Ponyville
It’s a beautiful day in Ponyville. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and there are fillies and colts playing around the town. Chris McLean steps in front of the camera for the first time in a year, hands raised, and a huge grin on his face.
“Coming to you live from Ponyville in Equestria, I’m your host Chris McLean, and we’re hosting a little thing I like to call Total Drama. But first, the rules.”
As he talks, the camera cuts away to shots of several competitors. “We have gone far and wide, seeked out the popular (Twilight) and the unknown (Derpy). The loud (Pinkie) and the quiet (Big Mac). The old (Shining Armor) and the young (CMC). We left no stone unturned in our quest for competitors. In the end 16 of these ponies were invited to duke it out for our grand prize.
“The competitors will be separated into two different teams, and will compete against each other until about the midpoint when we will disband the teams, making it every pony for themselves. But before that, the team that wins a challenge will receive an advantage in the next round, and the losers may have to send somepony packing. We will be picking these ponies off one by one until one is left standing. That player will receive 100,000 bits which is sponsored by NBC.”
The camera cuts back to Chris, “Although Ponyville will be home base, and the host for the competition, we will be traveling far and wide. From Canterlot to the Everfree Forest to Las Pegasus, and we’re saving you a seat upfront for it all! So buckle up, this is TOTAL DRAMA: FRIENDSHIP IS TRAGIC!”
“Welcome back to Total Drama. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time to introduce our contestants, who should be getting here any- OOOOF!” Chris was suddenly knocked over by a blue blur. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a blue female pegasus pony with a rainbow mane looking down at him sheepishly.
“Oops! Sorry,” the pony said immediately to the bewildered host. “Am I really the first one here? That’s so cool! I’ve always been the fastest, you know, so I think there’s no doubt who will be the winner.”
Chris got up and dusted off his clothes. “I’ll never get used to these ponies,” he muttered to himself before turning to the blue pony and smiled. “Yes you are Rainbow Dash! Welcome to the show!” Rainbow Dash started curiously looking him up and down, making him raise an eyebrow. “Something wrong?”
She looked at him with a curious stare before saying, “So I’m guessing you're the human host, huh? I’ve never seen anypony like you before.”
“Uhhh...hey! Here comes some more competitors,” Chris called out, relieved to put the awkward conversation behind him. Immediately after a few ponies are seen coming over the horizon, and a unicorn and another pegasus are the first two to arrive. The unicorn was white with a mane that was moderate sapphire blue with moderate cerulean and dark phthalo blue streaks (according to the fim wiki) and the pegasus is yellow with an orange spiked mane, and wearing sunglasses.
“And here we have Prince Shining Armor and Spitfire, Captain of the...Wonderbolts? What the heck are those?” Chris asked looking up from the cue card he was reading.
Spitfire smirks and lowers her sunglasses. “Only the best fliers in all of Equestria. Surprised even you’ve never heard of them, McLean.”
“Totally,” Rainbow Dash shouted with a huge smile on her face. “They are undoubtedly the coolest ponies around.” Then she smiled “That is, of course, once I get asked to join the team. So how ‘bout it Spitfire?”
“Maybe someday Rainbow Dash,” Spitfire replies, rolling her eyes.
Chris then looked to Shining Armor. “And what exactly are you the prince of? I know about the four princesses, but I haven’t heard of a prince.”
“I’m Cadence’s husband, and therefore the prince of the Crystal Empire,” he said with a bright smile.
“And he’s also the best big brother in the world!”
Everyone turned their heads to the source of the sound, which happened to be a purple alicorn accompanied by a small purple dragon with green spines.
Chris smiled at them, “And here we have the only alicorn competitor, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and the only dragon competitor, Spike.”
Shining Armor ran up to Twilight with a big smile. “Twily! How’s my favorite little sister doing?”
“Just as good as when you asked me two hours ago, big brother,” Twilight replied, giggling a little.
Just then Spike cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow, “What, no love for me?”
Shining looked down at him, “Oh...right...uh...how’s it...going?...seen any good...movies lately?”
Everyone laughed at how it had sounded like he had racked his brain for that question as quickly as possible, that no one realized until the laughing died down that two ponies had appeared in front of all of them laughing harder than the rest. Both of them were earth ponies, one a pink mare with a curly pink mane, and the other an orange colt with a similar main style, except his was colored brown.
“Wow,” exclaimed the filly with a smile, “I can’t believe how long it took us to get here. We were just so nervouscited to get here that we took a wrong turn back there, he he.”
“I told you we shoulda made a left turn at alicornque,” the orange colt said with a smile.
“But Pinkie,” interrupted Twilight who was facing the pink mare, “you live literally 5 blocks away from here. How could you have possibly gotten lost?”
“Because,” the mare said, “I had to pick up Cheese on the way, silly,” she said with a laugh.”
“Ahem,” they turned their heads to the host behind them, “I seriously feel like I have a lot to learn about this world. Anyway, here’s Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich everyone! Oh, and by the way,” Chris turned his attention to Cheese, “you sound a lot like Weird Al Yankovich. Like, a lot.”
“Never heard of him,” said Rainbow, “but he sounds like an egghead.” She turns to Twilight. “Hey Twilight! Do you know him?”
“Nevermind,” Chris interrupted with a face palm before looking the other way and smiling. “Oh and here comes some more contestants!”
Three earth ponies were going up the path. In front was a small yellow filly with a red mane and a big smile. Behind her was a bigger orange mare with a yellow mane tied into a ponytail. And lastly, a giant red stallion, the biggest Chris has seen aside from the princesses.
“And here,” Chris started with an excited tone, “We have, from smallest to largest, Apple Bloom, Applejack, and Big Macintosh. Welcome guys.”
Apple Bloom ran forward, “Howdy, Chris! Ah’m just so excited to be competing in this here show! Are we really going all over Equestria for this? Ah…”
“Apple Bloom,” Applejack yelled out, “quit bugging the host with all your silly questions and wait up for us.”
“Sorry big sis!”
As soon as the two got to the group, Rainbow Dash flew forward with a confident grin on her face. “Hey Applejack, ready to lose to me?”
Applejack smirked. “If you say so,” she replied.
“Actually,” interrupted Spike, popping into their conversation, “I think it shall be me. 100,000 bits can net a lot of gems in these parts.”
Twilight cocked an eyebrow, “Aren’t those things practically worthless? I thought you could just dig them out of the ground.”
Spike suddenly perked up. “You can?” He then starts digging at the ground next to him, while everyone around laughs. After it dies down Spike is still digging, and Chris turned to Big Mac.
“Any opening introduction for you?”
Big Mac turned to him with an emotionless look on his face.
“Nnope.”
“He’s not exactly a big talker,” Applejack said walking up next to him. Chris then nods to both of them.
“Noted,” turning around, he sees two other ponies coming up the path. Both are white unicorns, one small filly with a purple and pink mane, and the other with a purple mane and a fashionably curly tail. Chris waved to them. “Yo, Rarity, Sweetie Belle, welcome to the show!”
Rarity walked up to Twilight before saying with a disgusted tone, “I still can’t believe you convinced me to be a part of this program, Darling. I mean, I know there’s a grand prize and all, but I fear the conditions will be too dreadful for me to compete.”
“Don’t worry, Rarity,” Twilight assured, “I think that we’ll all have fun together. Besides, you know you wouldn’t have let Sweetie Belle compete without you here.”
Rarity smiled, “Yes, well, I suppose you’re right there.” She then looked over to see Spike still hard at work trying to dig for gems. “Uh...what is he trying to do?”
“Oh, he’s just trying to dig up gemstones that he can eat,” Twilight answered giggling.
Rarity then walked toward Spike before stopping a few hooves from where he was. She then used her magic to find a gemstone in the ground in less than three seconds.
Spike then looked up to see her offer him the gem and blushed immediately afterwards before taking it. “Well, it’s not as easy as it looks, you know? I bet it would’ve taken someone without magic a lot longer to find one.”
Pinkie then smiled and jumped up saying, “Ooooo! Is that the first challenge?” Before anyone can answer, Pinkie starts digging into the ground the way only she can and about five seconds later pops up with three gems. “I win!”
Everyone laughs, even Spike, although he has a bit of an embarrassed look on his face. Suddenly, a small voice is heard.
“Um, excuse me,” it whispers, and Chris turns toward the source, which is a nervous looking yellow pegasus mare with a long pink mane and an even longer pink tail. “I-is this where Total Drama is being filmed?”
“Yep,” Chris answered, “and welcome to the show, Fluttershy!”
She nodded to Chris before walking next to Twilight. “Um, are you sure this is such a good idea? I mean, I know you asked me and all, b-but I’m not a big fan of competition and all, so…” she then drifted off into a mumble.
“Don’t worry Fluttershy,” Twilight said smiling, “besides, didn’t you want to raise the bits for the pet shelter? Well, this is a really great chance to get it.”
“Besides,” Rainbow Dash interrupted flying above them, “this is a chance for you to hang out with us more. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“Well,” Fluttershy said softly, “w-when you put it like that I suppose…”
Rainbow Dash smiled proudly at the timid pony. “That’s the spirit!”
“Behold, the Great and Powerful Trixie has arrived!” Fluttershy jumped at the voice that came behind her and ran toward the side. The speaker was a blue unicorn mare with pale hair, and she had a sinister grin on her face.
Some of the ponies groaned as soon as they recognized her.
“Seriously, they brought her here,” Rainbow spat.
“Well, Trixie sees that you haven’t changed a bit, Dash,” Trixie said with a frown, “but Trixie has the feeling that she will be seeing you losing this competition, and you will be seeing her take the bits from under your nose.”
“Ummm…nice to see you too, Trixie,” Twilight said with a fake smile while holding her hoof on Rainbow’s tale, preventing her from attacking.
Chris then looked toward the town with a hand on his forehead to block out Celestia’s sun. “I think I see someone coming, it’s a little one, so...Scootaloo, everyone!”
The little filly had run as fast as she could into the group. She was an orange pegasus and had a purple mane and tail. “Hey Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle!”
Both aforementioned fillies ran up to meet her. “Hey Scootaloo! Where’s your scooter?”
Chris then walked over with a copy of the rules, opening it to a specific page, and clearing his throat before reading, “Rule 3-4b clearly states ‘All forms of personal vehicles, including, but not limited to, skateboards, scooters, and bikes are prohibited while still in the competition.”
“Well I guess that answers that question,” Apple Bloom said sadly.
Chris shut the rulebook and threw it over his shoulder before looking toward town again, “There should be one more competitor coming.” Chris pauses to check his watch. “She only has about two minutes before we have to go.”
All of the sudden a faint voice is heard coming from Ponyville, and as it got closer everyone saw that it was a grey pegasus with a yellow mane. What stood out the most about her, however, was that she was cross eyed. She apparently wasn’t a good flyer, as she nearly crashed into the group but barely stopped herself in time.
“And lastly,” Chris said with emphasis on the word, “Ditzy Doo, also known as Derpy.”
“Sorry Bliss,” she apologized, “I overslept and then realized that I needed to get here before we left.”
“Uh, it’s Chris, and at least you got here in time, so now I can give a rundown of the competition! First order of business, may I present to you our mode of transport for the competition. Behold: the Equestria Express!”
The contestants awed at the beauty of the red train in front of them. It looked to be brand new, and have very comfy cabins on the inside. “You can thank your guys’ television sponsors for this one. When we did this back on Earth everything had to be done on the cheap.”
“Wow,” Spitfire said, awed by the mechanical marvel in front of her, “I don’t think I’ve ever ridden in anything so awesome, and I’m a Wonderbolt!”
Cheese walked up to touch it with his hoof. “It’s so big! We could probably throw a gigantic party on here if we wanted to!” When he said that Pinkie got really excited and started jumping up and down.
“I call the balloons,” she exclaimed, “and the confetti, and the cake, and the music, and the streamers, and...EVERYTHING! And it’s gonna be so much fun!”
“So what can I do,” Cheese said with a pout. Pinkie giggled.
“Don’t worry, Cheese, you can be the official co-party planner with me!”
After hearing that Cheese went from sad to excited in a millisecond. “Let’s do it!”
“No, no, no parties,” Chris shouted before walking away from the train. “Besides, we can’t leave without seeing possibly the most important place in this entire show!”
Campfire Pit
They followed him for about a minute before seeing an area alongside the edge of the everfree forest. In the middle of the space was a campfire pit surrounded by rocks that was not currently lit. Along one side of the fire pit were some stumps that almost looked to be seats, and on the other side was a single metal barrel. It was all seemingly wrapped up in a package by some long wooden poles in the ground, with red, orange, and yellow lights hanging from each of them.
“This,” Chris began staring at the bewildered contestants, “is the campfire, where our elimination ceremonies will take place. For each challenge, while the winning team will enjoy an advantage in the next round, the losing team of each challenge will be forced to come here, and vote out one of their own.”
Most of the contestants looked really uneasy after hearing the last part, except for Rainbow, Spitfire, Scootaloo, and the other confident competitors. To them it just meant one less pony to trample on their way to victory. Chris then turned around after about ten seconds of letting the threat of elimination soak in.
“Alright,” Chris said, turning back to them with a smile, “with that out of the way, we can finally get on! All aboard the Equestria Express, where our adventure begins!” Chris waved an arm up toward the train. All of them either run or fly past Chris back to the train. Chris watches them go for a second before turning to the camera.
“I’ll never get used to this world.”
Ponyville Express- Observation Car
“Welcome to the central meeting point on this express, the observation car.”
Everypony is seated around Chris who is currently in the middle of the car. It has big windows situated around the walls, and is very cosey, with carpeted floors and leather booth seats, almost like what you would find in a restaurant. They are all looking around taking in their surroundings.
“Wow, this place really is impressive,” Twilight said with a wonder-filled expression, “I wonder how fast this thing can go. What kind of drag coefficient does it have? How…” she is stopped when a certain purple claw is snapped against her mouth. Rainbow Dash laughs at this.
“Oh Twilight, when will you ever learn that only eggheads care about that kind of stuff.” Twilight only scowled at her as the claw was still over her mouth at the moment.
“Oh my,” Rarity exclaimed, “this certainly is riding in luxury, is it not Sweetie Belle?”
Her sister who was next to her nodded enthusiastically, “This is going to be the coolest vacation ever!”
“Hooey,” Applejack smiled, “this here is far more fancy than any train Ah’ve ever been on. Remember that time we visited Babs Seed in Manehattan, Big Mac? This makes that look like a pig pen.”
“Eeyup,” came the low response from her elder brother.
Chris beamed at them, “This room is the central nervous system of the train. It is where you will hang out, chill, vibe, rock on, or whatever it is you guys want to do. It is also where you will be meeting before a challenge starts, where I will prep you on what you need to know for the upcoming challenge. But today we will use it for another reason, as before we go into the rest of the train, we will now sort you into your teams real quick.”
Everypony looked at each other with mixed emotions. Fluttershy looked nervous, Rainbow Dash looked annoyed, Pinkie was still smiling, Derpy was being Derpy, Shining had a proud look on his face, and Applejack had an eyebrow raised.
“Alright, so if I call your name please sit over there,” Chris pointed to his left before reading names from a sheet.
“Apple Bloom, Pinkie Pie, Trixie, Cheese Sandwich...”
Pinkie squealed with excitement as Cheese claimed his spot next to her.
“...Rarity, Derpy Hooves, Applejack...”
“Alright big sis,” cheered Apple Bloom. Meanwhile Twilight and Rainbow Dash were holding their hooves together, both praying the same thing.
“Please don’t say my name. Please don’t let me be on the same team as Trixie.”
“And,” Chris started, “Twilight Sparkle.”
“Yes,” thought Rainbow, relieved.
“No,” though Twilight, terrified.
After Twilight reluctantly took her seat with the seven others that were called upon, Chris picked up a rolled up banner and hung it on their side of the car.
“Henceforth, the eight of you will be known as…” he lets the banner unfold, revealing a golden banner, with a gold symbol with five gemstones around the edges, and one gem in the middle. Some of the contestants recognize it as the symbol of, “...the Elements of Harmony!”
“This banner is simply marvelous,” beamed Rarity, “though I would not have chosen that shade of gold for the banner.”
“Ah think it looks fantastic,” Applejack said, “Ah’m mighty proud to be on this here team!”
“And as for the rest of you, please sit on the opposite side” Chris started, again looking at the sheet, “Shining Armor, Sweetie Belle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Spitfire…”
“Double yes,” Rainbow whispered.
“...Big McIntosh, Spike, and Scootaloo.”
He waited for the last few to get seated before taking another banner that was rolled up in a similar manner and hanging it the same. “You are now collectively known as…” he let the banner unfold, revealing a that it was a tan brown, with the picture of a very familiar being in the center, with a pose almost like it was on a dollar bill. “...the Draconequui of Discord!”
“The dracone-what,” came the confused response from Scootaloo. “That’s a made up word!”
“It is very much not a made up word, Scootaloo,” Chris replied, “but it is plural for draconequus.”
“But why,” Shining Armor asked with a puzzled expression.
Chris looked at him with a smile, “Because Discord is a sponsor, and he said he’d give a lot of money if we had a team named for him. By the way, expect him to drop by. He mentioned something about, ‘checking on our little stars.’”
“Well, that certainly does sound like him,” came the quiet voice of Fluttershy.
“Alright, next order of business. Follow me down this hallway,” Chris said as he began walking, with everyone else following him.
Ponyville Express- Sleeping Car
Chris leads everypony into a small hallway. There are two doors on each side, and Chris stands in the middle of the first two.
“Welcome to the sleeping car,” Chris exclaimed, “where you will be sharing a bedroom with four other competitors.” He opens the door to the room on his left, and some of them are able to peer inside with expressions of complete awe. The interior was mostly white, except for the blue carpeted floor. There were four fold up beds that went into the wall when not being used, two on each side, and one on top of the other. There was also a door that led into a bathroom on the side. The whole layout made it feel almost like a very small hotel room.
“Omigosh!” Pinkie Pie yelled. “Can you believe these rooms? They're sooooo cool!”
Spitfire flew over some heads for a better look. “These remind me of the barracks,” she grinned.
“As for who will be in which cabin,” Chris announced, “boys automatically get one cabin since there’s four of them already. You guys can have this one right here.” He gestured to the room he had opened.
Spike, Big Mac, Shining, and Cheese all looked at each other and nodded, going into their new room to explore a bit more.
“Wow,” Spike gushed, opening the door to the bathroom. “Hey guys, check out the shower!”
As they all went over to Spike, Chris turned to the mares. “As for you ladies, you can all separate yourselves into three groups of four for the other cabins.
Rainbow Dash flew up immediately. “I call Spitfire,” she yelled, grabbing and pulling Spitfire next to her, “‘cause she’s awesome, and Fluttershy,” she pulled Fluttershy with her with her free hoof in a similar manner, “because she’s my best friend. Who else wants to be with us? Scoots?”
Scootaloo looked up at her with a sad smile, “Sorry Rainbow, but us Cutie Mark Crusaders have to stick together!”
“Cutie...what?”
They turned to see Chris looking at the orange filly with a puzzled look. Applejack walked up to him with a smirk.
“It’s a long story, sugarcube, but let’s just say they’re closer than Derpy’s eyes.”
Some ponies laughed at the last line, even Derpy herself. Then Pinkie jumped up.
“Dashie, Dashie, pick me! Pleeeease?” She looked up at Rainbow and put on her sad puppy eyes. Rainbow rolled her eyes.
“Alright Pinkie. That is, if you can handle it,” she said with a chuckle.
Fluttershy looked at Rainbow, still hugged to her body. “Handle it?”
“I’m just horsing around,” Rainbow said with a smile.
Chris opened the door to let the girls in the cabin across the hall from the boys, who were still exploring it. “Alright ladies, welcome to your new home! Who’s the next group?”
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle all high hooved. “We are,” said Sweetie Belle,” and we just need one more pony for the cabin.”
“I wouldn’t mind sharing with you,” a voice came from above them. They looked up and saw Derpy with a hopeful smile on her face. The CMC then got together in a huddle, whispering to each other and turning to the cross eyed pegasus a few times. After about ten seconds they broke the huddle and turned to Derpy.
“We’d love to have you as a roommate, Derpy!”
As soon as Scootaloo had said it, she and the other two crusaders were taken into a big hug by the older mare. Chris then walked down the hallway and opened the door on the same side as the boy’s room.
“Well then, in here please.” He was then knocked over by the tornado of energy that was the CMC, with Derpy following soon afterwards. Chris got up and dusted himself off before opening the last door on the other side of the hallway. “Well it looks like you four are what we got left.”
Applejack, Twilight, and Rarity all looked at each other with satisfied looks until the all froze, and slowly turned toward the only other pony left in the hallway walking into the room.
“You should consider yourselves lucky to be able to sleep in the same vicinity as me: The Great and Powerful Trixie! You better not snore!”
Applejack scoffed. “The great and powerful headache is more like it.”
“Well, look on the bright side girls,” Rarity said enthusiastically, “at least we can stay up all night and talk about fashion!”
Applejack and Twilight gave each other a look before following Rarity into the room together. Chris then looked around satisfied at his hosting abilities.
“You have thirty minutes to wind down and relax before we meet again in the dining car, where you will receive your first meal of the competition, courtesy of Chef Hatchet.”
Chris then walked away to his own personal cabin, opened the door and took one look inside before turning to the camera. “I know I got a pay cut, but this makes it all worth it.” Chris smiled one more time before walking in and shutting the door.
Cabin 2 (Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Spitfire
“Isn’t this place amazing?”
Rainbow Dash and Spitfire had both started to figure out how to unfold the beds, while Fluttershy watched Pinkie from the corner with concern. The pink party pony had started bouncing off the walls, almost literally, as she looked at everything possible in excitement. “This is like a hotel room! It’s almost like we’re on vacation!” She gasps. “Are we on vacation? Maybe there’s just no competition at all!”
Spitfire rolled her eyes under her sunglasses. “Yeah,” she mumbled, “something like that…”
Spitfire finally folded out one of the beds on the top and layed down on it, but when she opened her eyes again she was immediately startled by a big excited pair of cerise eyes staring into hers.
“So Spitfire, are you psyched that I’m on the same team as you? I know I am!”
Spitfire sat up and looked at her with a smile. “I’m glad you are, Dash. I hope to lead the Draconequui to victory through our first challenge.” Suddenly the pink blur slowed down and looked at her wide eyed
“How do you know you’re going to be the leader? Can you tell the future or something?”
Spitfire stared down from her high bed into the sparkling blue eyes that were staring at her, anticipating an answer. “Pinkie, I’m the captain of the Wonderbolts for Celestia’s sake. Who would be a better choice than me? Who else-“
“I’m not so sure, Spitfire,” Rainbow Dash interrupted with a look of worry on her face, “Shining Armor seemed like he would want to lead, and if I know that foal,Scootaloo, she’ll probably make a run for it, too.”
Spitfire just shrugged it off, “I honestly don’t think he has the patience, control or the ability to compete under pressure, and besides,” Spitfire smirked, “Scootaloo wouldn’t be a good leader. She’s a good filly, but she’s still a filly.” Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement, then saluted.
“You for sure have my support, captain!”
“I definitely think you should be the leader of our team! It would be so much fun! Plus you’ve got a really cool mane!”
Both pegasi stared at Pinkie before Rainbow Dash started talking slowly. “You...know you’re not...actually on the same team as us...right?”
“Oops! I forgot! He he!”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and looked at the one pony in the cabin who had not said a word yet. “How about you, Flutters?”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened now that the attention had landed on her. “Oh, um, well, I don’t really know who I would pick. But if you think you should be captain, then-”
“So I have your vote,” Spitfire asked flying over the shy pony with a hopeful grin on her face. Fluttershy simply nodded and turned away. Spitfire immediately became overjoyed at the thought of being the captain of the
“Alright! That’s three votes for me! I wonder if I can get Big Mac to vote for me!” She dashed out the door and across the hall. Rainbow Dash turned to the other two with an obsessed fan-like look.
“Isn’t she amazing?”
Cabin 3 (CMC and Derpy)
“This will be so much fun!”
The squeaky voice of Sweetie Belle echoed through the cabin. The two fillies and the mare were all excitedly jumping around the room.
“Yeah,” Derpy said, “it will be loads of fun! Woohoo!” Scootaloo stopped jumping and thought.
“Wait, what exactly are we going to do here that’s fun?”
The others stopped after hearing the question and thought.
“We could always play cards!”
“We could try to get our cutie marks in cabin cleaning!”
“We could fly around the train!”
“Only you can do that, Derpy.”
“Oh yeah. Sorry.”
Suddenly a light bulb went off in Sweetie Belle’s head. “I got it! We can get out cutie marks in strategy!”
The other three looked at the unicorn filly in confusion, but it was Apple Bloom that spoke up first.
“What the hay does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, we’re in a competition right? And one of the best ways to win one is strategy, right? So if we won, we might get a cutie mark in that!”
“So you're basically saying we should try to win,” Scootaloo asked.
“Yep!”
There was a moment of silence until the fillies faces lit up.
“YEAH! CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS, and Derpy, COMPETITION WINNERS! YAY!”
Cabin 4 (Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Trixie, and Rarity)
“...and that’s why I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, would make a far more superior leader than Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
The other three ponies sighed in relief as Trixie finished up her speech that she claimed was a campaign speech, but mostly involved mocking Twilight. Applejack was the first to speak
“You do realize that there is not a remote chance of you being captain, right?”
Trixie continued with a confident smile on her face “We will let the team decide that, now won’t we Applejack?”
All three of the listeners glanced at each other with the same annoyed expressions.
Dining Car
The contestants walk into a car designed to look like a sit down restaurant with one long table stretching the length of it on one side, with eight seats on either side. On the other side of the car was a grey serving table with many different trays on it.
They all stood in line by the serving table and saw that it had many different kinds of food on it. Hay, oats, apples, flowers, and even a few gemstones to the delight of a certain purple dragon. At the very end of it there was a bunch of desserts, such as brownies, cookies, and cake. Everypony would have been drooling in delight over the amazing spread if their faces did not have a look of terror instead.
Standing behind the counter with a scowl was a tall black man with a mustache and a soul patch, wearing a white toque and a white apron. He looked almost like a prisoner who broke out of jail.
“Listen up,” he yelled at the poor paralyzed ponies and dragon in front of him, “I serve it three times a day and you'll eat it three times a day! Grab a tray, get your food, and sit your butts down now!”
Everypony complied immediately as Chris walked up with a smile. “I see you all have met Chef Hatchet already? By the way,” he started while looking at the serving table, “how come you never made food this good back home?”
“Because that Princess Ballestia said that she wanted daily quality meals, and that if I didn’t live up to a certain standard, she’d ‘cut my pay,’” he said the last line in as high of a pitch as he could go before he started looking all of the contestants up and down.
“Yo Chris, are you sure about this, man? I mean, most of these guys look like they could never handle the stuff we’re about to throw at them.”
By sheer coincidence, a scream was heard as it turned out that some of Derpy’s food had fallen off of her tray and onto Rarity’s mane.
“My mane is ruined,” she said, dragging out the last word with sobs in between. After a few seconds she ran out of the car down the hallway into her room. After about five seconds she came out with her mane sparkling clean, just as it always is. “Much better,” the white unicorn said with a smile.
“Perfect as always,” came a love struck voice belonging to Spike.
The host turned his attention back to Chef to answer his question. “You never seemed too worried about the competitors back on Earth. Do you have a soft spot for these guys?”
“Nope,” Chef replied, eyes rolling at the host’s grin.
All of the contestants had gotten their food and sat down beside one another at the table, and began eating and talking to one another.
“I still think Zecora should have agreed to come on the show,” Apple Bloom said to her fellow crusaders, “she should have been really fun to have.”
“Yeah, it’s too bad that she had to go back to her homeland,” Sweetie Belle agreed, taking another bite out of her apple pie. Scootaloo shook her head
“I don’t think it’s because of that. I’m pretty sure it’s just because the writer can’t write any rhy-“
“Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo was interrupted by her unicorn friend’s older sister, “You simply must try these hors d'oeuvres. They’re simply divine!” Sweetie Belle then levitated one over to herself and took a bite. Her eyes then lit up.
“Wow! That’s amazing,” she squeaked, stuffing a bunch of them into her mouth. Shining Armor, who was sitting next to Sweetie Belle nodded his head in agreement.
“It’s all very delicious. I mean, not as good as back at the castle, but-“ he was cut off by a pair of thongs flying through the air and missing his head by about two inches. He turned around angrily and stared coldly at the thrower. “Come on, Chef! I was about to say it was almost as good! And you’re lucky I don’t have any royal guard with me or you’d be dead!”
Cheese laid a hoof on the pony that had been target practice a minute ago. “Don’t worry, Shining, just be glad that he has really, really bad aim.” He ducked to avoid another set of thongs coming at his head.
On the other side of the table Twilight was talking to Fluttershy and Applejack about what she planned to do if she won the contest. The egghead unicorn, as Rainbow would call her, was gushing about all of the book replacements she could make.
“I’ve been meaning to get the latest Daring Doo book for the library, and the Psychology section always needed a little bit of expanding. I guess all of the sections need expanding now that all the books have been destroyed by Tirek, but...this is all just so exciting!” Twilight said the last part while clapping her hooves together.
“Ah’m mighty happy for you Twi’,” said the orange earth pony, “but don’t y’all think it would be best to spend at least
a tiny bit of that money on decorating your fancy-schmancy new castle or something?”
Twilight put a hoof to her chin in thought. While it was true she loved books, she never really thought about how to fill up the rest of her castle.
“Maybe you’re right, but I still think that a majority should go to restoring the old library. After all, Ponyville is going to need a new library now that the old one was destroyed.”
“Whatever floats your boat, sugarcube. It’s your money and all, but don’t go spending it all in one place.”
Twilight smiled, “Don’t worry AJ.” She turned to Fluttershy, “By the way, what’s going to happen to all of your animals while you’re away?”
“I asked my friend Tree Hugger to stay at my cottage,” she explained, “apparently she needed a place to ‘clear her thoughts and improve her aura a skosh,’ so it all worked out in the end!”
Applejack smiled. “Good for you! It took a mighty ton of convincing to make Granny Smith to call in our relatives for this year’s harvest. To the day we left she still thought she could manage to do the whole harvest with just the volunteers from Ponyville.” She chuckled, “Eventually we got sick of it and we had Big Mac go to Appleloosa to see how many ponies we could round up!”
Twilight and Fluttershy both giggled, remembering that Granny Smith’s stubbornness was only rivaled by her two eldest grandchildren.
They continued eating for another five minutes before they all started getting sleepy eyed and looking ready for bed. Before they could go back to their cabins, Chris stepped forward with one last announcement.
“Now you may have noticed the door on the side of the dining car that looks like it leads into a closet.” All of the ponies searched around until all of their eyes landed on a door at the end of the dining car, and it did in fact look like a closet door. “That there leads into the confessional. If you want to tell secrets, say hi to the family, or announce your deepest darkest secrets while on the show, do it there. It will also be used as the voting booth, where you cast the vote of the camper you want ousted. Once you do it, it will be broadcasted back home through bolded text.
A confused Spike interrupted, “Huh?”
“Nothing!”
“(Rainbow Dash) Uh, testing, testing, 1...2...3…alright! The only secret I have is that I’m going to win this whole thing!”
“(Shining Armor) Hey Cadence! Love you!”
“(Apple Bloom) This is really cool!”
“(Trixie) The Great and Powerful Trixie will not share all of her secrets, that she can assure you!”
“Alright,” Chris started, “with that, go to bed! You guys look super tired! And you guys will really want to be rested up for the first challenge tomorrow in Canterlot!”
“Yes!”
All eyes turned to Rarity, who had jumped up in excitement, sheepishly sitting back down and clearing her throat. “Continue.”
“We will be going overnight while you all are sleeping. So, be gone! And Chef, start the engines!”
Chef walked toward the engine while the others made their way back to their new bedrooms. Along the way Apple Bloom turned to her big sister.
“What do you reckon we’ll have to do?”
Applejack looked down at her sister’s fear filled bright eyes and chuckled. “Awww, don’t you worry none, Apple Bloom. It’s the first challenge. How hard can it be?”
On top of a cliff in Canterlot
All of the contestants are now looking down at a giant lake about 1,000 feet away from the top of a giant cliff.
“Well,” Applejack gave a fake smile to Apple Bloom, “I’ve been wrong before!”