Friendship Games: Another Story

by ArcanaMaverick7

Event 1: The Academic Decathlon

After everyone left the party in the gym, they began to go about their day or prepare for the first event of the Friendship Games. Eventually, Vice Principal Luna turned on the P.A. system and addressed everyone. "Good morning, students. I'm sure you're all thrilled to start the first day of the Friendship Games," Luna said to everyone listening. "Our competitors will face off in every aspect of the CHS curriculum, culminating in the elimination equation finale. If the teams from Canterlot High, Crystal Prep, and Beacon Academy would please come to the main foyer, we can begin the first event." Hearing Luna's announcement, all three teams made their way to the main entrance of the school and an audience soon gathered.

After everyone was gathered, Dean Cadance stepped forward to start the Friendship Games. "Welcome to the first event, the Academic Decathlon! You'll be scored on chemistry, home economics, and everything in between," she said as all three teams began to glare each other down. However, Azalea and a few other members of Fragment Hunter saw that Twilight was feeling uncomfortable about the whole rivalry between her school and Canterlot High. "But remember, only the six students from each team with the most points will move on to event number 2. Good luck," Cadance stated.

"Luck won't have anything to do with us winning," Sour Sweet said to the Wondercolts.

"In your dreams, Cranberry," Rua retorted to the moody Crystal Prep student.

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash agreed with the young Huntress before they gave each other a high-five.

"If everyone would follow us to the chemistry lab, we'll begin the first round of the Academic Decathlon," Principal Celestia told the competitors.

---

For the first stage of the Academic Decathlon, the contestants had to showcase their knowledge of chemistry and to the surprise of the Rainbooms, Fragment Hunter was doing extraordinarily well. "Wow. You guys are pretty good at this," Sunset Shimmer commented.

"Yeah, how are you guys are doing that well," Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well, the students of Beacon Academy aren't strangers to volatile substances," Lapis explained subtly before Sunset Blaze used her Semblance to telepathically link the Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter. "Dust is extremely volatile on its own and even worse in powdered form. Even a sneeze can set off explosions."

"Are you messing with us," Applejack asked.

"Nope," Silver stated. "One small sneeze with powdered Fire Dust in the air and BOOM, you can say goodbye to the sidewalk you were standing on."

"It's one of the main reasons Dust mining in Remnant can be a dangerous profession," Celadon told the girls. "In fact, I believe that one of our friends caused an explosion in front of the school on the first day," Celadon thought back to when Fragment Hunter all reached Beacon Academy.

"You cannot be serious," Rarity said in disbelief.

"Oh, it actually happened," Azalea stated. "An old friend of mine, Ruby Rose, knocked over some of her future teammate's luggage. When the girl, Weiss Schnee, started scolding Ruby about knocking her stuff over, she went on this tirade about Dust while shaking around a bottle of powdered Dust. Ruby ended up getting a nose full of it and there was a fiery explosion with some bits of lightning and ice that was heard all over the campus."

"Wow," Pinkie said in reply before a loud bang was heard in the chemistry lab.

Everyone turned to see that Derpy's chemical compound had exploded and covered her in ash. The blonde girl had an embarrassed smile as she turned to her team. "I just don't know what went wrong," she said before Ivy took her outside the lab to get her medical attention, just in case.

"It was actually kind of like that," Vixen remarked. "Only with more annoyed scolding from a formerly spoiled brat."

---

After Derpy was taken care of and cleared for the rest of the first event, the teams moved onto the next few rounds and reached home economics. Everyone was to work in pairs to create a cake or some other baked goods for the judges to sample on presentation and taste. Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms could swear that both Principal Celestia and Aurora Celeste were waiting with hungry stares at the thought of enjoying cakes made by the competitors. Out of all of the students, Pinkie Pie was the one who was the most excited for this round. "Oh, I just loving baking," Pinkie said with a small squeal in her voice. "I help out at the local Sweet Shop with the Cakes on weekends that I'm not busy. But, I'm thinking of getting a job as a waitress at this fun retro malt shop diner in town."

"Really? That sounds neat," Silver replied as he handed Vixen ingredients to measure out and mix together.

"It is! There's a working jukebox, great food, and the waitresses get to wear cute uniforms and roller skates," Pinkie told Fragment Hunter and the other Rainbooms as she continued to mix up her cake's batter in the right way. "You guys should come and visit whenever you get the chance!"

"We'll try. First, we have to get through this," Cereza stated. "At least we aren't having any problems in the kitchen here. I swear that the one in Beacon is cursed or something with all the mishaps."

"Like what," Applejack asked as she and Rarity continued making their cake.

"Ruby making a mess when she's baking cookies, the time Weiss accidentally burned Ruby's cake and set the drapes on fire, problems with pickle jars," Slate listed off. "Oh, and let's not forget all the times with Ren and Nora. Especially Nora."

"That's right, she kept eating every single pancake Ren made just as he turned to get the syrup," Layla said as she recalled the memory. "It's a good thing that she didn't come here with us for today, otherwise nobody would be eating cake."

"Hahaha! The last few surprise parties that Ruby threw all had Nora eating the cakes before they were even cut," Vixen remembered. "I just wish that I could've used some trick candles on them."

"Hey, what was that song that Nora had in her head before," Azalea asked Sunset Blaze with a mischievous smile on her face.

"Don't even," Blaze said as she placed the cake she and Azalea prepared in the oven. "I couldn't get that song out of my head for a week when I first heard it." Azalea just smirked as she looked at the other members of Fragment Hunter before facing Blaze again. "If you start singing it in any way," Blaze warned, but it was too late.

"I think, 'Oh whoa, what am I to do?'~ I didn't know that I would fall in love with you~ And what to do right now, I haven't got a clue~ I just bite my tongue and when I want to say 'I love you' I say 'Boop'~" most of Fragment Hunter began to sing and made Sunset Blaze slam her face against the counter before giving up and singing along for the next while. Eventually, the Rainbooms all decided to sing along to the catchy song while their cakes and other dishes were baking in the ovens.

After everyone got what they needed out of their ovens, they began to start decorating their creations and the judging began. Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Aurora, and Nocturne all inspected each dish and saw the various results. After two girls from Crystal Prep offered their cake to the judges, all five were impressed by their efforts and the girls were confident that they secured victory for Crystal Prep. However, it was Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie's turn to be judged and Pinkie sliced her cake in half to reveal that she had somehow created a replica of a famous portrait in the center of the cake. The five women were all shocked to see the sight and all of Fragment Hunter had the same reaction. "Damn! That's impressive."

After the judges graded the other categories of Pinkie's cake, the two Shadowbolt girls walked off in defeat with the rest of their cake before they saw Principal Cinch. Cinch glared at her students in disapproval and the girls trembled under her stare. In their fear, one of them dropped the cake and only gave an embarrassed smile in response. Cinch only removed her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance before the Home Economics round ended.

---

"For this round, you will be working in teams of two and creating a birdhouse that we will be judging," Vice Principal Luna explained to the three teams.

"Can we make something other than a birdhouse," Silver asked.

The women judging discussed it for a brief moment before Principal Celestia spoke to Silver and the other students. "You may create something other than a birdhouse, but you will not receive the full score," Celestia said.

"Fair enough," Silver said before he exited the room. "Come on, guys. We'll need more room for our projects," he told Slate, Sunset Blaze, and Celadon. The four left the wood shop classroom and headed outside while the rest of Fragment Hunter and the other two teams continued on with the original task. After a while, almost everyone who made a birdhouse had created one had their projects judged. When Vice Principal Luna approached Sandalwood and Micro Chips, she saw that their birdhouse was weakly made and it collapsed in on itself when she tested its stability. After taking off points for their poorly-made birdhouse, Sugarcoat and Indigo Zap presented their project. When Cadance, Celestia, and Luna saw their birdhouse was much larger than the other ones, they dropped their clipboards in surprise at the project by the Crystal Prep students.

After Crystal Prep earned their score, Sandalwood comforted Micro Chips before they walked off with the remains of their birdhouse. However, Sugarcoat and Indigo rudely shoved them aside and knocked the remnants of their birdhouse to the floor. The two boys were angry at the Shadowbolts, but Applejack and Fluttershy helped calm them down. At the same time, Rua was being held back by Azalea while Layla and Lapis tried to clam her down so that she wouldn't assault the other team. After the situation was dealt with, Nocturne Celeste looked around to see that Silver and the others had not returned. "Where is Mr. Wuruhi," she asked before Celadon came back inside and gestured for everyone to follow her.

When everyone got outside, they saw Celadon waiting for them. "Ladies and gentlemen. May I present the amazing projects provided by Silver Wuruhi, Sunset Blaze, Slate Quartz, and myself," she announced dramatically before everyone saw what she wanted to show them. Jaws dropped to the floor as they saw Silver cleaning up a chainsaw he borrowed from the tool shed as he sat next to a large wooden sculpture while Slate and Blaze just finished a woodcarving mural of a field of flowers. The sculpture resembled a large wolf-like beast with black fur, red and yellow eyes, and white bone-like spikes all over its body. The creature depicted was posed like it was howling before it pounced toward its prey.

"So... how many points do I lose for not making a birdhouse," Silver asked as he finished cleaning the chainsaw.

---

The rest of the first event continued on and all three teams began to lose competing members after a spelling bee was done for the semi-final event. Going into the final elimination equation round, only Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle remained for Canterlot High School and Crystal Prep Academy respectively. Twilight and Sunset started to write on the chalkboards provided for them and the two girls started to solve their math problems as their schools watched in anticipation.

As the final round went on, the members of Fragment Hunter were watching both girls as they were rooting for their friends and concerned for Twilight. Soon, the final moments of the Academic Decathlon were approaching as Sunset and Twilight started to wrap up their equations. Fragment Hunter could tell that Sunset Shimmer was getting nervous while Twilight stayed calm as they both wrote down what they believed to be the answer. Cinch approached the stage and looked over both chalkboards for a few tense moments before she stated one word to Canterlot High's competitor. "Incorrect!"

Sunset Shimmer hung her head in defeat while Vice Principal Luna finished tallying the points among all three teams. "That means the winner of the Friendship Games' first event is Twilight Sparkle and Crystal Prep," Luna declared. While Twilight was happy to win the first event, the rest of Crystal Prep only sighed or gave a lackluster applause. Fragment Hunter all saw this and they glared at the prep school students for not being glad that they won the first round thanks to their longest lasting member.

Back with Sunset Shimmer, the other Rainbooms all congratulated her for a job well done. "That was awesome," Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she ran onstage and hugged Sunset Shimmer.

"Truly amazing," Rarity added as she stepped forward.

"But, we didn't win," Sunset stated as she was surprised by her friends congratulating her.

"That was as close to winning as Canterlot's ever been," Applejack explained as she placed her arm on Sunset's shoulder. Fragment Hunter all joined on the stage as well to tell Sunset Shimmer what they thought of her near-victory.

Dean Cadance soon approached the stage and some members of Fragment Hunter moved out of her way. "After a careful tally of the points, we'd like to present the students moving on to the Friendship Games' second event," she said before listing off who would participate in the next round. "For Canterlot High, we have Sunset Shimmer, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. Crystal Prep has Twilight Sparkle, Indigo Zap, Sour Sweet, Lemon Zest, Sunny Flare, and Sugarcoat. And the students representing Beacon Academy are Sunset Blaze, Rua Amaranth, Azalea Calla Holstein, Silver Wuruhi, Vinyl Aurum, and Lapis Ondine."

The Rainbooms all cheered that they would be moving onto the next event together while the members of Fragment Hunter showed their excitement as well. At the same time, Twilight looked away from the two teams and felt a little jealous because they all appreciated each other while Twilight had nobody. Her family was too busy to come to the Friendship Games to cheer her on, the entire student body of Crystal Prep treated her like an outcast, and she started to see her current team members start to leave the stage without her. Twilight felt alone as she stepped down from the stage, but she soon saw Flash Sentry in front of her and flinched so that she wouldn't bump into him. "Congratulations! You were really great," Flash said to Twilight, but she soon noticed her amulet acting up again.

"I'm sorry. Excuse me," Twilight interrupted Flash and began to follow her tracking device. Flash was speechless at that moment and felt dejected. Soon, Derpy and the other Wondercolts members approached him and tried to cheer him up as they left the gym. Twilight continued to follow her amulet's signal and saw the Rainbooms heading for the courtyard with Fragment Hunter. "Them again," Twilight questioned as she grabbed her backpack and Spike peeked out of the bag to hear Twilight speaking to him. "Come on, Spike," Twilight whispered to her dog before she followed Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms.

Author's Note:

Finished with the first event and Twilight continues to follow the Rainbooms for their magic, but what will happen when she drains Fluttershy's magic when she and Twilight are talking later? Find out in the next chapter, "Kindness and Canines".