Atlas Strongest Tournament

by Bico

The Big Boss: Return of the Dragon

ATLAS STRONGEST TOURNAMENT
~BICO
PART 10: THE BIG BOSS
ACT III: RETURN OF THE DRAGON

Shining Armor and Argent Javelin moved as a unit, as only two highly trained soldiers and friends could. Every magic spell launched toward them was instantly warded by Shining's defensive spells as soon as they came within range. Argent's counter-spells were fired with such precise timing that his Silver Bullet could pass Shining's threshold a fraction of a second after it was safe to bring down.

For all of Twilight's power, she found herself struggling against her brother's copy and his friend. Both unicorns were powerful in their own rights, but the strange black miasma that had flooded the room moments before was now boosting their power to the same heights that Shining Armor could previously only achieve when powered by the Element of Love. Is this the power of Darkness? Twilight wondered as she stared into the black eyes of her brother, which were pinched in scorn and burned with a palpable murderous intent.

Twilight shook off the cold feeling that washed over her and focused on the task at hoof. She cast another spell, this time targeting a nearby building. It suddenly turned into chocolate pudding—a spell Twilight was now thankful Pinkie had insisted so obnoxiously that she learn—and collapsed over Argent and Shining, obscuring them from view. Twilight instantly teleported.

In a puff of smoke and light, a purple hoof touched down on a nearby rooftop which provided admirable overwatch capabilities. The pony to whom that hoof belonged watched as Shining used a pulse of magic to repel the viscous dessert as Argent fired a wild array of blasts. Twilight's horn flared in preparation as she calculated the radius of Shining's protective shield, and then the mare on the rooftop was teleported directly above the two changelings.

The shots that Argent had fired moments before screamed overhead, their velocities increasing exponentially as they were jerked back toward Twilight's destination. By the time she noticed them, the missiles were too close to evade. She could only conjure a hasty magical shield that coated her like a second skin before they struck, sending her flying into the ground.

---

Chrysalis’ laugh echoed through the chamber as she watched Twilight put a crater in the concrete through her viewing ball. “Oh, this is delicious!” she crowed.

One of her changeling servants levitated a small gem and said, “I guess you won’t be needing those memory crystals I made for you, Your Highness. You want me to get rid of them?”

Chrysalis spared her underling a cool glance and said, pensively, “Don’t be hasty.” She scanned the floating globes in front of her, each showing a battle on the levels below them, and she flashed a fanged smile. “Not until I see those ponies pummeled to dust, which should be any moment now.” Suddenly, the globe showed her Argent Lance’s Silver Bullet hitting Twilight, erupting in an explosive impact and flinging the charred mare down the street. Chrysalis could almost taste her long awaited revenge on her tongue, and a victorious cry swelled up in her throat. “Yes! Yes!” She could swear that she heard a fanfare in the background, proclaiming her inevitable success.

---

"I was hoping those Phase Bullets would work," the changeling Argent said with a fanged smirk. "They react specifically to teleportation spells like you and Princess Luna use. The spell acts like a gravity well on them, pulling them to the destination point with... frightening speed and accuracy."

A shield sprang up around her, rose colored with oily black splotches tainting it. Shining laughed as he saw his sister scowl and strike a hoof against it. It seemed that even though she supposedly possessed the considerable strength of an earth pony, she was nowhere near Big Mac's level of strength. "You won't get out of there... not before Argent conjures a Silver Bullet powerful enough to send you to meet Luna."

"Feh," the trapped mare gave Shining a flat glare. "Really? You're going to knock me unconscious? 'Send me into dreamland'? Please. I don't need to get out of here." Her horn and eyes glowed an angry red and she began to clean her coat of the soot that covered it. The violet color also began to fade, however, revealing a brilliant azure beneath.

The two captains exchanged three and a half glances. They reacted the instant the implications of what was happening hit them, positioning themselves flank-to-flank, horns glowing with building magic. Shining Armor, however, disappeared in a burst of raspberry light. Argent turned back to the imposter Twilight as the shield surrounding her collapsed. His eyes bugged out of his head as he recognized her face after she dissolved the makeup fully. "Lulamoon!"

"Please," she responded, raising a hoof to him. "My friends call me Trixie."

"Well, then, Trixie," Argent said with a snarl.

"You can call me the Dark and Mysterious Double-Oh Zero," Trixie said tersely, turning her nose up to him. "The personal apprentice of Princess Luna and her personal master of espionage."

Argent laughed derisively. "You? You're nothing but a showmare! I... Argent Javelin was hoof-picked for this mission."

"Quite right," Trixie said, nodding with a condescending air about her. "Captain Argent was hoof-picked as the decoy. So loud and attention-seeking, he was completely obvious to anypony who might expect espionage. With all your attention focused on him, it was simple for me to infiltrate your little group, myself."

Argent snorted. "That... that's not possible. I saw our operative take your form, memories, and skills. I saw... you in a cocoon!"

Trixie threw her head back, whinnying laughter erupting from her. "Oh, of course. Our Princess is the overseer of dreams, you know. It was simple to use a Waking Dream spell to create a set of false memories while I fought that little pegasus. When it was over, I was released from the spell, and went about my business." She turned away soberly and scrunched her muzzle with distaste. "I'll admit, I didn't expect my double to find me while I was watching your operative in dragon-pony form break that poor little dragon's heart, but I'm always prepared with plenty of traps on my pony should somepony get the drop on me. You should have heard her scream."

"You..." Argent's copy growled angrily, digging his hoof into the ground as if prepared to charge right there. "You broodmare!"

Trixie gave him an easy grin. "Ooh, I'm so scandalized. Don't worry. Your friend wasn't hurt too bad. In fact, she's the one in that cocoon. Well, she turned back into your little... larva form, so we had to put her into a hastily crafted dummy, but I'm the best prop artist this side of the Everfree. After that, I helped keep the princess informed of your doings while keeping you misinformed."

"I had a feeling we still had an infiltrator," Argent said, with a slight smirk. "That's why I didn't inform anypony when we found your subordinates' little hidey-hole or of our attack on it until it was too late. You weren't smart enough to realize that it was a ruse to lure your princess away while our queen took her form in order to take control of the tournament's shield from little Twiley, were you?"

Trixie grimaced, her pride obviously suffering a wound. "You got me there, 'Genty. I panicked and sent her a warning as soon as I realized what was going on. Still, I didn't blow my cover, which is what allowed me to free my operative in order to disrupt your little attack and lead Twilight and her group right to you with a hoofy little covert tracking charm I swallowed."

"Well, congratulations," the changeling Argent said with a wink. "You got her here. Now we're going to use her to complete our ultimate plan. Thanks for the delivery."

Trixie frowned. "You're not going to use her to corrupt that dragon," she said defiantly, her horn flaring with magic.

Argent smirked, raising his eyebrows while giving Trixie a sidelong gaze from under his eyelids. "Who's to say that's what we're planning?"

"You're an amateur," Trixie admonished, smoke billowing from under her cape. She smiled hungrily. "But you do know just what to say to a girl to get her... excited, don't you?"

Argent's horn flashed with silver power, but at the same time Trixie's eyes glowed red and a sharp chill ran down his spine. He jerked his head back, leaving a point of light sparking where the tip of his horn had been. He found that his body wouldn't respond to his demands for it to move, and he suddenly found Trixie's smug stare to be far more intimidating than before.

"Fear spell," Trixie stated with a twirl of her cape. "Useful for keeping ponies right where I want them. Just enough time for a Chain Lightn—" Her attack went uncompleted when a burst of silver energy exploded upon her, knocking her off her hooves.

Argent shook his mane, trying to clear his head of the raw fright that had invaded it. "Delayed Blast Bullet," he explained. "Useful for when I'm being held against my will."

"Wasn't that useful for the real Argent Javelin, was it?" Trixie said, snarling as she flipped upright. "Don't think it'll work on me!" Her horn glowed with a soft light, forming a white globe tinged with the red of her aura. A darkness began fell across the globe, and as it did Argent's vision suddenly dimmed. "Moon Blindness," Trixie said with a laugh. "Followed by Silence!"

Argent froze as all background noise ceased. He tried to speak, but found that even though he felt his throat vibrate with the exhalation of his breath, no sound traveled to his ears. His vision suddenly returned like the waxing of the moon, but Trixie was nowhere to be found. Clever girl, Argent's copy thought to himself. Moon Blindness will come and go for awhile... Silence makes it impossible to hear her... I'm going to have to be very careful... He grinned toothily. Or... His horn crackled with power as he continued to scan his surroundings for any sign of Trixie. He knew the Moon Blindness would return to vex him off and on for awhile, so he had to make this fast. He released a wild surge of magic, dark smoke and white-hot embers spreading from him rapidly. If I can't see her, I'm not going to let her see me. With this incendiary cloud, she won't even be able to get near me.

Kilometers away in the courtyard of the dark, twisted version of Canterlot Castle, Shining Armor noted the dark clouds of hot smoke rising from where he had been just minutes before. He paid it no mind, instead focusing on his current problem. That was, at the moment, a purple hoof smashing into his muzzle with surprising force. As he hurtled backward, he felt the teleportation spell wash over him once again, and he was suddenly on the other side of his tormentor, who was readying for another punch.

Twilight lay into the changeling with her brother's face with all her might, and let him finally fall to the ground. She had been teleporting him around for a couple minutes in order to keep him from erecting his vastly overpower shield spell as well as in the hope that such a continual assault would actually knock him out. As she watched him rise to his hooves and give himself a little shake, she realized that hope was in vain.

"That was pretty good, little sis," Shining's copy said derisively, wrinkling his snout as he glared at her. "But you're no Big Mac. You know that my special talent is defense magic, and even when I'm not using any spells, my endurance is the same as any earth pony."

"You're not the only one who can use protection spells, changeling," Twilight responded. Her horn glowed and her fur briefly shone with the color of her magic aura. "Steel Coat," she said with a smirk.

"Not as powerful as mine," Shining said, summoning his personal force field.

"No," Twilight conceded, though the smile on her face didn't waver. "But protection spells aren't the only thing I'm proficient at." She cast her magic to the area surrounding the changeling Shining, and he suddenly fell upward from the ground. "Alright, now... time for ten times gravity." The area she had ensorcelled flashed brighter, and the rose-colored ball containing its caster fell exponentially faster back down. The earth beneath Twilight's hooves trembled with the force of the impact.

Shining climbed out of the hole created by his shield. He spat the blood from his mouth and bared his teeth in an almost feral display of rage. "Alright, then... let's do this."

---

---

"Yyyeaaaahhhh!"

Babs barely dodged Snowflake's hammerstrike, which buckled the ground beneath his hooves. She rolled back to a fighting position and dashed in for a quick boxing combo. Even with the keratinous protection afforded her digits, punching Dr. Benchpress' solidly muscled abs hurt quite a bit, and she winced with pain before withdrawing again to avoid his swipe. She was too slow this time, however, and his small, yellow hoof nicked her cheek. The sheer force behind the blow tore into her flesh, and she cried out in pain as she stumbled back.

Dark smoke wafted from the Snowflake clone's black sclera as he laughed. When he saw Babs standing back up, however, his sounds of joy turned to a gutteral roar of fury. He lunged at her again.

Within the densely wooded area of the jungle, Lyra galloped as fast as she could. The trees grew so close in areas that she had to go bipedal so she wouldn't be slowed down. Behind her, Gray Fang's copy howled ferally, sending shivers down her spine, and black arcs flew through the air from his swinging sword, putting deep grooves in the trunks of the trees and even cutting down some of the thinner ones. He was falling back, though, and soon enough Lyra was able to put enough distance between them that she ducked behind a tree.

Lyra's horn began to glow softly as she slowed her breathing. Her amber aura undid the bow-shaped buckle on her saddlebags and she lifted her lyre into the air. She sighed in relief as she took it into her hooves. "Come to mama..."

"Come to daddy!" Gray said, his claws digging deep into the bark of the tree as he sprang out from behind it.

"Whoa," Lyra exclaimed, jumping back from the fake Gray Fang. She landed on her hind hooves and steadied herself as her stalker slowly crept toward her, his eyes wild and his jaws slavering like a rabid dog. "Hey... uh... you've had me at a bit of a disadvantage, you know... with that sword of yours when I was only using hand-to-magical-hand combat."

"I don't care," Gray's copy said with a snarl. "Honor? Fairness? These things mean nothing to me, anymore. My Queen has cleared my mind of all that foolishness."

Lyra gave a small grin and crouched down, lifting her left hind leg into the air and resting it upon her right knee as she set her lyre in front of her. "Yeah, I kind of thought that's what happened. Fortunately, I wasn't counting on your good will."

The changeling Gray Fang reared back to his hind legs, his eyes wide as he took in Lyra's strange one-legged stance. "How... how are you doing that? Can ponies... even bend that way?"

"Well, most can't," Lyra admitted, strumming lightly on her instrument with a barely visible set of amber fingers. "I'm a bit of an oddball, I guess. My roommate's always complaining about the weird stuff I do. Like she's one to talk, but I guess she doesn't remember all that..."

"Quiet!" the fake Fang said, growling irately. He gripped the hilt of his sword tightly and swung. "I'll make sure she has nothing to complain about after today."

Lyra's magic hand swept across the strings, producing an aggressive note which materialized as a transluscent fist which flew directly into the changeling Gray's gut, launching him back into the tree. Her telekinetic fingers began to dance across her lyre, each note transforming into a small fist to pummel the thoroughly shocked Gray.

Gray Fang shook off the light jabs and swung his blade again. The long-distance slash darkened the air as it traveled toward Lyra, who lifted her lyre so that the strings faced the oncoming attack. With a loud, flat chord, a golden shield in the shape of the instrument met the remote blade, stopping it in midair even as it was cut in two.

"Hey, I can play sharp, too," Lyra said, her muzzle splitting into a full, toothy beam. True to her word, she began to rapidly go through the scale of the key of F♯ major. Instead of fists or shields, her lyre began to produce magical daggers that flew toward their target with precision.

The changeling Gray was forced to dodge and weave, parrying some of the blades with his own sword. Even with his speed and agility, however, some of the daggers managed to bite into him, drawing blood from his extremities. He leaped behind some of the trees, using them as cover briefly before emerging once again with his sword swinging in a figure-eight pattern. The movement produced a dark shield around him as he approached Lyra, cutting through her attacks like butter.

Lyra crescendoed as her foe neared, her notes becoming ever more staccato, which transformed her attacks into spears. Sweat began to form on her brow as he continued on in spite of her efforts, and within moments he was within striking distance. She glowered at Gray Fang's copy and hit a D-minor seventh chord. As he arched his blade over his head and dark energy coalesced around it she struck a G seventh. The edge of the sword was centimeters from her face and the Darkness nipping at her muzzle when she completed the cadance with a C-major seventh, and her amber magic radiated outward, dominating the shadowy attack and reversing it back upon Gray Fang.

"Gkh! Wh-what... was that...?" the changeling Gray demanded as he fell to his knees, blood trickling from his lips as he held the deep wound on his abdomen and side.

"Just a standard turnaround," Lyra stated, tucking her lyre back into her bag. "Hey, that looks pretty nasty. You oughtta get that checked out." She turned her head, her ears swiveling to lock on to the sounds of the other two ponies fighting in the distance. "Sorry, I gotta make sure that... uh... big filly is okay." She giggled awkwardly and galloped away.

Gray Fang's copy gurgled irately and promptly collapsed as she disappeared into the trees.

Back at the waterfall, Lyra found Babs and Snowflake locked in combat. Their hooves were pressed against one another's and their respective auras were nearly visible, Babs' already carving a trench in the earth while wind whipped wildly around Dr. Benchpress due to his. Both were sporting dark bruises all over and their muzzles were bloodied.

"Hey, girl," Lyra called with an upraised hoof. "You need some help with that big lunk?"

"No way!" Babs said with a snarl. "Ain't no way some oversized pegasus is gonna out muscle an earth pony."

Lyra considered her ally. Babs was certainly large for a mare in both height and muscle, enough that Lyra might have mistaken her for a stallion had it not been for the fact that ponies didn't generally wear clothes and Babs' short tail style left little to the imagination. Even so, the changeling Snowflake Benchpress was larger still for a stallion, wings notwithstanding, and even if his constitution would be weaker for a similarly sized earth pony, it seemed to her that it would certainly outstrip that of a strong earth pony Babs' size.

She brightened as an idea occurred to her. "Okay, I won't interfere... but how about I play you a little something to get your blood pumping?" She pulled out her lyre once again.

"Uh..." Babs said, glancing over to Lyra with a confused expression. "I... guess that's okay. What'dyou think?"

"Yyyyyeaaaaahhhhh!" Snowflake's copy bellowed, though neither mare was entirely sure if that was in response to the query or if that was all he was now capable of saying in his crazed state.

"I swear," Babs muttered. "It's like this guy has 'roid rage or somethin'..."

"Ooh, don't even get me started," Lyra said as she strummed her instrument. "When I first started practicing going biped, I got 'roids something fierce. 'Rage' was an understatement."

Babs' face went completely slack. "Uh... wh-what kinda 'roids are you talkin' about?"

Lyra's face began to turn red. "N-nevermind." She quickly began to play her lyre stringing together a series of harmonic cadences. The light around them began to turn a barely perceptible amber hue, and everything got rather soft focus.

"H-hey..." Babs said nervously as she continued to strain in her grappling match with Snowflake's copy. "This does not sound like fight music. In fact... it sounds downright romantic. I ain't on a date, here."

"Don't worry about it," Lyra said, picking up the tempo as she changed to a major key. "Just pay attention to Snowflake. All this harmonizing... you might just find... an opportunity."

Babs blinked and looked back into Dr. Benchpress' face. The dark wisps had stopped streaming from his eyes, and his sclera had lightened from an abyssmal black to a dark goldenrod. She felt her own heart starting to swell with energy and confidence as the music gradually increased in volume. She began to push back on Snowflake's hooves as his energy began to falter.

Lyra hooted as she used her magic to amplify the sound of her lyre and began to distort the waves of sound. She began to strike a series of fifth dyads as she continued pushing her harmonic cadence. The music seemed to swell, notes joining the harmony that Lyra could not have truly been playing.

Power seemed to course through Babs' body, building with the music. With a surge of strength, she pushed Snowflake's imposter back and off balance. She drove her front hooves into his stomach, no longer bothered by their solidity and instead driving deep into his guts, eliciting a retching groan from her opponent. She hopped back and stepped into an uppercut, connecting with his chin and snapping his head back.

The changeling Dr. Benchpress paused, shock plain on his face as he looked to the sky. His features distorted into rage and he shouted to the heavens. "Nnnnooooooooo!" Wobbling on his hind legs, he collapsed to his knees and then fell forward, face hitting the ground with an unceremonious thump.

Babs stared down at the unconscious stallion at her hooves, breathing heavily. "Did... did that really just happen?"

The music stopped and Lyra trotted over while stuffing her instrument away. "Yeah. You totally just knocked his block off. That was one doozy of a hit, girl."

"Heh," Babs said with a sheepish grin while her face reddened. "T'anks." Her head jerked up as a thought came to her. "Hey, but we should get goin' to the next level. I don't wanna leave my cuz' hangin'. Sweetie Belle, neither."

Lyra hesitated, her brows creased. "But... I mean... maybe we should check on Twilight on the lower level."

With a wry look, Babs shook her head. "Hey... I get where you're comin' from, but Twilight can handle herself. She's probably wipin' the floor with those mooks as we speak."

Hesitantly, Lyra nodded. "Yeah... of course she's alright. She's... incredible! Alright... let's go help your friends."

---

---

Apple Bloom hit the wide trunk of an apple tree with a crunch. Sweetie Belle followed soon after, slamming into her friend. The pain of the second impact was only slightly alleviated, Apple Bloom considered, by the knowledge that at least her body had provided some small measure of cushion for the frailer unicorn filly.

Scales leaped for Big Mac's copy, who was just lowering his hind leg after giving his original's little sister and her friend the hoof. He smirked and raised his front leg, blocking her punch easily. He raised his head and brought it down upon Scales' own skull, knocking her to the ground.

Further away the changeling Rarity was being harried by Wavedancer, who darted around her, striking out like a viper. "What's the matter, old lady?" Wavedancer taunted, grazing her foe's cheek. "Can't keep up with somepony so much younger and stronger than you? Don't break a hip or anything."

"What an insolent little girl," Rarity's copy said bemusedly as she stood in the middle of the storm of fur and scales, dodging or parrying only as required. "I can see you haven't matured much after all this time. Still under that seaweed princess' hoof after all this time, too. You know, Twilight was about your age when she moved to Ponyville. Two and a half years later and she was already a princess, herself." She smirked. "What, exactly, have you accomplished in all the time you've been spending in your summer home in Ponyville Lake?"

Scowling, Wavedancer went for a more direct strike. "I'm about to accomplish kicking your flank," she said, throwing a hoof at the clone Rarity's face. She quickly found herself airborne, however, when the changeling Rarity grappled her arm and tossed her away.

While the two Lunar operatives kept their siblings' copies busy, Apple Bloom rummaged through the wreckage of the barn while Sweetie Belle kept a lookout. "I don't know about this..." Sweetie said with a quaver in her voice.

Apple Bloom popped her head back out of the debris with a frown adorning her features. "I don't wanna hear about it. They're our kin... at least, they're evil clones of 'em... an' we gotta be the ones to take care of 'em." She went back to fiddling with some of the objects she had recovered from the disaster area. "They might be strong, but we got our own way of doin' things, don't we?"

"I guess..." Sweetie responded after a moment's hesitation. "But... I don't know any kung-ma like Rarity. My parents left me in Prance for a year, not Spina. I picked up a little parkour, but mostly I learned how to play piano, guitar, drums, saxophone..."

"A'right, I get it," Apple Bloom said. "But pure fightin' skills ain't important right now. You got your magic and I got my... creative side." She hefted a long tube that seemed to be made of planks from a barrel, with a trigger that seemed to incorporate a fishing hook. "This oughtta do," she said, looking down the sights. "Simple apple rifle. I made somethin' for you, too, until you can use your talent." She gestured beside her where there now sat a large contraption with a crank on its side. "I call it the Appling gun. On account of I first designed it to deliver apple seeds quick into the ground. Didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, but it sure smarts if you hit a pony with it."

Sweetie levitated the device and swung it around experimentally. "Yeah, I can see how it would."

Apple Bloom grabbed the Appling gun out of the air and pushed it back down to its wagon wheels. "Uh... not like that. You gotta crank it, and seeds'll pop outta this end, here." She gestured to the barrel openings. "They're so small an' fast that they'll get right under your skin. An' I mean that literal-like."

Lifting a canister of apple seeds and attaching it to the side of the repurposed farming tool, Sweetie Belle grinned broadly. "Cool. Let's test it out."

Scales and Wavedancer had been admirably corralled by their two changeling enemies, and were now fighting them off back-to-back. Though visibly worn, the fire burning in their eyes showed that they were far from through. Even so, their guts seemed to freeze inside them for a brief moment as Rarity and Big Mac's copies lunged at them.

Faux-Rarity screamed in shock as a barrage of pellets rained upon her from the side, knocking her off course and into a tree. Her partner made no sound, but the thunking of apples striking him squarely in his temple told her that he had been taken off guard as well. They both returned to their hooves when the attack ceased, and were enraged to see their originals' younger sisters standing defiantly before them, weapons at the ready.

"Get on outta here, Wavey; Scales," Apple Bloom said in her most commanding voice. "You only got a couple more levels to go. I'm sure you can make it, an' we'll be there to back y'all up soon enough." She cocked her apple rifle.

"Uh... got it, Bloom," Scales said, an impressed tone ringing clear through her voice. She gestured to her partner. "Let's go. The exit can't be too far away." She led the way, racing toward the direction of the Everfree Forest with great haste.

"A'right," Apple Bloom said, leveling her rifle at Big Mac. "Get ready to chow down!"

---

"You two know what to do," Aurelia said, trotting briskly back and forth in front of her two changeling subjects, one of whom had taken the form of Beach Comber and the other of whom had taken on Spike's form. They stood upon the shore of a vast ocean, a shear cliff at the other end of the sands with a single cave entrance showing the way down to the lower level. "Hold the other dragon and hippocampus here. Don't let them advance any further." She flexed the orange wings she was wearing and cracked her neck. "I don't want any interruptions when she arrives."

Spike and Beach's copies saluted her smartly.

"But, Princess," the changeling Beach Comber said after a moment's hesitation. "How long will we have to hold them off? When will she get here?"

"She'll be here," Aurelia insisted, stomping her hoof into the soft sand. "Soon... very soon. I can feel it."

---

A loud bang caused Amber's head to snap up from Luna's side, her eyes suddenly alert. She cast a curious glance to the princess whose wing was still draped over her like a blanket before turning her head toward the metal container that lay before them. She jumped slightly when another report sounded from the box, and a hoof-shaped protuberance joined the many others which dotted the surface of the box. "She... she's..."

Sparks flew from the surface of the cage, causing both mares outside to jump to their feet and fly to a safe distance. Glowing lines began to etch themselves into the surface of the box, curving outward from the center until they inscribed a complete triskelion along the entire side. The container exploded in a show of cerise light and a cascade of half melted iron.

"Scootaloo..." Amber said, her voice barely above a whisper. "You've done it."

The light faded and Scootaloo ventured a hoof out onto the soft soil. Lightning continued to flash around her body as she stretched her limbs, and her flight aura now looked like nothing less than a roaring purple fire that burned around her. She unfurled her wings and her aura expanded, blowing Luna and Amber's manes back. "Okay..." she said breathlessly. "This... is really cool."

"Indeed," Master Spark said, walking over to her student's student with an evaluatory tone. "You seem to have come out of it completely unscathed... well... except for this." She brushed Scootaloo's mane with her hoof, revealing a lighter stripe running through her mane.

Regarding the new addition to her coiffure, Scootaloo grimaced. "Oh, great... I have pink hair, now." She looked back at her flank. "Don't tell me I have it on my tail, too... yep, there it is."

"It looks fine," Amber said, patting Scootaloo comfortingly. "Your mane-style isn't really what's important, though."

Scootaloo jumped into the air and with a single flap of her wings managed to stay aloft. "Yeah, you're right. I feel like I'm floating, now. Is this how Rainbow Dash feels when she flies? For me it's always been like trying to climb a sheer cliff, y'know?"

"The lightning of the Jupiter Wave Orb is responsible," Princess Luna explained, rising slowly to Scootaloo's altitude. "Your body can only contain it by... "threading" it through your aura, which has in turn bolstered its power."

"I would caution you against using too much of that power," Master Spark said from her place on the ground. "Interlaced as it is with your aura, if you use up that power it might leave you completely flightless... you might even lose the ability to walk on clouds."

Scootaloo nodded, but her enthusiasm could not be diminished. "Well... we need to get moving. I have to save Spike and Rarity and all my friends!"

Amber looked to the ground, her face a mask of stoicism. "I... won't be able to come along, I'm afraid. I hate to say it, but most of the power you saw at the tournament was from the Jupiter Wave Orb. I used to be able to move like that on my own, but... I've gotten old." She demurred at Princess Luna's shrewd look. "No offense meant, Princess, but you're still young by the standards of your kind. I would only slow you down."

"But... Master Spark..." Scootaloo said, losing altitude as her face fell.

"Don't worry about me," Amber said. "You need to hurry. Go!"

Scootaloo straightened and snapped a salute. She turned around and with a peal of thunder she shot into the sky, purple lightning trailing behind her.

Luna sighed as she watched Scootaloo shrink to a speck in the distance. "Amber," she said forlornly as she turned her head back to the kara-hitsume master.

"Princess," Master Spark said with a grimace as she seemed to wither. "You... should go catch her. She's going in completely the wrong direction."

"Right!" Luna said, her ears perking and swiveling toward the retreating filly. "Well, then... do take care of yourself." Her horn flashed and she dissolved into a cloud of shadow and starlight, rushing after Scootaloo at the speed of sunset.''

Amber groaned as she began to trudge through the woods. "Ugh... Dam, this arthritis is killing me." She paused as she heard a low hiss and a rustle from the trees. She narrowed her eyes and turned, and the moment she did an amphisbaina emerged from the shadows, its twin snake heads slavering with poison. "Oh, good. A chance to stretch my poor old joints."

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To be continued...

Author's Note:

Beta Reader: Imaginary Valued

Comments

[Yami Vizzini]

Well, at least this part didn't read like a crackfic (not that there's anything wrong with that)....
Nice subtle character development(?) on Trixie's part, calling somepony else out as too loud and attention-seeking.

[Bico]

3375772

I rather enjoyed the irony of that, yes.