So after I um...fought down the urge to...run screaming out of the palace after seeing Sunset in a cheerleader’s outfit that Rarity threw together on short notice the day before and looked pretty good even with the translation belt worked into it, Twilight turned me back into a mare, and we all got ready to head back to Ponyville with Sunset’s new servants.

Of course the idiots just had to open their damn mouths.

“Hey there Princess Twilight Sparkle,” the dark coated male unicorn said as he raised a hoof to the purple goddess.

“Long time no see! You got any spare love for some old semi-acquaintances?” the female pegasus that could have been the unicorn’s twin sister spoke up.

Twilight just stared at the mass produced wannabe background ponies in cautious confusion before she backed up a little. “Do I know the two of you?”

I sighed and stepped in front of the idiots before they could talk some more. “You remember the three guards I had with me during that whole Flash Sentry thing?” I asked before pointing at the unicorn first, and then the pegasus with my hoof. “Meet changeling number six six six, and number six one nine.”

Once again, Twilight gave them a scrutinizing onceover. “Wait...didn’t you say they stabbed you in the back?”

“Yeah well...technically, they were being loyal to the rightful queen of the changelings so...I let them off. Kind of...I mean,” I told her. “They already know the ponies around town and...using talking changelings to clean out the palace septic system really is a waste of their talents. But they’re not smart enough to run a telecommunications hub like I have the two through ten do...so here they are.”

Sunset frowned. “Wait...you gave me a pair of traitors as my bodyguards?”

I smirked. “Highly motivated traitors that know I’ll turn them inside out if even one little red hair on your head gets hurt,” I assured her before looking over to them with a frown. “Right guys?”

The two changelings gulped before backing into the hallway’s wall, and Twilight sighed. “Fairy, you’re being mean. If they’ve...well,” she paused and frowned at the ground. “Hmm, I can’t really say change of heart since they’re technically still loyal to the queen, which is you now, so...you should give them a fair...chance?”

I raised an eyebrow at the less than convincing love and tolerance speech.

Which she frowned back at me for. “Well then why did you put Sunset under their protection?”

“Because they have the most experience dealing with Ponyville citizens,” I explained. “And admittedly, they aren’t that stupid. I mean, they fooled you guys into thinking they were guards for awhile.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed. “Okay then, let’s go.”

As we managed to actually get out of Everfree Palace, I looked up to Sunset. “So, what’s with the whole cheerleader thing?” I asked. “I mean, you don’t really strike me as the type.”

Sunset actually gave me a guilty smile with a hint of blush in her cheeks. “Um...well...I saw plenty of them when I was going to school, and it always kind of looked fun,” she admitted before her whole demeanor started to change from slightly hopeful to forced stoic. “Plus...look, after the whole demon thing...it was hard for me. No one outright remembered the transformation and fight I had with Twilight, but...something about it did linger in their minds. Fluttershy and Rarity and the others were the only ones who even tried to be my friends. Sort of. And… Well...it was bad, but not as bad as what’s going on in Ponyville.

“There, I was the monster-slash-alpha-bitch that suddenly stopped being bitchy and turned kind of vulnerable,” she told me. “Here, I’m just the out of place human that seems a little strange. Least the foals have kind of started to like me, and Cheerilee’s nice.”

“You tell her about the other dimension?”

Sunset frowned. “Parallel universe,” she corrected in a way that sounded way too Twilight for my taste. “And no. I mean, who the hell wants to hear about a non-magical land where another species version of you is doing the exact same thing as the other you?”

I had to admit, she had a point.

Thanks to talking Twilight into using her royal privileges, the ride to Rainbow Falls was made in the lap of luxury. It was nice of her to be a princess of the people and all, wanting to ride with other ponies in the less than comfortable, average cars. But I wanted to take advantage of the friends with a princess benefits package. So instead of having to park my ass on hard wood with the danger of getting splinters in the wrong place, I got a nice comfy couch of a seat next to Twilight, while Rainbow sat across from us.

Sunset and Fluttershy ended up next to each other, and seemed to be getting along well enough again. From what little I could make out of the conversation, it was about the differences in the animals between here and there.

“You mean buzzards don’t really buzz in human land?”

Derpy and Dinky were looking out the window at all the rolling hills, with the younger of the two showing a childish level of enthusiasm as she probably hung out a bit too far. I would have been a little less at ease over the whole thing if not for the fact Sparkler’s horn was lit up with the a telltale glow of magic that matched the TK field around Dinky’s back hooves while the older sister read a book.

Applejack and Rarity were talking to each other too low for me to overhear, and Pinkie was...missing. Which kind of had me worried since I was the last pony in after leaving my minions at the door, and we were the last car on the train.

“So Rainbow, mind if I ask you a question?” Twilight spoke up. “Um...why Fluttershy?”

The pegasus looked over to the little pony goddess, and I found myself kind of wondering that as well. I mean, I know she told me a few days ago, but...it had been kind of one of those thing you just blew off. For her part, Rainbow looked away from the window and shrugged. “Well, she wanted to be in the Games, and um,” the pegasus paused for a moment and looked at her happy friend as she shared a laugh with the human before dropping her voice so none of the other ponies could hear. “We all know Fluttershy isn’t the best flier, so I thought I’d help her out a bit. I'm sure I can pick up the slack and get us to the Games.”

I fought hard to conceal my nervousness at that statement, not to mention my agitation. Sure I loved Fluttershy and all, but...well...from what I saw, the Equestria Games really weren’t about giving non-athletes medals. I mean, they sure as hell weren’t the Olympics insofar as a giant one-upmanship contest. Ponies actually meant the part about how their games were a symbol of unity, harmony, and friendly competition.

But at the same time, it was a bunch of athletes that took pride in their abilities. While Fluttershy had plenty of nice qualities...her flight speed wasn’t on the list. It just...well...it just seemed pretty damn wrong to me that someone like her was even competing.

There, I admitted it!

Fluttershy did NOT belong in the Equesrtria games!

She was just being an evil, parasitic little leech, sucking off the talent of her friend! Okay, I understood helping a friend out, or spend time with them and all. But not when you cost them something they wanted! For something like that, Fluttershy deserved to be tared and...something else, because she already had the feathers.

What the hell had she ever really given Rainbow anyway? I mean really gave that actually meant some kind of huge self-sacrifice kind of thing?

“Fae, are you okay?”

I snapped myself out of the mental image of putting Fluttershy in her place, and looked over to the concerned alicorn, judging by her Scent anyway. She tilted her head a bit. “You looked a little angry for a second there.”

“I’m fine,” I told Twilight before something more important than my...rather disturbing mental imagery of Fluttershy covered in black goo disappeared from my head. “And, we are going to be meeting with the committee before the qualifying races are done, right?”

As Twilight opened her mouth to say something, which I was really hoping to be something reassuring, I heard a screech, and looked over to the other side of the car just in time to see Dinky slip on the window and fall. As the little foal tumbled forward, Derpy dove after her...a bit too far thanks to the fact Sparkler’s magic held onto the smaller filly and kept her in the car by her legs while Derpy’s leap carried her all the way outside it.

Everyone ran up to check and make sure the little unicorn was alright a second before me, Twilight and Rainbow could get out of our seats, trapping us where we were. Once everyone took a good look at Dinky to make sure everything was fine, and got assurances from Sparkler that Derpy had just forgotten about the child security spell when she saw the filly slip, we were left to look out the back door of of the rail car while Derpy tried to catch up with us rather unsuccessfully.

After a minute of Applejack grumbling about not bringing a rope, Twilight just teleported her back in and all the ponies resumed their seating.

“Sorry about that,” the ditzy mare apologized. “I um...kind of forgot about the foal security spell Sparkler cast.”

The pink unicorn sighed. “Mom, it’s the only reason you even let her look out the window in the first place.”

“It’s okay sugarcube,” Applejack assured her. “Celestia knows Ah woulda done the same in your place even if Applebloom had been hogtied to the seat by mah own lasso.”

“Quite so,” Rarity agreed with a nod before she became little apprehensive. “Although, perhaps it is best to stay in the car for the rest of the ride? We should almost be there by now.”

Rarity wasn’t that far off with her guesstimation, and we got within sight of Rainbow Falls in under ten minutes. In short order we found our rooms at the hotel that was booked to house the athletes, put our things away, and decided to use the rest of the day to just look around. Me and Twilight went with Rainbow to scope the entirety of the town out, while Fluttershy stayed with the non-fliers to come and get us in case there was trouble. Sunset’s changelings took one look at the place, and decided to stay in their room since Shimmer had plenty of friends to help her out in case of trouble.

The place was a definite tourist trap, or destination, depending on your point of view, mine was firmly in the trap category.

Rainbow Falls wasn’t that much of a town, and had a definite ‘pegasi only’ vibe to it. Although it didn’t float in the air or anything, the place was built on a mountain range. Not next to it, actually on top of a damn mountain range. There were tons of houses, shops, and other junk that were completely disconnected from the center of town and made ponies who didn’t have wings just shit out of luck when it came to getting to them. The parts of the town that weren’t a pain in the ass for anyone who didn’t have wings to get to, where the train dropped us off at, was actually smaller than Ponyville. It had all the overpriced shops, made for tourist kind of restaurants, a ten story hotel built into the mountain that housed us and the other athletes, and a shop that sold collected rainbow water from the rainbow river for sale.

Oh yeah, and then there were the rainbow falls themselves. I didn’t know what they hurt more: my eyes, or my brain.

They were waterfalls...of rainbows. Rainbow waterfalls.

And they came from this light cloud cover that constantly hung over the town and spit them out. Some of them just fell down and down into another batch of cloud cover, which were apparently connected to the top clouds, creating an endless loop of running rainbows. Others didn’t fall into the clouds, and hit the ground where it pooled a bit before making a rainbow river that cut through the center of the small tourist part of the town.

I had seen Rainbow’s house before, with its rainbow waterfalls and all that. Used sparingly, rainbow waterfalls and collection pools were kind of awesome in a way that didn’t make a guy feel like his balls were shrinking.

But Rainbow Falls was just rainbow overload.

And it didn’t stop with the rainbow falls!

The entire rainbow tourist trap town was nothing but rainbow themed decorations. They had rainbow colored parasols on top of the restaurant outside seating, rainbows painted on the freaking buildings, the rainbow town insignia made a gay pride parade flag look drab, and on top of what I’m pretty sure was the bank, they had a sign with a rainbow and a pot of gold at the end of it!

Now, I know I was in the land of bright, technicolor and pastel ponies, but while standing in the middle of Rainbow Falls, watching the rainbow falls next to Rainbow, I was wondering how half the ponies in town weren’t in seizures because of all the rainbows!

And it sure as hell didn’t help that the damn rainbows were bright, really bright. Cartoon level bright. Twelve AM catoon level bright when all the other lights are off and you’re sitting much too close to the television like your parents told you not to. They glowed all colors of the rainbow, all the time.

I mean, the ponies had their brightly colored coats but...they didn’t glow. Not when the horny ones weren’t using magic anyway. Even then, it was like comparing a forty watt bulb to something in the triple digits.

After a rather extensive look around thanks to Twilight’s research of the area beforehand that let her know all the spots to see that made me want to throw up, the three of us landed a bit away from the tourist rap area for some privacy...and so that Twilight could examine Rainbow Falls rainbow ‘juice’ to see if she could discern any differences from the kind of rainbows that were produced in Cloudsdale.

“Okay so…” I managed to say to Rainbow while trying to do the impossible in Rainbow Falls by not looking at all the rainbows. Hell, I couldn’t even look down since flowers had been planted everywhere to make rainbow patterns that could only be seen from the distance. Which we were at. “Why exactly are the tryouts being held here?” Unless ponies liked eyestrain, I couldn't see any reason to ever come to this shiny hellhole.

Rainbow looked over to me, and then pointed away from the rainbow falls of Rainbow Falls so I could see the sky track that the race would be held on. The lane was marked by a line of banners that were every color of the rainbow, and of course the checkpoint rings that the pegasi had to fly through were colored rainbow, while the finish line was actually a real rainbow attached to the outer layer of a cloud to make a circle that the pegasi were supposed to fly through.

“The rainbow pigment isn’t that long lasting once it's taken out of the clouds, so they have to dunk the basic hoops in the river once a day,” the weathermare explained before she looked up to the finish line. “But that cloud looks to be good for the week.”

“Rainbow...I got some bad news,” mumbled before blinking my eyes a few times so they could have a rest. “Um...I don’t think it’s going to matter what the committee says.”

The poor pegasus didn’t take the news very well. “What? How come?”

A second later, Twilight was at my side while I continued to blink my eyes. “Fae are you alright? You aren’t getting sick again, are you?” she asked before looking around. “Um...I know I saw a hospital around here somewhere.”

I held up a hoof to put it on her shoulder. “No it’s not that. I just...look, changelings aren’t really built for bright lights,” I told her.

Rainbow let out a snort. “Is that all? We’ll just get you some sun glasses then,” she said before reaching under her wings and pulling out a pair of shades to stick on my face.

While I was wondering how Rainbow Dash had managed to think of such a basic solution before I could, Twilight looked over to her with a raised eyebrow. “How did you even do that?”

“Wing folds,” Rainbow answered simply, before she opened up her other one and held out a hoof. “Keep my money in the right one.” A few seconds later a bag full of bits dropped for her to catch.

I blinked at the Pinkie-type oddity.

Twilight just examined her own alicorn wings in surprise. “I didn’t know we could do that.”

The second day were were at Rainbow Falls, or first full day we were there at least, was a mad rush to get everything ready while what seemed like every single pegasus ever did their thing. And I’m not joking about the every pegasus ever either. Hell, I even think I actually saw Firefly from a previous generation at one point.

To keep everything on schedule, we divided into two teams. Twilight decided to stay in the hotel room for a bit and fill out a couple of forms so that we could meet with the committee and check my eligibility to compete. I had the changelings stay with her. I offered to stick around as well, but she pushed me out with demands that I train in case everything worked out. It was a little too optimistic for my ideology, but...ponies.

But thanks to a pair of tinted goggles we got for way too much at a gift shop, flying around without having my eyes bleed was now a viable option.

As for team two, we had to set up our...less than spectacular tent that seemed to be little more than four sticks and an oversized pink bedsheet. Everyone else had something that looked like it belonged a renaissance fair, and we got a pink tarp and the most basic wooden poles there were. Apparently, Ponyville hadn't seen fit to provide its team with anything, which was why so many of Rainbow's friends had come along to help out. I was a little pissed at the mayor for not allocating the proper funds, but...the disaster relief fund for Ponyville did eat up a lot of the budget.

Since Sunset was around to help set up, I let her take the lead on the embarrassing situation. Like any good padawan of pointing out the BS, she took one look at the completed thing, crossed her arms, and frowned. “Okay...why does our tent look like it came from the Barnyard Bargain's used rummage sale of junk that nobody wanted?”

Rainbow let out a nervous laugh. “Yeah, about that,” she chuckled nervously. “Because Fluttershy...um...well...nopony else wanted Fluttershy on their team, even with me joining with her, so we kind of had to sign up for a team that Ponyville hasn’t fielded in a few years. Which means we don’t exactly have the best stuff.”

I sighed and shook my head kind of dejectedly at Rainbow’s lack of preparation and inability to check everything before hand.

Then I realized I was starting to act a little like Twilight, and needed to concentrate on keeping Rainbow from feeling bad. “Not really a problem.”

After that, Sunset reached down and put her hand on Dash’s head. “Or your fault.”

The pegasus went rigid at the girl’s touch, and then looked up at Sunset. “Um...are you...petting me?”

I...just looked at the scene for a few seconds. And...yeah, I couldn't really get all indignant about Sunset's actions. Hell, if I were still human and in Equestria, I would have been snatching up the local inhabitants left and right before handing out pettings, ear scratches, belly rubs, and hug that yanked them off the ground. What can I say? They were just that fucking adorable.

“What’s wrong? Want some more?” Sunset asked with a smirk before she started scratching behind one of Rainbow’s ears.

Dash’s eyes went wide, and for a second I thought she was about to lose it when her wings ruffled right before her whole body shivered and just sagged in relief. “Oh...sweet Celestia. That’s…”

A few seconds later, Sunset withdrew her hand, and Dash just collapsed. A quick shake of her head put an expression back on Rainbow’s face that didn’t look like her brain had turned to pudding, and she cleared her throat while the whole group just hid our chuckles.

“Ahem, right...so...uh...what were we talking about again?”

The sound of...something loud and boomy that wasn’t really a sonic boom caught my attention, and I looked up to see three slightly familiar figures zooming around in formation. I didn’t know the one with the white hair off the top of my head, but the male Wonderbolt with the blue hair had to have been Soarin...and I had to wait till they landed to find out the one in the lead was Spitfire, and not her brother.

“It’s the Wonderbolts!” a pegasus behind me cheered.

“I hear they’re flying for Cloudsdale.”

My mind kind of put on the breaks upon hearing that little bit of info, and I looked over to Rainbow Dash. She looked about as excited as everyone else, except maybe Sunset. I kind of shared my ward’s lack of enthusiasm.

“Hey Dash, did you know about this?” I asked Rainbow before she could start her fangasm. She I had to poke her in the shoulder, and ask again. When she responded slowly to the second question, I judged myself to be just in time.

Rainbow looked over to me and smiled. “Well, yeah!” she said before trotting over towards where they were going to try and land.

I...didn’t share her enthusiasm as I followed her along with the others.

Although I knew them by the massive amount of Wonderbolt merchandise that Dash had, it was the first time I’d seen them in person. They were...kind of disappointing actually. Thanks to a combination of pony anatomy lessons from the pre-Tia hive and Celestia herself, I could tell at a glance that the Wonderbolts weren’t quite the athletes that Rainbow Dash was.

Or, maybe I was just being biased.

I mean...okay, Spitfire looked...hot. She was a great mix of fitness and femininity, and the fact her flightsuit left nothing to the imagination let me judge that fact perfectly. Even her hair was done up great, as opposed to Rainbow Dash’s windblown mess. She also had a bit more in back than her number one fan.

Soarin’s and Silver Hair’s were also styled up great.

The whole thing made me fly up a bit so I could talk to the six foot giant face to face. “Okay, is there some kind of magical mane...styling stuff that just lets their hair stay like that?” The damn things looked like they stayed combed, despite the insane speeds the Wonderbolts had to be able to go.

“I know of a few things that would do it,” Sunset told me as Rainbow talked with her idols. “But they’re all pretty expensive. Why’d you ask? Wanna look good for Twilight when you cross the finish line?”

I rolled my eyes at the little smile on Sunset's face, and watched the Wonderbolts go over their pitched tent with…

“Give us some Clouds!”

“Give us some Dale!”

“What do you get?”

...thier rather unoriginal cheerleaders that seemed to be actually trained to do cheers judging by how they could flip around and twist their spines in ways that was unnatural to all things pony, professional trainers, burly support staff, and an emergency extra Wonderbolt with a white coat and wild yellow hair. The only thing they didn’t have going for them was an alicorn of their own. And for a second, I even thought I saw one of those just standing off to the side!

The whole damn thing left a bit of a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“Okay...this just ain’t right,” I mumbled to Sunset as I looked at the assembled crowd of ponies. “I mean, they’re rockstar level celebrities with military training and government funding...and they’re competing in the Games? Shouldn’t they be off...saving kittens from trees or something?

“It’s bad enough we got the winged lions over there,” I grumbled while glancing over to the griffons. “Their stupid little empire sends one team to compete in every event, and I can guarantee they’re like the best of the best for their entire species. But now we’ve got to deal with a bunch of pegasi that do nothing but fly around all day for a living?”

Sunset let out a snort. “If life was fair, I’d still have my horn.”

I winced, and landed back on the ground. “Um...yeah...sorry about that.” Reminding Sunset about her disability, if inadvertently, made me want to kick myself.

A second later, I felt the human’s hands touch me on the head, and I jumped away while pointing a hoof at Sunset. “Whoa there girl! You’re not using your human nerve scratch on me!” That damn thing was like the Vulcan neck pinch for ponies!

The bad feeling I had was wrong.

It should have been this all-consuming dread that sent me running for the hills that surrounded Rainbow Falls.

Since we still didn’t know if I was going to be eligible to compete, Derpy took my spot on beginning the relay when it came time for practice. Since she would be the starting mare, that meant she needed a good takeoff.

“And a good takeoff is very important,” Rainbow Dash went on as she flew back and forth in front of her mares while sounding kind of military-ish. Not outright drill sergeant, but still pretty bossy.

For Derpy, it seemed to be working pretty well, she was standing up straight and had her eyes...well, her head was moving to follow Dash at least, so I knew she was paying attention. “Yes Ma’am, sir!”

Behind her, Pinkie’s new cheerleading buddy jumped up and down. Although, with her size, Dinky was only able to use one pompom in both hooves. “Woohoo! Go Mommy-wah!” the foal yelled before she fell backwards from being on her hind legs for too long and Pinkie had to catch her.

Rainbow ran Derpy through proper quick takeoff techniques a few times, then gave one of her usual motivational speeches combined with the go order and Derpy looked like she got a pretty good takeoff. She pushed off and gave a strong flap of her wings at just the right time to provide a proper push without the wing movements making her lose any momentum. Everything was looking pretty good until anti-flying-pony fire struck her under the chin and Derpy let out a scream and I heard something go squish. “Ahhh! Projectile imitation muffins!” she shouted before careening out of control. The ditzy mare went into a tailspin, and I managed to snag her tail in my TK before she hit the ground.

She hung an inch from the grass, and I had to admit that Twilight had the right idea with using a pony’s tail to stop a pegasus. I could grasp the back of it as hard as I wanted, and there were no bloody explosion of gore. Always important for when grabbing friends. The blind rage from seeing some dumb as shit moron throwing something at my favorite gray pony helped my magic to react in time as well.

It would also allow me to cripple whatever idiot thought hitting Derpy with their food was a good idea in short order.

“Sorry,” a rather familiar voice with its southern drawl called out, drawing my attention onto one of the few ponies in Equestria that was completely safe from my wrath.

Rainbow got the words out before I could. “Applejack! What the hay?”

With my eyes actually on her, I managed to see what the farm pony was doing. Using her thick-haired tail, Applejack was throwing the bite size apple brown betty that she had made in their cupcake-like containment crusts into the air, and into the paths of the fliers. Hell, she threw one up at Rainbow right as the mare was shouting at her.

Then the damn farmer had the audacity to look all confused like, and done looked up at that thar pegasus with the fancy rainbow hair. “Ah got the idea from them?” she said before pointing over to where the Cloudsdale gourmet chefs were putting miniature cakes on little catapults and launching them into the air.

“Hooves down cakes up!”

I groaned and flew up to Rainbow. “I’ll um, take care of this...you go work on the horseshoe-baton practice.”

She sighed. “Thanks Fae,” she replied before turning around to look at Derpy. The ditzy mare was getting help from Sunset to clean the apple gunk out of her eyes. “Um...when’s your meeting with the review board again?”

“Night before the qualifying trials,” I replied. “Don’t worry though, I can hold stuff and kick off the ground just fine, but...you sure Fluttershy wouldn’t be better as the starter? I mean...look, we’re all friends but...Dash, what happens if she freezes up?” I didn't wnt to do it, but...someone had to be the voice of reason in our little group. Crule, harsh, evil reason.

Rainbow winced at the question, and I could tell she had been thinking about it too. “That’s why she has to be in the middle,” Dash told me. “On the ground, she may just want to stay there. If she keeps her wings moving, she should be fine.”

I could feel the doubt radiating off her in wave after wave while Pinkie shouted a cheer as loud as she could in Derpy’s ear with her megaphone. “Fae...please don’t let these guys stop you from competing. I...don’t know if…” Dash stopped and shook her head. “No reason to get nervous over stuff you can’t control right?”

Even though I didn't really feel it, if Dash needed some kind of confidence boost... I gave her my best reassuring smile. “Oh come on Dash, world’s fastest pegasus and the best young flier, right?” I reminded her with a hoof to the shoulder. “Everything’ll be fine, even if the jerks on the committee say no.”

There was a spike of fear, and then she nodded before flying off, leaving me just flapping my wings in the wind. What was that about? I wondered.

Then I went to go talk some sense to who should have been the most sensible pony about throwing stuff at Derpy of all ponies and expecting her to catch it. I'll admit, it took me a good ten seconds to calm down enough not to yell at her.

Then came the baton passing.

It was...even worse than the jumpstart.

The two mares floated up in the air while Rainbow did her coaching thing, and prepared for the handoff. As for me, I just waited on the ground next to Pinkie and Sunset.

Pinkie was...nervous. She was biting her hooves, and as Derpy and Fluttershy separated a bit then came closer to simulate a racing situation, she let out a cry of terror. “Ohmygosh! I can’t look!”

While Pinkie became a quivering mess, Sunset rolled her eyes before putting on a humored smirk. “Pinkie, it’s just a handoff, what could possibly go wrong?”

As my ears quickly conveyed the ultimate warning of innumerable death and terror within Equestria, I looked up at the two mares while my mind quickly found the most logical response to Sunset’s question. Oh God, THE HORSESHOE BATON IS A BOMB!

It made perfect sense. The easiest way to remove the Bearers from the playing field before...well...okay I knew they didn’t have the Elements anymore, but there was that box that the Tree spit out so, once they solved that thing and opened it, there was...probably something inside?

Yeah, okay, maybe the theory wasn’t so sound, but I was in Equestria. Something had to go wrong.

“Are you really, really, really sure you're ready?” Fluttershy asked as she floated in front of Derpy.

“Yep!”

“I don’t want to take it from you if you’re not ready.”

“I’m ready.”

“Are you really, really sure?”

“Really sure.”

“Really, really sure?”

“Really, really sure!”

“Really, really, really-”

“Oh just take it already!” Rainbow Dash nearly-shouted.

Derpy cried out in surprise and threw out the hoof holding the baton towards Fluttershy...and missed.

Then when Fluttershy tried to move up to the grab it, Derpy moved her foreleg down to where Fluttershy’s had been, and then they tried again…

...and again…

...and yet again…

And after the third, or fifth try that was supposed to be the charm, Rainbow reached out and grabbed Dery’s foreleg. “You! Just hold it there,” she said before looking over to Fluttershy. “Okay, now grab it.”

The technique proved effective, and Fluttershy managed to get the horseshoe and…

Okay look, pony...grabbing ability...it’s not like we have suction cups or anything. I can’t just fly down and attach my hooves to the top of a box, then fly away. We’ve got these weird phantom fingers that we can’t really feel but kind of know about. However, it's still magic. And...if the pony doesn’t believe they can do something with their magic, then the whole thing just falls apart.

So when little Fluttershy got her horseshoe and probably got a wave of self-doubt or something, it just popped right off. He forelegs flailed around a ton in an attempt to keep it, but...in the end it was a wasted effort and the baton fell to the ground.

Then of course, Dash started looking all depressed at the situation and...immediately perked up two seconds later?

While I was wondering what was going on with Rainbow, I saw Rarity snatch the horseshoe off the out of the corner of my eye and was thankful someone was being helpful. Then Rainbow got so excited I could Smell her from down below, and I looked up to see her looking at something on the ground.

“Twilight!” she shouted before zooming down to the ground, and I turned around in time to see her land in front of the alicorn. “Oh, please tell me you have good news. When’s the meeting? Or did you already have some meeting and managed to talk them into letting Fae on the team or…”

I Smelled it before Twilight even said a word. Judging by her sadness and just a hint of fear...it wasn’t going to be good. “That ba-wait a second, there’s no way you would have met with the committee without me,” I said. And didn’t she say the meeting was the day before the Q round anyway?

If anything, that made Rainbow even more nervous. “Oh mare! Did something bad happen? Is everypony okay? Did Discord turn evil already?”

“Well-wait, what?” she asked with a frown. “No! There’s...Princess Celestia had a letter waiting for me when I went to turn in the paperwork. Um...you two better read it.”

I looked at the thing, and skipped the usual intro.

As much as I know this will pain our friends Twilight, I should tell you that there is no possible way that the Equestra Games Committee will allow changelings to compete, short notice or no.

Unfortunately, this is mostly due to political reasons. The Griffin Empire’s presence in the Games, and the exclusion of all other races on the planet is a show of our close bond with the land across the great sea. Allowing another kingdom such an honor would insult them, and griffons are a type to take everything personally. During such a time as this, when our relationship with them could be better, I am afraid I cannot allow the same honor to go to a former enemy, even if it is my dearest of friends.

Please give everypony that was hoping to see Omnifarious compete my deepest apologies.

I looked up from the letter before I got to the signature, and groaned. I knew telling Tia about what was going on was a bad idea. But no, she just asked me how was your day, got a friendship report or something, bla bla bla. If not for that, I could have rigged the vote or something.

Dash just slumped.

Twilight spoke. “I’m sorry everypony, I know how much this meant to the two of you,” she said. “But um...we still have Derpy...that’s...good, right?”

Dash opened her mouth, some cheerleaders yelling form over in the Cloudsdale camp about ‘practice practice practice’ made me turn around with gritted teeth. “Hey you idiots, can’t you see we’re trying to have an emotional moment here? Enough with the-oh that doesn’t look good!” I said as I noticed Soarin zooming around some of the waypoint rings right before he went through one with his flappers extended and got his wing caught on the thing, which made me wince.

Although a pegasus’s magic protected them from blunt force trauma just fine, when a pony zooms into something and gets her wing caught on something like a tree branch, there’s a kind of...yank that’s hard enough to sprain, cause dislocation, and sometimes even break bone if the angle is bad enough. It was how Dash ended up in the hospital for a week.

Rainbow rocketed up into the sky a second later to catch the competition, but I stayed on the ground to look at Tia’s letter. At the moment, Soarin’s skull could have shattered on the ground, and all I would have done is tell Rainbow how lucky she was that the Wonderbolts now had an opening for her on their starting line for air shows.

Because I knew she was going to need some major cheering up.