The next morning, Swift Blaze woke up at his normal time after going to bed just around midnight. The stallion headed just outside the barracks he was in. Not knowing what Shining Armor had planned, he worked on his stretch positions, balances, and strength endurance movement. The Earth pony wobbled a little bit on the balancing positions as he had never done them at his current weight level. As he was in the middle of one of them, when Blaze saw the Unicorn Captain walking up to him.
“Good Morning, Shining Armor,” he said.
“Blaze, what are you doing up already? I thought you needed more rest to help heal those injuries from being in two fights,” the white stallion said.
“I did some healing jutsu last night for a couple hours and then went to sleep. I’m normally up at this hour, every day. Can’t explain it.”
“Ok, then how about explaining what you are doing in that strange position? Don’t you get enough pain from the training regiment I put you through?”
“Oh, this? I’ve been falling behind on my morning routine that I normally do since I’ve been here. I decided to do it this morning when I woke up before you came to get us up. What I’m doing now is training my muscles on keeping myself balanced in different ways, so I’m in better control of my movements.”
“I have never seen a pony go through something like this. Might also explain why it was so difficult to defeat you yesterday.”
“Plus the fact I’m wearing weight enhancement clothes equalling three hundred and seventy-five pounds.”
“And You’re Still Able To Do That!”
“Shhh. Keep your voice down. There are ponies sleeping.”
“Not anymore. TIME TO WAKE UP! GET CLEANED UP AND HEAD TO THE MESS HALL FOR BREAKFAST! YOU HAVE 30 MINUTES!” Shining Armor shouted to the barracks.
Blaze heard the other inside stumble around. He left and made his way to the mess hall. After the Earth pony got his food and sat down, the others came rushing in. They looked startled to see the red stallion there, already eating. They grabbed theirs and joined him at the table.
“Blaze, what time did you get up this morning?” Colorful Spark asked.
He replied, “Before dawn. My body started waking itself up around that time ever since I got here. The only time it didn’t is when I was in the hospital.”
“Which time?”
“The second one after going up against a tornado.”
“YOU WENT AGAINST A TORNADO!” The others shouted.
“The storm was out of control and I heard the sound of a tornado making its way over in the EverFree Forest. I was beaten and banged by debris, while lightning was hitting my sword.”
“Why did you bring a sword? That will always draw lightning to you,” said Lightning Trails.
“I used my sword with a jutsu combo to break apart the tornado. Then my ki wave to disperse the clouds, the same wave I used to take down Shining Armor’s barrier. I will tell you more about it tonight. Let’s finish breakfast before we are late.”
The group ate their breakfast quickly and arrived at the field with a minute left. Shining Armor teleported in front of them like usual as the ponies stood at attention.
“Alright recruits, here is the agenda for today. You are to do one hour of track. Followed by two hours of obstacle course. After that, meet me in the sparring ring,” said the Unicorn Captain, before he disappeared.
They started to run together as everyone had close to the same times now. Blaze did a minor increase to the enchanted weights by another ten pounds to the total. The ponies were about thirty minutes into the run when Blaze was caught up in an unforeseen teleportation to another location.
Blaze had magically appeared from what was a quick flash of pure white magic. As his surroundings came into clear view, he saw the imminent threat of charging into Princess Celestia. He used his fore hooves and lept high off the steps leading up to the throne where she sat. Blaze finished as he back flipped through the air and landed back down on the floor on all hooves.
“Nice reflexes you have there, Blaze,” Princess Celestia said.
“Thank you. Maybe next time, can you maybe please warn me before you do that again?” he asked while he was catching his breath. “I would hate it if I were running faster and collided into you.”
“My apologies, but this is urgent and I wanted to ask you what you know about this?” She asked as the mare pointed out the window.
Blaze walked over and looked outside. He saw some black smoke high in the sky. Thinking about it, he recalled where this fell in the episode lineup.
“I see the black smoke. Where’s it coming from?” The stallion asked while sounding clueless.
“I was wondering if this was in one of those events that you watched?”
“I thought we agreed that future knowledge will be kept with me and I’ll determine IF and WHEN I’ll inform you.”
“I know. Just last time we had such big smoke over the sky, there was a major forest fire several centuries ago. I just wanted to know if it was again.”
“Fine, this will be a freebie. But only this one time, your highness. Doing this often could bring unforeseen consequences. However, I do recall seeing this in an episode from the show on my world. It was not caused by a forest fire.”
“Whew, that’s a relief. A little bit. So what could cause this much smoke then?”
“A sleeping dragon in a cave on that mountain,” Blaze said as he pointed to it.
“A DRAGON!” Princess Celestia shouted in a panic state. “I need to get the guards to go and get rid of it! It will sleep for a hundred years! We cannot handle all that darkness during that time.”
“HOLD IT!” the Earth pony shouted back. Then, he calmly replied, “You don’t need the guards. I shouldn’t even tell you this. You had Twilight Sparkle and her friends go to the mountain to reason with the dragon and convince him that he cannot sleep there.”
“Thank you, Blaze, for letting me know,” the white Alicorn calmed back down. “I shouldn’t have overreacted to it. Just knowing you know what the future entails is having me all wondering if I’m doing everything correctly.”
“Celestia, you don’t need to worry about this. What I know will probably have changed since my arrival. The future is always changing and it’s based upon what we choose to do at the moment to set it. Go with what your knowledge and experience tells you and let me deal with anything bad I feel I need to step in to stop.”
“You know, you are very wise, Blaze. I’m happy to call you a friend.”
“Thank you, your highness, for accepting me as a friend. Also, I’m not wise, I just watched a little too much TV. Till we meet again.”
The stallion quickly turned and jogged away, using his teleport jutsu to return to his previous destination. When he reappeared where he was, Blaze almost collided with Cancer and Dragon. He jumped over them and came to a stop.
“Why were you in my lane!” he shouted.
“Blaze, you disappeared. You have been gone for fifteen minutes,” Star Dust replied.
“No, I didn’t. I’ve been running with you this whole time. We’ve jogged for the past thirty minutes. Suddenly, there was a flash and I saw Cancer and Dragon standing in my lane.”
“Blaze, you were really gone for a while,” said Colorful Spark.
“Enough joking around. We need to finish running the half hour before Shining Armor sees us standing around.”
“Blaze, it’s only fifteen minutes left,” Lightning Trails said as he pointed to a clock tower.
“Stop pulling my leg with this joke. It’s not funny anymore. Admit you flew up there Lightning and moved the minute hand,” the Earth pony continued to act with being annoyed now.
“This is no joke, Blaze,” Fang said.
“Well, not worth discussing it anymore. Let’s get back to running.”
The red stallion started running and the others soon followed. When the time was up, the group headed over to the obstacle course. As the Earth pony was first going through it, Cancer came up to him.
“Blaze, what do you make out of those dark clouds?” he asked. “We’re not supposed to get any rain today.”
Thinking it over, while he looked at the smoke, the stallion came up with an answer. “I’m not quite sure, but a fog bank is also rolling in too,” he said. He secretly performed a jutsu and had a fog cover the training grounds.
“Now there’s a fog bank rolling in? What is up with this weather?”
“Maybe it’s part of the training. Let’s get back to the obstacle course.”
Cancer nodded and they went back to it. The fog did make it a little tougher as no one could see the same distance any pony was used to. Best guess, they could only see about fifteen feet in front of them. The trainees slowed down a little bit to make sure they don’t make a mistake and fall somewhere. The group finished those two hours and headed over to the sparring area.
Shining Armor was waiting for them as they walked out of the fog bank. He looked at Blaze and the Earth pony could tell the captain wanted a word with him later. The trainees got in a line and stood at attention, waiting for the next orders. They didn’t have to wait long.
“Alright, for the next hour, you’re going to spar again with no abilities. When I call your name in sets, head over to a ring and begin,” said the white unicorn. “Fang, you’ll spar with, . . . Colorful Spark.”
Blaze heard a sigh of relief come from Lightning Trails. He wondered who that pony is going to be paired with.
“Star Dust, you’re going to spar with Cancer this time. Dragon, you’ll have Swift Blaze to spar with. Lastly, Lightning Trails, you’re going to spar against me. I expect to see a better performance from you today compared to yesterday.”
They separated out in the pairs and headed to the rings. As they walked, Blaze had thought about the type of fighting style Dragon was going to use. He didn’t get a good look yesterday when the Zebra spared against Star Dust. Blaze decided to act on the side of caution by starting the spar on the defense to observe him thoughtfully.
“I hope you don’t plan on going too easy on me, Blaze,” said Dragon. “I want to see how I compare to the pony that went hoof to hoof with my big sis and ended up in a draw.”
“I wasn’t planning to,” he replied. “Prepare for the PAIN!”
The red stallion stood in a defensive martial art stance. Dragon went for a boxing stance. Seeing this, Blaze realized he hasn’t done any training against that in his mind space. A smile had formed on his muzzle in anticipation of a good fight.
He charged towards Blaze with a barrage of hoof jabs. With a wall of hoof jabs headed his way, Blaze reeled back on his hind legs, guarding with his front hoofs against the attack. He looked back and knew Dragon was aiming for a quick finish as he stood only a little less than five feet from the edge of the ring. The red stallion decided to swap it up and went on the offensive.
Blaze threw several different hits at Dragon from different directions. The striped pony was able to dodge or block them. They kept going at this back and forth on who’s doing the attacking,and they both managed to land some hits.
The guard watching our match called out saying there was five minutes left. Hearing this, Blaze moved to full offensive and began to throw random hoofs and kicks to throw him off. Dragon was getting close to the edge. The Earth pony switched to grapple move to toss the Zebra out of the ring from behind.
The red stallion grabbed his opponent and pulled him towards himself. As he rolled onto his back, Blaze used his hind legs to launch Dragon out of the ring. The next thing caught him by surprise.
The Zebra grabbed the Earth pony and reversed what his opponent was going to do to him. Now Blaze was the one about to be tossed out. Thinking quickly, as he was somersaulting forward, the red stallion arched himself backwards quickly to change his momentum. He landed behind Dragon and quickly gave him a kick that sent him just outside the ring.
“Nice reversal there, Dragon. You almost had me,” Blaze said as he was catching his breath.
“You surprised me when you recovered in mid air. I really thought I had you,” Dragon replied as he wiped the dust off him.
“You have some powerful hoof punches. I think you bruised several of my ribs. Maybe even fractured one of them.”
“That happens when you get into fights with your twin about almost anything.”
“Nice job recruits. Go and get some lunch and any medical attention you might need. After one hour lunch period. Back to the ring with the same pairs. This time though, abilities can be used,” Shining Armor said. Then teleported away.
Everyone cheered and moaned at different intervals. They were happy that they can use them, then realize who we were up against. The group went to the mess hall and grabbed lunch. As the ponies were eating, they went around and told how the matches went.
Dragon and Blaze went first and told what happened. Up next was Star Dust and Cancer. It was pretty much the same match up as yesterday. Dragon won yesterday now that Blaze found out the results. This time, Star Dust won.
“HA! I beat a pony that beat you!” Dragon gloated.
“We’ll see what the results are for this afternoon,” Cancer replied as he gave his brother an angry glare.
Fang and Colorful Spark’s match ended in a draw. Fang couldn’t get a hit in as Colorful Spark was able to dodge them all. From what Blaze read, dealing with those bullies probably helped with being agile now. Fang wasn’t happy about having another draw on her record.
Last was Lightning Trails up against Shining Armor. He began to tell how he dodged Shining’s attacks and managed to get a few hits on him.
"That’s not how I remember it," A pony said from behind them.
They all turned around and saw the Unicorn Captain was standing there.
"So, what happened then Shining Armor?" Blaze asked.
"Being a Captain of the Royal Guard, I decided to go easy on Lightning Trails as he didn’t have much experience in fighting, like you Blaze,” he replied. “So, I tested out his moves by throwing slow hoofs at him. He was able to dodge them. I picked up the speed until he couldn't. I then tested what strength he has by letting him get a few punches in. They were about average. Ten minutes later, I was getting bored. So, I finished the match by giving him a hard kick to get him out of the ring."
"You were going easy on me?" Lightning Trails asked.
"Yes. If I did full power, you wouldn’t have lasted thirty seconds."
The other ponies started to laugh. Lightning Trails was getting mad with them joking about it. He got up and walked to the door. Before he left, he turned his head to us and said, "We shall see how you fare when I can use my lightning!" He then stormed off.
"Should we be afraid of a lightning energized pony?" Blaze asked.
The others raised their hooves up like they did not know. The red stallion thought, We’ve actually never seen the others ability yet. They have seen some of mine from different times and a little bit of Colorful Spark's illusion ability. Can't wait to see what they can do in a fight.
The others finished lunch quickly. Colorful Spark used his magic to heal Fang, Cancer, Star Dust. Blaze used his jutsu to heal Colorful Spark, Dragon, and himself.
The group returned to the sparing area and saw the Pegasus waiting in the ring. Blaze walked up to him and said, "Hey Lightning, sorry for laughing at ya. We would just be in the mood. How about I heal you before you go against Shining Armor to make it up?"
He nodded and did a quick blow of air out of his nose. With the way he was acting Blaze knew Lightning was still angry. That emotion is going to cause trouble in the match. The red stallion healed him and the Pegasus thanked the Earth pony.
Everyone returned to the rings they fought in previously to face the same opponents. Dragon looked happy that he could show off his ability. Blaze was looking forward to bringing the next level of pain.
"Dragon, before we start, I would like to make you an offer. I’ll only use one element jutsu if you allow me to disable the weight enhancement on my clothes,” said the red pony.
“Whichever way, you’re at a disadvantage. I’ll allow you to do that,” replied Dragon.
“Thank you. Return clothing weight to normal levels.”
“Before you all begin, there’s going to be a slight difference,” said Shining Armor. “For everypony’s safety, a barrier will be activated along the ring. So, the only way to win the match is by submission or knockout. Out of the ring will no longer work.”
The white Unicorn activated his magic and magic barriers rose up around each pair’s sparring ring. It went high in the air so Pegasi wouldn’t be grounded if they wanted to fly.
Dragon and Blaze looked at each other, trying to figure out what the other had planned before the match began. The red stallion knew that this Zebra could somehow slow down time around him. Making it look he’s actually going fast. He decided to use earth style to have some good defense.
The ponies in each match stood in their battle stance, waiting for the command to begin the fight. A guard walked up to each ring and stood there to observe. Each one looked at the two ponies in the barrier in front of them. At the same time, they said, "BEGIN!"
(Swift Blaze vs. Dragon)
Swift Blaze activated a jutsu that caused stone like armor to form around his body. It was black as night and shiny. There were several sharp points around his hooves. Once it was done, he returned to a battle stance.
Dragon was trying to figure out which mineral it was. He activated his magic and said, "Clock down!" The space in the ring began to slow down. Outside of it, it would appear the object's affected would be moving slow. The Zebra then charged at the Earth pony.
The red stallion saw the charge coming and was able to move out of the way to dodge it. As Dragon was passing by, Blaze jammed one hoof with the spikes into the side of him. They did not break the skin, but left a good scratch along the body.
The stripped pony yelped in pain and said, "How in Equestria are you still moving? Time in this ring has slowed down to nothing."
"You allowed me to release the weight that kept me slow,” replied Blaze. “All three hundred eighty-five pounds of it. This was the speed I was going when I faced Shining Armor."
"But that armor should have slowed you down a bit too. What’s it made of?"
"Something I’m testing out to see how practical it is. I made a thin layer of black diamond armor. Light, but very strong, in theory."
Dragon dropped his mouth open as he never heard the idea of diamond armor. He shook his head to regain focus and began to think another way to attack this unique Earth pony. An idea came, which he knew was going to be a long shot, if it worked. The Zebra went on the defensive and signaled his opponent to come at him. Swift Blaze obliged and went on the charge. Dragon stepped out of the way and deactivated his magic.
The red stallion was caught off guard as he was going full speed in slow down time. Back in normal time, unable to stop fast enough, he collided with the barrier. He bounced off and continued to bounce around the ring's barrier, like a pinball off bumpers. Dragon was laughing hard as he stayed low to the ground, avoiding getting hit by the bouncing Swift Blaze.
Even with the armor, the Earth pony was getting a beating by the barrier. He had to do something quickly to stop himself. He shouted, "Earth Style! Stone Wall Jutsu!"
A wall rose up the length of the ring in the middle of it. When Blaze made contact with the stone wall, it did stop him. He also made a decent impression in it as he fell out.
Dragon was laughing harder now. He was rolling on his back with eyes closed and tears coming out. He failed to notice his opponent was struggling to get back up.
The red stallion quietly said, "Oh, you think that was funny? Then what do you think about this?" He switched to a louder voice and said, "Earth Style! Hackysack Toss Jutsu!"
The ground underneath Dragon rose up quickly and sent him into the air. Just as the Zebra was about to hit the ground, Swift Blaze stopped his hoof and the ground underneath his opponent rose up again, sending him back into the air. The Earth pony repeated this for a few minutes and then let Dragon land back on the ground.
The striped pony now felt just as bad as Blaze from running into the barrier so many times. He struggled to get back up the same amount of Blaze did. They both knew this had to end soon.
"How about no more abilities and we finish this with our hooves?" Dragon asked while breathing hard.
“I agree,” Blaze replied, also out of breath.
The red stallion removed his armor jutsu. They both stared at each other, wondering who will get knocked out first. The tension in the air was tense. They were both back to how they were this morning. All of a sudden, the ponies both charged each other and were throwing hooves and kicks. Neither of them were blocking as they were too tired. They were getting bruised up badly as neither of them wanted to give up.
Blaze was the first to change tactics. He spun around and gave Dragon a hard applebuck to the chest. His opponent flew back and hit the barrier. He then fell onto the floor. He didn’t move, but Blaze could see he was still breathing. The barrier came down and the guard declared Swift Blaze the winner.
The Earth pony went to the Zebra and started to heal him. Soon, Dragon regained consciousness.
"What happened?" he asked as he was about to get up.
"Don't move. I’m healing your injuries,” replied Blaze. “I gave you an applebuck to the chest that knocked you out."
`Dragon laid back down to allow the Earth pony to heal him. "You’re an amazing fighter. Wonder what the outcome would have been if I didn’t allow you to take off that weight enhancement?"
"You would be faster, that would be for sure. The downside is you would have to deal with all the elements I can use."
"Yeah, that one element was tough enough. I definitely don't want to tangle with you in a real fight."
Blaze continued to heal Dragon with his jutsu. He knows he can heal himself later.
(Colorful Spark vs. Fang)
At the start of the match in another ring, Colorful Spark went first as he activated his magic. Several of him now appear around the ring. They ran in random patterns to mix up where the real one is. Fang stood in the center, waiting for the right moment. The stallions stopped running and stood at four positions, equally spaced.
"Alright Fang, can you tell which one is the real one?" They all asked at the same time.
"I’m impressed. You even managed to have the illusions cast a shadow too. Luckily this will be easy." Fang said.
She had a blade come out the side of her right fore hoof. She charged the one in front and did a slash attack. That Colorful Spark was an illusion and disappeared. Fang was then hit on the flank from behind. She spun around and saw the other Colorful Sparks were still standing where they were. They began to spread out again evenly at the edge of the barrier.
"You got one of my illusions and have not found me yet. Which one am I?" The Unicorns asked again.
"This is going to be fun. I never had this much fun on one of my missions," Fang replied, as she looked at each one to see if there was something different.
The Zebra looked carefully to see if anything was not the same. As she was looking, she got hit again. This time, it felt like a kick and it hit her ribs. Fang spun around quickly, hoping to cut the real Colorful Spark. She felt her blade hit something. When she finished spinning, Fang looked to see who got it. The mare was even more surprised as they all had a cut on the left fore hoof in the same spot.
"Did you really think that it would be that easy?" The Colorful Sparks asked.
"You know, for a second there, yea. I did think that," Fang replied.
"Silly Zebra. Tricks are . . ." The Colorful Sparks began to say
" . . . for fillies and colts," Fang finished what they were about to say.
The three Colorful Sparks began to walk in a circle around the Zebra. They picked up speed as they did so. Fang stood in a defensive stance as she pulled the blade back into her. The mare felt a hit on her right side. In quick reaction, she had her blade popped out where she was hit. Another mark showed up on the Unicorns.
The Zebra realized she needed to go on the offensive instead of waiting for the real one to reveal himself. She charged at one and took another illusion out. The other two again spaced out so they were the opposite position of each other. Fang returned to the center of the circle. The mare waited to see what Colorful Spark will do this time.
"You have found another illusion. Congratulations. Guess I should get a little more serious," said the Unicorns. Both stuck out their right fore hoof and a metal blade appeared attached to the hoof by a mechanism.
Fang replied, "Really? Another illusion? That fake blade does not scare me," she said with a chuckle.
"Not every illusion is smoke and mirrors."
The blue stallions started to run around in random patterns. Fang did her best to keep an eye on both of them. It wasn’t enough when she felt two hits on her back legs at different angles. The Zebra couldn’t believe that both were able to land a strike without her noticing their approach. Fang then realized something as an idea had popped into her head. Her eyes grew wide with excitement. The mare closed her eyes as she no longer wanted to trust what she was seeing.
"I can see into your trick now, Colorful Spark. I’m truly impressed how you have managed to control your magic and make sure that the illusions were so perfect. Even when I got two hits on you with my blade. I now know the real truth," said Fang.
The Zebra opened her eyes and quickly made her move and slashed at both of them in a blink of an eye. She watched them disappear like the other illusions.
"When you revealed that blade, I finally realized you can make yourself invisible."
"Awe, crud. I was hoping you wouldn’t have gotten it so quickly,” replied the stallion. “But now, you’ll have to figure out where I am in this ring."
"That’s just it, I don't need my eyes in order to find you. I’m going to use my other senses to do it. You shouldn’t have eaten that three bean burrito for lunch."
Fang closed her eyes and began to focus on her other senses. The sound to hear movement. The smell to detect his scent. The feel of her coat as air movements have passed over it inside a barrier. She took it all in to find where the real Colorful Spark was hiding. After a few minutes the mare found her prey.
The Zebra dashed over to where he was and threw a hoof punch to confirm. It made contact with something. Colorful Spark dropped the illusion after he collided with the barrier.
"You’ve actually found me. You’re the first to ever find me when I was invisible. Your skills and abilities are really impressive,” said Colorful Spark. ‘I yield the match to you as I know I cannot contend to face you and hope to win. You have more experience with that blade than I shall ever get. Plus the fact I don't like to spill the blood of a friend.”
The barrier came down and the guard announced that Fang won.
"I too an glad that I don't have to injure a friend anymore," the mare replied. "Let's go and get these cuts patched up before we lose any more blood."
The Unicorn nodded and they headed over to the medic building that was on the training grounds.
(Cancer vs. Star Dust)
At the start in a third ring, Cancer went up first. He activated his magic and said, “Clock Up!” He could now move faster as he chose. The Zebra was determined to beat Star Dust so his brother would stop gloating. He quickly charged at his opponent, knowing he cannot stop it.
Star Dust was getting hit from all sides. He knew it was Cancer going at super speed, but he couldn’t track something of a blur in his own vision. Even though the sun was out, the Unicorn needed the star's help to track his opponent. He used his magic to make a connection to the star's above and requested their help. They obliged and gave him a secondary view of the ring.
The speed of images allowed Star Dust to see a pattern in Cancer's movements, so he could now dodge. When Cancer was coming in for another hit, the blue stallion stepped out of the way. He then swung an uppercut that the Zebra couldn’t dodge at the speed he was going. It made contact and sent Cancer flying back to the ring barrier.
The striped stallion shook his head to clear the spinning vision from the hit. "How were you able to do that?” he asked. “I was moving at top speed."
"My cosmic powers allow me to communicate with the stars and they are allowing me to see this match from the sky,” Star Dust replied. “I was able to see your movement pattern and anticipate where you are going to hit."
"Then let's see if you can follow this."
Cancer started to run around again. This time in a different random pattern he thought of. The Zebra did get a few hits in, until Star Dust side stepped and gave him a good jab to his ribs.
"Dang it! I thought I was doing a random pattern? How were you able to see it?" Cancer demanded.
"Nothing is ever random. Everything has a pattern to it." Star Dust replied.
The striped stallion was getting angry as he wanted to win. He went for a full charge straight for Star Dust. His opponent quickly reacted by letting his horn shine bright as a star. Cancer was blinded and soon felt the force of running into something as solid as a wall. He bounced back and landed in the center of the ring.
Still seeing spots, the Zebra looked around to see where the Unicorn went. As his vision was returning, he saw Star Dust over by the edge of the ring.
What the blue stallion was doing was charging up a powerful spell that would help him. The Unicorn started to glow with a silvery, white aura. It kept on getting brighter. His horn then shot a beam up into the sky and made a small moon appear. What happened next surprised Cancer. It looked like there were stars falling from it. The Zebra tried to dodge at top speed, but they altered their course and hit their target, which was him. They exploded on contact, but the size of them wasn’t dangerously big.
After the falling stars were done, Cancer wasn't doing too well, about half of those hit him and exploded. He had black scorch marks over his body. His legs were shaking as they were trying to keep him standing. The Zebra did have a smile on his face because he saw how Star Dust was doing.
The blue stallion was exhausted after casting that powerful spell. He knew it would do this to him, but it was a desperate move to stop Cancer from running around. He could feel he couldn’t cast another spell as he was on the verge of magical exhaustion. He was happy that the spell did do some damage to Cancer.
"Cancer, how about we finish this up with our hooves? No magic, no special ability. It’ll be just you, me, and our hooves," Star Dust said.
"Sounds like a plan. Prepare for a flank beating!"Cancer replied.
"Bring it!"
They both got onto their hind hooves and approached each other. Their fore hooves were up and ready to block. Star Dust went first and threw the first hoof. Cancer blocked it and did the same. They went back and forth dealing hits and blocking them.
After a long period, both had stopped blocking and were just landing hits. Their movements were also slowing down as exhaustion was taking its hold on them. In one final move, they both went for an uppercut. The two ponies hit each other at the same time, sending both backwards and falling to the ring floor.
The barrier rose up and the guard walked in. "I will give you both the count of ten to get back up on your hooves,” the guard said out loud. “First one to do so will win the match. After the ten count, no pony is standing, the match will be a loss to both ponies. ONE!"
Cancer and Star Dust both heard him and began to work on standing.
"TWO!"
Cancer was the first roll onto his belly. Star Dust was closely behind.
"THREE!"
They placed their hooves underneath them and began to try and get up.
"FOUR!"
Star Dust was first this time to get his belly off the ground.
"FIVE!"
Both were struggling to get up as their legs were shaking violently.
"SIX!"
Star Dust was getting close to a full stand. Cancer was half way.
"SEVEN!"
As Star Dust was about to lock his legs in, he collapsed back to the ground. Cancer saw he still had a chance.
"EIGHT!"
Cancer pushed harder to get his body to stand as he was getting close to standing.
"NINE!"
Cancer closed his eyes and gave his body one final push.
"TEN!"
. . .
(Suspenseful, isn't it?)
. . .
"Cancer has won the match!" The guard said.
Cancer opened his eyes and saw he was standing. He didn’t go and jump up and down cheering he won. He fell back to the ground and let his body relax.
(Lightning Trails vs. Shining Armor)
As soon as the guard said those words, Lightning Trails summoned storm clouds within the barrier. They began to flash lightning at quick intervals, but nothing struck the ground. He flew up to the clouds and stayed underneath them. When he was close enough, the lightning began to strike him. He took it with no issue. After each hit, his mane began to glow a bright white. He flew back down once his mane began to shoot off tiny lightning bolts.
He looked to Shining Armor and said, “Do you think you can handle dealing with the power I can manipulate?”
“It’ll be interesting,” the captain replied “I’ve never seen a Pegasus be able to take so many hits from lightning and not show any sign of damage.”
“My body’s unique. I can absorb the energy from lightning as much as I want. Let’s get to fighting. Oh, and don’t hold back. You might get yourself injured if you do.”
“Don’t get too cocky because you can use your abilities now.”
The Pegasus ignored the comment as he raised his right fore hoof. He sent a lightning bolt that struck right in front of Shining Armor. The Captain didn’t flinch, but saw that his opponent was serious. The Unicorn activated his horn and summoned a barrier wall in front of him as well as other locations in the ring. Lightning Trails fired off another bolt to Shining Armor. This time, the white stallion rolled out of the way, just before the energy hit the barrier. When it made contact, the magic shield was destroyed and continued straight to the ring barrier. That one absorbed the bolt.
Shining Armor now knew how powerful that bolt of lightning was as that barrier normally allows him to block normal ones. The Unicorn decided to switch tactics as he doesn’t want to get hit by one. He weaved between the barriers, getting closer to Lightning Trails.
The black stallion just watched as what the Captain was going to do. When he was close, Shining Armor charged directly to Lightning Trails and swung his right fore hoof at him. Upon contact. Shining Armor was sent flying back as he collided with a barrier wall.
“That was interesting, and stings a good amount too,” Shining Armor said. He shook his head to remove his daze and the fore hoof to get rid of the numbness he was experiencing.
“Yeah, whenever I absorb that much lightning, my body creates a lightning barrier around me so I cannot be touched,” replied Lightning Trails.
Now that Shining Armor was aware of that, he’s only able to do range attacks. The Captain activated his horn and sent several magic bolts at him. Lightning Trails was easily able to dodge them with the boost the lightning was giving him. The Pegasus launched more lightning bolts at the white stallion and watched as he had to get out of the way from being hit. They destroyed all the barrier walls Shining Armor have created within the ring. None of the bolts did any damage to the ring barrier.
The Unicorn used his magic again and had lots of stone pillars rise up from the ground. They got rid of any line of sight attacks as most of the ring filled up with them.
Lightning Trails laughed and said, “You know this is only delaying your defeat. I thought the Captain of the Royal Guard would be a lot stronger.”
Shining Armor knew he had spells that would kill Lightning Trails, but didn’t want to cross that line as this was supposed to be a friendly sparring match. He wondered what caused Lightning Trails to act like this. The white stallion quickly recalled in his head some of the events earlier today. He then remembered about an old lesson from his day in Magic school. It was about how misusing your power will want you to have more and more. Almost like an addiction and you’ll stop at nothing in your way. Shining Armor now realized the lightning is affecting this Pegasus’s way of thinking. He needed to find a way to finish this match up before somepony could get severely injured.
Lightning Trails was using his lightning to destroy these pillars that were blocking his path. He knew he could fly over them, but the black stallion enjoyed the destruction this energy was giving him. The Captain was quietly working his way through the pillar forest so he could get a line of sight shot ready.
The storm clouds above were still shooting off lightning bolts above them. Shining Armor wondered why they haven’t dropped any rain yet. All storm clouds in Equestria normally drop rain in a thunderstorm. An idea came to him and the Unicorn quickly put it into action. He sent some magic up to the clouds that would cause them to rain.
In a few seconds, the first raindrop fell. Others began to join it. Soon, the storm clouds finally started to act like a normal thunderstorm. Shining Armor suddenly heard a scream.
"RAIN! WHY ARE THOSE CLOUDS POURING RAIN! I HATE WATER! AHHHH!"
The white stallion hopped onto the tops of the pillars and headed over to Lightning Trails. He was lying on the ground and lightning bolts were shooting out of him randomly.
"Please make the rain stop! I give! I give! I can't take the rain when I’m charged up!" Lightning Trails screamed.
"Alright," replied Shining Armor.
He used his magic and made the clouds disappear and the barrier went away too. The guard outside announced that Captain Shining Armor was the winner. The Unicorn returned the ring back to the way it was and headed over to the Pegasus.
"Are you going to be fine, Lightning Trails?" He asked.
"Yeah, I tend to avoid *zap sound* storm duty because of this. *zap sound* If I’m charged up, I get *zap sound* shorted out," Lightning Trails said as he was still letting out sparks of electricity now.
"Do you want me to get a medic to help you?"
"No, but I think Blaze will be able to help me."
Shining Armor left to go and get the red stallion.
The other trainees were waiting on the benches. They were discussing about the matches and what happened. Suddenly, they saw the Captain come running up to them.
"Blaze, Lightning Trails is having some kind of backfire of his lightning control ability,” he said. “He asked me to come and get you."
"On my way,” the Earth pony replied.
He bolted off the bench at super speed, just now he realized he’d forgot to reactivate the weight clothing. This allowed him to arrive in a few seconds. When he stopped, a dust cloud engulfed him.
"Hey *cough* Lightning Trails, what can I do to help?" he asked.
"Need to release my lightning so I can stop sparking out randomly. It hurts when I lose control of it," the black stallion replied.
"Ok, I think I know what to do."
Blaze used his jutsu and had a copper rod come out of the ground. With what he was thinking of doing, it was going to hurt them both. He placed one hoof on the rod and moved his other close to the Pegasus.
The red stallion said, "This might sting a bit."
Lightning Trails nodded and braced himself as best he could. Blaze placed his hoof on his body. The electricity flowed fast out of the black stallion’s body, through the Earth pony, and down the copper rod. Both of their bodies jerked around as the energy flowed out.
Soon, the others showed up. They stayed back so they didn't get hit by any of the lightning that wasn’t going into the ground. After a few minutes, the lightning that was built up in Lightning Trails finally left. Blaze lifted both hooves off where they were and had them fall back down to the ground. The others came up with worried looks.
"Blaze! Are you and Lightning going to be alright?" Dragon asked.
The red stallion looked over to Lightning Trails and saw he was knocked out and smiling. "Yeah, he’s going to be fine. *cough up some smoke* I’m going to go nighty night too," he said before he collapsed to the ground, going off to dreamland.