The last time Rainbow Dash was inside the coliseum it had been packed full of soldiers with nary an empty space to be found. And she was one of the ponies fighting. This time was a bit different as she sat side by side with Clear Skies on the closest row of stands to the wall of the arena, with not even half of the stands behind her full. Obviously the fight that was about to commence did not even have close the drawing power that her bout with Blizzard did. Not that she was complaining. She liked being a special event. Or would have at least if she had won.
The reason she was here now though was because Clear Skies had invited her, knowing she had never seen a fight in the coliseum as a spectator. Apparently he had some kind of personal investment in the fight that was happening today and Crescent Moon had given him leave to watch it. When Wild Wind had suggested that it might be a good idea for Rainbow Dash to see a normal fight, Clear Skies was more than happy to invite her and Moon gave the okay. She continued to get a lot of looks (same as always) when she went flying out through the city with Clear Skies and touched down outside the coliseum but she was used to that by now. Although it was kind of grating since she could feel multiple pairs of eyes boring into the back of her head from pegasi sitting behind her.
Inside the coliseum was different if you came here to watch instead of fight, she wasn’t stuck down in the bowels of the building but got to walk through several open halls and concourses that ringed the building on the way to her seat. Would’ve been simpler if they could’ve just flown in from the top and sat down but that dome blocked off anything like that.
“So there isn’t actually any popcorn or something in here to eat?” Rainbow Dash asked Clear Skies.
“No, it’s considered rude to eat during a fight,” Clear Skies responded in his deep and mellow voice. It was like listening to a smoother Big Mac.
Dash shrugged. “Fair enough.” She looked down at the still empty arena with the clouds making up the floor waiting for the two ponies to come out and fight on them. “So what’s the personal investment you have in this fight? Why’d Moon let you skip out on a day of training just to watch a fight?”
He looked past the bangs of his violet mane at her. “My little brother is fighting.”
“You have a little brother?” She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Yes,” Clear nodded. “Do you have any siblings back home?”
She shook her head. “Nah, only child. Although I’ve got someone who’s basically a little sister to me.” Rainbow Dash smiled at the thought of Scoots, she’d have a lot to share with her once she got back to Ponyville.
Clear Skies smiled too. “That’s good at least. I have a few little sisters and a couple more brothers as well, I come from a large family. The house was never quiet back when I was just a colt.”
“Sounds fun,” she said honestly. “But so what’s up with your little brother that he’s fighting now?”
The soldier sighed and leaned back on the stands as he folded his arms over his chest and stared out at the arena. A frown grew on his face until his jaw settled into a hard line and his nose twitched as he sucked in a deep breath through it. “A mare.”
“A mare?” Rainbow raised another eyebrow at him.
“He’s fallen in love with a young mare he’s known for many years, she’s a friend of the family, and he wants her hoof in marriage,” Clear Skies explained.
“Uhh… okay, I got that. But what does that have to do with fighting in here?”
“She has another suitor. So the two of them are fighting with her hoof as the prize,” Clear grunted in annoyance.
“Oh. Do you think your brother is going to win?”
He looked over at her and ran a hoof back through his colorful mane. “Do I think he’s going to win? Well I certainly want him to win. But I think he’s going to get his butt kicked. It’s a shame, I don’t want him to get his heart broken but on the other hoof I think this will be a good lesson for him on not being an idiot.”
Rainbow Dash smirked. “I take it the other guy was dating the mare he liked first?”
“Yep,” Clear nodded. “And my brother butted in like a moron and now… this has happened.”
“Good luck to him I guess...” Rainbow Dash said with wry amusement.
It didn’t take much longer for the gates down below to open up and the two competitors to walk on out onto the clouds. Cheers from the audience began to rain down on them but it wasn’t the ecstatic and loving kinds of cheers Rainbow Dash would hear if this was a Buckball game, it was more the ‘We finally get to see some skulls cracking’ sort of cheers from bored ponies that wanted entertainment. From the gate to their right an angry looking pegasus with a dark complexion and lightning blue mane and tail stepped out, staring down his opponent across from him. The one who emerged from the left gate was an orange pegasus doing his best to appear strong and confident, although Rainbow Dash could easily tell he was struggling not to shake and show fear. Somewhat curiously to her was that they were both clad in armor as well.
“Hey? Do you guys normally wear armor in these fights?” She asked Clear Skies.
“Yes. The only reason Commander Blizzard didn’t wear any was because you didn’t have any either,” he told her. “That was actually quite fun to see by the way. The Commander had a number of fights postponed so he could duel you, I’m glad it was worth it.”
“Glad you liked it,” she rolled her eyes. “How many fights are there normally?”
“A day? Two or three at least. More depending on how many pegasi wake up in a bad mood on any given day,” Clear shrugged.
“You sound like someone who hopes there are as many fights as possible.”
He glanced at her with a grin. “With always being busy with training or patrolling I can’t see near as many fights as I want to so I have to hope that there’s always at least some going on that I can see when I’m off. What do you do for entertainment back home?”
Rainbow Dash gave him the smuggest smirk possible as she put her hooves behind her head. “Buddy, I am the entertainment.”
His grin widened but his eyes shifted back to the arena. “Watch, it’s starting.”
She looked back to the arena and saw the two pegasi circling one another. They were sizing the other up, deciding how and where to strike best. She knew in her case that any fight was gonna be won by her superior speed but for these pegasi that couldn’t dream of being as fast as her they were probably going to fight much more directly and trade blows with each other. It wasn’t just going to be one pony zipping around the other. Rainbow Dash watched as the dark pegasus feinted forward and Clear’s brother jolted backwards, she winced in sympathy at how clearly scared he was.
“Err… is your brother not a soldier?” She asked Clear Skies.
“He is but the pony he’s decided to pick a fight with has a certain foul reputation and is a veteran of numerous fights in this coliseum. My poor brother has unfortunately bitten off more than he can chew,” Clear said through narrowed eyes that didn’t move from the arena. “As can be obvious from the way he’s acting, just because you’re a soldier in our army doesn’t mean you’re a good fighter.”
“Yeah I know that pretty well from when I first met Crescent Moon...” Rainbow Dash frowned as she watched the mismatched opponents.
This next time the dark pony didn’t feint, he lunged forward with decent speed and punched Clear’s brother across the jaw. The orange pony had attempted to dodge the strike but was a fraction of a second to slow and he ended up knocked to ground and skittering across the clouds. His opponent gave him no time to recuperate though as he ran after him, intending to finish this quickly before Clear’s brother could even stand back up.
Fortunately the orange pegasus was able to kick himself up off the ground and took to the air, with his opponent angrily clicking his teeth in response and flapping his own wings to follow him. The fight now turned into a slow chase momentarily as Clear’s brother tried to regain his bearings before attempting to fight more.
“You should’ve just stayed down,” Clear mumbled to himself.
“No way, dude!” Dash frowned at him. “He’s gotta at least try his hardest even if he does get his butt kicked.”
“I enjoy watching fights, not seeing my little brother get humiliated and beaten to an inch of his life,” Clear responded, still not tearing his eyes away from the two flying ponies.
“Well… guess that’s pretty fair. Yeesh, I’d hate to watch Scoots go through something like this,” Rainbow Dash gulped.
Clear Skies didn’t respond any further or ask if “Scoots” was the pony Rainbow Dash saw as a little sister, he was far too preoccupied with watching the fight. The dark pony proved to have quicker wings and superior flying ability as he caught up with his prey and flew around to kick him in the side. It wouldn’t have hurt much thanks to the armor but it would’ve thrown a pony off-balance easily with how much force was put into the kick. Thankfully this time the orange soldier was able to react quickly enough and beat his wings hard to avoid the kick. Still, he was on the back hoof as the dark solider kept up a relentless pace of attacks. Kicks, punches, wing jabs, the only good news was that Clear’s brother had enough focus now to avoid them. But he likely couldn’t keep that up for long.
The dark pony wasn’t just faster or a better fighter either; he was smarter. Now that he had closed the gap he kept his movements small and efficient and wasn’t flying around like a showboat in the way Rainbow Dash would’ve done things. He was making Clear’s brother use far more energy to dodge his attacks. The orange pony flying up there would tire far quicker. Every now and then he tried to throw out a punch of his own but his were clumsy and sweeping. Far too slow and wide to hit someone with the reflexes and clear fighting speed as his opponent.
Rainbow Dash felt that he needed some encouragement. She cupped her hooves around her mouth and went to cheer for him. “Come on—uh… what’s your brother’s name?” She asked Clear Skies.
“Mellow Skies,” he grinned slightly.
“Come on, Mellow Skies! You can beat that guy! Just fight harder!” She yelled up at him.
He may not have even heard her with all the adrenaline running through his veins as he tried to win over the mare he loved. Sweat was dripping from Mellow’s brow thanks to the exertion and the stress weighing on him, it threatened to fall into his eyes and make a bad situation even worse. Unconsciously, he brought a hoof up to wipe it away and gave his opponent the opportunity to kick him in the stomach.
Mellow wheezed in pain as the wind was knocked out of him and he slowly floated to the cloudy ground of the arena.
His opponent looked to come down right on top of him and force Mellow into submission but Mellow looked up with enough time to see the threat and roll out of the way. Rainbow Dash grimaced as she watched, there didn’t seem to be any way for Mellow to win this fight with how his opponent was a clearly superior fighter and faster flier.
“What do you think he should do?” She asked Clear Skies.
“Forfeit.”
“Besides that.”
“Go back in time?”
“You’re very confident in your brother,” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and watched how the rest of the fight would play out.
Mellow tried going on the offensive and lunged at his opponent, by the looks of things he was trying to tackle and grapple with the dark pegasus. It wasn’t a bad idea since his opponent was so much more skilled than he was. Turning things into a simple brawl could’ve easily gone in Mellow Skies favor if he got a couple of lucky hits in or managed to get his opponent beneath him and just hold him down until he gave up.
But the dark pony backpedaled and Mellow stumbled down in front of him. The dark pony grinned and harshly kicked Mellow in the face, making Rainbow Dash and Clear Skies wince at the pain of the hit. Mellow didn’t take it too well either; clutching at his face as he groaned on the arena floor and rolled around in agony. That was hardly the end of it too—the pegasus stepped forward and repeatedly stomped on and knocked Mellow around. Clear’s brother had no chance to retaliate, the best he could do was meekly hold his hooves and wings up in a haphazard defense as he was badly beaten.
“Looks like the fight’s over,” Rainbow Dash glumly said as she watched with an uncomfortable look on her face as Mellow Skies continued to get beaten more and more until he couldn’t even manage to defend himself. “Shouldn’t someone stop this?”
“It’ll be done soon, even the most vicious fighters make sure to not do anything permanent in the coliseum. And to be fair Mellow should’ve conceded the fight by now, he’s just being stubborn,” Clear said, chewing on his tongue as he watched his brother get kicked around some more.
One final hard kick to Mellow’s chin and the orange pegasus was laid out on the ground. That was it.
A chorus of cheers rang up from a number of soldiers in attendance and the dark pegasus held up his chin in victory. Mellow had never even managed to land a real hit on him. The gates were opened back up and the victor sauntered his way back to where he had come from while two toga wearing pegasi came out of the other to gather up Mellow Skies.
“He’s gonna be feeling that for a while...” Rainbow Dash said.
“In more ways than one,” Clear nodded.
“Think he’ll be even more upset about losing the girl?”
“Oh yeah. I’m gonna have to do something to try and cheer him up next time I’ve got leave.”
The two of them got up from their seats and made to leave the coliseum. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure how she felt about her first fight that she wasn’t part of. It was so one-sided, and there should’ve been like a ref or something to call when it was clearly over, did they not have a referee for anything here? She knew it could’ve been a lot more brutal too and she was thankful that it wasn’t but it still didn’t exactly make her feel good. Rainbow Dash loved competition, and she loved winning, but didn’t they have any normal sports here or maybe just competitions of strength and athleticism that didn’t involve one pony being possibly hospitalized? That was more her kind of thing.
If probably had to do with this being used to settle grievances and disputes instead of just something done for sport. Friendly bouts or a tournament with some real rules would probably make things more civil and more the kinds of fights she would like to have with normal ponies. Where she could just prove how much better she was without really hurting anybody.
Unless their pride counted.
Halfway through the arch that would take her and Clear Skies back onto the concourse the orange pegasus threw a hoof across her chest, stopping her.
Rainbow Dash looked up at him. “What gives?”
“Well I was just thinking...” Clear Skies grinned at her. “If we leave now we’ll just have to go back and do our training like normal for the rest of the day. But why not stay for the rest of the fights? Crescent Moon won’t know how long my brother’s fight went.”
The blue pegasus returned his grin. “Hey, sounds like a plan to me.”