//------------------------------// // 14 : Phoenix vs. The Stinger // Story: Fighters Don't Have Friends // by BackroundVoice //------------------------------// Spotlights overhead shined like the sun. The bars around me and my opponent bounced off the ground, then settled. And Soarin began his introductions. "Fight seven, everypony!" he spoke enthusiastically. "In the right corner, we have a regular, a seasoned fighter, his friends call him Sky, but we all know him by a different name! It's the 'Stinger'!" Sky Stinger, my opponent, was about my height for a stallion, cerulean coat with sea green hair. He wore his trademark yellow and black jacket, his wings cutting through holes in the back. Sunglasses hid his eyes, so I couldn't tell if he was red eyed or not. But I guess all I have to do is punch them off. Shouldn't be too hard to do. "And in the left corner," Soarin began again. "She's a school girl from the Unicorn Academy in Canterlot, she's seen her fair share of fights and has lost more times than we care to count, yet she keeps coming back for a beating! She's mad, she's smart, she's Phoenix!" The crowd cried my name as I stood there in my crimson attire, bowing as I tipped my hat. "Don't think just cause you were trained by Vinyl that you're hot shit," Sky Stinger told me before Soarin gave the signal to fight. "You're not even good enough to fight me!" "You're right, I'm better," I replied. The crowd reacted with a loud 'oh'. Stinger got angry. Glaring as he said one last thing before the bell rang. "Still, Vinyl must've been carp herself, if she actually considered you as a fighter," "You're going to eat those words, Sky," I said, hearing my friends yelling to kick his flank. I tossed off my cloak and hat, readying my stance as Sky hovered in the air. And the bell rang with Soarin's shout to fight. Sky acted first, ascending just to fly down on top of me with a kick. I waited for the most precise moment to jump above his attack, drop kicking Sky in the face with all four hooves. Sky fell to the ground, trying to use his wings to steady himself again. When he stood, his sunglasses had been broken in half, revealing green eyes. No glow. He doesn't have the Rage, but I do. I thought, recalling the day I left Ponyville. He was there in the bar that day, he threw a glass at the back of Abigail's head and bad mouthed Vinyl. I remembered this specifically to anger myself, purposefully. Just to see if I could consciously experience this blood trait Fiona said I had. And she was right, my heart started to pound and my muscles felt like they were on fire. So this is the Rage? Nice. I galloped forward into a punch, Sky blocked and attacked back. Even despite the fact I had this inherited feeling to attack without feeling, Sky matched me punch for punch. Sky was no push over like the guards back in Canterlot. He was well known for his punches leaving a stinging like feeling after he hit. It was just another way of saying that he used the tips of his hooves to make you hurt more. But I refused to let him get that chance. He tried so hard to land a hit. It annoyed me. Not to mention the ponies surrounding the ring shouting actions for fighting. If this were my bar, I'd implement a code of silence for spectators. Sky had pushed me up against the bars, I dodged an attack to the head as his hoof slipped through the bars and hit a pony that was standing a little too close. I reacted by kicking his head into the bars. I laughed as he cried out in pain. But one kick in return shut me up as I stepped back, irritated, but realizing I deserved that one. Sky was getting ready to continue his assault as I kept moving backward. That maddening feeling inside me was eating away at me to smash his face in. But I had a question that overpowered that urge. Could I just stop? I asked myself, waiting for a moment to grab Sky's hoof and I swung him over my shoulder. The impact from hitting the ground made him gag. Giving me a little time to breathe as he whined about his back. "Give up?" I suggested. And I restrained myself from punching back as he returned to his hooves, swinging in anger. It wasn't the same feeling I just had. A 'boiling' in my blood like Fiona said. It subsided because I refused to fight back, dodging punch after punch. Sky Stinger was beginning to tire. Every movement he made slowed down a click as sweat fell from his face. I almost considered waiting for him to knock himself out. But I wanted to try one last thing. He threw that glass at AJ as hard as he could, I didn't like that. I started to get that feeling again in my body. Heat, building up out of nowhere. It was just like that time I fought Flash Sentry. But as I thought of that, I remembered that Flash hit my horn. That made me mad too. My broken horn made think of Dash, and Dash made me think of Nightmare. I blocked Sky Stinger's next punch and held it as I stopped his next one with a jab to his nose. He tried to pull away, but I wouldn't give. I saw the reflection of my eyes in his. They glowed crimson, an unstoppable flame was inside me. I took his hoof and pushed him back a few steps. He was surprised I didn't take the chance to attack, and I turned to Fiona, and I saw something take form in my mind. It was Vinyl, watching me. As if she were there right next to Fiona. She was smiling, her sunglasses weren't over her eyes, and she looked content and joyful despite the glow in her deep red eyes. She conquered it, didn't she? I saw Vinyl's image disappear, but I felt calm all of a sudden. Only a sick feeling lingered. I didn't like this Rage either. Meeting with Fiona's gaze, who looked at me with wide eyes. She couldn't believe it, watching the Rage leave me. I could stop it at will. And because of that, I didn't have to fight. But I made a promise, and I was going to keep it, no matter what. "I'll always keep fighting," I whispered to myself, staring Sky down. He readied himself for me and I think for the first time, I fought without Rage. We clashed again, but this time, it was no contest. Sky tried time after time to push me back into a corner to focus solely on giving me a beating. But with every attempt he made to do so, I returned with a harder attack. Elbowing the joints of his hooves before he could 'sting' me, so to speak. Sky even tried to fly and use the air to his advantage. And every time I punished him by grabbing his back hooves to slam him against the walls of bars before he could escape. At this point, Sky could hardly stand to the beating I had given him. So with a long sigh, he sat down and raised his hoof to resign. "Phoenix wins!" Soarin declared, the crowd cheering my name like they had when I fought Trixie. I reached down to pick Sky up but he declined as he sat there. "Thanks, but no thanks," he said, "sorry I said you and Vinyl were crap." I actually accepted that apology. Sky could've kept fighting as he had. But he knew that I wasn't about to back down even if he did hurt me a little more. He had lost and was willing to accept that. "I already knew you were wrong," I told him, "I just talked back with my hooves," "Yeah, you did," Sky laughed as his pals took him back to their table, where Bulk Biceps was icing the back of his head. I picked my cloak and hat off the ground and left the ring. Hoof-fiving Rare as she took her spot for the last match before the next set. Facing off the against 'Night' by herself. "Break her nose for me, will you?" I asked her in passing. "But of course, darling," she said, and I looked into those azure eyes again. Did I really win without the Rage? And could she do the same? I asked myself. But there was only one way to find out. Nightmare Moon stepped into the ring, the bars dropping around them. Just before Soarin began the introductions.