The Game of Estrus

The front door of the Ponyville library swung open, and Twilight trotted drowsily inside. It had been a busy day; Twilight had known organising the entire Winter Wrap Up from beginning to end was going to be a much harder task than just coming in at the end as she'd done last year, but she hadn't realised how much physical exertion would be involved. She'd been run ragged delivering tasks between the three team leaders.

"Next year," she swore, "I'll definitely need to introduce a new team for delivering messages."

She could hear Spike's snoring in her ear, the baby dragon sleeping soundly on her back. It had been a tiring day for him too, made more so by the fact that his sleep had been disturbed a good many times this week, awoken by the sound of Twilight's late-night pacing, as she herself was kept awake by the stress of the job she had been given. With the successful arrival of Spring resting on her withers, she couldn't help but make constant amendments to her checklist, despite the Mayor having claimed it was perfect when Twilight had shown it to her the previous month.

It had all been worth it in the end though, as Spring had not only been welcomed successfully, but had been done so in record time, by Ponyville standards at least. Twilight smiled to herself as she remembered everypony crowding around to congratulate her once it was all over. They all seemed to agree that they couldn't have done it without her, and somepony even suggested giving her the Prize Pony of Ponyville award. She'd turned it down though, arguing she couldn't accept it when it was really everypony's hard work that'd helped pull it off, not just hers.

"Besides," she thought to herself, "right now the greatest reward I can think of is to curl up in my soft, warm bed." Although to be honest, right now she would have been perfectly content to simply lie on the floor and sleep as she was. Yet she persevered, willing herself up each individual step leading up to her room, knowing that the end reward would be oh so worth it. Placing Spike down in his bed, she slipped off her multicoloured All-Team Organiser vest, before flumping down onto her bed.

"Hi Twilight," said Twilight's bed in Pinkie's voice.

"Hi Pinkie bed..." mumbled Twilight.

A moment passed.

Twilight's eyes sprung open. She saw Pinkie looking back at her, lying beside her on the bed.

"Pinkie... what are you doing here?"

"I've come to invite you to a super-duperriffic party I'm throwing to celebrate the start of Sprinter!" Pinkie said with her typical bubbliness, showing no signs of fatigue from the day's work. "Y'see, that's a word I just invented for this season, 'cos Spring isn't 'til tomorrow but we already wrapped up Winter, so this must be a completely new season in between Winter and Spring, so I put the names together and called it Sprinter! And it's funny too, 'cos sprinting is another word for galloping, and we had to gallop all over the place to get Winter wrapped up early enough to have a Sprinter, y'see?"

Twilight was fighting a losing battle to keep her eyes open. "That's great Pinkie, but do you think we could have the party tomorrow instead?"

"No silly, Sprinter will be over by then. Besides, we're all going to enter the competition tomorrow."

Twilight pricked up her ears mid-yawn. "Competition? What competition?"

"'The grandest prize you can imagine?' What the hay is that supposed to mean?"

Rainbow shrugged. "No clue. I just overheard some ponies talking about a contest they were entering, and that's the prize they mentioned."

"And you all knew about this?" Twilight glanced around at her friends as they all nodded, looking ashamed for leaving her out. The six of them were walking to where the contest was supposed to be being hosted, a building on the outskirts of town that was often hired out for social events if the Town Hall and Sugarcube Corner were unavailable.

"I tried to tell you," Rainbow defended, "but every time I saw you you gave me a new task to prepare for my Weather Team. I would've told you at last night's party, if you'd shown up."

Twilight sighed. It was true she'd seen her friends less and less as the Winter Wrap Up approached, too preoccupied with her task at hoof. "So, we don't even know what type of competition it is, and the prize is decidedly cryptic."

"Ah reckon it don't matter what kinda contest it is," Applejack assured Twilight, "if all six of us enter as a team, we're bound tah come out on top."

"Damn right we are!" Rainbow boasted. "It doesn't matter if it's athletic or eggheadic, we got it covered."

"Oh, honestly you two. Did you not even consider that this contest might be every pony for herself?" Rarity chastised the athletic duo. "For all you know we might be competing against one another."

Fluttershy squeaked and started backing away. "Well uh, I didn't really want the prize anyway, so I um, I think I'll just go home now so I don't get in anyone's way, okay...?" She squeaked again as she was enveloped in Twilight's magic aura and dragged back into the group.

"It's okay Fluttershy, we'll stick together no matter what." A thought suddenly struck Twilight. "Do any of you girls actually have your heart set on winning the prize? I know I'm just tagging along for curiosity's sake."

"Competitions are fun, and I loooove fun," Pinkie replied while bouncing alongside the group. Fluttershy said nothing, but the other three raised a hoof in acknowledgement.

"The way ah reckon it," mused Applejack, "the prize must really be a heap of money. That way, yah could buy the greatest prize yah want."

Rarity shook her head. "No dear, it's obviously a grand work of art. After all, nothing takes more imagination to create than a beautiful piece of artwork."

"You're both wrong." Rainbow hovered in front of the group, flying backwards to face them. "The competition's clearly being run by a genie who grants wishes, and whoever wins gets one wish to wish for the most awesome thing they can think of." This was met with incredulous stares. "What? Genies are real. Daring Do totally met some this one time. And kicked their butts!"

The debate quickly heated up, and Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes, knowing it was futile to reason with any of them once they had a strong opinion in their head. They were still arguing when they reached the venue. There were two doors leading inside, with a sign in-between them indicating that mares should enter through the left door, and stallions through the right.

"All right!" Rainbow exclaimed, hoof pumping the air. "If they're dividing it up by gender, that must mean it's athletic, so I'm sure to win!"

"Don't y'all get too cocky now. Unless we're up in the air, I got yah beat," AJ reminded Dash.

Twilight sighed in exasperation. "Girls, can we please stop arguing and just go inside?"

Pinkie had already bounced in of her own accord, and the others followed her lead. They emerged into a large ballroom/auditorium, where a few other mares were already milling around.

"Oh my... I was sure there'd be more ponies here than this..." Fluttershy seemed to withdraw even more into her metaphorical shell. Small crowds were even worse for her than large ones, since at least with large ones she could manage to hide herself amongst the other ponies.

Twilight looked around. Aside from their group, she counted a mere ten other mares gathered in the hall. Amongst these, one pony appeared to be a reporter for the local newspaper, who was probably here to document the event rather than take part. "Well, we don't know what time it's due to start. Maybe more'll get here later."

"My, what a lovely surprise. Are these my friends before my eyes?"

The group turned to look at the mare that had entered the hall behind them. "Zecora!"

Zecora smiled. "Entering the contest too, I suppose? I sincerely hope we-"

Just then, the door behind her slammed shut, causing everyone in the room to jump.

Zecora seemed lost in thought for a moment. "...oh, what a mighty close!" She sighed, then glared angrily around. "Someone has interrupted my flow. This is a crime I cannot let go!"

As if on cue, the lights in the room dimmed, with the exception of those on the stage, and a voice seemed to emanate from the walls.

"Welcome, every pony!"

A number of expressions passed over Twilight Sparkle's face: bemused contemplation, dawning realisation, horrified shock, and finally pure terror. "I know this voice..."

As this was transpiring, a figure materialised on stage. Standing up to his full height, there was a collective gasp, as the citizens of Ponyville stood face-to-face with the being who had once turned their town upside-down:

"Discord!"