Golden Dawn: Dusk of an Empire

She didn't want to admit it, but one morning Rael'ia found that she missed the action of war. It had been days, weeks even, since she used her magic for blowing something up or protecting herself. Life in Equestria was calm and peaceful, a welcome change in atmosphere, to be sure. But the thrill of battle, the challenge of besting multiple opponents simultaneously was a game she felt she had no reason to play here.

Twilight had been monitoring the Crystal Tree cutting nearly every waking moment she could spare, and estimated by its current growth pattern that it would be ready for transplanting in two weeks. Two entire weeks to sit around and wait. Or, two entire weeks to get back into fighting shape. She had wondered about the fighting capabilities of the other ponies for a while now. Perhaps it was enough to count for a practice spar.

She wouldn't have to wait long to find out. She heard knocking on the castle's front door below her, followed by Rarity greeting Twilight and Spike, asking whether Rael'ia was available, and that she had a surprise waiting for them all at her boutique. Rael'ia smiled hearing the faint conversation; the suits of armor were finished and ready to be tested. Taking a final sip of her coffee, her magic pulsed purple as she teleported to the ground level beneath her.

"Yes, I'm here," she grinned. The other four ponies had already been assembled and were standing behind Rarity.

"Ah, lovely! Well, come along, then," Rarity beamed as she started towards the road to her boutique. Rael'ia, Spike and Twilight quickly followed after them, the latter wondering aloud what the surprise could be while the former two exchanged a wink.

~

"My dear friends... feast your eyes on THESE!" Rarity crowed as she dramatically tore a large sheet away from a pile of something. The other ponies and Spike immediately burst into a cacophony of pure amazement as they gazed upon their new armor. Even Rael'ia was taken aback by the set Rarity had designed for her. Rather than dye the dragon scales to match her peach-colored fur, the scales shone with a golden gradient that rivaled the sun itself. One of the Celestial Sunstones she had faceted for Rarity crowned the forehead just below the space for her horn, matching the other stones set in the others' armor. Spike's armor had turned out a brilliant silver color, much like a valiant Human knight from the old legends.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Rainbow Dash sputtered. "How awesome is this?!"

"You've really outdone yerself this time, Rarity!" Applejack praised. "Why, you've even made me an armored hat to match!"

"I'm speechless," gasped Rael'ia. "The quality rivals that of even the greatest Fairy armor crafters! I... thank you!"

"Oh, it was no trouble at all, darling!" Rarity's wide smile suddenly turned to a frown of realization. "Although, now that I think about it... you may not be able to use it for very long, should you return to your true form back in your world."

"Ah. Yes... but nonetheless, it is a gift I shall treasure always," she smiled warmly, returning the grin to Rarity's face. The white unicorn then hastily ordered the others to try their armor on, which they did with pleasure. The armor had been crafted in such a way that it allowed their manes and tails to flow freely through gaps in the scales, yet still offered a good amount of protection. When it had all been donned, Rael'ia noted that the ponies looked much like they weren't wearing any armor at all, but had added tufts of winglike fur at their shoulders and hooves, and were rather scaly, shiny and chrome.

"Heh. Witness me," Rainbow Dash smirked, flexing her wings beneath their armored leather shielding. With a single beat of her wings she shot up into the air at great speed and began testing how the armor - the Celestial Sunstone in particular - worked with and improved her flying skills. Inspired, Applejack began galloping as fast as she could beneath Rainbow, finding herself running faster than she ever could. She got caught up in her newfound strength and tripped over a branch, gasping in shock when she realized that the large rock she crashed into crumbed into rubble from the sheer force beneath her. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie giggled with excitement as she seemed to effortlessly appear from behind multiple rocks and trees within a mere split-second of peeking out behind another. Twilight cast a simple shield spell around herself, but suddenly was able to effortlessly encompass a space that could contain her entire castle. Rarity’s horn glowed with magic, and a small pouch at her waist glowed in response; what seemed like hundreds of small, white crystals flowed out of the pouch and surrounded her like a diamond aura. Lastly, Spike decided to breathe fire, jumping in surprise when he found a massive stream of greenish-yellow dragon’s fire erupt from his mouth, screaming for the duration of it.

“Whoa! I can’t even breathe that much fire, even after a whole bottle of Super Death Reaper Hot Sauce!” the little dragon coughed. “How did I...?”

“Well, you have the magic of Rael’ia’s gem faceting to thank for that,” Rarity smiled as her magic manipulated the crystals surrounding her into various weapon shapes. “She was able to cut each stone so that it enhances each of our natural abilities exponentially!”

“Oh, it was nothing,” Rael’ia giggled quietly. Rainbow Dash forcefully landed about ten feet away from the group, shaking the ground and forming a small crater where she stood.

“Nothing?! This is so bucking cool!” she yelled. “I feel like I could do double, even triple Rainbooms all day long! ...Hey, Fluttershy, what does yours do?” Everyone turned to the yellow pegasus, who had spent the last few minutes only staring at the separate parts of her armor worriedly.

“Oh, um... I-I’m not sure,” Fluttershy stammered, but was interrupted as she and the others heard a quiet rumble and rustling in the distance, growing rapidly closer. After a few moments, a rainbow flood of numerous different birds, bugs and small animals peaked over a hill and came to a halt behind her, waiting patiently and staring intently.

“Ooh! Super-obedient animal army!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “Neat!”

“Ah! Uh, no, no, please return to your homes, little ones!” Fluttershy begged. “I couldn’t bear to see any of you get hurt!” Many of the animals nodded respectfully before stampeding back to wherever they came from.

“Darling, I know you don’t like it, but it may be necessary to fight in the future,” sighed Rarity.

“Indeed. In fact, actually...” Rael’ia trailed off before smirking mischievously. Her horn suddenly pulsed with red light and a fireball came shooting out, striking the back of Twilight’s shield spell before fizzling out harmlessly. Twilight, more confused than anything, turned her head around to glance quizzically at the peach alicorn.

“Eh? What was that for?”

“A simple test... heads up!” A whirlpool of fire appeared before Rael’ia as she quickly cast a large volley of swirling fireballs in Twilight’s direction. The purple alicorn winced as the first of the fireballs made contact with her shield, but opened an eye as she quickly realized that despite their power, her shield effortlessly blocked every one without even a fluctuation of magical energy.

“I see... a practice battle,” she snorted as a bold smirk spread across her face. “Is that what you’re getting at?”

“If I may be so bold,” Rael’ia bowed with respect. “Let us test just how strong the Bearers of Harmony really are.”

“Bring it on!” yelled Rainbow Dash. The six ponies and little dragon braced themselves on the ground as Rael’ia’s body glowed a subtle light purple, then floated gently into the sky. Her wings flared outwards as she levitated; though she had learned to fly with their use, she greatly preferred flying the way she had known all her life, with magic. She was still somewhat clumsy if she relied on her relatively new wings, using muscles that had previously never existed before.

“Touch me if you can,” she called out. “Don’t worry, I restrain my power for sparring matches. You won’t be harmed, but you’ll still feel it-”

“Got ya!” Rainbow Dash bolted into the sky with a single wing-beat, almost faster than the eye could see, and tapped Rael’ia on the shoulder.

“Very funny.” She stared glumly as Rainbow broke into a huge smile. A quick pulse of blue light from her horn morphed into a torrent of water that blasted the blue pegasus right out of the sky. “Begin!”

She immediately enveloped herself in a bubble of Arcane magic to avoid Rainbow Dash trying the same move on her, smirking as she bounced off the shield and was hurled violently into the sky. Meanwhile, multiple pink-glowing runes began to form around Twilight, who closed her eyes in deep concentration. Applejack bent her knees, preparing to move, while Pinkie Pie put a hoof to her chin in thought, but quickly came to a realization and began pulling out pies from nowhere in particular behind her. Rarity's horn glowed, and the hundreds of crystals surrounding her melded into six rapiers floating clockwise around her body. With a flick of her head the rapiers suddenly flew upwards towards Rael'ia, who began flying away from them at a rapid speed, leaving a trail of purple wisps behind her. She turned around, a swirling vortex of blue now in front of her horn, and fired hundreds of shards of ice and multiple torrents of water simultaneously. The shards flew into Rarity's swords, shattering them back into individual crystals, while the blasts of water shot down to where the other ponies were standing, forcing them to leap out of the way. Beneath her, Applejack galloped faster and faster, dodging the shots, then leapt high into the air, turning 180 degrees so she faced away from Rael'ia, and bucked with all her might at the shield. To the peach alicorn's surprise, the shield bubble around her popped like a balloon, which allowed Pinkie Pie to finally begin hurling the various pies she'd conjured right at her. Her aim proved uncanny, yet Rael'ia swiftly dodged every pie thrown at her and retaliated with more ice shards to knock the pies out of the air. Twilight, her casting complete, joined her in the sky. Pink magical runes rotated behind her; with a flick of her horn, the runes fired beams of magical energy at their opponent. Again Rael'ia dodged, the icy swirl before her horn changing color to green. Instead of ice, rocks the size of apples now shot out from the swirl, hurling into the blasts of magic and diffusing them while Twilight simply put up a shield bubble of her own to ride out the attack. Meanwhile, Rarity's crystals sank themselves into the ground, reappearing moments later with hundreds of other gemstones tearing the ground apart as they shot upwards. Rael'ia only barely dodged these, her magic cycling again to blue. But now red also swirled within, and a spray of ice shards and fireballs streaked through the sky in a spiral pattern, the fire spinning one way and the ice the other.

"I've never seen such complex attack spells!" Twilight gasped as she frantically darted in midair between fire and ice. "I can hardly keep up with the patterns!" Rarity's crystals flowed into a fancy shield shape to deflect whatever projectiles came her way, while Applejack deftly leapt from side to side to avoid contact.

"They're so pretty!" Pinkie Pie squealed. The pink mare had decided to simply rest on her belly, propping her chin up on her two front hooves. She was too enamored with the light show up above to consider a counterattack, but easily rolled over to one side or another to dodge the errant shots.

"This is the Elven combat discipline of Danmaku," Rael'ia paused, resting her mind. "The best defense is an impenetrable and terrifying offense! True, it's sheer complexity is taxing on the mind, but then again I've had over 100 years to master it."

"H-How can you guys hope to overcome that?" Fluttershy had taken refuge behind a particularly large boulder and was peeking cautiously over the top of it.

"Actually, your friends have done very well for themselves, you've come very close to striking me multiple times! And Applejack's sheer power broke my shielding! Perhaps I've underestimated you all." Out of the corner of her eye, Rael'ia spied Rainbow Dash up above, hiding behind a cloud, studying her every move. "I think I'll have to break out the stronger spells."

The ponies braced themselves once more as Rael'ia began focusing her power between her hooves, glowing with increasingly bright red light. A vortex of fire appeared before her horn, spinning faster and faster until fireballs began rapidly shooting out of it. At the same time, a wild column of contorting fire erupted from the center of the vortex, raining down embers from above. Some of the embers were larger than the others, and broke up into smaller bits of unpredictable flame.

"Behold! Fire Sign: Volcanic Incantation!"

Twilight flew as fast as she could, her magical runes firing in all directions to destroy the fire before it touched her. Rarity's crystals formed into a rapier and buckler shield, simultaneously slashing and blocking the fireballs thrown her way. Some of them reached Rainbow Dash up above, and she left the cover of her cloud to dodge as well, though she seemed to dodge them with ease. Beneath her, Rael'ia caught a glimpse of Applejack running towards her and leaping up into the sky, her hooves punching away the fire and bringing her within a foreleg's distance of the peach alicorn. Surprised by her speed, she leaned back too late; Applejack's hoof connected with her chest, knocking her a great distance back through the sky. She managed to stop herself with a pulse of power, smirking proudly.

"Oof... well done, Applejack! You got me!"

"Yee-haw!" She celebrated as momentum and gravity took her back down to the ground. "Earth pony gets the first hit on a powerful Alicorn mage!"

"Can anyone else land a hit? Come and try!" Rael'ia's horn flared green, resuming her attack. "Nature Sign: Spider's Lair!"

Her hooves curled at her side, out of habit of using her hands to help channel her power. She then extended them outwards in front of her. Hundreds of glowing orbs suddenly appeared in the sky, taking the shape of a massive starburst-shaped spider's web. As quickly as it had formed, the web tore itself in half and pulled itself apart to opposite sides until the spokes of the web now formed a cage-like shape. Another spider's web formed from nothingness as the cage dissipated, beginning the cycle anew. While the other ponies dodged the orbs the best they could, Twilight simply let the orbs crash into her shield. Though she remained untouched, the orbs didn't disappear. Instead, they shattered into smaller orbs and flew outwards a short distance before homing in back towards Twilight, now in the form of tiny, glowing spiders. The purple alicorn shrieked as she flew away from the magical spider missiles as fast as she could.

"You're not the only one who can cast complex spells!" Rarity smirked as her horn glowed brightly. The hundreds of crystals surrounding her began spiraling around each other in the shape of a tornado before flying up into the sky at rapid speed. Crystals easily pierced the spider missiles following Twilight and destroyed them, then continued on towards Rael'ia. She refocused her attack to concentrate on the crystals, the orbs suddenly collapsing and falling downwards to meet them head on. However, the crystals scrambled in midair and pierced the orbs, pierced the spider missiles that formed afterwards, then flew around and surrounded Rael'ia, each polished point like a miniature dagger. Rael'ia glanced around, looking for a way out, but Rarity's spell proved airtight. She closed her eyes and chuckled to herself.

"Indeed, I'm not. Well done," she smiled proudly. "I think I'll call that a hit." The crystals fell back to the ground, surrounding their owner a final time before flowing back into their pouch. She then realized that she hadn't targeted one pony in particular recently, and turned to see Rainbow Dash floating above her to her left. "Rainbow, you haven't given up already, have you?" she taunted playfully.

"Nah, it's not that," Rainbow replied. "I've just been watching your attacks, and... well..."

"Well?"

"They're... not that hard to fly through. It's kinda... oh, what's the word? Boring." Rael'ia's face fell into confusion instantly.

"Boring?!" Twilight spat incredulously. "I can't even get an offensive spell off on her, and you find this boring?!"

"Psh... I'm a Wonderbolt, Twilight. This is just a warm-up!"

"Boring, huh?" Rael'ia stared almost emotionlessly at Rainbow, only a hint of a scowl on her face. "Alright, then... let's see you dodge this." The peach alicorn closed her eyes to concentrate, her horn glowing such an intense purple it may as well have been white. She held out her forelegs, then raised one foreleg up, pointing to the sun above, while the other foreleg lowered to point down at the ground. She then spun her forelegs around her to form a circle, stopping when they were pointing opposite of where they had once been. At the same time, a thin yet blindingly bright beam of magical energy appeared in front of her, tracing out a circle along with her forelegs. Her hooves came back together in front of her, then her eyes opened as her forelegs suddenly shot out to her sides. The magical circle suddenly expanded to a size that could encompass an entire house, forming four massive, rotating rings of runes within, each ring rotating the opposite direction of its neighbors.

"If you dodge this, I'll be very surprised," she spoke quietly, grinning devilishly. "Solar Fantasy: Kaleidoscope!"

The outermost ring of runes began to glow a hellish red, the next ring within glowed yellow with crackling lightning, the next glowed a vivid green, the last glowed a deep blue, and the center of the circle glowed a prismatic purple. Suddenly, thousands upon thousands of projectiles quickly shot out from the circle: blazing fireballs burning brighter than the sun swirling clockwise, pulsing ball lightning the size of a pony sluggishly floating forth, orbs of pure Nature energy surrounding jagged rocks shooting outwards in star-shaped bursts, icicle needles streaking by faster than the other projectiles in a counterclockwise direction, and a wild fountain of star-shaped Arcane blasts exploding from the center in all directions. At the very sight of this terrifying display of power, Twilight, face frozen with an expression of shock and wonder, ceased to flap her wings and collapsed to the ground, desperate for cover.

"Heh. Now that's more like it."

Rainbow Dash flapped her wings once; she flew in a backwards loop out of the way of the magical onslaught, then - with the tiniest movements of the feathers on her wings, dodged her way directly into the center of the attack, flying boldly foward.

"Rainbow, are you crazy?!" Twilight shouted. Rainbow didn't reply, only smirking as she flew through the barrage, deftly avoiding fireball after icicle after starburst of rocks. Rael'ia's eyes widened and her mouth hung open as she saw her attack have essentially no effect on Rainbow. She leaned forward and pushed her mind to the limit, intensifying the attack, but still Rainbow pushed forward. Suddenly, there was a loud crack that pierced the sky as the blue pegasus shot towards Rael'ia, emitting a circular rainbow behind her. Rael'ia braced herself as Rainbow crashed through the remaining projectiles separating her from her target and collided with her, creating another blast of noise and rainbows. The force was so great that it cast the peach alicorn from the sky and sent her hurling down into the ground, leaving a trail of cracked, raised earth and overturned trees. Horrified, the other ponies quickly ran over to Rael'ia, wondering if even she could have survived such a hit.

"Good heavens, Rainbow! You could have killed her!" Rarity scolded as the pegasus floated down to admire her handiwork.

"Hey, she said 'let's test how strong we are', so I showed her!" Rainbow shrugged. Before another word could be spoken, giggling could be heard from the mound of dirt at the center of the impact crater. It turned into laughter as Rael'ia shook the soil away, seemingly completely unharmed without even a scratch.

"Incredible! I haven't felt a hit like that in decades!" Rael'ia stretched out her forelegs and cracked her neck from side to side. "Who taught you how to fly like that?"

"Eh, well, when you told us to prepare, I asked Spitfire if she'd ramp up my training routine as high as she could go," Rainbow preened, her head held high. "Naturally, I learned pretty fast."

"I see," Rael'ia smiled, putting a hoof on the pegasus's shoulder. "My curiosity is sated, I can see now that the seven of you will have nothing to worry about in my homeland!"

"Wait... seven?" Pinkie questioned. The group of ponies then turned their heads towards Spike. He was standing as still as a statue, his face frozen in a shocked expression, his silvery armor completely blackened with soot and magical residue, to the point only his eyes were visible. A light breeze blew him right over onto his face.

"...I-I'm okay," he croaked.