Vigilant and I were walking back to the castle when we both felt a whoosh of air blow right past us. Vigilant reached up and held his helmet to his head while I moved my hoof to my eyes in an effort to protect them from any errant dirt and dust kicked up by the gust of wind. Setting my hoof back down and blinking my eyes, I was quick to see a familiar blue face with magenta eyes and prismatic mane.
"I was wondering what happened to ya!" Rainbow Dash said as she hovered in the air in front of us.
"Well, we're heading back to the castle from Sugar Cube Corner," I told her. I gave Vigilant a quick look and saw him brushing some dirt off of his armor.
"Oh, yeah, the cupcakes," Rainbow said as she remembered the discussion from earlier in the day. After a second, her eyes widened a bit and she looked at me. "What happened to Amber?"
"She went home to get some sleep," I told her. "She's a thestral, so staying awake in the daytime is not really her thing."
Rainbow threw her head back and cried out in what I was pretty sure was disappointment.
"Dangit! I was hoping I could challenge her to a race!"
I looked at Rainbow, confused. "You wanted to race Amber?"
"She wants to race everypony," Vigilant cut in. "I guess she thinks if she beats every creature in Equestria, they'll beg her to join the Wonderbolts or something."
"Hey, pal!" Rainbow Dash said, clearly incensed and poking him with her hoof. "I'll have you know I'm a reservist, which means I AM a Wonderbolt, and it won't be long before I get moved up to the main team!"
Vigilant rolled his eyes and smirked. "Whatever you say, Rainbow Crash."
Rainbow Dash sputtered for a few seconds before her face became one of unbridled rage.
"WHY YOU-"
"Rainbow, please!" I said quickly as I moved between the two. "He's just giving you a hard time. Vigilant doesn't mean anything by it, right?"
I gave Vigilant a pleading expression, hoping he'd take the hint to help me diffuse the situation.
Fortunately, he took the hint.
"Yeah, I'm just cutting on you a bit. Sorry if I struck a nerve."
Rainbow still looked miffed, but she did calm down. "Fine. Apology accepted."
There's a bit of a tense silence for a few moments afterwards. When somepony spokevagain, it was Rainbow Dash.
"How about you and me?"
"Huh?"
I looked at Rainbow, who was giving me an evil-looking grin.
"How about you and me race?" she proposed. "I'm sure everypony in town would like to see me beat the tar out of a changeling in a race!"
I could see how giddy the thought was making her, the mare's body vibrating like Pinkie's seemed to do whenever she was about to throw a party.
While I could tell that she was excited about the prospect of challenging me to a competition, I was not very enthused about such a thing.
"I'm sorry, Rainbow, but I politely refuse."
The excited mare went from trembling like an alarm clock with a grin on her face to being stone still and completely surprised. "What?"
"I'm not really the competitive type, and I'm not so proud that I can't admit that even a normal pegasus could beat a changeling in a head to head race based purely on speed."
Despite my objection, Rainbow was having none of it. "Uh-uh. I don't believe that for a second. You're honestly gonna stand there and tell me that you aren't even gonna try to race me."
"I'd get my flank handed to me twice."
Rainbow fumed for a few moments before an idea crosses her mind and she grins again. "What about some kind of competition where the odds are a little more even?"
The tone of her voice was not comforting at all. "What do you mean?"
"What if we find an event where ponies and changelings are relatively equal, and we compete against each other in that?"
I sighed. "Like I said, Rainbow, I'm not the competitive type."
"Oh, COME ON!" Rainbow blurted out impatiently. "You're telling me that you're not the least bit curious about who the better pony is between us?"
"Honestly? No, I'm not. I've never been the competitive type, Rainbow Dash. That's just not who I am."
Rainbow kept looking at me, feeling very flustered. I guess she doesn't take her challenges being refused too well.
I walked away from her, Vigilant moving to catch up.
I stopped mid-stride. What did she call me?
"You... wuss," she repeated, a smirk on her face.
I turned around to look at her. "What did you call me?"
"A wuss," she said again, still smiling that taunting smile. "A sissy bug whose too afraid to lose."
I immediately realized what she was going for, and I had no intention of taking the bait.
"I'm still not gonna accept your challenge, Rainbow," I repeated as I turned and continued walking away. I got about two steps before something pushed me to the ground.
"Nothing but a wimpy bug!"
Getting frustrated, I turned and looked up at her with a scowl.
Except she wasn't there. When I do find her, she looking quite scared, and rightfully so. The blue pegasus was pinned down under spearpoint by Vigilant, who was scowling at her intensely.
"DO. NOT. TRY. THAT. AGAIN." he warned her, pushing the tip of his spear against her barrel enough that it wouldn't hurt her, but she'd still feel it.
"What's going on here?"
We all looked to see Twilight approaching us. Vigilant pulled his spear away, allowing Rainbow Dash to get back on her hooves. Before she can defend herself, the guard relayed exactly what happened to Twilight.
"Miss Dash came across us and challenged Thorax to a competition of one sort or another, but he refused. She tried to goad him into competing, which he also rebuffed, but then she took it too far and actually pushed him to the ground. Seeing as he is my charge, I stepped in to make sure she didn't cause further harm to him."
Twilight listened to the story relayed to her, but then gave a stern glare as he finished. "How come you didn't warn Rainbow Dash to stop when she started goading him?"
"He didn't appear distressed by what she was trying to do, and I was under the belief that Miss Dash would've given up on her efforts once she saw they would bear no fruit."
Twilight shook her head. "Rainbow," she addressed her friend, "I'm not sure what you were trying to pull, but please don't do anything like that to Thorax again. If he doesn't want to have a competition between you two, then that's his choice and you respect it."
Rainbow was going to retort, but the look she got from Twilight was enough to silence her. "Fine," she answered quietly, flapping her wings and taking off for a cloud building near the outside of town.
"Is she gonna be okay?" I asked, feeling the disappointment coming off the mare like a bucket of water was just dumped on her.
"She'll be fine," Twilight replied. "She's just gonna go mope for a bit, but she'll come back like nothing happened."
Twilight turned to walk away, but then stopped and looked back at me. "Just as a warning, Rainbow's probably not gonna let the whole 'challenge you to a contest' thing go, especially since you're a changeling and she's wanted to challenge one ever since the royal wedding, so don't be surprised if she nags at you until you agree to it. If it gets to be too much, just let me know and I'll pull her aside and drive the point home."
I gave her a nod, and she headed back to the castle, Vigilant and I not far behind.
We entered the castle and headed to the library, where Starlight had a book out on thestral ponies and was reading it by an unlit fireplace. Upon hearing the doors open, she looked up at us with a smile. "How'd the cupcake-making go?" she asked.
"It went well," I answered. "Amber headed home to get some sleep, but she took a recipe and said she was gonna practice when she got the chance."
"That's a shame," Starlight said, a slight sadness in her voice. "I was hoping we could chat for a bit."
"Maybe she'll come back tonight?"
"Maybe," Twilight cut in, "but Amber does have a job here in town, so she may not be able to."
Hearing that made me deflate a bit. I felt good knowing that the thestral ponies in Ponville were accepting of me, but not getting to see them as often as I would like to was disappointing.
"Anyhow," Twilight continued, "I thought I would show Thorax something interesting that Princess Celestia sent to me recently."
Something to show me? From Princess Celestia?
"She said she's had this in her personal restricted archives for quite a while now. In fact, I think she had put this in there even before Discord's first attack against Equestria."
I must admit, my curiosity was piqued now. Whatever that thing was, it had been locked away for more than a thousand years.
"She doesn't know much about the artist who painted this, but the subject matter certainly caught her attention."
"It's a painting?"
"Not just any. Have a look."
With that, Twilight wrapped her magic around a cloth that was covering an easel and removed it. Everypony, including myself, gasped at what had been revealed.
The portrait under the cloth was nothing like anypony expected. There was a gray, cloudy background, with a greenish-blue foreground, which weren't the most jarring parts of the portrait.
That honor went to the subject in the center.
Painted into this fairly unusual scene was a changeling drone; a female, going by the presence of eyelashes. She was wearing a hood with a band under her horn. She was seated, and held in her hoof was a scepter that had a headpiece resembling a beetle that was holding what looked like an amber gem as big as the changeling's eye.
Most interesting of all was the fact the drone was smiling, something I did not expect a drone to do.
"So, what do you think?"
I didn't have an immediate answer. Stepping forward, I looked over the painting in detail, getting close enough that I could make out brush strokes on the canvas.
After a moment, I looked at Twilight and shook my head.
"I don't know what to say about this," I answered honestly. "If a changeling made this, then it was something that they did in complete privacy and away from the hive, but I don't think that's the case here."
"So, you think a pony made this?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, but how they managed to do this is beyond me. The standing order is that anypony who finds out another creature is actually a changeling has to be captured and returned to the hive. It's been the rule for as long as the changelings have existed.“
“But you just said that you think a pony made this piece.”
“I know. It's just... the only explanations I have would be that a pony managed to observe a changeling and get away undetected, then made this work of art, or the more unlikely scenario of a changeling willingly revealing themselves to a pony and agreeing to model for a painting.”
Twilight nodded, then produced a quill and parchment, writing down something on it and then rolling it up and placing a seal on it.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be of anymore help than that," I said to Twilight.
"It's fine, Thorax," she replied. "You can only tell me what you know, or at least what you think based on what you know already. Thank you for giving me your feedback on this, though."
I gave her a nod and look over the painting again. "I will say: this artist must've taken some creative liberties with the subject matter. Female drones don't have eyelashes like that."
Twilight nodded her agreement. Before anypony else says anything, Rainbow Dash comes fluttering in.
"Hey, Twilight, I was-"
She stopped speaking as she took notice of the painting that had been revealed a few moments ago.
"Who made that thing?" she then asked.
"Somepony a long time ago," Twilight answered. "Princess Celestia sent it to me and asked if I could ask Thorax if he had any ideas about it."
"Huh," Rainbow said as she digested the information, then shook her head looked at me. "Okay, so, Thorax, I know what you said about not wanting to compete against me-"
"Rainbow," Twilight interrupted, her voice becoming terse.
"Just let me finish!" the pegasus responded to Twilight. "Anyway, I know you said you weren't much for competition, but what about doing something that involved teamwork?"
Teamwork?
"What are you talking about?"
Rainbow Dash rolled her hoof as she gave me an explanation. "I have a little sister, kind of. We're not really related, but she looks up to me like I'm an older sister for her. She has two friends, who happen to be the little sisters of Applejack and Rarity, and they make up a trio called the Cutie Mark Crusaders."
I nodded my head in understanding. Spike had told me about the trio of fillies and their antics in Ponyville, including one time where they had become covered in tree sap. Apparently, these antics were meant to help the group find their cutie marks, which, to the best of my knowledge, they have yet to acquire.
"Anyhow," Rainbow continued, "they're in an actual competition with some ponies in their school."
"What kind of competition?"
"It's a relay race on hoof. They gotta run through with a baton and pass it off to one another, and the last pony has to cross the finish line first."
"So it's a race?" Twilight asked.
"Uh, yeah."
My alicorn friend rubbed her temples with a hoof. "Rainbow, please tell me that you didn't put Miss Cherilee up to this?"
"What? No!" Rainbow retorted. "Miss Cherilee has to give the foals a credit for physical education, and she decided to do track and field this year instead of the usual swimming courses."
"And you had nothing to do with that?"
"No, of course not!"
Twilight deadpanned at Rainbow.
"Okay, fine! I overheard Miss Cherilee talking about the annual swim classes, and I might've suggested track and field would be a nice alternative."
Twilight huffed. "Somehow, I knew you would pull something like this."
"So you want me to go with these fillies and... participate?"
"Miss Cherilee usually has a group of adult volunteers to help the younger ponies with swimming, but since she took my advice and has them doing track and field things this year, the adults are going to be part of a team with three of the students. We'll be spending the afternoon helping them and participating in the events the teacher has set up. She might put you with the Crusaders, but you might get put with another group too."
I listened to Rainbow's explanation and found myself nodding along. It was still a competition in a sense, but it was more of a way to get the colts and fillies of Miss Cherilee's class some exercise. Plus, it would let me interact with more ponies in my natural form.
"You know what, Rainbow? This actually sounds like a pretty good idea. I think I'll do it."
Upon hearing my agreement, Rainbow did a hoof pump.
"AW YEAH! This is gonna be good!"
The pegasus got a paper from off of a nearby table and gave it to me.
"This is all the information about where the event is being held. It'll start shortly after lunch and last until about the end of the school day, which is usually about an hour or so before most ponies start making dinner. I'd get a good, hearty lunch if I were you."
Upon hearing Rainbow's last sentence, I began to chuckle. The pegasus cocked her head at me.
"What so funny?"
I get my giggles under control as I answer her.
"I thought it was funny you told me to eat a hearty meal, since, you know, I feed on love."
Rainbow thought it over and gave a sympathy chuckle. "Yeah, I guess that is a little bit funny."
"Anyhow, head straight to the place on the paper after lunch. I gotta go meet Applejack now, so I'll meet you there."
"Okay," I replied, and the pegasus was out the window in a rainbow streak. Twilight, having watched the whole exchange, shook her head.
"If she devoted herself to everything she did like trying to set up competitions against other ponies, she'd get so much stuff done," she commented before putting the cloth back over top of the painting that we'd been looking at.
"What are you gonna do with that thing?" I asked her.
"I'm not too sure," she replied. "For now, I'm just gonna put this in storage to keep it safe. It would be amazing if we could ever figure out how it came to be."
She grabbed the painting in her magic and lifted it up in front of her, then turned and walked out an open door with the item in tow.
"Come on," Starlight said to me, getting my attention. "I know Spike is whipping up some tomato soup and grilled cheese, and I'm almost certain he has a special bowl set aside for you."
Licking my fangs, I gave her a nod and we both filed out and down the hallway towards the dining room.
The tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches Spike made were delectable. Even without the love that Spike put into mine, the meal was superb. Both Starlight and Spike giggled as they watched me bury my muzzle into the bowl to get every last drop I could.
Once we had finished and I had cleaned myself up from my less-than-dignified display, I thanked the two and made my way to where the school would be having their track and field events, which, according to Rainbow's directions, were taking place in a meadow just a bit outside of town.
As I drew closer, I paused for a moment as a thought occurred to me.
"Um, care to explain why we stopped?" Vigilant asked me as he came up beside me.
"Do you think I should put on my Crystal Hoof disguise for this?" I asked him.
He gave me a puzzled look in return. "Why?"
"Well, you know how the ponies reacted when I was revealed to them yesterday. I'm afraid that they might react more negatively than they did then since Princess Twilight won't be there to admonish them for their poor behavior."
Vigilant put a hoof to his chin as he thought, then looked at me and gave a shrug.
"It's entirely up to you how you wanna show up at this event," he told me, "but if you want my personal opinion, it's better to rip the band aid off and be done with it than to slowly peel it off, if you get my meaning."
I did. Sunburst had used the same analogy when I was unsure of doing something that involved interacting with crystal ponies during my early days in the empire.
I let out a breath and made my decision. In a quick flash of green, I was Crystal Hoof.
"I think I'll show up like this, and if I'm invited to, I'll drop my disguise. I know ponies will have to get used to me at some point, but I don't want to be ran off because I scared somepony's foal."
Vigilant again gave me a shrug. "Whatever you wanna do, but I think we should get moving now."
I nodded and we resumed our journey to the meadow. After coming over top of a hill, I saw the event and the ponies there.
There were foals lined up doing stretches, with a dark-raspberry colored mare in front of them giving instructions on what stretches to do. Off to the side were some older ponies, with Rainbow Dash among them. Upon seeing me, she frowned, but then smiled and waved me over.
"Hey, Thorax!" she said rather enthusiastically.
"Hey," I said, returning her greeting.
As I approached, I took notice to some of the ponies standing around. Big Macintosh was here, his yoke left at home and a towel in its place. Beside him was a mare with a carrot-orange mane and tail, goldenrod coat, and cutie mark of three carrots. Beside her was a blue-eyed stallion with moneys bags for a cutie mark, the collar and tie set also having a money symbol on them.
Behind the three ponies were a pair of stallions. One was a bluish-white with a darker blue mane and green eyes, while the other was a charcoal grey with a whitish-grey mane and golden eyes. Next to them was a mare with a pinkish-purple coat and raspberry mane and having a cutie mark of a strawberry and cluster of grapes.
"What are you doing?" Rainbow asked me.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean this," she answered while gesturing at me with her hoof. "Don't you remember Twilight saying it was okay to look like yourself?"
I let out a sigh. "I do. It's just that I was afraid that I would scare the foals with how I looked normally, so I decided to come here like this to avoid that."
"Well, the foals don't care, Thorax."
"Huh?"
"I don't know how it works with you guys, but I thought Twilight said you could smell emotions, or taste them, or something."
"It's an extra sense we have that lets us pick up on emotions-"
"Not important," Rainbow cut me off. "My point is these foals are more excited to see a real live changeling up close than they are afraid. You showing up like this is gonna disappoint them."
I listen to what Rainbow is saying and decided to get a feel for the ponies around me. Rainbow overwhelmed my systems with her disappointment, but once I got past it, I could sense pleny of other disappointment as well, and all of it coming from the group of foals that had just completed their warm up stretches for the day.
"I can't believe I didn't notice that," I admitted to Rainbow.
"Well, just go ahead and drop the act."
I deadpanned at her. "I'd prefer if you didn't call it an act. Crystal Hoof is a pony I created in my mind, and he's just as much me as my normal self is."
"Whatever. Just go back to being your normal you."
I looked around a bit apprehensively, but I can see a few ponies looking at me expectantly. Letting out one last breath, I let my disguise dissolve into a flash of magic, and my regular changeling appearance is revealed to the world.
"That so cool!" I heard a colt yell, which was followed by the thundering of little hooves as the class charged over to look at me more closely.
"Wow," I heard more voices say as the miniature army of young ponies surrounded me on all sides. Soon enough, the swarm of colts and fillies were asking questions a mile a minute.
"So you can look like anypony you want?"
"Can you do my dad?"
"Can you do my mom?"
“Can you do Princess Celestia? What about Princess Luna?”
"Do those holes in your legs hurt?"
"What does love taste like?"
"Can you wrap somepony up in a cocoon?"
The bombardment lasted for another few seconds before a mare's voice got their attention.
"Okay class, I think it's time we left Mister Thorax alone and took our places so we can begin."
A chorus of disappointed groans sounded out as the class slowly trudged their way away from me and went over to an area where some small orange cones had been set up.
"I'm sorry if my class made you feel a bit uncomfortable," the mare said to me as she walked over.
"It's nothing I haven't handled before," I responded, remembering a time in the early days of my stay in the empire, when I had to deal with an overly curious group of crystal ponies asking more questions than I could process.
"Still, they should have some better manners than that," she said as she offered a hoof to me. "I'm Miss Cherilee, and I'm the teacher here in Ponyville."
"It's nice meeting you," I answered, bumping my hoof against hers.
"So, Rainbow Dash said she talked you into a contest by using the foals to motivate you into coming here."
"Umm..."
I wasn't sure how to answer that. It was true to some extent; Rainbow did convince me to show up here by mentioning the foals.
"I came because I want to improve my public image. It's kinda hard after what happened in Canterlot not that long ago."
"It's been a couple of years at least, hasn't it?"
"About that. It's still pretty fresh in the minds of some ponies."
"Well, that's water under the bridge for me. I hope that's the same story for you."
"It is. I want to move past that day be known as the first changeling to give peace a chance."
"A worthy pursuit, but we can have a chat about that later. Right now, we have some antsy little ones that I need to get physical education grades for."
Miss Cherilee turned and walked over to the foals. Rainbow waved for me to follow as the group of adults moved over to the starting line the foals were gathered at.
"Okay class," the teacher called out to them, "we're going to be doing this a little differently this year for your physical education requirements. Normally, we take you to the pond and instruct you in swimming, but this year, Miss Rainbow Dash suggested some track and field events as a change of pace, and I agreed with her. I want to say before we begin, that if any of you still wanted to go to the pond for swimming lessons, I will be organizing an outing for this weekend. If you wish to come, I will give you a permission slip for your parents to sign. For all of you adults who wish to help, please speak to me afterwards and we will discuss the time of day we'll have the class so everypony that wants to attend will be able to."
"Now, to start off, we have twenty-four foals here and eight adults not counting myself. Who can tell me what the solution is for twenty-four divided by eight?"
A few eager hooves shot up, and Miss Cherilee chose a filly with pink and purple mane.
"Yes, Sweetie Belle?"
"Three."
Miss Cherilee nodded. "That's right. Now, I need everypony to divide themselves into groups of three. Once you're all grouped together, I will assign an adult to your group. Now, adults, your job is to make sure nopony cheats, and everypony stays safe. After we make our groups, I will go over the events being held today."
The colts and fillies all divided up as instructed. The most notable of the groups were a pair of fillies with a colt wearing thick-framed glasses. One was a purplish pink and was wearing a tiara, while the other was a grey color with silverish hair and a cutie mark of a spoon with a heart-shaped gemstone in the handle. Another group was three fillies, and I was pretty sure they were the ones Rainbow Dash had called the Cutie Mark Crusaders since they matched the descriptions that Spike had given me.
The last group was two colts and a red-maned filly with thick purple glasses. One colt was a silver color with charcoal mane and tail, and the other was brown with red hair and a small propeller hat on his head.
"Okay," Miss Cherilee called out, "Now that we have our foals in groups, it's time to assign parents to them. First, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle will be with Rainbow Dash."
The orange pegasus filly did a hoof pump as Rainbow trotted over to them.
"Mr. Rich, you may join your daughter's group."
Mr. Rich nodded to Miss Cherilee and walked over to his daughter. Miss Cherilee went through the rest of the ponies before coming to me.
"Mr. Thorax, you will go with our last group. Please say hello to Rumble, Button Mash and Twist."
I walked over to the foals and waved my hoof at them. "Hello."
The foals looked at me for a second before they all started smiling.
"Yeah!" the pegasus colt shouted. "We got the cool one!"
His reaction earned laughs from some of the ponies present. The filly with the tiara rolled her eyes but did smirked a little.
"Okay, now that we are in groups," Miss Cherilee continued, "We will get to the activities for the day. To start with, we'll be playing a little hoofie tournament. Foals will play the offensive positions while the older ponies will be the net-minders. It will be single game elimination, and we'll only play fifteen minute halves."
I smiled upon hearing that. Hoofie was one of the few games that both ponies and changelings both played. The ball was kicked around by the offensive players of one team, and attempts would be made to score by kicking the ball into a net. Players on the team that didn't have the ball became defenders, and would try to keep the ball out of their net and reclaim possession for themselves. The netminder's job was entirely defensive, tasked with keeping the ball from going past the goal line and into the net. While rare, a net-minder could score a goal themselves, but to do so would require either a lucky shot or the net-minder leaving their own goal area and going across the playing field to the opponent's net.
"To start with, we'll have the crusaders going against Rumble's group. Adults will pick their net and stay there for the fifteen minutes, then they'll switch nets for the last fifteen."
Rainbow smiled at me and nodded, but I could tell her smile was a bit more malicious than she had probably intended. I simply ignored her and went to the net opposite her and waited for the game to begin.
Miss Cherilee called the two teams over and made them form a circle. After explaining a few last-minute rules, such as where out of bounds was marked, the teacher placed a ball in the center of the fillies.
"Now, when I blow the whistle, Big Macintosh will start the clock and you'll try to get possession of the ball. Remember, even though this is a competition, it's a friendly one, so don't get too rough with one another."
The foals nodded as they focused on the ball. Once she was satisfied that the foals would follow the rules, she produced a whistle from her mane and blew into it, starting the clock and game.
About a half hour or so later...
The game was close and in the last few minutes. The two teams each had two goals a piece. One of those had been scored by Rainbow, who blasted one in my direction after I had tripped over Scootaloo by mistake. Feeling a bit disappointed, I decided I would try to get a goal myself.
Apple Bloom was bringing the ball up one side of the field, with Button Mash closing in on her. Scootaloo was behind him, and I heard her say something to the colt as he ran. He abruptly stopped and looked at the filly with a shocked expression, which allowed Apple Bloom to fly past him and have an unobstructed shot at the net.
I dived across and kept the ball from going in, but in the process, I knocked it out of bounds.
"Crusader's ball," Miss Cherilee called out as Apple Bloom came up beside her. Placing the ball on the ground, the teacher then blew her whistle. As soon as she heard the noise, Apple Bloom sent the ball in to Sweetie Belle, who kicked it around a little bit before sending it past Twist and towards Scootaloo. The orange pegasus then set herself up to buck the ball as hard as she could past me.
I threw my body in the way in time to deflect the ball away from the goal. Coming back down, I landed on my hooves and turned to look at the ball.
There were no ponies close to it, and with time dwindling, I took a risk and kicked the ball out and followed it, intent on taking it to Rainbow Dash and the goal.
The pegasus saw what I was doing and charged out to intercept me. I waited until she got too close to slow down, and then I made my move. Faking to the right, I went left and threw the pony off balance, causing her to trip up on the grass.
With the crusaders behind me and Rainbow momentarily stunned, I took my shot and kicked the ball into the net.
Miss Cherilee blew the whistle and smirked at us.
"Game ends 3-2. Rumble's team wins."
"Hey! No fair!"
Miss Cherilee and I both looked at Rainbow Dash who gave me a death glare.
"No fair!" she repeated. "You cheated!"
"What?"
"You heard me!" she spat at me with venom. "You cheated!"
"How did I cheat?"
"Well... you..."
Rainbow was at a loss for words, a rare instance for the trash-talking pegasus.
"Exactly, Rainbow. I didn't cheat. Besides, this is just a P.E. exercise for the kids, not some kind of professional league."
Rainbow wanted to retort, but couldn't say anything past "Grr. Fine. You didn't cheat."
I didn't appreciate the attitude, but I figured I would take the small victory.
We lost the next game against the other team that had Big Macintosh; hard to score on somepony that can just block shots by standing still.
Regardless, we all had fin.
The winner of the tournament was Thunderlane's team, who got to brag and not much more. Once the hoofie was done with, we moved on to a different event.
"The next event is the hammer toss," Miss Cherilee explained. "So you don't get confused, here's how you do it."
The earth pony teacher walked over to a heavy metal ball attached to a metal chain with a grip on the end. Grabbing the grip, Miss Cherilee proceeded to spin in a circle several times, and on the last spin around, she whipped her neck and released the object, sending it hurtling through the air a fair distance before it came back down and impacted on the ground.
Taking a moment to catch her breath, Miss Cherilee gave the foals a smile. "I doubt any of my students could throw one that far, but you are invited to try. If I was to take a guess at who would excel in this event, I would say Big Macintosh would have the advantage."
The stallion in question chuckled and turned a darker shade of red in his cheeks.
"Now, everypony gets a chance in this event, so who wants to go first?"
Miss Cherilee's guess was quite accurate. Big Macintosh threw the hammer such a great distance, she questioned whether she would be able to locate it later, and also pondered if it had ended up lodged in a tree.
Big Macintosh himself apologized and offered to look for it, but Miss Cherilee waved him off. "It's quite alright. It'll be found at some point, I'm sure. For now, let's focus on the next event."
We all followed Miss Cherilee to the next event. As we did, I thought about my throw.
I'd made a good approach, got good momentum, and was pretty sure I released at the correct point. My throw was true and went a comparable to Miss Cherilee, though the earth pony may have beaten my throw by a few inches or so.
Rainbow Dash made her best effort to give the hammer the old heave-ho, but she ended up slowing down a bit on her last spin because of what she claimed was a pebble under her hoof. Regardless, her throw came up a few feet short of mine.
A part of me wanted to chuckle since I must've beaten her by her standards in two different events, but another part wondered if I shouldn't concede the last two to her just to keep the peace.
As quick as I thought it, I dismissed it. Rainbow would have no respect for me if I took it easy on her just because she was getting frustrated.
Besides, at least in the first event, I had beaten her fair and square.
We arrived at the next event, where portions of the grass and topsoil had been dug up to make a sort of pit where sand had been poured into it.
"The third event is called the hop, skip, jump," Miss Cherilee told the class as she gestured with her hoof to several markers placed in front of the sand pit. "Each pony will start from this line and run as fast as they can to this point. Once they get here, they must take a hop and a skip to gain momentum, and at this last point where the sand begins, they will jump as far as they can. We will measure from the beginning of the sand to the hoofprint closest to it."
The teacher then turns to Thunderlane and Soarin. "Would one of our resident Wonderbolts care to give us a demonstration? No using your wings to glide either."
Both stallions rolled their eyes before Soarin stepped forward. "The higher rank sets the example for the subordinates to follow," he said, getting a frown from Thunderlane. Once at the start line, Miss Cherilee ordered him set, and once he was ready, she blew her whistle.
Soarin took off as fast as he could, and when he got to the first marker, he took two big skips and launched himself from just behind the line where the sand started.
With wings firmly tucked to his side, Soarin landed with his back hooves at what appeared to be a distance equal to ten ponylengths.
"A fine example of Wonderbolt athletic training," Miss Cherilee commented before turning to the class. "Now, I want all of you to form a line at the starting point over there. You'll each get one attempt, so make sure to give it your best. If the adult ponies wish to participate, or be excluded, they can do so at their discretion."
The foals did as instructed and formed a line where Soarin had started from. As Miss Cherilee blew her whistle, each foal would get a running start, then take two large skips before jumping as far as they could in the sand. Each time one landed, an adult would look to see where the foals touched down and marked it on the side of the sand pit, a little white flag that had the foals initials on it.
Once all was said and done, the side of the sand pit had twenty-four little flags, and at the furthest distance, was one which read "AB".
"Yeah!" Apple Bloom cried out as she celebrated her apparent victory. The other foals gave their congratulations, but going by the emotions that I sensed, most weren't all that happy about her winning.
"Okay everypony," Miss Cherilee called to us as she began walking, "we're gonna head over to the last event now, so please follow me."
Everypony began following the teacher over to the last event for the day. I tried to do so as well, but was stopped by a blue hoof on my withers.
"Come on, Thorax!" I heard Rainbow Dash say. "Let's go! Just you and me!"
I turned and looked at her. "What?"
"The hop, skip and jump. Let's see which of us goes further!"
Of course, I think to myself as I turn to face the pegasus. "Why is this so important to you?"
"Because I wanna see which one of us is better!"
"Why is that so important?"
"Why wouldn't it be?!"
"It's not that important to me."
"Well, it should be!"
"Why?"
"Because it is!"
The pegasus became frustrated as she tried to explain it to me.
"How can you not be the least bit curious about how much better or worse you could be than a pony at something?!"
"Because I don't let it bother me."
"WHAT?!"
I sighed as I explained how I felt about this to Dash.
"Rainbow, it's not important how you compare to other ponies, or other species. What matters is that you grow how you want to. If you start comparing yourself to others, then you start holding yourself back."
"That's ridiculous! I don't let how I compare myself to ponies hold me back!"
"Really? The Best Young Fliers competition doesn't ring any bells?"
Rainbow looked at me in shock, which quickly turned to anger. "Who told you about that?"
"Does it matter? My point is, you got all nerved up because you were afraid you wouldn't compare to the other ponies in the competition, or you wouldn't live up to the expectations of the Wonderbolts."
"Rainbow Dash, you're a fast flier, probably the fastest there is, but a good dose of humility would do wonders for you."
Rainbow's anger tapered off some. She stood there for a few minutes stewing over what I had told her. In that time, Miss Cherilee came back over to us.
"Are you two coming? We're ready to start the final event."
"We're coming," I assured her, then turned to follow. I did eventually hear Rainbow's hoofsteps behind me, but they were much slower than mine.
The last event was the one Rainbow Dash had told me about earlier in the day - a relay race. The foals and their adult were divided into pairs and placed opposite from one another. One of the foals was given a brass baton that would be passed off to the next runner when the previous one crossed over the start/finish line. The three foals would go first, and the adult pony, or changeling in my case, would run the last leg. The foals were being tested on how well they ran and their coordination and teamwork.
"Okay now," Miss Cherilee got the attention of the groups, "When I blow this whistle, the relay race will begin. Runners, keep a firm hold of your baton, and make sure that you pass it smoothly to the next runner. If the baton is dropped during the pass off, the pony who was carrying it previously must pick it up and give it to the next runner. If you drop it during the run, you must go back and pick it up before going any further."
"Would our first runners now get set at their starting line?"
The foals with batons in their mouths lined up to get set. Rumble was our first.
"Would the next baton carriers please approach your starting line?"
The next foals to carry got set. Twist took her spot at the front.
"Good," Miss Cherilee nodded in approval. "Now, runners, get ready."
Each runner squatted down, ready to explode away from the starting line.
"Get set."
The foals all looked at their partners across from them, eyes intent on their muzzles and hoping for a clean exchange.
Miss Cherilee reached down and put the whistle around her neck to her muzzle and-
FWEEEEEEET!
The foals bolted out after the loud whistling. Each made very good time crossing what was approximately the distance of half a hoofball field. Rumble and Apple Bloom were leading the ponies, with the gray earth pony Silver Spoon close behind. As they approached the other side, they prepared to exchange their batons.
For Rumble, the exchange went smoothly, and as soon as she had a good grip on the baton, Twist took off at her top speed, which was a bit slower than Rumble.
Apple Bloom gave a smooth pass off as well to her friend Sweetie Belle, who took off at a pace quicker than Twist, and found herself gaining on the filly rather quickly.
I noticed that Silver Spoon had dropped the baton in the exchange, and very quickly grabbed it before giving it to her tiara-wearing teammate, who took off as fast as her hooves could take her.
Twist and Sweetie Belle both got to their respective finish lines and passed their batons to the next runners. Button Mash took his and bolted as fast as he could to me, his speed comparable to Twist but perhaps just a bit faster.
Seeing him getting close, I prepared to grab the baton and finish the relay.
Sweetie Belle gave her baton to Scootaloo, who ran the fastest I had seen a foal run that day. She was gaining on Button Mash and about to overtake him.
I looked over to see Rainbow Dash at the start line, but surprisingly, she wasn't set to run.
"Come on, Rainbow!" Apple Bloom shouted at her. "It's your turn to run!"
Rainbow nodded at the filly, and halfheartedly got into position to take the baton and finish the race.
I heard Button's hoofsteps getting closer and I looked in time to see I had only a second to take the exchange. I opened my maw wide so he had a good target, but quickly found that to be a mistake; the sight of my teeth startling the foal and causing him to lose the baton.
"Button, grab the baton!" I called to him, but the colt froze up.
"C'mon Button!" Rumble shouted at him. "Get the baton and give it to Thorax!"
Button got the baton and eventually gave it to me. Once secure, I took off as fast as I could, crossing the finish line on the other side.
To my surprise, as I crossed the line, I felt a whoosh over to my side, and turned to see Rainbow crossing at the same time as I did.
Once all the foals had crossed the line, Miss Cherilee examined a device she had set up to help her keep tabs on the foal's run times. As she finished going over them, she smiled.
"I'm happy to say that all of my students have done well. Each of you has earned high marks for your physical education."
All of the foals cheered upon hearing the news. I wasn't sure what they would've had to do if they hadn't passed. Perhaps they would've had to attend the swimming class later this week?
"Now then," she continued, "for those of you curious about how the relay race ended, we have an interesting result."
"The group of Rumble, Button Mash, Twist, and Mister Thorax have tied with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Miss Rainbow Dash."
All of the foals gasped as they heard the news. Even I was a bit shocked hearing that the rainbow maned pegasus and I had crossed at the same time. I looked over at where I thought Rainbow was standing, but the blue pegasus wasn't there. In fact, she was nowhere near the track and field area.
"Did anypony see where Rainbow went?" I asked.
"She went up into a cloud," Scootaloo told me. "Said she wanted to be by herself for a bit."
The filly pointed up at a cloud, and upon looking at it, I took notice to a rainbow-colored tail poking out of it and twitching a bit.
"Maybe I should go talk with her," I thought out loud.
"We'll have a talk with her," I heard a voice call out from behind me. Turning around, I saw the stallions Soarin and Thunderlane approaching.
"Yeah," Soarin voiced his agreement. "After the race, she looked sort of upset and bolted for that cloud up there. I don't know what's going on in that head of hers, but she's gonna hear something from the two of us."
Getting a feeling that what they were doing was a terrible idea, I raised my hoof to stop them.
"Um, maybe we should just leave her be for a bit? I might not know her as well as you two do, but... she and I had a conversation earlier, and I think that might have something to do with how she's acting now."
Both Soarin and Thunderlane looked at me sternly. "What did you talk about."
"Well..." I rubbed my hoof on my neck as I thought of how best to explain it. "She was trying to get me to do the hop, skip, jump, but I refused. When she kept trying to push me, I asked her why it was so important. She told me, and I told her that comparing yourself to other ponies all the time was a bad idea and-"
"Say no more," Soarin interrupted, a smile on his muzzle. He then turned to Thunderlane. "Let's go see if we can talk Applejack out of a barrel of cider. I get the feeling that filly is gonna want a drink in a bit."
Thunderlane nodded his agreement, and the two stallions took off in what I presumed was the direction of Applejack's farm.
I turned my attention back up to the cloud Rainbow was laying on. Part of me was second guessing my choice to leave the mare alone with her thoughts, but then I thought about the situation a bit more and concluded that there was probably nothing at the moment that would help anything.
Sighing in defeat, I elected to return to the castle, the day slowly winding down into evening.
Dinner that evening was a veggie loaf made with zucchini, carrots, celery, potatoes and broccoli. My portion was given the dose of love potion so it gave me the necessary nourishment, though my mind was distracted by Rainbow Dash and her behavior in the later part of the day.
"Something on your mind, Thorax?" Twilight asked me.
"Just thinking about Rainbow Dash," I answered her.
"Don't worry about her too much," she reassured me, placing a hoof on my withers and rubbing. "If I know her, she's probably just taking a good, long think on what you told her."
"You think so?"
"Definitely. Rainbow gets really competitive, and a lot of times, that causes her to lose sight of the really important stuff. That's why the girls and I try to keep her grounded."
"Well, grounded mentally and emotionally, I mean. I doubt you could keep her grounded physically if you tried."
Both Twilight and I giggled at that assessment. A few moments after was stopped, the door to the dining hall opened, and through it walked a certain blue pegasus.
"Hi, Twi. Hi, Thorax." she greeted us.
"Hey, Rainbow. I'm sorry, but you're a bit late for dinner, but if I asked Spike, I'm sure-"
"That's okay, Twi," Rainbow interrupted. "I'm actually not feeling that terribly hungry at the moment."
"Oh. So what brings you by?"
"Um..."
Rainbow paused and traced her hoof on the floor.
"Can I talk to Thorax? Privately?"
Twilight looked at Rainbow for a moment, then at me. When her gaze turned to me, it was silently asking if I was okay speaking with her alone, or at least as alone as having Vigilant standing nearby.
After thinking it over for a second, I give a small nod, and Twilight turns back to Rainbow.
"Sure. Why don't you head on down to the map room? Nopony's there right now and you can lock the doors if you need privacy."
"Thanks, Twi," Rainbow answered as she walked out of the dining hall and headed for the big map room a little bit further down the hall. I stood up to follow, but Twilight stopped me for a second.
"Just let her say her peace first," she told me, "and then say yours. She kinda has a hard time with admitting when she's wrong, or she made a mistake."
I gave Twilight a nod and headed out of the library, Vigilant close behind.
"Um, Vigilant?" I said to the stallion as we walked.
"Yes?"
"Um... can you keep whatever you hear to yourself afterwards? I don't want Rainbow to feel like her trust is being violated or something."
I don't see it, but I can tell the stallion had rolled his eyes.
"I can keep secrets. Whatever she confides to you is also safe with me."
"Thanks. It's appreciated."
We approach the map room and find the door slightly open. Upon walking in, we both see Rainbow sitting at the table in the chair with her cutie mark on it.
"Should we sit down?" I ask her.
"Nah, I just popped a squat while I waited," came her reply, popping up and getting back down onto the floor and walking over to us.
"Listen," she began once close enough to Vigilant and I, "I wanna say I'm sorry for how I was acting earlier. The thing is... I've always been super-competitive, and when I meet a new pony or creature, I always wanna challenge them to see what they're made of. I think it probably goes back to when I was a filly."
Rainbow Dash let out a chuckle before continuing.
"Believe it or not, I did get picked on a bit during my flight schooling."
"Really?" I respond with surprise.
"Yep, the other foals would give me grief for this and that, but the worst was Fluttershy. I don't know if she's ever mentioned it to you, but she's not the strongest flier in Equestria."
"Yeah, I think she has mentioned that once before."
"Anyway, because of that, I always feel like I need to prove myself to show them what kind of pony I am, but what you did today reminded me that not everypony has to show off to prove who they are. You did it just by standing your ground and not budging when you got pushed. I really have to respect that about you."
"Bullying is always a hard thing to get past. I remember how much doubt I experienced when I first left the hive and started making my way to the Crystal Empire, even if I didn't know I was heading there at the time. All of that stemmed from how the others treated me, and how they bullied me. Even one of the older nymphs in my brood, what I guess you could think of as a brother, would bully me and tell me my dreams and ideas were nonsense."
"But every time I heard them say it to me, a little voice inside would tell me not to listen, that they were wrong. I would always feel depressed and downtrodden, but that little voice was always there, telling me to keep going, that I was on the right path. I listened to that voice, and because I did, I'm here now, talking to you, instead of attacking whatever innocent village of creatures to take them prisoner and steal their love."
"I'm not really a changeling known for giving advice, but if I can offer you any, it's to listen to that little voice in your own head. I'm sure it cries out to you 'Don't listen to them, Rainbow Dash! You know how strong you really are!'. You just gotta listen for it, or maybe give it a bull horn to shout through."
Rainbow chuckled at that last part. "Thanks, Thorax. I'll try to remember that."
She gave me a smile, and I smiled in return. Vigilant, who had been standing by the door, took the break in conversation as a place to politely interrupt our discussion.
"I hate to break up all of this warm and fuzzy feeling, but it's getting late, and everypony should probably get some shut-eye."
Rainbow Dash and I both looked at a clock nearby and saw it was getting close to bed time.
"Dang, I didn't realize it was that late," Rainbow remarked as she trotted towards the door, then paused.
"You don't think Twilight would mind loaning me a room for the night, do you?"
"Maybe?" I respond. "I don't really know."
"Might be for the best," she concluded as she opened the door. "I just remembered Tank hasn't had his dinner, so I better head back home and feed him before it's too late."
With that, the rainbow-maned pegasus left in a flash of bright colors. As she did, Vigilant let out another sigh as he brought a hoof to his face.
"Again with the running in the halls."