Solid Strike

Princess Luna stood in the courtyard, waiting for the contestants to give her their attention. It was early in the afternoon, and Celestia had to begin lowering the sun, so Luna had to monitor the matches. It was time to announce the first match.

“Our next fighter,” Luna declared, remembering to lower the volume of her voice like a certain somepony had shown her, “Will be Tinker Tock.”

The requested pony stepped onto the gravel road that served as the stage. He threw back his hood, adjusted his square glasses, and pressed a button on a device on his left forehoof.

“Does anypony challenge him?” Luna asked.

“Oooh, me! Pick me!” Came the excited reply. A light brown hoof was waving frantically above the crowd.

“Umm... Okay, step forward. What is your name?”

A pegasus pony emerged from the crowd. Her fur was, much like the raised hoof, a light brown color, and her mane was black. A large kunai was slung across her back. She had a blue headband on her forehead and a smile on her face.

“I’m Kunai!” She announced. Surprisingly, her cutie mark matched her name.

“Well then,” Luna said, looking over both fighters as they took their positions. “The next match shall be between Kunai and Tinker Tock.”

“You chose poorly, headband,” Tinker said, addressing his opponent by her defining article of clothing.

“Let’s see what you’ve got then!” Kunai taunted, removing the weapon of her namesake from her back, twirling it a few times, and then returning it to its place.

“Round one, fight!”

Tinker Tock did not seem to have any equipment on him, save the device on his foreleg. Thus Kunai was surprised when he expertly opened a butterfly knife and thrust it in her direction. She sidestepped the attack, and move to jab her opponent. He pressed a button on his device, and disappeared, only to reappear behind her and bring the butterfly knife down on her back. She stumbled forward, and turned herself around, preparing her next attack.

Despite the knife in her back, she was able to remove her own weapon and swing it at her opponent. He ducked the attack, but Kunai took a step back and tossed the weapon at him. As it nailed him in the right foreleg, Kunai had already began lunging forward and struck Tinker in the face. The hit knocked off his glasses and they shattered on the floor. Shoving Kunai back, he quickly teleported away from her, producing two more weapons from his hoodie.

Two small metal items glistened in his hooves. Each was symmetrical in shape, resembling an eight-pointed star. Each point was sharpened to lethal perfection. Kunai had dove for her fallen weapon, as it no longer was inside of the pony that had warped away, but she was cut off as two shurikens hit her in the chest, slicing through her flesh and bloodying her body even further. She looked up, and saw Tinker holding a crossbow in both hooves. A metal tipped bolt quickly joined the two ninja stars in her chest, and Kunai fell onto her side, defeated.

“Tinker Tock wins!” Luna announced.

Tinker only huffed as he teleported to his fallen opponent, and gathered up his weapons from her. Their weight and physical size seemed to be nullified as he stowed each one in his hoodie. He teleported a fair distance away from her, and Luna restored them both. Kunai righted herself, feeling better than ever.

“I was just going easy on you!” Kunai said.

“It won’t make a difference,” Tinker replied, reaching into his hoodie and producing another pair of glasses to put on his face.

“You have not won yet... Don’t get cocky...” Morukee’s voice whispered in Tinker’s head.

“Round two, fight!”

Nightblade watched as Kunai fought Tinker. He was beginning to feel bad about his previous actions towards her. She was only wanting to help him, and it was true that he wasn’t feeling his best. He decided that he would talk to her after the match, and apologize for what he had said. Maybe they could be friends. Nightblade hadn't had a good friend to talk to in quite some time. His job didn't really support it.

Kunai blocked several of Tinker’s attacks, noting that he wasn’t very physically powerful, but where he lacked strength, he more than made up for with powerful gadgets. His right hoof brought down a knife, which was quickly knocked out of his hand. He thrust his left hoof forward, and fired a laser beam from the device mounted there. The right hoof went back into his hoodie, quickly producing a Colt nine-millimeter pistol and firing it off in her face. The bullet, being designed to pass through targets, passed through her cheekbone, fracturing it, but it missed any vital organs.

“Sit down!” Kunai growled, using her frustration to power her attack. She brought a hoof down on Tinker’s head, and extended her right wing. From beneath it, she produced a red cylinder, with a grey string hanging down from it’s top. White letters on it’s side identified the item as: dynamite. Scraping her weapon on the ground, she got a spark to light the fuse with. She shoved her kunai into Tinker’s jaw, shattering it and cracking the bones in the roof of his mouth. Then, she knocked him onto his back, rolling the dynamite under him. An explosion sent him into the air, and Kunai flew up to him, and threw him back into the ground. His skull fractured is his face met the ground.

“Kunai wins!” Luna said, restoring both fighters once more and allowing them to situate themselves for the final round.

“You’re slipping...” Morukee told Tinker Tock.

“I can do this...” He assured her.

“Round three, fight!”

Kunai took the initiative, taking advantage of Tinker’s physical weakness. She rolled forward, and launched him into the air with an uppercut. Throwing her kunai, she caught him in the air, and launched him higher up. With a flap of her wings, she was next to him, brutally unleashing hit after hit mid strike.

“What are you doing?” Morukee shouted, her will overcoming his own.

“I’m- I- I- ah!” Tinker couldn’t focus long enough to reply as Kunai pummeled him.

“Assuming direct control...” Mourkee said, and purple mist began to envelope Tinker.

Kunai pulled her weapon from him, and prepared to slam him into the ground. As the weapon left him though, his eyes began to glow a bright purple. With a sudden burst of strength, he grabbed Kunai’s foreleg and threw her into the ground. He landed on her, forcing all of his weight into breaking her back. The bones snapped, and she coughed up blood. Lifting her off the ground, he slammed his head into hers, cracking her skull and knocking out half of her teeth.

“C-c-c-combo breaker!” Luna shouted excitedly.

The mist faded, and his eyes returned to normal. Nightblade knew something was off about him. That wasn’t his fighting style. He normally would’ve attacked using a weapon, but he had lifted her off the ground after not being able to even block a punch from her. Was he just bluffing? It didn’t seem likely, but what was likely was his victory. This turn of events caused Nightblade great worry. What would happen if Kunai lost? How would she take his apology?

Tinker teleported behind the recovering Kunai, and struck her with his knife again. He fired a laser beam into her, and shot her with his gun as she fell forward. She was weak, and wobbled from side to side as she stood back up. Luna knew she wouldn’t be fighting any more.

“Finish her!” Luna demanded, with a bit more excitement than expected.

“No!” Nightblade shouted, perhaps he could get him to spare her. If she died before he could apologize, he'd never forgive himself.

“Do it...” Came Morukee’s voice.

Tinker lifted his hoof, blasting Kunai in her forelegs with his laser. She fell forward, her forelegs not able to hold her body’s weight. He pressed another button on his laser device, and a violent whirring noise came from within it. A small sphere of energy formed at the tip of his hoof, projecting from the laser’s emitter. It soon erupted into a blinding beam of light that shot forward, melting the front half of Kunai’s body until it was nothing but charred bone. Blood dripped from her still intact back half, which fell into a puddle of her own melted flesh.

The sight disgusted him.

“Tinker Tock wins!” Luna announced, finally happy that the tournament’s goal was being fulfilled.

The sight enraged him.

“Fatality!”

She had been nice to him, something that took a lot of effort. He wanted revenge, for the friendship that they never had.

“Tinker Tock!” Nightblade cried, leaping forward from the crowd, “I challenge you to Mortal Kombat!”

“Another challenger!” Luna watched as Nightblade entered the stage. She cast her healing spell on Tinker Tock, and teleported Kunai’s dead body out of the way. Nightblade looked down at the only remnants of the cheery mare, a ripped piece of her blue headband coated in blood. He picked it up, and wrapped it around his right hoof. They had only met the night before, but he saw the bright smile on her face whenever he thought of her.

“The next match is between Nightblade and Tinker Tock!”

“I am weak...” Morukee’s voice echoed throughout Nightblade’s mind, “I cannot take control of your body again..”

“It’s fine. I’ll take this guy.”

Nightblade stood on his back hooves, and spread his wings out. His fighting style seemed odd, but he was able to balance himself perfectly with his wings. This did, however, limit his flight capabilities.

“I hope you don’t miss her too much, you’ll be joining her in the afterlife soon,” Tinker said, just a hint of Morukee’s voice overlaying his own.

“You’re going to choke on your own sharp tongue!” He snarled back.

“Round one, fight!”

Nightblade sprung forward, his back legs pushing him much further than they would if he was on all fours. He knew that Tinker would try to get distance between them, so closing the distance was vital. Tinker Tock readied his knife and slashed at his legs. His opponent leaped over his extended foreleg, pulling his hind legs up to his chest. Nightblade stomped down, and sprung into a backflip off of Tinker’s head. The hit shattered his glasses again, but he was too busy getting back up to notice.

A wing promptly hit him in the back of the head, knocking him down again. Nightblade positioned his hoof to catch Tinker’s head in an uppercut. As he came back towards the earth, Nightblade turned around, allowing his wings to beat into him. Nightblade spun around again, and ended the combo with a punch. Tinker slammed into the ground, but quickly recovered and collected his thoughts. He’d have to do something about those wings...

Tinker Tock quickly stuck his knife into Nightblade’s chest, and teleported behind him. As he drew his gun, he fired it, sending Nightblade face first into the ground. Both the bullet and the knife dug into his body, but he managed to pick himself back up. The only thing he received for doing so was the back end of Tinker’s crossbow entering his mouth, hitting his stomach, and then being impaled with its sharp bolt.

“Tinker Tock wins!”

“Too easy,” He commented, recovering his weapons from Nightblade’s body, and producing yet another pair of identical, square glasses. Luna’s magic restored them, and once more they prepared for battle. Nightblade stood up on his hind legs again, breathing angrily as he waited for Luna to start the next round.

“Round two, fight!”

Tinker went for his shurikens again as Nightblade rushed him. Nightblade jumped over the first one, but the second one caught him in the wing, disabling it. It would be harder for him to keep his balance on two hooves, but he kept his charge anyway. As he reached Tinker, he put both of his hooves on his opponent’s head, grabbing it and balancing himself upside down on it. Time slowed down in his controlled fury, and he twisted both of his hooves in opposite directions, snapping Tinker’s neck to the side. He pushed himself up, and flipped onto his back legs, driving Tinker’s head into the ground. His collarbone snapped under the weight of his crushed skull.

Tinker let out a breath of purple mist, and a grey mist followed. It was Morukee’s pure form. Nightblade paid no attention to it as he went to hit Tinker again.

Tinker threw the pegasus off of him, reaching for his gun. With a single, precise bullet, he disabled Nightblade’s other wing. Nightblade fell forward onto his hooves, and growled in frustration. He had to win, for Kunai, but Tinker had been beating him at every step. Now, the hooded earth pony just looked at him, like he had been released from a spell. His square glasses were still on his face, but their lenses had long since shattered.

“I’m...” Tinker coughed, “I’m free...”

“I’ll kill you!” Nightblade shouted, taking advantage of the moment. He leapt forward on all fours, attempting to tackle his still opponent. Tinker swiftly let himself fall onto his back, and Nightblade flew right over him.

“Listen to me!”

Nightblade's eyes glowed with a bright purple light. The pegasus only growled, his mind clouded, making him Hell-bent on killing him. Morukee had a new host now. Nightblade thrust both of his hooves forward, but Tinker caught both of them. They both stood on their hind legs, struggling to push the other to the ground with locked hooves.

“Don’t let her influence you...” Tinker breathed through clenched teeth.

“You will join the one that you murdered!” Came the response. Although Nightblade’s mouth moved, it wasn’t his voice that came out. Morukee’s snakelike hiss was trying to put the death of Kunai on him...

“No, you killed her, Morukee, and you will join her!” Tinker pushed himself out of Nightwing’s grip, and tapped a button on his device. He was behind his opponent now, and he brought his pistol down on the back of Nightblade’s skull. A shout of pain was heard, and Nightblade coughed forth a purple mist as his skull fractured. Tinker warped in front of him, and fired his laser into his neck. The painful shout grew louder, and then fell silent as the muscles in Nightblade’s throat burned out, now visible through his charred, chipping flesh.

A ghastly grey mist exited his body, floating upwards toward the sky. Tinker was not able to catch it, but he was glad that it was gone.

“Finish him!” Tinker almost didn’t hear the Princess of the Night call out the signature phrase of Mortal Kombat.

“No,” Tinker replied, taking a step away from his opponent.

Luna huffed, and healed both of them. At least she had gotten to see one kill that day.

Nightblade stood up.

“That... thing... That’s what killed Kunai?”

Tinker nodded. Although he had entered the tournament on his own accord, the spirit construct Morukee had entered his body and had influenced his actions since. He would’ve executed Kunai anyway, but Nightblade didn’t need to know that.

“She used my body, much like she did yours.”

“She’s... there’s nothing I can do, then, is there?” Nightblade looked at the blue cloth around his hoof. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“I’m afraid not,” Tinker removed his shattered glasses, and replaced them with a better pair.

“That was impressive, Tinker Tock, I honestly did not think that you’d win two fights in a row.” Luna had walked up behind the two fighters, and congratulated them. “If you don’t mind, I’ll need you two to exit the stage, we have many more fights to go through.”

“Princess Luna,” Tinker began, but she only raised a hoof to his request.

“I will give you an audience later. Now, rejoin the crowd.”

“I-”

“Now.”

“Yes, your highness.”