Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

The Price of Victory

"Are those losers ready yet?" Race spat as he continued to file his hoof.

"Maybe we shouldn't call them 'losers'" Ralan suggested as he looked though a pair of binoculars over at the area where Rumble and his friends were washing up and talking to their coach.

"Call's 'em as ah sees 'em" Race said as he finished filing and began stretching.

"You know, if we aren't a little nicer to them, they might not want to do this again" Reese suggested, pushing up his glasses with his hoof. "I admit, I was taken back by the last round's outcome, but still we could-"

"HEY!" Race jumped up and dashed over to Reese, his muzzle just inches from Reese's, eyes flaring like wildfire. "I wasn't the one who called a crowd to watch! I wasn't the one who pulled that stupid move to make me look stupid I front of the whole stupid town!"

Race growled and huffed as his eyes narrowed on his glasses wearing brother. After a moment of stillness, Race moved away and set his sights on Rumble and his group. "I'm going to fly over and see what's taking so long."

With a mighty burst from his wings, Race took to the skies and began to soar over to where Sunny was coaching Rumble, Button and the rest of the group. Leaving Reese and the other siblings to look at each other awkwardly, there eyes all saying the same thing, the whole situation starting to turn sour.

Flying over the forest, Race neared the location where he left Rumble and his buddies, then dropped down, wanting to make an awesome entrance, But before he even broke through the canopy, several paint filled balloons were shot at him! Maneuvering at the very last moment, Race was able to dodge the balloons and swoop back high into the sky. The blue Pegasus thought he was safe for a moment until something came hurtling at him! It was the little pudgy unicorn colt with bucked teeth! He was flying through the air with a paint balloon in his hooves and heading strait for Race himself!

Race picked up the speed and was now losing Snips, leaving him behind in his dust! As Snips began to fall towards the earth, another pony flung up into the sky! It was Snails this time! He also had a balloon and would have chucked it at Race if he wasn't laughing and enjoying the weightlessness. One after the other, the two young unicorn pals bounced up and down, tossing their paint balloons over in Race's direction. With great maneuvering skill, Race was able to dodge every one of them. Although it wasn't really that hard, Snips and Snails couldn't aim.

The blue pegasus was panicking for a moment, but began to relax once he reached his brothers and sisters. They all were surprised to see Race show up so quickly an so out of breath. When he could, Race spoke threw his intakes of breath. "They are... They are coming!... They're trying... To ambush... Us!"

"Let's get ready!" Reese called out as he grabbed a few paint balloons. Ralan and Raina were hesitant but went along with what Reese said and picked up a few balloons themselves.

As the siblings readied themselves, Seeing the two unicorns bounce up above the tree's canopy and down again, Reese couldn't help but notice something odd. "Hey... They haven't moved from their positions in a while... What if-"

"I don't care 'why'!" Race snapped. "Just take them down!"

"With pleasure!" A younger voice called out from behind Race and his siblings. As they all turned around, Button, Rumble and Feather Weight appeared and began tossing their team's balloons at the blue colored pegusi! Panicking, Ralan and Reina dropped their balloons and began dodging balloons instead! Ralan was the first to get hit in the chest, quickly fallowed by Reina after she dodged several balloons only to be smacked by one in the face!

"Let's get out of here!" Reese suggested to his brother.

"No, ya think?!" Race snapped as he and his brother flew out of the area, and deeper into the forest.

The remaining blue pegusi skimmed all along the ground, carrying just two balloons each, which wouldn't be enough to beat them unless they hit two at once. Race realized this and guessed that the best way to do that would be to hit the two losers that were bouncing up and down. "That was probably just a distraction! Let's take out those two!"

"Roger that" Reese said, deciding to go along with Race's plan.

The blue pegasus with the bright red star cutie mark then lead his second in command over to where the two unicorn colts had been bouncing around the trees only to find an empty trampoline. The two brothers stood there, confused for a moment until they heard a twig snap. Race reacted first, turning around suddenly to see the two unicorns swinging in from the trees on vines, each of them with at least five balloons hanging in their arms!

Reese calculates it out in his head that the best option was for them to dash underneath the trampoline then wait until the swing of the vines reaches its height, then make a B line right back to their camp. But before he could tell his 'leader' the plan, Race ducked behind Reese and held him in place, making his brother into a living shield. Having his legs locked up by Race, Reese could only stand in place and get pummeled by balloon after balloon. Once the balloons stopped, Race popped out from behind his now orange brother and quickly shot Snips and Snails with his own paint balloons!

The two unicorns then fell from their respective vines only to land safely in the trampoline as begin bouncing on it again, only this time for fun. As Snips and Snails played, Race turned to Reese. "I'll beat these guys and avenge us! Go and get cleansed up with the others. I will not let them beat me again!"

After watching Race zoom off into the air, Reese released a held breath. He was feeling uptight about the whole thing and would love to just go home and relax in a nice warm bath.

"Hey" Snips called out as he bounced up and down. "Wanna join us?"

"It's tons of fun!" Snails commented as he did a flip.

Reese watched the two for a moment, witnessing the large amount of 'fun' they were having and shrugged. "Sure. Why not."

The blue pegasus then removed his glasses, placing them safely off to the side, then joined Snips and Snails on their trampoline. As he began to bounce with them, Reese found he began to relax. His stressed muscles and head ache began to just drift away.

"You're brother's a bit uptight" Snails bluntly said.

"Tell me about it..." Reese smiled as he mimicked Snails in doing a flip, thinking he needed to get himself one of these.

Flying through the woods, dodging tree after tree, Race quickly made his way to the place where he and his other team members stored their paint balloons. He kept his two remaining ones on him, having used Reese's balloons to take down those two swinging losers. When he neared his destination, he paused to look around. Not wanting to fall right into a trap, and quickly found out he was smart to do so.

Not three feet from their pile of paint and soap filled balloons was a small trip wire. Race's eyes followed the wire all the way up the side of a tree and into the tree tops. 'These losers are getting smart. But not smarter then me.'

Race climbed up the side of another tree all the way to the tree tops, being as quiet and subtle as he could be. When he reached the top, Race peered through the various branches out over to where the wire fed into. Feather Weight had the other end of the string tied to his back leg, waiting for when he felt a tug on the string. When he did, Feather would know Race was beneath him and to drop his balloons. Race smiled to himself as he climbed quietly down the tree and crawled over to the tree that Feather was hiding in. Race paused for a moment to look around, incase this was a trap within a trap. But as far as he could tell, it was just that loser up in a tree.

With one good tug, Rave pulled Feather out of the tree and into a bush at its base. Waiting only for a moment for the scrawny pegasus colt to emerge, Race then smacked a paint balloon over Feather's head. The bucked tooth Pegasus was now coated in green paint and soap.

"Three down, two ta go!" Race chuckled to himself.

Just as the victorious Pegasus made his way over to his pile of paint balloons, They all began popping! Race could only watch in horror as every one of the balloons began popping and releasing their contents, soaking the ground in green paint! Before Race could ask what the buck just happened, a few small porcupines rolled out of the pile and began playing in the paint and soap solution.

Growling and stomping his hoof as he called out "that's a cheep trick to win, Rumble! I am so going to enjoy taking you and your loser best friend down!"

"Ugh, R-race..." Feather mumbles out lightly. "Rumble and B-Button Mash are both up the way at the clearing. They wanted me to tell you if-"

"Why should I I believe you?" Race snapped. "It's probably another trap."

"R-Rumble insisted that he and Button take you on w-with out tricks or traps." Feather said as he a stepped back further from the furious blue pegasus.

Thinking for a moment, a smirk cracked on Race's face. "Well, if what you say is true, then you wouldn't mind coming along for the ride, would you?!"

Before Feather could answer, Race grabbed him and began flying over the the clearing. He knew where Rumble meant, it was an area they started out using for this when they began these paint balloon training games. Fitting that Race should take Rumble and his stupid friend down there. It didn't take the blue Pegasus long to reach it. Rumble and Button were there waiting, each with one balloon each. Their gazes hardened as Race and Feather came into view.

"Too afraid to come alone?" Button snapped at Race before Rumble.

Race plopped Feather down on the ground, then landed as masculine as he could on one back hoof with one front hoof punching the ground. "Well if you two would play fair, I wouldn't need to grab insurance."

"We played fair" Rumble smirked. "After all 'what rules did we break'?"

"Trampolines, vines, and trick wires are all fair game as long as we don't use them to restrict 'your' movement like tying you up." Button spoke confidently.

"And don't forget, you said as long as we waited until you and your team were clean of paint, we had the 'go ahead'" Rumble added, his smirk still present.

"But you two used hedgehogs to pop all of our balloons!" Race snapped. "That's a direct violation of the rules! You aren't allowed to tamper with the ammo!"

Rumble and Button turned to each other, slightly confused by what Race just accused them of. Luckily, Feather weight was there to clarify.

"Actually, If you go back and look, you'll see Race and the others put their balloons near a hedgehog burrow" Feather began to clarify. "I was watching them while I was waiting. I wanted to shoo them away, but I couldn't leave my position. It looked like they all enjoyed popping the balloons and playing with the paint inside."

"What?! You're lying!" Race snapped. "We wouldn't be so careless to put out ammo near a hedgehog's burro!"

"Regardless" Rumble said as he pulled out another balloon from behind him. "We got you a spare. We want to end this now."

Race shrugged and pushed feather off to the side. "Fine by me."

"It's us two, with one balloon each..." Button began to say as Rumble walked over to Race to give him his second balloon.

"Against you with your two balloons. Sounds fair, right?" Rumble said as he handed Race the balloon he saved for him.

Race smiled as he took the balloon from his younger cousin, only for the seemingly innocent smile to crack and become twisted. Race snagged up the balloon from Rumble and smashed it on his head!

"Sounded nice in theory!" Race commented. "But this is war! And all's fair in love and war!"

"Why you!" Button was beside himself as he quickly ran up to the bully and tossed with all his might his last balloon.

Race didn't have enough time to move out of the way, the balloon was too close! Thinking quickly, he grabbed not only Rumble, but Feather as well! He pushed them together in front of him to make a colt shield. Button's balloon impacted between them, spattering on both of his team mates. Race knew his victory was in the bag! But as he began to drop his shield and plan for an attack of his own, he caught sight of Button Mash with a second balloon!

When Race had grabbed Rumble and Feather to use as a shield, Rumble took the opportunity to gently toss Button his own balloon, knowing his best friend would have a second shot. And now hurdling in the air was Button Mash with an orange paint filled balloon with Race's name on it. In one final attempt to win, Race used one wing to smack Button's hoof out of the way while his other wing passed his remaining balloon into his hoof, and from there, Race chucked it as hard as he could at Button Mash!

Race's paint balloon hit it's target, covering Button Mash completely in green paint! Button Mash fell to his hooves, the impact of the over all defeat overshadowing the sting of the balloon. Button, Rumble, Feather and Race were all soon joined by Race's siblings, Snips and Snails. They were all slightly taken back by the sight of both Button and Rumble being coated in green paint and Race breaking down into a victory dance.

"I win! I win! Ha! Wonderbolts here i come! Ha ha!" Race cheered, ignoring his cousin walking over to his group of friends.

"Come on guys, let's head back to my place" Button suggested, a half smile on his face. "My mom said it's pizza night. I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you all came by."

"You sure that's ok?" Snips asked, not wanting to impose.

"I'm sure she already planned for us to come by" Rumble chuckled. "Think it's a mom thing. She did that last time too."

"Your mom's really nice" Snails commented, his mouth drooling at the thought of pizza.

Reese, Reina, and Ralan turned their gaze from the victory dancing Race to Rumble and his friends walking away, then back to Race. They all took a deep breath, feeling the time had come to talk to Race.

"Hey Race, we need to talk..." Reese began to say, adjusting his glasses once more.

"Talk about how awesome seeing the Wonderbolts is going to be! I know! I can't wait either! Maybe they'll even ask us to join them back stage!" Race finished up his victory dance.

"No, we, ugh...." Ralan struggled to find the words.

"We want to quit doing these games" Reese plainly spat out, his voice and muzzle completely deadpan.

"Wait, what?!" Race's own muzzle did a 180 from a victorious grin to a horrified frown. "B-but what about becoming Wonderbolts?! What about the team?! We need to practice with these games to keep our edge! We were going to be the perfect team!!!"

"What 'team' are you even thinking about Race?" Reina finally spoke up, annoyance heavy in her own tone.

"Every time we do this, you just use us to win. Either as a distraction, a scout, or as a shield when you don't want to get hit" Reese explained, adding emphasis on the 'shield' part.

"But-but all hard work! The training sessions! We all were going to attend the academy together!" Race continued, his voice sounding more desperate and hysteric.

"You can't work as a 'team', Race" Ralan added, feeling like he can speak his mind. "With you its a one horse show, and we're just expendable."

"We wanted to see if you changed during this last match, to see if you could lighten up and see it's just a fun game" Reese continued.

"But you blew your top worse then ever before" Reina added. "So we're done. We're done with the early morning sessions, we're done with the drills, and we're defiantly done with these paint balloon games and taking orders from you."

Race stood there, pupils shrunk to the size of pin heads and jaw dropped as he started at all his siblings. He felt like he was about to cry, but he refused to do so. Crying showed weakness. Weakness wouldn't get you into the Wonderbolts. He refused to be weak.

"Fine! Whatever! Who needs you!" Race snapped, practically spitting on his siblings. "After all I did for you, you're just going to toss my dreams aside?! Who need you! I can find flyers ten times better then you to be on my team! You all were just slowing me down!"

Reese, Reina, and Ralan weren't surprised by Race's reaction, but it was quiet for a moment until Reese spoke up. "Well, I wish you the best of luck with that."

Reese then began to leave, Reina following behind. The last to leave a was Ralan, who looked at Race for a moment, hesitated, but ultimately decided to leave with his other brother and sister. Race stood there, his chest rising and falling heavily as his red vision began to revert back to normal, then began to flood. As tears began to gather in his eyes, the blue pegusus heard a twig snap. His head jerked up to see Rumble's coach standing there, the Wonderbolt's tickets in his mouth.

"Well you won" The yellow unicorn said, his face showing no displeasure nor joy. The most neutral face Race had ever seen. "These are yours. Hope you and your team enjoy the show."

"I don't have a team..." Race spat out as he turned away from the tickets that were placed before him. "Not any more..."

"Oh? What happened?" Sunny asked, stepping closer to the blue Pegasus.

"That abandoned me!" Race snapped again. "After everything I did for them! I trained them harder then anything, researched and studied for them to make us a winning team! We could have been the ultimate team! We could have... Been the ultimate... Ultimate team..."

"Race" Sunny began to approach the young blue pegasus. "I watched everything that happened, and I didn't mean to ease drop, but I also caught what your siblings had to say. And they are right, you aren't a team player."

"Great! Race will go down in history as the worst Wonderbolt because he can't play well with others!" Race began shouting again before turning to glare at Sunny. "Is that all you wanted to say? You wanted to kick me more when I'm down?!"

"Let me put it to you this way" Sunny remained calm as he began to weave a story. "There was a Wonderbolt's cadet by the name of Lightning Dust. She was as fast as Rainbow Dash, and even way more determined to be the best. She pushed herself and her team mate harder and harder. But she didn't know when to stop. And she didn't want to slow down for others, and only saw them as obstacles getting in her way.

"Well, during one of her training sessions, she created a tornado that almost hurt a lot of ponies. All because she thought she was the best and that being the best and the fastest was all that mattered. Think back to all that training, to the games too. Does that seem anything at all like what you were doing?" Sunny concluded his story, hoping Race would see the error of his ways.

"No! I'm nothing like that! I work hard for what I want! I pushed them because I knew they could be the best!" Race snapped again without even taking in what Sunny had said.

"Ok, ok" Sunny calmly replied, putting his hooves up. "Guess I'm wrong, and you have every right to be upset at your siblings. You've done nothing wrong. Well, I'll take my leave. Think Reese and the others will be at Sugar Cube Corner after a good shower to get the rest of the paint off if you want to join them."

"Why would I want to join those traitors?!" Race hissed at Sunny, barring his teeth.

Sunny said no more, believing anything else said to the young colt would just fuel the fire. Leaving Race behind with his fiery temper and thoughts, Sunny planned to go to Sugar Cube Corner himself for another protein shake. Race watched as the yellow unicorn vanished from sight, leaving him truly alone. Left with nothing more then the Wonderbolt's tickets and his own thoughts, Race began to go over the games again. Not thinking he did anything wrong, no no no no no. Just... Maybe playing it back to get a better idea of how to improve his already near perfect moves.

Race began to think about his perfectly executed throws, his flawless aim, and his ability to dodge any attack... Almost any attack... Almost any... It was then that Race began to think about those closest calls. The times where he had to duck into a bush, or up a tree, or... Or the times he's ducked behind one of his team mates.... Or pushed them in front to take the hit for him... Or... Or maybe he held them there to take the hit. And not just his own team mates, but Rumble's friends as well...

"What have I done?..." Race asked himself, now with images of his cold and selfish actions playing in his head. He first saw his most recent memories of how he acted today, how he treated not only his cousin Rumble his teammates, but also his own siblings. Race could see now how he yelled at Reese, Reina, and Ralan in frustration, how he threw them I front of him when he needed a shield, how he ordered them around and gave little thought to how they felt. Then Rumble's image came to mind.

Rumble and his friends stood strong against Race and his siblings today, with their heads up high and a crowd cheering behind them. Not only that, but they witnessed their first victory against Race and his team. The blue Pegasus with a red star cutie mark was humiliated twice as bad because of the viewing crowd. He could hear their cheering even now... Maybe that's what made him mad. Not just the humiliation that came from the viewing crowd, but also envy. How? How did Rumble urn a crowd in this one horse town, when Race and his team could hardly get passbyers to stop and admire them when they practiced back in Cloudsdale. What made Rumble so special?! What made... Rumble...

A flashing image of Race's younger Cousin flooded the blue colt's mind. He could see Rumble and his friends working together, one working off of the other. When they worked together, everything just seemed to flow, even though they weren't all pegusi. A mixed up team of two unicorns who didn't use magic, two pegusi who couldn't fly, and a mouthy earth pony beat his team of four pegusi who practiced all the time to be the best. How?! How did Rumble do it? Race's mind began to slow down again as an image of his cousin came to mind.

Race saw his little cousin being bombarded by paint balloon after paint balloon until the little filly was left in a giant pile of green paint. How couldn't Race see it before, see that his own cousin laying in a pile of green slush, crying.

"Rumble..." Race spoke under his breath, suddenly realizing just what he had done. He had been so preoccupied with being the best, that he not only did he believe the ends justified the means to get there, but he lost control of himself.

The tears that he had held back for quite a while now had burst through and now soaked the plus pegasus's face before falling to the ground. After several long moments of regret, the colt looked around, saw the Wonderbolt's tickets, snagged them up and took off into town. As Race flew over the treetops into town, a certain yellow unicorn caught sight of him. Seeing the tears in the colt's eyes brought a small smile to Sunny's face. He knew now that Race saw where he went wrong, and was rushing off to make it right.

Flying as fast as he could into town, Race looked all around for Rumble, but had no idea where his friend lived. He knew he needed to apologize to his siblings as well, but Race knew that he hurt Rumble the most. The blue Pegasus was forced to go by and ask ponies he didn't even know, with tear filled eyes, if somepony had seen his cousin Rumble. Sad to say, no pony knew, but wished Race the best of luck in finding him. After half an hour or so of looking, Race took a break underneath a tree. He couldn't stop the flow of tears, and didn't want anypony else to see what a big crybaby he was. Race was so caught up in not knowing how to find Rumble and his friends to apologize, that he didn't even notice the three familiar ponies approach him.

"Race? Is that you?" Ralan asked, concern thick in his voice as his worried eyes fell upon his brother.

Race looked up, his eyes red and puffy from all the crying. He wanted to apologize to Rumble and his friends first before his own siblings, but he guessed that this would be the best time to do so. If they leave him behind to go home or anything, he would rather have already gotten this off of his chest.

"H-hey guys..." Race began, his voice really shaky.

"What are you doing out here?" Reina asked, her voice slightly softer then earlier.

For a moment Race didn't answer, feeling a new wave of tears building up, ready to burst. But he was tired of holding back the tears, tired of trying so hard to be strong. He just wanted his brothers and sisters back! "I'M SO SORRY! I'm so sorry for the way I treated you guys! I was a giant jerk! I know you said you don't want to be in my team anymore, but... But... I don't want to lose you and my brothers and sister!"

Reese, Reina and Ralan all looked at each other, appearing slightly confused, before nodding with identical smiles and moving all around Race for a group hug. Race's tears froze for a moment, the blue Pegasus with a red star cutie mark didn't know what to do or say.

"We may not want to play your stupid paint balloon games, Race" Reina said, holding her brother tight.

"But we'll never stop being your family" Reese added, his glasses drooping slightly, but he ignored pushing them up to continue hugging his brother.

"You're stuck with us for life!" Ralan finished it up.

Race didn't know what else to do but hold them all as tight as he could, tears flowing once more, but this time, the tears were ones of joy. He felt like a great weight had been lifted off of him. Race really cared about his siblings, and never ever wanted to lose them again. But something else popped into the colt's mind.

"Guys! I need to find Rumble!" Race said, reluctantly breaking up the group hug. "I... I need to tell him and his friends that I'm sorry too... I was really mean to him..."

Reese approached his brother, put a hoof on his shoulder then pushed up his glasses once more. "We'll help you find him."

"Y-you will?" Race felt like he was glowing in the inside. "B-but I have no idea where to look! I asked everypony in town!"

"We'll find him" Ralan said with confidence, shooting Race a smile.

"Eighteen eyes are better then two!" Reina commented with a cocky smile.

A small smile appeared on Race's face as one more tear fell from his eye. Wiping his eyes clear, Race faced his siblings with a new sense of bravado. "Alright guys, let's find our cousin. Together."

Reese, Reina, Ralan and Race all put their hooves together and cheered before shooting off in different directions, covering all 4 corners of Ponyville. All four of the siblings did their best going from house to house, looking for any sight of Rumble and his friends. They would stop ponies on the street and ask if they had seen Rumble or any of his friends. Race searched for maybe another ten minute before Reina found him leaving Sugar Cube Corner.

"We found him! We found him!" Reina said with a grin.

Race fallowed her half way through town, running into Reese and Ralan along the way. All together, Race and his siblings approached a small average looking house where Rumble and his friends were supposedly having a movie night, complete with popcorn, pizza, soda and tuns of candy. They landed about ten yards from the front door. Up until then, Race was so sure of what he was going to say to his cousin and his friends. But now that he was faced with it, the blue pegasus wasn't sure he could speak those words. Race looked back to his siblings, and was quickly reminded just what he wanted to say. With a deep breath, the blue colt approached the house and knocked on the front door.

"Coming" a mare's gentle voice spoke out in a motherly tone. Moments later a cream colored mare with a light brown mane wearing an apron opened the door. She smiled down at race when she saw him. "Hello. Can I help you?"

"Ugh, is Rumble inside?" Race asked, feeling a bit embarrassed and ashamed.

"Are you one of his friends?" The mare asked.

But before Race could answer, Button walked up to his mother, not noticing Race at first. "Hey mom, is the pizza ready-" just then, the brown earth pony turned and saw Race. The hairs on the back of the blue pegasus's neck stood on end. "What do you want?"

"Button! That is no way to talk to a guest!" The mare glared lightly at her son.

"I-it's alright ma'am" Race said, speaking up before turning to Button. "Can I speak to my cousin?... Please?"

If Race didn't use the 'P' word, Button would have turned him away. But the gamer pony looked twice at Race, finding it almost hard to believe this was the same colt who they took on earlier. He looked... Different. Broken kind of, but... In a good way? If that makes sense. "Yeah, I'll go get him... Wait here..."

Button disappeared for a moment, meanwhile his mom asked if Race or any of his siblings would like a snack or a drink, to which, Race and the rest politely said no. She was about to offer them to come inside, but Rumble popped up in just that moment.

"What do you want Race?" Rumble asked, his eyes half narrowed at his older cousin.

"Rumble, I... I, er..." Race took a deep breath and exhaled. "I just wanted to say... That I'm sorry."

"That doesn't make things right" Rumble flatly told his cousin, Button Mash, Feather Weight, Snips, and Snails appearing behind him. "You were a jerk. You were mean to my friends too, not just me. And this wasn't the first time you did this either. You always do this. It's just this time was the worst."

"Yeah... I know..." Race said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I only wanted to be the best Wonderbolt I could be... Because... I want what you got..."

This threw Rumble through a loop. "What do you mean?"

"I saw how well you and your friends worked together, I don't even know if you guys even run training sessions, but you all seemed to build off of each other! You even beat us!" Race took a moment to calm himself down, then cleared his throat again. "I just.... I wanted that for me, Reese, Reina and Ralan. I wanted us to be that close. But I started only thinking of myself and pushed everypony so hard that the fun in all of it was gone.

"I thought if we all worked hard to become Wonderbolts, that we would be even closer then normal siblings. I wanted to be a Wonderbolt anyway, so I pushed myself to try and be the best. It took me until just a little bit ago to realize that I was doing just the opposite. I wasn't only pushing my brothers and sister away from me, I was pushing everypony away." Race paused to catch his breath.

"Being close doesn't mean you have to know everything about the other pony" Button stepped forward. "It means you like hanging out with them."

"And you like getting to know them and like learning more about them" Feather Weight spoke up, making a smile with his buckteeth.

"And showing them who you are" Snips spoke up before chuckling lightly.

"And wanting to have fun with them" Snailes added. "Like jumping on a giant trampoline together!"

Race looked at all of Rumbles friends, then once again as his own siblings as if for reassurance before finally asking those questions he buried deep, deep down inside. "So... Do you forgive me for being such a jerk? And, well... Can we be friends?"

Rumble thought about it for a moment before calling a huddle. Button, Rumble and the rest huddled around in a circle where only mumbling could be heard. Race's heart began to beat faster as he became more nervous of what their answer would be. After a short intervention, Rumble broke the group and, each one of them turning to face Race and his siblings as he was the soul one to approach his cousin.

"After a brief meeting, and discussing everything that went on, my friends and I have decided...." Rumble's eyes narrowed on his cousin, watching the bullets of sweat race down from his forehead. "We have decided... to forgive you."

Race jumped up in a celebratory cheer as he was quickly tackled by Reese, Reina, and Ralan. They all gave him pats and congratulatory punches on his shoulders.

"Hey!" Button called out to Race and his siblings, collecting their attention. "When you guys are done messing around, come on in. There's a ton of pizza, and we're about to start the monster pony movie marathon."

Not needing to be asked twice, Race and his group all filed in, excited by desperately trying to be polite at the same time. A little down the way, just within ear shot, a certain yellow stallion stood against a house watching everything unfold. His Apple family Stetson had hung over his eyes and most of his muzzle. Partly because it made him look cool, but mostly because he didn't need to see what was going on or want anypony to see him there. Sunny smiled as he lifted his Stetson back to its upright position atop his head and looked over at Button Mash's house. Even from where he stood, Sunny could hear all the fun the young colts and one mare were having.

"Well, m'ah work here is done" with that being said, the unicorn with a solar eclipse cutie mark made his way from town, heading back to the apple farm, more then ready for a good long night sleep.