The Void of Harmony

by Mordred

Void of Combat

I heard a grunt from where Luna was lying on the bed and continued meditating, believing that she was simply asleep. I felt a mind prodding mine, and I let it in, creating a room of solid white with a purple table and chairs, along with a pot of coffee, in order to entertain my guest. I saw Luna walking in, and gestured for her to sit down. She turned to me, and asked, “What is this place?”

I responded simply, saying, “It’s a room to entertain guests in my mind, made from scratch” Luna seemed surprised that I had made such a thing, and I continued, “So, I guess you wished to speak with me while continuing your rest?”

She nodded, and asked, “Yes, about your powers, why are they so much more developed than mine, and why did you seem surprised to find another using the same?”

I pondered a plausible response, and said, “Why they are more developed is probably because I already knew most of the abilities you could have from this type of power, and possibly some innate talent with it,” I paused, thinking of a good way to continue, “I was surprised to find someone using the same type of power largely due to the fact that I thought this was a unique power, but you people had a very similar power available, however weaker,”

Luna nodded at this, and opened her mouth to say something, possibly another question, but I cut her off, saying, “When you are actually awake, we should go down to the guards’ training grounds and see if you are up to snuff in combat. We will be doing this because Void abilities, seemingly unlike magic as I understand, puts tremendous strain on the body.”
Luna nodded again in understanding, and then something dawned on her. She blurted, “Are you not also asleep? What we did to get here was dreamwalk, yet you act as though you are not asleep,”

I smiled, taking a sip of my scalding hot coffee. I said calmly, “What I’m doing is not sleeping or dreaming, but rather focusing my consciousness into the area of my mind that produces dreams, and simply creating a lucid image to toy with. It’s really simple, as long as you don’t actually need sleep,”

Luna seemed surprised that I didn’t need sleep, but her form began rapidly flickering, and she suddenly disappeared from my ‘welcome room’. I opened my eyes, and stood up from the meditating position, only to find that it was somewhat early in the morning, with Luna slowly sitting up and stretching on the bed. Her stomach growled, and she said to me, “I don’t suppose we can drop by the dining hall before training?” I nodded, and she opened the door, nearly walking into the maid that was about to knock.

The maid looked startled for a second, then said, “Celestia sent me to act as both of your guides for the day. My name is Swift Duster.” Luna and I nodded, and I followed the two of them to the dining hall. We walked into the dining hall, and I noticed a decadent spread on the table, but realized I wasn’t hungry. I sat down in the center of the table on the side opposite the door, with Celestia sitting at the head of the table and Luna sitting at the right of her, two seats down from me. They started chatting, and I gestured for Swift to come over to me.

She walked over quickly, and leaned her head closer in order to hear me. I said into her ear, “Can you make a request of the resident blacksmith that makes the guard’s gear that I would like two swords and a long dagger made?” She nodded, and made to leave, but I stopped her, saying, “And can you let him know to make them look like this?” she nodded again, and I gave her a quick sketch of two long, thin swords, along with a dagger that looked like a shorter version of the swords. She went off, and I realized Luna and Celestia were gaping at me.

I looked at the two of them and shrugged my shoulders questioningly, and they laughed. Later, Celestia told me that she was surprised that I had deduced that there was a blacksmith at the castle, and that I was willing to commission work from him so soon. Luna was surprised that I was having three swords made, and I explained that I planned to channel Void energy through the blades.

Celestia looked surprised that this was possible, and I explained how the energy could be imbued into anything in contact with you. I stood up, and picked up a butter knife to use as an example, and channeled Madurai through it, creating a flame that encased the blade but didn’t damage it. I went to leave the room, only to find Swift Duster standing in front of the door, poised to enter.

I turned to Luna, and asked, “You done eating?” she nodded, with a mouth full of waffle, that she proceeded to force down, before downing a large glass of milk, gasping after she finished.

She burped slightly, and in a small voice, said, “Excuse us,”

I gestured for her to follow, and asked Swift to lead us to the blacksmith. We took the long route, through many twisting hallways, and eventually ended up outside, near what seemed to be a hybrid athletics field and arena. She led us along the left side to a door set in the wall, and popped it open, leading us inside. We went down a short hallway, arriving at another door, which she opened, leading us inside to see a browned male earth pony with graying black hair.

He quenched the blade that he was working on, and turned to us, asking, “Are you the one that commissioned three blades?” his voice was deep and gravelly, yet comforting. I nodded, and he pointed at the wall. I glanced over, and saw the blades, already sheathed and on belts.I grabbed the longest of them and handed it to Luna, and picked up the long dagger and sword, wrapping the belt around my waist and pulling it tight. I focused, and the colors changed to purple leather and gold metal, with the sheathes for the blades taking on similar tones. I drew the blades, and focused again, changing the color of the blade to gold, with the cross-guard silver and the pommel/handle purple.

Everyone in the room seemed surprised at the changing of the colors, and the blacksmith grabbed the long sword out of my hand and checked to see if I had changed the materials somehow. He saw that the materials were the same, just recolored, and he handed it back, saying, “Never seen a trick like that before, not even from a unicorn or the Princess. By the way, the name is Iron Hammer,”

I nodded, and said in return, “To tell the truth, I wasn’t sure it would work, and my name is Mirage,” He nodded and Luna introduced herself as well.

We were about to leave, when Iron Hammer stopped me and asked, “You look rather young to know how to use that,”
I shrugged, and as we were walking out the door, I called over my shoulder, “You’re free to come and watch if you want to, though I can’t promise anything great from Luna,”

He shrugged and followed us back out onto the field, were the guards were getting ready for combat training. We walked over and talked to the apparent commanding officer, who called over two recruits, a unicorn named Shining Armor, and a pegasus named Gleaming Sword. The two looked nigh identical, and I took Shining Armor as my fight partner, and Luna took Gleaming Sword.

The C.O. pulled the two stallions aside, thinking that he would only be heard by them, said, “The one in purple doesn’t really seem to know what she’s doing, but is arrogant, so Shining, take her down a few notches,” Shining nodded, and the C.O. turned to Gleaming, saying, “You might have a lot more trouble, that mare that you’re paired up with is Celestia’s sister, or so they say. She’s been missing for a thousand years, so her skills may be rusty, but she was the hero of many battlefields in her day with her sword and halberd skills. Be careful,” Gleaming nodded, the enthusiasm in his eyes clear to see.

The C.O. turned to Luna and I, and explained, “The rules are simple, don’t kill your opponent, and don’t use immobilizing magic. Anything else goes, as this is combat, so use all that is available to you,” Luna and I both nodded, and Luna squared up with Gleaming as the first match.

They raised their swords to their respective face, and began fighting in a kind of duelist fashion, with a one-handed grip on their weapon with the other arm behind their back Luna was slowly gaining ground on the pegasus, who took flight to try to create more breathing room. This was a severe mistake, as Luna kicked off the ground with much more strength, surprising him with her speed, which got her above him, enabling her to cut down and knocking him to the ground, dazing him. Luna dived, landing with a foot on his chest and her sword at his neck, at which the C.O., who was also refereeing, called, “Victory goes to Luna!”

Luna walked over to me, and I congratulated her, before taking a position opposite Shining Armor, who asked, “Are you sure you want to do this? I won’t be holding back, just so you know,”

I grinned viciously, replying, “I wouldn’t have it any other day, though I hope I don’t hospitalize you for too long after I’m done with you.”

Shining grinned in response to this, likely thinking it would be an easy win, and then we began. I didn’t draw either weapon as Shining approached cautiously. Unlike me, he was carrying a sword and shield, and was wearing full armor. He reached striking distance after about three seconds of approaching, and slashed downwards at my right shoulder. I dodged to his left, and put all of my strength into hitting his shield, sending him flying back and crippling his left arm.

The surrounding spectators gasped at this, and the shield hung limply at his side, surface splintered, and he winced whenever his left arm moved whatsoever. I thought that attack may have finished it, but he finally cast an odd, bubble-shaped shield, and began shooting bolts of magic out of it at me.

I dodged the bolts, and punched the bubble-shield, only for it to make a noise like a gong and dissipate all the energy in the punch. I backed off when he fired a blast at point-blank range. He tauntingly said, “That little trick isn’t going to work a second time, so you might as well use your weapons,”

I made to draw my swords, before turning to him and asking, “Are you sure you want me to use these?” He nodded, and I shrugged, drawing the two blades. I decided to christen them Ignis and Fulgur, and ignited the longer blade by channeling Madurai through it, and charged the shorter blade with electricity from Zenurik. Everyone in the arena seemed surprised that the blades were now glowing with fire and lightning, except for Luna, who had seen it in the dining hall. I Void dashed towards his shield, and made an x-shaped cut down the center of the shield, surprising Shining with the speed that I approached at, and my blades minced through the shield like nothing, allowing me to get at Shining. I kicked his right knee, causing it to buckle in, and put the still flaming sword to his throat. The C.O, managing to get past his shock, called out, “Victory goes to Mirage!,”

Most of the other guards were too dumbstruck to move, and Luna and Iron Hammer, walked over, saying, “That was surprising,” I helped Shining to his feet, the other guards rushing him to the infirmary, and I started heading there as well.

When we arrived, Celestia was already waiting there for us, and asked, “So, you shattered his shield and arm with a single, bare-handed hit?” I nodded, and she remembered something, saying, “We still need you to take the tests that I was telling you about the other day, so if you don’t mind…,” I nodded, and some tests were run, and the doctors also took some blood for study.

I started heading back to the room we were originally teleported into from the old castle after the purification of Nightmare Moon, and I realized that either Luna didn’t have a room, or I didn’t. I turned to Swift, asking, “So, do I have a room, am I sharing one with Luna, or what?”

Swift blushed at the implication of what I had said, and instead led me further down the hall to another, slightly smaller, room.

I thanked her, placed my two new swords onto the dresser, and floated over the bed, meditating. I thought over the day’s events, and chuckled at Shining Armor’s confidence. It was well founded, but I was the wrong person for him to fight, if he were to win. I let my consciousness drift, and ended up in the white room I spoke with Luna in early that morning. I sipped at the coffee, and decided to fuse the rest of the focus schools together, giving me many abilities at once.

Comments

[Dallb]

I like it so far my only complaint is it needs a bit more dialogue, and please don't do crossovers that ruins the story for me.

[Mordred]

8869523
I'm thinking of doing crossovers as a means of avoiding lazy timeskips, such as skipping from Discord's release to Sombra's return, because there aren't many events that I can think of that would warrant months of absence.

[spyrofan354]

Where is that photo from?

[Mordred]

8869629
My Xbox captures, took it in Captura mode, why?

[shadowgod3211]

here's a lesson to you all

NEVER GET FUCKING COCKY IN A FIGHT!!

[The unknown 123]

8869737
in honor of Nosferatu?

[The Lurking Creep]

I turned to Luna, and asked, “You done eating?” she nodded, with a mouth full of waffle, that she proceeded to force down, before downing a large glass of milk, gasping after she finished.

There's an innuendo in that paragraph somewhere...