The Most Serious Pony In All Of Equestria

"Mares and gentlecolts, I am proud to announce that the second round competitors will be chosen immediately." After Maud Pie had won the first round of the FIRST ANUAL EQUESTRIA SERIOUSNESS COMPETITION, ponies instantly wanted another round to commence. As a result, Princess Celestia and Luna traveled back to Canterlot to pick the the competitors for the second round. At the moment, Celestia continued to address the crowd of ponies from her royal balcony. "In the first round, Maud Pie advanced to the final four, but Dr.Stable was eliminated. Now, just as before, my sister will randomly choose the ponies competing in the second round!" The crowd cheered as the Princess of the night made her way to the edge of the balcony.

"Ponies all around Equestria, you are now about to know who will compete in the scond round!" The crowd now was silent as Luna levitated up the glass bowl that contained the names of the competitors. "Since Maud Pie won the first round, her name will not be in this draw. Neither will Dr.Stables's because he was already eliminated. Now, let the drawing begin!" Luna stuck her hoof into the glass bowl and swished it around. After she felt she had mixed the names up a decent amount, she grabbed on to one and pulled it out. Ponies were biting their nails as Luna began to read the name. "The first competitor competing in the second round will be Octavia!" The crowd went crazy when they heard the name, especially the ones from Manehatten. "Now, the next name." Once again, Luna placed her hoof in the bowl and swirled it around. And again she grabbed onto one and pulled it out. "In the second round, Octavia will be competing against Big Macintosh!" All around Equestria ponies cheered and began to make bets on who they thought would win. Eventually, Princess Celestia stepped forward next to her sister.

"Since round one of the competition took place in Ponyville, round two will be held in Manehatten!" Once again, the ponies from Manehatten began to cheer louder than the other members of the crowd. "Tommorow afternoon, another pony will a round and another pony will be eliminated. My sister and I will see all of you there!" Back in Ponyville, Twilight and Spike were once again arguing about the competition.

"You may have been right about Maud, Twi, but Big Mac will win this round for sure."

"Sorry to disappoint you, Spike, but Octavia is just more serious than Macintosh."

"How do you figure?"

"She's a musician and she's an earth pony. It takes a lot of time and energy to play an instrument with your hooves. She must be a real hard worker."

"And Big Macintosh doesn't work hard. He tends to the tress on Sweet Apple Acres every day!"

"Being a brute, doesn't make you serious. Anyway, I guess we'll have to see who's right tommoorw then."

"I guess we will."

Preparations for the match were done quickly and soon a whole day had passed. Manehatten was now filled with ponies who had come to watch the second round. In the middle of the city, a field was sectioned off to use for the event. A crowd surrounded the field and they cheered as Princess Cadence came into view.

"Ponies of Equestria! I would like to thank you all for either being here to watch the competition, or tuning in from your homes elsewhere. It makes us feel great to know that you care so much!" The ponies around the field cheered at the princess's kind words. "Now, how about we start the second round? My husband, Shining Armor will be your announcer for today." She turned her head and winked to her husband, who was with the two competitors.

"Thanks for the intro, Cady." Now, he spoke up, addressing the crowd. "Hello folks, like my beautiful wife just said, I'm Shining Armor and I will be announcing today's event! I think it's time to meet our competitors." The crowd cheered as the grey mare and bulky red stallion made their way to the center. "Her name is Octavia. She is a musician that plays classical music and is from here in Manehatten! His name is Macintosh. This stallion is an apple farmer who works on Sweet Apple Acres back in Ponyville! Both are known to be super serious, but only one can stand at the top. Who's it going to be?" Cadnece once again made her way to center field as the crowd began to loose control.

"Ponies! Please settle down. The competition will start soon enough. Now, it is time to read the rules for this round." She levitated a piece of paper to her face and began to read. "For this round, the three events will not be judged by a two out of three system. The challenges are designed to be finished quickly, so the pony that finishes all three first will be declared the winner! The first event will be a game of chess against each other. The winner gets a head start, while the looser has to wait for a two minute penalty. The second event will be a crossword puzzle. However, this is no ordinary puzzle. This one has one hundred words!" The crowd gasped at the large number. "And finally, the last event will be a thousand word essay. The pony that turns in their essay first will be declared the winner!" Shining Armor once again addressed the crowd once his wife had finished.

"Allright ponies, let's get this show on on the road. Ready? One...Two...Three...Go!" Shining said, ringing a bell. At the sound of said bell, Big Mac and Octavia began their game of chess. Both ponies started off strong with big moves that took out important pieces. Eventually, Octavia got the upper hand and took Big Mac's queen. It was not long until she had trapped Macintosh into a checkmate. "It seems Octavia has won the chess game. She can go on ahead, but Macintosh will have to wait out the two minute penalty." Big Mac watched as his opponent began to work on the giant crossword puzzle. He could see that she had already gotten a large number of words. By the time the penalty was over, Big Mac was behind by a large margin. Octavia had competed almost half of the puzzle. However, Macintosh had always been exceptionally good at word games. The stallion like to do the morning crossword in the paper every day before starting his farm work. In no time at all, he had caught up to Octavia and they had finished the puzzle at nearly the exact time. "I can't believe it! Even with the penalty, Macintosh has managed to finnish the crossword puzzle at the exact same time as Octavia! Now, all they have left to do is the essay!" The crowd around the field was silent as the two competitors began furiously writing out their papers. Being the intelligent and serious ponies they were, Macintosh and Octavia finished in just under ten minutes and rushed to give their papers to the judges. "It seems we have a tie, but that's no problem. The judges need to count the words to make sure there are one thousand. In the end, the winner will be decided by who has the better essay."

"That will not be necessary, Shining." said one of the judges. "It seems Mr.Macintosh's essay only contains nine hundred nighty nine words and will have to be disqualified." Big Mac sighed at the stallions words. He was certaintly good with words, but numbers were not his strong suit.

"It seems we have a winner." declared Shining Armor. "The pony that has won the second round of the FIRST ANUAL EQUESTRIA SERIOUSNESS COMPETITION IS Octavia!" The crowd cheered when they heard that Octavia, a pony from Manehatten, had advanced to the next stage. "Congratulations to her for making it to the next round." Just like at the first round, ponies flooded the field and lifted Octavia above the ground. They carried her off as they chanted her name. Big Macintosh just sighed and gave a single, "EEnooope."