“You okay dude?” Swift asked.
“Yeah…”I said, rubbing my temples. “I just was remembering something embarrassing…
He patted my back. “I know how that feels. I still get shivers when I think about when I tried to hit on Surprise. She didn’t even recognize what I was doing…”
“Oh really?” I leaned in, with a glint in my eye. “Tell me more…”
“Um…” Swift leaned back, unnerved at my sudden interest.
“Swift...” Rivet said “You do realize you just gave ammo to an admitted blackmailer, right?”
“It’s okay, we’re all buddies riiiiight?” I leaned further into him “And buddies share secrets with eachother, riiiight?” I placed a hoof on his shoulder, closing in with every word. “So as long as we STAY buddies, everything will be peachy, riiiight?”
He gulped. “S-sure. After all, friends can trust eachother with their secrets, right Painter? He said, his gaze getting a bit harder with the last word.
Touché.
“Guys.” Rivet said “Ponies are staring again.”
“GET A ROOM, YOU TWO!”
TWACK
“OW!”
Swift slugged me off him.
“How cruel!” I said, tearing up and rubbing my cheek. “I thought we were friends…”
“HEY!”
Hovering a few feet away from me was Rainbow Dash, glaring daggers through me.
“What are YOU doing here?”
“Well, when a mare and a stallion think that they love each-other very much, the stallion takes his pen-“
“STOP PLAYING GAMES WITH ME!”
“Oh, speaking of games,” I reached into my scarf and tossed another 5 bit piece. “I believe this was our be-ow!” She spiked the coin back into my face, hitting right where Swift hit me a moment before.
“DASH!” Silver yelled from below “GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!”
“Tch. Coming sir!” She gave me an I-have-my-eyes-on-you motion before flying to the ground floor.
As Dash was getting chewed out by Silver, both Swift and Rivet stared at me with confused faces.
“Um… Do…Do you know her?” Rivet asked.
“What? Nooooooo. No. No way. Not at all. I would remember a garish mane like that."
“But…the coin.”
“A stallion can’t be generous every once in a while? Oh by the way, that was my last bit, I’ll need to borrow money from you.”
"What?!”
“Just think of it as advance pay…I am getting paid for this, right?”
Before he could answer, Silver called the next name.
“RUNNER UP!
Oh, it’s one of the ponies that Ratchet mentioned! Though thinking about it…
“…Did his parents essentially name him ‘Loser’?”
“Funny story” Swift said “His parents were both earth pony marathon runners. When they got a Pegasus, they named him Runner to follow the family tradition, and Up for his wings. They didn’t realize what the combination meant until years after.” He chuckled. “Poor guy…”
“How sad…”
Runner Up was a lean stallion, his body melted down to the leanest layers of muscle by years of hard cardio, his legs toned and defined. He was a bright gleaming yellow with a spiky green mane, and a cutie mark of a hoofprints under a gust of wind.
“So I take it that a terrible name wasn’t the only thing his parent’s gave him.”
“Nope” Swift nodded. “He’s Charlie’s resident speedster.”
So it’ll be a speedster vs speedster battle…
He pointed confidently to her and taunted:
“Get deady, Rash! I’m gonna be learning raps around you!”
“…”
“…”
“…Um. Yo yo yo I guess?” Dash deadpanned.
“LAPS!” he shouted, a blush rapidly spreading around his face. “Get ready Dash, I’m gonna be running laps around you.”
The second time didn’t really have the intended effect…
His face continued to heat up as quiet, constrained laughter started to spread through the audience.
“Ha… classic Runner” Swift said.
“I take it his mouth regularly runs faster than his thoughts?”
“Bingo.”
“I’m…I’m…” his stumbling became worse as he sunk under the weight of the audience.
“RUNNER!”
A feminine voice called out from the lower entrance.
“Don’t listen to them! Remember, actions speak louder than words! What you can’t say with your mouth, say with your legs! You can do it!”
His shaking died down as he took a few deep breaths after a moment…
He smacked himself.
“Okay. I’m good now.” He turned to the voice, smiling warmly. “Thanks Vivi!”
“Feel free to hit yourself a few more times before the buzzer rings” Rainbow Dash said.
He laughed. “Why Hash, are you asking for a dandycap?”
“No thanks, fancy hats aren’t my thing.”
Groan...
BZZZT
FWOOSH
FWOOSH
The second the buzzer rang, Dash went from zero to 60 forward.
The second the buzzer rang, Runner went from zero to 60 to the right.
“Huh?!” She went skidding to a stop as she turned her head right to follow Runner’s movements--
WHAM
…Only to be clotheslined from the left.
“I’ll give it to him… he keeps his promises.” I said.
Sprinting around the perimeter of the arena, he was literally running laps around her.
Just as Runner was about to make a second pass at her, she rolled backwards and moved toward the center of the arena.
“How did he pick up speed that quickly?” Rivet asked.
“It has to do with their launches. They both launched off the ground, but then Dash propelled herself forward using her wings. Runner propelled himself using his legs. Dash pushed against the ground once, and then relied on pushing against air to propel herself, while Runner is pushing against the ground with every step. In terms of pure acceleration, most of the time running is more effective than flying," I explained "...not counting freefalling.“
Her moment of hesitation, losing track of his movements, had cost her. He was now moving at a speed where she couldn’t interrupt him without risking a hit to herself. She was forced into a defensive position, watching cautiously near the center as he picked up speed with each lap.
“Is he trying to form a cyclone around her?” I wondered.
“No.” Swift replied. “I mean, he can do that, but he needs a much tighter circle.”
His laps were sticking close to the wall, not closing in despite his current advantage. He wasn’t even looking at her, just single mindedly building up speed.
If he keeps this up, he’s going to tire himself out before the match is done.
At the speed he’s moving, he can’t make a turn toward Dash without losing the momentum he built up.
How are you going to attack, Runner?
Dash, now unable to reliably follow his movements, took up a guard, her body low and her wings flared.
Wait…why does that seem familiar?
Once he became enough of a blur, Runner kicked off the ground…
And started running on the wall.
“What?!” I gaped.
What I was seeing shouldn’t be possible.
“Take a close look.” Swift said. “You’ve been good at analyzing everypony else here, you should figure this out.”
He was flapping his wings in an odd fasion as he ran, keeping his head low to reduce air friction. The bottom of his hooves were….glowing.
And then it clicked.
“It’s a three part technique. He uses his momentum to keep himself up. He pushes upward with his wings to force his body down. As for his hooves…the entire time he was running, he was building static from the friction of his hooves hitting the ground. It wasn’t much, but he continuously collected, condensed, and concentrated it with his pegasus magic. He was now using it on his hooves to cling to the wall.”
More importantly, if he keeps a hold of it, he’ll have an electric punch.
With that, the mystery of how he’ll attack is revealed.
On the ground, he would have to lose speed to turn toward dash. On the wall, he can kick off and fly directly toward her without losing speed.
Furthermore, combining the speed that Dash can’t follow with the myriad of ways he can curve his flight to her, he can attack her from practically any and every angle, and she has no way of predicting where it will come from. With his incredible momentum plus the electric charged punch…
He’s aiming for a one hit win.
How will you respond, Rainbow Dash?
When I turned to look at her, my jaw dropped.
She had closed her eyes.
Are you trying to lose?!
Her ears were perked, twitching slightly with every step of his hoof against the wall.
Wait…
CLANG!
The sound of his hooves slamming against the wall rang out through the arena as he jumped off the wall, flying directly toward Dash with his glowing hoof pulled back.
At that exact moment, she launched herself straight upward.
“Ah!”
SLAM
His momentum was too great to change, and he slammed into the ground that Rainbow had been standing a moment ago, skidding across the entire arena and crashing into the opposite wall.
“Woah!” Dash flew to his prone body. “Are you okay?”
He was taking deep, gasping breaths, as he struggled to get up, slipping and crashing down.
“H-help.” He whispered, his voice completely dried out. “Too tired to move…”
He bet everything on an all-or-nothing gamble.
He bet everything and got nothing.
“Here.” Silver appeared with a bottle of water. “Drink up.”
After a few desperate gulps, Silver whistled to the crowd, and two Wonderbolts flew down from the bleachers.
“Take him to the infirmary.” He pat Runner’s shoulder as he was propped up. “You did good.” He turned to the crowd, “It’s pretty obvious, but the winner is Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow pumped her hoof and waved to the short burst of applause before her eyes once again crossed mine, and her expression instantly hardened up, glaring at me the entire time she walked to the exit.
“…What the hell was that?” I said
“Yeah… Runner’s Static Sprint sure is something. It’s too bad it didn’t work here…” Swift said.
“Not that!” I said. “Rainbow’s dodge at the end!”
“Huh?” He tilted his head. “You mean when she jumped?”
“You didn’t see it?”
“See what?”
“Right after she jumped, she did Tradewind’s Air Wall downward, launching herself further upward and smacking Runner down at the same time. Why would she know that? She doesn’t have the body type for it at all…”
“Oh, just that?” Swift seemed amused at my shock. “That’s just one of Dash’s quirks. I don’t know how she does it, but if she sees a move once or twice, she can usually copy it.”
“Terrifying…”
“Shine Struck has the same thing.” Rivet pointed out.
“Double Terrifying…”
Swift laughed at that. “I can think of a lot of ways to describe our captain, but ‘terrifying’ isn’t one of them”
“I’m not scared OF them. I’m scared FOR them.”
“Huh?” Swift said.
“Just think about it. What sort of effect will that ability have on their psyche?”
“…I don’t follow.”
I turned to Rivet. “Tell me you see what I’m talking about, at least?”
He just shook his head.
“Okay, lets put aside questions of the identity or personality that comes from copying without timidity. After all, everypony emulates other ponies. No, the problem is with how they’ll end up viewing ability.”
“In every pony’s life, there’s possible and impossible things. Things you can do and things you can’t do. No amount of work or practice can change this. Even if I were to have studied 8 hours a day from birth, I don’t have any delusions of matching Rivet in technical prowess, just like Rivet would never be able to yell like Silver. That’s all right. Learning your barriers between possible and impossible is part of understanding yourself.”
“But what about them? Their abilities leave too many doors open. They don’t get a good sense of possible and impossible. I don’t doubt that they worked hard to get here, but even their hard work was backed by unnatural promise”
“They can say pithy things like ‘Hard work is its own reward’ because they’ve never felt work that gave them absolutely no reward.”
“They can say cruel things like ‘You can do anything you put your mind to’ because, in their experience putting their mind to something and doing something are the same thing.”
“In other words, they haven’t learned proper futility.”
“When they fail, they never learn ‘I shouldn’t have tried that in the first place’, just ‘I wasn’t ready this time, but next time I’ll get it.’ A normally good moral that might completely wreck them once they face something truly impossible.”
“From a failure to ask ‘What can I not do?’ can lead to a failure to ask ‘What should I not do?’ It can permanently offside their common sense."
“It can feed a delusion that the world is their oyster, that they’re main characters in a story, and that their hopes and dreams are something tied into the fabric of existence, not incidental wants.”
“I can only see those two as ticking time bombs…the only question being if they’ll hurt themselves or if they’ll hurt others.”