Author's Note
The differences between where I pick up the story and canon are:
- That whilst ice-archery remains the last event, it was in the morning, not the evening (And given real life olympic schedules, that is realistic.) Consider it the last of the events, before they set up the stadium for the closing ceremony in the evening.
- There was six contestants, not four, otherwise Cloudsdale was pretty much guaranteed to medal.
- Unicorns can not take part (there was one in canon but I needed to get rid of Rarity somehow)
The Final Day
Twilight Sparkle looked at her dragon assistant "Wait a second. I think I get it. You keep saying you let everypony down, but we all keep saying you didn't. You know who's disappointed in you, Spike? You. And only you can make it right with you again. What would that take, Spike?"
Spike, having just saved thousands of ponies still felt a little down "Meh, I don't know. Can you turn back time? 'Cause I'd sure like a do-over on that opening ceremony."
Princess Cadance thought and then smiled at the little dragon she once foalsat, but had now saved her kingdom twice "We can't turn back time, but, would you do me the great honor of lighting fireworks in my place at the closing ceremonies tonight?"
"Tonight?” Ms Harshwhinny approached the gathered ponies, nodding politely to the four princesses present. “Don’t get me started on tonight. We’ll have to rearrange the closing ceremony to accommodate the ice-archery final. What a nightmare.” She paused for a second and turned to Princess Luna “No offence!”
“None taken!” Luna rolled her eyes.
“Wait?” Rainbow Dash interrupted “So the ice archery final will be redone?”
“Of course!” Ms Harshwhinny replied “It wouldn’t be fair on the ice-archers if they don't get to compete for their medals. Although the fact we won’t know if Ponyville or Cloudsdale will be top of the table will make final arrangements a bit awkward, but I’ll find a way to make it work...I suppose.”
The ponyville delegation had returned to the hotel they were staying in. Everypony was congratulating Spike for saving the day, but as they sat down Rainbow Dash looked miserable.
“What's wrong?” Fluttershy asked timidly
“It would have been nice for Ponyville to have topped the medal table, but now that looks even more unlikely than it did this morning.!”
“Waitever do you mean darling?” Rarity asked.
“Well, Cloudsdale has two ice-archers and there's only five ponies left. The contestant from Manehatten who caused the disaster has chosen not to take part...”
“Awww, poor guy. I'm sure it really wasn’t his fault!” Fluttershy cooed but Rainbow Dash ignored her.
“Therefore the chances of Cloudsdale getting two medals is high given they have the former champion Snowy Sight, and his student.”
“It doesn’t matter, right?” Scootaloo chirped “I mean, we were all sorts of awesome out there!”
Rainbow Dash smiled at her number one fan and ruffled her mane “Of course kiddo, but it would have been great given how close we were!”
“If only we had an entrant, at least we would stand a chance.” Applejack slightly moped “As long as we got at least one medal, regardless if Cloudsdale had medalled twice on countback we would have won!”
“Then why don’t we just enter somepony?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“It’s not that simple Sweetie” Fluttershy replied “They need to qualify for the event like we did at Rainbow Falls! Besides, each pony can only be in one event and we don’t have any competitors left.”
Rainbow Dash turned to the alicorn in the room “Surely Twilight could use her Princess authority to get us in?”
“Twilight could never do that! It would be a political nightmare should she interfer to help Ponyville!” Rarity gasped, greeted with a nod from Twilight.
“Besides, we have nopony left to take part.” Applejack replied “I’m banned as a winner of the rodeo circuit and Pinkie Pie as an official cheerleader.”
“What about one of us?” Applebloom motioned to the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“Unfortunately you have to be a adult to take part, Sugarcube.” her sister replied.
“What about Derpy?” Rainbow motioned to the backup to the flying relay.
“Thanks for your thought Rainbow Dash, but I don’t think I have the vision for archery!” the grey pegasus replied with a faint blush.
“Of course, don’t worry about it. And this event is not open to unicorns so that rules me out!” Rarity added.
“There must be a loophole!” Pinkie Pie replied
Spike grinned “And to find a loopholes somepony needs to do research!”
“Research, now thats something that I can do and not be considered interfering.” Twilight beamed and teleported out of the room in a flash, causing the others to giggle. Despite being a Princess, despite all the growth she has had made since moving to Ponyville, she was still an egghead at heart.They continued to have their brunch and within twenty minutes Twilight flashed back into the room
Twilight trotted to the to the table “Girls, I have a cunning plan. Rainbow Dash, find Ms Harshwhinny and tell her to come here. And if she says she’s busy, tell her that Princess Twilight sent for her!”
It only took ten minutes for Rainbow Dash to return with her target.
“Princess Twilight Sparkle, I am a very busy pony and have much to do.” the earth mare groaned as she entered one of the hotels conference rooms.
“I understand Ms Harshwhinny. This won’t take long, but is important!” the alicorn replied, gesturing to a seat. Once she had sat down, Twilight turned to Applejack and nodded.
The orange pony approached the lone dragon in the room “Now Spike, I want you to tell the truth okay? And we all know I am all about the truth.”
“Okay?” the dragon replied, a little confused.
“I’m about to ask you a question, and I want you to tell Ms Harshwhinny if anypony has ever talked about this before, if you know why I've ask, and then answer the question truthfully.”
“Sure?” Spike grew a little nervously with all eyes now on him.
Twilight took a deep breath as Applejack was about to ask the question she had been prompted to ask, one that could change a lot in the long term “Spike, do you consider yourself an adult?”
Spike looked over to Twilight, his mother figure, with some confusion, before looking back at Applejack “Well, nopony has ever asked that before, and I don't know why you're asking now! But, if I had to, I would say that...yes...yes I am.”
Applejack turned to the event organiser “Then, Ms Harshwhinny, Ponyville formally declares an entry for the spare slot in the ice-archery final, Spike!”
“But Mr The Dragon is a baby dragon in the eyes of Equestria law." Ms Harshwhinny replied as droley as she could "And he has not qualified for the event. Despite him being a very brave and noble hero, rules are rules!”
Twilight stepped forwards boldly “I thought you would say that, and I’m all about upholding harmony, law and rules. But, as you just heard, Spike identifies as an adult, right?” When Ms Harshwhinny nodded, Twilight continued. “Rule 654.2a of the games states that non-pony contestants are eligible to enter regardless of their physical age as long as they are considered an adult in their culture. And as Spike is the only dragon here, he has defined the culture as per rule 654.2c.”
Ms Harshwhinny raised an eyebrow “That may be, but Ponyville did not qualify for the event Princess.”
Twilight smiled, knowing that the earth mare was no pushover but enjoying the debate “Rule 149.3 states that competitors that are not native equines of Equestria can enter finals of events requiring qualification as long as ,a, they haven’t failed to qualify and ,b, that there is enough room in the event for the contestant. Spike is not an equine, and there is a spare slot on the range, so he is eligible to take part!”
Twilight produce the rulebook, and Ms Harshwhinny took it in her hooves to read “That’s meant to cover creatures from outside Equestria who couldn’t make it to qualifying events!”
“But it’s not worded that way?”
“Technically no, but thats taking a bit of a liberty of the spirit of the rule.”
“Maybe, but as you said rules are rules.”
“They can be changed.” Ms Harshwhinny replied dryly.
“Yes, for the next games. But right now Spike is an adult, Ponyville didn’t fail to qualify and there is a spare space in the final.”
Ms Harshwhinny actually smiled at Twilight this time “Well played Princess, and Ponyville. As there is a spare slot in the ice archery final, and as Spike the dragon is eligible, he can take part. Now, I will get to work to make the necessary arrangements!”
“Thank you”
Ms Harshwhinny started to leave but stopped and turned in the doorway “I must say Princess, are you not worried about any political fallout from this?”
“Maybe, but lets call it a wash for the fact that I could enter if I wanted, Applejack being banned because of her Rodeo experience despite bearing nothing on this event and that the rules were only recently changed to prevent Cheerleaders from taking part. Besides, tehcnically Ponyville asked for the entrant, I just made the position of the rules clear.” Twilight beamed.
“Very good, Princess. I will make sure that is communicated properly” Ms Harshwhinny winked and left the gathered ponies alone. As soon as the door was shut, the room erupted into cheers.
“Well, we did it!” Rainbow Dash cheered, doing a hoof pump “We’re in the ice-archery final!”
Twilight noticed how overwhelmed Spike looked, so walked over to him “Spike, you wanted a chance to redeem yourself some more, well here it is.”
“And it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, as long as you're awesome!” Scootaloo winked at the dragon.
Spike gulped nervously “Only one problem...I’ve never shot an arrow in my life!”
Twilight had quickly managed to procure a large enough room in the crystal castle along with the equipment to practise ice-archery. That was the good news.
The bad news was that there wasn't much time before the rescheduled ice-archery final, just an afternoon to turn the Dragon into a national class archer. Whilst Spike’s attempts were spirited and passionate, the execution was less so. Whilst loading the bow was easy with his claw, it took all the dragon might to pull back on the string with his mouth, the straining making it difficult to aim.
Having had another arrow miss the target completely, Spike sat down on the floor exhausted and defeated. Applejack was the first to come over.
“You're getting, er, better Sugarcube!”
Spike just raised an eyebrow in suspicion.
“Well, I mean, you at least occasionally almost reach the target now!”
The dragon let out a depressed sigh “It’s not really meant for somebody with my body, I’m just not strong enough!”
Of to one side, Fluttershy flicked through a copy of the rule book. The inherent violence of archery with its background of earth ponies using them to bring down pegasi in battle made her uneasy. Reading distracted her from the past and allowed her to remain for moral support for her dragon friend.
Suddenly, she jumped to her hooves, and let out a barely audible 'yay'. Rarity saw her shy pegasus friend excited look and came trotting over. “What is it?”
“Nowhere does it same you have to use your mouth!” Fluttershy practically danced with delight. Everypony and dragon came over and Twilight read the rule aloud.
“Contestants shoot ice-arrows from a regulation bow provided. Only one part of the body may be in touch with the string, and one part may touch the bow to support if required. No magic can be used and unicorns cannot take part in tier 2 or higher events to prevent cheating.”
“Nowhere does it specify that you have to use your mouth? Spike can use an claw!” Rainbow Dash looped in the air excitedly. Spike looked down and flexed his claws, knowing he was much better with them than he either was with his mouth.
Spike took a sip of water, and then walked back to the range. The ponies present instinctively held their breath as Spike loaded an arrow, and started pulling back with his claw. The dragon had a bit of a struggle to get the arrow pulled back but when he let go already the accuracy and power was better. There was a excited cheer from behind him as in the first try he hit the very edge of the target.
Spike repeated the action, finding it a lot easier than before and soon he started hitting the target at least a quarter of the time. As Spike practised the new method, he realised that whilst he didn’t stand a chance of meddling, at least he would make a decent showing.
After a half hour of practise, he was getting a bit tired so took a break. Spike picked up the bow and returned to where the others were sat. Pinkie Pie had gone out to find them all some snacks, and Spike sat down amongst his friends and grabbed a muffin.
“Looking good out there Spike!” Sweetie Belle was the first to speak.
“Yeah, it’s not bad.” Spike spoke with his mouthful, earning a telling off from Twilight about manners. The group chatted for a while to give the dragon some rest, but the nerves started to kick in for everypony. Twilight smiled at her assistant “One more hour of practise Spike, then you can rest for the big event!”
“Okay, I want to make a good show of it afterall. I may not stand a chance of medaling, but at least Ponyville will go down trying!” Spike smiled back.
“And you get to represent Ponyville in the Equestria Games, thats something to be proud about!” Fluttershy beamed, touching her medal.
Spike got to his feet, grabbed the bow, and headed back to the range. An earth pony then suddenly jumped into the air. “Hold onto your hooves, I’m about to be brilliant!” Pinkie Pie declared, appearing next to the dragon seemingly not having occupied any of the space between where she was and when she had been.
Spike went to put the bow into the holder on the floor, but Pinkie put her hoof over it and smiled as Spike looked at her with confusion “Don’t use the floor holder, hold the bow!”
“You what?”
“Become one with the bow, embrace the bow, let it feel like an extension of you!” Pinkie replied, suddenly sat cross legged a safe distance behind him.
Spike held the bow in one claw, looked at Pinkie like she was a madpony, and nervously took an arrow with the other. He loaded it and pointed it towards the target. Pinkie quickly stepped forwards gently lowered his rear arm until his claw was tucked under his chin.
“Aim the tip and the arrow will follow” Pinkie said in a very mysterious sounding voice.
Spike took a deep breath, waiting for Pinkie to step back and released. The arrow flew in a perfect arc and hit close to the centre of the board. “You know, you're onto something here!” Spike beamed at his excited friend, before turning back to the group. “But can I do this?”
Rarity read the rules again “Nowhere does it say the bow has to be in the holder, just that it is provided by the games.”
“So Spike can do this? Isn’t that, you know, cheating?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Its like the how the Fosbury Trot revolutionised the puissance, it only takes one pony to come up with a new technique” Applejack replied “It happens on the rodeo circuit all the time”
“And if anypony was to complain, well, we’ll deal with it then!” Twilight added.
Spike turned back to the target and shot again. He found that by taking his time with each arrow, he could get it to hit fairly close to where he wanted. After the last hour of practice, Spike came walking back to his friends, a big smile on his face.
“We’re really in with a chance now!” he declared, to loud whoops and cheers from his friends.
Spike looked around nervously as he walked out on the field with the five other competitors. Tens of thousands of ponies were cheering, and having saved the games that morning, many were cheering his new name Spike the Doubly Brave and Glorious Hero. A few days ago Spike would have gone to pieces, but having performed the heroic act earlier that very day, he was able to steady his nerves.
Shining Armour took to the centre of the field “Fillies and Gentlecolts, Princesses” the prince bowed to the royal box, causing his wife and sister to giggle. “Following on from this mornings disruption, the Games conclude as they always do with the ice archery finals! Ice archers, take your places!”
The five ponies and one small dragon walked up to their places. There was an audible gasp as Spike lifted the bow from the ground. After flexing his neck, he stood sideways just behind the line, the bow in his left claw, the bucket of arrows available to his right. The other contestants looked at him in surprise, but as professionals they disregarded him and started their own warm up and focusing routines. Upon command, the others took their position, Spike simply standing there ready. The countdown began and the horn sounded to start the event.
Spike grabbed an arrow, threaded the string through the nock, and placed the shaft on the rest. He took a calming breath and drew back the string was against his nose, keeping his composure. His competitors had already fired off two or three arrows, but he didn’t care. Lining up the tip with his eye, closing the other, he waited till he was ready and released. There was a massive cheer from a the crowd as the arrow flew directly into the middle of the target.
Buoyed by his first shot, Spike repeated the action but rushed a little this time, meaning that instead of hitting where he wanted he only glanced the top of the target. Remembering how Twilight learnt a breathing technique to release her tension, he did the same before taking his next shot. Spike repeated this a few times and every shot was a hit where he needed it, his target starting to get a good covering of ice.
The other competitors upped their speed seeing that Spike was making good progress. But this just made them lose even more accuracy, re-hitting parts of the target they had already hit. Spike ignored the others and just lined up each shot carefully before releasing. Systematically his target became filled, and Spike’s pride in himself overtook all the nerves he had.
As the reigning champion and the best ice archer for a generation, Snowy Sight finished first, ensuring the gold medal for Cloudsdale. Spike saw this out of the corner of his eye but he was nearly done. He knew all he had to do was finish third to guarantee the games for Ponyville. Spike lined up a shot and it sailed until the area he needed, the final part being covered in ice.
The banner behind his target dropped, showing he had finished and Spike quickly looked behind him. The second cloudsdale competitor had yet to finish, meaning that Spike was ahead of him - Ponyville had topped the medal table! He then noticed that except for the champion, nopony else had finished. The realisation dropped - he won silver. The dragon wanted to jump for joy, but didn't want to disturb the other competitors, so calmly lay down his bow and took a few steps back. He noticed that Snowy Sight looked over to him and nodded in respect, Spike doing the same.
Meanwhile over the stands, five adult mares and three fillies stood with their mouths agasp. Never in their wildest dreams did they really think Spike stood a chance at meddling, they just wanted to give it a go. Within moments the shock wore off the cheering began - Ponyville were overall winners! And up in the royal box Twilight had a big grin on her face.
The competition soon finished and Spike came running over to his friends, a miniature party developing down in the stands. The head of the cloudsdale delegation seemed to be upset and headed towards Mrs Harshwhinny. However, Snowy Sight flew over and put a wing out to block him, simply shaking his head and lead him back to where the rest of the team were - Ponyville had earnt this.
Celestia could see Twilight squirming in her seat as her friends lifted Spike in the air, and the eldest Alicorn turned to her former apprentice. “Twilight, Spike is...well...very close to you. I think it’s okay if you go down there and celebrate with your friends and him!”
Twilight few off immediately without even thanking her mentor, and within seconds had joined her friends in congratulating Spike, and the whole town for winning the games.
Up on the medal podium, Spike stood proud as the real Cloudsdale anthem was sung for Snowy Sight. But it didn’t matter if he had won or lost the event, he had done enough to ensure Ponyville’s overall victory. As the anthem finished and the three winners started to walk off, Snowy tapped Spike on the shoulder “Well done kiddo!”
“It’s not fair” the other competitor from Cloudsdale, who had earned bronze, complained.
“No, it is. It’s a whole new technique my faithful student” Snowy smiled, “All I know is I suspect that the next games we’re probably going to have stiff competition from Spike here, and maybe griffons. We’ll have to up our game, thats all! And thats a challenge I'm looking forwards to.”
Spike nodded back, a aura of respect developing amongst the athletes, before returning to one of the tunnels at the side of the field were all his friends was waiting. He lifted his silver medal towards Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, who clinked theirs next to his with an audible 'bam' from Rainbow Dash.
“Wow Spike, that medal really suits ya!” Applebloom beamed
Spike stroked the medal, the shiny metal glistening in the evening light and a thought popped into his head. Spike gently nudged the three crusaders closer to each other, removed the medal, and placed it around the three fillies necks. “I can’t keep this without hoarding, and you deserve one for the magnificent flag opening. Keep this in your clubhouse as a reminder just how awesome you are.”
The three crusaders squealed in delight, and gave Spike a massive hug. Twilight wanted to join in, appreciating just how mature it was for Spike to give away something, but with so many ponies around she had to remain dignified. “Well, its time for Spike to do the closing ceremony” Twilight reminded them and Applejack led the crusaders and the other ponies away.
However Rarity hang back and took Spike to one side. “Well done, Spikey Wikey” the unicorn smiled at the dragon “This meant so much to Rainbow Dash, but also to Fluttershy and, well, everypony. And what you did to the crusaders, that was probably the most generous thing anypony could do!”
Spike turned away to hide his faint blush at the praise from his not-so-secret crush. Rarity leant in, and titled Spike head back and kissed him. However, unlike the few times before, this time it was on his lips - it was modest affair of only a second or two but regardless it was a real kiss.
Rarity backed up and Spike stood there speechless as he touch a claw to his lips. Seeing the dragons shocked expression, Rarity simply giggled and said “You said you were an adult dragon afterall!” before trotting off, leaving Spike more than pumped up to light the fireworks.
Ms. Harshwhinny approached the dragon "Okay, it's time!"
Author's Note
- I wanted to add the technical wording was inspired by the complicated rules and wordings in the MLPCCG. Its so complicated Twilight would love it
- I know it’s a predictable cheap happy ending winning a medal, but lets face it thats what would happen in canon
And some Sparity just because I usually have sad endings for Spike.
- And the ‘puissance’ is a mad event to watch, but quite exciting. Seeing the horses try to peer over the top is amusing, and its extra funny when the horse can’t be bothered to jump and plows through the fence (safely nowadays as it’s all lightweight materials)
