Collection of Jousts

Sonnet looked out, across the white landscape. The glaring light of the sun, reflected across the snow, met him in the face, causing him to squint as he searched the horizon. Dark green trees starkly contrasted the pale blue sky, framing the red pillars and golden ornaments of the palace.

A few snowflakes drifted through the air, but otherwise it was a clear, sunny day. A chilly breeze blew past him, brushing his mane into his face. He tossed his head, shaking the hair out of the way.

“Waiting for someone?” Psychomyth asked, walking over to the large balcony where Sonnet stood.

“No, just admiring Candentia.” Sonnet turned his head to greet the shorter stallion, taking in the way red tinsel accented Psychomyth’s black, white, and orange coat.

“Yet another holiday season is here upon us,” Sonnet commented, his own red cape shifting as he turned around. His griffin was nestled among the red fabric, hiding from the winter weather.

Pyschomyth nodded, “The colors of the holidays are springing up all around Candentia.”

“And soon, Grandmother and I will begin the official ceremony to start the festivities leading up to the Winter Solstice,” Sonnet added on. He looked around at the tall pillars, with tinsel strung between them. The tinsel shimmered under the glow of sunlight, “I suppose the preparations are all complete?”

“They are indeed complete. I believe the last of the ciders are being set up as of right now. And you, Sonnet, still have plenty of time before you need to begin to prepare for your role,” Psychomyth said, “If you wanted, Xiang offered a quick joust, before the ceremony and celebration officially starts.”

“Xiang, as in the follower of Aberfa I jousted,  is here? In Candentia?” Sonnet asked. Despite Xiang having less magic than what Sonnet had been born with, the white stallion was knowledgeable about magic, and had a refined way of using his magic that Sonnet dearly lacked. Jousting with Xiang had been a vastly different experience, compared with the other quirlicorns Sonnet had jousted before.

“Regent Radiance managed to convince him to come attend the celebrations, with the caveat that he’d get a guided tour through the statue gardens afterwards,” Psychomyth explained. “Xiang is quite the fancier of art and sculptures, so naturally he agreed to come.”

“I see,” Sonnet said, “Where could I find him to joust with him?”

“He’s in the arena. I could take you there?” Psychomyth offered.

“I would appreciate that,” Sonnet said, “Is there not more work to be done? Planning the festivities cannot have been easy for you.”

Sonnet knew a little about how much work planning the festivities were. He, along with Minuet, Resplendence, and Faven, had helped Martine out with the early planning. Admittedly, they spent more time learning about the sheer scale and complexity of planning celebrations for an entire city, than they did on actually helping with the planning.

“Thankfully Martine was able to take over most of the planning,” Psychomyth answered, leading Sonnet towards the arena. “I only needed to coordinate the importation of foods and drinks, along with inviting some quirlicorns from other lands.”

As they walked through the streets of Candentia, Sonnet noted how every street lamp seemed to be wrapped in tinsel, the entire city having been taken over by the festive decorations. Small, powdery snowflakes fell from the sky, a few landing on his nose.

His griffin had jumped out of Sonnet’s red cape, and was now chasing snowflakes as they walked towards the arena. As soon as his rust colored paws caught a snowflake, the snowflake would melt, leaving the griffin to indignantly squawk, complaining with a series of chirps.

Psychomyth laughed, when the griffin slid on a patch of ice, before opening the door to the arena.

“Sonnet, Psychomyth,” Xiang said, striding over from where he stood in the middle of the arena. Sonnet noted how even the arena was decorated with tinsel and pine trees.

“Greetings Xiang,” Sonnet returned the greeting. “I was hoping to learn something through a quick joust, if you would please.”

“A joust?” Xiang asked, “I’ll agree, but this time with some limits.”

Sonnet briefly glanced towards the door, and realized that Psychomyth had somehow slipped away as soon as they entered the arena. Perhaps Psychomyth had been much busier than he had let on. “What limits?”

“We’ll joust from opposite sides of this arena,” Xiang answered, “And each of us can only use two magics.”

“I accept,” Sonnet agreed. He realized what Xiang wanted him to do, which was train his range and precision with magic. It would be difficult to reach Xiang from across the arena, especially if he was only allowed to use two magics.

“I’ll be using light generation and projection,” Xiang stated, “And what will you be using, young sir?”

Sonnet mentally tallied the magic that he had. Invisibility and musical inclination would be next to useless, as would healing. What else did he have… “Gems growth and telekinesis,” he finally answered, hoping that he made the right choices.

“Smart decisions,” Xiang commented, “Gem growth could be useful against light generation, to block and maybe even reflect the beams of light, if you’re good enough. Telekinesis, if combined with gem growth, could allow you to do some interesting things.”

Sonnet shooed his griffin towards the edge of the arena, and then nodded, “Thank you for the kind praise.”

“Then, let us begin,” Xiang said, backing away to one side of the arena, while Sonnet walked towards the other side.

“Ready?” Xiang asked, once both of them were in position.

“Ready,” Sonnet answered, a faint glow forming around his antlers as he activated his magic. First, he sent a long chain of gemstones towards Xiang, trying to unbalance the white stallion.

In turn, Xiang created numerous projections, spaced in such a way that Sonnet couldn’t tell which one was the real Xiang, and which ones were fake.

Sonnet randomly estimated how many projections there were, and had a random amount of crystals materialize in the air, before sending the crystals to the many Xiang’s around him with his telekinesis.

It clearly worked, barely, as a few of Xiang’s projections flickered, before disappearing completely. However, the majority of the crystals were shot down by a beam of light, and the real Xiang still eluded Sonnet. And based on where some crystals had landed, Sonnet had completely missed some of the projections as well.

Xiang sent a few more beams of light, straight for Sonnet. Sonnet narrowly dodged those beams of light, trying to figure out where they came from. It was fruitless, and in those few seconds Sonnet spent dodging and trying to analyze the beams of light, Xiang had conjured up more projections.

If only he had chosen pyrokinesis. Pyrokinesis would have made it much easier to just send flames out and let the fire force Xiang to reveal himself.

The joust continued as it had for a while, with Sonnet sending gemstones towards Xiang’s projections, Sonnet missing, and Xiang retaliating with beams of light and more projections. Sonnet felt like he was hitting more of Xiang’s projections each time, but he still had yet to find Xiang himself.

Sonnet panted, his chest heaving and sweat rolling down his neck. He noticed how he was growing tired, and how it was getting harder to maintain his control over the gemstones. Arguably, he was expending more magic than Xiang was, given that he had spread his telekinesis across such a wide arena. If he continued this way, even if he was more powerful, magically, there was a high chance he would lose the joust.

He narrowed his eyes,  and tried a different strategy. He reared up to dodge another beam of light, and then landed on his hooves again, spreading his magic down through his hooves and into the ground in all directions. Magic gemstones sprouted underneath every Xiang projection.

All but one of the many Xiang’s flickered and disappeared, while the real Xiang leapt into the air and twisted to avoid the gemstones.

“Found you,” Sonnet said, using more gemstones to trap Xiang.

Xiang nodded, deactivating his own magic. “You did, indeed. You’ve one this joust, Sonnet.”

Sonnet let his gemstones disappear, allowing Xiang to walk towards him.

“Now, tell me what you’ve learned,” Xiang said. Sonnet thought it was unfair how Xiang looked like he had just gone on a leisurely stroll, while Sonnet himself looked like he just ran to the desert region and back.

Sonnet thought back through the joust, comparing his and Xiang’s strategies, before saying, “Spreading magic across a large area is harder than it takes to aim magic at a small area.”

Xiang nodded, “That is indeed correct. Now, I believe you have some preparations to complete, for the ceremony later today.”

“I do,” Sonnet replied, walking beside Xiang as they neared the arena doors, “Thank you for the joust, I have learned much today.”

“It was my pleasure,” Xiang answered, “Afterall, one of my duties is to assist the quirlicorns of the six regions in developing their own magic.”

Sonnet separated from Xiang after they exited the arena, walking across a cobblestone street. His griffin had followed him outside, having hopped onto his back sometime after he had finished jousting Xiang.

“Is it just me, or has more tinsel been hung up?” Sonnet asked his griffin.

His griffin answered with an uncertain chirp.

“Very helpful, thank you very much,” Sonnet muttered, rolling his eyes.