A familiar breeze flowed through Sunset’s hair, though in an unfamiliar way.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Evangeline floated before Sunset, radiating power. Surrounding them was an illusory replica of Evangeline’s vila, created in the vampire’s mind and shared now with Sunset. “Of course, hypnotism is standard fare for a vampire. This is merely an expansion on that technique.”
“It is impressive,” Sunset admitted, looking around. “That you’re able to hold this entire thing in your head like this. I can’t imagine you’ll lose concentration on it even as we fight.”
Evangeline shrugged, showing a rare bit of modesty. “That’s what comes from spending so much time in the real thing. I’ll bet you could do the same with somewhere in Equestria if you wanted to.” She raised an eyebrow and gestured at Sunset. “Speaking of which…”
Sunset looked herself over and chuckled. “What can I say? It’s not like I actually consider myself human.”
Sunset was a unicorn again. Her golden coat shimmered in the sunlight, her red and yellow hair more vibrant than it had ever been in her human form. Her cutie mark practically shone on her flanks.
“Going to be hard to box like that,” Evangeline muttered. “Interested as I am in seeing what your brand of magic can do, I was hoping we could go all-out against each other in here.”
Sunset shrugged. “It’s not like I know a ton of Earth magic, anyway. And if I’m not mistaken…” She opened up her welspring and let the energy flood her entire body. “Yup, I can still use ki in this body.” Huh. I wonder if this is what it’s like for earth ponies?
Evangeline shrugged in return. “If you’re sure. Not like we have time to debate the issue; we’ve only got fifteen minutes.” She gathered magic into her hands, her aura of power almost overwhelming. “Let’s see what you can do!”
Evangeline charged. Sunset’s horn flared with teal magic and she vanished in a flash of energy. Evangeline turned, expecting an attack from behind, but it had been a feint; Sunset had only teleported a foot backwards. She quickly gathered heat together around her horn and launched a ball of fire at Evangeline’s back.
Evangeline cried out - more from shock than from pain - and turned to glare at Sunset. “Dirty trick!”
“All’s fair!” Sunset shouted in reply. Her horn continued to glow as she used the pockets of cold air that had been previously drained of heat to form a half-dozen daggers of ice. She sent these flying at Evangeline as she leapt backwards, trying to gain some distance.
Evangeline swiped across the air with one hand, pure force shattering the icicles as she pursued Sunset across the top of her vila. “Trying to use ice against me?” Evangeline mocked, quickly catching up and lashing out with a kick that caught Sunset in the barrel.
“I’ll use anything at my disposal,” Sunset gasped, ignoring the pain in her ribs as she raced for the edge of the vila. She leapt, buying herself a minute as Evangeline recovered from her shock. Sunset wrapped herself in magic, thinking back to an obscure spell from long ago. It wasn’t the hardiest construct, but it would level the playing field a bit.
Evangeline reached the edge of the vila and looked down, only to be blinded by a massive flash of light. When her eyes recovered, they widened at the sight below her. “Wings?”
Sunset smirked up at Evangeline as she began rising back up to her level on a pair of shimmering, colorful butterfly wings. “That’s right, wings. Crafted from gossamer and morning dew. A bit vulnerable to heat - sunlight in particular - but that shouldn’t be a problem considering I’m facing an ice mage.”
Evangeline scoffed at the description but eyed the wings with interest. “You never mentioned this trick.”
“Trust me, Evangeline.” Sunset let more mana flow out of her wellspring to coat her body and flare around her hooves. “I have a lot more tricks where that came from.”
She charged Evangeline, flaring her wings to bring herself to a sudden halt right before the vampire’s face. She turned and lashed out with a few bucks, clicking her tongue in disappointment as Evangeline dodged or deflected every blow. “Aikido?”
Evangeline nodded, frowning as she failed to turn any deflection or counter into a grapple. “And jujitsu, as I said. But you’re proving to be annoyingly slippery.”
Sunset smirked, ducking one of Evangeline’s counters. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” Still, she was growing frustrated as well. Just like with her brief fight with Ku Fei, Sunset was having a hard time landing a single blow. Evangeline was able to read her every strike and, although Sunset’s pull-back was too fast for her to take advantage and effectively counter or grab, Sunset couldn’t find a way past her defenses.
Strategy B, then. Sunset’s horn flared, pulling in heat and conjuring a wall of ice between the two of them. She quickly wrapped the ice around Evangeline, trying to capture her. All the while, she redirected the surrounding heat in towards Evangeline.
“Not bad.” Evangeline flew backwards, slipping out of the sphere of ice before it could fully close. “An oven, right? Planning to ignite a fireball inside and let the ice trap me and intensify the heat?”
Sunet growled and hurled the ball of ice at Evangeline. She dodged to the side and it continued on to strike the side of the vila. It shattered, the super-heated air inside exploding outwards in a cloud of steam that could have roasted a man alive.
“O-ho,” Evangeline purred. “Quite the lethal technique you’re throwing around. Just what sort of things are they teaching you horses these days?”
“Teach nothing!” Sunset bragged, slinging a few more fireballs and icicles which Evangeline dodged or knocked aside with ease. “This style is a Sunset Shimmer special! My own inventions, based on a technique that no-one else has been able to master in hundreds of years! Call it my response to kanka!”
“I see!” Evangeline cackled in delight. “Rather than combining two opposing forces into one, you use the two simultaneously to ease the usage of both! You described it in theory, but it’s really something to see it utilized in practice!”
“By chance,” Sunset smirked, concentrating on the patches of cold and hot air she’d created, “do you remember what else I claimed I could do with this technique?”
Evangeline’s eyes went wide. She started looking around frantically. “Crap! You can’t be-”
Low and high pressure systems, the progenitors of thunderstorms. Lightning crackled to life around them, Sunset directing the bolts expertly around herself and towards Evangeline. The vampire shrieked in pain before she flared her own magic, brushing off the lightning as she shot towards Sunset. Sunset’s eyes widened, her lightning attack ceasing as she conjured a shield around herself.
Evangeline sank her clawed fingers into the shield, ripping it in two like it was wet tissue paper. “Shields have always been weak against piercing weapons!” she lectured, diving past the dissipating barrier and grabbing Sunset by the mane. She punched Sunset a few times before twisting around and throwing her into the side of the vila, cratering the wall. “That’s the advantage of skin-tight barriers. Even if your opponent manages to pierce it, it’s difficult for them to tear it apart completely in one blow.”
Sunset groaned as she pulled herself out of the wall. Her wings were battered and bent, but a quick spell restored them to their proper shape. More concerning was her back which screamed in protest at its abuse. Well, it’ll give me something to do with Earth magic.She reached into her pocket and pulled out a ring, slipping it onto her finger. She began pulling magic from her surroundings, channeling it through the ring to form magic- and anti-material barriers flush with her skin.
“O-ho,” Evangeline chuckled. “Making use of one of my gifts already?”
Sunset shrugged. “I would have summoned Onyx Erix, but I figured that would be cheating. And it’s not like I have any other way to apply Earth magic.”
Evangeline huffed and rolled her eyes. “Really? That ‘no incantations’ rule? We’re sticking with that?”
“Of course.” Sunset smirked. “Rules are rules, after all. It’s not my fault you’re too arrogant to learn unincanted spells.”
“I think you mean ‘too powerful to have to bother,’” Evagneline corrected. “And what about you? I’m not seeing any unincanted Earth magic on your end.”
“Equestrian teleports are faster,” Sunset explained. “And Equestrian spells have more versatility than Sagitta Magica. Trust me, I’ll be using plenty of both against Setsuna and Wildfire.”
“Hmph. Assuming you even make it past this match.” She raised an eyebrow. “Incidentally, how did you turn your forehooves into hands?”
“What? I didn’t…” Sunset trailed off before looking down at her right foreleg and the ring-bearing hand that was now attached to the end of it. “Wh-what the-”
“Oho, did it subconsciously, did you?” Evangeline chuckled. “This is all in our heads, after all. My head, specifically. Nothing says you can’t alter your form as you need.”
That’s right, Sunset thought. This is basically a shared dream, after all. And in dreams… Sunset closed her eyes and pictured her human self and her pony self side-by-side in her mind. The human’s bipedal form and hands. Equine hooves for more solid footing. Unicorn horn, of course. And let’s throw in equestrian coat and tail and human curves for vanity’s sake. She smiled at the anthropomorphic form she’d imagined. Yes, she thought, even as she felt her body start to change. That will do nicely.
She opened her eyes and examined her new body before smirking at Evangeline. “Should have gone with this from the beginning.” Her horn flared, pulling heat and cold apart to summon twin blades to her hands: one of ice and the other of flames. “Shall we continue?”
Evangeline concentrated her power down to her arms, forming two blades of pure mana. She charged, her blades striking against Sunset’s. They exchanged a few blows before Sunset teleported again, appearing behind Evangeline and striking down with her fire sword, only for the vampire to turn and block at the last moment. “Tch. Lucky guess.”
“And your sword is a neat trick.” Evangeline flung Sunset away from herself and set off in pursuit. “Looks like it’s made of fire, but it’s blocking solid strikes pretty well.”
Sunset set her blades into a whirling frenzy, gritting her teeth at the difficulty of keeping Evangeline off of her; even when she summoned two more swords to wield in her telekinesis, she was still forced onto the defensive against Evangeline. I might brag to the others about my vast experience, but I keep forgetting that this blood-sucker has been around for a half-dozen centuries. “It’s a conjuration, not an evocation” she explained, trying to sound nonchalant as her mind raced for a new strategy. “Same with the ice blade. But the pockets of hot and cold air still help ease the summoning.”
“Oh? Interesting.” Evangeline grinned. “Looks like I need to throw out pretty much everything I know about magical theory while fighting you, because what you’re saying makes no sense!”She laughed and swung both swords down. The heavy blow blasted Sunset down towards the water, the unicorn barely managing to recover from her impromptu dive. “Well, not like you can use any of this outside of this mindscape. But I was honestly hoping for a little more.”
Sunset dismissed her blades - her meager sword skills were no math for Evangeline’s, apparently - and glared upwards. “More? Are you kidding? Even if you aren’t Equestrian, you should understand how difficult it is to work ice and fire together like I’ve been doing.”
“It is impressive,” Evangeline admitted, slowly descending towards Sunset. “But only on a technical level. None of your spells so far have used much in the way of raw power except for that wing spell. With how ridiculously huge your ‘wellspring’ is, I was expecting something… well, more.”
Sunset grit her teeth. “More you say?” Guess it’s time to pull that out after all. “You might regret asking for that. I’ll warn you now, I wouldn’t dare pull this technique on you outside of this mindscape.” A slight smirk tugged at her lips. “I only use it when I’m going for the kill; it’s too volatile for anything else.”
“Is that so?” Evangeline dismissed her blades and stopped a few meters above Sunset, spreading her arms wide. “Then why don’t I pull a page out of Takamichi’s book? Let’s see this oh-so-terrifying technique of yours. I won’t even dodge.”
Sunset’s smirk became more sure. “I’ll hold you to that.” She took a deep breath and began pouring magic into her horn, the energy quickly building and forming a thick aura of teal energy around it. It’s been a while since I even thought about this spell, Sunset thought, shaping her magic into two distinct forms. Pure mana on one side, anima on the other. The magic on one side of Sunset’s horn began to turn white while the other darkened to black. Spin them together, and don’t let them touch. The two colors of magic began to twist into a helix around each other, separated from each other by less than a millimeter. The space in-between the two powers began to distort and warp, as if reality itself were desperately trying to escape from between them.
Evangeline watched the power build and swallowed nervously. “No,” she muttered. “That can’t be… and even if it is, there’s no way she’d be crazy enough to-”
Fire. Two beams of energy - one white and one black - shot from her horn, twisting around each other in an increasingly unsteady beam of dreadful energy. Evangeline yelped and dove to the side at the last second, turning to watch as the beam of convulsing energy shot past her to strike the side of the vila.
Magic met anti-magic where the twin beams struck. A massive explosion of pure energy tore through the stone tower like it was made of soap bubbles. Sunset kept up the flow of power, the Annihilation Beam boring its way through the tower in two seconds before exploding out the other side. Sunset finally relented, panting slightly as the last of the magic flowed from her horn. The tower was left with a massive hole through its center. The remaining stone to either side quickly collapsed, the top half of the vila slowly tilting away from Sunset and Evangeline before falling to the ocean below.
Neither Sunset nor Evangeline watched as the tons of stone sent violent waves out in every direction. Evangeline’s eyes were glued to the remains of the tower; Sunset’s were fixed triumphantly on Evangeline. “I thought you said you wouldn’t dodge,” she mocked. “Though I guess I can't really blame you.”
Evangeline slowly turned back to Sunset, and the unicorn was amazed to discover a hint of genuine fear in her eyes. “Anti-magic?” she muttered. “You… you know how to wield anti-magic?” Her face flushed with wrathful indignation. “And you have the complete idiocy to combine it with pure magic RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR FREAKING SKULL?!”
“I keep it a few micrometers apart,” Sunset replied airily, unconcerned. “You know, at first. Kind of hard to keep them separated once they get too far from-”
“WHAT KIND OF SLIME-BRAINED MORON TRIES TO USE ANTI-MAGIC AS A PRACTICAL WEAPON?!?!” Evangeline shot down and grabbed Sunset by the neck, trying to strangle her through her barrier. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW DANGEROUS THAT IS?!?!”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Considering my warnings to you beforehand and the ruin that’s all that’s left of your vila, yeah, I have a pretty good notion.” She grabbed Evangeline’s wrists and pulled her off of her neck. “Did you think that the Student of the Sun wouldn’t have at least one calamity-level spell up her sleeves? Honestly, it’s a lot safer than using just anti-magic by itself; at least this way I make sure there’s no anti-magic lingering around afterwards. It’s not like I’m summoning antimatter or anything.”
Evangeline yanked her arms out of Sunset’s grip and quickly backed away. “You… you can’t actually summon antimatter, can you?”
Sunset shrugged. “I mean, I know the theory. It wouldn’t be too hard. The more difficult part would be creating a perfect vacuum to summon it into to keep it from destroying everything in a mile radius. Honestly, anti-magic is much less volatile.”
Evangeline stared at Sunset for a long minute before throwing her hands up in the air. “ARGH! You’re insane! You’re completely insane! Damn it! If I knew you’d be pulling crazy stuff like this, I never would have agreed to this match! I didn’t know I’d be facing city-destroying suicide attacks!”
“I have more control of my magic than that!” Sunset protested. “I’ll have you know that I’ve used this spell in heated combat situations against warlocks many times and I’ve never seen a single friendly casualty from it! You should know from that memory I showed Wildfire just how much I value perfect control!”
Evangeline began pacing back and forth in the air, muttering to herself and glaring occasionally at Sunset. “But that’s… you can’t… anti-magic… if you… I…” At last, she sighed. “You know what, I give up.” She shook her head and gave Sunset an appraising look. “I think I need to reevaluate what you horses are capable of. Konoemon never mentioned anything like this.”
“To be fair to the principal,” Sunset said, “he almost certainly didn’t know about it. Information on anima spells is heavily restricted. Only my status as Student of the Sun allowed me to gain access to it. And even with that, I’m uniquely positioned to make use of those spells.” She turned sideways and gestured at her cutie mark.
“This isn’t just about fire spells,” she explained. “Or even my fire-ice combination style. My special talent is utilizing traditionally opposing forces together. Fire and ice. Light and shadow. Mana and anima. Heck, I’ve even done some research into combining aspects of necromancy with curative magic, though I wasn’t able to glean any results from those studies before I left Equestria.”
Evangeline frowned in confusion. “If that’s the case, then why isn’t kanka coming naturally to you?”
Sunset shook her head. “Because that’s not about using magic and ki simultaneously. Kanka combines magic and ki into something entirely different. The rest of my magic-ki compatibility training has been such a breeze that I think Takamichi is already almost out of things to teach me. I can use them together almost flawlessly, even if my magic circuits can’t quite keep up with the strain of switching between them yet. But combining them…” She shook her head. “That’s been going about as well for me as combining mana and anima.” She gestured at the ruined tower. “And you see what happens when those two touch.”
Evangeline took another look at the tower and nodded. “I see. You can use them in concert with ease, but blending them is beyond your talent.” She sighed again. “I’ve underestimated your Equestrian magic. Thinking realistically, I was a fool to think that I had any idea what I was up against.”
“Well, you’ve seen my most powerful trick now,” Sunset said, bringing up her fists. “And now that you’ve seen it, I doubt you’ll be caught off guard by it. What do you say? You ready to continue?”
Evangeline considered Sunset for a moment before shaking her head. “No, we’re done for now.” Seeing Sunset’s surprise, she shrugged. “I dodged. Even if this place isn’t real, I couldn’t help but flinch. Even though I could still beat you into the ground with ease, I’ve already lost where it counts.”
Sunset rolled her eyes at Evangeline’s claim, but nodded. “Well, I appreciate that.”
“Besides, I know you’ve been using all this time we’ve been talking to stall while you prepared a few dozen additional strategies and tricks to catch me off guard again and again. I’d rather not have to suffer through such an annoying fight.”
“...you aren’t wrong.”
*****
As soon as Sunset’s awareness returned, she slammed Evangeline’s hand into the table.
“AND WE HAVE A WINNER! ABOUT TIME TOO! THE CLOCK WAS ABOUT TO RUN OUT ON THE TWO OF YOU! CONTESTANT HIKARU WILL BE MOVING ON TO ROUND TWO! HEY, NICHI-CHAN! LET’S HOPE YOUR NEXT MATCH IS A LITTLE MORE INTERESTING, NE?”
Sunset and Evangeline ignored Kazumi’s commentary as they packed up the table and chairs and made their way back to the contestants’ area. They received no shortage of strange looks from their fellow contestants, but there was no time to question them before Kazumi called for the next match, eager to get back to the action.
“NOW WITHOUT ANY DELAY, LET’S BEGIN THE FIRST MATCH OF ROUND TWO! ON ONE SIDE, CONTESTANT INUGAMI, THE BOY WITH THE POWERFUL UPPERCUT WHO BLEW AWAY HIS OPPONENT IN A SINGLE STRIKE! ON THE OTHER, THE ENIGMATIC COLONEL SANDERS WHOSE ABRUPT REVERSAL ENDED HIS MATCH IN A SECOND! WE HAVEN’T HAD A CHANCE TO SEE MUCH OF EITHER OF THESE FIGHTERS, SO LET’S SEE WHAT THEY’VE GOT!”
“Nichi-chan.” Sunset hummed and looked over to Setsuna. “That wasn’t just a normal arm wrestle, right? What happened?”
“Ah, that.” Sunset shrugged and turned her attention back to the match. “Nothing much. Evangeline created a shared mindscape where we were able to fight all-out. I was even able to use my…” she shot a look to those few who didn’t know her background, “...original techniques to full effect. Evangeline admitted defeat and allowed me to take the match.”
“Original techniques?” Asuna asked. “Wait, you mean your unicorn magic?”
Sunset facepalmed and did her best to ignore the questioning looks of the other contestants. “Anyway,” she growled, lowering her hand, “you’d better turn your attention to the stage, or you’ll miss the whole fight.”
Setsuna raised an eyebrow. “You really think it’s going to be over that quickly?”
“Two minutes. Tops.”
“MATCH NINE, BEGIN!”
“I don’t think-”
Kotarou vanished. Instant movement. Sanders struck with a backhand. Kotarou reached him just in time to receive the strike and went flying off to the side.
The audience was finally getting used to the superhuman speed of these matches and was already cheering. “INCREDIBLE!” Kazumi announced. “THAT FAST-MOVE TECHNIQUE WE’VE BEEN SEEING ALL DAY, AND CONTESTANT SANDERS SEES THROUGH IT JUST LIKE THAT!”
Asuna stared in shock. “How did he-”
“He anticipated Kotarou’s strike,” Sunset said. “The problem with instant movement is that it’s pretty straightforward and easy to predict. If your opponent isn’t a mage, it’s easy to guess that that will be their first move to get in close. And Kotarou is a rather straightforward fighter to begin with, especially where first strikes are concerned. He tends to use direct confrontation to gauge his opponent before breaking out his more fancy techniques.” She shrugged off Asuna’s surprised stare. “I’ve been sparring with him off and on since that demon incident. He’s a superb fighter, if a bit rash and reckless. That recklessness can be an asset against an opponent who can be intimidated. Unfortunately…”
Kaede nodded. “This ‘Colonel Sanders’ is not one to be easily flustered, and his abilities are far beyond Kotarou’s besides de gozaru.”
Sunset nodded. “Kotarou can’t rely on intimidation against him. That leaves speed as his primary weapon. But as you can see…”
Kotarou rushed forward, six copies of him springing into existence as he closed on Sanders. The clones attacked from every angle, coordinating to keep him pinned and distracted while others dove in for the kill. An opening appeared, and one of them - the real Kotarou - dove in for the strike.
Kotarou’s fist plowed through Sanders’ after-image as the hooded man appeared at Kotarou’s side. His fist came up. Impacted Kotarou’s stomach. The boy spit bile. Sander’s other arm rose, and a palm-strike sent Kotarou flying off the stage, across the water, and into the stands.
“AGAINST THE RUMORED SPLIT-BODY TECHNIQUE, CONTESTANT SANDERS HIT WITH A FLASH OF HIS PALM! AND ANOTHER PERSON HAS BEEN BLOWN AWAY WITH RIDICULOUS FORCE!”
“Sanders has got reflexes to match,” Sunset continued. “No, it would be fair to say that his speed is far beyond Kotarou’s. Beyond any of ours. Honestly, this whole tournament is probably going to be a cake-walk for him. Makes me wonder what he’s actually after.”
Kotarou was undeterred. With a flash of shadow, he summoned a pack of spectral hounds which dove for Sanders. The hooded man dispatched them with ease, but they gave Kotarou the time he needed to leap back to the stage, power concentrating in his hands. He ducked beneath Sanders’ arm, delivering a double palm-strike to his chest.
Sanders didn’t even flinch. With a single downward strike, Kotarou was sent crashing to the ground at his feet.
Sunset sighed. “I feel bad for the kid,” she admitted. “But there was never any way for him to win this. He should… hello?”
Kotarou was moving, turning onto his stomach and pushing himself to his hands and knees. His hands started to grow larger. His hair longer. He arched his back as power began to radiate from him. His beast form, Sunset realized. Is he really going to pull that here? I guess all discretion is going right out the-
A crater appeared around Kotarou, flattening him to the stage. The power faded as he fell unconscious. Sanders retracted his hand.
Kotarou had lost.