In the lower right hand corner of all calculable existence known as the universe, in a galactic cluster of approximately seven billion, hidden in a murky arm of one of the more-or-less exotic galaxies that plagued the cosmos was a small planet, orbiting a tiny, yellow, sun. This sun was almost exactly the same as about one tenth of all the other stars. Yellow, warm, full of hydrogen, and has a few billion years left to it. Orbiting this small, nondescript, boring yellow sun, was a planet, mostly rocks and gas. This planet supported the infestation known as life on its surface, as it lied in the “Goldilocks Zone” as some of the pesky humans called it, and had oceans. The oceans were not distinct in really any way, but from the point of view of any life form that can identify a life form that isn’t omnipotent, that’s not a very impressive feat.
The atmosphere was about seventy some-odd percent nitrogen, twenty some odd percent oxygen, and some filler gasses that nobody really cares about. On one of the land masses, was a kingdom. In that kingdom, three separate yet united races of a sentient being resided in a governed, mostly civilized way. These sentient beings were of equine nature, resembling a cross mixture of a horse, a midget, and a box of Crayolas. Separating these from the others was how they were born, into separate subspecies that could interbreed. They called themselves ‘Ponies’ and they either were boring, had a horn and perform psychokinetic abilities, or were of avian subnature and were not necessarily earthbound. The Pony had a mammalian body, stood on four legs, had no digits, and were bright and pastel colored with a multicolored tattoo on their rump. The Pegasus had wings cropping from the sides to fly, the Unicorn had a horn smack dab in the middle of their forehead that could channel mental ability to perform telekinesis and other stunts, and the Earth Pony had neither. They usually grew the food.
In a\town, possibly a few dozen miles south of their political capitol, was a small town called Ponyville. In that town, was an arena, where ponies would gather every Sunday to watch ponies engage in duels and battles to determine strength and their ability to think and react under pressure, as well as test physical endurance and stamina. Hundreds would gather for these games, known as the Ponymon League, as it was a tournament in some cases, and cheer madly. Today was a special day, because today would mark the one year anniversary of the reigning champion, Twilight Sparkle’s streak of zero losses since ascending to Ponymon League Victor. It was very serious.
“If nopony is up to the challenge, then Twilight Sparkle will be the first pony in all of Equestria to remain victorious for a solid year! Who wants to stop her?” an announcer yelled through a microphone system installed in the outdoor stadium while hundred of ponies stamped their hooves in applause as the next opponent waltzed onto the field, a stallion known as Bulk Biceps, or Snowflake to his friends.
“Our next competitor is Bulk Biceps! Would either pony please stand on either side of the field so we may begin?” And with that, both the large, muscular white Pegasus with severely undergrown wings trotted to his respected side of the field, while the lavender unicorn mare widely known as Twilight Sparkle flared her horn and teleported to her side, battle stance.
“Ready!” They said simultaneously and the referee waved a green flag in a downward motion, starting the battle.
Bulk took the first move and did a charge at his opponent, hoping to do some damage. Twilight countered by easily sidestepping, flaring her horn without much effort, and creating a dozen duplicates of herself.
“Bulk Biceps starts off with the fan favorite Wild Charge, and Twilight avoids it and uses Double Team! Bulk is in trouble now, his fighting style being physical moves against a clone army of illusions!” The announcer yelled as the crowd screamed and stomped.
The army of Twilights all turned to Bulk and began charging their respected horns and casting illusion spell after illusion spell, not doing any damage, but keeping Bulk distracted. Bulk hit the deck and began burrowing underground.
\”And Bulk used Dig!”
Twilight began running in a pattern that seemed to have no pattern to avoid being hit by Bulk’s accurate dig attack. It worked and Bulk dug up in the wrong place and stood up, looking at his opponent, who stood a good thirty feet away. Twilight’s eyes glowed a serene lavender color and a beam of energy shot from her horn at Bulk, striking a direct hit on him. He was then surrounded by a purple aura and thrown repeatedly at the ground before being released.
“Twilight used Confusion, followed by a powerful Psychic attack!” The announcer was getting everypony riled up at the match, hoping to get more ponies to participate.
Bulk stood up, shakily. He looked at Twilight with eyes filled with a proverbial fire and a small energy ball started forming near his screaming mouth. It got bigger and bigger and, within a second, reached critical size and launched at an immaculate speed towards his unsuspecting victim, who assumed he was already defeated. It hit her head on and threw her twenty feet away from her standing location, where she landed in a heap.
“That was Aura Sphere! A powerful fighting-type move that does massive damage to a successful hit.”
Twilight stood up, and in a flash of light, her mane erupted in a curtain of flames, replacing her once beautiful violet and magenta highlighted mane and tail with one of raging fury and searing temperatures. Yelling a loud yell, she took a deep breath and fired a stream of fire directly out of her mouth, the blast crossing fifty feet of open air and striking Bulk Biceps in the chest, who was still recovering from the Aura Sphere attack draining on his energy. The Fire Blast attack consisted of a three foot thick stream of flame that split into five smaller streams once the target is struck. Bulk Biceps fell into a lump on the ground, dirty, beaten, and singed. Emergency Response took him into the medical ward for treatment immediately, and Twilight held her head up high after another victory.
“And the winner if Twilight Sparkle, after using her hidden ability, changing her from a Psychic type to a Psychic-Fire type, enabling her to use a wider range of moves temporarily! We have enough time for plenty of more matches after she rests up, so don’t go anywhere, fillies and gentlecolts! If you want to face her, please sign up in the offices below.” And with that, Twilight trotted to the medical wing for instant treatment of her injuries and the coliseum around the dirt battlefield was drained of sports watchers going on bathroom breaks or buying pretzels.
“Would the next competitor please step onto the battlefield so we may begin the battle?” The announcer called out as the huge roofless arena began to fill up with ponies of all colors once again. On cue, a large purple dragon with green scales and blue-green flame leaking from his mouth in a whisp rocketed out of the entrance tunnel and landed gracefully on his respected side of the field, eyeing his opponent take a drink of water and teleport to her side. The dragon was about twenty feet long, head to tail, had an impressive wingspan of about the same length, and his scales were as hard as iron but as light as a feather. An outrageous roar erupted from his mouth as he screamed toward the sky, streaming an aura-colored blast of flame and plasma from his mouth, signaling his readiness to fight.
“Our competitor, born and raised in Ponyville, Spike, The Dragon! He was raised by Twilight Sparkle here so I’m sure this will make for an interesting battle.” The announcer cried as the crowd screamed and stomped their hooves in applause.
“Let the battle begin!”
And with that, Spike made the first move, his body covering itself in a light aura and running at unimaginable speeds towards his target, scoring a direct hit.
“Spike used Extreme Speed! That kind of attack is very hard to dodge if you aren’t expecting it, and Twilight was not!”
Twilight got up with ease and glared at Spike with rage fueled eyes in an intimidating Leer. Her horn then glowed and encased itself in a lavender aura and several chunks of earth lifted themselves from the battlefield below and hurled themselves at Spike. Spike jumped, using fire launching from the palms of his hands along with a flap of his mighty wings to assist him, barely dodging them. His hands started forming a small black ball of darkness in them, and he threw them repeatedly around his body, surrounding himself with several dozen Shadow Balls in orbit before shooting them in rapid succession towards Twilight, who was stuck on the ground. Four of them missed entirely, but the next eight hit their target, along with several hit and misses after that, severely draining Twilight Sparkles energy.
“Spike uses an interesting form of Shadow Ball, instead of creating a large one and firing it; he created several dozen small ones and shot them at a rapid pace! Very clever.” The announcer said through his technologically-assisted voice setup so the details would reach those who could not see, and those listening to their radios from out of town.
Twilight started charging at Spike, who was landing to rest his wings. Twilight suddenly duplicated into two Twilights, then four, then eight. After another few seconds of this, two dozen Twilight Sparkles with charged Ice Beam attacks surrounded the grounded dragon, only one of them real. All of them shot their illusion Ice Beams and Spike didn’t feel a thing. Looking around suddenly, he spotted a hole on the other side of the field, indicating that her Double Team was simply an illusion so she could use a magically-assisted Dig attack. Sensing his opportunity, he jumped ten feet into the air and landed with a powerful thunk, shaking the ground in a mighty Earthquake. He didn’t let up and immediately showered his fist in a red glow and punched the ground with a mighty Magnitude attack. Twilight teleported herself out of the ground just in time, a second later and the Magnitude would have gotten her good, and she was already breathing heavily. Her horn lit and shot a white-silver beam at the mighty drake, encasing him in a tomb of ice.
“After getting hit by an Earthquake attack whilst underground, Twilight apparently used Teleport to get herself out before a Magnitude could strike immediately after! She then fired Ice Beam, a super effective move against a Dragon Type creature such as Spike!”
Spike, being frozen from the ice beam, began to fuel the fire within him, flame coming out of every orifice in his body, including his hands, feet, mouth, nose, and wings, to melt the ice instantly. Spike commanded his body to charge up and ionize the air around him, positively charging the air, negatively charging his mouth. Spelling a very combustible gas from his throat, he ignited it, causing a chain reaction to occur, speeding the ionized explosion to condense and shoot at a mighty speed, scoring a direct hit on Twilight Sparkle, with a terrifying Hyper Beam attack.
Twilight fell to the ground, struggling to get back up. Her studies told her that she only had a few second to do whatever she wanted while he recharged his energy, so she took this opportunity to fire a ball of magic at the weakened dragon in front of her with a Confuse Ray move. It hit him as he could not move at all and stars seemed to surround his head as his eyes lost focus and his pupils dilated.
“A Confuse Ray attack will confuse the opponent, causing him to sometimes hit himself with any move he uses and to lose track of a quickly moving target.”
Spike began stumbling around, drunkenly seeking his enemy in a blind rage, claws glowing white and extending from his hand to a Dragon Claw attack, swiping at anything that moved. Twilight easily sidestepped all of them, firing a low powered Ice Beam after every swipe. Spike quickly began losing energy and began taking lots of damage.
‘At this rate, I’m not going to last much longer.’ Spike thought to himself. He pulled his thoughts together and snapped out of his confusion in a great feat of determination. He collected his energy and used his oral entrance as a focal point, firing a move of his own design at his surrogate mother, one he called Dragon Cannon. This move was similar to a Hyper Beam, but instead of using the ingredients for a Hyper Beam in the energy shot, he substituted those of a Dragon Breath, and used raw hydrogen instead of combustible dragon gas as an accelerant. A bolt of purple fire infused with electricity shot from his mouth, grazing Twilight in the side as she quickly strafed to the side to avoid impact. While she was busy dodging, Spike charged at her and used a Gyro Ball, using his greater mass to his advantage, and making Ms Sparkle fly into the air.
Twilight corrected herself midflight and fired Ice Beam after Ice Beam, hoping to knock the poor dragon unconscious before landing. As shot after shot of the attack struck the already fading drake, hitting body shot after body shot, head shot after head shot, he collapsed on the ground as Twilight Teleported herself to the safety of the ground, standing over the downed great reptile.
“TWILIGHT WINS AGAIN!” The announcer cried, breaking the silence of the arena filled with only battle noises with a huge roar of applause, hoof stomping, cheering, screaming, and t-shirt gun firing. Spike and Twilight were placed on stretchers and wheeled to the infirmary to get patched up as the next round was being prepared.
“Damn, you can fight.” Spike said to Twilight after he gained consciousness again in the medical wing of the arena.
“Thank you, Spike, I have trained you well. Kudos on creating a new move that isn’t in our standard move base. What was it, Dragon Pulse or Dragon Fire or something?” The purple unicorn replied, looking over and examining the sweaty, burned, scratched, scarred and broken dragon in the bed next to hers.
“Dragon Cannon.” He replied to her, simply. “Prettymuch a repurposed Hyper Beam with my special signature.” He chuckled to himself quietly. “Glad to know you didn’t hold back on me just for being your son brother kid sibling thing. If I were facing Sweetie Belle she would have let me win just because we are dating.” The doctor came up to Twilight and began hooking her up to the BAR machine.
“Hey doc, what is that?” a curious Spike asked politely.
“Body Analyzer and Reconstructer. It analyzes the body so it can reconstruct her.” He replied and trotted away to fetch some equipment. Spike just chuckled at the response.
“Probably took him all night to think of that pun.” He thought out loud as Twilight’s healing progress began wrapping up.
“Last match of the day, last match of the day. Who can defeat Twilight Sparkle on her one year anniversary of undefeated glory?” a speaker system yelled from the middle of the stadium.
“Take five minutes to rest your mind, your body is fine but battling is hard on the brain.” A passing nurse told Twilight as they hooked Spike up to a much larger BAR machine built for larger species.
“Thank you, Nurse Sweetheart.”
“Our next competitor, all the way from the Canterlot Tournament, and one of the most powerful beings in Equestria, will be facing Twilight Sparkle in fifteen minutes! Turn your attention towards the competitor’s entrance for our newest battle member, Discord, God of Chaos!”
The announcer said as the entire arena once again cheered and howled in celebration, but in much more volume this time. A pony with a year of straight wins under her belt, versus a demigod of chaos. This is one battle that the world would watch the recordings of for years after, savoring the tales of great battles past, as no battle was quite like this one, nor would one ever be again.
“Our next competitor, all the way from the Canterlot Tournament, and one of the most powerful beings in Equestria, will be facing Twilight Sparkle in fifteen minutes! Turn your attention towards the competitor’s entrance for our newest battle member, Discord, God of Chaos!”
The audience faced the tunnel that the competitors came from, to be rewarded with nothing, not even a tuft of wind. Confused, many began murmuring about themselves, some contemplating whether he chickened out and others praying he did not have a nasty trick up his sleeve. Catching all of their attentions, a large spark erupted several hundred feet above the field as a humongous boom echoed throughout the facility. Discord was in the middle, very ready for the occasion. His hair was slicked back, and his teeth very sharpened. The powerful demigod of a draconequus emanated a very powerful pressure around him and some of the ponies even cringed at the sight. He had the head of a pony, of sorts. Mismatched wings, feet, arms, horns and even eyes if you dared to look into them. His eyes squinted slightly and his focus pumped, ready for anything.
Twilight had gathered her strength and was ready for the final match of the day, the one that would determine who the most powerful being in Equestria was through rigorous battling and fierce determination. Twilight revved her magic and in a flash of condensed planar magicka transported herself between the planes and dimensions or reality, manipulating the entity that was her to instantly reappear on the battlefield before becoming reassembled and reintroduced in her regular plane of existence. Revealing herself before the crowd once more, she glared at her opponent who was all but ready to end her reign of victory then and there.
“This will be a one on one battle with no time limit. The battle will be limited to the stadium only, Discord, and protective fields will be in place for the audience’s protection. I will give the signal when you are to start.” The referee said to the two as they kept their battle stances up and ready. Discord’s had him lowered to the ground, one foot in front of the other. One hand was behind him to charge a spell while the other’s claws were sparking with raw energy.
Twilight had her head lowered and her horn reaching across the field. There were no two hooves that were touching or in line with each other, and she was ready to dodge at a moment’s notice. Several support unicorns were placing a protective field in place and sealing off the roof and below the ground to prevent escape.
“BEGIN!” The ref shouted and Twilight charged her horn and began making exact copies of herself to confuse Discord. Discord had keenly kept track of the true enemy and fired a sphere of pure blackness at the target Twilight, scoring a direct hit and causing the duplications to disappear from her loss of concentration. Twilight got up and shook herself off, getting her head back in the game. Twilight focused her archaic magic and manipulated the very essence and barriers of the dimensions that her opponent existed therein, focusing on abstract exotic partial matter to stretch and distort it into a wave of pure energy that cannot be manipulated to be stopped, resulting in a crash of damage that landed on Discord from a powerful Psywave attack.
Discord shook it off and began spinning and wrapping himself in a wave of shadows before condensing the growing veil of blackness into a pitch black electric flame that left a plasmatic trail behind it before extending his arms to direct the shot at Twilight. Twilight extended her legs and dodged the shot and saw in horror as Discord shot another at the spot where she was going to land. In fear and instinct, she teleported herself away and landed safely twenty feet away from the blast.
Twilight used her magic and started kicking up the dirt below them and grinding it to fine particles and whipping it all around her to create a Sandstorm that may slow him down. Discord saw that she could very well use this as a shield and hide underground away from the storm given the chance, and knew it had to go. He started gathering shadow energy from within him and spun uncontrollably to create another wave of darkness and instead of condensing it, he shot it outwards to nullify the effects and disrupt the Sandstorm in front of him with a Dark Pulse of energy. Twilight condensed the natural magic that flowed within the universe thousands of times over directly in front of her, combining that with a material magic that embedded her to create a Protective shield in front of her to keep the Pulse from hitting her.
Energy began to move and concentrate in front of her horn, giving an aesthetically pleasing look as five distinct ribbons of energy concentrated into a small sphere of blue-purple energy. The ball got bigger and bigger and suddenly the energy contained inside caused it to lurch forward in the direction its caster, Twilight, had commanded upon it. The Aura Sphere attack began condensing and getting smaller and more potent as it flew through the field, almost hitting Discord in the side as he lurched out of the way just in time. Discord was angry that she almost landed a super-effective move on him and did not like the way that rested on his mind. Not one bit.
Discord angrily forced the magic in his veins to seep out of his claw and paw and began juggling golf ball sized Shadow Ball attacks until he had several dozen orbiting his body, instead of one of her previous opponents, he did not throw them directly. Instead, he shot them around, barely hitting Twilight and destroying key structural points in the field that was left by previous battles and her favorable use of the move Dig. As Twilight was herded towards the center of the field, the final dozen Shadow Balls all landed in a ring surrounding her and destroying the caves underneath. The battlefield started collapsing and Discord used this opportunity to rush her and use a Focus Punch, scoring another point for the God of Chaos.
Twilight landed on the other side of the field, bruised, dazed, cut and crushed. She didn’t want to have to resort to what she never used before, but she would not back down. Not today, not to this chimera. She got up, shaking her legs before she stood up tall. Discord was shocked at how she even survived such a feat, much less wanted to fight afterward. He snapped his fingers and the rubble left behind of the battle started floating back into place, leaving a relatively clean slate due to the preciseness of his Psychic attack. Twilight looked Discord in the eyes before she began glowing. A sphere surrounded her as she began to alter her physical form, and emerged from the rocky shell to reveal powerful glowing eyes, a new set of wings, and a powerful Psybeam emerging from her horn. Twilight landed and flared her wings once again, focusing her mind and firing shot after shot of repeated Psybeam and Psystrike attacks, landing several hits per second for several seconds before Discord used a Protect spell to attempt to gain an upper hand. Discord jumped up from his protective barrier as it shattered, dodging all of the shots below before taking to the skies.
Discord gathered some clouds together, at first one or two, but the whole bubble that the stadium allotted was full and the demigod directed all of its energy towards a small target on the ground, whose wings earned her a special weakness to Electric Type moves such as the Thunder she was about to feel. Discord let the move fire and a bolt of electricity the width of a cow landed on Twilight’s Mirror Coat, which was activated by her in just the nick of time. The damage dealt did not get absorbed by the move, but she held on and recoiled double the damage taken during her shock, dealing an amazing shock of damage to the floating fiend. As Discord lost altitude and the clouds dissipated, Twilight did not take any chances and flew above him and firing a beam that sapped his life energy to replace her drained. The Oblivion attack did standard damage, but that was enough to fade Discord from the waking world as he collapsed on the ground in a pool of sweat and charred fur.
Twilight Sparkle landed on the ground as her wings and more slender appearance wore off, and she stood proud as she completed an entire year of battles without a single loss. The shield was removed to reveal a crowd madly cheering and stomping their hooves in response to the most powerful battle ever seen by the naked eye. Twilight Sparkle, personal student of the leader of the second largest nation on their planet, had stood up and defeated a demigod at his own game. The referee ran up and held her hoof high as she smiled to the roaring crowd above her. She felt accomplished, strong, and tired. A team of medical practitioners carried her to a stretcher and wheeled her to the infirmary while a team of ponies began to clean up and repair the field to its former condition.
Back in the infirmary, Spike was visiting Twilight as she recovered from her injuries, keeping her company while she was healed.
“Wow, Twilight! I knew you were good at fighting and all, but wow were you good! I mean you took on Discord! He is a demigod and you beat him up! I am glad I’m on your good side as your brother son adopted surrogate relative thing, Twilight.” Spike excitedly said as she giggled quietly at what the teenage drake had said. Twilight closed her eyes and fell asleep immediately, to be woken up by a nurse with a request.
“Twilight Sparkle? You have a visitor.” Nurse Redheart said as she led in a brown earth pony. He had a short brown mane and a gold hourglass as a cutie mark. He had a tie on with a small collar to keep it fastened. He was either well off or really liked ties, and he had a request.
“Twilight Sparkle? Time Turner here and I was very happy that you made it for a whole year without a defeat. Very impressive, for here at least. Twilight, I want to take you to the big leagues. You went as champion for a year straight, and that means that you have qualified for the ARC Tournament. This tournament has never been broadcasted yet because we are still rounding up the ponies to battle. It is the biggest and most powerful Ponymon tournament ever conceived and the accomplishment you just did is just the entrance exam. What do you say, Twilight? Want to make it to the big leagues?”
