Fighting to the Top

by SwordTune

Rating: teen
Tags: Human, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle (EqG), Cloudkicker, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Equestria Girls
Length: 23298

Canterlot High School has been chosen as the next host for the Inter-regional Fencing Tournament. Even after tying with Crystal Prep at the Friendship Games, CHS is still the underdog of the sport. Well, not any more, if Sunset has her way.

Advance, lunge. Retreat. It's about speed, but no one can run away. Sunset never thought she'd get the chance to show how far she had come, not in this. Her friends were by her side and they'd always be the greatest change in her life, but this was important too.

Changing bodies when she crossed over to the human world was hard enough. It was a challenge to write, and even harder to learn how to play the guitar. But this sport, fencing, felt nigh-impossible to master. But that was years ago.

Feint, disengage, lunge for the feet. Every time it's a lunge, firing the body like a magic blast from a unicorn's horn, only stronger. Every time she could feel the impact. The bending steel, it spoke volumes about how good the hit was.

Canterlot High had only ever had a fencing club, but the Inter-regional Fencing Tournament would be open to every young fencer, including upstart professionals. Schools like Crystal Prep would be sending their own team members, real competitors who lived with a sword in their hand. But none of them had to go through what Sunset did. She'd win for CHS, and finally give back to the one place that had done so much for her.

Sequel: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/414838/a-summers-gift

Published 2018-04-23 05:30:06 UTC
Last updated 2018-07-14 01:21:59 UTC

Starting From the Bottom

"Time!" The whistle rang in Sunset's ears as she crossed over the hundred-meter mark. She gasped, then slumped onto the racetrack. In the rising heat of Spring, the sun slammed waves against her face. It was Rainbow Dash's that head popped into Sunset's vision and stopped her from going to sleep right there on the track.

"I've done faster sprints in my sleep!" Rainbow reached down and hauled Sunset to her feet. "And that was only the fourth set."

Sunset wanted to protest, but she still couldn't catch her breath. Under a tree by the track, Twilight was reading a list of papers. "One-minute break." She could barely form her words in-between her heavy breaths. They walked over to Twilight and took a seat on the grass with her.

Twilight pressed her glasses up and took one look at Sunset. "Are you sure you don't want to do this in the evening? The heat looks like it's getting to you."

Rainbow blew a puff of air. "Nonsense, sweating's part of the process." She grabbed a water bottle from the icebox Twilight brought and soaked her towel in the cold water. She tossed it to Sunset. "I thought you might need this,"

"Oh, that feels perfect right now." Sunset pressed the towel to her forehead. She was so warm that by the time the water had reached her neck, it was no longer cold.

"You still have to do four more sprints," Twilight reminded her, "then run the bleachers all the way through."

Sunset looked at her. "And you said the fencers at Crystal Prep warm up like this every day?"

Twilight simply nodded. "I studied their routine for a physiology project. They work the abductors and gastrocnemius, strengthening it to give their legs more explosive power."

"And the endurance boost is gonna help in the last few matches," Rainbow Dash added. "Those are the fifteen point ones, right?"

Sunset nodded. "Direct elimination. I can't lose once in those."

"Then you better get going, 'cause your minute's up," Rainbow said with a big grin on her face.

As Sunset began the next hundred-meter sprint, she figured Rainbow enjoyed seeing her struggle through a warm-up routine. Aside from Pinkie Pie, she was the most mischievous of her friends. But it was also seeing her improve. Rainbow was, without a doubt, the most athletic person at CHS.

She was the odd one out: an extremely competitive athlete in a school that always lost to Crystal Prep. She wasn't a fencer, but there was no way Rainbow would let herself be left out of a competition.

"Show those wannabees what it means to be a Wondercolt fencer!" Sunset's legs burned from her toes to her knees as she completed the fourth sprint.

"You're doing great!" Twilight shouted from the shade. "You almost remind me of Crystal Prep now."

Almost? Sunset watched Rainbow Dash give Twilight a sour face, waving her hand across her neck to tell Twilight to stop being so encouraging. It might have been a blow to Rainbow's pride, but Sunset was willing to take "almost." The Inter-regional Fencing Tournament was going to be at Canterlot High in just a month, so there wasn't time to waste.

Sunset smacked her lips. The sun had taken the moisture out of her mouth, and every breath started to burn. "I need a drink—"

"—after the bleachers." Sunset was already moving for the icebox, but Rainbow grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. "Drink water now and you'll be weighed down. Plus, going up and down the bleachers with a stomach full of water is going to make you feel sick."

Sunset moaned and stepped off the track. Twenty seconds in and she felt the difference between the track and the bleachers. Sprinting on the track burned the muscles in her calves, but pushing herself up the bleachers put the effort on her thighs. She recognized the feeling; it was like her club's monthly exercise, the one they called "A Night of A Thousand Lunges."

It was never the explosive force of the lunge that tired Sunset out. What exhausted her was taking all the force when her foot landed on the ground and pushing all her weight back to recover to her guard position. Every time, the effort was on her thighs.

She didn't care about the burning in her legs. Now she knew why Crystal Prep fencers were ranked so highly. Their trainers isolated every part of their arsenal so they could improve it until it could never fail. She sprinted to the other side of the field and ran its bleachers without hesitation.

Sunset didn't expect a month of this training to put her on par with everyone else who was going to be in the IFT. But now the gap between her skills and theirs didn't seem so big. And for CHS, she was willing to take every step forward.

"Nice work." Rainbow tossed Sunset the wet towel as soon as she finished. This time, she just wrung the cloth and let the cold water take the heat from her body. Twilight caught up to them, carrying her papers with her.

"You really went all out on those bleachers," she noted.

Sunset wiped the water from her face and flashed a big grin at Twilight. "I think I'm starting to understand the routine."

"That's perfect," Twilight handed her papers to Sunset, "because I have some notes Sour Sweet wrote for me. She said she was willing to talk to her friends on their fencing team, as a favour for working with them on the music video."

Sunset wiped the sweat from her palms and took a look at the notes. Not only was Sour Sweet's cursive beautiful, but the description of each drill was expressive and intricate. She even underlined some parts, noting variations in the drills, or how she saw her friends incorporate it in an actual bout.

Sunset knew she shouldn't have been surprised. Twilight may have outshone everyone at her old school, but Crystal Prep had its reputation for a reason. Underneath her attitude, Sour Sweet was an amazing student with effective note-taking skills.

"Tell her I said thanks." Sunset beamed. "This'll help a lot. Me and Cloud Kicker are meeting in the gym to do some drills, so I'll be sure to try these out."

"We'll come too then." Rainbow shaded her eyes with her hand. "It's almost noon. Too hot for soccer practice."

Twilight patted her backpack. "And I can use my laptop to do homework anywhere."

Sunset didn't expect anything less from her friends. They were why she had to follow through with this training and leave the IFT with at least one trophy. Her friends and all of Canterlot High School had the heart and courage to forgive her even after bringing Equestrian magic into their world.

Then, the school did more than that. They accepted her as a friend, while Rainbow Dash also accepted her into her band. Both took a bit of work, including fighting off sirens from Equestria who had the power to manipulate other people's wills with music, but she got there in the end. For the new life CHS and its students had given her, Sunset believed winning the Inter-regional Fencing Tournament for the school was the least she could do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Are you sure this works?" Cloud Kicker and Sunset stood with their arms outstretched, each pressing their palm against one side of Sunset's fencing mask.

"Sour Sweet wrote it right here," Twilight assured them. "They each press one side of the mask so that if one takes their hand off, or fails to apply enough pressure, the mask falls."

With hesitation, Sunset and Cloud Kicker nodded to each other. Sunset moved immediately, keeping her arm out as she pressed forward with advances. Cloud Kicker retreated in response, keeping the pressure on the mask even. But as soon as Sunset switched directions and began retreating, the mask began to slip.

She thought it would fall but Cloud Kicker was light on her feet, rushing forward to give her share of pressure on the mask. Back and forth they felt each other's energy, measuring how much of their own effort was needed to hold up the mask, and when to release a bit of energy. It lasted about ten seconds before they both thought to retreat and the mask hit the gym floor.

"Well that was short-lived," Rainbow commented, trying to read Sour Sweet's writing. "Didn't she say some of the Preppers did this for over a minute?"

"Just the senior students," Twilight specified. "This isn't really a drill, but a warm-up game to practice maintaining your distance from your opponent."

"I think we can make it to a minute," Cloud Kicker said. "The gym's open all Saturday for rec classes, but the badminton class doesn't show up for another two hours, so we've got time to practice."

Sunset picked up her mask. "Distance is important. Almost everyone there is going to be faster than me, so I have to at least be able to see it coming."

They went again, pushing and pulling and feeling each other's motion through the pressure they applied. And again, the mask fell, this time over fifteen seconds. A few more times they managed thirty.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cloud Kicker tapped her shoulder, signalling to Sunset that she had been hit. The touch was light, but Sunset agreed that she could feel the electronic tip of her foil click.

It'd be the first event: day one was foil, then epee the next, and finally sabre on the third. That meant three weapons, three trophies, three chances to leave her mark on CHS.

"Wanna go one more bout?" Cloud Kicker finished retying her ponytail. The blonde stub of hair was bunched up but still sagged with sweat. Sunset imagined that fencing gear was just about the worst attire out of all sports. The padded mask reflected heat back at her face and trapped the sweat, and the same could be said for the vest and lame.

But if Cloud Kicker was determined enough to go one more bout, then Sunset wouldn't refuse. No matter how much she ran, it all didn't matter if she couldn't apply it on the fencing strip.

"Let's go to fifteen, like a direct elimination bout," Sunset spoke up through her mask. Cloud Kicker gave a thumbs up, not bothering to waste her breath shouting through the mask.

They nodded to each other, showing they were both ready and began to move. Sunset took the initiative and advanced but kept her elbow bent above her knee. Extending too soon would allow Cloud Kicker to parry, leaving Sunset open to a riposte.

They switched directions, Sunset quickly moving back to draw Cloud closer in this time. But, she waited just outside Sunset's range. Which also meant Sunset was out of her range, or at least that was what she expected. Cloud Kicker slammed Sunset's point aside with a beat and rushed forward in two quick advances.

Sunset shifted her weight, propelling herself back and sweeping her blade to parry. Cloud hesitated her charge as soon as her point was taken off-line. Sunset saw and stepped in, lunging well and thrusting the point straight into Cloud Kicker's sternum. Cloud Kicker tapped her shoulder, signalling the point.

They traded blows quicker and quicker as their points closed toward the goal. Parry, riposte: a clean hit by Cloud. Beat, disengage, and thrust: a near miss, but Sunset just managed to outpace Cloud Kicker.

Cloud took the bout in the end, but at a close fifteen to fourteen, Sunset didn't mind. Epee was more her speed anyways. They switched weapons and saluted each other again. Sunset's hand gripped naturally onto her epee, like a tree taking root in fertile soil. It was technically the heavier weapon compared to the foil, but an increased familiarity threw out that subtle weight difference.

"Five points," Cloud Kicker signalled with her left hand.

Immediately Sunset rushed out with a furious attack, beating Cloud Kicker's blade aside and putting her point in-line. Cloud twirled her epee in an attempt to catch the attack, but Sunset's disengage passed through effortlessly and struck hard against her mask. An obvious point scored.

Cloud returned harder than before, delivering fast thrusts from below and the outside, aiming for the hand. Sunset raised her hand to bring her point down for a thrust to the elbow, but Cloud Kicker would be there to meet it with a thrust up, scoring a double-touch.

Unlike foil, the whole body was a target, the only thing that mattered was timing. Foil ruled that whoever attacked first had the right to hit, but for the epee, the first to land the hit was the one who got the point. And if both hit, then a to point to both fencers.

Cloud Kicker was breathing heavily after the first two practice bouts. "Another fifteen?"

Sunset nodded. "Got an hour before badminton has to kick us out. Might as well use it."

This time, the exchanges were different. Epee was the most popular weapon among fencers in the region, mainly for its full body target area and the lack of right-of-way for attacks. But that also made it more competitive, with the most fencers participating. Both of them knew they had to get better if they stood a chance at getting the trophy.

Sunset scored with an opposition, pushing aside Cloud Kicker's blade as she attacked. Cloud responded with a sharp glide, cutting down the length of Sunset's blade to throw it off-line. The next time Cloud did that, Sunset pushed it out into prime.

The guard was like looking at a watch, except on her right hand, while the blade pointed down. From that position, all she could do was bring the point up and thrust into Cloud Kicker's thigh.

"Good touch," Cloud said. "That's your fifteen." She stepped back and lifted her blade for a salute. Sunset did the same, and after, they shook hands.

Hands. Sunset stood for a moment while Cloud Kicker stepped out of the gym for the water fountain. She looked at her left. It was the rule to shake with the ungloved hand after a bout. But could she...

Sunset looked over to Twilight, who was levitating a paper model of a cyclooctatetraene molecule, trying to explain to Rainbow the importance of the "polyunsaturated hydrocarbon." Rainbow Dash was tapping her foot, but with her necklace, the frequency was so fast it sounded more like a hum than tapping.

Would it be wrong for her to use her gemstone? The IFT would begin like any other event, with a round robin. Every fencer would get to fence everyone else, the only consequence being where they were seeded for the direct eliminations. Sunset could read the minds of each fencer when they shook hands, and when it was that soon after a bout, there was no doubt that they'd be thinking about what they could have done better.

She'd know every fencer's weakness before the direct eliminations even started.

"What's with that face, Sunset?" Rainbow Dash called out to her. She and Twilight sat at the bottom bleachers of the gymnasium to watch every detail of Sunset's fencing style.

"I was just thinking," she replied. "I could use my gemstone to read their thoughts about their strengths and weaknesses."

Twilight looked up from her laptop. "Are you sure that's a good idea? The magic works instantly but you always say something to give yourself away when you use it."

Sunset chuckled. "I think I'll be too out of breath to say anything about what I see."

"Absolutely not." Rainbow's foot stopped tapping and slammed on the floor. "CHS didn't go all these years without a fencing trophy just to win one by cheating."

"Technically," Twilight said, "there's no rule against it."

"Sounds like what a Crystal Prepper would say," Rainbow Dash snapped back. Her words visibly hurt Twilight.

"Hey, I'm the one who suggested it RD," Sunset interjected. "I didn't mean to sound like a cheater, I just really want to leave my mark on Canterlot High before we graduate."

"Is that all?" Rainbow's voice pitched up as she laughed away Sunset's worry. "You realize pretty much no one at CHS would be able to forget the time you—"

"—I know," Sunset cut her off. "But I meant something positive."

Rainbow raised a brow. "I was going to say that everyone's going to remember the time you changed, and helped all of us become closer as friends."

"And helped me see that I had more to gain from school that just school work," Twilight added.

"Totally!" Rainbow hopped up and slung her arm around Sunset's shoulders. "Listen, train with me every day and I'll make sure you're ready for the Inter-regional Fencing Tournament."

"You're right." Sunset smiled set her mask and epee on the floor. "I don't think magic can do anything better than two of my friends supporting me."

Of course, she couldn't use her magic. That's not why she wanted to win. She had to do it right, to prove she was a part of their world. A part of a world where her success was not because of mystical powers and ancient artefacts, but because of her own hard work and dedication to her home.

Foiling the Feeble

Three more days until the foil event started. Three... more... sets...

Rainbow Dash put her through a wringer the past few weeks, pulling out every last scrap of strength the way Pinkie Pie could pull taffy into a perfect sugary confection. Fifteen plyo push-ups at the end of every hundred meter sprint. Going back and forth once was only a single set.

"You're doing better than last week, keep it up!"

Rainbow's encouraging voice was like a broken fire alarm that wouldn't turn off. Sunset could hear it ringing in her ears, but didn't really pay any attention to it. She couldn't focus on anything except finishing the warm-up exercises. With the spring heat subsiding the past week, that gave Rainbow Dash a reason to push her even harder.

And she appreciated every burning step.

"You looked good." Rainbow ran up to Sunset with a wet towel in her hand. "How're you feeling?"

Sunset grabbed the towel from Rainbow. "Exhausted. I feel it in my arms the most."

"That's exactly what we want." Rainbow Dash pulled a small popsicle from her icebox and gave it to Sunset. "Twilight said Crystal Prep use heavy ropes to train up their arms, but I think this fits your style better. The burst from the plyos is gonna give your attacks more speed."

Over the course of the month leading up to the tournament, both Twilight and Rainbow had been modifying the Preppers' workouts to suit how Sunset fenced. They were about balance, never fully committing to an attack so they could always defend.

But pulling punches wasn't really Sunset's style. In the heat of a bout, she preferred to take the offensive. The problem was her endurance. She wasn't unhealthy by any means, especially not after her intense training, but the fencers that were going to be at the tournament fenced beyond the club level. They'd be professional athletes, with energy to spare by the end of the day.

"I'll give you five minutes to cool off, then we'll hit the medicine balls in the weight room." Rainbow Dash pulled her icebox underneath the tree by the racetrack and they both took a seat.

"Did Twilight say she'll be able to make it to the tournament?"

Rainbow nodded. "She skipped today's training so she could finish some kind of facial recognition program. Said something about using it to apply for an internship at a tech company."

"Huh." Sunset hummed. She pondered that fact with wonder as she cooled off with her popsicle. "I always figured she'd go for a lab position instead. Pharmaceutical research or something like that."

Rainbow laughed. "I bet she's gonna end up interning at every place she thinks is interesting. She might be an egghead, but at least she's the best egghead there is."

"If that's not true, I don't know what is," Sunset replied. For the first time since the IFT was announced, Sunset took her mind off of fencing. Twilight, getting an internship at a real company. Knowing her, she could easily get hired on the spot, and probably find the start of her career.

A career. Sunset thought to herself. What am I going to do in the future?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight started to wish she had done some of the exercises Rainbow Dash put Sunset through. She was so focused on her program that she completely lost track of time. She hopped off the bus in front of CHS and sprinted for the gymnasium in the back of the campus. Right outside the door, she saw Fluttershy and Applejack waiting.

"Howdy, Twilight. Made it just in time!" AJ waved to her.

"Rainbow Dash said the eliminations are about to start," Fluttershy said.

Applejack ushered Twilight in energetically, wearing a huge grin on her face. "Sunset got placed in the middle, so she won't be put up against the top-seeded fencers right at the start."

Twilight awkwardly looked around the fencing strips as they searched for a place to sit. She didn't want to miss a moment, even if she needed to take her eyes off to avoid bumping into strangers. A dozen things seemed to happen at once, all so fast that Twilight couldn't keep track. Sixteen metal strips were placed around the gym, each set up with electronic scoring equipment, flashing red or green lights as the fencers scored.

The IFT matched fencers up based on how many points they gained in the round-robin before. Those expected to win were at the top and got matched against the lower placements. The expectation was for the top four fencers to make their way to the semi-finals.

Being placed in the middle gave Sunset a chance to feel out the direct eliminations without facing an opponent who was too strong. Still, she'd have to face them eventually to win the trophy.

But aside from the rules, Twilight had no idea what was happening. Everything she read online was organized, neatly structured with clear rules. But to a casual observer, the sight of fencers walking back and forth and passing by sixteen simultaneous bouts was just chaos.

"I see her!" Twilight turned to see Pinkie Pie shouting from a few seats above. She followed her pointing finger to the middle of the gym, where a red-haired fencer was peeling away from a blurred lunge. The score was even, ten to ten, in a fifteen point bout.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No way I'd be at this point without Rainbow Dash.

Sunset leapt back, retreating barely enough to avoid her opponent's point. Her technique was average at best, but she had the speed to make up for it.

"Cloudsdale Stormers," said a small patch on her glove. Sunset noticed it when they shook hands during the preliminary bouts. Her opponent was on the Stormcrest High School fencing team and had driven three hours to take the trophy from CHS.

But Sunset was not going to lose on the first elimination bout. She turned her footwork around, pressing into the Stormer's own lunge. She thrust her guard against the blade, pushing it out of the way while simultaneously attacking. Defend while attacking, that was her style.

The Stormer was caught off guard by the move, recoiling as her whole body weight lunged into Sunset's point. Foils were made to bend to prevent serious injury, but Sunset knew she had left a bruise on the lower rib.

The director signalled the action with his hands. "Attack non, contre-temp touché."

Sunset's score climbed up to eleven.

"En garde, prêt, allez!"

The Stormer jumped at the director's command, flicking her foil in rapid beats. Sunset's blade was slammed aside left and right. Despite the wide swings of each beat, she was fast, and Sunset was helpless against the flurry of blows. There was no hesitation when her guard dropped. The Stormer shot forward, though her blade seemed to lag behind.

It jolted Sunset's mask so hard her ears rung for a second. Had she not flung her beats so wildly, her beat-thrust combination would have been flawless. Sunset counted herself fortunate that this was only foil, and that only the torso was the target area.

The director called the off-target. "Non valable!"

With the timer two minutes away from a break, neither of them wanted to draw out the bout. It was only the start of the day, and there were a lot of fencers to get through. Red light, Sunset's point.

The Stormer replied with a redoubled lunge, striking the hip even when Sunset thought she had retreated enough. It took another minute, but Sunset managed to win in the end with a fifteen to twelve score. The two girls shook hands as per the rules, but she clearly didn't want anything to do with Sunset after that loss. She grasped Sunset's hand in a rough handshake and stomped back to her fencing gear.

"Good job to you too," Sunset grumbled as she returned to her fencing bag to wet her mouth. She gargled a bit of water and then spat it out into another bottle. Water would weigh her down. All she needed was to forget about the thirst for a short while.

"That was amazing!" Rainbow Dash popped out from nowhere and slapped Sunset on the back. "Did you see her face after she lost? I don't think I've ever seen anyone that mad before."

Sunset simply shrugged. "It happens. Fencers can be really prideful."

"But you sure showed them not to underestimate us," Rainbow chuckled.

From the bleachers, Sunset could hear the footsteps of her other friends. Pinkie Pie bounded over other audience members, leaving a small wake of chaos as her calling card. The others, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Twilight, walked calmly through the crowd, passing by other fencers getting ready for their next bout.

"Sorry I wasn't here to see the earlier matches," Twilight apologized. "But Applejack said you did fine, and I have to agree after seeing that last one."

"Too bad Rarity's flight from Manehattan got delayed," Fluttershy added. "I sent her a video of the last few points and she texted that she loved it."

Sunset smiled as she wiped her face with a towel. "Tell her I hope the storm over there clears up so she can see me tomorrow. That's when I'll be at my best."

"That's epee right?" Pinkie Pie reached into Sunset's bag, rummaging around and eventually pulling out a sabre. "Oh, what's this one?"

"Sunday's event," Sunset said, snatching the sword away from Pinkie before something, or someone, got hit. "I probably won't do as well in that one though, sabre's not my strong suit."

"So, it's this or epee that you're hopin' to win?" Applejack picked up Sunset's epee with more care, inspecting the weapon's grip. "Reckon two chances is more than enough for our very own Sunset Shimmer to win a trophy."

"Thanks, AJ."

On the gym's speakers came a call for the next fencers who needed to make their way to their strip. Sunset heard her name for strip twelve, against a girl named Marionette Puppé.

"That's my queue," she said, grabbing her mask and water bottle. "Wish me luck!"

Sunset stepped over the dozens of bags next to hers, moving carefully past the other fencing strips, paying attention so she didn't get in a director's way. She passed the kiosks where people from big fencing equipment sellers were working on fixing blades or picking shoe sizes for fencers who needed a last-minute change. To the surprise of just about no one, the things they sold were upcharged, just slightly. Enough to be ignored by nervous fencers who needed a quick fix for their gear.

Once she arrived at strip twelve, her heart turned to lead and crumpled down into her stomach. Marionette Puppé sat in a chair by the strip, surrounded by her friends. They were all fencers, all from Crystal Prep's All Girls Fencing Team.

When they looked at her, Sunset immediately dropped her head low. She had been using their training to prepare for this tournament, but there was no way she could match someone who had lived and breathed that routine for years. Sunset knew that the foil was their strong suit, but she didn't expect to face one of them so early.

Perhaps it was better this way. She had improved a lot in her athleticism, but against a Crystal Prepper, she'd be exhausted if they were paired up in the semi-finals or finals.

Sunset sat down and tightened her shoelaces. She did her best to ignore the whispers from the other side. Were they judging her for taking their techniques? Or were they hoping that one of their own could put her in her place for thinking she could be as good as them? Sunset tried not to think about it.

Only winning mattered.

The director called them to the strip. They took the places on the lines that marked the starting distance. "En garde!"

"Prêt!"

Sunset twitched forward as the director delivered his commands.

"Halt!" cried the director. Sunset froze as he stepped toward her side of the strip. "Wait for my command, next time that's a yellow card."

She took a deep breath. Sunset swore she heard the director call "allez!" No, she was too impatient. The first two phrases were at the same pace as the last director, but this one put a pause between "prêt" and "allez." She had to listen for the gesture, not anticipate what he might do or say.

Suddenly Sunset felt her chest compress as Marionette's foil jammed into her. She realized too late that she was so caught up in the warning, missing the actual signal to start. The pain made her grunt, even if the shock did more damage than the actual hit. She balled her left hand into a fist and beat her thigh, taking her mind off the ache in her chest.

Focus, she ordered herself. Just focus like it's Celestia's magic tests.

"Allez!"

Sunset grabbed the rhythm this time, delivering one clean hit after the other. The first hit seemed like a fluke; Marionette was a great defender, but even she couldn't keep up with relentless pressure. In less than twenty seconds her red light had gone off three times. Three points.

But Marionette started fencing differently after the third point. Her movements started to match Sunset's, step by step. They moved as if a plank of wood was between them, keeping them apart at the exact same distance no matter how much the other tried to push.

Sunset beat Marionette's blade aside and lunged, but she retreated just in time and came back with the same action. Whatever attack Sunset threw out, an identical one always came back. She disengaged Marionnette, dropping her point so the parry would pass over it without stopping the attack, and thrust.

But Marionette recovered fast, disengaging into a counter-parry on her left side, the four position. They slowly traded points, climbing up to eight-seven in Marionette's favour. The timer ran out, signalling that three minutes had passed. The director pressed a button on the remote in his hand, putting up one minute on the clock for the break.

Sunset took off her mask and sipped some water, just enough to moisten her mouth. Through the crowd, she saw Twilight and Rainbow Dash coming to give her support.

"Hey, girls—"

Rainbow Dash cut her off. "You're gonna want to just listen to Twilight for this."

Twilight knelt by Sunset's seat and showed her notebook. "I know you don't like to hold back but you're going to have to. Sour Sweet mentioned Marionette in her notes. She always mimics her opponents so they never learn anything about her real style."

"What?" Sunset figured Marionette just fenced the same way she did. Copying another fencer's style on the spot, with no preparation, sounded impossible. There were thirty seconds on the clock.

"Just let her take the pace from now on, figure out her quirks," Rainbow advised.

Sunset nodded. That meant she'd have to bring out her parries. It wasn't that she was bad at them, but the past month she had been training her explosive power, doing everything to make her attacks better.

She put her mask on before the timer ended. What she had would have to be good enough. All she needed was some time to see what Marionette was really like, and then she'd press her attack again.

"Allez!"

Sunset retreated right off the bat, putting distance between her and Marionette's thrust. She attacked twice more, but both were deflected by parries and ripostes. The Prepper slowed down now, and despite their black masks, Sunset felt like a camera was on her, watching every motion, playing it all back in slow motion.

Marionette closed the distance with short but quick advances, careful not to lose her balance with an overcommitted attack. Her blade moved back and forth, beating left and right to keep the centre line clear. In a whipping motion, her foil glided down the length of Sunset's blade, slashing through her guard and striking.

"Touché!" The director signalled at Marionette as a green light flashed on the electric box.

The next time, Sunset gave a bit of pressure, thrusting with half-effort to gauge her opponent's response. Every time she did, Marionette turned her blade in a horizontal sweep that covered almost her entire body. But it was a wide swing.

Feint, feint, feint, lunge. Sunset moved forward three steps at a time, giving light jabs with her foil after every step. Marionette responded by pressing her attack, and they shifted forward and back along the strip until they met in the middle. Her instinct was to explode out, switch her retreat into an attack for her opponent could react and change directions, but it was clear that the distance between them wasn't shortening enough to land a solid hit.

Feint, feint, feint, lunge. Marionette reacted to the rhythm, not giving a parry until the fourth committed attack. She riposted, but Sunset pushed it aside with a parry to the outside, in the six position. Once more, she pressed. Feint, lunge, feint. Her red light flared on the electric box. Marionette looked at the light, then the director as he awarded a point to Sunset.

Beat, press, thrust.

Stay in motion, never letting the blade get caught. Disengage, coupé, retreat, lunge. Red light.

Advance, advance, pause, and then go.

Over and over, Sunset faked one behaviour and changed it up unexpectedly. Sometimes, she'd even change when she would change it. Marionette's weakness quickly became apparent: she focused so much on mimicking her opponent that she couldn't establish her own rhythm. Without the ability to dictate where the fight goes, being sloppy and aggressive could eventually pull ahead.

Red light: fifteen to thirteen, Sunset's favour.

They saluted each other and shook hands. But where Sunset expected to see a frustrated face she saw only a face lost in thought. Panting from exhaustion, the two of them parted and returned to their bags.

"Keep it up and that trophy's in the bag," Rainbow squealed excitedly. The three girls left the strip behind and walked together to rejoin their other friends, but in the sea of strict trainers and meddling parents shifting throughout the gym, Sunset wasn't surprised the others got a little lost. But there was one person standing by her gear who looked like she knew exactly where she was going.

"I see my tips haven't gone to waste." Sour Sweet stood by Sunset's fencing bag, watching the two bouts nearby. "I'm actually glad you beat Marionette. She's always so full of herself."

Sunset smirked. "You're one to talk."

"Hey! I'm not—" Sour Sweet hesitated and then dropped it. "Fair enough. But to be honest, you did really well. Marionette's one of the best foilists on the girls' team."

"Thanks. Hey, you wouldn't happen to know anything about the other schools here, do you? My first DE was with a Stormcrest student."

Sour Sweet swivelled her head around and then pointed to a girl with pigtails who was just about to fence. "Aurora High mostly fences sabre, but that's one of their foilists over there."

Sunset noted the mascot painted on the front of her mask, a yak's head wearing a steel helmet.

"Then there's the Gryphons of Griffith's All-Girls Private School." Sour Sweet pointed to a fencer in the middle of the gym, leading in her bout, ten to two. Friends cheered her on from the sidelines, all of them wearing black t-shirts sporting vicious-looking gryphons on the back.

"Never heard of their school," Sunset commented. "Where are they from?"

"Small town called Gryphonstone," Sour Sweet chuckled. "But that's not really why we call them 'Gryphonstoners' at Crystal Prep."

"We do?" Twilight asked. "I didn't know that."

"Well, you probably didn't go to the Summer Solstice Music Festival when the incident happened," she replied.

"What incident?" Rainbow asked.

"Long story." Sour Sweet waved the topic aside. "Right now, Sunset should be focusing on her next bout."

"Sure you're comfortable helping the enemy?" Sunset joked. "Our school is still kind of rivals."

She shrugged. "CHS and Crystal Prep are pretty close. These other students, they're from completely different places. Compared to them, our schools are like sisters."

"Wow, didn't think I'd hear that from you," Sunset said.

"You thought I helped you just to see you fail?" Sour asked. "Just go and make sure I didn't waste my time."

Again, Sunset heard her name called to strip eight for her next bout. This time, Twilight and Rainbow Dash stuck with her and kept a close eye on what her opponent's coach was saying. Her opponent was an independent fencer, and it looked like her father was the one training her.

"Gotta watch out," Rainbow whispered as Sunset pushed her hand into her sweaty glove. "I've seen athletes push themselves too far for their parents."

Sunset looked over and nodded silently. She understood the pressure. When you lost, it was difficult to even look at the ones you fought for. And seeing them every day didn't make it any better. The girl was at least three years Sunset's junior. It was a lot to handle at her age But she only had the pressure of one parent. Sunset had her entire human life weighing on her.

Sorry kid. Sunset stared through her mask as the director told them to go on guard. But I've found a new family, and they're here too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fluttershy gripped the bottom of her seat while Pinkie Pie couldn't stop tapping her foot. All the fencers had been eliminated and it was down to the semi-finals now. Leading thirteen points to eleven was a good sign for Sunset, but her friends could already see a difference in her movements.

"I thought the point of all that training was so she wouldn't get tired," Applejack asked Rainbow Dash.

"It's not like magic that can make you stronger all of a sudden." Rainbow pointed to Sunset's opponent, one of the fencers from Griffith's. "She's slower too. Sunset just has to push past the exhaustion."

"It shouldn't be a problem," Twilight said. "The time since the last bout should have been enough for her lactic acid concentration to go back down. She shouldn't be feeling the muscle burn yet."

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "No, that's worse for her."

"How do you mean?"

"Come on, we all know what Sunset's like," she replied. "I've seen her, she can push past lactic acid. But right now she's fighting against fatigue, not pain. Her legs can't give a strong enough burst to shoot into the other fencer."

A green light blinked on the box. Instinctively, the Gryphon screamed with delight, tightening her ungloved fist and yelling to her friends to release her built-up stress.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Still so fast? Sunset felt the hit on her shoulder. It was a simple thrust, the very first attack every fencer in the world learned to do, but it moved with such speed and precision it was like a machine had hit her, not a person. Whatever the jokes said about Griffith's Private School clearly didn't hinder their fencers. Their scores, Sunset realized, were too close for comfort: thirteen to twelve.

She returned to the middle ground of the strip and waited for the director to give the signal. "Allez!"

Sunset retreated a step, stopping as the Gryphon closed the distance, who extended her arm and advanced so flawlessly that Sunset knew she'd be hit in the exact same place if she didn't act.

She thrust, pushing out with her guard in an opposition while leaning forward instead of stepping. Her hip muscles weren't as exhausted, and the shorter attack didn't matter as she blasted into the Gryphon's attack. The opposition pushed the attack away, clearing a direct line into the diaphragm.

Sunset's red light beeped. This time the Gryphon made no sound, only bending over to recover her breath from the attack. Fourteen to twelve.

The temptation of the last point was too great. When the director allowed them to fence, Sunset whipped her opponent's blade aside, rapidly thrusting and flicking at the nearest target, the Gryphon's shoulder. But her burst lasted only for a second.

Desperately, she parried as the other fencer returned a lunge. They exchanged thrusts a few times, but her opponent already realized Sunset was too tired. Her last hit was powerful, but sloppy, and gave away her hand. The Gryphon's attacks came more frequently, as she was confident she could dodge every thrust Sunset tried to make.

But Sunset knew she needed just one more point. Their bout had been quick, leaving one more break before the last three-minute interval. She just had to get through the last twenty seconds of this interval to catch her breath. She kept her arm moving, delivering quick but short jabs. Even if she couldn't move, the right-of-way rule still applied. Her opponent would have to respect the threat of her point, even if they both knew it'd never be able to chase down a moving target.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rainbow Dash weaved through the crowds of fencers watching the semi-finals. They were wondering if the fencer they lost to would win; the only consolation to losing was knowing that you were beaten by the champion.

"Come on Twilight, the timer's about to run out."

Twilight trailed behind Rainbow Dash, subtly opening a path through the people and fencing bags with her telekinetic magic. They made it to Sunset just as the director halted the bout and set the clock to one minute for the break. Sunset collapsed onto a chair by the fencing strip faster than Rainbow Dash could pre-order a Daring Do novel.

"You're so close, I know you can do this," Twilight said. But all Sunset could focus on as she took a small mouthful of water was how desperate her body was crying out to quit. One sip felt like a drop from a leaky faucet, but the tiny amount of water trickled down from her mouth to her stomach, cooling the burning dryness she felt in her throat.

"Don't think about the trophy or the bout, Sunset." Rainbow noticed she couldn't keep her eyes off the clock. "Think about the racetrack outside, and imagine you're on the last hundred-metre dash."

Sunset nodded. She couldn't stop thinking about how hard she had worked to get to this point. She practised until her limbs were stiff and numb every single day. Which of these fencers could say the same? To her, the only way to tell was by who won the finals. If she lost now, it would mean she didn't work hard enough. And that, she refused to believe.

The director gestured the two fencers to return to the strip as the timer beeped at zero seconds. Sunset breathed, feeling the air pumping her chest with energy, just enough to grab that last point.

"Allez!"

She took it slow, not wanting to risk throwing herself on her opponent's sword. They measured their distance, tapping each other's foils to gauge a response.

At beat and thrust flew out from nowhere and struck Sunset in the sternum. The force made her cough, but the sudden burst was what really shocked her. If she had been able to rest during that break, then so did her opponent.

Sunset lunged in the next action but was forced back with the Gryphon's opposition. They traded blows until a light touch, one that Sunset didn't even feel, set off her opponent's green light. Her lead was gone, and they had reached la belle.

Sunset gave a small salute to her opponent as she went on guard. La belle was the term for bouts that ran to the very end, where both fencers could win with one point. It was meant to describe the bout as "beautiful," and Sunset hoped it'd be her final action that was the beauty.

Her opponent had pushed hard to catch up. But the one-minute break wasn't that long. The fencer from Griffith's was resilient, but even in how she went on guard she had slowed down.

"Allez!"

Sunset put all her effort into her legs and plunged deep into her opponent, shooting past her guard. She felt her chest contract, exhaling air to relax her muscles and reach further.

A green light. Sunset looked down to find her opponent's tip sticking to her chest when the director called, "Halt!"

"Hargh! Yes!" The Gryphon tore off her mask and screamed, pumping her fist inward as if she just won the lottery. In patientless haste, the girl saluted Sunset, who responded reflexively even though she was still stunned by the defeat. They shook hands, and the girl hopped off to give high-fives to her friends.

Sunset knew she had the right-of-way, but her attack fell short. Her opponent cleared the space between them and put in a thrust that slowed Sunset just enough to widen the delay. There was a split second where the two of them could have hit and it would have been Sunset's point by the rules, but it was only a fraction of a second.

Sunset hung her head walking back to her friends. She listened as they all spoke words of comfort and reassurance. But those were not the words she needed to hear. Everything wasn't alright, because that meant she had lost the first chance to win for CHS.

"Tomorrow." The statement sounded like it was meant for herself rather than her friends.

"Tomorrow I'll get that trophy."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The speakers called the next fencers to the strip. Sunset sat in the back of the bleachers, a wet towel over her shoulders. Eight to four in one moment, then eleven to four less than fifteen seconds later. The winner from the other semi-final, some student from Stormcrest, was on a completely different level from anyone else.

Even before two minutes had passed, it was obvious she would be the winner. Holding a lead of thirteen to six, it was extremely unlikely that the Gryphon would have a chance at a comeback. The fencer from Griffith's was excellent at the technical level, maybe even a little bit more than the Stormer, but that didn't close the intellectual gap between them.

It looked like the Stormer could read her opponent before they acted. She took the right-of-way with a fleche, barely milliseconds before her opponent launched a lunge.

Had she won the semi-finals, Sunset didn't think she'd have a chance against this fencer. She remembered the mask: even though the Stormcrest mascot was a dark cloud spewing a lightning bolt, her mask was the one with a viper's fangs spray-painted onto it.

"Scary, isn't it?" Sour Sweet slid into the seat next to Sunset. "I was talking to a couple of Stormcrest students. That's their top fencer on the girls' team, Rena Serp"

"She's amazing at setting up attacks," Sunset commented. As if the universe wanted to prove her right, Rena took another point as she said it. "I don't think I've seen her miss unless it's a feint."

"They said she's planning to be an Olympian after college," Sour explained.

Sunset nodded. "With that talent, it'd be a waste if she didn't."

"Yeah? And what about you?" Sour Sweet nudged Sunset with her elbow.

"What about me?"

"You honestly think someone with a month could get to where you are now with hard work alone?"

A scream echoed from the fencing strip. Rena Serp's green light lit up, and she was shouting to the ceiling as if she was a monkey, screeching at a threat.

"I know I could never have reached that." Sunset pointed at Rena.

"Psh." Sour Sweet waved Sunset's doubts away. "I helped because I actually felt bad after hearing the reputation CHS fencers have. But in a month you went from having literally no chance to nearly taking the title as the best young foilist between all the regions."

Literally no chance? Sunset felt like she still would have had no chance after seeing Rena. But most fencers didn't compete outside of their main weapon, or at least not at the same level. Knowing she was this close already, even though the foil wasn't her strong suit, gave her back some confidence.

"Hey!" Sunset and Sour's eyes both followed the call to the other side of the bleachers. It was Cloud Kicker pushing aside a couple of disgruntled parents as she clamoured to meet them. "You really did it out there today. Can't wait to see how you do tomorrow!"

Sunset realized that in the excitement of her own bouts, she completely forgot to check on how Cloud Kicker performed.

"Lost in my second elimination bout," Cloud answered after Sunset asked how her day went. "But it's no big deal. Fencing's like a hobby because of soccer right now. I'm just glad I could have fun with so many different faces."

"At least someone's taking their loss better than you," Sour mocked Sunset.

Sunset gave her a nasty look, but let it go. It was pointless to dwell on her first try. Everyone except the champion suffered a loss, she just had to commit everything to her epee bouts and trust that it would work out.

The finalists danced tentatively back and forth. The fencer from Griffith's was on the defensive, using her footwork to widen the distance between her and Stormcrest's best foilist. There were five seconds left on the clock. Sunset couldn't believe that in just the first three minutes Rena had gotten to fourteen points. With two seconds left on the clock, both fencers relaxed their muscles, making an unspoken agreement to continue after a minute of rest. One second.

Crack.

"Halt!" The director stopped the clock with a quarter of a second to spare. Sunset had blinked when it happened and missed half of the action. In less than one second the Stormer flew across the strip in three lunges and landed an unimaginable hit on her opponent. The gym echoed with the sound of Rena's shoe slamming onto the metal fencing strip.

"What happened?" Cloud Kicker rubbed her eyes. "I blinked and then she got the point."

Sunset shook her head. "I've never seen anything move so fast, at least not without magic."

Even Sour Sweet was expressionless. "Nothing left but the award and a picture with it," she said after the two finalists shook hands.

Sunset stood up. "I should probably go. Semi-finalists normally stand next to the winner as well in the pictures."

Sour Sweet grabbed Sunset's arm before she walked down the bleachers. "I know I'm not one to talk about controlling emotions, but at least try to smile when they take your photo, okay?"

With a deep breath, Sunset reclaimed her arm and put on a grin. "See? I'm already ready for tomorrow's bouts."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunset waved to Applejack as she drove off with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy in her brother's truck. They had invited Sunset to go out and eat with them, but all things considered, she wasn't in the mood for it. Twilight had left the tournament early; since neither Sunset nor a Crystal Prep student was in the finals, she didn't have much interest anymore.

The bookworm retired to the school's library to work on one of her projects, along with Rainbow Dash who needed help with calculus.

Sunset sat on a bench in the main hall of CHS, where the few trophies the school did have was displayed in a glass case. There were technically two more chances to get her trophy, but despite those odds, she couldn't stop today's loss from sowing doubt in her mind.

There was a huge difference between a regular fencer and winners, that much was plain today. That girl, the one from Stormcrest, was so young, but she was already working toward the Olympics. Sunset never watched the humans' sporting event, but from what she could tell, it was bigger than anything Equestria had ever accomplished.

"Wooh," a voice whistled from behind. "I can see why Sour Sweet did such a big favour for you."

Sunset turned to see Marionette walking out of the dimmed hallway leading from the gym. For whatever reason, CHS always seemed to have lightbulbs that needed replacing.

"You're still around?" Sunset asked her.

She shrugged. "The buses out here suck. I missed the last one so I'm stuck for another half-hour." She pointed to the glass case with CHS's trophies. Few boasted first place.

"That, however, sucks even more than the buses."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Oh shut up. If you're here to gloat about how great CP is, at least bring another student. You girls are better in a crowd."

"Ouch, good thing I brought sunscreen for that sunburn."

"Sunburn?" The moment she repeated it Sunset realized what Marionette meant. "Oh, name puns." Even though she got the joke, it didn't pull a smile out of her face.

"Well aren't you a stick in the mud? Must be your first time losing."

Sunset simply shook her head and chuckled wistfully. "Nope, my life has pretty much been a string of failures until recently. And now I'm not even sure if that statement's true."

"Oh...kay?" Marionette seemed caught off guard by her truthfulness. "Still, I was only talking about fencing. I know you're new to this, Isa told me."

"Isa? I don't know an Isa."

"Oh. Isa Bellegarde is Sour Sweet's friend," Marionette's expression changed slightly, her lips curling almost into a scowl. "She's been telling her all the stuff we do at practice."

"So that's her name?" Sunset recorded it in her mind. She'd have to thank her for all the help she had offered in the past month.

"Yeah, but don't ask me to find her," Marionette said. "She's dating my brother. We're not on speaking terms."

Sunset gave her a funny look. "Why would that—"

"That's not the point." Marionette cut her off. She took a seat next to her, giving a sympathetic look that almost made Sunset feel small from all the pity. "I wanted to give you some tips before tomorrow. I know it's a little short notice, but it's going to help you in the long run."

"Alright, lay it on me."

Marionette signalled Sunset to stand up and join her in a standard "en garde" position. Then, she stepped in front of Sunset and pressed on her lower back, forcing her upright.

"You're leaning forward a little," Marionette explained. "That's been putting extra weight on your front leg, tiring it out quicker and making your recovery slower." She continued to hold Sunset in place until her whole body had adjusted to even distribution of weight.

"You need to make your thrusts more compact too." Marionette pushed her elbow inward. "You're fast, but you could stand to do a lot more with a lot less. Now lunge."

Sunset did so, with Marionette's hands guiding her. "Keep your arm in line," she said. "Don't worry about trying to twist around your opponent's blade, just keep it all tight and compact."

"Why are you helping me?" Sunset said as she repeated the lunge with cleaner technique.

Marionette smiled. "You beat me. I'm not admitting to anyone that I lost unless it was to someone who's actually good."

"You really are from Crystal Prep, aren't you?" Sunset stood normally to talk. "Competitive to the end."

"Of course I am. Colleges take a long look at you if you're a good fencer."

"So that's what it's all about?" Sunset rolled her eyes just a little. "That kind of stress can drive you mad, trust me. You ever take time off?"

Sunset's remark suddenly changed Marionette's tune. She furrowed her brows and frowned at her. "My family can't afford to put two kids through college. If I go without a scholarship, my brother won't get a chance to go at all. He might be an idiot for dating Belleguard, but I have to support him in that at least."

"Well, that's nobler than most." Her honestly struck Sunset as a surprise. "I didn't know you put that kind of pressure on yourself."

Marionette sighed in return, shifting her feet a little awkwardly. "Don't make a big deal out of it, okay? You're actually the only one I've told. No one at Crystal Prep cares about each other."

"I know what that's like," Sunset said, laughing a little. "Before I, er, moved here, I was in a rough spot. I didn't feel like people let me live to my full potential. And once I came to CHS, I isolated myself from everyone else."

Marionette raised a brow. "Weren't you the most feared bully at this school? At least that's what I heard."

"Well yes," Sunset admitted, her voice quickly wanting to drop out of the conversation. "But infamy's not the same as having friends. I felt alone and insecure every single day."

"Well, this conversation went to a place I didn't want to go." Marionette took a deep breath and looked away. Even her body leaned back slightly as if saying she wanted to escape from sharing such intimate feelings. "How about we go back to fencing?"

"Good idea." Sunset returned to her guard. "So, what else can I fix?"

Whatever You Do, Just Thrust

"Halt!"

Sunset stepped back and saluted her opponent. Fifteen to eight, her favour. It was the last elimination she needed to reach the epee semi-finals. The semi-finalist she would face was already determined; she was a Gryphonstoner, as Sour Sweet liked to call them, and she had finished her bout just a minute before Sunset.

"Go, Sunset Shimmer!" Pinkie Pie shouted from the seats. After being warned by a director not to obstruct the fencing strips with her excitement, she was a little tamer today.

Sunset waved back to her friends watching in the seats. Rarity was with them today after her flight touched down last night. Sunset was glad her fashion show turned out well. It gave a positive attitude that was driving her to fence her hardest. Twilight and Rainbow were already hard at work watching the other competitors, going over the notes and tactics they came up with all morning. It was a relief to have the two by her side. Alone, both of them could make or break a competition. But their talents together were so much more.

From the strip, Sunset could see who they were watching. Feohgiffa, she was the tallest student from Aurora High and their only epee fencer, not to mention a beast in a young girl's form. Her reach was unreal, hitting almost twice as far as Sunset could, with enough raw strength to power through any normal parry. Plus, she was winning her elimination bouts easily, meaning she would be in the semi-finals as well.

Sunset walked past the other fencers getting ready. The gym was booked for an event later that evening, so the spare fencing strips had to be used for the young men's fencing matches while the young women's finished up. There were boys as young as Applejack's sister and as old as Sunset getting ready for their first bouts.

"How're you feeling?" Rainbow Dash came down from the seats while Sunset gargled some water in her mouth.

She spat it into an empty bottle and tossed it in her bag. "Great. I don't felt tired yet, so I think that's a good sign."

Twilight walked up behind Rainbow. "That's an understatement," she said. "Your average score difference is up by one-point-five, and you're winning forty seconds faster than yesterday's matches. To say you're not tired yet is incredible."

Sunset shrugged. "I got a few pointers from Marionette yesterday."

Rainbow raised a brow. "Really? You beat her and she still gave you advice?"

"Yup. And it's been working so far. Said she didn't want to lose to someone who wasn't good, and I'm just hoping I can live up to that. She's kind of intense, I don't want to get on her bad side."

"Heh, sounds like Crystal Prep alright," Twilight replied.

They turned their heads as another director called "Halt!" They saw a fencer from Cloudsdale storming away from the fencing strip while the winner was being cheered on by her friends. Sunset scanned her uniform for a symbol of her school. But it was oddly plain, not like all the other fencers who had come to represent their hometowns.

"She's an independent fencer," Twilight said. Sunset looked at her flipping through a list of names. "I wrote down all the names I could see on the roster."

Twilight showed Sunset her paper and pointed to a name in the middle of the page. "Here: Kassa Zabla." Next to her name, there were barely any notes on her what she was like.

"I didn't think she'd make it this far."

Rainbow agreed. "All the other independents were eliminated already. She must have a pretty good teacher."

Sunset tightened her glove and changed out her epee for a spare one. "More reason to be careful, then. If dealing with magic has taught me anything, it's to be prepared for the unexpected."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marionette stretched herself on CHS's grassy soccer field. Crystal Prep's field was much better maintained, but the untrimmed grass cooled her skin under the blazing summer sun.

For the most part, Canterlot High wasn't that bad. They certainly had more school spirit. From what she had heard from her friends, their side of the bleachers at soccer and football games was always packed with cheering students and parents, flashing their blue and gold colours.

It was unfortunate they didn't have Crystal Prep's kind of funding. The city's business districts yielded huge amounts of corporate tax for school funding. Not to mention fundraisers, where the richest families in the city seemed to make a competition out of who could give the most money. Marionette thought about what it would be like to be one of them sometimes, even if the kids were as snobbish as their parents.

She breathed deeply. Soft cedarwood, pines, oaks, and even faint sweetness from apple trees perfumed the air. Yet, with so much nothingness around her, Marionette couldn't help but wonder: could she do her next science project on the ecological impact of different tree species artificially living together?

Win or lose, it didn't matter. She knew her parents only cared about her academics. Fencing was one way to get into college, but her parents would never let her go to the professional level. Grades, internships, job, that was their focus.

"Not like you to be so bummed out." Marionette rubbed her eyes to see who was talking to her. The bright sun was glaring in her eyes, but she could just about make out the silhouette of Sour Sweet's hairstyle.

"What do you want?" Marionette asked.

Sour shrugged and lay beside her. "Parents know you're here? Isa said she thought you'd be at the library studying by now."

"As if she'd know anything about me. We barely talk."

Sour giggled. "Silly, you're forgetting something: she's dating your brother. He's so nice, he loves talking about you all the time. You must be a pretty good role model."

Marionette groaned with contempt. Her parents had always dragged her academics from the school to her home, but ever since her brother started spending time with Isa Belleguard, her personal life was constantly bridged with school. She felt the urge to stab something growing inside her.

"The coach knows what my parents are like, he's not going to say anything that'll make them take me off the team," Marionette told Sour Sweet.

"So you're just going to sit around and watch fencing when they want you studying?" Sour Sweet scoffed. "Do you want me to tell you that that's a bad idea, or do I need to get Sugarcoat?"

"That's it." Marionette pushed Sour Sweet away. "Go lie down somewhere else if you're gonna be bipolar today."

"I'd stop if it wasn't so fun," she replied joyfully. "Besides, I should head back in. Semi-finals are about to start if you're interested."

Marionette shook her head. "If it's not Sunset in the finals, then I don't care."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The fencer from Gryphonstone was no slouch, despite her stance. She always left her arms down, almost dangling, but then she would strike at the most random times. Even with good form, Sunset was pressed to her side of the strip. She swatted her opponent's weapon aside and lunged, but the blade came around and struck her in the helmet at the same time. A double touch, meaning a point to the both of them.

"The score is six-six," the director reminded them.

They charged again. This time Sunset managed to slip below the Gryphon's wild thrust, landing a hit on her big toe. Her opponent jumped back but it was too late. Seven to six. Of course, the Gryphon was quick to react, launching a wild attack the moment the director said, "Allez."

Sunset thought she was ready, creating distance to avoid the hit, but she began to see why her opponent was so relaxed. Her legs stretched so far it was almost like doing the splits, and by leaning forward excessively, she managed to land a solid thrust into Sunset's gut from an impossible distance.

They matched each other, slowly crawling up to fifteen points. Ahead by one, the Gryphonstone fencer seemed eager to finish the bout.

Feeling desperate, Sunset broke her form and stepped in deep. She pulled her arm back as she closed the distance. There wasn't enough space to attack, but she needed to be closer to stop her opponent from escaping. Awkwardly she rotated her body and brought her back foot forward, pressing out her opponent's blade with a deeply seated parry.

Her opponent's loose stance and long reach were useless at such close range, and lacking structure meant she couldn't retreat before Sunset's riposte hit her hard in the chest. But after the director stopped the action, Sunset had to think of a new plan. It wouldn't work a second time. Her opponent was flexible, and though it gave her a long reach, she'd also be able to defend from awkward positions the next time Sunset tried to get too close.

"Allez!"

Sunset backed off again. The score was fourteen to the both of them now, and the Gryphonstone fencer was attacking harder than ever. Sunset felt the frustration in the speed of her attacks. She had stolen the comfortable lead from her and now the Gryphonstone fencer felt pressured to win. And with that kind of stress, she was bound to make a mistake.

Sunset twisted her body away from an overextended thrust. Her opponent wobbled, managing to keep her balance, but it slowed her recovery long enough. Sunset dropped her arm and jabbed low, landing a penetrating hit into the Gryphon's belly.

"Halt!" The director called the action and awarded Sunset the final point. She thrust her fists up in victory and waved to her friends. It was a worthwhile breath of relief for her, though a short one. The other finalist had already been decided, and to no surprise, it was the giant from Aurora High, Feohgiffa.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Up to the challenge?" Marionette asked as Sunset had her epee checked and repaired at a vendor by the entrance of the gym. She picked it up, checking the new tip was firmly in place and responsive to the right amount of pressure.

"Against someone that tall? I don't know."

"I heard the other girls talking about some of the tricks you pulled in that last bout. You can deal with long-range if you get close."

Sunset yelped as Marionette slapped the back of her thigh. "Don't tell me you spent all that legwork for nothing."

Sunset frowned and rubbed her leg. "So you're saying I should just shoot in? Even if I am faster than her, it's hard to turn and do the seated parry in time."

"Then don't. Just sink in and pull your arm back," Marionette said. "Trust me, with arms as long as hers, you won't need to get too close to be inside her range."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

People began to gather nearer to her fencing strip as the final match was about to start. The young men's eliminations were progressing on the other strips, but it seemed hers was the only one with a crowd. Sunset hoped the other bouts would take some of the attention off her performance, but in actual fact, it brought more eyes. The fencers who had lost their bouts were now cooling off by watching the final event for the young women's epee tournament.

Some watched with interest, as older boys were wont to do, while parents and coaches watched with judgement. Sunset knew how parents could behave. Even the best of them couldn't help comparing other fencers to their children. Of course, she imagined the university recruiters were the greatest pressure for the other fencers. Though they weren't technically representing their schools today, impressing a coach didn't need to wait for a formal invitation.

But Sunset didn't care about them. Her biggest stressor was her friends and all the students of Canterlot High who were cheering her on. She could barely focus on the director's instructions as he tested the sensitivity of their weapons. No less than 750 grams of weight could press the tip of their blades down.

Green for Feohgiffa, red for Sunset. Their weapons were both functioning perfectly.

En garde.

Sunset steadied herself. She was ready to win.

"Allez!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marionette tapped her foot against the floor. Sunset's friends were right up by the fencing strip, ready to encourage their friend, but standing just behind them gave a little more perspective.

Feohgiffa's reach advantage could not be overstated. She didn't watch the eliminations, but looking at the strip now, Marionette could tell that there was no chance of retreating from her strikes. If she wanted to, Feohgiffa hit from almost half the fencing strip in a single lunge.

But that simply made her close range reactions slower.

"That cannot be the girl who beat you, Sis," her brother said, standing annoyingly close on purpose. "She would have snapped you in half."

"Not the tall one," Marionette groaned. "Sunset's the redhead with yellow highlights. Or, maybe she's blonde with red highlights? Nevermind, just watch." She pointed her brother's attention at Sunset as she brought her gear to the strip to be tested.

"Isa hopes she wins," he said. "Spent a lot of time with Sour Sweet explaining the drills."

"Yep."

"Well, if she beat you she must be pretty good, right? Think she'll actually do it?"

"Sunset has a lot of potential, Blazer, but nothing's certain. I'm going to have a word with her if she doesn't though."

Her brother rolled his eyes. "Right, because it'll hurt your reputation if she isn't a winner."

"Don't use that tone like I don't know what it is. We're not friends. I barely know her."

Their small banter stopped the moment metal slashing metal rang through the gymnasium. Feohgiffa wasn't just tall, she had a muscular frame to match, and her attacks were nothing but unfathomable force. She beat aside Sunset's blade with so much power, Marionette could see the momentum unbalance Sunset for a second.

But she dug in and went under Feohgiffa's extending blade while pulling her arm in to get close. Marionette knew it must've felt awkward for Sunset, but Feohgiffa could do nothing. She swung her epee in a circle to defend her body, the flat strike only met Sunset's shoulder, her arms being too long to quickly bring her blade back in.

Getting the first point was a good start, but it looked like fighting up a hill every step of the way. Her friends were cheering her on, the one thing CHS students were unmatched in. But she knew what it was like to stand on the other side of the mask. The cheering was a distraction that made a fencer's blood boil with every mistake, while every success only increased the pressure to get the next one right.

Once Sunset was losing by two points, Marionette reached over and pulled Twilight aside.

"Tell the pink girl to turn it down, she's freaking Sunset out."

Twilight stared at her. "Marionette? Didn't we have Non-Euclidean Geometry together?"

"Yeah, and you were the quiet girl who had perfect scores on everything," she answered. "Why don't you give some of that reclusiveness to your friend?" She pointed to Pinkie Pie.

"We're cheering on our friend." Twilight frowned.

"And overdoing it is making her stress too much." As if to prove her point, the director halted the action at the green light, another point for the Aurora High fencer.

"I didn't know you cared about Sunset," Twilight said, a little surprised.

"Oh sure, we go way back," Marionette said sarcastically. "I'll tell you all about it over tea if she actually wins this thing."

Twilight looked over to Sunset's score, then to Pinkie. She didn't think cheering could actually be hurtful, even Rainbow Dash was showing her support. But Twilight had never seen any other athlete put more stress on themselves than fencers. Maybe Marionette understood in a way even they couldn't. Twilight watched the way she eyed Sunset's score. She didn't look worried, but that was just the Crystal Prep way.

"Psst," she whispered in Pinkie Pie's ear. "I think our cheering is distracting Sunset. We are getting a little loud."

"Are you crazy?" Pinkie Pie squealed. "Sunset's doing this for us, and we have to be there for her."

"Yes I know," Twilight insisted more harshly, "but I think Sunset's feeling the same way I felt when I had to win the Friendship Games for Crystal Prep. She's losing because of us, because of the stress we're putting on her."

Suddenly the red light flared for Sunset. There were murmurs from the other parents and fencers watching, and from her body language, Twilight could tell Feohgiffa was surprised too.

"Gee, thanks a lot Twilight," Pinkie Pie whined. "I didn't see how Sunset got the point."

"Honestly Pinkie," Rarity scolded her, "if you want to watch just watch. Twilight's right, this is a highbrow sport, not a football game darling."

Pinkie pouted, but she listened to her friends and focused on what Sunset was doing. As the points progressed everyone could see her improving on the spot. Her speed was up to the task, launching her body below Feohgiffa's long reach and striking quickly. Her bladework flashed through the air and her epee looked like just a few glints of reflected light lashing out at her enemy.

Eight to ten, then nine to ten, she was clawing back her chances point by point.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wonder what Celestia would think of me now.

Sunset pushed her legs to carry her through. The timing was off, though, and Feohgiffa slammed another point into her shoulder. She had to clench her jaw for that one. This girl from Aurora High was a serious opponent. Her thrusts had a way of digging in, hurting more every time.

Where was Pinkie's shrill cheering? Sunset wondered if she was so stressed that she couldn't hear anything beyond the director's voice. The gym sunk to silence all of a sudden, sound suspended in the air until a clashing of blades.

Slam. Another point, pushing into the exact same spot as the last time. It was the accuracy that was killing her. One thrust, no matter how forceful, could be shaken off. But nine or ten at the same spot was like a battering ram, and Sunset could only wonder how long until the gate was knocked down. She retreated, twisted, and slipped through another attack.

Feohgiffa was wise to the trick and backed off before the thrust landed. But Sunset didn't stop there. Her feet had crossed in a deep-seated guard, but she brought her right foot forward again in another lunge that undid the awkward position. Feohgiffa thrust wildly to score a counter-attack, but Sunset got her in the finger with a well-aimed thrust.

Ten to twelve. Sunset didn't let herself get too hopeful, despite her new lead. It was a miracle of luck that they were this close. The director cried out and stopped the bout before setting the clock for a one-minute break. It was a desperately needed moment of relief.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight and Rainbow Dash were the first to her side, reassuring Sunset that she was doing great so far. They pulled a chair up and let her sit down, giving her just enough water to trickle down her throat and cool her off, but not so much that it would weigh her down and slosh her stomach around.

Applejack wiped Sunset's sweat-drenched hair and forehead, while Rarity handled the delicate task of changing the lining in Sunset's mask. The wet cushioning was obviously slipping around, so it was fortunate Sunset had bought replacements for every piece of her gear.

"Here, darling," Rarity said, putting the mask in Sunset's hands, "and run her through with your blade."

Sunset smiled at Rarity's ferocity, but her lungs were breathing too hard to laugh. Even after her training, it was obvious she still wasn't yet the athlete she needed to be.

There came some mumbling in the crowd, followed by Marionette pushing her way past a group of parents commenting on Feohgiffa's performance. "You're almost there, but you gotta clean up your act." She knelt down beside Sunset, pulling her in close to make sure she was listening.

"Uh, who do you think you are?" Rainbow confronted Marionette. "This is the friends-only corner."

"Hold on, Rainbow," Applejack cautioned, "you're a great athlete, but I think the fencing technique should be left to the fencers."

Marionette barely acknowledged both of them. She simply took Sunset's hand and squeezed her right shoulder. It drew out a wince of pain, the damage from Feohgiffa's repeated attacks hurting all over again. "It's not too bad," she reassured as she felt around the shoulder. "Just pain."

"Got any last-second tips?" Sunset asked. They both glanced at the clock. There were less than twenty seconds left before the next three minutes of the bout.

So Marionette spoke quickly. "Quit being so afraid of your bladework." She grabbed Sunset's right hand and extended it into a slightly different thrust. "Use an opposition before throwing yourself into her. She knows what you're doing and she's going to make you hurt for it, so push her blade completely out of the way before you shoot in."

The director called both fencers back to the strip as Marionette finished her sentence. Sunset breathed in and nodded. Throwing her weight into every attack was bound to hurt, even if the epee flexed with the force. She moved her shoulder, testing the place where she had been hit. It didn't hurt to move it yet, and Sunset was eager to keep it that way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Opposition. That was easy for Marionette to say. An opposition meant waiting for Feohgiffa to make her attack, then attacking into the blade with full confidence that her epee would push it out of the way before they stabbed each other. It took superior timing and speed, as well as a trained eye to anticipate the next attack.

"Allez!"

Sunset stepped back and leaned away from Feohgiffa's incredible lunge. She could hit a satellite out of orbit with that kind of reach, Sunset thought to herself. She continued her little dance, moving just close enough to make Feohgiffa commit to an attack, then escaping with a burst of retreats. It taxed her thighs and calves but with just five points left to win, Sunset shifted all her focus to getting the perfect opposition.

She pulled the first one off as soon as she found that she could keep pace with Feohgiffa's attacks. Weaving back and forth put them into a comfortable rhythm, one that Sunset could predict and counter with a clean thrust against Feohgiffa's epee.

She took back one point, and ten seconds later, tied their score at twelve. That seemed to tick off the massive high schooler. She swung her epee in a wide and sloppy beat, something so obvious Sunset thought she could avoid it with a clean disengage. But its wide arc swept up Sunset's blade and flung it out of the way like a mother bear beating down a hunter threatening her cubs.

Sunset backed off in fear, pulling her arm close for more control, but a second strike came from the opposite direction, shoving her arm aside again. Feohgiffa stepped in close this time and charged with a flèche faster than Sunset's retreat. The giant girl pounded her epee point into Sunset's shoulder with so much force that she could feel the blade forcing her backwards, digging into the joint to do so.

Feohgiffa sidestepped once she felt the hit, running off the side of the fencing strip to cleanly finish the flèche. Sunset knew it looked like a standard charge to the director; Feohgiffa was holding back or else her epee would have snapped from the force. But it was enough to send get the message across.

Sunset gritted her teeth, seething quietly through her helmet. "Allow me to reply."

They exchanged blows once again, Sunset landing a clean and subtle hit to the back of Feohgiffa's hand before she could recover from a lunge.

The girl released a short burst from her mouth. "Come on! Come on!" Balling her left hand into a fist, she beat the side of her mask a couple times. However, she was on guard as soon as the director commanded.

Sunset didn't wait for Feohgiffa to attack when the director said, "Allez."

She stretched her legs in a long advance, catching up to Feohgiffa in an instant and scooping her blade aside in a sweeping low-line parry. Using the defensive action as an attack distracted Feohgiffa. She raised her arm in an attempt to stab down at Sunset but was stopped short by a thrust to her thumb. The director called "Halt."

At that moment Feohgiffa lifted her mask and yelled at the ceiling of the gym. "Oh my gosh!" She almost slammed the helmet back on and stormed to back to the middle ground.

The director waited patiently and asked her to get back onto the fencing strip. "Allez!"

Sunset lunged once again, expecting Feohgiffa to lash out in anger. But her response was surprising. The lunge struck nothing but air as the girl jumped back and followed up with a jab to the top of Sunset's arm. Again, Feohgiffa screamed, turning away and bending over in an exasperated "Yeearh!" The shout was long and shrill, but neither the director nor the crowd reacted. Tied at fourteen, it was apparently enough stress to warrant a shout.

Seeing her scream, releasing that much pressure, changed Sunset's view in an instant. She wasn't the only one who was worried about losing. They were both stressed, which meant they could both make mistakes. This last point would decide who was better, and she expected her heart to be pounding out of her chest, but it wasn't. She had made it this far, she could go a little further. All she needed to do was thrust.

She kept extending, poking at Feohgiffa's hand whenever she tried to extend. The reach of their arms might've been different, but not their blades, and by threatening the hand Sunset put them both on equal ground.

One attacked the other, then it was reversed. As each retreated, the other struck the opening line, only missing by an inch. They could have used feints, disengages, locking each other up in a bind and gradually forcing their way through, but that was neither Sunset's nor Feohgiffa's way.

It must have been the cleanest, most technical action of the bout, but she saw the clock counting down from forty seconds. There was no point in wasting any more time. Sunset lunged at Feohgiffa's retreating hand, forcing her to pull it away, before turning her thumb down and pressing the point of her epee up into the bottom of her hand. Green light, to Feohgiffa.

"Whreeoah!" The girl yelled, pumping her arms to the sky and screaming at her classmates while the director halted the action. She ran to the end of the strip, took off her mask and let out one last whoop before returning to Sunset to shake hands.

What happened at the last moment? Sunset rubbed her wrist, realizing how she had gotten hit. Feohgiffa wasn't in retreat at all. She anticipated a thrust to the bottom of her hand, so she raised it up beyond Sunset's reach and thrust down, around the point, and into the exposed top of Sunset's hand.

Feohgiffa grabbed Sunset's hand roughly and shook it very briefly before jogging over her to friends and family on the other side of the gym. Sunset tossed her sword and mask into her bag and flung her glove onto the ground. Her hands, the hands that failed, were shaking.

The joints that ached from gripping the sword curled up again into a fist, as if still ready to fight. Sunset couldn't stop replaying every action and wondering how her tools had failed her. And like before, her memory of Celestia resurfaced in her mind. Not just the princess, but Equestria, and its ponies.

She let her fists uncurl into a rested position. They looked so much like Starlight's hands when she came over for the first time. Her fingers rested together, and like the first day she arrived in this world, Sunset didn't know what to do with them. She picked up her bag and paced to the girls' lockers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We're not leaving her like yesterday." Rainbow stood with Twilight outside the locker room showers. They backed away from the doors like Sunset asked, but Rainbow was adamant about sticking by her side.

"If I was her I'd like some time to myself first," Twilight said. Her other friends started coming too as they talked.

"Sorry we got held up," Fluttershy said meekly. "We had to squeeze past a bunch of the guys getting ready for the boys' fencing eliminations."

"Is she alright?" Rarity asked.

Twilight nodded. "She just needs a moment alone."

"What she needs is someone to tell her everything's going to be fine," Rainbow retorted. "What kind of friends would we be if we just left her?"

"We won't be leaving her, Rainbow," Applejack said. "We're waiting like you said, but at a distance. Why don't we just go back to our seats and wait for Sunset to talk to us when she's good and ready."

"Alright, fine," she replied.

The steady shower was the only noise in the empty locker room. Pitter-patter, pitter-patter. Sunset closed her eyes and let the water streak down her cheeks. Pitter patter. Her friends would be okay with it even if she wasn't. That's why they were the best people she knew, and why she wanted so desperately to earn something to show how much they meant to her.

Cold tile pressed against her back, she leaned against it and slid down. Hair drenched, she let it stay. Was she kidding herself this whole time? Yesterday she had at least been optimistic about winning. Getting so close to the final, she thought it could be different as long as it wasn't foil.

A balled fist slapped against the tile uselessly. Her hands, worthless it turned out. They never had to learn how to use them. And she never had the privilege of being born with them.

Knock knock. Sunset raised her head to see Marionette's shadow through the narrow frosted pane of glass on the shower door. "Hey there," she said, leaning against the door. "Cooled off yet, hothead?"

"You too?" Sunset sunk her face into her palms. "Look, I'm sorry you can't say you only lost to a champion, but I'm not in the mood right now for another talk."

Marionette scoffed, followed by a straightforward laugh at Sunset. "Oh my gosh, you just don't get it, do you?"

"What?"

"You were one point away from being the IFT girls' epee champion. One lousy point."

"I still lost—"

"Forget that!" Sunset could hear Marionette stomp her boots. "You think I could have done as well as you? Do you think anyone could have done that with the time you've had?"

"I just want to win something for CHS." Sunset shut off the shower. "I don't care about being a good fencer."

"Then how about being a great one?" Her voice was stubborn, but not harsh. "Because you are. And you can be even better."

"Marionette, stop," Sunset sighed.

But she wouldn't listen. "Imagine where you could go if you fenced for—"

Sunset hand suddenly popped out from the shower and pointed to a nearby open locker. "Can you at least hand me my towel before you lecture me?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunset pulled the towel from her head and let her damp hair unravel past her shoulders. Marionette stood at the end of the lockers, turned away while Sunset put on some new clothes.

"Did you really mean that?" Sunset asked as she zipped up her bag of clean clothes.

Marionette turned around. Sunset had changed into a pair of jeans and a purple t-shirt. "About being a great fencer? Yeah, I meant it. You couldn't see for yourself, but you were pretty amazing to watch, probably because I helped."

"You can leave out the probably," Sunset said, wiping down her hair one more time. "If you hadn't talked to me yesterday, I wouldn't have made it to the finals."

"A couple of drills in one day doesn't make the kind of improvement you made. Everything you did was your ability. All I had to do was point you in the right direction."

Sunset shrugged and sat down on the bench that ran between the rows of lockers. "Doesn't really matter now, I guess."

"How does that not matter? Even if we're just talking about the IFT, you still have the sabre event."

"As if I could win that," Sunset scoffed. "My sabre experience is as good as trash."

"Ever tried recycling?" Marionette sat next to Sunset. "Stabbing still counts in sabre, it's not all about cuts."

As true as that was, Sunset thought it still limited her options. Being good at only half of the weapon's capacity was a crutch, not a chance to win.

"Fine, then think ahead," Marionette said, seeing that Sunset still wasn't convinced. "If you lose tomorrow, what are you going to do? Quit fencing?"

Sunset stared at her. "What? No, I'll just fence casually like I did before."

"And waste your talent in the process," Marionette added.

Sunset frowned. "Okay, what is it with you? Why do you care so much whether I do or don't fence competitively?"

"Because you're not like other fencers!" Marionette slapped her hands down on the bench. "All the fencers at Crystal Prep, and the other schools too, they're all in it for something else. We're all in it for something else. But not you. Your talent isn't being good at the techniques or being super athletic like that rainbow-haired chick. I saw you fence and I knew, without a doubt, that you love this sport. Everyone works hard, don't get me wrong, some even harder than you, but they don't do it right. It's hard to quantify, but they don't feel fencing the way you do."

Sunset remembered what Marionette had said about college yesterday, but was it really the case with everyone? Honestly, she didn't know. Canterlot High School was her new life, and she had been ignoring the fact that college would change that. So she couldn't have known how valuable fencing was to schools.

"I don't know what to say, Marionette." Sunset held her hands up to her eyes. "My friends are the best people I know, but we've never talked about each other like this."

Marionette crossed her arms. "You could say thanks. I'm not exactly used to having real-talk either."

"Thank you." Sunset smiled. "But... I think I can do better than that. If you want, I can treat you to dinner."

"Oh, er—" Marionette hesitated. She didn't think her little speech could change Sunset's mood so quickly.

"Just think of it as more thanks, for everything," Sunset said. "Have you been to The Greene? I far as I know they don't have a location in the city, so it might be new to you."

"Heard of it, but I've never had vegan food before," Marionette said slowly, thinking it over. Going out with friends wasn't a thing most students did at Crystal Prep. There were club meetings and socials, but those were all for school business. Even the sports teams only went out when they won.

Maybe that was what made the idea of going out with Sunset exciting. Even Marionette couldn't deny that she wished sometimes to be like a more casual student, instead of pushing herself to meet her own goals.

And now that chance was right here, she couldn't bring herself to refuse. "Alright, dinner sounds fun."

A Cut Above

Pinkie Pie's shrieking cut through Sunset's bedroom, a sonic boom that no fighter jet could match. Sunset had recorded and set that sound as her alarm on her phone, a sure-fire way to wake up every morning. "Wake up Sunset Shimmer!" Those words ran in a loop for about ten seconds before she couldn't handle it any more. Sunset tumbled down from her bed to her desk where her phone was charging.

It was nine o'clock, hours before the sabre event started. Last night was fun despite the loss. She and her friends went with Marionette to The Greene for dinner but ended up staying late at the arcade that was across the street. For a student as serious as she was, Marionette was surprisingly good at shooter games. Almost as good as Sunset was. Luckily, the sabre event started at two o'clock, enough time to wake up late and still make it.

She'd still need to be prepared to do her best, however. That meant nine o'clock was the latest she could afford to sleep. Sunset sighed. Abandoning sleep on a Sunday morning was almost as painful as losing.

Scrubbing her face clean in her sink and looking at herself in the mirror, Sunset couldn't help but laugh. Losing didn't feel that bad after a while. It wasn't the end of the world, and she still had a lot to do. Her hands turned off the faucet by instinct once she was done.

It was a little ridiculous how she reacted to losing. She was still great at guitar, and everything else humans needed their hands to do. Sure, magic and being able to levitate things would've been nice, but she could barely remember how to do those things now. Sunset really felt like this body was the one she was born in. The other fencers, they weren't better because of what they were. Whether human or pony, hard work was still hard work. So dumped out all of her cynicism from yesterday. There was no way she'd have the will to win if she didn't believe she could.

Her phone vibrated on the sink counter. It was a text from Twilight with a coffee picture and a question mark. Sunset smiled and replied with a thumbs-up. Friends might be her source of happiness, but coffee was her source of life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunset held her cup close and drank her coveted caffeinated concoction. "Don't ever leave me," she whispered to it.

"You sound prepared," Twilight giggled. "I know you said sabre's your weakest weapon, but I think you have a good chance. I counted up the remaining students, and there's not that many who are in the sabre event."

Sunset nodded. "Sabre has a lot of rules like foil, so I guess that shouldn't be surprising."

"Still, you're going to be seeing some familiar faces." Twilight pulled out her phone and went to the website for the IFT. Each of the registered fencers for today was on it, with their personal profiles and achievements. She tapped on a profile at the bottom of the list. "You gotta keep your eye on her."

"Kassa Zabla?" Sunset read. "She was in the semi-finals yesterday."

"Not just that," Twilight said, scrolling down to Kassa's history with the IFT. "Read it."

There was a list of five tournaments that the IFT council acknowledged, each one taking place one year after the other. The first three were juvenile competitions, for fencers below the age of fifteen, and Kassa had taken first place in sabre for all of them. Then the fourth and fifth were IFT sabre events, in Cloudsdale and Aurora City respectively. Both times she was the losing finalist.

"So she's been reaching for this goal for two years," Sunset said.

"But it also means she's not perfect," Twilight added. "Given her record, I'm willing to bet she'll end up in the finals again. When you're against her, just remember that she's lost before. And, technically speaking, you've never been beaten."

Sunset laughed until her coffee almost spilt onto the table. "Sounds like you've been learning how to ego boost from Rainbow Dash."

"Eh, I'm a quick study," Twilight said.

Then through the window of the cafe, Sunset saw her other friends getting off the bus, including Marionette. It wasn't surprising, Marionette got along well when she was trying to beat Rainbow Dash's high score at one of the arcade games, but Sunset still found it a little unexpected.

"Darling!" Rarity announced as she entered the cafe. "How is that shoulder of yours? It seemed quite sore last night when we were playing the skee-ball machine."

Sunset rubbed her shoulder. "There's a light bruise, but I don't feel anything wrong when I move it."

"That's good to hear because today's the day you're winning," Rainbow said, taking a seat by Twilight. She waved the waiter over and ordered a breakfast smoothie with a protein booster. The others had tea and coffee.

"Guess what, Sunset," Pinkie said once the waiter had left with their orders. "When I got home, I dug through some of my party planning papers and pamphlets and found this!" She produced a stack of ten sheets of paper and handed it to Sunset.

"It turns out I threw a birthday party for Nachreissen's son-in-law's best friend's nephew, and he got me connected to him on email. Electronic mail!"

"Okay, Pinkie, but who's Nachrising?" Sunset asked.

"Nachreissen," Pinkie corrected. "He's one of the college people who were walking around and looking at all the fencers. He emailed me back this morning, and when I asked him if he saw you, he said he really liked how you fenced. Do you know what that means?"

"An old dude is watching me?" Sunset guessed.

"True. But it also means your fencing skills were super-duper good! Even though you didn't get that trophy."

"Thanks, Pinkie. It's pretty impressive that you managed to find him like that."

She shrugged. "I'm a girl of many talents, many of which include being random and breaking walls. Isn't that right?"

"Yeah, we know," Sunset chuckled.

"Thanks, but I was asking them." Everyone looked around, but they couldn't see who or what Pinkie was referring to.

Applejack coughed and cleared the air. "Alright, let's talk about something else before Pinkie starts freaking me out even more than usual."

"Hear, hear," Rarity said in agreement.

They broke up into idle chatter while the waiter brought them their drinks. The table was full with all of them there, but none of them minded, including Marionette who was stuck tight between Fluttershy and Sunset.

"Wait, you really play in the Rainbooms, Fluttershy?" The topic of their band came up, but Marionette couldn't believe that such a soft-spoken girl like her could perform next to someone as explosive as Rainbow Dash.

"I do," Fluttershy replied, "though I mainly just sing and play the tambourine on the side. I don't really go centre-stage. And by that I mean never."

"Oh, well I'm sure you're a great tambourine player," Marionette said.

For that moment the IFT didn't seem like it was about to resume in a few hours. The group had gotten to know Marionette more. After last night they were finally comfortable enough to talk with her. Sunset even noticed how she matched her friends' personalities. Marionette was no less competitive than Rainbow Dash or Applejack, but she had a soft side that shone with Fluttershy.

And Twilight's brain was unmatched of course, but Marionette gave her a good run when they were talking about a programming class they both took.

She had enough snarky humour to keep Pinkie Pie busy, and even if she wouldn't admit it, definitely had a fashionable side that Rarity could pull out of her. Cardigans, crop tops, tank tops, she knew a surprising number of brands. Sunset's mind started to wander, imagining what Marionette would look like if she actually tried on the outfits they were talking about.

And though they had hours to spare, Rainbow Dash eventually pointed out the time. Sunset had to go home and get her gear, then make it to CHS with enough time to warm up with some yoga and stretches with Fluttershy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Allez!"

Sabre was the pinnacle of human speed. Red light, another point to Sunset. If a point took longer than a few seconds to score, it was slow.

"Allez!"

Sunset covered her head, catching her opponent's sabre in her guard. She was from Gryphonstone, the other fencer, with a massive hawk painted over the front of her mask. In strait motion, Sunset cut against her opponent's blade, striking the top of her mask before she could react.

The director stopped the action, awarding the point, and the bout, to Sunset. Her technique was basic at best. Every point the Gryphon scored was by a well-timed feint or counter. The best Sunset could do was beat her to the point with a powerful attack. And by winning with a comfortable three-point lead before the first minute was over, it seemed to be working.

As Sunset went back to her fencing bag to grab a new sabre, one not slightly bent after a sloppy cut to the helmet, she spotted her friends standing by the bleachers, watching the Round Robin for the young men's sabre event. They waved her over to come and watch with them while she waited for her next opponent to be decided.

"Looking good out there," Rainbow Dash said. "You're really using that speed you trained for."

"It's easier when the bout's over in two minutes or less," Sunset said.

The other bouts happening in the gym stood as proof to that. Most of them were older students, young men about to graduate high school at peak performance. Sunset noticed a few were incredibly tall, able to cover half the fencing strip in just a few steps. And almost every one of them could boast with absurd intensity.

One fencer cheered as he and his opponent charged into each other, sending off both their lights on the scoring box. The director called it a simultaneous action, and by the rules of sabre, that nullified their hits. He made a gesture to the director, making a pulling motion with his arm, but the director simply shook his head.

It was a common practice to pose questions to the director, but fencers had to be careful. Telling the director your version of what happened was not allowed. Still, that didn't stop young students from releasing their frustration in the form of expressive inquiries.

"Have you girls seen Marionette?" Sunset asked, looking around.

Applejack looked across the gym. "She said she wanted to talk to her brother. I saw her with a shorter boy just now."

"Oh, her brother's here?" Sunset recalled all the things Marionette had said about him. She wondered if his girlfriend Isa was here too. Whatever was going on between her and Marionette, Sunset still had to thank her for giving Sour Sweet all her training routines.

Names were called out then as the next eliminations were decided. Sunset listened for herself and the strip she had to go to. Her opponent this time wore a lightning bolt across her mask, and "Cloudsdale Stormers" in bold lettering across her back.

There weren't many fencers for sabre today. Once this was over, the winner would go to the semi-finals. Sunset looked over the shoulder of her opponent to the strip next to them, where Kassa was about to begin her bout. She went almost untouched during the Round Robin event. Sunset was only one of two fencers who got to two points against Kassa. But she consoled herself in the fact that she didn't want to exhaust herself by putting in all her effort too early. And if she won this bout, Sunset earnestly hoped that what she had held back was enough to take her on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Halt! Attaque simultané, rien."

As fast as she had gotten, the Cloudsdale stormer was just as fast. It was already a minute and they had only reached eight points each.

"En garde, prêt, allez!"

The two kept their distance, shuffling back and forth for two seconds before the Stormer launched herself forward in a flying lunge. Her feet left the ground for just a moment and, despite her speed, she had no control over her motion. Sunset widened her stance and ducked low, cutting against her opponent's blade to counter.

"Halt! Attaque non, counter-attaque, touche gauche," called the director.

They reset at the middle ground again and charged at the call of the director. Again and again and again, it came down to speed. Like before, the Stormer was better technically. Her attacks were better timed and more accurate, but none of that was a threat. Sunset used her ferocity, slamming her cuts like powerful kicks of a horse.

One after the other, Sunset scored with strikes full of force. She bound their blades at the strong, the thick base of the blades, pushing hard to throw her opponent back. With speed, Sunset seized catching up and delivering the blow.

Humiliated by a loss, nine to fifteen, the Stormer raged soon after the two shook hands. Her team was by her side, but Sunset understood her feelings. At that moment, she'd prefer some time alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Was this semi-finalist a friend of the last one? She was a Stormer too, so Sunset guessed it was possible. Her style was more sure-footed but deceptively explosive.

While Sunset moved up and down the fencing strip with adept swiftness and agility, her opponent followed casually. Her timing was even better than the last fencer, waiting for Sunset to make her move before countering hard by locking out her sabre. No defence was perfect, however, and two times out of three Sunset's initiative took the point.

But the Stormer wasn't without her own surprises, and she managed to pull her score up before losing twelve to fifteen. But when they shook hands, Sunset noticed she looked a lot more accepting of her lost than her teammate.

"Well done," she said with bated breath.

"You too."

And returning to her bag, Sunset heard a shout. "Yehaw!" cheered Applejack. "You sure showed 'em how we do things at CHS."

"Cloudsdale has really good athletes too," Rainbow Dash added. "They're not pushovers."

"Thanks, I'm glad you're having fun watching the event today," Sunset said.

"Avast!" Pinkie Pie popped up behind Sunset, seemingly out of nowhere. "These sabres be like pirate swords, matey!"

"Pirates actually used shorter slashing weapons," Twilight corrected her. "Boarding axe, cutlasses, things that wouldn't get caught in ropes as easily."

"Oh boo," Pinkie whined. "Why does history have to be so nuanced."

Sunset put her sabre's blade on the ground and stepped on it, drawing it back to straighten out its bends. "Maybe you can be a historian and make things simpler," she said, working her blade a little more until it looked the way it did this morning.

As expected, Kassa won the other semi-final bout. Sunset and her friends turned to see her opponent, a girl from Crystal Prep, throw her mask onto the floor. Without hesitation, the director flashed a black card from his pocket, a punishment that would show on her record as a fencer.

"Wonder if Marionette knows her," Sunset said. "What about you Twilight?"

"If we've met, I definitely don't remember her," Twilight added.

"I'll ask later when I see Marionette."

Sunset grabbed her helmet and tightened her glove. She stood up straight and faced the crowd waiting by the fencing strip. Despite her chances, she hoped that when she talked to Marionette, she'd have a trophy to show off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kassa Zabla was an ideal opponent for Sunset. They were the same height and build, boiling down the deciding factor for victory to two things, skill and physique. Sunset kept herself light on the balls of her feet. Because the bouts for sabre never lasted more than three minutes, she hardly felt fatigued.

She had the legs of a cheetah now, two coiled springs packed with energy ready to pounce. She watched Kassa carefully as she stood on guard. Her hands were a little low and she stood upright, increasing the distance between her head and her weapon. It was probably useful for baiting, and attacks from the low lines were harder to deal with in general, but against a fast opponent, her head was completely exposed.

"En garde."

That would be the critical point she'd need to exploit. Sunset set her sight on Kassa's mask, lining up her blade with the ridge that ran down the centre of it.

"Pret."

Her first hit would have to be a thrust. It was what she was most familiar with from this starting position. As the snake strikes with venom, Sunset set weight in her legs to lunge across the distance and stab, taking initiative with short movements. It was true that arms' rotation favoured the cut, but a straight line was always the fastest path to its target, was it not?

"Allez!"

Her thrust roared across the strip, a burst of quick advances completed with a spiteful lunge. Kassa parried and cut to her head. Rushing so close, the cut struck prematurely, the strong of the blade actually throwing back Sunset's head. She stumbled a step, but regained herself and walked back to the middle of the strip.

Something wasn't right with that exchange. The motion Kassa used, Sunset had never seen it before. There was no way she could have anticipated a thrust like that. Did she react quickly and just flail her arms in a panic?

The next action Sunset watched closely. They moved back and forth a few steps before Sunset initiated a cut. She was so close, she almost lost her mind. Sunset swore she was a hair's breadth away from landing the blow, but with Kassa's sweeping parry's might, no mask nor body could be found. She lifted high her arm and guard. By rocking her weight back and forward, and the blade pointed down, she looped her cut around her head and blasted a heavy blow.

"Halt!"

And so it did. The motion halted Sunset's brain. How could a fencer as good as this girl use a technique that swung the blade so widely around? All she needed to do was feint to the head and strike low when the sweep missed.

Sunset approached slowly, holding her guard in a manner that made a cut to the head an obvious choice. But before she could go, Kassa changed her stance, brought up her arm and rested the blade on her right shoulder, completely exposing her body.

Sunset didn't wait to ask, she took the chance and went for a body blow. And with a turn of her blade, Kassa struck through, destroying path and arm without delay. The soft inner side of Sunset's elbow stung painfully from the strike, even more so because it was a shock. Even from that weird position, Kassa managed a perfect opposing cut.

But three points at the start was easily rectified. Sunset breathed deep and loosened her tense grip, buckling down in a low and stable stance for a good bout.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kassa was more than good. Their bout had thirty seconds left, but her form and structure, however foreign it was, seemed unable to fail. In fact, as soon as Sunset picked up the pace to rake back a few more points, Kassa only got better. The girl actually improved with pressure. For a short time, Sunset was ahead, winning out purely with her own unorthodox and sloppy attacks. And then it was like a beast awoke inside Kassa, one made purely out of desperation and fury.

It was almost over and they were tied at thirteen points. Sunset had pushed herself until she couldn't lunge anymore. They'd advanced until they could both hit and traded defensive and offensive cuts, blow after blow after blow.

Slash, parry, riposte, parry, riposte, parry, riposte.

It was only because of adrenaline that Sunset had the spring in her step to retreat quickly enough when she felt her arm tiring out. Kassa's early defensive style was gone now too, replaced with attacks that happened to get in the way of incoming hits. She had spent years working for the IFT sabre trophy and would not give it up easily, a desire that did not go unnoticed by Sunset.

With three quick horizontal cuts, Kassa pushed Sunset back, and when there was no more fencing strip to move along, she struck her in the head with a ringing blow.

Fourteen to thirteen, the chances for Sunset were running out. She believed that she would accept the loss if it came, but there was a caveat to that, Sunset realized. She would never accept her performance unless she was absolutely certain there was nothing left she could do.

They reset and returned to the middle of the strip. Being one point away from losing was enough to set something off inside Sunset. She lunged the moment the director started the action, fully dedicated to the strike. Kassa guarded high but, with cunning, that defence was broken.

Sunset entered low by dropping her weight, not wasting any time to redirect her line of attack. Kassa stepped back and brought her blade down to counter. If she was certain that Sunset would not make it, then there was nothing else to do but move back. Kassa's judgement was better. Kassa hit without fail, but as Sunset peeled away, the cut hit home at the leg, which sabre counted as a non-target.

Redoubling, Sunset returned with two lunges of blinding swiftness, resurging the fencer she was this morning, except not fueled by coffee. The cuts sliced the air so nicely the sound pleased her. Kassa responded too, winding her sabre around for the defence that banished all opposing blows.

Sunset had learned why it worked for her, but couldn't hope to use it herself. Given time, the form could be mastered, but it was the combination of shifting weight, rotating the hips, and shrinking the length of the rotation that gave Kassa her insufferable ability.

Instead, Sunset matched it with her own parries that were more standard of the sabre. Her thighs burned, but she held herself low so she only had to cover her head, attacking between the rhythm of Kassa's rotations but missing by the slightest touch.

Slash, parry, riposte, parry, riposte, parry, riposte. The exchange of blows wore down her arm's endurance, but her legs were tired too. She took as much as her legs could give, but if she retreated now, Sunset knew she wouldn't have the speed to avoid Kassa's attack.

More accuracy and speed, those two qualities ran through Sunset's mind. Give as much as you can if you're going to lose, make her earn that trophy. But as her mind began to wander Sunset didn't feel like it was enough. That trophy was for her friends, herself, her home, her everything. To repay all of that she couldn't just go beyond everything she had to give. She had to go beyond everything her opponent could take.

Sunset lifted her parry, slamming aside the strong of Kassa's sabre with her bell guard like a hook punch from boxing. The excessive force flung aside Kassa's balance, exposing her underarm to be struck by a rising cut. She turned her hand so the thumb, facing the earth, drove hard the blade and sent it up into Kassa's arm.

With the same motion, essentially a prime guard, Kassa closed her feet together and rained down the point of her sabre into the soft of Sunset's elbow, stunting the cut. The girl whooped once the director ended the bout, her voice shouting over her family and friends who also cheered for her.

She pumped her fist and ran a loop around her end of the fencing strip, screaming tears of joy all the way as the director declared Kassa the winner of the bout and the IFT's sabre event.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunset wiped her hair dry as she walked out of the girls' locker room with her short blue dress, jeans, and her necklace. She didn't really feel bad like yesterday, but she definitely wasn't happy either. Losing made time slip away so quickly, mostly because there was nothing she could do about it but move on.

It was as if the positive and negative side of things were cancelling each other out. She failed to give something back to CHS, but she also made a new friend in the process. Maybe it was selfish, but it was just nice to make another friend. Everything with her other friends was like a comfortable routine. She loved them, but with Marionette, getting to know her was something new.

As if on cue, Sunset saw Marionette standing at the front of the school. Buses were lined up to take the students from other cities home. Parents and families had their own cars too, and things seemed to be a little too much for Canterlot High's tiny car park.

Sunset laughed a little. "I don't think we'll ever host the IFT again if this doesn't clear up soon." Forcing her way through the crowd, she had to try her hardest not to grab on and read any minds by accident. Many were simply waiting for the buses to clear the car park before they tried escaping from the clustered mess. Eventually, Marionette was withing range for Sunset to poke her in the shoulder.

"Huh?" Marionette turned around. "Oh, Sunset. I'm sorry you didn't get the trophy you wanted. Are you doing okay?"

Sunset shrugged. "Of course not, but I'm getting over it."

"Well, that's good to hear." Marionette turned back and looked out to the car park. Her mood was an open book as she frowned at the traffic, but Sunset didn't think the cars were the problem. It was the same at the cafe, Marionette was also unusually talkative. Though, it seemed rude to say anything at the time. She still got along with Sunset's friends. But she was definitely showing a happier side when they were together last night. Now, with nothing to distract herself, it seemed like there was something eating away at her.

"Is everything alright?" Sunset put a hand on Marionette's shoulder. And though she didn't mean to use her magic, a flood of images started pouring out into Sunset's eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Using her gemstone was voluntary, most of the time, but the strongest of feelings and memories had ways of surfacing against a person's will.

"Nǐ qù nǎle? Wèishéme zhème wǎn?" The words didn't make any sense to Sunset. They were from one of the many other languages spoken in the human world. But she was reading Marionette's memories, and as if on autopilot, she understood their meaning.

"Mama," Marionette's voice said as she entered a house. Her house. Traditional signs and images written in red and gold were decorated on the walls, and a few watercolour paintings of swans watched over a piano room and a study. "I said I'd be studying late."

"Then why did this show up on your brother's phone?" Marionette's mother showed her a Twimblit page, a social media site where Pinkie had posted all her selfies from the arcade, most of them with Marionette at the centre. Apparently, even Marionette's brother couldn't ignore the party planning machine that was Pinkie Pie.

"Bù kěnéng," Marionette thought to herself, switching to her other language to answer her mother. "This, it was just a break I took with some friends."

"Then why did this girl say she was having fun all night long?" Sunset couldn't her the poison in those words, but she felt her chest tighten as if she was in Marionette's place. The feeling conveyed told Sunset more than the words could.

"That's just something that my generation says now," Marionette defended. "We overexaggerate everything."

"You are going to sit down and tell me and your father exactly what you've been doing this weekend."

Sunset felt the tension in Marionette's body rising. "Why?"

"Because you lied to us!" Her mother's grip tightened around the phone, and when she realized it, she put it down before she did something to damage it. She pointed to the living room. "Go."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Do you realize how stupid that was?" Her father's voice was deep but gentle. Even so, Sunset couldn't see anything except the carpet and Marionette's feet through the memory. She sat on a beige leather couch, her mother snapping at her from the left, her father from the right.

"You can't just run around town with strangers," he said. It took Sunset a moment to realize she could understand him, not just the memory's translation. "I almost called the police to look for you!"

"And that's just the consequence of lying," her mother said. "I don't know why you did it in the first place. What else aren't you telling us?"

"I already said, I met them on Friday after the foil event, we bumped into each other at the Canterlot public library, and I just took a break from studying."

"Nǐ juédé wǒ hěn bèn?" Her mother's voice was like a drill. Marionette took a breath, but she didn't reply.

"Look at me, Marionette. Do you think I'm stupid?"

She shook her head. Her father's arm came across her vision to calm down her mother. "Honey, she's done enough school work for now, as long as she doesn't do it again, I don't think this is something we have to worry about."

"No, I want to know who those girls were," her mother said sternly. "How come I've never heard of them until now?"

"Come on, students rarely hang out at her school," her father said. "I think it might be good that some students are willing to socialize."

"They're not from Crystal Prep," Marionette mumbled. "They're from CHS."

"Huh?" If there was a way to hear someone's eyes widen with shock, then Sunset definitely heard it from the father. "You ran around wasting time with those students?"

"You just said no one in my school socializes, and now that's a bad thing?" Marionette questioned him.

"I'm saying it's a bad thing that you're letting those students influence you," he said. "Did they put you up to this? What else did they make you do?"

Marionette stood up. "They didn't make me do anything! Listen to yourself, you act like they are terrible people just because of their school."

Her mother opened her brother's phone and went to the homepage of her brother's account. "I didn't want to say this because I know you like fencing, but explain to me why your brother has a photo of you at the epee event today?"

Marionette squinted at the screen. It was a picture of him and a few of the fencers from the boy's team, with her standing in the corner. She wasn't completely in the photo, so it looked like her brother had no intention of exposing her, but after two or three pictures, it was obvious that she was there.

"What is that?" Her father took the phone, seeing it for the first time too. Suddenly, his expression changed, going sour. "I thought we agreed you'd only go for the foil event."

"But my team was there, so I thought-"

"We already talked to your coach, he said you didn't need to go."

Marionette's mother folded her arms. "See? I've always said her coach is too lenient."

"It's not Coach Scheil's fault," Marionette replied. "I went on my own to see my friends."

"Why? You've never stayed for the other events before," her father asked. His knitted brows almost pushed his eyes out of his head, as if he was trying to get a closer look at his daughter to glean some kind of answer from sight alone. "Does it have to do with those girls? Were you wasting your time for their sake?"

Sunset was dizzied as the memory whirled around to a flight of stairs. Marionette stormed up, leaving her parents in the living room. "I don't want to explain it."

"Nǐ huílái!" her mother shouted. "Don't walk away from us!"

The argument definitely didn't end there, but Sunset's vision into the memory faded to white as Marionette pulled away from her arms in real-time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Why'd you do it?" Sunset asked, almost by instinct. Her friends were right. She needed to stop blurting out her first reaction. A bit of awkward silence hung in the air. Random personal questions were really hard to explain, after all.

"What are you talking about?"

"You got in a fight with your parents, just to watch the IFT? Why?"

"How do you know about that?" Marionette's eyes flicked about, searching Sunset's face for some kind of tell. Her face was one part worry and one part disbelief, like someone's expression after finding a fortune-teller who really did know their past.

Sunset babbled a few incoherent words. How could she explain everything quickly and simply? But, the longer the waited, the more Marionette looked at her like she was a freak. Without thing, she grabbed her necklace and showed it to Marionette. "My friends and I, we found these gemstones with special properties when we went camping at Everfree. Mine lets me see the memories that are strongest in people."

Magic was one explanation, for sure. Rumours about the Friendship Games from those who competed, stories about weird powers, those were like urban legends. Finding some truth behind those legends was a lot easier to believe than a story out of nowhere. But Sunset was used to people's hesitation. Mind-reading was one of those things that felt too invasive to be possible.

Marionette looked away, a little embarrassed. "How much did you see?"

"Enough. I know that you wanted to be here and watch all the bouts, but your parents wouldn't let you."

Relief spread across Marionette's face for a moment. She looked around at the crowd of students and parents. Sunset did the same, realizing that this wasn't the best place to talk about her problems.

"So, you wanna catch the bus a few streets over?" She asked Marionette. "The traffic should be fine, away from the school."

"Yeah, let's do that."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The horizon rolled clouds in like a thick blanket, covering up the sun's summer heat, but spreading a sickening humidity in the air that stuck to the skin like paste. Walking over to the bus stop, neither of them said a word. Sunset was beginning to wonder if she overstepped her bounds. Marionette didn't know what to make of Sunset suddenly entering her life.

"You don't have to tell me if it's uncomfortable," Sunset finally said as they sat down at the stop.

Marionette shook her head. "It's fine, I don't mind. I'm just not really sure what to say about it. I can't tell you why I did it because I don't really know."

"Are they really so strict that they won't let you see your friends fence?"

Marionette shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I've always done what I needed to without them asking, so I think this is just new for them, too."

"So they let you come today?"

"Not happily, but my mom said it'd be bad manners if I didn't follow through all the way."

"Speaking of your mom, there were some words in your memories that I couldn't totally understand," Sunset said. "What language is that?"

"Oh, my mom's very... Chinese," Marionette explained. "My dad moved from the UK when he was younger to study at the Maressachusetts Institute of Technology, but he understands enough so that we can all speak it at home. Well, my mom and I speak, my dad just sort of listens."

Sunset nodded. She didn't really understand why humans divided themselves in this world the same way ponies and gryphons and dragons did. It was like splitting Equestria up by its cities. But Sunset found it all very interesting, nevertheless, and thought Marionette was pretty cool, being the daughter of two completely different cultures.

"Well, whoever your parents are, they have a pretty awesome daughter." Sunset looked down at her hands as she came up with the right words to say. "I can't thank you enough. You really helped me do my best."

It was Marionette who kept her happy after every loss. Everything Marionette talked about made her think about what she wanted, not only for the present but the future too. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and all her other friends, they had plans for their future, but Sunset never confronted the idea of moving past Canterlot High. Hearing Marionette talk about her goals changed that.

"I thought about what you said, about living up to my potential as a fencer," Sunset said slowly, still processing her own words. "I didn't want to face it before, but I have no idea what I'm going to do after high school. And then you showed me."

Marionette's eyes widened. "I did?"

Sunset nodded. "I don't know what I'll study when I'm in college, but I know I want to fence. I think I never realized it because my friends and I are too nice to each other. I depend on their support, but when you and I were in the locker room together was the first time someone actually scolded me for not chasing after my potential. Twilight and the others, they always just tell me everything's fine, but you were willing to push me. Now I want to see how far I can take myself, maybe even to the Olympics."

Sunset's words lingered for a bit. She was a little unsure if she said the right thing, and Marionette needed a moment to take in everything she said.

"You're pretty much the nicest person I've ever met," Marionette finally blurted out.

Sunset chuckled. "Are you sure? I don't think I can beat Fluttershy at niceness."

"I mean it," she continued, unfaltering. "You asked me why I did it, and I'm not entirely sure, but I think it was because I wanted to see you. Fence, I mean. I wanted to see you fence."

Sunset sighed. "Now I feel bad. I shouldn't have put all that trouble on you."

"Are you kidding?" Marionette laughed a little. "I might be in trouble, but I honestly don't care what my parents say. I meant what I said yesterday; seeing you fence was like watching passion and love come to life. I see the drive inside you and I feel like I'm watching a perfect version of myself."

"Now you're just teasing," Sunset said. "You study way harder than I do. I heard you talking about neural networks and machine learning with Twilight at The Greene. I think you're the only person I know who can keep up with her."

Marionette shook her head. "That's not what I mean. You do things you want to do simply because you want to do them. I wish I could do that. I wish I could be more like you."

En route to the city, the bus from the opposite side of town rolled up to the stop. It squeaked as it braked, cutting short their conversation. They both stared at it, waiting for something to happen, but neither of them was willing to move.

"This is the first time I've ever been in trouble with my parents," Marionette said, though it sounded like the gravity of that fact had just hit her.

"It's not a good feeling," Sunset replied, remembering the arguments she used to have with Celestia just before she ran away.

People filed out of the bus one by one, splitting ways either left or right around that bus stop like a river flowing against a jagged rock. The bus driver watched them, waiting to see if they would get on. This was the only bus on the route on Sundays, and if they missed it they'd have to wait another hour.

Marionette groaned. "I don't wanna get another earful from my mom."

"Pinkie's having a slumber party tonight," mumbled Sunset.

Marionette smiled, a glint of rebellion spreading to her eyes. "I'll be grounded after today anyway." She looked at the top of the bus, its yellow electronic sign reading out the downtown bus stop, far from Pinkie's house. "But that means we'll have to take the 104 bus route instead."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pinkie's house was a hurricane of colours. Her old physics project, the party cannon, had splattered confetti every which way to cheer Sunset up. Reds, oranges, and fleshy pink paper squares decorated the walls with life, and against the gradient of the setting sun, Sunset felt at home.

Rainbow Dash ran around, helping Applejack move the furniture. They were going to set up the perfect arena for a foam dart gun battle. Fluttershy and Rarity hung streamers along the walls and ceiling, with birds and squirrels lending their help wherever a streamer came loose.

Trays of snacks and boxes of pizza levitated around the house, some in glowing fields of energy, others on floating diamond plates. Twilight let her magic work while she focused on fixing up Pinkie's surround sound speakers. It wasn't a sleepover without cheesy movies, according to Pinkie Pie.

It was a little jarring for Marionette to get used to the magic, but pizza was pizza, and when dinner time rolled around, they all sat together and talked about how they got their gemstones. The rules of magic were a little confusing, and Marionette did sit away from Pinkie Pie once they mentioned the time she threw a box of nails. Aside from that, she was surprised by how quickly she got used to talking birds and a flying Rainbow Dash.

"I see why you wanted to win for them," Marionette smiled, finally pushing her family worries aside. "This is awesome."

Sunset gave a confident nod. "This is home."

They decided, to Fluttershy's terror, to watch a horror movie before they went to bed. Pinkie had over two dozen to choose from, so together they all sat in a circle to pick one they wanted. And though she didn't want everyone worrying about her, Fluttershy was adamant about hinting which ones were a bit too frightful for her tastes.

"Oh my gosh, I just had the best idea!" Pinkie Pie jumped from her seat on the couch, knocking over the pile of DVDs she was trying to choose from.

"You're not going to throw something, are you?" Marionette asked cautiously.

"No silly," she said. "I'd never make a mistake like that... after that one time at work."

"What?"

"Oh don't worry, I just remembered that Applejack helped Sunset drive her fencing gear back home in her truck."

"Oh, right, I still have 'em in the back," Applejack said, helping Fluttershy pick out a classic horror movie that wasn't too scary. "I can drop it off tomorrow morning."

"But," Pinkie paused and slung her arms around Sunset and Marionette, "Sunset has two of everything in her bag. Anyone else thinking of a rematch?"

"Oh, I don't know," Marionette chuckled, a little embarrassed to be put on the spot.

Sunset smirked. "Yeah, I'd probably just win again," she said, teasing her.

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?"

Sunset shrugged. "Why don't you put on a mask and we'll find out?"

Twilight hopped out from her seat too. "Oh, can I direct? I've read all the rules for fencing, so I might as well use that knowledge, am I right?"

"In that case," Marionette grinned, "you're on, Sunset."

Pinkie unfurled a red carpet strip that she had hidden in her house in case of carpet emergencies, laying it along the sidewalk outside her house. It was about the width and length of a fencing strip, perfect if not for its velvet texture. Marionette fiddled with Sunset's spare swords, all three of them.

A three weapon challenge, they decided. Score a hit with foil, then switch to epee, then sabre. Repeat three times before tallying up the points to see who was the ultimate fencer.

"En garde!" Twilight said, in what was actually a decent French voice.

The thrill of those words ran through both their veins. Marionette gripped her foil. This was how Sunset must have felt every day; Marionette could feel what it meant to fence for someone else, her friends. That rushing excitement, it was strong enough to be addictive. She could read it in Sunset's movements too, how thrilled she was to fence again, but as friends.

"Allez!"