The Troll Squad

by Witching Hour

Pt 2 Outtake - Captain Moonbow vs. Second Captain Silver Lining

Still grumbling curses and oaths to figure out a way to rig the lottery, Moony trudges over to the starting line, facing her fellow Captain as though staring down her own executioner.

“I don’t suppose mentioning that I still have a limp from the last time would get you to go easy on me…” Moony calls across the field at her smirking opponent, clearly certain that the opposite would hold true.

“Nope.” Silver keeps his smirk as he pops his neck.

“Alright,” Spitfire calls out as she stands between them. “You know the rules; knockout, pin to a five-count, or actually last the full five minutes.” She says the last as she glances towards Moony, before looking towards Silver. “Try not to break her too badly this time.” She bounces away after that, yelling out, “Begin!”

Silver waits a few moments before flaring his wings out and charging at the mare before him. Moony spreads her wings out and upwards slightly as she holds her ground, waiting until the last possible second to thrust them downwards and jump into the air to avoid the Iron Horse. Silver barely adjusts as he kicks off the ground to angle up to meet her.

Moony tries to make a beeline for the clouds above, managing a few flaps of her wings before she is forced to hover as Silver’s shadow looms over her. Silver manages the faintest traces of a smirk as he brings a hoof down, which Moony deflects. Moony manages to deflect and block most of the blows that Silver throws, though she knows she is being herded away from the clouds above.

Moony grumbles as she continues to deflect and dodge the blows being thrown by Silver Lining. Eventually, she manages a lucky dodge that allows her to roll with the swing and stop at his side, allowing her to push off of him in an attempt to regain the air and head towards the clouds. He makes a small grunt as she uses him as a wall for the push, and tries to grab her leg and fails as she moves too fast.

“Well, she beats your record for lasting against him, Sunny.” Azure comments off to the side, watching as Silver chases after Moony, who dives into a cloud. Once Silver sees her disappear into a cloud, he angles away from it and floats up past it as he spreads his wings wide before thrusting them forward. The motions send a huge gust of wind towards the cloud, which whisks it away to reveal just open sky.

“Hmph,” he grunts as he eyes the other clouds near it. He floats over to another one and repeats the motions, whisking away another cloud. He grumbles as he repeats the motions to a third cloud, just for the same thing to happen again. He moves over to another cloud, but stops part way and quickly turns, as something tickles his senses. He thrusts out a hoof without thinking, and gets rewarded with the feeling of rainwater exploding over his side. He simply grumbles as he looks over to see part of a small raincloud on his hoof.

“Really?” he asks nopony in particular. He floats there as he looks around, just seeing clouds floating around him. “I could keep this game of Whack-a-Troll up all day, but the timer says otherwise.”

At that, another cloud rockets towards him, and instead of punching it, he dodges it. He keeps this up for only a few more clouds before he spins, narrowly dodging one and sending it back with a smack of his wing from whence it came. The cloud impacts the ring of clouds that had formed, a soft squeak sounding out.

Silver homes in on it, diving into the clouds a few seconds after the telltale noise. Inside the cloud, he spots Moony already attempting to flee out the other side, but she doesn't manage to get far as he thrusts his wings and quickly catches up to her. He body slams her, which sends her shooting out of clouds.

Moony quickly tries to regain her balance from the body slam, Silver back on top of her again the moment she manages to recover. She brings her arms up to block a punch, lessening the impact, but the force is still enough to send her downwards. She glances over her shoulder, seeing the ground looming closer by the second and rolls over in the air, managing to stick a four hoof landing.

She grins for all of a second before a weight slams her to the ground and stays on her, knocking only most of the air from her lungs. She grunts and spins part way as the weight above her shifts, and she thrusts out a hoof blindly, hoping to connect with something. She doesn't, but the weight above her shifts enough to where she can get leverage to roll away.

She rolls to her hooves and gasps for breath, looking up to see Silver already standing up and charging at her. She groans and takes to the air again, barely waiting for her lungs to catch up. Silver grumbles and launches himself after her.

“Stay still so I can finish this,” Silver shouts as he closes the gap again with Moony.

“Nope!” Moony manages to say as she deflects another swing from the old pony. Silver keeps up with a few solid swings, then does something unexpected. He throws a left hook, going wide as Moony easily deflects it, but she doesn’t expect the wing following it, smacking her lightly in the face as he spins around. The brief moment of confusion allows Silver to bring his hind leg around right into her stomach guard, hard.

This time she feels all the air leave her lungs as he follows through with another swing. Thankfully, they weren't too far from the ground as Moony goes flying back and lands with a rolling thud. As she gasps for breath, she feels a familiar weight on her back and hold her down. She shakes her head to try and clear it, barely hearing the five get shouted and Silver backing off a second after that.

“Did he actually feint?” Moony hears in Azure’s voice off to the side. Moony looks over as she slowly stands, seeing the blue mare leaning on a sign that had ‘7 for the landing, 5 for the blind swing’ on it. She shakes her head as she limps back to her squad.

“She beat your record for surviving Silver, Azzy,” Sunny comments, making the mare turn towards him and point at their captain.

“Running away for three minutes does not count as fighting!” Azzy retorts indignantly, brow furrowed into a deep scowl.

“He didn’t say fighting… He said ‘surviving’… Counts!” Moony groans before collapsing on the mats next to her twin. “Ow… Check please…”

“Fine, I concede that point. But I still last the longest actually fighting him.” Azzy huffs, crossing her arms.

Author's Note:

Immediately following the events of the previous chapter, Moony manages to barely break Azzy's record for surviving a sparring match with Silver Lining. Notably, 'surviving' is not 'fighting'.

Written by Zoljen, edited by Witching Hour.