They echoed through the gym like claps of thunder. Every punch was kept close and tight, every swing pounding gloved fists into the heavy mits. Luna raised one arm up next to her face, feeling the crisp force of Twilight's gloved fist pounding into it. She lowered her other mit, closer to her body, and felt another firm hit.

They were at this for an hour now as Luna analyzed her. Twilight had changed into a purple pair of sweat pants and matching hoodie, every blow hitting true and coming in tight. She threw in a mix of quick jabs, firm crosses, and heavy hooks. She moved automatically with every punch, but every now and then, Luna gave a shout.

"Cross!" She lowered her mit, Twilight's punch being thrown underhand.

"Jab! Jab!" She jumped back and raised her hand up. Twilight chased after, throwing a flurry of jabs with her dominant hand. She reeled her arm back for another punch, but then, Luna shouted, "enough!"

Twilight was panting now, body relaxing as Luna threw the mits down. Despite her sweat, Luna grabbed at Twilight's arm, getting an obvious uncomfortable shiver, but Luna paid her no mind.

"Good stamina. Good muscle tone. You know the basics." Luna listed off, probing and gauging Twilight's muscles, moving across her arms and slowly moving south. She felt up Twilight's legs as Twilight felt her face light up. "Good leg strength, too. Your footwork was amateur, but it'll do for now."

"D-do?" Twilight panted as Luna got off of her.

Luna headed out of the ring as she asked, "you've got your boxing licence, right?" She looked over her shoulder, watching Twilight nod her head. "Then you're going to fight."

"W-wait! M-my career starts now?!" Twilight gasped, scrambling over to the ropes to catch up with Luna.

"More like after this weekend." Luna said, "Celestia and I already signed you up and registered you for the EBL last night under my gym."

"I-I am?! You did?!"

"In fact, you've already got a fight scheduled on the upcoming Monday."

"I only have two days left to prepare?!"

"Well, yes." Luna said as she continued over to a nearby bench. "It's all arranged and Celestia faxed over your information. All that's left now is," Luna was cut off when she heard a thud. She looked back over, seeing Twilight having fell over onto the floor of her ring as Spike was already running over with a bottle of water. "Oh goddammit."

"Speak to me, Twilight! Come back to me!" Spike cried out, opening up the bottle and pouring it onto Twilight's face. He was met with a mess of coughing as Twilight flailed, covering her mouth and head to stop the water.

"Spike! Stop, I'm awake!" Twilight sat up, glaring at the boy as he smiled bashfully. Twilight pulled herself up by the ropes as she cried, "L-Luna, isn't it kind of soon for me to start actually boxing?! Not only did I just get here, but we've only just started training together!"

"Twilight, there's no better training then in the ring." Luna spoke flatly and straightly, "my sister and I got our best training while in the ring, learning from the Boxers we fought against."

"B-but w-what if I'm not ready?!"

"You've been training for five years, Twilight. You are in your prime."

" W-what if I get hurt?!"

Luna shook her head as she chuckled. "Is that it?" Twilight felt stunned as Luna looked her in the eye. Even from across the room, her gaze was intimidating. "Twilight, this is boxing. One way or the other, you'll get hurt. I should know." Her hand moved to her jaw, slightly rubbing against it as Twilight cringed. "I'm not here to play around, Twilight. I'm here to train a Boxer-a Fighter. If you can't handle that reality now, after the five years you've been training under Celestia, you'll never be able to handle it and you should get back on that train."

Twilight felt her entire body, the color leaving her face as she slumped over the ropes, frozen in time.

"Hit the road."

"W-what?!" Twilight gasped in horror as she looked over at Luna.

"...Roadwork, Twilight."

"O-oh."

Luna buried her hand into her face and sighed, "look, you can cancel the fight if you don't feel ready. But before you answer, maybe you should go for a run and try thinking it over."

"O-okay..." Twilight nodded slowly, slumping out of the ring as she headed for the door. Spike was quick to follow her out, and as the duo got closer to the door, Luna called over to her.

"You know, whenever you are ready, I'll be happy to coach you then." Luna said, "but I can't guarantee you'll be able to keep your promise."

Twilight stopped in her tracks, head snapping at Luna's attention as she said. "Celestia is already in her 40s, Twilight. That's pretty old. Some would say too old to keep boxing like she is." She looked back at Twilight. "Time is the one opponent nobody can beat, no matter how hard we try. Celestia might be waiting for you, but how long do you really think she can wait? How long until she has to retire, or even before someone else comes along and snatches the belt right from her?"

They stood there, air feeling still as time and space just stopped. Luna gave a heavy sigh, "sorry if that's too much pressure on you, kid. But it's the facts. If you want to fight Celestia as her equal, you can't sit on your thumbs." She walked over and put a hand on Twilight's shoulder. She looked into Luna's face, seeing it soften from the harsh stare she had gotten before. "So, when you're thinking it over, think about stuff like that before you decide whether or not you'll fight or not."

"I-I...I understand." Twilight nodded, opening the door. She took off in a brisk jog as Spike followed behind her.

"Jeez, could you believe her?" Spike said in a huff as he ran right beside her, "I can't believe she'd just say something like that!"

"Spike, please don't be too angry with her." Twilight sighed, "cause, well, she has a point."

"Huh?" Spike paused, looking confused for a moment, but quickly remembered they were suppose to be jogging. He quickly took off in a spring to catch up with her before asking, "w-wait. Sh-she did?"

Twilight nodded as they took a turn, the older girl making a mental point as to where they were going. "I mean...I know you don't like it, but it's the truth." Images of Celestia flashed into Twilight's head, visions of seeing her idol and teacher in the ring; of every match she watched from the ringside. "Celestia is amazing in almost every way. She looks as though she hasn't changed in the last 20 years, but I'm sure that on the inside, time has got to be catching up to her."

She stopped in place, Spike running ahead before quickly doubling back. Twilight took a stance, throwing rapid jabs to the empty air in front of her to shadowbox, Spike doing his best to imitate her movements.. "At the end of the day, she's only human. And there's no telling how long she'll still be Champion until someone comes along and snatches her belt before I do. For all I know, it could happen any day."

With her shadowboxing finished up for the moment, she took off running again. She was about to take a turn when a horse suddenly ran right in front of her, the young woman running right into the beast of burden as she fell over onto her back.

"Twilight! Are you okay?!" Spike ran over to her, the young kid helping Twilight to sit up as she rubbed her face.

"Good heavens! Ah'm awfully sorry about that!" The two could see the horse was pulling a cart, a woman suddenly hopping off and approaching Twilight. She must have been 5'11, her skin was fair and decorated with freckles across her face, with her blonde hair tied into a ponytail. Green eyes looked back at Twilight's purple, her obviously muscular frame not concealed by the light, orange flannel and blue jeans she wore.

She grabbed Twilight by her hand and yanked Twilight off of the ground in a quick tug that brought her to her feet. "Terribly sorry about that. Sugar Cube here got spooked by a snake in the road and took off like a bat out-a hell!"

"I-I'm fine." Twilight sighed, taking a rough sniff, "nothing broken or anything." Twilight looked over at the Mustang and said, "I didn't think Ponyville actually still used horses."

The woman chuckled, "well, ya won't find a lot of cars around here, that's for sure." She extended her hand and smiled, "I haven't seen yer face, so ya must be new 'round here. Names Applejack, it's a pleasure to meet ya!"

Twilight smiled back, shaking her hand, "I'm Twilight Sparkle. This is Spike," he gestured to the young boy beside her, "yeah, we are new in town. I actually just joined the Duke Panther gym."

"Duke Panther? That place opened up?" Applejack's grip suddenly tightened as Twilight flinched. "So I take it your a boxer, huh?"

"Y-yeah...actually, I have a debut match coming up."

"Well I'll be!" Applejack grinned, "so you're the girl from Canterlot, huh?"

"Huh?"

Twilight blinked as Applejack chuckled, "well, matches are arranged some time in advance, ya know. It's not every day we get fresh faces from Canterlot. It's got a few folks interested in seeing your stuff. So make sure it's a good fight, ya hear?"

"Y-yeah...I-I'll try."

Applejack raised an eyebrow to the skittish purple-head as she commented, "ya don't sound too confident or anythin'. Somethin' wrong?"

"I-I guess I'm just feeling kind of tense." Twilight admitted, "I've been training for this for years, and-"

"Lemme guess: now that you're actually about to fight, you're now realizing just how hard it could." Twilight and Spike both looked astonished by how quick Applejack could understand, the blonde smirking. "I've been there, sister. Lemme tell ya, I had my first match not too long ago and I was scared like the dickens!"

"Sc-scared?" Twilight couldn't fathom someone built like Applejack could be scared.

"Well, sure." Applejack mused, "it was my first match."

"Were you...scared of getting hurt?"

"Nope." Applejack chuckled as Twilight looked on in confusion. "Nah, I had gotten into plenty of dust ups."

"Then...what had you so scared?"

"My family was there." Twilight didn't look too convinced as Applejack explained further. "See, I have a big family. Like, a REALLY big family. And when they heard I was having my debut match, just about everybody came and filled up that audience." She grinned, "probably the most tickets a debut match had sold, but boy did it have me scared!"

"I don't get it," Twilight asked further, "why did that have you so scared?"

"Well, I was worried I'd let them all down." That got Twilight's attention as Applejack continued her story. "Everybody was so proud of me and I knew they'd be disappointed if I let 'em down."

"How...did you get over it?"

"I got punched in the face."

Twilight stared at the taller woman, dumbfounded as she broke out laughing.

"Ah'm sorry, but that's how I got over it: my opponent slugged me right in the kisser. And that snapped me out of it." Twilight could see a glint in Applejack's eyes, as though something had just awoken in her. "Cause at that moment, I realized that it was what I was training for. That all I had to do was do what I did in training and I'd be okay."

"Wow!" Spike gasped at the story as Twilight gave a nod.

"I...I see. Thanks, Applejack." Twilight nodded, "I think that really helped me out."

"Aw, it wasn't nothin'. Just helpin' out a fellow contender." Applejack gave a hard smack on the back, knocking Twilight right back onto the ground. "G-gosh! I-I-I'm so sorry about that! I didn't mean it!"

"I-it's okay, Applejack..."

Two days later...

"How are you feeling, Twilight?"

Twilight shuddered as she stood in the locker room, a dark purple sports bra and a pair of matching trunks, said trunks having a magenta, six-pointed star on her right thigh that was surrounded by smaller white stars. Red boxing gloves were over her fists and her long hair was tied up into a ponytail.

"I feel great!" Twilight turned to Luna with the biggest smile on her face. Luna cringed when she saw it, as it made Twilight look almost like a psychopath. She was warned by Celestia that Twilight tended to look like that when she was nervous, but she was hoping that her sister was just making a joke at her protege's expense. "Never better! I feel like I could fight 100 opponents in a row!"

"...You'd probably feel better if you breathed, Twilight." Luna recommended as she watched Twilight took quick and short breaths. Luna grabbed her shoulders and shouted into her face, "breath in and out slowly!" Twilight stopped, taking one big breath in to fill her lungs before slowly letting it out. "How are you feeling now?"

"A-a little better..." Twilight admitted as she groaned. "I'm sorry, Coach. I-I'm still a wreck."

"Hey, don't you say that." Luna scolded, "this is just a match. You've trained for this just like she did. You have no reason to be so scared. Just go in and do what comes natural to you." Twilight gave her coach a nod as she said, "okay, now it's time to go. So let's get in there."

Twilight nodded, managing to calm herself down as she tapped her gloves together. The two started to head out of the locker room and down the hallway. Twilight felt something, a feeling she couldn't identify as they slowly got to the ring. She felt ready to throw up, as though the entire world was on her shoulder. But at the same time, she felt a new sense of power swell up inside of her, confidence and strength that made the weight more bearable.

She walked into the arena. Before her was the ring and standing inside was already her opponent. All she could see was her. Her name was Roseluck, a lighter skinned girl with long pink and red hair she didn't bother to tie up. She wore a plain green t-shirt and a pair of red trunks, a rose-like sigil on her left thigh. She stared Twilight down as she walked to the ring, getting in through the ropes. Twilight stared back, so focused that even the referee and audience didn't exist in her tunnel vision.

"The first match of the evening is about to begin! This'll be a Four-Round of Middleweight Class Match. In the red corner, from Grim Tyrant Gym, standing at 161.5 LBs: Roseluck!" Roseluck raised her fists into the air, showing off her toned arms as the crowd cheered.

"And in the blue corner, representing Duke Panther Gym. Standing at 160 LBS: Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight waved to the crowd, getting a more subtle round of applause mixed with a round of jeers that sent shivers up her spine.

"I didn't think that there was such a thing as 'away' and 'home' teams in Boxing..." Twilight mumbled to herself as she put her arm down.

"That's your first rule of the Pros, Twilight: home tome favoritism is a real thing." Luna explained as she stepped down from the corner.

"You got this Twilight!" Twilight's eyes turned to the crowd, seeing Spike sitting behind her corner. Twilight felt her confidence quickly return to her as she headed to the center of the ring to meet the referee, staring into Roseluck's eyes as the two grit their teeth.

"Alright, ladies, I'm expecting a clean match." She said bluntly, "I don't wanna see any biting, headbutting, or blows below the waste. This is a Four-Round match, so if you fall down twice, it's an instant TKO." Both Boxers nodded as the ref said, "good. Now touch gloves and head to your corners."

Roseluck pushed her gloves forward as Twilight tapped hers against them. Twilight mumbled, "may the better Boxer win." Roseluck gave a small smile, it wasn't noticeable, but Twilight noticed it and the two headed to their corners.

Luna held up her mouth guard and stuffed it into Twilight's mouth. "Remember, she's a fresh face just like you. Just go in and do what comes natural."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Luna was taken back by the sudden confidence in Twilight's voice. (She's in the zone now. She looks ready for a fight. It's time to see what she can really do.)

DING!

When the bell ran, Twilight turned and took off from her post. Roseluck did the same, arm reeled back for a quick blow. Twilight tightened up her guard, blocking each oncoming blow as Roseluck swung. Left cross, then a right, each punch came in fast, but tight, giving Twilight little room to much else but block. Roseluck pulled back slightly, preparing to go for a right hook, but she was intercepted with a blow to the face by Twilight, a heavy counter punch that had Roseluck falter back.

The entire momentum of the match shifted in Twilight's favor. Suddenly, she was on the offensive, throwing punch after punch at Roseluck's face, the redhead covering it with her guard. With another good punch that had Roseluck step back, Twilight suddenly threw a heavy blow to Roseluck's body, getting the woman to desperately gasp as the air was knocked right out of her.

The crowd started to turn on Roseluck, much like the match. It cheered and roared for Twilight as she continued to nail Roseluck's body with punch after punch. Roseluck tried to pull back to get away from her, but her legs suddenly felt like cinder blocks, paralyzing her as another pair of blows hit her body.

(She has no stamina. A total glass jaw.) Twilight smirked as she watched Roseluck try a desperate jab with her left to try and get some space. But Twilight gave no quarter, turning her head to evade and throwing another counter punch, nailing Roseluck across the cheek. Roseluck staggered to the side, legs trembling like jelly as Twilight pushed forward. She could see it all over her face, ready to collapse.

Then, Twilight's momentum came to a screeching halt. Roseluck pushed herself forward, headbutting her right in the forehead as she stood their stunned. Roseluck took this opportunity to nail Twilight's face with a hard right hook, knocking her onto the ground.

"Down!" The Ref shouted as she pushed Roseluck away. "1!"

The crowd jeered, as did Spike. "What the heck was that, Ref?! That was a headbutt!"

"2! 3!"

Luna scowled as she grit her teeth, glaring daggers at Roseluck from her position. "On your feet, Twilight!"

"4!"

Twilight hurried to her feet as the Ref called '5'. "I-I'm okay! I'm okay!" (What was that?! Did I slip? Did she just run into me?) Twilight looked over at Roseluck, her face was laced with desperation as a bloodthirsty scowl painted her face. It was a face she's never seen before.

(No, I...I have seen that face before.) Twilight raised her fists up as she braced herself to keep going. (I've seen them on the face of Celestia's opponents multiple times. That look of desperation, determination to do anything to win, no matter the costs.) Sure, she was cheating, but Twilight could see her face, and it told her it wasn't personal.

Survival in the ring never was.

"Fight!"

When the ref made the call, Twilight took off again. Roseluck took off to meet her, but this time, it was Twilight who threw the first punch. She threw a wide jab that Roseluck easily dodged before throwing a series of jabs at Twilight. One nailed her face, then another. Twilight got back as Roseluck chased her down. A third couldn't connect before Twilight ducked down and pulled back for an uppercut.

Roseluck was quick to put her hands up to block. As her guard met Twilight's uppercut, it broke behind her force, breaking through and knocking Roseluck right under her chin. She slid back, back hitting the ropes as her legs trembled. She was close to collapsing onto the mat, but Roseluck managed to hold on, if only for a little bit longer, spit filling her mouth and drenching her bruised jaw as she tried to stand firm.

Twilight saw this as her change and went into to get the KO. Roseluck wasn't finished, finding whatever strength her legs could muster as she shot forward and, once again, bashing her head onto Twilight's.

"Hey, Ref! You got eyes in your skull!" Spike shouted as Luna just smirked.

Roseluck felt her heart stop as she stared into Twilight's eyes, having expected the headbutt this time and pushed into it, cutting the force in half. Roseluck could see the look on Twilight's face. It told her that she wanted to win just as badly as she did.

It wasn't personal.

Twilight through a hard right hook into Roseluck's cheek, making the woman spit up her mouth guard, as well as the glob of spit that was stuck in her mouth that was now mixing with her blood. The woman then fell over onto the ground herself, the Ref getting between the two boxers.

"1! 2! 3!"

Twilight panted as she heard the ref count,"4! 5!" She backed away from her, working to catch her breath. "6! 7!" Aside from the Ref, she could hear her heart pounding in her ears. "8!"

Twilight watched as Roseluck struggled to get up off of the ground. Her legs shook and her arms felt heavy. Panting, she tried to get up, but she couldn't even balance herself onto her knees.

"9! 10!"

DING!

The crowd was suddenly cheering as Twilight felt astonishment wave over her. When she felt the Ref grab her arm and hoist it up, she thought that her arm weighed a ton.

"Winner! Twilight Sparkle!"

Twilight was astonished as she looked at Roseluck's coach get into the ring and help her to her feet. Luna herself came over to Twilight as the Ref let go of her arm.

"Good job, Twilight. You did better then I could've hoped." Luna congratulated as Twilight smiled.

"Th-thank you, Coach!" Twilight smiled before she turned to look at Roseluck who was now conscious and was being helped out of the ring. Twilight hurried over to Roseluck as the two looked at each other.

"...It...was a good match." Roseluck's eyes looked heavy and apologetic, giving her a weak smile.

Twilight smiled back, much grander then hers as she confirmed it. "Yeah, it was a great match. Thank you." Roseluck's looked stunned, her own smile slowly lifting up and becoming relieved.

Roseluck VS Twilight Sparkle

Knockout

1 Round, 1:55

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay. Life...is rough. I still want to continue doing this story though, just expect updates to be rather sporadic.