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Super Smash Bros: Disharmony
by Dusty the Royal Janitor
Chapter 6 - Free for All! Link vs. Samus
The split-second the Master Hand made the call, the two warriors sprung into action. Faster than anybody could blink, Link reached back and yanked a longbow out from seemingly nowhere behind his back. Notching an arrow, the elven hero pulled back and let the barbed shaft fly through the air at his opponent.
Samus wasted no time in getting the fight started herself. The bounty huntress rolled herself into a ball, far too small to reasonably fit into and rolled forward, the arrow sailing harmlessly over her. Flipping out of the ball and into a kneeling stance, Samus leveled her arm cannon and fired two glowing green missiles at the hero, who responded by notching two more arrows and, with deadly precision, fired them into the oncoming projectiles.
The missiles exploded in a cloud of fire, dust, and shrapnel. Link leapt backwards and, out of the same mysterious hammerspace he’d pulled his bow from, grabbed a boomerang shaped like a pegasus wing and hurled it at the flaming cloud. The boomerang, through magic or perhaps some other means, suddenly let out a burst of wind and a small tornado swept through the grove, blowing away the flames and ash from the explosion, only to reveal that Samus had vanished.
Link’s keen eyes swept over the Sacred Grove as he caught his boomerang on its return. The explosion had given ample distraction and provided cover for Samus to slip away somewhere, and Link was determined to figure out where before she could strike. Suddenly, though, his large ears picked up a beeping sound coming from behind him. Link swiveled his head around to see a red morph-ball bomb stuck to his own boomerang. Before he could do anything the bomb exploded in his hand, sending him tumbling across the forest floor and into a stream.
* * *
“LINK!” Twilight cried, leaping to her hooves and leaning over the edge of the floating bleachers to get a closer look. The hero was sprawled on his back, his upper body submerged in a stream that flowed through the grove. Applejack clutched her hat to her chest and Fluttershy was desperately covering her eyes with her hooves. Twilight set her horn aglow, ready to teleport to the green-garbed hero’s aid, only for a hand to close around it.
“Ah ah ah!” Mario said as his hand gently gripped her horn, causing the magic to discharge as a bright purple spark at the tip. “You’re not getting away from me that easily a second time.”
Twilight yanked herself away from the mustachioed plumber and fixed him with a glare. “How can you just sit there?!” she shouted. “Link just got blown up and now he’s drowning!”
“Not exactly,” came a voice from behind her. Twilight turned to see Princess Zelda stepping down to their level in the bleachers. The princess took a moment to clear her skirt before sitting down delicately next to Twilight. “Take another look,” she bade them, gesturing to the battlefield.
Twilight turned to look, Applejack and Fluttershy returning their gazes as well, just in time to see Link picking himself up out of the stream, shaking the water out of his eyes and taking up his sword again.
The ponies all gaped. The purple unicorn wheeled on Zelda. “But… how?!” she protested. “That blast was big enough that the shockwave alone should have liquified his organs!”
Zelda patted the seat between her and Mario with a gloved hand. “If you calm down and watch with us, I’ll explain,” she said, motioning for Twilight to sit down.
Twilight looked back and forth between the hero looking around the battlefield below and her friends sitting next to her with reassuring smiles, before finally letting out a long sigh and sitting down, Applejack and Fluttershy scooting closer to the three of them. The unicorn fixed Mario with a glare. “If it starts looking like they’re getting seriously hurt, I’m going down there,” she said.
“You won’t have to,” Mario said calmly, patting her hoof. “Just watch and let us explain how this works…”
* * *
Link looked around the battlefield, ignoring the freezing sensation of the ice cold water soaking his clothes. His opponent was hiding somewhere and he wasn’t about to let her get the drop on him. The warrior took a deep breath, closing his eyes and listening to the world around him. Living at the edge of a dangerous forest all his life had heightened his senses and given him an awareness of the world around him. Link tuned out the cheering and braying of the crowd above and focused on the grove around him. He heard every rustle of breeze through the leaves and every snapping branch under the feet of the wildlife constructs the Smashworld made to populate the land as they roamed the forest. Taking a deep breath, he listened and felt for his foe.
A rush of air came from above and behind him and he heard the distinct sound of running boots. Link’s eyes flashed open and he whirled around just in time to see Samus leaping off a high ledge, her arm cannon aimed down at him and a charged blast crackling at the end of its barrel. In one swift motion, Link ducked down and raised his Hylian shield just as Samus fired her charged shot. The crackling ball of energy met enchanted metal as Samus flipped over the Hylian hero and landed behind him, turning on a heel to face him. He, in turn, moved to face her, his shield glowing hot on his arm after reflecting her shot.
Drawing his sword, Link let out a battle cry and charged toward the huntress with a loud “Hyaaaaah!” lunging at her with his blade aimed squarely at her neck. Samus took a half-step back and brought her cannon-arm up to meet the sword in midair, blocking the strike. The huntress followed it up with a swing of her left fist to the hero’s gut, causing him to double over as a bright flash briefly went up from his midsection. Left open, Link soon found himself on the bad end of several blows from Samus’ cannon arm, one clocking the back of his head, and another bashing him in the nose, each crack of her cannon causing another bright flash to appear.
Link stumbled back, rubbing his nose and barely avoiding another strike by raising his shield. Kneeling down, he took a swipe at Samus’ knees, causing the huntress to stumble and fall backwards onto her back. Samus recovered by collapsing into a tiny ball again and rolling back away from him a pace before reforming.
Link pressed his advantage, getting to his feet and dashing forward, slashing at her midsection and managing to get in a hit as Samus recovered. The Master Sword cut through the air with a hiss and with another cry of “Hyaaah!” Link spun on one foot, knocking Samus back as his sword cut through her over and over again as he held the blade out. Sparks flew and light flashed as the blade cut into her power armor again and again, before the deadly attack finally ended and Samus was sent flying backwards into a tree before slumping to the ground at its base.
The hero did not let up, dashing several paces forward, his sword held down by his legs and his body tense. Then, with all his might, he slung the sword over his head in a powerful arc, bringing it down upon his opponent before she could get back to her feet. The blow caught Samus in the belly and knocked her back into the tree once again, causing her to ricochet off of it and land behind him on her stomach.
Link pirouetted on one foot to meet his foe, advancing upon her once again. Leaping into the air, he swung his sword downwards beneath him, ready to stab down at her as gravity brought him back to earth. Samus didn’t give him the chance, though Rolling to one side out of danger, she suddenly leapt up from her prone position and tackled him in midair with a spinning flip as electric energy coursed around her suit. Link cried out as he caught a combination of her flipping kicks and electrical discharge right in the center mass, throwing off his attack and sending him skidding across the ground.
* * *
“I don’t get it…” Twilight said, watching the fight on the large holographic screen above the arena proper. She still felt uneasy watching these two supposed friends fighting so brutally and with such deadly weapons, but the fact that neither of them had yet keeled over kept her from teleporting into the fray herself to break it up. “Those blows from Samus should have broken his ribs and fractured his skull. And I get that her armor provides her some defense, but it doesn’t even look scratched!”
Mario leaned forward and pointed at the fight on the screen. “Look closer,” he said, gesturing to the fray. “Watch closely when they land a blow and tell me what you see.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes and watched the screen. Link picked himself up off the ground, only for Samus to leap forward and snare him in some sort of beam of light that seemed to wrap around his neck. With a jerk of her arm, Samus reeled the green-garbed hero in like a fish on a line and proceeded to elbow him in the face several times.
Twilight winced, forcing herself not to look away and watch each and every blow connect. “I see two friends fighting each other senselessly.”
“Really beatin’ the tar outta each other,” Applejack commented, grimly. “Last time we got in a scrap like that we were fightin’ for our lives against the Changeling swarm.” She shook her head. “T’ain’t right to make friends fight like this.”
“Look again,” Zelda said, pointing just as Link broke free of the snare, only to receive a kick to the gut in another flash of light. “There! Did you see it?”
Twilight squinted. “That flash?”
“Exactly!” Zelda smiled faintly. “Those flashes appear every time a blow connects. That’s the key to this whole tournament.”
Twilight cocked her head and turned to meet Zelda’s eyes. “I’ll admit, I see no reason for their attacks to be flashing like that. What are they?”
Mario shrugged. “We have no clue.”
The ponies’ ears turned back. Twilight facehoofed while Applejack groaned and threw her head back. Fluttershy simply remained silent as she watched the fight.
“Welp,” Applejack huffed, “that don’t help a lick.”
Zelda chuckled. “I’ll try to explain. We don’t know exactly what it is, but most of us call it the ‘trophy field,’” she said.
“Trophy field?” Twilight asked, watching as Link beaned Samus over the head with the hilt of his sword, revealing another flash. “What does it do?”
Zelda cleared her throat. “The best way to describe it,” she explained, “is that it’s something like an unstable, skintight force field, only visible in brief flashes when something impacts against it with great enough force.”
“Fascinating…” Twilight mused, watching as Link gained the upper hand and pulled a bomb out of his pouch, chucking it at Samus where it exploded upon impact, sending her hurtling into the base of a broken stone column. The huntress rolled on her side before swinging her arm cannon out and firing a missile back at him. Twilight winced as the missile exploded in Link’s face, sending him tumbling back as well.
Twilight turned back to Zelda. “It seems inefficient, though,” she mused. “If the force field is skintight, some of the kinetic energy from the blows you receive is going to be transferred through the field.”
The princess nodded. “Yes, which is why, even though the field absorbs most of the impact and keeps us from truly getting damaged, you’ll still feel every blow and maybe pick up a bruise or two. Rarely does it get any worse than that.” She raised an eyebrow and eyed Mario. “We’ve got a doctor on call here if you actually do get injured somehow, though.”
“Really?” Twilight asked.
Mario grinned. “Yep! He’s a charming fella.” He chuckled, watching as Samus dashed towards Link, reeling her arm cannon back for a haymaker. Link barely ducked out of the way before slashing low at Samus’ ankles, sweeping her off her feet. Samus barely dodged another swipe by morphing into a ball again and dropping a bomb at the hero’s feet, knocking Link back a couple paces.
Twilight cleared her throat. “But getting back to the point,” she said, “why would you use skintight force fields when they’re so inefficient? Wouldn’t it be better to have a wider field?”
“We didn’t choose what kind of force field we had,” Mario said with a shrug. “It comes with being here.”
Zelda nodded in agreement. “In fact, as we speak, you three each have one surrounding you, too.”
Twilight started, blinking rapidly. “Really?!” she gasped, poking at herself with her hoof. “But I can still feel my own coat. There’s nothing getting in the way. And I didn’t notice any magical effects placed on myself or my friends when we got here!”
Zelda huffed slightly. “That would be why everything I’ve come up with on the topic is only theory,” she explained. “We still know very little about how the trophy field, or many other things here for that matter, work,” she said. “According to my research, it doesn’t act like any magical force field I’ve ever seen. And other contenders, such as Fox and Samus, who deal with other kinds of force fields on a daily basis, claim it acts differently from anything they’ve seen either.”
“Fascinating…” Twilight mused, continuing to poke at her own belly with her hoof, Applejack doing the same. Fluttershy seemed to just continue to shrink in on herself at the revelation that the Smashworld was doing things to her without her knowledge. Twilight looked at Zelda, who continued.
“At this juncture, we can only assume that the Master gave us such a specific sort of force field rather than a normal dome field because watching two people just stand there and throw things at each other until one of the fields breaks would make for a boring fight,” Zelda said.
“But what does happen when one of the fields breaks?” Twilight asked with a worried look.
Mario smirked wryly. “Keep watching, Twilight. You’ll see soon enough.”
* * *
Link grunted in pain. His ribs had been bruised by a heavy blow from Samus straight to the chest, which had sent him reeling into a patch of thorny bushes. The trophy field had, as always, absorbed most of the impact and kept him from getting scratched up by the brambles, but he wasn’t sure how much more his field had in it before it was overloaded. The hero turned as he heard footsteps rapidly approaching from behind. He swung his sword around in a wide arc in an attempt to catch Samus in the midsection. His aim was true, but Samus held her arms up, blocking the blade’s arc with her armor. Disengaging from his opponent, Link pulled his sword back before lunging forward in an attempt to stab her.
Link’s eyes widened as Samus ducked down beneath his blow, the blade just missing the top of her helmet. The world seemed to slow down as Samus pulled her arm cannon back, and then thrusted it forward at his feet. Time crawled as a bright pinprick of light formed at the end of her cannon’s barrel, charging up with power. The hero desperately tried to get back into a position to try and stop her, but he had exposed himself with his lunge. The pinprick of light grew into a bright yellow ball of flame and energy at his feet, building in power and growing into a miniature sun right beneath him. All in the space of a split-second, the yellow ball turned red, and then finally…
KRAKOOM!
Link felt his trophy field burst in a flash of arcing red energy and electricity. He heard the crowd above him cheer as the world exploded into light and he felt his limbs lock up and his organs stop functioning. His feet left the ground as he was launched straight into the air and a cold sensation, starting at the tip of his fingers and crawling down his limbs, slid over him like a sort of chilled oil. Looking over his limbs while his mind raced, he saw them grow metallic and stiff, like metal or stone, as he rocketed into the sky. He didn’t even realize that he was screaming, not until his voice box locked up when the chilling, hardening sensation reached it. As he flew at untold speeds into the air, he rocketed past the bleachers, above the treeline, and up into the clouds, before the sensation completely covered his head just as he began descending. The world went black.
* * *
“Sweet Mother of Celestia!”
“What in the hay?!”
“Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!”
Mario raised his hands, trying to calm the three ponies. “Hey hey, girls!” he said, trying to get their attention. “Don’t worry, Link is fine!”
Twilight pointed up at the sky. “Fine?!” she barked. “He was just launched a mile into the air by an explosion! How is that fine?!”
“Fella’ll be street pizza when he comes down!” Applejack said, worriedly watching where Link had disappeared above the treeline. “That’s iffn’ he don’t stop breathin’ before he hits the ground!”
“Oh, if only Rainbow Dash were here...” Fluttershy fretted.
“Girls, girls, please,” Mario bade of them. “He’s alright, I swear!” he said. “Didn’t you wonder why we called the force field the ‘trophy field?’”
Twilight whirled on him like she was going to snap, but then frowned thoughtfully. She opened her mouth and closed it again, taking a deep breath through her nose and then letting it out—. Fixing Mario with a neutral stare, she spoke with a calm, measured tone. “I don’t see how that’s relevant, but alright, Mario. Why is it called the trophy field? What did it do? How is Link okay?”
Mario let out a long, relieved breath. “I keep telling you, if you’d just watch without pani—”
“Look!” Fluttershy cried, pointing at the holographic screen.
The three little ponies gathered at the edge of the bleachers as a floating, silvery platform appeared in a swirl of light particles above the grove right in front of the screen. The center of the platform was a disc of bright, white light and little luminescent orbs circled around above it. The orbs spun faster and faster until a flash of light suddenly materialized upon the platform into a familiar figure.
“Link!” The three ponies all cried as they recognized the man standing upon the platform.
Link stood stock still, frozen upon the platform and standing atop a golden disc. He stood in a neutral but ready stance, his shield held aloft and his sword at the ready down and beside him.
Twilight blinked. “He looks… frozen,” she said.
“Like a darn cockatrice got t’him!” Applejack said.
Twilight turned to Zelda again, raising an eyebrow. Zelda cleared her throat and began to explain.
“From what we can tell,” she said, “when the trophy field overloads, it lets out a huge burst of power as it breaks. That power is enough to launch a contender straight out of the arena. When that happens, it has some kind of backup effect where it turns the contender to metal to keep them safe.”
Twilight blinked. “This is too weird,” she muttered. “You’re saying when the field overloads and breaks, that same broken field somehow turns the person to metal? This is all so… nonsensical! None of it makes any sense!”
Mario shrugged. “You don’t have to tell us. Zelda’s been fretting about it since the first time she joined the tournament.”
Fluttershy spoke up. “So… um…” she said softly, “how do you bring somebody back from being metal?”
Zelda folded her hands. “If it happens off the field, you can bring somebody back just by sharing some of your own trophy field to reboot it.”
“Basically, touch them,” Mario explained.
The princess nodded. “On the field, though…” she trailed off with a gesture towards the frozen hero.
The three ponies looked. The orbs floating above the platform all glowed as electricity arced between them before striking Link’s trophy statue. With another burst of light, Link suddenly began to move. The hero of Hyrule took a deep gasping breath, then relaxed.
“Link!” Twilight cried. “You’re okay!”
Link turned to the three little ponies and gave a sheepish grin and a wave.
Applejack slumped back into her seat, removing her hat with one hoof and massaging her forehead with the other. “This is all too much fer me.”
Link turned around, looking down into the grove below. The hero stamped his foot on the platform, which slowly began to descend down into the battle arena below, taking up his sword and getting ready for a second round.
Twilight turned to Zelda again. “And you’re telling me that that’s the best explanation you have?” she asked. “A skintight forcefield that bursts when it takes too much damage, exploding with enough force to launch a contender miles away. And then that same field, even though it’s burst and should be inactive, somehow turns the person to metal to keep them safe while the field is down. But the field can be reactivated if somebody ‘gives’ some of their own field’s energy to them or they are teleported to one of those platforms, and that releases them from the metal and sets their field back to normal? That’s all you’ve got?” Twilight shook her head. “There’s so much weird and wrong with that I can’t even list it all!”
Mario shrugged. “That’s the best explanation we’ve come up with so far.”
The little unicorn frowned. “Every minute we’re here there’s something else that doesn’t make sense. It’s like the world sprung straight out of Pinkie Pie’s imagination or something.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Mario said. “Just relax a little.”
Twilight clomped her hooves together. “Ohhhh, no! I’m not giving up that easily. Not this time!” Her eyes narrowed. “I’m going to figure this place out if it’s the last thing I do!”
* * *
Samus grunted as Link lowered down on his floating platform towards the ground. The two locked gazes as Samus held aloft her arm cannon, its circuits sparking. “First stock to me!” she called out.
Link huffed and swung his sword in a figure-eight arc, then raised his shield and stomped the platform again. In a burst of light and a puff of smoke, like a bulb snuffing out, the platform vanished and Link fell the last ten feet to the earth, blade at the ready. The battle was on once again.
Samus rushed Link once again, putting him on the defensive. Samus lobbed missiles at the hero, dashing towards him all the while, forcing Link to hide behind his shield once again. Link ducked down and attempted to slash at her feet as she got close, only for Samus to leap over him.
Link grinned, seeing his chance, and he leapt up beneath her, pointing his sword skyward into the air. Samus saw the blow coming, but couldn’t do anything to dodge it in the middle of her leap. The huntress took the full force of the blow, causing her to go flying off the course of her jump and sent vertically into the sky. Link grinned as he fell back to the earth, ready to repeat the technique on the helpless huntress as she too started to descend back toward him. He leapt into the air once again, ready to strike, only to cry out when Samus turned into a ball and dropped three bombs towards him. The hero switched his sword for his shield, letting the bombs explode against it instead of his face.
Samus hit the ground in ball mode, rolling away to cover behind a tree stump as Link fell back to the ground beneath his shield. Switching out of her morph ball mode, Samus leaned out of cover to take a shot at Link with her power beam, only to duck back as an arrow sailed past her face.
Leaning against the cover, Samus called out to her foe, taunting him. “Those arrows don’t do squat, Link! Better upgrade to something more useful!”
Link growled, notching another arrow and firing it up into the air in an attempt to lob it over her cover. Samus chuckled, taking the moment of cover to charge up her power beam, the orb of light at the end of her cannon arm growing into a massive sphere of blue-white energy.
Samus took a deep breath as her cannon stored the energy from her charge. She waited behind the cover until she heard the ‘twang’ of Link’s bow, signifying that he’d loosed an arrow, then rolled out of cover onto her knees, cannon levelled straight at her opponent. With a massive ‘KROOM,’ Samus launched the massive sphere of pulsating, crackling energy at her foe.
Link’s eyes widened as he saw the massive ball of plasma hurtling towards him. The hero leapt out of the way of the oncoming death-ball, the fiery energy crackling at his feet as he jumped for cover behind a bush.
“You can run, but you can’t hide!” Samus shouted, and fired off several power missiles at the spot where Link hid himself.
Link winced as small explosions cratered the ground around his bush. He could hear Samus’ footsteps getting closer and the small bursts of energy were getting more and more accurate. Suddenly, though, he noticed a large, gleaming blue object inside the frond. Link grinned.
Samus approached the bush, cannon levelled at the shrub. “Come on out Link! You can’t hide forever!”
Link obliged.
The hero of Hyrule rolled out from behind the bush, just as Samus had done earlier, but something was different this time. A large cannon with flower-marked wheels was held under the crook of his arms, one hand on a string in the back and the other wrapped around its barrel. The hero yanked the cord and a loud ‘FWEEEEEE’ burst from the barrel.
Samus blinked as a gooey bomb suddenly flew from the cannon and hit her squarely in the chest. The bomb beeped for a split second before exploding right on top of her, sending her hurtling back.
* * *
“WHAT,” Twilight demanded.
“WHAT,” Applejack echoed.
“Is that…?” Fluttershy asked, trailing off.
Mario stroked his moustache. “Huh. Never seen that item before.”
Applejack pointed down at the field below. “That’s Pinkie’s party cannon!” she exclaimed. “How in the name of Great Granny Applesauce’s teats did Pinkie’s party cannon get here?!” she demanded as Link fired off three more shots, launching a fan, a flower, and a hamburger respectively.
“Well, it’s a--” Mario began, only to be cut off.
“And iffn’ y’all say it’s another one a’ them ‘constructs’ I’m gonna lose my mind.”
Mario raised an eyebrow. “Well, sorta. That’s not really your friend’s ‘Party Cannon,’ but it is a near-perfect duplicate.” He shrugged. “It might not fire the same sort of ammo as your friend’s cannon, though. It seems to work like another item we’ve seen here called a ‘party ball’.”
Twilight held her head in her hooves and groaned. “I dunno. Knowing Pinkie she just might store bombs and fans and burgers in her party cannon,” she said with an exasperated look on her face.
Zelda raised an eyebrow. “How would she hold all that in a single cannon?” she asked.
Twilight smirked a sly, humorless smile at the princess. “Believe it or not, Pinkie Pie makes less sense than this world at its weirdest.”
Zelda blinked. “That almost frightens me.”
Twilight barked a laugh.
Applejack massaged her head. “So… what all else will that hand guy drop into the ring?” she asked.
Mario shrugged again. “Sometimes he drops dozens of items per minute into the ring. Sometimes he only drops a few. Sometimes he doesn’t drop any at all. It all depends on his mood, we think,” he explained. “As for what all he’s got at his disposal, he has all sorts of things from all of our worlds he could use. Powerups, weapons, food dishes, explosives, you name it. I think somebody made a list of all the items he’s ever used once, but we’ll obviously have to add to it now.”
The three little ponies gathered at the edge of the bleachers once again, wondering what else the tournament could throw at them.
* * *
Link fired again and again, launching item after item at Samus. The bounty huntress was backed up against a tree, cornered against the oncoming assault, with nothing to do but try and knock the items out of the air with her arm cannon. She had just managed to knock away a flying green shell when she was suddenly cracked in the head by a home-run bat. Falling to her knees, Samus growled, grabbing for the bat that had just hit her in the faceplate.
Link stood about ten paces away, continuing to launch items with abandon, but now that she had the bat, Samus had a new plan. Gripping the bat like a home-run champion, Samus swung at each and every item Link fired at her. She knocked away a beam sword, a Lip’s Stick, and a smoke ball before grinning at Link from behind her visor. “Is that all you got?”
Link huffed and fired one more shot. Samus readied her bat and swung, only for her eyes to widen in horror at just what she’d swung at. Time seemed to freeze as she noticed the little legs, white, pupil-less eyes, and sparking fuse atop its head.
“Oh fu—”
The Bob-Omb exploded in Samus’ face.
The bat was flung from her fingers as Samus was launched into the sky on a blast of arcing red energy and lightning. As the creeping, chilling sensation flowed over her limbs, Samus’ face set into a scowl.
“Oh, it’s on now…” she growled as the metallic effect spread over her face.
* * *
Fluttershy shifted nervously in her seat. “Um… how much longer does this go?” she asked meekly.
Mario turned and smiled at the little yellow pegasus. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy,” he said, nodding to the screen where Samus’ trophy had reappeared and was just starting to unfreeze. “Unless the Master says otherwise, a match gives each contestant two chances. Both Link and Samus have lost one, so the next time one of them is knocked out it’ll be over.”
Fluttershy looked down at her hooves, hiding her face behind her mane.
“Hey,” Applejack said, slinging a hoof over Fluttershy’s withers. “C’mon now, Shy. Ain’t none of us really like it but it’ll be over soon ‘n then we can go back to the ‘cropolis place, alright?”
Fluttershy shook her head. Applejack blinked. “Not alright?” she asked, curious.
“It’s only just starting,” Fluttershy whimpered. “Eight months of this, Applejack! Eight months!” she said, her voice straining.
Mario leaned over. “You don’t have to watch all of them if you don’t want to, Fluttershy,” he said softly. “The Master only makes everybody watch the first match so they can get a sense of how the fighting will go. It’s completely up to you if you want to watch any other matches.” He tapped his chin, considering something. “Of course, if you don’t show up to watch the contestant selection part of it, you might be ripped away from whatever you’re doing if you’re chosen to fight.”
“But that’s the other thing!” Fluttershy wailed softly, turning to Applejack and Twilight. “We’re going to have to fight each other girls! If two of us get picked to fight, we’re going to have to…” Fluttershy gulped and buried her face in her hooves.
Applejack and Twilight looked between Zelda and Mario. “Wait, that can’t be right, can it?” Twilight asked, suddenly nervous. “The Master can’t possibly expect us to fight each other.”
Zelda looked at the three of them, her face a mask of neutrality. “I’m sorry, girls,” she said, “but you’re going to have to fight each other. Everybody here has to fight everybody else at least once. Usually more than that, and that doesn’t even count unofficial fights. It’s just one of the rules the Master has had in place since the first tournament. We don’t know why.”
Twilight glared. “No,” she said matter-of-factly. “We won’t do it.”
Zelda raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to have to,” she insisted.
“If two of us get chosen then we’ll just stand there and do nothing until he lets us go,” Twilight said, crossing her arms. “We’re not going to fight each other. Not like this anyway.”
“If you do that,” Mario explained with a frown, “the match will be ended in a ‘No Contest,’ and your standing in the tournament will be severely penalized.”
“So?” Applejack asked. “Better than bein’ forced to lay a beatdown on our friends, isn’t it?”
“Severely penalized, Applejack,” Mario emphasized. “If you No Contest more than, say, once, there’s almost no chance that you can even come close to winning the tournament,” he said solemnly. “And if you sabotage yourself like that, then the villains here are that much closer to winning.”
Twilight frowned, looking across the bleachers. She spied Chrysalis watching the action, an amused sneer on her face as Link and Samus beat on each other in the ring. Sitting a few seats down from her was the massive purple dragon she’d seen in the Great Hall when she’d first arrived at the Acropolis, his maw twisted into a razor-toothed grin that sent chills down her spine. And just below him sat the tall, green-skinned brute, eyeing Link predatorily. Twilight sighed and wordlessly turned back to the fight, considering the information.
Applejack shook her head. “T’ain’t right,” she said. “And t’ain’t okay to make friends fight like this.”
Mario sighed. “You just have to remember that it’s nothing personal, girls. When you get stuck in the ring together you just need to remind yourself that it’s nothing to get upset over. Think of it like friendly competition.”
Applejack grunted. “In my experience, friendly competition that involves sockin’ each other in the face has a way of devolvin’ into a real spat. I ain’t comfortable riskin’ my friendships turnin’ sour on something like this.”
Zelda’s face didn’t even twitch. “I’d hope your friendship is strong enough to handle a couple fights.”
Applejack scowled, wheeling on the princess. “I’d watch what y’all say, partner,” she snorted.
Twilight shook her head. “No, they’re right,” she said solemnly.
Applejack and Fluttershy both spun on her. “Say what, Twilight?!” Applejack said, stunned.
The unicorn took a deep breath. “Our friendship was strong enough to overcome Nightmare Moon and break through Discord’s trickery. We handled those and we can handle this now.” She looked at Applejack pointedly. “Fighting each other here, out of necessity, won’t break our friendships.”
“Y’all remember when Dash and I had that Iron Pony competition, don’tcha?” Applejack said, her brow furrowing. “We got so riled up over a little ‘friendly competition’ that we came ta blows in the middle of the Runnin’ of the Leaves. If the princess hadn’t sorted us out, who knows how long we’d a’ been at each others’ throats?”
“You would have sorted it out,” Twilight said, placing a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder, only for the earth pony to shrug it off. Twilight sighed, continuing. “The point is, we can make it through this. We have to,” she said, insistently. “Imagine what would happen if Chrysalis won the tournament. What would happen to Equestria? What would happen to your family? What would happen to our other friends?”
Applejack was silent. Twilight took it as prompt to continue. “We have to do the very best that we can in this tournament. Otherwise we’ll just open the door for somebody like Chrysalis or maybe someone even worse to take the prize and get a wish.”
The farm pony sighed heavily. “I don’t like it.”
“I don’t like it either, AJ,” Twilight said sadly. “But the alternative is worse.”
Applejack grumbled, turning away, only for Twilight to sling a hoof over her shoulder again. “We’ll get through it, though. Just like we’ve gotten through everything else.”
AJ sighed. “I guess.”
Mario cleared his throat. “It looks like the fight is finishing up,” he said, bringing everypony’s attention back to the fight in the grove below.
* * *
Samus pinned Link down with a flurry of missiles and power shots. The hero was forced to abandon the Party Cannon, which had run out of ammo after the bob-omb that launched his opponent into the atmosphere, and duck for cover away from the barrage of explosives and balls of fiery plasma. His attempts to duck away from the onslaught failed, though, when a super missile caught him in the back, causing him to stumble and trip.
Samus took the chance to roll into a ball and zip over to the fallen hero. Curling out of her morph ball form, the huntress leapt forward and dashed a blow against the back of Link’s head just as the hero began to get to his feet, knocking him back onto his stomach.
Turning on a heel back towards the hero, Samus knelt down and set another explosion to detonate. Link barely had time to roll out of the way before the massive, fiery burst exploded out the end of her cannon. Rolling to his feet, Link pulled out his hookshot, aiming it squarely at Samus’ chest. Punching the trigger, the hookshot’s claw blasted out of its end and slammed into its target. With a flick of a switch, Link yanked Samus off balance and into close quarters.
Samus grunted as she was swept off her knees and into Link’s grasp. The huntress grappled with the hero, who took the chance to hit her in the head with his sword’s pommel again and again. The blows rattled her head through her helmet, causing her ears to ring and her vision to blur. Through the ringing, Samus gripped at the clawshot still digging into her chest armor and ripped it out, pushing it back into Link’s solar plexus. He doubled back, winded slightly as Samus leapt backwards, shaking her head and righting herself after Link’s onslaught.
Link didn’t waste any time in trying to regain the upper hand, though. The hero somersaulted backwards and picked up the beam sword that Samus had knocked away earlier with her bat. Igniting the beam sword, Link chucked it at Samus while she was still dazed. The huntress foiled him, though, when she caught the sword out of the air.
Samus gripped the sword as she had the bat, dashing towards her foe, wielding it in front of her. Link drew his own blade at the last moment and raised his shield in defense, barely in time to catch Samus’ beam blade with his own magic one. The swords crossed in a shower of sparks that lit up the arena in a bright flash.
The huntress swung her blade low, forcing Link to leap into the air over it. The hero responded with a swipe at Samus’ face, which the huntress barely dodged. The two fought with the grace of seasoned fencers, sword crossing sword in a deadly dance of clanging metal and humming energy.
Eventually, though, Link started to get the upper hand. Where Samus blocked most of his swings with her own parries, the huntress was at a disadvantage with a sword, while Link settled into the fight like an old pair of boots. Samus had taken fencing courses during her time at the Galactic Federation and during her training with the Chozo, of course, but Link fought like he’d been born with a sword in his hand. He managed to get many more thrusts and swipes in on her through clever fake outs and superior speed with a blade. The hero was comfortable in a swordfight.
Which was exactly why Samus was smiling behind her visor.
As Link settled into the familiar patterns of the swordfight, focused on her left hand currently wielding her blade, he was distracted from her arm cannon, which she’d started to charge with power. All Samus needed was an opening. She finally found one when Link swung his blade down vertically in a wide chop. Samus grinned, raising her glowing arm cannon like a shield to block the blow, halting Link’s blade in its path. The rest of his body kept moving with the momentum of the swing, though, ending with his face right next to the cannon’s barrel.
Link didn’t even know what hit him.
The massive ball of plasma blasted right into the side of his face, disengaging the two of them and sending Link hurtling across the grove and into a boulder, his back slamming against the rocky face fast enough to crack it slightly.
Link grunted as he fell to the ground beneath the boulder. He could feel the trophy field surrounding him crackling with energy, ready to burst from all the power that had just been thrown at him. He wouldn’t be able to take another hit.
Shakily, Link heaved himself to his feet, stumbling from the pain and dizziness. His vision spun as he dazedly scanned the field for his foe, only to see her making a mad dash straight for him. Samus knelt into a slide as she flew towards him, aiming her cannon to the ground again for another explosive burst. Link barely managed to dodge the blast by leaping to his right, the flames from the blast tickling his bangs and scorching his tunic. Link landed on his feet only to stumble and fall into the wrecked base of an ancient column.
Link’s head cracked against the column, sending his vision into a blur again as he collapsed to the ground. The hero grunted to himself as he realized that that plasma blast had just taken too much out of him. Samus was too fast and skilled to count on landing a lucky blow, and he was too fatigued to take her head on anymore. Guerilla tactics seemed best at the moment, but unless he could shake off his daze he wouldn’t be at all effective and his opponent would eventually catch up with him. Short of a miracle, he’d lost this fight.
As though answering him, Link’s ear suddenly twitched as a tiny ‘Tink tink tink’ noise came from next to his head. Link opened his eyes, blearily blinking away the spins as he turned his head to spy the source of the noise.
A bottle lay next to him. An ordinary glass bottle stopped with a large cork.
The bottle wasn’t what was interesting though. It was the tiny, winged, purple-glowing girl inside the bottle that made Link grin in triumph.
The little fairy banged her tiny fist against the glass from inside the bottle. The halo of purple light surrounding the tiny girl obscured most of her features, but even through the light it was obvious her face was set in a deep scowl.
“Hey!” the fairy squeaked sharply, her voice muffled by the bottle. “Let me outta here you big galoot!”
Link reached out and grabbed the bottle, rolling over just in time to avoid a super missile crashing against the column where he’d been laying. The blast sent chunks of dirt and stone scattering over him as he shakily got to his feet. Dashing away from Samus’ onslaught and behind a tree, the hero attempted to get his bearings.
“What are you waiting for?!” the fairy squeaked inside the bottle. “Quit lollygagging and let me out!”
Link frowned at the mouthy fairy but nevertheless grabbed ahold of the cork stopping the bottle and yanked with all his might. The cork came loose with a loud ‘POP’ and the freed fairy instantly zoomed out of the bottle’s mouth and into the air before him.
“About time!” The fairy harrumphed, dusting herself off. “I’ve been stuck there since the beginning of your stupid little brawl.”
Link blinked, confused. It wasn’t unheard of for constructs in the Smashworld to talk, but if a construct appeared in battle, it always had a specific function that it carried out without hesitation. An assist trophy might say a few words but it would always immediately carry out a task, just as a programmed construct should. There hadn’t been bottled fairies in fights before, though Link could plainly guess what their purpose was meant to be from his own adventures: they were meant to heal the fighters’ trophy fields after taking a lot of damage. This fairy should have immediately started carrying that task out once freed, but instead, she was floating in midair, ranting at him.
“I mean seriously, what’s the big idea?!” The fairy raved at Link who just stared on, dumbfounded. “One second I’m resting at a fountain, minding my own business and the next, ‘POOF!’” she shouted, gesticulating wildly with her arms. “Trapped in a bottle miles away, watching a doofy Hylian dressed like a prat take on an orange golem or something. And failing miserably at it by the way.”
An explosion rocked the tree Link stood against as another missile detonated against it. The shockwave sent the fairy spinning through the air before she righted herself and fluttered up to Link’s face. “Yikes,” she said, slightly stunned from the blow. “Then again, maybe that thing’s tougher than it looks.” The fairy peeked around the tree, only to see Samus charging up her power beam again, the plasma ball at the end of her cannon growing as big as she was. She grimaced, turning back to Link and looking him up and down. “Yeah, you’re boned,” she said flatly.
Link scowled, turning his hands up and raising an eyebrow in a clear ‘what the hell is wrong with you’ gesture.
The fairy rolled her eyes. “What? You want my help?” she asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow.
The hero growled, picking up the bottle and holding it up to her. She grumbled. “Ugh… whatever. I guess I owe you then.” The fairy clapped her hands and sparkly, purple dust began to fall from her wingtips. “Don’t waste this,” she snapped as she started to circle Link. “You don’t know how much doing this takes out of us.”
Link took a deep breath, breathing in the dust from the fairy’s wings. A smile washed over his face as he felt his fatigue leave him and his aches and pains disappeared. The trophy field that crackled around him settled and normalized, the damage to it dissipating in the fairy dust.
And it was just in time as Samus skidded from around the tree, cannon trained right on Link.
The huntress unleashed her cannon’s fire upon him, Link barely having the time to pull out his shield to deflect the blast, and even then, the force of it knocked him off balance. Samus took Link’s momentary stun to her advantage and rolled into a ball, zipping between Link’s legs and reemerging behind him. Samus twirled around on one leg, lifting the other in a wild hook kick and catching Link in his jaw. He spun around from the impact, only to be blasted in the stomach by another missile.
Link stumbled back but stood his ground, pulling out a bomb and chucking it at the huntress as she took a leap at him. The bomb impacted with her chestplate but only served to send her slightly off course on her divebomb. It was enough, though, as Link sidestepped her blow and countered with a lunge straight to her side. Samus backed off and trained her cannon on him again.
“I had you on the ropes!” Samus growled. “What did you find a heart container or something?” she snarled, tossing a grapple beam at him. Link dodged the snare, pulling out his hookshot and firing it at the huntress. The two grapples met in midair and pulled taut in a deadly game of tug-of-war. Link drew his shield out again and smiled, nodding to the base of the tree he’d taken cover behind. Samus looked for a split second to see the little purple fairy, slouched dazedly against the base of the tree, rubbing her temples.
“Wait…” Samus said, “Why hasn’t she despaw—” She was suddenly cut off as Link let go of his hookshot, breaking the tug of war and causing Samus to fall backwards. With a piercing battle cry, Link rushed forward and smashed his shield into Samus’ visor.
The strange fairy forgotten, Samus snarled and staggered back, readying another missile. Link was faster though, pulling out his boomerang and hurling it straight at her weapon. Samus’ arm cannon was knocked askew and her shot went wide, blasting into an ancient tree, splintering its base and toppling it over.
Samus grunted as she was knocked in the visor again, this time by Link’s boomerang, stumbling back into the brook that ran through the grove. She felt herself suddenly stumble as she stepped on something round and slick. Regaining her footing, the huntress glanced down to see a red and white orb in the shallows of the brook. Grinning to herself beneath the visor, she quickly ducked underneath another boomerang toss and grabbed hold of the red and white ball. Rolling to the side to avoid the boomerang’s return, Samus rolled up on one knee and chucked the ball straight at Link’s center mass.
Samus’ aim was true and the ball hit Link in the chest just as he retrieved his boomerang from the air, knocking the wind out of him. The ball landed on the ground and burst open in a blast of bright white light.
“Vile…” came a gravelly yet high pitched voice.
Link shook off the blow and looked at the creature that had suddenly appeared before him. A round, dark blue body with a chubby face and simple, rounded limbs stood before him, about four feet tall. Piercing, beady red eyes looked up at him with a deceptive smile. Its most prominent feature, though, was the massive red and white-speckled flower that capped its head, its center seemingly smoking with yellow-gray spores.
“VILEPLUME!” The plant creature shouted suddenly, leaning forward and spraying purple powder from the stamens in the flower’s center.
Link coughed and hacked as he was coated in the purple spores. As he hacked and wheezed, he couldn’t help but breathe in the spores, causing him to sneeze and choke as it felt like his throat was swelling up. Link fell to a knee as he suddenly felt pain wrack his entire body. He could feel the trophy field shuddering around him as its pangs shot through him.
Link had been poisoned.
The Vileplume disappeared in another flash of light, but Link still knelt on the ground shuddering. His joints ached and he felt weak, pangs of pain continuing to wrack his body. Samus took the chance to dash up to him and clock him in the head with a haymaker from her arm cannon, sending the hero reeling.
Link was sent spinning across the forest floor before landing in a heap at the base of a tree. Groaning and gasping for breath, Link turned his head and his eyes widened. Samus was dashing towards him again, her cannon charging up for another massive plasma blast.
That was not what made his eyes widen, though. It was what had appeared behind her.
In the air, floating around with seemingly no predictable flight pattern, was a silvery orb; its only distinguishing marking a pair of crossed lines.
Link couldn’t help but grin a little. From his prone position on the ground, he pulled out his bow and arrow, ignoring the aches in his joints and the pangs of pain intermittently running through his body. Notching an arrow and pulling the bowstring taut, he loosed the shaft and sent it sailing through the air. Samus was forced to dodge out of the way, just as Link had hoped she would.
The arrow zipped through the air with a buzzing noise before striking true, embedding itself in the side of the floating orb with a metallic crunching noise.
Samus ground to a halt at the noise. Wheeling around on one foot, she spied the floating orb, dancing in the air before the two of them. Wasting no time, she dashed back the way she came, raising her arm cannon and firing off the charged shot she’d built up. The massive, swirling burst of plasma struck the orb, causing it to shudder and glow as another metallic “CLANG” rang out through the grove. Samus grinned to herself and reached back to hurl another haymaker at the orb, only to fall forward with a cry of alarm as she felt something wrap around her leg and pull it out from under her.
Twisting around, Samus saw that her leg had been snared by Link’s hookshot, the hero in question notching another arrow as she tried to free herself. “Dammit!” she cursed as the arrow was loosed from the bow and sailed over her head.
The resounding sound of shattering metal rang through the grove.
Link no longer looked sickly and weak from poison. His body seemed to glow with a rainbow fire that sucked the color from the world around him. His eyes shone with white light as he stood tall and strong, drawing the blade of evil’s bane from the scabbard at his back. Link held his sword behind him at the ready as he lowered himself to the ground, like a sprinter getting ready for a hundred-meter dash.
Samus fired several missiles off at him, but Link deflected them with his shield. Freeing herself from the hookshot, Samus got to her feet in an attempt to get out of the way.
Link dashed forward.
* * *
“Whoa Nelly!”
“Oh dear! Oh gosh!”
“...incredible…”
The crowd went wild.
* * *
Samus felt herself become frozen in place as three massive, golden triangles formed around her, paralyzing her and holding her still as the Hero of Twilight dashed up to her faster than she could blink. A blow impacted her belly, then another across her chest. Another came a split second later across her face. Then her legs. Then her pelvis. Blow after brutal, merciless blow from Link’s magical blade crissed and crossed across her over and over again. He arced his sword across her body faster than any living being should be capable of moving, each impact crashing against her protective field and making it shudder and spark. Samus felt the wind get knocked out of her, even through her heavy armor, the onslaught not giving her a chance to catch her breath and the paralyzing triangles not granting her any motion whatsoever. And then, after thoroughly brutalizing his opponent, Link drew back for one final swing.
A high pitched crashing sound.
The triangles shattered.
Samus launched straight up like a rocket into the stratosphere.
And like that, the huntress was vanquished. Link fell to one knee as a star twinkled somehow in the daylight above him.
“GAME!” came the Master Hand’s booming voice, resounding through the grove and up into the stands.
“THIS GAME’S WINNER IS… LINK!”