//------------------------------// // Diamond in the Rough // Story: Pony Showdown // by Prince Luna //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash was already high in the sky and precisely flying upwards in a straight line, leaving a huge rainbow in her tracks. She retracted the Wings of Tinabi and floated in mid-air, waiting for approval to perform her Apprentice move. Omi, only just visible on the ground, gave her a thumbs up and ducked for cover with the others. "SONIC RAINBOOM! LOYALTY!" Rainbow Dash called, instantly zooming downwards. A cone formed around her body and slowly closed in. She kept a stern expression and then a huge rainbow formed behind her and showered down along with her, her body was also covered in a rainbow aura. She loudly crashed into the ground, the aura and showering rainbow spreading out and destroying all the target dummies for a few meters around. The monks and ponies came out of their withdrawal and applauded. "That was mighty fine for a first try, Rainbow Dash." Clay praised. Applejack ran towards a target and faced the other way to it. "APPLEBUCK! HONESTY!" She called, her hind hooves glowing orange. Her hooves snapped and slammed into the dummy, sending a small orange shockwave also destroying other nearby dummies. Once again, the others applauded. Applejack took a bow. "Naturally." She smirked. Rarity was next. She stepped forward and closed her eyes, building magic in her horn. A thin, magical white wind began to swirl around her and the ground below her shook softly. "STONE STORM! GENEROSITY!" She said with a laugh. Rocks suddenly burst from the ground and spun around Rarity. There were four in total orbiting her torso. She pointed her head forward and her horn flashed; one of the stones flew forward and dug right in to the target, imploding it. She jumped up and unleashed the other three all at once, doing the same to other targets. There were none left. Everyone applauded the unicorn. "Very graceful." Fluttershy whispered. "You're up next, Fluttershy!" Kimiko smiled, petting Fluttershy on the head. "Oh...I don't know if I'll do it right at first. I mean...I'm sorry but there are no targets left." She displayed a very forced smile. "No problem." Master Fung said, observing from behind them. Dojo and Spike simply went and set up more targets. Fluttershy walked back slightly. "You'll do fine, Fluttershy. The others were fantastic!" Twilight reassured. "Well if you're so sure..." Fluttershy stepped forward. She flew up vertically and held her stance in the air. She closed her eyes and started to shake. "I really can't do it on command." She said. "I couldn't do a sonic rainboom on command," Rainbow Dash commented, "the Xiaolin world has given us new powers." Reluctantly, Fluttershy opened her eyes and looked at a target dead on. "Stare-Zhu...KINDNESS!" She began in a whisper, then a shout as her pupils dilated. The target she was looking at knocked over violently, as did the column of targets behind it. "Well done, darling." Rairty said, smiling at Fluttershy. "That was pretty cool." Fluttershy returned a sincere smile, "Pinkie's next." Pinkie bounced up to a target and smiled right at it, she stood on her hind legs. "PINKIE SENSE! LAUGHTER!" She giggled. Nothing happened, but her tail twitched. She then jumped up, pressed down on her tail, and bounced high upwards. She landed tail-on into the target and destroyed it, then bouncing up and landing on the next and then another three times. Everyone laughed with Pinkie. "That is a most ridiculous yet powerful Apprentice move, Pinkie Pie!" Omi said amidst his laughter. "And after me just leaves Twilight!" Pinkie beamed to Twilight. She had her head in a scroll but had been paying attention. She folded it up and coughed, readying herself for her attack on the last three targets. "HARMONY HUOHUA! MAGIC!" She shouted, her horn glowing a deep purple. The bright colour from her horn minimized and turned into a small spike of magical energy. "Okay..." Twilight said, looking up at the small orb no larger than a fly. It zoomed into the middle target and suddenly let out a huge purple explosion, knocking everybody back with it's tremendous power. "That was amazing!" Rainbow shouted. "Very well done!" Raimundo said. "It's a good thing we're finished," Dojo said, leaping into the air, "just in time for a brand new Shen Gong Wu!" Spike belched fire and the Shen Gong Wu Scroll appeared from it. Earlier on, Dojo and him had discovered this very convenient use for his ability. Spike opened it up. "The Emerald of Guang," he read, looking at the picture, "it creates light energy inside itself to shoot at the enemy in the form of sharp gemstones." "GEMSTONES?!" Rarity screamed, "we must get this Wu at all costs! It looks simply gorgeous!" Rarity drooled at the picture of the huge diamond shape with two strands of fabric coming from the back. "Spikey-wikey, you'll get us to it extra fast for me, won't you?" She said, rubbing herself against the baby dragon. "O-of course Rarity!" Spike blushed, growing to his full size. The other ponies giggled and hopped on his back. "Omi, fetch the Beaver Braces. As embarrasing as it sounds and looks, I need to wear them. The Emerald of Guang is underground and we don't have the Tunnel Armadillo." Dojo sighed. Omi ran and came back with the large buck teeth, Dojo put them on and grew to full size, taking the monks on his back and launching off simultaneously with Spike. *** Dojo reached the point on the surface where he needed to start tunneling. "BEAVER BRACES!" He shouted, his teeth growing to a ridiculous size. He slammed into the ground and began to munch away at the dirt, doing his best not to swallow any. Spike and the girls tried not to laugh loudly following him down his tunnel. He suddenly started to bite at air and fell face-first on the floor of a cave. He didn't have to tunnel anymore. He returned his teeth and self to normal size. "Alright everyone, look for the Emerald!" He said, trying to draw attention away from what his teeth had looked like. This search took longer than the others, but they knew it was a success when they heard a loud scream. "WAHAHA!" Rarity squealed, trying to pull out the magnificent gem wedged in the wall. "Rarity's found it." Twilight laughed. She managed to pull it out with her magic, but what she did not realised on the other end of the Wu was Wuya. The Wu began to glow. "So you must be Rarity." Wuya hissed. "And I know that you are Wuya. If you know what is best for you, I would back away from the pretty gem!" Rarity scowled. "Feisty little pony, aren't you? This gem is as good as mine," Wuya laughed, "Rarity, I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown." "And what will I do to win this precious jewel?" Rarity smirked. "A gemstone hunt. Gems will be hidden in crystal walls. Touch one and it is added to your collection. The one with the heaviest set of gemstones after a minute wins." Wuya challenged. "Fine, sounds easy enough!" Rarity accepted. "I will use my Fist of Tebigong." Wuya wagered. "And I shall win with the Thorn of Thunderbolt." Rarity said. "LET'S GO! XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN!" The two shouted, staring intimidatingly in each other's eyes. In a flash, the brown walls of the cave turned to a brilliant and clear light blue, small gem stones clearly visible within them, The low ceiling raised itself higher and the walls grew outwards and lost some of itself to form a maze. The Xiaolin Warriors all wore their Showdown outfits. "GONG YI TENPAI!" They shouted. "FIST OF TEBIGONG!" Wuya shouted, slamming her fist into the nearest wall. Some gems poured out, she touched them and they teleported to a dish on a side of a pair of scales with digital weights displayed above each end. "THORN OF THUNDERBOLT! THORN OF THUNDERBOLT! THORN OF THUNDERBOLT!" Rarity yelled desperately, blasting all the nearby walls. The crystal shattered and Rarity quickly collected the gemstones. Right now, her pile was heavier. "FIST OF TEBIGONG!" Wuya called. Her Wu slammed straight through a wall, collecting a long chain of gemstones as she smashed. She hit a weak spot of the wall and it all collapsed. Wuya acted fast to get the gemstones, but Rarity tried to get some for herself. "FIST OF TEBIGONG!" She screeched, hitting Rarity hard in the face as she was running. Rarity was sent flying backwards into a wall, the crystal shattering around her and collecting a few gemstones where she had landed. "Oh. It. IS. ON." Rarity whispered. The ponies stood back. Stuff was about to go down. "THORN OF THUNDERBOLT!" Rarity called, continuing to hold the Wu with her magic. She ran towards Wuya as she called on it's power and used the lightning to knock the Fist of Tebigong right off her. She ran past Wuya and caught the Fist on her hoof. It quickly changed to the shape of her hoof and fit perfectly. "It's like a metallic sock!" Rarity squeed. She carried on running forward to see a formation like her cutie mark in the crystal. "FIST OF TEBIGONG! THORN OF THUNDERBOLT!" She called upon both the Wu she held and demolished the wall in front of her to reveal a diamond around three times the size of her. "Look out Wuya!" She said, moving her hoof slowly forward intimidatingly. "NO!" The witch screamed. "HERE COMES TOM!" Rarity shouted, tapping the large diamond. It teleported to the scales and slammed down on Rarity's pile. The scales went down instantly on her side and broke the digital scale. Wuya's gems were forced up from the force, some of them landed back but others fell out or landed in Rarity's side. The minute was up and everything returned to normal. *** Back at the temple during sundown, Rarity had set herself a very large amount of targets. She held the Emerald of Guang tight in her hooves. Raimundo had gone to return the other Wu to the vault but the others all watched carefully. "EMERALD OF GUANG!" Rarity shouted in joy. The Emerald began to glow a blinding white and shards of light shot out from it's interior at very fast speeds. They stopped shining and became gemstones of many different colours. Rarity moved slowly with her Wu to make it spew out gemstones in the right places to get the targets. It was like a vertical waterfall of the gems. No targets remained. "Alright, now let's try something new!" Rarity smirked. She set down the Emerald but kept a hoof on it. She focused her magic and her magic wind started to blow around her. "Thanks for telling me about this, Master Fung darling," she laughed, "STONE STORM! GENEROSITY! EMERALD OF GUANG!" The stones that normally rose up from the ground became large colourful gemstones. She turned around and looked at Spike. He opened his mouth wide and she shot the four gems right at him. He swallowed them. "Best gems I've ever tasted!" He said with some still in his mouth. Everyone laughed, but Raimundo ran up to the crowd. "Get to the vault, quickly! Jack's trying to steal Shen Gong Wu!" He panted. *** Long story short, they couldn't get there in time. Jack had escaped. Raimundo explained that Jack used the Dizzy Top to make him lose his sense of just about everything telling him where to go. Master Fung returned from examining the vault. "Unusually, Jack has only taken one Shen Gong Wu from us. The Tongue of Saiping." He said positively. "What's the Tongue of Saiping?" Applejack asked. "It's a Shen Gong Wu that allows the user to talk to animals." Kimiko replied. "WHAT?!" Fluttershy shouted, everyone looked at her, "oh..well that's unfortunate. I would have liked to try that." Everyone decided no harm was done and returned to their rooms. They all fell asleep very quickly and didn't notice that someone had gone missing. Somepony. Fluttershy walked out of the vault in her sneaking gear with some Shen Gong Wu. She was going to retrieve the Tongue of Saiping.