Chapter 7: Test Your Might!

Chapter 7: Test Your Might!

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=== Just outside the Golden Oaks Library ===

“Alright Link,” Rainbow leads Applejack and Michael over to a small area next to the Library with three seemingly poorly made training dummies. “I’ve set these state of the art training dummies up so you can show me,” Applejack coughs, Rainbow stutters and corrects herself, “I mean us, just how strong you are, just going by what you say won’t satiate our curiosity,” She stands next to a dummy, “We’ll start off with a simple punch,” She turns to a dummy and proceeds to punch it in the face, surprisingly it doesn’t fall apart but hits the ground and recoils back upright.

“Simple enough Sugarcube,” Applejack walks over to the second dummy and does the same thing, “Huh, these dummies are actually really durable, despite their look,” Michael walks over to the third dummy and readies his fist, “Take the gauntlets off there Link, make it fair.” Michael nods and drops the gauntlets to the ground making an audible thud when they hit the ground. Rainbow and Applejack raise an eyebrow at the sheer weight of the gauntlets.

“Alright, here goes nothing,” Michael pulls back his fist and punches the dummy hard in the face causing the dummy’s body to break clean off its stand and land about 10 feet away from its starting position, “Whoops, put a little too much force behind that one,” He chuckles as Rainbow and Applejack look dumbfounded by the level of strength on display, “Hang on I can fix it,” He walks over to the dummy and picks it up, places it next to the broken stand, and pulls out the [Ocarina of Time].

“Wait, how’s your Ocarina gonna fix a broken stand?” Rainbow looks at Michael confused, he doesn’t answer, he just puts the Ocarina to his lips and plays Zelda’s Lullaby. When the melody finishes the dummy magically rose from the ground and reattached itself back onto the stand effortlessly. “What the Heck?” Rainbow gives it a testing poke and the Dummy is perfectly re-attached to the stand as if nothing happened.

“This song always repaired signs if I cut them with my sword by mistake... Or curiosity, so I thought it would work for this too and, lo and behold, it worked,” Applejack and Rainbow look at Michael confused, “Alright, next test?” He looks at Rainbow who nods and turns away from her dummy.

“The next test is kicking,” She swiftly sidekicks the dummy making sway left and right for a few seconds before settling back to normal, “Another simple strength test, AJ,” Applejack proceeds to break her Dummy by straight kicking it in the torso. “Can you guys not break the Dummies? They cost me a bunch of bits to make,” Applejack simply crosses her arms and looks at Michael expecting the same result as before.

Michael gets into position and sidekicks the Dummy just like Rainbow but instead of just breaking the Dummy cartwheels a few times knocking over Rainbow’s Dummy in the process, “Huh, why didn’t you do that at the farm?” Applejack questions, “Instead you pulled out that big hammer and damaged my tree with it,” She squints at Him.

“Kicking a tree is much harder than kicking a Dummy, sorry but my leg would shatter if I kicked a tree,” He quickly players the Song again repairing Applejack’s Dummy, picks up his and Rainbow’s Dummies off the ground, and replaces them back upright. “Any more tests?” Rainbow and Applejack look at each other than smirk before looking directly at Michael,

“Just one more test,” Rainbow chuckles then shoots off into the sky, Applejack cracks her knuckles and gets into a fighting stance, Rainbow flies by Michael and snatches his Sword and Shield off his back effortlessly, “You won’t be needing these,” She lands and places them on the ground next to the Dummies, “Ready AJ?” She crosses her arms and flexes her wings, A boss name tag appears in Michael’s Lower Vision, ‘Dynamic Fighting Duo, Rainbow Dash & Applejack’ and Boss Music starts playing. Rainbow cracks her knuckles and flies off into the sky again, Applejack advances on Michael before he even registers what’s happening.

“Whoa!” Michael dodges a flying fist from Applejack rolling to the right away from her, “Tael, I’m gonna need you to keep an eye on my hearts, just in case,” Tael makes an audible ding confirming she heard him, when he stands back up from the dodge roll, Applejack is already about to punch again. She swings and he catches her fist in his hand, suddenly Rainbow flies in, hits him in the side, and flies back into the sky. “Son of a...” before he finishes his sentence Applejack gets a good kick to his stomach throwing him back a few feet.

“Master, you have just lost a full heart, be aware you only have two left, My healing ability is slow but I'll try my best to keep you safe!” Tael informs Michael, He stands up off the ground, “I’d advise using caution when dealing with Rainbow dash, she may be fast but she can’t be silent,” He nods and gets into a fighting stance reminiscent to Ryu from Street fighter’s stance.

“Alright ladies,” He pauses dramatically, “Time to get serious,” before he can move he hears Rainbow flying back at him to deal more damage. He dodges her punch only to be caught off guard by Applejack landing another solid kick sending him a few feet back but still on his feet this time, “Good one, but now it’s my turn!” He rushes back toward Applejack and throws a fake punch causing her to dodge into a sidekick sending her a few feet to the side on the ground.

“Dagnabbit, that smarts,” She stands back on her feet and readies herself again, “Not gonna let you do that again Sugarcube!” She starts approaching Michael again when Rainbow goes for another diving punch.

“Alright, I’ve had enough of your strategy Rainbow,” He stares down Rainbow as she careens straight towards him, “God, I hope this works,” He readies himself to catch her and her punch. Rainbow starts to grin as she closes in on him and changes her plan from punch to tackle.

“What are you thinking Link, just giving up now?!” Applejack yells as she gets closer to him as well, “Rainbow give him a good one!” Rainbow closes the distance and they collide making a big dust cloud appear, but as the dust settles, Michael is holding his own against Rainbow, hands clasped together not moving an inch, “Holy moly,” Applejack hesitates in getting involved with the struggle.

Michael and Rainbow are both gritting their teeth trying to push each other back, suddenly Michael remembers how Twilight Princess link defeated rolling Gorons by catching them and throwing them behind him. “Is this all you got?!” Rainbow mocks while still struggling to push him, He starts to shift his weight and push in a different direction instead of just directly back at Rainbow causing her to slip up in her wing beats, “Wha?” He takes the opportunity to spin around and toss her at Applejack, they collide and hit the ground hard.

“Are we done?” Michael asks, Rainbow growls, stands up, and flies toward him intending to continue the sparring match, just as she was about to hit him she is stopped dead in her tracks by a field of purple magic.

“Enough!” Twilight screams from in front of the Library with Spike, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Epona standing next to her awestruck at how Michael could be so strong. “Why the heck are you guys fighting?” Twilight crosses her arms and looks angrily at the pair with Applejack stepping closer to everyone. The boss music is replaced with calm village music.

“We just wanted to see how strong he was,” Rainbow explains, “He said he was strong enough with those gauntlets so we wanted to test his strength without them,” Twilight lets Rainbow go from her magical grasp, “You know I can’t resist a good sparring match, especially with somepony that says they can push a block of concrete four times their size with ease,”

“Sorry Twilight, I kinda wanted to see how strong he was too,” Applejack chuckled and rubbed the back of her head, “To be honest, I’ve wanted to know ever since he used that big hammer to shake about ten trees at once,” Twilight lightens up,

“That’s still no excuse to just fight him, you should have at least asked him first,” Twilight finishes as Michael retrieves his gauntlets and puts them back on, “I understand why you did it though, I too kind of wanted to see his strength in action,” Twilight grabs Michael’s Sword and Shield in her magic and floats them back to him,

“All in all, I enjoyed the match, though having a heads up would have been nice,” Michael puts the Sword and Sheild back on his back, “You two can pack quite a punch, I’m just glad Twilight stopped it, I might have lost if Applejack helped Rainbow at the end,” He starts walking back to the Library, “After that intense battle I’m gonna need a snack anypony else want one?” Rainbow nods and starts walking to the Library too,

“I would but I just remembered that I gotta help Big Mac back at the farm with some harvestin’ catch ya’ll later,” Applejack tips her hat and heads for the farm, everypony waves her goodbye.

Michael stops next to Fluttershy, “Fluttershy, can I ask you an important question about Epona?” she shyly looks at him through her mane and nods, “I have no place for Epona right now, would you know any place she could go until I can get a place of my own?” Fluttershy looks over at Epona,

“She can stay at my cottage until you can find a good place, I take care of a lot of animals so she shouldn’t be a problem,” Michael smiles and walks over to Epona to pet her, “I’ll make sure to take good care of her, you have nothing to worry about,” Fluttershy joins him next to Epona,

“Thank you, Fluttershy, I’ll be sure to make it up to you somehow,” Michael pets Epona, looks at Fluttershy, and smiles, “If you ever need help with anything don’t hesitate to ask,” She nods and Twilight joins them,

“Hey you two, Spike, Rarity, and I are going to the Hay Café, wanna tag along?” Fluttershy turns to Twilight and nods, Michael nods as well but doesn’t stop petting Epona, “She can come too, it’s really time to get the town’s ponies adjusted to her presence,” Michael Smiles and grabs her reigns to lead her to the café with everypony.

“Thanks, Twilight, come on girl, let’s go get you something to eat,” Epona neighs happily causing Fluttershy to giggle and smile. “Let’s just hope ponies don’t freak out too much,” They all walk towards town with Michael and Fluttershy leading Epona while keeping a conversation with each other.

End of Chapter!