//------------------------------// // Let the Race Begin Again! // Story: Equestrian Eeveelution. // by Symphonicdysonince //------------------------------// [Leo] It was once again time for the Running of the Leaves, and Rainbow and I were once again lining up for our numbers. Both of us had trained hard for today. Or, rather, didn't stop training. With the amount of things we've done in the past month, I'm surprised we were even able to keep to our old schedule. As we approached the line up, a pony intercepted us. "Sorry, Rainbow, Leo won't be running with us today." "What?" Rainbow shouted. "Why?" "Twilight had us set up a separate course for the Pack to run. There aren't many trees on it, but it will let them cut loose with their abilities." Rainbow snorted. "It'd be a short race. Out of the two, Leo only needs to worry about Cy." The mare giggled before leaning down to coo at me. "This way, come on." I gave Rainbow a questioning glance before following the mare off to the side. We didn't go very far, just through a small hedge. I could see Pinkie's balloon tethered in the clearing, the mare herself and Spike were helping Zann with something. The mare waited until Pinkie had acknowledged our presence before stepping back through the bushes. "Leo!" Pinkie chirped at me. "C'mere and help us with this." I sighed as I made my way over. I just wanted to run with my mare. Was that too much to ask for? I stopped and stood beside Spike, waiting for instructions. "Spike, hand him the thingy." Pinkie waved a hoof at me. "I need your claws for this." Spike placed a mass of metal on my back and picked up a screwdriver. I twisted around to try to look at what he had given me, but I could only see what looked like a wheel embedded into a metal paw. I turned back to the fire type. <> <> Zann nodded as Spike struggled with his leg. Pinkie was holding it in preparations for... something. <> <> I snapped at him. "The hell screws did you use, Pinkie?" Spike grunted. "Why are you asking me?" Pinkie blinked. "Zann's the one who built it." <> Zann looked at Spike in confusion. <> Spike stepped back and pointed a claw at the offending rivet. "Well, what kind of screw head is that then?" Pinkie leaned in to squint at it. "That's a rivet." She squinted and looked over the rest of the limb. "And so's that one. And that one. A~nd that one." "So," Spike arched an eyebrow, "how are we going to be reattach it after?" Pinkie gave Zann a calculating look. "That was your side project, wasn't it?" The fire type nodded. Pinkie smiled at Spike. "We're not. He built another one." "Oh." Spike looked at the leg. "Do you care if this one is unusable then?" Zann did his best to shrug. <> Spike and Pinkie shared a look. "We really need to find a way to understand them." Spike sighed. "We can't all be Rainbow's and Flutter's." Pinkie agreed. Tilting her head, she began tapping her chin. "Or Sweetie's. Or summoners in general." "What do you mean?" "Well, they seem to understand their summons. Or, at least the bonded ones. Or they only get the very barest impressions." Pinkie shrugged, going back to holding the leg. "Either that or their summons use a weird mind link thingy." Spike flinched. "Either way, no. I don't think he'll be needing this." "In that case..." Spike grabbed the upper part of the limb and dug his claws in. Sawing his claws around, he cut a jagged trail in the leg. He had to take a while to clean up the metal, but he was soon fitting a new piece to what was left. After welding it in place, he took the replacement limb from me and snapped it into place. "All right, give it a go." Zann spent the rest of the time left before the race getting used to the leg. Spike and Pinkie jumped into the balloon, tossing the broken prosthetic into the basket and set off to commentate. The rest of the Pack filtered into the clearing as the morning progressed. Yomega was the last one in, followed closely by Twilight. She gathered us up, before lining us up at one side of the clearing. "So, once the race starts, you are going to be following your own course." Twilight began. "You're going to be following the blue flags. You will have free rein to use most of your abilities." She looked directly at me. "No Solar Flares, or anything of that caliber. I will be monitoring everything, which means that this is an experiment. I just want to see what you guys can do in a friendly competition. But please wait until you are outside of Ponyville before using them." <> Vince asked. "No. No property damage." Lulu leaned over to me. <> <> Twilight ignored us and waved to the sky. "Just waiting on Pinkie, but you'll be running on my mark." A ball of light danced in front of us, gathering our attention. We felt the ground rumble as Pinkie started the Running, but our light flashed a few times before forming an odd shape. "Oh, I know this one! That's a five- no wait, a four? Three?" It's a countdown! I pulled energy and channeled an Agility just as the light vanished.