6:00 P.M. Canterlot Royal Garden's.
With all of the excitement going on in the arena the canterlot garden's were void of all life. The same demented statue from before however was abuzz with chaotic magical energy. The strange creature from before had now morphed into something even more twisted and evil looking as the very stone itself looked like it was warping as the chaotic magic began distorting the very fabric of reality. Soon the Stone statue resembled nothing more than a giant hunk of rock resting on a pedestal. Evil laughter continued to emanate from the solid rock sounding more and more distorted with each passing breath.
"Soon i shall be free. And all of pony kind shall bow before me or perish in the everlasting confine's of the void." More evil laughter was heard in the garden's that night.
Princess Midnight watched with bated breath as the contestant's lined up on the field. She still had a data pad from before detailing the fighter's for the evening. She glanced down at the instrument and her horn lit up. The device came to life and began to show each of the gladiator's and there stat's.
Swift Wing, Pegasus, Weapon of choice, Bow and Arrow.
Prince Charlemagne, Thestral, Weapon of choice, Spear.
Whip Lash, Unicorn, Weapon of choice, Whip cord.
Gadget, Unicorn, Weapon of choice, Sword.
Kilo-Ton, Earth Pony, Weapon of choice, Hammer.
Coco'Loco, Earth Pony, Weapon of choice, Unknown.
All in all she was impressed with the diversity of the combatant's. She found Coco'Loco to be a bit odd, mostly because she did not have a weapon registered. Midnight looked around to the other guest's of the V.I.P booth. They were all looking at there pad's, and tapping some number's next to certain fighter's. Midnight glanced at the six fighter's and saw that each one had a betting pool next to there name's.
She scanned the list,
Swift Wing, 66% chance of winning.
Prince Charlemagne, 73% chance of winning.
Whip Lash, 55% chance of winning.
Gadget, 23% chance of winning.
Kilo-Ton, 87% chance of winning.
Coco'Loco, 0% chance of winning.
The odd's were not on her knight's side. Even if Coco'Loco had a 0% chance of winning that didn't mean she couldn't pull off a spectacular underdog moment. Still he had a 23% chance of winning. And that would be more than enough. she knew her knight better than anypony here. She knew he had what it took to win this tournament tonight.
6:05 P.M.
Gadget and the five other contestant's all lined up for the opening ceremony. Gadget was excited as he looked around the arena, taking in all of the emotions of the fan's as they poured there admiration for the game's out blanketing the arena with a magic all it's own. As Gadget scanned the crowd his eye's fell on the booth with his friend's and family inside. He smiled and waved a hoof at them. As soon as his hoof touched the ground a small set of antenna's sprouted from the box.
Four of them in all came out of the box arranged in a square grid pattern. Suddenly a burst of yellow magic flowed between them and an image began to form in thin air. Gadget laughed at the very confused look on his family face's as the the image hardened into what looked like a crystal clear view of the occupant's of the box. All of the pony's on the box looked around as if trying to find the source of this random footage of them. There surprise was cut off as a loud voice rang out over a loudspeaker.
"My Little Pony's!" Came the voice of Princess Celestia as she raised from her seat in the booth. Gadget looked closer at the princess and saw that she had a small mic stuck to her head. He chuckled at the once princess turned sports caster.
"The time has come for the yearly equestrian sport's theater!" At her announcement the whole stadium erupted into applause. She let the din die down and then continued her speak.
"As you all know when ever we host these sporting event's we usually hold a voting poll." The audience murmured in agreement.
"But this year in honor of the return of our two sister's," Celestia gave her two younger sibling's a curt nod.
"We have decided to let them pick the game's this year. And they have chosen an old but valiant custom to entertain us for this evening." She gave the pony's a bow and stepped down from the screen. Soon Princess's Luna and Midnight took up the mic and walked onto the big screen.
"Is this thing on?" Came Luna's voice.
"I don't know?" Came Midnight's reply. Gadget had to stick a hoof in his mouth suppress his laughter at the sister's antic's. Princess Celestia came up behind the two and whispered in there ear's. Both of there face's went red and they cleared there throat's.
"Greeting thine loyal subject's!" Luna said to the crowd. They in turn cheered and greeted the lunar princess with gusto. Luna nodded to Midnight. She smirked at her sister and took up the speech.
"Hello everypony!" Midnight said. The crowd cheered once more.
"Tonight we the Princess's of equestria are proud to present to you a glorious pass time from age's long past." At her word's the crowd grew silent.
"Tis our great pleasure to bring forth the most exquisite of game's for tonight. Fighter's please make thine way to the center of the arena!" All four Princess got up and in perfect synchronization gave the salute. At there upraised hooves the battle horn's blared and the trumpet's sounded. Midnight watched as Gadget and the other contestant's walked to the center of the arena. Her eye's scanned each pony as they stopped in the middle and gave the crowd a bow. When the music stopped Princess Cadance spoke last.
"We here in canterlot are proud to extend our hoof out to our ally's in the north." She gave the delegate's a small smile. Princess Nix looked up from her brother and gave a soft smile. Cadance continued.
"Now for the moment you have all been waiting for." As her voice boomed out over the crowd the fighter's in the arena all stood in unison.
6:10 P.M.
Gadget looked around at the other contestants. They all looked nervous. He looked a little closer at the pink earth pony.
"Pinky?" He thought.
"Why would she be participating in this?"
His eye's were drawn to the screen as Cadance spoke her last.
"Now for the moment you've all been waiting for." With the screen now showing all four princess's, they all stood in there regal attire. As one cohesive voice the Princess's called the fighter's to attention. They all fallowed suite.
As Twilight watched the fighter's get ready she glanced around.
"Were did pinky get to?" she had noticed that pinky had vanished. It wasn't unusual for her to do so but Twilight would have thought pinky would be here for the opening battle. All of her pondering was interrupted as the Princess's took up there mike's and made there final deceleration's.
The whole authority of Equestria was upon the fighter the moment the princess's took there post's.
"Our little pony's!" The whole stadium fell silent.
"The six fighter's you see before you are some of the best warrior's from around the kingdom and beyond." Gadget puffed out his chest in pride at those word's. He sensed the pride of the other contestant's as well. Then he felt the sharp sting of madness emanating from one contestant. He glanced over at pinky.
"What is wrong with her?" He could genuinely say he was afraid right now. The look on pinky's face was one of a crazed pony. Her eye's were staring strait ahead, her muzzle twisted in a sadistic smile, her breathing was heavy and long. All in all pinky looked like she had just escaped from a mental hospital. Gadget forced himself to look ahead and focus on the fight soon to be at hand.
"These pony's are here today to show there skill's and fighting tactic's that have carried them throughout there live's." Despite his uneasiness Gadget snickered.
"They are laying it on thick." He thought.
"Today they will put on a show for the age's as they fight for our amusement in a reenactment of one of equestria's oldest sport's." The crowd cheered and stomped there hooves shaking the whole stadium to it's foundation's.
The Princess's all looked out to the group of warrior's.
"Fighter's are you ready?" The group all bowed at once.
"Then take your position's."
The six contestant's looked at one another and bowed. Then they all turned and took ten pace's back from there little circle.
The four sister's fused there magical energy's together to create a mystical clock high above the arena. It started to tick down from 5. All eye's were upon it as it hit 4.
3..
2..
1..
"Then let the game's begin!" The stadium erupted in applause. No pony moved. The air was still as the cheer's died down. All six fighter's glanced at one another.
Twilight was enveloped in the coming fight but that nagging feeling came back. She glanced around the booth.
"Still no sign o--" Her thought died as she saw the door knob turn. Her face lit up as Pink Pie entered the the booth a smile upon her muzzle as she skipped over to her friend's.
"Pinky were where you?" Twilight asked. Pinky looked at Twilight and chuckled.
"Sorry twi i had a little accident in the bathroom." She said as she recounted how her hoof got stuck in the hot air hoof dryer. Twilight did a double take as she looked at her holo-pad. She pulled up the data on Coco-Loco. She brought her hoof up to her mouth in shock.
"Girl's i think we may have a problem."
Gadget looked around his mind now focused on surviving this little bout and being the last pony standing. Princess Midnight had placed much trust in him to come out of this thing on top. He really didn't want to disappoint her. For multiple reason's. Whip lash was the first to strike.
Her metal and leather implement scything through the air lashing at Coco. The pink pony nimbly dodged attack that impacted the ground were she had just been. At that moment Charlemagne jumped into the air taking flight. Swift wing did so as well. Swift let loose an arrow aiming for the prince's head.
His arrow flew through the air and would have hit it's mark. The prince bashed the arrow out of the way however and went on the offensive sending a flurry of thrust's swift's way. As swift was busy looping around Charlemagne's spear, Gadget was watching with fascination as Whip Lash tried to get a hit on Coco who went about dancing in and out of the whip's range. Coco had yet to draw her weapon. Gadget was interrupted from his observation's by Kilo-Ton.
"So." Gadget looked over to see Kilo with his hammer held in his grasp. "Oh crap." Kilo sat the hammer's head down on the ground and rested his head the pommel.
"Young'in what can this old stallion teach you today?" Gadget cocked his head. "Huh?" Gadget was blind sided by a hoof to the face. He staggered from the force of the blow and regained his sense's and looked at the old man. He looked like he hadn't moved except to stifle a yawn.
"Well young'in this chat'in is all fun but we do have to give the spectator's a show." Kilo said as he cracked his neck. He grasped his hammer once again and hefted above his head resting it upon his back. Gadget's eye twitched as he pulled his sword from it's sheath and brought it up to guard his head.
"Ok pop's let's see what'cha got!" He said as he held his sword out to charge the old stallion. Kilo just sat there. When Gadget got close Kilo wound up his hammer like a base ball bat.
"Batter up young'in." He said as he swung at the charging unicorn. His hammer sailed through the air and hit.. Nothing. Kilo looked around. he was blinded by a flash of emerald light as he ducked his head to avoid the bright light he was taken aback by the magical force that passed through his body. His entire body went ridged as he slumped over from the paralyze spell placed on his armor. He swung his head around to look at Gadget. He was panting hard from exertion but managed to give the old man a soft smile.
"Well young'in that's that." He said as he slumped to the ground. Gadget ran over to Kilo.
"Hey old man you ok?" Gadget said as he swept the old man up in his magic. He knew there wasn't a threat of real damage but still. He didn't want to stress the old man out. He probably already caused the old stallion to have a heart attack. Kilo stared at Gadget.
"Young'in what in tarnation are ya do'in?" Kilo asked. Gadget chuckled.
"I'm doing my job. Looking out for the citizen's of equestria." Gadget said as he dragged the old pony over to the side of the arena. Gadget set Kilo down.
"Ok so stay here until the fight's over ok?" He said as he scanned the arena.
While Gadget was fighting Kilo, Swift Wing was keeping Charlemagne's spear at bay with his barrage of arrow's.
"Can't keep this up forever." Swift thought. Charlemagne laughed.
"You can only avoid the inevitable for so long Swift." He said as he sent one of the pagasi's arrow's flying wildly. He darted forward and saw a gap in Swift's defense's when he went to draw an arrow only to reach for thin air.
"Crap!" Swift had to think fast. Reacting quicker than he thought possible Swift swung his bow around. Just as Charlemagne's spear was close to his chest Swift's bow came around and parried the blow. The Prince was shocked.
"How?" So shocked that Swift was able to swing his bow around a second time smashing it's hard wood against the prince's face. The prince was dazed and sent hurdling to the ground. Swift fallowed suite. The prince got to his hooves shaking with fury that he had been grounded so easily.
"How could you a simple peasant best me?" He shouted. Swift laughed at the Princes folly.
"They don't teach you how to sit on your ass and look pretty at the academy your royal highness." Swift said as he bowed mockingly. the prince was livid. His thought's of blood lust were cut short by a demented giggle.
"Oh Boy's!" Came a voice from the behind the pair. Both stallion's looked to the source. Coco was behind the two. This didn't deter them one bit. The giant cannon Coco had procured from somewhere did tho. They both stopped in there track's. The prince was shocked.
"We're Both in the blast radius of that monster." He thought about a plan of escape and a devious smile formed on his face.
"Perhaps i can kill two bird's with one stone." Charlemagne decided that at least one of them could survive the blast. Thinking fast he knocked dashed up to Swift, spun his spear around, and bashed swift upside the head with the butt if his spear and grabbed his limp body using him as a pony shield. Just as Coco's cannon went off both pony's disappeared in a flash of bright light and a cloud of smoke, dust, and blown apart earth. Gadget saw the two and screamed.
"SWIFT!" He ran over to the smoking crater but was held up when his hind leg got caught up. He ended up falling flat on his face. He got to his feet and looked around.
"Tsk tsk. Such a knotty boy leaving a women behind to fend for herself." Came Lash's voice from behind him. Gadget grasped the whip in his magic and uncurled it from his leg. He got to his feet and looked Lash dead in the eye's.
"I don't have time for this." He calmly spoke as his eye's turned a deep crimson. He readied his sword and stood his ground. Lash chuckled coldly as she recalled her whip. It curled through the air and poised itself like a viper at her beck and call. Meanwhile Coco went up to the crater to inspect her handy work.
"Hello!? Anypony alive down there?" Her tail twitched and she jumped out of the way just in time. A hair's breath from were she was just standing there was a spear sticking out of the ground. She looked up to see Charlemagne breathing heavily, his mane was a mess and it looked like he was bleeding from several cut's across his face.
"You know you would have made a brilliant soldier in the Romainian Military." Charlemagne said as he landed on the ground to retrieve his spear. He smirked.
"To bad you had to be born here and as an earth pony at that." He said as he leveled his spear at Coco. She just smiled her same demented smile and bounced about on the battlefield.
Lash sent her whip at Gadget with all the ferocity of a cobra as she swirled it about switching up the angle's of her attack by pulling the line short or over extending her reach. No matter how hard she tried however Gadget's blade was always there to block, parry and otherwise intercept her attack's no matter what angle they came from. Gadget however was stuck on defense.
"I can't find an opening." He pulled his sword back to block a lashing aimed at his chest. As gadget studied Lash's attack pattern Charlemagne stood his ground against Coco who had summoned a baseball bat out of nowhere. She swung it with abandon forcing the prince to pull his spear back and block with the wooden shaft of the weapon. His body was aching from the force of that explosion and his wing's were not feeling to good ether.
"I have to find a way to end this, quickly."
Gadget was having a great bout of success in battling Lash and her whip. He managed to go on the offensive, slicing and hacking at her weapon when it came within range of his sword. He had infused a little of his magic into the blade making it both wider and longer. The normally 3 foot long blade was now a good 5 feet long and at least 10 inch's wide. He even extended the handle a little bit to give himself even more reach.
The sword now turned short spear was vary effective at keeping lash at bay and Gadget used that to his full advantage. He pushed his assault backing Lash up to the far side of the arena. Lash was on her last leg so to speak. She did not expect this simple guard to give her much of a fight. But here he was fighting like a well trained warrior who had seen many battle's. she was impressed and allowed herself to smirk at her own foolishness for underestimating her opponent.
"He is good i will give him that." She smiled as she formulated a plan.
"Let's see how well he handle's this." With little effort Lash commanded her whip to retract. Gadget held off on his assault and took the brief respite to catch his breath.
"Now what doe's she have planned?" He thought as he brought his sword to bare. Lash's whip had wound itself into a tight circle almost forming into what looked like a round shield. She laughed at Gadget's hesitation.
"What's the matter boy? To tired already?" She said as her whip began to wind itself around her body. Gadget grinned. That grin unnerved Lash. Then he began to cackle. And soon he was laughing like a mad pony.
"What's so funny?" Coco piped up? Gadget stopped his crazed laughter and set his eye's on Lash.
"Well sweet heart it's been fun." Gadget said as he brought his blade up and positioned the point behind himself. Lash gave this move no mind.
"Well it seem's the little colt has become a stallion. Bravo." Lash said as her whip finished winding itself around her. She smirked as the two began to circle one another. Over head a storm was brewing. It was small but still noticed by the many spectator's of the arena. Some even pointed to the little storm cloud's beginning to take shape overhead. Most however paid them no head.
Lash brought the handle of her whip up and clamped it firmly in her mouth. For her next attack she would need all of her hooves free. Gadget just waited patently for Lash to make her move. In the blink of an eye her routine came bursting forth. She stood on her hind leg's and began to spin and twirl her body. She let her reflex's take over as they had a thousand time'e before when she had preformed this maneuver.
As she began to gain more and more momentum her body became a blur of steel and leather. Then her whip unwound itself and lashed out with newfound intensity. Gadget was caught off guard and in that split second he found himself entwined within Lash's whip. He struggled to free himself from the weapon's confine's but found no way of escape. Lash meanwhile was a little disoriented from her unorthodox attack.
However seeing Gadget caught in her trap was a glorious site to behold.
"So little colt do you give up?" Lash mumbled through metal handle of her weapon still clutched in her mouth. Gadget just laughed.
"What's so funny?" Lash said as she sashayed up to her captive. He just grinned and said to simple word's.
"Check mate." With a loud boom from above a bolt of white hot lighting burst forth from the storm cloud's above. the bolt arced through the air and struck the tip of Gadget's sword. Using the next to last reserve's of his magic he directed the energy through his sword and into Lash's whip curled around his body. The electricity surged though the metal of the whip and went to the only place it could go. Right into Lash's mouth.
Her body convulsed with all of the power surging through it. And just as quickly as it had come it was gone. Lash collapsed on the spot, her whip slowly slinking to the ground, still smoking from all the juice that flowed through it. Gadget was not feeling so hot even though he channeled most of the lighting into the ground he still got quite the shock himself. He stumbled about until he was able to get his barring's. Slowly Gadget walked over to Lash and saw her chest move up and down. He then turned to the remaining fighter's, both starring at him with a sense of fear about them.
"So who's next?" He asked raising his sword to meet whoever challenged him next. The Prince looked up to see the clouds begin to dissipate. Then his eye's fell on the V.I.P booth. He gulped down his fear and held up his Spear.
"On guard!" He shouted as he galloped foreword to meet his foe. Coco was rummaging around in a chest she had pulled from slip space. Her eye's lit up as she held a sadistic grin upon her face.
"It's time to make some Cupcake's! "She shouted as she hefted a chainsaw in her hooves. The infernal machine roared to life as she wrenched the cord on the monstrosity a few time's.
Gadget just smiled at his two adversary's his crimson eye's scanning both of then as they rushed to meet him in battle. Gadget wiped his sword around and it was once more engulfed in his magic. His magical spear went to work parrying both the prince's spear and coco chainsaw. The Prince brought the last reserve's of his energy into being and took to the air jabbing at Gadget from above. Meanwhile coco wildly swung her electric meat cleaver around with out a care in the world.
Gadget parried, blocked and even teleported out of there range every time they got close.
"I need to end this." Just as Coco swung her chainsaw down upon Gadget he disappeared into thin air, letting her weapon dig itself into the ground. It became stuck and resisted all of her attempt's to pull it free. While she was preoccupied with getting her precious cutter out of the ground Gadget capitalized on Coco's mistake. He blinked into existence just to her side and drove his pommel into the back of her head. She hit the ground like a sack of brick's and did not stir.
Gadget bent down to check if she was ok. She was still breathing so he let her rest. His pity on her cost him a stab to the back however. He swung his sword about and bashed away the prince's spear. He looked back and saw that the prince hand lanced his flank. His back leg's were beginning to go numb. The prince however looked like he was about to fall out. He looked down upon Gadget however with a smirk on his muzzle.
"So just the two of us eh?" He asked the smugness in his voice made Gadget want to puke.
"So how do you plan on winning Huh?" The prince taunted. Gadget just smiled.
"Well i can even the playing field." He countered. With a pop gadget was gone. Charlemagne looked around frantically. He didn't a single warning before his wing's were suddenly slashed through. As his limb's became paralyzed he plummeted to the earth crashing into the ground. The prince groaned in disgust as he pulled himself to his shaking leg's. He saw Gadget standing there before him his blade held up point in front of the Prince's snout.
"Do you yield?" He asked panting heavily. The prince desperately looked around for any chance of winning. He spotted his spear lying on the ground behind Gadget. Charlemagne acted quickly throwing dirt in Gadget's eye's. The blinded unicorn reeled back wiping the dirt from his eye's. The Prince bounded forward and grasped his spear in his hooves. His eye's locked onto gadget and he gave his charge everything he had. Gadget had recovered from the prince's lowly tactic and readied his blade. Before the prince could correct his course he was blinded by a flash of bright green light. He felt a tingling sensation flash through his entire body. Behind him stood Gadget, panting heavily and holding his blade high.
The whole stadium was quite as the two warrior's stood as still as statue's. Then they both collapsed from pure exhaustion. The whole stadium was silent before erupting into wild riot's applause. The last thing Gadget heard before he passed out was the thousand's of screaming fan's.
6:30 P.M.
Canterlot Royal Garden's.
The statue of discord was now little more than a pile of melted slag now upon the pedestal it once stood. A dark wary voice cut through the cool night air.
"Finally i am free!" The God of Disharmony was unleashed from his stone prison.