Fighters Don't Have Friends

by BackroundVoice

24 : The Rising Phoenix

"Raise the bucking bars, Soarin!" Dash yelled. Trying to lift the wall up by force. Several other ponies were doing the same. Dash, Rare, Fiona and Abby were all raring to go. Ever since the beginning of the tournament, Nightmare had been losing her respect bit by bit. And now that she had torn me apart while I was down, no one cared about the rules anymore. They'd fight Nightmare right here, right now. Even Percival and the Knightmares were mad.

Soarin on the other hoof was holding back on lifting the gate. He knew all too well that this was going to turn into a blood bath the second he did. Spitfire and her wonderbolts were ready to fight too. Along with every other participant in the tournament and all who watched. Nightmare Moon growled at this disapproval during her victory. She was getting more irritable by the second, forcing her to raise her voice over them all.

Her death rattling scratch hurt everyone's ears. And they comforted them as she spoke.

"Insolent peasants!" Nightmare bellowed. This is what ponies in the golden age called the royal Canterlot voice. A skill of pitch and voice as a result of magic to amplify one's voice for large crowds. But decades had passed since the princess had last used it. This was evidence of how old she really was. A long thought to be dead, tyrant.

"You degenerates know nothing! I play by your lowly rules, I've conquered your best, and I've done it all while holding back my true power!" The ponies around her just continued to glare and bad mouth her. She was an enemy to them. An enemy to all of Equestria. Nightmare huffed as she turned to her knights. "You as well? My own guard, traitors!"

"You broke your promise to us when you broke that unicorn's horn! She wasn't even a fighter back then! She was just an innocent school girl!" Percival accused Nightmare.

"And look where it got her!" Nightmare stepped away from me, showing everypony the fate that would await them if they challenged her. "I am the princess of the night, I am the true and rightful ruler to the Equestrian throne, and all of you will kneel before me!" That demand was an explosive delivery of power and hate. Every equine present looked towards the ring in awe. Although I doubt it was Nightmare's speech reaching their ears.

"Sorry, I'm incapable of kneeling," I said, getting to my hind legs, body agitated with pain, I stood up in my fighting stance again. Breathing heavily.

"Have you no fear of death?" Nightmare asked me. I said nothing. Beckoning her to come at me with the motion of my front right hoof. "Then die!" Nightmare roared, flying straight for me. I took in a deep breath and jumped in place. Raising my back hooves up in between us, I bucked Nightmare Moon in mid air. The force combined with both of our attacks sent Nightmare sailing into one side of the ring and me sliding to the other. I landed on my side, hearing a crack when I did.

"Ribs," I wheezed, "not good." I got up again, remarkably. But it was getting easier every time I did it. So that was a good sign. However, Nightmare standing up was not.

"Did you really think," Nightmare stumbled forward, "that one attack would finish me?"

"Kinda?" I answered. Stepping forward into a gallop. I must've hit Nightmare pretty hard for her to be walking all drunk like that. I brought up my hoof and punched her right between the eyes. It moved her back a tad, but she returned the favor just the same. Then the crowd started to cheer again. The fight was still on, and I hadn't lost yet. Everyone was shouting my name to finish it. Cause there was no more room for honor in this fight.

If Nightmare was going to fight dirty, I'd do the same. She swiped at my horn, a bait I let her go for as I ran around her, tugging at her wings. Nightmare cussed me out in old pony speak. Damning me to Tartarus and back as I lost hold of one wing and reached the middle of her left and snapped it with my own strength.

Nightmare bucked me off. I landed on my flank as I watched her look on in horror as one-half of that wing hung limp. Words couldn't describe her hatred toward me. But I wasn't going to let her get the upper hoof in this. I charged, tackling her into the bars again as she cried out in pain.

"I'll rip your head from your shoulders!" Nightmare threatened, pushing me off of her, re-engaged in our hoof fight. Punching, kicking, blocking, dodging, missing. It was just a test of endurance at this point. I kept aiming for her major injuries as she learned to hit my broken ribs and continued to punch at my horn.

"It's useless," Nightmare told me, "you will die here like your friend, and so will the others!" She kicked me back, making me cough hard. That wasn't helping my chest at all as I trotted back to her and missed my kick, resulting in me stepping through it anyway, punching her in the gut.

"You can't stop all of us, and you know it!" I said. Both of us blocking the other's shoulder. I moved into a kick, but Nightmare just punched me away by my horn. It hurt so much. It was so numb at this point that I could feel it twice as much. But one thing kept me going me more than the bleeding pain in my head. Voices. My friend's voices. I could hear them cheering me on over the crowd. They knew I could win. And I will win!

Nightamare and I both grappled each other, trying to force the other to submit. We were both out of breath, out of energy. It was no longer the one sided battle like before, I was holding my own.

"Oh, I know I will!" Nightmare huffed, "I destroyed the Elements of Harmony a thousand years ago. Crushed to dust! Celestia only managed to trap me on the moon because of a cheap spell that I also broke! This fight with you has only been a reenactment of that night! I will stomp your horn in until your skull cracks! Then no one will dare challenge me again!"

"My friends spent their fights hurting you, breaking you down bit by bit so that I could finish you off! It was a combined effort, all of us playing a part in your defeat! We're the Elements of Harmony now!" I said, now struggling to even stand.

"Foolish, there wasn't even a spark of magic!"

"You're right. Because the spark wasn't magic, it was friendship!" I reared my head back, smashing my horn against her's. "You want my horn so badly? Take it!" I then continued to ram my head into Nightmare's. With every hit, my horn fell apart, until finally, it shattered. Pieces of bone scattering everywhere as blood poured from my head. I felt a relief of pain as Nightmare stumble back. Her head was looking everywhere. She didn't know which way was up anymore. Allowing me the time to ready one last punch. It made contact with the front of her nose, the strength alone made her head tilt back as the momentum carried her to the floor.

Time passed as we waited to see if Nightmare was truly down for the count. And after a good while, I raised my hoof.

"Phoenix wins!" I heard next. I couldn't even turn my head to look at my friends who caught me before I fell.

"I did it, Vinyl. I stood up... Happy now? I stood up again..."

---

Everything was dark. So dark. But then I realized that I just had my eyes closed. Opening them, I saw a really bright light a white figure.

"Vinyl?" I called out for, faintly. Reaching out and grabbing a long coat.

"Sorry, Twilight. You're still among the living," said a very distinct voice. Dr. Slovic. I blinked and squinted at the dark colored horse until my vision came back. I let go of his lab coat, allowing him to step around to the other side of my bed.

"Doc, where am I?" I asked.

"My clinic," Sombra answered. "You're healing from a few broken ribs and a destroyed horn." I sat up, suddenly, looking to the window at my reflection. There was no longer a bandaged horn. There wasn't a horn at all. Just my messy bangs covering a now smooth forehead. "I cleaned up what I could, saving your brain. Well, whatever's left of it." Sombra seemed mad at me.

"You did a good job," I said. Feeling around that spot, void of my horn.

"Not in the least!" Sombra nagged. "I should've smashed in your skull myself! Maybe then there would've been something left to save!" Sombra looked out of breath. He must've been working on me for hours. I then started to feel a sharp pain in my side. My aching ribs. Sombra helped me lie back down. I smiled at him. A weak, but understanding smile.

"I won't be able to use magic ever again, will I?"

"No," Sombra answered me grimly. "No, you will not." I stared up at the ceiling, lost in thought of all the things I'll never get to do again for sacrificing my horn to win one fight. But what a fight it was.

"Is Nightmare Moon also here?"

"Also, no." Sombra began to explain. "She doesn't heal the same way you and I do. Within a couple of minutes, she was conscious again. And by the second hour after the fight, she was strong enough to walk. After that, she went off into the Everfree forest."

"And the Knightmares?"

"Disbanded, as far as I know."

"So, I won?" I asked, finally.

"Yes, Twilight. You won." I started to smile uncontrollably. I beat up an Alicorn. An actual monster, and won. And no one else can say that they did but me. Now it all felt worth it. Now, all that bad luck and trouble seemed to have part of my destiny. I was supposed to be here. I'm glad that Dash dragged me to Ponyvile to fight with the others. And kicking Flash Sentry to the curb along with the Canterlot guard felt like a bonus. I even started to laugh.

"Miss Fluttershy was right, you are weird," Sombra commented. I stopped being cheerful at that. Shooting Sombra a guilt finding look. We were alone. Just me and him in this room.

Do I ask him? I thought. Vinyl said not to worry about it. That it was all done. But even now, I couldn't just bring myself to let it go. What if he was the one. "The King".

"Is something wrong, Twilight?" Sombra asked me. I looked deep into his eyes. They were red. But they weren't glowing at the moment. I checked deeper, staring into his very soul, and asked myself if he did it.

No... It wasn't him.

"Twilight?"

"It's nothing Sombra, just messing with you. I think you're pretty weird too."

"I suppose, but you take it to a completely different level." I pretended to chuckle in my throat at that. I guess I was getting worked up over nothing. Whoever did it kill Vinyl would get what's coming to him one day. I shouldn't worry about it.

"Is she up?" I heard the faint whisper coming from outside the door. Sombra went to open it. And sure enough, Dash and the others were there. Happy to see me as much as I was to see them.

"Feeling better?" Fiona asked, I nodded. She had brought flowers for me. Rare gifted me with a scarf, hoof stitched by herself. Dash had food for me, as usual. Soarin had a big bottle of cider for me. And Pinkie had dozens of balloons in tow with her. All of them explained to me what Sombra had already covered and then some. With my victory, Soarin got to keep his job at the bar with the Cakes, and Spitfire returned to the army, true to her word. The tournament had actually attracted so much attention that knuckle brick corner, that now it had more business than ever. And with Nightmare Moon's defeat, none of us had to leave town.

"So all in all. I guess it turned out just fine," I cheerfully said before Abby dropped something big and heavy on me.

"Plus, you're the champ now," Abby added as I marveled at the champion belt. Long and plated with shining gold. And engraved in the center was a ruby pony surrounded by tiny sapphire and diamond jewels. It still seemed too good to be true. I ended up turning to Fluttershy, whose life had changed quite a bit since we first met.

"What are you going to do now?" I asked her. She looked surprised, also not pleased at all that the attention in the room had been directed to her. She reluctantly rolled her eyes and answered me.

"I'm thinking about staying for a while," she said rather shyly. "It seems like a nice enough place." I was glad to hear her say that. Like it was the final piece to the puzzle. But it wasn't.

"Hey, Doc," I began, "do you think you could give me leave for one day to visit Canterlot?"

"What?" he started, "absolutely-" he began to deny me. But one look around the room at all the hardened fighting professionals and softened his tone suddenly. "O- Of course you can. Let me go prescribe you some pain killers."

"Thanks, Doc," I said, sitting up again, carefully, to get out of bed.

"Why are you going back to Canterlot?" Pinkie Pie asked me, one eye tearing up at the thought of me leaving.

"Don't worry, I'll be back. I just need to see somepony," I said, calmly.

"Who?" they all questioned.

"My old teacher, the princess. Celestia, the goddess of the sun."