-RARITY-

Before I could even blink Starlight wrapped the leather leash around my neck and choked me with it, dragging me toward her despite my attempts to dig my feet into the charred grass to stop her.

She bound my front legs together then my hind legs with similar leather straps and placed one around my muzzle as well. I tried to scream and struggle, but her magic weakened my already exhausted body and drained me of any fight humiliatingly quickly.

She dragged me across the grassy dirt until I was sitting bound and helpless at her feet and she placed a single hoof delicately on my face, pressing down against my cheek and making me grunt in displeasure before raising her leg and stomping on my face several times, leaving me with a bright red gash across my cheek.

As I braced myself for more of Starlight’s abuse and tried to formulate a way to escape her clutches, I tried to decipher the truth behind her magic. She had used nearly all the six schools of unicorn magic during our fight, mastering all six schools should be a lifetime of work and research.

However, it was not impossible that all of those magical abilities that I had seen were simply illusions, but the bite of the Timberwolves and the licking of the flames were all too real…

And only after it was too late to defend myself did I realize just how powerful Starlight really was.

Her mastery over illusions wasn’t limited to simply visions or hallucinations… she had taken control of the very phantasm that contained our fight. Her power was that strong, enough to control every blade of grass, every leaf in the wind, right down to the very hairs on my body.

As if in answer to my question I felt the hairs on my torso stand on end, Starlight painfully plucking a few from my body with her magic.

“You figured it out, Rarity?” she said with a sneering smirk. “I’m so happy for you.”

How did she know? Could she read my mind as well?

“You’re wondering if I can read your mind, Rarity?” Starlight chuckled, her accurate deciphering of my thoughts causing me to start panicking and struggling harder against my bonds, although I was already aware it would do me no good. “Rarity, darling, your mind is an open book to anyone who bothers to give you a second glance.”

I looked around and could see through the phantasm. I could see the crowd of people, thousands likely, that were watching me bound and struggling helplessly in front of Starlight. My cheeks burned red as I tried one last pitiful attempt at freedom but I knew what I really needed to do was surrender… but I had no way to do that with my mouth sealed.

“Do you want to surrender, Rarity?” Starlight said with a polite grin. “If you do,” Starlight kneeled down to look me in the eyes and playfully patted me on the nose, “just say so.”

She chuckled and I grunted angrily at her, trying again in vain to move so I could at least kick my captor in the leg as a pathetic and impotent display of defiance. Starlight’s smile disappeared and she looked down at me with disdain.

“Stand.”

She pulled on the leash around my neck, choking me as she dragged me to my feet via her magic, although bound as they were I could only stand completely still, breathing heavily as my face burned from the attention of the crowd, my eyes darting around agitatedly looking desperately for some place I could turn my gaze that wouldn’t deepen my humiliation.

“This is what you wanted, isn’t it?” Starlight sneered and I suddenly felt a sharp pain tear through the side of my torso as Starlight struck it with a sharp whip, leaving a nasty red mark in the weapon’s wake. “To be punished?”

I grit my teeth as yet another lash of the whip struck me on the hip, right across my Cutie Mark. I looked back at Starlight shamefully, tears in my eyes and begging her silently to stop… to not bare my shame in front of these people… and then I remembered that Team Rainboom was in the audience.

The thought that Rainbow Dash was seeing this pathetic display made my knees weak and I almost fell were it not for the strangling leash around my neck that choked me until I regained my standing posture. I tried to scan for her in the crowd but the ponies in the stands all blurred together, obscured as they were by the foggy visage of the phantasm as well as the tears glistening across my eyes.

“You do deserve to be punished, Rarity.” Starlight said coldly, as though she were simply relaying an obvious fact, slashing me yet again between my leg and torso with her whip and causing me to release a pathetic, muffled yelp.

“Running away from your family, leaving Twilight behind, failing Applejack…”

How does she know about any of this?!

I heard her faint chuckle in my ears, not from where she stood but in the air around me. “And what about Rainbow Dash?”

My tears began to fall down my face as I struggled and screamed for Starlight to stop talking, managing to loosen my gag just enough to squeak out a pathetic “P-please…”

“Still talking, Rarity?” Starlight scoffed but then a wicked grin appeared on her face. “No one wants to hear you.”

I felt a disturbing sensation in my mouth like I had swallowed foaming soap before the coppery taste of blood filled my mouth. I opened my maw as wide as my gag would allow, which was barely anything, and let the blood pour out. I tried to speak or make some kind of noise but my tongue had simply been erased, replaced by this fountain of blood.

“That’s better,” Starlight said with mock cheer, daintily raising a hoof off the ground. “It suits you. In fact-” the whip that Starlight held aloft began to transform “-a whip is too good for you.”

My eyes widened and I grunted and tried to scream as the leather whip became a collection of leather belts with shards of stone and broken glass sewn into them.

Starlight slashed the instrument of torture against my bare skin, shredding the side of my torso to bloody scraps as I let out a gargling scream of anguish. The leather strap around my muzzle fell to the ground and I immediately inhaled sharply through my mouth but the leash around my neck tightened, causing me to choke as blood filled my mouth again.

The leash loosened and I began to fall, my whole body feeling heavy as I hit the ground and the pool of blood seeping into the dirt and grass. Blood was pouring from my mouth and the wound across my torso, and I couldn’t breathe with the leash around my neck.

I just needed this to be over.

I heard whispers, murmurs, laughs and suggestive comments from the ponies watching this horrible display, watching in enraptured awe as I was laid bare in front of them to mock my humiliation.

“What do you think Rainbow Dash would say?” Starlight said. “If she saw you like this? Do you think she could ever look at you the same way again? What about your sister? Or Applejack?”

I said nothing. Did nothing. Just glared at her, for that was all I was capable of. I cursed her for bringing my rival’s name into this, much less my sister… but I was powerless and all too aware of that fact.

“Hmm… I guess it’s over then,” Starlight said with a lax shrug. “The only thing left is for you to die.”

She brandished her sadistic weapon again and struck me across the face with it again and again and again until my face was nearly unrecognizable, just a bloody scarred mass of destroyed flesh and tissue barely held together as if by string.

She tightened the leash and I could feel the air being choked out of the miserable carcass that was left of my body. But I suppose even that was too good for me. The bindings, all of them, disappeared suddenly and I vaguely heard Starlight command me to stand. I did so without thinking, not even realizing I had the energy left to do so.

“Look at you,” Starlight laughed uproariously as I stared deadeyed into the crowd gazing at me from all directions. “This is the fate you deserve, Rarity. To be mocked and humiliated in front of every pony in Equestria. Everyone should know just how pathetic you are.”

I felt a rope coil around my hind legs and wrap tightly around them before lifting me off the ground and hanging me from a tall tree branch.

“There won’t be a quick death,” Starlight hissed, “no sudden end to your torment, simply the passing of time as you hang there helpless to stop everypony in Equestria from seeing your shame and imagining anything they want about your pathetic, disgusting body.”

Suddenly everything became white… and I found myself back in the arena opposite Starlight, ready to vomit and collapse on the ground. She was announced the winner just before or after, but I didn’t hear it…

“What did you-“ I stammered weakly, every ounce of my energy being pooled into the simple act of trying to remain upright “-do to me?”

“That’s the beauty of it, Rarity,” Starlight laughed, “I didn’t do anything. I just gave your mind the keys to the illusion and let it create a prison of your own worst nightmares.”

I suddenly felt far more humiliated standing there in the arena than I had for the entire duration of the torture.

The revelation that she wasn’t simply peering into my mind and taking bits she thought would torment me, but that I was airing every nightmare and self-punishment fantasy I had for the entire country to see… nothing could be more humiliating than that.

“Honestly, I couldn’t have created a better illusion if I tried,” Starlight said teasingly, batting a coy hoof at me. “You’re way kinkier than I could ever be.”

Without a word I turned away and headed back into the waiting room with my tail between my legs, cheeks burning in utter disgrace. I didn’t even have it in my heart to feel angry, just… pathetic.

****

-PINKIE PIE-

I was shaking like a leaf as me and my friends watched the brutal ending of Rarity’s fight. Fluttershy was just straight-up huddled into her seat in tears and Rainbow just stared blankly into the distance, her expression so intense and angry that I thought she might actually explode.

I didn’t think to say anything to them as I got out of my seat and began to leave the arena.

“Where are you going?” Rainbow asked concernedly, her eyes still fixed on the arena.

“I… I need to go see her in person,” I answered desperately, fighting back tears, “I need to go… cheer her up… or something. I dunno, I’ll figure it out when I get there!”

I didn’t wait for Rainbow’s permission before I erupted into full galloping speed to get to Team Destiny’s waiting room.

When I got there the same old door guard was standing in front of the room and I mentally prepared a big speech about how important it was that I go in. I took a deep breath as I approached him but before I could launch into my speech he said, “Just go in,” and moved out of the way.

“Thank you, you’re a life saver!” I said happily as I trotted into the waiting room, any sense of cheer in my body immediately leaving as I saw the grim scene inside.

Rarity was unconscious, laying on the couch and breathing heavily, her face stained with tears and running makeup. Applejack and Twilight were both totally silent, their demeanors cold as ice but with a noticeable fury. They were both really scary.

I inched my way inside, wary of the two and wondering if I had made a mistake in coming here. Applejack turned to me and forced a smile onto her face, saying “Hey Pinkie Pie” and not much else.

“Hi,” I said, “I came to see if…”

I looked at Rarity’s unconscious body and bit my lip to force back tears. Nopony deserves to be treated the way Starlight treated her and it broke my heart to see her like this, especially a pony as kind and sweet as Rarity.

“I need to go out there,” Twilight said abruptly, marching toward the door.

“Are ya sure ya don’t want me to go first, Twi?” Applejack asked though I suspected by her tone that she already knew the answer.

“I am.”

“Can ya give us one sec, Pinkie Pie?” Applejack said cautiously as she took Twilight over to the far side of the room and exiting out the door to the arena together.

I sat on the couch next to where Rarity was sleeping and just took some calming deep breaths, my entire body feeling like it was on fire with nervousness and anxiety. Are those the same thing? Well, both of them at any rate!

A few minutes passed before I saw on the monitor that Twilight had entered the arena but Applejack wasn’t back yet, likely either taking a sec to herself in the little ramp area that leads to the arena or just wanting to watch Twilight’s match close up, I dunno.

I heard a groggy groan and looked over at Rarity who was slowly waking up, opening her eyes wearily and listlessly wiggling her leg dangling off the couch. I didn’t know what to say at first, or if I could say anything without her getting upset, but then she looked over to the monitor and her eyes widened.

“Twilight’s fighting…” she said coldly.

“Yup,” I said casually.

I guess Rarity hadn’t noticed me sitting next to her because she suddenly jolted up and leapt off the couch in surprise but her body wasn’t quite ready for that kinda movement so when her hind feet hit the ground her whole body just collapsed in a heap.

“Uh, Pinkie Pie,” Rarity forced a laugh and I pretended not to see her blushing cheeks, “I didn’t see you there.”

“I wanted to make sure you were okay,” I said, walking over to Rarity and helping her back to her wobbly feet.

“Ah, well, I…” Rarity’s eyes were guided over to the monitor again. “I can’t watch Twilight fight right now. Pinkie Pie, darling, will you help me into the hallway please?”

“Yeah, of course,” I said and let Rarity lean on me as she hobbled toward the door and into the hallway.

We were the only ones in the hall, naturally since it was the Team Destiny hallway and the other team members weren’t allowed in unless they were invited, and Rarity took a few steps forward before sitting down sadly.

“I’m really pathetic, aren’t I?” she said distantly, like she wasn’t entirely herself. It broke my heart to see her like this but I had to keep a strong face on for her sake!

“No, Rarity,” I said with a hopefully calming smile as I walked up next to her and sat down. “Nopony blames you for anyth—“

“Nopony has to blame me, Pinkie Pie,” Rarity hissed, a bitter grin marring her face. “That doesn’t change the fact that if Team Destiny doesn’t make it to the next round… it will be my fault. You don’t blame a fire when it burns your house down, but it’s still the cause.”

I heard sirens in the distance and felt the poisonous scent of smoke and burning wood tingling my nose.

No. We’re not going back to that right now.

“Nopony’s to blame, it was just an accident,” I said with a cheery smile forced onto my face, Rarity arching a suspicious eyebrow at me. “And in this case, Starlight’s at fault here, not you!”

“Starlight didn’t exactly begin this fire, Pinkie Pie,” Rarity shook her head, slowly and sadly.

I didn’t know what to say. I could see the spiral of bad thoughts Rarity was barreling toward, I’d been through it myself more times than I’d care to count, but I was no good with words or anything so… I shut my eyes tight and just hugged her.

At first she didn’t budge at all but after a moment she raised a hoof to take hold of my leg and leaned her head against mine. I heard her start to cry, and try to muffle her own tears so I shuffled closer to her and really embraced her tightly… and then I started crying.

And when I cry I like really cry, waterworks and all, the floor gets all wet and slippery and I holler and sob and it’s just a big mess. But it was honest. Because honesty is really important, even when it’s painful sometimes. Applejack taught me that.

So I cried and hugged Rarity and she started weeping and hugging me back, eventually her crying became a loud, blubbery mess just like mine was and I just kept holding onto her, letting her nuzzle her poor head in my fluffy mane.

We must’ve cried for an hour, or at least a few minutes, before either of us were back to a semblance of a functioning pony.

“Thank you, Pinkie Pie.”

Rarity pulled a handkerchief out of nowhere and dried her eyes with it before offering it to me. I took it and really blew my nose into it which made Rarity look super grossed out for a sec but I smiled nervously and that made her giggle, and seeing her smile after such a hard time made my heart soar.

Rarity walked a few steps away and looked wistfully toward the ceiling.

“I don’t know how to not feel like I’m a burden to my teammates,” she said, “I don’t even know if they will win their fights, and if they don’t…”

Rarity started breathing heavily and I could feel the sobs coming on again so I bounced next to her and nuzzled up against her.

“It’s gonna be okay, Rarity,” I said super soothingly, “we gotta believe in Twilight and Applejack. And nopony thinks you’re a burden.”

Rarity shook her head agitatedly and walked away from me, causing me to fall over. “How can I look at my pathetic history of constant failure and not feel like a burden?”

“Well first,” I sprang up and pranced over in front of Rarity, booping her on the snoot, “you gotta throw out everything that Starlight said. She was just trying to trick you and—“

“But she wasn’t wrong,” Rarity said desperately as she began to tear up again. “How can I not believe what I see with my own eyes?”

I was stunned for a moment by the weight of Rarity’s sadness and the painful reminder of my own sadness.

I puffed up my cheeks and looked Rarity in the eyes. “If you just believe in what you see, then you can’t have any hope! Nopony knows what the future holds, but we can’t move forward without hope for a better life, a life worth living!”

Rarity glanced away from my eyes and narrowed her own. “I don’t… hope has never been my motivator. I’ve always been running away from something. My family, my failed relationships… there’s a hole in my heart and I don’t know… if it can ever be filled.”

I gently placed my forehead against Rarity’s, causing her to look me in the eye again and blush.

“I know exactly what you mean,” I said, “but it’s not enough to just be running away, we have to be running to someplace. And you have a goal, however much I may not like it,” I chuckled at that for emphasis and that made Rarity roll her eyes, but in like a playful way. “Somewhere in your heart is the hope that you can defeat Rainbow, right?”

Rarity’s eyes widened and she took a few steps back, and now I was really worried that I said the wrong thing and made everything a whole lot worse but Rarity quickly defused my fears by saying, “No… that’s not it.”

Actually, that just doubled my fears.

“I don’t think I can defeat Rainbow, but,” she looked around her and a smile crept onto her face as her eyes met mine, “as much as I’m loath to admit it, I do have hope that I can change. I don’t see it, I don’t even believe it… but I hope for it desperately… and I’m willing to do anything to just find out the truth. Can I be the person I want to be?”

“We can absolutely change, Rarity,” I said, forcing myself to believe my own words because oh how I wanted to. “I mean, we were born like boys and we changed our circumstances to reflect the truth, right?”

“That’s true,” a bright smile appeared on Rarity’s face and she ran her hoof through her mane, smiling softly as she pressed her hair against her cheek. She looked at me again and asked, “Do you think I can be… strong?”

“I think you already are,” I said, smiling back at her. “There’s more to being strong than just combat ability… but if you’re asking if I think you can learn how to kick butt as well as Applejack or Rainbow, then the answer is ‘of course, silly’,” I giggled and batted my hoof at Rarity.

“Thank you, Pinkie Pie,” Rarity said and I could see a light gleaming in her eyes, like just for a fraction of a second she believed what I was saying, and that made me wanna believe it too.

“Thank you, Rarity,” I said with a bright grin, “for letting me be honest with you.”

“Darling,” Rarity said coyly and walked over to me to place her hoof on my shoulder with a serene smile, “it was my absolute pleasure.”

****

-TWILIGHT SPARKLE-

One of my earliest memories of Rarity, from when I was just a tiny filly, was wandering excitedly into her studio to ask her to play with me. I was so young then and Rarity, several years my senior, had just been integrated into my family. I thought she was the coolest right away.

She had a studio where I knew she went to be alone for long periods of time but I was just a kid and didn’t realize that when she wanted to be ‘alone’ she meant, like, ‘alone’. So I wandered into the studio and was mesmerized by what I saw.

Ten year old Rarity was using her magic to control and slowly spin some kind of metal tube and at the end of it was a clear glass bubble that she was inflating and forming into a certain shape. I couldn’t help but let out a little awed “Wow.”

“Careful, Twilight,” Rarity said with cheer but remained focused on her task. “Don’t come any closer, this stuff is very dangerous.”

“O-okay,” I said, dutifully sitting down right where I stood and watching hypnotized as Rarity molded her glass sculpture.

“Is there something you needed, Twilight?” Rarity glanced over to me and flashed me a gleaming smile for only a second before returning her gaze to her glass.

“I was just-” I got nervous easily when I was young and I didn’t know Rarity very well yet so I was feeling really awkward about asking her to play with me, especially since now I was embarrassed to be interrupting her work “-I was going to ask if you wanted to play with me, but you’re busy so I’ll—“

“I’d be more than happy to play with you once this is finished,” Rarity said with a smile, giving me a warm look from the corner of her eye. “It might take a bit more time, but you are more than welcome to watch as long as you stay clear. Like I said, this stuff is very dangerous.”

“O-okay!” I chirped, my ears perking up excitedly. I felt like I was getting to watch something really secret and special, like only I could know the secret of Rarity’s studio or something. It made me nervous, but also really giddy.

The next day Rarity gave me a present, a glass dragon statue that totally blew me away with how cool it was. I put it up in my room right away but I hadn’t put together at that time that the statue is what she was making that day when I walked into her studio.

I kept the statue for years and when it broke during an accident I was heartbroken. I couldn’t tell Rarity at first but she found out eventually and told me with the sweetest voice as she hugged me, “Only memories can last forever, darling.”

After that day in the studio I made it a point to watch Rarity’s glass blowing whenever I could. It was something she was really passionate about and I always loved seeing her happy and in her element. She hasn’t sculpted anything in a decade, not since she left home, but it’s still something I will always associate with my sister.

Applejack walked with me to the arena and wished me good luck one more time before I stepped up to take my place in the arena against my opponent, Sunny Flare.

The pale teal unicorn gave me a bright smile and said, “I hope you put up more of a fight than your friend.”

“I’m not playing around here,” I said sternly, stomping my hoof for good measure. “I’m going to pay you back for what Starlight did to my sister.”

“Ooh, so fearsome,” Sunny Flare dismissively batted a hoof and rolled her eyes. “Let’s dance then, sweetheart.”

The illusion was cast and Sunny Flare and I ended up in a jungle ruins type of area. The kind of thing you’d see in an archaeological adventure story. Before I could even get used to the surroundings I suddenly found myself jumping instinctively out of the way of a bright orange laser beam!

Sunny Flare blew smoke away from her horn and laughed. “Starlight may be a master illusionist-” she fired another beam from her horn and I jumped behind a crumbling stone wall to avoid it, breathing a sigh of relief as the wall stood firm against her attack “-but I prefer a more direct approach.”

“You’re a conjurer, I take it?” I asked.

If Sunny Flare wasn’t an illusionist, then conjurer was the most likely choice given her method of attack, though I wasn’t quite willing to rule out necromancy either, though it stands to reason her beam would have had a nasty effect on the wall it hit had it been necromancy, and obviously such attacks weren’t divination, transmutation or abjuration, which wouldn’t have fit Flare’s description of the ‘direct approach’, so conjuration seemed the most likely aspect for her magic.

“That’s right, sweetheart,” Sunny said in a mock cheerful tone before a rain of flaming swords appeared over my head and began falling all around me, although I teleported a short distance away and behind another wall, out of the way of the attack.

Before I could formulate a strategy, a giant blazing meteor fell out of the sky and I only narrowly avoided it crashing on top of me by jumping back and away from it. I stared at the smoking rubble that it left behind and quickly conjured my magic-reflecting mirror shield as I realized another laser was shooting out of the smoke.

The laser hit my mirror and bounced back toward Sunny Flare but I couldn’t see her past the smoke cloud, but I didn’t hear her get hit and an instant later another laser, this one a bright yellow, pierced through the smoke headed right for me.

My gut told me to dodge this and not hide behind the shield so I threw the mirror at the laser and moved out of its trajectory in the space of a second, seeing the yellow laser absorb the shield into its form and keep moving until it hit a tree, burning the tree to a charred husk within seconds.

“I hope you enjoy my magic-absorbing laser, sweetheart,” Sunny Flare said and I could see her frame as the smoke between us began to clear.

I didn’t say anything but I did smile. If this girl was the type to explain her strategies immediately after using them, I could use that to my advantage. I initiated plan B, freezing the ground around Sunny Flare in a sheet of icy glass. Even if she could still fire her ranged attacks, keeping her immobile would open the opportunity for me to attack.

“Cute trick, Twilight Sparkle,” Sunny Flare chuckled mockingly, “but I’ve seen it already and it won’t work on me!”

With the smoke gone I could see Sunny Flare standing on the glass sheet clearly as her body began to glow with an orange aura. The glass became orange as it began to superheat into molten form and I tried to teleport away but I was a hair too late as Sunny’s body exploded in a blast of orange magical energy, my teleportation saving me from the immediate blast zone but the shockwave caused by the attack was strong enough to slam me into a tree and hurt me pretty badly.

The ruins around Sunny Flare were reduced to little more than a mass of burnt ash and charcoal as Sunny laughed. “You’re so pathetic, Twilight Sparkle. I guess it runs in the family, right?!”

I grit my teeth and grunted from the pain in my back as I regained my posture, feeling a severe ache in my right legs and ribs as well but nothing serious enough to impair me. I wasn’t about to let a loudmouth who was friends with my sister’s torturer defeat me.

I conjured a thousand tiny knives of glass that hovered in the air around Sunny Flare, my enemy simply scoffing at my spell. She seemed like the ‘go big or go home’ type so I wondered how she would fare against a more ‘death by a thousand cuts’ strategy.

The knives flew at her in tandem but she simply spun around and surrounded herself in a coiling wall of flame, incinerating all the knives before they could even come close to reaching her.

That said, I now had a winning strategy.

I jumped forward and stomped directly in front of Sunny Flare proudly, covering the charred land around her in a glassy sheen once more, ignoring the “This again?” taunt she provided. I then conjured up my thousand knives and gave her a wicked grin.

“Ah, I see,” Sunny Flare chuckled as the knives began racing toward her…

Or rather, as they began racing toward me.

My eyes widened for a fraction of a second before I shut them tight and braced myself for an attack I couldn’t dodge—my reflexes not fast enough to prepare a teleport before the knives reached me— one thousand needles of glass tore through my skin and left me a bloody mess of holes… but still breathing, albeit barely.

I used almost the last of my desperate energy to teleport away behind a tree to examine the scope of my wounds and trying not to panic as I saw the blood leaking from my legs and chest, feeling it drip down my brow like sweat.

Sunny Flare laughed and called out to me, “A clever ploy, Twilight! Surround me with that slippery glass so I couldn’t gain enough traction to spin! But you were deceived by what you thought you knew, by what you saw with your eyes! You didn’t realize that Starlight’s not the only illusionist on our team! And you will reveal yourself to me now, Twilight Sparkle!”

I felt an intense ringing in my head and panic was really starting to set in. If Sunny Flare could simply take control over the phantasm like Starlight had clearly done in her match, then I would have no hope of—

No, she would’ve done that already if that was an option!

Still though, I couldn’t trust what I saw if she was an illusionist. What looked like a safe haven might have been a deadly trap. I had to think for a second and try to figure out how she managed to turn my attack back on me, which wasn’t an easy thing to do when panic was flooding my body again, and was further not helped by the lightheaded feeling and the inability to make the bleeding just stop.

The only thing I could think of is that she must have used an illusion to make herself appear in one position but she was really somewhere else, but then how did I attack myself?

And then it dawned on me. Sunny Flare’s illusions weren’t simply visual hallucinations. She was able to make me feel like I was someplace where I wasn’t. That… was a very dangerous ability. One that may have been out of my league.

What do I do? How can I win this? Can I win this? What if I can’t? What if I lose and our team is kicked out of the tournament and it’ll be all my fault!

Argh, no! I need to avenge Rarity!

I grit my teeth again and slammed the back of my head against the tree I was leaning against in some futile effort to just shake the anxiety out of my brain, I guess. Sunny Flare laughed and I had a bad feeling that she heard the thud my head made against the tree and knew my position, so I teleported behind another tree.

“If you won’t come out, Twilight Sparkle,” Sunny Flare said in a condescending tone like she was a scolding mother, “I’ll just have to draw you out!”

She fired another laser at the tree I had been hidden behind before, incinerating it into cinders in an instant.

She’s going back to conjuration? Why not just use her illusion to get the match over with?

But wait…

I suddenly remembered that I revealed myself before. I jumped in front of her to show off when I used my ill-fated knife attack.

Her non-visual illusions must have a poor range! I can still win this as long as I keep my dista—

Before I could finish that thought, I heard the sound of magic energy charging up and I knew Sunny Flare was about to release a powerful attack. If she hit me with whatever this was, in my battered state, that would likely be the end of it. To make matters worse, I felt that I only had enough energy left for maybe two or three more teleports.

I shut my eyes, nearly losing myself to the grievous pain of my injuries and thought what would Rarity do?

Maybe that wasn’t the right question… as much as I loved her, Rarity wasn’t much of a fighter. Then what about Applejack or Rainbow Dash? Well, they would probably use brute force, which I could not…

Then what about Pinkie Pie?

My eyes shot open and I grinned widely as my body and mind were filled with inspiration. I knew exactly what I needed to do, and the pieces of the puzzle fell into place one after another in less than a second. I just prayed it wasn’t too late as I ducked for cover and threw my reflector shield in front of me.

Sunny Flare fired a laser that cut through the entire jungle area, burning trees to ash as it cut them at the stumps. While I got singed pretty badly on my flanks, I was saved from the brunt of the attack by my reflector, although the power of her attack nullified the actual ‘reflecty’ part since the reflected attack got absorbed by the rest of it. But who cares, I didn’t die!

The only piece of information I needed now was to figure out exactly how I was going to pull off my strategy without getting into Sunny Flare’s hallucination range. Not only that, but I didn’t know the exact scope of her abilities either. You would think, in a battle like this one where I’ve used cover to my advantage so many times, that Sunny Flare could just cast an illusory tree and hit me when I try to hide behind it, yet she seemed to have no interest in using illusions unless it was necessary. Hmm…

I ran deeper into the jungle, hoping the trail of blood left behind me wouldn’t lead Sunny Flare directly to me until I could come up with some plan of attack.

There’s no way to know for sure what her exact abilities are, and therefore my ability to plan around them is limited…

And that’s when it dawned on me. I stopped in my tracks and grinned evilly, looking over my shoulder past the expansive foliage that shrouded me as I realized exactly how I was going to get my winning strategy into play. If I couldn’t know what she could do, she didn’t have to know anything about me either.

Her and Starlight aren’t the only ones who can cast illusions.

I jumped proudly out of the jungle and in front of Sunny Flare again, wearing a satisfied grin.

“Is that all the energy you can muster, Sunny Flare?” I cocked my head and smiled smugly. I had a good feeling that Sunny Flare was the type to get caught up by taunts and I would need to use every angle I had to win this, but I was going to win this.

“I’m surprised you aren’t dead, Twilight Sparkle,” Sunny said haughtily.

“Please, an attack like that?” I scoffed and batted my hoof. “Couldn’t even faze me.”

“You—“ Sunny did a double take and shouted irritably at me, “You’re bleeding from like a hundred puncture wounds! You can’t exactly act tough in this situation!”

“Eh, these wounds are nothing,” I said with a shrug. “It wasn’t even that strong an attack.”

“It was your attack!” Sunny snarled, her eye twitching irritably.

“So we’re in agreement that your attacks are weak, then?” I gave the biggest, smuggest, smarmiest grin I could muster and judging by the shriek of white-hot rage that Sunny Flare released, I’d say I did a good job.

“We’ll see about that!” Sunny said and fired an orange laser directly at me.

“So we shall,” I said ominously as the laser ripped my body apart… or at least, the illusory form of my body that had been talking.

The laser disappeared with the illusion, and as I sulked silently and invisibly around the area watching Sunny Flare, I saw her face twist into a distorted painting of confusion and rage.

“Where did—“ Sunny’s angry questioning was cut short as her own laser hit her in the back and she screamed in anger.

She turned around quickly but before she was even all the way around the laser hit her again on her spine, causing another scream… and then it hit her again in the side of the torso, and again under her chin, and over and over, gaining momentum with each successive attack and moving far too quickly for her to even register, let alone dodge, until she had run out of breath to scream and her whole body was reduced to a charred mess.

The illusion was dispelled with her defeat and I grinned in satisfaction as she stared in bewilderment, her eyes burning and her face twisted in fury “How did you—“

“Elementary, sweetheart,” I explained mockingly. “It’s a new trick I invented; The Pinkie Pie Portal Pounce Pummel!”

“Explain.”

“Pinkie Pie’s magic allows her to bounce this way and that,” I knew that Sunny Flare didn’t care about these minute details but I felt way too proud of myself not to explain my process, “but I couldn’t do that with my weaker physical body. So I simply adapted her technique in my own way.”

“That tells me nothing.”

“Like I said, it was a simple matter,” I said with a proud smile. “By distracting you with an illusion I could sneak around the field invisibly and place portals in the ground and on crumbling walls and trees that were still standing.

“The illusion itself was the first portal and as soon as you fired on it, your laser became mine to control, bouncing through this portal and that, picking up speed as it pummeled you into ash.”

“But how did you—“ Sunny snarled and stomped her foot. “The laser should have disappeared as soon as it hit a solid target, how did it keep attacking my body?!”

“A magician never reveals her secrets,” I said coldly with a smile on my face, delighting in the increasing rage present on Sunny Flare’s expression as she stomped her hoof. “If you can’t even see beyond a trick as simple as that one, then you aren’t a worthy opponent for me.”

I flicked my tail at her as I walked away, my head held high and my entire body poised in a regal, cool manner, despite the fact that on the inside I was freaking out because I WON!!!!

Applejack was still standing just outside the waiting room door and smiled at me as I stepped up to her.

“So how did ya do it, Twi?”

“While I was invisible I snuck up behind her and made her body one of the portals,” I explained proudly. “The damage to her body wasn’t from the laser hitting her, it was from the magical energy shooting through her at light speed.”

“Huh,” Applejack tilted her head confusedly. “You’d think she woulda noticed her body becomin’ a portal.”

“The window of time between me casting the last portal spell, the one on her body,” I said, “and her body being wracked by the laser’s energy, was less than a second.”

“You’re that precise?”

“I’m good at what I do.” I said with a smile.

****

-RARITY-

I asked Pinkie Pie for a moment alone in the hall and the adorable pink puffball happily obliged. Talking with Pinkie Pie helped me put a lot of my troubles in perspective… she was a wise soul, that pink pony. You wouldn’t expect it from her at first glance but that’s often the case with the truly enlightened, I suppose.

Still though… could I really become strong? Or rather, could I become the pony I wanted to be, of which strength was merely one part? To be strong enough to protect myself and others, beautiful enough to see it in myself and for others to be inspired and enraptured, and to be… to be loved. Truly loved, by both myself and others… it seemed too fanciful a dream, too far out of my reach.

But talking with Pinkie Pie, standing with her pressing her gentle head against mine… I felt it… I felt the spark of hope in my heart.

Though, with every positive thought of Pinkie Pie, my mind tried to seize me with thoughts of my sister and Applejack who were still fighting. It tried to remind me of my own disastrous battle and the torture Starlight put me through and humiliation that came with realizing it was a prison of my own making, and knowing that everypony in the crowd, including my own teammates and Rainbow Dash of all ponies, saw my very own nightmares given form.

It would have been enough to make me cry again, had I any more tears left to shed.

“Oh Rarity, have you been crying?”

The cold, mocking voice of Starlight rattled me as soon as I heard it. I looked up through red, irritated eyes to see her standing at the end of the hall with that putrid smile on her face. “Did something bad happen?”

“What do you want, Starlight?” I asked coldly. “You’re not supposed to be in this hall without invitation.”

“Until the second preliminaries,” Starlight smugly placed her hoof against her chest, “I’m a tournament official. I can go wherever I please.”

She chuckled and walked closer to me and I simply didn’t have the strength to move away from her.

“So your friend Twilight won the second round.”

“I see,” I was surprised that the fight was already over but relieved to hear my sister had won.

“Now your team’s hopes all lie on Applejack,” Starlight said, leaning her head toward me and batting her eyelashes at me in a mock display of affection. “If she loses this match, your team is done… and it will be all your fault.”

I staggered back a few steps and scowled. As much as I desperately wanted to refute that statement, I couldn’t. She wasn’t wrong.

“You failed in both of your fights,” Starlight said while walking slowly toward me, forcing me to step back with every step closer she took. “You’re the one who decided to forfeit against Team Rainboom. If Applejack doesn’t win this fight, Team Destiny will have to go back to whatever holes they crawled out of and it will be all. Your. Fault.”

“Shut up, Starlight.”

Applejack’s voice was like the feeling of clean air blowing through a musty cave. She walked between the two of us and took a defensive stance in front of me, glaring at Starlight.

“Nopony blames Rarity for nothin’, and more to the point, I ain’t gonna lose.”

“Ooh, so confident,” Starlight said teasingly. “I doubt Rarity has that kind of confidence though.”

Applejack looked over her shoulder at me and smiled. I simply blinked, my exhaustion catching back up to me and giving me no idea how to respond to Applejack’s cute smile or Starlight’s mocking words.

“Hey sugarcube,” Applejack said gently to me, “why don’t you head back to the waitin’ room? I’ll be right there in a sec to kick Sugarcoat into submission and we can put this whole thing behind us, okay?”

“As you wish, darling,” I said without thinking and walked lethargically to the waiting room.

“You’re just going to walk away?” Starlight sneered. “Just like that?”

“Starlight,” Applejack sighed irritably and there was a noticeable fire in her voice, “if you say even one more thing about Rarity, I’m gonna break yer nose.”

Starlight looked irritably at Applejack but I didn’t wait to hear her oh so witty rebuttal, I simply walked like a zombie back into the waiting room, somehow finding the energy to wear a smile on my face at the thought of Applejack returning to the waiting room with blood on her hooves.

****

-TWILIGHT SPARKLE-

I had a moment alone with Pinkie Pie as Applejack went to retrieve Rarity, and the plush pink pony jumped me and yanked me into a smothering hug right away.

“That was so awesome, Twilight!” she said giddily. “I mean, I only caught the end, but you did it! You were amazing!”

“Uh, you aren’t mad?” I said nervously, barely managing to squeeze out of her hug before I collapsed from asphyxiation.

“Why would I be mad?” Pinkie tilted her head and frowned confusedly before immediately returning to her chipper disposition. “You were incredible!”

“I kinda used your name in my new spell without asking,” I blushed and fretted with my bangs, “I got really caught up in the moment and just kinda spoke without thinking. Sorry.”

“Don’t be!” Pinkie said with a bright, beaming smile, playfully punching me in the foreleg. “I’m really flattered that you named a cool spell after me! And it’s alliterative, which magnanimously makes it mesmerizingly marvelous!”

“Are you sure you used all those words correctly?” I laughed.

“Mostly,” Pinkie beamed, and I couldn’t help but smile even brighter. Pinkie Pie had a real knack for making me feel good; she was so cool.

Rarity suddenly walked back into the waiting room from the hall and I got nervous. I knew already that she hadn’t watched my fight, what with her being unconscious when it started… but I still wanted to touch base with her.

“Rarity? Are you okay?” I asked like an oblivious doofus.

“I will be, darling,” Rarity said with a pained smile, brushing a hoof slowly through her mane. “Pinkie Pie, Applejack and yourself, you’ve all been so kind and supportive of me… I don’t feel I deserve it all… but I thank you.”

“Of course you deserve it, Rarity,” I said, walking over to Rarity and nuzzling my head against hers.

“That’s what I said!” Pinkie suddenly appeared between us and put her forelegs around both of us, Rarity looked at her with an amused smile and me with an annoyed glare… which softened pretty much instantly at seeing the pink pony’s infectious grin.

That said, she let us both go and looked at us curiously before suddenly blurting out “Oh, this is a sister bonding moment. Right, got it!”

With that Pinkie disappeared again and left us two alone for a moment.

“I want to apologize to you,” Rarity sighed, “for dragging you out to Bifrost like this and being such a burdensome teammate… but I know that isn’t what you want to hear.”

“It sure isn’t!” I frowned in annoyance. “Rarity, I’m glad to be here. I want to help you realize your dream of beating Rainbow and seeing if you can change, and I want to realize my own dream of-” I paused for a moment to consider if I had any real dreams and came up empty “-well, that doesn’t matter. The point is, there isn’t any other pony I’d rather have on my team than you. You’re my sister and I love you.”

“Twilight…” Rarity smiled brightly at me and closed her eyes to breathe a sigh of relief. “Thank you.” Rarity placed a leg around me and pulled me into a hug and I happily returned the gesture. “I suppose now we must trust our dreams to Applejack.”

“There’s almost nopony I’d feel safer trusting them with,” I said confidently.

Rarity let out a soft laugh.

“You’re absolutely right.”

****

-APPLEJACK-

“So, are you ready, Applejack?” Starlight said tauntingly but I just kinda rolled my eyes and frowned bemusedly at her.

Truth be told, I was tired of Starlight from the moment I met her. I knew fake politeness when I saw it and that nonsense wore out its welcome real quick.

“Yours is the last fight for your team,” Starlight was entirely undeterred by my lack of interest, “your last chance to make it into the second preliminaries. You’re not worried about letting your friends down, are you?”

“Nah.”

I shrugged and turned to look at Starlight with a smile on my face. “How could I be? I’m only up against one of your teammates.”

“Well,” Starlight let out a single irritated chuckle, “your teammate did lose to me. And my team is pretty strong so—“

“What you did to Rarity was low,” I sneered and put my nose right up against Starlight’s, and somehow, havin’ an angry pony nearly twice her bulk starin’ her down inches from her face made all her smug confidence fly right out the window. Imagine that. “And maybe yer pal also has some kinda cheap tactics, but I promise ya it ain’t gonna be enough. Not against me.”

“That’s a lot of big talk,” Starlight said, trying to remain poised but cautiously backin’ up a few steps. “After all, just because you defeated Burnt Oak and your friend defeated my ally, doesn’t mean that you’re invincible.”

“Never said I was invincible,” I said with a wry smile, closin’ the distance ‘tween me and Starlight again and delightin’ in the sweat I could see on the unicorn’s forehead. “Just that I’m stronger than y’all.”

“I guess we’ll see,” Starlight shrugged, tryin’ to play it cool and failin’ miserably. “But if you’re wrong, if you fail this test, then it’s the end of the line for your team and it will be all your fault.”

“Whatever, Starlight.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at Starlight’s actually really sad attempts to demoralize me and I just turned around to head back to my waitin’ room. I had a fight to win, after all.

But then a thought occurred to me.

“Oh, one last thing, Starlight.”

With Starlight standin’ right behind me, I bucked my hind legs as hard as I could and hit her straight in the nose, hearin’ an incredibly gratifyin’ crack as the bone was shattered by my legs.

“M-my nose!” Starlight stumbled backward and yelped, puttin’ her hooves up to try and stop the blood pourin’ out her nose and wincin’ in pain as she touched her shattered snout. “It’s bleeding!”

“Heh, yer lucky that’s all that’s bleedin’,” I laughed as Starlight glared at me irritably, her intimidation factor goin’ down in flames what with her cheeks bein’ almost redder than her bloodied muzzle. “Let that be a reminder, Starlight, that I keep my promises.”

As I headed back to the waitin’ room I heard Starlight let out a pained, wheezy grunt. For one fraction of a second I almost felt sorry, but just as quickly I remembered what she did to Rarity and I felt proud of myself for lettin’ her off as easy as I did.

****

-FLUTTERSHY-

Rainbow Dash guided me out of the arena after Twilight’s match had finished because I was starting to hyperventilate and I needed a moment of some relative peace and quiet. My breathing was still a little heavy even after a couple minutes outside the crowd but I was starting to feel like I could breathe again, so that was good.

“I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash, I just—“

“Don’t apologize, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said firmly, but warmly. “Never apologize for getting what you need. You needed a minute to get a hold on yourself? No problem. No need to apologize for that.”

“Th-thank you, Rainbow,” I said with a shaky smile.

I almost thought it was some kind of joke she was pulling on me; no one had ever been that considerate of my anxiety. Rarity was always kind about it, but by the time I met her I tried to keep all that stuff to myself. And sometimes, in little moments and slip-ups, I could tell that Rarity got tired of my anxiousness sometimes too.

But… but I chose to trust her. To trust that Rainbow’s concern was genuine and that… that I could be safe with her.

And that’s what broke the floodgates, as tears that I had been holding back for the better part of an hour burst forth and fell down my face like a waterfall.

“Let it all out, Fluttershy,” Rainbow stood next to me and outstretched a wing over my back to comfort me. She was… just too kind. “I know you’re nervous about Applejack too, there’s no shame in that either.”

“I… I really am worried,” I said through my sobs, “if… if Applejack doesn’t win then Team Destiny is going to…”

I couldn’t get the words out as I broke into more hysterical tears, falling on the ground and covering my pathetic face with my wings, Rainbow kneeling next to me and keeping me covered with her wing.

“It’ll be all my fault.”

“How do ya figure?” Rainbow asked, sounding honestly baffled by what I thought was an obvious statement.

“It’s my fault we lost against Team B-Listers,” I explained, my face still buried underneath my wings, “I’m the one who messed everything up and got Pinkie and me injured, that’s why we couldn’t… that’s why they had to…”

“Fluttershy…”

Rainbow’s voice was soft and tender for a moment but she quickly burst out laughing, taking me by surprise.

“Fluttershy, if we had fought Team Destiny at our full strength we would’ve aced ‘em! You can’t blame yourself for their forfeit cuz if the B-Lister thing hadn’t happened and we’d fought ‘em, they would’ve lost anyway!”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little at Rainbow’s confidence and that helped me to control the tears a little bit. I sat up straight and looked at her with cautious optimism. “You think so?”

“Uh, I know so!” Rainbow scoffed and wore a sly grin on her face, which made me laugh even more. “I know you’re worried about Applejack, and I can’t blame you, I’m a little nervous myself. But if anypony can knock this thing out of the park, it’s Applejack! I’ve never known a stronger pony than her!” Rainbow flew up into the air and excitedly did a little aerial spin.

“I…” I stood up on shaky legs and looked up at Rainbow Dash with a bright, eager smile despite myself. “I want to believe you but,” I put my hoof up to my mouth and bit down on it anxiously, “I… I’m just really scared…”

“That’s okay!” Rainbow said enthusiastically, and I just looked at her like I’d seen a ghost. “It’s totally okay to be scared, but we gotta have faith in Applejack and we gotta go cheer her on regardless!”

Nopony had ever told me that it was okay to be scared before. I only ever got laughed at and teased for being so scared of everything…

That’s… wow.

It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to be scared!

“You’re right, Rainbow Dash,” I said with a smile on my face, my legs still shaking and my heart racing, but… feeling stronger. “I want to go cheer on Applejack! And I want… I want to watch her…” I summoned up all my courage and stomped my hooves gently on the ground, “I want to watch her win!”

“That’s the spirit!”

Rainbow Dash grabbed my chest and flew me up into the air in her excitement. I was a little nervous for half a second but I trusted Rainbow and I just let her do what she needed to with me, although she quickly noticed that she grabbed me without thinking and gently placed me on the ground with flushed cheeks.

“Anyway,” she coughed awkwardly, “let’s go cheer on Applejack.”

“Right,” I said with a giggle and a slight nod, following Rainbow back to our seats in the arena stands.

Applejack had just come onto the stage and my guts started turning themselves inside out right away. I was super super super super super nervous and anxious and scared and terrified and horrified and bad things were gonna happen and oh no I can’t watch this it’s going to be hard and—

I was breathing really heavily until Rainbow gently caressed my back with her wing, allowing me to breathe slowly and carefully. I looked at her and she had the sweetest smile on her face that totally melted away my anxiety, if only for a moment.

I took in a very, very deep breath and screamed, “GO APPLEJACK! WE BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU CAN DO IT! YOU’RE GONNA WIN! YOU’RE AWESOME!”

In my overexcitement I flew up into the air as I cheered but I soon noticed everyone in the audience staring at me and I blushed and floated back down onto my chair in embarrassment, covering my face with my wings.

“APPLEJACK, YOU RULE!” Rainbow started screaming, flying into the air. “YOU’RE GONNA DO GREAT! KICK HER BUTT, AJ! YOU’RE AWESOME!”

Seeing Rainbow cheering loudly and obnoxiously for Applejack, despite all the people in the crowd giving her weird looks or grumbling about her presence or even yelling and throwing things at her, made me think there’s no way I’m gonna let Rainbow out-cheer me!

I flew up into the air and gave Rainbow a wink, which she returned with a joyful smile. The two of us started cheering in unison “GO APPLEJACK!” until the guards had to tell us to be quiet. But this time I was too busy laughing alongside Rainbow Dash to feel self-conscious.

Good luck, Applejack. I know you don’t need it though; you’re going to ace this!

In the first draft, Sunny Flare was a combination evoker\enchanter, so you can imagine how awkward re-writing her fight was when both of her schools got wiped from the canon.

Applejack breaking Starlight’s nose is the catharsis we all deserve.