//------------------------------// // 25 - The Three-Pony Relay // Story: The Storm's Challenge // by OneLonelyPickle //------------------------------// Chapter 25 - The Three-Pony Relay Rainbow stood, red-faced and smiling nervously. Most of the Wonderbolts were looking back at her and snickering. Crackclaw knelt beside her so he was at eye level. “Some friends you got, huh? Must be nice to have that kind of support,” he said. Rainbow spoke through her massive, forced smile. “Ohhhh it’s something alright! Ha ha!” Spitfire silenced the Wonderbolts, who stood between her and team 117, the members of which were standing at the back. “Alright simmer down, it’s not funny anymore! Let’s go over the three courses one more time—” Rainbow tuned Spitfire out. She knew that her own leg of the race was a simple straight away with a few turns. She just had to fly super-fast and that was it, at least for that day. She looked over to the other side of the field, where Zephyr was standing beside Bushwhacker and another pony, a mare. She also caught a glimpse of Lovey Dovey and her team. Zephyr locked eyes with Rainbow from across the field. He smiled knowingly. Somehow, Rainbow knew it was because of the display of support her friends had given her. Zephyr almost looked jealous. Somepony nudged Rainbow and she turned away from Zephyr. It was Crackclaw. “Hey. You got your course figured out?” he asked quietly Rainbow replied, “Yeah, I mean, it’s not really complicated. Yours seems like more of a problem.” Crackclaw shrugged. “I got the gist of it. I don’t like to overthink things. By the way, thanks.” Rainbow blinked. “For what?” Crackclaw leaned in so he could speak even quieter. “Letting me be your teammate. I honestly thought I’d be done for. Ponies tend to be weird around dragons, and my own kind don’t like me that much. And, well, there’s” – Crackclaw pointed to Jerri, who was standing absentmindedly, beaming at basically nothing – “There’s her.” Rainbow smiled. “Hey, it’s nothing. You said you were good at trick flying so I believe you. What’s up with the other dragons?” Crackclaw held out his claw and moved it as he spoke. “It’s… complicated. But there was a black dragon that did something truly despicable many years ago, and ever since, a lot of other dragons have been distrustful towards black dragons. Most of us aren’t even related to the one that did the bad thing, but we get heat, all the same.” Crackclaw smiled. “It doesn’t usually bother me, I have a few friends back at home. But it was going to be really disappointing if I couldn’t compete. So, again, thanks.” Rainbow smiled back but her brow was strained. “I’m sorry to hear, Crackclaw. I couldn’t imagine anypony treating me differently just because I’m a pegasus or because of my rainbow mane or something.” Crackclaw shrugged. Rainbow flew up and punched his shoulder. “But you’re with me now! I don’t care if you’re a black dragon, a purple dragon, or a dragon made out of cheese! We’re teammates and that means we stick together and kick flank!” “Right!” Crackclaw agreed with a beaming face. Jerri tiptoed over to the duo. “Hey guys, what are we whispering about?!” Rainbow and Crackclaw looked at eachother, then at Jerri. “Uhh, we’re not exactly whispering. We’re just going over the race,” Rainbow said, “How do you feel about the reflexes portion, by the way?” Jerri took into the air and did a loop de loop. “I feel like I’m gonna kill it, Rainbow Dash! Just you wait!” Spitfire cleared her throat purposefully loud from the front of the Wonderbolt entourage. All of team 117 looked over. “RAINBOW DASH!” Spitfire screamed. Rainbow gulped. “WHAT ARE YOU THREE TALKING ABO—” A loud buzzing, like a swarm of parasprites, saved Rainbow from a tongue thrashing. It tore away everypony’s attention to just above the stadium. The noise was coming from a large, metallic cube floating in mid-air, with a swirling pattern of grey and black on each of its four sides that faced the stands. Suddenly, the image of two ponies appeared on each side. A massive wave of gasps and similar sounds started to rise from the field and the stands. “Hello, hello? Is this thing on?” The voice was definitely Tele-P’s, Rainbow recognized. She assumed that the stallion on the cube, then, was him, as he was a unicorn pony, and Soarin' had mentioned that he was one. His mane was styled up and gelled into neon green spikes like many thick blades of grass. His bushy moustache was a similar color. His coat was a rich orange, so that he almost looked like a carrot in pony form. A professional, toothy smile took up most of his face as he sat next to his co-host with his hooves on a table. “Ah there we are! Hellllooo sportsfans, Tele-P here, in the flesh! No, seriously! If you’re at the Citadel and you look up above the VIP section, you’ll see our temporary studio as we broadcast for the duration of the games! And as you can see, my gorgeous co-host has finally joined us! Say hello to Kissie, folks!” The crowds in the stands replied, “Hello Kissie!” in jest. Kissie had a shiny, flowing blonde mane and a light raspberry coat. Her lips were big and bold, gently touched by a crimson lipstick. Kissie blew a smooch towards the crowds. “Thanks, sweeties! I’m capital E EXCITED to finally be helping my good friend and co-worker Tele-P with this, like, super AMAZING commentating!” Rainbow’s eyes turned back to the VIP section that Tele-P had pointed out. Near the middle of the stadium stands on the side opposite from the corner where the Wonderbolts were was a large portion of the stadium with more lavish (and comfortable-looking) stands occupied by important looking pony dignitaries. There were even a few stand-alone thrones where Rainbow saw Princess Celestia and a tired-looking Princess Luna sitting. “Now I’m sure everypony is wondering what the HAY is up with this crazy, floating cube thing that has mine and Kissie’s faces on it! Let me tell you beautiful ponies that this thingawhoisit is called a ‘visual broadcast interface’, or VBI for those of you who HATE tongue twisters like me! This is the latest technology from those smart scientist ponies we all hear about but never see, and this is the first time it’s been revealed to the public at large! Aren’t you sportsfans lucky?” “Is it magic or something?” Rainbow asked. “Might as well be,” Crackclaw replied. “I’ve never seen anything like it!” Jerri exclaimed. “Before the first race begins, we’d like to review the rules with you lovely sweeties! There aren’t many, so don’t worry – these flyers knew what they were signing up for, trust me!” Rainbow nodded with a grimace, remembering the sign-up process and the long waiver filled with scary possible injuries. Kissie continued. She went over the same stuff that all the Wonderbolts already knew, regarding the three courses and the relay. The actual rules came at the end. “Rule number one is always try your best! This is a deliberately challenging series of races designed to test every flyer on every aspect of flying! And some of you will be injured, but overcoming that fear and rising to the challenge is the purpose of these races!” Ponies around Rainbow cheered and hollered. Crackclaw nodded with a wide grin on his face. Tele-P took over for Kissie. “Rule number two: Do not injure any other flyers on purpose! Rule breakers will be disqualified! Play nice now, everypony!” “And that’s it! Told ya it was short, he he. We’re going to hand over the show to the big guy himself, the Storm, Maelstrom!” Rainbow saw two pegasi carrying some weird device, like a big, black briefcase, fly in front of the VIP section. To her amazement, it appeared that the device was showing the VIP section close up on the VBI screens. She watched the screen as Maelstrom appeared, flashing a quaint smile and waving towards the screen. “Hello, everypony! I’m very happy to see all of you today! This is quite the showing!” The stadium erupted with noise. It reminded Rainbow of the day Maelstrom came to Ponyville, only amplified by ten. She joined in on the cheering, as did her teammates. “I just wanted to say very briefly, before the races start, that I’m deeply honored by all of the supporters and volunteers that stepped forward during this event to help pull everything together. Trust me when I say, your support is and will continue to be crucial to everything going exactly as I have planned… to put on the greatest show Equestria has ever seen!” Shouting rattled the stands and the Equestrian flag pole that was standing off to one side of the field. Rainbow happened to look over again where Zephyr was. He was looking at the screen with a gloomy expression. Huh? Rainbow thought, her face matching her thought. Crackclaw knocked her out of it with a nudge. “Hey. Let’s get over to the waiting area. The first race is about to begin.” Team 117 flew over to a section just beyond the field with seating for flyers who were waiting for their turn. Flyers were getting off the field and either joining Rainbow and her team in the waiting area, or getting to their positions on the racetrack. Many of the flyers were ushered down a path into the Citadel that was opening in the middle of the field. Rainbow watched as more of the field began to shift and move around, and structures rose up from beneath the short, green grass. Spitfire called out from the field at Rainbow. “Hey, good luck with your race later, Rainbow! Make sure to watch as I leave the competition in the dust during the speed leg!” Rainbow cheered back. “I’ll be all eyes, sir!” The flyers of the first leg of the race lined up at a starting line on the opposite side of the field. The structures that came from underneath were rising higher and higher into the air, and it became clear that the field and the space in the middle of the stadium were being turned into an obstacle course of sorts. So this is the skills leg, eh? Rainbow thought. She turned to Crackclaw, who looked apprehensive, and provided words of encouragement. “Hey, you got this! You’ve been training, right?” Crackclaw slowly shook his head. “Sure but… dragon training courses have nothing on… that.” Jerri ooo’d off to one side as she watched the moving structures. Tele-P’s voice announced. “This is leg one of the Three-Pony Relay – well, it’s not the best name, since not all of our flyers are ponies, but that’s okay! I’m sure they don’t mind! We call it the Jungle Gym, and if it looks confusing to you outsiders, imagine how the flyers feel! This bad boy is kind of like a playground for adults! It consists of 1 kilometer of total flying area that leads into the heart of the Citadel, where the second leg and the second flyer awaits. But in order to get there, flyers are going to need to be able to pull out all kinds of flying tricks to navigate the winding, spinning, and / or narrow parts of the track! I hope you chose your smallest flyers for this one! The course is designed in such a way so that flyers who fail to perform the correct trick to traverse the course will be ejected from it and will have to start back at the beginning!” Rainbow and Jerri both looked at Crackclaw, who was sweating with a nervous expression. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry, guys,” he said, not sounding totally sure of himself, and Rainbow didn’t blame him. The images on the screen changed to a new area, where a long path lined by cloud walls and balconies jutting out from them was shown. The cloud walls were transparent enough that light illuminated the track inside. Rainbow couldn’t even begin to guess how long the path shown was, but just thinking about it made her giddy with excitement. “Leave it to me, guys!” she cried to her teammates, “By the time everypony realizes I started flying I’ll already be near the finish!” Kissie commentated. “After that is leg two, and as you can see, many of you handsome, pretty sweeties are down there right now waiting to watch the fastest leg of today’s races! Sorry for you non-flyers, but you’d fall right through if you joined them down there! That’s right, it’s the Speed Course! 5 kilometers of straightaway cloud track, separated by 4 turns. Nothing special or secret here; the fastest win and the slowest lose!” Rainbow watched as the ponies on screen waved and cheered from their balconies lining the track. The images on the screens changed again to an immense, cloud-lined clearing where blocks of cloud, of all sizes and shapes, were rapidly moving about. “Finally,” Tele-P said, “We have the last leg – The Moving Maw! This huuuuuuuuge course is like the belly of the beast that is the Saddlebred Citadel! From one end to the other is only a kilometer, but in between? Well, look for yourself, sportsfans – it’s not called the Welcoming Maw for a reason! Flyers will require the utmost reflexes to even have a glimmer of hope of reaching the other side, where they’ll find the end of the course!” The screens focused in on a clearing with a metal pole in the middle, illuminated by a light source above it so it was visible from the beginning of the last leg. Rainbow and Crackclaw turned to Jerri, who was hopping in place. “I am SOOO excited that I get to help you win the race, Rainbow! I’m going to crush that Moving Maw!” She turned to Rainbow wearing a face of raw determination. “Count on it!” The display from Jerri helped Rainbow become more confident in her new friend and she nodded, wearing a face of equal determination. “Alright! This is getting me super pumped! When is the first race going to start already?!” As if in answer, somepony fired a cannon off at some part of the Citadel and the flyers at the starting line were off. Rainbow watched in sheer awe as the mass of wings, fur, feathers and scales moved towards the start of the obstacle course. She spotted Soarin’ near the front. Everypony had to funnel inside, leaving the slower flyers or those with less confidence at the back of the pack. It was hard to see exactly what was going on inside the Jungle Gym, but images on the screen helped clear up any confusion. The first flyers through the start, including Soarin’, had to perform a loop-de-loop, and when some failed to do it perfectly, they were shot out of the cloud structure and landed on the field, usually hard. At that stage, everypony picked himself or herself up and went back to the start. But as the race went on, Rainbow saw flyers get ejected and simply surrender to the fact that they would not progress. Soarin’ continued to progress, however, near the front of the pack, effortlessly navigating through hard turns, twists, downward corkscrews, forty-five degree angles, narrow tunnels that required a pony like Soarin’ to compress themselves as much as possible, and more. Rainbow could barely keep up with it all. At one point, a large wheel fixed in place spun rapidly and flyers had to perform a complicated trick once inside to avoid being ejected. Rainbow held her breath as Soarin’ entered, then a moment later, emerged at the other side of the obstacle. As the race steadily moved onward, Tele-P and Kissie would interject with commentary on certain flyers and happenings down on the Jungle Gym. Sometimes, a pony would get injured enough that it was newsworthy. Rainbow glanced over at a groaning pegasus being led away on a stretcher. She gulped. The crowds at the Citadel roared their appreciation. Rainbow looked up towards where her friends were supposed to be but she couldn’t see them due to the crowds and her position. “Looks like we have our first flyers through to the second leg, folks!” Tele-P announced. “Now comes the Speed Course! And look who’s leading the charge: Zephyr!”Rainbow watched the VBI screens change to show Zephyr, well ahead of anypony else, zooming down the straightaway with such ferocity that she barely recognized the stallion. He’s so focused, like he’s on another planet all by himself. Is that how I look during a race? Right behind Zephyr, the screens showed an orangeish blur catching up. Rainbow gasped. It was Spitfire. “Well, well, well! Talk about gumption, sweeties! Looks like Spitfire, leader of Canterlot’s own Wonderbolts, is trying to take on the EFL’s number one flyer, and might I say, number one HUNK!” “Whoa, Kissie! You’re going to upset a lot of Bushwhacker fans saying something like that!” Zephyr and Spitfire started to switch places as they both made the second turn flawlessly. Spitfire took the lead, then Zephyr, then Spitfire. Rainbow’s breath was completely halted, and she sat at the edge of her bench. Another image appeared on the left side of the screens, relegating the leading duo to the right side. Boozebeard was launching forward, past masses of flyers, who were all smart enough to swerve out of his hulking path. “Pony smokes, sportsfans! Look at Boozebeard go! He’s a force to be reckoned with with that Rocket Jump of his! Who knew he could make it go straight like that?” A streak of raspberry and cherry pinks was catching up to Boozebeard fast. When it got close enough, Rainbow recognized the mare as Lovey Dovey, who was grinning as she took up a place beside Boozebeard. The stallion looked over at his newest rival and frowned, bushy brow pointed straight down in anger. “Talk about girl power, ladies and gentlecolts! Lovey Dovey is, like, totally showing up Boozebeard, and making it look easy – while she looks oh so good! Those mane sparkles – OH MY GOOOOSH!” On the right side of the screen, Zephyr had finally gotten the lead on Spitfire for good and by the time of the last turn, Spitfire was well behind him, although both were still ahead of the other flyers. Rainbow couldn’t believe it, but while Spitfire looked totally beat, sweating and struggling as hard as she could, Zephyr still looked as focused and collected as he did earlier. His emerald eyes stared straight ahead through his old goggles. In a flash, Zephyr and then Spitfire reached the end of their leg and tossed their necklaces to their final flyers. Fleetfoot quickly threw the necklace around her neck and was off into the Moving Maw, with Zephyr’s teammate right ahead of her. “Onto the last leg for those in the front, and some ponies are STILL working on the first leg – that’s a big yikes for their teammates further ahead! Out in front is Fleetfoot of the Wonderbolts and Jitterbug of the EFL!” Rainbow’s eyes were swimming around in her head as she tried to make sense of the insane maneuvering of Fleetfoot and Jitterbug. When a ball of hard cloud flew right into their path, they expertly swerved around it. When a wall suddenly appeared and blocked them, they’d stop on a dime and fly over or under it. If a swirling pole made of cloud spun into their trajectories, they’d effortlessly compress the wing closest to it to narrowly avoid the collision. And this was all happening faster than Rainbow could process. Finally, after dodging a column of cloud smoke that shot up from underneath him, Jitterbug reached the finish. He threw his necklace onto the pole and landed with a triumphant grin. Fleetfoot came right after. “And we have our first winning teams, everypony! Team 1, consisting of Fancy Free, Zephyr and Jitterbug, and Team 53, consisting of Spitfire, Soarin’, and Fleetfoot, have both advanced to the second race!” Rainbow threw herself into the air and launched her hooves up. “Go Wonderbolts! Awww yeah!!!” she screamed. Jerri joined her and copied her movements and cry. Crackclaw breathed out like he’d been holding it in for a while. “That was intense,” he said, studying the Jungle Gym with obsessive focus. A shrill cry rose up from the crowds as the screen showed a pegasus collide with one of the objects in the Moving Maw. Rainbow’s head shot up. “Ohhhh would you look at that, sportsfans. That’s NOT good! It’s Bushwhacker, one of the top three flyers of the EFL! And he’s in a freefall at the last leg of the race!” “Holy moly, THAT guy bit the dust?!” Rainbow shouted, holding her hooves against her cheeks. She looked at Jerri, whose lower half of her beak was about to hit the ground. She started to turn a pale white. “H-How far down… do ponies fall in there?” she said between heavy breathing.