Canterlot Academy Trials

Before Nebula could even begin to process what he had just heard, Twilight sounded off.

“BEGIN!”

Shing!

In an instant, Luster Dawn flung one of her double-sided axes at Nebula. The stallion leapt out of the way with a quick dodge to the left before it exploded where it had landed. Soon enough, she conjured another, and cast it at him yet again, and again, only for him to dodge each one.

Nebula was shaken from what she had told him a second ago, but knew he couldn’t let it phase him in battle. If she truly hated him so much, then Nebula was going to push her to her limits as much as possible.

With a quick toot from his recorder, Nebula cast a small soundwave blasted contained within a magical barrier of sorts. This allowed him to cast off delayed spells that functioned akin to floating naval mines.

Of course, Luster Dawn could see the spell bubble float around her right side. There was a musical note contained within--B♭--and she couldn’t ignore it. With a simple flash of her horn, she flung one of her axes at it to cut it open while the other was cast at Nebula himself.

Tick--HONK!

As soon as the axe made contact with the the orb, it released a piercing note so loud that Dawn was staggered. She winced from the sheer loudness of the noise as she covered her ears.

This left her open. Nebula jumped over the axe flung his way, and stampeded in her direction. Making a beeline for the mare, he blew out more notes that fanned out and homed in on her like magical homing missiles.

But Dawn was prepared just in time. She was able to erect a pink shield around herself to stop the notes. Each one plopped against it with an almost electronic bounce noise. From the crowd, Sunburst in particular could be seen cheering once she executed such a move.

Sadly for her, this wasn’t enough to deter Nebula. With a battle cry, he leapt forward and performed a swift dropkick that shattered her shield in an instant, followed by a swift tackle that caused them to butt heads with each other for a moment, mere inches away from each other’s faces.

“Why?” Nebula asked with an intense tone through his teeth, “Why do you hate me, Luster?”

“...You…you’re everything I could never be,” she hissed back, “A regular old unicorn that doesn’t have a care in the world. What I wouldn’t give to have your life. I’m just so…dggh!” She grumbled, unable to comprehend her own feelings as she forced her head against Nebula’s.

“...”

In reality, they both knew she didn’t hate him per se. But it was as she said. Nebula had certain freedoms that Dawn could never have access to. The expectations brought on by her peers, her parents, and Princess Twilight were simply too much to bear.

Since they were still in battle, Nebula saw this as an opportunity to test both himself and Luster Dawn. After all, the exams were a place to better each other’s skills, weren’t they?

“...If you want it so bad, prove it,” he gave her an encouraging, yet competitive smirk as his horn lit up, “Shut up and fight me.”

Without warning, Nebula put his hoof around Dawn’s neck, spun her around, flung her upwards into the air, and caused a violet-blue musical laser beam from his horn up at her.

“...!!” She gasped once she found herself in the air, not realizing how strong Nebula was for a unicorn. She tried to counter the laser with one of her own from her horn, but she wasn’t able to in time, and her horn was hit with an explosion that blew her backwards towards the edge of the field as a few repeated notes began to play in her head.

Ding-ding-ding-ding--ding-ding-ding!

“Ooogh…” she shook her head as she tried to regain her senses, but Nebula was already coming after her.

He used a similar tactic as his previous match; a quick note from his recorder that caused a bass clef to appear below Dawn and launched her into the air once more. Before she could react, Nebula jumped after her and dealt a few jabs to her gut before preparing to finish her off with a kick to ring her out…

But just before he could execute that last move, Dawn’s horn flashed, and cast a spark spell around herself that sent Nebula flying backwards, breaking her free of his attack string. Starlight Glimmer could be seen with a smile on her face once she executed this.

“Ah!” Nebula gasped as he ended up on the other side of the field, landing on all four hooves perfectly. “...Not…bad. Still hate me…Dawn?” he breathed heavily in between his words, indicating that his mana pool was almost depleted. There were scuffs all over his body and his mane had become a dull, messy blonde color.

Likewise, Luster Dawn was equally winded, taking brief pauses as she spoke to catch her breath. She was also rather scuffed, and her mane’s ponytail had become undone, allowing her gold and orange locks to flow in a free, frizzled mess as she wiped away a bit of blood from her lip. “...Oh I hate you…alright,” she said with a competitive grin as she rushed at him, going on the offensive this time, “hate that…you’re about…to lose!”

Since they had used up most of their magic reserves, both unicorns were locked in what could only be described as a rare melee spat between their kind. Dawn went in for a hook, Nebula ducked under it, crouched forward, and slammed her with an uppercut instead. Dawn quickly shook it off and retaliated by headbutting Nebula, stunning him for a second which allowed her to lunge forward and tackle him to the arena floor where she grabbed ahold of one of his hind legs to trap him in a leglock with her sitting on top of him.

“Rrgh!” he grit his teeth as tears fell from his eyes. The last thing he expected was for her to pull a martial arts move on him, and the fact that she held his leg rather tightly also didn’t help. “Dammit…”

Dawn glanced over her shoulder at him with a tired, but confident smile as she held him down. “Ready…to…give up yet?”

But unfortunately, what little she saw of wrestling didn’t compare to the training that Nebula had received from Tungsten and the Royal Guard.

“...Let me play you a tune,” he replied with a grisly smile.

“...wha--?!”

Before she could blink, Nebula performed one of the riskiest moves when it came to wrestling.

Crick.

The stallion turned in a way that dislocated his entire kneecap, causing him to temporarily feel no further pain from her leglock. Then, he flipped himself backwards with enough force to reverse the entire hold she had upon him, powerbombing Dawn onto her back, then lifting her up and slamming her down upon both of her knees. This move was commonly known as the Manehattan Drop.

“GAH!” she yelped and fell flat on her face as Nebula stood above her. “...dammit…looks like I can’t…match you…” And with that, her eyes shut, confirming the KO as everyone in the audience fell silent for a brief moment, in awe over what they had just watched.

Nebula popped his right hind leg’s knee back into place. “...It’s over.”

Twilight Sparkle stared at the arena below, mouth agape along with everyone else. It took Spike snapping his fingers to get her to snap out of it.

“O-oh. Right, erm…ahem. We have our next champion! Atomic Nebula!”

And as soon as she gave the call, the crowd cheered loudly for him--especially his friends from his dorm block. Given that he was the sole member of their group to make it this far, it was something to behold.

“WOOOO!” Blue screamed as he exhaled multiple flames from his maw. “That’s my brother!”

“Yeah Nebula!” Mei shouted while clapping her hooves together. “Good show!”

“That’s my Nebby-boo!” Grimrose let out an uncharacteristically enthusiastic shout to top it off.

Nebula had won…but it wasn’t at all an easy fight.

‘And that’s what I like about it,’ he thought to himself before stumbling out of the arena for the final time.