My Little Pony-Friendship is Magic
The Romancing Quest
By Doctor Scraps
Disclaimer: My Little Pony- Friendship is Magic is property of Hasbro and all affiliated parties involved, and the author claims no rights to any characters, settings, or events. This story was written for entertainment purposes only.
A/N: The story will continue after this chapter, even if it does seem like a good spot to call it quits. I'm not done yet.
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Chapter 9
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-The race had begun.
Both contestants shot forward, leaving the starting line in the dust. Almost immediately, Big Macintosh had a lead on Trixie, however that was only because Trixie was waiting to at least have some distance from the prying eyes of Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle before she activated her horseshoes. For now, she'd let the lead go to the workhorse.
Up above the race track, a hot air balloon soared, trying to keep pace with the two racers.
"Good afternoon, colts and fillies, foals of all ages!" Pinkie Pie's voice echoed across the field with the aid of a megaphone. "Welcome to the 1st annual Race for the Kissy Face competition!"
Another voice, that of a young dragon, joined in.
"Are we really calling it that?" Spike asked, more than a little unsettled having to use that title.
"Of course, silly billy willy! Today's the day we get to see who resident librarian and fair maiden Twilight Sparkle gets to make kissy faces with for now on until eternity!"
…
Down on the ground, Twilight Sparkle put a hoof to her face and hunkered down, hoping nopony could see her.
…
"Right. Well, we're already well underway, and it looks like Biiiig Macintosh of Sweet Apple Acres has gotten an early lead on the Great and Powerful Trixie!" Spike observed from above. "And it looks like they're finishing the first straightaway, and coming up on the mine field!"
"Don't worry ponies! We've been assured by Twilight herself that the mines are NOT lethal!" Pinkie Pie said, the excitement in her voice nearly masking out the reassuring tone she was trying for.
…
"Mines?" Trixie nearly scuttled herself to a halt, as the big red stallion galloped straight until the stretch of road covered in little mounds. It was only a second before there was a loud pop, and a cloud of purple smoke lifting into the air.
As the smoke cleared, where Macintosh had been standing a mere moment ago, a bright red toad sat there, looking confused.
…
"And Big Macintosh is first to go down! He better HOP TO IT if he wants to get out of this jam!" Pinkie Pie called out.
"Oh no, please not the jokes…" Spike urged.
…
Trixie stared at it for a moment, before a snort escaped, letting loose a rolling laugh. "Oh…Oh my…That…that is really too much…!" She wiped a tear from her eye as she, ever so elegantly began to tip-hoof through the field, minding the mounds. As she stepped by Macintosh, she cast him a smug smile.
"See you at the finish line, MacinTRASH!" She stuck her tongue out and trotted on…before she felt something warm and sticky suddenly snap hold of the back of one of her hind legs.
…
"Wowie! And now Trixie! I can't see! What did she turn into?" Pinkie Pie wedged her way to get control of the telescope.
"Stop crowding, Pinkie!"
…
Trixie coughed and swatted the smoke away, wobbling back onto her feet, feeling a might lightheaded. The first thing she noticed was that she was now relatively the same height as Macintosh…or Macintoad, in this case. The next thing she notices was her obviously large, furry feet…standing on only twop of them, and two fluffy things that kept getting in her vision.
Macintoad grinned a froggy grin at the Trixie Bunny and began hopping onward, bouncing over the mounds. Trixie Bunny growled and hopped after. After a few hops, a dilemma occurred to Trixie Bunny…in their smaller state, the length of the mine field was nearly triple that of their equine size would have accounted for. She would be dead out of breath before the end, let alone enough to finish, while that confounded red toad seemed just busting with energy.
Then a thought occurred to her…And she leapt onto another mine, a bright orange plume of smoke hitting her.
Meanwhile, Macintoad was confident in his stride, bounding effortlessly across the field…Until a bright blue deer leapt right over him, tiny little feet skirting between the mounds. Macintoad saw Trixie's game and immediately hugged a mine.
Trixie was about to look back and gloat, but when she did, she saw her opponent nowhere to be seen. Panicking, she became aware of something landing on her flank. A quick glance revealed a red spider.
Trixie screamed and lost her footing, topping off kilter, the spider crawling along her sides to keep balance…
And suddenly they were on the outskirt of the field, crossing over the glowy purple line, and a very large and very heavy Big Macintosh collapsed right on top of a very startled Trixie. They lay there dazed for a moment until they realized their snouts were pressed firmly against one another before they both recoiled and wiped their lips off on their forelegs.
"You taste like wood!" Trixie spat.
"You don't taste like no fruit basket yerself!" Macintosh huffed.
Both suddenly froze, looked to each other, and then scrambled for the lead.
…
"Well, folks it looks like they finally cleared the minefield!" Spike announced.
"Phooey! I was hoping one of them would hit the cupcake mine!" Pinky Pie pouted.
"…You wanted one of them to turn into a cupcake?" Spike asked.
"Yeah! I'm hungry!"
…
Both ponies struggled for the lead, keeping pace neck to neck, with Trixie gradually faltering back. They were far enough away that Trixie decided it was finally time to bust out her secret weapon. She reached out with her magic, and activated the special alloy coating her horseshoes…
Macintosh almost swallowed his tongue as Trixies flank waved at him up ahead, the Unicorns legs a flurry of speed. He clench his teeth and pounded his hooves against the dirt.
Where in tarnation did she suddenly get the energy? Macintosh thought. He spurred himself harder, coming up just close enough that Trixie's tail, billowing from her pace, tickled his nose. If he was a less honorable pony, he could have just sank his teeth into it and taken her down a peg or two.
His train of thought was broken by the sudden rumble of thunder overhead and dark clouds started to sweep into position overhead. The rains followed not long after, accompanied by a harsh wind. The trail was soon drenched and puddles of muddy water , some areas completed flooded, began to appear.
That was when Macintosh saw the steam whistling off of Trixie's hooves. Trixie caught him staring, shooting him a disdainful glare.
"Mind your eyes, peasant!" She hissed, her silver mane flowing across her face as she looked back at him.
"Yer cheatin'!" Macinotsh growled, eyes narrowed against the whipping wind and rain.
"Leveling the playing field! All's fair in love and war, Mister Macin-"
The sudden appearance of a big blue door canceled out the thought as the two plunged into the sudden, surprise corridor.
…
"And…Where did they go?" Spike asked. "Did they go into that phone booth?"
"Wow it must be bigger on the inside for both of them!" Pinkie Pie said.
"Oh, hey, it's disappearing!"
"That sound reminds me of my mom and dad when they would go to bed really early at night."
"Pinkie…"
"Ah, phooey! They cut out my canon course!"
"Because you nearly killed yourself!"
…
Up high over the snowcapped mountains, the Tardis reappeared, depositing the two racers onto a snowy peak. They rolled until they reached a summit by a trail, a sudden kick-up of snow pelting them. Trixie spat out a mouthful of snow and wrestled with the obnoxiously colored and awkwardly long scarf she'd gotten tangled up in when they crashed into the strange box. Kicking it off, Trixie tripped and rolled through the snow while Macintosh loomed over her.
"I shoulda known you'd take to playin' dirty!" Macintosh shouted over the howl of the blizzard.
"Save me the lecture, Macintosh!" Trixie reared up to get in his face. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is willing to go to ANY length to get what she rightfully deserves!"
"Twilight ain't no 'what'!" Big Mac snapped. "Now you take those kickers off right this minute before I go and do something' I'll regret!"
"Oh my…" Trixie played at coy. "I've just about driven the honorable workhorse to violence…Very well…" She bent down as though to pick off her horseshoes… Suddenly rearing back and kicking a chunk of snow with all the force of a hardened snowball thanks to the enchanted hoofwear. "Here!"
Macintosh saw stars as he wiped the snow from his eyes. Trixie was already ahead of him, the snow melting and turning to ice in her wake.
Cursing, Macintosh plowed onward.
The hillside was starting to get steeper, only the occasional yellow arrow marker to point them onto the right path, the flying snow making it hard to anything but the bright yellow guides. Both horses were starting to wear down from the bite of the cold, but Trixie's sudden push was keeping her going, despite her teeth chattering more than her legs were moving.
Suddenly, two arrows came into view, pointing downward at the very edge of a cliff. Trixie skid to a stop and stared down the sheer cliff, instinctively swallowing. She snapped her gaze to the snowy trail as Macintosh caught up to her, eyes nearly flaming, and just a small hint of red under one nostril.
"Afraid of heights, Mr. Macintosh?" Trixie asked with an air of playfulness.
"Not one bit. You?" Macintosh's voice strained to keep an even temper.
Kicking one leg out over the cliff…the rest of Trixie soon followed. Macintosh peered over the edge just as Trixie vanished within the strange blue box, that was now perpendicular to the cliff wall.
…
"Hey, look, they're back from the mountain! The clouds have cleared, and only one more stretch to go before the end of the race! Trixie is in the lead, with no sign yet of Big Macintosh!" Spike called over the megaphone.
"That track looks like all kinds of muddy chocolaty goodness!" Pinkie Pie squeaked. "hey, can we go get sundaes after this?"
…
Trixie grinned to herself as she galloped out of the Tardis. Almost there…Just a little more, and Twilight would be hers. She soon heard the familiar heavy gallops of her opponent behind her.
Oh no you don't! Trixie scowled as she turned up the heat on her shoes once more, sending sprays of water into the air as she sped through puddles.
The finish line was within sight, far up ahead. She could see the crowds, and all the balloons that silly pink one had decorated the area with. Soon it would be all over…
However, she felt the earth underneath her give way to mud and muck as her hoof bit into a well drenched part of the trail. The mud came up to her knee's, matters only becoming worse the more she struggled and kicked, even the speed of her enchantment only digging her deeper. The more she tried to move, the more the mud sucked her in.
"No…Nonononononono!" Trixie squealed. She glanced up to see Big Macintosh as he was trotting up to her from behind, circling around the patch of mud.
"Don't just stand there, idiot! Help me!" Trixie screeched, her silver mane now a more filthy grey color with splotches of mud all over.
Big Mac just continued onward…
"Come back here!" Trixie cried after him as his form got farther away.
…
"Huh…And it looks like…Trixies gotten herself in a right pickle there, wouldn't you say, Pinkie?"
"Mmmm…Pickles…Pickles with jelly…"
…
And so it was that Big Macintosh won the race. The ponies cheered for the victor, and once more for the happy couple as Twilight Sparkle came to his side, rewarding him with a delicate kiss. Under the gaze of her mentor, Princess Celestia, Twilight, dressed like a storybook princess and stars in her eyes, did pledge that from that day forward, she was his mare. Macintosh, covered in mud, and a bit of a bloody nose still, in turn pledged that from that day forward, he would be her stallion. And the ponies rejoiced.
And then, over a megaphone most loud, came the voice of one most merry, that it was time to party.
…
Trixie didn't bother to finish the race. She felt no need to present herself, the evident loser. She had lost. A bitter truth that stung worse than any heckler hopped up on fermented apple cider ever could. When she returned to her campsite, she half expected to find that mysterious Unicorn there, to perhaps deliver some sort of metaphorical capstone to the whole affair. But no. She returned alone.
She was used to being alone, such that it was. But this time, she actually felt it. Alone, that is. As she began packing, magically transporting the items into the confines of her pointed, star-studded hat, her expression remained the same. Cold indifference.
She was probably never going to be able to return to the little squat of Ponyville, now twice defeated. Her reputation was like the dirt that now caked her from horn to hoof. What hurt more than her ravaged public image torn even more to tatters, was that she had also lost Twilight.
As she kicked dirt on the cold ashes of her campfire, she replayed that day at the café in her head. How happy she had felt afterwards of the aspect of her and Twilight…Two Unicorns taking on the world. What had happened to that?
"Played me like a fool…" Trixie felt the words spill out as she kicked one final time and turned to meet the road. Only a few days later, and she had her hooves all over someone else. And how many others before that? That filly-fooling, mane-chasing trollop…And on top of that, how indifferent she had been of the whole affair! No hesitance to the challenge of a race at all. How very Twilight of her.
The more Trixie thought about it the angrier she felt. She was well past being depressed. Had what she had felt for Twilight even been real, she wondered.
Or was it like her act…?
Just one big illusion.
…
The celebration of the race went well into the night. For all intents and purposes, Twilight Sparkle just assumed it wasn't so much in celebration of her and Big Macintosh publicly finalizing their relationship, just that it was that Ponies like to party. Any excuse was a good one, even a lovers quarrel.
Twilight sat under a tree on a blanket, watching the other ponies dance under the smiling presence of Celestia and Luna. Well…Celestia at least. Luna looked a bit forlorn. By Twilights side, Macintosh sat nestled beside her, his legs still a bit achy from the endeavor he had just undergone.
She smiled to him and nuzzled against his neck, feeling that warm glow rush through her. Affection. That indescribable sensation of enjoying the presence of another. In return, he bent down to kiss her forehead. They had each other now…
But…deep down…Twilight was unsettled. She was hoping to at least be able to talk to Trixie after the race. To ensure that, despite her loss of her as a lover, she did not want them to part on bad grounds. Just because she had lost didn't mean that Twilight was going to stop thinking about the boisterous unicorn. It hurt a little inside to think that Trixie had stormed off perhaps in tears, a lover scorned.
It was not a feeling that had gone unnoticed.
Big Macintosh had assumed that Trixie would remain lingering on Twilights mind, and he had set himself determined to be there for her. He was hers now, all of Ponyville knew that, but he didn't need their knowing to come to terms with that. He had been smitten with her for many a season now, since she forced her way onto the property to put his stubborn sister in her place when she nearly killed herself trying to harvest the whole crop by herself. He'd told himself that 'one day, I'm gonna marry that mare'. He never would have thought he'd be that close to that. That said, what hurt Twilight, now hurt him. That was only fair.
Eventually, someone took notice that the couple of honor were off by themselves doing nothing. Rarity trotted over and demanded Twilight take her handsome stud out onto the dance floor and show off her gown. She was soon followed by Pinkie Pie, wearing a scuba-suit and Brian with a Rubber Duck tied to him. Then Applejack tried dragging the blanket towards the square.
Eventually, both in a fit of laughs, they conceded and joined the others.
…
Luna was deep in thought as she sat there beside her sister, who was very much enthralled by the ponies dancing and carrying on. Typical for her. Luna was tired and wanted to go home, after having to excuse herself for raising the moon and bringing the night. But still, she didn't want to appear rude at one of the few times she graced the peasantry with her presence.
"M…Miss Luna…I mean, your majesty?" A soft and fluttery voice called to her from her left. Looking down, she saw Fluttershy, one of the Elements of Harmony, standing there after apparently bringing her something to drink.
After meeting the princesses gaze, Fluttershy wilted a little bit. "I…I noticed that you didn't seem to be enjoying yourself, so I thought maybe that I would bring you some refreshment…that is if you don't mind…"
Luna smiled politely, bending down to take a sip. Berry punch. "Ah, thank you, Lady Fluttershy…"
"Ah, you…you remember my name…" Fluttershy blushed.
"It's a very easy name to remember." Luna turned and faced the little Pegasus fully. "…Then again, I made a note to remember the ones who freed me of the Nightmare…"
"Well…that was more Twilight than me, I mean…we didn't even know what the Elements were until…"
"You can't take a compliment well, can you?"
"N…No, your majesty…I mean, if you say so…that is…"
Luna laughed softly, if not a bit dismissively, "Cute as ever…"
Fluttershy tilted her head, noting Luna's still sullen, if not just annoyed, countenance.
"Well, I will…take my leave…Thank you for your time, your majesty…Please, have a good time, that is, if you're staying…"
Luna watched the Pegasus scurry away.
"She certainly is cute, isn't she?" Celestia asked, peering over Luna's shoulder.
"…Sister, please don't make me throw this drink in your face."
…
And so the ponies danced…
…
Still to be continued…