Solid Strike

From the top of one of Canterlot Castle’s many roofs, a bone white earth pony sat perfectly balanced. His body was covered in a grey suit, designed similarly to the Shirai Ryu warrior known as Scorpion. A grey mask covered his muzzle, releasing puffs of smoke as he breathed in, and out. A gentle breeze shifted his snow white mane. This pony watched the fighting going on below. One was an off-pearl color mare, twirling about, striking her opponent with blades extending from her wings. The other one, gender not clear, seemed to be heavily armored, wearing a full navy green face mask and a brown, body covering trench coat.

He watched this fight with disinterest, adjusting his view to find his target. The Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei clan had sent him, Smoke, to find and deactivate a rogue cypone. It had been followed to the Canterlot Castle in Equestria, so that’s where Smoke had to follow it. This fusion of pony and automaton he was after was a dangerous individual, possessing both free will and extensive equipment for stealth missions. His body was metal, but his mind was still free, meaning that there was little that could stop him if he decided to perform a destructive act, especially in the peaceful nation of Equestria.

Smoke let his mind drift, allowing his body to fade into his namesake, and be caught in the winds angled towards the Castle Grounds. The target wouldn’t be visible from a distance, so it was time to get up close.

Time...

Luna watched as the defeated pearl pegasus trotted off the stage, just recently having her broken wings magically restored. Her victor wore a trench coat and a gas mask, and worked with high powered weapons. Luna couldn’t tell if this one was a stallion or a mare, only that the name was “Gilded Gears”. Also, this Gilded Gears was a changeling, or that was as far as Luna could observe. Thin, membranous, wing tips poked from the neck of the trench coat, and a mass of membranous fibers hung from where a mane should be. A sharp, thin horn, unlike a pony’s, emerged from above her mask.  Across the chest was a thick piece of metal, chest armor, that had seen much wear and tear from time.

Although she couldn’t tell for sure, Luna assumed that it was a female underneath the clothing and armor, only because of the pitch of the few exhales she took when struck. Gilded Gears slung a shotgun across her back- Luna was simply going by an assumption for her gender- and took a step away from the Princess, as if she was feared.

“Malaki,” Tinker Tock nudged the tall giraffe, who watched the tournament from the back of the crowd.

“What is it?” He replied, looking down upon the smaller pony.

“What are you going to do to find where Morukee is?”

“I simply wait for her to appear again.”

Celestia approached her sister, whispering something into her ear. Luna’s eyes widened as Celestia’s message reached her. She promptly galloped into the castle, seeming to forget about her duties to the tournament.

“Don’t worry,” Celestia assured the concerned crowd, “We will continue the tournament, but we must conduct our battles elsewhere for the time being. Please follow me to the guard barracks.”

The Royal Guard barracks housed both the Solar and Lunar Guards that would stand watch over the castle. The barracks themselves were just another wing of the castle, providing a place for the guards to store their armor, rest and maintain themselves in the castle, and keep themselves in condition for their job. Both Solar and Lunar guards assembled in the training hall as the Princess announced the next rounds of the Mortal Kombat tournament would be held there.

The training hall was an open, expansive room, with walls resistant to magic, durable against physical attacks, and even having some bulletproof properties against certain types of bullets. Hopefully nopony was packing too much heat. Several target dummies were moved into the corners to allow more space for the fight. Celestia calmed the much larger crowd of ponies, now almost doubled from it’s original dozen or so number.

“Now, our next match shall be between Gilded Gears and Malaki.”

The two fighters stepped forward. The giraffe faced his masked opponent, and straightened out his long neck. Just because this one was smaller than him, didn’t mean that he didn’t have to be reckless. Gears had taken down the Blade girl who had seemed so much faster than he. Or she. Malaki couldn’t quite tell. He needed to be fast, though, for those weapons would put him out of the game quickly.

“Round 1, fight!”

No sooner had Celestia announced the start of the match had Gears reached for the gun. It was a bullpup shotgun, with a short stock, and slide beneath its barrel, indicating it was pump action. The weapon was only slightly longer than the wielder’s foreleg, but it was manipulated with skill and experience as it was thrust in Maliki's direction. Celestia’s head tilted to catch the slug that exploded from the weapon’s barrel as Malaki weaved his body around the projectile.

Malaki swung his hoof around to strike, but Gilded Gears blocked the motion with a hoof, beating him in chest with the butt of the shotgun as it was caught by the slide and allowing a fresh shell to enter the chamber. Malaki felt a shoulder crash into his lower neck, pushing him back and allowing Gears room to jump backwards and line up another shot. He leapt forward and slammed his hoof down on the weapon’s barrel, causing it to be fired into the ground. The floor cracked as the slug tore a hole through it.

Just as soon as he moved to attack, Gears was already jumping to escape. A barrier spell stopped his hoof and Malaki braced himself for a counter. Nothing came though. The barrier faded, and he only saw Gears standing there, unmoving. It faded into the mist in another second, but by that time Malaki could do nothing. The sound of metal sliding out of a sheath reached his ears, but he couldn't turn around fast enough to keep the knife from entering his back. His white robe became stained with his blood as he cried out in pain.

There was a moment before the knife was removed and he was kicked to the ground. A quick recovery followed by a reach into his robes put him in a kneeling position, holding a curved sword that his family trained him to use in his youth. Stepping towards his opponent, he thrust the weapon forward in an attempt to plunge it straight into the chest. A loud scraping sound was heard as the blade was rejected from Gilded Gears’s body, and a hardened steel breastplate was revealed behind the trench coat.

“Come on...” Malaki muttered, striking out again. The blade caught Gilded Gears’s mask, cutting it horizontally across the center and revealing the eyes of the changeling mare. She pulled the other half of her mask off, revealing her muzzle, and jammed her knife into Malaki’s foreleg as he raised his sword. His wrap on the sword loosened, and the weapon clattered to the floor. Putting all of his anger and focus into a single, round ending attack, Malaki swung his other hoof around.

Gears, seeing this attack coming, sidestepped and caught Malaki’s attack in one hoof. Shifting his momentum through her body, she redirected his force through her other hoof, directly into his chest. As he was pushed back, she thrust her horn forward, and cast a fire spell in his direction. Green flames burned at his body, but were quickly extinguished as the spell expired. Such was the nature of changeling fire, it required a source of magic to burn effectively.

Malaki growled, picking up his weapon and slashing vertically at his foe. A barrier spell stopped that attack, and an uppercut kept him back. He maintained his aggressive stance, but Gears was able to either block or dodge all of his attacks.

“10 seconds remaining...” Celestia actually had to call the time to prevent the match from going on too long.

Malaki was tough enough to take a few hits, but he hadn’t been able to scratch Gilded Gears in the slightest. He put all he had into attack, but only came out hurt.

“Time over!” Celestia declared. “Gilded Gears wins by receiving no damage.”

Malaki picked himself back up as Celestia’s restoration spell worked its magic on him. Gears reached into her trench coat and replaced the broken mask with a new one, an exact replica of the old one. He needed to rethink his strategy...

Sol Star walked down the hallway to the Castle armory. Somepony had reported that he had heard some strange noises or something there, and were too scared to go check it out. Typical grunts. As he pushed on the reinforced steel door, he became alarmed. He smelled smoke. Searching the room for a fire, he found nothing. Only the metal shelves and racks holding various weapons used by the Royal Guard. The door to the firing range next door suddenly burst open, and a bone white pony wearing a grey ninja suit similar to Scorpion’s tumbled through. Wisps of smoke emitted from several places in his body, visible as he stood up and audibly caught his breath.

“Hey, who are you? What are you doing in the-” Sol began, not noticing the green metal stallion walk through the same door. It moved like a machine, but at the same time, it moved like a pony. From its hoof came a razor sharp saw blade, shooting out toward the ground in front of the white pony.

“Protecting your castle!” The ninja pony shouted, pushing himself to his hooves and slamming his body into the cypone as his saw carved through the ground beneath him. Sol Star followed the two into the firing range, trading his standard guard gladius for a much larger single-hoof sword.

Sol’s armor rattled as an explosion shook the firing range. It was designed for the low caliber firearms permitted by the Princess, not full powered warheads. One of said warheads emerged from the green robot pony’s chest, straight for the ninja in front of him. Sol watched, perplexed, as the ninja seemed to disappear in a cloud of smoke, allowing the rocket to fly straight through him- and into Sol Star. His armor took the brunt of the hit, but his helmet was knocked off. His dirty blonde mane fell over his eye as he hit the floor.

For the first time in a long time, he felt his eyepatch over his face. Normally, the impediment seemed to disappear under his helmet, but now, it was gone...

“Apologies!” The smoke pony reappeared in front of him, facing the robot that he had apparently been fighting for a while now. Sol stood up and shook himself off. His helmet was mangled, unable to fit his head, so he had to do without it for now. Taking his sword he jumped at the robot and slashed at him with it. As he finished his combo, he cast a fire spell on his sword, imbuing it with more burning power. He cast the same spell on his hoof as he threw a punch, chaining it to another slash of the sword. All of the attacks connected, but they seemed to do nothing against the automaton. As Sol burnt the machine with another fire spell, it made its move.

His limbs, simply being accessories for the core, detached themselves from the main body of the robot. They suddenly reassembled themselves on the other side of Sol, body and all. He heard a saw blade spinning, but couldn’t turn to block in time. However, the smoke pony had moved to help. Sweeping his back hooves around, he tripped the robot and slammed his forehoof into its chest. It became still, a few lights on it going out.

“That should do it. Thanks for the save there, I thought I was done for.”

Sol Star turned around, and looked down on the disabled robot.

“You’re one of the Lin Kuei clan,” Sol noted the insignia on the ninja’s suit, as well as the same one on the robot, “Having some machine troubles?”

“I’m called Smoke,” he replied, “And this cypone was malfunctioning. I apologize for his presence here.”

“Just out of curiousity, have you sent any representatives to fight in the Mortal Kombat tournament?”

“Yes,” Smoke replied, “I was to fight, as well as the Grandmaster himself. After he detected this cypone here, however, he decided to not participate in favor of making sure none of the other units were... rogue.”

“Respectable. Are you still going to participate after this... Dilemma?”

“Yes, allow me a moment to deal with this bot.”

“Very well, I will alert the Princess of your arrival.”

Gilded Gears skidded across the mangled wooden floor. Malaki had finally beaten her- again.

“Finish her!”

Malaki placed his bloodied sword in its sheath, hidden inside of his robes. He simply nodded as a sign of mercy. Gears saw Celestia move her head towards her, but she held her forehooves out in a defensive position. She was... scared? She appeared to be a heartless soldier. Why was she scared?

“No, no!” Malaki heard her voice for the first time.

“You are hurt,” Celestia took a step closer, causing Gears to slide away from her on her back. Malaki thought he heard a slight whimper from beneath her mask as the golden aura engulfed Celestia’s horn. She instinctively reached for her weapon, forgetting it had been flung across the room during the fight.

“Don’t... Don’t touch me!” She warned, her back bumping against the wall.

“I understand you are afraid, but you’re bleeding... Don’t-”

“No!” Gilded Gears had to do something, anything. Her mind raced. Magic encompassed her horn, and she disappeared from the room. Everypony was quiet, until another flash of light encompassed her shotgun. It too vanished.

“Is she okay?” Malaki looked to the Princess of the Sun for answers.

“She has a fear of my kind, for some unknown reason...”

“I see... That is unfortunate. Will she be okay?”

“I’m not sure, she used some sort of healing spell on herself during the first round, so her wounds shouldn’t be a problem. Her mental state, however... That is a different story.”

Malaki had no response, so Celestia made the next tournament announcement.

“The next match shall be between Malaki and Maxim Nexus.”

“Excuse me Princess,” Malaki lowered his head to put a hoof to it, “But I am unable to focus on the tournament. Please allow me some time to recollect myself.”

“Of course,” Celestia nodded as he exited the room. “The next match shall be between Steel Wing and Maxim Nexus.”

The courtyard was quiet. A changeling suddenly appeared in the center of a green magical vortex. Gilded Gears adjusted her mask, straightening it out so she could breathe properly. The natural folds behind her breastplate were wide open, and dripping with water. It was a changeling’s natural method of cooling itself, but her pony half caused her to ventilate out of fear. She felt her heart slowing from it’s rush. The Alicorn had almost taken a hold of her in that insidious magic. Never trust an Alicorn, never. It didn’t matter how hurt she was, she was never going to let one of them touch her ever again.

It had been drilled into her head ever since her foalhood, and was the first thing she had told when joining the AAF military. Alicorns were bad. That was generally understood by everypony who stood under the Anti-Alicorn Federation flag. Hell, the name would tell anypony who could read what the Federation stood for; the preservation of other races. She curled herself into a ball on the ground and shivered. Every Alicorn she had ever came in contact with nearly killed her, which was only once before discovered this ‘Equestria’.

She had arrived in this strange world shortly after working to repair a large electromagical generator for her hometown. The United Alicorn Empire, a group that wanted all beings to ascend to Alicornhood, attacked the town, destroying the generator. As it went into an unstable meltdown, much like she was now, she remembered her father’s last words to her.

“Gilda, move, I’ll do what I can to slow the meltdown!”

It was too late, though. 15 years of waging war against the United Alicorn Empire, and she would be killed by an exploding generator. This would not be her fate, because as she began concentrating to teleport her father away from what would be the center of an explosion, she found herself in the center of a crater. There was no pain, there was no explosion, just cold ground beneath her. Instead of her town being reduced to ashes, like she had initially thought, she was in a completely different world. This world had no conflict between Alicorns and ‘impurities’, it was a world of peace. Peaceful except for the fighting tournaments held regularly to solve political issues.

She missed her home, though, she never did well doing civil jobs. Mortal Kombat was her only option. She might never get home, but at least she’d have the only thing she had ever wanted: An enemy to fight.