Chapter 9: The Four Crusaders

“If you’ll recall,” Cheerilee said, “a cutie mark reflect the personalities and aspirations of the pony who gets it. This is true from the instant a pony gets her or his cutie mark. And the way this happens is,” she paused, “by magic. Nopony can be sure who or what governs how cutie marks are given out. Can anypony give me other examples of magic? Yes, Diamond Tiara?”

“Unicorns can do all kinds of magic, like summoning a light and moving objects mentally. They use their horns to do magic, which is often linked to their cutie marks.”

“Very good job, Diamond Tiara, also with linking it back to cutie marks. Who else? Silver Spoon?”

“Ooh! Pegasi use their hooves and wings to control the weather. Sometimes that’s related to their cutie marks too.”

“Very good. Anything else? Yes, Apple Bloom?”

“Earth Ponies are great at growing, caring for, and harvesting crops. We’re also very strong, ‘cause we have to be able to plough fields and move the crops we harvest.”

“Also very good. Can anypony tell us what’s still missing from those descriptions? How about you, Dusty?” Since the previous day, Gearhead’s desk had been moved to the center of the classroom. Now everypony swivelled around until they were looking at him.

Gearhead flicked his tail, curling the hairs to count off his points as he stated them. “While Unicorn magic is the most overt type out of the three pony tribes, it’s also the hardest to evoke. I’m told it has something to do with sensing the flow. Also, while most ponies can’t see it, every Unicorn has a different magical aura. Sometimes family members have similar colours. Most Unicorns can only perform a couple different types of spells, all related to her or his talent and cutie mark, however there are some notable exceptions. Ancient Unicorns, who lived before the founding of Equestria, could also raise and lower the sun and the moon, although doing so required the strength of a group working together. Unicorn magic can take years to learn, and decades to master. Most of it is established. The last great Unicorn mage to create original spells was Starswirl the Bearded. He has a wing named after him in the Canterlot Library.

“Pegasus magic includes not only weather control as Silver Spoon stated, but the ability to treat clouds as solid objects so as not to fall through them, and even the ability to fly – otherwise they’d have to have hollow bones and be extremely fragile to be light enough to fly. Pegasus flight magic also gives them additional protection against the elements, which helps when they fly fast, or through bad weather, whether or not they cause it. As with Unicorn magic, some aspects of Pegasus magic might also depends on the pony’s personality and inclinations. Nopony has ever studied the matter close enough to know for certain.

“Earth Pony magic is the only type of magic that’s always active. It’s probably not so much that Earth Ponies have an unlimited supply of magic power, but that as long as they’re connected to the earth, it keeps getting replenished. Their limits, therefore, rely more on their physical stamina than on their magical capacity. But that they use magic is the only reasonable explanation for why they’re so good at growing crops.

“Alicorn magic is the most mysterious of all, and for good reason: there’re so few of us that nopony, not even the Princesses, know our true limits – or if they do, they haven’t talked to anypony of note about it yet. What we do know is that Alicorns have casting abilities similar to that of Unicorns, and flight capabilities similar to that of Pegasi. I don’t know of any examples of Princess Celestia or Princess Luna using Earth Pony magic, but since Alicorns are crossbreeds it seems reasonable to assume that it’s possible. Since it only takes one of the princesses to move the sun and the moon, as opposed to the group, we can also assume that Alicorns are more powerful than Unicorns. Or, it could just be that the princesses’ longer experience makes them, individually, more powerful, making them unique among Alicorns.

“Other creatures also posses magic. Dragons have breath attacks that may originate in magic, and that certainly seems to bear out with Spike, Twilight Sparkle’s assistant: he can use his fire to send and receive messages between Princess Celestia and Miss Twilight. Another example? Phoenixes renew themselves by bursting into flame and then reviving from their own ashes, although any of us would be lucky to see it happen just once. The gaze of a Cockatrice turns whoever meets that gaze to stone. In most cases, that change is permanent. Timberwolves are sticks and underbrush animated by magic. There’re more, I’m sure, but I think I’ve had enough of a chance to talk. More than enough, most likely.”

“You sure know a lot about magic,” Cheerilee said, laughing nervously.

“I’ve had several great teachers, Miss Cheerilee. But I still can’t cast yet. Can’t fly either.”

“That’s a shame, what with Sports Day coming up. I was hoping that with you here, the class would have another flyer. But I guess you’ll have to participate in the ground-bound events instead. That’s fine too.” Cheerilee cleared her throat. “I’m passing out permission forms now. Please have your parents or guardians sign them for you, and let them know they’re welcome to come and watch.

“That’s all for today.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Gearhead said as he slid a bag full of silver ingots from his back, supported by his wings, on to the workbench. They were using the first workshop at Gearhead’s Gadgets, with permission from Twilight. Naturally, Gearhead was extremely skilled at working with any metal, including silver. But as Stardust his muscles were more uniform, not to mention that a pony with his background would not have any skills as a blacksmith or as a silversmith. So he would just have to play dumb.

They were using the workshop to minimize the chances of things going wrong. Just in case they did go wrong, Gearhead had made a show of looking for all the shop’s safety devices. He could easily extinguish a fire, and even treat moderate wounds with a nearby First Aid kit. Anything more severe would have to be taken care of at the Ponyville Hospital, but Gearhead hoped to prevent that from happening.

“We’ll see,” Scootaloo said as the forge heated up.

“That’s not very reassuring,” Gearhead said.

“It’s just too bad Gearhead’s not here to help us,” Sweetie Belle said. “He would know exactly what to do.”

That is because I am skilled at working metals, gems, and wood, Gearhead thought. Naturally, they would not know he was right there. He wrapped his tail around the longest set of tongs, then went to inspect a neat line of hammers. Hammers made out of different materials would have different effects when used on different substances. The hammer used for armour and metal weapons would hardly do for silversmithing. Fortunately Gearhead had thought ahead, and labelled all the hammers: even in the case of a robbery, a thief would not have to take all the hammers to get the one he wanted.

Apple Bloom, who had been watching Gearhead, found the correct hammer before he did, and hopped up to knock it from its peg and catch it in her mouth. Together, they brought the tools back to the workbench.

“Lets see,” Sweetie Belle said. “We have the working area, tongs, a hammer, anvil, chisels, and quenching water. It looks like we’re almost ready.”

“Almost,” Gearhead said, putting on an apron that was much too big for just him. Sweetie Belle squeezed in to lift the dragging parts so he could not trip. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo put on the spare apron: Gearhead had never anticipated working with more than one other pony. The stallion-turned-colt turned his full attention to minimizing the chances for damage.

When the forge was hot enough, he took an ingot in the tongs and turned toward the fire. Everypony watched as the silver turned red hot. Gearhead waited until the ingot glowed bright orange, then moved to the anvil, bumping Sweetie Belle, who seemed to have gotten lost in thought, as he did so. Gearhead gripped the tongs firmly in his mouth, positioning the ingot over the anvil’s center, and looked across it at Apple Bloom. She nodded, and then started to pound the rough shape they had agreed upon out of the silver, using the hammer.

Periodically, Apple Bloom had to stop and switch with Scootaloo because one of them would get tired. They also had to stop to reheat the silver occasionally. Once they had the general shape they wanted, a chain of four roughly circular buttons the size of the bottoms of their own hooves, the ponies switched to using the chisels to etch out the details. For this part, Apple Bloom started out holding and angling the chisel, while Scootaloo was the one striking with the hammer. Sweetie Belle and Gearhead held the tongs secure together.

Gearhead raised the shaped silver out of the cooling bucket for the last time and brought it back to the workbench to separate their work, as they had been joined two-by-two until Apple Bloom and Scootaloo chiselled them apart. The resulting broaches were somewhat rough but passable. They were shaped as the insignia for the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Hey, that’s not bad,” Scootaloo said.

“Not bad at all,” Apple Bloom said, equally satisfied.

“But that was really hot work,” Sweetie Belle said. “I’m pretty sure I’m not cut out to be a smith of any kind.”

“To be honest, I’d rather be on my scooter,” Scootaloo said.

“I think that’s not a bad idea at the moment,” Gearhead said. “Why don’t we go relax outside for a bit? And we should find something to drink before we all dehydrate.” The fillies nodded, and they took off their aprons and put everything away.

“Oh yeah,” Apple Bloom said, “anypony got a cutie mark from that?” They checked. “No luck, huh?”

“On with the search,” Scootaloo said, while Gearhead went to extinguish the forge’s fire.

“After we relax a bit,” he said. Their efforts had been more tiring than he had thought they would be, but then he had never worked with metal with this body. Still, it was an entirely different exercise doing this sort of thing with other ponies, compared to working alone. Gearhead had enjoyed it.

“You know, I wouldn’t mind trying for a cutie mark in pillow testing right about now,” Sweetie Belle said.

“There are one or two important things to do first,” Gearhead said. “After all, if we’re just testing pillows I don’t think we want to leave any sweat on them.”

“Silly colt, fillies don’t sweat!” Sweetie Belle said, teasingly bumping into his flank as the group went upstairs together.

“My experience says otherwise,” Gearhead gave, and bumped, back as good as he got.

After they had drank some water, washed, and eaten they did indeed lie down to rest. If nothing else, the attempt at pillow-testing cutie marks left them feeling recharged and ready for the next thing on their list.

Scootaloo suggested trying to be ninja, so they dressed all in black and snuck around town, trying to follow different ponies without getting noticed. They tried to get into locked rooms and leave little cards with funny pictures on them. They even tried to use shuriken and smoke bombs, but even Gearhead did not hit his target dead-on, and the smoke bombs they made only smoked themselves and made them cough as their eyes teared up. Also, Gearhead was certain that the ponies they were following knew the Crusaders were there. But he thought it was fun anyway.

Scootaloo also suggested parkour, while they were running and jumping around already. For this one, they did not need to be dressed as ninja. They just needed to try to travel in as straight a line as possible as quickly as possible, completely on hoof. Scootaloo could really move on her scooter, pulling tricks as she went. Transferring that to running was a little harder than she expected it to be. Plus as smaller ponies they could not exactly scale the buildings’ walls and run along the rooftops. At least not without a little help from Pinkie Pie, who joined in because she thought what they were doing looked like fun. It was, but it was also tiring and hard work. The four of them might even need another bath afterwards. Pinkie said she was only too glad to provide it if they wanted.

Since the last two attempts, both unsuccessful, had been physical in nature, Sweetie Belle suggested that they try something more artistic: being florists. They asked Roseluck if they could lend a hand, and made a fair attempt at selling different arrangements of flowers to customers. Each pony thought of something they thought looked good or cool, and which they thought smelled good, but these bouquets hardly sold. Gearhead almost felt like his sales were out of pity, or because the mare who came by thought the Crusaders and their efforts looked cute. Either way, it still did not produce a cutie mark – not that he wanted to override his telescope mark anyway.

Afternoon had turned into evening. “Isn’t it time to turn in?” Gearhead asked, looking at the sky. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom exchanged a glance.

“Oh, but we have plans,” the latter said.

“Why don’t I like the sound of that?”

“Maybe you’re chicken?” Scootaloo asked. Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

“Nonsense, I’m a colt,” Gearhead said. “What’s this plan that takes courage?”

“We’re gonna take a try at creature-catching!” Apple Bloom said.

“Wait, I heard Miss Fluttershy say that you already tried that,” Gearhead said. It happened the same night I came to Ponyville. “Does a Cockatrice ring a stoned bell?”

“How can it? It’s stoned.” Apple Bloom said.

“Yes, and we will be too if we encounter one without Miss Fluttershy coming with. There are even worse dangers around, inside the Everfree Forest, too. And not one of us has magic or can fly.”

“Who said we were going into the Everfree Forest?” Scootaloo said.

“You said you had a plan, and where else would you go to catch a creature?”

“He has a point,” Apple Bloom said, and Sweetie Belle giggled.

“Anyway, we’re gonna go, and it’ll double as a test of courage!” Scootaloo said.

“Going into the Forest at dusk without anypony who can fly or do magic is an all-around plan for a disaster,” Gearhead said. “I just thought you’d like to know.”

“You don’t have to go if you’re too scared,” Scootaloo said, “but we’re gonna do everything we can to get our cutie marks.”

“Won’t you need nets or something?”

“We’ve still got our ninja gear. That should be enough!”

“You mean the gear that just helped us prove that we don’t make good ninja?”

“Yeah, those. Um…”

“Again, he has a point,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Lets get us some nets,” Apple Bloom said.

In the time it took to gather their nets, Gearhead was able to inform Twilight of what the fillies were planning. He hoped she would get the others to provide back-up for the Crusaders if they really got into trouble. At the same time, he wanted them to avoid interfering if it meant scrapping the attempt, which might lead to a repeat later on.

Most crucially, Gearhead had to stay with the fillies to do all he could to keep them out of trouble: he may not be able to use Read, but his knowledge of the Everfree Forest was second only to that of the creatures who inhabited it, Zecora included. That meant he knew which areas were the most hazardous, and how to avoid them. One of those areas was the Dullihan’s territory, but he did not believe the fillies would go that far from Ponyville, least of all in the dark.

Where Gearhead’s plan started to go wrong was when the fillies insisted on turning the event into a true test of courage. They would not accept his objections into splitting off into pairs, so after the others would not budge an inch on the issue, he found himself watching Apple Bloom and Scootaloo walk away along the left fork of a path. He and Sweetie Belle were supposed to take the right path. The team who screamed first, even if it was only one member of the team, would lose. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Gearhead said. Sweetie Belle merely nudged him to get a move on. He really had no choice here. They took the right-side path.

The Everfree Forest was honeycombed in paths, some wide enough for Gearhead’s wagon and others narrow enough they would have to walk single-file. Then there were animal paths, criss-crossing each other throughout the interior of the forest. Gearhead kept them curving to the left slightly to try to track Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, just in case the mares lost them. They had not been an hour apart from each other when Gearhead started to figure it out. “But if they’ve gone that way,” he said aloud, “they’ll get to…” he didn’t want to continue the thought aloud, as though holding back could prevent it from happening. But following the path from where his and Sweetie Belle’s path intersected it without encountering the others only brought them to that place.

“Froggy Bottom Bog, home of the Hydra,” Gearhead said. “We must hurry, and hope they’re not in trouble yet. But let me explain my plan if they are.”

Sweetie Belle nodded, just as determined as Gearhead that if their friends were in trouble, she would not let them come to actual harm. Gearhead himself hoped they had not lost the mares, but if they had the only thing they had left was the rescue plan.

Gearhead and Sweetie Belle spotted the Hydra before they could see Apple Bloom or Scootaloo. Naturally this would be the case, as the four-headed beast was backing the two ponies into a corner, figuratively speaking. Gearhead assumed that the murky water into which they were being herded got deeper further out, and assuming that it did that meant the two fillies would have to swim to stay afloat, slowing their movements. That, in turn, meant the Hydra could take its time catching and eating Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. Gearhead had to assume there was nothing bigger and softer in the bog at the moment.

But that would contradict Gearhead’s plan. He nodded to Sweetie Belle to signal the start of Phase One. She silently began circling around, using the nearby brush and bushes as cover while she made her way toward the others. Once she had made enough progress that the Hydra would not immediately see her, Gearhead spread his wings to make himself a larger target, and charged straight in. To ensure he got the Hydra’s full attention, he began to taunt it.

“Hey! Meals-on-Hooves here. Somepony order the colt? He’s bigger than those others, and the wings mean extra meat!” That did have the desired effect, with the two heads on the outside turning to look in Gearhead’s direction. He kept coming, jumping around and flapping his wings, although he did not have enough power with them to actually lift off. And if he did, he would not make a very appetising lure.

“If you can catch me, you can eat me. Wanna try? I’m right here. Ooh, now I’m even closer. Hey! Ooga-booga! Your mother always said you couldn’t catch an Alicorn.” Now the other two heads swivelled in his direction. The Hydra turned to face him, and then it started to advance. Gearhead kept talking, hopping back and forth to entice the creature to continue following him while Sweetie Belle slipped in and told the others the plan.

Gearhead shifted his full focus back in time to leap out of the way of one diving head. Then there was another, and he had to do a high backflip to stay out of the jaws of the third head. He backpedalled again, jumping onto the fourth head when it came for him, and now he had to deal with the first head again. So he kept on running and leaping and flipping. “You wouldn’t catch me. You couldn’t catch me! Guess I’m not fast food after all, since I’m just fast!”

The fillies started shouting and running toward the Hydra, signalling the start of Phase Three. They spread out so that when Gearhead also stepped back slightly, they stood on the cardinal points relative to the Hydra. Then they started running around him, counter-clockwise. The Hydra looked at each pony in turn, confused, then each head locked onto a different pony.

Even during the Hydra’s confusion, Gearhead started accelerating, but slowly, to make sure the Hydra would not notice for awhile. All four Crusaders were running just outside of the long-necked Hydra’s range, which Gearhead had found in Phase One while evading getting eaten. Now, every time one head caused the Hydra to lurch after one pony in order to try to catch and eat it, it would steer the Hydra one step away from the other ponies. But instead of staying where they were relative to the Hydra, the ponies all ran to compensate and keep their distance almost the same.

On the first such instance, the Hydra seemed to decide thet Sweetie Belle, in the ‘north’ position, would be the easiest to catch. When it moved to make its attempt, Apple Bloom behind Belle, and Scootaloo behind Bloom, moved ‘north’ and curved ‘west.’ Only Gearhead, in the ‘west’ position himself, angled to cut more closely to the Hydra, recapturing his attention. The Hydra found itself once again in the middle, and when it lunged at Gearhead, he leaped out of the way and resumed his enticing distance from the Hydra.

During that time, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had started accelerating as well: If all went as planned, Gearhead would close forty-five degrees with Scootaloo’s original position, who would close twenty degrees with Apple Bloom’s position, who would close ten degrees with Sweetie Belle, who would advance one degree, thus closing the range between them without making it so any of the heads could scoop up more than one of them – and ideally without noticing the change. All of this was supposed to happen before the ponies completed one lap, and Gearhead thought they were coming pretty close.

The four Crusaders continued to accelerate toward a full gallop, each one closing the distance with the horse directly in front of her (or him). Every time the Hydra made a move, they countered it by moving too. Each time this happened, though, the ponies had to take more time, and this made them interrupt their planned acceleration. They went around four times before they were within the same ninety degree sweep – and then they all made their exit, with Sweetie Belle leading.

By the time Phase Three was done, they were gone and the Hydra was thoroughly confused and disoriented. And also hungry. Gearhead made a mental note to send Princess Celestia a letter asking for someone to go and feed the poor beast.

In the meantime, however, the Crusaders beat their hasty retreat from the Everfree Forest, not wanting to stay later in the night. Especially if Sports Day was the following morning. Gearhead was just glad they had managed to get away with their lives intact. He could not be sure the mares had been following them, so he did not know if they would have been able to provide a rescue if the rescuers had needed it.

And although they had managed to catch some chipmunks and rabbits, none of the four Crusaders had a cutie mark to show for their early night-time endeavours.

Although Gearhead had not been certain as to where the mares had been during the boggy crisis, the Crusaders found Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight all waiting outside the forest. The big sisters took their siblings home, while Dash escorted Scootaloo.

“Well, that was interesting,” Twilight said as she and Gearhead walked toward the library.

“How much did you see?”

“Just the last circling bit. If I’d thought of that when we followed Fluttershy there, we could have saved ourselves the whole jumping-the-chasm thing.”

“You had magic and Pinkie Pie. All we had was our speed and brains.”

“And you did admirably,” Twilight said, smiling. “But you stink to high heaven.”

“Being in a bog will do that,” Gearhead said. But he had to agree that another bath would do him good.

At first there was just three-year-old Gearhead, running along an empty landscape at top speed. Then eighteen-year-old Gearhead appeared in hat, goggles, vest, and shoes – just as he had been the day he left for Ponyville. Third, the core-altered Gearhead with slightly brighter green eyes and the turquoise highlights running down his mane and tail, equipped with the prototype core and his two dagger – the current Gearhead. They all ran together, although their paces differed because they were of different sizes.

Now Stardust appeared, running just a few feet beside three-year-old Gearhead. Both were smiling, where the older Earth Ponies had serious or neutral expressions. An adult Stardust appeared, running opposite not the pre-Ponyville Gearhead, but the sun-streaked one. Unlike his Earth Pony self, this Stardust was grinning. All five ponies kept pace with each other.

Then a Gearhead with the still-unfinished duel-core system appeared. His eyes were brighter, and a pair of metal wings flew in and attached to the core system, making it produce more intense particles. Instead of the interconnecting suit the single-core Gearhead wore, this one had more rigid armour, obviously designed to take even more punishment. It looked to the Gearhead observing everything like the armour was attached to the core, so it would drop down and fasten into place. It was a rather convenient design, since the armour would attach with the core. This Gearhead flew, but still did not smile.

An armoured Stardust appeared beside the duel-core Gearhead. His armour was lighter, but designed to provide sufficient coverage. Even his wings were covered, and while he flapped them occasionally, there were thrusters built in that he could use to fly and cruise. This Stardust was smiling too.

Seven ponies, plus the observing Gearhead – they were all, in truth, him:

The young Gearhead, full of optimism and hope for the future; the wanderer Gearhead, persistant in his quest for something only he could do; the pioneer Gearhead, with a vision to carry himself forward in a niche that he was only just then making for himself; the future Gearhead, who carried a vision and hope, and the strength to protect it.

The young Dusty, breaking away from expectations and learning to have fun; the mature Stardust, taking responsibility for his role; the armoured Stardust, because ‘will’ is useless without the ‘strength’ to carry it through.

The Alicorn’s identity might be a fiction so the ponies in the waking world did not ask questions, but they were all built with Gearhead’s personality, making them as real as the versions of himself he remembered, and the versions still waiting in the future.

Which made all the Stardusts and all the Gearheads the same as the observing Gearhead. One by one, the younger versions became absorbed by the older, more current versions. Soon only the two future versions of Gearhead and Stardust remained. Racing, they took to the sky, which was suddenly full of obstacles, around and through which they had to weave to remain in the air. But they spun and flipped, looped and spiralled, their speed never flagging. They traded first place many times, and both smiled as they flew spirals around each other, creating a helix that the magic energy they trailed helped to describe.

Gearhead and Stardust raced together into the unknown that lay waiting, because they were the same.

This time as Gearhead sat and drifted with the flow, he felt it with his hooves, and on his horn. It still was not enough, but by the time Twilight called him in for breakfast, he could tell: Close, and so much more so than yesterday. Was it because of the difference in his dreams, or was it because he had found a way to help his friends without having to rely on his magic?

At the moment, none of that really mattered. After breakfast was school, and the promised Sports Day. Gearhead did not know when he had started looking forward to it.

The main part of the Sports Day event was a three-part race, with the whole of Ponyville as the track. Cheerilee explained, “the race is broken into into three parts to allow you young ponies the opportunity to rest and recover between legs. But you will start the second and third legs in the same order in which you finish for the preceding leg. There will be one minute between each pony’s start time on the second and third legs. Only on the first leg will you start together, so finishing sooner on the first two legs will give you a bigger advantage. Each leg should take fifteen minutes to complete.

“As you all learned yesterday, each of the three pony tribes has its own specialty: strength and endurance for Earth Ponies, flight for Pegasi, and magic for Unicorns. You are permitted to use your tribe’s strength if you have it.” Many of the students would not, including all four of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, although maybe Gearhead could get into the flow during the race.

The competitors could be ranked both individually and as teams of four, but they would be racing individually unless they strategized together. As they lined up, Gearhead noted some of the other teams, other than the Crusaders: Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Erroria, and Tornado Bolt; Snips, Snails, Featherweight, and Pipsqueak; Aura, Very Berry, Cotton Cloudy, and Dinky Doo; and Liza Doolots, Pina Colada, Twist, and Noi. Scootaloo introduced the Crusaders to the strategy of drafting before the race got started.

Cheerilee shuffled the racers around so the team members would not all start right next to each other, then as the gathered townponies watched, she went through a short countdown and signalled the start of the race with a blow of her whistle. Everypony shot off, most of them going straight to top speed – except for Tiara and Spoon, who clearly wanted a more leisurely pace.

The Crusaders waited until the other ponies were out of the way so they could form up into a line. At first Scootaloo was in front, then she moved out of what little wind there was and fell back, letting Apple Bloom take the lead and the brunt of the wind. Scootaloo fell back to the rear of the formation, and then began to move up as Gearhead moved up. Apple Bloom fell back next, and Sweetie Belle had the lead. So the rotation continued, the Crusaders moving together at a moderate pace.

Soon they found a good cadence for both their cantering and their rotation, with Sweetie Belle singing a pace-holding ditty and the others using their hooves to stamp out a beat. Snips and Snails watched, somewhat dumbfounded it seemed, as the Crusaders passed them without seeming to be at all winded.

The Crusaders passed Pipsqueak and Featherweight on a turn, with Gearhead leading. He held the front until after the turn, when he rotated out to make way for Scootaloo. In the turn itself, he had to carefully measure his spread in relation to that of the others, but did not have to slow down all that much because he was already compensating for his own inertia before the turn. So far his efforts to feel the flow had not gotten any further than they had earlier that morning.

The racers entered main street Ponyville, where they would have to go past Sugar Cube Corner, down the lane, and around the Town Hall. The spectators were thickest here, but Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo seemed to soak in the attention. Apple Bloom was still smarting, emotionally, from her Pony Pox misadventure, and inadvertedly fell back a bit in embarrassment. Behind her, Sweetie Belle moved in close to get her friend moving more steadily again without missing a note in her songs. Gearhead kept his focus on his team despite his nervousness, and they recovered their pace. As they circled the Town Hall, the Crusaders passed Liza, Pina, Twist, and Noi.

Leg One ended just past the Golden Oak Library, where Twilight and Spike were cheering from the doorway, with Fluttershy hiding behind them even though her light yellow coat and pink hair gave her away. As they approached the checkpoint, the Crusaders all broke into their own all-out runs. Scootaloo broke away from the rest, and even passed Erroria and Tornado Bolt. Gearhead was a couple strides behind, and only managed to overtake Erroria. Apple Bloom came in behind Erroria, and Sweetie Belle came in moments later. The other racers came in one or two at a time, most appearing ragged and exhausted. Volunteers brought them water to get hydrated, bananas for energy and towels. When Leg Two began in five minutes, Aura, Dinky, Cloudy, and Berry would get to lead off but they would also have the least amount of rest. “That was a good run,” Cheerilee told them, “but don’t run too hard or you’ll exhaust yourself before you can cross the next checkpoint.”

Cheerilee came up to the Crusaders next. “I liked your rotations, nice and clean. Dusty, when you take the corners you can use your wings for balance and tighten up your turns. You’ll be able to keep your speed up that way. I know you probably don’t want to leave your team behind, but I’d like you to at least try. After that, they can try to chase you down. Got that, girls?”

“Yes, Miss Cheerilee!” They all watched their teacher go.

“She wants us to go faster?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I guess she wants to see us push harder,” Gearhead said.

“Then faster is what she’ll get, right team?” Scootaloo said.

“Right – go, Cutie Mark Crusader Racers!”

The starting order for the second leg was Aura, Dinky Doo, Cotton Cloudy, and Very Berry; Scootaloo, Tornado Bolt, Dusty, and Erroria; Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Liza Doolots, and Pina Colada; Twist, Featherweight, Pipsqueak, and Snips; Snails, Diamond Tiara, and finally Silver Spoon.

There would be eighteen minutes between Aura’s and Spoon’s starting times. If Leg Two really took fifteen minutes to run, Gearhead realized, Aura should finish when Snails started. Finishing ahead would indeed grant a large advantage. Gearhead himself would be starting six minutes after Aura, two minutes after Scootaloo, and two and three minutes ahead of Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle respectively. The Crusaders would have to choose between running individually, or waiting until they could reform as a group before running at their best. So far they had only placed so well because their drafting formation meant they were not exhausted as quickly as the other runners.

“Lets try to reform the team,” Apple Bloom said.

“After all, we are the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” Scootaloo said. The others nodded their agreement, and joined the others at the starting line. Cheerilee had everypony line up in the starting order five meters back from the start position in order to give the starting pony some room. On Cheerilee’s signal, the race started back up. Gearhead watched as, one after the other, the other fillies and colts took off at full speed, trying to open their leads up as much as possible. But they would also be tiring themselves out, running at full tilt. If they could not keep up the pace, it would take longer to run this leg than the first one.

“Very Berry, go!” Cheerilee shouted. “Scootaloo, on deck.”

Scootaloo winked to the others as she got into starting position. She waited for Cheerilee, and when the teacher said “Scootaloo, go!” Scootaloo took off at an easy canter instead of a full gallop.

Gearhead watched Bolt take off like her namesake. At her pace, she would overtake Scootaloo rather quickly, but if pressure from Scootaloo being back there caused her to try to maintain that fast pace, Bolt would get worn out and be forced to slow down. Gearhead took the starting position. Like Scootaloo, he used an easy canter. Apple Bloom would do the same, two minutes later, so that Sweetie Belle could catch up at full speed much more quickly, and the two of them could run together to catch Gearhead.

With each teammate they caught, the Crusaders’ running became easier, until they were running at a slow gallop as though it was a good canter. And Sweetie Belle was singing again. They passed Bolt, and caught up to Scootaloo less than a minute later, and then the four ponies started their full rotation, continuing to run at their slow gallop to catch up to the slower leaders, while also holding off anypony who was behind them.

On turns, Gearhead used his wings to balance, taking the lead out of his four friends anytime he did so, but he stayed with them, and in so doing, pulled them forward. It was during one such turn that Gearhead spotted Very Berry. The filly was holding a consistant pace, clearly running so she would not get tired as quickly as racers like Bolt. But her teammates were also running their own decent paces without slowing down. This left Berry on her own, whereas the Crusaders were boosting each other’s speed and shielding each other from the full strength of the moderate wind.

As the Crusaders began to pull even with Berry, the latter pushing her speed a bit to try to keep them from overtaking her. Apple Bloom kept their pace steady, and led her team on the outside of the road so they would not shield Berry from the wind. Even though Berry had the inside track on the next turn, Gearhead used his wing again, leaning in so it almost touched the ground. He slipped ahead of Apple Bloom, pulling her through the turn just as he had done on previous turns. Apple Bloom in turn pulled Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. The Crusaders remained even with Berry through the turn, and then pulled ahead as they pulled straight. One by one they passed Berry, leaving her in their dust.

As the Crusaders continued their rotation, an idea occurred to Gearhead. “Hey, since we start the last leg in the order in which we finish this one, wouldn’t it be easier to finish in the opposite order?”

“Meaning what?” Scootaloo asked.

“If we dash at the end just like last time, you’ll come in first, then me, then Bloom, then Belle. And just like this leg, we’ll have to start in that order. If we decide to run the last leg as a team, we’ll have to wait for Belle to catch Bloom, then for them to catch me, then for us to catch you.”

“Just like with this leg,” Apple Bloom said.

“But if we run so that, among our team, Belle finishes before Bloom who finishes before me who finishes before Scootaloo, then the faster among us only has to catch the slower among us before we’re running together again.”

“It won’t take as long,” Sweetie Belle said, interrupting her singing.

“And we can catch the rest of Berry’s team faster because of that,” Scootaloo said. “Alright, I think we should go with this plan.”

“Okay,”

“Then I agree too, on the condition that we dash on the final part of the final leg,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Agreed,” the other threee said together, and then Sweetie Belle continued her fast-paced song.

Minutes later they caught sight of Cotton Cloudy ahead of them. They were rapidly eating up the distance between her and the team, so obviously Cloudy has been running herself tired until now. If this pace was indicative of the other two ponies’ stamina at this point, they also had to be running more slowly, which meant that this leg would take each of them more than the estimated fifteen minutes.

“Set up for passing,” Scootaloo said, and Apple Bloom led the way to the outside of the track. Any professional racer would be using the outside of the track on the straightaways anyway, but all the racers here were fillies and colts. They had been instinctively staying on the inside to cut down on the distance they would be running, but if they took turns fast enough, their inertia would carry them to the outside. The Crusaders had found the opposite path, and yet by using their wings, Scootaloo and Gearhead could keep the rest of the team on the inside of the course on turns. They did that now, making it impossible for Cloudy to block them without inadvertedly falling behind them by moving to intercept them too late.

The same could not be said for the Crusaders’ attempt to overtake Dinky, who had been keeping an eye out for Cloudy as the former ran at a more moderate pace nearer to the middle of the track. As the Crusaders came up, Dinky moved to block their path. In order to pass, they would have to break formation, leaving the ponies in the back stuck behind Dinky. The only way they could pass her was by dashing, which would be counter to their agreed-upon strategy.

So instead of trying to pass Dinky, they merely set their rotation so that when they crossed the checkpoint, they passed it in the order they had set. That way, since only Aura and Dinky were ahead of them, Sweetie Belle had risen to third place.

“A Cutie Mark Crybaby in the Top Three?” Tiara, who had passed Snips and Snails together with Spoon, said. “How did that happen?”

“Teamwork,” Rainbow Dash said. “I saw the whole thing. Great job, Squirt. Now all you’ve gotta do is finish it!”

“Oh my gosh, it’s Rainbow Dash!”

“That’s right, kid, in all my awesomeness. Now get a move on: Cheerilee told us to get all you racers over to the finish to show you something.”

“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Join the club,” Apple Bloom said.

The end of the race was a twenty-step staircase near Gearhead’s Gadgets. Each step was as high as most of the foals were tall – which meant that Pip would have trouble climbing to get to the finish line at the top. It was a good thing for him that Featherweight was not only taller than normal, but also a team player. The same could be said, to some extent, for last-place Snips and Snails. Each box of a step. Gearhead noticed, was set in one of three depths. Some of them was set immediately above the level below it. Some were set in the middle, and some were set right under the box above it. That meant that it would take planning to make your way up the steps, or else you would find yourself literally boxed in, and having to make your way around to the next accessible step. It also meant that everypony could not rush up side-by-side.

“Take a good look,” Cheerilee said, “because it will be up to you to plan your way up to the only place you can find the finish line. Of course, once you’ve gotten across the finish line and it’s been confirmed you’ve finished the race, please use the ramps on the other side to come down immediately to make room for the other racers. Now, get some water and rest: the last leg starts in five minutes.” Of course, the way they could get from the finish line to the start line in under five minutes was by a direct path set up for that purpose, as well as so the organizers and volunteers could move from one point to the other as needed.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders, huddle up,” Scootaloo called in a loud whisper.

“Those stairs look plenty tough,” Apple Bloom said. “They could be their own race.”

“And I bet that was the idea,” Scootaloo said. “We have to pick our path up the stairs way before we get there, or we’ll be wasting time doubling back and finding our way through.”

“A climbing maze,” Gearhead said, “but fairly easy to plot our way through if they don’t change things around as we go. Maybe it’d be best to plan for that happening.”

“Can you do it?” Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah,” who was it who mucked up my genes in the first place? Discord loves mazes! “Leave the plotting to me, and focus on helping each other climb.”

“So you noticed it too?” Sweetie Belle asked. Gearhead and Apple Bloom nodded.

“Noticed what?” Scootaloo asked.

“With the height of each step, we’d all end up exhausted before we reached the top if we ran solo, especially after running the rest of the leg first,” Apple Bloom said.

“This leg is designed so that those who work in teams perform better,” Gearhead said.

“By helping each other get up each step,” Scootaloo said. “Naturally it’d be easier if we could fly, but then no team is made up of all flyers.”

“Which is why,” Gearhead said in low tones, “we can climb faster if we form chains to pull each other up each step.”

“Sounds great. Now lets get to the start before the race starts,” Apple Bloom said.

“I see you’re all still together,” Cheerilee said with a smile to the Crusaders. “If you want, you can even start together, but only by changing your start time to go after Berry and Liza.” The Crusaders exchanged a few words. Even though they would be starting later, they had done so before, and had confidence in each other and in their plan. They accepted the terms.

Cheerliee got the race started in the new order: Aura, Dinky Doo, Cotton Cloudy, Very Berry, and Liza Doolots with one minute between each as usual; Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Dusty, and Scootaloo together, one minute behind Liza; Tornado Bolt, Erriora, Twist, and Pina Colada; Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Featherweight, Pipsqueak, Snips, and Snails also one minute apart.

Once they were off the line, the Crusaders immediately got into formation. They took the course at an easy canter this time, saving their energy for the climb. Certainly this was smarter than running at a full gallop from the start, and fading mere minutes into the race. With their consistent pace, the Crusaders overtook Liza even though they were running more slowly than she was: not only was their pace consistent, but their formation also made it less work for them to go as fast as the other ponies, most of whom were running solo.

After Liza, the Crusaders did not see any of the other racers for a long time: nopony caught up to them, but they were not catching anypony either. Gearhead had to wonder whether the strategy of starting together had backfired. The other possibility was that the four fillies ahead of them were also working together now, and thus staying ahead. Certainly by now, most ponies, spectators included, would have noticed the effect of the Crusaders’ teamwork.

The Crusaders came flying around a bend many minutes later, and straight ahead lay the stairs. Gearhead began looking at the boxes to pick the most efficient path as soon as he could visually pick them out. This was not easy at a distance, when each box looked very similar. When he had the first heading picked out, Gearhead took the lead, keeping it long enough for the others to realize exactly where he was headed.

When the Crusaders reached their bottom step, Apple Bloom, who had been in the lead, stopped right in front of it and braced herself. Sweetie Belle led the way in jumping onto her friend’s back to make it more easily to the step above. She looked at Gearhead, and then turned around to look where he was looking, finding the next level in the path he had picked out. She waited until the others were up, and then led the way along the level to the next box, where she acted as a stepping stone.

This was the manner in which the Crusaders climbed the first five levels, and it was extremely efficient. From the sixth level, however, stepping on a single pony’s back became insufficient for climbing. Standing on Apple Bloom’s back, Gearhead reached up slightly before he could pull himself over the edge on the next level. He turned to help Sweetie Belle up, who did the same for Scootaloo. After they all helped Apple Bloom get up, they ran around again to find Gearhead’s path. From this close, if anything got changed in the maze, Gearhead would not be able to adjust their course by looking at the rest of the stairs.

By level fifteen the ponies were making a pyramid, with two on the bottom and one on the top, that the fouth member of the team used to jump to level sixteen. Apple Bloom then had to pull Sweetie Belle up, and then they formed a chain to pull the other two up after them. It seemed that from the perspective of the ground, they had misjudged the height of the higher boxes.

Until now, none of the Crusaders had really looked down to focus on their incoming competition. Gearhead took the chance to do so. It looked like most of the ponies were trying to get organized on the bottom level, while one or two other ponies stubbornly tried to mount the steps without the help of their teammates. Among these latter were Tiara and Spoon, who had stopped at level three. Tiara glared at Gearhead when she saw him looking her way. Gearhead did not see Aura’s team, so maybe they were still ahead of the Crusaders. He turned his attention back to the task of climbing the remaining four levels.

Now that the steps were nearly four ponies tall (or the height of an entire team), the Crusaders had to rely on their chaining method. Going was slow, and it strained their muscles to the limit. After they had climbed to level seventeen they decided to rest for a minute before continuing on. Below, the rest of the teams had managed to reorganize and were climbing the first five levels, but crowding the place so they could not easily get through. Only one other team was in the level-ten-and-up zone.

Gearhead lost track of time in his efforts, and the Crusaders were only attempting the next level when they felt rested enough. Other than that, they were panting pretty hard from their exertions. He reached up to grab onto Scootaloo, and felt Sweetie Belle take a solid hold onto his tail. He helped Scootaloo pull by using his rear hooves against the box once Scootaloo started pulling everypony up. Slowly they rose, and once Gearhead was over the top, he pulled as hard as he could. Finally, all four Crusaders lay in a heap, panting so hard each thought they had no more sweat to give. Thinking he had better get planning, Gearhead turned to look at the next level.

And there was the finish line. They had reached the top. Gearhead tapped Scootaloo, who was lying under him, and pointed. “Guys,” she rasped, “lets get up and end this.”

“Huh?” Sweetie Belle, splayed across Gearhead’s back, stopped treating his wings like a pillow (and Gearhead could not blame her if she felt so tired she wanted to fall asleep right then and there) and took a look.

“Lets do this,” Apple Bloom said, and got up onto shaky hooves. She moved two steps toward the finish line. Sweetie Belle groaned, and then grudgingly got up and off of Gearhead, who rolled slowly off of Scootaloo in order to get back on his own hooves. Once Scootaloo had struggled to stand, they all got in a line. Nodding, they took step after exhausted step. They were almost there when Gearhead’s vision teared up.

And then something had him by the socks, and he lost track of whether or not he’d crossed the line. Gearhead lost consciousness, with only the faintest sensation of movement. Next Chapter: 10. Foal of Secrets Estimated time remaining: 10 Hours, 36 Minutes