Sisterhood Put to the Test

[Scootaloo]

[[Sept 5th. Scoot and Babs' fight; I decided it was time to get it underway. Open to them, and anyone who wants to watch - preferably Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Rainbow Dash.]]


All their attempts at trying to plan a way out had come to nothing.

The orange filly's knees knocked together as she stood just inside the field of battle, trying not to think of the pounding that awaited her. The little pegasus was nervous - no, scratch that, she was terrified. Babs was strong, tough and probably had plenty of Manehattan street-fighting skills that would see her to an easy victory; while Scootaloo herself... what could she even do? She was just a little orphan pegasus from Ponyville who had no special talent and couldn't even fly yet. While she might be able to give her friend a bruise or two, Scoot was absolutely certain that she was going to get the stuffing pounded out of her.

She'd been in too much of a state in the locker room to even think of changing out of her uniform, and so the young filly was still clad in the white shirt, grey skirt and red tie that she'd been wearing all week. If she'd stopped to think, Scoot might have realised how bad an idea it was to keep the outfit on in the arena where a tie could quickly become a choking hazard; in her concern about taking on Babs, however, the thought hadn't occured to her in the slightest.

Rather than look across the arena to where her fellow crusader would be emerging any moment, Scoot's violet gaze instead roamed the stands. Somewhere up there, she was sure Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle would be watching... and maybe even Rainbow Dash, who the filly had glimpsed around the school once or twice. While under any other circumstances, the idea of the rainbow-maned pegasus paying attention to her would have made Scootaloo ecstatic, right now the filly really hoped Dash wasn't present. There was no way she was going to be impressing her idol here today.

[Babs Seed]

Babs wasn't sure how exactly to approach this.

Her ears pinned back, an annoyed look on her face. Was she supposed to be tough like she was during her fights at her old school? Was she supposed to bash Scootaloo around, slam her face into the ground? She wasn't sure. She didn't want to end up in trouble at all. But she didn't want to fight with her friend! She gritted her teeth together as she trotted into the ring. The bigger filly was wearing nothing. She'd not prepped for the fight. She'd pretty much just threw off the uniform. She wished she had worn her cutie mark crusader cape. Something that bonded the two of them together. Before everything fell apart.

She spotted Scootaloo and her eyes grew wide. This wasn't like a hockey game where there were announcers. They were just expected to fight it out. She winced before speaking.

"Uh...I can't...ah'm...I dunno what at do here, Scoots..."

[Scootaloo]

Perhaps she should have thought to change; it was only belatedly that the thought occured to Scootaloo as she saw that Babs had ditched her own uniform. She must have looked quite stupid, Scoot figured, still done up in her shirt and tie as she ventured forward to take her pounding; but it was far too late to think of doing anything about it now. The little pegasus swallowed nervously, worked her tie a mite looser with one hoof, and stepped in closer to face Babs. Her tiny wings fluttered behind her in apprehention.

There was, Scoot knew, only one way she might even stand a chance at making it out of here the victor, and that was to hit Babs before Babs could hit her. But for all Babs' toughness... the orange filly wasn't sure she could do it. She remembered when she and her fellow crusaders had first learnt that Babs had suffered from bullying, the awful realisation that they'd become bullies in return; wouldn't the same be true if she struck the first blow against her friend?

"I guess we just have to do this. It's not fair, and it's not right, but..." they hadn't been left a way out, basically. If they refused... well, Scootaloo had glimpsed the stocks for herself just earlier that day. They hadn't been a place she'd wanted to spend any time at all in, much less a whole week. If fighting was what they had to do, then... she grit her teeth.

"Hey Babs... crusader sisters no matter what, right?" The winged filly waited only as long as it took for Babs to agree; and then she whipped around to place her back to the bigger filly and, with all the force she could bring herself to muster, kicked both her hind legs straight into Babs' jaw.

At least if Babs ended up beating her into a pulp, which Scoot was sure would happen in the end, she wouldn't need to feel so guilty about having struck first.



(ooc: speaking of the stocks, Babs, could you maybe answer my questions regarding them from the announcement thread? Thanks a lot ^^)

[Deleted]

As much as her two friends didn't want to fight, Apple Bloom really didn't want to watch. Yet there she was sitting in the stands and keeping her eyes focused on the two crusaders down below. Her ears were pressed back and her eyes filled with concern for both Babs and Scootaloo. How was this even going to end? She didn't know who to root for by that point. On the one hand, Scootaloo was one of her best friends and everything. On the other hand, Babs was her cousin. Who was she supposed to cheer on in this big old hunk of a mess?

"C'mon, y'all... You can get through this. ...Ah hope," Apple Bloom said. She really didn't know who was going to win this particular fight. Babs was an earth pony, and earth ponies were supposed to have all this strength in them, but Scootaloo could probably hold her own in a fight like this. All she could do was watch whatever was going to happen.

[Babs Seed]

"Hey Babs... crusader sisters no matter what, right?"

Babs felt warm as she looked at Scootaloo. She smiled, short tail almost wagging as she raised a hoof. "Yeah girl, crusader sistas no matta-"

She gasped as Scootaloo's back hooves cracked against her jaw. THAT took the Manehattan filly off guard. She stumbled back, ultimately falling on her chest. Her green orbs widened as she looked up at the flightless Pegasus. Her cheeks flared red. She was embarrassed. She was furious. How could she let Scootaloo get the drop on her? HER?

She stood to her feet. "Crusada' sistas no matta what, huh?" She lowered her head and barreled towards Scootaloo. Her aim? To head butt the female to the ground or in a direction she could handle her in.

[Scootaloo]

"Yeah; I mean, so there's no hard fe-" Scoot's eyes widened and her sentence went unfinished as she saw a furious Babs barreling down on her. The other filly must have thought Scoot's proclamation of the words had been a distraction tactic, when she had actually meant them as a promise that there would be no hard feelings no matter how the battle turned out, but there was no time to stop and explain that now. The little filly's miniscule wings flapped frantically as Scootaloo willed them to carry her into the air and out of Babs' path - all to no avail.

The Manehattan crusader's skull met her chest. Scootaloo was thrown clean off her hooves and sent rolling across the arena floor, the wind knocked completely out of her. Coughing and gasping for breath, it was all the pegasus could do to lie speadeagled in the dirt for a long moment before she regained the strength to step back to her hooves. Her legs wobbled a bit under her, and again, the certainty that she was going to lose this fight gripped the winged filly; once more, she gave her red tie a tug.

Perhaps if she hadn't struck first, Babs would have taken it easy on her; as it was now, Scoot thought she'd be lucky to get out of this without a broken bone or two. She was certain she'd got Babs mad, and equally certain that all the tormenting they'd suffered when the bigger filly had first arrived in Ponyville was nothing compared to what she was capable of dishing out with the proper motivation.

Scootaloo had a nasty feeling she'd given Babs just that motivation.

"I'm sorry, but what else was I meant to do?" she blurted momentarily. She hadn't wanted to hurt her friend - had the blow even hurt Babs? She couldn't tell - but they both knew they didn't have any other options, didn't they?

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow Dash really didn't wanna be here. Not even a little bit. The last thing that she wanted was to see Scoot get hurt. But, she felt as if she didn't have another choice. She had to be there for Scoot she had guessed. If this were Dash, she could only have guessed that Scoot would be there cheering her on probably. She took a seat not far away from the other crusaders hoping and praying that whatever happened, Scoot would come out of this fight not very scarred. "Come on Scootaloo, You can do it" She said softly , hoping that Scoot really could win this match.

[Babs Seed]

As soon as her head made impact and sent Scootaloo flying, Babs jumped back to tend to her jaw. She lifted her hoof up to her mouth and pulled away a little bit of bloody saliva. She growled to herself. She knew it. She knew that Scootaloo didn't like her. Her hooves shifted back, head lowering. She was suddenly back on the playground in Manehattan. Being beat up, harassed for lack of a cutie mark. Her green orbs watered, head lowering as Scootaloo spoke.

"How about go soft! Give me a shove why don'tcha?"

Babs stepped back and shook her head, still trying to bite away the pain. "Ugh, you're confusin' me. Do I fight'cha fer real? Or do I just rough ya up fake?"

[Scootaloo]

"I thought you were going to beat me up for real, so I had to give myself a chance!" Scoot gave her own head a shake, trying to pretend she hadn't caught sight of the momentary tears in her friend's eyes. She couldn't really have made the tough Manehattan filly cry... right? The flightless pegasus knew she would feel pretty awful if that was the case.

Go soft, though? The orange filly paused to consider the thought - and as comprehension dawned in her indigo eyes, she had to wonder why the idea hadn't come up before. They'd thought about faking the fight, it was true; but if they just went soft then they'd still be fighting for real, as they were meant to - they just wouldn't be hurting each other into the bargain. It was pretty much perfect; Scoot had to contain herself from whooping with triumph at the idea.

"You're on to something there, Babs." It was an effort to keep her voice low when she felt like cheering aloud that they'd finally figured a way out, but somehow the winged filly managed it. "If we genuinely fight but just go soft, there's no way we can be punished for it. And we won't be hurting each other either." So saying, she trotted closer to Babs, head held higher than it had been all day, and then paused before reaching the green-eyed filly.

"Oh, ah, how about you make the first move this time, huh?"

[Babs Seed]

Babs paused. Okay, Scootaloo had her there. She had been planning on getting out of this fight with a win. Her ears folded back as she blew upwards towards her hair as Scootaloo spoke, still playing with her jaw. If Scootaloo had busted a tooth she was going to be awful sore. Both metaphorically and literally. Plus she was sure there was no tooth fairy here so she'd for sure lose out on a dollar.

Her ear raised, blowing upwards again to get her hair out of her face. An evil grin appeared on her face. That was the perfect plan. Beat each other up but not to hard. No hard feelings. Her tail almost wagged at the idea. She nodded.

"Okay," she said, "Get ready! I'm gonna pummle ya!" She stepped forward, pressing her head against Scootaloo's chest and turning it slightly. As if she had antlers and was trying to throw her. But it was so soft, Scoot could just fall over and make it look convincing.

[Scootaloo]

At the sight of Babs' grin, whcih looked a bit too sinister for her tastes, Scootaloo had to wonder if letting Babs get first shot was really was such a good idea after all; but even had she wanted to, there was no time to rethink their strategy now. A bare moment later, Babs had stepped forward and was shoving her head into the winged filly's chest once more, and though none of the force from before was present, Scoot still allowed herself to be thrown to the ground again. Coughing dust, Scoot rolled a couple of times to put some distance between herself and Babs before hopping back to her feet and giving herself a shake.

"Oh yeah? We'll see who pummels who!" Even as she kept the act up, Scoot's mind was whirling. So they were doing ramming, were they? Well, that was a game two could play; behind her back, the pegasus' tiny wings began to whirl through the holes in her now rather dishevelled shirt. Though they could barely lift her an inch off the ground, said wings could still propell her at speed, and that was what Scoot was counting on. She shot back towards Babs, mane and tie both whipping behind her.

And only belatedly realised she'd picked up too much momentum to just hit the other filly gently. Indigo eyes widened as Scoot slammed on the breaks, trying to dig her hooves into the ground abruptly enough that she wouldn't hit Babs at speed, and still didn't manage to stop. The little pegasus bowled straight into her friend, tripped over either Babs' hooves or her own, and planted herself face-first into the arena floor.

Okay, it was very, very obvious who was going to be pummelling who. And it wasn't going to be her doing the pummeling.

[Deleted]

Before she even knew what was happening, Scootaloo had started the fight off in exactly the manner that would get things going. A nice kick, Apple Bloom would admit without a doubt, but it looked as though her cousin hadn't taken too kindly to it. She had, in turn, decided to fight back. Apple Bloom bit her lip and stood up in her seat. Who on earth was she supposed to root for now? Her cousin deserved her support, but so did Scootaloo! A quick glance was spared to look away from the fight and over to Rainbow Dash. At least Scootaloo's idle had come to watch. That may not necessarily have been a good thing, given the context of the fight, but still. That much should have made Scootaloo happy. It didn't give Apple Bloom much, though, so she focused her attention on the fighting again.

"C'mon, y'all! I thought you guys didn't wanna hurt each other! What're you doin'?" she called out. It was far too late to keep things from getting any worse, but the least Apple Bloom could do was hope that maybe her words reached her friends. They weren't supposed to actually be hurting each other. ...Okay, that wasn't entirely true. Apple Bloom knew going in that someone would get hurt. She just had hoped that it actually wouldn't happen for one reason or another.

"Ohh... Why did they have to be fightin' today, Rainbow Dash? Ah didn't wanna see either of 'em fightin' like this..."

[Babs Seed]

"Hehe."

This was going great! Babs had one wish. That was to fit in. When she and Scootaloo were paired against one another, she'd had that whole dream shattered. Friends for life. How could they keep that up when fighting was involved. Babs couldn't help but smile, albeit quite a sinister one, in the direction of Scootaloo. Before her green orbs widened and she took a look at what was actually happening.

Was Scootaloo really trying to preserve their friendship? She was taking a bunch of cheap shots if she was! Babs gasped loudly as Scootaloo barreled into her, causing the little filly to tumble on her own. She landed on her blank flank behind.

"WHAT are ya doin'?" She scoffed, "We should just end dis now before ya make a fool outa yerself." She blew her hair right out of her face and snorted. "Ya don't have much experience fightin' do ya?" She just mumbled the last bit to herself before leaping upwards and placing a hoof on the back of Scootaloo's neck. It wasn't hard. No pressure, she just wanted her...friend...to know she could throw the fight if she so wanted.

[Scootaloo]

"I meant to slow down before I hit you." The words were mumbled into the dirt of the arena floor as Scootaloo still lay flat on her face, not even trying to get up right then. Not that she could have if she'd wanted to now; a moment later, the pegasus felt her friend's hoof pressing down on the back of her collar. Not hard, at all; still, Scoot had a very good idea that Babs could have increased the pressure at a moment's notice if she gave her any reason to, and having her neck ground into the ground wasn't going to be pleasant at all.

"What did you expect? Who would we even have to fight against in Ponyville?" Sure, there'd been Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders had never gone looking for a fight; unlike Babs, who had had no trouble putting the two stuck-up fillies in their place. Scoot tried to shift under Babs' hoof, found she had a little room to move, and twisted around onto her side, craning her neck further still so that she could at least look her fellow crusader in the eye. Scootaloo could read the Manehattan filly's intention; Babs wanted her to throw the fight, and if she'd thought that would do any good, the winged foal would have been only too happy to do just that. Under the circumstances, however, Scoot wasn't optimistic.

"I don't think this is allowed to end until one of us is unconscious. I would suggest you just knock me out now, but I'm not going to go down without at least trying to fight back." She squirmed under Babs' hoof. The orange filly wasn't stupid; she knew this couldn't possibly end well for her, but Scootaloo had at least some degree of pride that wouldn't allow her to just roll over and let Babs kick her lights out. Not that her fighting attempts actually ammounted to much, in any case; the winged foal gave a dejected sigh. She had to be quite the pathetic sight, didn't she?

[Rainbow Dash]

Jul 31, 2014 6:22:26 GMT @applebloom said:

Before she even knew what was happening, Scootaloo had started the fight off in exactly the manner that would get things going. A nice kick, Apple Bloom would admit without a doubt, but it looked as though her cousin hadn't taken too kindly to it. She had, in turn, decided to fight back. Apple Bloom bit her lip and stood up in her seat. Who on earth was she supposed to root for now? Her cousin deserved her support, but so did Scootaloo! A quick glance was spared to look away from the fight and over to Rainbow Dash. At least Scootaloo's idle had come to watch. That may not necessarily have been a good thing, given the context of the fight, but still. That much should have made Scootaloo happy. It didn't give Apple Bloom much, though, so she focused her attention on the fighting again.

"C'mon, y'all! I thought you guys didn't wanna hurt each other! What're you doin'?" she called out. It was far too late to keep things from getting any worse, but the least Apple Bloom could do was hope that maybe her words reached her friends. They weren't supposed to actually be hurting each other. ...Okay, that wasn't entirely true. Apple Bloom knew going in that someone would get hurt. She just had hoped that it actually wouldn't happen for one reason or another.

"Ohh... Why did they have to be fightin' today, Rainbow Dash? Ah didn't wanna see either of 'em fightin' like this..."

Rainbow Dash had her eyes fixed on the match cringing each time it looked like Scoot had hurt herself. Rainbow Dash turns to Apple Bloom. She didn't really know how to answer Apple Bloom's question. She couldn't imagine being in Apple Bloom's situation. I mean it must have been hard, to have to choose either your friend or family to cheer for. 

"I really don't know, Apple Bloom. I really wish they didn't have to fight. " Rainbow Dash said . She had a feeling Scoot and Babs would have to fight somehow. She really wished it never had to be like that. But, in this school, the sad thing was that if they were all in different circles, they'd probably have to fight at some point.

"All that we can hope is this fight ends soon, and no one gets too hurt" Rainbow said.