That next morning, the entire school gathered to see this duel between Cobalt and Lightning. His friends watched on as the headmistress sat with them, "Ms. Harmony!"

"Don't worry, I'm just here to see how my fellow teacher handles this situation. This isn't the first time this has happened you know."

"Huh?"

"Yes, Cobalt has dueled our students before, and each time... he's lost. Even so, he hasn't lost his place in the rankings. Why? Because of me."

"He's lost? But Cobalt is suppose to be one of the strongest mystics out there. How could my darling Cobalt lose?"

"We have quite the crowd here Lightning. As expected when you duel me. However, don't expect me to go easy on you."

Midnight stepped up in between them, "As you both know, this is a duel! Your hit points are displayed above me!" Midnight looked above to show a massive scoreboard that showed both Cobalt's and Lightning's faces and their hits points. Both had 500 hit points, "The duel is over once one of your hit points are are depleted completely, when one of you surrenders, or whoever's hit points is the lowest when the time is up! Fighters, equip your weapons!"

Lightning spawned in two unique looking swords. She twirled them around so fast that no one could even see them in her hands as she did so. Once she got into a battle stance, a large fiery explosion surrounded her.

"Hmph, a little flashy are we?" After Cobalt said this, whipped his hand down as a long katana appeared from thin air.

"I was wondering how he was going to fight without his halberd," Rainbow said as she remembered that Cobalt's halberd was still in Canterlot.

"Fighters, are you ready?"

Both said nothing as they stared each other down. A look of determination across one of their faces, and a smirk across the other.

"Very well then, let the fight... begin!" Midnight quickly teleported away as Lightning moved with such speed, that it caught everyone off guard. She appeared behind Cobalt, and attempted to hit him, but before her sword could come into contact with him, a force around his body prevented from doing so, pushing her back.

"What is this?"

"You can't get past my defenses just using speed. My ability 6th sense allows me to sense everything around me as long as I focus on one thing. That one thing is you," Cobalt jumped forward, and turned towards Lightning, "You'll have to find another way past my ability."

"Headmistress, what is this ability crap he's talking about?" Rainbow asked.

"Each mystic is born with a unique ability that can increase one's already powerful abilities. Cobalt, along with the rest of the top 5 mystics were born with more than one. One of Cobalt's special abilities is what he just said, is 6th sense. He allows himself to focus on one target, and that one target alone. Once he focuses on that one target, all of his senses increase to inhumane lengths in order to stay on that one target."

"Wow, but wait won't that be useless when..."

"Yes, since Lightning specializes in illusion, she can easily create an illusion, taking his mind off her, and giving her a chance to take a blow at Cobalt. Lightning isn't a weak mystic, she's strong, but she's like Cobalt. She's tries to do more than what she could handle."

"Alright, let's do this...," Lightning closed her eyes as she yelled, "Duplicate!" Three copies of Lightning appeared in front of Cobalt, throwing him slightly off-guard. All three charged towards with even more speed, and Cobalt braced for each hit. He set his sights on each copy one by one, attempting to predict each hit. He blocked the first two, but the last one hit him a total of 30 times.

Cobalt was knocked into the nearby wall. Cobalt's hit points decreased at an amazing speed. Cobalt went from 500 hit points, to 373 hit points. Even so, all Cobalt do was smirk.

"Why is he smirking?"

"He's about to activate another one of his abilities," Harmony grinned as she leaned back.

"That was a few good hits. They actually hurt a little. However, you'll have to try better than that. Copy: Duplicate!" Soon afterwards, nearly 10 copies of Cobalt appeared around him.

"What?!"

"Wait, what just happened?" Twilight looked on in amazement as Harmony explained.

"Copy, one of Cobalt's abilities. As the name explains, it allows him to copy any ability. However, this is an incomplete ability."

"Incomplete?"

"Yes, there are times where there is a problem with a mystic's ability. Sometimes, their ability won't be complete when they're born. Cobalt's copy ability only allows him to copy an ability if it's used directly at him, and it has to make contact with him. If it doesn't he can't use it."

"So, he has to take damage from said ability in order to use it?"

"Yes, that's why he was able to use Duplicate. It was one of Lightning's copies that hit Cobalt, not Lightning herself. Which means, the real Lightning, is the one that isn't fighting right now."

They all looked at the copies of Lightning fighting Cobalt's copies. One was missing, one of the copies, was off to the side, staring in amazement.

"Hey! Pay attention," Cobalt dashed forward as he slashed forward. He whipped his sword down as tons of late sword slashes hit Lightning. This caused her to kneel down from the damage. Her health points went from 500 to 322."

"Damn it, heal...," Lightning's hit points increased back to 422, "I need to get rid of those copies..."

"You want me to get rid of them? Just get rid of yours, and I'll get rid of mine," Lightning looked up at Cobalt as he inched closer to her, "This is a battle between us, not our copies," Lightning jumped back, and snapped her fingers, causing her duplicates to disappear, "That's better," Cobalt did the same as he waved his hand in front of his katana. It soon formed a red aura around it.

"Oh, doing that now are we Cobalt?"

"What is he doing?"

"Adding an element to his weapon. I taught him how to do that."

Cobalt waved his sword around before holding it like a kendo stick, "Let's get this started!" Both fighters dashed towards each other with such force, it caused a shockwave. Each hit caused a massive explosion causing everyone to look on in amazement.

Many students yelled from the stands, "Let's go Mr. Cobalt! You can do it!" Soon, cheers filled the arena as the two fighters dueled each other with the ferocity of tigers.

It was the last minute stretch, Cobalt still had less hit points than Lightning as he snickered. Soon, his whole body took the same aura of his sword, but it was darker.

"So he's going to give it his all in this last minute? Not smart Cobalt...," Harmony sighed in disappointment as she leaned in closer.

"What's he doing now?"

"It's one of Cobalt's abilities called: Last Stand. It causes him to push his body pass the limit of a mystic. It lasts for 1 minute, and it makes his body stronger, faster, and gives his body the endurance to endure any hit thrown at him, even fatal ones."

This shocked the girls knowing Cobalt could indeed take his body to the point of death with this ability.

"What is that? I see, Last Stand. Well, I guess I'll push myself too!" Lightning's eyes began to glow, and she developed a blue aura around her."

"So this is her special ability. Her's is Lightning's Speed. This increases her speed much faster than anything in the universe, even causing her to break space and time. Hm, raw power vs raw speed. Who will win?"

The duel dragged on for what seemed longer than a minute. Cobalt's eyes, nose and mouth began to extrude blood due to the pain his body was feelings. Even if he hadn't been hit yet, his body was being pushed passed its limit already. In the final seconds, both of them passed by each other, both panting heavily, and then... thud!

Both fighter fell on one knee, still panting heavily. Everyone looked on in angst as the air was silent. The silence was deafening as everyone waited for the result of this final push. Soon, Cobalt fell face first into the ground, passed out cold.

The scoreboard read as Cobalt: 23/500 and Lightning: 30/500. It was a close battle, but Cobalt's ability caused more damage to himself, then what Lightning inflicted onto him.

"Cobalt!" All of his friends ran to his side, leaving Harmony looking on in disappointment.

"You still have much to learn Cobalt... much more to learn..."

Rarity held Cobalt as his eyes fluttered open, "Cobalt...?"

"Did I... win?"

Rarity chuckled as she hugged him, "No... you lost..., but you still looked amazing..."

"That's good...," Cobalt closed his eyes again as he passed again.

"Just rest now Cobalt... just rest..."

Author's Note

Two uploads? I know right! The big season at work didn't start off that strong, so I had energy to do two chapters. So I hope all of you enjoyed this duel between these two mystics. I'm not really good at doing fighting/action scenes, so please bear with that poorly written fight scene.

It wasn't what anyone expected! No one expect Cobalt to lose! I mean, I did because I'm the one that planned it. Anyway, I'm gonna go sleep since I still have work tomorrow. See all of ya in the next chapter!