My Little Pony Heart of Friendship: Tales of a New Beginning

by ShadowDurza

Rise Again, Part 6

Spike, having put aside the quill after jotting down the last title on the list he made out based on what Maxine told him, folded rolled up the piece of paper and sent it away with a quick belch of his green flames. “That one’s going to my personal files! Thanks again for the recommendations and who I need to go to find them, Madam von Wrinkle!”

At this, Maxine made a dismissive gesture paired with a barely restrained haughty expression. “Eh, they’re all good issues to use as a springboard to get the gist of important points of the overall narrative. From there, it won’t be difficult to grasp the plot of all the other comics.”

A previously uninvolved Discord snapped his fingers and was suddenly wearing an oversized pair of glasses, a pencil behind one of his ears, and had buck teeth accompanied by dental headgear. “And here I am thinking I’d thuddenly thlipped into the dork dimenthion!” These words were spoken with a heavy lisp that he made no effort to contain, dramatically swaying back and forth to spray as much saliva as he could at his fellow box occupants, who could only recoil slightly as they brought up their limbs in an attempt to shield themselves from the slimy downpour.

Flicking the spittle off the claws he used to shield his head, Spike attempted to regain a more composed manner. “Getting back on topic… It’s apparent that from the beginning of that fight, victory hinged on whoever was able to be one or more steps ahead of the other. And with an abrupt ending like that, it was apparent that Oro was just the more clever of the two fighters in this bout.

“Putting the whole thing in perspective, Team Prancing Pony, despite losing the opening round, was able to make an immediate recovery and then some by eliminating Team Rising Dragon’s first two Guardsmen. Undeterred by this development, Rising Dragon promptly evened the score, leaving both teams with their last Guardsmen, and just one undeployed Specialist left. What’s your insight on this development, Madam von Wrinkle?”

As Maxine finished wiping her spectacles with a silken pocket hanky, he made a simple fold and evenly tucked it back into her pocket and returned her vision aid to its place. “Perhaps owing to both teams’ youthful inexperience, It’s now apparent that neither of them opted for more than a standard formation considering the attributes displayed by each Guardsman. A striker, meant to go in full-blast from the get go; a commando, a more reactive fighter meant to be shuffled in and out along with the Specialists as needed; and I get the feeling that both of the Third Guardsmen are meant to be their teams’ sweepers, more stalwart and efficient fighters meant to drag on their fights so as to exhaust all enemy fighters after they lost the better part of their stamina after being deployed.

“I’m almost certain that both teams intend to save their Third Guardsmen for as long as they can afford, but after that, depending on who gets the advantage following this fight, we may see an unorthodox strategy that could be interpreted as a sign of confidence, or desperation…”

Making a typical cocky but (barely) refined chuckle after re-orienting his features, Discord placed his elbows on the desk and leaned towards the ring with a look of somewhat callous interest. “Of course, we all know that a desperate creature…

“...is the most amusing to see squirm and scramble in confusion!”

Back in the ring, the referee reappeared in a flash and stepped into the center before gesturing to the crowd. “Having received both teams new formations, I am here to announce that yet again, both teams are deploying new fighters!”

The referee held out his hand to Prancing Pony’s corner. “Having shuffled out their Second Specialist, introducing Team Pracing Pony’s… Alphooonse Faenooo!” Despite being well-received by the crowd, Alphonse made his way to the center of the ring in a very nonchalant manner. Slouching, his hands in his pockets, and an expression that could have only said I really wish I weren’t here right now.

After the first fighter made it to his position, the referee gestured to Rising Dragon’s corner. “As it happens, Team Rising Dragon has followed along with their opponent’s strategy! Introducing… Elliiis Lookeeeeeen!” The team member wearing the knitwear started his way down to the center ring. But in contrast to his opponent, he anxiously shifted his gaze around the crying crowd, adopting a nervous, tense posture as he made his way to the referee and his opponent, a cold sweat trickling down his face.

The referee stepped aside and Alphonse started gesturing at his opponent. “Look, guy… You might as well just save the both of us some trouble and take a dive when my first attack hits you. Because you know all those fairy tales? The old ones that were cautionary tales where the fairies did all those horrible things to people?” Alphonse then scrunched up his features to make the scariest face he could. “I can make them all come true!”

Ellis didn’t move, but he suddenly started shivering like an avalanche as his pupils dilated. Then, abruptly, Alphonse’s features opened up as he started sniffing the air, then he gave a look of confusion in Ellis’s direction. “Did… did this guy really just wet himself a little? Sure, I was bluffing, but really?”

Seeing the awkward situation and quickly realizing that there would be no further dialogue, the referee signaled both competitors to step back into position. He raised his arm. “Ready?” Alphonse materialized his whip, but Ellis merely made an attempt at centering himself, though his failure to do so completely was displayed by his quivering knees. The referee swung down his raised arm. “Fight!”

Taking the initiative first, Alphonse twisted his whole body, transferring these motions to his flexible weapon and commanding them by taking a lower point down the cord in his other hand, he struck at his opponent at lightning speed with a massive snapping maneuver. It seemed like a perfect opening attack, sure to be highly effective. However, despite his expression of sheer terror and yowling holler from his mouth, Ellis looked directly at what should have been an imperceptible blur that was Aphonse’s flying whip and flinched, perfectly maneuvering out of the way of the terrifyingly precise attack.

Sparing a minute to contemplate his own surprise but staying on beat, Alphonse quickly reoriented his own footing to drive greater power to his twisting motions, launching a relentless onslaught of flailing lashings. However, in what an unenlightened onlooker would confuse for a panicked scrambling, Ellis was able to deftly avoid and evade each of Alphonse's attacks.

Meanwhile, back in Alphonse’s corner, the excitement of the whole situation had his corner girl jumping. “Ooh! It’s like hopscotch combined with double-dutch! But it’s weird, he doesn’t look like he’s having any fun unlike all the others in this great big game!”

Boros, having been warned of Pinkie Pie’s odd perspective on things, chose to disregard the insulting belittlement of his people’s age-old traditions and just offer his own insight the only way he knew how. “Yes… Well… for warriors, there’s always going to be an indescribable thrill when it comes to pitting all your strength against a worthy opponent capable of defeating you. But then again, in any culture or population, there’s always going to be… weirdos. And even if I do say so myself, all Ether-tribespeople are going to be weirdos in their own right, what matters is being able to harness those idiosyncrasies and weaponize them for ones that walk the path of the warrior.

“For this Ellis fellow, it’s obvious that he’s a coward by nature only because he knows exactly how deadly magic and battle can be. But it’s evident that he was taught to hone that cowardice and sense of awareness into superhuman survival instincts, able to fight and defend himself purely by instinct that triggers faster than rational thought. But beyond even that, every warrior knows that true courage is the defiance of fear rather than the absence of it. For him to march out here in spite of that must mean that in terms of bravery, he’s second to none among his friends.”

The giddy Pinkie haphazardly gestured at her corner-mate. “That’s just like Fluttershy! She’s always amazing whenever we wind up in real danger, like we usually do!”

Back in the ring, after realizing he was just wasting his energy, Alphonse pulled back his weapon, causing Ellis to cease his evasive maneuvers. Alphonse took a deep breath, and made a heavy scowl at his opponent, getting a retreating twitch out of him. “Allright, I was going to go easy on you and just knock you down a lot with my whip, but now you’ve embarrassed me. For that, I’ll dish out some real pain!”

Alphonse brought up his free hand and made a fist diagonally across his chest. Opening it with a downward flicking motion, his body emitted some trails of green light that left behind a whole encircling row of his illusionary copies that mirrored his movements, such as the shrugging motion he made to follow. “Honestly, I know that this spell is only just a standard fakeout unfit for the present situation, but it doesn’t take more than the bare minimum of magic in a construct to act as an intermediary for the meta-magic compatibility of my Fairy Element!”

Each figure of Alphonse then brought their hands to their upper chests and made a series of simplistic gestures. Then, each one smoothly straightened his free arm and brought it around in an arc overhead, leaving behind an arc of bright green orbs.

At this development, Pinkie raised an eyebrow and gestured to Boros. “Uh… is he trying to fool him into dodging the wrong way by using a bunch of fake attacks with one real one among them?”

However, at this development, Boros’s eyes grew wide and he held his hand to his chin. “No… those figures might be illusions, but the projectiles they’re setting up are real! He’s doing exactly what he’s saying: Using meta-magic, the art of imbuing an otherwise simple magical attack with a complex command or behavior, to create multiple instances of the same spell to launch a carpet-bombing onslaught from multiple angles!”

Now, Pinkie had quickly sobered and was viewing the display with a look of concern. “Doesn't that seem a little… excessive for something like this?”

Boros shook his head at this. “Hardly. You know that most of Alphonse’s hostility is just a facade, right? All talk, he likes to talk. It’s apparent to me that getting up close to his opponent has let him sense that there’s a lot more to him than meets the eye, and he’s trying to provoke him into showing what he’s really made of!”

As his opponent appeared paralyzed with fear, shaking with wide eyes staring into the light of peril, Alphonse and his figures all abruptly thrusted out their free hands in a pointing motion, sending all their magical projectiles streaming in an onslaught. However, abruptly and despite his expression, Ellis straightened up and summoned his weapon, a silver-white wand, and held it forward pointing it upward perpendicular to the ground. This seemed to cause a vaporous curtain-like effect to appear encircling Ellis that outwardly reflected an image of what lie before it. As soon as Alphonse’s attack hit this emanation, Ellis flicked the point of his wand forward, which seemed to cause all the projectiles to stop and squish against this reflective wall, turn a bright whitish color, and swirl concentrating in the exact center of this construct before bursting out as a wave of magical force. This completely unexpected counterattack blasted away all of Alphonse’s figures and sent the real Alphonse himself flying, skipping across the ground a couple of times before coming to rest completely motionless. Once all the magic faded, the referee appeared next to Alphonse and made his call. “Knockdown! Ellis, three! Alphonse, zero!”

The referee began his count. The tension ran high as he steadily grew the count larger while Alphonse remained motionless. At seven, Alphonse started to rise and was able to climb to his feet at nine. The referee approached the fighter. “Are you able to continue fighting?” At this, Alphonse weakly tried to brush him off with his free hand and nodded. The referee took position between both fighters and made the motion to continue.

Despite sustaining such heavy injuries from having his own tremendous spell sent right back at him, Alphonse raised his whip’s handle and approached his opponent with a furious, but obviously desperate, grimace. Despite holding his own weapon outward in a threatening manner, Ellis obviously didn’t pick up on his opponent’s desperation and backpedaled a step for every advancing step his opponent made. Right when it seemed like Alphonse would make a strike at his opponent, the gong rang out signaling the end of the round. With that, Alphonse dropped his bravado and slouched, panting with an agonized expression as he made his way back to his corner while his opponent held his free hand to his chest, practically hyperventilating as he made his way back to his own corner.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the long delay, AGAIN, and my bad habit of going on unannounced hiatuses. This time, my excuse is that we had a sudden but expected death in the family in addition to some relatives visiting beforehand. So we had to arrange the ceremonies and such, and we also have to make further arrangements later. Also, I was working on submitting another project to a potential publisher, but I'll have you know that my enthusiasm for telling this story and more narratives based on this personal extension of the cannon will not be diminished!