Flash Sentry's EQG Chronicles

by Banshee531

A Sandy Competition

It was another sunny day and the group were enjoying themselves on the beach. Flash, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow were all lounging around since Twilight, Sunset and Pinkie had gone off to follow a treasure map Sunset had found and Fluttershy was off talking to the fish and crabs in the ocean. Flash was listening to some music while Rarity was sunbathing and Applejack and Rainbow were relaxing after the pair had tied at a swimming race.

But it was here that Flash was pulled from his thoughts as something blocked the sunlight. Opening his eyes, he saw Scootaloo smiling down at him with Sweetie and Applebloom beside her. The trio were carrying multiple buckets and spades, almost too many to carry. "Hey!" She smirked when he removed his headphones, "Wanna hear an idea we had?"

"Sure," Flash yawned as he sat up, the other girls listening in.

"Let's have a sandcastle contest," Sweetie declared, "We'll try and make the best structure we can build and at the end, we decide on a winner."

"We thought it might be more fun to have the teams be siblings," Applebloom added as the teens shared a glance.

"Alright!" Rainbow leapt to her feet, "Let's do this! Come on Scoot, let's make the best sandcastle the world has ever seen!"

Scootaloo smiled while the others frowned. "No fair," Applejack stood up. "If both you and Flash help, then that gives you an unfair advantage."

"Indeed," Rarity chimed in as she stood up as well. "Does it even count if you're not technically sisters?"

"Hey!" Rainbow threw an arm around Scootaloo, "Scoots and I are sisters in every way that matters. Not my fault your sisters don't have a brother as well." A cough from Applebloom made the girl turn to her before rolling her eyes, "Well...one that happens to be here."

Flash let out a long sigh before speaking, "Hang on everyone. How about this?" They all turned to him, "We need someone to judge. Why don't I do that and Rainbow help Scootaloo? That way we can all be involved, and the teams are fair. Plus, you know I won't just give the win to Scootaloo even if her castle's the worst one."

The girls all smiled and nodded. "No problem," Rainbow responded, "You'll give the win to us either way, cause our castle's gonna be the best." Scootaloo nodded as Flash took out his phone and looked at the time.

"Alright. I'm setting the timer for an hour and a half. You have until then to make your castles. Ready?" The girls handed their sisters buckets and spades, "And...GO!"

With that, the girls ran to the water in order to get what they needed. Rainbow used her super speed to make several quick trips, wetting the area she and Scootaloo had picked within seconds. Rarity had foregone the buckets and was using her gem constructs to make a giant basin, which she dipped into the water and lifted it up once full. Taking it over to the area she and Sweetie had picked, she made a small gap between two pieces and let the water gently slosh out and soak the sand.

"Wow," Applebloom whistled before turning to Applejack. "Can you do something like that? Maybe if we find a really big bucket-"

"Now hold on sugarcube," Applejack interrupted, "Using their magic to build their castles might work for them, but we in the Apple family do things the way they're supposed to be done." She emptied her small bucket onto the sand as Applejack did the same, barely covering a tenth of the area they would need. "Now go get some more water and I'll start working on the foundation." Applebloom sighed, but did as she was told.

"Oh yeah!" Rainbow cheered as they started building up the sides of the castle. "This bad boy's gonna be the biggest sandcastle the world's ever seen. So big that a person could actually live in it."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Scootaloo asked, "We've only got an hour and a half."

"Relax. I got this." With that, she started using her super speed to build up the sides of the castle. She was moving so fast that Scootaloo dare not try and help in fear of accidently knocking into her. So she just sat there, a pout on her face.

Rarity and Sweetie were also starting to work on their castle, with Rarity believing the best way to win was the same way she believed everything was meant to be done: With flare. "Instead of bigger, let's make it better." She started sculpting the sand into a wave-like shape, though the thing looked like it was gonna fall over any moment. "We'll design it to resemble the ocean, as a memento to our time here."

"That sounds fun," Sweetie replied, "Oh, maybe we can decorate with shells or something?" Rarity flinched at the idea as she stared at the fragile shape.

"We'll see how it looks once it's completed." Sweetie nodded and the pair got to work, only for Sweetie to quickly fall under scrutiny. "No dear, not like that. Here, let me show you." She redid the wall Sweetie had made, her sister frowning and trying again. But as she did, Rarity butted in again and remade it from scratch. After the third time of this, Sweetie just sat back and crossed her arms with a pout.

Applebloom had finally brought enough water over as Applejack was slowly packing the sand together. "Careful," the older apple stated as she gently tapped the sand into shape. "Careful. Careful." Applebloom got to work as well, patting the sand together as well. But when Applejack saw how hard she was hitting it, she looked terrified. "Gently!" She yelled, making Applebloom flinch before patting so weakly that it barely any contact. "Perfect. But yah gotta use less sand. Too much and it won't compact right." She showed Applebloom the little amount of sand she was using, barely fitting half her hand.

"But if you use too little, it'll take forever to make a castle."

"Slow and steady wins the race," Applejack responded, "Let the others rush and make a flimsy castle that'll blow over in the lightest wind. Our's will still be standing strong." She kept working again, his pace so slow that the water in the areas they hadn't touched dried out. "Why don't yah go get more water?"

Applebloom huffed and got up to do just that, then noticed Scootaloo and Sweetie sitting back as their teammates worked on their own overly elaborate castles. Flash also saw this and sighed, "Maybe making a this a contest wasn't a good idea." He then glanced back at the trio and gestured to them, "Say, why don't we change things up a bit girls?" he asked them, all three soon grinning at his idea.

---

Almost an hour and a half later...

In the time since they had started, Rainbow's castle was now almost seven feet tall, though it looked more like a tower than a castle. "Oh yeah!" She cheered while patting more sand on top of it, "Winning castle right here."

Rarity's castle was only two feet tall, but it was probably the most spectacularly built castle ever made on the beach. It looked more like a famous opera house then it did a castle, with multiple wave-shaped protrusions sticking out of it. She was now using her nail file to carefully carve into the sand, making the shell and starfish shapes her sister had suggested beforehand. "Marvellous," she smiled as she finished the final shell shape.

Meanwhile, Applejack's castle...wasn't even a castle. It was just a large mound of sand with a flat surface she intended to build her castle on. "Yeah!" She chuckled, "Now that's a foundation. Whatever's built'll probably last a thousand years."

"Five minutes," Flash's voice filled the air as Applejack's eyes went wide.

"What?!" She yelped, spinning around to see the teen staring at his phone before showing it to her, which showed it counting down from five minutes. "Ya'll gotta be kidding me!" She looked over at Rainbow and Rarity's castles, which were both looking completed. "Errr..." she looked over at the bucket and quickly started filling it with sand, packing it in tight.

"Ha!" Rainbow laughed, "There's no way you'll make a castle better and bigger than mine." She crossed her arms gleefully, only to hear someone yell out.

"Heads up!" Suddenly, a volleyball flew over and slammed into the top of her castle. This caused the top to break off and fall to the ground, while the remaining top half began to crack and break.

"NO!" Rainbow cried before turning to glare at the teens that were playing twenty feet away.

"Sorry," the guy who called out told her. "We spiked it a bit too hard."

"Look at what you did!" Rainbow roared as she pointed back at her sand tower.

"We said sorry. Not our fault you made it so big it's impossible to miss. Can we have our ball back?" Rainbow hissed at him, but grabbed the ball and threw it back, then tried to save her castle. However, the damage done had also caused the foundation to rock and crack without her noticing, so when she tried putting more sand on top of it, the whole thing went timber.

"AHHH!" She cried as her sandcastle collapsed.

Rarity flinched at the sight, only to glance down at her castle, "Not that that was ever in doubt..." she whispered as she continued to do a few more carvings in the side of the sand. But as she wanted to not have a single piece of her castle go without a form of decoration, she had over carved it. The groves that made up the shell and starfish shapes had morphed into structural weaknesses in the strangely designed castle, which caused large cracks to appear.

"Wait!" She yelped at the sight, trying to repair the damage. But the tips of the wave-shaped building began to fall off, causing the rest of the pretty building to start crumbling. "No!" She tried to save it, but the whole thing fell apart before she could even think of a way to do so.

She looked ready to start crying, the pain even more so when she heard Flash call out, "Alright girls, times up!" Flash turned to their three disasters of castles, the only one that even remotely looked like one being Applejack.

"What do yah think?" Applejack asked, smirking at Flash as she looked over at the other two's and knew hers at least looked like a castle.

"Well..." Flash shined a giant grin, "It's obvious who the winning castle belongs too." Applejack nodded, "Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle."

"Huh?" The three sisters looked around for their partners, only to now realize they hadn't been around for a while. They then turned to Flash as he was looking off in another direction, the three following his gaze before their eyes went wide. "WHAT!?"

Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were standing behind a castle they had built themselves. It was roughly three feet tall, with a large flat mound with a moat surrounding it. It had several towers with flags on the top and different shells for windows and a front door.

"Ha...how?" Was all Applejack could say, the other two equally amazed.

"Well, since you three weren't letting them chip in, they decided to do their own castle." Flash stepped over to give it a better look, "And clearly it's the better one." The girls all cheered at this and high-fived, their sisters just staring in shock.

"I see..." Rarity sighed as she walked up to the trio, "I'm sorry girls."

"Guess we got carried away," Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck.

Applejack pulled her hat down over her eyes, "Our bad." The younger girls all giggled at them, soon telling them they forgave them as Flash chuckled.

"Well, I think we should celebrate the girls' victory with some ice cream. Losers pay for winners...and the judge." The girls all sighed, but agreed. With that, the seven went over to the concession stand while the CMC Castle stood strong and proud. A moment later, a crab scuttled up to it as the shell door fell down to make a bridge over the moat. It crawled inside, pulling the shell back up as it found a place to call home until high tide

Author's Note:

Can't have a beach story without sandcastles, and this gives the Crusaders a spot in the limelight. Hope you enjoyed.

Comments

[SpikeSmolder fan]

Huh guess you switched kart building for sandcastle building for our EQG counterparts, neat!!!

It was amusing seeing the big sisters going though their own sandcastle wrecks but with a twist by the CMC working together at the end there, well played Banshee!

[SuperSonicHeroes]

This was a nice little beach chapter. It not only showed what the others were up to during "X Marks the Spot", it gave the CMC some nice time in the spotlight. This also felt like a shorter but arguably better handled version of "The Cart Before the Ponies".

[Postwarmonkey50]

Now that, is adorable right there.

[Godslittleprincess]

Awww, SO CUTE!

[Myzor king of war]

adorable