Collection of Jousts

A small, round, fluffy, and also very sparkly object dove into Sonnet’s room. As said object rolled around, trails of tinsel appeared behind it, decorating the floor with various colors. The object then hopped up and down a few times, shaking off even more tinsel.

The object chirped loudly.

Sonnet groaned.

The object chirped back at him.

“What did you do now..” Sonnet muttered, his ears pinned back out of annoyance.

The only answer he got was a chirp. Honestly, he should have expected that. When was his griffin ever helpful? Sonnet sometimes regretted ever accepting the last gift his father gave him, before his father had left on a many year long trip with Baroque. This was one of those times.

Even despite the years that had gone by, and the years gone by since Sonnet could last be considered a foal, the ball of feathers gifted to him had not grown much. Perhaps the miniature creature had grown fuzzier, becoming more fluff than actual griffin at some point, but once that fur was trimmed, he had shrunk in size again.

Even Minuet’s kitsune was infinitely more useful than his ball of feathers, able to do more than act cute and cause trouble.

Trouble, which his griffin yet again had gotten himself into. Trouble, that was very sparkly, shiny, and also very headache inducing.

Sonnet raised an eyebrow, and glared at his griffin for a few more minutes, before giving in and deciding to help his griffin out. He reached out with his telekinesis, and lifted the griffin into midair.

The griffin squawked indignantly, evidently unhappy about the new developments. The useless ball of feathers squiremed about, only proving to make Sonnet’s decision to help untangle the griffin much harder. Much harder, in the sense that as soon as Sonnet got one section untangled, the griffin’s ceaseless wiggling meant another section was even more tangled.

“Stay still,” Sonnet chastised the squirming ball of feathers, “I have stuff to do, that doesn’t involve separating griffin from tinsel.”

Yet again, all Sonnet received from his griffin was an indignant chirp. In context, Sonnet guessed that it meant ‘no’. That would make sense, given how his griffin didn’t stop moving around.

Several more minutes passed, and Sonnet was able to get a few more strands of tinsel off of his griffin. Unfortunately, while that small amount of tinsel added to the pile of tinsel that wasn’t stuck on a certain griffin, it still amounted to essentially nothing. Too much tinsel still remained on the miniature griffin, with very little fur showing underneath the tinsel.

Sonnet shook his head, and released his telekinetic hold on the griffin, dropping him to the floor. “I quit,” he muttered, “I have stuff to do. Go find someone else to untangle you.”

He sent one last exasperated glare towards his griffin, before walking away. His hoofsteps echoed as he walked down the palace halls, searching for Psychomyth. Sonnet resolutely ignored the sound of paws hitting the floor and the rustling of tinsel behind him.

Psychomyth had scheduled yet another joust with another quirlicorn. Instead of jousting against Xiang again, Psychomyth arranged for him to joust a different mare. This time, the quirlicorn Sonnet would be jousting was a follower of Haukea, and supposedly one that was rather new to serving the deities.

Speaking of Psychomyth…. Sonnet turned the corner to see the familiar black and white scorched stallion, looking as put together as always, but with his metaphorical feathers just a tad more ruffled than usual. Sonnet saw Radiance trailing behind Psychomyth, and looked outside to see columns of purple smoke rising into the air, and quickly realized what had caused part of Psychomyth’s mane to be dyed purple.

“Ah, Sonnet!” his grandmother greeted him, “Just the grandchild of mine I was looking for! Psychomyth here told me he scheduled a joust for you with one of Haukea’s new underlings! Why not Xiang again?”

“Xiang was busy with other matters, and thought it would be best to have King learn more about what it means to serve the deities. He also mentioned something about King being a fitting match for Sonnet…” Psychomyth trailed off.

“A fitting match?” Sonnet asked, “In exactly what way?”

“In many ways,” Psychomyth answered, “Or at least so I have heard.”

“I hope Xiang meant in terms of magic,” Sonnet drawled. “Or jousting ability at least. It’d be truly unfortunate if this mare doesn’t know how to joust.”

“If she doesn’t, it’d be an opportunity for you to teach her something about jousting,” Psychomyth replied, “I know she has at least some magic that she can use, so you won’t need to worry about that, Sonnet. Now, Radiance, open a portal, King should be waiting for us.”

Psychomyth gestured at a place marked down on a parchment scroll, before shoving the scroll back into the pile of parchment he was carrying. “Open it somewhere here, no, not over the lake, preferably on the ground beside the lake. Yes, I’m certain there’s a place for jousting there, Xiang was the one that found this location.”

As soon as the portal appeared, Psychomyth was ushering Sonnet through the portal, seemingly in a hurry, as per usual. His griffin tumbled through the portal behind him. Nothing new there.

The wind tousled Sonnet’s mane, sending it into his eyes. He shook his head, trying to get his purple and blue mane out of his face.

The portal snapped shut behind him, with the characteristic sparkle of magic, but not before Sonnet heard Psychomyth complain about the amount of work he needed to do, and his grandmother Radiance cheerfully commenting that “it wasn’t that much work!” and that they’d be done with it quickly.

A small piece of paper floated out from the portal, evidently a message for him. Sonnet guessed that it was from Psychomyth. That stallion really could write extremely quickly. He looked carefully at the piece of paper, and noted the distinctive plain penmanship that spelled out when his grandmother would open another portal to bring him back to Candentia. Yep, that was definitely from Psychomyth.

“Now, where is that underling of Haukea’s?” Sonnet asked his griffin. “A blue and orange mare… with a bright orange and yellow mane… that shouldn’t be too hard to find in this snowy landscape.”

His griffin chirped at him, shrugging what Sonnet assumed were his wings. He really couldn’t tell under all that tinsel. At least some more had fallen off so that the griffin’s head was exposed. Sonnet really didn’t want to have to explain to some random mare he had never met before exactly why he had a lump of multi-colored tinsel following him around.

“Thank you very much for your assistance,” Sonnet said sarcastically, “Your chirping is beyond helpful.”

Eventually, after walking around the perimeter of the lake, Sonnet was able to find a quirlicorn that matched Psychomyth’s description.

“You’re late. You should have been here at least half an hour ago,” the mare glared at him, the fins around her ears flaring up.

“Ah, good to meet you too, King,” Sonnet drawled, pulling his lips back into the slightest resemblance of a sneer, as he lifted his head up to study the mare. Her coat truly was as flamboyant as Psychomyth had described, perhaps even brighter than what Sonnet had imagined.

“Look, I agreed to do this as a favor to Xiang, not because I wanted to,” King answered, skipping past the formalities and greetings that Sonnet and Xiang would exchange before their jousts. “I have stuff to do, much more important things than entertaining some random quirlicorn I don’t even know.”

“Oh please,” Sonnet pulled himself up to full height, hoping that his griffin would stay out of sight for at least a few more moments, and giving a mildly amused, but simultaneously threatening smile, “I suppose you’re afraid of losing to ‘some random quirlicorn’? I promise, by the end of our joust, you’ll definitely remember me.”

“Yes, I'm so very afraid. My bones are shaking out of fear,” King deadpanned.

She clearly didn’t realize how much power Sonnet had, nor that the magic he wielded was unparalleled, with only the deities besting him in terms of raw power.

“Then that makes this all the better,” Sonnet grinned, letting his wings spread out to their full length, each feather shimmered as the winter sunlight hit his wings, almost glowing in the light. It was a display that was meant to be intimidating. He had adopted the display at some point in his life, after realizing the instant attention that it brought, an easy way of reminding those around him, that despite his young age and relative inexperience, he still wielded more magic than most could ever hope to.

A brief expression of shock flickered across King’s face, before her expression shifted back into the passive annoyance it originally was. She still looked unimpressed with him. Sonnet was starting to think that was the mare’s default expression.

“So, joust?” Sonnet affably asked, as if he hadn’t just tried to intimidate the other mare. In his defense, he could feel the mare irritating him, just by standing there. Seriously, how did Haukea ever end up with such an underling? The flashy mare was much more suited to be a follower of Anevay, or perhaps some other deity.

“If you must..Still don’t see the point in jousts…” King grumbled. It was easy to tell that she wanted to do anything other than jousting. She activated her magic, the snow beneath her hooves turning to gold.

“You’re supposed to state the rules of the joust first,” Sonnet replied, leaping into the air with a flap of his wings.

“Rules?” the underling of Haukea muttered, “What sort of joust needs rules? Free for all, no rules needed.”

“If you say so,” Sonnet in a sing-song manner, activating his magic. Every single one of his magics, or at least basically every one. If King had the same amount of magic that Xiang had, it was easy to see why she’d assume Sonnet wouldn’t have more than she did. Afterall, the average Quirlicorn only had a couple magics to use, whereas she would have at least five mastered.

Pity that Sonnet wasn’t the average quirlicorn.

He quickly sent a blast of fire to melt away the golden snow, and a stream of water to knock down the pieces of gold that King was gearing up to use as projectiles. Perhaps it would be nice to add some more fire into the mix…

Sonnet saw King’s expression gradually shift from complete confidence that she’d win the joust, to one of bewilderment, as he started to summon gemstones and flickering flames of fire. King responded with a  small cyclone, spinning rapidly as snow and branches were sucked in.

Sonnet twisted in the air, pulling his wings out of reach of the cyclone, and answered by grabbing the gemstones with his telekinesis and hurling them at King to distract her for a moment. He added in a few beams of solidified light, forcing the mare to focus her attention on dodging his magic. Her control over her cyclones slipped, and the spinning funnels of air and snow quickly dissipated.

He casted out a mirage of solid ground behind King, and summoned more fire to send towards King. As she was busy dodging the flames of fire, Sonnet created more sharp crystals and gemstones, sending them towards King with his telekinesis. Sonnet toyed with the mare for a bit, forcing her this way, and then back that way with his magic. He easily blocked her attempts to retaliate with his magic.

Soon, one misstep, and a large splash of water later, King was sprawled in the middle of the lake, her mane soaked by the icy waters.

Sonnet landed on the ground, and produced several gemstones to serve as stepping stones towards where King was. He brought over a particularly sharp crystal, holding the large purple gem in front of King. His wings stretched out, and from his position on one of the larger gemstones, he towered over the mare on the ground.

“Do you yield?” he asked, curling his lips.

King heaved a suffering sigh, before answering, “Yes, I do.”

“Lovely.” Sonnet allowed the crystal to fall harmlessly into the lake, and stepped back to allow King back on shore. His fire had all disappeared, except for a small flame he kept to keep himself and King warm in the midst of winter.

“What were you saying about rules?” King asked, head low to the ground, once she was drying herself off with the help of Sonnet’s fire.

Sonnet smiled smugly as he commented,  “I see you’ve realized why a joust needs rules.”

“Yes, I did,” King muttered.

“Now, the rules of a joust…” Sonnet said, creating two quirlicorn shaped gemstones to accompany his words. Psychomyth had mentioned something about King learning what it meant to serve the deities. Perhaps this was what he had meant. “I’m hoping you already know this, even I know and I don’t even serve the deities. But anyways, I’ve hung around quirlicorns that have served the deities in the past for long enough, and I know a fair bit about jousting.”

King’s ears were pointed towards him, evidently listening to what he was saying, even if she looked unimpressed with his impromptu speech.

“Serving the deities means that quirlicorns will come to you for assistance, and sometimes for a joust or two to develop their magic more.” Sonnet held up the two gemstone quirlicorns, and touched their horns together, as if they were jousting. “You, having been blessed by the deities to wield the magic that you do, are responsible for assisting them to the best of their ability.”

“Sometimes that means not using your magic, if the quirlicorn you’re jousting doesn’t have any. Other times, it means using just one or two. But in other situations,” Sonnet tossed his head, “like with me, you’ll meet powerful quirlicorns in search of a training partner, whose magic is much stronger than yours. And when that happens, I’d recommend you set some rules. Limit the amount of magic used, set up a game or task to help train a specific aspect of magic usage… ”

He hoped that King would learn to set rules and create situations to help other quirlicorns learn. It would certainly be nice if he could gain another quirlicorn to joust with, even if he could easily win the jousts. Jousting with the same few quirlicorns became monotonous after a while.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” King answered, dipping her head, “Thank you for the joust.”

A portal appeared near the two of them, and Sonnet’s griffin jumped into the portal.

Sonnet recognized the palace hallways on the other side of the portal, and glanced back at King. “Perhaps we’ll joust again in the future.”

He then stepped through the portal, into the inside of the palace. He shook off the snow on his hooves, and looked up to see Psychomyth holding even more scrolls. At least his mane wasn’t purple anymore.

“How’d the joust go?” Psychomyth asked, upon seeing the grin on Sonnet’s face. “Please tell me you didn’t use all of your magic at once..”

“Sorry to disappoint,” Sonnet replied, “But King refused to set any rules or limitations, even when I brought them up. So who was I to hold back?”

Psychomyth sighed, muttering something along the lines of ‘mare’, ‘learned,’ and ‘lesson’.

His griffin gave a loud chirp, and Sonnet looked down at him. Somehow, his griffin was still covered in tinsel. Sonnet sighed.

“Hey Psychomyth, mind adding something else to your to-do list?”