EQD Writer's Training Ground
Emerald Wind’s green eyes sparkled like those of a foal inside Sugarcube Corner, a dreamy smile in her face. The Crystal Empire was just coming into view, the tall clear towers gleaming in the sun, the crystal buildings around it looking like glass baubles in comparison. How could one not feel awe when first seeing such a sight?
More so when the largest building she had ever seen in her life, before this train trip, was Ponyville's town hall. Even the train trip was new; she had only traveled by train once before, to take part in the qualifiers.
"So, how is our new sprinter doing? Happy to travel beyond Ponyville for a change?"
Emerald turned, startled, and noticed Mayor Mare looking at her. Nervously twiddling with her golden mane she forced a smile to cover her reflexive wincing, but couldn't keep her ears from dropping. A perplexed look passed through the mayor’s face and was gone in a moment.
"Sorry," said Mayor Mare, adjusting her glasses. "I spoke without thinking. I know it still pains you to not be able to leave Ponyville without an escort."
"Don't worry, Mayor Boss." Emerald almost giggled seeing Mayor Mare’s grimace; it never failed. "It was my fault for being a lousy thief."
“Well, It is Ponyville’s luck you are lousy.” Mayor Mare glanced at the white unicorn’s cutie mark, a sparkling horseshoe; it represented Emerald’s talent for speed, both physical and magical. “Thanks to that we now have a chance at the short sprint race; you know how hard it is to assemble a delegation with that ‘one pony, one event’ rule. Besides, aren’t you happier now?”
“Beats being supper to some winged monster,” said Emerald with a snicker. Looking at the mayor’s kindly eyes, though, she felt the tension leaving her body; when she spoke again it was with a softer voice.
“Yeah, I’m happy. I don’t even know how to thank you, first for giving me a job and a future, and then for bringing me here. Your assistant told me that the paperwork to let somepony on probation travel is brutal.”
“Then run like the wind and bring us a medal!” said Mayor Mare, winking.
Emerald Wind groaned, bringing a hoof to her face. “Do you know how lame that pun is?”
“Well, if I’m your Mayor Boss, I’m entitled to make bad puns with your name.”
“Touche,” said Emerald with a guffaw.
Emerald Wind walked among the crystal city, slowly for a change. She avoided looking back, at the stadium where the Equestria Games were going smoothly; being there, among all the ponies that knew her, had been a stifling experience.
She glanced at the sun, a shy, though contented, smile on her face; the short sprint event was today, after the aerial events, but she still had plenty of time before she had to be back.
It was strange for her, not having to hurry. Her job was, after all, to take messages and parcels to their destination as fast as possible, and she dove into that with abandon; she rarely walked in Ponyville, seeing other ponies only briefly as she raced past them, their faces just a blur.
She took the time to look at the ponies around her, revelling in their emotion displays. At a sidewalk table two ponies, lost in each other’s eyes as if it was Hearts and Hooves Day; across the street a mother and father, looking at their filly with a mix of kindness and exasperation as the little pony kept stopping and asking about everything; in front of her a filly, her muzzle still sporting a few crumbles, leaving a shop with a satisfied expression.
Idly, Emerald thought about why she never slowed down. She kept telling herself that it was out of gratitude, that she was merely doing her best at her job for the ponies that gave her a new chance; sure, that was a part of it. But...
Her glance drifted into the shop — a candy store, judging from the pleasant aroma that wafted from it — and to the salespony that watched over the crowded store. Even though he had a wide smile in his face his eyes were alert, his tense eyelids and barely constrained swishing tail betrayed his anxiousness.
Emerald cringed, memories overcoming her: a hundred meetings, a hundred ponyville faces with that same expression, the look of somepony that doesn’t trust but is hiding it. A look that she had learned to identify in her short stint as a thief, before being run out of the small unicorn village where she grew up.
She couldn’t complain, though. Ponyville was small enough that, soon after she told her story during her welcome party, nearly everypony in town knew about her past. But they didn’t confront her over it; the ponies there were courteous enough that, except for a filly that always wore a tiara, nopony was ever rude with her or mentioned her not so honest past.
On the other hoof, it didn’t make the stares any less painful.
“Hey, miss, can I take a photo with you?”
Shaking her head, Emerald opened her eyes to the real world. A smiling unicorn colt was looking up to her; here, she was not the ex-thief in a small town, but rather an athlete, proudly wearing her uniform. And one of the rare unicorn ones, too; unicorns aren’t exactly known for their physical prowess, after all.
A smile blossomed in her face. “Sure!”
At the colt’s request she took him in her magic, bringing him up and allowing him to stand on her back. They joked and laughed, while his smiling parents kept taking pictures; in front of the palace, with the stadium in the background, pointing at the Crystal Empire flag.
Other memories, happier memories about another child, started to flow freely. The day after Big Mac saved Emerald’s life his little sister was grounded, something about slipping away to do a very dangerous pie delivery on her own; but whenever Emerald would make any delivery at Sweet Apples Acres she would find Applejack, smiling, gently prodding her to slip into the filly’s bedroom. There Emerald would play with the filly for a while, both joking about how they were grounded, the filly at the farm and the mare at the town.
The memory fading with a smile, Emerald posed with the colt in front of the newest tourist attraction of the Crystal Empire, a statue of the baby dragon that saved the kingdom.
“... Can you imagine? He just started singing with, like, the worst singing voice ever! He must be so embarrassed he can’t ever show his face again.”
Emerald’s ears swivelled back, towards the familiar voice, the cruel laughter. Her pupils shrank as images of a light pink filly with a tiara, casually pointing at Emerald and calling her a thief, flashed by. She reacted before she could think, a series of green flashes marking her passage as Emerald Wind bolted with both muscles and magic.
Mayor Mare, from her place at the dignitaries’ box, looked at the stadium field. Thunderlane was standing at his well deserved place atop the podium, while at the back of the field the athletes for the ground-bound events were already starting their warm-ups.
All except the white unicorn competing for Ponyville: Emerald Wind.
Mayor Mare stood but, as she was turning towards the exit, something brown moving just beyond the box fence caught her eye, the unmistakable stetson of the pony that first vouched for Emerald.
“Applejack, are you going to —”
“Find Emerald Wind?” Applejack nodded. “I signed that paper of yours, so I reckon I promised to take care of her.”
“Do you think she could have… left?”
“I don’t think so. Big Mac trusts her, and I trust Big Mac. I think she is just having a hard time fitting in, and she is a mite stubborn when it comes to asking for help.”
Applejack glanced up; following her gaze, Mayor Mare found herself looking at Celestia, in her place of honor at the games.
“Now, don’t you fret a bit, mayor. I will be back with her in a bit.” Applejack looked at the field, the Ponyville anthem floating up to them. “Time’s a-wastin.”
A white unicorn in the Ponyville delegation uniform shuffled around the train platform, head down, eyes listless. Alone in the crowd, Emerald Wind avoided everypony else, ashamed of making her presence known.
“Why did I have to be so coward and impulsive?”
She glanced up for the fifth time in the last few minutes, seeking the clock inside the station. It didn’t change the result; she was late, her only event in the competition over.
With a sigh she let herself slide to the ground. She was given a chance, a way to prove that she was reliable and cared about her new adoptive town, and she blew it. All because, after she tasted the admiration of other ponies, she was so fearful of losing it that she panicked.
Fragmented images came to her mind: running across streets between green flashes, dodging startled ponies, even teleporting to a ceiling. She must have been teleporting all over the city. When she finally stopped Emerald lost consciousness from using too much magic in too little time, and by the time she woke up it was already too late.
And it had also given her one mighty headache, compounded now by the noise of an approaching train. She raised a hoof to rub her temple, rubbing lightly as she looked around. It was the same mix of emotions as before, ponies that didn’t recognize her, ponies distracted —
Her eyes went wide as the time seemed to slow. In front of her there was a pony, a mother, completely oblivious to her surroundings as she kept jabbefing; the kind of pony she learned to notice and target as a thief.
A pony that was so oblivious she didn’t notice her baby carriage was rolling towards the rails.
Emerald was up and running before she could think about it. In moments she was passing the mother, who only then noticed something amiss; Emerald heard her shriek behind, but she didn’t slow or look back. A dozen more paces and she was by the carriage.
Touching her horn to the baby he vanished in a flash of green light. Emerald tried to stop, seeing the baby carriage in front falling to the rails, but slipped on the crystal floor. The loud screech of the train braking reached her ears, and she wondered if it would stop in time…
When she felt something around her neck, just before she was painfully yanked. Falling to the ground just before the platform ended she saw the train passing just beyond her muzzle.
Emerald looked around. A taunt lasso was around her neck, going back to a panting orange mare with a hat.
“Applejack!”
Applejack shook her head. “No time. You have to get back.”
Emerald’s head dropped. “I already lost my event.”
“There was a hold up. One of the awards ran late. Your event…”
Emerald didn’t wait for Applejack to finish. She was running before hearing the end of the phrase, her horn already gathering magic around.
“... Has not started,” finished Applejack.
She blinked, registering that Emerald Wind wasn’t in front of her anymore, and let go the lasso. It was dragged a little, stopping in a flash of green light.
She looked back at where the flash came from, seeing Emerald appear further ahead. She was fast without magic, no doubt about it, but when she mixed her teleporting around she could give Rainbow Dash a run for her bits.
Shaking her head, Applejack looked back at the mother, who was still wordlessly staring at the wreckage of the baby carriage, the baby safely in the ground and giggling like she wanted to try it again.
Everything seemed right, so Applejack turned to the stadium and went at a fast canter. She could feel that she would still be needed.
Emerald Wind slowly opened her eyes, the room slowly getting into focus around her. Or, rather, the train wagon; she was back at the same wagon that brought she, and the mayor, to the Crystal Empire.
“Ugh… What happened?”
The mayor appeared in her field of view, shushing and pointing to the side. Following the gaze Emerald could see a yellow pegasus, sleeping gently, her head resting atop the bed.
“You collapsed after your event and wouldn’t wake up,” started the mayor, barely above a whisper. “The doctor said that you were exhausted both magically and physically, but not actually at risk, so we decided to move you back to Ponyville. Fluttershy offered to look over you until we got home.”
Emerald nodded. “I see. And before that?”
The mayor raised one eyebrow. “How much do you remember?”
“Not much,” said Emerald, lowering her head. “The last thing I remember clearly is Applejack saving my skin. After that everything is a jumble of flashes.”
“Well…” The mayor adjusted her glasses, which, in Emerald’s experience, she often did when thinking how to say something. “You caused a strong impression, arriving at the stadium running like Nightmare Moon herself was breathing at your neck and going through the magic disabling device at breakneck speed. You would have been disqualified over it for reckless behavior if not for Applejack.”
“Applejack? How?”
“Applejack told the organizers how you were later than you should due to saving a baby. After that Ms. Harshwhinny herself made sure you wouldn’t be disqualified.”
“Applejack…” started Emerald.
“Applejack told something that was technically a truth. And one that everypony wanted to hear.” the mayor’s eyes became softer. “Ponies want to give you a second chance, Emerald; they want to help you fit in, but you have to let them help.”
“I guess.” Emerald looked at Fluttershy, a pony that she barely knew, but still was willing to nurse her in the trip back home; she also thought back about how Applejack got her to play with Apple Bloom, ostensively to keep the filly from feeling too lonely while she was grounded, but — when she thought about it — also to help Emerald feel loved. “Perhaps I should start to reach out more. Sorry for wasting my chance at a medal, Ponyville ...”
Emerald’s eyes went wide. “Wait, I wasn’t disqualified?”
Silently, the mayor took something from her saddlebag and presented to Emerald Wind; a silver medal.
“How? I should have been late to my event.”
“You got lucky Spike decided to sing the anthem during the Aerial Relay award ceremony, he caused a delay in all events afterward.” Mayor Mare stifled a laugh. “You really ran like the wind, both to get to the stadium and to get that medal. You collapsed just after the race; you were the only pony to earn a medal and not take part in the award ceremony. But please, don’t run until you faint again; you scared everypony.”
Emerald felt herself warming up from inside. “Don’t worry, I promise.”
