Royal Cloud Clash Tournament

I had the following idea for an event that culd be a part of a story, but I haven't got a story for it yet.

Royal Cloud Clash Tournament

Cloud Clash was originally used as a training tool and played by pegasi as a sport before Princess Luna was banished.

Princess Celestia let Cloud Clash fall out of use as a training tool because it was only for pegasi and she was trying to encourage tribal integration in the Royal Guard. It was still played as a sport and was popular with many military pegasi.

When Princess Luna returned and took back command of the Night Guard, she reinstitute Cloud Clash as a training tool.

The Night Guard and Royal Guard pegasi held unofficial competitions almost immediately. The first official competition was held a few years ago. Because the Night Guard had the game as a official part of their training, they won a majority of the matches.

The first Royal Tournament was last year after Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had a spirited debate over the skills of their respective guards. Princess Luna and the Night Guard defeated Princess Celestia and the Royal Guard 3 games to 2.

This year, at the request of Princess Twilight (acting on the urging of Rainbow Dash), the Royal Tournament was opened to other teams. The seven teams participating this year are:

- Princess Luna and the Night Guard
- Princess Celestia and the Royal Guard
- Princess Twilight and the Wonderbolts
- King Thorax and the Changeling Commandos
- Gilda, Gabby, and two Knights Of Griffonstone
- Princess Ember and her gang of teenage dragons
- Prince Shining Armor and the Crystal Guard

Princess Cadance was going to lead the Crystal Empire team, but when Sunburst discovered an ancient suit of magic crystal armor that allowed Shinny to fly (slowly) and cloud-walk (even more slowly), she agreed that they could alternate years and that Shinny could go first. If they don’t win a medal, she will never let him hear the end of it.

The rules are:

- Each team has a Leader and 3 troops.
- Each side has a cloud base of approximately the same size and at approximately the same altitude. Other clouds are dotted around the field.
- Each side has a flag (made from solidified cloud matter) that can be carried and planted on a cloud.
- The goal is to plant your flag and the enemy flag on your base at the same time.
- Leaders may not touch or carry the enemy flag.
- No ranged attacks.
- A melee attack is marking an enemy with a paintball.
- When a player is marked with a paintball, they have to drop any flags they are carrying, stop attacking, and fly to one of a number of a neutral "medic stations" positioned around the field. The medic will wash the paint mark off. Only then they can return to the game.
- A referee may declare two players have marked each other at the same time. Both must stop and get cleaned by a "medic" before they can reenter play.
- Flags must be planted and carried in the open.
- A flag in a base must be visible and available to grab.
- Cloud-flags that are dropped hover in place.
- Magic may be used, but not on either flag or on opposing players. Any magic cast on a friendly player is dispelled when they touch either flag.
- A referee may give a player who acts “outside the spirit of the game” a penalty by marking them with a paintball, even from a distance.
- A player can be kicked from the game after earning multiple "spirit" penalties, or for any serious infraction of good sportsponyship like putting somepony in danger.

The tournament will be a round robin, where each team will play each other team once. The two teams with the most wins will square off in a final game to determine the winner of the gold and silver medals. The winner of the gold medal also gets to hold the Royal Trophy until the next tournament. The two teams with the next most wins will play in the consolation game with the winner getting the bronze medal. If teams have the same number of wins, then the team who won the head-to-head matchup will advance.

The games of the Royal Tournament will be played at the Cloudsdale Cloudeseum.

Some of the team’s demonstrated special abilities are:

- Some of Princess Luna’s favorite tricks include: causing thunderstorms with lightning; flying super fast and towing her team in her wake.
- Some of Princess Celestia’s favorite tricks include: teleporting herself and her entire team; blowing clouds away with a beam of magic.
- Princess Twilight and the Wonderbolts are counting on Rainbow Dash and Spitfire’s speed, the Wonderbolts ability to fly acrobatically in close formation, and their ability to generate smoke.
- King Thorax is counting on the Changelings ability to mimic the look of their opponents to create confusion.
- The Knights Of Griffonstone are counting on the superior physical strength and endurance of Griffons.
- Princess Ember is counting on her dragons ability to create smoke and breaking up clouds with fire breath (though actually hitting an opponent with fire, just like hitting them with magic, is grounds for getting ejected from the game).
- Prince Shining Armor is counting on his ability to shield his team from opponents attacks. However, he will have to drop their shields for them to grab the flag or attack in melee.

What are some of the tricks and tactics that the different teams could use?

Who do you think should win?

What are some other teams who could participate?