Live by the sword

by bonamb

Rating: everyone
Tags: Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Luna, Original Character
Length: 4828

Celestia is somewhat out of practice with the whole "warrior princess" thing. Luna agrees.

Celestia is somewhat out of practice with the whole "warrior princess" thing. Luna agrees.

Part of the Moamerverse.

Published 2017-06-23 16:00:06 UTC
Last updated 2017-06-28 10:42:40 UTC

Ride by the - no, wait, that doesn't sound right.

Celestia quickly twisted her head as the rapier hissed past her ear. Dancing backwards she parried two lightning thrusts aimed at her horn and neck, then riposted in kind, aiming her blade towards his horn only to have it slapped away and her on the defensive again. This, definitely, was Luna's fault.

Lean, Riposte, Parry, Step Back, Parry, Lunge, Feint, Slash to parry, Riposte - Ahah! Lock!

The fencing master, Sabre, smiled disarmingly through their locked hilts at her. Disengaging, he stepped lightly backwards and took a quadruped's low engardestance again, beckoning her on with a toss of his head. To her, he was a taller than average, svelte unicorn with a very light, faded lime coat, and a shock of dually toned wavy green hair combed back. A fencing sabre in the apparent action of an uppercut was his mark.

Celestia huffed inwardly. Of course, everybody was small compared to her, but he was a bit - her rapier whipped up to defend her face, eyes narrowing at the violent action not an inch from her horn. His hilt was far too close for comfort, with her blade barely managing to keep it away thanks to her shoddy positioning, but sliding her sword up she twisted it sideways, batting his rapier away then drawing him down with a low slash. That would teach her to daydream.

Side parry,Dodge, Deflect, Riposte!

Unicorn blades were not, contrary to common belief, held in the telekinetic grip of the unicorn in question. That would allow for any magus with a stronger grip to simply overpower the holding and claim the weapon for their own.

Celestia grimaced as her own rapier, Aurora, danced in front of her, barely holding Sabre's darting attacks at bay. Parrying and appearing to press her advantage, she found herself on the back hoof as a flurry of attacks, seemingly from all angles, halted her attack and forced her backwards.

A unicorn's blade, or weapon in the case of blunt tools such as Luna's warhammer "Noctem", was bound to it's owner's magical signature. The pommel was then anchored to the caster's centre of mass, to allow for pivots, leverage and force that would otherwise be impossible in a simple telekinetic grip. While this did allow for heavier and faster strikes using the wielder's weight, and a very large amount of control, and a more natural fighting style -

Celestia ducked a high strike, flicked his weapon behind her and lunged.

It also had the side effect of increasing the effort needed to hold the weapon exponentially with distance, meaning a unicorn couldn’t simply levitate their weapon behind an opponent and strike them from there, and not only that, the pommel would be facing the wrong way, meaning that there would be no leverage, and any attempt at a substantial strike would be near impossible.

In an astounding display of flexibility and balance, Sabre twisted sideways out of the path of Aurora, and pivoted around her on a forehoof, reclaiming his rapier from behind her in the process, and came up at her side, 'Tacitum' to her throat.

Ah. Foiled again.

Her moment field sparked as Sabre tapped her neck and took two steps back, giving Celestia the fencer's salute, which she returned in kind. The corner of her mouth quirked upwards as his returned to resting, a switch from the expressions of the bout.

Celestia sat down heavily, twirling Aurora, and huffed with exhausted amusement, the adrenalin not yet gone from her system. "I do believe that is three to you, yet again."

Sabre nodded. Concentrating briefly his horn flared a deep green. An illusory pony holding a rapier came into being before him, bearing a passable imitation of Celestia's figure. Indicating the facsimile of her with his rapier, he pointed to a back hoof, and then down the angle of the sword. Concentrating again, the illusory pony shifted positions to a more correct stance and he looked at it, then her.

Celestia murmured her understanding. "My stance was too... defensive, this time? Yes, I have to say I noticed that myself." She hummed "A change from yesterday, after court, wouldn’t you think?"

Sabre rolled his eyes elegantly, if such a thing was possible, then stepped forward and tapped her nose.

"Oh. My expression as well?"

He nodded the affirmative, then indicated her face, and Aurora.
Celestia sighed, dispelling the moment spell on Aurora. "The life of the princess is a busy one, Sabre. I don’t get to practice nearly as much as I would like."

Sabre merely assumed a deadpan expression and stared at her.

"And no, I'm not as nearly as fit as I should be, thank you. That is the root of the problem." She raised an eyebrow at him and stood. "I thought I might clean off the sweat, then retire for the evening. Care to join me afterwards for some tea?"

Sheathing Tacitum, he shook his head, and the corner of his mouth twitched upwards.

"Ah, he has the evening off today doesn’t he?"

An affirmative nod.

Celestia chuckled. "I remember that passing along my desk a few weeks ago. Well you two enjoy yourselves, I think I might seek the company of a simple book -" Sabre cocked his head "- or Advanced Fencing Hoofwork, book five, which my good sparring partner gifted me for Hearth's Warming."

Nodding his satisfaction, then bowing, he cantered lightly over to his kit, and exited the room, making for the staff showers in this wing of the palace.

Celestia simply stood staring pensively at the doorway, floating her sheath over and sliding Aurora into it.

Hm.

She lay upright on one side of the large cushion that was Luna's bed, reading the book on fencing hoofwork. Luna herself occupied the other half, although as of that moment, her head was resting, half asleep on Celestia's back, who had let her mane down to avoid giving Luna a face full of magically charged hair.

This was the interim between when Celestia went to sleep, and Luna took over for the night. A generally peaceful two hours, which they valued as approximately half of the little time they spent together. Some days they had activities, split in the middle by the moving of celestial their bodies, but today's was apparently for relaxation, by universal consensus. Or at least by Celestia's, who, after her sparring match had simply joined Luna in her bed, who hadn't protested too violently. Although, she was still mostly asleep.

The door opened and a cotton candy blue maid poked her head in, seeming startled by the presence of another princess. Celestia beckoned her in with a toss of her head, and after only a little hesitation, the maid trotted a further into the room, revealing a tray balanced on outstretched wings. Smiling kindly, and mouthing a silent "thank you" Celestia levitated the tray off her back and nodded to the maid, who bowed and exited the room, seemingly in relief.

Coffee and toast with... she sniffedJalapeño spread? Oh, Luna.

Floating the tray over to the nightstand, and pouring a mug of coffee from the press, she bought it carefully nearer to Luna's face, well aware of her position on her back. A quiet giggle came from the ruler of a nation.

"Luuuuuunaaaaa. I've got your coffeeeeeee."

"Hmm? Aaah! We thank thee most kindly, mine subject!" Her glazed eyes locked on the coffee. "Mmh. Come to thine mother." Languidly tilting her head back, Luna chugged the entire mug and belched. "Ah. T'was excelle – wait."

Celestia looked back at her and raised an eyebrow. "Good evening sister dear."

Luna looked confused but recovered quickly. "Good evening indeed. May I enquire as to the occasion?"

"Oh-" Celestia flashed a smile "I was simply curious as to why you had not yet risen, but I also had this book to finish, so I thought I might join you."

"Hm." Luna nodded, seemingly in deep thought as she floated the spicy toast over to her. "A good reason then. What, pray tell, is the book?"

"Advanced Fencing Hoofwork, book 5." Celestia rolled her eyes. "I still haven't managed to beat Sabre yet, aside from when he is handicapped."

"Bah. Sister." Luna folded the toast and tore a bite out of it. "We have told you, your fault is not in your hoofwork but instead in your fitness. You are simply out of practice."

Celestia closed the book and gently bopped Luna on the nose with it. "Yes, you have told me. This being the eleventh time."

Luna shrugged, inscrutable, and took another bite of the toast, flaring her horn. Beside her Noctem materialized, and fell out of the air, hitting the carpet head first and likely leaving a dent in the floor. Celestia flinched slightly, a motion that would have been unnoticeable to any pony but Luna, given she was still lying against her, devouring toast.

Chewing and swallowing the last bite Luna smiled slyly. "Scared, Sister mine?"

In lieu of reply Celestia rose, letting Luna fall sideways, and walked to the door. Aurora formed in the air beside her and she raised an eyebrow. "Best of three then?" Giving a grin with a few too many teeth, she disappeared in a flash of light.

Luna laughed and sprang out of bed toward the door, coffee press, hammer and toothbrush trailing her. As she darted through, she exclaimed to herself, and any pony who cared to be listening. "Never! This fight shall last... FOREVER! AHAHAHAH!"

Author's Note

I actually used to fence when I was younger, so this is a bit of a nostalgia trip for me - I may have romanticized it a bit for the weapon though.
Was a fan of the foil, not the sabre or epee so that colors my perception just a tad too. That was all about the thrusting (heh), with the sabre I'm pretty sure you did a bit more swatting (What? I don’t know what those crazy people did).
You've probably noticed that this wasn't on a piste (the strip thingy that fencers go along) and instead they're free to roam the room, which is a tad more realistic in the context of an actual fight.

Feel free to do a heckin' comment, and criticize it! It feeds me. Metaphorically. I've still gotta work to pay for my teabags and sandwiches.

Thrive by the-? Nah.

Celestia mused upon the difference of fighting against a heavy weapon with a rapier, dodging as Noctem nearly took a chunk out of her hair. It could almost be compared to music. Within an orchestral context, the rapier was a conductor's baton, and the battle was not one of aggression, but one, instead, to dominate the tempo of the fight. Once you controlled that, you could win, as otherwise you would be consistently forced onto the back hoof.

Celestia rolled as Noctem created a small crater in the stone floor where she had been standing.

Fighting against a hammer however, was an entirely different situation. The hammer set the rhythm, a steady beat in the base. The rapier was the treble above it, the clarinets, violins and piccolo. Quick, darting, layered over the top of an terrible, unfaltering beat.
They were unmatched weapons, in that in a duel, and in open space, the rapier should win.

The key word there being 'should'.

"AHAHAH! IS THINE BLOOD NOT YET SINGING, SISTER DEAREST? OR ART THOU ALREADY TIRED OF THIS BOUT? HAH! HAVE AT THEE!"

But among those who wielded the hammer, some being fighters, knights, paladins, battle-masters and even priests. All could consider themselves proficient to varying degrees. Then, there was Luna.

Luna was in a class all of her own.

Every attack Celestia made, with a speed that had been streamlined by centuries of experience, backed by the massive mana pool of the most powerful alicorn in the world and channelled through a blade forged by what was possibly the greatest mortal smith ever to exist, was rendered null. Her paltry feints were ignored, Luna reading them through a mask which had slipped, pulled away by her exhaustion. And -

Seeing an opening, she stabbed at her, but Noctem's metal studded handle, moving in the midst of a seemingly natural swing, caught her blade, flinging it sideways, and Luna barrelled cackling towards her, hammer in tow.

Any effort she made to attack her sister directly, with her own, superior size, was simply countered by the mechanics of unicorn weaponry. Since a bound weapon was thaumatically tethered to the caster's center of mass, it allowed the unicorn, or alicorn as the case was, to put their weight and speed behind it. This worked very well for light weapons, such as her own Aurora.

Heavy weapons functioned the same way, in that they were bound to their caster's weight. More importantly, the weapon's weight was bound to the caster. So as Celestia utilized her own momentum, and (admittedly large) weight to add force and speed to her rapier's strikes, Luna could do the opposite, and lean on the momentum of a swinging hammer to increase or decrease her own, relative, velocity.

In essence, if Luna couldn’t hit her with the hammer, Luna would hit her with Luna.

Celestia deflected Noctem, which Luna had aimed at her face, over and behind her, and used the resulting momentum to drive a knee down at her sister. She disliked the lack of sophistication, but that was how each little practice, or 'brawl' with Luna turned out. Distinctly unsophisticated.

It was little wonder that she had earned herself the title of "Nightmare" among the venomous ranks of Moamer's legion even before her... fall. A dark alicorn clad in full earth pony plate and wielding a massive warhammer, moving as a whirlwind of momentum and death, cackling all the while was enough to send a chill into even the hardiest of serpent hearts, despite their thaumatically charged veins already being cold enough.

Ahah!

As Luna swung Noctem at her face yet again, Celestia made her penultimate move. Ducking into a low stance, she pivoted on a forehoof, much the same as Sabre had done earlier, and aimed Aurora at Luna's knee. Luna as expected, leapt, wings flapping, bringing Noctem around and down to where the white alicorn would be when she had finished her maneuver – except she wasn’t there. Celestia had followed the movement through, and instead of stopping, had pushed off that single forehoof, gliding behind where Luna would land and bringing her sword up at an angle below her sister.

As the blue alicorn landed, Noctem came swinging back down with her, stopping only half an inch away from Celestia's horn as Luna bought it to an abrupt halt, huffing under the weight and awkward position.

They stood. Celestia low, with Aurora to Luna's throat, and Luna high, poised on almost the tips of her hooves to avoid the sword, Noctem to Celestia's horn.

Silence. Then, Luna chuckled. "A stalemate? This is most unlike you sister."

Celestia withdrew her sword and stood, gracefully avoiding the still hovering hammer. "Yes. But considering you managed to break my defence and body-slammed me last time" she elegantly cocked her head. "I believe it was my only option."

Luna shrugged. "We would not have this problem sibling dearest, if you deigned to practice more than the pittance you do now."

Chuckling, Celestia lent down next to her and raised a challenging, if exhausted eyebrow. "Oh, I'm so sorry sister, you're very quiet without those vocal chords you value so highly."

The smaller alicorn stood, unfazed. "And thou art surprisingly noisy despite thine apparent unconscious state. I think us equal, sister." She tossed her head and stared flatly at her sibling.

Ohtouché.

"Hmm." She stood, smiling, and dispelled the moment spell on Aurora before sheathing it. "Then we shall have to have a third bout at the nearest opportunity. For now, you have duties, and I must sleep."

"Hah!" Luna dispelled Noctem in kind. Twirling it back into the ether, she followed her sister into the corridor outside. “’’Tis difficult to believe that thou wert not already sleepwalking!”

Celestia halted with a mild expression. "Be that as it may, I very nearly am, and most certainly would be if you had been wearing your armour. As it is, I am going to retire for the night if I may take my leave - oh mine glorious princess of the night?"

Luna huffed at her sister's mocking tone, then waved her forehoof in dismissal. "Thine expression of fealty does thee credit sibling dearest. Be off with thee then! I have a night court to subjugate, and you have a bed to conquer."

"Then may both our conquests be successful. Goodnight." The elder alicorn hugged her sister, then stepped back and smiled, disappearing in a flash of golden light, leaving Luna looking at a tapestry of the equestrian flag which had been behind her.
The remaining alicorn blinked, a delayed reaction, then shook her head and continued along the corridor to the throne room.

Celestia materialized in her chambers, and walking over to the ponyquin, she began to dismiss her regalia. Pausing, and briefly examining the enchantments, she realized that the moment shield was still attached to the torc, and it would likely dissolve at least in part before the morning (due to her hasty casting) and the mana leakage would end up interfering with the other, tightly interwoven enchantments. Shaking her head in exasperation at what would have been a costly error, she plucked the enchantment's tethers from the regalia, and let it dissipate a safe distance from the metal.

What she had said to Luna had not been in jest. If her sister had been wearing her armour, Celestia would most certainly be unconscious, at the very least. The moment field was a spell created by an old apprentice of hers at a time of war, in an effort to reduce the number of casualties inflicted upon one another in practice. It was a simple concept, in that two objects were enchanted. One the aggressor, and the other the defender. When the former hit the latter, a 'moment' shield appeared, and the force of the impact was dispelled across a proportionally larger surface area as to not cause harm to the recipient. When used with lighter weapons, such as the rapier, the impact was very small, but still noticeable. When hit with a hammer on the other hoof, it could quite easily send a mare flying, or at least cause Celestia herself to stumble. And then when hit with an unenchanted object, or pony - in this case being Luna - no moment field appeared at all, and the recipient took the full force of the impact wherever it was applied.

Celestia chuckled. She was absolutely certain Luna didn’t forget, and in fact did it deliberately for intimidation purposes, or at least as a part of her own unique, alicorn accentuated style.

All the same, it had been fun. She shook off her shoes, and levitating them on to the stand, she trotted over to her bed. Luna should be fine in her court of the night.

This time at least.

Author's Note

Ah. Too much explaining?
Nevermind.
There's still more I want to say on this subject so -
NEXT CHAPTER IS LUNA BOYOS

Please critique, so I can continue to improve and give y'all better horse words!
Also each and every comment fills my heart with delight and feeds my motivation machine. You're all awesome.

Whats that? I've got an exam tomorrow and should be working? Pfffft horseapples.
bonamb out.

Die by the... Wow. Correct, but grim.

Luna sat alone on a throne surrounded by nobility.

This, was boring.

The stallion in front of her was trying to convince her of the benefits of privatizing the railroads, as he and his compatriots had done from various angles, for almost a month now.

Luna had denied his first proposal. And the second, fifth, and sixteenth. The others had been presented by such weak willed nobleponies that they had wilted under her glare. Oh, she knew that they were attempting a monopoly on the market, thus filling their own pockets. That she most certainly understood. What frustrated her, however, was how much she could do about it, as each proposal, as long as it had, ah, 'significant' differences from the last, was allowed to be presented before her in court for potential approval.

She would not be the one to crumble in this pathetic war of attrition, although it was truly amazing how many different ways they had of generating money at the expense of other ponies.

She cast a rememory spell, disguising the flare of her horn behind floating the lengthy document he had been holding over to her, ignoring his startled gasp, and let some of her attention slip away from the present.

She didn’t understand how Celestia had done this alone, every day, for almost a thousand years.

Luna pushed the empty coffee mug aside, cursing as it left a ringed stain on the document beneath. It had been but a month since her return from the moon, and she was still familiarising herself with the intricacies of Celestia's government. Her power had not yet returned and as of that moment her hair was a light blue mop, brush discarded in an effort to study.

Despite the benefits of an alicorn's memory, understanding this obscenely complex, layered structure was akin to straightening a string that had been twisted through four dimensions with ones hooves. It may have been straightforward at its genesis, when Celestia and Luna, upon finding themselves with a crown thrust at them, had spent almost a decade researching the most successful societies of both the past and then present. From their combined efforts, they had created a potentially stable structure to last the centuries with the two, eternal alicorn heads of state to guide them, both mares becoming greater in time and accumulating respective centuries of experience - providing a mutual counterbalance.

Of course, then that had happened.

With Celestia having to shoulder the burden alone, and along with many, many unaccounted for factors, concessions had been made, and amendments added. Innovations in technology had led to new departments, and a monarchy instead of a diarchy had led to Celestia putting more power into the ponies' hooves than they had intended. This wasn’t bad in itself, but it had led to the creation of the nobility and the now entitled upper class as they appeared to have become in these more 'civilised' days.

Luna missed the days before the crown. Before royalty and nobility and rule. When they were free to be whoever they wanted to be, without responsibilities and repercussions.

Therefore she was. She refused to be constrained outright by rules and regulations. She was Luna, warden of the moon, former bearer of honesty, laughter and loyalty, and she would dammned before she became disloyal to herself. She would play pranks, laugh loudly, speak however and whenever she wished and never, ever, repeat the mistakes of the past.

She was currently protected somewhat from the repercussions of those mistakes by Celestia's shadow. And a very large shadow it was.

Sometimes, she thought she wished she was a little more like Celestia. Luna may have been herself fully, happy in her body, but she believed her own virtues the stricter to keep to. You didn’t have to be good to be kind, you didn’t have to be well meaning to be generous, and you certainly didn’t have to have another ponies best interests at heart to make friends, though most times her sister embodied the lighter side of all those elements seemingly perfectly.

Put simply, Luna's required an open, vulnerable heart, and Celestia's did not.

Celestia was the chessmistress. She may lose the battle, but never the war, always willing to make sacrifices and concessions for the bigger picture, while Luna settled for nothing less than absolute victory in all aspects of her life.
But for now, she had a government to unravel, and a millenium of political history to sift through to understand the plays, tactical losses and eventual successes her sister had made that had resulted in the bare simplicity of their former diarchy becoming... this.

Luna's mind returned to the present, spell ended and eyes flickering as she quickly skimmed the document.

She believed that the true measure of a pony's nature came when under stress, and what better way to provoke a stress induced, instant reaction than with violence?

That was where their differences became apparent.

Despite Celestia lack of practice and relative unfitness, the two were still matched in skill. Celestia had Aurora, her rapier, and she wielded it as she did words. Precisely aimed, each strike carefully measured. But she had disconnected almost entirely from her natural - equine - core, not responding by instinct, but by calculation. It was only in the latter stages of the bout, when her exhaustion had drawn her down, the chains holding back her passion had relaxed, if only slightly. She had very nearly become alive.

That was where Luna wanted her to go. She wanted to draw out the old Celestia, to tear down the walls and formality that she had hidden herself behind, even from her sister. Her needling had worked, poking fun at her sister's pride by attacking her fitness, and how her once spry self had vanished behind a mare sitting on the throne. Her rather one sided 'conversations' with Sabre had also born bounteous fruit. Her sister most certainly had noticed and understood what she was doing, but, Luna hoped, recognized that she was doing it for her benefit, not for any other reason.

Although, the pranks were fun.

Speaking of. Returning her attention to the still blathering stallion in front of her, she grinned. Perhaps with a few too many teeth she realized, as he took a sudden step back before catching himself.

Clearing her throat, she began. "Thine proposal has... some merit, Lord Collar."

He blinked, before smiling and opening his mouth to reply.

"However, I find myself unable to pass a ruling on this exact issue, due to not having all the details at hoof."
He frowned, and began to point at the document she held, before blanching as it burst into flames in her telekinetic grip. Looking from the ashes floating down to the floor and back to Luna's face, he trembled.

"I could, if thou wished, pass a snap judgement on it?" She retrieved Noctem from her room and let it materialize in her magical grip next to the throne, slowly twirling it. She glanced to the hammer then back at him, letting her grin grow a little wider. "We even have our... gavel at hoof."

He made a pathetic squeaking noise, and backed away before bumping into the pensioner behind him, then turning and running for the exit.

Hah. Let Celestia deal with that one. Him and hisilk are obsessivelypersistent. Though, perhaps she enjoys letting me frighten then.

She wouldn’t have hurt him. Probably. Though, it did help to remind them every now and again who was the immortal who very nearly bought their entire civilisation crashing to the ground a few times, despite having been one of its founders.

Some of those times weren't even her fault.
She reduced her expression to the patented 'Celestia smile', spinning Noctem out of existence and beckoning to the next petitioner to the throne. Perhaps this one wouldn't require intimidating.

This night, fortunately, would soon be over.

Author's Note

No Luna you can't solve all of your problems with violence.
Just most of them.

This was going to be more hammer swingin' and less talkin', but somehow Luna felt a little bit introspective and it turned into a kinda spiritual second chapter to Sandwiches.

Whoops.
Just wrote itself tbh. I don't necessarily agree with everything she said but eh. Did it quite quickly so there may be a typo.

Anyway, please tell me what you liked and didn't like, so I can continue to improve, accumulate power, and eventually become the memelord supreme.

I lie, that's Aragon.

So yeah criticize and shizzle. You're cool ass ppl. I hope you enjoyed :P
Oh yeah, is anybody but me interested in Moamer's legion of poison and all them other past events? Cuz I'm doing a Sabre background thingy sometime soon maybe, and a more indepth look into their government, buuuuuuut I was thinking about poking a few of the adventures our favorite pony princesses had in their youth with a stick (cause WORLDBUILDIN' YO). Would be a heckin' long story though. What do you think?

So I do have other plans, but this story is out.