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// Why Must Competition Be So Unfriendly? 
// Story: Book 1: A New Element of Friendship 
// by Medley of MLP 
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A New Element of Friendship



Why Must Competition Be So Unfriendly?


        Uuuurg… Today just felt like a day where I had NO energy whatsoever to even get out of bed, much less meet with and talk with other ponies. But I did make a promise to them that I would try to make it to this… Iron Pony competition… in support of both of them. Much like Iron Man competitions from Earth… and wasn’t that a comforting thing to remember from that world… it would be a series of different physical challenges until they had either run out of challenges in a draw or close match or until one of the two competitors was winning by a wide margin. Of course, some differences could be found in the Iron Pony one, such as the obvious rule of no wings or magic unless you were both the same type. An example would be a Pegasus wouldn’t be able to use her wings fully unless she was up against another Pegasus. It’s the same principle with Unicorns as well, no use of magic unless it was against another Unicorn, but that drifted off into spell duel territory, something I really didn’t know much about.

        Huh… It’s amazing what goes through your head when it’s early in the morning and you don’t want to get out of bed. Nevertheless, I groaned as I rolled off the bed, landing painfully on my side, but not overly much thankfully. I soon made it through my morning routine and trudged my way out the door before the temptation to jump back into bed was too great.

        I soon joined up with Twilight and Spike as I looked on, seeing Dash stretch out a bit, possibly to be more limber. Twilight gave me a friendly wave of a hoof while Spike grinned and waved as well, saying hello. I responded with a small wave and hello back as AJ stood a bit off to the side near Twilight and Spike.

        “So, you two are doing what now?” Twilight asked curiously.

        “Iron-” AJ was soon cut off by Dash.

        “Iron Pony competition!” Dash gladly answered, practically covering up AJ’s answer.

        “See, we set up a buncha events to decide which one of us-”

        “Is the most athletic pony ever!”

        “And I’m here to…” Twilight and I spoke at the same time, causing us both to look at each other weirdly as Spike giggled a bit.

        “Uh… um… I don’t know? Why ARE they both here?” Dash stopped stretching to look at Applejack for the answer.

        AJ didn’t look amused by this as she answered our question with, “Twilight’s here ta be the judge with Spike assistin’ her as scorekeeper while Medley here can pravide music to our little competition.”

        “Right! Heh, SOMEPONY’s gotta record my awesomeness to the history books! And what kind of competition would it be without music to get your body pumped?” Dash grinned as she went back to stretching, the rest of us just shaking our heads at her… Dashness.

        It was soon time for the competition to begin and Spike looked really excited. So much so that he grabbed a nearby twig and used it as a microphone. “Hello everypony! And welcome, to the first annual Iron Pony Competition!”

        “Uh, Spike… who are you talking to?” Twilight asked as she looked over confusedly at him.

        “Uh… well… Medley! Oh, and them!” He pointed at me and the rest of the girls, which they were climbing up the hill towards us, seeing the last few touches being made on the events.

        “Let the Games begin!” Spike shouted as he jumped on Twilight’s head, which caused everypony but Twilight to cheer, which could be easily deduced with Spike being the one to jump on HER head.

        We then quickly went to go and do the first challenge: obstacle race. In short, get to the finish line as quickly as possible without nudging any of the barrels. Twilight looked a bit eager to start, as she would be the starter, Spike would be the timer, and I would be the judge to make sure everything played out fairly and the scores were evenly done. Fluttershy actually wanted to help out a bit, and her job was to help keep score of which pony had the most competitions won.

        “Ready… set… GO!” Twilight called as AJ sped past her.

        I saw as AJ managed to get through the course pretty fast for an Earth Pony, but accidentally nudged a barrel along the way. It was a pretty good time though, from what I could tell. I looked over at Spike to see what the time was.

        “That was 17 seconds Applejack!” Spike looked amazed, as did I.

        “Yer kiddin’? That breaks my record from last year’s rodeo!” AJ looked a bit proud at that fact.

        “However, due to you nudging a barrel along the way, that counts as a 5 second penalty against you, leaving you with a final total of 22 seconds,” I added in.

        “Aw, apple fritters… ah well, that’s still not too shabby of a time,” AJ murmured a bit, but didn’t argue with it.

        As Dash looked like she was about to panic, AJ tried to comfort her by saying, “Hey. Don’t be nervous. Remember, it’s all in good fun! Now, git on up there!”

        Once Dash took her position, Twilight called out again, “Ready… set… GO!” and Dash took off like a rainbow trailing blur.

        She managed to get through it pretty fast as well, considering she couldn’t use her wings in these competitions. She even managed to avoid nudging any of the barrels along the way, ending on a good run. I looked to Spike for the time once more.

“Hoo, that was some fancy hoofwork there Rainbow!” AJ complemented Dash as she flew back.

“Thanks… But… I couldn’t… have been as fast… as you!” Dash panted out as all three of us now looked at Spike for the time.

        “18 seconds!” Spike looked very shocked, as did all three of us.

        “18 seconds?! Rainbow, are you sure you aren’t secretly a rodeo pony?” AJ smirked a bit as she nudged Dash playfully.

        “Well, it looks like, due to a penalty from earlier, Dash takes the point with a lead of 4 seconds!” I cheerfully spoke as Fluttershy added a point to the total up on the signboard.

        “I can’t believe I won!” Dash started to smirk a bit before being brought down by AJ, both literally and figuratively, as Dash started to hover.

        “Don’t get used to it. After all, ya did kinda win by a small bit ‘cause I accidently nudged a barrel. Plus, it’s only the first one,” AJ pointed out.

        As we went over to the next challenge, Dash gave me a smirk and asked, “So, going off of Pinkie, are we? For nicknames, that is.”

        I blushed a tiny bit, but shrugged and replied, “Why? Got a problem, Dash?”

        She laughed and shook her head at me, pretty much saying no. I chuckled a bit too as we made it to their next challenge.

        The next challenge was one you find at any carnival ever: the ‘Test Your Strength’ game, except with bucking the target instead of hitting it with a hammer. Ponies after all, not humans. Anyways, since Dash won the last game, she got to go first and managed to ring the bell with her buck, to which the now slowly growing audience cheered at.

        Once Dash flew over to AJ, AJ looked up at her with a smirk and simply said, “Mighty respectable there, but let me show ya how it REALLY get’s done.”

        With that, AJ bucked it so hard, the target was shattered as the bell rung and flew up in the air. The crowd cheered wilder as both Dash and I fell back onto our haunches in stupefied wonder. AJ looked very proud and nonchalant about the whole thing, as she just calmly walked back over to the tree and kicked it a bit, apples falling out easily.

        “Years of applebucking,” was the simple answer to our unasked question of how the heck she managed to outclass Dash in a long shot.

        Fluttershy soon added the point to Applejack’s total, bringing it up to a tie, as the apples that fell on Dash’s head sounded distinctly like the old ditty: “Shave and a haircut, two bits!” However, I’m hardwired for music, so who knows if that was actually the case. Anyways the rest of the challenges soon followed afterwards, with Spike usually the one being used as a sort of dummy. Rodeo bucking, roping, balancing balls, hay bale toss, hoof wrestling, punting a hoofball, and too many more to list. Where one would win, the other would win the next one right back, bringing them to a dead tie. We soon ended halfway in between for Dash and AJ to take a breather.

        “Fillies and gentlecolts!” Spike began to announce, “At the halfway point, our competitors are tied at 5-5!”

        “Who are you talking to?!” Twilight gave Spike both an annoyed and confused look as she looked over a scroll before making it disappear.

        “I don’t know Twilight… Maybe ask the large audience that’s currently surrounding us,” I smirked a bit as I pointed a hoof all around us, causing Twilight to gasp a bit.

        To be fair to Twilight, I was a bit stunned too at just HOW many ponies showed up for a huge competition event between Dash and AJ. Then again, those two competing against one another IS a cause to go and look at, so looks like I shouldn’t be that surprised. Nonetheless, we got them into the next competition segment with push-ups and they practically shot through it all, only slowing down a bit once they hit the 70’s mark and really slowing down around the 90’s mark. A testament to their strengths, especially with AJ being a farm earth pony. Then again, weather patrol DOES take hard work.

        “95… 96… 97… 98… 99… “ Twilight counted down the last five push-ups, as we could visibly see them straining to complete it fully.

        Then, I saw something for a split second, but it went too fast and Dash was suddenly up on her hooves for the final push-up, beating AJ by one.

        “100! Rainbow Dash is the winner!” Twilight called out as Dash cheered with a small loop-de-loop while AJ collapsed from her failed attempt at her 100th.

        After a bit of grumbling (hopefully good-naturedly) from AJ, we went on to long hop. Think long jump and you’re golden. Anywhom, the same thing happened again, with AJ getting pretty far before just barely being beaten out by Dash. Once again, I thought I saw a blur of something near Dash, but I couldn’t quite see it right and it was too late before I could focus again. AJ looked a bit more peeved, but still took it in good spirit.

        It was the next competition segment that I started feeling like something wrong was going on. It was to carry across little chickies to their mother hens at the other side of a long mud stretch. However, the feeling of uneasiness may be due to the fact that Dash was using her wing quite clearly for this part, but since she wasn’t using them for flying, it technically counted as something she could do. Dash ended up with another point while the rulebook (Apparently that’s what Twilight was doing with those scrolls) got a new update: no use of wings or magic AT ALL during the Iron Pony Competition.

        It all came to a head at the final segment, where the winner of this could possibly win, with this last one being worth 5 points. And of course, it was tug-of-war, where it was down to who could pull the hardest and who was the toughest to move. With this, it felt a lot like the unbeatable offense against the impenetrable defense, with Dash on offense and AJ on defense.

        “Alright you two. This is the final event. Give it all you got!” Twilight encouraged as Spike waved the checkered flag for them to start.

        At first, it seemed pretty much a stalemate, with Dash pulling as hard as she could while AJ stood her ground and pulled back just as hard. It was after a minute where it seemed Dash was losing a bit of ground, as she slowly slid over to the mud center being used to show who lost very clearly. AJ was grinning as best she could while holding onto the rope with her teeth, as it looked like victory for her was just around the corner.

        “Looks like the workhorse might come out ahead of this one!” Spike announced as Dash was teetering over the edge of the pit.

        It was then that I finally saw what that blur was that kept on eluding me: it was Dash’s wings being unfurled quickly, but this time she used them in plain view, where it was obvious she was breaking one of the rules of the Iron Pony Competition.

        “And Rainbow Dash just committed a foul by using her wings to gain a clear advantage! As such, she automatically loses this part of the segment, making Applejack the Iron Pony!” I announced.

        The results were very intense, with Dash giving me a glare and was going to yell at me before realizing that she opened her mouth, meaning she let go of the rope that kept AJ suspended in the air. AJ soon landed in the pit of mud, glaring up at Dash, who gave a glare right back. Then Twilight gave a glare at Dash and soon it was a heated argument between the four of us. What resulted was an hour long argument with Dash claiming she didn’t know that was an official rule and then claimed after it was clear that it wouldn’t work that AJ should be docked a few for using her Earth Pony strength to cheat as well. That set off AJ like nothing else, especially since she IS considered to be one of the most honest ponies in Ponyville, if not Equestria. It finally ended with no pony being the Iron Pony, calling the whole competition forfeit due to cheating on Dash’s part and the challenges that were clearly in favor of AJ.

        “Ya know what Rainbow, I think I got a way ta settle this once and fer all!” AJ smirked as Dash looked annoyed.

        “Oh yeah? How?” Rainbow snarked at AJ.

        “Tamorrow’s the annual Runnin’ Of The Leaves. I challenge you ta race me!” AJ declared.

        “Ha, easy smeasy,” Dash bragged as she was about to fly off for tomorrow.

        “Hold on!” AJ grabbed Dash by the tail and pulled her down, forcing her to listen as AJ continued, “There is one condition: Tha point is ta RUN, so no wings allowed!”

        “No wings? No problem!” Dash grinned as she bucked off AJ by a few meters.

        They agreed to it on a hoofshake, centers spit on, much like a handshake. Twilight gave a grossed out look as I chuckled, figuring Rarity would faint if she ever saw that happen. Twilight and I left for home to prepare for tomorrow as well, as tomorrow I overheard (aka: listened to Twilight freak out) that Celestia was going to make a visit to Ponyville’s Running Of The Leaves. This gave me a perfect opportunity to ask a question I had been wondering since I was first sucked into this crazy adventurous life: whatever happened to my attacker?

        It was the next day, and Twilight and I met over by the starting line while Spike ran off to Pinkie, probably to do more announcing like yesterday. I probably should’ve warned him that Pinkie tended to talk on and on about anything for any length of time, but he was long gone by then and I had figured he knew this by now. I hoped that Pinkie would at least realize that Spike wanted to announce as well as her, but my bets were low this time around.

        Twilight and I got into our positions at the starting line, doing a few basic stretches to work out the muscles a little bit and to warm ourselves up for the event. As I stretched, I looked around, enjoying the beautiful fall weather as I remembered why this was an important part of Equestrian history, which, come to think of it, I really should study a bit more. Or at least, reread again. As this holiday marks the middle of fall, the ponies would run through the trail of trees, their hooves stomping letting the leaves fall off the trees. Without this holiday, the leaves would stay on the tree, making it that much harder to start winter.

        My thought on the history soon stopped as I looked over at where AJ and Dash were and snickered quietly a bit. Apparently Dash had said that she could do this race with her wings tied behind her back. AJ, still probably feeling a bit bitter about yesterday, took this literally, and tied Dash’s wings to her back nice and tightly.

        “Racers, please take your position!” Pinkie announced, helping Spike get on the hot air balloon.

        We both smiled as we took our positions as Twilight finished up a few final things on her scroll and sent it off back to her home. The scroll disappearing is what alerted AJ and Dash to us being there as they did a double-take.

        “Twilight? Med? What in tarnation are ya both doin’ up here?” AJ look confused.

        “I’m racing,” Twilight and I said at the exact same time, causing us to look at each other strangely.

        Dash just laughed and commented, “Good one, you two! Nice rehearsal on speaking together at the same time too!”

        “I’m not joking,” Twilight gave a deadpan look at both of them as I nodded in agreement.

        “WHAT? Neither of you are athletes! Twilight, you’re kind of a… well, egghead. Med, you can barely do standard weather patrol, with even FLUTTERSHY beating you sometimes,” Dash looked surprised at the both of us, along with AJ.

        “I am not an egghead! I’m just well read,” Twilight pouted slightly.

        “And for the record Dash, I’m trying to improve my stamina,” I replied with a tiny glare.

        “But Twilight… have ya actually ever RUN a race?” AJ snickered a bit.

        “Well… no… But I do know a lot ABOUT running,” Twilight looked like she was trying to be confident in her decision.

        I felt a bit ticked off at our friends acting like little foals about this, so I stepped in as well. “Girls, let Twilight be. Can’t you at least attempt to be happy that she’s participating in something physical? When you both know that’s usually not her thing?”

        AJ had the decency to grimace a bit before smiling genuinely and supported Twilight in her decision. Dash on the other had just laughed and shot a small smirk at me.

        She then asked, “Ooo! Med’s getting a bit defensive over Twilight! Got somethin’ to share?~” She snickered at Twilight’s and my glare.

        “And just what might you be insinuating, Dash?” I asked in a deceptively calm voice.

        She was about to answer, but before she could say anything, she was interrupted by Pinkie Pie, who announcing the start of the race.

        “Is everypony ready?” Pinkie called out as we got ready to run.

        “Get set…” Spike followed after her as we took our starting running positions.

        “AAAAND THEY’RE OFF!” Pinkie loudly shouted as we all took off, each at a different speed, with AJ and Dash taking the clear lead and Twilight and I just casually jogging around the back, far away from the action.

        As we walked behind everypony, we heard the interesting announcements coming from both Pinkie and Spike. From what I heard about from last year’s Running, as I couldn’t attend due to the flu, Pinkie made a great replacement than the usual announcer, Time Turner (who I think is actually The Doctor as a pony, but don’t let him know I said that). Not that he was bad or anything, he just made odd comments that only I seemed to get, and even then it was only half the time.

        Ah, I’ve seemed to have rambled a bit there. Anyways, Twilight and I were jogging through the trail, enjoying the scenery. And I do have to say, the piles of leaves that were made along the way was quite a sight to see every year, especially when comparing them to when they were still on the tree. We then happened to see AJ get up, looking a bit pissed off as she glared ahead.

        “I don’t believe it!” We heard AJ cry out in a small bit of anger as we pulled up behind her.

        “I know, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Twilight breathily reply as she looked around.

        “Not the scenery Twilight! Rainbow Dash just tripped me!” AJ angrily ignored the surroundings and glared ahead.

        “Ỳes҉, b̶e̴ćau̸s͢e̶ na̴t͡ưre c͝e͠rta̷inĺy͞ di̡dn̵'t, ͠it HA̛D ͜t̶o ͡b̕e͟ the r͞a̕i͜n͟b͏o͠w one.”

        Both Twilight and AJ looked at me strangely, with me doing the same to them.

        “Uh, Med, you sure you’re feelin’ alright? This ain’t like last year where ya had the flu, right?” AJ politely asked.

        “Girls, I’m doing fine. What, did it sound like my throat was clogged or something?” I replied confusedly.

        Twilight gave me an odd look before shaking her head and pointed out a rock sticking out of the ground, saying, “Besides if you were going a bit slower like we were, you would’ve noticed that it was a ROCK you tripped over, not Rainbow Dash cheating.”

        “What?! Aw, hayseeds, now I got a lot of ground ta catch up ta Rainbow!” AJ groaned as she sped off, looking like it was going to be easy for her to catch up.

        “Just be careful!” Twilight called out to AJ, but it looked like she was too far off to listen.

        “You do know from the Iron Pony Competition that AJ and Dash will compete when it comes to their pride, right?” I shook my head and smiled as we both started jogging again.

        “Well, I hope they can overcome that just this once and enjoy this holiday like it was described in the books I read,” Twilight spoke hopefully as she took in the scenery once more.

        I had the feeling that this wouldn’t be the case until it was far too late, but I decided to keep that opinion to myself, not wanting to try and ruin Twilight’s first Running. After a little while, we overheard that AJ had caught up to Dash and were back to a stalemate.

        Wouldn’t you know it, we found Dash in a very similar situation to AJ, as she was loudly complaining that AJ had somehow tricked her into losing the lead.

        “Dash, if you actually took the time to look at least somewhat around you, you’d have noticed this big stump here,” I pointed to a stump near the path as I continued with, “But obviously, you didn’t.”

        “Oh I see. A big cheater is what I see!” Dash glared ahead, as I guessed she was referring to AJ.

        “Hm… One problem with that: why would the ELEMENT OF HONESTY being doing something as dishonest as CHEATING to win this race?” Twilight logically pointed out, referring to our Elements of Harmony.

        “Face it Dash, it was an accident of your own being,” I summarized.

        “An accident, right, sure it was,” Dash’s very sarcastic tones led to a different answer, but she ran off to catch up to AJ again, muttering to herself.

        I sighed and shook my head as Twilight and I started our jogging again. It seemed like I was indeed right and those two would be pulling all the stops to win. While I knew AJ wouldn’t try to cheat, she WOULD retaliate if she saw Dash obviously cheating, and AJ could be very creative when it came to stopping dirty play. However Dash had the same line of thinking, so I just prayed to LaurFastia that their antics didn’t affect anypony else in the race.

        “So… I gotta ask: what was up with the nicknames back there when Applejack had tripped?” Twilight asked after a while of silence and taking in the scenery.

        I blushed a tiny bit and waved a hoof. “I just kinda followed Pinkie a bit and since I’m kinda more friendly with them now, I think nicknames are in order. Pinkie already has one, now Applejack and Rainbow Dash have one: AJ and Dash. Plus, it does help conversation move along a little bit more.”

        “Oh, is that so? And what about Fluttershy and Rarity? Or even me?” Twilight giggled at my probably hilarious expression and stammering.

        She eventually waved a hoof and lightly added, “Don’t worry, it’s not a bad thing. I’m just teasing you a bit.”

        I blinked as my mind went temporarily haywire from the idea that Twilight, Element of Magic and Celestia’s protege, was actually teasing me. I paid for that by tripping over some overgrown roots and groaned a bit.

        “Curse you universe! I’m not even in bed!” I cried out to the sky, shaking a hoof as Twilight started laughing at my antics.

        “Medley, come on, we still have a race to do,” She smiled softly and shook her head while also looking a bit concerned and also asked, “Are you sure you’re alright?”

        “Don’t worry Twilight, I’m not made of brittle bones, I’ll be fine. Come on, let’s continue,” I smiled as we both started our silent jog once more.

        It was after another long while before Twilight commented, “Oh my. Whitetail Wood is just lovely!”

        It was right after that that I noticed Dash standing next to the arrow sign, looking a tad suspicious, but I couldn’t think of a good reason why that was the case.

        “Hey Rainbow. Shouldn’t you be up ahead?” Twilight greeted Dash.

        Rainbow laughed and confidently returned with, “I’m SURE to win now.”

        “Even when all the other racers passed you not a moment or two ago?” I smirked a bit at her reaction.

        “Oh horseapples,” Rainbow nervously looked down the path and sped off like a blur, saying a hurring “See ya!” behind her.

        We both shook our heads at the same time at Dash’s usual antics and went back into the race.

        For once, we managed to catch a few moments of silence before we noticed both AJ and Dash sliding down a cliff on a slab of rock. We didn’t even stop this time around only walking past them, with a small comment from Twilight that pointed out that if they were planning on winning, they should be at the front, not behind us. It was only then I caught the grin on Twilight face before she sped up and ran fast. I was shocked a bit before a similar grin appeared on my face as I started to race Twilight.

        We both crossed the finish line at nearly the same time, Twilight beating me out by a second or two and Twilight got a gold medal for being in 5th place while I had a silver medal for ending up in 6th place. We then stood off to the side, eagerly awaiting the rest of the ponies, which then soon became AJ and Dash, as they were the last two to attempt to cross the line.

        What we saw… honestly didn’t surprise us all that much. It looked like all bets were off now, as they started pushing and pulling each other to try and beat the other, all ending with AJ tackling a hovering Dash and they both brawled their way to the finish line, with Pinkie announcing that they had tied for last place.

        “Wait, if we’re last.. Who won?” Dash looked completely befuddled, which didn’t improve as Twilight and I walked over with our medals.

        “You two?!” AJ and Dash cried in complete shock as they saw our medals.

        “Nah, this isn’t first and second, it’s fifth and sixth respectively,” I corrected their assumptions.

        “We did pretty good, considering that I’ve never run a race before and Medley said that he was trying to improve his stamina,” Twilight added on to my statement, causing me to smile and nod at that.

        “How’s that even possible?” AJ tried to figure out.

        “You both were running so SLOW! And were looking at the scenery!” Dash pointed out.

        “Exactly!” Twilight and I pointed out at the same time, causing us to give each other a small look before I let Twilight continue, “We paced ourselves, just like my book said was a good way to win a race. It said that most ponies would tire if they used up all their energy early on, so we waited until the very end and managed to beat out most of the other ponies.”

        “I don’t… I don’t believe it!” Dash yelled in surprise, “Twilight… And Medley… Beat us!”

        “Well, with all your horsing around, it made it a bit easier,” I chuckled at their stymied expression.

        Applejack finally caught on and looked a bit apologetic, “Yer right, the both of y’all. Our behavior was just terrible.”

        “I guess we weren’t very good sports,” Dash conceded, kicking a hoof out of guilt.

        “Sounds to me like a very important lesson was learned,” I heard a voice speak out behind us, and judging from the gasps, I assumed it was Celestia herself. Plus, it was also the cries of “Princess Celestia?!” from AJ, Dash, and Twilight that gave me a big clue.

        “What are you doin’ here?” AJ asked her as she approached us, me turning around to face her and bow on one knee before her, as did the rest of my friends as Celestia spoke.

        “Fall is one of my favorite seasons, so I came to celebrate the Running Of The Leaves,” Celestia smile as we got back onto our legs.

        “I’m sorry you had to see us being such poor sports Princess,” AJ apologized.

        Celestia’s smile never wavered as she replied. “That’s alright Applejack. Anypony can get swept up in the excitement of competition.”

        “It’s  important to remember, that the friendship is always more important than the competition,” Twilight stood by Celestia as the look of recognition was on AJ’s and Dash’s face.

        “Exactly, Twilight.Now, unfortunately because the two of you were so busy tricking each other instead of shaking down leaves, many of the lovely trees in Equestria are still covered,” Celestia explained pointing a hoof at all of the trees that indeed still had their leaves on them.

        “Why Princess, I bet we can have those leaves knocked down for you lickety-split!” AJ looked confident as she looked over at Dash and asked, “What do ya say, friend? Wanna go fer another run?”

        “I’d LOVE to stretch my legs!” Dash grinned as she dashed off, AJ following suit after her, but this time it seemed much friendlier than before.

        As AJ and Dash raced down the pathway and everypony was heading home, talking excitedly about this year’s race, I went up to Celestia, who looked curious at what I would ask.

        “Princess Celestia, I have a question that’s been burning in the back of my mind for many years now, and only just now do I feel the urgent need to ask and since you’re available for a small moment,” I asked Celestia as formally as I could.

        “Oh? And what could that question be, Medley?” Celestia raised an eyebrow and a small smile.

        I looked up at her and asked in the calmest voice I could manage, “What happened to my attacker? I know you must’ve found her by now.”

        At this, Celestia looked saddened and Twilight gave me a cross look for upsetting her. But before Twilight could speak, Celestia answered in a regretful voice, “I’m sorry Medley… but your attacker hasn't been found since the very beginning. She is surprisingly hard to find. We are working as hard as we can, however, to make sure we find this pony and see justice be delivered.”

        “But… Princess Celestia, I don’t understand. I thought you had an highly trained group that could easily find others, especially unicorns!” I stomped a hoof angrily.

        Celestia looked even more saddened as she gave me even more bad news. “Unfortunately, even we cannot seem to track her by normal means, or even by stranger ways. And thus, we are forced to keep searching on hoof and wing until we find your attacker.”

        My body shook with anger at the unfairness of the world, as it seemed that no good deed went unpunished. I was about angrily say so before Twilight cut me with. It was rather scary to see her with a more sadistic and bloodthirsty grin.

        “Princess Celestia, as I was born and raised in the fields of magic, especially that of Starswirl the Bearded, I've come across some hidden spells that may be of use to help find and take her down. And since I know some ponies in Canterlot, I believe I can call upon a very nice lawyer to help open the case and quickly get a case going,” Twilight planned.

        Celestia started to smile at this and nod. “Of course, my faithful student. I will vouch for your lawyer and of course be the impartial judge on the appeal.” She then winked at the both of us before she headed off to Canterlot, leaving behind the trial details along with a time and location for a trial and some books on laws. One was, appropriately named enough, “Laws for Dummies: The Innies and Outies of the Political System”.

        Twilight and I brought the supplies over to her home and started to draft out a plan of action for getting the trial done the right way, which meant to try and stick the runaway mare with everything we could. It soon was getting late and it was time for me to head back home. So, with a cheerful goodbye, I quickly flew home and put up my medal, giving a small smile as I promised myself to do better next year and possibly beat Twilight. I soon went to sleep, planning out a few more details and ideas for the inevitable trial against the mare that nearly ruined my life. I wouldn’t ask for the death penalty of course, but if they ended up giving it, I wouldn't try and lessen it any, as she nearly ended my life with that spell. I fell asleep with a smile on my face and one last question burning in the back of my mind: why do my friends think that I sounded sick sometimes?


	End of Chapter 14