//------------------------------//
// The Real Equestrian Games 
// Story: A Human, a Pony Princess, and a Mistake 
// by The Dimension Traveler 
//------------------------------//


A Human, a Pony Princess, and a Mistake


Chapter 33: The Real Equestrian Games


The Equestrian Games were upon them. Some were resting, saving their strength for the Games. Others were squeezing in that last bit of exercise before the Games started, hoping to push their performance to the limit. Still others were just goofing off, trying to ignore the tension coiled like a spring around each and every one of them.

Rainbow’s team was universally in the second category. They were doing minor weight lifting, wing ups, and crunches. Rainbow sure had been surprised the first time she watched a Changeling, with their insect-like wings, doing a wing up. 

Twilight, Tom, and Moon Dancer were all reading, to everyone’s great surprise. Truthfully, the trio was anxious because their cloning experiments were almost bearing fruit. They had been able to clone a feather, some hair from the mane and tail, and fur. Before they were ready to call it a success, they were going to clone a full organ: Twilight’s kidney. 

Lyra, on the other hoof, had not a care in the world. She was confident the crash course training she had undertaken when first inducted into S.M.I.L.E put her head and shoulders above the rest of the competition. So she was napping away as the train moved closer to the Crystal Empire.

The Earth Pony team shared a mind with the Pegasus team, jamming in as much practice as possible before the Games started. Applejack, Big Mac, and Bonnie were taking turns spotting each other in various exercises. 

As the Crystal Empire came into view, Rainbow gathered everyone into a single car and gave her speech.

“I know each and every one of you has worked hard to prove you’re the best Ponyville has to offer. In each of our individual qualifiers, we all passed with flying colors. However, the Games will be bigger than that. There will be events that weren’t part of the qualifiers. You all know this. You all have prepared for this. I don’t care where we place as a whole. You’ve all made me so proud. Despite that, I know none of you will be satisfied unless we go out there and give it everything we’ve got! WHO HAS THE BEST TEAM?!”

“PONYVILLE!” The assembled all shouted out. 

“And don’t you forget it. Alright everyone, get your stuff together, we disembark in two minutes,” Rainbow watched as everyone dispersed to make sure their luggage was ready for transport to the hotel. 

“That was so cool, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo squeaked. 

“Thanks Squirt. I know you’ll look even cooler when you and the rest of the CMC take the field with Ponyville’s flag,” Rainbow told her earnestly.

“Aw, shucks,” Scoots blushed.

“Thanks, Rainbow,” Applebloom said with a smile.

“No tree sap around this time~” Sweetie snarked and the other two CMC started giggling.

A couple of minutes later, the train had arrived and everyone was getting off. Spike was a massive help in keeping the luggage organized. Many shuddered to think the state of everyone’s luggage had Spike not been there. Normally Twilight would have been there to help as well, but she and Tom were busy making sure everyone was properly registered for their events in the Games. 

Spike had just finished putting everything on the trolley when he was snatched up by two Crystal Pony guards. They ran at top speed and before Spike could do much more than shout in surprise, he was deposited before Cadence.

“Oh dear, sorry about that Spike. I told them to fetch you, but I didn’t think they’d do it so…eagerly,” Cadence apologized. The two guards blushed in embarrassment.

“We apologize, Spike the glorious and magnificent,” One of them said before both of them bowed away. 

“‘Spike the glorious and magnificent’?” Spike asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“The Crystal Ponies as a whole consider you a hero for what you did to help overthrow Sombra. There’s even a statue of you,” Cadence pointed and Spike looked to see a giant statue of himself. 

“That’s pretty cool!” Spike exclaimed. He’d never been a real hero before! It was always the girls and recently Tom too who were the heroes. 

“Yes, and we were hoping you’d do us the honor of lighting the Torch at the opening ceremony,” Cadence told him.

“Of course! Anything for my adoring public,” Spike replied with a huge grin.

So it was the next day, with people from all across Equuis in attendance, the Opening Ceremonies were about to begin. Everyone from Celestia and Luna on down was in attendance. Ponies from Saddle Arabia, ambassadors from Griffonstone, Delegations from Neighpan, and of course Chrysalis was sitting proudly next to Luna. 

“Good day, your Highnesses,” Tom greeted as he bowed before taking a seat to the right of Celestia that had Twilight’s Cutie Mark emblazoned upon it. 

“I wish we could be sitting with our friends,” Twilight sighed.

“At least we’ll be down there with them when we compete in three day’s time,” Tom quietly comforted. 

“Three days of you being forced to rub shoulders with the big wigs,” Twilight’s tone took a mischievous bend, “Are you sure you’ll survive?” Tom didn’t dignify that with a response. What he did spot was Spike walking up to the Torch.

“Is Spike supposed to be there?” Tom asked. All he got in response was a cheeky grin from Cadence. The Flag Ceremony began before Tom could try and get real answers out of Cadence, so he contented himself to watching as the various towns of Equestria put on their own song and dance. Twilight went wild when it came to be Ponyville’s turn, but Tom controlled himself after seeing a sideways glance and a shadow of a smirk on Celestia’s face. She knew exactly how her former student was reacting. 

Once all the flags were planted, Spike slowly climbed up to the Torch and after a few false starts, lit it with his fire breath. Twilight felt proud of her number one assistant for pulling through. 

With the Opening Ceremony finished, the crowd dispersed; ready to reconvene tomorrow for the Earth Pony events. Ponyville celebrated a job well done by the CMC and Spike back at the hotel they were staying at. Night fell soon after and inevitably, day followed. 

“Hoo boy, I’m more nervous than a cat in a rockin’ chair factory,” Applejack muttered as the MC said a few words before the first event of the Games. 

“Eeyup,” Big Mac agreed. 

“We’re all going to be just fine. We’ve put in the work, now it’s just a matter of finishing what we started. Aren’t you Apples supposed to be good at that?” Bonnie teased. 

“Hardy har Bonnie, but ya’ll have a point,” Applejack admitted.

“And now we bring you our first event of the Games! The 400 meter dash! Competitors, to the starting line!” The MC called out.

“Well, that’s mah cue,” Applejack sighed and stepped out onto the field and took her place besides about 14 other Earth Ponies. AJ took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Every muscle in her body tensed, ready to spring into action. She’d finish this dash so fast she’d show Rainbow a thing or two about speed! 

The referee shot the blank into the air and Applejack was off like a mare with her tail on fire. It really wasn’t all that different from the Running of the Leaves back home. The pounding of other’s hooves trying and failing to keep up with her own, but this wasn’t some race in name only. This was a genuine competition. 

Suddenly, before Applejack even realized it, she was past the finish line. 

“…And Ponyville takes the silver in the 400 meter dash!” Applejack was panting from the exertion, but was overall pleased with herself for getting second place in the event. 

The next event was the snatch. That meant it was Big Mac’s turn to take the field. She watched as Big Mac stepped up to a very large dumbbell grabbed it in his mouth to start hefting it. Big Mac was the strongest stallion she knew. She had seen him carrying whole houses around, for crying out loud! With minor difficulty, he brought the weight up to above his head. He held it there for a moment before letting it drop. 

This cycle continued until Big Mac finally met his match at 852 KGs. He barely managed to lift it and set it back down before tapping out. When all was said and done, Big Mac had taken first place and tied for the world record. Applejack couldn’t be prouder of her brother. 

Next up was the hoof wrestling event. That was where Bonnie came in. What she lacked in raw strength, she more than made up for in technique. The hoof wrestling event would take place in a single elimination style tournament. 

Bonnie made her way through her opponents with varying amounts of trouble. She nearly lost her second match as it was against a mare who looked like she could bring down Big Mac, but Bonnie prevailed. Even though her fetlock felt like it was about to fall off afterward. Her final opponent wound up being a stallion with a wiry build, but a smooth layer of muscle was easy to see under his coat. He and Bonnie were matched evenly for almost a whole minute. Then Bonnie’s muscles twitched and her opponent seized that moment of weakness to slam her hoof to the table. 

The next event was one shared across every tribe: the relay race. Bonnie would start them off as the one most comfortable getting going from a cold start, then Big Mac would take the baton and while he wasn’t the fastest, he was a stable runner, and then finally AJ would bolt for the finish. They ran a good race, but ultimately came in fourth. 

After a quick intermission for lunch, the next event was the 5000 meter run. This was Applejack’s favorite event. She could take an even pace for most of it before pouring on the speed. The 5000 meter run wasn’t exactly rocket science. Applejack and the other 14 Ponies in the race all took off from the starting line. A couple tried to get an early lead by running faster than the rest of the pack, but they soon regretted it when they were tired and those that had gone at a steady trot passed them by. At about the 100 meter mark, everyone broke into a dead sprint. AJ managed to place a respectable third in that event. 

The penultimate event of the day was the discus throw, handled by Bonnie. Of the three of them, she had done the best with the discus. AJ could never get the timing right and Big Mac just got dizzy. Even being the best of the three, none of them were particularly gifted in this event, but Bonnie still managed to scrape a 5th place finish. 

Finally was the endurance bench pressing event. Everyone would be hefting 50kg dumbbells and whoever lasted the longest would place first. Sounded simple enough, but the competitors also had to do at least one rep every 20 seconds or be disqualified. Thanks to Twilight and Tom’s research, Big Mac knew that for best efficiency he had to lower the weight down to his chest over the course of a second or two and then ram the weight back up as fast as he could. 

Everyone started off strong. The weights weren’t that heavy for an Earth Pony, after all. Five minutes in and they were starting to feel the burn. Ten minutes and the first of the competitors had dropped out. Fifteen minutes and there were only a few left still struggling to complete their reps in time. Twenty minutes and it was down to Big Mac and a mare half his size. 

How she was managing to keep up with him was something he could think about later. Right now he had to focus. The same rhythm, up down up down, repeated over and over again. He was used to exerting himself for long hours on the farm, but the weight was quickly becoming more than he could bear. He was slowing down. He knew better than to panic and push himself harder. That would only tire him out even more and he needed every little bit of energy he could muster. Just when he was sure his legs were about to give out:

“It’s over folks! Big Macintosh of Ponyville has won the gold for endurance bench pressing!” Big Mac’s spotter quickly grabbed the weight and set it in its hold. Big Mac limply lay there, unable to will his muscles to do anything. He didn’t need to move at all. The Ponyville team as a whole swarmed the field to carry him off to rest and celebrate the night away.





Dawn rose on the second day of the Equestrian Games. Even if it was called the Pegasai day, it was open to all flyers, as attested to by the griffon athletes that were participating and Ponyville’s Changelings. Rainbow Dash was on the verge of giving another speech, but felt in this case silent support was called for. 

The first event was a simple wing up event. This event allowed more than one representative per town, so Cloud Kicker and Pharynx were both competing. Whoever did the most wing ups before collapsing won. It wasn’t flashy, but Cloud took second with 6,456 wing ups and Pharynx took third with 6,342. 

After that was the 400 meter flight. Rainbow, having the fastest 0 – max speed of almost any modern Pegasus was a natural choice for this event. Luna had told her that when she was a Pegasus, before ascending, her 0 – max speed was even faster. Rainbow wasn’t sure if she believed the Alicorn, but it was always nice to have a goal to strive for. At the moment, she easily took the gold in the 400 meter flight. 

The final event before lunch was the 8 klick endurance flight, Fluttershy’s area of expertise. With the advent of Flutterbat, Fluttershy had become able to expend almost no energy while still maintaining a respectable flight speed. How she was able to do that, even Luna wasn’t quite sure, but the facts of the matter spoke for themselves. So it was that Fluttershy was able to push on at speed while her competitors were gasping for air. She easily earned the Ponyville Flight Team their second gold medal. 

After lunch it was the three winged race, with Derpy and Pincer partnering up. When Rainbow had first heard the three winged race was going to be one of the events, she had wanted herself and Fluttershy to be the pair. Derpy and Pincer had managed to out fly them at every turn, earning them the spot. The two somehow worked in perfect harmony and earned Ponyville another silver medal.

Once that was finished, it was the aerial acrobatics competition. Derpy and Fluttershy soared through the air with absolute grace, beauty, and confidence. It was like watching one of those old timey ballerina performances Rainbow’s Mom had dragged her to when she was a filly. Fluttershy and Derpy flew with each other with an ease born of their long practice. They earned Ponyville a bronze, but Rainbow and many others felt the pair had been robbed.

The final event of the day was the traditional relay race. The order and those that would compete had been adjusted from the Rainbow Falls tryouts. Rainbow would be taking advantage of her natural talent for going from 0 - max speed to start the race off right. Fluttershy would take the second leg of the race with her steady speed. Pharynx would take all he had learned and use it to push for a strong finish. Rainbow had felt bad for removing Cloud Kicker from the lineup, but the mare had asked for it herself, so there was no point arguing. Cloud Kicker could almost be as stubborn as Rainbow and they all wanted Ponyville to have the strongest showing possible for their first Games. 

As soon as the gunshot went off, Rainbow kicked off and reached just sub Rainboom speeds in seconds. Fluttershy, expecting Rainbow’s meteoritic start, accepted the baton from the prismatic mare without her losing any speed. Fluttershy was by no means the fastest, but the lead Rainbow had given them to start with meant she was still a little bit ahead of even the fastest of the 2nd leg racers when she gave the baton over to Pharynx. The Changeling’s wings beat furiously as he squeezed ever drop of speed out of them. Many teams had arranged for their fastest to go last and he crossed the finish line in a photo finish with Cloudsdale’s Spitfire. 

Half an hour passed while the judges examined the pictures. Many would be nervous in such circumstances, but not the Ponyville team. Silver or gold, it was still an excellent showing and they were already celebrating when the judges announced they were unable to determine who came in first, thus Ponyville and Cloudsdale were awarded the gold jointly and Manehatten was awarded the bronze. 





The final day of the Games was upon them. In the interest of fairness, Twilight and Tom had decided to only participate in the relay race and the final event. Lyra and Moon Dancer would be handling all the other events.

To start off the day the first event was the relay race. Despite Tom’s efforts, Lyra was easily the most physically fit of the three. Even Lyra was little more than just above average when it came to physical fitness. It was no surprise when Ponyville’s Unicorn team placed 9th in the relay. 

The second event was magical power lifting. Weighted balls of cold iron were used in increments of 2 kilos. Cold iron was used because otherwise some Unicorns could heft upwards of 5500 kilos, such as Twilight Sparkle before her ascension. Cold iron wasn’t as magic retardant as the Rings of Scorchero, but it wasn’t far off either. Moon Dancer would be handling this event.

Moon Dancer easily breezed by the first few weights. She started noticing the heft when she reached the 10 kilo weight. A sweat was breaking out on her brow when she reached the 30 kilo weight. She could barely lift the 44 kilo weight. The 46 kilo weight refused to move at all. 

Moon Dancer was one of the first to make her attempt, so she got to watch as many of her peers failed to even breech the 30 kilo weight. She allowed herself a feeling of smug pride as the final Unicorn made it to the 44 kilo weight but couldn’t get it to budge. 

“Well done, Moon Dancer,” Tom and Twilight complimented and Moon Dancer felt she was walking on sunshine. 

Last before lunch was the rapid fire accuracy event. Lyra’s training had her on equal footing with the Solar Guard Unicorns that were participating for Canterlot’s team. When it was over, Lyra felt she could’ve won if she had gone all out, but ultimately she had chosen to take accuracy over speed. Still, she was happy with her silver medal. The kiss Bonnie planted on her made her feel like a gold medal winner anyway. 

Once everyone had returned from lunch, the next event was a test of how many spells one could successfully perform. This was another event Moon Dancer was confident she had in the bag. If Twilight had still been a Unicorn and competing against her, she might have been worried, but no other Unicorn she knew of came close to the sheer number of spells she had memorized. 

Thankfully, it wasn’t a magical endurance test, only a test of how many spells one could cast, so there were mana crystals on standby to help replenish those with smaller Mana Fonts. Moon Dancer went through three of those crystals herself when showing off each of her 128 spells. The only one who came close was an orange Unicorn stallion with a scraggy goatee competing for the Crystal Empire. He preformed 112 spells and he went through a full ten of the mana crystals to do so. Moon Dancer couldn’t help but think it was a shame for someone who was so talented to be held back by their Mana Font. 

Before the final event, there was the javelin throw event. For Unicorns, this event was just as much about finesse as it was about raw power. To keep it from devolving into a contest of how far a Unicorn’s magic could reach, they were only allowed to touch the javelin with their magic inside the designated ring. Lyra stepped up for this event. She didn’t have the raw power of Twilight or even Moon Dancer, but her finesse was second to none. Her Special Talent was manipulating stringed instruments, after all. She earned a solid third place.

Then there was the final event, the one that many argued was the most exciting of the whole Games. It would test any Unicorn and one Alicorn to their absolute limit. 

On the field, there had been installed seven rings, the largest of which was about 15 meters in diameter and each subsequent ring was about a meter smaller in diameter. Those rings were industrial strength anti-magic rings, the type used in Null Magic Research and around modern prisons that housed Unicorns. The first was a minor dampener and the seventh ring theoretically extinguished all magic that came within it. Supposedly even Discord would be powerless inside the seventh ring. The only reason it was included in the event was because seven was a magically important number and helped the other rings function. 

The event had a Unicorn hold a golf ball in their magic and walk into the rings. Each ring awarded points for how long you stayed within without dropping the golf ball. The first ring gave 1 point per second, second ring gave 2 per second, and so on. Once you crossed into a ring, you could not retreat into a lesser ring. 

Tom was going last in the event. So he sat quietly as he watched each competitor enter the rings and eventually leave. He felt more nervous than he did before his first performance with his college theater troupe! His heart was thundering in his chest, although he hadn’t moved since he had come back from lunch. 

“Tom, what’s the matter?” Twilight asked in his mind.

“Nothing’s wrong,” He lied. He knew full well why he was like this. He didn’t want to embarrass Twilight. He didn’t want to fail Ponyville. He had kept count; Ponyville and Cloudsdale were tied in medal placement. It would be a huge upset if Ponyville took home the title. He watched as the Unicorn from Cloudsdale put up a strong 50 points. He had gone directly to the 5th ring and stood there for ten seconds before his golf ball dropped. This event was just as much about mind games as it was the actual scoring. Could Tom match his performance? He had to at least try.

At long last, his turn came. He grabbed the golf ball in his magic and marched straight into the 5th ring. It might’ve been a mistake. He should’ve eased himself into the anti-magic rings. Five seconds in and he was already feeling his grasp on the golf ball weaken. His magic aura was fizzling.

“NO!” He shouted with all his might and closed his eyes in intense focus, summoning up every scrap of Willpower he possessed. Suddenly images flashed before his mind’s eye. The first time he had picked up a slice of haybacon in his telekinetic grasp. The first time he had teleported with Twilight’s instruction. The first time he had felt the Magic of Harmony flow through him via Twilight at Canterlot High.

Suddenly a feeling of Power thrummed through his Heart. It was unlike anything he had felt before. His wings flared out of their own accord and his eyes snapped open. He couldn’t see himself, but they were glowing white. It felt like the rings didn’t even exist. He confidently strode forward, past the 6th ring and directly into the middle of the 7th and final ring. The Magic Killer ring. 

Nothing had felt so right in all his life. He felt he could do anything with this boundless power! A part of him knew that was the power talking, but he paid it no heed as the rings all began to melt around him. Magic itself had called his name and his Heart and Soul were responding. Tom was experiencing his first Surge and boy was it a doozy.  

“That is quite enough for now, my little pony,” A gentle voice called out amidst the raging storm of Power and Magic. Suddenly it was snuffed out like a candle. Tom collapsed like a puppet with his strings cut, although he was still awake. 

“What a rush!” He breathed heavily.

“I believe that answers your question of whether or not you’ll be allowed to inhabit an Alicorn body,” Celestia whispered quietly to him. 





Of course, after Tom’s display, he was carried off to bed while Ponyville as a whole, both those in the Empire and those back home, partied with wild abandon. Alicorns were also immediately banned from future Games. That much raw power is just cheating. 

Late in the night, Tom awoke alongside Twilight. He had to check with her to make sure that day's events hadn't been a dream.

"No dream, Tom. Looks like you might just wind up being the Alicorn of Magic," Twilight was only half teasing. Tom's preformance had been outright staggering.

"Why would I be the Alicorn of Magic? You're the Alicorn of Friendship," Tom pointed out.

"If Discord's existence proves anything, it's that there's more than one kind of Magic. Just because I represent a singular aspect of Harmony Magic via Friendship, doesn't mean you can't be Alicorn of a broader field of Magic. I mean, if we want to get really technical, Luna and Celestia are both Alicorns of specific parts of the same 24 hour time cycle. Many consider Love to be an evolution of Friendship, so some might consider Cadence and I to be virtually Alicorns of the same thing. There's no reason why we can't have some overlap too," Twilight responded. Tom had to admit, she made some very good points. 

"I suppose...maybe it wasn't bad luck that we ended up together. Maybe it was always my destiny to wind up here, with you, and eventually become an Alicorn. There's a sobering thought. A regular 23 year old man destined to become a powerful purple pony princess. God works in mysterious ways indeed," Tom let out a weak laugh. 

"Well, Tom, I look forward to working with you for the rest of eternity," Twilight said with the absolute minimum amount of snark such a sentence required. 

"I suppose there are worse mares I could be trapped with until the End of Days," Tom quipped, "Well, we better get back to sleep if we want to be able to wake up to see all the delegations off tomorrow."

"Yes, we need to get all the rest we can for your smiling and waving like a trophy mare," Twilight sarcastically remarked. 

"Good night, Twilight," Tom said firmly.

"Good night, Tom," Twilight echoed and soon both were asleep again.