Chapter 52: A Tryout for the Games
Months have passed since winter, and winter wrap up has come an one On a sunny day, at Rainbow Falls, Sakura, Apple Eden, and Aerial Ace are practicing for a Junior Aerial Relay Race for the Equestria Games. Sakura and her new friends have been practicing for weeks, and been training really hard. The qualifying rounds for the relay race is in two days, and Sakura and her friends, mostly Ace are super excited about it.
Right now, Ace is flying through the obstacle course and is doing a fantastic job. When he reaches the finish line through the cloud. Baked Apple stops the time on the stop watch.
Looking at the watch, Baked Apple says with amazement, "Wow Ace, you guys are doing a lot better with your timing!"
"How much did we got on our timing?" Ace asks as he, Sakura, and Eden fly to the ground.
"You got 20 seconds faster than your original timing, which is 40 seconds faster than the required timing for the tryouts," Baked Apple answers, holding the stopwatch.
"Alright!" Ace cheers in pride.
Then Ace says with excitement, "It sure was awesome of Princess Celestia to help you be part of the tryouts Sakura."
"I'm so excited to be a part of your team. I hadn't been in a competition like this since the school sports festival at my school, but it seems more like the olympics. Plus this actually give me a good opportunity to practice my flying skills." Sakura says.
"That's right, your world had different kinds of games too," Ruby replies, using her magic to pass the three racers water.
The three takes the bottle and start to drink it.
"Yeah. There are races, but none of them involve in flying," Sakura answers.
"Is that's why you're wearing these strange sports uniform," Ruby asks, looking curious at the clothes Sakura is wearing.
She is wearing a white shirt with red laces on the end of the short sleeve and the collar. She is also wearing red shorts, and white tennis shoes.
"Yeah. These are my school sports uniform from school, My school wears them during P.E and sports festivals," Sakura answers.
Ruby observes the uniform firmly says says, "I don't think burgundy red is really your color, darling. You should stick to lavender, violet, or purple, or perhaps pink like your cutie mark."
The others star laughing soon as they hear that.
Then Eden cheers, "I think we're doing great on the practice run! Woah hoo!"
"Yeah! I think we're going to make it through the tryouts in no time," Ace says with confidence.
"Try not to get overconfident Ace. You know that some of the younger Wonderbolts from Cloudsdale are competing in this event too, and the tryouts are two days away," Sakura says as she walks past Ace with a smirk.
"Yeah, yeah," Ace replies while rolling his eyes with an annoyed look.
Sakura and the others star laughing a bit, and Ace starts laughing along with them.
Just then, Derpy flies over, and happily says, "Delivery for Sakura!"
Sakura and the others turn around to see Derpy in her mailing uniform, and holding a brown package.
"Hi Derpy, how are you doing?" Sakura asks with a smiles
"Same old thing, delivering mail. I also got a package for you," Derpy answers, presenting a package to Sakura.
"Thank you," Sakura says taking the package from her.
"You're welcome," Derpy replies, tapping her hat.
She then flies away with more mail to deliver. Sakura and her friends look at the package and wonder what it is and who the package is from.
Raspberry jumps on Sakura's head, and asks, "So who's it from?"
"Hmm, there's no name on it, just that it's delivered to me," Sakura answers looking skeptic.
"So let's open it," Ace says with eagerness.
Sakura places the box on the ground as she skits down. Ace and the others sit around the box and are eager to see what's inside. Sakura uses her utility knife to slice the tape so she can open it. When she opens it, they see a giant cake of ten layers escalating up out of the box with pink frosting and yellow roses on it. In fact, everypony can see it. Just then, fireworks and a marching band, mostly instruments play it. When the marching music's over, instruments disappears, but the cake is still there.
"What was that?" Ace asks looking confused.
"Oh not a what, but a who, dear," A familiar voice says.
Hearing the voice from the cake, Sakura and her friends can tell who's behind this, but grow concern about it.
"Oh no, that sounds like!" Ace says, freaking out.
Just then, "Ta da!"
"Discord!" Sakura and her friends, shockley explain.
Now that Discord has revealed himself in front of everyone, Sakura and her friends are wondering why he's even here.
Baked Apple steps forward, and firmly asks, "What in tarnation are you even doing here?!"
"What?! Is it a crime to cheer for my favorite group of ponies?" Discord asks, acting like he's being arrested.
"Well no, but um…" Eden replies shyly.
But Sakura asks, "Why did you mail yourself?
"Just my own fun way of traveling," Discord answers.
"Okay," Sakura says, looking a bit confused.
"Besides, I thought it will be nice for me to make a little living by selling healthy snacks to all the ponies who are trying out for the Equestria Games," Discord adds with glee.
With a snap of his lion paw, he dresses like a salesman, and has a stand behind him. On the stands there are many different fruits, vegetables, water bottle, different kind of juice bottles, fruit, vegetable salads bowls, and grains like muffins, bagels, and other bread stuff.
"Healthy Snacks! Get your healthy snacks here! I got all kind of fruit, vegetables, and nice cool water and juice, and different healthy grains and wheat! All you need to be healthy for the Equestria Games tryouts!" Discord loudly announces.
Hearing that, ponies star to get in line to buy some snack and drinks. Sakura and her friends start laughing after seeing the event.
Sakura stops giggling, and says, "Well, it looks like Discord is bring up a crowd."
"Who ever thought Discord could make a great sales pony," Baked Apple says, sounding impressed.
"But um, is he even allowed to have a stand here without a permanent?" Eden asks with concern.
"I don't know," Ruby replies.
"Usually we're supposed to, but then again, Discord has someway to get around these kind of rules," Sakura says.
Then Baked Apple suggests, "Maybe it will be a good idea to get Discord a permanent before he gets himself into trouble."
Sakura and the others nod their heads and agree to let Discord know before they get into trouble. Baked Apple And Apple Eden are able to talk to Discord and help him get a legal permit so he can do his stand and selling healthy snack. The next day Sakura, Aerial Ace, and Apple Eden decide to continue practicing for the relay the next day. Eden flies across the course as fast as her wings can take her with a gold horseshoe in her hoof. She reaches the next part and passes it to Sakura, and Sakura flies faster. Since Sakura is an alicorn she needs to make sure she doesn't go too fast. She then passes the horseshoe to Ace and flies fast. The three are doing great with practice.
After their practice, Sakura, Ace, and Eden are having their drinks while Baked Apple and the others bring them some snacks. The three racers are feeling a little tired, and are able to get energy from the healthy food and drinks they're having.
"Gota admit, we make pretty good timing," Ace says with pride.
"I agree. We've been working very hard with our speed and agility, but we shouldn't get over confident. The tryouts are tomorrow," Sakura says.
Ace scoffs it a bit and says, "I know, but I'm sure we'll be a shoo in for the relay. I'm also sure that we're going to win it as well."
Eden looks a bit concern, and says, "Um, maybe we should wait until we know for sure we're going to make it through the try outs."
"I agree with Eden, we still need to practice, and in Ace's case... not get overconfident with his racing skills," Sakura says, firmly staring at Ace.
"Great, I'm being worldly attacked by my friends and teammates," Ace says with sarcasm.
"Aw, isn't Ace getting a little cranky wanky," Raspberry says, ruffling his mane and squishing his face.
Ace breaks himself from Raspberry's grip, and shouts, "Cut that out, Raspberry!"
Sakura and the others start laughing and think it's very funny. Ace fixes his mane and glares at his friends for laughing. Seeing his friends laughing, Ace can't help but to laugh along with them. The friends continue to laugh until they hear someone else laughing along with them. Sakura and friends stop laughing and turn around to see Discord along with them.
"What are you laughing at?" Ace asks, glaring at him
"Just that my dear buddies are having a wonderful time together," Discord answers, hugging the six friends.
Sakura and the gang feels a bit squished by Discord's way of a bear hug, and hearing Discord laugh like this. They then start laughing themselves. As the seven friends are having their laugh, they aren't aware that something is watching them from a distance and the Rainbow Falls' forest. The shadow that is watching them is showing off it's bright glowing yellow eyes, and lets out a hissing sound. Back to the group of friends, Sakura hears the hissing noise and turns over the forest with a surprised yet suspicious look. she is shocked to see the glowing yellow eyes coming from the woods, and hear there is trouble. Sakura teleports herself out of the grip, and decides to check it out. Discord lets the others go and they land on the ground to see Sakura us running off
"Sakura darling, where are you going?" Ruby asks, frantically, as she and the others run after her.
Sakura is not hearing the other screaming out to her as they chase her. Sakura runs into the woods to find the source of the hissing. She find herself at a clear open area in the woods and look around for the hissing source, but so far nothing. Ruby and the others run towards her with worried looks.
"Sakura, darling, why did you run off like that?" Ruby asks with concern.
"Yeah, it's almost like you seen a monster that you need to fight against," Ace says, holding up his hooves like he's punching something.
Eden becomes scared, and nervously stutters, "a-a-a-a-a... m-m-m-onster-r-r-r-r-r!"
"Now, now, I don't think this has anything to do with a monster..." Baked Apple says, reassuring Eden.
He then turns to Sakura, and asks, "Right Sakura."
Sakura turn to the others and explains, "To be honest, I don't know what I heard. I heard this strange hissing sound and notices some strange bright yellow eyes coming from the woods."
The others start to becomes concern on what Sakura has seen in the woods, and don't know what to make of it.
Discord asks, "Did you know what it looks like?"
"I didn't get a good look at it, but I did saw something in the woods, but it's gone now," Sakura answers, showing a serious look on her face.
Then Sakura calmly says with a smile, "But let's not worry about it anymore. Let's get back to the flying relay track and get into a little more practice before tomorrow."
"I agree. I'm sure what ever creature you saw is long gone by now, so we shouldn't be too worried about it," Baked Apple says.
"Yeah, but if that thing dares to show it's face again and tries to attack us, then we give' em the boot," Ace says with determination to fight.
Sakura, the gang, and Discord head back to the relay track to do their routine. Sakura, Ace, and Eden get into more practice, while Discord, and the others help them train. While everypony are going through training for the tryouts, the same creature continues to spy on the ponies from the distance, mostly on Sakura. The creature has been seeing her and her two friends practice and training for the games, and is waiting until the time is right to strike.
The last day of training has come and gone, and the ponies are ready for the tryouts for the flying relay. So far, Cloudsdale, The Griffon Kingdom or Griffon Stone, Manehattan, and Las Pegasus have qualified for the games. Now it's Ponyville's turn to tryout for the flying relay. Sakura is waiting at the starting line holding the gold horseshoe in her hand, while Apple Eden and Aerial Ace wait at their position for their time on the raley.
The pony at the starting line says, "Alright racers, get ready to race."
Sakura get in position by putting her right leg back and she goes into a lunge, and places her hands on the ground like she is ready to run, but she's ready to fly. Just then, the pegasus at the starting line blows the horn, and Sakura begins to fly through the course. When that happens, the ponies at the finish line set the timer for Ponyville's team. Sakura flies across the hoops and obstacles as fast as possible, but is also making sure it's not too fast for the alicorn wings.
After flying through the course, Sakura passes the horseshoe to Apple Eden, and she starts flying through the course too. Eden may not be fast, but makes up for it for her strong wings from working at the farm and using her wings to help out. Baked Apple and the others, including Discord cheer for Eden to go as fast as she can, and give her confidence.
Eden reaches the last part of the relay and passes the horseshoe to Ace. Ace goes fast as he never flies before. He flies through the hoops, and through a waterfall. The color of his make is taking up behind him, and he is excited about going fast. Ace then makes the last fast speed as the take heads on to the finish line on the cloud ring. Ace flies through the ring, and the pony stops the timer. When the judge looks at the time, he can see that the Ponyville team has 30 seconds to spare on the timmer.
The judge announces, "Ponyville qualifies!"
Hearing that, Sakura, Ace, and Eden give each other a big hug with excitement because they know that they're going to be in the games. Sometime later, Sakura and her friends have received their qualification medals, and they need it to let them know that they're in the games. After receiving their medals, Discord gather Sakura and her friend around, and he has a camera in front of them.
Discord happily cheers, "Alright everypony, say 'Equestria Games, here we come!'"
"Equestria Games, here we come!" Sakura and her friends repeat it with excitement, and Discord takes the picture.
At Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pinkie and Cheese Sandwich through Sakura, Aerial Ace, and Apple Eden a congratulatory party for qualifying for the flight raley in the Equestria Games, and invites the families to join in. Everyone have cakes, ice cream, drinks, and other kind of treats and goodies. They also play different kind of games and having a great time.
Sakura however, is having fun at the party, but leaves the room because she has something going on in her mind. She can't stop thinking on who she has seen at Rainbow Falls, and is very worried about it, like she has seen the colored eyes before. Remembering the hissing sound is making her feel like something going up her spine.
"I still shake this feeling I sensed at the relay field. I heard hissing sounds and seen glowing yellow eyes in the woods, but disappear when I got to close. I wonder who that was?" Sakura asks herself, deep in her own thoughts.
Just then Sakura realizes something that makes her feel cold, and worried says in her thoughts, "Could that have been Naga that I saw? If so... then what was he doing at Rainbow Falls, and why he didn't do anything when I was alone?""
Sakura thinks about her theory and wonder if the mysterious creature is the infamous Naga that the king and queen have warned her about during Hearth's Warming. Sakura decides to not let the others know so she won't worry them. She then goes back inside so she can enjoy the party with her friends. She soon forgot about what happened for a while, and hope the king and queen, along with the princesses can figure this out before anypony gets her. That is something that Sakura doesn't want to happen, especially for her friends and family.
