Chapter 4: A Bear-y Big Battle
The next day was fairly average for the girls. They woke up, ate breakfast, and went to school. Apple Bloom managed to ace the pop quiz with ease, so that was something different. Recess was also pretty fun, seeing as the three were now the best at the sports and were the topic of fights with team leaders over who’d get who in games. At least the girls wouldn’t be left out of sports.
“Well, at least we’re at least a little more popular now,” Scootaloo commented, trying to find the good in this newfound boredom.
“That’s true. Just hope that we don’t mess up something like using our super strength and throw a ball all the way out of town,” Sweetie Belle added. The three sighed, trying to get used to not having the adrenaline rush that they experienced yesterday. On the way to school they saw that they were still cleaning up the remains of the giant reptile. One of the heads was left to get rid of, some ponies saying that it would make a neat trophy to commemorate their saviors.
“So, what do you girls wanna do after school? We still haven’t been properly bored yet,” Apple Bloom remembered that they still wanted to do that in order to gain some sort of inspiration.
“I dunno. Maybe we should actually try to have fun or something. Maybe head over to Zecora’s and see if she’d need any help with something,” Scootaloo offered.
“That might be interesting,” Sweetie Belle added. Before Apple Bloom was able to say anything however a large explosion was heard. The girls quickly turned their attention to the direction of the explosion and saw some smoke in the sky.
“Girls, I think something’s going on,” their leader told them. The girls nodded and came up with a lie to get them out of class.
“Uh, teacher? May we be excused? We have to go to the little filly’s room.” Scootaloo asked.
“Alrighty. Just be sure to hurry back. We’re about to go into fractions!” Cheerilee responded.
“Alright!” Apple Bloom said. “Oh, and the answer to the question on the board is three-quarters. Just saying that in case we don’t get back in time,” she said, leaving the teacher shocked at how smart she had gotten.
The girls gathered outside in a hidden spot and took their dresses out of their bags. Each of them through theirs up into the air and flew straight into them. They then decided to strike a pose, seeing as it only seemed appropriate. They thought they’d cheer something before heading out, but didn’t know what to say. Their group needed a cool superhero name. They ended up simply flying to the spot where the smoke had appeared.
The three arrived at the town market to find all the carts either destroyed or turned over, their goods spilled everywhere. They saw one of the carts had also been turned into splinters while another appeared to be ripped in half. They followed the trail of destruction and screams and came across a sight they thought they would never see; a massive pink bear wearing a straw hat carrying a cannon-sized musket in one of its hands.
“A’ toldja before! THIS! IS! MY! PROPERTAY!” the large bear yelled at the terrified shop owners, cornered by the creature. “If ya’ll gonna try an’ sell stuff on my propertay, then I’ll just take it!” The bear laughed as it took its musket and aimed it at the ponies. “Now, hand over ya’ll loot!” The ponies complied and started throwing their bags of bits over to the bear as it grinned.
“Stop right there you…bear…thing,” Apple Bloom ordered. “You ain’t taking nothing from these fair ponies, you hear?” The bear aimed its musket straight at the girls while they laughed.
“Ooh! A musket! Please, I bet that won’t even scratch us a-“ cutting off Scootaloo’s words was the musket firing at the three girls, sending them crashing into the nearby building from the sheer force of the blast.
“Them ponies don’t know a thing, do they?” he cackled.
“Um, Mr. Bear? I’m going to ask you to stop your violent rampage,” Fluttershy asked, stepping out of the frightened crowd of shop owners.
“What did you just tell me ta do?” he asked. “No furry pony ain’t tellin’ me what ta do, got that?”
Fluttershy looked nervous, but then took a deep breath and focused. She then looked like she meant business and attempted to use The Stare against the giant bear. “Now you listen,” she started, “You’ve been very bad, wrecking everypony’s shopping carts and such. I want you to return the money AND fix the carts and then leave, got that?” she breathed heavily after delivering such a powerful speech. The bear didn’t seem to be affected however.
“Hehehe, feisty. I like you,” the creature said before grabbing Fluttershy and putting her under his arm. “Think I’ll make you ma’ mate!”
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!” was all that Fluttershy was able to get out before three red lights came out from the nearby building, hitting the bear at the exact same spot.
“YEOW!” he said, letting Fluttershy go as he grabbed his burnt rear. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all came flying and started to beat down on the bear. They found it tougher than they thought it would be though, as it seemed to have an incredibly thick hide.
“Wow. I’ve never seen a bear this tough before,” Sweetie Belle commented, rubbing her sore front hooves.
“I ain’t no ordinary bear. Name’s Furry Bumpkin, and this here is all ma propertay. Ya’ll are gonna be sorry fer trespassin’,” the newly named bear told them.
“Whatcha talkin’ about, Furry?” Apple Bloom asked their new rival.
“I consider everythin’ that’s near the forest ma propertay, and this here town is mighty close, so I’m callin’ it and everythin’ in it mine, ya hear?” he bellowed out to everypony, causing them to try and find some nearby way of escape. “Howeva’, looks like ya’ll are hesitant, so I’ll be takin’ it by force!” Furry then rushed over to the three girls and let out a volley of punches with his mighty claws. The girls fell when hit with those massive punches, causing them to rethink their strategy.
“Looks like punches aren’t doing much. Any ideas, girls?” Apple Bloom asked her teammates.
“I’ll try out my Doom Dash and see where that goes,” Scootaloo suggested. At that moment she burst up into the air and turned around, trying to giver herself a direct path to Furry. When positioned, she started flapping her wings and dive-bombed onto her target. Furry aimed to get his musket to fire on her as she came down, but in a second she came down on him like a storm, blowing dust up from the impact. Scootaloo came out from the cloud, a victorious smile on her face. “Let’s see him come out of that!”
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWR!” was the noise that came out of the smoke, shaking the ground with its ferocity. The three girls got a sight of Furry as he came out. His fur looked bright red now and his eyes looked as if he could also use Laser Vision right then. He grabbed his musket and then started letting off in every direction, blowing away walls and actually sending some building crashing down from the sheer power of his weapon. Ponies started scrambling away, attempting to avoid the vicious attack that was being let out by the mad bear.
“We gotta stop this now!” Sweetie Belle declared, flying ahead of her teammates, she let out her Sonic Scream, hoping that it’d disrupt his attack. Furry, instead of stopping his barrage, looked straight at Sweetie Belle screaming and focused it all on her. She flew back from the onslaught, her scream stopping as she tried to stay conscious. With a smile on his face, Furry started charging straight at the downed mare, looking as if he intended to end her right there.
“STOP!” Scootaloo yelled at the beast as she started up her Lightning Strike (yeah, she decided that it made more sense to call it that. Actually, she thought she could call the attack ‘Lightning Fury’ and just declare that her target was ‘thunderstruck’). She started rubbing her hooves as hard as she could and noticed something interesting happening; nearby metallic objects started moving towards her. She then noticed that the musket that Furry had been charging with in his front paw was now being pulled toward her, sending him off target just enough so that he missed Sweetie Belle and ended up running straight into the wall of the building, sending it crashing down with Sweetie Belle getting out just in time.
“Josie, what’s going on girl? Why you tryin’ to get away from me?” Furry Bumpkin was met with horror when he saw his precious be pulled from his hands and into the hooves of Scootaloo. “GET. YUR. HOOVES. OFF. MA. PROPERTAY!” He then charged madly at the orange mare while she continued her static attack. Soon enough, and to the surprise of everypony, the static ball actually pulled off the fur of the rampaging bear, causing him to halt his charge. He stood there for a moment, just before yelling, “YEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOWWWW!” and grabbing at all these different parts of his body, unable to figure out how to stop the pain of being instantly bald.
“Here, why don’t you COOL DOWN!” Apple Bloom taunted Furry as she let out her Ice Breath. Slowly it started, but soon the angry beast was freezing up, covered in ice. It got thicker and thicker until the beast couldn’t move anymore. The only part that was left uncovered was his head.
“PHEW!” he declared as the ice helped sooth his pain. “That feels mighty good now. Thanks, ya fightin’ filly girl you,” he said before slumbering off, looking much calmer now. Apple Bloom looked upon her new ice sculpture. She felt awesome that she we able to dispatch the baddie with her awesome ability, more impressed however by the fact that she ended the fight with a cool catchphrase.
The townsfolk suddenly came out of their hiding places, cheering as they saw the end to the whirlwind that was Furry’s fury. They approached the girls and lifted them up in congratulations, bringing them over to the mayor who had boarded up the town hall.
“THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!” she told them, hugging them to the point they assumed the mayor must have had super strength as well. “I don’t know how this town can show its appreciation to you. Is there any way we can repay you strangers?” The girls then remembered that their dresses kept them from being recognized from anypony and acted accordingly.
“We just want to help out, that’s all. Only thing we’d really like is to not really get a bunch of questions about who we are, that’s all,” the leader of the group answered. The mayor looked slightly disappointed, but then remembered that these girls had just saved the town from utter destruction twice now, all in the span of two days.
“That makes sense. We’d probably be asking you three questions constantly otherwise. One thing I would like to know is who you three are, at least your names,” the mayor inquired. The three totally realized that they need to come up with superhero names for ponies to call them and excused themselves for a moment to discuss this.
“Okay, we need to know what we’ll be calling ourselves. Any ideas?” Apple Bloom asked.
“I totally know what I’ll be named. You girls just need to think of something awesome that you think reflects yourself. Watch this,” Scootaloo dashed forward to the mayor and declared, “The name is Danger Dash, and speed’s my thing.” She then flew up and started swirling around, flying near the top of the crowd before landing back down to the town hall. Sweetie Belle smiled, knowing what she’d be calling herself.
“Hi everypony! I’m Strong Song! I may look adorable,” she flapped her eyes at the crowd, causing several ponies to smile from pure cuteness, “but I’ve got a big BOOM!” she announced, shaking the building with simply the sound of her voice. It was Apple Bloom’s turn, and she suddenly came up with her name at the last possible moment, hoping that it’d work.
“Um, hi everypony. My name is Miss Chill, and while my ice is cold,” she then blew up a frost into the air, cooling down everypony, “I’ll put crime completely on hold!” She then blew an ice trail and slid back smoothly to her teammates. Everypony was going wild in the crowd, even Fluttershy. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were there as well, but they didn’t seem to be able to identify the girls either, even when they knew about the dresses.
“That’s incredible!” the mayor declared. “Do you girls have a team name?” Apple Bloom already had an idea of what they would call themselves. She recalled what Furry had called her before, a ‘fighting filly girl’, and knew just what to say.
“We’re called the Fighter Filly Girls, and we’re here to protect Ponyville from crime and the forces of evil!” she declared to a crowd that erupted into applause. And now, officially for the first time as a group ever, the day was saved, thanks to the Fighter Filly Girls!