The deep silence that had reigned in the Coliseum had been replaced by a fanfare of cheers and excited shouts. All the Ponyville supporters were expressing their joy of seeing one of their owns beat the famous Councilor of Sports and Ethics in a competition, while the Cloudsdalians were clearly put out by their champion’s defeat but still applauded both athletes for their efforts and the show they provided. Though, not everyone in the crowd was cheering. Behind the standing crowd, on the furthest rows of the bleachers, two cloaked women didn’t seem pleased by the outcome of the match.
“Still thinking you can take her, Adagio?” Sunset asked, the shadow of a smile spread on her face at the sight of the blonde Ponyvillian raising her fist in victory.
“Of course, she’s still thinking that!” Aria muttered as Adagio kept quiet. “That whore can be as good as she wants, if Adagio or I can take her by surprise, we will…”
“... get probably beat up and most likely caught,” Sunset finished in a calm whisper. “After the stunt Adagio pulled in that apple farm and Sonata’s fateful encounter in the forest, you can be certain that taking her by surprise won’t be easy.”
“You seem pretty aware of what the Lieutenant Kicker is capable of,” Adagio remarked with narrowed eyes. “Like you know her personally,” she added slowly.
“Are you implying something with that tone, Adagio?” Sunset asked in an innocent tone.
“You totally were one of her bitches, weren’t you?” Aria asked with a condescending smirk after glancing between her two partners during the few seconds-long silence that followed Sunset’s question.
“Like you and Sonata are Adagio’s? Not really,” Sunset waved off in a playful chuckle, earning a shocked silence from the two Sea-folks. “Unlike you two, I actually managed to be on top at some points.”
“Why you.” Aria began in a growl before Adagio put her hand on her shoulder.
“You really think we can’t get to her now?” Adagio asked in a cold, professional tone.
“At least, not in the current circumstances,” Sunset declared softly, her eyes fixated on the Lieutenant Cloud Kicker receiving a quick check-up from her team’s nurse while Rainbow Dash’s teammates struggled to unbound her. “We’ve got a bit too noisy these last few days,” she explained, casting a pointed look at the curly-haired siren. “Time to get back to being distant observers for a while,”
“So we forget what she did just like that?!” Aria asked in a low snarl after Adagio nodded with a displeased frown.
“If Althea’s doing her job right, Sonata’s frostbite marks should be gone tonight,” Sunset commented slowly. “So, yes, you should just forget about it.”
“Adagio, tell me you don’t agree with her!” Aria demanded in a low, angry tone.
“Sadly, I do,” Adagio whispered as she stood up from her seat. “I’m going back.”
“Adagio, wait!” Aria demanded as the curly-haired woman walked away from Sunset before she quickly rushed after the other sea-folk.
“Before you go, could you bring me a bag of peanuts?” Sunset asked, casually pointing at a nearby wandering salesman, as the silent girl and her loud follower almost reached for the stairs.
Adagio simply ignored Sunset’s question and disappeared within the Coliseum’s staircases while Aria glared at Sunset and made a rude gesture with her hand. Sunset simply rolled her eyes with a sigh as the other Sea-folk went after her comrade. While muttering how rude Aria was, Sunset waved for the vendor to come to her. When he was close enough, she used her magic to grab a bag of the salty treats and popped it open.
“That’s two bits, Miss,” he reminded softly after Sunset flicked a peanut in her mouth.
“Don’t worry, I already paid you for them,” Sunset commented softly, her eyes focused on Cloud Kicker’s far-away form.
“No, you didn…”
“I. Already. Paid. For. Them,” Sunset calmly repeated as she made a brief flourish of her hand before the vendor’s eyes.
“Enjoy the games, Miss,” he said joyfully before going back to his vending business.
“Thanks!” Sunset called as she heard the pink-haired girl in her zeppelin shouting that the next match would start in an hour.
Munching slowly on one of her already-paid peanuts, Sunset brought two of her fingers over her closed eyelids. A faint glow of teal later, her hand went for another treat and she opened her eyes. Sunset smiled with pride when she now saw Cloud as clearly as if she was standing a few feet from her. Her spells were still better than any pair of binoculars.
*******************************************************************************************************
“Rainbow, I think you should just give up,” Fluttershy whispered gently at her struggling friend.
“NO!” Rainbow snapped angrily as she tried but failed to force her wings open due to the band of silvery cloud constricting her torso and wings. “I can do this, Fluttershy! I just need a few seconds now!”
“Well, you’ve been saying that for a while now,” Fluttershy whispered back, too low for Rainbow to hear.
It had been more than forty minutes since the end of the match between Cloud and Rainbow Dash. After having been declared the winner, Cloud was about to free Rainbow Dash but the latter stopped her from doing so, proudly claiming she would free herself in a matter of seconds. The blonde Ponyvillian hadn’t insisted too much and had walked away from her bounded opponent. Luckily for Rainbow, her teammates had carried her back their team’s pit so that she wouldn’t embarrass herself in front of the whole Coliseum, and that despite Rainbow’s shouts to leave her be when they lifted her off the ground.
“FOR PETE’S SAKE!” Rainbow let out after she tried to heat the bindings off, only resulting in burning herself a bit. “What in Tartarus is that stuff made off?!”
“Do you want me to go ask Cloud to let you out now?” Fluttershy asked timidly.
Of all of Rainbow’s friends and teammates, Fluttershy had been the only one to have stuck with her. The others had decided to stop trying to convince Rainbow to call for help about half-an-hour ago.
“NO! I can do it!” Rainbow claimed ferociously, prompting a soft face-palm from Fluttershy.
“No, you can’t,” Fluttershy assured firmly. “If you could do it on your own, you wouldn’t have lost.”
“....What?” Rainbow asked in a shocked whisper, staring blankly at Fluttershy.
“You LOST, Renée Marianne Dash, and you better start accepting it because your prideful hurt attitude is becoming ridiculous now!” Fluttershy assured, waving her extended forefinger at her bound, shocked friend. “There’s nothing wrong in losing when you did your best, nor in asking for help!”
“But..but...”
“No buts! Understood?!” Fluttershy asked with her big, angry but worried teal eyes focused on Rainbow’s nervous and shocked cerise ones.
“....Okay… I lost,” Rainbow Dash whispered with a sigh.
“Was that so hard?” Fluttershy asked in a gentle tone as Rainbow relaxed for the first time since the match.
“I hate losing,” Rainbow replied sourly.
“I know,” Fluttershy let out slowly as her hands went to the silvery band restraining Rainbow’s ankle. “May I?”
“I really wanted to go the finale, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said after nodding to Fluttershy.
“I know you did, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said with a gentle tone as she examined the restraints on her friend’s lower legs. “You can still win the bronze,” she reminded softly.
“It’s not about the medal, ‘Shy,” Rainbow let out with a sigh. “In the finale, I would have faced Spitfire! Don’t you realize what that meant?!” she asked a bit forcefully, briefly startling her friend. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Fluttershy gently waved off before sliding a hand between Cloud’s restraint and Rainbow’s ankles. “So, what did it mean to you?” she asked gently, trying to pull it off to no avail with her hands.
“I would have proven so many things by fighting Spitfire, Fluttershy!” Rainbow explained with vigor, before she felt a soft breeze tickling her ankles.
“You don’t have to prove anything, Rainbow,” Fluttershy assured, as the breeze she conjured slowly but surely loosened the silvery binding from around her friend’s limbs. “You’re already awesome as you want to be,” she added with a warm smile that made Rainbow blush like a schoolgirl.
“Thanks, Flutters, but still… I could have beaten my mentor and…” she started in a dreamy tone.
“Do you really think you’d have beaten Spitfire?” Fluttershy asked in a surprised tone as she maintained the breeze constant while pulling the cloud-rope down Dash’s feet.
“You’d have asked me that before I faced Cloud, I would have said yes,” Rainbow confessed slowly, oblivious to Fluttershy casting away the first of her restraints. “Now, I’m not so sure anymore.”
“Cloud’s shapes were pretty impressive,” Fluttershy commented cautiously as she placed her hands between the restraint on Rainbow’s knees and said-knees. “Her last one was really scary!” she added sheepishly
“Yeah, it was,” Rainbow admitted slowly as a soft breeze tickled her knees. “I wonder where she learned to do the steam-bullet,” she let out, remembering the first shape Cloud had conjured during their fight.
“She maybe figured it out on her own,” Fluttershy suggested softly, loosening Rainbow’s knee-binding.
“No, it was definitely Spitfire’s technique,” Rainbow argued firmly but gently.
Fluttershy didn’t say anything in response, and instead focused on pulling Cloud’s second restraint off her friend, leaving Rainbow in her thoughts and memories. The time when Spitfire showed the steam-bullet to the Junior Wonderbolts popped in her head. She remembered the stance the Wonderbolt had taken when she released her shape on the target: a heavy-armor-clad mannequin. The wings forming a wide V on her back catching a sudden ascending current, the loosely extended right arm, the left still in a guarding posture, the stiffness of her back. Everything was exactly the same when Cloud had released her own steam-bullet. The only difference from what she remembered was the state of the target afterwards. Rainbow looked down at her bandaged shoulder, silently thankful that the wound could pass as a bad sunburn. It was way better than the molten steel that had consumed the mannequin.
“I’ll have to ask Cloud a few questions once her match with Spitfire’s done,” Rainbow let out slowly with determination.
“You could ask her how to get her bindings loose for starters,” Fluttershy whispered with a brief giggle, prompting instantly a reddening embarrassment on Dash’s face.
“All right, all right, I was too stupidly prideful for my own good,” Rainbow declared as her friend threw the second restraint away after passing it past the athlete’s feet. “Can we please move on?”
“Of course,” Fluttershy agreed with a nod before leaning over the third restraint: the large one that kept Rainbow’s wrists tied to her waist. “You might need to flex your back for that one.”
“Just tell me when you…..Fluttershy, wh-what are you d-doing?” Rainbow stammered with a mad blush as she felt the delicate caress of her friend’s hand over a rather inappropriate part of her lower waist.
“I’m sorry, Rainbow,” Fluttershy replied with a more discreet blush than her friend’s, pulling her hand away instantly. “It’s… Hum… It’s just the only place I can slide my hand under.”
“Oh!”
“Do you want me to ask someone else to do it?” Fluttershy asked sheepishly after a brief seconds.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Rainbow growled in embarrassment.
Once again, Fluttershy didn’t say anything and simply went back to work. It didn’t take her more than fifteen seconds to slide the cloud-made binding to a less inappropriate area, but to her and Rainbow it felt much more longer. The latter was convinced her heart had beaten more in those few seconds than it should have in an hour. Her cheeks redder than a tomato, she craned her neck to see Fluttershy passing the restraint past her knees. She froze when she noticed something about Cloud’s last shape on her. The band kept her upper arms virtually glued to her torso was placed around her chest. It only had one spot through which Fluttershy could slip her hand in. It wasn’t exactly big, but the same could said about Fluttershy’s hands.
….. I think that’s the first time I wish I was completely flat! Rainbow thought in an embarrassed silence as her pink-haired friend placed her very small hands on her upper stomach.
*******************************************************************************************************
“How are you feeling, Lieutenant?” Blossomforth asked softly to the blonde sitting next to her in the Ponyville team’s pit.
“Like I’m about to puke, be it from excitement or fear, Blossom,” Cloud replied in a dry chuckle, prompting Redheart to slide a bucket in her direction with a casual shove of her foot. “Thank you, Nurse.”
“You’re welcome,” Redheart calmly said with a smile.
“What do you have to fear, Cloud?” Allie asked in confusion. “You rocked against Rainbow Dash! You’ll do just as awesome against Spitfire! I’m sure of it.”
“Yeah!” Raindrops and Ditzy shouted while pumping their fists.
“Yeah… thanks, girls,” Cloud let out slowly.
“Need Gale and me as back-up, Lieutenant?” Blossomforth asked smirking as Cloud noticed the Canterlot athlete hovering out of her team’s pit to stretch.
“As if that would help, sergeant,” Cloud retorted playfully, standing up swiftly. “Alright, I’ll see you all in a bit!” At least I hope so…
It was under the encouraging shouts from her teammates that Cloud left the Ponyville’s team’s pit. Their shouts were quickly drowned by the crowd’s as she came into view. While they weren’t as loud as the ones for Spitfire, it was clear that her fight with Rainbow Dash had left a very strong impression. Taking a deep and slow breath followed by a soothing sigh, Cloud took off to join her former mentor in the air. While Spitfire simply hovered before Pinkie’s balloon, Cloud conjured a small namesake to stand on it calmly.
“Lieutenant Maverick,” Cloud called with a nod, her voice almost unheard due to Pinkie’s excited speech about the two finalists.
“Lieutenant Kicker,” Spitfire replied with a nod of her own. “Good job against Rainbow Dash,” she added softly, discreetly smiling at the blonde. “It was really an impressive match.”
“Thank you,” Cloud replied slowly, her right fingers drumming against her palm rapidly.
“You’re nervous?” Spitfire asked with a wide grin, nodding at Cloud’s right hand.
“A little,” Cloud admitted with a shaky chuckle. “It’s not everyday that I go against the best,”
“Pffff, you speak as if it’s your first time,” Spitfire let out with a dismissive wave. “You did just fine against Pokey, the best swordsman in Equestria, remember?”
“I mostly remember how he wanted to poke me,” Cloud retorted warmly, prompting the redhead’s hand into ending its wave on its owner’s face.
“Of course, THAT you remember!” Spitfire commented in a mix of a sigh and a chuckle. “Pokey’s pokes, asides, it’s far from the first time you’ve been pitted against the best!” she added, crossing her arms with a remembering expression.
“That was a long time ago,” Cloud replied slowly.
“In that case, I hope the passing years made you even better than you were before,” Spitfire declared calmly as her wings stopped moving.
Instantly after that, Cloud felt something she hadn’t felt in years. The faint breeze that coursed through her long hair suddenly changed its course, making her locks flow towards Spitfire. A faint drought invaded her mouth and throat as her eyes travelled down to the ground. Trails of dusts were lifted and sucked into the air as a growing circle of fresh grass turned brown. Cloud then looked up for a second, seeing an expanding hole forming itself in the fluffy white mass that flew over the Coliseum. Gulping softly, and sorely due to the sudden dry spell, the blonde looked back at Spitfire who, despite standing only twenty feet away, appeared in a blur of colors like a distant mirage in the desert.
“Huuuuh, what is going on?” Pinkie asked, her tone slightly fearful as the ambient temperature raised slowly but surely.
“Pinkie,” Spitfire’s voice came from the floating blur of colors. “Do yourself a favor and give the starting signal from the ground,”
“....O-kay,” Pinkie agreed slowly before pulling a lever of her contraption, prompting a slow and safe deflating of her balloon.
“Ready, Kid?” Spitfire asked as the rising heat started to evaporate the cloud on which Cloud stood.
The blonde gulped nervously as the drumming of her fingers increased its pace. Images and memories of gigantic wolves being thrown away by an intense heat flashed through her head. She had seen what Spitfire could do once she was in the mood and it scared her a bit that that specific mood was aimed at her. Yet, she couldn’t stop a smile to slowly grace her lips.
The drumming against her palms came to a stop, as well as the dissipation of the platform Cloud was using. The whistling of the wind became quiet as a whisper as she focused her eyes on the blurry shape of the Wonderbolt before her. The only sounds she heard were the sounds of her heart and the crazy pace it kept in her excitement. She tightened her fists as her purple eyes burned with determination, a thickening white haze appearing around her arms before it spread around her.
“I guess you’re ready, Kid,” Spitfire’s voice rang with note of pride.
“Well, I’m always ready for hot girls, Lieutenant,” Cloud reminded with a playful chuckle. “And, you’re the hottest around,” she added as the raising heat made her sweat pearl along her jawline.
Cloud waited for a reply, be it a playful retort or an embarrassed groan, but she didn’t get any. She guessed that Spitfire’s hand went probably against her face, as the heat made her blurry but not invisible, just as planned but the Wonderbolt’s silence made her nervous. Well, more nervous than she already was. Luckily she didn’t get the time for her nervousness to conquer her whole as Pinkie blew sharply in her whistle to start the match.
A blink later, a burning wave of flying flames suddenly appeared before her.
I probably shouldn’t have said that. Cloud thought with a nervous chuckle as the raging inferno moved closer as her namesakes gathered rapidly around her fists.
The Ponyvillian extended her two arms forward, joining her two hands together as the greyish masses around them merged and formed a large, round shield before the blonde. Gripping the end of her fluffy shape, Cloud gave it a quick twist. The grey cumulus turned silver as it lost its fluff in favor of a smooth, polished surface right before the flames hit it.
Loud hisses of evaporation resonated in the air over the cracks of the flames while Cloud pushed all the humidity she could find into her shape. Her shield thinned quickly under the fiery onslaught, but it still held on until the blazing attack died down. Cloud let out a short, dry breath of her relief as her shield had almost lost all its thickness and was now transparent. It allowed her to see that Spitfire hadn’t even moved from her spot. The only change in the Wonderbolt’s stance was her right foot being a bit more forward than before, with thin trails of smoke coming out from it.
“Not bad,” Spitfire commented with an approving nod, her arms still crossed over her chest. “You sure improved the durability of your shapes,” she added casually as the blonde reinforced her shield back to its full opacity.
“Thanks!”
“Let’s see if you’ve improved elsewhere as well,” Spitfire declared with a wolfy grin, rearing her steaming fist.
Cloud quickly flapped her wings to place herself further away from the redhead, a dense fog forming itself around her wrists as she braced herself for another flaming assault. Her purple gaze, stern like hawk’s, focused on her ready-to-punch opponent hovering a good fifty feet away from her. Her foggy shapes started to take the form of silvery blades as she grabbed them both while taking her stance, ready for anything that Spitfire could throw at her.
“Think fast!” the Wonderbolt’s voice called loudly from her right.
Cloud barely had the time to blink at the call that a foot came quickly into her right peripheral vision while a scorching heat came in contact with the right side of her face. The heat crashed over her skin before it was imitated by the foot whom, Cloud supposed, belonged to Spitfire. The offending limb connected with her face just as the hot air around her face cracked in a loud bang.
The crowd held its breath in shock as the Ponyvillian was catapulted through the whole Coliseum, spinning wildly because of the violent kick. Even the Princesses Luna and Celestia winced in discomfort at the violence of the kick, as they knew full well the consequences Spitfire’s strikes could have. Twilight and Alula turned completely white as they witnessed Cloud spinning dangerously towards the bleachers’ open staircases. Many shrieks of worry rang from the crowd as the blonde fell to a violent demise while many more stood up, ready to either fly up or to cast a spell to catch her. Though, that was before a strong wind burst forced them back onto their seats.
Cloud’s chest heaved strongly as her wings slowly and rhythmically flapped to keep her feet from touching the railing. One of her hands slowly climbed to her visage, a bluish white haze surrounding it. Her cooled hand covering and soothing the red skin on her face, Cloud turned around to look back at Spitfire at the same time as the crowd. The blonde let out a silent curse at the Wonderbolt while the audience let out gasps of surprise and shock at the sight of two hovering redheads in the middle of the Coliseum.
Okay, she’s even faster than I remember and she can shape ‘’mirages’’ of herself…. Cloud thought nervously, her uncovered eye moving rapidly between the two Spitfires. This is going to be trickier than I thought.
Cloud let out a long, calm sigh as she moved her hand away from her face as her wings stood proudly open as two small puffs of white clouds appeared before her. They grew rapidly and turned dark as she raised her hands to them. While preparing her next shape, Cloud’s never let any of the two Spitfires out of her sight, something that was easier now that both of them stood side by side in the middle of the Coliseum, their arms crossed above their respective chests and both looking at the blonde with mild curiosity.
The grey cumuli expanded as their creator kept her eyes on the two Spitfires, slowly forming two basic, guard-less swords. Cloud grabbed both her newly-shaped weapons before reeling her left arm back. With a small grunt, she threw the grey sword with all her might. The Nimbo-gladius flew straight toward her two adversaries who both hovered to the side to let it pass between them. The crowd mumbled in confusion at the Ponyvillian’s tactic, as Pinkie commented on how good of a throw Cloud’s has been. The two Spitfires simply raised a questioning eyebrow at the blonde. Only for the one in the right to let out a brief scream of pain just after the blade flew right between.
“What the heck?” Spitfire commented, glancing at the long cut on her left arm while her mirage vanished.
Mid flight, the sword had suddenly extended itself and swung wide in between Spitfire and her mirage before following its course. The blade didn’t leave a mark on her mirage’s arm when it touched it, but the same couldn’t be said about hers. The cut was clean and quite deep, causing lines of blood to drip down Spitfire’s arms, reddening her light grey outfit’s sleeve.
The Wonderbolt heard sharp whistling sounds coming from behind her. She quickly looked where the sounds came from, seeing the blade flying back to her, as if an invisible Jupitarian was holding it. Spitfire couldn’t contain her proud, but discreet smile at the strategy employed by Cloud.
Really clever, Spitfire commented mentally, gathering heat around her bloody arm.
The Wonderbolt raised her heat-coated arm to block the Nimbo-gladius, her smile turning into a sly smirk as she did. The blade didn’t connect with her limb this time. The cloud forming the blade vanished in a loud hiss when it tried to cut Spitfire’s arm again. The redhead then turned back to face Cloud, blinking at the sight the blonde still holding her other sword and the dozen of hovering blades she had shaped during her back was turned.
Cloud rolled her wrist, making the Nimbo-gladius twirl in her grip, which was then followed by the dozens of flying blades perfectly copying the movements. As the crowd and Pinkie let out a long wow at the multiples shapes flying in perfect synchronicity, Spitfire whistled in polite admiration with a brief nod of her head.
“Not bad!” Spitfire assured in approval. “It looks really nice,” she added as Cloud pointed her swords at her. “Can you hit me with those though?”
“I don’t know!” Cloud replied in a curiosity-filled shout. “Let’s find out together!”
The blonde thrusted her sword-arm forward, prompting the ten Nimbo-gladii into flying straight toward Spitfire. The Wonderbolt quickly flew sideways to dodge the first twos, which suddenly twirled and tried to slash her after Cloud stroke to the left with the commanding-sword. Having expected as much, Spitfire quickly flew up, and thus out of their reach.
But then, Cloud stroke down, bringing other two blades onto Spitfire. When the redhead noticed them and realized they were going for her wings, she gathered heat around her ethereal wing-bones. The two blades were dissipated when they tried to cut down the heat-clad limbs. She then glanced in Cloud’s direction, noticing the Ponyvillian fly high above the Coliseum.
Cloud stopped her ascension just below few of namesakes that had gathered above the stadium, attracted there by the raise of temperature provoked by Spitfire. She took her command-sword with two hands, pointing at the Wonderbolts. The eight remaining blades merged together into two, thicker and darker versions of themselves, hovering in the same position as the sword in Cloud’s hands, one pointing at Spitfire’s back and the other pointing at her chest. Following Cloud’s thrust, the two grey swords aimed to pierce the Wonderbolt who, completely unfazed, gather even more hot air around her torso.
The heat had its effect on the nimbo-gladii, just like during Cloud’s previous attempts. The clouds forming the blades evaporated themselves while trying to pierce the protective warmth that Spitfire had layered around herself. Both blades had almost been reduced to their handles as the Wonderbolts sighed in disappointment. She cast a regretful look at what was left of Cloud’s shapes: she had expected much more from the blonde swordswoman’s craft.
And more she received when a flash of silver appeared in the evaporating sword handle. It hurt when it reached the center of her chest, and it hurt again when she guessed that a similar something had reached her back. It wasn’t anything like the cut on her arm from earlier. It wasn’t deep and Spitfire highly doubted that nothing more than a drop or two of her blood would pearl out of the wound. It was more akin to what you feel when you get a paper cut when trying to turn the page of a book, but it still hurt.
Grinding her teeth together in barely contained anger, Spitfire moved her hand to her chest, instantly finding the long and thin object that had pierced her skin. She firmly yanked it out of her chest, wincing a little bit at the stinging sensation that her action brought, and then she opened her hand to examine it.
There was a thin, silvery needle, barely measuring two inches longer than her open palm. Spitfire's eyes quickly found their way to the sharp tip of the needle, the one tinted red by her own blood. She examined it for a moment before she pressed her thumb on it.
Despite looking cold and solid like steel, the needle felt warm and soft to the touch like if someone had found a way to harden a patch of silk. It was a sensation that she had felt only once. Her inquisitive look turned into a brief grin as her other reached for her back. Letting out a short moan of discomfort she pulled another, identical needle out from the skin between her shoulder blades.
“Four swords to make a warning shot,” Spitfire commented softly before looking up from the needle to Cloud’s hovering form. “....And now you’ve got more than enough for a real shot!” She chuckled as she witnessed Cloud’s sword absorbing the lasts of the white namesakes that had been filling the Coliseum’s skies mere moments ago.
While the blonde’s nimbo-gladius became shinier and sharper as the skies became clearer, Spitfire reared her fist in before throwing another Heat-bullet at the Ponyvillian. The mass of hot air travelled the distance separating the two adversaries at the speed of a crossbow’s bolt. It had almost reached her when Cloud finished her shape. The silvery blade almost sang through the air as blonde passed it from her right hand to her left. It only sang louder when Cloud flicked her hand and cut Spitfire’s shape in two before it reached her.
A very warm, very dry and very strong breeze still caressed Cloud’s bruising face after her defensive stroke, as it was impossible to really slash the wind away from you. Cloud still considered it a small victory over what she knew the Wonderbolt’s shape could do. She would always go for a gust of wind worthy of a desert that left her throat over a scorching blast that could peel a steel helmet open before melting it down.
Cloud then noticed Spitfire’s wings widely open on her back, reminding her of an eagle about to take off. The blonde tightened her grip on her sword’s handle, her eyes focused on the Wonderbolt below her. She would only get one chance to strike Spitfire down, so she couldn’t afford to lose sight of her target for a second.
In a loud thunderclap followed by a powerful gust of wind, Spitfire had taken flight once again up to Cloud’s level. She was nothing but a grey and golden blur, coming closer than a lightning bolt, a trail of dark smokes and dust following behind her. Cloud started her swing, guessing that she would manage to hit Spitfire before impact. She had only began her moves when she witness flames suddenly appearing around a closed fist a couple of inches before her eyes.
Bingo!
Shit!
**********************************
The cheers of the spectators went silent the moment a torrent of orange flames pierced the skies, right where Cloud’s head used to be. Like one single person, the crowd let out horrified gasps at the fiery fate that the Ponyvillian had endured as her whole body was consumed by flames that wouldn’t have been out of place coming out of a dragon’s maw. Twilight was livid of terror and Alula seemed on the brink of fainting from the sight of the older Kicker disappearing in a torrent of fire. Even the Princesses, who had remained stoic throughout the whole Games, stood up from their throne-like chairs, their eyes wide open with shock at what transpired above the Coliseum.
As the flames died down, all eyes focused on the falling body that followed. All present members of the Ponyville team invaded the field, Ditzy and Raindrops even took off to catch their fallen comrade, before the whole crowd -and Pinkie who announced it loud and clear through her megaphone- noticed that woman falling wasn’t blonde in Ponyville Red. The athlete falling down to her defeat sported the Canterlot Grey and had wild hair the color of fire.
Along with Spitfire fell her cut-down light-made golden wings as well as the silvery Nimbo-gladius that had separated them from her back. A few paces above her, hovered a seemingly exhausted Cloud Kicker who managed to conjure a small patch of her namesake before collapsing on it.
She had managed to trick Spitfire’s flames by hiding behind the mirage of herself she had created -another shape she had copied from Spitfire-. Thanks to that, Cloud could dodge the punch that a surprised Wonderbolt witnessed going through the mirage’s face. What the blonde hadn’t accounted for was that Spitfire would turn the punch into a fiery explosion in response.
Luckily for her, even caught by surprise, the Wonderbolt kept a good control of her flames. It had singed a large part of her outfit, consumed a decent half of her left wing, and Cloud was fairly certain that her hair didn’t reach past her shoulders anymore. Other than that, she had been mostly unhurt by the fire, so she kept on with her plan. Cloud slipped through Spitfire’s guard and brought her Nimbo-gladius down on the bases of the Wonderbolt’s wings.
Like planned, the heat that Spitfire had coated herself in, didn’t stopped the blade, and the light-made appendages fell down just before Spitfire. The thing that wasn’t planned was that said heat still penetrated the cloud-shape, all the way up to the pommel, which Cloud held with her bare hands.
Now the blonde was trying to find in herself the focus to summon for a cool breeze that might soothe her brightly red and blistery palms, while Pinkie tried to reassure the crowd about Spitfire’s speeding descent towards the ground.
“Don’t worry, everybody! They’re forming clouds to catch her before she reaches the….OH MY FUCKING FAUST! WHAT IN TARTARUS IS HAPPENING HERE?!” Pinkie suddenly screamed in a voice that only displayed shock.
“What…” Cloud began with worry before a familiar voice coming from her left startled her.
“I gotta admit, I didn’t think you’d have figured out how to make the mirage,” Spitfire commented in a prideful tone that she badly tried to pass as casual.
“....You’ve got to be kidding….” Cloud whispered as she sized Spitfire up.
“I really thought you’d be scared by flames but no!” Spitfire kept on with a beaming smile. “Not you! You kept your focus and you went straight for the finishing blow,” she added with happy sigh. “That was awesome, Kid! You really went far beyond my expectations with that one.”
“... This can’t be happening,” Cloud let out in shock as Spitfire examined Cloud’s Nimbo-gladius that had cut her wings a few moments earlier.
“Also, THIS,” Spitfire nearly shouted in excitement, throwing Cloud’s shaped swords at the blonde’s feet. “This is top quality shaping, Cloud! A cloud-construct that I can’t dissipate! Oh man, wait until I tell the Winterjet about this! This will blow her mind!”
“....Spitfire,” Cloud called gently, pulling the Wonderbolt out of her thoughts of possibly testing the Nimbo-gladius’ resilience with her fellow ice-shaper. “You can fly without your wings?!” she asked, waving at the hovering body of a wingless Spitfire.
“What?!” The Wonderbolt asked back with a smirk. “You didn’t really think I had showed you all of my tricks, did you?” she added with a warm chuckle as Cloud let her back fall on the cloud she was sitting on.
“I give up!” Cloud let out with a brief chuckle before the wingless Spitfire flew down to sat next to the blonde’s lying form. “I’ve never had a chance, haven’t I?”
“To take the gold from me?” Spitfire asked back gently. “Not a chance at all,” she added in a cocky tone. “Hopefully, we can change in the time for the next Games!”