//------------------------------//
// First by SubCinemaProductions 
// Story: FlutterMac Group Collab 
// by ADRNEL 
//------------------------------//


FIRST


by SubCinemaProductions


Two ponies sat on either side of a long table lined with apples inside the apple family barn. On one end stood Big Macintosh; he had a confident grin on his face as he eyed his opponent and fillyfriend. On the other end, nervously looking at the daunting task before her, was Fluttershy. In the middle of the two was Rainbow Dash, who was wearing a referee jacket and whistle around her neck and held a stopwatch. It had only been a simple bet, but many ponies had shown up to see the victor. Pinkie Pie, Twilight, Applejack, The Cakes (babies too), Spike, The Mayor (and her group of officials), Princess Luna (Spike had quickly sent her a letter), and several other irrelevant townsponies were all crammed in the little barn.

Fluttershy looked to her coltfriend and asked, “How did we even get here?” Although barely audible under the din of the crowd, Big Mac just shook his head in understanding of not understanding. Suddenly, Rainbow flew up to face the crowd.

“Alright everypony!” she shouted to the crowd. The crowded space quickly became quiet. “We all know the rules! The first pony to eat fifty apples in the shortest amount of time wins the bet! Now, I’ve had Twilight”-she indicated to the lavender pony–“set up a tracer on each of these apples so we can get a definite answer as to how many have been eaten.”  She turned to the players. “Are you two ready?”

The two nodded, one more anxiously than the other. The cyan pony took a deep breath and blew her whistle.
Big Mac set right to work. Nopony in the apple family had ever bested him in an apple eating contest, but he decided that he’d give Fluttershy a “fair” chance to beat him. Though he was a kind pony, he did enjoy a good victory and seeing his opponent crushed every now and again. He didn’t find it that unusual.

As he set into his second apple, he looked up and saw an unusual amount of cores piling up. Five he counted- no! Now six! His fillyfriend was on a good start to out-eat him! He gulped down his bite and finished his apple as fast as he could, but not before she downed three more. Before his eyes she just kept going at an un-pony-like pace. He hadn’t even finished ten before she had more than quadrupled him. It was going by so fast, that Pinkie Pie had commented, “Wow, she’s going so fast that she hasn’t even broken into a third paragraph yet!” What she meant by that, nopony knows.

Before he knew it, the whistle blew to cease eating. Twelve apples. Big Mac was ashamed at himself. Fluttershy, meanwhile, smiled shyly behind her hair as half of the crowd cheered and the other half groaned in defeat. “D-did I win?” she asked. Rainbow Dash flew over to her.

“Are you kidding? Of course you’ve won! I’ve never seen anypony out-eat Big Mac before! Heck, I’ve tried to beat him and he’s always bested me by a mile!”

The yellow pony’s eyes grew large. “W-wait,” she asked timidly, “Does that mean I’m the-“

“YES!” Dash yelled. Then, indicating over her back to the defeated Big Mac, she spoke more softly, “And I think you should go tell him.”

A new confident smile grew across the usually timid pony’s face as she marched proudly over to her coltfriend. He gave her both a look of congratulations and of defeat. She leaned in very close into his ear and whispered one word; one word that would change the outlook of themselves by others and themselves; words that, without them, might’ve not have led to their greatest moments together and apart:

“First.”