The Truth in Forgery

The bolt of gray energy flew at near-sonic speeds, hitting with an explosion of sparks its target, sending cast-off bits of what used to be a pony in twelve different directions. Now, it was just a pile of cloud-stuff.

At the same time, a different shot, blood-red, enveloped yet another pony, and the energy lifted its focus off the ground, and hurled it at the castle wall, sending off a cloud of dust and a shattered pile of loose stones.

The sources of the two destructive spells looked around intently, unicorn horns blazing out. One black as night, one as red as a fresh cut. Two unicorn mares, both looking forward with cold determination in their eyes, and just a hint of amusement from them as they continued their magical assault.

"Oh Celestia that was a close one!" Forge Aerie cursed a bit too loudly, and two heads turned to face his direction, their feelings of victory imminent.

The sparring grounds were really just two sets of wide packed-earth fields, symmetrical, except one had a large number of clouds giving deep shade spots while the other allowed the glory of Celestia's sun to shine clearly upon the dirt. Each had seven coniferous trees, twelve huge boulders, a large warehouse-type building, a big gazebo, two houses, and a sturdy fountain in the center. A few paths made from gravel gave the grounds some change in texture, as well as a few brave sprouts of crabgrass that dared challenge the pony battleground.

It is in one of the houses that Forgery found himself and Shining Armor soon after their lunch duties. They sat on velvet cushions, and the changeling had to wonder why there would be such nice furniture in a dueling field. As they settled down, Shining began a brief assessment.

"The princess agreed with your judgment, you're a unicorn at the core, so I suppose you must know a bit of magic. Do you have anything that might be useful in a combat situation, or will we be working fresh?" The captain asked, in a practiced tone, clearly expecting little.

"I used to sometimes break up rocks back where I'm from. If something can break rocks, it is probably good for more as well." Forgery shrugged, and decided to himself to keep as honest as possible when not working on a "truth" of this persona.

"That's good. Petriculturalist, then. I was curious. Yes, that type of blunt force energy is probably quite apt. But most of our work is stopping ponies whose had a bit too much salt or cider, and if it for ravishing rocks, I think it may be a bit too much." The captain smiles. He had a lot to smile for, the world was a pretty simple place to be a guard. It was mostly a status symbol now, but he insisted on keeping the corp in the best shape they could be, especially after all the recent incidents surrounding his sister. "Can you do levitation? Teleportation?"

Forgery shook his head. Changelings never bothered with levitation, beyond the simple light object handling and everyday use that he assumed anypony could do as well. Teleportation, he wasn't even familiar with the word, so that was a no.

Shining returned with a nod. "Expected, but you should work with levitation as much as you can. Even if you don't join up, you never know when you may need to throw an Ursa back to its cave." Somehow, the situation seemed unlikely to ever come up. "Let's work differently. What is your best spell?"

This was a question the changeling was expecting. He also knew it would be a good time to work on that emblem meaning he thought on as the prior night passed. "My mark isn't like it is for no reason. I've always been good at illusions. Ever since I was hatched." He tapped the mask for emphasis.

"Hatched?" The white stallion's face cocked incredulously,

"You know, little baby pony? How else are new ponies brought into the world?" Forgery mentally flinched at his opposite's confusion, but kept as straight a face as possible.

"Uhh... Well, remind me to get somepony to speak to you about mares..." Shining's eyes glittered along with a grin to himself. "Luckily for me I can delegate that task away and not worry about it, but suffice to say I think your education on the subject may be a bit... out of date, considering your age." He laughed at the thought, and brought himself back down. "So you're good at illusions? Show me your best shot, but keep it in the house."

The changeling didn't bother to suppress his giggle. It would be expected, getting to show off to the captain of his idols, and he knew exactly what to do. A burst of green magic washed over him for a brief moment.

"Attention! I am Shining Armor. I like eating candied rose-petals!"

The guard had to suppress an unprofessional laugh, but Forgery took the amusement anyways, letting the emotions Shining felt for himself fill his body with energy for what he was sure would eventually be needed.

"It even sounds like me."

"It even sounds like me."

A wry look silenced going further in that route pretty quickly, and brought Forge Aerie back to his proper lavendar form. "Fiiine."

"You know, that's the first time I've seen real emotion from you. You really do like playing with disguise spells, don't you..." Shining Armor looked a bit pensive. "But how did you know what I was going to say?"

At first, the changeling deliberated digging a deeper deception. But digging too deep could get someling in trouble when the worst came to pass. Half-truths were the game of the day, he needed to prove himself in order to prove to the Queen he could overcome her challenge. "Hiding as somepony if you get in trouble isn't worth much if your parent can easily tell it's you, I guess I'm just more empathetic than most ponies, and got pretty good at guessing what they plan to do. It isn't mind-reading, but I like to fancy myself one of the better improvised method actors out there."

Shining gave off a brief flash of suspicion, nearly unwittingly burning the nose of his opposite, but the story was steadfast, and his emblem could easily be for acting, being a mask. The two held their ground for a mere second, a standoff, though the white captain did not quite realize that was what he was doing, and broke eye contact. "So you can use tactics to overcome brute force. I saw the way you walk, you have combat training, though it might just be self-defense at your farm. I think I might be able to teach two lessons today, I can hear our partners have arrived. But first, I've got a little plan to share with you."

He stood up, and walked slowly out the door, Forgery following close behind.

"So if Forgery manages to touch you, you're out, we'll let it be easy on his first day. You, on the other hand, need to make him give up. Got it Garnet?" Verity nodded passively. She and a black-coated mare named Moonsprite met the two stallions out on the centre of the cloudy field. Shining Armor was explaining a simple training exercise, noting the two mares' lacks of interest.

"And because I have faith in our rookie, let's make this fun. If Garnet Veracity wins, Moonsprite gets ten bits from the captain of the guard himself. If Forge Aerie wins, Garnet, you owe the winner five bits. Get to your positions. Meanwhile, Moonsprite, you're with me, we'll work on simple shielding spells and basic ray magical attacks." Before Verity could complain of her lack of benefit, only loss, in this battle, everypony else was already moving to their positions.

There was a brief second of silence, and the two on the sidelines knew that there would be little practicing of basics as the burning battle of the bloody bits began.

A flash of red magic brought four of the nearby stones in the air telekinetically, circling Garnet in protective orbits. "Please give up now, you don't have a chance. I don't want anypony hurt, we're all civilized here." The stones spun in their ranges faster, and steadily the glow around her horn amplified in intensity.

Forge Aerie smiled. "Proper police tactics, a stand-down order even in mock-combat. You really were trained well." His own horn began to glow. "But those rocks aren't gaining enough centrifugal force to break through a shield when thrown." Thus saying, a pink, hexagonal disc materialized about two paces in front of the imposter pony, and he looked his opponent in the eye. Gaining a smirk, he very dramatically raised one hoof, and placed it a pace closer to her. Her annoyance at the act of blatant defiance was palpable.

"We will see..." Verity muttered, her amiable mood gone when her bits were on the line. Making one final arcing loop around her, the rocks were released with a rapid rush of energy, launching themselves at Forge. He calmly took another step forward, into the line of fire, and the rocks shattered as they impacted his shield, reduced to shards and pebbles by the wayside. Verity's gaze narrowed. "I am rather proud of my tactics, it's all I have."

Unperturbed, another step forward is taken, each one forceful and overly embellished. He paused, and twitched his eyes backwards. It was all the warning he got as six razor-edged shrapnel pieces from the prior blast slashed towards his flanks. A pinky sheen covered his body just before impact, and sparks flew as the rocks scraped along skin, just barely not making contact.

Forgery observed the emotions of the red mare. 'Suspicion, expected I guess. And happiness? But it's dark. She's plotting something.' His eyes wavered around the battlefield, trying to find the secret. But she wasn't giving anything away. Caution would be needed to win this battle. It was the best part of valor, after all.

"Your opponent can block telekinetic projectile attacks." From the sidelines, the voice of Shining Armour narrated the scene. "And still advances, no doubt to do terrible things to the princess. Defend harder."

Forge Aerie made a face at being the supposed villain in this match, but did not waste movement to make it at the sidelines, keeping forward-facing. Obviously the princess could defend herself, the guards were ornaments at best, but making her have the need to was probably an honour issue, in some obscure historical charter.

Thoughts on roles were quickly abandoned as Garnet's horn shone once more. That tell of magic being cast made one-on-one duels somewhat predictable to guess when something would happen. Hooves left the ground as the lavender pony was lifted off the ground. His own horn shone in return, and he applied the same telekinesis spell to himself, forcing him down. It was a simple battle of wills; any sustained direct competition as such was incredibly exhausting, and to force a stalemate was to believe your own magic would outlast the other's, or to give up early and keep enough magic to have a fighting chance. For a moment, neither budged, two auras circling one overstressed pony. Ruby's suspicion spiked high as she released her hold, ceding the contest to keep some reserve of power.

"Your opponent approaches closer, and though he is alone, so are you. If he reaches you, the best thing that you can hope for is a quick death by this point, having proven yourself a threat." The colour commentary continues in this brief second of interlude. "Your magic is quickly proving ineffective, and you don't want to know what happens to some ponies when they're caught alone by dangerous and possibly disturbed intruders."

The empathic read was an excellent source of advance information in combat. The suspicion peaked, and triumph washed up beside it. Ruby looked down at the commentator, and spoke out. "True. But you forget yourself. The Royal Guard are never alone. Fight for your bits, Moonsprite! Semper fidelis!"

For the first time in the fight, the purplish pony broke his gaze from Garnet Veracity. His fears were confirmed as Moonsprite stepped closer. "Semper fidelis!" She called, and unleased a wave of colourless energy, without form, without flow, just a wide wave. It was wasteful magic, using altogether too much energy to literally flood an area with her psychic scent, but she was an experienced guard, unlike the rookie Garnet, and knew exactly what she was doing.

The wave flowed around the large hexagonal shield, and saturated the protective skin, sparking and flickering as it tried in vain to combat an assault from every direction at once. An assault that was entirely harmless magical discharge. "Someone's shields are too protective." Moonsprite noted with a wry grin.

Her target let his barriers down, no point to wasting magic two against one. He stood still for the first time, no long advancing on Verity when it would open himself up to attack from Moonsprite. He looked at Shining Armour on the sidelines, who merely tilted his head and shrugged, then tapped his marking on his own flank.

But not without defenses. No, what he would do implicitly required a strong defense, or they wouldn't buy it, it just wasn't his skill. He cloaked himself in pink shielding energy, nearly invisible beneath the heavy layers of it, and jumped hard to the side. At the same time, four more shields were created in his shape around a variety of objects nearby. They all moved as one, running from cover in multiple directions.

"Doubles! Take them out quickly!" Verity called out, unnecessarily. Moonsprite was already methodically preparing her next spell. A sharp ray shot from her horn, and into the ground. It opened up beneath the trio and shields, causing everypony to fall a bit more than a pony's height onto a rocky layer below. As they fell, a second spell formed parts of the more solid ground into spikes; a brutal, and efficient, strategy that inspired the more direct Night Guard to court her. Two copies fell upon the spires and dissipated as they were impaled, gravity being enough force to break the more cosmetic shields of the clones. The others dodged through luck (and for one of them, active skill) and landed unharmed.

Forgery allowed the luxury of a moment to muse. 'Moonsprite... Never thought she'd make the ground like the moon in order to perform her namesake. I suppose some of the names may be better than I thought.' The grudging respect passed as he was reminded the match was two against one, completely unfair. Their horns glowed with synchronicity.

A ray and a smash into a wall later, and through pure luck, the flesh-and-blood pony remained, astounded at the odds. "Oh Celestia that was a close one."

Moonsprite looked at the lone figure remaining and pounded it with a quick burst of charcoal-toned orbs. Their impacts brought ice crystals clinging to the edges of the hardened pink defense, and as they cracked in the warm air, so did the shield. Verity's red aura blasted forth similarly, and the pressure shattered the guard. The lavender pony looked tired, dirt caked his coat, and he was breathing very heavily.

Shining Armour slid down the side of the crater, and looked casually at Moonsprite. "I think Garnet can take it from here. This is why I wanted control training, you go one second and decimate the field. The gardeners will harangue me for it." He walked past the achromatic unicorn, who looked appropriately chastised, though not guilty in the slightest.

Verity advanced on the weakened pony. "There! Do you yield?" She asked him in a huff. His initial reply was a smile, and shakily got up to his feet, causing her to hop back in caution. She repeated her order. "Yield."

The battered pony gave a chuckle, and shook his head. "Nope. Because you just lost." He began to glow a bluish tone, lights pouring off his body.

Verity hopped back further, just in case, but bumped into Shining, who was approaching the scene. "Sorry sir." She said absently, not losing sight of the spell cast in front of her...

...By Shining Armor?

"Indeed you are sorry." A hoof clapped Garnet Veracity on her cutie-mark, causing her to jump and spin, and the Shining Armor beside her burst into green lights, leaving behind Forge Aerie in his place, grinning smugly. "You just lost five bits."

Author's note: So... Combat scene. I'm new to everything, tell me if you liked it or didn't, so I know if I should totally bypass these kinds of things, or not be shy about them if they're necessary. I dropped enough hints it was Shining throughout, I know its weird, but I'm fairly sure he casts blue magic but with pink manifestations, if I remember the finale correctly. Please remind me otherwise if I'm wrong, and I'll edit that.

The daily life and tour returns next chapter.