Makes Me That Much Stronger

[Rahne Sinclair]

(September 5th, open to all females in the fights as this takes place in the ladies locker room. This is about a half an hour before the fights. Female teachers might come in if they want to offer moral support.)

Rahne flexed her claws. She was in half human, half wolf form, testing out the feral skin before she went out to battle. Astrid was who she was to fight. And who was this girl? Would she be able to handle a feral beast of a creature that Rahne possibly could not control? Rahne didn't know. But the girl might show up in the locker room; Rahne could confront her then. Ask if she was alright with the fight, ask if...if she could handle herself.

Rahne wasn't sure she could even handle her own demons. 

She looked at herself in the mirror. What she saw as she shifted back was a scared teenager. Her russet hair was tied back in a low ponytail, her slender body dressed in a pair of tight black biker shorts and a sports bra. The pair would shift quite easily with her; invented with unstable molecules like herself by Xavier himself. She bit her lip and placed the cross around her neck in the locker that was hers, staring at the golden object. 

Babs meanwhile, was pacing, trying to figure out how to get out of this fight with Scootaloo.

[Astrid]

Astrid tugged her tie off as she entered the locker room. She didn't have much against the uniform on a good day; but in combat, it would just get in her way and give her opponent something to use against her. As soon as she'd heard she was expected to participate today, the blonde girl had stopped by here earlier in the day to leave her stuff for the coming fight, so she hadn't had anything to collect after class. Her battleaxe was propped up against the far wall, the bag that held her casual outfit tucked behind it, out of the way. She quickly took in the others present - a red-haired girl and a pony - giving a brief nod of acknowledgement to the other human as she crossed over to her stuff, stripping out of her school shirt as she did. In spite of everything, it was going to be a relief to return to her familiar clothes, and within minutes Astrid was clad in her much more practical - and comfortable - viking garb.

"I'm so glad we don't have to wear the uniform for the fights. I've never seem more impractical clothing," the comment was casual, and addressed to the other human girl as Astrid finished tying her armoured shoulder-pads into place. Now, she felt ready; whoever this 'Wolfsbane' character was, Astrid felt confident that she could take him or her on.

---

Scootaloo felt physically sick. She'd been trying all day to think of a way to get out of fighting Babs, to the point of visibly not focusing on any of her classes, but the pegasus filly still couldn't think of anything. So it was with head held low, ears drooping, and tiny wings fluttering with anxiety that the winged pony followed Astrid into the girls' locker room. Like her fellow fire circle member, Scoot had come straight from her last class of the day; unlike the viking, however, the orange filly hadn't even begun taking her uniform off. Instead, she had just hopped up onto one of the benches where she lay, wishing this could all be over. How could she fight her fellow crusader?

[Arietta]

Arietta sat in the corner of the locker room, hearing the comment about not having to wear uniforms made her feel a little better but not much. She wanted to curl up into a small ball and disappear. Maybe cry a little. She knew that she was going to be no match for the green haired boy known as Sync. Sure, she had talked a big game but in the end, he had only laughed at her. Hugging her doll close to her, she walked over to a small pegasus who seemed to look more nervous than she was.

"A-are you okay?" she asked. "Are you nervous too?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight had thought of just about every spell she could use to potentially get herself and Pinkie out of this, but no matter what she thought of she came up empty-hooved. Teleporting Pinkie and herself out seemed like the best idea, but it was a taxing spell and she tended to only use it on herself to prevent being worn out too much. She didn't want to blast Pinkie like she had done to the changelings that she and her friends had fought in Canterlot. Maybe a tickling spell? Perhaps she could just tickle Pinkie into submission and be done with it...

Purple ears pressed back against her head for what had to be the millionth time that day and a soft sigh followed. There was no getting out of the fight, it seemed. She and Pinkie would just have to suffer through it and find some way to get on with everything before them. In the end, she was sure she and Pinkie would still be friends. Pinkie wasn't as strong as Applejack, so that ruled out the possibility of the party pony hurting her, but still... Twilight hoped she was right in assuming the two would still be friends when it was all said and done.

"I just hope she's prepared for whatever we end up doing," Twilight murmured. For the first time, she glanced around the locker room and took notice of the other girls that were present. Where was Pinkie? She could see Scootaloo, but not the party pony. Strange...

[Rahne Sinclair]

"I'm so glad we don't have to wear the uniform for the fights. I've never seem more impractical clothing.

A human to speak to. Rahne smiled sheepishly and nodded as she stared at her locker. "Aye," she said, "Tha' it 'tis." She leaned back, sitting on the wooden bench beneath her. "Tis been a bit since I wore such garb. Casual clothing is much more suited to my...abilities." She bit her lip, the religious girl reaching forward, wishing it was practical to bring her cross into battle. She didn't know who she was fighting however. They might be smart enough to grab onto it.

She peered at the girl before her. "Is tha' not heavy?" Rahne asked curiously, "I mean...it won't hinder you in a fight?"

***

"Aw man, der you are Scootaloo," Babs said, almost tripping on her tie as she approached the pegasus, "I think...I'm gonna pretend I'm sick. Yeah, that might work. What if we both just staht sneezin'?"

[Scootaloo]

"I'm not sure I need to pretend." Indeed, the winged filly really didn't look well; the idea of fighting Babs had been making her feel steadily worse all day, and by this point Scootaloo actually felt as though she might throw up at any moment. The little pegasus shifted uncomfortably in her uniform. She didn't want to do this; but somehow, they had both made it here, and she doubted anyone would let them off the hook that easily.

"It's a better idea than any I've had," she confessed, sparing a moment to glance at the human who had addressed her. The girl's pink hair didn't strike Scoot as at all odd; pony manes came in all different colours, so it was natural for her to assume that human hair did, too. "Nervous doesn't begin to cover it," the filly replied dejectedly. "I have to fight one of my best friends."

---

Astrid glanced down at the battleaxe in her hand. She supposed it must look like a bit of a hinderance to anyone who hadn't been raised using viking-made weaponry, but she'd got so used to it that the axe felt more like an extension of her body; she would have felt naked going into combat without it. "Not really. I wouldn't choose any other weapon," she replied, hefting it in hand. Of course, the other girl might find it heavy; but vikings - with the notable exception of Hiccup - were practically bred to be strong so it didn't bother Astrid at all.

"Do you know the person you're going to be fighting?" she enquired. Apparently some of them there did, she had noticed; but for herself, Astrid had no idea who 'Wolfsbane' was. She wondered if she was the only one to not be familiar with her opponent.

[Arietta]

Arietta nodded at Scoot's situation. "I'm sorry, I hope you two get out of it okay." She didn't want two young horses to go and kill each other. Was this fight to the death? No, that couldn't be right. The first fights were never that violent...were they? It was too bad that they weren't in the same circle, then they wouldn't have to fight each other.

The idea of feeling sick though, could that get them out of it. Babs suggestion stuck in her mind, the chances were that her opponent would still show no mercy on her even if she was sick. "I don't think being sick could get you out of this." she said sadly. If she had been a puppy, her eyes would have been big and ears drooped.

"I know that wishing you both luck won't help but it's the best I could do."

[Rahne Sinclair]

"Do you know the person you're going to be fighting?"

Rahne shook her head, shutting the locker and turning the key as she spoke. "No," she said softly, "I don't. I hope tis no' someone small or weak. I could no' handle that." Rahne strangely felt comfortable talking to the girl so she decided to continue.

"Back at home we used tae fight large creatures an' humans with super powers." She smoothed her shorts nervously. "But I suppose ye know all about Danger, what with tha' axe ye carry. Did ye have tae use it often?"

****

Babs was ignoring Arrietta; not out of cruelty, mind you, but because she was concerned with fighting Scootaloo. Her ears dropped, mouth in an 'o' shape as she spoke. "I have to fight one of my best friends."

"Best...best friends...? Aw geez." Babs bit her lip and blew her hair out of her face. "I can't do this. I can't! It's not fair!" She stomped her hoof on the ground and had an angry blaze in her eye.

"They did dis on purpose!"

[Astrid]

"I don't think I've got anything to worry about on that account," she replied to Rahne's sentiment. The idea of taking on someone who couldn't fight well didn't appeal to Astrid either; but she figured she was okay. "My opponent's called Wolfsbane; I don't know who that is, but that sounds like a name for someone tough." She watched the girl for a moment, wondering if the auben-haired girl might recognise the name, before adressing her question.

"Back home, we used to fight dragons," the blonde returned, casual as though that was nothing out of the ordinary. In all fairness, for Astrid's time, it wasn't out of the ordinary. "I trained myself to use this even before I was old enough to learn to fight them, so that I'd have a good idea of what I was doing when the time came. Of course, now we don't fight dragons, we ride them instead..." Astrid shrugged a little, brushed her loose strands of hair away from her eye. Still, she carried the axe out of habit, and remained more than capable of using it.

---

Scoot looked vaguely puzzled at Babs' surprise. The other girl was a fellow sister in Crusaderhood; that automatically made her a best friend, in the young pegasus' eyes. Maybe not quite the level that Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were at, but close enough. "I don't want to do this, either," she agreed, finally hopping down from the bench to stand beside Babs. Had they been picked to fight on purpose? Scoot wasn't sure; it certainly seemed like someone was working against them in arranging this, though.

Purple-maned filly was still feeling awful about the coming fight, but she was coming up with nothing so far as avoiding it was concerned. There was literaly only one thing she could think of to do at this point. Waving for Babs to follow, Scoot trotted over to the other familiar face in the room. If anyone could see a way out of this, it had to be Twilight; everyone knew she was one of the smartest ponies in Ponyville. But even then, Scootaloo wasn't hopeful. If the unicorn already knew a way out of this, why would she be waiting around to fight one of her own friends?

"Twilight, can you help us? Me and Babs are meant to fight each other, and we don't want to."