//------------------------------// // Xiaolin's Creed // Story: Pony Showdown // by Prince Luna //------------------------------// Raimundo ran along the outside of the temple, quickly avoiding Rarity's blasts from the Emerald of Guang. He jumped and landed behind her. "WUDAI STAR, WIND!" he called, unleashing a relentless gust against the unicorn. "STONE STORM, GENEROSITY!" Rarity called, cleverly using the stones she rose to cover her hooves and hold her in place against the gale. Levitating the Emerald with her magic, Rarity moved the Wu in a 'u' shape movement, forming a large slit of light in the same shape. "EMERALD OF GUANG!" she shouted over Raimundo's gust. The light solidified into a marvellous ruby and shot at Raimundo. "JET-BOOTSU!" he called, jumping directly over the ruby and flying over Rarity. "So that's how he was runnin' on the wall!" Applejack gasped. "I could have done it regardless." Omi bragged. Everyone ignored him and focused on the spar. Rarity was shooting wildly with the Emerald of Guang but Raimundo avoided every hit. He then simply flew up to Rarity. "Tag. I win." he smiled, poking her on the horn. "Well played." Rarity bowed. "Raimundo advances to the next round. Rainbow Dash, you are next." Master Fung looked at the distracted blue pony. She was playing a game on Kimiko's handheld. "Rainbow Dash." he called again. "Yeah gimmie a minute. The zombies are launching goo at me like there's no tomorrow." she grunted. Master Fung went up to Rainbow Dash and kneeled to her level. "How are you doing, Rainbow Dash?" he asked with a smile. "Awesomely! Look, I nearly defeated the goo zombie lord!" she bragged. "You know, there is an excellent shortcut to finishing him." Master Fung commented. "Yeah? Like what?" He turned off the console. "NO!" Rainbow cried. "You are sparring Raimundo now. Choose a Shen Gong Wu." he reminded her. "Urgh. Right." she looked to the chest next to her. Without much care, she chose the Eye of Dashi and wore it around her neck. "Ready, set, go!" Master Fung called. "JET-BOOTSU!" Raimundo called, tackling Rainbow Dash to the ground. "No fair! I wasn't ready!" she complained. "Fine, one redo. Ready..." Master Fung began. Rainbow Dash looked back at Kimiko's game console. "Set..." She thought to herself, "Zap the goo zombie. Raimundo is a goo zombie." "GO!" "EYE OF DASHI!" The shot went straight past Rai, who walked up and tapped Rainbow Dash on the head. "Alright, back to goo zombies!" she beamed. Master Fung sighed, "Clay, you're next. Choose your Shen Gong Wu." "I reckon I'm fine with just the cloth on my body." he tipped his hat. "This'll be easy then." Raimundo smirked. "Ready, set, go!" "JET-BOOTSU!" Raimundo called, flying straight towards Clay. He held out a hand and stopped Raimundo by his head. "Lookie there, I win," he laughed, "that arrogance is why you and Dashie lost." "Right. We gotta think of any possibility." Raimundo said. "Exactly." Clay bowed. Spike, watching on the side, suddenly belched up the Shen Gong Wu scroll. "Hot from the press." Kimiko laughed. "Doesn't smell like new ink to me." Twilight wafted her hoof. "What's the new Wu, you?" Pinkie giggled. Dojo read the scroll. "The Shroud of Silence. Whoever wears it will make no sound whatsoever. "Sounds creepy." said Fluttershy. "It is the sister Shen Gong Wu to the Shroud of Shadows." Master Fung commented. "The Shroud of Shadows?!" Fluttershy exclaimed, "Jack Spicer has that!" "But with the both of them in his hands...the sheets are about to come down!" Omi gasped. "Shi- you know what, I don't even think it's appropriate to say." Raimundo stopped himself. "As much as I doubt Omi was censoring anything, we gotta stop thinking about it and hurry!" Spike said, growing to his flying size. *** The ponies and monks began searching the field they landed in for the Shroud. "Enough of this, I'll just take to the skies and look from above!" Rainbow said, opening her wings. Just as she lifted off, she tripped and fell on the ground. Tripped on nothing. She tried again but bumped into thin air again. "What?" she said, rubbing her face where she had whacked into something. Jack then took off a shroud and mouthed something. "Jack Spicer!" Omi gasped. He mouthed something again, then realised not even he could hear himself. He took off another Shroud. "Too late, Xiaolin losers! I already got the Shroud of Silence!" he laughed, then put both Shrouds back on. "Well we're not psychic," Dojo sighed, "let's head back. We lost this one." *** It was night and just after dinner, everyone was fast asleep. Nobody knew that Jack Spicer was taking advantage of both the Shrouds and went into the Shen Gong Wu vault to steal their Wu. There was nothing left in there by the time he had left. *** In the new day, everybody gathered to the courtyard, ready for another day of sparring. Master Fung calmly approached the group. "All the Shen Gong Wu have been stolen." he said. They all gasped and muttered. "It's like when you have all your weapons taken off you in Goo Zombies 7," Rainbow Dash said, "but you still have one hidden!" She held the Wings of Tinabi out from under her wing. Everyone cheered. "Nice going, why'd you have it stashed away anyways?" Applejack asked. "It's cool!" Rainbow laughed. "I've infiltrated Jack's house before," Fluttershy smirked, "I say we go there and take our Wu back." "How out of character, Fluttershy..." Twilight said. "But it sounds so...fun!" Fluttershy laughed. "I like the way you think!" Pinkie gave Fluttershy a hoofbump. "So it is agreed?" Rarity smiled. "Let's do it!" Omi said. *** Fluttershy suggested that everyone dress in some sort of sneaking suit, so everyone was covered with a black outfit. "It worked last time!" she said, sitting on the flying Spike. "So what exactly did you do last time?" Kimiko asked on Dojo. "His mom opened the window...I guess I got lucky." she answered. "Then we'll just have to count on luck." Applejack said. "Or one of us could be a distraction?" Raimundo suggested. "Too risky. We just need to get in, dish the Wu and get back home." Twilight said. "True," said Omi, "so let us just see what happens and go with the flow." The dragons flew in to Jack's garden and returned to their normal size, everyone but Rainbow Dash sneaked off to find a way inside Jack's house. They didn't notice that she had disbanded from the group. "This is the window I came in through last time." Fluttershy whispered. Luckily, the window was open again, so the ponies snuck in and listened for any signs on Jack. "He's not likely to be using the Shrouds is he?" Kimiko asked. "Don't think so. He ain't expectin' us." Applejack replied. "I wouldn't count on that." Fluttershy said. "What do you mean?" Omi asked. "Jack acted a lot like he knew I was coming last time." she explained. "Odd." Rarity commented. "Hey guys?" Twilight asked, "where's Rainbow?" Everyone gasped as they noticed she was missing. "No time for that now. Go for the Wu!" Dojo said. So they entered Jack's basement in search of their stolen artefacts. Of which there were a lot. Rainbow was outside, looking around intently. "I know you're out here, Jack! Show yourself!" she commanded. Her only reply was being flung into a wall by seemingly nothing. She smiled. "Knew it." she said. She was about to pounce at where she was thrown from, but then remembered her sparring session with Raimundo. Instead, she simply waited for Jack to come to her. She held a hoof out and stopped an 'invisible force' in its tracks. A golden aura began to glow in front of her. "Jack, I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown!" she challenged. No response. "Take off the Shroud of Silence, you idiot." she sighed. The Shroud fell to the floor, but the glow around nothing was still there. "I accept, Rainbow Dash." he replied. "The game a stealth contest. The one who sets off the least traps wins. I wager my Wings of Tinabi." "How do you have that? I took all your Wu!" "So it WAS you!" "Whatever. I wager the Shroud of Silence." Jack offered. The Showdown was for the Shroud of Shadows he was wearing. "LET'S GO! XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN!" the two shouted at the same time. The stone path of Jack's garden extended and split into two. The stepping stones became larger and the grass disappeared, turning into hot coal. Rainbow Dash wore her black belt. "GONG YI TENPAI!" Rainbow Dash laughed and thought that her knowledge of Daring Do would come in handy. She risked her hoof and picked up a coal, mimicking hot potato at first, but then threw it at the stone ahead. Spikes shot up instantly and retracted. She tried to fly but her wings wouldn't let her. "WINGS OF TINABI!" she called, flying ahead to the third step in a burst of rainbow. Jack was already quite ahead, using his jetpack. His traps were different, but he cheered loudly at 'expertly' avoiding a ball of fire (not knowing it burnt off the tail of his jacket) and darts came from all directions at him. He ducked quickly. "SHROUD OF SILENCE!" he called, walking directly over the next few stones. Rainbow Dash continued flying forwards, but she became too full of herself and was distracted, flying straight into a bundle of weeds which trapped her. She struggled. "I'm not gonna win! There's too many of them! Darn it's just like Goo Zombies!" her eyes widened, "the perfect way to defeat the goo zombie lord!" She closed her eyes and relaxed, effectively switching her worries off. The weeds loosened and she became free. She then saw Jack only just up ahead, very near the finishing line. "HAH! I'm gonna win! It's in the bag! You snooze you lose..." he kept saying things like this, but Rainbow Dash simply stood and watched. "You better watch your arrogance, Jack!" she laughed, "I'm just thinking of any possibility." "And what does that me-" he was interrupted and slammed into a bouncy spider web. He flew backwards to the starting line. Rainbow calmly walked to the end. "That's why you lost!" she smirked, grabbing the Shroud of Shadows. In a flash, everything returned to normal. "SHROUD OF SHADOWS! SHROUD OF SILENCE!" Rainbow Dash called, disappearing into thin air. "Oh great..." Jack sighed, before being kicked over the wall of his garden by what looked and sounded like nothing. Jack's scream made Rainbow laugh, but not even she heard her own joy. She went to find the others and saw they had just exited the building with two sacks full of Shen Gong Wu. Rainbow Dash stood in front of them and sniggered, then took off the shrouds suddenly. Everyone screamed, then sighed in relief as they saw her. "Rainbow Dash! The Shrouds...how did you?" Twilight was in a high sense of confusion. "Your plan for us all to go in was pretty arrogant. I thought of all the possibilities and hey look, we got more than we bargained for!" Rainbow said. "Looks like a distraction was a good idea." Clay said, tipping his hat. "So what'd you nab?" Rainbow asked eagerly. "To remain in good spirit, we only took back what Jack took from us." Omi explained. "Fair enough, so can I ride at the front?" She smiled at Spike. "I suppose you can, winner." Rarity smiled. "Alright! My first Showdown was a success!" Rainbow fist pumped. *** Twilight was studying some scrolls when they returned, but they began to float away. "Rainbow!" she shouted angrily. Rainbow appeared out of nowhere. "Oh, c'mon Twilight! How'd you know I was there? It could've been the wind!" Rainbow complained. "Firstly, the window is closed and secondly," Twilight gave a cheeky smile, "I didn't even have to think of all the possibilities to know you were up to no good." The two laughed, Rainbow Dash decided to have a read of some scrolls too. The two studied the night away.