Round 1

[TwentySided]

Observatory - Main Room


Faintly, though the air, a bouncy tune carried into the Observatory. It slowly grew louder as the source of the music approached. It didn’t take long for it to grow closer, as those in the main room turn to watch the Observatory’s entrance.

As the bouncy music rose to a crescendo, the wall besides the entrance suddenly burst forward as an elephant in dress ploughed through it, a brass band atop its back and there at the front, playing a trumpet, sat Discord.

The music came to a close and he lowered the instrument with an amused smile. “Hello everyone!” he said cheerily as a series of pony performers somersaulted through the hole and around the elephant to dance, flip and perform stunts through the room.

“It’s wonderful of you all to come and visit. We’re going to have so much fun!” he proclaimed as he slithered through the air to hover in front of his ‘guests’. “I do hope you enjoyed the get together here in the Observatory. I can tell some of you did.” He gave those at the bar a wink.

“I’m sure your all going to love Discordance City, it has some…” he was cut off by a honk from a clown performer, squishing his nose. Discord rolled his eyes. “Discordance City has some…” The clown honked again. Discord clicked his talons, and the clown pony became a little clown frog. The frog croaked, and Discord gave him a hard look. The frog covered its mouth apologetically.

“Now, where was I. Oh yes, Discordance City has some wonderful tourist spots I'm sure you'll enjoy visiting, such as its aquarium full of dangerous sea creatures. Don’t tap the glass! Or its impressive steelworks, it runs by itself! Isn’t that amazing? Oh and we can’t forget the sky platform, high in the sky. The view is to die for! So is the fall, so don’t get blown off. I should probably install some railings on that thing.”

“But look at me rambling, when there’s still explaining to do, I’m sure you’re all more interested in getting started. So let me explain how the tournament of Discordance City works.” He gave them all a smirk.

“In a moment I’ll take you all into the city. Some of you will find yourselves in the first battle right away and some of you will have to walk a little bit. Everyday you will have one match, what you do in between them is up to you. You might like to scavenge for food and weapons, or find a place to rest up and lick your wounds. Try not to die outside of a match, that would be poor form.”

“Now you might be wondering how you’ll find your opponents in such a large city. But don’t worry, these arrows will help.” He gestured at the floor where a glowing outline of an arrow appeared. “These will point towards your battlefield for the day, and that will be where your opponent will show up. If one of you doesn’t show… well, just make sure you do show up. We wouldn’t want to disappoint the audiences watching at home, would we?”

“Oh wait, I never mentioned that did I? I’ve generously given every home, community and group out there a nice little orb that will allow them to see you all perform your best. That’s right, the world is watching, so don’t do anything embarrassing!”

“Once you and your current opponent are both at your battlefield, a purple barrier of energy will form around it, locking you both in until one of you wins. This will signal you that your match has begun, but it’s up to you to find your opponent on the battlefield. Most of them are fairly large and full of delightful things.”

“One of those purple fields will surround the city at all times. The losers will just have to survive in the city until the games are over. Hope you didn’t break a leg. Or, maybe I’ll transport them back here. If they were entertaining enough.”

“How you win is up to you. Kill them, incapacitate them, take their will to fight, trick them into surrendering, whatever takes your fancy. But don’t spend too much time talking, we wouldn’t want the viewers at home to get bored.”

“Now. Are there any questions? Really, none? Good!” he said without waiting for a reply. “Let’s get this show on the road. We’ve waited long enough for the first round already. Good luck everypony.”

With a snap of his fingers, Discord smiled cruelly as all the contested in the room vanished in a flash of white light. He looked around at those not participating, still in the room. “Oh, I forgot to tell them about the monsters that come out at night. Oh well, I guess that’ll have to be a surprise.” He smirked before vanishing in a puff of smoke and laughter.

[TwentySided]

Round 1 of Discordance city

Match 1: Ace High vs Brass Rivets
Arena: An elaborate Planetarium, floating in the center of the building is a to scale replica of the solar system. Best be careful, for when the doors shut, the show begins as the planets, stars, moons, and other celestial bodies come to life, their gravity simulating that of their real life entities. Careful not to get too close to the Sun.

Match 2: Glint vs Mary
Arena: Deep in a subway station with cracking pillars, floating old newspapers and dinky benches. There are multiple platforms and tracks. Trains regularly hurtle past, but no train ever stops. Occasionally, the lights flicker out for a few seconds.

Match 3: Autumn vs Hondy
Arena: Shrunk down to minuscule size, dueling in the mane/feathers/etc of another participant as they fight in their own battle.

Match 4: Angelblade vs Bookworm
Arena: An empty office building. Confined and aging, discarded ramshackle weapons hide amongst the turned over desks, chairs, and tables. Wandering the halls and rooms are zombified creatures ranging from ponies to buffalo, remnants of one of Discord's George Romero phases. Best not to make a lot of noise. You don't want to draw the attention of too many unwanted guests.

Match 5: Vector vs Ryla
Arena: A large Steel Works/Foundry with automagic machines working tirelessly. There are vats of molten metal, machines that can easily crush and other hazards. The workers are away on strike.

Due: April 21st then voting will last two weeks

[captain_borgue]

Round 1 of Discordance city

Match 2: Glint vs Mary
Arena: Deep in a subway station with cracking pillars, floating old newspapers and dinky benches. There are multiple platforms and tracks. Trains regularly hurtle past, but no train ever stops. Occasionally, the lights flicker out for a few seconds.

Mary's hooves clinked softly against the dingy concrete of the subway station. A train whooshed past in the distance. though a quick scan showed that it was no threat to her. The tunnels offered plenty of cover but little in the way of mobility for flight- according to her sensors, there was less than 23 cm of clearance between the top of the cars and the tunnel ceiling, too small for her to fit. Though the space between the sides of the cars and the narrowest tunnel was 103 cm, which she could fit through without too much trouble. That gave her several possible avenues of escape or attack should they become necessary.

Mary cautiously trotted about the subway station, taking measurements of the space between trains, or between the trains and the platforms, the voltage readings the trains put out, that sort of thing. All in al, aside from her flight capacity being hampered by the close quarters, this seemed an ideal environment to battle in. The trains provided both cover and supplemental electricity, not to mention the lighting of the station itself- though the flickering implied that the grid system here was not particularly robust or efficient. A scan of a passing train confirmed that they sped by at sufficient speed for her ramjets to initialize- if she could hold onto one, it would propel her fast enough for sustained flight. Seeing as how there was not enough space for her to use a JATO burst, this was very comforting.

Thus far, there had been no other life forms of note in the station- there were always verminous creatures and microorganisms, but it was strangely empty of pony life- until the clop of hooves drew her attention to the entrance. A pink, sparkly pony with a hammer stood there- steady pulse, height and weight within normal distributions, altogether unremarkable. Mary knew she was here to fight, but this pony hadn't shown itself to be an opponent as of yet. She turned her attention back to the lighting fixtures, though she kept her body positioned in such a way as to allow her sensors to monitor the stranger. Her tentacles probed at the light socket, yanking out the bulb and taking a read on the current into it. The current was too unstable to use as to recharge, but it could suffice for a short burst or to recharge a taser pulse. Not great, but not bad, either.

Her sensors blared to life as the strange pony trotted towards her- then broke into a run with her hammer poised to strike. Mary instinctively fired her JATO- which was effective in moving her out of range of the strike, but as she lacked space for sustained flight, her hooves kicked up a shower of sparks against the concrete floor as the rocket pushed her away from the pink pony. Mary cut the JATO the moment she was clear, rolling back to her hooves easily enough. The pink pony was on her almost immediately though, her movements erratic and difficult to analyze. Mary leaped to one side just in time to avoid another hammer blow, which hit the concrete floor hard enough to crack it. Mary deployed her tentacles, using one to grab a fixture above her head and swing her back towards the pink pony, who rolled to one side and readied that hammer once again. Mary had calculated, based on seeing her target's movements, that she would be quick to seize any opening for a direct assault. Seeing Mary's exposed sides as she swung past was sure to be a tempting target. Sure enough, the pink pony charged and swung her hammer, which Mary's other tentacles easily wrapped around as she rolled her body, redirecting the hammer's momentum to tear it from its owner's grasp and send it clattering across the station floor.

without its weapon, Mary presumed this pony was no longer a threat. "Protocol dictates introduction of the self to unregistered entities. My designation is M4-R3. Requesting your designation," Mary said, sitting down. The pink mare was exhibiting signs of amusement, which Mary found puzzling. This was not the sort of environment conducive to mirth as she understood it.

"Name's Glint," it said, moving cautiously around her. "You're just full of surprises, aintcha? I've never seen a robot that wanted to be buddies before."

"Heuristic Analysis - statement is 98% probable. Likelihood of other M4-R3 units still operational and in possession of organic sapience are statistically impossible."

"So there's nopony like you is what you're saying, huh? Almost makes me feel bad for what I have to do," Glint said, lunging towards her hammer. Mary jumped in between Glint and her hammer, striking downwards with both front hooves. Glint dodged- the lunge had been a feint- but didn't quite dodge all the way and caught a hoof to the shoulder. It stung, but it wasn't bone-crushing, and more importantly she was clear to get to her hammer.

Mary knew that if Glint had her hammer, she would need at least 80cm clearance to effectively swing it. If she was within that range, the force would not be transmitted by the hammer head, but by the shaft, significantly weakening the impact. At that close a range, striking or slashing weapons would be pointless, a the same lack of mobility would affect her as well. That left the tasers. Mary reared up on her hind legs, switched her forehooves to the taser extensions, and dove after Glint. The momentary pause to switch weapons had given her opponent a brief window- and Glint, seeing Mary bearing down on her, decided not to attack her, but rather the nearby support column of the station itself. Huge chunks of concrete fell off from both the site of the blow and the top of the pillar, as it groaned loudly and began to topple.

Mary ran a few calculations in her mind- at the spped at which the pillar was falling, and her own momentum and the time necessary to turn or dodge, she would not be able to avoid the pillar. However, if she accelerated into it, she was statistically less likely to be struck by enough debris to pin her down. Mary fired the JATO booster in her tail, angling it up and to the right to give her a slight spin, like a football. The spin proved crucial, as several pieces of debris struck her but as she was already rotating, the impact glanced off of her rather than knocking her off her trajectory. After what seemed an eternity, she emerged from the cloud of dust, shut off her JATO, and landed with a loud thunk. There was a louder thunk as Glint's hammer connected with her flank, knocking Mary sideways onto the tracks. The blare of a train horn made it clear that she did not have time to diagnose the damage. Pulling up the specs from her initial scans, Mary squeezed herself against the tunnel wall- and in a moment of inspiration, detached one of her taser extensions- it had been damaged in the landing anyway- and tossed it onto the tracks just as the train came hurting past.

Mary's initial scans were quite correct- there was very little space between her and the massive train hurtling past. If she'd had to breathe, the slight distension of a deep breath would have been enough to cause the train to scrape against her- luckily, as a gyndroid, Mary did not require breathing to function. Slowly, carefully, Mary inched her way along the track, in the direction the train had come from. The brief flashes through the car windows gave her a split second of visibility as each one passed, but for a gyndroid, a split second was a very long time, indeed. She turned her head as far as she was able towards the front of the tunnel- there was a gap in her sensor readings. A flat car, from the look of it. That, combined with the partial readings of the other side of the tracks, gave Mary a plan. It required absolutely perfect, split second timing...

As the car before the flat car passed, Mary lashed out with a tentacle, grabbing the back of the carrier car. It yanked her off her hooves, into the space over the flat car. Had it been a carrier car, she would have been smashed against the ceiling. As it was, she was being dragged behind a full size car, in the space above a flat car, with about a tenth of a second before the end of the tunnel where she had been thrown onto the tracks to begin with. With a roar, the train entered the boarding area of the station, Mary let go of the carrier car and fired up her ramjet flight engines, and banked sharply away from the train.

Glint heard more than saw something metal crunching under the train after she had kicked the robot onto the tracks. She wanted to wait until the train left, though, just to make sure. An unfamiliar noise, similar to the rush of the train but higher, made her wonder- she looked up just in time to see Mary collide with her at nearly top speed, sending the pair of them tumbling along the boarding platform, before smacking into a bench and bouncing apart. Mary's servos whined as she got to her hooves- she would need repairs when this was all said and done. "Unit designated 'Glint' claimed I was full of surprises. Analysis shows that statement to be 100% probable."

Glint slowly got to her hooves, coughing. There was blood, both on her coat and on the bench they had collided with. Her breathing sounded labored, as if she had broken ribs. The hammer lay between them, its shaft splintered. "Yeah..." she said, through gritted teeth. "You're not the only one, though," she said, smiling, before pulling a brick of clay-like material from her saddlebag. She stuck a pair of wires into it and hurled it upward, where it stuck to the ceiling with a satisfying 'slap'. "I bet you already know what that stuff is, don'tcha?" Glint said, waving a small box with a switch that the wires on the blob connected to. She held it up for Mary to see and grinned. "I don't know how that train didn't smash you into spare parts, but I guaran-damn-tee this will!"

"Highly illogical. You would be destroyed in the blast as well," Mary replied, as her processors worked to find some solution. The ceiling was too low to fly up, as she needed more space to takeoff. It was too high to climb, even with her tentacles. And even if she could, there was no way to do it before Glint pushed the button and blasted them both into paste.

Glint shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Here's a fun thought- let's try it out and see, huh?" she said, placing her hoof on the plunger.

Mary's analytic engine fed her a probable scenario in the moments before Glint pushed the plunger- a probably of 85% that she would rather blow them both up than lose. Mary scanned the area around her- the only thing she could feasibly reach before the explosion was set off was a chunk of concrete, barely two pounds. She could throw it, but such a light piece of debris couldn't possibly dislodge the explosive, nor would it knock Glint unconscious, even if she hit her dead on. That just left one possibility... Mary crammed the fragment into her JATO tail and fired a burst, bracing her hooves against the floor. The effect was exactly as planned- the fragment was launched with considerable force right at Glint, who saw it coming and ducked out of its path. "Is that the best you-" she said, watching it fly down the tunnel. She turned to gloat, though her face fell as she saw Mary, holding the severed end of one of the wires in one hoof and her taser deployed in the other. "...got."

Mary had used the momentary advantage of Glint ducking under her projectile to jump up, grab the wiring, and slice through it- with the circuit broken, the explosive would not trigger when a current was applied. However, the other end of the circuit was still in contact with Glint- she was holding the detonator in her hooves in a death-grip. Which meant if a sufficient current was applied to the severed end of the wire that did not lead to the payload, it would travel back along the wiring and reach the detonator itself. Mary turned her taser on, touched the probes to the broken wire, and send a pulse of 1.2 amps at 50,000 volts back along the line. The detonator didn't explode, though it- and all the wire that current had gone through- burst into flames before melting into a puddle of superheated plastic goo.

And when the detonator melted, Glint's hooves- which had been squeezing it tightly- mooshed right through, and touched the wires inside. Which completed the circuit between Mary's taser and Glint's body. There was a loud 'pop' and a puff of smoke, which were difficult to distinguish from the 'crack' and smoke of all the burning wires and melting things. When the smoke cleared, Glint lay ten feet away, her vitals erratic. Mary trotted over to her, wafting through a thin haze of acrid smoke, concrete dust, twinkling flames, and the stench of ruination. Mary looked down at Glint, her sensors scanning over the prone pony. "Threat detection negative. Unit designated Glint no longer poses any threat."

Mary turned around and walked up the stairs and out of the subway station. She did not want to risk it collapsing on top of her while she was recharging or repairing herself. She powered down her systems to their lowest usage levels, that way she could recharge but would still be able to resume system functions and escape should a threat arise.

[Knight Tyrfang]

Autumn Festival VS. Hondy

Before she was teleported, Autumn had nearly emptied out the complementary bar, and was holding on to some of the heavier stuff before she was teleported. She was still working on a flagon of cider, and didn't notice what had happened at all.

"...Puah! That's some good stuff. As nuts as he is, Discord sure has an amazing cache of booze!" She said, looking rather impressed. Autumn belched, and smacked her lips quite satisfied, before she realized she was no longer sitting on the bar stool at the bar, but rather on very squishy ground surrounded by very weird looking trees. She blinked a few moments, before rubbing her eyes.

"...Have I finally drunk too much?" Autumn said, poking the ground beneath her. The ground felt very strangely warm, which would've disturbed the normal, sober pony. "Naaaaaah, that's impossible. Musta been that hokey pokey stuff Discord was going on about earlier. Wasn't exactly paying attention and stuff, but I think he said something 'bout purple. Purple means fight or something? ...Purple what though?"

Getting up from her seat, Autumn placed the empty flagon among the rest of booze she still had on her, figuring she might need it later. Picking up the case in her mouth, she then started walking off in some random direction.

"[Well, knowing the... whatever he is, it's probably something kooky like a purple flamingo. Or a flamingo on fire, that's also purple. Or maybe just purple fire.]" She said, her speech almost indistinguishable from the combination of slurring mildly, and the fact she had something in her mouth. "[Well, whatever the case is, just gotta keep an eye out for purple.]"

---

After a bit of wandering aimlessly, Autumn taking in the strange scenery like it was an afternoon stroll, and passing through the trees as easily as she as going on one, going this way and that, something different from the strange, branch-less trees caught her eye in the distance. In fact, it looked pony shaped.

Setting the case of booze down gently, Autumn waved rather largely to the silhouette. Rather friendly for a pony in the middle of a fight, the brewmaster called out exuberantly. "Heeeeeey! You over there! How's it goin'?! You know where in the heck we are? I got some booze, so you wanna share?"

Noticing her hello, the shape rushed over, until it was clear it was a dirty blonde earth pony running towards her. Autumn couldn't sense any malicious intent from the distance they were, and was almost excited at the prospect.

"Hooray! Another booze enthusiast! Maybe for once, somepony can keep up-" She began to say, almost cheering. The mother quickly cut herself off however in finally hearing that the pony was yelling, and had a crowbar in hoof. Tracking the stallion's movements, she easily leaned away to the side from the downward strike aimed at her head, and then quickly countered.

"Hey, come on now." Autumn said, rather disapprovingly. She gave a firm strike to the joint that still held the crowbar, then caught the makeshift weapon in a hoof. Then, while the clearly inexperienced stallion was still off-balanced from the wild, uncontrolled attempt, The mare then swept the stallion under the legs, and with gentle direction of her hooves, had the stallion land on his rump in a perfect sitting position. With the crowbar still in hoof, she fluidly synced her movements with that of controlling how the stallion fell, and ended it with bopping the attacker on the head. She did so with an incredible amount of control, her taps really only feeling as though she was hitting him with a pillow. She continued to do so as she continued to speak.

"That's a little rude, innit? I mean, somepony kindly offers to share a drink with ya, and you go yelling at the top of your lungs, trying to bash their head'n. That's just bad manners, y'know?" She said, still tapping the stallion gently on the head in a rhythm. Autumn hadn't noticed the fact that the area around where the two had been surrounded by a purple forcefield. "I mean, if I just went up to some nice pony who offered me a free meal and bedding, and just smacked 'em across the face, then I don't deserve any sort of kindness at all!"

"Whuh- Hey, wait- ...Huh?!" The stallion said, stunned and confused at how he found himself just sitting, and being lectured by a strange, drunk mare, who had his crowbar.

"Now, lemme ask again. Want some booze?" She added, giving the assailant a questioning look.

"Uh.. Sure?" The other earth pony said, realizing that perhaps saying no while his crowbar was above his head was a bad idea.

Autumn grinned rather widely, before sitting down in front of the stallion in the same manner. She placed the crow bar gently to the side, before handing the other pony the empty flagon from earlier. She popped open one of the bottles, and poured until half the flagon was full, then kept the rest for herself. "Great! Booze innit nearly as enjoyable to drink when it's by yerself. So tell me, what's yer name?"

"Um... Hondy." The stallion responded, taking a cautionary sip from the flagon without taking his eyes off Autumn, who had begun to chug the rest of the cider, completely oblivious still to the purple field around them. However, he quickly smacked his lips, finding the taste of the cider quite delicious.

"Hondy eh? Not really a common name most ponies have." Autumn pointed out, pausing from drinking just to speak. "I could swear my husband woulda named ya! Bahaha, the bonehead always kept calling things some weird ridiculous thing. I mean, you could probably mistake what she named our daughter, for what he calls his armor!"

"Huh. So is that why you're in the tournament?" Hondy asked, a little more relaxed with some alcohol in his system. His lips weren't as tight locked as they usually were, thanks to the effects of the strong booze.

"Oooooh, so you know about that?" Autumn stopped drinking, looking impressed. She still was oblivious to the whole forcefield around the area. "Well, kinda sorta. My husband's dead y'see, Discord killed him while he fought for the rebellion early on. Ran away to Neighjing, for a safe place to raise my daughter."

"Oh, so it's revenge then?" The stallion asked, leaning back slightly. His guard was down completely now, and if Autumn was aware of the fact the two were currently fighting, she would've exploited it.

"Naaaah, not at all." The brewmaster waved a hoof, before taking another gulp. "Sure, revenge is nice and all, but that ain't gonna bring my cuddlebuns back. Ain't no point in dwelling on the past though, if y'can't change it! Gotta move on with yer life. My daughter's the actual reason why I'm in the tournament."

Autumn's cheery expression immediately turned into one of pure rage, much to Hondy's surprise. "Ooooh, that thickhead, the moment I get my hooves on her, I'm gonna beat her so hard upside the head, that she won't wanna leave her room when I ground her! Little dumb*ss' gonna get herself killed, if she wants to act like a child again, then I'll discipline her like one! I condemn her to 1000 spankings from hell!"

Hondy sat up straight a little at Autumn's little outburst, surprised. Unconsciously, he inched a little closer to his crowbar. "Uhhh, so I'll take it she's important to you?"

The drunkard returned back to her friendly cheery self at the question. "Oh, of course! Little Ryla means the world to me! If I had to fight the entirety of the world on my own to save my little girl, then I wouldn't stop until I'm dead. And even if I did die, I'd find a way to come back and continue until she's from harms way! And I'm sure my husband is doing the same right now. ...It's just taking him a bit."

She sighed, her expression turning very sentimental. "Aaahh, this booze is strong. Saying things too close to the heart. ...But I'm sure you understand the sentiment."

"Huh?" Hondy blinked. "What do you mean?"

Autumn smiled gently, and pointed at his tail. There, at the base, was a ring, similar to the one that was on her own tail. A discreet location where most ponies would put it after the ceremonies. "You have a ring. You're married aren't ya? I'm sure you'd do the same for your wife, or your kid if you had one."

"Oh. That." Hondy said, looking sad. "Well... that's true, things haven't gone so well though."

"Oh?" Autumn said, looking both intrigued and concerned. She set the bottle down, giving the stallion her full attention. "Well that doesn't sound good. ...Here, gimme yer cup. I think maybe you need the booze more than I do right now."

Hondy nodded gratefully, accepting the drink and taking a long draft.

"...My wife's gone, she lost her mind. She tried to kill herself one night, and then just ran off after I saved her." Hondy continued after his drink. He looked incredibly depressed, his eyes starting to look red like he was going to cry again. "I think... I think that ever since Discord came to power, the craziness that happened just broke her, and she lost it. Maybe now, she might be... she might be..."

The stallion then started to cry, putting his face in his hooves. Autumn slowly trotted over, and gave him a hug, gently rubbing his back. "Hey hey, hey now... Shhh shh, it's okay..."

"I just... I just wan't my wife back! I want my life back, where we were happy, and things were normal!" He sobbed. "I want to be back at my bakery, where I didn't have to worry about fighting, or surviving, or insanity, where the biggest thing in my life was that whether or not how we'd design the nursery when we had a kid! It's just... It's all just not fair dammit! It's not fair!"

Hondy was absolutely bawling now, clutching onto Autumn tight, like a child. Her coat was starting to get rather wet, but she ignored it and continued to gently rub the stallions back.

"Why?! Why why why?! Why did this have to happen?! WHY?!" Hondy cried.

---

It was a while before Hondy calmed down a little, and cried out his feelings a bit. Autumn could tell he was exhausted now, and she could understand why. Grieving over Sky was hard, but she never really had any close family to just let it all go for, so it was painful. She couldn't have lumped it on little Ryla either, so she just braved the grief and the pain, all so little Ryla could have a somewhat normal upbringing, that a single mother could ever provide.

"...I miss her... I miss her so much..." He said quietly, and very hoarsely. "All I want is to see her again... I want us to be happy again..."

"...I know Hondy. I know." Autumn said gently, continuing to rub his back, even after he had fallen asleep from both a combination of grief, and booze.

She was like this for a few moments, figuring that the stallion (who she now assumed was younger than she was) needed it, and would help his dreams a little. Then, she gently lowered his snoozing form to the ground, still not noticing the forcefield that was now dissipating. She stood up, finished off the rest of the drink that remained in the flagon, before setting it in the case.

"...This isn't an issue that he should rely on alcohol to deal with." Autumn said, somewhat subdued. "And I know this is hard little pony, I fully understand this. But life moves on, and although I wish the best on your quest to find your wife again, you must move on. I'd love to stay here and comfort you, but you won't be able to grow if I baby you."

She picked up the case of alcohol, and sighed before starting to walk off. "[...Ah, well. I need to find my little idiot daughter. I wonder when I'm supposed to see that purple?]"

[Knight Tyrfang]

Ryla Honorbound VS. Vector

"Molten metal flows. Heat is rising from vats. My first battlefield."

...Damnit, I think I missed a syllable. Ryla thought, as her blade began to glow, and drew itself from it's sheathe. How the heck do they make it sound so easy in the movies? Haiku's difficult... This whole stoic swordspony business is difficult to maintain.

Resisting the urge to sigh, Ryla swung the blade a few times around her to loosen herself up, while looking around her surroundings. She had no idea who she was up against, and with the colorful characters she had seen while hanging around the observatory, vigilance was important. It was quite a surprise when she was suddenly teleported into the middle of a steel foundry, but the swordspony didn't spend too much time dwelling on her surroundings or the fact there was nobody there. Discord had said there was a foundry that ran itself.

Seriously, none of any of this makes sense. Discord or not, is this really supposed to be some kind of television show? Well if I'm supposed to be flashy, that's not to difficult. I need to get to the top so I can cut that S.O.B's head off. The swordspony thought, deciding to take a swing at a piece of machinery. The blade cut through the metal like a hot knife through butter, causing the the thing to crash down to the ground with a rather heavy crash. As if they were alive, all the machinery nearby stopped for a moment and seemed to turn towards the swordspony admiring the blade, as though they were alive and shocked one of their fellows were just brutally murdered. But things went back to normal quickly, the machines returning back to work.

That should drawn out whoever I'm fighting. Ryla thought as she climbed up to the top of a walk way after sheathing her katana. ...Why the heck did this have to be the first battle field? I'm starting to regret wearing this get-up. How in the heck do they do it in the movies...?

Waiting, it didn't take too long for the unicorn to notice movement other than the machines moving about in their industrious manner. What Ryla saw was a creature she had never seen before, a pony that seemed to be made of metal.

A robot? Cyborg? It certainly doesn't look to be all flesh and blood, but why's it look like a kid...? Ryla thought, her hidden face now holding a look of curiosity.

The little filly-like creature looked up directly at Ryla without even needing to look around for her. The visor on her face turned from blue to yellow. "Unicorn, are you my opponent?"


All of a sudden, the steelworks was silent, all the machines pausing for a moment at hearing the voice. Although they weren't alive, even Ryla could feel that somehow their attention was taken away from the work they were enchanted to maintain, and to this newcomer. And as though on cue, Ryla spotted a flash of purple from outside the door she could see in the distance, the purple energy barrier that the draconoques had mentioned.

"The barrier formed. A sign to begin the fight. I am who you seek." Ryla stated, rather calmly, even though she was a bit unnerved about how the robot identified what she was, even though she was disguised. Internally she cheered. Nailed it! ...Gah, this heat...

"Then Vector will beat you." The little filly-bot said, her visor turning an orange color. Suddenly blades fanned out all around her.

Screw it, this heat's not worth it. Ryla thought, deciding now was the best time to discard the stupid disguise. She tore off the wrappings, before hopping down from the walkway to the floor below, drawing her sword at the same time. She landed with easy, feeling a whole lot better now that the oppressive outfit was gone. Whew! Feels like a spring breeze~

The filly charged at him, blades whirring about and beginning to slash at the swordspony. Despite her experience on the battlefield being rather minimal, Ryla was able to track each blade, and skilfully deflect them with her own. In a dance-like flurry, Ryla's blade swung here and there, knocking the dangerous weapons out of the way. She couldn't help but notice the filly's visor starting to turn red, and how all the attacks seemed to be going straight for her, no change in direction to feint her out, or exploit a blind spot. Spotting an opening in the flurry, Ryla ducked in close to the bot, bashing the filly in the snout with the blade's hilt. Much to her surprise, she didn't hear a metallic clang.

Looking dazed, the robot was holding her snout as she stumbled back, not a reaction that the swordspony expected. Wary, the unicorn held her blade at the ready, but she swear that she saw some tears from under the visor.

"Hey hey, did I break your snout or something?" Ryla asked, completely forgetting about her wanting to say everything in Haiku. "...Is that even possible...?"

Vector's visor turned a deep red. "Ib bine. Ids nubbing." Still clutching her snout, she sent her blades at Ryla again, this time in a sweeping motion. She easily jumped out of the way, taking note of how sloppy the strikes were in comparison.

This is way too easy. She thought, continuing to dodge some more sloppy strikes, flipping here and there, and deflecting others with her swords. I could go in and take her out right now, and stop this farce... But her reactions... They seem distinctly, alive...?

"Hey, wait wait!" Ryla cried, leaping over another sweep. "You sure your snout's okay?"

"Ids bine!" The filly said stubbornly.

"Like hell it is..." Ryla muttered, dashing in quickly this time after dodging another reckless swing. She gave the filly a light bop on the head to surprise her, before grabbing hold of her hoof to take a look. The filly's snout indeed looked messed up slightly.

"Ah jeez, it is broken." She said, looking almost apologetic. "Why are you still fighting? You're strikes are nowhere near as efficient as before, and I could easily just destroy you right here and now. Just surrender, and save yourself the pain."

"Becder ib a weabon! Ib builbed do bight!" Vector said, trying to strike again. Another easy deflection.

"Hey, stop that already!" Ryla said, hitting the bot a bit harder of the head this time. In the moment of surprise, Ryla grabbed the little one's snout, and mimicking her mother when she had broken her nose, with quick motion tugged. The filly gave a surprised yelp, holding her snout again, but much to her surprise the nose had been reset. "There. Now you can stop sounding so weird, and talk normally."

"...Why?" The filly asked, her visor blue as she looked at Ryla in confusion. Her blades were now lowered "Why aren't you afraid of Vector...?"

"Eh?" Ryla said, surprised at the question. She scratched her head sheepishly. "Erm... Well Mom always called me a reckless, rash idiot. Running head first into things without any sense of danger or care. ...I guess it's cause I'm dumb?"

Ryla laughed, but stopped, noticing that the cyborg's demeanor was entirely different from before. She wasn't taking any stance, and instead looked very... down? "Hey, hey. What's up, why aren't you trying to kill me again?"

"I wasn't-!" She exclaimed, looking as though she was going to deny. But she stopped midway as though she realized something, and now she looked even sadder. Now Ryla just felt awkward.

"...You said you were a weapon, right? Why're you in the tournament?" Ryla asked, sheathing her blade.

There was a brief silence, and Vector looked towards the ground. Ryla had never seen anypony, let alone what she thought was just a hunk a metal, look so sad. "Vector is alone. Ponies all fear her and hate her,but Vector never choose to be like this... Vector just wants the other ponies to stop fearing and hate her, and stop pretending to be kind to use her. Vector hopped that if she could win this tournament, she could wish to become a normal pony. Then Vector wouldn't be alone anymore."

Ryla was silent as she listened. She felt bad for the little robot, and the unicorn was starting to feel more and more that maybe it was just a child, looking for acceptance. It may look like a robot, fight like a robot, but from what she'd seen so far, she can't have been a robot. She sighed, before sitting down so that she was at eye level with the little creature.

"...My dad died, when he fought in the resistance against Discord." She confessed, not sure why she was doing so. "From what I've heard from my mom, he was a brave soldier that fought solely for the freedom and the happiness of others. He never raised his blade against another, unless it was to protect another. I joined this tournament because I wanted to kill the bastard that took him away from me. But... Well, I can't exactly just go through this tournament purely for that reason anymore it seems. I'm sure my dad would've done it, but... How about you come with me? I'm probably not gonna need my wish to kill Discord, so why don't I use it for you then?"

Vector looked up in surprise and doubt. "R-really?"

Ryla nodded, and for once, she swore that she saw an almost hopeful expression. What she didn't notice, however, was that her blade was slowly being drawn, by magic that wasn't her own. Noticing that, Vector's expression then turned into an expression of hurt and betrayal, and her visor turned a blood red.

"YOU LIAR!" She screamed, all of her blades going at Ryla without warning, faster and with more force than before. With barely any time to react, Ryla focused all her magic into drawing the blade, and swung as hard as she could to protect herself.

It wasn't a perfect deflection, as one of the blades embedded itself in the leg, causing her to wobble in pain, and her vision to go fuzzy for a moment. However she was able to knock some of the blades away, and embedding themselves into some of the machinary, while outright cutting some in half. As her vision returned, she noticed that Vector was now running away, and Ryla swore she was sobbing.

"H-Hey, wait!" Ryla called out. She tore out the blade stuck in her leg, grimacing but doing her best to ignore the damage. She gave chase through the foundry, somewhat limping from the injury.

Geh, I'll have to treat this later. No time to start breathing excersizes now though! She thought, doing her best not to lose the filly, who had just jumped onto a conveyor belt. She was about to follow, when suddenly a crusher slammed straight down in front of her, oddly out of sync with the rest of the others.

"Ack! Close! Gotta find another route!" Ryla said, as she jumped onto an assembly line. There, she found that suddenly the grabbers and the welders were suddenly pointing themselves at her, and she was barely escaping each of the strikes.

"What in blazes- are the machinary attacking me?!" She said, incredulous. Cutting one of the things down, she jumped onto the falling debris and launched herself up onto the walkway, where she saw Vector continuing to flee. Eventually she was able to get to her, where she found her sobbing in a corner, with what looked like two industrial claws hanging in the ceiling were guarding her. They clamped menacingly at Ryla, as she approached.

Is... Is this place trying to protect her? Ryla thought, alternating which machine she was pointing her sword at. She slowly lowered her weapon in realization, and then gently placed the weapon on the ground, to show she didn't mean any harm.

The two pieces of equipment seemed to look at each other, or at least Ryla thought that, before they warily moved aside. Without any sudden movements, Ryla approached the sobbing cyborg, before sitting down next to her.

"Hey hey, shhh... It's alright, I put the sword down." Ryla cooed. She tried to bring a hoof closer, but the robot flinched away.

"You were drawing your sword! You're a liar! You were lying to Vector just like the others!" She sobbed.

Ryla was silent, unsure what she was to do. She looked back to where the machines were guarding, which seemed to loom over her with concern, and at the weapon she had left behind, and the blade that belonged to Vector. She then took the blade, and put it int he wound it had inflicted again.

"Wh-what are you-?" Vector exclaimed, shocked as what Ryla was doing. Grimacing, Ryla waited a bit as the blade begun to stain more, and took the completely red blade out again. She was breathing heavy, the pain somewhat unbearable, and was affecting her breathing.

"...Vector, this blade belongs to you. With my blade, I attempted to hurt you, so I hurt myself with yours in return." She said, smiling a bit weakly. "I promise you that I never intended to raise my blade against you, and I promise I'd sooner turn a blade towards myself first. So I apologize, and will you give me a second chance?"

Vector stared, not sure what to think, and before nodding slowly. Ryla could tell she still had her doubts, but at least this was a step towards trust. The young mare noticed in the distance that the purple forcefield that had surrounded the foundry had dissipated.

Hooo... It hurts... Ryla thought, slowly getting up, and helping the robofilly up as well. She levitated the sword gently back into the air, and sheathed it quietly. "I can easily use my Breath to heal, now that I'm not in a fight... But this is a sign of trust, so I don't really want to heal these wounds... But if I have to fight like this?

Something bonked against her head as she wobbled away. "Ow! What the-"

The swords pony looked up, and found an industrial claw holding onto what looked like a medical kit. It gently plopped the kit in front of Ryla, and seemed to look at her expectantly.

"You... you're giving this to me?" She asked, feeling somewhat foolish she was talking to a claw. It made a motion as though it was nodding. So Ryla popped open the kit, and found to her wonderment some bandages, health potions, and medical salves. She took the medical salves, and applied them to the wounds before wrapping them, and then kept the health potions in the kit. She then took off her katan's sheathe, and then hung the medical kit with the remaining two health potions on the strap that kept it to her back. "...Thanks."

The claw moved as though to make a nod of approval. It then pointed at Vector, who seemed to look as confused at Ryla, only being able to detect the magic, then the claw pointed back at Ryla, then gently patted the two on the head before moving back to it's station. As strange as the motions were, Ryla figured out what the claw was trying to say.

...Take care of her, and good luck, huh? She thought, bewildered. For an inanimate object, made solely for industrial purposes, it surprisingly seemed alive. ...Magic's weird, but maybe that's not a bad thing. ...I feel bad for cutting those other equipment, maybe I'll come back after all this is over, and figure out how to repair them.

"Come on Vector. We've got some other fights we need to get to." She said, her legs now feeling a lot better after the treatment, although still some sore. Ryla then began to make her way towards the exit.

"Wait! What are you called?" Vector asked.

The swordspony stopped, and turned back to look at Vector with a grin on her face. "... My name is Ryla Honorbound. And I'm the pony to end chaos. Now come on, we've got your wish to grant!"

[einsUNDcolt]

Hondy vs Autumn Festival

Match 3: Autumn vs Hondy
Arena: Shrunk down to minuscule size, dueling in the mane/feathers/etc of another participant as they fight in their own battle.

Hondy shut his eyes tightly as the room filled with a blinding light. When he opened them, he was elsewhere entirely. The ground beneath him was a pale color and there were these strange long slender ivory colored pillars that were slightly angled near the tip. The entire scenery was utterly alien to the saddlebag stallion. He took a step forward and the pale ground gave a bit, like he was walking on the surface of some dense foam, and it only served to unsettle him further. The earth pony looked around, only seeing what seemed like miles of unchanging landscape. Great... Hondy thought to himself. It was then he noticed a faint, slightly glowing blue arrow on the ground beneath him. The arrow was so faint that Hondy would have missed it except when his hoof stepped where it was, there was no give to the floor, causing the mini stallion to look at what he stepped on.

Having no other direction, the small stallion decided to follow where it lead. As he walked, the scenery never changed, just near uniform rows and rows of alabaster spires, nearly three times the height of a normal equine. As Hondy was not the size of a normal equine, he felt like the spires were large, looming figures that swayed gently as if by some unflet wind. Thankfully it was daylight, else Hondy would have been reduced to a quivering form at the base of one of the countless pillars that continued to stretch on for as far as he could see, making it nearly impossible for him to tell if he was getting anywhere, each achromatic spire the same as the previous.

The arrow Hondy was following ceased to point in one direction and instead that the way it was leading the earth pony wasn't the way it wanted him to go, and promptly changed with an arrow pointing to the left. "Alright then..." Hondy said aloud just to finally hear something besides the soft pat of his hooves on the semi-rigid, blanched surface. But of course, lacking any other option, the buck runt turned as the arrow directed, and followed where it pointed. Though after a few minutes of walking, the arrow suddenly disappeared, and Hondy couldn't find it anywhere he looked.

After bumbling around the self-same scenery for what seemed like a few minutes, Hondy heard the soft patter of what he assumed was hooves against the paled, slightly flexible surface that still unsettled Hondy, albeit less after traversing it for an uncertain amount of time. The small earth pony turned and saw beige earth pony mare, nearly twice his size coming down at him with a hoof. Hondy barely had time to scamper out of the way, the mare stumbling after him, the odor of alcohol wafting from what seemed like every part of her. Despite being no stranger to a tankard or a bottle of wine, this smell was quite an assault on the saddlebag earth pony's senses.

Hondy's side was clipped, having misjudged his opponent's swagger as he dodged out of the way. With a swift motion he brought out his 2x4 with a hefty swing at the mare, which she blocked, but was staggered back. Hondy took his opprotunity and swong again at her, but she blocked once more, taking the blow and driving her weight into the small stallion. She gave Hondy a headbutt, which staggered him, causing him to step back to gain his balance again. Yet he lost his weapon and the mare did not look happy. So Hondy turned tail and ran, not sure if she was chasing him or not. But he soon found his answer as his own 2x4 found purchase in his hind end, having been thrown from the shaded red and buttercup maned white mare.

The rust colored stallion rolled over, watching her saunter drunkenly over. "Come on now. Running from a fight?" she asked, her speech slightly slurred. "Tha's just bad manners, y'know? Y'know what," she reached into a bag and pulled out a bottle of some alcoholic beverage that was unmarked. "How 'bout some booze? Always some time for booze."

Quite hesitantly, Hondy reached out and took the bottle. "This...we are suppose to be fighting."

"And we did," the mare said, pulling a heavily scratched, metallic flask and taking a quick swig from it. "Ya fought, I fought back, ya ran, I hit ya with a block a wood. Unless yer eager fer a fight again, I suggest you sit down an' drink yer booze," she stated, a bit of a threatening air in it.

The small rusty buck uncorked the bottle and took a testing sip and recoiled, coughing. "Fetching Lunacy!" he coughed more. "What in the Sister's name is this?!" Hondy's reaction got a laugh from the drinking mare, which got her coughing as well. Hondy quickly corked the bottle and set it down on the cushion-y ground.

"That is what ya get when amateurs make alcohol. It'll do more than make sure ya are awake. 'Specially in the mornin'." She bent over and swiped up the bottle, putting it back in a safe spot. "Put some more hair on yer chin there colt."

Hondy shot her a look. "I'm not a colt. I'm 20 years old."

She laughed again. "20?! Yer a liar. Ya don't look much older than 12."

"Hardly!" Hondy scoffed. "What you see is stunted growth. Nothing more. I am certainly not a colt."

The earth pony mare began to muse aloud. "I bet I could fit you in my saddlebag-"

"Like hell ya will!"

"Whoa! Reign yerself. I didn't mean anything."

Hondy sat down, still not at all happy with it.

"Why don't ya tell me yer name?"

"It's...well it's Hondy," he answered, a bit hesitant.

The warm beige mare raised an eyebrow. "Not a common name most ponies have. Almost a name my husband woulda picked. Always loved weird or ridiculous names."

"Lovely..." Hondy glowered, not really liking the comparison. "What about yours?"

"Oh," she paused to take a swig from her flask. "Name's Autumn, Wine maker and mother." She pointed to her cutie mark on her flank. "See, my cutie mark even says so 'case ya don't believe me."

The small stallion nodded, not really looking at the mare's flank to verify her claim. "Charmed. But you do know we can't just sit around and drink. Discord wants a fight. He made it clear that we can't leave until one of us wins."

"I suppose yer right," Autumn said, fumbling around with her flask, trying to stow it away. "We all did come here to compete. Shooting the breeze ain't gonna help us much."

Hondy nodded, pulling out his crowbar slowly from where it hung on his back. Autumn had finished putting away her flask and nodded to her earth pony opponent. "Suppose with yer size and such having a weapon makes it more fair. Gonna be bloody hard if ya ever fight some pony else with a weapon. That is, if ya beat me."

He shrugged, "Maybe. We could always team up," the rust colored earth pony suggested. "As far as I know it's not against the rules."

Autumn thought about that for half a minute. "Guess there's that, but gotta entertain the folks watchin' for a minute or two."

Hondy furrowed his brow, confused at her statement. But the oatmeal colored mare didn't give him much chance to dwell on it, charging him and causing him to scramble out of the way, swinging his crowbar wildly, missing it's target and smacking into the alabaster column. Hondy bucked at the mare, but yet again missed, leaving him open to a strike which his opponent was more than willing to provide to his ribs. He grunted as he scrambled clear of Autumn's reach. He turned to face her and swong his crowbar, catching her on shoulder with the cold steel. She yelped in pain and Hondy took this chance to barrel into the larger mare while she was off balance, taking her to the ground. He pressed the crowbar up against her throat, but he wasn't able to do anything effectively with his position and was quickly thrown off. She recovered sooner than Hondy was able to and hovered over him, ready to deliver a powerful, drunken strike. But Hondy still had his crowbar in his teeth, and he cracked Autumn in the chin with it. Not his full force, but enough he could hear the crack of steel hitting bone. Not something he wanted to hear himself do to a mare.

Autumn lay on the pale semi-rigid floor, not unconscious, but not getting up either. Hondy and her eyes met and the guilt of violently striking against a mare whom had not done anything besides had the misfortune of being brought to fight against him had caused him to look away.

"Well lookie there!" came a noted voice from not but a few hours ago, "I did not at all expect this." A miniature figure of Discord appeared in the air just infront of Hondy, eating a cube of yellow cake. "You do make great yellow cake Hondy, has anyone ever told you that?"

"Many," Hondy responded, shortly and not in the least amused.

"Oh! Yes, I remember now," Discord flashed away and appeared full form right next to the small stallion. "You won! Congratulations there Hondy, you get to move on! Well, provided things go as planned and this doesn't end up being some weird dream of yours and you actually end up loosing in actuality. But the odds of that are 50/50."

"Anything else?" the rusty stallion inquired, hoping that was indeed all.

"Oh don't you worry dear Saddlebag stal-"

"You do NOT get to call me that!" Hondy interrupted.

Discord flashed away yet again and appeared in front of the small earth pony, several feet away. "Well pardon me for trying to lighten up things. You, just have your fun, make your alliances, whatever it is. The two of you will be dropped off in the city in five minutes. So don't take too long." With that the lord of chaos vanished in a flash of light.

Hondy gave a sigh of relief and trot up to Autumn. "Autumn...I'm sorry about your jaw...but i was serious about teaming up. If either of us want things to get better, we will have a better chance of it together."

Autumn looked up at Hondy, "I'm in."

[Morningglory]

Her heavy brass horseshoes clicked on the floor as Brass Rivets pushed open the door to the planetarium and walked inside. Her metal wings vibrated with agitation as she peered around the room. It was an lovely planetarium, if she had been into that kind of thing, she might have been impressed. But, her mind was far from enjoying the scenery, and she tapped her hoof on the floor impatiently. "I'm here." She announced aloud to the room, her eyebrow raised in mild disappointment at the echoing silence. "Really, at least he could have bothered to show up. It's no fun if you only win by default." She sneered, walking down the narrow rows between the seats, rattling her wings against her back.

"That is really an awful noise you make, cher." A voice murmured from the shadows, and Rivet swiveled her head around to his direction quickly, her body following effortlessly. "Well, it's not like we're here for a symphony." She purred poisonously. Her eyes darted around the dimly lit room quickly, seeking any shape remotely pony like, her brassy eyes landing on a stallion shaped shadow a few rows back from the front and she glared hard in his direction. The stallion sauntered out of the darkness, the light slowly pouring over his hat and duster. He would have been considered handsome in most circles, a gift that probably would have gotten him a forfeiture from most mares. He bowed to her effortlessly, "Forgive me for startling you, "Mon petit cherie." He murmured, looking back up at her with a smirk, "I'm Ace High, and I suppose I'm to be your opponent, though it would be a shame to rough up such a pretty face."

Rivet raised an eyebrow, her mouth a solidly set line. A mare's stallion, a practiced mare's stallion was to be her opponent. To say the least, she was not impressed. She rolled her eyes and shot a glare towards the ceiling. "Really? This is the best you could come up with, Discord? I've eaten things tougher than this dandy." She growled.

"Now, now. That's not nice. Name calling comes after the introductions." Ace replied with a smirk, "And you are?"

Rivet's eyes shifted back down onto the stallion, her eyes glittering as cold and hard as diamonds. Even his voice grated on her ears, and she sneered. "I don't talk to dead ponies." She said coolly, her eyes focusing in on the revolvers on his hips. Her wings slowly extended from her back as she watched his hoof inching towards the revolvers, and darted straight up as a bullet whizzed through the space she had previously occupied. She darted around the planets floating in the air as more bullets pierced the air around her, one nearly clipping her shoulder. Each bullet was counted mentally, knowing he would have to run out of ammo sometime, until the shooting stopped abruptly.

"You're quick, cher, I'll give you that." he called out to her, his eyes scanning the ceiling for her lithe form in the darkness, "You know, this would be easier for both of us if you just forfeited. We could even go on a nice date sometime; low light, soft music..." He called out to her, trailing off as he shot off another round, barely missing her. It was no use, he'd have to get closer. She was too fast for him to shoot at this distance, and the planets she darted behind merely sucked in his bullets. He approached the planets carefully, slowly, his eyes trained on the darkness between the planets, watching for any sign of movement.

By the time he heard the rattle of her wings, it was too late, and the next moment was a blinding pain and crushing force of her heavy brass horseshoes slamming directly into his ribs and bouncing off, landing on all four with a loud bang. She glared at him, the searing pain of a bullet graze on her cheek melting into the cocktail of adrenaline and endorphins in her blood. She had knocked the wind out of him, and had probably broken a couple of ribs, which she knew would make breathing difficult, and at least slow him down, if not incapacitate him completely. Even so, she remained on guard, stalking towards him, watching for movement.

It only took a split second for him to raise his revolver and fire off a round in her direction, his energy focused into the bullet that met her metal wing with a boom, a much bigger boom than she had expected, and it knocked her back. As the smoke cleared, she moved the wing, assuring herself that it was still intact and usable, if not a little rattled. Her eyes rehoned in on the spot he had been laying in to find him gone, and she growled. A kinetic energy specialist. She gritted her teeth. She had underestimated him, and that was a mistake she wasn't going to make again. She splayed her wings out to her sides, her eyes venturing everywhere she could see.

A glint of metal in the polished brass of her wing tipped her off, and she backflipped out of the way of another projectile, landing hard enough to crack the tile on the floor. Her ears triangulated the direction it had come from quickly, and she smiled a grim grin. He never could have seen it coming as she planted her hooves dead in the center of his chest, breaking his sternum and dropping him to the floor, her heavy weight pinning him down. She glanced at his revolvers, now laying useless on the floor. She shoved them away with her wings and punched him square in the jaw. "No more bullets, and no more hide and seek." She hissed through her clenched teeth.

The air around her crackled and she punched him again, harder, the heavy brass on her hoof cracking his jaw. "No. None of your kinetic nonsense. This is over. Now." She sneered, dropping her hind hooves on his knees. The stallion let out a muffled scream as he coughed blood, trying to keep from drowning in it. Rivet glared at him hard, picking him up and dragging him with one hoof to the center of the planetarium. Through the haze of pain, he tried once more, "Cherie you don't have to do this. We could form an alliance, work together, that way we both get what we want." He said, trying not to plead.

Rivet turned her head, her brassy eyes meeting his, her face unreadable, her arm hesitating. He reached for the side of her face slowly, "Please..."

Her eyes hardened suddenly and she pulled him face to face with her and grinned a wicked, sadistic smile, "Sorry, I told you. I don't talk to dead ponies." She snarled, her wings flapping and carrying them both into the air, just close enough to the sun to throw him into its gravity. The room smelled distinctly like burning hair and scorched meat, and filled with a scream for only a moment, then all was silent but for the rattling of her wings as she lowered herself to the floor. An ace of spades fluttered to the ground behind her, but she didn't bother to pick it up as she marched purposefully into the darkness, and out the planetarium door.

[TwentySided]

Glint trotted down the steps leading into the underground. Ahead of her, the glowing arrows Discord had mentioned, pulsated leading her forward. It had been a surprise for the mare to see the glowing arrows that morning. It had already been a couple days since the tournament originally started. Others must have fought already. She wondered who had already been knocked out of the tournament? Who had they fought? Where? How had they died? Did they scream?

Coming to a stop, Glint looked around, the last arrow was still there, pointing her further downward, but where had that thought come from? She didn’t want anyone to die. This was supposed to be just a simple competition, fight till the person is incapacitated. Shaking her head the crystal pony hopped on. She didn’t want to keep her opponent waiting, that would be rude and more importantly, the audience watching from their homes were probably growing more impatient. She wondered who or what she would fight. What brought them to this city to fight for the amusement of others and the confused dragon?

Reaching the bottom step, Glint immediately scanned the surrounding area. It was a wide platform extending down a rather vast tunnel, pillars supporting the world above. On either side of the platform, the ground dipped further down, each with tracks running along the middle. Along the middle area, aged and chipped concrete slabs made up the floor, the occasional bench and trash can jutted from the ground. Likewise, lights dangled from the ceiling, each bulb trying its best to light the tunnel, a slight flicker suggesting that it needed to be changed soon. Down the lowered path to Glint’s left, a light began to glow, and just as soon as she noticed it, a train rushed passed, filling the middle with a torrent of rushing air.

Noticing that there were no longer any arrows pointing her way, Glint decided that this must be where she was supposed to fight her opponent. Unsheathing her warhammer, the mare looked ahead of her, grinning as she noticed movement ahead, getting closer, her grin grew larger as she saw who it was she was going to fight, it was indeed pony shaped, but the thing had a what seemed to be no eyes, or if she did, they were covered by a visor of some kind, the mane and tail were certainly there, but weren’t made of any form of hair, and instead were replaced by metal appendages, each reaching out to the creature’s surroundings, unscrewing lightbulbs moving along it before putting the bulb back in place, or extending out to the tunnels, pillars, and ground. The rest of the pony was likewise lacking in fur or anything that made a pony a pony, save for its shape. Coming to a stop, the creature addressed Glint, "Protocol dictates introduction of the self to unregistered entities. My designation is M4-R3. Requesting your designation,”

Glint mentally wrote out what the robot was saying, drawing the numbers and letters in the air. “Oh oh oh thats like Mare! hehehe, a robot named mare thats awesome. Anyways I’m Glint, and this is Dent, my hammer.” she explained gesturing to her warhammer. “Anyways you must be my opponent soooo…” the mare trailed off, before bursting into a run towards the robot.

Closing the gap, Glint swung at Mary, who effortlessly dodged the hammer, sending out a group of tendrils, wrapping around both hooves and hilt, wrenching the weapon away from Glint and across the ground. “Aww its not nice to take something that isn’t yours!” Glint grinned, pinning her hind legs on Mary’s shoulders. “You take whats mine? I take some of whats yours!”

Pushing with all of her might, the crystal mare ripped free from the robot’s grasp, taking with her, a cluster of tendrils twisting and sparking as they lost their grip and fell to a clump. M4-R3 however, reeled back taking up an aggressive pose as her mechanical mane and tail lashed out. Raising her hooves to cover her face, Glint tensed as metal prods stabbed into her, sending her skidding backwards.

Taking the opportunity, Glint once again reached for the exposed metallic tendrils, which immediately retracted at her reach. Looked like the robot had learned from the first time, that was fine, there were other ways. Charging forward, Glint pressed the attack, leaping toward Mary, who responded, activating some form of rockets on her feet, sliding away from the lunge and closer toward one of the subway tracks, but away from Glint’s hammer. Her eye twitching toward the hammer, Glint sprinted forward. Unfortunately it seemed Mary had anticipated this, her mane reaching for the blunt weapon likewise.

Realizing she wouldn’t beat the metallic mane’s speed, as she approached her hammer, Glint instead changed her target to that of Mary’s tendrils once again. Grinning as she grabbed a small clump, the crystal mare felt the cords tense back, trying to escape her grasp. “Ah no! not this time robot. Here, you look tired how bout you sit back and recharge!” Thrusting the metallic prods into a nearby light fixture, Glint grinned as she saw the other fixtures dimming as Mary’s metal body convulsed before finally falling limp as the light’s fuse burst in a shower of sparks.

Panting, eyes twitching, Glint, passed by her hammer as she approached M4-R3. “Ya know. This time. I want to do this with my own hooves.” Reaching the robotic pony, Glint picked up Mary by her head. Before running the head into nearby pillar. “It was REALLY nice to MEET you Mare!” Glint continued, banging the robot’s head against the pillar with each punctuation. Denting and breaking metal plating, exposing circuitry and motors beneath. “Ah, good finally get to see the real you. Glad we could have this exper-“ Glint paused, tilting her as she heard the horn of an approaching train. “Well, trains coming Mare. Don’t want you to MISS it!” Glint began again, running Mary into the passing train, sending a fresh shower of sparks, shrapnel, and oil as the subway, ground away at Mary’s metallic body. While glint continued to hold her there. However, unbeknownst to Glint, Mary’s last free forehoof, altered, changing into a taser. Thrusting the stun gun into Glinting Blow, the crystal mare, paralyzed, fell forward into the train, tumbling with the car’s momentum across the edge of the station walk way. Eventually sliding to a stop, as the shredded robot crumpled to the ground.

Laying there, Glint’s eye continued the twitch as she laughed, “Ah…ha…hahaha. Hahahah!” Struggling to her numb legs, the mare barely held her own weight. “What a shocking development! Ha,hahaha, Mare, if you were still functioning, I hope you understood that joke!” Limping forward, Glint reached her hammer, picking it up, she swung it into the metal mess that was Mary, “Better safe than sorry. I think I win this round. You come see me when you get yourself all fixed up. Sheathing the warhammer. Glint, pushed the remains of Mary into the subway tunnel, before limping up the stairs. Using the hoof rails for support as her body continued to regain feeling. Below, she a broad smile spread across her face as the sound of a coming train filled the station, mixed with it the shattering and grinding of metal.

[TwentySided]

I have put up the voting for those who have added their version of their character's fight. However if you'd like I have this page unlocked so those who were unable to post their fight may still do so until May 11th. Then I'm locking this down. Voting will last till May 25th. I am then going to lock it down and we'll get ready for the next round.