//------------------------------// // (Present Chapter 27): Dark Tournament: Part 2 // Story: The Unique Properties of Dark Magic // by Shadestyle //------------------------------// Dragon Lord Torch smashes his opponent with one building-sized fist, ending yet another fight instantly. "You really did let in any old creature, didn't you, Mouse?" he says, turning to glare at Weiss in the stands. "He's gotten a bit slow in his old age, hasn't he, princess?" Weiss says, chuckling slightly. Tempest Shadow stands casually at the edge of the ring, watching the telltale flash of teleportation rescue another contender from certain annihilation. "And the winner is... Torch!" she yells, waving towards the giant dragon, who merely grumbles, slowly tiptoeing his way over the audience and back to his own gigantic seat. Celestia chuckles. "I hate to say it, but I believe you're right. Well, I've been slacking off too for the past five-hundred years. So I suppose I can't blame him. You, meanwhile, are over a thousand years out of practice." Weiss huffs, slurping his drink loudly. "Like a fine wine, Celestia, I only get better with age. Fair warning, if Torch beats you, you will never live it down." Celestia scoffs at this. "I don't believe this. You think so little of me?" Weiss nods, slurping louder. Her eyes narrow as she cracks her neck and makes her way down to the arena for her own match. "I don't have to stand here and take this from you. Just be ready to get squished as quickly as the poor idiots who went up against Torch." "So, then. What is to be done with me now?" Nightmare asks, resting on a cloud in the dream world. Luna looks deeply uncomfortable with the situation, instead standing on the empty starscape around them. "If nothing else, you will be given a less cruel prison," she finally responds. Nightmare huffs. "And why not simply release me? Have I not been punished enough?" Luna shakes her head. "If Weiss was willing to do what he did to you, then that means he hates you. He would pursue you to the ends of the earth if you were not under my protection. There are few things remaining in the world that can protect you from him. You launched an assault on his memories, one among the only things that he treasures. He won't forgive something like that." Nightmare scoffs. "You were the one who led it to its end. Why did he forgive you?" "I don't know. He shouldn't have," Luna says. Nightmare grumbles to herself. "What about at least releasing me from that detestable body?" Luna gives Nightmare a deadpan stare. "We both know it won't be that simple, knowing how Weiss loves redundancy. trying to release you from it may prove to be an exercise in futility." She shakes her head. "No, I believe the best solution for everypony involved would be if you stayed nearby. I won't bother with having guards look after you, considering the pony who may want you. You'll stay near me at all times." Nightmare's eyes narrow. "You know, I'm not entirely certain I like the idea of being babysat by a traitor, trapped in a useless form." Luna's eyes turn piercing. "You've long since forfeit the privilege of making decisions like those for yourself, Nightmare." - Nightmare awakens wrapped in a paradoxical mixture of chains and lush blankets. "Welcome to the waking world, Nightmare. I hope it's a better impression than your first one," Luna says, idly filing her way through pages of old records at her desk. "Do I really need to be chained up for this, Luna?" Nightmare drawls, their tone too highly pitched for anyone in the room to take it seriously. "If you weren't, you would simply escape and get into trouble. I see no reason to give you the false pretense of freedom," Luna says, idly levitating Nightmare until they are floating next to the Lunar Diarch. Nightmare yawns with annoyance. "I see." Luna pauses, the sound of shuffling paper stopping for a moment. "My sister and her friends have been studying Weiss's work. Once she is done indulging herself at the tournament, I'll ask her if she has achieved the power of cloning." Nightmare sneers. "Why, so you can taunt me with it?" "So I can help you. Do you think I would condemn your race because of your poor decisions? I wouldn't have gone along with your plans if I did not feel some level of pity for them," Luna stresses, filing away the aged yellow papyrus sheets. Nightmare floats onto Luna's back in a haze of blue telekinesis, before being settled there. "I'll believe it when I see it," Nightmare states, wriggling around. Luna ignores Nightmare's disgruntlement, turning and walking towards her cabinet. "You'll need a disguise, if you don't want to be mistaken for a foal." Luna says, rooting through the cabinet for suitable components for a disguise. "A mask? Well, that much is obvious. A demon mask might be a bit too on the nose, though..." Luna says, tossing aside a leering wooden mask with red eyes. "Perhaps my old masquerade mask?" Luna says, pulling out a silver ornate mask. She shakes her head, tossing it aside. "Too fashionable." Nightmare's eyes narrow at that statement, but Luna ignores it and continues. "A scarf? No, you're wrapped up in enough cloth already. That won't do at all," Luna says, tossing aside the purple silky garment she had pulled out. Her eyes widen when she spots it. "Oh, now that might work." Luna pulls out another silver mask. This one plain and unadorned. "What are your thoughts, Nightmare?" Luna says, holding up the silvery mask. "It's too large," Nightmare says, prompting Luna to raise an eyebrow, before crushing it into a smaller one with a small pulse of telekinesis. "And now?" Luna asks again, prompting her other to nod. "I'll enchant it with a voice altering charm, and you'll be ready to be seen in public." Luna pauses. "Perhaps an alias might serve you well. Me hauling around a bound imp named Nightmare might be a bit on the nose." Nightmare rolls her eyes. "Oh, just call me Bad Dream. Ponies are gullible enough to believe it." Luna snorts. "I'll use it just to spite you. Sarcasm is not befitting a prisoner." Weiss looks sleepy as he steps onto the arena floor, facing off against one of the combatants who chose not to reveal their name. 'Well, either he's utter trash, or devastatingly powerful. There's no in-between for these sort of folk.' Tempest walks between them, giving them both a glare. "The rules are simple, the first one to be held to the ground or held frozen for more than ten seconds is the loser. If you aim an attack towards the audience, you will be disqualified. If you both wish, you may fight outside of the arena, to prevent damage to it or the audience, and recording drones will broadcast your battle accordingly. There are no other rules for this bracket, as it is unlikely either of you will succeed at killing one another," Tempest says, walking back to the edge of the ring and holding up a single hand. "And... Begin!" She says, swiping down to announce the start of the battle. Weiss smiles. "So then, might I see who I'm fighting? Well, unless you plan on turning invisible, in which case, I'll give you a pass." "Oh, I doubt you'll recognize me, Weiss Noir. But I believe we know one another," the unknown figure says, throwing off their cloak and revealing themselves. The bipedal creature's pale white body looks as though someone crossed the worst traits of several albino beasts. Their sharp teeth fill up their long muzzle, as their blue nose twitches slightly. Three eyes, one of them angled sideways in the middle of their head, all narrow in unison as they sneer at Weiss, lightning crackling along their hair and scales. Weiss scratches his chin. "Sorry Fido, I don't remember you. Refresh my memory?" he smiles. A gigantic pillar of lightning shrieks towards Weiss in an arc, instantly blasting him apart into smoke. He reforms in the exact same pose. "You know, it's still not coming to me. Ahh well. I'll figure out who you are after I win, alright, pup?" The beast rushes towards him, wreathed in lightning as they claw at Weiss over and over, attempting to strike the slyly dodging dark mage. "Alright, alright, I get it. I should be taking this seriously, yes? You've got a lot of power, you want to show it off. I get that," Weiss says, clenching his fist and firing his entire arm at his opponent, where it crashes into their jaw and sends them skidding back, flames erupting from the back of the limb before it poofs into smoke and returns to Weiss, allowing him to regenerate. "I'll honor your strength with my own," Weiss says, four of his arms folding behind his back while the remaining two come together into an odd, cup-shape. "Galick Gun..." The beast snarls, rushing towards Weiss again with the intention of clawing them apart. "Fire!" The purple beam instantly rips through the beast, punching a hole through its body and sending it staggering back. Weiss shakes one of his hands, ridding it of smoke. "Oh my, that looks like it hurt quite a bit." The creature stumbles back, holding a gigantic claw to its chest. "Not really," they say, a flash of lightning regenerating their body in seconds. Weiss grins. "Oh my, you're really something, huh? Well, go on then. Reintroduce yourself, I'm interested now." "You knew me as Storm King, but that has changed. I've gained more than enough power to completely destroy you, Weiss, the Staff of Sacanas was a trinket compared to the power that I've absorbed. "I've even taken on a new name, to fit my new, godly form. Storm Walker!" he shouts, a pillar of lightning crashing down on top of him. "I'll kill you, here and now, Weiss Noir! Now that I know your trick, I've countered it entirely. This entire arena has become my domain, and your little teleporting trick won't save you when I reduce you to atoms!" Storm Walker's long whiskers begin crackling with lightning as their body glows like a neon lightbulb. Weiss's eyes narrow. "Wait, you've been tampering with the safety mechanisms?" Storm Walker grins. "But of course. There's no way for you to escape without your teleportation magic to save you, like it did last time." Weiss rubs the bridge of his nose. "Ok, well, if you're going to be a dick, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to disqualify you." Storm Walker laughs, a barking, rough laugh that grates at Weiss's ears. "Disqualify me? I'm about to kill you, and all you can worry about is your silly tournament? I'm made of lightning! And I've come close to destroying you once already! You should be cowering right about now!" Weiss rolls their eyes, frowning as they sigh. "Ok, look, I'm going to go ahead and check the safety mechanisms after this, so why don't you just fuck off, really? I'd be more than happy to have fought you to the death literally anywhere that didn't have a shit-ton of civilians. You've literally made it so I can't toy with you like I'd like to." "I had this whole bit planned, where I shrink down every time you 'Kill me', turning into smaller, more ridiculous creatures and blasting you with spells, but whatever. Actually fuck you, seriously," Weiss says, holding up a finger wreathed in green flames. "Delta Attack." A beam of green, cursed magic rushes towards Storm Walker, who laughs manically as he transforms into a beam of lightning, crashing into Weiss's beam and plowing through it, lancing through Weiss's chest and appearing on the other side of him. He reforms, smiling maliciously. "I've won. Your attack didn't even slow me down, and your body is too weak to resist my electricity vaporizing it." Weiss doesn't respond, other than to spit on the ground as the shadows in his chest regenerate in a flare of black fire. "Whatever man. You fucked with my tournament. Just turn to stone already," Weiss says with exasperation, already walking over to leave the ring. "Wh-" Storm Walker starts, gazing in shock as his legs begin to crystallize. Melting into lightning, Storm Walker snarls, breaking free of the cursed crystal threatening to spread across his body. "Die! Weiss!" he roars, hurdling towards Weiss as a mixture of lightning and crystal. One of Weiss's arms bloats up disgustingly, swelling larger than himself as he turns around and hurls a gigantic punch at the former Storm King. The limb's stony scales crash into Storm Walker's electrical body, shoving him down into the floor of the arena, where his face hardens, frozen in its position of curved, fist-induced distortion. Tempest Shadow is incredibly grateful for Weiss teaching her his ability to make those clones. Being able to slip free of her recovering, painful body while she heals is incredibly useful. She still hasn't quite figured out bipedalism, however. How minotaurs manage to walk around on two hooves is beyond her, if she were asked. Having hands is also strange, the ends of her forelegs being forked like a lightning bolt make them seem so much more fragile, and not being able to comfortably stand on them is a problem as well, she supposes the upside of complex manipulation could be worth the loss of balance. She rubs her face in exasperation. She really should have known better than to rely on her acrobatics to dodge lightning against the Storm King of all people, and now she's paying the price, this weird, twisted up form. Stumbling over next to her sleeping wheelchair-bound self, she plops down in the seat next to it, watching Weiss pout as he paces back and forth across the room. "I'm so pissed," Weiss says, sitting down on a couch as his minions look over the wards and enchantments to figure out how they had been tampered with. "It is rather suspicious that the Storm King had been able to do all of this himself..." Celestia says, before shaking her head softly. "So, on to brighter news, until our own match can begin, how were you able to obtain those Vances?" she wonders aloud. Weiss grins. "It's my final Relic of Darkness. Magicant. I've got the magical control now to produce Vances in the waking world. I'm quite literally 3 times stronger than I once was." Celestia smiles serenely. "Ahh, so you're almost as strong as I was as a filly." "Careful princess. You wouldn't want to spoil your dinner, all those words you're going to have to eat," Weiss smiles, looking over a holographic screen confirming that the wards and teleporters have all been repaired and hardened against any further tampering. "Oh, goodie! They fixed the stuff. Now we can get back down to business." Torch glares impotently, his head wrapped up with bandages after a cheeky "Fly up into low orbit and then crash down on your opponent's head" trick that Celestia had pulled in the last round. He's getting too old for this nonsense. Especially trying to fight what amounts to a fly with the strength and speed of a fully grown dragon. He'll watch the Dragon Mouse fight the Sun Pony, and then he's leaving. He doubts any of the other contenders will provide suitable entertainment, all things considered. - Celestia's muscles are tense with anticipation. A fight like this comes along once in a millennium. Literally. "Alright Weiss. Get ready, because I'm not going to hold anything back this time." Weiss smiles, stretching his arms and legs. "Alright, one moment." Celestia's body erupts into a firestorm as she shatters the sound barrier, the shockwave dispersing Weiss's body before her hoof can physically hit him. Weiss reforms, hanging in the air lazily. "Rude." Smoke begins flowing out of his body, flames ripping from the seams of his arms as they are sucked back inside of him. He sinks to the ground, inch by inch as he continually creates shadow clones and black flames, only to absorb them into himself. "You see, I can only control one Shadow Clone at a time. But I can create as many as I want. It's a trick I picked up at some point," Weiss states, his body rapidly turning pitch black as his eyes gleam with purple light. The stone tiles crack underneath him as Celestia's slit pupils watch him, a vicious fanged grin widening on her face as her sensory magic informs her of just how dense his body is becoming. "A few pounds of Unicorn Horn to fill out my bones... Royal Cloth veins, of course, with the plasma that I'm sure you're already familiar with..." "And this wouldn't be a proper fight unless I made something as wonderful as your own Unicorn Horn armor, so I think I'll settle for old fashioned Electron-degenerate wafers, held in place with time-frozen fields, and created via Royal Crystal Growth." Weiss slowly tugs himself out of the ground, his legs having sunken into the stone completely. Thick cloudy liquid begins foaming up from around his neck, as his weight decreases in response to the amount of microportals being passed over his body. "Portals decrease my effective weight, while Pegasus Seafoam and Mistril Powder automatically adjust my mass at will," Weiss explains, shifting slightly as his pale, skintight white suit shifts, revealing tiny hexagonal flakes of material, held to his body with manipulated time bubbles. He sighs. "Alright, I'm ready, Princess." Celestia's hoof is instantly planted deep into his face, his jaw bulging to the side as he skids back. He forces himself to turn to face the princess, eyes shining with madness. "Got another one in you?" Celestia laughs, and loudly at that. "Oh heavens that's good," she chuckles, turning around and bucking Weiss into the ground, sending powdered stone flying into the air and clouds around them. One of Weiss's hands flings free of a nearby portal, plasma jettisoning from the wrist as it completely cuts itself free of Weiss's arm, clamping onto Celestia's forehoof and gripping tightly before it explodes. Celestia says, staring at the scuffed up armor on her hoof. "Maybe I should have used a weaker armor..." "No, no, it's fine, really," Weiss says, flashing in front of her and unleashing thick waves of plasma as his arm vaporizes itself down to the bone as propulsion mass to drive the skeletal fist into her chest. She skids back, spitting out a bit of blood from where the blow made her bite her tongue. Her armor already has small cracks in it, which she regenerates with a flare of magic. "Stars, Weiss, just how much have you been holding out on me?" He shrugs, sending a flurry of blows at her, chunks of shadowy flesh ripping away into pure flame and smoke to throw his fists in her direction. "I couldn't have done half of this without some of the toys I picked up in this era, Princess. You ponies sure know how to invent spells." "Oh stop," Celestia teases, unleashing a plume of solar plasma from her horn that crashes into Weiss, his armor shattering and exploding as the hundreds of pounds of material are freed from their time-frozen fields. The raw material's explosive decompression serves as ablative armor, pushing away the solar armageddon and allowing Weiss to dodge out of the way of it by riding the wave of plasma vapor. He skids to a stop, shadows flooding from his wounds and forcibly compressing back into black flesh. Celestia pants, her horn glowing white from heat, while Weiss's body sags, lacking lungs, but still flagging. "Perhaps we should have paced ourselves..." Weiss wonders aloud, one of his arms ripping free of his body and exploding violently, before he forcibly grabs the smokey shadowmass and forces it back into the shape of an arm. Celestia spits more blood on the ground, one of her cracked ribs only just now beginning to heal. "I suppose I could have, yes, but I'm just so excited." Weiss smiles slyly. "How about this, we'll settle it in our next clash. One final attack, all out on both sides. It would certainly end this on a high note." Celestia's smile shrinks in viciousness as she ponders the proposition. "Well, there is this one spell..." She shrugs. "Fine. We've been fighting for a whole three minutes, anyway." Weiss claps his hands together, a bright blue light slowly growing between them. Celestia's smoking horn instantly banishes the fumes, erupting to white-hot temperatures once again as she begins charging up a spell of her own. "This is the fruit that was born from our last conflict, Weiss, and I've named it appropriately," Celestia says, the sun glowing softly in the sky as her horn's corona grows, both in size and in layers. "I stole this technique from a manga," Weiss responds, the blue ball growing in-between his cupped hands. The audience falls still, quietly in awe at the displays of raw power shown thus far. "Solar Flare!/Kamehameha!" they shout, unleashing beams of white and blue respectively. The two beams clash, a twisting maelstrom of magical energy forming between the duo as they pour all of their energy into their ultimate attacks. Weiss's arms begin dissolving, unable to contain the powerful Vance that he's pumping through them, while Celestia's armor begins to char, the Unicorn Horn composing them turning to ash in the face of her power. Finally, it ends, the arena's wards crackling as they redirect the outgoing energy of the attacks elsewhere. Celestia, as naked as the day she was born, covered in black ashes, and Weiss, down to three legs and half a horn, the remainder of his limbs reduced to fading smoke. Celestia's eyes roll back into her head as Weiss's body collapses into ashes. Just before she hits the ground, however, her teeth crash together and she thrusts one of her legs below her, preventing her from falling to the floor, regaining consciousness just in time to avoid a loss. Tempest Shadow climbs out from behind the barricades that had been erected for exactly this sort of fight, climbing up onto the arena's remains. "And the winner is... Princess Celestia!" Tempest shouts, waving to the Solar Princess, who collapses to the ground as soon as Tempest makes the announcement. A loud clapping rings out, in such a way that everyone can hear it. High above the arena, Discord claps, whistling loudly as he munches on popcorn and cheers. "Woo! Good job out there!" he says, chuckling as the fade out happens.