//------------------------------// // Terminal Two: Here Comes A New Challenger // Story: Atlas Strongest Tournament // by Bico //------------------------------// ATLAS STRONGEST TOURNAMENT ~BICO PART 7: TERMINAL TWO ACT III: HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER Luna seemed distracted, Twilight realized. She was looking off to the side and it seemed almost as if she was listening to something. After a moment, she said, "I must go, Twilight." "Wh-what?" From her position beside the night princess, Twilight jumped to her hooves. "Is... everything alright? Rarity and Scootaloo...?" "They are fine," Luna assured her. "I've sensed no change in their life signs. However, this prolonged inactivity affords me the perfect opportunity to... use the little filly's room." Twilight balked. "You... you go... potty?" Luna raised an eyebrow. "Twilight, that's a silly question. Don't you?" A blush spread across Twilight's face and she smiled abashedly. "If I might ask a favor?" Luna stood and the almost imperceptible glow of her horn brightened to an active aura. "I need you to take over this shield spell. I may... er... lose my concentration whilst dealing with... my business." "Oh!" Twilight said, realization quickly dawning. "Of course, Luna. That would be embarrassing." Luna nodded graciously and lowered her horn to Twilight's, whereupon the midnight blue of her aura transferred to the other princess and took on the raspberry hue of its new wielder. Twilight shuddered as she took on Luna's spell, feeling as if a cool night's breeze was blowing past every cell in her body. The aura then dimmed to near imperceptibility. "It may take some time to get used to all the features," Luna said. "However, I put most functions on automatic. There should be no issues." She abruptly turned and exited the Royal Box, leaving Twilight to handle things for herself. "Huh..." Twilight turned back to the stadium with a ponderous look upon her face. "Now, how do I turn up the volume on this thing?" Scootaloo gasped for breath as her consciousness fell upon her. She scrabbled to her hooves and hopped out of the shallow water in which she found herself. She had apparently washed up on the shore of the river, and her coat, mane, and tail were still soaked from it. Looking around after she'd caught her breath, Scootaloo realized that Rarity was nowhere to be seen. That may have been for the best as she would now have time to recuperate, though she supposed that hardly mattered as her opponent would also have the same chance. She found her scooter nearby, somehow having been flung several meters from the shore, and tucked it beneath her wing once again. The terrain on ground level was loose earth with crystal spikes poking out of the ground, which wasn't very conducive to scooting, as she knew from experience. Stealth would be Scootaloo's greatest ally. At least, that's what she had concluded. Watching Rarity fight in her previous matches had been one thing, and had been astounding in itself. Experiencing her polished moves and devious cunning firsthoof had honestly frightened her. She realized now that the older mare had indeed earned the title of "master." There was something about her style that made even Scootaloo's abilities nearly useless. "Her moves are just too... perfect," Scootaloo muttered to herself as she slunk among the crystals, her ears pricked and on a constant swivel. "There's definitely something fishy about it." She shook her head vigorously. She had promised Sweetie that she wouldn't jump to conclusions. "—pid filly will never figure it out. Ohohohohoho!" Scootaloo froze. She knew that voice; that regal laughter. Her opponent was close. She crouched as low to the ground as she could and began to slink in the direction of the voice. A short distance away, a white unicorn stood, haunches to her, and she seemed to be speaking to somepony in the shadows. "Don't fail the Changeling Empire, 'Rarity,'" the voice in the darkness said. "Defeat that pegasus, and nopony will be able to stop us from taking Spike." A sharp gasp escaped Scootaloo's throat. Her ears flattened against the side of her head when she saw Rarity's head turn toward her, eyes at first a blank blue before fading into her normal azure. Her shock quickly shifted to anger, however, and she leaped out from behind the crystal cover, her wings spread wide in challenge. "I knew it! You're an imposter!" "Why, Darling," Rarity said, her voice syrupy with condescension. "I don't know what you mean. I'm the same unicorn I've been the entire tournament!" “I’ll just bet you were,” Scootaloo said, hoofing the ground irately. “I’m just glad I won’t have to take it easy on you, now.” “Oh, I’m sure you’re eager to rough me up, as t’were,” Rarity said, trotting toward her opponent while her hips swayed wide. “Why is that, I wonder? Why are you so ready to believe that I’m a changeling? Is it because you know you have no chance with my little Spikey-Wikey while I’m around?” She laughed again, tossing her mane with contempt. “Really, Scootaloo, you have nothing to worry about. I don’t like him at all, you know. Certainly, a serious relationship with a dragon would not go over well with the elite of the fashion world. I guess you could say I have a rather unusual kink that seems to run in the family, and I’ll just use him for a while to get what I want. After that, I’ll get rid of him, and I’m sure he’ll be heartbroken enough to consider you on the rebound.” Hot air blew from Scootaloo’s nostrils as her brain processed what was being said. Whether this really was an imposter or not, she wasn’t going to let such callous talk go unpunished. Her ears shot up as an epiphany struck her, defusing her anger for the moment. “Wait… I never said anything about changelings.” “Oh?” Rarity said with a sneer. “Didn’t you?” “Scooter: assemble!” Scootaloo shouted as her wing popped out, allowing her scooter to snap into shape. The wheels hit the ground, and Scootaloo placed a back hoof on it, a wild gleam in her eyes as she stared down her foe. “Come at me, po—” Rarity’s comeback was cut short, her mouth being suddenly filled with wheel. Princess Aurelia chuckled as she slipped away from the battle that had just begun between her subject and the mare whose form and skills she was borrowing. She closed her eyes and breathed in the fighting spirits, feeling their thoughts and feelings flash through her in a vague tapestry. “Not as tasty as love, but definitely filling,” she concluded. Further in the distance, near the place the two changelings had entered the arena, the real Rarity lay unconscious on the bank of the river. Aurelia had arrived with a notion to change that situation. She leaped on a crystal boulder and puffed out her chest, striking an impressive and arrogant pose. “Hehehehe, huahahahaha, MUAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!” Rarity shot to her hooves upon hearing the megalomaniacal laughter booming around her. Her eyes instantly snapped to the source, and she gasped when she saw Scootaloo rearing up, her forelegs flailing happily as she emitted a sound that had become more like the whinny Rainbow made when she slept on the ground. “A terrible… death whinny,” Rarity observed. “EHHUHUHUHUH—” Scootaloo cut off her strangled yet terrifying laughter when she heard Rarity’s voice, and she dropped to all fours with all the composure of Princess Celestia, herself. The expression she wore, however, was even more arrogant than her teacher’s had ever been. “Hello, Rarity. I’m glad you’ve awoken.” “Wh-what are you doing, Scootaloo?” Rarity asked, crouching in preparedness for an attack. “I would have expected you to try to take me back to the ring. Why waste your time laughing at my sorry state?” She flicked her wet mane, wrinkling her muzzle with distaste for its limp nonfabulosity. “Oh, Rarity,” Aurelia said, her voice smooth and confident. “You don’t get it, do you? There’s more at stake here than a silly match.” “I didn’t expect any student of Rainbow Dash to ever utter such words,” Rarity said with a half-smile. “Silence!” Aurelia commanded, cowing the confused clothier with her intensity before switching just as quickly back to her suave demeanor. “You see, Rarity, somepony’s foalnapped—or drakenapped, I suppose—Spike. “O-oh!” Rarity said after a moment’s thought to compose herself. She brought a hoof dramatically to her forehead. “Oh, how horrible! My poor Spikey-Wikey, what shall I ever do?” “Don’t bother with the theatrics. I know you think you know what’s going on.” Aurelia let a restrained chuckle escape her. “You see, I am the one who has taken Spike.” “What?” Rarity exclaimed in genuine shock, this time. “S-so you are one of Luna’s operatives?” Aurelia hesitated while her brain was forced to completely switch gears. Rarity knows what happened with Spike, she realized. And Princess Luna is involved. Fool that I am, I spotted the obvious attempt at infiltration and ignored whatever trap she really sprang. She cleared her throat and said, “Oh, you'd like to think that, wouldn't you? I'm no pawn of that evil, terrible, awesome changeling queen!" Rarity found herself at a loss for words, with the sole exception of, "What?" "Oh, yes, I figured it out long ago!" Aurelia said with a wide grin. "Think about it! Princess Luna and the changeling queen have never been seen at the same time in the same place, have they? And remember back when she invaded Canterlot? Why wasn't Luna there? Wasn't she guarding the night? Yet she claimed no knowledge of the incident!" "She... she was distracted by some other event, apparently," Rarity explained. "So she said!" Aurelia declared, consciously forcing her eyes to drift in two different directions, which she thought was a nice touch. "But think about it! Why is it that Luna was freed from Nightmare Moon when you used the Elements of Harmony on her but she was locked away for a thousand years when Celestia did it?" "Well, I think that was..." "How does the changeling queen have such extensive knowledge of the caves beneath Canterlot when nopony else has known of them for the last thousand years?" "I imagine that could..." "Isn't it somewhat suspicious that the changeling queen, a being that had never even been seen or heard about before, would suddenly show up not long after Princess Luna's return? Strange how they both have the ability to shape shift and use Dark Magic, isn't it?" "It's certainly a coincidence, but..." "It's been the long con this whole time!" Aurelia insisted, letting an unhinged giggle escape. "She's been secretly reconnoitering and undermining her sister this whole time, and all without anyone knowing. It's the perfect plan. Even if it takes a hundred years, or even a thousand, eventually she will be able to overthrow her sister if nopony stops her." "You really do have an imagination," Rarity conceded. "But Princess Luna is not..." "I'm going to be the one to stop it," Aurelia interjected, pounding a hoof on her chest. "And you just admitted to being one of her changeling subjects!" "Ch-changeling?" Rarity asked. "Me? How absurd." "I stole Spike from right underneath your queen's nose, too," Aurelia boasted. "I'm going to keep him nice and safe from the rest of the world, whether he likes it or not. I'll feed him, bathe him, make lots of little dragon-ponies with him..." She put her front hooves to her cheeks and squealed in delight. Rarity blushed fiercely. "Now, see here! That is most uncouth. I will not allow you to do anything... anything rash. Why... you sound absolutely mad." "Mad?" Aurelia asked with a strong note of aggression. "I'm not mad." Her expression shifted into a bright smile. "I'm happy. So, so happy. I think I'll go tell Spike how happy I am, in fact." She turned and began to trot toward the crystal spire. She turned her head and called after Rarity. "You don't have to follow me; I'll be back soon to kill you. Won't that be way past cool?" Rarity stood frozen for a moment, baffled at the exchange. Then it clicked in her head that Scootaloo had just said she was going to see Spike. It also occurred to her that this crazy pegasus had just casually threatened to kill her. There was no question about it, now: she had to go after Scootaloo, regardless of what had caused her to snap, and stop her before she did anything rash. She broke into a gallop, following the cerise tail bobbing up and down in the distance before it disappeared into the cave. Twilight frowned. "Strange," she said. "I think I'm getting a hang of this now, but it feels like there're too many life signs, here." She watched the shield, which had started out showing Scootaloo waking up, but the view had begun to wander back toward the river around the time the actual fight with Rarity had begun. The crowd had already been somewhat perturbed at losing sound due to Twilight's fiddling with the volume while they had been arguing with each other, but this had caused a slight uproar. It had taken a great effort on Twilight's part to figure out how to manually control the view so it wouldn't keep wandering, but she had managed it. "Problem, Twilight?" Luna asked as she walked back into the Royal Box. "Oh, not anymore, Luna," Twilight said. "You were right about it taking time to adjust to this spell." "Well, you needn't worry, anymore," Luna assured her. "I am finished with my business, and will be happy to take over once again." "That might be best," Twilight admitted. "I think I'm getting phantom life signs. I'm reading five ponies in there instead of three." Luna hummed lightly as she lowered her horn and took the spell back. As she did, Twilight felt a strange sucking sensation throughout her body, and was left feeling momentarily empty. Twilight opened her mouth and made to speak, but then Luna belched in her face, causing her to reel back in horror as she tasted it on her tongue. "My apologies, Twilight," Luna said as she covered her mouth quite a bit too late. "I get gassy when I transfer spells." She turned to focus on the shield below. "Ah. Yes, it seems the spell was becoming unstable, and that is why you were getting those extra signals." She turned and gave Twilight a hard look. "You should really work on your control more. It would not do for a princess of Equestria to be unable to simply maintain a simply shield spell with surround sound, high definition, and picture-in-shield quality." Twilight's ears flopped and her cheeks reddened. "Y-you're right. I'm sorry, Luna." "'Tis of no consequence," Luna said as she settled back into her seat. "Let us enjoy the rest of the match." Scootaloo peeled into the sky, landing on one of the suspended paths using her scooter. It had not been the best idea to attack the changeling in a crystal forest, apparently, and now her foe was gaining on her fast, having crafted a surfboard out of crystal, and rapidly firing needles at her all the while. She was fortunate that her special talent was working out here, and she was able to figure out exactly where the Rarity clone was aiming, but the speed of those projectiles almost made her efforts moot. She was still being struck, occasionally, and even though she'd managed to avoid being hit in the exact acupuncture points that would effectively paralyze her, the needles still hurt and were still slowing her down. "I need to get her off of me," Scootaloo concluded, and she flipped a switch on her scooter. A thick, black smoke belched from the back of her deck. The changeling Rarity was following too close and moving too fast on her telekinetically driven surfboard to maneuver around the sudden cloud. She was blinded within the dark, wet blanket and emerged on the other side scanning the sky for the pony she had been chasing, but to no avail. A crack of thunder filled Rarity's copy's ears as she seized. She tumbled along the crystal path, her snow white coat singed black on her withers, and she skidded to a halt near the edge, but she was unable to keep her crystal board from tumbling to its untimely demise. She lifted her head, and saw Scootaloo leaning smugly against the black cloud she had expelled from her scooter. "Apple Bloom really is some kinda genius," Scootaloo said. "Putting an actual condensed storm cloud into my scooter came in a lot more hoofy than I thought it would. It's like a smoke screen and a new weapon all in one!" "Don't get too cocky!" the faux Rarity groused. "I still have my kung-ma, and it is far stronger than your kara-hitsume. Bring it, unless you're too chicken." Scootaloo smirked as she collapsed her scooter once more and rose up onto a single hoof in the classic Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg Stance. "I'll show you what this chicken can do." Rarity crashed through a wall of crystal, having used her magic to break it into pieces, and tackled Aurelia. They rolled upon the ground in the dark, hooves impacting with each other. At least, Aurelia's were definitely hitting Rarity, but it seemed as if Rarity's punches were simply sliding across her opponent's face, doing no damage at all. Is Scootaloo using Derpy's technique? "Oops!" Aurelia shouted, rolling over Rarity and landing with her haunches firmly planted on Rarity's head. "My bad." "Augh!" Rarity protested. "Your butt is certainly as heavy as Derpy's. Now get... off!" She telekinetically ripped a gem from the wall, attempting to club her opponent over the head with it. Aurelia seemed to lose her balance, and rolled over with Rarity trapped between her legs. She grinned as she heard a satisfying crack of crystal on unicorn. She released Rarity and let her drop to the ground, dazed. The cave lit up momentarily with an eerie green light. Rarity turned back to her opponent in the darkness, her ears pricked as she listened for movement, and her fur standing on end as she felt for any air displacement. She picked up both soon enough, but the speed at which it was executed surprised her, and the strength packed into the hoof that struck her sent her into another wall. "S-Scootaloo?" she wheezed. She felt another hoof strike her, and then another, and what must have been a hundred more in the space of a second. She barely had time to wonder how Scootaloo's strength and speed had increased so dramatically. It was almost like fighting Big Mac. A light turned on in Rarity's head. If her opponent was cribbing Big Mac's moves, she would just have to fight as if she were fighting him. She planted her hooves wide for balance, and used her foe's speed and strength against her. Rarity thrust her hip out, tripping her opponent while throwing her to the ground with a loud thud. As her enemy tried to attack again and again, she kept diverting her momentum right into the ground or a wall. The cave flashed a bright green as Aurelia hit the ground behind Rarity once again, and before the unicorn could turn to investigate, she snaked her new scaly tail around Rarity's hooves and pulled them out from under her. Green magic surrounded her again while Rarity winced from having her head strike the ground, and Aurelia used a Silver Bullet spell on the ceiling, blowing a hole into the central cavity of the crystal spire. Rarity rolled out of the way of a falling boulder, and she got back to her hooves, wondering how a cave-in had started while she had her eyes closed. She felt Scootaloo closing in on her, though, and made to parry the strike again, but she was instead startled by a guttural cry. "Yeehaw!" Aurelia shouted without quite knowing why, but the distraction was enough to allow her to connect a powerful uppercut to her opponent's chin, sending her through the hole. With another flash of light, she became a cyan pegasus, and blasted after Rarity's ascending form. Scootaloo galloped along the top of the broken piece of roadway as it quickly became the bottom. It was in the grips of Rarity's telekinesis, and she was flipping it over and over in the sky. Scootaloo buzzed her wings, nonetheless, and leaped over the side of the flat piece of crystal, meeting Rarity's copy in mid-leap coming right at her. She punched at the changeling, striking her in the jaw just as the shape-shifter struck hers. Scootaloo felt her own jaw crack with the impact as they floated for a moment in midair. Rarity's clone laughed when they separated, and she sprang off of a smaller piece of crystal and grabbed on to Scootaloo. "You won't win, little pegasus," she whispered harshly in Scootaloo's ear. "It doesn't matter what you do. You see, you couldn't even beat the real Rarity." Scootaloo's eyes widened. Had her opponent finally admitted it? "That's right." The changeling pulled back to look her opponent in the eyes. Hers were a solid, blank blue. "I 'took care' of the real Rarity, and I'm going to take care of you, too." She leaned back in again, white lips brushing lightly against an orange ear. "And then I'll take care of your precious Spike..." Scootaloo's lips moved silently. The fake Rarity grinned darkly. "Speak up, Darling. I can't hear your whimpers if you don't—ugh!" Her head reeled back from the literal head-on impact. "Nnngyeeeeaaaaaargh!" Scootaloo howled as she burst from Rarity's copy's grip. "I see you still have some fight left in you." The changeling sneered haughtily as she recovered from the headbutt and charged. "Fine, it'll just make this more enjoyable!" She threw a quick hoof-strike aimed at the jugular, somehow missed, and earned three punches to the face in return. White lightning crackled in Scootaloo's eyes as she began pumping out wild punches and kicks, fighting on pure instinct. It worked, though. Out in the open her natural talent allowed her to blow past the changeling's defenses and devastate her while her fury allowed her to completely ignore any attacks the other mare tried to send her way. When she had beaten her foe into a state of intoxication, she reared back and delivered a haymaker right to the clone's face, sending her packing to the ring below them. The changeling hit the ring hard, and she lay panting on her back. That little pegasus had roughed her up more than she'd thought she would, but she was right where she wanted to be. "Don't be foalish, Scootaloo!" she called up to her foe. "You won't stop me even if you pin me to the ground. Oh, no, you'll have to do better than that." Scootaloo, in a rage, ascended to the cloud cover above, and began to ride along it, shaping it into a swirling mountain as she deployed her scooter's antenna. When she reached the top, she began her descent, lightning trailing behind her. A triskelion began to form in front of her as she approached sonic speed. Rarity's copy smirked and her horn glowed. The seam where the ring met the top of the crystal spire pulsed along with her, and the entire stage dropped down into the mountain, with the changeling laughing all the way. Rarity gasped as she landed on one of the many crystal pillars beneath the layers of cloud that filled the inside of the crystal spire. Amid the flash of white lightning above her, she almost didn't notice the ground reflect the barest amount of green. She looked up and saw Scootaloo hovering just below the lowest storm cloud. "I know you were trained by Rainbow," Rarity said. "But I didn't think you were quite as fast as her. You overtook me rather quickly." Princess Aurelia grinned with Scootaloo's face. "There are a lot of things you don't know about me, changeling. For one, I'm getting you out of the way, now." She rose through the clouds and disappeared. "Oh, no you don't!" Rarity said. Her horn began to glow, and the pillar on which she stood started to rise. The clouds began to swirl, suddenly, and lit up. The triskelion etched itself into the cloud cover, and from its center a streak of violet light burst and dove to ground level. A clap of thunder resounded as the bright form of Scootaloo broke the sound barrier, and the shock wave cracked the crystalline walls. Rarity's eyes bugged out of her skull when the wave of sound hit her, feeling very much like she'd just felt a Sonic Rainboom. The similarities, however, ended at the sound. She could see Scootaloo zigzagging across the ground, coming right for her. She tried to raise crystals in Scootaloo's path, but the pegasus seemed almost to teleport around them. Rarity could feel her fur standing on end, and there was a tingling anticipation in her chest as she saw Scootaloo's out-thrust hoof pointed right at her. Her horn flared. A blade of pure lightning approached Rarity's heart, and then kept going. The second explosion tore the mountain in half. The top of it began to slide off the bottom, and it toppled over. The forest of crystals shattered when the spire landed in their midst. In the Royal Box, Twilight recoiled in shock. "Are they...?" "I'm not sure, Twilight," Luna said with a frown. "I... cannot feel Rarity's heartbeat." "Oh, no," Twilight whispered. "You have to do something." "Do not panic," Luna said. She turned to the shield, on which a square appeared which showed a close up of the bottom half of the mountain, which was covered in crystal dust and storm clouds. "I cannot feel anything of Rarity at all. If she is no longer among the living, I can assure you that nothing we do now will help her. Given what just occurred, I fear for the safety of the audience should I drop the shield just now." Twilight tried to swallow, but her mouth was traitorously dry. "S-so... she may have been... vaporized?" Luna nodded her head to the screen on her shield, which was now penetrating the cloud and dust to show two figures that seemed to be locked in battle. "Observe, Twilight Sparkle." Twilight's eyes widened. "Scootaloo... and that's... no... it can't be Rarity." She saw the two combatants clearly, now, however, and they were locked in heated battle. Scootaloo looked even more bloody and battered than when she had chased Rarity down the spire, and Rarity was... "Crystal. She used her crystal pony spell. She promised she wouldn't except in emergency. Why would she...?" "It certainly looks to be an emergency to me," Luna said. "Look closer." The screen flashed, and it showed a close shot of Rarity's barrel. There was a smoking black hole clear through the chest. "She would certainly be dead right now if not for that spell. Thankfully, full crystallization means, for the moment, she is effectively immortal. Until it wears off." Twilight's heart began to sink. "We need to stop this," she said. "Now, Luna." Luna smirked. "The match isn't over, yet. We have yet to declare a winner. I, for one, want to see whose skills are really the best." "Luna..." Twilight's jaw dropped in shock. She had never known the princess to be this callous. "A pony's life is at stake. If her spell fails before her match ends..." She shook her head. It didn't matter what Luna said, Twilight was a princess, too. She would stop the match, herself. She put a hoof on the railing of the Royal Box, about to take flight, when a sickly green aura surrounded her head and yanked her violently backward. "Not so fast, Twilight," Luna said, her voice taking on a strange stereo quality. When Twilight looked into her eyes, she saw that her irises were now green, and her pupils were lizard-like slits. "N-Nightmare..." she began, but shook her head. Luna's other form had turquoise eyes. When green magical flames began to surround her, she knew exactly whose eyes those were. "It's you." Queen Chrysalis smirked. "It's me. And now I'm going to put you somewhere you won't get in the way. Goodbye, Princess." She flexed her magical might, and her magic fire engulfed Twilight. When the flames died down, the princess of magic was gone. Scootaloo fought desperately against her opponent, her anger continuing to drive her. "I'm not going to let you hurt Spike, changeling!" she barked. "You really are mad, you know," Rarity commented, casually batting away Scootaloo's attacks. "You're right!" Scootaloo lunged at Rarity, who only threw her across the new flat top of the mountain. She sprang to her hooves and lunged again. "In fact, I'm furious!" Rarity caught Scootaloo's foreleg and twisted it, and with a crack she dislocated it from her foe's shoulder socket. "Is that why your techniques have become so sloppy? This has become too easy." She bucked Scootaloo in the face, sending her sliding across the sands that were the remains of the crystal pillars. Scootaloo wept as pain flashed through her, but her head began to clear. Rarity was right. Her moves weren't nearly up to snuff. It wasn't just because of her anger, though, she realized. In her diamond form, Rarity didn't seem to telegraph anything. There was no telltale twitches of the shoulder or a squint in the eyes. "Crystal face," she said through a half sob, half laugh. "The ultimate poker face." "I'm going to stop you before you can hurt anypony else," Rarity said calmly. "If that means I have to disable you, so be it. If I have to kill you..." "Yeah, yeah." Scootaloo sneered. "You said that before." She opened her wing and her scooter popped out from where she'd stored it after she'd hit Rarity with the Jupiter Lance. It smoked and popped, but held firm as Scootaloo put a hoof on its deck. Rarity paused, only a pony-length from her opponent, and considered the scooter. "Where did you get that?" "What?" Scootaloo said, confused at the sudden change in topic. "My scooter? I've had it the whole time, remember? I hit you in the face with it. I used it to pull off the Jupiter Lance that put that hole in your body... imposter." "You didn't..." Rarity's cold, calculating mind was galloping across all the information she'd observed. There was the strange way Scootaloo had reacted which she'd initially put down to snapping under pressure. There was how she had seemed to use not only Big Mac's techniques, but his strength and speed. She realized, now, that even her size had changed to match McIntosh's. There was also the green flash she'd seen faintly in the caves. Finally, there was what Twilight had told her. "You aren't so mad, after all," she concluded. "Huh?" Rarity explained. "There's a changeling here, alright, but it's neither of us. After I woke up, I fought you... though I fought you inside the crystal spire. I ended up here by being hit through a hole from a lower level." "B-but..." Scootaloo stammered. "I fought you in the open air. I followed you here when you collapsed the ring down from the top of the mountain!" "As I thought," Rarity said. "We've been played for fools." She saw comprehension dawning on Scootaloo's face, and then saw her look down at the hole in Rarity's barrel with a pained look. "Don't blame yourself. It's not productive in the least. Now that we know, we can..." A thunderclap from above drew both their attentions, and from the haze above them an orange pegasus dropped. Almost immediately after, a white unicorn covered in crystal armor and wielding a crystal sword burst from the ground between them. Simultaneously, the pegasus struck Rarity with a lightning reinforced kick while the unicorn slashed Scootaloo's barrel with her sword. Rarity and Scootaloo were both thrown back, collapsing to the ground, as their doubles stood flank-to-flank. Their eyes dared their enemies to rise. "Whoa, fillies and gentlecolts!" Pinkie's voice came from high above in her balloon, amplified by her microphone. "Here comes a new challenger!" The shield surrounding the stage suddenly flared and turned a sickly green. Luna's laughing face appeared all over it, her eyes gleaming with mirth. "Oh, my little ponies. You have no idea," she said, her voice reaching everypony in the audience as well as in the arena. The multiple screens covering the shield flashed green momentarily, and Luna's face was replaced with one of black chitin. "This battle has only begun," Queen Chrysalis said. Her gnarled horn flared, and the top of the shield opened up. The air shimmered and what looked like a flying boat appeared in the sky, lowering itself into the arena. Countless changelings buzzed around it, keeping it aloft with the harnesses that stretched from each of them to the boat. The shield then closed up behind them. "Correction!" Pinkie screamed as her balloon was buffeted by the displaced air pressure of the attack boat. "Here come... new challengers!" To be continued...