The time for the competition had arrived. Even though it had been our birthday, we raced over to the location of the event. After all, we could celebrate later, especially if we won. However, just as Miss Cadence had mentioned, the place was hardly packed. To be honest, the sight of the event made it look as if it was specifically for ponies our age, and the majority of the audience watching were parents or family of the participants.
Before the event actually begun, we had to go over some rules first. The rules were pretty predictable and relied on mainly common sense; there was to be no kind of cheating whatsoever or violence. That kind of stuff. We were then each given a map of the local area, plus a set of instructions. We were to search for certain things in shops and somewhat remote places. To put it simply, it was kind of an elaborate easter egg hunt. All in all, there was one common theme among everything that we needed to find, and it all had to do with ice cream…plus the brand they were trying to promote…
Even though the event wasn't very big to begin with, there was quite a decent number of participants. There was hardly anyone we knew though. The last thing we were told was that the ponies who finished the fastest would move on to the next round, so we had to at least reach a place at the top if we wanted to win that round.
If you ask me, the scavenger hunt was pretty fun, but it was nothing really worth going into detail about. There had been no drama during that race, and we spent the majority of time working with each other in trying to figure out what exactly it was that we were looking for. If you want a sense of how exciting it was, you could picture the two of us working on a puzzle over a table top on a sunny afternoon.
It wasn't until after we finished the hunt where I noticed some differences when comparing us to other ponies. They seemed to participate against each other as if it was a free-for-all instead of working together with each other like we were. It wasn't until the next and surprisingly last round where I'd realize the truth behind their behavior.
The last round consisted more of aggressive tactics. It was still supposed to be clean, but I, for one, felt troubled by it. The rest of the ponies that moved to the next round were actually supposed to face each other one-on-one. Fortunately, it wasn't a battle to the death, but it was sort of a king-of-the-hill kind of thing. Two ponies would stand over a narrow plank and hold what looked like foam bats. The more I looked at these bats, the more I began believing that they were supposed to possibly represent ice cream with the handles being the sticks, of course.
I didn't like the idea of facing against somepony like that to begin with, but it wasn't until I realized the objective of the "game" when I was completely against it.
Athena and I, along with the other competitors, stood on the sidelines as we paid attention to the announcer explain the rules of the game.
"For this last round, two ponies will come up here…" He presented a narrow platform held by the sides of the large pool it was on top on. "…and with these…" He lifted up some kind of foam bat with his hooves. "…they fight each other until either one of them can knock the other into the water! Whoever wins will face the other winners until there's only one pony left!"
I heard Athena sharply gasp at this, and the reason was plainly obvious to me.
"Water?! What?!" Athena lightly panicked.
"I…wasn't expecting this…" I honestly reacted.
Athena quickly turned to me. "Alex, you know I can't—"
"I know." I immediately understood. "This isn't supposed to be a team effort anyway. I probably would've had to end up being against you anyway."
"Yeah…but I probably would've given you the win."
Athena appeared to be deeply depressed during that moment. I supposed she wanted to work with me until the end, but this wasn't that type of competition unfortunately. Either way, I didn't want to see her frown. In fact, noticing how nearly miserable she looked, it made me want to fight even harder to make sure I got her her prize.
"Hey, Athena." I immediately shared a warm smile and brought her in for a hug. "Don't worry. I can still do this, and I'll try to put in double the effort in your place."
After the corners of her lips slowly pulled in the opposite direction, she gently nodded. "I'll root as hard as I can for you here."
"I won't let you down." I promised before the round officially started.
Athena had to forfeit her place, so whoever she was supposed to be up against won by default. It was a little disappointing and bothersome to witness how easily her opponent won, but the sight was much easier to take in than trying to imagine Athena's reaction should she fall into the pool of water.
Being my only moral support, Athena's shouts of encouragement from the sidelines certainly did help me get through my matches. I had to admit, the matches were extremely casual and calm for the most part. It was like a friendly match of tennis. My opponent and I would swing our fake swords against each other, and it wasn't until a simple slip-up, or an attack that went unblocked, that caused my opponent to be thrown into the water.
I didn't want to sound like I wasn't confident of myself and my abilities, but for some reason, I felt I was really lucky to have gone as far as I did. It was also fortunate that my matches were pretty much clean. No dirty tricks were used by either of us.
As I returned from my last match, I exhaled a breath of relief as I started thanking my "training" from the past few days for giving me a boost on my agility, reflexes, and whatnot. Before I could sit down and relax, Athena almost immediately tackled me to the ground in excitement.
"You're in the finals, Alex!" She informed me, pointing towards a chalkboard the announcer and referee stood next to. The chalkboard refereed to the participants in a tournament-styled lineup. Every pony that had lost was crossed out, and every pony that won would move on to face against another winner from another match. It only took a couple matches to reach the finals since the number of participants was low to begin with.
It was also a good thing that this competition wasn't for any kind of expensively and ultra-hyped up prize, otherwise, the losers would probably throw fits instead of calmly shrugging off their loss. "Yeah. Let's just hope the last match will go as well as the others…" I stated.
I took the opportunity for a water break as I waited to be called on for the final match. Athena proceeded to wipe me off with a towel and even go as far as to massage me like ponies in boxing rings. It was a little unnecessary, but it did allow me to calm my nerves to see how silly Athena could be at times.
"Would the last combatants come up, please?"
"Knock em down, Al!" Athena whispered as I stood up to acknowledge the announcement.
Returning an appreciative nod, I climbed up onto the plank and waited a short while for my opponent to meet up. As soon as he joined me, I almost felt myself gasp when I recognized him. I hadn't, at all, expected him to even be in this competition.
"You two know the rules." The referee reminded outside the pool, but he turned particularly to my opponent to mention something else. "However, I must warn you that you are not allowed whatsoever to use your magic. If I see any kind of magic being used, you will be disqualified immediately."
"Yeah, yeah…" He carelessly brushed off.
"Pick up your bats." Our referee instructed. We both did so at our side and continued to intently to glare at each other's eyes. "On your mark…"
I wasn't sure how this match was going to turn out because my final opponent was somepony both Athena and I didn't take much of a liking to. His name was Shredder, and he had been seeing our other sister, Starlight, for some time now. He was never a nice pony since we first met him when he starting seeing Starlight, so I wasn't sure if he was naturally a bully or just playing a bully for Starlight's sake. Starlight never liked Athena and me for as long as we could remember, so it could be a possibility that she rubbed off on her own boyfriend. Either way, if he was here, then Starlight must have been too…
"And…begin!"
I was given no time to go over my strategy for this match while I'd keep my eye on my opponent. Shredder immediately proceeded to pummel me down with all of his strength. As I lurched my head forward to block his rather blind but powerful attacks, I couldn't help but slip out a comment through my gritted teeth.
"Aren't you a little too old to be here?"
"Obviously, it isn't against the rules, is it?!" He lifted up his bat and proceeded to flail another heavy strike against me. "Starlight wants you to lose, so her stallion's gotta do what it takes to please his mare!"
"Even if it means crushing ponies' years younger than you, huh?" I grunted as I attempted to put in the same amount of force to counter his.
With a small chuckle, he surprisingly ceased his forceful offense for a short moment. "You'll understand if you ever get a girlfriend."
He immediately raised his bat to strike at me again, causing me to quickly position mine to counter it. As usual, I was slightly knocked back by the force, but this time was defiantly different. In the moment of my firm block, I suddenly felt my left hoof fall victim to a swift yet subtle kick. This caused my hoof to slip and ultimately me to lose my entire footing.
In a panic, I tried to regain my balance, but my hooves ended up spreading apart and hanging over each edge of the plank. I was in an extremely and obvious vulnerable state. I didn't hear anything from the referee, so whatever Shredder had done must had gone unnoticed. I was so caught off-guard that for a second, I could only stare at my reflection coming from the large pool of water below me.
"Alex!" I heard Athena shout in the background.
"See ya, loser." I heard in front of me as I picked my head back up. As soon as my sight met with my opponent, I noticed that his bat was already swinging towards me.
I should have already been knocked into the water at that point, but, for some reason, I couldn't tell if my reflexes had been enhanced or if time literally slowed down long enough for me to make a move since I was just barely able to slide back on the plank, thanks to the moisture that had accumulated on top of the plank.
Like the idiot he was, he swung too powerfully, and in this case, he had lost his own footing. He hadn't fallen in yet, but he was attempting to recover from his failed cheap shot. I could have ended it then and there, but since I had still been lying on top of the plank, I needed a short amount of time to bring myself back up.
By the time I could have full control again, Shredder had already managed to miraculously gain back his stability and held back his bat to go in for another power blow. In the short amount of time I had seen it coming, I barely moved my bat forward to protect my face, but I hadn't anticipated the force of his attack. My bat was practically ripped apart from my teeth, and I could see it shooting towards the water.
If I lost that bat, it was automatically over, seeing as I had no weapon to participate with. Without thinking, I fell forward and reached out for the bat with my hoof before it could dip into the water. As soon as I grabbed a hold of it, I spared no time in trying to guess his next move. I already knew he was going to go in for another finishing blow, so I quickly brought my bat towards me and positioned it horizontally across my face to block the blow that came crashing down.
"Just give up already!" He attempted to intimidate through his teeth. "I'm bigger than you, so I'm obviously going to win. Skip the embarrassment and just quit!"
I had already felt weakened compared to when this match started. His blows had been so forceful, that it took a lot out of me to block them. However, I couldn't let him win just because of how much of a brute he was being. I needed to teach him a lesson somehow. Besides, I wasn't going to let this idiot take the prize that I wanted to give to Athena. I couldn't!
I felt my jaw quiver as his bat grew closer towards me. I tried so hard to find a way to deflect, but so many things were going on, and I was too focused on my defensive strength to try to find a work around.
Even though I couldn't hear her words clearly, I could still hear Athena's voice in the background. She had placed all of her faith into me, and I couldn't bear the thought of disappointing her. I clenched my eyes shut and hoped I could muster some kind of burrowed strength within me. As I kept Athena in my thoughts, I felt myself growl and push up. I still had been using my hooves to hold the bat while he had been using his teeth. That had to be an advantage somehow, so I needed to take it!
"What?!" I heard him mutter out.
I threw open my eyes and felt myself glare back in a fiery blaze of anger. I had been able to lift his bat away from my face enough to proceed with my next move. Since he had been attempting to regain his advantage over me, I turned this over against him and slid backwards while allowing him to fall forwards with his bat. Using all the energy I had left, I threw my bat into the air long enough for me to use my hooves to get back up. As soon I as caught my bat with my teeth, I struck him across the face while he was still attempting to get up with the weight of his strength. I saw him slide and fumble around a bit, but all I could really tell standing there was the loud splash of water as I tried to recuperate my shallow breathing.
There was a moment of silence before I heard the announcer exclaim out excitedly.
"We have our winner!"
Immediately afterwards, I heard my surroundings roar with applause and cheers.
I kind of wanted to pass out at the moment, but just in case there was any kind of disqualification should I slip and fall into the water, even after winning, I forced myself to walk out of the battle arena.
Athena threw herself at me for a celebratory hug, but almost immediately after, she actually had to hold onto me to keep me from falling over from exhaustion. Nevertheless, I needed to continue to exert energy since I had to claim the prize for the event.
As much as I had wanted to go home and rest, I had to try not to look too much of a tool in front of everyone watching. They had some sort of insulated freezer on a cart nearby, and they proceeded to pull out the grand prize like some kind of holy grail. I wasn't so sure if it was due to the fatigue I felt at that point, but all the hype over this ice cream felt too much overdone.
"Thank you very much everyone, and be sure to check out our shop! We're holding an absolutely fantastic hard-to-pass special…"
As the promoter continued his advertising, I had been staring at the wrapped and untouched ice cream in my hoof. The wrapper covered the look of the ice cream inside, so I had no idea what it looked like.
"You're so awesome, Alex!" Athena excitedly praised. "I can't believe you're going to be the first pony ever to taste their new ice cream!"
I remained silent for several seconds, observing the ice cream all around before turning over to Athena. "Nah." I stretched my hoof out towards her. "You are."
"H-huh?!" Athena slightly jumped back from surprise. "But, I didn't win."
"Yeah, I did." I acknowledged. "But I only did all this for you, so… Happy Birthday."
"What?!" Athena was clearly still wandering around in a state of disbelief. "W-wait. No… Are you—?"
"Come on, Athena." I insisted. "You think I would have went through all the effort for some ice cream? I could care less about being 'the first pony' to have it. All I really wanted was to give it to you because it was what made you happy in the first place." I wanted to say more, but I felt a little hesitant by how embarrassing it would have been to say it. "And… I know I might not get to say this often…but I really love you and I want you know to know how much I mean it."
It was no surprise that Athena would immediately begin growing emotional at my embarrassing confession. As her reaction, she immediately wrapped her hooves around me as tightly as she could, almost cutting out my circulation of air. "Oh, I love you too, Alex! You didn't have to this for me!"
"Yeah, well…" I attempted to push her away, seeing as time was beginning to run short. "You better eat this, or it's going to melt."
"Ooh! Ooh!" Athena chirped as she accepted her gift. "I know the perfect place!" She glanced towards the sky for a moment before nodding her head. "We got a lot of time left, come on!"
She had already been prancing from joy towards the exit of the area. I knew that I wouldn't exactly be able to keep up with her at her speed, seeing as I had exerted most of my energy for the competition. However, before we could even make our way out, I suddenly heard Athena cry out.
"Hey!"
I noticed the ice cream she had been carrying plop out from her mouth and hover away from her. Eventually, it reached towards the pony responsible.
"Well, what do we have here?" The ice cream floated by his hard-to-miss smirk. "Running off with my prize, huh?"
"Give it back, Shredder!" I ordered boldly, feeling my anger skyrocket from the sight.
"Or what? Really? What are you going to do about it?" Shredder had been standing near Starlight, so I suppose he was trying to look like some kind of macho stallion to her. On the other hoof, she looked rather bored and unamused. She looked like she just wanted this scene to be over with already.
In a way, Shredder's cockiness was nothing to take lightly. He was one of the only few unicorns around here, and he was nowhere near honorable enough to fight without his magic. I took a glance around me, but everypony had already went about their business. Even if there was somepony close by to help, I couldn't dare risk losing Athena's gift.
"Alex won it fair and square! Just give it back already!" Athena attempted to persuade him, but it obviously wasn't going to be that easy.
"More like he cheated, if you ask me." Shredder responded.
I sighed heavily. It didn't help that the ice cream was melting by the second, so I had to do whatever it took to get it back.
"What do you want?" I asked.
He thought for a moment until a snicker slipped out from his mouth. "I've got it. How 'bout you get on your knees and beg? Maybe I'll give it back."
I see. So, that's what you want, huh? You want to look like the bigger stallion because I beat you, even when you were the one who obviously tried to cheat your way? Fine, whatever. I don't care.
Sighing silently this time, I began to slowly approach him.
"Alex, wait!" Athena called out. "You don't have to do this! I don't need that ice cream!"
I simply ignored her and threw a deep glare straight towards Shredder's eyes.
"I'm waiting." He tapped his hooves.
I inhaled one last time through my nose, but I didn't let it out until my knees touched the ground, and I was bowing in front of him like an idiot. "Please, Shredder. Give Athena back her ice cream…"
"Well…now that you ask so nicely…" I kept my head bowed until I suddenly heard a tear of a wrapper. My head shot up to see him slowly removing the ice cream out from its wrapper. "But then again, this does look pretty darn good."
I couldn't help but feel paralyzed at the sight of him bringing the never-before-seen ice cream to his lips. It wasn't until he gave a horridly disgusting chomp through the ice cream's midpoint where my patience had been broken.
From where I had been bowing on the ground, I immediately broke into a pounce full of adrenaline. Before I could land any kind of hit onto him, he easily grabbed a hold of me with his magic and threw me a short distance away from him.
My vision unexpectedly grew blurry and sluggish for a short moment, and my only guess was that I must have hit my head. However, I wasn't going to give up that easily. No way. I stumbled a bit to get up, and all Shredder could do was laugh at the sight of me.
"Are you going to stand there and cry? Or and you going to fight? Come on!" He provoked.
As much as I wanted to unleash a flurry of blows onto his face, I took the time to calm down and think things through. It was most likely impossible to even come close to knocking him out myself as long as he used magic like the coward he was.
I took a good look at his exposed horn. Was it possible to, at the very least, stun him long enough to start wailing on him? But how? I spared a look over my surroundings and found several rocks of differing sizes. I grabbed a hold the biggest one I could find and began charging straight at my target.
He appeared to ready himself as if I was going to attack straight on. However, I stopped midway until I was close enough and chucked the rock at his head. I'm sure it didn't help that he never actually studied more into his magic besides using it wrongly against others.
I didn't stay long enough to see whether or now I hit my target pointblank. As soon as he yelped and began grasping ahold of his head with his hooves, I immediately took the opportunity and jumped him. At that moment, all I could see was red, and I had no intention of stopping until I had completely worn myself out.
"Stop! Stop it!" I heard before I was suddenly pulled apart.
As I panted heavily, I was able to get a decent look at my opponent's face, and I was glad I was able to scuff it up a little. Although, I wasn't sure how I had looked on the other hoof.
"Did you see that?!" He complained towards the pony that had separated us by magic. "He assaulted me!"
I turned over to find that the pony who intervened was Miss Cadence, to my surprise. "Go home, Shredder!" There was a serious and angry look on her face, one that I don't believe I had ever seen her wear before.
Shredder mumbled for a bit before he spared a glare over to me and eventually left with Starlight. It was almost unbelievable that Starlight did nothing to alleviate the situation the entire time, but at the same time, that was the kind of pony she really was.
"Alex, are you okay?!" I heard Athena gallop at my side.
"Here, let me look at you." Miss Cadence poked her head in front of me and delicately grabbed a hold of my face with her hooves. As soon as she did, I couldn't help but unintentionally flinch. "It looks like he scratched you up a bit…"
"I'm fine…" I said.
"Let's get you cleaned up." Miss Cadence suggested, helping me up and leading me out of the area while Athena followed closely behind.
As I left, I found the ice cream Shredder had taken splattered all over the ground. Any pieces of it that had been left were already melting off the stick. I felt myself looking away and closing my eyes as I growled deeply inside me.
After Miss Cadence helped patch me up a bit, I explained to her what had happened, and in return, she had explained how she had been there to stop the fight between Shredder and me. Apparently, after things were escalating far too much between us, Athena ran off to find Miss Cadence at the school, and when she did, they hurried as fast as they could over to me.
"I was so scared that you'd get hurt…" Athena admitted as she sadly looked away. "I just wanted the fight to stop…"
"I'm okay, Athena…" I assured her. "I just…wish he hadn't taken your ice cream…"
"I'm really sorry about what happened." Miss Cadence issued an unnecessary apology. "Shredder isn't the nicest pony around."
"I know. What kind of pony takes ice cream from a girl?" Athena asked half-seriously, half-jokingly.
"Here." Miss Cadence began an offer. "How about I treat you both to some ice cream instead? Whatever you want."
"I don't think that ice cream they had for the prize is out yet…" I mentioned bitterly.
Athena reacted with a sympathetic frown towards me, but she was able to perk herself up a bit as she turned back towards Miss Cadence. "Alex and I really like cookies and cream."
"You've got it." Miss Cadence promised.
Afterwards, Miss Cadence allowed us to eat our treats on top of the school rooftop while she worked on the rest of her paperwork inside. However, I had absolutely no appetite for ice cream whatsoever. All I could do was keep thinking about what happened and how I possibly could have prevented it.
"It's going to melt." Athena softly warned in the middle of my thoughts.
"Hm." I measly responded with and continued to allow the ice cream to hang way below my lips.
It was quiet for a long moment. I could sense that Athena wanted to say something, but I supposed she didn't really know what to say.
"…you okay?" She lightly leaned in closer towards me.
With a heavy heartfelt sigh, I answered her. "No. I'm not." Before she could respond to that, I continued speaking, willing to release these emotions I had been bottling up until now. "I finally wanted to give you something that I could afford to give you, and it would have been perfect if that idiot hadn't ruined everything." I looked towards Athena with eyes on the verge of tearing up. "You may not know it, but you've helped me through so much. You've given me a purpose and a reason to do the best at whatever I do. If it wasn't for you, Athena, I don't think I'd be where I am today. I feel…strong…because of you. You deserve much more than this kind of life we live, Athena. And…as much as I want to give you that kind of life, I can't. I'm sorry…"
"What are you trying to say?" She questioned. "That you're not good enough? That's not true." She looked over her ice cream for a moment before staring off at the sight in front of us. "I feel the same way about you, you know? I don't like it when you're red like with Shredder or when you're blue like right now. I always want the best for you." She chuckled unexpectedly. "In fact, as you've probably heard already, I'm the one who thinks I'm not good enough. I owe you my life, after all." She reminded me of the time I saved her from drowning back when we were much younger. I supposed the 'bravery' and whatnot I had presented to save her was what got me my cutie mark. "And yet, you still go so far to please me. I don't care that Shredder ended up ruining the gift. All that matters to me is the thought you put into it. You wanted to do something special for my side of our birthday, and you did. But, I haven't…" She looked downwards with gloomy eyes. "Instead…it looks like I just made you worry."
"It's not like that." I quickly assured. "Your smile is all I really need. In fact, to me, at least, you have a way of making others around you smile. You can be so positive and upbeat, other ponies like me can't help but feel the same way. So, if you really want to give me something for our birthday, please stop thinking things are your fault. Just smile and be yourself because that's what I really need right now."
Athena remained silent for a short moment as she took in my words. After, she shifted the frown on her face and formed a beaming smile. "Okay then. Fine. If you still think that you need to give me something for our birthday, then how about this? You forget anything that happened today is your fault too, and you smile and be yourself. That's what I really want."
There it is. That was her almighty power. Seeing her undying spirit caused my frown to disappear and a smile to take its place.
"Yeah. Of course."
When we finished up our ice cream, she scooched in a little closer to me and planted a kiss on my cheek.
"Love you, Alex." She stated with the warmest grin she could pull out.
Observing closely at how she harmonized with the sunset in front of us, I couldn't help but match my smile with hers. "Love you too, Athena."