Atlas Strongest Tournament

by Bico

Secret Techniques: Conflicts and Attachments

ATLAS STRONGEST TOURNAMENT
~BICO
PART 2: SECRET TECHNIQUES
ACT II: CONFLICTS AND ATTACHMENTS

“You want the kiss of the dragon?” Rarity practically growled, brandishing a mouthful of needles. “I’ll give you the Kiss of the Dragon!”

“Rarity A-yi,” Ran Biao said, backing up a step. “There is no need to be hasty. I was doing nothing to Spike…”

“幹嘛? 你在說謊! 我才不相信你呢!”(1) Rarity screeched. “我恨你!(2)”

“你這個賤馬!(3)” Ran Biao responded angrily. “你竟敢污辱我!(4)”

Rarity pawed the ground and snorted. Then she charged Ran, tossing her needles at her as she advanced. Ran Biao zipped to the side and counterattacked. Her hooves struck at Rarity, but she parried her every strike, demonstrating her incredible conservation of movement. Ran Biao soon found needles lodged between her scales, reaching right down into her nervous system, where the magic imbued shafts of metal disrupted the signals, causing her body to seize up.

“Die!” Rarity screamed, leaping over Ran Biao and guiding her last needle to a point on the back of her neck. Suddenly, a voice called out desperately, causing Rarity to halt in her attack.

“Rarity, stop!” Spike had called out. He had regained consciousness to find Rarity and Ran Biao… talking all fancy. He had been frozen by their vicious fight right up until the point in which he saw Rarity overcome the other filly and then continue to press the attack. “I dunno what’s going on, but Ran’s defenseless, Rarity.”

Rarity landed lightly on the ground and had the etiquette to look embarrassed. “S-Spike… oh, dear, I was afraid that you’d been hurt. Are you alright, Darling?”

“Uh,” Spike said. “Yeah, I think so. I was trying some weight training with…” he looked back at Tom.

Rarity gasped. “Oh… him.”

Ran Biao snorted, still unable to move her limbs. “What is with these ponies and rocks?”

“Oh, do be quiet,” Rarity chided her. “I know what you were trying to do. You knocked poor Spike out on purpose so you could take advantage of him.”

“I did no such thing!” Ran Biao protested. “When I take advantage of him, I assure you I will have the honor of doing it while he is fully conscious.”

“Yeah, she really didn’t…” Spike trailed off. “Wait, what?”

“Well, you just watch your hooves, filly,” Rarity said. “I will not have you performing any lewd acts in my boutique.”

“They will just have to be performed elsewhere, then,” Ran Biao said with a smarmy grin.

“I’m getting a little uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation,” Spike said. “Also, can somepony unparalyze Ran? It’s just… kinda weird having her frozen like a statue while you’re arguing with her.”

Rarity harrumphed and magically removed the needles. “There we are. Now then, Spike. Shall we go?”

“Oh, well,” Spike said nervously. “I… I wasn’t actually finished training with Ran. Can… can I finish up here?”

Rarity looked conflicted as she looked from Spike to her old schoolmate. “Are… are you sure you’ll be okay with her, Spike? She’s a crafty little minx, you know.”

“No way, Rarity,” Spike said with a laugh. “Honestly, you’re overreacting again. Ran’s totally cool.”

Rarity frowned, but decided to leave him to his own devices. After all, if he said he would be alright… it was certainly fine to merely watch them in secret from the second story windows. Now where are my binoculars?

“Perhaps weight training is still too soon,” Ran Biao said when the unicorn had left. “But you must have some ability that can take opponents off-guard. Tell me, what can you do?”

“Well,” Spike said. “I can write letters.”

Ran Biao looked at her hooves. “Fingers can be helpful with that, yes.”

“Oh, and I can send them to ponies like Princess Celestia,” Spike said.

“Really?” the Ran said, intrigued. “I have not seen that power among dragons before.”

“Yeah, Scales says it probably has something to do with how I was hatched magically,” Spike said.

“Who is—never mind,” Ran Biao said. “Tell me, can your fire be used to send things other than letters?”

“Well… I’m not really sure,” Spike said. “I guess it’s anything I can burn. It gets sent to whomever I want, and a pony who knows how to use the return spell can send one to me.”

Ran Biao tapped her chin with her hoof, fixing her serpent eyes into the deep blue of the sky. “I may have idea. Perhaps we can have your Twilight to help us?”

“Oh… sure,” Spike said. “Twilight’s all about helping ponies, you know. Sometimes a little too all about it, if you know what I mean…”

She didn’t, but she was eager to test this ability of Spike’s, and the alicorn she had met at the same time as Spike might prove useful toward that end. She led the purple dragon away from the boutique and toward the Ponyville Library.

---

---

Scootaloo stood on her hind hooves with a fore-hoof raised to the sky. She could feel the excitement of the storm as electrical currents moved through the clouds. Rainbow Dash stood atop one of the black clouds and stared down at her pupil grimly. “I’m ready, Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow frowned. “Are you sure? You have to do this exactly right or you’ll fry like… like hay fries!”

“Just do it!” Scootaloo said, her voice wavering. She bit down on the fear, though. That would only distract her from what she had to do. She had to control the movement of the very lightning itself through her body in order to perform the Jupiter Lance, and this was the best way to train for it. At least, that’s what Amber Spark had said.

Rainbow Dash jumped on the cloud, and it unleashed a white-hot arc directly toward Scootaloo. It struck her hoof and she could instantly feel the path it traveled past her coronet, down her pastern, through her cannon, around her knee, and up her forearm to her elbow. As it passed her shoulder she reacted instinctively, controlling the movement of the current to travel around her heart and into the rear of her barrel, where she imagined it spiraling around and around much like the design of her cutie mark. Her magical flight aura began to flare with the extra energy that was building in her body, and small electrical discharges began to erupt from various points of her body.

“Scoot, keep in under control!” her teacher said.

“I-I-I’m t-t-trying R-R-Rainb-b-bow D-D-Dash!” Scootaloo said. Her control, however, was definitely slipping. If she didn’t release the energy soon, she might fry after all. She set her hind hooves firmly in the ground and quickly but carefully led the energy back up her barrel and expelling an arc of lightning out of her other front hoof into the sky. “Augh!”

“That’s a lot better than last time, Scoot,” Rainbow Dash said.

“But not good enough,” Amber Spark interjected. “We’re going to do this again and again until you can hold that lightning nigh indefinitely. Once you do that, the Jupiter Lance will be foal’s play.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. Amber Spark was able to do this too, of course, though it had apparently taken her years of practice and quite a few trips to the hospital before she had perfected it. Even with that ability, however, she still wasn’t able to perform the Jupiter Lance. It was an essential ability, but the technique required some extra bit of talent to perform in its complete form. The flying ace wondered if Scootaloo’s special talent was what it truly needed or if this filly would end up getting burned as she had when she had finally attempted the maneuver. She had gotten no cutie mark on that day, that was for sure, though she had gotten plenty of other marks she carried on her flesh to this day. “Maybe we should take it easy on the kid for now,” she said.

“Don’t be so soft on your student,” Amber scolded. “She’ll never reach her true potential if you coddle her so.”

“What, like you coddled me?” Rainbow said. “Listen, Master Spark, I respect your skills, but I really don’t want my student going to the tournament in a full-body cast.”

Amber grumbled for a moment and then replied. “Fine, she’s your student. She can have a night off, I suppose. However, we should redouble our efforts in the morning if we’re to make any progress.”

Rainbow gave Scootaloo a smirk. “Alright, Student. Go back to camp and rest up. We’ll have another long day of training tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo said, exhausted. “I’ll… I’ll make sure to try even harder tomorrow!”

“That’s the spirit, Squirt,” Rainbow said affectionately. As the young filly left, she felt her old teacher’s eyes burning into her. “Yeah, yeah, I know. ‘Do or do not’ and all that stuff.”

“You’re too soft on the filly,” Spark remarked. “Do you really care about her at all?”

Rainbow glowered at Master Spark. “Not all of us express their love by trying to kill their students.”

Master Spark crossed her forelegs petulantly. “Well, you could at least express it by writing every once in a while.”

Rainbow Dash groaned.

Meanwhile, back at the camp, Scootaloo landed softly at the edge of the clearing in which they had chosen to set up. Her stomach growled and she realized that all that training was working up a strong appetite. Then she smelled something wafting from the center of the camp. “Is… is someone cooking something?” She trotted to the source of the smell to discover a yellow-green earth pony stirring a pot of beans. “Hey! Applebloom!”

Apple Bloom turned and smiled warmly at her friend. “Hey, Scootaloo! I reckon you could use a big meal after all that trainin’.”

“Well, yeah,” Scootaloo said, smelling the delicious concoction. “But what are you doing here?”

“Aw, well,” the art-pony said. “My brother and sister’ve been bucking overtime training for the tournament, so I ain’t had much to do. I figured I could come here and make myself useful, seein’ as nopony here knows how to cook a lick.”

Scootaloo laughed. “Well, that’s true. I’m hardly better off than Sweetie Belle, and as awesome a flier as she is, Rainbow Dash isn’t so awesome at ‘domestic tasks.’ I’m not even sure what Amber Spark eats.”

“Well, go ahead and eat up,” Apple Bloom said. “I made plenty. So how’s trainin’ goin’?”

Scootaloo helped herself to Apple Bloom's cooking and began to dig in. “Oh, well… it’s pretty harsh. I’ve had to do stuff with lightning I didn’t even know pegasi could do.”

“Wow, that’s somethin’,” Apple Bloom said. “I know my big brother and sister have been doin’ some earth pony training that I didn’t know anypony could do without unicorn magic. It’s pretty impressive.”

“Really?” Scootaloo said, intrigued. “Like what?”

“Well, I shouldn’t say,” the rose maned filly said. “After all, you might end up fightin’ one of ‘em in the tournament.”

“Oh,” Scootaloo said, disappointed but understanding. “I don’t suppose you and Sweetie Belle have seen what Rarity’s doing, have you?”

“Well,” Apple Bloom said. “I don’t know if I should be telling you about Sweetie’s sister, either, but…”

“Yes?” Scootaloo prodded.

“Well, honestly, it seems like all she’s been doing is sewing. Though she sure does do it the hard way, spittin’ needles across the room and such.”

“Huh,” Scootaloo said.

“Might be pretty sore about Spike spending all his time with that cousin of hers, too,” Apple Bloom added.

“Spike?” Scootaloo perked up. “He’s still training with that dragon-mare?”

“Yup,” Apple Bloom responded. “You ain’t worried about him none, are you?”

“A little,” Scootaloo said. “I taught him all his best moves, y’know, so I know he can take care of himself.”

“Yeah, but weren’t those dance moves?” Apple Bloom said. “I guess he might find use for those with that filly, but…”

Scootaloo did her best to hide her blush. “Th-that’s not… I taught him a few kara-hitsume moves, too! Anyway, Spike’s cool like Rainbow. He wouldn’t go all mushy and lame on me.”

“You ain’t seen him around Sweetie’s sister?” Apple Bloom countered.

“That was just a foalhood crush,” Scootaloo said dismissively. “He doesn’t act like that anymore, anyway. He’s matured. He’s witty and snarky and never loses his cool. He always knows just what to say to a filly to make her smile when all she wants to do is cry. I just don’t know what I… ah… well…” her face burned with embarrassment.

“Oh my,” Apple Bloom said with a charmed grin on her face. “I do believe somepony has managed to replace Rainbow Dash.”

Scootaloo turned away. “... Shut up and eat your beans.”

---

---

Twilight arranged her notes as she stepped up to the podium. She cleared her throat and began to speak. “Spike’s green flame seems to be an inherent attribute, possibly caused by the magical nature of his hatching. The flame acts as a kind of transportation spell, allowing him to disassemble objects at the molecular level, send those molecules at high speeds toward a predetermined subject, and reassemble the aforementioned objects in the vicinity of their target.” She pointed a wing to the chalkboard behind her which had various formulae scribbled on it. “As you can see from the visual aid, this is accomplished by way of—”

“Excuse me, Miss Sparkle,” Ran Biao said. “It is an honor to receive boring lecture from you, but this is not really necessary.”

Twilight sighed. “Fine. What, exactly, do you want to know about Spike’s fire?”

“What are the limitations of what can be transported?” Ran Biao asked.

Twilight tapped her hoof on her chin. “Well, the rate of incineration seems to be dependent on both the number of molecules and the force Spike puts into the flame. A material that weighs only a few grams can be sent within a fraction of a second with minimal force; however, a heavier object like this dictionary,” she hefted a heavy tome for reference, “Would take anywhere from one minute and forty three seconds on minimal intensity or thirty eight seconds on Spike’s maximum recorded intensity.” She set the dictionary down. “So you could say that Spike can send pretty much anything given unlimited lung capacity. Of course, his maximum sustained flame on low intensity comes to about one minute and ten seconds, while on maximum he’s managed about thirty seconds.”

“So dictionary would be bit much,” Ran Biao concluded.

“A fair assessment,” Twilight said.

Ran Biao pondered something else. “How flexible is this ability? Can he delay how long it takes to reassemble elsewhere? Can he send to himself at a preset later time or even cause object to be sent back at certain time?”

Twilight scrunched her face. “I… I’m not really sure about all of that. I know he has to be able to send it to somewhere he knows. If he uses his flame without knowing the destination, it could reassemble anywhere, or it could reassemble in several pieces in various places. As for delaying it… well, he has been able to send… well… something through time before. That wasn’t his normal green fire, though. I’m not really sure how to reproduce the effect, and I’m not sure I’d want to, given what happened last time.”

“Ah,” the fiery maned longma said. “Perhaps you know, then, how ponies send objects back to him?”

“Oh, yes!” Twilight said, brightening considerably. “That’s the Return-to-sender Seal. It was actually developed as a way for ponies who were teleporting into dangerous or unknown areas to have a lifeline. They could be activated by a simple spell which would pull whomever it was attached to back to the original spell caster. It was adapted for use on Spike. All of my letters to Princess Celestia have a seal on them, and Spike sends blank seals every so often so she can write letters back as well, and it will reach Spike no matter where he is.”

Ran Biao nodded. “And surely there was some fail safe to this seal. Some way that, if those carrying them were incapacitated, they could be safely evacuated by the spellcaster?”

Twilight thought for a moment. “Now that you mention it, there was something like that. We never really needed it for sending letters, though Spike's used it for business cards.”

Ran Biao grinned at Spike as she heard this. Things were about to get interesting.

---

“Uhh… Rarity?”

Rarity stopped tossing needles into photographs of Ran Biao and regarded her little sister. “Sweetie? Yes, what is it?”

“So…” Sweetie said. “Are you going to fight Miss Ran Biao for Spike’s love?”

Rarity flushed. “S-Sweetie, you’ve been reading too many romance novels.”

Sweetie gave her sister a flat look. “They’re your novels…”

“Listen, Sweetie,” Rarity said. “This thing between Ran Biao and me is… complicated. Spike doesn’t really have anything to do with it.”

“But you two are going to drag him into the middle of it anyway,” Sweetie said.

Rarity scowled at her sister, but she felt herself shamed by the words. “I… I don’t want him to be put in the middle of all this. Ran Biao is trying to turn him against me, I just know it. I can’t let her do it, though. I won’t let her. After all, Spike is such a dear friend.”

“Uh huh,” Sweetie said. “I’m sorry for being nosy and all, but it seems like you two passed friends a while ago. I mean, he’s not your boyfriend or anything, but it’s definitely more complicated than ‘friend’.”

Rarity sighed and threw herself dramatically onto her bed. “Oh, Sweetie, you’re right! I just don’t know what to think anymore. I mean, my heart feels like bursting every time he does something thoughtful for me, and I get so jealous when some other mare tries to court him. Even so, now that his age isn’t such a problem anymore, I still can’t bring myself to think of him in a romantic light. I… I know that like this I’m nothing more than a burden to him!”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes at her sister’s melodrama, but took it with stride as only someone who had spent years living with Rarity could. “Listen, Big Sis, I think you’re just afraid.”

“Afraid?” Rarity said. “Darling, whatever would I be afraid of? Why, Spike wouldn’t harm a fly.”

“Right, but he is a dragon,” Sweetie Belle pointed out.

“I spent years with dragons,” Rarity said. “Only the noble ones, of course, I never even knew there were those that could grow so rapidly when they hit puberty. My first coltfriend was even a… a drakefriend!”

Sweetie gave Rarity a syrupy smile. “That’s right.”

Rarity looked at her sister blankly. “Oh. Oh, Sweetie Belle. When did you ever get so shrewd?”

“I’ve always been smarter than you,” Sweetie Belle said. “Just took you this long to notice.”

---

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To be continued…

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1 Gan-ma? Ni zai shuo huang! Wo cai bu xiang xin ni ne!: What? You are telling lies! I don't believe you!
2 Wo hen ni!: I hate you!
3 Ni zhe ge jian-ma!: You are such a bitch! (the word for bitch is actually jian-ren which literally translates to "despicable/cheap human"; thus, I have changed it to literally be "despicable/cheap horse")
4 Ni jing gan wu ru wo!: You insult me!

Author's Note:

Revised and illustrations added 2013/02/17.