“Calm down, Bolt, everypony had to submit some sort of project or team up with somepony else. Don’t take it personally.” Krabby nodded at the other crusaders. “I guess we’ll see you all when the competition starts.”
 
Truffle and his friends waved goodbye to the other troupes, and forced their way through the crowd building around the exhibit opposite the Zenith Stone. On the other side of the crowd, they finally saw him- a nervous looking and twiggy pink unicorn colt, Kid Prodigy fervently darted about a large contraption while levitating a number of various tools. A nearby sign offered a clue to the device’s purpose: “Synthetic-Nihil Automagical Reactor”
 
… it wasn’t a very good clue, Truffle thought to himself. He looked to Bolt and Krabby for an explanation, but they both shrugged.
 
“Hey, Kid!” Krabby called out, and the unicorn fumbled his telekinetic grasp, nearly dropping everything.
 
“What! What what what?! I’m busy!!! The Faire starts in only a few minutes!” Kid squeaked, not bothering to look back at the offending party.
 
“This thing looks neat! What’s it do?” Bolt fluttered forward and landed right next to Kid, who startled and scattered his tools everywhere.
 
“You’re Sugarbolt! W-what’re you doing here!? Are you trying to spy on me?” The colt stammered. “Well it doesn’t matter! Even if ponies think you can win, they just haven’t seen what I have in store! It’s… it… it’s gonna be revolutionary! It’s going to impress the Empress! I will win!”
 
“Uh… ok.” Bolt smiled nervously. “We mostly just wanted to meet our competition and say good luck…?”
 
“Likely story!” Kid exclaimed.
 

 
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