//------------------------------// // Street Fighter // Story: Through Martyr's Eyes // by ShouldNotExist //------------------------------// -Street Fighter- "I don't git it," Applejack mused as she watched a pair of the Royal Guardsmares continue to carve sigils into one of her recently harvested fields. "What's the big deal about this here duel? Seems a might unfair seein' as how it's the Captain of the Royal Guard up against a blind colt." Her eyes roamed over to the sides of the field, where half of Ponyville had turned out to watch the fight. They loitered by the fence and sat on picnic blankets but otherwise came no closer. How word had spread so quickly was none of Applejack's concern: Applebloom and Big Mac had actually taken the opportunity to sell drinks and snacks. All the same she wondered what this would lead to, it seemed to her that a mountain was being made of a molehill. Marty and Shining Armour sat on opposite ends of the circle, where two smaller circles had been carved seperate from the larger decorated circle between them. Both the Unicorns seemed completely oblivious to the world around them, in apparent meditation. Though Marty remained magically chained. "A duel like this is different from a fight, Applejack. That circle plays a big part in leveling the playing field. It is magic so old only the Princesses really know it's origin," Twilight explained. "The Trial by Combat was one of the first judicial systems ever established by unicorns." "Didn't realize Unicorns were so ruff and tuff," Rainbow commented with a grin. "I thought classical Unicorns were supposed to be all stuck up. You know, like in the Hearths Warming stories." "It's not just a fight," Twilight insisted. "That circle is a prayer to the universe as much as it is a warding to prevent any magical backfire from escaping it's border. Once they get started they have to follow a strictly laid out set of rules; they will first trade blows with increasingly powerful attacks and defenses, more a show of force than anything, and then they attempt to overpower their opponent in order to push them out of the ring. If the circle determines that this won't work, they move onto the final stage; bound weapons," Twilight lectured. Her eyes roamed over the swirling sigils that decorated the strange circle, she'd never seen one outside a book before. "So what? Still sounds like your brother's gonna wipe the floor with him!" Rainbow grunted. "If it's so important that somepony fights then can't he just- I don't know: get someone to fight for him?" she asked. "Doesn't quite work that way," Twilight sighed. "The accuser, that's Shining, was directly challenged by the defendant, Marty. Marty could technically get somepony to fight in his name, but that pony would have to claim the right to the trial. Because Marty said it, the circle will only work if he fights in it." Twilight felt a shiver run up her spine, she could already feel the chill of the night moving in and the sun had only just begun to touch the horizon. By the time it was halfway through and the moon began to rise, they would start. "The circle relieves them of all 'chance' in the fight, and gives a few basic laws of logic for fate to follow." "Which are?" Rarity decided to ask as she lounged on the picnic blanket she had thoughtfully brought for the six of them to sit on. "'Whoever has the favour of the balance, wins'," she recited. "It's vague, but it essentially means that whoever deserves to win, should. All by the rules set down in the circle, which is also a good way of keeping particularly powerful Unicorns from tearing up mountains during their fights." "Unicorns did that sort of stuff?!" Pinkie nearly screamed. Twilight cut her off before she could start yelling about magic rings or a volcano. "It was originally intended for the Royal Sisters to settle disputes among themselves, but because Royals tended to also be very powerful mages they also adopted it. Let's just say that the battle between Celestia and Nightmare Moon beforee the banishment was not in a circle. Just look at how that ended up," Twilight said with a nod toward the distant Everfree. It was an unfortunate truth. And Twilight knew that her bloodline had a particular legacy in duel fighting because of the particularly powerful mages that came out of it. She had no doubt that if her brother wanted to he could dig a crater the size of the field they were sitting on and pile it up somewhere a few miles away and barely break a sweat, and so could she. Twilight just hoped that Marty’s magic was up to the task and he wouldn't be defeated too badly: He'd said himself that his traditional magic use was limited, and she wasn't sure if the Harmony Magic he'd been teaching her about would even work in the circle. A low, heavy chime filled the air. Anypony around Marty or Shining Armour took a step back as the circle announced that the opponents should take their places within its bounds. Marty stood and his restraints faded away as his Unicorn jailer stepped back. Shining stepped resolutely into the circle, and the blind pony he was fighting somehow found his way in without aid. They would fight without armour since Marty had none, and magic would be their only weapon. The inside of the circle was continuous and smooth, wide enough that an elephant might have felt comfortable enough to walk around in. Two smaller concentric circles were within and would dissolve once the fight began. They each stepped into a circle and faced each other. The sun slowly began to dip, it's edge stretched out to spread the last of its light. The circle began to glow, or maybe it had already been glowing but had only become visible in the fading light. Some sigils shifted and grew, a few "stood up" off of the ground to create a low "fence" around the circle. An invisible dome had spread over them, it would ensure that no help could arise from outside and none of their magic could have effect outside it. The moon peaked out from the opposite horizon, and the circles around the Unicorns' hooves flashed. Once, twice, three times; with the third, brightest flash they dissappeared altogether. With a roar of power a pink beam of pure force erupted from Shining's horn. The beam struck Marty and slipped past him on a wave of translucent shielding, it roiled and roared like an angry river. The force dissapated into a pink mist once it passed through the circle's edge and ablated a ditch out of the dirt next to Marty. A sidestep brought Marty around the girth of the attack and he delivered his retaliation. A boom filled the air with a flash of light as a column of lightning leapt into Shining Armour's own shield that flared to compensate. The smell of ozone filled the air as another crackle-boom of lightning tore up the soil around Shining Armour and turned it into glass, all the while Shining continued to press forward with a never ending wall of force on Marty. The river of pink magic flowed around Marty, and it slipped off his shield as if it were made of greased silver. The spectating ponies let out a collective gasp at the light show, shocked into silence at the simple fact that someone could match the Captain of the Royal Guard in raw power. It wasn't until the third strike of lightning that anyone heard the incantation that had summoned it, hidden in the thunder that so quickly followed. "Fulmen!" he shouted below the boom of ionized atmosphere. Sonic waves bounced dust off of the dirt field, which seemed to be what was truly making contact with Shining Armour. Shining flinched with each bolt despite the fact that he dissapated them easily against a solid shield spell. The lightning came in erratic crashes against Shining's shield, but it refused to give. And through whatever slight of magic Marty had not moved under the constant barge of force that could have easily punched a tunnel through steel wall. If anything, the lightning bolts got bigger the longer the struggle lasted and the thunder from them all the more deafening. The onlookers could only imagine how loud it was for the fighters. Shining yelled out, and with a surprising feat of performing three combat spells at once he retaliated with his own bolt of lightning. It arched over Shining's beam of magic and connected with a solid ba-boom onto his shield. Marty staggered and Shining pressed the advantage with his force spell. Marty’s hooves slid across the dirt and it was all he could do to keep the lightning from singing him or the pure force from simply knocking him away. Symbols on Marty's shield flared brightly, all interconnected into a web that grounded the electricity and deflected the force beam around him. "Tenebrae!" Marty shouted. With a boom smoke billowed out around him and rose in a pillar of swirling black and Shining cut off his offensive. Shapes began to writhe and swirl in the smoke, huge maws opened and snapped at the air as the cloud pressed against the invisible dome of the circle and slowly slid to Shining's left. The crowd looked uneasily toward each other, was it some sort of illusion or had Marty summoned some aspect of darkness as his shout might have implied? Shining's eyes followed the cloud, ready to react at the first sign of his opponent. He took a step to his right, his eyes trained on the direction the smoke drifted. Marty emerged from the right side of the cloud silently, the opposite side he had drawn Shining's attention to, and aimed his horn toward Shining Armour. "Ignis!" Marty shouted. He'd announced his position but the attack had been sprung before Shining could turn again to meet it. A line of wavering heat slithered through the air, and behind it the air combusted into several violent explosions. The concussion  echoed out of the circle and whipped manes thirty feet away. Shining was bounced back in the circle, lifted into the air by the blast. He landed back on his hooves, breathing hard just inside the circle's edge. But before they could begin their next barrages the circle chimed low and deep again. The magical attacks ceased immediately, and the swirling illusion slowly faded away behind Marty. Both of the Unicorns turned and marched back to their scarred starting points. "Woah! Did someone just win?!" Rainbow yelled in surprise. The first among them able to overcome their shock at the display of raw power. "No," Twilight yipped, "they've moved on to the next stage. The circle determined they were too closely matched in raw power." She almost didn't believe the words that she'd just uttered; but when Marty had said he was a master, Twilight suddenly had the impression that he had been downplaying the level on which he operated. Shining Armour was no pushover when it came to battle magic, he was one of the best of the best. The fact that Marty had stood a chance, even with a bolster from the circle, spoke miles. "Holy cow!" Pinkie cheered. "You mean Marty just magically arm wrestled with you brother and neither of them was able to win?!" she all but screamed to the heavens. "Oh my goodness," Rarity gasped. A decorated fan had found its way to her hoof and she was using it to desperately blow away the smell of sulfur and ozone that had drifted their way from the exchange of magic. Twilight nodded. She knew that many recorded fights were lost by the favored party simply because they were inexperienced in wielding as much power as the circle could grant. This was conceivably the only oversight the circle held, but at the same time was reveared as a part of its judgement: if it's chosen champion could not adapt to using the raw power or could not change how they thought or fought to compensate then that party was not deserving of the circle's favour. The circle never dampened any magic, it only ever enhanced it. Sometimes it would grant power to both sides, sometimes exclusively to one. Many theorized it was so that none suspected foul play with mana draining spells or potions. The fact that Marty was competent enough to hold ground against Shining most likely meant that the circle favored Marty’s case over Shining's. "Feeling tired yet?" Marty yelled across the circle as he and Shining stepped back into their respective circles. "You could just step out," he offered even as his breath came short and his mane stuck to his face with sweat. "I'm fine, how about you?" Shining barked back, equally lacking in breath. He hadn't broken a sweat, not yet, although something warm and wet was rolling down the side of his head and he was starting to think he'd gone deaf in one ear. The Captain had known Marty would be a force to be reckoned with, but he'd never seen it in person. "I'd say the same, but if you step out it'll be right into a jail cell." "I don't plan on it," Marty said as the circle began to glow again. The circle let out its deepest chime yet, the sound vibrated in the air as if the heavens themselves had been struck like a gong. Shining's horn ignited and magic coalesced around him, it compressed and defined itself until it became a sword and shield; the staple of the Unicorn Guard. Marty swung his head, spreading silver sparks that grew and connected into a chain; with a flash a large silver scythe with a heavy chain came into existance. "What in tarnation are they doin' now? And what the hay is that thing?" Applejack asked. "Those are bound weapons; weapons made out of magic. During this round those are the only things they are allowed to use against each other: No lightning, no force spells, no illusions," Twilight explained. "This round is the last one, they fight until one of them is pushed out of the circle or until one of them can't go on. And that," Twilight said as she squinted at Marty’s  weapon, "looks like a very large kusarigama. It's an oriental weapon, its name means chain-scythe." "What happens if someone breaks the rules?" Rarity asked, her fan still busy beating away the smells in the air. "They can't," Twilight said simply. --- There had been no rush of power from the circle when the duel started. No feeling of lightness or strength where there had been none before. And now Marty was certain that the circle, and by extension the heavens above, had condemned him to fend for himself. His magic gripped the weighted chain tightly, and the wooden structure of his scythe creaked from the grip he had on it. The first encounter had been grueling. Shining Armour's force spell had put Marty’s wards to their very edge, and the Captain's shield had been almost impenetrable. But this was Marty’s chance to turn the tide back in his favour. If he was able to win here he could continue his plans. His vision pulsed with magic, the circle's edges were clearly defined and Shining Armour was an aurora of pink light that left a flaming trail whenever he moved. Marty had fought against a sword and shield before, and the defensive strategies used with them tended to be the downfall of the user if Marty could get close enough. He took a deep breath and let his vision leave him. In the darkness that followed his other senses came alive and he was ready to really fight. --- The circle pulsed only once for this round before the fight began. Shining charged forward with his shield presented and his sword ready to strike. Marty walked calmly forward to meet him, the weighted end of the kusigarami's chain swung leisurely at his side. Marty only got three steps before Shining's charge met him in what should have been a devestating shield bash. Again a well timed sidestep offered Marty an advantage. The kusigarami's chain spun out as Marty stepped around the shield side of Shining's attack and tangled in the larger Unicorn's legs. Shining attempted to swing his shield into Marty even as he lost his footing and nearly tripped out of the circle. When he recovered Marty had taken several steps back toward the center of the circle with his scythe held across his chest defensively and the chain swinging menacingly above his head. Shining had to pause for a moment when he examined Marty. It was his face, a pure mask of the emotionless, calculating fighter that was prepared to meet any attack. This was the Marty he'd read about in the reports, and the one he'd seen in the courtrooms of Canterlot. Shining grunted, ready this time for a sidestep move, and approached carefully with his shield and sword raised. He walked as quietly as he could muster, in an attempt to take advantage of his opponent's weakness and flank him. Marty did not turn to follow him. A murmur rose from the crowd, it seemed that all Shining would have to do was stay in the blind spot: which they were pretty sure was everywhere. While the blind colt might have made quite the light show, his run was over. There were very few ponies who could match a Royal Guard in combat. It was just when Shining appeared ready to strike that Marty made his move. A flick of his horn and the chain's swing changed. The heavy end of the chain struck the ground and kicked up a cloud of dirt and dust into Shining's face. Shining cried out as he was blinded and grunted as Marty hooked his scythe over the top of his shield. A bash drove Marty back, but just as quickly the spinning chain tangled around his bound sword and wrenched him forward with enough force that the bound weapon burst apart. His hooves struggled to stay under him and when he managed to blink away the dust in his eyes Marty was inside his defense. Runes flared along the blind pony’s arms, bolstering spells to give them extra strength and integrity. Shining had not considered bolstering himself, but Marty had to an Olympian degree. The scythe did not slice into Shining, but when the handle slammed into his chest it knocked the wind out of him and threw him right to the edge of the circle. There was a shocked shout from the crowd as Marty followed to press his advantage. The chain swung again in wide circles and Shining was forced to hide behind his shield or gain a concussion from the heavily weighted end. His shield rang like a gong with every hit and Shining's ears rang painfully. When Marty hit next he simply bucked the shield and forced Shining to stumble back another step. With his hooves against the line Shining made one last push and attempted to resummon his sword. Marty moved again the moment that Shining's horn lit with magic and tangled his chain around the lit horn. Shining shouted out in pain as the impact jarred straight into his brain, his shield feel apart and any chance of casting for another disappeared. Marty slammed into Shining while he was stunned and finally forced him backwards over the line. The circle flashed as they both stumbled over the line and collapsed on the ground. The runes scribbled hastily across Marty’s arms hissed and faded, tugged away by the magic of the circle even as it began to dissolve itself. Marty's kusigarami faded away quickly as he rolled away from the Captain of the Guard.  Both of them remained on the ground, each took their time to catch their breath or to dispel a nasty migraine.   The crowd remained silent as they waited for some sort of verdict. They didn't wait long. "Let it be known that Eyes of Martyr, first born son of house Essence has been cleared of all charges. By decree of the old laws and of the stars from which all Unicorns find their ancestry," a Guardsmares bellowed with a frown that betrayed her distaste. Marty’s breathing was ragged, but he still managed to perk an ear up when Shining spoke. "If you hurt Twilight, hell nor high water will stop me from finding you," he growled. "I would expect nothing less," Marty sighed.