//------------------------------//
// Clash 
// Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego 
// by MagicS 
//------------------------------//

While there was another match that had been fought first, Rainbow Dash didn’t pay any attention to it at all. She was too focused and excited for her match against Sia’Lorna to care. And now the time for that had finally come. Rainbow Dash was facing off against her in the middle of the ring, the words from the referee going in one ear and out the other.

“I’ve been looking forward to this,” Rainbow Dash said to her.

“So have I,” Sia’Lorna responded.

“Umm… does that mean you understand and acknowledge the rules?” The referee asked.

“Yes,” both combatants responded at once.  

Despite the cheering the whole rest of the world seemed to disappear around Rainbow Dash for a moment as she looked into Sia’Lorna’s green eyes. She instinctively knew this would be the hardest fight of the tournament for her. Nothing else mattered right now but winning. Sia’Lorna clearly felt the same way as she returned Rainbow Dash’s stare, a powerful and heavy atmosphere was swirling around the both of them.

When the trumpet was blown, neither of them moved at first. The referee even uncertainly looked between the two of them because they just kept smiling at each other.

With a sudden twitch of her hoof, Rainbow Dash ran at Sia’Lorna, sprinting so fast she was in front of her face in a second. Sia’Lorna’s eyes kept up with her the whole time and she was ready to react to whatever first attack Rainbow Dash had planned. When Rainbow Dash’s right hoof came up towards her chin she was prepared to minusculely lean away from it, only for Rainbow Dash’s left wing to also thrust out at her at the same time. Rainbow Dash was making two attacks at once and with her speed one was already tougher to dodge then the usual attack from Sia’Lorna’s normal opponents. Her reflexes and instincts were sharp too, the wing was going exactly where Sia’Lorna wanted to lean her head to to avoid the punch. Rainbow Dash was trying to make her exert more energy than normal to avoid her attacks. She was trying to put her off-balance by forcing her into making bigger movements and get out of her elegant comfort zone.

So Sia’Lorna ducked under the attack entirely, dodging the punch and the wing jab and then thrusting her own hoof right towards Rainbow Dash’s open throat. But Rainbow Dash was able to perfectly follow her moves too and with a combination of her back legs and right wing she pushed herself backwards. The hoof of Sia’Lorna ended up uppercutting the air less than an inch in front of Rainbow’s nose. And now because she had missed she left herself open too. Rainbow Dash propelled herself back at Sia’Lorna and aimed a punch with her left hoof at the Reindeer’s right side. Sia’Lorna hopped away from it but found another hoof coming at her face, then another, and another. Rainbow Dash refused to let her dictate the pace of this fight or dodge so simply. Her attacks were coming with a speed and precision that forced Sia’Lorna all across the ring.  

One of the punches Rainbow Dash sent towards Sia’Lorna’s face was met not with a dodge but a block. It surprised Rainbow Dash enough where her momentary pause allowed Sia’Lorna to throw a hoof of her own at Rainbow’s face. Rainbow Dash had to duck under this only to see Sia’Lorna’s other front hoof already coming right at her.

The powerful hoof struck Rainbow Dash right between the eyes and knocked her backwards. Rainbow Dash did her best not to wince or look away, knowing Sia’Lorna would certainly press the advantage against her. And indeed she did, coming at Rainbow Dash with a high punch aimed at the side of her head. Rainbow was able to block it with her leg and she tried to grab Sia’Lorna’s exposed limb and pin it against her side. Doing that would give Rainbow Dash way more openings since she had two more limbs to work with. But Sia’Lorna drew her blocked leg back too quickly, it slid out from between Rainbow’s leg and body before she could lock it down.  

Rainbow Dash was still hardly letting things slow down and she came at Sia’Lorna from the front again but low this time. She feinted an uppercut towards Sia’Lorna’s chin but pulled back and turned around, shooting out her back legs as she practically slid over the floor of the ring in an effort to sweep the Reindeer’s legs out from under her. Sia’Lorna still managed to jump over them safely—and slightly backwards to get a little distance between herself and Rainbow Dash so the pony couldn’t instantly chain another attack. Rainbow Dash clicked her teeth when she saw this and jumped up before instantly running to the side of Sia’Lorna.  

Naturally Sia’Lorna turned to face her so Dash ran around to her back. But before she could try to launch an attack from behind, Sia’Lorna again rounded on her. She wasn’t going to be able to get an attack in like this moving at normal speed.  

So of course she did one of the things she did best: speed up.

Rainbow Dash became nothing more than a blur as she ran in a tight circle around Sia’Lorna. It was a similar tactic she had used against other opponents to great success but Sia’Lorna had better reflexes and senses than most. When Dash attempted to shoot out from the vortex she had created right at Sia’Lorna’s back, the Reindeer managed to react in time and turned to block Rainbow’s punch. Like a lightning bolt though, Rainbow returned to running around and preparing another attack. Sia’Lorna couldn’t match this kind of flat running speed so she was essentially stuck inside Dash’s circle.

To the other competitors and the audience it was impossible to follow, Rainbow Dash was just going too fast. They were still mesmerized by it though since it was so different from the other fights. How often did these Reindeer get to see a creature with the speed of Rainbow Dash?

Every second Dash made a new attack against Sia’Lorna in an attempt to land a real hit on her. She came from her left, then instantly again from the right, the front, the back, again and again she relentlessly assaulted her opponent. But Sia’Lorna’s defense was still impeccable. Every quick attack by Rainbow Dash was blocked or dodged thanks to the reflexes and quick reaction time of her opponent. Whether it was a high punch to the head or a low kick to one of her legs, Sia’Lorna managed to defend against the much faster Rainbow Dash.

Seeing her high-speed individual attacks weren’t doing much for her, Rainbow Dash decided to change strategies. Otherwise she was going to tire herself out well before Sia’Lorna got exhausted.  

She stopped running around and let the blurring vortex stop before coming towards Sia’Lorna’s right side. Sia’Lorna again turned to face her but found herself under attack not just from Rainbow Dash’s hooves throwing a series of rapid-fire punches at her, but also from her wings jabbing back at forth anywhere Sia’Lorna attempted to dodge or dip away to. Despite Sia’Lorna’s best efforts she couldn’t keep up with the sheer number of lightning fast attacks and every now and then a hoof or wing would graze against her. It still wasn’t a serious it but if Rainbow Dash kept it up she might finally land one. So Sia’Lorna knew she had to somehow counter or go on the offensive to get the flow of the fight back in her favor.

A wing came thrusting straight at her face and Sia’Lorna decided to do something Rainbow Dash had done a few times so far when fighting Reindeer. She used her hoof to parry the wing coming at her and then punched along back its length in a cross-counter, her hoof going for Rainbow’s face. However, being on the other end of this previously, Rainbow Dash expected it. As Sia’Lorna’s hoof got closer to striking her she quickly raised her knee and lowered her wing, pinning Sia’Lorna’s hoof between them and stopping her attack.

Catching her.

Gotcha. Rainbow Dash grinned as she saw Sia’Lorna’s look of surprise. The Reindeer was momentarily trapped and couldn’t dodge so Rainbow Dash threw a powerful right hoof at her as fast as she could before Sia’Lorna could get out of Dash’s hold.

The punch impacted Sia’Lorna’s face and knocked her spinning away from Rainbow Dash, wrenched out of her grip from the force of the blow. Sia’Lorna didn’t fall though, she stumbled but still managed to regain her footing, and she returned to squaring off against Rainbow Dash will bringing a hoof up to now rub her bruising face.

“That’s the first real hit I’ve taken this tournament so far.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled and wiped off her hoof. “It won’t be the last either.”

“Then let’s keep going,” Sia’Lorna grinned and ran at Rainbow Dash.

It became an even trading of blows with both of them shooting out their hooves and blocking or parrying the other’s attacks. At one point Rainbow Dash would be pushed back, matching every strike trying to hit her legs, and in the next Sia’Lorna would be pushed back, dodging around Rainbow Dash’s wings. This went on for a minute until they ended up near the ropes, with Sia’Lorna’s back to them. She grinned inwardly as she planned for something Rainbow Dash wouldn’t expect and then jumped backwards at the ropes, bouncing off of them and propelling herself at Rainbow Dash.

The sudden change in movement and then the surprising speed took Rainbow Dash off-guard. She wasn’t able to raise her hooves in time and Sia’Lorna struck her in the face, exactly where Rainbow Dash had hit her earlier. But for good measure she also brought up her other hoof in a powerful hook and hit Rainbow Dash on the other side of the face.  

The one-two punch did a number on Rainbow Dash and she was groggily sent away shaking her head. Sia’Lorna was quick to take advantage of this opening and she went in to try and finish things with the quick and precise sort of strikes at vital spots she favored. However, Rainbow Dash recovered in time to hit away Sia’Lorna’s hoof with her wing and take a few steps back until she had totally regained her senses. The two then warily looked at each other, sizing their opponent up. Both found that they were breathing harder than normal too thanks to the fight being so tense even if neither of them had been beaten too badly just yet.

“We’ve been fighting for over half the length of the match,” Sia’Lorna said.

“So in less than five minutes we’ve gotta finish things or leave it up to the judges?”

Sia’Lorna nodded. “Yes. But I have no intention of leaving it up to the judges.”

Rainbow Dash cracked her neck. “Me neither.”

The two both sprinted at each other again and Rainbow Dash did something she hoped would also be unexpected. She jumped. Not a wing-assisted jump that would get her disqualified but a normal jump only with the strength of her legs. She sailed over Sia’Lorna’s head and twisted in mid-air to bring her two back legs down directly on the Reindeer’s back.  

Sia’Lorna was barely able to react in time, turning over and bringing up her front left leg to take the double kick from Rainbow Dash. The block was good, it made Sia’Lorna wince in pain but it stopped Rainbow Dash from hitting anywhere serious. Rainbow used the leg as a springboard and jumped off and away from Sia’Lorna before running right back at her. She then ducked right as she got to the Reindeer and pivoted on her front legs, turning on a dime and bucking her back legs at Sia’Lorna. Sia’Lorna tried to jump back away from the attack but Rainbow’s legs had too much reach and the two blue hooves hit her in the chest and her front legs when she tried to block them at the last second. She grunted in pain instead and when Rainbow Dash wheeled around to start punching at her, Sia’Lorna foregoed any effort to be elegant and graceful and just shoulder checked the pony instead. She smacked into Rainbow Dash and thanks to her superior mass and momentum, knocked the pony to the ground.

Rainbow Dash skid to a stop on the stone and got up, groaning. She dusted herself off and looked to her opponent who was now slowly circling around her. Well Rainbow Dash was never going to take anything slow. She darted right back at Sia’Lorna and aimed a kick at her legs. Sia’Lorna was prepared for it though and knocked Rainbow’s leg away with her own. The two of them kept that up for a little longer, practically tap dancing as their hooves clattered against each other. Rainbow Dash and Sia’Lorna were both trying to trip up and entangle the other’s legs but both of them were moving so fast they couldn’t do more than just hit back and forth and smack away.

At last Rainbow Dash suddenly thrust a wing out and stiffly hit Sia’Lorna in the face with it. This disoriented the Reindeer enough for Dash to kick her legs out from under her and try to tackle her to the ground. But Sia’Lorna reached up a hoof as she went down and grabbed the back of Rainbow’s neck, throwing her over her so the both landed roughly on the stone ring.  

Rainbow Dash got up and threw a lazy punch that Sia’Lorna didn’t even attempt to dodge. She just took it on her chin and sent one of her own to Rainbow Dash. The fight was devolving into a total brawl as both fighters were trying to show who was the toughest. Neither was giving an inch even as the clock wound down and their faces were covered in bruises. After a last simultaneous punch between the two of them, they both dropped their hooves and stood there panting as they stared at each other.  

“One more?” Rainbow Dash said.

“One more,” Sia’Lorna nodded.

Both fighters took a step forward till their faces were right in front of each other and then reached a hoof around the back of the other’s neck. Rainbow Dash and Sia’Lorna sucked in a deep breath and leaned back—then slammed their skulls together in a resounding headbutt that was heard and felt through the entire stadium.  

And everything went black for Rainbow Dash.