High above the Crystal Empire stadium nine pegasi, a hippogriff, a griffon, and a young dragon furiously beat their wings. Their circling seems almost lazy, but only because of the great distance, their track taking them to the Crystal Heart’s blue boundary. Two of the pegasi are clearly in the lead, Soarin from Cloudsdale barely ahead of Thunderlane from Ponyville, the rest struggling to match their speedy pace through all five of the hundred mile laps. The first event would take hours to complete; a few of the others with multiple rounds are just getting underway, such as Cozy Glow playing blitz chess and Button Mash on Block Ablater.

Doug, far below in the crowded stands, gives Rainbow Dash another worried look. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”

“Doug,” Rainbow Dash replies, an inch away from throttling her stallion, “I love you. But if you ask me again? You’re gonna shoot that bow from a wheelchair.”

His bow, as tall as him and requiring all of his strength to draw, sits next to a full quiver with arrows fletched in the sixteen colors of every mare and foal in the herd. And, since he needed a total of twenty, several from without - banded pale blue and pink for Ocellus, black and green for Chrysalis, pink and purple for Starlight Glimmer, and - on a whim - pink, purple, and gold for Cadance.

“Sure you’re not gonna need the wheels?” Doug smirks as Rainbow Dash mock glares at him, ruffling her chromatic mane, though it could hardly get any more windswept. She flicks it back into position as he travels down her neck, dancing along her wing until tickling at her stretched belly. “Even so.”

“I’ve been doing five hundred’s without a problem,” Rainbow Dash argues, struggling to hold in her giggles and settling for rubbing her head along his upper arm and hoping he gets the message. “This is way less than that. Bulk could be a Wonderbolt if he fit into a suit, and as long as Fluttershy keeps her blinders on she’ll be fine. I won’t even need to go all out!”

“YEAH!!” Bulk Biceps roars from one row behind, whistling with his hoof for good measure. “PONYVILLE RULES!!”

“If I knew where you were,” Fluttershy says, eyes firmly shut, “I’d kiss you. But I don’t!” She makes a couple kissy faces, one of which Bulk Biceps tries to return, though when she moves on without noticing he gives an overly dramatic sigh.

Doug rolls his eyes at their antics. Telling himself that pegasi have been flying while pregnant for thousands of years does little to calm his nerves, yet hearing how relaxed the mares are about the situation does wonders.

He lets his attention wander from the Competitor Seats where Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack are sitting to the neighboring spot with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, as well as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. All five of them have their cutie marks, and are thus technically ‘adults’, supposedly able to be off on their own. The Crusaders have even shot up in height, catching up to the Rich pair and nearing the size of their dams, if a bit gangly. He still struggles to see them as anything but three munchkins running about and trying anything they could to get their cutie marks. He wonders what they’re talking about, the dull roar of the stadium preventing any eavesdropping from so far away, but they certainly look like they’re enjoying themselves.

His musing is interrupted by the sight of Pinkie Pie wielding a towering cone of cotton candy, the saccharine scent competing with sweat and hay for the most prominent smell. A spare totters behind her; he’s somewhat (but only somewhat) relieved when the second cone peels off to join Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Pomarbo peeks out from under the mass, apparently content to eat his way out while the other two eagerly join in. Pinkie Pie plops down in her seat right in front of him, licking her lips and giving her cotton candy the kind of eager grin he wishes was reserved for only him.

“Not worried about spoiling your appetite?” Doug ribs, his view quickly becoming less and less obstructed as great hunks of wispy pink disappear down the gaping maw, reminding him of Chrysalis consuming an entire meal in one go.

“Doug,” Pinkie Pie returns between bites, in much the same manner as Rainbow Dash, “I know you’re worried about us, what with King Sombra on the loose and likely going to try to mind control us all. Why don’t you stick to your area of expertise and I’ll stick to mine? Everypony knows that stomachs need to stretch before a workout!”

“Oh?” Doug can’t help but laugh as one of Pinkie Pie’s ears twitches despite her harsh demeanor, attracting his hand like a magnet. “And what area of expertise is that?”

“That’s easy,” Pinkie Pie starts, only to go silent and still, her wide grin slowly fading. She hems, then haws, pausing on each of her herdmates as if in deep thought.

Doug’s own smile persists, though his eyes narrow at the ‘concentrating’ mare. “Really?” he asks, more jovial than might be expected from the mare struggling to name anything he is an expert at.

Pinkie Pie’s grin returns like a rubber band snapping back into place. “See? You get me!”

Rainbow Dash chimes in from the side, her ears waggling as well, “And who else is going to tell us ‘everything’s gonna to be just fine’ when Twilight’s not around?”

“Ya certainly focus on the bright side’a things,” Applejack says with a certain wink, just like the day Apple Bloom was conceived. He’s glad he’s sitting down, and for the formalwear Rarity insisted that he wear, or he might repeat that scenario.

Fluttershy, rather than shout over the dull roar of the stadium, shakes her rump in his general direction. Doug groans, crossing his legs.

“Up next,” Ms. Harshwhinny directs, her voice broadcast from dozens of speakers, “the Aerial Relay Race! Contestants, to the starting pylons!”

“YEAH!!” Bulk Biceps shouts; Fluttershy uses his whooping cheer as a primitive echolocation while Rainbow Dash brings up the rear, putting a little shake into hers for good measure. Fleetfoot, Lightning Dust, and Spitfire are the favorites to win gold by a large margin, but the battle for silver will be fierce between the griffon team, the Manehattan team, and Ponyville.

“Anyweight Eating Competitors, to your stations!”

Pinkie Pie gives Doug a quick kiss, her cotton candy long gone and belly already grumbling for more. She pronks down to a series of long tables where waits a massive yak, a long cragadile-like monster from the depths of Canterlot, and a team of eighteen pegasi freightlifters.

Doug personally thinks Celestia is bending the rules by including a technically sapient creature from the depths of the Canterhorn. The Rock Swalligator preys on Quarray Eels by chomping down when they stick their head out, then drags the long, thrashing body out, and swallows it whole. He has little sympathy for the monsters, Rainbow Dash having warned him about a potential infestation in the Galloping Gorge and other rocky areas. The limp body on the table does look like an adult Quarray Eel, though alive or dead is impossible to tell.

The pegasus lifters will carry Dragon Lord Torch’s meal up to him, one after another, each table with enough food to feed his family for a week. The yak looks positively dwarfed by his towering feast, ‘only’ his own body weight in gourds, root vegetables, and other traditional yak foods. He would clearly be the underdog if it wasn’t for Pinkie Pie.

The diminutive pink pony, at least compared to her competitors, has on her table what looks like a full-sized Quarray Eel, jaws open and ready to consume her whole if it wasn’t for the pony-sized cupcake shoved between its teeth, accompanied by two fifty-gallon barrels of chocolate milk. She ties a bib around her neck, then picks up a comically oversized knife and fork, licking her lips as she eagerly awaits the start.

A pop gun goes off, Bulk Biceps starting for Ponyville and quickly overtaken by the other teams. His small wings struggle to propel him forward, just as his large bulk struggles to fit through the colored rings scattered around the stadium. Before he’s halfway through Fleetfoot passes her horseshoe baton off to Lightning Dust to the loud cheers of the Cloudsdale Cheerleaders, the other competitors straining to keep pace.

On the eating side of things, the Rock Swalligator latches its long fangs onto the top and bottom of the Quarray Eel’s head and slowly forces the red monster inside its stretched jaw. The first of the Dragon Lord’s meals rises, which Torch snatches with a disdainful snarl and pops the whole thing in his mouth, chomping it down, swallowing and waiting for the next. The yak attacks his plate with a gusto, but it’s nothing compared to the fervor of Pinkie Pie. She takes a brief moment to decide where to start, eventually settling on cutting off the snout and revealing that the monster is actually comprised entirely of cake. She pops the first piece in her mouth - it disappears with nary a chew - and cuts off a bit of the cupcake, which is also made entirely of cake.

Bulk Biceps manages to pace himself, nearly catching up to the slowest hippogriff while Lightning Dust passes them like they are standing still. Then it’s Fluttershy’s turn; she blindly grabs the baton, Doug’s breath catching as it nearly drops, and then she’s off. She slips through one hoop after another, managing to make up a little time against the hippogriffs while the griffons are neck and neck with the Manehattan team. Spitfire passes them all, securing Cloudsdale the gold.

The yak is the first to give up, barely making a dent in his towering table of food. He groans as he lays down, food coma quickly setting in, and earns the first disqualification of the Games. Torch slows after the tenth table, having to take the time to chew and force his food down. The Swalligator, meanwhile, continues her meal with a certain detachment, unconcerned about the clock or that the pony is neck and neck (literally!) with her. Pinkie Pie's lower body has comically ballooned out, half a barrel of milk visibly sloshing around whenever she moves.

The Manehattan team is halfway along the third lap when Fluttershy, panting and sweaty but laser focused on her goal, passes the baton to Rainbow Dash. She erupts like a crackling whip, precisely snapping from one ring to another, the only evidence she actually made it through every checkpoint a stark rainbow contrail that even includes the three jolts where she passed the hippogriff, the griffon, and then the Manehattan pegasus by the width of a feather. The Ponyville section explodes into cheers as Rainbow Dash secures their first medal of the day, louder than Cloudsdale despite getting silver.

“You gonna finish that?” Pinkie Pie asks the comatose yak, taking his silence as an affirmative. “More!” She adds his unfinished meal to the crumbs of her cake, and eagerly scarfs it down. When Torch lazily waves off the fifteenth table, fighting to stave off his own food coma, she directs the pegasi to her own mouth with an exasperated “More!” Pinkie's attention turns to the Swalligator. Fifteen feet of thin red tail pokes out the tooth-filled maw, too exhausted to finish a meal that normally takes several hours. “More?” Tiny legs that barely stick out of her bloated bulk let Pinkie slowly waddle over; she coils the red tail and gently places it inside the gray jaws, which slowly close.

“Yay!” Pinkie Pie cheers before letting loose a loud burp. “Now we’re all winners!” She looks confused as Ms. Harshwhinny tries to drape a gold medal around her nonexistent neck, Canterlot getting silver. “Oh, right! Yay, Ponyville!”

The crowd echoes her cheers, even as it takes two Princesses to remove her and the barely mobile Swalligator from the grounds, happy squeals from the mare as she rolls about. Two of the unconscious Yak’s unhappy companions cart him off and dump him in a convenient ditch, bemoaning the shame brought onto their entire civilization.

“Gratz!” Doug cheers as Rainbow Dash lands next to him, earning a raised eyebrow.

“Can’t you just say ‘congratulations’ like a normal pony?” Rainbow Dash quips, his exuberant hug jamming her against his chest. She lets out a heavy sigh as she sees him biting his tongue. “Fine, you can ask.”

“Feeling okay?” Doug gushes out, hands moving from her sides to her belly.

“Dude, I’m fine.” Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes, though she clearly loves the attention. “He’s fine, too. You should feel him bouncing around in there!” A thin, hopeful smile plays on her lips. “Think he’ll like flying as much as I do?”

Doug laughs; his eyes stray to the Crusaders, specifically Scootaloo, and though he can tell Rainbow Dash desperately doesn’t want to make the comparison, she already has. “I don’t think anypony likes flying as much as you do.”

Rainbow Dash echoes his laugh, snuggling closer to him. “I hope he does,” she whispers, worried anypony else might hear. “With every bone in my body I hope he does.”

Before Doug can do more than rub at her head the pegasus is tugged away by a pair of muscled forelegs. Bulk Biceps presses the champion to the sky to the roar of her fellow Ponyvillians as Doug whoops loudly, his sharp whistle piercing through the roar of the crowd, only for the entirety of the stadium to fall strangely and suddenly silent.

For there, in the middle of the newly cleared green, stands Radiant Hope and Tempest Shadow, wreathed in Hope’s bright blue aura.

And, cloaked in light amber, the former King Sombra.

Next Chapter: Ch. 191 - Pacifism Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 48 Minutes