29: Tournament Training
Connor
Sportsen surprised Connor yet again with his resourcefulness and expediency. In less than four days Sportsen already had fliers designed, final-drafted, and printed before the week was over after the party. So the following Monday, fliers were raining down from the sky again and covering every window in town. It was an impressive feat that somepony could command something to be done in such a short amount of time and have it finished on time.
Connor would have spent some time reading some of the fliers that littered the ground of Ponyville if it weren’t for several ponies running up to him again to complain about the annoying advertising. He tried to argue with them for his innocence, but decided to save his breath and not waste his time anymore with arguing against ponies who clearly did not care if he was right or not. After the first argument, Connor outright ignored any other ponies who came to him to whine about the ads.
He spent the rest of Monday trying to dodge and avoid ponies who wanted to pick him apart for the second intrusive wave of advertising. Since Connor didn’t want to deal with all the whining, he figured the best course of action would be to hide himself away for a while until the storm blew over and everypony calmed down.
So Tuesday, Connor slept in longer than he usually did. He laid in bed and loafed about until his clock read about 10:30 and chose that time to finally get up. He sat up and let out a long groan as he stretched. A knock at his door broke the morning silence and he answered by yelling through the door.
“Yes?” he shouted after he finished his stretch.
“Connor, could you get up and help take down all the ads that are covering the house please?” Ms. Meadows called back through the shut door.
“Do I have to?” Connor complained.
“It would only be the front yard,” Ms. Meadows negotiated.
Connor sighed, “Yeah, I guess I could.”
“I would really appreciate it,” she pleaded back to him.
“Yes mom,” he chided back at her pleading with a smile.
He heard a chuckle from the other side, “Thank you dear.”
Connor chuckled to himself. During his first couple of days living with Ms. Meadows, Connor accidentally slipped up his wording when she was nagging him to do some chores around the house; the same way his own mom nagged him to do something. He wasn’t really thinking when he responded to her as he was trying to say ‘Yes ma’am’ to her, but what came out was ‘Yes mom’. When he caught what he said, the damage had already been done. Ms. Meadows started laughing and said that he sounded exactly like how one of her own sons used to talk to her.
The laughed at the slip up and from then on started joking around each other with Connor calling her ‘Mom’ and Ms. Meadows calling him her ‘Son’. Connor didn’t mind this new development. In fact, he found joy in it. It wasn’t odd to him to consider someone else as like a second mom to him. Actually, that was how his martial arts studio considered everyone who came through their doors to learn and train.
All the adults, parents, and instructors were friends with each other and helped look out for all the younger students with learning martial arts, their homework, and dealing with the stresses of school. Connor was thought of like an older brother with how he behaved and helped out the students. He could be strict, but capable of poking fun of his students in jest to make a good laugh for everyone. Connor didn’t mind the connection and even looked up to his master instructors like a second set of parents for help and advice. Everyone was just one big martial arts family coming together under one roof to learn and improve.
Connor climbed out of bed and started his morning routine. He showered, brushed his teeth, cleaned up his room a bit from the night before, and then did his hair a little bit. Since the spa treatment, Connor liked his new hairdo and wanted to keep it for as long as possible. Thankfully, whatever the spa ponies did kept his hair in the same Ivy League style haircut since the night of the party, so he only had to do a little bit of work.
Once finished, Connor was ready to leave and walked over to his door to head down to have quick breakfast and get to work. Before he opened the door, he heard a knocking from his window overlooking the street. He had closed the curtains the night before so he wouldn’t have to look at all the ads outside or see the ponies glaring up at him. Curiosity got the better of him as the rapping outside intensified and the he threw back the curtains to reveal Rainbow Dash hovering outside his window.
He furrowed his brow and narrowed his eyes cautiously as he undid the latch and opened the windows.
“Hey Rainbow. What’s up?”
“Hey Connor! Have you seen the ads yet?!” she yelled in excitement.
“No, I’ve been busy,” he said warily.
“Busy? With what, sleeping in and walking around town?” she spread her forelegs out as if to gesture at everything he may have done.
“No, I’ve been avoiding every pony trying to get me to clean up a mess I never made,” he pointed out with a dash of irritation.
Rainbow Dash let out an “Ugh!” before she disappeared from Connor’s view and returned with a flier in her teeth a second later. He took the flier from her and looked it over while Rainbow bobbed up and down with anticipation.
Connor had only briefly glanced over the fliers the day before as he was preoccupied with getting away from everypony. Now that it was right in front of him, the green and yellow colors exploded from the paper with bold, red text shouting to spread its message.
THE FIRST EVER PAINT WARS TOURNAMENT!
Want to fight on the ground or in the air in epic battles against others from around Equestria? Come and compete against other Paint Wars players from all over the land in a battle to be the number one Paint Wars fighter in Equestria! All species are welcome to compete in the tournament!
Locations for first round of competition:
If you live along or near the western coast of Equestria, you will be competing in the western regional tournament. The first round will be held in Las Pegasus.
If you live along or near the east coast of Equestria, all competitors will report to Fillidelphia for first round of competition.
If you live closer to Canterlot, all other competitors will be playing the central regional tournament and the first round will be held in Appleloosa.
Required equipment:
All competitors are required to bring their own bags to hold markers and chaff balloons in as well as protective eye wear at the minimum. Markers and chaff balloons will be available for sale at the tournament. All competitors will be responsible for their own belongings as the tournament holders are not responsible for lost or stolen items.
Charges and fees:
……
……
Connor glanced up at Rainbow Dash from his reading to gauge her reaction. It was bubbling like a volcano ready to explode.
“So, what do you think?” she asked barely able to contain herself.
“Okay, so they’re holding a tournament.” Connor stated matter-of-factly.
Rainbow Dash gaped at him, “Just a tournament?! This is going to be a huge competition! We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of ponies all over Equestria competing to see who the best Paint Wars fighter is!”
“Sooo….” Connor motioned with the flier still in his hoof asking how this involved him.
“Well,” Rainbow began which put Connor on edge, “Since this is going to be one of the greatest tournaments ever, I’ve decided that we are going to compete in it!”
“Great, have fun with that,” Connor brushed off without caring.
“What are you talking about? You’re competing too! I’ve already signed both of us up!”
Connor smacked his face with his hoof, “Dog, fan-it Rainbow Dash!”
“Trust me, you’ll love it!” she cheered, “Besides, what were you going to do if you didn’t compete, huh?”
“Well, clean up ads in the front yard,” he sheepishly admitted.
“We’ve got no time for that! You are to meet me out in the field behind Twilight’s library in half an hour, sharp! We’ve got a lot of training to do and not a whole lot of time to do it!”
“Why? When is the tournament and where is it being held at?” He questioned with a displeased voice.
“The first rounds are happening next Tuesday in Appleloosa. So we only have a few days to prep before we leave.”
“Next Tuesday?” Connor echoed, “That should give us about six days to get ready.”
“Well actually, we only have five days,” Rainbow admitted, “I told Twilight that we were competing in Appleloosa, so she wants to take everypony on a trip down there to watch and cheer us on.”
Connor planted his head in his hoof again.
“Alright, time to get moving! You’ve got less than 25 minutes to be in the field!”
“But I still have to clean up the ads in the front,” Connor tried to dissuade with his other duties.
“Well then you better hurry and get to it,” she replied not caring, “See you later!”
Rainbow blasted off into the sky again rattling the open windows in her wake. Connor sighed heavily and shut his windows to the outside world. Why did Rainbow Dash have to be so headstrong? Why did she have to sign Connor up without his permission? He grumbled more to himself as he headed downstairs to get some food and make quick work of the ads outside. Whether or not he competed would be up for debate. But in the meantime, this training would give him something to do.
After twenty minutes of taking down ads from Ms. Meadows home, he flew over to the specified field where Rainbow told to meet him.
When he got there, he was greeted with clouds cluttering the air low to the ground with Rainbow Dash making a few practice runs. The clouds were set up with different training exercises in mind and an obstacle course lying in wait off to the side where Rainbow was testing it to see if it was hard enough. Connor watched her finish up her lap around the complex course before she broke off from her track spinning into the air and came in for a fast landing next to him.
He squinted and raised a hoof against the dust cloud kicked up from Rainbow sliding across the ground. He gave a single cough as the dirt settled to reveal an arrogant looking Rainbow Dash brushing the dust off her shoulder and ready to start their special competition training.
“Good work making it here on time, Cadet Connor!” she shouted, “Today is a big day for us. I’ve set up several exercises for us to perform to get ready for the upcoming tournament that we are flying in!”
Connor gave a bored expression but couldn’t resist cracking a smile. “Alright, what do you have for us?”
“I’m glad you asked!” she said happily, “We’ve got routines that I have made and all of them are important if we want to win! Follow me and I’ll show you some of the stations I have ready.”
Rainbow flew off again and Connor followed after her. She came to a hover above all the stations and started pointing out all the tasks she set out with growing enthusiasm.
“Over there we have the weaving exercise, that one right there is barrel roll maneuver, there’s the hoops for practicing loops, I finished setting up the sprints section with a start and finish line, and that right there is the awesome obstacle course I just finished making!”
Connor scanned over all the stations Rainbow eagerly pointed out nodding along to her explanations. When she finished talking about her new obstacle course, she stared at him with excitement sparkling in her eyes.
“So are you ready to train, or what?”
He stared off into space contemplating his decision before shrugging, “Might as well. It will give me something to do,” he resigned.
“Yes!!” Rainbow punched the air.
“So what’s the first exercise we’re going to do?” Connor asked.
Rainbow Dash beamed, “So our first training exercise we are doing is weaving. This will help build basic maneuverability and confidence so you can pull those awesome turns I’ve seen you make before. Follow me!”
The pair landed on a cloud with several tall cloud columns lined up in front of them. Connor looked at the columns curiously wondering how they were going to perform this exercise. Rainbow stepped closer to the edge of the cloud and craned her neck around to speak.
“Okay, we’re going to start off easy and fly in between these clouds here and practice our banking. Once you feel comfortable, we’re going to speed it up and fly as fast as we can through them; you ready?”
Connor nodded and Rainbow jumped back into the air. She demonstrated how she wanted the obstacles maneuvered and banked back around once she was finished.
“Okay, your turn!”
Connor nodded and jumped into the wind. His wings carried him up and he circled around until he was lined up with the row of cloud pillars. As he approached the first pillar he rolled to his right and began his weaving between the columns. He took an easy pace as he rolled back and forth banking around the cloud pillars. His face was that of concentration as he focused on getting around each one and preparing for the next obstacle.
He soared past the last obstacle and leveled himself out to a glide. As he slipped out of his focused trance, something was bugging him. Something felt familiar while Connor moved in and out of the cloud pillars. He creased his brow as he fought to remember exactly. It had something to do with the act of turning, finding the best possible route, timing the moments of when he would switch direction, the feeling of momentum pushing down trying to force him to continue going in a certain direction.
“Hang on…!” he said out loud with a hint of an excited smile touching his lips.
Connor banked around again to get back in line with the pillars for a second pass at them. He stared down the pillars with determination and excitement slowly kindling in his eye. He sped up, trying to increase his entry speed to his first turn into the slalom exercise. He breath quickened as the first pillar rushed forward at him. At the last second, he snapped to flying on his left wing and banked hard to his left into the first turn.
His first two turns through the cloud columns were not his best as he banked harder than expected and spent the next two turns overcorrecting his mistake and trying to stay in the air. But after the fifth corner, Connor found the rhythm and tore through the turns with viciousness. Connor grinned savagely as he felt the same feeling before and realized why it felt so familiar.
It was the same feeling he got when trying to carve corners on his motorcycle. That feeling of centrifugal force squashing you down as your blood gets forced to the bottom of body, fighting against physics’ desire to keep you going in its predetermined forward direction. And yet somehow managing to stay on course with your chosen path around a turn was a thrill that Connor loved to experience.
He ran the course a few more time getting closer and closer to flying knife edge around every corner without slipping out of the air. Connor couldn’t keep the grin off his face. This wasn’t like last time when he played tag or paint wars with Rainbow Dash. That was a fight between Connor and Rainbow’s skill. While Connor wasn’t against testing himself against others, he didn’t like how competition brought out the less appealing side of people.
This was just a battle between him and his ability to overcome his limits. He only had himself to beat and if he lost, the only thing damaging Connor was the fact that he failed. It was slightly less damaging to his ego than losing to a superior opponent.
After his fifth pass through the course, Rainbow Dash finally stepped in and stopped his fun so they could move onto the next training exercise in her regiment.
The next five days was the filled with nonstop training from the time Connor woke up to dinner time when he was finally able to rest and relax. During training, Rainbow Dash and Connor worked on maneuvers and speed. They spent several hours working on performing barrel rolls around a long bar of clouds trying to get as close to it without touching it, doing loops through cloud rings, banking through the row of cloud columns, and running mock tournament rounds with each other.
By far, Connor’s favorite exercise was weaving around the slalom of cloud pillars and discovering new ways of getting through it. After being able to go through the obstacle while flying knife edge through most of it, Connor looked for other methods of faster cornering.
One method he thought up was to use the G forces acting on his body and wings as a type of preloading action. When he cornered around a column, Connor could feel the air pushing his wings up trying to keep him aloft in the air. He used that pushing force on his wings to build tension in his muscles like a rubber band and spring-launch him into the next corner. But to continue using that preloading technique, he would tuck his wings in after the last flap and roll over the top before snapping his wings open to catch the wind again while preloading for the next turn and repeating the process.
It was a valid way to maneuver around the pillars and was extremely fun looking like he was bouncing between clouds, but he felt that it wasted too much time with trying to catch the right amount of preload and required a lot of fine skill to use effectively. It was a method that might work best on sharp corners, but would require more practice before mastering; so he saved it for later usage. The other technique Connor developed made use of trying to barrel roll through the turns.
Connor was becoming well versed in the use of barrel rolls since he was coming within a foot of touching the cloud bar at moderately high speeds. So Connor theorized when he rolled to bank around the cloud column, what if he continued the roll as he passed the column to set himself up for the next turn and continued the pattern through the entire course? The result was a smooth, continuous looking barrel roll through the slalom.
It was far less jerky than spring boarding off the air and maneuvering through the course, but it felt only a little bit faster than flying through it by knife edge. Although Connor did like the smoothness and controlled manner of barrel rolling through opposing turns, he felt it would work best when used on long sweeping corners or trying to dodge other obstacles that have some distance between them.
While Connor enjoyed pulling fast turns and experimenting with new ways of flying, Connor noticed a difference in flying ability between him and Rainbow Dash. While Connor was becoming exceptional with maneuvering around sharp turns and overall cornering ability, Rainbow seemed to lack a little bit in handling. She could still pull some fast snap turns and maneuver around the obstacle course, just not as fast as Connor could in the tighter sections. Where she really showed her expertise were in the long straights and sprints during their training.
Rainbow Dash had a lot more power at her disposal than Connor when it came to top speed and acceleration. It became more apparent during their sprinting exercises and drag races. No matter how hard Connor tried, he could not outrun Rainbow Dash whether they started from a standstill or a rolling start. He could manage to get the initial jump and hold the lead for a second or two, but afterwards Rainbow Dash would rocket past him like she had finally reached her optimal power output and could now put it to use propelling her past any competition.
It frustrated Connor that his efforts were returning with the same results of losing. But he came to the conclusion that maybe top speed wasn’t going to be his greatest strength and needed to think smarter to use his better maneuverability to his advantage. It was a strange notion to him, but the first comparison to his situation felt remarkably similar to the battle between cars and motorcycles back home. While motorcycles had better handling and acceleration than most cars on the road, they still fell short on top speed compared to the bigger, high performance engines used in high end sport cars. So while Connor saw himself as the motorcycle taking corners at double the speed, Rainbow was the big muscle car doing triple the speed on the straights.
~~~
The week of training for Connor was over before he knew it and it was already the day for him and everypony else to leave for Appleloosa. While his skills did improve during his time with Rainbow Dash, he wish he had more time to prepare since he had no idea what to expect when it was time to compete. The night before, he packed his saddle bags and explained to his land lord that he would be gone for the next couple of days for the competition and would be back some time on Wednesday. Ms. Meadows understood and wished him good luck in the tournament.
Connor closed the house’s door behind with a soft thud the next morning and headed for the train station in town to meet up with Twilight and everyone who would be travelling to Appleloosa. It was extremely early in the morning with not a single pony in sight. Not even the sun had risen over the hills yet as Connor approached the small crowd of ponies hanging outside the train station.
He recognized Twilight standing there, then Rainbow, followed by the rest of their friends all waiting outside for him to arrive. Rarity was the first to point him out and wave to him. Connor barely recognized the gesture as he trudged his way to join the circle of ponies.
“Good morning Connor,” Fluttershy said cheerfully.
Connor let out the groan of a dead pony in response with his eyes closed still three quarters asleep. The group gave him a weird look while glancing between each other.
“Uhm, are you alright, dear?” Rarity asked cautiously not wanting to wake the sleepy beast.
“It’s morning,” he moaned out, “no, scratch that; its super early morning, like, too early before the sun has even risen.” He took a long yawn before letting his head droop again.
Rainbow followed suit with a yawn of her own. “Yeah, I know what you mean. If it was just us with wings, we could have flown there.”
“Muck you,” Connor spat out tiredly with his eyes still closed, “Flying for who knows how long this early in the morning for a competition; uugh.”
Applejack rolled her eyes at Connor whining and started pushing him inside the train station to buy tickets. “Come on everypony, let’s get our tickets so we can board the train before it leaves. The trip is supposed to take all day and we don’t want to miss it.”
Connor vaguely followed the instructions with assistance from Applejack leading him inside followed by everyone else behind them. The inside wasn’t that big, but had enough room to hold a good amount of ponies with three booths available to purchase tickets. Everypony got in line for the two open booths to buy their tickets for Appleloosa. Connor fell in the back of the line so he could see how the transaction was supposed to work.
One by one, everypony bought their tickets and headed outside to wait on the platform. Connor was the last one in line and when he walked up to the counter, a stallion greeted him.
“Good morning! Welcome to the Ponyville express! How can I help you?”
“You are way too happy for this early in the morning,” Connor sighed to himself.
“I’d like one round trip to Appleloosa,” he answered the stallion in his still-tired fashion.
“Certainly! One moment please.”
The pony busied himself with printing the ticket for Connor while he pulled out the money to pay for it. But while he waited, his mind drifted back to his first ‘Ride’ on the Ponyville express. He remembered how he snuck onto the train during his fit of rage and remembered how he wanted to repent for his mistake.
“Guuuuuuck; fine…” he sighed to himself.
“Here you are, sir! One round trip to Appleloosa,” the pony passed a small ticket to him under the bars guarding the teller.
Connor took the ticket from him and stuck it in his saddle bags. “Thank you. Do you think I could also have a round trip ticket to Canterlot as well?”
The pony behind the counter raised a questioning eye brow, but nodded nonetheless. Connor paid for both tickets and thanked the teller and walked out to join everyone outside. As he was leaving, he took the Canterlot ticket and ripped it in half and tossed the remains in the trash can.
“There, fixed. Happy now? A round trip should be more than enough to cover an unpaid one-way…” he scowled at himself and his high morals as he joined Twilight on the platform.
Once the train arrived, he boarded along with everypony else and followed them into one of the carriages with bunk beds built in. everyone dispersed amongst the carriage and set their bags in their respective beds. Connor quickly found his bunk bed assigned to him and climbed into it to catch some more sleep. His was bunk bed on top with no one below him and Fluttershy and Rarity occupying the beds across from him.
Connor took the time to sleep in for a little bit longer before the train started moving and chugged down the rail roads towards Appleloosa. For the first few hours of the trip, the carriage was silent with no other ponies coming aboard and several the current occupants catching a few more moments of sleep while the sun slowly peaked over the hills and mountains.
Once everypony was a little more rested with the extra sleep and some food was shared amongst the friends, Pinkie Pie struck up a conversation with her friends and the carriage was soon filled with excited talk about Appleloosa and the upcoming tournament. Connor eventually gave up trying to sleep in anymore with the chatter happening around him and chose to listen to their conversations hoping to get a glimpse of what to expect.
From what he could gather, Appleloosa sounded like some kind of country western town similar to those he had seen in spaghetti western films. Though, one major difference was this town was an apple tree farming town with good relations with the pre-established local inhabitants; so no chance of ‘Cowboys and Indians’ fights and no quick drawing duels.
“Oh well,” he shrugged. It was no surprise to him that he probably wouldn’t get to see any gun slinging during his stay there but he should have expected the apple farming; the name ‘Appleloosa’ should have been a big indicator. He took a moment to look over the contents of his saddle bags while he half listened to Applejack explain some of the letters she had been receiving from one of her cousins.
In his bag were a few items. He packed a few snacks for himself to eat, a pouch full of bits, some water, and a book for some reading when he got really bored. Rainbow Dash had been kind enough to pack a spare pair of goggles for him in her own bag to use during the tournament since he didn’t find any to buy while in Ponyville. His training with Rainbow took up most of his time during last five days that he barely had enough time to have a good dinner, let alone go shopping for gear to participate in the tournament.
It felt strange seeing his bags so empty to him. Whenever he went on trips, even small ones, his bags were always a little stuffed with extras of things that he may need. Usually, it was just extra clothes he brought in case something happened and needed to change. But now he had all this extra space for things since he didn’t really need to pack with extra clothes in mind. Maybe he could by some souvenirs or other equipment he may need in the future.
He flipped the covers back over his bags and returned his attention to the conversations. The talk had turned to mundane topics like discussing how the town might be doing and recounting past adventures there. Connor made a few comments here and there during the talks, but was losing interest in the conversations.
He rolled over on to his back to try and get some more sleep and hopefully speed up the waiting time until they arrived in town. He closed his eyes listening to the rattle of the car’s wheels below and the soft noise of voices as he let sleep take hold of him.
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I really liked the simile between Connor and Rainbow and Motorbike and Cars (wow, that's a lot of "and"s XD.)
*Ahem* Anyway, I am really enjoying the 'slice of life' portion, and it is building up very well to the action part of the story. The pacing is nice, and is really fluid.
Honestly, I can't really come up with any criticism. Maybe that's because I am not much of a pessimist, but I'm not complaining.
Celestia: "Oh, you finally paid for that ticket from Canterlot! Good!"
"
"
"
Conor: "
Celestia: "...but about the fine and those interest penalties....
Conor: "
Also, love how Conor got drafted for the tournaments--typical Rainbow!
6668819 Thanks, it always makes my day seeing someone recognize and congratulate my meticulous planning. I put a lot of work making sure everything flows together cohesively while still keeping close (mostly) to the show. Though, I am always still looking for ways to improve myself with different writing techniques and word usage.
Don't be afraid to point something out to me that seems odd or out of place and I will look into making it more clear or cover the plot details that I forgot about in a future chapter if I can.
6671828 Yeah, we're just going to buy that round-trip ticket and call it good. I'm not even going to bother with your 'Fines' and 'Interests' headache. not my home world, not my problem.
Besides: Ain't nobody got time for that!
6708904
Actually Conner slipping every now and again makes sense and it would be hilarious if pinkie were to pick him up on it
Connor: Now everybody calm down
Pinkie: Tee hee you said everybody rather than everypony tee hee
Etc. Etc.
6708940 ........
Oh god, the ideas are starting to come with scenarios of Connor trying to cover his ass with her pointing this out to others! I'm starting to get the urge to put this mishap in a future chapter!! Oh god, its changing the chapter into a disastrous recovery chapter as everyone around him (outside of the main six) are starting to ask about the truth of where Connor came from!!! It's becoming a nightmare!!!!!
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?
6709003
My work here is done
doesn't mean I'm going though
However on a serious note (maybe a d?) I'm glad i inspired you (and give you a way to spill the beans (hum maybe not I'll have baked beans tomorrow))
WkKlJdlMdkzNSKXnskx kwdmwmex skwmdkn
pardon me but there was a pink pony with matching curly hair and a picture of 3 balloons on her hip bouncing on my keyboard (I wonder who?)
Question: Is he even allowed to in the tournament since he made the game? I don't know if in real life the creators of games/sports join in tournaments, but I would think it's an unfair advantage.