It was time for the fight. We were walking through the school halls, heading towards the boxing room.

"You didn't get to see her because those guys interrupted us," said Nerdy, "but trust me, she's too tough for you."

"Nerdy," I started, getting incredibly irritated at how little faith he had in me, "she is a teenage boxer, I am a twenty six year old god slayer. While it's true that I haven't actually killed any gods, I've beat some into submission and that's good enough to warrant me the badass title. I struggled with Gilda because I wasn't used to this body, but now I'm getting used to fighting with minimal magic."

"Your ego is too big!"

"Your faith is too small!" I stopped walking and turned to face him. "Do you believe in me or not?" He stopped too.

"Of course I do, but that's no reason to throw caution into the wind! It's the whole reason Sunset even stole the crown in the first place, you weren't being careful enough!"

"And when I was overly careful and sensitive to shit I awakened a second personality and created an alternate timeline that ended with the destruction of the universe!" I reached back and stuck a hand into my bag before he could argue.

Current contents:
-1x Apple brand cider (15% strength).
-1x Tin of high sugar sweets - 'Pinkie Simulators'.
-1x Note.
-2x Unknown Machinery.

Oh, I forgot about that note. I'll read it after the fight. Pinkie Simulators. Pinkie's box of diabetes teleported into my hand and I moved them into my pocket. They'll be useful soon... Dammit, unless this bag has magic cooling, the cider's gone warm. Bleh.

I continued walking when I realised something. Wait, shouldn't he have continued arguing by this point? I looked around. Nerdy was nowhere in sight. Crap. He's either bucked off, or someone grabbed him quietly... I scratched my chin. I don't have time to look for him, but I'm not exactly the abandoning type... At that moment, a couple of Primotaurs came around the corner of the hallway. Oh, perfect! Gilda and Suri walked up to me, the latter looking nervous while the former looked calm.

"Hey, boss," greeted Gilda. Suri said nothing.

"You seem awfully okay with calling me that," I observed. "I thought you'd be less okay with me beating you." She shrugged.

"Best fight I've had in years. I respect that."

"Fair enough."

"So what's the plan?"

"You're talking as if Dust's going to fight dirty." She nodded.

"Yep. Lights tends to get her goons to weaken her opponents before she fights 'em. Makes her seem much tougher than she looks. She's still tough though. But don't worry," she added, "judging from the way you fought me, she doesn't stand a chance."

"Good to know, but you seem to be the only one who thinks that. She's already sent some goons after me, I left the pile of eight outside." Gilda gave me a confused frown.

"What? Eight? But she should know to send more than that for someone like you." What? Then why would she-? Shit, Nerdy!

"Dammit! They were sent for my friend!"

"The scrawny kid?"

"And he just disappeared before you got here!" Gilda's expression suddenly became more serious.

"They must've taken him."

"Shit!" I don't have time to save him! Good thing I've got backup. "Gilda, I need you and your people to search the school and find him!" She nodded curtly.

"Right." She set off down the hallway. I turned to Suri.

"Suri," the mare in question jumped from the sudden attention, "go compile all of the information you have on Sunset Shimmer, specifically how she deals with people and how she fights." She nodded nervously before heading the same way as Gilda. I turned and ran towards the boxing room door. And I'll smash Lightning into dust!

I burst into the boxing room. The room was square with a boxing ring in the centre. The room itself was fairly big, nearly as big as the gym. There were about ten more sport-clothed Primotaurs around the room, and in the ring stood Dust herself. I took a deep breath to calm my pulse and began stretching out.

"So," started Dust, "you've finally arrived. I guess you were serious about getting fucked up by me."

"Uh huh," I said, barely paying attention as I stretched, "shit talking and whatever, yeah."

"What?" I did my final stretches, focusing on my neck.

"I was talking at your level of intelligence, but I guess you're stupider than you look and sound." I began calmly walking towards the ring. As I did so, I popped open the tin in my pocket and slipped the PS in my mouth. Ooh, much chewier than I thought they'd be. Mm, strawberry.

"Shut up! One v one me!" I rolled my eyes and dropped my bag onto the floor as I climbed into the ring.

"Are we gonna keep talking or are we gonna fight?" She shouted in frustration and charged at me. Huh, what do you know, she is somewhat fast. The PS kicked in and the speed of the universe seemed to halve. Oh buck yeah! This is AWESOME!

I smiled and casually walked around the charging Dust, grabbed a leg with each hand and yanked them out from under her. She slowly fell towards the floor, but I got under her, shifted my weight and threw her across the ring. Even with all of the sugar in me, she traveled pretty quickly and crashed into the ground.

She climbed back up at an impressive speed and charged again. I got behind her again and suplexed her. Interestingly yet obviously, only my senses and movements were sped up and not my actual body, meaning that I also seemed to fall in slow motion. Unfortunately, while it was fun to do, it was the worst mistake I could have made. The tin of Pinkie Simulators slipped out of my pocket, opened up and spilled three of the sweets onto the ring. Shit! I ran across the ring and grabbed two of them. Dammit, where'd the other one go?!

"Hey, you cheating bastard!" Shouted a voice from behind me. OH BUCK! I spun around to see Dust moving at double speed along with me. A little blood was running down her neck, likely from the back of her head. "I don't know what those things are, but I'm taking them from you when I beat your cheating ass!"

"Oh, you wanna see cheating?" I asked stalling for time as I charged a small and weak Kinetic Circle on my fist. "How's this for cheating?!" It was my turn to charge. I unleashed the- Oh shit! Before I hit her with the KC Punch, she dodged out of the way. So that's what that feels like... It was at that moment that I learned something new about how Kinetic Circles worked.

It seemed that Kinetic Circles didn't just make kinetic movements much more powerful, they pretty much launched me in the direction I unleashed them. I really need to get back to researching Arcane Circles at some point... I'll do it the day after things go back to normal so I have time to rest.

I had plenty of time to think to myself as I slowly flew across the room from the force of the KC Punch. Before I hit the wall, I adjusted my positioning with a few tiny Support Circles. I landed on the wall for a second before launching myself off of it to fly back towards the ring. Pinkie Simulators almost make it seem like gravity is halved since I'm perceiving things so quickly...

I landed back in the ring.

"You done fucking around?!" Shouted Dust. "And what the fuck was that?!"

"Something I don't understand as well as I should," I muttered to myself.

"What?!"

"Oh, buck you." We charged towards each other, the world around us moving in slow motion.

Dust took the first move with a lightning speed punch. I barely dodged it but before I could attack, she threw another. I dodged again. Another punch, another dodge. Punch, dodge, punch, dodge. Finally I found an opening and drove my knee into her stomach. She cried out, but I didn't pause for even a second. I grabbed the back of her shirt and threw her face first into the ground.

She rolled out of the fall and was straight back on her feet, but it gave me enough time to take to offense. I threw a feint punch at her face and, immediately after, another to where I predicted she'd move to. My calculation was correct, landing another blow to her stomach.

Dust seemingly endured my attack and sweeped my legs with a kick. I fell to the ground onto my back. Dust threw punch after punch at me and, with nowhere to dodge, I was forced to catch each one before letting go to grab the next. After a few seconds of this, I grabbed her wrist instead, yanked as hard as I could and swapped our positions.

She rolled again but didn't get up so quickly, allowing me to land a heavy kick to her stomach. Weakened by my earlier blows to that spot, Dust's arms gave out for a second form the pain before climbing up once more, but much more slowly. While I had the chance, I grabbed her by the neck and slammed her back into the ground. I kept my right hand around her neck and summoned a small and weak Kinetic Circle around my free fist.

"Give up now," I started, "or- BUCK!" She kicked my Primotaur delicates. My Kinetic Circle shattered and my grip loosened for a second. While it was loose, Dust dug her thumb into the flesh just below my wrist, causing plenty of pain and making my fingers lock up. With, my grip gone, she easily threw me off of her.

We both lay still for a couple of seconds, breathless and in pain. Why do Primotaur limbs have to be such bad weak spots? Seriously, that really bucking hurt!

"It seems we're at an impasse..." Gasped Dust.

"I don't believe in impasses!" I replied, leaping to my feet and running over to her. Before I could attack, she leapt to hers. We both stood still for a moment, understanding that this was the final stretch of the fight.

Dust flew at me with a flurry of punches, all of which I blocked with a small Shield Circle. She reared back in pain allowing me to unload my finishing combo: I punched her in the face, grabbed the top of her head with my other hand and summoned a small and weak Kinetic Circle around my punching hand.

"Dodge this," I said, before unleashing the KC Punch straight into her face. She was launched backwards so powerfully that it could have been normal speed and landed in an unmoving heap. A small pool of blood formed under her- Also at normal speed? Wait, what?

I looked around.

Nerdy, Gilda and Suri along with what I assumed were all of the latter two's goons were standing by the doorway, all gaping.

"I... I can't believe it..." Breathed Nerdy at normal speed. His expression hardened a good deal. "You totally ripped off the Mat-!"

"When did you all get here?" I asked, cutting him off.

"About two minutes ago," replied Gilda, who seemed to be in shock. ...Just after the fight started. But why did the PS wear off? Pinkie said they were supposed to last an hour... Hmm... It's logical to assume that using up more energy makes them wear off faster. But that means that it wore off in the middle of the fight, so I was keeping up to her with- Pure adrenaline and concentration. Holy shit... I should start training properly with Vesper so I can fight that fast more often. Agreed!

Just then, I remembered the pain I was in.

"BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-!"

Author's Notes:

So that's what that feels like...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFnLJlXRRw4&feature=youtu.be

---

Dust dug her thumb into the flesh just below my wrist, making my fingers lock up.

Note to self: When unsure whether I'm remembering something correctly, look it up rather than testing it on myself you FUCKING IDIOT OOOOWWWW.
It's very painful and awkward for the receiver when done right. Don't try it.

---

Fun fact:
KC Punches are based off of the Kinetic Strike Module from XCOM Enemy Within. When Cloud actually throws the punch, it looks somewhat similar to that.
To anyone that knows it, you should now have a clearer picture of how KC Punches look.
Unless you pictured something you think is better, in which case feel free to keep picturing that.

---

To anyone worried that Pinkie Simulators are way too OP:
A batch takes a month to make and are ridiculously expensive (one thousand bits per tin).
There are six in a tin and the ingredients are very rare. Most have to be imported from other lands and that alone takes another month.
It takes the farmers and scavengers another month to harvest/collect the ingredients.
Overall, it takes three months per batch, and only ten tins worth of PSs are made from it.

---

So I've realised why I've been having trouble writing for a bit:
THIS ARC HAS BEEN GOING FOR FOUR MONTHS ALREADY.
THIS KINDA MAKES ME DREAD THE STORY'S FINAL ARC SINCE THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THAT LONG BUT THE FINAL ARC IS.

Anyway; after this chapter, things should speed up since we'll be at the final mini arc in this arc.