The Great Unicorn Battle Torunament

Every five years, Equestria hosts a grand competition.  This is not the Equestria Games.  It is much older, outdating the Games by centuries.  It is a competition steeped in tradition but still on the cutting edge of technology.  Millions of bits are poured into its preparation and execution for every iteration.  It is attended by tens of thousands of ponies and other denizens of the cosmic sisters’ kingdom of all classes, races, and creeds, but only participated in by one type.  This is a competition only for unicorns—and not just any unicorn.  Only the best of the best magic users compete, but it is not as simple as applying for a spot if you think you have what it takes.  All unicorns in this contest are chosen.  Some train their sorcery and wizardry their entire life to be considered to compete.  Others who may be naturally gifted are simply picked with no training whatsoever.  Some may even question the sanity of the council of ponies who conducts this selection as they are plucked seemingly at random to show talent that they don’t even know they have.

The council is a group of four unicorns whose positions usually change every few tournaments or so.  The first council simply came to recognize each other as equal masters of magic hundreds of years ago, and every new member is recognized and accepted by at least two of the existing council.  A council pony may hold their spot for just one five year period or many, depending on if they resign, are defeated by challenge, are ousted, or die.

The scouts this veteran council sends out are scrupulous.  They are trained to blend in with populations.  Using both natural observation skills and a host of magical devices, they detect and monitor unicorns of all ages with exceptional magical ability.  They report their findings over the years back to the council in Canterlot who review and select these ponies to compete in a tournament just one month before it takes place.  Few who are invited decline participation, though they are completely free to do so.  Just to appear in this competition is an honor that even the humblest of ponies rarely passes up.

Today, the council meets for the selection process.

“Our scouts have been quite thorough this year,” an old yellowish stallion stroked a graying beard as he looked over photographs, reports, and footage caught with magical recording devices, “There are many interesting prospects.”

Across the massive round table, a blue middle-aged mare with equally azure locks nodded in agreement,

“They should make for a fine tournament, Draymond.”

“They’re all certainly better than that showpony of a daughter you have, Lovely.” A magically launched pen narrowly avoided the offender’s skull, an impressively tall younger gray stallion with green streaks in his dark mane resting his hind legs on the table.

“Don’t talk about Trixie that way or the next one won’t miss!  My daughter may be a tad misguided but she’s just as good as any of the choices we have lined up before us.”

“Yes, Lovely.  Perhaps in five years she will be ready, but not now,” Draymond, the yellow stallion, coughed, “Now then, we should get back to business.”

“I notice we have a surprising number of potential combatants from Ponyville.  It was a young town back in my tournament days.  I wonder what has attracted so many powerful unicorns.”

“It’s probably just a coincidence,” the gray stallion blew his long mane out of his face, “Ponyville’s got a lot of ponies of all types, but most still regard it as a hick town with not much to offer.”  In response, Draymond began playing clips on a large display screen of six ponies and their exploits in and around the town, including the destruction of Nightmare Moon, and the re-petrification (and subsequent un-petrification) of Discord.

“You forget, Rune Caster, the embodiments of the Elements of Harmony all reside here.  I’d say saving Equestria as many times as they did is more than enough to ‘offer,’ as you put it.  You may have won the last competition, but that is no excuse for ignorance.”  Rune Caster rolled his eyes.

“The newly crowned Princess makes here home there as well, doesn’t she?” Lovely Assistant added.

“Yes,” Draymond nodded, “Peculiar that she did not take up residence in Canterlot after her coronation.  She is native to the royal city, after all.”

“I defeated her father in the first round of the three-hundred and fourth tournament.” Lovely smiled smugly.

“I remember it well.  Tartarus hath no fury like a mare losing a stallion to another mare, without, whom, might I add, the offspring of whom we would not be talking about today.”

“We should test her.” A voice spoke up from another side of the table.  It was the fourth council member, a mare so jet black in color and mane that even her brown eyes seemed bright.

“You’ve been quiet, Charcoal,” Rune Caster said.

“Stop calling me that.  You know my name is Negra,” the mare retorted.

“Test who, then, Negra?” Rune sneered.  Ignoring him, Negra continued,

“The new Princess.  Twilight Sparkle, I think her name was.”

“But doesn’t being an alicorn essentially nullify you from entry to the competition?” Lovely asked.  “It is known that alicorns have far much more magical power than even the strongest of unicorns—regardless of when they became one.”

“I wonder if Twilight knows that, though,” Negra leaned on the table.

“What are you suggesting?” Draymond narrowed his eyes.

“Let’s see if Princess Twilight Sparkle is worthy of her crown.  If she wins the entire tournament, she will be deemed worthy of being a princess of Equestria, the highest honor a pony can have.  If she loses, however, she should be stripped of her title—and her wings.”  No one could tell if Negra was serious or if she was making a joke.  It was an outlandish proposition, but Negra was not the type of pony to kid around.  After a stunned silence Lovely shot up,

“Negra, we can’t do that!  Celestia herself made Twilight Sparkle a princess.  I don’t think a little battle would make her, or anypony for that matter, change their mind about such an important, and might I add rather permanent decision.”

“Celestia should know that being a princess means that you must be able to protect your land and your people.  This tournament is the perfect way to see if Twilight can do that.  She is not fit to rule anything in the future if she cannot.  As for the ‘permanence’ of her wings: the sun goddess giveth, the sun goddess can taketh away as well.  I will write to Celestia and Luna tonight to ask their permission.  You three are free to decide the rest of the combatants on your own.”  With that, Negra flicked her tail and stomped out of the council’s meeting hall.

“She can’t be serious,” Rune said after he was sure Negra was out of earshot.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the sisters agreed to her request.  She has quite the history with them,” Draymond admitted.

“She’s going to do it whether we protest or not.  Whatever that mare has going on in her head we should just let it run its course.  We should focus on the other contestants, like she said,” Lovely suggested.

“Fine, whatever.  What have we got?” Rune Caster sighed.  Draymond placed one of the magical recording devices in a projector.  Footage began playing on the far wall of a mint-green unicorn tinkering with an odd doll.  She was surrounded by drawings of creatures that looked similar to the doll.  All of them had four limbs, but they certainly weren’t hooves.  The ones that came from the shoulders had five spindly looking appendages coming out of the ends of them, and the ones that came out of the waist rested flat on the ground but also had the weird appendages, albeit significantly shorter and stubbier ones.

“What in Equestria’s name is she doing?” Lovely asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s Lyra Heartstrings,” Draymond chuckled, “Those things she has with her are drawings and figures of what she calls ‘humans.’  Strange, ape-like things, they are.  The report says that she’s obsessed with them.”

“What does that have to do with magic?” Rune Caster asked.

“Watch,” Draymond responded.  In the footage, Lyra’s horn began glowing its golden aura, and as she concentrated, magic constructs that looked like the limbs and appendages of the humans began forming around her, grabbing and moving things with incredible dexterity.  While this could be written off as simply modified levitation, these “hands” and “feet” as the character report called them were for much more than moving things around.  Lyra attached her own hooves to the constructs and began climbing the walls with them.  The council ponies wondered if the hands and feet were actually used by the “humans” to do what Lyra was doing with them, but had no way to know otherwise.

“I say we take her,” Rune smiled at the footage.  Lovely Assistant rolled her eyes,

“It figures you’d be attracted to the crazy.  I agree, though.  It could make for some interesting matches.”

“It’s decided, then,” Draymond declared, “Now, on to the next pony.”

The council passed through a few prospects before finding another one of note, another Ponyvillian.

“Isn’t this just a view of a concert?” Lovely wondered.  The video that was playing certainly seemed that way.  A number of ponies danced excitedly in a huge darkened venue.  Many had dyed manes and carried glowsticks.  Lovely was wrong, though.  It wasn’t just a view of a concert.  The pony of note was in this, up at the front of the crowd spinning records on a complex-looking disc-jockey’s turntable.

“Hey, that’s DJ P0n-3!  I love her music!” Rune Caster sat up when he noticed the white, blue-maned unicorn.

“Vinyl Scratch is her actual name, and according to our scouts’ reports she has a way with music that nopony else has,” Draymond explained, “Not only does she create the most unique music with magic machines she builds herself, she can manipulate the very sound of it as it’s coming out of the speakers.  She can use this to make a song resonate with just about any pony, actually causing them to enjoy the song more.  As you can see here, she can do this with many ponies at once.”

“I can see how this could be used in battle,” Lovely put her hoof to her chin, “You’d think a mare that looks like that would opt for more physical or violent spells.”

“Read the entire report, Lovely,” Draymond put his hoof out, “It seems she does dabble in battle-spells, and our scouts report that they found something in her studio of interest as well, but they could not get close enough to identify it.  All they have is the acronym B.A.S.S.”

“Maybe if we get her in the tournament we can find out what it means,” Rune pointed out, “Also, having a high profile DJ in the mix will make the tournament even more popular!  It has been losing attention in the past few years.”  Lovely and Draymond nodded their agreement.  After sifting through a few dozen more scout reports, the council came upon a surveillance clip that appeared to be more of a home movie than the recordings of a hidden camera.  Equestria had few magical recording devices for use outside the purposes of scouting for this tournament and various things that the princesses wished to be recorded.  It appeared one of the devices for the former reason, however, had been discovered and was being haphazardly operated by a small filly.

“Who are we supposed to be looking at, again?  The picture’s too shaky to make out anything,” Lovely said.

“It’s supposed to be Rarity, the Element of Generosity.  The report here says that the particular scout who set this recorder didn’t do a very good job of it.  In the clip you see it’s being toted around by Rarity’s little sister, Sweetie Belle, a filly who is actually the opposite of what we’re looking for—no magical talent whatsoever.  Other than a spark here and there, she’s far behind most unicorn children her age in magic development,” Draymond read from the character report to the others.

“What about Rarity, though?  Why did the scout highlight her?” Rune Caster pestered.

“Take a look at the video,” Draymond pointed.  The camera rattling around while being carried in Sweetie Belle’s mouth could not accurately pick up sound, but suddenly both picture and audio were clear as day as the camera lifted up above the filly and into Rarity’s face.  She had levitated it.

“Sweetie, where did you get this?” Rarity asked her sister, turning the camera over with her magic.

“In the corner you told me to go play in.  I thought it was neat, so I brought it over to you!”  The filly squeaked with excitement.  Draymond, a grandfather himself, couldn’t help but think of his own grand-foals while hearing Sweetie’s exuberance.

“Well, it certainly is interesting, but you shouldn’t pick up every odd thing you find on the ground, even if it’s in your own house.  It could be dangerous.  Now, run along.  Applebloom and Scootaloo are waiting for you at the park, aren’t they?” Rarity said.

“Oh, right!” The filly jumped. “Later, Rarity!”

The white unicorn mare sighed as her sister scampered out the door.

“That Sweetie Belle, what ever am I going to do with her?”  Rarity put the camera down on her window-sill, still unaware of what it was.  Luckily, the lens was still pointed toward her.  The council ponies saw why the scouts had sought this particular pony, though.  Though she was a seamstress and a fashion designer, Rarity’s magic was truly something to behold.  While most unicorns could only levitate and manage a few objects at a time, Rarity’s entire boutique seemed to move around her with all that she was manipulating at once.

“Whoa,” Rune gasped, “The girl’s not even breaking a sweat!”

“Her magic levels must be phenomenal to be able to maintain such control for so long,” Lovely added.

“She participated in Canterlot’s defense when the Changelings attacked, if I recall.  That bravery combined with her magic will make her an excellent fighter,” Draymond said.

A hoof covered the camera lens and it turned off.  The council ponies assumed it was the scout coming to reclaim the device.

Draymond, Lovely Assistant, and Rune Caster spent the next hours reviewing every single report their scouts had brought them.  They had to choose sixty-four contestants out of a pool of more than a thousand.  By the time they had decided on every single unicorn that would be competing in the tournament, Luna’s moon had come and gone and the sun was almost directly overhead.  Negra had not returned once the entire night.

“I suppose that’s it, then,” Lovely said after releasing a labored yawn, “I will send word to the scouts that it is time to deliver the invitations.”

In Ponyville, Princess Twilight Sparkle returned to her library to find a sealed letter slid under her door.