Ch. 1: First Round
I walked up to the front doors to see a few guards watching the door. I showed them my flyer for the tryouts.
"This way, sir." The guard said in a deep and gruff voice. I followed him into the shiny castle till we came to an ominous looking stairwell. "The tryouts are down this way. You signed up yesterday so just wait until your name is called." I nodded and began to descend the stairwell. It was only lit by torch so it was a kind of creepy. Felt like I was walking into a crypt... or Discord's part of the castle. Whichever seemed more believable.
I walked in and everyone in the room looked in my direction before going back to whatever they were doing. I could hear whispers from some of them but I couldn't make anything out.
So I sat at the edge of the room waiting for the physical part of the exam to begin. The written part was the day before and was just to prove I wasn't an idiot and what my morals were so it was a pretty easy test. But next was the fun bit; I had to pass through these tryouts to prove something to the ponies that were judging us… specifically the captain himself. I needed to win at least one match… but who was my opponent going to be? All of the other stallions outmatch me in size but they were all most likely slower because of it.
The three unicorns in the room weren't the biggest threat since they weren't allowed their magic, so I likely had them outmatched. Although looks can be deceiving.
The earth ponies all seemed too big and cumbersome to hit something as agile as a pegasus, but did seem durable. So even if I did hit them there's no guarantee my attacks would do a thing.
There was only one other pegasus in the room so he might be the wild card. He looked like he was quick enough to keep me off-guard.
Thinking it over now... I wonder why there were only eight of us there in the first place...
Every pony in the room was wearing whatever they're comfortable in so far. We were all told to bring armor but we couldn't use it in the first round. I believed I would find out soon enough so I didn't question it. My armor was just a basic silver armor set that was lightweight and flexible but in terms of protection wasn't going to save anything... specifically me.
*Creaaaaak*
Every pony in the room turned to see a brown stallion dressed in black and white ceremonial robes walk out of the dimly lit doorway. He must be the referee as he was sure dressed for the part… in a very royal fashion. If he was anymore uptight, you could call him a redwood.
"The first fight of the first round will begin shortly!" The short stallion announced. "The first bout will be an unarmed fight between Brutus Maximus and Rampant Storm! Will the first two combatants please follow me into the training arena!"
When he finished announcing, he turned to go back down the hall he came through. I saw the biggest guy in the room stand up, rather slowly I might add, and follow. I thought he was going to hit his head on the top of the doorway. I stood up and walked to the door before stopping to take off my sword and hand it to the guard to keep safe. I turned to face the dim hallway.
"Now or never..." I walked down the hallway till I arrived at this arena. The color scheme seemed a bit more ominous then the brightness of the castle above. The floor beneath me was made of sand which made sense as if it was made of anything else, it would hurt so badly! The sand had chalk lines drawn in them to show where the combatants were supposed to stand at the start of each fight. It looked like I was in a colosseum if you think about it.
I looked to see in the stands four spectators; Shining Armor, the royal princesses themselves, Celestia and Luna were there in stunning royal dresses that were silver with a pinkish hue and dark blue respectfully and strangely enough, Discord was also there. Well as a pure embodiment of chaos, it only seemed normal for him to watch two stallions try to beat the crap out of each other.
'Time to put on a show.' I thought to myself.
As I looked away from my audience, I took my first good look at my opponent. Brutus Maximus... fitting name considering how big this guy was. I'm about 5'8" myself and I didn't even reach his neck! The chestnut earth pony looked like a muscle-bound freak of nature mixed with a gorilla. He was wearing a light tan vest and black shorts but also was barefoot for some reason.
"Both participants appear ready to fight! Do either of you have anything to say before we begin?"
"Yeah I got something; who arranged this lopsided fight?" I asked in a calm demeanor.
"Why it was Captain Shining Armor that personally put this match together. Why do you ask?"
"No reason. I just felt sorry for my opponent is all." Not the smartest thing I've ever said but I had a reason to say that.
"HAHAHA! You'll need to do better than that!" Brutus laughed it off. This should be fun.
"You both may begin!" The ref had barely dropped his hand before Brutus was upon me. I dodged a flurry of heavy, focused punches and broke away, backpedeling into the brick wall that ran around the arena and spending a moment trying to come up with a way to win this.
"Fifteen." I spoke up after coming up with a gameplan.
"What?" He asked puzzled by me suddenly saying the number.
"That's how many times I could have counterattacked in the last flurry of attacks." Though that number was complete bull, I needed him to get mad. If he got mad enough... the fight was mine.
"Ha... a cheeky little colt, aren't you?"
"Well I'd be one boring pony if I wasn't," I said matter-of-factually. "But I don't need to be interesting to whoop your butt," His face got serious as we circled each other.
"You're delusions are really starting to annoy me!"
"Am I? You're shouting didn't tip me off," I chuckled. I think I saw his eye twitch. He threw a few more punches and kicks my way that I could only dodge as his hits could actually break my blocks. Luckily, none of his hits managed to really hit me as I continued to dodge on instinct.
"Come on!" I shouted as I broke away. "Is that really all you've got?"
"I'm gonna rip your spine out!" Brutus shouted as he closed the distance and threw more punches for me to dodge.
"Is that true? You're gonna need to hit me first!" I laughed at him as I continued to break away. I never met anypony that was as easy to anger as this tower and I was gonna abuse it.
"AHHHHHHHHH!" Through nonstop annoyance and frustrating him, I got Brutus to begin a full steam ahead charge right at me. I slid underneath him and ran away to the middle of the arena. He ran at me and began to throw punches wildly, meaning they were easier to dodge as his attacks became more predictable. Though with all the loose dirt, I almost lost my footing. "ARGH! Why can't I hit you?!"
"I don't know. Why can't ya?" I asked with a sly smirk on my face.
"I'm gonna knock that smirk right off your face!"
"You're all bark and no bite! You keep saying what you're going to do but what you can't seem to grasp is the fact you can't!" He threw a punch at me which I ducked under but instead of trying another punch, he grabbed me by the back of my shirt and threw me towards the wall. I hit the sand floor hard before rolling into the wall face first.
"Whoa," was all I could say as I fell onto the sand and grabbed my aching face. "That sucked,"
"GRRRRRRRAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I looked to see a rampaging pony, now in straight up pissed mode, charging at me. I feigned left and cut right, barely avoiding the charge. Looking back, I smirked and watched him come to a halt a few feet from the wall. He was a freight train. Huge and heavy, with a hide like iron, yet one glaring weakness. He couldn't stop. Not quick enough at least.
"Come get me, Meathead!" I shouted while motioning "come get some" with my hands. Now fully blinded by his rage, he charged straight at me. He barreled down on me and I resisted the urge to leap out of the way. Not yet. Not close enough. The brute pumped his tree-trunk legs, sending up small clouds of dust each time a massive foot landed. Almost there. I shifted my feet to get a better grip on the dirt and looked Brutus in the eye. A grin came to my face. Now. I jumped out of the way again and unfortunately for Brutus there wasn't nine feet of running space for him to stop...
*CRASH!*
He hit the wall SO hard, he went through it! The wall from what I could see was made of solid brick and he just ran right through it like it was cardboard!
"PffffHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" I turned around to see Discord laughing his ass off. "Ohohoho! That was amazing! He made him look like such a chump!"
"Brutus Maximus is unable to continue!" The referee announced. "Therefore, Rampant Storm is the winner and will move on to round two!"
"This fight... isn't... over!" Just then we all looked to the hole to see Brutus staggering through it. Quite honestly I wasn't all that surprised that some pony like him could survive running through a brick wall and then get back up to continue fighting.
"Huh... this might be harder than I thought..." I said scratching the back of my head, wondering what else could I try against him. Suddenly without warning, Brutus fell face-first to the floor and was out like a light.
"O...kay... Now he's unable to continue! The winner is Rampant Storm!" Now with the fight over, I walked over to Brutus. As I got close, I saw him begin to stir and look up to see me crouching down in front of him with a hand extended.
"Hey... You ok, Max?" This question was genuine when I asked it. Now with the fight over, I had no plans on keeping this guy my enemy. He just looked at my hand with a puzzled look on his face.
"Wh-What? Now you're acting like my friend?" There was a bit of spite in his voice.
"You want to know something? You want to know why I won?" He looked at me with a genuine curiosity. I guess he was actually interested to hear why he lost to some pony half his size without attacking him once. "I won because you allowed me to make you mad. The fifteen possible counterattacks, the taunts, the nonstop dodging; all of it was so I could get you angry. I knew if I made ya angry enough, you're fighting skill would start to diminish and I could just make you tire yourself out," When I told him why I was acting the way I was, his eyes widened and his mouth dropped a little, though he still hadn't said a thing to me... he just looked at me with disdain and contempt.
"You're a good fighter and that throw hurt like hell but if ya allow others to be able to do what I did today... Youuuu might want to consider a different form of employment." I stuck out my hand again as a show of sportsmanship. He picked himself up and walked away without another word. I looked away to the "special" part of my audience. I saw Shining Armor give me a serious look, obviously doing his duty to evaluate me. The princesses were whispering among themselves so I couldn't be sure what they were talking about. Discord just gave me a smile and a thumb up. Glad to know I got the Lord of Chaos's seal of approval.
"Sir?" I turned to see the ref standing next to me. "If you'd kindly take a seat in the stands with the rest so we may prepare for the next battle."
"Oh... sure."
"Your belongings have been moved as well so you should find them in your seat. Don't worry, the guards were told to take good care of the equipment of the participants." With that, the ref left to set up the chalk lines so they were perfect for the next battle. I headed back to the door I came in to see a guard waiting for me.
"If you'd follow me, I'll escort you to your seat," The white guard told me.
"Thanks," I followed him to my seat so I could take my rest for my next fight... Wondering what I'll be up against next