"Clear for landing, Team Pegasi!" Sunny’s voice called out as Zipp and Pipp were leading a group of pegasi over, with Thunder carrying a basket full of balls while the others carried one ball each.

They threw the balls, Rocky catching two of them, and then he threw them to Zoom. Zoom hit the balls back while Zipp came zooming by and caught two of them, juggling them. Pipp caught the two more and backflipped in the air before she flew by.

Sunny came by with a speakerphone on her head. "It's just a little sports day, ponies. No need to show off," she commented since the pegasi were showing off a little too much.

"All of Equestria is a stage, Sunny," Pipp said with a smile, tossing a ball on top of the other in her hooves. Hitch, light the lanterns!" she called out through her earphones as well.

"Lanterns?" Sunny asked, but when she realized what Pipp meant, she turned to her left with her hooves up. "No, Hitch!" she cried out to him.

"Roger that. Lanterns lit," Hitch declared, standing in front of a red button and about to hit it.

"Wait, Hitch!" Sunny tried to stop him, but he had already pushed the button.

The lanterns lit and floated all over Maretime Bay while Sunny looked on with a nervous expression.

"Oh, no..." Sunny muttered as she sweated a little.

"Did you say 'oh, go'?" Izzy’s voice asked through her earphone.

"Izzy, no!" Sunny cried out to her.

"Go?" Izzy asked her again.

"NO!" Sunny cried out clearly to Izzy, already frustrated that the exercise was not going well.

Izzy, of course, clearly thinks she meant to go and turned to her team of unicorns. "You heard her, Team Unicorn! Go, go, go!" she announced, as they used their magic to levitate streamers over their heads while some unicorns laughed and a few of them danced around, and then the streamers flew into the air.

"Bogey at three o'clock!" Thunder cried out to Zoom, seeing the streamers coming at them.

"Gross!" Zoom said, not understanding what Thunder meant when the streamers came at them. Then Zoom got hit, and Thunder moved out of the way.

"Aah!" Pipp cried out as the streamers hit her, Zipp, and the other pegasi. Zipp got tangled in one of the streamers, and that caused them to drop the balls and hit the lanterns.

Sunny saw the lanterns and balls fall from the sky. "Everypony, take cover!" she shouted to everypony around them.

The balls and lanterns crashed all over Maretime Bay, and the ponies around them tried to run for cover, but some got hit by them.

"Aah!" Rocky shouted as he flew around, got tangled in a streamer, and crashed into the ground.

Just then, Sonic, Queen Haven, and Alphabittle came out of Mane Melody. "Are we ready to begin?" Alphabittle asked with a smile.

But then Sonic felt his quills getting up as he looked up and saw what was coming at them. "Look out!" Sonic shouted as he pushed Haven and Alphabittle out of the way.

"Aah!" Alphabittle and Haven shouted in surprise at Sonic's push before two balls and a lantern hit them. They ran for cover while more balls and lanterns fell from the sky.

Sunny was seeing this outcome as her right eye began to twitch.

Sonic, Haven, and Alphabittle came out from under the bridge once the coast was clear, while Sunny came closer to them.

"I'm so sorry!" Sunny apologized to the two leaders and the visitor from another dimension for this outcome. "This was supposed to be the best day ever, and I—–!" she tried to explain, but Alphabittle cut her off.

"It's okay, Sunny," Alphabittle assured her. "No harm—–" he tried to say but got cut off when Thunder came screaming from the sky and fell and landed on a pile of boxes. "Maybe a little harm done," he corrected himself. With all of Equestria competing for the first time, this is a big job," he said to her. "How are you doing?" he asked her with curiosity, wondering how she was handling being in charge.

"I'm okay!" Thunder called out to them from the box.

"Not you, Thunder," Alphabittle said with a bored expression.

"Even for a Queen, it would be a lot to handle alone," Haven pointed out to Sunny.

"I'm the Alicorn," Sunny said to them, summoning her Alicorn form to prove her point. "I've got this," she said nervously.

"Being a leader means recognizing when you can't do something, Sunny. If this is a lot to take, it's okay to say it," Sonic said with a little smile while Alphabittle and Haven nodded in agreement.

"It's okay, Sonic. I can do this!" Sunny said again with a nervous chuckle. "Let the Equestria Games begin!" she announced nervously to the ponies around them while the crowd cheered.

As Sunny walked away, Sonic raised an eyebrow at Haven and Alphabittle. "We agree that she doesn't get this, right?" he asked them rhetorically.

"Yup," Alphabittle replied with a bored expression.

"Oh, absolutely," Haven said with her eyes closed.

And then Tails and Knuckles arrived with them, panting for all the running they had done. "Sorry... we got... late..." Tails apologized as he tried to catch his breath.

"We overslept... again..." Knuckles explained, also catching his breath a bit.

"Did we... miss something?" Tails asked, finally catching his breath.

"Not yet, my friends. But I feel these games are going to be rough..." Sonic said to them.

Sunny was watching the first game of beach ball at the beach, with Zipp and Izzy competing against each other.

Zipp kept punching the beach ball. Being a pony known for sports and flying, Zipp had the advantage in the game while Izzy and her team tried to catch the ball and hit it back. But the ball suddenly landed on Izzy’s horn, which resulted in the ball getting popped and stuck on it.

Sunny whistled for a time out when she saw this and came close to Izzy to get it off, but Izzy didn’t stand still, and she used her magic to levitate the deflated ball off her, which caused her to restore the ball and make two more. Izzy threw the three balls at the pegasi, not knowing that she summoned two more of them.

Zipp screamed as the ball came to her and then flew away. Pipp and Rocky screamed as well when the other two balls came towards them, so they flew around while the balls chased after them.

Sunny tried to figure out how to handle the situation, but then she got hit by one of the balls and fell into the sand.

Queen Haven and Alphabittle saw the whole thing, looked at one another, and shook their heads while Sonic facepalmed with frustration, Tails looked on, feeling bad for Sunny, and Knuckles slurped from a smoothie with a bored expression.

"Well, she's handling this great," Knuckles said sarcastically.

The next game was a running race across the forest.

Hitch trotted across the muddy path, taking the lead. Pipp was behind him, trying to catch up, while Sunny was on her roller skates, monitoring the race.

Pipp and Hitch were side by side while Hitch got a second wind and trotted ahead of Pipp. Pipp then realized her hooves were full of mud and stopped. "My hooficure!" she cried out when she saw her hoofs so dirty and then smirked as she thought of something.

Hitch still trotted across the muddy path, but then Pipp came next to him, using her wings to win the race. Hitch saw her smirking at him as she flew past him. "Stop...! Flying's... against... rules!" se said, panting from all the running.

Hitch stopped and stomped his hoof on the ground, using his earth pony magic to summon a plant vine that tangled Pipp around and trapped her on the ground while Hitch ran with a smirk.

Sunny blew her whistles as they saw them cheating, but Sunny didn’t pay attention to the road and tripped over the vine Hitch made. Hitch laughed, thinking he would win, but Sunny crashed into him, and they rolled into the mud.

Pipp growled, trying to bite the vine off, but then turned and saw Hitch and Sunny about to hither. The three ponies crashed and got tangled in the vines, while a unicorn skipped happily by them as she came to the finish line.

Alphabittle shook his head with a hoove on his forehead, Haven shook her head as well with a bored expression, Knuckles just looked in disbelief and a glare, Tails facepalmed, and Sonic had an arm crossed and a hand covering his mouth.

He then pointed with the hand covering his mouth to Sunny, Hitch, and Pipp. "This is by far the worst race I've ever seen in my life," he said with annoyance.

Sunny was on a boat in the ocean sometime later, holding the starting flag for the boat race. “On your marks... get set––" Sunny announced, but before she could finish, the three teams raced past Sunny.

"Go!" all the ponies on three boats shouted as they sped up.

Zipp, Pipp, and Thunder grabbed their boat and used their wings to lift it into the air.

Izzy and her unicorn partners used their magic to row the oars as fast as they could.

Hitch, Dahlia, and Jazz used their earth pony magic to make a big piece of seaweed from the ocean, which lifted their boat up.

Sunny was rowing her boats while blowing her whistle to get her friends to stop using magic, but it broke off once she whistled.

Zipp looked at her side and saw Izzy and her unicorn partners next to them side by side. They gave each other challenging glares while Zipp gave Pipp and Thunder a signal. The three pegasi spread out their wings and started flying so fast that a big wind boomed, and Izzy and her partners screamed since their boat was blown back from the wind and into the air.

Hitch screamed right before Izzy and her partners crashed into each other, resulting in a splash.

Sunny groaned from the paddling she had done, but then she saw Hitch and Izzy, along with their team partners, falling down to her screaming. Sunny looked with wide eyes, feeling that this was going to hurt.

Alphabittle, Haven, and Team Sonic watch and cringe as the ponies crash into Sunny.

They came to shore in boat pieces, while the Mane 5 sins Sunny were covered in sand and seaweed from the crash.

"The rules never said our boat had to be in the water!" Hitch frustratedly called out to his friends. "I should know! I read them seventeen times!" he pointed out, holding his rule book.

"Maybe if the unicorns controlled their oars better…" Zipp called out while glaring at Izzy.

Izzy shook her head to remove some seaweed and glared back at Zipp. "We controlled them fine, actually, until we didn't!" she argued back.

And Pipp popped her head up between them, covered in so much seaweed. "I need an emergency re-styling!" she cried out and then screamed, plopping her head back on the sand ground.

Sunny got up and shook the sand off herself, then looked at her friends arguing to each other about the way they did to the game. Sunny gave on a sad look, as Team Sonic arrived to her side.

"Well, it seems like you don't have this at all," Sonic said with a little smirk, but that just made Sunny feel worse.

"At least it can't get any worse..." Knuckles said with a chuckle before he realized what he just said. "And I just jinxed us all, didn't I?" he asked rhetorically.

Tails looked at the Brighthouse in the distance, and he gasped, worried. "Oh oh..." he said, touching Sunny's shoulder to get her attention and pointing at the Brighthouse.

Sunny also turned to see the Crystal Brighthouse and gasped with worry: the rainbow lightning was glitching again, meaning that magic was fading on Equestria... again.

"Uh-oh!" Hitch’s voice cried out as Sunny and Team Sonic turned to the others and saw what was happening. "Our magic!" Hitch cried out as he stomped his hoof to try and use his magic, but no plant appeared at all.

Zipp flapped her wings, trying to fly, but she couldn't.

Izzy tried to levitate a rock next to her, but it faded out.

"This was supposed to unite us…" Sunny muttered sadly and stepped back a little. Team Sonic saw this, but before any of them could comfort her, Sunny turned around and ran off to get away from the fighting.

Sonic felt bad for Sunny and Tails and Knuckles, too, but Sonic's sadness immediately turned into anger as he looked at the rest of the Mane 5 with anger. At first, Knuckles gets worried about Sonic's attitude, but as he turns to the other ponies, he also feels angrier. Tails was the only one who stayed neutral, although he knew things were going down when BOTH Sonic and Knuckles got mad.

While Team Sonic walked towards the rest of the Mane 5, the rest kept the conversation going. "The Pippsqueaks can't see me like this!" Pipp cried out about the seaweed all over her.

"Don't worry, everypony," Izzy called out, trying to keep a positive mind. "Sunny always has a plan. Right, Sunny?" she asked the earth pony, but then they all saw Sonic and Knuckles walking towards them, very mad. "Huh?" Izzy asked, as she and the others felt a little scared by Sonic and Knuckles, while Tails was just behind, quiet and worried.

"Can you please explain to me what the heck is wrong with you?" Sonic asked with a threatening voice but calmed for the moment.

"You know, I like to compete a lot, but even I know when something's just for fun, and this is one of those cases!" Knuckles yelled out. "You're supposed to represent friendship and unity among tribes, but instead, you turned this into a nonsense competition!" he pointed out as he moved his hands dramatically.

"Guys, we get that it’s all about having fun, but some ponies don’t follow the rules!" Hitch complained as he looked at Zipp with a frown.

"Oh, yeah? Well, some ponies should not be using their magic to win a game!" Zipp yelled and glared at Izzy.

"Some ponies were using their wings to win as well!" Izzy complained, glaring at Zipp and Pipp.

"I was trying to keep my image; I can't look like a laughing stock!" Pipp said with a frown.

But the fight just made Sonic and Knuckles growl at the same time, and then...

"JUST SHUT UP!!!!!!!" Sonic and Knuckles yelled in frustration at them, with Sonic awakening his electrical powers while the ponies got knocked to the ground, and they saw in fear at the Hedgehog and the Equidna. Tails knew that he didn't want to listen to whatever was going to happen, so he covered his ears with fear.

"I couldn't; I LITERALLY couldn't care less about who started this bullshit!" Sonic shouted, not holding back his anger or swearing. "You ALL fault this, FACE IT!" he yelled again.

"Hitch! Don't you DARE to come up with rules stuff when you cheated on the racetrack!" Knuckles pointed out as he pointed at him. "You're supposed to be the law, man! What kind of sheriff breaks a rule and then goes shamelessly to talk about respect them?!" he yelled again, touching a weak point on Hitch's ego as he scratched his head with shame.

"Zipp! You complain about unicorn magic, but YOU used yours!" Sonic yelled at her. "You used your flying skills in the volleyball game and the boat race! What the heck, girl?! This is NOT the kind of princess I pictured from you!" he pointed out, as he also touched a weak point on Zipp.

"Izzy," Knuckles said a bit softly but still mad. "I know on the volleyball game it was accidental, but you shamelessly used magic on the boat race, and you perfectly know that's not playing fair," he pointed out with a frown while Izzy looked away with shame.

Sonic looked at who remained, and he felt like he was about to cry. But he knew she had to hear it, even though she wouldn't like it. "Pipp," he called, mad but soft. "Your makeup doesn't matter on a game. You never cared about it before, so why now? Why on something like this?!" he pointed out with a frown. Pipp looked hurt and felt her heart broken, while Sonic also felt hurt. He needed his feet on the ground right now, and he looked at the four ponies. "Look at the Brighthouse," he said, pointing a finger at the building in the distance.

The rainbow lightning was still glitching, and the four ponies gasped in shock.

"No, no, no... Not again!" Zipp muttered.

"Yeah, it's happening again, Detective Zipp," Sonic said in a threatening voice. "You spent an entire week trying to prevent things like this, and now you're part of the cause. How ironic," he added with anger.

Tails, who has been quiet all this time, stopped covering his ears after Sonic stopped yelling. He felt a little angry as well, remembering Sunny's face when she ran away, so he got close with a frown.

"You know what's the worst part? Sunny feels it's her fault that you're fighting. She feels this whole Equestria Games thing is a failure," Tails said with anger, although he didn't yell at them. "How does that suit you, guys? Being her supposed friends, and yet you just keep fighting like five-year-olds," he added, now concerned as well.

Instead of staying there, Tails turned around and walked away, now feeling mad at his friends, sins Sunny.

"You know, for the ponies who are supposed to be the representation of unity and friendship since they helped bring magic back, you suck. You do," Knuckles added as well and followed Tails away.

Sonic looked at them; their shocked and broken expressions hurt him, but he knew they needed to stay on the ground, so he added something. "This 'Twilight Sparkle' Sunny talks often about... she would be pretty disappointed in you. You bring her legacy back, and now you're destroying it again because of bullshit. Say, even I'm disappointed... I always thought you were better than this... too bad I was wrong," he said with sadness and honesty as he turned around and walked away, leaving his friends in shock at his words.

But Pipp was probably the most broken of the four. Her crush just told her the face he was disappointed at her actions, and that was what broke Pipp completely. She stayed there and tried to let her tears out in silence, but Zipp noticed and put a hoof on her; Pipp immediately stood and hugged her sister, letting the tears out.

Hitch and Izzy stood in silence, but deep down, they were hurt and broken as well, even tho they didn't show it.

Sunny was on the other side of the beach, looking at the ocean water while thinking about what had happened in the whole game. She closed her eyes in sadness, still thinking this was all her fault.

"Being a leader's tough, isn't it?" Haven said as Sunny turned and saw Queen Haven and Alphabittle coming to her side. "Everypony thinks we have all the answers," she said to Sunny.

"All these different ponies together... It's easy to get under each other's hooves," Alphabittle said to Sunny. "You and your friends must be the same," se added with a wink and a smile, while Haven nodded in agreement.

"Sometimes, I guess..." Sunny admitted. We're all so different. It can be hard..." she said, recalling a time she was with the rest of the Mane 5 trying to bake a cake. Everything was going terrible, so they all worked together and baked the cake right. "But when we work together and listen to each other, all our differences become strengths," she finished.

"Kind of like a team?" Haven asked with a smirk, as Alphabittle smiled as well.

That gave Sunny an idea, but before she could make it, she noticed that, not too far from her, Team Sonic was sitting on the sand, looking at the distance in silence, and Sonic and Tails had their ears down.

Sunny walked over to them, worried. "Guys?" she called out. "Is everything okay?" she asked.

None of them turned to see her, but Knuckles spoke first. "No..." he replied with honesty.

"We... argued with the rest..." Tails added.

"An argument?" Sunny asked. "How bad could it have been?" she asked again with a little smile.

"We destroyed their self-esteem with our words," Sonic replied with sadness.

"... Oh..." Sunny said. "But... you can go and say you're sorry, right?" she suggested, smiling a bit.

"I doubt they would accept it," Sonic confessed.

"Man, I hate when anger gets over me," Knuckles said with frustration. "It's like I lose control over my mouth," he added.

"Sunny, go keep going with the games," Tails said, finally turning to face her. "We'll catch up with you later," he added.

Sunny was not really convinced about letting them there, but if she had no other choice, she just left, as Team Sonic sighed with sadness.

Sunny got the pony's crowd together a little later as Hitch, Izzy, and Zipp were behind them. The Mane 5 apologized to Sunny after they screwed it in the games and after the little scold from Team Sonic as well.

"Ponies! Ponies!" Sunny announced to the crowd. "These games aren't about winning! They're about celebrating our differences and working together!" she announced as she turned to her friends, who nodded in agreement.

Hitch, Izzy, and Zipp ripped off their stickers while the crowd murmured in confusion.

"From now on, each team will be a mix of all ponykind," Sunny declared, then Pipp flew into the air and tossed new stickers. "A representation of the unity that makes Equestria so great!" Sunny added as Izzy used her magic to levitate the stickers for every pony in the crowd.

The crowd gave awed sounds as the stickers were placed on their chest.

"Let the games, uh, re-begin!" Sunny stated, ready to give the games a second chance.

Later, the crowd cheered as they saw the beach ball game again, but this time, each team had all ponykind tribes on the same team.

Izzy levitated the beach ball before tossing it to Dahlia. She saw the ball coming and used her earth pony magic to summon a big flower that caught it and tossed it into the air. And then, Zipp came flying by and hit the ball in the air while it hit the other side of the net.

"Hah!" Zipp, Izzy, and Dahlia all cheered at winning this match together.

Sunny smiled at this sight, feeling happy that things started to go great now.

Back at the mud track, Hitch trotted ahead and tossed a stick to Pipp in the air, who caught it with her hoof before flying off.

Sunny came by with her roller skates and smiled, seeing that this was going well.

Back in the ocean, the three boats were racing again but with each of all ponykind in one boat. They raced across the ocean to the finish line, where Sunny waited for them to cross the finish line.

Sunny blew the whistle once they all crossed the line and smiled, now finding the Equestria Games a complete success.

A little bit later, after the end of the games, Sunny was holding a card with a trophy on it, meaning she was about to announce the Equestria Games winner.

"And the winner of the first All-Equestria Games is... nopony!" Sunny said to the crowd as they looked at her in confusion. "Every team won one contest, so it's a tie!" she declared with a smile.

The crowd murmured in confusion before they started laughing and cheering while Sunny gave off a smile.

"I suppose it makes sense," Haven spoke as she and Alphabittle came next to Sunny with smiles. "The first Equestria Games," she announced.

"And all of Equestria has won," Alphabittle smiled. "Together. Well done, Sunny," he added with a smile.

"Hey!" Izzy called out with a wave of hoof as the three leaders turned to her. "Can we go play now?" she asked them with sparkling eyes.

Back on the beach, Tails looked over his advanced tablet to distract himself while Knuckles drew random things that popped into his head in the sand, and Sonic threw rocks into the ocean.

"We were too harsh on them," Knuckles said suddenly as he stopped drawing.

"I know," Tails replied, putting his tablet aside. "But at least they apologized to Sunny."

"That doesn't skip the fact that we told them they were failures, guys," Sonic pointed out, still throwing rocks into the water. "We crossed a line on them. Usually, I say to myself that it's for the best, but not this time. I know I should just stay quiet. Just like Knuckles said, anger got into us... and we were not controlling our mouths anymore," he added with frustration.

Then, Zipp arrived and looked at them with a smile. "Oh, here you are," she said, then turned to call for someone. "Guys, I found them!" she shouted to the rest of the Mane 5.

Knuckles and Tails got up, and Sonic stopped throwing rocks. The three of them had guilty expressions after everything they said to the Mane 5 sins Sunny.

Then the rest arrived, and Sunny sighed in relief. "Oh, thank hoofness," Sunny said. "I thought you guys already left," she added with a smile.

"Even if we tough about it, we have nowhere to go," Tails pointed out.

"Hey, um... we're... We're sorry, guys," Sonic spoke, getting straight to the point as he looked at the Mane 5, especially at Pipp.

"Yeah, we crossed a line before. We were supposed to help you realize what was happening, and we did... in the worst possible way..." Knuckles added with a sad look.

"You may have got out of line, but we did too, and we told things we didn't want to because of anger," Tails added, looking down with guilt. "Sorry, guys"

"And what I said before about Twilight being disappointed... that's not true," Sonic corrected himself. "She would be proud of everything you accomplished so far. Yeah, she would probably be sad that the tribes are still fighting, but she won't be disappointed in you," he added with a little smile. If anything, she would be disappointed in us for being such jerks..." he finished as he looked down. "Sorry... for everything we said..." he added.

Surprisingly for Team Sonic, they were gathered in a group hug with the Mane 5.

"Uh... I expected at least a punch in response, not this..." Knuckles confessed as he, Sonic, and Tails felt confused.

"Guys, we're not mad," Hitch assured me with a smile.

"Yeah, we actually wanted to apologize as well" Zipp spoke next, smiling as well.

"Thanks to your 'not so soft' words, we could overcome our differences and enjoy the games!" Izzy cheered and smiled.

"You may have been harsh on them, but it helped," Sunny added with a smile. "Let's just try to control our anger next time, okay?" she said and winked.

"B-But... W-We literally..." Sonic tried to say.

"You were cruel, and you hurt us, blah, blah, blah, chill, Sonic! You should know better than anyone that these things can be forgiven, and we already did," Pipp said as she flew over to Sonic and hugged him by his neck.

"So... we can act like we never fought in the first place... right?" Knuckles asked, juts to be sure.

The Mane 5 looked at each other and smiled before nodding at Team Sonic.

"Phew!" Tails said in relief. "Sorry again, guys. Next time, we'll try to be more soft and let anger aside if possible," he assured with a nervous smile.

"Okay, then..." Sonic said, as they all stood in silence for a while. "The last one to get to the Brighthouse makes dinner tonight!" he shouted and then boosted straight to the Brighthouse.

"Oh no, I'm not cooking again!" Tails said as he flew quickly behind Sonic.

"Don't let me here alone, guys!" Knuckles said as he ran to follow his friends.

The Mane 5 followed behind, running as fast as they could and laughing at the situation.

THE END

Author's Note

Thanks to JD1 for editing this chapter!