The prerace meeting was scheduled for the afternoon of the day before the Running of the Leaves. Applejack came to town early to check with Twilight again, hoping there might be something else she could learn from the strange mess of symbols and numbers on the library chalkboard.
She was also considering going to the Mayor later to talk about the visitor in Ponyville. Wasn't the Running of the Leaves typically an hometown competition? What was a professional from somewhere else doing here? Applejack sighed, deciding that whining would be a futile effort. There was nothing in the rules that stopped the blue stallion from running, and she would likely look bad for complaining to get him kicked out.
Walking down the street, the mare encountered a crowd of ponies that seemed to be excited about something. In the center was Vector.
“What’s goin’ on?” asked Applejack, joining the outskirts of the group.
Derpy was standing there. “Twilight asked me to check into this Vector guy. I found out that he’s really famous in Neightona. He’s won lots of races and holds all kinds of records!”
Applejack’s already high anxiety took a jump. She watched the blue pegasus talk to his sudden influx of admirers.
“What’s your plan for the Running of the Leaves?” asked one.
“It won’t be a serious race,” said Vector, grinning.
Applejack bit her lip, fighting back an angry rebuttal. To her dismay, the stallion spotted her and came walking over with a friendly smile on his face. “You’re going to the prerace meeting, right? What time is it?”
“It’s er, um…three o’clock,” the mare stammered.
“That’s when I thought. Thanks.” Vector turned away. Applejack quickly left the area, trotting towards the library with her head low. When mare thought nopony could see her, she gently bopped herself in the face with a hoof. You almost lied to him so he wouldn’t show up! Shame on you for even thinking about it!
Sighing, Applejack continued to Twilight’s place.
On the other side of the street, Rainbow glanced out the window of the boutique. She forlornly watched Applejack enter the library without her. The two of them needed all the practice they could get, and that wasn’t going to happen when Rarity had her modeling!
“Okay Rainbow, turn around and let’s see how that looks on you.” The white unicorn inspected the fancy gown she had asked her friend to wear. Rainbow groaned inwardly.
“I’m sorry it took so long to get this material in,” said Rarity. “The customer was very specific. I must thank you again for promising to help me when I asked you last week. It’s lucky you have a similar body type.”
“Yeah, sure.” Rainbow glanced out the window again.
“Oh! I forgot the pincushion. Just a moment.” Rarity disappeared into the depths of the store. In the fitting room, Rainbow pulled the gown off and started for the exit.
The pegasus stopped, dropping the hoof she had reached out to the door with. Rainbow had promised Rarity that she would help. As silly as the clothing was, breaking her friend’s trust wasn’t something she could do. The multicolored mare hurried back to her position.
She was clothed again when Rarity came back. “It’s very good that you helped me get this finished today,” murmured the unicorn as she worked. “If I had to wait on another model, I might miss my deadline.”
“Hey, what are friends for?” said Rainbow.
Rarity finished up within a few minutes and the pegasus shot out the door, heading for the library. There was an idea that she wanted to talk to Twilight about.
Opening the door revealed a very frustrated Applejack and an only somewhat frustrated Twilight staring at the chalkboard.
“There has to be somethin’ else we haven’t thought of yet,” the farm pony was saying.
“I’ve already explained everything,” said Twilight. “There isn’t anything else regarding race science that we haven’t covered.”
“Actually, I came up with something,” put in Rainbow. “You know that chicken costume Pinkie had for Nightmare Night? She had that weird beak thing on her face. Do you think something like that, a pointy mask, could help us cut through the air better?”
Twilight frowned. “Well, I suppose it might. There’s nothing in the rules against it, but don’t you think you might be taking this whole aerodynamics thing a little overboard?”
“But we have to!” insisted Rainbow.
“There’s never been a pony this fast in the Running of the Leaves before,” agreed Applejack.
The purple unicorn turned away. “If you really think it’s so important, I’m not going to stop you.”
Rainbow and Applejack glanced at each other and headed out to the track at Sweet Apple Acres. Along the way, the earth pony asked, “Do you really think puttin’ a cone on your head would help?”
The sky-blue mare sighed. “I don’t know. At this point, I’m willing to try anything.”
Applejack thought of something. “Say, what if we do keep up with Vector. How is the finish going to work out?”
Rainbow realized what she was saying. “We’re running together to go faster in the race… but we can’t both win.”
“Guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Applejack muttered grimly. She and Rainbow reached the track and started running. They kept practicing until the fireflies came out.
The morning of the race dawned sunny and bright. Most of the residents of Ponyville turned out for the event, even if they wouldn’t be running.
Applejack and Rainbow had decided to show up early. Maybe the extra time could help them come up with a plan.
The pegasus stomped her hooves nervously. “Do you feel good about this, AJ?”
The orange mare put on a brave smile. “Sure. You?”
“I’m good.”
They were silent for a moment. Applejack said, “Ah hope we’re good.”
Rainbow nodded, glancing to the side but then doing a double-take. She hissed, “Here he comes!”
Vector came ambling up, an easygoing smile on his face. His wings were already bound with a piece of rope. The stallion bent his knees a little and shook his legs out.
A few other ponies began to show up, Twilight and Applejack’s family among them. The orange pony took a rope from Big Macintosh and tied up Rainbow’s wings for her.
“Quit movin’ around,” she told the pegasus.
“Sorry,” Rainbow muttered. “Here, let me do your mane.”
Applejack gave Big Mac her hat and received a ball of twine in exchange. Rainbow began to bind the other mare’s flowing mane. Vector watched with a curious look on his face as the two of them anxiously prepared.
Twilight walked over. “Both of you look nervous. Almost scared, even.”
“I think we have a good reason!” Rainbow told her.
“Well, I’ve heard that both of you have been training really hard,” said the unicorn. “I know I’ve taught you a lot. It’ll be interesting to see you prove how much better you've gotten.”
“I think so, too,” said Vector. “I hope I was able to help.”
Applejack and Rainbow looked at him, dumbstruck. Twilight explained, “I told him you were both trying to get faster.”
“I hope you didn’t put too much effort into it, though,” said the stallion. “This isn’t a serious race.”
Applejack’s eyes narrowed. “Not serious?”
Vector nodded. “Yeah, didn’t you read the regulations? The very first rule is ‘Racers must have fun’. I don’t know about you, but I came here to relax.”
The two racing mares looked at each other. Rainbow asked, “You came all the way to Ponyville just to run a relaxing race?”
“It isn’t part of the championship. I don’t get points for being here. In fact, nopony gets anything for winning.” Vector looked confused. “Did I miss something?”
“Er, no,” said Applejack. She pulled Rainbow away as Vector shrugged and stepped up to the starting line.
“I can’t believe we put all that effort into training and preparing just for him to blow it off.” muttered the pegasus mare. “We wasted our time.”
“Don’t say that,” Twilight told her. “You’ve both gotten faster, haven’t you?”
Both mares in front of her nodded.
“You’ve learned to use teamwork, haven’t you?”
Applejack and Rainbow looked at each other.
“Ah reckon.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“I wouldn’t call it wasted, then,” observed Twilight. “Why don’t we all just go out and do our best? The race is just for the fun of it.”
“He’s still going to win,” grumbled Rainbow.
“And so what if he does?” said Twilight, rolling her eyes. “He’s a professional racer who has been doing this for a long time. From what I’ve heard, a lot of ponies in Neightona would be envious of you just for being able to participate in a race with him.”
“But…I don’t know how to not compete!” said Rainbow. She sighed and seemed to relax a little. "I guess I could try."
“Come on, we'll figure it out,” said Applejack, grabbing her hat from her brother and shoving it on her head. She and Rainbow stepped up to the starting line.
“Are you ladies ready?” asked Vector. He smiled. “I’ll teach you a few things about going faster, but only if you promise to have fun.”
The two mares nodded and smiled.
“We’ll do our best,” said Rainbow.
“Maybe we can even show you a few things,” agreed Applejack, getting into position behind her friend.
Vector stared at the unusual formation with interest. “I’m ready if you are.”
As the Mayor stepped up to the podium to start the race, Applejack and Rainbow looked at each other and shared a smile. This was going to be fun.
The three of them crouched in the ready position as the countdown began. “Three, two, one…”