Episode 11
"The Columbia Games, Part 3"
The second day of the Columbia Games Junior League beings as the twelve students move on to the next round. However, instead of hosting the second day at Canterlot High like in the first day, things will be moving over to Emerald City, where people have already prepared events for them.
Athletics will be this day's theme as students challenge each other on the physical level. While most of the competitors have some skills when it comes to athletics, one is totally inept at physical activity. As the day continues, things get worst for the athletically inept student who is unlucky enough to be chosen to represent her school.
[Beginning of Episode]
Morning dawns on Canterlot City as students are getting ready for the second day of the Columbia Games.
Rainbow is dozing off into the morning as her clock reaches her alarm time. She's getting ready to participate in the athletic events of the Columbia Games, as today is the athletic day of the Junior League.
Instead of her usual alarm clock going off, her father Bow decides to fill that role for her.
"Wake up, shining colors!" Bow yells from outside Rainbow's room.
Rainbow was startled awake by the sound of her dad. "Whoa!" she yelped, jumping off the bed. "Huh? Wha-?"
After a rush job with the breakfast, Rainbow is in her competition clothing from yesterday. Bow pushes her out the door as he explains what's going on.
"Get your body ready, kid," Bow tells Rainbow. "Because we're traveling to Emerald City."
Rainbow was both shocked and confused about the change in location. "Emerald City?" she asks. "But why?"
"It has been announced that the second day of the games will be hosted at that city," Bow explains. "Now get going! We don't want to miss the train!"
Meanwhile, Twilight is standing in front of a school bus with her two group partners, Sunny and Lightning, standing in front of her. They deliver the news that the location is being changed just yesterday.
"We're changing locations?" Twilight asks. "Right now?"
Sunny closes her pocket makeup kit. "Apparently, the committee changed the host city at the last moment when they realized that their budget has gone larger than expected," she explains. She then turns more directly at Twilight. "So instead of a school that's hosting the games like the last several years, we're going to an official professional grade sports park to perform the second day of the events. Now pack up! We'd better get there as soon as possible!"
Twilight turns away from Sunny and Lightning, rubbing her arm.
"What's the matter?" Lightning mockingly asks. "Don't want to go? Oh, right. You aren't athletic. Well, since Principal Cinch chose you as well, it's not like you have a choice in this, now do you?"
Without looking at Lightning, Twilight responds, "No. I don't."
Within the city boundaries of Emerald City is the famous Olympic Park. Built in the Downtown District of Emerald City, this park provinces many venues for various sports, from the casual to Olympic Events. Athletes from around the country come to this place to hone their skills in the Olympic events, or to host practice matches for future games.
Today, the park is being used as the location of the second day of the Columbia Games Junior League.
Team Emerald and Team Diamond have already arrived at the park, going the set up for the opening ceremony for today. As usual, there are four circles arranged like vertices on a square. There's a spot for each of the participating schools.
"They just had to change the host city at the last moment, don't they?" Sonic asks as he beings to place the cones down.
Jet finishes placing the cones down. he then turns to Sonic, pointing at him. "And it's all thanks to you!" he says. "You and your friends. Who happen to be rangers. Well, used to be. You guys are famous, so much that when the Columbia Games roll around everyone suddenly remembered that the Junior League still exist and begged sports networks to broadcast the events live."
"People just wanted to see their favorite heroes shine again after that incident on Babylon Garden," Sonic commented as he decides to take a break on the sets. Then he turns towards Jet. "You guys still remember that, right?"
Sonic looks around and notices several cameramen setting up cameras to record the event and broadcast it around the country. "I can't believe that we're now famous here in Columbia," Sonic said. "I'd bet the people watching are anticipating the beginning of the second day of the games."
"Well, we can't get started if the students from Canterlot High and Crystal Academy aren't here," Jet reminded. "So, let's wait for them."
After a while, Miles, Knuckles, Wave, and Storm have all returned to the opening area. They wait in their school circles, waiting for the others to arrive.
Sonic then catches six people approaching them. "There," he said, pointing towards the entrance. The others looked to where he is pointing. "The other competitors have arrived."
Rainbow then trips over a bulge in the path and falls on her face.
"Nice job walking, Rainbow Crash," Lightning maliciously taunts.
Sonic stares at Lightning with disapproval. "Crystal Academy," he mutters. "Still as harsh and mean as before..."
The opening ceremony of the second day beings. Spectators from the four schools and across the city flock into Olympic Park to watch the events in person right in front of their eyes. The student spectators in particular are excited to see their school win, except for Crystal Academy for some reason. Maybe they're used to winning and simply no not care.
The twelve students get into their positions as a speech is being delivered, welcoming everyone to the second day of the games.
"The second day of the Columbia Games Junior League has begun!" Cadence announced, standing on a podium. "Before we begin, let us remind you about how today will be run this time."
"There are four types of events that are hosted for today," Celestia begins to explain. "Pair, Solo, Duel, and All."
Each type of event then gets explained in further detail.
"Pair events involves teaming up with a partner that came from the same school to compete against the other rival pairs," Celestia explains. "We'll be doing this six times to make sure each competitor gets to play a Pair event twice."
"Next up are the Solo events," Cadence continued. "These events are participated alone, and don't involve a partner to play. These events will be played alongside the Pair events and will be scheduled so that everyone has a chance to play them. If a Solo event involves two people from different teams competing against each other, we call that a Duel event."
"Finally, there is the All event," Aleena beings to finish. "This type of event involves all participants. They are usually played at the end of the day. We currently only have two scheduled for today, but we're not going to tell you what they are until it comes."
Some massager comes up to deliver a message to Cadence. She grabs it and reads it out.
"Oh, and here's special report from Silver," Cadence beings to announce. "Apparently, before the sun rose up, someone stole all the equipment that's used for the events. We just discovered this just this morning, and we don't have the time to order a new batch of equipment for the games. We do not want to delay this any further. To replace these, we'll be using the equipment that he specially made to reduce the cost of equipment just in case something broke. All the equipment complies to the competitive standard, so they are okay to use."
Celestia then continues on with the speech. "Well, with that out of the way, let's see what our first event of the day is," she said.
A screen flashes on, flipping through several pictures at with each passing second. The participators are tense as they wonder what event they will participate in.
After several seconds of seemingly random rolling, the flipping stops and lands on an event. The picture depicts a tennis court.
"Tennis Tournament!" Celestia announces. Then she goes to the section detailing the pairs. "And our pairs are...Sonic and Miles! Rainbow and Applejack! Jet and Wave! And Lightning and Sunny."
The four pairs who are announced looked around for a moment. Meanwhile, the ones who are not chosen to pair up are confused about what's going on. That is until they realized that they are being split into a pair and a solo.
"The rest will go on to the solo event," Celestia continues. "Which will be..."
The screen flips through several pictures once again, before landing on an arrow reaching a target.
"Archery!" Celestia announces.
The crowd cheers as the events are being announced.
"Alright, participators," Cadence said. "The events will begin shortly, so get to the locations of the events. Spectators, you have a choice in which event you're going to watch. Are you going for the Tennis Tournament? Or are you looking forward to Archery? Choose wisely, because once you enter, you can't switch. So, if everyone is ready..."
Cadence pulls out an airhorn and sounds it off. Immediately, the eight chosen to participate in the Tennis Tournament went in the direction of the courts. The four chosen to go for the Archery went straight for the archery area. Following after them is a flock of spectators who want to watch the event of their choosing.
First Pair event, Tennis Tournament. Sonic and Miles are currently competing against Rainbow and Applejack. The two pairs continue to rally the ball back and fourth for what it seems like several minutes.
As Rainbow continues to hit the ball over the net, she grows bored and tired. "We could go one like this forever," she said. Then she places her mind out of the game for a moment. "Just keep on rallying the ball back and forth, forever and ev-"
Because Rainbow was not paying attention, she is hit in the head with a ball knocked over the net by Miles. The points accumulated over the round goes to Sonic and Miles. But the round has gotten so long that Sonic and Miles are declared the victors of his bracket. The crowd goes wild after Miles gets the victory for this school.
Applejack stares disapprovingly at Rainbow as she sits there, rubbing her head where it hurts. "You should've focused, Rainbow," she said.
Meanwhile, in the archery section, Knuckles drawing hard on his bow. However, his arm cannot stop shaking because of an uncomfortable feeling he's having. It has something to do with Twilight, who continues to use her scanner to search for FR waves.
"What is she doing bringing that thing into the field?" Knuckles asks, beginning to lose his grip on the drawstring.
Involuntarily, Knuckles releases the bow and sends the arrow flying. Because of his shaking arm, he completely misses the target in the distance. This has Knuckles receiving disapproving from the spectators. Meanwhile, the spectators from Crystal Academy gave a shook of the head towards Twilight.
Sitting nearby is Silver. Since he is the designer behind the equipment being used, he has to monitor others using his equipment to make sure that they don't break. He has only brought one completive grade bow to the games and he does not want that to break mid-event.
Silver took one look at Twilight before giving a response. "Just ignore her," he said. "I'm sure that she'll stop."
Knuckles grumbled at the suggestion Silver has made.
The second solo event is the first of the duel event. Now they're doing a Fencing Tournament. Whoever is the most skillful with swordplay and dodging will be the victor.
In this round, Sunny is pitted against Sonic, and Sunny is determined to beat Sonic. "I'm going to beat you Sonic," she told him as she continues to thrust her saber at him. "I'm going to beat you!"
Sonic does not attack and repeatedly teases Sunny by jumping away whenever she thrusts.
Sonic grew a bored look as he continues to dodge. "How about no?" he asks. And then he makes a sudden thrust into Sunny's torso, making Sonic the winner of the round. The crowd cheers at Sonic's victory over Crystal Academy, while the Crystal Academy students gasp in shock.
Meanwhile, Sunny feels humiliated by her loss.
"Lightning is going for a first class trick," Cadence says during the cycling event.
Lightning approaches the ramp and performs a series of tricks in the air. However, she lands on her side, granting her a poor score.
"...And she fails to land correctly," Cadence reported.
The crowd had a laugh at Lightning's expense. She tried way too hard to show herself off.
Meanwhile, in the Basketball Tournament, Rainbow and Thunder are playing against Lightning and Twilight. While Twilight does not even try, Lightning grew frustrated and tries to attack Rainbow. Between rounds, she ran up to Rainbow with her fist clutched, ready to punch.
Rainbow, meanwhile, proceeds to look away. "Yeah, let's totally beat a professional up," she said as Lightning draws closer. "I'm sure I'll win this time! Well then too bad!" Just when Lightning is right up to her back, Rainbow springs her fist and hits Lightning in the face, knocking her back. "Because you did not see that coming!"
In the obstacle course event, Twilight was having some drama when it comes to going through the course. She jumps over a barrier and lands on her face. Much to the pain of her Crystal Academy spectators.
"Aww," Aleena groans. "She failed to land correctly."
"Twilight!" One of the students yelled. "You're going to make us lose!"
Twilight got up and adjusts her glasses. "Oh! Sorry about that!" she apologizes. Meanwhile, a red aura is emanating from her body and into her amulet.
The spectators were much more interested in Sonic's performance. He is doing quite well in the event, plowing through the course. At one point, he jumps on a high platform and lands on lower platform perfectly fine. The crowd goes wild in seeing this amazing performance.
"And Sonic pulls off a landing straight out of Speed Hedgehog!" Aleena announces.
Meanwhile, Abacus Cinch gets a bit suspicious about these students she's competing against.
"Twilight!" she shouts from her seat. "What are you doing? You're going to make us lose!"
Twilight gets up and looks towards Principal Cinch, the red aura continuing to flow into her amulet. "Putting me into this is a huge mistake," she said.
"What do you mean a huge mistake?" Cinch yells with fuming anger.
Twilight looks ahead, feeling very nervous about the events. "Starting to wonder if allowing myself to represent Crystal Academy was a good idea," she mutters quietly. Then she continues on and continues to struggle with the obstacles, much to the pain of the Crystal Academy students who are watching her.
From earliest to latest, the events are as followed. The Pair events are Tennis, Volleyball, Basketball, Obstacle Course Duo, Canoe, and Kickball. The Solo and Duel events are Archery, Fencing, Long Jump, Cycling, Obstacle Course Solo, and Swordplay.
The thirtieth event is an all out Dodgeball war between the four schools. Twelve students throw balls repeatedly at each other for several rounds to claim victory.
This event is interesting, because by the end of the seventh round, the two teams remaining are Canterlot High and Emerald High. The last one standing are Sonic and Rainbow, who has to hit a ball at each other to win. However, the final minutes dragged on and the two teens couldn't decide who should take the victory. Spectators are waiting for someone to throw a ball.
After five minutes of nothing happening, the round is declared a tie between Canterlot High and Emerald High as both teams won the same number of rounds. Much to the chagrin of those who want one of the teams to win.
In an interview after the Volleyball event, Rainbow reveals that she and Sonic felt a bit too loyal to each other to hurt each other if it means getting a victory for their team. Naturally, Amy gets a bit of a jealousy rage and attempts to attack Rainbow by charging into her hammer. Security was called in and Amy had her hammer confiscated for the remainder of the games.
After hours of competing in the athletic events, it is time. As the afternoon rolls around, it is time to reveal the fourteenth and final event of the day.
Spectators and participators gather at Olympic Park Station looking out into a ramp that leads outside and into the park.
"Here it comes!" Cadence announces. "The final event of the Athletic Day. Everyone's excited to see this event go live, so let's reveal it now!"
The monitor in front of the competitors turns on, revealing the final event of the day. The monitor contains a picture of a hoverboard.
"It's Air Board Riding time!" Cadence announces with enthusiasm.
The crowd was divided on if having this event end off the day was a good idea, as they don't want a repeat of what happened the last time this event was hosted. Others say that technology marches on and researchers are listening to events related to them. They assessed what's wrong and how to fix it to prevent future incidents.
Not even the competitors are immune to this divide. "What? Hoverboards?" Rainbow gasps in surprise upon discovering that she's riding them again.
"We're riding these again?" Applejack asks.
Spectators begin to ask if something has changed with these hoverboards.
"These boards that run on air have been tested before," Cadence begins to answer. "But after the tournament at the beginning of the year, improvements have been made based on what happened there. First things first..."
Event officials came in and hand out the boards to the participators.
Every board has a top side and a bottom side. The top side is flat, while the bottom has a surface made of some light metal and fans. However, the colors of the boards is unique with each racer.
Sonic's board is primarily blue, but has yellow and white stripes and accents going around it. Two additional exhaust ports are attached to the rear, adding to the main exhaust port. Miles' is yellow and white with miniature airplane parts attached to the rear. Knuckles' board is mostly red aside from some darker red and white accents.
Rainbow's board has a distinct rainbow out at the front. It's mostly cyan, with four exhaust ports at the rear each in a different color. Applejack's board is red, green, and yellow. It has a stem a the rear, making the board resemble a multicolored apple. Thunder's is black and has two golden lightning bolts going down the side. At the rear are some airplane parts.
Lightning's board is green, with orange lightning bolts going down the bottom of the board. Twilight's is in shades of purple, and has airplane parts attacked to the ear. Sunny's board is yellow, with some darker spots dotting its surface.
Jet's board is in shades in shades of green, aside from the white and yellow arrows that go along the top. Storm has his board in gray and yellow, though not resembling the prototype boards. Finally, Wave's board is in a lighter shade of purple than Twilight's. In addition, yellow flame accents are seen going through the top and sides.
Rainbow and her team received their boards, and discovered that their appearance has completely changed. "What the-?" Rainbow gasped upon seeing the colors.
"They've completely changed!" Applejack said, gawking at her board's new look.
Rarity goes up to the barriers to give an explanation. "They're no longer that boring generic gray," she said. "Now they've got some personality behind them!"
"That's right, Rarity," Mr. Mobius replies. "We've customized them to fit the rider who's using them. We also gotten feedback that our hoverboards remind people of a racing game called Air Racers. Thanks to those feedback, we've upgraded them to take advantage of skills. You may notice around the track that there are grind rails and floating rings. They are meant to take advantage of those skills. As for power, unfortunately, due to how complicated strength is, we are unable to incorporate the power class into the boards. So there will be no power shortcuts within the course. Also, could you imagine how messy it would be if we allow people to knock everything out of the way?"
The racers looked at each other, wondering if allowing such acts would be practical given that the shortcut has to be blocked off before anyone could complete a lap.
"Also," Mr. Mobius added, "after Rainbow's board exploded due to an undetected explosive device, we added extra security measures to detect tampering of any kind. We also made the boards a bit more durable, so at last they won't break if you slam into a wall."
With that finished, the event is ready to move on. Cadence grabs on to her microphone to announce to everyone, giving them what they need to know about this event. "Anyway, this event will be a relay race," she announced. "Each team will receive a tube colored like their school color." As she talked, a green tube is given to Knuckles, a blue tube is given to Applejack, a purple tube was given to Sunny, and a red tube was given to Storm. "You goal is to race around the track as quickly as possible and, when you reach the end of a lap, you must transfer the tube into your teammate before they cross the line. The order will go as follows. Normal, Flight, and Speed. And here are the students that will be representing each class."
The screen pops open to a list of competitors who will represent each class. One by one, each name pops up.
Sonic saw his name under the speed class. He was not surprised to see himself under this category, given how he himself was a runner. "As expected," he said.
"No surprises here," Knuckles said as he saw his name pop up under the normal category. He knew that this would happen, given how the organizers were not able to incorporate this skill into the events.
Twilight waited for her name to pop up. As anticipated, it did. She is placed under the flight category, much to the shock of her. "Wait, I'm flight?" she asks. "But...why? Why couldn't I be-"
Lightning elbows her teammate, silencing her. "Quit your babbling," she told Twilight right in the face. "We have something important to focus on."
The race course is triangular in shape, resembling a right triangle when viewed from above. There is a sharp turn at the north end of the course, a gradual turn at the southeast, and a right-angle turn at the south. Only right turns are seen being used in the course.
Visible from the first straightaway, train lines can be seen coming out of the station building. When approaching the station building from the south, these train lines are visible as well.
"The race to prove which team is the best begins now," Cadence announces as the four principals watch from the top floor of the station.
The four racers hop aboard their board, getting ready to start.
"Good luck, Knuckles," Sonic wished, tapping Knuckles on the shoulder.
"Anytime," Knuckles replies.
"Have fun, Applejack," Rainbow told her friend.
"Don't worry," Applejack assures. "I'll try hard to win this for ya."
Wave, meanwhile, looks at Sunny to mock her riding skills. "You'd think you'll win with a board like that?" she said.
Sunny leered at Wave while Storm chuckles behind her. "Hey!" she yells. "Stop teasing!"
"Get ready to start!" Cadence commanded. The clamps then release the boards, allowing then accelerate as the racers approach the start line. A timer shows up in the monitor above the start line. "Five!" she shouts along with the spectators. "Four! Three! Two! One!" The racers then kicked their back leg out, boosting them into high speeds as they zip past the start line. Unfortunately, Sunny boosted too early and collided with the electric barrier.
Lightning hit herself in the head as Sunny made an embarrassing mistake. "Oh come on!" she groans. "She did this again?"
The racers landed at the park below, which looks like a basketball court. Some racers go at the bottom which others ride along the roof.
Knuckles rides along Applejack as they stroll across the courts. "Ahh, this brings back so many memories," Applejack signs as she enjoys the breeze going past her.
"Have to say," Knuckles commented, looking around. "This feels a bit familiar, don't you think?"
The racers reunite at the end of the courts, where a sharp turn and a grind rail awaits them. Behind the racers, a turbulence forms in their wake.
Storm takes in the speed as he rides the air. "You know what?" he says. "I feel like I'm in my natural territory. We should try this more of-"
"Coming though!" Sunny yelled as she zipped past the racers.
The other racers were surprised by Sunny making a comeback. "Huh?" Applejack says. "How did she manage to get ahead of us?"
Knuckles pointed towards Sunny. "After her!" he ordered. And he boosted off after Sunny, leaving the others in his wake. Storm and Applejack then boosted their boards, speeding through the course at high speeds.
One of the major changes made to air board events is the addition of a monitor tracking down the position of everyone racing. The tubes are really trackers used track the positions of the racers, with their color corresponding to the color of the tube. Blinking dots are visible as they move across the course.
"The Normal Group has just reached the large open area," Cadence announces.
The racers exit the tunnel as they enter a large open area filled with grass patches, paths, and benches. Addition spectators are seen near the area, waiting the racers as they zip through the course.
Knuckles hears a warning sound and looks down. He notices that he is running out of fuel. "Oh! Air is running low," he observes. Then he looks around the area. "How do I..."
He spotted a few quarter-pipes on the side of the field. Seeing as how performing tricks refills the tank, Knuckles makes a beeline for the ramp and tricks off of it. He makes a solid landing which refills his air tank up to two-thirds.
"Knuckles made a smart choice is going for the quarter-pipe," Cadence announces. Then she takes a look at the racers. They are approaching the sharp right angle turn. "And it looks like the Normal Group is approaching the final turn! Flight Group, get into your positions!"
While most of the Flight Group gets into their positions just fine, Miles is having a bit of trouble getting out of the reserved seating because of Scootaloo, who has managed to sneak her way out of the spectator's sear and into the seats reserved for the racers.
"Would you mind if you just let go of me and get back into the viewing area?" Miles asks.
Sonic and Rainbow looked at these two young friends of them. They can't decide what to do. Rainbow is thinking about moving Scootaloo away form Miles, but considering how happy Scootaloo is right now, she can't push herself to do it. So she decides to do nothing. Sonic, meanwhile, is getting mixed signals.
"I so wanted you to win this," Scootaloo said as she continues to squeeze Miles. "Even if it's at the expense of Rainbow's school."
"Thanks," Miles said, appreciating the cheering, "but I'm pretty sure that I can do this without motivation." He lifts Scootaloo's arms off of him and grabs his board as he ran towards his transition lane.
Scootaloo, Sonic, and Rianbow all waved at Miles. "Okay Miles," Scootaloo said. "Good luck!"
Applejack approaches the final ramp and gets ready to jump. Unfortunately, she didn't jump in time and fell to the lower level. "Ah shoot," she grumbled as she saw Knuckles fly over her. "Should've jumped." She then takes a pole and rides it towards the station platform.
Knuckles landed and races into the interior of the station in first place, much to the excitement of the spectators. "Here he comes!" Sonic yells. "Miles! Get ready to run!"
Knuckles slowed down and gets off his board. Then he takes the baton off of his waist and hands it to the running Miles. Miles got just within reach of the baton, so he grabs it, jumps on his board, and races off.
"Team Emerald has successfully transferred their baton," Cadence announces. Then she witnessed Applejack successfully transferring the baton over to Thunder. "And so does Team Canterlot."
Sunny approaches the lap line with Storm trailing just behind her. Then she gets off of her board and attempts to hand the baton over to Twilight. Issue is, Twilight is running a bit faster than Sunny.
"Hey! Twilight!" Sunny yells, waving the baton. "Slow down! You're about to hit the-"
Twilight hits the electric barrier and gets stunned.
"Aww..." the spectators groaned.
Wave passes by them, with her school's baton in hand. Frustrated, Sunny decided to toss the baton over to Twilight. "Here," she said. "Have this."
The baton bounces over Twilight's head. Twilight grabs the baton and jumps on her board, racing off into the ramp.
Twilight is observed to be far behind the rest of the racers, mostly due to that mistake she made during the transition of the baton.
"Team Crystal is far behind the rest of the racers," Cadence announces. "Can she catch up?" She then noticed that the racers are approaching a flight shortcut. "And our Flight Group is about to encounter the flight shortcut in the next turn."
Miles leads the group into a ramp that lifts up, pointing towards the chain of floating rings.
"Here it comes!" Miles yelled. "Get ready to fly!"
Miles leads two other racers to the flight rings, sending them into the air as they pass through the rings. This action fills up their air tanks. The exception is Twilight, who doesn't feel confident enough to try it out and so passes the opportunity despite having the means to do it. The racers then land in front of Twilight, boosting ahead at the first opportunity.
Twilight's refusal to do something that will help out her team has gained angry groans from the Crystal Academy students.
"Second one is just up ahead on the quarter-pipes," Cadence said.
Miles turned to the chain of rings just above the quarter-pipe ramp. "Right there?" he asks. "Well, here goes nothing!" He then turns to go after the rings. The other racers don't seem to care and continued to boost ahead.
Due to a lack of air gained from performing tricks and using shortcuts, Twilight constantly is running low on air. She falls behind the rest of the racers. Her only hope of catching up is to rely on the turbulence left behind by her speeding rivals.
"Team Emerald is gaining the lead," Cadence announces as the green dot approaches the final turn. "Will the others catch up?"
"Get into positions!" Sonic orders as the last group of racers rush to their lanes. "They're about to come!"
As Lightning waited, she turned to Rainbow. "So, Rainbow," she began. "Have you changed your mind? Do you like me now?"
The only response she got is a growl from Rainbow.
Shortly before the final stretch, the spectators catch Twilight pulling out her scanner in the middle of the race. Much to the frustration of the Crystal Academy students.
"Uhh, what is Twilight doing?" Sunny asks. Then she beings to shout. "Hey Twilight! Put that away now! You're going to have a lot of explaining to do after this event ends."
Twilight did not respond, as she is currently fay away. Her distraction caused her to crash into the wall which guided racers into the final stretch.
Cinch adjusts her glasses as she witnessed Twilight making a stupid mistake. "I'm so disapppointed that my best student would be more interested in her studies than the competition," she notes. "What a shame."
Angry looks fired from the nearby principals of her rival schools.
Miles hopped off the pole that took him to this level. Shortly after, Thunder landed and boosted forward into the interior of the station building.
"Here he comes!" Sonic announces.
Sonic ran forward with his arm extended behind him. Miles takes the baton and passes it to Sonic. "Go for it, Sonic!" Miles said.
"Alright!" Sonic replied as he hopped on his board and speeded off into the ramp.
Thunder approaches the running Rainbow and passes the baton to her. "You can do this, Rainbow!"
"No problem!" Rainbow replies as she rides her board into the course ahead.
Wave passes the baton onto Jet. "Win for us, Jet," she said.
"I'll try," Jet replies. Then he hopes aboard his board and races off after his rivals.
Twilight hopped off her board a few seconds after Jet left. She tries to hand the baton onto Lightning, but she tripped and fell on her face. She stopped just behind Lightning, who looks down on her. "Grr..." Lightning growled in frustration. "I'll just take this from you instead." Lightning crouches down and snatches the baton off of Twilight's hands. Before she left, Lighting took the time to slap Twilight's face with the baton.
The purple dot is seen very far behind the rest of the racers, making through the first jump while the others are approaching the first turn.
"Team Crystal is very far behind," Cadence points out. "Can they catch up before their rivals can make it to the finish line? Will they recover?"
Sonic and Rainbow hopped off the rails they were grinding on and approaches the second major ramp. As they approached, they turn towards each other.
"Let's show off our tricks!" Sonic suggested.
"I've been waiting a long time for this," Rainbow replies.
The two then charged up their jump as they approached the ramp. Then they leap off the ramp, going high into the air. Sonic front flips in the air, going so far as to plant one of his hands on his board while the rest of his body goes up. Meanwhile, Rainbow rolls herself and her board in the vertical plane perpendicular to her vector of travel. At one point, she stops to get off the board, only holding onto it with one hand. The two then hopped back on their boards as they approached the ground, landing bottom side down.
The crowd goes wild as they witnessed an amazing trick. "What a trick combination!" Cadence announces as Sonic and Rainbow performed their trick. "And they make a perfect landing to take advantage of the gained air."
Jet comes around, approaching the ramp. Seeing what Sonic and Rainbow did, he leaps off the ramp, performing a few tricks in the air. Unforunatly, he did not check how high he currently is, as he landed on the ground before he could orient himself correctly.
"Aww," Cadence groans, "he failed to land correctly."
Lightning, looking to impress her classmates, performs a series of complicated tricks in the air. Her arrogance eventually caught up with her, as she lands on her face before she could orient herself properly. "This could cost her the race!" Cadence announces.
Sunny got frustrated over her teammate's competence. "Lightning! What are you doing?" she yells.
"Trying to replicate their rivals, of course," Wave answers from nearby. "Couldn't you see that?"
Twilight gets a bit distracted as she stares into the members of Team Emerald and Team Canterlot, as well as some of the spectators. "Hold on," she said. "I'm detecting some signals. I wonder-"
Sunny hears this and turns towards Twilight. "Quit your analyzing machine!" she insisted as she slaps the FR scanner out of Twilight's hands. The scanner drops down straight into the floor, breaking upon impact. The crowd gasp as soon as they hear the sound of a machine being broken.
Twilight looked at the mess that was once her FR scanner, gasping and covering her mouth. "What did you do?" she asks.
"Oops," Sunny said. "Didn't mean to do that. I was trying to make a point, four-eyes."
Twilight was intimidated by that insult again. Her anger is boiling inside of her. Before she could release it, red aura came from her body and gets vacuumed into her amulet.
"Hey!" they hear a young boy yell out. They turn, and out from the participator's seats is Miles. He pushes his way out to confront Sunny. "What do you think you're doing? Disrespecting her intelligence? Ha! Say something like that to my face and you'll regret it."
Twilight was shocked to see that someone from an opposing school came in to stand up for her. She was surprised to hear that Miles has seen the same things as her. "What?" Twilight gasps. "You've gone through the same thing?"
Miles opened his mouth to speak. "I-" he began, but his mouth his clamped shut by Sunny.
"Ignore him, Twilight," Sunny told her. "He's our rival, and rivals do not act kindly to each other like that."
Twilight tried to speak up. "I-I was just-" she tried to say before being interrupted.
"The racers are reaching the final stretch," Cadence announces. "Who would win this race?"
Sonic and Rainbow are still neck and neck as they approach the final turn. Meanwhile, Jet is left behind with no hopes of catching up.
"Well, better luck next time," Jet tells himself.
Suddenly, from behind him, Lightning came along and shoved Jet aside as she passes by. "Out of my way, bird face," Lightning yells as she passes by Jet.
Lightning is set to take third place, maybe second if she's lucky. She is determined to catch up with Sonic and Rainbow, when suddenly, Jet passes by, holding a green fan made of green bird feathers and leaves. "Are you shocked to see me again?" Jet asks before smacking Lightning with his fans, spinning her out and leaving her to eat Jet's turbulence.
Although taking different paths by jumping on the ramp, Sonic and Rainbow are still neck and neck. They realized that one of them must go ahead to prevent a tie like last time.
"Oh shoot-" Sonic realizes as he approaches the finish line.
Rainbow notices the same thing. "Uhh...oh dear..." she mutters. She must make a choice. "Uhh...you go on ahead!" Rainbow declared as she shoved Sonic forward a bit.
Sonic grew mad at Rainbow for doing this to herself. So he returns the favor. "No, you go on ahead!" Sonic insisted as he shoves Rainbow forward.
Sonic and Rainbow have now found themselves in a heated argument. They can't decide who should claim victory.
"No, you."
"No, you!"
Applejack, noticing that the race is finished, shouts out to the two of them. "Rainbow! Sonic!" she shouted. "Watch out!"
"Huh?" Sonic said as he and Rainbow turned ahead. Then they realized that they're about to go off the ramp and slammed on the breaks.
The two got off their boards after a sudden stop. "What happened?" Rainbow asks.
Their friends ran up to them. "You two finished the race," Thunder explains. "However, it was too close to call. We might need to take a look at the finish line camera to check."
Behind them, Jet and Team Diamond has beaten Lightning and Team Crystal in a game of board facing. Jet stops and turns around as Lightning suddenly gained altitude and started to fall off her board.
"How's this for a shocking treat?" Jet asks. "My school has beaten your school for the first time in years!"
Lightning landed on the floor and pounded on it in frustration. Lifting herself up, she points to someone to blame. So she turns to Twilight, as she appears to be her old option. "Twilight! How could you do this to our team?" she yells. "Thanks to you, we lost!"
Twilight stuttered as she tries to defend herself. "But it's not-" she opened her mouth.
"Of course it's your fault," Sunny blames as well. "You're the one who keeps on losing the events for us, thus allowing our rivals to take the victory."
"But-" Twilight opened her mouth.
"No buts!" Sunny yelled back, silencing.
Team Crystal then left the station building in a grumbling, frustrated mess. They left behind Twilight, who is starting to sob.
Rainbow frowns as she saw Twilight leave. "Poor Twilight," she observes. "She looks like she's about to cry."
Miles walks up to Twilight to comfort her. "Calm down, Twilight," he says. "I'm just here to tell you something."
Twilight turns and tries to open her mouth, but Abacus Cinch came in and took her away before she could speak.
"Don't even try to talk to our rivals," Principal Cinch insisted. "We're competing against them, remember?"
Team Emerald and Team Canterlot, as well as the rest of Team Sonic and The Rainbooms, watched Twilight as she was getting dragged out.
What are the results of the athletic day? The four principals gather around that evening to talk about today.
"A tie?" Abacus gasped as she reads the results paper. She puts it down on the table, revealing the scores. "Emerald High and Canterlot High has tied for first place? And not only that, but Crystal Academy has gotten last, just behind Diamond Secondary who keeps on losing every year."
Curtis grinned at Abacus. "Well, it's good to see that their persistence has paid off," he said.
This doesn't help Abacus at all. She continues to look frustrated. "I swear!" she shouted, slamming her hands down on the conference table. "Something suspicious is going on with the students that you chose to represent your school!" She then points to everyone in the room. "And that goes for all of you."
"Listen, Abacus," Celestia told her. "It's been that way since the very first year. We had to pick the ones who are both athletically and academically intelligent. If we want to win at both days, we'll have to do just that."
Abacus continues to get frustrated. "That's not the point," she roars. "Point is, some of the students have professional level skill in the various sports they're competing in. You used something to enhance those skills, don't you, Aleena?" She then turns towards Aleena.
Aleena shook her head in disagreement. "Nope!" she replies, standing up while slamming her hand on the table. "No way! Chuck and I trained Sonic in every sport possible up to the professional rankings. You can't possibly say that I used some sort of enhancer to boost his abilities, let alone the other two students that I chose."
Celestia also stood up. "Same with Rainbow," she added. "I heard from her parents that her skill in sports is the result of years of training. Just like most professional athletes."
Abacus grew suspicious at the two ladies who are friends with Sonic and Rainbow. "I don't believe you," she replies. "There is no way that two teenagers are able to have professional level skills. Those are reserved for adults."
Curtis pondered for a moment. "Well, have you ever heard about teenagers who can-" he said.
Before Curtis could finish, Abacus had enough and jumped out of her seat.
"Listen up, Celestia, Aleena, and Curtis," she announced. "When we move on to the final round, I promise. My school will crush you!" She pumped her fist hard to push her point further.
The three principals facing Cinch then looked at each other. They start to worry about Principal Cinch and Crystal Academy. In all those years of losses, this is the first time in years where Crystal Academy is getting more competitive. And judging by what happened in the last two days, they're not going to take this lightly.
In Twilight's house, in her room, Twilight is sobbing at her neat as night falls. The excessive trauma she's revived from her classmates and principal has begun to have a serious effect on her.
Next to her is her amulet, which is shaking rather subtlety on the table. A faint red light is coming out of the seam, signaling that it is reaching the breaking point.
The emotional damage she's received from the Columbia Games is more than the rest of the year combined. No wonder she feels so sad right now. Her heart is crushed, and it is lusting for revenge at the same time.
Tomorrow is the final event of the Columbia Games Junior League, and she is expected to be there.
To be Concluded...
From the Author:
Oh boy. We're getting ready for the final countdown.
Feels a lot more involved than a tri-cross relay. Now this is looking like some sort of Olympic style event, expect without several events. And guess what? It ended with a air board race between the four schools. A relay race. Perfect to end of the day.
Twilight's amulet is getting a bit suspicious. I suspect that midnight will be creeping up on us all of a sudden...
Edit from 7/27/2018: Added a missing quotation mark and added in a few things to flesh out the details.
Written by TheAPPstore
Sonic the Hedgehog characters property of Sega
My Little Pony characters property of Hasbro