//------------------------------// // Competition // Story: That Blue Pony's Story // by KartalTheWriter //------------------------------// Where Lucky Went OR Lucky’s Adventures In Love To completely accept what I’m about to say, you have to accept the love I feel for my special somepony. Rarity is my favorite unicorn. I mean, was there ever any doubt? The way her mane always smells like a different flower every day. The way she levitates gems onto her perfect works of art. The way her magic just cradles whatever object she happens to be holding. Oh, Rarity, I hope you never get a coltfriend… Unless it’s me, of course. And then, of course, it would be okay, if, you know, if she got a, you know, coltfriend. As long as, you know, she really wants to, you know, be mine and all. Was I doing that ‘you know’ thing again? Ugh, I do that when I’m nervous. And right now, waiting in the lobby with Parasol and Derpy, I was so nervous I could barely breathe. I don’t know where Parasol came from; she just kind of appeared. And Derpy, well, she was happy to see me again. “Have you been working on your moves? You can’t just land on your hooves in this kind of competition. You have to land in an interesting and different way.” She was saying. It was then I wondered whether Derpy was really as uncoordinated as everypony thought. You know, maybe she like, you know, has just always been practicing for this competition all day, every day to perfect her “interesting and different” style. She may be the sanest of us all… “I just hope the first prize is muffins.” Derpy finished, licking her lips in anticipation. Nah. While Derpy daydreamed about Derpy things in her own little world, I noticed Parasol for the first time. “Lucky, the others were looking for you earlier. What are you doing here?” She asked, those penetrating eyes of hers looking right through me. “Oh, I, you know, thought since, you know, I can fly and all, you know, I could just, you know, try this competition thing out before, you know, Twilight turns us all back into, you know, earth ponies.” Throughout all of that, I was readjusting my wings, shuffling my hooves, and swishing my tail. Everypony noticed. Particularly Parasol. She leaned over to me kindly and quietly whispered in my ear. “Hey Lucky, are you sure you want to do this competition? I mean, there are literally a hundred ponies out there watching. And they’re all waiting for a good sports show. Not to be mean, but you’re really just a beginner at flying. I don’t want you to embarrass yourself.” My ears twitched, but otherwise, I held in all my nerves for the moment. “You don’t have to worry about me, Parasol. I’ll be fine. Just focus on your own performance. I just want to do it for the experience.” I spoke loudly to show Parasol I wasn’t afraid, but it just seemed to confirm her suspicions. “Lucky, is this all for Rarity?” Parasol asked, finally getting to the point. At that point I felt kind of funny and didn’t want to look at Parasol. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “I knew it! Why don’t you just tell her how you feel instead of all these crazy shenanigans?” Unfortunately for Parasol, I was now ignoring her. But not out of choice--I’m not rude. It’s just that that was the moment I saw Rarity. She poked her head out of a dressing room and said something to Medley, who had knocked on the door. Then she pulled her head back in. I sighed. Parasol clicked her tongue. “Yeah, I’ve seen this one before.” I whirled around. “What’ve you seen?” I asked urgently. “Oh, you know, like, everything.” Parasol’s eyes flitted around in a near perfect imitation of me. Near perfect… “Ha ha, very funny.” I pretended to laugh. Then I looked back at the door and whined involuntarily. “Is it really that obvious?” I muttered so only Parasol could hear. At this, she laughed really loud, one of those laughs that includes a snort. But because she was laughing at me, I failed to find that snort humorous. I hadn’t noticed before, but all the mares around us except for Derpy had evidently heard our conversation and were giggling endearingly at me. When I looked over at them they pretended not to see me, a sure sign of guilt. “Okay, contestant number one, you’re up.” A voice with a strong Manehattan accent said. I jumped and looked fearfully at my flank. Then I sighed with relief when it wasn’t a one. I saw Dizzy Twister trotting out cheerfully, not seeming to care how well she did. As she did her thing, I noticed that Doctor Whooves was competing too. At first I accepted that, but then I realized that was impossible, as the Doctor is an earth pony. “Hey Whooves, since when are you a pegasus?” I asked him. He looked surprised to see me. “I could ask the same of you.” He replied. “Long story short, one of Twilight’s magic spells changed me and two friends into pegasi.” The Doctor sighed. “You ponies have it so easy.” “What, aren’t you a pony?” I asked suspiciously. The Doctor looked uncomfortable and coughed nervously. “Well, err, I’m ponyoid. That is, I’m very similar to a pony.” “Is that why you’re a pegasus?” “What? Oh no. I’m a pegasus because of…err…well because I kind of lost control of the TARDIS and ended up in a very complicated time-space--” “Your pet did this to you?” I asked in utter confusion. The Doctor looked at me blankly for a moment. “Yes.” I can never understand a word that pony says. “A word of advice: never mess with time travel unless you’re a unicorn, got it?” I nodded, though I was sure he was just speaking nonsense again. After Dizzy came number two, who was clearly Rainbow Dash. Rainbow, noticing this, panicked and switched her number with Doctor Whooves, who was eating some hay he had found…somewhere or other. “She’s talking to you.” Rainbow said, nudging him. The Doctor spit out the hay, looking at his number. “Oh I guess that’s me.” He said, taking a moment to look a little uncertain before flying out. Parasol and I watched Whooves fly out. “I’m so excited, Lucky! I’ve been training for this for months!” She waved her wings in anticipation, blowing a powerful gust over all of us. “Oh, Parasol, I’m nervous. I’m number three!” Cloud Kicker said, shuffling her hooves and rustling her wings. I felt really bad for her suddenly and felt like I needed to say something. “Oh, come on. You don’t give yourself enough credit. Why, just last week I saw you practicing your routine and it looked fantastic. And I told you so, remember?” Cloud Kicker looked over at me. “Oh thank you, umm…” At first she wanted to thank me for my encouragement, but when she saw me she didn’t know what to make of me. “I’m sorry, you look really familiar. You look like Lucky, but he’s not a pegasus.” “I am Lucky.” I said, making sure she could see my face. “That’s right, you’re lucky and you’re going to do your best today, just like we all are.” Cloud Kicker misunderstood me. “No, I mean my name is Lucky. It’s me, the earth pony. Twilight accidentally changed me into a pegasus. Long story.” I explained for--what was it?--the fourth time today? Cloud Kicker still looked skeptical, but she nodded. She didn’t get a chance to say more, however, because at that moment her number was called. “Wish me luck!” She said, trying to look more confident. “Good luck!” Parasol and I chorused. I looked at my number again. Eight; there were still five more ponies ahead of me. “Okay number four, time to go.” At that moment a door opened and my eyes followed it like they would no other. Rarity poked her half done up head out of that door, all confident and beautiful as always. “I’m number four, and I need just one little itsy-bitsy minute. Be a dear and have somepony go ahead of me.” At this moment an extremely excited stallion reared up and yelled “Let’s do this!” before flying out of the place. Parasol glanced at her flank. Then she did a nervous little jump. “I’m number five! It’s almost my turn! What if I mess up in front of all those ponies, Lucky?” Parasol flittered in front of me. “It’s okay, Parasol. It’s just like I told Cloud Kicker; I saw you practicing, too. And you were doing some pretty neat stuff. I wish I could watch it when you perform for real out there.” Parasol relaxed a little and smiled. “You could always stick your head out.” She suggested. “Number five, your turn.” “Good luck, Parasol. You don’t need it.” I said. “Aww.” Parasol looked much better now. She even hugged me before she left. I hoped some of my luck would rub off on her. I followed her to the curtain so I could see her. Then I stuck my head out and watched her do her routine. I wasn’t surprised to find that Parasol, despite coming off as a little nervous, definitely knew her routine. She did a few graceful turns and twists in the air. Then she did some more acrobatic things like cartwheels and backflips. I was dizzy for her. Then, as suddenly as it began, it was over. Parasol looked back over to me, and I was surprised for a moment that she knew I was there, and just smiled. Then she flew over to where her friends were all sitting. “Number eight, number eight…” And now, it was my turn. In about a millisecond I realized this was one of my stupidest ideas ever. Then I glanced over at the dressing room where Rarity was and sighed. She wouldn’t see whatever stupidity I came up with, but at least her friends would, and they’d tell her about it later I was sure, so that motivated me to fly out into that crowd. I flew as sure as I had ever been and did a somersault as a warm-up. Then I took a deep breath and started flapping as hard as I could until I reached a cloud. I’d learned some pretty cool things to do with clouds in my time at the weather factory. First I kicked it and made a lightning bolt light up the Cloudiseum. Then I did a series of spins and waved my forearms. The crowd was cheering, and I wondered where Caramel and Noteworthy were. I did some more somersaults and twirls and stuff before finally descending into a low aerial bow. The crowd cheered and clapped and I looked for my friends who were waving at me to come towards them. I followed their friendly beckoning with the happy vision in my head of Rarity, only this time without the wings, coming towards me with wide, outstretched forelegs…