Plot Bunny Theater: Earth Ponies Are Badass · 12:07am Dec 19th, 2019
Twilight wants to learn more about Earth Pony magic. She hears about an Earth Pony convention that's rather exclusive where many experts in Earth pony magics do meet. She gets to go because she's a princess and she's best friends with Pinkie Pie and Applejack, whose families go to the convention every year. It's for magic demonstrations and tournaments. Rainbow Dash gets dragged along.
Dash: "Ugh... This is gonna be soooo boring."
Pinkie: "Come on Dashie! It's gonna be fun! My mom and Maude are doing their famous demonstration!"
Dash: "What? To see if a stone statue of your sister has more life and expression?"
Pinkie: "Maude's gonna become an Earth Master in a few decades, and this demonstration will help to assess her progress! She's been working so hard!"
Dash: "What's an Earth master?"
Twilight: "A master of Earth magic! I can't believe one is living right here in Ponyville!"
Dash: "Oh boy. More rocks."
In a large underground cavern, there are hundreds of tents, stands, and venues.
And several rings where several ponies were working out or practicing.
Cloudy Quartz is standing in a sandy arena inside a hollowed out ring. It was surrounded by thick stone walls. Many ponies were gathered around it. Maude was in the arena, helping her mother put on some armor.
Dash: "I could be getting a good nap in..."
Pinkie: cheering "HI MOM! HI MAUDE! DO YOUR BEST! BE SUPER SPECIAL AWESOME!"
Announcer: "WE NOW HAVE THE ANNUAL DEMONSTRATION OF EARTH MASTERY BY CLOUDY QUARTZ PIE, AND HER DAUGHTER, MAUDE PIE. MAUDE IS STUDYING TO EARN HER ROCKTORATE IN ROCKOLOGY, AND WILL TAKE OVER HER MOTHER'S DOJO IN A FEW DECADES!"
Rarity: "Your mother has a dojo?"
Pinkie: "Of course! Doesn't yours?"
Pony applause and cheers follow, as Cloudy Quartz and Maude bow to eachother, and trot away to opposite ends of the arena. They then turn back to face one another. Cloudy at last spoke.
Cloudy: "In the days before our Tribes were one, creatures great and small tried to enslave or worse, devour our kind. Even the pegasi and unicorns, at different times, attempted to take our freedom. They were stopped only by ponies of great courage and strength. Those who knew the price of freedom."
Dash: "Eh? That actually happened? What'd they do? Serve the pegasi rock stew-"
KABOOM!!!
The two mares kicked stones up and kicked them at one another, fast as bullets, at the same time
Maude kicks up more rocks and starts knocking them at her mother, fast as a machine gun, while Cloudy Quartz yanked up a rock wall as a shield.
Cloudy then slid across the stone floor like it was made of glass, kicking up more stones to fire back at Maude!
Maude pulled up a stone dome over herself as defense. Cloudy then summons a very large stone pillar underneath herself. She dropped down, kicked the pillar at the base with her powerful legs, and snapped it in half!
She then grabbed the top of the pillar and swung it down onto the dome, smashing it all in a massive collision! Sending a huge plume of dust into the air!
Maude popped out of the ground right behind Cloudy Quartz, having burrowed her way underneath the sand. She swung a rock at Cloudy's head-Something that Cloudy countered by summoning a small stone spire to block it!
CRACK!
They hopped back, away from eachother. Cloudy... Was smiling.
Cloudy: "You have greatly improved, my daughter. I am very proud."
Maude: As emotive as ever "Thank you mother."
Everypony cheers and applauds... Especially Dash
Dash: "SO AWESOME!"
I love this. Just like... everything about it. I'm having flashbacks to Major Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist.
However...
Excuse you, it's a Rocktorate! Get your canon right, mate!
5171502
Picky picky picky. ;p
I have considered an anthology fic of sorts where Twilight and co explore this convention further, meeting many other pony martial artists. I could open it up to other people to contribute.
Shades of Toph.
5171504
I'm down!
5171528
Awesome!
5171504
If you end up doing that, it might be fun to do a Lyra story from Xenophilia. The Still Way (basically a mostly unicorn focused version of aikido or tai-chi with battle casting mixed in) is a fun one to think on.
5171532
This type of convention screams for still way. It did pop into my head when andrew mentioned pony martial arts.
I would love to see a story where someone explores Earth pony magic and its wielders and shows them as being on a level with the unicorns and pegasi.
... Does she? Rarity's certainly demonstrated some knowledge of the martial arts, and a name like Cookie Crumbles has some terrifying implications in the context of combat.
In any case, I'm a huge sucker for applied earth magic. I'd love to see this expanded. And i can't help but imagine party ponies developing an entire martial art along the lines of Jackie Chan slapstick. Not only does it work, it's fun to watch! Less fun to experience.
5171691
Human Pinkie Pie watching and sharing Jackie Chan (Happy Accident? Professionally known as Surprise) would be an enlightening and terrifying experience. It’s a good thing the CMCs got their marks BEFORE this happened...
5171502
how earth pony stallions great each other.
And how they reacted to pegasus coming to steal the mares