The Academy

by Silver Sea

The art of staring pt2

"Three..."

Why did I have to get into this?

"Two..."

I don't even like staring contests.

"One..."

Imscrewed imscrewed imscrewed!

"STARE!"

Harmony raised her head and stared directly at her opponent, a white mare with a purple mane. They stared intently at each other, and neither spoke nor blinked for a short period of time, enough for a short intermission from the story.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Little pony, My little pony,
I can't decide what to do.
All of these people; making fun of me.
Until I met you...
I used to wonder how it'd be..
to have friends, as perfect as these!
(da, da, da [dadada, dada da da] da, da, da [dadada, dada da da])
It's a magical thing that makes my life complete!
My little pony,
Do you know you're all my very best friends?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The mare finally blinked.

Harmony turned to her friends (Silver, Garden, and Top Speed) and gave a round of high-hooves. When she looked at Silver, she leaned over and kissed him.

"Next contestants!" Open Eyes and another pony stepped up.

------------------------------

Open cantered off the stage and exclaimed his victory.

"Next contestants!"

Silver, equipped with goggles, stepped up to a stallion with a sandy yellow coat and a darker mane. They glanced at each other and then looked at the announcer.

"Three! Two! One! STARE!"

They snapped their heads and stared at each other.

-----------------------------

The sandy pony finally closed his eyes, opened them and reached to shake Silver's hoof.

"Good game." He said.

"Good game." Silver agreed.

"Next competitors!"

------------------------------

"Next competitors!"

Harmony stepped up to Open eyes.

"Three! Two! One! STARE!"

Harmony and Open locked eyes.

-------------------------------

Harmony blinked. She had a defeated look on her face.

"HA! Your little coltfriend couldn't help you? Without him, you can't do anything!"

Harmony glared at him, then walked away.

"Next competitors!"

Silver was up against a mare with a light green coat and a pink mane.

-------------------------------

She blinked.

The final match. Silver and Open. Silver looked to his friends, and they each gave him their hope. Harmony's message was accompanied with a kiss. Silver flipped down his goggles over his eyes and approached Open.

"The championship match! Here we go! Three! Two! One! STARE!"

Silver and Open stared.

-------------------------------

"This is one long match! Our timer says... 3 hours!"

"I can stare you down in my sleep." Open taunted through clenched teeth.

"Do you sleep with your eyes open?"

"Like I would need to."

"You would."

Neither of us are going to blink, Open thought.

Open lifted his fore-hooves off of the ground and stomped them in front of Silver, who almost flinched.

"That's not fair!" Silver exclaimed.

"Who said anything about being fair?" Open responded. He once again tried to force Silver to blink, this time punching the air next to his head. Silver stayed still and did not blink. Then, Open tried a different approach. He spoke to Silver in a very harsh tone.

"Now, your marefriend back there, do you really like her? The way I see it, she's just using you."

"What the buck are you talking about?"

"You don't notice that she spends an awful lot of time with Top Speed?"

"They're friends. Besides, neither of them would do that to me. Top Speed already has Garden anyway."

"Yes, but neither of you have gotten to the point."

"And why does that matter?"

"Because she's leaving you!"

"She would never do that."

"CLOSE YOUR DAMN EYES ALREADY!"

Silver finally flinched at Open's change of demeanor and blinked once.

"YESYESYES I FINALLY DID IT! I WON! WOOOO!" Open raised his hooves in celebration, but found no-one congratulating him on his victory.

"Come on, I won! Celebrate!"

"You tried to ruin a relationship." One member of the audience said.

"That's not cool, bro." Another piped up.

"So what? I WON!"

"You cheated and lied. Take your trophy. It's supposed to be a reminder of winning, but now it's a reminder of cheating."

"I will take it!" He walked off with a small trophy with two open eyes at the top. People started to disperse, and soon enough the small group of friends were in the courtyard alone. They walked off towards the dorms, and then into Silver's.

"I'm sorry you couldn't get that trophy."

"It's fine! I just wanted to play. Now, about what he said... you two?" Silver's expression changed from lighthearted to serious.

"Could never happen."

"Okay! Let's eat, I'm starving!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear mom and dad,

I participated in a contest this week. Silver did, too. He was much better than me, but lost to a cheater. The cheater tried to turn friends away from each other so that he could win. He did that to Silver and won, but found no one congratulating him because he won unfairly. He tried to separate me and Silver's friendship, but we realized that neither of us would hurt each other, and made up. True friends don't turn on each other, and neither do mine.

Sincerely,

Harmony

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Comments

[SpeederClaw]

Silver should've slugged him

I like the story so far, nice job

[Silver Sea]

410604 I thought of that in every other scenario.
Weird.