Chapter 8 Part 3 - Interruptions Galore (Pinkie Pie and Twilight) [Rewrite]

True to her word, Applejack kept a close eye on Zephyr as he helped apple buck. While he didn't find it too imposing, he also had the realization that she was also watching him for something else entirely. Like she didn't trust him fully.

That's fine for me... if she doesn't trust me, then she won't be as likely to try and get more familiar with me.

"That's good enough for now, sugahcube. Ah must say, you buck pretty well despite being a pegasus." While Applejack had kept what she and her friends discussed earlier in mind, Zephyr's consistent results with apple bucking did impress her.

Wiping the sweat from his brow and bearing with the pain in his hind legs, Zephyr gave a nervous smile. "That's, uh... because I was taught a trick for better results. I don't know if it would be considered cheating or not..."

"Naw, it's not like we're competin' or anythin'. If it helps you get the job done, then by all means!" Applejack nods with a smile before shifting to a quizzical look. "By the way, what were you an' Rainbow Dash up to this mornin'? When y'all got interrupted by Rarity, she looked mighty peeved."

"Oh, she keeps wanting to race me. Something about outright proving to me she's the fastest, no questions asked... I think..."

If I had to be honest, Because I forgot her actual reason for racing me, something different keeps coming out whenever somepony asks that. Maybe I should confirm what the truth is...

Applejack sighs at that. "That mare can be a hoof-full. Still, yer somewhat at fault there as well, considering you aggravate her as much as she aggravates you judgin' by what ah overheard yesterday."

Zephyr leveled a flat look at her. "She antagonized me first, what's wrong with getting at least somewhat even?"

"Problem is, she's a might bit stubborn about things like this--"

"Probably her ego talking..."

"There ya go again. Ah won't deny the mare has an ego, but she might not leave you alone if ya keep pulling her feathers like that."

That got a sigh out of Zephyr as he shook his head. "I... really don't care."

As much as I hate being a hard-flank, it's also unavoidable if I want to avoid establishing longer-term relationships of any kind.

Applejack shakes her head solemnly. She noted his attitude has some parallels with Twilight Sparkle's when she first arrived. "If that's the attitude ya have, yer not going to make many friends here. Lighten up a bit, Ah'm sure you'll find yer time here more enjoyable!"

Gee, that's the kind of thing I want... to not make any friends. Course I'm not going to say that out loud...

"If that is all you're going to say on the matter, permission to excuse myself? I need to go prepare again."

While she didn't what to leave the subject at that, Applejack also knew it wouldn't be a good idea to push it too hard. As such, she nods at Zephyr for him to go. Permission secured, he took off and flew towards his house, as he realized apple bucking ruffled his feathers again and needed another preen.

An explosion and a "WHEE!" was all he heard before Zephyr got unceremoniously knocked out of the sky by a pink blur. "Ow! who--?"

"Hi Zephy, I really wanted to get your attention but you seemed out of it, like you were contemplating something, and you kept ignoring me so I decided to shoot myself out of my cannon to bring you back to Equestria to see how you we--"

"Wait, wait, you SHOT yourself out of a cannon? How are you not hurt from the explosion?"

Pinky Pie shrugged with a goofy grin. "I don't know. I've always shot myself out of my party cannon and it never harmed me." It was as natural as breathing for her.

"I don't care if it's 'just' a party cannon, you should still... never mind, you are not making sense..." Zephyr held a hoof up to his head, trying to prevent a different type of headache.

Suddenly Pinkie Pie's tail started vibrating and she gasped. "Oh, twitchy tail!" She suddenly hides in a nearby trash can, making sure the lid was on.

"What? are you sure it's not just you being completely rand--" Next thing Zephyr knew, his head gets a flower pot dropped on it.

"Sorry! I was trying to air out my towels and I knocked my pot off. Are you alright?" The dark-fuchsia mare that was Nesium's neice called down with worry.

Is this karma? "I'll be fine!"

Pinkie Pie hopped out of the garbage can with a small giggle. "I warned you! Twitchy tail means 'watch out for falling objects.'"

That earned her a glare as Zephyr brushed the pot remains off his head. "That info would of been a lot more helpful earlier."

"Aw, don't be Mr. Grumpypants over it. Don't be like Twilight when she first experienced it."

"Let me guess, she got skeptical over it? I can honestly see why, considering--"

"TWITCHY TAIL AGAIN!" She dives back into the garbage can again. With a sigh and deciding not to tempt fate again, Zephyr grabbed hold of what looked like a buckler and covered his head.

I ain't falling for the same thing twice.

A resounding shattering sound confirmed that another pot had fallen.

Pinkie Pie poked her head out of the garbage can with a surprised look. "Wow, you started believing me fast! usually it takes ponies at least three instances before they start believing me! Ah... unless you're being stubborn about it like Twilight was!"

"Common sense dictates that, unless they prove otherwise, you should believe somepony if they talk about something they know well. Well... at LEAST I hope you know what you're talking about..."

She giggled as she bounced a few times. "Nope, not a clue." Zephyr gave her a deadpan look. "What are you doing right now?"

"Changing the subject are we? Ugh, I was heading home so that I could fix my wings for a race against Rainbow Dash."

"Oooh, can I come and watch pretty please?"

"Watch the race or watch me preen?"

"What do you think silly?"

Zephyr facehoofed with a slight blush on his face. "I'm going with the former. You're gonna have to wait outside my house though."

"Okie dokie lokie!"

Zephyr noted that the preening didn't take long and that Pinkie Pie was surprisingly patient when she wanted to be.

Walking onto the street, Zephyr stretched his front legs. "Alright... guess I need to find Dash now. I REALLY want to get this race over with so she can stop pestering me about it. Last I heard, she went to Twilight's."

Pinky Pie leaps into the air extremely excitably. "Oh, I know what's going to happen! I'm going to zip there before you start going there and you'll think 'gone already? Geeze, why is that mare so random and off-the-wall?' before trying to follow me there, only to get greeted by Twilight. And that's what I'm doing!" She dashes off, leaving a dust cloud.

"Ack, Pinkie Pie!" Zephyr did his best to avoid the dust cloud before it settled.

Gone already? Geeze, why is that mare so random and off-the-wall?

"...?!"

How did she? Wha-- my sanity just lost a few more points. Guess we're heading to Twilight's library regardless...

"Hey Zephyr, I thought I would find you here." He turns around to see Twilight approaching.

That's it, I'm officially scared of that pink pony.

Zephyr started massaging his head again. "Twilight, how can you deal with Pinkie Pie? Her actions drive me up the wall."

She giggled at the statement, knowing the feeling all too well. "You'll get used to it. She may be random, but she has a heart of gold. You should've seen me dealing with her Pinkie Sense for the first time."

"Pinkie Sense? If you're talking about her tail randomly spazzing and telling her something's falling, I've already had a run-in with it."

"It's not just a twitchy tail, much to my chagrin back then..."

Zephyr looked at her curiously. "You're gonna need to tell me the whole story. I'm suddenly rather interested in what happened."

That got a smile out of Twilight, who was looking forward to interacting with Zephyr to learn about him. "Sure! I'm heading to Horte's Cafe right now, but would care to join me?" Upon her saying that, Zephyr's stomach growled, enticing a blush out of him and a giggle out of her.

"Uh... sure. I need something to eat anyways."

Horte's Cafe, after the retelling of 'Feeling Pinkie Keen.'

"... And that's how the day went. It was, as Pinky would say, a doozy of a day."

Zephyr had ordered a lettuce, onion, and tomato sandwich while she had ordered a daffodil and daisy sandwich. He was secretly glad he managed to grab the bits for the meal

"So in short, you had a rotten run-in with bad luck and at the end, you simply gave up and simply started believing her?"

"That's about it. Just by believing her, everything simply seemed to get better. I know it's weird for a science-minded pony like myself, but it was just meant to be, I guess."

Zephyr thought about it for a moment for chuckling a bit. "That, or you were looking into it the wrong way." When he saw Twilight's irritated, yet quizzical look, he made sure to explain himself. "As you know, all ponies naturally have magic inside of them."

"Yes."

"And that magic is different for each race."

"And... where are you going with this?"

"Twilight, Pinkie Pie's earth pony magic might of manifested as her Pinkie Sense, which is short-term future prediction in the form of differing body spasms. I'm pretty sure that's why you couldn't figure it out, because you kept looking for a more complex answer involving 'why' instead of 'how.'"

She paused for a few seconds before groaning in frustration with a double face-hoof. "It was so simple! Why did I overlook it?"

The outburst got a wince from Zephyr who tried his best to diffuse the situation. "I-I'm not saying you looking for a more complex answer is or was a bad thing! It's just that, sometimes the best solution to a problem is usually the easiest or simplest."

Twilight let out a sigh before giving Zephyr a knowing smile. "Yeah, I know. Still, thanks for that, at least you helped me make more sense out of the Pinkie Sense."

Zephyr nodded, thankful he wasn't too insensitive, before checking the time. "By the way, do you know where Rainbow Dash is?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, she flew off irritated after I talked to her about something important. Something about finding somepony and always getting interrupted?"

The snort Zephyr forced down was very painful as he tried not to laugh. "That might be because you needed her urgently right when we were about to have a race... after I had already been dragged away once myself."

Twilight gives an embarrassed grin. "Sorry, didn't realize."

"HEY TWILIGHT!"

Speak of Discord and she doth appear.

"Oh hey Rainbow, what's going on?"

Rainbow Dash lands next to twilight, not noticing Zephyr sitting right there. "I was actually wondering if you could be at the finish line with Applejack for our race."

Twilight brightened up. "Oh, sure. Just let me get some things from the library and we'll be set."

"Let's find Zephyr first. He's the one I wanna beat."

"Sitting right here!" Rainbow Dash quickly spun around to look at Zephyr with a surprised look. "What am I, chopped spinach? Then again, I am green..."

Twilight face-hoofed at the pun while Rainbow Dash grins. "Yeah? Well prepare yourself. You're going to be so left behind, you'll be green with envy!"

Two can play that game. "What's wrong? Are you so afraid of losing that you're feeling blue?"

She glares at him. "Zephyr!"

"Rainbow!"

"Zephyr!"

"Rainbow!"

"Both of you, be quiet!" They look at Twilight with startled expressions, not expecting the sudden outburst. She was bearing quite the irritated expression now. "The two of you are acting like school foals. Why can't you be friends?"

Zephyr discovered that there's always more powerful laughs to painfully stifle, to the point that a small snort still got out. "Why? She has too much of an ego for my liking."

Rainbow glared at him at that. "And he's outright aggravating."

Twilight let out a heavy sigh as she rubbed her temples. "Look, if the two of you have your race, will you drop your petty battles?"

Zephyr let out a low cough as he crossed his front hooves in front of his chest. "I'll try, but I can't guarantee it will." Rainbow Dash simply huffed in response.

"Then let's pay for our meal and get this over and done with."

Rainbow Dash and Zephyr did their stretches and were lined up, waiting for the signal to start.

"I hope you like the taste of defeat, because that's all you'll be tasting."

That got a glare directed at her. "Maybe you'll shut up once you experience failure."

She glared back at Zephyr before both got into ready positions.

"Are the racers ready?" Apparently, our race was drawing a crowd, with Pinkie Pie as the starter. I hated crowds still, but they were far enough away for me to keep a brave face.

"On your mark!"

"Get set..."

"GO!"

Both Pegasi launched off the cloud at high velocity, effectively removing it and completing the weather schedule. Rainbow Dash was slowly gaining a lead on Zephyr as the library was fast approaching.

When they reached it, Rainbow simply started flying around it, thinking anything advanced was unnecessary. Zephyr took advantage of her cockiness and started doing something that got a shocked look from her.

He went to the ground and started drifting. This effectively allowed him to hug the wall closer than anypony could while flying normally. While doing it came at a minor cost of speed, it was more than made up for by the faster turn speed, allowing Zephyr to gain a lead on Rainbow Dash as both straightened out and headed towards the Carousel Boutique.

Zephyr tried to repeat the same tactic, however Rainbow Dash did the same thing as to prevent him from gaining too much on her, recognizing in short order that too many 'lazy' turns would cost her. The lead was effectively even due to this.

As the race raged on, the two of them launched themselves towards the White Tail Woods. Zephyr suddenly began realizing just how fast Rainbow was going. He was barely keeping up with her, even while he was pushing himself like he has never before. The strain on his wings was becoming apparent and, despite the speed boost his preening did gave him, he was still losing.

Perhaps... she really does have the speed to back her words up... I am such an idiot!

As the racers approached the middle of the woods, Fluttershy looked up with worry while standing near the outskirts. She was asked by Rainbow Dash to be there to make sure the two of them touched the designated tree before the mad dash towards the farm.

Rainbow started flying outward in order to do a fly-by tap of the nearest tree. Zephyr had a different plan.

I may not be able to win in the end, but at the very least I'm going to make her work for that win.

She did a fly-by tap as expected. Zephyr flew straight at the tree, prompting a gasp out of Fluttershy and a look of shock from Rainbow. Twisting himself in midair so that his hooves faced the tree, he slammed into the to and practically re-launched himself off of it with a massive speed boost.

Rainbow Dash and Zephyr were neck and neck but, as the farm came into view, she was slowly pulling ahead. Zephyr kept putting everything he had left of his strength into his wings, trying to go faster.

But even before the line was crossed, Zephyr knew what the outcome was.

"RAINBOW DASH WINS!" came the megaphoned voice of Applejack. The racers both skidded to a stop, but Zephyr collapsed forward onto the ground when he was slowed down enough.

The nearby crowd cheering for Rainbow Dash as their local celebrity, with Scootaloo's voice being very predominant. The prismatic mare herself was panting pretty hard like Zephyr was, clearly not expecting such stiff competition.

"Are... you...ok?" She sounded... concerned.

"...Hehehehe..."

"...Huh?"

With a weak roll onto his back, Zephyr let out a slightly louder laugh, the first genuine laugh he's had since arriving in Ponyville. "I lost again, completely! Darn it all." He shoots a tired smile at Rainbow Dash. "You were just... too much for me... in the end."

"Yeah... I guess I... was. So... do you... finally admit it?"

Applejack glared at Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow, that's jus' salt in the wound!"

A chuckle came from Zephyr as he struggled to stand. "Don't worry about it, Applejack. She won, fair and square even with a few tricks I pulled off. She's the fastest Pegasus in Ponyville, maybe even in all Equestria. Congratulations, no joke here."

Rainbow had a stunned look on her face, not expecting the stallion that had been firing back at her all this time to suddenly treat her with respect.

"Now if you'll excuse me... I need to crash in bed. That race... took everything out of me." Looking at Rainbow Dash, still bearing her stunned look, Zephyr gave her a salute and said goodnight to everypony else before walking back home.

Later, that night.

Rainbow Dash couldn't sleep. She kept tossing and turning on the cloud she had picked out for the night, opting not to sleep in her house as it felt too large and empty with just her.

She had been like this for a while and during that entire time, one thought persisted in her mind.

Even though I won and rubbed Zephyr's nose in it, why do I not feel happy? Why... do I feel like there's something more to why I was being a show-off?

Author's Note

Here is my lousy attempt at a race scene, a prequel to the fighting scenes I dread writing. As per usual, tell me what needs adjusting and what is good enough.

Also, I seem to reference a lot of external things... not sure if that's a bad thing.