The Rise of Passion

Starlight stretched as she rose from bed. She'd grown accustomed to having Trixie by her side in the mornings, but with her gone, there was a certain sadness that washed over her upon waking up. Her bed was cold. There was nopony in it. She needed somepony for the nights when Sunburst couldn't join her. Even when he was around, he sometimes left to go back to his mother, or spend the night with Flurry.

She pulled herself out of bed and went to have some breakfast. There was no sense staying in bed if there was nopony to share it with. Even her fried eggs on toast seemed to be flavourless.

As she crunched her cereal, though, she looked over the newspaper, and her ears perked up. The Glittering Slopes Cross-Country Open had been making its way across Equestria all summer; she knew that just as well as anypony. She was also aware that the final event would be taking place here in the Crystal Empire. She was even aware that she would be presiding over the event with Cadance unable to attend; she'd had the meeting discussing her intended conduct at the event a few days ago.

What she didn't know was that the lead in this competition was somepony she knew. Double Diamond was ahead in the standings by two points. That wasn't enough to call off the competition, as the difference between first and last place was nine points. If he were ten points ahead, the runner-up could smoke the competition and Double Diamond could come in last, and he'd still win. Two points didn't even cover the spread between first and second. If he dropped down to second place in the final race, he'd still come out second overall.

More importantly, seeing his face in the paper so soon after removing Cadance and Flurry's cutie marks, in combination with not having anypony to keep her warm in bed at night filled her head with grim thoughts. She wanted to take his cutie mark away again. She wanted to have full control over him again.

She shook the thought away. She had to keep a low profile. If Twilight caught on, all of the work she'd put into coming here would be undone. She could have him eventually, if she just waited for Gallus to cover the other side. They were working on taking over. She just had to be patient.

Then again, there was nothing wrong with a harmless visit, right? And if that visit should lead to sex, was that really so terrible?

She decided no, but there was a limit to what she could and could not do. She couldn't stop the competition or do anything suspicious, like going down to the locker room and asking for him without a good reason. But she could be in attendance and call him up to her private viewing box. If anypony asked, she knew him from before he became a star athlete, and wanted to congratulate him in private.

The qualifying rounds were today, and to determine the order of the racers and the delay each would be given, they would be jumping off a ski ramp and trying to impress the judges. The better your score, the bigger your lead in the big race. The highest score would start with no time penalty, then half a second for second place, culminating in a four-second delay between the ninth and tenth positions.

She did have a meeting today, but it was an informal one, and she could change the location to be in the royal viewing box during the event. She alerted the guards and Cozy, separately, of course, and sent a message to the other attendee before heading down to the stadium.

The ski jump this year was not the standard one she always thought of when the term was brought up. This was a long, wavy slope that was naturally formed from a hill, and at the bottom was a quarter pipe. The competitors were announced right before her guest showed up.

"I see you received my message," nodded Starlight, looking back. "Good."

"I did," nodded the stallion, placing his briefcase down in front of him. "Why the sudden change in venue?"

"One of my past associates recently resurfaced, and is participating in the competition. I wanted to watch him."

"Is that all?"

She shook her head. "I'm supposed to preside over the race tomorrow, as well as the ceremony announcing the winner. I should probably watch the qualifying round to make sure everything is above board."

"I see. Well, do you mind if we discuss while we watch? I like alpine snowboarding as much as the next pony, but I have a business to run."

"Of course," nodded Starlight, ignoring the very blatant disregard for what sport they were watching. "You wanted a noise permit for your workshop. Tell me why you think you deserve one."

Starlight kept an ear on him while he went over how loud having three air compressors running at once was, as well as mentioning that the walls of his workshop were non-insulated corrugated sheet steel. It was essentially an echo chamber that made enough noise that the neighbors had filed a formal complaint with the guards. She'd actually been the one to sign the order to shut it down, as the measurements from the sound meter were over the limit by almost twenty decibels.

Meanwhile, her eyes were on the competition. Ponies of all varieties were cascading down the hill, sliding up into the air, and doing flips and spins and such. Surprisingly, the pegasi were doing the worst for air time, while the earth ponies and crystal ponies had the best. She wondered why that was.

Then a pegasus launched poorly off of the ramp and had to glide back to safety. The minimum points for each jump was five, being the score given just for jumping. Landing safely, even on the most boring of jumps with nothing added, was at least seven. The best jump she'd seen, though, was a thirty-nine. The pegasus that had missed was given a zero, having opened his wings.

They had drawn straws to see their starting order, then the lowest score would jump first for all subsequent rounds, and Double Diamond was the last to jump as a result. Starlight shushed the meeting to watch as he slid down the slope. A perfect jump at high speed, two and a half spins, a backflip, and landing slightly sideways, but correcting himself, he secured himself forty-six points out of a possible fifty. He was good. The best, even. But there were still four jumps remaining, and a guest who would not be granted the permit he was asking for today.