The Confrontation, Part I
Sunny stood on the top floor of the lighthouse starting out at the town of Maretime Bay, and the hills beyond as the late afternoon sun continued on towards the western horizon. She kept scanning the sky for any trace of Flurry Heart, and was so focused on that task that she barely heard Zipp come up the elevator.
"Hey Sunny, I brought you something to eat, I figure I wouldn't be able to convince you to come down for dinner," the pegasus said, setting a plate of carrot dogs down on the table next to the art board.
"Thanks, Zipp, but I don't know if I can eat. I'm worried about her. Where was she going? Why wouldn't she tell us? Why would she leave so suddenly like that?" Sunny asked.
"I'm sure she had her reasons, Sunny," Zipp replied, putting a hoof around her shoulders. "And try not to worry too much. If anypony can take care of themselves out there, my bits would be on an alicorn princess from eons ago."
Flurry Heart descended to the ground when she saw the clouds get stormy. She had been following the river west into the foothills for several hours, not wanting to go too fast and instead conserve her strength. She opened her saddlebags and pulled out the atlas, flipping to the right page and confirming that she was within two miles.
The Crystal Princess didn't remember much of Opaline Arcana, but she wanted to assume she was formidable in magic dueling, regardless if magic had just returned to Equestria in the past few months. The citizens of Equestria had already begun to lose their magic by the time she decided to seal it away, so that her fallen student couldn't get what they had left.
Had the division among the races been Opaline's doing? If so, she had to have known about the Windigos and what they would do. What had been her plan if they hadn't been stopped with the Crystal Heart?
Most pressingly, was her offer of allegiance genuine? If so, perhaps Flurry could use that to her advantage. She would never truly consider allying herself with Arcana, but if she didn't know that, she would have the upper hoof until the spells started flying. There was also a chance that she knew Flurry wanted nothing to do with an alliance of any kind; she hadn't asked Opaline where she was after she had been found in the dream realm, she merely fired off that tracking spell to find out where she was, and the way Opaline had immediately made herself scarce probably meant she knew Flurry's intentions were hostile.
Was she alone? Or did she have followers?
Flurry Heart came to the crest of the next hill, and there it was; a castle on the cliffside, overlooking the river that flowed to the north. She saw an arched bridge to into the forest to the east, three towers near the bottom foundation, and four more smaller towers that made up the top, with a single tree wrapping around the highest tower, with the leafed branches not quite reaching above the roof.
Strangely enough, for how old it looked, it didn't look decrepit or run down, but rather well-maintained.
From the path going along the cliff edge, she assumed there were two primary ways in, down on the ground level, and halfway up across the bridge.
"Primis defensio," Flurry whispered to herself, her horn flashing for barely a moment as she cast the spell around herself, in case there were any traps, magical or otherwise once she got inside. She weighed her options, and figured going in the bottom underneath the arched foundation would be best.
"Tace gressus," Flurry said, casting an alteration spell, effectively silencing her hooves as she galloped down the path towards the castle. Even though it could be considered the basement entrance, it was still well kept, the large double doors painted a dark purple with gold accents. She placed her lightly sparkling, enchanted hooves on the door, and making no sound, pushed the left door open, stepping into the undercroft.
The room was dimly lit, but she immediately spotted the stairs up, and took them as quickly as she could, keeping her head on a swivel, coming to the next set of doors.
The candles and torches were clearly enchanted, to last months or perhaps even years before they would need changing. No doubt these storage rooms were full of supplies; she couldn't imagine Opaline getting out very much, and certainly not making herself known to others.
After several more flights of stairs, she finally came to purple carpeting, signifying that she last most likely come to the living area. Flurry decided that she wasn't going to try and do this room by room, but get to either the throne room, or the tower. No doubt the door to that would be quite large.
The flames flickered as the evening air made its way through the corridors of gray stone and wooden arch supports. The hall curved gently to the left, and she eventually came to what she was looking for; two gold-accented large sets of double doors; one on either side of the hall. She slowly approached the one on the left, reached out her hoof, and paused when she felt a presence.
"Oh do come in. Did you actually think I didn't know you arrived? That I don't have every entrance to this castle enchanted?" she heard from the other side of the door.
Steeling herself, she took a deep breath, then pushed the doors open.
Flurry took in the room as quickly as she could; the carpet gave way to purple and gold tile, a reflecting pool in the center of the room, the bark and roots of a tree growing through the right wall, as well as providing access to the next floor of the tower, and there, on the other side of the pool, was the throne, with one Opaline Arcana sitting upon it.
"I must say, it took longer than I thought it would for you to get here, Princess," the orchid alicorn greeted. "Welcome."
Opaline Arcana wore matching dark steel fetlock guards on all four legs, and her mane had been expertly braided and curled, with teal accents running the length of it and her tail. And her horn had the slightest curve to it.
The alicorns silently watched each other with guarded expressions on their faces as Flurry Heart slowly entered the chamber.
"Opaline Arcana," she responded in kind.
"I certainly hope you enjoyed your long rest, I wasn't expecting to see you again," Opaline said, getting up and stepping down from her throne, standing between it and the reflecting pool.
"More or less," Flurry replied. "How about yourself? Must have gotten dreadfully boring here, spending all this time alone."
"Oh, you'd be surprised how the time just flies by when you have a sizeable library of magical tomes and research... None of which have been particularly useful... Until recently that is," Opaline answered.
"What do you want with me?" Flurry asked.
"I wasn't clear enough before you so rudely tracked me here instead of asking for directions?" Opaline asked, almost sounding offended. "Celestia... Luna... Cadance... Twilight... All long gone. My time has finally come to rule Equestria; a burden I will willingly share with you, as a fellow alicorn."
"I'm not quite sure that I haven't had my fill of ruling. Not that it means I'm going to just step aside and let you have your way with the rest of Equestria. What was it you said? 'To be feared and loved'? Answer me this, Your Majesty; if all of Equestria is supposed to fear you, how could you think they could ever possibly love you? It's impossible to have it both ways."
"Telum!" Opaline snarled, her horn lighting up in an intense blue light, sending a magical bolt of energy across the pool right towards Flurry.
Flurry Heart readied herself, and the bolt impacted with her shield, which shimmered around her body momentarily.
"But of course you came prepared. So, you would deny me my birthright, Princess?" Opaline said, beginning to walk around the circumference of the pool.
"Funny you should put it that way," Flurry answered, also beginning to walk around the reflecting pool, keeping it between her and Opaline. "You... Celestia, Luna, and the rest; all of you were given your alicornhood. I am the only natural-born alicorn, so don't talk to me of birthrights, Arcana."
Opaline lashed out again, a stream of blue flames rushing out from her horn.
"Oriri!" Flurry cast the spell down at the pool, and the water shot up, dissipating the flames. Then, before the water fell back down to the floor, she was ready with another spell.
"Glacies!"
The water droplets that hadn't turned to steam from Opaline's flames now instantly became frozen solid.
"Nivis tempesta!"
The ice crystals exploded outward, forcing Opaline to throw up a shield as the throne room began to frost over.
"Vi!" Opaline cried out, slamming her front hooves down on the floor, shattering the ice that had begun to form on the floor. "Tenebris!"
Instead of a bright blue, Opaline's horn became as black as a void, and the darkness quickly expanded outward to envelop the throne room. Flurry couldn't see anything, but her shield was holding, as she felt Opaline's fire spells impact her shield.
"You cannot imagine what I have learned in these centuries, Flurry Heart. Spend long enough in the darkness, and you'll see things nopony could ever dream of!" Opaline's voice echoed through the black expanse.
Flurry concentrated, making sure her shield would hold against the barely visible onslaught.
Opaline, determined to break through Flurry's magical barrier, had her confidence shaken when she saw the Crystal Princess open her eyes, her irises now a fiery white. Her entire body began to glow brighter, and push the enveloping darkness away.
"Spend long enough in the darkness, Arcana, and the light begins to burn."
*Picking off the petals of a flower, one by one.*
"Post a long chapter... Be a tease... Post a long chapter... Be a tease..."
Don't be mad at me. Be mad at the totally real flower right here on my desk.
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The battle of the century
Btw, I wonder if Misty will appear in this?
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Tune in next time to the next Ponyball Z!
See the light....feel the heat.
Wonderful work on this chapter. Definitely liked the effort going into the exchanges, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up. Definitely liked the chat between Zipp and Sunny, as well as Flurry Heart's bit of self-reflection as she was working on her plan for the confrontation with Opaline, as well as the START of the fight between Flurry and Opaline. Definitely hoping Opaline gets some serious karma inflicted on her AND Misty can be reasoned with before she does anything really bad.
But, anyway, I am certainly looking forward to the next chapter.
Woooohooo go Flurry
The full might of 1000s of years of knowledge and experience and teaching all drilled into one mare, the knowledge and knowhow of all her family. the love the friendship, the power, the wisdom, the antics. Flurry is gonna be a beast to take on for anyone. And if you do take out her magic she's gonna choke you out.
Shining Armor would make sure she is able to stay safe. Magic or no.
You no queen Opaline 😡
11629429
Dun, dun, DUN!
Oh wow now things are going to get very intense so Sunny and others still have no idea why did flurry Heart left without saying anything which probably not a good idea to leave them in the dark and speaking of that flurry heart pretty have a good idea where the location is and she made it to the Dark Castle where Opaline is and when she got there she was expecting her and flurry heart wants to put a stop on Opaline plan and everything hopefully she's strong enough but she probably needs some help if she can stand a chance well I guess we'll find out next time
Let's hope so Zipp.
Wait, Opaline was her student!?
She does have Misty but she doesn't deserve her!
Interesting spell there.
She knows!!!
11629429
Nah, if this was DBZ, you would have posted seven chapters of Flurry and Opaline powering up. You also need a pony to comment on the incredible power being sensed - Misty and Izzy could cover that.
I'm just Saiyan...
"You thought you were facing a minor threat, but it's me, Dio Opaline!"
Arcana!
If you really think this is about birthrights?
Then let us see what SHE thinks about birthrights
HER IMAGINATION HAS CREATED EQUESTRIA SHE MAY BE GONE BUT HER LEGACY SHALL LAST
Go Flurry!