1st Person POV, Luna

Watching the elf fall asleep under my wing, I can’t help but wonder if all of his kind are this dense. After speaking with Cadence a few nights ago we decided it’d be better to either let things progress naturally or let him make the first move. Based purely on the tales of his culture and the fact that he made the first move and asked out the pegasus. Yet, he seems to lack the confidence to do so again for me. I can tell that he does harbor at least some romantic feelings for me, so I don’t mind waiting a little longer. I’ll give him until the gala, but if there’s been no progress by then I’m going to take the initiative.

I should rest as well, I was unable to relax at all while speaking with Nightmare so I’ve been up for around 36 hours. Thankfully Tia agreed to raise and lower the moon for me for the duration of this trip. Otherwise I would’ve been forced to interrupt my sleep after a few hours to perform the ritual. The new magical contraption Ignis conjured catches my eye as I lay down my head, and it makes me remember his shrunken form. Closing my eyes with a smile I start to think of the runes I’d need to recreate that spell, even though I’m sure it already exists.

Opening my eyes I find myself alone in the tent. Frowning, I rise up to my hooves and exit the tent. As soon as I leave the tent I see the elf sitting in the grass with parchment spread out all around him, playing with his spellbook. A few feet away there’s a decapitated giant praying mantis littering the ground. “I assume the bug didn’t give you any trouble then?”

He startles a bit from my voice, he must’ve been extremely immersed in his work. Looking back down at the spellbook he replies without facing me. “No, I was already awake when it set off my alarm. Although, I was planning to stay in bed for a few more minutes, so his arrival did annoy me quite a bit. When did you raise the moon, by the way? I was sure the surge of mana from that would wake me up, but the moon was already in the sky when I left the tent.”

Since he’s choosing to continue facing away from me, I decide to approach. I walk up behind him and lower my head so that it’s resting in the air a few inches away from his cheek. “Tia raised the moon. She’ll be assuming those duties for the duration of our trip. What spell are you working on now?”

He ever so slightly turns his head and I watch his eyes glance up and meet my own. He quickly looks back down and continues writing in his book, looking slightly flustered. “I learned a rudimentary spell called Identify. It lets me discern the properties of a magic item and how to use it, it also shows me what spells are affecting an object or a creature. Now I’m working on a very powerful spell called Glyph of Warding. It lets me inscribe a glyph up to 10ft in diameter to a surface or within an object. I can then establish a custom action or sequence that will cause the glyph to activate. Once it activates it’ll either explode, dealing a not insignificant amount of damage or it’ll activate a spell that I stored in the glyph at the time of casting.”

Ah, this is actually quite similar to a spell we use for the armory and vaults. “It seems a bit redundant considering you already have the Alarm spells, no?”

“Although that is a common use for the glyph it’s not what I intend to utilize it for. The important thing about the glyph is that if the spell you store in it is a spell that requires full concentration, the spell will last for its full duration without actually using my concentration. This is extremely powerful because concentration spells are some of the best spells in my arsenal, but I can only use them one at a time, never overlapping. The Moonblade circumvents that and lets me use two, but it’s currently out of commission. Once we get it repaired though, I can theoretically set up the glyph somewhere and imbue it with a spell like Haste. Then I can make the condition for the glyph be the activation of a bladesong, and I can store another spell like Greater Invisibility in the Moonblade. In this ideal scenario I can activate the Invisibility and then activate the bladesong, and that bladesong will activate the glyph giving me the Haste buff. Then I can use my own concentration to use something like the striding spell that leaves trails of fire at my feet, or I can even use a high level version of the Shadow Blade.”

I give a non-responsive slow blink at the onslaught of words he just poured out. “So essentially you want to use the Glyph in an ambush scenario so that you can apply multiple buffs onto yourself at the same time?”

“Yes, exactly! The only downside is that the glyph takes an hour to inscribe, so it truly does have to be set up well in advance. My plan is to leave several of them around the castle on different floors and areas, so that I’m prepared to activate the plan at a moment's notice.”

“Impressive, although a bit paranoid. There’s no risk of them being accidentally triggered, right?”

“No, the condition for all of the glyphs in the castle will likely be the activation of a bladesong while standing on it. Even if they were to be accidentally triggered the only thing the glyph will do is give whoever is standing on it a surge of energy. Nothing dangerous like a fireball or an explosion of sorts.”

“I see. I like the utility of that spell, how much longer do you need to have it mastered?”

He grabs the spell scroll and rotates it around a few times. “Probably another 4 or 5 hours, but I don’t have to do it all at once. I was planning to stop once you were ready to continue on.”

“What did you have planned for breakfast?”

He stops writing and his back stiffens up quite a bit. “I thought you’d just magic us food the same way we did during the journey through the desert? Was I supposed to bring the food?!”

I raise my head back up, away from his and can’t help but laugh. “Nay, but for the Summit Tia had already arranged for the staff to prepare us meals that she teleported in. In our case, I was unaware of what our exact schedule would be, and there’s still no dedicated night staff for the kitchen so we’re out of luck. I do have a number of meals prepared but they’re all quite bland. It might be better for you to hunt something, perhaps we could find something together? I wouldn’t be opposed to some fish.”

He stands up and goes into the tent, a few seconds later emerging with his backpack. “How do ponies even fish? Do you just use your telekinesis and snatch them out of the water?”

I shake my head, “no the fish are very sensitive to mana. As soon as they feel that something is attempting to grasp them they zip away in a burst of speed. Very rarely do ponies fish individual prey, I believe most of the industry uses large nets. I’ve heard of some earth ponies using spears, though. How did your kind do it?”

“We used a rod with strong string-like material with a hook on the end of it. You’d fling your arm forward and launch the string into the water, often with bait of some kind on the hook. Then you’d wait until you felt a fish go for the bait and yank the rod, sinking the hook into them. After that you just reel the string back in. We also used nets, but like you said that was moreso for commercial markets. My reflexes are probably fast enough that if we find a river I can just stand in the middle of the stream and grab a fish out of the water.”

“There’s a river a few minutes north, it feeds into the North Luna Sea. I highly doubt you’ll be able to just simply reach in and grab a fish. The only creatures capable of something like that are griffons, and they have the benefit of increased speed from diving through the air at the water.” I’d truly be impressed if he could pull off something like that.

“Wanna race there? Between the fashion show and being cooped up on the train we’ve been slacking on our nightly training.” I haven’t even answered yet and he’s already stretching. Seems he’s going to run there regardless of if I agree.

“That sounds fun, I assume interference is allowed?”

“It’s encouraged, wouldn’t really be training without it, haha.”

Ignis puts on his new magical device, unsheathes his blade and crouches down, ready to launch himself. I think we should add some stakes to this. “Shall we make this more interesting?”

He relaxes his pose and glances at me, “How so?”

“Let’s add some stakes. You know something like the loser has to cook what we catch? Not necessarily that, but something like that.”

“Something like the loser has to do whatever one command the winner gives?” He asks with an eyebrow arched.

“Well there’d be nothing to gain for me in that scenario, you already have to do whatever I command of you.”

“There’s nothing for me to gain with the cooking prize either, I’m already gunna have to cook it, but if I lose that means you have to cook it and I’m not sure if I trust your culinary skills with raw meat. Listen, it's true that I already listen to your commands, but I’m sure there’s plenty of things you’d never command me to do under normal circumstances. It doesn’t matter anyways, I’m going to win.” Ah there’s his usual confidence.

“Fine, I suppose you have a point. It’ll be the first one to touch the water, is the winner. Ready?”

He leans over and places most of his fingertips on the ground, such a peculiar launch stance. While still looking straight ahead he nods his head a single time. “Ready.”

“Go!”

Like an arrow we both take off. Not even 10 paces into the race I hear Ignis yell out a phrase in a foreign language. Glancing over I’m surprised to see a bolt of ice flying towards my hooves. Quickly jumping into the air I watch as the grass and dirt freezes where the bolt hit. Crafty elf.

While still mid-air from dodging his bolt I launch to beams of my own at 4 trees further ahead of his path. I should’ve aimed a little further ahead as the first tree has barely started to fall as he passes it. With a slight lean to the left the tree falls behind him, he leans forward and ducks under the 2nd tree as it falls. For the third tree he drops onto one knee and sticks his other leg straight out in front of him sliding just under the thick trunk. Without losing any momentum he pulls his front leg back in and springs into the air, it looks like he’s about to face plant into the 4th and final tree. At the last second however, he reaches out with both arms and pulls himself over the log. He hits the ground running as the last tree impacts the ground behind him.

Ignis managed to retain most of his momentum, but it slowed him down just enough to put me in the lead. I hear him yell out behind me “Impediendum!” Glancing back I watch as he points his palm towards me before quickly clenching his open hand into a fist. I’m left a bit confused as I wait for his magic to activate, but an instant later I’m stopped dead in my tracks. Some invisible force is holding me, I can’t move at all. I push out a massive wave of mana that seems to break me free of the paralysis. That spell only bought him 5 or 6 seconds at most but that was all he needed, he’s ahead of me now. I’m actually a bit shaken at what that spell was, there are not many things that could completely bind me like that.

If that’s how you want to play it, though, then two can play at that game. All I do is focus on the hood of his cloak and activate my telekinesis. I watch as his head is yanked backwards and his feet go up into the air. I didn’t pull him back, but I stopped his hood from moving forward. With a yelp he lands on his back and I release the telekinesis as I pass him. “Maybe next time, my knight!”

I can see the water come into view up ahead. Gritting my teeth I go from a run to a dead sprint. Just as I start to wonder what his next move is going to be I hear pop to my left and watch as the elf appears 7 or 8ft away from me with a cloud of mist around him. I ignite my horn ready to counter whatever scheme he’s cooked up only to widen my eyes in shock as he pivots diagonally and runs straight at me.

I conjure a shield between us as he lifts his blade into the air, surely he doesn’t intend to actually strike me?! It turns out the sword was a feint, and it worked. He jumped into the air screaming as he flew towards me and as I readied myself to parry his blade he suddenly drops the sword and wraps his arms around my neck. With a yelp there’s nothing I can do as he trips up my front legs with his own and pulls me down to the ground.

We were both going far too quickly to have a graceful fall. We both tumble forward and roll several feet across the ground. We finally come to a stop as I roll onto my back and slide a few inches. When we cease our forward momentum I open my eyes to find the elfs face mere centimeters from my own, one palm on the ground on both sides of my head.

I feel my face heat up and watch as his own face quickly turns crimson. For a second there’s an intense silence broken only by the sounds of our labored breaths. My body reacts on its own, against my own control and flings the elf away from me with telekinesis. Scrambling back up onto my hooves I’m just a few seconds away from reaching the water when I hear a loud incantation behind me. Glancing back I watch as he brandishes the Moonblade and performs the same spell he used to finish the hydra.

Slashes quickly appear on five different trees in quick succession leading up to my own position. Ignis appears 10ft in the air directly above me, but he didn’t calculate gravity. As he’s falling through the air my hooves splash into the river, with him landing in the water right next to me. Wordlessly I turn and walk back onto the shore before dropping down on my barrel and lay down in the grass to catch my breath.

The elf stumbles out of the water and sits down in the grass a few feet away. “Looks like it’s your win, Luna.”

I make eye contact with him and before I can say anything he quickly glances away and scratches his cheek. I’ve started to learn that when he makes this awkward face and scratches his cheek it means he’s embarrassed. “What was that spell you used to briefly paralyze me? That completely caught me off guard.”

“To avoid you getting the wrong idea from the name of the spell I want to give you some context. There’s a paralyzation spell called Hold Person, but that spell is a lower level spell and only works against humanoids. Essentially it only works against bipedal elf or human shaped things. The more powerful version of the spell is called Hold Monster, but by monster it just means anything that is not a humanoid. I didn’t want you to think I was calling you a monster. That spell is actually the same level of spell as my Steel Wind Strike, so I used both of my 5th level spell slots just to still lose.” He throws his head back with a groan. “So, what’s your command my princess?”

I stare at him with a soft smile. For a violent battlemage he’s always surprisingly thoughtful. “It’s a very easy command, you don’t even have to move for it.”

“Oh? Well c’mon let’s get it over with.”

Should I really do this? The thought of this command leaves me feeling a bit embarrassed as well, and I end up glancing at the dirt as I draw a line in the soil with my forehoof.

“I command you to confess what you were going to tell me right before you blacked out two nights ago.”

Author's Note

Regardless of one of the comments on the last chapter this was what I always had planned for this chapter. Tensions have officially peaked!

Hopefully since I came out with a chapter 3 days in a row you all will forgive me when I say that the next chapter won't be until Thursday night at the earliest, but probably Friday if I'm being honest. Got a bit of a road trip for the next two days, and I'm not bringing my laptop.

Sorry! I know for some of you this might be one of the more brutal cliff hangers for me to announce I'm gunna be MIA for a few days! Please forgive!

In the meantime, at some point in the future there is likely going to be sex. I made a poll for you all to vote on for how I should handle sex scenes for the fic. (Standalone fic that contains all the sex scenes, include them in main story but have them be their own isolated chapters that are marked as sex and can be skipped, just raw dog it and put it in the story like normal, or none of the above.) I'm only doing this because in the description of the story I said there would be no sex, and I know there are likely a few people that only started reading because of that statement. So in order to ease my guilt at the false advertisement I've made this poll for you all to vote on:

https://strawpoll.com/05Zdzzr9En6

Thanks for reading!