concoursec | wind them up and wish them away (closed)

Entry tags:

wind them up and wish them away (closed)

Characters: Rainbow Dash and Ed Elric
Location: Training Centre
Rating: Probable PG-13 for language and/or violence; other stuff to be edited in.
Open/Closed/Finished: Closed
Summary: What's a lifelong killjoy to do during Homecoming season, apart from bask in the fact that he's not in it this time? Drag somebody down who is, obviously!

For some reason, what struck Ed first as he stepped into the by now familiarly humid air of the fake jungle was the flyer - small, ragged and so damp you could only have guessed that the front of it used to read "LAS THOMAS FOR HOMEC", but nevertheless apparently important enough for somebody to climb all the way up a tree and leave it there, to drip and flutter in the draught brought in by the closing doors. When you thought about it, it was practically symbolic.

"Looks like someone was serious about their popularity contest," he said, with a smile that didn't suggest it was a compliment, and turned his head. "If you weren't so eager to screw around in here, you could learn a thing or two."

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"Oh please," Rainbow said as she flitted around above him. "I'm smarter, faster, and better than everypony else in the running! If the other people in Garden can't recognize that--"

She dropped a little to face him upside-down, a broad grin on her face and her forelegs folded confidence. "That's their problem, not mine! I don't care how this whole Homecoming thing goes, I know I'm awesome!"

"Were you this nonchalant about it last time? Who knows, maybe you're growing up after all." With a smirk, he took off again, heavy footsteps squelching in the soil underfoot. "But let's find somewhere further in. Any more idiots like that, they'll just get in the way."

"You're thinking of the date auction, and that was a long time ago," she said as she spun over him in midair to land by his side. "Though I still say we shoulda gone outside instead... but I guess if we're just sparring it's okay if we do it someplace where we can't really let everything out."

"If you wanna treat it that way, it's fine by me," he said, elbowing her. "But we could clear out this whole area first. Just to be on the safe side."

"I don't have a choice, they'd bust me back down to cadet fifth-class if I wrecked the Training Center and let all the monsters out." She sprang back into the air again, brandishing the foreleg with her Blaster Edge on it while she reseated its projectile with the other. "Let's take 'em out and get to the other side!"

"And you're not even going to time it today? That's exactly what I was talking about." With that, and in one unreasonably dramatic movement, he pulled his coat off and swung it up over his shoulder. "Well, after you."

Still, they didn't have to go far before they could get started. Just a few steps away, pushing through the trees, they found themselves looking out over an entire clearing of slumbering grats. This was hardly stealth practice, of course, and even before they'd drawn close enough to strike first, several of the monsters began to stir, pricking up their tentacles.

"Hey, you wanna make it a race, we can make it a race, but for a guy who doesn't have wings you might wanna rethink that."

With a flick of her hoof, Rainbow cast a Fire spell on every grat she could see. Spread out across so many targets like that, it barely singed them, but the point was to wake the grats up and get them charging. She was better at focused attacks than spread out ones, after all, but luckily she had an alchemist with her. She'll set 'em up, he'll knock 'em over.

He might not even have bothered, but hell, these small fr- uh, these wastes of time weren't going to be the main attraction today. The sound of his clap was quickly drowned out by a rumble underfoot; the soil churned and roiled around his hands where he ducked down to touch the ground, sending a circular ripple across the clearing almost gentle to look at from above but not so pleasant for the grats or other vegetation roughly swept to the side by the oncoming wave of earth.

Yeah, alchemist, not gardener.

As the grats flew sideways, Rainbow pounced, striking from grat to grat with all her speed and power. One solid hoof was all it took to take each one out, so her rainbow wake traced arcs through the air over the path as she zig-zagged on ahead.

Ed didn't bother waiting for her to finish - not that he would have had to wait for long - before straightening up with a painfully deliberate air of nonchalance and, once the ground had settled down enough to walk on again, strolling across it as if they hadn't stopped at all. "Yeah, let's keep going. More space than this wouldn't hurt."

"If you want more space than this we probably shoulda gone outside," Rainbow said, twirling through a playful roll above him to land on the side opposite where she'd started.

"Everyone in Garden heard you the first time," he said without turning his head. "No, I just mean space that doesn't reek of burned tentacles. It won't take long."

A low-hanging branch brushed the top of his head as, reaching her on the other side, he pushed further into the foliage.

"Well I could just clear the air, you know." Ed might feel good to see Rainbow duck reflexively beneath that branch, even though it was definitely too high to brush HER head. "We could always go to the secret area and kick everypony out."

"Hold that thought," he said, coming to another stop a few yards ahead. "This looks good enough."

The clearing they now found themselves in was, if anything, a little less spacious, and littered with snapped-off branches, some of which looked alarmingly larger than the monsters they'd just left behind - but that was on the ground. Looking up, there was an obvious gap in the canopy overshadowing most of the rest of the training centre; here, even someone like Ed could see all the way up to the ceiling.

Yep - for a probably quick demonstration, this would do.

He turned his head and flashed her a grin. "How about it? It's not too late to chicken out and go back to your campaigning."

Rainbow, three quarters of the way into a cocky pose, sort of flopped like her strings had been cut, rolling her eyes. "Oh please. Against the psychotic lady with the team of friends and the girl with the hometown advantage? I'm not even gonna try. I'll stick back here where I want to be!"

"You're full of it," he said casually - and, despite them ostensibly being about to spar, pulling his coat back on. "Does that mean we're good to go?"

"I should get a coat. I'd look cool with a coat," Rainbow said, settling onto the ground in a wide stance that made her readiness perfectly clear, no matter her banter. "Not as cool as YOU of course," she added, blatantly baiting him with a wink.

He just smirked back, his ego for now overriding his usual inclination to take offence. After all, he was about to show off. He could afford to be in a good mood. "Like you've seen anything yet!"

With that, and with his coattails streaming out behind him, he charged.

But something was different about it. Although his punches and kicks came in as relentless a flurry as he'd ever managed, it was almost as if he was holding back - and at the first opportunity he sensed, he sidestepped, hoping to trip her and provoke her into taking flight.

He didn't even need to try to trip her. As he pressed her with strikes from both sides, she threw up her own forelegs to block and parry the blows, judging her moment to counterattack when it would do the most good. As a consequence, her wings spread for balance, and no sooner did he sidestep then she spun around to roundhouse-kick him -- which of necessity meant taking to the air.

In turn, he spun out of the way, into a flip carefully timed to look effortless. A moment later, as well as the slightly uneven thump of his feet hitting the grass, there was a clap. The familiar accompanying blue glow, however, was lost in a concentrated burst of upheaving soil.

The transmuted pillar broke apart almost immediately, even faster than it had risen up, crumbling back into harmless dust - but not before he'd leapt off the top of it clear into the air, if not overhead, then definitely high enough to leave an impression. Maybe even physically, given where his boots were aiming next.

Rainbow had enough time to let out a surprised yelp and twist before one of those boots connected with her shoulder. She hit the ground hard beneath the alchemist, but not hard enough to keep her down. Quickly, she wrapped a leg around Ed's to pin it, then rolled to drive a hoof into the back of his thigh, aiming to send him crashing down in turn.

With a grunt of pain (ugh, she would know which leg to gun for by now), he hit the turf, all the heavier for deliberately not throwing his hands out to break the fall. But he did throw one of them out a fraction of a second later, and near instantly, the ground erupted a second time - noticeably slower than the first, but still rapid enough that the trail of fragmented rock behind him resembled a contrail more than a disintegrating solid structure, and more than forceful enough to fling her across the clearing along with him if she couldn't dodge the pseudo-rocket-propelled tackle in time.

The problem here was that Ed was flinging himself across the clearing along with somepony with wings. He nailed that tackle all right, but she twisted in midair with a few flaps to aid her, to put him on the bottom of their inevitable landing.

In other words, crash - right into the earth he'd torn up moments ago. Still, going by the amount of coughing and cursing the collision kicked up along with the dust, he'd had worse. If that wasn't good enough evidence, his renewed efforts to push her off after just a few seconds probably added to it.

Rainbow planted her forelegs on his shoulders, then used the strength of her upper body and her wings to push right back at him to pin him down, grinning down at him from just a few inches above. "What's wrong, Ed? Has fighting a pony got you down?"

He glowered up at her, gritting his teeth with his considerable if fruitless efforts to move her away. "Don't - jerk - me -"

Until, abruptly, they stopped, and all of that force was thrown into a viciously scything upward kick.

"Whoa--!" Caught off guard, Rainbow tumbled head over hooves over him, crashing to the ground a few feet past his head. She rolled forward, coming to a halt sprawled out on her back. For the moment, all she could do was shake her head to clear it, giving Ed precious time to get back up. Or do some alchemy.

Seizing on her moment of disorientation, Ed dragged himself upright, scraping across the cracked ground, clapped loudly enough to make a point... and hesitated for the barest instant longer than he'd intended, just as he was getting to his feet. One advantage of losing the coat that he'd overlooked until now? Not getting it caught on stray rocks.

She flipped right-side up and into the air with one dramatic roll. She hadn't seen the clap, but she'd heard it, so her next move was to swoop in low, going for the legs. She was trying to bait him; as soon as he ducked low to touch the ground, she'd put on some height, dodge whatever he was doing, and hit him high instead!

Whatever he did have in mind a moment ago, it took a backseat to his throwing himself the hell out of the way. But there was a little tearing noise behind him as he did it, and the almost graceful roll he'd intended just turned into some more painful scraping across the disturbed turf. Damn rock.

The next order of business was to scramble to his feet, but with the state of the battlefield, finding a steady foothold wasn't quite as trivial as it might have been - and again, for just one distracted moment, left him open.

"How 'bout some alchemy, Ed?" Rainbow taunted as she pulled up into a tight Immelman loop, rolling at the top to strike back at him like a descending arrow. She had him now!

She did, because the split second of indignation it took for him to whip his head around and open his mouth to yell back at her cost him his chance to evade the lightning-fast blow. He went over heavily, kicking up a choking dust cloud from where his face unceremoniously mashed itself against the ground.

The horrible ironic thing was: instead of following up with an elbow-drop or a flying tackle or a Diving Destroyer, Rainbow veered sharply away. She honestly believed that had been too easy, and Ed had just been setting a trap for her!

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wind them up and wish them away (closed)

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