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Description
Previously: (a ) (b )

-:- [1] Snowstorm -:-

---

Sonnet was sprawled across the table, lazily drafting an essay as his griffin played with the feather pen. In the years that had passed, since his father had left, he had written too many of these essays. Enough to fill entire rooms with a young quirlicorn’s musings about history, various literature throughout the ages, contemporary and ancient languages, the theory behind art, music, and entertainment, geography, politics, economics, interland relationships….

Not to mention the analyses he’d done on various mathematical, astronomical, and scientific theories. Seriously, it was a never ending list of subjects to tackle and topics to cover. At times it felt like Psychomyth, Radiance, and Martine, all had various conflicting ideas as to what he should and needed to learn. Thus he learned everything, studying under Arisane and Parav, as they handed him book after book to scrutinize.

He needed to, in order to fit the role of ‘Candentia’s Prince’, in everything but name.

Which was exactly why he was drafting the essay on the benefits and drawbacks of uneven trade alliances, for both parties involved, while his griffin did his utmost to distract him from analyzing negotiations.

“Dummy! Stop that!” Sonnet muttered, holding the feather pen higher in the air with his telekinesis, as his griffin swiped at it.

“You could bond with him, and then you could actually talk with him,” Minuet suggested, lifting her nose out of her own stack of books to read. “You do have more than enough magic now.”

“He can understand me perfectly well! This featherbrain just doesn’t want to listen!” he complained, trying in vain to keep the feather pen out of his griffin’s reach, as Minuet tried hiding her amusement. He sighed, giving up the pen to the ball of feathers and picking up another one.

“It would do you well to take a break from that essay,” Minuet said, shoving a book at him. “Here, take a look at this.”

Sonnet looked down at the book, scanning the diagram on the page. “Familiars?”

“You should know this theory already,” Minuet offered.

“Definitely do,” Sonnet answered, his attention still on the diagram. “Although this is interesting; a neat way of looking at the bond. Is this what you’re writing your essay on? So you feed magic through the bond, which supposedly….” He trailed off, as his eyes moved down the page.

“It could help,” Minuet said gently, her words imparted with warm concern. “And, you could understand your griffin a bit more.”

He shook his head resolutely, “I guess, but I don’t… I shouldn’t.. No, I can’t. And absolutely no to a telepathic bond with Dummy, I don’t want to know what goes on in his head.”

“You already have telepathy,” she pointed out, “It wouldn’t be too different from that.”

“I do, but I don’t use it!” Sonnet said sharply. His telepathy was a liability, not something he liked to use, given how many ways violating a quirlicorns’ mind could go wrong. He bit back a harsh reply, and took a deep breath. “Sorry Minny, it’s just honestly a terrible idea. He’s my familiar, and I don’t need a bond with him for that to be true. And besides, there has to be trust, and quite frankly, that doesn’t exist.”

Minuet carefully studied him, “Then maybe you can bond with another familiar, and have three?”

“Nope, absolutely not. That’s an even worse idea,” Sonnet answered nonchalantly, pushing the book back towards Minuet, “A random animal would be terrible. One magic chicken is already bad enough, I don’t need two.”

“Your choice,” Minuet smiled, shrugging as she called her own kitsune over.

Sonnet seriously wondered if his griffin was a pygmy, or otherwise undersized, given how even Sherri the kitsune easily dwarfed Dummy. He gave his griffin one last side-eye, turning his attention back to the essay draft. More black marks were scrawled onto the paper, the clock ticking from its place on the wall.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Repeat again.

Sonnet yawned, standing up. The first draft was finished, and he had been working on it for far too long. Seriously, trade alliances shouldn’t need this much thought and analysis.

“Want to go see what Resplendence is up to?” Sonnet asked his sister.

She put down her own book, sticking a pressed flower to mark her place. “Sure, a break would be much appreciated.”

Sonnet let out a laugh, noting how his sister was feeling the exact same way he was. “Too many wise words from philosophers long gone?”

“Precisely,” Minuet said, leading the way out of the library-workroom blend. “They’re in the arena, right?” she asked, referring to the other quirlicorns that were blessed with an afternoon of magic training, and not paper after paper.

“Yep, with Gaileniver and Reilyn,” Sonnet affirmed, “I think Barricades might also be there. Grandmother mentioned last night that she’s coming over, and we both know Barricades would never miss a chance to joust.”

“I think everyone knows that,” Minuet said with amusement twinkling in her eyes, sending a thought about Gaileniver and Barricades jousting through telepathy.

Sonnet grinned at Minuet, “Out of those two, who likes jousting more?”

“No clue,” she answered, “Probably a tie.”

“Definitely a tie,” he agreed, greeting the guards with a bright smile, before stepping hoof onto the cobblestone streets. “Oh! Barricades could definitely help Faven out with her air manipulation!”

“Ah, she discovered her first magic?” Minuet asked curiously.

“That she did,” Sonnet grinned, “Guess who was the one that helped her?”

“Barricades?”

“Nope!” Sonnet’s grin only broadened, “She hasn’t visited Candentia in a while.”

Sonnet saw brief flashes of other quirlicorns, as Minuet ran through a list of the possible options. Not Barricades, not Gaileniver, not Radiance, not Psychomyth nor Martine…

“Obviously it was yours truly,” Sonnet gave a pleased smile, miming a bow, “She’ll never admit it, but we figured things out together.”

Minuet sent Sonnet a proud feeling, saying out loud, “Congrats!”

“I know, I’m awesome, aren’t I?” Sonnet continued, “It’s actually very interesting how I had to adapt Martine’s way of using magic and combine it with some other ones I pulled from various books. I think you’d like it, perhaps I can show it to you later?”

“You know I’d love that,” she replied, visibly interested in what he just said.

Sonnet could only let his wide beam grow larger. Nothing could ever compare to the delight of impressing his twin sister.

“Remind me tonight!” he said, eyes searching for the arena.

---

Sonnet eyed the group of quirlicorns gathered in the jousting arena, his gaze jumping from Resplendence to Caerulus’ son, then back to Resplendence jousting with Barricades, to Gaileniver, to Reilyn. He spotted the young filly his grandmother picked up from some random frozen island a few weeks ago. What was her name again?

“Morana,” Minuet said out loud, catching the filly’s attention.

Sonnet warily studied Morana for a moment, being he let out a huff and stalked away. She reminded him of a certain pink and purple sibling of his, minus the fact that Morana was right in front of him and Baroque was anywhere but Candentia.

“Sonnet, Minuet,” Gaileniver greeted them, finishing his demonstration of plasma manipulation.

“Good afternoon,” Sonnet returned the stallion’s greeting, before asking, “Where’s Uncle Caerulus?”

“Caer is somewhere.”

“Nice to know.”

Reilyn thankfully trotted over, before Sonnet and Gail stood there in awkward silence for too long. He acknowledged Sonnet’s presence with a dip of his head, “Sonnet! You’ve grown a lot since I last saw you!”

“Oh please,” Sonnet retorted without any heat behind his words, “It’s been years since that Equinox. Of course I’ve grown.”

Reilyn lifted an eyebrow, before nodding his head, “Into a fine young stallion at that. Your father must be proud of you.”

“High praise,” Sonnet muttered sarcastically, forcing himself to not lash out, and smoothing his ruffled metaphorical feathers. “Not that I don’t deserve it,” he added, tilting his head.

“In any case,” Reilyn said, “I’m sure your magic has only grown more powerful since I last saw you, so would you and Minuet like to give a little demonstration of magic? Show everyone exactly how magic can be used in a joust?”

“That I definitely can,” Sonnet replied, spreading out his large wings as he brought out his magic. “Hmm…” he glanced over at the quirlicorns gathered, “Make it everyone against me, and it still won’t be a fight.

The storm in his heart reappeared, burning as Morana stared him dead in the eye. Even with his magic, he hadn’t proven to be enough to make his father stay. At first, after his father left, he had thrown himself into his studies and training, perhaps in a drive to prove that he was worth something. And now? He didn’t care.

He had long since realized what his father thought didn’t matter.

Reilyn lifted an eyebrow.

“What? There’s a lack of offensive magic, a lack of jousting knowledge, a lack of jousting ability, and of course, a lack of magic in general,” Sonnet said, pointing his horn at the quirlicorns gathered, “Unless, you, Barricades, and Gaileniver join in.”

“We’ll skip on the invitation,” Reilyn replied.

Gaileniver narrowed his eyes, challenging Sonnet, “Try it.”

“Here, how about you and your sister, versus everyone else? Is that good enough for you?” Reilyn said obligingly, “Joust to bowing out?”

“Yes and yes, I’m not the one that’ll be crying after this,” Sonnet smirked, feeling the surge of excitement as he readied himself for the joust. “Minuet! How do you want to do this? Wanna try out that new maneuver we were testing?”

She didn’t bother shouting an answer, simply moving her lips to mutter a soft, “Sure” before answering through telepathy, “I’d say yes, but you did just get us into a two versus six joust.”

“Oh come on, it’ll work out fine,” he replied the same way, “Besides, two versus six is the perfect time to use that!”

“If you insist,” she answered with a mix of concern and eagerness.

“I do.”

Sonnet’s attention was brought back to Reilyn, and the other quirlicorns gathered behind him, by Reilyn clearing his throat. “Great, now that everyone is here, let’s start with a quick introduction.”

“Introductions? We don’t need that, they already know who I am,” Sonnet added a lazy yawn at the end. “Let’s just get this started. Less chattering, more jousting. Rules? Bow out or one of these three lovely referees can call you out. Boundaries? Sides of this arena. And everything else goes?”

“Yes,” Reilyn nodded, “As a side note, us three ‘lovely referees’ can and will be offering advice whenever possible, and remember, if anyone shouts to pause or to stop, everyone will do exactly that.

“Got it,” everyone echoed, stepping into formation, as Sonnet stood side by side with Minuet.

“Now, you six, do your best and make sure to learn from this joust,” Barricades added, “Pay attention to Minuet in particular.”

Sonnet nodded to that. Paying attention to Minuet was the best way to learn, given how the way she fought was highly grounded in theories, tactics, and logistics. But as soon as the joust started, Sonnet could bet that all eyes would be on him.

That did happen every single joust where he and Minuet teamed up.

“Ready?” Reilyn asked, signalling the countdown.

“Get set.”

“Start.”

As soon as those words left Reilyn’s mouth, Sonnet instantly let his magic free. From beside him, he could feel an identical pulse of magic from Minuet.

The swirling droplets of water and snowflakes that surrounded him formed almost instantly. And from the gasps of astonishment, it was just as spectacular as he had hoped.

He lunged at the quirlicorns in front of him, before rearing up. With a flap of his wings, all of the water, ice crystals, snowflakes, and hail were sent towards the other gaping quirlicorns, snaking and spiraling to push them back.

“Told you it’d work,” Sonnet said, giving hold of the water and ice to Minuet, while he stepped back to bring up a wall of fire, to reveal once someone managed to break through the ice barrier.

Of course, it didn’t take long before one of Resplendence’s shields pierced through the ice, and Minuet slipped away to engage her in a joust of ice versus crackling plasma, taking another one of the quirlicorns with them, and leaving him with the other four.

Easy enough.

He made sure to keep a gentle grasp on Minuet’s magic, feeding healing magic her direction whenever he sensed that she was tiring. It was like a dance, albeit with more steps and unpredictable choreography. Perhaps this is what the dusty books were getting at with trade alliances and analogies. Dancing across a fine line, fighting, jousting, balancing, all while not knowing what the other side was planning.

Perhaps he underestimated the strength of several quirlicorns combined. Respendence’s magic pushed through his and his sister’s defences, while Faven’s shaking air manipulation was getting dangerous under Barricades’ guidance.

Sonnet could feel his magic pulsing through his veins, the storm of emotions in his heart growing once more. He looked over at Minuet, and decided to let the fine threads of control he had over his magic snap. He couldn’t lose this joust.

His magic went wild; what was already chaotic only became more so. His flames flickered in the chaos, snapping at the hooves of the quirlicorns in the arena. He spread his wings wider, leaping into the air and fanning the flames with each wing beat.

In the end, he and Minuet won the joust, even with Reilyn, Gaileniver, and Barricades offering increasing amounts of assistance to his opponents. His sides were heaving at the end, beads of sweat rolling down his purple coat. But he stood proudly with Minuet, watching as the other quirlicorns slowly gathered themselves, and walked over to analyze the joust.

“Two versus all of you,” Sonnet drawled, “And we still won.”

“You two have more magic than us!” one of the fillies said, her voice rising above the others.

"Excuses," Sonnet smirked, stepping towards her, "I can assure you that magic isn't everything in a fight. Although, you'd need a tad more strategy than a flock of pigeons to beat me and Minuet. And preferably more intelligence than that rock over there.”

“Don’t dodge the fire, use your air manipulation to force the flames in a different direction,” he commented to Faven, as he stepped forward to heal her and the other quirlicorns.

“Again, magic isn’t everything, and wiser choices could have been made.”

“Resplendence, you’re the only one that did good,” Sonnet commented, as he made his way to her.

She gave him an amused smile, “You do know you could have let us win, right? Be a little nicer?”

“What’s the fun in that?” Sonnet replied, “I already went easy on you guys. If I went any easier, they wouldn’t have learned anything.”

As he and Minuet walked back to the palace, he could hear the quirlicorns in the market chattering about various news in Candentia. The guards were also talking about a potential alliance with some land in the Plains and what that would mean for Candentia.

Remain in the familiar and predictable isolation, or forge a potentially risky alliance and build more bridges and connections? And everything rested in the hooves of his grandmother, Regent Radiance, and Psychomyth.

Even all the reading Sonnet had done couldn’t tell him the right choice.

---
2582 words
Sonnet (+ griffin familiar), Minuet
Resplendence, Faven
Gaileniver, Barricades, Reilyn

Description
Previously: (a ) (b )

-:- [1] Snowstorm -:-

---

Sonnet was sprawled across the table, lazily drafting an essay as his griffin played with the feather pen. In the years that had passed, since his father had left, he had written too many of these essays. Enough to fill entire rooms with a young quirlicorn’s musings about history, various literature throughout the ages, contemporary and ancient languages, the theory behind art, music, and entertainment, geography, politics, economics, interland relationships….

Not to mention the analyses he’d done on various mathematical, astronomical, and scientific theories. Seriously, it was a never ending list of subjects to tackle and topics to cover. At times it felt like Psychomyth, Radiance, and Martine, all had various conflicting ideas as to what he should and needed to learn. Thus he learned everything, studying under Arisane and Parav, as they handed him book after book to scrutinize.

He needed to, in order to fit the role of ‘Candentia’s Prince’, in everything but name.

Which was exactly why he was drafting the essay on the benefits and drawbacks of uneven trade alliances, for both parties involved, while his griffin did his utmost to distract him from analyzing negotiations.

“Dummy! Stop that!” Sonnet muttered, holding the feather pen higher in the air with his telekinesis, as his griffin swiped at it.

“You could bond with him, and then you could actually talk with him,” Minuet suggested, lifting her nose out of her own stack of books to read. “You do have more than enough magic now.”

“He can understand me perfectly well! This featherbrain just doesn’t want to listen!” he complained, trying in vain to keep the feather pen out of his griffin’s reach, as Minuet tried hiding her amusement. He sighed, giving up the pen to the ball of feathers and picking up another one.

“It would do you well to take a break from that essay,” Minuet said, shoving a book at him. “Here, take a look at this.”

Sonnet looked down at the book, scanning the diagram on the page. “Familiars?”

“You should know this theory already,” Minuet offered.

“Definitely do,” Sonnet answered, his attention still on the diagram. “Although this is interesting; a neat way of looking at the bond. Is this what you’re writing your essay on? So you feed magic through the bond, which supposedly….” He trailed off, as his eyes moved down the page.

“It could help,” Minuet said gently, her words imparted with warm concern. “And, you could understand your griffin a bit more.”

He shook his head resolutely, “I guess, but I don’t… I shouldn’t.. No, I can’t. And absolutely no to a telepathic bond with Dummy, I don’t want to know what goes on in his head.”

“You already have telepathy,” she pointed out, “It wouldn’t be too different from that.”

“I do, but I don’t use it!” Sonnet said sharply. His telepathy was a liability, not something he liked to use, given how many ways violating a quirlicorns’ mind could go wrong. He bit back a harsh reply, and took a deep breath. “Sorry Minny, it’s just honestly a terrible idea. He’s my familiar, and I don’t need a bond with him for that to be true. And besides, there has to be trust, and quite frankly, that doesn’t exist.”

Minuet carefully studied him, “Then maybe you can bond with another familiar, and have three?”

“Nope, absolutely not. That’s an even worse idea,” Sonnet answered nonchalantly, pushing the book back towards Minuet, “A random animal would be terrible. One magic chicken is already bad enough, I don’t need two.”

“Your choice,” Minuet smiled, shrugging as she called her own kitsune over.

Sonnet seriously wondered if his griffin was a pygmy, or otherwise undersized, given how even Sherri the kitsune easily dwarfed Dummy. He gave his griffin one last side-eye, turning his attention back to the essay draft. More black marks were scrawled onto the paper, the clock ticking from its place on the wall.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Repeat again.

Sonnet yawned, standing up. The first draft was finished, and he had been working on it for far too long. Seriously, trade alliances shouldn’t need this much thought and analysis.

“Want to go see what Resplendence is up to?” Sonnet asked his sister.

She put down her own book, sticking a pressed flower to mark her place. “Sure, a break would be much appreciated.”

Sonnet let out a laugh, noting how his sister was feeling the exact same way he was. “Too many wise words from philosophers long gone?”

“Precisely,” Minuet said, leading the way out of the library-workroom blend. “They’re in the arena, right?” she asked, referring to the other quirlicorns that were blessed with an afternoon of magic training, and not paper after paper.

“Yep, with Gaileniver and Reilyn,” Sonnet affirmed, “I think Barricades might also be there. Grandmother mentioned last night that she’s coming over, and we both know Barricades would never miss a chance to joust.”

“I think everyone knows that,” Minuet said with amusement twinkling in her eyes, sending a thought about Gaileniver and Barricades jousting through telepathy.

Sonnet grinned at Minuet, “Out of those two, who likes jousting more?”

“No clue,” she answered, “Probably a tie.”

“Definitely a tie,” he agreed, greeting the guards with a bright smile, before stepping hoof onto the cobblestone streets. “Oh! Barricades could definitely help Faven out with her air manipulation!”

“Ah, she discovered her first magic?” Minuet asked curiously.

“That she did,” Sonnet grinned, “Guess who was the one that helped her?”

“Barricades?”

“Nope!” Sonnet’s grin only broadened, “She hasn’t visited Candentia in a while.”

Sonnet saw brief flashes of other quirlicorns, as Minuet ran through a list of the possible options. Not Barricades, not Gaileniver, not Radiance, not Psychomyth nor Martine…

“Obviously it was yours truly,” Sonnet gave a pleased smile, miming a bow, “She’ll never admit it, but we figured things out together.”

Minuet sent Sonnet a proud feeling, saying out loud, “Congrats!”

“I know, I’m awesome, aren’t I?” Sonnet continued, “It’s actually very interesting how I had to adapt Martine’s way of using magic and combine it with some other ones I pulled from various books. I think you’d like it, perhaps I can show it to you later?”

“You know I’d love that,” she replied, visibly interested in what he just said.

Sonnet could only let his wide beam grow larger. Nothing could ever compare to the delight of impressing his twin sister.

“Remind me tonight!” he said, eyes searching for the arena.

---

Sonnet eyed the group of quirlicorns gathered in the jousting arena, his gaze jumping from Resplendence to Caerulus’ son, then back to Resplendence jousting with Barricades, to Gaileniver, to Reilyn. He spotted the young filly his grandmother picked up from some random frozen island a few weeks ago. What was her name again?

“Morana,” Minuet said out loud, catching the filly’s attention.

Sonnet warily studied Morana for a moment, being he let out a huff and stalked away. She reminded him of a certain pink and purple sibling of his, minus the fact that Morana was right in front of him and Baroque was anywhere but Candentia.

“Sonnet, Minuet,” Gaileniver greeted them, finishing his demonstration of plasma manipulation.

“Good afternoon,” Sonnet returned the stallion’s greeting, before asking, “Where’s Uncle Caerulus?”

“Caer is somewhere.”

“Nice to know.”

Reilyn thankfully trotted over, before Sonnet and Gail stood there in awkward silence for too long. He acknowledged Sonnet’s presence with a dip of his head, “Sonnet! You’ve grown a lot since I last saw you!”

“Oh please,” Sonnet retorted without any heat behind his words, “It’s been years since that Equinox. Of course I’ve grown.”

Reilyn lifted an eyebrow, before nodding his head, “Into a fine young stallion at that. Your father must be proud of you.”

“High praise,” Sonnet muttered sarcastically, forcing himself to not lash out, and smoothing his ruffled metaphorical feathers. “Not that I don’t deserve it,” he added, tilting his head.

“In any case,” Reilyn said, “I’m sure your magic has only grown more powerful since I last saw you, so would you and Minuet like to give a little demonstration of magic? Show everyone exactly how magic can be used in a joust?”

“That I definitely can,” Sonnet replied, spreading out his large wings as he brought out his magic. “Hmm…” he glanced over at the quirlicorns gathered, “Make it everyone against me, and it still won’t be a fight.

The storm in his heart reappeared, burning as Morana stared him dead in the eye. Even with his magic, he hadn’t proven to be enough to make his father stay. At first, after his father left, he had thrown himself into his studies and training, perhaps in a drive to prove that he was worth something. And now? He didn’t care.

He had long since realized what his father thought didn’t matter.

Reilyn lifted an eyebrow.

“What? There’s a lack of offensive magic, a lack of jousting knowledge, a lack of jousting ability, and of course, a lack of magic in general,” Sonnet said, pointing his horn at the quirlicorns gathered, “Unless, you, Barricades, and Gaileniver join in.”

“We’ll skip on the invitation,” Reilyn replied.

Gaileniver narrowed his eyes, challenging Sonnet, “Try it.”

“Here, how about you and your sister, versus everyone else? Is that good enough for you?” Reilyn said obligingly, “Joust to bowing out?”

“Yes and yes, I’m not the one that’ll be crying after this,” Sonnet smirked, feeling the surge of excitement as he readied himself for the joust. “Minuet! How do you want to do this? Wanna try out that new maneuver we were testing?”

She didn’t bother shouting an answer, simply moving her lips to mutter a soft, “Sure” before answering through telepathy, “I’d say yes, but you did just get us into a two versus six joust.”

“Oh come on, it’ll work out fine,” he replied the same way, “Besides, two versus six is the perfect time to use that!”

“If you insist,” she answered with a mix of concern and eagerness.

“I do.”

Sonnet’s attention was brought back to Reilyn, and the other quirlicorns gathered behind him, by Reilyn clearing his throat. “Great, now that everyone is here, let’s start with a quick introduction.”

“Introductions? We don’t need that, they already know who I am,” Sonnet added a lazy yawn at the end. “Let’s just get this started. Less chattering, more jousting. Rules? Bow out or one of these three lovely referees can call you out. Boundaries? Sides of this arena. And everything else goes?”

“Yes,” Reilyn nodded, “As a side note, us three ‘lovely referees’ can and will be offering advice whenever possible, and remember, if anyone shouts to pause or to stop, everyone will do exactly that.

“Got it,” everyone echoed, stepping into formation, as Sonnet stood side by side with Minuet.

“Now, you six, do your best and make sure to learn from this joust,” Barricades added, “Pay attention to Minuet in particular.”

Sonnet nodded to that. Paying attention to Minuet was the best way to learn, given how the way she fought was highly grounded in theories, tactics, and logistics. But as soon as the joust started, Sonnet could bet that all eyes would be on him.

That did happen every single joust where he and Minuet teamed up.

“Ready?” Reilyn asked, signalling the countdown.

“Get set.”

“Start.”

As soon as those words left Reilyn’s mouth, Sonnet instantly let his magic free. From beside him, he could feel an identical pulse of magic from Minuet.

The swirling droplets of water and snowflakes that surrounded him formed almost instantly. And from the gasps of astonishment, it was just as spectacular as he had hoped.

He lunged at the quirlicorns in front of him, before rearing up. With a flap of his wings, all of the water, ice crystals, snowflakes, and hail were sent towards the other gaping quirlicorns, snaking and spiraling to push them back.

“Told you it’d work,” Sonnet said, giving hold of the water and ice to Minuet, while he stepped back to bring up a wall of fire, to reveal once someone managed to break through the ice barrier.

Of course, it didn’t take long before one of Resplendence’s shields pierced through the ice, and Minuet slipped away to engage her in a joust of ice versus crackling plasma, taking another one of the quirlicorns with them, and leaving him with the other four.

Easy enough.

He made sure to keep a gentle grasp on Minuet’s magic, feeding healing magic her direction whenever he sensed that she was tiring. It was like a dance, albeit with more steps and unpredictable choreography. Perhaps this is what the dusty books were getting at with trade alliances and analogies. Dancing across a fine line, fighting, jousting, balancing, all while not knowing what the other side was planning.

Perhaps he underestimated the strength of several quirlicorns combined. Respendence’s magic pushed through his and his sister’s defences, while Faven’s shaking air manipulation was getting dangerous under Barricades’ guidance.

Sonnet could feel his magic pulsing through his veins, the storm of emotions in his heart growing once more. He looked over at Minuet, and decided to let the fine threads of control he had over his magic snap. He couldn’t lose this joust.

His magic went wild; what was already chaotic only became more so. His flames flickered in the chaos, snapping at the hooves of the quirlicorns in the arena. He spread his wings wider, leaping into the air and fanning the flames with each wing beat.

In the end, he and Minuet won the joust, even with Reilyn, Gaileniver, and Barricades offering increasing amounts of assistance to his opponents. His sides were heaving at the end, beads of sweat rolling down his purple coat. But he stood proudly with Minuet, watching as the other quirlicorns slowly gathered themselves, and walked over to analyze the joust.

“Two versus all of you,” Sonnet drawled, “And we still won.”

“You two have more magic than us!” one of the fillies said, her voice rising above the others.

"Excuses," Sonnet smirked, stepping towards her, "I can assure you that magic isn't everything in a fight. Although, you'd need a tad more strategy than a flock of pigeons to beat me and Minuet. And preferably more intelligence than that rock over there.”

“Don’t dodge the fire, use your air manipulation to force the flames in a different direction,” he commented to Faven, as he stepped forward to heal her and the other quirlicorns.

“Again, magic isn’t everything, and wiser choices could have been made.”

“Resplendence, you’re the only one that did good,” Sonnet commented, as he made his way to her.

She gave him an amused smile, “You do know you could have let us win, right? Be a little nicer?”

“What’s the fun in that?” Sonnet replied, “I already went easy on you guys. If I went any easier, they wouldn’t have learned anything.”

As he and Minuet walked back to the palace, he could hear the quirlicorns in the market chattering about various news in Candentia. The guards were also talking about a potential alliance with some land in the Plains and what that would mean for Candentia.

Remain in the familiar and predictable isolation, or forge a potentially risky alliance and build more bridges and connections? And everything rested in the hooves of his grandmother, Regent Radiance, and Psychomyth.

Even all the reading Sonnet had done couldn’t tell him the right choice.

---
2582 words
Sonnet (+ griffin familiar), Minuet
Resplendence, Faven
Gaileniver, Barricades, Reilyn