-FLUTTERSHY-

I stared out the second story window onto a sunny morning in Baltimare, sitting by a small table in our hotel room with a cup of warm tea.

Pinkie and Rainbow had already gotten an early start but I tended to loiter a bit behind them. It had been a long few days for Team Rainboom; we got into our first match and won, even though I lost, then we celebrated with stolen train and buffet food, and Rainbow spent the last two days after that going through a bunch of the informational pamphlets about the other teams.

She never did get to the one for Team Destiny though…

Anyway, loitering was nice but I needed to join the others. We had a fight today against Team B-Listers. The name didn’t have much intimidation factor but Rainbow said to always bring our A-game so I needed to be prepared for a tough fight no matter what! I finished my tea and took a deep breath to steel my nerves as I prepared to head out.

And then I heard a knock at the door.

I yelped quietly in surprise and wondered who it could be. I thought that Rainbow and Pinkie both had keys so they didn’t need to knock, but maybe one of them forgot their key? I shrugged it off, still feeling a little scatterbrained from waking up and trying to prepare myself for the fight today, so I wasn’t really thinking when I opened the door.

Standing outside the door were two peculiar stallions. One was a pegasus dressed as a mime, with a black and white striped shirt, a black beret and long black hair, with white face paint all over his face. He had black tears painted under his eyes but even without them he looked very dour, with a stern scowl adorning his face.

The other man was significantly more cheerful, a greyish beige unicorn with a pharaoh headdress and a lot of gold jewelry, a slightly goofy smirk on his face.

“Um, can I help you?”

Seeing these two strange ponies I’d never met before show up at my door while I was alone made me very uncomfortable, but I didn’t want to be rude to them.

“We’re looking for Team Rainboom’s room,” the pharaoh pony said jovially. “This is it, right?”

“It is…”

Maybe I should have said it wasn’t to make them go away, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t have helped.

“Good,” the mime pony said, which surprised me because you would figure he wouldn’t talk. “You’re coming with us.”

I slammed the door as hard as I could, the pharaoh pony howling in pain as he stuck his foot in the door and it got crushed, but it was enough for him to keep the door from closing, the mime pony swinging it wide open and the two men coming inside, shutting the door behind them.

I was terrified but I needed to be calm for a second… if I could just disable these two for a few seconds with my magic, I could escape either through the door or the window. I bolted at the mime but he just flew above my head.

The pharaoh pony reached out to grab my hair with his magic but I was close enough to quickly hit him with my hind leg; it was just a tap, but it was enough for my magic to debilitate him, the stallion stumbling back before falling on the ground. One down!

I reached for the door but the mime pony grabbed my leg and yanked me backward. I managed to squirm out of his grip and took flight, trying to jab him in the stomach but he dodged me.

I looked over at the closed window for a brief second and wondered if I could just throw myself through it, glass and all, but that probably wouldn’t be a good idea. My back was to the door and I wondered if I’d be able to open it and run down the hallway, and down the stairs, and into the lobby to find Rainbow and Pinkie before the mime guy caught up to me, but that seemed… very unlikely.

I guess I just had to take him out, just like I took out his friend.

He released some kind of gas from his shirt sleeve that drew slowly close to me, the man likely trying to drive me into a corner. And me being me, I started to back myself into one right away, but then I thought what would Rainbow or Pinkie do?

I grit my teeth and dashed forward, plowing into the mime at full force and taking him by surprise. My breath was held so I didn’t inhale any of his gas and as soon as I reached him I cocked my left foreleg back for a second and slammed it into his chest, hitting him as hard as I could manage, then hitting him with several additional little punches just for good measure, his foggy cloud dissipating as he could no longer control his magic.

The mime crashed to the ground and grabbed onto the bed in an attempt to stand up. He threw up a copious amount of blood onto the sheets and moaned agonizingly, “What did you do to me?”

To be honest, I had no idea. I didn’t know my magic would have that kind of effect; I thought it would just stop him from using his own magic. I couldn’t waste time feeling sympathy for him though because I needed to escape while I had the chance.

To my dismay, before I could turn around I felt my hind legs being grabbed by something sticky, looking down to see some kind of magical bandages were wrapped around them. I tried to tear my legs away from them or take them off, but it was no use and they just pulled me straight to the ground where the pharaoh pony was waiting and he stood over me.

I tried to kick him in the leg but he got out of the way and said, “Oh no! Not this time!” before placing a gold collar around my neck that snapped into place with a firm KRCHNK sound, cutting off the flow of magic inside me.

I was sweating and almost ready to break down into tears I was so terrified. I wasn’t able to escape and I had no idea what these ponies were going to do to me…

“What are you—“

I tried to plead for them not to hurt me or something but the unicorn lifted me off the ground by my hind legs and another roll of bandages wrapped around my mouth and muzzle to silence me.

“Quiet you,” he said irritably. “And you!” he yelled at his friend who was still lying on the ground and moaning in pain. “Get up already! We gotta get out of here!”

“What did she do?” was all the mime said in response, the pharaoh grumbling in frustration.

“Making me pull out my secret weapon… feh!” he mumbled as suddenly a large golden sarcophagus appeared behind him.

I made muffled pleas through my gag as tears started forming in my eyes, begging him not to lock me in there, but he just said “Ah, shut up already” and stuffed me inside the sarcophagus, more bandages wrapping around my entire body below the neck before he closed the lid on the sarcophagus and left me in total darkness.

****

-RAINBOW DASH-

I was pacing the hotel lobby waiting for Pinkie and Fluttershy and getting more agitated by the second.

We were supposed to meet in the lobby an hour before our match with Team B-Listers, but Fluttershy was a no-show. Pinkie said we should be patient with her but fifteen minutes of waiting and she was starting to get anxious too and ran up to the room to find her.

“Rainbow Dash!” she screamed as she ran through the lobby in a panicked frenzy. “RAINBOW DASH!!”

The sight of her barreling toward me with tears in her eyes, plus the distraught tone in her voice, instantly put a knot in my stomach. Pinkie had a tendency to antic and was prone to loud histrionics, but this was different. She had a desperate urgency in her voice that told me that something was seriously wrong.

“What is it, Pinkie?” I said sternly as she approached me and she took a moment to catch her breath. Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen and Pinkie was holding a letter in her mouth. Presuming it to be the cause of her distress I snatched it away from her and read it.

I clicked my tongue and grit my teeth as I read the contents, “A ransom note? ‘Forfeit the match and we’ll give your friend back’? Are Team B-Listers really that pathetic that they need to resort to sabotage?”

“This is bad, Rainbow!” Pinkie said on the verge of tears. “What’re we gonna do?!”

“Obviously, we’re gonna rescue Fluttershy,” I said with a shrug, crumpling up the note with a seriously irritated scowl.

“But how? We don’t even—“

“Hold on,” I said as I detected something… a scent, coming from the paper in my hoof. I closed my eyes and held it up to my nose. Cigarettes, alcohol, seabreeze… very tacky old-timey pirate aesthetic… “I know where this came from.”

“Wha, how?” Pinkie asked confusedly, tapping her hooves together nervously.

“You think I’ve just been sitting around the last two days?” I said with a proud grin. “I’ve been to every seedy bar in town, watching members of the other teams. The seedier the place, the more likely for a fight to break out, and if a fight breaks out, I can see what other competitors can do when they think no one’s watching.”

“That’s… really smart actually,” Pinkie said, a slight smile coming to her face. “So you know where Fluttershy is, then?”

“Thanks, and I think so,” I nodded and spread my wings out, there was no time to waste after all. “I know where this letter came from, the smell of that bar is unmistakable, but who knows if that’s where she is now. I’ll fly over there and look around, I have a good idea of who I’m looking for and I should be able to find a lead at least.”

I ran out of the hotel and prepared to fly off but Pinkie stopped me by yelling, “WAIT!”

I turned to look at her, my face a mix of annoyance and surprise.

“What do I do?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” I scoffed. “You gotta get to the arena. I don’t think they’ll let you fight in all three rounds but if they do, then do that. If not just stall them until I get there with Fluttershy.”

“That’s… a lot…” Pinkie said timidly, her ears flattening against her head.

“Yep! Good luck!” I said as I took off to find Fluttershy.

I knew Pinkie was scared, but probably not half as scared as Fluttershy right now, and she needed my help more than Pinkie. I didn’t know a pony stronger than Pinkie Pie, and I knew she could handle the responsibility.

She’ll do great, no biggie.

****

-RARITY-

Today was the third day since Team Destiny’s battle with Team Rock Farm. I had managed to regain some composure after the traumatizing fight that I’d had and our team had yet to be scheduled for another fight since then… but Team Rainboom had a fight today.

Twilight, Applejack and I stood outside Arena B where they were scheduled to fight in just a few minutes… but I wanted a chance to see them first. I was so nervous, shaking and stomach pains don’t even begin to describe it, but I had a strong urge from my gut to make myself known today… to see Rainbow Dash…

But the door guard wouldn’t let us in.

“This isn’t a visiting room,” he said, “it’s a waiting room for the fighters only.”

“Yes, of course,” I said, putting a hoof up to my lips before walking toward the guard, “but you did let the members of Team Rainboom into this room before…”

I stepped gently a few inches from the man’s face and looked straight into his eyes before turning to my right and walking past him, delicately flicking him with my tail, “I just wished to return the favor and offer them-” I placed a hoof on the man’s cheek and whispered into his ear “-my best wishes.”

“Um…” he muttered nervously and tugged at his shirt collar. “Fine. But be quick about it.”

“Of course, darling,” I said and blew the man a kiss as I walked through the door, an embarrassed Twilight and snickering Applejack in tow.

I was feeling a mite better, a bit more confident after that performance, and was rather eager to confront Rainbow Dash, if only to have it over and done with… but the only pony we found in Team Rainboom’s waiting room was Pinkie Pie, nestled into a ball on the couch rocking back and forth.

“Pinkie Pie? What’s wrong?” Applejack said fretfully and dashed to Pinkie’s side, putting her hooves up on the couch. “Where’re Rainbow and Fluttershy?”

“No Rainbow, no Fluttershy, only Pinkie,” Pinkie Pie muttered as she rocked back and forth, barely aware that the three of us were even in the room.

“Rainbow Dash doesn’t seem like the type to miss a fight,” Twilight said concernedly, looking to me for some kind of explanation that I was unfortunately unable to provide. “Did something happen?”

“No Rainbow, no Fluttershy, only Pinkie,” Pinkie repeated.

Applejack sighed dismally and softly grabbed the pink pony’s cheeks, tilting Pinkie’s head up to look her in the eye.

“Pinkie Pie!” Applejack said. “Tell us what’s goin’ on here.”

“Fluttershy!” Pinkie burst into tears and Applejack let go of her and stepped back a few inches, looking very embarrassed, and if I knew Applejack—which I did—I was certain that she was blaming herself for Pinkie’s sudden outburst.

I walked up to the tearful pink mare and placed my hoof gently on her leg. “Did something happen to Fluttershy? Will you tell us all about it so we can help?”

“Sh-she, she got kidnapped!” Pinkie said between sobs, a collective gasp and feeling of dread washing over the members of Team Destiny. “Rainbow went to go after her but she left me here all alone to fight all of our opponents! I can’t beat three guys, and I’m worried about Fluttershy!”

Pinkie cradled her face and sobbed heavily. I sat beside her on the couch and gently rubbed her back and stroked her hair. “Pinkie Pie, can you tell us where Rainbow has gone? If we can track her down we can help her rescue Fluttershy and have them back here before you know it, okay?”

“Oh… okay.” Pinkie sniffled, wiping copious amounts of tears from her face. “She went to a bar… I think? I dunno!”

Pinkie Pie grabbed a crumpled up letter from her mane and gave it to me, though the stench of booze and cigarettes on it was nauseatingly overpowering so I levitated it over to Applejack immediately.

“She just said that note smelled like some place she knew and took off.”

“I think I know where she went,” Applejack groaned, throwing the note away and giving it an appropriately disgusted glare. “I recognize the smell; think it’s called the Flaxon Saxon? Some silly rhymin’ name like that. Place is a real dive, perfect for the type of low creeps that’d resort to kidnappin’ and the like.”

“How do you know it?” Twilight asked curiously.

“I’ve been tryin’ to study the other teams,” Applejack explained, sounding rather proud of herself, “figure seedy bars and such are the perfect place to watch people gettin’ into scuffles, and if I watch ‘em when they think they aren’t bein’ watched, I might learn a thing or two ‘bout our opponents.”

“Oh, that’s pretty smart,” Twilight said cheerfully, Applejack just giving her a delighted grin in return.

Pinkie Pie let out a giggle and said, “Rainbow said the exact same thing.”

“Eh, great minds, I suppose,” Applejack said with a shrug.

“So, you can lead us there, Applejack?” I said hopefully as I hopped off of the couch, my blonde comrade nodding in reply.

“Wait! You can’t just leave me!” Pinkie shouted desperately and grabbed onto my hind leg.

“We wouldn’t dare, Pinkie Pie,” I said politely and gently grabbed her hoof. “Would it be alright if Twilight stayed with you?”

“Me? Why me?” Twilight said nervously, ears shooting straight up as the blood drained from her face. “Not that I mind, or anything, it’s just, why me?”

“Applejack knows where the bar is,” I explained, “and this whole experience is likely to be more than a little traumatizing for poor Fluttershy. I want to be there to comfort her if she needs it. No offense, but that’s not exactly a task we can trust to Rainbow Dash.”

“You’re not wrong,” Pinkie said with a weepy laugh. “O-okay. That’s a good idea. I’ll stay here with Ms. Twilight.”

“Uh, okay,” Twilight fretted with her bangs and a nervous half-smile crept onto her face. “I can… I can do that.”

The poor dear was clearly anxious about being left alone with a stranger, especially one in the emotional state that Pinkie Pie was in, but I wasn’t about to leave Pinkie alone and Twilight was the only one who could afford to stay behind.

“You both take care of each other,” I said as Applejack and I headed for the door, “and we’ll be back before you know it!”

I gave the pair a wink and they both waved goodbye as Applejack and I headed out on our bold rescue operation!

****

-TWILIGHT SPARKLE-

Pinkie Pie was still a complete mess as Rarity and Applejack left me alone with her. I wished there was something I could do to console her, but my pathetic anxiety-riddled brain was doing nothing but blaring the I’M UNCOMFORTABLE alarm which made it unbearably difficult to focus.

But I had to do something. I needed to find a way to release her fears. I couldn’t stand idly by while another pony was suffering and do nothing!

“Pinkie Pie,” I said softly as I walked over in front of where Pinkie was curled up on the couch, anxiously fretting with my mane and trying to take calm, measured breaths, “everything is going to be okay. Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity, and even Fluttershy, are all so strong. There’s no need to worry about them, right? Y’know, we just gotta… keep on keeping on, and all that…”

I nearly cringed myself in half as soon as I heard those words come out of my mouth, and I don’t even know how to describe the bewildered face Pinkie looked up at me with. I started turning really red and now I wanted to curl up into a ball, but then Pinkie started laughing and wiping tears from her eyes.

“You’re… you’re really bad at this!” she laughed.

“I know!” I couldn’t help but laugh at myself, to be honest. “I’m not exactly a motivational speaker!”

“Thank you though,” Pinkie sniffled and rubbed her eyes. “I appreciate the sentiment, but what I really needed was a good laugh, so thanks.”

“Anytime,” I said with a shrug, feeling oddly proud of myself.

“Still though…” Pinkie made a loud sniffle and curled back into a ball, “I’m not worried about them anymore… Rainbow’s so smart and cool and strong, I know she’ll fix it… and nopony’s more dependable than Applejack… so I know they’ll rescue Fluttershy…”

Pinkie was on the verge of tears again during that whole spiel but she finally broke down into sobs.

“I’m worried about me now!”

“Ah, of course,” I said softly, anxiously pitter-pattering around the waiting room which was much too small by the way! “But hey, I’ve got good news!”

“What’s that?” Pinkie looked hopefully at me while wiping tears from her face.

“Um…” I stammered, not actually having any good news to share and cursing myself for saying that I did. “Uh, if you lose this you still have another match that you can win, so it’s not that big a deal, right?”

Pinkie looked at me with a look of utter bewilderment and I felt my posture shrinking down as my cheeks burned like I’d put my face on the stove.

“Wow, you are really bad at this,” Pinkie giggled and the sound of her laughter made me smile so I just nodded along with her. She took a deep breath and hopped off the couch, walking over to me and saying, “You’re a sweetheart, Twilight. But why are you helping me? We don’t even know each other and we’re kinda on rival teams?”

“I guess?” I muttered, giving a half-hearted shrug. I looked at her and donned a serious expression as I explained, “But I can’t turn my back on a pony in need. Simple as that.” Pinkie smiled brightly at me and it filled me with hope and determination.

“I believe in you, Pinkie Pie,” I said confidently, the words coming out of my mouth almost by instinct. “You’re gonna do great.”

Pinkie took a deep breath and put her hooves on my shoulders, flashing a bright smile and saying in a low growl, “You’re gosh darn right I am.”

****

-RAINBOW DASH-

This was definitely the right place, just as I figured. A bar as seedy and gross as you’ve ever seen, this place was absolutely the kind of place you’d find stereotypical kidnapping thugs hanging out.

I didn’t know exactly who I was looking for but I had a hunch. It wasn’t gonna be a member of Team B-Listers, obviously they were all at the arena, but going through the pamphlets I found a team of pretty suspiciously similar ponies… Team Mane-iac.

Sure enough I found a member of Team Mane-iac lounging at the bar, shoveling food into his smug face without a care in the world. A pegasus stallion dressed like a mime, with the monochrome striped shirt and beret and white face-paint and all.

Everything about this guy’s aesthetic rubbed me the wrong way. I really did hope this guy was the one who kidnapped Fluttershy since it gave me a reason to beat him up instead of just an excuse.

“Hey buddy,” I said smarmily and tapped the mime on the shoulder.

“What d’ya want, buddy?” he replied in a fittingly grim tone without even looking at me. “Tryin’ to enjoy a meal here. Had a long day.”

“I bet,” I growled. “Kidnapping probably works up a real sweat, huh?”

The man suddenly looked back at me and his eyes widened as he recognized me. Before he could pull any trick I grabbed him by his shirt collar and lifted him off the chair and, with a little extra oomph from my wind magic, threw him against a wall.

What I did not expect was for him to crash through the wall, I didn’t think I threw him that hard, but when I looked closer I saw he didn’t crash into a wall at all, but a door that was hidden inside the wall.

I gave the bartender a confused look but all she did was shrug at me so I shrugged it off myself and went through the door, walking down some stairs behind it into a stone basement. I saw the mime guy lying on the ground and groaning so I was pretty confident that he was both alive and no longer a threat, making me snicker in satisfaction. Always a pleasure to get the one-punch-knockout.

Just down the stairs and behind another door was a mostly featureless stone room with several doors lining each wall. I dunno what kind of crazy dungeon labyrinth they built under this bar of all things but I groaned in disgust as I realized it was gonna make finding Fluttershy a lot more difficult, if she was even here to begin with.

Granted, guy kidnaps pony and then hangs out at bar with creepy dungeon underneath it? Odds were high that Fluttershy was being held here, and I tried not to think what I would do if I found other ponies being held here; now was not the time for that anxiety nightmare.

I considered yelling out to Fluttershy to see if she’d respond but I had no idea what kind of enemies were waiting for me down here, and let’s be honest, even if Fluttershy could holler back to me, she likely wouldn’t be able to raise her voice above a dull squeak.

Before I could begin my search and try one of the doors at random, a black sludge creature shambled its way into the room. At first I was a little taken aback by it but I quickly realized it was just a pony using some kind of weird magic.

“And who’re you supposed to be?” that question was rhetorical; by the time I said it I’d already recognized the guy as Smudge, another member of Team Mane-iac. Good news for me, I could take down two of their number right off the bat!

“GRMFGRMBL,” the sludgy dude said.

“Well Grmfgrmbl, I hope you’re ready for a fight,” I said with a snide grin as I scraped a hoof across the dingy stone floor.

I started out by jumping into the air and flapping my wings, two blades of wind flying toward Smudge. The dude was quicker than I expected though and effortlessly dodged them without even leaving an inky trail or anything behind him.

I didn’t know what would happen if I got that stuff on me and I really didn’t want to find out so I needed to think of a way to end this fast.

Smudge stretched out an arm to grab me but I dodged out of the way and cut the arm off at the elbow with a blade of wind, the inky substance evaporating into thin air as it dropped to the ground and the man controlling it seeming no worse for wear.

Before I could focus too much on that though I saw Smudge rushing at me out of my peripherals and I flew up and over his tackle, hitting the ground with a hard slam and throwing a bullet of wind directly into Smudge’s back. He didn’t even grunt or anything, he just turned around and glared at me with his piercing red eyes.

At this point I was starting to become a little concerned as I realized my attack didn’t do a freakin’ thing to him. Looks like I wasn’t gonna be able to just hit him until he fell down, I needed to find a way to pierce through the magic surrounding him, which wasn’t gonna be easy since I had no idea what kind of magic it was.

Smudge swung his arm at my head and I ducked under it but he dropped a few ink blots onto my wings as the limb went over me, the ink burning my skin as it touched me. I grit my teeth and charged backward, needing to find some major distance between us. The blob shuffled forward a little as its swinging arm molded back into the rest of its body and grew back into its proper place.

My guess at this point was that he was using earth magic. I couldn’t think of a way for pegasus elemental magic to do what I was seeing here, plus if he had any wings he sure wasn’t using ‘em, and his apparent lack of ranged ability made unicorn magic unlikely. So yeah, probably earth magic. Still though, that wasn’t a huge help, especially with the burning ink on my wings still being a major distraction.

I threw two more blades of wind to test a theory and he just tanked them both. Didn’t even bother to move out of the way, I guess he figured there was no point in dodging now that I knew his technique made it unnecessary.

Still though, my theory panned out alright; ranged attacks weren’t gonna work on this guy and I needed to get in close. Not an easy tactic given his advantage at close range— and I didn’t even want to think about what other tricks this guy had that I hadn’t seen yet— but it was my only option and I did have a few tricks of my own up my sleeve.

I dashed forward, using my wings and magic to burst forth with tremendous speed. Smudge threw up a barrier of sludge in my way and I surrounded myself with a hurricane barrier, crashing through his shield and getting right up next to him. Now it was time to kick him right in his belly and tear him up from the inside with a tornado!

At least, that was the plan.

I’d used a lot of magic already during this fight and crashing through his shield wasn’t exactly painless, in fact it gave me a really splitting headache and left some of his burning ink on my neck and both sides of my torso, the ink burning straight through my jacket and onto my skin.

I thought I could fight my way past the pain but one half-second of painful hesitation was all it took for Smudge to grab both my forelegs and squeeze, crushing my legs in his magic and making me scream in pain.

I tried to get away with another gust of wind into Smudge’s ugly face but Smudge wouldn’t budge, he just held onto my legs and his slimy goop started spreading up my legs and onto my chest. It felt like putting my hooves into that really greasy water that you get when you’re trying to wash a cooking pot that had like fat grease in it. It was gross.

Not only that, it was both really hot and cold, I honestly couldn’t tell which but it was painful. I grit my teeth to keep from humiliating myself by screaming again and tried to fire blasts of wind into him with no real luck.

This was bad, real bad. His inky grossness was slowly covering my chest and threatening to rise up toward my neck. His powers had completely absorbed my hooves to the point I couldn’t even feel them anymore and I was, embarrassingly enough, starting to panic. I had no way out. This guy was just straight-up immune to my attacks and there was nothing I could do.

As I felt his ink searing through my legs and I clamped my teeth down as hard as they would go so I wouldn’t scream, the first thought that ran through my head was I can at least die with a little dignity.

But then I realized what I’d thought.

Die?

NO.

I am NOT going to die.

I felt something burning inside me… something intense. I thought at first that it was just Smudge’s ink but this was different, it wasn’t a physical burn, more like an overwhelming rush of adrenaline. My vision started to blur and my ears rang… and then…

“Duck!”

That familiar voice snapped me back to reality and I bolted my head down and forward as fast as I could manage. I heard a thick SLAM right above my ears and before I knew it, my feet were on the ground and soon enough so was my flank.

I inhaled sharply to try and regain my senses and noticed that my legs were no longer coated in the black sludge but they were also turning purple and I couldn’t feel them.

Then I looked to see what happened to Smudge and saw him plastered against the wall but slowly reforming himself. A pair of rough hooves gently pressed themselves onto my own hooves, a warm light caressing my body as the mare cast a healing spell on me.

“About time you showed up!” I said, trying and failing to not smile widely.

“Don’t act like you ain’t shocked to see me,” Applejack said coolly, releasing my mended hooves and helping me back to my feet. “Ya think ya can help me out here? Better not slow me down.”

“Funny, I was about to say the same thing,” I said with a confident smirk, although the weightlessness of that comment, given that I was powerless against Smudge on my own, was not lost on me.

I was both over the moon grateful to still be alive but also infuriated and humiliated that I had to be saved, and by Applejack of all ponies. Not to mention…

…what was that weird feeling before?

Oh well, didn’t matter. Me and AJ had a mook to smash.

****

-PINKIE PIE-

I made sure my tears were all dry by the time I walked into the arena. This was no time for crying! Even though the odds were against me and I didn’t have Rainbow or my family or even Fluttershy around for emotional support, I had to find it inside me to win these fights!

I had to win for Rainbow, for Fluttershy, for myself and for Applejack… and hey, even for Twilight and Rarity who were so kind to me! I had to repay their kindness and generosity by making them proud and winning this battle!

And besides… Twilight said she believed in me! I know my dad and all my sisters and Rainbow believe in me—at least, I’m pretty sure that they do—but Twilight’s the first person since my mom to actually say it. And that felt really nice.

Alright! I can do this!

I glared angrily at the smug grin of Mr. SmellyJerk McPharaohGuy as he walked into the arena. I didn’t have anything nice to say to him so I just prepped my Party Cannon, breathed in the magic of the Earth Aura and tried to center myself for the upcoming fight.

“I hope you put up a better fight then your friend,” PharaohJerk said haughtily, my teeth grinding against each other instantly.

I puffed up my cheeks and thought about screaming at the guy, asking him what happened to Fluttershy and berating him for being SUCH A JERK, but I knew that was a waste of time. I just shrugged off his obvious taunt instead.

ANYWAY PHANTASM TIME.

The world went all swirly as the illusion was cast and the fight began and I wanted to freakin’ scream when I saw that our fighting arena, of all places, was a goshdarn desert with a giant pyramid temple thing RIGHT IN THE CENTER!!! Like, geez. Just hand the kidnapping jerk-face the home field advantage right off the bat, why don’t’cha?

I really didn’t want to go inside that temple thing but I heard Jerk McJerkington yelling mean stuff out from inside it. I was starting to think that this was all like a conspiracy to give him an easy victory, but I was still gonna show him who’s boss (it’s me, I’m the boss)!

I rolled my Party Cannon up the stairs and walked inside the temple where Jerksworth von Jerk Esquire was standing on a large platform in the center surrounded by stairs, doing a goofy dance which would’ve been funny if he wasn’t, like, a big kidnapping jerk.

“Are you ready to deal with all this?” he said while doing his weird dance.

“Uh-huh,” I said bleakly. I really wasn’t in my usual chipper mood and just wanted to end this guy as fast as possible.

I aimed my Party Cannon but before I could fire it at him he stretched out sticky bandages from his forelegs and wrapped them around my cannon! He yanked on the bandages and stole my cannon right out from under me, and as it landed right next to him he pointed it at me and slammed on the button with a very self-satisfied “HaHA!”

But when it did absolutely nothing he just stared at it with a bewildered expression. Instead of telling him that the Party Cannon could only be activated by my magic, I bounced toward him and slugged him in the face, knocking him through the air and onto the stairs on his back!

I spun the Party Cannon around and fired it, launching confetti all over the poor sap as he struggled to get back to his feet, sparks of fire and electricity launching between all the confetti and enveloping Lord Jerky Jerkinstien in a raging pink and blue inferno!

The magic only had a short attack time though so after a second or two he was out of the flames, his fur singed and a furious berserk look in his eye, and he started tromping toward me. I had a feeling this guy might be a little bit sturdier than Dizzy and that just one shot from the Cannon wouldn’t be enough to defeat him…

So I just fired the cannon at him again.

He yowled in terror as he saw the blast coming for him and screamed in agony as he was wrapped up in another torrent of pastel party flames. I wasn’t usually one to laugh at someone’s misfortune but I couldn’t help but think this was a satisfying bit of serendipity for the beef jerky who kidnapped my pal.

While the flames were pretty strong, I knew they wouldn’t keep this guy down forever so as soon as the second wave had passed over, while Jerkface was still reeling from the red-hot double-scoop from heck, I bounced toward him and punched him in the head, knocking him down the stairs and to the ground.

I moved to stomp on his stomach but he wrapped a bunch of his gross sticky bandages around my forelegs as they hovered over him. Thinking quickly, I bounced from my hind legs and tried to reach the ceiling, but the bandages stuck pretty firm and only let me go half that height before pulling me back…

Buuuuut, the snapback of the bandages added force to my momentum and I curled into a cannonball as I barreled through the air toward a screaming jerk pharaoh, smashing him in the stomach with even more force than I’d planned, not to mention crashing through the floor of the temple.

The basement of the temple was a dark room covered in sand, my feet sinking a little as we fell into it, with the only light coming from the hole I put in the ceiling. Despite my valiant bouncy cannonball strategy, even after falling into the basement my legs were still covered in those gross bandages and the guy connected to them was nowhere to be found, either hiding in the dark or under the sand.

Suddenly several of those bandages appeared out of the sand and wrapped themselves around my hind legs! They started pulling me under the sand and despite my struggles I couldn’t get free of them or resist the pull, so I sat down on my haunches to keep my head above the sand, my body being buried up to my shoulders .

It was then that the man controlling the bandages like puppet strings appeared to gloat. “HaHA! Now you’ve done it! You thought you could defeat the incredible Pharaoh Phetlock on my own turf?! Naïve! Foolish! Obscene!”

“You talk too much!” I shouted in the middle of his monologue. “And coming from me, that says a lot!”

“I agree,” Jerk Guy said irritably, “one of us definitely speaks TOO MUCH!”

He threw another bandage out from his foreleg that wrapped around my mouth. I tried to yell and holler but it only came out as muffled “MMPHS!” I continued to struggle against this creep’s gross power but every time I tried to move my legs above the sand he just yanked them back down, only giving me enough freedom that it would hurt as he took it away.

I know I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating that this guy is a HUGE JERK.

“And now,” he continued to gloat, feeling very proud of himself no doubt, “I will bury you in this ancient temple! I will smother you in sand and give you the burden of a slow and crushing death, a fitting end to one who would DARE to challenge the GREAT PHARAOH PHETLOCK!!”

I rolled my eyes and groaned at this guy’s theatrics. Maybe he’d have a leg to stand on if he wasn’t such a creep but… eh. Even without that, I feel like his presentation really could’ve used some work.

I tried to struggle and move my legs as I was slowly being buried up to my neck now, both my forelegs now pinned at my sides and under the sand. Between the bandages and the sand I couldn’t get any momentum for my bouncy attacks and my Party Cannon was still upstairs!

Things were looking pretty grim, so it was time for Plan C! My super ultimate dangerous forbidden technique!!!!

I closed my eyes and focused. Doing this was an all-or-nothing gambit and it needed a truly staggering amount of magical energy, but if I pulled it off not only would I win this fight, I’d win it in style.

Pharaoh Jerkface had stopped trying to bury me and was ranting about something but I wasn’t listening. I think he was mad that I was meditating instead of paying attention to him. I felt the bandages wrapping around more of my body, covering my chest and stomach and flank, and I felt them tightening and threatening to crush me, all in a vain effort to force me to pay attention to him, I guess.

But even despite all of that, my eyes remained shut as I channeled the power of the Earth Aura… I felt it welling up inside me… felt the magic of the earth, the faith of my friends and the love of my family all at once, and it gave me the power to win this!

BLINK.

My eyes shot open and faster than Jerkface could blink I was just gone. No bandages or sand could stop me, I had just disappeared… and reappeared just as quickly behind him.

That was the true power of my magic; for just a fraction of a second I could just kinda… bend space, disappearing and reappearing wherever I wanted to, within reason. It had a whole lot of useful applications but also made me feel like throwing up all of my internal organs anytime I did it!

But no time for that now! Now it was time to lay the finishing touches!

I threw my hooves into Jerky Jerkface’s jerky jerk face… and chest, and stomach, and legs… just punching wildly anywhere that would leave an impact, howling gibbering battle cries the whole time, of course!

My hooves were way too fast for the slow, plodding pharaoh to keep up with, plus he was still disoriented from me suddenly blinking out of his trap, so he couldn’t defend against a single hit and just took every single punch I landed on him with the resistance of a wet paper plate.

My punches ceased as my fatigue started to catch up with me and pharaoh Jerkbutt fell on the ground in a heap. His bandages started to extend from his forelegs yet again so he could recapture me… but I wasn’t the only thing that suddenly appeared behind him when I blinked, and only after my flurry of punches did he have time to see it.

He looked up with wide, terrified eyes directly into the barrel of my magically-appearing-out-of-nowhere Party Cannon and the look of horrified realization as he knew what was about to happen to him was priceless.

I fired the cannon and a shower of confetti rained down upon him, covering him in pink and yellow flames. The special-unique-amazing-oneofakind curse on the confetti, specifically engineered for me and my fighting style by my dear sister Marble, had a cool secondary special effect!

While it burned anyone who was not me, the same enchantment had a minor restorative effect on me, so while Pharaoh Jerkyjerk was burning alive I was also punching him a lot with reinvigorated stamina, my hooves only getting faster and stronger the longer they made contact with the flames! It ruled!

After about two seconds of burning and punches, the pharaoh was down for the count, lying on his back and sinking into the sand, and Starlight called it. “The winner! PINKIE PIE!!”

I breathed a massive sigh of relief at that noise but it was a little premature. Before I could properly get used to being back in the real world, the jerky pharaoh was running at me and whipping out his bandages to attack me in real life!

I didn’t have any time to react and I was still reeling from the fight. I didn’t even know how he had the strength to attack me! Lucky for me the bandages were swiftly cut to ribbons in midair and two pegasi in blue uniforms stood in front of me to defend me, a third pegasus walking over to the pharaoh.

“Don’t disgrace your team with that kind of behavior,” the fiery-haired orange pegasus said with a raspy voice. “One more antic like that from any of your members, and your team will be disqualified.”

Pharaoh JerkyjerkMcJerkingtonjerkfacejerk groaned and clicked his tongue, either at me or the pegasus, I couldn’t actually tell which, and left the arena to go back to his waiting room. I breathed another sigh of relief.

“You okay, kid?” one of the pegasi in front of me, a teal mare with white hair, asked.

“Y-yeah. Thanks.” I said nervously.

“No problem,” the orange one said as she walked over, the two in front of me making space for her to stand ahead of me as she reached out her hoof. “Competitors like that make me sick. Can’t wait for our chance to kick their butts.”

I shook the woman’s hoof awkwardly, still a little disoriented from the fight.

“That was a great fight, sis,” the fiery-haired pegasus said. “You’ve got some real powerful magic. Don’t waste it on dishonorable behavior like that guy.”

“I won’t,” I said with a smile, then tilted my head and asked confusedly. “Who are you, by the way?”

“Name’s Spitfire,” the orange mare said with a confident grin. “We’re working security detail around here. If there’s anything shady going on with some of the other teams, just let us know.”

“Actually…” I couldn’t believe my ears as she said those things. What luck! “Could I get a chance to talk to you guys in the waiting room?”

The three pegasi looked concernedly at each other but Spitfire soon eased their expression with a soft smile. She nodded and the three followed me back to the waiting room.

I had some mixed feelings about this… on the one hoof, it was an absolute blessing to meet these ponies who might be able to help Fluttershy! But on the other hoof, I knew how much Rainbow hated getting outside help.

Fluttershy’s safety was the most important thing so I tried to put Rainbow out of my mind, but I still had that nagging feeling that she wasn’t gonna like this at all.

****

-RAINBOW DASH-

As Smudge tried to reconstitute himself, Applejack slammed into him again with another hard punch, knocking his sludgy butt to the ground. I had no idea why Applejack’s attacks seemed to work on him but mine didn’t but I couldn’t just let her show me up!

I stamped my hoof on the ground and threw a bullet of wind at Smudge. The inky barrier surrounding him was actually starting to dissipate around his face, revealing a tan pony whose eyes widened as he saw my attack heading straight for him.

He spun around and created a small whirlpool of ink around his body that deflected my attack, causing me to grit my teeth, stomp on the ground and groan in frustration. I was really tired of him shrugging off everything I threw at him!

Applejack jumped toward me and landed beside me.

“So what’re we dealin’ with here?”

“Earth pony magic,” I said confidently, wanting to sound like I knew more than I really did. “It looks like that sludge is just—ergh!”

In all the commotion I’d forgotten about the inky that was still burning holes into my wings— the sludge having dripped down and burnt through my jacket and onto my back— and the pain distracted me from what I was saying.

“Make this last,” Applejack put her hoof on my back and a warm light enveloped me, completely erasing the pain. “I only got one more today.”

“Right,” I said, ignoring my embarrassment at getting saved by Applejack again and watching Smudge carefully as he reformed. “I’m pretty sure that stuff is just the shape of his magic aura.”

“Ah,” Applejack chuckled. “In that case, back me up. I’ll clear a path through it and you knock ‘im out!”

“Right!” I said with an ecstatic grin. Even though it was awkward working with Applejack again after so long, and after all the stuff we’d said to each other over the years, not to mention the whole embarrassing rescue thing, I was just excited to kick this jerk into the dirt where he belonged.

Applejack lunged forward and tried to strike with a hard punch but Smudge threw a shield between them, his desperation evident in the sloppiness and rushed nature of his defense, and the shield completely fell apart as soon as AJ’s hoof went through it.

Smudge slid over to the side to avoid Applejack’s followup attack, and good thing for him too because her hoof left a freakin’ indent in the stone wall where Smudge’s head had just been. He tried to grab me with an elongated tendril but now that I was back at 100%, or close enough, dodging his clumsy attack was easy and I cut the tendril with my own magic.

Applejack rushed at him again and he knew he couldn’t let her hit him so he desperately tried to slide away from her, toward me, and I stopped him in his tracks by slamming down onto the ground in front of him and throwing a wall of wind between him and myself, allowing Applejack to nail him hard in the chest, his sludgy aura separating and breaking apart around Applejack’s hoof.

His magic was still providing enough resistance to her attack that it couldn’t quite get through but it was obvious he was running on fumes now as he jumped away and clumsily fumbled upon landing, ooze spraying in several directions and dissipating quickly.

Applejack and I split up, AJ attacking from our enemy’s left and me from the right. Smudge rushed toward me and tried to grab me but I wasn’t about to let him get even a drop of that gunk on me again and pushed myself back with my wind, knocking him back as well and right into Applejack’s applebuck.

Smudge was able to just barely defend himself from AJ’s attack by throwing most of his aura into a defensive wall between him and the mare, but Applejack just spun on her heels and started punching rapidly, the wall of ooze deteriorating and the now exposed enemy’s expression getting more desperate and frightened the closer she got to him.

And that’s where I came in.

I flew toward Smudge who saw me coming and grit his teeth in a pained cringe, jumping back and trying to throw a large ball of gunk at me that I just dodged underneath, getting closer to him at mach speed.

I grabbed the tan stallion by the neck and threw him toward the high ceiling, the sludge following him up like it had a will of its own but it was too slow to catch up to him before I did.

I shot up like a bullet and grabbed the man again, this time wrapping my forelegs around his barrel, and spun around like a tornado as we headed straight for the ground, throwing the dizzy, spinning stallion away before we hit the stone… and sending the man right into Applejack’s kick.

Applejack was stronger than a tank and her kick sent the man flying right into the wall, leaving a big crater in the stone behind him. He groaned as he slid off the wall and hit the ground in a heap, weakly muttering “You win…” as he presumably lost consciousness.

I landed on the ground next to AJ and the two of us firmly pounded our hooves together. She may have gotten on my nerves but there was no doubt in my mind that Applejack was one heck of a fighter and fighting alongside her was always awesome.

“Come on,” Applejack said, adjusting her hat, “we gotta go find Fluttershy.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” I nodded seriously, then followed Applejack through one of the doors lining the walls, one that was conspicuously open even though I was sure they were all closed before. Oh well, good a door as any I guess.

****

-RARITY-

When Applejack and I arrived at the bar it didn’t take long to notice the giant hole in the wall and put together that Rainbow Dash was responsible for it. We went down the stairs behind the hole and found Rainbow Dash locked in combat with a black sludge-like creature.

As much as I detested the pegasus, I wasn’t so petty that I was about to stand around and watch her get maimed so I moved to attack the creature, but was stopped by Applejack extending a foreleg to stop me.

“Let me deal with this,” she said urgently. “You go find Fluttershy. You’ve got some divination, yeah?”

“Some,” I said sheepishly, my bitterly supbar magical talents weighing ever present on my mind since my battle with Igneous. I cleared my throat and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll find her.”

“I know you will,” Applejack said with a confidence-boosting warm smile. “Leave a path for me to follow.”

“I will,” I said softly. “Don’t be long.”

“Please,” Applejack scoffed, her utter self-assuredness bringing a smile to my lips, “I’ll be done with this guy ‘fore you even find Fluttershy.”

With that, she rushed off to assist Rainbow Dash and I lit up my horn, activating my mediocre divination spell and trying to detect Fluttershy’s presence.

Whether it was the spell or simply a gut feeling I don’t know, but I had the urge to go through a specific door on the side of the rather large room where Applejack’s confrontation was taking place, quickly sidling into the room to avoid the battle itself and through the door, leaving it open for Applejack to follow.

The basement of this random tavern was like a dungeon I had many questions regarding the safety and purpose of its design, so I wasn’t having an easy time locating Fluttershy in the midst of this labyrinth, even with my spell.

At first I thought it was an ancient wine cellar from the prohibition era, but there were prison cells. Maybe it went back even farther, to pre-Equestria war times… although that didn’t explain why a seedy bar of all things rested on top of it now…

That wasn’t important though! I needed to find Fluttershy.

I looked around to see if anyone saw me and when I could tell I was alone I tried to go into a trance. As I said, my divination spell was mediocre, and magic in general wasn’t my strong suit, but I hoped that with a bit of concentration, I would be able to track Fluttershy with my spell.

I felt the soft hum of the Space Aura flowing through me and for a brief moment, I had a mental map of the labyrinth. It was actually quite tiny, with most of its many doors all leading toward the same few rooms in a circle.

More importantly though, the place was nearly empty. I could detect seven magical auras in the small space; myself, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, the unconscious mime we passed on the way in here, the sludge creature… and the other two were almost certainly Fluttershy and one last enemy.

I breathed a sigh of relief at not having to rescue anyone other than Fluttershy; I think it goes without saying, but I would not simply stand by and rescue my friend but leave behind other prisoners. Thankfully, it was a non-issue, and I tried to focus on the magical auras I could ever so faintly feel with my spell and see if I could detect Fluttershy among them.

Turns out I didn’t need to, for as soon as I quieted my thoughts to concentrate I heard moans echoing through the halls.

I followed the sounds of Fluttershy’s pleas and found her inside one of the prison cells, chained to the wall by a collar around her neck and a bridle stuck in her mouth.

I ran to the door of her cell and sliced it open with magic.

“It’s okay, Fluttershy, darling! I’m going to get you out of here!”

I thought she would be happy to see me but she looked frantic and had tears in her eyes as she pleaded and shouted, but I couldn’t understand any of it thanks to the bridle.

I wasn’t stupid though so I immediately turned around.

“Now, now…” a purple mare with extremely long green hair dressed in a tight, gaudy purple and yellow body suit was sitting on a throne that looked to be made of her own hair, her forelegs crossed disapprovingly over her chest. “Why the rush? Can’t you stick around for a little bit?”

“I take it you’re the ringleader of this sleazy operation…” I said, a blue sword of light appearing over my head thanks to my magic.

“I am!” the woman said proudly with a giant, unsettling grin. “I’m the Mane-iac, and I’m oh so pleased to make your acquaintance!”

She did a mock curtsy and her smile grew ever wider, looking through me with her blood red eyes. “Granted, not half as happy as I will be to make you the newest member of my collection! But still, we all gotta start somewhere!”

“Well,” I harrumphed, “if you need to resort to kidnapping in order to coast through Bifrost, instead of just fighting your opponents fairly, then you can’t be all that powerful, can you?”

The Mane-iac just laughed uproariously, dispelling any shred of confidence that I had. “Oh, you think we kidnapped that girl to move forward in the tournament? No, it was just for fun! Both my teams have won two matches each already!”

“I see,” I grit my teeth and tried not to dwell on how powerful she must have been if she had already cleared the first preliminaries barely a week into the tournament.

She was clearly very strong, likely much stronger than I was, but more than that I could tell she was dangerous. This fight wasn’t going to be like the one with Igneous, where a lethal blow could simply be waved off by the dispelling of an illusion; my life was on the line for real now, and against an enemy that I had barely any prayer of defeating.

Oh well. There was no way I was going to let her keep Fluttershy without a fight.

I really like the juxtaposition between the incredibly dramatic title of this chapter and the fact that nothing of consequence actually happens in it.

Wait, or do I have that backwards?