Saturday (December 13th)
Since learning of my impending fight with a being who is most likely just as powerful as I am, I had decided to brush up on my fighting skills. Back home I used to train almost every day, now I was starting to get rusty. This was proven when I was almost beaten by one of the greener guards in a sparring match Celestia had set up for me. I had been almost living at the castle since the first match, quickly learning pony techniques and incorporating human ones into them. What surprised me most was that ponies had no equivalent to tai kwan do. They only used their hands, horns, and wings if they had them. Apparently a ponies hooves were too fragile to be swung like a human foot. If a pony tried a roundhouse kick, they could very well destroy part of their hooves, which almost never grew back without heavy magic spells. This could be a great advantage to me since the other champion didn't know about my fighting background and Chrysalis would most likely tell them about this weakness in pony combat.
Twilight didn't seem too fazed about me spending all this time at the castle but I wasn't all that sure. At the moment I was getting ready to poof back home after gathering up my things for the day. I had spent the last few days here at the castle since I wanted to be at full power for my magical sparring lessons with Celestia's higher tier unicorn guards. Eventually I would be fighting Luna so I could practice using all the races abilities in one single battle.
I got ready to teleport back to the tree and with a spark was there instantly. I didn't bother calling out to her. I wanted to surprise her with some flowers I had picked up in Canterlot.
I tried out a new trick Celestia had taught me, I reached out with my horn to feel for Twilight's magical energy and found it upstairs in the bedroom. I headed up there to greet her.
When I walked in the door, however, I saw tears adorning her face.
"Twilight?" I asked.
She looked up at me with sad eyes and looked back down. I rushed over to her "Twilight, what's wrong?".
When I got to her I kneeled so she had to look at me when she had her head down. "Twilight speak to me. I want to know what's wrong.".
"I know." She whispered. I couldn't quite hear her.
"What?" I asked.
"I know!" She screamed in my face, startling me. I fell backwards and landed on the floor. She stood up in anger.
"Know what?" I asked her. I had no idea what she was talking about.
"About you being a champion! Shining told me!" She screamed.
I got up "Twilight I am sorry. But why are you mad?" I tried pulling her into a hug but she pushed me away. "Don't touch me! I'm mad because you didn't tell me. You kept me in the dark for almost two months about you having a chance to die, Caine. Die! Do you know how that makes me feel? I could have lost you and not have even known why until it was too late!" She was actively crying now.
"Celestia asked me not to-" I tried to answer but was interrupted. "And that makes it okay?! Caine, we are a couple, I love you; but with you staying at the castle, here I was thinking I was just a fling. We haven't spent one night together in three weeks, three weeks! Do you even still love me anymore, did you love me at all?" She asked with pleading eyes.
I couldn't believe she just asked me that. Of course I loved here, most of the reason I was doing all this was because of that love.
I took a moment to calm myself before answering. "I love you Twilight, with everything I have. The whole reason I am even doing all of this, is because I do." With that I walked out of the room. At some point the flowers had dropped out of my hand and were laying on the floor. I just wanted to be alone at the moment and I was pretty sure she did too. I walked down the stairs and out the door. I started up my horn and teleported into my room at the palace. I tried falling asleep but couldn't. I decided to just wait until morning where I could take out my anger on some training dummies.
Friday
I hadn't seen or heard from Twilight since our fight. Multiple times I had tried going back to ponyville but something was stopping my teleportations to the library. I had tried teleporting to other parts of town, and succeeded, but could never get into the library. I had also tried getting a message to Twilight through Celestia but never got an answer back.
It was tearing me up inside. I didn't know how much longer I could work while knowing Twilight hated me and wanted nothing to do to me.
The past week had seen me training constantly and shattering the guards resolve of winning. Very few of them would even get near the ring when I was in it. At one point I became so frustrated with not having an able-bodied sparring partner, I ordered a dozen guards into the ring at once to take me on. I won without breaking a sweat. Something was starting to happen when I fought, it was like I could almost see what my opponents next three moves were. I would be starting my training with Luna in a few days. Here advice to me was to clear my mind of all worries while fighting her since even the slightest hesitation would spell my defeat. She wasn't being cocky, she was legitimately warning me to be careful. Out of the two sisters, Celestia was the most powerful, but Luna could easily defeat her in a real fight.
I was on my way back to my bedroom to try a last-ditch attempt to get into the library. When I arrived I threw my stuff on the bed and lit up my horn.
I pictured the first floor and started pouring the usual amount of magic into the spell. When that didn't work, I took it up a notch. I kept doing this till I started to feel dizzy, but I continued on, pouring more and more magic into the spell. Eventually I could feel what ever was stopping me start to give way but I was starting to lose consciousness. With one final burst, I felt myself teleport right into the room.
I opened my eyes to look straight into Twilight's.
"Twilight I'm-" Was all I was able to say as my knees buckled and I staved off unconsciousness.
"Oh Celestia! Caine, what happened?" I heard Twilight say as she kneeled down to flip me onto my back, almost breaking my wing connectors. I yelled out in pain but it quickly subsided.
"Twilight, I wanted to say... to say... what was I going to say?" I questioned myself. My mind was in shambles and I could barely think.
"Twilight...someth-something wrong." I tried to tell her.
I saw her horn and hands light up as they passed over my body.
"Dear Celestia, Caine! How did you manage to expend this much magic? Why did you expend that much magic? You almost killed yourself!" She looked almost indifferent which hurt me.
I just looked at her for I-don't-even-know how long, as my mind slipped between an amnesiac type state and the jumbled mess I called my mind at the moment. After what felt like ages, my mind started to piece itself together and I could finally start thinking somewhat coherently.
"I... I needed to see you. I couldn't take you hating me." I strained to get out. Talking was a chore for my broken mind.
"Something stopped me from coming sooner. I used as much magic as needed to come." I finally told her.
"I don't hate you Caine. I thought you hated me for questioning your love. After you left, I tried so hard to contact you but no matter what, something stopped me." She explained.
She got up and tried to pick me up with her arms.
"Magic?" I asked her.
"Too dangerous." She decided to sit down above me and put my head in her lap. She started stroking my cheek to try to calm me. I noticed my body was almost vibrating when she did this but it soon seemed to calm down.
"If I tried to use magic on you, your body might start draining me for all it's worth to replace what it lost."
"Oh." Was all I said as I started to drift into unconsciousness.
"Twilight I'm-" I was interrupted by Twilight who could see that I was fighting it.
"Shoosh Caine. Let it come over you. I'll be here when you wake up." She said softly in my ear, still stroking my cheek.
With that I let it come over my and passed out on the spot.
Saturday
When I woke up, I shot straight into a sitting position, promptly knocking Twilight off the bed since she was laying partially on top of me.
"Jeez Caine. I get that your magic reserves are full enough for you to move but you didn't need to fling me off the bed." She got up rubbing her head.
"Sorry Twilight. What happened after I passed out?" I asked her. I was wondering how she managed to drag my 370 pounds up the stairs with her scrawny frame.
"Once you fell asleep, I sent a message to Applejack to come help me move you upstairs to get some sleep. After that you just laid in bed. I came up last night and here we are."
"You're not still angry at me are you?" I asked her. I didn't know what I would do if her response was yes.
"A little bit but seeing that you almost killed yourself just to talk to me, not nearly as much." With that she climbed back into the bed and snuggled up against me. A grabbed her and pulled her into a hug.
"Thank Celestia. I was going crazy knowing you were angry at me, and not being able to get to you didn't help either. I am also pretty sure Celestia's guards will be happy that we are over this fight." This earned me a giggle.
"So what is the plan?" She asked me, sounding serious.
"What do you mean?" I looked at her with a confused expression.
"The plan of how you are going to beat Chrysalis' champion." She explained.
"Okay one, your brother is dead. Two, there is no plan." Twilight looked horrified but I didn't know whether from me not having any plan or having her brother on my shit list.
"We don't know enough about him to formulate any type of plan. All we know is that he will be drawing his powers from the changling species and we can only do so much with that. We sure as hell can't construct a plan without it having a million contingencies." I explained to her.
"I guess you're right." After that, the conversation died and we just held each other till we really had to move. I had to get back to the palace and Twilight was in the middle of a project when I had popped in.
"I will be back sometime next week, Twilight." I told her as I was putting on my clothes. When I turned around I felt her rush into me.
"I really wish you weren't the champion. I love you." She said.
"I love you too, Twilight." We untangled ourselves and went our separate ways. Her back to her project, and me back to the castle for more training.
Wednesday
Today was the day I would finally go against Luna, and the day where I would finally be able to give it my all.
At the moment I was getting ready for the match. For this to be a safe match, we had to wear rings around our horns that were fine tuned to our opponents and would only let out enough magic in our spells that the other could handle, we didn't want to kill each other now did we?
We needed to wear the combat clothes that I was going to be using to fight the other champion. They were enchanted by Celestia herself to negate a lot of physical damage and a little magical damage. The best thing about them was that they looked like Arabian robes, lightweight and decent looking. They were also fitted to me so they wouldn't get in the way of the fight. They had the same grayish black color the top of my wings had.
I also had a 'safe' version of the maul I was planning on using in the real fight. The only difference between this one and the real one was that this one wouldn't be able to kill anypony. I could swing it as hard as I could but it would only give the impression of pain. All the pony had to do was utter a command word and the spell would be broken and they would feel fine.
After I was done suiting up I waited for a guard to come get me for the fight. Eventually one arrived and took me out to the arena where we were then transported to a field outside the city. There was no way Celestia was letting Luna and I fight anywhere near the city, and I can't blame her. I caused enough damage in simple sparring fights against guards. There is no telling what we will do going balls to the wall.
Luna and I turned towards each other, about fifteen feet apart.
"Are you ready, Caine? You must give it your all to beat me." She started.
"I know, don't hold out because you are scared of hurting me. We both know the safety word." I reassured her.
"Alright then. I will honor your wish." With that we both looked to the guard who would be 'reffing' this fight.
He brought his hand up high, and in one quick motion, brought it down and yelled go.
Immediately I felt a surge come from Luna's direction, I moved just in time to avoid getting a shot straight to my chest but still took it in the shoulder.
I recovered quickly and used the force from her punch to turn myself around with a roundhouse kick to her side. She too tried moving out of the way but I still caught her slightly, sending her whirling.
I brought my foot down, flapped my wings as hard as I could, and pushed off into Luna's general direction. I thought I would be too fast for her to dodge but she steadied herself far quicker then I would have expected and leaped out of the way sending a magical bolt into my side. It hurt like a son of a bitch and knocked the wind out of me. I was just barely able to tuck into a roll and land on my feet before I felt Luna coming at me again.
I put my arms up in a pathetic attempt to block, which just served to almost cripple my arms and for me to basically elbow myself in the face while being launched into a nearby tree.
When I regained my footing I instinctually dodged left and just missed being bashed into the tree even more. Unfortunately for Luna, she managed to impale the tree with her arm and was stuck for a second, just long enough. I tucked into a roll again, turned myself around and launched myself again into where Luna was. I was much faster than before and actually got in a decent punch to her kidney, slightly crippling her.
I didn't waste any time and encased my hands in a magical casing equivalent to brass knuckles. I started pummeling away at the barrier Luna had messily set up and quickly broke through it. Dealing blow after blow to her chest and sides. I felt like I was king of the world, that is until Luna teleported away and detonated a magical grenade at the same time.
I was sent quite a ways away from the blast site and my stomach was on fire. I looked down to see a magical shard in it. I quickly pulled it out and stood up. I couldn't see Luna and reached out my magical tendrils. I found her but I couldn't pinpoint her, it was like she was teleporting at an almost exponential rate. I realized too late that, that was what she was doing exactly. She appeared before me a few feet in the air and brought her interlocked hands down onto my head, sending me straight down.
I couldn't recover fast enough and felt her fists fly into me, fast and sharp. I needed to do something fast or I would be beaten. I jerked my body upwards as if to kick her, a move she has seen a million times from me, and she landed on the ground to avoid it. Too bad for her I hadn't gone through with it and as soon as she landed I scissored my legs sending her sprawling.
I rolled to me feet and charged up a magical cannon, and before she could get to her feet, let it go. It made a crater in the ground about a dozen feet wide and sent Luna into the air. I quickly braced myself and shot into the air as fast as I could and intercepted her in midair. I quickly manipulated our bodies so my elbow was into the lower left of her back and she would hit the ground first.
I flapped my wings downwards and we hit the ground, causing a crater as big as a soccer field to appear.
She was down for the count and I got up off of her. When I stood up I was met with a blast of magic to my face and was sent backwards out of the crater. I landed on my back and Luna was on me in a flash. She sent punch after punch after punch to my face and chest. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my body but I couldn't move. Luna was somehow sitting on me in such a way that I couldn't move my arms and my feet couldn't get a grip on anything.
After a few seconds of this she stopped and charged up another magical blast. I took my chance and fired off my own personal combat spell, a flashbang.
She screamed and I threw her off. I quickly got to my feet and ran full force at her. I brought my fist into striking position and when I reached her pumped a magical detonation off of my elbow that, along with my own force, sent my fist into Luna's stomach like an industrial piston. She flew farther than I could ever throw her regularly. The bad thing was, was that my hand felt broken after that. I set up a healing spell but that could only do so much since I wasn't skilled at all at healing magic.
As I had set up the spell, Luna had disappeared but this time I couldn't find her. I widened my search and felt a ginormous amount of magical energy about a mile north. I quickly set off for it but as I got nearer, it grew and eventually disappeared.
I reached out my tendrils again to find it was right above me and with terror, looked up to see Luna right above me with a marble sized ball of energy.
Before I could react, she let it off and I was engulfed in the strongest magic I had ever experienced. It felt like Luna was punching me a million times a second, everywhere. I endured it and when it eventually ended, I saw Luna hovering above me with a shocked expression on her face. She took one second to admire her handy work before closing her wings and dropping down with a punch to my face from twenty feet above me, knocking me out.
A/N: I feel like a bad writer when I create a problem, just to solve it within a few paragraphs. Eh, either way I did it and I don't feel like going back and changing it. I figured out the reason my chapters are so short: I take every chance I get to end the chapter, almost like a tv episode. Anyways, I got in the fight with Luna and now Twilight knows about Caine being a champion. See ya on the flip side.