Chapter 9
Danger
A few hours later, Neo woke up after being passed out from intoxication. When he woke up, the mane 6, Spike, Chucky and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were in the room with him. They were happy to see that he was awake now and Neo was now sober, except he had a hangover.
The ponies tried to comfort him to help with his hangover but they wanted to know what happened with him out on the field a few hours ago. Neo said that he had drank too much red wine earlier and because of that, he was intoxicated. Despite that he embarrassed himself in front of everypony and everypony had been shocked by his behavior, the ponies and Spike all gave him a hug and said everything would be alright, they even mentioned that the princesses were not even angry with him at all.
Neo asked them why they were here and not at the games. Twilight said that the games were over for today and there was to be one more game tomorrow along with the closing ceremony. And they were hoping that Neo would come to the final games.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders all snuggled against Neo, just trying to make him happy and to show that they love and support him. They were so happy that Neo had performed for the games. To them, Neo had made this year's Equestria Games the best event ever in the history of Equestria. Neo gave each of the Cutie Mark Crusaders a kiss on the head, making each of them blush and they were looking forward to the final games tomorrow along with the closing ceremony.
The next day, Neo was up, but after what he did the day before at the games, he had decided not to come to the final games. Neo just sat in his room, packing his belongings. Since they were going back to Ponyville the next day, he thought he should go ahead and pack his things. The final games were already halfway over and they were about to play the last of the final games just right before the closing ceremony.
As he was packing, the Cutie Mark Crusaders came in to see him.
Applebloom said to Neo, "Neo, you comin'?
Neo looked at them and said, "No, I have to pack my things."
They all felt so concerned for him.
"But you've been moping in here for almost the entire Games," said Scootaloo.
"And tonight's the closing ceremony!" said Sweetie Belle.
"I know girls, but that means we'll be leaving tomorrow, so I need to pack my things."
The Cutie Mark Crusaders felt disappointed that Neo didn't want to come to the final games.
He went over to them and said, "I'm sorry girls, but after that stunt I pulled yesterday at the games, I don't have the nerve to face that crowd anymore. But I want you to enjoy the games without me."
The Cutie Mark Crusaders all gave Neo hugs and snuggles. Even though Neo didn't want to come to the final games, they still loved him very much and they were happy that he had performed for the opening ceremony and the first day of the games. Neo gave them a kiss on their heads and told them to have fun. Then the 3 fillies left to go watch the rest of the games.
Meanwhile at the final games, they were about to play their final game, which was Ice Archery.
Shining Armor said to the crowd, "And so the Games conclude as they always do, with the ice archery finals! Ice archers, take your places!"
The crowd cheered, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Spike and Chucky were in their seats, getting ready to watch the final game.
"Too bad Ponyville doesn't have any ice archers competin'," said Applejack. "We don't have anyone to root for."
"That's okay," said Pinkie Pie. "Ponyville has thirty seven medals, and Cloudsdale thirty six, so looks like we'll be medal champs of the Games anyway! Woo-hoo!"
"But Cloudsdale has two ice archery finalists down there now!" Said Rainbow Dash. "If they both place, Cloudsdale wins the medal count!"
"So you're saying that it all comes down to this one event?!" asked Pinkie Pie.
"Pretty much," said Applejack.
Pinkie Pie got so excited, she jumped up and down shouting, "Omigoshomigoshomigoshomigosh!"
Pinkie Pie was shouting so loud, you could hear her from the field.
Twilight came down the rows, looking for Neo.
Pinkie Pie saw her and said, "Twilight! Come take this extra seat next to me and freak out over the medal count! I'll show you how: Omigoshomigoshomigoshomigosh!"
"Actually, I was looking for Neo. Have you seen him?"
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were sitting on the row right next to where Twilight was.
"He wouldn't come," said Applebloom.
"We tried to talk him into it," said Sweetie Belle.
"But he just wouldn't listen," said Scootaloo.
Twilight was surprised that Neo didn't come, and she wasn't going to stand for that.
"You can have his extra seat, though," said Pinkie Pie. "Uh... Twi?" she noticed that Twilight was gone.
Pinkie Pie saw that Twilight was gone. She was going to get Neo to come out there whether he wants to or not.
Meanwhile back at the Crystal Palace, Neo was sitting on his couch, smoking a cigarette. He was feeling very depressed about his actions yesterday and he still had a hangover.
Suddenly, Neo heard Twilight say, "Neo, you here?"
Neo got scared for a second. He saw Twilight come in, she saw him smoking and she gave him a serious look.
Neo kept packing his things and he said, "What do you want Twilight? Can't you see I'm packing?"
"No more hiding out Neo," said Twilight in a demanding tone. "You're coming with me… Now."
She was going to make Neo come with her whether he wanted to or not.
"Why, so the crowd can throw beer bottles and vegetables at me," Neo said in a rude tone. "No thank you."
Twilight's horn glowed and she started to make Neo float out of the room.
"Hey what the fuck? Put me down," Neo said as Twilight floated him over to her.
"You don't have a choice Neo," said Twilight, glaring at him. "You're coming with me if I have to float you to the games. And as princess, I order you to come with me."
"Fine, fine, you win." Then Twilight put him on the floor.
"But I'm wearing this," he put on his white hockey mask.
Twilight thought that was immature but she wanted to get Neo to come with her without forcing him, so she let him wear the mask. And she knew that Neo wasn't himself right now, he was just upset because of what's been happening lately. Then Neo followed Twilight out of his room and she took him to the stadium.
Meanwhile back at the games, everypony was watching the Ice Archery competition. Neo's friends were watching every second of the game.
"Those aren't your average arrows," said Rainbow Dash. "They freeze whatever part of the target they hit. Whoever encases their entire target in ice first wins. Keep your eye on number seven from Cloudsdale – he's the favorite."
As Twilight and Neo were entering the stadium, Twilight said to Neo, "Honestly Neo, I don't see why you're being so hard on yourself."
Neo said in a shameful voice, "I let everypony down, twice. First I let them down by winning the Mortal Kombat challenge when you helped me win when my brother should have won and I let them down again when I acted crazy in front of everypony when I was drunk. You never let anypony down, so you don't have any idea what that's like."
"Are you kidding?" Twilight said, trying to sound understanding. "I've totally let ponies down. That's not the point. You performed for the games, you and your bother put on a good challenge for everypony, the aerial relay teams got their medals, no harm, no foul."
Neo knew that Twilight was just trying to make him feel better, but Neo didn't have the nerve to come out to the field for everypony to see him.
"I'd rather stay in here for right now," said Neo. "I'm not ready to face the crowds in the stand just yet."
The Ice Archery players kept playing the game, one of the ponies from Cloudsdale was so close to winning and another pony really wanted to beat him. The pony tried to shoot a different way to make a good shot, but the pony accidentally tripped and shot his ice arrow into a cloud, turning it into a large mass of ice.
Now that the cloud had become an icy cloud, it had become extremely heavy and it began coming down towards the stadium.
Everypony looked up in horror as the huge ice cloud hurdled towards the field. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Cadence were really scared about what would happen if that icy cloud hits the stadium. Various pegasus ponies including Rainbow Dash flew up to the cloud and tried to stop it from hitting the stadium.
"Steer it towards the field, away from the crowds!" shouted Rainbow Dash.
Shining Armor said to a security guard, "Somepony cut the disabling spell!"
But the guard said there wasn't any time. Since the security guards had disabled the magic from all the unicorns in the stadium, there wasn't time to restore it to them, so nopony had any magic to slow down the cloud.
Twilight was very worried, she backed away from the cloud that was heading towards the field, even she couldn't stop the cloud.
Neo saw what was happening. Thinking fast, he took off his mask and flew up towards the icy cloud. He stood on the cloud and began playing Heavy Metal music with his mind ("Machine Gun Messiah" by Sybreed). Neo sang and danced on the cloud and he was playing his music incredibly loud.
The music was so loud, it hurt everypony's ears, but the loud noise from the music caused the icy cloud to crack. Eventually, the icy cloud exploded with only small pieces of ice falling down onto the field. The ice melted in the field and Neo flew back down to the field.
Pleased by his heroic actions, everypony cheered for Neo. The princesses were so proud of him, especially Princess Cadence. Twilight was cheering for Neo the loudest along with Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Spike and Chucky from the crowd. Everypony saw Neo as a hero once again and now you know why everypony calls him "Great and Honorable Neo the Brave and Mighty."
End of chapter 9.