Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS

The Fighting Tournament at the Top of the World

Rainbow Dash and Ark’Nogt were both allowed to walk right through the front gateway of the stadium without fuss. Everyone running the tournament knew who they were and now it was just a matter of Ark’Nogt taking Rainbow Dash to where the check-in and later the preliminary fights would be held. Ark’Nogt had told her that there wouldn’t be an audience for the preliminaries, which was kind of lame, but she figured they were still fighting in the main ring.

She was wrong.

As it turned out there was a large basement underneath the stadium for things like this. A place where fighters would gather, Reindeer could work, and the smaller matches be held before moving on to the big ones. There were also things like the nurse’s station, showers, and food just for the competitors. Seemed smart to Dash, they could be totally removed from everything going on above and not be bothered or interrupted by other Reindeer when the real tournament started.

She looked around and saw Sia’Lorna, Wandering Claw, and a whole bunch of other fighters she had briefly met before. A lot of the tournament officials were down here too. There were several smaller rings for fighting set up, similar to the one in the basement of the communal living center. Rainbow Dash figured they would have a number of matches going on at the same time to speed things up even more.

“So top 32, huh? That’ll be easy,” Rainbow Dash said with a grin as she and Ark’Nogt walked over to an official sitting behind a makeshift desk. “Hey! Rainbow Dash is here and I’m ready to fight! When’s it happening?”

The Reindeer politely smiled at her and looked through a long checklist before finding her name on it. “Ah, Rainbow Dash, there you are. Thank you for entering and good luck in your first tournament. We will be holding the preliminary matches shortly, feel free to mingle with the others or relax in any way that suits you.”

“Great!” Rainbow Dash said and looked over at Ark’Nogt. “What about you?”

“This is where I’ll be taking my leave for now. But you’ll see me tomorrow and I’ll see you when the real fights begin,” Ark’Nogt told her.

“Alright, thanks for everything, dude.” Rainbow smiled at him and gave him a hoof bump.

Ark’Nogt returned her smile and nodded. “You as well.”

She waved goodbye to him as he left the basement and then turned to go find Sia’Lorna again. Rainbow Dash didn’t know how long it would take to get through the preliminaries or if she might even have to fight more than one match. And she didn’t care, she was way too excited. She squeezed her way past some of the other Reindeer and the odd griffon to find Sia’Lorna already talking with Wandering Claw. Perfect, two friends in one spot.

“Yo! What’s up you two! Ready to fight?” Rainbow Dash asked as she approached, giving a hoof bump to Sia’Lorna and a nod to the standoffish Wandering Claw.

“I certainly am but hopefully not with you. Not yet at least,” Sia’Lorna said.

“What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash cocked her head at her.

Wandering Claw snorted. “She means, moron, that she doesn’t want to fight you until it’s a main event match where everyone is watching.”

“He’s right. It would be so disappointing if we had to fight in the preliminaries. I hope none of us are in the same group,” Sia’Lorna said.

“Yeah, that would be super lame. I really hope the fights are starting soon though, I seriously can’t wait, I’m shaking all over.” Rainbow Dash said as she leaned back and forth on the balls of her hooves.

“Try and contain yourself, pony. It’s hardly the first time you’ve fought after what you’ve told us,” Wandering Claw said, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah but this is a big deal to me! After the huge adventure I’ve been on I really have to cap it off with something awesome!”

“You’ll have to win first of all then,” Sia’Lorna giggled.

“Indeed. I’m certainly not going easy on you just because you have some delusional idea in your head,” Wandering Claw told her.

“Good,” she said to the wolverine and then narrowed her eyes at Sia’Lorna while a predatory smirk appeared on her face. “And I intend to win it all.”

“I can tell you’re good just from looking at you but I’m confident in myself as well,” Sia’Lorna said.

Rainbow Dash was about to respond with some more cocky boasting when a shrill whistle cut through the air of the stadium’s basement. Tiza’Nogt was standing on top of a small platform in the middle of the basement with a whistle grasped in her hoof. Once it was clear she had gotten everyone’s attention she put it down and smiled.

“Thank you all for coming to this tournament, even though it is not our grandest. You will now be sorted into a variety of groups so we can come up with our final thirty-two fighters. Please wait where you are for our officiators to come to you and give you a letter designation. That will determine your block and the ring you will be fighting in today. Due to the number of competitors we have, everyone advancing to the next round will fight a minimum of two matches today and possibly more. That is all,” she finished and stepped down, letting other tournament officials spread into the crowd of fighters.

Rainbow Dash waited for her turn with bated breath and wouldn’t you know it that she got put right into “A” block. Sia’Lorna was “G” and Wandering Claw “B”.

“Awesome,” Rainbow said as she saw the results. “Is there any, like, ways they go about choosing who goes to which block?”

“When it comes to smaller tournaments they make sure outsiders are as spread apart as possible. Aside from that though, no, not really,” Sia’Lorna shook her head. “Also I’ve been paying attention to the others called for A Block, I think you’ll have an easy time getting out.”

Rainbow Dash sputtered her lips. “Pff, of course I will! I don’t even know who I’m fighting and I still could’ve told you that.”

Another whistle blow from Tiza’Nogt cut their conversation short. “Everyone has their group now, please head to your designated ring.”

“See you later, I guess,” Rainbow Dash said to both Sia’Lorna and Wandering Claw and waved goodbye to them. She was sure she’d reunite with the both of them in the main tournament. For now it was time to beat her opponents today into the ground.

All of the rings down here had a sheet with a large number on it draped over their sides. Rainbow Dash went to the front of the rings and found her A ring right where it should be. As she had come to expect from what Sia’Lorna had said there were nothing but Reindeer around it, most of them probably right here from Nogt too. She recognized one or two from the exercise yard she had been using. Rainbow Dash confidently walked right up to all of them and yawned.

“So, who wants to get beat up first?”

---

The Reindeer were still just as polite and friendly as ever so no one was upset or annoyed by Rainbow Dash’s overconfident boasting. A volunteer raised his hoof and he and Rainbow Dash stepped into the ring while the others watched from around it. Every Reindeer in A Block was a buck, there were only a few does besides Sia’Lorna that Rainbow Dash could see participating in the whole tournament. The one who had decided to challenge Rainbow Dash was tall and sinewy, he’d have greater range than most Reindeer already had on her but it should also make it a little tougher for him to defend himself and respond to her movements. Rainbow Dash was confident she could easily dodge and dart around him when the fight started.

Speaking of that, a referee assigned to their ring was in there with them. He looked over both of the competitors before asking: “Are you ready to begin?”

“Ready,” the Reindeer said.

“More than ready,” Rainbow Dash grinned.

“Up above a trumpet will be blown to signify the start of the match but down here we just use whistles. So without further ado...” the referee said and put a whistle to his lips before shrilly blowing into it.

Once Rainbow Dash heard that noise she shot towards her opponent, going on the offensive right from the start. He didn’t show any surprise at her speed, it was likely he had heard about or seen her as well, and instead hunkered down to make himself less exposed to her. Well Rainbow Dash wasn’t planning to use any strategy or technique when fighting if she didn’t need to anyways. She barreled right towards him and instead of going for any blind or open spots just attempted to punch him straight in the face.

He wasn’t about to let that happen though and he lowered his head so his antlers were in the way of her. Just because they weren’t sharp didn’t mean they wouldn’t really hurt if she just ran right into them so she had to stop and jump to the side instead. When she tried to attack him there he pivoted and once again put his horns in the way of her attack.

“Tch,” Rainbow Dash clicked her tongue. He’s just turtling. If I could fly I could easily speed around him or attack from above…

It seemed like his strategy may have been to wait for her to tire herself out or get frustrated and do something stupid. But he didn’t seem to think she’d attempt to do something outrageous instead. When she dashed towards him next she didn’t bother stopping because his antlers were sticking out at her. Instead she grabbed the antlers with her outstretched hooves and yanked his head towards her. It was risky cause is he reacted in time he could just pull back, throw her away, or shake her off. Or potentially just have shaken his antlers around from side to side in the first place. But his reaction time wasn’t quite good enough for that. With a lurch he was pulled towards her and she kicked him in the top of the head with one of her back hoofs, releasing his antlers at the same time and letting him fly backwards.

“How’d that feel?” She cockily asked him.

He rubbed his head but didn’t actually look any worse for wear. Raising his head he smiled at her. “Just like a tap.”

“Ooooh, so you wanna trash talk too? Glad I’m not the only one.”

She didn’t let him respond as she ran at him at full speed again, zig-zagging around to keep him on his toes. He didn’t try to lower his antlers again and instead ran out to meet her. With his longer limbs he was able to send out a punch at her lithe body before she was in range to retaliate with the same—or she would’ve been unable to if she didn’t have experience with this kind of thing already.

Instead of simply blocking or dodging his punch she parried it with her hoof and let his leg slide alongside hers to outside her body while still propelling herself at him. He was defenseless and her hoof smashed right into his ribs, making him cough and step backwards.

Thanks for the exhibition fight, Ark’Nogt! Rainbow Dash thought and pressed her advantage. Two more punches to each side of his face shook him while a final spin kick to his chest sent him reeling and collapsing to the hard ground of the ring.

Rainbow Dash kept her eyes on him, unsure if he was down for the count and unsure if even if he wasn’t if she should keep going or if any further beating might disqualify her for being too rough. Luckily she had the answer in another second when he hopped to his hooves and ran at her. She grinned as he was now going on the offensive, she wanted to show off what she could do more, it was good the fight wasn’t over yet. He came at her with a flurry of blows, sharp and fast jabs aimed mostly at her head. Thanks to his reach and height it was easy for him to keep her on the defensive like this so long as he didn’t overextend himself and paid attention to her movements to evade or neutralize any counters she threw.

So Rainbow Dash just had to beat him with pure speed of her own and the use of some extra limbs he didn’t have. She backstepped to get some distance between her and him and then charged, knocking his first punch away with her left wing and his second with her right. He ground his teeth as he was forced to step back as well less he leave his body open to her again. But this still gave Rainbow Dash enough time to easily close the distance to him with another burst of speed he wasn’t expecting. A few more body shots got a wheeze out of him and when he tried to elbow her across the face she blocked it with her wing and uppercut him in the chin.

“Normally I’d be flying all around you but since I can’t do that I’ve had to get a little more creative with my wings,” Rainbow Dash said to him while he was dazed by her blow. “I think I’m pretty lucky that my wings were already so strong. I really am just awesome.”

He wasn’t about to let himself be knocked out of the tournament so easily though. Her opponent lowered his head at her and charged antlers first. Rainbow Dash jumped back and to the right but he quickly swung his head around and continued to try and thrust his antlers into her. He was either able to just barely peak out at her with his eyes or he was listening closely to her movements to follow them. Now he’d be wary enough with his horns too that he wouldn’t let her grab them, and he probably had brute strength on his side too.

Rainbow Dash tried to run around him in a wide circle but he was able to turn and match her easily, always keeping his antlers pointed at her. So without anything else to do she resorted to another frontal attack. He saw her coming and was prepared to quickly jab at her when she got close or yank his antlers from her grip if she tried that again. But it didn’t look like she was trying to do that, instead at the last moment she thrust her own hoof out at his head. He didn’t understand it since even if she landed a punch his antlers smashing into her would hurt her far more.

With a wide grin on her face, Rainbow Dash swatted the nearest branch of antlers down towards the ground, the bone-like appendages scraped against the stone floor and her opponent faltered as he was thrown off-balance. At the same time though she had used her momentum to catapult and flip herself above him (not using her wings at all while doing so) and elbowed him harshly in the back.

He grunted in pain as he collapsed onto his stomach with Rainbow Dash then immediately bringing a hoof down and pushing herself off his back to his side and kicked him in the ribs. With a heavy whumpf he slid across the stone to the side of the ring and lied there with a groan.

The referee was quick to see that he wasn’t getting up and continuing the fight and blew his whistle before Rainbow Dash could do anything else. “We have a winner!”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash jumped up and shouted. “One day and, uh… some more to go!”

The ref went over to check on her downed opponent while a nurse came over to help too. Rainbow Dash waved at the guy as he was being attended to and gave him a friendly smile. “Good job, dude, better luck next time.”

He managed to grin back at her. “And good luck to you… for the rest of the day... doubt you’ll need it though.”

Rainbow Dash hopped out of the ring and looked around at the other Reindeer in A Block who had just watched her fight. All of them looked rather apprehensive at how easily she had handled things despite her handicap. “So do I wait for the rest of you to fight or does someone want to give me my second match right now?”

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

[redmar]

That was a good fight but it's no surprise that Rainbow Dash won.