Azure Edge

by Leaf Blade

88. The Conflux

Twilight and Trixie stared each other down as the two mages prepared for battle. Twilight knew Trixie’s dragon form wouldn’t fit inside the library, and if she was given even the tiniest opportunity to transform, she would destroy the library in the process, and Twilight swore that she was not about to lose her home to Trixie.

Unfortunately, Twilight’s magic exhaustion had risen from ‘stinging pain in heart’ to ‘ceaseless agony coursing through her whole body’. She would need to end this fast and then hurry to the mountains to rest, before something horrible happened.

But Twilight was in her domain, and here she was at an advantage.

Effortlessly, Twilight commanded the books from the shelves lining the walls and from the bookcases that dotted the library to throw themselves at Trixie; a few even hit her before Trixie caught on, defending herself with little wisps of fire and lightning that surrounded her and deflected Twilight’s assault.

The true intent of Twilight’s book attack was merely distraction however, as Twilight could control more of her home than simply the books, and proved it by transforming a bookcase near Trixie into a wooden fist that slammed into her ribs, Trixie releasing a gurgling cough as she was forced to her knees, the fist then slamming her spine and crushing her into the ground for good measure.

“I don’t want to kill you, Trixie,” Twilight sighed, her wooden fist keeping Trixie pinned to the ground with a big finger, threatening to crush her spine if Trixie so much as sneezed in a way Twilight didn’t approve of. “Please just surrender and go home.”

“Surrender?” Trixie guffawed. “Twilight, you’ve met me, you know the Grrrreat and POWERFUL TRRRRRIXIE!! NEVER surrenders!”

“Then I guess you’ll have to go home on a stretcher,” Twilight bemoaned and commanded the finger to press down on Trixie’s spine, though the pinned magician’s body evaporated into mist once pressure was applied.

Twilight gasped, but before she could look around for Trixie, she felt Trixie’s finger tapping against Twilight’s shoulder and she flinched.

“Pretty great spell, right?” Trixie said proudly, pointing two fingers that crackled with pale lavender electricity directly between Twilight’s eyes. “I’ve gotten a lot better since the old days, you know.”

“So have I,” Twilight smiled, and Trixie suddenly fell as the floor beneath her feet opened up and grabbed her, dragging her down into a freshly made pit. “And I was already better than you.”

“I could do this all day, Twilight!” Trixie sneered and teleported out of the pit, appearing in the air behind Twilight, fingers still sparking with lightning.

Twilight tried to shield herself with one of the bookcases, but the sudden stress tugged at her heart and made her flinch, and that instant of pause was enough opening for Trixie’s spell to fire, zapping Twilight right on her collarbone and knocking her off her feet, Twilight landing on her back against the wooden floor, letting out a pained hiss.

“And it looks like you’re running out of time,” Trixie said mockingly, standing over Twilight and threatening her with her electrical fingers.

“I won’t let you take my home away!” Twilight screamed.

Twilight slapped her palm against the floor of the library and a warm glow shone from underneath her hand. Trixie grit her teeth as the wooden floor fused to Twilight’s hand, and Twilight raised it and struck Trixie with elongated wooden tendrils, slamming her against the ceiling and wrapping the tendrils around Trixie’s limbs.

“I won’t kill you,” Twilight growled, “but I would love to see how you intend to cast spells without any arms!”

Trixie’s eyes glowed with intense pink flame and she snarled, baring her fangs. Twilight knew she would have to move quickly, but there was still hesitation in her heart. Could she justify brutalizing Trixie like she was planning, just to save her home?

Yes. She had to.

And she would have, if—

“Twilight?”

Spike’s voice distracted Twilight, and if stress was burning a hole in her heart before, it suddenly gored her chest like a javelin thrown directly into her breast.

“Spike,” Twilight said desperately, a warm liquid dripping from her mouth, “go to your room.”

“Twilight, what’s—”

Spike had never seen Trixie before, so as far as he knew, Twilight was fighting against a stranger. But he knew danger when he saw it, and he knew better than to stay around where he could get hurt, so without another word he hurried up the stairs and back into his room, Twilight breathing a sigh of relief and wiping the rainbow-colored fluid from her chin.

“Was that your son?” Trixie flashed a manic grin, and Twilight grit her teeth.

Twilight tried to twist her tendrils around Trixie’s arms to crush them, figuring that would at least disable her without permanently disfiguring her, but she was too late. Trixie’s arms were growing in size as they became covered in shining blue scales, her fingers being replaced by claws.

Within seconds, Trixie’s transformation was complete, and a giant dragon now tore through Twilight’s library. While Trixie’s stature was just barely larger in height than the first floor of the library, the legendarily powerful protective spells Twilight cast on the second floor kept Trixie’s head, wings, or tail from poking through the ceiling, forcing the dragon to hunch over while inside the library.

And it didn’t hurt either that Trixie was miniscule by dragon standards. Always was.

“I guess I can’t tear my way through,” Trixie chuckled, and the venom in her voice was palpable. “I guess I’ll just—”

With an ear-splitting CRACK and a flash of pink light, Trixie was gone, but another crack sounded nearby, and the thud from above the ceiling signaled where Trixie had teleported to—the attic, where Spike was.

Twilight forced herself to teleport despite the pain that wracked her body, and arrived standing in front of Spike, staring down a giant sapphire dragon with a snarling, hideous grin on its face.

“Spike, stay behind me,” Twilight commanded, and while Spike did so, Twilight turned to see he was visibly terrified, and rightfully so, and Twilight affected a gentle smile to ease his nerves. “It’s okay, Spike. Everything’s going to be okay. Mama’s not gonna let anything happen to you.”

“That’s right, Spike,” Trixie hissed. “Everything’s fine. I don’t wanna hurt you. Just c’mere for a sec.”

“This is your last warning, Trixie,” Twilight said coldly, Spike clutching to her leg. “Leave.”

Trixie’s shrill laughter tore through the empty space of the attic. “Or what, Twilight Sparkle?! What can you, a mediocre little mage pretending to be a little pony, possibly do to me!?”

“Twilight,” Spike whispered, “your magic is—”

“I know, Spike.”

Twilight sighed and looked at her hand that was caked in the residue of that rainbow liquid, basically magical essence given physical form. If her body was rejecting it, that meant she had reached her absolute limit of magical exhaustion; she couldn’t cast new spells, and the ones she was already using were rapidly running out.

But there was still one spell left that she could use.

“The Conflux.”

Twilight uttered those two words and felt a crack in her horn as her ultimate contingency spell was cast. She saw rainbow fluid leaking from beneath her fingernails, and felt it dripping down her chin.

But then everything stopped. For just one instant, as the magic of the Golden Oak converged inside Twilight’s body and she suddenly felt everything. She already had a vague sense of the library as long as she was inside it, but now she could feel everything inside and around it like it was touching her own body.

She could sense the presence of every living being in Canterlot’s Moon District, from the ponies preparing for dinner or bedtime, to the mice in their homes, and everything in between. Her body coursed with magic and her eyes were lit with rainbow colored flame, and they practically bore holes in Trixie’s façade of bravery as soon as eye contact was made.

Trixie could see the sudden gulf in power, but Twilight wasn’t about to let Trixie—who had thrown away every opportunity Twilight had given her to end this non-violently— leave to threaten her home again. Trixie flapped her wings, and while it tore the attic asunder, Twilight was unfazed and Spike, still clinging to Twilight’s leg for dear life, was unmoved.

Trixie looked up and breathed a stream of flame into the ceiling, but her attack did nothing against the protective magic still shining brightly around Twilight’s home.

“You’re trapped, Trixie,” Twilight’s voice echoed in the empty attic, like it was coming from everywhere at once. “Unless you revert to pony form, you cannot leave this place.”

“Never!”

Trixie snarled, but Twilight unflinchingly pointed a finger at one of Trixie’s wings and fired a red and black beam that turned the appendage to dust. Trixie screamed in agony and cast a spell on herself, and Twilight could read Trixie’s magic as if they were pages in the librarian’s precious books.

Trixie’s first spell was a flight spell. Twilight surmised she was going to try escaping. Twilight shot a sphere of green and white light at Trixie’s other wing, and it disappeared in a flash of energy, Trixie grunting and wincing in pain from the attack.

Trixie roared and her mouth filled with violet flame. An ‘alchemist fire’ spell; it would burn through Twilight even despite her defenses, but not if Trixie’s mouth was frozen from the inside out, preventing her from casting it. Funny how Twilight had a spell prepared that would allow her to do just that.

Trixie’s eyes darted around in a panicked frenzy as she lost control of her mouth, looking for any kind of way she could escape with her life, and Twilight took a step forward.

Trixie backed herself all the way against the wall; her pride not allowing her to return to pony form, and all of her magic failing to do anything against the goddess in pony’s skin that slowly approached.

Trixie swiped a claw at Twilight, but the goddess merely grabbed it with her tiny hand, twisting the skin and scales into a barely recognizable mush of gnarled roots and twisting vines. Trixie may have screamed again, but Twilight had long since stopped caring to listen.

Twilight put her hand flat on Trixie’s nose, the dragon looking at her with tearstained, bloodshot eyes full of panic and desperation. Twilight sighed, and her hand lit up with blue energy that quickly covered Trixie like a sheet, before the dragon disappeared in the blink of an eye.

A long-range teleportation spell; one of Twilight’s pride and joys, that allowed her to send Trixie back to their hometown in Zebrica.

It was over. The dragon had been evicted from the library.

Twilight fell to her knees, rainbow fluid pouring from her mouth and eyes.

It was over. And now Twilight was dying. But at least her home and her son were safe.

Author's Note:

wow that cliffhanger ending huh?? it'd be a real shame if we checked up on how rainbow and rarity are doing tomorrow instead of continuing twilight's arc :3c

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!

Comments

[Zeprto678]

With that conclusion, Trixie will be too scared to even fight Twilight again.

[Failsafe99]

You jerk. This must be rectified. I order you to make another. MORE!!!. You must tell us what happens next. With Rarity, and all the others. What will they do when they see the house. Celestia and Luna, when they see it, Celestia especially. MOAR!!!
(Not really, but please, update soon. Please.)

[Leaf Blade]

9973738
lmao don't worry i update every day except sunday. and not to get too spoilery but i will say that this little arc with baltimare and the attack on the library should wrap up by the end of next week, tho celestia and luna won't be getting involved in the plot again for a while still

[Failsafe99]

9973744
Aaaahhhh. Makes sense. I knew that you would have to wrap those up, but I still think the sisters would get involved because it would still be noticeable that something was happening, and if nobody heard what is happening in the library, then Twilight has a really good soundproofing spell, or everyone near her is deaf to the sound of wood breaking and cracking, and minor explosions. Just saying, someone will be hearing something, and then Spike will be needing to take Twilight to the hospital. I doubt he has the full medical knowhow to patch Twilight up from this.

[Leaf Blade]

9973923
now that u mention it, twi's library being magically soundproof is pretty likely. she has a crapton of protection spells on it and she values her privacy, plus she wouldn't need to hear anything that happens to it even when she's outside it cuz she's psychically connected to it at all times. so the only way ppl on the outside would know anything's really going wrong with the library is if it like literally went up in flames. good thing that didn't happen.

as for the royal sisters, they both have important roles to play yet but hoo boi i love my slow burns way too much to get them involved now :3c

[Failsafe99]

9974085
You make a good point. I will sit here and burn then, awaiting the next chapter.