EPISODE 47: THE SWIMMER COMPETITION

CHARACTERS

Littlefoot

Cera

Ducky

Petrie

Spike

Chomper

Ruby

Mama Swimmer

Papa Swimmer

Sural (OC)

Swimmers (OCs)

SONGS

I Will Beat Sural (New)

Feel So Happy

The day had been going well for Ducky. The weather was fine, though it was a trifle hot. It was the beginning of fall and Ducky was swimming. She swam to the edge of a waterfall, took a dive over the edge, and landed in the turbulent waters below, which she navigated with ease. "That was pretty good, but nothing like I can do!" bragged Sural.

Ducky ignored her. Sural was an arrogant Swimmer who was stuck on herself. The less she saw of her the better. "Go away Sural. I do not want to be bothereded by you."

Sural climbed up to the top of a set of waterfalls and dove off, making a more impressive dive than Ducky had. She then swam through the turbulent water and was next to Ducky in less than a minute. "You'll never be as good as me," taunted Sural.

"Perhaps I will not but what does it matter?" asked Ducky.

"It matters, because you'll always be a terrible swimmer," said one of Sural's friends.

"I may not be as good as Sural, but I am not terrible, oh no, no, no," said Ducky, who was offended.

"Then prove it!" snapped another one of Sural's friends.

"How do I prove it?" asked Ducky, her temper rising.

"You'll have to beat me in a swimming competition," said Sural.

"Fine, I will!" shouted Ducky, losing her temper.

(Theme song: All I see is the day in front of us. All I see is the day in front of us. Burning bright with a new-born sun. Burning bright with a new-born sun. Come follow me

Hills to climb and valleys to roam
Oh, streams to follow all the way home
To the Land Before Time
Before time

)

Sometime later, Petrie noticed that Ducky seemed bothered by something. "What matter Ducky?" he asked her.

"Sural thinks that I am not that good of a swimmer."

"Me think you good swimmer."

"She does not think so." Ducky grumbled. "She challengeded me to a swimming competition."

"Sounds exciting."

"I am going to beat her and show her. I am!" Ducky vowed.

"What's this about a swimming competition?" asked Cera, coming into sight.

"Sural challenge Ducky to swimming competition." Petrie informed her.

"Sural, that stuck up Swimmer?"

"Yes, she is very stuckeded up. But she won't be when I beat her. I will show her! I will!" Ducky said.

"I hope you do," Cera said.

"What's going on Cera?" It was Littlefoot, who was with Spike, Chomper, and Ruby.

"Sural challenged Ducky to a swimming competition."

"Me sure that Ducky outswim her," Petrie said.

"Yeah, Sural's ego will cause her to sink," Cera laughed.

"I'm afraid that Sural is a good Swimmer," Ducky sighed. "But I will be better than her, I will."

Ducky began to sing. "I will be better than Sural, oh I will, I will, I will.

Sural can swim good but I will swim better still!

I have to beat Sural, I must, I must.

I will leave Sural in the dust.

I will be the best swimmer around.

Sural's popularity will crash to the ground.

Soon, everyone will see.

That the best swimmer in the Great Valley is me!"

"Don't you think you're taking this too far?" Littlefoot asked her sometime later.

"I have to keep practicing or I won't beat Sural!"

"This isn't like you. Normally you'd care more about being with your friends than winning some silly contest."

"If I do not beat Sural in the race, then everyone will think that I am not as good a swimmer as she is and I do not want that, oh no, no, no."

"Does It really matter?"

"Yes of course it matters! I must beat Sural!"

"If you keep trying so hard, you're going to be too tired by the time of the race."

"No, I won't!"

"If you say so," Cera sighed.

Ducky continued practicing for two more hours. She was growing more tired but didn't want to let up. "Ducky, me think you should take break," Petrie said to her.

"I'd like to but I have to keep practicing so that I can beat Sural."

"Me really think you doing this too much and need break."

"I did not ask your opinion Petrie. Now let me practice."

Half an hour later, Ducky began to tire. She had been swimming in a fast-moving current for hours and began to both be swept away and under the water. He struggled to stay afloat. Petrie, who luckily happened to be flying nearby, saw her. "Me coming Ducky!" He swooped down and grabbed her, pulling her out of the water and carrying her to dry land.

"What happened?" Ducky asked sleepily.

"You start to go under and me save you."

Ducky suddenly remembered what she had been doing. "I have to keep practicing so that I can be Sural!"

"You need rest; me no let you practice right now!"

"But I have to! I do, I do!"

"Only Sural be happy if you drown from practicing too much."

"But, but…"

"No say anything else. You need rest."

"No, no, no, I need….I need…" Ducky moaned, before collapsing in exhaustion and falling asleep.

While Ducky slept, Petrie flew off and informed his friends what had happened.

"Ducky's going to end up killing herself if she keeps this up, which would mean that she would be wasting her time as she wouldn't be around to beat Sural anyway," Ruby sighed.

"We really need to make Ducky feel that she's good enough without having to beat Sural," Littlefoot said.

"And how do we do that?" Cera asked.

"Ducky, we want talk to you," Petrie called out sometime later.

"What do you want to talk about?" she asked.

"Just follow me and we tell you."

"Ok, but make it quick. I want to practice to race Sural." She followed Petrie to the others. "What is it that you wanted?"

"Me think you best Swimmer ever," Petrie said.

"Thank you, Petrie."

"Yes, I've never seen anyone swim as well as you do," Cera added.

"Thank you, Cera."

"Yes, you are the best Swimmer I've seen of all the Swimmers that I've seen," Ruby said.

"Thank you, Ruby," Ducky said, this time in a bit more annoyed tone than she had said to Petrie and Cera.

"You're the best, Ducky," Chomper said.

"Thank you, Chomper," Ducky replied, in an even more annoyed tone.

"Yes, you are the best…." Littlefoot began.

"Enough you guys! I see what you are doing. You are trying to make me feel good so that I will not race Sural. Well, it will not work, no, no, no!" Ducky snapped.

"Ducky, why do you need to race Sural so badly?" Cera snapped.

"Because, I am sick of the way she treats everyone! When I beat her, she will stop being such a jerk!"

"But what if she doesn't?"

"At least I will have beated her."

"And what will they do?"

"Make me betterer than her."

"But you already are."

"I need to be sure."

"And winning the race will make you sure?"

"Yes."

"Then I suppose that we'll have to help you do your best to beat her."

"How can you do that? You are not a Swimmer. You can barely swim at all. No you can't."

"We can cheer you on while you practice and during the competition."

"Thank you."

"I think, though, that you shouldn't practice as much as before. It's too dangerous."

"I suppose that you are right," Ducky sighed. "But I still want to beat that Sural and show her!"

"And I hope you do."

Meanwhile, Sural talked to her friends. "That Ducky honestly thinks she can beat me."

"She's really crazy!" one of her admirers said.

"I know she is, but why would she race me?"

"Because she thinks she can beat you."

"Could she?" Sural asked.

"You know she can't beat you!" another admirer said.

"Yes, yes, of course, she can't. She's just dumb old Ducky," Sural said, though, from the tone of her voice, there was a hint of doubt in her statement.

"She's so dumb that she doesn't even know that she can't beat you!" yet another admirer laughed.

"What does she think she is?"

"She's a nobody!"

"She's dumb old Ducky the nobody!"

"And she's not going to beat me!" Sural declared.

Ducky, meanwhile, was still determined to beat Sural. She could still hear the Swimmer's snide remarks in her head, buzzing angrily. Despite her friends's best efforts to try and convince her that she had been taking the competition too seriously, to her, it was personal. "I will beat you Sural!" she declared.

She went back to practicing. She felt bad about lying to her friends. "They do not understand. They do not get that nothing will make Sural change except being beaten. And I want to be the one to beat her," she said to herself.

Two hours later, Ruby came across Ducky. "I thought you said that you were going to take a break from practicing but it looks like you are still practicing."

"I did. But now I am back to practicing."

"That break wasn't very long."

"I guess not."

"Didn't we agree that you were going to not take this competition thing so seriously?"

"Sural is, so why should not I?"

"Because it's just a silly competition."

"Not to me it is not. Oh no, no, no, no, no."

"Ducky, when I wanted the race against Elana and her friends, I ended up so obsessed with winning that I stooped to cheating."

"I will not cheat. I will beat Sural fair and square in front of everyone, I will."

"I'm not saying that you're going to cheat….."

"Then what are you saying?"

"That you are taking this too far."

"I do not think so."

"Well, I most certainly do!"

"Well, you are not the one racing against Sural."

"It's just a race, Ducky."

"Not to me. To me it will be the chance to show Sural that she is not as great as she thinks she is."

"And how do you know that you beating Sural will show Sural that she is not as great as she thinks she is?"

"She will see it because she loses. And so will everyone else."

"I suppose so."

"Ruby, there you are!" came Littlefoot's voice.

"I found Ducky. She is practicing again."

"I thought she said she was taking a break."

"I takeded a break and now the break is over," Ducky replied.

"I can see that nothing we see will change your mind," Littlefoot sighed.

"Nope, nope, nope."

"We will support you in your race against Sural, but we won't let you hurt yourself in doing it," Littlefoot said.

"I am not hurting myself and do not see what you can do to stop me from practicing? Are you on Sural's die now?"

Littlefoot didn't answer, but ran off. "Where did he go in such a hurry?" Ducky asked Ruby.

The answer came a few moments later, as Petrie zoomed into sight, grabbed Ducky out of the water, lifted her, kicking and screaming, into the air, and carried her up to a ledge high up a mountainside, with no way down, save jumping or flying. "Let me go Petrie! Let me go!" she snapped at him.

"Sorry, Littlefoot orders."

"I am supposeded to be practicing for the race against Sural! I cannot practice up here! Why did Littlefoot tell you to have me putted up here?"

"Littlefoot say that you can practice later but need break and will get one one way or other."

"Littlefoot should have askeded me first before having you put me up here! He should!"

"He think that you just tell him no and keep practicing, so he suggest we do this."

"Well, I do not like it"

"He not think you like it either but he tell Petrie to do it anyway."

"How long am I supposeded to be kept up here?"

"Littlefoot say until you ready to see reason."

"Littlefoot must want Sural to win! Let me down now!"

"No, Littlefoot want you to win."

"He has a funny way of showing he wants me to win!"

"Petrie!" came Petrie's mother's voice.

"Me have to go now. Me be back later," Petrie said, before flying.

"Wait, do not leave me here. I do not like being lefted up here! Come back Petrie!"

After waiting half an hour for Petrie to return, Ducky began to try and find a way down, even though it seemed impossible. As she climbed up to the tallest point of the rockface that Petrie had left her on, the ground gave way. She screamed as she fell several feet and landed in an underground stream. This carried her for several hundred feet before shooting her out a waterfall and into a stream. She got out of this stream, now back in the Great Valley. "Well, that was lucky that that happended. Now I can go back to practicing," Ducky said gleefully.

Petrie, meanwhile, had finally returned from talking with his mother, only to notice that Ducky was missing. He searched all over the rockface but couldn't find her. He frantically flew to Littlefoot. Littlefoot noticed him coming toward him in a hurry and asked "What's wrong?"

"Me no find Ducky anywhere."

"You put her up on a ledge. Where could she have gone to?"

"Me no sure, but she no there anymore."

"You think she fell?"

"Me really hope not!"

Littlefoot, Cera, Petrie, Spike, Chomper, and Ruby searched all around the cliff to see if they could find her. However, even Chomper and his strong sense of smell couldn't find any trace of her. "I'm afraid she's just gone," he sighed.

"Where could she be?" Littlefoot asked.

Ducky, meanwhile, was practicing for the race, swimming as fast as she could against the current of a fast-moving stream. "Sural will lose the race for sure!" she laughed.

"Practice all you want, but you won't beat me!" Ducky turned to see Sural glaring at her. Her loss of focus caused her to be swept away by the current and to bang her head on a rock.

"Sural, you causeded me to lose my focus!"

"I don't see the big deal; you're hopeless. You can never ever beat me."

"YesI can, and I will, I will!"

"No, you can't!"

"Why don't you race me now then if you think you are so great?"

"I will, but I want everyone to see you lose!"

"You just want everyone to watch you because you are so stuckded on yourself!"

"That's not true!" Sural snapped. "I just don't want you lying and saying you beat me when you clearly won't."

"I will not lie; I will tell them that I beat you, because I am going to beat you!"

"Then let's race, right now!"

Meanwhile, Littlefoot and his friends came to Ducky's mother and father.

"Hello children, what brings you here?" Mama Swimmer asked them.

"We kind of lose Ducky," Petrie said.

"What do you mean you 'lost' her?" Ducky's father asked, glaring at him.

"Whole thing Littlefoot idea, not Petrie's."

"I don't care whose idea it was! Where is she?"

"Unfortunately, we do not know; that is why we said we lost her," Ruby sighed.

"What happened?" Ducky's mother asked.

"Again, it Littlefoot idea, not Petrie's," Petrie began.

"What did you do to her?" Ducky's father snapped.

"Ducky want to beat Sural in swimmer competition but she getting crazy and practicing way too much and nearly get hurt. So Littlefoot tell Petrie to put her on ledge way up where she not get down so she take rest. But when Petrie come to see her just now, she no there."

"What?!" the two parents gasped in horror.

"We searched everywhere for her but didn't find her. We think she's still alive, but she just vanished," Cera said.

"Where did you last see her?" Ducky's mother asked.

"Up on that ledge where we left her," Littlefoot replied.

"Then go look up there right away! See if you can find anything," Ducky's father said. He looked up at the sky, which had been gradually darkening over the past few minutes. "And hurry up, it looks like a storm is coming."

Meanwhile, Ducky and Sural were about to race. Around them, the sky had darkened and the wind was picking up. Still, they were determined to race, even if it poured.

"Prepare to lose!" Sural taunted Ducky.

"You should be," Ducky retorted.

At that moment, lightning flashed in the sky. The two were still thinking of racing when another bolt of lightning struck a tree right across the stream from them. The two bolted in a panic. These were clearly unsafe conditions for swimming!

Ducky headed back home, planning to race Sural as soon as the storm let up. When she arrived back home, her parents ran up to her and hugged her. "Mom and Dad, why are you hugging me? I do not mind, but I was not gone that long."

"Your friends said that you were put up on a ledge and disappeared. We'd thought you might have died," her mother said.

"Nope, nope, nope, I am not dead. I am alive. I am."

"Well, we are glad to hear that. But you need to go tell your friends. They are looking all over for you," her father said.

"I will go do that."

Meanwhile, Ducky's friends were frantically looking for her. "Ducky, where are you?" Littlefoot called.

"Ducky, come out!" Petrie called.

"What is it Petrie?" Ducky asked, walking up to him.

"We looking for Ducky. She go missing and we looking all over for her," Petrie replied absentmindedly.

"I'm right here."

"No bother me right now, me too busy looking for Ducky!" he snapped, continuing to call for Ducky.

Ducky walked over to Ruby. "I am right here."

"Oh, hi Ducky," Ruby said. "We were just looking for you…..and we just found you."

It didn't take long for Ruby to alert the others. "Where did you go?" Littlefoot asked Ducky.

Ducky explained what had happened. When she was done, Chomper remarked "You and Sural are both acting crazy!"

"Sural is the crazy one, and I am going to beat her as soon as this storm stops!"

"Ducky, you need a break before racing her. You'll lose otherwise," said Littlefoot.

"She's going to lose regardless." It was Sural.

"You two are acting irrational. It's just a stupid race, yet you are acting like your entire future depends on how you do in this race," Littlefoot remarked.

"That's because it does," Sural replied.

"Yes, I cannot let Sural beat me or else nobody will think that I am any good," Ducky said.

"You aren't any good, which is why I'm going to beat you!" Sural snapped.

"No, you're not!"

"Cut it out, you two!" Cera snapped.

"Remember, we race as soon as this storm is over," Sural said to Ducky, before storming off.

"I will, and I will beat you!" Ducky shouted after her.

Littlefoot realized that Ducky wasn't going to be talked out of racing. "If you plan to race today, then I guess we'll be there to cheer you on, even if we think you're taking this race too seriously."

"I thought that you were mad at me for practicing so much and making you look all over for me."

"We are upset, but we found you and you were all right, and that's the important thing. And, since we can't talk you out of it, the least we can do is be there to cheer you on."

"Thank you, guys, I appreciate this a lot, I do."

A short time later, Sural had gathered together her admirers. "Soon, I will race against Ducky and defeat her, showing everyone that I am the best Swimmer in the Great Valley."

"Sural, you're already the best Swimmer in the Great Valley. Why do you need to race Ducky?" one of them asked.

"To show to her and everyone else that she's not better than me."

"I hope the Sky Water stops falling soon," another said.

The rain, however, didn't stop until well after nightfall. "Guess you'll have to wait till tomorrow to race," Cera said to Ducky.

"No, I want to race Sural today!"

"In the dark?"

"If that is how I have to race her, then I will race her in the dark."

"Then you'll be doing it alone. We can't even watch you in the dark."

"Fine, I will race Sural and I do not need any of you to watch!"

"I thought the whole point of this was to beat Sural in front of everyone," Ruby said.

"I will beat Sural and that is all that matters."

"If that is what matters to you, then I guess, good luck."

Sural, meanwhile, was also determined to race. "I don't care if I have to race her in the dark. I will beat her anyway."

"Can't you wait till tomorrow?" one of her admirers asked

"No, I want to race her tonight! I've already waited long enough!"

"Nobody will be able to see you race her in the dark," another of her admirers remarked.

"I will be able to see me beat her, and that's all that matters!"

"If that's all that matters, then you can race her without us watching you!" her admirers all snapped, storming off.

And so, around midnight, Ducky and Sural prepared to race. Though the rain, thunder, and lightning had stopped, it was still very windy. "Ready to lose?" Sural asked.

"It is you that will lose."

The two began to race, swimming as fast as they could. The two were neck and neck. The two pushed against each other, trying to get ahead of the other. The two approached a large waterfall. Though the plans for the race had originally involved them getting onto shore and climbing down, which was far safer, and getting back in the water further down and out of reach of the waterfall currents, the two were eager to get ahead and thus stayed in, going over the fall.

Sural landed in the water and kept afloat, but Ducky was pulled under the current. At that moment, however, a cloud covered the moon, making it harder for Sural to see; she thus swam right into a rock, hurting her shoulder, and began to be swept away by the current. Ducky, meanwhile, resurfaced, panting and gasping.

"I'm….going…to…beat…you….Sural!" Ducky panted. "You…will…not…beat…me!"

"No….I….will…win!" Sural panted, trying to ignore the pain in her shoulder.

The two traversed the rest of the course, growing increasingly tired. They were nearing the finish line. They were still nearly neck and neck; sometimes Sural was in the lead and other times Ducky was.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. "Earthshake!" the two cried. Rocks fell both behind them and in front them, blocking the water and trapping them.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Sural cried.

"I do not know. But we need to get out of here before those rocks up there fall on us," Ducky replied.

"How are we going to do that? We're trapped in here!"

"Maybe we can find a way under it."

The two swam to the bottom, which was two dozen feet down. There was a way underneath, but the current was pushing against the way out. The two resurfaced again. "We'll never be able to outswim that!" Sural moaned.

"We can if we both swim together."

The two swam back to the bottom. The rocks were now cascading down quickly from above into the water, so they had to move very quickly. Using all of their strength and speed and holding on to each other, Ducky and Sural propelled their way through the hole. They made to the other side just in time. The two were shaken, but unharmed. They had come out at the finish line.

"I guess we both winded," Ducky remarked.

"I guess so," Sural replied.

The two laughed as they got back onto shore. They were very tired now and went to bed.

The next morning, Ducky's friends and Sural's admirers asked them who won the race. The two told everyone what had happened and that, in the end, it was a tie.

"We can both be the best Swimmers in the Great Valley," Sural said.

"Yep, yep, yep, there is no reason that we cannot both be the best," Ducky said.

"I'm glad that you're finally acting like yourself again, Ducky," Littlefoot said.

"I feel see happy, I want everyone to see," Ducky began to sing.

"It's like the Bright Circle is shining inside of me," Sural sang.

"We thought that we had to beat each other in order to be the best," Ducky sang.

"But we found that that didn't matter, as we both can attest," Sural sang.

"We would make a big scene and fuss.

As we tried to determine who was the best among us."

"But we now see that what we were doing was dumb

And would have had a bad outcome."

"I feel so happy, I want everyone to see.

It's like the Bright Circle is shining inside of me," the two sang, finishing the song.

And so, Sural and Ducky ended their rivalry and became friends.