A Fighting Chance

by Stunt Monkey

Chapter One [Revised]

A bright warm light filled the room of Boxing Glove, an Earth pony with a sandy yellow coat and a darker yellow mane, a bright red boxing glove printed on his flank as his cutie mark. He lazily opened his eyes and yawned loudly, the alarm clock on his nightstand struck 7am and began to ring, Boxing groaned and slammed his hoof down onto the ringing bells as they abruptly stopped with a failing ting.

Boxing flipped his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. It was an uncommon sight to see ponies standing upright on two hooves, but it was an easy task for Boxing. After all, most of his professional career had been on two legs. He walked over to an oak framed mirror and admired himself for a moment, after stretching his forelegs he landed on all fours and began doing push ups.

"Another day..." he calmly said to himself. Suddenly there was a loud knock at his bedroom door the echoed throughout his room.

"Box? Are you awake yet?" A muffled voice came from the other side of the door, Boxing recognized it as his brother. "What is it Stryker?" Boxing replied.

"I'm heading into town for some groceries, do you want me to get you anything while I'm there?" asked Stryker

"Salt." Boxing said flatly as he completed another push up.

"Salt? Why do you need salt?" he asked from the other side of the door.

"And some oats. We need oats also, the honey kind." Boxing stood back up after finishing another push up and trotted over to his door and opened it, Stryker Malt-House stood in front of him. He was a tall grey unicorn with a spiky electric blue mane, on his flank adorned a red die overlapping a mug of cider.

"You know what, I'll come with you." Boxing smiled. "I could use some fresh air anyway."

~⚡~

Stryker and Boxing strolled around the marketplace, Boxing took in a deep breath of the crisp air. It was a beautiful autumn day in Ponyville, Boxing had never experienced such nice weather like this in Hoofington. He felt real appreciation for Ponyville and was glad that Stryker convinced him to move.

"Alright. last thing on the list, Apples." Stryker said.

"Apples. Aww, I hate apples." complained Boxing. "They're too mushy and sour."

"There's more than one kind of apple and you're going to love them, because it is about the only food we can afford right now. Moving all our crap to Ponyville cost me a lot of bits." Stryker said. "Not to mention that whole debacle with our old landlord." he added

"Maybe if you would keep your hooves off of married mares." Boxing said.

"Hey, she came onto me. I'm the victim."

"Ug, fine." he shrugged and lowered his head.

"But forget that, Box, listen. If we are ever going to get this bar set up, we need to save money where we can. But until that happens, it's apples. Apples for breakfast. Apples for Lunch. Apples for dinner. And dessert. Who knows maybe I'll feel frisky and add in a few potatoes or carrots." Stryker continued.

"You? Frisky? Haha, I guess you can judge a book by its cover." sniggered Boxing.

"You know what I meant." Stryker said.

The conversation had ended, Boxing realized he stopped walking some time ago and was now waiting in a short line with his brother beside him. He watched as ponies passed by, on his other side was a large notice board, squinting his eyes he saw a poster taking up a large space. "Hey. I'll be back in a moment." Boxing said, and walked over.

Boxing trotted up to the notice board and saw the poster that caught his attention, on it was a large Minotaur that stood behind a large yellow text, pointing towards the reader. 'MANEHATTAN PRO BOXING TOURNAMENT. 10,000 bits first place reward!'

Boxing slowly cracked a huge smile as a wonderful idea struck him. Thinking quick, he ripped off a flier with his teeth and turned, galloping back to his brother who was now one customer from the front of the line.

Stryker almost fell over as his younger brother rushed up to his side and spat the flier in his face. "Stryker!" shouted Boxing.

"Yes?" he replied nonchalantly.

"I have an excellent plan." Boxing said.

"Howdy there, what can Ah get for ya?" asked an orange mare attending her market stall.

"A dozen McIntosh apples thank you Miss...?" asked Stryker politely.

"Applejack's mah name." replied Applejack as she turned to her other cart.

"What is it Boxy? What's this you've found?" Stryker's horn glowed as he took hold of the flier that had fallen on the ground.

"I want to get back in the game and win the prize money." he said gleefully.

Stryker's eyes glazed over the flier. "Box, little bro. You're a genius!"Stryker tossed his brother's mane with a hoof.

"That'll be six bits, thank you." Applejack placed two brown bags on the counter and paused as her eyes slowly drifted over to Boxing "Y'all are new in town?".

"Yes I'm Stryker Malt-House and this-" Stryker nudged Boxing, getting his attention. "is my brother Boxing Glove, we moved here from Hoofington three days ago. "

"Nice to meet you ma'am." Boxing said politely and nodded his head.

"Ma'am? Aw shoot. Just Applejack is fine. Here, have some apples on me." Applejack lifted out two bright green granny smith apples and added them to the brown paper bags on the counter.

"Thank you miss Applejack." Stryker said and lifted the paper bags to his saddlebag using his horn, "Ahem!" Stryker grunted obviously and nudged Boxing again. "Yes, thank you ma'am- uh- Applejack." he said nervously.

"Do you work here alone Miss Applejack?" Stryker asked.

"Well usually ah' do. Mah big lug of a brother is off on a cattle run to Prairieville with one of mah' pegasus friends, so we can replace some of the broken farm equipment." And some broken windows thanks to a certain multi-colored mare. She didn't say.

"Well, it was nice meeting you Miss Applejack, we will see you around Ponyville." Stryker and Boxing turned and walked away.

Applejack watched them walk away with their purchase and the free gift she had given them, "See ya around." she waved a hoof, in front of her was the flier that Stryker had taken from Boxing. They must have left this behind. she thought to herself, flipping the paper around to read. "Manehatten pro boxing tournament?" she paused. "Ten thousand bit first place reward?!" an idea had hit her.

~⚡~

"That was awfully nice of Miss Applejack to give us two free apples wasn't it? Boxing?" Stryker said as he walked alongside his younger brother.

"Uh, sure I guess." an image of the orange mare ran through his mind. "So Stryker, about the tournament? Can I enter?" asked Boxing.

"Of course you can, you don't need my permission. you're an adult after all. Just because you're not in the game anymore doesn't mean you have to quit playing." replied Stryker.

Finally a chance to get back up to the top! That ten thousand is as good as ours! Boxing's true passion was boxing, it was his name after all. His thoughts instantly drifted back to meeting Applejack, she really was pretty.

"Boxy!" yelled Stryker for the third time.

"What?"

"You look spaced out, have you had any salt today?" asked Stryker.

"If I have, then it's not enough." Boxing laughed in amusement.

Stryker galloped forward a few steps and paused in front of Boxing to face him. "Come on. The tournament is in a few days, we will go to the train station tomorrow morning and get our tickets. You need to start training again."

"I do push-ups every morning and-"

Stryker made a strange "chop" noise as he whacked Boxing's head softly with a hoof. "Not enough!" Stryker interrupted him. "It's been five years since you up and quit the professional boxing league, you need to make up for lost time." Stryker continued to gallop further down the dirt road leading back to their new home. "We're going to be rich little bro!" he shouted.

Rich? Ten thousand isn't rich. I mean, sure it's a lot, more than enough to get our bar open for business.

~⚡~

The next morning, Boxing returned home after completing his morning fill of 300 push-ups and several loops, galloping around the Ponyville local park. At one point during his morning jog, he had passed a fuchsia mare doing stretches on the soft green grass with Princess Twilight. She waved at Boxing as he passed by, Boxing remembered her as Cheerilee, she was riding the same train on the day he came to Ponyville. Boxing slowed to a canter and then eventually stopped in his tracks.

"Gee, I'm surprised how many ponies are awake this early in the morning." he said out loud to himself. "I better get a shower." he added as the sudden realization of how sweaty and smelly he was from this morning's workout.

Boxing galloped all the way home for his last workout that morning, he ascended the stairs and entered the bathroom. he stepped into the shower and turned the metal rod left with a hoof, warm water began pouring out of the showerhead above him, soaking his coat and mane. Stryker is going to be home shortly, hopefully with good news. he thought to himself as he continued to stand under the warm water, looking down occasionally, spotting specks of dirt washing off his hooves and down the drain. Warm water seeped into his joints, which Boxing Glove found very relaxing.

After a few minutes, Boxing turned off the flowing water and stepped out, towelling himself off as quickly as possible. "Boxing! I'm home!" his brother's voice shouted from downstairs, Stryker sounded somewhat excited. Boxing rushed out the bathroom and hurried downstairs. Stryker stood before him. "Please tell me some good news." pleaded Boxing.

"Box, I got the tickets. The last train for Manehattan leaves at two o'clock, so that gives you plenty of time to pack whatever you need for the week." Stryker's horn flared to life as he showed the tickets, flashing them in front of Boxing. Boxing rushed back upstairs again.

Darn, I just had a shower too.

Once he was in his room, Boxing turned to a tall wooden sliding door built into the wall and opened it, inside were neatly arranged gold trophies and various medals all of which were prize rewards from his professional boxing career. In the very centre laid two bright red gloves, Boxing felt as if they were glowing, calling out to him.

Keeping his balance, he stood up on his back legs and slid one of the gloves on his left hoof. Soft, like a cloud wrapped around his hoof. This long forgotten sense came back to him in an instant, "Just like the good old days." he muttered to himself.

~⚡~

As two o'clock approached Boxing and Stryker found themselves standing on the Ponyville train station platform. The train waited before them, a pegasus at the front end blew a whistle, signalling the waiting passengers to board the train. Boxing and Stryker stepped forward and entered the carriage, four other ponies cantered in behind them. Boxing approached a seat and dropped his saddle bags beside it as he made himself comfortable, Stryker sat opposite him and let out a relaxing 'ah!' noise as he stretched out his limbs.

"C'MON RARITY, WE'RE GOIN' TO MISS IT." Boxing and a startled Stryker looked at each other as they heard the familiar voice. Boxing popped his head up to the window and saw Applejack and a white unicorn wearing a scarf running for the train. Is that Applejack? Another loud whistle blew, longer than the first one and more high pitch. As if in slow motion, both Applejack and the white mare made it past the closing doors at the last second.

"Applejack! I really do wish you were more organized, like Twilight. Then we would have made it here without any panic." the slender unicorn walked over to Applejack, but something stopped her. She turned to see her prize-winning silk scarf caught in between the carriage doors.

"Relax, Rares. We made it, right? So quit yer' fussin'." Applejack chuckled and tugged Rarity's scarf from the carriage doors, "It is not fussing, this is one of my finest works." she whined. At some point during their argument, Boxing had got up from his seat and walked over to Applejack and Rarity. "Applejack?" he asked in confusion.

"Punch?" her face is somewhat shocked as she turned.

"It's uh... Boxing, actually." he corrected her.

"Right, Boxin'. What are y'all doing going to Manehatten?" Applejack asked.

"I'm a professional boxer, I'm competing in a tournament shortly." It almost sounded like he was boasting. "What are you going to Manehatten for?"

"Tournament? hell, me too!"

You've got to be kidding me.