6AM was a time when few in Ponyville were awake. Applejack and her family were running the farm, Pinkie Pie had awoken to pre-heat the oven and get started on orders her Pinkie Sense had predicted, Twilight Sparkle had awoken in her Castle Library with her head resting upon a book after realizing she'd fallen asleep while reading again, and Silver Star was sitting down on his cobalt-coloured felt armchair on the penthouse floor of his Silver Spire, the wide glass wall-window-thing letting light pour into the room along with the sweet birdsong that rewarded early risers, a single glass of pure freshly-squeezed orange juice suspended in his horn's blue light (The way he saw it, coffee was for those who needed it to function properly, or wanted to end up like that. And he did not want to end up like that.) as he opened up a large newspaper with his hooves. His ice-blue eyes focused on the page motionlessly as his mind took it all in, his silver coat and Cutie Mark were hidden by a black suit with a dark-blue necktie, and the five points of his dark-orange mane were sculpted up and back into a starlike pattern, the lighter-orange flamelike five-pointed 'crown' on his mane as pointy as ever. If there was ever a poster designed to advertise incredible richness and its idealized image, while insisting you should go into stock-trading or something, he would be on that poster right now as its star, complete with a somewhat amusing thought-bubble saying something to the tune of "I should buy The Moon", or a caption serving a similar purpose.
Regardless, the newspaper in his hooves was not an ordinary newspaper. Like most of the items he used on a regular basis, it was enchanted to be more useful to him. And it also didn't suck like the Pre-Enlightenment Era newspapers were said to, which was a nice bonus. This newspaper's date was today, even though today was a Wednesday, a rather unusual release date. The newspaper was enchanted to give him news, recent news, and it was connected to a network of pieces of paper across Equestria through sympathetic magic. Sympathetic magic was a form of magic rarely used, due to how specific its requirements were, and how few uses it had in the grand scheme of things. Magic that used something's connection to something else(But only worked if it had a connection to use) wasn't that impressive when compared to more useful types of magic, where you wanted something to happen and either it happened or you’d make it happen. Still, if you wanted to quickly set up a network of some kind over a wide area but you didn't want commonly-used magic-detection spells to pick it up, this was your best bet.
The newspaper's enchantment and use was quite simple: On the first minute of every day, it would scan outwards, searching for and connecting to other nearby written works, and then branch outwards to connect to more, and more, across all of Equestria, searching for and copying information. Learning.
If a tree fell, if a museum was broken into, if a pony went missing, if a pony wrote something in their diary, if anything at all out of the ordinary happened, this newspaper would know about it.
It would then sort through this information, ignoring worthless nonsense it picked up like signposts, unimportant letters, useless notes to their writer, fictional books that didn't have a secret code inside, notes passed from one foal to another in class, and similarly worthless information. (It could also copy the contents of any book and have it written down onto any other paper object within range, but he had a separate, faster enchanted tool for that.)
Information that was worth keeping would then be displayed upon the newspaper, prioritizing anything involving money, chances at getting more money, illegal activities to foil, missing items, found items he might want, potential adventure opportunities, potential challenges to overcome, and anything else that could lead to him having a good time. He didn't even need to turn its pages, it simply displayed the moving information for him.
At the end of the day, the newspaper would set aside all the knowledge it had learned, like a window wiping itself clean, the dirt sent down to the larger ground beneath it. The next day, it would have new information for him, though anything particularly big or important would be kept for a few days until he saw it mentioned in passing by a newspaper clipping and specifically ordered the paper to forget it. And just a quick order could make it go back a day, a few days, or even further back, so he could find out what he missed and time-travel back to that date in disguise. All in all, it was the perfect information-gathering tool for somepony like him.
It even went so far as to organise the information it gave him onto pages. He turned the page, the stock market and real estate information as boring as ever, and got to his favourite part.
The Financial Section.
Two hundred bits were offered to whoever won an upcoming Appleloosan Farm Fest Rodeo... Boring.
One hundred and fifty bits was being offered for the capture of a thief who stole potentially-stolen art from high-security locations... Maybe, but only because he had the Thief's Guild under his hoof, and they were surprisingly useful.
Due to the expanding Dragon threat (Well, more like an expanding minor annoyance, really) to Equestria, and more unexpected encounters with Diamond Dogs, gem prices were going up, and so were the prices of clothing and food decorated with gems. He’d keep that in mind when investing, he already had a few bakeries that cheaply mass-produced baked goods embedded with gems edible to ponies dotted around Equestria, selling them at low prices to common folk. There was something weirdly... weird about giving the poor access to something that normally, only the rich could have. It was a nice feeling, sort of like the feeling of success, but different, because it wasn't him that was enjoying the nice thing, it was somepony else. Yet... it was a nice feeling, for some reason.
Strange. But irrelevant. Moving on. He thought, done with self-reflection for now.
An arena is boasting about their champion, offering...
"Oh, hellooo." His measured Canterlot-accented voice sang melodiously to himself, a confident grin forming on his face as his eyebrows rose.
His eyebrows lowered and his grin grew, and his expression resembled that of a predatory shark about to devour its next meal. "Now we're talking." He whispered like a hungry animal.
1200 bits for anyone who can last 120 seconds in the ring with him, and double that to anyone who can beat him. 1200 times two is 2400, which was quite a lot, in bits...
"Aquilla?" Silver asked in a slightly questioning tone, and within an instant, she was standing there in front of him, awaiting orders. For a secretary, she certainly took her job seriously. Then again, that was a big part of why he hired her. She was a Griffon, her sleek and lithely-muscled blue and white-feathered body immaculately preened, ornate gold-coloured gold-titansteel-alloy claws tipped with sharpened deep crimson Blood Diamonds upon her front talons in place of gloves. He smiled, and said to her, "I know what we're going to do today."
"And what is that?" She asked calmly, her tone suited to that of a highly-trained soldier.
"The same thing we do every day!" He declared proudly, knocking back the entirety of his glass of orange juice and then crushing it completely in his magical grip, the resulting glass powder falling to the ground like fine sand. "Try to get more money!”
A sarcastic butler, servant, or enslaved monster capable of speech may have asked something to the tune of 'Was that really necessary?', but not Aquilla. Outwardly, she was the perfect tool in his arsenal, and inwardly, she was squeeing over how awesome she found being the perfect tool in his arsenal. If pressed, she would say it was a Griffon thing, and working for what she saw as the most powerful boss made her more animalistic side absolutely thrilled.
_______
Silver Star idly wondered whether he should put on a disguise or not, but then decided that being known for defeating a champion fighter so convinced he was invincible would be good publicity, and good for his reputation as a powerful businesspony and even more powerful Unicorn that was NOT to be crossed, even if he wasn't as magically powerful as Twilight. Therefore, he rapidly rode his enchanted flying rowboat (The ugly-looking wooden rowboat he'd enchanted to fly at mach 9 without problems long ago always was one of his favourite methods of transportation, even if it did require a complex series of intersecting speed enchantments that also altered how air flowed around it, allowing Aquilla to easily keep up when flying close to it) to the relatively-faraway town of Seaddle in a manner he would describe as incredibly majestic, and others would describe as weird. When he reached the town, he began aiming for the downtown section, where a particular nightclub resided. He landed on a fairly average city street, expending the effort normally required for a casual flick of the tail into his horn, his magic activating an enchantment on his boat, which teleported the tiny and physically-unimpressive vessel back home to deter theft.
A faint blur beside him, not dissimilar to a heat haze, reminded him that his Aquilla was following him, but not in the visible light spectrum thanks to one of the enchantments built into her Golden Claws. Whenever he travelled alone to a new place, she tagged along. Partly so she could ensure the protection of her boss, but mostly because she secretly loved seeing new places, and loved seeing her boss doing awesome stuff even more, not that she’d ever admit it to anypony besides him.
Silver knew where he was going, as his Newspaper had shown him an annotated map of the area when asked. He walked through the city streets and headed straight for One Night Only, a fairy large steelworks building that had been renovated and repurposed to function as a nightclub, the metal building painted over with shiny metallic purple and shinier black paint, the phrase 'One Night Only’ written in a large arch above the main gates connected to the steel wall perimeter that surrounded the building. He quite liked that motif, even if he had indeed been there and done that with his Silver Spire, which he planned on upgrading soon. The whole "Big tower, even bigger on the inside" thing was nice, and he liked how it fit the "Ivory-tower smart pony" image while also being made of a far harder material, steel, defying that image and implying greater strength and resilience. But the upgraded Silver Spire that had been rapidly taking shape in his mind over time, the brilliant offspring of a mansion, steelworks, and a factory centered around the main big tower, that was something even better. He could actually even bring Code Four onto the physical plane, which would be great for impressing visitors. He walked up to the large unlocked industrial doors, big enough for at least four wooden-cart caravans to make their way through at once side-by-side, opening the doors with the ice-blue glow of his magic, and he strolled right in.
Inside, it was what you’d expect a nightclub to look like this early in the morning. Clean, clinical, sterile, reminding him of a surgery ready for an operation. There was a large grey-glassed gridlike dancefloor in the center of the room, like a giant chessboard, magical multicoloured lanterns lying in wait beneath them, ready to light up when the nightclub was ready to start its party. Tables and chairs lined the perimeter of the large room, metal chairs painted a metallic purple. There was a bar on the far right of the room, with a similar purple and black theme, shiny black counters lined with thin purple neon light-tubes, a standard supply of beers, whiskeys, liquors, and ciders resting on shelves behind a bar large enough for two bartenders to stand behind when things got busy, but still designed so that one pony could comfortably run the whole bar on slower nights, and a pale-purple Pegasus stallion with a velvet-red mane in two ponytails was waiting around at the bar, not really doing anything. A chalkboard was also present in said bar, serving as a price list that was subject to change at any time. Looking up briefly, he noted steel bars crossing the room fifty feet above him, multicoloured magical lanterns ready to flash their bright colours upon the room and transform the ambiance into that of a cool nightclub at a moment’s notice. When it was in use, it'd likely look great, but now... it felt empty, and cold. He knew that feeling well.
"Hi, I'd like to register as a contestant." Silver politely said to the bartender, getting his attention.
"You?" The bartender asked, a little surprised.
"Sure. What's the worst that could happen?" Silver asked, fully aware that he was tempting fate. Well, fate could come right at him, he was ready for it. "Besides, I want that prize money." He admitted.
"It's your funeral." The bartender shrugged, pressing a button under the desk, pointing with his tail to what looked like a staff-only door. "Go down there, past the arena. The entrant's booth has a button, press it when you're ready."
Silver walked through the room, hooves clopping a muted rhythm against the clean floor as he went straight for the staff door, which had an opened steel bolt on to keep it closed. Opening the door with his magic, he trotted down some wide and even grey stone steps that must have been made by either some kind of spell or an epic-level craftspony dedicated to precision, lit only by bright overhead purple neon lights. He did not know it now, but if he looked like a particularly obviously-dangerous or powerful pony, he would have not been allowed to enter the arena as a contestant, and if he had insisted on entering, handicaps would be placed upon him in the form of weakening spells. Regardless, he turned right when the downwards corridor turned, and headed to what may have been the furnace room or something if this place was still running. When he got bored of walking, he started to teleport forwards twelve feet after every two seconds of walking, which quickly sped up his journey without draining his magic any more than a light jog would drain a regional-level athlete.
He soon came to a doorway on the right, but the stairway kept going down. When he looked through the doorway, he found what he’d been looking for:
A wide arena with a rough stone floor sixty feet wide indented thirty-five feet deep into the ground was surrounded by purple and black metal one-way walls fourty feet high, which stopped the competitors and any spells they’d throw around from hitting the viewers whilst allowing said viewers to see this match clearly. This was great for the viewers who sat on this level and higher, and Silver noted that hundreds, no, thousands of seats were available, expanding ring after ring of theatre-like seats, complete with hoofrests and built-in cup-holders. Seats were even available right above the entrance he’d walked out of, and VIP Private Booths were built into the sides of the walls for the richer ponies that enjoyed watching a good duel.
Only a few ponies were in those seats, sitting with boxes of popcorn, drinks, and nachos or marshmallow bags at the ready. They were not aware that he was going to be a contender, they - along with those who had not yet arrived - simply knew that their Champion would face another new pony today.
Nopony ever fought their champion twice.
Silver's sharp eyes darted around the arena, scanning it for anything he could use. The floor was rough, falling down on it would hurt, but it was smooth enough that cutting yourself up too badly when flung around probably wouldn’t be an issue. Probably. Apart from that, that was it. He couldn’t see any special items or obstacles that would pop up, or even holes/slits/panels for obstacles to come out of. Part of his mind loudly yelled "Laaaame!", while another part was glad for it, knowing he could focus purely on the match, even if his fighting style helped him use the more interesting landscapes to his advantage.
He went back to the staircase and went further down the stairs, ignoring the ‘Fighters Only’ signs as he went down into the area where the competitors would get ready to fight.
“I don’t like this place.” Aquilla said to Silver, appearing beside him and flying nearby, her claws never touching the ground, reflexively preventing herself from leaving any trace of her presence. She even tensed her wings slightly, to prevent any loose feathers from falling out.
“Why?” He asked, a little surprised that she'd actually shown herself to him, rather than watching from the shadows.
“The whole place seems... Weird. Like that one pony, with the bag of marshmallows? Who brings marshmallows to a fight?” She asked distastefully.
“Some ponies like marshmallows.” Silver shrugged.
“Sure, but they’re not the kind of thing you’d bring to an arena!” She protested. “This doesn’t feel as epic as it should. Battles happen here! Epic clashes of warriors and their will! But this... it feels like it’s been turned into some lame fluffy foal-friendly theater show!”
“Don’t worry... I’m sure it’ll be fine once the match begins.” He said reassuringly, knowing what she meant by 'Fluffy' thanks to his understanding of Griffon culture. He then reached a hoof out and uncertainly put it on her shoulder for a moment, and then pulled away. She looked at the shoulder he’d touched for a moment, wondering if he was pointing something out. When she didn’t see anything, she mentally shrugged and wrote it off as ponies being weird. He assumed this meant he'd done it right.
Then, he casually began to stretch, since he didn't really have anywhere to go. “So," He asked, "What do you think this ‘Champion’ will be like? An ordinary fighter with bad publicists, a performer, an unbearable showpony, an actor who lost himself in the character, or just some idiot?”
“My money’s on ‘Showpony’.” Aquilla said, watching him and not minding that he was stretching. No, she didn't mind at all. “Anyone who thinks they can get away with putting that kind of bet on their own heads must be insane, or good. Or both.”
“I don’t know enough about him to guess yet, but judging by the stage name, I’m hoping it’s an act.” Silver admitted. "Otherwise, it's stupid and sad."
“Silver... You’ll be alright, right?” Aquilla asked, looking at him with a speck of strong concern showing in her golden eyes.
“Don’t worry about me.” He said with a confident smile, hiding his uncertainty.
And then he turned, and raised his hoof, preparing to press the button. “Worry about the other guy.” He added ominously, and he slammed his hoof down.
He could almost hear her internal scream/squawk, and its oddly satisfying sound chased away most of his doubt.
Silver suddenly found himself standing behind a spiked black-iron fence forming a fancy cage-wall, harder stone walls on either side of his body, the arena just in front of him. He blinked, realizing that he didn't quite remember walking down all the way here, or casting a teleport spell. He shook his head, and focused, momentarily confused eyes growing cold again. Regardless, he waited for the announcers to open the gates, so he could see his opponent. Surely, they would start talking any moment now.
Any moment now.
Aaany second now.
Aaany-
“GOOOOOOOD MOOORNIIIING, SEAAAADLE!”
Silver’s eyes widened in surprise as he stepped back and his ears reflexively folded down, not expecting that kind of volume from the announcers. The significantly-larger crowd roared in approval, stamping their hooves. Silver looked upwards, intending to scan the crowd, and saw the announcers, who were sitting up in a special podium floating nearby, large microphones in hand. He saw the two ponies, one pale Tiffany-Blue Unicorn with steel-grey eyes and a Cutie Mark of a yellow well-written manuscript being sliced in half, and a paler-yellow bullike Earth Pony with brown eyes and a Cutie Mark of two horseshoes thrown around a large bull’s horn. Looking up, he noticed that there were seven other, larger podiums floating around, for the VIPs. He then scanned the crowd, smiling when he saw the faint heat-haze of Aquilla invisibly flying in the air, watching the match without paying for a seat. After all, she hadn’t payed for a Season Ticket, since she didn’t need a chair, and that seat could now go to someone who did need one. The 'Champion' he'd have to fight was, annoyingly enough, not here.
“Now, for those ponies coming here for the first time, this what we do and how we do things.” Cutting Remark announced once the crowd’s cheering had died down a little.
“Do you have any idea how many matches you’ve missed?!” Bull Horn laughed, bringing the energy back up. “Our champion’s got a win streak of over fifty matches! The last one was so brutal, I THREW UP ALL OVER CUTTY!”
The crowd laughed. "He's not joking." Cutting said flatly, and the laughter got louder. "Moving on, you have missed fifty-two matches so far, to be precise. An undisputed master of Black Magic and a ruthless, heartless monster who delights in the suffering of others, few are more dangerous or deadly than this Arena's Champion, Bl-”
“Blooooooood Baaanaaanaaa!!!” Bull Horn roared in excitement, interrupting his coworker.
“Yes, him.“ Cutting said, annoyed, but then he hid it as he resumed talking to the audience. “Now, as you know, the law forbids two or more ponies fighting to the death for the entertainment of others. Or... At all, really. Though, honourable duels and challenges of strength such as Bullfights, Magic Duels, spectacularly dangerous Obstacle Races, and Iron Pony Competitions are a-ok. But there are a bunch of laws and regulations on those, dictating what is and is not honourable, and what is and is not acceptable."
“Fortunately, we’re bypassing all of those!” Bull Horn shouted, his wide grin audible in his voice. “Ain’t loopholes great?”
“This arena uses a spell of our own making," Cutting Remark began, sounding very interested and engaged in this process, "A spell designed to create an absolutely-perfect fully-functional mindless replica of the current pony, as they are in the moment they prepare to enter the ring and press that button, and then it transfers their consciousness into this hollow replica. This spell spawns these replicas right when the battle starts, so they don't have to wait around much, and more importantly, it allows fighters to battle without having to hold anything back, as death just means you have to go back and wait for our arena to make another replica for you to possess, which usually takes arooound... eight seconds, tops.”
“This also means fighters don’t have to obey any laws on fighting fairly." Bull Horn added. “After all, they’re just replicas! Who cares what happens to them?!”
“Our variation of this spell sacrifices duration for absolutely exact copies, so these spells only have a four-hour time limit-”
“Not that any matches ever last that long anyway!" Bull Horn interrupted once again.
“-And these battles will be fought in a standard arena designed to give no advantages or hold any tricks." Cutting Remark continued, annoyed. "As always, powerful invisible forcefields will be raised above the fighters to prevent any stray spells from striking the audience. The only weapons allowed are: Anything the contestants can summon or easily carry! And this new guy came unarmed, sooo... Good luck to our competitor!" Cutting shouted as the gates opened, most of the ponies gathered cheered, and Silver Star trotted into the arena, a flat expression upon his visage. He looked around at the crowd, a small and confident smile began making its way onto his face. A large green illusionary bullseye appeared on the ground beneath him, and then it moved to a spot about three quarters of the way from the right side of the field to left, indicating that he was supposed to stand there, facing the center of the arena, letting most of the attention be on their champion.
“Look at that guy, he’s new, he’s fighting our champion, he's unarmed and smaller, and he isn’t even fa-hayhay-hazed!" Bull Horn said, amused. "I’m putting fifty bits on him going down in the first twenty seconds."
“Bull Horn, we can’t bet on our own-” Cutting Remark began.
“You can’t tell me what to do, MOM!” Bull Horn shouted mockingly.
Cutting let out a short but weary sigh, the sigh of a man who had been down this long and stupid road many times before, and knew no reward lay at its end. “Whatever... Let’s just get on with the show.”
“That’s right! Champion... Take Center Stage!” Bull Horn shouted, and the audience went silent.
A single drop of red fell from the ceiling, hitting the center of the arena and making the clear echoing sound of a drop hitting water, magnified to be louder than an explosion.
That red drop spread out, growing until it became a wide puddle, which then rose up like a solid object, bending and curling into the shape of an overized crimson tulip.
The tulip bloomed outwards, reshaping into a rose, and then growing old, withering and dying. It browned, and then blackened, before crumbling into black dust, which blew away in the wind before turning to swirl in one large black cloud. The cloud grew, forming into a column, spinning like a tornado’s funnel cloud, as black magical energy started to form around it.
The storm suddenly dispersed, and black feathers scattered up and outwards, as small scattered bones rose up from the ground, a ball of crimson and black energy forming and rising up from the arena’s center, which sucked in the bones but left everything else untouched.
When this ball of energy dispersed, a pony walked out, an Alicorn the size of Princess Luna that had a similar horn and similarly-sized wings, but none of her elegance. While The Princess of The Night went for purples and black highlights, and focused on the more otherworldly and ethereal aspects of darkness, this pony looked like someone who had just walked out of a bad Death Metal album cover, and then evolved into something less cool-overkill and more bad-overkill and just generally worse. Its horn was a bonelike jagged overgrown curved-back blade with four sharp, jagged, vertebrae-ish segments, and looking at it, Silver's own horn felt slightly inadequate, yet pleased that it was far better-looking. Its wings were black with feathers like a Raven the size of an Ostrich, each feather tipped with a blood-red highlight. It had a blood-red body, black lines running through it like red highlights on a fast airship. Black covered the hooves and thighs, like gauntlets or socks, but allowed thin asymmetric lines of red to trickle down like blood or cracked magma. His eyes, or rather, what some would loosely refer to as eyes, had blood-red sclera, jet-black irises, and crimson explosion-shaped pupils with black veins running through the sclera every few seconds, and then fading, like a heartbeat. His tail was shaped into three separate five-foot-long jet-black and crimson spikes. His mane was black with red tips, pushed upwards, with two large red dreadlocks hanging down either side of the face, which had a black scar-line over the unharmed right eye and another deep black gash of a scar on his right cheek in the shape of a perfect ‘X’, the kind of scar one could only get from precise self-inflicted surgery.
The feathers burst into flame, burning up immediately, and the resulting ashes flocked to him and seeped into his body as more feathers quickly grew from his black fleshy wings. He raised his head to the sky, letting out a harsh, insane laugh, as the power black magic was granting him gave him an unequestrian echoing quality to his voice. Or it could have been a basic level-one illusion or alteration spell applied to his vocal cords, capable of turning on or off at will. Either way, most of the audience was scared and thrilled, cheering with glee at the thought of their favourite monster destroying yet another contestant, everyone's cheering far surpassing what Silver had been greeted with.
“Are you done?” Silver asked his opponent, unimpressed, much to everyone’s surprise.
Internally, his mind was racing.
That level of power, I can sense it from here, HOW IS HE STRONGER THAN ME?! Silver thought to himself. How did he get that power, some kind of item? A dark pact? I don't detect any items on him, he's using Dark Magic... It grants power to the user, but corrupts and twists their minds. They lose who they are, and are overwhelmed by the darkness inside them that gets stronger every time they use it. The best dark mages can confront their inner darkness and accept it, and use it in casting, but the weaker ones are either consumed, or they know their limits and stay safe, sticking to the weaker dark spells. This guy... His ridiculous appearance suggests either a strong option two, or a stronger option one that acts crazy for the publicity. If he's really crazy, I'll find out, and exploit that. If not, I'll focus purely on the fight. I'll only win this if I can outduel him and stay in control of this match, predicting his moves and countering them perfectly. My agility, my wit, my power and speed... I'll have to use them all. 'Dark Magic' covers a wide group of spells, so I'll have to improvise... Let's see how this plays out.
“Round One... FIGHT!” Bull Horn roared in excitement, signalling the beginning of the match better than any air horn could.
“Hey, challenger!” Blood Banana cackled, voice echoing even more. “To make it fair on you, I’ll let you have the first move!”
“Very well.” Silver said solemnly, and he breathed in deeply, closing his eyes.
Blood Banana grinned, showing a row of jagged razor-sharp teeth that fit together perfectly much like the teeth of a shark. He liked letting his enemies have the first move, it let them show off what they could do, before he utterly overwhelmed them, and then unloaded dangerous black magic to completely crush his enemies. It made it feel all the sweeter, raising the hopes of somepony, right before he crushed them in front of thousands. And more importantly, his fans loved it.
Silver’s eyes snapped open.
“You!" Silver announced dramatically, like the name of some attack or spell. "Are! Ugly!"
Everything paused for four whole seconds.
Blood Banana blinked.
“Really, really ugly.” Silver continued. “Seriously. Did you use a Bio-Modify spell on yourself, or are you naturally that ugly? You don’t look scary, you look like you’ve been blown up, with charred and blackened and flayed skin covering your weak form, and what little of you left is trying to appear cool and tough by running through mommy’s makeup box and trying to look like Dark Shadow, the sadder and angrier and less-cool foil to Swift Spine from the classic three-hour rock opera, The Sound of Speed.”
“Great, a Talker!” Blood said with a short mirthless laugh, deciding not to mention that he had never even heard of that rock opera. Nor did he know what a rock opera was. He’d heard of operas, though, and they were supposed to be lame and for fancy ponies only. “You think a few insults can pierce my accursed hide?! You think making fun of how I look will make me run away and cry?!”
“I think it’ll stall for time, ensuring that anyone stupid enough to believe that I’d go down in the first ten seconds would lose their money, with no epic and tense moment to show for it.” Silver said, glancing briefly at the audience with an impassive expression that suddenly burst into a taunting smirk. "Are you mad?"
Blood threw his head back with a mad cackle, thinking he figured out the pony. “Oh, oh, oh, I like you! You’re a funny one!”
“I’ve been told that some find my absolute seriousness amusing.” Silver stated, not seeming to mind or care.
Blood‘s grin grew wider. “But doesn’t it bother you that you’re not the scary serious murdermachine you wish you were?" Blood asked, amused.
He was expecting to have gotten to Silver. Instead...
“Why on earth would I want to be something so pathetically shallow?" Silver asked, seeming to be genuinely confused as to why anypony at all would or could ever want that.
Blood’s grin disappeared, though the wide eyes and wide mouth was kept, turning his expression into more of a surprised and uncomprehending grimace.
“There’s nothing particularly interesting about gore." Silver said offhandedly, as if it was an immutable, undeniable, and utterly obvious fact. "There may be a mildly interesting psychological aspect to darkness and horror and the macabre, but simple blood and gore and ‘Kill em all’ insanity is just cheap and trashy, worthy of little more than a disdainful roll of the eyes, followed by a swift spell to put that lunatic out of its misery before it does anything stupid. Honestly, if my psyche ever deteriorated to the point where I thought dressing up like a bad Night Mare from a tasteless nightclub and getting a job at a trashy arena that oversells its fights like bad Professional Wrestling-ish matches... Only to wallow in illusions and darkness and gore and cheap shock-value like a puppy rolling around in freshly-spilled viscera in front of its master, hoping to get told off simply so it can hear its master's voice and feel the thrill of thinking itself superior to something, to not only think that being able to stomach something so depraved somehow makes one superior to one who rightfully finds it all repulsive... but to find validation in how it feels at home rolling in something normal folk hate... To declare itself something as eye-rollingly cheesy as ‘Dark Master of Blood' or 'Dark Master of Darkness'..."
Silver looked straight into the eyes of the abomination in front of him, and smirked. “Well, if I ever became so pathetic, I’d do the world a favour and go to Tartarus with the other beasts unworthy of living in Equestria.”
For the first time in a long, long time, Blood was annoyed- No, Blood was pissed. “Grr... You shut your bucking mouth!!!” Blood roared in his Dark Voice, the one with a guttural second tone overlayed onto the first alongside even more echoing, as glowing red lines started to form along his horn, like cracks on volcanic ground, spreading down to mark his upper face as blackness swirled around his horn like the darkest of storm clouds.
“I will not.” Silver stated, not bothered at all by what he was seeing, even though most Unicorns would have averted their eyes and clutched their horns in sympathetic agony at this sight, as a few Unicorns in the audience were doing.
Blood raised his hoof up in front of him, and then bent it to the side to hide his eyes from Silver’s view, so only his jagged-toothed grin/grimace could be seen. Some may have found that grin disturbing, but Silver found himself wishing he’d get on with the attack already.
The black and red Alicorn raised his head up to the sky, keeping his hoof in the same position, horn still aglow with blackness.
And then he opened his mouth and slammed his front jaws down onto the hoof, tearing through the flesh and sending a splatter of blood in an arc behind him, red liquid leaking down to the ground beneath him. Despite the pain he should have been feeling, his evil grin/grimace remained, and he pointed his bloodied hoof forwards at Silver, as if accusing him.
“Oblivion beam!” He shouted, and the crowd cheered.
A thin crimson beam of energy was fired from blood’s hoof, twin streams of darker crimson continuously arcing through the beam like stitches along a wound, flying straight at Silver’s head.
There was a sudden explosion behind Silver, sihlouetting him behind the black and crimson flames for a moment as he walked towards his opponent like a spectre from beyond the grave, his head tilted to the side. "That's your offense?" His voice asked, unimpressed. The flames faded and died down, revealing Silver’s incredibly bored expression as he strolled casually towards his foe, his head and neck moving back into place. "The only things you've offended so far... Are my eyes."
“W-what?!” Blood barked as the audience gasped in horror.
“Did he just DODGE Blood’s Doom Beam?!” Cutting Remark asked in shock. “That’s not possible, that thing’s instantaneous once it’s fired, how did-”
“Screw that, how about the fact that he’s so dang CASUAL about it?!” Bull Horn asked, stifling a laugh.
It doesn't matter how fast a beam spell is. Even if it's instantaneous, it can't hit something it isn't aimed at. And since he was so incredibly obvious about that beam attack, my head had moved before the magic left his hoof. Silver thought to himself, planning the narration for the biography he'd one day get around to writing. No, I should say it in a cooler way. 'Though his vile beam attack was fast, my mind was faster, and my wit was sharper than his edge'? I'll figure it out later.
Silver kept walking towards Blood, who seemed to be the most shocked out of everyone. “No way...” Blood whispered to himself in a voice more normal than anything that had came out of his mouth all day.
And then, he suddenly recovered, resuming the manic grin as if it was all just an act. “Doesn’t matter! I’ll kill you anyway!”
An aura of intense cold suddenly emanated from Silver, chilling the audience and everypony else in the room, focusing on Blood Banana to the point where his muscles had trouble moving, and his innards started to hurt. “You’re welcome to try.” The silver-coated Unicorn said calmly. “But we both know what will happen to you if you do.”
Thank you, Bird House. Silver thought, glad his mastery of the birds he could summon granted him assorted bird/knowledge/air-related abilities, some more useful than others.
Blood stepped back, the crimson and black hairs on his body sticking up in fear. He focused and shook himself, trying to maintain his composure. He was going to win this! He was Blood Banana, a horrifying dark monster and master of black magic! Most of his foes were in tears by now, begging for their lives, if they hadn't already been killed! What was so different about this pony?!
Blood raised his crimson horn to the sky, a darker-red glow surrounding it as he performed another spell. Six sharp and twisted black-iron spikes shot up from the ground around him, bleached-white pony skulls forming atop each spike, a faint trickle of crimson blood leaking from the eye socket of each one. He then picked up each skull with his magic, having all six skulls hang suspended around his head like immobile moons around a planet.
A barrage of thrown skulls began, flinging each one at Silver, one at a time, once per second.
Silver frowned as his horn lit up and a six-foot-thick ten-foot-wide ten-foot-tall Cold Iron wall rose up in front of him, and the thrown skulls impacted against the steel hard enough to shatter the skulls and reduce each one to a fine powder that blew away in the faint wind, not harming the Cold Iron wall in the slightest. Just as rock beat scissors, Cold Iron beat magic.
Blood’s horn glowed again as he swung his head, pulling up the spikes around himself and sending them all at Silver like darts, arcing around and targeting Silver so he would he impaled by all six at once if they hit.
Silver’s steel wall detached from the ground beneath it, rising up and moving like a light sword held by magic as it blocked each dart regardless of its direction, sending them clattering to the ground as if the magic holding them up was negated with but a single touch. Each spike turned back into a fine powder, which dematerialised into nothingness. Cold Iron truly was useful, even if it wasn't as tough as steel. Still tougher than regular Iron, even if it was quite heavier.
And then Silver nodded his head as he threw the heavy wall at Blood, sending him scrambling to the side in shock as the heavy weight descended rapidly upon his position.
Blood barely avoided getting hit, but couldn’t avoid the result of the throw when the floor he was standing on cracked and fragmented, sending him up into the air as the wall embedded itself in the ground corner-first like a thrown blade.
Right when Blood Banana reached the peak of his jump, a teleporting Silver appeared in midair in front of him, spinning around and swinging a heavy punch right into his face hard enough to break his muzzle and send him flying back through his Cold Iron wall, smashing it and then crashing back-first into the arena wall, cratering it as the brute screamed in guttural agony. The magic-reinforced walls held strong, and so the whole arena was not brought down.
Blood slumped to the ground in front of him, face slowly repairing itself through black magic. “You think you’re... Pretty funny, dontcha?!” Blood roared.
“No. If I was trying to be funny, this would be an anvil.” Silver stated, horn glowing a cold blue once again.
Steel was summoned into the air around him, and shot up towards a large metal sphere that was gathering above his head, growing every second until it reached fifteen feet in diameter.
And then it formed into a gigantic ten-foot-tall trophy standing proudly upon a cuboid base, a magnificent and oversized ornate cup with ‘Ultimate Businesspony: Silver Star’ written on the silver plaque on the base, handles with silver shaped to look like fine ivy growing off the cup.
And with a nod, his horn’s blue glow appeared around the sculpture as he threw it forwards at Blood, who scrambled to the left to dodge as it slowly sailed through the air like a tank. But just as the cup was about to pass the jet-black and crimson Alicorn, it turned at a right angle in midair and suddenly picked up considerable speed, striking him and crushing him. Silver’s magic seemed to be still controlling the cup, mainly because it was still controlling it
Blood melted into a crimson and black swirling pool of blood, moving out from under the oversized cup and appearing beside it. “Is that all you’ve got?!” He demanded.
The gigantic cup suddenly flipped over like a lever, crushing him again with a loud echoing clang that expertly masked the sickening crunch.
“Not even close.” Silver said with a smile, as the crowd laughed.
Perfect... I'm taking his crowd away from him, and making a fool of him. Egomaniac, lunatic, or simply a performer... Anything would lose their cool against this.
Blood Banana melted into a pool of crimson and black swirling blood again, but this time, he expanded to rise up and devour the trophy like a single-celled organism made from raw acid, steam rising up as he destroyed the finely-crafted trophy, reducing it to nothing and then reforming into his old self, only to collapse to the ground, rust forming on his skin in patches like rashes. Blood screamed.
“Congratulations, you just gave yourself extreme heavy metal poisoning.” Silver said, sitting on his haunches and clapping sarcastically as his opponent's body quickly recovered. “Also, if I wanted to make a mess, I could have either blown up the cup while you were on it, or had it melt and pollute your blood until I had more control over it than you did. If you weren’t cheating by using Dark Magic, you’d be dead right now. Then again, living the way you are, aren’t you dead inside already? Would dying for real make much of a difference?”
“Shut up already!” Blood Banana roared as his horn cracked up with red again, crimson energy swirled around him like a sun’s solar flares, and high-pitched chanting started in the background. Many assumed it was part of the spell he was using, but hidden music-players were actually hidden in the arena’s roof, ready to blast down music to add to the mood.
The male Alicorn grew to the size of Celestia, its feathered wings spread out and burst into flame for a mere moment and left behind only skinless crimson-muscled black-boned bat wings, and a chalk-white mask of bone with hollow black voids for eyes began to form upon its face, looking like a stylised Unicorn skull, his malformed horn twisting outwards like a dying tree made from bone spines, branches splitting off and forming into sharp blades. Flames then began to pour out of the mask’s right eye, trailing upwards, while thin crimson tentacles extended from the left, constantly writhing and trying to escape but unable to squeeze past each other in their mad dash for freedom. His mane burned and transformed, becoming a black smoky wisp with blood red flames burning along the inside, red drops of blood constantly leaking upwards only to fade away. Row after row of sharp bone blades burst forth from its knees and limbs, not minding the pain any more. It was beyond pain. It was beyond anything.
“BEHOLD, MY FINAL FORM!” What had once been Blood Banana roared to the skies in a new, deeper, distorted voice.
“Time’s up.” Silver said boredly, checking a metal sundial on his wrist above his suit, a metal sundial that hadn’t been there a second ago.
“WHAT?” The monster growled.
“You’ve had your chance. It’s my turn now.” Silver stated, as if it was an unchangeable fact.
First, Silver’s horn began to glow brighter, as both the blue light and his mindset changed from cold manipulation to blazing change.
“TARTARUS MOON!” Blood Banana roared as red and black energy spiralled around his bony horn, launching a bolt of crimson to the skies, which spread out into blood-red clouds, a pulsing beam of red energy connecting the clouds to his horn. Countless six-foot ovoid flaming meteors were flung down from the skies, and Silver casually teleported to avoid each one, teleporting into the path of one only to reappear elsewhere, for another to almost fall on him before he vanished and reappeared elsewhere.
This cat-and-mouse game continued for a few moments, the meteors speeding up, Silver’s foresight stretched to its limits as he avoided unavoidable strike after unavoidable strike, each meteor striking the ground hard enough to shatter and explode into larger and larger blasts from the unstable magical energies this spell required.
Suddenly, Silver appeared in midair, right in front of Blood Banana, his metal sundial expanding and lengthening outwards, reconfiguring into a thick spiked gauntlet, which flew off the silver Unicorn as he threw it into the monster’s flaming eye-socket.
The intense flames melted the metal weapon, and so Blood Banana was left with boiling-hot metal striking his eye, its flames going out. He screamed out in pain as he reared back, the concentration on his Meteor spell breaking, red clouds fading as he clawed at his bone mask, rolling on the floor in agony.
And THIS is why I prefer my spells Fire-And-Forget. Silver thought.
“Is this really your champion?” Silver asked the crowd, which was oddly silent. “Or is he the Rodeo Clown, warming up the audience for the real champion?”
With a deep growl, the beast got back up, blood pouring from the flaming eyehole of the beast’s skull, steam from the now-boiling blood rising along with the weaker flames and smoke. The crowd cheered loudly.
“BLOOD PLAGUE.” Blood Banana growled, and the crowd went absolutely berserk with joy and anticipation. Black and red energies crackled around his horn, before fizzling out a few red sparks, causing many ponies in the crowd to stop cheering, not that Blood noticed either thing. “PREPARE TO FEEL THE BLOOD WITHIN YOU SEAR AWAY AT YOUR FLESH AS YOUR TORTURED VOCAL CORDS SING THE SONG OF-
“No.” Silver responded, unharmed.
Blood blinked, and noticed that his spell had failed. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ‘NO’?!” Blood demanded.
“Protection From Ailments.” Silver stated, knowing that it was the best cover story for the perks that absolute immortality granted a pony. “I cast it on myself every week. One-week duration. Full immunity to poisons, curses, unwanted potion effects, hexes and even epic-level stuff. Looks like it also includes Black Magic cast by mediocre sorcerors. Honestly, I’m amazed more ponies with access to this spell don’t use it.”
Blood screamed as he galloped ahead, bladed hooves clicking against the stone floor as he imagined himself tearing that Unicorn limb from limb. Crimson flames gathered around his horn, and spread to the rest of his body as he sped up, flames coating his form like the blaze around a meteor falling to the ground. The crowd started to cheer. "YEEEEAAAAAAA-
A steel and cold-iron alloy wall shaped to look like a twelve-foot-tall ten-foot-wide brick wall rose up from the ground just in front of Silver, which Blood ran head-first into, expecting to crash through it. Instead, he struck the wall hard enough to snap his own neck, slumping to the ground, and the crowd's cheer faded into a sad "Awww."
Blood Banana's neck slowly rotated three hundred and sixty degrees, and then noisily clicked itself back itself into position, only for Silver to knock that wall over, crushing him.
Silver mentally counted to three point two, learning the timing of the dark Alicorn’s death-negating ability, and teleported away right as the wall erupted and disintegrated in red and black flames, an unharmed Blood Banana in his final form getting up unsteadily before standing proud, the ground beneath him blackened from the flames.
Blood’s horn glowed black as six white bones rose up from the ground, and then the skeletons they belonged to also rose up, chittering as dark magic swirled around their white-boned body.
“Do you like metal?” Silver said, smirking, as he reappeared ten feet away from those skeletons, facing down them and their master. “I do. Such a useful metal, yet so dangerous.”
And then The Silver Cup, his oversized trophy, fell down and crushed three of these skeletons in one blow, before falling to the side and crushing the others, leaving behind only bone powder, which faded as the magic sustaining them destabilised.
“If I can make those so easily, how many of those do you think I own?” Silver asked, horn glowing blue. “Now, if you’ll excuse me... I think it’s time we end this dance.”
A thick conical spike of metal rose up from the ground beneath Blood, and he leapt up just in time for four more spikes around it to rise up and aim higher. He flapped his horrific wings, taking flight with the ungracefulness of an albatross, fleeing the ground and the spikes of impossibly-sharp metal this pony could summon seemingly at will with his magic.
Spear after spear erupted from the ground as the airborne horror ducked and twisted frantically like a songbird pursued by a Bird of Prey, each blade narrowly missing its mark as Blood called upon all the knowledge of the void to guide him, to tell him where the spikes would be and how to adjust his course accordingly. But somehow, every three or so spikes, the knowledge the void granted him was WRONG, and the spikes showed up right where they'd almost impale him. Almost, but not quite, the spikes gave him JUST enough time to make a turn so sharp the wind resistance strained at his wings... But Silver could have easily had these foresight-defying spikes rise up to stab right through him, if he wanted. He was just making a point.
Blood knew his opponent was toying with him, and that annoyed him. He had never been in this situation before. He was never losing this badly before. Heck, since he got here, he’d never been losing at anything before! But then, along came this pony, who was beating him at his own game. He was terrified. He was losing, and he was terrified.
And worse... The darkness was actually wrong in its predictions. He could feel it inside him, feel the rage of demons and beasts of shadow that furiously demanded how their predictions could possibly be wrong.
But the stronger, deeper voices in The Darkness, they called to him, promising him greater power. All he had to do was let go and surrender to the darkness, and as long as Silver would be harmed, he didn’t care what would happen to anything else.
Finally, Silver decided enough was enough, teleporting and appearing above the monster, falling back-first and spinning rapidly in the air, swinging the point of his forehoof down into its back and putting all of his momentum into the larger creature, sending it crashing down to the ground, towards the field of metal spikes. Blood quickly cast every spell he knew that could strengthen and toughen his hide, and only by using most of his remaining magical stamina did he get the toughness needed to crush the bone-spikes beneath him like glass, though that didn’t stop the pain when he struck the ground hard enough to cause a shockwave that shattered everything, sending cracks along the stone ground and arena walls, reducing the remaining metals to mere shards.
And then to add salt in the open wound, Silver's horn glowed, and the shards of metal rose up like drops in a stream of water and converged on his body, sharp metal shrapnel piercing his flesh and goring his innards.
Lying there in unbearable agony, Blood Banana made a choice. He’d rather die than lose this match, and right now, he didn't care what he had to do to win it. Nopony came into his arena and made a fool of him, and if he didn't win this one, his entire career was finished! His body started to grow warmer and warmer as he gave in, letting the Black Magic take control of him completely. His body ignited with actual flames, burning away at his flesh and melting the steel, causing even more pain.
Silver teleported away, reappearing thirty feet away, taking a moment to catch his breath, expecting the monster to use some kind of fire-based or explosive-based attack, ready to block or teleport away at a moment’s notice. He considered summoning his Mirror or using his Shield of Causality Enchantment, but decided against it. He didn't want to give away that secret.
The energies swirled around the dark monster, creating an egg upon which a black and red pattern reminiscent of the fiery pits of the darkest levels of Tartarus could be seen. After a brief moment, the egg melted, forming a large black goo, like tar, but not any tar. In this tar, white specks could be seen, as if it was the primordial ooze of creation itself, the stuff of the cosmos, space and existence itself. It grew, expanded, forming into a new creature. Eighteen feet tall. Four thick legs, white bone plates running along the black-furred body. A large barrel-chest, muscles rippling along its red-and-black-furred form, the colours merging and melding like paints mixed together. A large armoured bone carapace formed on its back, its rear extending to coat the seven long smouldering embers that were its tail, until clicking and extending bone claimed it completely and formed a long curved tail, like that of a Scorpion, its tail ending in a large curved pyramid-shaped blundgeoning tool with a sharp tip, the kind of thing that could crush a pony and divide its remains into four quarters. Its face and head crumbled to ash, leaving behind a headless corpse clad in bone, which rose up to form a large and twisted bull-like skull, black energy clouding around the skeletal head as flames claimed the twin horns, a Unicorn horn spiking up like a twisted old tree, curving backwards before forming into a sharpened point. Tiny twin embers formed in the wide voids of the beast’s skeletal eyes. Four wings tore their way out of the creature’s body like drowning swimmers breaking the ocean surface, the front pair twin oversized crow wings, and the larger back pair a set of large outstretched bat wings twenty-five feet in length. Upon its bone-covered flanks, there was no sign, no image, only a simple black circle to represent absolute darkness.
“What is this, your second final form?" Silver asked, amused. "Would that be your final-er form, or your more final form?"
The beast ignored him, beyond words, beyond reason, roaring in eldritch fury as it swung its tail forwards at Silver.
Time seemed to slow down as Silver brought up the standard steel-and-cold-iron-alloy defensive wall to protect himself.
The sharp appendage sliced through the steel wall, tearing a hole into it as it flew closer and closer towards the head of the surprised Silver, whose pupils shrunk for a moment.
He disappeared mere milliseconds before it was too late, reappearing several feet behind the beast, tapping a hoof onto the ground once with his horn aglow to have thousands of sharp thin steel needles summon themselves and rise up, aiming at the beast's face and eyes. Nothing that went inside that skull ever came out, and there was not even the clang of metal on bone to tell him that something struck the back of the monster’s skull.
The announcer, Bull Horn, started to freak out. “He Devolved! He’s Gone Dark! Everypony, r-”
Cutting Remark slapped a hoof across Bull Horn’s face hard enough to turn the stronger pony’s head. “He’s fine!” He shouted into the mics, and then turned them off. He then glared at his immature but more entertaining coworker. “Listen here, you idiot. That thing’s gone berserk, but it’s not our problem, and having everypony run out and panic will just cause unnecessary casualties, AND risk distracting that monster from its current target, the only one in this BUILDING that can handle it.”
“And it’d give us a bad name." Bull Horn growled, rubbing his stung face. "Aren’t the fans more important than-?!”
“They knew what they were coming here to see. And this is Silver’s fault, not ours. He made this bed, so he can lay in it." Cutting said coldly. “The second he dies, enchantments means the replica dies, too, and that beast's mind goes into Blood's ordinary body. Now, I’m going to turn the mics back on, we’re going to tell them everything is fine, and we’ll announce the match as usual, got that?!”
“Fine. By the way, when did you grow a pair, Cutting?” Bull asked, glancing at the mics as he waited for the mics to be turned back on.
“I always had them, I just don’t need to show them off every ten minutes.” He said, turning the microphones back on with a quick spell, his horn glowing green.
The monster that Blood Banana had become leapt up, more agile than something its size should be, black flames trailing from its form as it spread out its black-feathered wings, launching a crimson beam from his mouth aimed right at Silver.
"Featherbreak." Silver said to himself, horn aglow as he cast a spell from the Bird House, summoning feathers that arced around his still form and flew towards the beast, only to be incinerated by the intense heat around it. So, it wasn't an illusion, that thing really was on fire. Flank.
'That flame cloak is a problem'. Silver recognized. The raw heat that thing was giving off could evaporate anything, even steel, Cold Iron or not. That metal negated magic, not heat. Well, it did that too, but not much. Dang laws of thermodynamics. 'Eliminating now.'
Silver's horn lit up as he let out a yell, summoning ten streams of liquid steel and causing them to twist around his still body before converging on the beast, fully aware that the streams evaporated when they came near the monster, acrid smoke rising into the air.
"Absolute Zero!" Silver announced, casting a low-level Alteration spell, one used in Magic Schools when dealing with extreme temperatures or teaching fire and ice magic to new students. All he had to do was add the cool name, and reduce the effect's duration by a half-second to make casting it easier.
The temperature of the beast, the steel, and the flames around it was suddenly reset to exactly zero degrees, the fire vanishing as metal converged upon the beast in a tsunami, Silver's Cold Aura focusing on the beast and chilling the metal, hardening it and bonding the beast to the metal, which a nod of his glowing-horned head and activation of the metal-controlling enchantment on his rib caused to compress in upon itself.
For a brief second, the beast was gone, its remains compressed into a sphere the size of a beach ball. And then crimson cracks formed on this ball, black light shining out as neon red goo that visibly emanated black light leaked out of it, reforming back into the shape of the beast Blood Banana had become, a large metal cube falling down on his half-formed face and sending his body to the ground with a loud crash, liquefying its head once again. The metal cube rose up, the head reformed, and the metal cube slammed down once again. The metal The metal cube rose up, the head reformed, and to add insult to injury, Silver summoned a glass jar filled with a yellow liquid and his magic threw it into the body of the reforming Blood Banana, and THEN the cube smashed down again. The cube rose up, the head reformed mouth-first, and it screamed in disgust as it launched a crimson beam of energy up at the cube, shattering it as steam rose up from its liquid form, which solidified as it rose up once again, recovering itself.
The beast raised its head and screamed at the ceiling, firing a beam that caused black clouds to gather above the fighter and the monster.
And then an incredibly thin metal blade held perfectly-horizontally swung diagonally through the beast's neck, its head falling to the ground beside it with a wet splat. It roared in fury, and Silver brought a newly-crafted cube down onto its severed head like an industrial press.
"I shouldn't be enjoying this." Silver commented neutrally, a tiny smile beginning to form on his face. "Why am I enjoying this?" He asked himself.
Silver started to hum a jaunty tune to himself, but after the second note, he quickly started singing random notes in a C Major octave with a high, high, low, high pattern, fully aware that such a song couldn't be copyrighted. He didn't want to accidentally summon his lawyers, who'd prevent him from singing anything copyrighted and potentially get him disqualified on a technicality. Would summoning something without using an official summoning spell count be a bannable offense in this arena? He'd have to check later, if he still cared about it by the time he could ask someone who'd know.
And when the beast's head liquefied and leapt up onto the beast's body, he waited until it reformed, and then he sliced it in half along its Z-axis, the whole thing falling into two exactly-equal parts, like an anatomy chart's cutaway image.
While the beast regenerated and recovered, tendrils of crimson reaching out from the two halves to stitch themselves together and draw closer, Silver summoned his Star Gems, nine orange gems that matched the colour of the darker part of his orange mane, and one in the center that matched his ice-blue eyes. The magic-enhancing gems swirled around him once before rising above his head and arranging themselves into a replica of his Cutie Mark: Ten orange five-pointed stars arranged to resemble a tree-shaped constellation, the one blue gem in the center. Silver launched a thin, weak magical laser into the lowest gem, putting in as much effort as a casual flick of the tail would take. This gem struck the lowest gem, and was refracted into the next gem, which refracted the beam into the nearest two orange gems and the one blue above. The orange gems continued to refract light into the Enhancing Gems, blue links forming between the orange crystals, while power built within the blue Focusing Crystal.
First, the gems spun in place in Silver's telekinetic grip, unleashing ten powerful gem-cutting laser beams upon the landscape that moved faster than beams had any right to, slicing his larger opponent's body into ten parts, and then each of those parts into ten more parts, in the space of a single second, charging even more power into the gems all the while. The body parts melted into a thick red and black liquid and merged together, and the power built in Silver's gems found a release when he combined the main links and unleashed a thick octagonal laser beam at his opponent, intentionally aiming high and leaving the forehooves untouched while the entire upper body was obliterated, right down to the last cell.
For a few brief moments, despite the regenerative abilities of his new form, Blood Banana knew what death felt like.
The endless, infinite numbness...
It was so cold...
But he couldn't pass on, he could feel his body regenerating. He felt the hateful screaming inside his head get louder, but it was starting to hurt his ears. It no longer drove him on, it hurt him. It didn't even feel like his own voice any more. There was an echo, a crowd of echoes, and he wondered if that was really how he'd been thinking all this time...
He saw the world once again when his body had revived, and he blinked, his eyes feeling strange. For the first time, he'd experienced the sensation of a being's brain regenerating piece by piece while it was still alive to feel it.
And with all the mercy usually reserved for dumping a bucket of cold water onto a sleeper's head, Silver brought down yet another cube that crushed his opponent's head, and then he threw it aside and waited for his opponent to regenerate, unsummoning his magic gems and internally frowning at the fact that he didn't get to use his Starsword in this battle, even if it was good practice for his metal and gems.
When the beast Blood Banana stood once again, Silver seemed bored.
When the beast formed seven copies of himself, Silver's eyes gleamed in excitement, a grin breaking out on his face. "Now we're talking." The Unicorn said, four swords forming in the air around him.
A barrage of purple fire formed into balls shot at him, each splitting into six, those fireballs multiplying six times again, and they grew faster. Silver dashed forwards, then again, then to the right, then left, stopping perfectly each time, his eyes like roulette balls as they analyzed the angle and speed of each fireball and found the gap in their defenses, leaping through a gap that was only there for a moment while spinning. Once he was through the cloud of bullets, he continued to spin as he formed a long, thin lance of cold iron in his hooves and threw it. The beast formed a wall of black fire to block it, and the back half of the lance broke off and shattered into hundreds of tiny cold iron shards, going around the barrier in clouds and piercing the beast's frontmost right limb. The front half of the spear simply shot through the black fire, cold iron negating the magic, and lodged itself in the beast's chest. With the natural magic gone from that limb, it was easy for Silver to teleport behind the beast, form two replicas of himself that moved in perfect synchronization with each other, and teleport back in front of it while the clones summoned forth one blue gemstone and nine orange gemstones each. They channeled magic from their horn into those gems while arranging them into the shape of their Cutie Marks, the blue gem at the center, and they shot forth ten rapidly-moving laser beams that sliced away wing and flesh from the beast like the lights of a thin-beam strobe light. The Silver in front of the beast took the opportunity to form a large rotating metal sawblade and slice away his foe's now-easily-cut limb, and then lodge it into the foe's chest as it rotated faster and attempted to saw through him.
Black portals opened on the ground, from which green and purple implike beasts emerged. "F-For one night only, we're throwing out the penalties for summoning creatures to fight for you!" Cutting Remark shouted into the mic.
Silver could have made a large sheet of cold iron and crushed all of those beasts beneath it, but right now, with a crowd watching, he felt like showing off. Then again, showing off against these things wouldn't be that impressive, so he went with the sheet of cold iron. Though they threw fireballs of varying colours and many dark energy beams up at the rapidly-growing metal sheet to try and save themselves, the magical attacks lost their power and destabilized upon nearing the metal, and were negated upon touching it.
When six tougher centaur-like Greater Demons with purple skin coated with armour made from deformed bones emerged, their eyeless and noseless faces dominated by large teeth with extra layers of teeth inside them, their monkey-ish paws ended in sharp birdlike claws. Silver decided to put some effort into fighting those things, glad he was officially being taken seriously by whatever branch of the dark world these things came from, and he vanished in a flash of blue magic.
Just in front of one of these demons, metal emerged from the ground like a giant bird claw, piercing his chest. Silver reappeared atop that, swinging his right forehoof across in a harsh right hook, putting his whole body into it until his side was exposed to the enemy, then he put his forehooves down and snapped his back around to kick the demon's face, swinging his back hooves hard enough to send him flying into a large quickly-forming open iron maiden made of cold iron, which grew spikes right as the demon entered it. The iron maiden snapped shut, revealing that rather than a sad-looking face, there was a five-pointed star on its face.
Silver teleported in front of another demon, and watched like a mildly-approving boss as metal blades of cold iron formed around his foe and tore the beast apart, before a cube of cold iron crushed the remains.
Silver sensed the magic approaching him and dodged the colossal balls of cursed black flames, backflipping, then teleporting in midair while upside down. The third and fourth demon weren't expecting Silver to appear behind them both with mechanized cold iron attached to his arms, piercing the flesh between head and neck, and continuing his flip backwards as he slammed their bodies into the ground, shattered the cold iron against the ground to send a wave of shrapnel flying out to shred their bodies, and he landed on the ground behind them, unharmed and only now starting to breath heavily.
He faced the fifth demon as a cloud of cold iron dust formed in the air above him and shot hailstones of cold iron at the sixth demon, tearing its body apart, but not enough to kill it, just enough to hurt it and keep it still. Silver leapt towards the monster as it prepared two balls of black and blue flame in its hands, and threw one at the Unicorn. Pushing his hooves against the air hard enough to leap off the air resistance, he leapt to the right to dodge it, and then began to gallop in the air as his hooves burst into flame, leaving behind burning trails in the air as he rushed towards his foe like a comet, four blades of cold iron forming around him and spinning.
The demon threw his fireball, and one cold iron blade rushed ahead to dispel it as six cold iron blades appeared behind the beast, not that it noticed. Silver galloped towards the monster, then teleported away as two blades pierced its feet and two blades pierced its throat, then angled its head up as the blades at its back sunk in. With its head up, it could see its doom approaching. A massive titansteel-cored cube of cold iron slammed down upon the demon with the impact of a meteor, Silver pushing it down with his horn as his hooves galloped and sent him faster and faster into it with each second, striking the ground hard enough to send a shockwave through the arena and almost destroy the whole thing. If that powerful spellshield wasn't keeping everything in the arena inside it, the cheering fans that were starting to like the new fighter would have been picking themselves out of the town's rubble when the survivors awoke.
A wave of flame was launched towards Silver from the sixth demon, and the Unicorn noticed, and turned to watch as blue portals formed in the air from which two colossal black-feathered twenty-foot wings emerged, at his mental command, and both they and the portals swung out to send a gust of wind imbued with powerful and ancient magic at the flames, blades of air and deep purple magic spiralling as they engulfed the cursed flames, empowered them, and sent them back to their casters. The job completed, the black wings retracted into the portals, which closed.
Finally, Silver turned to the sixth demon, forming metal blocks in the air as he leapt up and jumped on each one, some angled to their side, each flying away as he leapt from it, making a small spiked ball of cold iron within the demon's chest in the process to keep it still as its cursed blood tried to melt the iron no magic or supernatural being could harm. Years of magical parkour practice meant Silver had no trouble twisting around in the air to wall-jump, and he quickly made it to the small block floating in front of the terrified sixth demon's face, its body quickly reforming when the metal rain stopped. A large titansteel metal bat formed behind the beast, Silver turned his hooves and bucked the demon in the face like an applebucking champion, the moving platform aiding in force and momentum, and sent the creature right into the path of the bat, which knocked it back across the arena like a tennis ball. Silver's metal platform quickly overtook it and bucked it back, a cold iron guillotine blade forming in the arena's center to serve as a tennis net. Again and again, the bat knocked the demon back towards the Unicorn with enough precision to make some wonder if tennis should have been played with baseball bats all along, while the Unicorn played equally well, often going for the long shots to try and tire the opponent out. Old habits died hard, even when playing tennis against a floating baseball bat under his control. After ten hits from the bat and ten stronger hits from the Unicorn, the demon flew towards the bat one last time, and it spun twice in the air before slamming down vertically on the creature's head, metal blades striking it in the air to pin its limbs and pull them out, letting the demon fall neck-first upon the executioner's blade, severing its head.
Finally, the massive guillotine blade split into two halves across its longest side, both halves falling down to crush the beast's head and body. With that, the metal expanded to
“Well, I’ve had fun.” Silver said in the satisfied tone one would use after a satisfying workout, and his horn started to glow a bright shining blue, like a lighthouse beacon, brighter than it had all day. “Now, I think it’s time I collected my prize."
Instantaneously, thick steel spikes rose up to piece the monster’s paws, and then they bent over and headed back into the ground, forming deadly restraints to keep the beast standing where it was.
Seven spikes rose up around Silver before leaving the ground behind and forming into sharp lances with a wide blade. They spun around him for a moment, before disappearing along with Silver Star.
He reappeared in midair, floating behind Blood in a fierce blue glow, as he sent all seven lances down into the back of the beast’s neck in a row, a macabre show of accupuncture as every muscle and tendon and piece of the beast’s neck and spine locked up, including his vocal cords, which could only allow him to make a strained whispered squeal.
Exactly as he wanted. Silver teleported, reappearing on the ground in front of the beast, horn aglow as two large ten-foot-cubed blocks of silver dust were summoned, and flung into the beast’s face eyes-first hard enough to turn the blocks into a mass of powder, and then a heavy cloud of silver dust, individual grains of metal dust swirling and blinding the monster, damaging it faster than its regeneration could heal it.
Silver nodded, summoning a sending a seven-foot-thick silver column rising from the ground beneath the monster, right into his diaphragm, forcing him to exhale.
When he breathed in, the cold iron dust that was sucked in along with the air swirled like a sandstorm and eroded away his lungs and airways, causing blood to leak from his mouth. While his regeneration was forced to focus on that, Silver crouched and then leapt, his blue magic suddenly grabbing himself and propelling him forwards like a missile, expending far more magic than he needed to while blasting himself forwards as hard as he could, a corona of blue power around him as he swung a heavy punch into the beast’s face, followed by another, and another, pushing the monster back further and further as its pierced paws kept it pinned down, each strike enhanced by his magic.
Soon, the weakest thing in the equation broke, and the beast was flung back into the arena’s far wall, minus its lower legs.
“SWEET CELESTIA!” Bull Horn gasped in shock.
“WH-WHAT?!” Cutting Remark screamed, confused.
Silver reappeared on the ground in front of the monster in a flash of blue light as the beast’s eldritch eyes finished repairing themselves, giving its powerful eyes a blurry look at Silver’s somewhat bored expression before clearing up, showing the sight in clarity only magic-enhanced eyes were capable of.
The silver Unicorn leapt up, magic glow forming around him as he extended his front hooves to the sides, silver and metal forming around them in an intricate lace before merging into thick plates, lengthening and forming four sharp talons on birdlike hands, mechanical joints on each of the bends to give them the range of motion a Griffon would expect and then some. These metallic limbs also slightly boosted his height.
Silver Star then barrelled forwards, aiming right at the monster’s face, smirking as a dark crimson shield was erected in front of it.
Silver turned, heading for the creature’s left wing, flying past it as he seemed to only stroke a single razor-sharp talon along its length, leaving behind a glowing trail of white. Once he’d passed the beast, he slowed to a halt, and nonchalantly snapped his talons.
The beast’s left wing suddenly erupted in a flash of white, followed by a spray of black as the draconic batlike wing was utterly shredded, lines branching out from the main cut to tear apart the whole thing, prying the most pained scream the beast could manage.
Silver landed upon the beast’s broken muzzle, staring right into its eyes as the metal talons on his hooves unfolded and removed themselves.
The monster glared raw hatred at him.
Silver stared back.
The monster kept glaring.
This did not matter at all to Silver.
All of this pain, agony, suffering, gore, horror, darkness, pain... it was no more horrifying to this creature than a mild paper cut happening to someone he just didn't care about.
The lesser monster’s eyes widened in fear... and he looked away.
Fear claimed its heart.
It discarded the monstrous transformation, sacrificing all of its extra biomass just to stay alive and return its host to his original self as The Darkness decided it had better places to be, the monster melting into a sea of black feathers and tar beneath Silver, Blood Banana's first form fleeing the eldritch mass at full sprint, looking back over his shoulder only to fall and slide on its own blood from before, the acidic liquid burning at his skin, steam rising into the air as it burned his body.
“I do believe it’s your turn now.” Silver said, looking down on the terrified Alicorn.
A horrifying, feral scream was the only response he got. Ponies in the audience found it sad, and Silver found it disgusting.
“It’s over already?” Silver asked casually, as a large silver spear was summoned above him horizontally, aiming downwards at the Alicorn, like a bird ready to fly. “Some ‘Master of Darkness’ you turned out to be.”
“N-no...” Blood begged.
The Alicorn yelped as steel restraints rose up to claim his limbs, all four of them, thick bars keeping each joint immobile.
“So, do you see it now?” Silver asked, floating down to stare into the beaten pony’s eyes while his metal spear was discarded, more restraints coming up to force him to look, to stop him from turning away, to make sure he stared right into those cold ice-blue eyes.
“S-See what?” Blood asked fearfully, on the verge of tears.
“Do you see that when you become a monster, you’re just asking to be slain?” Silver asked. “Being an uninteresting and unrepentant abomination simply for the amusement one gains from unnerving others, that’s no way to live. If you want to be remembered, if you want to matter, you have to be more than a monster the hero won’t even remember the name of in a few days.”
“How?!” Blood whispered tearfully. “I am nobody! Without this, I am nothing! I’m not interesting, I’m not cool, I can’t be interesting or unique or anything that you other ponies can do without even trying! Black magic is the only thing that makes me different from everypony else! It's the only thing I'm good at! Without it, I’m just some banana farmer!”
“Hey, now... Did you really just say that you are nothing?” Silver asked sympathetically, stepping closer.
“Y-Yes...” Blood admitted weakly.
“Correct.” Silver said coldly, expertly turning and bucking his rear legs into Blood Banana’s midsection hard enough to shatter his ribs and the restraints holding him, sending him back, bouncing off the ground like a stone skipping across a lake, bouncing off the wall hard enough to ricochet back into Silver's outstretched hoof, where his Shield of Causality enchantment finally found an excuse to be activated, the kinetic energy rebounding at double the power and launching Blood Banana into that wall hard enough to break it, before falling to the ground.
When the battered and broken Blood's eyes opened, lying in a crumpled heap, he looked up when he noticed a flash of light and saw the victor of this match looming over him, and he thought it was over. He thought it was all finally over. He’d lose a match for the first time since he got here two years ago, and he’d likely lose his place working here, unless he found some way to seriously step up his game. But after all of this, he didn’t care. He just wanted the pain to end.
A thin silver spike lined with Cold Iron rose up from the ground like a tree, piercing his body from tip to base, raising him up like a drawbridge so he could look Silver in the eyes.
“You fear me, don’t you?” Silver asked calmly, nodding as two more spikes shot out of the main spike, going through his front hooves and breaking them, sticking out of the base while the ponies in the audience winced in sympathy.
“Y-Yes.” Blood admitted.
“Why?” Silver asked as two more spikes emerged and pierced the rear hooves. “I have no red and black colour scheme. I have no dark magic. I don't appear to be that scary. But you’re still afraid. Even though I’ve only been using Silver, a fairly common metal, and Steel, a construction material, of all things! And Titansteel, a stronger construction material too heavy for conventional armour, and of course, the classic Cold Iron, which usually only sees use in alloys designed for anti-magic armour. Could it be that you don’t have to be dark or evil ugly to be scary?”
“Y-Yeheeheeesss!” Blood wailed.
Four more spikes extended from the main trunk, a yelp of pain coming from Blood with each piercing.
“This is quite an interesting technique.” Silver said, as if discussing a tactic in a game, as he slowly strolled closer to his opponent. “No spells are cast, besides the Control Metal spell I cast on myself every morning, to allow me to manipulate metal without having to expend any effort to do so. A counterspell cannot break this technique, and spell-resistant items cannot block it. Even a sound-based attack won't help, since titansteel doesn't care about vibrations. First, a single lance pierces the body and holds it in place. Then, either with each passing second or at will, more spikes branch out. But the destruction doesn’t stop there. The branches continue getting smaller and sharper and more numerous to an immeasurable degree, not just piercing flesh, but the very cells and atoms that make up said flesh. Eventually, nothing will be left of the victim, not even a body, not even a scorch mark, not even a fine red mist. Absolute... Destruction. Like severing a rotten branch from the tree of existence, and burning away every trace that it was ever there.”
Blood Banana let out a scared ‘Eeep’ as another spike shot out of the main column, piercing his back.
“I wonder if you'll be able to regenerate from nothing. I can. I wonder if you've ever tried. ...Now do you understand?" Silver asked, taking a step closer. "You don't need rivers of blood to be scary. You don't need rows of skulls on sticks to be scary. You don't need a hideous eyesore of a colour scheme to be scary. To be feared. All you need is power..."
More spikes shot out.
“And all you need to be... Is the kind of fighter... who will use..."
He moved closer. "That..."
He moved closer, until his cold, merciless face was only half an inch away from the absolutely terrified Blood Banana's. "Power." He whispered, and disappeared.
In a single moment, longer and thinner twenty-foot spikes extended from the macabre tree sculpture that had formed with Blood Banana at its center, the center column growing taller to take its victim higher into the air, for everyone to see.
More spikes erupted from those spikes, branching out and tearing apart the victim’s flesh, turning into a thorned tumbleweed whose spikes and vines wouldn’t stop moving, until eventually only a large round mass of silver was remaining, which blossomed outwards into countless spikes, like a pine tree made from sharp metal. Not a single drop of blood leaked from this sculpture, and not even the tiniest speck of dust was left to memorialize that Blood Banana was no more.
Silver looked up at the announcers as his horn stopped glowing, as if prompting them to close their wide-open mouths, regain their composure, and announce his victory.
“Well... That happened.” Bull Horn managed, his mouth wide open, his eyes wider.
“This match’s winner is... Silver Star!” Cutting Remark shouted, and the crowd went wild. The fact that a now-terrified Blood Banana was alive elsewhere in this arena and either freaking out or plotting revenge did not matter, nor did the fact that their former favourite had been so utterly crushed. They had seen an epic match greater and more impressive than any of the usual dark magicfest squash matches they were used to, and they loved it. And as Silver metaphorically drank in the applause and admiration and energy of the crowd, rearing up and extending his forehooves outward, he considered doing this sort of thing more often.
