36: Rising Tensions
Rainbow let out a sigh of relief as she finished gulping down her water from a free water stand. Today couldn’t have started any more awesomely! It was the first day of competition and already it was weeding out the weaker fliers. But for some reason, she didn't feel as awesome as she thought she should. She tossed the rest of her water in the trash and began her way through the crowds back to the stands.
Rainbow Dash knew she had to have turned some heads with her sheer amount of raw talent and awesomeness in flying and proved it today with her victory! But, Rainbow was expecting to have cheering crowds and screaming newfound fans, not a simple applause from the everypony. She casually glanced around at some of the passing ponies and at the commodities on some of the nearby vendors before taking flight again to meet up with her friends again.
Her mind drifted back to the newbie she flew against and his skill level. she could have beaten him with one hoof tied behind his back and one eye closed; heck, even Connor could have beaten him with ease! Though, there was that one fleeting memory of doubt with the gray kid falling out of the sky after one of her amazing flybys. Maybe she had been just a little too rough with him, but then again he was up against the greatest flier in Equestria, of all ponies. So it was understandable that he might not have been able to keep up with her. But she couldn’t let her match end before anypony could have taken one bite of their popcorn; she had to prolong it somehow.
She pushed the second guessing out of her mind. this was her moment of victory and she was not going to let it be spoiled by doubt; this was a competition and not everypony could be a winner. She touched down on the mountain top and found the spectator tower that Twilight had mentioned where they were going to watch the games. She jogged up the entryway that lead to the stands high above. Just as her hoof touched the first step, she heard a loud thumping above her and found Connor standing just a few steps up.
“Oh, hey Connor! what’s up? Did you see my flying out there? Pretty awesome, huh?”
“Rainbow Dash, we need to talk.” Connor pushed passed her and waited outside for her to follow. She felt an unsettling wind trailing behind him as he walked by; like, it was more angry than usual.
“Uh, okay…” she hesitated.
She followed him to backside of the spectator tower and away from prying eyes and ears. Just as he stopped, Connor whipped around and sucked in air through his nose like he was trying to steadying himself before exhaling harshly and leveled a glare with her. “You mind telling me what you just did back there?”
“Back there? You mean during the match?” Why did it feel like she was being interrogated by a police pony for a murder? And his burning gaze was really making things uncomfortable. “Well, I won the match, right? Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do?”
“Oh, really?” Connor spat back while putting on a surprised look.
“Yeah!” she smiled, “I just went out there and proved I was the best flier!”
“No,” Connor cut her off, “What you did was go out there and make a practice dummy out of that little kid!” He pointed an accusing hoof at Rainbow Dash.
“Practice dummy?!” Rainbow Dash growled, “What do you mean by that?!”
“Oh, I’ll tell you! You were pulling flybys so close to the kid you could have poked him in the eye with your hoof! Any closer and you would have clipped his wing and made him a gray splatter mark across the canyon wall!!” Connor was almost shouting by this point and was moving closer and closer to Rainbow getting in her face.
Rainbow snarled and got right back in his face, “And what makes you an expert on competing, huh?! This is a competition! You’re supposed to try and beat your opponent! I mean, yeah, it could have been a tiny bit much for mine, but how else am I supposed to show off my moves if the match ends before they can even get the name ‘Rainbow Dash!’ out of their mouths?!”
“A-Are you for real, right now? Are you fussing serious!?! You are more concerned about some hucking pony cheering your got-spam name then beating your opponent to a pulp?! Oh my cod! I can't believe you right now! I thought you were better than this! But you are Un-Tucking-Believable right now!! how would you feel if a Wonderbolt came by and kicked you around the field like a piece of trash!!!” Connor jabbed Rainbow in the chest.
“Don't you dare think the Wonderbolts would do something like that!!” Rainbow Dash shoved Connor back a bit. “They are way cooler than that to fly all over somepony!! You’re stupid for even thinking that!!!”
He regained his balance and came right back; “And you’re a bully who thinks its okay to gang up on smaller ponies!! and I bet your 'Wonderbolts' wouldnt be able to hold a candle in a real fight without the whole team there to back them up!!!”
“I DARE you to say that ONE more time!!!!”
“Connor! Rainbow Dash!!” Applejack rounded the corner just in time to force a hoof between the two raging Pegasi as Rainbow was in the middle of loading a hoof back. “Alright, that’s enough y'all! Lets not get hasty and say somethin' we don't really mean.”
“No!” Connor hollered, “I won’t stop! This stitch is more concerned about hearing her name called out by other ponies that she’s willing to beat the spit out of a kid to get it!!”
“Listen here, feather brain!! If you keep going, I’m gonna-!!!”
“Do absolutely nothin', Rainbow!” Applejack blocked Rainbow away from Connor. “You two need to simmer down and take a walk right now! Do I make myself clear!?”
“You can’t be serious?!” Rainbow glanced at Applejack then back at Connor motioning with her hoof. “If that High Horse thinks he can make fun of the Wonderbolts, he’s got another thing coming!!”
“Come say that to my face!!” Connor yelled back. Rainbow flared and tried to push past the obstacle in her way. However, 'Applejack the Mediator' instantly changed to 'Applejack the Brick Wall'.
“I said, that’s enough!!” Applejack bore down on the fighters, “y'all 're gonna come back with me to the stands with everypony else and we're gonna talk this out! And you!” she flipped her heavy stare onto Connor, “Yer gonna take a long walk and calm down, ya hear!? We've got a little hoedown later with Braeburn at the Inn and I won't have you two fightin' at it! We'll talk about this later once you two can act like normal ponies; but right now, you two need to back off!”
Connor stood there for a second grinding his teeth before whipping around with a roaring, snarling growl and stomped off. Rainbow wanted to slug Connor right now in the back of the head as he walked away, but there was an orange colored, green eyed brick wall standing between her and him. Applejack gave another push and said, “Stairs. Move. Now.” Rainbow gave one last angry glare over Applejack before complying with her orders and turned around. She marched back around to the entrance of the stairs and began the long climb up to the top.
There was a heavy silence as soon as Rainbow Dash entered the top of the tower. Everypony watched as the fuming Pegasus storm into one of the empty seats and sit with a heavy thud. Applejack sat in the spot next to her to keep an eye on and a restraining hoof ready just in case. Nopony wanted to say anything or even look at each other, but they all knew what everypony was thinking.
After several minutes of awkward and uncomfortable silence, Rainbow Dash was the first to speak. “Stupid Connor, sticking his nose into things where it doesn’t belong…”
“Rainbow Dash…” Twilight chided.
“No!” Rainbow Dash stood up to glare at her, “He was accusing me, the greatest flier in Equestria, of beating up somepony for fun! He called me a bully! I would never in a million years be a bully, and I would never do something like that!” she rounded on the rest of her friends sitting there, “Do you think I would do something like that?”
All of Rainbow’s friends suddenly tried to avoid her gaze either by glancing all about or rubbing the back of their necks. “I can't believe you, guys! My own friends think that I might be a bully! When have I ever done something that might, in a million chances, might make me a bully!?” She snorted.
“We saw ya do it just now, Rainbow.” Applejack stated bluntly.
Rainbow dash gaped at her best friend before shaking her head violently. “No I didn’t! I was showing everypony who the better flier was!”
“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight stood up from her seat, “The colt you were up against landed on the nearest rock pillar and curled up into the fetal position after you finally scored your hit on him.”
“Huh?” Rainbow looked at Twilight funny.
“Darling, the poor child was crying his eyes out down there!” Rarity finally spoke up.
“He was? There’s no way that could have happened!” Rainbow Dash turned to her oldest friend for support. “Fluttershy! Come on, there’s no way that actually happened, right?!”
Fluttershy was still staring out at the field; “The poor thing looks so sad down there. It looked like one of the bullies from flight academy was picking on him the entire time.”
Rainbow Dash stood there like she was slapped in the face. Her oldest and closest friend had compared her to the one thing that had started their friendship so long ago and now, it seemed like the roles had been reversed and now she looked like the bully. She darted between all of her friends giving reluctant but honest stares at her.
“Pinkie Pie!” she looked to the last pony who had yet spoken hoping to find any kind of reprise.
Pinkie Pie folded her forelegs, “Not cool, bro. Not, cool.”
“So-So you all think I was being a bully during my match, huh?” Rainbow received a unanimous (albeit, somewhat hesitant) nod of agreement from everypony. Rainbow Dash gawked, “I can't believe you guys! You would all think that I, me, would bully another pony? That’s just-, well, no! That’s not-…!”
Rainbow Dash bolted from the stands and down the stairs before anypony could yell stop. Twilight stood up and tried to follow after her, but Applejack was right there next to her holding her back. “Applejack, we have to go after her!”
“Let'er go, Twilight,” Applejack said stoically.
“What? But why?”
“She needs to blow off some steam before she can talk again; but she’ll be back,” Applejack reassured, “We can talk about it later; for now, let's give her some space.” Twilight stared a long time at Applejack throwing a second glance at the stairs debating at going on her own. She glanced back at Applejack, “But what about Connor?”
“Don’t you worry about him. I’ll be talking with Connor later once he’s done bein' all huffy and puffy.”
Twilight stared at Applejack’s knowing smile for a few seconds longer before sighing and slowly returning to her seat. “Alright Applejack; I just hope that they will be okay for now.” Applejack gave a comforting pat on the shoulder before sitting back down in her own seat to enjoy the rest of the competition.
~~~
Connor gave a ragged sigh as he bore his way through the crowds of Appleloosa. After Applejack broke up his fight between Rainbow Dash, he removed himself from any signs of life for a couple of hours before slowly making his way back to civilization. It had taken him forever to finally be confident enough to walk amongst other ponies without looking like he wanted to melt them all down with his stare. If it was any indication of time, the sun was now beginning its path below the horizon as he was making his first trip around town.
He still had a bit of a scowl on his face, but his anger had calmed down enough to a low boil. He was shocked to see Rainbow Dash, the pony who had taught him how to fly and seemed like the most capable of controlling herself, now beating up on another pony and traumatizing him into possibly quitting Paint Wars forever. She clearly had never seen somepony get utterly devastated or irreparably changed because of reckless actions or actions not taken.
If it were up to him, Connor would have kept going with Rainbow Dash until she finally understood what she had done. He knew he was in the right and his anger was well reasoned, but since Applejack had stopped him short before he could get everything out it was like putting in a plug in a volcano that was already about to blow.
Memories of how a couple of his students had been affected from being in a real fight at school and openly humiliated in front of the dozens of classmates. He remembered one day expecting to see all of his students' smiling and excited faces again for class when he noticed one of them was missing. Hilton, one of his favorite students to work with wasn't there; he was a new student who was always eager to learn from Connor and very respectful, but always seemed like he was carrying a weight on his back.
Class had just started today and everyone was rushing to line for instruction. today was going good so far as connor scanned and waited for all the students to get settled. however, he noticed that Hilton wasn't here today; usually, he was here every day trying to get as much teaching and practice as possible. He spotted the child's parents come through the front door with somber faces talk to the master for a few moments before disappearing into the main office. He handed leading the stretches to one the older students before he darted after parents. He tipped toed to the door so he could eavesdrop enough to hear the conversation.
“I'm afraid he refuses to come back to class anymore,” the mom said, “After what happened at school with the bullying turning into a fight, he would rather stay home than come here.”
Connor felt his blood chill a bit. What had happened to him? He knew Hilton had been dealing with some problems at school with a couple of the kids, but he didn't think it was that bad.
“I'm sorry to hear that,” the master replied, “What exactly happened with the bullying that made him want to quit martial arts? Maybe we can try to teach him how to overcome this so it doesn't happen again?” he sounded downtrodden like he knew he wasn't going to be able to retain this student.
“Apparently, when he tried using his martial arts to defend himself, the kids decided to gang up on him and beat him down to the ground.” the dad wasn't too pleased with the situation either; it sounded like he blamed us slightly for the mess. “Hilton was in tears from the time we picked him up all the way to his bedroom-”
Connor couldn't bare to listen anymore; if he tried to, he would just end up feeling more terrible about himself. Hilton had kind of looked up to Connor and when he was finally able to share his school problems with him, that being the bullies, he had brushed him off like it nothing important. Connor had actively pushed his complaints aside and told him not to worry about it; they were probably just goofing around and just giving him a hard time and would pass in time. Now, Hilton had just gotten beaten up from said bullies and Connor blamed himself for not helping to intervene.
He didn't know how to feel about himself. He was angry with himself for partially being the cause of this, but he didn't know how to fix it. Its not like he could go back in time and try again, though he really wish he could. And Connor couldn't force Hilton to come back and try to make it up to him; that would probably make the situation worse. Unfortunately, he didn't have anymore time to think about it as classes was still waiting for him.
A couple of days later, some the students who went to the same school as Hilton came back telling stories of him saying martial arts was a 'Waste of time' and 'Pointless'. He flat out told them that he was never coming back. Hilton never outright blamed Connor for the fight, but that didn't stop him from blaming himself for letting a student down. Connor promised himself to never make this mistake again if school bullies ever came up. He wouldn't let a person get bullied around by someone who was stronger without any back up.
He shook his head trying to get his memories, anger, and Applejack out of his head. He didn’t want to think about it right now and wanted to just forget it for now. But his wish to forget was disregarded as a familiar country twang called out to him.
“Connor! Hold on there a second!” Connor growled under his breath as Applejack slowed down to match his slow, grumpy pace down the road.
“Howdy there,” she greeted; Connor grunted in response. “How' ya doing right now?”
“Mm’fine…” Connor answered vaguely.
Applejack paused for a few more steps before pressing again. “So, ‘you feelin' any better?”
“For now, I guess…” he grunted.
Applejack scoffed, “Oh come on now, you can stop yer poutin'. We’ve already talked to Rainbow Dash about what happened an' she understands that she made a mistake. Can ya at least forgive her for that?” she pleaded.
“It’s the fact that she did it at all in the first place that I am upset about,” Connor stated tersely, “I thought she was better than that. There’s a difference between winning with grace and beating the snot out of someone to get a few cheap thrills.”
“I know sugar cube, and she know that too; we’ve already talked to her about it. Please don’t hold a grudge against her.” Connor averted his eyes from the look that Applejack was giving him, tugging him with pleas of forgiveness on the back of his head. But he didn’t want to let go of his sourness just yet.
“Y'know, Granny Smith once held a grudge against one of my aunts for 15 years at one time; did you know that?” Connor turned back to shake his head. “Yep, Granny Smith held a grudge against aunt Ambros fer not liking her cooking at a family reunion. I was still young at the time, but they had somethin' fierce to say over how the apple fritters should have been cooked. After that, they refused to speak to each other. But y'know what that fight came down to?”
“No…” Connor rolled his eyes.
“Nothin'; absolutely nothin'.” Connor cocked an inquisitive eyebrow. “After 15 years of not speakin', Granny and aunt Ambros apologized to each other at the next family reunion. In fact, aunt Ambros had sent a dozen letters tryin' to apologize for the whole hullabaloo. The family had a long talk about how grudges can hurt longer than burning your mouth on a hot apple fritter fresh from the cooking pot. Come t' think of it, Rarity and Sweetie Belle had a fight not too long ago.”
“No, really?” Connor chided sarcastically, “Siblings fighting in this world? Unheard of!”
“That’s enough, and yes they did. Rarity told me her sister was mad at her for helpin' too much with a play she put on. I think that night before Rarity left for Manehattan, Sweetie Belle got up to ruin a new outfit for Sapphire Shores the next day. But somehow, Sweetie Belle had a change of heart and followed her sister all the way to Manehattan with her friends to fix it.”
“Wait, what?” Connor broke into a smile, “Sweetie Belle went all the way there just to fix something she broke for her sister?”
“Sure did! Boy, was I furious with Apple Bloom when they finally got back, but they managed to fix the problem between those two.”
“And you heard all this from who?”
“Apple Bloom told the story after she got grounded to her room, then Rarity filled in some of the missing details when I swung by her shop.”
Connor laughed, “Wow! That’s quite a story; I’m impressed!”
Applejack joined in the laughter glad to see that his mood was lifting. “Now, are ya gonna cheer up or are you gonna stay a sour apple for the rest of the night?”
“I guess; it depends…” His laughter dying down to a soft chuckle as he stared ahead of where they were walking.
“Depends on what?” Applejack questioned.
“I don’t know, depends on a lot of different things. Depends on what happens for the rest of the night.”
Applejack let out a frustrated sigh, “Will you at least cheer up for the party an' not start anything with Rainbow Dash?”
Connor answered Applejack’s question with one of his own annoyed sighs. “Fiiine.” He cracked a smile as a memory of his mom nagging him the same way shot through his mind like a lightning bolt followed by a twang of homesickness. Man, he missed her so much.
“Great!” Applejack smiled before he could get lost in his self-pity. “Because we’re here right now!”
Connor halted beside Applejack with a confused look and glanced around. They were standing outside the inn where voices and music floated out from the first floor of the Inn with the occasional sound of clinking glasses and laughter intermingled.
Connor silently groaned, “Aw, Duck!”
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Carp, one more chapter to catch up on...
7549920 give me about another seven hours or so and then you can tack another chapter onto that list.
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D:
Yeah, little too ethusiastic Rainbow. Rubbing your awesome in someone's face isn't cool.
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7551585 the excitement of the competition can be overwhelming...
glad to see that there are still some people out there who still want to read my story.
yeah, sorry for taking so long on the updates. life happened. but if you calculate it out, i basically did one chapter for each month i was gone so i guess it evens itself out. how's everyone been? i've kind of missed talking with everyone.
At least the others weren't blind to Rainbows actions.