The Legend of Friendship - Harmony

by Danieru

9. Another Exciting Day

A new morning in Equestria began...

Princess Celestia, the ruler of all Equestria, used her magic to raise the sun and the moon each and every day. She did that from her castle which was located in the capital of Equestria, Canterlot. Today, it was no different. Early in the morning, the sun was slowly rising in the sky and gave everypony a sign that a new day was about to begin. The same goes for the ponies in a little town, not too far away from Canterlot.

Ponyville...

Ponies began to walk around on the streets after the sun was up. The Pegasi started to clear the skies and removed the clouds because today it was set to be a sunny day. They were usually very early since Cloudsdale, the city in the skies, home of many Pegasus and the center of the weather management in all of Equestria, was not too far away.

Shop owners, opened the doors of their shops, ponies who worked on a farm, began to get to work on the fields, fillies and colts were on their way to school, and so on.

However, not everypony was up just now...

The beams of the sun also began to shine through the window of a wooden house and into the still-closed eyes of a light green coated stallion. It was Star Twinkle, who started to wake up after the sun was shining into his eyes. He started to rub his eyes and yawned before he sat up on his bed. He slowly got out of his bed and stretched a little. He had enough sleep but he slowly crawled through the room as if he was half-asleep.

The pony walked past a goldfish bowl that was sitting on a small cupboard. "Morning, Comet," the pony said half asleep as he walked past the bowl where an orange fish was swimming in, motionless with its eyes pinpointed in front of it, even after the pony's greeting.

After getting out of bed the pony started his daily morning routines as well, like showering, eating breakfast and brushing his teeth, while still in a half-asleep state. In his house were two floors. The ground floor was his living area. There was a wooden table in the middle of the room and three doors that lead to a closet, the kitchen, and the bathroom. On the upper floor was only his bedroom with a window next to it and a cupboard where his goldfish was standing on. He was taking it really slow, as usual. If there is one thing that he hated, then it's stressing himself in the morning.

After his morning routine was done, he attempted to leave his house but not before taking a quick look at his mirror to check if he was ready. He was an earth pony with a light green coat, a dark green mane, which has five spikes scattered on his head like a star, light green eyes, and a dark green tail which ended with six spikes. His Cutie Mark consisted of six different colored stars that were lined up in the shape of a star. The colors consisted of yellow, orange, light blue, dark blue, red and purple.

When he looked into the reflection of his eyes, inside of the mirror, he started to smile. "Well then, let's go to work," he said overly optimistic before he walked towards the door and left his house, ready to go to work now.

The stallion walked through the streets and looked around to see everypony getting ready as well. Colts and fillies were going to school, ponies opened up their shops or setting up carts to sell something and so on.

"Busy as always," Star Twinkle commented on what he saw all around him. The stallion was used to see this every morning when he was on his way to work. It helped him to get some energy for his upcoming work.

"Staaaaar Twinkle!" A female voice then shouted excitedly, causing the stallion to turn towards the voice only to get tackled down to the ground shortly after. The voice belonged to Lightbeam, who was trying to give the stallion a hug but couldn't stop in time and knocked off from his hooves instead. "I'm so glad you're back again!" The mare said as she was practically beaming in joy.

"Yes, I'm glad to see you too," Star Twinkle replied while he laid on the ground with some pain in his voice, caused by the tackle from this mare.

As he was getting up on his hooves, he noticed a few more ponies walking up to him. It was Summershine, Crash, Happytrade, Brilliance, and Nightsky who all had smiles on their face, which caused Star Twinkle to smile back as well. "What are you all doing here at the same time?" He wondered.

Nightsky explained. "Well, Lightbeam saw you walking around here so she sent me to gather the rest of us so that we could welcome you back,"

"And here we are!" Crash said happily.

"Still," Summershine started. "Weren't you supposed to come back later this day?" He asked confused.

"Yes," Star Twinkle replied. "But I took the train yesterday evening so that I could have the rest of this day left,"

Star Twinkle was definitely happy to see his friends like this. He really appreciated that they all took their time to see him this early in the morning and from the looks of his friends, they seemed to be happy to see him too.

Lightbeam, for example, was really relieved but also started to pout. "Every time you visit your parents in Canterlot, I can't help but miss you," she said, trying to not sound too upset while doing so.

"It can't be helped," Nightsky added while he petted his little sister's mane. "With his parents living in Canterlot and him living here in Ponyville, he has to visit his parents from time to time,"

"I know," Lightbeam replied, her voice sounding still a little upset.

Crash immediately suggested that they should catch up on their lost time with Star Twinkle by spending the day together. Star Twinkle was ready to accept this idea but then his eyes widened. "Ah!" He exclaimed in shock. "I forgot!" I need to got to work! I'm already late as it is!" He said after he realized that he spend some time with his friends already, completely forgetting to be on his way to work. Upon realizing that, the stallion ran past his friends in a hurry. "I'll see you all later!" He said one last time before vanishing into the distance.

Summershine couldn't help but laugh at that behavior of his friend. "And there he goes again," he said amused.

Nightsky also had a smile on his face. "Well, at least he is back now. I'm sure he would have loved to invest some more time with us right away,"

"Yeah," Summershine added with a smile on his face as he watched his friend running through the streets of Ponyville.

Later...

Star Twinkle arrived at his workplace. The Iron Hammer, an anvil-shaped workshop. His job in this workshop was being a carpenter pony working under Steel Hammer, his boss. Their work included building or repairing all kinds of things in Ponyville. This could range from building furniture out of wood or maintaining buildings or other constructs in town. Star Twinkle was working in this workshop for a while now and could not complain about it so far. Sometimes it was pretty exhausting work but he knew how to do it and that was enough for him to enjoy it.

As expected, Star Twinkle did arrive too late to work and spent a few minutes apologizing to his boss, Steel Hammer who just stood there with a confused expression. "I'm sorry!" Star Twinkle apologized as he bowed down embarrassed for being late at work.

Steel Hammer didn't seem to be too bothered by this at all, however. "Don't worry about it," the stallion said in order for Star Twinkle to stop apologizing. After that was out of the way, Steel Hammer walked towards a cart that was filled with wooden planks and tools. "We need to go to the White Tail Woods do some more last-minute checkups," he said, waiting for Star Twinkle to help him with the cart.

"The White Tail Woods?" Star Twinkle replied confused as he prepared himself to pull the cart as well. "Why do we need to go over there?"

"You forgot what day it is today?" Steel Hammer asked the stallion but judging from the confused expression on Star Twinkle's face, it seemed to be exactly that case so Steel Hammer enlightened him. "Today is the Running of the Leaves Race,"

Star Twinkle's ears pointed up as soon as he heard that. "It is?" He asked confused before he looked up at the sky and lowered his eyebrows. "Yeah, it should be that time of the year," he then figured.

"Yup. While you were in Canterlot, I already built the starting and finish line but it can't hurt to take a closer look at it again," Steel Hammer explained.

With all that said, the two stallions made their way towards the White Tail Woods. Steel Hammer told Star Twinkle that he already got some work done. He built the start and finish line for the Running of the Leaves Race, an annual race that took place in a nearby forest. It was a tradition to hold this race every year at fall to make the remaining leaves from the trees fall down, which would be caused by a bunch of ponies running through the forest.

Star Twinkle considered taking part in this race before. While it was still a race, the focus was winning but rather to just participating in it. It was for fun. Some ponies could just use magic to remove the leaves but not doing that gave everypony a chance to participate in the race instead. Knowing that it sounded like a lot of fun and Star Twinkle had no reason to not take part in it. Still, he missed his opportunity every year. But at least, he could work on the preparations for it.

Later...

The two Earth Ponies were checking the whole track to see if everything was done, including the start and finish line. There was not too much to do there, building a sign here and there so that everypony would know where to go, and some decorations on the way were pretty much all that had to be done, and Steel Hammer already took care of some other things too. Still, the Running of the Leaves Race was an important event so they had to make sure that everything was well done and complete.

Right now, the two were at the finish line and at the end of their work. "Looks like everything is set!" Steel Hammer said happily and with some excitement in his voice. He certainly seemed happy to be done with his work. The same goes for Star Twinkle. He wasn't really exhausted or anything but he wanted to get his work over with as soon as possible so that he could see his friends again.

"Hey! Star!" Lightbeam shouted from afar, before, again, she was tackling Star Twinkle down in her excitement.

The stallion rubbed his head in confusion. "You really need to stop doing that," he said while he got up on his hooves again. When he looked past Lightbeam, he could, again, see the rest of his friends walking up to him as well.

"You're all done with your work?" Summershine asked.

"Yup, just now," Star Twinkle replied.

"Then that means we can finally spend some time together!" Crash said in excitement by just thinking about that.

"If only," Happytrade then added, much to Crash's confusion. "Some of us need to get ready for later,"

Star Twinkle got confused about those words as well. "What do you mean?"

Summershine walked up to the stallion and took it upon himself to explain. "She means the race. Some of us participate in it. Apparently, there were not too many participants like last year, so we decided to be part of it this year,"

"Really?" Star Twinkle replied confused, tilting his head to the side before he closed his eyes and began to think. "Mhh..." Right now, he was playing with the thought to enter the race as well. If his friends were part of it then it surely would be a lot more fun, giving him all the more reason to enter it as well.

Of course, this behavior was not unnoticed by his friends, especially by Summershine. "You want to enter too?" He straight out asked.

"I'm considering it," Star Twinkle replied.

"It will probably be a lot of fun," Nightsky added.

Star Twinkle didn't need any more convincing. "Alright, why not?" He then replied all of a sudden with a smile on his face.

Hearing that made the rest of his friends happy, especially Crash who was jumping up and down on the spot. "I'll go and sign you up!" He said before he ran in direction of Ponyville to take care of it. Star Twinkle couldn't help but to grin by how Crash seemed to be so excited about it.

"Then I guess we see each other later," Summershine said.

Star Twinkle nodded. "Yes," he simply replied.

And just like that, his friends walked away again. They would have enough time to spend time at the race later anyway and Star Twinkle had to walk back to the Iron Hammer to return the tools, he worked with anyway so he didn't have much time right now.

While he was on his way back, his thoughts were at the race already. He wouldn't call himself a good athlete but he could run fast if needed. His work as a carpenter pony could also be exhausting at times so that was a little bit of training as well. Not too much but it was better than nothing.

As the stallion was on his way, somepony was standing in the middle of the road, looking around confused at the trees of the White Tail Woods as if he was looking for something. It was a Unicorn stallion with a gray coat, a dark gray colored spiky mane, and red eyes. His Cutie Mark was a yellow sun with some falling snow in front of it.

Star Twinkle noticed how lost this pony was and walked up to him to offer some help. "Are you looking for something?" He asked.

The stallion turned his head towards Star Twinkle. "Who? Me?" He asked confused.

Star Twinkle took a closer look at the stallion. "I don't think I ever saw you here before so I just thought you were lost or something," he figured.

The Unicorn quickly noticed that he must have looked like somepony who was in need of help and rubbed his neck embarrassed. Was it that obvious?" The stallion replied nervously. "Yeah, you're right, I'm not from Ponyville. In fact, I just arrived here," he explained.

"Hey, don't worry about it, um..." Star Twinkle replied, hinting at that he wanted to know the stallions name.

"Ashgray. My name is Ashgray," the unicorn introduced himself while he offered his hoof.

"My name is Star Twinkle," Star Twinkle replied back as he was shaking the unicorn's hoof.

Ashgray did look back at the trees once more before he asked what exactly this place was called, causing Star Twinkle to explain. "The White Tail Wood?" Ashgray replied surprised with widened eyes. "Wow, then I really made a wrong turn somewhere..." he added with a frown on his face.

"Well, you are not from here so nopony can really blame you," Star Twinkle said, cheering up the unicorn again, who was rubbing his neck in embarrassment once more. Star Twinkle could actually relate to him in those kinds of things. His sense of direction had its flaws as well at times."So what are you looking for?" He then asked.

"The Everfree Forest," Ashgray casually replied.

What wasn't casual at all, however, was the reaction of Star Twinkle. "The Everfree Forest!?" He replied in shock. "Why in the name of Celestia would you ever want to go there?" He asked confused.

Ashgray explained. "I heard that the Castle of the Two Sisters is somewhere inside there," he again replied casually. "You see, I'm an archaeologist, or...rather, I started being one recently," he said as he rubbed his neck embarrassed again. "The Castle of the Two Sisters would be the first ruin that I take a look at. I heard it's a sight to behold,"

Despite Ashgray showing some enthusiasm to all of this, Star Twinkle felt the need to talk him out of the idea to go to the Everfree Forest. "I don't know anything about a castle but I still wouldn't advise you to go to the Everfree Forest. It's dangerous in there. There are plants and monsters that are just waiting to eat you. I also heard evil Enchantress lives there that will gobble you up," he explained, trying to give as much information as possible.

But Ashgray was still unshaken. "It'll be fine!" He replied confidently. "I heard about all the dangers in this forest and I think I'm prepared for them," he boasted confidently. "I think," he then instantly corrected in a hesitant tone before he closed his eyes and began to think. "Now that I think about it, maybe I should still research the forest a little bit before I enter it,"

"Yes," Star Twinkle said. "That would be better. At least find some ponies who can protect you. It would be a shame if your first ruin ends you up in danger," he advised.

"Yeah, I think I will do that!" Ashgray replied excitedly. "Thanks!" He said happily before he walked off without a worry in his face.

"...Uh...yeah," Star Twinkle replied confused. "I didn't really do anything though..."

This surely was a strange encounter. Ashgray didn't seem to see any problems going to a dangerous forest when it comes to his profession. This was actually a behavior that he knew from some of his friends already. He couldn't help but get worried about him though.

Despite that encounter, however, Star Twinkle had to focus on his own business now. He had to return to the Iron Hammer and then prepare himself for the upcoming race.

Later...

When Star Twinkle arrived at the starting line, there were actually quite a few ponies, around fifty if not even more. This surprised him because Summershine did tell him that there weren't many participants this year, which didn't look like it at all at first sight.

Star Twinkle walked up next to the starting line and was immediately greeted by some of his friends. "Hey, Star Twinkle!" Happytrade said while she waved at the stallion.

The stallion approached his friends as soon as he saw them. There was not only Happytrade but also, Summershine, Lightbeam, and Nightsky. All of them had numbers on their flanks, which indicated that they were racers as well. However, two of his friends were not in sight. "Where are Crash and Brilliance?" He asked after he could not see them anywhere.

Nightsky pointed up to the sky. "Up there,"

Star Twinkle looked up and saw a hot-air balloon flying above his head in the sky. After narrowing his eyes a little, he could see Crash and Brilliance inside of the balloon. "They are not joining us?" He asked.

Happytrade explained. "Brilliance was never really into sports so of course, she would not participate, and Crash thought it could be a lot more fun to commentate the whole thing,"

That sounded a lot like those two, Star Twinkle thought as he looked up at the balloon. "Then it's just us five, huh?" His friends nodded in reply.

But still, even though two of them were not participating, Lightbeam still was excited about the race. "Doesn't matter! It still will be a ton of fun!" She said as she jumped up and down on the spot.

This was a high contrast to Happytrade's behavior right now. "I wonder who will win the race...maybe it's one of us?" She said before she looked over to Nightsky. "I mean, you are incredibly fast when it comes to flying,"

"Yes, when it comes to flying..." Nightsky replied without getting too confident after hearing Happytrade's words.

"I bet my brother will win!" Lightbeam instantly threw into the conversation. "Nothing personal, by the way," she added as if she didn't want to hurt the others with those words.

But now, the flame of competition was ignited already. "Really?" Happytrade replied smugly. "I have you know that I came here to win! You know how much demand in my wares there will be if ponies know that I once won this competition?" She explained as she clearly imagined right now how many customers she would get. "Not to mention the price for getting first place," she mumbled under breath.

Star Twinkle, however, got a little challenged by those words. "I'm not really the boasting type but I'm pretty confident when it comes to my running speed," he said confidently.

Summershine also got caught up in all of this. "Let's make this all a little bit more fun then," he started. "Let's say, whoever of us gets through the finish line last has to do whatever the winners want them to do for a whole week!"

Hearing this sure got mixed reactions from the others. Nightsky and Lightbeam were not too excited to hear this. "I'll think we two will pass," Nightsky said while looking at his sister, who was confused by those words. But as soon as she saw the concerned look on her brother's face she decided to agree, even if she wasn't sure why. Nightsky would probably not have a problem to come in last of those five after all. The reason why he backed out was probably that he didn't want his sister to lose, something that the other three instantly figured out.

Happytrade, on the other hoof, was not afraid. The thought of somepony helping her out with her trading for one week sure was tempting and would help her out a lot. But then she was looking at the harsh reality. She was not sure if she could beat Star Twinkle and Summershine in a race, and her winning the whole race just like how she imagined it was also a long stretch in hindsight. "I'm out too," she then said without wasting another second to reconsider it.

Summershine felt almost victorious to see everypony backing out like that and began to smile. "Well, I'm still up to the challenge!" Star Twinkle then said confidently, making Summershine's victorious smile turn into a determined one. "There is no way that I will lose to you," he boasted.

The Unicorn was happy to hear that and offered his hoof to Star Twinkle. "Then, it's on!" He said while the two shook hooves to seal the deal.

Shortly after the two were done with this, an announcer stepped in front of the starting line and prompted everypony to take their positions. The race was about to start and the five ponies stood ready for the starting shot.

In the meantime, Crash and Brilliance, who were high up in the hot air balloon, started to comment. "And here we are! The start of the annual Running of the Leaves Race! One of Ponyville's most famous traditions! Isn't that right Brilliance!?" Crash shouted through a megaphone towards the racers on the round.

"Yes..." Brilliance replied with a deadpan tone in her voice.

Despite Brilliance not showing as much excitement as Crash, the stallion continued his excited speech. "Who will come out victorious!? Who can boast with the title "Champion of the Running of the Leaves!? And who can prove to be the fastest of the fastest!?" He shouted in excitement before turning towards Brilliance who he wanted to hear an answer from.

"I don't know..." the mare replied with no excitement in her voice at all, though Crash was sure that it was there somewhere.

After those words were said, the race was about to begin, and Crash was counting down. Everypony was now in position and waited until the signal was given to run. Star Twinkle and Summershine looked at each other with determined expressions on their faces. Both of them wanted to win this race and were confident enough to smile before they focused their sight in front of them again.

In the meantime, Crash was finished counting down and the race began. "Goooo!" The stallion shouted as loud as he could.

The area in front of the starting line was covered in dust, caused by the galloping hooves of everypony. A huge crowd of ponies was building, each and every single one of them wanting to take the lead. However, Star Twinkle and Summershine actually managed to separate themselves from the rest.

Crash did a good job commenting on this already. "Looks like number seven and number twelve managed to take the lead already!" He said, referring with number seven to Star Twinkle and number twelve with Summershine.

The two stallions kept looking at each other as they ran at a high speed. They both figured that it would be too easy if one of them would have a big lead already.

"But it looks like, number twenty-one is coming up closer to them now!"

"Number twenty-one!?" Star Twinkle wondered while he looked back to see who it was, that he thought would catch up to him and Summershine.

As he expected, it was Nightsky, who was accelerating towards the two, only to slow down a little to be running right next to them. The two made room so that he could run right between them. "Figured that you would join us in the lead," Summershine said to the Pegasus stallion, who seemed to have no problem keeping up with the two of them.

Star Twinkle was not surprised to see the stallion catching up to them. "If you would have joined this bet between us, you would have definitely not loose," he pointed out.

"Yeah," Nightsky added, taking this complement for granted before he explained his reasoning for not joining this bet. "The problem is, if I would have joined, my sister would have definitely joined too..."

This certainly made a lot of sense. This was typical behavior of a big brother is very protective of his little sister. Nightsky was especially protective of Lightbeam so his reasoning for doing that was understandable He probably just wanted her to have fun during this race.

Star Twinkle looked back to see where this sister was that Nightsky was supposed to be looking after. "Where is your sister?" He then asked confused.

Nightsky was confused by those words, he could swear his sister was right behind him. But there was nopony to be found. Even looking into the crowd behind them, Nightsky could not spot her at all. This was enough for the stallion to lower his speed to go look for her.

"Oh!" Crash said once he saw the stallion slow down. "Number Twenty-One is slowing down and vanishing inside the crowd of Ponies again! What could this action mean, Brilliance!?" He asked while he turned towards the mare.

"I don't know..." she replied in a deadpan tone.

Nightsky slowed down enough until he found himself the crowd. He looked left and right to find his sister but he couldn't spot her anywhere inside the mass of ponies so he slowed down even more until he came to a complete halt. His face was filled with confusion, he was definitely sure that she wasn't in front of him or that she was faster than everypony else to even accomplish that.

"Take that!" The voice of his sister then shouted from further away in the distance. When Nightsky turned around, he saw how his sister was jumping, or rather stomping up and down in front of a tree while giving it a big glare.

Of course, Nightsky was confused by this kind of behavior, not to mention that his sister barely distanced herself from the starting line. He walked up to her confused. "What are you doing?"

Lightbeam stopped as soon as she heard the voice of her brother. "Hi, Nightsky! I thought you would be at first place by now," she said before she continued to jump-stomp on the spot again. "I'll see you once I'm done with the race!"

Hearing those words highly confused the stallion. "If by jumping up and down on the spot is your definition of running, then I'm afraid you won't be done for a while..." he commented.

Lightbeam stopped her action for a moment before she began to explain. "I may not be racing right now but I still participate in it!" She said, raising her chest into the air proudly. But her brother didn't understand so she explained her action even further. "This race is held because we are supposed to make the leaves fall down from the trees right? That's what I am doing right now!" She said happily with a grin on her face.

Nightsky was appreciating how his sister was ignoring the competitive aspect of this race and focused on the more important matter. It put a smile on his face seeing her do that, even if it was a little bit ridiculous for her trying to attend every single tree in this woods, the sheer thought of that was pretty insane.

Still, Nightsky walked up to his sister with a smile on his face. "You could need some help with that," he said, offering his help to her.

Lightbeam didn't say anything and just smiled back at her brother before both of them then jumped up and down, causing some leaves to fall down in front of them. Looking, back at it, Nightsky didn't have the slightest interest to win this race in the first place so he wasn't too worried about it. He was just attending the race because his sister wanted to and now that she was doing this race the way she wanted it to do, he happily joined her.

In the meantime...

Nothing much had changed, when it came to the order of ponies who were in the lead, which was only two ponies, Star Twinkle and Summershine. The two desperately tried to increase their speed each time the other would take the lead. However, they both stopped doing that after realizing that they would get exhausted by doing that, something that would end up costing them to win the race.

"I can run like this for a long time, Summershine," Star Twinkle said, trying to show his best poker face.

"Me too!" Summershine threw back with a poker face of his own.

The two stallions then turned their heads around as soon as they heard a voice they didn't expect from behind. "Me three!" Happytrade threw at both of them from behind as she caught up to the two. She soon ran past the two, both of them being heavily surprised by the new competitor that just popped up.

"Number fifty came out of nowhere and just took the lead!" Crash announced as loud as possible. "So many twists and turns!" He said while he was almost hanging off from the balloon. Thankfully, Brilliance held on to him to prevent exactly that.

While the two stallions were struck surprised by Happytrade's sudden appearance, they also were impressed. "Didn't expect you to show up here, Happy!" Summershine said.

Happytrade instantly got offended by those words. "Thanks!" She replied angrily. "I have you know that when it comes to winning a competition and getting some prize money, my skills are able to skyrocket into infinity!" She declared while it almost looked as if she increased her speed again.

Hearing that, made the two stallions look at each other in confusion. "Price money?" Star Twinkle asked confused.

Summershine joined into this confusion. "There is no prize money," he pointed out.

The mare quickly lowered her speed so that she would run right beside the two stallions. "What do you mean there is no price money!?" She asked with widened eyes right into the stallion's face.

Summershine repeated himself. "There is no prize money,"

"What about a medal!?" Happytrade asked.

Star Twinkle was thinking for a moment. "I think they wanted to add that sometime but not this year as I recall,"

Happytrade's eyes narrowed in disbelief. "So you are telling me that even if I make it for first place, I will not get any money or a fancy medal that I could potentially sell?" She got a quick answer which came in the form of both of them shaking their heads. In a flashing moment, Happytrade disappeared in the vision of the two and they both saw her come to a complete halt in the middle of the race track. "No thanks then," she said while shrugging her shoulders. "I'm not gonna bother to get myself sweaty for nothing,"

The rest of the racers all ran past the mare as she was walking in the opposite direction again, probably going home now. This caused the two stallions to look at each other confused before they shrugged their shoulders as well.

"I guess it's just us two left then," Star Twinkle said.

"Yeah," Summershine replied with a competitive smile on his face.

With only one of those two left to be a potential winner, the competition between the two of them reached an all-time high now. Not that other competitors would have made any difference. This competition was only between the two of them after all. The one who would come in last out of the two of them would lose and that is all that mattered.

The two of them continued to run at a moderate but still fast enough speed so that they were ahead of everypony else. They could see the rest of the racers behind them which meant that if they slowed down for only a short time, then everypony would catch up to them, again, that was not really an issue because it only mattered who out of the stallions would end up last. Still, the thought of actually winning the whole race was really tempting.

The longer the race was going on, however, the more exhausted everypony got. It was stamina that was now important. Star Twinkle had enough stamina to go for a while and from the looks of it, Summershine could also go on. Summershine decided to change that, however. "Enough playing around! I'll see you at the finish line, where I will think about what you could do for me next week!" He said before he increased his speed and sprinted off.

Star Twinkle got quickly pumped up after that. "We'll see about that!" He replied before he started to sprint as well and managed to catch up to his friend again.

"Oh!" Crash said once the race took another turn. "The two lead ponies, Star Twinkle and Summershine decided to shift into the next gear and speed up! Fitting because we are not too far away from the finish line! Who do you think is going to win, Brilliance!?" He asked again towards her co-moderator.

"It could be anypony..." she replied deadpan.

In the meantime, there was a back in forth going on when it came to who was in the lead between Star Twinkle and Summershine. This soon caused both of them to get really frustrated and even angry by how stubborn the two were.

"How are you so fast? I thought you spend most of your time training your magic!" Star Twinkle shouted at the Unicorn annoyed.

"And what about you!? You work as a carpenter pony! That's not gonna train you to be a fast runner!" Summershine threw back annoyed.

The two locked eyes at each other as they ran at full speed until eventually, they saw the finish line in the distance drawing closer to them. Once again, the two sped up again but they still were right next to each other and neither of them could get a lead.

"I'm gonna win!" Star Twinkle announced.

"No, you don't!" Summershine replied.

"Yes, I am!"

"No, you don't!"

Again, the two of them locked eyes at each other angrily. They also started pushing each other around. It was looking as if this competition was slowly turning into something more ugly. Crash and Brilliance were the only ones who noticed how the two of them took all of this a little too seriously and got a little worried.

The two stallions kept on with this until one of them hopefully would slow down or slip which is something that was actually pretty terrible to think of. But being caught up in this competition completely blinded them to that. Friendship turned into rivalry and caused them to take those measures.

And then it happened...

Their eye contact was interrupted as soon as Star Twinkle fell down to the ground, not because Summershine pushed him or anything but because a small rock in the middle of the road was in his way and made him stumble.

The stallion rolled quite a few meters on the ground before he came to a halt with some groans coming from him. Once he stopped, he looked at Summershine who was speeding off in direction of the finish line.

"Hah!" Summershine said victoriously. "Better watch out where you are going, Star!" He had the nerve to comment.

Star Twinkle clenched his teeth in anger as soon as he heard his friend saying those words after him. The nerve he had to make fun of him, made him only more determined to get up and take the win from Summershine. He started to get back on his hooves so that he could turn his thoughts into reality but...

"Ow!" He released with a painful expression on his face. A sharp pain was going through his body as soon as he started to put some weight on his left front leg. The fall seemed to have got him hurt in the process. "Oh no..." he said once he realized what exactly that meant. The pain in his leg was of course, bad but not as bad as losing the bet. There was no way that he could continue the race like that, if at all.

And of course, Crash was the one who commentated on that. "Looks like Star Twinkle us unable to continue the race, he seems to be hurt,"

"I hope he is fine," Brilliance added in an emotionless voice, even though she was probably really worried about her friend's condition.

Of course, Summershine heard every bit of that and got confused enough to turn around and see for himself. He saw how Star Twinkle got a defeated look on his face and how he was holding his left leg with his right hoof. The victorious expression on Summershine's face vanished and turned into a concerned one before he slowed down considerably.

In the meantime, Star Twinkle turned around as soon as he could feel the ground shaking behind him. It came from the rest of the race ponies who were now running towards him. He covered his head in fear that somepony would trample him down as they ran past him, which luckily didn't happen. Once they were all gone, a huge dust cloud was covering him, causing him to cough heavily. "Yup, great, as if things couldn't get any worse," he said before he slapped some dirt off from his body.

Then suddenly, a dark orange hoof was next to him. It was Summershine, who was offering him his help to get up again. Star Twinkle looked away ashamed and annoyed by this gesture. "What are you doing here? Making fun of me while I am already on the ground?"

But Summershine was not even remotely trying to joke around and had a serious expression on his face. "You're hurt," he simply said before he got his hoof even closer to Star Twinkle, in order to help him.

Star Twinkle turned around his head and looked straight at Summershine's face. "Looks like it," the stallion admitted. "Guess there is no way that I can get through the finish line before you now," he said.

"Hey, don't worry about that now," Summershine replied. "What kind of a friend would I be if I let you lay there in the dirt while you are hurt?"

Star Twinkle could only grin after hearing that. "Well, up until now, you were not really acting like a friend," he snarky commented.

"So were you," Summershine replied in a serious tone.

Soon, both of them would stare at each other with serious expressions on their faces. But that wouldn't last long because the two broke out in laughter only after a few seconds as if they were having the most fun in their entire life. Crash and Brilliance, while still keeping an eye out for the race, watched the two in secret and then smiled at each other after seeing that the two stallions seemed to go along again.

Shortly after, Star Twinkle finally accepted Summershine's hoof and got up on his legs while leaning on his friend's shoulder with a smile on his face. "So...who is winning now?" He asked as he walked with Summershine towards the finish line.

"No one," Summershine replied. "If we both cross the line together then there will be no winner or loser, after all," he explained.

Star Twinkle could live with that result. If Summershine wouldn't have come back for him, he would have lost anyway so things could only get better from this point on. He also started to laugh for a moment. "I can't believe we both got caught up in all of this so much," he said amused, even though he was in some pain.

"Yeah, best friends really shouldn't act like that," Summershine admitted. "It was a shame. This race could have been really fun,"

Star Twinkle thought the same. It was really a wasted opportunity for what could have been a really fun race for both of them. "Let's make a promise," the stallion then said out of nowhere, much to Summershine's surprise. "Next year, we will participate in this race again! But then we will just have fun! No competition. No bets. Okay?"

Summershine didn't think long about this and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I would like that," he replied already looking forward to that race.

By the time, the two of them approached the finish line, everypony else seemed to have already finished the race. Crash and Brilliance were waiting at the end and they were relieved to see both Star Twinkle and Summershine with smiles on their faces. Lightbeam, Nightsky, and Happytrade also appeared right behind the stallions and walked right next to them.

In the end, the race ended with the five ponies crossing the line at the same time, making them tie for the last place. The bet was quickly forgotten and the group decided to just spend the day without going much into detail how the two stallions got too caught up in this competition. Instead, they just had fun for the rest of the day, after all, that was the most important thing between friends.

Author's Note:

Yay, Star Twinkle is back, am I right!?
Actually, he isn't because he kinda appeared the first time in this chapter (with the exception of the last chapter. I'm kinda excited about the next upcoming chapters and I hope you are too, even if they take a little bit longer now.

Please let me know what you thought about this chapter or the overall story. I would really like to hear your thoughts about some things. With all that said, please consider leaving a review or some other kind of feedback and make sure to follow me or this story to always be up to date with everything that I upload.

See you all in the next chapter.
Bye Bye ^^.

Reading Order:

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 1 + 2(Chapter 1 - 53)

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship - Diary of The Storm Wings

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 3(Chapter 54 - 65)

Equestria Girls - The Legend of Friendship

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship - Outcasts

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 4(Chapter 66 - 91)

Rainbow Rocks - The Legend of Friendship

The Legend of Friendship - Harmony