The next day started like the day before. I woke up at eight o'clock after a particularly short night of sleep, went to the bathroom, clothed myself and then made myself on my way to the orphanage to pick up Scootaloo. Of course, I didn't go out without grabbing the bag of bits from my nightstand.
The moment I entered Ponyville, I realized something that was quite different than the day before. It was a lot more crowded, like, a lot. It seemed like everyone busy going somewhere, some of the ponies I passed even wearing some sort of tracksuits. Comparing the number of ponies that were already wandering about the streets to that of the day before, It was strange to see how much of a difference a festival that sounded pretty normal could make.
It was then that I realized that I had no idea when the Running of the Leaves was even going to start. For all I knew, it could've been already over. Dreading the thought of missing the event, I increased my pace a little, intending on arriving at the orphanage as soon as possible and then walk straight to where ever the event was taking place. After having breakfast, of course. Can't miss the most important meal of the day, right?
When I arrived at the orphanage, Scootaloo was already patiently waiting for me, but this time without her scooter. Upon questioning her why, she said, to my surprise, that she wouldn't need it that day because she was going to partake in the Running Of The Leaves. Her two friends, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, were going to participate too, which lead me to believe that they were doing it because they were trying to get their Cutie Marks.
What would that have even meant, getting a Cutie Mark in a marathon? That they were good runners or just good at marathons?
She actually asked me if I would be able to run with them, but I wasn't too sure if I even wanted to. Sure, it definitely would've been a good exercise for my me, exercise that I more than just needed, but that didn't change that I wasn't too enthusiastic about the prospect of participating in what was, essentially, a marathon - mainly because it involved moving. But instead of outright denying, I chose to just shrug.
Scootaloo seemed content enough with that answer, though I was certain she was already forming a plan in her head to get me to run with them. A faint smirk that was tugging at the corner of her lips was enough for me to know that it was a downright mischievous one. Her plan, without a doubt, involved a lot of big, teary eyes and pouts. It was at that moment that I decided that, once any pony would try to convince me into participating by using their adorableness, I was going to give them snuggles until they were too disturbed to ever try anything like that again. My plan was flawless!
Kinda. It had some flaws, but no plan is perfect. Right?
Anyways.
So, after asking Scootaloo if she would like to get some breakfast, to which she all too eagerly replied with a yes, we made ourselves on our way again. Not to my home, mainly because I still hadn't anything to eat in my fridge, but to the café from the day before. We probably could've gone to Sugarcube Corner, but I still wasn't too keen on potentially meeting Pinkie Pie again. That pony, even though she wasn't the evil demon she seemed to be, sure was crazy. Besides, the food was good at the café and the waitress was nice, so why not support them and go there again?
No more than five minutes after we departed from the orphanage, we arrived at Café Hay, our destination. We were immediately greeted by the same waitress from the day before, Acoustic Melody if I remembered correctly, who was busy setting the tables. It looked like the café just opened moments ago.
She gave us a smile once she spotted us, silently telling us that she would be there in a moment. She finished setting the table just when we seated ourselves and walked back into the café, coming back out after just a few seconds, this time carrying two menus with her. It was still a mystery to me how she was able to balance something on the top of her hoof while walking perfectly normal, but I chose to better not think about that too hard.
She approached the table we chose to sit at, the same friendly smile from the day before on her face as she placed one menu in front of me and one in front of Scootaloo. "Good morning again."
I smiled back at her. "Good morning."
"I'll be back in a few minutes to get your orders." She said, producing a notepad and pen from somewhere and then directing a questioning look at me. "Can I get you something to drink?"
I shook my head to her question. "No, thanks, I'm fine."
She looked over to Scootaloo. "And you?"
Scootaloo hummed in thought for a moment, a hoof rubbing the underside of her muzzle idly. "A strawberry milkshake, please."
The waitress quickly scribbled Scootaloo's order down and, with a smile, left us to ourselves again. Scootaloo and I enjoyed the silence for a few minutes, content with watching the ponies who passed the café. What surprised me, though, was that no one was staring at me. Either they didn't see me, which I strongly doubted, or they were simply too busy because literally no one was giving me second glances. It was almost like I fit in, like I was one of them.
Maybe the others had been right after all. Maybe the just needed a little time to adjust to me.
"Have you seen Rainbow today?" It was Scootaloo who pulled me out of my daydreaming.
I shook my head. "Nope."
"Huh, weird." She said, seeming to be thoughtful. "She told me that she'd have to get up early and practice so that she could beat Applejack this year."
I raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Wait, she didn't win last year? Who then?"
"You may not believe me-" She started, pausing for the dramatic effect. Or something like that. "-but Twilight won."
I stared at her for a few long seconds before asking, "You're kidding me, right? Twilight?"
"Yep, she won." I gestured for her to explain. "Well, Rainbow and Applejack were so lost in trying to beat each other in the marathon that they kinda...well, let's just say that their ways of trying to win got them to lose."
"So, they cheated and all that, and then karma came around the corner and hit 'em hard?"
She nodded her head. "Pretty much, yeah."
"Heh, now I have another thing I can tease Rainbow with." I said with an evil smirk. "I mean, her losing to Twilight in a marathon? That's really embarrassing..." I thought what I said over for a moment, took a quick look around me, before adding, "Uh, don't tell Twilight I said that."
She giggled. "Maybe I will."
"No, I'm serious." I leaned a little closer in order to whisper to her. "Twilight's going to fry my ass for saying that."
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "I won't tell her, I promise." I narrowed my eyes at her. "Ugh, Cutie Mark Promise."
I nodded in satisfaction, opening the menu as Scootaloo did the same. After two or three minutes of looking through it, I concluded that, besides what I had the day before, there was nothing I really would've liked to eat. I mean, sure, a daffodil sandwich might sound tasty, but not once you realize that it isn't just the name of the sandwich but that they put real flowers on it. So, I chose to just order the same from the day before.
Fittingly enough, the waitress came back to our table just when I finished deciding. She placed the strawberry milkshake in front of Scootaloo and then asked what we would like to have. After we she swiftly scribbled down our orders, she departed again and left us alone once again, though this time neither of us tried to stir up a conversation. We were more than content enough with quietly enjoying the fresh morning air and, in Scootaloo's case, slurping her strawberry milkshake through the drinking straw loudly.
I had to admit that I was a little envious. Maybe I should've gotten one myself.
Fortunately, It didn't take long for our meals to arrive, so I didn't have to watch Scootaloo slurp her milkshake for too long. Just like the first time, our meals looked extraordinarily delicious. They even managed to make Scootaloo's simple daisy sandwich look appetizing, and that's coming from someone who didn't think flowers were that delicious.
Both I and Scootaloo quickly ate up. Whether it was because we were in a hurry to get to the marathon or because we just simply ate fast, I don't actually know. Maybe a mix of both. After I paid the bill and left the waitress a generous tip (at least what I guessed was generous), we departed again. Or, better, Scootaloo was leading me to wherever the festival was taking place.
****
Thanks to Scootaloo, It wasn't a long walk until we arrived at where the festival was taking place. I was really fortunate that I had her with me because the marathon's starting line was in a forest in the mid of nowhere. I would've never found it if it wasn't for her.
When we arrived, I was shocked to see the mass of ponies that was present. It looked like it was at least half of the town was participating, while the other half was there to watch the event unfold or cheer their friends and families on. And the weirdest thing was that everyone looked excited. Everyone.
I wasn't too sure if the people back on earth would've been as enthusiastic about a marathon as those ponies.
Admist the crowd of ponies, we quickly spotted a particular mare that stood out amongst them all. I mean, there would've been no way that we could've overseen that unique rainbow-colored mane. We quickly made our way through the crowd over to Rainbow Dash, but were surprised once we saw that she wasn't alone. We probably shouldn't have been surprised, though.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Spike. Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and, of course, Rainbow. All of my, our, friends were there, all looking ready for the marathon. Well, all of them, except for Pinkie Pie. She looked like she was ready for a generous picnic, and not just because she was a little more on the heavier side. No, she was actually carrying a picnic basket with her.
But what caught my eye the most was probably the, comparatively, huge purple hot-air balloon hovering in the middle of the dirt street, the only thing keeping it from floating away being two sandbags that were limply hanging off the basket's sides.
"Hey girls." I greeted them with a small wave, smiling into the round. I nodded at Spike, who was standing beside Twilight. "And Spike."
Spike opened his mouth to possibly greet me back, but Pinkie Pie was quick to interrupt him, her smile unnervingly big. "Hey, Willy-Dilly!"
Even though I probably shouldn't have, I still couldn't help myself giggle once. It was almost not audible, but still very much so for Pinkie Pie, apparently. I think she actually took my giggle as a confirmation that I liked my new nickname because her smile just got bigger. I didn't, though.
After everyone greeted me, they told me what their plans were for the festival.
Pinkie Pie, as I already expected, was there to just watch and maybe snack a few of the cupcakes she brought with her. What I didn't expect from her, though I probably should've considering her loud nature, was that she was going to be commentating the marathon, along with Spike. I briefly considered if I was going to stay with them instead of participating, but that thought left me once they told me that they were going to use that hot-air balloon to see what was happening from high up in the air.
To my surprise, Twilight was going to participate in the marathon. She told me that she was there not to win it, but more because she wanted to contribute her bit in the annual event and have a little fun along the way. A nice reason, to be honest.
Rainbow and Applejack were, of course, also going to participate, only that their reasons were the complete opposite than those of Twilight. The only reason why they were even participating was, if I didn't miss anything, to beat the other in a hopefully fair race. After what I had heard, the previous year's Running of the Leaves wasn't what one would call a fair race. They were so focused on winning over the other, no matter what it took, that they, in the end, lost because of their unfair ways - to Twilight nonetheless. So I don't think that they were going to repeat it, lest karma would hit 'em hard again.
Rarity, for her part, was not going to take part in the marathon. Something about her 'pristine fur getting drenched in sweat' and 'running not being anything for a lady like her'. Instead, she was going to make sure that every participant was hydrated enough by operating one of the stands where you could get water for free. I remember her saying that she was running the stand closest to the finish line.
Fluttershy wasn't there to run a stand like Rarity did, as I expected she would do, neither was she there to actually participate. No, she was there to treat any injuries that might come up during the event. A medic, so to say, and from what she told me the only one present during the whole event.
As for Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, well, they were going to participate, just like Scootaloo said. Yes, even Sweetie Belle, though Rarity was obviously against it. But instead of Twilight or Applejack and Rainbow, they participated for the chance that they could get their oh-so-loved butt tattoos, just like I assumed.
A noble cause, if you ask me.
"And what about you, darling?" Rarity asked me after everyone finished telling me their plans, a curious look on her face. "Are you going to participate?"
"Eh, naaah, thanks." I said, "I'll just wait for you guys at the finish line. Marathons aren't really my thing, you know?"
Right when the words left my mouth, Rainbow huffed and rolled her eyes. "Dude, stop being so-" Her face contorted in disgust of what word she was going to speak out next. "-lame..."
But, thankfully Twilight came to my rescue quickly, smiling at me warmly. "Rainbow, if William doesn't want to participate, that is perfectly fine." Rainbow groaned, but Twilight wasn't finished, her smile turning into an evil smirk. "But, I do have to agree with you, he is lame."
"Yeah, that's right Rainb-" I blinked, hard, as her words hit me like a trainwreck. "Wait, what?"
Twilight shrugged as everyone else, except for Fluttershy, stifled their giggles with a hoof in front of their mouths. "Rainbow's right there, you are lame."
She just betrayed me! She allied herself with Rainbow!
I opened my mouth to retort, but no words came out. Instead, I just chose to look at her and Rainbow with an open mouth. I was utterly perplexed why someone like Twilight would ally herself with Rainbow in something like this, or at all. There must've been a reason why she was helping Rainbow to provoke me. And I had a good idea what reason that was.
She knew what I said earlier. She knew it and she was going to fry my ass for it.
...Or did she know? My ass didn't feel like it was on fire, so maybe she didn't know?
"Scoots?" I addressed the orange filly, coupled by a heavy gulp as fear ran through my veins. "You didn't, right?"
She cocked her head to the side curtly before it finally clicked. "What? No!" I would never break a promise!" She sounded almost offended. "Especially not one I have with you!"
And suddenly, a loud, high-pitched gasp, and then: Pinkie Pie! Right in front of my face, out of nowhere. "Who said something about breaking a promise?!" She asked loudly, shaking my shoulder as she mysteriously hovered in the air.
I looked into her eyes and then very slowly pulled her out of the air and put her back on the ground. "Please, don't do that, Pinkie."
"Okie Dokie-" She narrowed her eyes dangerously. "-Willy-okie..."
And then she trotted away from the group, as if nothing ever happened, that huge, unnerving smile back on her face.
"Am I the only one who thinks that she's creepy?" I asked into the round, earning myself scared nods from the Crusaders and Rarity. "What a relief..."
I had no time to breath as, once my mind finally caught up with reality, Rainbow was already in my face. "So, anyways, how 'bout we play a small game, you chicken?"
Fluttershy stifled a gasp with a hoof to her mouth. "Oh my."
"Ouch." I exclaimed jokingly, clutching at my heart with a pout on my face. "My pride."
She waved me off. "Yeah yeah, whatever. You're in or not?"
I made an act out of humming in thought, looking at the smirks she and Twilight were sporting. They didn't tell me what the game entitled, but I knew that it was something about getting me to participate - which, to be perfectly honest, I was going to do anyways. I hadn't been serious when I said that I was going to wait for them at the finishing line. That would've been just plain boring. And there was no way I was going to hop into that balloon's small, fragile basket.
"You want me to participate and race me, right?" I asked knowingly, an unimpressed look on my face. She confirmed my question with a single nod of her head. With one eyebrow raised, I gestured down to my body, or, more precisely, down to the pair of dark-blue jeans and the white t-shirt I was wearing. "I don't have the right clothes for running, as you can see."
She retorted with a simple, "Chicken."
"Rainbow, no. I'm not a chicken." I said firmly. "I'm going to get my clothes all dirty and sweaty again. I really don't want to stink again"
Out of the corner of my eyes I was able to see Rarity's face contorting in a sign of disgust and she looked like she was almost about to speak up, but apparently chose not to.
"Chicken." Rainbow repeated, stepping a little closer and punctuating each following word with a poke to my shin. "Chicken chicken chicken chicken chicken chi-"
I sighed, interrupting her annoying chanting and poking. "What does the winner even get?"
"So you're in?" She smirked widely, taking a few steps back, unfortunately taking my question as a confirmation. "How about we keep it exciting and I'll tell you once we're at the starting line, huh?"
She hadn't even thought about a prize...
"I'll race you too!" Twilight threw in before I could agree to Rainbow's offer, putting one foreleg up in an attempt to call attention to herself. She looked at me with an expression that told me that she, somehow, knew what I said earlier that day. "Winner wins the satisfaction of showing the other who's the better athlete, alright?"
"Shit..." I muttered under my breath, quiet enough for no one to hear, weighing my options curtly. If Twilight really did hear what I had said, it was either getting my butt fried by her or just losing a little bit of my pride. I liked my butt, so deciding was rather easy in that matter. I looked at Rainbow, whose smirk just got disturbingly big, and then back at the purple princess, groaning one last time, my mind finally made up. "Okay, I'm in."
****
Fifteen minutes later, I stood at the starting line, right in the first row with Rainbow to my left and the three Crusaders to my right. Twilight and Applejack were somewhere two rows behind us and the Crusaders were busy chatting with each other about something that went over my head. It was only me and Rainbow.
"You ready, Will?" Rainbow asked calmly, gaining my attention just as I finished my useless stretches. Now that I stood at that white line that marked the start of the marathon, there were certain doubts crossing my mind - not like that was anything new. Was I actually capable of defeating Rainbow, or getting to the finishing line at all? Sure, a fit me would've been able to outrun any of those ponies and do that marathon without breaking a sweat, but that's the problem.
I wouldn't have called myself anywhere near fit, not at that point of my life. And winning against an athlete without any kind of exercise? Yeah, no way I was going to win that. But, even though I had my doubts, I smiled nonetheless as I turned my head to look at her, not wanting to show Rainbow how doubtful of my fitness I actually was. "Yeah, I'm ready. So, what if I win?"
She grinned. "Not like your going to win anyways, soo..." She finished up her stretches with one last ruffle of her wings, the appendages I dearly hoped she wasn't going to use. "How 'bout you decide what?"
She really didn't think of anything...
I scratched my chin as if I was in thought, though I already kinda knew what I wanted. I didn't need, nor want, any money. I didn't need anything except maybe for a new window, though that probably was affordable. No, I wanted to see her suffer for just one day. The broken window...she broke it, so how about she was going to fix it, too? I knew that, of all of the things I was able to think off, she would've hated boring things where she had no way to do anything that involved sleeping, flying or doing sport, the most. It was torture for her to not do any of these things. Since I wouldn't call replacing a window fun at all, that was just the perfect thing, buuuut just not enough. Then it clicked.
"How about you do everything I say for one whole day?"
"That's actually a pretty good idea..." She flapped her wings twice, hovering up in front of me, my head following her every moment. "Okay, and if you lose-" She began, jabbing my chest once before circling around me like a predator. "-you'll be doing everything I say for one whole day. Deal?"
Without even a second of hesitation, I gave her my answer. "Deal."
Why did I do that? I can't answer you that because I literally don't know why. Maybe I actually thought, somewhere deep in my mind, that I could win. Whichever part of my brain that may have been, at that moment, I hated it with a passion.
"Heh, you just made a big mistake. You know that, right?" She asked smugly, suddenly appearing right in front of me. After eyeing me up for a few long seconds, she puffed out her cute little chest, striking a silly pose with a hoof pointed at herself. "You're never going to win against The Dash."
"RUNNERS, GET READY!" Pinkie Pie's voice rung loudly from high above us, right out of the basket she and Spike were hovering in.
"I hope you like being high up in the air, Will." Rainbow gave me one last smirk before getting into position beside me, leaving me confused as to why she said that. It wasn't like I was going to fly anytime soon.
"You ready, dad?"
I shook my head and quickly got into position myself as Scootaloo's voice reached my ears. I rolled my left shoulder, and then my right shoulder, before shooting her a look that, considering that the chances of me winning were slim, was pretty confident. "Yeah, I guess so."
"HELLO, EVERYPONY! IT'S ME, PINKIE PIE, THE COMMENTATOR OF THIS YEAR'S RUNNING OF THE LEAVES!"
"AND I'M SPIKE, HER CO-COMMENTATOR!"
I looked up to the balloon, just in time to see Spike handing the megaphone back to Pinkie Pie, who quickly devoured the cupcake she was holding earlier in one inhale. "BOTH OF US ARE SOOOO EXCITED TO BE HERE! NOT BEATING AROUND THE BUSH FOR TOO- ACTUALLY, WHY WOULD SOMEONE BEAT AROUND A BUSH? LIKE, THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE, RIGHT?" She gasped into the megaphone, a gasp so loud (thanks to the megaphone) that I actually had to cover my ears. "OR IS IT BECAUSE SOMEPONY BEAT SOMEPONY ELSE AROUND A BUSH? THAT'S JUST MEAN AND I DON'T LIKE OTHER PONIES GETT-"
Thankfully, Spike ended her mindless rambling by grabbing the megaphone, the object of power, out of her hooves. "READY!"
My eyes trailed back down, narrowing at the long road that lay before me.
"SET!"
I drew a deep breath, crouching a little lower.
"Good luck." I looked at Rainbow from the corner of my eyes as she muttered that out. She wasn't looking at me, but I didn't need to see her face to tell that she was wearing that dumb, cocky smirk. "You'll need it."
I just hmpfed unamusedly, looking back forward.
"GO!"
And the race was on.