Chapter 12
Fight To Survive
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the largest mixed martial arts promotion company in the world, which hosts some of the top-ranked fighters in the sport and produces events in the United States. The UFC has nine weight divisions and enforces the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. The UFC has held over 250 events. The first UFC event was held on November 12, 1993. In subsequent competitions, fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create an entirely separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts. Similar to the UFC in the Human World, Equestria also has a fighting sport of its own. It is called the Extreme Fighting Championship (EFC). Throughout the past 10 years, the popularity of the sport has grown. Even surpassing the Equestria 500 as the most popular sport in Equestria. With this, many ponies have competed in the EFC. Both in the male and female leagues. The most well-known and skilled pony in the EFC is none other than a male earth pony by the name of Trench 'The Tyrant' Mudd. Not only does Trench have the most wins and championship titles, he is also undefeated. Trench has a dirty mouth and a bad boy type attitude which is why he is the most despised and hated pony in the EFC. A lot of ponies wish to see Trench get his tail handed to him and have his undefeated streak finally broken. By luck would have it, that would soon happen, but how it actually happened was in a way no one ever expected. It all began one afternoon in Ponyville. Melrose and Jasmine were flying through town, when suddenly, they saw a pegasus at a nearby restaurant that had completely lost his temper. He was yelling at the top of his lungs at a timid female waiter. It turns out the pony was mad because he felt that the taste of the food didn't match up to the cost. "Please sir...calm down," the waiter muttered as she tried to keep her distance.
"I ain't paying for this slop! You hear me?!" the pegasus burst out furiously, "You don't like it? Call the cops! I dare you!"
"What is his problem?" Jasmine asked as the pegasus continued ranting, "If you ask me someone needs to put him in his place." She then nudged Melrose who sighed deeply. Melrose took a few steps forward.
"Hey! You!" Melrose yelled, "Why don't you leave her alone and pick on some your own size!" In response, the pony immediately turned his attention to Melrose. He slowly began to approach her.
"Make me!" the pegasus shouted. He then lunged at Melrose, who quickly dodged him. The two ponies were shown trading hooves for a couple of minutes before Melrose was able to knock the pegasus to the ground. She got him into a choke hold and prevented him from moving. It wasn't long before the pegasus lost consciousness. Right as Melrose let go of the pony, he was taken into custody by the Equestria Police. Melrose was then shown speaking with Jasmine and the female waiter, who thanked Melrose for her help. As Melrose and Jasmine were preparing to leave, they were suddenly stopped by a big white earth pony in a fancy suit. He turned to face Melrose.
"Excuse me miss," he said politely, "I happened to be walking by when I happened to see you takedown that out of control pegasus. I was very impressed. That was one heck of a fight!"
"Thanks," Melrose replied as she blushed slightly, "May I ask who you are? My name's Melrose by the way."
"Of course! Sorry about that Melrose. My name is Ben Buster. I'm the president of the EFC," Buster said as she shook her hoof, "Do you know who you just beat a few seconds ago? That was King 'Broken Bones' Leo. A past EFC title holder. He actually quit the EFC a couple of months ago. I was wondering if you're interested in joining the EFC? I've seen a lot of ponies which potential, but very few with high potential likes yours." Melrose couldn't believe her ears. She was flabbergasted. Jasmine was forced to nudge Melrose again to get her to speak.
"Sure! I would love to!" Melrose exclaimed happily, "It's been my dream to enter the EFC! I would always listen to the fights on the radio. Um...can I ask my parents first? I don't know if they'll let me join."
"Not a problem," Buster replied, "Do you mind If I go with you to talk with them?" After Melrose nodded her head, Ben Buster followed Melrose back to Apple Acres to have a chat with Applejack and Lodi. At first, they were completely against the idea of their daughter competing in such a dangerous sport. However, once they heard what Melrose had to say and how Ben Buster promised to help Melrose to the best of his ability in any way possible, Applejack and Lodi eventually agreed to let their daughter join the EFC. With that, Melrose's career in the EFC officially began! She would be competing in the Mare League (ML). After heading to a EFC gym in Manehattan, Melrose started training with a professional EFC trainer in preparation for her first official match that was scheduled to begin in one month. Every week Ben Buster visited the gym to check up on Melrose's progress. He was very impressed on her level of improvement. It was unlike anything he ever witnessed before. The weeks continued to fly by until the date of the match finally came into being. It was set to be held inside the third EFC stadium positioned throughout Manehattan. Melrose was going to be going up against a pony by the name of Violet 'Black Rose' Sting. Her record was 28-13. Violet preferred to defeat her opponents with choke holds. Lucky for Melrose, she was very familiar with choke holds too. That in turn was the reason Melrose was able to win. Even after a shaky start, Melrose completely dominated the rest of the match. Violet never stood a chance. It didn't stop there. Melrose continued to win match after match, increasing her undefeated record. In just one year Melrose was able to take the ML by storm. He record was now a perfect 20-0. In was at that point Ben Buster decided to do something that would soon change the sport of the EFC forever. Since Melrose was so dominate, he was going to allow her to compete in the Stallion League (SL). As expected, this was met by much controversy. A lot of ponies felt that a mare shouldn't be allowed to fight against stallions because she wouldn't stand a chance. Some even thought Ben Buster was only doing this as a simple promotional act for the EFC. Both Ben Buster and Melrose wanted to prove all these naysayers wrong. However, a pony by the name of Trench Mudd wasn't too happy about this. During a conference after one of his matches, reporters began to bombard Trench with questions about Melrose.
"Trench! Trench! What is your opinion about the EFC president Ben Buster allowing Melrose to compete in the Stallion League?" one reporter asked. Trench simple scuffed at her question.
"What do I think? Nothing really," Trench replied with a sneer, "This is all just some obvious promotional act by Buster for his new favorite fighter."
"How do you think Melrose will fare against stallions?" another reporter asked.
"She'll get killed," Trench replied with a malicious smirk, "There ain't no way some weak scrawny small town country girl can even hope to win a single match in my league. Once Melrose gets knocked around hard enough, she run back home with her tail between her legs. It won't even be a day before everyone forgets about her." He then stood up from his chair. "I'm done." With that, a smug Trench left the room before the reporters could ask him any more questions. Melrose eventually found out about what he said about her. Using that as motivation, Melrose trained even harder for her first match in the SL. She would be fighting a pony called Punk 'Death Knock' Rock in two weeks. Day after day, Melrose trained as best she could. When the match date finally came, the stadium the match was taking place sold out in a blink of an eye. Before their match, Punk Rock ran his mouth about how he was going to obliterate Melrose without breaking a sweat. Even going as far as saying the match would be over in just five seconds. His overconfidence and trash talking would prove to be his downfall as Punk Rock would go on to lose to Melrose in five rounds marking it as a record-breaking achievement for the EFC. It didn't stop there. Melrose continued to win more and more matches, shocking everyone. Including a disgruntled Trench Mudd. Very few ponies expected Melrose to dominate the guys so easily. It wasn't long until Melrose earned her the nickname 'The Crusher'. Her record now was now an undefeated 30-0. The only pony with a better record was Trench Mudd at 50-0. They were the only two ponies with a perfect record. However, Melrose was getting a lot more attention than Trench was. Partly due to her being a mare competing in a stallion league. This was making Trench furious with rage with taking a back seat in the media's eye to Melrose. So much so that during a conference after one of his match victories, he publicly called out Melrose to fight him for the title match that was scheduled in exactly one month. Melrose agreed to fight him. After Ben Buster announced their match in a news conference, both Melrose and Trench began to train for it. Ponies everywhere were super ecstatic for the EFC Title Match featuring 'The Crusher vs The Tyrant'. Casinos in Las Hooves were overrun with ponies betting on who would win the match. During a recent poll in the EFC magazine, 88% of ponies had Trench Mudd defeating Melrose. Even though she was clearly an underdog, Melrose didn't mind one bit. She actually embraced the underdog role. While Melrose continued to train for their match, Trench was out partying in clubs with his entourage. He felt no reason to train anymore. There was no was he was going to get beat by a girl. Trench was so confident in his soon-to-be victory, he even bought a ton of expensive stuff with his credit card to be paid with his prize money for the fight against Melrose. Eventually, the time of the match appeared. As expected, the match sold out the minute tickets were available. Inside the stadium, the noise of the crowd was so deafening, you were barely able to hear the pony speak next to you. As Melrose and Trench entered the cage, he immediately began to trash talk. Melrose took the high road and didn't bother responding. During the first three rounds of the match, Trench dominated Melrose. Just as the fourth round was about to begin, Trench started to make rude hateful comments about Melrose's family, friends, and hometown. This would prove to be a costly mistake for him. With a heart burning with fury, Melrose kicked it up a notch and went all-out on Trench. During the next three rounds, the results were swapped. This time Trench was the one finding himself be dominated. No matter what he did, Trench was unable to gain the upper hand. After missing a right hook punch, Trench suddenly found himself wide open. This allowed Melrose to deliver a devastating left leg kick directly to Trench's face. The crowd roared as Trench Mudd fell to the ground unconscious. After the referee announced the match over, the stadium exploded in applause. After Trench was taken out of the ring on a stretcher, Melrose was present the championship belt. She was then approached by a hoard of reporters. When Melrose was asked what was next for her, Melrose told them she was retiring from the EFC. Melrose explained that she desperately missed her family and friends in Ponyville. In the end, Melrose quit the EFC and returned home to Apple Acres. As for Trench Mudd, he was forced to sell his luxurious mansion in order to pay off all his credit cards debts and had to move into his parent's house. His EFC career continued to free fall until the point where he eventually quit after losing a EFC record 20 straight matches. It wasn't long until Trench Mudd became another forgotten retired EFC fighter. Melrose on the other hand would be remembered as the most dominate fighter in EFC history. Back at Apple Acres, the championship belt Melrose won was shown sitting atop her bed stand. She kept it in mint condition everyday.