The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

Shimmer knew well enough why Speaker wasn’t talking to her, so she didn’t press the topic that night. Her feelings of guilt she chose to ignore, deciding to spend the evening with some of her new fans reveling in her victory, and the victories of other participants in the games.
The celebrants were barely done partying when messengers arrived the next morning, calling for still active participants in the Locked Horns tournament to report to the arena – apparently there had been a slew of withdrawals from the contest.

For all their boasting of martial prowess and nerves of steel in the face of battle and pain, the Lookshyans sure did wuss out when faced with stiff opposition.

“Oh come on – we’re not that bad… I figure they’re just smart enough to see that they can’t beat you, so no sense fighting you right?” a drowsy and yet surprisingly coherent mare noted from somewhere in the pile of ponies that Shimmer had woken up in.

Feeling good, sticky and delightfully sexed up and ready to fight, Shimmer turned into a snake and slithered out of the pile, turning back into a pony in front of the very intimidated-looking messenger: “So, what’s the problem?”

“No problem ma’am, I’ve just been told to inform you that you ‘re to report to the arena for your next fight” the messenger blurted out just a little too fast to hide the fact that the colt was ready to piss himself.

Amused by the naked display of fear, Shimmer stretched and shook herself, taking a deep breath. The room reeked of sex, half-dry cups of the swill that passed for beer in Lookshy, and the odd whiff of vomit – unicorns sure knew how to party hard, even if they couldn’t all cut the mustard: “Right… I’ll be there before you get back there”

Stepping out into the early morning sun… no, the ‘just before sunrise light from beyond the horizon’ – far too early for the Locked Horns fights – Shimmer looked around in the dim dawn-light. It wasn’t Speaker’s townhouse… didn’t smell like the Yushoto compound’s effervescent fragrance of pine and bamboo flowers… oh well, didn’t matter.

Shapeshifting into her seagull form – her true form, depending on what Lunar philosopher one asked – and flew over to a fountain to rinse off... flying wasn’t easy with her now feathers gunged up in the sticky leftovers of last night’s fun and games.

Coming out of her bird-bath and ascending into the sky Lookshy looked so damn boxy. Every district was walled off, every intersection of walls had a tower bristling with arcane weapons – many of which had a really annoying habit of tracking her as she flew past – still, the air was a lot clearer up at this altitude, though the view wasn’t that much better: From the blue-grey walls of Lookshy, the same colored roof-tiles on damn near everything, or the vast far-too-perfect farmlands to the south of the city. The whole place was just so painfully unnatural. Even the park district, their oh so amazing ‘Green Hunt’ was about as artificial as it got, like how a painter or poet would imagine the ‘perfect’ bit of wooded grassland. They didn’t even let weeds grow there, like, what’s up with that?

Approaching the massive arena complex that the games were held in, Shimmer couldn’t help but be reminded of the hippodrome in Azure, or the racing tracks at Abalone – now the ponies there, they knew how to race.

Down in the arena thingy by the ring, Shimmer saw Speaker, a drowsy-looking Cash, the young event organizer from that committee, the one with the scar, and a few robed ponies with saddlebags full of scrolls…

Landing, with nary a soul up in the stands, it was blatantly obvious that she hadn’t been summoned to fight her next fight.
“What’s up my ‘nathema?” she coyly, trying to break the ice with a little joke.

The stallion with the scar looked at Speaker, who threw a brief glance back at the stallion and the three scribes behind him. Oh come on – wasn’t anyone going to say anything? Not knowing if she was in for a round of praise or lambasting suddenly made Shimmer feel very… fight or flight inclined…

“We’re winning too much” Cash blurted out – having clearly used some flavor of charm to see that Shimmer was getting antsy – not that his statement made that much sense, though it did seem to get the stallion with the scar talking.

Startled by Cash’s claim, the young legion veteran cleared his throat: “Yes, right – good you could come so early Lady Last Shimmer”

It was like listening to a young colt who had been put in way over his head by a well-meaning elder as the scarred stallion somewhat explained that following Shimmer’s spectacular victory yesterday almost all of the remaining participants in the martial arts tournament had withdrawn from the contest.

“…for real? I spooked them that well? Oh this is rich” Shimmer chuckled heartily.

Yawning, Cash rubbed his eyes: “A few of them, yes – the rest quit out of protest because we are clearly breaking some kind of rule by participating… I mean, it is obviously not right that celestial exalts are allowed to compete against terrestrial exalts – we’re clearly not as bad as everyone else had thought, so they want us to withdraw to make everyone else come back”

The stallion with the scar looked quite shocked – in that delicious sort of “how did you know what I really wanted to say, not what I was going to actually say?” way.

“They can’t make us withdraw – so everyone else left instead, in protest. They say we’re dishonoring the Locked Horns with our participation” Speaker noted glumly, sounding… upset. It was difficult for Shimmer to tell if Speaker was upset because of her from what she had done yesterday, or because of the results of her actions now… and that annoyed her endlessly! That nagging sensation from her bond to him, shaming her, screaming at her that she had clearly done something wrong, even if it wasn’t clear what that thing was…

Taking a deep breath, Cash stepped up to the scarred stallion and gave him a knowing look. The stallion apparently got whatever message Cash was communicating wordlessly, and nodded. Cash turned to Shimmer: “Basically we have a choice: Either we do not withdray, which makes us three and the champ the only remaining contestants – and a lot of ponies will consider us selfish gits, or we drop out and then hope that enough unicorns rescind their withdrawal so things can continue normally”

“What? No. I’m not withdrawing – I want to show these ponies my true power, not hide in the shadows… the Lunar host has hidden away for far too long” Shimmer stated, stomping in the ground hard to accentuate her point.

Looking at Speaker it was obvious that he was conflicted. He didn’t want to upset his kin, the ponies he had looked up to all his mortal life, but it was clear that part of him didn’t want to just up and leave either… Cash looked more pragmatic – he had joined the tournament for fun, not to make a point, but he was probably evaluating what option would yield the greatest political benefit for him.

The issue was ultimately that it was an all or nothing ‘deal’ – a really shitty deal by Shimmer’s reckoning, for it required that all three of them forfeit and recues themselves… otherwise the event committee couldn’t really be sure if any of the other contestants would come back.
“And what he’s not saying is that there’s no real guarantee if they’ll come back at all if we quit the tournament… plus there are ponies pulling his strings who simply don’t want to a non-unicorn winning this, and they don’t mind seeing the tournament simply ending without a winner to prevent that” Cash groaned, looking and sounding far too tired to want to bother with sensing political intrigue this early.

“I’m not going anywhere” Shimmer said resolutely, again letting her will be known. Broadening her stance ever so slightly, tensing up, flattening her ears – Shimmer did everything outside of growling to display her defiance in the face of the obviously cowardly fools who didn’t have the guts to face a real challenge.

There was no doubt that Cash got her message, and the scarred stallion looked intimidated if nothing else, but Speaker… he just looked annoyed. Had the intimidation display been too much? Was he upset again? What if she withdrew anyway, maybe? The realm unicorn had been her only real quarry – and she had pretty much gotten him to kill himself in front of tens of thousands of cheering ponies… but still…. But if she didn’t, it would probably mean having to fight Speaker. Part of her thought it sounded really fun, but it might mean having to hurt him…

“Allright, then I won’t withdraw either – but we need some way to explain this… the first fight is in less than four hours, and this place will be full of a lot of upset ponies looking for their favorite martial artists” Speaker said, his face grim and words deliberate.

The way Speaker was twitching his beard told Shimmer everything: He didn’t want to upset his kin – which made sense. The scarred stallion looked like he had similar thoughts on his mind, though it was obvious at the same time that he was probably being pressured by others to ensure mutually exclusive outcomes here. He was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t.

With this in mind Shimmer couldn’t help but feel a bit sad for the stallion, but at the same time she wanted to express hear satisfaction that the fights were to continue: “So, who’s in the first fight?”

Speaker nodded towards Cash: “Me and sleepy. Oh and you really should get back in bed”

The drowsy Eclipse Caste pony turned and trotted off, dragging his hooves – just how late had he been up, and going what? That damned collar of his… it cleansed him of any dirt or odors that might have revealed his activities.

Could Cash beat Speaker? Of the two Speaker had been far more outspoken in his use of that weapon of his, Gift, but a lot of the time that seemed almost more to be out of reverence to the maker of the device… Shimmer had to think back to their jaunt to the underworld for an example of Cash fighting, and that had been against those weaksauce undead thingies and that brute of a ghost that had almost killed him. Of course, that had been a while ago… had he improved since then? Who would he have been training with? Speaker had sparred with her a few times, but never in any really serious fashion… that thought somehow annoyed Shimmer a lot more than he had expected it to. Either way the mere idea of having to fight Speaker in the tournament left her with an unmistakable sense of unease.

From atop one of the banner poles that rimmed the arena itself, while in the form of a seagull, Shimmer observed the massive audience filling into the stadium. There were also food and drink vendors milling about, barkers heralding various bits of news, chroniclers writing down stuff about who was winning or losing in the morning events… and of course what Shimmer felt to be an obscene amount of armed guards and security ponies sniffing around. Whatever they were looking for was beyond Shimmer – she couldn’t spot anything amiss, and she could see everything right now.

As time came for Speaker and Cash’s fight, with the two stepping into ring, the crowds sounded understandably confused… and unhappy… for Speaker and Cash had been in two entirely separate brackets, with only the quarter-finals for them to possibly meet in. Of course, with only her and Cash left to fight it really was a semi-final... sort of, with only three contestants left.

The announcer, a young but charismatic unicorn mare, jumped into the ring with some kind of magical gadget – the thingy she had been using to amplify her voice so everyone could hear her – and spoke to the audience: “Ponies, hear this. after Last Shimmer’s dramatic fight with Cathak Ember Dancer yesterday a number of other contestants in the Locked Horns have withdrawn, citing the wisdom of futile blood”

There was a very brief moment of silence as the crowd digested this bit of news – and the implications of it, since Speaker and Cash were now set to fight. This clearly wasn’t just ‘a number’ of contestants – this was damn near all of them! The boos and hisses rose as a dull noise that nearly drowned out the announcer before the poor mare could get another word in edgewise.

It was then that Cash shoved the announcer aside, nabbing the voice-magnifier gizmo the mare had been using and spoke into the device with stern authority as his caste mark blazed: “Mares and gentlecolts – behave yourselves”

Speaker couldn’t have imagined a simple command like that ever working – but then again he hadn’t even bothered looking into what charms Cash had used to amplify his command with.

The crowd fell silent – with curious eyes locked on Cash.

“After what we all saw yesterday, who would want to fight such a beastly opponent? Only mad-ponies and fools, right?” Cash joked, eliciting no laughs but making many in the crowd smile from the self-deprecating humor. That was all Cash needed from the looks of it – with but cracking a smile Cash every mortal pony in audience captivated; Hungry for what he might do, but quiet and eerily well-behaved at the same time.

Many a unicorn present took note of this display of absolute force – not martial force, but the power that Cash clearly wielded with words alone.

Turning to Speaker, Cash declared his intentions – still speaking into the voice-amplifier: “As for you, I would like it if you woul-“

That was when Speaker threw Gift at Cash, not wanting to give his opponent another second to talk or use hypno-charms on him.

Standing perfectly still, a mere four yards from Cash, Speaker missed, prompting a bout of mocking laughter from Cash: “Come on dear friend, please tell me that you can do better than that”

With a focused twirl and a brief flash of his caste mark Speaker launched Gift straight out of elsewhere to swing around and cut in Cash, while he himself struck repeatedly at Cash… missing every time, while Cash stood perfectly still.

Ignoring Speaker, Cash addressed the audience once more: “Well isn’t this sad? And I heard he served in the first field force? What kind of pillow-fighting is it they teach you there?!”

Many in crowd laughed, though just as many wondered what secret there was to Cash’s ability to dodge without moving – it made no sense! With unicorn charms you could at least hear the gusts of wind that would turn away arrows, or see the shields of ice forming from water essence to deflect blows…

Speaker – and the few unicorns observing the fight with really good essence sight lenses – knew damn well what was going: Cash’s invincible ego shield used the power of Cash’s confidence to simply make you strike at where he wasn’t. It wasn’t an illusion, as much as it was a strange kind of hypnotic suggestion that made you think your target was where it wasn’t – but Speaker just couldn’t shake it off, for it was less an effect put upon him as it was a change made to Cash’s own nature, making him appear larger than life, both physically and meta-physically, while he in reality was not.

Catching his breath for a moment, as Cash amused the crowds with more witticisms at Speaker’s expense, the Twilight caste Solar did a quick tactical assessment: It was clear that capitalizing on Cash’s pride to distract him was a wise course of action, but… that still required that he could hit him somehow.

Letting Gift continue its seemingly useless attacks on its own – if nothing else then to have the noisy device distract Cash, Speaker called his singing staff in from elsewhere, but Cash instantly spun around and fired a claw at it from his magical shoes – the indestructible chain that trailed from the shoe-claw wrapped itself around the staff… and one quick yank saw the staff fly out of the ring. With a jiggle of the chain Cash loosened the chain which zipped back into Cash’s right fore-hoof’s shoe, grinning at Speaker.

Speaker looked on flabbergasted at such a display of martial proves – and in that moment of distraction, Cash repeated his chain-snare trick, having fired his left fore-hoof’s shoe-claw directly at Speaker. With a dull sound, nut unlike a sword striking thick leather, the claw had imbedded itself in Speaker’s essence shield – not piercing it, but getting nice and stuck in… and then Cash caused his shoe to reel in the chain.

Being the heavier of the two thanks to his military background and more stocky physique, Speaker remained more or less still while Cash surged forward as the chain reeled in, left hoof first… with his right fore-hoof poised and ready to strike a mighty clawed blow, that hoof trailing bright arcs of white and golden crackling essence.

Recalling Gift to himself as quickly as possible, Speaker just barely managed to catch and hold Gift up before him to parry the incoming blow… but that turned out to have been a rather useless gesture, as Cash used his Heaven Thunder Hammer technique to impart godly strength into the blow, which sent Speaker flying.
Thanks to his Graceful Crane Stance charm Speaker managed to maintain balance during his flight – which allowed him to maintain an overview of the situation – Speaker was painfully aware of having just flown out of the ring – but he hadn’t touched the ground yet!

Throwing Gift, which flew right past Cash like a golden comet, Speaker had the chakram bank and come around behind Speaker – hitting himself with its flat side – and using the Linear Flight principle he had learned via his strange form of magical martial arts, Speaker had Gift hit him in such a way that the golden disc sent Speaker flying straight back at Cash!

Dodging effortless, though he did have to move this time, Cash turned to re-engage Speaker – but having turned to face Speaker Gift came from behind him with its essence engine off, blindsiding Cash with its now silent blades and cutting him along his back and neck quite hard.

Cash’s heavenly silks mended themselves almost instantly, and his collar of dawn’s cleansing made it impossible to see any blood seeping from the gashes, but Speaker ‘s medical diagnosis charm told him the full extent of Cash’s injuries: Nothing lethal, not by a longshot, but Cash cut pretty badly none the less.

“Yield, I took first blood and you need healing” Speaker implored, not wanting his friend to suffer any more than necessary.

Raising a shaky hoof at Speaker, Cash’s anima ignited into golden fire around the blue-silk clad stallion, Cash groaned as he leapt at Speaker, trying to grapple the older looking stallion.

Speaker recalled quite clearly from the first age the legendary feats of wrestling that Solars using Hoof of the Daystar style pulled off. At higher essence purity Speaker had seen Solars wrestle rivers, grab and throw demons twenty times their own size, grab hold to primordial sub-souls and shake their massive soul-hierarchies apart… basically Speaker did not want to get into a close up fight with Cash.

Still, in his weakened state Cash managed to file off a claw again – but even with essence guiding his shot, Speaker was easily able to swat the claw aside with Gift. The real fun came when Speaker caught the chain attached to the claw and had Gift stop spinning but still have its blades out: Slamming Gift down on the chain, into the stone fighting ring, Speaker stuck the chain the ground, preventing Cash from reeling it in.

Well… that had been the plan. Cash apparently ignored that plan and reeled himself in anyway, using the momentum he got to spin around and lash out at Speaker with a vicious spin-buck, his rear-hooves made even more dangerous by the claws extending from their shoes.

Without Gift available to defend him and himself bent over in an awkward angle from having thrust Gift in between a crack in the stone fighting ring, Speaker only had a hoof and his shield charms – and against such a speedy and fierce buck, brimming with essence – augmented even more so by Cash’s martial arts charms – Speaker had no choice but to make Gift release its hold on the claw-chain at the last moment, which threw Cash off balance and allowed Speaker to leap into the air, putting him out of reach of Cash’s claws for a brief moment.
Cash used the precious few seconds to dislodge Gift – it flying back to Speaker’s right forehoof by itself – which in turn freed up Cash’s claw-chain which he retracted instantly, only to point up towards Speaker who… was coming straight at him!

Deflecting a pair of claw-shots with Gift with ease, Speaker body-slammed Cash with all of his bulk and the added force of coming down from a very high jump. The two crashed into the fighting ring which exploded in a plume of dust.

The crowd erupted in cheers at the eruption, because who doesn’t love a good fight – but they fell silent quickly again, in anticipation of who would be left standing. As the dust was forced away by air-aspected unicorns, and grounded by earth-aspected ones, it became clear that the ring had been reduced to a big crater… with only one standing tall.

“Alright – you got me” Cash said, weakly motioning surrender from down in the crater, half-covered in ruble and dust.

Speaker nodded, waiting momentarily for the fanfares to sound – for they signaled the end to a match. As the brass horns sounded Speaker returned Gift to elsewhere and quickly approached Cash, his anima igniting into bright golden fire as he healed Cash of his wounds: “No hard feelings?”

“Nah – I’m frankly surprised I got this far… if Shimmer hadn’t scared everyone else off I would probably have been eliminated before getting to fight you anyway” Cash mused, looking exceedingly thankful for the effects of Speaker’s anesthetic charm.
All around them the crowd cheered – such unique fighting had never been seen before – and it seemed that everyone had been suitably entertained.

Leaving the ring with Cash, Speaker helped his friend over to the medic tent to rest – he had barely gotten out of the tent before Cash started shouting for food, wine and someone who could suck dick well for a reasonable price.

“You know, compared to how utterly wrecked most of the other losers in the tournament had looked after their fights, then he got off easy” Sullen Hoof noted, having appeared out of nowhere behind Speaker all of a sudden.

“Oh, did you watch the fight?” Speaker turned and asked, cracking a smile at Sully’s disguise: The Night caste Solar appeared as an exceedingly old stallion, more wrinkles than anything else, decked out in garish face-paint that matched one of the local popular hoof-ball teams.

Somehow producing even more wrinkles in the form of a mirthless frown, Sully glared at Speaker: “You hurt me – I wouldn’t want to miss watching you fight”

Speaker bowed his head: “You’re right – though frankly, I’m more concerned about tomorrows fight now…”

“Against Shimmer? Can’t you just tell her to stand down and forfeit? Her bond to you should be enough” Sullen Hoof suggested, munching on some kind of steamed veggie on a stick… though his grimace hinted that it wasn’t up to snuff.

Speaker sighed: “That wouldn’t be fair to the ponies who come to watch – we’ve already robbed everyone of most of the tournament fights. Plus I doubt Shimmer would be very happy afterwards”

“I’m glad you think so – because if you do end up pulling that, I’ll make fire-ants crawl up dick while you sleep and bite your nuts from the inside” Shimmer squawked in her seagull form, abruptly landing on top of Speaker’s head.

Shaking his head, making Shimmer fly off him – landing on the ground next to him after a bit of quick wing-flapping – Speaker gave the bird a look of dreaded bemusement: “Please tell me you haven’t actually done that to anyone before?”

“Well… not really… you can’t make ants crawl inside anyone, that just sounds better, but I have tricked anthills into migrating onto into ponies’ homes – it’s a great way to clear out a guard barrack right before attacking a fortress” the sly seagull noted, all the while relieving itself unceremoniously on the ground.

Speaker was about to ask about Shimmer’s plans for the rest of the day when she flew off, squawking that she needed to get ready for their fight the next day.

“You should get patched up as well – and get a bath, then prepare yourself for tomorrow” Sullen hoof adviced, disappearing into the crowd like a king striding unseen.

Taking a quick look at himself, Speaker realized that his injures from the fight were still… there – he had simply used his anesthetic charm on himself during the fight and forgotten everything about them. Quickly heading over to the medic tent to clean and fix himself, Speaker listened as the next contest began. It sounded like the semi-finals for the light siege weapon contest.

The next morning Shimmer woke up to an even greater feeling of unease.