Atlas Strongest Tournament

by Bico

Sign Me Up: Introductions

ATLAS STRONGEST TOURNAMENT
~BICO
PART 1: SIGN ME UP
ACT I: INTRODUCTIONS

Luna’s sister regarded her with an expression full of heat as they stood in the throne room of their castle, six thrones lining the west wall as the dawn's light filtered through the stained glass to the east, shining a disjointed rainbow over them. “Thou hast been addled by Cupid, Sister!”

“Neigh!” Luna replied, with a cold fury putting steel in her words. “Thou art the foalish mare who didst offend Our cousin Venus so, and hath been cursed by Love. Our feelings were true, and thou hath forever stolen the object of Our passion… due to Thy jealousy and lust, We would wager.”

The rosy coated mare before Luna looked distinctly uncomfortable at the accusation. “Luna… We confess that We have been wretched in the past, but We are not the same as We were before. Venus’ curse has humbled Us in the ways of Love, and We have vowed never to dabble in its affairs again. Know that what We did, We did for Thou. For We know how unhealthy it is to pine for a mortal who is unable to return Thy affections.”

“If Thou hadst but given him what was asked, rather than one of Thy foalish tricks…” Luna protested.

“Thou do know the capricious nature of immortality, Luna,” the elder princess argued. “We attempted to grant one of Our own cursed loves the blessing of immortality, and yet eternal youth was denied him. Even now he rests enfeebled by age in a tower, demented and unable ever to die.” Her eyes began to water as she reflected on her old lover’s awful fate. “And Venus’ curse stays Our horn from ever relieving him of the curse We, Ourself, did place.”

“Thou art truly a devious mare,” Luna said. “Do not think Thou canst deceive Us. Thy motives may have seemed innocent to Thyself at the time, but Thy actions afterward proves Thou wert malevolent in Thy machinations. If not for Brother Sol, We would have been ignorant of this for all time. You had Us believe that Father was the culprit. We spoke not to Him for nearly a millennium!”

Luna’s sister hung her head low, genuine shame weighing her down. “Luna… We… I am so… so sorry.”

“Princess Luna!” a pony-sized purple dragon burst through the main throne room doors and cantered into the throne room in a panic. “Princess Aurora! Prince Sol calls for You. He is mounting a final offensive against Ponyville.”

Aurora turned to the dragon and bellowed, “Kenny, hast thou brought them?”

“Oh,” Master Kenbroath said as he tried to comb his small patch of mane back in place. “Of course, Your Majesty. For You, Princess Aurora, the Element of Honesty.” He placed the yellow gem in the princess’s hoof and turned to Luna. “And for You, Your Majesty, the Element of Loyalty.”

“And the… And the other Elements We hath forged, Master Kenbroath?” Luna asked as she affixed the gem to her necklace.

“Ah, yes, Prince Sol and His wife have received the Elements of Generosity and Kindness, respectively. And… er… Princess Arke hath received the Element of Laughter.” He thumped his gold spiked tail on the floor nervously.

“The Element of Magic?” Aurora prompted. “We trust that thy training of the Princess of Ponyville has prepared Her for this.”

“Err…” The small dragon did not deign to look the Princesses in the eye. “Yes, I’m sure. She just… has cold hooves at the moment. She… refused to accept the Element of Magic.”

Princess Luna scowled. “Thou wilt convince her, Master Kenbroath. Be it on your head!”

“Yes, Princess!” Ken yelped. “Of course, Princess!” He galloped out of the throne room as quickly as he could.

After a moment of tense silence, Aurora turned her head to her sister. “Luna… I…”

“Know this, Sister,” Luna said, her face set in an impassive, regal mask. “We shall never forgive Thee. Endymion’s fate is on Thy hooves… whatever that may be.”

---

Luna came out of her reverie, her face wet from the tears as she stared up at the visage frozen in horror. It had been the prologue of that battle that had set her down the path of Darkness, she had realized reflecting back. The battle, itself, and its aftermath had only sealed her fate. Even now, looking at this reminder of her past, she felt the old resentment and anger filling her up again, and the voice… the voice of that primordial force too powerful and all-encompassing to really be called a god.

“Luna,” it whispered in the back of her mind. “Let the Darkness give you strength. Let it fill you up. Bring that Darkness to this world. A Darkness never ending.” She could see it in her mind’s eye. A black void with an even blacker silhouette towering over her, spreading its leathery, bat-like wings.

“No,” Luna said. “I shall never again give into your influence, Erebos.”

“Daughter of the Light-Bringer,” the being known as Erebus rumbled in her mind. “I thought you were strong enough to give up on the Light, but I was wrong. Thankfully, there is… another… Dark-Bringer.” The being’s voice faded into nothing as the Princess of the Night shuddered. Back to Tartarus with him, then.

However, she knew that it was not over. Anypony touched by one of the primordial forces could not so easily escape their influence. She placed a loving hoof to the confounded face of the draconequus statue before her. After all… “You touched the power of Erebos’ Parent, didn’t you? Chaos, Itself. And look at what it did to you.” She hung her head and tears began to drip down her muzzle once more. “My Endymion…”

---

---

“Right, now that you know the elements of a proper maniacal laugh, let’s try it on shall we?”

“Mu… muahahahahahahahahaaaa!”

“It has to come from the diaphragm, Aurelia. Breath support, remember, breath support!”

“Aaaah... hahahaha… ha~ah!”

Chrysalis huffed as she listened to the awkward sound of joviality issuing from her offspring in the dark cave. It had been quite a while since her failed invasion of Canterlot, and she had attempted various schemes in the meanwhile, but her hive was still suffering for it. It aggravated her to no end that Princess Cadence was getting along so well with her little Shining Armor. It wasn’t fair. That could have been her soaking up all that love and adulation. As it was she was literally starving for affection with the rest of her hive. Before long, she wouldn’t even be able to feed her successor properly, and if that happened there was a very strong risk of the new Queen reverting to a mere drone. Chrysalis wasn’t entirely sure she could make another. Certainly not with this love drought going on.

“Chrysalis,” a familiar voice boomed from the dark reaches of the cave and reverberated through her mind. “Your hunger shall be sated, if you do as I say.”

“Lord Erebos!” Chrysalis gasped. She turned to the small changeling at her side. “Aurelia, leave Mommy for now. She has business to attend.” As the youngling cantered away, her face fell and she looked shrewdly into the dark. “I don’t suppose this will be anything like your last suggestion, will it? ‘Oh, just take the place of some silly demigod and you’ll have all the love you could munch.’ Well, that went quite well, didn’t it?”

“Your arrogance blinded you to the power of the Elements,” Erebos said. “I warned you of their power.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t get hit with the Elements,” Chrysalis said irately. “I got hit with that stallion’s shield spell!”

“The rainbow has far more than six colors, and Harmony has just as many Elements on which to draw,” Erebus chided. “You were struck by one of the most powerful Elements of Harmony, one that was embodied by those two.”

“Let me guess,” Chrysalis said flatly. “’Love’?” She snorted. “I eat love for breakfast. Believe me, I know how powerful love can be. I just never thought I’d get punted across Equestria by my own food.”

“Chrysalis, was it not I who made your race what it is today?” Erebos said.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes, knowing where this was going. For a primordial force of the cosmos, this guy could get rather petulant at times. “Yes, yes, and I do thank you for that. We’d have been fluttering around doing nothing but growing flowers if not for you. Sounds right dull.”

“Then show your thanks, and you will be rewarded,” Erebus said. “In fact, I believe you shall find your task quite the reward in itself.”

“Oh?” Chrysalis said. “What, aside from a steady food source, could be this reward?”

“I want you to go somewhere,” the dark god said. “Go to Ponyville, Chrysalis. Follow my plan, and you shall have your revenge on Twilight Sparkle.”

Chrysalis didn’t react for a few moments, but then a pleased grin split her face. “Oh, Erebus. You do know how to make a Lady swoon.”

---

Lao Wu(1) trot along the trail, admiring the lush, green pastures and the rolling hills. Equestria was a beautiful country, and his old bones agreed well with the late summer weather. He heard the iron wheels of his wagon begin to slow and he scowled. “Ran Biao, do I hear slacking back there?”

“Gau tzeng tzu fu(2),” an exhausted voice wheezed behind him. “It is an honor to pull our luggage; however, it is quite… heavy.”

“Aiyaa!” Lao Wu turned his eyes upon his descendent, a tall, leggy filly who in many ways looked the part of a consummate super model. The exception was that, like Lao Wu, himself, she was not a pony, but a dragon-pony. Instead of a coat she possessed cyan scales and bat-like wings, as well as a draconic tail complete with spikes on the end. Her mane was dark blue at the roots, blonde and orange overall and red at the tips, her bangs wild like fire and the back restrained by a traditional braid that hung nearly to the ground. “Ran Biao(3) , why are you whining about heavy? It has wheels!”

Ran Biao looked back at the wagon, which was piled nearly a story high with a great variety of junk, topped off with a kitchen sink for reasons she failed to comprehend. Her great-great grandfather was something of a hoarder, it seemed. After all, he was a first generation dragon-pony.

“Come, come,” Wu said impatiently. “We are almost there. We do not want to keep my best student waiting.”

Ran Biao grimaced and grunted as she resumed pulling the vast amounts of luggage. “I am your student, too, Gau tzeng tzu fu.”

Within minutes the two had arrived at the Carousel Boutique, and Wu knocked at the door. It was soon opened by an elegant white unicorn with a stylish purple mane and tail, who said, “Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique and magnif—” She paused as she saw the dragon-pony with light purple scales, braided gray mane and long, stringy mustache standing before her with a toothy grin on his face. “Eeeeeeek!” she declared as she slammed the door in Lao Wu’s face.

Lao Wu snorted as he heard the sound of various heavy objects being piled against the other side of the door. “Aiyaa… looks like we have to do the hard way.”

---

Twilight Sparkle was flipping casually through one of her lesser read tomes when her horn began to vibrate uncomfortably. She flinched and her horn glowed with magic as she manifested the ghostly head of a panicked white unicorn. “R-Rarity? Why are you calling me like this? You know this gives me the worst headaches.”

“I’m sorry, Twilight, really I am,” Rarity hissed quietly, glancing behind her fretfully. “But I can’t escape to get to you in pony. You have to help me.”

“What?” Twilight said, leaping to her hooves with alarm. “What’s wrong, Rarity? Are you hurt?”

“Twilight… oh, Twilight,” she said with tears in her eyes. “He’s here.”

“‘He’?” Twilight asked. “Who’s ‘he’?”

“No time to explain!” Rarity whispered harshly. “He’s in the boutique. Oh, Sweet Celestia, he’s in the boutique!” She broke into sobs as the connection broke and Twilight was left in a state of mortification for her friend. “Oh, no… something’s happened to Rarity!”

“Something’s happened to Rarity?!” Spike shouted, tumbling down the stairs of the library. He righted himself and looked around, spotting a desk piled high with books. He reached over and dramatically swiped the books onto the floor. “No time to waste, Twilight! Let’s go!”

Twilight gave her young assistant a flat stare. “Spike. Why did you just knock all my books off the table?”

Spike paused and considered for a moment. “Well… I guess… it just seemed like one of those things you do when something dramatic happens.”

Twilight frowned. “You’re spending way too much time with Rarity. I think we’re going to have to cut down on your visits.”

Spike flushed with embarrassment, but then his face hardened with determination. “No time for that now, though. If Rarity’s in trouble, we have to get there fast!”

Twilight nodded. “You’re right. Let’s go, Spike.” With that, the purple mare and her similarly hued assistant burst out the library.

---

---

Twilight and Spike sat on the couch, warily drinking tea with Rarity and her two visitors. “So… Rarity… you were going to introduce us to… ‘him’?”

“Ah…” Rarity said, her eyes like that of a deer in the path of a rampaging elephant. “Yes, Darling. This is Master Lao Wu and his granddaughter—”

“Gau tzeng suen niu(4),” the cyan scaled pony interrupted.

“Yes… ‘great-great’ granddaughter,” Rarity finished.

“It has been such a long time since I have seen Rarity A-yi(5),” Ran Biao said pleasantly. “It is an honor to visit her home.”

“Really, Ran Biao,” Rarity said through clenched teeth. “Call me ‘Rarity Jie-jie(6)’.”

Ran Biao stared with puzzlement at Rarity. “But you are most definitely closer to age of ‘Auntie,’ not ‘Big Sister.’”

“Indeed,” Rarity said. “I don’t suppose I need to remind you that my actual little sister is two years your junior?”

“So!” Twilight interrupted. “Mister Lao, you come from Spina in the southeast, right?”

“That is correct, Miss Sparkle,” the old dragon-pony said. “The ponies who migrated there long ago lived in very close quarters with dragons. Inevitably the region became inhabited by the descendants of dragons and ponies, known in Spinese as ‘longma’.” He chuckled. “Even those who look to be ponies have some dragon’s blood in them. They are also all quite a bit taller than most of your Equestrian ponies.”

“So…” Twilight said. “How did you get to meet Mr. Lao, Rarity?”

“Yes, well…” Rarity said, hesitating briefly. “My parents rather enjoy traveling, though I’m sure you picked that up. Of course, when I was a filly, they had no older daughters to foist their responsibilities on as they do with Sweetie.” Her voice held an unmistakable hint of reproach. “For about two years they toured around Spina, and they dropped me off at Master Lao Wu’s school, where he… that is… I learned a bit of the Eastern arts. You know, a little acupuncture, some kung ma(7)…”

“You know kung ma, Rarity?” Spike asked, his eyes widening with glee. “That’s awesome! I’ve never even seen you fight before.”

“You’d have to threaten Tom to see her break out the kung ma moves,” Twilight said with a little giggle.

“Oh,” Spike said, his eyes narrowing. “Him.”

Rarity turned away with a flush spreading over her face. “Well, yes. Anyway, I stayed with Master Lao Wu until my parents saw everything they wanted to see—which was apparently a considerable amount—and picked me up. We came to Ponyville after that, and I haven’t seen Master Lao Wu since.”

“Wow,” Twilight said. “I’m so happy to have learned something new about you, Rarity.”

“Oh, yes,” Lao Wu said. “You will be happy to learn that Rarity was horrible student; always complaining about bit of work. Worked wonders with needle, but other than that: ptthhh.” The sight of a longma blowing a raspberry with a lizard’s tongue was really rather fascinating, Twilight discovered.

“‘Ptthhh’? I was not that bad!” Rarity protested. “As I recall, I defeated all your other students.”

“They were all ‘ptthhh,’ too,” the old dragon-pony insisted crabbily.

“Well, then,” Twilight said, doing her best to keep the palpable tension in the room from exploding in everypony’s face. “What brings you to Ponyville, sir?”

The longma grinned with razor-sharp teeth and pulled out a flyer with ponies in dynamic poses. “The Atlas Strongest Tournament is holding its preliminary competition here,” he explained.

“Oh, and you’re going to have Ran Biao enter!” Twilight said cheerily.

“What?” Lao Wu said, forehead crinkling in confusion. “No, I enter! I will win grand prize. Ran Biao may enter if she wishes, but has no chance.”

Ran Biao looked rather put off by the comment, but said nothing.

The old kung ma master gave his former student a sly grin. “So… we need a place to stay during the tournament. And my student has such generous nature…”

Rarity’s left eye twitched as the full horror of the situation fell upon her. “I… I… Master Lao Wu, I’m not sure that it would be… ah…”

“It would be so awesome having a kung ma master here in Ponyville!” Spike exclaimed. He pantomimed a few punches and kicks. “Whap! Pow! Too cool!”

Lao Wu chuckled. “Yes, yes… but your form stinks like kimchee.”

“Oh…” Spike said lamely. Then he brightened up. “Oh, but if you’re staying here for the tournament, maybe you can teach me some moves?”

“Well…” the kung ma master said, putting on a very forced expression of thoughtfulness. “I suppose… if Rarity allows us to stay, of course…”

“Oh, Rarity!” Spike turned to the unicorn, using his patented watery-eyed stare. It wasn’t quite as effective now that he had reached mid-adolescence, but Rarity still found her resolve wearing down under its power. “Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeeeease!”

The white unicorn twitched even more as she found her desire to throw Master Lao Wu and his demon-spawn out on their haunches warring with her inclination to make the young dragon happy. Finally, something broke, and her face settled on a haunted expression as she delivered her words in a distant, dreamy manner, “Of course Master Lao Wu and his demon-spawn can stay…”

“Yes!” Spike cheered.

“What I tell you, Gau tzeng suen niu?” the old pony whispered as he leaned in toward his descendent. “She always had thing for dragons, and ‘once you go scale, continue without fail.’”

Ran Biao simply frowned at the white unicorn. “What did she mean ‘demon-spawn’?”

---

---

To be continued…

---

1 Lao Wu: Lao means old and wu is an old word for kung fu. Convenient? Yes.
2 Gau tzeng tzu fu: Great-great grandfather.
3 Ran Biao: Ran means burning and Biao means very fast, the character of which is three horses running. I know. I make lame jokes in two languages.
4 Gau tzeng suen niu: Great-great granddaughter
5 A-yi: Aunt. Ran Biao actually uses this correctly, but don't tell Rarity that.
6 Jie-jie: Older sister.
7 Kung ma: lit. Achievement horse. Pun on kung fu, which uses the character for "achievement" and "man." Yes, Apple Bloom mentioned the word kung fu in Showstoppers, but it's funnier this way. At least it is for me.

Author's Note:

Revised and illustrations added 2013/02/17.

Comments

[Kaizer_zero]

Good ideia for a story, lets see how will be go.

[Swashbucklist]

Odd... This was in the feature box earlier this morning (which made me cheer out loud), but ten minutes later it wasn't even in the popular ptories column. Whatever happened there, it's about time I got started on it. Rolling in Beaches was an immensely enjoyable story, and I wouldn't have found it again if Imaginary Valued hadn't pointed me to this one.

So far: the opening didn't grab me. The scene lacked pacing and atmosphere, so it did nothing to draw me in, and there were too many unfamiliar characters who were just placed smack down in front of me without introduction. The archaic pronouns also kept me from enjoying the scene for a number of reasons: capitalized 'T's were unnecessary and got pretty annoying, some of said pronouns were used wrong (to my limited knowledge), and they came so fast and frequently that I almost got the impression that half the characters had lisps; characters in literature who say "thee" and "thine" usually speak in such flowery, long-winded sentences that those words aren't packed so tightly together.

The rest of this chapter demonstrates what Valued praised about the fanfic: humor and world building. The concept of Rarity having connections that reach even farther than Canterlot expands on both the planet Equestria is part of, and on Rarity's character as a worldly, cultured individual. And the idea that she beat an entire school of martial arts students is just fcking awesome.

Her mane was dark blue at the roots, blonde and orange overall and red at the tips

Here's what I'm thinking: Ran Biao's hair is highly poisonous, so it has evolved bright colors to ward off predators.

[Fury of the Tempest]

... haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg.....

I'm sorry. The concept is awesome. The TVtropes is awesome... but the delivery... is not.