//------------------------------// // Welcome to the Training Center // Story: The Mane Event // by BlakFyre //------------------------------// The following day in Ponyville was as mundane as you'd expect. All the citizens had returned to their daily lives and tended to their usual duties. Some of the townsponies were still talking about the wrestling event that had occurred just yesterday; Bur for the most part, everypony had accepted it as the past and moved on. Business at Sugarcube Corner had been slow today so the Cakes were just sitting around with nothing to do while they waited for customers to arrive. Pinkie was upstairs telling her pet alligator, Gummy, about the EWA event that she and her friends had attended the other day. "And then he slammed Big Mac hard into the mat with his signature lifting sitout spinebuster. Then he pinned him and got the win!" Pinkie shouted excitedly. "It was super amazing! You really should've been there Gummy." Gummy gave his silent response of licking his eye with his tongue. "I hope Applejack is okay though. She seemed really upset after the match." Pinkie stated. "I wonder if she's still a frowny filly." She thought to herself. But before she had a chance to linger on that some more, she heard a knock at her window. She opened the window to find Derpy floating there with a letter in her mouth. "It that letter for me?" Pinkie asked. Derpy replied by nodding and spit the letter out, letting it fall into Pinkie's hooves. Pinkie thanked her for it and closed her window. She then opened the letter to read it and this is what it said: Dear Ms Pinkie Pie We heard about what happened at the ppv event and would like to apologize on the behalf of our champion for his behavior during the event. We hope his actions had not effected you or your friends too harshly. So as a token of our apology, we would like to invite you and your friends to participate in our Grapplers In Training program. In this program, young mares and stallions will be training to become EWA wrestlers. You and your friends will be able to participate, but may not be eligible for wrestling contracts. You and your group will only be there as interim participants. The program starts tomorrow. You and your friends will be given a GIT t-shirt. We hope you will accept our invitation. Sincerely, EWA Board of Directors Pinkie stared at the letter for a bit and allowed her brain to process what she just read. After that, she jumped into air and squealed gleefully. "First we got see wrestlers, now we have a chance to be wrestlers?" She asked herself with disbelief. "This is the bestest week ever!" She shouted with delight. "Pinch me Gummy, I must be dreaming." She said as she fainted playfully. Gummy just blinked and stared blankly at her. But her exuberance soon turned to dread as she realized something. The only two of her friends that may actually want to do this were Rainbow Dash and (maybe) Applejack. But she knew for a fact that Rarity, Twilight, and Fluttershy might not be so quick to go along too. So she slumped back down and thought of how she was going to convince them. After a moment of thought, she decided: "Meh. I'll just wing it". And with that, she rolled up into a ball, bounced out of her window, and rolled off so that she could put her plan into action. Pinkie sat patiently in her throne inside Twilight's castle as she played with her tail, waiting for her friends to arrive. She had sent invitations to all of them saying that she had something of the utmost importance to tell them. As far as Pinkie knew, they believed her and were on their way. A little while later, the doors to the throne room opened and her friends filed inside one after the other. "This had better be important Ms Pie." Rarity chided. "I was in the middle of completing an order before you interrupted me." "Fer once, Ah agree with Rarity." Applejack chimed in. "Ah still have chores to finish." "Don't worry. This shouldn't take too long." Pinkie assured them. "You can go back to doing your dresses and chores afterwards." Pinkie waited as the rest of her friends to enter the room and sat down. After they were all seated, she cleared her throat and spoke to them. "I've asked you all here for an important anmoucnment. I got an invitation from the EWA Board of Directors this morning! We've all been invited to a training program they're having! Which means that we may have the opportunity to become actual EWA wrestlers!!! She exclaimed cheerfully. "Say WHAT?!" Applejack asked in disbelief. "I beg your pardon?" Rarity asked. "Awwwwwwwwwww yeah!" Dash shouted. "Now I get show off my awesomeness to like a million screaming fans." She said as she squealed. "Oh....my...." Fluttershy stuttered. "Please tell me you're joking?" Twilight questioned. "Sorry Twilight, but this cake is not a lie." Pinkie answered as she handed the letter to Twilight for her to read. "It's all here in black and white. Except for those pink spots. I had a few cupcakes while I was waiting for you girls." She said with a toothy grin. "A few?" Rainbow asked with a smug grin. "Okay several." Pinkie corrected herself. Rainbow's smile widen further. After a few moments, Pinkie broke. "Alright, I had 15." She replied truthfully. "I can't help if I'm a little piggy." She said with a hint of regret. "She's right." Twilight confirmed. "We are invited to attend this program." "Sweet. So when are we gettin started?" Rainbow asked as she rubbed her hooves together. "Tomorrow." Pinkie replied. "Tomorrow!" Rarity shouted. "Oh no no no. I simply can't, darling. I have to get that order finished by tomorrow afternoon." "Tomorrow's no good fer me either, sugarcube." Applejack mentioned. "Ah'm suppose to help my family build a new chicken coop tomorrow. "And besides." Rarity added. "While I'll admit that the event we saw yesterday was somewhat enjoyable, I would never even CONSIDER giving it a try! You all saw what that brut did to Big Macintosh. Do you honestly think we'll fair any better than him in that ring?" "Rarity has a point Pinkie." Twilight spoke. "I know that the program will train us on how to wrestle, but I don't think we're cut out for wrestling." Pinkie let out a sigh. "Fine. Since everypony has mixed opinions, we'll take a vote." Pinkie proposed. "Everypony who wants to reject the invitation, raise your hoof." Rarity, Twilight, and Applejack all raised their hooves at the same time. "Duly noted." Pinkie said. "All in favor of accepting the invitation, raise your hoof." Both Pinkie and Rainbow shot their hooves up instantly. They looked around to see if anypony else had their hoof raised and were surprised to see that Fluttershy had her hoof raised halfway in the air. Everypony looked at Fluttershy with extreme shock. After a moment of silence, Fluttershy decided to explain herself. "I know everypony is surprised with my vote." She attested. "But the reason I want to accept the invitation is because a small part of me wants to do this. I think that this could be a very thrilling experience for us all to take part in. Seeing how fun and exciting wrestling can be has made me curious to give it a try. So I think we should all give it chance. I mean, if everypony is okay with it." She finished nervously. "I don't know, darling." Rarity spoke. "Physical sports aren't exactly my forte. Neither are sports in general really." "How about this Rarity." Rainbow proposed. "You can try it for the first day and if you don't like it, we'll just tell the Board of Directors that you weren't really interested. How's that sound?" "That does sound pretty fair I suppose. Plus, I can always hold that order off for another day or 2." Rarity reasoned. "And ah guess we can wait to build that chicken coop another day." Applejack stated. "So it's settled then." Pinkie remarked. "Due to the majority vote, the decision is unanimous. We're going to the program tomorrow!" All 5 of them began cheering and expressing their joy. But Twilight was still unsure about this. She felt like she was probably going to regret going along with it. Pinkie had noticed the sad expression on Twilight's face and trotted over to talk to her. "Come on Twilight. It'll be fun, I promise." Pinkie assured her. "I'm not worried about it not being fun." Twilight explained. "I'm worried that I'm not gonna be very good at it. I'm not really what you would call a "physical" pony. I just don't wanna go out there and make a fool out of myself." "Twilight, I'm sure nopony is gonna laugh at you." Pinkie reassured her. "I mean we're all gonna be on an equal playing field. None of us know what we're doing yet either. But with time and practice, we'll become just as good as the actual wrestlers." Pinkie said enthusiastically. Twilight gave Pinkie's words some thought before closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath. "Alright Pinkie. I'll take your word for it." "Good to hear. Well that wraps up this little matter. Meeting adjourned!" Pinkie shouted as she pulled a gavel out of her mane and banged it hard against the cutie map. This caused a huge crack to form in the center of the map. The others stared with shocked expression on their faces while Rainbow snorted as she giggled. "Nice one, Pinkie." Rainbow laughed. Twilight frowned at Pinkie angrily while Pinkie simply smiled and laughed nervously. "I'll pay for that later." She said as she used her tail as a propellor and proceeded to fly out of the nearest window. Twilight placed a hoof over the bridge of her snout and sighed heavily. The following day, the Mane 6 boarded the Friendship Express and headed to Manehattan where the training center was located. Pinkie and Rainbow were buzzing with excitement as they talked amongst each other. "Oh. My. Luna!" Rainbow fangirled. "I still can't believe this is actually happening." "Yeah." Pinkie replied. "I wonder what kind of cool wrestling things we're gonna do?" "I could honestly care less." Rainbow said. "Just as long as we get to actually do stuff in the ring." "I hope they keep that mat clean." Rarity said as she butted into their conversation. "Cause I refuse to set hoof on something where sweaty ponies having been rubbing against." She finished, crinkling her nose in disgust. "I'm sure they scrub the mat afterwards." Rainbow assured. "I hope so." Rairty said with uncertainty. The train came to a screeching halt as it reached its destination. The Mane 6 all filed out of the train collectively. Soon afterward it left the station. They asked a passing unicorn mare for directions to the Taining Center and she pointed them in the right direction. They soon left the station and headed straight for the Training Center. They arrived in front of a large tan building with glass double doors. There was a large sign on top of the building that read "EWA Training Facilities" in bold red letters. Inside the building were sets of workout and training equipment. There were also six other ponies already inside that were standing in there idly. Twilight pushed open the doors and went inside, followed by the others. Some the ponies looked over at them while the others didn't even acknowledge their presence. The Mane 6 then stood, in a horizontal line, beside the 6 others. Twilight decided to be the one to adrress these strangers. "Do either of you have any idea where our instructor is?" She asked sincerely. "He hasn't shown up yet." One of them called out. "We've just been standing here for the past 20 minutes." "Well you're not gonna have to wait any longer cause here I am!" Came a mysterious voice. The owner of the voice entered the room shortly afterward with a box in their hooves. It was a chubby periwinkle colored earth pony with a light brown, long mane. He was wearing a plain black sweatshirt with blue pants and black shoes. He set the box down and stood before them. "Welcome to the Training Center!" He greeted enthusiastically. "I'll be your instructor, Buckaneer." "Buckaneer......THE Buckaneer?" One of them spoke. "The same one that holds the record for most EWA World Championship wins?" "In the flesh." He responded proudly. "Wait a minute." Rainbow said. "We're gonna be trained by the legendary Buckaneer!?" She exclaimed before she fainted into Twilight's arms. "Is she gonna be alright?" Buckaneer asked Twilight. "Oh yeah." Twilight confirmed. "She always does this when she meets somepony famous." She smiled. "Well I don't blame her." Buckaneer spoke. "I'm one of the best technical wrestlers to step into an EWA ring." He affirmed. "My friends are gonna be SO jealous when I tell them about this." The random pony from earlier interjected. "Anyway, now that we've gotten that out of the way, lets go down to business. Since you all know me now, I wanna get to know all of you. Starting with........you." He said as he pointed to Fluttershy. She perked up as soon as he pointed to her. She looked around the room and noticed everypony staring at her. Her crippling stage fright soon overtook her. Her heart rate started to increase, she began feeling light-headed, and she began sweating profusely. Her friends were giving her looks of concern but they didn't want to answer for her. The other six ponies stared at her intently, making her even more nervous. "Geez, spit it out already. It's not rocket science." One of them said impatiently. She tried holding her breath to try and slow down her heart a bit to no avail. The instructor gave her a puzzled, yet concerned look. "Do you have a name, sweetie?" He asked her. She nodded in response. "Do you wanna share it with the rest of us?" He persisted. She nodded again. After taking a deep breath, she said her name in a soft, undecipherable tone. "Fluttershy." She mumbled. "What was that?" Buckaneer asked. "Fluttershy." She mumbled again. "Come again?" Buckaneer said confused. "Fluttershy." She mumbled once more. "You're gonna have to speak up honey. My hearing isn't as good as it use to be." He said. "Fluttershy." She mumbled one more time. "For the love of Luna! Just say it already!" The random pony shouted. "Slutterfhy." Fluttershy blurted out. The room went completely silent for a minute before the 6 ponies all laughed at Fluttershy's response. Fluttershy's entire face turned bright red. She had never been more embarrassed in her entire life. It was flight camp all over again. She curled up into a ball and hid behind her mane. "With a name like that, I think I know what HER special talent is." One of the random six ponies hinted. "Is that really your name?" Buckaneer asked. "Not that I'm judging." "No." Twilight answered for her. "It's Fluttershy." Buckaneer went over to Fluttershy and placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. "Don't worry, hun." He said to her. "First time jitters. It happens to the best of us. Myself included." He comforted her. "By the way, my name is Twilight." Twilight introduced herself. "You looked like you were going to ask for my name next anyway." "I'm fully aware of who you are Miss Sparkle." He affirmed. "Princess Celestia's former student. And now you're a princess yourself. The pleasure is mine." He said as he bowed and kissed Twilight's right forehoof, causing her blush slightly from the gesture. "Why don't you kiss her ass while you're at it?" A random mare from the other group said silently. Buckaneer overheard her and turned his attention in her direction. "I'll have you know I was just giving the princess a proper greeting." He said. "It's called being courteous. Maybe I teach you that along with your wrestling training." The mare crossed her arms and pouted as she blushed due to being insulted like that. It didn't help that some of the other ponies snickered at her. "How bout you with the rainbow mane?" He asked Rainbow. "The name's Rainbow Dash. Fastest flier in Equestria." She bragged. "Aren't you the mare that pulled off the sonic rainboom at the young fliers competition?" He asked. "Yeah." She answered. "I was amazing even at that age. I was practically BORN awesome." She said arrogantly. "I don't doubt it for a minute." He said honestly. "Now you." He said as he pointed to Applejack. "I'm Applejack." She greeted. "Nice to meet you." He replied. He then pointed to Rarity. "Some ponies call me Miss Rarity. But you can just call me Rarity." She greeted. "Can do, Rarity." He said. "And I'm Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie chimed in with a smile. "Didn't even have to address you." He spoke. He then turned to the other six ponies and asked them for their names: Textbook was a small, scrawny earth pony stallion with a short, straight red mane and a beige coat. Roughneck was a large earth pony stallion with a long blue mane and an orange coat. Mic Check was a unicorn stallion with a short black mane and a white coat. Gold Streak was a pegasus mare with a golden brown mane and a golden yellow coat that somehow seemed to shimmer in the light. Fudge Sundae was a pegasus mare with a long neon green mane and a hot pink coat. Brick House was a large, bulky unicorn mare with a short white mane and a red coat. "Alright now that introductions are out of the way, let's begin." Buckaneer spoke. "But first, I want each of you to come up here and get a t-shirt." He said, gesturing to the box of shirts behind him. The shirts all had the same Grapplers in Training slogan on them, but each shirt had a different color scheme. There were three different versions of the shirt: a grey one with white letters, a white one with black letters, and a black one with grey letters. All 12 of them went up and got a shirt. Once they all had one, Buckaneer slid into the ring and addressed them again. "Now then, let's start with a few demonstrations." He started. Without warning, he ripped off his shirt and pants, revealing a red amateur wrestling singlet with white horseshoes on it underneath. He also had white wrist tape, red elbow pads with black patches on the back of them, black knee pads, and white boots. "Whoa." Both Rainbow and Textbook said in unison. "I may not be as in shape as I use to be." He said as he jiggled his own fat. "But I'm still in my prime. Now I'm gonna need a volunteer." He said as he scanned the room. "Roughneck. Since you're one of the bigger ponies in class, I figure I'm least likely to hurt you. Get in the ring." He said. Roughneck slowly made his way into the ring and stood before Buckaneer. "Now I want all of you to pay close attention." He stated. "Cause you're gonna have to learn the basics before you can get in the ring." He then turned his attention to Roughneck. "Now I want you to grab the back of my head with your left hoof and grab the inside of my left elbow with your right." He instructed. Roughneck did as he was told and performed the action. Buckaneer did the move as well. "This is called the collar and elbow tie-up. It's one of the most important wrestling holds. It's more commonly used at the beginning of a match, but there have been instances of wrestlers using it in the midst of one." He spoke. "See the point of this hold is to try and find a better position to work your opponent. And the thing about this hold is that you can transition into all the other wrestling holds from this position alone." Buckaneer then got Roughneck's head under his arm in a front facelock. "This is the front facelock." He began. "With this hold, you have the most control over your opponent. You can drag them, attack them with a forearm to the back or a knee to the stomach, go for a move such as a DDT or suplex, or you can lock them in a guillotine choke. The possibilities are endless with this hold, but it does have some downsides. Your opponent can counter this hold by hitting you in the gut, ramming you into one of the corners, grabbing your wrists and freeing themselves, or catching you a northern lights suplex or a Gannosuke Clutch. So keep that in mind if you decide to use this hold." He then locked Roughneck with a side headlock. "This is the side headlock. Another basic wrestling hold. It's typically used to work on the head and neck of your opponent. There's not a whole lot you can do from this position except punch the top of the head and and perform a side headlock takedown." He finished. He then grabbed Roughneck's right wrist and twisted it slightly. "This is the wristlock. It's one of the more complex wrestling holds." He informed. "You really have to know what you're doing in order to execute this hold successfully. The key is to apply pressure and twist the arm at just the right angle. Now you have to be precise. If you don't twist it enough, then it'll be easier for your to opponent to counter it. But if you twist it too much, you're gonna break your opponent's wrist and you don't want that to happen. So once you have your opponent where you want them, you can do a number of things from this position. You can get them in a side armlock, a kneeling armbar, a hammer and chin lock, a plain hammerlock, an arm-wrench inside cradle pin, a spinning armbar, and lots of other maneuvers. Just make sure you have the skill and know-how to pull off those moves." He then put Roughneck in the waistlock. "And lastly we have the waistlock." He said. "Now I know this may look inappropriate to some of you, but I can assure you that this a legitimate wrestling hold. Most wrestlers hardly ever use this hold, but it's still pretty useful and effective. You can go for all kinds of moves like a german suplex or full nelson slam, but you can also go for submissions like the cobra clutch or full nelson. But there's only so much you can do with this hold." He finished. He released Roughneck and thanked him for his cooperation. "I want you all to come in here and apply some of these wrestling holds on me. I wanna see if you can execute them without my guidance. So let's see what ya got!" He said enthusiastically. One by one, they got in the ring and tried some of the wrestling holds. Rainbow, Pinkie, Fudge Sundae, and Golden Light all applied the holds perfectly. Twilight, Applejack, Roughneck, and Brick House applied the holds subparly. Rarity, Fluttershy, Mic Check, and Textbox didn't know how to apply the holds and had to instructed by Buckaneer. They all did their best. The next exercise they did was learning how to cut a promo. Buckaneer left the room and came back minutes later with a microphone. "Now we're gonna cover the second most important aspect of being a wrestler: knowing how to cut a promo." He stated. "What's a promo?" Twilight asked. "It's when a wrestler talks directly to the fans." Rainbow answered. "They brag about themselves, thank the fans for attending the show, promote an upcoming pay-per-view or match, and a whole bunch of other stuff. What Stud Muffin did after his match with Big Mac, that was a promo." "An excellent definition, Rainbow." Buckaneer complimented. "You hit the nail on the head." "I know my wrestling terminology." She bragged. "Teacher's pet." Fudge Sundae coughed but Rainbow didn't hear her. "In this exercise, I want you to pretend that I'm the audience." He started. "You have to take the mic and tell me why you think you deserve to be a wrestler. Now I don't want you to come up here and say something like "I saw it on t.v and thought it looked pretty easy." But I also don't want you to give some long-winded speech about the prestige of pro wrestling. Keep it brief and meaningful. So who wants to go first?" He asked. There was a short silence as nopony wanted to be first. The silence was eventually broken as Rainbow raised her hoof. "I'll go first." She replied. "I was gonna let somepony else go first but since nopony wants to go, I'll do it." "Alright then. Step right up." He said as he handed her the microphone. "The wrestling industry has always intrigued me." She began. "Mares and stallions alike putting on fantastic performances for adoring fans. That's the kind of stuff I live for. I've always had a passion for entertaining the masses with my awesomeness. As a WonderBolt, there are always ponies cheering for me in Ponyville. But what about ponies in Baltimare, Las Pegasus, or Fillydelphia? They probably don't even know that I exist. But if I became a wrestler, I could put on shows for ponies in every country. In short, I want all of Equestria to know the name: Rainbow Dash!" She finished proudly as she handed the mic back to Buckaneer. "Well done." He complemented. "A little narcissistic, but you still did a good job." "I wanna go next! I wanna go next!" Pinkie said as she jumped up and down happily. "I like your eagerness." He said. "I'd be a fool to say no." "Yay!" Pinkie shouted as she leaped clear over the top rope from ringside. "Whoa." He said a bit taken aback. "I've never seen a normal mare jump over the top rope from ringside. I'm impressed." "Pinkie is.....special." Rairty stated. "I bet." He remarked. "But I'm more interested in what her mic skills are like." He said, getting back on topic. "Okie doki loki." Pinkie said as she grabbed the microphone from Buckaneer and cleared her throat. "Hi, everypony! I just wanted to say what an honor it is to be standing here talking to you folks. You are the ponies that make all of this possible. So give yourselves a pat on the back. Now I want all of you to know that I enjoy each and everypony here. And I will try my best to keep you all in-tune and enthralled. You will get the absolute best out of me. I will give you all my blood, sweat, and tears because I care about you all. You all paid good money to see a show and I'll be sure to give you one. Every. Single. Night. I live for this company and the ponies in it, as well as for you fine ponies. This. Is. Wrestling." She finished as she dropped the mic and raised her hooves high above her head. The room went dead silent even after Pinkie finished. Everypony held a look of bewilderment on their faces. They couldn't believe what they just heard. Her friends were more shocked than anypony else. For as long as they knew her, they didn't know that she had such a way with words. The silence was broken as Buckaneer slowly clapped for Pinkie's performance. "In all my years of being an instructor, that. Was one of the best promos I've ever heard. And I'm being 100% truthful. Nopony who's ever been apart of my program has cut a promo that passionate. That compelling. Or that meaningful. It almost brings a tear to my eye. Pinkie, you're one of best talkers I've ever had the fortune of tutoring." He finished. "I just pretended that there was an audience in front of me and just spoke from the heart." She said truthfully. "Well if you do become a wrestler, I look forward to hearing your promos." He complemented. Pinkie gave the mic back to Buckaneer and rejoined her friends. Buckaneer then began to say something: "Ya know what? I've decided that since Pinkie's promo was so good, it's going to be the standard for this program. From now on when you cut a promo, I want you to keep Pinkie's in mind. Just say what's on your mind, whether it be good or bad. The fans will acccpet you for being who you are. That about does it for this exercise, unless somepony else wants to come up and say something. Nopony responded to Buckaneer's offer. "Then that settles it. Let's move on to the next exercise."