Living The Dream

by Kickass222urmom

Viper Claw!

“A little longer than expected, but it eventually got there!” I said as we stepped through the doors to our new Dojo, finally completed!

“A whole extra month,” Mallogory grumbled as she walked in holding a large box of supplies. “I’m going to go check out the back, see if they did exactly what I wanted with the furniture.”

I gave a nod as I struggled to drag in my box of stuff, my large belly definitely not helping.

“Need help?” Mallogory called as she watched me struggle.

“No!” I hissed over my shoulder, “I got this, do your own thing!”

She just laughed and walked into the back, leaving me to my own devices.

“Stupid fucking box!” I growled as I began kicking it further into the room. Looking back to the door, I saw the last box just sitting out there, mocking me.

With just as much trouble as the first one, I dragged it in and kicked it to the middle of the room.

Huffing and puffing, I sat down, pulling out a bottle of water and an energy bar Mallogory made for me chalked full of iron. Apparently since the baby will be part pony, part Kejtdra, it’ll more than likely have a metal skeleton, so I gotta eat all this extra iron. Bleh.

Eating the energy bar, making a face at the terrible taste of it, I chugged the water to wash it all down. I miss tasty food…

“Seriously, fuck being pregnant,” I muttered, still catching my breath.

As I sat there, I looked around the room, pleased that the construction workers had listened to my request and set up all the mirrors and training mats, leaving just enough room around the edges to walk without touching a mat.

“Perfect,” I say, deciding it was time to get off my flank and actually start putting up the decor we’d brought. 

I picked up the stencil we'd commissioned with our Dojo’s logo and hobbled over to a blank wall set aside for just this moment. I carefully placed it on the wall, my wings struggling a bit as I fluttered around the large circle. Once it was set, I flew back to my stuff and grabbed a special can of spray paint.

After applying the paint, I pulled the stencil back, revealing the Logo and the name of our Dojo. It was a hissing snake's head with two claws on either side of it, like it was somehow wielding them as weapons. The words ‘Viper Claw!’ was above it.

I chuckled at the image, shaking my head. We’d come up with the name because it sounded bad ass, and forgot, somehow, that snakes do not in fact have claws. But we’d already commissioned the stencil so no going back!

Besides, it kinda grows on you the more you look at it.

“Viper Claw, very interesting name for a Dojo,” a suave voice said from behind me.

Turning around I was met with a long legged stallion wearing a suit. He flashed me a smile as two other ponies stood at the door, one very tired looking mare and a gruff looking stallion.

“Sorry, we’re not actually open yet,” I say, looking him up and down. Then I frowned, realizing this could only be one pony.

“Vicar Belletor, at your service,” he said with a toothy grin. “My beautiful mansion just finished construction last week, and I’ve finally come to town. You should feel honored, this was my first stop upon arriving in town.”

“Good for you,” I say, taking him all in.

He had a black mane and tail, with gray fur. He wore a large pair of sunglasses with a little hat on his head. His mane was done up in a bun to top it all off. The clothes hide the cutie mark.

“I just wanted to come and see it for myself,” he suddenly said, walking further into the Dojo and looking at the box of décor. 

“See what for yourself? The Dojo?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“The competition,” he replied, only confusing me further. At my expression, he laughed, “I’m opening my own Dojo, right here in this town.”

“Why?” I asked, giving him a weird look.

He just chuckled as he used a hoof to open the box, peering inside it, “because I want to, and it’ll be fun. No other reasons are needed, right?” Then he gave me an almost sinister smile, “plus, running your business into the ground will be a great sport.”

“Wow, I knew I’d hate you when we finally met, but you blew my expectations right out of the water,” I said in an unimpressed voice, waving for the door. “You can leave.”

All he does is chuckle a bit as he walks further into the room. “When my man told me you were pregnant, I had to get on that as well. Psalm, show your belly.”

The tired looking mare stood up and stood sideways, revealing a small bump. She appeared to be at least three months pregnant.

“What the fuck?” I asked aloud, turning to him with a cocked eyebrow. “What is your problem? We’ve never met and you’re acting like we’re in a competition or something.”

He just smiled at me for a long moment, not speaking. “Call it an interest to beat the person who defeated the undefeatable.” 

“Then go fuck with a guy named Greg, he’s the one who actually stopped the Watcher,” I snapped, losing my temper with him.

A light chuckle escaped his lips. “He’s not who I’m interested in. It’s you, Mrs. Scamp, I am interested in. Just you.” His eyes trailed to my belly, “and your future kid. My Psalm over there will birth me a kid of my own, who will be brought up just to be the opposite of your kid.”

“What. The. Fuck. Is your problem?!” I yelled, stomping towards him.

He just stood there waiting for me to get closer as I reached out to grab him. But as my hoof neared him, he suddenly moved in a way I hadn’t expected and grabbed my hoof, slamming me backwards onto my back and pinning me. 

“Sloppy,” he chuckled, applying pressure to my leg. “You’re going to be a teacher?”

“Get the fuck off of her,” Mallogory growled as she stepped into the room, looking ready to kill.

With a wink, he released my hoof and stood up, leaving me on the ground as I struggled to get up again. 

“We’ll all be seeing a lot of each other in the coming years,” he said over his shoulder as he and his entourage walked out the doors, leaving us both confused and angry.

“I’m killing him,” Mallogory said as she stomped for the door, but I stopped her.

“Leave it,” I coughed, rolling over and pushing myself up, a bit shaky. “He wants a fight, but we’re not giving it to him. Not right now at least.”

She growled, but quickly came to my side, helping me up. “What did he say exactly?”

I let out another cough, now a bit worried as I had hit the ground pretty hard when he slammed me.

“Scamp? Are you alright? Is the baby okay?!” she asked in a panic.

“Yeah, I think it’s just me who got hurt,” I reassured her, staring at the door they’d walked out of. “He wants to be our rival, I think.”

“Why?”

“... I guess just because,” I sigh, taking a few steps and groaning. That will definitely leave a bruise on my back, and leave me sore for the next few days.

“Who throws a pregnant mare to the ground?!” she growled as she just picked me up and held me as I huffed, not having it in me to fight her this time.

“A real prick, that’s who,” I say as I rub my face. “He’s going to be a problem going forward, that’s for sure.”

“How’d he have a Dojo built in a fucking week?!” Mallogory yelled as we stood across the street from the new Dojo that had just been built. “And it's bigger than ours!”

“He brought in a team from Manehatten,” Drax said from behind us, having been the one who told us about it. “They had this up and running months faster than we could have.”

“So he could of done this and had his stupid mansion finished months ago?!” Mallogory growled, clearly unhappy.

I just shook my head, “he did it that way on purpose, to get in the way of our Dojo being built.”

“This fucking guy,” she hissed, stomping towards the doors leading into the building.

Following her, I looked up at the name on the building; ‘Wolverine Kamae’.

… Our name is cooler.

We burst through the doors, stepping into the large room filled with training mats and many different kinds of training equipment.

“Fuck, this guy went all out,” I muttered, frowning.

“I was wondering how long it’d take you two to stop by,” Vicar said as he walked down some stairs leading to what could be an office.

Mallogory started to say something, but I placed a hoof on her side. Stepping forward, I stared across the mat at him. “I just want to know one thing, and I want a straight answer; what is your problem with us?”

He chuckled, seeming to square up with me. “I told you, you defeated the undefeatable. So I want to do the same to you.”

“And I told you,” I said with a frown. “Greg is the one who beat the Watcher, not me, not anyone else.”

“I think you’re on the wrong train of thought,” he said with a smirk, just confusing me all over again. “Besides, we’re going to get to see who the better Dojo is as time goes on.”

“Bro!” I snapped at him, standing on my hindlegs and pointing a claw right at him, “we’re opening a Dojo for fun! To teach others to defend themselves. NOT to get into a stupid competition with a wannabe rival!”

Again, he just chuckled at me, “Mrs. Scamp, that line of thinking will just get your future students hurt. Here at Wolverine Kamae, we will teach our pupils to excel at combat. To attack no matter what the opponent.” A smirk flashes on his face, his eyes hidden behind his stupid sunglasses, “and if you just teach defense, your students will suffer. Till they join us at least.”

“You’re living in a fantasy world,” I say, spitting onto the mat next to me and turning to leave.

“Hey!” He yells, “do not spit on the mat!”

“Do something about it,” I say over my shoulder.

With a growl, he raised his hoof and slapped it against the ground. All around us stepped out ponies, all dressed in black uniforms. There were at least ten of them. 

I frowned and turned back to him, “really? A show of force to threaten us?”

“I’m going to let you two walk out of here, unhurt,” he said in a low voice. “Mainly because beating you here would not be fun or satisfying. So, leave while you can.”

A cocky look flashes on my face, but Mallogory’s hand on my shoulder pulls me back to reality. “We’ll take that offer. Just stay out of my Dojo.”

He returned my cocky smile, “we’ll see.”

We backed out of the building, keeping our eyes on the ten ponies that stood around us.

“By the way,” he called after us. “These are the teachers for this new Dojo, good luck competing with just a single teacher.”

“We’ll manage,” I say back as we step out of the doors, letting them close between us.

“You’re a bit hot headed sometimes,” Mallogory says with a sigh. “Did you have to spit on his mats?”

I just shrug as we walk away from the building. “I did, for me.”

She just chuckled as she patted my back. 

Behind us, I could feel their eyes on our backs, but I did not turn around to look at them. I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction.

“So, we’re just going to ignore him?” Mallogory asked in shock as I finished looking through the list of new students who’d signed up. I was pleased to see all of our friends' kids' names on the list. Even the two royal shits. That’s not fair, the little filly, Nova, is nothing like her brother, from what I can tell at least.

“Yep, what’s he gonna do? Poach our students?” I said, chuckling to myself as I stepped out of the office. “No, he can try. But he’ll just have to make due with all the leftover kids in this town who join him.”

She watched as I took a fighting stance, “and you’re sure you can start teaching? Right now? When we’re barely a month away from giving birth?”

“Of course, watch!” I say as I try to perform a jump kick that leads into a leg sweep, but all I managed to do was jump into the air and land on my flank.

“Perfect form, love,” she teased, giving me a little clap.

“Shut up, it's just hard to move with this lump on me,” I mumbled as I stood up, my pride hurt more than anything else. “Look, I can get them all started on the basics, normal workouts. All the good stuff will come after I’ve given birth and I am back to one hundred percent.”

“If you say so,” she remarks, walking for the main doors. 

“I do say so!” I yell after her, rubbing my sore flank.

I stood in the office, looking out the window at all the colts and fillies walking around the Dojo, just mingling and waiting for something to happen.

“Welp, it’s actually happening,” I say as I watch all of them move about, holding my phone in my paw.

“You got this,” Greg said over the phone. “If you’re nervous, just go out there and lay some Drill Sergeant Scamp on their ass’s! You know what I mean, the crazy mare that tried to whip all of us into shape back in the training dimension.”

I chuckled at the memory, “thanks Greg. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

“I want all the gory details!” he laughed as he hung up.

Putting the phone aside, I rolled my shoulders and adjusted my headband. The Gi I was wearing was a simple white one with our Logo on its back and a smaller one on the front. I had to cut the sleeves myself, as they don’t actually sell them that way for some reason.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped out and looked out at all the new potential students. 

“Line up,” I yelled, but none of them seemed to notice, except for Spark, who immediately took up a spot in front of me.

A frown fell onto my face as I inhaled deeply. “SILENCE!” This caught all of their attention as they turned to look at me.

“Alright, I’m going to be fair here. None of you have any discipline or training, so I’ll forgive what just happened here. But when I come out of this office, I expect all of you to be lined up and ready to start the day.”

A young colt raised his hoof. I looked at him, recognizing him as Duke Venture, Aaron’s and Vinyl’s son. “Speak, Duke Venture.” Fuck! He has such a cool name.

“Uh… how do we line up?” he asked, looking unsure of himself.

“Kid, you got a badass name. You need to get that attitude up to match it!” I bark back, causing him to flinch. “Now, to line up, you need to make rows. See the squares on the ground?”

They all looked down at the ground, seeing that the mat was made up of many squares. 

“Yes, those. See the one over there? The one with a white star on it? Start there, put one square between each of you. When you get to the end of a mat, make a new row three squares back from the current row. Understood?”

No one moved.

“GO! MOVE!” I bark, causing all of them to run around frantically as they try to make the requested lines. It took them longer than I’d have liked, but they finally got into six mostly neat rows.

“There you go,” I say as I start to walk along the front row, looking them over. “This is Viper Claw, we value a high defense over all else. Because with a great defense, you have a great offense. A good defense lets you observe the situation, and watch for the perfect moment to react to your opponent. Be it in a fight, or in a normal situation.”

I stopped in front of one of the colts, raising an eyebrow at him. He was wearing a hat that said ‘Slut Life’. “Alright guys, first rule: No offensive clothing in my Dojo.” I snatched it from his head and tossed it to the side. “Where’d you even buy a hat like that?”

“The new Hot Topic that Duke’s parents opened,” the little colt said, looking a bit scared.

“The fuck is a Hot Topic?” I asked aloud, looking at Duke Venture. 

He blinked, looking a bit intimidated as I stared at him. “Uh… a pop culture clothing store?”

“Sure, sounds right,” I say, resuming my walk of the rows. “Rule number two: There will be no quitting in this Dojo! Quitting is for failures! Are we failures?!”

Not a single one of them said a word.

Growling a bit, I yelled, “I said! Are we failures! Answer me!”

“N-No!” they all half yelled, all seeming a bit unsure of themselves.

“Alright,” I said, rubbing my face as I walked back to the front of the room. “We have a LOT of work. None of you are confident or sure of yourselves. We need to change that. Any questions before we start?”

A filly in the back held up a hoof. I did not know her name, so I looked her over, seeing she had a nose ring. “Nose Ring, speak.”

“Uh… my name is Lilly… but the Wolverine Kamae put out a poster saying they’re offering weapons training. Are you offering that?”

I frowned at this and pointed to the Logo. “You see those badass claws?” At all of them nodding their heads, I smirked at them, “That’s your goal! One day, when I’m sure you’re ready, I’ll teach you all how to wield them.”

“But not today?” an older colt asked from the back. 

“No speaking out of term!” I yell. “This Dojo will teach you discipline and how to defend yourself! All of you lack the skills and attitude, but I’m going to fix that! It’s going to take years, but one day all of you will be able to naturally use what I’ve taught you to handle any problem that comes your way!”

At their expectant stares, I sigh. “But no, we will not be touching weapons for a while.”

A fourth of the class stepped back and quickly left. 

“Tsk,” I spat onto the ground and stomped a hoof. “Alright then, let's weed ‘em out! If you’re not here to actually learn, then leave now!”

One filly made a run for it.

“If you think I’m scary and intimidating, then you’ve seen nothing yet! If that bothers you, now's your chance!”

About eight more kids ran for the door.

I was now left with half the number of students as I started with.

“Well, that sure weeded out the weak ones,” I said as I stepped forward. “Alright, from here on out, I will expect you all to act like students of Viper Claw! And I will not go easy on any of you!”

Five more kids ran out the door.

“Stop running away!” I roared, causing another to run. “Okay. That’s enough, let’s learn some practice drills. Reform the lines.”

They all looked unsure, but as I puffed up my chest to yell more, they all quickly moved forward, making new rows.

“There we go,” I say as I take up a stance before them. “Alright, I’m going to teach you some simple warm up drills. Stand on your hindlegs so we can begin!”

They all tried to comply, but simply fell all over the place.

I slammed a hoof into my face. This was going to be more work than I initially thought.