Fighting is Magic

Maim watched with interest as the fight went on. Blood Axe had insisted on watching her Hunting Partner's fight before going to recruit his own fighter. The match should have been even, but it had been so one-sided that the betters had already collected their winnings.

In the ring, a silvery-grey Pegasus stallion with a gold-colored mane and tail squared off against a bleeding white Earth Pony. Maim hadn't been at all surprised at the Pegasus' choice of weapons. Wing blades were standard issue for any of them that fought. What was surprising was the way the Hunter used them. Every Pegasus he'd seen use blades tended to fly around, diving at openings in their enemy's guard, effectively "buzzing" them.

But the Pegasus with the skull cutie mark was standing firmly on the ground, wings spread out, using the blades like an Earth Pony would use shoulder blades, or a Unicorn would use an axe. He was amazingly good at it. Any attack his foe had directed at him had been parried and countered, leaving the Earth Pony's white fur dyed red with his own blood.

Back Stabber smirked, rushing at the enemy, wing blades glancing off of the buckler that the Earth Pony wore on his left foreleg. The opponent started backing up, making sure to turn as he did to keep his back away from the wall. The whole time, Stabber never even broke his stride, and it was obvious to Maim that he was toying with his prey. With two blades, he could easily have gotten under the buckler and ended it.

The Pegasus smirked again, his right wing lashing down with the blade, catching the buckler hard. At the same time, his left wing snapped outwards, the feathers seperating slightly. Five objects shot into the air, arcing steeply to slam into the defendant's back. With a gasp of pain, the Earth Pony fell.

Stabber looked up to the judgement box, where the Empress of the Night stomped her hoof once. Execution was called for. Stabber smirked, leaning in to whisper something to the Earth Pony, whose eyes widened just before his head was removed.

Blood grinned at Maim. "Didn't I tell you he was good?"

"He's good, I guess. What were those things he shot though?" Maim turned away from the arena and started towards the exit.

"Those are his feather blades. Before any good fight, he hides a few away between his pinions. When he unfurls his wings fully, they shoot out for a nice surprise."

Maim nodded, going quiet as they entered the tunnel leading to the Blood Works.

They found Back Stabber cleaning his Wing blades, as well as his own body.He turned deep green eyes to them as they entered, a cocky grin on his face. "Did ya like the show, mate?" he asked of Maim.

The Earth Pony nodded a bit. "Yeah, you're good I'll admit. A little underhanded, very sneaky."

"The Shadow Dancer way of life."

"What did you tell that stallion right before you killed him?"

"Oh, that. I try to make their last seconds as terrifying as possible. Tell them 'I know your family' or 'I killed your father.' Something to surprise them right before it's over. Gets a nice look stuck on their face, don't it?"

Maim scoffed a bit. "If you say so. Finish cleaning up and meet us out on the street. We have to head into town."

Blood Axe quirked an eyebrow. "Why do we have to do that? Isn't your fighter here?"

"Nope. He isn't an arena fighter."

"Oh? Do tell."

"You'll understand when you meet him. And he might be able to teach you a couple tricks."

A few minutes later, Back Stabber arrived. He wore a cloak to match Blood's, a standard traveling cloak with a knife-shaped emblem on the flanks. Maim turned, leading them into a slightly better part of Canterlot.

When they got to the Kelpy's Pool tavern and inn, a fight was just brewing. Maim led the way, ducking off to the left quickly to avoid drawing attention to himself. his two companions loitered in the doorway for a moment, surveying the large room. Four ponies were gathered around a table, cursing and spitting. They looked like the least worrisome of the bunch, despite the multiple scars each bore, and the missing eye of one.

Blood turned to follow Maim, murmuring to Stabber. "Tough crowd. Think we could take them?"

"My dear Blood," he replied, "we are two expertly trained Hunters with very powerful techniques at our disposal. If it comes down to a fight, we shan't have any trouble." He grinned. "Besides all that, your friend here doesn't seem worried, so we shouldn't either."

Maim had moved to a table in the corner, where he could watch the crowd without being in any danger of getting attacked from behind. He was watching the crowd of four in the middle of the room as they pestered a concealed figure. The room was quiet as the rest of the tavern watched, waiting to see how things would pan out.

A sudden purple glow lit the room spectacularly, and one of the molesters dropped to the ground, writhing and screaming in pain. The other three all moved forward, but they met with empty air as their target danced out of the way. Other ponies were standing, moving towards the action. Nopony had a side, they just all wanted to hit somepony.

The original fighters were squaring off against a dark purple Unicorn with a blue and red striped mane and tail. The Unicorn's eyes were covered with bandages, but this did not seem to inhibit his fighting abilities. He ducked back from a kick from the right and retaliated with another surge of magic that dropped another foe. He proceeded to dodge around his other two aggressors, levitate his tankard to drain it into his mouth, and donkey kick the third opponent to the ground.

The fourth attacker jumped at the Unicorn, who just grinned, his horn flaring up again. The pony disappeared, but now a potted fern was flying through the air. It smashed into the wall next to Maim, who didn't so much as bat an eye. The rest of the bar crowd had gotten into a full out brawl. The Unicorn casually ducked, bobbed, and weaved his way to the bar to order another tankard of ale. As he took it, his magic surged once more, and Blood and Stabber jumped in surprise as he appeared at the table with them.

"'Ello there, sweethearts. You dun mind if'n I sssit here, do ya?" He half-collapsed into the available seat across from Maim, a drunken grin on his face.

Blood turned to Maim. "Ugh, can we please just find your fighter and have done with this?"

Maim chuckled lightly, turning to the Unicorn. "This is my fighter. Everyone meet Blind Drunk."

"This is your fighter?! Buck-- Maim, he's an absolute lush!" Blood was furious, her normal cold eyes showing passionate rage.

"Lush is as lush does, sweetheart," the Unicorn replied, hiccuping as he took another swig. He set the cup down with a loud belch, causing Blood to flatten her ears and try to retreat from him.

"Please tell me this is some joke, Maim. Perhaps you were meaning to grab a different Unicorn? One who's not quite so... inebriated."

Stabber, who had been silent up until that point, chuckled. "He's not half as drunk as he would like us to think. The whole thing's a ruse."

"What? Are you certain?" The red mare frowned, leaning forward, examining closely. "How can you tell? He absolutely reeks of alcohol."

The newcomer chuckled, pushing his tankard away. "Of course I do," he said in a much soberer voice. "I spend my day drinking and fighting and fighting and drinking." He smirked. "I just don't get drunk."

"Maim, explain please."

"Blind Drunk has two handicaps. The first is that he's blind, obviously."

"Had my eyes cut out by bandits when I was but a colt," the drunkard supplied.

"How dreadful," Blood commented, cringing a bit.

"And the other handicap is that he has almost no personal store of magic. You of course know how a Unicorn's magic works."

"Yes... Unicorns all have a pool of energy devoted specifically to magic that they can tap into at any time. And when they draw from that pool, they think of the runes for the spell they want to cast and channel the magic through their thoughts. That's a simple explanation of course..."

"Of course. But Blind here, his pool is more of a puddle. He has the potential to store huge amounts of magical energy, but his body produces a much lower amount than most Unicorns."

"But he teleported! He uses telekinesis! He transformed that one stallion and used a spell I've never even heard of to drop two more!"

"Yes, and the way he did that was he imbibed a large amount of alcohol, and used what little magic he had to channel a spell of his own creation."

"The spell only has one rune," Blind cut in, grinning. "The rune for alteration. I channel all my magic through that rune into my ale as I drink it, and it turns the liquor into magical energy instantly, filling up my mana pool." He grinned. "And I'm the only one who can do it."

"Oh, and why is that?"

"Because, my dear, I have next to no magic. When a normal unicorn does a simple spell, they have a base minimum of how much magic gets poured through it. For instance, if you were to use the single alteration rune, you would end up converting whatever you concentrated on into a material that explodes on contact with air. That's actually the basis for most casters' explosive spell, actually. But me, I don't have enough magic to do that. Instead, I have just enough that I can control the alteration into something easily found. I could turn my ale into water, or soda if I wished, but mana's much more useful in liquid form. And since I'm used to channeling low amounts of energy, I can do it even with more magic energy, allowing me to repeat the process indefinitely."

"And that is why I came to him. He can literally make mana."

"One more thing," Blood said. "If you truly are blind, how do you fight so well."

"Another instance of a handicap being a great asset. Since I was blinded at such a young age, I adapted my other senses. I could hear a pin drop in that crowded arena and pinpoint its location. I can recognize an individual pony's scent up to a block away. I can feel the slightest variation in texture. I can taste any trace of poison in even the strongest drink. But most importantly, I can sense even the slightest trace of magic."

"I'm not sure I understand how that helps you fight four Earth Ponies. Or Pegasi for that matter."

"It's simple. Everypony has some form of magic unique to their species. What would a Unicorn be without simple levitation? Likewise, a Pegasus has natural magic that comes in the form of flight, weather control, and cloud walking. That has to come from somewhere, and it just happens to come from their body. The same goes for Earth Ponies, with their natural tie to the earth. Ones who are skilled in their magic can even direct it to feel for tunnels, or to alter a harvest to be better. It's in their blood, and I can feel it."

There was a silence as Blood Axe took this all in. This Unicorn was ridiculously powerful, despite his handicaps. She turned to Maim quietly. "All right, he's in. We have our fourth."

"Someone mind filling a simple lush in on what's going on?"

They spent the rest of the night drinking and being merry. For tomorrow, they would find themselves fighting for their lives.