> My Little Pony Heart of Friendship: Tales of a New Beginning
>  by ShadowDurza
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Slow Progress: Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight breathed a breath of fresh air as he exited the doors of her castle. Then smiled as she turned away from the spray of water from above. She looked up and spotted the human Jason Dewey spraying water at her windows from his open palm as he sat on the shoulders of the other human Justin Bluster who in turn was standing on the cloud he conjured using a supportive spell.

Jason gave Twilight a worried look. “I’m so sorry Princess! I’ll be happy to take a pay cut for that little bit of negligence!”

Justin looked up at his partner. “Hey, I didn’t agree to that!”

Twilight rolled her eyes and giggled. “It’s fine! I needed a little bit of a wake-up anyway! You guys have been doing so well as my window-washers that I want you to take lunch at Jim and Jake’s cafe and tell them the bill’s on me!”

Justin looked down at Twilight and gave her a big grin. “You are too good to us, Princess! Nobody would have done that for us back in the cavern!”

Jason hissed at his partner and made what Twilight recognized as a cut-it-out gesture at him and spoke through his clenched teeth. “Don’t push it!”

At that, Twilight made an awkward smile and rolled her eyes once again before proceeding on her way. Down Ponyville’s main street, the humans mingled with the ponies as they all went about their business.

Rose sighed as she grabbed a few withered flowers in her jaw, but before she could turn to the rubbish bin, a human Twilight knew as a plant elemental named Henry Evergreen stopped her and waved his hand around the flowers, emitting a green light that revitalized them. Rose gleefully put them back in place, but things got a little awkward when Henry held out an expecting hand.

Close to the center of the market, the fire elemental Brianna Ashtoe dazzled a surrounding crowd by juggling double-ended torches and spitting flames from her mouth that took on bizarre and intricate shapes and forms. Right as the crowd started throwing bits and gems at the base of the platform, a squad of fire pegasi gathered a group of clouds above and let loose a downpour, extinguishing the atmosphere. This got a scowl out of Brianna and the now disgruntled crowd started pelting them with miscellaneous junk.

Nearby, a new quill stall manned by the feather elemental J.J. Melano was making a killing by conjuring his merchandise out of thin air. However, an angry looking Davenport aggressively approached the stall and started a dispute with J.J. Twilight braced herself to intervene, but before she could, the words ‘supply solution’ and ‘wholesale contract’ were mentioned and soon they were both laughing and shaking hoof in hand.

At the sight of all this, Twilight gave a self-satisfied sigh and proceeded on her way. It’s certainly not perfect, and not exactly harmonious through-and-through, but so far all the issues seem to sort themselves out more often than not.

Once she got to the produce section of the market, Applejack came cantering up to her with a worried look. Twilight smiled at her. “Good morning, Applejack! Shouldn’t you be hawking at the Apple cart?”

Applejack awkwardly looked her in the eye. “Well, ‘bout that, Twi’... We have a bit of a diplomatic-type situation down at the orchards, an’ we all think you may be able to handle it better than we could.”

Twilight raised her eyebrow at this. “Why would there be a diplomatic situation at Sweet Apple Acres?”

Applejack gulped and looked away in the general direction of the farm. “Well… I suppose the best way to explain would be to show ya.”

Twilight nodded and galloped closely following behind Applejack to the outskirts of Ponyville, soon coming upon a tree in the orchards that Big Mac was standing next to, his head bandaged. Applejack cantered right up to him followed by Twilight and sighed. “I take it he’s still up there?”

Big Mac nodded and rubbed his head. “Yep.”

“And I take it nopony could convince him to leave of his own accord?”

Big Mac shook his head, wincing as he looked up into the foliage of the tree. “Nope.”

Twilight looked up at the apple-laden tree, confused. “Okay, what are you talking about? Do you have some kind of trespasser? And what does that have to do with this ordinary apple tree?”

Applejack sighed. “It’s all very unusual-like. I suppose the best way to explain it is just to show ‘y'all.” Applejack trotted up to the tree, took a deep breath, reared back her hind legs and gave the trunk a hard bucking. Though the tree vibrated roughly, none of the crimson fruit fell. Though Twilight was surprised, she showed much more concern at the fact that Applejack had appeared to brace herself.

The reason for this came almost immediately, as Applejack hopped out of the way as what looked like an oversized wooden mallet was sent flying out of the leaves towards the space which her head was previously occupying. Before hitting the ground, the mallet strangely boomeranged back into the foliage whence it came.

Twilight’s eyes grew wide as she gazed at the now threatening tree. “What the-?”

However, Twilight’s exclamation was interrupted as a human head with shoulder-length unkempt hair erupted from the tree’s greenery with a mildly annoyed expression. “I told you hick ponies that you’d get thunked if you thumped with my tree again!”

Twilight, stunned at first, trotted up to the tree and coughed to get the human’s attention. “Pardon me, but what are you doing up there? And why are you lashing out at the Apple family?”

The human looked right at Twilight with a curious expression and blinked a couple times. “Hey, you’re the leader of the ponies that got all of us out of the cavern, right? Thanks a lot, uh… Duchess Dusk Shine…?

Twilight awkwardly coughed at that. “Actually… It’s Princess Twilight Sparkle…” Then she regained her composure and looked directly at the human. “But you still haven’t answered my question! Who are you, and what are you doing up there?”

The human bowed their head for a moment. “Pardon me for not getting down to greet you proper. My name is Sullivan Hardwood, tree elemental. But everyone calls me Ivan. As for why I’m up in this here tree, well… it’s complicated.”

Twilight turned her head to the side and raised an eyebrow. “Go on…”

Ivan sighed. “Well… back in core metro, I needed to work my rear-end off everyday to get enough money to survive, and by the time I got my accounts settled, I didn’t really have anything for myself in terms of leisure.

“In all honesty, when I read about real trees and fruit in the old tales, it made me envious of my ape ancestors who lived their simple lives in the trees eating fruit as it all grew. But now that we’re all up here, we can live as hunter-gatherers as our ancestors did in this land of plenty, and I decided to finally live my dream in this nice, safe apple tree, even reinforcing it and the fruit it grows with my magic.”

Twilight started scratching her chin with her hoof. “But there’s plenty of fruit-bearing trees in the Everfree Forest. It wouldn’t be any exaggeration to say that your people took one look at it and decided that it’s where you all wanted to live. Even when I explained about all the dangerous creatures living there to Kris, it seemed to have intensified his interest in it. Either way, Princess Celestia was more than happy to give it to all of you as a homeland of your own.”

Ivan suddenly got a faraway look in his eye. “Yeah, even the name: Everfree Forest sounded like something tailor made just for us. And I won’t deny that the fruit, wild vegetables and beasts living there are quite delicious and pretty much inexhaustible. But the thing is, you need to be strong in a fight to get all that for yourself.”

Twilight started gesturing with her hoof. “And how is that a problem for you humans?”

Ivan rolled his eyes and tilted his head. “Oh, just because being warriors is what we’re known best for, you assume every single one of us is a competent warrior, is that right? Me? I was a laborer my whole life. Sure, like everyone else, I went through basic combat training up until age thirteen, where I chose to learn my craft instead of continuing on to advanced training.

“I mean, it’s not like I could learn any actual offensive or defensive spells. I could only ever learn various types of supportive spells to help me at work” He then stuck a flannel-sleeved arm out of the foliage holding his wooden mallet, which proceeded to elongate it’s handle back and forth, rapidly grow and shrink the mallet, and extend while twisting hither and about before snapping back to its proper shape. “The closest I’ve got to any real offensive ability is controlling this thing, but it works for what I need it for, like chasing away trespassers trying to get at my tree!”

Applejack got an angry look and shook her hoof at him. “You’re th’ only trespasser here, partner!”

At this, Ivan merely stuck his tongue out at her and blew a raspberry. “Squatter’s rights, Apple Lady! Squatter’s rights!”

He quickly withdrew his head back into the foliage. Meanwhile, Applejack reared up on her hind legs and kicked at the air, her face scrunched in frustration. “It’s Applejack!”

Twilight just sighed and looked down with a sad look. “Looks like my own ignorance burned that bridge. I don’t think he’ll listen to me anymore.” She quickly raised her head and looked at the woods neighboring the farm with a determined look. “I think we’re going to need a bit more help to solve this problem.”


***


Applejack warily swung her head around, nervously eyeing the shadows surrounding their path. “You sure you’ve got your directions right, Twilight? I don’t want to stay here any more than I have to.”

Twilight lowered the map wrapped in her magic and looked around for more landmarks. “These are the directions Sloop gave us the last time he was in Ponyville. I’d think a map drawn by a compass element would be reliable. Even though it’s weird that humans consider compasses to be elements…”

“Halt!”

“Identify yourselves!”

Twilight and Applejack froze in place at these two inscrutable voices. Applejack regained her composure first. “Um… It’s Applejack and Princess Twilight of the ponies. We’re close allies, right?”

A few moments passed, then the voices started breaking out in laughter. Twilight got a confused and somewhat worried expression. “What’s… so funny?” As the laughter went on, the ground in front of them suddenly started spewing out and next to it, the air suddenly started shimmering as if in a heat haze, causing Twilight and Applejack to canter back a bit. Out of the ground popped a human wearing a distinctive metal mask, and the air parted to reveal a human wearing a soup cauldron as if it were some kind of curtain.

At this sight, Twilight and Applejack trotted forward, smiling. “Augustus! Gustoff!”

The gatekeeper duo grabbed one another’s shoulders and returned the smiles to their quadrupedal friends. Gustoff held out his hand. “We’ve had a lot more time off since we got up here, so we started learning all kinds of things, like how to throw our voices!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at them. “So you’re still working as gatekeepers? Where are your weapons?”

At this, Augustus and Gustoff turned to look at one-another, breaking into wry looks. Then, they looked back at the ponies and extended their hands, which emitted flashes of light from their grips. When Twilight and Applejack quit shielding their eyes, they marveled at what they saw. In Augustus’s grip appeared his ax-sword, taking on a dark orange color with a bright red accenting. In Gustoff’s grip appeared his staff, the pole being dark red and the round knob at the front end having become solid black.

Applejack gave them a big smile and took off her hat in respect. “Well, I’ll be! You two’ve finally become top-class warriors!”

Augustus hoisted his weapon onto his shoulder. “Aye, and we’re not the only ones! Seems that moving back aboveground was the final thing lots of mid-classers needed to break the wall. Like my dad always said: ‘Sometimes the best way to get some new perspective is a change of environment’.”

Gustoff scoffed. “You’re dad really used to say that?”

Augustus kept his smile, but made an awkward cough. “Well, what he actually said was ‘Don’t bother me while the duels are on! Do your homework somewhere else if you’re just going to get stuck on it!’ But I knew what he meant.”

Gustoff just stared at him for a moment, then started laughing. Augustus at first gave his friend an angry look, but started laughing not a moment later. Applejack and Twilight awkwardly looked at each other and tried to follow along.

Gustoff wiped a tear from his eye as his laughter quelled. “So anyway, since you’re all the way out here, I assume you ponies want to get to our settlement?”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “You assume correctly!”

Augustus pointed his thumb down the way. “Well, come on! We’ll keep away any trouble that might come our way!”
> Slow Progress: Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applejack marveled at the massive trees in the oldest part of the forest. Twilight saw a few houses of dirt clustered around some of the trees, but not enough for all the humans that came up from underground for their great migration. “Um… are you guys sure that this is the right place?”

The Guses glanced at each other with a knowing look. Then used their free hands to point upward. The pair of ponies looked up and their mouths dropped open at the sight of it all. Countless humans walked across platforms and bridges in and out of buildings built into the tall, tall, trees. It all moved together like the city they’d left behind, with lanterns hanging hither and about obviously meant to illuminate the various ways after dark.

Augusus scratched his nose. “So… anyone in particular you fillies are looking for?”

Applejack cleared her throat. “We have a bit of a situation at my farm with a stubborn human, and we’re hoping our friends from the old Prancing Pony Guild would be willing to help us.”

Gustof led them over to a log platform on the ground with ropes extending upward. “We’re not sure where most of them are, but we know for sure that Kris and Wilda are training in the upper arena. We’ll take you there!” Once they were all aboard, he banged on the platform with the other end of his staff a few times before the ropes went taut and they were all lifted into the air.

Once they stepped off the deck, the Guses led the ponies across several other balconies and bridges until they came to a larger structure lashed between several surrounding trees with multiple bridges leading into it and what looked like a large net below an open bottom.

Twilight’s eyes grew wide at the sight of it. “That’s your upper arena? How many do you have around here?”

Augustus smiled and scratched his nose. “Just three for now, an upper, mid, and lower arena in the Everfree Forest, but we’re planning on building many across the outposts we’re setting up across the land that we’re hoping to organize into pro leagues!”

Twilight got an inquisitive look as they entered into the encircling stands of the arena. “Interesting! I’ll have to check all of them out one day for the research papers I’m planning to write to promote pony-human understanding!

“Human combat sports, on the surface, appear to be merely a commercialized celebration of a naturally violent species’s base instincts where competitors relentlessly hammer one another until they cannot go on. But going deeper, one finds an entire culture that places great value in the advancement of one’s unique abilities, putting great emphasis on honor and respect. In these clashes, warriors can exchange feelings on a level much deeper than words capable of forming friendships that last a lifetime.”

At this, Gustoff scrunched up his face and made a so-so gesture. “Nice abstract, but you might want to rethink how you open it.”

As the mixed party took their seats, the gongs sounded out as each competitor in the battle royal went on the move from the short log bridges hanging from their many levels and angles across the arena.

The long-ranged fighters quickly took their advantage, as a yellow-haired competitor with a cloth ball at his feet juggled it for a moment as it began to glow and spark with electricity. When it started making bird-like crackling noises, he kicked it into the air and sent it flying with a backflip kick, colliding with and sending flying a lightly-armored buckler-user into the net below with a blast of thunder.

An archer was letting loose cloud-like arrows that reappeared in his hand at will. However, in a silent puff of mist, a quarterstaff user appeared sneaking up behind them, and sent them down on their way with a hard jab. But the quarterstaff user’s eyes grew wide as they were entrapped by a multi-headed vine and drawn towards its user, who was emitting it from a short handle while holding a leaf-like shield in their off-hand.

A fighter wielding two short curved swords was spinning around all over the place riding around in a small whirlwind zipping around striking at anyone near them. However, they were brought to an abrupt halt as they were blasted by a glob of green slime coming from a slingshot user’s weapon and stuck to the top of a nearby bridge before being scooped up by a monk’s spade user and slung to the net below.

Along a row of bridges at descending heights, several pairs of melee warriors were clashing their weapons. At the end of the topmost bridge, a warrior with a distinctive cross-shaped scar below their right eye held out their hand, which began glowing with an amber aura. From this, an ethereal yet rigid sword erupted before they held it up and took it in both hands. The warrior took a deep breath and struck a low stance as their emanated weapon became wrapped in an intense flame-like aura. The warrior took off like a bolt of lightning, flinging each pair of combatants off their bridge into the net below with a slash of their sword that stuck like a meteor. This was repeated again and again in a zig-zag pattern, sending each pair of grapplers flying.

After the last one was batted aside, the warrior exhaled and relaxed, holding their weapon outward. However, a warrior with a crossbow loaded with a cloud-like bolt levitated a distance behind the ethereal sword-wielder and took aim down the sights. But right as they touched the trigger, the sword-wielder rapidly spun around and sent a crescent-shaped wave of magic at the crossbow-wielder in the same motion, sending them spinning back into the net below.

After this, the ethereal sword-wielding warrior looked around warily, as the arena proper had grown quiet with most of the competitors having already been taken out of the game. However, his eyes grew wide as he heard a heavy thump coming from behind him.

He quickly turned around and saw that the only standing warrior left was a very large cestus-wielder whose hands were covered in dark blue auras in the shape of large claws carrying the limp, unconscious bodies of a spiked-club wielder and a flail-wielder in their grips. The cestus-user sneered, exposing their extra-large canine teeth, and unceremoniously tossed the unconscious contenders down into the net.

The ethereal sword-wielder and the cestus-wielder quickly struck stances, then suddenly charged and began clashing their weapons. At first, the ethereal sword-wielder pressed the cestus-wielder, who backtracked as he deflected his opponent’s slashes and sidestepped his thrusts. But as the clash went on, the tide turned as the ethereal sword-wielder backtracked while blocking the cestus-wielder’s mighty jabs and hooks and had to weave out of his opponent’s reach when he attempted to grapple.

After locking their weapons for a moment, the ethereal sword-user broke it off and hopped to an above bridge before wrapping their weapon in an aura and striking a stance. However, before he could do anything, the cestus-user hopped right to him after wrapping his legs in an aura resembling the legs of a cat and forced the ethereal sword-user to dispel his aura and adjust his stance to block a hard uppercut followed by a jab.

After this, they both jumped back to opposite sides of the bridge. After staring into each other’s eyes for a moment, they held their weapons low and charged. In flashes of amber and blue light, the both of them were knocked senseless and sent flying down into the net below. The moment they both hit, the gong rang, signaling the end of the competition.

At this, the crowd started grumbling. On the podium at the side of the arena, the official and several commissioners deliberated for a moment. Then the official walked to the edge of the podium and held their glowing finger to their throat. “WE HAVE COME TO A DECISION. OUR SENSORY MAGIC FINDS THAT COMPETITOR WILDA URSON MADE CONTACT WITH THE SAFETY NET HALF A SECOND EARLIER. SO THE CHAMPION OF THE BATTLE ROYAL IS… KRIS DUELIS!”

At that, the crowd gathered in the stands of the arena erupted into roaring cheers. The bridges soon started moving and rearranging themselves into a podium that all of the competitors appeared on, with the ones that were first to go down lined up in the back and Kris standing in front. At first, he just gave a light smile and awkwardly waved, but Wilda soon came up from right behind him and placed his hand on his shoulder. Wilda gave him a big, toothy grin and turned it to the crowd while raising his fist in the air. Kris did so in turn and added his own twist by pointing his ethereal sword in the air, getting a big rise out of the crowd.

Later, at the arena’s competitor’s entrance, many of the fighters had grouped together, laughing and singing. The buckler-user, Jordan, gestured at the champion and the runner-up. “We’re all heading out to party! You guys want to join in?”

The duo smiled at them, but then they noticed the alicorn and a waving hat-wearing earth pony smiling at them from the end of the path. Kris gestured at the other competitors. “Um… Something’s come up. We’re going to have to take a raincheck.”

After saying their last goodbyes to the other competitors, Kris and Wilda walked up to the two of their pony friends. Wilda gestured to them while wrapping his other arm around Kris’s shoulder. “So how did you ladies enjoy the brawl? I think we can all agree that even though Kris won, I was the better showman, right?”

Applejack smirked and rolled her eyes back. “I fancy a good game a’ buckball myself, but I can’t deny all the grandeur of what y’all do here!”

Twilight trotted up to Kris. “So, where are the others? I thought you were trying to reconnect.”

Kris scratched his nose and looked away. “Well, we did a ton of connecting when we had our first adventure up here! Climbed some mountains, swam the seas, and beat back a bunch of monsters that only existed in our legends!

“But in the end, we all have our own lives, so at the moment, we’re each on our own journeys of self-betterment. Wilda and I stayed here to tackle the dueling circuit for a while, Trace obviously won’t be content until he’s covered every corner of Equestria at least once, Percival’s staying with the changelings to see if he can work on his difficulty with transforming into animals and monsters, Sloop’s supervising the construction of a special boat in Silver Shoals from some blueprints he purchased in an estate sale a while back, as for Alphonse… well… you’ve got me there.

“Anyway, was there any particular reason why you two stopped by this neck of the woods?”

At this, Twilight stopped smiling. “Well… we’re having some problems down on the Apple family farm with a stubborn human, and we were hoping you could help us negotiate.”

At that, Wilda made a low laugh and cracked his knuckles. “Oh, that won’t be a problem. We know how to deal with stubborn humans!”

Applejack frowned and shook her head. “Now, I don’t want any more trouble on my family’s farm than what we’ve already got!”

Kris waved her off. “Don’t worry, Applejack. The best course of action when dealing with a stubborn human is often the simplest. Most of us don’t want trouble either, it shouldn’t be too hard to deal with.”

Twilight sighed and unfurled her wings. “I hope you’re right…”


***


Big Mac gave the tree a sour look as Sugar Bell changed out the bandages on his head and tried to apply an ice pack with her magic. “I’ve heard that some humans came out as far as Our Town just to travel, and they even helped drive back some monsters that came down from the mountains. But it is a big change, and I want to believe Applejack and the others made the right decision.”

Big Mac snorted as the group approached the tree from the forest. “Yep. I want to believe in them too, they haven’t steered Equestria wrong yet…”

Applejack and Twilight led Wilda and Kris directly to the tree Sullivan was occupying. Twilight gestured with her hoof. “So how do you want to go about this? Do you want to declare your identities or intentions first, or-” However, Twilight abruptly lost her train of thought as Wilda just marched directly up to the tree trunk, grabbed it in both hands, and started violently shaking the whole thing.

After a few moments, Sullivan was sent tumbling to the ground. He soon got up with an angry look. “Alright, who’s the wiseguy that-” However, upon seeing the perpetrators of his eviction, his eyes grew wide and he recoiled. “Leapin’ leaves! Kris Duelis and Wilda Urson, the vanguard assault squad of the Prancing Pony Brave Six! What are the two of you doing out here in the sticks?”

Twilight leaned in to whisper to Applejack. “Vanguard assault squad? Brave six?”

Applejack shrugged. “I hear talk some have been calling you, me, and the girls the mane six”

Wilda cracked the joints in his neck. “We just happened to be in the neighborhood when we heard that you were making trouble for our friends. So we’d like you to quit it and skedaddle.”

Kris stepped in front of Wilda and crossed his arms. “Unless of course, you think you can drive us away instead.”

At this, Sullivan backed away, waving their arms. “No way, jose! I ain’t the brightest guy, but even I can pick my fights!”

After this, Sullivan held their head low and started walking away, but Wilda got a look of concern and blocked his way. “Look man, what were you thinking when you did what you did? Living in a tree? That’s just nuts!”

Sullivan tilted their head and looked away, frowning. “Okay, so when I got up here, I did try to find work. But I shouldn’t be surprised that these pony folk who’ve lived here all along aren’t too keen on letting two-legged freaks take all their jobs, especially when they have the ability to do the work of a dozen individually! I know I probably would’ve found something if I’d just kept looking, but the first few rejections just made me think weird thoughts.”

At this, Wilda took a look at Kris and nodded his head at him. Kris nodded in turn and walked up to Sullivan. “Telling you this would probably be a bit premature, but I happen to know that Madame von Wrinkle saw this coming, and is working on applying the infrastructure and her connections to the old guilds up here. It’s probably going to take a bit more wheeling and dealing, but there should be more jobs coming soon.”

Sullivan’s eyes grew wide. “Really? You’re not just pullin’ my leg, right?”

Kris nodded his head and smiled. “It’s the truth, friend. But in the meantime, there’s a big demand for tree elemental laborers in our Everfree settlement. There’s still a lot of work to do before we can properly call it our capital!”

Sullivan was silent for a moment, then he walked a ways, scoffed and shook his head. “Living in a tree? What in Ultima’s name was I thinking? All this new bright and beautiful scenery must have been scrambling my brain! Making me think I was living in some kind of fairytale! I’ve got to find some place back in Everfree and get my resume ready!” At that, he took off running back to the woods.

Wilda turned and pointed his thumb at him. “I should follow him and make sure he finds his way there okay!” And he started following Sullivan’s path.

Applejack smiled and gave a satisfied whinny. “Glad that’s over and done with!”

Twilight smiled at her and nodded. “It went very well, considering!”

Kris walked up to them and crossed his arms. “Yeah. Imagine if he were a competent warrior. We probably would have ended up wrecking the whole place.”

Applejack grunted and looked away. “I don’t even wanna think about that!”

Kris just shrugged with an open expression. “You’re probably going to have to, eventually. With humans involved, things are almost never going to resolve themselves this well. It’s a little late for second thoughts now, do you think you can handle what’s to come?”

Twilight smiled and gave him a determined look. “I’ve never backed down from a challenge yet. None of us have, none of us will!”

At that, Kris smiled at her and gave her a thumbs-up.
> Toxic Sentiment, Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Under the midday sun, two colored streaks raced around an expanse of wilderness between towns within central Equestria. One, a horizontal arrangement of the colors of the rainbow. The other, solid white. They raced across the wide expanse at a pace any beast or machine could only envy, yet from another perspective they could be seen gingerly curving around a few landmarks, ever so slowly tracing a perfect circle.

Meanwhile, at what looked like the point where the streaks began, a small orange-coated pegasus with small wings and a pink-coated earth pony with a wild, curly mane bounced up and down, going wild as they cheered. Next to them, a bored-looking human in a black jumpsuit sat on the ground staring into space with an uninterested expression.

Scootaloo suddenly held her hoof over her eyes as she looked into the distance. Then, her eyes grew wide. “Here they come! Get ready Pinkie!”

“Okie, dokie!” Pinkie then bent down and got a polaroid camera readily attached to an extending harness. “Get ready to wave your flag, Alphonse!” At this, Alphonse huffed and held up the small flag he had.

Moments later, the camera flashed and the flag came down despite Pinkie, along with the rest of the spectators, being forced to lean under the pressure of the streaks’ tailwind. A distance later, the streaks disappeared as the figures within them slowed down after a ways. Then, while laughing and playfully pushing and bumping one-another, made their way to the spectators.

Rainbow Dash flipped her multi-colored mane, letting her sweat fly. “So… who won?”

Trace loudly snorted and spat a phlegm-filled glob of spit to the side. “Yeah, I’d like to finally put an end to this streak!”

The picture slowly slid out of the camera’s slot. “Just a minute!” Then, she proceeded to take it into her teeth and shake her head in a blur.

Then, she got dizzy and fell over, flinging the picture in the air. Scootaloo jumped up to catch it, her tiny wings buzzing, but missed as Alphonse used his fine-tuned warrior’s reflexes to catch it. He took a look and broke out into a wry smile and started snickering. “Well, I hope you two weren’t looking forward to your little rivalry ending anytime soon. It’s another tie!”

At this Scootaloo groaned and pulled at her face with her hooves. “Aw! A tie?”

Simultaneously, Pinkie Pie started hollering and bouncing around. “Yay! A tie!”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and frowned. “Another one? We’ve raced across fields, through forests, up mountains, and from one cloud to the other, and all we’ve got to show for it is like, fifty ties in a row!”

Trace nonchalantly checked his fingernails with a bored expression. “Actually, it’s fifty-three ties in a row, plus that break we took for that two-day rally, but who’s counting?”

Getting over her initial disappointment, Scootaloo trotted up to the racers with an excited look. “Well, I’m going to look at the bright side: Now I have two awesome races to look up to! Hey, maybe I should start a Trace Paragon fan club!”

At this, Trace just sighed and shook his head, his hands on his hips. “You can if you want, but you won’t get any endorsement from me. I just go fast for freedom, not for glory.”

At that, Scootaloo’s eyes grew wide and she held her hooves to her cheeks, breaking out in a big smile. “So… Cool…”

Rainbow Dash briefly got a jealous look at this display. Then she focused on Alphonse. “Well, now that that’s over, let’s have that picnic for lunch already!”

Alphonse gave her an arrogant look and pointed his finger at her with a snap. “Yo.” Then he held out his hand, creating a bright green bubble of light that expanded before disappearing and leaving behind a picnic basket. Then he opened it and started setting up. Once they were all sat down, he started digging into the food. “Who had the pasta and potato on sourdough?”

Rainbow Dash raised her hoof. “Right here!” Alphonse tossed her the paper-wrapped meal.

“Buttercups and maple syrup on pumpernickel?” 

Scootaloo waved her hooves in the air. “Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me!” At that prompt, he handed the somewhat sticky paper-wrapped sandwich to the juvenile pegasus.

“Cotton candy and jellybeans on cinnamon swirl? As if I have to ask…” Pinkie Pie giggled as she took the wrapped sandwich directly in her teeth.

“Turkey and tomato with mustard on wheat? I assume this one’s going to the only other omnivore here.” Trace scoffed as he took his old standby in hand.

Alphonse started digging deeper into the basket, almost smiling. “And now for the main event, my… Wait… What…? Where’s my liverwurst and mango chutney on rye?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Oh calm down, you probably just forgot…”

“And the drinks are gone too!”

At this, Rainbow Dash cringed and flew up. “What? But I got and packed the cider myself!”

Amid Rainbow Dash’s exclamations, Alphonse started investigating the basket and the area surrounding it. He soon found a clue: a trail of disturbed soil leading away from the picnic site and over and past a nearby hill. He gestured to the others to get close and soon held out his hands to create a bright green bubble of energy that soon expanded to enclose all of them and seemingly disappear. “There, now as long as you all stay near me, nobody else will be able to notice our presence.”

Scootaloo whooped. “It’s just like what Pinkie said you did back at Core Metro! This is pretty awesome!”

Pinkie Pie giggled. “Neat, huh? I’ll stay behind and guard the picnic, no need for all of it to go to waste, right?”

Despite Rainbow Dash’s clearly upset expression, she carefully followed along with the group as Alphonse followed the trail of dirt past a few more hills and eventually to a patch of forest, where the perpetrator was sorting his ill-gotten gains.

He was rather short and dressed in black and white striped clothes with a bandit’s mask and black beanie. At this, Alphonse groaned. “Oh, joy! It’s Chet Tiller! Up to his old tricks I see!”

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow at that. “Who’s Chet Tiller? Is he a friend of yours?”

Trace made a sarcastic laugh. “Hardly! He’s a black earth elemental and a notorious petty thief. He’s not too powerful, but he’s a lot craftier than he looks and excels at hit-and-run tactics. Confronting him is bound to be troublesome. I’m just a little ashamed to admit that he was considered my biggest rival back during my thieving days…”

Alphonse just scoffed and materialized his curled-up whip. “Lucky for us, I’m pretty powerful, and I’m good at tricky fighting too!”

He swung his whip overhead and snapped it at the absentminded Chet, entangling him and dragging him back to face him. “Alright, Mr. Tiller, I’ll give you one chance: Surrender and relinquish what you’ve stolen or prepare for great pain.”

Somehow, this statement got a sinister look out of Chet and his body ended up disintegrating into a pile of moist black dirt. This unsettled both Alphonse and Trace and got horrified looks out of Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. Then, Alphonse got a severely displeased expression. “Well, that was a clone and I just broke my own stealth spell for nothing.” He then turned to Rainbow Dash. “You, big pegasus, get the tiny pegasus to safety. Chet Tiller’s not above taking hostages.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as she flew over to and scooped up Scootaloo. “We have names you know…”

Meanwhile, Trace had summoned his bo staff. “So if you’re the self-proclaimed master of tricky fighting, what’s he going to do next?” Suddenly, Chet burst from the ground behind him and whacked him on the head with a club made of solid black dirt. However, on contact, the illusion of Trace was dispelled in a puff of bright green smoke and the real one came zooming in from the side and sent Chet toppling to the ground with a sweeping strike.

As Chet layed on the ground, Alphonse materialized a construct of shackles and a chain and with a thrust of his free hand sent them flying at the downed rogue. However, slamming his hand on the ground, Chet disappeared in a cloud of black debris that the construct passed through before disappearing. Then, six trails of disturbed soil scattered outward. Erupting to surround the duo of top-class warriors were six exact duplicates of the black earth elemental rogue.

Strangely, the group started juggling three round clods of black dirt each. Then, they threw them at their opponents’ feet, suddenly emitting sparks. Recognizing the danger, Trace took his ally’s hand and enveloped them both in a white aura before they raced off, leaving behind the concussive explosions.

The clones, having lost sight of their opponents, appeared confused and disoriented. Meanwhile, the duo reappeared a ways away after decelerating and looked each other in the eyes. Alphonse held out his curled up whip and Trace whirled around his staff, leaving behind a spiraling trail of white glyphs which curled around the length of Alphonse’s whip after touching the handle with the end of it. With a flourish, Alphonse extended his weapon and let it fly, thrashing apart each of the clones at windstorm-like speeds and reducing them back to the black dirt, eventually hitting the real one among them hard enough to leave them dazed on the ground.

Seeing his opportunity, Alphonse redid his restraining spell and this time caught the perpetrator in its bindings. As the pair of warriors walked up to their defeated foe in a self-satisfied manner, Chet looked right at them and gave a sinister grin before disintegrating into a pile of black soil just like the others.

Alphonse recoiled in shock. “If that was just a sturdier clone, then where’s-” However, before either of them could react, the real Chet erupted from the ground, hefting a giant mallet of solid black soil to smash the both of them. Right before he could swing it, however, he was suddenly sent spasming as bright sparks enveloped his body. His conjured weapon disintegrated as he collapsed on the ground, twitching and smoking.

Trace and Alphonse looked confused at this development at first, but then they looked up after hearing an arrogant snickering overhead. Standing on a low-flying cloud was Rainbow Dash blowing off some soot from her hoof as the cloud’s sparks diminished. “You two boys were looking like you could use some help, so I just figured I could dish out some air support!”

Trace gave a sleazy laugh and shook his head. “For the best, I guess. The only reason he fought so hard is because he mostly steals for thrills.”

Alphonse huffed and walked over to their defeated foe, raising a glowing hand to entrap him in bright green ethereal rope-like bindings. “Well, if you’re looking for a good time from here, I’d suggest you take Pinkie and the filly back to Ponyville. Because we’re going to have to take this little scumbag to Tartarus where he belongs.”


***


The dark gates opened, and from behind them appeared a familiar face, who smiled at the group. Trace and Alphonse put greater effort into their poise. “Master Noxus,”

Boros laughed and shook his head. “C’mon boys, you’re both top-class warriors too now! No need to be so formal.” He then stepped aside to let the group through, Trace first, then Alphonse carrying Chet, and Rainbow Dash bringing up the back.

Boros whistled as he began following the group deeper into the cave, summoning two underworlder grunts to take the perp in hand and take him deeper in themselves. Rainbow Dash whistled in mild amazement. “So life must be pretty good for you guys since Celestia generously put the underworlders in charge of Tartarus.”

Boros just smiled and scoffed at this. “Even though it was a pretty nice act of political goodwill on her part, it does have some logistical merit to it. Firstly, it takes a criminal mind to catch and keep other criminals. Secondly, you guys’ magic isn’t as developed as ours when it comes to suppressing and dispelling other magic, just the price you pay for living such peaceful and idyllic lives.

“Anyway, even though we all haven’t been up here for long, this guy’s already built up a sizable bounty as he’s made his way across the land. It’ll take a minute, but I’ll get you the price for his head while you’re here.”

Trace frowned and made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “No thanks, just make out my share to the children’s fund.”

Alphonse sighed and rolled his shoulders. “Same, this place is too gloomy even for me. I don’t want to stay here any more than I have to!”

Boros just smirked at them. “That’s too bad, because either way, you’re going to have to sign a couple invoices for the transaction.” Looking a little displeased, the pair were led off by another grunt.

Rainbow Dash was about to remind them about her part in Chet’s capture, but recoiled as an arm reached out from the bars of a cage to the side. “Please, Boros! You’ve got to let me out of here already! We’re both brothers in crime! Think about all the good times!”

Boros made his way over to the cage and wiggled his eyebrows at the prisoner. “Maybe you should have thought about respecting the property and safety of our pony brethren beforehand!”

The criminal groaned and sat back down on the floor of the cage. “But I don’t want to!”

At this, Boros just laughed it off and encouraged Rainbow Dash to keep going in. “Don’t judge us all based on the likes of him. I won’t deny that a lot of times, a lot of us have to learn our lessons the hard way. But we tend to be a lot more receptive than that.

“Speaking of, I’ve been wanting to talk to you specifically about one of my Administrators.”

Rainbow Dash just rolled her eyes and crossed her hooves at this. “I don’t see what the problem is. If you can keep a tight leash on them, they shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

Boros got a dissatisfied look at that. “Well, I don’t typically have to. They’ve mostly cleaned up their acts and right now are spending most of their free time trying to find their own lives outside of the underworlders. But as for Mort… well… he was always the least independent out of them. But lately he’s just been super moody and abrasive, and you ponies are just way better at resolving those kinds of feelings in a healthy way, right?”

Suddenly, out of the shadows appeared Durza. “It would probably help if she knew the circumstances for Mort’s state of mind, Boss.”

Rainbow Dash recoiled in shock, even moreso after Boros manifested his ax and made a swipe at his chief henchman, who melded back into shadows and reappeared at his boss’s other side. Once Boros realized what was going on, he sighed and dematerialized his weapon. “How many times have I told you not to do that! One of these days, I might get lucky and get you in the neck!”

Durza remained stoic, but beget his awkwardness as he slightly looked away. “Yes, well, I just figured it would be prudent to resolve this situation to remind you of the time of year it is.”

Boros thought for a moment, then realization dawned on his face. “Oh, yeah! It’s almost the anniversary of when Nanny Nightshade left us. Poor Mort, no wonder…”

Rainbow Dash arched an eyebrow at this. “Can anypony let me in on who Nanny Nightshade is supposed to be?”

Boros held his hand out to the curious pegasus. “Nanny Nightshade was one of the notorious hags of the Lost District. Liked to collect the children that fell through the cracks of Core Metro’s society and violently chase off anyone that came near.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened at that. “That doesn’t sound very cool, what does Mort’s funk have to do with it?”

Boros closed his eyes and scoffed. “For the most part, I was just messing with you, telling you what we usually put on the tourist pamphlets. The truth is that the hags were just a group of crusty but kind-hearted women who took it upon themselves to care for large groups of orphans and protect them from those that would exploit them. And few were more effective at the latter than Nanny Nightshade thanks in no small part to her poison plant element.

“He always talks a big game, but Mort’s always been super insecure about his poison element. However, Nanny Nighshade’s personal brand of kindness made him feel a whole lot better about it. She might have had a bunch of kids in her charge, but nobody could deny that the bond between her and Mort was special.”

Rainbow Dash smirked and started nodding her head. “I’ve always liked the kind of style only tough old ladies have. So what happened to make Mort so upset?”

Boros sighed. “Well, like you said, she was an old lady. And as Mort grew, she just kept getting older. When she sensed her time coming, she personally came to me and asked that I use my strength to keep the innocents of the Lost District safe. I was impressed, and that was one of the reasons I formed the underworlders and took a special interest in Mort. But when she eventually passed, Mort became a lot more distant and sarcastic.”

At this, Rainbow Dash started sulking. “Gee… I really had no clue… But still, what can I do about that?”

Boros held up a finger. “He might be super insincere and a total kiss up, but a warrior is a warrior. You were the first person to ever lay him out flat in a real fight, that forges a bond. I figure if you can do something super nice for him, it might turn his attitude around for the better.”

Rainbow Dash sniffed and perked up. “All right, what kind of things does he like? Parties? Books? Snacks?”

Boros just held up his hands and shrugged. “It’s really hard to say. Like all of the underworlders, he couldn’t afford to have a taste for the finer things in life.”

Durza, reminding everyone that he was still present, pointed at his boss. “In the first couple years he was part of the gang, didn’t Nanny Nightshade send him a gift for his birthday before passing?”

“Oh yeah. She sent him those cakes a couple times. The ones that made us have to air out the base for a few days after, the special iced arsenic cakes!”

Rainbow Dash went rigid. “Arsenic? Isn’t that stuff like, super deadly?”

Boros smirked at that. “Maybe to the average creature, but to human poison elementals like Mort, it’s sweet like honey! I’m pretty sure you can find it in an old cookbook that doubles as a guide to assassination called Pestilential Pastries.”

Rainbow Dash held her hoof to her chin. “I guess I’ll have to ask Kris about the cookbook. Then I suppose I’ll have Pinkie help me bake it, and give the Cakes a heads-up to vacate the premises.” 
> Toxic Sentiment, Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash, wearing heavy protective gear, entered the kitchen carrying the warning label-covered ingredients followed by a similarly garbed Pinkie Pie carrying the cookbook. After setting up, Pinkie giggled. “I’ve baked some exotic stuff for all kinds of creatures, but I’ve never made anything that could kill somepony before! I can’t tell whether this is going to be fun or not!”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as she arranged the toxic ingredients and got out the cookware. “I’m not exactly excited about it myself, but nopony said that doing something nice for somepony else was going to be pleasant each time!”

Pinkie Pie laid out the book and started turning the pages. “Let’s see… Poisonous pancakes, murderous macaroons, viper’s venom topped with cream, cyanide custard pie… Here it is! Special iced arsenic cake! Hm… looks simple enough, and it’s a no-bake! Ready Rainbow?”

Rainbow Dash gulped as she started opening the containers, turning her head away from the fumes. “As I’ll ever be, I suppose!”

Pinkie Pie cleared her throat and put her hoof to the written lines. “‘Take a big bowl of strychnine, cream with hemlock ‘till it’s green. Take a glass of paraffin, warm it up and tip it in.’ I’d say add two for luck.”

A bead of sweat ran down the side of Rainbow Dash’s face as she poured in and mixed the ingredients. She gulped heavily. “Okay… next please…”

Pinkie returned her attention to the book. “‘Add a spot of opium. Marinate a leech in scum. Sprinkle with some chopped frog spawn…’”

“Now we add a peppercorn?”

Pinkie Pie carefully scanned the page. “Um… nope!”

Rainbow Dash huffed and looked away. “Hm? Oh well…”

“‘Crumble up your arsenic, in a glass of narcotic. Add two spoons of castor oil, put them on the stove to boil.’ Maybe add three for luck.”

Despite her face coverings, Rainbow Dash’s eyes started watering as she gagged. “That’s done, what’s next?”

“‘Put some snake’s blood in a bowl. Stir in a crushed tadpole. Add a thimble full of glue…’”

“Add a spot of sugar too?”

“Hm… No!”

Rainbow Dash sighed, carefully pointing her snout away from the fuming mixture. “No? Oh well…”

“‘Add rat poison to the brew, cobra’s venom goes in too. Sweeten it with orange juice, three segments is what you use.’ Considering who we’re making this for, I think just one will do.”

Rainbow Dash wiped the sweat from her brow. “Okay, that’s all done. What’s next?”

“‘Thicken all with mandrake root. Decorate with moldy fruit. Just before the funeral…’”

“Add a spot of vitriol?”

“Uh… yep!”

“Somehow, I knew that’d be a good idea…”

After pouring the mixture in the pan and letting it sit for a moment, Rainbow Dash turned the foul pastry over onto a sheet of baking parchment and pulled off the container. “It’s probably for the best that it’s a no-bake. A little heat and this thing might explode! And I don’t think even Crazy Joe would find that appetizing after that.”

A concerned Mrs. Cake entered through the front door of the shop and trotted up to the entrance to the kitchen. “Pinkie dear, I know you said you needed us out of Sugarcube Corner for a couple days for an important order, but I just wanted to check-” However, she soon caught a whiff of the fumes coming from the kitchin and recoiled in horror, holding her hoof to her face. “SWEET CELESTIA, PINKIE! What are you baking in there?”

Rainbow Dash came out of the kitchen hovering past her, making sure to hold the warning label-covered cake box at a safe distance. “Trust me, Mrs. Cake, you don’t want to know. You might want to open a few windows for a few days, and sanitize the bowls and stuff with something labeled ‘industrial strength.’”

Rainbow Dash made her way to Everfree carrying the poisonous parcel. She asked around, but was told that Mort wasn’t home. Eventually, she was told about a specific trail he wandered down to be alone. It wasn’t until nightfall that she happened upon Mort sitting in the middle of the flattened-out ground grumbling to himself. “Hm… Bad attitude, eh? I’ll give you something to have a bad attitude about…” Then, he sighed and loudly sniffed. “Oh, Nanny…”

Rainbow Dash coughed to get his attention. “Hey there… Mort…”

At this, Mort sprung up like a rocket and held his scythes to her neck, then dropped them when he saw who his potential assailant was. “Oh… the illustrious Rainbow Dash! I hear you’re some kind of celebrity up here, part of a troop of performers called the Wonderbolts, right? And that’s in addition to all the times you’ve saved civilization as you knew it. To what do I, now a glorified janitor, owe the pleasure?”

Rainbow Dash was a little hesitant after having Mort lay it on so thick at one time. But she swallowed her pride and held out her gift. “I heard you were feeling down… So I made this for you…”

He sheathed his scythes and took the parcel in hand. “Well I suppose I should feel honored, it’s not like a people so focused on friendship doesn’t do this kind of thing every single-” However, he paused after opening the box and getting a facefull of its distinctive odor, which made Rainbow Dash back away slightly. “How did you…?”

Rainbow Dash awkwardly avoided eye contact. “Your boss and Durza mentioned something, so I kind of found an old cookbook and went from there.”

Mort looked back at the fuming cake. “Well… This… I mean, no one’s ever… Not since Nanny…” Mort soon disregarded what was left of his inhibitions and started wolfing down the toxic treat by the handful, the grass and weeds dying upon contact with the scattered crumbs. Once he was finished, he discarded the box to the side and turned towards Rainbow Dash. “That was… This is just… I don’t really know how to say it! I feel… I feel…!”

Suddenly, Mort’s cheeks puffed and he loudly belched into the air. It didn’t occur to the two of them present, but for over a hundred miles, grass and vegetation wilted, hibernating animals abruptly woke up, and fish in surrounding bodies of water went belly-up. When he was finished, Mort tried to laugh it off. “Well, pardon me, but that wasn’t all I felt. What I was saying was that I just feel… optimistic.”

Suddenly, a bright light emitted from behind Mort’s back, startling the both of them. Mort took out his glowing scythes from their holsters on his back and marveled at them. When the glow faded, they began to glimmer in the moonlight in a striking shade of red-violet. After a moment, Mort scrunched up his face and suddenly they disappeared in a rich purpleish light and reappeared a second later. He repeated this a couple of times before making a few practice swings and striking several different stances.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but smirk at this. “Wow, I guess this means you’re the real deal now, huh?”

Mort made what could only be described as a sincere smile, but then abruptly dropped it and lunged at Rainbow Dash, forcing her to barrel-roll out of the way. Once she regained her footing, she angrily pointed her hoof at the underworlder Administrator. “What do you think you-” But she dropped it as she saw the sight before her.

Mort was grimacing as he pushed back with his scythes against the club of solid dark dirt held by the human with a familiar striped outfit. Rainbow Dash was taken aback. “Chet Tiller? Here? He’s supposed to be back at Tartarus!”

Mort and Chet broke off their struggle, leaping back from each other. Mort swung his scythes wide to block the criminal from Rainbow Dash. “I know this guy, he was just like Trace! Super slippery, wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say he’s more than capable of escaping Tartarus of all places.”

Chet gave a sinister smile and suddenly held high what looked like a small whistle made of his black earth element. He soon held it to his mouth and blew, giving off a strange hollow tone. The human/pony pair started looking around in apprehension as the ground started shaking. Suddenly, a trail of disturbed earth appeared from the woods and out of it burst a huge maulwurf, growling and baring its large teeth and claws.

Rainbow Dash recoiled in shock. “Where’d that thing come from?”

Mort crossed his scythes at the creature. “He must have tamed it and turned it into a familiar! With the right spell, a familiar user can summon their pets from anywhere!”

After regaining her composure, Rainbow Dash held her head low and snorted. “Well… you’ve got a plan?”

Mort gave off a short cackling. “Typically, I’m the underworlder gang’s expert on one-on-one fighting. I might now be a top-class warrior, but I’m still fresh, and his earth derivative has the advantage over my water derivative. If you can use your weather control against him, it should be enough to dispel anything he’ll try to create. Meanwhile, I’ll take on this monster. It looks tough, but enough paralytic poison should lay it out.”

Rainbow Dash reared back. “On it!” She soon charged the bandit while Mort charged the beast, spraying a dark liquid from his mouth onto his weapons’ blades.

As Rainbow Dash got near, Chet swung back his club and snapped it at the oncoming pegasus, causing it to elongate into a multi-tipped bullwhip. Rainbow Dash deftly avoided each of the winding strikes, then suddenly dashed back while blasting forward a gust of wind which caused the crude construct to crumble. Holding what was left of his makeshift weapon’s handle, it elongated into a long stick and he threw it at his opponent, one end giving off a spray of sparks. Rainbow Dash whirled around and gave what was clearly an explosive a horizontal bat with one of her hooves, sending it back and forcing the one who created it to leap out of the way as it exploded and left a crater in the ground.

Meanwhile, Mort back stepped or deflected each of the maulwurf’s sweeping claw strikes. When the beast paused to recover, Mort sprung and raked his blades across the creature’s arm. However, it merely made a shrill holler and batted him back with a swing of that arm. Mort backed off to size up the situation. “Thick hide, and it's got some potent natural immunity too. This should be fun!”

Chet bent low and ripped out a chunk of the ground. He flung it at Rainbow Dash, causing it to turn into a series of flying bolas. Rainbow Dash countered by spinning around and making a small tornado that the constructs disintegrated on contact with, forcing Chet to dodge out of the way as it moved towards him.

Mort jumped back while swinging his scythes, sending out a pair of flying crescent blades of fluid poison. The maulwurf avoided by tunneling into the ground. Mort kept his guard up, and backflipped to dodge the monster’s below-ground lunge at him. However, the flying slashes of poison suddenly boomeranged around and struck the maulwurf in the back, sending it toppling. Mort smirked at this. “I guess I can remotely control my poison attacks now. Cool.”

This time, Rainbow Dash took the initiative and rocketed high in the sky. Chet peered up at her and flinched as she came down to divebomb him. He bent low and thrust his hand into the ground next to him, swinging it back up to erect a shield of solidified black soil that smothered the worst of the pegasus’s full-on attack. However, she extended her legs to give herself a jumping start as she went back up to the sky and came to rest on a lazily passing cloud she spotted earlier. With a confident kick, a lightning bolt shot down and shattered Chet’s shield, sending him spasming into the ground as before.

The maulwurf zoomed back and crouched low before making a headlong charge at Mort. However, it abruptly stopped and swept its claws upward, sending a storm of rubble at its human opponent. In response, Mort swung and threw his scythes outward, making them scatter the projectiles as they curved back around. Mort used this as cover to charge directly at the creature. He leaped up and forcefully pulled down the maulwurf’s lower jaw before spraying a thick stream of poison in its mouth from his own. The creature made a clumsy gulp and belched up a few fumes before swaying on its back paws and falling over.

Rainbow Dash and Mort met back up and marveled at their handiwork. Rainbow Dash raised a hoof and Mort, recognizing the gesture, tapped it with his fist.
> Rocketing Debt
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rarity levitated her cup and took a gentle sip, savoring both the aroma and flavor. She opened her eyes as she sat it back down on the cafe table. “Today is simply the perfect kind of day for a pony to spend taking care of themselves. Wouldn’t you agree, dear?”

Fluttershy took a sip from her own cup and lowered it to smile and nod at her friend. “Mm-hm!”

However, just when Rarity was starting to think that nothing could spoil such a great day, her eyes went wide as her face was illuminated by the light of a nearby explosion, her mane fluttering in the shockwave. Soon after, what looked like Sloop Masters ran by the cafe screaming as he was chased by a very large dark-skinned human female with shoulder-length white hair carrying a bright red cannon in both hands. “I’m gonna cream you!”

Rarity sighed and levitated a coin purse, taking out a few bits and placing them on the table. She gave her friend a sad but nonchalant look. “Never a dull moment, is there?”

Fluttershy smiled and shook her head. “Mm-mm!”

As they both got up from their seats, they were stopped by a loud psst-ing. They turned toward its source, a human who’s features were obscured by a thick coat and hat. Rarity elegantly extended her hoof. “I beg your pardon, but a dear friend of ours is in immediate danger, and we must simply do what we can to help them.”

The figure scoffed in a familiar voice. “Trust me, you have time. They can take care of themselves.”

At this, the pegasus/unicorn duo were taken aback, double taking between the figure and the path Sloop and his pursuer took. Rarity gave the figure a discerning look. “Sloop? But that means…”

Sloop scoffed once again and poked his head out from his clever disguise. “Yep, that was Percival! Ever since that woman started chasing me, we’ve been tag-teaming her, hoping to wear her down while one of us recuperates. But I suppose they don’t call her Crazy Jane for nothing!”

Fluttershy recoiled slightly. “Crazy Jane? Any relation to…”

Sloop gave a dejected laugh and looked down. “Yes, it’s Crazy Joe’s older, crazier sister! She’s a very powerful bomb elemental and a top-class warrior unlike her brother. But also unlike her brother, she has absolutely no respect for authority and was considered too dangerous even for the underworlders. Quite a puzzle, isn’t it?”

At this, Rarity gave her human friend a look of concern. “Is there a particular reason why she’s chasing you, or is she just being demented for the enjoyment of it?”

Sloop exhaled through his nose. “Apparently, nobody just acts crazy for free. You see, when my holdings company was in dire straits one time, I was forced to borrow a large sum of credits from her, and she’s recently come to collect!”

Rarity held up her hoof, raising an eyebrow. “And how many credits was that, per se?”

“Oh, to my recollection, one million credits…”

Rarity nonchalantly smirked at that. “Well, that shouldn’t be too much trouble! Core Metro credits convert that to a medium-sized bag of bits or a hooffull of gems!”

Sloop just sighed and frowned. “Yeah, she didn’t accept that and made the direct leap to one million bits.”

Even Fluttershy was left aghast at that. “But… but… that’s just totally unreasonable!”

“When I mentioned that fact to her, she looked me right in the face and said, ‘I know what I like. What I like, I want. And what I want, I get.’ Then, she gave me a thirty-second head start before chasing me.”

Rarity cringed a little. “I don’t suppose you’ve got a plan to resolve this unlike the temporary measures you’ve already taken.”

Smiling, Sloop threw off his guise and materialized one of his arrowguns. “Only one way to handle a disgruntled human warrior: They won’t stop until they get stopped! Can I count on you two to help?”

Rarity flipped her mane and got a confident look. “Anything for a friend!”

Fluttershy sighed, but held her head high. “I won’t hurt anycreature myself, but I’ll do what I can to help!”


***


Percival disguised as Sloop managed to make his way to an open cul de sac in the road. Remembering the plan they worked out, he quickly rushed to the side of a building and shapeshifted into an ordinary barrel. Moments later, Crazy Jane came stomping in, swinging around her weapon as she looked for a target. “Now where did you go, rich boy…?”

However, she soon froze in place, then swung around her weapon to block the oncoming onslaught of bright-red magic missiles. Then, she leaped back as a round ball of crystals came crashing down from above, disappearing in bright flecks. She then waved away some of the dust to take a look at the approaching group. After taking their places, Sloop arched his leg and got up on Fluttershy’s back, who took flight. Rarity, on the other hand, lit up her horn and surrounded herself with a small barrier of crystal from the front.

Fluttershy flew erratically hither and about, allowing Sloop to fire his weapons at multiple angles and reload from a safe distance. However, Crazy Jane repeated her previous action and used her cannon to bat aside each projectile. She also prevented the pegasus from resting by swinging her free hand and flinging multiple missiles of dark-red magic, each one creating a small explosion once it made contact with something solid after missing. “Does the navy boy think he’s some kind of airman now?”

However, she had to focus her attention on the charging unicorn, using her cannon to brace herself against the battering-ram like barrier. Percival took this as Sloop’s signal to go on the offensive and assumed his battle form, summoning his six focuses and enlarging his fist while making it take on the form of a series of medium-sized stone blocks. He sent a rocket-like jab accompanied by his focuses to the warrior-woman with his extending, elongating arm. However, seven points off her back started glowing in a red light and erupted to deflect the oncoming composite attack.

Crazy Jane smirked, kicked back Rarity, and sent her flying back by blasting her shield with a blast of cannonfire. Then she whirled around and braced herself while aiming at Percival. “You didn’t think I’d take precautions against getting backstabbed, did you? My little brother might be famous for taking on swarms by himself, but my technique’s a lot more polished!” She recoiled slightly against the blast, forcing Percival to literally flatten himself against the ground to dodge.

After this, she took aim, following along with Fluttershy for a moment. Sloop took this opportunity to charge up and let fly a large missile of magic. Crazy Jane adjusted her stance to bat it aside once again, however, it rebounded off the hidden compass circles Sloop had placed while circling around her on Fluttershy’s back appeared and redirected the projectile to the side. Crazy Jane swung her head around, trying to keep track of the rebounding projectile, and wasn’t quite fast enough to defend against its direct hit and was knocked to the ground.

Percival took this opportunity to thrust his hand into the ground and create a wave of black tar that expanded towards Crazy Jane. However, she somehow manifested a dark red glowing construct of a rocket over the forearm of her free hand and took flight high above. During her hangtime, she aimed her weapon straight down and blasted a shot that diffused and scattered, carpet-bombing the entire cul de sac.

After touching back down to earth, she got a look of concern as she surveyed the dazed and seemingly unconscious forms of her opponents. “Hm… Hope I didn’t cream him too hard. How am I gonna get my money otherwise?”

However, Percival quickly stood himself straight up and extended his arms, surrounding Crazy Jane with his pointy free-floating weapons. She took a stance, holding her cannon aloft while covering her free hand in an orb of dark-red magic. However, he staggered as she got hit in the back by a hard punch. She swung around to see an arm covered in the sleeve of Sloop’s signature coat disappear into a clear orb with a bright blue octahedron shape within. She turned towards Sloop, who was getting up as he withdrew his hand from a similar orb, only with a red octahedron.

As he got up, he suddenly shouted “North!” Crazy Jane was momentarily distracted as she was suddenly covered in an aura of bright-red magic. This was enough for Fluttershy to pick him up and zoom him next to Percival, who touched the side of a nearby building, transforming it into a wall of solid steel. In turn, Sloop touched the transformed wall and shouted “And that’s South!”

As the wall started glowing with a bright blue aura, Crazy Jane found herself being forcefully drawn towards it. She quickly turned and tried to resist this force with her brute strength, but she couldn’t make any headway. She tried to send herself flying with a few concentrated explosions, but ended up losing more ground than she gained as she was drawn back while in midair. Eventually, she found herself completely stuck against the wall, but ceaselessly struggled against the force that bound her. “This… Won’t… Hold… Me… For… Long…!”

Rarity gave the warrior woman a confident smirk and lit up her horn. “That’s where I come in, sweetheart!” With a flourish, she zapped their aggressor with a beam of magic, turning her armor into a dress so frilly and poofy that she could hardly breathe, much less move or resist.

With a snap of his fingers, Sloop dispelled the magic that bound her and the immobilized Crazy Jane plopped to the ground. He walked right up to her and pointed at her face. “All right, Jane, what will it take for you to give up your chase and turn yourself in?”

Crazy Jane grumbled for a moment, and did her best to move her neck to look down upon Sloop as much as she could. “Mamma gets what mamma wants, and mamma wants money! One million bits or nothing, credits are almost worthless up here! And I won’t get a real, honest job even if it kills me!”

Sloop took a deep breath and extended his clasped hands towards the warrior woman. “I don’t have one million bits to give; I pretty much poured the last of my converted savings into a special boat I had built. But what if I offer you a barter? I’ll use my private boat to take you on a three month vacation, all expenses paid, across the tropical islands off the coast of Southern Equestria. Do we have a deal?”

Crazy Jane looked away as she took this into consideration. Then exhaled as she looked back at Sloop. “I suppose it’s better than nothing, and owning debts isn’t nearly as profitable as it used to be… Alright, I surrender on the condition that I can take my little brothers with me too.”

Sloop nodded to her. “Deal!” Then gestured to Rarity, who lit up her horn once more, turning the dress back to its original form. Crazy Jane quickly dematerialized her weapon, dusted herself off, and proceeded on her way to where her opponents hoped was the direction of Tartarus.

Kris, after hearing about the commotion, came charging in, his sword blazing with an aura. However, he suddenly stopped short as Crazy Jane approached. As she passed him by, she gave him a charming smile and took a moment to shake what she had. “Hello, Kris!”

A dumbfounded Sloop and friends approached Kris from behind. “Crazy Jane? Really, man?”

Kris awkwardly looked away. “After the guild shut down, I was lost for a very long time. And I sought comfort in… strange places…”

At this, Sloop broke out in a hearty laugh and clapped his friend on the shoulder. “A fire tribesman through and through, eh?” Fluttershy and Rarity turned towards each other and giggled while Percival, now assuming Kris’s form, wiggled his eyebrows at him, causing the real Kris to blush bright red.
> The Silently Weeping Sword
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pinkie Pie bounced along her way with a big grin on her face as he made her daily rounds. She waved to Cheerilee as she was on her way to the schoolhouse. She bought a bouquet of flowers from Rose and gave them to Cranky Doodle Donkey who was on his way to breakfast at the cafe with Matilda. And she told a joke she was working on for a few days to Derpy, who laughed long and hard despite barely comprehending it.

Soon she came upon the first human friend of the day, Kris, whistling a somewhat happy tune. She thanked her luck on account of having an important message to give to him. “Happy birthday, Kris! Can you tell me what kind of par- HURK!” Pinkie was suddenly lying flat on the ground, her eye black and stinging, and her head spinning. Every surrounding pony and even several humans were staring in shock at what happened, especially at Kris, who lowered his raised fist and continued down his way, grumbling.

Maxine von Wrinkle, who was sitting on a nearby bench reading the newspaper, sighed and moved to help the dazed Pinkie Pie back up. “Pinkie, my dear, are you okay?”

Pinkie stood unsteadily on her hooves and gave Maxine an unfocused look, tiny imaginary Pinkies bouncing around her head. “Happy Birthday… Happy Birthday… Happy Birthday…” Maxine stood ready to catch her if she fell, giving her a few more moments to collect herself. Then, Pinkie suddenly stood a lot more steady and shook her head before holding a hoof to her bruised face. “Oh… Madame… von Wrinkle? What hit me? I can’t remember a thing!”

Maxine held her finger out to Pinkie and traced a circle of red magic over her injured eye. This emanation formed into what vaguely looked like a pair of clock hands and some ethereal gears, which started spinning at an increased speed until the bruise faded. “I’m afraid you said the worst possible thing to young Kris and wished him a happy birthday. He’s sworn to sock anyone in the face who even mentions his birthday, especially on the day of his birthday.”

Pinkie Pie looked weirded out. “Oh…kay… Is that some kind of human thing? Because we might need to have a talk about that with the Princess!”

At this, Maxine sighed and shook her head. “No, it’s just him. You see, young master Duelis hates his birthday more than anything.”

At that, Pinkie made a deep gasp and stumbled backwards on her back hooves, falling onto her back. Then she sat up and wildly flung her front hooves in the air. “Hates his birthday? HOW COULD ANYPONY HATE THEIR OWN BIRTHDAY?”

Maxine held out her hand and gestured down the way. “I’m afraid that’s a rather long story. Tell you what, I’ll tell the story at Sugarcube Corner over a half-dozen cupcakes as recompense for my junior’s unwarranted assault.”

Pinkie suddenly hopped to her hooves with a big smile. “Make it three dozen, and you’ve got yourself a deal!”


***


As Mr. Carrot Cake left the table after having set down the tray with the pile of cupcakes, Madam von Wrinkle was picking at the wrapping paper of her first and Pinkie Pie was shoving her fifth into her mouth.

“You see, for all his young life, young Kris was never not part of the Prancing Pony guild. Even during the so-called good times, it happened a lot more often than any of us care to admit; whoever bore him more than likely couldn’t take care of him for what could be many reasons, so he was left at our guild hall’s doorstep in a basket and bundle of blankets.

“After that, we filled out some paperwork and adopted him as a ward of our guild. The ones most suited to each role nurtured him, provided for him, educated him, and trained him to use his magic and fight. When he was old enough, he joined the guild in full as an apprentice and eventually made friends with the other children signed up as apprentices that would eventually become known as the Brave Six.”

Pinkie Pie finally swallowed, burped very loudly, and wiped the crumbs and frosting from her face with her hoof. “Okay, that all sounds pretty good so far. I don’t see what he has to complain about.”

Maxine padded her face of crumbs with a pocket kerchief and placed to the side the folded cupcake wrapper. “Well, that’s from your perspective. Young Kris has another way of viewing it. Eventually, we had to tell him how he came to us and why. He viewed it as that he was just simply abandoned, discarded for being useless. It severely impacted his ability to form positive emotional bonds with others.

“My guess is that he saw it as that if it’s easy enough for one to just abandon their own child, then any kind of loving relationship must be extremely fragile and ultimately temporary. The closure of the Guild certainly didn’t make this outlook any better. In order to avoid pain, he closed off his wounded heart to everyone.

“Even after spending the remainder of his youth with me and always being told he could stay as long as he needed, he just left without a word as soon as he came of age. His lifestyle as a lone champion didn’t give him many opportunities to heal. Reconnecting with his closest friends and coming up here definitely allowed him to make great progress, but it’s definitely going to take him time to get over his issues, and he has many. Chief among his issues is great anguish at the mere mention of his birthday.”

After a moment lost in recollection, she looked back up at Pinkie Pie, and remained stoic at her excessively grief-stricken expression. Eventually, Pinkie could no longer contain herself and started wailing, a waterfall of tears spraying from each eye. She paused briefly to shovel several more cupcakes in her mouth, maintaining her expression. After swallowing, she returned to her cry and repeated these actions a couple more times.

Sniffling, Pinkie Pie regained enough composure to speak. “I’m sorry, but that’s just… the saddest story I’ve ever heard! He always seems so strong and confident, but inside, he’s in so much pain!”

Maxine awkwardly looked away as she took another cupcake in hand. “Yes, well, don’t tell him that to his face. He’ll probably just think you’re patronizing him instead of offering sympathy and won’t take it well. And he certainly won’t take it well if he finds out I told you all this.”

Pinkie Pie wiped her face of food residue and fluids and suddenly got a determined look, holding a hoof in the air. “Thank you for telling me this, Madam von Wrinkle! This is no time for treats and crying! I’ve got a big birthday party to plan!”

Before Maxine could even think of saying anything, Pinkie had already zoomed out of the bakery’s swinging doors. Maxine could only sigh as she placed another folded wrapper to the side. “This probably won’t end well. I just wish someone would just call me Maxine for once.”

A few hours later, after Kris had completed his stroll to clear his head and think about anything but his birthday, he made his way back to the Everfree encampment, specifically to its soon-to-be-famous hanging bazaar for a hot drink. However, he was put slightly on-edge after seeing that all the windows and the main entryway were all dark. “Is the place closed? I probably would have heard something about it. Plus, they probably would have drawn the curtain and taken down the ‘welcome’ sign.”

He warily crossed the threshold into the bazaar proper, keeping his guard up like the seasoned warrior he was. However, nothing could have prepared him for what he’d experience next.

All the lights suddenly erupted on and the crowd previously hidden in the darkness erupted in cheers, human and pony alike wearing party hats, blowing party horns, and carrying platters of cake. “Happy birthday Kris!” A banner emblazoned with the same statement hung overhead among streamers and balloons.

Pinkie Pie bounced up to the dumbstruck Kris, offering a corner piece of the cake she personally made. “I threw this extra-special party just for you, Kris! Just to show you how much we all love and appreciate you, forever and ever!”

Pinkie Pie stood there waiting for the outburst of joy she expected, used to ponies taking a minute to realize exactly how they feel. Kris, however, saw the whole thing differently than Pinkie expected.

First, all the bright colors just started blurring together, then all the noise of the party started muffling as the only thing Kris could hear was the sound of his own heavy breathing and pounding heartbeat. Then, terror filled his mind as he began losing his balance, the muscles in all of his limbs trembling.

The previously oblivious Pinkie abruptly dropped her smile as she immediately noticed that something was very, very wrong. She tried to come to his aid, dropping the cake, as he started wobbling on his feet and collapsed onto the ground. “Kris, are you-” but when she tried to get closer, Kris screamed and swept out his arm at her, sending her reeling as the front tip of her mane was sliced off by a faint ethereal blade.

After this display, the atmosphere died very quickly. Even the music stopped with a stereotypical scratch of the record. After a minute, Kris’s breathing steadied and he managed to stand back up. But after seeing everyone staring at him and what he’d done to Pinkie, he got a look of both great humiliation and shame. “Um… Uh… Ishouldgo…!”

Kris whirled around and raced out of the bazaar’s entryway. Pinkie suddenly looked worried and guilty as she tried to chase after Kris. “Kris! Wait! It’s okay! IT’S ALL MY FAULT!”

Even after making it out onto the bazaar’s deck, she’d totally lost sight of her friend. She gave off a depressed sigh and held her head low, her mane much less voluminous and her coat several shades paler.

“Well, that went much better than I expected.”

Pinkie Pie’s ears stood erect at the familiar sarcastic voice. “Alphonse? ‘Better’? What do you mean?” She stared at her close human friend as he stepped out of the shadows, but he wasn’t the only one. All five of the close human friends she and her friends made in Core Metro came out of hiding, all wearing somber expressions.

Percival, this time adopting the visage of Alphonse, held their hand out to Pinkie. “Sorry for not showing up, Pinkie, but when we heard about this little surprise of yours, we decided to wait and see how it would turn out.”

Wilda sniffed and scratched his beard. “We were kind of hoping this might have been good for him. This brand new world we’re all living in has done wonders for the mental health of countless other humans, but it seems that old wounds, especially wounds on the heart, run deep.”

Trace crossed his arms and looked away. “We talked it over and decided that the best thing to do would be to wait and see from a distance in case our presence would have put unnecessary pressure on our friend. If things would have gone well, we could have just come in and shared the joy. If things would have gone badly, we could have stopped our friend from doing anything he’d regret later. Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as we’d anticipated.”

Sloop tipped his hat up and gave a nonchalant laugh. “If it makes it any better, I’ll personally reimburse you for what you spent on this party and what Kris did to your lovely mane.”

Pinkie Pie quickly regained herself and got another determined but slightly softer expression. “No. I’ve been making bad decisions all day, approaching this problem with Kris all the wrong ways! I’m going to give it one last try, throw one more party, an extra-super-special party just for Kris!”

Alphonse looked sympathetic, but made a condescending scoff. “Really? You say you’ve learned your lesson, but after everything that’s happened, you want to have another party?”

Pinkie spun around and pointed her hoof at her sourpuss friend with a confident look. “You bet your sweet bon-bons I do! And here’s how I’m going to do it…!”

She started consulting the group of friends, asking questions and further inquiring about the answers she got. The more she talked, the more she started bringing them around. Even Alphonse could only nod in approval with wide eyes.


***


Hours after the party had gone wrong and the sun began to set in the sky, Kris violently vented his stress and anxiety at the everfree dumpsite as he gave out a loud holler each time he slashed apart a large piece or pile of garbage. Since the fungus elementals were just going to use their magic to reduce the whole thing to a biodegradable sludge anyway, he figured it wouldn’t be any harm.

The exercises left him so sensitized that he immediately recognized that he wasn’t alone, with several new presences encroaching upon him. He quickly struck a stance and held out his ethereal sword. “Whoever’s there, I want you to know that I’m a top-class warrior and I’ve been having a really bad day! So come out where I can see you!”

With a combination of surprise and morbid assurance, he saw Pinkie Pie slowly come out from behind a wall of rubbish wearing a sentimental look. He dematerialized his weapon, but maintained his defensive posture. “Pinkie? Look, I’m very sorry about how rough I’ve treated you today, but I’m not like you ponies! Humans have things called boundaries, and if these boundaries aren’t respected, the ones that violate them are guaranteed some powerful hurt!”

Pinkie maintained her distance, but tried to keep an open posture. “I know that now, but I can’t just leave you like this! Especially since I was the one that triggered this whole mess! So I talked with your friends and they agree that I should have one last chance to make this a day worth enjoying for you!”

Kris raised an eyebrow in apprehension, but Pinkie Pie gestured with her hoof to signal a few more figures to come out of their hiding places that left Kris aghast. Recognizable among them was Maxine von Wrinkle and Boros Noxus in casual wear, but these were followed by a few more humans that took even the endlessly persistent Pinkie great effort to find. A hunched over man with long gray hair wearing a fuzzy fur cloak and top hat using a short but oversized key as a walking stick, a large woman with voluminous brown hair and freckles dressed in a thick white smock, a short but incredibly muscular old man with a long pale-blond beard and a large-malletted sledgehammer hoisted over his back dressed in cloth shorts and a leather apron, and a short middle-aged woman with brown curls wearing a white apron and carrying a cooking knife hanging from her hip in a leather sheath.

Kris’s eyes were wide, but it took him a minute to drop his defensive stance and approach the group. “Madam von Wrinkle and Master Noxus? Locke Enki, the Prancing Pony fiduciary? Lynette Everbright, the guild hall’s chief healer? Ezekiel Aereus, the senior craft master? And Kera Bol, the guild hall canteen cook?”

He then turned to look at Pinkie Pie. “How did you track down the Prancing Pony guild senior staff?”

“Why so formal, you nimrod? These guys are basically you’re parents, right? Raised you, fed you, loved you, made you who you are, right?”

Kris swung around his head, trying to locate the source of the familiar taunting voice. Out from behind more piles of semi-eviscerated garbage emerged Kris’s closest childhood friends. Sitting on top of a rusty refrigerator, Alphonse laughed sarcastically and scratched his nose. “Don’t be so shocked, dear friend. Like I said before, you cut yourself off! All of us kept in contact after the guild closed, but that’s besides the point…”

He hopped off his seat and approached Kris. “I consider myself a rather tolerant person. I might complain a lot, but for the most part I’ll let people’s bad points be their own business if it doesn’t affect me. But I just have to speak up about this little self-loathing complex you have. I know you were badly hurt, and I won’t be as tactless just to tell you to get over it, but you can’t start healing unless you take each step yourself. But I want you to know that all of us are more than willing to ease the burden however we can.”

At this, Kris started looking down and fidgeting with his hands. Then, he took a deep breath and walked up to Pinkie Pie. “I just want to say… Thank you. Especially after I pretty much spent the entire day brutalizing you. I can’t say I’m ready and willing to put everything behind me yet, but now I think I’m ready to sincerely start that thousand-mile journey ahead of me.”

He then gave a small smile at her, which made Pinkie break out in a big smile. “It’s what I’m here for! C’mon everyone! There’s still a bit of cake and punch back at the bazaar!”
> Crusaders of a Different Mark
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The school bell rang out as the fillies and colts noisily entered the Ponyville schoolhouse. However, before Miss Cheerilee entered and took her place, the students muttered in confusion over the numerous empty desks now present in the classroom.

Silver Spoon turned towards her neighbor. “Do you think a bunch of new families moved to town?”

Diamond Tiara frowned and nodded her head. “Hardly! My mom and daddy would have definitely heard something, and they definitely would have told me!”

Twist giggled and turned towards Apple Bloom, excitedly spraying with each utterance. “Do you think they’ll be nice? I’d love to have new taste testers for my cinnamon stick recipes!”

Apple Bloom nonchalantly smiled and nodded. “Either way, new friends are new friends, blank flanks or otherwise! Right fellow crusaders?”

Scootaloo excitedly fluttered her wings. “Mm-hm!”

Sweetie Bell nodded and smirked. “You know it!”

The foals grew quiet as Miss Cheerilee trotted into the classroom. She smiled at the children. “Good morning, class!”

“Good morning, Miss Cheerilee.”

“I have an announcement for you all! As you’ve noticed with the new empty seats, we have a very special wave of new students! The representative diplomat Madam Maxine von Wrinkle has talked it over with both Princess Celestia and our Mayor Mare and had had an excellent idea to strengthen the relationship between us ponies and our new neighbors, the humans! Our school was picked first in an experiment to foster strong friendship across species during formative years, so I’d like to introduce our new students from the Everfree Settlement! The new students should be arriving about…”

The classroom turned their heads towards the door as they heard a knocking from the doors. Miss Cheerilee gestured to the door with her hoof. “Come on in!” Suddenly, Gustoff opened the doors and looked in, then he gestured for someone outside to follow him and a group of human children entered the classroom with with Augustus coming up on the rear. Miss Cheerilee ecstatically clopped her hooves together and faced the class, gesturing at each of the new students. “Okay, now I want each of you to step forward and tell us your names and something about yourselves!”

Initially, the group of new students hesitated. Shyly avoiding eye contact with the rest of the room’s occupants. The child at the front of the line, a boy with pale brown hair and azure eyes, was nudged by a smiling Gustoff. “Go on, no trouble!”

The boy took a deep breath and stepped forward, trying hard to keep eye contact with the colts and fillies. “My name is… Jasper Dumort. I’m a mineral elemental and my family worked as gem cutters and jewelers back at Core Metro. Right now, we’re working with some relatives who’re living in a cave in one of the nearby mountains to build up an inventory to start selling to some stores.”

Next, a girl with dark, smooth hair and dark green eyes whose mouth was covered by her coat’s upturned collar stepped forward. “I’m Ivy Bittersweet. I’m a vine elemental and I used to get in a lot of trouble for swinging and slinging between the skyscrapers in Core Metro’s Financial District while my parents worked as accountants.”

A girl with short feathery blond hair and heterochromia carrying a sketchbook with a brush stuck in a pocket on the spine stepped forward. “I’m Mona Easely. I’m a paint elemental and everything up here is so bright and colorful that I can hardly focus enough to start my next painting!”

A blonde boy with dark brown eyes under a pair of spectacles stepped forward. “I’m Koga Matsutake. I might be a fungus elemental, but to tell you the truth, I actually hate the taste of mushrooms.”

A girl with a black ponytail under an aviator’s cap wearing horn-rimmed glasses stepped forward. “I’m Alisa Herring. I’m a wing elemental, and my family has been part of the Core Metro Central Forces Aerial Division for over three generations!”

A boy with black hair and dark eyes wearing a black face mask stepped forward. “I’m Emil Craven. I’m a soot elemental and I’ve always wanted to see a murder of crows in flight because of all the old poetry my grandma used to read to me.”

A girl with dark skin and greasy dark green hair wearing a shirt with long sleeves stepped forward. “I’m Hortnese Bordeaux. I’m a swamp elemental and I like to collect and press wetland flowers!”

A boy with curly bright blue hair wearing a hooded sweatshirt stepped forward. “I’m Jean Boba. I’m a bubble elemental and my parents opened up a teahouse in the Everfree bazaar with an entirely new kind of drink my uncle invented, but we haven’t come up with a good name yet.”

Miss Cheerilee looked very pleased with how things were going at first. Then started frowning and raised an eyebrow. She focused on and held her hoof up to a paper on her podium. “Hm… Five, six, seven, eight…” She then turned towards Gustoff and Augustus. “Pardon me, but it says here that there’s supposed to be nine students from Everfree. A miss… Bebe?”

Gustoff turned to Augustus, who shrugged. “Well… There was a bit of a situation with her involved, so her caretakers decided to take her themselves.”

Suddenly, there was another knock on the schoolhouse doors. A much louder, rougher knocking. Miss Cheerilee awkwardly cleared her throat. “Um… Come in…?”

Coming crashing in was a very large human with a metal face mask and a chain wrapped around their forearm dragging behind a beach ball-sized spiked ball. Slung over his shoulder was a small squirming human with bright red hair done in a pair of pigtails wearing a long hoodless mantle. Crazy Joe picked up the struggling girl with ease and sat her down on her feet in front of the row of other human children. Once she got her barings, she angrily grunted and pointed her finger at him, her orange eyes narrowed. “Come on, Mister Joe! I don’t want to go to school and I don’t want to make friends with ponies! I want to be an underworlder just like you!”

At this, Joe narrowed his eyes and gestured with his free hand, making a series of impassioned grunts. Everyone else in the room found these mannerisms totally inscrutable. However, Bebe’s eyes grew wide in response to this and she started taking a defensive body language. “Y-y-you don’t get to decide that! I’ll go straight to the boss about this! On paper at least, he’s my legal guardian!”

In response to this, Crazy Joe’s eyes softened and he took a more open body language and series of gestures, grumbling with a more sympathetic tone. At that, Bebe just sighed, crossed her arms, and looked down, pouting. “When you put it like that… okay, I’ll play along… for now…”

Crazy Joe nodded to her and gave an affirmative-toned grunt. Then, he turned towards the other adults and gave them a wave, who awkwardly returned the gesture before he turned around and marched back where he came from. Gustoff turned towards Cheerilee. “I guess we should be going too. Good luck, miss. We’ll be back to pick them up and take them home at the end of the day.”

As Gustoff went out the door, Augustus turned towards the kids. “Now, all of you be good, or we’ll tell your parents!” Augustus turned to follow his partner out the door, leading Bebe to roll her eyes, cross her arms, and huff.

Miss Cheerilee quickly regained her composure and turned back towards the class proper. “I know this is a big change for all of you as the last few months has been a big change for all of Equestria, so I feel that the best way for all of you to ease into it for everyone, human and pony alike, to take an early extended recess to play and talk with each other, right now!”

Both the young ponies and humans reacted excitedly to this announcement and rushed out the door to the playground. However, Bebe stubbornly stood in the place her caretaker left her, her arms still crossed with a sour look on her face. Miss Cheerilee simply grinned and gestured at the door. “Go along, Bebe, have some fun with the others.” Bebe just groaned at this and indignantly followed the group out the way they went.


***


Applebloom wiped the sweat from her brow with her hoof after taking a rest from the games she and a few other ponies had played using the bouncy mushrooms Koga had created using his magic and the many-colored bubbles Jean had created to add some kind of point system to them. She looked around at all the human children and young ponies playing and laughing together.

Still slightly uppity Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon seemed to have preferred to spend their free time with the shy and reserved Jasper, who dazzled them with the many shining rocks he made appear out of nowhere despite him repeatedly telling them that magically created crystals were far less valuable than the real deal. Snips and Snails were playing a game so simple that even they could enjoy it by chasing around Hortense with their eyes closed as she called out after resurfacing from the ground out of the pits of dark, viscous liquid she could create. Mona had already become very popular with pony and human alike as the crowd gathered around her marveled at the puppets and structures that sprang up out of the tablet paper she drew them on.

However, a glow out of the corner of her eye drew her attention to the far end of the playground. She spotted Bebe by herself bending low to grab and rip out some pieces of long, untended grass. Then, she held it up ahead of her face and seemed to look really hard at it. A moment later, the end of the bunch smoked for a second before bursting into flames, getting a gleeful reaction out of her.

Applebloom got a sympathetic expression out of this display and tried to get Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle's attention from the teeter-totter, gesturing at Bebe. The Cutie Mark Crusaders reconvened together and approached Bebe. Applebloom coughed to get her attention. “You… really like fire, don’t you?”

Bebe turned around and narrowed her eyes at them. “Hm? Oh, well… I’ve just always liked to burn things, see? Back in Core Metro, I always thought I’d become an arson expert for the Underworlder gang.” However, she soon turned back around and sighed, shaking her head with a forlorn expression. “But I suppose they won’t need those kinds of services now, huh? That’s life I guess…”

That last statement was just so awkward that Applebloom couldn’t think of a thing to say in response to it. Luckily, Scootaloo tagged in. “You seem to know the underworlders very well. Rainbow Dash told me a lot about them from her trip to Core Metro, what do you have to do with them?”

At this, Bebe got up and turned to face the fillies, then scratched her chin with her finger. “Rainbow Dash… That’s the pegasus that socked Mister Mort right in the head, yeah? I think they’re friends now, but as for your question… I was just an orphan in the Lost District, and the underworlders raised me communally with a few others. The executives taught me a lot of cool stuff; Miss Katrina taught me to pick a bunch of pockets in a crowd at once without anyone noticing! But that’s not going to be much help up here since you ponies don’t have pockets. At least, none that I’m aware of…”

Now this line of speech was too much even for Scootaloo. However, Sweetie Belle decided to chime in without a second (or first) thought. “Well, you don’t have to worry about all that nonsense anymore! None of you guys have to hurt others or be what my big sister sometimes calls ‘parasites to society’ anymore! We’re all more than happy to give out a little pity to some creatures that just need a little more help than others!”

Sweetie Belle opened her eyes after finishing her well-meaning statement just in time to see her friends’ cut it out gestures and suddenly frowned. Realization suddenly dawned on her face and she apprehensively turned back towards Bebe, finding her now standing up facing them, her face slightly red and her hands clutched very tightly.

Bebe took a hard step forward, sending the three young ponies reeling back. “‘Nonsense’? ‘Parasites’? ‘Pity’? Is that all you think about us? I thought creatures that preached so much about friendship would be far from judgemental, but maybe it’s about time I start looking at you all at the surface level!”

Sweetie Belle got up and started backing away on her back hooves, making pleading motions with her front ones. “Please! I’m sorry Bebe, I wasn’t thinking when I said that!”

Bebe flicked her hands outward, a strong tension in her arms. “Oh really? Maybe thinking isn’t exactly some creatures’ strong points, have you thought about that if you can?”

Scootaloo continued to back away, but scrunched up her face and pointed a hoof at their aggressor. “Hey! Just because you’re a fire elemental doesn’t mean you can be so hot-tempered to just whomever?”

At that, Bebe’s whole body started tensing up and her entire face turned bright red, her teeth clenching. “A fire elemental? WHO SAID I WAS A FIRE ELEMENTAL?”

This exclamation was noticed by the other youths. Soon a crowd of pony and human children alike gathered around, not sure what to do themselves but ignorantly cutting off all chances of escape. Applebloom, against her better judgment, gestured to the angered human youth in an open manner. “Uh… that little thing with the grass and what you said kind of made it seem like you do have fire magic…?”

For a moment, Bebe just stood in place breathing hard and fast. Then the tension began to leave her body as her face slowly returned to its normal color and she started taking deeper, longer breaths. Eventually, her look of anger was replaced by one of exhaustion and she abruptly fell on her knees, groaning. “I’m not a fire elemental… I’m a lamp elemental…”

Further ignoring the warning signs she’d seen before, Applebloom turned her head to the side and held a hoof to her ear. “Pardon’?”

In response, Bebe shut her eyes tight and swung her face to the sky. “I said I’m a lousy lamp elemental! I’m kind of like a fire elemental, but my magic is way wimpier! I’ll never be able to do the same things a normal fire elemental can do, and I’ll never be any useful to the underworlders, especially how they are now!”

After that final exclamation, Bebe’s head drooped with another groan, sometimes throwing in a sob or two. The Cutie Mark Crusaders wanted to do something, but the whole ordeal still had them stunned. Thankfully, a pair among the crowd stepped forward and stood on either side of the little lamp elemental.

Alisa extended her other hand. “I’ve been told stories for years about how my forefathers and foremothers would stop criminals in their tracks, always going shwing, thwip, fwoosh with the feathers they’d let fly like arrows! But as for me…” In a puff of brownish vapor, the arm changed shape, dispersing to reveal a wing made up of a leather-like membrane. “...I’m not too sure what I could do with webbed wings like this, especially to help keep the order!”

Ivy held out her upward-turned hand, which suddenly grew dark green and began emitting tendrils of the same color. “I loved the feeling of freedom I got from swinging throughout the skyscrapers, that made me want to be a warrior, and adventurer! But warriors need to be able to fight both with a weapon and their magic. I’m definitely not sure how I’ll be able to fight with this!”

This moment of compassion was enough to shake the Crusaders out of their stupor and approach the trio led by Apple Bloom. “I don’t know how much you know, but a big part about our lives as ponies revolves around our Cutie Marks, something that appears when we discover that one thing that makes us special, the thing we were meant to do, our destiny!”

With a flourish of her mane, Scootaloo chimed in. “But a lot of that’s easier said than done! We spend the first few years of our lives as blank flanks and have to try out a ton of different things and think about a ton of stuff to discover that and make our cutie mark appear! But even after that, it’s not always so simple. It’s easy to misunderstand the meaning behind our cutie marks and what they can let us do or not do, or even to forget what our cutie marks meant in the first place!”

Finally, after considering her words a lot more carefully this time, Sweetie Belle trotted forward with an enthusiastic look. “Thankfully, after a lot of hard work and more mistakes than we care to admit, we got our cutie marks after figuring out how good we are at helping ponies and otherwise with finding and understanding their purpose in life! From what I’ve learned, you humans and your purposes in life are a lot more complicated than most creatures, but if you need any input we’ll be more than happy to help how we can!”

This time, the Crusaders turned to the crowd and gestured in a united formation. “And that goes for everypony and everyone here!” At this, the ponies started applauding with their heavy hoofstomps. After an awkward moment, the humans joined in, clapping their hands.

After a moment, Bebe quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist and stood up. “Boss Noxus has been telling me for a long time to try to make friends my own age outside of the underworlders. And that silly little meltdown made me realize just how much easier it is to say exactly how I feel around them. Allright, I suppose the grunts and executives don’t fight or train alone for a reason. But first things first, if we’re going to work together, we need the most important part of our group!”

Ivy arched her eyebrow. “Oh, really? What’s so important that it comes first?”

Now, Bebe started showing her enthusiastic side. “Our name, of course! Since I’m an underworld and you’re a vine elemental, how about the terrestrial three?”

Alisa shook her head. “I’m a wing elemental that can already fly way better than most air tribesmen! There’s nothing ‘terrestrial’ about me! How about the Flying Trio!”

This time, Ivy shook her head. “I wouldn’t exactly call what I do ‘flying’ How about…” She glanced at the Cutie Mark Crusaders for a brief moment. “...Team Crusaders?”

Bebe cocked her head at this. “Seems a little simple, doesn’t it?” Then, she looked right at the filly trio before her. “...and just a little… derivative?”

Ivy extended her hand towards the original Crusaders. “Well, if we’re all going to be working together…”

Alisa wiggled her eyebrows at this. “You know what, I like it! Makes us seem swashbuckling… heroic even!”

Suddenly, the school bell rang out once again as Miss Cherilee went outside and started calling the youths back in. Applebloom rolled her eyes, smiling, and gestured back to the school house. “I suppose the finer points of our new partnership are going to have to wait. It’s time for class!”

The group steadily started moving back towards the building, chatting side by side.
> Rise Again: Prelude
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spike's wide eyes glimmered as he stared at what he considered to be a true artisan at work. “So down in Core Metro, instead of balloon sculptures, you humans did this?”

Breaking his concentration for the briefest of moments, the crystal elemental Beryl Hex glanced at the small dragon out of the corner of his eye and gave a very brief unimpassioned nod before returning his attention to his work in-progress. He gracefully wove his small wand in careful motions to add to the next few layers of solid gemstone, briefly pausing to dip his tool into a nearby series of bowls containing specific varieties of mineral powders before returning to the point he left off at.

After the next few dozen minutes, Beryl gave the excitably fidgeting and drooling Spike his request: a cone of hexagonal sapphires swirling with a row of emerald orbs containing arranged shafts of pink diamond topped with a cherry-like prism of ruby. Spike clapped as he placed a big bag of bits on the stall’s table, then took his purchase in claw, walking away while licking it. This act got a weird look out of Beryl, but then he turned his attention to the bag and shrugged before lifting it up to put in his lockbox of that day’s profits and turning to take the request of the next in line.

As Spike walked along the road down the market immersed in his hand-crafted treat, he was oblivious to the flash of bright light to his side that left behind one of his closest, most bizarre friends. Discord was disappointed to not receive a proper greeting from one of the few non-chaotic beings he ever acknowledged, but he decided to go with it for a minute and pulled out his now rubber-like cheeks to make a face at him. Then, he bopped himself on the forehead which sent his eyeballs rolling down into his skull only to pop out of his nostrils. Finally, for his encore, he pulled his mismatched horns down under his chin and tied them together, pulled off his beard which turned into a foal’s pacifier and put it into his mouth, and made his eyeballs swell up to twenty times their size.

When this didn’t work, Discord shook his head back to normal in a blur, rolled his eyes, and just snapped his fingers on his bird-talon hand. Suddenly, a banana peel walked right to the middle of the road and came to rest in Spike’s path. He slipped on it, hollering, and his gem cone went flying, only for Discord to extend his body and catch it in-claw. Spike sat up and rubbed his head until everything stopped spinning. Then he looked up at discord with his gem cone, smiled and took it in claw once again as he got up. “Gee, thanks Discord! I really should pay attention to my surroundings!”

Discord scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Yes, you really should. Speaking of our surroundings…” He swung his head around, looking hither and about at the new sights, such as the market stall where the sand elemental Nubia Gobi and her fire elemental husband Richter were working together blowing glass for an onlooking crowd of ponies, the ice elemental elder Aeolus Yoden sitting on a nearby public bench with two elderly mares throwing bread crumbs to some pigeons, and some pony and human children playing with a ball with a pegasus and a human on a cloud flying up to spike it and an earth pony moving to intercept only for a human to burst right out of the ground and intercept their interception.

After biting a chunk out of his crystal cone, Spike turned to Discord with his mouth full. “I know! Isn’t it great?” He swallowed and belched a fiery burp. “Twilight and the others went on a big adventure in a cool underground city and brought back a ton of new friends! Even after living among unicorns for so long, I’ve never seen magic so interesting before! And their warriors are just so awesome! Makes me wish they had some kind of comics or trading cards I could collect!”

At this, Discord snorted and started gesturing. “Well, I for one find them to be messy pests. Like grains of sand after a fun day at the beach, they just end up getting everywhere into every nook and cranny!” He paused for a moment to tug on an ear and pour out a small dune’s worth of sand. “You can’t imagine how shocked I was when I found that a few of those ether tribesmen somehow wound up in my dimension! And I think I can safely say ‘there goes the neighborhood’ because a few of them seemed to like it enough to live there!”

At that, Spike took another bite from his cone after giving it a few more licks and gave Discord a wry look. “Really? I figured that you of all creatures would appreciate such a big change, especially with a whole new kind of creature that all seem pretty chaotic in their own way!”

Discord glanced at an open space in a nearby park where two humans wearing padded training getup bowed to each other before holding out their wooden replica weapons and rushing to clash them. After a few rounds of this, they started slinging their magic at each other. “Well… I suppose I can’t deny that I really like their style in some aspects of their way of life, but I’m still a little miffed at the fact that a few of them threatened Fluttershy…”

With a loud crunch, Spike finally finished off his intricate but short-lived treat. “Fluttershy’s tough, she can fight her own battles in her own way, but besides that…” He paused briefly to lick each of his claws of any gem dust. “It seems to have been a really long time since we’ve done something together. In fact, I can’t help but feel that for some reason, I haven’t done much in a while!”

Discord let out a short, smug laughter. “I get what you mean friend. It honestly feels like this is the first time I’ve ever actually existed!” Then, he turned to look at something or someone in the eye that wasn’t really there but somehow everpresent. “It almost feels like the powers that be over our little corner of the omniverse is having a little difficulty in deciding how we should behave in the scenarios they’ve tried to plan out.”

Spike giggled as he proceeded down his way. “Whatever you say, Mr. Reality Bender!” However, he ended up bumping into something very solid and falling on his tail. He quickly looked up. “Oh! Sorry, my bad!” However, before replying, the lanky human bent down to take a good look at the little dragon with his narrow, golden-brown eyes. He had neck-length dark hair and wore a white tank-top and pale-brown cargo pants that his hands were currently tucked in.

After getting an uncomfortably long eyefull, he straightened up and took a deep breath. “Say… you’re a dragon, aren’t you?”

Spike, looking smug, struck a pose and attempted to smooth back his head-ridges. “Why, yes I am! Thanks for noticing!”

The human gave Spike a lopsided smile as he cocked his head to the side. “You know, back down in Core Metro, dragons came to be known as a symbol of supremacy, invincibility, and perfection.”

Spike turned around and struck another pose, swaying his hips side to side. “Well… Is it any wonder why?” This caused Discord to point at his open mouth as he made a gagging expression, his tongue detaching and hopping on his finger to do a little dance.

The human cocked his head to the other side, flashing a frown and raising an eyebrow. “Of course, you seem a little… smaller than the carvings and illustrations depicted. But I suppose a warrior’s deeds are what one measures their acclaim, not their stature. If half the things I’ve heard about Spike, the dragon of Ponyville are true…”

At that, a conflicted Spike tried to put a little sass into the next pose he struck, but before he could say anything, Discord slinked over to look the human straight in the eye. “One more thing to add to the list of things about humans that annoy me is that you don’t seem to know your place. You didn’t even have the courtesy to accept my good friend’s apology.”

The human turned his body to point his shoulder and hip at the draconequus, but kept his eyes on him. “Well, if anyone knows about what it means to be cocky, it’s Discord, almighty spirit of chaos. No matter what your initial impression, the one thing you have to keep in mind about us humans is that above all, we’re survivors. And being a survivor means having to always test your limits and your place in life. And the golden rule about that way of life is…” Suddenly, quick as lightning, he swung out his arm in a backhand swing. All the pair of friends saw was a blur of bright green. Right when he immediately slipped his hand back in his pocket, Discord’s beard fell from his chin, cut clean off. “Never, ever, take your current place in life for granted. Oh, and if you see Kris Duelis and the Prancing Pony Brave Six, tell them that Slash Render and the Rising Dragon Guild Mighty Six are in town looking to settle the score.”

Slash turned around completely and continued down the road. Discord rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers. But then his eyes grew wide as he snapped his fingers a couple more times only to get no results. To Spike’s confusion, Discord bent down and grabbed his beard, at first trying to stick it to his chin as-is, then he held it to his chin and tried to give his fingers a couple more snaps to no avail. “Huh. Interesting”

Spike scratched the side of his head, a brow raised. “Uh… What was that? What just happened?”

Once realization finally set in, Discord gave a big, mischievous gin and stared down the way Slash went. “Something fun, I’m sure!”


***


“And so I said, ‘Call me Pixie Boy again kid, and I’ll give you a roll of quarter-credits for every tooth I yank out of that little head of yours!’” At the end of that funny story, all of Alphonse’s friends sitting at the table in the bazaar burst into laughter, the ponies someone awkwardly as they tried to shift their focus to their drinks. Riding the buzz, Alphonse added an addendum as he sloshed around his tankard of juice. “And that’s how I was banned for life from the best ice cream parlor in Core Metro! I can only hope that that little list I’m on was lost in the move to open up shop up here!”

However, the humans’ laughter quickly quelled as they suddenly began to look around the room. The ponies, especially Twilight, were a little concerned. “Um… are you guys alright?”

The Prancing Pony Brave Six ignored her and placed their cups on their table and got up to take vantage of the whole bazaar, but they seemed unable to find exactly what seemed to put them out-of-sorts. However, they all materialized their weapons when an arrogant calling filled the hall. “Looks like your time apart hasn’t dulled your ability to sense ill-will. Excellent!”

The humans turned to the source of this voice as a curtain of silver light fluttered in a previously empty space and pulled back to reveal another group of six humans. Lined up together was a very tall, very lanky human who’s greasy hair was tied in a long ponytail with strangely pale, glassy eyes dressed in a pea-green overcoat; an equally tall but very broad human suited up head-to-toe in an armor made up of countless thin metal plates with a conical helmet covering his hair and a mail-like mask of the same plates obscuring his face, leaving his violet eyes to look out, all while extending a medium-sized metal apparatus from his back; a shorter and more rotund human with his bright-brown hair styled into a curly mullet above his dark green eyes dressed in a leather apron on top of a white undershirt; an auburn-haired human with dark eyes wearing a military coat with the addition of several gold rings hanging lined up on each arm; a short, silver-haired human with blue eyes dressed white and red knitwear nervously trying to hide behind the previous human; and Slash, the human Spike and Discord met earlier, his hands still in his pockets.

Kris stepped forward first. “Well… this is a surprise! I hope you’re not here to cause trouble, because we’ve all got a good thing going here and it’d be very unfortunate if a few of us with a chip on our shoulder were to mess that up, right?”

Slash scoffed at this. “Oh, don’t worry, we like life up here as much as you do and have made our fair share of friends. Because of that, we’re more than willing to settle any scores like gentlemen.”

Once the ponies got over the initial shock of a group of humans appearing out of nowhere, Twilight trotted up between the two groups. “What’s going on? Who are these people? Are you friends or not? It’s kind of hard to tell with the way you’re talking.”

After giving Twilight a look of concern, Kris turned back towards slash and looked him in the eye. “I wouldn’t exactly call us friends, we used to work in similar fields and interacted a lot, so a good thing to call us would be… rivals.” Kris gestured to Slash and his group. “Meet the Mighty Six of the Rising Dragon Fighter’s Guild. We were all apprentices at our respective guilds and used to be called out on a lot of our similar jobs.” He then gave a confident smile and gestured at himself. “But we, the Brave Six, always cleaned up and got the jobs done right!”

At that, Slash scowled and pulled out a hand to point an accusing finger at Kris. “You mean we did all that hard work and cleaned up while you got all the acclaim and appreciation! We were always rougher and tougher than the best of them, even you! Unfortunately for us, everyone loves a bunch of glory boys!”

At this, Kris huffed and gave Slash a very angry look. “Oh! That’s just typical of you! You can’t bear the thought that you’re all just lacking in ability, so you blame others for their own success, is that it?”

Both Slash and Kris started getting in each other’s faces, growling, while their respective groups started approaching one another with intense looks of their own. However, Twilight ignited her horn and unfurled her wings, forcing both groups back. “Wait a minute! I thought you all wanted to settle your issues like gentlemen?”

Kris softened his expression at Twilight’s exclamation, but still gave Slash a hard look. “They were the ones that brought up the word, ‘gentlemen’ so what did you have in mind, Mr. Render?”

Slash broke out into a big, mischievous grin and turned towards his friends, who flashed grins of their own. “I’m glad you asked, Mr. Duelis. We’ve been talking it over for a while and we’ve decided to settle our little rivalry once and for all by showing this whole new world who are the best fighters! So we were thinking about having a little team duel, Tower Rules, standard format would be appropriate I think!”

Kris’s eyes grew wide. Then he turned back towards his human friends, who looked at each other in deep consideration before turning back towards him and nodding. Kris turned back towards Slash with an even more determined expression. “All right, we accept your challenge. Go and arrange things with the commission and we’ll decide on our arrangement, okay?”

Slash made a confident laugh and turned to depart with his similarly laughing friends. “Oh, we’ve already made all the proper arrangements with the commission, all that was left was getting your approval! See you at the pit tomorrow morning, bright and early, Prancers!”

As they stood together in the bazaar’s canteen, Twilight turned towards Kris with a look of confusion. “Pardon me, but what the hay was that all about?”

Kris awkwardly fidgeted with his hands and looked away. “Well, firstly, it’s kind of a human thing. But since we’re all here anyway and have nothing but free time for now, we might as well explain a few things…”
> Rise Again: Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

All throughout the open-air stands, both ponies and humans alike gathered together and milled about. In opposing corners of the structure, special box seats had been set up where several figures sat perched above, including one occupied by a taller, more slender pony with a flowing rainbow mane.

Despite the noise of the communicating spectators, all the attention was focused on what the structures were all built around, a vertically-sloped indentation in the ground. Suddenly, all went silent as a human wearing a distinctive uniform came out from the corner of this indentation and strode into the center. He held his glowing fingertip to his throat and gestured to the whole crowd. “Welcome one and all to the Everfree Settlement’s Lower Arena, also known as The Pit! Here, we have found that this peculiar landform is perfect to hold our Professional Bouts utilizing the Standard 10-point K.O. T.K.O. and Pinning rule format!

“However, this team-based bout in particular applies a special twist on the action! In this particular case, two teams of six have chosen three members to act as Guardsmen, who must be defeated in order to advance to the next. They have chosen two Specialists, who are able to change their positions between the fights composing the match. Finally, they have chosen a King, who must be defeated regardless of other circumstances to claim victory!”

The referee then gestured to one of the occupied corners of the arena. “In this corner, acting as First Guardsman of Team Prancing Pony, Wildaaa Ursooon!” Wild began his trek to the center of the ring amid the many cheers of the crowd. After this procession was completed, the referee gestured to the other corner. “In this corner, acting as First Guardsman of Team Rising Dragon, Ottooo Ophidiooon!” At this calling, the fighter with the glassy eyes and long jacket began his trek to the center of the ring.

The referee stood aside and let the two warriors on opposing teams have their words. Wilda made a series of loud sniffs in Otto’s direction, then pulled his head back and crossed his arms. “Otto… Not much has changed since we last met, at least not outwardly. Trying to surprise me, you little snake in the grass?”

At this, Otto broke out into a big, mischievous smile before laughing a strange raspy laugh. Then, he held up both hands and started making a series of strangely elaborate gestures. For some reason, half the crowd was sent reeling by the time he was finished. Even Wilda seemed taken aback. “Really man? This is a gentleman’s sport! Someone should wash those hands out with soap!”

Meanwhile, back in Wilda’s corner, Boros made an exasperated sound to the confusion of Fluttershy. “Um… He didn’t say anything… Why is everyone so shocked…?”

Boros’s attention, which as trainer should have been focused on his student, was turned towards the late-picked pegasus cornergirl. “Oh, right, I guess since almost nobody has anything resembling hands up here, you lot wouldn’t know sign language… Well… I don’t know much about the distinctive members of Rising Dragon, but what I know about Otto was that he was born blind, deaf, and mute. But through honest effort, he refined his magic to allow him to see heat and feel sound. But to communicate, he uses sign language, essentially a way of making words with our hands. If I had a mother, she’d definitely go nuts if I used his exact words, but what he said amounts to ‘My snake in the grass sprays a potent poison, donkey-face!’”

At that, Fluttershy made a heavy gasp (for her) and turned back towards the fighters with a look of great concern. “Goodness!”

Meanwhile, back in the center of the pit, the referee had remained undeterred by the crass display of one of the competitors and retook his place in the center of the ring. “All right, as part of this format, the commission has ruled that every three minutes amid each fight, a round will be called to allow the fighters a one-minute rest.” He backed away and raised his hand. “Ready?” Both fighters took a stance and materialized their weapons. The referee abruptly swung down his arm. “Fight!”

Wilda made the first charge and clashed one of his cestus against the weapon encircling Otto’s raised foot: A moss-green extension that lined the bottom of his sole with long, sharp spikes and enclosed his toes with a sharp spear-like tip, the rest of the boot being enclosed by a mesh of plates similar to the ones covering the greater part of Wilda’s hand.

This process was repeated several times, whenever Wilda made a lunge at Otto, Otto deflected his strike with a flourishing kick and dashed backwards whenever Wilda tried to close the distance. However, Wilda changed his strategy and enveloped his arm in a blue claw-like aura. He lunged, swiping at Otto, only for Otto to tense his body while his raised leg became enveloped in a dark-green aura. With a weaving motion, a serpent-shaped aura extended from Otto and twisted around Wilda’s attack to strike him in the torso and send him flying back.

Right as Wilda hit the ground, Otto dashed to meet him and raised a green-glowing leg above his fallen body, pinning him to the ground under the long claws of a green, scaly leg. The referee rushed up to them. “Knockdown and a pin!” The referee began his count. However, when he made it to two, Wilda’s whole body was enveloped in an aura resembling the body of a fox and slipped between a gap in the claws that had him pinned to the ground.

After this, the referee held up his hands to both competitors until Wilda completely regained his footing. Then he backed off and gestured for them to continue. This time, Otto went on the offensive, forcing Wilda back with a series of spinning roundhouse kicks. While Wilda was reeling, Otto took a position to ready a thrusting kick. However, Wilda was ready and wove out of the way before grabbing Otto by the knee and lifting him off the ground.

Carrying his opponent, Wilda made a headlong rush forward and slammed him against the pit’s wall, using the shock of the blow to grab one of Otto’s arms and hold him against the wall bent in an incredibly awkward, inescapable position. The referee appeared next to the duo in a flash of colored light and raised a hand. “That’s a pin!”

The referee started his count, but halfway to two, Wilda felt his grip collapse into something limp and empty. He quickly realized that his opponent had been replaced by a facsimile made of a bright green film-like substance. While Wilda was still confused at this outcome, Otto reappeared behind him in a shimmer of dark green light and aimed another thrusting kick right at his opponent’s back. However, both of them froze stiff when a gong sounded out.

After Wilda made his way back to his corner, Boros came climbing down carrying a set of supplies while Fluttershy descended carrying her own supplies and quickly went to work, her experience tending to sick and injured animals coming in handy once again as she bandaged Wilda’s cuts and applied a salve to his bruises. Meanwhile, Boros leaned in close to his student and started manically gesturing outward. “First thing to note, kid: Otto’s a reptile elemental, part of the same nature family of elements as your beast element. But his is a water derivative, so on paper at least, your earth derivative should have the advantage in a direct clash. But I know that you know that things are rarely that cut-and-dry in a battle between top-class warriors. Unlike yours, his spells don’t follow a set path, they bend and weave around offense and defense alike to strike directly at their target.

“But let’s talk about you: Your auras boost your physical abilities to an extreme degree while acting as both spear and shield, enabling you to effectively attack and defend at the same time. So as part of the same family of elementals, you should expect no less than the same from him. You’ve got a lot of experience and stamina, so your best bet is to drag out the fight and get a feel for him so you can anticipate his next move and counterattack. And remember that skin-shedding spell he used to get out of your pin? Any spell that warps space outside of the ether tribe is bound to be very magic-intensive for the user. It’ll be costly for him if you keep putting him in perilous situations and force him to use it over and over.

“One last thing: Don’t forget about your melee combat clashes with him! More than one human has learned the hard way about disregarding basic combat skill in favor of chasing magical might! He probably developed an entirely kick-focused fighting style to avoid injuring his hands. It might beat your pugilist style in terms of force and reach, so you should focus on speed and mobility to beat him! When he kicks, get him good by getting inside his reach or start grappling like you did when you made your pin!”

After draining his third large bottle of water, Wilda got up and marched right back into the center of the pit to meet his opponent, who’s features were covered in a likewise mixture of bandages and dabs of salve. The referee approached them and raised his arm. “Ready…?” After both warriors re-materialized their weapons and took their stances, the referee swung down his arm. “Fight!”

This time, Otto went on the offensive first. He got in range and heavily spun his body around. Wilda seemed to have effectively braced himself for the oncoming hit. But before making initial contact, Otto twisted his whole body, making his kicking foot twist and meander off course for a second before swinging back beyond Wilda’s guard to strike at Wilda’s upper arm full-force, causing him to flinch. The referee raised his hand and made his call. “Clean hit! Wilda, zero! Otto, four!”

Wilda backed off after this for a moment. He proceeded to tighten his stance and hop around, showing off his fancy footwork. In response, Otto went rigid, widening his guard but keeping one foot raised off the ground. Eventually, Wilda dashed, causing Otto to swing out a kick to counter. However, Wilda backed off at the last moment, entering Otto’s reach after the kick missed. However, Otto didn’t stop his kick, he spun his whole body on the same momentum. When he brought his foot around, he began twisting his body in another odd way, making his foot zig-zag along its path, avoiding Wilda’s guard yet again to swing back around and send him reeling with a strike to the neck. The referee held up his hand again to make another call. “Critical hit! Wilda, zero! Otto, six!”

Back in Wilda’s corner, Boros made a long, deep inhalation through his nose and gently exhaled through his mouth. “It seems that now the fight has truly begun.”

Fluttershy gave him a concerned look. “What do you mean…?”

Boros began scratching at his fuzzy chin. “Before, Otto was just pacing himself, only giving enough force to match Wilda’s so as to feel him out. But it seems that his snake-aura spell was merely a hint towards his true capability. The advantages of Wilda’s fighting style are that despite its lack of significant strengths, it doesn’t have any true weaknesses, making him an ideal first guardsman.

“But its simplicity in itself is a weakness. Wilda is trained to strike hard and fast, but that means someone with that kind of fighting style may find difficulty coping with techniques that don’t follow this methodology. I wonder how Wilda will cope with this…?”

Back in the ring. Wilda had halted his offensive and backed off to take a breather, with Otto responding likewise. Wilda took a moment to take a few deep breaths. Then, he straightened up and lightly knocked his knuckles against one another before making a confident grin. He looked directly at Otto. “All right, now I’ve got you.” He proceeded to lower his stance, extending a fist. In response, Otto made a strongly skeptical expression and made a strong intake of breath through his nose before returning to his basic stance.

Wilda made yet another direct charge at Otto, who responded with another spinning kick. Wilda wove out of the way, but raised his guard as he tried to press on into Otto’s reach. Otto repeated his previous maneuver, twisting his whole body to make his foot weave and meander on an elaborate trajectory. This time however, Wilda kept his guard centered and with a hard springing motion, deflected Otto’s kick far from its course, sending Otto teetering. Taking advantage of this awkward position, Wilda pulled back his fist and delivered a hard hook to Otto’s side. This combined with Otto’s present state sent him tumbling directly to the ground. The referee dashed between them to make his call. “That’s a knockdown! Wilda, three! Otto, six!”

The referee made Wilda back off as he began his count. However, half past his four-count, Otto rolled to his front and sprung back up. Turning to face Wilda before wiping the spittile from his face with his forearm. After a brief moment, the referee backed off and signaled both fighters to resume.

This time. Otto made the first offensive. He leaped forward right to Wilda and sent him twisting out of the way with a spinning kick. Keeping up the momentum once again, he added his zig-zagging trajectory to the next kick coming around. In response, Wilda seemed to move into his reach once again but abruptly dropped his guard to raise both arms high. Wilda then closed his arms around Otto’s shin, trapping him firmly in place. He made a guttural howl and swung him around before slamming him onto the ground with a hard throw. The referee took position and made Wilda back off before making his call. “Another knockdown! Wilda, six! Otto, six!”

Back in Wilda’s corner, Boros straightened up and made a proud laugh. “Atta boy, Wilda! You’ve figured it out!”

Fluttershy, a little exasperated by the dramatic highs and lows of the bout, looked to Boros once again. “Um… what did he figure out… exactly…?”

Boros started gesturing in the direction of the center ring. “Well, Otto quickly figured out that in terms of raw might and ability, Wilda’s got him matched, so he brought out some special techniques to tip things in his favor. The general idea behind special techniques derived from advanced combat arts is that their strong and elaborate offense provides a good defense.

“But Wilda’s experience with hunting monsters has made him adaptive, able to think on his feet. After seeing both techniques once, he figured out how to get past them. And once you get past a special technique, you’ll find that all the concentration needed to perform them leaves little focus to spare on one's fundamental attributes, such as their poise. One good hit, and he goes down fast and hard.”

After the count of six, Otto managed to rise again, albeit more slowly and with greater care. Despite his pained expression, Otto straightened up and centered himself with a series of hand motions. However, following this, he reared himself back and made a heavy stomp on the ground accompanied by thrusting both raised fists downward. This seemed to mystify the crowd and made the referee pause before making the call to resume the fight and turn towards Wilda, who appeared conflicted.

A confused Fluttershy yet again turned to Boros for enlightenment. “What’s going on…? Does that mean something…”

A conflicted-looking Boros held his hand to his chin. “Well… it’s mostly a cultural thing and isn’t really recognized by the commission as an official, written rule, but it appears that Otto has declared a final clash. He wants Wilda and him to conjure up their biggest, most powerful offensive spells and clash them head on, all or nothing. Wilda doesn’t have to accept, but it would look a little… lame…”

Even Fluttershy couldn’t help but betray a little exasperation at the thought of that. “Doesn’t that seem a little too… over the top…?”

At that, Boros just scoffed. “We’re warriors. The more over the top, the better!”

Back in the ring, Wilda maintained an expression of deep consideration. But after doing a once-over to the crowd, he got a determined look and struck a stance, his body enveloped by a much more intense blue aura than normal. Otto gave a big grin and struck a similar stance, his body glowing with a highly intense dark green aura.

The crowd roared as the warriors’ auras began to extend overhead and started taking defined shapes, Wilda’s forming into that of a giant snarling tiger’s head and Otto’s forming into the giant head of a grimacing alligator. With a pair of thrusting motions, both warriors sent their spells hurtling at their opponents.

When the spells met, the tiger’s head was swifter and managed to get a good grip on the alligator’s upper jaw, causing both to struggle to overcome one another. Both Wilda and Otto seemed to direct this bout with a series of intense wrenching motions. However, with an abrupt, over-the-shoulder motion, Otto made his spell reel back and freed it from the tiger’s jaws. He extended both arms, this motion mirrored by the alligator opening its jaws wide, then with a full-body forward-lunging motion, he crossed his arms, directing the alligator to clamp its jaws around the tiger’s head.

Otto followed this by swinging his crossed arms all around, lifting both Wilda and his spell up and flinging them around before slamming them both into the ground with a heavy downward swing. As Wilda helplessly struggled against the weight of the giant aura, the referee got close to him and made his call. “That’s a pin! One… Two… Three! It’s over! Otto Ophidion wins the fight by pin KO! Wilda Urson is out of the match!”

After that declaration, Otto quickly released his spell to let Wilda up, and moved to the referee, who held up his arm in the center of the ring. Wilda had a look of shame, and yet he held his head high even as he marched back into his corner.

Fluttershy, with tears in her eyes at this development, looked like she had a lot of words of sympathy to share. But Boros placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. When Wilda finally arrived, Boros just gave him a softer than usual look. “You did good, kid. Nobody can say that you didn’t fight with a fury and resilience worthy of a beast elemental. But this is a team match with a strong element of strategy. You’re not the star here. Have faith in your friends to bring in the gold, and have faith in what you’ve done to help them do just that.”

This managed to get a sentimental smile out of Wilda. “Any fight you can walk away from helps you grow stronger. Did you tell us that, Master Noxus?” Soon, after Fluttershy tended to his new injuries, the both of them made their way back up the walls of the Pit.
> Rise Again: Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a couple flashes of light, Spike and Discord appeared sitting in the commentator’s box wearing a pair of suits and a brown and black wig respectively. Spike straightened his tie. “Well! If that wasn’t the finest display of magical might combined with martial finesse I’ve ever seen…!”

Discord rolled his eyes, this time with professionalism as they remained in his head. “It’s the only display of magical might combined with martial finesse you’ve ever seen, friend! How often do you see karate-chopping, sword fighting unicorns in Canterlot?” However, a second face appeared on the back of Discord’s head with its own set of arms holding a notepad and pen, chuckling. “I’ve definitely got to remember that one!”

Spike giggled and scratched his snout. “Still though, I’ve read enough comic books to know a good fight scene when I see it, and that one was one of the best I’ve ever seen! On print or otherwise!

“The way I see it, Otto’s spells might be a bit better than Wilda’s, but Wilda’s got the edge in martial skill and managed to get really hard hits in! Otto probably declared that final clash because he thought it was the only way to clinch the fight, and clinch it he did! I wasn’t expecting those tiger and alligator spells, and I wonder what other aces in the hole the fighters on each team are hiding up their sleeves!”

Suddenly, Maxine revealed her presence by speaking up. “Well, odds are they’re going to keep them up their sleeves until they really need them. In team matches, a final clash is only supposed to be called once. Declaring one a second time is considered shameful and displays an inability to cope, especially if it’s done by the same team. Although it isn’t written in the official rules, this is typically the norm in most scenarios.”

A surprised Discord craned his neck and narrowed his eyes at Maxine. “Where did you come from? I didn’t warp you into this little gag of mine!”

Maxine chuckled and held up her hand, wagging her finger. “I might not have the magic of my youth, but even the forces of order and chaos bow down to the power of time!” At that, Discord could only cross his arms, roll his eyes, and grumble under his breath. “By the way, while I appreciate a change of pace as much as the next lady, where did you send the normal commentators?”

At this, Discord turned away, giving a wry smile. “Oh… let’s just say they’re someplace warm and sunny…”

At that, Maxine made a dismissive sound and turned to look back at the arena. “Well, I should probably mention that it’s at points like these where the strategic elements of the Tower Format come into play. As we speak, the teams are using the five-minute break between fights to deliberate over their next move.

“On Prancing Pony’s part, their options are to either deploy their second guardsman, or change formation and utilize one of their specialists. Guardsmen are typically made up of warriors who’s fighting styles emphasize power and resilience, a safe bet in most situations. But specialists are often made up of warriors who’s fighting styles are technical and adaptive or tricky and counteractive; they have a lot to gain if they can correctly anticipate their opponents’ next move.

“On Rising Dragon’s part, their options are to continue with Otto or make a substitution with one of their specialists. Otto’s been through a hard fight, he probably won’t be at one-hundred percent even after the break. But if they tag him out now, they may risk showing their hand sooner than necessary and inadvertently give their opponents an advantage in the long run.”

Discord leaned back on his seat and made a self-assured sound as he scratched his bare chin. “Do I detect a little bias in your commentary, Madame von Wrinkle? I don’t really see how you’re qualified to sit at this desk if you’re unable to give your guild juniors the proper indifference of a professional commentator.”

Maxine returned Discord’s posture, steepling her fingers. “I can assure you, my little draconequus, I’m more than qualified to fill this role because I know all there is to know about elemental warriors. I know how they operate, I know their culture, I know what they value, and I know what they resent. Most of all, I know that they’ll never reach their true potential if I coddle them all the time. This may be a rare opportunity to see my boys pushed to their limits and unlock what they’re truly capable of. To deny them that would be cruel and demeaning. All the better if they can do so for their rivals as well. ‘Iron sharpens iron’ after all.”

At this, another Discord bent to whisper something from the other side of Spike. “And I thought Celestia liked to talk!” This got some muffled giggles out of the small dragon, and got Maxine to roll her eyes and wistfully smirk.

On the other side of the pit on the officials’ podium, two messengers coming from the adjacent corners of the arena delivered two slips of paper. After reading both, the referee snapped their fingers and disappeared in a flash of colored light, reappearing likewise in the center of the arena before pressing a glowing finger to his throat and gesturing to Rising Dragon’s corner “After deliberation during the intermission, Team Rising Dragon has decided to maintain their First Guardsman’s deployment! Re-introducing: Otto Ophidion!”

The crowd, showing the typical favoritism to a winner, roared as Otto made his way back to the center of the ring, despite his clearly forced serene expression and overly-careful stride. The referee then reversed his position, dramatically pointing in the opposite direction. “After their deliberation, Team Prancing Pony has altered their formation! Introducing The Prancing Pony First Specialist: Traaace Paragooon!”

Trace, holding a confident manner, made his way to the center of the ring from his corner. Pausing briefly several times to strike a pose and get a short but intense rise out of the cheering crowd. The referee moved aside to let both competitors have their words. Trace made his as he made some warm-up stretches in a cocky manner. “I feel sorry for the crowd! I really hope they weren’t expecting much from this fight, because I guarantee it’ll be over in an instant!”

In response, Otto made an attempt at a somewhat cocky expression himself, but it came out as mostly spiteful before he began to sign. Even a python can make easy prey out of a grounded falcon! Trace was obviously put off by this statement, but he merely scoffed, kicked at some dirt, and looked away.

The referee held up their hand. “Ready?” Both competitors took a stance and materialized their weapons. The referee quickly swung down their hand. “Fight!”

Rather than directly engage, Otto rapidly kicked some dirt into Trace’s face, making him recoil. Then he leaped back and took a neutral stance as his body was covered in a dark-green film. With a flexing motion, Otto tore off this film, revealing a pristine body free of the many bruises and abrasions from his previous fight.

Back in Trace’s corner, the previously excited Rainbow Dash now looked upon the scene before her in confusion. “Uh… What was that? A healing spell?”

Boros gave Trace’s corner girl a glance. “I assume it’s technically classified as a recovery spell. This is probably definitive proof that Otto’s strongest attribute is his proficiency in spells, not to say that any of his other attributes are even remotely lackluster. But regardless, using magic to heal, even oneself, requires a lot of natural talent for that particular kind of spellwork. To do so without that knack can’t be very efficient…”

Rainbow Dash abruptly gestured towards the center of the ring. “Well, why not do that kind of thing between fights?”

At this, Boros merely shook his head. “The commission wouldn’t have it. The rules are very clear in that regard: When the competitors are in the arena, they can’t use magic at all except in their own fight. Even using it for a trivial matter risks disqualification.”

Back in the ring, Otto made a confident leer at Trace and raised his foot to assume his normal stance. Trace, after clearing away the dust obstructing his vision, gripped his staff tightly, pointed it forward, and dashed. Otto was barely able to deflect the first strike, and was sent backpedaling as Trace followed through with a rapid combo, clumsily deflecting each strike with an intricate bicycling motion as he moved.

Eventually, Trace adjusted his grip and began a rapid series of thrust attacks, forcing Otto to sidestep each one. Right when Trace saw his opportunity in his opponent’s footing, he brought his bo staff back really high before making a sweeping low swing. Otto was sent tumbling to the ground, and Trace rapidly followed up by dashing to his side and touching his opponent with a glowing hand, covering his body in the same white light and making him move very, very slowly.

The referee appeared right next to Otto and made his call. “That’s a knockdown! Trace, three! Otto, zero!” The referee proceeded to make his count. By the time Otto had managed to sit halfway up, the referee had made it all the way to ten. With a snap of his fingers, Trace had dispelled the magic he’d used on Otto and approached the referee, who’d raised his hand to the roaring crowd, leaving the dejected Otto to slink back to his corner.

Back in Trace’s corner. Boros was nodding with a look of approval. “I knew it! That last spell left Otto completely out of magic! He probably thought that if he were at peak physical performance, he could contend with whatever Trace could throw at him. His undoing was his overconfidence! Only magic can defend against magic.”

However, Rainbow Dash viewed the whole situation with incomprehension. “But wait… That was a ten count! The last fight ended with Otto’s spell used on Wilda as a pin! What gives? How is that fair?”

Boros gestured at the twitching pegasus. “Things like that are up to the specific referee’s preference. Take the hits counted in the last fight: He counts effective strikes to the extremities as clean hits, but strikes to the head and torso area as critical hits. In this case, he didn’t count Trace’s spell as a pin because unlike last time where the spell exerted a force on its target, Trace’s just endowed his opponent with a new property to make him a whole lot slower. Regardless, it all worked in our favor, so no need to be a sore winner.”

Rainbow Dash could only pout at those words, but brightened up when Trace got back to the corner and did a hoof/hand maneuver with him. “Did you have a hard time with that big snake in the grass?”

At that, Trace scoffed. “You kidding? Maybe if I’d fought him right off the bat, but right now he’s just a viper without its fangs!”

At this however, Boros gave Trace a wary look. “It’s good to be able to know the value of one’s achievements, but overconfidence was Otto’s undoing. Don’t let it be yours, Trace.” Trace and Rainbow Dash merely scoffed and rolled their eyes in synch.


***


After another five minute break and deliberation, the referee returned to his position in the center of the ring, holding his glowing finger to his throat. “After the intermission, Team Prancing Pony has decided to maintain their deployment of their first specialist! Re-introducing: Trace Paragon!”

Trace appeared to approach his position nonchalantly amidst the roar of the crowd. But he broke all illusions as he coaxed greater fervor out of the crowd with more over dramatic poses. After Trace (eventually) got to his place in the center of the ring, the referee gestured to the opposing corner. “After deliberation, Team Rising Dragon has not adjusted their positioning and shall send out the next fighter in formation! Introducing Team Rising Dragon’s Second Guardsman: Kraaank Delcroooss!”

The armor-plate wearing human made his way to his position, albeit using an over-exaggerated mechanical series of motions. After the referee stepped aside, Trace just scoffed and dismissively scratched his nose. “Didn’t anyone tell you that steam power went out with the internal combustion engine, Krank my bro? Granted, both of them wish they could keep up with me!”

Betraying no obvious comprehension of his opponent’s statement, Krank simply made his armor give off a low mechanical hissing sound. He followed this with three rhythmic beats against his armored chest and finished this routine with a dramatic flexing motion paired with a high-pitched mechanical whistling.

The referee raised his arm. “Ready?” Both fighters took a stance, but whereas Trace materialized his weapon, Krank simply bared his fists. The referee swung down his arm. “Fight!”

Trace took the initiative. He raised his bo staff in an over-the-shoulder stance and dashed to his opponent, hitting him with a barrage of stabbing thrusts. However, Krank quickly braced himself in response, absorbing most of the blows. However, Trace finished his strike combo by nimbly adjusting his form, jumping back, and making a hard jabbing thrust into Krank’s unprotected abdomen with a running start, sending Krank staggering back.

The referee rushed to make his call. “Critical Hit! Trace, Two! Krank, Zero!”

Back in Trace’s corner, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but sneer. “Did that even do anything? What’s the point of wearing armor in a combat sport?”

Boros made a dismissive gesture. “You can bring pretty much anything you want into a pro dueling fight as long as you declare it to the commission beforehand and get their okay. But really, nothing is ever a given in a one-on-one fight, even more so when magic is involved. Metal armor would be a detriment against a lightning elemental, but really, there’s just no telling if an elemental warrior has at least one spell that uses their element in a completely unconventional way. There have been fire elementals who could make their flames take on the properties of a grease fire, making defenses based on water magic useless despite the natural advantage.”

Back in the ring, even after the referee declared the okay to go back to fighting, both fighters stood at a distance from each other for a moment. Suddenly, Trace got an overly-playful expression and abruptly dropped his guard. He began jogging in place, his legs getting faster and faster until they were a blur. Then, he took off like a rocket to the side, getting to the edge of the pit and abruptly changing direction in a sharp angle as rebounding. He repeated this action countless times at countless points, each at a different angle, making both the referee and Krank look confused as they struggled to follow the blur making a star-like shape in the big indentation in the land.

Krank must have sensed something, as he abruptly crouched and raised his forearms over his head, which proved to be somewhat effective as Trace changed his path to make multiple hard, running swings at him as he passed, sounding like a machine gun.

At this, Rainbow Dash exasperatedly gestured with both hooves. “Oh, come on! How is that not a bunch of clean hits?”

Boros cocked his head to the side. “I think the referee's logic is simple, but sound. A hit should only count if it visibly does something to the opponent. In most cases, a barrage of hits will only get you enough points for one if they’re effective under the reasoning that they’re collectively one attack. There are a lot of critics of the pin rules thinking that they make the fights end too soon as is. Spectators want to get their money’s worth after all.”

Back in the ring, Trace maintained his onslaught while Krank maintained his position, appearing to have no intention of countering. However, the apparatus on his back appeared to be heating up, puffing out greater amounts of steam with each hit to Krank. Once the apparatus on his back was so full of energy that it appeared to vibrate, Krank abruptly thrust upwards, sending out a shockwave that sent the oncoming Trace flying.

However, while in midair, Trace quickly flipped and landed on his feet with his staff raised. Trace however, was unprepared to have Krank zoom up to him almost as fast as he was previously, barely able to sidestep and duck under each heavy swing of his arm. Krank finished this combo by leaping and smashing his arm into the ground. Trace seemed to avoid this by dashing backwards, but he was unprepared for the explosive burst of steam that diffused from the ground at Krank’s point of impact, sending him flying onto his back.

The referee appeared next to Trace and made his call. “Knockdown! Krank, Three! Trace, Two!” The referee began his count, but halfway to four, Trace leaped to his feet and struck a pose with his staff. After the referee made the okay to keep fighting, Trace took off like a bolt of lightning towards Krank, spinning his staff. Krank took a braced stance to receive this attack, his open palms held forward.

However, right when Trace was about to make a hard upward swing with his staff, the gong sounded and he suddenly stopped. Both competitors took a moment to scowl at one another before turning around and heading back to their corners.
> Rise Again: Part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash grimaced as she gingerly applied a salve to Trace’s light but large burns. “Geeze! I knew hot water could be dangerous, but I don’t see how he could have fared any better against actual fire!”

Boros quickly handed Trace his third helping of water. “Sometimes, the elaborate nature of how derivatives are classified confuses even me, but considering the sheer amount of energy in steam, is it any wonder it’s classified as a fire derivative?”

Boros then leaned in close to Trace and started gesturing at the center of the ring. “Okay, let’s take stock of the situation. So far, Krank has yet to materialize his weapon, and he was being purely defensive during the initial part of the fight. But after you hit him a bunch of times, he was suddenly fighting at full steam. I have one idea about that: there’s a chance that he took the kinetic energy of each of your attacks when he was crouched and used a supportive spell to absorb and stockpile it all. But normally, it takes something tangible to contain and stockpile something physical, which would explain that big metal thing on his back. Channeling all that energy using some specific types of spells is a lot more energy-efficient than using magic directly.

“Taking all that into account, his strategy is obviously to draw the fight out as long as he can and wear you out while keeping you at a distance. So your best bet is to finish the fight quickly with a KO. You might be fast, and speed may count for a lot, but speed has one vulnerability: you just can’t be everywhere at once. His element is capable of a lot of wide-range attacks that can undermine your footing. Plus, his element's advantage over yours would make it easy to dispel effects and phenomena created by your air derivative, so be sure to put extra emphasis on your melee attacks.

“One final bit of advice is to focus on attacking his lower body. Maintaining a strong defense like his requires firm footing, so do whatever you can to disrupt that. Now go out there and take the wind from his sails!”

Trace punctuated this encouragement by punching an open palm with a fist, then he rose with the gong and proceeded to the center of the ring. The referee raised his arm. “Ready?” Trace took a stance and materialized his bo staff while Krank struck a forward-leaning posture, still with no weapon. The referee swung down their arm “Fight!”

This time, Krank took off charging like a locomotive with a burst of steam, his shoulder extended. Trace nimbly avoided this full-force assault, but Krank followed this charge up with another one, turning and advancing while hardly missing a beat with another burst of steam. After repeating this dance several times in a row, Trace got a determined look and started whirling his staff around, creating a line of glyphs that curled up in a spiral behind him. Right as Krank changed direction once again in another burst, Trace took his staff in both hands and charged directly at the oncoming armored giant.

When it seemed like they’d both collide, time seemed to slow down as Trace slid crouching low and made a spinning sweep at Kranks legs. However, Krank seemed to have anticipated this maneuver and thrust both hands downward, taking off and away while leaving a plume of searing-hot steam behind. However, immediately after recovering from his elaborate attack, Trace thrust out a free hand and sent out his glyphs to encircle Krank’s simplistic counterattack, slowing it to a snail’s pace and giving Trace the time to get clear. As both competitors seemed to reach opposite ends of the arena, time seemed to resume as the glyphs embodying Trace’s spell seemed to burn away after precisely three seconds, letting the tsunami of burning vapor rush forth, dissipating after hitting nothing.

At the sight of this, Rainbow Dash gave Boros an accusatory glance. “I thought you said that Krank’s spells could easily overcome Trace’s?

Boros just scratched his fuzzy chin. “Well… Any kind of spell that draws upon a physical stockpile is going to be on the simple side. Trace’s rune arrays are pretty up there in terms of sophisticated spellcasting. Regardless of natural advantages, more sophisticated spells are just going to have a bit more staying power in a clash, at least for a short while.”

At this, Rainbow Dash got a dazed look for a moment and clenched her eyes shut as she held a hoof to her head. “Blech! My head wasn’t sent spinning this much since I had to learn algebra as a filly!”

At that, Boros sentimentally rolled his eyes as he made a sympathetic chuckle. “Yeah… I admit life was a lot simpler as a young, obnoxious warrior fighting off central forces goons with a scrap iron ax when my darkness element could annihilate anything they threw at me. Then that sword elemental from the Prancing Pony guild came along, subdued me, and forced me to use my talents to be a productive member of society…”

Back in the arena, after that last confrontation, both competitors stared each other down as the fight had come to an abrupt standstill. Trace suddenly gave Krank a wry smile and adjusted his grip on his weapon. He then began yet another direct charge at Krank while spinning his staff. Krank rolled his eyes as he yet again took a stance to receive this attack. This time, however, Trace abruptly threw his staff, sending it spinning right towards his opponent. Krank didn’t miss a beat in spite of this and promptly adjusted his stance to catch this makeshift projectile, but this distracted him as not only did Trace not break off his charge, he accelerated past his weapon and bent low to sweep Krank’s feet from right out under him.

Trace’s opponent was sent tumbling to the ground as he quickly regained his own footing and caught his spinning weapon in one hand. The referee appeared between them in a flash of light to make his call. “Knockdown! Trace, five! Krank, three!” However, he could only make it half past two before Krank quickly regained his footing.

Back in Trace’s corner, Boros made a big smile and gestured towards the ring. “Atta boy Trace! Way to take back the lead!”

At this development, Rainbow Dash gleefully did a midair flip. “I might not be a warrior in the same way as you guys, but even I can tell that Krank’s got some good instincts! I was thinking really hard about what Trace could do about that, but I’m kicking myself over forgetting about just being unpredictable!”

In the ring, after the referee made the okay to resume fighting, Krank took a moment to dust off his armor. Then, in the face of Trace pointing his low-held staff at him, struck a more close stance and held his arm in front of him. Appearing against his forearm in a flash of light was a dark purple shield, square and broad enough to cover three-fourths of Krank’s body standing up. The metal was thickening around the circumference and extended outward while following the slight inward curve of the shield. In the center and in an outward cross shape extended rows of narrow and slightly long spikes.

In response to this, Trace adjusted his stance and held his staff in a more parallel defensive grip. Soon after, Krank adopted a crouched stance with his shield held outward. Then, the apparatus on his back sent out a big puff of steam before he rocketed forward, his shield serving as his spearhead. Trace responded by turning around and bidding a swift retreat.

For the better part of the half-hour, Krank chased his opponent, unable to match Trace’s pace but never falling too far behind. After a few moments, Trace lowered half his staff and started dragging it on the ground as he ran, leaving behind a cloud of dust in his path. In response to this strategy seemingly having no effect on the pursuit of his large shadow, he abruptly ceased. But as the chase went on, Trace seemed to grow desperate as he tried this strategy again and again in different parts of the ring to no avail.

This show was starting to get old and rather repetitive, and the crowd was starting to take notice and was very vocal about that fact. Seemingly in response to this, both competitors slowed to a complete stop. They had a brief staredown before Trace got a cocky look and pointed his weapon and Krank with one hand. Then, he lowered his weapon to draw a line in the dirt and stepped back from it a ways before gripping his staff in both hands once again, pointing it at Krank.

In response to this challenge, Krank reared back as he took a deep breath and matched his exhalation with a big puff of steam. He pointed his shield outward and took off with a dashing charge, making directly for Trace. Right before Krank was about to cross his line, Trace snapped his fingers, causing a line of his white glyphs to appear over the physical line in the dirt. It was too late for Krank to notice as they flashed when he tread on them. Trace stepped aside as Krank hurtled past him out of control.

Krank appeared stunned for a moment after he made a hard collision with the sloping wall of the pit. Trace took advantage of this and raced up to his opponent, using the end of his staff to pin Krank against the wall while shrouding him in a white aura. The referee appeared next to the fighters to make his call. “That’s a pin!” However, almost immediately after making the one count, Krank forced the both of them back with an intense burst of steam that simultaneously dispelled the enchantment placed on him.

After the vapor cleared, the referee motioned for both competitors to take positions back in the center of the ring. Immediately after the referee made the call to resume the fight, Trace raised his hand overhead and snapped his fingers. All the places he’d dragged his staff on the ground during their chase beforehand lit up with lines of glyphs, practically covering the whole arena. At this development, the normally composed Krank’s posture and eyes betrayed a slight apprehension.

In spite of Boros’s low, haughty laughter at this development, Rainbow Dash’s expression betrayed incomprehension. “What’s Trace doing? He’s totally showing his hand, like you humans say!”

Boros made a proud but somewhat sinister smile and pointed a finger towards the arena. “Trace has turned this battle into an all-out war by adding a psychological element! You said it yourself that Krank’s best attribute are his good instincts, but making use of them in the heat of battle requires a state of absolute focus upon his enemy. His mind has to be like a still pond, a mirror of his observations of his opponent as he detects the subtle involuntary movements they make as a tell for each form and technique they use.

“Our own unconventional warrior Trace, however, made that impossible now, because he can’t devote all his focus to his opponent if he has to take extra care watching his step! That earlier taste of what Trace’s glyphs can do probably gave him an extra serving of forbearance, so we shouldn't expect him to take any risks. Finally, Trace himself has no need to be wary of his traps, spellwork as sophisticated as rune arrays makes deciding what one’s magic can and can’t affect easy.”

Back in the ring, Trace quickly recreated his grip on his weapon, holding it low and pointing the end at his opponent, who stood fast with his shield raised. Suddenly, Trace took off and began clashing weapons with Krank, forcing him back with several hefty thrusts directly onto his shield, later mixing in some swings, forcing his opponent to swing his shield back and forth as he struck from alternating directions.

Using a thrust with a running start, Trace forced his opponent back far enough to tread on a line of glyphs, which erupted into a flash and wrapped him in an aura that slowed him to a snail’s pace. Before Krank had the chance to dispel this effect, Trace made a running leap, holding his staff overhead, getting in a hard strike to Krank’s shoulder, causing him to stagger. The referee raised his hand and made his call. “Critical Hit! Trace, seven! Krank, Three!”

The referee motioned for Krank to use his magic to dispel the enchantment afflicting him, which he did so in a small but forceful puff of steam. Immediately after the referee motioned for them to continue, Krank abruptly crouched, tensing up his body. Right as he explosively thrust upward, a wary Trace took off in the opposite direction, correctly anticipating the wide-reaching explosion of steam that covered a quarter of the ring, dispelling all of the rune arrays in his vicinity.

This action got a look of concern out of Boros. “Hm… Definitely crude, but it did what he set out to do. He may have effectively cleansed the battlefield of Trace’s advantage, but I’d bet he depleted the last of his stockpile.”

An enthusiastic Rainbow Dash aggressively smashed her hooves together. “So now Trace has got this in the bag!”

However, Boros shook his head at this. “Think deeper, little pony. Krank still has his personal supply of magic. But as for Trace, it’s been a long fight for him, and all those rune arrays probably have him running on fumes. He probably can’t spare anything except to drive his speed. Does he have anything left in his bag of tricks?”

A now confident Krank turned his shield to beat against it with his fist. However, Trace seemed unfazed at this whole development. Instead, he slowly, calmly raised his weapon overhead, carrying it horizontally in the cruxes of his inner thumbs of his open palms, adopting a serene expression. Then, with a pair of flashes at opposite sides of the weapon, Trace bent the newfound joints and in an agile display positioned what was now a solid-white three-section staff in a stylistic manner curled around his torso from his back.

Seeing the sudden apprehension in his opponent’s eyes, Trace charged forward into short-ranged distance, acrobatically whirling his flailing weapon before unleashing a flurry of strikes that Krank could only awkwardly fend off with his shield. Finishing this combo, Trace took the end of his weapon in both hands and made a hard twisting swing at Krank’s upper body.

Krank raised his shield in an extra-high angle to meet the flail-like weapon. However, this was only a feint as with a twisting motion, Trace withdrew the weapon back to his grip, but continued his spin to lash it out and curl it around Krank’s leg, taking the end that swung around in his opposing hand. With a full-body twist in the reverse direction of the first, Trace yanked Krank’s firmly planted foot off the ground. With one last twist, he came around again and thrust both ends at his off-balanced opponent’s torso, sending him to the ground. The referee appeared to make his call. “Knockdown! Trace, ten! Krank, three! It’s over! Trace Paragon wins by TKO! Krank Delcross is out of the match!”

Soon after Krank rose from the ground, the referee raised Trace’s arm, who used his free hand to flash a peace sign at the crowd with a big smile. Krank dusted himself off and rolled his eyes at this display, turning around to march back to his corner at an even pace.
> Rise Again: Part 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spike, having previously been on the commentators' desk whooping and hollering, now sat calm and composed in his seat, his wig askew after having tossed it into the air. "A stunning development as any, whereas the first fight had been a display of the basic arts of human elemental magic combat, this fight could certainly be called a captivating glimpse into the tactical applications of human magic and combat arts.

"Krank, while dwarfing his opponent and displaying the knowhow to use his size and element to his advantage in a head-on struggle, faltered against Trace, who claimed victory by fighting on a higher level, essentially forcing the battle to conform to his rules."

Discord, sipping tea delivered by a tiny train he conjured with a kettle serving as the boiler, exhaled with an air of sophistication as he returned his cup to its saucer. "While I do admit I usually find myself rooting for the big guy in these situations, I find the idea of making an opponent trip and tumble helplessly to be a show worth watching!"

Maxine, having helped herself to a cup of her own after dexterously avoiding the kettle's attempt to spray her in the face (to Discord's mild displeasure) gently placed her saucer on the table. “Since the last battle I’ve seen him fight, Trace has definitely improved by leaps and bounds. Not everyone realizes this even among my own kind, but becoming a top-class warrior doesn’t mean a warrior’s journey is over, but they’ve merely begun an even greater journey of self-betterment. His ability to transform his weapon is a sign that he’s advanced beyond what most consider a dead end.

“However, here and now, it’s obvious he can do no more. He’s burned out his magic, and that last clash was a desperate but successful attempt to catch his opponent off-guard one more time, fulfilling his role as a specialist in this team match. It’s good that he hasn’t taken many blows in his fights, but he’ll need time to replenish his power, and I assume his team will decide as much too.”

After looking over both teams' formation submissions, the referee appeared once again in the exact center of the ring, holding his finger to his throat. "Having received both teams' formation orders, I am here to announce the oncoming of two new fighters!"

The referee held his hand out to Team Prancing Pony's side. "Having shuffled their first specialist back to their original formation, introducing Team Prancing Pony's Second Guardsman… Sloooop Maaasters!" Sloop came out marching to the center of the ring, a haughty grin accompanied by an elegant wave to the crowd on his way over.

The referee then held his hand to Team Rising Dragon's side. "Altering their formation for the first time in this match, introducing Team Rising Dragon’s First Specialist… Orooo Jacksooon!" With a bold, if not somewhat high-strung military march, the human wearing the odd pairing of military coat and rows of large gold armbands made his way to the center of the ring.

The referee stepped aside to let the competitors have their words. Sloop gestured to his opponent. “Hey there, Mister Jackson, it’s been a while since the last Core Metro socialite’s ball, though I haven’t been invited since I used the last of the McMasters fortune to set up my rather small business. Though even then I was doing way better than I am now. Strangely, I might be broke, but I feel richer now than I ever did before, now that I can spend every day surrounded by friends. Can you say the same?”

Oro’s expression remained rigid, but he made a series of almost mechanical gestures, extending his arm and holding his forearm across his chest, palm open. “Don’t taunt me, Mister Masters, we’re not close enough for that kind of banter. You know exactly how I feel about my family fortune, and I’m glad to be rid of it! Our ancestors’ petty rivalry means nothing to me, this fight is purely for the honor of the Mighty Six, the only family I accept!”

At this, Sloop made a cringy, lopsided smile and awkwardly looked away. “Goodness gracious, Oro! I was just trying to ease some unnecessary tension! No need to lay out all your baggage like that!”

The referee stepped forward and gestured at both competitors. “The commission and teams have both agreed to a traditional opening to this fight in regards to both competitors’ fighting styles, so both fighters take position and await the signal!” Accommodating this ruling, Sloop and Oro stood at attention and marched a distance precisely twenty paces away from one another, then turned around and stood at ready, crouching slightly, flexing their hands.

At the sight of this from the corner, Rarity gave Boros an inquisitive look. “Pardon moi, but what sort of… rustic human tradition are we seeing now?”

Disregarding the slightly contemptuous tone, Boros gestured to the ring. “You’ve seen Sloop’s weapons and fighting style, right? I don’t know what Oro’s weapons are, but apparently, they’re projectile-based like Sloop’s arrowguns. The duel of the quickdraw has been a part of humanity’s long and colorful history of conflicts for as long as we’ve figured out how to throw sharp pieces of wood and rock at each other. But words don’t do it justice, just watch and see…”

Back in the arena, a tension had built up in the air as both opponents stared one-another down. This feeling spilled over into the audience, who had gone silent, staring transfixed at the scene before them, sometimes with open mouths, their half-eaten snacks dripping onto the ground.

As the sun crept into the middle of the sky, the referee made a gesture with his off-hand and in a flash of colored light appeared a common alarm clock as he raised his main hand into the air. Though the clock was much too small for its distinctive sound to carry far, everyone present could swear they felt each tick and tock in their skull.

Abruptly, once the clock struck high noon, several things happened at once: When the alarm went off, the referee swung down his raised arm. Sloop materialized one of his bright-red arrowguns while Oro materialized a dark yellow crossbow-like apparatus onto his forearm, however, Sloop raised his weapon forward first and let fly a bolt of magic right into Oro’s chest. Oro staggered backwards, but he managed to awkwardly but firmly steady himself and maintain his footing. Regardless, the referee raised his hand and made his call. “Critical hit! Sloop, two! Oro, zero!”

Back in Sloop’s corner, Boros was giving a knowing look to Rarity, who was floundering with her words to fit what she’d just seen. “Why, I… I… I never…!”

Boros just smirked and pointed back into the ring with a snap of the fingers. “Stylish, am I right? But if we’re being honest here, that’s all it is, empty style. Nobody actually did that even before we went underground, at least not outside of pomp and ceremony. After a while, we started doing quick-draw duels as an opening act in pro duels between warriors with ranger fighting styles, especially since the very idea of them has pretty much captured the hearts and minds of the public.”

Back in the arena, the referee banished his alarm clock and motioned for both fighters to hold their positions. Then, he raised an arm. “Ready?” At this, both competitors materialized their weapon’s twin and stood at ready. The referee swung his arm down. “Fight!”

Both fighters took off, in the same direction, firing their weapons as quickly as they could. However, whereas Sloop could let loose a barrage from each of his weapons’ magazines, Oro could only fire at amore gingerly rate, letting loose one dark-yellow bolt at a time while having to cock and reload the weapon’s twin with a quick upward flex of the forearm all in a somewhat mechanical cycling motion.

After depleting his loaded ammunition, Sloop found himself retreating from the slow but continuous firing of his opponent, who chased close behind his own retreating opponent. However, with a wave of one of his depleted weapons, Sloop created a long, bright red arrow of energy pointing straight up and leapt into it, sending him somersaulting high into the air. Though he continued to trail his weapons at his opponent, Oro had ceased fire. By the time Sloop hit the ground, he pointed his fully-loaded weapons at his opponent, engaging another standoff.

Rarity looked upon this sight with an elegant expression of confusion. “Why did he stop? I’m rooting for Sloop, wasn’t he vulnerable?”

Boros shook his head and scratched his chin. “Oro’s weapons are just a little unconventional. They don’t exactly pack a wallop or have any accuracy at long ranges. But if he’s tempered them, then he can definitely use them as well as any top-class warrior can with their own weapon. Probably decided that it wasn’t worth wasting the effort to fire without a guaranteed hit.”

At this, Rarity turned to look at Boros with a flourish of her mane. “Does he not want to waste ammunition too? I never see any of you keep anything like that on your persons, do you make it with your magic?”

Boros looked like he was thinking for a moment, then he gestured to Rarity. “You know how we like to toss out the word ‘refined’ when it comes to magic? It’s actually a technique to use a spell in a way that uses insignificant concentration and magic consumption, not that much different from a natural ability. Obviously, you can’t use it for overly potent or sophisticated spells, but having a little extra utility at one’s disposal never hurt anyone.

“In the case of most rangers like Sloop and Oro, they materialize their magic in the form of a sort of empty construct that lacks the essence of their elements, essentially able to create a limitless supply of ammo. The methodology is a more developed version of an old technique from before we went to the cavern called cantrips or something.”

Back in the arena, both fighters, pointing their weapons at their opponent, slowly traced a circle in the arena. Suddenly, Oro abruptly flinched, making Sloop respond in turn in to strike a defensive pose. However, without missing a beat, Oro flowed into a new posture, flinging his arms fully extended, also sending out the outermost armbands glowing and expanding to float in midair and finishing this maneuver by sending his loaded bolts to disappear into the shimmering space within these rings.

Unbeknownst to Sloop, A pair of rings of solid light appeared directly behind him and out of them came flying the missing bolts, now enveloped in intense shrouds of golden energy which burst against his back and sent him (dramatically) plopping flat onto his front. The referee appeared nearby and made his call. “Knockdown! Sloop, two! Oro, Three!”

The referee had made his count to four until Sloop took a deep breath and pushed himself up by curling and springing with his legs in one clear and efficient movement. The referee motioned both competitors to hold their fire for a moment, making sure both were at the ready, and gestured for them to continue their bout.

Sloop, finally deciding to break all subtleties and extend both arrowguns, fronts angled parallel, pointing the intensely glowing barrels at his opponent. Oro quickly took a ready position, having released one glowing ring. However, the gong suddenly rang out, forcing Sloop to abruptly and inelegantly break off this action and the last possible moment.

Both competitors made snide looks at one another before turning around and making distinctive and overenthusiastic marches back to their corners.
> Rise Again: Part 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In Sloop’s corner, Rarity went to work, gently dabbing away the surprisingly few dirt smudges with a moistened kerchief embroidered with Sloop’s personal emblem. Then she went to work applying a pallet of salves mixed with powders colored to compliment Sloop’s skin tone, hair and eye colors depending on the points of abrasion. “I’ve heard of accessorizing for every occasion, but bijoux de bataille? And just when I’d thought I’d seen everything from you humans!”

Quickly deciding that notifying Rarity of her severe breach of conduct would distract her from her present duties, Boros decided to accommodate both of them with his coaching. “I won’t disagree, we’ve basically got an elemental power for everything. The magic of a ring elemental like Oro Jackson falls into a special category of elements that don’t exactly have a clearly defined nature, so it can accommodate a diverse range of abilities. Like portal creation, as you’ve just seen.

“Abilities like his can bend both the flow of the battle and the battlefield itself to his advantage. But your fighting style is every bit as adaptive as his, and it’s evident that you have a slight edge in raw power. You have two avenues to victory: Firstly, you need to be able to anticipate his next move and use an ability of your own to counteract. Secondly, when it becomes evident that he’s starting to lay some groundwork for a big play, you need to press him full force to divert his attention away from his preparations.”

At that, Rarity made a peppy gesture, pointing one hoof in the air while flexing the other. “What ho, good chap!” However, upon relaxing herself to try to wipe the smeared salve on Sloop’s cheek, she craned her neck around her charge/muse to look directly at Boros. “One thing I’ve been wondering about, in their pre-fight banter, Sloop and Oro seemed quite… familiar about it. A bit deeper than just guild versus guild. Almost like some kind of… blood feud. May I inquire?”

At this, Sloop followed his final slurp of water with a crude spitting in a bucket Boros was carrying, getting a somewhat startled look out of his corner girl. “If you’d like to inquire, just read a comic. There has to be millions of them taking up space in a bunch of kids’ bedrooms! Waste of good paper and ink, jolly well!”

Before Rarity could enquire further, the gong sounded once again and Sloop got up and marched back to the ring with a much more undignified slouch. After both competitors made their way to the center of the ring, the referee raised his arm. “Ready?” Both competitors materialized their weapons and pointed them at one another. The referee swung down his arm. “Fight!”

This time, Oro didn’t engage in a direct opening clash. As he practically drifted out of the way of Sloop’s shots, he slid his armbands off his forearms, causing each to float in a hexagon in front of him through which he started letting fly his bolts. However, Sloop wasn’t caught unawares this time as he quickly dashed to the side, deflecting the surest shots with multiple compass points layered on top of one another affixed to his forearms.

Suddenly, Sloop made a direct break towards Oro, his arrowguns blazing. Oro quickly reconfigured his offensive array into a defensive one, using each of his rings to ward off each of Sloop’s attacks. However, after circling around to Oro’s other side, Sloop made one seemingly stray shot hidden among his continuous onslaught. As the bolt of magic drifted into the area Sloop once tread, it hit an invisible compass point and rebounded directly towards Oro, who’s concentration on his opponent’s frontal assault resulted in a clumsy evasion and getting hit in the thigh. The referee appeared in between both fighters and made his call. “Clean hit! Sloop, three! Oro, three!”

Back in Sloop’s corner, Rarity couldn’t help but wear a concerned expression despite this development, and Boros took notice. “Still thinking about what Sloop said?”

Rarity gestured to Boros with a confused expression. “Comic books? What does that drivel have to do with anything?” (Meanwhile, Spike suddenly made a hard sneeze in his commentator’s box).

Boros made an expression of deep contemplation, scratching his fuzzy chin. “Ah yes, ‘The Life and Adventures of Scrooge McMasters’ Even I had a few comic books that I fished out of the trash I slept in when I was a kid. When Sloop’s ancestor decided to get into the visual storytelling market, he realized that he couldn’t think of any adventures more crazy and amazing than the ones he went on to earn his fortune, so he went the route of slightly embellished autobiography. Panning for gold in monster-infested caves, fighting off bandits transporting cargo across underground rivers, zombies and power-hungry dark sorceresses, crazy stuff I tell you!”

Rarity scratched her own under-muzzle in consideration. “I suppose that makes sense, but what does mister Oro Jackson have to do with that?”

Boros gave a knowing expression and gesture into the air. “Well, every great adventure story needs a great villain, a foil, a dark reflection of the hero. And few were more of a match for Scrooge McMasters in this regard than Flint Jacques.

“Whereas Scrooge prided himself on earning his fortune the hard way through sheer effort and capability, Flint exploited the desperation of the impoverished of Old Core Metro, giving them the most bare of necessities while he pocketed the gold and jewels they dug up in the most lethal caves in the Heart of the World.

“But even that wasn’t enough, he didn’t appreciate his riches at all if it meant he could only wear silver next to McMasters’s gold. He tried every trick in the book to climb to number one, either through treachery and lies in order to get to the next fortune to be made first, or trying to bump Scrooge off his pedestal and into the grave, all the better if his friends and family ended up as collateral damage.”

At that, Rarity recoiled slightly. “Goodness me! And that was for children?”

At this, Boros just scoffed. “You should hear some of our radio dramas!”

Once the referee gave the okay to fight, Sloop immediately reloaded his arrowguns to maximum capacity and Oro immediately redeployed his rings. However, Sloop paused for a moment and held his twin weapons extended, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Rather than take advantage of this state of being, Oro furrowed his brow and appeared to purposefully hesitate. Sloop then abruptly opened his eyes with a determined expression and brought them together, holding the pointed barrel of one to the back of the other. With a bright red flash and twist, both arrowguns had become a single heavier weapon, the back one’s barrel-less body sticking out of the back of the front one at a ninety-degree angle.

Sloop trained his weapon’s new form onto his opponent and let fly a rapid barrage of glowing projectiles, these ones much smaller than his standard, appearing to only consume one of the twelve clips of ammunition for every ten shots. However, with a gesture, Oro re-oriented his rings to meet this barrage, using each ring’s energy-based complement to redirect each projectile away from their user.

However, Sloop used this focused defense to meet his rapid offense to his advantage, wielding his weapon with only one hand to create a north/south sphere and rapidly punching into it, causing the sphere’s twin to appear near the wall of rings for his fist to strike each of the six, causing Sloop to confidently declare, “North!” Following each of the struck rings being wrapped in a bright red aura, the other compas sphere quickly reoriented itself closer to Oro, who raised his arm-mounted crossbows to meet it. Despite this newfound barrier, Sloop made a strike into the initial orb regardless, seemingly ineffectively hitting his opponent while declaring, “South!”

Soon after being wrapped in the complimentary bright blue aura, the initially enchanted rings suddenly started vibrating, with their user gaining a sudden strained expression. However, whatever struggle Oro appeared to be experiencing, he appeared to lose as each of his rings flew towards and stuck themselves against his body. Taking advantage of his opponent’s momentary state of confusion, Sloop rushed to him, extending a bright red arrow from the knuckles of his free hand so as to add something extra to his oncoming strike.

As Sloop got in range, he brought around his fist in a wide hook, the arrow he affixed to it flashing bright red as it barreled to his opponent’s head. However, despite the enhanced speed and force of his opponent’s strike, Oro’s eyes focused on the oncoming blow and he twisted his whole torso out of the way. As he came around, recovering from his evasion, he clenched a fist and around his knuckles appeared a seventh gold ring, which adjusted its shape and size to serve as what looked like a rudimentary knuckleduster. As he swung himself standing straight up, he brought his fist around and got the still-recovering Sloop with a full-force uppercut right to the chin.

Sloop’s eyes grew unfocused as he awkwardly backpedaled a few steps after being forced into an odd back-leaning posture by the counterattack he received from his opponent. A moment and a half later, he precariously teetered upon one leg before going down flat on his back. The referee appeared between the opponents and made his call. “Knockdown! Sloop, three! Oro, six!”

Soon after this declaration, the referee began his count. As the count went on without any reaction from Sloop, Rarity suddenly got a look of great concern. She glanced at Boros, who had a grim but assured expression, shaking his head upon glancing at the corner girl. “That was a perfect hit. Even an iron elemental wouldn’t get back up after taking something like that directly. But that’s the risk he took when he went in close to end it with one hit. He couldn’t have known Oro kept one ring de-manifested just in case.”

Back in the arena, the referee’s tone grew steadily higher as he approached the final count. “Seven… Eight… Nine… Ten! Knockout! Rising Dragon’s Oro Jackson wins! Prancing Pony’s Sloop Masters is out of the match!” The crowd roared as the referee appeared next to the victor and raised his arm. Back in their corner, Boros gestured to Rarity to head out and retrieve their charge.

The trainer and corner-girl combo rushed out into the area and gingerly hoisted the dazed and confused Sloop in a natural position upon her back. As they slowly made their way back to their corner, Boros passionately but gently attempted to coax his young former student to some semblance of lucidity. When Sloop’s eyes suddenly regained focus and he began sitting up under his own power on Rarity’s back, Boros leaned in close. “If we’re being honest here, I really don’t know what to say. Nobody can know what it’s like to carry a legacy like yours, so I won’t judge you over your contempt of the commercialized elements of it. But I want you to know that I personally think anything your ancestor did or did to anyone else means nothing to you or what you do today, and that goes double for him, the only other person who could possibly know what that kind of burden feels like.”

A few seconds after what Boros hoped was his words registering with Sloop, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and patted his unicorn friend’s neck. “Wait…” The three of them ceased their steady march. He craned his neck back where he came from and Rarity wordlessly accommodated, bringing her human friend in a position to face the direction they came.

The victor, Oro Jackson, was the first to take notice of this development. After waiting for the crowd to quiet to a background murmur, Sloop abruptly raised his arm, forming his fingers into the peace-sign. At this development, the referee could only look at his victor with a neutral expression. Suddenly, Oro’s expression softened and he raised his own arm high to return this gesture. Once the meaning behind this development set in among the crowd, they all raised a passionate cheer that dwarfed all others before. After about a minute of basking in this adoration, the both of them lowered their arms and marched back to their corners with thankful expressions.
> 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.
> Rise Again: Part 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sitting on the provided seat in his corner, Alphonse barely reacted at all to the oddity of the energetic corner girl, Pinkie administering treatment to the various bruises, cuts, and abrasions he’d received from his opponent’s furious counterattack from multiple angles at one time. Boros, having seen too much over his long and colorful life to be phased by anything, ignored the phenomenon as he leaned in close to his young charge. “I gotta be honest kid, I can’t think of much to say that could help you out here.

“For starters, your opponent is obviously a mirror elemental. His element specializes in repelling and reflecting other magics, especially immaterial magics like the fairy element you’ve got! Your physical fighting style is heavily based on intimidation and misdirection, but he seems to thrive under intimidation with instincts too acute to fall for an ordinary trick. Unlike Krank, who could effectively attack, defend, and counter thanks to his laser-focus, Ellis is a bit more all-over-the-place, which seems to compliment his defensive and reactive fighting style. But you’re the kind of guy who can pull out a comeback when you shouldn’t possibly be able to by all sense and logic! Now go out there and do the impossible!”

Alphonse rolled his eyes, not for the first time. He took a swig from a bottle provided by the pink hooves from the void and spat extra-sloppily into the bucked held by the other pair of hooves while a fifth hoof made one last dabbing of sweat off his brow. “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence master! You know I mean to surprise!”

With a final harumph, Alphonse got up out of his seat and began his drudge back to center ring, irreverently cracking his finger and neck joints along the way. Reappearing with the right number of limbs, Pinkie raised an eyebrow at the outgoing competitor before giving a likewise confused look to his trainer. “Um… Weren’t you supposed to give him some advice? Or at least get him pepped up?”

Boros just rolled his eyes with a cocky grin. “That is how I do those things, with Alphonse specifically. You tell him to do something, and he’ll really, really want to do the exact opposite. The most you can do is just let him know something while framing it in a matter-of-fact sort of way. And the only time he ever gives his all to a fight is if he goes in with a chip on his shoulder, something he’s P.O.’d about that he wants to take out on the next living thing that looks at him funny. Otherwise, he drags his feet at the thought of having to do something that requires actual effort and perseverance.”

Alphonse, with a slight limp, made his way to the center of the ring while his opponent had to shut his eyes while he took each step forward. Somehow knowing exactly where to stop before opening them. The referee raised his hand. “Ready?” Alphonse materialized his whip and gave a few threatening lashes and flicks while Ellis gulped and turned his head away as he extended his hand for his wand to appear in his grip, pointing forward. The referee swung down his arm. “Fight!”

Despite the fight resuming, neither competitor took the initiative. Simply circling around one another holding their weapons at ready for a few moments. Knowing what they’ve seen before, the crowd was utterly silent, the tension in the air preventing them from protesting what would normally be a lull in the show.

However, things started getting going once again when Alphonse took a stance and started flailing around his whip to get some momentum going. In response, Ellis braced himself holding his wand back in a vertical position. Alphonse then swung back his whip, making Ellis take a stance resembling cowering as he erected a buckler-sized reflective barrier. However, right as Alphonse finally lashed his whip, he seemingly disappeared into a puff of green smoke and reappeared right behind Ellis in another puff right as struck at his opponent’s back, sending him staggering with a bellowing holler of shock and fear. The referee appeared between both combatants and made his call. “Critical hit! Ellis, three! Alphonse, two!”

Back in Alphonse’s corner, Pinkie Pie was jumping and hollering (randomly bringing out pom-poms, flags, noise makers, and air horns she kept who-knows-where) along with the rest of the stadium’s crowd at that play, and reacted with an excited confusion to Boros’s look of concern. “Hey, why the long face? That was a great comeback!” Her question asked not missing a beat from her bounces.

Boros narrowed his eyes as he stared right at the battlefield. “Like I said before, a lot of Alphonse’s fighting style is taking advantage of his opponent’s vigilance and striking adjacently while their focus is where he wants it to be. But I have a feeling that any trick he uses won’t work twice, because my gut tells me his opponent’s fighting style runs on the same principles.”

Back in the ring, with Ellis taking an abnormally long time to get ready to fight yet courageously denying multiple “Can you keep fighting?” prompts, the referee signaled the competitors to continue. However, right when the signal came, Ellis made a haphazard series of gestures with his wand and disappeared. However, moments later, he reappeared a distance away from his previous position, along with nine duplicates lined up together like bowling pins before they each scattered in a scrambling retreat in all directions.

At this, Alphonse maintained his scowling composure, but arrogantly wiped his nose with his free wrist before banishing his weapon in a flash of green sparkles. Then, he crouched down as four orbs of bright-green light appeared hovering over his back. Two large and two small green insectoid wings unfurled from Alphonse’s back that started buzzing before he took to the air with a lunging jump.

Alphonse gazed at the scrambling illusions beneath him with his usual contemptful visage. However, his features relaxed as he took a deep breath and crossed his hands in before him, fingers extended. From each digit grew a glowing bright-green emanation in the shape of an oak leaf. With a swift flicking motion, Alphonse sent each of these small dart-like constructs soaring, each curving its trajectory to home in on each figure.

Each projectile harmlessly passed through each illusionary figure except one far to Alphonse’s right, who batted aside his missile with his aura-wrapped wand. At that, Alphonse got a sinister grin as the real Ellis’s already frantic expression grew sickly pale.

Turning to his prey, Alphonse re-angled his body and dive bombed. On his way down, Alphonse extended his off-hand as it glowed in a green aura and conjured a spinning ring-like blade of energy. With a swing of his arm, he sent this new attack flying towards his opponent ahead of his own charge. This seemed to catch the normally vigilant Ellis off-sorts as he dodged it with a hasty spinning motion.

However, Alphonse broke off his charge to touch down next to his opponent, banishing his wings construct and making a deliberate gesture with his still-glowing hand. Ellis’s eyes grew wide and he suddenly jumped, having anticipated the magical projectile to abruptly dart off course to fly back at him as it soared below his feet.

Suddenly, with a toothy grin and a wicked glint in his eye, Alphonse re-summoned his whip and made a rapid, elaborate twisting motion to send it curling around the helpless Ellis. With a full-body twist, Alphonse pulled his ensnaring weapon taught and with a dashing, wrenching motion, flailed around his opponent and slammed him into the hard ground before jumping right on top of his stunned body.

The referee appeared next to the fallen fighter and made his call. “Knockdown and a pin! Ellis, three! Alphonse, five!” However, right when the official made the two-count, Ellis expanded a bubble of silvery, chromatic light around himself that threw his opponent off his body.

At that display, Pinkie’s eyes seemed to grow several times their normal size before what looked like the air inflating them flowed into her cheeks to be released as a highly excited scream. “Wowee zowie! What a move! And I didn’t even know he could fly!”

Boros crossed his arms and nodded with a self-satisfied smile. “Taught the boy everything he knows, but even I couldn’t have figured out a better way to turn the tables on Ellis! It’s one thing to take advantage of a warrior’s personal habits to undermine their tactics, but getting him hard with a trick within a trick is something else! Not to mention the psychological aspect of it all, how can a foe act if they second guess every tactic they can think of when they have reason to believe their opponent might use it against them!”

Signaling for Alphonse to undo his whip’s binding on his opponent after they’d successfully dislodged them from the pin, he gave Ellis his extra-long personal period before signaling both competitors to resume. Meeting his opponent, the profusely sweating Ellis made a big gulp, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and extended his wand. In a flash of light, his weapon changed shape, roughly retaining the same length, but extending a more flat, broader shape down the length of the shaft.

At this development, Pinkie Pie stood on her back hooves to mime the concerned gesture and experiment of Boros. “Huh. How is that any different from his old weapon?”

Glancing at the pink corner girl, Boros self-consciously moved his hands from his chin and elbow to his hips (only to have this gesture mimicked by her as well). “Hm… as a rule, human warriors typically don’t attune to overly-magical or enchanted weapons. We prefer to use such things as sidearms or off-hand weapons to support our attuned weapons. But when we start developing transformations, you can expect exceptions to start showing up.

“Wands and staves are made with the ability to generate their own magic so that we don’t have to expend our reserves or use our own reserves with greater potency, efficiency, or sophistication, wands in particular favoring more elaborate and complex spells. Weapons that appear less conventional, like that gunbai war-fan he just made, often carry custom enchantments by the weapon holder in exchange for their loss in practicality.”

Back in the ring, after a brief staredown, Alphonse adjusted his stance and lashed his whip at his opponent. In response, Ellis haphazardly struck a more firm stance and used his weapon’s new shape to deflect the oncoming strike. This exchange was repeated several other times while the aura Ellis typically enshrouded his weapon in steadily grew more intense with each deflected strike.

When Alphonse ceased his attacks to catch his breath, Ellis took another gulp and deep breath before extending his fan and waving it around in a series of elaborate poses. Then, he took his weapon in both hands, pointed it at his opponent, and let fly a shell-sized projectile of magic with a heavy recoiling motion. Alphonse’s scowling eyes widened and with a wave of his free hand erected a square wall of solid green light, however, the projectile shattered the wall, leaving Alphonse to brace his weapon with his free hand and awkwardly deflected the attack with his whip’s guard. With Alphonse left stumbling, Ellis half-closed his eyes, rushed screaming and hit Alphonse in the lower jaw with a wide upward-swinging strike with his weapon. The referee appeared between both competitors and made his call. “Knockdown! Ellis, six! Alphonse, five!”

The referee began his count. Alphonse started groaning and stirring at four and regained enough of his senses to rise at seven. Back in Alphonse’s corner, Pinkie Pie released the breath she held while Alphonse was on the ground (for no reason whatsoever) and started freaking out, waving her hooves around. “Wowie, wowie, wowie! What the hay was that?”

Boros sighed and cocked his head to the side. “Apparently, Ellis isn’t as ruled by instinct as we’d thought. He’s shifted tactics, adopted a much more simple defensive strategy rather than running and hiding like he’s been doing. It’s not uncommon for warriors gathered in the same fraternity to develop advanced abilities based on the basic abilities of their brethren. That gunbai has an enchantment based on Krank’s stockpiling spell on it, and it seems that Ellis can supplement the stockpiled energy with enough magic from his own reserves to apply meta magic to the regurgitated attacks, such as to pierce barriers normally strong enough to repel offensive spells of a weak enough magnitude.

“Like I keep saying, the more simple the way of fighting, the fewer weaknesses it has in itself. The only weaknesses left would be on part of the fighter, but that’s not always something you can easily take advantage of. This way, Ellis has fewer blind spots for Alphonse to exploit.”

Back in the ring, Alphonse and Ellis had commenced another standoff, circling around an unfixed point staring one another down, or at least they would be staring one another down if the very visibly nervous Ellis could maintain eye contact with his intimidatingly determined opponent for longer than a second. However, Alphonse’s consistently hostile expression abruptly softened, which drew Ellis’s attention despite his anxiousness. Then, Alphonse unexpectedly gave him a grin of admiration and flashed a peace sign, giving Ellis a totally perplexed expression.

Then, Alphonse dropped his stance as he straightened up completely, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. Then, with both hands, started a series of rapid yet intricate gestures and chanted so deeply it came off as completely incoherent mumbling. Suddenly, Alphonse's whole body was bathed in an intense green light that gave off bright flashing sparks. Opening his eyes wide, he suddenly crouched and took off recklessly rushing to his opponent. Ellis was so taken out of sorts by this stratagem that he could do nothing as his opponent scooped him up in a bear hug.

Sensing what was about to happen, the referee, who’s duties normally require him to stay close to the blast radius to observe and make appropriate calls, suddenly turned around and took off drifting wrapped in an aura as fast as he could. A moment later, both combatants were lost in a bright flash as almost a third of the ring was consumed by a series of firework-like concussive blasts of bright-green force.

The crowd was utterly silent as they were half-blinded and left out of sorts by the display. It took a few minutes for everyone to collect themselves and the dust to clear, revealing both fighters lying on the ground completely motionless. The referee then appeared before them and took extra care to examine both the small mirror elemental and the lanky fairy elemental. He then moved to the exact point between them and raised both arms. “Double knockdown! No points awarded! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! Double K.O.! Both competitors are out of the match!”

Boros and Pinkie rushed into the ring to collect Alphonse, while Otto and Krank rushed out and dotingly scooped up their small, incredibly courageous friend. Careful to balance the unconscious human on her back, Pinkie turned her confused expression to his trainer. “What was that all about? Besides the fact that I don’t often see a blast of magic like that, why would Alphonse do something like that just for something like this?”

At that, Boros could only shrug. “Most of what he does is a mystery to everyone he knows, and that’s exactly how he likes it. But from what I can tell, he grew to respect his opponent the more he fought him, and out of that respect, he resigned to take himself out to take his opponent with him so as to be able to express that respect without shaming the ones he’s loyal to.

“No matter how much magic one can store in their own reserves, typical humans can only release so much of it at one time. It takes years of experience for a human warrior to utilize the entirety of their power at one time, so he made up the difference with meta magic. He might present the visage of an antisocial downer, but its obvious to anyone watching him fight that when it comes down to do his duty, he’ll want to go out as flashy as possible.”

Pinkie turned her head to look the way she was going, but glanced at the peacefully resting human on her back and gave an awkward smirk. “I think I can understand that… Maybe…!”
> Rise Again: Part 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discord continued laughing long and hard, clapping a bit too enthusiastically to be respectful, but expressing his gratification from the performance he saw nonetheless. “Bravo! Bravo! Marvelous! Simply Marvelous! Tricks, traps, and treachery galore, all wrapped up nicely with a coup-de-grace even I didn’t see coming! A true work of art, if I do say so myself! Regardless that there are some among us that can make the fabric of the universe itself their plaything, it really is true what they say: ‘Creativity blossoms in constraints’!”

At this display, Maxine maintained her stoicism. “Well, at the risk of self-stereotyping, that tends to be how it is with ether tribesfolk. Considering the oddity that it’s the one element that naturally opposes itself, it’s hard to tell what you’re going to see when watching a bout between two of the same. Even accounting for the idiosyncrasies of some of the more specialized derivatives, when you think they might do something, you just might see something else that you didn’t expect, but in hindsight seems obvious.

“But beyond that, this double K.O. means that each team has the exact same offensive power as the other. It’s normally inadvisable to deploy a fighter that isn’t at their best and with the general idea behind their tricks known unless you’ve got greater manpower to spare in reserve. Since this isn’t the case, for now it will come down to both teams’ last guardsmen. Not a favorable position for either knowing that afterward, it could be down to their remaining pre-deployed specialist and their king.”

Suddenly, the commentators fell silent as for no reason, a tall pile of snacks suddenly entered their platform and made its way over to the empty seat on the other end. Tossing his pillar of assorted sources of saturated fats onto the desk, Spike eagerly hopped back into his seat, wiping crumbs off his suit. “Hey! What’d I miss? During the last lull in the fight, I went to get something, but the only vendor with anything left was outside the arena. Is it over? I heard some explosions. Who won?”

Meanwhile, the referee appeared back into the center of the ring and pressed their finger to their throat. “Once again, I have received both teams’ formation orders and will now introduce two new fighters!”

The referee gestured to one side. “In this corner, serving as Team Prancing Pony’s final Guardsman, Percivaaal Sonomaaa!” Instead of the expected human, the crowd merely murmured in confusion as what appeared to be an orange-coated pony trotting to the center of the ring. Had Percival assumed the form of anyone less naturally stoic, he may have almost felt somewhat embarrassed by this reaction.

Knowing the circumstances, the referee paid this development no mind and gestures in the other direction. “In this corner, serving as Team Rising Dragon’s final Guardsman, Ruuuss Tubifeeer!” Unbothered by less passionate than normal cheering as a result from the previous development, the shorter, stockier human made his way to the center of the ring with a steady, confident, but ultimately indifferent swagger. The referee moved further away to let both fighters have their moment.

Russ made a loud sniff and hoisted up his thick workman’s trousers. “Hey there, Perce’. Lookin’ a little… quadrupedal today. Little rough bein’ up here with all the new and weird shapes to take?”

Percival in the form of Applejack made a loud snort and spat something off to the side. “Eh, ya get used to it. Mighty interestin’ bein’ able to walk a bunch a’ miles in so many different kinds a’ hooves… shoes… horseshoes?” At that little bit of awkward language, both of them couldn’t help but share a passing laugh.

The referee raised a hand. “Ready?” Percival crouched low, while Russ merely took a stance, putting one bent knee and raised arm forward. The referee swung down their arm. “Fight!”

Perhaps out of respect, Russ did nothing as Percival squinted their eyes shut and began his affirmative chant. “My element is mine, I am not my element… My element is mine, I am not my element. My element is mine, I am not my element!” Percival’s form turned inky black and amorphous before standing itself straight up as the nearly featureless mask-like visage appeared where his face should be. Once he was settled in place, he returned Russ’s stance and with six flashes of yellow light, his sharp free-floating focuses appeared on either side of him.

Russ grinned at this development and altered his own stance, more centered with both knees bent, as in his pulled back hands appeared his own weapon. In a rich yellowish flash of light, a golden brown club a head shorter than he was tall appeared in Russ’s gip, with the head extending past the two-hands handle being slightly thicker and with each of its six flat sides studded with a line of short, broad, sharply-tapering spikes.

Percival, the hole-like eyes on his makeshift face narrowing, pulled back both arms with clenched fists and, with a series of fluid flicking motions, sent each of his focuses darting towards his opponent. Russ responded by batting each one aside with an efficient series of movements, changing the angle he held his weapon while deflecting each oncoming attack in the same motions.

Percival responded by spreading his arms apart, willing each of his many weapons that were one to form a ring around his opponent. Smoothly crossing his arms, Percival sent them all darting at him all at once. Russ responded to this offensive with a deliberate spinning motion, sending each focus back to fall onto the ground with Percival making motions to recall them to his side.

Back in Percival’s corner, Applejack expressed herself with a sharp whooping. “You said that y’all don’t like to use ‘overly magical’ weapons, but what in sam hill do you call those?”

Boros crossed his arms and made a big self-satisfied expression. “Those were my idea when I first started training him. Percival had the talent and the commitment needed to draw it out. But there was a big problem, combat and self-betterment require a harmony of body and mind.

“He could get all the basics down as a matter of fact, but because he couldn’t help what form he’d take for a long time, he’d fumble with any weapon or fighting style it’d seem like he’d just gotten the hang of. When he’d lamented that he’d have to learn how to use a weapon ‘I didn’t have to touch’ it hit me and I went to Eziekiel with a somewhat irregular request.

“I’d brought him the first one and almost immediately after I’d taught him to exert his will onto the focus’s enchantment, he took to it like he’d been using it his whole life. Perhaps because he had a mind that had to adapt to having so many different types of bodies, guiding an extension of himself commanded by it purely by instinct came easy. But even then I was surprised as anyone else when he’d attuned to it.”

Applejack took a moment to look inquisitive. “Hm… Well, don’t ask me much about it, but I once had the opportunity to swing around a lasso I could use with my mind all psychic-like. Wasn’t a pleasant experience overall, but it was mighty fun and pretty useful, almost makes me wish I had that thing back with me on the farm.”

That anecdote got Boros to widen his eyes, but he maintained his full composure. “Hm… A lot of ether tribesfolk do have a lot of abilities that can only be described as ‘psychic’, even an element embodying that very principle, but that isn’t exactly how it works with Percival. The nature of the enchantment means that there’s going to be nuances to it’s ‘interface’, and that means until he learns an ability called active alteration, he’s only able to give it specific, predetermined commands referred to as formations.”

Back in the arena, both competitors stared one another down, holding their weapons at ready. Then Russ took one of his hands to dig something out of a pocket on his leather apron. He pulled out a long, brilliantly red feather and flung it into the air in front of him. Extending his weapon, a tendril of gunk, brown mixed with white in a marbled pattern, flew out from its bare tip. This emanation stuck to the quill of the feather and drew it in to stick it onto the weapon’s head.

Russ drew back his club and made a horizontal swing. Somehow, with this new addition to his weapon, it flung out a crescent of blade-like fire that soared towards Percival, who could barely duck under it as it flew by. Russ continued this offensive, swinging at several different angles and sending out different crescents of flame at corresponding angles themselves. Eventually, Alphonse was tripped up by Russ sending out one last crescent at a slightly different timing than what he was doing before and got hit on his forearm as he attempted to avoid. The referee made his call. “Clean hit! Russ, one! Alphonse, zero!”

At this development. Applejack angrily threw down her own hat. “Lands sakes! I don’t watch much pro pony wrasslin’, but even I know a foreign object violation when I see one! What’s goin’ on here?”

Boros gestured into the arena. “It’s the same principle as the boiler on Krank’s back. The Support Item rule, as long as you declare them to the commission beforehand and get their approval, you can bring up to five different objects with you into your fights in as great a quantity you can carry on your person for each specific one.

“But what’s more concerning is how he used something that should have been useless. You can’t just stick a phoenix feather onto your weapon and make it shoot fire. I’m guessing that this means he’s a recombination elemental. An earth derivative specializing in handling physical materials, at their most basic being able to create bonds between objects that ordinarily only they can undo. But more complex usages could involve creating rudimentary artifacts and enchantments as long as they have an object connected to any variety of magic.”

Back in the arena, the fighting had resumed in much the same way as previously. Percival could only avoid each of Russ’s fiery attacks. After dodging one with a more elaborate trajectory and timing as before, Percival got the chance to send out another one after the other salvo of his focuses, and as before, Russ deflected each one as it came.

What Russ didn’t see as he attempted to counter between each deflection was Percival twitching a finger at the last one, which seemed to make it spin a lot more than it should have as it was batted aside. After three more attacks from Russ, Percival finally swung an arm, which made the focus that Russ didn’t see was still flying right behind him move in and send him staggering with a strike to the back. The referee moved between them and made his call. “Critical hit! Russ, one! Percival, two!”

Regaining his stance while Percival summoned back his focuses, Russ rushed to the other end of the arena after the referee motioned for them to continue with a speed surprising for his build. At this development, Percival only stayed in a posture ready to receive anything his opponent threw at him.

When Russ thought he was out of harm’s way, he dug into his apron again and withdrew a handful of golf ball-sized solid brown orbs. He cast them all in front of himself and in several puffs of brown smoke appeared an assortment of odd materials such as long, curled up sheets of metal, reinforced steel plates, steel cables, pulley wheels and a leather harness.

He got to work, aiming his free hand at these things, he extended several rich amber colored energy tethers that made each individual object float. Then with a series of elaborate gestures, assembled everything in practically no time at all into an odd construct he slipped onto his back: a peacock-like arrangement of steel sheets with the cables and pulleys on the inside holding them in place and each plate lined up along the backside in a row on each one. Each separate piece was held in place by the same brown marble-patterned gunk as before.

Back in Percival’s corner, Applejack was making some quick calculations with a few motions with her front hoof and her eyes nearly rolled up into the back of her head in concentration. Then, this odd expression quickly turned to one of anger as she slammed her hoof back to the ground. “Now hold on just a second! That’s way more than five different kinds of objects! Why in Equestria would any commission approve that? Where do I lodge a complaint?”

Even Boros furrowed his brow and stroked his fuzzy chin at this development. “I guess Russ was able to drive a really hard bargain over what could be defined as a ‘type of object’ as long as he could carry them on his person after being changed by a compression spell. But I guess he’d have to be able to bargain well considering. Back in Core Metro, recombination elementals were the most desired elementals for construction work, engineering, and architecture considering that they could make them all as simple as a child playing with blocks. After the guilds were abolished, they tried to set up a system of labor unions, but thanks to the Central Administration, they always wound up as impotent as me when-”

Applejack abruptly silenced him with some hollering and quick motions with her front leg. “Now wait just a minute right there! I ‘preciate honesty as much as the next hard-working mare, but too much information is too much information!”

At this, Boros made an awkward grin and just shrugged. “What? I was just going to share a little anecdote about a rival gang boss in the Lost District that hit me with a stamina-draining hex, but Durza leaped out of my shadow and got him with his scythe when his guard was down. Saved my neck that day, and the other boss was lucky we let him keep his!”

Back in the ring, Russ quickly rushed back towards his opponent, sending out a few advancing flame slashes. Percival managed to evade each one of these and, finding purchase after Russ recovered from an extra-hard swing, sent out all his focuses at once with a hard pushing motion. With a smirk, Russ made a gesture with a free hand and the construct attached to him curled around him, each reinforced plate denying the focus’ onslaught.

When the barrier unfolded, Russ made a quick low sweeping swing. This hit the unprepared Percival’s feet and nearly sent him tumbling backward. However, he avoided hitting ground by extending and enlarging his arms to stand himself on. As he hopped back onto his feet, the referee appeared near him and made his call. “Clean hit! Russ, two! Percival, two!”

Given the signal to resume, Percival finally made a direct charge to his opponent himself. He extended an arm, the forearm forming into a single-edged blade. When he got halfway to striking distance, Russ abruptly closed his jury-rigged barrier as Percival made a few swipes with his arm-like blade which telescoped in length to make direct contact, but each hit proved ineffective.

Percival drew back his first makeshift weapon and extended his other arm to form a large animal-like head. He thrust this forward as it greatly expanded in size as it opened its sharp-toothed maw wide. It managed to clamp down on this barrier, but Percival appeared unable to either crush it or even move Russ’s position through it. Russ sent Percival back by rapidly unfurling his barrier, and followed up with another wave of flame. Percival could only bare the brunt of it by shielding his torso with his arm. As he backed off, the referee appeared and made his call. “Clean hit! Russ, three! Percival, Two!”

When the referee made the call to continue, Percival widened the distance by dashing backwards. Russ unfurled his barrier and sent out another horizontal wave of flame. This time however, Percival quickly extended one of his arms and clutched a fist, enveloping half his focuses in a watery membrane before bringing them to form a wall in front of him with an inward swing of that arm. The oncoming attack hit this barrier and fizzled to nothing. Percival then raised his other arm and clenched his fist, bringing up the other three focuses above him while making them spark with electricity. He swung the arm forward to send these focuses as a salvo towards his opponent, who curled up his barrier yet again. However, when the attack hit, the whole structure started sparking with a low, intense humming of electricity, getting a bellowing scream out of the one under it.

Percival recalled all his focuses to his sides. The smoking barrier slowly unfurled to reveal a crispy, dumbstruck Russ before the whole thing fell to pieces, even the phoenix feather dropped off and crumbled to ash. Then, Russ wobbled unsteadily for a moment before he plopped right on the ground. The referee appeared next to him and made his call. “Knockdown! Russ, three! Percival, five!”

The referee then began their count. At six, Russ abruptly stuck the head of his kanabo into the ground and managed to push himself up with it. The referee Approached him. “Are you able to continue?” Russ merely sent the referee back by shaking off all the soot covering him.

The referee gave the signal to continue and Russ took his club back in both hands, holding it above. Percival raised both arms, making his focuses float in an arc above him. After a brief standoff, the gong sounded out and both competitors dropped their stance to walk back to their corners.
> Rise Again: Part 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Applejack applied some ointment to the burned parts of Percival’s battle form and wrapped them up in bandages enchanted to accommodate whatever shape he took, Boros, like he had several times before, leaned closely into his protege and gave his consultation. “The nature of Russ’s magic might be simple, but that allows him to use it in an infinite number of ways. Whatever he puts together might look stupid or silly, but unless you can get to him directly they may as well be made of solid diamond.

“But your advantage is that your body is as pliable and adaptive as the magic any other elemental warrior can wield. He’s not the first warrior who relies on bizarre gimmicks to confuse and keep his opponents guessing, but like you did before, the best way to counteract such things is to turn them against their users.

“Remember though, he’s not a predictable fighting machine, he’s as human as you are. Don’t act like he can’t take what you try to do to him and turn it against you. And above all else, remember that it’s when you go in for the final blow that you’re at your most vulnerable.”

At that final notion, Percival could only bob his unusual head before getting up and marching back to the arena. Both fighters took their positions. The referee raised an arm “Ready?” Percival extended his arms to summon his focuses to his sides while Russ raised his arms for his kanabo to appear in his grip. The referee swung down his arm. “Fight!”

Once again, Russ scrambled away towards the edge of the ring with a surprising quickness. Yet again, Percival stood at ready, but made no attempt to pursue. At that, Applejack turned towards Boros with a curious, if not judgemental, expression. “Now, can you tell me why Percival ain’t chasin’ Russ for free points?”

At this, Boros merely scoffed and made a lackadaisical gesture to the ring. “I told him he had the right idea with turning what his opponent puts together against them, didn’t I? How can he do that if he doesn’t let his opponent do so? The art of warfare is the art of deception, like it or not. Make your opponent think you’re unable, make them come to you on your terms, and bam!”

He wasn’t expecting such a sour expression from the rugged mare, so he opted for another perspective on the matter. “If it makes you feel better about it, then try to look at the whole idea in terms of risk against reward. If you’ve been watching this whole competition, you should know that there’s risk in every play. Where one can see the ending blow, the opponent can see something to exploit.

“But this is still just a competition, and only that. In a real battle, to lose can be to die, you no longer have any say in your own fate. After that, there are SO many ways that death would be a blessing. The fact of the matter is that you can’t be a warrior if you can’t take that chance, to gamble with your life. Warriors die, and warriors suffer, but that’s how it always is to live a life that truly matters: A life that can make a difference.” At that, even stoic Applejack could only gape in awe.

Back in the ring, Russ confidently revealed the next thing he jury-rigged: A long, cylindrical cloth bellows with an oversized pair of pointy-tipped scissors at the end with a simple overlapping hinge joint mechanism to operate it. Unlike before, this construct was attached to the end of his club like the phoenix feather.

Russ dashed back towards his opponent, and when he was at a less considerable distance away, he sent out his weapon’s augmentation extending ahead of him with an overhead swing like he was casting a fishing rod. Percival was able to sidestep this thrust-like attack, wary of the snapping pair of blades. After his construct retracted, Russ followed up this attack with several more strikes, Percival sidestepping each one and ducking then jumping after Russ changed up his attacks with a few horizontal swipes

After a few more dodges, Percival stood fast and reached out to the mechanism and caught its oncoming attack in an enlarged hand. A yellow light rapidly traveled down the object, turning the whole thing to a solid pale pink color as it seemed to stretch much more elastically as Percival pulled on it. After a brief look of surprise, Russ grit his teeth as he pulled against Percival by his club’s handle.

This went on for a moment, Percival wrenching back his prize with Russ matching his strength in a tug-of-war. When Russ’s thick arms were bulging and his face turning a shade of pink similar to the construct, Percival suddenly released it, the snapback combined with the release of resistance to his pull sending him flying back in a spin before hitting the ground on his gut, the construct popping off and falling to pieces after turning back to normal.

The referee appeared and made his call. “Knockdown! Russ, three! Percival, eight!” The referee started his count, but he made it to four when Russ quickly hopped to his feet, brushing the dust from his leather apron.

When the referee gave the signal to resume the fight, Russ furrowed his brow and extended his club. Then, extending his free hand, materialized a number of different objects appearing with the same brown marbled pattern his previous emanations were made of, which quickly assembled into two constructs: What looked like a smaller, streamlined derby cart which he quickly hopped into and a long chain with one end he quickly attached to the end of his kanabo and the other hooked up to what looked like a sphere who’s two halves were locked together in two rows of what looked like gear teeth.

With a maniacal laughter, he took off in the cart at an incredible speed swinging around his new weapon extension. Percival was forced to brace himself, as Russ raced around the ring making several passes at him. With one last dash, he finally swung his weapon at Percival with his next pass. Percival turned one of his hands into a large, fully-covering shield, but was sent flying onto his back as the sphere exploded on contact. Russ came around in a drift and stopped as the referee appeared between them and made his call. “Knockdown! Russ, six! Percival, eight!”

At that sudden turn of events, Applejack was left pulling at her face with her hooves. “What in Celestia’s name…! I… I dadgum can’t even think of any words! What was that about?”

Even Boros was impressed by the display he’d just seen. “I guess he has a spell to register things to create duplicates with as constructs. And looks like he’s not limited to ordinary objects if that reusable bomb is any indication. Of course, he wouldn’t have saved it until now if there wasn’t something about ability compared to the stuff he used earlier that he didn’t want exploited…”

The referee gave both fighters the signal to continue, coincidentally allowing the reusable bomb duplicate construct enough time to reset, the hole-covered tube serving as the core being covered by the interlocking halves of the sphere sliding back into place. After Russ raced off towards the edge of the ring, employing what appeared to be a hit and run strategy, swinging around his jury-rigged flail as he made several passes at Percival, forcing him to awkwardly dodge hither and about. Russ then made a direct charge at Percival, swinging his flail. Percival stood at ready, but Russ revealed his feint as he drew back his flail, catching Percival off-guard as he sent him flying by ramming him with his cart.

Percival managed to catch himself yet again by expanding his hands and setting himself down on his feet, but the damage was done as the referee appeared next to him and made his call. “Critical hit! Russ, eight! Percival, eight!”

As Russ raced away with the declaration to continue the fight, Percival closed his eye holes and took a relaxed position for a moment. He then deliberately extended an arm forward, and with an extension of his fingers summoned one of his focuses to the back of his hand, point forward. With the clutching of his fist, the focus was suddenly enveloped in a very familiar orange light which quickly extended forward about the same length as Percival’s forearm.

Back in Percival’s corner, Applejack gasped and held her hoof up to her mouth. “My stars! Is that…”

Boros made a big grin and nodded. “Kris’s sword magic. It was something Percival discovered not long after attuning to his weapon: Using the connection he had to his focuses as an intermediary, he can transform the empty, null element magic enchanting it into a basic form of true elemental magic, any he has a profound understanding of.

“Natural elements aren’t so hard to understand, more often than not, what you see is what you get. But a highly specialized element like Kris’s would take observing it used many different ways on a regular basis for a very long time, to which he owes his apprenticeship to the old guild.”

Russ narrowed his eyes at this development, but revved his engine regardless and took off, swinging his flail. At that, Percival charged forward to meet this assault. He slinked to avoid a direct impact with the bomb, and after getting in striking distance with Russ, made his arm perform some whiplike motions to make an elaborate chain of slashes, dispelling all of Russ’s constructs into several puffs of brown vapor.

Russ was sent flying, carried by his own momentum. However, his focus wasn’t diminished. He found enough purchase to dispel his kanabo and make an elaborate series of motions with his arms. With a flip, he managed to plant himself firmly on his feet, then with a swing of his arm sent out several marbled brown constructs resembling oversized staples. Still recovering from his mighty attack, Percival was carried towards the wall and found himself pinned down in an awkward, visibly uncomfortable position.

The referee appeared next to Percival and made his call. “That’s a pin! One… Two… Three! It’s over! Pin K.O.!”

Back in Percival’s corner, Applejack made a sad expression at Boros. “I don’t get it! Why didn’t he take his chance to slip out of that trap?”

Boros shook his head. “Meta magic, I bet. Not so hard to take even a duplication construct spell and imbue it with the properties of a basic magic binding abjuration restraining spell.”

After making some glad motions towards the crowd as the referee raised his arm, Russ hurried over to his defeated opponent and with a simple gesture released him by making the constructs disappear in puffs of vapor. As Percival steadied himself and turned around. Russ just stared at him for a moment and gently extended his open hand. Percival went rigid for a brief moment, then the expression in his eye holes softened before he took his opponent’s hand and shook.

At this display, Applejack smiled and took off her own hat in respect, holding it close to her heart. She gave a look to Boros, who made a big grin and held out a thumbs-up to the equine corner-girl.
> Rise Again: Part 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The referee appeared back in the center of the ring, instantly quieting the rabble from the stands. He raised his glowing finger to his throat. “After deliberation, Team Rising Dragon has opted to keep their Final Guardsman deployed! Re-introducing: Russ Tubifer!” Amidst the roar of the crowd, Russ strode back to the center of the ring with a confident swagger, stopping a distance aways from the referee.

The referee gestured to the other side of the ring. “In a stunning turn of events, if I may be permitted to say so myself, I must introduce one last fighter from Team Prancing Pony! Having shifted their remaining specialist to accommodate an unexpected stratagem, we have their very own King… Kriiisss Dueliiisss!” After going into a stunned silence after the announcement, the crowd roared when the competitor started down into the ring with an expression of not entirely unpleasant familiarity.

Sensing that the unexpected nature of the present circumstances would mean that neither competitor would have much to say, the referee backed off and raised his hand. “Ready?” Russ hefted his kanabo in both hands while Kris brought his empty hands together before they both covered in an aura of orange-ish magic that a sword of solid amber energy extended from. The referee swung down their arm. “Fight!”

Kris was the first to begin his assault, dashing to his opponent and sending him back after catching the heavy blow against his raised weapon. It continued like this for some time, Kris mounting an aggressive offensive with a chain of hard, deliberate sword strikes he packed all the force his entire body could make into, forcing his opponent backwards in several directions under the weight of his strikes. As their weapons locked in a struggle, Russ looked past the face of his aggressor who happened to have his back to the stands where his team was sitting. At the very end of the row of seats, Slash, his hands still in his pockets even as he sat, suddenly tilted his head to the side after noticing his teammate’s gaze upon him.

After both competitors broke off their struggle, Russ suddenly clutched at his chest with his free hand and made a very drawn-out hollering, stumbling backwards a little too far before falling with his back to the ground in a visibly deliberate manner. Even the referee took a bit too long to make a declaration at this, looking at the other fighter whose eyes were wide at this development. Eventually though, he had to raise his hand. “Eh… Knockdown…! Kris, three! Russ… Zero…!” The referee started the countdown, but the only movement on the downed competitor’s part was him suddenly sticking his tongue out the side of his mouth for good measure. “...Seven, …Eight, …Nine, …Ten! K.O.! Russ Tubifer is out of the match! The winner of the fight is Kris Duelis!”

As the referee went to hold up the champion’s arm, who’s expression displayed another sense of familiarity at this action, his purple-palleted corner girl gave his trainer a confused expression. “I don’t understand? I didn’t find this in any of the books Kris recommended. Even if he could do that, why did the referee accept that?”

Boros made a passive gesture towards the ring. “Eh, you probably wouldn’t find it outside a few specific books. The Play Possum Drop maneuver may be a little controversial, but it is recognized as a legitimate way to end a fight for multiple reasons based on the judgment of the fighter. It may raise a few issues with the gambling scene if it were a one-on-one match, but since this is a team bout, the team itself is more than likely to receive the benefit of the doubt from the commission.”


***


Discord rolled his eyes at the current development, absentmindedly tossing enough popcorn towards himself that some actually got into his mouth. “Well THAT was a pathetic display, and after my expectations were sent soaring after that fighter’s established mad scientist/garage inventor schtick too. Oh well, I suppose if life were all highs and no lows, there’d be no point to chaos after all.”

At that, Spike made a sassy expression, resting his head on his claw with a smirk. “Oh so now you’re complaining about an unexpected ending? As for me, I suppose I can forgive this development because I can’t really imagine a fight with a more perfect match of an opponent for Russ than Percival! I know I’m not an ‘expert’ like some of the present company, but I find that adaptive abilities vs retooling-based abilities make for a contest that would keep anyone at the edge of their seat!”

Gazing upon Maxine to round-out their bit, he was just a little unnerved at the new, very serious expression on the face of the normally enduringly casual and collected time elemental. “I may have not hesitated to call aspects of this match overly-predictable, but if we’re being honest, the eventuality of these events that led up to this moment is disturbingly uncanny.

“The circumstances of what Kris Duelis and Slash Render were born with combined with the paths they’ve chosen in life mean that whether they like it or not, they’re both the inheritors of a pair of tremendous legacies. These legacies have endured so strongly throughout history that across the ages they have interchangeably represented forces both heroic and dark. But of course, those legacies have made their biggest marks on humanity’s colorful history as warriors when they clashed.

“The reasons for Team Rising Dragon’s previous maneuver were obvious, as well as what their next maneuver will be. All I can say is that while some may resent the legacy they’re unwillingly shouldered with, others may be fascinated by it. Even children tend to wonder ‘What it it like, to actually be the one who all those stories were written about?’” Both Discord and Spike gave Maxine utterly transfixed looks, which were quickly turned back to the ring as the referee made his way back to its center.

“Having received both teams’ formation orders, I am here to announce that Prancing Pony has elected to maintain their current formation. Re-introducing, Kris Duelis!” Perhaps as a sign that the sense of novelty had worn off combined with the less than glamorous previous fight, the crowd, while loud, couldn’t be called as enthused as before when Kris made his way towards the center of the ring, despite holding his head high as he took his spot.

“As for Team Rising Dragon, I can say that they’ve opted for a similar formation in shuffling their remaining Specialist to a somewhat… all-or-nothing formation! Introducing one last fighter, Team Rising Dragon’s very own King, Slaaash Rendeeer!” Perhaps upon realizing the upcoming climax of the whole event, the crowds in the stands roared like they’d never roared before as the final fighter, while still holding his hands in his pants’s pockets, strode to his position with a dignified, square-shouldered posture.

The referee stood aside to let the competitors have their words. Kris raised an eyebrow and gestured low. “I’ve been meaning to ask, and I guess this is the first opportunity I’ve had, but when did you start putting your hands in your pockets? You never had that habit when we were apprentices, Slash.”

Slash flared one of his nostrils as he sniffed. “What? It’s not bothering you any, is it? I never complained whenever you woke me up even earlier than when we were supposed to when we did grunt work on those cave-delving expeditions doing all those weird dancy poses and all those mumbling chants, did I? So don’t complain when I start doing my own exercises!”

Despite Kris’s curious expression, the referee moved back into position and raised his hand. “Ready?” Kris took a stance and tensed up his hands. Slash still had his hands in his pockets, but took a coiled, ready-to-spring posture. The referee swung down his arm. “Fight!”

The two humans suddenly became imperceptible blurs. Then, all of a sudden the ring was bathed in a bright, intense, but brief flash of orange and green as the fighters suddenly reappeared in the exact center of the ring. Kris already had made his straight, double-edged, strikingly amber blade manifest as it was locked against the crossed blades of gentle, seafoam green solid energy emerging from the aura-wrapped forearms of his opponent: Long and cleaver-like, emerging from a perpendicular point and expanding their single, curving edge outward parallel to their user's forearm. The upper half extending their tip twice the length beyond the hands and the lower half extending towards the elbow having a circular, inwardly hooked notch.

Briefly struggling against each other but quickly finding that neither of them will gain any purchase, they both leaped back, taking an aggressive, frontward focused stance. At that display, Twilight gave Boros a confused look. “Um… Why didn’t Kris’s magic negate that?”

At this, Boros made an awkward expression and made a shaky gesture toward the ring. “Well, as with anything, there’s going to be a bit of nuance to Kris’s magic and how it interacts with other, particular magics. The only magic he’s yet to be able to cut though were my Darkness emanations, and the blades that Slash makes with his Severing Element to use as a locus, kind of like how Kris uses his sword.”

Back in the ring, after a brief pause in the fight, Kris took the initiative and adjusted his stance, bent low with his sword held back. Then, an aura flared around his sword before he dashed. Slash was undeterred even as Kris unexpectedly stopped short of striking distance, and leapt high after anticipating Kris’s horizontal energy slash. Bringing down his raised arms in a pair of slashes, he sent out an expanding cross-shaped flying slash of bright green energy at Kris, who dispelled it with a second slash spinning his whole body with the same motion as his previous attack. As Slash landed, he crouched and sprang forward, delivering a dashing thrust attack towards Kris, who sidestepped and attempted to counter with a leaping downward slash, which Slash blocked crossing his blades once again.

Breaking off after pushing against one another for a moment, Kris took a high outward-pointing ox guard and Slash bent low, elbows back and blade points down. Kris dashed, spinning his sword in an upward slash by the wrist which Slash deflected by raising his blades and spreading them horizontally. Kris then lept back with a single spin, sending out an extra-large horizontal flying slash towards Slash, who dispelled this attack with a clawlike downward slash of several energy blades unleashed with a backhand upward slash.

Discarding the overly-elaborate novelties, both fighters finally rushed each other, clashing their weapons in a series of successive, deliberate strikes and deflections. Kris managed to drive Slash back with several downward slashes in a chain of different angles, but Slash managed to find purchase and force Kris back with the force of multiple alternating horizontal backhand swings. Slash managed to anticipate a heavy overhead strike, catching Kris’s sword in his blades’ notches. With a hard, forward push and a swift outward spreading of his arms, Slash sent Kris teetering and drove him back with a springing forward kick to his stomach. The referee appeared between them and made his call. “Critical hit! Slash, two! Kris, zero!”

Back in Kris’s corner, Twilight scratched the underside of her jaw with an inquisitive look. “Hm… So in a direct clash, they can’t break each other’s locuses, but Kris can dispel Slash’s emanated spells with a direct hit, and Slash can dispel Kris’s emanations with his own provided they don’t strike head-on?”

Boros nodded, but then made a rather so-so gesture. “Well, there’s a lot of dynamics to consider regarding Slash’s magic specifically. His is an air derivative, but Kris’s natural advantage can’t help him here.

“Slash’s severing element is essentially the yin to Kris’s sword element’s yang. Whereas sword magic puts down all by the force of its absolute magic negation, severing magic can rise to meet any challenge as they adjust the properties of their blades to cut through anything they clash against. But that’s just the thaumaturgy of it all, there’s a lot that goes into it beyond mere controlled scenarios. They’re both top-class warriors whether or not they wield physical weapons, so it’s all on them as a whole, not just their magic.”

Both fighters got the signal to continue. After a brief standoff as they held their stances, both fighters charged and began another clash. Trading blows back and forth for several exchanges, they both got in close and locked weapons. However, before either of them could see if the eventual onset of fatigue on part of their opponent would grant them purchase, the gong sounded out and they broke off their lock. Taking a moment to give one another a look before dispelling their energy weapons and beginning the march back to their corners.
> Rise Again: Final Part
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back in Kris’s corner, Twilight paused for a moment as she checked a few human biology and medical books she kept to the side for reference, then floated the supplies over to Kris’s body and got to work as Boros bent down next to his charge with an uncertain expression. “If we’re being honest here, kid, there’s probably nothing helpful I could tell you about this situation that you don’t already know. You’ve had your share of experiences in the ring fighting a wide variety of opponents, you can rely on that by applying that to gut instinct.

“Intuition is what you get when you put together instinct and knowledge, the right answers just come to you when you’ve got the right state of mind. The hard part is achieving that state of mind. All you’ve got to do is let go of your pressure and tension and have faith in the intuition you’ve cultivated thus far. That’s not something just anyone can do, fear is something that keeps you alive, it's hard and extremely dangerous to cast it aside in order to give into faith.

“But I believe that you can recognize overconfidence when you feel it, and how it can lead you on the deadly path to negligence. You’ve been on your share of journeys, made your share of sacrifices, and obtained a worthwhile measure of priceless wisdom. Believe in yourself, believe in what fate has laid before you, and go out there and show the surface world what elemental warriors are truly made of!”

With an expression of intense determination followed by an equally intense “Hm!” Kris leaped out of his seat, causing Twilight to slightly recoil, and marched back out to the ring.

Taking his spot in the center of the ring across from his opponent, the referee raised his arm. “Ready?” Slash materialized his twin locus, but Kris merely adjusted his stance to a back-leaning one. The referee swung down his arm. “Fight”

Slash suddenly found himself hesitating, as upon reinitiation of the combat, Kris abruptly sat in a relaxed but poised position upon his shins, hands upon his knees, and eyes closed with a serene expression. The crowd went totally silent as a new tension filled the air.

Slash suddenly steeled his expression and bent low to leap, blades poised for a hammering downward strike. However, Kris chose this opportunity to spring, dashing past the airborne Slash from below with his aura-wrapped hands brought together. As Slash landed, Kris came with a spin as he seemed to pull his sword with one aura-wrapped hand out the other and sent the ungrounded Slash plopping onto his belly with a swift but powerful strike.

The referee stepped between the fighters and raised his hand. “Knockdown! Slash, two! Kris, three!” At this, the crowd erupted into a thunderous roar, but the official could barely get started with his count as Slash sprung back to his feet and whirled around to face his opponent.

At that display, Twilight gained a look of deep contemplation, eventually materializing a pencil and paper to take notes. “Interesting! I learned the hard way that the core of spellwork is more how you use magic than what magic you use. But I’d say that less than a quarter of that was magic, about half of that was skill, and it was all rounded out and driven home by just a hint of strength! Fascinating!”

Boros gave the young alicorn princess a grin and made a cocky display of flicking the tip of his nose with his thumb. “Great insight! Pretty much all ten thousand years of humanity’s history as warriors is developing countless fighting styles and combat arts to find a proper harmony of power, technique, and sorcery to meet whatever situation the world’s chaos throws our way!” Meanwhile, up in the commentator’s box, Discord sneezed (out of his eyelids).

Back in the ring, Kris had already dispelled his sword before the referee gave his signal to continue the fight. Slash pulled back his blades and took a tense stance. However, Kris responded simply by holding his aura-enshrouded hands before himself. Right as Slash made his dashing backhand strike, he abruptly halted as Kris had seemed to instantly draw his sword and stopped him short with a swift yet gentle strike to Slash’s bicep. The referee broke them up, stood between the backpedaling warriors, and made his call. “Clean hit! Slash, two! Kris, four!”

Upon being instructed to resume the fight, Kris went on the offensive first, driving Slash back with a series of powerful horizontal slashes which he either barely dodged or guarded against. However Slash hefted his blades to strike back after Kris took his time to recover from this chain of attacks after an extra-hard downward diagonal slash. But as Slash got in close, Kris suddenly took his hand off his sword and sent the closing-in Slash stumbling back with a backhand of his own to his throat.

The referee appeared between the fighters to make his call yet again. “Critical hit! Slash, two! Kris, six!”

Twilight marveled at the sight of Kris scoring so many points in such a short duration. After checking another one of the books she brought along for reference, she turned to Boros. “I’ve never seen him fight like that! It’s like he’s using a completely different fighting style!”

Boros just smirked, nodded, and gestured towards the ring. “Slash is an extremely vigilant opponent, but once you fall into a rhythm when things appear to be going so well, it’s easy for something unexpected to go along and disrupt that rhythm, leading to disaster.

“When Kris shifts from a two-handed style to a one-handed style, he gains in speed and agility what he loses in might and stance. He recognized that a sporting match is mostly a numbers game, and he can really rack up the points if his blade finds its mark before his opponent can complete their attack. All the more when he adds the quickdraw techniques of that far-East sword style I taught him!”

Twilight arched an eyebrow at that last part. “‘far-East style’? But weren’t all of you underground for over a thousand years?”

Boros grimaced and made a so-so gesture. “The cultures, customs, and arts our ancestors developed to accommodate the lands they lived in managed to survive in various enclaves across Old Core Metro. The Directors did try to stamp them out with the coming of the Districts out of a misguided sense of cultural unity, but thankfully us humans can be very stubborn about that kind of thing.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up. “Fascinating! And I suppose that fakeout throat strike was part of the far-East fighting style too! It looks so crude, but it must have such an elegant history!”

Boros made an awkward laugh and glanced away. “Actually, that’s something I came up with myself from my days as a ruffian in the slums. When you swing around a sharp hunk of metal on a pole, the last thing the traditionally-trained authorities expect is for you to let go to get them in the neck.”

Back in the ring, Kris had taken a new stance, holding his sword high pointed at Slash still with one hand. Slash seemed to maintain his wariness and kept back, his blades raised. However, he suddenly took a relaxed posture, arms and blades down. Then he bent down for a moment. Suddenly, the dust on the ground surrounding him suddenly got disturbed and started swirling around him and his hair seemed to lift in an invisible wind as well.

Suddenly, Slash sprung up and flew several lengths above Kris into the air and hung there for a moment, his clothes fluttering in the wind as he just floated serenely. Then he tucked in his limbs, blades facing outward and rocketed spinning towards Kris. Kris hurriedly grabbed back onto his sword with his other hand, and held it aloft to block Slash’s blades as they came slicing towards him. As the locuses flashed as they clashed, Slash darted away, still spinning, towards the wall. Slash came to a stop against the wall on his feet, curled up and sprang back towards Kris in the same maneuver. This repeated several times, Kris warding off the real harm but giving more ground with each collision. After a few more charges at a new, curved trajectory, Slash landed back to the ground bending low just short of Kris and swept out his feet from under him in a double outward spreading backhand slash, sending him to the ground. The referee appeared between them and made his call. “Knockdown! Slash, five! Kris, six!” Kris took an extended moment to rise, getting back up to his feet at the count of four.

Twilight tore through three books, setting them down one after another, before she smugly closed her eyes and nodded. “I’d say Slash realized that the best way to overcome Kris’s usage of advanced techniques was to employ an inventive strategy to wear him down before catching him off-guard with a feint and changeup.”

Boros made a cocky grimace and loudly sniffed. “Look at you! Wouldn’t be the first to consider themselves an expert after reading a book or two, but I can’t deny that you’re on the money. Slash is still an air tribesman and managed to hone the levitation ability into something useful in a relatively short amount of time. I suppose it makes sense if he focused his efforts on flying well over flying high. And boy, does he fly well!”

Back in the ring, a lull had broken out between the fighters once again, spending a couple minutes circling around, holding a stance. Then, Slash abruptly dropped his stance and pointed at Kris, which prompted him to drop his stance as well. “Enough with these pleasantries! Why don’t you whip out your real weapon!”

At this, Kris adopted a mildly confused expression. “What do you mean, Slash? I’m a locus user, just like you!”

At that, Slash hacked in his throat and spit to the side. “Don’t play dumb! The whole of Core Metro saw you whip out the Omega Weapon, straight from then legends! And I feel insulted that Mr. Oh-So-High-And-Mighty King Under The Mountain doesn’t think I’m worthy of his full might! So come on! Summon it so we can see what you’re really made of, and I can show what I’m made of!”

Kris just grit his teeth at that notion and contemptuously looked away. “You also must have seen that I was blackmailed into using that thing back in the Cavern’s arena. It’s not something I like to use outside of an emergency. The magic didn’t come from me, and you know borrowed magics can be… troublesome.” Kris then shook his head and looked Slash right in the eye with a determined expression. “Besides, this is a bout, a contest of honor! I refuse to use any power that I didn’t earn through my own physical and spiritual trials and toils! But tell you what, if you really feel that I’m holding out on you, how about I employ a power that took my entire life to earn?”

This prompt gave Slash a brief look of surprise, which quickly turned to one of contemplation for an extended period. Finally, with a clap, he returned to a combat stance with a confident, competitive grin. “All right then, show me what you’ve got!”

Kris surprisingly gave his opponent a sincere smile. Then, he closed his eyes and relaxed, taking one hand off his sword and placing it on the tip at the other end as he held it horizontally ahead of himself. After taking a few deep breaths, he opened his eyes with a fierce expression and held his sword high. With a look of confusion and aggressive excitement respectively, Twilight and Boros turned around as their attention was drawn to different colored bright lights in the seats behind and above them.

Despite being in various forms of injury, the rest of Prancing Pony’s team each got up and held their arms out towards the ring and the lights enshrouding them flew out and struck Kris after being drawn towards his sword, covering him in a swirling aura of many colors. Despite this development, Slash wasn’t any less resolute.

Kris placed both hands back on his sword, and lowered it to his side. He suddenly made an upward diagonal slash and following the path his blade cut was a narrow but huge wave of erupting rock that raced towards Slash, who dashed to the side, but had to cross his weapons as he was flung back by the wave turning to chase him, landing hard on his feet.

Kris dispelled his sword and held both his hands together as they both began to glow even more intensely than the rest of his body. With a swift unsheathing, Kris sent out a thin, vertical wave of wind to Slash, who struck with his blades to dispel the force, only to be knocked sliding back by a gale-force burst as the air rushed back to the space the blade forced it from.

This time, Kris leaped high into the air and swung his sword several times towards Slash, each swing trailing a thin, bright blue whip-like tendril that Slash could barely dodge, forced to deflect the last one with his blades.

As Kris came down, he held his blade overhead to plunge it towards Slash, who seemed to avoid this attack by dashing under him, only to be flung back as a fiery blast erupted from the point of impact, barely able to ward off the force with his blades.

Seeing opportunity, Slash dashed towards Kris’s exposed black, swinging his arms to make a crossing forehand cut, only to flung to the ground on his back as Kris made what looked like a forward horizontal slash only for the force of the strike to erupt behind him in a purple flash.

The referee appeared between the fighters and made his call. “Knockdown! Slash, five! Kris, nine!” He began his count, but paused as Slash groaned and struggled to his feet at the count of seven.

Twilight didn’t need a reference book to recognize the miraculous thing she’d witnessed firsthand in Core Metro’s High Director office, the roaring crowd having the privilege of surprise. “That’s Wilda, Trace, Percival, Sloop, Alphonse, and Kris’s ultimate magic, isn’t it? It’s extravagant and all, but using a magic that requires the participation of the entire team in a contest of one-on-one bouts seems to be bending the rules a bit past the breaking point, doesn’t it?”

Boros gave her a lopsided grin and made a so-so gesture. “Anything goes as long as the commission clears it. The team told me that they cleared their cooperative ultimate magic as long as they used it in Kris’s fight as the king. A sort of all-or-nothing performance to rack up the tension and drama of the whole performance to the max!”

Back in the ring, Kris had a confident look and pointed his many-colored glowing sword to his opponent. Slash unexpectedly dispelled his blades and tucked his hands back in his pockets. adopting a coiled posture with a disgruntled but serene expression. Kris lost his grin but held his sword back in both hands in another high outward ox guard to his opponent. Kris took one step forward, but right before he could make a swing, Slash seemed to vanish and reappear behind his opponent with his blades held outward, who’s many-colored glow blinked out as he was sent to the ground.

The referee appeared between them in his usual flash of pale light and raised his hand. “Knockdown! Slash, eight! Kris, nine!” The referee made it to the count of five when Kris pushed himself up and made an inquisitive gesture at Slash.

“The ultimate magic… My connection to my friends… It feels like it’s been… Severed?”

Slash turned up his hands in an Oh Well gesture. “Well, I am a severing elemental, aren’t I?”

Kris held his hand to his chin for a moment with an expression of contemplation. “But the only way you could sever the connection embodying the ultimate magic would be…” Then, his eyes went wide. “Secret magic! The esoteric art of affecting abstract concepts and invisible forces with your magic!” Then he gave a grin of realization as he snapped his fingers and pointed at Slash. “That’s why you’ve been holding your hands in your pockets! One of the five fists! An exercise in discipline! No wonder, even you would need a heapload of focus to use magic like that!”

Meanwhile, back in the commentator’s box, Spike and Maxine gave Discord a concerned and sly look respectively as he morosely scratched at the empty spot where his beard used to be, now only a few crinkled hairs poking out.

Slash gave a sarcastic expression to his opponent and held out his hands in a pleading motion to Kris. “Well… You’re not the only one who can really commit to the old ways if they want! But don’t expect an encore anytime soon, so far I can only use that spell once a day! And don’t worry about your ultimate magic, my secret magic isn’t alloyed with anything unsightly like curses or dark magic, you guys will definitely make a full recovery eventually.”

Back in Kris’s corner, Twilight was rapidly scratching notes with a magic-wrapped pencil and notepad. Then, she got a brief look of incomprehension and turned to Boros. “Um… Pardon me, but is it normal for there to be so much talking in a fight?”

Boros raised a finger and opened his mouth, but paused for a moment, then made an awkward expression waving around his hand. “You know what, you’d be surprised!” Then he narrowed his eyes towards the ring and placed his knuckles on his chin. “But nevermind that now, the match has finally gone into striketime!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at that. “Strike… Time…?” She then floated a book over and rapidly looked over each page.

Boros just scoffed and gave her a softer expression. “One strike can finally end it all! One strike between the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!” Then he got a wry look and scanned the surrounding crowds. “And not to mention one strike can get you the grand prize! Judging from the size of this crowd and noting the price of admission, I’d say the box office would end up giving away a prize of no less than two hundred thousand bits to the winning team!” Twilight was aghast at the mere thought of such a fortune.

Back in the ring, neither fighter had much left to say. So they both steadied their posture, then rushed each other once more. Clashing their rigid emanations, emitting bright flashes with each collision of their weapons. They both locked weapons in a struggle, Kris managed to find the greater purchase at first, but Slash managed to push him off and send him stumbling back. Steadying his stance, Kris held his sword high, pulled back, pointing it at his opponent in a bent posture. However, Slash furrowed his brow and brought back his blades to receive him.

Kris lunged, but as he thrust his sword, Slash raised one of his feet and intercepted Kris’s attack with a stomp, forcing his opponent’s whole body down. Then, he followed with an uppercut right to Kris’s face. Kris stumbled back, managing to barely keep himself on his feet, but the damage was done as the referee appeared between the both of them and made his final call. “Critical hit! Slash, ten! Kris, nine! It’s over! It’s all over! TKO! Team Prancing Pony’s king is defeated! The winner is Slash Render and Team Rising Dragon!”

The crowd roared as Slash had his arm raised by the referee, shouting energetically and pumping his other fist. Otto, Krank, Oro, Ellis, and Russ going out into the field with either confident strides or confident limps. Kris, with a dignified march, went back to his corner to meet his team, and led them to the center of the ring. Horns rang out as each member of both teams faced the other, and began shaking hands. A man with a camera then came up and both teams lined up, Prancing Pony’s members bending low as Rising Dragon’s members lined up standing behind them, some of them even flashing thumbs ups and peace signs as the picture was taken.

Back in what is now the loser’s corner. Twilight smiled at this display, then looked at Boros. Who despite frowning puffed up his chest, crossed his arms with eyes closed, and made a passionate nod.
> Rise Again: Postlude
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spike wiped frosting and crystal flecks off his mouth after shoving in his seventh gem-encrusted cupcake and spoke with a muffled, full-mouthed voice. “Gee, it sure was nice of team Rising Dragon to spend half their winnings catering and arranging this victory party!”

Maxine wiped her mouth after laying down another neatly-folded wrapper to make her third stack. “And of course, they’ve divided the other half among themselves to take care of their rent and grocery bills for the next couple of years.”

Discord, after having sampled from a stack of what used to be muffin tops that he’d turned into muffin bottoms with a snap of his talons, arrogantly scoffed. “This is such a nice and honest usage of an instant fortune… That it makes my stomach sick.” Maxine was about to ask Don’t you mean sick to your stomach? Until Discord opened a hatch on his belly to show the round, pink organ in a small bed with an ice pack and thermometer where its head and mouth should be.

Maxine gave Discord a wry smile and drew out a handful of letters from her coat to place on the table the three of them were sitting at. “Speaking of ‘honest’... That match drummed up a ton of publicity and interest for human warriors and adventurers. In a world full of magic like this, there’s always something that needs done, found, or fought that requires a certain expertise that not a lot of ponies have, so there’ll definitely be paying work for more than a few disposable incomes.”

Meanwhile, the party was jumping in the hanging bazaar and more than a few unexpected combinations were hitting it off. Fluttershy was sitting down having tea with Ellis, happily making smalltalk. Russ was sitting down talking with Rarity and Applejack, all of them drawing out their ideas for full remodelings of their farm and shops for a bargain rate. Oro and Krank were talking with Rainbow Dash about working security for Wonderbolt shows knowing how disruptive some of the more over-energetic fans can get, and not to mention her connections to the Canterlot royal guard for consultation work. Pinkie and Twilight were both talking to Otto and Slash, both of them very curious about human sign language for reasons both scholarly and to make a few young unlucky ponies smile, but Twilight was especially curious about where Slash found knowledge on human secret magic and the means he used to make it his own.

Twilight took her notes to a table in a more quiet corner to make a few letters to share what she’d learned about advanced human elemental magic to a few magic-scholarly correspondents. However, she found herself startled when someone asked, “Is this seat taken?”

She turned to look at her new company and was startled by how different he looked even from his own kind. He was a tall human with whitish, silver, unkempt hair and dark blue eyes dressed in a thick, roughly stitched cloak and hood of dark rags with linen bandages wrapped around his forearms, hands, shins and bare feet. One very distinct feature he had was a tattoo-like mark on his left cheek, a pair of solid-black blots that extended down and curved toward his mouth in lines that smoothly tapered to points. She then remembered her manners and gave this new human a smile, tapping a hoof on the stool to her side. “No, please, help yourself!”

The human nodded and took a seat with his tray full of snacks. And began slowly sampling and savoring each one. He took a look at Twilight’s notes then turned to the alicorn. “That was an excellent match, one that will be talked about for centuries! That Kris boy probably would have won it all if he’d used that Artifact of the Immortals he has, but he chose the high road and banked on the might and ability he cultivated with his friends instead. He might have lost the match, but he won great honor. Not a lot of human warriors have integrity like that, admittedly. A little too eager to trade dignity for shallow glory.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and gave him a giggle. “If we’re both being honest, things like friendship, kindness, loyalty and the like might seem like really big things for us ponies, but we only hold them up as our core values because it’s always been very easy for us to forget them and fall into self-interest.” She then looked away with a sad look. “And if we’re being really honest, even after everything that my friends and I have achieved, I can still see so many different ways harmony could be lost and everypony to start turning on one another. I’m only a little ashamed that I’ve recently started making plans to make sure magic doesn’t wind up in the wrong hooves if friendship is forgotten again.”

At that, this new human gave Twilight a warm, beaming smile. “It’s always been like that, hasn’t it? Only a fool denies the existence of the disparity that is good and evil, but in the end, evil will always promote the rise of good. A hero is only heroic because they know how much sorrow and destruction a truly evil villain can wreak.” This human then looked away with an expression of deep sentiment. “An old friend once told me that the harmony of the universe does the same refrain over and over: People seek to help because they know what it means to be helpless, the kind seek to be kind because they know the pains of cruelty. The loving seek to spread love wherever they go because they know the suffocating hurt of indifference. Some people might hate how history seems to repeat and rhyme, but there is hope knowing the universal truths of harmony and mercy.”

Twilight was stunned by that. She wiped the tears from her eyes with her wings, then held up another quill and paper. “That was beautiful! Do you mind if I quote you on that, Mr….?”

This human just laughed and made a dismissive gesture. “It’s yours! I insist! All I ask is that you go back over to Kris and give him my best!” Twilight slid all of her papers and supplies back into her bags and trotted back over to the losers table, where the victors were laughing, exercising their bragging rights, and waxing about good times long past.

“I think I made a new friend that acts like an old friend of yours!” Kris quickly sobered. And gave his pony friend a look of concern.

“Old friend? I was always a pretty reserved person even as an apprentice back in the old guild. Outside the others of the brave six and our rivals the mighty six, I was pretty content with a small, sincere circle of friends. What were they like?”

Twilight, held her hoof to her mouth with a look of contemplation for a moment. “Well, he seemed pretty wise, silver hair, blue eyes, all wrapped up in rags and bandages… Oh! And he had a mark on his cheek that looked like a couple of curving, solid-black bull’s horns!” Twilight kept thinking for a moment, but later noticed an odd silence. She looked back at the humans and found them all staring at her, aghast. “Um… Was it something I said?”

Kris took a moment to try to calm himself, taking a deep, shaky breath, and exhaling. He looked Twilight right in the eyes. “I don’t know if you’re aware, but you just described Omega Ultima, Immortal of Mercy, one of the Seventy-Two Immortals of Law, and the original owner of my Omega Weapon. And there’s the fact that despite being our spiritual but supreme leaders, nobody’s seen any of the immortals in over a thousand years! Where did you meet him?”

Twilight craned back her neck in shock, then turned back where she came from, pointing her hoof. “He was right over-” But the spot where what she thought was her newest friend was sitting now sat empty, the supposed immortal gone without a trace.

Twilight was dumbfounded. She quickly turned back to the table of humans with several inquiries, only to find the group of human warriors frantically deliberating with one-another with worried looks. “Um… Is there something I should know about?”

Kris turned back towards Twilight. “Well… The immortals have always exerted more soft power over our affairs than you alicorns have over the ponies, leaving that kind of thing to human leaders chosen by the humans themselves. They’ve always either just offered advice, possible paths to take, presented opportunities to those that would plead for them, and appeared to warn of times both auspicious and inauspicious.” He then held his fingers to his chin and looked away in contemplation. “Omega appearing here and now could mean all kinds of things good or bad. But one thing’s for sure, the times to come are going to be very… memorable.”

Twilight looked concerned for a moment. Then she looked back towards Celestia’s table, who was uncharacteristically bellowing as she does whenever she was beholden to major sporting events to an equally loud Boros, apparently having started an argument upon becoming a big fan of team Rising Dragon. Twilight and Kris gave one another exasperated looks, then laughed and started towards their mentors/leaders, intending to prevent a potential political incident.
> Note From Author
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I suppose you could call this whole endeavor a means to set up a lot of potential narratives for future volumes, so I hope you like it and get speculating for what's to come! Speaking of, it's my privilege to announce the next volume in my fanfic series: My Little Pony, Heart of Friendship: Tales of the Outbound! This one takes my characters both established and original to the further reaches of the land of Equestria and beyond! And of course, being humans, their history is going to be rather... colorful. There may be one species of creature who dreads the return of the humans more than any other, and it may be the one you least expect! Or most expect, whatever. I guarantee that our heroes will be challenged like nothing else to maintain peace when one of Equis's population of humans's most grievous crime comes to light!

For now though, it's going to be a while. I'm going to take a break from fanfic for a while to work on my novel! I spent most of the year a couple years ago working on the first half of the manuscript at 40,000 words, hoping to double that when I'm finished and spend the next couple of drafts fine-tuning it with stuff like genre conventions and demographics in mind. Who knows? Before you know it, you could see my name in lights! But I assure you, I won't be dissuaded from working on expanding this take on MLP's narrative!