A Newbie Alicorn

Luna watched the spear bounce off the shield and raised an eyebrow as the shield now flew at her, dropping back to the ground to dodge it, slightly surprised as she watched another shield from behind smash into the other one. "Huh. A happy accident, dodging that." Luna then waved and snapped her fingers, a silver spark shooting from them and then erupting into a blast wave of sliver fire roaring at Nox, obscurring Luna from view.

Sonofa- Nox summoned a great gust of wind to blow the fire back at Luna. Then she formed several violet balls of magic each about 3/4 as big as Luna herself, and willed them all to fly at her. They would follow her and make quite the explosion on impact.

Nox would find the fire to be unaffected as it washed over it, but also entirely illusory. Seeing the offending spheres of magic, Luna decided to match force with force, and formed several balls of her own that she fired at the spheres, and raised a shield in front of herself to shield herself from the blast. "Good. Unfortunately, we'll be evenly matched as long as we're standing in front of each other, flinging magic at each other. For a time anyways..."

Nox sighed, watching her magic explosives go to waste. "I figured that was the case..." she admitted. "Actually, I thought your firepower would stomp my own, you being millennia older than myself."

Luna chuckled a little bit. "Yes, it probably is, but the point of this isn't to demonstrate my abilities. The point is for you to exercise your own to their fullest extent." She gestured, and the field containing them disappeared, allowing for teleportation again. "Now, stop holding back, and show me what you can do."

Alright... no hold back... but isn't that dangerous? Nox thought, running through her options. I could black out the moon? Maybe, but what purpose would that serve, other than scaring everypony in Equestria? I could create a tornado? What if Luna took control of it from me? I need something big...

The wind started to pick up. Sand was sucked up into the air as a tornado formed to fill the entire arena, and soon the stone pillars and walls too broke up and spun lethally in the vortex. It grew taller and taller and danced more and more like a snake as it did, changing the paths of all the projectiles as well as making vision very obscured and inconsistent. Nox then made another tornado in the center of the main one, this one thinner, faster, and more violent.

Then she created a storm over the arena to go with the tornadoes. Everything the dark clouds threw down they threw at Luna: lightning, rain that clung to her like barnacles, and hail the size of golf balls.

Now Nox needed a potential distraction, as Luna would likely get out of that pretty quickly. She teleported out of her great storm and first created cloud cover to conceal the view of everything below. Then, she sucked the shadow out of the surrounding area. In a matter of seconds, the moon and sky would be as bright as if it were day and the moon were the sun.

Maybe this will work? If not, it's still distracting. She then started formulating part two of her attack plan.

Rather than bother to stay next to a tornado, or in the midst of a storm, Luna opted to teleport above the clouds, hovering a few hundred meters away from Nox in a lounging position under the intensified moonlight, her normally ethereal mane beginning to turn entirely silver as she hovered there. "An impressive display of power to be sure, but ineffective against anyone who can teleport away from it." Luna then pointed a finger at Nox. "Try something like this perhaps." a small, tightly condensed sphere of energy appeared at her finger tip, pulsing for a moment before a supremely condensed beam of energy barely an inch wide fired at breakneck speed towards Nox, the silver in Luna's mane draining away as she did so.

Nox sighed. She knew that wouldn't work, but she didn't know what else to do against a mare who could do all of her tricks and do them better. She really needed more combat tactics.

Then Luna fired a small bolt of energy at her. By instinct, Nox put up what could've appeared to be a shadow shield but instead was another portal. The second one appeared behind Luna.

Luna watched as the beam flew through the supposed "shield, and on instinct twisted to dodge the beam from behind her, sighing with relief that she'd managed to do that in time. "And that would have been a great time to launch an attack, Nox. Your issue is that you're thinking one dimensionally." Luna descended to the ground and dusted herself off. "You counter my attack, but never go on offense afterwards. You must conduct your defense and your offense simultaneously if you wish to defeat an opponent like me. Meditate on this for awhile. I will summon my servant when the second mare who came here to learn today appears."

Nox bowed and conjured a cloud to rest on above the arena's walls. Meanwhile, on the ground, a much smaller unicorn mare walked into the arena carrying a wooden sword and shield and simply wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a zipper-hoodie. She seemed somewhat intimidated by the size of everything.

Luna nodded at Nox as she observed the small nervous mare walking into the arena. "Oh you are too adorable! Hold on a second, I need to horribly inconvenience someone to teach you. You get training, and I get a good laugh. Hold on a second dear." Luna waved her finger at the ground, a summoning circle etching itself into the ground, before Luna filled it with magic.

In another space...


A middle aged Sword Symphony sat on a couch, curled up with his wife. "Ah.... life is good. The kids are asleep, and we can curl up and..." Sword frowned as he felt a familiar jerk inside him. "Sorry dear, it appears..." And then he winked out of reality for a second, and appeared inside of Luna's summoning circle in his pajama pants and nothing else. "That a certain annoying princess is so over the line right now."

Luna giggled at her servant. "Oh don't be so dramatic. I brought you here to train this poor dear. Surely you have time for that."

Sword stood up from out of the circle and looked over at Fantasy. "Yeah, I got time, but next time ask." Looking over at Fantasy, he gave a sheepish grin and flared out his wings to shake the dust off of them. He had the build of a warrior, toned down slightly from age. "Sorry Miss, probably not what you were expecting. Give me a second yeah?" On his right wrist a sliver band glowed for a second, a white gi clothing him. "Yeah, this'll do." Observing her sword and shield, and her general posture, he raised an eyebrow. "I suppose you plan on learning how to use those then. Well come on then, come at me. Show me what you currently know." He waited for her approach.

A good laugh? Thanks for the vote of confidence, Luna. Fantasy thought, her meager self-confidence plummeting already. She had to admit, though, that the stallion suddenly appearing in his pajamas was kind of amusing.

"Well, I'd also like to learn hand-to-hand combat. I just thought weapons were required." she responded. "Even if they are just fake..." she muttered, her eyes falling to the ground and cheeks burning. "Erm, anyway-" she went on, straightening out her posture and picking up her weapons. "-whe-uh-how- how should I start? What-what should I do?"

"Weapon is such an interesting word. Its definition is a thing designed for inflicting bodily harm." Sword took a bladed stance, with his left foot placed forward along with his left arm, his weight resting on his right foot, right arm recoiled back around the center of his chest. "And I can assure you that I am in possession of several weapons right now. If you wish to learn the art of combat, steel your nerves and attack me. You can learn nothing until you are willing to accept failure and move forward regardless. Have at me, young one."

Fantasy looked at her shield, then her sword, then shrugged and dropped them both. "They can wait." she reasoned out loud, then charged at Sword. About halfway there she decided she'd try a gut punch, a basic attack doomed to fail but she had to start somewhere.

Sword observed her as she charged at him. As she swung at him, he didn't move to block or dodge, his rear hand merely dropped to cover his solar plexus and liver, and he let her punch him in the gut. If he was phased by her half hearted attempt, he didn't show it apart from a scowl on his face. "Your lack of conviction is telling in your fists, Fantasy. Words lie, but the fists don't." With his left hand, he pushed her away from him, retracting from his stance into a neutral position. "You are not giving your all. You assume failure before it is upon you, and never strike with everything you have. This lesson does not proceed until I think you're willing to commit. Half-assed punches and poor self esteem will not defeat your opponent. Now, hit me as hard as you can. Do not waste either of our time, no permanent harm will occur to either of us here anyways, so cut loose and hit me."

As hard as I can... You won't, and he'll only get angrier with you. I can do it... They're all watching, you're keeping them waiting. Puuunch... Just back away before you make it worse. Backing away will make it worse! Luna's going to laugh her plot off... I can do it, don't back away. You know you. You can but you won't. You're a coward. If I back away it'll only make everything worse. So will failing, and you won't succeed.

As the seconds ticked, Fantasy shrunk further and further. She tried her best not to, but she was slowly shuffling backwards and drawing her arms in towards her chest and away from an offensive position. Her jaw clenched and her tail tucked, and she felt her cheeks heating up and eyes starting to sting.

"She's freezing up it seems. Time to shatter this ice that paralyzes her." Sword opened the palm of his hand, band glowing for a second as a longsword appeared in it, him beginning to walk at Fantasy. "Fear is a natural reaction when facing a test, Miss Fantasy." He continues walking towards her. "Without fear there can be no courage, but..." He raises the sword above his head, grasping it with two hands. "Too much fear, and your soul becomes frozen."

Stopping when he was in striking range, he waited a moment before speaking. "You will overcome your fear. Or you will fall here and now. Defend yourself." And with that, Sword slashed downward at her collarbone, a sure deathblow if she refused to take action.

Fantasy meeped and ran far to the right. She stood there for a moment, watching Sword, then realized she didn't have a weapon... or a shield. She ran back for her wooden sword and shield and took up her shield on her left arm and her sword in her right, then whirled around, ducking behind the shield.

Sword's blade deflected off the surface of her shield as she blocked, him then planting his foot on her shield and pushing her a few feet away. "Very good." he commented, his blade glowing for a moment, blade lengthening about 6 inches, and the handle dropping down another 4 inches, him adjusting his grip for a better hold. "People pick up swords for many reasons, Miss Fantasy. Some pick them up to defend their family. Others to take vengeance. Some take them up for a paycheck. To them, a sword can be many things, but it is always one thing above else. It is a weapon. And the art of swordsmanship is learning to kill. Anything beyond that is subjective."

Luna gestured at them from the sidelines, a silvery glow encompassing both of their sets of feet, a spell to prevent flight and teleportation, a wall of luminescent force encircling them, creating a ring with a 20 foot diameter, defining their battleground.

Sword planted his feet and assumed a relaxed stance, blade held in front of him. "Attack me, Miss Fantasy. No permanent harm will come to you in this arena. There is no reason for fear. Remember that your shield can also be used as a weapon. Keep it close to your torso to prevent it from being grabbed. Strike swiftly with your sword, and cover the gaps in your offense with your shield. Come."