Sunset stood like a zombie in the corner of the classroom where the written exam was taking place. Ostensibly, she was on monitor duty in the back with Harshwhinny while Opaline was overseeing the exam from the teacher’s desk in the front. In reality, she was quietly despairing at how she had left things with her students when they parted, and the white noise of pencils scratching against paper did nothing to take her mind off it.

How can I hope to keep them safe from the dangers of magic when I can’t even accomplish the most basic of tasks as a teacher?

At least Harshwhinny was a dedicated teacher who took her job seriously, she thought glumly as she observed her co-worker wind her way through the aisles, always on the lookout without disturbing the students in their work.

Then she paused, and something unusual and exceedingly rare happened. Gladys Harshwhinny … smiled. She looked up to meet Sunset’s eyes and beckoned her over with an almost imperceptible nod of her head.

Curiosity winning out over gloominess, Sunset walked over quietly and found that Gladys had stopped next to Izzy’s desk. Glancing down, she found that Izzy had made her way through the entire math section, and it looked good, the formulae all neat and precise, and moved on to the optional questions for bonus points, the kinds students weren’t expected to even understand, let alone solve, unless they were some kind of math prodigy.

But Izzy was dutifully going through them, a look of concentration on her face that meant she hadn’t even realized that the two teachers were hovering over her.

For the first time since she’d left her students earlier, Sunset began to smile as she looked at Gladys. The two teachers shared a proud look and moved on in opposite directions.

But after only a few steps, Sunset came to a sudden halt as she looked over at Hitch, the knot in her stomach returning with a vengeance.

Hitch had a thousand-yard-stare on his face, hand slightly raised as if to use his magic. Sunset glanced down at the bag near his feet where she could see the corner of a textbook poking out, a green mote of light hovering near it.

If he was to summon a small vine to dig out and open the book and then glance down, nobody would likely even notice. Except, I would notice. And then what do I do?

He seemed frozen in the moment, unaware of his teacher’s eyes on him, and after an agonizingly long few seconds, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly as his hand relaxed and the mote of light vanished.

When his eyes opened again, they were clear and focused. Hitch cracked his neck briefly, picked up his pencil and returned his focus to the answer sheet in front of him.

Sunset looked over towards Opaline who was regarding Hitch with a raised eyebrow, but then returned to letting her eyes sweep across the rest of the students.

Sunset sighed in relief and continued her watch without further incidents.

With the event having moved to the sports grounds, Sunset found herself sitting at a table off to the side, grading the exams at a row of tables under a pavillion some distance from the action. While the sports events went on under the supervision of the PE teachers and judges, teachers from both schools would be busy evaluating the morning’s written portion.

One teacher from each school was to go over each student’s exam to ensure a fair grading. Thankfully the gods, or more probably either Celestia or Cadence, had seen fit to pair Sunset up with any other Crystal Prep teacher than Dapper Facade, and she found the older woman, Mrs. Hazelblossom, who taught English at Crystal Prep to be both fair in her grading as well as pleasant company, even though Sunset kept glancing over at the sports grounds.

“I concur with your scoring, Ms. Shimmer,” the older woman said, adding her signature in red next to Sunset’s and passing the paper over. “Some very advanced understanding of math on this one.”

Sunset noted Izzy’s name on the paper and smiled. “Yes, she’s got a very good math teacher. I should know. I was her student once, too.”

Mrs. Hazelblossom returned a good-natured smile and took her glasses off to let them hang from the chain around her neck to rest her eyes for a bit. “All your students also wrote very lovely essays, I must say.” She lifted up an exam sheet bearing Sunny’s name. “Especially this one. It’s not often that, when tasked with writing about a person who inspires them in their life, they choose to write about one of their teachers.” She gave Sunset a knowing look.

Blushing, Sunset turned her attention back to her work, cross-checking the rest of the answer sheet with her counterpart’s score marks on the sheet in front of her. “I guess the essays almost have to make up for it. As usual, Crystal Prep’s reputation for academic excellence is well earned,” she said, signing off on a Crystal Prep student’s paper with almost full marks in the physics section.

“Principal Cadence holds us to a high standard, both in academics and where it comes to the nurturing of our students.” Her eyes narrowed slightly as she gave a pointed look towards another table where Dapper Facade was currently arguing with Cranky over a score. “I should only wish we would all meet those standards on a regular basis.”

Before she could comment on that, Sunset’s attention was pulled towards the football field where a dismayed cry had just risen from the spectators and she saw Zipp lying on the ground.

“Come on, ref! That was a foul!” Big Mac bellowed from the sidelines in a rare display of genuine anger. “There was no ball contact!”

Sunset narrowed her eyes. Opaline was refereeing the match, and she pointedly ignored the complaint. But Sunset looked at Zipp who got to her feet covered in dirt. She clenched her hand and took a stance that looked like she almost intended to hit her opponent in the back with a blast of pegasus magic in revenge for the foul. Then she dug in her heels and ran after him instead, taking the ball back with a fair tackling and shooting it towards the middle with a scissor kick from the ground. “Sprout!”

Sprout received the ball, finding himself face to face with three opponents who had singled him out as the biggest physical threat on the field. He shielded the ball as best he could, looking around for an opening, then he turned and kicked the ball with his heel.

Right towards Misty who found herself with just one opponent between herself and the goal. It would have been the perfect chance to just raise her shield and barrel through her, instead she put her head down, looking like she was about to charge, then tricked her opponent by lightly pushing the ball through her legs, running around her and shooting for the goal.

“YES!” Sunset screamed and jumped up with a fist in the air as the ball hit the net and the crowd cheered. “GOOOAAALLL!”

But the shrill sound of Opaline’s whistle dashed that moment of triumph. “Offside! No goal! Crystal Prep to kick off.”

“WHAT!?” Sunset roared in righteous indignation. “Are you blind? There’s no way that girl wasn’t between Misty and the goalie when the ball was passed!” She was fuming, then began to blush when she noticed the other teacher looking at her with a smile.

Out on the field, Misty was trotting back to her teammates with an apologetic expression. “Sorry, guys.”

“Don’t mind, Misty,” Zipp, the team captain, said while Hitch gave her a pat on the shoulder, “great hustle! Let’s keep up the pressure!”

Sunset looked around towards the track where the relay race was going on. Currently in the lead, her headband streaming behind her, Izzy was approaching Pipp for the changeover, the two running side by side, but when she tried to pass the baton over, they fumbled, and it clattered to the ground. It would have been easy for Pipp to make a small gesture and bounce it back into her hand with her wind magic without anybody noticing.

Instead, she arrested her movement and wheeled around while Izzy literally threw herself onto the track, picking up the fallen object and holding it up for Pipp to grab, the scrapes on her forearms and face clear evidence that she hadn’t raised her shield. Pipp received the baton, turned around once more and, now in second place, tore off with gritted teeth to catch back up with her opponent, pounding the track with all her might and no magic.

“Hiyah!” Hearing Sunny scream, she turned to see the girl taking her run-up for the long jump, purple braid flowing behind her. For the briefest of moments, the soles of her shoes seemed to flare up green with her earth pony magic. But she shook her head and the glow faded before she pushed off from the board under her own power alone, throwing her body weight forward to land in the sand at a significant distance.

From that point, things got harder to make out in the distance as Sunset’s chest swelled with pride and her eyes swam with unshed tears.

“I guess that’s the one field where CHS has always been ahead of us,” the older teacher said in a kindly voice, “your students are very spirited.”

Sunset turned towards her with a big grin. “Yes. Yes, they are.”

“And I’m starting to see where they get it from. Shall we finish up tallying these scores, dear?”

“Yes, of course,” Sunset said, wiping away at her eyes briefly and sitting back down.

Having passed off the graded written exams to the judges, Sunset walked along the grassy field around the sports ground. Blankets had been set out for the participants and spectators for a picnic lunch. She glanced over at the scoreboard which had just been updated.

Between the written exam scores and the tally from the sports events, CHS was behind by 150 points. The gap wasn’t insurmountable, but to pull off an upset, CHS would have to clinch almost every remaining point up for grabs.

Consequently, the mood from the Canterlot High students she passed was pretty subdued, though at least everyone seemed to be enjoying their lunches. One island of particular gloom in the sea of students was the blanket where the majority of participating CHS sophomores were quietly eating after showering and changing out of their gym clothes.

“You got room for one more?” Sunset asked quietly as she walked up to Sunny, Izzy, Hitch, Sprout, Zipp, Pipp, Misty and Posey Bloom.

“Ms. Sunset!” Sunny gulped, looking up at her. “We didn’t cheat in any of the events, I swear.”

“I know,” Sunset said, sitting down with a pained smile on her face and lightly resting her hand on Sunny’s shoulder, “I’m sorry for ever doubting you. Can you ever forgive me?”

“Are you kidding?” Hitch asked remorsefully. “We’re the ones who are sorry. Thanks for setting us straight in the nick of time.”

“Yeah,” Izzy agreed with uncharacteristically low energy. “We all said some pretty dumb things this morning.”

Zipp nodded at that. “Totally. You were right, Ms. Sunset. Using our powers would have just been cheating, plain and simple.”

“And I feel awful for getting everyone so riled up by telling them about the bet,” Misty said, hanging her head.

“Don’t,” Sunset said comfortingly while reaching over and ruffling her hair, “you were just trying to motivate your team. You did nothing wrong. None of you did. As humans, we all have our moments of weakness. Wielding phenomenal cosmic powers is all well and good, but it’s knowing when to use them, and for what purpose, and when not to that’s important. So enough with the glum faces. I am so very proud of all of you, and you should all feel proud of yourselves today.”

Slowly, the frowns began to turn upside down as they all looked at her.

“Bring it in, guys,” Sunset said as they all joined into a group hug.

“Must be nice to be part of the magic club,” Posey, one of the only two students not to join in, said with a sigh.

“Probably,” Sprout agreed.

Sunset reached out wordlessly, grabbed them both by the shoulders and pulled them into the hug. Posey’s face stiffened for a moment, then softened into a smile as well.

“Well, at least the temptation to cheat is gone now,” Zipp said remorsefully when they all pulled apart again. “We’re so far behind already, what’s even the point? At least, we’ll lose with dignity.”

“On the plus side,” Izzy said around a mouthful of chicken sandwich, “we got a great meal out of it. This lunch is amazing!”

Sunset gave a knowing smile. “Exactly.” And in a moment that couldn’t have been timed better, the scoreboard behind her updated, with Crystal Prep’s seemingly unassailable lead being cut down from 150 to a mere 50 points, while Cadence announced over the loudspeakers: “The home economics scores have been tallied. CHS takes full marks with a clean sweep. 100 points to Canterlot High!”

A student wearing a black trenchcoat and a white chef’s hat walked past in that moment, bumping Sunset’s outstretched fist in passing and kept on walking with his trenchcoat fluttering out dramatically behind him.

“Where is Trey even going?” Posey wondered aloud while staring after her classmate from 2-B. “There’s nothing over there!”

“Let him have his hero walk-off, Posey,” Sunset said with a twinkle in her eye. “He just put us back on the board single-handedly. That means it’s all to play for in the Super Quiz Relay. The rest is up to you guys.”

Izzy returned to the bench with her head hanging low. “Sorry,” she said. “They’re really good.”

The final event of the Friendship Games, the Super Quiz Relay, was taking place on the big stage of Canterlot High’s open-air auditorium which Sunset remembered mostly for being the stage where the Battle of the Bands had concluded years ago.

Now, instead of a musical setup, two benches for the competing teams flanked two central podiums, each with their own buzzer and microphone. Opaline, as the head judge, was standing in the middle to ask the questions, while Celestia and Cadence were seated at a desk some steps behind her, ready to weigh in for clarifications and to look up unexpected answers with a laptop at their disposal.

Nobody blamed Izzy for getting the last answer wrong. They’d managed to narrow the gap further, but everybody was on edge as Zipp looked over at the scoreboard and declared after doing the math in her head: “We’re still down by 25 points. At five points a piece, we have to get every remaining question right just to draw even, or it’s over.”

Sunset nodded and looked around the worried faces of her students before waving them closer. “Bring it in.” She glanced over at the other bench were Dapper Facade was of course looking at her with a smug grin. But she put him out of her mind as the CHS Team put their heads together. “Listen, I know it’s been a long, tough road to get here. But whatever happens, I want you to know that I’m proud of all of you for getting this far, whatever happens. But we’re not beat yet.”

“Are you gonna tell us that we all have heart?” Pipp asked, only slightly ironically.

“Why would I tell you that? You already know that,” Sunset pointed out. “No, instead I’m gonna remind you that you have what it takes to beat them. Yes, they’re smart and tough, but so are you. You all worked your butts off to prepare for this, you’ve worked hard all year. You don’t need a miracle, you don’t need magic as you’ve proven today, you just need to give it your all. Five questions left, we just need someone to get us started.” She locked eyes with Zipp. “You ready to get us started, Captain?”

Zipp squared her jaw and nodded.

Putting her hand into the middle of the circle and waiting for her students to pile theirs on top, Sunset said: “Wondercolts on 3. 1 … 2 … 3!”

“Wondercolts Forever!” They raised their hands with a shout and broke, the rest of the team clapping their hands as Zipp walked up to the podium.

Ms. Opaline looked at the two contestants and said: “This is a question for both. First to buzz in gets to answer first. Ready? Spell a word of your choosing correctly. Longest word wins.”

Bzzt!

Zipp grimaced as the girl from Crystal Prep was ever so slightly faster to buzz in, getting to answer first. “R-A-D-I-O-I-M-M-U-N-O-T-H-E-R-A-P-Y, Radioimmunotherapy, 18 letters.”

Opaline turned to look at Celestia and Cadence on the judges’ bench, the former having written down the answer on a piece of paper and the latter typing the word into a laptop in front of her. They briefly compared notes, nodded to each other and then to Opaline.

“Correct,” Opaline said to the polite applause of the Crystal Prep students and the groan of the CHS students in the crowd. “Ms. Storm, you’ll have to come up with a longer word if you want the points.”

Zipp grimaced, mouthing something to herself as she apparently either came up short or wasn’t confident that she could spell whatever word she had landed on. Looking around, she locked eyes with Sunset, and an idea seemed to hit her. “Does it have to be an English word?” she asked, turning to Opaline who frowned back. “You didn’t specify.”

Opaline looked like she was about to shoot the notion down, but then she did that weird head tick of hers while her eyes went from stern to slightly softer. “I suppose I didn’t,” she admitted after a few seconds. “You may use a foreign word as long as we can verify it in a standard dictionary.”

Zipp began to grin and closed her eyes while leaning on the lectern with her hands, reciting the letters clearly and evenly. “B-R-U-T-T-O-S-O-Z-I-A-L-P-R-O-D-U-K-T, Bruttosozialprodukt, 19 letters.” She turned around to look at Celestia and Cadence who were staring at her with wide eyes. “It’s German. You should find it in the Duden der Rechtschreibung und Grammatik.”

The two principals stuck their heads together behind the laptop, conferred briefly, and then gave two thumbs up.

“Correct. Five points to Canterlot High,” Opaline announced neutrally as the CHS students erupted into a cheer.

Zipp simply strode back towards her team, bumping the fist Sunset held out to her with a nod and looked at the rest of her team. “Alright, I got us started. Now to keep the rally going, guys.”

And so they did as Sunset’s students stepped up one by one to the podium on the stage.

Bzzt!

Pipp: “The Estates General of France prior to the 1789 Revolution was made up of the Clergy, the Nobility and the Third Estate, which comprised the remaining 98% of the population despite only getting one vote in the assembly, just like the First and Second Estates.”

“Correct.”

Bzzt!

Posey: “The quote ‘Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven’ originates from John Milton’s 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost.”

“Correct.”

Bzzt!

Hitch: “The Second Schleswig War of 1864, the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-German War of 1870/71, collectively known as the German Unification Wars.”

“Correct.”

Bzzt!

Sunny: “The first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, for his role in mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War the previous year.”

“Correct, another five points to CHS,” Opaline announced as she shuffled her last cue card forward in her hands. “And with that, the scores are even, and we move on to a tie-breaker question to decide both the Super Quiz Relay and the Friendship Games as a whole.”

Sunset couldn’t help but look a little smug as a smiling Sunny made her way back to receive the congratulations of her teammates. She looked over at the other bench where a displeased Dapper Facade was venting his frustrations loud enough to be heard across the aisle. “What was that? Pull it together and stop making us look bad! They’re just a public school. You’re embarrassing yourselves, and more importantly you’re embarrassing me.”

“Sheesh, wouldn’t wanna be in that guy’s class,” Sunny commented.

Yeah, Sunset thought to herself. The longer this goes on, the less I care about this moron and the more I just feel sorry for his students. But right now she had her own student to worry about who was pacing restlessly back and forth after the terror behind his eyes had been rising steadily with every correct answer from his teammates. Because the order was fixed, that meant he’d be the vital last one to step in for the all-important tie-breaker question.

“Hey,” Sunset said to the nervously pacing Sprout. “You okay?”

He nodded, though he didn’t stop pacing. “Yeah, I’m okay. I’ll just … I’m gonna go up there and believe in the you that believes in me, Ms. Sunset.”

“Don’t do that.”

He stopped his pacing to look at her.

“Show me what you’ve got in your pocket, Sprout.”

Reaching into the pocket of his jacket, he produced a small box of thumbtacks and handed it to her wordlessly.

Sunset gave it a brief glance and held it up in front of his eyes. “Doesn’t look like any more have been used for mischief.” Without even looking, she chucked the box into a nearby trash bin, then she jabbed her index finger into his chest. “Believe in yourself. Not the me that believes in you. Not the you that believes in me. Believe in the you that believes in yourself.”

Sprout swallowed hard, took a deep breath, then nodded and made his way to the stage where his eyes narrowed upon the realization that his opponent was the guy he’d almost thrown hands with in the morning.

Sunset clenched her fist in front of her mouth as Opaline said: “The final category is Art History. For the win. First correct answer counts. Name a painting made in the style of European Academic Art.”

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

Sprout had slammed on the buzzer so hard that it almost seemed like the prop was going to break as he stared into space with wide eyes. “Batwoman!”

There was a deafening silence after his answer, until that silence was broken by the chuckle of his opponent. “Did you seriously just blank and blurt out a comic book character, you total moron?” As his chuckle transitioned into a taunting laugh, the Crystal Prep team and the audience also started giggling. “The Birth of Venus by William-Adolphe Bouguereau is a correct answer.”

Sprout looked around with panic in his eyes, almost everyone laughing at him, and even his teammates had only pity in their eyes for him. Then he looked at his teacher, who was looking at him with wide eyes and nodding fervently to go on. You gave the right answer, Sprout! Tell them!

He turned back to see Opaline raise her arm in the direction of Crystal Prep to declare them the winners, and he got close to the microphone in front of him. “Excuse me!” His interjection caused a loud reverb through the speakers which made Opaline jump. “I believe you said the first correct answer counts, so let me say it again more clearly,” he said more evenly but no less firmly into the microphone as the crowd began to quiet down. “La Femme Chauve-Souris, The Bat-Woman, painted by French artist Albert Joseph Pénot circa 1890.” He looked past Opaline at his suddenly slack-jawed opponent and added: “Almost fifty years before Bob Kane and Bill Finger introduced the world to the iconic comic book character Batman in 1939, moron.”

““Correct!!”” Opaline turned in surprise at the sudden and simultaneous shout from both Celestia and Cadence. Celestia turned the laptop around so the image being displayed could be seen, an oil painting of a nude woman with bat wings, her arms raised as if to cast a spell and a set of piercing eyes directed at the viewer.

“And he’s right about Batman, too,” Sunset couldn’t help herself from shouting with a proud grin on her face.

Opaline Arcana turned around, extended her arm weakly in Sprout’s direction and announced in an even voice: “Canterlot High wins the Friendship Games.”

The Wondercolts erupted into a cheer, storming onto the stage as they all piled onto Sprout, chanting his name, in a group hug to the applause of the audience. Even some of the Crystal Prep students showed some grudging respect for the win.

Unlike the unsatisfying draw from six years ago, Canterlot High had achieved an absolutely undisputed victory for the first time in the history of the Friendship Games, with no magic shenanigans, willingly or unwillingly, casting any doubt on their victory.

Sunset walked up to her celebrating students who parted to allow her to walk up to the MVP. “Knew you could do it,” she said, punching Sprout in the arm. “Ain’t nobody who knows more about artistic nudes than Sprout Cloverleaf.”

He grinned back at her, slightly embarrassed, while rubbing his arm.

“Bring it in, everybody,” she said, and as they joined in another huddle, Sunset glanced around at the smiling faces of her students, feeling like her chest might burst with pride. “You know, guys, I was a participant in the last Friendship Games, and at their conclusion, or rather inconclusion, a wise woman said that it’s fair to declare us all winners.”

She lifted her head, looking at Celestia and Cadence shaking hands, clearly both just relieved that the damn thing was over with no major catastrophes occurring. But more importantly, she spotted Dapper Facade off to the right of the stage, kicking the ground and cursing.

When she lowered her head again, she matched the cheeky grins of the kids. “Screw that noise! Feels good to win!”

“Yeah!” The response was unified.

“Who are we?”

“Canterlot Wondercolts!”

“And what have we done today?”

“Win!”

As the circle broke into individual cheers, the festive mood was suddenly broken by a piercing scream from the edge of the open-air auditorium. They all looked and saw shadowy creatures pour into the stands from the outside, the closest students screaming in panic.

Sunset took a step forward and looked around. Opaline was nowhere to be seen. As a light appeared at the edge of her vision, she looked to her left, finding Sunny, Hitch and Misty all ponied up and giving her a determined look and a nod. She looked to her right, and found the same was true for Pipp, Zipp, Sprout and Izzy.

Turning around, she looked at the frightened Posey Bloom. “Posey, focus!” The girl snapped out of it at her teacher’s voice. “Go find Rufus, tell him to be ready on my signal, then find someplace safe to hide.”

Posey nodded, turned and ran towards the back of the stage.

“The rest of you,” Sunset said, putting her hand in her pocket and wrapping her fingers around the magic collection device, “let’s go!”

Author's Note

Brought to you by my generous patreon supporter(s):

Gold Tier:
-Daedalus Aegle

Silver Tier:
-Brandon Caldwell