Chapter 9: Persistence and Chaos
Twilight had a very bad feeling.
It wasn't just the lack of intelligible results in her search thus far, but the other thing she'd been dreading all day. She stood next to Sour Sweet at the start of the obstacle course in the center of the... (should I still be ashamed if my vocabulary is lacking in athletic jargon?) sporty, thing, area... with CHS's competitors doing the same just a few meters away. Standing in the grass between CHS's side of the obstacle course and the roller-rink were CHS's cheerleaders, who at least weren't giving her any unsettling looks. The same could not be said of her own team, the countless faces on the distant bleachers, and most of all Principal Cinch, who took her seat by the other judges.
Nervous even without the pressure (OH SO MUCH PRESSURE) to do well, Twilight did her best not to react to everyone staring at her like they were expecting her to fail. The first step to doing this was to remember that such stares were (most likely ENTIRELY) in her imagination, derived from various fears and anxieties. She felt better already! In that she was just extremely nervous now, but still!
Dean Cadence summed up the rules of the event, how one competitor had to hit the target (archery, which is a requirement at Crystal Prep, WHY?!) at the end of the obstacle course before their partner could move to do the same. When both obstacle-course-running archers had completed their task, the competitors on their team could begin with the roller-skating race, whether the other school's team was moving or not. When enough laps were completed, the bike teams could start their way around the track, which would be the deciding factor.
When the event started, Sour Sweet and Fluttershy took off and the cheerleaders launched into their routine. Distantly, Twilight tried to pretend that those cheers applied to her as well.
Run, slide, jump, swing,
grab a bow and shoot something!
Ar-row, and, bow,
one hit and you're good to go!
Sour Sweet hit a bulls-eye by launching three arrows at once, which, while Twilight questioned the legality, meant she was now 'good to go.' With a quick glance at the other CHS competitor, Twilight stood up, ran, tried to leap over the hay bale, tripped, and face-planted on the ground just past it. Luckily, there were no mocking cheers relating to klutziness or polishing the floor with one's face. Sour Sweet was glaring at her in irritation when she got up, but Twilight quickly moved to swing over the mud, barely keeping herself from falling in. Struggling, she made her way onto the platform by the time Fluttershy hit a target and the other CHS archer was in position. Both took a shot that neither landed, but where Fluttershy quietly applauded her teammate, all Twilight got was another glare.
Unfair! Just like with the Elimination Equation! CHS gives praise no matter what and all I get is judgement! I don't want patronizing participation awards, but this just SUCKS!!
The blonde girl across from her hit with her very next shot, which sent CHS's roller-skaters off in the next ring and the cheerleaders into another lively chant.
Work the left, work the right,
legs move at the speed of light!
On the track, round you go,
faster than your richer foe!
Twilight kept firing, knowing that statistically, one of her arrows had to hit if she kept shooting the general area where the bulls-eye traveled. Right? Failure rate so far remained at 100% (and I just love getting 100% on things...), but Sour Sweet's tone suggested she wasn't thinking positive as she watched CHS's skaters go by.
"Well, that's just fantastic!"
Knowing that it was directed squarely at her, the commentary offered by Dean Cadence hurt much worse.
"If CPA can't hit another bulls-eye soon, they'll be out of this race."
Frantically, she tried to ready another arrow, dropped it, and felt the tears welling up in her eyes as she quickly moved to retrieve it. She tried to wipe her eyes clean (my accuracy is horrific as it is) with her bare arm before shooting, but it hardly made a difference, which got worse when Sugarcoat shouted from the outer-most ring.
"You're really bad at this!"
Turning to look at her, Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "Is that really how you encourage a teammate?"
Shrugging, Sugarcoat haughtily raised her chin. "I'm just pointing out the truth."
"Yea? Well here's some more: If you want to win, tearing down your own members is a fuckin' stupid way to do it." She looked at the scoreboard for the roller-rink, waiting for her cue. "Good luck to you guys anyway."
As Sugarcoat and Indigo stared in slack-jawed shock, Sunset beamed with some kind of friendly pride, which reached face-hurting levels when she saw Applejack assisting Twilight down by the archery range.
Given that the platforms were elevated for better audience visibility, the sirens, standing on the grass on the opposite side, couldn't quite see what was going on with Applejack from where they were, which made Aria scratch her head.
"What's she doing over there?"
Adagio leaned over to try to get a better look. "I saw her hand her bow off to Fluttershy before going over to their side... Did you two just hear the other Shadowbolt just say something about advice from the person they're competing against?"
Sonata hopped up and down a few times to see for herself. "Why the heck're they helping CeePee? I thought the whole reason they brought us here was that they badly wanted to win? Shouldn't they be, y'know, jumping on this?"
"Hm..."
Adagio had suspected other motives out of Sunset from the start, and as she alone was the one that helped them regain their voices, proposed that they be present, and regularly checked up on them, perhaps there was more to her benevolence than met the eye. She would need to have an increasingly long talk with Sunset later.
"Trust me," said Applejack as she helped Twilight steady her aim, "take a deep breath..." She did. "let the arrow go... riiiight... now!"
Twilight fired, her heart stopping for the instant in which the arrow flew directly for the target, hitting it dead-center.
The crowd cheered, Sunny Flare and Lemon Zest took off, and Spike hopped up to congratulate her. She knelt down to hug him before turning to the girl that had, despite her chance at an easy win, helped her through what may have been the most tense moment of her life. She saw the visual cue of the blonde raising her arm for a high-five, but ignored it, gently seizing her opponent in a hug. The other girl patted her back.
"See? Ah was tellin' ya the truth."
And then that strange phenomenon started again!
During another cheer for the roller-skaters, the sirens had skillfully cartwheeled into a position from which they could see Twilight and Applejack better.
"Hey," Sonata observed, "she's ponying up! Sunset's gonna get in trouble for this!"
Aria looked to Adagio. "I don't really give a damn about these games, but we kinda owe Sunset. Anything we can do about this?"
"If I knew how to prevent or dispel those transformations, don't you think I'd have done it at the Battle?!"
"Yeesh. No need to get snippy."
Her eyes widening in horror, Sonata pointed at Twilight and Applejack. "I think she's figured it out for us!"
Applejack struggled as she felt her energy fading like she was a toaster with the plug pulled, that thing around Twilight's neck ripping it out of her somehow. "What, are, you, doing?!"
"I don't know!!" Horrified at what she was doing to the girl that had just helped her, Twilight again felt like crying as she tried to restrain the spectrometer, but only when the ethereal substance stopped coming was she able to pull it back and snap it shut. Unfortunately, she lost her footing and fell backward, off the platform, and dropped the spectrometer, which snapped off its cord and rolled onto the roller-rink. Open. She could only watch as it unleashed some kind of pulse...
Twilight again out of their field of view, the sirens tried to lean over for a look when they felt the burst of magical activity, but had to keep their focus on the event when the roller-skaters finished.
Dirt roads, dirt bikes,
take those slopes fast as you like!
And don't miss, those ramps,
if you want to be the champs!
Goooo, BIKERS!
And that's when people noticed the huge, plant-like tendrils and Venus fly-trap mouths popping out of rips in time and space. Strangely, no one screamed or ran away or anything, not even Crystal Prep's students, so either this was a more common occurrence than the sirens would have ever guessed, or the people in this world had the self-preservation instincts of a cow.
They watched as Sugarcoat and Sunset were attacked, the former danging from her bike in one of the creature's many mouths and the latter skidding along the ground on her back. Good thing Rarity's motocross outfits doubled as standard safety gear.
...One hoped.
As Sugarcoat fell and tumbled down the plant monster's body, the (mostly powerless) sirens did they only thing they could think of in this situation: Play through!
Watch the vines,
watch the head,
otherwise, you'll end up dead!
Geeeeet out of there!!
Sugarcoat was the only one to take this advice, fleeing the area almost as soon as she was on her feet. Rainbow, however, had gone back for Sunset, snatching her out of the way of a mouth that slammed straight into the dirt. This act quickly led to Rainbow ponying up, but with no immediate response from Twilight's magic-sucking medallion. Much more perplexing was Rainbow's next thought as she pointed to the track.
"We can still win this!"
Sunset knew that her priorities should have been on the creature. She knew that the smart thing to do was stop, find Twilight (who she knew had done something to the portal), and do whatever it took to reverse what she'd done to open all these little rifts the plant-thing was now spilling from. However, if she did that, she would be confirming that magic had gotten in the way of the games, that she had failed completely to stop it from making a mess of things, and the school would probably never forgive her for ruining the Friendship Games. So instead of doing the sensible thing, she did the crazy thing; revving up her bike to continue the race.
If the event kept going, if she just drove past the stupid thing, no matter who won, that would mean that the magic hadn't gotten in the way, right? If they still finished the event? Maybe she was a little heavy on adrenaline right then, but that was what she decided to do. She wanted to give Rainbow credit for thinking the same thing, but if it was a matter of winning something...?
Regardless, she took off, racing past the pit Indigo Zap had fallen into. With the roar of her bike, it was a little hard to detect whether or not the sirens' next cheer was at all sarcastic.
You're still racing?
Well, why not?
Just make sure that you're not caught!
To stay pretty as a peach,
stay out of the monster's reach!
Driiiiive FASTER!
Aria shrugged a little. "I mean, we're not running either, but-"
Sonata finished for her. "But the beastie is all around the outer-most track for some reason, so around the center of this thing, where we're standing, is probably a lot safer right now?"
"Yea, that."
Twilight wasn't paying attention when the racers crossed the finish line, having to dive-roll over a tendril (athleticism is so much easier when no one's watching) to seize and shut the spectrometer, which, she assumed, caused the portals to close and the monster to go away. She looked at the Canterlot High girls that had gathered to discuss this, the scary, fiery-headed one was visibly upset about... magic? That was certainly interesting, but more urgently, Twilight knew she had to apologize.
"Um, excuse me," she started with a contrite frown, "I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I just wanted to learn about the strange energy coming from your school, I didn't know it was magic, or, how it works."
"That's okay," said the smiling, blue, winged girl as she stepped closer, "neither do we."
And again, the spectrometer acted on its own. Twilight tried to close it while frantically apologizing as it drained another girl. "I'm sorry, it just started absorbing energy on its own, but I'm not sure how!"
Scary Girl immediately got in her face for this. "What do you mean you don't know how?!" She tried to close it too, which may have been what triggered the bolt that opened a rift over their heads. Still trying to close her treacherous creation, Twilight again tried to explain herself.
"It also caused these corresponding rifts to appear, I don't know how that works either!"
Exasperated, Scary threw her hands up. "Is there anything you do know?! Like how to get our magic back, or how to fix the portal to Equestria?!"
Wearing a worried frown, Fluttershy stepped forward. "Sunset, please, calm down."
Making note of the name, Twilight was vaguely sure she'd heard it before, but Sunset's last word had her completely lost. "Equestria?"
"You're supposed to be so smart," Sunset seethed as she reached out to clamp the spectrometer shut, "but did you ever think that you shouldn't be messing around with things you don't understand?!"
"But I want to understand," pleaded Twilight, which Sunset heard as 'but I want to play with fire!'
"But you don't," she snapped, pointing an accusatory finger in the hapless hazard's direction, "and worst of all, you put the lives of my friends in danger!" She drew some kind of satisfaction from the tears in Twilight's eyes, knowing that the other girl knew she was wrong.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
And she ran off crying. Sunset continued to glare after her, but only when Rainbow touched her shoulder did she realize what she'd just done. Again.
Temper. It's always my temper. Something bad happens, I don't get my way, I get angry, and then I do something stupid. Happened with Celestia, happened during the Fall Formal, it happened during the Battle, and now I've done it again.
She'd have been angrier at herself, but where would that lead her? Probably doing something stupid again and making an already terrible day even worse. Speaking of things getting worse, she caught sight of the sirens, who, by the looks on their faces, heard more than a little of her exchange with Twilight
"Uh... Hi, guys?"
"Yea, hi," Aria said with a moderate scowl while crossing her arms. "So, when were you gonna tell us about what was going on?"
"I, I only just learned what she was doing recently and-"
Sonata tilted her head a little. "How recently?"
"A little before the second event?"
Aria's eyes narrowed. "But you still didn't say anything?"
"I was, I was going to-..."
Sunset remembered the how she felt about the look she got the first time Princess Twilight returned to this world, and the months between the Fall Formal and the Battle of the Bands, how it felt to be distrusted. There were multiple times in which she thought she'd earned someone's trust back only to learn otherwise, there were misunderstandings with her friends, causing them to doubt her too. Those situations were always resolved eventually, but the look Aria and Sonata were giving her now, that subtle blend of confusion and betrayal? When Sunset wore it herself, it always meant "You don't trust me, do you?" To have that very expression reflected back at her, hurt.
She didn't know what else to say, but Adagio, her face unreadably passive, filled the silence with an ice-cold monotone.
"We should talk later. In private. I'll call you." Leaving no room for discussion, she turned and walked away, Aria and Sonata following her.
When they were out of the Rainbooms' earshot, Adagio glanced over her shoulder at them. "When I said later, I meant very soon, and when I said 'in private'...?"
"Oh," said Sonata as she and Aria stopped following, "gotcha! What should we do?"
Heading off to find a secluded spot, Adagio shrugged. "Whatever you like, the next event doesn't start for a while." The complete lack of mirth in her voice made it hard to tell if she was joking. "Don't do anything I'll see on the news, please."
Aria snorted with amusement anyway, turning to see Sonata giving her a ponderous look.
"So, now what?"
In a split-second, Aria registered that Sonata had forgotten that she was supposed to be 'in charge,' which left that position open to her! But she had to act fast. Glancing around, she caught sight of the Rainbooms approaching Luna, Celestia, Crystal Prep's Ultra-Girly-Hair 9000, and a really cross-looking, blue librarian lady angrily making hand-gestures at Celestia. Aria pointed to the stairway just behind them. "Recon."
Sonata nodded and the two quickly snuck over to hide behind the steps, catching the tail end of something Celestia was saying.
"-some extenuating circumstances... Perhaps we should end the games now and declare a tie."
Blue Pompous did not gel with this. "A tie?! Was this your strategy all along, to force us into accepting you as equals?! I think not. The games will continue and Crystal Prep will prevail despite your antics and whatever performance-enhancing regimen your students are on!" She gave Celestia one more dirty look before walking off.
Sunset immediately stepped forward to apologize. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop all this from happening."
Celestia frowned, her tone completely sympathetic. "It's not your fault, Sunset." This appeared to make Sunset feel worse.
"Isn't it? I should know how to control the magic I brought here. But I don't." Same as Twilight. "I let everyone down. And now Principal Cinch thinks we're cheating!"
She gently put a hand on Sunset's shoulder. "It doesn't matter what Principal Cinch thinks." Damn, it feels good to say that out loud!
"But it does," said Sunset as she stepped away. "The students here at CHS don't just wanna win, they wanna beat Crystal Prep. It isn't gonna count if the other side doesn't really think they lost. Crystal Prep is never gonna believe we won fair and square if there's magic around, and that magic is only around... because of me."
Still behind the stairs, Sonata kept her voice down. "Kinda too late now, isn't it? If the plant thing slamming down on the racers doesn't count as CHS not winning fair and square, I don't know what does!"
"Forget the stupid games, did you hear Sunset?" Peeking around the stairs, Aria's eyes narrowed at the departing Rainbooms. "Maybe when Adagio calls her away, we should have a private talk of our own..."
"Private with their whole group? Minus Sunset?"
Aria facepalmed. "Don't ruin the moment, Sonata."
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Swearing is best used in moderation for emphasis. Which is why it works here.
If you swear all the time it has no impact. If you only swear once or twice in a long work, it's memorable.
Don't apologize. The Shadowbolts needed a bitch-slap in that bit, no question.
...dang I can't get to writing my version of the events of "Friendship Games" soon enough.
I don't know what the Sirens are mad about. I actually don't. Like, what did Sunset say or not say?
7453445
There was going to be a bit of dialogue outlining her thoughts in their entirety, but I opted to leave that as a tiny surprise for next time.
What you did here.
I see it.
7453259 When you do, can you tell me?
7453499 Easily done.
Another excellent chapter.:D
That colorful pun was great
And you didn't put this in some sort of container after the first mishap, why?
Someone took her Delusional pills in Bitch water I see.
Goddammit, Eyeswirl.
After fairly lethal event of monster appearing out of nowhere, Principal C goes from manipulative egocentric bitch, to a 1-note Saturday morning cartoon strawman-ish villain with no brain
AND
When no one took magic sucking thingie from Sci-Twi, knowing that she's playing with something very dangerous and doesn't know what she's doing
were 2 moments when I realized that there will be no 2nd Rainbow Rocks movie in terms of quality. Characters that had not much going on for them in the first movies suddenly gaining a ton of humanity and act reasonable? Charismatic villains? Memorable songs? Events that are actually playing to the show strengths? Sorry, too expensive, it goes straight to discs, so no need to put much effort.
To this day the amount of salt within generated by EG3 is unreasonably high,
This story still rocks like mad though, despite bringing back memories of that disappointment. Much less comedic, *\0/*-ish and lewd-ish than previous chapters, but still enjoyable as hell.
7455772
Half the chapter was action ("and Chaos"), which I've never been confident in writing.
Glad it was still enjoyable, though!
I'd list my own gripes with Friendship Games, but I already made that blog post and this is the resulting fix-fic (because I think I can do a better job than the writers there I said it arf arf!). Unfortunately, my goal with this thing was to show that you could have pretty much the same movie while giving the sirens their own happy ending, so I didn't/won't be changing the main plot of the thing no matter how little common sense it would take on anyone's part to do so.
However,
I suspect that this was done because Twilight was initially meant to be the villain and eventually go Midnight Sparkle on her own, but plans changed somewhere and she had to be as sympathetic as possible (note the change of her slightly messy mad scientist hairstyle and labcoat to a slightly cuter, more innocent-looking bun and schoolgirl outfit between the end of Rainbow Rocks and her appearance in Friendship Games), so Cinch (who might have been created for exactly this role, and nothing else) had to pick up the evil slack.
If, for whatever reason, a higher-up decided that someone who looked like the Twilight we know absolutely couldn't be legitimately evil through her own fault and they had to make changes on relatively short notice, then it might explain why FG felt kinda slapdash, story-wise.
7455874
I've read this theory about Twilight, the human one, originally being planned as the villain. I gotta say, while there's nothing wrong with the Twilight we had, it feels like we kinda missed out. Then again, people would probably complain how it's just a rehash of the first movie.
Really enjoyed the way you showed Twilight's experiences during that mess of a competition. That was horrible to watch as it happened in the film (horrible as in heartbreaking). At least Twilight seems to have no idea of manga, or she might've gotten an even bigger scare. Tentacles plus schoolgirls in uniforms with short short shooort skirts? Oi.
By the way, what would happen if the Dazzlings go "screw this" and jump through one of the portals we know Twilight is going to open? They'd be back in Equestria, with their powers. And their true forms can fly, so no worries about falling and hurting themselves.
7461424
If they were to ditch their deal with Sunset, hop into a strange portal (that, for all they know, isn't necessarily Equestria, but could be any manner of nightmare dimension home to massive plant monsters and other assorted horrors) brought into being through unstable magic, and thus likely a one-way trip into the unknown? I suspect they'd quickly remember what Sunset told them about a thousand years passing, their old home being entirely gone, and a possibility of being deemed fugitives (especially if Sunset reports their little jail-break from their banishment) due to past crimes.
They might be able to slip away and make a place for themselves (nowhere near as powerful as they used to be without the gems, but they'd still be able to influence people, I guess), but if any remaining aquatic society were to recognize them and hold ill will regarding certain legendary stereotypes about their kind, the sirens might be a little short on friends in the ocean.
I don't see it going super well for them in general, but mainly I'd just like for them to stick around our EQG cast for further silly shenanigans.
7461497 That's a good perspective on why the sirens haven't just snuck into Equestria by now.
7463594
It's still feasible that they'd try anyway, if only because they thought they had nothing to lose, but I'm writing that story elsewhere.
Haven't updated in nearly a year, though.
7463654 Changing Tune WHEN?
7463753
If that's 'WHEN' will it update next? I'm thinking that when I've finished one of my three or four regularly-updated stories, there might be room for that one again, provided that I don't get distracted by yet another idea I really, really feel needs written for whatever reason.
7463918 Fair enough. You do have a lot on your plate.
Oh, hey there. Thought I'd just leave this here.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/7/14/1200723__clothes_breasts_equestria+girls_suggestive_cute_comic_tumblr_armpits_sitting_big+breasts.jpeg
7472611 Lol.
... Still, yeah, this chapter highlights all the more reason... I despise Principal Cinch.
7455772 I have to completely disagree re: EqG3 vs. EqG2. EqG2 was more of a spectacle with all the music and everything, but I think EqG3's story was much more fresh and interesting. What did EqG2 have? Magical monsters that want to do something like conquer the world, essentially... all of Sunset's changes (which would've been interesting to see) happened off-screen between the movies... The arbitrary plot device of music=magic, the predictable plotline in general, and tons of cameos for easy entertainment. Sure, I love Rainbow Rocks, I love the sirens, but I can't pretend the writing was anything special.
Meanwhile in EqG3 we have a character that is inherently more interesting than anyone else before her (an other-world parallel of our usual main character, with a completely different life), that character goes through an almost tragic arc of mental abuse from all sides and snaps, becoming the actual Big Threat quite unexpectedly. And the one character you thought was the flat antagonist is nothing more than a normal human (not just another random magical monster, hooray!), and doesn't even turn out to serve as anything but a force in Twilight's arc. But even then she still has a depth to her that many people don't grasp (you, for example, as evidenced by calling her "egocentric" while she decidedly isn't acting out of egocentric motives), because she's just an immoral person with an actually reasonable and non-evil goal. She even gets arguably one of the best "defeats" of any antagonist in the series: satisfying, no deux ex machina, no cheesy friendship about-face. Sure, Twilight's device could be less of a macguffin, but it's absolutely par for the course with pretty much every big plot in this show - the elements, the sirens' gems, power of love, rainbow power, music somehow, the tree-chest, the map, whatever. EqG3 definitely throws more fresh elements into the mix and has actual unexpected twists in it, and Sci-Twi is, despite having just appeared, a more emotionally charged character than Sunset could ever be.
And despite being less showy overall, the third movie also has "unleash the magic", which IMO is better than anything in Rainbow Rocks.
What 7453225 said, to add my own little flavor, its fantastic when used just right, but kinda ehhh when used all the time.
So awesome job Swirly-Swoo!
Awesome chapter!
I've had too much thrill on this site. This story is good for making things interesting without forcing excitement out of you.
7453225
Yup. Just think of:
"Frankly Scarlet, I don't give a damn".
7453225
And that right there is why I make it a point to not swear. When I do, those that know me stop and stare, because it's such a rare thing. While with those that swear every other word, people just shrug it off as 'just how they talk'. There's no impact, no emphasis there. Even the harshest swears lose their potency if you use them in place of proper words.