The serpent-like beast coiled around the pillar as the remains of the loser were dragged out of the dust of the arena. His eyes, blazing red with mad delight, flicked over towards the heaving form of the victor in the center of the arena.
“We have our champion for the semifinals!” He crowed, mismatched wings shuffling restlessly against his back. “But will she make it to the top? Will she win the right to the crown of Equestria and ascend, when so many have fallen before her?” The monster grinned and flicked the crown, nearly knocking it from the lifeless head of the alicorn it rested upon. “Let’s give it up for Applejack, for surviving three challenges in a row!”
The crowd cheered mechanically as the earth pony in the ring picked herself off the ground. She winced, pressing a hoof against her rib cage. That unicorn had gotten close, too close to finishing her off, and some of her fur shattered when her hoof came away from the wound. It’d need to be bound, but she’d take care of that later. Hell, she’d be able to heal herself if she ascended. She just had to get past the next round. One more left.
“Andddd our final contestant, who’s also won three challenges and is competing for the right to become immortal-ish, let’s hear it for our other champion!”
Wooden applause rang through the arena as the door opposite Applejack rumbled open. She braced herself, squinting to peer into the darkness of the tunnel beyond. Would they try to ambush her? She didn’t see any flash of magic, so whoever was there hadn’t teleported, but maybe it was a different sort of ploy?
No, wait, she could see a flicker of movement. Slowly, the unsteady light of the shifting arena illuminated a hoof, then its twin, and a cascade of mane that hid-
“No,” Applejack whispered, stumbling back a few steps as her opponent shuffled into the light. “Celestia, please…”
“Celestia’s dead,” said Fluttershy, spreading her wings. A few feathers were missing, Applejack dimly noted as her friend’s - former friend’s? - gaze hardened into a mask she hadn’t seen since the Gala. “This is the only way any of us has a chance.”
“Ah don’t want to fight you.” Applejack’s traitorous body assumed a defensive position, tired muscles coiling in preparation despite her pained words. “Fluttershy, please, drop out of the competition, let me fight anypony else. Don’t make me do this. Ah… Ah can’t lose another, not after Twilight-”
The pegasus crouched, eyes darting around the available space. Already, it was warping into a different environment. The dust of the floor was growing rich, teaming with life as grass sprouted beneath both of their hooves.
“No,” Fluttershy said simply, and lept into the air, faster than her exhausted eyes could track.
Crap. Applejack rolled to the side, newly-formed blades of grass tickling her sensitive wound as Fluttershy slammed into the spot she’d been. She grit her teeth and twisted, kicking upwards at where the pegasus had landed, but her hind hooves merely grazed Fluttershy’s tail as her wings beat the air.
Applejack grit her teeth and squinted into the sunlight, tracking the silhouette of her friend as she circled above her. A distant memory plagued her mind, of buzzards circling a dead groundhog back in Appleoosa. She’d be no easy prey. Not even for Fluttershy. Both of them only had one chance at victory, and neither of them was willing to back down. They’d been friends once, but that couldn’t be helped, so even as she braced her front hooves against the ground behind her back, she kept her eye on the pony above.
As a few new shoots of life pushed through the soil next to Applejack, the pegasus dove, straight for her head. It was exactly the move any pegasus would’ve done with such a height advantage, and it was just what Applejack had been waiting for. She pushed against the earth with all her might, kicking back and up, hind hooves bucking above her face.
They connected with something firm yet feathery, and in the second that it took Applejack’s brain to realize that Fluttershy must’ve tried to dodge at the last minute instead of accepting what would’ve been a fairly quick death, a SNAP echoed through the arena.
Fluttershy crumpled to the ground, her damaged wing pinned underneath her at an angle that made Applejack flinch. She skidded a few meters away, leaving tracks in the fresh soil, then went limp.
Not daring to believe her luck, Applejack crept towards where Fluttershy lay. If she was unconscious, then maybe Applejack would be able to end it painlessly. “Sorry, sugarcube,” she whispered, giving the wing a wide berth. Was she even breathing down there? Applejack couldn’t tell under the curtain of mane covering Fluttershy’s face. “Ah didn’t want it to be this way.”
“Neither did I,” came the whispered response, a split second before the uninjured wing smacked Applejack in the temple.
Her vision blurred as she staggered back, ears ringing.
It was all the opening that Fluttershy needed as she lept to her hooves with adrenaline-fueled desperation. With Applejack disoriented, it wouldn’t take much to knock her to the ground, and both of them knew it. The moment of kindness had been a mistake, but Applejack couldn’t bring herself to regret it as Fluttershy barrelled into her side.
The impact against the ground hurt far less than it should have, and she wished she could bring herself to be concerned. She was an earth pony, true, but even she should’ve felt something. In that moment, she had lost, and it was a struggle to draw breath after it left her lungs, so she let it be. Let her friend win.
Dimly, Applejack focused on the grass in front of her face. Tiny, delicate clover dotted the field the arena had become, and some of the flowers had started to bloom. One heartbeat bled into the next, and time seemed to stop. As Fluttershy’s hoof stomped down, Applejack couldn’t help but smile a little.
This was what that monster wanted. A show, with the ultimate prize. He could’ve done anything he wanted to the last survivors, with the sheer amount of power he had. Hell, he made them fight to the death for amusement. She wasn’t even sure if he’d stay true to his word, or if Fluttershy would trade one gauntlet of horror for another instead of ascencsion.
And yet… even he wasn’t without his small kindnesses.
When Applejack died, flowers still bloomed, and they bloomed for her.
