//------------------------------// // The Last Demon // Story: The Muay Tiger // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "Sagat?" Rainbow Dash whispered. "W-why are you using-?" "FIGHT!" Sagat roared. The tiger hurled himself towards Rainbow, faster than she could nearly keep up with. She barely threw herself back to avoid having her head taken off. She was too slow to avoid the next punch and took it in the jaw, hurling her across the floor and through one of the castle walls. She coughed as she fought back up to her hooves, looking upon the advancing Sagat with terror in her eyes. "Stand and fight, kitten," Sagat snarled. "What are you doing?! Why would you give into the Satsui no Hado?!" Rainbow yelled at him. "It goes against everything you stand for! Fight it! It's power isn't worth it!" "If you will not fight," Sagat whispered. "Then you will die." Sagat lunged forward once more, hurling another kick at Rainbow's head. Rainbow ducked the blow and backed up, but Sagat was on her once more. He threw out a flurry of punches that she barely managed to block in time. She brought her head back to avoid getting kneed in the face, only just barely catching movement out of the corner of her eye. She moved back...just in time to avoid a chop that would have taken out her throat. She clutched at her throat as she backed away, pupils shrunk as far down as they could go. "You...you were going to kill me," Rainbow whispered. "Fight or die," Sagat repeated. Sagat went on the attack once again, purple fire burning in his hands as he approached. Rainbow Dash threw out a tiger shot to try to defend herself, but Sagat swatted her attack aside before kicking her in the gut. Hard. Rainbow was sent tumbling down the stairs into the main hallway and collapsed in the middle of the entrance, breathing hard as she shakily got back up. Sagat burst from the room and threw three fireballs towards Rainbow, who had to roll out of the way to avoid being hit. Sagat lunged into the air over her, giving Rainbow Dash the opening she needed. She tucked an arm down, channeled her anger, and exploded upward with a furious uppercut. "TIGER UPP-" While still in mid air, Sagat threw a fireball at a diagonal angle that caught Dash right in the face, knocking her out of the sky and back down into the ground. Sagat then picked her up by the throat and slammed her into the ground, knocking the air out of her lungs once more. He slowly lifted her and leveled her to his eye level, glaring at her with nothing but hatred and violence in his eye. "Sagat...please..." she whispered. "Begging will not save you," Sagat said. He hurled her into a wall, where she crumpled onto the ground. With what little strength she had left, Rainbow began to get back up, fear clutching at every inch of her. 'I can't beat him,' she thought to herself. 'He was already a better fighter than me and now he's using the Satsui no Hado. I couldn't beat it when I had both my wings and was at my prime. How can I beat him as I am now?! I can't...I can't...' Rainbow watched with horror as Sagat approached, fear locking up ever part of her body. "What is the matter, little kitten?" Sagat asked. "If you do not fight...then perhaps you are not worthy of my teachings...of my skills...of that wing." "I...can't..." she whispered. "I...can't-" "Yes ya can." That voice was like a light in the dark for Rainbow. She turned to look at the entrance of the castle and couldn't believe what she was seeing. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Scootaloo...and even Twilight, white coat and all, were all standing there. "Guys? W-what are you all doing here?" she asked. "We came to support ya. We got word that ya would be facing Sagat in yer final test," Applejack said. "So of course we had to come out and show our support for our favorite mare," Rarity continued. "You've been working so hard to overcome your pain and suffering, to reach...no, go beyond where you once were," Fluttershy added. "And of course you can win, silly. You've always found a way to overcome, no matter what was thrown your way," Pinkie said. "The odds of you beating somepony who wields that Satsui no Hado are less than zero. But screw the numbers! Ever since Zangief showed up here, logic and reason mean nothing anymore!" Twilight cackled madly. "So win Rainbow Dash! Because even though the numbers don't support it, I know you will. Because you're you!" Rainbow Dash then looked to Scootaloo, who smiled at her and nodded as well. Before making a motion with her hooves. A motion that made Rainbow's eyes widen. "Do you hear their words, kitten?" Sagat snarled. "Or are you simply going to ignore them and continue to cry? Because no matter what you pick, it all ends here." "You're right Sagat," Rainbow said as she rose up once more. "It does end here. Because dark hado or not...I will beat you." "Try." Sagat lunged forward...only to be kicked in the face by the rainbow blur that Rainbow had become. His head snapped back as he leg snapped out, try to catch Dash off guard. But Dash ducked under the leg and slammed her hoof into the back of Sagat's knee with a crack. Sagat roared before regaining his footing, hurling fireballs at Rainbow Dash, who sidestepped each of them with inches to spare. Sagat pulled his arms back for a big one and Rainbow leapt into the air, only to watch as Sagat brought his fist down. "Metsu...UPPERCUT!" Sagat bellowed. With all of his dark might, he threw an uppecut that would have torn the heavens apart...only to find that it hit nothing but empty air. Sagat looked towards where Dash was supposed to be with confusion, finding that she had somehow...moved backwards in the air? In slow motion he watched as Dash put her arms behind her, smirked at Sagat...and fired a stream of fire out of her hooves. "Tiger strike!" she roared. The flames pushed her forward right into striking range, giving her the chance to kick Sagat right across the face. The blow sent him flying back down into the ground, where he rolled back up to his feet...to find that Rainbow was now flying around the arena. "How?" he asked. "This right here is a Scootaloo special. Fun fact about ponies who can't fly? We spend all day thinking up how to do it. Trust me, I would know!" Rainbow called out. She put more of her power into the flames and continued to rocket around Sagat, using her wing to adjust herself in the air to easily avoid his punches, kicks and tiger shots. Even with the Satsui no Hado on his side, Sagat couldn't keep up with her. A kick to the arm. A blow to the knee. Twin chops to the back. Little by little Rainbow started to wear Sagat down, chipping away at the mountain of a man. She slammed her hooves into the back of knee to drop him to the ground, before she brought back both of her hooves and channeled all of her power into them. Sagat saw what was coming and leapt into the air, arching his foot down in a dive kick that was aimed right for her. With no time to stop her attack, Rainbow Dash fired her ultimate tiger cannon...and the blast was so powerful that it sent her flying backwards. Sagat's eye widened as his foot struck where she had been, before he slowly looked up and realized that she had already used her fire hooves to stop her tumble. "My turn," she whispered. With a yell that was a mix of fury, confidence and victory, Rainbow drove her knee right into Sagat's chin, launching him into the air. She unleashed all of her fire threw her back hooves and hurled herself into his stomach flying him into the sky and out of the castle. As she flew she began tp spin, covering both her and Sagat in a tornado of rainbow colored fire. She rocketed past Sagat and flew ahead of him watching as the spinning master came towards her. "Thank you. For everything," Rainbow Dash whispered. She then raised one leg over her head and softly said, "Tiger..." "DEVESTATION!" Her axe kick caught Sagat right on the top of his head, causing the rainbow tornado to explode as it sent Sagat rocketing back down into the castle with the roar of a raging tiger. The castle exploded into a sea of rainbow fire that illuminated the very land of Equestria. Then, as soon as it had begun, the flames ended, leaving a Rainbow Dash would could barely stand standing over a Sagat who lay defeated on the floor. "Sagat? You still alive?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Yes, Rainbow Dash. Yes I am. Barely," Sagat coughed. "Good...hey wait a sec. Where did the Satsui no Hado...you were never under its influence, were you?" "No my student...I never was. I used it's power, yes...to help you overcome your final obstacle. Yourself." "You gave yourself up to a dark and evil power...just to push me? Just to help me overcome my trauma?" "It was clear that until you faced the Satsui no Hado once more, you would always live in its shadow, regardless of how much progress you made. And the only way for you to truly overcome your fear of it was to face and defeat it, once and for all." "I can't believe that you would that for me." "Of course. That is what a master does for their student, tiger. Help them to overcome themselves." "Wow, didn't know you had it in you and...and wait a sec. You just called me a tiger." "Hmph. I suppose I did." Anything else Rainbow wanted to say was cut off when six of her friends tackled her all at once. They held her tight as they all tried to say at once how proud they were of her, how amazing she was and all of that. Too bad she couldn't hear them as all their voices mixed together. It wasn't until they let go that Rainbow finally heard what one of them had to say. "That was incredible! How you shot flames out of your hooves to fly, how you creating that fiery, rainbow tornado...it was so cool!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "It's all so amazing! Which of those made you the happiest?!" Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to answer then closed it. She looked from Scootaloo, to the rest of her friends, to the giant hole she had made in the castle roof and finally, to Sagat. Then she let out a small chuckle and smiled. "I feel at peace."