-FLUTTERSHY-

You can do this, Fluttershy.

I inhaled deeply as I stepped out into the arena, looking back one last time to see Rainbow and Pinkie showing their support. If they believed in me, then I believed in me!

At least, that was the idea. When I actually stepped into the arena and felt the searing gaze of thousands of eyes on me alongside the chill of winter I felt a little different. Specifically, like I was ready to throw up.

The girl who walked up to the other side of the arena was a green unicorn mare with an amazing pixie haircut. She cheerfully and politely introduced herself as Lyra Heartstrings and I meekly whimpered back that my name was Fluttershy.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as the illusion was cast and our fight began… I opened my eyes to a mountain landscape, not terribly perilous but slanted enough for footing to be kinda wobbly. Snow laid on the ground about an inch or two which did very little to help the chills already racing down my spine.

Lyra was nowhere to be seen and I figured that they must start the two fighters on opposite sides of the map, so to speak. Which, honestly, is very nice of them; it gives us time to strategize and such. I just wished I could quiet the roaring thoughts and bubbling panic in my brain long enough to actually come up with some kind of strategy.

All I could think was that the faster I found Lyra, the faster this fight would be over with, and then I remembered that I have something she didn’t have that would help me find her in a heartbeat: wings!

I flapped my yellow wings and flew up into the sky and it wasn’t long before I saw Lyra on the ground, sitting on a stone and playing an enchanting melody on her lyre as she hovered it above her shoulder, enveloped in a golden aura. There was a part of me that didn’t want to disturb her music, it was quite lovely and I wasn’t the type to interrupt, but…

I puffed up my cheeks and readied myself to fly down there. I can’t show any mercy to my opponents! Not if I want to make Rainbow and Pinkie proud of me!

I flew down and landed just behind Lyra, readying my poking attack to disrupt her magic but as soon as I hit the ground Lyra vanished suddenly. I was shocked and looked around for a second, finding she had only moved a few feet away and was now standing in the snow with her lyre floating above her, a trail of melted snow breaking apart the landscape between the stone she sat on and where she was standing.

“You’re fast…” I whispered, more thinking aloud than making a statement.

“You noticed!” Lyra said with a cheeky wink. “I’m not going to hold back, so you’d better not either!”

“I won’t,” I said firmly, trying to convince myself more than her.

Before I knew it, Lyra was suddenly gone and before my eyes could track her movement she was practically on top of me, raising her forelegs to stomp down on my head. I jumped back out of instinct but before my feet even connected to the ground, Lyra was already behind me and hit me with a jumping kick right in the center of my back, sending me clattering to the ground in a pained heap.

I flapped my wings and blew snow all over the place as I lifted myself a few inches into the air, quickly flying away from Lyra and putting myself back on balance. My wings weren’t very strong so I couldn’t stay in the air indefinitely, but I could still use them to give me the upper hand here, at least a little bit.

Lyra jumped up quickly and attempted another kick but I flew upwards to dodge her attack with a muted yelp. Her speed made my incredibly close-quarters fighting style more than a little infeasible here so I needed to think about what to do.

The green unicorn frowned and turned her focus back to her lyre, playing few chords of a lovely but slightly haunting melody, and suddenly I was feeling very… drowsy. My wings started becoming heavy so I flew away from Lyra to look for a safer place to land and catch my breath.

Lyra didn’t follow me at first until I was closer to the ground, far enough away that I would have enough warning if she super-speeded herself over to me but close enough that she was still in my sightline. To my surprise, when Lyra ran at me she did so at a normal running speed, and suddenly I put all the pieces together.

Lyra’s lyre was the source of her magic, it seemed pretty obvious in retrospect. If I had to guess, I would say the specific songs she played caused certain magical effects, but she could only concentrate on one at a time… so her first song was a speed spell but once I flew out of her melee range she used a sleepiness spell on me instead… but she couldn’t super speed while that spell was active.

In that case…

This was my opportunity to get close to her and use my pokey-pokey attack, but with this fogginess hanging over my head that would be difficult. I don’t know if I wasn’t thinking straight or if I was just incredibly desperate but my first inclination was to take my foreleg and bite into it hard… like, hard enough to draw blood.

Desperate or not, it cleared my head enough for me to charge toward Lyra, who noticed my movements and paused which gave me the perfect opening to strike. Using my wings to propel me forward, I flew at Lyra as fast as I could manage. All I needed was one solid hit and it would knock off her flow enough for me to take control of this battle and win this for Team Rainboom!

As I rocketed toward Lyra I gained a steely look in my eyes, determined to win this fight and prove that I was amazing! I was gutsy! I was—

My flying speed wasn’t very fast. It was even slower than normal thanks to Lyra’s spell. She saw me coming from a mile away.

CRACK. She slammed her hoof square into my jaw as I propelled toward her.

THUNK. I was sent spinning and fell to the snowy ground with blood trialing from my leg and mouth.

Lyra played another melody on her lyre, this one foreboding and dangerous sounding. I struggled to stand up and felt my senses returning to me as Lyra’s drowsiness spell wore off…

I almost retched as I felt the battering ram of Lyra’s kick hit me in the stomach before I could fully get to my feet, her attacks undoubtedly strengthened by her latest tune. My eyes widened and all the wind was sucked right out of me. I was laying on the ground, my vision blurring as I looked up at the cloudy sky. Another firm kick to the head and it was over.

Next thing I knew I was back in the arena standing upright. I looked at my leg and it wasn’t injured at all, but the next thing I heard devastated me more than a leg wound could have.

“The winner!” Starlight yelled for the crowd. “LYRA HEARTSTRINGS!!!”

****

-APPLEJACK-

Team Destiny was let into arena B by a doorguard, specifically into a waitin’ room with two large doors on either side. Three ponies were already sittin’ there waitin’ for us in the room, probably our opponents for this first match.

All three were earth ponies, two of ‘em were older guys, and I recognized all three of ‘em instantly. How could I not?

One of the guys was a charcoal brown stallion with silvery-grey hair and a mustache who wore a pale brown cowboy hat. Man’s name was Burnt Oak and I felt myself gettin’ a teensy bit pale as his eyes lit up with recognition when he saw me.

The other man was more of a tan brown with dark gray hair, sideburns on his face and a black broad-brimmed hat on his head, wearin’ the same dour and stony expression he’d had on the last time I saw him and I’d bet every day before or since

Then there was the lady, a light gray mare whose hair was tied in a neat bun and had gold-trimmed glasses adorning her serene face. She was the only one of the three I was slightly relieved to see, though also the one I knew the least about. Didn’t ever get the chance to talk much with her, but always figured I should change that one of these days.

They were Team Rock Farm, comprised of part of my family, and part of my sister’s.

Burnt Oak stood up eagerly and smiled at me, callin’ out my name with cheer as he reached his hoof out to shake mine.

I shook the man’s hoof cautiously and gave a hesitant smile, my eyes ever so briefly meetin’ Rarity’s and I could tell she noticed my concern. Still, wouldn’t do to be impolite so I mirrored the man’s cheer and laughed, “Burnt Oak! Long time no see, old man!”

“Too long, Applejack!” the old man said jovially and pat me on the shoulder. “You haven’t been keeping in touch with the family much, have you?”

He was trying to tease me gently but the old man was never one to understand where peoples’ boundaries were, so I was definitely a mite wary, especially with Rarity and Twilight nearby.

“Well, I uh,” I laughed nervously and glanced away, fidgetin’ with my hat, “I been pretty busy, what with my studyin’ and all…” the actual nature of my ‘studyin’— learnin’ how to fight so I could compete in Bifrost— was somethin’ that I’d kept close to the chest where my family was concerned. I didn’t feel terribly comfortable with ‘em knowin’ just how much I was lookin’ forward to this.

“Of course, of course,” Oak chuckled. “I see you went through with the transition though, good for you!”

I yanked my hoof away like I’d burned it on a hot stove and laughed real nervously, my face goin’ sheet white, “Heh heh, yeah… you really shouldn’t just say stuff like that out of nowhere, old man…”

“What’re you talking about?” he scoffed with a dismissive bat of his hoof. Nothin’ was ever serious unless he took it seriously. “We’re all family here, right?”

Look, I knew I wasn’t in any real danger. Cloudy and Igneous—the two other ponies on Oak’s team—already knew ‘bout my gender situation on account of knowin’ me pre- and post-transition and they had no problems with it. And obviously Twilight and Rarity knew, plus they were trans themselves. No one in this room was gonna hassle me ‘bout my gender.

But there was no way Burnt Oak could’ve known that. He didn’t know Twilight and Rarity, and the casual way he just announced to the whole sunforsaken room that I was trans was nothin’ short of mortifyin’. In another circumstance, that kinda carelessness could’ve gotten me killed.

“You shouldn’t openly declare the details of one’s struggles, Burnt Oak,” Igneous, the brown male with sideburns, spoke with a detached and elderly voice as he stood up and tapped his teammate on the shoulder, “especially matters so intimate and personal to one’s identity.”

“Ah,” Burnt Oak looked remorsefully at Igneous and then back at me, takin’ his hat off and bowin’ his head. “My apologies, Applejack.”

If Burnt Oak had turned from Igneous and punched me real hard in the head I would’ve been less shocked than by his sudden apology. The old man I knew never apologized, never took responsibility, “Igneous is right, of course, I spoke without thinking and put you on the spot. I am sorry.”

“Uh, yeh, it’s fine,” I said awkwardly, timidly pattin’ him on the shoulder. He put his hat back on and gave me a nod and a pleasant smirk, and that was that.

“Just, y’know, don’t go announcin’ my uh… situation…” I cleared my throat. Look, I was proud as heck to be trans but that didn’t mean I wanted to talk about it, and I definitely didn’t wanna talk ‘bout my transition, and I absolutely didn’t wanna talk about it with my darn family!

“Of course,” Burnt Oak said with a nod. “So have you been in contact with your aunt Orange at al—“

“So, Applejack!” Rarity chimed in and needled me in the ribs with her elbow, shovin’ me to the side. I couldn’t thank her enough fer doin’ that and helpin’ me dodge yet another extremely awkward conversation with the old man.

“You haven’t introduced us! My name is Rarity, and this-” Rarity moved me further aside and motioned for Twilight to stand next to her, the younger mare doin’ so with a good deal of hesitance, “-is my sister Twilight! It’s a real pleasure to meet a member of Applejack’s family… or three?” Rarity said with a smirk, looking at Igneous.

“My name is Igneous Rock, son of Feldspar Granite,” Igneous said his monotonous, rehearsed introduction and I smiled at myself for not rollin’ my eyes this time. “This is my wife, Cloudy Quartz,” the gray mare stepped beside Igneous and did a little bow. “While we are not members of the Apple clan, our families have known each other and been allies for generations.”

“Iggy and I grew up together!” Burnt Oak said as he wrapped a foreleg around a clearly bemused but used to it by now Igneous. “But this is our first time competing in Bifrost as teammates, it’s pretty exciting. And I’m not a member of the Apple clan myself either, just a family friend.”

Not a member of the Apple clan indeed. Far as I was concerned, only two ponies left in Equestria who had a claim to the Apple family name were Pinkie Apple Pie and her boneheaded sister Applejack.

“Ah, I see,” Rarity did the polite giggle of a woman humorin’ the dull speech of the person she’s talkin’ to. She was a natural at it, “Then I guess the three of you have competed in Bifrost before, although not as teammates?”

“You dunno the half of it,” I interjected with a laugh, steppin’ up to the other side of Rarity and givin’ Twi an out, the poor girl clearly uncomfortable bein’ on the frontlines of this impromptu family reunion, “Igneous and Cloudy have been in the last four Bifrost competitions. Bifrosts? Eh, it sounds weird that way.”

“You don’t say!” Rarity said cheerfully and batted her hoof. “I suppose it’s some rough luck for our team to be facing you in the first round then,” she did another polite giggle, but this one was more like the one you use to ingratiate yerself to people and show ‘em you don’t take yerself too seriously.

I’d been around Rarity long enough to figure the different meanings behind all her little social cues and it was makin’ me smile how easily I remembered ‘em. Like how a four-chuckle laugh means somethin’s mildly funny, but a three-chuckle laugh means ‘don’t ever say that to me again’.

“Perhaps,” Igneous said stoically. “We shall simply have to wait and see when the fights begin.”

“Indeed,” Rarity said with a nod, affecting a serious attitude for the sake of appearances. She quickly brushed it off though and said cheerfully, “On that note, we should probably go to our own waiting room and prepare our strategy, wouldn’t you say, girls?”

“Likewise,” Igneous said with a nod, turnin’ toward the door on the right. “Know that we shall not hold back, even against you Applejack.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I gave Igneous a confident smirk and casual shrug to show him I wasn’t intimidated.

“Great seeing you again, Applejack,” Burnt Oak tipped his hat to me and I returned the gesture. “And hey, I’m going up first and I would love the opportunity to square off against you! Just saying.” The man said with an unsubtle wink.

“I’ll see if I can take ya up on that,” I replied with a polite laugh as I headed toward the left door.

As the three of us left the waiting room and walked into the empty hallway beside it and away from Team Rock Farm, I breathed the biggest possible sigh of relief and said to Rarity, “I owe ya one.”

“Think nothing of it, darling,” Rarity replied with a shrug and a cute smile. “I know all too well the headache that family can be,” she added wistfully, Twilight silently noddin’ in agreement.

I could’ve dwelt on that statement but I elected to ignore it. Probably came out unbidden and I didn’t wanna make Rarity’s business my own if she didn’t want me pryin’.

I let out a soft sigh as I walked down the length of the hallway, lost in my thoughts. All this talk of ‘family’ was gettin’ to me and I just…

I miss my sister.

****

-FLUTTERSHY-

I walked back into the waiting room with my head hung in shame and if I could have just curled into a ball and made myself disappear, I would’ve done it gladly.

Having the eyes of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash on me after my pathetic failure was a million times worse than having all the eyes of the crowd on me. I was so sure that Rainbow was going to be mad and yell at me and call me a stupid loser idiot failure or something and all I could think was that I totally deserved it.

“I’m sorry, you guys,” I said immediately as I walked into the room, unable to look at them as my ears flattened against my head while I silently begged myself not to start crying even as tears stung my eyes.

They were both sitting on the couch, and as I forced myself to turn my gaze to them after a few seconds of silence, I could see that neither of them looked angry… but they weren’t happy either.

“Don’t worry about it,” Rainbow shrugged. “Can’t win ‘em all.”

She didn’t yell or insult me but… I knew she was disappointed in me and it really hurt. When Pinkie Pie won her fight, we all cheered and hugged, but for me… a shrug and half-hearted words of encouragement. Which was more than I deserved, but it still hurt.

“It’s okay!” Pinkie hopped over to me and pulled me into a hug, “You’ll get ‘em next time!”

“That’s right,” Rainbow concurred, stomping her hooves on the couch before jumping up and hovering in the air.

I appreciated that my teammates were trying to not hurt my feelings but their words were completely empty to me. I knew they were disappointed, I knew I did a bad job and that I let them down, even if they didn’t say it explicitly.

“I’ll be right back,” Rainbow suddenly said, my ears twitching as I cringed for fear that she was about to start the yelling and the blaming, “I gotta go get in the right headspace… need to make sure I ace this.”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie beamed up at Rainbow as the pegasus headed into the hallway outside the waiting room, Pinkie’s forelegs still wrapped around me in a comforting hug.

I tore myself away from her though and sat down on the couch, feeling I didn’t really deserve to be hugged. I curled up into a ball and covered myself with my wings, hooves over my eyes as I tried so, so hard not to burst into tears.

Go figure, I failed at that too.

****

-RARITY-

“Wait, Miss Rarity.”

I stopped myself as me and my companions walked down the hall toward our waiting room, turning around to see none other than Mr. Igneous Rock standing in the open door frame of the shared waiting room and staring me down, almost though he were analyzing me.

I didn’t much care for it but I decided to humor him, waving Applejack and Twilight off and walking back toward Igneous as my friends continued to trek down the hallway.

“You are too weak, Miss Rarity,” Igneous said without a single blasted shred of tact.

“Is that right?” I said courteously and flicked my mane, feigning some veneer of the politeness that Igneous was so sorely lacking even as I was already fuming mad at him. “That’s a rather bold claim to make out of nowhere, is it not?”

“I have a profound connection with the Earth Aura,” he explained, if you can even call that an ‘explanation’. “Everypony is connected to the Aura, even unicorns and pegasi in their own way, so I can sense things about people, and I can tell that you. Are. Lacking.”

I scowled at the older gentleman, hoof agitatedly tapping against the glossy floor of the hall.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said tersely, harrumphing as I turned my head away from him and added, “And even more sure that I don’t care!”

I began to trot away from him, but he soon spoke up again, “Applejack and Twilight Sparkle are strong,” I froze in my tracks at those words, swallowing a pang of anxiety. “You are not.”

My, what a rude, boorish… JERK!

“If you cannot get your affairs in order, strengthen your motivation, you will remain weak and drag your team into oblivion.”

“I see,” I said dryly, my reply nearly coming out as a bitter hiss. “Forgive me if I don’t take a stranger grilling me about my comparative lack of strength terribly seriously,” I looked over my shoulder to glare at the man, the utterly taciturn expression on his face fueling my ire even further, “but why are you telling me this and why should I listen to you?”

The man was silent for a moment, looking me up and down as I continued to glare daggers into him, until he finally said, “Perhaps we shall simply have to settle this on the battlefield.”

“Perhaps so,” I clicked my tongue in frustration. Was that it? Was he just goading me into facing him? Why me? What did he stand to gain from it? Urgh, the longer I stood here listening to his inane prattle, the more frustrated I became.

“I will see you in the second round, Miss Rarity…” he turned around to leave and started walking but paused for a moment to look over his shoulder at me and say, “If you believe you have the courage to challenge me, of course.”

And without another word he walked back to his waiting room.

I stamped my hoof on the ground and groaned furiously.

He thought I was holding the others back? Was he right? It’s not like I hadn’t thought the same thing…

I shook my head and tried to shake those thoughts out of it; holding onto them would be a recipe for disaster with my diseased brain.

Still though, even though his challenge was a bare and obvious attempt to get me to face him personally and it was probably a trap of some kind… I begrudgingly had to admit that I wanted to take him up on it.

No, I had to take him up on it, I had to prove him wrong!

That jerk.

****

-RAINBOW DASH-

I paced into the hallway connecting Team Rainboom’s waiting room to the big waiting room and as soon as I was far enough away that I figured the others wouldn’t hear, I groaned in frustration as I conked my forehead against the wall.

I was so frustrated with Fluttershy’s loss; I really wanted to make an amazing first impression for our team and keep people in suspense about what I could do, but now I had to play cleanup in our first match. Not only that, but she made me look like a total punk for all that trash talking I was doing earlier. What a mess.

But on the other hoof, I knew it wasn’t her fault or anything and that being mad at her didn’t do anyone any favors. Besides, it was pretty obvious that she was taking the loss hard enough already without me having to be a jerk about it.

I couldn’t help being frustrated about it, but like… I was more mad at myself for being frustrated than anything.

“Frickin’ idiot. Geez,” I grumbled under my breath, referring more to myself than to Fluttershy.

“Are you talking about your teammate?” Sweetie Drops had been walking toward me from the other end of the hall but I didn’t see her since I was so focused on my own thoughts.

She looked really mad, and I guess I get why she’d be mad based on what she saw, so what I needed to do was explain that I was talking about myself and not about Fluttershy, and that I was just expressing frustration in an admittedly immature and selfish way.

So naturally, I didn’t do that.

“Maybe I am,” I shot back agitatedly, turning to face Drops and taking a step toward her, “what’s it to you?”

“Your friend just went out there and fought in front of a crowd of strangers,” Sweetie Drops lectured, “and she looked really devastated by the loss, and here you are smacktalking her behind her back?” she said indignantly, stamping a hoof on the ground, “That’s really messed up!”

“Funny, I don’t remember asking you,” I waved my hoof limply and dismissively, but a little voice in the back of my mind was screaming at me to just tell her the truth that I wasn’t talking about Fluttershy at all.

That’s all it would’ve taken to diffuse this situation probably.

But I couldn’t do that.

I couldn’t do that because then I’d be admitting that I was at fault.

Never take blame, never admit fault, never admit that you could be wrong.

Those were the rules I lived by to protect the image I had of myself, and I wasn’t about to abandon those rules and let the truth of me being a dumb stupid failure idiot cave in on me now.

“What are you even doing here anyway?” I asked irritably, trying to change the subject.

“Well, I was wanting to talk to you,” Sweetie Drops scoffed and turned her glance away from me in an obvious show of disdain, “because I wanted to wish you good luck and ask if you were excited for our match, but now—“

“Feh, if there’s something you want to say to me,” I shrugged and turned back toward Rainboom’s waiting room, “you can say it with your hooves. I’ll see you in the arena, loser.”

My eye twitched as I heard that unnecessary insult leave my mouth but I just kept walking toward the waiting room.

I didn’t do anything wrong.

Like, geez past-Rainbow, way to commit to just digging yourself deeper and deeper.

I slammed the door behind me as I re-entered the waiting room, the noise visibly frightening Pinkie and Fluttershy, who looked at me with concern. I realized then that I still had a pretty brutal scowl from my talk with Sweetie Drops so I softened up my expression and tried to release some of that tension with a sigh.

“I gotta go out there…” I said tiredly and walked past my team toward the arena door, but I stopped short and turned around when I heard a sniffle from Fluttershy.

She’d been crying, I could see it in her eyes that were all red and puffy, plus there were wet streaks in the fur on her cheeks, and Pinkie was sitting next to her with her forelegs around her.

“Fluttershy…” I said, the yellow mare looking at me like a wounded dog, ears flat against her head, “I’m sorry if…”

What’s the right thing to say here? Why am I sorry?

Truth be told, I probably had like a million reasons to apologize but I was drawing a blank as I stood there—cuz, y’know, never apologize—but then it hit me what to say, “I’m sorry that I didn’t celebrate your fight, that I didn’t appreciate how far you went to win for the team.”

“But I didn’t win,” Fluttershy whimpered, Pinkie holding her a little bit tighter, “I lost.”

“That doesn’t matter,” I shook my head and forced a soft smile. Saying something that I knew was true but at the same time didn’t really believe was a trip. “What matters is that our team wins, and I’m about to ace this fight, and you…”

I took another deep breath as I figured out what to say. This sorta mushy stuff was so not what I was good at, and the last thing I needed was to make things worse with Fluttershy like I’d so adeptly done with Sweetie Drops.

“So you lost one fight, big deal,” I shrugged. “You gave it your all out there, and that’s awesome. I want you to know that I’m super glad to have you on Team Rainboom and that I haven’t lost faith in your abilities or worthiness to be on this team at all. And I’m sorry that I made it seem like I wasn’t proud of you, cuz I super am. We’re gonna ace this thing, together.”

I gave a super genuine smile as I finished my little speech and realized that all the stuff I said was actually true!

Fluttershy looked at me with more tears in her eyes and said, “Thank you, Rainbow Dash,” she wiped her eyes and continued, “Now go out there and, um… ace this thing.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice!”

I jumped toward the couch the two girls were sitting on and raised my hoof, Pinkie pounding hers against it right away and motioning for Fluttershy to do the same. The timid pegasus shakily and softly placed her hoof against mine and I gave her a wink and a bright grin that made her smile.

Maybe I’m not such a bad captain after all?

With the support of my teammates, and Pinkie’s consistent cheering ringing in my ears as I walked out the door, I headed into the arena to take my place in the fight.

I had to admit, I was nervous about joining Bifrost, and even now stepping into the arena for the first time I felt goosebumps and a knot in my stomach. I really didn’t want to let my team down… but talking with them briefly made the nerves go away, cuz no matter who tried to get in my way it didn’t change the fact that my team was the best.

****

-APPLEJACK-

I sat on the ground of the waitin’ room gettin’ ready to meditate but I saw out the corner of my eye that Twilight pacin’ back and forth, lookin’ pensive. Her eyes kept flickerin’ over to me, then away just as quickly, like she wanted to say somethin’ to me but didn’t wanna bother me.

“Bit for yer thoughts, Twi,” I said with a smile, closin’ my eyes in meditation.

“Oh, don’t mind me,” she chuckled nervously, “don’t let me bother you.”

“No big deal,” I said with a casual shrug. “Looks like ya got somethin’ on yer mind. What’s up?”

“I was just… thinking, I guess,” Twilight said wistfully, accompanied by the sound of her hooves tappin’ agitatedly on the desk.

“Not that,” I said teasingly, Twilight giving a sweet laugh in reply.

“That was your family… huh?” Twilight said abruptly, her voice tense like she wasn’t sure this was ground she should be walkin’, but I didn’t mind fieldin’ a few questions, “I guess I just don’t know what to make of… whatever it was that I saw in there.”

“Sure,” I hummed and ran a hoof through my mane, takin’ off my hat and puttin’ it beside me on the ground. “Burnt Oak was married to my aunt Orange for a bit. They got divorced while I was still pretty young, but he was there for a decent chunk of my childhood.”

“Your aunt… did she raise you?” Twilight’s question was answered by a simple nod of my head, since the exact tale of how I came into my aunt’s ‘care’ after my ma’s death was not somethin’ I was about to comment on. “He mentioned you haven’t spoken with her recently. Is that true?”

“Not in a few years,” I said with a shrug, carefully twistin’ a bitter scowl into a forced smile, “got nothin’ to say to her, and she’s got nothin’ to say to her niece. She still wants to think I’m her nephew, after all.”

I could hear Twilight suck air in through her teeth and the fact that she could relate so hard to my sentiment warmed my heart, “Couldn’t stay with her anymore so that’s why I…” I groaned and hung my head, my cheeks burnin’ with the shame of a distant bitter memory, “that’s why I ran away to Dodge.”

“Hmm…” Twilight mumbled ponderously, “Rarity ran away from home too, so I guess you guys had that in common.”

Twilight’s tone began rather neutral, but with every word she spoke about her sister’s leavin’, her voice became colder and bitterer, “She never really told me any of the specifics of why she left. I mean, she left me a note, but that was it. That stung pretty hard…”

I looked over at Twilight with an eyebrow arched in concern and she flashed a nervous smile at me and gave a big theatrical shrug, “Oh well, all water under the bridge now, I guess.”

“Rarity never talked much ‘bout her family,“ I said casually, turnin’ my head away from Twi and shuttin’ my eyes to continue my meditation.

“No surprise,” Twilight scoffed, and now I was the one pensive ‘bout continuin’; Twilight and Rarity must’ve had family baggage of their own, and by the sound of Twilight’s voice I could hazard a guess that there were some demons between the two of them that had yet to be sorted out, and the last thing I wanted was to kick a hornet’s nest by accident.

“Twilight, are you telling Applejack dirty secrets about me?” Rarity’s teasin’ voice chimed into the conversation and I looked up to see her stalkin’ up behind Twilight and delicately tracin’ the girl’s ear with her hoof, takin’ Twilight by surprise and makin’ her jump.

“Just a little bit about our old family life,” Twilight chuckled nervously, frettin’ with her bangs and backin’ away from Rarity, “Nothing scandalous or anything.”

“I see, fair enough,” Rarity said with a smile, but it was the kinda cold smile that you had when you were tryin’ to pretend like everythin’s fine when it ain’t.

“Somethin’ the matter?” I stood up and walked over toward Rarity.

“Hm? No…” Rarity shook her head but I wasn’t buyin’ her act for one second. I think she could tell that I knew somethin’ was up cuz she grimaced and said firmly, “I want to fight Igneous, he says he’ll be going second…” she looked at Twilight and I with a fiery look in her eyes and said, “Is that alright with you both?”

“It’s fine with me,” I said with a forced smile and tried to keep myself from grumblin’ under my breath.

I knew I shouldn’t have just left her alone with him. Igneous wasn’t a bad guy or anythin’, but he was blunter than a hammer and I had a bad feelin’ he was gonna set Rarity off with some bitin’ remark or ‘keen insight’, masqueradin’ his smug arrogance as ‘enlightened wisdom’.

Oh well. Nothin’ I could really do ‘bout it now; wasn’t any of my business.

“I guess I’ll face off against Burnt Oak in the first round and Twilight can go against Cloudy in the third.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Twilight chirped and gave Rarity a warm smile, the pale white unicorn giving an anxious half-smile in return, and somethin’ about it put a real nasty knot in my gut.

Maybe it’d be better if she didn’t fight—

“Although Applejack,” Twilight interrupted my train of thought ‘fore it could really get rollin’, “will you be alright fighting a member of your own family?”

“You won’t hold back, will you?” Rarity added mischievously, cockin’ her head to the side and puttin’ a coy hoof up to her mouth.

“Nah, I’ll be fine,” I said with a grin and batted my hoof to dismiss their concerns. “How could I hold back ‘gainst a member of my own family? That’d be shameful! It’s a matter of pride more’n anythin’ else.”

Twilight and Rarity looked relieved, and I gave ‘em both a reassurin’ smile. There was no way they could’ve known, of course, but their concerns were actually totally unnecessary; how could I hold back in a fight against Burnt Oak when I’d been waitin’ for this exact moment practically my whole life?

More’n anythin’, I’m glad the fight takes place in an illusion so that I don’t have to hold back at all.

****

-RAINBOW DASH-

I walked into the arena and the crowd started to cheer as Sweetie Drops and I squared off.

I took a sec to really drink it all in.

This had been my dream for a decade, to be on this stage in front of this crowd and absolutely wreck another pony for their amusement and to prove my dominance.

For half a second I imagined the crowd chanting my name but I knew I wasn’t at that level yet. But I was determined to get there. People from Manehattan to Las Pegasus would know the name Rainbow Dash and speak it with reverence and awe.

As for Sweetie Drops, there was no need for more words between us. She still looked bitter as she glared at me from across the arena, but as far as I was concerned she was just the first in a long line of obstacles that needed to get knocked over.

The illusion was cast and the magical fantasy fighting location I got saddled with was a gross, muggy swamp. I don’t know how they chose who got what illusory arena, but I wanted to slug whoever gave me a swamp almost more than I wanted to fight Sweetie Drops.

Sticky and gross water? Check. Obnoxious foliage and fog that obscured vision? Also check. Twisting branches that covered the sky, thus cutting off my advantage of flight? Oh, of course.

I grit my teeth as I took in the surroundings and sighed in frustration. There was nothing to be done about the unfortunate landscape, so I needed to let that be and focus on the fight, which meant first and foremost, actually finding Sweetie Drops.

I heard the sound of a music box in the distance and figured that would lead me to her; in fact, it was almost too obvious.

I snuck through the difficult foliage and headed for the sound of the music box, jumping from root to root in order to avoid falling in the sludge water; even if it was just an illusion, being in that water looked like it’d be super gross, plus it’d put me at a disadvantage if my wings got too wet, mucked up and heavy to fly.

The music box sound suddenly stopped and I felt my hind leg get caught by a cable, and in the space of a second I was being lifted up upside-down by my leg via a wire. I flapped my wings and threw a blade of wind at the wire, cutting through it easily, and fell toward the water. A net sprang out from the trees to my right and I blew it away with a gust of wind, using the opportunity to reorient myself as well.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to keep myself airborne and landed right in the water, where a bear trap was waiting for my unsuspecting foreleg. I bit my tongue and refused to scream as the trap closed around my leg and gored it, the greenish-brown swamp water suddenly being tinted red.

I didn’t want to reveal my position to Sweetie Drops by screaming, thought that was probably a moot point cuz even if she didn’t hear the wire or net traps go off, she definitely heard the loud metal clamp of the bear trap even if it was under water. More importantly though, it would’ve been super embarrassing to scream in front of the crowd.

Still, I was stuck now. I moved my leg up but the trap was attached by a chain to the ground, and trying to take flight or blow the thing off with my wind magic would be less likely to free me and more likely to tear my whole leg off.

So yeah, this fight was off to a great start.

Before I could spend too much time getting mad about that, I heard the sound of something being blown out of a tube and instinctively threw a barrier of wind around myself, knocking the darts that were headed my way into the water. I rolled my eyes and hoped to myself that they didn’t carry some kind of waterborne toxin to boot.

It was obvious that these traps were all Drops’ doing. She must’ve known I would follow the music box sound and laid traps— and alarmingly quickly at that— along the path. And I, like a an utter goober, fell into every single one.

Still, I had to give credit where it was due; it was good work on her part to set such a multi-layered trap, she definitely wasn’t a pony to underestimate.

Since this was just an illusion I had half a mind to let my entire leg get torn off by the trap and just deal with the pain, but I didn’t know if dismemberment qualified as an auto-disqualification, like they thought I somehow couldn’t fight with just three legs, pfft.

I heard some small objects flying through the bushes and put up another wind barrier. At first I wondered why it took so long for her to launch another attack, and then I wondered why she just tried the same weak trick she knew I would counter, but then I saw the knives landing in the water and an inky substance on the end of the blades was turning the red swamp water blue.

Crud, she really IS using a waterborne toxin!

Oh well, no way to know but to try…

With an intense flap of my wings I threw a torrent of wind toward the ground, lifting myself out of the water despite the bear trap attached to my right leg. To my pleasant surprise, the force pulled the chain out of the ground instead of tearing off my foot, although the trap was still goring my skin. But whatever, that I could deal with!

I had seen where the knives had been thrown from and responded with a huge gust of wind that tore through the trees in that area and revealed where Sweetie Drops was hiding as she braced herself and dug her feet into the ground to stop herself from getting blown away.

Taking advantage of this small opportunity and flying through trees as they bent and danced around from my wind attack could give me control of this fight, but if I messed up even a little I would fly smack dab right into a branch and that would probably be an instant loss. No coming back from a bleeding leg, a concussion and whatever Drops would do to me while I attempted to recover.

It was a terrible idea, and I was better off playing things safe. So naturally, I dived right for her.

Like I figured, the trees were all snapping back into their original position after my hurricane attack, the branches swinging at me every which way. Dodging between the already tightly packed foliage was nearly impossible and took every bit of focus that I had, and there was at least one close call where the leaves of a tree grazed my back… but I nailed it.

I reached Sweetie Drops, her jaw dropped in stunned recognition of my awesomeness, and grabbed her. I soared into the air with her helplessly caught between my forelegs, and I heard the crowd cheering which put a huge grin on my face.

I rose into the air past even the tall, tall trees, and into the clear sky above. No obstacles or trickery to get in our way, just me and Sweetie Drops in a plain blue sky.

And only one of us had wings.

“You wouldn’t,” she said with a grimace, looking right into my eyes as I gave her a sinister smirk.

I didn’t say anything as I let go of her, sending her careening into the foliage below, but before she could hit the trees I snatched her out of the air and threw her upwards, slashing at her with a blade of wind that hit her dead on, blood spraying from the side of her barrel and landing on my face, which only made me laugh.

With no way to control an aerial battle, plus my quick reflexes, she was pretty much out of luck.

I grabbed her again and threw her upwards, flying up to her at the speed of sound and laying on two punches to her face and one to her stomach faster than she could even blink, before grabbing her again.

She was bleeding from the mouth now and out of breath— being at an uncomfortably high altitude and having the wind knocked out of you repeatedly will do that— and I wrapped my forelegs around her, holding her own forelegs behind her back.

I was using my wings to hold us in the air, obviously, but I wrapped them around her instead and reversed direction so we were both plummeting face-first into the ground.

“You wouldn’t!” she screamed and coughed up blood.

I needed to concentrate on my trick so I couldn’t snap back with a witty retort, but using my wind magic I was able to start spinning us at high speed as we rocketed toward the ground, surrounding us in a shield of wind that ripped through tree and water alike. Just as we were about to hit the ground I threw her away, sending her slamming into a tree. If this weren’t an illusion, she would be dead, but thankfully this was an illusion so she was able to stand up after that.

I bolted toward her and punched her right in the head with the bear trap on my leg, causing her to crash into the water. Even after that she was still able to climb onto a tree root and stand up… just long enough to throw up blood and fall into the water.

“The winner!” Starlight exclaimed, “RAINBOW DASH!! That’s one win for TEAM RAINBOOM!!”

My heart was racing and my body was shaking as the illusion was dispelled. I instinctively looked at my leg and was kinda relieved to see no indent where a bear trap had been.

Sweetie Drops grimaced and left for her waiting room without a word to me, but that was just as well. I shrugged and headed back into my own waiting room with a giant grin on my face. Pinkie was ready with a jumping hug as soon as I walked into the room and I embraced her heartily.

I opened my eyes and looked over at Fluttershy who was just sitting on the couch with a sad smile on her face. I bobbed my head and waved at her to signal she should come over and join the hug but she just glanced away. I tore myself away from Pinkie and walked over to Fluttershy and embraced her in a hug.

“I’m sorry you lost your fight,” I whispered in her ear as I placed my chin on her shoulder, “but I’m super glad you’re on our team.”

I leaned back, my hooves on Fluttershy’s shoulders, and saw Fluttershy start to tear up. Pinkie jumped between us and grabbed us both, dragging us into a hug. None of the three of us could contain our laughter, so we just laughed like big doofuses, me and Fluttershy wrapping our forelegs around Pinkie and each other in a big victory celebration group hug.

Like I said before, my team was the best.

****

-APPLEJACK-

I shook hooves with Burnt Oak as we stepped into the arena to face each other. Not much more to say ‘tween us that couldn’t wait til after I was done pummelin’ him into the dirt.

“Good luck,” was all he said before we paced back to our starting locations and the illusion was cast.

I dunno what I expected bein’ in the illusion to feel like but it wasn’t as weird as I imagined it. I guess I thought that bein’ in some kinda phantasm would feel funny or somethin’, but it was just like bein’ in a normal location but with like an almost translucent dome placed on top. Pretty normal.

Or at least it would’ve been normal if I couldn’t still feel the chilled winter air in frickin’ lava world!

Oak and I weren’t really the types to delay things or try and outwit our enemies with a bunch of plans and stratagems and shenanigans; we both preferred to do things the straightforward way, so we found each other pretty quick, standin’ on black charred dirt on either side of a river of lava, with two stone platforms sittin’ in the river between us.

“This looks like a fun spot to hang out,” I said calmly, tipping my hat to my opponent.

“Aye, I’m considering taking a vacation here in the summer,” Oak’s deadpan delivery and straight face as he said that made me laugh.

“You ready, old man?” I said confidently, scrapin’ a hoof ‘cross the charred ground.

“Not quite,” He jumped to one of the platforms and sat down on his haunches, and I watched him confusedly. He pulled out a bottle of cider and two glasses, fillin’ ‘em both and placin’ one on the other platform. Then he motioned for me to sit down.

“Really?” I said incredulously, “Ya wanna have a drink first? Aren’t the people gonna get bored?”

“I hope not,” Oak chuckled and took a drink of his cider, and I tried not to think of Aunt Orange scoldin’ him for drinkin’ or for startin’ a meal ‘fore everyone was ready.

“To be honest,” Oak said as he put down his cup, “this is my first time doing this sort of thing, but Igneous insisted. He said its part of the ritual of his team. Apparently they’ve done it every time they’ve fought in a tournament, at least in the preliminaries, for the last forty years.”

“I guess I can’t say no to that,” I shrugged and jumped over to the platform, sittin’ down on my haunches before the glass and takin’ a drink from it. To my surprise, it actually tasted like cider even in the illusion; good cider, too! “Gotta respect tradition, after all.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Oak said with a laugh, raisin’ his glass toward me. “That was my reason for even agreeing to this idea in the first place!”

“So what now?” I said, finishin’ my glass right quick and eagerly stampin’ my hooves. “Now that we’re boozed up does one of us just punch the other into the lava?”

“Not quite,” Oak’s demeanor suddenly became very serious. He looked at me like he could see right through me, sendin’ a shiver up my spine and puttin’ a sour taste in my mouth that made itself known through a bitter grimace on my face, “Applejack, why are you here? What are you fighting for?”

“That’s uh, an outta the blue kinda question…” I said, “don’tcha think?”

“And you don’t have to answer,” Oak shook his head calmly and took another sip of cider. “But if you don’t, isn’t that a mite suspect? Is your motivation so weak that you can’t stand behind it?”

“Tch,” I scoffed and grit my teeth, my grimace from before bein’ replaced by an irritated grin. “My motivation’s stronger’n anythin’.”

“Then what is it?” Oak asked, taking another sip of his glass that, by the satisfied sigh he made, emptied his cup, “What are you fighting for?”

I took a deep breath, eyes locked on Burnt Oak, and just… seethed. This guy was askin’ me about my motivation? What gave him the darn right to know why I fought? After everything, now he wants me to be honest?

I remembered bein’ a kid and wantin’ to build a little toy racecar, like the kind ya make outta wood and stuff. I saw some of the other church kids doin’ it and I got so excited that I wanted to make my own. I was still so young I remembered I still spoke with a little lisp. I told uncle Oak, beamin’ with excitement about how I was gonna build a racecar and all he did was laugh and ask, “Why? What’s the point?”

I was really shaken by that right away but I collected myself and said, “Cuz they’we cool! And it wooks fun!”

All he said was, “You’re such a little kid,” but the dismissive way he said it as he ignored me and went back to his drink always stuck with me.

I never built that racecar. I thought it was stupid after that. When another kid asked me why I never built the car I said I was gonna build, I told him it was stupid and cars are for little kids, and he ran to his mom in tears. Seein’ how my words hurt that kid gutted me way more than uncle Oak’s dismissiveness ever could’ve.

I was a child, and seein’ my uncle who I looked up to stomp on the thing that made me happy, and seein’ me ruin it for somepony else, it left me with a real pit in my stomach that never really left. I didn’t internalize it then, but from then on I always just wanted to say what people wanted to hear, a habit which got a thousand times worse durin’ my uncle and aunt’s divorce.

Gettin’ back to the present, I stood up and spat at the lava river. “I don’t owe you a blasted thing, old man,” I said gruffly. “Now stand up or I’ll knock you out right here and now.”

“I’m disappointed, Applejack,” Oak said, his tone bringing back that memory of him dismissing my car, the same kinda attitude. Like, it wasn’t good enough for him so it just wasn’t good enough period, “I thought you would have a better answer than that.”

“My answers are my own,” I said sternly, glaring ‘cross the river at the old man, “and I don’t have anythin’ to prove to you with words that I can’t prove with my hooves.”

“Alright then, Applejack…” Burnt Oak sighed as he stood up and adjusted his hat, “you had best bring everything you have, because I am not going to hold back.”

“Couldn’t ask fer anythin’ more,” I said, bracing myself for this fight to finally start.

PRIMARY LOTUS!!

Remember, kids: never, EVER out your trans friends. Don’t be a jerk now.