My Little Mages: The Lost Student

by Foxhelm


Games for the Elements part 1

The following day, just outside of the castle but still in the city was a large amphitheater and the populace was slowly pouring in, several having placed bets on the results, although the introduction of the Mystican Rainbooms did actually shape things up, the Shadowbolts were still the favorite to win. As the populace took their seats, in one of locker rooms kept out of view the Rainbooms were in their sporting attire, which were sports bloomers and sports bras for Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy with a stylized five-nailed horseshoe with a rainbow coming from the curve and trailing into stars depicted on the chest right over their hearts. What contrasted Applejack was that she still wore the Element of Honesty, it was not going to be out of her sight. Of the four, three were not self-conscious about the get-up, “Um Rarity… could I have something that doesn’t…” Fluttershy started to ask but couldn’t finish her sentence as she hid all but her head behind a locker door. “Maybe something more like Pinkie’s?”

Pinkie was bouncing up and down in a one-piece leotard that had a pattern much like her normal one but without all her other clothes, and like Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy had the team’s logo over her heart. Rarity gave a slight groan, “Pinkie, you’ll get all sweaty and exhaust yourself before your gymnastics against Lemon Zest.” Rarity scolded as she took Fluttershy’s uniform and started to alter it to be more like Pinkie’s leotard.

“Not gonna work, Sugarcube.” Applejack commented seeing that only make Pinkie all the more excited. She then came up with an idea, “Hey Pinkie, let’s play a game…”

“I am not Apple Bloom, I am not falling for the ‘who can remain still the longest game’ gimmick.” Pinkie remarked having stopped and looked at Applejack with a nearly comical serious look as if she caught Applejack in a poorly executed equivocation.

“You’re up, Rainbow,” Applejack tapped Rainbow Dash in as she stepped aside to stretch her legs and back, this was going to be a long track for her, she needed her joints and muscles to be loose.

“I spent one night with her and everyone thinks I can reel her in.” Rainbow groaned. After giving a sigh she looked at Pinkie with a stern look on her face, “Pinkie, if you don’t dial it down, I am not going have you host my birthaversary party.”

Pinkie gasped in horror, dropping to her knees and hugging Rainbow Dash’s legs like a frightened child, “Please, please, don’t get another host!” She pleaded with tears in her eyes. “I have so much planned. Please, anything but that.” Pinkie was on the verge of tears. “I’ll do anything!”

Twilight was also in the room, if for nothing else solidarity and emotional and spiritual support, “Birthaversary?” Twilight asked.

“Rainbow Dash moved to Magiville on her 17th birthday.” Fluttershy answered as she accepted the modified uniform from Rarity before donning it behind the locker door, “Not that she was kicked out, but she wanted to prove she could live on her own as soon as possible. So it’s her birthday and the anniversary of her moving to Magiville, hench birthaversary. Oh, don’t be surprised that during the Summer Sun Celebration, Pinkie also throws a ‘Twilight moving to Magiville’ anniversary party.”

“Killing two birds with one stone,” Pinkie said but then recalled one of the others in the room and started to laugh weakly and apologetically. “Sorry.” Fluttershy just gave a sigh as she stepped out. With that done everyone headed out, Twilight to the booth that Cinch and Sunset were sitting as the rest headed into the arena.

In the amphitheater as Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity entered they were greeted with cheers. As the five looked around, they saw several things within the arena, one was an artificial mountain with fake snow with a series of archery targets going down the slope and a series of more targets in a row. “Well, that’s going to be a little tougher than I thought.” Rainbow Dash commented.

Fluttershy tapped her shoulder, “Remember that poster you have back at your parent’s house, the one with the tortoise on it?” she asked the elementalist.

Rainbow took a breath as she shut her eyes and tried to remember the poster, “When the going gets tough, the tough don't notice because they have hard shells.” As she opened her eyes she turned to her druid friend, “So that’s why you suggested Tank for my pet. You’re Awesomeshy now.” Fluttershy blushed until she saw the elevated fighting stage as she started to tremble, she felt Rainbow’s hand on her shoulder reassuringly, “You got this, you’re a druid, you can change forms. So show that crazy bitch what a bear can really do.”

Also in the arena was series of various gymnastics equipment from a trampoline to a tightrope and more, “I actually feel bad for Lemon, you’ve set up more… um…” Rarity struggled to find the right word as she looked it over, “unique events, darling.” Pinkie looked it over as well but while others might have been daunted by it, she could barely contain her excitement, by her own standards. Rarity turned to the other three, “I am a little afraid Pinkie might overdo it.”

“Um… this is Pinkie we’re talking about.” Rainbow Dash pointed out which gave Rarity pause for second before she face-palmed herself over her own misjudgment over her friend. After recovering from that everyone noticed that there was a starting line at one end of the arena that led out of the amphitheater and a finish line at the other end as if someone was going to enter the amphitheater. “Sure you want to do that race?” Rainbow asked Applejack.

“300 kilometers on foot.” was all Applejack said, making Rainbow Dash not question the setup anymore. Mostly because the way Applejack had said it implied it was something the Paladin did regularly.

“Well, it looks like you won’t be backing down so easily, dearies.” came Sunny’s voice as the the five turned to see the five ‘Shadowbolts, they were in similar sporting  bloomers and bras as the Rainbooms,but theirs was colored like the plaid skirt Lemon wore and had a black stylized capital ‘S’ with a stylized wing coming from the top left corner of the ‘S’ (from the viewer's point of view) and a stylized lightning bolt from the the bottom right corner of the ‘S’(again from the viewer's point of view). Sunny and Rarity both happened to be at the center of their respective lines, with Indigo to Sunny’s immediate left mirrored by Rainbow Dash. To Rainbow’s right was Fluttershy and mirrored by Sour. On Sunny’s immediate right was Sugarcoat who was in turn mirrored by Applejack and round it all off was Pinkie on Applejack’s left with Lemon mirroring her.

“And why would we? You stole our Elements of Harmony. I demand justice! But I will settle for just beating you.” Rarity replied, muttering the last bit to herself, turning back to Sunny et al “You might have the spectators fooled but we know what you really did. Artifacts like the Elements can only bestow you their power if you earn it, not take them when it’s most convenient for you.”

“And what if we were able to take them because the Elements deemed that you are no longer worthy of their powers?” Sunny countered. “They are very ancient artifacts after all and more dissimilar than similar to other artifacts.” Rarity and the others were left speechless, there was no counter to that point. No one really understood the Elements of Harmony, not even Celestia, and Luna. Seeing that the enchantress et al were speechless, the Shadowbolts smirked to various degrees with Indigo and Lemon crossing their arms.

Pinkie Pie wanted to growl at Lemon but then she felt her left heel started to itch, she sat down and started to scratch it, “What is it, Sugarcube?” Applejack asked everyone but Rarity was surprised.

“That’s odd,” Rarity muttered, “the last time she had an itch like that was when that bullish Iron Will…” Rarity stopped as she whispered before she looked to see the other team competing, it was made of five male minotaurs, they all were wearing leather vests much like what Applejack’s cousin Braeburn but were black in contrast to the brown one Braeburn wore and little else, save for one who also wore what looked like a skirt with a long sash that went across his chest. One was thinner and smaller than the rest and had a pair of glasses like he was a doctor, one’s coat was black and white, one was much furrier than the others. However, those four seemed to have more in common with domesticated bulls… as domesticated as bulls can be. The last one was much larger, his horns much longer, not unlike the cattle that are wrangled in Dodge Junction, but there seemed even large and overall the last one gave off the aura of not only authority and power but of deep feral nature. “Minotaurs.” Rarity stated with an atypical degree of bluntness she rarely if ever showed.

“They are the Rustlers. The one in the kilt is Angus McSteer, the one dressed more like a frontier doctor is Doc Holstein, the one that with black and white fur is Jersey Shore, the hairier/furrier one is Beefy Bill and the towering cultured brute is Reges Longhorn.” Sugarcoat informed. As everyone seemed to size everyone up. Under normal circumstances, most of the contests would be in the bag for the minotaurs, but both the Shadowbolts and the Rainbooms were not normal, well compared to the rest of the population living in the domain of Midnight Castle or Mystica for that matter. It seemed that it would be a close match up, too close for any of the Rainboom’s likings, save Pinkie Pie, this was going to be so much fun.

As the trumpets and other fanfare ended, two men dressed in business suits, one’s was  pale blue in color while the other’s was was more of a dull white, sitting at in one of the box seats with two microphones started to speak, first one the on this left, “Good Morning, Everyone, this is Blue Moon and with me is my co-host North Star and we are about to start the games.” the self-identified Blue Moon paused allowing the audience to cheer.

“That’s right, Blue, and we have a couple of special treats this year. In addition to the standard trials by a contest of Longhorn and his Rustlers,” North Star paused as the entire audience booed and threw rotten fruits and vegetables and other garbage at the five minotaurs. “Well we got a passionate audience don’t we, but as I was saying, we have a new team competing, all the way from Mystica, across the ocean, the RainBOOOOMMMSSS!” North Star shouted, drawing out the title much like the announcer for a televised wrestling match. Everyone seemed to cheer for the Rainbooms, which prompted Rainbow Dash to jump into air fly around the edge of the arena high-fiving everyone and leaving a rainbow trailing be her, all the while a huge toothy grin on her face with her eyes wide open, barely able to contain her own excitement.

Blue Moon then took over speaking, “Well, they seem an excited bunch, let’s see how things are at the end. However, there is more. Both the Shadowbolts and Rainbooms are actually competing on behalf of two people. The Shadowbolts will be competing on the behalf of Lady Sunset Shimmers and the Rainbooms on Mystica’s newest Princess, Princess Twilight Sparkle. With a trial by combat to be the last event.” Blue Moon then stopped as the audience erupted in a cheer at the idea of a trial by combat. This was unsettling for Twilight but brought a devilish grin on Sunset’s face. Blue Moon then continued to inform the people in the audience after they calmed down, “We do know that Princess Twilight already has a champion ready to fight, but we still don’t know who Lady Shimmer’s champion is yet. But with that, the question that I think is on everyone’s mind is how will this all play out. Now onto the first event, the pheidippidiadromos.”

“Well as my grandfather would say and I quote, ‘Well, that’s a four dollar word.’unquote. But he did have a point, most people call it the 300-k.” North Star interjected it was as if these two would go back and forth throughout the games.

“Well that’s partially correct, the pheidippidiadromos is a three hundred kilometer endurance race that goes for three days. Now it’s time to announce the contenders. First up is the reigning champion, Sugarcoat,” There was a pause as the entire amphitheater erupted in cheers for the local Truenamer. Sugarcoat waved her hand in the air a small but distinctive grin on her face as she used her wings to fly over to the starting line. After letting the cheering die down, “and her two challengers, Angus McSteer for the Rustlers.” There was another pause as stadium exploded in boos at the minotaur as walked over to the same line.

“The fans don’t seem to like McSteer, do they Blue?”

“Well North, McSteer did not compete last year, it seems that Longhorn is running out of members of his gang who are not incarcerated… and it’s not like the Rustlers are a loved lot, to begin with.”

“That’s true, Longhorn is on the last few ‘free-men...minotaurs’ of his gang. However, we cannot forget the final contestant. Running for the Rainbooms, a paladin all the way from the oldest and longest continuously run holy-site of Mystica, Sweet Apple Temple, Applejack AaapplllEEE!!!” Blue Moon announced much like how North Star announced the Rainbooms. Applejack only gave a nod as she was cheered on by about half the stadium. She knew she was the favorite to win but she provided a much-wanted competition. She took her spot on the same line as Sugarcoat and McSteer, as all three got into a runner’s starting stance. Applejack rolled her eyes, an act that no one else seemed to notice outside her friends, there were plenty of holy sites that had been running longer than her home, maybe none run by the same family, hers had just had a standing community around it longer, than any other besides maybe Chantalot but the nation’s capital was a whole other barrel of produce.

Cinch stood up from her seat and walked up to the microphone in the booth she shared with Twilight and spoke, “Racers, on your mark, get set.” she paused as accepted a racing gun from Juniper and holding it up into the air she pulled the trigger, firing the gun. As the sound of the gun going off; Applejack, Sugarcoat and McSteer were off. McSteer swiftly took the lead, However, both Sugarcoat and Applejack knew this would be his undoing, this was a race not for speed but of endurance, 300 kilometers was not a distance covered by running as fast as one could.

“Well folks they are off, and we will have regular updates at each 50-kilometer marker. So before head over to the biathlon, there are a few questions, but they are not so much the next four contests, but will Lady Shimmer have a champion for that trial by combat or will Princess Twilight win it by default?” Blue Moon not really asked but stated it rhetorically.

“While possibly nerve-racking, that is still a back-burner topic. Next up is the biathlon. First up is the reigning champion of this event, Indigo Zap, for the Shadowbolts!” North Star replied and announced Indigo as the audience erupted in cheers as the Athletic Mage jumped into the air and seemed to eat up the cheers much like how Rainbow normally does. “Well, the crowd is alive and well. But the next competitor, playing for the Rustlers, Beefy Bill!” The audience then fell so quietly that not even crickets would chirp. Beefy Bill roared in protest but got no response. “Well, that was anticlimactic.” After a second, “And now introducing a new competitor, and part of the Rainbooms, Rainbow DDAASSHH!!!” Rainbow Dash jumped into the air and directed some of the cheerings, it was a little less than half of the stadium cheered, but it was still a lot of people.

Blue Moon then spoke as the cheer died down a little, “This is going to be an interesting set-up, North.”

“Why do you say that? Indigo has this in the bag!” North countered.

“Well North, while the Rustlers track record doesn’t bold well for Beefy Bill, we can’t count Rainbow Dash out yet, we have to remember this kid was the youngest person to ever got into Mystica’s Wonderbolt Academy and has recently successfully pulled off a Sonic Rainboom less than a year ago.”

“Actually Rainbow Dash has pulled off three Sonic Rainbooms in her life to date, the first was when she was 9…” the two announcers panned their view to the right to see Pinkie Pie in a more festive version of their attire with a microphone that looked more like a balloon on a straw than some piece of professional gear as the trickster chimed in. “As you might be aware the second was during last year’s Cumula’s Best Young Fliers Competition and the most recent was as part of the wedding of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, better known as Princess Cadance, to Princess Twilight’s own, and I quote, ‘Big Brother Best Friend Forever’ or ‘BBBFF’ Marshall Shining Armor. Back to you, Blue Moon and North Star.” The two men were utterly speechless at what happened. Noticing this, Pinkie continued. “Well, folks it looks like we’re not going to have the reporting in the field until Blue Moon or North Star snapped out of... whatever funk they are in.” Pinkie Pie skipped as she followed Indigo, Rainbow and Beefy Bill to an elevator that took them up the artificial mountain in the arena to start the biathlon, before it shut, “Oops, I forgot, Hello everyone, I am Pinkie Pie.”

The stadium was silent before Rainbow Dash took the microphone, “Trust me, don’t question it and go along, you’ll keep more brain cells.” and everyone just gave an ‘oh’ in response.

At the top of the track the three competitors started by looking over the bows, well Indigo and Rainbow Dash anyway, Bill simply grabbed the largest and heaviest bow, it would make some sense as a minotaur he was stronger than any human, but one of the biggest issues with large  and heavy bows is the bow’s draw weight and its relationship to rate of fire. Simply put, larger and heavier bows have higher draw weight which results in lower rates of fire. Bill then strapped on a set of skis and headed down the track. Bill did not fare well, he started his ‘run’ with almost no balance on his skis, he barely hit half the targets along the track, crashed into about as many of the obstacles and ran out of arrows before the last target. “Wow, that was … really, really bad. Now, I am no expert in this sport, but I think the goal was to avoid all the obstacles, hit the bullseye of all the targets going down the track and get all the bullseye of the targets at the end as fast as possible and Beefy Bill… well… he stuck. Now while we let the attendants clear the targets for the next contender. Let’s see who goes next, ladies.” Pinkie said into her microphone as Rainbow Dash and Indigo finished their bow selection and strapping on their skies. The two contestant, while sitting next to each other started a game of rock-paper-scissors, Indigo won two of the three rounds and prepared for her run.

Indigo’s speed and agility shocked Rainbow as the former reached the end of the track very quickly and evaded the vast majority of the obstacles and was able to hit every target and her rate of fire was faster, leaving a very distinctive trail of indigo in the air. After finishing her run, Indigo held up her bow and was greeted with an eruption of cheers. However, Rainbow saw that Indigo’s accuracy still had significant room to improve as the latter failed to make a single bullseye and if it were all on one target her arrows would be scattered about the target in all the areas.

Rainbow knew she was not going to be as fast as she wanted to be, obstacles all along the track But she knew if she was close enough and focused on her bowmanship, her aim, and rate of fire. She took a few deep breaths as she prepared her start,  as she calmed herself she recalled something Spitfire said during Rainbow’s time at the Academy, ‘Speed ain’t everything, kid. You got to put on a show.’. “Give them a show, huh. Well, I’ll give them a show,” she whispered as she started. “WOWOWOYEAH!” she shouted as she grabbed her bow and knocked her first arrow as she leaped over the first obstacle. She drew, aimed and fired at the first target, bullseye. She was able to evade each of the other dozens or so obstacles by veering left, right, jumping and or ducking. Little did she know she glazed her left-arm on an obstacle. She reached the end of the track in slightly less time than Indigo, but she nailed each target’s bullseye and when it came to the last set of targets at the base of the track, she managed to hit each target’s bullseye in ten seconds, breaking Indigo’s record.

Rainbow looked around as the stadium was so quiet the Magiville cemetery had as much life as rave DJed by Vinyl Scratch in Manahatten in comparison. Soon a clap started with a small chanting of ‘Rainbow Dash’, Rainbow turned to see it was Indigo applauding her and starting the chant-like cheer. Soon the other Shadowbolts who were sitting on a bench, and then the Rainbooms joined, then the stadium slowly but steadily grew in applause and cheers, even getting a few claps from Juniper before Sunset growled at the secretary. “And Rainbow Dash is the winner. She might not have gotten down the track as fast as Indigo, but her accuracy and rate of fire made short work and place her in the lead. This puts The Rainbooms in the lead. Now I’ve got to get ready for my event, Blue, North, are either of you able to take over?”

“Um… thank you for covering the biathlon, Miss Pie…” Blue Moon started as he and North Star finally showed signs of coming out of their shock.

While the announcers were going on and on, Rainbow Dash and Indigo headed to the locker rooms. Once in they each opened their respective locker as they prepared to change clothes to join Twilight and Sunset in the booth they were in, “You were pretty awesome with that bow. Maybe a few more archery lessons and you could match me.” Rainbow said with some justified gloating.

“Yeah but your skiing… I’d laugh at that if it was slightly better.” Indigo countered. The two then looked at each other and smiled, they had each earned the other’s respect, Rainbow had bested Indigo’s main event and Indigo had shown that Rainbow still had a lot to learn in order to reach her goal to be the best flier and elementalist. Indigo then took out of her locker the Element of Loyalty and gave it back to Rainbow. “A deal’s a deal.” Rainbow accepted the Element with a surprising amount of candor. “You’re pretty awesome, Dash.”

“You too, Indy.” As she donned the Element, “Race ya to the booth.” She then started to run but then took to flight. Indigo followed suit both playfully bumping each other along the way.  It was only as they entered the booth that Cinch, Sunset, and Twilight were in that Rainbow Dash noticed the cut on her arm, “Buck.”

Before she left to head to the infirmary, “Let me take of that.” Juniper offered as she took out a portable medicine kit. Rainbow Dash silently agreed, unaware of the test tube and the collecting of her blood before the wound was cleaned and bandaged, in her defense, this was unnoticed by all the others as their focus was on Beefy Bill’s desperate attempts to escape. Before Rainbow or Twilight asked, “The Rustlers have agreed to trials by competition, the five here are the last ones to be tried.”

“This is a little… barbaric, what about evidence, witness statements?” Twilight asked turning to Cinch.

“They asked to be tried in this manner, they believed that a trial with evidence and such would result in unfair guilty verdicts,” Cinch answered. “They are not wrong, the verdicts would be guilty.” Not looking but able to tell of Twilight’s confusion “Mystica is not the nation with a legal system. And it would benefit you immensely to learn other nations’ and to respect them.” Twilight had no comment as all she could do was sit back down in her seat, pray that Pinkie would at least outperform Lemon, Rarity would find more of the flags than Sunny and that Applejack would make it to the finish line before Sugarcoat and prayed beyond hope that Fluttershy would beat Sour. Of the lot, she feared the most for Fluttershy, but she did remember that the druid had several tricks up her sleeve.