The Great Unicorn Battle Torunament

Princess Twilight Sparkle fidgeted nervously in the locker room.  Her first official magic battle was about to come up.  This could either be the beginning of her proving herself to Celestia that she was ready to rule, or the beginning of the end of her royal status.  What if she failed?  Celestia said she would magically remove Twilight’s wings, but where would she go after that?  Would she have to re-learn the magic of friendship?  If that, would it mean actually forgetting all she had gone through, the ponies she had met, and the bonds she had made?

Twilight guessed it wouldn’t matter after the fact if she did forget everything, but the thought of losing it all weighed heavy on the alicorn’s heart.  This Unicorn Council was suspicious as well, especially that black unicorn, Negra.  The royal sisters trusted them, but Twilight wondered if they were all that wise.  They were the ones that gave Celestia the idea that Twilight needed to be tested.  They let a little filly compete in a battle tournament!

Twilight had read that the semi-finalists got to have private sessions with the council as a reward for getting so far.  To find out absolutely everything, she would have to hold one of those spots.

“Princess Twilight, it’s almost time to head out,” a voice called from the locker room entrance.

“Early Dawn!  You’re calling the contestants, too?” Twilight felt a bit relieved to see a friendly face.  Early Dawn nodded,

“Uh-huh, I’m kind of the pony-of-all-trades in this tournament.  Receptionist, assistant, medic… I’m even referee for a couple matches!  Not this one, though, sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Twilight waved her hoof dismissively, “Don’t you have any help?”

“Plenty!  The Great Unicorn Tournament isn’t something that gets short-staffed very often.  I just happened to volunteer for a bunch of positions!”  Early smiled.  Twilight laughed.  She could see that Early Dawn was a hard worker.  The young unicorn may have bitten of more than she could chew, but it was clear she was tackling it with enthusiasm.  There was a lot of Twilight’s friends in her.

A bell rang out through the locker room.

“Oops!  I’ve kept you longer than I should have.  You need to hurry!” Early pushed Twilight out the room and into the corridor leading to the battlefield.  Her match was in Galaxy Stadium.

“Thanks for the talk, Early Dawn.  I was pretty nervous, but I’m feeling better thanks to you,” Twilight rubbed the young mare’s mane.  Early blushed,

“N-no problem, Twilight!  Go get ‘em out there, okay?”

“You got it!” Twilight winked.

The crowd roared as Twilight emerged from the corridor on to the field.  She surveyed the ground before her.  Normally, being in front of so many ponies wasn’t a problem for her.  Given what was at stake, however, Twilight felt her wings tighten so hard against her body she couldn’t have deployed them if she tried.  Not that she would have been able to use them, though—she alone was given a special rule that she could not use her wings to fly in the tournament.

As it was for all first-round matches, the ground was flat.  Later rounds might have special terrain added to diversify the battles and encourage strategy and innovation.  The lack of scenery made the stadium floor look twice as big as it actually was, which was already quite expansive on its own.  Twilight saw the guide lines that were chalked down to streamline the battle area.  Combatants could fight within or without the lines.  Over to her right on a platform jutting off the high stadium wall was a referee pony with an instrument panel in front of her.  If Twilight remembered correctly from The Great Unicorn Battle Tournament: Rules, Regulations, and Proceedings she had read earlier, those instruments would gauge magic power, identify archived spells used, and help call illegal moves.  It would also announce if one of the combatants was unable to battle further and could call the match.

On the giant display screens at the top of the stadium, the heads of Twilight and her opponent floated with facts and statistics about each of them below.

Across from Twilight, her actual opponent stood stalwart, apparently ready to take on even an alicorn princess in his first battle.  His name was Sure Shot, and draped over either side of him were short bows used for archery, but no quiver or arrows.

A timer flashing on the display screen got Twilight’s attention.  It was the countdown to the fight’s start.  She quickly reviewed her plan in her head.

All right, first I’ll open with a simple magic blast to get an idea of his reflexes, then—

The buzzer sounded and Sure Shot began running sideways, using his magic to unsheathe his bows.

“Drat!  What do I—” Whap!  A light yellow streak pierced the ground right beside Twilight, causing her to jerk her hoof away.  That’s why there were no arrows with the stallion.  His magic was his ammunition.  Twilight began running in the opposite direction of Sure Shot just as he readied another shot.  She fired a magic blast his way, causing him to lose focus.  She used the opportunity to get some speed; a moving target is harder to hit.  They engaged in a sort of circular pursuit, yellow magic arrows flying one way, purple blasts of magic flying the other.

Twilight made a bad decision taking just a split second to glance for an escape path from this spiral as an arrow hit her flank.  She tripped and rolled to a stop, dust flying up as she hit the ground.  Because it was a magic arrow, it disappeared as soon as it pierced her, but the pain was just the same.  It wasn’t enough to disable Twilight, though.  She winced as she got to her hooves once again.

“This is only the beginning,” she said to herself, “One little hit isn’t going to take me out of this fight.”  Twilight’s horn ignited and the ground rumbled below her.  Sure Shot, unsteady with the vibrations, couldn’t get a clear shot at his opponent.  He wobbled as he attempted to right himself, but Twilight was already on the counteroffensive.  She had activated an earth control spell, causing a small local earthquake and raising stones around the battlefield.  She was atop one of these stones, using telekinesis to ride it toward Sure Shot.  At the last moment, she jumped off of it and it sailed into the stallion, knocking him unconscious.  The referee waited ten seconds to see if Sure Shot would rise again, and when he didn’t, he pressed a button that made Twilight’s face take up all of the display screens with “VICTORY” in large letters below it.

The crowd cheered wildly and Twilight let out a huge sigh.  She trotted over to Sure Shot and used a spell to rouse him to consciousness.

“Ugh, I feel like a train hit me,” he groaned.

“It was actually a giant boulder, but I get what you mean.  You did great out there, Sure Shot,” Twilight said.

“Thank you,” Twilight helped Sure Shot to his hooves, “You did well, too, Princess Twilight.  I guess I didn’t stand a chance.”

“You were invited to the tournament in the first place.  I think that’s proof that you did stand a chance.  Maybe luck just wasn’t on your side,” Twilight shrugged.  The stallion laughed,

“I guess so.  Anyway, I guess I’ll be rooting for you in the later matches.” Medical ponies came by to escort Sure Shot to the infirmary to rest up.  They offered to patch up Twilight’s wound as well, but she insisted it was superficial and denied.  The crowd cheered once again as she waved and exited the arena.

The Nebula Dome seemed ten times as loud as Galaxy Stadium as thousands of ponies packed in to see the battle between Lyra Heartstrings and the first ever dual-entrants: twins by the names of Sprinter and Finish Line.  They were allowed to enter the tournament as one unit because of the unique nature of their magic.  It could only be used when they were in close proximity of each other.  Lyra was lucky enough to learn this beforehand when she overheard fans from the pair’s hometown of Fillydelphia talking about it.

Lyra planted her hooves in the ground as the giant magic display began counting down from ten.  She saw her opponents get into a position as if they were about to begin a hundred meter dash.  Lyra steeled herself for whatever they had planned.

3…2…1… the twins’ horns lit up for a split second and they disappeared.  An invisibility spell?

No, but they were moving fast enough so that Lyra lost track of them immediately.  She didn’t catch sight of them again until about a second later when both of their hooves connected with her chin.  The force sent her airborne.  An audible “Ooooh!” emanated from the crowd.  The mint green unicorn recovered quickly, however.  She generated two magic arms to steady herself as she landed.  Sprinter and Finish Line bounced on their hooves as they studied the opponent in front of them,

“What in Celestia’s name are those?” Sprinter asked.

“I dunno, bro.  Looks like we’re up against some sort of spider-pony,” Finish Line answered.  They flanked Lyra, attempting to get her from the sides, but Lyra dropped to her hooves and used the hands to block the next blows.

“These hands belong to a human, but if you want a spider-pony, I’ll give you one!” Lyra’s horn glowed brighter as she formed two more pairs of magic arms and hands and used them to suspend herself above the ground.

“Now, feel the power of the Homo sapiens!” she cried.

“The homo-what?” Finish Line barely got his question out when one of the hands clocked him in the side of the head, knocking him a good ways toward the edge of the arena.

“Bro!” Sprinter yelled as he began running toward his fallen sibling at normal speed.  Normal speed.

They must have an effective range in which they can use their speed magic, Lyra thought.  If I can keep them distanced from each other…

Lyra used her magical extensions to leap in front of Sprinter’s path.

“Ah-ah-ah!” She wagged one of her magic fingers, “You two aren’t so tough when you’re not moving at a bajillion miles per hour.”  Sprinter smirked,

“Yeah, but there are still two of us, and one of you!” Lyra had forgotten for a moment that there was another pony behind her, a fact driven home by a magic blast to the back of her head.  She lost her concentration and her magic extensions dissipated, causing her to drop to the ground with a thud.  Her head spun.  She tried to struggle to her hooves as she watched Finish Line get up and walk back to his brother.  Indistinguishable light flashed somewhere to her left.  She guessed it was the counter clocking the time until a K.O. was declared.

The dizziness was too much for Lyra, and she couldn’t stand.

“I’ve got to win this!” she said to herself.  Within the few seconds that she had, Lyra remembered the paper she was working on before receiving the invitation to the Great Unicorn Battle Tournament.  She was transliterating human lore—other ponies who also had human encounter experiences similar to hers had gathered information from their culture and Lyra was compiling it.  In the particular portion she was working on there was talk about human views on the dead and stories about zombies.

In some zombie tales, reanimated corpses surprised their victims by suddenly grabbing them from their graves.  While their target was immobile, the zombie would unearth itself and consume the flesh of the living.  Lyra wasn’t about to eat any ponies, but that random thought did give her an idea.

Summoning as much strength as she could, Lyra lit her horn right as the counter hit two.  Fortunately for her, Sprinter and Finish Line were already waving to the crowd and celebrating their supposed victory.  As they waved, Lyra’s golden hands rose up from the ground and grabbed both stallions’ heads and knocked them together hard.  They got knocked out cold.  To show that she was still able, Lyra sat up, though she didn’t yet have enough orientation to get on all fours.

The minty unicorn sighed, and just as she did, she saw the screen with her face on it declaring her the winner of the match.  She could only help but smile and laugh at nothing in particular having come to such a close win in the first round of the tournament.  The medic ponies rushed out to tend to the injured combatants,

“High five!” Lyra said, wobbling her hoof.

“High what?”

“Y’know, I’ve always wanted to play in the Nova Dome one day.  I never thought my first appearance here would be for this, though,” Vinyl Scratch jostled her goggles in the Nova Dome’s locker room, gearing up for her first match in the Great Unicorn Battle Tournament.

“I can’t believe I’m actually in the locker room some of the greatest unicorns in history readied themselves in for decades!” Octavia was busy spinning around, admiring everything around her before she had to take her seat in the stands, “I’ve been here so many times before, but thanks to you, I’m closer to the action than ever!” The gray earth pony hugged her friend tightly,

“You are one excitable fangirl, ‘Tavi.” The buzzer for the contestants to enter the arena sounded.

“Welp, that’s my cue.  Wish me luck out there!” Vinyl started for the door.

“Wait!  Aren’t you going to use this?” Octavia gestured to Vinyl’s secret machine, still shrouded under its tarp.  Vinyl looked off to the side for a second,

“Nah, it’s only the first round.  You should know as well as anypony that you don’t open a concert with your best song.”

“Oh, all right then.  Good luck, Vinyl!” Octavia waved her friend out.

Across the field, flames shooting in various directions caught Vinyl’s attention.  It also elicited excited squeals from the audience.  Its source was a mare with a coat and mane that seemed to blaze with the same intensity of the fire she was spitting from her mouth.

“Solar Flare!  Solar Flare!” The crowd chanted.  Up on the display screen, Solar Flare’s information showed that she was a Vanhoover celebrity known for her fire handling shows.  She just needs to light her horn for a second to activate a flame control spell that she can have active for minutes at a time.  She turned to meet Vinyl’s gaze as the spotlight traveled from her to the white unicorn across from her.

Vinyl’s own cheering section began chanting her name.

“Vinyl Scratch!  Vinyl Scratch!” Vinyl was almost certain she could hear Octavia among the other hundreds of voices calling her name—she would be in the stands by now.

“So!” Solar Flare called, the cavernous Nova Dome carrying her voice all the way to Vinyl’s ears, “It looks like I’m up against another local celebrity.  By the time this is over, one of us will be known not only in our hometowns, but all across Equestria!”

“Oh yeah?” Vinyl answered, “Well I’m not just some circus act that anypony can do!  If there’s one pony that deserves to have her name known across the kingdom, that pony is me, DJ P0n-3!”  Audience members cheered her banter.

“Cheeky mare!” Solar spat.  The countdown timer to begin the match was just beginning. “We’ll let our spells do the talking for now.  Be careful, though,” she blew a spark out the side of her mouth, “You might get burned.”

Vinyl felt like she was at one of her DJ battles exchanging words with Solar Flare like that.  She felt her pride welling up inside her like she was about to enter the climax of her favorite song.  She was going to win this match.

The timer hit zero.  Both mares charged.  When they got within a few feet of each other, Solar Flare lit her horn and blew a jet of fire at Vinyl.  Vinyl used her running momentum to dodge and get close enough to grab Solar’s head.

“This is what it feels like when you get too close to a loud speaker,” she said.  Her horn glowed blue, and intense vibrations were sent from her body right into her opponent’s skull.

“Gah!  That hurts!” Solar cried, struggling to free herself from Vinyl’s grip.  It looked like the fight was over already, but Solar’s flame spell from earlier was still active.  She struggled to turn her face toward Vinyl’s and spat more flame to get the DJ to release her grasp.  The white unicorn reeled back from the heat.  A fringe of her mane that she could see was black.

“Aw, jeez, you singed my mane!”

“If anything I did that mess of hair of yours a favor.  Now let’s see if I can’t leave a bigger mark!” Solar Flare lit her horn a shade brighter and her hooves ignited, sheathing themselves in flame so that it looked like she was wearing boots of fire.  Vinyl had just wondered why Solar had used such a spell when her unspoken question was answered with a forehoof flying toward her face.  She dodged just in time, the whoosh of the strike echoing in her ears.  After that, more blows came.  Vinyl found herself in a sort of martial-arts dance with Solar Flare.  Her opponent was using all four hooves to try to connect a branding hoof with her face.  The DJ tried to avoid actually blocking the hits—contact with them burned her own hooves.  She couldn’t take a chance that she would flinch and leave herself open for a finishing blow.

She quickly scanned her mind for a spell that would break this stalemate of sorts.  She was running out of energy to dodge and block, but, fortunately Solar Flare was losing momentum as well.  The flames on her hooves were dying down and fatigue was beginning to show on her face.  Another swish of Solar Flare’s burning hoof over her head may as well have been a light bulb.  Vinyl remembered a simple spell that would allow her to cinch victory.

Jumping back, Vinyl sparked her horn for less than a second.  A ring of blue magic radiated quickly around her and Solar Flare before dissipating as fast as it appeared.  Vinyl breathed a sigh of relief.  The match was essentially over.

“What’s with that satisfied look on your face?  I’m not finished with youwhoa—oof!” The red mare moved to get another blow at Vinyl.  Or at least she tried to.  Her punch failed miserably and she lost balance, falling to the ground.

“What the—” she tried to get up, but could not keep her footing.  Even if she got on all fours, it would only be for a second as lifting one hoof caused her to tumble down again.

“What did you do to me!?” Solar growled, desperately trying to strike at the DJ.

“I threw off your balance.” Vinyl smiled.  “That spell threw the vestibular cavities in your ears out of whack.  For the next hour or so, the only way you’ll be standing is with a walker.” Vinyl tilted her head as a jet of flame spat by her.

“I’m not too worried about that fire of yours, either.  If you can’t get close to me, all I have to do is stand out of range of your fire and I won’t even feel the heat.” Solar flare screamed in frustration.  Vinyl turned to the referee,

“You can go ahead and call the match now.”

“Uh, yeah…” the referee hit a button and the countdown began on the magic display screen.  Solar Flare continued to try—and fail—to get up to stop the timer, but her balance just wasn’t there.  When the clock hit zero she collapsed dejectedly.  The Nova Dome erupted in applause as Vinyl Scratch was declared the winner.

Sweetie Belle’s shaking was incessant as she prepped for her first battle in Galaxy Stadium.  After her match, Twilight stayed with the filly to calm her nerves the best she could.  She had sent Spike to give word to Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had traveled to Canterlot.

“I still can’t believe they’re actually making you do this.  Are you sure you want to go through with it, Sweetie Belle?” the purple alicorn asked. Sweetie shook her head,

“Not anymore, no.  I wanted to be brave at the opening ceremonies, but what if I really get hurt?  I don’t want that on top of Rarity being mad at me for stealing her invitation.” Tears were welling up in the little filly’s eyes.

“Oh, honey,” Twilight pulled Sweetie Belle to her side, “I’m sure Rarity’s more worried than angry.  When she gets here, she’ll be thrilled to see that you’re all right.” Twilight stopped her sentence short when she remembered Sweetie Belle’s current circumstance,

“We can still pull you out of the match if you want.  The Great Unicorn Council may have insisted you stay, but in the end it’s up to a competitor if they want to fight.”

“Well, what would you do, Twilight?  You’re a princess—would you back out of something you’re scared of?”

The alicorn’s current predicament came to mind.  Unlike most of the competitors, she didn’t have much of a choice in being here.  But what if her wings and princess-hood weren’t at stake?  If she was just another competitor—albeit one with wings—would she still choose to participate?

“I think if I had something that I wanted to fight for hard enough, I would see it through, even if it means I would lose or get hurt.  You’ll find that, in life, sometimes a little sacrifice is necessary to accomplish your goals.”  Sweetie Belle stared at Twilight for a moment, letting her words soak in.

“So you’re saying that if I really want to learn magic from the council, I should at least give this thing a shot, right?”

“There are plenty of other ways to learn magic, but if that’s how you want to look at this, and if you’re positive you can stand up to the pressure, then yes, that’s what I’m saying.”

“All right,” Sweetie Belle nodded.  The buzzer sounded to signal the combatants to enter the arena.  She hopped off the bench and scampered to the door.  Right before she left, she paused and glanced back at Twilight.

“The second I’m in danger, right?”

“I’ll swoop in myself, Sweetie Belle.  Good luck out there.”

Fifteen minutes later, to the tune of thousands of ponies chanting her name, Sweetie Belle emerged victorious.