//------------------------------// // Chapter 18: The Competition // Story: The Lost Shimmering Sun // by Pinkie Pie Sweets //------------------------------// Chapter 18: The Competition The Next Day: Today the day of the horse competition. Everyone is excited to see people riding on horses and having fun. Sun and the others are sitting down on the stands waiting for the competition to start. The girls are sitting down waiting for the competition to start and the girls are very excited. They are with Principal Celestia, Vice Principal Luna, Discord, Screwball. They also have other students with her like Flash and his band mates, Bon Bon and Lyra, Gilda and her friends from her old school and friends from CHS, Trixie and her friends, Apple Bloom and her friends, and also Principal Cinch and some of the classmates. "Oh man I can't wait," Rainbow says in excitement. "I know, it's going to be a great show," Pinkie replies. "And I know Applejack is going to do great," Sun adds. She is also adjusting a camera that Discord got for her so she can talk videos or pictures of the competition. "It sure is good that Discord got you a video camera," Rarity replies. "Yeah. It wasn't easy to use it at first, but I manage to understand how it works, " Sun says happily. Right now Sun is using her camera to check some of the interesting features it has. As Sun is looking over the field and the race course with her new camera. Sun stop for a minute and uses her new camera to take a closer look to see two boys hiding in the barrels. "I wonder what those two boys are up to?" Sun asks herself. She was about to tell the others until the announcer is talking through the speakers, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Today is the day of your jumping competition, we have some new riders and previous riders alike to put on a good competition and a good show." Then the announcer says, "Our today Judges will be Horseshoe, Buttercup, and our main judge our old champion Mi Amore Cadenza." "Wait do they mean Dean Cadence from Crystal Prep," Sun asks surprisingly. "Yes, Cadence was a champion rider during her high school years and the contest committee invited her to be the main judge." Celestia explains. "Great, Crystal Prep has an advantage," Rainbow says a little angry that the dean of Crystal Prep is a judge. "I don't think she'll do that," Sun replies, thinking the opposite of what Rainbow Dash said. The contest is beginning and a few competitors has already gone and finish with their performance. Everyone in the audience is very excited about seeing the many horses so far. Sun is noticing that some of the horses along with their riders are either messing up their jumps or having problem getting their horse to behave, even Crystal Prep is having trouble. Sun is starting to get the feeling that something strange is going on, and wonder what is that something is. Now it's time for Applejack and her horse Timber to go. "Okay Applejack is next," Rainbow Dash says to Sun. "Yeah! Go Applejack!" Pinkie screams waving flags and other kind of stuff that catch a lot of people attention. As Applejack is making her way to start the jump, she can see Pinkie Pie making a lot of noise and cheering her on. Applejack giggles a bit and continue to make her way to the course. "Our next rider is Applejack from Canterlot High," The announcer says. Applejack start her turn and making a lot of jumps across the course and going really fast. The two boys behind the barrels try as they might to hit Timber on the flank, but he was to fast for the boys to aim and fire at the spot. Little do they know, Sun is recording everything on her new camera she is certain that those two boys are up to something. "What?" Sunset to herself. She turn around and asks Rainbow Dash of what she just saw, "Rainbow did you see that?" "See what?" Rainbow asks. "I could have sworn that I saw a dart being shot at Timer," Sun explains. "Really I didn't see anything," Rainbow replies. "Must have been nothing," Sun replies. As Sun is continue recording the video with some of the other riders, She use her camera to take a closer look at the boys. To her surprise she can see the boys use pea shooter and small darts and can see them putting the darts in the shooters and try to shoot it at some of the competitors. "So I wasn't imagining it," Suns says to herself very sure about it now. The announcer says, "Our next rider is Suri Polomare of Crystal Prep Academy." Sun is starting to get worried of who the boys' next target is, She says in her thoughts, "Oh no, they're aiming it at Suri." Sun gets off of her seat and raise her hands up in the air waving to Suri, trying to warn her. "Suri! Suri!" Sun screams trying to warn Suri. This catches the attention of the people around her and wonder what is Sun doing and why is she looks so scared and worried. "What are you doing?" Rainbow asks "Suri's in trouble," Sun panicky says. "What?" The girls screams. "What do you mean?" Rainbow asks now sounding upset. "Two boys are shooting darts at some of the horses and Suri's horse is next," Sun explains. "Oh no," Fluttershy replies upsetly. The girls are joining Sun in trying to warn Suri, but Suri is so busy riding around the course that she didn't notice that the boys hit a bull's eye on her horse's flank. This really upset Suri's horse and it hurt so much that her horse is starting to lose control over himself. "Woah," Suri screams, trying to calm her horse, but so far no luck. The audience can see that Suri horse is running around the course like crazy, and have no idea why. At the judge stand, the judges can see that there is a big problem. "What's going on?" Horseshoe asks. "I don't know," Cadence says. Things just Suri's horse turns to the jumping fence and trips on it causing both her and her horse fall over. This incident cause the people in the audience to gasps in horror. "Suri!" Sun screams scaredly. The next thing everyone knew, Suri and her horse are on the ground and possible to have some injuries. Everyone in the audience are in a state of shock, that because most of the time the horse competitions hadn't got any problems like this. With that Sun starts running to the field to check Suri and her horse Pepper. The girls along with Principal Celestia and the other faculty follows her on to the field. "You guys get Suri, Fluttershy and I will try calm down Pepper," Sun instructs the groups. "Okay," The girls reply. Sun and Fluttershy goes to see Pepper, while the other are going to Suri to see if she's okay. Sun and Fluttershy finds the horse screaming in pain and completely hurt and confused. "It's okay boy, calm down," Sun replies while calming the horse. When the others reach Suri, she feels sore and a little paralyzed because of the fall she just had. When she got up she feels so sore that she is having trouble moving. Rainbow Dash and the others are helping her up. Suri is able to get a better look and can see that her horse also have some injuries as well. "Pepper, oh my poor Pepper," Suri says feeling sad for her horse. She tries to get up so she can heal him, but falls back on the ground. "Don't worry darling, Sun and Fluttershy got this," Rarity says reassuring Suri. Suri simply nods her head agreeing to let the girls take care of Pepper. Rarity and the others decides to get her to the medical tent so they can look at Suri to see if she has any injuries, and to see it's serious or not. As Suri was being taken to the medical care. Sun and Fluttershy are trying to help Pepper with his injuries. They can see that Pepper front legs' knees have scraps on it and it's bleeding a little bit. "That's a good boy, you're going to be okay," Fluttershy says. "Don't be scared okay, I know it hurts," Sun replies. As the girls are examining Pepper, Sun see something that really surprised her. "What's this?" Sun says seeing the dart on the horse's flank. Then she remember two boys who made the hit and cause this incident. She knows about one thing, they wanted to make sure that Suri didn't made that final jump. After a few minute of examination, they can see that he doesn't have any other injuries. The girls comes back after dropping Suri off at the medical tent, they can see that Pepper is more calm now. They also wonder how Sun is able to do that, they thought only Fluttershy have a thing with animals. Then again, they remember that Fluttershy told them about Sun saving an iriomote wild cat from being lost in the city and going hungry. So they think she has a special touch with animals as well. "Glad this accident wasn't as bad as it look," Applejack says. Sun signs and wonder if it's a good idea to tell them what really happen, but Sun knows that it's the right thing to do."That was no accident," Sun says seriously. That catches the attention of the group of students, even Principal Cinch and Dean Cadence hears what Sun just said. "What do you mean?" Cadence asks. "I saw two boys behind some barrels with a peashooter and shot a small dart on Pepper. I saw them," Sun explains. Everyone around her gasps after what Sun said and they know it can only be one thing. "You mean someone did that on purpose?" Fleur asks completely shocked. "I'm afraid so," Sun answers sadly. "But Suri and Pepper could have got severely injured," Pinkie replies. "Ms. Sun, can you describe those two boys you saw?" Cinch asks. "Actually I got them on video," Sun says. Then she brings out her camera to show Principal Cinch of what she just witnessed. When the Principals and the other staffs take a close look at the video, they are surprised that two boys are this kind of deed. Luna also recognize them, and know who those boys are. "Hey those two are the students from Griffonstone High," Luna replies. "I know those two, they're Chilli and Season Spice," Gilda says. She knows those two because she used to live in Griffonstone and knows the boys are also pulling pranks on her and her friends from her old school. Then Gilda says, "Those two are always causing trouble." "I remember those two, aren't they supposed to be competing in the competition," Cadence adds to the conversation. "They are," Cinch answers. The other students from Crystal Prep are starting to get upset and very angry that someone would pull a shady stunt just to win a game. "Sounds like those two want to increase their chances of winning," Neon replies. "But why do something like that?" Pinkie asks. "I bet, those two must have gotten tired of Crystal Prep winning all the time, so they decides to sabotage them to increase their chances of winning," Rainbow answers. "And might have done the same thing with some of the other competitors," Sun explains. Then she sadly says, "They tried to do the same thing to Applejack." "What?!" Everyone shouts completely shocked by this news. "That's totally against the rules," Rainbow says sounding very angry. "That is so not nice," Screwball Replies. "Because of this Suri and Pepper got hurt and won't be able to compete now," Upper Crust adds. "Well we can assure you that the Head of Griffonstone High will hear of this and those two troublemakers will be punished," Cinch says firmly. The other judges including Cadences simply nods their heads in agreement. After sometime to give everyone a breather. The judges agree that the two boys would be disqualified from the competition. After the doctors look over both Suri and Pepper, they can see that Suri has some sprains on both her wrist and her right leg and Pepper knees are hurt and strained as well. The problem is that since they are both injured, they are unable to be in the competition. Everyone, especially Sun feels very bad for Suri and her horse. Hour later: The competition is finished. Trenderhoof and his horse Moon Blast wins first place. Applejack and his horse Timber are in second place, and a student from Fillydelphia is in third place. When the competition is over for the year, the place starts to close and are packing up for the year. At that time, Sun and the others are congratulating Applejack for her second place win. Applejack is glad she got second place in the competition, but wish she has gotten first place. "Well Crystal Prep wins again," Applejack says. "Hey at least you got second place," Sun replies cheering her friend up. "Yeah, you did awesome out there," Rainbow adds. "I agree," Fluttershy adds happily. Sun and the girls gives Applejack a hug and are glad they had fun today. After the group hug, Applejack see her brother in the truck with the trailer carrying her horse timber. Applejack says, "Well, looks like it's time for me to go home." Then she says, "Night y'all." "Bye," the girls says. After that everyone goes to the cars where their families are and are going home for the night and are going to go to school the very next day. Later that night: Sun is writing her journal entry about today's event, and after she finish writing she put her journal away and pull out the other book with the shimmering sun mark on it. Sun is still curious about this book and wonder who gave her the book. After that, she put the book away and go to sleep for the night and can't wait to see what happen at school.