Applejack: Undefeated

by CamWeck

Chapter 3

Applejack felt the hoof press into the center of her face. The whole world seemed to be moving so slowly, she could feel the pressure of the hoof increase. It moved like molasses, the pain crawling across her jaw and into her skull. The lights overhead seemed to burn her face, her eyes, her whole body.

Everything was compressed by the blow, her eye's rolled back into her head, but she didn't have time to even stagger a step back before the second blow struck, this time from the other side. This blow was even harder, and her teeth shook and her world slowly started to turn black.

She knew there was something to this. Something she had to do. She had to remember...

If she could just remember...

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"So he still hasn't found anyone?"

Twilight continued to read her new book as she lifted up a few feet from the ground. Her question hung in the air for a few moments before Applejack grunted out her answer.

"Nope.. Pages said.. he can't.. find.. anyone yet..."

Twilight lowered back down being careful to keep her book at level with her eyes. She shook her head and frowned at the news.

"It's been almost a week since your last bout! What could possibly be taking so long?"

Applejack grunted in response and pushed herself up again, mentally ticking off the count. The pushups were not new to her, but the quantity and the weight were stretching muscles she rarely used. Most of the time, she just used her front legs just to brace herself for a good hard bucking.

"Dunno.. can we.. talk later?"

Twilight ignored her request and closed the books sharply letting them settle down to the floor even as she began to rise again.

"I really wish we didn't have to rely on him. He told us he had all these connection and could get you the contacts you needed, but so far, he's completely failed to deliver!"

"Well.. he did.. admit.. that he was.. in a slump..."

Twilight grunted and waved her arms in frustration as she began to lower down again.

"It's so annoying! Aren't you eager to get back in there?! I want to see if all this training and my system is really working!"

Applejack strained hard, squeezing her eyes shut and sweating bullets down the side of her face.

"Twi... later.. please?"

Twilight blinked and looked down into the pleading eyes of the orange mare whose back she was perched on.

"Oops.. aheh.. S.. Sorry!"

She curled her hooves up under herself and held still as Applejack grunted her thanks and began to move again. Ten more pushups and she finally gave a triumphant grunt before collapsing on the floor. Her drop was a bit too quick and Twilight tumbled off with a squeak.

"Two.. hundred.. and.. fifty..."

Applejack panted as she lay on the cool wood floor in the libraries basement. She rolled onto her back and splayed her legs out. Her chest heaved up and down as she struggled to catch her breath. Twilight rubbed her backside a bit as she stood up and looked over to watch her friend recuperate.

"I think that may be enough for now AJ. You should probably take the rest of the afternoon to rest and let the muscles heal up."

"Oh thank you sweet Celestia..."

Twilight chuckled and trotted to the other side of the room where a wooden counter had been recently set up, with a small fridge and several bowls of fruits and vegetables. As Applejack's breathing slowly returned to normal Twilight started gathering several ingredients together.

Applejack opened her eyes as she heard the quick whining noise of a blender set to high speeds. A few seconds later Twilight trotted back with an unholy looking green concoction. Twilight grinned and lowered the drink down next to Applejack. She watched it for a second, noting the large green bubble slowly form and pop with a wet, somewhat vulgar noise.

"Twi, how long am I gonna have to keep drinkin' this slop? It ain't really fit to feed to the pigs, nevertheless a poor overworked farm pony."

Twilight chuckled at the sincere look of hopelessness in Applejacks face and moved the drink a little closer.

"Come on now, we talked about this. Whey proteins, eggs, carrots and lots of other good stuff are in here to help make you nice and tough! Your push-ups have already improved significantly in a remarkably short amount of time, partly thanks to this decently designed and definitely delightful dietary dish!"

Applejack couldn't help but wonder what was more likely to make her ill, the healthy, but disgusting, drink, or Twilights obsession with alliteration.

With a sigh of resignation she took the cup and loudly gulped down the vile mixture. The taste really was indescribably bad, but it was also filling, and Applejack had to admit, she seemed to have far more energy these past few days, and she'd needed it, with Twilight's brutal workout regiment.

She belched loudly and set the set the glass down on the counter next to her. Twilight shot her a disapproving look, causing Applejack to give a light chuckle of embarrassment.

"Pardon." she said demurely and after a moment the two friends burst out in laughter.

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Total Pages ran like the wind. A very slow, out of shape version of the wind, but like the wind none the less!

He screeched to a stop at the front of Ponyville library, taking large gulping breaths. The trip from the arena had been a long one, and was much farther than he was used to going at this pace, but his excitement had carried him here with only one or two quick stops for some water. And a snack or two. And of course that yogurt stand.

"I can't.. believe.. I ran... so far.."

"We were running?"

Pages turned to glare at Scootaloo, who was sitting next to him with a confused look on her face. He rolled his eyes and opened the front door of the library. Inside he found Twilight and Applejack sitting at the central table enjoying a light lunch of sliced melons and grape juice.

"Hey! There's my favorite Fighting Pony!"

Applejack looked up with a big grin, while Twilight gave him a more cool gaze. Pages gulped a little, remembering the contract negotiations and how horrifyingly adept this little purple unicorn had been at making sure his percentage was a small as possible. She didn't seem to have forgive him yet for his earlier mistakes.

"Howdy Pages! Any word yet from anyone?"

"Oh yeah!" he scrounged through his saddlebags for a moment and pulled out some paperwork.

"I just need you to sign the pre-fight confirmation here, and we've got you all set up for tomorrow night."

A purple aura surrounded the papers and took them from Total Pages mouth. Twilight floated them over and began to inspect them for any funny stuff. Applejack eyed them for a minute, but it was all in fancy lawyer talk so she turned her attention back to Pages.

"So who all am I fightin' anyway?" Pages grinned widely at the question his chest puffing up a bit.

"Guys name is Slammer. He's a bit old school but he's also a crowd favorite. We'll get a bunch of ponies to show up for this fight! Lots of name recognition! As long as you put up a good fight you'll get plenty of new fans, even if you lose!"

"I ain't gonna lose. So I imagine i'll be gettin' quite a bit more." Applejacks stare was cold and frightening. Pages flinched a bit under its intensity and loosened his collar with one hoof.

"He's an ex-boxer, so you'll have to actually be careful this time!"

The three ponies turned to face Scootaloo, who had been standing behind Pages.

"Heya lil'Scoots! Ya tag along just to help Totals here bring me the news?"

Scootaloo stretched her wings and trotted over to Applejack, hopping up and down excitedly.

"Nah, I can't stay for more than a minute. I gotta meet up with the other Crusaders soon. We're gonna try and get our cutie marks at the Slalom skateboarding!"

The three adult ponies gave each other nervous glances at this disturbing bit of news before turning back to the little orange pegasus. Applejack cleared her throat.

"Uh.. yeah, well.. So, what can you tell me about this Slammer fellah'?"

"They call him 'One-Two-Three' Slammer for a reason. He's pretty well trained from his old days in the boxing circuit. Oh, and he always finishes off his opponent with the same combo."

Twilight had been telling Applejack about the idea behind Combos a few days before. How had she put it? 'A swift collection of memorized and practiced attacks where, if one hits, the rest should hit together in a flow.'

"Well, you said he's an ex-boxer, right? Shoot, but that's some good news! I been practicin' boxin' all week now!" Applejack stood up quickly and gave a few shadow boxing punches which earned her a raised eyebrow from Scootaloo and a concerned look from Twilight.

"Applejack! You can't take on a professional like that! Yes, you've been practicing for a few days, but how long has he been practicing boxing? Probably his whole life!"

Applejack blinked and sat down as she pondered this. She supposed Twilight was right, after all, even if a pony as athletic as Rainbow Dash studied hard at apple-bucking for a week or two, she'd never be as good at it as Applejack was.

"Shoot, I suppose ya'all are right. Well, then, what do I do?"

"You do what I told you before," Scootaloo turned and made her way to the door.

"You fight like you."

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The next day, Applejack was spending the afternoon napping in one of her favorite groves. The trees were healing nicely from their infection, but it was too late in the season for another crop. The Running of the leaves was just a few days away, and while Rainbow Dash was still stuck in Cloudsdale, and likely would remain so for most of the fall, Applejack was still looking forward to the race this year. She really had to make up for the humiliation of losing to Twilight last year and intended to spend as much time as possible hounding her favorite little bookworm.

Twilight had insisted she take the rest of the day to rest and only do some light exercise in the morning, so as to let herself heal up from the previous days workout. Applejack wasn't going to argue with that. Her muscles were still a bit sore, but a long hot bath after breakfast and some stretching had loosened them up nicely.

She wasn't really asleep, just snoozing, barely awake and aware of the world around her, her mind mostly shut down and listening to the wind whistle through the apple trees. It was her listening that let her notice the gentle clopping noise of hooves on dirt as someone made their way through the grove, stopping nearby.

"Why are you going back?"

Applejack frowned at the voice and lifted a hoof to push up the brim of her hat. Pinkie stared at her with a firm and angry expression on her face, but her words had been soft, almost gentle. Applejack rolled her eyes and raised her eyebrow.

"None of your dern' business. Now stop buggin me over it."

Pinkie lowered her head and moved a few steps closer.

"That's not good enough. You're going to get hurt. You should stop. Not just for you, but for your family! What if something happened to you? You aren't thinking this through!!"

Applejack couldn't take it anymore. For the past week Pinkie would stop and find her, every day, trying to tell her what to do. Couldn't she understand? Didn't she see how important this was? Applejack suddenly leapt to her feet and with startling speed moved till she was inches from Pinkie's snout. The pink ponies eyes went wide with shock and she scrambled backwards, falling onto her rump and scooting back against a tree.

"I said, stop buggin me! I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but I'm doin' what I wants to, and you ain't gettin' in my way" Applejack punctuated her sentence by poking Pinkie in the chest.

With that the farm pony angrily stormed past Pinkie and made her way back to the farm, leaving her friend to sit amongst the trees, hurt and alone.

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Down under the arena, the locker rooms were surprisingly busy. There were dozens of fights scheduled for that night. Applejacks fight was just one of many, but it did seem to be one of the bigger ones going on this night.

She toweled herself off and put her hat in the locker, slamming it shut. She sat down and took a deep breath to calm her nerves when she heard a gruff voice behind her.

"Applejack, Right?"

She turned around to see an older Earth Pony, with a navy blue coat and a short cut pink mane. He was a stout pony, a little shorter than Applejack, and almost as broad as he was tall. He had the grizzled look of a veteran boxer, and a snout that a bit too twisted from being broken a few to many times.

"Uh.. yeah.. And you must be Slammer?"

"Yup! Thought i'd pop over and introduce myself before the nights fight."

While he spoke with a pleasant tone, his voice had a natural growl to it, like he'd gargled with acid. The effect made almost everything he said seem slightly threatening. Still, he seemed amicable enough and there was something about his no-nonsense manner that immediately appealed to Applejack.

"Well that's right sportin' of ya! I do appreciate that ya'all agreed to go in fer this fight. We was havin' a heap a trouble finding someone for my next bout."

"Pleasure is all mine. Truth is, I was in the crowd last week, got to watch your fight with Hard Rock, and It got me kind of curious. I'd like to see what else you can do, or if you're a one trick pony."

Applejack blinked at his frankness and gave the shorter pony a slightly accusing look

"And what all is that supposed to mean?"

"Just what I said. Hard Rock is a muscle-head. Nice guy and all, and really strong, but not the arena champ for a reason. All he's got is power. Sure, he can take a lickin' and needs a bit of time before you can knock him down, but as long as you're quick, you'll eventually wear him out."

Applejack listened intently as the Boxer leaned back on his hind legs and did a few quick jabs at his shadow. She was impressed by how fast and smooth the motions were, compared to Slammer, Applejack realized she was slow as a snail and more clumsy than a cow in the cider stores.

"Now take a look at Titan. He's got power, and he knows how to use it. Even if he wasn't as strong as he is, he'd be a heck of a fighter. He's fast, clever, and adaptive. He learns from his fights too. Every time i face him, he's stronger than the last. There was a time, back when he was first starting that I could give him a few licks. These days, I can barely touch him"

Slammer went back to all fours and frowned deeply.

"I can't learn like he can. He picks things up so fast, it's incredible."

"Why do you fight?"

The two of them were quiet for a few seconds at the sudden interruption. Applejacks eyes went wide as she realized that she was the one who asked the sudden question. Slammer turned to face the farm pony and gave a small smile.

"Now that's a good question. Shows thought. I like it."

He sat down and leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms and tapping his chin with a hoof.

"I always wanted to box. Grew up next to a gym back in Phillydelphia, met some of the old legends back then. I wanted to be in their ranks. For a while there I was."

Applejack found herself sitting down and watching the older pony with rapt attention. His face had a small self satisfied smile, and his eyes a distant faraway look, caught in some old memories that only he could see.

"My manager needed a champ, a big name to ride the gravy train, and I was a good pony for the show. You might not know it now, young lady, but I was quite the looker in my day."

He gave Applejack a wink and she chuckled at his playful attitude and smiled gently, waving a hoof to prompt him on. Slammer gave a deep sigh and returned to his story, casting his eyes down.

"So I was handsome, popular, and I could fight pretty good. But apparently not good enough. I found out my manager was paying off anyone he thought I couldn't beat. And that was a surprising number. Three champion belts. Dozens of tournaments. I never found out how many I really won with my fists as opposed to his cash. When i found out, I went to the press myself. That's probably what saved me from the worst of it. I didn't know it was happening, and I had been the one to talk. I still lost everything. All the money, all the crowds and myself. I had nothing. I was a complete failure."

Applejack swallowed hard, eyes wide as she stared at Slammer. His eyes were closed and he leaned his head back resting it on the cool stone wall behind him. For a moment, his shoulder slumped, and instead of a middle aged boxer, he looked like an old, defeated pony. Someone whose time had passed him by. With a snort he leaned forward, a look of grim determination on his face.

"That's when I came to the Arena. I was one of the first fighters here twelve years ago when it opened in Ponyville. This place gave me another chance, and it gave me my life back. I may never be the number one fighter here, but that doesn't matter anymore. Here I can be honest with myself, I can let my real emotions out. No one here thinks of me as an old cheater, as a failure from decades past. I have respect here, win or lose. Here, I am "One-Two-Three" Slammer."

He stood up and grinned broadly at Applejack flexing his muscles a bit and stretching some more. Applejack was so caught up in reflecting over his words that she barely noticed.

"Ha! Think you're a clever girl, huh? Thought you'd mess with my mind and bring up old failures, take a shot at my confidence? Well it didn't work! I'm more pumped up than before!"

Applejack looked up in surprise and raised her hooves to explain, but he winked playfully at her again and trotted in a small circle, letting her know it was just a joke. She relaxed and smiled back as he made his way down the hall to his side of the arena. Applejack sat in thought, remembering what he had said. Here, you could be honest with yourself. In the arena, she could let it all out.

"Hey, AJ!"

Scootaloo trotted quickly into the room, carrying her bucket and towel. When Applejack didn't respond, she screwed up her face a bit and moved closer to the fighter before giving a loud shout

"HEY APPLEJACK!"

"What? Who? Which!?"

Scootaloo giggled as the surprised Farm pony hopped onto her bench and circled around two or three times before finally noticing Scootaloo.

"Ah shucks, don't spook me like that!"

The tiny Pegasus grinned widely and turned around to begin heading up the stirs, she gave a wave of her tail to beckon Applejack to follow her.

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"So here's the thing to remember, he likes his combinations. He knows a whole bunch of them so he can change them quickly, but in a long fight, he tends to fall into a pattern. Be really carefully of his right hoof, he tends to lead with that one."

"Right hoof, gotcha."

"He also always finishes with a particular three hit combo, it's kind of his signature. Right jab, left hook, right cross. If you think he's starting that combo up, you HAVE to stop him or get out of the way! Even Titan avoids Slammers right cross."

"Huh, One, two three..."

"Exactly! Let's go!"

This was a larger ring than last time, and a much larger venue in general. This time around the place was packed, not an empty seat in the house. From behind the curtain, Applejack poked her nose out to see if she could spot Twilight and Rarity. After a few seconds of searching she saw they had secured seats just a few rows from the ring itself. Rarity looked attentive, but a bit bored at the moment, while Twilight was nearly hopping up and down in her seat and appeared to be talking in an animated fashion at her companion.

The announcers voice echoed through the arena.

"Fillies and Gentlecolts! Our next match brings back everyone's favorite boxer! Sure to show us his stuff and prove again that no-pony out punches the greats! It's "One-Two-Three" SLAMMER!!!"

The crowd went wild, chanting the name along with the announcer and then continuing to chant it over and over again. 'One, two, three! One, two, three! One, two, three!'

The shorter Pony made his way down the aisle tot he arena, stopping to shake hooves here and there before hopping the ropes onto the dirt floor. He stood up and did a few quick combos for the crowd before settling back on his hooves and giving them one last wave.

"And his Challenger, on her second fight, and hailing from the outer reaches of Sweet Apple Acres, the Undefeated APPLEJACK!"

As Applejack and Scootaloo made their way down to the arena, she was startled by the cheering crowd. A few were booing at her, but most of them were yelling either in support, or just general excitement. Their energy washed over her and she grinned broadly before jumping into the ring. She turned around and give Scootaloo one last wink before heading for the center to meet her opponent.

The two earth ponies stood a few inches apart and reached out to touch hooves. Slammer gave an encouraging smile to the younger pony.

"Hey, I know you're still green, so what say, after this, I give you a few sparring lessons. We'll get the moves into you, and I'll bet you'll be pretty good. I promise I won't beat you too senseless tonight."

Applejack laughed at his brazen attitude and grinned wickedly.

"We'll see who is teachin' who when it's all done."

The two nodded at each other and backed off to their corners.

After a few seconds of waiting the bell rang and Applejack charged forward, she turned hard on her heal, just like when she was bucking apples at high speed turning around and shoting her legs out at her opponent. She missed completely.

Suddenly, instead of behind her, Slammer was beside her, three rapid hits beat a quick tattoo into her side causing Applejack to curl up and roll away. She came to her hooves just in time to find Slammer right in her snout. She glanced down and watched as his hooves came up and struck her in the chest, another quick set of punches that knocked the wind right out of her.

Applejack fell to her knees gasping for breath and then rolled on pure instinct, saving herself from a vicious uppercut. She turned and stood on her hind legs, bringing her forelimbs up to protect her face and chest.

Scootaloo gave a cry of despair and stamped her hooves on the Floor of the ring. The crowd cheered wildly as Slammer came in for more attacks. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three.

The punches were different but the tempo was always the same. Applejack forced herself to keep her eyes open and watch as the bruises began to pile up on her limbs. Right hook, left Hook, left jab. Right jab, left cross, Right overhand. Swing, Jab, Straight.

I can do this, she thought to herself, I need to fight back, I learned these moves too, I can do this!

Her hooves shot forward in a series of clumsy punches. Slammer frowned and either blocked or deflected the attempted hits with ease. She could actually see him shaking his head in disappointment at her ineffective attacks. Applejacks eyes widened when she saw him step back from an obvious open she had accidentally generated. He was Testing her! He wasn't using his full strength at all! He was toying with her! With the Undefeated Applejack! HOW DARE HE!

Applejacks face screwed up in fury and she renewed her attack with vigor faster now, and stronger, but still she couldn't land a solid blow with her clumsy little punches. Growing more frustrated, she did a quick spin, and again lashed out for one of her more vicious bucks, and again, he simply stepped to the right. He countered with a familiar series of strong blows on her side.

This time though, he stopped playing. He came at Applejack again and again, harder blows raining down now, attacks she could barely block, too fast to dodge. She saw the look in his eye, the intensity of his gaze and knew that this was his real strength. Fun time was over. He had judged her, and found her wanting.

Applejack tried to break off, to give herself some space, but Slammer was too fast, he kept pressing her back making her take longer and faster steps away to try and avoid the constant barrage. The crowd was booing now, disappointed at her pathetic performance. Little more than meat for Slammer to pulverize, the one sided fight was almost boring them.

Panting in desperation she tried to move back once more and then stumbled slightly, leaving her left side wide open. Everything seemed to slow down as she saw the right jab come directly for her face.

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Applejack felt the hoof press into the center of her face. The whole world seemed to be moving so slowly, she could feel the pressure of the hoof increase. It moved like molasses, the pain crawling across her jaw and into her skull. The lights overhead seemed to burn her face, her eyes, her whole body.

Everything was compressed by the blow, her eye's rolled back into her head, but she didn't have time to even stagger a step back before the second blow struck, this time from the other side. This blow was even harder, and her teeth shook and her world slowly started to turn black.

She knew there was something to this. Something she had to do. She had to remember...

If she could just remember...

She wanted so much to win. More than anything, even as she saw his shoulder drop back and his right foreleg curl back.

No, she didn't want to win.

Here, in the Arena, she could be honest with herself.

She NEEDED to win, and nothing was going to stop her.

Slammer always finished with a right cross.

Applejacks hoof shot up and met Slammers. His eyes widened at the sudden movement and he stared down. It was like bunching a steel wall. Her hoof had come up so suddenly and stopped his dead. He bounced backwards to give himself some space but suddenly found that he didn't have any.

Her hooves flew thew the air, faster than before, than as fast as his own punches, than faster. His eyes widened as he blocked and dodged as best he could, but he couldn't do so nearly as cleanly. She came at him with incredible speed, and with a precision that simply wasn't there before. He saw her bring in a quick three part attack that bashed his forelegs heavily and caught a glancing blow to his chest when he tried to dodge.

It's impossible, he thought to himself, these are MY attacks! But it was happening, incredibly, impossibly, she was using his own moves, attacks he had taken years to perfect and train himself for, she was mimicking with uncanny precision. Gone were her sloppy slow jabs with the poorly raised elbow, and the clumsy footwork.

In it's place was a pony who could box with a power and speed that rivaled his own. No, he had to be true to himself. She was stronger and faster, and get getting more so by the minute.

He was stunned by the turn around, he couldn't even think properly by the sudden change. No one improves like this! No one gets this much better in the course of one fight!

As he tried desperately to re-maneuver himself, he locked eyes with his opponent and almost froze. Applejacks eyes had become hard and determined, harder than steel, harder than anything he had ever seen before. Slammer found himself staring into those incredible eyes and realized that he was going to lose.

Her blows slowed for only a second as she dropped her right shoulder and leaned back, a right cross! HIS right cross! No time to dodge, Slammer brought his forelegs together, he had to block this shot, a hit to his face would send him flying, and may even end the match before he could recover from his shock.

The blow never came, instead, She kept spinning dropping her whole torso down. A feint! and he had fallen for it. He saw her spin back onto her forehooves and realized that he had no time to dodge now. It was a good move. He couldn't have dodged a cross, but he could have dodged her buck. Now there was no time to dodge an attack he had seem throw a pony three times his own weight right out of the ring. It didn't matter what he did next.

So, as the powerful hind legs shot towards his exposed stomach, and certain victory, Slammer smiled.

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Down in the locker rooms Applejack, Scootaloo, Twilight and Rarity all celebrated the farm ponies second win. Apple juice bottles were passed happily around even as Applejack sat back and let Rarity inspect her for any permanent damage. Other than a lot of bruises and some blood coming from her nose, Applejack seemed in fine condition. Her snout hurt a bit, but it was just compressed, and hadn't broken from the hit.

An embarassed cough caught their attention and they all turned to see Slammer hobbling his way into the room. He moved slowly and sat down as soon as he got to the nearest bench. The girls stopped their chattering and moved closer to the defeated boxer.

"Oh you poor darling, Applejack just brutalized you didn't she? Really Applejack, did you need to kick him so hard?"

"Uh, yeah, I did. He's a tough feller and nothin' but my best was gonna do the job!"

"Those moves were fascinating! None of my books had anything like those attacks you gave! Can I ask you a bit about the methods behind how you created such effective attacks?"

Slammer laughed loudly as the white unicorn checked his chest for broken bones and bruises. She seemed to know a few other tricks too and was helping sooth his pain much more effectively than the medics had. Or maybe it was just nice to have a bunch of pretty young girls fawning over him again. Applejack scratched the back of her head and looked at him with slight embarrassment.

"Actually, Slammer, I'm glad you're here. I was wondering if that offer you made in the ring was real. I'd sure like to take you up on that if'n it is!"

Slammer blinked and closed his eyes, shaking his head incredulously.

"It was serious when I made it. But now it would be pointless." Twilight and Applejack exchanged glances while Rarity simply nodded her head and continued to some of the injured boxers bruises.

"You were sloppy at first, but you picked it up so fast. Applejack, I am not the teacher for you. You're so much stronger than I am. What you need.. I don't even know what you need, but I know that your gift is beyond me."

Applejack blushed a bit and pulled her hat down over her face. Behind the brim she grinned wildly to herself. This old vet thought she was stronger than him! She couldn't believe how good this made her feel, how wonderful it was to have this pony's respect.

The other ponies chatted and laughed, still caught up in the sense of excitement.

Applejack took a deep breath and felt calm and proud. Two fights in, and she was still Undefeated.

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"Potential compatibility ratings confirmed at 68%"

"That's a 15 point jump in a week!"

"It's unprecedented! Resend the Simulacrum, and this time make sure you bring back some sympathetic materials!"

"Yes sir!"

Comments

[CamWeck]

Okay, there's chapter three for anyone still reading.

Some actual action going on now, so with luck that'll keep peoples attentions a bit better.

I think i'm getting the hang of this, my pacing seems to be a bit better this time around.

I promise, if you stick with me, I've got an interesting long term storyline!

Any feedback is much appreciated!

[Y1]

Ah I love a good boxing story. Or MMA in this case, but whatever. This story has a few grammar issues, but it's no where near bad enough to earn itself a 3 to 2 rating. As far as first fics go it's pretty darn good (A hell of a lot better than mine was), and I look forward to seeing you improve as a writer. That said, the scene with slammer when he said "I have nothing to teach you" had my bullshit detectors flaring. Applejack is a gifted fighter? Cool. She can learn everything a professional has learned in his entire career after just one fight? Not buying it.
Also, seriously keep developing the situation outside the ring. I really do want to see the personal consequences for all of this. Keep writing, I am enjoying this.

[Biker_Dash]

Almost wondering if your gonna have to add another tag to this story soon... just a gut feeling that Twilight is starting to have feelings for a certain orange ass kickin pony

[CamWeck]

Y1FELLAS YOU BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU MAKE CONCISE, REASONABLE AND LEGITIMATE CRITICISMS OF MY WORK!

I HAVE GONE AND CORRECTED THE LINE IN QUESTION PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CRITIQUE.

NOW I SHALL GO AND HAVE PUDDING.