Technical Maintenance on Saturday, December 7, between 09:00 and 12:00 UTC. The site will be unavailable during that time.
Interested in advertising on Derpibooru? Click here for information!
My Little Ties crafts shop

Help fund the $15 daily operational cost of Derpibooru - support us financially!

Description

Two days had passed since that morning, and Falcon was at the track, almost finished with her weight training. Thick, weighted-down straps of fabric were wrapped around her lower legs and secured with velcrow. Then, she would trot several laps around the racing track in a high-stepping manner. She hated weight training, and felt silly prancing around, but it had to be done.  
Falcon finally finished the last lap, and turned away from the track, to get a drink of water from her supplies. As she drank, she cast another glance towards the psychic tent on the other side of the fairgrounds. She thought she had seen her friend, Peppermint, - a short white unicorn with pink hair - walking around over there earlier, before disappearing.  
“I hope he’s not wasting his money in that tent.” She muttered to herself, before considering that Peppermint often wasted his money on silly things. She shrugged to herself, and went back to her water. Pepper would undoubtably have a lot to say about this new attraction. He loved talking her ear off, and she never minded. Just then, she heard a heavy set of hooves cantering towards her.  
Raceway was just finishing his own jog around the town, which he did to finish out his workout. They had some differing opinions on what makes for the best training. As a matter of fact, they had some differing opinions on just about everything. Raceway was a large brown stallion, with big, wide hooves, and a checkered flag cutie mark. His hair was bright red with a couple small streaks of light orange. Even his thick eyebrows had a little orange in them, so they matched his bushy, short mane and tail.  
He continued running until he had come alongside the track’s gate, and finally slowed to a brisk walk. “Hey Falcon,” he called, “taking a break?”  
“Actually, I already finished training before you got here.” She said this with a small smile, and Raceway’s face became tight as he walked away to his own supplies. These two ponies had been competing in everything since they were foals. Falcon didn’t remember what had caused it, just that Raceway used to be sweet to her. He would even bring his mother’s fantastic cinnamon buns from home to share with her.  
She feared that when she had realized that she liked fillies instead of colts, that he took it personally. When they were kids, he had acted - at least for a few days - all sullen, and brooding, as if she had personally told him, “You’re not good enough for me to like you,” which of course was not the case. These things just happened.  
Of course, she knew that, as an adult, that wasn’t his motivation. He just wanted to be a great racepony, like she did. They actually had a lot in common, she thought to herself, but they just couldn’t stop competing with each other long enough to be friends.  
Falcon pushed these thoughts out of her head as she finally saw Peppermint, bright white against the green of the fairgrounds. He was trotting over to the track with a big smirk on his face. His smile was always infectious, and after a moment Falcon found herself smiling in return. She raised a leg, and pulled at the velcrow of one leg weight with her teeth. There was a satisfying ripping sound, before the thud and swirl of dust as the weight hit the ground.  
Peppermint reached her before she had pulled off the other three.  
“Haaay Falcor,” he affectionately teased, “guess where I was!”  
“You were getting your fortune told,” she replied.  
“Falcon! I absolutely was not.” He said with pretend offence. “I was eyeing up the new mare for you.” She raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Okay, I also got my fotune read while I was at it.”  
Falcon smiled and rolled her eyes at her friend. “Was it worth it?” she asked, packing the weights into her saddlebags.  
“Oh yeah, definitely,” he replied, as Raceway wandered back over.  
“You saw the psychic?” Raceway asked  
“Yep, and she’s good.”  
“Please, do psychics ever say anything that’s really true?”  
Peppermint leaned over the railing that surrounded the track, and gave Raceway a seductive smile. “Well, she could help you to finally realize your true feelings for me, stud,” he purred with a cheeky wink.  
Raceway huffed, and stamped both of his front hooves on the ground. He wheeled towards the exit, and trotted away, muttering something about the “light-in-the-hooves little pest.” Peppermint was androgynous, and Raceway did his best to ignore that fact, or just ignore him entirely.  
Peppermint snickered under his breath, as the pair watched the darker stallion trot away.  
“Seriously though,” Falcon said, returning to the topic, “you don’t even believe in psychics.”  
“I know. She said that very thing, and that she didn’t /need/ to help me. Clearly I’m perfect,” he added as an aside, “but that I had a /friend/ who could use some guidance.”  
“Most ponies don’t believe in psychics, and she just wants you to get her more business.” At that moment, she exited her tent, and trotted over to the market stalls, probably to buy herself some lunch. Falcon didn’t notice that she was staring, and Peppermint followed her gaze.  
“How can you chide me for going to see her, when you’ve been checking her out for two days strait?”  
Falcon shot him a glare that couldn’t quite hide the embarassment at being called out. Then, they both looked back towards the mare in question. “She is … pretty cute,” Falcon finally said.  
“Look, girl, you’re into her, you’re curious, just go get a fake reading, and have an excuse to talk to her. Besides, what else is there to do in this town that you haven’t done a hundred times?”  
Falcon exhaled a long breath, then finally put on her saddle bags and spoke gruffly. “I’ll think about it.” Then, she trotted out of the exit, and towards town.  
“Where are you going?”  
“Shower,” she called back, as she started heading towards the edge of town and back to her home.

Comments

Syntax quick reference: **bold** *italic* ||hide text|| `code` __underline__ ~~strike~~ ^sup^ %sub%

Detailed syntax guide