Chapter 20:
Tai Lung Vs Twilight Sparkle - Round 1
'Kill her. Kill… my mother…' An eerie voice sang in Tai Lung's head.
But for some reason, Tai Lung hesitated. He didn't know what it was, but s something didn't feel right. And in that hesitation… a scream tore him from his stupor.
"HEY, YOU!" a female voice shouted, catching the Snow Leopards attention.
Tai Lung whirled around to see Urtica had hit the ground, a purple aura sinking into her carapace. A similar purple aura shrouded the hand of a purple unicorn in a purple GI. Violet eyes glared at him, and her aura shifted, lifting Urtica's unconscious body.
"Let her go! Or the next spell I hit this changeling with will be worse than a sleep spell!" The Mare ordered.
Tai Lung blinked in shock, "Who are you?!" He demanded.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle. And I… am the Celestial Warrior!" Twilight declared, shifting her stance for combat.
For a moment, the two warriors glared at each other, silently daring each other to hurt their hostage first.
"So, she's the one Celestia chose over me, Mother? She's just a Unicorn. You're a Unicorn. What are you gonna do Celestial Warrior? Beat me with flowers?" Tai Lung commented with a light evil chuckle as he threw Luna aside. She was unaware though as she had lost consciousness.
"Don't tempt me, Tai Lung…" Twilight replied with her glare not faltering as she gently lowered the sleeping changeling, and set her aside as well.
"But no, I'm gonna use this. All the power in this scroll you didn't deserve. Do you want it? Come and get it," Twilight challenged as she drew out the golden scroll and waved it like bait.
Tai Lung did. Before she had the chance to react, Tai Lung pounced. His punch threw Twilight out of the palace and jarred the scroll from her grip. But Twilight had been expecting it. Flaring her magic, she summoned a portal, redirecting her back towards Tai Lung as he seized the scroll and lifted it into the air.
"Finally!" Tai Lung cried in excitement.
But just before he could open it, Twilight who had shrouded herself in magic again, body-slamming him with the force of a train. The scroll was jarred from his grip, and Twilight snatched it out of the air.
"Sweet Celestia, I can't believe I pulled that off!" Twilight mumbled.
But she didn't get long to celebrate. Tai Lung charged the unicorn on all fours, his claws sparking against the ground.
As the beast rushed at her, more like a wild animal than a person, Twilight's courage failed her. She stepped back, all but ready to turn and run. But Tai Lung was faster and tackled her out of the palace and onto the tournament grounds.
Summoning her magic, Twilight bounced off the ground, keeping the scroll away from Tai Lung's prying claws. Roaring in anger, Tai Lung kicked her into a nearby tree. But with a rubber spell, the tree bent under Twilight's weight, allowing her to land safely on the ground. Tai Lung leaped towards her again, but Twilight snapped the rubberized tree back like a rubber band, striking Tai Lung and throwing him back into the arena. The tactic only gave Twilight a second to breathe before Tai Lung smashed the doors to the arena open and pursued her down the stairs to Ponyville.
"That scroll is MINE!" Tai Lung bellowed, once again tackling the unicorn.
"No…It's… NOT!" Twilight hissed through gritted teeth as they struggled over the scroll.
Tucking into his tackle, Twilight sent both herself and Tai Lung rolling down the stairs. Using it to her advantage, Twilight drove her elbow, fist, and knee into Tai Lung every time he hit the stairs, doubling the damage as he was sandwiched between the unforgiving stone and her equally unforgiving limbs.
All too soon, however, they ran out of stairs. And Tai Lung was able to kick her through the archway and into the village. As Twilight hit the rooftops, she yelped as the scroll was jarred from her grip, and bounced away. All the while she was thinking of how this fight was kinda retracing her journey a bit.
But unable to stop her momentum, Twilight came to a rest next to an abandoned noodle cart. However, as she glanced at the noodles, her eyes lit up with another idea.
She turned back towards the scroll, which Tai Lung was chasing across the rooftops. Just as he managed to grab the slippery scroll, Twilight snatched it away with a lasso spell.
"Get over here," Twilight mumbled to herself with a chuckle. Though the chuckle turned into a gasp when the scroll bounced off her head and careened across the village.
Tai Lung shot by Twilight, focused on the scroll, but Twilight managed to snag his legs and cast a gravity spell on his shoes. Gagging as his spine was stretched by the whiplash, Tai Lung was pulled down onto the empty cart, turning it into a catapult that launched Twilight after the scroll. With a snarl, Tai Lung kicked off his spell-altered shoes and continued on in his bare paws. He hated going barefoot but he was not about to be bested by an insufficient unicorn.
Meanwhile, Twilight reached for the scroll, only for it to vanish inside a paper lantern. Crying out in distress, Twilight's momentum sent her right past the hidden scroll and into a bamboo forest. Catching herself on the papery stalks only caused her to snap two stilt-sized bamboo stalks off in her hands. And as she managed to stumble her way out, she accidentally knocked over a stack of iron pots.
Briefly, Twilight made to clean the pots up, before the clink of the scroll hitting the ground, followed by the THUD of Tai Lung landing near it drew her attention.
With no time to close the distance, Twilight looked to the pots and flared her horn.
Tai Lung had just reached out to claim the Celestial Scroll… only for one of the pots to slam into his face. With a flare of more magic, Twilight hurled the rest of the pots, covering the scroll before Tai Lung could dislodge the metal cooking utensil from his face.
Leaping over the pots, she tossed one of her stilts at Tai Lung before breaking the other into a bo-staff. Tai Lung easily reflected the stilt, but it knocked him back, allowing her to get between him and the pots. And as he glared down at the iron coverings, Twilight's magic flared again, and the pots began to shuffle like an odd game.
"LIGHTENING!" Twilight said with a challenging smirk.
"You… clever little pony," Tai Lung growled. He had to admit she was smart and thought on her feet.
He made to knock Twilight aside, but she blocked and redirected his strikes. Snarling, Tai Lung swiped his claw at the bo-staff, splitting it in two. Yelping, Twilight tried to back up, only for Tai Lung to seize the front of her GI and throw her into the shuffling pots. Iron pots flew into the air, but among them, both fighters saw the gleam of the Celestial scroll.
The snow leopard went for the scroll but was stopped by a purple magical aura tugging at his tail. Looking at the unicorn he saw her horn and her hand ablaze with magic. Clenching her fist and pulling her hand towards her, she attempted to levitate Tai Lung away from the scroll. But Tai Lung broke free from her magic, swinging his paw at the scroll and the snow leopard knocked it away from both of them. Kicking Twilight aside, he attempted to once again claim the Scroll as his.
Lunging back to her feet, Twilight sent a lightning spell to her legs, blasting herself after the scroll.
The BOOM of thunder jarred Tai Lung from his focus, and he got just enough time to turn and see Twilight rocketing towards him on a bolt of lightning, screaming in determination. Tai Lung got one yelp out before Twilight barreled through him, sending him into the air while she seized the scroll with a triumphant laugh.
Unfortunately, Twilight realized she was rocketing toward the side of a building. Shrieking, Twilight tried to deactivate the spell, but her momentum still carried her into the wall. A shield spell kept her from breaking her back, but it failed to save the scroll, which flew from her grip and rested in the mouth of a stone dragon head.
With Tai Lung rapidly approaching, Twilight forced herself not to panic.
"Come on, focus, Twilight. Envision the Jade Dragon Library. The Scroll's just another book out of order," Twilight ordered herself as she imagines a book in the scroll's place.
As Tai Lung rapidly approached, he gasped in disbelief. The purple unicorn was scaling up the side of the wall like a monkey. Her eyes were closed. She wasn't even using her magic! Instantly, his eyes locked on the scroll.
"The Scroll truly has given her power!" Tai Lung realized with glee. He knew that the Scroll was truly the most powerful artifact in Kung Fu. Especially if a unicorn could scale a building without using her magic. However, his glee rapidly faded as he realized she was going to get it way before him.
"NOOOOO!" He roared, ramming himself into the crack she had already made in the building.
The building had already been rocked by one kung fu master. The second one began to bring the stone structure down, ripping Twilight from her daydream. Whipping her head around, Twilight screamed as Tai Lung rapidly scaled the collapsing building. Flaring her magic, she sent several loose roof tiles smashing into the snow leopard's face. As he reeled from the odd ammunition, Twilight blasted herself off the building with an explosion spell, hopping off pieces of debris before… she cried out in relief as her hands closed once more around the scroll.
But in her moment of victory, she failed to notice Tai Lung lunge out of the cloud of debris that the building was vanishing into. Just as she heard his roar, she turned around only to get an axe kick to the face. She hit the ground with a BANG, sending up a cloud of dust. And before she had a chance of trying to flare her horn for some kind of protective spell, Tai Lung thrust his arms down and dive-bombed her as a second cloud of dust rushed through the town.
Author's Note: Don't worry, folks. This is only round one of the battle, round two is coming up soon.