After the Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter saw that the soccer field was converted into a motocross track, a roller rink, and an obstacle course with archery targets, the two teams began to choose who was going to compete in which part of the event. At the same time, Twilight and the Crystal Prep Shadowbolts were getting information about the event from Principal Cinch. "For this event, you will be racing in pairs against the other teams. Indigo Zap and Sugarcoat will handle the motocross segment," she told the Shadowbolts. Indigo Zap cheered as Cinch moved onto the other students. "Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare have requested the short track," she said as she passed the two girls and they high-fived each other. "Since archery is a standard requirement at our school, any of you should be able to do it," Cinch told Sour Sweet and Twilight. However, Twilight was feeling nervous as she mostly focused her school work on academics and barely managed to get by in physical education. "Twilight and Sour Sweet will start us off," Cinch stated to the Shadowbolts.
"Well, that's just marvelous," Sour Sweet said nicely before she changed to a harsh tone. "If you wanna lose before we even start!"
"Given that Twilight won the first event single-handedly, I have every confidence that she will be able to pull her weight here. Won't you," Cinch said to Twilight. Twilight only gave a nervous nod in reply before Cinch went to join the other judges in the announcer's booth.
While Cinch sat down next to Dean Cadance, Celestia and Luna were talking to each other as Terracotta was calmly waiting for the event to begin with Aurora and Nocturne on either side of him. The crowd was pumped for the next event as Crystal Prep and Fragment Hunter were both one game away from victory, but Canterlot High was close to victory twice already and the students of CHS believed that the third time was the charm for a win. Cadance soon stood up and adjusted the microphone next to her as she prepared to announce the event. "Welcome, everyone to the Friendship Games Tri-Cross Relay," Cadance announced and everyone in the stands cheered. "In this event, our qualifying competitors will face off in archery, speed skating, and finally, motocross."
As Cadance stated what each leg of the race was, each pair of competitors was ready to begin. Joining the Shadowbolts on each section of the race, Fluttershy and Applejack were participating in archery for the Wondercolts with Azalea and Rua representing Beacon Academy. For the skating portion, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were accompanied by Vinyl and Lapis while the Shadowbolts started to stretch. And for the last motocross segment, Sunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash were revving their engines with Sunset Blaze and Silver ready to race for Fragment Hunter. "If the competitors are ready," Cadance said as Terracotta handed her an air horn. "Get set, GO," Cadance said as she used the air horn to signal the start of the relay. But since Cadance was so close to Cinch, the older woman had to cover her ears when the air horn blared.
At the sound of the horn, Sour Sweet, Fluttershy, and Rua all ran forward as Twilight, Azalea, and Applejack all stayed behind. "Each competitor must hit a bullseye on the moving targets before their teammates can start the next leg of the relay," Cadance told the audience as Sour Sweet and Rua jumped over hay bales that were used as hurdles for the obstacle course. Fluttershy opted to climb over the bales, but that slowed her down a little. When Sour Sweet and Rua reached the next obstacle, they saw quivers with arrows while the bows were on the other platform. Sour managed to swing across the rope and grab her bow as she tumbled onto the platform. At the same time, Fluttershy was climbing up the platform for the rope swing and Rua was judging the distance of the gap. Grabbing three arrows, Sour launched them all and each hit the target she was aiming for with one of the shots landing a bullseye. Applejack and Twilight were shocked to see the shot preformed, but Azalea rolled her eyes at what she saw. Soon, Applejack and Azalea looked at Twilight and signaled that it was time for her to continue the relay.
Smiling smugly about getting a head start, Sour Sweet's attention was caught when Rua called out to her. "Big deal, Cranberry! You shot three arrows. Any archer at my school can do that," Rua shouted as she jumped over the mud pit without grabbing onto the rope and landed safely on the second platform. "You managed to get a clean shot through sheer luck. Not always the best idea with what I deal with. It works for Slate, but even his luck can run out on him and it will for you, too," she said as she grabbed her bow and lined up a shot. Taking her time, Rua managed to hit a bullseye after a few tries that let Azalea begin her run. "Plus, this is a relay. Which means you have to work with your teammates."
As Azalea and Twilight began their turns on the obstacle course, Fluttershy was attempting to shoot an arrow and failed the first time as it was too weak in power. As Azalea vaulted over her makeshift hurdle, Sci-Twi ended up tripping over it when she jumped and landed on her face. "Ouch. Are you okay, Sci-Twi," Azalea asked as she turned to check up on the girl. As Azalea helped Twilight up, Sour Sweet was angry at the latter failing at the obstacle course like she was. She then realized that with Twilight's mistake, Canterlot High was going to catch up and she turned to see Fluttershy was still struggling with her bow. Luckily for Sour Sweet, Fluttershy's next arrow missed the target and Twilight was getting back in the race. When Sci-Twi tried to swing across the mud pit with the rope, she started to fall from the rope and barely caught onto the platform with her foot. Sour Sweet was so angry at Twilight's poor athletic skill that she looked like she was about to tear her face off. Rua could only laugh at Sour Sweet's expressions while Fluttershy managed to land a bullseye to let Applejack start the race and Azalea managed to clear the jump like Rua did before helping Twilight onto the podium. "Come on, Twilight," Azalea said with a friendly smile as Applejack easily cleared the obstacle course.
As Azalea, Applejack, and Twilight each grabbed their bows, they began to line up their shots. Applejack managed to hit the outer ring of her target while Azalea and Twilight missed their targets. Fluttershy and Rua were supportive of their friends, but Sour Sweet just growled at Twilight not being able to hit the target. Concentrating, Applejack and Azalea lined up their shots and each took a breath to calm themselves down. Releasing their arrows, both of them managed to hit their targets dead center and cleared the archery round. When the bullseyes were scored, Rarity, Pinkie, Vinyl, and Lapis all got the signal to begin their leg of the relay. The four girls took off from the starting line and left the Shadowbolts behind. "And Canterlot is off to an early lead with Beacon right behind them," Dean Cadance announced as the four skaters made it past the first turn.
Back at the archery platforms, Twilight kept firing shots only to keep missing the target. Her bad aim was making her even more nervous about what would happen if Crystal Prep lost. With her application on the line, she was afraid that she would never get into Everton and her legs started trembling. Launching another arrow, Twilight failed to hit her target as it moved away. Sour Sweet was getting even more impatient with Twilight and she saw the skating teams pass by. "Well, that's just fantastic," Sour Sweet angrily stated, unnerving Twilight even more.
"I'm sure glad that I don't go to Crystal Prep," Fluttershy said to the others as she saw Sour Sweet's behavior.
"You said it," Rua and Applejack agreed as Pinkie, Rarity, Lapis, and Vinyl all skated past the Shadowbolts and cleared two laps.
"If CPA can't hit another bullseye soon, they'll be out of this race," Cadance warned from the announcer's booth. Twilight was beginning to buckle from the pressure and when she reached for another arrow, it slipped away from her and she dropped it. Picking it back up, Twilight was starting to tear up as the stress was getting to her. She was getting too anxious and her hands began to tremble as she aimed.
"You're really bad at this," Sugarcoat called out from the motocross starting line. Indigo Zap was bored as she waited for Twilight to hit the target, but the other racers glared at Sugarcoat. Applejack, Azalea, and Rua were doing the same from the archery stage.
"How about you shut it before I throw you off this platform," Silver warned Sugarcoat with a growl in his voice.
"Ugh! I can't take anymore," Applejack exclaimed as she handed her bow to Fluttershy and walked toward Twilight.
"Same here, AJ," Azalea said as she and Rua joined her.
"Ya have to stop aiming at the target," Applejack said to Twilight as she, Azalea, and Rua joined Twilight on the Crystal Prep platform.
"Oh, that makes perfect sense! Don't aim at the target! Thanks so much," Sour Sweet said with so much falsely sweet sarcasm in her voice that it made Rua gag.
"It's a moving target, Twilight. It has a set path," Azalea advised.
"Exactly," Applejack said. "Ya have to stop aiming where the target is and aim where the target's going to be," she explained as she instructed Twilight.
"Yeah! Definitely take advice from the people you're competing against," Sour Sweet sarcastically said before harshly screaming the last three words.
Ticked off at the girl's attitude, Azalea grabbed at Sour Sweet by her shirt. "Listen here, you annoying little brat! The more you keep berating your teammate, the faster you'll lose this event! Your yelling isn't helping Twilight at all! She's already stressed from this and your team is just making it worse," Azalea ranted. "If you had any ounce of real kindness in you, you'd know when to actually help others and forget about a stupid competition!" As Azalea shouted at Sour Sweet, the latter was scared as Azalea was holding the Shadowbolt above her head with one hand, right above the mud pit.
"Do you want to hit a bullseye or not," Applejack asked Twilight. The latter wiped her eyes again and shyly nodded to answer Applejack. "Then trust me. Take a deep breath," Applejack said and Twilight did as instructed. Waiting for the target to reach a certain point, Applejack continued guiding Twilight as Azalea lowered Sour Sweet back down to the platform. "And let the arrow go... riiiiight.... now," Applejack told Twilight. At the word, Twilight let her arrow fly and time seemed to slow down as everyone watched Twilight fire her shot. Fragment Hunter, the students of Canterlot High, Crystal Prep, and even Principal Cinch moved forward to get a better view of what was happening. As the target approached, Twilight's arrow managed to hit dead center and she secured a bullseye for Sunny Flare and Lemon Zest to catch up with the other skaters.
The crowd cheered as Twilight managed to get past the archery round and Spike soon approached the platform. "Yeah! That's my girl," he said, not bothering about Sour Sweet nearby hearing him. In fact, she actually was freaking out about the puppy that could talk and ran off the platform thinking that her frustration with Twilight from earlier and Azalea holding her above the mud pit were causing her to hallucinate. Twilight hugged Spike as Sour Sweet backed away, but Applejack and Azalea saw the girl's panicked reaction and rolled their eyes while Rua just laughed more.
Twilight looked at Applejack and Azalea and the three smiled at each other. As Twilight stepped toward Applejack, the latter held out her hand for a high-five. However, Twilight was so grateful for Applejack's advice that she hugged the girl. Applejack smiled and started to hug Twilight back as she spoke to her, "See? I was tellin' ya the truth." When Applejack admitted that she was being honest about her instructions to Twilight, her body glowed with an orange aura as her ears and hair changed to show she was transforming. Twilight, Azalea, and Rua were all surprised by it, but the moment was ruined when Twilight noticed her pendant floating toward Applejack and opened up on its own. As Applejack's magic was getting drained out of her, she could only struggle as Twilight tried to pull her amulet back. "Eh... what... are... you... doing," Applejack asked as she slowly transformed back to normal.
"I don't know," Twilight said as she kept trying to reach her amulet. When Applejack's magic was drained enough to exhaust her, Twilight managed to shut her amulet before she fell off the platform. When she landed on her back, the device fell onto the skate track and released a shockwave of sorts when it opened up. As Fluttershy checked on Applejack, Twilight looked where the amulet landed with Rua and Azalea helping her up. The three soon saw the purple rifts slowly open up to reveal strange plants making their way through before they noticed the black, red, white, and yellow portals forming around the track. All three had looks of worry and fear on their faces as they saw the rifts opening up.
Soon, Rarity, Pinkie, Lapis, and Vinyl were getting serious as Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare began catching up to them. "Canterlot and Beacon only have two laps to go! But it looks like Crystal Prep is making up for lost time," Cadance announced as each team now made five laps around the track. As the six girls made it past where Twilight dropped the amulet, Lemon Zest accidentally knocked the device onto the other side of the track. As Twilight tried to reach for her amulet, a giant vine from one of the purple rifts stayed out of sight of the audience and blocked Twilight's path. With the plant slithering menacingly toward Twilight like a snake, it attacked her and she had to dodge.
As the Shadowbolts were confident with their regained lead, Vinyl sped ahead of Lapis, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie to catch up. "Come on, Pinkie," Rarity said to her friend. "I have an idea." Sticking her leg out for Pinkie to grab onto, Rarity whipped Pinkie forward like they were in a roller derby and the girl sped along the track. Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare were surprised to see Pinkie speed past them before Vinyl matched Pinkie's speed and all three teams crossed the finish line. As Canterlot scored eight laps first, Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer were allowed to start the motocross race before Beacon Academy and Crystal Prep almost immediately followed.
As the motocross race started, Rua, Lapis, Vinyl, and Azalea soon saw that something was exiting the red portals. Stepping out of the portals were monsters that they knew all too well; the Creatures of Grimm. Beowolves, a few Boarbatusks, and even two other ones that they didn't see from earlier. The first type was a lizard-like Grimm that stood on two legs and resembled a dinosaur of sorts, but had inverted knees like some birds. The second was a large black-furred bear with bone-like spikes over its body that towered over the other Grimm. The monster bear stood up and roared loudly to catch the attention of everyone. Seeing that the Grimm have made themselves seen, Sunset Blaze decided that competing in the games was no longer an option. After making the next jump, Blaze turned around so that she could throw her bike at a group of the lizard-like Grimm that Fragment Hunter knew as 'Creeps'. With the bike thrown at the monsters, the impact from the crash killed about four of them as Blaze landed. "Fragment Hunter, battle stations! We've got threats to deal with," Blaze shouted as she stared down a large plant that emerged from a purple rift.