Prickle Berry Tries to Be Careful

by David Silver

51 - Displaying Strength

"Big Momma!" came Bulk's voice in a shout from around a corner.

Momma rose up to her feet. "It's time to show them the power of motherhood." Confident, she strode from the room.

---

On the live stage, she nodded to the cheering crowd. "Have no fear, Big Momma is here to take care of things."

A mare already stood there on the stage, a tall and thin mare, Fleur dis Lee. Around her was a strange looking obstacle course. "And here's Big Momma! Sure to be a treat. Let's see how she makes it. You know the rules, mom?" She giggled softly as if amused at her own words. "Oh, look at me. Let's get right to explaining, since it is different from last year, I'm told. This is my first, so do forgive."

Big Momma stepped up with broad steps. "Have no fear. We're all here in good spirits. Tell me how this will proceed."

In the crowd, Immovable stuck out her tongue. "When are they gonna get to the good stuff?"

"Good stuff?" asked a stallion beside her. "That's Big Momma! She wins most of these. Kinda surprised they have her going first."

"She that good?" Immovable squinted at the large mare. "She doesn't look so bad. Tiny Titan'll show her!"

"Who?"

---

Prickle sat beside Small, tapping her hooves together quietly as her eyes roamed the large waiting room. "So..."

The pony with the laurel sat up. "Nervous? Don't blame you, little filly. How old are you anyway?"

Small bounced up to her hooves. "Old enough to teach you a thing or two!" Her hackles were up and she gave a little growl at the much larger stallion.

Prickle put a hoof behind her head as the other went to the ground. "I don't even know your name."

"Oh, right." He nodded. "The name's Rolling Thunder." He rose up to two hooves and crashed his hooves together with the sound of a striking lightning bolt. "Villains don't even stand a chance when I get serious."

Prickle sat up, all her hooves on the ground. "Oh, hello Rolling. I'm Tiny Titan." She raised one and offered it towards him. "Let's have a good time?"

He snorted at that and took several large steps to devour the distance between them. He thrust his hoof forward hard enough to knock her arm back. "Yeah, let's. You sure you're cut out for this, filly?"

Prickle took a slow breath, trying to calm herself with limited success. "Want to try the other way around?"

He held out a hoof. "Oh sure," he said, not a hint of worry in his voice.

Prickle gave him a hoofbump. She did not hold back. With a an uncanny ease, she thrust her hoof forward to meet his, and he stopped being there. He was suddenly flying backwards, hurtling in flips mid-air before he came to a crashing rest against the far wall. The wall crumbled under the impact, leaving him buried in a pile of rubble from the hole that quickly formed.

Even as he worked on getting his senses back, Small burst into bouts of laughter. "Oh, oh wow! That was... Dang filly!" She threw a leg over Prickle's withers. "Are you gonna steal the show? Shoot, that was fantastic! They quadruple reinforced the walls for the con, you know."

Prickle's ears flattened. "I don't want to mess things up."

"Pfft, you messed him up. Good, he deserved it, show off." Small rolled her eyes. "As for the show, you go on and steal everything. Show the world smaller can be better. If I have to lose, losing to someone about my size I can deal with."

Rolling got to his hooves, rebuking the help of the others and snorting with a deep scowl. "You did that on purpose!"

Prickle rubbed the sore spot from the unexpectedly strong hoofbump she had received first. "I just returned the favor. I... assume fighting is against the rules?"

Small bobbed her head. "It is, so cut it out. You both had your fun, save it for the contest."

---

Big Momma strode off the stage to excited cheering. Fleur looked to a clipboard she was hovering. "It seems the next contestant is a new one. Tiny Titan, hero of Ponyville!"

The cheering was more subdued than it had been for Big Momma, but an applause of clopping hooves and stomps on the ground it remained. Prickle strode out into it, her face burning. She was busy wondering why she had agreed to the contest, to being at the focal point of all those strangers staring at her, judging. Her steps were awkward and shaking as she went.

Fleur reached out a hoof. "Nothing to be afraid of. This is a contest of strength, not durability. The first part is the simplest." She gestured to what appeared to be a simple barbell. "Lift it as many times as you can. Each time you get it over your head and down, it will get heavier. You get more points for how many times you can do it. If you have to drop it, drop it, but that will be the last lift counted."

Prickle smiled a little. Lifting a barbell didn't seem that intimidating. "Alright." She sat beside the barbell, looking it over a moment before she reached out and slipped a hoof under its bar and lifted it. It was very light. Maybe a pillow? She snorted softly and easily raised her hoof up and down before touching it to the ground and immediately lifting it again. It still felt light, so she did it again, and again, and again. "Is it working?"

Her hoof could move up and down without a problem. She could feel some resistance, but it wasn't that bad. "I don't want to cheat if it's broken."

Fleur perked an ear and her horn began to glow as did the barbell. She tried to pull it from Prickle's hoof and her eyes went wide immediately as she failed to budge it. "Dear, darling... That feels as heavy as a house."

"Oh." Prickle's blush came back fiercely.

Immovable bounced up from her seat. "That's my irresistible force! They'll have to get two of those things for you!" she shouted eagerly across the crowd.

Prickle gave a nervous laugh as she kept pumping her hoof.

Fleur tilted her head. "It doubles every time you do that... You don't feel it at all?"

"I do now..." It was a weight she could at least consider. It was on the level of the schoolhouse on the next pump, then it scaled higher, and higher. It reached the level she had felt when she had tossed the entire dragon aside, and kept scaling.

Fleur put a shaking hoof on Prickle's shoulder even as she kept lifting and lifting. "Please, stop... We don't want the floor to give out under you."

It was only at that point that Prickle noticed she was sinking into the cement under the weight of the barbell she was so casually pumping. "But, I could..."

"You'll get the maximum points for this part, promise." She gently tapped Prickle on the shoulder. "Set it down, gently."

The crowd erupted into confused cheering. That had not happened before. All eyes were on Prickle as she slowly set it down and it began to sink into the floor before whatever magic it used faded away when Prickle stopped touching it.

Fleur nodded. "Very good, Tiny, very good indeed. Absolutely perfect for this step, but that was only the first. The next involves a little dexterity." She strode on her long legs to the start of the course Prickle had seen but ignored before. "In each part of the course, you have to move the weight to the end." She pointed to a large target. "Get it right in the center, then move on. If you damage the weight or anything else, you lose points. What use is strength if you have no finesse?"

Prickle stepped up to the starting line. "Do I start now?"

"When I fire this." She held aloft a gun. "Ready?" Prickle nodded. The gun went off with a pop, a small bit of confetti spilling out as Prickle surged forward.

The first weight was a large metal crate. Prickle plucked it up and held it with one hoof as the other three pumped to get her forward. She hopped over a few stands easily in energetic bounces and came down on the target. She put the crate down right in the center and dashed forward to the next. The next 'weight' was no weight at all! It was a fragile little egg.

Prickle blinked at it.

Fleur pointed at a clock. "Time is ticking, Titan. Get it to the target and don't damage it."

Prickle snatched it up and tucked it into the braids of her mane, letting it rest there like a nest. While the weight was no trouble, the course itself had huge swinging bits of metal that looked like they were meant to knock a foolish hero right off their hooves and dash the egg in the process. She scooted past the first one just as it went past, ducked under the second, but found the third was coming straight for her, larger than the other two.

She squeaked and punched at it with a hoof. The pendulum quickly stopped its approach and flew across the stunned crowd. Fleur shook her head. "That'll be points off."

Prickle clenched her teeth. Smashing the obstacles wouldn't help, but... She stepped forward and caught the next swinging weight, pressing hard enough to arrest its movement but not hurt it. She arrived at the end and gently set the egg down, letting out a little breath.

Each puzzle became trickier in how she had to exert her strength to make it through. She walked narrow beams as the walls on either side of her tried to shove her free and she had to shove them back, but not too hard. She dangled by a rope by her teeth and controlled her motion with the wriggling of her body to direct herself to the target. By the time that step of the contest was over, she was heaving for breath. "Is that... all of it?"

Fleur waved the idea away. "Heaven forfend. There are many kinds of strength. Though the course allowed us to measure several at once, there are still others waiting to be measured. And don't get yourself too tired, endurance comes last. It's time to measure explosive strength." Other ponies wheeled out what looked like a big padded target on wheels. "All you have to do is hit it as hard as you can, and we'll measure how hard you did so."

Prickle tilted her head left and right. That seemed straight forward... "Do I lose points if I hurt it?"

Fleur flipped through the papers on her clipboard as if checking. "No, but this is the toughest we could manage. It should stand up to a single kick. Big Momma already gave it a proper wallop."

Prickle imagined the big maternal mare smashing it. If she could do it, maybe Prickle could let loose? She spun around, aiming her rump at it. "Ready!"

"Go ahead dear."

The crowd had fallen into a hush, all eyes on Prickle. Her back legs snapped out as she lifted up onto her forelegs, driving her legs into the machine. Her legs never slowed. She stood balancing a moment before she came back to all fours. Had she missed? She looked over her shoulder to see the machine had sheared off cleanly where she had hit it, simply breaking in two, the upper portion then resting on the ground, broken and destroyed.

Fleur blinked softly. "That will be difficult to measure... What was this machine rated for?" She wandered towards the edge of the stage to talk with some engineers about it.

The crowd stared with confusion for several quiet moments, only the murmuring of Fleur and the technicians heard before Immovable started stomping the ground. "Tiny Titan, Tiny Titan, Tiny Titan!" She called in a chant. The crowd was shaken free from its stupor and began falling in line, soon all of them were joining the chant.

Author's Note:

If she's this strong, why did she struggle when fighting living things? Easy, she doesn't want to hurt living things. Machines she's told to unload on are different.

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Comments

[lazyreader19]

Ugh, i just can't help but enjoy prickle's naivety about her own strength, and the flabberghastery of the audience! It's addictive :p

[badninja]

Ouch, I suddenly am reminded of when the Z fighters tried out for the first terminate back in Dragonball. Goku and Krillin both where vastly overpowered for their opponents until they faught in later rounds.

[Fireeaters]

She's probably strong enough to fly with plywood wings strapped to her legs.

[Booster Spice]

Prickles going to need Android 17 as a chaperone at this rate.

And Crusader as her blinged out ride.

[Chrome Masquerade]

It's time to measure explosive strength." Other ponies wheeled out what looked like a big padded target on wheels. "All you have to do is hit it as hard as you can, and we'll measure how hard you did so."

Ah, the Megaton Punch event!

[Daremo]

I don't want to cheat if it is. - I don't want to cheat if it isn't.

and control her motion - and controlled her motion

---

Yay Prickle, I mean, Tiny Titan!

I'm really curious to know what Big Mama can do now. Maybe we'll get to see a little of that, understanding of course that this is Prickle's story.

[David Silver]

8291365
She can be a superhero while remaining a nice person, to start. I give her a hoofs up.

[KVFFour]

Rated for 9000lbs. Huh. IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAND!

[Greenhorn]

I remember when Vegeta punch away the similar testing maching in DBZ.

[Lancerlot]

Finally, a pony who could arm-wrestle (foreleg-wrestle?) Maud.

[Morphy]

I do hope Prickle is learning as she enjoys the convention. One very important lesson being strength isn't everything and sometimes means nothing; she couldn't touch those ghost-things and they almost drained her life away as she flailed around. That said, when strength is a factor, yikes... she'll knock your block off... the city block.

Celestia should have a chat with her. I think those two have something in common, that is, they both have to hold back or innocents and the not-innocent could be seriously hurt or killed even in a true "fight" with the bad guys. The Princesses would be proud of Prickle being very mature for her age and keeping in mind this virtuous thought (and her Mom too for instilling such values).

p.s. I keep waiting for The Underminer to show up as a Diamond Dog riding a massive drill machine... (I watched The Incredibles way too many times I think)

[tsaukpaetra]

Flying colors? Heck, we invented sparkling swirling flying colors for this grade!
Keep going! ;)

[LEGION55]

Heaven forfend

Isn't it "Forbid?

[David Silver]

9057162
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forfend