//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: A Surprise Wrapped In a Surprise // Story: A Crumbling Path // by Secondhand Brony //------------------------------// "AJ, Jolly's starting to wake up." A purple pegasus with a scarlet mane and with beautiful sapphire eyes alerted. "Uh, Applejack how does he know my name?" Jolly asked as he yawned, already guessing the pegasus was a young colt by his nose. "Ah told him." Applejack answered quickly judging by her choice of words. "Oh hey is that the new addition to the group?" A light brown earth pony with a darker colored mane and ruby red eyes asked so eagerly. 'Addition, Group.' Jolly thought to himself guessing Applejack didn't have any friends judging on where she lived. "Well since we all kinda are new to Jolly, I'm Wind Whistle." The pegasus introduced seeming just a little bit akward to Jolly. But to Applejack Wind was one of the kindness, athletic young colt she's ever seen but by Jolly's facial expression she could this wasn't gonna end well or so she thought. "I'm Sugar Cookie." The earth pony blurted out like she was gonna explode if she didn't get the message out. Applejack knew Sugar was very happy and eager to do anything she was usually compared to some other pink earth pony, even though having all this energy she always would stand up for her friends, but not just her friends anypony. "Well we made it this far so, Ah'm guessin' lunch." Applejack stated although acting as if she was asking a question. "Okay." Jolly answered while looking around searching for any other surprise. So the new gang started to walk to PonyVille. -------------------------------------------------------- "Ta, didn't expect to see you here." Wind Whistle insulted the best he could trying to keep Rapid Runner from coming over to the crew, 'cause previously Applejack told him about who bullied Jolly, but maybe insulting the clever earth pony wasn't the best idea. "Shutup, your're probably a nobody like this fool here." Rapid quickly said, while Jolly thought 'How could he bully all of us if he's just one pony.' But he stood there hiding his scared face. "We weren't supposed to do this race until Monday." Jolly reminded hoping Rapid hadn't changed his mind about the race. "Change of plans, now or never." Rapid strictly said as if he were Jolly's dad. "Ok, then lets begin." Jolly accepted, but he was trapped in his confidence he forgot how tricky Rapid can be at times. "Everypony you can come out now, to watch Jolly get his flank whooped that is." Rapid insulted not without calling all that was friends. Jolly was surprised to see Toxic and Shadow come from behind the school house, Thinking 'I knew Toxic wasn't a real friend all this time just lying to me right in my face I mean are you serious, and as for Shadow the same I would say to him as I would say to Toxic, And again to even think those ponies were my friends makes me sick." Even meeting somepony that had the slightest companionship with Rapid, Jolly would damn all his friends to hell. For a coy unicorn he had quite the temper and punching Rapid in class was just the beginning of things, and I say this because Jolly has had thoughts of how to murder Rapid and for a 11 year old his imagination could be very violent. But Jolly wasn't that kinda pony that would kill somepony right of the bat, it would take time for him to gain enough hatred to even injure Rapid, for Jolly it took about years and years for that to happen. "Okay you two are going to go from this junk yard to The side of SugarCube Corner, and Shadow we'll see there." Toxic informed, but Jolly's hatred for Toxic was rising faster than usual, soon it reached over the hatred for Rapid, still while thinking very deviously about Toxic he also thought 'How could he and Shadow just betray me just like I was nothing, like I was a pop can they could just kick around for their amusement.' "READY... SET... GO!" Toxic announced, even though Jolly was caught up in his hatred he still heard Toxic's announcement and he took of trailing behind Rapid Runner, Rapid started to taunt Jolly for what he was a unicorn, and unicorns weren't made for racing well anyway Rapid taunted using the words "You're going down you pitiful filly." Jolly was usually mistaken for a filly because of his nose and his brightly colored coat, mane, and tail, oh and don't forget about his pink eyes anyway this attracted Jolly as he turned his head to Rapid and quickly turned back to the race. Rapid noticed Jolly was gaining an edge on him, he was close enough to trip Jolly from his right hind leg so he did so he did, causing Jolly to almost fall giving the slightest edge to Rapid. Jolly tried to give a cry for help, but no sound came out, this angered Jolly putting all his force on his injured hind leg putting more and more pain on it as he went full sprint, the two ponies were getting close to the side of SugarCube Corner nopony was giving an edge on each other they switched leads like how Applejack and RainbowDash switched feelings for each other, those two ponies had a complicated best friendship, but anyway. As they went on, they came closer to the unicorn dedicated to music Shadow Beats, they passed. They heard Shadow holler the words "Jolly by a nose! The crowd didn't give away any sign of excitement, the only voice that was heard was Sugar Cookie's as she cheered "Yeah Jolly, you go boy." Jolly would rather not get cheered on, because as he finished he fell on the floor writhing in pain, groaning, as this happened Applejack was the first to respond to Jolly's signs pain and agony, then the rest of the gang started to follow Applejack they were very worried for him hoping he was ok, they felt like their problems were nothing compared to what Jolly had to go through. "Shadow carry Jolly with your fancy magic." Applejack demanded, she preferred to be very strict during these situations. "Got it." Shadow replied, he also suggested to be very series and strict in these type of situations.