So, the next day is the day of the magical competition. Luckily, I got out of the urge of wanting to scratch Celestia’s ears, and was forced to give Luna an ear scratch as well. So I at least had that going for me. What I wasn’t feeling great about was the tournament bracket. Since Twilight and I were both here, and participating in the competitions today, it was actually going to be a bit odd. During the free for all, it was actually a duos style, where each school would have their own team consisting of two ponies per team. However, during the magical duels, it was a tournament bracket style, with Twilight on one side of the board, and me on the opposite. My problem wasn’t that, it was the apparent pressure I had for being Celestia’s student.
“Oh sweet mother of god, I am going to get a foot up me arse in the third round,” I whispered. No matter how the cookie crumbled, I knew this was all for fun, but I wanted results. I wanted to actually get a gold trophy so that Twilight wouldn’t win everything at this convention… The problem here wasn’t Twilight though. The problem Twilight had was her lack of combat experience and her very, very predictable use of any combat spells she did know. Her combat skills could be summed up with ‘raw power, teleport away if attacked’. It was great since she was super strong, but even Shining Armor, somepony less powerful, could beat her with ease due to this.
Oh yeah, that was my problem! Shining Armor’s on the same side of the brackets as I am, so at some point, I will have to fight him.
“I assure you Source, nopony will care if you win or not; everypony knows you’re already fighting an uphill battle due to how outclassed you are by everypony here in terms of strength.” Celestia was doing her best to assure me that it wasn’t the end of the world if I won or lost this tournament. After all, I had a really good chance at winning the free for all that would take place right after this, with me being on Twilight’s team and all.
“I still don’t feel great about this,” I sighed. “I just wanna show that I can on my own two feet.”
“You mean four hooves?” Celestia asked. She had took me off to the side to give me a prep talk, since lucky me, I had to go fucking first against the professor from Filydephia, the same one that called me a slur. Rather, her student. Her personal student.
“You know how I am, I’m just a little nervous.”
“You’re nervous? I couldn’t tell you jumping at every little thing. Or you default to your old speech patterns like you do when you get mad or nervous.”
“Yeah… Fuck it, I have an idea for how I’m gonna play this tournament. It’s what I did to win a few video game tournaments in my town.”
Celestia cocked an eyebrow. “And that is?”
“I’m going to play super passively, and play with a heavy defense in mind. It’s easier to strike at somepony when they’re striking first; you ponies leave way too many openings for me to exploit when you do.”
“...I suppose that is- wait, what do you mean by ‘you ponies’?”
“Even if you do it, Celly. I know you’re a bit rusty, from not having to really fight ever, and if you do, you’ve got more than enough power to win most fights regardless of that. But whenever you decide to use a concussive blast, you don’t have a shield or anything like that on the ready incase I slip past the first hit and hit you back… Then I give up the moment I realize I hit you and try to make sure you’re alright… only for you to then smack me in the face with a sunbeam.”
“Hmpf. Well, if you can find openings in my offense, then I suppose your strategy will play out. My question is, how do you manage to see such openings?” What Celestia also didn’t say is that she did that purposely to teach me how to exploit openings in my opponent’s offense.
“I’m a game developer at heart. It was my job to develop shit and then find ways to exploit any code in my code. Fighting’s very similar in that regard, even if it’s a lot harder to find those openings in the heat of the moment, just ignoring all the other aspects needed to actually fight well. Who knows, maybe somepony hits me, the enchant that’s casted on everypony doesn’t work, and I get pissed off and beat the ever living shit out of everyone here. Blueblood’s partaking in this right?”
“He is. If you win your first fight, he is your next.”
“Sick, that’s an easy round won if I get past the first round then. I still need to shove my hoof up his ass for yelling at Luna last week.”
“...He. Did. What?”
“Yelled at Luna.”
“Source, I don’t care if you lose and make me look bad, I just want you to beat the ever living shit out of Blueblood.”
“Already planning on it. When he is done getting his ass kicked, I will have covered him in his own shit. Just the idea of getting to punch him in the face… oh, that sounds like fun.” I nodded a few times to myself, now that I was thoroughly pumped up for the incoming battles. There were six rounds on each side of the bracket, since not every school was participating. For instance, Trixie didn’t bother trying since she wasn’t a duelist at heart, and some of the foals that were here, weren’t partaking in the event because they legally weren’t allowed to. Six rounds per side of the bracket, twelve different ponies to take on.
Before the first matches started, which started during the afternoon, there was actually another meet and greet. So I just sat in my own little corner of the field, going over strategies until three fillies… oh, it’s Apple Bloom and her two friends. I waved at them as they skidded to a stop in front of me. “Howdy there, Bloom. I thought you were going to be helping Big Mac with selling food today.”
“I was, but Big Mac told me that we were going to stop early since we sold out of everything yesterday. Plus he and Apple Jack wanted to watch the magic competition today, since they wanna cheer you and Twilight on. Our teacher was hoping to speak with you, so we were leading her here.” I looked up from the three fillies sitting before me, and finally noticed a dark pink mare walking up to us.
Her mane’s a light, almost pale gray with a lighter gray streak going through it, and she had brown eyes. Her butt tattoo was three flowers. She came to a stop just behind the three little fillies.
“Howdy,” I greeted.
“Hello, Source Code, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I was hoping to ask something of you, it may be a bit much since you’ll have to transmute from Canterlot…” I simply raised an eyebrow and crossed my forelegs. “I was hoping you could come by and help some of my unicorn students with their magic. Sweetie Belle’s struggling to even use magic, and Dinky can barely use hers. Snips and Snails… I don’t think they even know how to use magic or have any interests, and some of my other unicorn students are struggling a fair amount with anything involving magic.”
“Why not ask Twilight? She would probably be better at teaching magic than I ever could.”
“She… doesn’t like foals all that much, and Apple Bloom keeps going on about how great you are at dealing with her and her friends.”
“Well, I do like foals… most of the time. Though-”
“You said you made a magical system that should be great for weaker unicorns. Who better to teach it to than foals who don’t have a lot of magic starting out?”
“...You are a fucking genius!” I chuckled. “Ah shit, I didn’t think that-”
“Language! There’s foals-”
“Apple Bloom knows how to curse like a sailor, and Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle almost exclusively hangout with her. I would be shocked if they didn’t know what a swear was.”
“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo chorused.
“She won’t tell me what ‘fuck’ means though,” Sweetie Belle said while rubbing her chin.
“It’s something that big ponies say I shouldn’t tell to other foals,” Apple Bloom said. “But why is Cheerilee a genius, she’s smart but-”
“Thanks to how Python works, it’s a good groundwork for learning magic. It teaches you how equations work, and teaches you how Runes work in tangent with those equations. It’s perfect for teaching foals!” I laughed like an idiot. “Ah shoot, I wish I thought about that…” I rubbed the back of my head. “But yeah, I can make a few copies of Python, and stop by in Ponyville every now and then. Once a week? Thrice a week?”
“As often as you could; I’ll pay you for teaching my unicorn foals as well.”
“Mmm, you sure do know how to instantly make business deals,” I offered my hoof. “I’ll try and stop by twice a week, once on Monday, and then again on friday.”
“That would work.” We shook hooves. “Good luck in the magic duels; I heard competition is rather stiff this year now that two of Princess Celestia’s personal students are competing this year.” Oh great, so much for me being pumped up for the incoming tournament, Cheerilee!
“...I am going to get put in a wheelchair.”
“...what’s a wheelchair?”
As it turned out, I wasn’t fighting the bitch from earlier, it was her apparent ‘star pupil’ Star something something. Ah, Shooting Star! Anyways, it was the dude that was flirting with Twilight. Right before our fight, he had gotten right up in my face, and was almost touching my nose with his own. “Listen,” the stallion said. “I am going to beat you and show Twilight Sparkle that I am a far, far better choice for a husband than you are!” I blinked a couple of times, but didn’t say anything. “Well? Are you going to say anything?” You know, I have learnt something very important for pissing people, and ponies, off from years of scambaiting whenever I get bored.
“Damn, okay.”
“What?”
“Okay.”
“You’re fine with me beating you?”
“Uh huh.”
“...Are you even listening?”
“Uh huh, keep going.” My voice was monotone the whole time by the way, and I had a blank expression the whole time while our exchange continued on like this for a good five minutes, and the more and more Shooting Star wasn’t getting much of a reaction out of me made him more pissed by the minute.
“...I am going to kill you.”
“Oh. Okay. That’s cool.”
“And then I’m going to make Twilight Sparkle marry me!” What. “Whether she likes it or not!”
…I don’t think this guy should be allowed on the streets.
Shooting Star then let out a huff before he sauntered off to the opposite side of the field we were using. Shining Armor had volunteered with Twilight to set up a shield to keep everypony safe from stray spells. Both the Sparkle Siblings made their barriers as see through as possible; Twilight was technically better at applying shield spells, even if Shining Armor’s were simply more powerful, so Twilight was actually casting, and Shiny was supplying her with the power to do so. It was pretty neat to watch, but that wasn’t why I was here. I’m on a mission to shove Blueblood’s head up his ass, and Shooting Star is in the way of that.
“Begin!” Luna shouted. Oh. No countdown. Darn. I immediately shot off a stun spell before my opponent could register what the buck was going on, and it damn near hit him had he not brought up a shield last second. I then sat on my butt and watched as Shooting Star started slowly approaching me. I soon teleported to the middle of the arena and looked around like I was lost, even if I knew that Shooting was still approaching me. Jesus christ this guy’s a slow walker.
My opponent started circling me while baring his teeth.
“C’mon, strike me again!” Shooting Star yelled. “Or are you too much of a mare to strike at me.”
“Man, you really shouldn’t be speaking like that. Twilight Sparkle would deck you, and Celestia and Luna could stick your butt on the sun and moon respectively. Maybe think a little before you speak. It’ll make you seem less like a dumbass.” That seemingly made Shooting more mad, since he immediately tried to lash at me with a Stun. I rolled out the way, and noted an opening around his left shoulder. I shielded kept on rolling, and teleported to the left of him. “Hey dude!” I announced my presence as I rolled under him.
Now this was a magical competition, but you were allowed to go into a melee if you deem it fit the situation. So what I was about to do was allowed, especially since he immediately tried stomping on my head. I summoned a pair of horseshoes onto my hindlegs, just a plain, silver set, and then kicked Shooting Star right between his hindlegs. Shooting eeped, keeled over, and got teleported out of the arena as the enchants probably thought what I did was overkill. The crowd had three reactions.
All the foals were laughing. The mares were just shocked, and the stallions were all trying to cover their balls with their legs.
“Did I win?”
“You did,” Luna said from her little ‘throne’. “I must admit, that was rather… not even gruesome, just plain wrong, but-”
“Hey now, he wanted to murder me. I say kicking him in the balls is a lot less bad than murdering somepony.”
“You are correct, and technically you did not breach any rules, but do refrain from kicking every competing stallion’s groins; there’s only so many and we do not want to lower the amount of breedable stallions that Equestria has, Source.” That is a good point. I’ll go for the shins instead, that’s always a sure fire way of winning. I walked out of the arena and over to where Shooting Star was teleported. He was currently rolled up in a ball on the ground, whimpering and crying. His tail was covering up his rear, and he had his forelegs tucked in.
“So, I kick like a mare?”
Another whimper escaped the stallion.
“Darn. Hope you get well soon. I’ll make sure to send you a box of chocolate and a ‘get well soon’ card. Hope to see you around with foals of your own…” I got up close. “Next time, don’t threaten to murder me, and may be not possibly imply that you’re going to rape one of my friends. I will drown you if you say something like that while referring to anyone like that again. Leave Twilight alone, and we’ll be chill, cool?” Another whimper escaped the stallion as he tried to get away from me. “Okay cool! Glad we came to an understanding. Remember, if you try touching Twilight, don’t be shocked when I mail you, piece by piece, back to your parents! Bye!”
I sat down next to Twilight and her friends as the first round on the other side of the bracket began. “Howdy'ya do?” I asked.
“What did you say to that stallion after you beat him? It looks like you made him scared of you.”
“He threatened basically implied some unsavory things.”
“Like…”
“Forcing you to marry him and then sleep with him.”
“...What?”
“Yeah, I know. Dude’s a fuckin’ nutjob. Anyways, I just let him know what would happen if he tried such a thing. It may, or may not involve something overly gruesome, but I think he deserves it.”
“Source, what did you say?”
“Something horrible and horrific, yet deliciously vague. Seriously, what I said to him was messed up and I won’t be repeating it, Twilight. Not around you or the rest of the girls. I’m not a good pony, and I’ll just leave it at that. Seriously, if I had to make do with some of the threats I’ve made to ponies in the past, or could make do on those threats, I would probably be in the dungeons… Or executed. It depends on how willing Celestia is to bail me out after I murder somepony that threatened her, you, or anyone I hold dear.”
“Ah wouldn’t say yer a bad pony, Source. You don’t tell the full truth, but you’re nice enough," AJ commented.
“That’s because you’re my friend. If somebody were to hurt you, they would see a very different side of me.”
“Like how you had a panic attack the first time you and Celsetia were seen in public together?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Yeah, Twilight told us about that. How do you go from that to kicking butt?”
“It’s been months since that happened, Dash, and I’ll be real, I suck at dealing with anything social. The fact that I opened up to y’all so quickly is a miracle and a half. But let it be known, if anyone threatens you, I don’t care who did it, I will make sure they can’t even get near you. Again, if that stallion is an idiot and tries doing what he said to Twilight that he had said, I will do some horrible things to him. I stick my neck out for my friends and I’m more than willing to take a punch for y’all. Just please don’t make me give a presentation out of the blue; I will probably forget how to think and seek some form of shelter from all those gazes.”
“You did fine during the first round,” Rainbow pointed out. “And you were awesome! You should be happy about-”
“I ignored the rest of the crowd, Rainbow. If I did, I woulda freeze up and get plowed into the ground. Fortunately, I also have a goal in mind, since Prince Blueblood’s participating this year…”
“Why is that important?” Rarity asked. “I get that he’s not a good stallion, but-”
“He made Luna cry last week. I think he hit her at some point too, since Luna occasionally rubbed her cheek shortly after he made her cry, and I know it wasn’t to wipe away any tears.”
“...Oh.”
“Yeah, he’s my next fight. He is going to regret doing what he did to my favorite Princess of the Moon. Luna’s great; give her a chance to open up and she is bloody adorable! In fact, y’all get the chance to get her to open up some time during Nightmare Night next year. Treat her well, eh? That mare’s gone through some shit, and she deserves way better than what happened to her… Uh, I got distracted, where was I? Oh yeah, Blueblood. Blueblood's gonna get spanked again, in public.”
Everpony blinked at that.
So Blueblood went fucking missing. After he realized who he was going up against, he just up and hopped on a train for Canterlot as soon as he realized what was probably going to happen to him if he fought me. So I just got a key into the third round, which was surprisingly pretty easy. Basically, one bunch of fighting later and I get to fight Shining Mother Fucking Armor as my last opponent before I faced whoever was on the otherside of the bracket. This year it looked like Twilight was able to just brute force her way through the competition and steamroll everybody through sheer means of might.
Shining Armor is about two thirds as powerful as his sister was. What’s even worse? Oh yeah, he has actual combat experience. What’s even better? I am very hesitant in actually giving my all against this dude. For one, he’s a bro, I love him, two, I don’t think I could win if I gave my all anyways. On the bright side, I do get to test my anti shield spells in full. So Shining Armor’s shield, which had held up over the arena the whole time with Twilight(while they were fighting their rounds too) was actually really damn strong. Shining was a big guy, so he wasn’t very maneuverable.
Okay, he was still pretty agile for a pony of his size, but he wasn’t going to constantly be dodging spells left right, front and center. This meant that he had to use a shield in most scenarios, and he often relied on shields even if he could probably roll out of the way of any attacks. His shields are fucking strong. So I’ve developed a piercing spell that leaves a magical ‘residue’ behind so I know where it hits. From there, I think if I just spam the piercing spell enough, I can win against Shining… assuming he doesn’t deck me and knock me out before I can even get that far.
I was just staring blankly ahead as Luna began to actually use a countdown, after I used the lack of one to instantly knock somepony out. First it was ten, and all of a sudden the fight’s started after I zoned out on how to fight this dude. Okay, I have a pretty good strategy in mind, so that means I’m going to play on it and steam roll this guy. Tickle Twilight into submission in the finals, or beat the snot out of whoever managed to beat her, and win the crown, save the town and Mr. Krabs!
So I just sat there while Shining Armor waited for me to make a move.
I teleported halfway to the center again and stared Shining in the eyes. “Come at me, my guy. I already failed my mission, so I don’t care if I lose.” I lied, I was going to be a little sad, and maybe cry a little so that Celestia would kiss me to make me feel better(even if she knows I am bullshitting her).
“You strike first,” Shining raised a hoof and did the signature ‘come at me bro’ gesture, despite not having hands to do that.
“Nah, you-” he launched a spell and I immediately tried to shield. Good news, he hits like a truck. Oh wait, that’s the bad news. I literally can’t block his attacks head on, or I am going to get destroyed. Luckily, I teleported out from behind my now shattered shield to avoid getting lasered, but now my horn is starting to hurt. Why did I think I could possibly win this again? You beat everypony else here, Source, and you get confident. Why did you have to get confident, you stupid, stupid pony.
“JESUS!” I gasped before another spell came my way. I used DragonFire and zipped around the arena before coming to a halt before I ran right into another spell. Ah hell. I am going to get obliterated if I end up fighting Twilight, since I don’t think she’ll be holding back… Wait. I ran the same shield I used to block Shining’s initial attack, and rolled out the way when it inevitably got destroyed too. I wasn’t using Python. How did I not use Python initially? I took a deep breath, before standing up and finally launching my own attack.
“Looks like Cody-” Pinkie, why are you being an commentator?- “finally had enough of running away from Shining Armor’s attacks. He launches a strong beam, it’s really shiny, but Shining Armor blocked it with a shield, or darn! Why is that bit of the shield glowing?”
I started peppering that shield of Shining’s while running in and screaming the only thing that seemed appropriate at the time.
“LEROY JENKINS!” I shouted, which really only got a confused look from Shining, who just kept the shield up. Enough piercing spells, and a very long, drawn out Leroy Jenkins later, and I launched a spell with all of my magic reserves at the spot that in Shiny’s shield, he didn’t think much of it and probably just thought I was an idiot. It blasted right through the shield. I stood panting. I did it. I beat Shining-
Something hit me in the back of the head. All I saw were colors before I fell on the ground, and the enchants removed me from the arena.
“Urgh…” I groaned from my new spot on what felt like a stretcher. “What happened?” I asked while sitting up.
“Oh good, you didn’t die. Here I was thinking I hit you too hard.”
“...Hey Shiny.” My horn hurts more than my head does, which already makes me want to bash it into a tree until I stop feeling it.
“So I lost?” I asked.
“Yeah, don’t feel too bad. You came in third place. Not too shabby given that you are weaker than just about everypony competing. That fancy spell system you have sure does work, doesn’t it?” Shining asked, I could hear the smile in his voice.
“I launched everything I had at you…”
“Yeah, and I’ll admit, it hurt. I’m just better at dealing with the pain than you are; it was only my job for the longest time.”
“...But I lost…”
“And then Twilight handed my flanks to me on a platter, despite her holding back.”
I sat up and turned to face Shining Armor. We both were supposed to be hit with healing spells and rejuvenation spells so that we can compete in the incoming free for all events.
“Man, I thought I had more punch in my spells than I did. Then again, I usually mix in Stuns into my usual strikes.”
“...That might explain why you had an easier time than you should’ve, on top of the guard training and having the Princess as a personal trainer…” We both sighed. “So you lost to me, and then my little sister embarasses me. At least you had the excuse that you fought somepony with more combat experience. Twilight literally hoof handled me and knocked me out in twenty seconds.”
“...Twilight is the biggest load of shite I’ve ever heard of. If I fought her I would’ve been smeared across the ground.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it. At least you and her are going to be a team during the free for all?”
“There is that. Can’t wait for us to yell at each other.”
“Why is that?” Shining asked.
“Twilight’s used to being the leader. I’m used to not having a boss. We will get far, but I think we’ll butt heads a bunch.” I sat up and stretched and my hornache was gone. “Well, fair play to you kicking my flanks, if I see you during the free for all, I am sicking Twilight on you.”
“...Oh dear Celestia, not again.” Shining Armor looked genuinely terrified at the prospect of fighting Twilight again. For good reason, she is scary to fight just because of how darn strong she was.
“Okay Twilight, what’s the game plan?” I asked. It turns out that the arena being used is the Everfree Forest… Yeah, that’s going to be fun. Same enchants though, so if we ‘die’ we get teleported out and put into a nearby med-tent to make sure we didn’t actually get injured. Everypony was put into opposite sides of the forest and we were supposed to go into it and fight each other upon seeing each other. Thanks to some Eye Spy Spells, the audience can watch. Twilight and I were paired and we both immediately casted tracking spells on the other just in case, an idea that Twilight admitted was a good idea.
“We need to stick together. I’ll be the first pony to admit that you have more combat experience than I do, and I clearly am the stronger of the two of us. You also know how to deal with environments from the Everfree forest, if what you say about… your country is true. So I say we take turns taking the lead. If I say we flee, we flee. If we get into a fight, I’ll follow your orders. Since your brain clearly works differently from the average pony, if I freeze up, I want you to yell at me to do something.” We weren’t being watched yet. “I need your predator brain to come up with a lot of calls.”
“...I have an idea then,” I said with a smug little grin. “We… Well, some ponies from back home know a thing or two about war. I have a pretty sick strategy, since it’s bound to work.”
“And that idea is?”
“Find the center of the forest, and sit in a tree or hide in a bush. I can camouflage us using a few spells, and together, not many would be able to tank a full powered stun spell from either of us. Or either of us attacking them with any number of spells. This strat… Well, it would help me with not having to exhaust my meager magic pool, and it would keep us from having to fight super often, which would also help us stay energized for the final fight.”
“...That sounds boring, yet practical.”
“Hey, hiding in trees is what a smaller country of… ponies did against my the country i lived in, once upon a time. That smaller country floored us, despite the numerous war crimes committed.”
“...War crimes?”
“I’ll tell you more in the future. C’mon, the free for all gonna start, and we either sit in a tree, or hunt down your brother and kick his butt so that he isn’t a threat. I know Prince Blueblood ran back to Canterlot as soon as he realized he’d have to fight me again, so that’s one less pony we gotta deal with.”
“So your other strategy… involved sicking me on my brother?” Twilight asked.
Instead of walking into the center of the forest, we decided to walk for an hour into the forest and then climb up into a tree.
“Yeah. I fought Shiny and you saw how badly I lost. Apparently you mopped the field with your brother while pounding him with various spells.”
“...Oh. I didn’t want to do it though. You think I liked doing that to my BBBFF?” I raised an eyebrow. “Big Brother Best Friend Forever, duh.” That isn’t very obvious, Twilight, but whatever. “I know I had to, but I didn’t feel good about doing it.”
“I know. I know if I had to hit my brother, I wouldn’t feel great about it.”
“You’ve… never talked about your siblings. Why is that?”
“I just never had much of a desire to. It’s… not a great topic for me, if you can get that.” I know we were being watched, but I didn’t particularly care. “Uh… imagine never being able to see Shining Armor again, and make it six or seven times worse because I’m the oldest of my siblings. I had two brothers and a sister, my sister was the youngest. I couldn’t ever imagine raising a hoof to them. I…” I paused and cleared my throat. I think I felt a tear stain my cheek. “Let’s just say I miss them, hence why I never brought them up. I physically can’t go home, Twilight. It’s how life for me crumbled… But I have reasons to keep getting up in the morning, so I still keep going so despite my desire to not do so sometimes.”
“Such as…”
“Watching Celestia raise the sun while pretending to still be asleep is a reason. Reminds me that it’s a new day and life might get better. Usually, I’m proven right.”
“...That… You-”
“Yeah, I watch Celly raise the Sun every morning. How could I not? I’m the luckiest stallion in the world who gets to lay my eyes on such a view every morning. I still can’t get tired of it. Sometimes I do get the rare opportunity to watch Lulu-” I could feel Luna groan at me using that nickname for the entirety of Ponyville to hear- “and it’s super cute, since I can only ever do it after waking up early and sneaking up on her. She says it should be a great honor to watch her do as such, which it is, but she always makes the cutest little noise when I blow in her ear after she finishes raising the moon. Even with Luna insisting that I’m essentially her younger brother due to my relationship with Celestia… She forgets that once an older brother, always an older brother…” I looked dead at where I knew an Eye Spy Spell was watching. “You’re welcome Luna for the embarrassment. Yes, you will get to hit me in the back of the head for this when we get home. All I can say is worth it!”
I immediately dropped down from the tree, elbow first, right onto Shining Armor, knocking him out immediately. He disappeared in a flash of magic, and his buddy almost got me right after… if Twilight didn’t immediately knock him out too, sending him away.
“So…”
We got teleported out.
“What!?” I asked. “The Everfree is huge, and we didn’t get hurt. What happened?”
“Nearly everypony wanted out as soon as they stepped into the forest,” Celestia explained, walking up to us. “So you two won the whole event in the most boring, and embarrassing way for my sister, possible. So, congratulations you two, you’ve won the free for all!”
“...That was underwhelming,” I said.
“But we won,” Twilight pointed out.
“In the dumbest way possible. Everpony chickened out.” We both sighed. I think the both of us were hoping for something more in terms of difficulty in the free for all. We were both given medals and matching trophies, and sent off. Of course, somepony demanded a photo of the two of us snuggled together, wearing our medals from our respective won contests, with me having two bronze medals and Twilight having mostly golden medals, along with the two of us having gold trophies for winning, with Twilight having several. There was a whole paparazzi.
“The adorable couple that are learning from under Celestia’s wing” was the title of the article that came out a week later. A photo of me and Twilight, with our sides touching. Since Twilight was taller than I was, she was resting her head on top of mine, and Celly had laid her wings over the two of us. Why they didn't use the juicer ‘Princess has a new consort’ tagline is beyond me, but I suppose it would get some ‘aw’ points from everypony that saw it. What with the whole Twilight, the nearly untouchable student of the Princess, suddenly has a short little stallion to date.
Though the next page goes on to explain that we weren’t dating, and then the page after that, explained that I was Celestia’s brand new coltfriend and consort. Even in other universes, journalists still use slimy ways to get their articles written.
Overall, the whole event wasn’t all too bad, even if I was stressing out over trying to win events I really had no chance at coming in first place in. And it scored me a new job that I was getting ready for. Here’s hoping it’s fun.