//------------------------------//
// At Tournament Point 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Shinespark solemnly climbed the three steps separating the raised arena from the colosseum floor, her opponent already standing in wait. With Nyala's height boost, she easily stood over him even though he was taller than her, and for a moment their gazes met.

"Hello there, little one," the stallion said, a slight measure of discomfort in his otherwise-calm voice. "I was under the impression I would be fighting young Valey today. It does me well to see she heeded my advice and kept herself innocent of this tournament... unless she is merely biding her time and afraid to face the judgement she so hastily deals in. You may call me Grandpapa. Who are you?"

Shinespark frowned, holding her posture perfectly. "I'm Shinespark. Valey's friend." Her mechanical, metal wings reacted as smoothly to her thoughts as they ever had, sitting still at her sides and pretending to be inanimate while covering the sword that would win her this fight. "She's not backing down or hiding. She was sabotaged, and I'm here to fight for her and keep her run alive."

Grandpapa sighed, his thin, gray mane and wispy voice doing nothing to hide the danger of the arts he possessed. "Ahh. Is that so, my dear? Well, it's not your soul or your race's cosmic fate that are on the line. But you should know that you're not doing your friend as big of a favor as you think. Hurting her, in fact. You still have time to back down and turn away of your own accord, seeking a peaceful life in your proper places... or I will turn you away and do my best to send you there myself."

Valey was right, Shinespark realized, eyes widening slightly. This old stallion was mysterious and creepy. She didn't trust of believe in his hyperbole about cosmic fate, even though his tone made it sound perfectly reasonable... but he definitely meant business. "You have to have a better name than that, though," she insisted. "What can I call you?"

"I just told you." Grandpapa shrugged. "There are no rules in the tournament behind digging into your identity. Many who compete wish to remain anonymous. You may call me Grandpapa, or whatever else you wish, but not another word will leave my lips on the matter."

"I cannot believe my ears," Howe interrupted, hunched over his rapier microphone like a villain scheming to himself in the darkness. "After Admiral Valey's stunning disappearance in her last match, accusations of sabotage!? But behold!" He swept a wing out, thundering to the sky. "Her loyal companion, without an inch of tournament experience in her life, has deigned to fight in her stead? Truly, the power of friendship flows in her veins! Will such dedication be enough to counteract the star fighter of Gondolus Gyre? Who even let her in the ring in the first place? The suspense and mystery form an infuriating conflagration that will explode in a shower of drama!"

Grandpapa sighed. "That announcer really needs to work off some tension, methinks. But if you're determined to fight me, shall we begin?"

Shinespark set her jaw, nodded, and put a hoof forward.





"Nyaaah... Starlight, what are you doing?" Valey asked, laying facedown on her stomach with her legs splayed in front of and behind her, wings stretched out to the side as she rocked from side to side.

"Same to you," Starlight replied, a clunk of metal coming from her corner of the room. "I'm opening this teleporter machine."

"Bananas, why are you doing that?" Valey rotated her head enough to see Starlight by the machine, a giant side panel of the casing loose and propped against the filly's back. "I'm... nngh... stretching. Just flew for absolutely ages to come get you, and I've learned my lesson about sitting still and letting myself stiffen up after that."

Starlight carefully dragged the panel away, setting it against a wall and spitting out a tiny ice screwdriver made for her by a barely-conscious Puddles. "Because it's probably powered by magic, and we can use that to answer the sound stone." She kicked at Valey's saddlebags, the light of an unanswered call still shimmering slightly from beneath an open strap.

Valey blinked, then rolled harder, forcing one of her wing joints all the way up as she put her weight down on it. "Ooh! Ow, that's good. And cool. Cool, cool..." She rolled the other way, legs still maximally extended and sometimes kicking at awkward angles.

A smaller clunk sounded as Starlight stuck her head in the machine, poking around inside. "Huh," she announced. "It has a control panel in here. And wires, wires... here! Someone give me the stone?"

Puddles cleared her throat, back to being unconscious again.

"Alright, alright, what's up...?" Valey rolled to her hooves, flapping her wings a few times as she walked instead of furling them. "Where's this go?" she asked, popping the sound stone out and into her grasp.

"Mmph," Starlight responded, pointing to an unprotected area with her mouth and hooves full of wires she was holding aside.

With a greater swirl, the sound stone came alive as mana power was applied to it, shimmering in Valey's grasp. "Hmm?" Gerardo's voice sounded through it. "Ah, she responded? Valey? Are you there?"

Valey grinned, flipping onto her back and plopping the stone on her chest. "Sure am, Birdo. And guess what? It was pretty spooky, but I got Starlight and we're on our way back. Mission complete!"

"Hi," Starlight added, still looking at the teleporter. "We're alright."

"Starlight!" Maple exclaimed. "You're there? You're alright?"

"I think so," Starlight replied. "I want to see you and everyone else again, and Valey was shaken hard. Also we found Puddles and are bringing her back too."

"If I can carry both of you," Valey muttered, mentally weighing the pair of them.

Gerardo importantly cleared his throat. "Well, that's fantastic, if I allow myself to say so. Although, how far out do you think you still are? You see..."

Valey shrugged. "We kind of used a teleporter, so I've actually got no clue. But my best guess is Grandbell? One province over?"

"Ah. Well, that's a shame." Gerardo's headcrest drooped so hard Valey could practically hear it deflate over the sound stone. "You see, Shinespark is presently..."





Grandpapa didn't wait for Shinespark to make the first move. His hooves left the ground, wings propelling him along in a skimming glide with her face as the clear target. He wasn't nearly fast enough, though, and Shinespark lifted a hoof to block, preparing to intercept his trajectory and smack him aside... until he suddenly dug into the ground, pivoting and changing his momentum on a dime. As if he had grabbed a pole and used it to swing around, he was suddenly going sideways, and then his course reversed again and he slammed into Shinespark's unbalanced side, not letting her get her hoof back down to steady herself.

"Woah!" Shinespark lurched, Grandpapa already flinging himself into the air to pounce from above and topple her completely. Instead of reeling and exposing herself to the blow, she let herself fall all the way, hooves pointing straight up toward him as he dropped. Fwooosh! The rocket boosters designed to give the armor limited flight when it was on its own and disguise her magic when she was in it ignited, pointed skyward as flamethrower weapons.

Grandpapa's momentum proved just as easy to change in the air as it was on the ground, and he effortlessly backed away. But the opening let Shinespark roll to her side, using the boosters to slide across the stage before getting to her hooves a safe distance away.

"That's quite the invention you have there, my dear," Grandpapa remarked, landing and furling his wings, standing where she had started and her where he had been. "It's a wonder they let you bring it in. You must have some powerful political connections. Still, the tournament is a test of immorality, and if that's the lowest you can stoop, you will be defeated for sure. Please, back down before you sully yourself further."

Shinespark grimaced, starting to wonder if Grandpapa was insane. "Not happening," she countered, blowing a bit of dust out of her bang. "Come at me!"

The batpony obliged, but did so in no hurry. Calmly, he paced across the arena toward her, leaving far too much time to react and nothing apparent to react to. Minding her weak spots, Shinespark thought quickly: if he went for her face, it would be too obvious and she would be prepared. Most of the rest of her was too well-armored for him to do anything. Did she have any lesser weaknesses? Anything less obvious an unarmed flier who needed to connect with the flats of his hooves would be interested in?

"Interesting," Grandpapa said, now far too close for comfort. "Not using your magic to try to force me back? Either you think yourself a melee fighter, or you haven't been briefed on what I can do!"

So he was scoping her out. Shinespark reminded herself again to keep her sword and wings under wraps until she knew she had an opportunity, but that was as far as she got to prepare before he moved. First Grandpapa was beneath her, a flurry of taps hitting the underside of her armor. Shinespark instinctively brought her legs together, trying to pinch him or stomp him, and when he shadow snuck using her own shadow to avoid them, she flared her boosters, jumping just high enough to light the stallion out and then singe him with her exhaust.

Before she could even see the results of her work, he had grabbed one of her legs, unable to properly swing her due to her enhanced weight but still spinning her off-balance. Shinespark flipped away, using half a second of flight magic to propel herself off him and land upright, instantly converting her hornlight into a hammer of telekinesis that slammed down where she had been. But Grandpapa wasn't there.

"Quite the suit of armor you have indeed, my dear," he informed her, suddenly within punching reach of her face. Shinespark winced; with his speed, there was nothing she could do to block... so she went for a pre-emptive counterattack, lighting her horn again and propelling herself forward with a simultaneous blast from her boosters, earning a premature blow to the chest and nearly running Grandpapa over. But the stallion was too fast, deliberately tangling himself in her legs so that a booster went awry, forcing her into a barrel roll until she canceled it and landed on her back with him atop her.

"Nnngh!" Shinespark's horn flared, sending out a lance of telekinesis in self-defense... but Grandpapa calmly hung back until it was over, then reached forward and tapped her squarely between the eyes.

Instantly, Shinespark's legs felt wrong, like she had just stretched them precisely the wrong way and they were now horribly cramped. But the bulk of her strength came from the armor anyway, and nothing had happened to her connection with it. With a victorious grimace, her forelegs snapped together, pinning themselves together and trapping him atop her. "Gotcha!" She prepared to roll and crush him.

Grandpapa punched her face again.

Another tingle of tension shot through Shinespark, and she felt her legs lock up completely. She rolled anyway, propelling herself with two boosters and her magic, but Grandpapa escaped into her shadow again, leaving Shinespark sliding away and rolling again to her hooves. She stood shakily, no feeling or strength in her legs but the armor still doing its job.

"How are you still standing?" Grandpapa asked in awe, pausing his onslaught for a moment as Shinespark took a step closer. "I disabled your legs! Did I miss?"

"Don't think too hard about it," Shinespark replied. "I've just got something worth fighting for."

"Hmmm..." Her opponent frowned suspiciously, thin mane rocking slightly as he reoriented himself, and then he approached again.

How much more could she take? Shinespark evaluated herself, wondering if she had been a fool to keep her visor down. Fortunately, whatever physical damage Grandpapa used his arts to do to her body, the armor still worked for her and seemed immune... but what about if he targeted her mind instead? Felicity had been clear the touches and blows were used to transmit impulses and feelings, so he could do a lot more once he realized commanding her muscles to break themselves wasn't working. She needed an opening to use the sword, but with how quickly she could be disarmed, she had only one shot.

This time, Grandpapa used his speed to get behind her, testing the top of her armor with another series of blows. Shinespark lunged forward, striking at him with her mechanical tail, but he clung on, using the tail to launch himself forward like a torpedo and strike at the back of her neck. "This armor is a shell!" he commented, soaring with enough momentum to tip her forward and send her face plowing towards the ground. "It opens along the bottom, I'm thinking. I suppose we'll just have to find a way to shuck you, then, little clam, won't we?"

Shinespark flipped again, landing once more on her back with her boosters firing to defend herself from above... but Grandpapa was once again too fast for her, standing ahead of her as she slid into him. With a disapproving frown, he locked eyes with her for a millisecond before tapping her face once more.

This time, her back locked up, painful but not immobilized. Shinespark winced hard, sending her legs out to the sides and firing just the right boosters to spin like a top, whipping at him with her tail. Grandpapa jumped to avoid it, just as she hoped, and she timed his arc and her spin, waiting for him to land at the perfect moment with no way to shift his momentum in time... and her wings unfurled, shooting toward him with the sword firmly grasped so he would impale himself on it as he fell.

Grandpapa easily hovered out of the way.

"What...?" Shinespark paled, realizing she had lost her edge. Desperately, she rolled back upright, weapon clutched in the open, but any surprise she possessed had already worn off. "No..."

"That's a fancy trick you have," Grandpapa declared, taking two steps forward but standing perfectly out of sword range. "How many limbs do you think you'll need to beat an old stallion like me? Is seven enough for you? Or are you going to become an octopus and grow one more?"

"You've got wings too," Shinespark snarled, forcing back a cloud of desperation at the realization that she was partially immobilized and had nothing left up her sleeve. "Fair is fair!"

Locking her feathers in a shield as she returned to circling, Shinespark let the metal wings do what they did best, now that she had no reason to hide them. They broke apart as she lit her horn and fired her boosters to cover the magic, soaring above him and preparing for a dive attack. That caught Grandpapa off guard, the massive suit of armor actually becoming airborne, and even as he dodged aside Shinespark was nimble enough to change her trajectory, too. With a slash, she made to pierce him... and Grandpapa punched the flat of the blade aside, swinging upward while upside-down and catching her descending face with a rear kick. This one actually had power behind it, and Shinespark recoiled, hoping her nose wasn't bloodied. Instead of fully freezing her back, this one made her start twitching, occasionally sending an involuntary spasm through her muscles that somehow translated to the armor too.

"Ugh..." Shinespark grimaced as everything save her wings briefly shook. They weren't part of her natural anatomy, so maybe they were exempt? Two more blows arced in to try to break her further, and she deflected them both on her metal feathers. Her horn worked, too. With a pulse of sapphire, she pushed herself backwards and sent a wall of telekinesis forward, forcing Grandpapa to fly high to avoid it. The sword rose in her aura, and she stood defensively, legs not only doing nothing she wanted but occasionally moving when she didn't.

"Oh, none of that, now," Grandpapa warned, voice growing cooler when he saw the sword hovering in her telekinesis. "That kind of fighting is dangerous, my dear."

Shinespark held to parry, but he baited the strike, slipping beyond it before she could come in for a second spin. A hoof flew for her face, and she raised a wing, but he moved aside and caught the wing too far out, then did the same for a second strike. Momentarily, they were face to face, Shinespark's wings spread and his forelegs spread blocking them... and then his wingtips rose, tapping her cheeks and forehead and inputting a rapid pattern in quick succession.

Instantly, Shinespark spasmed, and her horn went out.

"There we go," Grandpapa sighed, backing up and catching the sword by the hilt as it fell, standing and admiring his work. "Let's have no more of that, now. Still have any fight left in you, my well-armored dear?"

Shinespark tried to move her wings... and nothing happened. The entire armor didn't respond.

"Shinespark?" Nyala's voice whispered in her ear. "The armor is saying its connection to you is lost. It's not detecting you anymore."

"N-No..." Shinespark's eyes widened in fear. She could still talk and move her head, but her legs were immobilized and her back was painful and her horn and cutie mark didn't work. Every second or two, she felt another twitching spasm wrack her body, only the armor was so heavy and mechanized it didn't move a bit.

"I can switch it to manually detect your muscle movements," Nyala volunteered, "but it's been reading asynchronous from what your intentions and body are doing for a while now. That will only work if you're in control of yourself, and he's hit you a lot..."

"I think... t-this is it..." Shinespark swallowed, feeling her eyes starting to glisten at the corners even as she couldn't move. "No! Valey..."

"Referee?" Grandpapa asked, holding the sword like it was a walking stick. "Please start the countdown for timing her out, if you will? I have her completely immobilized."





"Bananas!" Valey punched the ground, completely hunched over the sound stone as Amber and Gerardo gave her a running commentary of the fight and Maple stayed tightly silent. "Sparky, what are you doing, girl? Argh!" She grimaced and swung another hoof. "We were so close to being back, too! I could probably fly it in half a day! Maybe ten hours, or even eight...!"

"On the bright side, imagining your retribution gets me all tingly inside!" Puddles giggled. "And you'll have all the time in the world and no tournament to keep you from it. Wallace and Morena on your side, too, once you bring back their adorable filly's empty body..."

Valey stomped. "Not helping!" she growled, staring into the sound stone like she could will Shinespark back to health. "Come on, Sparky, get up! Don't go getting yourself this messed up...!"

"Would you two be quiet?" Starlight demanded from the teleportation machine. "I'm trying to concentrate!"

"Yeah? Oh what?" Valey countered, thoroughly agitated. "Sparky's getting her rear kicked twenty different directions for my sake and is indebted to who knows what power just for the chance to do it, and you know how bad she's going to feel about failing! I'm a little busy here listening to my best friend getting torn apart, okay?"

Starlight tapped the teleporter. "On this thing. Someone obviously stole Arambai's design from Riverfall for this. It's been modified, but if it can teleport someone all the way to Gyre, why can't it teleport us to Stormhoof?"

Valey blinked.

"Valey? Is Starlight saying something? I think she's too far away. I can't quite make her out!"

"Uhh... nah, nothing important." Valey got up, nodding at the sound stone. "Sit tight, Amber, I've got something I need to do." She was at Starlight's side in a flash. "Are you serious? Here, why didn't you tell me?"

"Are you a magical genius?" Starlight frowned, a terminal shoved roughly inside the casing that obviously wasn't designed to be used refusing to cooperate with her.

Valey pushed her aside, too tense to grin. "No, but this is Ironridge tech. Bananas, ponies using the same design for everything... Used this stuff a ton when I'd mess with the Defense Force base's security system to frame someone or get away with something. Let's see, meh meh mehhh, where are we... Hey, what are the coordinates of Stormhoof, here? Using whatever system this thing is apparently calibrated for?"

"That's what I don't know," Starlight grumbled.

"It's probably calibrated relative to where we are now, seeing as it's a teleporter," Puddles growled. "We're in Grandbell now, yes, so you'll want to go several hundred miles west... Give me a hot minute to remember, my pony brain's frosty."





Felicity and Gondolus Gyre watched the fight from far enough behind their enchanted window that they were invisible from the other side, the giant sphinx sitting upright and holding Felicity like a doll in midair against his chest. It was ridiculous and demeaning, but Felicity swished her tail contentedly, keeping a straight face throughout every blow that Grandpapa landed.

"See?" Lord Gyre held her up with one big paw, the other petting her mane and ears. "I told you he would be fine. See how she's stopped moving? My champion is fine, your friend owes me for giving her the chance anyway... What did I tell you, you doubting little mare?"

Felicity ignored his ministrations, much more focused on the battle. "Must feel nice, voicing your predictions to someone who's paid to agree with you and tell you how right you are after the fact. This is a pro bono opinion, but you might want to think about becoming less-easy to manipulate, sometime..."

Lord Gyre laughed. "Ha! I can afford to be swindled by you, pleasure mare. And you're one to talk, doing the first and only thing asked of you when there's bits involved."

"I might need a little more before I agree with that one," Felicity teased, instantly being rewarded by another clinking bag tossed at the spot she had been sitting. "Mmm, that's more like it..."

Suddenly, a small throat cleared itself behind them. The sphinx turned, turning Felicity with him, and Senescey was there.

"Ah, darling!" Felicity exclaimed, instantly giving Gondolus the cold shoulder once more before wilting for Senescey as well. "I... well, did the best I could for your friends, but as you can see, it's... not going swimmingly for them. But look on the bright side!" She unpinned the bit bags she had been holding in her mane and tossed them to the floor as well, once again beaming. "Seems someone wanted me on the clock tonight. Be a dear and squirrel these away at home for me?"

Senescey swallowed, avoiding eye contact with Lord Gyre. "Thanks, Felicity," she mumbled, watching the money instead. "I... will have to go and talk to them again, won't I? After the fight, do you think you could...?"

"Not now, darling, I'm getting paid!" Felicity brushed her aside, shamelessly nuzzling the bottom of Lord Gyre's chin and earning a chuckle.

"Right..." The bags disappeared beneath Senescey's wings, and she quietly got up and left.

Gondolus turned their attention back to the window, moving Felicity with him. Focused on the fight and unable to see her face, he completely missed a grim, remorseful smirk that passed for moments and then was gone.





"Ohh..." Senescey sighed, straightening up on the other side of Lord Gyre's door.

"So what did we get this time?" a voice asked next to her, and a blue-maned batpony with a smaller complexion rose from the shadows to meet her, instantly relieving her of the bags. "Mmm... Mhmm... He's getting stingier. Wonder if money is growing tighter even at the top in Gyre."

"Hello, Larceny," Senescey sighed, starting her walk away from the door. "It's a miracle we're able to get funding from him at all, given our situation. Or a curse. I hate stooping to him, and I hate seeing Felicity like that..."

Larceny shrugged, tucking the money away in a pair of oversized saddlebags. "Any more than you hate using your own talents for what they're best at?" She tapped Senescey's flank with a wingtip. "Takes sacrifices to get things done, sometimes."

Senescey frowned. "Says you," she countered. "You weren't old enough to... to remember Mother when she..."

"And neither were you." Larceny slowed slightly, keeping her voice down. "Only Felicity was, and this is her job, her plan and her decision. Whether we agree with it or not, we let her worry about what she's willing to live with and in turn handle our own. You trust her, right?"

"Fine," Senescey huffed. "But you're going in there next time when I have something on my conscience and she's using her brand."

"Not like either of us needed to in the first place," Larceny remarked, rolling her shoulders. "She's perfectly capable of carrying this home herself, and we're just fine waiting until she's off work to see her. But since we've got it, let's get this back home. Can't believe how fast we burn through it..."

Above, the crowd's distant roar filtering in from outside intensified, signifying that the tides of battle had changed.





"Nnngh..." Shinespark grunted against her armor, body refusing to move and barely strong enough to lift the heavy metal limbs even if she could. "No! Work! Work!"

Grandpapa raised an eyebrow at Howe.

"Uhhh..." the pegasus hesitated, drawing a wing through his red and black mane. "Heh heh... As unfortunate as it is for fate to decree I inflict this on you, ally of Valey, behold... one two three four five si-"

"I can't believe I'm about to do this," Nyala interrupted in Shinespark's ears, voice intended for her and her alone. "This isn't going to work, but if you can push yourself this hard for Valey, I can too. Here goes..."

The armor's wings twitched and snapped closed, interrupting Howe halfway through his bashful counting. Nyala's neck whirred as she re-exerted control over her body, the sealed, armored helm extending to fully cover Shinespark's face. With a sapphire glow, Nyala's eyes came alight, and she switched her voice to sound like Shinespark's, snapping out her boosters and igniting them in a charge straight at Grandpapa. "I'm not finished yet!"

The old stallion was too dumbstruck to successfully dodge, caught by a right hook and plowed into the ground with a pained grunt, rolling several times and dropping the sword in his shock. He recovered before Nyala could follow up, though, sliding out of reach and staring with wide eyes. "That's impossible! How are you still on your hooves!?"

Nyala didn't grace him with an answer, stomping over to the fallen sword. "What are you doing?" Shinespark whispered inside the helmet, the armor's technology giving her a perfect view of what was going on despite having her eyes obscured. "I thought you didn't know how to fight?"

"That won't matter if he has no way to hurt me," Nyala replied in her ears. "He wouldn't have hit you either if you had kept your helmet on. Maybe you wanted to show that you were fighting as yourself, but it's my turn now."

"Just be careful," Shinespark hissed. "You're not invincible!"

"Sorry." Nyala cut her off. "Too busy being terrified and doing something I said I'd never do, but doing it anyway. Here I go!"





"I have no idea how, but she's back up again! Howe was counting and about to time her out!" Amber narrated excitedly from across the sound stone, Valey back to listening with everything she had while Puddles made her best guesses on what to do with the teleporter and Starlight did it for her. "He must have hit her four or five times, and she's jerky and less graceful but still going! Valey, I wish you could see Shinespark right now. She's doing you so proud..."

"Yeah, well, with any luck, I'll be able to." Valey winced, wishing her supernatural reference point she could locate anywhere was currently where she wanted to go rather than standing right in the same room. "Trying to hack the teleporter we used to get here, or something, which is totally stolen Ironridge tech from that Arambai dude. Too bad the pony and the armor who would best be able to help us are preoccupied..."

"I told you, Gerardo is flying as fast as he can looking for a map," Amber consoled. "Stormhoof and Grandbell are big cities, but we'll find you your distances as accurate as we can!"

"There's not going to be anything you can do if you get here," Maple warned. "Making an exception to swap fighters out is one thing, but letting you in to pick up for Shinespark after she's been defeated or worn down?"

Valey grimaced. "Still gonna watch, still gonna try, and if it comes down to me playing fair and losing or me cheating and losing, I'm gonna cheat. That's how it was in Ironridge, and it's true today too! That Grandpapa clown isn't getting the last laugh on me."

"I am here!" Gerardo's panting voice burst onto the scene, along with the sound of tripping over a chair. "Angle and direction, yes. You'll need to orient yourself, but I have the distances here..."

Starlight looked up from tinkering with the control panel, completely gray and with her once-round pupils reduced to vertical slits. "It's currently connected to the capitol of Gyre, so figure out the direction relative to that?"

Valey repeated her request to the sound stone, and Gerardo cleared his throat. "Ah, yes. One moment for me to ensure I have my measurements right; I don't want you accidentally appearing in the mountains to the south..."





It didn't take long for Grandpapa to recover and return to fighting as he always had, only this time unable to aim for Shinespark's face. But Nyala was far slower, less practiced and less creative, and he rained down blows all across her armor, effortlessly able to dodge every attempt at an attack.

"You're slower, at least, my dear," he remarked between blows, sliding beneath her in a move that would have earned instant punishment with rocket boosters had Shinespark been in control. "But if you want me to buy for a moment that you aren't faking, you'll have to fully give up. You aren't doing your body any favors, pushing yourself in this state."

"I'm sorry," Nyala said in Shinespark's ears, "I can't go any faster! Even if I was confident in my acrobatics, without your cutie mark to power the armor, I'm running through my power reserves quickly. You already drained me, so I have about five minutes left fighting like this..."

Shinespark grimaced. She didn't want to tell Nyala he had won, but...

"And I don't buy that your horn won't recover, either!" Grandpapa slipped in again, landing a harshly-angled blow at the attachment Nyala was using to pin the sword to her hoof. With a crack of metal, the small, too-compact attachment broke, sending the sword clattering across the ground. Nyala dove to recover it, but Grandpapa was faster.

Hefting it, he frowned sympathetically, keeping the blade locked down so it couldn't be telekinetically yanked away. Shinespark's eyes widened inside the helmet, and she gasped. "Nyala, be careful! That sword can cut through-"

"Seeing as you're so well-endowed," Grandpapa interrupted, "a little sharing seems fair. Let's see if we can't find any chinks in that armor?"

Nyala tried to dodge, but Grandpapa's lunge was true, clipping her foreleg. Expecting resistance, he put his weight behind the strike, but the blade passed clean through.

"Woah!" Nyala wobbled, swinging the severed leg out of the way and falling on top of him. "M-My leg!"

Inside, Shinespark felt a dull tingle in her leg and then nothing, drawing a sharp breath as nothing changed. She still couldn't move it, but it wasn't her mobility she was concerned about: Nyala was heavy, and without the armor's mechanics to support her, her leg could be crushed under her own weight. "Surrender!" she desperately called as Grandpapa shadow snuck out of danger. "Nyala, with that he can destroy you!"

"Most curious," Grandpapa murmured, standing back and readying another strike. "Just where did you get a blade like this, my dear? It's clearly magical..."





FLAAAAASH!

Valey, Starlight and Puddles appeared somewhere cold, with no ground beneath their hooves.

"Oh bananas!" Valey yelled, grabbing the sound stone and reacting to the fall first. "Birdo you dunce, you forgot to give us the height! Gyre is way further above sea level than Grandbell!"

The sea line unfolded far in the distance below her, Stormhoof's sparsely-lit coast twinkling orange with the castle island shortly off to one side. Valey was high enough up she could block her view of the whole palace with one hoof, but sightseeing was the last of her concerns.

Fwooosh! "Gotcha!" She flipped and dove, landing beneath Puddles' ragdoll body and securing the unconscious mare atop her back. "Bananas, wish you could hold on... and good thing you're light. Starlight!"

"Valey!" Starlight called from a distance below, her voice carrying upward far easier than Valey's could outrace her.

"Coming! Nnngh!" Valey put on a burst of downward speed, having a difficult time picking Starlight out of the blackness.

"I'm terribly sorry!" Gerardo urgently rambled, apologizing as hard as he could into the sound stone. "I was entirely concerned about direction and distance, and didn't even pause to think you would need to re-calibrate the-"

Valey's eyes spotted a patch of darker darkness, and she surged forward again, careful not to let Puddles leave her back. "Yeah, we'll cover that later! At least we're in the right spot! How's Sparky holding up?"

Maple loudly swallowed. "He just... stole her sword and stabbed her with it. It looks like her leg?"

"Bananaaaaaaaaaaas!" Trailing a streamlined streak of green, Valey's speed redoubled, catching Starlight and whisking her downward even faster than she had been falling. Different shades of black glimmered in Starlight's eyes at the speed, but Valey didn't have time to focus on appearances, stretching out her free hoof as her lips tore back and her eyes watered from the wind, wings beating to go even faster.

"Valey, what are you doing!?" Starlight protested above the wind as the city opened up around them, the colosseum first becoming visible and then their clear target. "You're going too fast! We'll crash!"

"No chance of a giant crystal boulder like when we fell off the dam?" Valey grimaced against the wind, still packing on speed as the air seemed to crystallize in a cone before her. "Because we're gonna take that guy and drop on him like-" Her eyes shrank as her cutie mark suddenly burned. "Oh bananas we're gonna crash!"

Valey spread her wings, nearly tearing them from their sockets as she tried to arrest her momentum. The arena was close enough now to make out Shinespark and her opponent as pinpricks, which gave her several precious seconds to force herself upward. She pumped once, twice, flipping around and braking as hard as she could. She was going to make it. Puddles was emaciated and Starlight was light, and she still had several...

POW!

Valey impacted a transparent dome of force around the center of the arena, the colosseum bowl rising all around her. A single second more, and she would have braced for impact, but Puddles and Starlight slammed against her as she was prone, all three having their descent immediately arrested.

"Hurrrrgh..." Valey wheezed, fighting against unconsciousness from the impact. She stayed lucid just well enough to see Grandpapa ready a second stab, hitting Shinespark's chest and running her clean through.





"Hm. No blood," Grandpapa said, withdrawing and inspecting the blade. "This really is an interesting sword, you know that? Do you surrender?"

Shinespark had no voice to answer with, and Nyala wasn't quick enough, so he experimentally sliced again, piercing the armor in the shoulder. "I'm out of power!" Nyala whispered in Shinespark's ears, Shinespark shivering involuntarily as the sword struck her again. "My reserves switched to empty! I thought I still had a minute... Now I can only talk on the energy from my own cutie mark, and it's not loud enough for him to hear me!"

There was nothing Shinespark could do to answer. Her horn was dull, her cutie mark not responding, the armor frozen around her and only her eyes still mobile. But the visor had gone opaque, leaving her blind and only able to hear a muffled version of the outside world, her mouth frozen solid with no will to move. Panic spiked in her heart and quickly evolved to terror, the sword piercing her again in a broader slash that made Nyala's voice completely cut out. She screamed for help against the walls of her mind, but there was nobody who could hear her. Nobody...





"Nngh..." Valey slid to the bottom of the shield dome, still carrying Starlight and Puddles, barely clinging to consciousness as Neon Nova's commentary began to notice her arrival. "Sparky, just surrender already..." Her eyes narrowed venomously on Grandpapa, who hadn't yet noticed her himself. "You scumbag. You're not getting away with this..."

"What did we hit?" Starlight groaned, her own head pounding from the impact but in much better shape than Valey's. "I couldn't see anything..."

"Well. Looks like someone thought to put up a shield to stop cheaters like you," Puddles growled, already too unconscious to be knocked out again. "So much for that plan..."

Starlight frowned. A magic shield? Then there wasn't a chance...?

Valey forced herself to raise her head, looking much the worse for wear. "Sparky... You jerk, stop hitting her! I'll impale you with that thing a m-million times..."

Narrowing her eyes, Starlight activated her shadow cloak. When she reached out again, the shield wasn't there at all.

"Be right back," she declared, voice masked slightly by the disguise. Valey didn't even notice.

Still aching from the impact and the fall, Starlight dropped the last of the way to the arena floor and landed on her hooves, breaking into a run toward the platform in the center. She didn't drop her cloak; the entire empire was watching for all she knew. However far she had grown from her days in Riverfall of being afraid of being special, it wasn't far enough to put her name publicly on what she was about to do.

Starlight vaulted over the edge of the platform, slipping straight past Howe's uncertain form without notice. Shinespark's sarosian opponent had finished another threat and demand to surrender and was raising the sword again, drawing it back in a great show of deliberateness... and she rose behind him, lifted a hoof, and smacked it aside, knocking the sword completely from his delicate grasp.

"Ah? Who goes...?" Grandpapa spun, and found himself face to face with nothing.

"I have a message from Valey," Starlight declared, her shadow flowing around her like a hole in space. Without waiting for an acknowledgement, she wound up and punched his face as hard as she could.

It was a filly-sized punch, and Grandpapa barely looked like he felt it. But what he did do was notice her, and he slowly stumbled back, pupils shrinking in primal horror. His mouth moved, unable to form words, and at the sight of Starlight's form he turned and fled, running as if his soul depended on it.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh." Howe worked his jaw, taking a step closer. "Greetings, eldritch foe? Didn't see that coming..."

Unsure what to do and not feeling like being unmasked, Starlight held her silence, retreating toward one of the arena's shadowed entrance corridors.

Shinespark didn't move when Howe stepped toward her, Neon Nova's voice over the announcement loudspeakers equally dumbfounded. "Did something just happen down there, folks? Feels like my eyes are playin' tricks on me, but it looks like the defender fled the arena right before being declared victor! What in the Empire is going on!?"

"Well, uhh..." Howe tilted his head at Shinespark. "You're still here, though you look as though a divine chaos beast seven millennia old smote you with every drop of its power. And you technically weren't knocked out yet..." He rubbed the back of his mane with a wing. "Does that mean you win? Are you hale and hearty enough to step forward and claim possibly ignoble victory?"

Shinespark still didn't move.

"Deliberations from on high, coming down," Neon Nova declared. "That should have been a resounding victory, but if this 'Grandpapa' doesn't want to claim it? Judges say it's a tie! The match doesn't count, no one changes position!"

Inside her armor, Shinespark heard the crowd roar, felt Howe and Neon Nova's words sink into her ears... and in no condition to appreciate it, she passed out from stress.





"What happened!?" Maple stared dumbstruck at the arena, a grinning Gerardo leaning on the railing at her side. "Valey is still in? Did I hear that right?"

"She did it!" Amber cheered, jumping up and down with abandon. "I don't know how she did it but she did it! Booyah! Ahaha, yes!"

"I don't believe our ears are playing tricks on us," Gerardo commented, putting a victorious talon on each of their shoulders and a broad wing over Slipstream. "And unless my eagle eyes deceive me, our friends who were abroad have just dropped in as well. Seems it's time to rally the crew and get everyone back together, hmm?"

Amber pumped a hoof. "You bet we are! For a celebration!"

"I was thinking a good night's rest..." Maple said with a smile.

"However you want to do it, I'll be there," Slipstream offered. "This isn't my forte, but I know putting your neck on the line when I see it. You're all lucky to have such an awesome group of friends."





"Hah," Felicity scoffed, slipping effortlessly from Lord Gyre's grasp and landing with catlike grace on the floor. "Told you not to overthink your champion."

Gondolus pouted.

"Hope this doesn't interfere with your plans," Felicity hummed, aloof and uninterested. "Now, I've stayed here quite long enough but I'm afraid business is calling my name elsewhere. Don't get too caught up in your own ego, and do remember I prefer that one press of coins from seventy-eight years back that uses that one royal's face on the back, mmm? Just in case you have nothing better to do with your time."

The sphinx wasn't given time to react, Felicity scooping up the second crop of money bags she had managed to earn after her sisters came by and sneaking out of the room. She paused briefly in the hallway, a guard in Stormhoof colors noticing her and nodding politely. "Brilliant work, Shinespark," she whispered to herself under her breath. "You stick it to those goons and fight for your friends. I'm proud of you, darling. Unstoppable, loyal and determined, with your morals all in the right places... I think I'm going to enjoy being on good terms with you all, yes indeed..."





Jamjars sat in an almost-empty private box and flicked her tail, watching the arena in annoyance as the fight concluded. "Looks like Valey is still in the tournament," she sighed. "Her dumb foe ran off for some reason and they declared it a tie. Ugh. That means I did all this work for nothing!"

A ridiculously polite voice cleared its throat behind her over the course of several seconds. "Ahe-he-he-he-hem. I do suppose that means our business is not, in fact, business to be had?"

"Nope," Jamjars sighed, leaning against the side of her seat. "No need to mess up the announcer broadcast, no need to fudge the results, no need for me to bust my back and offer a ton of favors to Grapejuice to help me track down someone who wasn't Chauncey on zero moments' notice who both had access to the registration records and the stupid Izvaldi-provided sound system..." She stretched back in her chair and groaned. "And I probably owe you a lot for wasting your time on this, too. Give it to me straight, bird. What do you want in payment from a filly like me?"

The avian voice coughed. "Connections. Future business. Merely remembering my name will be enough, Milady." He hesitated. "Perhaps if you have any future dealings related to Izvaldi..."

"That's great. Just great." Jamjars put a hoof against her forehead. "I love having someone who can call a favor from me at any time like that. Just love it. Just figure out your future business soon, okay? Or I'll get a lot less honorable and decide it's not worth having an exploitable weakness before leaving you in the dust. Your manner of speech is annoying."

"A thousand pardons." Behind her, a short, bottle-green griffon in an absurdly prim bowtie bowed, his voice airy and wheezy and suggesting he couldn't yell without devolving into an unintelligible caw. "But it is worth it for me, mmm yes, very much so! Connections make the world go 'round! I will remember you, and you will be remembering me, and we will recall this as a fortunate coincidence rather than a lost opportunity. Your friend's position is safe, is it not?"

"Yeah, no thanks to me..." Jamjars sighed, getting up and avoiding his gaze as she turned to leave. "No one ever needs contingency plans. I just want to put all my hard work to use and not rely on getting lucky!" She huffed, paused, and gave him a glance as she stood in the doorway. "See you, Kero."

Kero bowed. "I will be seeing you as well, young Jamjars. To our future dealings."

"Whatever."