Starfall leaned against the ropes of the ring.
She had done the action hundreds of times before, nearly all of them for different reasons. Usually it was out of fatigue, a workout or sparring match taking its proper toll on her. She loved the feeling. Other times, she did it to think, planning for her training regimen or upcoming match. It was always easier to know how far she’d go if she knew what she was going to do. But the rest of time, as she did now, it was to judge the pony across from her.
The mare was about her height and build, give or take a few meaningless ounces. They were close enough to be in the same weight bracket, and that was what mattered. A unicorn, like herself, but with a bright yellow coat and flaming red hair. The mare emphasized that, tying her mane up into a short ponytail, making it look like a fire almost. She had her hands on the ropes as well, leaning back and forth, likely to stretch. Her eyes, however, a sharp emerald in color, were focused on Starfall. A low scowl was set just beneath them. Star herself only smirked back at the gaze.
She rolled her hooves on the training ring floor, feeling the fibers of her coat squirm beneath her training tape. She pushed out her chest, stretching the muscles along her back as she did so. The already tight tank top she wore matted her coat as well. Starfall didn’t mind. She let go of one of the ropes, letting her hands rise and trace a single band of tape across her forehead. It was dry for now, keeping her lavender locks out of her equally purple gaze. That wouldn’t last long.
“Both fighters set,” the voice of the judge spoke with power from another corner of the ring. He was holding up both his hands, gaze shifting between the two mares. “Fire Burst,” he spoke again, lowering the arm closest to the yellow mare. Starfall watched with no lack in satisfaction as Fire Burst literally growled at her. She nodded though, leaning off the ring and raising her arms to her side.
“Starfall,” her name was called out. She shut her eyes when it was, taking a slow deep breath of air. She savored it, letting it flow through her limbs. When she released it, she pushed herself off of the ropes, raising her arms to guard her head. Her hooves lightly bounced on the floor of the ring, all the warm-up she could do without wasting energy. When she was ready, she nodded as well.
“Both fighters, make to the ring center,” the familiar call came.
Star felt her grin widen. She knew what was coming soon. Keeping her guard up, she approached the center of the ring, feeling the floor beneath her bounce against her hooves. She could hear the springs beneath the stage pushing against her. But more than that, she saw Fire Burst only a few lengths away from her now.
“Touch gloves.” Only two commands left after that.
Starfall extended her hand as asked, her lavender padded glove reaching towards Fire with a clenched fist. It was the best way to show off her cutie mark embroidered on the end of it; a large white star sitting between five twinkling lavender ones. Just like a star falling.
Fire Burst made the same action with her opposite hand, showing off her red fighting gloves complete with her own cutie mark; a circle of yellow and red surrounded by flames. Her name fit the mark well. The scowl still set upon the face of the mare just made it even better.
“Ready for your beating?” Fire Burst mockingly asked. To Star, it was one of the worst taunts she had ever heard, and half a decade spent training in Magical Martial Arts meant she heard some impressively bad taunts. Fortunately, it gave her just as much training for responding to them.
“I prefer spankings, too bad for you I’m the one handin’ them out.” Starfall’s grin widened as she saw Fire’s horn spark with rage. This was going to be fun.
“Fighters, return to your corners.” One command left now.
Star back backpedaled, her hooves lightly bouncing as she did so. Fire mimicked the movement, arms still raised up her sides and around her head. This next part was where timing was important.
She had a second, likely less than that to respond to whatever Fire tried to pull off. Really, this was an easy match up. Fire had potential, Star couldn’t deny that, but potential didn’t mean anything if you didn’t use it right. Star had experience, with years of practice and training.
Out of the corner of her eye, Star saw the judge raise his arms again, getting ready for the countdown. She had the timing of it down to an art, practiced as carefully as her breathing, repetition in its finest form. Repeating the same workout, the same form, the same spell over and over again, stopping only when she had it perfected.
Just like Star’s repeating exercise, her mind went through a now oh-so familiar pattern in preparation for the fight. It had started the moment she had entered the ring, wearing her signature uniform and ready to fight. She could feel the muscles in her body pumping, ready to let loose. She could feel the magic flowing through her, ready to jump through her horn and show just what it meant to be an MMA fight.
But she also saw, for not the first time and definitely not the last, all the events that brought her here.
“Three!”
Ever since Star first saw Celestia, the White Sister, commit a total knockout on Madame Cocoon, Top-Fighter of the Changeling Circle, she knew she wanted to be a Magical Martial Artist. Her official training started over five years ago, but her actual training began when she was just a little filly. She practiced conjuring bow-staffs and shields until her horn was steaming from the effort. She ran miles around Canterlot and climbed enough stairs each day to make up to Cloudsdale, and back. She watched every match she could, sneaking out when she had to.
She could see her parents, the same parents who told her she would grow out of her little phase, buying Star her first set of sparring gloves. They were cheap, padded with wool, and absolutely plain. No color or depth to them, something that would mean more as a souvenir than an actual tool in the ring. Star loved them more than even the gloves she wore now.
“Two!”
Star remembered her first sparring match, a practice round for volunteers; really a way to get the crowd ready for a main event. She was up against another mare whose name she couldn’t remember. She could only recall how large her ego was, cutie mark embezzled on everything from her gloves to her hairband. She gloated at Star, talking about how no mare or stallion could possibly best her magical gifts in the ring.
She recalled how she had committed a Total Knock Out on the mare. It was a pleasant memory.
The memory only got better with the roar of the crowd, the mares and stallions - already ready for a fight - getting a free show. They were chanting her name, calling it out for an encore performance, something she would have been only too happy to do. It was the first time Star was able raise her gloved hands into the air, cheering for the crowd that cheered for her. It felt amazing.
“One!”
Only shortly after that was Starfall approached by the one mare she never thought she would be. Celestia, the White Sister. It was one of the greatest moments of her life, and still was as far as she was concerned, for now. The Champion MMA fighter had spoken to her, giving her high compliments, telling her that with enough practice, she, Starfall, could be one of the greatest fighters in the league.
Star told her straight faced that nothing could stop her from being that. She was going to be the strongest mare in all of Equestria, bar none. Celestia laughed with her, not at her. It was from that point on that her true training started.
And now, she was about to beat another obstacle to the ground.
“Begin!”
With a flash of lavender light, Star materialized a bo staff in her right hand. Swinging her arm, she directed the length of the ethereal item, flicking her head to pull back on the magic. She was already two steps towards Fire Burst, dominant arm extended with bo staff in hand. But she wasn’t done.
Her horn lit itself again, left hand pulling in direction for a small shield. It bent itself around her forearm, making it easier to grip and sturdy enough to take any blow Star knew Fire would send at her. When she knew her lavender defense was finished, she raised her arm higher, flicking off the trail of magic and holding the defense above her head. Her training served her well.
Not a moment later did she see Fire slam her hand upon the shield, a fiery red aura bent around her appendage. It was a smart move to make when you were trying to be fast, hardly any time needed to enhance the durability of gloves. However, Star was safe thanks to her shield. More than that, she was ready for a counterattack, bo staff extended and already swinging for the vulnerable mare. The look of panic that quickly washed over Fire’s face said it all.
This was going to be an easy fight.
“Winner by count, Starfall!” She was right, once again.
Star stood tall and proud above Fire Burst, the latter mare’s yellow coat coated with sweat. She was breathing heavily on the ground, no doubt silently nursing her wounds and ego. Hair splayed about her and eyes staring blankly upwards, the judge didn’t even need the count to see the yellow mare was done.
Star flicked her hands at the decleration of her victory, dissipating the bow-staff and shield she had conjured. There wasn’t a trace of sweat on her coat. This wasn’t even worth a workout for her. She was never wrong when it came to her magic. She was going to be the greatest MMA fighter there was, and no wannabe amateur was going to do anything but remind her how close she was. She smirked down at her defeated foe, Fire panting on the ground of the ring.
“Let me know when you want that spanking.” Star taunted, doing nothing to hide her cheeky grin. “I can tell you like being on bottom.”
Fire snarled up at her, taking a deep breath of air as if to get up and start the fight again. The action only made the yellow mare groan in pain. Nothing was broken, Star made sure of that, but no way was any middle-weight mare gonna take a few dozen blows from her bo staff without bruises lasting for weeks. Star was smart enough to avoid that. The key? Not to get hit.
Starfall gave one last smirk to her defeated opponent before turning back to her corner. She stretched her arms as she walked, laying one over chest and pulling with the other. She repeated the action on both limbs before letting them flop back to her side. By the time she was done, she was at her corner. She began to slip off her gloves, pulling and dropping them in her bucket, pulling off her headband when she was done.
She felt her hair fall down at the release, her lavender locks, hitting her muscled shoulders. She shook her head, untangling what she could before running her fingers through them. A few stubborn ends were pulled, but nothing that was any worse than any a well-placed chest blow. She shook her head for good measure, feeling the hot air of the ring chill at the small gust her mane made.
Starfall donned a proud smirk as she was finished, looking over the ring to see the approving face of her fellow trainees and mentor. Her grin only lengthened at the adoring gaze of a few young members. She couldn’t blame them. It was hard to look away from something awesome, after all.
A few other members were making their way onto the ring, helping Fire up from the ground. She heard it through the annoyed grunts the yellow mare made. She was strong, Star could admit that much, but she was nowhere near her level. But that was because she was only a title away from being at the pro level. One good match, one officially sanctioned rookie tourney, and Star knew she would be making waves across the MMA circuit.
She lifted the highest rope of the ring, lifting her hoof over the second band, preparing to step out of the ring, ready to mark up another flawless victory on her part. Any celebration was cut short as her hoof caught on the rope.
Star performed a fantastic face plant right into the side of the ring.
Her orientation was heavily skewed, and it only got worse when her foot loosened itself from the rope, letting her fall to the floor. The sound of her back slamming into the ground was almost as impressive as the impact of her head.
The first thing the lavender fighter was aware of, after the grueling pain that suddenly assaulted her head, was the laughter of voices around the ring. She kept her eyes shut, moaning from both pain and embarrassment. The last thing she wanted to do know was see a bunch of wannabe fighters laughing at her bad luck.
Star lifted her head and let it fall back to the floor, almost thankful for the way the dull ringing muted out the sound of the chuckling around her. Deafness was far preferred than mockery. Her hands rose and fell on her face, pulling at her coat hairs as she dragged them downwards. It really was the only way she could deepen her scowl.
“Are you alright?” She heard a familiar voice ask above her. Star risked a glance, not disappointed in what she saw.
Her coach and idol, number one MMA fighter, Celestia, The White Sister, stood tall above her. Her majestic mane, proof of her magical strength, waved in a non-existent wind. She was wearing her usual gym attire, coat-tight fabric that hugged only the essentials, letting as much of her coat breath in the air as was possible. Her emblem, a rising sun, was right across her upper chest. If nothing else, Star reasoned, her notice of all the small details showed that she was still in her right mind. Quite unfortunate, really; her wrong mind could probably deal with the mocking laughter around her better.
“Yeah,” she begrudgingly spoke up, though making no effort to move. “Peachy, just embarrassed myself in front of a bunch of scabs and wannabes. Could only be better if I fell into a buffet of food.”
“That does sound like fun,” Celestia jokingly spoke above her, earning only a groan from Starfall on the floor. “But I’d rather know if you're physically okay. That didn’t look like a soft landing.”
“Don’t worry,” Star spoke up, voice high with faux-seriousness. “My pride broke the fall.” Celestia chuckled down towards her, for a reason far different than the now fading laughter of the trainees around them.
Her mentor extended a hand down to her. Star took it, leaning up as she did so. It didn’t take much effort on Celestia’s part to pull her off the ground. Few things did require effort on her part. The last time Starfall ever saw The White Sister ever break a sweat was against her literal sister, Luna. Even then, victory was as assured as the sun rising in the sky. Star shook her head when her hooves were back on the floor, disorientation present but swiftly abated. Celestia, however, was quick to look her over, towing above her with the massive difference in their height. She let her coach look her over, far more than used to it after the grueling training sessions she endured.
“Everything looks good,” Celestia spoke as she stared deep into Starfall’s eyes. The younger of the two MMA fighters knew it was to check for damage, not to steal a kiss. “But I’m going to need you to check in with a doctor still, just in case.” That surprised Star more than the fall.
“Oh c’mon, what?” Star let out as she backed away. Her arms extended outwards, as if caught in disbelief by the words. “I’m completely fine! No head trauma or nothing! I didn’t even get hit during that spar!” She motioned her arms to the ring, seeing Fire limping out with the aid of two other trainees. If she weren’t currently focused on talking to Celestia, she would have said something about the cheeky grin the yellow mare had. She certainly didn’t deserve to wear it.
“Hey,” the yellow mare spoke up, grin still intact despite being held up by two young rookies. “You won the match through luck, but I’m glad you could show me how a Star Falls.” Star felt a hand on her shoulder before could take a single step forward.
“You’ve already beaten her and you might have a possible injury. Those are two very good reasons to not get baited by a sore loser.” She grit her teeth in exasperation, or maybe anger.
“Be that as it may, I’m not going to risk making an internal injury worse.” Celestia literally waved off Star’s complaints. “Don’t misunderstand, you did great in the match, but if you hit your head too hard and I missed something, a hard workout tomorrow is only going to make it worse.”
“But what could you have missed?” Star fought on. She ignored any feeling that it might have been a fruitless battle. “You checked out my eyes, no troubles there. I can recite my entire training regimen, backwards! No trouble with me walking either.”
“This isn’t a discussion, Starfall.” The White Sister crossed her arms now, looking every bit the term of intimidating. Her alabaster coat practically glowed… her long horn was literally glowing, golden light complete. “I need you to see a doctor to make sure there is no injury. Trust me, it’s far better to waste a trip to a clinic than to ignore a wound and let it worsen.”
Star opened her mouth, ready to prove her point once more, but was silenced by the mare in front of her. The very large, very muscular, well-trained, intimidating mare. Arms crossed and with a dark shadow, she looked every bit the part of a champion fighter. It was awesomely terrifying.
“What would happen if you did have a possible crack in your skull? Do you really think it’s worth risking all of your progress these last few years, just because you didn’t want to double check a possible injury?” Starfall bit her lip, stopping any complaints or arguments she may have had.
“Fine,” she spoke with restraint. A few more colorful words were trying to work their way out, but that was why her teeth were holding her lips back. She could still feel the sores from last time she spoke in such a way to Celestia. She wasn’t an MMA champion for her looks, but she certainly had those, too.
“Good,” Celestia spoke with a nod and grin, ethereal mane billowing with it. She stuck her thumb over her shoulder, motioning towards the exit of the gym. “You know where the clinic is, right?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Star waved off. “First thing you taught me to remember after getting me to swear dedication to my training.”
“And I haven’t regretted teaching you either.” Starfall saw the gleam of pride that crossed her coach’s pink eyes. It made her grin as well. There was something to be said about having a champion being proud of you. It felt good, great even. But the real next step was being the champion. “But go on. The sooner you get checked out the faster you can get back to your training. Tomorrow that is, you’re done for the day.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Star begrudgingly let out, not happy about the turn of events following her victorious match. A long sigh escaped her lips as she pulled her gloves from the ring, taking extra care to shoot an evil eye at a few snickering rookies still looking her way. They were quick to go back to their free weights or projection training. That got her to chuckle. She may have taken a tumble, but it didn’t make her any less of a force of nature to the rookies.
She reached down outside the ring, grabbing her lavender bag embroiled with her name and cutie mark. She ran her hand over the stitching, remembering it as the first gift Celestia had gotten her when her training started. A contract, she called it. If she promised to make it to the MMA, the bag was hers. To Star, it was basically a gift, because the condition was a guarantee. Her gloves and headband were slipped inside the casing, jacket and loose pants pulled out. She slipped the latter two on, plenty of air between the fabric and her coat. She zipped the bag back up when she was done.
With a small huff of effort, she threw the straps over her shoulder, giving one last look at the ring. She grinned at it, knowing she had thrown many more mares and stallions onto the floor than any falls she may have given it. Fall may be in her name, but she was more often than not the cause of someone else’s.
Sighing at her earlier departure, but knowing better than pushing Celestia any further, Starfall exited the gym stage left. The sun was dipped low in the sky, moon already beginning to rise. The night air was cool, wind just beginning to chill. Thankfully, her jacket and loose pants kept the worst of it away. She snorted, more concerned with getting a doctor’s slip ASAP so she didn’t miss anymore practice.
Taking the ever practiced street, she marched off for the clinic.
“No doctors.” Star repeated herself again.
“No Physicians, sweetheart, there is a difference.” A nurse across from her spoke. Her cerulean eyes were drawn in annoyance, one of them hidden by the impressively long pink locks. Her head was resting on her hand, held up only by the elbow on the desk. The wings coming out of the back of her uniform twitched every so often.
“But you just said no one can help me.” Her statement only got the nurse to sigh in annoyance.
“That’s correct.” Now it was Star’s turn to let out an air of grievance. She flexed a fist beneath the counter, doing her best to hide her distaste. She wasn’t sure she was doing a good job.
“Which means there are no doctors.”
“Physicians,” the yellow pegasus replied again out of annoyance. Starfall felt a similar feeling, but she usually expressed her annoyance more directly. Who did this mare think she was? “You are looking for a physician because a physician will be able to get you a check-up. A physician is what we are currently out of.”
Star let her head hit the counter of the nurse’s station, doing her utmost to not light her horn and blast the annoying mare clear across the room. The temptation was very hard to resist.
“Look,” Star began. “You’re a clinic, a place that helps ponies that are injured or need a quick check-up. Am I wrong here?”
“Not so far, but I’m sure you be will soon.” Never mind temptation. Starfall simply knew her wrath would fall on this canary coated pegasus before day’s end. That or hell itself would smite her.
“Okay, but, if you have no physician, then doesn’t that mean you should be closed down by now?” The pegasus, for all that was unjust in the world, only snarled at Starfall with disgust. Screw destiny. Not even The White Sister would stop Star from putting this mare into the ground, six feet under preferred.
“Excuse me, but we do have doctors,” she spoke with a righteous huff. Star wasn’t sure in what plane of existence she deserved to make that sound. “The clinic is here strictly for the benefit of the public. Our main reason for being here is research. Having a clinic just gives us a small reduction on our taxes.” Again, the righteous huff, why?
“Alright, I know this may be hard for your, so I’m gonna talk nice and slow.” Star put her hands on the counter as flat as she could. The urge to ball them was great. It only got greater at the vicious snarl the yellow pegasus was making. She was lucky Starfall was trying to be in control, for once. “I’m a fighter for Celestia, the White Sister, at the gym down the street. I got a small injury during a sparring session, and she’s not gonna let me get back to training until I get a check-up from one of your docs.”
“What you are looking for is a phys- ” Star didn’t let her finish.
“Or,” she spoke loudly as she lit her horn, doing nothing to dim the sharp lavender light that emanated from it. It did a marvelous job of shutting the nurse right up. If it wasn’t her horn’s light doing the job, it was the effect of her mane billowing almost menacingly at her shoulders. That did a lot for stuck-up rookies at the gym.
“I’m gonna show you exactly why the greatest fighter in Magical Martial Arts history is personally training me to get in the ring. That means every spell, hold, and blow I can possibly remember. Trust me, I got a good memory with this kind of stuff.” Starfall did her utmost to do little more than grin when the nurse gulped on a large ball in her throat. Better that then something else the unicorn felt like shoving down her throat.
“I’ll… I-I’ll see if I can get one of the doctors to help you.” Her voice was far softer now, much better in Star’s personal opinion. She would admit bias, however. The nurse, pulled out a sheet of paper on the other side of the desk, looking over carefully. She pushed back the long pink locks to get a better view of it. “We have clinical research being done in rooms 1-4, b-but if you can wait in room 5, I’ll see if I can… c-can get a doctor in for you.”
“Perfect,” Star spoke pleasingly.
She leaned back from the counter, the light of her horn flitting off and dying. Her hands fell to her hips, positioning themselves there as she cocked one of her legs out, leaning on her other hoof. She made no effort to hide her pride as she gazed at the nurse across the counter.
“See? That wasn’t too hard, right?” She said nothing as she grabbed some papers are went around the counter, through a door, and out of Star’s sight. The unicorn huffed at the disappeared figure, calling any day where she could put some humility in someone a good day.
She turned around to see the frightened expression of a pair of mares.
They were huddled together, hands clinging to the backs of one another as their legs and hooves were pulled to their chests. Both had great big eyes, focused on Star with wide and panicked expressions. One was pink as candy, a poofy mane that seemed to wobble with her every shiver. The other was gray as stone, her long mane hanging straight as curtains. Neither looked thrilled to have Star looking at them.
“Uh…” Star spoke dumbly. She knew she screwed up.
Scratch that. Burn that. Smelt it and punt it to the moon. She had colossally screwed up in a way that Celestia would be impressed by before she would be angry. Oh, but the anger would come, no doubt about that.
That made this bad. Nothing in all of Equestria was more terrifying than an MMA pro with an axe to grind, especially for her trainees. That made this bad in ways the guards would be horrified to hear about. She had to fix this… somehow.
“You two… um…” She began weakly, looking at the cowering ponies unevenly. She wasn’t good with this kind of stuff. “All that before… I was just… mad, ya know?” She held up her hand, doing her utmost to get her message across. Both mares only continued to stare at her, gripping one another.
“Look just…” Star avoided eye contact with them for a moment. She had to think. She hated to do that, at least outside the ring. Everything made sense when all you had to focus on was someone trying to hit you. Right now was kind of the opposite.
“Just… pretend you didn’t see any of that, sound good?” She shrugged her arms at the ponies, hoping that would be good enough. The nodded furiously at her question, still never speaking a word.
Starfall breathed a sigh of relief. Problem solved.
“Cool, thanks,” she waved off, heading through the clinic door. She didn’t need to look back; both mares had promised not to say anything.
More important, the nurse said that she was supposed to wait in Room Five. Hopefully a doctor wasn’t already there. That would have just made this a little more embarrassing. Somehow though, judging by the way the prissy, prim and proper nurse was talking, Starfall likely had little to worry about. There were no physicians here, just doctors.
A short walk down the hallway and she had found the room was looking for, marked by a very large sign with 5 printed on it, sticking out of the wall and into the hallway. Made sense, Star supposed. Easier to see which room it was without having to check each door. She blew a stray strand of lavender hair out of her face, pulling the rest of it back over her ear. Opening the door, she ventured in.
There was only one word Star could use to describe the room she entered. Boring.
Boring didn’t quite cover it. Boring meant that someone didn’t really try to make something fun. Not unheard of, but still pretty bad. This room, however, was impressively boring. It was as if somepony decided to put all their effort into actually making the room boring. There wasn’t a tv, no windows to speak of, no magazines to look at, not even a picture on the wall! Everything was the same drab color, gray. Who liked gray? Gray was boring, probably literally meant boring. Not good or bad, let’s just do gray. Gray table, gray walls, gray counter, gray cabinets, gray everything!
Star sighed putting a hand to her forehead to calm herself. This was probably that nurse’s way of getting back at her, give the MMA fighter a room she knew any other mare would lose their mind in. Problem was, it felt like it was working. But no, she could wait. She could take this much. Besides, it wasn’t like there was anything else she could do.
Jumping up onto the table, shielded with a long white cloth she could remember doctor’s tearing off, she laid down, content to wait out however long it took for the not-physician to show up.
“-llo? Hello?” Star grumbled, twisting her eyes as she did so. It took her that long to notice that they were shut. Another fresh groan rumbled through her throat as she blinked her eyes open. Her back felt stiff, probably because she was lying down on a table. It was amazing really, Star thought, she was so bored in this room that she fell asleep.
The same boring gray table in the same boring room with the same absolutely boring design. There wasn’t a thing different about it. She curled up, stretching her back as she did so. She shut her eyes as she did so, feeling the familiar euphoria of her muscles loosening up. Star blinked again, rubbing her eyes for emphasis.
When she opened them, she was greeted with sight of a new mare in the room. About time.
“Oh good, you’re awake now,” the other mare spoke with a soft sigh. That confused Starfall. Did this mare actually think she was down for the count? Maybe this room really was that boring. “I apologize for the wait, but I was caught in some important research when Nurse Butterfly told me we had a patient after-hours.” The mare cleared her throat again, raising a dainty hand to her neck a she did so. Talk about prude.
“My name is Doctor Aurora Glider. I am a researcher here, but I have received the proper authorization and privileges to perform basic check-up on patients. I graduated from The School for Gifted Fillies at the top of my class, number one also in…” Star tuned her out. There was pride her voice. Too much of it.
The mare, Aurora, was maybe a few inches shorter than herself. She was wearing a long white coat, the kind doctors wore. Guess that made her a doctor. She also had an impressive set of wings behind her, large enough that even when folded extended out of the back of the uniform. Must have been able to get some good air with that. Star wouldn’t know. Beneath that, however, she was wearing what Star could only describe like the rest of the room. Boring.
The pegasus wore a boring tie tied around a boring white shirt sitting beneath a boring stitched vest and all of that above a boring gray skirt. It was so boring that it almost put Starfall right back to sleep. It only got worse when she saw the mare was wearing long white socks and high-heels. Heels? Who wore heels on their hooves! Star knew the answer, boring ones.
The only thing about Aurora that wasn’t boring was her coat and mane. Blue hidden beneath a rainbow. Literally, actually. Her coat was blue sky without a cloud upon it, noticeably free of any blemish. Then again, it was hard to see the entire coat when so much of it was hidden beneath her boring clothes. Her mane was easier to make out, mostly because it would have been impossible to ignore. It was literally a prismatic design, running through the Roy G. Biv of the rainbow colors. It had length to it, something that Star, as an MMA fighter, couldn’t possibly allow for herself. It dipped well past the neckline of the mare, disappearing behind her expansive white coat, like the rest of the doctor’s figure. She could probably assume her tail was much the same, but where her hair kinda disappeared, Starfall couldn’t catch a glimpse of the mare’s tail.
The pegasus’s face however, was pretty cute. That was a high compliment coming from Star, and she knew it. The blue coated mare had lean features. Not toned like Star was, but showing either a great set of genes or light training program. Given her geeky attire, it was probably the former. Her eyes were hidden only by a light layer of glass, held up by her glasses. Her mouth was… still moving. She was still talking.
“Okay, okay, yeah, I get it.” Star waved her hand, hoping to cut off the long-winded speech Aurora was giving. She didn’t come here for a lecture, dang it. “Sorry for knockin’ myself out like that. This room is just too boring to stay awake in.”
“Oh, is it?” It sounded like it was a genuine question from Aurora. Star gave her a perplexed look, not knowing what other one to offer. She couldn’t be serious, right? “I think it meets all the required needs for a patient’s clinic room. An examination table, disposable sheets, a sink for pre-examination preparation, and cabinets for storing any medical tools that require stat use.” So she was serious.
“Right,” Star let out flatly. “Okay, look, I’m just here cause my couch says I can’t train till I get your okay to hit the gym again. Mind signing a slip or somethin’ and letting me get out of your hair?”
“Absolutely not!” Oh c’mon. Aurora even said it with a stomp of her high-heeled hooves. “I assume your coach is a wise pony and only asked you to come in at this hour due to a special circumstance. Since you are here and not in the ER, I would have to guess you fell down or something fell on you, causing her or him to fear for internal injuries.” Star felt her fingers lace into her mane, pushing at her temples to ease the building pressure.
“That’s right, yeah…” Star let out slowly and begrudgingly. So this really was going to happen, wasn’t it? She let out a slow sigh, hoping she could endure this small insult to her pride. She’d already had one blow given in a crowded gym. What was one more mare’s examination going to do? “So can you get it over with? I just fell outta the ring and hit my head is all. Only real blow I got even with the match.”
“Oh, of course!” The pegasus spoke with clear glee. “Head examinations don’t take too long. I only need to do a basic pressure test and memory examination. You should be all set to go then!” Well that was a relief.
Without another word, Aurora reached into one of the boring drawers, pulling out what looked like clipboard and white sheet of paper. Shouldn’t she have had that earlier? Whatever, it wasn’t for Star to worry about. The pegasus approached her raising her digits towards Star as she did so. The unicorn had not a word of protest, far more than used to physical contact, if a bit violently at normal times. Normal for her, anyways.
“Alright, let me know if you feel any pain. Any at all, no acting tough.” Star snorted, but said not a word. She felt the prismatic pegasus begin to push against her skull, fingers lightly tracing through her mane. She didn’t poke and prod, like Star expected her to. Instead, Aurora was more like tracing her hand through her scalps, feeling for something. Star just assumed it was cracks. Still didn’t hurt.
Her hands traveled to the back of her skull, lightly pulling forwards to apply the same kind of pressure to Star’s head. Now there was prodding. Her fingers never left her hair, so she didn’t know if it counted as poking. Probably close enough though. Still, nothing hurt, not even a strain from practice.
When the doctor’s hands went below Star’s ears, they began to pull forward, tracing the fighter’s jawline. Star lifted her head up, used to pre-fight examinations. That’s exactly what this felt like. She hoped she could get that slip soon, now preferably. But no, instead, she only felt the doctor start to make her way up her cheeks. Now she was poking. Still didn’t hurt.
Finally, at least as finally as Star hoped it would be, she felt the pegasus start to push against her forehead. No more poking at least. She was tracing her fingers like she had done before, circling around the base of the unicorn’s horn around the sockets of her eyes. Guess if you had an injury it made sense to look there. Star kinda assumed it would be obvious though. Was whenever saw a fighter take a good blow at least.
“That should be it,” she finally heard Aurora speak. Star didn’t even try to hold back the sigh of relief. This was more of a pain than she thought it would be. She watched the doctor write some notes down on the pad she had pulled out before. She wasn’t sure the mare was writing down, at least aside from ‘In Perfect Health’ or ‘Let’s Hurry This Up.’
“Now, just need to ask some basic questions to make sure there isn’t any damage to your brain. Nothing difficult, just a few recollection and observational tests.” She immediately turned away, not even waiting for Star to respond. Fine for the fighter at least. The faster the better.
She watched the pegasus reach into another drawer, lower than the first. She produced a few pads of paper, laminated by the looks of them. She hit them atop the countertop lightly, probably to straighten them. The doctor nodded when she was done.
“Okay, let’s start.” Aurora faced Starfall again, holding the sealed papers as she did so. “I’m going to show you some shapes and I want to identify for me what they are. Easy, right?” The only thing easier was running laps, at least to Starfall. She nodded her head anyways. “Alright, let’s start.”
Aurora held up one of the first pictures. Star blinked at it. She knew perfectly well what it was. It was just… was that really going to be the extent of this test.
“Ah… a yellow square,” she mumbled out the words, unsure what Aurora wanted to hear. The smile and nod told her she was on the right path. That was good.
“Excellent! Next,” Aurora dropped the paper and picked up a new one. Starfall immediately spoke a silent wish for them to stop before they got through the whole deck of paper. She would be here all night otherwise.
“A blue circle.” A nod and a new card. “A pink heart.” Another nod and another new card. “An orange horn.” The nod she saw this time had some finality to it.
“Alright, your simple ocular abilities are intact. Now I need to test basic extrapolation. It’s a lot easier than it sounds.” She probably said that for the look Star gave. Too bad the super smart doctor couldn’t figure out it was out of annoyance and not worry. “Just a few more pictures, but they’re going to be more complicated than shapes. Just say what they are and we’ll only have one more test to go.” At least they were close to the finish line. Star took in a slow breath of air to ease her racing heart. Adrenaline was a funny thing.
Aurora held up another picture for her. True to the mare’s word, it was a bit more complicated than a square or circle, but it was like saying a bo staff was a bit harder to model than a stick. Really nothing to it at all.
“A house.” Aurora nodded with a pleased expression as she picked up another card. “A Timberwolf.” Another nod from the doctor and another new card. “Bucket full of hay.” Crap, now she was getting hungry. At least there was another new card. “Plates, I guess.”
“Guessed correctly,” Aurora proudly returned. She set aside the used cards and, to Star’s relief, the remainder as well. Guess they were for another test. The pegasus, however, picked up her notepad again and started writing on it. Better be just good things again. Star wanted out of here.
“Okay nearly done. All I need now is the recollection exam.” Aurora looked up at Starfall, pad still in her hand and eyes focused on the fighting mare. “I’m going to ask you only a few basic questions about the past few days. They’re global variables, things that you should intuitively know. Sound good?” Star gave another nod, doing her utmost to not sigh in response. This was lasting three exams too long in her mind.
“Excellent. Alright, first question, what is the name of the city we are currently in?” Guess she was serious when she meant obvious questions. That was good at least.
“Canterlot,” Star answered back easily. The pegasus across from her nodded with a small grin marking something on her clipboard.
“Good. Now who is the currently leader of Equestria?” Easy come and easy go.
“King Sombra the 10th,” she spoke easily as well. “If it helps, numbers one through nine came before him, in opposite order. Good aren’t I?” Star told herself that Aurora’s giggle wasn’t cute, even if the previous pouting demeanor she had was.
“Perfect, bonus points, too.” Too bad Star wouldn’t get a prize for this. “Final question, how many different kinds of ponies are there?” Star wished all her tests were this easy. Would have meant she could have passed high school.
“Six,” she began raising both hands and tilting her head into the air before she continued. “Pegasus, unicorn, earth, bat, iron, and crystal.” Her head lolled left and right with each answer, falling back down when she was finished. “Did I ace it?” Aurora giggled at the question. Star only raised her brow. She wasn’t trying to tease the pegasus that much.
“Yes, you did,” Aurora started again. “With flying colors!”
The doctor then promptly extended her wings, grinning broadly as she showed off her wings. It really was an impressive sight, the length of the long limbs easily reaching the width of the room. It added a lot of color to the otherwise boring room. However, Star couldn’t even force herself to smile. Not… Not with that clearly horrible pun.
“You work with kids a lot, don’t ya?” Only assumption Star could make for the how horribly obvious the pun was. The question had an immediate effect, however. The doctor’s wings wilted, her grin flipping almost instantly into a worried frown. She pulled the clipboard and paper over her chest, hiding what little was still able to be seen of her coat.
“Um… no,” the pegasus responded. Starfall only raised a brow. “I… usually work by myself… all the time. The books I read said that would be funny… wasn’t it?” Books she read? She… oh…
Star promptly put her face in one of her hands, barely stifling the chuckle that came out.
“So it was funny?” the unicorn felt herself laughing even harder. Now she needed both of her hands to hold back the bubbling chuckles, a single slip and she would basically torment this mare into the ground. That would be fun, but really uncool. The latter was far more important than the former.
“Y-Yeah,” Star quickly and horribly puttered out between the balls of laughter rolling in her chest. “T-Totally just… j-just…” She resulted to biting her lips. Anymore and she would definitely start laughing at the pegasus. She couldn’t do that… at least not until she got a slip signed saying she was good for practice again.
“Oh excellent!” The pegasus enthusiastically replied. “I was worried I would perform the joke wrong. It had very specific requirements, but it looks like those hours of studying paid off.” Star started to think of her fall at the gym, embarrassing herself in front of all the trainees. Maybe that would get her to stop laughing. Well… it helped.
“Now all I need you to do is sign a quick form showing you came here and you should be good to go.” That did it.
“Wait, what?” Star asked aloud, her laughter quickly forgotten.
“It’s nothing to worry about, really,” Aurora waved her hand at the unicorn’s worry, marking something else down on her sheet as she talked. “I just have to enter your data into our systems and time stamp it. Once I have that, I’ll just need you to sign the accompanying paper and you’ll be good to go.”
“Can’t I just go now?” She motioned to the door as she spoke. “You did just give me the all clear. Heck, you said it twice.”
“I did, but, well, this is a public clinic. We get our financial aid by the number of patients we are able to help. So the more patients we help…” Starfall knew exactly where that was going.
“The more funding you get.” If nothing else, she could get that at least. Kinda like the number of fans at a match. Didn’t matter how good you were on the ring. If you couldn’t sell the show, you were outta the match. It sucked, but at least now she knew it wasn’t just in MMA fights. “Yeah, whatever, just make it fast.” Star waved her off, putting her head into her free hand again. She knew boredom was sure to come again.
“Promise!” Aurora cheerily said as she left the room. The sound of the door clicking came across like a cell door slamming shut. It forced a groan out of Star’s lips.
This was seriously starting to become more of a hassle than the spar with Fire. At least there she knew what was going to happen. Specifically her victory, a crushing one at that. Star knew the weapons she had to conjure, the best density to shape them to, the best places to strike and the best times to block or dodge. Fighting was easy, really easy; fun too.
This? This was torture. This was dragging out a long and overly done test just to get a few bucks from some place she couldn’t even name. That was stupid. It felt like a padded fight, saving time for a real match to start by having some newbies who didn’t know a strike from a cross duke it out. Something that was fun to watch for all of two seconds, but then left you wishing desperately for it to end and something real to begin.
That feeling was magnified a hundredfold, at least according to Starfall. It was only made more and more abundantly clear by the gray interior of the room seemingly mocking her. She thought it might be worth breaking one of the walls, if just to add a bit of color. The inside of them probably had more color. At the very least she might break a pipe, give her an excuse to get the hell out of here.
She should have brought some free weights. That was the newest thought that popped into Star’s mind. She should have brought some forty pound weights to do some free curls of push-lifts with. At least then she wouldn’t be wasting her time, literally watching the wall. At least paint drying had something going on. This was… so much worse.
A slow groan left her throat as she fell backwards onto the table again, hair splaying around her she stared up to another boring ceiling. The thought idly crossed her mind that she could probably take another snooze, knock off whatever amount of time was left with a good nap. Wouldn’t hurt much, considering that Celestia wasn’t even letting go back to the gym until tomorrow. That still sucked.
She had a whole training regiment made up for the night. She knew Fire wasn’t going to be anymore than a pushover in the ring, so she had to make up something to really get something out of the day. She was going to alternate between weighted strides and medicine ball throws, three sets of each with twenty reps preferably. Shake that up with some speed conjuring, quick alterations between her shield, bo staff, and night stick as fast as she could. Probably wouldn’t set any kind of PR, but it was better than sitting in a boring room staring at a boring ceiling with boring colors and boring tests.
Oh, this had to be against the law in some way. Starfall was at her wits end with it. If something didn’t happen, like a riot or a bomb going off, soon, she was going to break down the door, find Aurora and make sure she signed that freaking paper so she could-
“I’m back!” Saved by dumb luck. The voice spoke perkily as the door opened, the familiar pegasus doctor stepping through, clipboard still in hand. Her heels clicked as she entered, nearly in time with the opening and shutting of the door. Star realized just how bored she was when she started noticing those details.
“Well, I have your clinic hours all set, I just need you to sign this recognition paper showing that you were here and we’re not faking records.” Star held out her hand. Aurora didn’t need to say anything else. Nothing at all. Really.
“But, according to your records, you haven’t had your annual physical in quite some time. Is that correct?” Oh you have got to be… Star’s extended hand came back and slapped herself in the face.
“Augh. Weren’t those things just supposed to be done when you were signing up for something?” Honestly the last time Star could care to remember getting one of those done was when Celestia said she needed to prove her state of health from a doctor. Not wanting to train someone who was sick or going to be sick, something like that. She was starting to suspect her mentor’s motives.
“Of course not!” Star was surprised by the force the seemingly meek pegasus spoke with. “Physicals are an absolute necessity for ensuring the health of an individual. Without them, you could be suffering from a potential illness without even knowing it! It has been shown that routine physicals are able to spot nearly fifty percent of acute illnesses before harmful effects begin to arise.”
“Whoa, okay, alright, just… relax, will ya?” The MMA fighter held up her arms at the pegasus, who was flaring her impressive wingspan as she spoke. She may have had the muscle mass of a wet noodle, but she sure had the intimidation factor all set. “I’ll get my physical taken care of later. I just need ya to sign a slip or something to show-”
“No,” Aurora spoke with finality. “As a doctor loyal to my practice, I am not going to let you leave here before I do a complete check-up on you. To not do so would be an insult to the oath I swore to uphold.” For a moment, Star was about to swear she did have some kind of brain damage. She swore she saw flags waving and fireworks exploding behind the blue mare. She rubbed her eyes to make them go away.
“Uh, no, that’s cool and all, but I really just wanna head out, so-” Star stopped speaking when Aurora stomped her hoof. She had her arms hands balled into fists and pointedly extended towards the floor. The posture wasn’t so much intimidating as it was… adorable. The little pout the pegasus had just sealed it, at least in Star’s opinion.
“I can’t let you leave until I do the examination!” There was a lot more force with that declaration. Problem was, Aurora wasn’t talking to any stubborn patient. She was getting ready to butt heads with a near pro-level MMA fighter. Star snarled at the challenge the pegasus was putting forward.
“You already did a freaking examination of me, and that was already two tests too many for me.” The unicorn brought her hands up as she spoke. It was instinctual when she was getting into a fight. She settled with rubbing the temples of her skull. “There’s clearly nothing wrong with me, so just mark me up as A-O-K and let me outta here.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you mentally, but you might have the early signs of a chronic illness, which I cannot know unless I perform a physical.” The pegasus huffed as her wings extended lightly behind her. It was never more than a twitch. Star practically wished they would just open up, then she might be able to see this as some kind of fight.
“If you’re lookin’ to do your good deed for the day or something, just sign the card then. That’s really all I need.” Aurora only puffed her lips at the words, stomping one of her high heels again. Star put her face back in her hands, already knowing what was coming.
“The issue is not a matter of good deeds, but a matter of principle!” She all but shouted at the unicorn. A small moment of silence hung then, confusing Star. The sigh that followed shortly after told her to wait for the doctor’s latest dull point. “If I let you leave here and you are inflicted with an illness that does not present obvious symptoms until significant time has passed, it may already be too late to inoculate you with the proper vaccine or anti-bacterial!”
“Then I’ll take my chances!” Star chopped her hands in the air as she spoke. That gave finality to her words, definitely. “I don’t need another ten minutes of your prodding me for something that I already know isn’t there. Seriously, I don’t need it.”
“But I am seriously telling you that you will not be aware of your need or lack thereof for a physical until it is already complete!” The doctor marched until she was nose to nose with Starfall, snouts only breaths apart. The unicorn, trained MMA fighter and undefeated sparer, furrowed her brow at the nosy pegasus. Aurora did the same to the lavender mare.
“Well, what are you gonna do ta make me take one?” The unicorn dropped her voice as she spoke. She was taller than the doctor, if only by a hair, but still taller. She got on the tips of her hooves to loom over the mare as she spoke. “Do you really think you can take me down?”
“No.” Star was almost thrown by how quick the prismatic maned pegasus responded. She was used to some challenge in her opponents. “I will not fake some false sense of bravado to perform a routine and required medical procedure.”
Star slowly let her scowl fell, letting a grin rise upon her features. She leaned back down, nodding her head in satisfaction. Looks like she was getting out of here.
“However,” the doctor continued. “If you do not consent to the physical, I will have to take that as some form of mental illness or damage brought on by your injury, thus restricting me from signing. Your. Slip.”
Starfall’s jaw dropped as she stared at the doctor, words falling over and failing. Aurora didn’t flinch.
A thousand and one questions passed through her mind, several of them taking laps. The leader of the pack, far and away, was how much gall this mare must have to make that kind of threat. The second question, though a far-and-away one, was if this doctor was bluffing. Something itched at the unicorn’s mind.
Was this legal? That was a big question. It didn’t sound like it. Forcing some stupid tests under threat of no care? That sounded pretty bad to her. Then again, maybe this peppy pegasus had the bones to try it. She didn’t have the horn to show of her magic, but her wings… maybe she really did have some kind of backbone. Would have needed one to handle those beasts on her back.
But those beasts, Starfall passively noticed, were open now. And, like she guessed before, they were the size of the room, easily. Fully expanded, the shimmering blue feathers far out-did the dull white and gray of her uniform. It brought out the rainbow in her mane, hanging only slightly over the stern expression still staring intently at Star.
It was… kinda hot, actually.
“You… you’re serious?” She questioned the mare, hoping her voice had her usual confidence. The way she tripped over her first words, however, told her it was likely otherwise. It didn’t help when Aurora raised her brow, smirk rising where once there was a cute frown.
“I never go back on my word.” The words gave Star no room to move. That… was really bad.
No, scratch that. That had never happened before. She always had somewhere to move! A weak guard to exploit, a joint to press, a weapon to twist, something! But… she couldn’t find anything. Either she really did walk out of here and have to forego even longer without training, or she buckled down and endured another terrible test.
“Wow,” Starfall mumbled. “Beaten by an egghead.”
She let a long sigh, body relaxing as she let one of her hands weave through her lavender locks. This was new, and not something she enjoyed. New was cool, but only when it was actually fun. This wasn’t. Not at all. But… maybe she could make it fun. Maybe. Had to give ground first though.
She unzipped her jacket, taking off the loose material and laying it over the table behind her. It left her in only her form fitting top, matching the hue of her coat and embedded with her cutie mark. Her arms, midriff, and rest of her upper body was bare to the eye. This was step one. Now she needed to play along.
“I’ll do the freaking test for you.” Aurora nodded proudly at the words, wings folding back into her figure, drastically reducing her size. But Star wasn’t done. “But, I have a condition.”
“Physicals are meant to be done in a procedural fashion to prevent any lapse in judgement.” Talk about a rehearsed line.
“No no no, the test is fine. Well, fine enough that I’ll bite my lip and go with it, but that’s not what I’m talking about,” Star began to explain. One of her hands fell to her hip, cocking the side of herself out as she leaned the other way. “What I meant is that I want something out of this to really make it worthwhile. Can’t expect me to be really patient with you if I’m doing something I hate for no gain, am I right?” Pain meant muscle, as Star had been drilled by Celestia.
“I… suppose not,” Aurora lightly admitted. Starfall smirked. That was ground she could work with.
“Sweet. But don’t worry, I’m not askin’ for like bits or somethin’ like that. Don’t need that kinda stuff when ya got a body like mine.” Star made a verydeliberate point to flex her arms, locking her fingers behind her head to make a bow shape with her muscular arms. The sultry look she added for spice. Everyone loved spice.
The faint red over the doctor’s face and even fainter twitching of her wings was all the cue Starfall needed to know she had definitely stepped on solid ground. Time to plant a flag.
“I… traditionally… no, you-y-you normally don’t…” Stuttering, very good. Things were going smooth as a well-conjured bo staff. Good thing Aurora was as honest with herself as she was with her code of honor.
“Right, so, here’s what I’m thinkin’.” Star untied her fingers, rotating her left arm until it swung to just beneath her chin, fully extended. Her left hand lifted, pulling against it to loosen her deltoids. Also helped to show off how tight her muscles were to the clearly eagle eyed doc. Leave it to a pegasus to have an eye for the details.
“See, with or without your note, I’m not gonna be able to go back to the gym until tomorrow. That leaves me with nothin’ to do for the rest of the night.” Star had done this so many times before, this was almost as scripted as Aurora’s code of honor. Good thing Starfall knew how to sell what she had. Grade A merchant right here. “I was thinkin’ of going back home to try and catch some early z’s, but that’s probably not gonna happen?”
“I-It isn’t?” The blue pegasus swallowed on something. Seeing as Star didn’t spy her drinking any water, looked like she was trying to swallow her pride. She hoped it wasn’t water at least. The pegasus was beginning to look a little thirsty. “No you must be… um… what?” Stumbling for answers. Hopefully she stumbled right into where Starfall wanted her.
“I’m going to be lookin’ to have a bit of fun tonight, at least move around the town without doin’ too much over the bend, if you catch my drift.” Star winked. Aurora blushed. The universe worked its magic.
“Does, um… this mean you are looking for… a-a-a-I don’t know.” Aurora didn’t look too happy admitting that. Star wasn’t too worried herself. She had made many stallions and mares happy with what she had planned.
“Now I’m looking for someone to join me on a fun night.” She took a very large step towards the pegasus, intentionally of course. Too short and the pegasus would have retreated, making it easier to shy away from Star. The MMA fighter wouldn’t be having any of that.
She crossed her arms as she stood only a very short distance apart from the pegasus. Aurora swallowed on something again, probably still nothing. Star took extra care to flex her muscles, showing off what over a decade of training could make. The doctor seemed impressed with the results, at least her wandering eyes said so.
“And the thing is,” she spoke up, earning Aurora’s immediate attention. “You’re probably the first pony to beat me like that. Trust me, I win just about everything. So right now, I wanna know a little more about you.”
“That’s… v-very kind of you,” the doctor spoke as she shrank a little. Starfall double checked her vision to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. But nope, it appeared the pegasus was indeed dipping a few inches lower than she had before. Must of been the fault of her crossed legs. “B-But it’s improper for a p-patient and their physician to-”
“You’re not my physician,” Starfall spoke up, already knowing where the line was going. “Your anything-but-kind nurse made that pretty clear. You’re a doctor, doing some kind of research here that’s just getting funded by the clinic’s help. So there’s really nothing stopping you from saying yes.” This was Star’s second element.
The first was and always would be the ring, standing across from another pony that had dedicated their life to perfecting their Martial Style and Magical Abilities. Moving around the four corners, making due with quick judgements and consequences, that was her life. This right here, making mares and stallions a little hot under the collar, this was a close second.
“P-Perhaps,” Aurora stuttered out. “But… Is there, um… w-will it really help?” Help? Oh yeah, help with the physical. Well, Starfall couldn’t lie about that.
“Trust me,” she said. “If I got something to look forward to, I can endure anything.” The most honest words she’d ever spoken.
“Um… okay,” the words came out in a whisper, Aurora almost hunching over herself. The image was only compounded by the fact that her wings were starting to fold around herself, probably some kind of nervous reaction. Star grinned, used to it by now. The nervous part at least.
“Sweet!” Starfall relaxed her arms as she spoke the declaration. She took two quick steps back, jumping up on the table and swinging her legs. She took a long moment to appreciate the nervous mess she had turned the once oh-so confident doctor into.
Knees bent, heels far apart, calves creased together, and blue fur almost died a tomato red, the MMA fighter almost called it some of her best work. Guess that made them one and one. Aurora pulled at her collar, likely to let off some of the steam Star had given off. The unicorn’s smirk only grew.
“Yes… well…” she spoke as she began to collect herself. “I believe we can… start the physical now.” She stood her tallest, wings readjusting till they were folded behind her back once more. The pegasus took in a deep breath of air, probably to cool herself off. Star knew she was going to need a lot more than that. Showers helped.
“To begin, take off your top and turn around.”
The unicorn’s grin fell.
“Wait, what?”