See With Your Heart

After dinner, the two ponies made their way to a walk-in fencing gym. They each put on their white padded suits and shielding masks. Bella's suit was kind of a tight squeeze, but that was nothing new. She and Pickle Plum each picked up a saber and stood facing each other on the far end of either side of the dojo.

"Why don't we make this a bit more interesting?" Bella asked as they stared each other down.

"Loser buys desert?" Pickle suggested.

"You're on."

Those were some relatively low stakes, but Bella didn't mind since she was confident she could kick his flank no problem. Besides, she had something pretty expensive in mind that he would have to pay for when he lost.

"Ready when you are," Pickle declared, taking his fighting stance. Bella got into her's and...

"Go!"

Just like that, the two of them were on each other like monkeys fighting over bananas. Their swords crossed and "clanged" each other as they parried, thrusted, spun, swiped and dodged each others attacks. Bella was giving it her all, but Pickle was putting up a surprisingly good fight. It was very impressive.... for a blind stallion.

When their swords crossed again, they got right up close to each other's faces, fierce grimaces plastered on both of them.

"You fight like a filly," Bella taunted.

"I've fought fillies before. That's a compliment," Pickle retorted, blocking her oncoming strikes.

As Bella came at him with constant swoops and strikes of her sword, he did his best to dodge and block. The longer he had to guard himself from her attacks, the further back she managed to push him. Finally, he felt her attacks begin to slow and heard her breathing intensify. He took this as his chance to take the offensive and tip the scale in his favor.

Pickle came at Bella with all the strength he could muster and suddenly, he could tell he had her on the run. Perfect.

"What's the matter? That extra weight starting to slow you down?" he teased her.

"Is that a crack about my chest?!" she shouted, sounding a little miffed.

"You tell me." He waved his hand in front of his face to emphasize his point.

"Oh, you're in for it now, smart guy!"

With that, Bella came onto him full force, eager to make him regret his choice of words. Her sword flew around him like a bird in caught in a tornado. Every swipe, lunge and parry was so intense, he could barely keep up. Eventually, he started to lose his footing, which his relentless opponent picked up on and took full advantage of. One final foot swipe with her sword was all it took to seal her victory. Pickle landed flat on his backside with the tip of Bella's saber jabbed right into the pad covering his heart.

He breathed heavily, exhausted by the thrilling match he had just had with the most ferocious mare he had ever had the pleasure of fighting. She loomed over him in victory. Though he could barely see her, he knew she must be giving him a triumphant smirk.

"Who's slow now?" she asked rhetorically. She lifted her sword off of his chest and reached out her arm to help him up. "Not bad for a blind stallion. You really had me on the ropes there for a minute."

"Thanks," Pickle replied as they both removed their masks. "I've been doing this ever since I was a kid. I was pretty good even before I lost my eyesight. After I did, my instructor taught me how to fight without it. It really wasn't until then that I got my cutie mark."

"You think you're gonna be the best blind sword fighter ever someday?"

"That sure would be cool."

"Well, keep practicing and maybe you'll get there someday."

"Thanks."

"In the meantime, though, I believe you owe me a dessert."

"Hehe. Right..." Pickle chuckled nervously, remembering the bet they had made.

"Unless you wanna go best two out of three," Bella suggested, raising her sword up next to her face.

"No, no. A deal's a deal," Pickle submitted. "Besides, I don't feel like having my butt kicked twice in one night."

"Suit yourself."

And with that they hung up their swords on the rack, removed their safety suits and headed out for a deliciously sweet and expensive reward.