Canterlot Academy Trials

“Wot?” one of the bandits muttered in confusion. The idea that one, relatively scrawny mare could take them on seemed laughable at best. “The ‘ell are you on about?”

SHOOM!

Before any of them could react, a blur of pale-purple and black zoomed past the bandit pony that had spoken moments ago. All that was left behind was a small cut that had drawn a bit of blood.

“What the…--aaaaagh!”

The stallion convulsed and collapsed to the ground as soon as Grimrose wrote something down in the empty pages of her spellbook. It was as if he had suffered a heart attack and couldn’t bring himself to move.

“Anyone else want to try?” she asked the remaining three, “I’ve got plenty of stuff I want to show off.”

One of them quickly devised a plan, “I’ll hold her off. You two head into town and see what else you can find.”

The other two stallions hurried off before Rose could react in time, with the remaining one, a unicorn, staying behind to keep her busy.

“That’s a pretty little grimoire you got there, lass,” he said with his horn lighting up, “Wonder how much it’ll fetch on the black market.”

“This is an Orcus Family Tome,” she replied neutrally with her eyes steeled upon him, “You couldn’t handle it even if you tried.”

“That ain’t my problem if I sell it,” he replied with an arrogant, surefire tone. “Now be a good little lass and hand it over!”

ZAP!

The stallion fired a bolt of crystal shards from his horn that Rose barely dodged in time. In order to avoid them, she had to summon her familiar--the golem--to substitute and stand in place for where she once was once standing.

The pony golem essentially tanked the full brunt of the attack and, under Rose’s control, functioned like a fully living being.

‘Okay…how does this work?’

“What the bloody ‘ell…?” the stallion rubbed his eyes with his hoof out of disbelief, confused at what he was seeing. A walking, wooden pony with no eyes that stumbled after taking a few steps. “A puppet show? That’s what the famous Princess of Equestria has been teaching you lot?” he cackled as he casually trotted towards it. “Don’t make me laugh…”

In reality, Grimrose had gone back into hiding in a nearby bush and was controlling the golem with magical threads attached to her wingtips. It took her a moment to fully grasp control of it…

‘Right hoof…left hoof…now this.’

CRACK!

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the stallion was punched by the golem! A swift, yet powerful right hook that sent him tumbling with a bit of blood launched from his lips as a result.

The stallion spat, visibly annoyed that he had been tricked so easily as he stood upright. “Agh! Alright…I’ll bite! Come at me, ya coward!”

In the town itself…

The final two stallions had rushed into the village, looking to pillage whatever else they could find.

What they didn’t account for though…

FWOOSH!

A wall of blue flame cause them to skid to a halt, kicking up dust as they dug their hooves into the ground beneath.

“What the--?!”

Before they could say anything else, a wall of purple flame enclosed them from the other side.

Blue Blazes walked through the blue one and casually approached them while picking something out of his teeth with his claw. “Sweet. I was getting a bit hungry for pony!” he put on his best tone for intimidation, as he didn’t want to eat anyone at all.

“Save some for me,” Mei, who had become a jet-black Nirik, appeared through the purple flames. “I love picking their flesh from my teeth!”

“...We surrender!” one of the stallions immediately dropped to the ground, squealing.

“York made us do this!” the second one yelped as he hit the sand. “We’ll tell you everything, mate! Honest!”

Blue was naturally suspicious, raising an eyebrow before he looked at Mei. “Bind ‘em, Mei.”

“On it,” she replied and with a flash of her horn, the stallions were bound by fiery, albeit harmless, chains. “Don’t try to escape and you won’t get burned.”

Moments later, Cayenne stepped out to join them. “Good job, you two. Stay here, and I’ll see if I can find their leader.”

“Got it, ma’am,” Blue replied with a salute.

“Yes ma’am,” Mei added as Cayenne used her magic to teleport away. Then she looked at Blue. “Not bad for our first mission, huh?”

“Meh, it was gonna be a bit easy since it’s our first time. These guys are straight up jobbers,” he snarked while glancing at the bound criminals with a grin on his face. “Hope we get something actually challenging next time.”

Now transformed back into a Kirin, Mei giggled in response to Blue’s confident words. “With you? That puts me at ease, Blue.”

“It better,” he replied as he folded his arms, “Someone has to keep morale up around here. May as well be me.”

‘...he’s so confident,’ Mei thought to herself, ‘I wish I could speak of myself like that…’