“Ooh, that’s a good one!” the Storm King mutters to himself. He glances around, looking for a scribe or someone who might write the phrase down. Not seeing anyone he chides himself, “I should remember that! And market it!” He holds his hands in front of him, the backdrop the cloudy sky to the south. “A storm is coming! No, needs more shock.”

“Are we really going to allow this?” Twilight whispers to Celestia, askance. She doesn’t want to see her brother hurt, or the Storm King for that matter, but none of the other leaders are doing anything to stop it. If anything they are egging him on, Gruff especially, with derisive slanders against Shining Armor and Doug.

“They’re going to settle this like stallions,” Cadance whispers as she joins the two. A sultry smile spreads across her muzzle. “Besides, wouldn’t you want to see your stallion defending his herd?”

“But what if he gets hurt?” Twilight implores, ears folding flat against her head. Even as the image of Doug guarding her, shield and spear in hand, sends tingles down her nethers. It takes effort to clear her mind and get back to the problem at hoof. “And what happens with Chrysalis if he loses?”

“He won’t lose,” Luna predicts solemnly.

Twilight wishes she shared her confidence.

A furious growl from Shining Armor focuses the Storm King’s attention. “Oh! Right!” He climbs up the Staff of Sacanas, spinning around in a circle like a ball on a tether. “How do you want to do this?”

“Iron Grip will referee!” the minotaur roars, clapping his massive hands together. “Yes?”

At two nods the minotaur strides forward, giant steps from his relatively small legs clearing a rough circle. Muscles bulge and flex as he limbers up, almost like he will be the one flattening the competitors instead of wrenching them apart. A motion gets the Storm King and Shining Armor to move to the center, and Iron Grip continues in his loud, overly enthusiastic voice.

“Now, Iron Grip is familiar with many arenas.”

He grins, exposing two rows of gold and titanium teeth. His doughy face matches, his features arranged by his opponents as much as by nature. Yet his toothy smile and eagerness suggest it was not he who had to be carried out of the arena.

“And you are fighting over cow, yes?” Iron Grip motions to Chrysalis, who scowls at him. He laughs, a deep chuckle as his hands go to his hips and his pectorals flex back and forth. “Maybe Iron Grip throw horn in ring, too!”

“Can we get on with this?” the Storm King drolly offers.

“But Iron Grip prefer heifer over cow!” The minotaur stops flexing and shaking his rump in Chrysalis’ direction. “So! You fight to first blood or first knockdown. Yes? And no permanent injuries!” He scowls at the Storm King. “You break his back, Iron Grip break yours. Got it?”

“Two on one sounds fair, especially with one down,” the Storm King retorts, belaying his black comment with a goofy smile.

“It won’t be just two,” Cadance growls out, advancing forward to nuzzle her husband. She wishes she had one of her blue mane ties to wrap around him, but she stopped wearing those years ago.

“Oh, don’t worry your pretty little head.” The Storm King reaches over Shining Armor to pat Cadance reassuringly, ignoring the unicorn’s protestations. He flicks his head at Celestia. “Besides, I’d only be worried if she joined.” He grins as he backs up to their starting positions. “I’d rather keep my bones inside my body, thanks.”

“B-but you’re not supposed to do that!” Twilight says with a gasp and worried glance at her mentor. “A creature’s innate resistance means…”

“Anything can be overridden,” Celestia states calmly, her motherly smile never fading. “Though I rarely deign to work on so small a scale.” She winks at the Storm King.

He stares at her for a long moment, scratching at his chin while he ponders. “Standard magic rules?” he finally asks, turning back to Shining Armor and Iron Grip. “I don’t use anything on you, you don’t use anything on me?”

“And no flying,” Iron Grip appends, remembering how Shining Armor ascended the building.

“Ugh,” Rainbow Dash moans from the sideline. “No flying is the worst rule.” She sighs, even as Doug pats her head consolingly.

Shining Armor nods in agreement, both with Rainbow Dash and Iron Grip. “If I win, you don’t make any advances on Chrysalis.” He frowns as the Storm King’s gaze shifts to Celestia. He growls, “Or any of the mares!”

“Any of the mares?” the Storm King confirms rhetorically. He shrugs. “Agreed. And as a bonus, I’ll even throw Celestia my vote.” He winks at her, the corners of the alabaster muzzle shifting up slightly. “But if I win, you give up your little ‘Lis.”

Shining Armor looks over at Chrysalis, breath catching. The way she stands not next to him, like his beloved Cadance, but by Doug. How she comes to him once a week for… servicing, but never for anything else, preferring to stay in Ponyville and work on her relocated spawning pool. Maybe this will prove to her, and also to him, that he wants her to stay.

And if he loses?

He’s not going to lose!

“Ready,” he states, channeling his fury into his horn. He hasn’t started charging a spell yet, too early would be cheating, but he mentally prepares himself. He barely notices as Cadance steps away from him, unconsciously returning her blown kiss.

“Ready,” the Storm King echoes, bracing himself against the ground.

Iron Grip stands between the two, one arm outstretched. He glances between the two competitors. The tension in the air could be cut with a knife, but his hand will do as it chops down.

“Fight!”

Ten feet of wiry muscles launches through the air as the Storm King explodes like a coiled spring, screaming with primal fury! Everypony gasps as he slams the crystal-tipped staff down, directly on Shining Armor!

Except the unicorn stands his ground, pink sparks radiating from his horn as he grits his teeth. His slanted shield deflects the staff to the side, the arc of pink magic expanding away from his body.

“Barriers!” The Storm King scowls as he swipes his staff along the ground into the shield again, sending sparks of pink and blue as it scrapes along the surface. “I hate barriers!”

“Hah!” Chrysalis bellows at the blocked blow. “King Sombra couldn’t get through Armor’s shield! What chance does-”

Her mouth gapes open as the Storm King’s third blow - a wide, overbalancing power swing - shatters the shield into wisps of pink.

“W-what?” Chrysalis says, wide-eyed and stunned. He had done what her army of changelings couldn’t?! Cheers erupt from the opposite sideline, gasps from her own. She can barely draw breath as the Storm King translates the extra momentum into a spin and slam.

Only for another shield to spring into being, blocking his attack with a shower of sparks.

“Again with the barriers!” The Storm King changes stances, now gripping the staff at the middle and unleashing a flurry of blows with both ends. For all his fury he grins, laughing as he pounds. “You can’t be hoping to tire me out! I could do this all day!”

“He’s right,” Cadance says, the rhythm of strikes against the shield only speeding up. “But my Shiny isn’t tiring, either. Rather than channel a full power shield-” she nods at Chrysalis “-the kind you thought he would use, or a more mobile barrier that requires concentration and tires him out, he is sticking to cheap fire-and-forget barriers. This allows him to regain his strength in the time it takes for one to be broken.”

Shining Armor stands in a meditative trance, measured breaths in time with the shattering shields.

“What’s wrong?” the Storm King asks as he circles around the pink barriers. “Can’t talk?” They don’t move to intercept him; instead, new ones spring up, the old staying in position, and it takes just as long to move around a barrier as it does to break through. “Too busy concentrating? Thinking about what your cute little pony princess will have to do to cheer you up?”

“Ya ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta!” he screams, words in time with his flurries of blows, shattering shield after reforming shield. “Ya ta ta ta ta ta ta ta!”

“I’ve never seen Shiny’s shields broken this easily,” Twilight says to Celestia and Luna, nearly having to shout over the Storm King’s screams. “Except for when Lunaris uses Ward Pierce, but there’s no anti-magic on that staff!”

“The Staff of Sacanas isn’t anti-magic,” Celestia agrees, her words reaching Twilight as easily as if they were in the middle of a serene meadow. She frowns. “But it can absorb a pony’s magic.”

Twilight grimaces. “So he’s toying with him.”

“No,” Luna corrects. “He’s testing him.”

While the initial broken barrier inspired cheers and gasps from everycreature, the tenth draws little more than grunts of approval, both to Shining Armor’s endurance and the Storm King’s. At the twentieth it swaps to bored chatter, half focused on the match and the other on what they will do with their ill-gotten gains.

“Shining Armor can’t win like this,” Chrysalis remarks, teeth chattering. She immediately stops such a weak display. “At some point he’ll need to attack.”

“True,” Cadance concedes, though she motions to a spot behind Shining Armor, out of easy view of the Storm King. A loose ball of magic whirls in place, slowly getting bigger and bigger. “But every third or fourth shield he has enough spare concentration to add a little more.”

“Is this all you can do?” bellows the Storm King. “Come on, show me what you got!”

Shining Armor grits his teeth, his next shield a fraction of a second too slow. He barely pulls his head back in time as the crystal tip of the staff slices the hair of his neck, leaving a furrow as cut ends trickle down.

At the same time his reserve guard blasts forward, and the Storm King barely raises his arms in front of his chest to block the blow. It slams him backward, legs skidding along the ground until he snags, a nimble backflip the only thing keeping him from a knockdown.

“Good shot!” the Storm King calls, flicking his hands away to restore some of the feeling. He cracks his neck, grinning his toothy grin. “I didn’t get you too bad, did I?”

“No blood!” Iron Grip calls, though the blow had been dangerously close to slitting the unicorn’s throat. “But careful with that staff!”

Shining Armor grits his teeth, feeling at his neck. He takes a deep breath, regaining his meditative stance. A new shield springs up.

“You got this, my love!” Cadance calls, nervously pawing at the floor. She glances at Doug’s white knuckles around Chrysalis’ hoof before returning to the match.

The Storm King advances, bloodthirsty. He seems to have ignored Iron Grip’s warning, swinging with reckless abandon. His gamble pays off, smashing through shields in two blows instead of three, and before Shining Armor can gather enough power for another reserve blow he has closed the distance.

“You can still give up!” he calls, battering through yet another hastily crafted barrier. And then, with an agile spin around the barrier going up, he strikes directly at Shining Armor’s exposed side.

The flat end slams into the cobalt and pink mark with a meaty crack, bodily lifting the unicorn a few inches. He barely keeps his balance, and his composure, staggering to the side. There is no counter, and he keeps the Storm King at bay with a well-placed shield blocking and pinning the staff to the ground.

“That one sounded like it hurt!” the Storm King calls, freeing his staff by pulling it toward him, an overhead windmill slam telegraphed but strong enough to shatter the formed shield in a single blow. He laughs, though mirthfully instead of scornfully as yet another pink shield flickers into existence. “Yeah, I wouldn’t want to give her up, either!” He licks his lips. “I bet she’s great in the-”

The Storm King’s eyes widen as the barrier he thought he would get a solid hit on shifts, deflecting his blow upward and leaving him wide open. A pink ball blasts forward, and he blocks his chest, only for the magic to drag Shining Armor forward.

His metal-shod hoof slams into the Storm King’s exposed chin as his magic dissipates, the unicorn’s full weight driving the Storm King into the ground. He impacts with a crunching *whump* as Shining Armor pulls away from him.

“You talk too much,” Shining Armor states dryly, scarcely able to stay on his hooves. Cheers erupt from the ponies as Shining Armor drops down, exhausted from overworking his magic. The other creatures are mixed, most clapping politely with cautious glances at the supine Storm King.

He lays there, staring up at the sky with a grin on his face before flipping to his cloven hooves. “Well played!” he says as he offers his winded opponent a hand, hauling him up. “A word of advice,” he whispers as he draws in close. One hand slips inside a pouch in his armor, withdrawing an obsidian orb. Shining Armor’s eyes widen as he looks at it, recognizing the picture from the game yesterday. “I wouldn’t rely too heavily on any one strategy.”

And just as quickly he pulls away, Iron Grip announcing the winner to the stomps of the ponies.

Cadance rushes forward, Chrysalis following hotly on her hooves, both fighting to nuzzle their stallion - Cadance because the worry was killing her, almost literally, while Chrysalis was the one he was dueling for. The alicorn fusses over him, especially the bruise forming on his flank, while Chrysalis locks lips, looking like she is sucking his soul out of his throat, except the love is flowing the other direction.

The changeling glares at the Storm King from her spot wrapped around her stallion, one leg snaking inside his and lasciviously tracing up and down. “I am no prize to be won,” she spits out, though it’s hard to keep her anger going with the love flowing from her. It feels foreign, giving love like this, but she wants her stallion back on his hooves as fast as possible.

The Storm King steps back, arms folded across his chest, the same fangy grin he had the entire fight still plastered on his face. He gives Chrysalis a cocky shrug, as if her actions prove otherwise. “Besides, I’m totally over the cute little pony thing. And you’ve got too much cute little pony in you.”

He looks far too comfortable with losing and with Chrysalis’ return glare. It makes Luna uncomfortable. She knows the Storm King loves power, and will do anything to obtain it. Why throw a fight he could have won by using the staff properly? Because it might have been against the rules? A glance at her Sister betrays no answer to her next question.

What is he planning?

Next Chapter: Ch. 13 - Glorious Vanity, Part One Estimated time remaining: 30 Hours, 12 Minutes