The bright morning sun shone down on the huge colosseum, yet despite the early hour the sound of a creaking of a door echoed around one corner of the structure.s A sand colored pegasus mare dragged a heavy cart on to the green, dew covered grass.
Her lean muscles strained Pulled the cart into position, Before unlatching the lid of the chest on the cart. Her warm smile reached the corners of her eyes.
There, wrapped in soft linen lay her prized ice bow. She had saved so many bits over the past few months to have her very own bow crafted from enchanted never melting ice, and now she could finally practice with it.
Of course she had trained with other bows that belonged to the team, but to have your very own simply felt a lot better.
First she took the bow’s stand out of the chest, planting it firmly in the grassy field. It was important to make sure that it was secured tightly before a pony mounted their ice bow on it, lest it came loose whenever she pulled back the bowstring. Next came the tricky part, putting the enchanted string on her bow. She had always envied the unicorn archers that could simply use their telekinetic aura to prepare the bow.
After attaching one end of the string to the lower part of her bow, Pizzelle set it upright. She pushed down with her hooves and snout, then bent the bow while using her mouth to tie off the other end of the string, her wings flaring out fully to keep a good balance.
She took a moment to catch her breath, then perked her ears as she heard one of the doors to the stadium open, followed by the telltale hum of a unicorn’s magic.
She looked over her shoulder to see who it was, the mare couldn’t help but scowl a little as a familiar stallion trotted towards her. His magic levitating an already assembled bow with its stand alongside him.
Royal Pin looked back at her and gave her an almost looking friendly grin, his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I know that we’re on different teams Pizzelle, but do I really deserve that glare you’re giving me?”
Pizzelle snorted and gave a flick of her tail. “That depends on whether you’re here to simply practice or boast about your unmatched archery skills again, Royal Pin.”
Royal Pin laughed and started securing his own bow stand. “Are you saying that it’s wrong to be proud of your talents?”
With a snort, Pizzelle mounted her bow on her own stand. “No Royal Pin, but rubbing it in everypony’s noses is.” The fact that both of them would compete in the Equestria Games would not help the stallion’s ego at all.
“Why does it bother you though?” he asked, using magic to prepare his own bow. “You’re easily as good as I am Pizzelle, we stand far above the rest and deserve recognition.”
“Royal Pin, we can’t act all superior just because we’re more talented at something.” she replied, she had not always been this good and remembered that fact all too well.
Royal Pin shrugged and grabbed his quiver. “You only say that because you weren’t born into any noteworthy family dear.”
As she fought the urge the urge to flare her wings Pizzelle gave him a pointed stare instead. She was a Wonderbolt cadet, a skilled archer, and had even saved ponies, yet he berated her on her family status?
“In any case I wish you good luck during the games.” Pizzelle said with the sweetest smile she could muster. It was an attempt at least.
“Save that for somepony who needs it.” He replied.
She merely grinned, flicking her ears. “Good luck Pin.”
She notched her first arrow, starting her practice while ignoring the baleful glare Royal Pin gave her.
The day of the Equestrian Games finally arrived, the day that every pony even remotely interested in sport or competition had been waiting for.Even though Pizzelle was confident in her skill, and while the archery contest was scheduled at the very end of the games, she was still nervous.She knew she could beat Royal Pin if she worked for it, but who knew what hidden talents could be found in the other contestants?
Then the hero of the Crystal Empire, Spike the dragon lit the ceremonial torch and the games had officially begun.Yet when the poor dragon started to sing the anthems he didn’t do quite as well. To be fair it sounded extremely horrible. Spike made a hasty retreat from the field.
The athletes started and slowly anxiety began to be replaced with excitement, her team of Cloudsdale was doing great. They were slowly raking in the points with the Ponyville and the Crystal Empire not far behind them.
After watching the events for a while she made her way towards her fellow archers, mostly to see how the games affected them and if there were any extraordinary new competitors.
“Hey Pizzelle.” one of the crystal mares greeted her. “Nervous for the big event?”
“A little.” Pizzelle admitted. “Even though we practiced a lot, you never know what unexpected issues you run into right? How about you, Citrine?”
Citrine shrugged turning her gaze towards the field. “Not as much, I’m shooting two rounds after you but I know that I’m not the best of my team. I’ll still do my best for the Crystal Empire though.”
Pizzelle wasn’t too sure that the crystal mare was as bad as she thought, Citrine had a lot of potential if she could work on that low self esteem of hers. “I’m sure you’ll do fine Citrine, or else you wouldn’t be on the team right?”
Citrine thought a moment and nodded. “I guess you're right, thank you.”
Then of course Royal Pin chose that exact moment to give his opinion on the matter. “Maybe you will even become as good as I am if you keep up with your training.”
Both mares turned towards him, the crystal mare with a look of renewed uncertainty, and the pegasus with a smoldering glare that promised pain in his future if he said another word.
“Don’t worry, I said you will do fine.” Pizzelle told Citrine again while swatting Royal Pin with her tail.
At last after the flying competition it was time for the archery matches. after an easily won first round, Pizzelle watched Citrine intently during the third round to see if she could keep her head cool, ears perked forward and her tail flicking slightly. She just wanted Citrine to do well, the mare deserved it.
Ice arrows flew towards the targets, and after emptying her quiver Citrine managed to place second place for that round, no place in the finals like Pizzelle, but still an impressive feat.
Citrine trotted past Pizzelle smiling proudly, Pizzelle returned the gesture. While Citrine made her way to her teammates who congratulated her efforts.
It was time for the finals, Pizzelle launched arrow after arrow at the target almost making it look easy, but Royal Pin matched her with nearly every shot.
She would not show her frustration though, she simply needed to focus and not miss a single arrow. But just before she shot her final arrow something caught her attention.
The archer from Ponyville stumbled over his quiver and shot his arrow straight up into the sky as he fell, which was risky on it’s own, but to make matters worse he managed to hit a cloud. It froze over completely and fell towards the stadium like an icy meteorite.
Several pegasi including herself immediately jumped into action and flew up to intercept the huge chunk projectile. As did the princesses. But even their combined strength failed to stop the cloud's descent.
Out of nowhere Spike showed up, jumping from pony back to pony back, until he positioned himself under the frozen cloud, inhaled deeply, and used his green fiery breath to melt the whole thing into a misty vapor. And thus he proved to be the brave hero of the Crystal Empire once more, his smug expression well deserved.
With that crisis averted, the final part of the games could resume. And while Cloudsdale finished second place Pizzelle wasn’t unhappy with the result. Still, having beaten Royal Pin had been a victory in of itself, for her at least.
While packing her precious bow away, Pizzelle perked her ears as she heard a snort from her left.
“You only scored better than me because of that stumbling backwater stallion you know?” Royal Pin all but growled.
“His name is Hooves, and even if that were so,” Pizzelle replied as she closed her case. “Why do you care about one single point?”
“Because that would imply that you’re a decent archer even though you’re a pegasus, that you’re a better shot than a unicorn of my status.” he snorted in disdain, “I mean, you have cookies for a cutie mark.” then trotted away.
Pizzelle rolled her eyes, before a cheerful voice called out to her. She turned around to see Citrine trotting her way.
The crystal pony glittered in the sun as she halted before the pegasus. “Hey! Congratulations with that second place, who would have thought that Ponyville would do that well huh?”
Pizzelle smiled, nodding at the other mare. “Yeah, they did great. It’s an impressive feat. They won by a single medal but still, along with the fact that Spike stopped that block of ice.”
Citrine looked towards the podium where the princesses sat. “Princess Twilight
must be proud of him, he saved us twice now.”
Pizzelle finished securing her case and nodded. “Speaking of pride, you did great during the games as well Citrine.”
Citrine shuffled her hooves some blushing faintly. “Aw you’re just saying that to make me feel better.”
Pizzelle shook her head and put a hoof on Citrine’s withers. “No I’m not, so let’s celebrate our victories with some hot chocolate. Sound like a plan?”
Citrine smiled and nodded before both archers made their way out of the stadium.