The Most Serious Pony In All Of Equestria

Today, no doubt, was a special day. Today would be the closing match of the first round of the FIRST ANUAL EQUESTIRA SERIOUSNESS COMPETITION! Usually, the two competitors competing would be chosen by random draw out of a glass bowl and that match would take place the following day. However, it being the final round and all, there were only two ponies left. This is why Ponyville was once again filled to the brim with ponies. They crowded around a field deep in Sweet Apple Acres that was sectioned off specifically for the competition.

One of the competitors was none other than Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship who lived in Ponyville. The other was the certainly serious camera mare, Photo Finish. The two were standing on opposite sides of the field, with ponies cheering for them and giving them words of encouragement. One of these ponies, on Twilight's side, was Princess Celestia. She needed Twilight to win in order to keep the lead in the little wager she had with her sister. If Photo Finish were to win, both her and Luna would be tied at two a piece. However, if Twilight were to come through for her, Celestia would expand her lead to two. She scowled as she looked across the field and saw Luna and Spike talking to Photo Finish.

"Now do you see why you need to win?" Spike asked. Him and Luna had just finished explaining to Photo Finish about the bet they had with Twilight and Celestia.

"I see. You two want me to win so you can tie the game?"

"Precisely." Luna answered.

"In that case, Photo Finish will not disappoint!" She galloped to center field, as Twilight began to do the same. The competitors met at the middle, where Applejack and Big Macintosh were waiting for them. Since the contest was taking place on their farm, it was decided that they would be the announcers of the match.

"Hello, every pony!" Applejack exclaimed. "I hope ya'll are ready, cause we got one heck of a show for ya today. It's time for the final match of the first round of the...uh...seriousness contest thingy...Ain't that right Big Mac?"

"Eeeyuppp."

"Alright! Over here we got our first competitor, Twilight Sparkle. She's the super serious Princess of Friendship with a love of books. And over there we have Photo Finish. She does stuff with pictures or somethin. Anyways, let's get this thing started!" Big Mac stepped in front of his sister to address the crowd. "My brother will explain how this round works."

"This round will be a normal two out of three match. As always, the winner will move on to the next stage of the competition and the loser will not." Twilight glanced over at Spike, who she saw was sticking his tongue out at her. She quickly returned the gesture before turning her attention back to Big Mac. "It'll work like this. Both ponies while have ta each complete one puzzle, and whoever does it the quickest will win the first event. The second event will be a series of word problems. Whoever gets the most right after ten minutes will be the winner of that even. Finally, the third event will be a plain old test. Whoever gets a higher score will win that event and the match."

"There ya have it, ya'll. Now let's get started!" A bell sounded and the two competitors raced to their first event. Photo Finish got their first, but Twilight arrived soon after. They began to furiously working on the puzzles that lie before them. They were extremely complicated, with interesting shapes and colors that needed to be matched, not to mention the amount of pieces there were. Twn minutes went by and still neither of the competitors were even halfway done.

"Time!" yelled Applejack. "There is a ten minute time minute for each event. The pony that had gotten the furthest on their puzzle will be the winner." She walked over to both Photo Finish's and Twilight's puzzles. After careful consideration, she decided who had gotten the furthest. "Alright, ya'll. It looks like Twilight here as won the first event!" The entire crowd let out an enormous cheer. Every pony was screaming at the top of their lungs, except for Luna and Spike. "Let's get to event number two!" The time bell sounded once again and the competitors began to work on the word problems. Like the puzzle, they were long and complicated. Both Photo and Twilight were having a hard time with them. Minutes past, nine to be exact, when Photo Finish claimed that she was done.

"Looks like Photo Finnish finished her puzzle." Applejack walked over to where Photo was standing and looked hard at the puzzle. She noticed that all of the edge and corner pieces were missing. Applejack then glance under the table and saw the missing puzzle pieces. "On second thought, it looks like she isn't done. Actually, Photo seems to have cheated. You know what that means, right ya'll. Diquali...disqueli..diss..."

"Disqualification?" Big Mac asked.

"Yup, that. That means Twilight Sparkle is the winner!" The crowd erupted into an enormous cheer. Every pony in Ponyville were stomping there hooves, except for Twilight, Photo, Luna and Spike.

"Wait!" Twilight screamed. "Does this mean I can't take the test?"

"Sorry, Sugarcube, but there's no need to. You already won."

"But, but...why!?" On the other side of the field, Luna and Spike were talking with Photo Finnish.

"What was that!?" Luna scolded. "You tried to cheat to win!"

"You needed me to win, so I did what I had to do to make sure that I did."

"Well that makes sense." Spike added sarcastically. "It's not like any pony would notice that the entire edge of the puzzle was gone."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Just get out of our sight." Luna scoffed. The camera mare quickly sprinted off the field and away from Luna and Spike. "So now what?"

"We just have to guess the next matches right and hope Twilight doesn't win again."