"Grffff... mrmmffff..."
Rainbow Dash grunted.
Rainbow Dash sweated.
Rainbow Dash pushed and pushed and pushed against the earth.
After much toil and pain, her muscles were finally able to pick up a rhythm, and she successfully performed push-up after push-up.
"Sixty-two... sixty-three... sixty-f-four... sixty-five... sixty... gnngh... six...!"
Beside her, a jug lay on its side. Completely empty.
A darkening sky hung over the hilltop, casting her and her possessions in a deep shade.
"Sixty-eight... sixty-nine... s-seventy...!" With a grunt, Rainbow Dash coiled and uncoiled her muscles. Th-Thwoosh! She performed an expert backflip, landing on all fours. "Hah! Yeah... oh yeah..." Wiping her brow, she smirked at her fetlocks, then at the empty jug of medicine. "That did it. I'm still in this. Still in it to win it."
Crackling her neck and shoulder muscles, the mare turned about and approached the top of the hill. Taking a deep breath, she coiled her wing-muscles in and spun once again.
"Okay..."
She stared downhill, having to squint due to the surmounting darkness. In just a few hours, it would be nighttime.
"Pick it back up, girl." She trotted forward. "You've got this." She sprinted forward, grinning. "You've so got this!"
Th-Thwump!
"Ooomf!"
Rainbow Dash fell hard, sliding through dirt and grass.
Panting... wincing...
...she got back up—only to collapse again.
"Guh!"
With an aching grimace, the mare rolled backwards until she sat on her haunches, panting. She looked over her shoulder. The first glint of starlight caught the moisture collecting around the lid of the empty medicine jug. Along the east side of the hill, several torn-up clumps of soil marked the spots where Rainbow Dash had repeatedly collapsed during an hour of attempted jogging.
Crickets came to life around her. Owls hooted in the distance.
And Rainbow...
Rainbow held her hooves up in the moonlight. Blink after blink—she could hardly tell they were there. Even the tingling felt like it was miles away.
The mare swallowed a lump down her dry throat. "Awwwwwwww Luna poop."