cold enough.

Ahah!

As Luna swung Noctem at her face yet again, Celestia made her penultimate move. Ducking into a low stance, she pivoted on a forehoof, much the same as Sabre had done earlier, and aimed Aurora at Luna's knee. Luna as expected, leapt, wings flapping, bringing Noctem around and down to where the white alicorn would be when she had finished her maneuver – except she wasn’t there. Celestia had followed the movement through, and instead of stopping, had pushed off that single forehoof, gliding behind where Luna would land and bringing her sword up at an angle below her sister.

As the blue alicorn landed, Noctem came swinging back down with her, stopping only half an inch away from Celestia's horn as Luna bought it to an abrupt halt, huffing under the weight and awkward position.

They stood. Celestia low, with Aurora to Luna's throat, and Luna high, poised on almost the tips of her hooves to avoid the sword, Noctem to Celestia's horn.

Silence. Then, Luna chuckled. "A stalemate? This is most unlike you sister."

Celestia withdrew her sword and stood, gracefully avoiding the still hovering hammer. "Yes. But considering you managed to break my defence and body-slammed me last time" she elegantly cocked her head. "I believe it was my only option."

Luna shrugged. "We would not have this problem sibling dearest, if you deigned to practice more than the pittance you do now."

Chuckling, Celestia lent down next to her and raised a challenging, if exhausted eyebrow. "Oh, I'm so sorry sister, you're very quiet without those vocal chords you value so highly."

The smaller alicorn stood, unfazed. "And thou art surprisingly noisy despite thine apparent unconscious state. I think us equal, sister." She tossed her head and stared flatly at her sibling.

Oh touché.

"Hmm." She stood, smiling, and dispelled the moment spell on Aurora before sheathing it. "Then we shall have to have a third bout at the nearest opportunity. For now, you have duties, and I must sleep."

"Hah!" Luna dispelled Noctem in kind. Twirling it back into the ether, she followed her sister into the corridor outside. “’’Tis difficult to believe that thou wert not already sleepwalking!”

Celestia halted with a mild expression. "Be that as it may, I very nearly am, and most certainly would be if you had been wearing your armour. As it is, I am going to retire for the night if I may take my leave - oh mine glorious princess of the night?"

Luna huffed at her sister's mocking tone, then waved her forehoof in dismissal. "Thine expression of fealty does thee credit sibling dearest. Be off with thee then! I have a night court to subjugate, and you have a bed to conquer."

"Then may both our conquests be successful. Goodnight." The elder alicorn hugged her sister, then stepped back and smiled, disappearing in a flash of golden light, leaving Luna looking at a tapestry of the equestrian flag which had been behind her.
The remaining alicorn blinked, a delayed reaction, then shook her head and continued along the corridor to the throne room.

---

Celestia materialized in her chambers, and walking over to the ponyquin, she began to dismiss her regalia. Pausing, and briefly examining the enchantments, she realized that the moment shield was still attached to the torc, and it would likely dissolve at least in part before the morning (due to her hasty casting) and the mana leakage would end up interfering with the other, tightly interwoven enchantments. Shaking her head in exasperation at what would have been a costly error, she plucked the enchantment's tethers from the regalia, and let it dissipate a safe distance from the metal.

What she had said to Luna had not been in jest. If her sister had been wearing her armour, Celestia would most certainly be unconscious, at the very least. The moment field was a spell created by an old apprentice of hers at a time of war, in an effort to reduce the number of casualties inflicted upon one another in practice. It was a simple concept, in that two objects were enchanted. One the aggressor, and the other the defender. When the former hit the latter, a 'moment' shield appeared, and the force of the impact was dispelled across a proportionally larger surface area as to not cause harm to the recipient. When used with lighter weapons, such as the rapier, the impact was very small, but still noticeable. When hit with a hammer on the other hoof, it could quite easily send a mare flying, or at least cause Celestia herself to stumble. And then when hit with an unenchanted object, or pony - in this case being Luna - no moment field appeared at all, and the recipient took the full force of the impact wherever it was applied.

Celestia chuckled. She was absolutely certain Luna didn’t forget, and in fact did it deliberately for intimidation purposes, or at least as a part of her own unique, alicorn accentuated style.

All the same, it had been fun. She shook off her shoes, and levitating them on to the stand, she trotted over to her bed. Luna should be fine in her court of the night.

This time at least.

Author's Note:

Ah. Too much explaining?
Nevermind.
There's still more I want to say on this subject so -
NEXT CHAPTER IS LUNA BOYOS

Please critique, so I can continue to improve and give y'all better horse words!
Also each and every comment fills my heart with delight and feeds my motivation machine. You're all awesome.

Whats that? I've got an exam tomorrow and should be working? Pfffft horseapples.
bonamb out.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Okay, now I get it. Very cool concepts all around, especially Luna's two-body system fighting style, and some nice fight choreography to boot. Looking forward to more.

[Lurks-no-More]

So, in essence, Luna likes to do momentum-assisted slingshot maneuvers around her own warhammer?

Tangentially, I've always pegged Celestia as the one to prefer Big Blunt Objects as weapons, with Luna going for more elegantly stabby armaments.

[SoaringJe]

Luna is a crazy, reckless, and hyper ball of "LET'S DO THIS!"
I love it.

Also your fight choreo is elegant, and your interpretation of unicorn armed-fighting is ingenious, if a bit...slow/much? Though it accurately reflects Celestia's waning energy, so perhaps not :P

Thanks for writing :)