Anecdotes of Heart

Date: Almost a year after Dinky's Graduation

Cold Vanhoover wind blustered across the platform of the train station, causing ponies to clutch their cloaks tighter to their bodies. A grey unicorn mare who looked to be around nineteen or twenty seemed quite unfazed. Though her pale green ponytail whipped in the wind, the short note she was reading stayed perfectly still in the firm grip of her aura as she read it over once again.

Please wait for me at the station in your hometown. I shall make sure to be aboard the third passenger car when I arrive, so it will be easy to find me as soon as you board the train. I look forward to seeing one of my cleverest former classmates again very soon.

"Third car. Got it," Seeker mumbled to herself, reviewing the last few lines of the invitation before tucking it carefully into her bag.

A shrill whistle from the steam engine heralded the arrival of the train. The mare quickly trotted three cars back, presented her ticket, and stepped aboard. It only took a second to spot the pony she was meeting up with; if his royal blue coat wasn't enough to catch the eye, his unnaturally pearly smile always was.

"Heya Tango," Seeker chuckled as she quickly stowed her belongings beneath the bench and sat down beside the stallion.

Tango Trot's grin grew wider. "Why hello, Seeker my friend," he replied, with all the usual dramatic flair. "It's been some months now since we've seen each other, but I must say, you're looking just as vibrant as ever."

Seeker smirked at her friend's typical over-the-top compliments. "You look like you're doing pretty good yourself, considering how long a train ride it was for you to get all the way out here," she chuckled. "Thanks for accepting my invite, by the way."

"Oh, you say that as if it's an inconvenience," Tango quickly responded. "In truth, I haven't looked forward to a competition this much in ages. I mean, a doubles dueling tournament, in Las Pegasus? The thrill of magical combat, paired with the glamorous opportunity to put on a display of skill in the entertainment capital of Equestria, and my partner for the experience is one of my most talented former classmates? Why would you even imagine I would decline?"

Seeker laughed. "Well good, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's hyped," she admitted. "I've never been in a 2-on-2 duel before, but come on, both of us are Academy-trained duelists who made the final four in last year's tournament at school. We've got the upper hoof for sure, except maybe against other Academy alumni."

"Speaking of which, are any friends from our year competing as well?" Tango questioned.

"Not that I know of," Seeker admitted. "I actually wrote a letter to Scuffle to see if he was going, but he's at some seminar Honeydew's speaking at this weekend. And he mentioned Dinky and Clarity already had vacation plans, so they're out too. Though, this is a nationwide tournament; students who graduated in the years before us might be there."

Tango prepared to reply, but was briefly drowned out as the train gave a loud whistle and slowly departed Vanhoover station. "Regardless," he continued once the noise had quieted, "we have the advantage of being acutely familiar with each other's dueling styles. You and I both have a sizeable arsenal of unique tricks, and though we've always been opponents on the field of battle, we've worked well together whenever we did collaborate on something. I'm sure it will take no more than a few hours of planning for us to weave together our two styles into one nearly-unbeatable strategy."

Seeker nodded. "I've already been giving it some thought," she confessed, casting a simple illusion that projected a blank rectangle of light in front of her like a miniature dueling ring and pointing out positions with a hoof. "So, I know you're great with sound magic, so picture this; you stand over here while I—"

Thunk!

There was a clatter as something heavy slammed against the other side of the door separating the train cars. This was followed by some muffled yelling, and then the divider door slid open. Seeker peered over the seat, curious.

"Alright, you two, I think these fine folks have had quite enough of you!" the train conductor barked. "Go sit in the next car, and if I hear you causing a ruckus again, you'll be disembarking at the very next stop."

"Yeah, yeah, we're going," a male voice replied.

"Yeah, chill out," another voice, very similar to the first, added.

Two large male unicorns skulked into the train car, slamming the connecting door behind them. Identical in every way but fur color and cutie mark, it was clear the pair were twins. They immediately seemed familiar, but Seeker found she couldn't quite pinpoint why.

"Ah," said Tango, pursing his lips. "I should have guessed."

"Guessed what?" Seeker asked, glancing between her friend and the two newcomers now leering at passengers as they moved slowly down the aisle.

"Oh, don't you recognize them?" Tango asked, his features lighting up in realization. "I suppose I have seen them quite a bit more recently than you, but those two are—"

"Well lookie here!" one of the twins called out as his scan of the train car finally picked out Tango Trot. "If it isn't our good buddy what's-his-name!"

"And who's this?" the other twin asked, ignoring Tango's attempt to correct them entirely as he glanced toward Seeker. "Out on a date with your fillyfriend or somethin'?"

Seeker snorted. Tango just sighed. "Seeker, perhaps you remember our former classmates here; they were fifth-term students when we were foals just starting at the Academy," he said dully, gesturing to the two grinning unicorns. "Scorch and Frosty, the so-called Frostfire Twins."

Long-dormant memories of a pair of blowhard bullies surfaced in Seeker's mind. "Oh. Right. Scuffle's brothers," she huffed.

Scorch scowled. "We've been getting that a lot lately," he grumbled. "How'd that kid manage to become the recognizable one in the family anyway? Is it too much to ask to get a 'Scorch and Frosty, the ponies who saved Canterlot' once in a while?"

"You saved it, huh?" Seeker snarked, raising an eyebrow at the self-important twins. "Funny, I heard quite a few ponies worked together to save it. But if I was forced to credit just one or two of them, you two would be far from the top of the list."

"Those ponies never even woulda made it into the city if it wasn't for us!" Frosty snapped. "And if you don't start showing us a little respect, we might have to remind you why we deserve it!"

Seeker rolled her eyes. "Please. We're not foals anymore," she groaned. "Ever considered maybe you were only a hotshot 'cause the ponies you were pushing around barely knew how to levitate an object?"

Frosty's lip curled in anger. "Is that so? You wanna prove it?"

"Let's just step back for a moment," interjected Tango, using both forehooves to gently push Seeker and Frosty further apart. "As I understand it, my fellows, you're already on thin ice with the conductor, so in the interest of you... and us for that matter... actually reaching our destinations, perhaps cooler heads should prevail for now."

Realizing how quickly a magical altercation in the middle of a packed train car would go bad, Seeker backed off and slid down in her seat, still glowering. Scorch and Frosty, stubborn though they were, appeared to come to the same realization, though perhaps more reluctantly. Muttering, the two stallions took their seats across the aisle.

"So, what brings you gentlecolts all the way out here?" Tango asked, apparently determined to force the tension still floating in the air to dissipate. "You're quite a long way from Fillydelphia."

"Just on a little quest to kick some ass, as usual," Scorch chuckled. "We're on our way to Las Pegasus; heard there's a pretty high profile dueling tournament we need to win."

Seeker's ears perked up. She sat up again, leaning forward to peer around Tango. "Wait, you two are entering the doubles tournament too?"

"Hah, is that where you're going?" Frosty asked, smirking. "Shame. You came all this way just to lose to us."

"Me an' Frosty have enough firepower between the two of us to bury anypony," Scorch bragged, leaning back in his seat and placing his forehooves behind his head with an air of self-importance. "Do yourselves a favor and lose before you gotta face us, or they might have to ship ya home in a couple pieces."

"Just about any duelist with more strategic ability than a newborn foal can't be beaten by pure firepower alone," Seeker argued, leaning halfway over Tango toward her rivals across the aisle.

"Oh yeah?" Frosty hissed. "Let's see how far your 'winning strategy' gets you once your body's punched a hole in the roof of the arena and barely even slowed down."

"Yeah, I can think of about a million options to prevent a spell that big from ever getting anywhere near me," Seeker shot back, placing her forehooves on Tango's lap to get some height above the seated stallions. "Good luck getting that attack to connect."

"Want a demonstration?" Frosty was on his hooves now too, horn aglow.

"Anytime!"

"Preferably," Tango half shouted, raising a hoof and once again gently easing Seeker off him and back into her seat, "tomorrow at an arena designed for such encounters, rather than the middle of a crowded train carriage."

Seeker harrumphed, but took the hint and slouched in her seat, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder. Scorch and Frosty exchanged a glance.

"Well, we—"

"We do so look forward to dueling you tomorrow at the appropriate venue," Tango interrupted, producing the fakest version of his trademark winning smile Seeker had ever seen. "Now if you would be so kind, my dear gentlecolts, Seeker and I need to plan out our strategies, and I'm sure you two have much to discuss as well."

Grumbling, Scorch and Frosty turned away and muttered to each other in private. Sighing, Tango turned back to Seeker. She winced at his unamused expression.

"Uh, sorry," she apologized softly. "Seeing them brought back some bad foalhood memories. They uh... they get under my skin pretty good. "

"Unfortunately, they are quite experienced at just that," Tango admitted. "But we have no need to stoop to their level."

"True, we can prove our point in the tournament tomorrow," Seeker agreed.

"Well, yes, that," Tango continued delicately. "And also the more immediate concern of being removed from the train long before Las Pegasus if you allow yourself to be dragged into the chaos they thrive on."

Seeker blushed. "Um. Right. That too."

The royal blue stallion patted her on the back comfortingly. "No need to fret," he assured her. "Let's see if we can get back on task, shall we? You were mentioning something about my positioning in a particular duel maneuver?"

"Ah, right." The illusory arena diagram sprung from Seeker's aura again. "Ok, hear me out. What if we try something like this?"

In hushed voices, the pair of unicorns put their heads and resumed laying their plans.

Overstimulating. That's the word Seeker was looking for. Las Pegasus, if described in a single word, was overstimulating.

Morning sunlight glittered off thousands of windows of high-rise hotels for block after block. The smell of exotic food and the mingling melodies of performances on every corner seemed to seep from the city's very pores and threatened to overwhelm her. Ponies peddling everything and anything lined the streets, their voices all competing with one another to somehow gain the attention of passers by. But how could they, when every square inch of the city seemed to be vying for exactly the same thing?

Tango, she noticed, seemed unfazed. But to be fair, a crowd of swooning, goo-goo-eyed fangirls tended to follow him around during their time at the Academy. He had probably built up a tolerance for overstimulation.

"Ah, there it is, at the end of the road."

Tango's familiar voice cut cleanly through the shroud of distractions and recaptured Seeker's attention. She followed his gaze to the end of the busy street, and suddenly had a sense of the sheer scope of the event they'd signed up for.

The stadium was easily big enough to be the headquarters of a major league buckball team. Colorful banners of unicorn silhouettes hung around its perimeter, and jumbo-sized electric screens, still a rarity in Equestria outside highly urban places like downtown Manehattan, looped through highlight reels of doubles duel tournaments of years past. Hundreds of unicorns were gathered on the expansive brick courtyard in front of the property, chatting, strategizing, and even practicing spells.

"There's... there's gotta be like three or four hundred ponies here!" Seeker sputtered, glancing around the crowd in shock. "How the heck are they going to hold a tournament with so many competitors? It's gonna take weeks!"

"Tournaments of this size always have preliminaries," Tango explained. "You've got to remember, Seeker, events like these are open to everypony, and that means ninety-percent of them are newbies or hobbyist duelers at best. The qualifying rounds will cut the number down dramatically. After all, a city that's all about putting on a show isn't going to subject their audience to dozens and dozens of amateur duels. But never fear; Academy-trained unicorns tend to be among Equestria's best and brightest. I imagine we will have more than enough skill between us to reach the proper tournament bracket."

He punctuated his explanation with a flash of his award-winning smile, before leading the way to the registration counter.

As the minutes passed, Seeker observed thousands of spectators making their way into the stadium while she stood in line to register to compete. An hour or so later, the lines for each of the clerks at check-in had dwindled to nothing.

"The show's supposed to start any minute now, isn't it?" she asked, glancing at a brightly-lit digital clock on one of the jumbo screens. "When are they going to let us—"

Deafeningly loud, bass-heavy music drowned out the rest of her question as even more lights turned on around the entryway, and the doors quickly swung wide to reveal a tunnel-like hall leading between the stands and into the stadium itself.

"Right now," Tango mouthed playfully.

The crowd of competitors filed inside, and the music was soon drowned out by the growing sound of the cheering crowd. Seeker stepped into the arena, waiting for her eyes to adjust as the bright sun was replaced with an almost entirely dark interior, lit only by rows of tiny lights in the floor that demarcated the aisles and stairways of the stands. Try as she might, she couldn't even see the other end of the cavernous space in the blackness.

Without warning, a massive spotlight clicked on, and Seeker threw a foreleg up to shield her eyes from the sudden light. The arena was immediately illuminated, revealing a stallion at its center, dressed in a very expensive looking suit, sporting an equally-expensive looking manecut. He had a microphone in hoof.

"Are you ready, Las Pegasus?" he called, his voice blaring from dozens of speakers and echoing off the domelike roof.

His question was met with a swell of cheers from the audience. His face appeared on another giant viewing screen, and he greeted the audience with a smile so bright it gave even Tango a run for his money.

"Welcome to the 31st annual Las Pegasus doubles dueling tournament!" the announcer continued. "I hope you're ready, duel fans! We've got ponies from all over Equestria gathered here, including more than a few familiar faces from years past, and plenty of fresh ones, too! Will one of our fan favorites come out on top, or is it time for a newcomer to make a name for themselves?"

The crowd called out a cacophony of names, though it was almost impossible to make any of them out. Seeker knew her name wasn't among them, at any rate; she and Tango were both first timers here.

Guess it's time to win over a few fans of our own, she thought, grinning a little.

"Now, of course, our lovely audience is here to see only the most exciting magic duels!" the announcer called. "So as always, we'll be starting with a series of rapid-fire preliminaries to help us weed out the competitors who aren't quite ready to play at the Las Pegasus level. These qualifying matches are very short, and very simple; each team will be randomly paired up with various other teams over the next half-hour or so. These miniature duels are only one minute long, and contestants will have no time to prepare a strategy after meeting their opponents, forcing them to show off their skills in combat improvisation. The preliminary duels have no winner or loser; instead, referees will observe the duels and award a numerical score, out of 100, to each pair after each minute-long duel. The teams will then reshuffle, and repeat the process. After several rounds of this, the sixteen teams— that's thirty-two ponies in total— with the highest average scores will move on to the main tournament!"

Dozens of ponies dressed in black and white referee uniforms marched into the arena at the opposite side where the competitors had entered. Then, much to Seeker's surprise, the floor itself lit up. Stunned, she realized the entire surface of the arena was, in itself, a giant screen, which now displayed digital outlines of dozens of standard-sized dueling rings. Pictures of the faces of competitors appeared at each end of every court.

"Find your own face, and prepare for high-speed battles with whoever is across from you!" the announcer instructed as he left the stadium floor and made his way to a balcony high above. "We'll soon know who our competitors in the main event are! Good luck, everypony!"

"Time!" called the referee. "Tango Trot and Seeker, 94 points. Wind Chime and Bumper Crop, 62 points."

The pair of unicorns on the other side of the arena frowned at their mediocre score, but there wasn't much room to argue, Seeker and Tango had kept them on the ropes quite comfortably for the entire sixty seconds of the micro-duel.

"Well, this has been pretty easy," Seeker chuckled as she and Tango stepped away from their dueling ring and back toward the center of the massive arena. "Eight rounds, and we only scored below 90 once."

"Yes, I'd imagine that will be more than enough to qualify," Tango responded. "As usual, you've quite the penchant for quick reactions and clever counters, my friend."

"Me?" Seeker laughed. "You're the MVP here as usual, dude. I mean, c'mon, that one match where you turned every single attack back on them, with either reflection or a counterspell? We scored 99 and I barely even did anything. I heard those guys say a few colorful words under their breath before they went to their next round."

"I appreciate the praise, but we shouldn't get too overconfident," Tango cautioned. "The ponies against whom our score was less than stellar were clearly very skilled. We must remember we're not the only seasoned duelists here."

Seeker tried to reply, but two loud male voices drowned her out.

"Boy, that last pair better not qualify for their own safety. If they were in a full duel, they'd be leaving here in a body cast."

"Oh don't worry, they won't. Those little tricks of theirs aren't gonna do them much good if their attack don't pack any punch. We were throwing stronger spells in elementary school!"

Seeker scowled as Scorch and Frosty appeared, pushing their way rudely through the crowd as they continued to joke about the competition, at least until Frosty caught her eye. "Oh hey, it's the nerds from the train," he laughed as he and his twin trotted over. "You two gonna qualify?"

"Do they look like they're gonna qualify?" Scorch laughed. "Bet they found out real quick what dueling in the real world is like."

"I suppose we shall see," Tango replied, flashing them another decidedly fake grin. "They're calculating the final scores now, so we'll know momentarily."

"Yeah, no tension there. We obviously qualified," Frosty boasted. "The part I'm waiting for is when they announce this year's gimmick."

Seeker's curiosity outweighed her contempt for the stallions in front of her. "Gimmick?" she asked.

"Yeah, every year once the main tournament begins, they throw in some crazy rule to keep things fresh, and stop the same ponies from winning over and over," Frosty elaborated. "Last year teleportation was forbidden. We almost won the whole thing; strength like ours against ponies who can't just blink out of the way? Not a good combo for most of our opponents."

"The year before that, only one pony on each team was allowed to attack, and the other one could only defend," Scorch added. "You could switch off for each new match, though. Defending both ponies on your team at once coulda been tricky if we weren't such pros at this."

"Sounds like smart strategists will really shine in situations like those," Seeker said smugly. "Pity all you two know how to do with magic is smash things."

"Watch your mouth, shrimp!" Frosty barked.

Fortunately for everypony, the announcer's voice filled the stadium before the petty fight could continue. "Fillies and gentlecolts, we've now determined the sixteen teams that will be competing this year! Turn your attention to the screen overhead; if you don't see your face, you didn't make the cut. Better luck next year!"

Thirty-two ponies, each labeled with their name and hometown, appeared on screen. Seeker did a little celebratory hoof-pump as she spotted herself and Tango among them. Her excitement was dampened only slightly when Scorch and Frosty appeared among the selected ponies as well. Several hundred disappointed ponies trudged to the exit, or made their way into a reserved section of the stands to watch the ponies who had outplayed them compete.

"Now, as you all know, Las Pegasus is all about entertainment, and nothing makes a tournament more entertaining than adding a little drama!" the announcer declared, as the spotlight highlighted him upon his balcony. "Each year, we throw in a little something to make things more exciting, and this year's twist is a real doozy!"

Seeker held her breath, waiting to hear what adjustment she'd have to quickly make to her battle plans.

She did not expect the answer.

"This year we're really shaking things up," the announcer said, with a gleam in his eye. "Take any blueprints you and your partner have made and throw them out the window... because this year we're scrambling the dueling teams!"

Tense music played as the sixteen pairs of faces on the screen above were suddenly broken apart. The individual faces swirled around in a tornado of color, before slamming together in new combinations, making a thunderclap sound effect each time a new pair came together. Seeker desperately watched the grey and green blur of her own countenance fly around the display, before slamming into the smirking face of a grey and white stallion... who happened to be standing just a pony-length away.

Frosty. She was paired with Frosty. Random chance had torn away her world-class strategist of a partner and replaced him with a meathead whose entire battle plan amounted to 'just brute force it'. Outraged, she glared at the offending pony as if this turn of events was somehow his fault. He stared back at her with an equal amount of disgust.

Tango fared no better. Although the shuffle was indeed random, it seemed the fates were determined to play their cruel tricks today. He sighed as his own picture linked up with Scorch's, and the display labeled their pair as team eleven, while Seeker and Frosty became team five.

"Our competitors will need to get a read on their new partner's battle style, as well as their strengths and weaknesses, very quickly!" the announcer said, his voice filled with glee. "This year's winners will surely be ponies who can adapt on the fly to synergize with an unexpected partner. If everypony can proceed down the hall at the side of the main arena, you'll find dressing rooms have been set aside for each team to rest and strategize as they prepare for each match. Head there now, and be ready to think on your hooves; the first round duels start in just a few minutes!"

The roar of the crowd drowned out any chance to discuss the turn of events. Seeker simply cast Tango a miserable look before she and Frosty made a left toward their room while Tango and Scorch turned right toward theirs. Only once they'd reached the private back room did the sound become muffled enough to carry a conversation.

"Who do they think they are!?" Frosty roared the second the door was closed. "This isn't even fair!"

"I take it the competition hasn't had a twist like this before?" Seeker asked bitterly.

"Heck no," Frosty snapped. "How are Scorch and I supposed to win anything when we're getting dragged down by some random noponies?"

"Oh, you're the one being dragged down?" Seeker retaliated, taking a step toward the stallion. "Funny, I was just wondering how I'm supposed to stand a chance when my dueling partner has all the finesse of a yak and is denser than a diamond dog."

"You think so, huh?" Frosty growled, not backing down in the slightest. "You'd be singing a different tune if you were the one across from me on the battlefield. There's not much time for insults when you're using every breath to beg for mercy."

"Please, like I'd lose to a cavepony like you."

"As if your pansy flanks would stand half a chance against me!"

Both ponies turned around, their snouts turned up in a huff. Tense silence hung in the air.

"...The longer we spend doing this, the less time we have to prepare to face our actual opponents," Seeker said acidly. "Even somepony as thick as you has gotta be good at something. What's the plan here?"

"The plan?" Frosty asked incredulously, glancing over his shoulder at her. "The plan is for you and your little filly playtime spells to stay the heck out of my way while I put the competition in its place. The only pony it's gonna take some work to get the upper hoof on is Scorch."

Seeker laughed sharply. "Yeah, I hate to break it to you, but Scorch is just the side show," she remarked. "He's partnered with the best duelist I've ever known. If we go up against Tango, we're toast, with or without Scorch."

Frosty scoffed. "Sounds like you're scared," he mocked. "Better stand back and just leave the fighting to me."

Seeker grit her teeth. "Fine, do your own thing, then!" she cried, tossing her ponytail angrily as she turned away. "Don't blame me when we're out of the tournament long before the finals!"

A loud, musical tone played over the loudspeaker throughout the stadium, followed by the announcer's voice. "Our first duel is about to begin!" he declared. "We're randomly matched up our sixteen teams, and out first match will be between... team two and team five!"

"Oh look, we're on first," Frosty grumbled. "C'mon kid, come watch how us real duelists fight."

He galloped out without another word. Muttering angrily, Seeker shook her head and quickly followed.

The many dueling courts displayed on the digital floor had disappeared, replaced by a single one in the center of the huge arena that, Seeker noted, was dramatically bigger than regulation standards. Which made sense, she supposed, since twice and many ponies would need to maneuver and spellcast at once in a doubles duel.

Across from Seeker and her insufferable partner were two mares, one green and one sky blue, who looked to be somewhere around Frosty's age. The pair had presumably just met, given the nature of the competition, but they gave each other a glance and a resolute nod. Quite unlike Frosty, who seemed loath to even waste time glancing in Seeker's direction.

"Fillies and Gentlecolts, it's time for the first proper duel of this year's Las Pegasus doubles tournament!" the announcer called, inciting another round of cheers from the audience. "The duel ends when both members of one team are knocked out, or when either member of a team signals their team's surrender by activating the forfeit light on the scoreboard with a spell. Now competitors, ready your horns; the duel begin when the countdown reaches zero!"

A ten-second countdown appeared on the scoreboard. Knowing she could neither control nor count on Frosty, she lit her own horn and focused on countering whatever attacks were about to be thrown her way.

"Three... two... one... duel!"

Before Seeker could even move, a wave of ice so frigid it seemed to suck the air out of the room blasted forth from Frosty's horn, causing jagged icicles to burst from below as it arrived the blue mare's position. The poor pony gasped as she was quickly boxed in by spires of ice. Her partner looked on, momentarily motionless with shock; it seemed neither of the mares had expected such a powerful attack so immediately. Quickly taking advantage of this, Seeker hurriedly deployed a binding spell that held the other mare's legs in place. The green mare, now torn between two options, took the opportunity to cancel the spell holding her, rather than attempt to shatter the icy walls corralling her partner. She deployed a magic-jamming counterspell that quickly freed her from Seeker's grip, but in doing so, gave Frosty more than enough time to unleash a bright blue laser at the mare he'd trapped.

Crash!

The spell hit like a charging yak, shattering the ice the bluish mare had been attempting to free herself from and flinging her into the air as well. She hit the floor several pony lengths away, and didn't get up.

"One down," Frosty snickered, his horn already alight as he took aim. "One to go!"

With no time to use a more calculated strategy, the remaining mare desperately hurled a hoofful of lightning spells in Frosty's direction, but he deflected them effortlessly with a quick counterspell before retaliating with another icy blast. His opponent was prepared enough to at least leap out of the way, but catching sight of Seeker's horn lit as she prepared to intercept her, she faltered. Seeing Frosty rearing up to blast her once again, and with her own partner decidedly out cold, she gave a little shriek and did the only thing a cornered pony could do: cast a desperate spell at the scoreboard, signaling a forfeit.

"Wow!" the announcer cried as the sound of the crowd swelled. "In just a matter of moments, team five has pulled off a devastating one-sided win and fought their way into the second round! Better luck next year, team two."

As the tournament medic hurried out onto the field to assist the thoroughly defeated mares, Frosty turned to Seeker with a smug grin.

"And that is how you win a duel," he bragged, poking her on the snout as he trotted past. "No convoluted strategy necessary when you're this far above the competition."

Seeker glared. "When we face a tougher opponent, you'll wish we had something other than brute force," she snapped back. "I can only do so much when I have to improvise. I only got to cast one spell!"

"One more than you needed to," Frosty snarked. "You're welcome, by the way."

Clenching her teeth, Seeker stomped after her haughty teammate to make way for the next set of competitors.

For the next two hours, Seeker sulked as she watched the other seven first-round matches, nearly all of which were much more interesting than the one she'd been a part of. Tango and Scorch's duel, to be fair, played out fairly similarly to her own first bout; Scorch, naturally, had ignored Tango Trot and immediately started blasting fire every which way, and though their opponents seemed better at countering it than the pair of mares that had faced down Frosty's ice spells, their luck ran out as soon as Tango unleashed a high level illusion, which left both opponent ponies so disoriented that they were practically sitting ducks for the incoming flame spells.

By mid afternoon, sixteen teams of duelists had been reduced to the remaining eight that would be moving on to the second round.

"Fillies and Gentlecolts!" the announcer bellowed. "I know it's been a morning packed with action and excitement, but don't forget, we're only half done! We'll be taking a one-hour intermission while our remaining teams have a rest and some well-deserved lunch, and then round two will begin! The unicorns that remain are clearly not newbies on the battlefield, so it's a safe assumption that the duels still to come are going to have you on the edge of your seats!"

The door at one end of the arena opened, letting in a ray of sunlight, and the remaining duelists began to make their way outside. Squinting as she stepped into the sunlight, Seeker watched Frosty immediately gallop over to Scorch, without so much as a glance back at her. Sighing, the mare trudged to the nearest street vendor for lunch. With a woefully overpriced hayburger and a heap of fried carrot sticks in tow, she made a beeline for the picnic table where Tango had seated himself.

"This is not what I signed up for," she growled, placing down her tray with more force than necessary.

"Ah, I take it Frosty's ideas for doubles duels are about as carefully thought-out as his brother's?" Tango asked.

"A parasprite could come up with a better strategy," Seeker groused. "But I don't need to tell you that. You saw our first duel."

"To be fair..." Tango replied, after a moment of thoughtful chewing, "...it was a decisive victory."

"That's only going to last until we get paired with a team that knows what they're doing," Seeker countered. "Think about it; right now, I'd assume every single pony left in the competition besides Scorch, Frosty, and the two of us are talking shop with their impromptu partners over lunch. Nopony was really given much time to strategize for the first round, having just been introduced to the pony they'd be fighting with, but it's gonna be a whole different story when round two begins. Against a coordinated team, Scorch and Frosty are gonna be dead weight, and I don't know about you, but I don't think I can handle two collaborating duelists by myself."

"I'm not sure we have any other option," Tango said, shaking his head defeatedly. "It's quickly become clear that Scorch won't listen to reason. I tried my best to build some rapport, but he was having none of it, and given their similar personalities, I imagine your partner is much the same."

"He literally doesn't care that I'm there!" Seeker snapped, pounding the table hard enough to send several carrot sticks tumbling to the ground. "He's gonna fight exactly the way he wants to, regardless of what move I make. If our moves aren't complimentary, we're up the creek."

"Then perhaps all we can do is attempt to strategize on our own," Tango suggested. "If we get a sense of our respective partner's moves, perhaps we can choose a complimentary spell to create a combination that's at least somewhat effective."

"What, let Frosty lead the way, while I just provide support?" Seeker asked, sticking out her tongue. "All that's gonna do is make his head even bigger, you know. Not to mention, your spell arsenal is a lot more impressive than mine. Maybe you and Scorch have a chance, considering how well you think on your hooves, but me and Frosty? We're screwed."

"Don't give yourself so little credit, Seeker," Tango chuckled. "It's true, this situation very much may be hopeless, but both of us are very accomplished fighters. If nothing else, let's take this opportunity to give it our best shot... even if we are both bound to some incorrigible partners."

Seeker placed her chin on the table and moped. "I guess," she relented, levitating a notepad from her bags. "Hope you don't mind, but this is gonna be a pretty antisocial lunch break. I've got a lot of last-minute brainstorming to do."

Tango nodded silently, and returned to his food while his friend began to scribble anything and everything that crossed her mind onto the paper in front of her, hoping something, anything, might be clever enough to carry her to the next round.

"Team five, it's your turn!" the loudspeakers blared. "Please step onto the battlefield for round two!"

"That's us," Frosty grunted, barely glancing at Seeker as he stood. "Just stay out of the way. Maybe toss up a shield or something if you're feeling ambitious. This'll be over in a minute or two."

Seeker said nothing, mulling her hasty plans over in her head once more as she followed her partner out onto the battlefield. Across from them, two stallions stood at the ready. The first was a broadly-built, sky blue unicorn, while his partner was a smaller and thinner orange stallion who nevertheless looked more than ready to tussle. Neither of them were as physically imposing as Frosty, but that meant nothing. Magical aptitude had nothing to do with size; even the scrawniest unicorn could turn out to be a fierce battlemage.

The two stallions whispered something to one another as Seeker and Frosty took their positions. From his platform high above, the announcer held the microphone to his lips.

"Three... two... one... duel!"

As Seeker expected, Frosty instantly cast exactly the same ice wave he'd used to lead off the previous duel. And just as predictably, the stallions on the other side of the field had paid attention to the previous duel, and the orange unicorn deflected the icy blast with ease, sending it hurtling to an unused corner of the arena and freezing the floor there.

"Not very creative, are you?" he asked mockingly. "Seems like chilling out the competition is your favorite move, so I'll just turn up the heat!"

Their foe produced a number of tiny fire spells, that he was able to launch at great speed due to their size. Frosty, quick on his hooves despite his bulk, easily sidestepped the first of them... until it burst with a sound like a firecracker right beside him, singeing his fur and causing him to stagger.

Seeker moved to produce a defensive counter, but out of the corner of her eye, she caught the sky blue stallion, who had stayed a few paces away from the center of the action, quietly melt into the background, disappearing entirely.

"Ah, an illusionist, huh?" she mumbled. "They're trying to distract us with literal fireworks while he moves in for the real damage. Let's stop that plan in its tracks."

Hazel magic flared around Seeker's horn as she summoned her signature spell. Half a dozen orbs of light burst from the tip, and immediately banked hard in midair, rocketing toward a seemingly empty part of the battlefield. She followed up with another wave as the first one connected with their invisible target, and then another round after that. Within seconds, the hidden stallion had no choice but to drop his invisibility spell to shield himself.

"Don't waste your time hiding," Seeker called playfully. "Doesn't matter if I can see you; my Seeker Missiles never miss!"

Her taunting, unfortunately, was short lived. She only noticed the fireball the other stallion had thrown at her when there was no time left to properly defend herself. She attempted to cast a shield, but with so little time, wasn't able to block the brunt of the damage. She gasped as she was thrown backwards by the force of the impact, tumbling across the digital floor and only managing to evade the follow-up strike by means of a teleport. She reappeared a moment later, the side of her body stinging from the burn and a patch of her coat charred.

Annoyed, Seeker glanced at Frosty, who had spent the moment of the attack trying to regain his own stance, rather than make any attempt to defend, or even warn, her. He glared back at her, as if it was her fault.

"Just defend, damn it! I got this!" he insisted.

With increasing fury, the stubborn stallion hurled blast after blast of ice at his opponents, but both, it seemed, were skilled in deflecting elemental spells. The supercooled spells continued to be flung to the back of the field, quickly coating numerous parts of the far wall and floor with irregular patches of shining ice.

They were making no headway, and Seeker knew it. She used her own shields and counterspells as best as she could while Frosty continued his ineffective assault, but she just wasn't skilled enough to defend against two sets of incoming spells indefinitely. Both she and Frosty took more than a few hits from the orange unicorn's firecracker spells and his partner's lightning-fast waves of energy.

Think, Seeker! she thought desperately. They're able to deflect all our frontal attacks, so I've got to catch them by surprise...

Another of Frosty's icy blasts blew by her and struck the back wall of the arena, glittering as it created another veneer of ice. The frozen patch was so smooth and thick, she could see her reflection in it from all the way on the other side of the arena.

...Reflection?

A memory of her duel against Tango in the battle magic tournament at the academy flashed into her mind. Ever the showpony, Tango had used her own ice walls against her in a move that was nothing short of a geometric miracle, reflecting a ball of energy off at least half a dozen of the frozen obstructions in a row so that it was perfectly aimed to ultimately bounce directly into her.

But in this case, there was no need for half a dozen reflections. Just one would be plenty.

Seeker evaded the next incoming attack and immediately charged up a laser in her horn. She poured plenty of power into it, which took several seconds, giving her opponents more than enough time to see it coming. She took a few steps, lining herself up as best she could, before launching it at the blue stallion.

He sidestepped with ease, of course, and neither he nor his partner glanced backward as the spell blazed past them. So neither had any inkling that something was amiss when it bounced perfectly off the ice-coated far wall. The unsuspecting orange pony certainly noticed when the rebounding spell struck him in the hindquarters with such force that he was flung, spiraling, through the air, and crashed down on his back on the battlefield.

Frosty instantly unleashed another ice spell that would likely have finished off his stunned opponent, but his partner was quick enough to manage to mostly deflect it before it could strike its momentarily defenseless target.

"We gotta focus," the pale blue unicorn urged as his partner struggled to his hooves. "They're not much for teamwork, but it seems like they're both threats on their own."

True, unfortunately, Seeker thought.

"Alright, time for that technique we discussed at lunch," the orange pony replied. "You know the one. Let's do it!"

Continuing to evade Frosty's increasingly frustrated icy assault, he cast a conjuring spell. It was far from the most impressive as far as detail; rather than specific objects, he simply conjured spheres of what appeared to me a smooth, solid material. The part that concerned Seeker was that he conjured a lot of them.

"Open fire!" he called to his companion.

The blue unicorn whipped up a wind spell that swept across the whole battlefield, picking up the conjured orbs and slinging them on the wind toward their opponents. Seeker erected a shield, but jumped back in surprise as the very first impact almost completely shattered it. If a couple of these blows landed, she realized, it'd be a knockout for sure.

"Oof!"

She turned just in time to witness a well-aimed shot ricochet off Frosty's side. A smaller pony would've been knocked off their hooves, but he managed to stay standing. It staggered him though, leaving him wide open for the next strike.

Crash!

Seeker just barely tossed up a shield in front of her partner in time. The projectile managed to punch through it, but it slowed it enough that it bounced harmlessly off Frosty's shoulder, instead of knocking him out. Having recovered from the initial blow, he quickly cast a great, curved wall of ice to try to block the remaining projectiles, clenching his teeth angrily as the incoming strikes fractured the icy barrier as fast as he could replenish it.

"It's not strong enough!" he growled. "Any second, they're gonna—"

Seeker stepped up next to the struggling unicorn and added her own ice spell to the barrier. Frosty glanced at her, surprised, as their combined strength made their frozen shield hardy enough to endure the assault, at least for a few moments.

"They're pretty relentless," he muttered, once he was able to take a second to breathe. "What in Tartarus are we supposed to do now if it takes both of us to even hold them off?"

"Oh, it takes both of us now?" Seeker asked smugly as she continued pouring ice into their barricade. "Funny, I thought you said all I had to do was stand back while you won the duel."

Frosty fumed. "Not exactly the time to be a smartass, is it?"

"Eh, good point. First sensible thing you've said all day actually," Seeker replied. "Anyway, get ready to jump out and blast 'em."

"How am I supposed to do that when they're still flinging all those—"

Seeker ceased her ice spell and tilted her head back, trying to aim as carefully as possible; after all, she likely only had time for one shot before Frosty's ice wall began to fail and she lost cover. She closed one eye, took aim, and fired a small lightning spell toward the ceiling of the arena. It struck the spotlight overhead, causing a loud, electrical crackle as it briefly shorted out and removed most visibility, save for the gentle glow of the digital arena floor beneath her hooves.

Sprinting out from behind the wall, she fired off another round of target-seeking magic. The Seeker Missiles jetted off into the darkness, and she heard two sets of voices cry out as they were pelted with the persistent spells, followed by the sound of all the remaining projectile spheres hitting the floor, indicating the wind spell had been interrupted.

The overhead light flickered back on a second later, revealing the two opponents again. While both were still standing, their coordinated attack had fallen apart completely, and both were still occupied countering the last of the Seeker Missiles. Neither of them even had a chance to look in Frosty's direction before a blast of frigid, all-encompassing ice engulfed them. Even from a distance, Seeker raised a hoof to shield her face from the extreme cold. When she lowered it again, both her opponents were half buried in a snowdrift, their coats covered in icicles. It wasn't clear from her angle if they were unconscious or just fully immobilized, but either way, neither of them would be fighting back anymore.

"Are you seeing this, fillies and gentlecolts!?" the announcer cried as excited applause rose from the stands. "In a come-from-behind victory, team five has managed to take the win and advance to the semifinal!"

Frosty grinned and waved to the crowd before hobbling over to the medical station to have his minor injuries treated. Seeker checked herself over, and once she was satisfied that no attacks had connected with her cleanly enough to cause any meaningful damage, she returned to her team's dressing room backstage. Two minutes later, Frosty wandered in, his bruises gone with the help of a little medical magic. He kicked the door shut with a hind hoof and glared at Seeker.

"We almost lost that one," he grumbled. "I knew it was useless once I got paired with you instead of Scorch. We don't stand a chance of winning this whole thing if that's the best you can do."

"Excuse me?" Seeker shot back. "Ten minutes ago you didn't even want my help, and now it's my fault that we barely moved on to the semifinal?"

"It's your fault that you're not a world-class heavy hitter like me and Scorch," Frosty sneered. "We got lucky this time, but we're not gonna win it all with this level of firepower."

"For Celestia's sake, there's more to dueling than firepower!" Seeker cried, stamping a forehoof. "We're not struggling because of firepower, we're struggling because only one of us is putting any thought into how we fight, and how we respond to our opponents. And clearly that's not gonna change!"

"Don't lecture me, you stuck-up brat!"

"Ignore me then, you conceited moron!"

"Maybe I will!" the stallion declared turning around and sitting forcefully down as he stared at the wall. "We'll just sit here until it's time for us to go out there and lose!"

"Fine by me!"

"Perfect!"

"Sounds great!"

The two ponies sat in opposite corners of their team room, stewing in silence. Seeker tossed her ponytail in agitation, fixing her gaze on the blank wall, determined not to look at the insufferable pony that fate had forced her to fight beside.

What a joke, she thought bitterly. I could be mowing down the competition alongside Tango Trot, but instead, I'm stuck with a pony who won't listen to an ounce of reason.

She flicked her tail, frowning. Why do ponies like Scorch and Frosty even like doubles dueling tournaments, anyway? she wondered. Regardless of if you're dueling with your intended partner or a new one, doubles dueling is supposed to be about teamwork and cooperation, not just smarts and skill. As soon as we encounter a team that has mastered playing off each other's strengths, we're gonna get slaughtered, because neither of us has made any attempt to cooperate!

She paused, mulling that over.

Because neither of us are willing to cooperate...

Seeker slumped her shoulders and flattened her ears, feeling suddenly guilty. Sure, Frosty's been his usual blowhard self since the moment I first encountered him... but I've basically been as his throat the entire time too, she realized, pursing her lips as she gazed at the blank wall. Tango told me yesterday not to stoop to the twins level... and I didn't do a very good job of that, did I?

She sighed softly. If Frosty wants to be a barbarian, that's his business, but I don't have to be one too. I know I need to be assertive to get him to take me seriously, but that's no excuse to be outright nasty. I'm a better pony than that...

Suddenly more upset with herself than her abrasive partner, Seeker chanced a glance over her shoulder. Frosty continued to stare at the far wall, unmoving.

The announcer's voice suddenly blared over the speakers, making her jump.

"We have a winner, folks! Looks like team eleven has managed to eke out a victory! Tango Trot and Scorch will advance to the semifinals!"

Frosty's shoulders tensed up as Scorch's name was called, but he otherwise remained still as silence returned to the room.

"...Hey, Frosty?"

Nothing. Seeker paused, unsure how else to reopen conversation.

"...What?" the stallion finally grumbled.

"...You want to win this tournament, don't you?" Seeker asked, slowly standing up.

"Thought we determined that's not gonna happen," Frosty replied, not looking at her.

"That's not what I asked."

More silence. "Obviously I wanna win," Frosty replied after a time. "But I'm pretty sure we figured out a minute ago that you're a brat and I'm a moron. Doesn't sound like a winning team."

"...True," Seeker admitted. "So tell me then. What do you need to make a winning team?"

"Scorch," Frosty said flatly.

"Why?"

The question, or maybe the genuinely curious way she asked it, got Frosty to partially turn around. He glanced at her uncertainly.

"I've got powerful battle magic," he pointed out. "Scorch has got powerful battle magic. Together, we can blow away just about anypony. We're both way stronger than you."

"Yeah. You are."

"...What?"

"You're right, on that specific aspect," Seeker confirmed. "I can't generate the sheer power that your spells have. In pure, unrefined strength, you've got stronger magic."

Frosty looked seriously confused now. "Glad you finally... figured it out?" he said, the jab coming out more like a question as he finally turned to face her.

"But here's the thing," Seeker continued, unfazed. "In this tournament, you don't have Scorch. You have me. And I get that that's not ideal; believe me, if I could duel alongside Tango Trot instead of you, I'd make that trade in a heartbeat, even if you are technically the 'stronger' pony."

"Seems pretty stupid."

Seeker ignored the quip, rather than starting another volley of insults. "It's irrelevant anyway," she pointed out sternly. "Until this tournament's over, you're partnered with me, and Scorch is partnered with Tango Trot. Now, on one hoof, that means you don't have Scorch's firepower backing you up. But on the other hoof, that means Scorch doesn't have your abilities backing him up."

"Ok, so?"

"So that means your huge magical strength is on one team, and his is on the other," Seeker explained. "Both you and Scorch are paired with ponies who tend to duel with more careful strategy and less with brute force."

"So... we're evenly matched?" Frosty asked.

"No, and that's the problem," Seeker pointed out. "You and Scorch are roughly equal in your abilities. But Tango Trot is... well, let's be honest. He's a stronger spellcaster and a smarter tactician than we are. He's incredibly skilled."

Frosty scowled. "So we're gonna lose cause you suck," he determined. "Cool. Thanks for the pep talk."

"If we treat this like a math problem, it doesn't work out in our favor," Seeker admitted, determined to continue to ignore the derogatory comments. "Scorch plus Tango is greater than Seeker plus Frosty. So if we want to deal with that, we need to add something else to the equation."

Frosty raised an eyebrow. "All the strategy stuff again, I bet."

"I don't expect you to just blindly listen to all the stuff I wanna do," Seeker insisted. "But doubles dueling is about teams of ponies battling each other. Scorch and Tango are doing the same thing we've been doing; sticking to their own methods, refusing to cooperate. If we fight as a team, with attacks that work together and play off one another's strengths and abilities, maybe it'll be enough to overcome Scorch and Tango's individual strength."

"That's a pretty big 'maybe'," Frosty commented.

"The alternative is a guaranteed loss. Tango Trot is more than a match for either of us, even excluding the fact that he's on a team with a pony just as strong as you," Seeker reminded him. "Now, if you wanna just call this whole thing a wash and go out there and lose, that's fine. But if you wanna make an attempt to win, we need to stop going for each other's throats and form at least a temporary alliance."

"Pfft. With you? Forget it," Frosty snarled, curling up his lip in disgust.

"So you wanna lose then," Seeker said flatly, giving him an unamused stare. "Tell me, have you and Scorch ever actually won one of these things?"

The question made Frosty flinch. "We've... gotten close," he muttered, clenching his jaw as he looked away.

"How about the battle magic tournament when you guys were still at the Academy?" Seeker pressed. "Who won that in your year?"

Frosty tensed even harder. "...Sparkler."

"So surely the thought has crossed your mind that you should try switching something up one of these days to see if you get a better result."

"You really think the two of us can form an alliance!?" Frosty yelled, snorting angrily as he wheeled around and got right up in her face. "Pretty sure we got some mutual hatred going on."

"I didn't say I was gonna be your best friend," Seeker retorted, not backing down an inch. "I get it, things between the two of us are so cold they're practically frozen... but an icy alliance is still an alliance. Now are you gonna put up with it to try to win this with me, or not?"

Frosty paused. With a low growl, he backed off. "Fine. An alliance," he grumbled, throwing his forehooves in the air in frustration. "We'll give it a shot in the third round and see if it goes any better than the last one. Happy?"

"Better than nothing," Seeker said. "Now, we just need to discuss what spells we both excel at, and see if we can find a way to put them together."

As she had on the train the day before, she cast a small rectangle of light to use as a diorama of the battlefield. Frosty groaned in protest but nonetheless slumped down across from her. The two ponies got to work, one more begrudgingly than the other, planning their next duel.

"And... duel!"

To Frosty's credit, he didn't immediately shoot off a volley of full-power ice spells indiscriminately. So that was already an improvement.

Across from Seeker, a mare and a stallion stood, sizing up their competition with an air of calm and focus. Next to her, Frosty slowly widened his stance, looking antsy as he glanced repeatedly in her direction. Even so, their hesitation did what Seeker expected; the other pair of ponies looked surprised that Frosty hadn't immediately attacked as he had in earlier rounds.

"I guess we'll make the first move," the mare on the opposing team declared, sounding as sure-of-herself as possible to save face. "This should be over quickly."

Pale purple light sprung up around her horn, and a huge ring of her magic quickly encircled the outer edges of the entire arena. Seeker, who had been paying attention to the spells used in earlier rounds, recognized it immediately.

The opposing mare leapt into the circular zone the mare's magic had highlighted. It was a unique spell, Seeker had to admit: a wide area enchantment of a portion of the battlefield that allowed ponies standing within it to move at what seemed to be nearly ten times their normal speed. Once inside, the mare jetted around the perimeter of the huge arena in just a matter of seconds. Her partner, who had shield spell talents to rival those of Scuffle, quickly placed a ring of magical walls that prevented Seeker and Frosty from reaching the speed ring themselves. Cleverer still, the shields were permeable to other spells in just one direction, allowing the mare moving at speed to attack right through them, while shielding her from any attempts to return fire.

"Alright, this is that speed differential loop we saw this team use in round one," she mumbled to Frosty, not taking her eyes off her opponents. "We had a plan ready for this one, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it..." Frosty grumbled.

With a zing, their opponent was off, almost too quick to follow as she hurtled around behind Seeker and Frosty and cast a number of powerful lightning bolts. She clearly expected both ponies to turn to her in order to defend themselves from the assault, but only Seeker actually did so. Lightning spells usually traded power for speed, so she was able to reflect them from hitting not just her, but Frosty as well. In the meantime, Frosty charged up an icy blast, letting Seeker handle the high speed assault while he prepared to strike the stallion that was entirely occupied with maintaining the shields.

"Oh no you don't!" cried the mare on the edge of the arena, shooting from point to point to try to get an angle where she could strike Frosty without Seeker's interference. Despite her speed, Seeker was able to reflect nearly every spell, and the one or two that did make it through didn't do enough damage to Frosty to break his concentration.

With a bellowing cry, Frosty launched a massive blizzard of a spell at the shield-maintaining pony. With no other choice, he redirected his efforts into creating a high temperature dome around himself to endure the blast of frigid wind and snow. In the process, the circular shield protecting the mare inside the speed ring blinked out, and Seeker, who had been planning on exactly that circumstance, launched as many Seeker missiles as she could in the short window of time she had. By the time the other stallion was able to deflect the brunt of Frosty's attack and re-create the ring-shaped shield defending his partner, dozens of Seeker's projectiles had already slipped into the speed differentiation ring.

Affected by its magic just as much as the mare casting it was, Seeker's attacks gained momentum, ultimately catching their target no matter how fast she ran, and doing more damage than normal because of their high velocity. Pelted with pony-seeking missiles, the mare deactivated her speed enchantment to try to defend herself with shields of her own, but not before being seriously battered from every direction.

"Plan B! Plan B!" she screamed to the other stallion.

Both ponies teleported, and ended up standing side-by-side at the far end of the arena, with the defensive expert stallion easily blocking the hoofful of Seeker's remaining attacks that hadn't already bludgeoned his partner.

"Well, aren't you two lucky," the mare said acidly, stretching her aching limbs as she tried to shake off the damage she'd taken. "You're about to see some of the strongest magic of the whole tournament. Hope you're ready."

Her partner looked at her knowingly. "Operation fish in a barrel?" he asked.

She grinned. "You got it."

"What're they about to throw at us here?" Frosty whispered, his horn already aglow in case he needed to defend at a moment's notice.

"I'm not sure," Seeker admitted. "But we've got so many counters ready, I'm sure one of them will— whoa!"

Out of nowhere, the sound of the audience was drowned out by the woosh of raging, hurricane-force winds, as nothing short of the most powerful air spell Seeker had ever encountered swept through the arena. She was barely able to remain on the ground for a second or two before the winds almost effortlessly carried both her and Frosty high into the air.

"Wh-what in Tartarus!?" Frosty shouted.

Tumbling head over hooves, Seeker could just barely make out the delighted, and slightly sadistic, laughter of the mare casting the spell down below. It briefly occurred to her that the pony's cutie mark had been a wind sock, but she'd chalked it up to a weather forecasting talent when she'd first seen it, not a master-level command of air spells.

A small fireball cut through the tornado and made contact, causing Seeker to wince as it burned her. She supposed the other stallion had begun pelting them with fire spells while his partner held them both, disoriented and nearly defenseless, in her wild storm. Being jerked and tumbled every which way, she couldn't even see her opponents, much less try to fight back against the fire attacks. The 'shooting fish in a barrel' metaphor seemed quite apt all of a sudden.

"What do we— aagh!— what the heck do we do?" Frosty screamed as he too was blasted with a fireball from somewhere below. "None of your little tactics can do anything against this!"

"Nopony's gonna have a pre-made response ready for literally everything!" Seeker called back as the howling winds carried her in a loop-de-loop that made her stomach turn. "We need to work out a new counterstrategy!"

"Forget that!" Frosty snapped back, charging up his horn. "We're being juggled like it's a circus performance here. Nothing left to do but start blasting right back!"

"No, wait!"

Frosty unleased multiple blasts of ice, but the storm kept them from getting anywhere near the ponies standing below. Swept up on the circling gale, they looped back around toward their caster. Several whizzed harmlessly by, but Seeker was powerless to dodge as one of Frosty's attacks struck her squarely in the barrel, sending her tumbling even faster and crashing into her partner in midair.

Groaning in pain, Seeker did her best to untangle herself from Frosty as the two of them were carried in another revolution through the air. "Look, I know we didn't have a plan for this, but if we don't cooperate, we're just gonna lose even faster!" she stressed, twisting her body in midair to narrowly dodge another fireball from below. "In conditions like this, we need to be on the same page or we're gonna take each other out!"

"What can we possibly do besides just shoot back at 'em?" Frosty argued. "A standard shield spell could protect us, but it would be stationary in space, so we'd just loop around and smack into it like flies on the front window of the Canterlot express! And a full shield dome would move with us, but we can't do much to retaliate from inside it. They'd just chuck us against a wall or shake it up with us inside. I don't know what kind of defense we can mount from up here without shields that somehow move with the wind!"

Move... with the wind?

"Ice spells!" Seeker realized. "Don't use them to attack! Use them to defend! We can use it as footing, to kinda surf on the air instead of just getting flung around."

"Ice shields are a thing, but they're throwing fireballs at us," Frosty pointed out, as he carefully created a flat disc of ice and angled it so he and Seeker could just barely stand on it if they leaned their bodies correctly. "It's not gonna hold up against fire attacks for long."

As if to demonstrate, another fireball whizzed through the hurricane, striking the ice platform and sending enormous cracks through it. Frosty flinched, as his ongoing ice spell clearly wouldn't repair all the damage quick enough.

At least, not until a second stream of ice magic joined his own.

Just as she had in the last duel, Seeker unleashed her own ice spell, working together with Frosty to create a layer of ice thick enough to endure each new fireball. The stallion appeared visibly surprised that the two of them were managing to build up the icy disc faster than the fire from below could melt it away.

"Good, we're out of danger for the moment," Seeker called over the screaming wind.

"Sure, but now what?" Frosty grunted as he continued pouring ice into the surface below his hooves. "If either of us let's up, this thing will melt. How do we fight back if our horns are occupied?"

Seeker carefully watched the rotation of the huge column of wind for several seconds. An idea began to form.

"I think I know!" she gasped. "Frosty, listen, I know you don't like to take orders, but we can end this right now if you just trust me for a second!"

Frosty looked skeptical. "I'm supposed to believe we've got a duel-winning move from this position?" he asked, groaning as he leaned hard to try to stay on the platform as it shot through the air.

"There's no time to explain!" Seeker urged, panting as her horn began to flicker. "I can't keep up an ice spell of this strength forever! Are you in or not?"

Frosty glowered, but he nodded. "Fine. What're we doing?"

"Freeze our hooves to the platform. We're gonna need stability for this."

The stallion raised an eyebrow. "That's gonna be really uncomfortable, just so you know."

"Do it!"

As quickly as he could, Frosty ceased maintaining the platform and quickly redirected his magic at both ponies' hooves. Seeker winced as frigid ice clenched around her fetlocks.

"Now what?"

"Just brace yourself."

"...For?"

Seeker watched the swirling of the wind as their platform made one or two more revolutions, making sure to get her timing just right.

And... now!

At what was her best approximation of the right moment, she cast as wide of a magic-disrupting wave as she could. The shockwave expanded across the arena, momentarily disrupting the spells of everypony else present, including the mare that was maintaining the wild windstorm. With the gusts keeping it aloft suddenly and completely gone, the disc of ice, with its passengers only able to hold on because of their frozen hooves, hurtled downward.

Fortunately, Seeker's estimation of her momentum had been spot on. The pair of combatants below had only a second to realize what was happening before the icy disc, plus two full grown ponies, landed right on top of them.

Most of the disc broke apart from the impact. Staggering with ice-covered hooves, Seeker barely maintained her balance as she wheeled around, her horn lit and held point blank right in front of one of her stunned opponents' noses. Frosty did the same, cornering the other dazed pony.

"Forfeit," Seeker commanded.

The other two ponies, gasping after having the wind knocked out of them by the impact, immediately realized they had no options. With no advantage of distance, any attempt to cast a spell, including a teleport, would simply allow Seeker and Frosty to deal knockout blows. Grumbling something about dumb luck, one of the pair begrudgingly sent a sparkling beam of energy at the scoreboard, signaling a forfeit.

"I can't believe what I'm seeing here folks!" the announcer cried as the roar of the crowd grew once again. "Not ten seconds ago, it seemed like team five was out of options, and now they're moving on to the grand finale!"

The din of the crowd made Seeker flatten her ears as she limped over to the medical team to receive her healing spells and have her frostbitten hooves restored to normal. Even so, she couldn't help but smile as the scoreboard showed her team move into the finals.

"Fillies and Gentlecolts, there's only one match left in this year's tournament, and it's certain to be the most spectacular one of all!" continued the announcer. "The countless ponies that arrived here have been reduced to just two pairs, and in just a short time, those teams will face off to determine this year's champions! So give it up for team five, Seeker and Frosty!"

Frosty grinned and waved at the audience as their applause grew. Seeker tried to look confident too, but she knew exactly what the announcer would say next.

"And of course, another round of applause for the other remaining team. You know it folks, it's team eleven, Tango Trot and Scorch!"

If anything, the cheers grew louder as Tango and Scorch stepped out from backstage. Tango's displays of magical prowess, Seeker presumed, had been just as much of a crowd-pleaser as usual.

"Competitors, return to your rooms for your final strategic session," the announcer called. "In the last match, we hope you'll bring the complexity and pizazz of the final bout to new heights! Now, better get cracking! We'll see you back here shortly for the winner-take-all showdown!"

Seeker felt the last of her minor injuries fade away as the healing spell was completed. As she turned to go, she caught Tango's eye from the opposite end of the arena. The two ponies exchanged a single silent nod, before she followed Frosty one last time to their team's dressing room.

Click.

The door softly closed behind Seeker as she stepped into the room. Frosty flopped down in a chair and let out a breath.

"Gotta be honest, I didn't think we were actually gonna pull that one off," he admitted. "Me an' Scorch don't get this far too often. Guess we got lucky."

Seeker smirked. "Lucky, huh? That's all it was?"

The stallion leered at her. "Don't try to spin this like your plans saved the day," he berated. "All that strategizing you were pushing for only got us so far. Once they pulled that crazy air spell on us, we had to improvise, same as before."

Seeker shook her head. "I wouldn't call it the same as before at all, actually," she replied calmly.

"Why not?"

"A winning team needs a lot of different things," Seeker replied. "At first, all you wanted to do was overwhelm the opponent with raw power, and I was convinced that all we needed to do was outsmart them with a carefully planned strategy. We were both wrong."

"I still don't get what this has to do with comparing the last two matches," Frosty deadpanned.

"Well, in round two, you just did whatever you wanted, and so I had to just make the best moves I could to try to complement yours," Seeker pointed out. "In the semifinal though, even when we had to improvise, we worked together to create the attack combination that turned the tide."

"Dunno about that," Frosty countered. "You came up with that last move."

"But you had the abilities to make it work!" Seeker exclaimed. "All I did was cast a well-timed magic-cancelling wave. The rest was you."

Frosty scratched his head for a moment. "Well... yeah, fair. But even if we do win it all, it's not gonna feel like much of a win for me if I win by just taking orders from some random mare who thinks she knows better."

"I never said you had to do that," Seeker said.

"Then what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that power is important, and strategy is important too, but neither of them are going to get us to the winner's circle without teamwork," the mare explained as she trotted a bit closer to her partner. "Frosty, I'm not asking you to put me in charge of how we duel. I'm asking you to work with me. We don't have to be 'the strong pony' or 'the smart pony'. We just need to be two ponies dueling together."

"...Something that Tango and Scorch are probably not doing, huh?" Frosty asked.

"Right," Seeker confirmed. "Every round they've fought like we did at the beginning: separately. They're only winning 'cause Tango's enough of a genius to dismantle most teams by himself. And if we don't want to be next, we need to collaborate. Both during this planning phase, and when we're forced to improvise."

Frosty paused, pursing his lips, as he considered it. "Ice spells have always been my thing, but most ponies who focus on elemental assaults go for something simpler," he said finally. "But you've used them to back me up two rounds in a row now. I kinda shrugged it off the first time, but are you like... actually good with 'em?"

"As a matter of fact, Frosty, you're not the only pony in this room whose favorite elemental spells are ice," Seeker chuckled. "I just haven't been using them to attack during the tournament since you seemed to have that category covered."

"Get out, turns out we're both ice enthusiasts," he said, shaking his head. "If you're half decent at 'em, maybe we can actually make something work here."

Seeker rolled her eyes. "Only if we're actually going all-in on the cooperation," she reminded him. "Now are you in, or what?"

To her surprise, Frosty smirked. "Hey, you said it before," he snickered. "An icy alliance is still an alliance. Guess you can be my ally one more time if it means we've got a shot at coming out on top."

Seeker grinned. "That's what I like to hear," she replied. "Now let's not waste any time; we've got to discuss Tango and Scorch's moves and figure out what we can put together from our own arsenals to stop them."

"Gotcha," Frosty said. "And hey, I've got a couple ways we might be able to make use of two sources of ice spells that might help us get the jump on Scorch, at least."

Seeker conjured up her illusory arena diagram again. "I'm all ears."

The spotlight flicked on once again, highlighting the faintly glowing digital battle arena and causing a hush among the audience. Doors opened at opposite ends of the court, and four ponies stepped out onto the battlefield. Despite Scorch strutting onto the field and egging on the crowd, Seeker's attention was fixed instead on Tango, who kept switching between flashing gleaming grins at the crowd and unamused frowns at his overbearing partner.

"Tango's incredible in almost every field," Seeker whispered to Frosty. "He's going to catch us off guard with something. It's inevitable. Scorch is strong, but hopefully we can at least predict his moves?"

"I've been fighting alongside Scorch my whole life," Frosty muttered back. "I know every trick in his playbook. But he also knows every trick in mine."

"In yours," Seeker added, "but not in ours. The combinations we came up with backstage should be able to stop his attacks dead if everything you told me about him is true. But Tango... well, we're going to have to think on our hooves and rely on each other if we even want to land a hit."

"Yeah, yeah, you've said it a bunch of times," Frosty grumbled. "He's a pro. I got the message."

The four ponies reached the center of the huge arena, facing each other. Tango gave a sportsmanlike nod.

"Seeker, as always, I wish you the very best of luck," he said. "I had hoped to be in the finals alongside you, but facing you as an opponent is perhaps the best outcome for the circumstances we found ourselves in."

"What kinda lame trash talk is that?" Scorch questioned, lightly jabbing Tango with a foreleg. "It's the finals! Be intimidating!"

Without waiting for a reply, the red stallion turned to Frosty. "Sorry bro, but looks like you're going down today. I'm taking this win!"

"I'd like to see you try," Frosty snapped back, just as fiercely.

"Good luck to you too, Tango," Seeker piped up, ignoring the bickering twins.

"Fillies and gentlecolts," came the announcer's voice, heavy with tension and suspense. "It all comes down to this. Matched up with unexpected partners mere hours ago, these two teams have overcome the odds and won their way to the finals, even fighting alongside ponies they haven't before. And now it's time to see which team has mastered the art of dueling this way. Scorch and Tango Trot, are you ready?"

"Heck yeah!" Scorch bellowed at the announcer, as Tango just rolled his eyes.

"Seeker and Frosty, are you ready?"

Seeker exchanged a look with her ally. To his credit, Frosty had an excellent game face; although he had voiced his fair share of concerns about the duel behind the scenes, none of that uncertainty showed through in his expression. He nodded once.

Seeker turned back to the announcer on his platform high above. "Ready, sir."

"Then for the final time today, ponies, take your positions, and... duel!"

Tango turned slightly toward his partner. "Now Scorch, if yo—"

That was as much as he managed to say before Scorch charged forward, ignoring Tango entirely as a small maelstrom of fire flared to life around his horn. Jets of flame snaked through the air, following twisting, hard-to-follow patterns as they glided toward Seeker.

Exactly as expected, she thought smugly.

The opening of the duel immediately proved two things: first, that Scorch clearly had no intent of actually collaborating with Tango, and second, that he saw Seeker as the easier target. Both of which were circumstances she and Frosty had fully expected and planned for.

She could easily have countered the flame spells herself, but still backed off to let Frosty step in and take care of it. With impressive precision, her partner produced jets of ice that sniped each of the trails of flame out of the air, creating a loud hiss and a puff of steam each time the spells cancelled one another out.

Tango Trot, unamused, couldn't even get close to his opponents with the center of the field filled with colliding fire and ice spells. He fired off a few energy bolts with typical almost unbelievable accuracy, but they were fired from such a distance that Seeker had enough time to react and deflect them. This only carried on for a matter of moments though; as more and more streams of flame were cancelled out by blasts of ice, the volume of steam produced quickly became a thick haze that hindered vision. Soon, Seeker could barely see Tango and Scorch at all, except when the latter attacked due to the brightness of his flames.

"Alright, we can hardly see 'em," Frosty pointed out. "That's what you wanted, right?"

"Yep!" Seeker confirmed as she charged up her horn. "In a low-visibility setting, I have the advantage."

She produced the largest volley of seeker missile spells that she could, sending the swarm of target-tracking orbs off into the veil of steam toward both Scorch and Tango. Her signature spell needed no clear line of sight to reach its target, and even though she suspected Tango might predict and defend the assault, she felt certain at least Scorch would be hit.

But then a narrow column of icy blue light cut through the swirling mists. With a graceful, sweeping swing, it cleaved one of the missiles apart, and then the next only a second later. Tango, with his token magic rapier projecting from the end of his horn, leapt and dashed around his end of the battlefield. Seeker watched helplessly as he destroyed each and every one of her attacks, including those that had been bound for Scorch.

"Wha— How— What in Equestria?" Frosty sputtered when he realized their strategy had fallen flat. "But how did you... you can't just..."

"Ah yes, I have a fair bit of experience with the rather dexterous art of swordplay," Tango explained as the steam began to clear and revealed his usual award-winning smile. "Seeker banked on the decreased reaction time I'd have due to the low visibility being enough to let an attack or two slip by. An entirely reasonable, yet unfortunately false, assumption."

Before Frosty had any time to reflect on that, Tango lunged forward, sprinting across the battlefield with his light blade poised to attack. Looking stunned, Frosty was immediately forced on the defensive, too busy placing shields to keep Tango at bay to be able to respond with any attack of his own. But before Seeker could attempt to aid him, a huge fireball from Scorch was lobbed in the direction of the fighters, forcing not only Seeker and Frosty, but also Tango, to scatter.

"Damn! Missed!" the red stallion gruffed.

Tango rolled his eyes and reluctantly let the glowing rapier fade. "Fine, fine, we'll do it your way..." he grumbled.

Scorch changed tactics to launching spreading waves of flame along the floor of the arena. Seeker watched the oncoming attacks spread out, watching the flames grow weaker as they expanded to cover more area.

"These are less intense than before," she informed Frosty. "I'll handle countering this time. See if you can get a hit in!"

"Got it."

Seeker summoned all her strength into her horn and released several bursts of frigid air that quickly cut wide swaths in the wave of creeping flames. Frosty, for once, skipped the ice spells and swapped in simple lasers, aiming to trip his opponents up with speed. Tango deftly dodged the first two or three without any sort of magical aid, before catching the next one in a narrow but effective gravitational field and sling-shotting it back at Frosty at twice the speed. The stallion grunted in pain as his own attack struck home.

"How am I supposed to hit this guy!?" he blurted.

"We'll attack together when we have an opening," Seeker replied. "For now, focus on Scorch!"

As she said it, she blasted open a clear path through the flames with a jet of supercooled air, giving Frosty an unobstructed view. His next laser collided with Scorch before even Tango could do anything about it.

"Rrgh! Lucky shot!" he barked as his brother snickered at him.

"I can see we're going to need to make things less straightforward," Tango said calmly. "Seeker, Frosty, I do sincerely apologize, but I'm afraid you won't have the upper hoof for very long."

The crackle of electricity filled the air as blue lightning arced from Tango's horn. Seeker conjured a shield, expecting a blistering-fast lightning attack, but instead, Tango aimed directly downward, blasting the electrical energy into the floor at his hooves.

The digital diagram outlining the edges of the battlefield vanished as the entire screen that made up the arena's floor turned to whitish static for a few moments. The stallion adjusted the power of his spell slightly, and images returned to the floor, now displaying a pattern that very closely resembled flames.

Scorch laughed delightedly as he continued to send waves of fire across the arena. Now they blended in so well with the writhing images Tango had reprogrammed the screens to display that it was nearly impossible to tell what was actual flame and what was merely a moving picture.

"You have got to be kidding me," Frosty shouted. "This is the kind of totally unpredictable junk Sparkler used to pull when dueling!"

"Don't panic," Seeker warned, doing her best to pick out the real flames from the fakes and continuing to extinguish them. "It may not be cast with illusion magic, but it's a visual trick, so it's still more or less an illusion. We just need another way to— yowch!"

She yelped as a layer of flames that had blended well with the fake ones on the screens below licked at her hooves. Instinctively, she jumped back. Tango, who had been waiting for exactly that, sniped her with an energy bolt, blasting her out of the air and sending her sprawling. She got her bearings just in time to spot a followup attack, much stronger now that she was a stationary target to aim at, hurtling toward her. She flinched, preparing for a potential knockout blow.

Ping!

A blue-grey shield appeared in front of her at the last possible second, and the attack gave a high-pitched ring as it skipped harmlessly off. She glanced at Frosty, his horn still aglow.

"Wh-wha?" she stammered, surprised.

"Get up!" her partner yelled back as he turned away from her, letting the shield vanish and creating a swirling snowstorm to try to create a safe zone among the creeping flames, and enduring several hits in the process. "We're not gonna be in this for long if you're layin' around!"

Seeker scrambled to her hooves and bolted into the cover of Frosty's gale. She shivered in the tiny dome of wintry weather, but it was safer there than among the flames outside its borders.

"Thanks for the save," she said as she caught her breath.

"Not gonna make much of a difference if we don't do something fast," Frosty growled as he desperately deflected one of Tango's incoming attacks. "Got any bright ideas to do something about that visual trick with the floor? If we leave the dome, Scorch cooks us alive, but if we stay inside, we're sitting ducks for Tango!"

"It's technically an illusion, but it's being caused by the visuals on the screen instead of magic, so we can't just dispel it," Seeker pointed out, "and the arena floor's designed specifically not to break from even huge blows, since ponies are always dueling on it."

Despite the situation, Frosty snickered. "Pity you can't just conjure a remote control and shut it off," he said. "That'd be the easiest way."

Seeker blinked. Though Frosty's comment was a joke, it gave her an idea. Frantically, she looked around, and finally spotted a bundle of heavily insulated cables running up one wall of the stadium and disappearing into a horizontal shaft high above.

"Frosty! How good are you with levitation?"

Frosty scoffed. "How dumb do you think I am?" he groused. "I went to Celestia's school too, kid. I know how to levitate junk."

"Are you good at throwing and catching moving objects?" Seeker pressed.

"Of course. Flinging crap around is one of my specialties," Frosty said proudly.

"Good. I need you to hurl me at the roof."

"...What?" the stallion asked.

"No time to explain," Seeker hissed as she darted forward for a moment to redirect one of Tango's incoming spells, and then leapt back into the snowstorm before the fire outside it could reach her. "Chuck me as high as you can without, y'know, splatting me against the ceiling. And then be ready to catch me when I fall back down. Okay? You've got to get this right or I'm toast."

"I got it, I got it," Frosty dismissed, though his casual tone didn't inspire much confidence in Seeker. "Ready?"

"Do it!"

Seeker's stomach felt like it dropped down into her hooves as she was suddenly launched into the air with immense force. She heard the crowd gasp as she soared fifty pony-lengths straight up, but despite the terrifying circumstances, she quickly charged her horn with a powerful lightning spell.

I've only got one shot here...

As Seeker neared the ceiling, she finally got a peek into the shaft that the bundle of cables fed into. At the back of the small space, well out of reach of anypony below, was exactly what she'd hoped to see: a large breaker box. Closing one eye to try to aim while in motion, she fired a single electrical shot into the small shaft.

There was a bang and an enormous shower of sparks as Seeker plummeted back to the ground. She opened her mouth to cry out victoriously, but the moment she did, one of Tango's energy bolts sniped her out of the air, knocking the wind out of her. With her trajectory suddenly thrown totally off course, her body flipped head-over-hooves as she tumbled down far from her intended location. The arena floor rushed up at her, and she closed her eyes, letting out a frightened whimper.

"Gotcha!"

The impact never came. Seeker felt herself cradled by a robust aura and gently returned to her hooves. She opened her eyes just in time to see the swirling images of flames on the floor beneath her flicker out. With its power source overloaded, the digital arena floor was now nothing but a blank, black screen.

The second thing she noticed was that Frosty had leapt out of his protective snowstorm, and straight through a layer of flames that had charred his coat, to get in range to catch her. The very instant she was back on her hooves again and he was already turning back to face his opponents.

With something akin to a war cry, Frosty used one of the moves he and Seeker had discussed during the planning phase, and unleashed a huge rush of freezing wind. Scorch's inferno was swept to one side, creating a momentary wall of flame between him and Tango, and Seeker wasted no time bombarding the red stallion with a barrage of Seeker missiles while his partner was unable to reach him. Scorch did his best to defend himself, but the target-tracking spells simply weaved their way around his shields, striking him from all sides. By the time Tango extinguished the flames to cut the rest of the missiles apart with his light blade, Scorch had taken a very visible beating.

"I must admit, that was exceptionally well-executed," Tango complimented, as he tapped the now useless screen below with a hoof. "But no matter, we've got plenty of—"

"You guys think we're gonna let you get away with that!?" Scorch bellowed, once again cutting Tango off as he stepped in front of him. "I'm not getting beat by some kinda circus act!"

"Scorch—" Tango began.

"Shut up, kid! I'm giving them a piece of my mind."

Seeker couldn't help but chuckle at Scorch's complete disregard for the best duelist she knew. A moment later, Frosty leaned over and muttered to her.

"Listen... Scorch's personality is as fiery as his spells, but he's hurt," the stallion whispered. "I think I can make this a two-versus-one, but I need you to really rile him up for me."

"Me? You're the one who's usually the trash-talker," Seeker pointed out.

"Yeah, but Scorch and I are always throwing insults at each other," Frosty countered. "He doesn't take them seriously. But if you, a pony he sees as weak, taunts him, he'll be furious."

Seeker raised an eyebrow. "And that helps us how?"

"Hey, you said we gotta rely on each other to win this thing, yeah?" Frosty asked. "I've got a plan that's gonna take Scorch out of the equation. I trusted you on the last move, now are you gonna trust me?"

The corners of Seeker's mouth rose a bit as it became clear that Frosty was taking the alliance just as seriously as he was taking the duel. "I trust you," she affirmed. "Do what you gotta do."

She leapt out to the center of the battlefield. "What's wrong, Scorch? Already run out of tricks in your playbook?" she mocked. "I guess that's not hard when it's shorter than a foal's picture book."

"I see that mouth you had on the train yesterday is still running," Scorch snapped, quickly producing a wide crescent of light and sending it sailing towards her.

The attack was strong, but very basic in construction. Seeker avoided it with little effort. "Oh come on, you must have something more interesting to throw at me," she teased.

Gritting his teeth, Scorch pelted Seeker with lasers and fireballs, which she was mostly able to dodge or redirect. She did get a bit singed once or twice, but made sure not to react; the plan hinged on Scorch believing his assault was ineffective.

Tango leaned his head one way, then another, taking a few steps to the side, but Seeker simply moved the opposite way, keeping Scorch between herself and her more competent opponent. The fire-loving stallion's single-minded assault grew so fierce that there was no way for his partner to get a spell in edgewise.

"Hmmm," Seeker hummed as she avoided the next wave of increasingly desperate, inaccurate attacks. "I guess the rumors are wrong! I heard you're a master of fire, but looks like you're full of nothing but hot air!"

"You wanna see fire!?" Scorch shouted. "I'll show you fire!"

A churning sphere of heat and flame formed on Scorch's horn. Even from across the battlefield, Seeker had to shield herself from the heat with a foreleg.

"W... what is that?"

The mare had never seen a fire spell of this caliber. She couldn't even look directly at it; it was like looking into a miniature sun. For the very first time, Scorch's power seemed intimidating enough that she wondered if she was in over her head.

"Let's see if you're still mouthing off when you're roasted like Hearth's Warming dinner!" he laughed. "Condensed Inferno! Go!"

He flung the unbelievably violent spell in her direction. Seeker tried to counter, but it was like trying to stop a volcano. Her ice spells melted before they even left her horn.

"Condensed Blizzard!"

Before she could even turn around, Seeker felt a wave of cold rushing at her from behind that made the mountain peaks of the Crystal Empire feel positively balmy in comprison. She ducked as an ice spell every bit as ferocious as Scorch's fiery one sailed over her head and collided head on with its opposite. The two spells hung in space for a fraction of a second, crackling dangerously as they failed to destroy one another. Before Seeker could even think about what to do, Frosty leapt into step beside her and hid the unstable orb with a blast of wind, throwing it towards his opponents.

"Teleport! Now!"

He vanished in a blink. With no time to think, Seeker did the same, transporting herself to the opposite end of the arena, as far from the combination of spells as physically possible. She'd barely arrived at her new position when the spell hit the floor between Tango and Scorch, and immediately erupted into the largest, loudest explosion she'd ever witnessed. Even from clear aceoss the arena, she put up a shield spell to protect herself from the sheer force of the blast.

The audience was in an uproar as the smoke and mist slowly cleared around the point of impact. A large section of the arena floor, despite powerful damage-resisting enchantments, had still not stood up to the force of the blast, and nearly half the glossy floor of the battlefield was now marred with a web of cracks. Scorch lay many pony lengths away from where he'd been standing before the explosion obscured everything. His coat was toasted in many places, yet caked with patchy ice in others. Sprawled in an awkward position up against the far wall, there was no question he was out cold. As for Tango, Seeker looked left and right, but couldn't figure out where her friend had ended up.

"What the heck was that?" she asked, looking at Frosty incredulously.

"Blame Scuff for that one," Frosty snickered. "Condensed Inferno and Condensed Blizzard are scary enough on their own, but Scuff and his fillyfriend are the ones who showed us what happens when you force 'em together."

"Well... I guess you got them, at any rate," Seeker admitted, still a little shell-shocked. "What happened to Tango? Did the blast throw him clear out of the arena?"

"Good guess, my dear friend, but I'm afraid not!" came a voice from high above.

Seeker craned her neck. To her astonishment, Tango stood calmly on one of the beams holding the spotlights dozens of pony-lengths overhead, his hooves glimmering with self-enchantment magic. With a soft "hup", he hopped off the narrow construction and turned a graceful flip in midair before landing as lightly as if he'd simply stepped off his front stoop. The audience burst into deafening cheers as he greeted them with a casual wave and a pearly smile.

"Now, my friends, first of all I must congratulate you both on making our doubles match into a two versus one," he calmly continued, ignoring Seeker and Frosty's dumbfounded stares. "On one hoof, it may appear you two have quite a steep advantage now that our lovely companion Scorch is down for the count. But, if I may, I'd like to point out that both of you two have taken your fair share of hits in this bout, while I... oh and I do hate to brag... am thus far untouched. I'd say Scorch did his job quite well."

"And what makes you think you'll be able to handle us ganging up on you now that it's two-on-one?" Frosty demanded.

Tango shook his head, chuckling softly. "Our dear Scorch, I hate to admit, was never particularly concerned with doubles dueling being about... well, doubles," he admitted. "With him not blocking half the battlefield with his ill-thought-out attacks, I should be able to utilize a few of my more... let's say effective strategies."

"Oh, shut up," Frosty groaned, lighting his horn angrily.

Seeker quickly placed a hoof on his side. "Don't let him goad you," she hissed. "Its's literally the same thing we just did to Scorch. Slip up even a little and he'll punish you. Hard."

"He can't possibly take both of us by himself," Frosty argued.

"I suppose we shall see," Tango chuckled. "My next move is one Scorch, sadly, would not have been able to help me with. I was inspired by Seeker's truly masterful use of darkness or steam to obscure the battlefield today. Sadly for her, this time it won't help her at all."

Before anypony could move, Tango launched a lightning spell at the lights above, just as Seeker had done in an earlier round, causing the battlefield to fall into instant, total darkness.

"So what?" Frosty muttered. "He can't see in the dark any better than we can."

The words were barely out of his mouth when a light blue bolt of energy shot out of the darkness and collided with the surprised stallion so hard it knocked him off his hooves. Seeker instantly went on alert, turning slowly as she strained to see in the blackness.

"See, it occured to me darkness is actually an excellent condition for me to fight in," came Tango's voice from somewhere in the gloom. "As a true expert on sound magic, it only takes a simple echolocation spell for me to see the two of you clear as day. And I never would've thought of this delightfully straightforward strategy without Seeker's help!"

Frosty staggered to his hooves and managed to block the next bolt, barely. "C'mon, use your missiles!" he urged. "He's not the only one who can hit a target he can't see. You can do that too!"

"They aren't fast enough!" Seeker lamented. "He has enough time to see them coming and cut them apart with his light blade. And my faster spells don't home onto targets like that."

A bolt shot out of the darkness from a new angle, once again bound for Frosty. He didn't react fast enough, but Seeker did, tossing up a shield that defended her partner from another blow.

"Well, he's right about one thing," Frosty muttered. "We've both taken a beating already. So we better hurry up and hit his smug ass. Any bright ideas?"

"I think a 'bright' idea is just what we need," Seeker claimed, lighting her horn. "If the stadium lights are disabled, all we need's an illumination spell."

She poured power into her spell and her horn quickly flared with intense light. The smile dropped off her face immediately when her surroundings somehow remained pitch black.

"See, the average pony would, indeed, remedy darkness with light," echoed Tango's voice from somewhere out of sight. "Any unicorn with basic magical skills could do so. What's considerably harder to do— but not outside my range of ability, I'm afraid— is to cast an illusion that blocks light, preventing it from radiating more than mere inches from its source."

Another bolt of blue was on its way before Seeker could even process that development. She and Frosty leapt in opposite directions and it skipped off the floor where they had been standing a moment before. The impenetrable darkness closed over Seeker, and after evading a few more attacks, she couldn't even hazard a guess where her partner was anymore. She opened her mouth to call out to him, but another voice cried out first.

Her own voice, from the opposite direction.

"Frosty! Over here! We have to stay together!"

"Wait! Don't!" Seeker shouted back. "He's tricking you!"

"Huh?" Frosty called. "Wh... where are you? Sounds like you're in two places at once!"

"It's Tango!" called the impostor voice. "He can mimic voices with sound magic! He's trying to confuse you, so you'll attack me. Don't let him fool you!"

"No, the other voice is Tango!" Seeker insisted, desperately fumbling through the gloom. "If you fall for the imitation, he's just gonna use you to knock me out. You have to focus!"

"That's exactly what you have to do," Tango agreed in Seeker's voice. "Attack Tango before he attacks again!"

"Don't do it," Seeker warned, straining to see any sign of the other ponies in the darkness. "I'm the real one! Shoot your spell at him!"

"This isn't helping!" a very irate Frosty snapped. "You both sound absolutely identical! What in Tartarus am I supposed to do here?"

Seeker racked her brain. I've got to let Frosty know it's me, but how? Tango sounds exactly like me!

Her thoughts flashed back to her many conversations with Frosty throughout the last day. Among those memories, she found an idea.

Tango can mimic my voice, but that doesn't mean he knows what to say!

"Frosty!" she shouted again. "I'm the real Seeker, you moron! Now aim the spell the other way!"

There was a beat of silence. In the distance, she just barely heard the stallion chuckle under his breath.

"Don't tell me what to do, you little brat!" he laughed as he launched a powerful ice blast toward one of the voices.

There was a woosh, an "Oof!", and suddenly, Seeker's illumination spell was no longer restricted. She lit the battlefield to reveal Tango Trot picking himself off the floor and furiously shaking his body to dislodge all the icicles clinging to his fur. She galloped to Frosty's side, skidding into place beside her partner.

"Nice shot," she complimented.

Frosty smirked. "Thanks."

"Lucky guess," Tango huffed as he swept most of the remaining ice crystals from his coat. "But you're simply delaying the inevitable, my friends. Pardon my bluntness here, but the occasional fortunate hit just won't be enough. I'm sure it's as obvious to you as it is to me that I have both the speed and skill to confound Frosty, and the strength to overpower Seeker. Neither of you can outlast me."

Seeker grinned. "Yeah. We know. Neither of us can."

"Both of us though," Frosty added casually, "well, that might be a different story, bud."

Tango merely chuckled, shaking his head as he lit his horn once more. "We'll see," he responded cordially.

Seeker glanced at Frosty out of the corner of her eye as their opponent calmly trotted toward them. He glanced at her, giving a silent nod.

As soon as Tango took his next step, Seeker launched a small, sputtering fire spell that quickly billowed into a smokescreen as it hit the ground at the center of the arena. "Ok, go!" she instructed.

"You sure about this?" Frosty asked. "I know this is probably the best combo we came up with before the match, but it's pretty risky."

"It's two on one, and he's still recovering from your ice spell," Seeker pointed out. "It's now or never. Do it!"

She jumped a short distance into the air and felt herself get caught and supported by Frosty's aura. She cloaked herself in as strong of an insulating spell as she could muster as Frosty began to surround her with super-frigid air, slowly rotating her body with levitation to evenly surround her with ice. Within seconds, she found herself encased in a six-sided prism of ice with pointed ends at the front and back. The space was so tight she could barely move, and brutally cold despite her spell.

There was a dramatic rush of air as Tango blew away the smokescreen. "Haven't we established by now that spells that obscure the battlefield won't provide more than a few seconds' relief from my—"

He stopped dead as the ponies across from him came into view. For just a moment, he faltered, trying to understand what he was looking at.

"Now!" Seeker screamed.

Frosty gave a shout as he spun the ice prism with all the force he could muster, spinning Seeker's entire body like a drill. In less than a second, she lost all sense of direction, her guts flip-flopping as her body rotated at sickening speed. In this state, there'd be no way she could possibly aim a spell.

Fortunately, she didn't need to aim.

Closing her eyes to try to lessen the dizzying effects of her spinning, she fired as many target tracking spells as she could possibly produce into the space in front of her. As always, they attempted to rocket towards Tango, but trapped inside the ice with their caster, they immediately began to pull the ice prism— and Seeker— along with them. All at once, her frozen capsule was turned into a whirling, pony-sized ice missile that barreled toward the stunned pony across the arena.

She was now, quite literally, a Seeker missile.

Tango instantly cast a shield, and Seeker was battered against the inside of the ice as she collided with it, but the drill like motion tore through the solid sheet of magic, ripping the shield apart in just a few seconds. Desperately, the blade of light burst from Tango's horn, and not a moment too soon. He widened his stance as he met the oncoming projectile in midair. Sparks flew as the twirling capsule of ice continued to try to hit its target, grinding against the pillar of light as Tango put every ounce of his strength into holding it off. Long cracks appeared along the sides of the prism as his magic attempted to destroy it, but even so, he was sliding backwards, his strength waning.

Seeker clung to consciousness. Her body was quickly growing numb from cold, she was absolutely battered from bashing against the walls of her tight enclosure, and she struggled not to be sick as she whirled like a drill. The sound of splintering ice and Tango's strained cries filled her ears.

Crash!

The force between the spinning crystal and Tango's sword finally grew to be too much. The ice missile shattered at the very same moment that Tango's strength finally gave out, but Seeker's momentum continued to carry her forward. She crashed headlong into Tango and the two unicorns tumbled again and again and again, a pile of limbs and tails as they rolled a good ten pony lengths, nearly to the far wall of the arena.

Thump!

Tango landed flat on his back, and Seeker, tossed momentarily into the air by the sudden stop, stretched out her legs and landed on her hooves, straddling the pony lying below her. Dizzy, exhausted, and half-frozen, she nevertheless jerked her head downward, pointing her lit horn right between Tango's eyes.

For a good ten seconds, both ponies stayed like that, panting too heavily to speak. The crowd stared in silence. Tango eventually focused his vision enough to gaze up at her, mystified.

"For... huff... forfeit," Seeker wheezed. "Try to move and... hah... and I'm knocking you out. Teleport, and Frosty's already got an attack at the ready, so it's lights-out the moment you reappear."

Tango blinked slowly. Breathing just as heavily, it took him a moment to find his voice.

"It s-seems... I miscalculated," he admitted. "Never in my w-wildest dreams did I except you and Frosty would manage to... cooperate."

Seeker managed a breathy laugh. "Me neither," she replied. "Took me a while to realize that I was part of the problem just as much as he was. But we managed to put our heads together, eventually."

Tango slowly turned his head to one side, glancing at Frosty, who stood waiting to strike if necessary. After a moment, he looked back at Seeker, breaking into a playful, gleaming smile.

"Indeed you did," he agreed. "And it seems, in the end, I wasn't quite prepared to deal with such an alliance. Bravo."

Seeker had fully expected Tango to somehow defy all expectations and manage some sort of daring escape, despite his dead-end situation. So she could hardly believe her eyes when the unicorn lying below her turned his head and fired a forfeit signal at the scoreboard.

All the sound in the room seemed to come back at once as the crowd erupted into cheers. Tango's face disappeared from the board, leaving only Seeker and Frosty's smiling pictures, beneath a great big golden header spelling out "Winners!"

Seeker turned her head, and watched the huge grin grow on Frosty's face, as she felt her cheeks tighten with a smile of her own.

"I can't believe what we just witnessed, folks!" the announcer practically screamed. "May I present to you, this year's Las Pegasus Doubles Dueling Tournament champions, Seeker and Frosty!"

The setting sun bathed Las Pegasus in oranges and golds as thousands of spectators made their way out of the arena. A clamor of voices, all talking about the stunning final duel, filled the air.

Seeker sat some distance from the exit, away from all the bustle, enjoying the feeling of the sun on her fur, and watching it glint off the impressive medal she'd been awarded as she held it in her hoof. The experts in charge of the tournament's healing spells had quickly remedied all her injuries and frostbite, but even so, she was absolutely exhausted. It was the good kind of tired, though; all the effort had paid off, and she had the award to prove it.

Hoofsteps clicked on the stones behind her. She assumed Tango had arrived to travel home with her. Her eyebrows raised in surprise when Frosty sat down beside her instead.

"Guess you were right, kid," he said, staring off into the city. "The second we got paired up, I thought for sure our run was over."

"So did I," Seeker agreed. "We've got some... uh... pretty stark differences. We won because we managed to get past that."

"Yeah, yeah, we've already said it a bunch," Frosty grumbled. "An icy alliance, yada yada yada."

The two unicorns watched the throngs of ponies traveling out into the streets for a few moments. Seeker chanced a glance to her left and caught Frosty looking at her out of the corner of his eye. The big stallion smirked.

"Y'know, for a brat, you could be a lot worse, Seeker," he snickered, raising a forehoof expectantly. "Nice work out there. Pound it."

A matching teasing expression played across Seeker's face. "Thanks," she replied, returning the hoof bump. "You've got more talent than the average moron yourself."

Frosty snorted playfully. "Maybe I oughta talk to Scorch a little about this whole strategy business," he mused, as he spotted his twin emerging from the distant crowd and aggressively motioning for him to come over. "Better watch your back if you show up here next year. Next time you face us, me and Scorch are gonna knock you and your little buddy Tango into next week."

"Looking forward to it," Seeker chuckled, casting the stallion a defiant smile.

Frosty returned a grin that wasn't quite as malicious as usual as he got to his hooves.

"Yeah. Me too."