“Tell me again why you need me to be there?” Aegis Flare looked over at Rainbow Dash as she dragged her through Ponyville towards Sweet Apple Acres. The pegasus had shown up at her door all excited about something but all the unicorn mare could catch was that she was needed at the apple farm for something.
“No time to explain, just come one! Applejack won't stand around all day.” The orange mare just sighed as she was pulled along against her will towards their destination. She caught sight of some of her friends as they moved through the town, but all she was able to do was wave to them before Rainbow Dash pulled her a bit harder for slowing down.
They soon reached an area on the outskirts of the farm where they found Applejack setting up a line of barrels with some help from Twilight while Spike watched on. With her chore of fetching the unicorn over, Rainbow Dash moved to help the other two while Aegis Flare moved to stand next to Spike. “So do you have any idea what is going on here, Spike? Rainbow Dash just dragged me out here for some reason but wouldn't say why.”
The dragon looks over for a moment before turning back to the scroll he was writing on. “Oh they are setting up some kind of Iron Pony competition to prove who is the top athlete. I don't know why they wanted you here, they were whispering to each other before Rainbow Dash just took off and brought you back.”
Aegis Flare just shakes her head until she gets a glimpse of Applejack moving over towards them. “About time that ya get here. Are ya ready ta join us for this here Iron Pony competition?”
The unicorn looks confused for a moment before she brings a hoof up to her eyes. “Really? That's why Rainbow Dash grabbed me and dragged me through town without saying anything?”
Applejack threw a glare back at the cyan pegasus before turning back with an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that, I thought that she told ya already and ya agreed already. Figures that she would fail to mention why she wanted ya here. She was the one that said that it would be better to have three of us, that it would be more exciting that way and ya were the only one that might be able to stand a chance.”
The two glared at their friend for a moment and the unicorn was about to try and pull out when the rest of their friends showed up. “This is going to be so amazing! A three-way battle to end all three-way battles! Which of these three ponies is the best, proving once and for all who the most athletic pony is in Ponyville!”
With that bit from Pinkie Aegis Flare would have felt bad for trying to pull out and disappoint them. It didn't mean that she had to like it but she would participate up to a point, though she didn't plan on going all out. About that time everything was fully set up and the three ponies moved towards the first event that was planned.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash were the first to run the barrel weave course that was set up with times of 22 and 18 second respectively. Aegis Flare had watched the two closely as they ran the course and she felt that this would be relatively easy as the Everfree had more difficult paths than this. Taking her place at the starting line she waited for the signal to go and when it was given by Twilight she took off as fast as she reasonably could. She easily weaved through the barrels without touching them and finished the course easily enough.
Once she had finished her run she took a breath to steady herself before looking towards the group gathered around the stopwatch. She raised an eyebrow on seeing the shocked looks of the other two competitors as Spike turned the watch towards her. “16 seconds! That was amazing, Flare. Even if Applejack didn't have the penalty you still would have won.”
Rainbow Dash was shocked at the outcome and grabbed the watch to get a closer look at it. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! How did you beat us like that?”
The unicorn took a moment to stretch out her legs again to try and loosen up the kinks in them. “What? This is nothing compared to some of the places I've run through in the Everfree while being chased by various beasts.”
The next event with the high striker went to Applejack with no real contest since it was what she did for a living essentially. When Aegis Flare won the bronco buck by surprising Spike with a back flip, Rainbow Dash was starting to get a bit worried as she was still scoreless and losing horribly to the other two during the lasso contest didn't make things any better for her.
The ball bounce helped her confidence as she took that one easily as she finished it bouncing both her and Applejack's ball, while Aegis Flare worked on getting hers off of her horn. Applejack took the lead with the hay bale toss bringing the score to 3-2-1 but when they got to the hoof wrestling they ran into a problem.
“So I beat Applejack but lost to Aegis Flare, but then she also lost to Applejack. How do we score this one when there is no clear winner or loser?” The three competitors were gathered around Twilight as they tried to figure out how to deal with ties which they didn't plan for in the first place.
“Well there are a few ways we could handle a tie but they all would lead to the same end result. I'll just split the points since that will probably be the easiest way to do it.” Twilight writes up set of new signs and adds another peg to the scoreboard before adding a third of a point to each of the competing ponies.
Things continued along until the eleventh event with Applejack at four and a third, Aegis Flare at four and a third, and Rainbow Dash at one and a third. Aegis Flare dropped out early during the push ups event as as she knew she wouldn't have been able to do well with her old injury being liable to act up. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were doing equally well as they neared the hundred mark but the unicorn's eyes narrowed when she noticed the pegasus use her wings to beat out Applejack by one push up.
From then on Rainbow Dash used her wings to help her win multiple events, though Aegis Flare managed to turn the tables on her a couple times by going last or by her skills being well-suited for the events. By the time the three got to the last event the score was five for Applejack, six and a half for Aegis Flare, and seven and a half for Rainbow Dash. Aegis Flare had no chance during the final event, the tug-of-war, since her legs had worn out by that time. That left the contest to both Rainbow Dash and Applejack but with the use of her wings it easily went to the pegasus giving her the final win with eight and a half points.
While the two overly-competitive ponies argued with each other, Aegis Flare sat down next to Twilight who was finishing up taking a few notes on the event. “You know if it wasn't for her wings I'm pretty sure Applejack would have won. Though I'm not sure how it would all have turned out if all things were equal. No magic, no wings, and no enhanced earth pony abilities.”
Twilight looks thoughtful for a moment before she looks between the three competitors as if comparing something. “Hmm, that would be an interesting question, but who knows how much of your strength would also be lost if you lost your magic or if Rainbow Dash lost hers. But just from what you three have been doing for your jobs it would probably be between you and Applejack. Rainbow Dash would be at a disadvantage since she uses her wings for just about everything.”
Taking a moment to consider this, Aegis Flare eventually nods at her analysis of the situation. Her attention is drawn towards Applejack and Rainbow Dash as they come to some sort of agreement. She feels a bit apprehensive about this as the last time they made a decision they dragged her into this situation in the first place. Rainbow Dash came flying towards her as she separated from the farmer and paused for a moment. “Hey Flare, we'll finish this once and for all during the Running of the Leaves.”
The unicorns watched as she took off in the direction of her cloud house while they watch before they turn to each other. Aegis Flare just sighs before a hoof moves into her face. “Right, they did it to me again.”
<><><><><><><>
The day of the Running of the Leaves came and many of the ponies of Ponyville had gathered to run in it and even a few from elsewhere. Aegis Flare had arrived and signed up, getting number fifty-five, and was looking around for the others that were supposed to be there for the race. She had looked everywhere but it wasn't until she went to the starting line that she actually found them.
At that moment Rainbow Dash was laughing so hard about something that she was collapsed on the ground. “What's so funny?”
“Pff, Ms Egghead here thinks that she can run in the race just because she read a book all about it.” While Rainbow Dash was laughing; Aegis Flare took a moment to look over them all before saying anything. Her eyes glazed over the ropes that Rainbow Dash was wearing to pin her wings down and focused on Twilight. Thinking back to the talk she had with Rarity she looked over the muscles in Twilight's legs with a discerning eye.
While they were covered with a layer of fat she could see a bit of muscle beneath it all and from what she could tell she was in decent shape. Since she knew that Twilight only recently learned to reliably teleport then that meant she had to walk everywhere in Canterlot which meant lots of stairs and hills. Her observations were stopped when the whistle signaling the start of the race sounded out and she looked around in shock as the racers took off without her.
After recovering she took off herself but slowed up a bit when she came upon Twilight following along at the far back of the herd at a slow pace. Seeing this she almost stopped again but it made her think again about why she was even here and she decided to just throw the whole race idea away. “Hey Twilight, mind if I join you?”
The purple unicorn looked back to to her friend coming up from behind her and nodded in response. “Of course, but shouldn't you be catching up with AJ and Rainbow? You are supposed to be racing them, aren't you?”
Before she could reply she spotted a familiar figure on the ground ahead of them which she nodded towards. “I'm thinking that it won't be that big of a problem with how overly competitive they are. I'd rather not get caught up in it any more than I already have.”
Taking o moment to pause by Applejack and point out how silly she was being the two unicorns returned to the race while watching the earth pony run at high speeds. Seeing that Twilight had lost the rhythm that she had set by stopping, Aegis Flare subtly increased the pace that they were moving at initially. While taking in the scenery the orange unicorn decided to distract her even more with some small talk. “So how have you been settling into Ponyville these last couple months? It's been a couple weeks since I've heard about any explosions coming from the library so I'm assuming you're doing well?”
Twilight threw a glare at her but its effect was lessened by the light blush on her muzzle. “None of those were my fault, I keep telling Spike to stop slamming the door open but he never listens. I've had to start sealing everything down whenever I leave, and when I'm down there I'm distracted by the chance that he'd enter just so I'm ready to catch them.”
Glancing over the orange unicorn thought back to some of the things that her mother kept in the basement. She remembered her having many vials and beakers scattered around, but she remembered that anything that was open was secured to the walls by brackets. “Why don't you just add brackets and bolt it all down so that nothing is disturbed when he does that? My mom always had dangerous things in her basement lab locked down like that and I thought that was the common safety procedures.”
The librarian stumbled for a moment as the idea had never occurred to her but made perfect sense. “I can't believe I never thought of doing that. But what why did your mother have a lab anyways?”
Aegis Flare thought for a moment but decided there was no reason to hide anything from her friend. “Well you already knew that she was one of the Black Guard leaders, but I never did mention what they did. From what she told me she worked mainly as a diplomatic messenger to the most dangerous areas but when diplomacy didn't work she had to rely on her talent. She specialized in making poisons and she branched out from there over time, hence the lab.”
The two were forced to halt their conversation as they came upon the fallen figure of Rainbow Dash who wasn't taking her spill as well as Applejack was. After she ran off to catch up the two looked at each other and shook their heads, while the pace they were running was increased yet again. “I am so glad I decided not to try and keep up with them. I really didn't like the look in her eyes there.”
Twilight nodded in agreement but didn't say anything else about it. Instead she turned her attention to the forest around them as they passed by. “It is really quite beautiful out here. You just don't get views like this up in Canterlot, at least up close like this. I can only imagine the type of things you've seen out in the Everfree Forest, things that nopony has ever seen before.”
Thinking over her many trips into the Everfree she could point out many things that she had never heard of before, but more often than not those things involved danger in some way. “Well you aren't wrong about that, but there are times when seeing them were barely worth it after nearly being killed. One such place I helped an archeologist find on accident; thinking about it she reminds me of Rainbow Dash in a way. In the end we found some of the most unbelievable things those few days, but there are many things I would like to forget about, especially since nopony else remembers it. The Everfree is one of the most dangerous places in the world for a reason, though the edges of it are pretty tame compared to the deeper sections and it's all most ponies know about.”
While she wasn't overly specific about what she had seen it was still enough to give Twilight something to think about. After finding Rainbow Dash standing suspiciously at a fork in the road, along with another increase in the unicorns' pace, she finally was able to form a response. “Just how far in do you have to go into the forest before it becomes as dangerous as you say? After our trip to the Castle of the Two Sisters I've been wondering about why the place was so dangerous since everything we saw was because of Nightmare Moon.”
Aegis Flare frowned as the thought back to then. “Other than the manticore you mean. Those and timberwolves are generally the worst of the creatures on the borders of the forest with a few rarities like hydras and the celestial beasts. You don't get to the worst of the place until you go in about as far as the castle is, though that place is an exception as everything within thirty minutes on hoof is the same for some reason.”
Looking ahead she notices that they are nearing the end of the race and nudges Twilight. “Looks like we are almost to the end Twilight. Are you ready for the final sprint to to the end?” At her nod the two take off at top speed, though Aegis Flare holds back to keep pace with Twilight, and soon start passing the other racers that had started falling behind the main group already.
Soon enough the two found themselves in the front of them all and steadily pulling ahead as they still had plenty of energy to spare while the rest were tiring. As they neared the finish line, Aegis Flare noticed something waiting just past it which appeared to be in a basket. She also noticed a filly and a young mare standing next to it, and when she recognized just who they were her gaze immediately focused on the basket again as she now knew what it was and her eyes shrunk to pinpricks. “Oh Celestia, no.”
Twilight looked over at her in confusion, but that didn't last long as the two were sent head over hooves as a gray blur plowed right through them and across the finish line with them just behind. “And out of nowhere comes Derpy for the win! In second is Aegis Flare with Twilight Sparkle just a nose behind in third.” Spike announces the the next few racers as well but the two were busy climbing to their hooves again while looking over at the mare that had bowled them over as her daughters were hugging her.
“You know, I'd almost call that cheating but I'd rather not have Dinky pouting at me for saying something like that. I don't know how she does it but I have never seen a filly pull off the cute face like she can.” Twilight nods in agreement as she had a couple run-ins with her on days when she helped her mother. Looking around the two try and find where Applejack and Rainbow Dash went off to when they heard Spike and Pinkie announcing their antics as they come into view on the race track.
Sharing a look, the two unicorns shake their heads as they go to collect their second- and third-place prizes. Once they have their silver and bronze trophies they move towards the finish line to meet with the final two racers as they finally finish with Rainbow Dash asking who won after they learned they came in last. “It sure took you two long enough, did you get lost or something?”
The two gaped in shock as they stared at the trophies on the backs of the unicorns but Aegis Flare wasn't done yet. “Of course Derpy managed to beat us right at the end.” Rainbow Dash completely froze up at that but she facehoofed at the reason. “I sometimes think that there isn't anything she can't do if there are muffins involved.”