Cheers erupted in the stadium as Prince Blueblood entered. Looking at all the admiring gazes around him, Blueblood’s smile broadened and his chest swelled up with pride. He’s come a long way from the colt he was before. And sweet Celestia, he was going to show them.
Enveloping his silver ceremonial sword strapped to his side in a yellow aura, Blueblood swung it out in front of him, making the crowd roar even more. Even getting a cheer from the Land of the Forgotten god himself, standing on the roof of a building just outside the stadium with the Land of the Remembered goddess, watching over their bets.
Taking a deep breath, Blueblood swung the sword close to his face and continued to twirl the sword close to his body. After swing it around, he started to move, never letting the sword stop moving. At first it was just moving in a circle, but then he started to get creative. Never letting the sword stop its motions, he moved the twirling sword toward the ground and maneuvered it under him so it barely hit his under belly. After it went under him, the twirling sword swung out on the other side of him, getting a unified cheer from the crowd. After a moment, Blueblood started up the twirling sword again, lifting the sword above his head. Backing up a bit, Blueblood nimbly twirled over the spinning sword cutting only the tips of his tail and landed on his hoofs, slashing the sword out behind him; congratulating him with a roar of applause.
Breathing out, Blueblood kicked the edge of the sword, letting go of it with his magic. Twirling above his head, the sword came down onto him, only for him to catch the handle in his mouth and slashing it to the side. As the cheering continued, Blueblood starting swinging the sword around his body, flowing up and down, flipping it up and catching it again.
Feeling like his time was up, Blueblood flipped and caught it one more time and used the stands of the stadium to jump up to the mayoral box and bowing to the cheering crowd.
With one last smile, Blueblood sheathed his sword and turned to Mayor Mare that was sitting in her seat, watching his performance.
“Good evening, Mayor Mare.” Blueblood greeted, enveloping a rose that the audience was throwing down into the center of the stadium and presenting it to the mayor.
“Why thank you, Blueblood.” Mayor Mare thanked, accepting the gift.
As Blueblood took his position next to the mayor, he noticed that a good amount of the audience was looking towards the entrance. Turning his head with them, he noticed a pink pegasus was walking into the stadium with a long curling pink, yellow and purple tail. He couldn’t see the face, but he knew it was Cadence. A red umbrella was covering her head which was being carried by a purple dragon with green scales sitting on her back.
His heart started to speed up as she got closer to the mayoral box. He was finally going to see her. After all these years, he was finally going to see his best friend and love.
Cadence walked into the mayoral box and sat down next to her mother opposite of Prince Blueblood, making the dragon hop off her back, keeping the umbrella erect.
“Miss Mi Amore Cadenza…” Blueblood greeted.
Seeing that an umbrella was no longer needed, the dragon removed the umbrella making Blueblood’s eyes go wide with shock. Sitting next to him was a beautiful pegasus mare with a yellow, pink and purple mane and deep purple eyes he could stare at for hours.
Cadence turned to look at Prince Blueblood and he could feel a blush spreading across his face.
“Hello, Blue. It’s really great to see you.” She greeted warmly, and then turned back to the stage.
Blueblood let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as the spell her eyes had over him broke. With a flushed face, he turned to look at the stadium as well, trying to calm his beating heart.
Cadence was definitely easy on the eyes; Discord thought has he stared at the now grown pegasus. Even he couldn’t keep his eyes from bulging when she entered the stadium. Thoughts whirling through his head, he didn’t notice the sad look in Fluttershy’s eyes when he noticed Discord admiring the mare. Eyes downcast, Fluttershy turned away. As her eyes found the stadium again, Fluttershy’s pink mane shifted and out popped her rabbit companion, Angel. He looked between his mistress and Discord and frowned. He never liked Discord and he wasn’t going to let him get away with making her sad.
Hopping out of Fluttershy’s mane, Angel leaped up and bit down hard onto Discord’s paw.
“YE-OUCH!” Discord yelled, giving Angel bunny a hard glare as he hopped onto Fluttershy’s shoulder. Looking back at him, Angel pointed to his eyes, and then pointed back at Discord.
“What did I do!?” he questioned, turning to Fluttershy.
“Angel, that was mean.” She lectured, giving Angel a disapproving look. Angel just shrugged his shoulders and turned his head away with a humph, folding his arms. Growling at the fur ball, Discord turned away to get back at watching his bet.
When Discord’s head was fully turned, Fluttershy took the chance to cuddled her friend, whispering a soft ‘thank you’ for sticking up for her.
Trumpet blared as the main event began. Marching out into the ring was Rainbow Dash and Flash Sentry, each carrying a spear. Stopping right outside the entrance onto the ring, they turned to each other and raised their spears about the entrance, and out came Shining Armor; head held high.
The stadium cheered as he walked in the middle of the ring. With a strong posture, Shining enveloped his red cape that was lying on his back and thrust it aside.
In a moment of excitement, Fluttershy yelled “Go Shining Armor!” as loud as her soft voice was able. When she looked to her side, she saw that Discord was looking at her with his eyebrow raised. Blushing with embarrassment, Fluttershy hid behind her mane and turned her attention back to the ring. Discord did the same, only with a soft smile, glad he got to see another side of Fluttershy.
Taking a step toward the mayoral box, Shining Armor addressed the audience.
“I would like to dedicate this event to Miss Mi Amore Cadenza!” he announced, looking up at Cadence with a smile. He was so happy to see the love of his life, he couldn’t wait to speak to her. To catch up on everything, to hear about her life in Canterlot, everything. But when he looked into those deep, beautiful purple eyes, what was looking back at him wasn’t relief to see an old friend, but annoyance. Cadence turned away from him with a low growl of aggravation.
Cadence’s attitude stunned Shining, but pulled it back; managing to whisper out, “Welcome back, Cadey….” And with that, he turned to the cage with the raging manticore inside.
Rainbow Dash and Flash Sentry came up behind him and stared at the thin piece of wood separating the ponies and the angry manticore.
“It looks like you have everything under control. Don’t ya think, Flash?” Rainbow asks in a shaking voice.
“Couldn’t agree more. Good luck buddy.” And with that, Rainbow and Flash zoomed up and out of the ring like a bullet.
“Loving the boost of confidence, guys….” he murmured. And with that, Shining Armor braced himself.
The wood held as the manticore kept slamming itself into it, making it even angrier with each failure. The audience held its breath and winced every time the manticore hit the wood, not sure when it would finally break out and attack the manticore fighter.
Finally, not being able to hold anymore, the piece of wood separating the two being’s shattered into pieces and out came a raging manticore. Its head whipped back and forth, trying to find a target to take it’s anger out on.
Seeing that it was time, Shining Armor made his presence known. “C’mon ya big brute! Over here!” he yelled, giving his cape a slight shake.
Noticing the unicorn and finally finding something to attack, the manticore gave a loud roar and charged at Shining, but he was ready. The manticore charged at full speed, fully intending on ramming the unicorn in front of him. The audience held its breath while Night Light had his eyes entirely focused on Shining.
Just as the manticore was about to ram into him, Shining Armor pulled out last minute and turned to the side, letting the manticore run through the red cape. The crowd cheered with relief, excited to see that Shining Armor knew what he was doing. Up in the mayoral box, Prince Blueblood was stomping his hoof, glad to see that his best friend wasn’t hurt. He stole a quick glance at Cadence. Cadence herself had on a neutral expression, neither stomping her hoof or booing, but keeping a close eye on Shining.
Night Light was stomping his hoof like crazy, glad to see that his son was off to a good start. “Now THAT’S a Sparkle!” he yelled out, encouraging his son.
Shining Armor’s magic enveloped a rose that was thrown into the ring and held it up to Cadence. She stared at the rose presented to her and a soft smile played on her lips. When she looked back at Shining, his smile widens. Finally, she gave him a smile, and to him, it was the most wonderful smile in all of Equestria.
Suddenly Cadence’s eyes go wide. “SHINING!” she yelled out to him, but Shining Armor already knew that the manticore recovered and decided to go for him a second time. He waited until he felt the hot breath of the manticore behind him, and did a backflip over the charging beast, making it ram straight into the side of the ring, momentarily stunning him.
Cadence laughed in relief and astonishment, glad that her friend was alright. The crowd cheered at the amazing display that the manticore fighter gave, never seeing something like that before.
Shining Armor grinned in confidence. He made Cadence smile. He made her smile and he sure was going to make her smile a lot more. Turning to the dazed manticore, he egged it on. “C’mon manny! I’m not finished with you yet!”
The manticore shook off the dizziness and glared at the unicorn. Shining Armor stared hard at the beast. He knew that look. He knew the manticore was learning and wasn’t going to be charging straight through again. That’s fine with him, because he knew exactly what to do.
Giving a roar in challenge, the manticore charged once more, and once again, Shining was ready.
Just as it reached the cape once again, Shining Armor pulled away, but the manticore wasn’t going to fall for that again. Instead of running straight through, the manticore turned sharply, following the cape. Shining continued to pull the cape away, leading it around the ring. Finally getting dizzy, the manticore ran straight through the cape and tripped over its legs.
The crowd roared as Shining Armor took a bow for the audience. Continuing to nod at the audience, Shining Armor made his way to where his father was. When he finally faced him, his father levitated a sword to his son. Shining Armor automatically frowned and narrowed his eyes at his father.
“Please son. Do it for our family. Do it for me.” Night Light pleaded.
Shining Armor stared at the sword his father was handing him. He didn’t want to. It wasn’t right. It’s one thing to have a match with a manticore, but to kill it? It was wrong. He looked back into his father’s eyes and saw the plea to bring honor to the family, to not let him down. Stealing his resolve, Shining Armor took the sword with his magic and walked toward the manticore, now standing and preparing to charge at him again.
With a hard glare, he pointed the sword at the manticore, prepared to run it through the beast once he charged. Taking the sword as a challenge, the manticore charged once again at Shining.
Shining Armor breathed in and out slowly, keeping his frantic heart beat down. As he waited for the impending death of the beast, something caught in the sword’s reflection. As he looked fully into the sword, his eye’s widened at what was reflected.
Cadence’s face held nothing but horror, knowing exactly what was going to come next, and knowing that it was going to be done by her best friend.
Shining Armor felt his whole being shatter as he stared at the look of horror on his loves face. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t stand being the pony that put that look of horror on her face. He just couldn’t.
“No….” Shining whispered. Letting his harden resolve break, Shining Armor dug the sword deep into the ground and let the manticore run through the cape, taking the cape with it. Blinded, the manticore continued to run forward, smashing into the side of the ring. With the last of his energy zapped, the beast didn’t get up and passed out from the hit.
Standing tall and proud, Shining Armor announced with as much resolve as he could muster, “Killing the manticore is wrong!!!”
The whole stadium gasps in astonishment before they started booing and throwing objects at him. Shining was a little astonished; he knew it was tradition to finish the manticore after a match, but he didn’t think that ponies would be this upset about it. He looked over at his father and saw him staring hard at him, showing nothing on his face. Shame washed through his being. He hated always disappointing his family. He loved his family and would never intentionally hurt them, but he just couldn’t do it.
In the roar of boos and yells, he heard a faint stomping, followed by a loud ‘BRAVO!’ He thought he was mistaken, it was so light compared to all of the hate, but it kept coming. Shining Armor knew who that voice belonged to, and he held onto it. He held on to the one voice of approval for his actions and treasured it, never letting go and keeping it close to him within this sea of hate.
When he didn’t hear his loves voice, he looked up to where she was and saw her being escorted out by her mother. Cadence looked back at Shining with sad eyes, but eventually was lead out. Prince Blueblood followed behind before locking eyes with Shining. His eyes said it all. He approved of Shining Armor’s choice, but he also knew what that choice cost him and he felt sadness for his friend like never before. Giving each other a nod, Prince Blueblood followed Cadence out, protecting her from the wave of restless ponies.
Shining Armor felt a small wave of peace, knowing that his best friends approved of his choice.
“Good-bye, Cadey.” He whispered before he was hit with a hard object in the head, knocking him out.