• Published 17th Jun 2012
  • 2,920 Views, 111 Comments

The Harmony Games - Antares



Alternate take on beginning of FIM, tournament, combat, human ponies, no OC

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Chapter 2: A Bad Introduction

The colosseum, a tremendous construct of mortar and stone reminiscent of Equestra's past, was crowded, to put it mildly. Tourists and competitors from all over Equestria, even more than usual since this year was not only the year of the Harmony Contest, but also coincided with the Thousand Year Dawn celebration.

“Woah,” Applebloom gawked for the hundredth time. “There must be more people here than all the rest of Equestria combined!” Applejack chuckled at her little sister, perched, wide eyed up on her shoulders.

“Now that don’t make no sense sis,” she told Applebloom. “Equestrians are the only ones here, so how could there possibly be more here than the whole country?”

As the two walked through the crowd, they were drawing a lot of dirty looks from the well dressed citizens of Canterlot. Applejack had to admit they did look a bit out of place. She was wearing a simple orange flannel shirt and jeans and tall work boots. Her blonde hair was tied back in a low ponytail, atop which sat her beloved broad brimmed hat. Her younger sister Applebloom wore similarly simple overalls, her bright red hair with its giant bow streaming behind them. Yes, she had to admit they were out of place, but that didn’t mean she had to give a hoot what a bunch of stuck up city folk thought of her. They’d be eating their those looks later.

“Well, have you ever seen so many people in the same place?”

“’course not! This here’s the biggest turnout there’s ever been!”

“Any they’re all gonna see mah big sis take first place!” The little girl’s pride was evident not only in the tone of her voice, but also the volume. Applejack smiled sheepishly as a good deal more people began staring at the pair.

“Now let’s not get ahead of ourselves sugarcube. We’ve still got a long way tah go yet.”

“But you’re the best wrangler, the best wrestler, the best darn everythin’ in Appleloosa, probably all of Equestria. Even better than Big Macintosh!” Applejack huffed out, desperately trying not to let her sister’s praise go to her head. Sure, she may have more ribbons and medals than anyone else in her hometown, but Equestria was a lot bigger than that, and it wasn’t going to help her getting overconfident.

“Even so, Big Mac is built like a barn door, an’ so’re a lot of these folk.”

“Well you’re built like the entire barn, and the farmhouse to boot!” Applejack looked up at her sister, her expression somewhere between quizzical, amused and mock hurt. Applebloom returned the quizzical. “What?”

“Bloom, when y’all hit puberty I’m gonna call you that for a week and watch your reaction. Whole farmhouse indeed.”

“It’s a compliment, ain’t it?” Applejack bit her lip trying not to laugh, but to no avail. With a snicker and a snort she was gone, laughing at the look of bafflement on her sister’s face. She was laughing so hard she almost overbalanced, sending Applebloom rocking around on top of her head like a pendulum. “AJ, what’s so funny. Come on sis!” Her insistent pestering was cut short by an announcement from a booming, unseen voice.

“Attention all competitors! Registration will close in five minutes.”

“Five minutes?! Ah thought they closed at three.” Applejack glanced up at the sun, then accusingly at her sister. “Applebloom, what’s the time?”

“Uhh, quarter to one.”

“That’s the same time you told me an hour ago!”

“Take a look fer yourself!” Applebloom held out her wrist in front of the cowgirl’s nose. Sure enough, there was the clock face clustered among a horde of freckles, reading a quarter to one. However, Applejack suspected that was the only time it would ever tell. Ink had a tendency of not changing on its own.

“Thunderin’ tarnations sis!” Then, like an enraged bull she was off, Applebloom clutching her hair for dear life.


She was awesome.

Scootaloo had thought long and hard about the best word to describe her hero, even read thought a dictionary looking for one, and awesome just fit. Scootaloo peered out through the mass of spectators, taking in her idol’s appearance for the thousandth time. Her sleeveless, sky blue jacket and slacks, her racing shoes, her well worn goggles hanging over her rainbow scarf. And of course her hair. Relatively short, only coming down to her shoulders, and raggedly cut, it was unique among girls in Equestria. But what truly made it unique was the colour. Bold and bright, with every colour of the rainbow.

Rainbow Dash.


“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash called over the crowd. “Fluttershy! Where’s that featherbrain gone now?”

“Forget her Dash, we’re running late as it is,” Gilda groaned. Even standing next to Rainbow Dash she looked unusual. She stood head and shoulders over the rest of the crowd, her white mullet visible to all the world. A thick of eye liner around her eyes made her look like a hunting bird, and her eyebrows and ears were covered with various piercings. A brown bomber jacket covered massive biceps, and a set of commando boots competed the look.

Rainbow Dash gave her a weary, frustrated look she’d perfected since the three of them had left Cloudsdale. Between Gilda’s negative attitude and constant scepticism and Fluttershy being…well Fluttershy, it had seemed like the longest trip in history. And if there was one thing Rainbow Dash hated more than anything, it was moving slowly.

“You help me look and we’ll be done twice as fast.” Gilda gave her a grouchy look, which she matched. After a few seconds the bigger girl broke the stare, snorting in derision.

“Fine RD.” The bigger girl flashed Rainbow Dash a challenging grin. “Bet you I can find her first, slowpoke.”
“You are so…” Her reply was cut off when a flash of yellow and pink at a nearby tree caught her eye. Of course. “Looks like I win already Gilda. This way!” RD made a beeline through the crowd, weaving effortlessly between the bustling spectators. Gilda went with the more ‘direct approach’. Soon they stood under the tree, and over their quarry. Fluttershy was on her hands and knees among the roots. She was dressed in a long skirt and oversized turtleneck sweater, both a pale yellow. In fact, besides from her face and hands not a single point of skin was visible. Her hair was pink and long, and in her current position fell over her face like a waterfall.

“Come on little guy,” Fluttershy cooed into the depths of the roots, her voice melodic and serene. “Come out. I won’t bite.” Dash felt her frustration with her friend begin to lose its edge. Fluttershy had that effect on everyone. Well…almost everyone.

“Yo twerp!” Gilda roared. Fluttershy jumped, cracked her head on a low root, but still managed to hide behind the tree before hitting the ground, peeping out with wide, blue eyes. RD fought a desire to yell at both of them, and by some miracle managed to keep her tone calm.

“Fluttershy, what are you doing?!”

“Oh it’s you Rainbow Dash.” The shy girl inched out slightly, but still kept the bulk of the tree between them. “I’m sorry, but there was a little bunny in the middle of the road. He was so cute, but scared stiff. I couldn’t just leave there! He could get kicked, or trod on, or squished. So I brought him over here, but then he got away from me, so I…”

“Dash,” Gilda hissed. “Shut her up and let’s get moving already!” Rainbow Dash gave her another dirty look, but conceded her point.

“Alright, alright.” RD held up a hand to cut Fluttershy. “Err…Nice story pal, but we need to get to the registration desk pronto. They’re due to close any minute!”

“Oh…yes…that.” Fluttershy crept a bit further behind her tree, subconsciously flicking her hair in front of her face. “Rainbow, I don’t think I…”

“Attention all competitors! Registration will close in five minutes.”

“Shoot, already? Tell me later Fluttershy, we’ve gotta fly!” Not waiting for any objections, Rainbow Dash grabbed both Gilda and Fluttershy by the collar and raced away through the crowd, a flood of chaos and profanities in their wake.


“Aren’t festivals glorious dear? Oh the style, the glamour, the prestige. This is where I truly belong, don’t you agree Sweetie Belle? Sweetie Belle?”

Even amongst the fashion of the Canterlot crowd, she stood out. Heads turned as she passed, eyes trailing on her amethyst hair. Her clothes were pure white, a fashionable yet practical blouse and skirt. Along each edge of her skirt was a string of precious stones that reflected the light in a spectrum of beautiful colours. Her face was beautiful, with only minimal makeup, with a scarf around his neck. A pair of earrings, each studded with diamonds, completed her look. Trailing behind her was a moving pile of boxes with legs, muffled sounds trying to pass through it. “Oh, sorry dear.” The beautiful women carefully removed one of the lower boxes, revealing a younger version of her face with brighter purple hair.

“I still don’t understand why you want to do this Rarity?” the little girl, Sweetie Belle said. “You hate fighting, running, going outside. You hate doing anything that might get you dirty.”

“Oh sweetie, it’s not that bad.”

“You took a three hour bath because I stepped in a puddle and hugged you afterwards.”

“You’re exaggerating.” Before Sweetie Belle could reply, Rarity replaced the box, reducing her questions to a whisper. “It isn’t about the battles dear. It’s about the prize…”

“Attention all competitors! Registration will close in five minutes.”

“…and that is the why I must win. You have to understand dear, my entire life, my future, depends upon this.”

“Gangway, commin’ through!”

“If I don’t make this, then I…”

“Hurry up Fluttershy.”

“Sorrysorrysorrysorry.”

“for the sake of myself, our family and fashion I will…”

“MOVE!”

“OH SH…”

“eep”

CRASH!

In five seconds, Rarity’s rant had turned into a six person pileup. Rarity had completely disappeared below Gilda and Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were crumpled together like an uncooked pretzel. Applebloom sat perched on top of the mountain of bodies with Applejack’s hat somehow on her head, stunned.

“Sorry ‘bout that.” Applejack carefully untangled herself from the others, grabbing her hat from her sister’s head. She remembered what her brother had told her before she’d left: always be polite and apologetic and people would reply in kind. “Must’ ah been distracted by…”

“WHY DON’T YOULOOK WHERE YOU’RE GOING?!” Gilda roared in her face, knocking her hat off again. As she bent over to pick it up, she rolled her eyes so the larger girl couldn’t see. Her tongue lashed her teeth, wanting to give the girl a piece of her mind, but that wouldn’t help, so when she raised her head again she was all smiles.

“Ahm really sorry, and…”

“Are you crazy?!” Applebloom yelled at Gilda, scrambling up onto her sisters head to reach the larger girl’s face. “You know you were runnin’ just as fast as we were. It ain’t our fault any more than yours!”

“Sure we were running,” Rainbow Dash cut in. “But you wouldn’t want to hurt the future champions, would you?” Applejack’s fought desperately not to ignore the sheer arrogance of the statement. Once again, Applebloom had no such restriction.

“Now that just ain’t true, cus my sis is gonna take the title.”

“Oh yeah?” Gilda snarled, baring a fist at the redhead. Applejack saw this getting out of hand, fast, and quickly intervened.

“Oh would ya look at the time!” she exclaimed, checking her sister’s fake watch. “We’re runnin’ late again. Good luck y’all.” Holding Applebloom’s mouth to prevent further outbursts, she went to leave.

“What did I tell you Gilda? Earth clan’s all a bunch of cowards. We got this competition in the bag!” Upon hearing this, Applejack went rigid. Slowly, she took Applebloom of her head.

“Stay,” she ordered.

“But…” the objection died in the little girl’s throat looking into her sister’s furious stare. It was scary, even if the anger wasn’t directed at her. She complied immediately, and Applejack stormed towards the two laughing Sky members, who Fluttershy was desperately trying to silence.

“Now who do y’all think you are? Y’all ain’t nothing more than a bunch of hotheaded braggarts. Ah bet ya won’t even last through the first round let alone make finals!” Originally shocked by the outburst, now a grin spread across her face as she smelt a challenge.

“As if. We could beat you in ten seconds.”

“Prove it!”

“You’re…”

“Not to intrude dears,” a voice sounded from around their ankles. “But would you mind GETTING YOUR MUDDY FEET OFF ME!” Rarity had gone into a temporary state of shock upon having her beautiful outfit almost ruined. Having recovered from that she was going into rage mode. However by this point Applejack was beyond playing nice.

“Muddy?! Now yall listen ta me ya stuck up, pompous brat. Yall ain’t challenging me neither. I’m gonna win this contest no matter what!”

“You?” Rarity laughed. “Some silly Earth folk could never hope to win.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash joined in.

“And neither could a Sky. These competitions take more than just brute strength to win. You must have poise, grace and style. You would never see a member of the Transcendent acting being so brash and uncivilized.”

It was inevitable that Twilight, looking more dishevelled than usual with her flame charred hair and manic expression, chose this point to come barging through the crowd, waving her horn to clear a path through the masses. “Must not be late, cannot be late!” she chanted as she tossed people left and right with telekinesis. Rarity, directly in her warpath, found herself being tossed over Twilight’s shoulder…

“Twilight, wait up!”

…straight into Spike’s arms. The poor little drake was almost knocked off his feet, but years of being surprised by Twilight had heightened his reaction time and he managed to keep both himself and Rarity ungrounded. Right up till he looked up at her face. Like an unsuspecting sailor to the song of the siren, he was instantly enthralled. His body went limp, dropping him to his backside and Rarity to the ground, and a lovestruck grin spread across his face as he gazed up at the goddess that had graced his arms. She in turn stared back with a look of weary pity. She’d dealt with this before.

“Yeah, real graceful,” Applejack said with barely veiled sarcasm, then turned her attention back to Rainbow Dash. “So you think y’all are the best.”

“Cus we are.” Rainbow Dash interjected. Applejack rolled her eyes.

“And I think you’re blowin’ hot air. So why don’t we make this interesting?”

“Interesting?”

“A bet. I win, you admit that I’m the better fighter and the Earth clan greater than the Sky.”

“And if I win, you have to proclaim that we,” she waved her hand in the general direction of Fluttershy, who was unsuccessfully trying to creep out from under Gilda’s watchful glare, “are the greatest, coolest, most awesome…” she paused for a moment and thought, “-est fighters of all time.” She spat on her hand and held it out to Applejack. It was a surprisingly old gesture, and much more meaningful than most gave it credit for. When the two tribes had been at war, the commanders would meet before the battle and shake in such a manner to guarantee a clean fight. Applejack followed suit, and took the hand with enough force to be threatening. Rainbow Dash increased her own grip, till the two were straining for the upper hand. Their little contest was interrupted by a handkerchief being thrown over their handshake, and a delicate hand being placed on top.

“And what if I win?” Rarity asked, trying to keep herself as far away from the two as was possible. Applejack and Rainbow exchanged a glance, and then snickered in unison.

“Really? You honestly think you can beat us?”

“Ah proper girl like you? Ain’t you scared you’ll break a nail or something.” Rainbow Dash almost cracked at that point, her face contorted to hold back laughter. Rarity raised an eyebrow primly and waited.

“Well then, if I win you two both have to walk through Canterlot in some pretty little dresses I design for you.” The laughter caught in their throats as the pictures of what this stranger could have in mind. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you two are scared.”

“Scared?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her exuberance trying to cover up the tremor in her voice. “Never!”

“I ain’t got nothing to worry about, cus I ain’t gonna lose!”

“Oohoho, I’m going to enjoy taking you two bumpkins down a few notches,” Rarity sneered, with an almost evil grin. The tension between the three rivals was thick, and it was a good half a minute before Fluttershy dared speak up.

“Umm, not to be rude or interrupt or anything, but I thought you might be important to ask, especially considering the current circumstance…”

“JUST SAY IT!” Gilda yelled, losing her patience again, but also causing Fluttershy to go into a nervous babble
“ Whowinsifnooneendsupenteredinthecontestsincetheentrieshaveclosed?” The rest of the group looked at her confused, trying to decipher her ramblings. Rainbow Dash, having known her the longest and being the most accustomed to her nervous ticks was first and went pale at the realization. She turned towards the registration table, as the clerk put the last marks in Twilight’s papers and pulled out a closed sign.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding!” and once again she was off, with the others in tow, towards the unfortunate clerk, who got the sudden feeling he could have chosen a different post that morning.


Having got her registration in just on time, Twilight let out a sigh of relief. One disaster averted for the day, and that was a start. Carefully sidestepping the horde bolting for the closed desk, Twilight allowed herself to disappear into her favourite place: her mind.

“Ok, so I have a little bit of time before the preliminaries start, so how can I reason with the princess? I’ve already tried presenting evidence and she ignored. Maybe if I captured some emissary of the coming cataclysm. Mind you, that would require me to know what the disaster is, and for it to have an emissary. I suppose I could use a time spell to Hiya there. You know it’s really not safe to be walking around without paying attention. You might end up walking into something, or ignoring people who are trying to talk to you. Then they might think you’re rude, and that would be terrible.”

Twilight stopped thinking, confused. She tried to trace her thoughts back to where she’d started. She’d been thinking about trying to appeal to the princess, and then something had interrupted her thoughts. Or rather, someone had taken her thoughts by the horns and steered it off on a random tangent. But that wasn’t possible; mind reading in itself was a complex spell beyond the scope of most of the Transcendent, mind altering was even harder. And this one had seemed so effortless, so carefree, so…

“Hello again,” a very loud, bubbly voice said, accompanied by the sudden appearance of pink in Twilight’s personal space. The intruder had bright pink party dress, pink shoes accompanied by pink stockings and frizzy pink hair that resembled fairly floss. Her eyes, thankfully blue, seemed huge, although that may have been due to their proximity to Twilight’s own. Matching this was an equally large grin spread from ear-to-ear.

“Hi?”

“Oh good, you’re responding this time. I waved at you before, when you were at the counter, but you didn’t see me. Then I said hello, and you still didn’t respond. I was scared you might be deaf and blind. Can you imagine how terrible that would be? I mean, you could never listen to music, or read, or hear cool stories, or gossip, or or or...”
“Uhh, I’d hate to interrupt.” Not entirely the truth, but she didn’t want to hurt this strange…thing’s feelings. “But shouldn’t you introduce yourself before you start ranting like this.” The pink thing’s eyes went wider, something Twilight didn’t think was possible, and she gasped.

“Of course! Silly me, I knew I forgot something. I’m Pinkie Pie.”

“Surprisingly fitting.” She looked this newcomer over again. The voice fit the one that had invaded her head, but surely this couldn’t be her. She was too…playful, too carefree. It would be a crime against nature to give such power to someone so irresponsible, right? She was about to return to her own world of thoughts when something tugged at her heart. At this point, she wasn’t sure if it was literally or just a sensation, but somehow she felt a desire not to just brush this person off like everyone else.

“I can teach you many things, at some point you’re going to have to learn about friendship like everyone else.” Celestia’s words came back to her. Twilight sighed and against all her better judgement, put on her best smile, and held out her hand.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle, nice to meet you.” Once again defying physics and Twilight’s expectations, both Pinkie’s eyes and smile grew wider. Without any further warning she threw her arms around Twilight’s neck, completely overloading Twilight’s usual personal space sensitivities.

“Oh that’s super duper terrific. I knew you’d be the one. Well I didn’t know know, like if I’d already seen it, but I had this feeling when I saw you, a twitichedy twitch. And that can only mean something good is going to happen. Or something’s going to fall unexpectedly, and since nothing’s fallen yet, you must be the one. Speaking of which, imagine if you could see into the future. Wouldn’t that be cool? I suppose looking into the past would be cool, but that’s just memory. Ohohoh would that count as a superpower, super memory. I mean, you have super strength, super speed, super stretchiness, so does that count?” Twilight imagined she could hear her brain cells screaming ‘I told you so’, but she tried to reason that it could be worse. Then Pinkie started to sing, and Twilight felt all other arguments fail her.

“Oh please someone get me out of here! Princess Celestia, Spike, ANYONE! Wait, where is Spike?!”


Applebloom poked Spike, from a safe distance with the longest stick she could find. The youngster still sat in a state of awe, which would have been cute if he hadn’t also been drooling slightly. The redhead sighed. Her sister had run off in a huff, leaving her with an order of ‘stay’ still hanging over her head. Her sister had always told her not to move if she got lost, but technically she wasn’t lost. She knew exactly where she was; it was Applejack who’d run off and got lost. And what was the worst thing that could happen? Convinced by her own logic, she was about to wander off when she heard a muffled voice. Curious, she looked around, but saw nothing out of the ordinary besides Spike and a pile of boxes. Boxes with legs sticking out below them. The sound came again, definitely from the boxes this time. Applebloom moved around the boxes, finding Sweetie Belle screaming into the back of the boxes. It was now obvious that she was roughly the same age as Applebloom and wearing a ruffled white dress, another of her sister’s creations.

“Rarity? What’s going on out there? Come on sis, I can’t see anything!”

“Uhh, they’ve all left a while ago.” Applebloom informed her.

“What?! ARRRGH!” With a giant huff, Sweetie threw everything she’d been holding quite violently, causing the content to spill out over the ground. This was surprising, but what was more surprising was her instant snap to fear afterwards. “Ohnonono! Rarity will go crazy if she finds out I ruined anything.” She began scrambling around trying to collect all the different boxes, many of which had spilled open to reveal various articles of clothing and sewing equipment. Luckily, most of the crowd had cleared by this point, but this was little help as the pieces blatantly refused to stay together, rolling away from her touch like they were possessed. Applebloom giggled at the girl’s ridiculous reaction.

“If she’s your sister, she’s not gonna get annoyed at ya over a few silly clothes.” For a few moments Sweetie Belle stared at her with complete disbelief and then went back to frantically trying to catch the mess. Applebloom giggled again, and began picking up some of the clothes.

“What are you doing?” Sweetie asked.

“Helpin’,” Applebloom said, flashing a big, toothy grin.

“Why?”

“’Cause I can. And ‘cause you need it.” She pointed over Sweetie’s shoulder to a roll of fabric that was quickly rolling away.

“Stupid fabric,” she muttered, and quickly went in chase, forgetting her scepticism. Between the two of them, they quickly gathered everything into one place. Which lasted all of three seconds before it was rudely destroyed by the dynamic entrance of scooter wielding intruder.

“Where is she? Where’s Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo looked like a Rainbow Dash clone; same flight jacket, same scarf and racing shoes, same haircut, even miniature racing goggles hanging round her neck. The only real difference was she was miniature and had her colour scheme changed from rainbow to purple and orange. The offending scooter was a hodge-podge creation made from a few pieces of driftwood and old piping that may well have come from a sewer. “Missed her again!” At this point, Scootaloo noticed the destruction she’d caused, and grinned sheepishly. “Oops, hehe. Sorry about that.” Applebloom, more than a little peeved that their hard work had been destroyed, stepped forward to give the newcomer a piece of her mind, but Sweetie Belle stopped her with a sigh.

“Let’s just get this cleaned up. No use in fighting.” She went to begin cleaning up again, but Scootaloo beat her to it.

“Here, I’ll have it cleared up in not time!” Before either girl could stop her she’d wound herself up, ready to spring. “Just like Rainbow Dash,” she muttered to herself, tightening her focus to the point of exhaustion. But as she went to release her ultimate cleaning dash, she tripped over one of the boxes and went cart wheeling into the nearest wall. “Not again,” she cursed to herself, and tightly closed her eyes, waiting for the streams of abuse. But they never came. Instead, she felt herself being raised to her feet by the others, both smiling sweetly.

“That was a pretty cool trick,” Applebloom said. “Probably need ta work on the landin’ though.”

“Yeah, can you teach us how to do that?” Scootaloo blushed slightly.

“Sure!” She held out a greeting hand. “I’m Scootaloo.”

“Sweetie Belle.”

“An’ I’m Applebloom!” The three girls grinned widely, all three joyful at having made new friends.

“Attention. The preliminary competition will be beginning in the main arena shortly.”

“Ah shoot, we’re still runnin’ late! Come on, let’s get all this cleaned up. I don’t want to miss a second of this!” The three began scrambling frantically to pick everything up, till Scootaloo saw Spike, still sitting stunned in the middle of the walkway.

“Err, what should be do with him?”

“I suppose we should move him with us.” Sweetie Belle. A marker rolled against Scootaloo’s foot. The purple haired girl picked it up, and a cheeky idea came into her mind.

Somewhere in the realm of his Rarity induced dreams, Spike got a very sudden, very severe feeling of foreboding.

Author's Note:

Here's the next chapter, now with proper formatting. This chapter was meant to be about HALF as long, but somehow it just refused to go down. Anyhow, constructive criticims and thoughts welcome.