Atlas Strongest Tournament

by Bico

Sweet Sixteen: Diamonds and Dragons

ATLAS STRONGEST TOURNAMENT
~BICO
PART 4: SWEET SIXTEEN
ACT III: DIAMONDS AND DRAGONS

“Now!” Pinkie concluded with a shout. “When we last left off before I paused for suspense, Shining Armor successfully shielded his number one brother position in a fraternal fracas, Spike defeated Snowflake by a tail, and Applejack left Rainbow a hot and bothered mess, writhing on the floor while soaked in her own sweat and—”

“Pinkie!” Applejack shouted. “Get on with it.”

“Yeah,” the audience cried. “Get on with it.”

“Right!” Pinkie said joyfully. “Our next competitor is from the magical land of Spina. I mean, Equestria is pretty magical, too, but Spina is just a little more magical. I’d say about 20% more magical.”

“Pinkie!”

“Okay, so from Spina we have the famous Lao Wu, Master of the Rising Dragon Hoof school of kung ma,” Pinkie went on. “And his opponent tonight is a young diamond dog from the northern mines of Torbronco, Gray Fang!”

Lao Wu regarded the canine who stepped into the heptagon opposite him carefully. He was big for a diamond dog, but looked very fit. His shape was more like that of a wolf than a dog, and he carried himself with a more dignified upright posture than the ones in this part of Equestria. At his side he wore a sword sheathed in a diamond encrusted scabbard.

“Sorry, old man,” Gray Fang said gruffly. “It’s nothing personal, eh? I’m a lone wolf, you see, and I need some capital to start my own mine. I do apologize for the pain you are about to receive.”

Lao Wu grimaced at the youth’s arrogant assumption. “You will learn something this day, pup.”

Gray shook his head and laughed, and then he withdrew his sword. He began to swing it around experimentally, at first, but then his movements became swift and practiced, and as he swung, deep grooves began to appear in the ground far from the tip of the blade, itself. He then slashed up toward Master Wu, and it was as if an invisible plow were tearing up the ground between him and his opponent.

Lao Wu dodged out of the path with a bored expression. “Hm. Not bad with sword. Not many can do vacuum blade.”

Gray snarled and said. “You have no idea what you’re getting into, eh? Killing is prohibited during the preliminaries, but in the real tournament, killing in the heat of battle is… understandable. I am sorry.” He began to swing his blade over and over, cutting swathes in the stage floor as Master Lao weaved around the attacks, approaching like a striking snake. “You want to close the distance, eh? That’s a mistake, bub.” He slashed at Lao Wu with his sword. “My cold steel is even deadlier than the vacuum!”

---

---

Lao Wu barked a laugh as the blade struck his scales and then shattered. He landed with his fore hooves on the ground, coiled his tail and then rammed it into the hollow of Gray’s jaw. He was launched high into the air and came down with a thud outside the ring. “Stupid dog,” he scoffed as Pinkie declared his victory by ring-out. “You would have had more luck scratching my scales with that scabbard.”

Gray Wolf looked contemplatively at the diamonds coating the scabbard and his eyes widened. “I see…” he said. “So that’s what I have to do.” He turned and regarded Master Lao. “I’m sorry for my impertinence. However, you were right. I did learn something today.” He gave Lao Wu a menacing grin. “Next time I meet one of your kind, I’ll kill it for sure.”

“That was a quick match, everypony,” Pinkie said. “And certainly makes Master Lao Wu seem like a formidable opponent for anypony who has to face him later.”

“It will be difficult for me to overcome Gau tzeng tzu fu, but it will be my honor to test my skills against him,” Ran Biao said.

“Well, you’re in luck,” Rarity interjected as she and Ran both made their way to the stage. “You’ll have a little longer to train before you fight Master Lao Wu. He certainly won’t be in any condition for a match for at least a month after I’m through with him.” She put a hoof to her mouth contemplatively. “Then again, you probably won’t be, either.”

Ran shot a glance to her rival. “I know all your moves, Rarity A-yi. I have trained to counter them since the day you left. You caught me by surprise before, but your needle techniques will not work second time.”

Rarity gave her old friend an enigmatic smile and took her place at the opposite end of the heptagon. Pinkie stood between them, a grim expression on her face.

“Fillies and gentlecolts,” she said calmly. “There comes a time in every pony’s life when their entire future hinges upon a single event; a defining moment. For these two mares that time is now. One shall stand and one shall fall. Who will inherit the keys to destiny? Who will have their dreams slip through their hooves like pudding? Like delicious, chocolaty pudding?” She scanned the crowd, the gravity of that instant weighing heavily on them all. “I don’t know, but I’m getting hungry, so hopefully we find out quick, right?” She looked from one fighter to the other and then gasped. “Oh, right, you can go ahead and fight!”

Ran Biao dashed toward her opponent, her razor-toothed jaws opened wide and slavering to take a bite out of Rarity’s hide. Her opponent leaped gracefully over her, however, and turned to fling her giant brimmed hat at her. She opened her mouth again and let loose with a bright flame.

“Yeow!” Rarity yelped as she dodged out of the path of the fiery belch, though the heat still singed her hairs. “My hat! That was just uncalled for!”

Ran Biao sneered. “That is least of what I will do. I have trained my fire to be hot enough to burn through dragon hide.”

Rarity galloped in a random pattern, her speed making her seem like a blur to the untrained. She spat a barrage of needles from her mouth, letting her magic guide them to the proper points on her opponent’s body.

Ran reacted instantly, and white-hot fire washed over the needles and they glowed red. They splatted harmlessly against her scales, sizzling as the molten metal dripped down her fire resistant hide.

Rarity gasped at her attack’s failure.

“That’s right, Rarity A-yi!” Ran crowed as she attacked once more, now engaging in hoof to hoof combat. Their limbs seemed to flow together in graceful, circular motions. “My fire is strong enough to melt your metal. Your skills are useless against me.”

Rarity grimaced. “Aren’t we confident? Perhaps you think I’ve learned nothing since we parted ways all those years ago?”

Ran hammered Rarity with her front hooves, knocking her to the ground. “Oh, really? And what do you think you could have learned that would prove useful against my fire?”

“Maybe,” Rarity said with laughter in her voice as she got back to her hooves. “You ought to look at my flank.”

Ran Biao growled as a blush spread across her face. “You are taunting me? It will be my honor to make you pay for that!” She took to the air and began to rain down flame. Rarity was obscured from sight while white heat poured down on the stage, turning the stone black. She soon ran out of breath, and she gasped for air. Then she gasped even further when she saw three massive diamonds where Rarity had been.

Sweat soaked Rarity’s mane and coat, both from the heat of her opponent’s breath and the strain of summoning such massive diamonds to protect her. She couldn’t give herself time to rest, however. She knew Ran would recover from her shock, and she couldn’t let the advantage of surprise slip away. With a burst of her magic, she cracked the massive diamonds to her left and right and sent chunks of it flying toward the other competitor at near sonic speeds.

Ran deftly dodged and parried the projectiles, though she could feel her scales being torn and her flesh being bruised. She caught a few in her mouth and crunched them with her teeth, swallowing them in midflight. “Thank you for mid-match snack, Rarity A-yi!” she taunted. Despite her bravado, however, the diamonds were still dangerous for her.

Rarity leaped onto her central diamond and levitated it up to meet her rival. She jumped in to attack her with her own hooves as the crystals continued to pelt her opponent. Her horn slashed as she avoided gnashing dragon teeth in midair.

With a deft swipe of her scaly blue tail, Ran batted her opponent away and took a deep breath, expanding her gut to almost double its usual size. Before she could unleash a new bombardment of fireballs on Rarity’s now unprotected body, the light of the sun glinting off several tiny objects arcing through the sky caught her eye. That backstabbing mare had tried to trick her, she knew. She had almost been distracted enough to miss the needles coming right at her, but not this time. She focused her flame and blasted the incoming projectiles that were darting for her from several angles guided by magic. One, two… three, four, five… six and seven. That had been all of them.

Rarity’s large, floating diamond broke her fall while the fireballs blasted overhead. She smiled shrewdly at the display. Those needles had been a great distraction to keep her from being roasted, of course. Even better, however, was the fact that the fire wouldn’t melt these needles.

“Diamond?” Ran gasped as the needles continued to home in on her and pierced her scales like butter. She fell from the sky and landed roughly on the ground. She could feel the magic pulsing into her nervous system, paralyzing her. Again.

“Well,” Rarity said superciliously. “It seems that, once again, the horseshoe is on the other hoof. Now that I have you as a captive audience after all this time…” Her horn flared brightly, sending a jolt through her rival’s body. “I’m curious. Why did you do it?”

“What?” Ran growled.

Rarity pulled Ran Biao upright with her magic and glared into her eyes. “You heard me. What did I ever do to you? Why did you betray me all those years ago?”

“Betray you?” Ran laughed spitefully. “It was not I who betrayed you. It was other way ‘round!”

“Ha!” Rarity scoffed. “I always treated you like a sister.”

Ran Biao snarled. “You… you are foal. You do not remember?”

In a flash of purple light, a new challenger appeared. At least, that’s what the crowd thought at first, but the new pony on stage was none other than Twilight Sparkle. “Wait a minute, you two.”

“Twilight?” Rarity exclaimed. “What… what are you doing here?”

“I’ve been listening to the two of you… and… well… so has everypony else in the stadium,” Twilight said. “It seems like you two are having some problems. With friendship.”

“You could say that,” Ran Biao said. “I do not know how you figured out.”

“Listen,” Twilight said. “Nopony here wants to see two old friends fight.”

“Um, Twilight?” Pinkie Pie interrupted. “Actually… I think that’s exactly what we’re all here for.” Sounds to the affirmative rumbled through the crowd.

“Oh,” Twilight said. “Well… it’s just that I have this great spell for just this kind of situation.”

Rarity had to look away from her friend’s big, watery eyed stare. “Well… I suppose if you really have your heart set on this…”

“Great!” Twilight said. “Now prepare… for friendship.” Her horn began to glow a soft purple, and a magic field snaked out to touch Rarity’s horn and Ran Biao’s third eye. Her magic began to fill the air above the stadium, and in a flash of light…

---

“Master Lao!” Rarity complained. “Are we training to fight or perform in a circus?” She leaped deftly through a flaming hoop.

“Quiet,” Lao Wu said grumpily. “Now juggle ball.” He tossed three small purple balls in his student’s direction.

Rarity squealed as she tried to catch the balls in her hooves. For a moment she managed to start cycling the balls in the air, but she was unsteady, and a distraction from the other end of the training hall broke her concentration completely.

“高曾祖父,為什麼我不可以塗顏色在我的蹄上呢?(1)” a newcomer was screaming at the top of her lungs as the doors to the hall slammed open.

The balls flew out of Rarity’s grasp and she attempted to reach out to grab them. She only managed to lose her balance and plummet off the long poles on which she was perched. Down below she saw the spikes which were also set on fire courtesy of the ravenous salamanders that would tear her apart for their morning meal should she somehow survive the deadly fall, spikes, and the fire. She had been told this was all merely psychological manipulation, and if it was it was certainly working. Rarity would have broken any law of physics at that moment to prevent her from plummeting to her doom. Unfortunately, her horn was tragically underdeveloped for any physics breaking beyond mild illumination.

A pair of strong forelegs caught Rarity in their embrace and she suddenly found herself soaring over the flames. She clung to her savior desperately, and only realized she had been holding her breath when they touched down on the ground. She pulled away and looked into a pair of reptilian, magenta eyes. “Th-thank you…” she said.

The one who was holding her was the young filly who had burst into the hall. “It was my honor to save you,” she said.

“You’re… you’re the master’s granddaughter, aren’t you?” Rarity asked. “I’ve seen you… around.”

“My name is Ran Biao,” she responded. “And you are Rarity, yes? I have also had the honor of noticing you… around.” She glanced away with a perplexing expression on her face. “You are very graceful.”

“Well,” Rarity said with laugh. “I wasn’t so graceful this time, was I?”

Ran made a show of considering her statement for a moment, and then laughed vociferously. “I suppose you were not!”

“Ran Biao!” Master Lao Wu growled at his great great granddaughter. “Stop taking up best student’s training time. I want to see how she handle unicycle on ball with spinning plates.”

“Is he…?” Rarity began with a skeptical look at Ran.

“Is serious ancient training technique,” she responded, looking away from her. “Too, too serious.”

From that day onward, the two fillies spent every day together. They would meet at the old shrine in the woods where Ran would bring Rarity unauthorized treats and Rarity would sew Ran beautiful saddles and socks. They even repaired the shrine and fixed it up, as it had not been used in nearly a century, and made it into their own clubhouse.

The day they finished their work on the shrine was Rarity’s birthday, and Ran Biao shyly presented her friend with a Soul of Ice Sapphire that she had been growing for months. Though it was a delicacy among dragons and their ken, she explained that no jewel could satisfy her as much as the friendship they shared.

The girls were inseparable, until one special day on the seventh day of the seventh Lunar month, during the Spinese holiday of Qing-ma Jie, Lover’s Holiday.

Ran waited patiently for her friend after training was over for the day. She had procured several melons for them to carve along with a pile of fruits, flowers, tea, and even makeup. She had also placed a bowl of water nearby with a set of sewing needles. She blushed as she looked over the materials she had gathered for celebrating what many in Equestria called “Spinese Hearts and Hooves Day.” She picked up a pink envelope sealed with a heart from the pile and sighed as she gazed on it with shimmering eyes.

“Ranny!” Rarity’s voice called out to her, and she quickly grabbed the envelope with her tail and hid it behind her back.

“I’m here, Rarity,” she responded. She saw her friend emerge from the trees and her heart began to thump loudly in her ears. Even stumbling out of the woods every move she took overflowed with elegance. She idly wondered how a filly who hadn’t even earned her cutie mark could put forth such an air of maturity. She sighed, her ears flopping to the side of her head and a smile stretching across her face.

“Oh, Ranny,” Rarity said. “You would not believe what I had to go through today. Why, with the tiger pit and the wrenches, and I lost my—but you don’t want to hear about all that, I have the most wonderful news!”

“Really? I also had something I… wanted to tell you, tonight.” Ran’s ears perked up when she heard another crash from behind her friend, and she stiffened when she saw a handsome emerald scaled figure emerge from the foliage. She recognized him as another of her great great grandfather’s students, a male dragon by the name of Razorwing.

“喂(2), Rarity,” Razorwing said with an easy tone as he slipped up to Rarity’s side. “這個地方好遜。(3)”

“對呀(4),” Rarity responded. “But it has such sentimental value, doesn’t it, Ranny?” She bounced cheerfully up the steps of the shrine and leaned in close to her friend, whispering loudly, “Ranny, isn’t he just the most majestic creature you’ve ever seen? And he’s royalty. Okay, dragon royalty, but still!”

Ran gulped and gave Rarity a nervous smile. “Yes, he is. Why… why is he here?”

“Well, I do apologize,” Rarity said. “But it just happened so suddenly. He absolutely saved my life, Ranny. I mean, I would have literally died had he not been there. So heroic. If he hadn’t been there I just would have been crushed.” She looked back at him with a dreamy look in her eyes. “I think I’m in love…”

Ran glanced back at the envelope she still held behind her back and frowned. “I… can understand that.”

“I knew you would,” Rarity said, beaming. “It’s not a problem if he spends the evening with us, is it? Oh, I know it’s an imposition, but… what’s that you have in your tail?”

“Eh?” Ran Biao’s eyes widened and she jerked her tail away from Rarity. “Oh, I… it’s nothing, I just…”

“Oh, come on,” Rarity said. “Let me see it. Is it for me?” She tried to maneuver around Ran, laughing as she grabbed at her tail.

“No, it’s just… ah…” Ran Biao panicked as her friend caught her tail and brought the envelope close. “Ah… ahhh… ahhhh…” an idea clicked in her head. “Choo!” Fire shot out of her nostrils, burning the envelope to a crisp. “Oops.”

Rarity looked disappointed, but she perked up again as Razorwing sauntered over. “Oh, well, we ought to have lots of fun together even if your allergies are acting up. Come on Razorwing, let me show you how a filly carves a melon.”

Ran Biao tried her best to enjoy the evening, but her heart was shadowed by grief. She felt suddenly separated by a great gulf from the filly to whom she had grown so close, and she could see the bonds of attraction tightening around Rarity and Razorwing. Resentment blossomed quickly, for it had been the two of them who had once been that close, and in the space of one evening she was as a stranger to her while he was suddenly the center of her world. What right did he have to do this to her?

It only got worse over the next several days as Rarity dragged Razorwing along to all of their hangouts. Ran Biao couldn’t get away from their constant flirting and fawning. Her blood would boil at the very thought of it. When her friend told her that she planned on confessing to the dragon and asking him to go steady with her, she snapped inside. That night she resolved to confront the dragon decisively, and took out a scroll, brush, and ink and began her letter of challenge.

The night of Razorwing’s birthday was clear and the moon was full, the shadowy unicorn head crisp on its surface. Ran Biao awaited her adversary with a stony expression frozen on her face. She had resolved to fight for her filly, even against an older and stronger full-blooded dragon.

“‘Meet me at the lake at 7:50pm to settle a battle of the heart.’” Razorwing’s voice called out in their native language. “This is a bit dramatic for a confession, isn’t it?”

“What?” Ran Biao said, also using their Spinese tongue. “Don’t be so vulgar. This is no confession.”

“I saw you staring at me all week,” Razorwing said. “I’m very happy to have acquired a pretty filly like Rarity.”

Ran Biao growled. “You don’t know her like I do.”

“You’re right,” Razorwing said, his tongue flicking out as he fixed her with a glassy stare. “But you don’t have to try to convince me to get rid of her if you want me to have you, too.”

“What nonsense are you talking?” Ran said with a snort.

“I realized something,” Razorwing said, his gaze unblinking. “Why only have one pretty filly? I could have two… three… I could have all the pretty fillies.” His mouth slowly parted into a preoccupied grin. “Mine… all mine…”

Ran Biao growled and stalked toward him. “Listen here, creep, no filly belongs to—” Her words were cut off when the dragon’s arms shot around her with astounding speed, trapping her limbs. She immediately began to breathe fire at her attacker, but his scales protected him against the heat, and her flame was snuffed by his mouth pressing against hers. She struggled for a moment against his grip, but froze when she saw sky blue eyes peering out at her from the dark, framed by a snowy white face and lilac curls. Rarity, she thought. She will help me. We always have each other’s flanks.

Her friend’s face disappeared into the darkness, to Ran’s shock, and she found the Razorwing's brute strength overpowering her. He shouldn’t be this strong, she thought. She should have been able to break out of this, but it seemed like he was somehow larger and more powerful than before. His claws were cutting through her scales painfully, but she renewed her struggles and bit at him, drawing blood from his tongue and lips even as he pinned her to the ground and put the full weight of his body against her. She was a fighter. She would never let him—

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“Okay!” Twilight squeaked. “I think we’re going to stop that right there. I mean… wow.”

Pinkie scrunched her eyebrows together. “Was that…? Did he…?” She shook her head and sighed, lifting the microphone to her muzzle. “Fillies and gentlecolts… it is with great regret that I must concede that your humble announcer has found the one thing that contains not even one eensy, weensy, teensy, deensy little amount of humor. What… so… ever.” She dropped the microphone to the ground and walked away, her hair going limp.

“Ran!” Rarity gasped, shocked. “What happened? I saw you… I thought you… meant to…”

Smoke puffed out of Ran Biao’s nostrils and her eyes shimmered as she glared up at Rarity. “That is what great great grandfather said, too. If I hadn’t wanted it I would have beaten him to pulp. As if I could fight against dragon at the onset of greed growth. He was not as noble as you thought, it seem.”

“Loving Luna…” Rarity’s voice cracked as she looked down on her old friend, still paralyzed and seething with rage. Tears dripped down her cheek as she contemplated that night so many years ago. “I’m… I’m so sorry.”

“No,” Ran Biao said with a grin. “Is okay. It was an honor to take your place as Razorwing’s object of desire, even as you looked knives at me for stealing him away. It made me stronger. Now even with limbs trapped, I am never defenseless.” She laughed bitterly. “Never!”

“Whoa, Nelly!” Twilight shouted as white-hot flame burst from Ran’s throat. She ignited her horn and teleported herself back out of the ring before the heat could melt her face off.

Rarity, for her part, closed her eyes as the flames came for her, her own horn glowing brightly. There weren’t any more big diamonds she could use to protect herself, but she did have one more thing. When the fire enveloped her, she felt no pain. Heat was a foreign concept to her like this. She walked forward as her old friend spent every last bit of fuel she had on fires hot enough to melt the stone of the heptagon on which they stood. Soon Rarity stood over the dragon, and the flames died, leaving her to glisten, semi-transparent, in the sun. She was…

“Still so… beautiful…” Ran Biao croaked, her energy completely spent. Her eyes drooped closed and she collapsed to the ground, darkness laying its veil over her consciousness.

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To be continued…

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1 Gau tzeng tzu fu, wei shen me wo bu ke yi tu yan se zai wo de ti shang ne?: Great great grandfather, why can't I paint my hooves?
2 Wei: Hey
3 Zhe ge di fang hao xun.: This place sucks.
4 Dwei ya.: Yes.

Comments

[Bico]

Rarity probably feels like a real asshole, right now. No offense intended to asses, of course.

So, yeah, my updates are going to be sporadic for a month or so, which makes me feel just horrible, really. I am looking to see if I can find a good beta reader which I've never used before, so if anyone thinks they have the chops or knows anyone who might be willing, drop me a line.

[candrew]

Well, that was a surprising end to the question of what actually happened back then. Really didn't expect, well, any of that honestly. I really liked Twilight's excitement for the possibility of solving friendship problems too.

[Ignaltus]

Oh, fuck! I want another chapter!

[Bico]

1945593 I still have some things to wrap up, but it'll be coming soon.