"Wake up."
Rainbow let out a yelp and sprung up to her hooves, immediately regretting that decision. Everything on her hurt and she felt like she had been in a blender. Then she remembered who she had just fought and it all made sense. Zangief. Again.
"Hmm, you recovered quicker this time. If anything, it shows how thick your skull is." Dash glared off to the side to see Sagat, sitting cross legged as he always did. A fire burned in front of him and the stars were out overhead, telling Dash she had been out awhile.
"Zangief. I just barely manage to learn how to fight again and you throw Zangief at me. Do you not know the meaning of the word mercy?" Dash snarled.
"I know of the word, just as I know you do not deserve it," Sagat replied. "I train you, teach you my techniques, show you how to improve yourself...and what do you do? You become arrogant. The fatal sin of every fighter."
"I was not arrogant-"
"Lie to yourself all you want, for I see through your lies," Sagat cut her off. "You showboat. You draw out matches. But above all else, you have no respect for my techniques nor for the foes you face. You learned a fancy new trick and thought it would make you the best in the world. Then you faced a best in the world and saw what happened."
"So does having one eye make it easier or harder to see through lies."
Sagat glared at her before rising to his feet, taking up his famous stance. "Prepare."
Rainbow smirked and rose up after him, taking her own modified version of the stance. Sagat made the first move, aiming a sweep low at her legs. She hopped over it and threw a kick at Sagat, one that he easily deflected. She kicked off his arm with her other leg and launched herself backwards, firing a blast of rainbow power towards him. He held up his arms and blocked the blow, but the moment his sight was blinded Dash ran low, throwing out a kick of her own into Sagat's limbs. Thanks to his shins being tree trunks the blow was miniscule, but still enough to get him to snarl. She hopped back and smirked at Sagat.
"Look at this. Skill, speed, power and confidence. Where was this when you were fighting Zangief?" Sagat asked. Dash narrowed her eyes at him. "Ah yes, you got arrogant. You thought you could win with just my moves. Clearly you could not. Yet you cast away your own moves, the ones that would give you the edge against that man, and it cost you the fight."
"Work against him? I've fought Zangief three times now and three times I've been beaten!" Dash snarled back. "I know my moves don't work against him. But your moves just might."
"Even though he managed to beat me when I, their master, was using them?" Sagat snapped back. Rainbow narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything. "Your body changes, your moves change, yet why do you remain the same? Why is it the moment you have any source of success, you fall back to your old, arrogant self? Have you learned nothing from me?"
"I've learned plenty. I've learned to control my anger!" As she said this, she threw another rainbow shot at him, forcing him to dodge. "I've learned about spacing!" Sagat threw a kick, but Dash stepped back just enough to avoid it hitting her. "And I've learned patterns!" She leapt into the air just as Sagat threw a tiger shot, smiling as she threw a fist into the side of his head. Sagat staggered back as Rainbow Dash resumed her fighting stance.
With a burst of speed she was on Sagat once more, who cocked back a fist for the uppercut. Rainbow saw that and slightly stepped back. The moment she did, Sagat lashed out with one of his legs...only to find she had side stepped. He had just enough time to watch her move to the side before she kicked the leg he was balancing on, knocking him to the ground.
"I'd say I've learned plenty."
"Yes, you have. In terms of raw talent, you have me completely outclassed. In terms of how fast you learn, you are incredible. For all your faults, you are an impressive fighter," Sagat stated. "But it is your fragile ego that holds you back. It makes you sloppy when you succeed and it makes you give up when you fail. So long as that ego is controlling you, you will never triumph over Zangief."
"Oh really? Well how are you going to train me for that? More lunges on the way to the next competition? More surprise attacks to the back of my head? Or maybe a touching story about how you killed a guy for standing up to you? What are you going to do, Sagat?" Rainbow Dash asked. For a long moment Sagat glared at Dash, who was watching for the first sign of attack, before he sighed and dropped his arms to the side.
"I...cannot," he admitted. "I am not the kind of person who can show you how to overcome your own ego. I only overcame mine when I was bested and shown what I had become. You have been bested and faced yourself, yet you remain the same. With all I know, there is nothing I can say to you to help you overcome this."
"Then are we done?" Rainbow Dash asked. "And I mean done? Cause if there's nothing left you can teach me...then I'm going. Because there are plenty of other tournaments I can get to faster without you. No offense."
Sagat lowered his head for a moment and thought for a long moment, before he raised his head and smirked at Rainbow. "One more day. All I ask is that you stay here for one more day. Because while I may not be able to get you to let go of your own ego, there is one I know who might be able to. Your ultimate opponent."
"Another ultimate opponent? How many of them do you have in your world?" Dash asked.
"How strong is he? Well he completely defeated me. There was nothing I could do to him. He struck me down like I was nothing," Sagat revealed. Rainbow's eyes went wide at that Sagat and he smiled. "So what do you think, Rainbow Dash? Can you wait until tomorrow? I have already asked Zangief to go get him and he will be most disappointed if you don't show up."
"And you're saying this guy can turn me into an even better warrior?" Dash asked.
"If you are willing to learn from him, he is a warrior that will show you how to never be defeated," Sagat replied.
"Is this going to be one of those "you should have listened to my exact wording" kind of situations?"
"You will have to learn for yourself," Sagat said as he walked back to the fire. He sat down next to it, crossed his legs and clossed his eye. Dash thought about it for a moment. She had Sagat on the ropes in that fight, she knew that. A little longer and she could probably beat him. She had almost nothing more to learn about fighting from him. But this mysterious fighter had her intrigued. Whatever fighter could cause Sagat to be humble was one worth meeting.
"Eh, what's one more day?" she asked before sitting down across from Sagat, closing her eyes and drifting off to her glory days.
-=-=-=-=-=-=--=
"Where is he?"
"Give him a moment. What he is doing...even I don't understand it entirely."
Just as Sagat said, a moment later a hole in the fabric of reality was torn open by a spinning Zangief. The muscular Russian laughed as he came spinning down, landing in front of the pair. "Did you find him?" was all Sagat asked.
"I did. At first he wasn't too keen on coming, but when I said it was for you, he seemed to have changed his mind," Zangief said as he turned and looked up at the vortex. "He is getting ready. Are you sure...?"
"Yes. He is the only one."
"Alright then, let's see this warrior," Rainbow said. Then a figure appeared on the other end of the vortex. The distortion made it hard to see him, but Rainbow believed that he wore a gi similar to Ryu's, one that seemed to be...red in color? The warrior jumped through the vortex, appeared in her world...and then immediately fell straight onto his face with a high pitched "OW!".
"This is him?" Rainbow asked as the figured stood up and dusted himself off, revealing that his gi wasn't red...it was pink.
"Yes. This is one of the greatest warriors that I have ever known," Sagat said with a smile.
"Heya there, pony thing. Nice to meetcha," the warrior said with the shiniest smile Dash had ever seen.
"I'm the legendary Dan Hibiki."