Several of the fighters, once again gathered around the same arena in front of the gazebo. Trixie was once again sitting in her throne on the stage, but now she was accompanied by several ponies wearing only black pants and shoes, their faces were covered entirely by dark red burqas. There was also a gong with a dragon symbol on it, that looked exactly like the dragon that was on the boat.

“Kombatants! It appears our tournament is starting a bit earlier than usual.” Trixie shouted. “Someone has challenged our last minute contestant.”

Knowing she was talking about her, Applejack walked onto the arena. “Okay fine, who is it anyway?” She asked.

“Me.” Said a voice, that instantly made Applejack froze.

Adagio Dazzle walked from behind Trixie’s throne, before jumping down on the opposite side of the arena, facing Applejack.

“Adagio…” Applejack growled.

“Didn’t ‘spect ya to find me.” Adagio sneered. “Looks like ya DO got guts.”

“It doesn’t matter how far you’ve gotten.” Applejack said, standing on her hind legs ready to fight. “What matters is I finally found you and you won’t escape this time. I will finally take you down and bring you to custody”

“Heh-heh, pitiful. Yer gonna ARREST me!?” Adagio asked, mockingly. “Even afta all the things I done, you STILL don’t have the guts ta kill anyone!?”

“I’m not like you, Adagio!” Applejack said with gritted teeth.

“That’s what yer partner also said, ‘fore I gave ‘em a permanent smile…… With a KNIFE” Adagio laughed.

Applejack had just about enough of Adagio and her scumbag personality. “That it! Adagio this has gone on long enough, you go down right NOW!” Applejack shouted.

“Fine by me!” Adagio Dazzle shouted, standing on her hind legs as well.

“Then it’s settled!” Trixie shouted, as one of the burqa wearing ponies walked up to the gong, before hitting it with a hammer, making the gong ring signaling the fight to begin.

“FIGHT!”

Adagio and Applejack rushed towards each other, and jump in the air to try and hit each other. Applejack attempts to punch Adagio but, she counters it by kicking her the chest with one of her hind legs.

Both fall back down, Adagio landing on her hind legs, while Applejack falls flat on her back, groaning. Applejack managed to jump back up and continues rushing at Adagio Dazzle. She delivers a straight punch, which Adagio dodges, a back hand punch, which Adagio blocks, before finally managing to hit Adagio with a roundhouse kick, knocking her over.

Adagio managed to get up, and rush towards Applejack. The both of them proceed to start throwing punches, until eventually they caught each other’s fists, staring each other in the eye.

“Well, am impressed you’ve already lasted longer than yer partner.” Adagio laughed, kicking Applejack in the gut knocking her over again. Adagio then attempts to stomp on Applejack’s head, but she manages to roll out of the way, and trips Adagio over with a sweep kick. Applejack then jumps onto Adagio pinning her down, but Adagio manages to throw her off of her. Applejack rolls across the ground, before jumping to her hind legs, just in time to dodge a jump kick from Adagio.

Adagio threw more kicks and punches, as well as Applejack, but both seemed to do a good job of blocking each other’s hits. Adagio then all of sudden spat in Applejack’s eye, causing the soldier to recoil holding her eye. While she was distracted, Adagio struck Applejack with punch, followed by a backhand punch, an overhead punch, and finally a roundhouse kick. However, Applejack dodge the roundhouse kick and while Adagio was following over, she gave a normal kick to Adagio’s face knocking her backwards. After Applejack gets the saliva out of her eye, she notices Adagio getting up and then an idea pops in her mind.

While Adagio was getting steady, Applejack points her hoof forwards her and shoots three pink ring-like projectiles out of her gauntlet, striking Adagio in the chest and knocking her over. Applejack then rushes over to the fallen mercenary, and attempts to stomp on her chest, but Adagio manages to do a backward somersault and stands back up.

“Oh… So ya brought weapons.” Adagio smiles, and reaches down towards her ankles, and pulls two silver butterfly knives from the sheaves on her boots. “So did I.”

Applejack gasps, as Adagio starts running towards her, butterfly knifes in tow. All of a sudden Adagio jumped and did a somersault in midair, and somehow stayed in that position and continued flying like a cannonball, towards Applejack. Applejack managed to block the pony cannonball, but she was still knocked back a bit.

The ricocheted Adagio uncurled and did a roundhouse kick in midair, striking Applejack in the face, causing her to recoil in pain. Adagio then swung her butterfly knives towards Applejack, she managed to dodge the first one, but was slashed across the chest by the second one, causing a spurt of scarlet to erupt from her chest.

Adagio continued to swing her butterfly knives, occasionally punching too. While Applejack managed to block and throw a couple of punches herself, it was mostly her getting punched and cut. Adagio then swung her left butterfly knife, but Applejack did a back-flip to dodge it, and knock the opposing knife out of Adagio’s hoof. When she landed only a couple of meters away, she suddenly did a handstand and grabbed Adagio by the neck with her hind legs and flip her over onto her back.

Adagio managed to sit up, and looked behind her to see Applejack about to fire another set of pink energy rings. Adagio managed to do a forward roll to dodge the speeding rings, and threw her remaining butterfly towards Applejack. The knife lodge right into Applejack’s gauntlet damaging her laser device.

“NO!” Applejack shouted, staring at her sparking and smoking gauntlet.

“No fancy gadgets ta help ya now, baby.” Adagio said, grinning. She then jumped up and did another cannonball towards Applejack, this time striking her hard in chest knocking her back. Applejack managed to quickly stand back up and attempted to fight back. However Adagio managed to duck under her punch and jump over her sweep kick. Adagio then throws a hard punch across the right side of Applejack’s head and another one across the left side of his head, before grabbing her by the shirt and slamming her face againt her hard, metal eye implantment, before throwing her to ground hard. Blood appearing from ever hit Applejack took.

“Don’t feel like a soldier now, do ya?” Adagio said, grinning evilly.

“No!” Shouted Pinkie, who had been watching the whole fight go out. “C’mon Applejack! Get up!”

Applejack attempted to stand back up……… But fell back down shortly after. Applejack was defeated.

“Adagio Dazzle wins!” Trixie shouts from the stage. “Now, FINISH HER!”

Adagio looks down at the fallen Applejack. “W-well what are you waiting for?” Applejack asks.

“Nah, I think I’ll let ya live, I wanna a better challenge.” Adagio sneered. “Also this way ya can live wi’ how ya failed yer partner.”

“Very well…” Trixie said. “The next match will happen in exactly in an hour! Dismiss!”

Adagio then walked away from the fallen Applejack as, Trixie and the rest of crowd walked away. Pinkie Pie and Twilight however ran over to help Applejack get back up.

“Are you okay?” Pinkie asked. “She didn’t break anything? Did she? I swear if she broke ANYTHING I'll-”

“It doesn’t matter how I feel on the outside.” Applejack interrupted. “It feels worse on the inside! I failed my partner!”

“Well actually physical pain CAN be an ins-” Twilight started, but was interrupted.

“You knew what I meant!” Applejack shouted

Suddenly Celestia appeared before them. “Appelejack!” Celestia shouted. “Your failure disappoints me!”

“Hey lay off of her.” Twilight said angrily.

“The reason she lost was because of her blind hatred.” Celestia explained. “Her desire for revenge and hatred towards Adagio was her biggest weakness and cost her this fight.”

Celestia then turned towards Applejack. “Lt. Applejack, there are other ways to find peace, and revenge is not one of them.”

Applejack felt small, under Celestia’s tall gaze. “B-but I trusted Adagio…. A-and then she-” Applejack started.

“I know you’re upset and you felt betrayed when it happened, but you must let the past stay in the past.” Celestia explained.

Applejack looked down and thought for a moment, before taking a deep breath and getting up.

While Pinkie looked apathetic on the outside, inside she was fuming. She really had it with Adagio, starting from when she met her on the boat and Pinkie knew one, if someone is going to to put that scumbag in her place it’s going to be her.

“Why do you care so much about us, if YOU’RE going to be the one to take down Trixie?” Twilight asked.

“Because I still want you three to learn from your mistakes so you can try harder next time.” Celestia explains, before teleporting away.

As the three disbanded, one last thought went through Twilight’s mind. ‘Learn from your mistakes? I’ll show her!’

Author's Note

Okay chapter four, this is where the fighting finally happens. And if you're wondering what's with Celestia's character, well I wanted to make her the mentor like Raiden, but also give her a LITTLE bit of Raiden's personality in the first game.

Next time two ninjas face off.