On a Pale Horse (Umamusume/Youjo Senki)

[drake_azathoth]

Tanya aura farms before the races. She needs you to see the fit. The fit demands gloves to look tuff.

Click to shrink...

It certainly works for T.M. Opera O!

Opera should have given yet another speech about how they should be honored to become part of her legend by being horribly crushed by her before the race with Poki that she lost.

Doto is probably reciting those speeches in her sleep by the time New Era ends.

 

[WrandmWaffles]

Somewhere there's someone betting on this race that Shirogane just made significantly more wealthy.

 

[FlyingOctopus]

Somewhere there's someone betting on this race that Shirogane just made significantly more wealthy.

Click to shrink...

Hypothetical; if her grandpa placed a bet on Shiro and he got it right, would that be considered insider trading?

 

[Winged One]

Hypothetical; if her grandpa placed a bet on Shiro and he got it right, would that be considered insider trading?

Click to shrink...

I don't think horse race betting is official enough to worry about that instead of "will the Yakuza break your kneecaps for it?"

 

[JKD_666]

Help, Shirogane is being an evil and intimidating horse in the gate again!

Click to shrink...

All jokes aside, being able to make Uma screw up their start on command is pretty busted as a skill, especially when combined with Shiro's weird AF style of Front Running. Practically guaranteed to make the entire damn lineup Rushed straight out of the gate.

 

[FluffyVoid]

All jokes aside, being able to make Uma screw up their start on command is pretty busted as a skill, especially when combined with Shiro's weird AF style of Front Running. Practically guaranteed to make the entire damn lineup Rushed straight out of the gate.

Click to shrink...

I think its more of a skill check that most first time Umas fail because they don't train enough.

 

[drake_azathoth]

Hypothetical; if her grandpa placed a bet on Shiro and he got it right, would that be considered insider trading?

Click to shrink...

I did look it up because I was curious.

Relatives of a jockey IRL are in the clear so long as there's no proof that they used 'inside information' to make the bet, like information about the condition of the horse. (This plays more into the issue of the horse being a favorite but secretly in poor condition like leg issues and you bet on their rivals).

Similar issues exist with the horse owners and trainers. This is specifically Japan's rules.

In any case, so long as her grandfather was just betting on her winning there wouldn't be much suspicion of any kind of wrongdoing or use of inside information.

 

[JKD_666]

I think its more of a skill check that most first time Umas fail because they don't train enough.

Click to shrink...

It's passive form, aka Shirogane just vibing on a meaningless race, sure. In a race where something that matters to her is on the line? Their own survival instint will make them go "freeze so that the DEATH won't notice me". Or just run away from her. And the track.

 

[macdjord]

Be calm as still water, she reminded herself, but with the ability to flow rapidly underneath.

Click to shrink...

... now I'm imagining Uma!Bruce Lee. "I fear not the pony who has practiced for a thousand races, but the pony who has practiced for one race a thousand times."?

 

[CantFocusOneThing]

I think its more of a skill check that most first time Umas fail because they don't train enough.

Click to shrink...

In career mode racing against Shiro makes you lose the secret 400+ plus stats buff and the requirements to win the race get a 100 stats points harder because your Uma realizes she is not the protagonist.

 

[WrandmWaffles]

Foal Play​

---

Compared to the lower ranked races, there was significantly more pomp and ceremony involved in G1 races, beyond the additional costumes they were expected to run in. One such aspect was a pre-race lineup where they were announced one by one as they made their way onto a stage, presenting themselves to the crowd like they were celebrities, which Shirogane supposed they were, to some extent, as semi-professional athletes, with each of them trotting out in reverse order of their expected placement.

While her prize point total was enough to qualify her for the race, she had mostly placed second aside from winning her newcomer race, which had weaker competition, so she was listed as the eighth favorite. Grass Wonder, on the other hand, had yet to lose an official race since she debuted, and was consequently listed as the favorite to win, which meant she would be the final participant to be announced.

Shirogane wasn't sure if that would be more nerve-wracking, compared to the last favorite, a nervous looking brown haired uma in a red outfit decorated with white stars and stripes, apparently named Yuwa Kentucky, who had to go on stage first.

Being underestimated as the underdog had some merits, but if there was truly a large gap in capacity then it was possibly an indicator the participant had been pushed beyond their ability, or they were there just for some kind of filler. That didn't seem that likely to be the case in a G1 race, but Shirogane couldn't say she knew everything about how the rosters were constructed.

"Ohoh! So you have managed to stand on this high stage as well!" A bombastic voice called Shirogane's attention to a dark haired uma wearing a rather garish pink, white and red outfit that looked like it was trying to be both a samurai outfit and some kind of Heian nobility. "Are you here to nip at my heels again?" The other uma grinned, ears flicking in a way to show that their interjection was meant to be friendly.

It took a moment for Shirogane to place the face and ears, since the G1 outfits actually made a lot of runners look quite different. "No, biting is a foul." This was Bold Emperor, the runner who had beaten her at the Daily Hai Nisai Stakes, and the seventh favorite for this race.

"Hahaha! You haven't changed much, have you?"

"It's only been a month or so."

"And the result today should be no different than then!" Bold Emperor exclaimed confidently, crossing her arms with a definitive huff.

"The odds are not in favor of that," Shirogane pointed out, gaze flicking over to the bemused looking Grass Wonder, who was the favorite to win.

"Bah! The odds do not control fate!" the dark haired uma declared, clenching her fist in front of her chest.

"Perhaps not, but to some degree they are an expression of reality." Shirogane turned one of her ears towards the stage, it was almost her turn. "At the very least, it is a metric showing how much people believe in you…or how little."

One of the handlers signaled that her turn was coming up, so Shirogane nodded at her overly friendly competitor, before turning on her heel and striding out towards the stage.

Time to put some of her PR training to work.

---

"And the eighth favorite, from Tracen Academy, the runner up at the Daily Hai Nisai Stakes, number fourteen, Shirogane Orzel!"

"Woo!" Taro and her sisters cheered as Shirogane practically marched onto the stage, their now overly large frames allowing them to tower over the other spectators. "Go Shiro!"

"Yeah, you got this!" Steady Distance threw in, waving at her pale haired friend, who raised a fist in the direction of the crowd, a menacing aura blooming off her uniformed frame as her red eyes scanned the Nakayama stands. Steady wasn't sure if she was actually looking for anyone, but she could see some other people in the stands commenting about how scary looking this runner was.

"Shiro-chan looks so cool!" Azuki-chan breathed, eyes wide with excitement and tail swishing quickly back and forth. "There's no way she can lose!"

"Eh…she's not favored to," Steady countered, "and she's on the outside gate starting out, so she'll have to go further compared to the others. Might be hard to pull off." And the Asahi Hai Sansai Stakes was only sixteen hundred meters in total, which didn't give as much distance for Shirogane's stamina advantage to shine, even if Nakayama was a notoriously hilly course.

"Well I think the odd making people are wrong!" Matcha declared with her nose tilted up, trying to look authoritative. It was rather undermined by her babyface, even if she was now taller than Steady (at least Shiro-chan was always going to be short). "Shiro-chan is going to beat the odds for sure!"

"I don't know if she's gonna win, but eighth is not something she'd settle for." Taro was a bit less enthusiastic about their friend's chances, but Steady found herself nodding along to that conclusion.

"Yeah, I think she's going to place higher than that, especially against fairly green runners as well." Most of them probably had at least a little bit of experience running in middle school, and to qualify to this race they would have to have won a few open races, but the pressure for graded races was a whole different beast.

Heck, Steady herself hadn't ever ran in a G1 race, so she couldn't really say she had firsthand experience, though even G2 and G3 races meant a lot more eyes on you and a much bigger prize pool awaiting the winner.

"Well, I think she can beat half of them, definitely," Kat-san chimed in, staring proudly down at her daughter who joined the rest of the line up waiting for the remaining runners to be announced. "Just look, a bunch of them look about ready to run away. Don't think she'll have any trouble with those."

"Of course they're nervous," Suzuki-san sighed, nudging his wife in the side, "it's probably the first really big race any of them are participating in, and they're all fourteen or fifteen, which makes it worse."

Both of them had a point, but… "Yeah…but the one next to Shiro-chan looks like she's about to pass out."
"Shiro-chan can be scary sometimes!"

"It's probably just the less favored runners being less confident," Suzuki-san countered, obviously not recognizing how terrifying his cute little daughter could be. "Look, the higher ranked ones are not as nervous." Because they didn't have to stand next to the uma who gave off the feeling that she actually was capable of killing them with that sword of hers.

"Ooh, that's the one who beat Shiro-chan last month!" Matcha pointed at the dark bay uma in an unfashionably pink samurai getup. "Bold Emperor, or something." Really, some of these raceheads had no sense of fashion.

"They just announced her name," Taro tsked, flicking her little sister's ear. "Pay attention!"

Though to be fair, it wasn't like Shiro did either.

"Uwah! I was though!"

Lucky for her, she had her parents and Steady to help her out! Otherwise she'd probably think an office lady get up would be a good idea, or something like that.

"The first favored is her classmate right? Grass Wonder?" Taro asked, pointing at the list naming the participants in the race.

"Yeah, Shiro-chan mentioned her a few times," Kat-san confirmed. "She said Grass was her teammate and one of the strongest in her year."

"Huh, so the bookies putting her at number one seems right then." Suzuki-san nodded thoughtfully, before tilting his head slightly. "Can Shiro-chan beat her?"

"According to Shiro-chan, if Grass is tired."

"Damn, Tracen runners must be something else," Steady muttered under her breath. "Don't know that many girls at Kawasaki who'd be able to keep up with Shiro." She narrowed her eyes as the chestnut haired Grass Wonder stepped out onto stage to a wave of excited noise, looking poised and calm, wearing a sailor outfit, of all things.

Wasn't she American?

More importantly, could Steady beat someone like this?

Maybe…

"Kawasaki is a dirt course though," Suzuki-san pointed out. "I don't think Shiro-chan's used to running on dirt."

Steady couldn't stop the manic laugh that bubbled out of her, only realizing she had let it slip when everyone looked at her funny. "I'm just gonna say," she shrugged sheepishly, "You don't want Shiro-chan chasing you across any kind of terrain." Except maybe water, but she could swim pretty damn fast too. If she ever learned to fly somehow there'd be no escaping her.

"Oh yeah! Shiro-chan did train with Steady-chan on dirt a couple of times." Azuki's ears perked up as she remembered.

"Ehhh?!" Her twin's ears twitched curiously. "Will Steady-chan and Shiro-chan race each other?"

"Maybe?" Steady shrugged again. "Really depends on what Shiro's big name trainer decides to do." Trainer Toujou probably had enough pull to slot Shirogane into any race she wanted as long as the qualifications were met, perks of having trained so many famous racers.

Not that Steady had many complaints about her own trainer, other than him being dense.

"Looks like they're sending them to the gates," Taro observed, having mostly tuned out the conversation around her. "Shiro-chan's on the outer gate…not the best."

That's what Steady had just said! "She'll probably have to muscle past a few runners to get to the front." It would slow her down, but Shiro was really good at passing, even being slower as she was.

"Well, I'm sure Shiro-chan will figure something out."

---

Being assigned gate number eight was not the most ideal, as it put her towards the outside, but it was not entirely a detriment, since it meant there would be more viable paths forward, even if she would have to expend more energy angling for the forward position.

She was in the outermost set of gates, though not the furthest out gate, which belonged to Main Vocal, a brown haired uma in a purple and white dress that had green and red sleeves (did uma eyes process colors differently than humans?). The runner on the other side of Shirogane was a dark haired uma dressed in pink and blue, who looked to be a foreigner, possibly an American, if her mannerisms were anything to go by, though she was named Mt. Arata, which wasn't really indicative of anything aside from her parents not wanting to call their child 'Mount'.

Understable, really.

Being on the more petite side among track running umamusume, Shirogane had plenty of room in her stall, so she entered as soon as it was opened, letting it close behind her without fuss.

On her inward side, Mt. Arata entered the gate without too much dithering, rolling her shoulders to try and prevent herself from stiffening up. Out of the corner of her eye, Shirogane saw the dark haired uma glance at her, almost making to speak, before deciding not to.

Perhaps she didn't speak Japanese.

On the other side, Main Vocal was looking quite a bit more nervous, hesitating outside the gate for a few moments before stepping inside. She was not favored particularly highly, so perhaps she was under greater pressure to perform. Or was convinced that she would do poorly.

After that delay, there were yet more delays as some runners had last minute costume adjustments, and Shirogane felt an unexpected sense of impatience well up inside her, something that she had not experienced in any of her previous races.

She exhaled slowly, shutting her eyes as she regulated her breathing. Even though her inherited experiences meant she didn't get nearly as nervous as many of her fellows when in the starting gate, she would admit to some degree of excitement in the competition.

Was it the much larger prize pool that was making her more eager? Even if she took second place, she'd win about as much money as she'd won from placing in lower ranked races so far.

Or was it the uniform that felt much more tailored to her?

With some time to kill, Shirogane grasped her saber sheath in her left gauntlet before drawing it free with her striking hand, raising it up to eye level to inspect the diligently shined but disappointingly dull blade. Red eyes stared impassively back at her in the reflection of well-polished steel, and her ears peeled back flat against her hat as anticipation continued to build.

Running a gauntleted finger over the edge, she felt a huff of derision escaping her, even though it was eminently unreasonable for what was supposed to be a prop to be honed to killing sharpness.

Had she still the Soldier's magic it would not be a grave issues, but alas, no such mechanism existed in this new world, and Shirogane found herself idly running the back of the blade against the studded knuckles of her gauntlet, a shiver of delight coursing through her at the sound of steel running over steel.

But she was not here for that kind of task, so she returned her saber to its resting place by her side as the gates were finally loaded, settling into a ready stance as the starter called out.

Next to her, Main Vocal was trembling, clearly not prepared for this level of pressure, and it seemed that Mt. Arata wasn't immune either, given her elevated breathing.

The starting gate opened to a disappointing buzzer and Shirogane put away the idle observations of her gatemates as she sprung forwards into action, her boots digging comfortably into the spongy turf as she accelerated.

---

"And they're off!"

"Looks to be a promising start."

Hana Toujou nodded as she watched the runners spring out of the starting gates, her gaze not shifting even as Rudolf began to speak next to her, though she did find herself nodding agreement.

While Shirogane's starting position wasn't ideal, her pale haired trainee had burst out of the starting gate with unusual fervor, quickly making up for lost ground as she aimed for the front. She wasn't alone, the two runners in the gates next to her shot forwards with similar urgency, though Main Vocal was struggling already.

"Number two Agnes World pulls ahead of the pack to take the lead to start, but coming up behind her are numbers eleven Symboli Sword and thirteen Mount Arata! And numbers fifteen Main Vocal and fourteen Shirogane Orezeru are not far behind!"

At the same time, Grass had not fallen into the trap of chasing after Shirogane like she had sometimes been prone to do in training, gamely staying towards the rear of the pack and angling outside in preparation for a late surge.

"For your teammates, or for your relative?" Hana asked lightly, glancing briefly at the dark haired uma wearing the typical green jacket favored by the Symboli family, this one with an added ceremonial sword at her hip.

"Number thirteen Mt. Arata pulls far ahead leading into the first corner, and number fourteen Shirogane Orezeru is following after her! Behind her is number eleven Symboli Sword, but number ten Meiner Love and number four Figaro are right on her tail! In the rear number eleven Grass Wonder, is hanging ahead of the rear pack while number six Bold Emperor is trailing at the end! "

"She did well out of the gate," Rudolf hummed, one ear flicking in concentration as she watched the race develop. "But it seems that her positioning still needs work." Hana wasn't sure about the specifics of how the two were related, but as far as she could tell, they weren't particularly close kin.

"Mount Arata is still far ahead through the first corner, but Shirogane Orezeru is closing the distance behind her!"

Hana's attention turned back to the front of the pack, feeling a frown tug at her face. While Shirogane had gotten incrementally faster through her training regimen, she was still not able to run away and set the pace as well as she'd probably need to in order to win. That was partly because of her starting position, but against these stronger opponents some of her weaknesses were showing more sharply.

---

When she had decided to run abroad in Japan, Mt. Arata had been told that the rules about roughhousing were stricter, which seemed like a good deal, since she didn't usually do much of that, and it meant she was less likely to be injured–so how did she end up having to run for her life?!

"Number four Figaro is pulling even with number eleven Symboli Sword! Number fourteen Shirogane Orezeru doesn't slow down a bit on the second corner and is gaining on Mt. Arata!"

Her breath came in painful gasps as she chanced a glance over her shoulder, almost stumbling a step at the sight of gleaming red eyes and the serial killer pony getting larger and larger in her view, before she was forced to look away, trying to pump her legs faster to get away from the crazy psycho with a sword.

In the back of her head, there was a voice screaming at her that this was a race, and that there was no way they were actually going to let some crazed crackhead chop her into sashimi on the track, but that was drowned out by the instinctual panic at being marked so hard by someone who didn't seem to need to so much as blink.

She could feel her lungs burning and the strain from trying to turn at full speed too long made her legs feel like creaky timber, but she knew that if her pursuer overtook her there was no getting the lead back.

The edges of her vision blurred, and Mt. Arata felt creeping dread as the realization set in.

"In the rear number eleven Grass Wonder is starting to speed up on the outside, passing number nine Machikane Sanshiro! And number six Bold Emperor is following!"

She blinked, and the pale haired pony had passed her, cutting close to the rail and somehow keeping her speed through the turn.

She had burned out too fast.

"Shirogane Orezeru takes the lead!"

A ragged gasp escaped her as the pressure of being hunted suddenly vanished, making her legs wobble in relief, but that did her no good as she almost tripped dragging her feet through the turf.

"Number thirteen Mount Arata misses a step and falls behind! Shirogane Orezeru is now in the lead!"

Blurry shapes sped by her as her vision unfocused and Mt. Arata felt despair.

---

"Go Shiro-chan, you can do it!"

Special Week cheered on her friend as her quiet classmate pulled into the lead. They were too far away to be able to hear her, but the energy should reach them.

"Wooo! That's how you do it!"

Next to her El-chan waved her arms excitedly, before pointing towards Grass-san in the middle of the pack, speeding up quickly and overtaking the others.

"Go, Grass, Go!"

"So who do you think is gonna win between those two?" Sky asked, stretching her arms up as if she wasn't paying much attention to things, though she did not take her gaze away from the track.

"Waah, I dunno!" El-chan cried, throwing her arms up into the air. "Shiro's ahead now but Grass is a late surger."

"Hmmm…" Suzuka-san, Spe's roommate, hummed thoughtfully as she watched the pace chaser start to close in on Shiro-chan. "I don't know if Shiro-chan is fast enough."

"Yeah, I think Grass probably has this since it's pretty short," Sky added, folding her hands behind her head. "If it was a long race, then it's more of a toss up. A really long race we could run relay and probably still lose to the little pale terminator."

"Eh? Terminator?" Suzuka-san blinked owlishly. "What does that mean?"

"You know!" El-chan cried, "the robot from the future who went back in time to protect some important human in the future."

"Umm…I don't understand…" Special Week had no idea what they were talking about either.

"Ah, forget it, forgot you were from the sticks, Spe-chan."

"I'm not from the sticks and I don't know what you're saying either."

"Just don't worry about it, Suzuka-san, it's not important."

"Ok…Go Shiro-chan! Go Grass-san!" Special Week quickly forgot about this exchange as her attention was recaptured by her classmates down on the track.

---

It seemed that G1 competitors were indeed stronger than those in lower grades, Shirogane mused, and these were still limited to junior year runners who largely hadn't fully hit their stride yet.

While Mt. Arata was not as fast as Suzuka-san, she had still been fast enough that Shirogane had not been able to overtake her until she ran herself out of breath, probably due to inexperience, and now that Shirogane had passed her, the relatively short race meant that the rest of the runners were starting to speed up.

With her ears pulled back, she could hear two runners closing in on her.

"Number ten Meiner Love is pushing ahead, with number four Figaro not far behind!"

One angled towards the outside, while the other cut closer to the rail, blocking off the runners behind and pulling closer over the shorter distance.

"Number eleven Grass Wonder is starting to move up along the outside!"

Shirogane continued to hug the rail as she came up to the last corner, ensuring that the one closing directly behind her would have to pass her on the outside.

"Number fourteen Shirogane Orezeru is still in the lead, but number ten Meiner Love is right on her tail! And now she's looking to make her move!"

As her pursuer accelerated and committed to passing, Shirogane let her momentum pull her away from the rails as they went into the turn, forcing the runner behind further outside–

"Oh! Meiner Love steps right into Figaro's path and they almost collide! What a disaster!"

---

Now!

"Number eleven Grass Wonder surges forwards around the traffic!"

As Shirogane's positioning forced the two pace chasers into blocking each other, Grass burst forwards, whizzing past the stumbling runners and rounding the final corner in a wide turn that would normally not be very efficient, but here it allowed her to avoid the disruption her teammate had engineered.

"We're on the homestretch! And Grass Wonder is shooting towards the finish, but she still has to pass Shirogane Orezeru!"

On the downside, it meant she had more ground to cover, compared to Shirogane, who was much closer to the rail.

They hit the incline, and Grass clenched her jaw as she ascended, her legs straining almost painfully as she charged up the final Nakayama hill.

"Number eight Meiner Messer and Number twelve Symboli Sword break from the pack, while number six Bold Emperor moves forwards on the outside, can they catch up?!"

Grass had beaten others on this hill before, but it hardly slowed down Shirogane at all, her pale haired teammate not even glancing backwards as she ran steadily up towards the finish, while the rest of the pack were slowed on the slope, the energy required to circumvent the blockers sapping away momentum in a critical moment.

Still, she was faster, they both knew it, so even as Grass felt her veins bulging and her vision narrowed towards the impending goal, she stayed as alert as she could as Shirogane drifted further away from the rail, shrinking the passing lane.

You can't stop me!

"Grass Wonder has pulled ahead!"

But Grass had trained against her teammate many times, and with the sum of all her practice, that lane was enough.

"Number eleven Grass Wonder crosses the finish line and has claimed victory! And would you look at that? It's a new record too!"

She crossed the finish a moment before Shirogane did, and the rush of triumph and fatigue buoyed by the raucous cheers of the crowd would have her riding high for a good while longer.

"In second place we have number fourteen Shirogane Orezeru, and in third place number eight Meiner Messer!"

"Congratulations, Grass," Shirogane grunted, looking barely winded as they pulled to a stop. "I suppose it was that easy afterall." She gave a curt nod, as if they had just come across each other on a stroll through the part.

"Thank you….Shirogane-san," Grass replied, doing her best to catch her breath while waving politely to the crowd. "I…would not…say you made it easy."

"Not difficult enough, it seems," her pale teammate quipped, a slight smirk pulling at her lips. She didn't seem pleased with coming up short, exactly, but as usual, Shirogane was far less bothered by this set back than Grass knew she would have been had their positions been reversed.

"It was still a good run," Grass offered. "You've gotten faster."

Shirogane shrugged, removing her eagle hat and tucking it in the crook of her arm. "It remains a work in progress. There are still more races to go."

Grass sighed, shaking her head, some of the giddiness from winning her first G1 race slipping away from that reminder. But she knew her rival was right.

This was just one finished race and she was nowhere near done!

---

"Wooo! You did it, Grass!"

"Congratulations, Grass!"

Tsurumaru Tsuyoshi cheered for the winner alongside the rest of her classmates who hadn't managed to qualify for this race, happy for Grass Wonder and her victory, but she couldn't completely suppress the discomfort in her chest at feeling so left behind. Almost all of them had debuted, except for Sky-san, and now one of them had even won a G1 race.

"Let's go get an autograph!" El-chan whooped, looking like she was seriously considering jumping down from the stands to run to her friend in the winner's circle. "I wanna see how she reacts!"

"Eh? Wait, El-chan! Don't run through the crowd–oh there they go…" King Halo's attempt at reining in her enthusiastic teammate came too late, and the excitable masked uma had already run off, with Special Week in tow.

"Maah…How troublesome," Sky-san sighed, leaning back and looking up at the clouds.

"You'll debut soon enough, Sky-san," King Halo offered in a consoling tone, before glancing over at Tsurumaru. "You too Tsuyoshi-san."

"...I hope so." She wasn't sick anymore, so she should be able to run, but even then…with how far ahead her classmates were, could she even keep up by that point?

---

"Damn it!" Steady Distance cursed, banging her fist lightly on her leg. "So close!" It really hadn't been, at the finish, but Shiro's scheme had almost worked. "Guess her classmate must have gotten used to her tricks, huh?"

"Couldn't she have won if she ran straighter at the end?" Azuki-chan wondered, looking a bit confused at what Shirogane had tried.

"Nah, Grass Wonder was just that much faster in the final spurt," Steady explained. "Shiro obviously knew this, since they've trained together, so she needed to slow her down somehow, but Grass knew that too, so made sure she had enough space where Shiro couldn't do very much about it."

"Huh…I didn't know racing needed this much thinking!" Matcha-chan chirped, ears perked up in realization as he brought her hands to her temple.

"Hey! I don't just think with my legs, ya know!"

"Also with your boobs."

"Shut up Taro!" Steady elbowed the oversized dumbass in the gut, but that hardly moved the much larger uma, who just gave her a light shove in return.

"Second place is very good." Next to them, Suzuki-san looked slightly disappointed, but also very proud.

"Shiro looked very cute in that uniform!" his wife gushed, still smiling even after their daughter had walked off out of view. "And placing still gets a big payout in these big races too!"

"Oh right…are we going to have to hide the checkbook again?"

"You know that Shiro already knows the account number, right? That won't stop her from putting more of it into the family account."

"...True…sometimes she's really too responsible for her own good."

Shiro really was the funniest possible child for a couple as laid back as the Suzukis to have.

---

Hana let out a sigh as the cheers from the crowd started to die down. Down on the track, Grass Wonder made her way through the winner's circle, exchanging well-wishes with fans. For the most part, Hana didn't have to worry about either of her trainees this year in that regard, with both of them being on the more mature side. They were also able to be forceful if needed, despite how polite and mild mannered they seemed normally.

"A good showing for Tracen Academy," Rudolf observed, crossing her arms. The look on her face was rather at odds compared to the words she said. "That class certainly is performing well so far."

Hana followed her most famous trainee's gaze, landing on the morose looking Symboli Sword, who had placed eigth, despite being the fourth favorite. "Do you need to talk with her?" They both knew how stressful the expectations that came with being from a big racing family could be. It had been the cause of some conflict between them initially, only alleviating as they got to know each other and found ways to work together and win.

Serving as student council president had helped Rudolf mellow out quite a bit, but as much influence as she had at Tracen, she was still not the head of the Symboli family.

"I don't believe that will serve her well." Rudolf slumped slightly, ears drooping in resignation. "As I said, we are not that well acquainted with each other, so I imagine any encouragement I might offer could well come across as threatening." She shook her head. "The best I could do would be to make a call and head off some of the criticism by highlighting how strong the competition was."

Unfortunately, it seemed unlikely to Hana that emphasizing the strength of the competition would go over well. While the increase in foreign talent (and one she found on the street) was a great boon to her and to many trainers, it also meant that there was even more pressure on the members of already established racing families.

"I'll give your regards to your teammates for you, then." Hana nodded, looking back at where Grass was wrapping up her circuit. Shirogane was nowhere to be seen, as usual, since she didn't seem all that interested in the spotlight, especially if she did not win.

"I appreciate that, Trainer-san."

---

AN. Had a more relaxed week at work, so rejoice! The race is on! And the amount of research I ended up doing on this race was slightly comical. Since it's a bigger race, I actually found and watched the footage of the actual race, and yes, what happens in this chapter is based on what actually happened, though Shirogane throws some of it off.

Don't know how fast I can get the next chapter out, since work is going to get more busy this time of year, and with the Classic Year of 1998 around the corner...that just means I have a lot more races to keep track of. And we haven't even introduced Shirogane's Triple Tiara rivals yet!

The ending part of this chapter also turned out more melancholy than I was expecting, but I feel it would be a disservice not to show how these competitions can be very crushing to people incredibly invested in it, not to mention how some of it would translate with the runners being considered people who can be responsible for their actions, especially in an era where the traditional big name families are loosing their edge in the market.

 

[Water Sorcerer]

actually found and watched the footage of the actual race, and yes

Click to shrink...

It's like that sometimes. You going to check something for something else real quick and boom, six hours of research.

 

[Lyrista]

So close, but Grass is a tough opponent indeed.

Oh well, one more silver medal for the war chest

 

[Pyrotech51]

Her breath came in painful gasps as she chanced a glance over her shoulder, almost stumbling a step at the sight of gleaming red eyes and the serial killer pony getting larger and larger in her view, before she was forced to look away, trying to pump her legs faster to get away from the crazy psycho with a sword.

Click to shrink...

"She was sharpening her sword in the gate! I thought she was gonna killl meeeee!"