//------------------------------// // 4 - "Competition" // Story: The Storm's Challenge // by OneLonelyPickle //------------------------------// Chapter 4 - “Competition” Back at Ponyville train station, Rainbow felt the last itches of anticipation leave her as the first group of competitors left the train. A nearby loudspeaker crackled to life and somepony's voice filtered through it. “Well hellooo there, sportsfans! Tele-P here from Radio Canterlot, and if you don’t get the name, don’t ask — it’s an inside joke, folks! Anywho, I’m gonna be walking and talking all of you through all the prelims, and then when the good stuff’s underway my amazing co-host Kissie’s gonna join me for one Tartarus of a crazy radio cover of Maelstrom's EQUESTRIA-SHATTERING contest, the Storm's Challenge!" The ponies around the train station took notice and looked up at the loudspeaker, excitedly whispering among themselves. "Our job is simple, sportsfans: to give you fine ponies from all across Equestria just the right info, and to explain things just when ya need it, so you don’t have to pull your eyes away from all the action and the excitement — and boy if some ‘exciting’ individuals didn’t just arrive in Ponyville! My junior associates are there right now to give Radio Canterlot eyes on the scene!” Spitfire chuckled. “Oh mane, it’s Tele-P! You remember that suite party we had last fall, eh Soarin’?” Soarin’ broke into a nostalgic fit of laughter. “Do I? Has there ever been a unicorn who can smack back more ciders? I was afraid the guy was gonna woof his oats all over the place!” Rainbow watched with wide eyes and a dropped jaw as the passengers got off the train. Most seemed to be normal athletes, with different colors or shades on their coats, different styles of manes, and in all kinds of shapes between short and skinny and large and muscular, but there were a few that were going to attract the most attention. One such flyer spoke to her audience as she stepped off the train. “Vell, zis is quite za velkommen party — mmm, no?” “First off the train is the always attractive Ms. VeeVee of the far north! Not the Frozen North — beyond it! Nopony really knows what’s up there in those far reaches of our land, but we can all be sure that they know how to entice a stallion! VeeVee has come with her weapon of choice in any race: a black, leather outfit that covers all the right places — and for us guys that means none of the wrong ones!” Tele-P made a growling noise and continued. “I think I speak for all of us when I say that’s one mare I wouldn’t mind sharing a train with! Never before seen in the Canterlot area but active in the flying scenes elsewhere in Equestria, VeeVee is a fan favorite of many a red-blooded stallion!” Droves of paparazzi and fans (and even some flyers) — most of them stallions — flocked around VeeVee as the light grey, abnormally tall mare blew kisses and made amorous faces. The light from the cameras was blinding, and Rainbow had to cover her eyes on several occasions. VeeVee was wearing an outfit that made even Rainbow blush. Tight black leather covered VeeVee's belly, worked its way up to the base of her wings, and spiraled half way up her neck. Her face was plastered with thick makeup: black eye shadow, painted eyebrows, blush, and her hair, an equally as sleek black that puffed up like a soufflé, reminded Rainbow of something she saw Rarity wear once to a fancy party. A black beauty mark pocked her left cheek. What drew Rainbow’s attention the most were two shiny fangs that poked out of VeeVee's mouth, and the pair of wings that the mare sported. They were the leathery wings of a bat! Rainbow also noticed a strange object come out of the train among VeeVee's possessions: a long, blackened tree branch with a lightly-glowing stone on the end of it. Spitfire was grinning ear to ear. “Heh, she should be interesting, eh Soarin’? I wonder if other batponies will join the race." Soarin' could only respond with a mumble. He, too, wore a grin, though it was a bumbling, goofy one. Rainbow swore she saw little hearts fly around his head. Spitfire scoffed. While most of the male paparazzi followed VeeVee, the rest of the stallions and all of the mares (who were glad to see VeeVee depart) remained to witness a new arrival from another cabin. Rainbow heard his roaring voice before she saw him. “Make way, wee ones! Boozebeard the — hic! — boooooozy has come!” Soon enough a massive hunk of tan-colored fur and flesh that might have been a stallion careened at full speed out of the cabin, sending a wave of ponies backwards into the air. Some ponies close to the train screamed and each of the Wonderbolts and Rainbow took a step back. Tele-P commentated once more. “Make way indeed, folks! Boozebeard, the unexplainable leader of Tall Tale’s Adventure Flyers, has made his appearance in Ponyville for the first time! For those of you who don’t know…” An incredibly loud belch cut through the air. Boozebeard’s head rose above the crowd as he himself barely managed to get back onto four hooves, wobbling back and forth and looking positively out of his mind in cider inebriation. “...he enjoys his fermented apple beverages just a little too much!” Soarin’s eyes were wide, and Spitfire’s mouth nearly hit the ground. “N-No way.” Soarin’ proclaimed. “Just how much cider did he drink?! And here I thought Tele-P was a heavyweight!” “But don’t let the drinking fool you — Boozebeard's not a pushover when it comes to flying!” The huge, bushy tan wings of Boozebeard shot out, knocking back a few paparazzi as he positioned them outstretched to his sides. With one final belch, he shot up into the sky like a rocket. The force of the ascent was like a shockwave that blew ponies into the air and tumbling backwards. Rainbow and company, too, were carried away. The speed Boozebeard made his way high into the sky wasn’t even measurable. “P-Pony smokes!” cried Soarin’ with a shaky voice as he gained his bearings. Rainbow was transfixed on Boozebeard, her sore jaw once again hanging in disbelief. His speed might have given the sonic rainboom a run for its money. Before anypony had time to pull their eyes away from Boozebeard’s aerobatics, Tele-P announced another arrival, one of the last to get off the train. “Here comes a big name for those of you from up north — that’s right, all you Vanhoovans, your boy is here! Slapshot, the stallion who completed a one day marathon from one end of the entire Frozen North Ridge to the other! More at home on the ice than in the sky, this flyer's here to attend his first major competition since joining the Equestria Flyers League!" Slapshot stood at the doorway of the train and looked out at Ponyville. He nodded to himself for a few seconds, chewing on something brown that made Rainbow recoil in disgust, before announcing to nopony in particular, "Jeez, cameras and everything, eh? Quite the welcoming party." He turned to a random pony and asked through a mouthful of whatever he was chewing, "Hey, do yoose ponies have a skating rink I can use or what?" Nothing particularly odd or exciting about Slapshot caught Rainbow's eye, so she only gave the pony a once over. He was smoky white with a dark grey winter hat and a jersey with "VANHOOVER" printed on it. He was carrying huge bulging saddlebags and a hockey stick was strapped to his side. There was a silver medallion positioned snuggly on his neck, an image of two outstretched wings embossed on it.  “Though Slapshot is one of the newest members of the EFL, he's already one of their top flyers, sitting just behind Zephyr and Bushwhacker in terms of overall speed," Tele-P said, through the loudspeakers. "However, this competition is not just about speed — and even we, with all this information on the competitors, don’t even know what this guy’s capable of when the chips go down! How exciting!” The train emptied the last of its passengers and the loudspeakers shut off after a goodbye from Tele-P. All of the big name arrivals had entered the station to be briefed on the situation, as Ponyville had been by Maelstrom earlier that day, leaving Rainbow and the Wonderbolts alone for the most part. Spitfire was the first to voice her concerns. "We definitely need to keep our eyes and ears open about some of these flyers. I mean, that 'Boozebeard' fellow surprised me! I've never heard of Tall Tale or their 'Adventure Flyers'! I was expecting the EFL to make a showing, for sure, but these other characters shouldn't be ignored either." Soarin' chimed up, his voice an octave higher than normal, "Yeahhh... and that VeeVee... I mean, just wow!" Spitfire's face became sour, and Rainbow heard the starting sounds of an argument before turning from the Wonderbolt duo and looking at the station. She narrowed her vision and frowned. So, this isn’t just gonna be like the Best Young Flyer competition, is it? Ponies are gonna get hurt — some of 'em real bad. It’s scary as buck, but, for some reason… She smiled wide. I can’t stop shaking in excitement! * * * Pinkie hopped towards Sweet Apple Acres wearing the biggest, happiest smile she had conjured up in at least one whole minute. Her bouncing noises caused some passersby to exchange odd glances, though most just smiled alongside the pink mare — it was Pinkie, after all! "So, now that I'm free from assistant-for-a-day duties,” Pinkie thought aloud, “I can go hang out with Applejack!" Pinkie came to a sudden stop. "Oh no! Wait!" She cried in dismay and threw her hooves up to her cheeks. "Applejack probably has farm work to do!" Pinkie let her hooves slowly pull the sides of her face down like it was putty and she plopped down onto her rump in defeat. She sulked and whined like a sad puppy. All of a sudden, Pinkie leapt back into action. "But hold on!" She exclaimed, "Since I’ll be there, we can get all of her work done really, really fast! Like, in forty seconds — no, thirty!" Pinkie looked up and squinted. The sun had passed the middle of the sky. "So that would give us precisely" — Pinkie stared at the sun for a long time, as if calculating its distance — "the whole rest of the day to play!" After a few hundred more bounces, Pinkie was at Sweet Apple Acres. She spotted Granny Smith and Big Mac. The eldest pony in Ponyville rambled and sorted apples as her grandson loaded a bushel onto a cart. "...and theeeen I said to my friend, errr, Banana Yeller, I think her name was, err, that we were gonna go down to the ol' swimmin' hole for a swim. Course in those days..." Big Mac continued working and offered an occasional "Eeyup" as his contribution to the conversation. Pinkie trotted up to the two. "Hey Big Mac, hey Granny Smith! Could you tell me where Applejack is? I was going to help her with her chores so we can play for the rest of the day!" Granny Smith was facing a different direction and didn't hear Pinkie, so she just kept on talking, but Big Mac had and turned to Pinkie, wiping some sweat off his brow. He replied, nice and slow. "Eeeeeeyup! Applejack's stacking haybales over at the barn." Pinkie thanked him and went on her way. I guess we don't have to play the Big Mac game because I already won!" she thought with a giggle. The temperature was scorching and Pinkie hadn't realized just how thirsty she was until the barn came into view. She spotted a watering trough and made a beeline for it. She did not see Applejack in front of the open barn carrying a haybale. "Heya, Pinkie," Applejack exclaimed, "What're you—" Pinkie did an intricate dive into the watering trough and caused a huge tidal wave, which mostly targeted Applejack. The farmer pony spit out some water and glared at Pinkie, her stetson and hair completely drenched. "—up to," Applejack finished, eyes burning a hole through Pinkie. The party pony raised her head, waterlogged mane leaking on all sides, and shot Applejack a sheepish smile. "Hehe, oops! Sorry AJ! It's just sooooo hot today and I bounced all the way from town and I was so thirsty, so I saw this water here and just had to do a dive because, you know, it's much more fun that way!" "Uh-huh..." replied Applejack as she sat on her behind and removed her stetson so she could wring it out. Afterward, she continued her work, speaking to Pinkie at the same time. "What brings you to the farm, sugercube? Ah assume it wasn't just to get a drink, not that that'd be a problem." Pinkie brought a hoof up to her muzzle. "Wellllll..." she began. Pinkie hurriedly listed off all the things she had planned for her and Applejack to do once all the farm work was finished. Applejack snickered by the time Pinkie finally ran out of breath. "Shoot, sounds like a hoedown of a good time. But ah'm almost done all mah chores fer the day, if you just wanna, err..." Applejack paused to watch Pinkie put water in her mouth and spit it up like a fountain. "...cool off." The whipping, booming sound of something slicing through the air, far above the clouds, made both ponies look up to the sky. An entourage of gleaming pegasi were flying past, the harsh sun causing a million reflections off of their gem-like armor. A beam hit Pinkie in the eye and she flopped over onto the side of the trough. "Gahhh! I'm bliiiiiind, Applejack! Bliiiiind! Tell my mother I love her. Oh, and Daddy Pie, my sisters, Twilight, Rain—" Suddenly, Pinkie stopped the dramatics and froze. Applejack was still looking up, with a hoof above her eyes to mitigate the sunlight. "Whoa!" Pinkie cried. The water behind and underneath her in the trough began to bubble and shake. Her tail, somehow bushy again despite having been previously waterlogged, began to vibrate violently. "What the hay?" She jumped out of the trough and turned around to watch her tail. Applejack noticed at that point and stepped closer. "Yer tail, Pinkie! Don't it only do that when somethin' bad's supposed ta happen?" Pinkie looked at Applejack. The party pony's expression completely contradicted her normal self, and she spoke with earnest concern to Applejack. "AJ, my tail has NEVER done this before! This is, like, fifty times worse than a normal tail twitch!" The sound of the flying pegasi overhead subsided and Pinkie's tail slowly returned to normal. Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Well, shoot, it's back ta normal now. What do you think's the bad thing that caused it, Pinkie?" Applejack looked around her and squinted out towards the orchard. "Heck, did all them pegasi flying by like that knock over one of the apple trees?" A rumble from behind Applejack answered her concerns. She jumped out of the way just in time as haybales crashed down where she once stood. The commotion kicked up clouds of dust around both ponies and they spent the next few moments coughing. When the dust subsided, Pinkie and Applejack locked eyes. "Ah guess that would answer it" — Applejack smiled — "Thanks Pinkie! Yer tail saved me from becoming an apple pancake!" Pinkie looked back up to the sky and spoke solemnly. "Yeah... I guess that's all it was..."