Rainbow Dash stood in the middle of the scorched field along with Morning Dew. The cleanup team had already put out the few fires and removed most of the debris. She wished the explosion hadn’t made her briefly lose consciousness. It had sounded like it was awesome—in a completely horrifying way. The audience seemed a bit shaken, having stared down a fireball that could have been a whole lot worse. Any attempts at getting a cheer going again quickly died.

Sweet stepped onto the field, followed by six other ponies. Judging by their attire, Rainbow Dash guessed these must be the other chair-holders that Sweet was always complaining about. Sweet looked calm, though. As the president of the WBE’s, it fell onto her to make any important announcements. With the overall mood, it would probably be best to wrap things up as quickly as possible and let everypony head home. A few ponies had already left, but most of the audience had stayed. They at least wanted to hear who the Worst Baker in Equestria was this year.

A stand microphone had been set up near Rainbow Dash. The sound magic apparently didn’t work right anymore. Something about too much residual magic left over in the air and three of the unicorns that controlled the magic quitting.

Sweet walked up the microphone and tapped it. “Hello? Can everypony hear me?” she asked. The audience focused their attention on her, so she continued. “Fillies and Gentlecolts, I hope you had a wonderful time tonight. I’m sorry if things got out of control at the end. The important thing is that nopony got hurt. The points of the final round have been totaled, and a winner has been determined. Before I announce who won, I would like to call a vote among the chair-holders.”

Sweet turned and looked at the chair-holders. It was clear from their faces that she was deviating from their plans. She continued speaking. “The null-stone is dangerous and unpredictable. I think the events of tonight have proven that. What the null-stone has also done is determine the outcome of the competition for us. It wasn’t about the ponies in this competition’s individual talents anymore. Because of this, I would like to call a vote to ban the use of the null-stone from all future competitions and to mark the results of tonight’s competition as invalid.”

The noise level in the stadium increased as everypony began talking about the surprise vote.

Rainbow Dash flew to Sweet and said, “What are you doing? Go ahead and get rid of the null-stone, but announce the winner first.”

Sweet looked at Rainbow Dash and smiled. “Do you really want me to do that after you left the stadium during your performance?”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. She had left the stadium? How big was that explosion? She really hoped they had still been recording when it had happened. However, if she had left the stadium, that meant...

One of the chair-holders angrily stepped forward. “Madam Soufflé,” he said. “Your attempts to turn this competition into your own personal game have gotten old.”

Sweet stood up straight and stared down her snout at the chair-holder. “I am trying to bring this festival back to what it once was before I was stupid enough to incorporate it.”

“Be that as it may, what you are doing is clearly favoritism. Morning Dew is tonight’s winner after Rainbow Dash was disqualified for leaving the stage. You can’t just change the results because you feel it’s unfair to one pony, when changing the results makes it unfair to another pony.”

“I say we change the results to make it unfair to one pony—I mean me.”

All the ponies in the field turned to look at who had spoken. Morning Dew was there, grinning nervously. She stepped up to the microphone and spoke. “I’m perfectly fine with calling this vote. The null-stone really shouldn’t be used, and the results of the finals would have been a lot different without it. Um... null-stone bad? Boooo?”

The chair-holder that had spoken rolled his eyes. “You want this vote? Fine. I vote no.”

“After that explosion?” the next chair-holder said. “I vote yes.”

“I vote no. We just need to better regulate its use.”

“I vote yes.”

“I also vote yes.”

Sweet looked at the last chair-holder that hadn’t voted yet. He sighed and said, “I abstain. You got your majority, Sweet. It doesn’t matter what I say.”

“Wait,” Rainbow Dash said. “What does that mean? Am I the champion? Do I get a trophy?”

“It’ll be treated like this year’s contest hadn’t happened,” Sweet said. “You will remain champion until next year’s competition, but you will not receive the grand prize or a trophy.”

“No... trophy?”

“I’m sorry, Rainbow. And I’m sorry to everypony in the audience if you’re unhappy with this decision. It’ll be for the best, though. It’s clear that we need to change the format for the competition, and I have some ideas to make next year better.” Sweet smiled apologetically at the chair-holders. Most smiled back. Sweet went back to addressing the audience. “I really truly wish there was more I could do to make this up to all of you.”

“Hey!” a voice yelled.

Everypony in the stadium looked towards the announcer’s booth and at the pink pony sticking out of it, only being contained within thanks to the baby dragon holding her tail.

“I know what we can do!” Pinkie said excitedly.