“OH HELL NO! I am NOT taking my clothes off!” I screamed at Thistle after he told me what he meant by prepping us for the battle.

Apparently clothes counted as armor, and since you weren’t supposed to take anything with you into the Royale, Jack and I would have to strip our clothes off. I was already having second thoughts about this whole gig.

“I don’t see what the problem is,” Thistle said looking thoroughly confused. “Clothes are an armor against nature’s elements so technically, yes, they are an armor and must come off. Why are you two so against this?”

Jack and I looked at each other embarrassed and I wondered how we would answer this unbelievable question. How do you explain to a species that doesn’t need to wear clothes why people like me and Jack absolutely need to wear clothes?

‘Oh god, why is this happening?’

“Ummm, well it’s kind of like this,” Jack said as he boldly stepped up to answer Thistle’s question. “You see, Katy and I don’t have natural barriers like you when it comes to… concealing ourselves.”

If anything Thistle looked more confused. Falca and Vigilant just started at us weirdly and Jack sighed as he tried to explain more plainly.

“Without our clothes our genitals would just hang out in the open, and although our bodies have been transformed, that fact still hasn’t changed,” Jack said with his face looking redder than usual.

Falca blinked rapidly after Jack’s explanation and also looked a little red under the feathers. Vigilant was beat red after the explanation and started to cough into his hoof to avoid looking at us. The Twin Serpents hardly reacted at all, but Thistle’s eyes traveled downwards towards our pelvic regions in a fascinated manner.

“Interesting,” Thistle said in a light tone of voice. Rolling my eye, I snapped my fingers in front of my crotch to bring Thistle’s attention back to our faces.

“So what is going to happen? Jack and I aren’t going out there with nothing on so what do we do?” I asked the prince with a touch of annoyance in my voice.

Thistle stroked the underside of his beak as he pondered our little problem. His gaze traveled all over our bodies again in an analytical manner then he started to circle around us. He mumbled a few words that I could just barely make out.

“No, no, no, can’t have genitals out there in the open. We have cubs in the audience after all.”

‘You’ll have cubs watch a gladiator rip a hydra’s throat out, but my vagina is too much for them?’ I thought bewildered at the prince’s logic.

“Okay darlings how about this, you both strip off all of your clothes EXCEPT the ones you need to cover your genitalia. Does that sound alright with you two?” Thistle asked looking at us expectantly.

Jack and I looked at each other again and Jack just shrugged his shoulders in acceptance of the compromise. He was already half naked with that outfit he was wearing and I realized he wouldn’t have to take much off. I sighed in acceptance and nodded to Thistle that we would agree to the compromise. With a snap of his talons Thistle had the Twin Serpents bring up a large wooden box that would hold Jack’s lightsaber and our clothes. I reached down to take my boots off as Jack took his sandals off and we both placed them inside the box. Jack took the black diadem off his head and striped off his lightsaber, the black sleeves, and the harness that clung to his back. I contemplated taking my black tank top off but reconsidered it when I realized I didn’t really have a good bra on for a fight. Instead of a sport’s bra it was one of those strapless bras I liked to use when I went out into town. The tank top was tight fitting and really only covered my chest now instead of my abdomen but it could still help keep my girls from bouncing around too much when the fighting happens. I rolled up the legs of my jeans until they passed my knees and converted them into shorts so I could have a little more freedom of movement. When I was done I looked myself over one more time and decided I was satisfied.

After we finished taking off as many clothes as we would allow, Thistle stared at me strangely again. Jack was in nothing but his black lower robe to cover his legs and I myself only had my blue jean shorts and my tank top left. What was the problem now?

“Are you not going to take off your upper clothes?” Thistle asked me. At this I smacked my forehead wondering where my limit was going to be at with this guy.

“Look where we come from a girl’s chest is also covered as well okay.” I said hoping that would be enough for the prince.

“But Jack’s chest is out in the open and he doesn’t seem to mind,” Thistle retorted while pointing a talon at Jack’s pecs.

“Oh come on, there is an obvious difference here. His tits are not similar to mine at all and they won’t bounce around everywhere when in the middle of a fight.”

“Um actually,” Jack interrupted. “Mine can bounce a little.” As he said this Jack had his massive pecs bounce up and down one after the other.

“Jaaaack. You. Are. Not. Helping,” I said while glaring at my brother.

“Sorry,” Jack said as he stopped his little show.

“Alright, alright, fine this is good enough.” Thistle relented as he snapped his talons again to have the Twins take our possessions away.

After finishing up we made our way out of our little private room and walked through the hallways of the Pens. It was on the lower floors of the arena and it was a little darker when compared to the upper floors. Dimly lit white glow stones brightened the hallways as we walked down them and we soon came across why this place was called the Pens. Massive cages imbedded into the walls houses dozens of dangerous creatures both big and small. One colossal cage took up half the wall and housed a couple hydras that watched and snapped at us as we passed. Another smaller cage housed a cragadile which I recognized from the beginning of season 4 and its rock covered back was turned to us as it focused on tearing into a huge slab of meat in its mouth. Further onwards and many cages later we passed a shadowed cage that I at first thought housed nothing until I noticed an odd pair of eyes gazing at me at the very back of the cage.

The cage’s back interior was layered with shadow and I couldn’t see what those eyes belonged to, but even if I couldn’t see it I knew it had to be huge. Its eyeballs were nearly as big as my head and they eerily reminded me of something. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why they looked so familiar but it unsettled me nonetheless. The pupils were horizontal and slanted like ovals with an enchanting emerald green sclera surrounding it.

The green, it was… just so beautiful.

‘I need to see it, what do those eyes belong to? But these bars are in the way. Wait… I’ve got superhuman strength, just break them. Then I can see… but why do I need to see? Why do I feel this way? Maybe if I just see what those eyes belong to then it’ll make sense. But why…’

Suddenly instead of seeing green I saw gold.

“Katy look at me, just ignore it.”

It was Jack’s voice, I’m looking at Jack. These are Jack’s eyes. His new eyes.

Suddenly, as if a fog was just lifted from my mind, I was alert and thinking clearly again. Jack was in front of me and blocking my view of the cage. The cage… there was something in there, something that wanted to get out.

“What the hell is that?” I said trying to keep my voice level.

“I don’t know,” Jack said as he turned around to look inside the cage. Panicky I thought he would fall into the same trance that I fell into but he quickly looked away and over to Thistle and the others up ahead who looked worried. Was the Force protecting Jack from whatever that thing was doing to me?

“Thistle?”

The prince beckoned us to come closer to them and away from the cage and I was more than happy to oblige. We were far away from the cage now and I couldn’t see into the cage even if I wanted to.

“I’m going to have to have a word with the beast master about not keeping that thing properly contained. There should be a cover over the bars to keep what Katy just went through from happening.” Thistle said, his smile gone and replaced with an uncharacteristically serious expression.

“But what is it?” Jack pressed.

“A demon from Tartarus.”

“Falca please, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, but I’m sorry for what happened down there.” My idiot of an elder brother told me as we walked up the steps to the Hiallan box seats.

We had just left Jack and Katy down at the Pens where they would be ready to be called into the arena when the time was right. When we were walking through the Pen’s halls I had expected there would be some extremely dangerous creatures down there that Thistle had collected over the years. But never, never in a thousand lifetimes would I have expected Thistle to have found something like that.

A demon, an actual demon from the heart of Tartarus itself! I can’t believe that Thistle would do something so risky as to bring something like that here to our Isles. Actually, never mind, I can believe it. If it is exotic and has the potential to bring in a large amount of profit, Thistle will find some way to benefit from it. When we walked past it I didn’t see exactly what kind of demon it was, but if I had to guess its type I would hypothesize that it was the seductive type. A demon that uses hypnotic illusion to lull victims into a trance and make them easy to devour, or enslave them to do the demon’s bidding. It seemed like it was trying to enslave Katy.

If I remember correctly from the lessons my tutors taught me as a cub, it was that seduction demons were vicious and ugly looking creatures that only had one specific body part that was truly beautiful. A tail, a set of wings, or even a set of beautiful teeth were used to lull their victims into a trance. But knowledge of demons has become very outdated over the past thousand years. All knowledge and study of demons ceased when Cerberus was used to halt demons and Eques’s most dangerous criminals from trespassing into our world. So it came to me as a bit of a surprise when not a single one of my tutors ever mentioned a seduction demon with beautiful eyes like that one down there.

‘Have demons changed over the time they’ve been gone? If so what other new forms have those vile creatures taken over the years.’ It chilled me to even think about it and I thanked the Ancestors that Jack was able to notice in time that Katy was falling under the demon’s spell.

After Thistle’s fifth apology I decided to have mercy and actually talked to my brother.

“Did you even ask father’s permission first before you brought that thing close to the heart of our House?” I asked with more than a little heat in my tone.

“Yes in fact I did! Believe it or not I can be a responsible griffin when I want to be Falca. Father wasn’t supportive of the idea at first but he eventually came around after I assured him that I could take care of the blasted thing if anything happened.” He replied causing me to sigh.

“How did you capture it? How did you even find a demon like that? I thought nothing could get past Cerberus!” Vigilant Star asked as he followed us. He looked pretty shaken and to be honest I couldn’t blame him, because it’s not every day when you come across a monster of legend. These are very interesting times we live in as more dangerous monsters and infamous myths keep popping up everywhere like flies.

Thistle paused at the stairs to point out one his rings and suddenly I realized how he managed to capture the beast. The ring with the pink diamond protects his mind from outside influences and it must have made it infinity easier for him to subdue the demon. Despite his foppish appearance, Thistle was just as good a warrior as Takada and I so physically overpowering the demon didn’t come as much as a surprise to me. He probably also had help with his pet assassins.

“As for how I found it,” Thistle explained. “You’d be surprised how many secret passages there are between worlds. Cerberus may guard Tartarus’s main gate but Eques and Tartarus are connected through more than just one passage. These passages appear at random and are sometimes so small that they can appear to be sub-cellular, but they are still there. I even encountered one of these passageways in one of my many travels and it was barely the size of my beak. The demon must have gotten very lucky with an abnormally large one but it was very unlucky that it came across me before anyone else.”

“What are you planning to do with it Thistle, and please tell me you don’t plan to use it in an arena match?” I asked, although who was I kidding? Throwing that thing into the arena was exactly what he intended to do with it.

“Don’t worry my doting little sister I’m not going to sick it on any of the less experienced gladiators. Once I’m assured that I’ve found a gladiator that can resist its hypnotic abilities, then I’ll set it loose. After I’ve advertised the fight from the ends of Equestria to the edges of the zebra lands of course.”

‘I’d prefer that you didn’t have a fight at all’ I thought bitterly.

We just got to the doors of the Hiallan box seats and I opened the doors to surprisingly find that father and Takada were there waiting for us.

“Father? Takada? I didn’t expect to see you here.” I said while paused at the doors. I especially didn’t expect to see father here as I thought he would be busy with duties he neglected after our trip to Equestria.

“Of course they’re here, I invited them! Who doesn’t invite family to a spectacle such as this?” Thistle said as he and his pets walked past me and Vigilant to lounge in one of the box’s plush couches. He must have had this all planned before we stepped onto his hotel.

“But father I thought you would be too busy. Weren’t you just working on a-.”

“Oh come now Falca can’t a King enjoy the last few years of his reign with a few distractions every once in a while with his family?” My father asked interrupting me. “Besides I’m also fulfilling one of my duties by personally observing how our new Warden handles himself in a fight. Also my advisors and aides can handle the reins of government for a little while longer without me.”

“Ok,” I said uneasily, still a little off put by my father’s presence and his care free behavior. Then I saw him take a drink out of a goblet and suddenly his behavior made a lot more sense. By just looking at the liquid I could tell it was Savvy, his favorite kind of wine and it must have been a 1028 vintage if he was swallowing such a generous portion of it. It was a harder wine than most and could almost be called a spirit, but it was balanced by a sweet and rich creamy flavor.

“I assume you are here for the same reason Takada?” I asked as I took a seat next to father.

“Yes and I hope Jack is ready for this. The Royale will be Jack’s first display of strength in public and he has to make a good impression. I hope he can make do without his sword.”

“Don’t worry yourself too much Takada,” Thistle assured with a laugh. “Jack and Katy can probably plow through the competition with nothing but brute strength alone. Did you see their muscles? By the Ancestors, they both look like they can arm wrestle with a dragon.” Thistle popped off the cork of another bottle of Savvy and joined in with father.

The doors to the box opened again and I looked back to see that my small younger brother Hyde had come to join us as well.

“Hyde! I’m so glad you came, now the whole family is all here.” Thistle said with a wide smile.

“Umm, hello everyone,” Hyde said in a quiet tone.

Hyde wasn’t looking too well. Instead of his normal clean and excited self, Hyde’s feathers were unkempt and it looked like he had some chemicals staining both his fur and feathers. He tried to mask his tiredness with a smile but I wasn’t fooled. Hyde must have been overworking himself after our botched attempt to restore Jack’s original face. He always overworks when he’s depressed or when he feels that he messed something up. I wanted to ask what the problem was but I knew he would close up if we were in front of family.

Especially if Takada was present.

I knew this had to be about Jack so after this Royale I was definitely going to see if I could get the two of them together.

“Hyde it’s good to see you son,” father said warmly.

“Thank you papa- I mean father,” Hyde said quickly trying to correct himself. But father just waved his wing telling him it was all right.

In a rather bold move, Hyde even went up to Takada and tried to say hello.

“Hello Takada, you look well.”

Takada didn’t reply to Hyde’s greeting. She didn’t even look at him.

“Takada, say hello to your little brother,” father said, his tone now suddenly serious. My sister sighed in acceptance and looked down at our little brother as if he was an annoying cub.

“Hello Hyde,” she said and left it at that.

Sighing that those two words were all he was going to get from her, Hyde came over to sit by me. Thinking that he need a little comfort I wrapped a wing around him and hugged him to my side. Father, seeming like he just remembered that Vigilant Star was here with us, beckoned the pony over to sit with us.

“Come over here and join us sergeant. Have a drink with me and enjoy the show!”

“I’m not sure if it would be proper your majesty. I’m already grateful that you’ve allowed me in here.” Vigilant replied uncertainly.

“Nonsense! Come over here have some of my wine. It’ll put feathers on your chest.”

“Alright hold still, almost done.” The aide said as she latched the small disk on my back.

The disk was a safety feature for Jack and I. The disk was a small device that protected the user from harm and also acted as the regulator for how much punishment you could receive in the Royale. A small near invisible barrier will surround the user and protect them from trauma both physical and magical, but if you received too much damage then you would be kicked out of the fight. The limit of damage you could receive would be shown by color indicators on the barrier: green meant your barrier was healthy, yellow showed that you were damaged and should be cautious, while red showed that you were done and would be kicked out.

There also were other safety features in the arena itself. There were wards inside the arena’s walls that would heal individuals if they sensed that someone was seriously hurt. Then there were medical teams of griffins ready to swoop into the arena and fly injured gladiators to safety.

In theory, no one should get too hurt no matter how hard I punch them.

The aide went over some other rules that we already knew, like no weapons or armor unless they were magically summoned, and how the both of us needed to be the last ones standing if we wanted to win.

“Also, remember that there is the Ta’cal challenge if you want to fight someone individually.” The aide finished as the disk stuck to my back like a suction cup. I flexed my muscles around to see if it would fall off but it held firm.

“What’s the Ta’cal challenge?” Jack asked as he twisted his head around to look at the disk on his back.

“It’s a challenge gladiators call out if they want to fight someone without interference and without the disks. Gladiators use it all the time if they want the one their challenging to hurt when they strike them. You can cut them and even break a few bones, but you’re still not allowed to kill them. Gladiators use them in grudge matches all the time and they use them especially in the Royale to provide a little order in their fights amongst the chaos. But remember that you can only call out the challenge once in the Royale.”

“Thanks for the info,” I said as I looked down at the aide. She was a cute little thing and probably had just reached adulthood. She was so excited when Thistle asked her to prep us with the disks.

“Um if it’s not too much to ask…” she paused as if to consider whether to ask her question. “But can I have your autographs after the Royale?”

I was completely stunned after hearing her request. I think I even felt my heart skip a beat.

‘She wants my autograph?’

I looked over at Jack to see was just as stunned as I was and we both shrugged our shoulders in agreement for the young aide’s request.

“Sure,” we both said at the same time.

“Oh thank you so much! OHHH WOW this is so awesome…*ahem*… Ehhh good luck you two.” The aide said as she skipped away into the Pens as happy as can be. As soon as she was far enough away I turned to Jack who had a goofy grin on his face.

“You know, I feel kinda like a rock star now,” I told Jack after I went over what just happened in my head again.

“Same here,” Jack replied as he walked over to the entrance of the arena. The entrance was a magically transparent stone wall that would slide down once Guile announced the beginning of the Royale. Jack leaned against the wall and shook his head as if he just realized something unbelievable.

“Look at us. Just a month ago I was studying for midterms at college and you had just earned your pilot license. Now we’re in a cartoon world as video game characters fighting in an arena while offering to sign autographs to a griffin. Are we sure we’re not in some crazy dream?”

I could hardly believe it myself.

“Yep it’s happening Jack,” I answered with a shrug. “I’m a fish with legs that bleeds magic dust while you’re a jolly red giant that can lift things with his mind like Yoda. This… heh… this is real.”

Jack chuckled at my words and shook his head again. Then he looked back up at me, with a look I could recognize from his old self even though it had changed so drastically.

“I’m glad I’m not going through this alone. It feels like with my big sis here, this all doesn’t seem as crazy as it should be.”

I placed a hand on his muscled shoulder and smiled up at him as I laughed.

“Hehehe, don’t worry little bro, I’ll always have your back. But I’m not too sure if I’ll make things less crazy when I’m around. In fact it’s a certainty that stability will leave the building if it sees me coming.”

We laughed hard at my little joke until a booming voice echoed throughout the arena.

“PATRONS OF THE TITAN ARENA! WE INTERUPPT TONIGHT’S SCHEDULED MATCHES TO BRING YOU ALL A SPECIAL SURPRISE!”

Guile paused in his announcement to allow the audience’s reaction fill the arena. Boo’s and howls of confusion echoed across the walls at Guile’s words.

“I KNOW YOU WERE ALL WAITING TO SEE SWEET POISON LADA GO UP AGAINST A FEW MAULWURFS.BUT I ASSURE YOU, THIS SURPRISE IS SOMETHING YOU ALL WANT TO SEE. FOR TONIGHT WE ARE SKIPPING AHEAD A FEW WEEKS AND ARE HAVING A HIALLA’S ROYALE INSTEAD!”

The whole audience seemed confused. Disordered murmurs and mutterings filled the arena and questions of why were asked by the hundreds.

“BUT WHAT COULD WARRANT SUCH AN ESTRANGED SHIFT IN SCHEDULE YOU MAY ASK? WELL I’LL LET YOU ALL IN ON A LITTLE SECRET. AMONGST THE 100 GLADIATORS ARE TWO SPECIAL GUESTS TO OUR WORLD AND THEY ARE HERE TO TEST THEMSELVES AGAINST WHAT THE TITAN ARENA CAN OFFER.”

Gasps and silence was all the audience could produce.

“WHAT BETTER WAY TO TEST THEM THEN BY THROWING A SMALL ARMY AT THEM?! PATRONS OF THE TITAN ARENA I GIVE YOU JACK KRIEGER, SAVIOR OF THE BELOVED PRINCESS FALCA, SLAYER OF THE APER MAJOR, AND WARDEN OF THE SHATTERD ISLES!!! ALONG WITH HIM IS NONE OTHER THAN HIS SISTER! KATY KRIEGER, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS UNDYNE, WITH SCALES THAT ARE SAID TO BE AS BLUE AS THE CERULEAN SEA, WITH STRENGH INDEFINITE, AND WHO’S VERY PRESENSE SPARKS FEAR AND DREAD IN THE HEART OF EQUESTRIA!!!

Cheers and excited roars filled the arena once more.

Through the magical transparent walls of the gates Jack and I saw the arena shift and change before our very eyes. Gears and the loud sounds of machinery drowned out the audience as the arena floor divided into hundreds of separate squares with steam hissing through the gaps. The squares that once acted as the arena fell by the dozens and the arena soon turned into a deep dark pit with no bottom in sight. But the arena’s vacancy did not last for long as hundreds of new squares rose from the pit’s depths and combined themselves quickly to form a new kind of arena. What was once a rocky terrain had been replaced with a sand floor that glittered a little in the arena’s lights. Hills were replaced with a dozen tall stone obelisks that formed a circle midway into the arena and at the center of the obelisk circle was a large pool of water. When I touched the transparent wall that divided us from the arena I could feel the heat emitting from within the arena.

‘Heat? Uh oh.’

The transparent wall slid into the ground and we made our way into the arena as the hot sand touched our bare feet.

‘OW, OW, OW, OW,’ I said internally as the scales on my feet did nothing to protect my poor toes from the heat. I was already beginning to sweat from the heat and I was starting to have flashbacks when I was back in Canterlot and the sun baked me alive in my armor.

More walls slid down to allow the 98 other gladiators to enter the arena and they were all a mishmash of warriors from other species with griffins dominating the ranks. To my far left was a group of four diamond dogs who each looked just as dense and brutish as Fido from that episode where Rarity was captured. These dogs were laughing and leering at each gladiator that came near them and they pawed at the sands as if it was sacred. To my far right were surprisingly a group of ponies, but not the ponies I saw back up in the Blood Room. Each of them was a unicorn stallion with short cropped manes but each was easily identified by the color of their coats: red, blue, yellow, and green. They formed a tight formation and marched through the sands with the confidence of soldiers.

But amongst all the gladiators, one group in particular grabbed my attention above all others. This group I recognized as they were the minotaurs from the Blood Room. Each one of them were big fellows probably just as tall or a little taller than me but it was their leader, the tallest one with the grey fur coat, that really grabbed at my attention. Now that he wasn’t sitting down and my view of him wasn’t blocked by his compatriots, I saw just how tall he really was. The guy was a behemoth and had to be taller than even Jack with a build that made me wonder if he was lifting weights since the day he was born since his grey furred hide did nothing to hide his mass. But his muscles weren’t the only thing that were big, his horns were long deadly pieces of polished ivory with tips that looked like they could pierce through a steel wall. If I were to compare him to Iron Will, the only minotaur I ever saw from the show, I would say he made Iron Will look like a wimpy nerd.

He stared at me from across the arena and I stared right back.

“THE DESERT IS THEIR BATTLEGROUND THIS NIGHT. 100 GLADIATORS ENTER, ONLY ONE TEAM LEAVES WITH GLORY! GOOD PATRONS OF THE TITAN ARENA, LET HIALLA’S ROYALE BEGIN!!!!!!!!!

All the gladiators moved with purpose and charged at each other or towards us. Adrenaline flowed through me and my breath hitched for a moment as the fighting began. Jack and I held our positions waiting for them and I looked to my brother knowing we would need to bring everything we knew into this fight if we wanted to come out on top. So I realized without a doubt that Jack needed a sword.

I focused and tried to remember all I had learned from a week of training with Vigilant Star. We learned how I could focus and better direct my magic like Undyne could, but we also learned something new as well. While magical spears were my bread and butter, they weren’t the only weapons I could shape with my magic.

I clapped my hands together and focused on the image I wanted to create. Sweat covered my brow as the intense heat made everything I did uncomfortable but I pushed through it. After my brief moment of concentration, and a little bit of magic, I stretched my arms as long as I could and formed a simple bright blue sword in my hands. Grabbing it by the blade I threw the sword over to my brother knowing he would make great use of it.

“Jack catch!”

My heart drummed in my chest in anticipation for the fight as the Force flowed vibrantly through me. Movement and reality slowed to snail’s crawl as the Force enhanced my perceptions and reactions dramatically. The Dark Side, scorching and reveling in anticipation for battle, was kept in check inside the core of my being. I held it back, knowing that its power would be far more effective when the right moment came. The words of Darth Malgus, one of my holocron teachers, echoed within my mind

‘A foolish Sith acts on nothing but rage alone; a wise Sith calms their fury till the time is right. Channel emotions like despair, fear, and rage into a vessel within your mind and channel it again and again till that vessel is filled. Mold the vessel with your pain, take the blood lost and use it as an alloy to reinforce that vessel. Then when that vessel cracks and breaks at the seams, release it! Release your WRATH!’

So I did as I was taught. I feared if I failed to perform well against all these opponents I would disappoint the griffins of the Shattered Isles and myself. I would disappoint Falca and her family who was watching me right now. I feared for Katy’s safety and that fear by itself was stronger than any I had ever felt. I channeled all of that fear and used it to fuel the Dark Side’s power.

Then my fear led to anger. Anger at these fools who would dare to challenge me and those I held dear. I drew upon old memories and used the anger I felt for The Merchant and Valkorion to enhance my power. My rage bristled like a flame and that flame became the Dark Side’s avatar.

Despair did not fill my heart but that was because I had nothing to be sorrowful about yet.

I channeled these emotions into a vessel in my mind and that vessel waited till it was ready to be of use. For now, I shall fight without the aid of the dark.

“Jack catch!” Katy’s voice called out.

I turned and grabbed the odd sword by the handle and quickly deduced where it came from by the blue glow it emitted. The blade was a little smaller than my lightsaber but it was a minor flaw. It was well balanced in weight and it fit in the palm of my hand as well as the lightsaber hilt did. I was worried that I would have to rely on the Force and hand-to-hand combat for the entirety of this Royale but it would appear I was thankfully wrong.

A significant group of enemies, 24 out of the 98, all rushed to take a crack at Katy and me. They were all griffins and they took to the air to come at us from all sides but thankfully they all individually were rushing to get to us before anyone else did. This made them clumsy in their attack and instead of fighting us in unison they came at us in groups or as individuals. I shifted into Form 1, Shii-cho, to begin this fight as it was the simplest of lightsaber forms and was one of the ideal styles used to face off against multiple opponents. The memories of the Empire’s Wrath became a part of my instincts and the battle officially began when a griffin came down upon me talons extended.

Instead of meeting the griffin head on, I sidestepped quickly to the left of the griffin’s warpath just as he was within meter’s distance to me and clipped one of his wings with my sword. He fell unceremoniously to the ground after that and before he could get back up I brought my sword heavily down upon his head. The sword bounced off the shield the disk provided and the griffin huffed in frustration as the shield color flashed red. The disk flashed for a moment and the griffin waved goodbye to me as he vanished from sight with a white flash like Twilight did when she used her teleport spell.

Three more came and I had a strategy ready for each of them. For the first one I attacked, half-pirouetted to dodge when she counter-attcked, then attacked again with a horizontal strike to her beak. She was gone in a flash like the griffin before her. The other two were faster and attcked in unison. With a flick of my wrist the Force compelled them to collide with each other mid-air before they attacked and I used the split-second opening they left for me to strike them both at the same time. Since they were practically shoulder to shoulder, my sword collided with one of them and sent them both sailing across the arena. The one I struck with my sword flashed red and disappeared while the other one got smacked into an obelisk and had his shield flash yellow. It wasn’t yellow for long however as another griffin gladiator pounced on him in his moment of weakness to finish him off.

More and more griffins came at me and I had to switch to the more defensive Form 3, Soresu, to deflect the multiple talons that tried to strike me from all sides. The griffins were relentless in their assault but my defenses held firm as my sword flowed through the air. I waited for my opportunity to counter-attack and that opportunity came quickly as spears of blue light showered the griffins and disrupted their flow of attack.

To get at my opponents in the air I switched to the offensive style of Form 4, Ataru, and my feet pushed off from the sand as I Force jumped into the air. In a series of acrobatic strikes my sword struck vital points on 4 of the griffins and were teleported away while 3 others were only clipped with passing strikes that would have been fatal had I been using my lightsaber. I returned to the ground with a somersault and looked back at Katy to give her a thumbs up for providing me with my opening. She returned the gesture in kind but we were quick to get back into the fight.

I kept close to Katy as more griffins surrounded us and I did what I could to keep us both defended from our enemies’ talons. I switched constantly between Form 3 and Form 4 by striking and quickly withdrawing before our enemies had a chance to react then for a few seconds I would deflect away any talons that tried to strike either me or Katy. By performing these actions in repetition I managed to keep a full 360°defensive circle around Katy and myself. While I focused on defense Katy would focus on offense.

Katy’s spears would appear from mid-air or would spawn from the ground to fly up and attack every griffin that came near us. Griffins would have to disengage and dodge these spears, which made my job easier, and would eventually be struck by them as Katy threw them in odd angles. One griffin had thought he had successfully dodged one of Katy’s yellow spears but was dead wrong when it switched its flight path and struck him in the back unexpectedly. Another griffin got fed up that none of them were making progress in this fight and threw his whole body at us to disrupt our flow of offense and defense but got a spear in the gut for his recklessness that instantly turned his shield red.

Our teamwork eventually outlasted our attackers as they couldn’t find a way to penetrate my defenses. They even fought amongst each other in a few instances as this was a Royale and not everyone was on the same team. With uncoordinated attacks, reckless infighting, and a constant shower of magical spears, the 24 griffins that attacked us were beaten very easily. All the while my rage continued to develop and the Dark Side grew more powerful within me.

“CAN ANYTHING STOP THESE TWO?! BY THE ANSESTORS, NO ONE CAN SEEM TO EVEN TOUCH THEM. THIS ISN’T A FIGHT, IT’S A SLAUGHTER.” Guile commented as his voice boomed throughout the arena.

After a spear struck down the last of the 24 griffins, an intense large blue beam of energy came barreling towards Katy and me. Were it not for my enhanced senses I doubt I could have reacted in time. With one hand I pushed Katy out of the beam’s path and used the force behind that push to move myself out of the way as well. The large beam passed us and struck the Arena wall with a mighty crack that sent sand flying everywhere. However, when I looked at the wall I found that it was completely unharmed despite the sheer magical power I sensed in that blast. The arena’s wards must have been very powerful.

I traced the source of the large beam to find that it belonged to one of the unicorns, more specifically the blue one. The blue unicorn stallion was surrounded by his fellow unicorns in a weird triangle formation with two at his sides, another behind him, and himself at the center. The blue unicorn’s determined gaze was focused on me and I saw his horn glowing in preparation for what I thought was another energy beam. Wanting to prevent that, I pulled back the sword and used a saber throw to end the unicorn’s attack prematurely. The sword sailed through the air under my guidance with the Force and just as it was about to strike the surprisingly unflinching unicorn, a red spherical barrier blocked my sword.

The blue unicorn smirked at my failed attempt and leveled his horn towards me, so I started to run. My feet pounded the hot sands as I ran across the arena’s perimeter and the unicorn’s energy beam trailed right behind me every step of the way hitting the arena’s walls. I knew I couldn’t outrun it, so as I was calling my sword back into my hand I poured the Force into my legs and backflipped over the energy beam as it passed me. I caught my sword in mid-air and when I landed back on the ground the unicorn had ended his energy beam and was preparing another one. During the few seconds I had before he tried to blast me again, time slowed down for me as I analyzed my opponents and made a plan of attack.

I realized that the barrier that blocked my sword had come from one of the unicorns at the blue unicorn’s sides as the red one’s horn glowed faintly for a moment. I quickly deduced what their group’s strategy was and it was simple by design but very effective. While the blue unicorn blasted their opponents with powerful energy beams, the other three would focus on defense by projecting energy barriers to block attacks. To counter this I would need to get close and shatter their barriers with brute strength but it was going to be hard with that unicorn keeping his focus on me. After one more moment of thought I had a plan set up and time resumed its normal progress.

The beam came swirling towards me again and I raised my sword to meet it with the Force traveling up my arms into the blade’s magic. With the sword reinforced with my power I blocked the beam’s intense magic and the heat emitting from it caused me to sweat profusely. After the beam ended I began to walk forward towards the unicorns, letting them know that their attack wasn’t working. I reveled in the sudden aura of fear they emitted and used that fear to make myself stronger. Every step towards them intensified that fear and whenever I blocked another of the blue one’s energy beams that fear tripled in size. Rather than being fatigued by blocking multiple beams, I grew stronger with every blast as anger and fear amplified my power.

When I finally got near them I raised my sword high in the air and released my wrath, but only a little. I wouldn’t need much Dark Side energy as my blow broke the first barrier easily. With the red barrier gone I struck again at a green barrier emitted from the green unicorn. The green barrier fell just as easily as the red one, but just when I was about to strike at the last yellow barrier, the blue unicorn tried one more time to blast me with his strongest energy beam. With Dark Side energy filling me with unbelievable power I simply raised an arm and blocked the beam with my hand.

Tutaminis was a Force technique used by Sith and Jedi alike that allowed the user to absorb energy in multiple forms. The technique came in many different ways but the one I was currently using permitted me to absorb the huge amounts of magical energy and allowed me to contain it in the palm of my hand. The blue unicorn continued to pour all he could into his attack but in the end he couldn’t even cause me to twitch. After the beam ended the blue unicorn stared up at me horrified as I absorbed the last of his energy into my palm and closed my hand into a fist. Then they were all horrified when my fist opened up to release all of that energy right back at them. The beam struck the yellow energy barrier and shattered as soon as the redirected energy dissipated.

Now deprived of all of their defenses my hand formed into a fist once more with the Force smashing all of the unicorns together into a ball. They wiggled together helplessly in my grasp and I brought them up into the air to smash them upon the sandy ground. Up and down they went again and again till their barriers turned red and they were teleported away in a flash. I let out a chuckle at my victory but my joy was short lived when I sensed a danger coming from below. This danger wasn’t directed at me but was instead heading towards someone else.

“Katy?!”

I looked around the arena to find Katy trying to ward off a pair of griffins with a spear and I did my best to warn her of the danger.

“Katy underneath you!”

She got my warning but it was too late. A pair of paws rose from the ground and grabbed Katy by the ankles to drag her down beneath the sands.

First my body went underneath the sands then it went past cold stone as I was dragged deeper and deeper. I tried to grab onto something, anything I could use to stop the paws from dragging me any further. I had no luck and my descent only ended till my back landed on the floor of a cramped freshly dug cavern that was too dark for me to see. As I tried to get my bearings, another pair of paws grabbed me by the wrists and pulled my arms above my head to hold me down. The paws that dragged me down here still had a hold of my feet and no matter how hard I tried to kick my abductor he wouldn’t let go.

“We got her boys! We got the fish lady! Now beat her up so Sunny can go grab another one.”

I quickly realized that it was the diamond dogs who caught me. Only they could dig up a cavern like this fast enough. The other two diamond dogs were here as well because after the speaker gave out his order I felt more paws starting to wail on me. I could barely move as the dogs punched me wherever they could and slowly I started to see the glow of my barrier turn yellow. If I didn’t do something soon I was going to get kicked out of the Royale real quick!

I then also realized that, yes, I was in a pretty cramped cavern. A cramped cavern where I could hardly move, but neither could the diamond dogs. If the diamond dogs could see in the dark, they would see that I was grinning madly. Blue circles appeared all over the cavern illuminating all of the diamond dogs and the confused expressions on their faces. They could barely even react as dozens of spears extended from the walls and stabbed each one of them while avoiding me. All of their shields flashed yellow and quickly to red as they all vanished in a flash of light leaving me alone in the cavern.

Now that it was over I allowed myself a moment to catch my breath. However, the more I breathed in the terrible dog smell my abductors left behind the more it made me want to leave. My own odor didn’t help either, all the sweat I accumulated up in the arena made me smell like a dead fish. Shaking my head to get past my delirium I slowly crawled up to the hole that ‘Sunny’ dragged me through and started to climb.

One divot and pinch after the other I slowly made my way up through the dark. Thankfully I had enough stamina to make the climb but that didn’t make my ascent any more comfortable. The minimal space available in the hole helped me realize why people got claustrophobic. If I didn’t get out of this hole soon I feared that I too would develop the phobia. Luckily it seemed that my climb would soon be at an end as I saw the light from the arena high above me. I even began to hear the roars of the audience as I slowly got closer and closer.

With both delight and regret, my hands touched the unbearably hot sands of the arena and I pulled myself out.

“SHE’S OUT! SHE MADE IT OUT OF THE DIAMOND DOGS’ TRAP! KATY DEFEATED THE DOGS IN THEIR OWN TERITORY. GIVE HER A ROUND OF APPLAUSE!!!” Guile encouraged as I pulled myself entirely from the hole.

Cheers and shouts of encouragement emanated from the audience. Then, from a small sect of the audience, I heard them begin to shout out my name. My name grew louder as the chant continued and soon it was all I could hear.

“KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!!

‘They’re all cheering for me?’

“KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!!

‘I’m… I’m feeling something here. Pride? No it’s something else.’

“KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!!

‘It feels like I’m being filled with something.’

“KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!!

‘Their cheers, they fill me with something. It fills me with… It fills me with…’

I lost track of my train of thought as a gladiator went sailing across the arena in front of me and suddenly disappeared in a flash of light. I looked to where that gladiator came from and saw that it was Jack who threw the poor soul. He looked… evil, for lack of a better word.

His face was twisted into a snarl and his sharp sith pureblood teeth gleamed in the arena’s light. His eyes instead of the normal golden color were a sickly pale yellow with hints of black veins surrounding them. There was also an icy feeling surrounding him that made me instantly forget about the arena’s heat and now I felt like shivering slightly. For a moment I thought that Jack had fallen to the Dark Side.

But it was all over once he saw me. Jack’s snarl relaxed into a relieved smile and the corrupted features around his eyes faded away as if they were not even there. The icy feeling was gone.

“You’re alright! I thought you were a goner.” Jack said happily as he walked over to me.

“Couldn’t you sense that I was ok with the Force?” I asked. Realization dawned on Jack and he promptly facepalmed.

“Yeah I could have, but after I saw you get taken I thought you got kicked from the arena and I got distracted.” Jack pointed out the rest of the arena and I suddenly knew what he meant. A few of the stone obelisks near the pool were shattered into pieces and there was a significant number of gladiators missing. If I had to guess there were only 26 gladiators including us left in the arena. The only ones besides the griffins were the minotaurs and even they seem to have lost one of their own. The big minotaur was still in the fight but he kept his distance from us.

“I felt the need to…vent.” Jack said as he rubbed his neck in embarrassment. He raised the sword I made for him and I saw that he had broken it in half in his rampage.

“That’s alright Jack,” I said trying to reassure him. “You still left some for me!”

Jack chuckled faintly. “Do you think you can make me a new sword?”

Honestly I didn’t know. This heat was really getting to me and I probably couldn’t make Jack a sword as durable as the one I first gave him. If I didn’t get some water soon I was gonna… wait a minute.

I looked towards the pool and suddenly a plan was starting to form in my head. I asked Jack to bend over so I could whisper into his ear.

Jack threw another griffin into the pool. She kicked with her paws and wings as she desperately tried to escape the pool’s confines, knowing what awaited her if she didn’t get out soon. She even almost made it as I saw hope expressed on her features. But she wouldn’t get out, none of them did.

‘Another victim,’ I thought evilly.

I played with her a little and grabbed her by her hind paw to drag her further underneath the surface. My hand was already far away from her as she lashed out unceremoniously at me in the water. I took a page out of the diamond dog’s playbook and decided to use their own strategy against the remaining gladiators. Fight the enemy in your own territory. Only instead of deep underground I fought my enemies deep underwater.

The pool was only 6 meters deep and wide but it was more than enough space for me to swim freely. My hands and feet had converted into webbed appendages again and it allowed me to swim underwater as fast as a bullet. I even felt much stronger as well as my stamina was quickly rejuvenated the minute I dived into the water.

After I dived into the pool I had Jack keep throwing any gladiators who were foolish enough to get near him into the water so I could easily finish them off. The land based animals didn’t stand a chance against me in my domain. I would either barrage them with a flurry of spears or I would deliver a good punch to the gut that would send them away in a flash of light. So far Jack had sent me 22 victims and this little missy was about to be number 23. I decided that I would end her with a flurry of spears this time.

A dozen spears appeared above her in a circular formation, causing her beak to drop in surprise. Bubbles reaching the surface and a flash of light was all that was left of her after I finished my attack.

Since there had to be only one more gladiator left I decided it was time to head up to the surface. I picked up speed to erupt out of the water and into the air with a spin. I landed on my feet at the edges of the pool and received a round of applause and laughter from the audience with my flourishing reemergence. When I pounded my fist in the air the applause grew even louder.

‘I could get use to this.’

All that was left in the Arena was me, Jack, and that enormous minotaur. I already finished off his friends as Jack had thrown them into the pool as well and now I wondered who would get the rights to finish off the last one. Maybe Jack and I should use rock, paper, scissors to decide who gets to fight him or maybe we should…

“I call the Ta’cal challenge!” The minotaur cried out in a booming voice.

The audience murmured and whooped with excitement at the minotaur’s cry.

“A TA’CAL CHALLENGE HAS BEEN ISSUED! GOOD SIR, WHO DO YOU WISH TO CHALLENGE?”

“Her! The Dread Fish of Equestria.” The minotaur said as he pointed his finger at me.

“VERY WELL, KATY KRIEGER DO YOU ACCEPT HIS CHALLENGE?”

‘Well I didn’t expect that,’ I thought as I considered the minotaur’s challenge. On one hand Jack and I won’t have to fight on who gets the last of our opponents. But on the other hand I had to consider whether I was willing to risk seriously hurting this guy if we fought with the safety disks off. I didn’t seem him fight too much during the majority of the Royale but I had to assume that he was stronger than most considering his size and the fact he was the last one standing besides me and Jack.

“ACCEPT, ACCEPT, ACCEPT!” The audience clamored, making it obvious what they wanted me to do.

“Well you heard them Jack.” I said while shrugging to Jack. “Sorry but he’s all mine.”

“KATY KRIEGER HAS ACCEPTED THE CHALLENGE! GLADIATORS, REMOVE YOUR DISKS AND EXPERIECE THE FULL FORCE OF YOUR OPPONENT’S BLOWS.”

I reached behind my back to remove the disk and threw it into the sands. I cracked my knuckles in anticipation as I thought of how I was going to defeat the minotaur. As my opponent worked to take his own safety disk off, Jack placed his hand on my shoulder to whisper to me.

“Careful with this guy. I didn’t see him fight too much and he mostly tried to stay out of our way as we went through all the other gladiators. I think he’s holding something back.”

“Don’t worry little bro I got this,” I said confidently as I strode towards my opponent.

The giant minotaur began to walk towards me as well, slowly, and after his third step the arena began to shake violently. Sand exploded into the air after that minotaur’s step and it seemed that every step he took afterwards was causing an earthquake. My eyes broke away from the minotaur for a second as I had to fight to keep my balance for a little bit and when I looked back at him I saw that he was transforming.

Bright green veins traveled up his hooves like tree roots and slowly traveled further up his legs. The length of his legs extended with the audible sound of bones shifting and muscles grew exponentially larger to adjust to their appendages’ newfound growth. This growth didn’t stop at the legs however, as the green veins stretched past the minotaur’s waist and onto his abdomen, chest, and arms. More muscles and bones grew with his arms now boasting biceps bigger than my head and a six pack on his abdomen that literally looked like they were made out of stone. The green veins gathered onto his neck and did very little to the head besides making it a little thicker. Then at last the green veins traveled up into his horns where they extended the size of the already deadly pieces of ivory and stopped to give the horns a permanent green glow. In height, I now only came up to his abdomen and he had to beat Jack by at least half a meter if you didn’t count the horns. I looked like a small child compared to him

‘Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,’ I thought as the already big minotaur finished powering up and got a lot bigger.

With a battlecry the colossal minotaur stopped walking and charged at me full speed, his every step still shaking the arena. Panicking I conjured up over two dozen spears and threw them all at him at the same time. It didn’t even slow him down as he simply swatted the flying piercing weapons into oblivion as if they were merely flies. He was close now so I did the only thing my natural instincts told me to do and tried to dodge out of the minotaur’s charge. However, I didn’t leap away fast enough as the minotaur’s arm reached out and grabbed me by my long red hair, causing me to cry out sharply in pain. He pulled me back towards him and rose me up into the air with just my hair alone causing me to kick at him wildly while digging my nails into his hand.

Nothing I did loosened his grip and he smirked as he casually threw me far across the arena. For a few seconds I felt nothing but open air and free-fall then skidded across the hot sands only to stop when my back smacked into an obelisk still intact after Jack’s rampage. Air evacuated my lungs after the force of the impact and I desperately tried to get air back into them while on my hands and knees. My one eye scanned across the arena to find the minotaur again and I found him casually walking towards me as if he had already won this fight.

“Cocky bastard,” I whispered between heavy breaths.

Realizing that I wasn’t going to beat this guy with raw strength I looked around for the pool and shakily ran towards it. I entered the pool with very little grace but sighed in relief when the cool waters passed underneath as I sunk to the bottom like a rock. I didn’t think the minotaur would try to follow me into territory where I clearly had the advantage and tried to think of a plan to beat him. While I was thinking I noticed a large shadow overcoming the light at the bottom of the pool.

The minotaur crashed into the water and quickly grabbed me by the neck before I even had a chance to react. I squirmed underneath him as he held me to the floor of the pool and I glared at him spitefully on how easily he managed to catch me in what was supposed to be my domain. Still holding me by the neck, he pulled me up to his side and threw me out of the water and high into the open air. I fell back onto hot sands once again and rubbed my neck as I tried to stand up. The minotaur was quickly out of the pool and he began to casually walk towards me again which filled me with dread.

‘What am I supposed to do against this guy? My spears did nothing to him and now I can’t even retreat away from him even if I’m in the water! What do I do, what do I do?!’ I thought as I desperately tried to think of at least something I can use to fight back. I was an amateur with a spear in hand and my only real power over SOULS was that I could turn them green to prevent people from running. Except the problem was that I was the one running.

Realizing that there was little else I could do I brought my fists into the air and got into a boxing stance. Whatever the minotaur tried to do I was going to stand my ground and fight.

He paused mid-walk as I got into my stance. It looked like he wasn’t expecting it at all and he quickly smiled as he brought up his fists as well.

“So you know how to box huh? Do you think you have what it takes to step into the ring with Steel Horn?”

‘So that’s your name,’ I thought as a droplet of water fell from my brow.

“I’m willing to give it a shot,” I declared.

“Then your fists will tested against a warrior of the Mother.”

“The hell is that?”

“A monk of an order that has produced the finest warriors in my people’s history. Just one of us can break a dragon’s spine in two with our bare hands.”

I knew Undyne was strong in the game, but I wasn’t too sure I could break a dragon’s spine.

“What’s a monk doing here, fighting in an arena?” I asked

“I am here to bring my brother home. I seek to beat him in the arena so he will abandon this place and return to where he belongs. I must thank you and your brother by the way, fighting through the Qualifier and Bronze division has been tiresome. After I beat you two, I’m going to defeat the Bronze champion and make my way to the Gold division.”

“Sorry bud, but you haven’t beaten me yet.”

“The Mother provides,” Steel Horn said as his glowing green horns shined brightly. “And she has provided me with more than enough strength to take you down.”

“We’ll see about that.”

After that we were back to fighting. We circled around each other slowly, waiting to see who would throw the first punch, and I strategized how I was going to fight him. Considering how big and fast he was, I was sizing him up to be a slugger when it came to boxing. Sluggers usually put a lot of energy and power into their punches, but this generally made them predictable when striking. If I kept my distance, capitalized on mistakes, and wore him down over time maybe I could pull out a victory from this. However, with the lack of traction my bare feet got in the sand, keeping my distance was going to be tough.

Steel Horn threw the first punch at my face and I ducked to the side to dodge. He threw two jabs from the right, slow and predictable like I thought they would be, and I dodged them as well. Then he threw a cross unbelievably fast from the right and it caught me on the cheek. I was off-balance after the punch and he capitalized on it by throwing a cross from the left then another from the right again. My back hit the sand after the last punch and everything started to look dizzy. Six punches in and I was already on the ground.

‘Well it looks like out-boxing him is not going to work. How does a big lug like him move so fast?’

He backed away and honorably gave me enough time to get back on my feet. I pushed through the dizziness and got up to raise my fists again. I walked forward and raised both my fists to block another right cross but it barely did enough as I was sent sailing back onto the ground again.

‘God dammit!’ I fumed as I tried to get back up again.

This time Steel Horn was relentless. He punched me repeatedly and all I could do was block them while backing up. I was desperately trying to keep my footing as he continued his onslaught but was taken by surprise when he stopped throwing cross punches and bent down to throw a hook underneath my arms. My poor stomach did a somersault after he punched me in the side and the force sent me sailing across the air only to smack into another obelisk. With my back literally to the wall, Steel Horn ruthlessly jabbed me with fast punches and all I could do was try to uselessly raise my arms to block them. I tried to dive away from the obelisk but Steel Horn simply grabbed me and threw me back onto the obelisk. Punch after punch bruised my face and all I could do was hope that he stopped before I was knocked out. Eventually, he did stop, but only after he threw a punch so hard that the obelisk behind me cracked from the force.

Steel Horn backed away with his fists raised in victory as my back slowly slid down the stone obelisk. Dazed I could only sit there on the ground barely even conscious as something filled my mouth. I spat it out to find that it was my dust and I lazily stared at it, mixed with the sand, as I thought of how badly this was going.

I heard Steel Horn trying to get my attention and I turned my head to focus on him.

“Come on! Get up! You haven’t even thrown a punch yet. Tell you what, I’ll let you throw a couple dozen punches freely with no retaliation. I want to see if there is any strength in those arms.”

Realizing that this was probably the only way I was ever going to hit him I got up slowly and marched over to him. My lungs were on fire and my legs felt like they were a pair of wet noodles. To top it all off I was starting to form a splitting migraine as well, so when I reached Steel Horn it felt like all of my stamina had left my body.

‘No!!! I’m not going out like this. I refuse to go down to this oversized man bull without at least showing him how strong I really am.’

Since I only came up above his waist in height I threw a punch as hard as I can at his abdomen, it was pitiful, but it was enough to force his SOUL out of his chest. It was an orange SOUL and Steel Horn gaped at it almost hilariously in amazement.

“Wha-What is this thing?” Steel Horn asked.

“That is your SOUL. I can force a person’s SOUL out when I attack them. From the look of its color, it says that you’re a person of bravery.”

Steel Horn lightly touched his SOUL with his enormous hands and gazed at it with wonder. He shook his head to break his trance and fixed me back into his gaze.

“Well what are you waiting for? You still got over a dozen more punches left.”

Gritting my teeth I punched him again as hard as I could. Five punches later adrenaline coursed through me again and I started to punch a little harder. Eight punches later my strength slowly started to return and I began to punch with more vigor and speed. Eight more punches later my knuckles were beginning bleed dust as they struck Steel Horns rocklike abs. Then finally with my last punch I threw all I had into it. Every bit of my strength and determination went into this final punch and I just knew it would have to at least do something!

The punch landed and sent Steel Horn sliding on his hooves across the sandy floor a couple meters. He was still standing and wiped off his abdomen with his hand as if he was dusting it.

“What the hell are you made of?!” I asked exasperated. I could punch through brick walls like it was nothing but I couldn’t leave so much as a dent on him!

“Like I told you before, the Mother provides.”

With that he raised his right fist to deliver an overhanded punch and I could feel my eyepatch getting ripped off from the force of the blow. Everything went dark.

“Come on Katy GET UP!” A familiar voice called out in the darkness.

‘Jack?’

“Katy I know you’re stronger than this. You are Undyne! The hero of all monsters. You can’t go down this easily!”

‘I’m so tired.’

“Listen to them Katy! They believe in you!”

‘What? What are you talking about Jack?’

“KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!!

‘I… I remember that sound. That’s the audience chanting my name.’

“KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!!

‘Even after I got beaten down so easily, they still believe in me?’

“KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!! KA-TY!!!

‘They DO believe in me. What am I doing here resting on the sand? I should be on my feet fighting!’

“They believe in you Katy! I believe in you. You must FIGHT!”

Their cheers, their belief in me. It all filled me with something…

It filled me with…

Deep in Canterlot’s royal armory the quartermaster had just finished one of his daily routines by making sure every piece of equipment was in good condition. Now he was moving on to another routine by checking one of the storage warehouses that stored items or evidence once owned by criminals. While walking down the hallway to his destination a storage aide busted out of the warehouse door and promptly ran to the quartermaster once he saw him.

“Sir! Sir! There’s something going on with the armor! Its…I don’t know! I didn’t touch it I swear!”

“Slow down there, what’s going on? Get your head on straight.”

“It’s Undyne’s armor sir. It’s… glowing.

Strength was returning to my body. More strength than I ever felt in my entire life. I rose from the ground and dusted the sand off my body as Steel Horn turned around to see me getting backing up. He smiled when I raised my fists and got into an upright stance.

“You are strong. I knew you were when I first saw you. But this has gone on long enough. Let us finish this.”

Steel Horn marched forward and delivered another high overhand punch with his right fist but it was far too slow to hit me this time. Everything seemed slower to me now as I ducked away from the punch and counter-attacked with a vicious uppercut to his jaw which got too close to me as he tried to deliver his punch. Steel Horn soared through the air at the force of my blow and kicked up a cloud of sand as he landed on the arena floor. Now he was the one on his back.

The power I felt was intense! The amazing part was that I felt like I was getting stronger every second. The sound of a heartbeat filled my mind and more heartbeats joined in like an orchestral percussion. I gazed around the arena and I knew whose heartbeats I was listening to. It was them, the audience, I could feel their SOULS resonating inside my body. It filled me with so much DETERMINATION that I felt like I was going to burst. I had to let it out, at least some of it, and I opened my left eye to feel its light bursting out of my eye more blazingly then ever before.

Steel Horn rose back up with disbelief plastered all over his face.

“H-How did you do that. I felt your body crumble underneath my fists, how are this strong?”

I was grinning madly now. I was back and better than ever.

“Steel Horn, if you want to take me down you’ll have to try a lot harder than that.”

Disbelief still shrouded Steel Horn’s face but it slowly turned into a grin as well.

“Huh, I guess I will?”

Steel Horn leaped onto his hooves to march to me and I began to march to him as well. Light on my feet I hopped left and right to jump up and throw a right cross to his muzzle. He wasn’t expecting me to move so fast and didn’t expect me to try to go for his face since he was so tall compared to me. My punch landed with little to no resistance and sent Steel Horn on his back hoof for moment. I took the moment for what it was worth and capitalized on it by continuing to rain blows on him from every conceivable angle. Two punches to his right side, one to his left, another jump, and one more right cross his muzzle. I had him on the defensive.

He rushed forward unexpectedly after he took another cross to the face and draped his arms around my shoulders to get me in a clinch. He pushed me back and I tried resist but the sand kept sliding underneath my toes. He pushed me till my back was on the stone obelisk like last time and began to wail on me as I tried to regain my footing. I did get my arms up in time to block his blows though and this time I felt like I was actually blocking the force of the strikes. Steel Horn struck harder with each punch, but he got slower over time and I ducked out of the way of a slow right cross to jump and deliver a quick jab to his muzzle.

Steel Horn stumbled backwards and I went back on the offensive again. He blocked my right cross but he wasn’t fast enough to stop my left hook to his side. He grunted and tried to counter-attack with a fast left jab to catch me off-balance but I bobbed my head out of the way and quickly delivered two more hooks to both his sides. He was hurting now.

The colossal minotaur snorted through his nostrils as pushed through his pain and tried to hit me with multiple crosses, jabs, and overhanded punches. Each one missed however, my footwork was now faster than ever and I had a reaction time to match it. Steel Horn kept at it though and had me dodging, bobbing, and hopping for a little over a minute and a half. I hopped out of the way of a vicious uppercut and finally went on the offensive again after I noticed that Steel Horn was getting tired after he failed to land so many punches. I threw a hard right cross and Steel Horn intercepted it with a right cross of his own.

As our fists met I could feel the intense shockwave erupting from between our fists. A sonic boom echoed throughout the arena and I felt my fins/ears wine in protest to the harsh sound. I could feel the stone that acted as the foundation of the arena crack through the sand underneath the soles of my feet. Neither Steel Horn nor I backed down from the intense force we created so we struck our fists together again and again with the glows from his horns and my eye socket intensifying in luster.

We weren’t boxing anymore and each of us was now trying to outclass the other with pure strength. More sonic booms echoed throughout the arena as we continued our onslaughts against each other. Each clashing fist was stronger than the last and the arena began to shudder as it could barely hold the stress we were putting it through.

Finally we each threw one last punch. Everything I had went into this punch and I jumped into the air to deliver it to my foe. I could tell Steel Horn was going all in like I was and threw every bit of strength he had left at me. Our fists were each directed at each other’s faces and it seemed the minotaur with the longer arm would reach my face first. But I bobbed underneath that fist at just the right time.

As Steel Horn’s fist just barely grazed my cheek, my fist struck him straight on his muzzle. The audible sound of bone cracking echoed along with the sonic boom my fist created and sent the minotaur sky-rocketing into the air.

Steel Horn landed on his back again kicking up another cloud of sand. When it settled, the colossal minotaur tried to get back up fell back into the sand again.

He was out cold.

“KATY KRIEGER WINS THE CHALLENGE BY TOTAL KNOCKOUT. JACK AND KATY KREIGER HAVE WON HIALLA’S ROYALE!”

The audience cheered louder than ever before. Jack came up to me with a proud, wide smile and grabbed my hand to raise both our fists into the air. The audience somehow got lounder.

‘We won!’

Back in Canterlot’s royal armory Undyne’s armor had stopped glowing mid-transformation. Spikes protruded from both the shoulder guards and the gauntlets, while the most significant new feature on it was a heart halfway formed on its chestplate.The half shaped heart faded away and the rest of the armor returned back to its normal state almost organically. Whatever seemed to have caused the armor’s transformation had stopped its progress prematurely.

The ponies staring at the suit of armor could only continue to gape at its mysterious behavior.

“What do you think happened to it? Why did it stop?” The aide asked the quartermaster.

“I don’t know, I just don’t know.”

Author's Notes:

Hopefully the next chapter won't take me nearly as long