Chapter 2—In Which Everything is Actually Done
The early afternoon sun and light breeze helped give this year’s race a vibe of fair play and fun times. That was the case for everypony that was going to participate except for three stallions: a pink unicorn wearing sunglasses, a grey earth pony with a soft green headband, and a steel blue pegasus.
“You sure you guys don’t want to back down?” Pop asked us, his usual stupid grin full of moxie. “It’s not too late, you know.”
“Still not going to drop out, you dumb Tart,” Icy replied, doing his stretches for the eighth time in a row.
“Seriously, we are here and stretched out already Pop,” I said, jogging a little bit, hoping my blood was circulating well enough. “You’d think that that would be a sign that we aren’t going to back out.”
Pop just shrugged and set his sight to everypony else. “Oh well. Just trying to spare you two from embarrassment when I win.”
“If I remember correctly, aren’t you always in last place?”
“That’s only because I was never driven enough to care, Grey. Now I am.”
“So, ‘lording’ over the fact you beat us not enough a reward in and of itself? Because I remember that banner still...”
Pop pulled his glasses up and tried to stare me down. “We don’t talk about the banner, Grey. Ever. Got that?”
I rolled my eyes and decided to do some more stretching before everything started.
“Fillies and gentlecolts, welcome to this year’s Running of the Leaves,” a voice said from above. “This is Pinkie Pie, your official eye in the sky announcer. As everypony knows, the Running is a very important tradition, for without it, the autumn leaves in Equestria would never fall. So, get ready, ponies. The Running of the Leaves will begin in five minutes.”
“Guess it’s time for us to head to the starting line,” Icy told us.
As we made our way towards the starting line, I saw Bon Bon, Carrot Top, Berry Punch, and Applejack doing some warm ups.
“Pardon me, excuse me. Make way for the Iron Pony,” Rainbow Dash told everypony as she made her way towards the line.
“Iron Pony?” Icy asked.
“Some sort of title. Applejack and Rainbow had a competition yesterday and Rainbow won it, even though she did kind of sort of cheat to win. Don’t even think she thought using her wings would be against the rules.” I told him.
“Sounds about right,” Pop said, though I think he just toned in near the end since the mare he was ogling walked towards her coltfriend. He happened to look ahead at the “right time” and saw Applejack hog tying Rainbow and whistled at the show, getting a roll of eyes out of Icy and myself.
“Racers! Please take your positions!” Pinkie said from the comfort of her air balloon.
As we made our way to our positions, I saw something I wasn’t expecting-Twilight had joined in the race.
“So, your marefriend is joining in on the action too,” Pop said as he jabbed me in the sides.
“For the thousandth time, she’s not my marefriend.”
“Then I guess you won’t mind me embarrassing you in front of her, Grey.” Pop laughed as he got to his spot.
“You sure you’ll be okay with this Grey?” Icy asked me. “You know how you are whenever you are around her.”
I sighed and looked at him. “I know, I know, but I’m here for the race. There is no way that I’m going to lose to Tart. I’d need to take out a loan if he won.”
“So, you aren’t afraid of what will happen if I win?” Icy asked me as we got into place, a slight grin on his face.
“R-right...kind of forgot about that.”
“All right, ponies, are you ready?” Pinkie shouted.
“Get set,” Spike followed up.
A bell went off.
“And they’re off!” Pinkie shouted.
The leaves of the trees along the racing path started to fall as the participants raced with Pinkie and Spike doing some kind of coverage that I decided to tone out.
Right off the back, I saw that Applejack and Rainbow were leading the back with a few others on their tails, with Icy smack dab in the middle. There was a small gap, roughly 10 feet, between me and the leading pack, but that gap was slowly getting longer.
“Looks like the old war horse actually has some fire let in him,” Pop said. “It’s gonna be all the sweeter when I beat him!” Pop started to move past me, actually leaving me in his dust.
I slowed down to catch my breath, and to get the dirt out of my eyes, and bumped into somepony. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there because of the...”
“Oh, it’s okay Grey,” Twilight told me. “I saw what happened.”
“Y-yeah, not o-one of my brighter moments,” I said with a chuckle.
“I never thought of you as one who’d join a race.”
“W-well, I was kind of strong hoofed into it.” I sighed. “Pop could be a jerk at times.”
“Oh?”
“Kind of joined because of a bet Icy, Pop, and me have going.”
Twilight giggled a little. “Then shouldn’t you try to win?”
“In a bit. Just kind of want to get the wind in my sails before I try to catch up. Besides, by now Pop should be slowing down in order to ‘keep looking cool.’”
That got another laugh out of her, which brought a smile to my face. Guess I can make her laugh. “Anyway, I think I should be heading out. I’ll see you at the finish line Twilight.” I trotted ahead of her.
“I’ll be waiting!”
After a bit of trotting at full force, short segments of catching my breath, losing the track because of weariness twice, nearly dodging Applejack’s and Rainbow’s antics twice, and quite possibly just coming up short too often, I saw the finish line, granted it was still roughly twenty minutes away.
I then saw a sight that scared me: Pop was halfway between me and the finish line and Icy was not much further ahead of him. I let loose all the steam I had left in me, in hopes of at least reaching up to Pop. If I was going to lose, I wasn’t going to be in dead last. Pop would never let me live it down.
I somehow managed to catch up the annoying idiot, yet I was completely worn out.
“Well then, look who it is,” he said. “What was that about me always being in last place?”
I wanted to say something, but all of the wind in my lungs was spent.
“Oh, come on. No quick comeback? It isn’t as enjoyable if you don’t do one of those.”
He was so busy trying to mock me that he didn’t notice Bon Bon until he bumped into her, which caused both of them to slide a bit on the track. I would have stopped and offered to help, but there was a race going on and Bon Bon looked like she was going to give Pop one serious talking to and I didn’t want to be anywhere near that.
The finish line was in sight, so I gave it anything that was left in me, closing my eyes in the process (it was a straight path with no obstacles or turns). The roar of the crowd grew more and more with each passing second. Come on. Come on! You got this!
I kept at it until my legs give out from exhaustion and tripped.
“Damn it! I was so close!”
“Grey, a-are you okay?” a voice asked me.
I opened my eyes and saw a pair of blue eyes looking down at me. “Fluttershy?”
“Y-yes?”
“I didn’t know that you were running this year.”
“Oh n-no. I’m waiting for the girls to be done.”
“Oh,” I moved as well as I could to see the participants behind me, “how far back are-“
There, not even six feet away, as a steel blue statue.
“Icy? What, what’s wrong with him?”
“No one knows darling,” a voice, Rarity’s, said. “He just stopped for no reason.”
“He just stopped?”
I tried to get up, but every muscle in my body told me that I should just lay there for the rest of the week, but I kept at it regardless.
“Grey, dear, you need to relax.”
“Not, not until, until Icy is done.”
I somehow managed to get onto my feet and slowly made my way towards my friend.
“Icy, hello, are you there?” I tried to wave a hoof in front of his face, but I think I was just lucky enough to stand right now.
He just kept looking straight ahead, an odd mixture of vacancy and concentration in his good eye. I looked behind him and saw Pop was getting closer and closer to us.
“Icy, come on! If you don’t move, you’re going to lose to Pop! Do you want that to happen!?”
Nothing; no response. He just kept looking ahead. I decided to follow his line of sight, to see if he was frozen because of somepony or something, but all that his gaze lead me to was Fluttershy.
I sighed and tried to shake my head a little. Of course. Why didn’t I think of that before.
“Icy, Fluttershy told me that if you won, she’d give you a kiss.”
I knew it was a complete shot in the dark, but, with his wings fluttering a bit and him breathing a bit more heavily than before, it seemed to have worked.
“Go get her, buddy,” I told him, smacking his rump in the process.
He trotted straight ahead and crossed the finish line, though he did kind of run straight into a tree (might have worked a little too well).
My legs went out on me, but it was okay. Pop wasn’t the one who won. That’s all that matter. I heard the sounds of hooves marching towards me and I just remembered that I was still on the racing trail. I tried to get up again, but nothing was going for me. That was before a sudden sense of weightlessness took over me and I felt as if I was flying through the air.
“You need to be more careful, Grey.”
I looked up, sort of, and saw that I was being held in Twilight’s magical aura.
“But then I wouldn’t be flying in the air,” I told her, hopefully giving her a smile. “It’s a pretty enjoyable experience honestly.”
She sighed and set me down on the sidelines near her. I just noticed the medal around her neck. “You placed Twilight?”
“Oh, yes. Fifth place.”
“Not bad for your first time right. Wish I did as well as that.”
“You did Grey. You got sixth.”
“I got....wait, that means I won. I won!”
My little outburst got the attention of a few of the ponies nearby, but I didn’t care. I won the bet somehow.
“Don’t let it get to your head, Grey,” Pop told me. “You just got lucky.”
“Maybe if someone looked where he was going, you might have beaten your friends,” Bon Bon said to her cousin angrily.
He tried to stare her down but he shrugged it off after about four seconds and went to all of the mares that were completely tired because of the race, causing Bon Bon to facehoof and trot after her cousin.
“Nothing good is going to come of those two,” Icy said, joining Twilight and me.
“You okay buddy? Looked like you hit that tree pretty hard.”
“Grey, let’s never talk about that again.” That got a chuckle out of Twilight and me.
“So, since there is going to be a party later,” Icy started, picking me up – completely ignoring my protests – and dropping me onto his back, “we should probably try to get ready for it.”
“Put me down, Icy!”
“Nope, it’s quicker this way.” He gave the girls a small smile, a slight blush appearing when he saw Fluttershy, and we made our way.
“So, since I have no say so on the matter, where are we going?”
“Simple: the spa.”
From behind, I heard Pinkie say something along the lines of ‘It’s Applejack, it’s Rainbow Dash,’ though it was kind of hard to hear with my head slung along the side of Icy.