//------------------------------// // 65 The Arena Champion, Part Four // Story: Continuity Disrupted // by Doug Graves //------------------------------// “Twilight Sparkle has taken an early lead, but Team Azure isn’t going to go down that easily!” Spike motions to the next event, a wooden tower with incremental vertical marks. A painted target is on the front, the perfect height for a pony to rear up and buck, sending the heavy weight as high as they can. “For the second contest, we will be testing the bucking strength of each competitor!” Spike motions to Rainbow Dash, waving next to the high striker. She rears back, hitting the center of the target with a full powered buck. The heavy weight flies up, passing all ten marks to solidly ring the bell on top! Rainbow Dash struts back to Applejack, smirking at the earth pony resting by one of the trees. Applejack whispers to Rainbow Dash as the fillies politely clop their hooves, “Might not want to get too puffed up there. You might’a gotten a week of apple buckin’ in, but some of us have years of practice. Observe.” Applejack gets up, waiting for the two unicorns. Twilight carefully studies the set up in front of her. She had only bucked a few of the apple trees when she was helping during Applebuck season. And currently wishing she had spent a little more time working on her legs instead of her legibility. She stops one foot away from the target, turning around, and resting her weight on her front legs. Rear up, and buck! Twilight turns to watch the weight rise into the air. Three and a half bars! She smiles; that’s pretty good, right? Trixie snorts, shaking her head as she walks up to the target. Her legs, considerably more toned from years of dragging around a heavy house - not quite the same muscles, but she can’t lose this! She spins, bucking the target as hard as she can. Five bars! She wins! Applejack smirks, stepping up to the target. Though she stops at the thrumming sound next to her; glancing over, she takes a hasty step back as she sees Twilight’s horn charging. A large wooden cross beam levitates up, aligning itself with the target. The beam rocks back and forth a few times, Twilight practicing her aim and about to use it as a battering ram. “Hey!” Applejack shouts, taking another step back, “No breaking the target!” “Aww,” moans Twilight, pouting a little at not being able to utilize her full potential. The beam slows down, stopping about a foot away from her mark. It then lurches forward, thumping into the target and sending the weight crashing into the bell above, ringing even louder than when Rainbow Dash hit it! Applejack grumbles at the show of strength; while she can certainly buck the target that hard, or even harder, Twilight would have absolutely demolished her if she didn’t hold back. Darn unicorns and their overpowered horns! Trixie grimaces; she can’t lose all of the magic sides! She strains as she lifts one of the smaller fence posts, ramming it into the target. She frowns; only eight bars? She growls as she tosses the fence post down, though when Applejack glares at her she mutters to herself, “Come on, Trixie, be a good sport about this,” as she replaces the fence post. Fluttershy flies up to the scoreboard, replacing Trixie’s zero with a one and making a second tally mark next to Twilight’s name. Spike announces to the growing crowd of ponies watching the proceedings, “Mares and Gentlecolts, we are now tied at one to one! This looks to be a fierce competition today; who will come out on top?” Spike motions to the next event, a fenced in pen. Inside, Applejack has a grumpy Apple Bloom and resigned Sweetie Belle. “Our next contest is the Bronco Buck! The object is to get the filly on your back off as fast as you can! And they will do everything in their power to stay on!” A bit is flipped, and Trixie levitates Apple Bloom to her back with a scowl while Twilight gets Sweetie Belle. Spike shouts, “Contestants, are you ready?” “Yes!” shout Trixie and Twilight. “Fillies, are you ready?” “Yeah!” shouts Apple Bloom, forelegs digging into Trixie’s mane while her back legs wrap around her barrel and clench tightly. “Ahh!” shouts Sweetie Belle as she slips off of Twilight’s back. “Does that count?” asks Twilight as she returns Sweetie Belle to standing on her back. “Go!” Spike shouts. Trixie grimaces as she bounces her barrel this way and that to try to dislodge the filly. It feels like Apple Bloom is an extension of her own body with how tightly the filly is holding on! She starts pushing up and down with her forelegs as hard and fast as she can, then shaking left and right. She looks over to see if Twilight is faring any better, debating if rolling over onto Apple Bloom is a legal move. Twilight, barely moving herself for fear of tossing Sweetie Belle off again, says, “Are you sure you don’t want to hop down?” “Uh uh,” replies Sweetie Belle, hanging on to Twilight’s flank for dear life. “If I lose first, I have to keep helping.” Twilight raises an eyebrow, “There are more events involving chasing you three around? And here I thought you had the worse end of the pony!” “Twilight, you’re supposed to buck them off, not yuck them off!” Rainbow shouts, a number of other spectators laughing along. Twilight grunts, finally getting around to starting to try to dislodge Sweetie Belle. Meanwhile, Trixie is shaking her mane back and forth, Apple Bloom barely hanging on to the whipping strands. Trixie prances around, faster and faster before she abruptly changes direction, tossing Apple Bloom high into the air, somehow aiming the filly directly at one of the bales of hay. “Ahh!” come the twin screams of two fillies, Sweetie Belle unceremoniously dumped to the ground just before Apple Bloom impacts the hay, a relatively soft landing. The ponies turn to Spike and Doug, the two creatures exchanging glances. “Twilight wins!” shouts Spike, Doug reluctantly nodding along, Fluttershy upping Twilight to a two. “For the magic part, Apple Bloom will be with Twilight, and Trixie gets Sweetie Belle!” Trixie grumbles as she levitates Sweetie Belle to her back, clearly upset at having gotten Apple Bloom first. Apple Bloom dusts herself off, giving her hooves a quick stretch before she leaps onto Twilight. Her hooves dig in, nearly pulling the purple mane out by how hard she is holding on. “Ready?” Spike shouts, a brief pause before he shouts, “Go!” Trixie’s horn lights, tugging the unicorn off her back nearly instantly. Sweetie Belle yelps as she drops down, hooves flailing to try to catch herself as Trixie lets her go. Twilight, meanwhile, merely teleports a few feet to the side. Apple Bloom quickly shrieks as she plummets down, hitting the ground a split second before Sweetie Belle. “Oh, come on!” exclaims Trixie, huffing at another loss. She continues grumbling as Scootaloo hops into the pen, the filly limbering up with a few leg stretches. “Twilight takes the lead two to one!” Spike announces to his branch as he motions to the scoreboard, a good number of the crowd cheering Trixie on. “Next up we have the Lasso Contest, where Twilight and Trixie will show off their roping skills!” He smiles, glad to not be the one getting tied up, “Fastest to successfully tie three of Scootaloo’s legs together wins!” Spike clicks his timer, motions to Trixie and shouts,  “Go!” Trixie grabs the rope; she is much more comfortable roping something using her horn, but she’s practiced enough with the hoof to give it a solid go. She expertly twirls the rope around, flinging it towards Scootaloo, a perfect arc above the filly. Scootaloo shrieks, dodging and scampering off to the side. Trixie instantly reels the rope back in, twirling it in her teeth and giving chase as Applejack and the rest of the ponies cheer. As Scootaloo makes another corner in the cramped pen Trixie looses the rope again, right into Scootaloo’s path! She yanks back on the rope, cinching around Scootaloo’s barrel and dragging the surprised filly towards her. Trixie leaps forward as Scootaloo tries to scramble to her hooves, the rope slipping around and tying the two hind legs together and snagging a struggling foreleg to complete the hogtie. “Twelve seconds!” shouts Spike, Applejack hooting loudly while Rainbow moves over to nuzzle Scootaloo, whispered words of praise as the filly slips out of the knots. Scootaloo beams, dusting herself off as Trixie prances off to the side, watching Twilight. Twilight grabs the lasso with her hoof, inspecting the rope. She awkwardly swings it around, Scootaloo mostly watching, until she drops the rope. “Oops!” she calls, about to light her horn before she remembers the restriction. She walks over, picking the rope up, twirling it around again. At least this time she manages to keep the loop circling in midair, but her pathetic toss lands next to Scootaloo. The now bored filly grunts as she lays down. Applejack rubs her hoof on her face, groaning at the novice display. Spike announces, “Twelve seconds is up, Trixie is the winner!” as Fluttershy ties them up two to two. Twilight shakes her head, “No, I’m going to get this!” as she picks up the rope for another try. This one at least lands around Scootaloo, but when Twilight pulls the rope back it merely trips the filly, her landing on her rump while the lasso shortens. Twilight puzzles over the rope for a few seconds, finally managing to make the loop larger. “One more try,” Applejack says, mostly keeping the annoyance out of her voice. Scootaloo rolls onto her back, sticking all four legs into the air as Twilight spins the rope again. Her aim is true this time, the rope now laying across and around the prone filly. She tugs, the lasso constricting around the legs and dragging the hogtied filly towards her. “Yey!” Twilight exclaims, clapping her hooves together, her eyes closed and smile beaming, the other ponies politely stomping along, their applause fading almost immediately. Scootaloo gets back to her hooves, determined not to go down so quickly on the magic side. She smirks at Trixie, the unicorn’s horn lighting. Trixie waves one end of the rope back and forth, hypnotically enticing Scootaloo as the other end snakes around behind the filly. Scootaloo drops down, focusing on the front and ready to dodge as soon as Trixie makes a move on her, only to yelp as all four legs are encircled and quickly tied up. “Five seconds!” shouts Spike, Applejack whistling appreciably. Many of the other ponies stomp their hooves, cheering on the azure unicorn. Trixie beams, taking a bow, a confident smirk on her muzzle. Twilight walks forward, though she doesn’t take the rope, leaving it coiled around on the ground. Spike cocks his head, eventually asking, “You ready?” Scootaloo crouches down, really ready to pounce away this time as Twilight nods. “Rarity showed me this one,” Twilight explains as Spike clicks the stopwatch. Her horn flares, teleporting the coiled rope around Scootaloo’s legs and immediately tying her up, the filly flopping uselessly to her side. “But her trick had to do with putting clothes on! I just appropriated it for the use with a rope!” “Bwa!” Rainbow Dash snorts, pointing a hoof at Applejack’s stunned face. “I think she’s even faster than you!” “Oh, come on!” Trixie and Applejack shout simultaneously. Applejack continues, “At least Trixie tried to perform like you’re supposed to!” She waves a hoof at Scootaloo, the filly struggling to get out of the bonds, most of the crowd murmuring in agreement. “Doing it like that, it ain’t… it goes against the spirit of the competition!” Twilight Sparkle raises an eyebrow as she walks towards Doug at the judge’s table, “Oh? I thought the point of the competition was to see who can use a rope to tie something up as fast as they can. Not to mimic the earth pony way of doing things.” “But all the contests are from earth pony rodeos!” Applejack stomps a hoof, following Twilight over, “You might as well spit on the rest of the contests if you’re just going to cheat like that!” “Cheat?” Twilight Sparkle snorts, a pointed look at Doug. “I haven’t heard any limitations on what kind of magic I can or can’t do. Where’s the cheating?” Doug sits still, torn between making his lead mare - and probably most of the crowd - happy, and his desire to see no-holds-barred magic competing. Not necessarily between Trixie and Twilight, but more in general. To see what kind of solutions they can come up when everything is available instead of artificially restricted. Which is especially necessary when you encounter an opponent who isn’t playing by those same restrictions. Applejack fumes, “It’s like teleporting to win a race! All that determines is who can teleport the furthest and the fastest!” Twilight, doing her best to keep calm, yet her biting tone offers no conciliation, “Oh, and all running a race does is prove who can run the furthest and the fastest!” Rainbow offers, “Technically, I won the barrel race, so are wings too powerful too?” “Yes!” “No!” Rainbow throws up her hooves, turning to fly to Doug while Applejack and Twilight turn on each other. Many of the crowd watches eagerly, quite a number hoping to pit earth pony versus unicorn in a cage match to the dea submission. “Come on, Applejack,” Twilight says, trying to offer an olive branch. “I’m competing like you want me to, right? Not using my horn at all?” “Oh, sure, you’ll pay lip service when you can’t use your horn,” Applejack snorts, “But as soon as you can, you just don’t care at all about our traditions!” “Oh?” Twilight says, raising an eyebrow and her tone biting, “Is this an earth pony herd? Am I not going to be able to use magic at any point? Or, just when you decree that I can?” Pinkie Pie adds in, appearing from nowhere in between the two arguing mares, “Technically, since - including the fillies - the majority of the ponies in the herd are earth ponies, it kind of is an earth pony herd.” “Not helping, Pinkie,” Doug says firmly, pulling the pink mare out from between Applejack and Twilight. “Let’s stay calm, okay?” “Yes, please stop fighting,” Fluttershy adds, flying over from the scoreboard. “Actually, I’m interested to hear how they work this out,” Rarity says, Rainbow and Doug nodding in agreement. “Let them argue!” “Just, please, no hurting each other,” Fluttershy implores as Applejack and Twilight look ready to do exactly that.