After Celestia's pet lit the Games' Flame, all the competing teams split up in their officials 'pits' along the coliseum's track. According to Pinkie Pie's announcing, the first trials that were going to take place would be the track trials. The games officials were busy preparing the said track for the first trial. In the mean time, Ponyville team got acquainted to their 'pit' neighbor, Cloudsdale team.
"AJ! Vinyl! How's it going?" Rainbow Dash asked happily. She was followed by a tall woman with short white hair and a smaller one with two toned yellow orangish hair.
"Hey, there Dash!" Applejack replied. "It's goin' good so far, what 'bout ya? Who're yar friends?"
"Things are going sweet! This is Gilda and Lightining Dust!" Rainbow introduced them.
"Hey!" The white haired one, Gilda, said in grumpy voice.
" 'Sup!" Lightning Dust said with a cocky grin. "Dash talked a lot about you two. She keep on saying you're quite tough."
"Did she now?" Vinyl chuckled.
"Not so much impressive now that I see them." Gilda grumbled, earning a frown from the two Apples.
"G! Behave a little. These are my friends." Rainbow chastised her teammate. Judging from her annoyed tone, it looked like it wasn't the first time Gilda behaved like that.
"Haha! Excuse Gilda a bit! She's always grumpy when she's not flying." Lightning Dust chuckled. "Anyway, which one of you gals is gonna compete with me in the hurdles qualification?" She asked eagerly.
"None of us." Vinyl shook her head. "That's Rose's trial." She added, designating her friend behind her.
A couple of meters behind them, Rose, wearing her brand new running gear, was busy stretching her legs and warming up, under the watchful eyes of nurse Redheart. Zecora was talking to her, probably for some last minute advices. Lightning Dust raised an eyebrow when she saw her.
"Are you sure it's a good idea?" She asked abruptly.
"What in tarnation's that supposed to mean?" Applejack asked with narrowed eyes.
"I mean, compared to you two, she looks like a twig."
"So?" Vinyl asked with a crooked eyebrow, although it wasn't really visible with her shades still on her nose.
"She's built like a florist!" Gilda chimed in. "Lightning thinks she's gonna be useless in the race."
"Beg pardon?" The two apples said sharply. Rainbow's teammates were starting to get on their nerves.
"Dust, I can see that she's warming up. Why don't you go do that?" Rainbow suggested quickly when she noticed the dark glare the two apples were giving to her teammates. "Gilda, go help her out."
"Sure thing Dash!" Lightning Dust, oblivious to the Apples' bad mood, nodded before going back to the Cloudsdale's pit. Gilda gave a light nod before going after her teammate.
"What was that all about?" Vinyl asked, blinking.
"Nothing! They're just a bit too dense during competitions" Rainbow explained with a sigh.
"Dense? A bit full o' themselves would be more accurate!" Applejack remarked, earning an approving nod from Vinyl.
"Oh! Come on guys! They aren't bad gals." Rainbow said.
"If you say so." Vinyl conceded. "But they better not look down on our teammates anymore!"
"Hey, easy there." Rainbow chuckled with her hands lifted in a defensive pose. "I'd like to still have all my team members at the end of the games." She joked, lightening the mood of her two friends from Ponyville.
"To all competitors for the first part of the 100 m hurdles, please take your position to your starting blocks." Pinkie shouted from her flying contraption. "I call the runners from the following team, Saddle Arabia for lane 1, Zebrica for lane 2, Canterlot for lane 3, Ponyville for lane 4, Cloudsdale for lane 5, Manehatten for lane 6, Nheighpon for lane 7, and Las Pegasus for lane 8." Pinkie added in a very unusual serious tone.
"Well, this is it!" Rainbow said happily. "Say good luck to Rose for me." She added with smile, before returning to her team's pit.
"Thanks, RD! Good luck to your 'mate as well." Vinyl shouted, before turning toward Rose.
"Ok, Rose. It's up to you!" Zecora said softly. "Keep calm and nothing will came out of blue."
"Thanks, I think." Rose said with a small crisped smile.
"Want to kiss the Lucky Muffin?" Ditzy asked, extending her baked good shaped lucky charm.
"No, thank you Ditzy. I'm feeling lucky enough." Rose giggled, gently turning away her friend's charm. "Plus, Muffins aren't good for my diet." She joked with a genuine laugh.
"But I didn't ask you to eat it." Ditzy whispered in confusion, putting her Lucky Muffin in its special satchel.
After having received all the cheers and wishes for good luck from her teammates. Rose walked nervously toward the track's lane 4, she stood behind her starting blocks, awkwardly shifting from one foot to another. The other competitors also took their positions in their respective lanes. At her right was Lightning Dust, who didn't seem to be stressed at all and at her left was an athletic woman with long white hair. Rose recognized her, it was Fleetfoot from the Wonderbolts.
"First time in a competition?" Fleetfoot asked with a soft caring smile.
"It's that obvious, huh?" Rose answered with a shaking voice. "It looked fun when Cloud Kicker talked to me about the team at my flower shop. Now, it's a lot less fun." She said slowly, earning a small chuckle from the Wonderbolt.
"I hear you, sister!" Fleetfoot nodded. "I clacked my teeth so much before my first race, they thought I had fallen into a frozen lake beforehand." She chuckled at the memory, quickly joined by Rose. "One little advice, forget the audience and think it like it's practice again. It still does wonders on me!" She added with a wink.
The casual conversation with a world famous athlete and a pointer from the same athlete seemed to have managed to calm Rose's nervousness.
"Thank you very much!" Rose beamed.
"You're welcome." Fleetfoot nodded. "Good luck to you." She added, extending her hand toward Rose who happily shook it.
"Good luck to you too." Rose said before turning toward Lightning Dust who had been watching the scene. "Good Lu..."
"Save it, flower girl! You're gonna need it more than me." Lightning Dust interrupted with a cocky grin, before focussing on her pre-race routine.
"Ooookaaay." Rose whispered in confusion. "So much for being nice!" She muttered for herself.
"So, Tia, who do you think we'll win this race?" Luna asked with interest.
"Luna, those are only the qualifications. It doesn't matter who ends up first." Celestia answered playfully.
"You know what I mean! Who'll pass the qualifications?" Luna asked, rolling her eyes.
"Hmmm, I think we can be certain that Fleetfoot is going to qualify." Twilight pondered. "That zebrican runner looks like he can make it as well."
"There's also Lightning Dust. According to Rainbow Dash, she's quite talented." Fluttershy chimed in quietly.
"I'm curious about Ponyville's choice." Cadence pondered while scratching her chin. "I would have thought that Vinyl or Applejack would participate in those running trials."
"I wonder about that as well." Twilight nodded, before facing Rarity and Octavia. "Do you have an idea why they didn't chose one of them?" Rarity and Octavia both shook their heads. "Well, let's just hope for them that this Rose is any good."
"I think Applejack mentioned she does classical dance." Rarity pondered. "Not sure that it helps in anything."
"We'll just have to wait and see!" Octavia shrugged before returning her attention on the track.
"Allright, everypony. I mean everyone." Pinkie shouted in her megaphone. 'Damn, almost forgot it's a humanized fic!' "Let me remind you of a few rules of this trial. Number one, the point is to run and jump. The first one with a pair of wing deployed is disqualified and I'll personally stuff his face with a triple layer chocolate cake." Pinkie threatened vigorously.
Unbeknownst to Pinkie, her 'threat' almost convinced all the competitors to deploy their wings, even those who didn't have any. It even took a small spell from Luna to keep Celestia from flying in front of Pinkie Pie. The Sun Princess had only two weaknesses: she can't say no to Pinkie's infallible puppy eyes and she suffers from a massive addiction to any sort of cake. Luckily, no incident occurred because of Pinkie's announcing.
"Number B, no use of magic what so ever, otherwise disqualification!" Pinkie continued. "Letter Three, ......I don't have anything more to say." Pinkie said sheepishly, causing small laughs from the audience. "Anyway, runners! Take your marks!"
Rose had followed Fleetfoot's advice and now she was feeling completely relaxed. She took position on her starting block, her hands firmly and her gaze focused on the border of the start line. She didn't need to watch the other competitors to see they were in position as well.
"Get set!"
Rose and the others started to lean on their starting block, their back slowly lifted up. Rose didn't feel the others' presence, following Fleetfoot's advice, in her mind she was back to practice, and at practice it was only her and those she trusted. She raised her head and saw her objective, the finish line situated behind ten hurdles. It wasn't scary or stressful anymore, it was just like practice.
Pinkie pulled out a smaller version of her party cannon, it was only bigger than her hand. She pointed toward the sky and shoot. It didn't threw any confetti, any streamers, it even didn't made a whistle sound. It only made a sharp Bang.
Rose launched herself forward along with the others competitors. After a few long strides, she came close to the first hurdle. Like in practice, she leaned on her right foot and jumped, lifting her left leg high. She passed above the obstacle without any problem. As soon as her left foot touched the ground, she went back to her full speed strides, as if the first obstacle hadn't been there. She came close to the second hurdle. It wasn't harder than the first.
"Aw Yeah! She's doing it!" Vinyl shouted excitedly.
"Ah reckon, she completely forgot her stress!" Applejack said with pride.
"GO ROSELUCK!" Ditzy and Allie yelled with enthusiasm.
"Come on, lift those sexy thighs! Move those nice good looking legs!" Cloud Kicker cheered in her own very peculiar way.
"CK, whatever has gotten into you is no little thing." Raindrops said slowly, taking a small step away from her teammate.
"It looks like they made the right decision after all." Twilight blinked.
"That's very surprising." Fluttershy whispered in amazement.
"My star, her movements are so graceful." Rarity whistled. "It almost feels like a ballet."
"From the looks of it, that classical dance thing does seem to help in something." Octavia nodded with a small smile.
Rose's race was going fantastically well, her years of ballet made her jumps nimble as those of a cat. She jumped above the hurdles and went back to running like it was nothing. She was so focused on her own race that she hadn't even realize what her position was. She was just behind Fleetfoot and Lightning Dust who were on par for the first place, but they were both losing a few tenth of second at each jumps, something she wasn't. She was gaining on them.
At mid race, she was on par with them. After jumping above the sixth hurdle, she took the lead. Ponyville's supporters rose from their seats and holding back their breath. One of their own was beating a Wonderbolt in racing! Everyone watched in awe as Rose jumped above the seventh, eight, ninth hurdle. She had reinforced the gap between her and her opponents. There was only one hurdle left.
She ran close to the last hurdle of the race. She leaned on her right foot one last time before jumping with her left leg higher than before. Just like for the other hurdles, she passed above it flawlessly. Her left foot was about to touch the ground and she was about to sprint to the finish, to run those last ten meters.
But something went wrong! When her left foot touched the ground, it slipped to her right. She felt a huge sharp pain in her left ankle. Rose fell on her left side, screaming in pain and rolling on the ground, her eyes closed. She heard the crowd gasped in surprise and shock, she felt a small, unexpected breeze on her face. She heard the running steps of the other competitors passed next to her and becoming more and more distant. She could hear a woman she knew shouting her name.
She opened her eyes, and saw the face of Redheart in front of hers. She looked around and saw that Fleetfoot was still on the track, her light blue wings spread on her back. She remembered the small breeze on her face. She realized what had happened, Fleetfoot must have summoned her wings in order to not trample Rose. Tears started flowing from her eyes, not only had she lost but she also had caused Fleetfoot to be disqualified. She was so ashamed of herself.
"Applejack, bring her to our pit!" Redheart ordered firmly. Vinyl and Applejack and rushed after the nurse when they saw Rose falling during the race.
"Sure thing." Applejack said, before grabbing softly her sobbing teammate and carrying her to their team's pit, followed by Redheart.
Before following her sister and her team's nurse, Vinyl turned toward Fleetfoot. "Thank you for...You know." She said uneasily.
"It's ok." Fleetfoot waved off. "I hope she doesn't have anything serious." She added in soft caring voice.
Vinyl joined her teammates in the pit, the atmosphere was incredibly dense for the Ponyville's team. Rose was lying on a bench, still crying and everyone knew it wasn't from pain at all. Redheart had taken her left shoe off and was examining her injured ankle. After a few minutes, Redheart sighed in relief.
"Good news! Her ankle isn't broken, it's just a small twist." The nurse said with a small smile. Everyone let out a relieved sigh. "Rain', Allie, Ditzy could please help her to get in a shower? Vera would help her washing up." She asked softly.
Rose was covered in dirt and clay because of her fall. The three concerned parties nodded and helped their friends toward their locker room. As soon as they were out of earshot, Redheart turned toward Zecora, Turner and the Apple Sisters grimily.
"We might have a problem." She said softly, her gaze focused on Vinyl and Applejack, as if she feared their reactions.
"What is it?" Zecora asked. "It's about her ankle, isn't it?" She asked with worry.
"No. It's a bit better and a bit worst than that." Redheart said, grabbing Rose's shoe and showing it to everyone. "Do you see anything abnormal with this shoe?"
Zecora and Applejack shook their heads with confusion. Vinyl lifted her glasses up to her forehead and took the shoe in her hands. As soon as her hands touched the tread, she noticed what Redheart had meant by her question.
"It's moist!" Vinyl said softly. "Her tread is moist."
"How in tarnation did it get wet?" Applejack asked with a puzzled look.
Vinyl took a more insisting look at the tread, she noticed a something stuck between the shoes grooves. It was incredibly small and she had only spotted thanks to the fact it reflected a ray of light in her eyes. Her eyes went wide when she could name what was stuck inside the grooves. It made no sense but it couldn't be anything else.
"It's ice." Vinyl let out in a whisper before showing the small icicle to her coaches and her sister. At their grand dismay, the icicle melt in front of every one's eyes, only leaving a small droplet.
"What do you think it means?" Turner asked softly.
"It's pretty obvious!" Redheart said with a dark tone. "Someone made our Rose stumble. She had never lost her footing during training, and her race was absolutely flawless before her fall."
"Should we go and tell the committee about it?" Vinyl asked.
"With just a wet shoe? It'll bring more problems than solutions." Turner shook his head. "Beside, we have no idea of who did it."
"I have!" Cloud Kicker said softly as she walked back in the pit. Her usual playful smirk completely absent from her face, instead her face was contorted in a very angry frown,
"CK, where were you?" Vinyl asked. "What do you know?"
Cloud Kicker looked around to see that no one else could hear what she had to say. When she was certain that only her coaches and her two teammates were in earshot. She cleared her throat.
"You're not gonna like this...."
"I'm so awesome! I'm so awesome!" Lightning Dust sang happily, as she was bouncing around.
"Will cut that out already?" Gilda asked with a chuckle. "Man, you shouldn't be so happy. If not for that flower girl's accident, you would have been third instead of first." She added with a smirk
"Are you saying that Eponian florist would have beaten me?" Lightning Dust asked with a crooked eyebrow. "No way in Tartarus, that would have happened."
"From what I saw, she was beating you." Gilda shrugged. "You're lucky she caused Fleetfoot to disqualify. Now, we're sure to get the gold in the hurdles."
"Yes, how Lucky!" Lightning Dust said with a knowing grin.
"Hang on....You got something to do with this?" Gilda whispered with a blank stare. She quickly smiled at her teammate. "What did you do?" She asked eagerly in a whisper.
Instead of answering, Lightning Dust showed Gilda her right palm. She closed her fist for a second or two, before opening it again. On her palm, was a thin layer of ice. She gave a proud smirk at Gilda who nodded, very impressed.
"Wicked, Dude! When did you learn to do that without spreading your wings?" Gilda asked in amazement. "You gotta to teach me that!"
"I'll teach you that trick tonight in our dorm!" Lightning Dust nodded. "You really thought I would have let an mere flower girl beat me!"
"HAHA! Not really." Gilda laughed.
The two Cloudsdale athletes decided to go back to their pit. Rainbow had authorized them to have a small walk around, as a small gift for Lightning's performance. They both shared a laugh at Rose's accidents, certain that no one could hear them. None of them noticed Cloud Kicker leaning on one of the stadium's pillar or the fact that she had heard everything they had just said.
After Cloud Kicker's tale, Vinyl lifted Applejack in her magic, as her sister was about to run out of the pit. Applejack was furious and Vinyl perfectly understood why. She was almost convinced of letting go of her sister and letting her have her righteous moment of anger. Too bad for Applejack, it was only almost.
"Let me go, Vi!" Applejack groaned. "Ah'm gonna buck them vermits faces into the next season!"
"As much as I want to let you go, I can't." Vinyl sighed. "Can't we go to the Games official with what you told us, CK?"
"'m afraid not." Cloud Kicker shook her head. "Jupitarian weather manipulation leaves no trace like Titanian magic. A wet shoe and my word only wouldn't be sufficient. It would only make us look bad." She said in defeat.
"So we're supposed to let them be, without doing anything?" Applejack asked in a defeated anger.
"Of course not!" Zecora shouted. She had been silent since Cloud Kicker came back. "There's a lesson that they need to be taught!" She eyed the three athletes in front of her. "They'll pay for Rose's dismay! But not like you think, Applejack. It'll be settled on the track."
"What do you mean, Zecora?" Cloud Kicker said with a growing smile.
It was a rhetorical question, Vinyl and Applejack started smiling as well, they all understood what Zecora had meant. Turner and Redheart nodded in approval. Zecora rose from the bench she had been sitting on.
"This Lightning Dust made Rose fall, because she was about to lose. We can not not answer to such a 'bruise'." Zecora said softly. "Lighting Dust wants Cloudsdale Victory at all costs, we shall give her our rightful ripostes. We'll just do better than them, make sure we stand above them." Everyone else nodded in agreement. "Let's make sure that the Dust in her name, would be for the one she catches by running after our fame!"
"YES, COACH!" Vinyl, Cloud Kicker and Applejack shouted simultaneously!