//------------------------------//
// 3: The Challenge 
// Story: In Your Corner 
// by Bookish Delight 
//------------------------------//

"—do you want?"

Sunset finished her question, but no one was around to hear it.

Also, nothing.

Whereas back in her bedroom Sunset could just barely make out her surroundings, wherever she was now, there was a total lack of light. She forced herself to stay still for fear of running, or falling, into something she didn’t want to—whatever that could have been.

Thankfully, her impaired vision only lasted a short time, as, with a loud, echoing click, fluorescent lightning flooded the room, forcing her to shield her eyes.

When they finally adjusted, she saw that she was wearing the same clothes she had when she was home, thank goodness. Still, small favors like that weren’t going to stop Rainbow from paying dearly for whatever she’d done.

As soon as she figured out wherever it was Rainbow had taken her. She looked around to see decor befitting… a gym? All around her were heavy bags, dumbbells, treadmills, stair climbers, mats and mirrors. Something nagged at the back of her mind about the whole scene, something she couldn’t quite place—but, no. For one thing, the color scheme was very unfamiliar. Completely brown-painted rooms were rare in her life, and with this much workout equipment around, and the faint smell of sweat, she already felt like she was pressing weights—

Wait a minute. Her head felt… unbalanced. Weighted. Her hands did, too. It wasn’t long before she realized that she had large, red, rounded gloves on her hands, and some kind of helmet on to boot.

Then she noticed the ropes all around her, complete with turnbuckles, including the one right behind her.

She was in a ring.

And standing on the other side of that ring, wearing her own headgear, t-shirt, shorts, and gloves, all hued in varying shades of black and blue, was Rainbow Dash. She laid back on the ropes, bouncing lazily off of them, arms stretched on both sides, seemingly oblivious to Sunset’s presence… until, suddenly, she wasn’t.

"Oh, hi," Rainbow said, looking at Sunset with an expression that was the pinnacle of mirth. "Didn’t see you there."

The sound of someone clearing their throat pierced the gymnasium. Sunset and Rainbow turned towards its source, to see a built beige woman approaching the ring from one of the side doors. With her short white hair, faded blue jeans, and fur-lined brown bomber jacket, even Sunset figured she should probably think twice about crossing her. Which was why she felt the tiniest bit nervous when, upon approaching the ring, the woman appeared to be sizing Sunset up—looking her up and down, and grunting in ways that Sunset couldn’t possibly decode. 

Finally, the woman turned to Rainbow Dash. "This my new blood?" she asked.

"Maybe," Rainbow shrugged. "Entirely up to her, really."

"And definitely leaning towards ‘no’," Sunset said, "given that I don’t even know why I’m here, outside of the part where Rainbow kidnapped me."

The woman tilted her head. "Wait, hold up. She what?" She peered at Sunset again, then looked back to Rainbow… before shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "Ugh, you freaking dweeb!" she said, her forehead descending into her palm. "You actually did it. Even after I told you how bad an idea it was, you still brought her here in the stupidest way possible!"

With a giggle and shrug, Rainbow said, "Awwww, G, don’t be like that."

"Don’t you ‘awwww, G’ me!" the woman growled, climbing into the ring and striding towards Rainbow. "This is my gym! I get to ‘be’ however I want, and that includes telling you how much of an idiot you are, when you are one! I should throw you out right now!"

Rainbow sighed. "Look, Gilda, didn’t I promise you I knew what I was doing?"

"Yeah, well, you’re off to a crap start at proving it. Cause, you see this?" Gilda gestured around the gym with a wide arm sweep, as she towered over Rainbow up close. "This is you, cashing in every favor you’ve ever racked up! You got one hour to make this kosher, Dash. Or I might call security." She punched her palm, her eyes and teeth giving off a menacing glint. "Which is closer than you might think."

"Yeesh. Always with the drama." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Sunset, meet Gilda. She runs this place. Everything she says in here, goes." She slumped, with a sheepish expression. "Even for me."

The corners of Gilda’s lips curled into a smile that was almost sinister. "Yeah, I never get tired of hearing you say that."

Rainbow matched it. "This is the only place it applies."

Okay, being kidnapped was one thing, being an outsider to an inside conversation was another. "Rainbow," Sunset said, doing her best to keep her voice level and almost succeeding, "Why. Am. I. Here? Actually, don’t even answer that. Take me home right now."

To Sunset’s mild surprise. Rainbow shook her head. "Nah."

"Wha—" Sunset did a double take. "Okay, whatever. I’ll just walk, then."

"I mean, you could? But, uh, this place is about twelve miles from the burbs. Bit of a hike."

Wait, twelve miles? Going in a certain direction, that would put this place in downtown Canterlot City. Sunset considered running outside to check, but as she did, a brand new click, just as loud as before, sounded through the gym. Sunset looked over to see Gilda locking the entrances and exits, via flicks of several wall-mounted red buttons.

"Also, there’s that," Rainbow added.

Sunset flashed a raised eyebrow towards Gilda. "And here I thought you were on my side."

"Oh, believe me, in about 55 minutes you might have a super hero team up on your hands against your girl there. But for now?" Gilda’s eyes inquisitively pierced Sunset’s. "Let’s just say I’m curious to see if you really live up to the hype."

"Fine." Sunset raised her boxing glove-clad fists and punched them together, gritting her teeth, feeling fire bubbling from within her—fire long dormant, that she forever fought to keep in check. "I will go through the both of you, or go down trying."

"Save your energy," Rainbow said, sauntering over to the middle of the ring. "Gilda has no magic, but she can bench press a truck. Meanwhile, I can outrun that truck ten times over, and you don’t have your geode on you. Not that it’d help you much."

Sunset gasped despite herself. Her geode! She’d forgotten all about it! Then again, given her grandstanding, necklace-tossing, exit-stage-left yesterday, it was little wonder. Rainbow was right, though—the power of heart wasn’t exactly going to avail her here. Ugh.

"Meaning, the only thing that’s gonna get you through this?" Rainbow assumed a runner’s stance for just a moment, before rushing headlong into Sunset’s personal space. "Is if you tell me what’s going on!"

A startled Sunset backed up. "What do you mean, ‘what’s going on?’"

"I mean yesterday, that’s what!" Rainbow said, getting in close, and throwing her first punch towards Sunset’s cheek. It was slow, almost uncharacteristically slow for Rainbow Dash, and Sunset easily dodged it. "What was all that dumb talk about you leaving us? Think you’re too good for us now? Is that it?"

"Wait, Sunset said, gasping for breath. "This is about yesterday? You’re mad at me, and trying to knock my block off, because I tried to protect you?"

"Call it whatever you want! I call it ‘cowarding out’. And the Sunset Shimmer I know? Doesn’t coward out!"

Rainbow aimed three more jabs, this time at Sunset’s chest, which Sunset just barely dodged with both gloves—not for lack of reflexes, but for trying, at the same time, to get rid of the stupid voices in her head which loved to come out whenever she tried to fend for herself, to have a real opinion.

She’s right, you know. You are a coward. That’s why you ran in the first place. And you’re no better now.

As usual, dodging the mental turned out to be far less successful than dodging the physical. She heard Rainbow snort, then saw more upward punches, long and straight, which Sunset danced around while she tried to think of a counter—

You know what everyone thinks of you. You were right to leave. To run. Like always. It really is better this way, though, isn’t it?

Without realizing it, Sunset had let Rainbow back her against the ropes. Groaning, she rested her back on them, and her forehead on her glove, in an effort to collect herself.

Get it together, Sunset. Come on, already!

"Heh, not too shabby with the dodges," Rainbow said, glaring at Sunset with narrowed, determined eyes. "But you still only have two choices tonight: dance and run until you drop—or talk to me, and maybe I’ll stop punching."

See? All the proof you need of how much, and how little, they value you, is right in front of—
SHUT UP!

Okay. This wasn’t going to work. To many voices vying for her attention.

It was time to focus.

And there was no way to do so while still being the ‘good girl’ she’d been trying to be for months. As desperately as she didn’t want to, she would have to call on the fire.

The fire of the old days. The fire she’d spent so long being ashamed of, when she learned she was capable of friendship instead.

She looked back at Rainbow, into her eyes, her lips curling into her own challenging stare. "All right, Dash. Since you asked so nicely… you got it. Under one condition."

Rainbow grinned back. "Heh. I’ll consider it. Try your luck." She threw another punch, this one straighter, faster, than the others—and again aimed directly at Sunset’s chest.

In short, it was a punch that, if it connected, would actually hurt.





It was time to focus, and Sunset did just that.

Embracing emotions and urges she’d denied herself for the longest, Sunset looked around again at her surrounding area for the first time…

…and everything clicked.

Memories from not very long ago slowly made their way into her mind. Memories of her having to fend for herself in a ring much like this one, against an old man who somehow moved faster than lightning.

Memories of it not going well. Painfully not well. For weeks.

Muscle memory joined emotional memory—and out of nowhere, she swiped Rainbow’s punch aside, stepped in, and launched into a flurry of practiced jabs which Rainbow, after a surprised yelp, just barely blocked while being pushed back. Sunset finished things off with a punch as intense as the one she’d deflected. A roar accompanied the energy she put into launching it, as she embraced her anger, her rage, her being just so pissed off at a world that never listened, damn it.

When it was over, Rainbow peered out from behind her gloves. "Whoa."

"So, third option. Stop sandbagging, because guess what? This isn’t my first time in a ring. You want me to ‘talk’? You earn it." Sunset’s challenging smirk and glint in her eyes rang true between the two friends-turned-fighters. "Unless those weak punches are really all you’ve got going for you?"

"There it is." Rainbow’s grin slowly widened to the size of the gym. "All right, then! Since you asked so nicely…"

The next punch thrown Sunset’s way contained exponentially more speed and force.