//------------------------------// // Friendship Danger // Story: Friendship Among Games // by RedPegasus //------------------------------// Twilight runs through the corridors clutching her head trying to get what she just saw out of her mind. When she stops she takes and looks at the spectrometer for a moment. “Ough… Enough! Sunset was right. I shouldn’t have messed with Canterlot’s magic.“ Says to herself as she removes the pendant from her neck. “I’m just beginning to accept magic! What was I thinking about when I wanted to study it?!“ Twilight shows her desperation as she talks and scolds herself. “I’ll get rid of this.” It’s what she sets out to do, but looking around her, she doesn’t seem sure what to do. “… and how am I going to do that?…” She first pretends to throw it in the trash can, but a cartoonish image comes to her mind that someone might find it. She then sees the door to the bathroom. Now, in her mind, a cartoon of herself trying to flush the device down the drain resulting in a flood. Twilight growls in frustration and in desperation she is about to throw it to the ground. “Twilight.” A voice scares her and she turns, leaving the spectrometer hidden behind her back. It is Cinch who approaches her with a somewhat intimidating gesture. “Twilight, what are you doing?” Twilight gets extremely nervous. “Ah… stretchings! Yes, to keep in shape. For… the next games.“ Her explanation is unconvicing, and shows Cinch hesitating. Twilight tries to change the subject. “Um, did you want something, Principal Cinch?” Cinch still looks doubtful, but she answers. “Indeed. I have noticed an interesting detail. The Canterlot girls who have advanced to the next round seem to have an interest in Sunset Shimmer.“ The woman explains, puzzling the student. "You and Sunset are close, don’t you know why?” Twilight seems too awkward and hesitant to answer. Cinch keeps staring at her, waiting for an answer. Finally Twilight forgets her nerves and puts on a more determined look. “No! I don’t know why. But Sunset used to study at this school, I think it’s normal for her to attract their attention.“ Cinch doesn’t seem satisfied with that answer. “That’s possible. However, I still think the matter is worth investigating.“ “Excuse me, are you suggesting that I should spy on them?” Twilight asks and seems upset. “Of course not. I just think we have to fill our bases,” explains the principal. “It could give us an idea of how Canterlot has improved so much.” Twilight frowns, and now she appears upset. “Yeah, well, you will have to ask someone else, Principal. I don’t like the idea of spying on people.“ To end that conversation, Twilight walks past the headmistress without looking at her. Abacus Cinch watches her walk away from her, her gaze becomes sharp but she calms down and speaks calmly again. “It will be as you wish. Just don’t forget, your academic future is at stake.“ Twilight stops, remains silent with her gaze a little downcast, her hands clench into fists clutching the spectrometer in one of them. Her eyes grow harsher, and she doesn’t bother to turn to answer. “My future is mine. And only I decide it, Cinch.“ Without saying more, she quickens her step to get away from there. Cinch watches her go and although she tries to keep her face calm from her, she gradually turns into genuine anger. “Sunset Shimmer. You have contaminated my best student. If we lose this competition, you’ll see what awaits you.” Cinch tells herself and then goes her own way. With a hurried step, the accelerated sound of her heels denotes the feeling of her. On the other hand, having already calmed her own anger, Twilight looks back at her pendant with concern. “I’ll get rid of this when I get back to Crystal. No more research for today!“ She says this and puts the pendant under her clothes again, then keeps walking. ~ Friendship Among Games ~ Sonata approaches Fluttershy with a soda. “Do you want to have a drink?” Fluttershy looks up and smiles accepting the soda. “Thanks.” They’re in the Rainbooms practice room. Fluttershy is sitting in a chair lounging, and Sunset is also present on the side with her arms folded puzzled. The rest of the Rainbooms are present as well, concerned for her friend. Rarity walks over to ask. “Are you all right, darling?” “Yes, I feel better now.” Sunset decides to go over and ask the question. “Fluttershy, what happened to you?” Fluttershy looks worried for a moment. “Oh my, I don’t know. I was talking to Sonata outside, and suddenly I transformed. Then, I felt as if something was taking away my magic, and I felt exhausted.“ “Portals also opened out of nowhere.” Adds Sonata. “Sunset, I think I saw Equestria in them.” Sunset is shocked, and then worries upon hearing all of this. “The same thing happened to me today!” Pinkie Pie suddenly exclaims. “When Sunseen and I prepared the party, I turned into a pony and then felt like my strength was running out.” Rarity also speaks. “A similar situation happened to me, it was shortly before you and Twilight found us in the morning.” Sunset puts a hand on her chin and she looks very thoughtful. “Something strange is happening.” Sonata looks worried. “Sunset, do you think someone wants to steal your friend's magic? Someone besides me and my sisters, of course. It’s not that we want, I mean, we could want, but we cannot. Altough…” Sonata gets a little nervous stumbling over what she wants to say. Sunset doesn’t pay attention to her stumbling over words. “I don’t know Sonata. But if someone or something is taking the magic of all … Flash, I must go with him, to inform Princess Twilight about this. See you later!“ Without saying more, the red-haired girl rushes out of the room and leaves. As soon as everyone sees her go, the gazes of the five friends go to Sonata, and she in turn looks at them all. Silent falls, and one can see the discomfort in the environment. Nobody says anything, for a while. Rainbow tries to speak. “So…” “Do you want to go eat something?” Sonata asks without a trace of doubt surprising everyone, the sooner they smile. “Sure!” “Sounds good to me.” “I agree.” “I’m hungry!” They all leave the room. “I hope they have tacos.” There is a slight laugh between all of them. ~ Friendship Among Games ~ The moment arrives, and both schools head out to the back field of the school to discover that the venue had been set up for the final event. A motocross field is what stands out the most. Sunset looks at the place with great bewilderment. She then turns to her team. “Okay… right, the competition is in pairs, so …” The girl hesitates for a moment while the participants wait for her decision. “Now Indigo Zap and Sugarcoat will be doing the motocross part.” “YES!” Zap exclaims. Sugar doesn’t give an answer. “Lemon Zest, Sunny Flare. The skating rink.“ Both girls clap their palms. “Well Sour Sweet, it seems we need your bow skills after all.” Sunset explains, with a bit of amusement. “Very funny,” says the freckled girl teasingly. She then turns to her last partner. “Sparkle, you better not screw it up.” “I won’t, for real…” Sour gives Twilight a 'I’m watching you' gesture, then she walks away from her. Sunset walks over and puts her hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “Are you okay Twilight?” “Sure. I just… I really hope I can do it. “ “You will do it. I’m sure you will.“ With her arm, Sunset reaches out to Twilight to rub her cheeks and make her friend laugh. ~ Friendship Among Games ~ Finally it is time to start the event. The four principals sit in a small booth at the site, from where they can see the entire track. Cadence takes the mic. “Welcome everyone to the Triple Relay Race.” The audience cheers with enthusiasm. “In this event, the participants will compete in archery.” Applejack and Fluttershy are seen on the field, and on the other side are Sour and Twilight. “Speed skating.” On the skating rink are Pinkie and Rarity, and Sunny with Lemon. “And finally, motocross.” On their bikes, Rainbow and Indigo look defiant. On her own side, Sugar remains unstoppable and Sunseen somewhat lost. “When I got my driver’s license, I didn’t expect to use it to ride motocross. Is this even legal?” Cadence finishes explaining the rules, and then a horn sounds signaling the start of the race. Sour Sweet jumps over obstacles, Fluttershy goes after her but she’s not that agile. The bipolar girl takes the arrows and bow from her; after jumping into the mud, she rushes to shoot arrows hitting one of the targets. Cadence sounds a second horn signaling clearance for Twilight to start running. Unfortunately, the scientist is not athletic at all and she ends up tripping several times. Which makes Sour Sweet desperate. From her side, Fluttershy tries a couple of misses, but swallowing – almost literally - her insecurity shoots one more arrow, which hits the mark. That allows Applejack to run, proving that her work on tje farm has paid off. Obstacles are no problem for her, and when Twilight manages to catch up with Sour, the farm girl does the same. The scientist needs to adjust her glassed and tries to calculate her shot. “Don’t screw it up, Sparkle!” Sour screams. Looking at her partner, Twilight gets nervous and shoots an arrow, which misses. From her own side, Applejack sees what happened but says nothing; instead, she breathes and prepares for her own shot. When she releases the arrow, it flies and hits the target. The exit light comes on for Rarity and Pinkie, and they waste no time skating. Sour sees that and gets more angry. “What did I just tell you?! Shoot and don’t miss!“ Twilight’s nerves get on edge, she tries to calm down and take aim. “SHOOT NOW!” The scream scares Twilight and when she releases the arrow, she misses again. The Canterlot skaters made their first lap, causing all of Crystal’s students to freak out. Some even get angry. Sour begins to growl and tremble with anger. “Twilight, if we lose I swear I’ll …” A growl from her mouth stops her from finishing her own sentence, and Twilight can’t answer. She tries to take another arrow but it slips and falls to the ground. From the highest point of the track, Indigo sees her friend worrying about her, while Sugar just looks indifferent. “You are really bad at this!” The silver haired girl speaks loud enough to be heard. Indigo looks at her somewhat annoyed, even Rainbow gets angry. Twilight looks extremely sad, and Sunset looks at her worriedly. “Twi-“ “Don’t listen to her!” Equestria’s fire-haired girl is cut off by the farmer when she raises her voice speaking to the scientist. “Don’t listen to what they tell ya!” “But…” “Ya can do it! Yer Twilight Sparkle! Ya can do it all!“ The blonde assures in a confident tone. Fluttershy also cheers her on with a soft smile. “We believe in you, Twilight.” Twilight is incredulous when listening to them. “Do you believe in me? But… we are rivals… “ “It doesn’t matter,” AJ assures him. “Am really telling ya the truth. Ya can do it!” Hearing those words from her makes her smile. Her face reflects a new confidence, enough to take one more arrow, prime it, take a deep breath, and shoot. All her eyes are focused on the arrow as it flies, hitting the right center of the target. Which illuminates the exit light allowing Sunny and Lemon to rush out. “WELL PLAYED, TWI-SPARK!” “Well done, honey!” “THAT’S OUR GIRL! WO-HOO!” Lemon, Sunny and Indigo yell at their friend with glasses. The cheerleaders from Crystal’s team start cheering on the girl with glasses, and the students in the stands cheer on the whole team. Twilight smiles, genuinely happy for the whole scene. Looking at her rivals, they are just as happy as everyone. “See? Ah told ya.“ Our farm girl says, and suddenly her body lights up. Her ears change and her hair spreads. She is surprised herself, but she smiles. Twilight, on the other hand, is terrified. “Oh no!” The pendant floats out of her clothes. “Oh no … no no no no NO!” The spectrometer opens and then Applejack’s magic begins to be absorbed. “What are ya doin’?!” AJ asks feeling weak. “I don’t know … it’s not …” Desperately Twilight tries to pull the spectrometer to stop it, but she can’t. Turning her eyes, she notices that Sunset, standing several meters away, can see what is happening. Applejack loses her strength, falls to her knees, and Fluttershy leans in to help her. When it finishes subtracting the magic, the pendant closes and because of her own struggle, Twilight ends up falling backwards off the platform and to the ground. The fall causes her to drop the device and it bounces to the skating rink. Sunset is shocked by what she sees, but quickly scowls at her and heads over to the place. At the skating rink, Rarity and Pinkie continue their race, with Sunny and Lemon managing to make up a couple of laps. Sunset approaches the artifact, but she must stop when sees the girls rushing closer. These hit the pendant and send it to the side, causing it to open. Twilight sees it and tries to take it, but she is stopped when a spark opens a hole in the air, from which a strange vine comes out. The skaters finish the race, and both teams allow their last competitors to start at the same time. The four girls start their engines and shoot out onto the motocross track. Twilight is caught by that vine. But Sunset takes her from the arms and pulls her free from it. “Twilight! What’s going on?” “Sunset … I …” Soon there are more portals opening across the field, and more vines spring up from them. A particularly large one appears on the motocross track, and a plant with a huge mouth emerges from it. Moving it vines covers the track, causing Sugarcoat to slide out of control. Sunseen is terrified by the sight of that plant and tries to brake, but skids and falls out of her vehicle. Indigo Zap is surprised, and cannot stop before her motorcycle climbs over that plant, and accidentally uses it as a ramp managing to overtake Rainbow Dash who was in front. Such a vision makes Rainbow turn her head, and see her friend with glasses on the ground plus that plant stalking her. “Sunset!” The multi-colored girl stops her motorcycle, turns around and accelerates to catch up with Sunseen. Indigo Zap also turns around, and seeing what happens wastes no time. She skids her bike for a half turn and returns to where she came from. Sunset looks up, and sees how that plant had caught Sugacoat’s motorcycle in her mouth. The silver haired girl in question was hanging from the motorcycle, her stoic face had disappeared, showing the fear of seeing herself at that height, and clinging to a monstrous plant. The plant destroys the motorcycle in its mouth, causing the girl to fall, hitting the stem a couple of times until she falls to the ground. The plant, after eating the motorcycle, sees Sunseen and prepares to attack her but Rainbow manages to reach her, manages to grab and put her on the motorcycle before the plant catches her. Indigo Zap also arrives at the scene and stops next to Sugar. “Let’s get out of here!” The silver-haired girl gives no objection, she gets on with the athlete and turns on her vehicle again to get away from it at full speed. From her side, Sunseen regains her surprise and looks at her friend. “Rainbow Dash, you saved me!” “Of course! No friend of mine will become plant food!“ When she gets far enough away, stops the bike, gets up, and takes off her helmet. Soon her ears, tail and wings appear in a brilliant flash. Such an event is seen by all eyes present. The amazement in Crystal’s youth is more than clear. Also from the principal of them, who then looks suspiciously at the principal of Canterlot. Celestia is nervous. “Go ahead Suns! We can still win!” The now winged girl cheers on her friend, starts the motorcycle and takes off the race. As the race continues, Twilight and Sunset escape the surrounding vines. On the track, Indigo drives fast with Sugar clinging to her. A plant appears right in front of them and forces them to stop. Rainbow notices the plant ready to attack, so she flies towards it and knocks it away from them. Indigo sees this and then sees how Sunseen passes them, so she accelerates and seeks to catch up. As they both drive, Rainbow notices another plant chasing them from behind. She rushes in and manages to hit it before the plant can reach them. Sunset resists the vines that tried to catch her, and Twilight manages to take the spectrometer. The final stretch, both lead at the same time. Ultimately, is Sunseen who manages to cross the finish line first. “And… Canterlot wins.” Cadence announces, very unsure. Cinch, on her side, is clearly upset. Twilight manages to close the device, and in doing so all the portals disappear, along with the plants. Sunset needs a moment to catch her breath, and then turns to see her friend, upset. “Twilight … WHAT?” Twilight shrinks into herself. Then the Rainbooms hurry up. Applejack is the first to speak “Sunset! Are ya all okay?“ Rainbow comes down from the air and screams excitedly. “Better than okay! We won! Did you see that?!” Twilight tries to get away from her, but the spectrometer reactivates. “No…! No! Please!” Everyone can see how the spectrometer begins to take the magic of Rainbow Dash; and again, Twilight tries and fails to stop it. Sunseen is still on the motorcycle, her helmet on the ground and she, leaning on the vehicle, tries to recover from what happened. When she hears the commotion turns around and can see what is going on in the group. “Twilight! Stop!” Sunset clearly demands annoyed. “I’m trying! But… I don’t know how!” The young scientist cries out in despair. Above them a large crack opens, and they all observe a starry sky. “TWILIGHT!” Sunset screams angrily. Twilight is on the verge of tears. “I-I’m sorry! I do not know what’s happening! I-“ “Of course you don’t know!” Sunset interrupts her and takes the spectrometer in her hands. She makes an effort and manages to close it. The portal disappears, and Rainbow almost falls down very tired; she is helped by the others. Sunset gives a yank, and with it cuts the cord that hung around Twilight’s neck. Sunseen watches all of that, focusing especially on the device now in the hands of her double. “I told you to not bring the spectrometer here! WHY DID YOU BRING IT?!” Sunset’s voice and face reveal her anger. Twilight can’t help but shrink back. “I-I’m sorry … I just wanted to understand magic!” “I told you it was dangerous! I told you to forget about the investigation! Why the hell you didn’t listening to me?!“ The more she talks, Sunset seems to get angrier. Twilight starts to shake and tears start to fall from her eyes. The others see the scene but none of them know what to do. “Magic is unstable and we don’t know what it’s capable of! I told you it could be dangerous, I can’t believe you were so stupid!” Twilight is clearly scared. Her body trembles and she continues crying without being able to say anything or move. “I … I …” “You’re supposed to be smart but you put everyone’s life in danger! The next time I tell you to stay out of something, DO WHAT I SAY DAMN IT!” Twilight can do nothing but cringe and try to silence her sobs. Sunset turns around and growls furiously. “URGH! I’m going to get rid of this thing before it hurts someone.“ She doesn’t say anything else, she just turns around and walks without looking at anyone. Twilight just keeps sobbing, reaches out to her friend, but she makes no attempt to follow. Crystal’s Twilight friends approach, and like the Rainbooms, they look at her friend with concern. Twilight breaks down in tears and turns to run and leave the place. Her friends follow her, while the Rainbooms are left in the place not knowing what to do. Between all that happens, the principals of both schools are mired in their own conversation. “Principal Celestia!” Cinch exclaims. “It seems to me that you owe us an explanation about all this.” The woman’s voice is more authoritative than usual. And Celestia cannot comply with the request. “You see, Principal Cinch-“ “Principal Celestia. I’m not going to question how you got those mechanized plants or whatever. But I must know why such element wasn’t informed to me.” Celestia changes her nervous demeanor to surprise and bewilderment. “Um, yeah, well…” Cinch continues with her claim. “More important. Using external elements during the competition is an unacceptable tactic.“ “Uhh … external elements?” “Flying students?!” The strict woman questions the aurora-haired woman. “I don’t understand how you did it, but it is a serious breach of the regulations. No element that gives an advantage to a student is allowed.“ Celestia is speechless. “… sure, it’s true.” “This race violates the established rules and cannot be counted as an official event.” Cinch claims with authority. Celestia rubs the back of her neck, too confused. “Well, Principal Cinch, things got out of hand. Maybe it would be better if we cancel the games and declare a draw.” “DRAW?! What audacity of yours, Celestia. Your illegal tricks will in no way succeed in giving you that satisfaction.“ Cinch exclaims, regaining her serious and firm gesture. “We will continue the games. And we'll win, even against your tricks.” The woman says nothing more. She just walks away. Cadence crosses glances with Luna, then with Celestia, and in the end she retreats following her superior. The Rainbooms are approaching and they also look very concerned about the whole situation. A cold wind begins to blow, bringing dark clouds into the sky. ~ Friendship Among Games ~ Inside the school, Sunset walks briskly, her back slightly hunched forward, shoulders straight, and clenched fists intoning her angry and frustrated gesture. “Ugh…! These things always happen to me.” As she walks, she shakes hands and speaks in a semi squeaky voice. “Win the Friendship Games, Sunset! Research the magic, Sunset! FIGHT WITH GIANT CARNIVORE PLANTS, SUNSET! Why does magic have to ruin EVERYTHING I DO?!” To retaliate, she hits a locker in the hallway, a blow that echoes throughout the room. Sunset takes the pendant and looks at it. “Uff, I’ll get rid of this thing, and then … then I don’t know what I’m going to do…” The exequine keeps walking, and enters a room. She doesn’t notice that, behind her, someone takes the fire extinguisher on the wall. Sunset enters the woodworking room. Without bothering to turn on the light, she goes to the tools and takes a hammer. She drops the spectrometer on a table and with a firm frown prepares to hit it. PAM! A heavy blow to her head knocks Sunset unconscious on the ground. A silhouette behind her drops the fire extinguisher, and sees the now unconscious girl. Then, walks over to the table and takes the spectrometer. The device starts to glow slightly.