Canterlot Academy Trials

“FIGHT!”

With the signal to get started, Noptera transformed his left hoof into an extendable, rope-like material that stretched across the field to capture Nebula in its grip.

“What the--?!” Nebula gasped as the changeling’s hoof extended and spiraled around his body, pulling him in--though it was a bit of a struggle between the two as Nebula actively resisted and stood his ground against the force..

“Told you,” Noptera chuckled with a grunt as he reeled the unicorn stallion in, “I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve that the average changeling doesn’t.”

“Lemme show you what I got then.”

With his magic aura lifting his recorder to his lips, Nebula blew a quick note into it, and a solid black treble clef appeared in mid-air and exploded--playing the same note at a higher frequency. So high in fact, that Noptera was stunned and staggered backwards, releasing his hold on Nebula’s body.

Nebula took advantage of this with a backflip to put some distance between himself and Noptera. Since the changeling could transform his body into almost anything, he wanted to hang back and gauge exactly what Noptera could do before rushing in.

Once Noptera had recovered from the musical flashbang of sorts, he looked up to find a brand new set of notes swarming in on his position. Each one correspond to the note that Nebula had been playing: A quick succession of three short notes, followed by one longer one. The notes of Beethooven’s 5th Symphony.

The short notes fanned out and exploded, followed by the longer note creating a small barrier to shield him from further attacks as he readied himself to play another set.

Noptera noticed this. Given that Nebula had to use his breath to play an instrument to fight, there would be an inherent delay in between attacks. Noptera would use this to his advantage and turn one of his hooves into a sharp-edged, pointed spear that pierced through Nebula’s musical shield!

“Woah--shit!” Nebula gasped as he leapt back from the hardened biological tentacle. It appeared that, thanks to Noptera’s exoskeleton, he was able to pierce through even raw magical barriers! The young stallion thought quickly on his hooves as Noptera pulled himself in close.

The changeling stallion got closer, breaking through the rest of the shield and destroying it on impact. After which, he changed his hoof to a massive club that he tried to swipe at Nebula with, only for it to be stopped dead by Nebula’s hoof, causing a bit of a struggle between the two as Nebula’s hind legs were forced closer to the edge.

“Stronger than you look,” Noptera complimented his opponent with a smile, “I like that. But don’t tell me you’re giving up already, Atom!”

“I’m not just some squire,” Nebula shot back and thought it out while struggling against the changeling’s force. So far, it seemed as if that Noptera could only make his body change into simplistic stabbing and slashing weapons--nothing as complex as a bow or other projectile weapons.

With this in mind, Nebula wanted to create as much space as possible in order to prepare his final move.

Noptera’s wings began to shapeshift into bladed daggers that came out of the side of his body and charged at Nebula, but the latter was quick to counter. With a flash of his horn, a bass clef appeared below Noptera that played a piercing note so loud that it caused all of his biological extensions to seize as he was stunned from having his hearing disrupted by the noise.

“Gah! What in the--blagh!”

The changeling was subject to a swift dropkick from Nebula that sent him skidding across the field. Once his opponent was farther away from him, he started to play another series of musical notes. This time though, they weren’t rhythmic at all. In fact, they were rather discordant. These notes appeared--from A♯ to C♯--in a frizzy, unstable red compare to the previous black notes that flew through the air in a line…

EEEEEE….YUUUUU…

The notes exploded, causing a loud echo that caused Noptera to glance to his left, assuming an attack was coming from that direction! “...!”

…But he was wrong. It was a complete trick of soundwaves flowing through the air.

With a swift slam of his front hooves on the arena floor, Nebula caused a quake so powerful that it threw Noptera further off balance, staggering him down to his haunches. Then Nebula blew into his recorder which produced another bass clef on the floor below Noptera. Before the latter could even think about what had just happened, the bass clef played a forceful note that was so loud that it launched Noptera into the air!

“Dghh!” he groaned upon leaving contact from the ground, panicking since he no longer had eyes on his opponent and tried flapping his wings in order to recover from the force, “W-where’d he g--?!”

But it was too late.

With a boost from his own bass clef, Nebula leapt into the air after his opponent and spoke one last time…

“This is your final bar line.”

BLAM!

With a single reverse overhead hoof strike from Nebula, and the next thing everyone in the crowd knew, Noptera had been struck down like a meteor, and knocked out of the ring entirely. Piledriven into the ground with half of his body stuck in a mound of dirt.

“...Ooogh…” Noptera groaned as he pulled himself out and shook his head. “...the Royal Guard ain’t no joke…” he gave an ironic chuckle as he flopped onto his back, completely knocked unconscious.

“...Sorry! You okay?” Nebula peeked over the edge of the platform. “...I think we need a medic--”

“THAT WAS AMAZING--” Spike suddenly shouted from the announcer’s booth, then cleared his throat before giving a more professional announcement as the crowd cheered. “Ahem--I mean…it looks like Atomic Nebula wins!”

As Noptera was carried off by the medical ponies, Nebula glanced up at his friends who were shouting for him.

“YEAH! You did it, brother!” Blue roared, causing fire to escape his lips.

“Go Nebula!” Mei added with her glasses nearly falling off her face.

“WOOO! Atomic is the best!” Grimrose clapped her hooves with a crazed look of excitement in her eyes.

Nebula simply blushed and rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish smile. He glanced over to Tungsten who gave him an approving nod from afar which warmed his heart as he smiled up at the crowd as he thought to himself…

‘...A victory for Archsage.’