A Matter of Pride
A Matter of Pride.
The Archmage stared at Twilight. His face appeared expressionless, but beneath the frozen glare was a churning sea of silent fury. "What did you say your name was, unicorn?"
"Twilight Sparkle, Sir. May I call you Sir?"
"You may..." The Archmage said somberly. "I'm not going to lie to you, Twilight Sparkle, I want to drown you in the lake behind me." He sighed. "But... you have outsmarted me, and I'm not afraid to admit my own defeat. You have passed my test." Nodding at Twilight, the Archmage walked off towards the group who failed. "Now, what do you all have to say for yourselves?"
"Twilight Sparkle, did you just cheat?" Rainbow Dash had a small smile on her face.
"No, of course not!" Twilight was blushing. "I could have solved it without doing what I did. It's just—"
"It sure looked like cheating, Twi," said Pinkie Pie, eyeing the circle.
"Well it wasn't! I just wanted to outsmart him. He's so arrogant and cocky and..." Twilight sighed. "And he reminds me of Trixie." Twilight blushed as the memories surged into her mind.
"We get it, Twilight," cooed Rainbow Dash. "Don't we, Pinkie Pie?"
"Totally! Cross my heart and hope to die, stick aMMPH" Pinkie began her trademark rhyme, but her only reply was a quick hoof to the mouth by Rainbow Dash.
"You two! Pink and Blue!" The Archemage yelled as he stalked towards the three friends. "This dueling club is meant for unicorns, and neither of you appears to have a horn"
"We're here to support Twilight! She's our friend so we thought we would cheer her on." Pinkie smiled.
"Well, listen here... cotton candy" he said distastefully, eyeing Pinkie Pie's messy pink mane. "Unless you or your color pallet friend here decide to suddenly grow horns, get out."
"Color pallet! Oh, you better watch your—" Rainbow began, but received an equally forceful hoof to the mouth by Pinkie.
"We should go, Dashie, this guy thinks my hair is made of cotton candy, what a weirdo," Pinkie whispered to Rainbow Dash, guiding her away from the lake.
"Alright... bye guys." Twilight said meekly. Gulping, she glanced at the Archmage. "Do you have another assignment... Sir?"
He grinned savagely. "Yes, yes, I do believe I have another assignment for you. Follow me, Ms. Sparkle." The Archemage set off towards the shore of the lake. "Unicorns! Gather around me!"
On his command, the mob of magic savvy unicorns began to materialize around him. Twilight was still next to the Archmage, and felt as if every single unicorn were staring right at her. "What's he going to do? Turn me into a frog as a demonstration?" She dreaded over what was going to happen.
"Over half of you failed the very first test that I gave you. Feel relieved, as the test was purely symbolic, and will have no effect on your ranking." The deadly tone in the Archmages voice was no longer present. His voice was now drenched in seriousness, and wasn't very far from the tone of a drill sergeant.
A murmur vibrated over the crowd right as he said 'ranking'. "Archmage, what do you mean: 'ranking'?" asked a distant stallion.
The Archmage grinned. "Ah, I probably should have mentioned this in the very beginning. If you feel cheated, by the way, feel free to leave. This dueling club is my way of putting together a pair of ponies that I will train, and have them compete in the Equestrian World Cup: a magical tournament. The ranking does not relate to this tournament... directly."
"So... what is the ranking for?" asked the same stallion.
"I would say 'good question', but that was a horrible question" he quipped. "Essentially, the ranking is what is going to keep you all in the dueling club, or kick you out of it."
Nobody responded to his foreboding statement.
"Every time that we meet, every one of you will engage in a duel with another member. Whoever wins the duel remains in the dueling club, and whoever loses is kicked out. Any questions?" The Archmages tone was laden with sarcasm that made it seem as if he was having fun with everypony else's discomfort. "Since there are twenty of you, we will have a total of three more classes before the pair will be decided."
Outrage filled the crowd. "Why in the hay would we stay in this club if we're probably going to be kicked out of it?" yelled an outraged young mare.
"You'll remain in it because you all want to believe you have a chance at making it to the end. 'How hard could it be? It's just doing a bit of magic.' Well, I'll show you just how hard it can be, and the extremely witty and talented Twilight Sparkle is going to help me." The Archmage pronounced Twilight's name as if she were a meal that he was about to devour, and then review, in front of a waiting audience.
"How am I going to help you, Sir?" She had tried to suppress any and all fear in her voice, but had only managed to make every one of her words sound forced.
The Archmage suppressed the urge to chuckle. "You're going to help me demonstrate to the class how duels work. Is this fine with you?" The Archmage, of course, didn't care if it was or wasn't a problem. Twilight Sparkle was going to help him no matter what.
"Yes. It's... fine with me."
"Lovely. Now, my dear, please touch your horn to mine." With that, the Archmage bent his head down towards Twilight. The horn looked like a sharpened dagger poised to gouge out her eyes, but she mustered up the courage to touch the tip of her horn to his. A ball of energy was formed at their contact, and it cascaded in pulses down the side of each unicorn.
Twilight whimpered slightly.
"Oh, don't worry. This is just a simple charm that is used during a duel. I've cast it on both of us, see?" He held up his right hoof, which has swirling energy around it. This also applied to Twilights hooves.
"What does it do?" Twilight asked with a mix of fear and curiosity.
"It's a levitation charm. This will hold us over the lake, which is where we will be dueling. The idea is to knock the enemy into the lake by dispelling their charm or using physical spells. Any questions?"
"No, sir." It seemed simple enough. Was he hiding something?
“Normally, there would be a separate unicorn to cast the spell. But, because I doubt anypony here is intelligent enough to know it, I’m going to be channeling it. I assure you I will show zero resistance if you try to dispel it, as is regulation.” He explained.
“Alright, so I’m going to have some advantage over him because of his concentration on the levitation spell. Brilliant” Twilight thought. “I doubt it’s a huge advantage, but it’s a good start."
“Are you ready to begin?” The Archmage’s words sounded equally sinister to somepony asking if Twilight was ready to die.
“Yes Sir.” While she was scared, she also was itching to show the Archmage that she had what it took to be a powerful unicorn. Last time, she had outsmarted him via some simple grammatical trickery. But did she have the magical skill to defeat him? She wasn’t sure.
“Alright then, good luck, Ms. Sparkle.” With that, the Archmages horn burst into light, and the swirling blue energies around the legs of each pony turned bright white. Twilight felt a harness like tug around her chest, and suddenly was lifted off the ground with the Archmage.
Both ponies were dragged to the center of the lake. "Alright, Twilight. In about ten seconds, we will both have full control of our levitation. Get ready."
"What, no 'good luck'?" she thought. "Alright, time to show him what I can do." As if in response to her preparation, she suddenly felt a tug at her mind—the spell had kicked in. Suddenly, Twilight could move freely around in the air just as easily as she could move any other part of her body, as if flying was something she could do for all her life."Game on."
Twilight thought against trying to dispel the charm from the Archmage. He would be naturally defending it with his own magic, and she doubted that her magic could overpower his. It'll have to be force that takes him down. Reaching out her mind to the billions of air molecules surrounding her, she gathered them together as somepony would gather together snow in a snowball, and hurled them at the Archmage.
The Archmage was thrown back about ten feet quite easily. Was it too easily? Twilight didn't bother thinking about it. If she could overpower the Archmage that easily with wind, then she could easily knock him into the water.
Twilight felt a second, lighter tug at the back of her mind. Again, she disregarded it in favor of more offensive moves. Twilight hurled another blast of air at the Archmage, again, he was thrown back quite easily. Why wasn't he resisting?
"Alright" she thought. "One good shot and you're going into that lake." The tug at her mind made her horn tingle. What was he doing? Suddenly, she got her answer. The levitation charm had been ripped from her! Knowing she was doomed for the water, she threw all the air she could manipulate at the Archmage... from above him.
The Archmage was thrown downward by the force generated from the wind—much faster than the rate that Twilight was falling at.
"I'm going to win this!" she thought, joy filling up inside of her as the Archmage descended below her.
The Archmage hit the water two seconds before Twilight did... but never fell in. Before Twilight could feel confusion, she fell into the icy cold water of Lake Hardtack. Popping up out of the water, she stared at the Archmage in silent questioning.
"Oh, Twilight, I'm so... so sorry. Didn't I mention that you are allowed to catch yourself before you actually hit the water? I must have forgotten that. Since the rules state that the pony who is submerged neck down first loses, and I am walking on the water..." The Archmage paced along the surface of the water as if it were just a floor. "... It appears that I have won. I'm sorry to have bested you with something as petty as that."
"Oh, he's getting me back for how I passed his test. Think embarrassing me in front of your class will do anything? Think again, Cobalt Star." She wanted to say something smug to the Archmage. Something about how he had cheated or maybe how he should be more mature than that... but she wouldn't sink to his level. Not ever again.
"Congratulations, Sir." She said simply as she swam back to shore. "I should have clarified the rules with you more. You deserve victory." If she won't say anything smug, she'll drown him in acceptance.
"Oh, I wouldn't expect anypony like you to have clarified." He walked onto the shore, not a drop of water on either his coat or hooves.
"What does that mean: 'anypony like you'?" Twilight truly hated the Archmage.
"Class is dismissed for today. Let this be a lesson to all of you: understand the rules before you play the game. You shall all report back here in two days, then you shall all have your first duels. Goodbye" and with that, the Archmage vanished in the same fashion that he had appeared: melting into the water.
.............................................................
"Oh, don't feel bad dear. He was unfair and cheated you." Not feeling up to explaining the situation to Rainbow Dash, Twilight had decided to take refuge at Rarity's house.
"But Rarity, I don't have the rightto be angry at him. I passed his first test because of a grammar mistake. He didn't do anything more underhanded than me."
"You have the right to your emotions, it doesn't matter what you've done yourself. You haven't even touched your tea yet, you know."
Twilight sipped the tea. It reminded her exactly of Rarity—jasmine, chamomile and a hint of vanilla. "Thanks, Rarity. I don't think I could have handled telling Rainbow Dash that I lost my first game. She's really into this."
Rarity rolled her eyes. While Rainbow Dash was one of her best friends, she could be a bit... enthusiastic about competition. Even when it wasn't her that was competing. "Who cares what Rainbow thinks. He didn't tell you what the rules were, and he didn't deserve his win." She sipped her own tea, taking the tiniest sip that was possible.
"I guess. But what if—" Twilight was interrupted by a knock on Rarity's door. "Rarity, did you invite somepony else?"
"No. Just you. Would you mind getting the door? I didn't put on eye shadow today."
"Alright." Twilight didn't really see the difference between wearing and not wearing eye shadow, but she didn't bother arguing. Opening the door, she was greeted by a mint green unicorn. "Uh. Hi Lyra."
"Is it one of my clients? Tell them that I'm busy" yelled Rarity.
"No, it's Lyra Heartstrings!" Twilight replied. "What you doing here, Lyra?"
"I'm looking for you. I knew you would either be here, or at Fluttershys cottage. May I come in?"
Twilight looked back at Rarity. Had she even met Lyra before? She didn't know. "Sure, come in. Rarity and I are having tea."
"Oh, hello. I don't believe we've met before, dear. I'm Rarity. Are you one of Twilights friends?" asked Rarity.
"I suppose you could say that, yeah. I came here to talk about the dueling club with her."
"The dueling club? What about the dueling club?" Twilight was curious... did Lyra want her help for something?
"Well... I was just thinking... the Archmage beat you when you didn't even know how to properly duel. Would you like me to teach you some of the basics?" Lyra tried to phrase the question without offending Twilight's skill level.
Twilight blinked. "Uh... how exactly did you learn the basics?"
"My father used to duel during college" Lyra explained. "When he saw the ad for the dueling club, he told me I had the talent for it. He taught me the rules, and strategies for both basic and advanced gameplay."
"Basic and Advanced?" Twilight had never heard of these before. "What's that?"
"Well, there are three different types of unicorn dueling. Basic, Advanced and Pro. Basic dueling is what we did today—the levitation spell is quite strong, you are allowed to use up to level three magic, and you only need to know one or two extra spells to keep you out of the water. Advanced dueling has a much weaker levitation spell, a spell cap of level four, and there is more reliance on your own magic to keep you from the water. Pro level dueling has a spell cap of five. You also don't get any pre-applied levitation spell for Pro games, it's all up to you."
"Why do you need to know more than one extra levitation spell? Couldn't you just repeatedly reactive one?" asked Twilight.
"No, you are only allowed to repeat every spell of that nature a maximum of twice, so it's important to know multiple. How about it, can I teach you a bit?"
Twilight looked back at Rarity for advice, she smiled at Twilight and nodded in encouragement. "Sure, when?"
"Can you meet me at Lake Hardtack in about ten minutes?"
"Sure, Lyra. See you there." She smiled, and waved goodbye as Lyra trotted off. "You don't mind me leaving you, Rarity?"
"Of course not, Twilight. I don't want you getting embarrassed in front of that horrid sounding Archmage again. Go ahead, let her teach you."
Twilight nodded, and left Rarity to her tea.
.............................................................
"What happens if somepony get's hurt?"
"What?"
Twilight sighed. "Lyra, what happens if one of my spells hurts the other pony? You said that in higher level duels I'm allowed to use level five spells... that includes fire."
Lyra chuckled. "You worry too much. Do you honestly believe that these tournaments would exist if ponies could get seriously injured from them?"
Twilight thought about this for a moment, and then realized she was right. "So how do they prevent it?"
"During a game, you are shielded from large injuries. While it will let small things pass through, such as a punch to the jaw, things like boulders will be shielded. Instead of actually being injured, the spell saps away at your energy instead."
"Why doesn't everypony wear one of these spells so that we can never get injured?" Twilight's brow narrowed.
"It's a complicated spell. An extremely complicated spell." Lyra paced to the left. "Also, if somepony were to take enough damage to have died while the shield is active, energy will begin to break through. A lethally sharp boulder, for example, might begin to break bones if you were to die from it. Any questions?"
"Has anypony ever died?"
Lyra bit her lower lip and looked at Twilight. "Not in sanctioned play."
Twilight's left eyebrow raised. "What does that mean?"
"Well... there are sort of... underground tournaments." she explained. "These aren't actually approved by Canterlot, and the rules differ."
"How so?"
"There are no shields, for one, but the spell limit is at four to prevent the league from being banned." Lyra said. "But, there's a twist to that. If you were to cast a spell over the limit in sanctioned play, you would be disqualified and possibly even banned from play—that's why ponies do underground play half the time, they were banned."
"Is it any different in underground?" asked Twilight.
Lyra nodded. "You're allowed two strikes, so you can go over the limit a total of twice during a game without getting disqualified. Deaths have occurred because some ponies use powerful spells. The most powerful spell on record cast in underground play was level 7—which is also one of the recorded deaths."
"How the hay can they get away with that?"
"The argument is that the practice isn't bannable, as they don't have the skill to cast the shield." Lyra hoofed at the ground. "They also state that it's the duelists responsibility to shield themselves from danger. Can you believe that?"
"No, I can't." Twilight said somberly.
"If you don't mind, can we move onto something else?"
"I actually don't have anymore questions, Lyra. You've been a great help. I can probably get Rainbow Dash to help me practice some of the spells, you need to be in good condition for tomorrow. Don't want you losing to some cheater." Twilight smiled.
"Aw, thanks Twilight. Nobody likes to be embarrassed."
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Yeah, sorry for the long overdue posting of chapter two. I promise i'll be on a more regular schedule now...blame League of Legends.
Why do I see either Twilight's first or last fight in the Archmage's dueling club being with Lyra?
This is good thanks for the story.
well written, and interesting, tracking
Well you wouldn't mention the dangerous underground dueling if it wasn't relevant to the story. Getting Twilight involved in that kind of business without it sounding contrived could be a bit of a challenge though.
Long time in between updates. Will put on read later until more updates arrive or is completed
1064814
Yeah, that was just because of my own life. I pwomise i'll be uploading on a weekly or biweekly basis from now on.
Hug.
1064752
Nuh uh. The "Archmage" said he was picking unicorns for a tournament, he never said what kind of tournament. Therefore, there is a 50% chance that the tourney they're joining is Unsanctioned.
Also, in the example duel they had there were -no shields-, just levitation. More evidence that it's unsanctioned recruiting.
I'd think that Twilight would send Celestia a letter regarding this "Archmage" to see who he really is. If he's claiming to be an Archmage, he's gotta be well known, if not a member of Celestia's court/academy.
1064509
You sense the tropes, young grasshopper
In tournaments, the buddy is often the final obstacle, and if two people are allowed to win, the rival will most likely be the other victor
doesn't subtract from the quality of the story if its a good one though, ill be tracking this
1064834 make it weekly bro. Can't leave us hanging. I try to update mine about three times a week. Just hit chapter 100 last week and almost 300k words. Keep the updates coming. You'll do alright.
1064910 Im personally more comfortable with bi weekly, because of my own schedule. I'll shoot for weekly uploads, just because it would be nice.
1064916 cool I look forward to reading it. And btw your other story was awesome
Why do I get the feeling that Twilight is going to absolutely thrash the Archmage by the end of this story? Oh, and Trixie too... Lol. Great story so far!
MOAR!
1064840 No, the shield isn't necessary at the level the duel club is currently playing at; you don't really need the shield until you're throwing around class five spells (although reading between the lines, it sounds as though the sanctioned Advanced matches use them). Twilight wasn't worried about hurting people with class threes (which is the limit at the duel club) but was worried about hurting people with the fire evocations available at class five (the limit at sanctioned pro matches, which have the shield.)
It's also implied that the sanctioned matches have less tolerance for unicorns that get 'carried away' and 'accidentally' use illegal spells, as opposed to the unsanctioned matches which use a three strikes system.
1065073 Well, it might have something to do with the fact that he's an arrogant, insufferable jerk. Just maybe.
1064509
Because that is how 90% of tournament style anime work out.
It is a plot device that is overused to commercial media because it is so easy to do.
"Why do you need to know more then one extra levitation spell?"
much faster then the rate that Twilight was falling at.
how he should be more mature then that...
All of these should say "than" rather than "then."
"When he saw the add for the dueling club, he told me I had the talent for it."
"Add" should be "ad," as in "advertisement."
Looking forward to more frequent updates. This is a very interesting story--I always love magic, and Twilight, and science, and gummy worms.
1064851
So according to that, It will be dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_TwilightWut.png Vs. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Lyra2.png For Twi's last battle. And it will be dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_TwilightWut.png and dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Trixie_lolface_1.png going to the World Cup thingy?
1065469
What do gummy worms have to do with this? dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_TwilightWut.png
1066897
Pretty much. And where the hell did you get the Lyra/AwesomeTrixie icons? The only ones I know of are the ones to the right of the text box.
1066981
Apocalypse pony. >:3 (I'm quite positive you are Real_RainbowDash on Kongregate.)
FiM Enhancements for Greasemonkey.
That wasn't very much of a break-down of the specifics of the rules, even "Off Camera". I wonder if she has a rule-book in the library, and if so, why she didn't consult it before the first day?
I also suspect the organizer is trying to lead his two picks into the underground circuit (if not, then Trixie came from that, and maybe both are true), if so he would want to repeatedly humiliate the personal student of Princess Celestia before she figures that out probably. Then again, it IS legal so...
1080682 Was I unclear with the rules of the game?
1082739
Not unclear, more like incomplete. All you need to do is say that Twilight discussed the rules with Lyra or say she found the rulebook and read through it. My point was that there has to be a lot more rules for a formal sport... or at least there would be for similar real-life sports*. I suppose the fact that there was room to argue about if wings are fair in "Fall Weather Friends" might indicate that the rules for Equestrian sports might not tend to be as formalized.
*The rulebook for fencing, for instance is hundreds of pages long and that is a relatively simple sport in how it is carried out (as opposed to say, karate matches, or either type of football). Naturally the reader isn't going to care about all the technicalities.
I like!
1064427 Now I must ask, who do you main?
I'm an avid lol player even though I suck at it. I'm also enjoying this story quite a bit. I love how you made Rainbow a caffeine junky and am loving the intricacies that I can see being used in the duels. I'll say more if I think of anything worth while, for now take a like fav and watch
-Ace
Five bucks says the two duelist that get to the end will either be Trixie (if not she gets knocked out in the match before) or lyra.
This story sits strangely with me, first off Twilight is the ELEMENT OF MAGIC, as in she is the LITERAL embodiement of magic! She is effectivly the strongest unicorn in existence at the moment. She was also taught by Princess Celestia HERSELF! So having this cocksure pony who doesn't even recognize the very elements that saved his world 3 times annoys me...
So I'm reading a fic which introduces a smarmy fool who really needs to pay attention to up and coming prodigies. This fic also introduces a level of cocky arrogance to Twilight normally reserved for particularly stupid teenagers.
It is also written with a vocabulary and attention to detail reminiscent of particularly young teenagers.
All of which is pretty much why I'm not reading it anymore.