Atlas Strongest Tournament

by Bico

Final Four: Marshmallow Hiding Diamond

ATLAS STRONGEST TOURNAMENT
~BICO
PART 6: FINAL FOUR
ACT III: MARSHMALLOW HIDING DIAMOND

"Ring out!" Pinkie shouted. "This victory strengthened the soul of... Scootaloo!"

Luna smiled beatifically as she felt the momentary tension in the magical field surrounding her, alerting her to Twilight's imminent arrival. When the young alicorn appeared the next moment in a flash of light, Luna stretched out her hoof out in anticipation, frog up.

Twilight grumbled and dropped a small purse of bits into Luna's waiting ungula. "There's your ill-gotten gains, Princess." She gave her a playful smirk. "Don't spend it all in one place, now."

Luna chortled. "I will do my best to restrain myself, Twilight. Come, though, and sit with me for a while. You had something to share?"

Twilight huffed, but sat next to the ruler of the night. "I couldn't help but notice you've been a bit evasive... is... is this something to do with Spike? Please, Princess, you have to tell me. He's... he's like my family."

Luna gave her a sidelong glance, and spoke hesitantly. "I... would like to know what you have discovered, first, and then I shall tell you some of what I know."

Twilight sighed, but she gave her elder colleague a faint smile. "I think I have an idea of what's happening with Spike. His fire's always been different from most dragons... it's green, for one thing, and Princess Celestia was able to show him how to send and receive letters with it. Not only that, but there was the incident that occurred after Spike saved the Crystal Empire which I thought was a side effect of the power of the Crystal Heart, and the flames he used in his match with Applejack..."

"Was there something odd about them?" Luna asked. "Orange is the usual color of fire, though I must admit I have only seen young Spike produce green in the past."

"Apparently, when Applejack was hit with the fire, she saw..." Twilight gulped. "She saw the primordial gods. Erebos and Aether fighting—"

"Naturally," Luna quipped.

"And Tartaros, Nyx, Eros, and Hemera. It sounded like she was standing on Gaea," Twilight continued. "It makes sense, though. It happened right after Applejack, the Element of Honesty, forced Spike to be truthful with himself. Then, it seems to me, that fire showed the truth of the world around her to her!"

"Are you saying," Luna asked. "That Spike has somehow tapped into some fundamental power of the Elements of Harmony?"

"Not necessarily that," Twilight said. "But his fire at least reacts to the Elements. I do have a hypothesis about it, though."

"Yes?"

"Do you remember a few years ago, shortly after Cadance and my brother got married?" Twilight asked.

"Of course," Luna said. "I still regret allowing myself to get distracted by that mad pony with the blue box... I ended up missing out on the real fun."

"Uh... right," Twilight said. "Well, I mean when we all visited Daypony Beach. My friends and I got turned into crazy dragons, remember?"

"Mmhm," Luna said.

"And Spike ended up absorbing the Rainbow of Darkness into him?" Twilight prodded. "Which you didn't tell me about until well after... you know..." She flapped a wing for emphasis.

"Er..." Luna looked away nervously. "I do recall."

"Well, of course it wasn't just Darkness trapped inside of him with only his will power keeping it from escaping or corrupting him," Twilight said. "Though I imagine that helps. He also absorbed the power of the Master Rainbow fragment. That absorbed into his body, too, didn't it? And that means that maybe his interactions with the power of our Elements of Harmony are affecting the Rainbow; bringing out its power in the form of his magic flame!"

"Intriguing," Luna admitted. "And possibly accurate. I will admit that, yes, the power of the Master Rainbow is indeed keeping the Rainbow of Darkness sealed within him. Its effect on a living body is, I'm afraid, rather unexplored. The last bearer of the Rainbow fragment wisely kept it sealed within a locket before it was lost to the hippocampi." She eyed Twilight. "Of course, I suppose you remember that part, don't you?"

Twilight giggled. "I guess so. So... what's happening with Spike?"

"Ah, ah," Luna said. "You haven't told me everything. You would not have gotten in such a state if Applejack only saw what you stated."

"R-right..." Twilight said. "She saw... she saw Princess Astraea. And Chaos seemed to be bursting through the sky."

Luna closed her eyes. "Astraea... beloved Astraea. If not for her I should never have escaped the confines of the moon." She gave Twilight an appraising look. "You know, I was skeptical when Tia told me she thought you would achieve apotheosis. True, you were able to master true teleportation rather than the simple 'winking out' spell most unicorns with an affinity for magic learned, and had, of course, become the Element of Magic, but other exceptional ponies had achieved similar feats. Now, though, I think I see what she saw..."

"What's that?" Twilight asked, confused.

Luna shook her head and chuckled. "Spike has been drakenapped, I'm afraid."

"Wh-what?" Twilight gasped, springing to her hooves. "When? How? I just saw him! I have to—"

Luna's horn flared a dark blue the same color as her mane, and a similarly colored sphere enveloped the younger princess. "Don't be so hasty, Twilight," Luna said serenely. "I know exactly where he is, and he is completely safe. However, I tell you this only because I trust that you've learned to shield your thoughts adequately."

"Of... of course," Twilight said. "Only the mind-reading spells of the highest level unicorn could get through my mental wards."

"Good," Luna said. "The telepath we're dealing with here is rather powerful, but unskilled in its application. Still, my own spy managed to be captured and replaced, so do be careful."

"Your... your spy?" Twilight asked, curiously. "So... how does this all help Spike?"

Luna giggled. "Oh, Twilight, really. Since when have you known me to put all my bits on one horse? I have my operatives exactly where I want them."

---

---

"Agent Malus, this is Agent Princess," the purple dragon said into a small medallion the size of a bit. "They locked me in the closet. Looks like they've put up a ward to keep sound from escaping, though. I'm pretty sure the closet is being watched."

"It is," a contralto voice with a distinct Broncs accent chimed from the medallion. "They also used a camouflage spell to hide the door. If you're countin' on somepony to come to ya rescue, fuggedaboudit."

Agent Princess smiled. "Well, that's too bad. Is Agent Pearl taking care of 'the package'? Hopefully, she's not trying to take advantage of her situation."

"Jealous, Princess?" Malus teased. "Don't worry, next time you'll get to smooch on the mark before we bag 'im."

"That would be—" Princess began, but she suddenly heard the click of the doorknob and said quickly, "Gotta-go-tell-boss-mare-I-said-'hi'!"

By the time Princess stashed away the medallion, Scootaloo and Argent—or, more specifically, the two changelings who were assuming their forms—walked in regarding the disguised agent critically. "Whoa, you're that Lunar Guard, aren't you? And... S-Scootaloo! What am I doing here? What are you doing here?"

"Hello, Spike," Princess Aurelia said with a self-satisfied grin. "I'm afraid you've found yourself in the middle of a very precarious situation."

"Precari-wha?" Princess asked.

Aurelia frowned. "Climacteric, determinative, integral..." She leaned in close to Princess' face. "Serious... business."

"Oh," Princess said. "Well, it's a good thing you guys are here to help me, right? Am I right, guys?"

The Argent copy and Aurelia exchanged a bemused glance. "Oh, yes," Argent said. "In fact, we're just going to escort you—discretely—to a... safe location."

"Oh, well," Princess said. "That sounds reasonable. Go ahead and take me to your super secret spy headquarters. Are you going to blindfold me? Go ahead, it doesn't bother me."

Argent rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes. Let's get on with this."

"Hold on," Aurelia said. "We should take that backpack off of him. We don't want to risk bringing in any dangerous items."

"My... my backpack?" Princess asked. "Wh-why, there's nothing suspicious in my backpack at all. It's just... um... I just keep my sweaty workout clothes in there."

"Do dragons sweat?" Argent pondered.

Aurelia wrinkled her nose. "Ew. Well, we're definitely not bringing it, then. You won't need workout clothes where we're going, anyway."

"Uhh." Agent Princess paused in momentary thought before insisting, "That bag has very important medical equipment for a serious disease that I will die without."

"You'll die without the medical equipment or the disease?" Argent prodded.

"Both!" Princess answered.

"What disease?" Aurelia asked.

"... Acute post-prandial upper-abdominal distension," Princess said flatly.

Argent leaned in to Aurelia and whispered, "Wow, that sounds serious."

"Indeed," Aurelia said. "I would suggest not eating quite so much in one sitting." She turned to Argent and ordered, "Get that bag!"

Argent seized the backpack, ripping it off Agent Princess. He paused, eyes widening slightly when he saw a pair of light blue and gold wings emerge from a hole that had been cut out of the bag. "What is this?"

"O-oh!" Agent Princess said. "Those are... my wings."

"You... don't have wings..." Aurelia said.

"They... they just grew in," Princess explained. "Because... dragons... grow wings during puberty. Yeah!"

"Well..." Aurelia hesitated. She leaned in toward Argent and hissed, "I don't remember seeing that in his memories when his match ended!"

"It could be a coincidence," Argent whispered back. "Or maybe he was just told. He's that one smart mare's apprentice, after all."

"Maybe," she admitted, and then turned back to Princess. "But why were you covering them up?"

"We-he-hell, duh!" Princess said, rolling her eyes dramatically, as if she had just heard the stupidest question in the world. "It's obviously because... there's a reason wings come out during puberty. It's like... when the wings rise, something else also rises? It's kind of embarrassing for a young dragon, so we like to keep them covered in polite society until our hormones settle down."

Aurelia gave Argent a questioning look, but he only shrugged helplessly. Neither were any more knowledgeable on actual dragon development than Spike had been, and he had not been given much in the way of the "wyrms and the wyverns" talk by any of the dragons in his acquaintance, least of all concerning what was and wasn't true of the sexual characteristics of dragon wings. "I... I have heard that pegasi wings are the same way," she said. "But, even so, why are your wings a different color than the rest of you?" She gave the dragon before her a triumphant sneer.

"Oh," Princess said with a grin. "That's because I'm a dragon. We don't have to make sense; it's only convenient for you ponies when we do."

Aurelia looked thoughtful. "There are a lot of conflicting representations of dragons. Maybe you're right. Well, whatever! Argent, just take Spike to the 'undisclosed location'!"

Argent gave her a salute. "Yes, ma'am! Come with me, Spike."

As Princess followed the changeling, she giggled softly to herself. "Scalestasia Finabella Heathspike, you've still got it."

---

---

"Well, I trust you, Luna," Twilight said. "You've been a good friend for a long time, and I know you would never put Spike in unnecessary danger."

Luna nodded. "Indeed, this may be the best way to save his very soul. If what you've described to me of Applejack's dream is the hidden truth of the situation, we all may be in greater danger than I originally suspected, and as usual the forces of Darkness are merely exacerbating the situa—"

BRAAAAP!

Luna and Twilight's heads both turned instantly to regard the fight below, to which they had been paying only cursory attention so far. They looked just in time to see Rarity tossing Applejack's rear into the air with her head and beginning to gallop erratically around the stage, weeping.

"I do hope you'll forgive me, Twilight," Luna apologized. "But this fight seems to have suddenly become far more interesting."

"No problem," Twilight said, levitating a striped bucket of burst kernels. She tilted it slightly toward the other princess. "Popcorn?"

Down on stage, Rarity was wiping the tears from her eyes with her hooves and attempting to blow every last particulate of the funk that had invaded her face out of her nostrils. "I... I cannot believe I was just subjected to that. Now I actually feel guilty about what I did to Prince Blueblood in the preliminaries."

"Oh, you broke wind on a prince?" Applejack asked with a guffaw. "I'd pay good bits to see that."

"Hardly," Rarity responded, offended. "I'm not nearly so crude as you. In fact," a fire seemed to light in her eyes as she fixed her gaze on Applejack. "Allow me to rectify that situation right now!" Her horn flared and sewing needles began to float into the air. She pulled a long strip of cloth from somewhere and snapped it fiercely, cracking a tile on the floor.

"Wh-what're you gonna do?" Applejack asked, backing away slowly.

"Oh, you'll see!" Rarity said as scissors, brushes, and compacts began to join their brethren floating around her. She charged, whipping the cloth around Applejack's leg and dragging her screaming into a cloud of makeup dust. After a full minute of the sounds of an obscured struggle filling the arena, the dust cleared and Applejack stood in shock—as well as in a rather stylish wrap with a perfectly coiffed mane and tail and makeup that really emphasized the marely curve of her cheek and softened her strong chin. "Voilà!"

"Rarity..." Applejack said dreamily. "I'm gonna mess that purdy little face of yours up somethin' fierce for this."

"Alright, then," Rarity said, puffing her chest out. "Bring it!"

"Oh!" Applejack shouted, turning to Rarity hotly. "It's done been broughten!" She planted her hooves firmly on the floor, her earth pony aura seeping into the ground. As she poured out more and more of herself, the ring began to tremble and the chips of stone that littered the stage began to lift from the ground, repelled by an invisible power. A faint glow began to surround her body. "I ain't showed you the real power of an earth pony. It works real subtle-like most of the time. Most of us don't even realize it. But if'n you identify that power and learn to control it, you can do somethin' like..."

With a grunt, her body began to blaze with light as more power was forced from her. The trees surrounding the ring suddenly began to grow larger, and started to bloom with apple flowers. Moments later, the blossoms began to shed their petals as the apples within grew larger and larger. Finally, the growth ceased, leaving the stadium an orchard full of apples and air full of floating pink and white petals.

"Oh, my," Rarity said, looking at the scenery in awe. "Applejack, I had no idea you could do something so... beautiful. Oh, but if you used cherry trees it would be so romantic."

"I ain't no Cherry Jubilee, Rare," Applejack said. "And those petals are an... unfortunate side-effect of what I'm really after." She grinned and trotted over to one of the trees. "See, most earth ponies could do this same thing with enough trainin'. We don't, o' course, 'cause—truth be told—anything you grow like this is a might inedible. Not only that, but the fruit'll wither and die within a couple hours." She bucked the tree and an apple began to fall. "For this, though, I'd say these kinds o' apples are just perfect." Before the apple could hit the ground, she turned and used Bucky McGillicuddy to kick it right at Rarity's head.

Rarity reacted with the reflexes of a snake, and the apple whistled past her ear, whipping a free lock of her mane back. She turned her head and saw the apple actually embed itself into the trunk of a tree on the far side of the ring. "Th-those apples. They must be as hard as steel!"

"Eeyup," Applejack said with a chuckle. "Like I said, they're 'a might inedible'. But they'll do for kickin' your flank." With an exuberant shout, she began to buck more apples out of the trees, launching a barrage of steely red globes at Rarity.

Rarity summoned the gems lying about the arena to counter the strikes, though the diamonds seemed to barely dent these unnaturally durable fruits. She snorted. "I can't let myself stay on the defensive. I need to get serious, too." She spat needles from her mouth, seizing them with her magic even as she allowed her control of her gems to wane in favor of using her hooves to parry the projectiles, and guided them through the assailment of apples.

Applejack saw the glint of the oncoming needles and snorted. "That trick won't work on me, Rare," she muttered more to herself than to her opponent. She stopped bucking the trees momentarily and bounced from the trunk of one to the branch of another with the needles trailing her closely. She acrobatically flipped over and behind one of the branches and pulled it back, landing on a different branch. She then let it go as the needles were circling around the trunk of the tree, causing them to stab into the bark while at the same time launching the entire branch-worth of apples right at Rarity.

"Horse manure!" Rarity squeaked, responding to the counterattack by falling back on her first instinct to physically parry the apples. Even she couldn't fend off such an onrush of fruits, however, and she took several hits to the barrel, with one whisking above her head, tearing her mane out of the neat bun she had been wearing, and causing her gently curled mane to blow freely. Her eyes narrowed. "You touched my mane. Nopony touches my mane."

"Yee-haw! Come get some!" Applejack cheered as she began to hop from tree to tree and branch to branch whipping the apples at Rarity.

Rarity telekinetically gathered her gems together, and with a burst of magic fused them into a jeweled disk. She charged at Applejack, the apples smashing into her shield. The super dense fruits slowed her, but did not stop her as she made her way toward her opponent. When she came close to the tree in which Applejack perched, she tossed the shield, and its razor-sharp edges sliced through the trunk like butter.

"Whoa!" Applejack shouted as she jumped out of the toppling tree. "You can't just cut down my tree."

"Looks like I ca-a-an!" Rarity sang. "You said yourself it was just going to wither in a few hours, anyway."

Applejack huffed. "Well, that as it may be, I won't just take this lyin' down."

Rarity caught her returning gem shield and gave her opponent a smirk. "No, I imagine you'll take it jumping." She tossed the disk again, and it sliced through the trunk of Applejack's new roost, forcing her to evacuate as it also fell to the ground. Rarity continued to chop her way through the trees as Applejack leaped away.

I can't just keep runnin' like this, Applejack thought to herself. Gotta get Rare off her game, somehow. Wait... I got it! She landed on a branch some distance from Rarity and waited until she tossed her shield again, and then whipped out her lasso from her tail. She tossed the lasso toward Rarity, catching one of her legs, and pulled. "Get over here!"

Rarity squealed as she found herself flying through the air toward Applejack, who was now leaping toward her, using the branch on which she had been standing as a springboard. She had to act fast, she realized. She swiftly assessed her situation and calculated the mechanics of the rope's movements—not too different from determining how a particular fabric would move on a pony's body, she noted casually—and ignited her horn. She telekinetically pushed a particular point on the rope between her and Applejack down, creating a pivot point which swung her over Applejack's head.

"What the...?" Applejack said, confused as she thrust a magically charged hoof out only to find her target gone. She tried to twist around in midair, and caught a glimpse of elegant purple an instant before two white hooves hammered her in the face, sending her plunging down into the ring. Her earth pony aura exploded upon hitting the tiles, causing a smoking crater to form in the middle of the stage.

Rarity magically summoned her shield to her, which had sunk uselessly into the trunk of her original target when she had been yanked off the ground, and landed gracefully on it. She floated above the hole in the ring, regarding her opponent coolly as she pulled herself out of the wreckage. "Well, well, Applejack. Looks like your so-called techniques are no match for me, after all."

"I wouldn't say that," Applejack said, panting heavily. She had used a lot of her earth pony magic to charge her trees as well as for what she'd hoped would be a decisive strike, and her reserves were obviously running low. "I ain't gonna give up, yet. You gotta earn your victory against me."

"And I plan on doing just that, my friend," Rarity said, her muzzle held high with pride. "I worked long and hard honing my fighting skills to perfection. Your reliance on your physical prowess and stamina will be your downfall."

Applejack snorted, and spat on the ground. "A'right, well... I'll show you just what my 'physical prowess and stamina' can do. I'mma make this my final attack, an' give it my all." She closed her eyes and began to concentrate, pushing her aura once more into the earth, but this time, instead of giving up her power, she was gathering it into herself. "C'mon... c'mon, plants, gimme that stupid energy..."

Rarity looked confused as she saw the apples on the trees begin to wither and drop off and the trees begin to shrink and gnarl. Even the grass looked as if it were losing its lush quality. Then, she could sense it. There was a feeling of the magic all around beginning to coalesce on Applejack, to the point that her body began to glow as her earth pony aura was buffed with the surrounding magic. "Oh, ho! Are you attempting to involve me in some kind of combined energy finishing move? Really, so tacky." Rarity jumped off the shield and grasped it between her hooves, controlling her descent so she would fall right toward Applejack.

Applejack reared up on her hind legs, and her aura seemed to explode into a sphere of burning power. She leaped into the air as the aura expanded, helping to push her toward her opponent. As she approached the plummeting Rarity, the aura burst, and she gathered the energy into her hoof, which she cocked back in preparation for the punch that was to come. "This punch'll be even stronger'n the one that took out Rainbow. That li'l shield o' yours won't protect you!" She thrust, and her hoof came into contact with the crystalline disk. True to her word, the shield began to crack from the pressure of the combined magic of the surrounding flora. She pushed harder, and the shield broke in two.

Needles shot out from behind the shield, piercing Applejack's skin in midpunch. The magic that she had gathered began to rapidly leak out of her like she was a water balloon that had had holes poked into it. By the time a diamond hoof caught her punch, it was barely half the power it had been. Even so, it was a considerable amount of power, and the bright flash of the two hooves meeting temporarily blinded the spectators.

When Applejack's vision cleared, they were still suspended in midair, though she could feel gravity reasserting itself quickly. She looked up into Rarity's smiling and still fleshy face. She glanced over at the leg which had caught her punch and saw that it was still in its jeweled state. "Y-you... you only transformed part o' yourself. So you could use those needles, right?"

Rarity nodded. "That's right. Oh, but I'm afraid I may have to go fully crystallized in a moment, Darling," she said, glancing nervously at the rapidly approaching ground. "Please, do excuse me." She brought Applejack into a tight embrace and turned them around so that Rarity now had her back to the ground. Rarity's horn flashed and her body was turned into a gem statue before she collided with the arena.

Applejack staggered off of Rarity, her body now free of the acupuncture needles due to the impact, and she waited a moment for Rarity to rise as well. "A'right... don't think I'm gonna go easy on you now just 'cause you took that fall. That was a tactical mistake on your part. Take this!" She propped herself on one foreleg and kicked at her opponent lethargically.

Rarity took the kick without flinching, as well as the follow up punches that struck her impervious body. After a moment allowing Applejack to wear herself out stubbornly attempting to put a crack in her glittering hide, she planted her right front hoof into the cowfilly's kidney.

"Gk-gah!" Applejack groaned, her legs going rubbery. "Y-you... you really do got some diamond-hard hooves there, Rare... I tell... you... what...?" She collapsed, leaving Rarity regarding her as one would a wad of gum left on the sidewalk. As Pinkie began to count, she turned and casually bucked Applejack out of the ring.

"Uh... R-ring out!" Pinkie said with some confusion. "Rarity?" When she looked around she saw the crystal unicorn already trotting out of the arena. "W-well, anyway, Rarity wins and moved on to the Finals. Um... please excuse me!" She zipped over to Applejack, propping her up and waving a stick of powdered candy in front of her nose.

Scootaloo galloped up to the two mares with her friends in tow and asked the slowly reviving Applejack, "Are you okay?"

"Whoo-ee," Applejack replied. "Lemme tell ya, that mare packs way more of a punch than I ever reckoned. Got a li'l more rough with me toward the end than I'd expect, too."

"That was more than a little rough," Scootaloo said.

"Yeah," Apple Bloom said with a frown. "Rarity went too far. She didn't need to hit you again when you was already down."

Sweetie Belle looked down the hallway into which her sister had disappeared. "It really wasn't like her."

"You're right," Scootaloo said, her eyes squinting suspiciously. "Something like that... it's almost as if she wasn't the real Rarity at all."

Pinkie dropped Applejack and posed dramatically as she shouted, "Dun, dun, dunnnn!"

---

---

To be continued...

Author's Note:

Beta Reader: Imaginary Valued

Comments

[Godiswithus3]

Even though my favorite pony lost, it was still a good and hilarious fight.