Rarity blinked twice to shake the colours that were dancing across her vision away. Her head hurt and she didn’t quite understand why. She looked at herself, checking for any damage, but she was just as pristine as she had ever been. After taking a few minutes to fix her mane, Rarity took a look around her to get the lie of the land.
All around her were mountains of red and grey, their magnificent peaks soaring into the sky, piercing the clouds and vanishing into them. Thin white clouds swirled and waltzed around the mountains in an intricate dance so beautiful and delicate that only nature could have accomplished it. Rarity considered basing a dress on this design when she got out of this ghastly reality. She decided to take a few steps forward and inspect the world around her a little better.
Rarity gasped as she looked down into a brilliant red stone canyon. The harsh grey rock of the mountain behind her was nowhere to be seen in the wonderland below her. The stone of the canyon seemed to glitter in the sunlight and the rugged walls seemed oddly beautiful for something so harsh as stone. Throughout the canyon were strange protrusions from the ground that reached almost the same height as the walls themselves. Rarity was awestruck by the sight and it took her a few moments to register the existence of someone standing behind her.
Rarity wheeled round and lowered her horn, pretending to be ready for a fight. In fact, Rarity was quaking with fear and was considering just running once her opponent made a move. The being stood before her was very bizarre. It stood on only two legs and was very pale. Its mane had been tied back seemingly to keep it out of the creature’s eyes, but that seemed not to be an issue, as the monster had the same grey glazed over look in her eyes that Rarity’s grandmother had had in her old age as her vision began to fade. The creature was surprisingly well dressed, wearing a basic but flattering green tunic and grey leggings. Her ankles sported several gold anklets, and she travelled barefoot.
“Hi there, I’m Toph the world’s greatest earth-bender.”
Rarity wasn’t entirely surprised that the beast could speak. What did surprise her was the eloquence and arrogance with which she spoke. While Rarity didn’t have a clue what an earth-bender was, this diminutive monster seemed to believe that she was the best and Rarity was beginning to think that Toph was about to give a demonstration.
“So, you’re the little pony I have to take down to get out of this dump then? Well alright then. Sorry about this, but I have to get out of here. Nothing personal.”
Toph stamped on the ground and a huge bolder rose up into the air beside her. Rarity gasped and let her guard completely down as Toph launched her boulder at the dress maker. Rarity lit up her horn and built a small shield around herself, but it wasn’t enough to stop the giant rock from doing some considerable damage. Rarity was thrown backwards into the canyon and landed in a heap on the floor. Thankfully, her impressive strength left her still strong enough to fight back. While she may not have been as talented at magic as Twilight Sparkle, she was still a unicorn and she did still have some talent in the field of magic.
Rarity built a ball of purple magic on her horn and tilted her head down causing the ball to burst. Using magic to maintain her speed and position, Rarity managed to launch herself back up to the cliff edge where Toph was still standing. Thankfully Toph didn’t notice Rarity flying towards her and Rarity’s aim was perfect. She slammed her rear left hoof into Toph’s back, catapulting her forward. Rarity landed on the ground heavily, but she didn’t care. She was enraged, now was the time to fight.
“Take that you ruffian!”
Toph used the earth to bounce herself back up to her feet and turned to face Rarity. She shifted her stance by dragging her foot backwards and raising her hands above her head. She brought her hands down and the rock beneath her feet rolled towards Rarity like a wave with Toph surfing on the top of them. Rarity tried to jump out of the way, but Toph swung her hands to change the direction that the rocks were moving in and managed to smash into Rarity as she landed, knocking both of them to the ground.
Rarity was very confused. How could a little blind girl know exactly where to strike? It made no sense to her. Rarity relit her horn and turned around to begin her next attack run, but Toph was already levitating two more boulders.
“Nice try sugar queen, but I can see every move you’re going to make.”
Toph launched her two boulders at Rarity, but thankfully Rarity had put enough distance herself and Toph that she was able to shoot them both down. Toph didn’t let up though; she kept summoning smaller rocks and firing them at Rarity at high speeds. Rarity began to run, but somehow Toph was able to follow her, always firing just a step or two behind the pony. Rarity still couldn’t understand how Toph could aim so well.
Arity launched herself into the air with a burst of magic and returned fire from above with bolts of magic. Toph didn’t move to defend herself and all of Rarity’s attacks landed perfectly. Unfortunately, Rarity was not entirely well versed in the art of combatant magic, so all of the strikes were comparatively weak and Toph was on her feet again in a matter of seconds.
Rarity understood now. Toph could see Rarity as long as they were both on the ground, somehow the little blind girl was able to see using the earth around her, probably by using the same trick she used to fire rocks into the air and manipulate the ground. So Rarity theorised that as long as one or both of them was in the air, Toph would never be able to see where to aim! But Rarity couldn’t fly and she could only levitate herself for short lengths of time, so being able to keep herself off the ground wo0uld be almost impossible. Equally, in order to get Toph in the air, the action would either have to be voluntary or she would have to get close enough to blast her with magic at point blank range, which would not be easy. As Rarity was still thinking of an idea, Toph had already launched her next attack and had knocked Rarity back into the cavern, before sliding down the wall to join her there.
Rarity got to her feet as quickly as she could, but Toph smashed the ground with her foot, rocketing a new pillar of stone into the air, sending Rarity up with it. The unicorn was launched into the air, but managed to land easily. Unfortunately, Toph had already sent another boulder flying and this one caught Rarity full on. The little white unicorn was thrown off of the pillar with incredible force and only narrowly escaped being crushed by the boulder. Rarity fell to the ground in an undignified heap as Toph hovered another boulder directly above her. Rarity lit up her horn and tried with all of her strength to teleport. She had never really been able to do it before, but now she had to, even if it was just a few feet. She felt the power surrounding her and she rematerialized three feet behind Toph just as the boulder smashed down.
Toph already knew that Rarity had moved and began another onslaught against the unicorn. Rarity barely had time to steady herself as Toph began pummelling her with smaller rocks. Rarity returned fire with as much magic as she could muster, both fighters inflicting minor wounds on their opponent, but nothing life threatening. Rarity was forced back behind a pillar before Toph smashed it down. Rarity rolled out of the way just in time, but was smashed by a large wave of earth from beneath. Rarity saw Toph shift her stance again and bring a wall of earth directly towards her. Rarity examined the rock wall to see if there were any weaknesses that she could manipulate to her advantage. At first she saw nothing and began to panic, but then she noticed something in the ground beside her. Just at the surface was a small glittering patch of crystal.
That was when Rarity realised that she had a new weapon at her disposal. The reason that the canyon had been glittering was because the rock it was made from was filled with little crystals. Toph may be the world’s best earth-bender, but Rarity was the world’s best crystal-bender. Rarity focused on finding all of the crystals in Toph’s rock wall before sending them all flying in a different direction. The wall crumbled a few feet away from Rarity much to Toph’s surprise. Rarity found a large group of crystals in the ground at her feet and used them to build up a boulder beside her. Since Rarity was using magic, she didn’t need to shift her stance, so there was no way that Toph would see what direction the attack was coming from. Rarity hurled her missile at Toph who expertly blocked it.
Toph must have seen where Rarity had removed the rock from and judged the attack from there, but there was definite fear on the small monster’s face. Without a doubt, Toph knew that her earth-bending advantage was now gone. Rarity summoned another boulder, broke it down and fired little pellets of crystal at Toph. Toph brought up a wall to protect herself, but Rarity was relentless and didn’t stop firing until she had brought the wall down. She needed to keep Toph blind to her actions, so she forced shards of crystal up through the ground just beneath Toph’s bare feet. Toph jumped back, but Rarity kept forcing her crystal knives through the ground and eventually, three of them sliced across Toph’s right foot.
Toph howled in rage and pain as she was not only wounded, but actually partially blinded by the attack. She roared curses at Rarity, launching as many attacks as she could at the white unicorn, still being able to judge where she was even if it was only a general position. Rarity avoided most of the attacks, but one slab of rock caught her directly on the side of the head, breaking her nose and knocking a few teeth out of her head.
Rarity staggered behind a pillar as another boulder was hurled in her direction. The boulder smashed into her rump and Rarity felt the snap as her left hind leg broke. She tumbled to the floor and screeched in a most undignified manner. She was furious, terrified, painfully upset but perhaps most importantly she was in a killing mood. Rarity had lost all control of herself and now wanted little more than to kill Toph. As the crashing and booming from Toph’s attacks came to a stop, Rarity realised that she needed a new plan and quickly. Rarity used magic to mask the pain in her leg as she hobbled out from behind the pillar again.
Toph was lying on the floor, down but not beaten. When Rarity came back into her now severely weakened field of vision, Toph slammed her fist on the ground causing a pillar of rock to appear beside Rarity. She threw her only good foot out again and sent a wall of stone straight towards the pony, but she blasted it aside with ease. Rarity observed the next few attacks and each one required Toph to move her hands or feet. That was when Rarity got the idea for her final attack. If Toph lost the use of her hands and feet, then she wouldn’t be able to fight.
Rarity steadied herself and gathered a large volume of crystals around herself. She threw them into the ground as Toph tried to climb back onto her one good foot. Rarity constructed three perfectly straight slabs of rock under the ground and dragged them right below Toph. Before the earth-bender had a chance to react, Rarity forced all three of them up out of the ground. They encircled the trapped child and pinned her arms and legs down. Rarity heard the satisfying crunch of the bones in Toph’s limbs being crushed under the force of her pillars of stone.
Toph wailed in pain and her arms and legs went limp. Tears streamed out of her sightless eyes and down her muddy and bloody face. Toph tried to shift her body into the position where she could bend the earth, but she couldn’t, Rarity was holding her too tightly. Slowly, Rarity pushed the three pillars closer and closer together. Toph roared in agony as the three pillars slowly crushed her body. In one final attempt to break free, Toph threw her head back to try and use her abilities to smash the pillar in her back. But her back bent forward and snapped under the power of Rarity’s attack. The pressure generated by the three pillars coming together crushed most of Toph’s bones as well as doing irreparable damage to many of her internal organs. Toph coughed once, letting a mouthful of blood escape her lips as her body went completely limp. Rarity gave one last push with her attack before retracting the pillars.
Toph’s small body dropped gracelessly to the floor and landed flat on her back, her broken arms and legs splayed out in a jumping jack position. Rarity pulled the ground away from underneath the corpse, letting it fall into the hole left behind before covering it up again. Rarity began to feel the first real pangs of remorse. Toph must have only been a child, she was so small. And she had fought well and honourably. Rarity burst into tears at the thought of the act of pure evil that she had just committed. She saw the portal to her next arena open up in front of her, but before she left she wanted to do what she could to make amends for her vicious murder.
She brought a large number of crystals to the surface of the area where she buried her opponent and etched a few words into an exceptionally large emerald that had appeared:
"Here lies the world's greatest earth-bender, felled before her time."
Rarity limped over to the portal and stepped through, saying one last goodbye to her first victim. As she felt herself healing, she had no idea how she was going to be able to live with herself after she escaped if she had to keep doing things like this.