//------------------------------// // Tournament Battle 4: Vinetion Lutin VS Lucario // Story: Death Battle: Equestria // by RLYoshi //------------------------------// With the third tournament battle over, the first round seemed to be moving along at a steady pace, though it was picking up. The judges were preparing for the next battle, and the crowd was eagerly waiting. In the crowd, a certain Windigo was sitting by himself, feeling much more relaxed after the battle had ended and he was no longer on the edge of his seat. He had started playing Tetris as he waited for the next battle to begin, unaware of the pegasus trotting over to him. "Hey you!" Dark said with an angry tone. Arrell merely looked up from his Tetris game for a second, then simply went back to playing. He would have continued to play, but Dark yanked the game from his hooves and threw it behind him. "I don't like being ignored." The Windigo sighed. “And I was close to a high score...” Finally, he turned and made eye contact with the black and red pony. “What is it?” "Yeah, whatever about your stupid games. I want to get one thing clear about us. That win that you got over me was a fluke, and nothing more." “...uh...okay?” Arrell didn’t understand why Dark felt the need to come to him about this. Why not complain to the judges? “Still...that was a pretty cool fight, don’t you think?” Dark took a very deep breath and muttered, “Alright, you got me there, it was a very cool fight. I never really have the chance to fight anyone that strong. So that was...interesting.” Arrell managed a smile. “Honestly, even if I lost, I’d have been fine with it. That was one of the best battles I’ve seen so far - and I’m not being biased here.” He paused for a moment. “And...even though you say it was a fluke, I think it was just more of a bad matchup. I hate arrogant people, and you’re...well...yeah.” “Yeah, I get that from a lot of other people. Well, whatever now, what’s done is done, so I guess bye or something, I don’t know. And...good luck I guess...” He started walking away. “Hey,” the Windigo called to stop his former foe. “...thanks.” “Yeah yeah...just don’t go telling anyone I said it or anything, okay?” Arrell chuckled. “You got it.” "I think it's broken," Arrell the judge observed, giving his cracked microphone a few testing taps. "No, really?" Yah-Shee sighed. "This is why, if you're going to flip the table, you don't have stuff on it!" "But then it doesn't make as good a noise!" the pegasus protested. Yah-Shee sighed again. "There's replacements in the closet. Just hurry up." Arrell hurried, and within moments, he had set up his new microphone. Yah-Shee just watched and waited. Once his friend was settled in his seat, he sat as well. "And remember, it's pronounced 'VIN-ett-ee-on', not 'VYE-net-ee-on'," the unicorn reminded. "You said it was 'Vin-esh-ee-un' last time." "I did? I thought I said...actually, I don't really know anymore." They were quiet for a moment. "Let's just wing it." "Agreed." Finally, they turned to their microphones, ready to continue. Next in our lineup, we have an interesting matchup of special powers! We've got Vinetion Lutin, the plant-controlling pegasus mare... ...and Lucario, the Fighting- and Steel-type Aura Pokémon. Since this battle has a Pokémon in it, we'll be using stats and types just like those from the Pokémon games to help clarify matchups and attacks. So we'll be treating Vinetion as a Pokémon, but at the same time, we won't be! ...yeah, it'll make more sense in the battle. I'm Yah-Shee and he's Arrell, and it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win an Equestrian Death Battle. Vinetion Lutin Species: Pegasus pony Occupation: Plant product shop owner Will be considered a Grass/Flying type Controls grass and nature Can sense things through plant life Since Vinetion has appeared in various stories, her main canon story will be the same as Dark Lightning's was: Continuing the Dream and its sequel, Life Goes On by Blue Breeze. We'll be taking information from all stories Vinetion appears in that her author deems canon, but in the event of any contradiction between stories, we'll be using the information from that story - well, those two stories, rather - as being official! Now, on with the talking! Vinetion Lutin, a resident of Ponyville, is one of a handful of ponies with strange elemental powers - Dark Lightning from the previous battle being included in this group. She controls grass and plants, and often fights by summoning and manipulating vines to take down her opponent. She can also sense things through plant life because apparently she can talk to them! That's new! Vinetion has no weapons, choosing to rely on her plant powers. She feels a strong connection with the flora, and apparently with the fauna as well, as she was implied to be capable of communicating with Everfree Forest creatures to an extent. She does not like it when you hurt her plants, either. She'll kill you just for kicking a tree! Yes, Vinetion does tend to rush into situations without thinking very much, choosing to fight now and ask questions later. This leads to a lack of strategy, as her battle style mainly revolves around trying to overwhelm her opponents as quickly as possible. She doesn't show much of a variety in her attacks, usually just swinging her vines and hoping she hits something. And as we've seen, those vines aren't very hard to destroy! Fortunately, when she isn't using her vines, she has a few other tricks up her sleeve! Vinetion can summon a large venus flytrap named Rosebud, which she can control and use to overpower and eat her foes. She can also have her vines form other animals that come to life and attack, but still, these animals are just made of vines. And lastly, she can create a cloud of Poison Joke to take her opponents by surprise and put them at a disadvantage. Yeah...in case you can't tell, there's a reason we made her part Grass-type in terms of Pokémon stats...and the Flying-type is just because she's a pegasus. When not in battle, Vinetion has been shown to be rather normal...at least, compared to the other elemental ponies. However, this is all battle and no social time, so that likely won't help her here. Not to say her "full force" strategy hasn't ever worked! Never holding back has helped her out in a few situations, and even helped her nearly take down Blue Breeze, who's arguably the toughest of all the elemental ponies. We're in for a big fight tonight! "You'll make excellent fertilizer for the plants. You're already full of dung." Lucario Species: Lucario Occupation: Protector of Ponyville Steel/Fighting type Can sense Aura Inner Focus ability Our first participant not originally from the world of Equestria, Lucario is a fourth generation Pokémon who was sent by his friend and mentor, Sir Aaron, to Equestria to "start over". After saving Ponyville from a dragon, he was named as the official Protector of Ponyville, and since then he's spent his time keeping ponies safe! ...and apparently catching the eye of Princess Luna. But that's irrelevant! Most of Lucario's stats are above average, with his Attack and Special Attack being rather high. His ability, Inner Focus, prevents him from flinching and increases his resistance to attacks. Being a Fighting- and Steel-type makes him immune to any Poison-type attacks, as well as resistant to plenty of attack types, such as Normal-type, Grass-type, and Rock-type. However, he is weak to Fighting-, Ground-, or Fire-type attacks. He's got tons of attacks that he can use for different things! Magnet Rise lets him fly, while trading his Inner Focus ability in for Levitate, which keeps him from taking damage from Ground-type attack; Force Palm is like a one-inch punch that creates a small shockwave has a thirty percent chance of paralyzing the muscles of the part of the body it hits; and Metal Claw turns his claws into solid steel that can cut through or at least damage just about any type of material! Lucario has far too many attacks to list, and while all of them are used in ways that are believable, some are changed to be represented better. For example, Bone Rush is just a multi-hit move in the games, but the way Lucario uses it is by summoning a bone-like staff that he can use to hit enemies with a flurry of swings. One of his more common moves is ExtremeSpeed, which he uses more for moving around than for actually attacking. However, it tires him out if used for too long. But Lucario's most famous attack is Aura Sphere! He creates an orb of power from his own aura and launches it at his foe, homing it in on them no matter where they go! ...unless they put up a barrier or hide behind something. Lucario is always calm and collected, rarely - if ever - being surprised by anything. He can think up long-term strategies on the spot, using moves and techniques to set up for plans later on in the battle. However, this can also prove to be a disadvantage if his opponent is too unpredictable, as they may switch up their attacking pattern to take him off guard. One neat little thing about this guy is that he gets stronger the more damage he takes! Unless you end a battle quickly, his attacks will keep getting stronger and stronger as the battle goes on! I think we can all agree that we're in for a wild ride with this matchup! "Even if the world forgets about you, you yourself never will. The good times and the bad times. Your friends and your enemies. Your fulfilled dreams and your regrets. You will keep all those memories with you for the rest of your life...and thinking back on them will always make you smile. You’ll probably not understand what I mean now, but remember this...the aura will always be with you." Alright, the combatants are set! Let's end this debate once and for all. IT'S TIME FOR A POK - er, I mean...IT'S TIME FOR AN EQUESTRIAN DEATH BATTLE! The sun was shining brightly above a lush forest, the trees’ thick crowns only letting a few rays of light pierce through them to reach the ground. But while one would expect to hear or see signs of animal life in such a peaceful place, the whole area seemed to be mysteriously abandoned. The only sounds audible to one’s ears in the otherwise complete silence were the footsteps of today’s combatants, who had been walking towards each others’ location since quite a while ago. It was as if they both knew exactly where the other was, despite not having been able to see each other through the vegetation. “You are Vinetion Lutin?” the blue Pokémon named Lucario asked as he and his opponent reached each other. His eyes, that had been closed until now, opened up to look at the green pegasus. For a brief moment, yellow light could be seen glowing from his normally red-colored lenses. “And you’re the so-called ‘Guardian of Ponyville’ who destroyed part of the Everfree Forest during a pointless sparring match with Rainbow Dash?” the mare stated as she too came to a halt. “Do you have any idea how long it will take for that area to recover, or how much fauna you destroyed?” “That fight got out of hand, I admit, and I apologize for the-.” “’Sorry’ isn’t going to cut it, mister,” Vine interrupted him before he could finish. “Death Battle tournament or not, I’ll make you think twice before hurting plants like that ever again!” Studying Vine’s furious expression for a moment, Lucario dropped his head in a sigh before looking back up with a determined expression. “So be it.” FIGHT! Vine’s hooves immediately started to glow as several vines grew out of the soil around the fighters. The one closest to Lucario lashed out at him, but the Pokémon dodged the swipe without much difficulty. He continued to jump, lean, and crouch to avoid the strikes for a while before another vine grew up behind him. Before it could reach him, however, it was promptly cut apart by three Metal Claws growing out of Lucario’s right paw. “Tsk, let’s see you cut through this then!” Vine shouted as more vines grew out from the ground. Instead of lashing out at Lucario, though, they began to wrap around each other, slowly but surely taking on the form of a large bear. Once the vines had uprooted themselves entirely to complete the fusion, the bear charged at Lucario with baring fangs and claws made of wood. With the Pokémon still busy dodging the other vines, the bear got a clear shot and pounced on top of him. But instead of reacting in terror to the approaching monster, Lucario almost lazily lifted his paw up to the falling bear’s belly. Much to Vine’s surprise and shock, the bear’s fall was completely cushioned by the Pokémon’s limp, whose elbow only bended slightly in response to the impact. “Force Palm,” Lucario said out loud as a blue shockwave suddenly erupted from his palm, briefly piercing through the bear’s torso before the vines making up its body scattered in all directions. As a few pieces landed by Vine’s hooves, Lucario turned his head to look at her. “My turn.” Bringing his paws together, Lucario conjured up a blue orb of energy between his palms before throwing it towards Vine. Jumping back to create some extra space, Vine summoned a group of vines from the ground to use as a defensive wall against the attack. The Aura Sphere exploded as it hit the vine-made barrier, but the blast didn’t manage to reach her. Once the smoke had cleared up a bit, Vine removed the wall to see what her opponent was up to next. A feat that proved to be more difficult than she’d thought, as Lucario was suddenly gone without a trace. Some distance away, Lucario stood with his back up against a tree. While Vine’s vine wall had defended against his Aura Sphere, it had also made her lose sight of him. Now with the element of surprise on his side, Lucario clearly had the advantage. All he had to do now was to distract Vine’s attention with another Aura Sphere while charging at her from a different direction for the finishing blow. Perhaps striking her from below with Dig would be a- Something suddenly wrapped itself around Lucario’s wrist, interrupting his planning. Before he could even look down to see what it was, he found himself launched back to Vine’s location by a vine that had grown out of the tree he was hiding behind. After bouncing off the ground once from the throw, the Pokémon was caught in midair by another group of vines, constricting all four of his limbs as he was held up in front of Vine, seemingly defenseless. “Really? You tried to hide from me?” Vine asked deadpanned with a raised eyebrow. “Wow, that doesn’t sound like a tactic you would use. Oh well, nothing a mare with the ability to sense anything through plant life can’t handle. You were as visible to me behind that tree as a diamond dog in a pony crowd.” Grinning devilishly at the Pokémon’s current position, she summoned another vine from the ground, this one a bit thinner than the rest. “Now, I’m sure that Ice is going to be happy to know that he soon won’t be the only one to suffer through one of my hayn-” Whatever cruel plan Vine had in store for Lucario thankfully remained unrevealed, as the Pokémon opened his mouth in a seeming attempt to say something. Instead, a green orb formed itself out of nowhere in front of it, which Lucario fired off at the unsuspecting Vine. Taken off-guard by the sudden attack, Vine barely managed to jump backwards to avoid the Dragon Pulse, although the blast still knocked her off her hooves and sent her rolling over the grass. After coming to a halt, Vine shook her head and looked up, only to yet again find Lucario gone from sight. The vines that had previously held him in place were broken, but not from a slice of his Metal Claw. The two vines that had held his arms had their tips covered in small layers of ice, while the other two that had constrained his legs seemed to have been burnt off. She half-expected her opponent to be hiding in behind a nearby tree again, but was proven wrong by something suddenly pulling her back by her tail. Swinging Vine over his head with Circle Throw, Lucario sent the pegasus flying with enough force to crash into the trunk of a distant tree before she could even hit the ground. Before she could fall back down from the impact, Lucario had already closed the distance, somehow having kept pace with Vine’s flight. He grabbed her by the throat and slammed her back up against the tree, causing her to start coughing in pain. “Your ability to sense me behind cover caught me off-guard,” Lucario said as her. “I didn’t know pegasi could do something like that.” *cough, cough!* “H-How did… you e-escape… my-?!” “Your vines that were constraining me?” Lucario finished for her. “You’re not the only one here with a few tricks up their sleeve.” Ignoring Lucario’s words, Vine made another vine grow out from the ground behind him. Aiming its tip at the Pokémon’s back, it thrust forward in an attempt to pierce through his torso while he was unaware of its presence. But as it came within arm’s length of him, Lucario lifted up his free paw behind him and effortlessly caught the vine in mid-attack. Vine’s eyes widened in surprise, not just from seeing her surprise attack so easily discovered, but also upon noticing that Lucario had blocked the thrust with his eyes closed. “That includes the ability to sense things normal eyes cannot,” Lucario continued from his earlier statement. “Although I believe my Aura Sense can see much more than your plant senses are able to.” Without looking back at it, Lucario suddenly covered the paw holding the vine in ice, freezing the vine solid in the process. Then, with a simple clench, he crushed it to pieces within his fist, just like he’d done to escape his constraints from before. Vine seemed briefly startled by this move, but her eyes soon flashed in fury as she regained herself. “Oh yeah? Then see and block this if you can!” she yelled as a cloud of dust suddenly blew into Lucario’s face. The Pokémon immediately let go of Vine´s throat, stumbling backwards with his paws up in attempt to shield himself from whatever the dust was. After catching her breath a bit from the chokehold, she ran past her disoriented opponent and started to make her way through the forest. “That Poison Joke dust should’ve sealed it. But I need to boost my powers a bit if I have to guarantee a finishing blow,” she said to herself as she ran. Seeing through the vegetation around her, she eventually noticed a big clearing some distance ahead of her. Grinning in triumph, she jumped through a bush standing in her way to at last reach her destination. “I can see why you find this to be a more fitting battlefield.” Vine’s rush came to an abrupt halt as she found Lucario waiting for her in the middle of the clearing. “W-What?! But I hit you straight in the face with Poison Joke! You should be crawling on the ground while hallucinating by now! And how did you get here so fast?!” “Poison Joke? If the name is any indication, then I’m immune to its effect due to being part Steel-type. After brushing it off, I used Aura Sense to see where you were going before moving ahead of you with ExtremeSpeed. Now, are you ready to continue?” “Continue?” Vine responded, sounding oddly confident. “You mean ending this?” Her entire body suddenly started to grow, making Lucario’s eyes widen in surprise. “Come, Rosebud!” The ground under Lucario’s feet cracked open, and he back flipped away from the site in order to avoid whatever attack Vine was using this time. What he saw upon looking up was a giant venus flytrap towering over him, its open mouth revealing several dozen teeth made out of vines as it roared at him. “With all this sunlight, I’ve more than enough power to summon this baby. Now sic him, Rosebud!” The giant plant responded to the command as it slammed a huge vine down at Lucario’s location. After rolling to the side to avoid the smash, Lucario found himself blindsided by another vine lashing at him horizontally from the right. He jumped up and managed to dodge the attack, but the vine began to curl itself around as it turned to whip the Pokémon in midair. Yellow light surrounded Lucario’s body as he activated Magnet Rise, letting him fly further up into the air to avoid Rosebud’s reach. He continued to fly higher, avoiding more vine lashes as he tried to get above Rosebud’s head. Fighting him on even ground like this was too risky in a drawn-out fight. “Oh no, you don’t!” Vine yelled as she fired off rock projectiles at the escaping Pokémon. Seeing the incoming attack, Lucario conjured his Bone Rush staff between his paws and began to swing it around to deflect the rocks. Despite his attempts, a few got past his defense, striking his shoulder and stomach with great effect. Wincing in pain, Lucario barely managed to keep himself airborne as he managed to get above Rosebud’s head level. Vine watched as he continued to rise to the sky, creating more and more distance between him and Rosebud. He eventually stopped, barely floating out of reach from Rosebud’s vines. After clutching his wounds a bit to shrug off the pain, Lucario brought his paws together and formed a bright, shining orb between them. Instead of throwing it down at Rosebud or Vine, however, he instead launched it upward, sending it flying into the glowing sun. “Sunny Day.” The sun seemingly exploded as its light suddenly intensified several fold. As it did, Vine could feel its rays enhancing her magic even further, making her lift her hooves to her face in astonishment to this new power boost. A grin formed on her face as she was on the brink of laughing out loud. She had no idea why Lucario thought that this was a good move to use, but she could use this power to easily increase Rosebud’s size and finish the Pokémon off. Lucario, on the other hand, remained unfazed as he suddenly dove down, charging towards Rosebud with ExtremeSpeed as his legs were suddenly engulfed in great flames. With the Sunny Day enhancing the power of his Blaze Kick, the Pokémon easily dug himself right through Rosebud’s head as he drilled his feet into the unprepared flytrap. Rosebud’s shriek of agony shook Vine from her thoughts, Lucario’s attack having happened so fast she hadn’t even reacted to it. A red, glowing dot could be seen travelling down Rosebud’s body, eventually exploding in a burst of fire as Lucario drilled through its side upon coming close to ground level. A cloud of thick smoke erupted from his landing, both due to the trail following him down from Rosebud’s wound, and from the grass beneath him that were burnt to a crisp by his still flaming legs. After briefly turning her head away while shielding her eyes from the smoke, Vine looked back just in time to see Lucario dashing towards her with a fist glowing in preparation for an Ice Punch. Despite the incoming blow, Vine grinned victoriously as several vines immediately grew out of the ground in front of her, turning their tips towards Lucario in the blink of an eye. The Pokémon had no chance to stop his charge before running straight into the death trap, the vines piercing his body all over as they turned him into a cheese wedge. Two things happened to Vine in the proceeding split second she had to revel in her victory. First, she watched as Lucario’s body faded away from existence, leaving no trail of blood whatsoever on the vines that had stabbed him. And then, before everything went black, she felt something smash into the back of her head. Unbeknownst to Vine, while she had looked away from the cloud of smoke erupting from Lucario’s landing, Lucario had taken the opportunity to use the move called Double Team to switch places with an illusionary clone of himself. After dashing behind Vine with ExtremeSpeed, Lucario was given a clear shot to smash Vine head in with an Ice Punch as she was distracted by his clone. The Pokémon took full advantage of the strike, aiming his Ice Punch downward as he smashed Vine face-first into the ground. A loud crack could be heard from the impact, and the ice covering Lucario’s fist turned a shade of red as the pegasus’ bloody wound was frozen shut. Seeing Vine laying motionlessly in the newly made crater, Lucario lifted his paw back up and looked down at his defeated foe. He then began to walk away, ignoring the agonizing shrieks of Rosebud as the giant plant’s innards were still burning from Lucario’s Blaze Kick. As he passed by the wailing plant, however, Lucario jumped up and delivered a spinning roundhouse kick to its side, hitting it with his Low Kick attack. The plant immediately lost all sense of balance as it fell over right on top of its summoner, crushing Vine’s body beneath its massive frame. As the thundering quake echoed over the forest, Lucario only stopped for a few seconds to look over his shoulder at the scene before flying away with Magnet Rise. K.O. Vinetion fainted! ...or maybe more than just fainted! Really, Lucario had the advantage from the beginning. His Steel-type made him resistant to the majority of Vinetion's attacks, which were relegated to being Grass-type, and he had more than enough attacks to deal plenty of damage to Vinetion. His Aura Sense also outclasses Vinetion's ability to sense through plants. Lucario's not only a good strategist, but he's shown to be capable of thinking up long-term plans even under pressure. With Vinetion just trying to lash out at full strength with whatever she could, she was too easy to take by surprise. The fact that Vinetion has no knowledge of Lucario whatsoever was also a factor. Lucario, of course, knows about pegasus ponies and ponies in general, but to Vinetion, Lucario is just some weird bipedal Diamond Dog-like creature. She didn't know anything about him, and so couldn't formulate a strategy even if she tried. Looks like Vine couldn't handle the pressure of a life aura death situation! The winner is Lucario. Next time on the Equestrian Death Battle Tournament: ...it WAS going to be Warfather VS Jason Parker. However, Warfather was disqualified, as the story he comes from had all of its chapters removed. Therefore, Jason Parker gets a bye, and automatically advances to the second round. Instead, the next battle will be: Hunger Pains VS Marr Bell! Who will win? Who will die? Find out next time!