Season of Hearts

by discord7

I'll Never Fade Away

I watched again another day as she played in the orchard with her Apple Bloom and her friends, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. I watched the glistening in her eyes as she played, she seemed so happy. I remembered the first time I saw that sparkle, it was the day she stole my heart. But the memory this time was of my best friend.

---

It had been a few weeks since our swim out in the pond. I told her we had to do it again sometime, she just blushed under her hat and gave me a nudge. We spent the day bucking apple trees, when it got too hot we sat under the gazebo sipped some lemonade. We talked about our friends, she had a lot more stories than me. Probably because I hadn't had any friends since I ran away. She told me all the stories and I saw fire in her eyes every time she talked about Rainbow Dash, the two were always in competition with each other. I laughed whenever she got excited and jumped up to imitate her final moments of victory against her rival.

"Whaddabout you Ex?" She asked.

"Huh?" I said confused.

"Y'ever had somepony ya just HAD ta beat every time ya met 'em?"

"Well." I thought for a moment, there was this one stallion I remember I was always trying to beat in the ring, the only one who could go until it was a tie every time.

"There was one guy." I told her.

"Well let's hear the story I feel like the one doin' all the talkin'." She said eagerly.

"OK, OK." I told her trying to calm the mare down.

...

Every time Heavy Hooves Darts and I got in the ring it was always a tie. Both of us were undefeated and we sparred everyday. We trained in the same gym, he was always training right next to me and I enjoyed the friendly competition. It made training with my father a little more bearable, he wasn't always screaming 'ONE MORE ONE MORE!' in my ear because the two of us always were trying to push just one more.

There was a reason they called him Heavy Hooves, he had hooves that could take out a pumpkin cart. Get hit by one and you would be dazed the rest of the round. I was the only one in the gym who could dodge him. We hung out after workouts, we'd wander the streets looking for trouble, gangsters who hadn't found out who we were yet or ones who thought they could win with numbers. They never won, no matter how many they brought or what kind of weapons they had they always ran away with their tails between their flanks and me and old Heavy Hooves would be in stitches with laughter.

One day though a recruiter came to the gym, Heavy and I were in the ring together so we hadn't noticed. He watched the whole match start to finish. It ended in a KO for both of us, we each landed a hit at the same time, we both went down for the count. When we came to we saw him in the middle of the ring clapping his hooves together. He was a tan colt with a chocolate colored mane and a pair of bucking gloves as his cutie mark.

"Well done boys." He said. "My name is Dirt." he told us.

I snickered a bit he ignored it.

"I'm here to offer one of you the chance of a life time." He told us and both of our ears pricked up, "One of you is going to compete in a tournament to fight for the Lightweight Division Championship of Manehatten."

The Lightweight Division Championship was the entrance to every young boxers career only the best of the best Lightweight Division winners got to participate. Dirt was a recruiter and I totally forgot about him, seventeen of the ponies he chose had moved into Championship Lightweight, and three had advanced into Heavyweight. In the hoofboxing world he was was considered to have a golden eye for recruiting.

"Son." He said looking at me my heart jumped. "I want to represent you in the Championship Fight, whadda ya say." He said holding out his hoof. I was about to shake it when I saw the despaired look in Heavy's eyes as he turned to leave the ring. I pushed Dirt's hoof away.

"No," I told him, I pointed at Heavy, "Heavy Hooves Darts over there is the better fighter hooves down I told him."

He looked at me. "Son are you sure? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity here."

"WHAT IN TARTARUS DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING?" My father exploded.

"I'm not going dad I'm not ready." I protested.

"YOUR GONNA BUCKING PASS UP OUR MEAL TICKET WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS HAS ALL BEEN ABOUT?" My father shouted, my ears pulled back out of fear.

"Sir please." Dirt pushed in front of us he was chest to chest with my father, "as a former hoofboxer I would like to say that this is entirely your sons decision, you can't force him to fight if he doesn't want to."

"Well I do want to fight." I said, both Dirt and my father looked at me surprised, "I just think Heavy deserves it more." I finished.

"DESER-" my father began but Dirt cut him off.

"Well son if you really want to compete I do have a friend in recruiting who has yet to find a fighter." He offered, I shot a smile to Heavy.

Now we could both compete, he shot me a challanging glance, I nodded it was on. We'd fight in the championship for the Lightweight Division of Manehattan Hoofboxing.

---

I finished my story with a prideful look on my face.

"That's it?" AJ said.

"What do you mean?" I felt offended.

"Well what about the fight?" She asked eagerly, "Who won?"

"Well..." my voice simmered down as my ears fell and my face hit the floor, "that's just it, during the final round it was Heavy and me." I told her, her face changed when she realized what I'd meant.

That's right, during the championship round somepony had been disqualified so it went into substitute. Thirty-six rounds of two BFF's pounding each others muzzles in and the crowd ate it up, it's what they came for. Then round thirty-five came we were both exhausted, after the bell rang he cheap shot bucked me in the ribs. He really wanted to win so when the next round began I rushed at him and threw up my hooves, he was never good at dodging, he should have weaved out of the way. Instead he moved back thinking he had enough room but he forgot the ropes were behind him, I hit him square in the trachea. He fell to the floor, the reff started counting. It was only after the count when he didn't get up that they called the paramedics.

Afterwards he was carted off and all I could think of was him, even being belted the new champ I didn't feel like celebrating. Several hour later I found out the news. All buckboxers had to sign a death waiver. If they died in the ring it wasn't anyponies fault but their own, 'workforce hazard'. I quit, I skipped town and never looked back. I couldn't see the things that I'd done and live with myself for it.

Comments

[Blahman2816]

Dark.
That's just dark.