The Final Prize [IC]

A large thunderbolt strikes Living Lightning, and as the light fades the dragon is standing and stretching, his head oddly bowed. He squints for a moment, surprised to see the ground so closely, then completes his stretch, looking around and waving at the rival team. "We won the right to a friendly chat." He says, rotating a few joints with an odd crackling noise. "Preposterous, isn't it?"

Supernova smiled in relief as the crystals collapsed. While if she had to die, then there was no point in complaining, when it came down to it, she would really rather not.

Upon the reappearance of the other team, Supernova considered what she should do, considering she had never met them personally. Don't even think about it, kid. Now is not the time to get into that whole mess.

Supernova mentally shrugged. Grandpa Blackstar had a thing about not letting other know about the whole "ghost possessing her" thing unless they absolutely had to. Ponies tended to be weirded out by that kind of thing, and he thought it best not to try and push them. If you say so, Gramps.

Instead, she just waved at the group."Hey, we haven't met yet. I'm Supernova."

Evil Eye took a look over at the other team... and his eyes drifted to his counterpart, "Overseeing Watch." He bowed slightly and said, in his usual deep and husky voice, "I'm Evil Eye."

Acoustic just flopped down where he stood, his ears ringing.
"I'll introduce myself when my everything hurts less."

"Well, it seems like you..." With a wave of her horn, Antiquity cast a bubble of silence around Malaised Youth.  Trueno Escudo very calmly moved between Evil Eye and Overseeing Watch, "Well, it is an honor to interact on better terms.  I feel it should be cherished for as long as it lasts."

Supernova nodded. "Yes, certainly. If you don't mind my asking though, what happened right afterwards to you?"

Living Lightning waves cheerfully at Malaised Youth before rolling a dull crystal towards Jolly Thunder. "Do you know what these are? I'm afraid to investigate too thoroughly right now. They're responsible for all the craters around here."

Jolly Thunder picked up the dulled crystal, "Well well, old bean.  I'd presume it were a sunstone but they are usually far too volitile to be handled and certainly shouldn't exist in such quantities."

"Volatile?" Living Lightning says, spinning another crystal on one claw (with some magnetic assistance) and looking at Acoustic's charred fur. "Whatever do you mean?" He tosses the crystal into the far edge of the arena. "I must say, I am glad no one took the fighting personally. I know I can be a touch...predatory in a fight, but I don't normally expect to care what the opposition thinks of me."

"I figure the fights bring out the worst in us." Trueno Escudo said to Living Lightning before turning to Storm Blade, "I don't know about not being killed. I've had painful nightmares that I don't know if they're leftover bits of fear or some sort of memory."

"Probably best not to dwell on it." Living Lightning comments with a grimace. "This may not be the best topic of conversation, but how long have you been fighting in here?" A crackle is heard, and for a split second a lightbulb can be seen above his head. "Better question: how did you all get stuck with the runt?"

The gesture Truno Escudo made was not lost on Evil Eye, and his gaze switched to the changeling. He chuckles a little when Truno mentions fights bringing out the worst in them. "I confess, there are... better ponies than I. I tend to let my rage get the better of me when fighting... letting go of it is hard, I admit."

Overseeing Watch spoke up, "It's not about letting go of rage but rather channeling and focusing it into something productive. I've stopped counting the number of fights we've been in since we've been here but the question of group composition is an odd one. My husband and I have briefly met Jolly Thunder before and we've seen one of Antiquity's concerts so maybe it's not that random. Two of you are guards so that's a connection right there."

"Productive seems like an apt term for what he does." Living Lightning says drily. "Continuing my streak of incredibly rude questions, what did everyone do before they ended up in here?"

Acoustic piped up from the floor.
"Two zebras, a chimera, you guys. The ones I can't figure out are the solo alicorn, the exploding crystals and, heck, us."

"Okay so it's just us and the Alicorn."

"The alicorn is that solution where the numbers simplify more easily because they're so small." Living Lightning says, sounding a tiny bit interested. "A good group in group in here is limited to 1+N creatures, where N is the number of ponies that first creature can stand to be around 24/7. In her Majesty's Idiocy's case, N happens to equal zero. She can't live with ponies and they can't live with her. They probably tried pairing her off with some poor soul, mocked up as a jester or a vizier. I feel bad for them."

Once more sinking into the floor, the world went silent for the group.  Rising back up again, they heard the sound of the crowd.  Once more the announcer's voice burst through the speakers.  "Fillies and gentlecolts, welcome once again to The Final Prize!  We've got something special as one team just might win.  However, not to be outdone, ANOTHER team is on the verge of victory.  Everypony welcome Queen Apidae and her royal guard!"  Out trotted six regular changelings, two more in armor, and then the queen herself.  While her mane was teal, her eyes were amber.  Despite her height, she had a rather hunched and lazy stance.  Glancing at Evil Eye and Storm Blade she motioned for her entourage to bow to them.  "Affording due respect while you still stand."  Then, the changelings suddenly attacked as a unit.  One waved a horn at Living Lightning, causing him to glow a green color as he felt his scales soften.  Apidae pointed and the changeling followed up with a magical beam.  The other five followed up with fierce tackles.  Apidae pointed once more and the first changeling zapped Storm Blade with a bolt of magic.  The two armored changelings took position in front of Apidae.

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