IP2012 Cupcake Eating Challenge

[Armony]

* Cupcake Eating Challenge *

Rows upon rows of wooden tables were arranged in the shade provided by a large tree, with ponies moving too and from them at regular intervals, supplying the tasty treats that make up this event: cupcakes. Mountains of cupcakes had already been piled up on the tables in preparation for the opening of the contest, watched over by the judges to ensure that nopony tried to take any without permission. A light breeze carries the scent of the baked goods around, tantalizing the noses of passersby and anypony downwind of the event.

Three ponies were seated at a table in front of all the cupcakes, ready to take on names and entries with great, welcoming smiles on each of their faces. Who wouldn't be happy with being paid in all the cupcakes you could eat just to write down names and numbers, after all? Attached to the front of the sign-up table is a large sign, announcing the blatantly obvious name and the rules of this particular event.

Cupcake Eating Challenge

1. Time limit - 30 minutes

2. Please help keep the contest area clean!

3. Have fun!!!

As you're looking over the sign, one of the ponies at the table calls out "Come one, come all! Come on over and join in on the Iron Pony Cupcake Eating Challenge! Show off that stomach of steel by eating as many delicious cupcakes as you can, as fast as you can, and see if you have what it takes to be an IRON PONY!!"

Rules

1. Every competitor (OC) is allowed only one post (attempt).

2. Players may participate with multiple OCs; however, only one entry per player will be judged. Please clearly label the post you would like to be judged at the top.

3. This event is open for three (3) days - don't miss your chance to eat ALL of the cupcakes!

4. All board and Mane RP rules apply - please keep posts appropriate for all ages!

Judging

No actual time limit is imposed on you, as the writer, for completing your post. The event will be judged solely based on the quality of your post. There will be a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Important aspects being judged will include:

Structure: Spelling and grammar will be looked over for major errors and inconsistencies. The visual appearance of the post will also be judged (Colors that are hard to read won't make this any better for either of us!), as well as the logical flow of ideas from one to another.

Content: The post should be of an appropriate length; not too short or too long. It should also encompass the entirety of your character's entry, and should actually be an entry into the event that follows the rules.

Creativity: This is the most important part of judging. Does your character have a unique approach to tackling the event? What sort of struggles do they have, and how are they overcome? Does your character develop through their thoughts and actions? Is your post entertaining, well thought out, and original?

Edited August 3, 2012 by Manestream

[Lux]

When weet Surprise heard about the Iron Pony Competition, she was excited. When she heard that there was a Cupcake Eating Contest, she was eccstatic! She was known in Canterlot to consume candy at an uncanny rate. Some say she had a bottomless stomach, others said that she ate candy for breakfast and nothing else. Whatever the reason one thing was for certain that whenever there was a defective candy that wa misshapen or not the exact color, Sweet would gladly destroy the evidence!

Today she forgone having any breakfast, and by the time she had taken the train from Canterlot to Ponyville, she was ready to eat the seat cushions on the train! The alluringg smell of the cupcakes didn't help either. She walked to the tent, dressed with a pink headband, smaller headbands around her hooves, and dark paint under her eyes. He face was fixed in a determined glare. To her there was nothing else around her. No competitors, no judges, no spectators, notihing. It was just her and that mountain of cupcakes. It was almost like they wwere mocking her, saying, "You're weak. You can't eat all of us. Why don't you just go back on the train to Canterlot and give up."

"No talking cupcakes are going to laugh at me," she said as she registered her name and sat at the table. Then she waited as the judge gave the countdown.

"Three..."

"Two..."

"One..."

TWEEET!

As the whistle sounded, Sweet began shoving cake after cake into her mouth her eyes taking on a ravenous look. soon, her face began to be flecked with blues, greens, pinks, and other icing colors. To a spectator it didn't even look like she was actually eating them. She'd grab a cupcake with her hoof, launch it into her mouth and then a few seconds later would grab another. It was like she was swallowing each cupcake whole!

On this process went as a considerable swath was cut into the cupcake mountain. In the last five minutes she finally began to slow up, now taking double the time to devour the petit pastries. Finally the whistle was blown ending the match.

Sweet Surprise left the table, her stomach almost touching the ground as if she was in foal, her face now covered in a rainbow of frosting, and a smile on her face.

[Rosewind]

(Judgment submission.)

A squirrel nibbling casually on a nut glanced up as a shadow loomed over him. His eyes widened and he dropped the nut post-haste, scampering up the tree as if his tail was on fire. The shadow loomed and grew. Flocks of birds took off in fright. Silence fell over the tables lined with rows of cupcakes. At the end of the shadow...stood Pinkie Pie! She was not smiling. In fact, she was positively unsmiling! Her pet alligator, Gummy, was draped around her shoulders like a towel. She wore a heavy pink boxing robe, and sunglasses shaped like cupcakes with thick candles on top. Gummy grunted from his perch around her neck. She sat down at one of the tables and withdrew a squat hourglass from her robes, setting it on the table. "I've got thirty minutes, right? Cheer me on, Gummy!" Pinkie pulled her pet alligator off her shoulders and stuck a pom-pom in his mouth. He latched on to it and gazed at her from the ground, his glistening purple eyes blinking at different intervals.

Pinkie flipped the hourglass. Her thirty minutes started. She daintily picked up a pink-frosted cupcake. She knew it well. It was a strawberry honeydrop lime muffin. Mrs. Cup Cake taught her the recipe when she first started to live with the Cake family, and she knew its secrets. She knew how to conquer it. The pink mare took a small nibble. Her spirits lightened. She crammed the whole thing in her mouth, swallowing without a second thought. She picked up a stack of plain chocolate cupcakes -- complete with rainbow sprinkles -- and began to casually pack them away. "I was so sad that I lost the diving competition, Gummy!" The chocolate cupcakes she stacked resembled an accordion. She "played" them by squeezing back and forth, frosting spurting out of the top. She worked her mouth lengthwise, popping them one by one down her pink gullet. Twenty five minutes left.

"It's all about pacing if you want to win something like this!" Pinkie said to Gummy. Her pet blinked at her, the fluffy pom pom jutting out of his mouth. "Can you imagine if they had a fly jelly eating contest, Gummy? You'd do super awesome..pmhhffmrrrmf!" She said, stuffing several lavender-chocolate cupcake surprises in her mouth. Purple frosting leaked out of the sides of her mouth. Next came green cupcakes with strange orange icing. Caramel apple dapple cupcakes. Super sticky, and also super yummy. Pinkie held one in each of her hooves, slamming back each with reckless abandon. Twenty minutes left. "We're going to need to pick this up! I'm just getting started, you know!!" Pinkie reached across the table and dragged several trays of cupcakes toward herself. Blue minty moon swirl cupcakes. Red cinnafire cupcakes, and the dreaded triple toffee tipsy twirl cupcake. She placed them in several rows, one stack after another, grabbed the ends, opened her mouth, and crammed all thirty in her mouth at once. Her cheeks bulged, her eyes watering. She gagged a little. Pinkie regained her composure, straining her neck, and swallowed -- not once, but in three different sets. Her pink tummy extended as all of the pastry flew into her stomach.

"Ugggh! That was a bad idea!" She hiccuped. "Oh gee...time is fleeting, I should be eating!" Pinkie said to herself, grabbing a fresh tray from one of the event ponies behind her. Crunchy chewy lemon cupcakes. Each one had super sour bright yellow frosting on top. Pinkie ate each one, spurting yellow frosting everywhere, her mouth twisted around the puckery sweet frosting. Fifteen minutes left. Pegasus cloud cupcakes. Super light, but breezy going down. Pinkie smooshed ten of them into a ball and stuck it into one side of her cheek, seeking more pastry to stuff down her throat. It was a gruesome scene, indeed. Gummy blinked as pink frosting splattered across his face. He grunted unhappily. "Mrrpffghl! Support, Gummy! Oh yeah, I know! I'll sing me a cupcake eating song! Ahem..."

"Mrrrmmrrmfph! Cupcakes! Eat them up! One...mrrpff! atph a time! Or six or seven, mrrrpffphph! Nom them eat them all before...mmrfmffphp...chocolate ...mmrpff! Eat them till you can't move, mfmmfffpfffh!" Pinkie looked to a plate full of gummy raisin cupcakes. Her head swam, and she knew she wasn't going to be conscious much longer. Ten minutes. She reached, her vision spinning. She saw her pink hoof split into three different hooves. "Whee, Gummy! I'm growing more arms! Heeheehee!" She grabbed the gummy cupcakes and bounced them off the table. She looked quickly for a tray of blueberry fizzy cupcakes, and stuffed several in her mouth. She swallowed just in time, looked up, and catched the bouncing gummy cupcakes in her mouth. She swallowed hard, her stomach very much distended. "The final...push, Gummy! Shake that pom pom!" Gummy obliged by standing completely still, slightly in awe, watching the pink mare stuff herself with cupcakes.

Pinkie glanced at her hourglass nervously, streaks of sweat running off her forehead. Each grain of sand lost was one less cupcake she could be eating. She mopped her brow with the sleeve of her pink boxing robe, taking a deep breath. "More! I NEED MORE CUPCAKES!" She screamed loudly. The audience looked on in shocked silence as the panelists brought out five more trays. Chocolate fudge peanut, cinnamon cookie crumble, watermelon splash, honey ripple cheesecake, and hay sugar cupcakes. "This is definitely. My. JAM! Betcha I can eat all these cupcakes!" Pinkie shouted, tearing a strip of cloth off her sleeve and tying it around her forehead like a bandana. She went full throttle. "Nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom ...swallow ... nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom!" Her hooves went rapid fire, her mouth full, tears of agony and delight streaking down her cheeks. Frosting splattered. Crumbs flew. The last grains of the hourglass spilled to the bottom of the glass.

Pinkie swallowed one last time, her vision fading. She smiled to herself as blackness overcame her. She fell backwards, out cold, a half-eaten fudge chip cupcake still grasped tightly in her hoove. Several of the support staff rushed over to check her. In the end? Pinkie came what she set out to do: stuff her face with cupcakes, which was actually a normal, daily activity for her.

[RarityDash]

Dazzle Dawn had come down to Ponyville from Canterlot with some friends to watch the Iron Pony events since it sounded like a lot of fun. The idea of so many ponies all together in one place, pushing themselves to the limit in all these events was really exciting to the friendly young unicorn mare. Dazzle however had never expected to compete in any events herself. She would have been happy to just be a spectator, but some of her Canterlot University friends apprently had other ideas and had pushed her toward a certain event.

Dazzle Dawn, as much as she enjoyed the action parts of any given Daring Do book, was not a very physically active or athletic mare. She was also not the most magical of unicorns despite being a magic student, and she was also pretty far from the smartest pony in the crowd. If there was one thing Dazzle excelled at other than the simple act of making her friends smile, however, it was eating lots of sweets. Well, that and drinking coffee maybe, but they didn't have a competition for that. Iron Pony did however have a cupcake eating contest, and it was exactly that for which the green-maned pony had lined up.

After watching the pink pony directly before her, Dazzle was unsure if she was right for this. Sure, she loved sweets, but she couldn't very well eat like that pony. No pony could. How could she possibly hope to match that? She smiled awkwardly as she stepped up to the table, now a little nervous. She knew that this kind of thing was all for fun, and she wasn't the type to really stress over not winning something. She was pretty used to that, actually. All the same, she didn't want to let her friends down, not when they'd be rooting for her. Giving up wouldn't be a very good thing to do.

Dazzle took a deep breath as she stared at all the cupcakes laid out in front of her. There were so very many of them, it was overwhelming. She had to do this though. She had to make this happen. For everypony who wanted her to do this, she had to do her best to eat all of these cupcakes... or at least as many as she could. Nodding rigidly, a determined look appeared on the young mare's face. "Okay! Let's eat some cupcakes," she said in what, for her, was a surprisingly fierce voice as she turned over the hourglass starting her thirty minutes. Then, with her magic, she grabbed the nearest pink sprinkle cupcake...

And proceeded to eat it casually, bit by bite. "Mmmm, so tasty!" she said, squealing in delight at the sweet taste in her mouth. She giggled and then continued to carefully consume the cupcake. When it was gone, she picked out a nice looking chocolate cupcake and started to eat it in a similar fashion. In all, about four minutes of her time was spent on the first two cupcakes. Dazzle didn't really notice or think anything of it; she was just enjoying some cupcakes. It wasn't until the crowd started to get rather loud and restless that Dazzle was reminded she was in a competition. She shook her head and glanced toward the hourglass. Now she needed to make up for lost time.

She asked herself how sh could eat lots of cupcakes quickly? She wasn't the most clever of ponies but in a jam she could usually pull through, and while she also wasn't the most magical unicorn, she did at least know some spells... and the rules for the event didn't say a single thing about not using magic. Dazzle smiled, sure she had come up with a great idea. Lifting two cupcakes at once, Dazzle's horn lit up and reduced both cupcakes to about 25 percent their normal size. She then quickly ate up the now bite sized cupcakes.

Dazzle smiled. Her shrinking spell was going to make this easy! Keeping this up, she could stuff tons of cupcakes in her face and make up for her slow start. Confident in her plan, the cheery Canterlot University student started to shovel up cupcakes, shrink them down and shove them into her mouth. She cleared several trays in this fashion, cupcake after tiny cupcake disappearing down her throat. By the fifteen minute mark she was feeling pretty good about her chances...

By the twenty minute mark, however, she was feeling horribly sick. As said previously, Dazzle Dawn was not the best unicorn at doing magic, and while she could shrink things okay it didn't really last very long. This deep into the half hour, the bright-eyed unicorn faced the not so pleasant fate of having lots and lots of bite sized cupcakes expand to full size all at once in her stomach. It was really painful and made the young unicorn whimper as she lolled back and forth in her seat, not wanting to eat anymore cupcakes for a really long time.

And yet she still had just under ten minutes left. She cried in pain and moved some more mini cupcakes toward her face. She ate them slowly, one by one, all the while groaning in agony between them. She feared that at any moment she could lose control and find herself unable to keep all the cupcakes down. By the end of the thirty minutes, she had slown to a complete crawl, unable to get anymore down. As her time was called as complete, the unicorn fell over backwards, whimpering in pain.

Unable to even move immediately move, she just lie there suffering. She had come there to be a spectator, thinking the events of the Iron Pony would be too much for her. After finishing this one event she thought would be safe, however, Dazzle couldn't imagine there was any event here that could possibly be more straining and painful to complete. It was certainly not easy trying to be an Iron Pony.

[Blueblood]

(This post is submitted for judging)

For the second time that day, Flying Brick was emerging from the infirmary tent with bandages wrapped around her torso. Between the bone-rattling bruising she'd taken off her high-dive landing, to the scrapes and splinters from the barrel weave, nopony could accuse her of sparing any effort to represent her home city of Stalliongrad at the Iron Pony games.

On the other hand, the bandages were all she had to show for that effort. She'd gotten an outright DQ on her last event; and even at her best the scores had been respectable, but not the sort that brought home the rosette. *Not our finest hour, for sure.* The earth pony mare trotted with tired steps among the throngs of spectators and competitors, exhausted and homesick. She missed the feeling of cobble and brick beneath her hooves, the accent and slang of her home streets, and the bracing cold bite of the northern wind between the buildings.

As she passed the booth of the cupcake-eating contest, the warm breeze gently pushed the scent of all the baked goods available, and Flying Bricks stomach kicked up an audible fuss. The growling brought her up short right in front of the sign displaying the rules, like a sign from Celestia. How long had it been since she'd eaten? She'd had a few bites after the diving contest, but that seemed ages ago!

The rules were short and few, and made it pretty clear that, for some unfathomable reason, these Equestrian ponies were allowing contestants to eat all the cupcakes they wanted in half-an-hour, and calling it an event. On the other hand, she was hungry, and it didn't do to be ungrateful, after all. Walking up, she put her name down with the judges, and took a seat at the table, a little bit of drool beginning to collect at the corners of her mouth as she surveyed the variety of treats available. *This... is going to be glorious.*

Turning over the hourglass with a solid thunk, Flying Brick started on the first cupcake to hand, a cream-filled chocolate one. She took one bite, then crammed the entire pastry in her mouth, reaching for the next even as she swallowed. It would be an understatement to call them delicious; it wouldn't have surprised her in the least to learn that the organizers had carefully chosen the best baker in Equestria to cater this event. In any case, she was caught up in the moment, wolfing down pastry after pastry to satiate her starving stomach.

After the first ten minutes, she began to slow down again, the first rush of hunger being over. She took each cupcake at a steady pace, sampling one kind each in turn. There was a Coconut Cupcake with Pineapple frosting, a smooth buttery flavor she couldn't name but really enjoyed, a Red Velvet that rivaled her own coat in color, and a Salted Caramel Cupcake, which was much better tasting than one might expect, and many more. As each cake was tackled in it's turn, Flying Brick could feel the tired soreness from her muscles slip away, the agony of defeat routed by the ecstasy of cupcakes.

As the final ten minutes approached, she actually picked up her pace, revisiting all her favorites and consuming them three or four at a time, only slowing down in the final three minutes, her once-empty stomach now filled almost to bursting. She took it slowly for the last few pastries, savoring each and timing the final swallow to coincide with the last grains of sand falling through the glass. Her time finished, she reached with the utmost gravity for the glass of milk provided to each contestant, guzzled about half of it to wash down all the treats she'd consumed.

Placing down the glass, she turned to the judges, giving a cheery wave. "Thank you very much. We never had anything so delicious back home!" The mare called out in her Stalliongrad accent, before tipping over to join her fellow-contestants on the ground, a smile still on her frosted lips.

[HarringtonSleuth]

*This post submitted for judging*

Harrington Sleuth thought of the Cupcake Eating Challenge as an odd contest to hold during Iron Pony

This is quite strange...I thought of Iron Pony as a contest purely of athletic prowess...never would I have dreamed of an eating competition as an event...but if it gives me a break from hauling 120 starch stones of death or keeping away from a mud pit while three ponies try to yank me in or prevent my heart from giving out falling from miles up...I'm up for a challenge where the most I have to do is reach for the next cupcake.

He kept a flat cap on his head as he was the next to try his hoof at the challenge, and he marveled at the sheer quantity of cupcakes before him. They certainly went all-out making the treats stacked high on the table, creating several different flavors available to contestants. They must have made hundreds, possibly thousands to let contestants eat for 30 minutes!

Harrington read over the rules for the challenge before he went back to his caravan for a minute. He returned to sit down along the table and set an analog chess clock beside him. This would serve to keep time for himself. Some chose to wait for cues from officials to start and stop. A couple used an hourglass set for 30 minutes. He simply took the best countdown device he had and set it out so he could keep track of exactly how long he had. He set one clock to display 5:30, meaning he would stop when the flag fell at 6:00.

"There we are...now to see when I start."

He looked to the official to show he was ready and, when he got the signal, hit the button over the other clock, which started the one he would look at for reference. Immediately, he started chowing down on cupcakes, all the different flavors (chocolate with a marshmallow center, cherry-lime, lemon meringue, cookies and cream, red velvet, the list started running in his mind) exciting his taste buds as he thought out a strategy on-the-fly.

How to go about this...I have 30 minutes...I could just take my time and pace myself so I don't end up with a massive stomachache...but then again, the pink one stuffed her gob faster than I've ever seen a pony do before. No use ending up sick without shooting for the gold.

With this thought process in mind, he proceeded to scarf down cupcakes as fast as he could. He started off going one at a time for about a minute before he began making exceptions for letting two or three occupy his mouth at once as he chewed them up as fast as his jaws could move. For the first few minutes, the worst thing bothering him were only the thoughts of what so much sugar would do to him later. "Ve furure P.Ah. Pegafuf can worry arout thiff rayrer," he noted to himself as two cupcakes stayed in place only long enough for him to shake off his thoughts and continue on.

About the time when he first checked the clock, which read 5:40, Harrington stopped feeling hungry at all. Though he worked up quite an appetite from earlier festivities he participated in, he was eating at a very rampant pace. He couldn't tell if it was on pace with Pinkie Pie's earlier run, which he figured as the count to beat, or not. Despite his stomach telling him he could stop, he continued biting away at the pastry mountains one (to five) cupcakes at a time. He figured since he was a fairly larger stallion than most, he could hold his cupcakes. "I'm not letting...anypony beat me...you hear? Nopony will best me...in this...!"

At 5:45 contest time, halfway through the challenge, his stomach started triggering slight senses of pain, signaling his brain that he was full. His body continued telling him to cease with increasing urgency as the stallion himself refused to listen, though he slowed down as he continued to stuff his face with salted caramel, hot fudge, turtle, coconut cream and Germane chocolate cupcakes and moved down to pull more his way. The pain wasn't growing much from that point, but at 5:50, his gut began jutting out as the cupcakes forced it to make room. Each treat was a dumbbell plopping into his belly, and it was at this point his pace severely slowed for the final third of his allotted time. "Oof...that smarts...but this challenge is still mine..."

Every decision to swallow the cupcake he had in his mouth or not proved to cause him an increasing degree of pain when he chose to swallow. He would reach for a cupcake, look at it and let the dismay sink in for a few seconds while the crowd watching could see it by his paling face ("I didn't know ponies' faces could turn that kind of color!" one mare exclaimed from the crowd) before he inserted the once-delicious, now-torturous treat in his pie hole. He would then proceed to sluggishly chew with pounded jaws worn out from the 10-minute galloping start plus the 10-minute canter in the middle stretch of his time. It took all his might, his will and his gut to stomach another cupcake when he gathered the courage to swallow.

"Must...stop...for Celestia's sake...but I must...go for the gold...I must...eat...cupcakes...for 8 more minutes. It is my duty...to give these ponies the spectacle of gluttony they came to see...the one I promised them when...I stepped in for this challenge..."

He counted down the sentence left to serve in his self-imposed diabetic nightmare as his stomach carried what seemed to him the weight of the 120 potatoes he hauled in another event. Only this time, somepony else would probably have to bear the burden of hauling him away from the table. His wings would be of no use as he started to feel like a bloated ball of lead who only had enough outward movement to bring the little frosted bundles of pain to his lips. Swallowing became yet another labor in the process for the last 2 or so minutes (he couldn't be bothered to check the clock anymore) as he had all but resigned as he choked down the last few cupcakes.

At long last, the flag dropped and an official sounded off. That, after all his body did to tell him to stop, was finally his cue to stop forcing himself to eat cupcakes. He planned to refrain from sugary sweets for a long, long time to come. Unless they were already paid tons of bits in advance for this, he hoped he and the other contestants didn't bankrupt the bakers sponsoring this challenge.

"Uuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhh..." Harrington moaned as the help team that pulled Pinkie Pie away earlier now had to help him move aside for the next poor, unfortunate soul who planned to spend half an hour putting on a public spectacle at several personal costs. For now, he was the future P.I. Pegasus, and all he could do now was wait out the stomachache and the sugar nosedive that set in seconds after time was called. He conked out and slept as soon as he was out of the contest area.

[Mojo]

(this entry submitted for judging)

Saddlesore

"Why did I ever decide to come to this thing?" Saddlesore, the always grumpy blue Earth Pony grumbled as he walked through the entry gate of the "Iron Pony Games" competition. "I wouldn't mind these things so much if there wasn't so many ponies here!"

The blue stallion continued to mumble, grumble and complain as he walked along the midway of the event grounds.

"Tug Of War? Who in the hay thinks they can win at THAT? Three ponies against one? Insanity! Obstacle Course? I'll pass on that. Too messy! Is there ANY events at this silly festival that don't involve MUD? Barrel Weave? Ponies dodging poles in the middle of a track. Big deal! Who the hay cares about that? I may as well turn around and go back home..."

Suddenly, the unmistakable aroma of fresh cupcakes reached the blue stallion's nostrils, stopping his angry rambling and for a moment, causing a smile to appear on his face.

"Food? In an Iron Pony Competition? THIS I have to see for myself!" Saddlesore grunted as he followed his nose to the Cupcake Eating Competition area and heard the barker pony begging for volunteers.

"Cup Cake eating as a sport? PULLL-EEEZE! Give me one good reason why I would enter such a hair brained contest like this?" the blue stallion yelled seconds before a loud rumbling noise came from the hungry pony's stomach. "That's a good reason, I'm in."

Saddlesore waited for his turn and when it came, he gazed with wonderment at the rows and rows of fresh cupcakes just begging to be consumed. Though he'd be embarrassed to admit it outloud, this was one contest he was going to enjoy!

"Let's get this over with," he said grimly as he stood at the starting line. His empty stomach once more growled loudly, so loud the sound could be heard by the judges and audience sitting in the bleachers.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"GO!!!!!"

This uncharacteristic speed, Saddlesore ATTACKED the first row of cupcakes. He was SO hungry that the blue stallion didn't even bother removing the paper 'cups' each cupcake resided in. The gathered crowd gasped at the furious motions of Saddlesore as he quickly consumed cupcake after cupcake. Some of the first ones he didn't even bother chewing, nearly swallowing them whole! A few in the audience swore that Saddlesore must be Pinkie Pie in disguise in the manner and swiftness he was eating row after row of fresh baked cupcakes. By the time the blue stallion 'attacked' the second row of cupcakes, he had lost count of how many he had eaten. His mind and body in the grips of hunger, Saddlesore continued his cupcake eating rampage. His face now dotted with crumbs and bits of frosting, the grumpy Earth Pony lost all regard for dignity and civilized behavior during his thirty minute cupcake eating fest! Row after row of cupcakes vanished amid the blue blur of the fast moving hungry stallion. The event's bakers were hard pressed to keep up with the super speedy Saddlesore. The crowd looked on in stunned amazement! This was definately a side of the crusty grouchy blue stallion they'd never seen before!

"THREE!"

"TWO!"

"ONE!"

"TIMES UP!"

When he heard that time had expired, Saddlesore instantly halted with a mouth stuffed full of cupcakes that he was about to chew. Not wanting to 'cheat', the blue stallion immediately spit them out into a nearby trash can. Then he turned to glance back at the mostly empty tables and shelves that once held rows and rows of yummy, fresh baked cupcakes. Saddlesore was stunned at how much he had eaten in a thirty minute span. He was even MORE stunned to view his teethmarks in random places on some of the tables. One table on the far side of the arena even had a clearly visible missing corner to it!

"Thought some of those last cupcakes tasted like sawdust," Saddlesore grumbled in response. Now he had a full stomach, maybe, a TOO full stomach! Instantly a new sensation came from his belly, one of pain and great discomfort. His light blue furry face seemed to have suddenly acquired a green hue to it. As he began to wobble on his feet, the announcer for the event shouted out:

"LET'S HERE IT FOR SADDLESORE! THAT WAS QUITE A PERFORMANCE! DO YOU HAVE ANY WORDS FOR THE AUDIENCE?"

"Just... three.. " Saddlesore grunted out before he yelled, "OUTTA MY WAY!"

Bolting out of the arena and towards one of the many portable outhouses built on the grounds of the Iron Pony Event area, Saddlesore rudely pushed, rammed and knocked down other ponies waiting in the long line leading up to the outhouse door before zipping inside and slamming the door hard.

"IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE CROWD? I THINK OUR LAST CONTESTANT NEEDS IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION!"

[TaikoFairy]

This post for judging!!

Taiko Fairy had been wandering Ponyville for the Iron Pony. She had a Chudaiko on her back and a Djimbe tied to her as well. All of her drum equipmnent was in her saddle bags too. She was weighed down by at least 50 lbs of equipment and she wasn't the least bit tired. Actually she was ready to go. The filly was bouncing around the area happily. Quite literally. She was bouncing all over the area. With her drums on her back and her bags of stuff. How the pegasus had any energy to actually DO that was shocking. Taiko Fairy was obviously a bundle of energy.

Taiko had originally come to Ponyville to observe the events, perform and then possibly earn some money. Big events obviously had money. Money meant housing and food! Food was always good. As the pegasus wandered the event, she saw a Cupcake Eating Competition. Now Taiko didn't care much about the competing, but she did care about Cupcakes! Free cupcakes at that! Free cupcakes meant a full belly for Taiko. A full belly was becoming quite rare in the traveling musician's life now. She was always making sure she had enough money for a week of food and rooms to rent. That way if she ran out, she could go home for a bit and earn more money.

As the Pony thought of home, she thought about how MAD her mother would be at her for eating as many cupcakes as she could in thirty minutes. She would make Taiko consider the pros and cons of this situation. The Pros were simple: Full belly, lots of sugar, delicious cupcakes and free food. The cons were... Well she couldn't name any. So obviously this was a win-win situation. The Pegasus jumped up happily and pranced over. She was happy to have a full belly of sweet goodness.

"My turn please!" She said happily. The gray pegasus was happy to get some free food in her belly. The ponies led her to a table were there were many cupcakes. Taiko put her djimbe on the ground first, followed by her Chudaiko. That was the heaviest item weighing at least twenty pounds since she used heavy wood on it. The third thing that was dropped was her Saddle Bags and then she was in front of the table ready to go. Taiko tightened the Hachimaki and made sure her hair would be out of the way. Then she secured her hapi coat making sure it was out of the way and then she looked at the timer with a nod. "I'm ready!" She said with a happy smile.

The judges nodded and started the clock. "GO!" The told her. Instantly Taiko Fairy started licking off all the icing off the cupcakes. Icing was the best thing ever. After licking off the icing, she placed the plain cupcakes to the side. The icing was obviously the hard part. After her first plate, with most of the icing on her face, she took all the plain cupcakes and squished them together as tightly as she could. This made them easier to eat. Thanks to the pony's arm muscles was was able to compact them very tightly and finish the whole thing in five large bites. But this also took five minutes. "Yummy!" Taiko Fairy commented.

The next plate was a chocolate cupcake. While Taiko wasn't the BIGGEST fan of chocolate (She still liked it) she would eat it quickly. Chocolate was just too rich for her liking to eat it all the time. The faster she got these over with, the better. Off came the frosting! Then she compacted the cupcakes together. The chocolate wasn't as filling as she expected so she was able to finish it off with out much of a problem. Taiko ate the compacted cupcake in nine bites this time and it cost her seven minutes.

The third tray conatined the best cupcakes ever! Vanilla Cupcakes! Sure they were plain but she liked them the best. Taiko Fairy wasted no time at all in licking off the frosting. While she licked, she compacted, saving her some time. Since these were her favorite cupcakes, she went faster than the other two. Not much faster though. The gray pegasus finished them in four an a half minutes.

It was after the Vanilla cupcakes that Taiko Fairy lost track of the time. Sure she wasn't supposed to be caring about the competition, but she had. She wanted to win now. If she won, she would have a full belly, right? Right! Time to win this one! The fourth tray was a nice strawberry kind. She loved strawberries. Strawberries were her second favorite fruits! As Taiko started to lick the icing, she noticed that it tasted like real strawberries! That was fantastic. Taiko enthusiastically ate the strawberry icing. She even compacted the cupcakes as she ate. That would speed her time up. After the icing was gone (and mostly on her face) she ate the breaded stuff. That was her least favorite part. If this was an Icing eating contest, she would totally win. That wasn't the case unfortunately.

The next tray was a lemon cupcake tray. Now Taiko liked lemon bars, so lemon cupcakes were the same right? Totally. Down went the icing. Most of it was on her face though. She had Chocolate, lemon, strawberry, vanilla and some flavor she didn't know at all, on her face. That wasn't important, although she WAS slowing considerably. Her tummy was getting mighty full but she was still eating. Maybe she would be full until tomorrow, that would be great!

As she started slowing, the sugar rush hit. Now Taiko Fairy during her sugar rush was crazy. First, her wings started flapping. At first it was slow, but it gradually got faster until it was at WARP SPEED! That usually meant she was bouncing off the walls (of flying all over them). While her rush only lasted for a few minutes (unlike other ponies) it was crazy. Lucky for Taiko (And unlucky for every other pony) this was Taiko's last few minutes of eating.

She finished off the lemon cupcakes at the start of the rush and started on the next batch. She didn't even bother to figure out what they were. They looked good and she wanted her sweets. Taiko's wings started moving at a furiously fast pace. The pegasus was slowly rising into the air from the speed her wings were flapping at. To keep herself from flying up into the air, she was flying around the plates of cupcakes. At this point she had stopped her compacting of the cupcakes and was just inhaling them. He mother would have been disgusted. No matter, free food was free food and sugary goodness always prevailed!

Taiko was given her two minute mark as her next plate came out. By now, Taiko was twirling around the plate at rapid speeds while eating them. The older filly was kicking up some decent sized gusts from the spinning. She was also making herself quite dizzy. After her one minute mark was called, she was starting to feel her crash. It was coming very quickly. The first sign of the crash was her wings stopped moving altogether. This caused Taiko to fall face first into the cupcakes. Now the icing was all in her mane and face, though she didn't mind the later. Taiko picked herself up and did her best to finish the cupcakes. More vanilla cupcakes. Her legs were wobbly now and it was almost like someone had switched her legs with jelly. Even her wings now felt like jelly. Taiko still did her best to finish.

Finally time was called and Taiko Fairy sadly stopped eating. While she had been eating, she didn't notice how her stomach had filled out quite nicely. That was probably one of the main reason why she hadn't flown higher into the air. Unfortunately, there was once cupcake left on the tray. It was Vanilla, her favorite. Taiko looked up at the judge with her big blue eyes and a large pouty face. "Can I take that last one for later?" She asked in her best I'm-super-poor-and-have-no-money-to-eat voice. Sighing, the pony gave it to young Taiko Fairy. The pegasus cheered and started loading up. Fist were her saddlebags, then djembe and lastly her chudaiko. She then took the cupcake and carefully placed it in her saddle bag for later. Who knows, she might get hungry again.

The gray pegasus left the area still chipper and excited. She had come to get her free meal and she did. Now she was stuffed to the brim of cupcakes! She wouldn't need any more food for the rest of the day and she still got and extra cupcake. Taiko Fairy: One Life: Zero.

[CherryRie]

*judgement post*

PeaBee

Citizens from far and wide had descended upon this year’s Iron Pony contest, filling the proving grounds with what seemed like half of Equestria. Athletes from every corner of Equestria prepared mentally and physically for their allotted chance at gold. Adoring fans and onlookers alike rallied around their favourite events, cheering on the contestants from the sidelines. Excitement abounds, the day had yielded such contests of speed, strength and fineness as to bring a goofy grin of awe to the face of the pinto filly that now trotted through the gathered crowds.

There had been the barrel run, cart pulling, tug of war and even an obstacle course! Peanut had particularly enjoyed the Cloud Diving; especially when that one stallion belly flopped so hard that he’d actually stayed on the surface of the lake! But now there were other things on her easily distracted mind. She was Hungry.

This may seem like something of an inane statement, until you consider the context. When an adult feels a rumbling of the tummy, they calmly look for the nearest café or scrumshious looking patch of grass. However, when a six year old feels that they are ‘more hungrier then they ever been in their whole life EVER’, their first instinct is to find the nearest adult and whine at them until food materialises.

Peanut Butter would usually be no exception to this rule, but having lost track of her parents a little while ago she was also vague aware that ‘bits’ were normally required to procure food from the ponies behind the numerous goody laden booths. In Peabee’s mind this merely meant that an extra slice of persistent drama was required, though so far the stall owners had been remarkably resilient to this normally sure fire tactic.

Thus, deftly avoiding the threat of being taken to the lost and found tent, the paint filly found herself meandering through the contest grounds in search of a pony lacking immunity to puppy-dog eyes and a pitch of whine exclusively designed to set teeth on edge.

Wafting across the bustling field on a gentle breeze, the tantalising smell of warm spongy treats caught her senses and drew the solitary foal like a siren song. Nosing her way carefully through the press of legs, the young Pegasus at last found herself stumbling into what looked like a communal picnic area. A large circular clearing played host to a long bench, set out before the queue she had inadvertently found herself at the tip of. Watching from the sidelines, dozens of ponies cheered as the last grains fell through the hour-glass and an earth pony at the far side of the table rang a large dinner bell. Two competitors slunk away from their respective tables, each sporting a heavily distended tummy and dragging the third, rather ill looking pony between them.

Glancing upwards, Peanut squinted in concentration as she tried to decipher the large banner hanging above the collection of tables. Without much schooling, the deeper meaning behind the chicken scratches eluded her, though she was fairly certain that the doodles of ponies eating cupcakes meant it was some kind of buffe area.

Noting that the end of the table was now deserted apart from a flustered looking unicorn with a clip board, the Pinto filly trotted through the last of the crowd as somepony nearby called “next competitors!”

With a flutter of displaced fuffy down, Peanut pulled herself onto the long bench and peaked at the busy adult pony over the summit of the table... Or at least she would have done, had her attention not immediately been stolen by a mountain of cakey treats dropped from the rosy aura of magic that had lifted them from behind the judge’s table. Swirly icing buns, butterfly cakes and all manner of cupcakes were piled ten hooves high , a wonderland of sprinkles and sugar.

Her gasp of surprise seemed to draw some of the judge, though the mare still seemed engrossed in her clipboard to notice that he next competitor was below the entering age.

“Name?” She asked in a firm but polite tone, eyes still fixed upon her scribbling.

Peabee snapped out of her salivations at the sudden question. “Umm, Peanut Butter?”

“Great, another ‘P’. Oh I knew I shouldn’t have written this list alphabetically." Gubbled the judge, appyling a rubber to her notes "Oh well, good luck Miss Peanut.”

A hue of rosy magic gripped a hammer from the table top.

Peanut nearly jumping out of her skin when the bell sounded, a squeak of hinges indicating the hour glass had been turned over. Two ponies who had taken up station on the other tables and had started frantically attacking the deserts on their respective platters.

“Excuse me.” Asked the filly, turning back to her own plate and peaking guiltily around the mountain at the attendant. “But what am I supposed to do?”

“Just as the sign says;” Replied the unicorn, the mare’s gaze locked on the tower unblinkingly, as though she was expecting it to escape at any moment. “Thirty minutes, as many cupcakes as you can eat.”

With a confused blink, Peanut turned her eyes back to the delicious pile and experianced a moment of crisis.

“… does that mean all these are… mine?”

“Uhuh.”

It was as though Celestia’s sun itself had parted the clouds in PeaBee’s little world, illumining the mountain of treats with a heavenly glow. With a quiet squee of delight, she vanished head first into the heap of sugary goodness.

Behind the table, the Judge ticked off the half way mark and blinked at the shuddering mound of cakes. It was getting smaller from the bottom upwards, but hadn’t collapsed yet onto the head of the nibbler. Leaning to look for her competitor, she found nothing but an empty seat speckled with a few stray feathers. Where had they gone?

Worried the pony might have fainted from sugar overload, the unicorn wandered around to the front of her stand and lifted the hem of the table cloth. Nothing there either.

Almost about to call it a ‘did not finish’, she gasped as the tower of cakes shuddered once more and emitted a muffled giggle of delight. Placing an ear to the mountain, the mare listened carefully to the munching coming from beneath the smears of icing and buns. Once again the mound shrank a little, this time clearly pulling inwards as something devoured it from the inside.

“What in Celestia’s mane??” Queried the mare as she watched as the slowly collapsing summit folded to reveal a small, speckled muzzle still chewing away.

With one more large bite that would have put a python to shame, a face covered in every colour of the rainbow emerged. Panic gripped the mare as she quickly reached in and scooped the foal from the seriously diminished pile. Her muzzle smeared in icing and mane coated with crumbs, the filly looked up at the shocked adult with a growing possessed grin. By the unicorn’s rough estimate, the filly must have eaten twice her body weight in sugar.

“What are you doing here!” Yelped the judging mare, noting that one of Peanut’s eyes was gradualy defocusing. “Where are you parents! How did you-”

“-I LIKE TURTLES!” Shrieked the filly, throwing her oversized wings in the air and knocking herself free of the adult’s grasp.

Giggling manically, the foal hit the ground running, wings buzzing with excesses of energy as she dove through the crowd of spectators. A yell of ‘Tuuuurrratles!’ faded into the distance, leaving only an expanding cloud of feathery down and confusion.

[Boss_Hoss1]

(This Post submitted for judging)

A cream colored Unicorn waited in line, feeling safe from retrubution and calamity under the rules of the Iron Pony.

The fabulous Flim of the World Famous Flim-Flam Brothers had made his choice for an event, after briefly considering the SSSSS. No, too tempting for the other players to "miss" their targets and put more welts on him than the last mysterious bee attack -in the middle of Canterlot no less!

With their hit-or-miss funding of late, it was no challenge to prepare for this event by not eating at all the previous day and all that morning.

Flam of course had the dreadful satisfaction of eating like a... well, yes, like a horse before Flim's eyes.

His stomach was growing like an ursa as he sat down.

A the signal that the hourglass had started, the bare lipped stallion dove in. He almost laughed that Dear Brother Flam had passed on this because his moustache would be hopelessly gummed up.

Chocolate cupcakes, custard filled cupcakes, apple cupcakes! Oh Sweet Celestia, he was in HEAVEN!

Flim pushed down on the table to tip it up and funnel the nearest batch to his waiting jaws, only pausing to spit out the paper wrappers if he could.

He snapped left, right, and center at the cupcakes being piled before him like the starving pony he was.

Flim had completely lost track of how many he had downed by this point, as he scooped a row up onto his foreleg, single file, in one smooth movement, and raised his leg, letting them slide right into his muzzle like a playground slide.

The stallion's tummy gurgled as he felt his natty barbershop quartet style shirt tighten, then finally a button popped as he gobbled down a line of pumpkin cupcakes.

Immediately, the rest popped in rapid succession, pinging a button off the event sign.

One last stack was in reach, which were an unusual red. "C-cherry, one hopes?"

He started gobbling them down, only to scream as he found they were Pinkie Pie hot sauce cupcakes!

Flim oh so wanted to stop, but the hourglass was in it's last moments and forced himself to choke down two of those hot, hot cupcakes before the end was sounded.

Bleary-eyed, Flim groaned and wobbled away from the table. "Ohhh the mighty *hic* warrior leaves the field of h-honor. I may need help to make it 'yonder. Please take me to the medic tent for I may be a goner..." and collapsed on a first aid litter.

As he was carried off, Flim hoped he had won. Even if he had not, he still would not have to eat for a week.... as if he would want to, the way his stomach felt!

[Hippo]

(Miracle submitted for judging)

An athlete? Oh, no no no. Not an athlete. Not at all. Miracle would never find herself in a situation where she is to present her poise and competitiveness. She would never near an area where she was required to run a race, pull a rope, or even use her brain to answer a few questions about her knowledge of various subjects. None of these things she was good at. But an eating competition?

"Can I start now!?" Miracle shouted. She zipped up to the contestants' table, where cupcakes everywhere could be seen. Towering over her body, her mouth watered at the display of so many tiny cakes. At first she was impressed, but when she saw there was not a backup tower of cupcakes back stage, she insulted. "That's it?" She sighed. "Well, I hope they have enough."

When the whistle blew, Miracle had thirty minutes to eat as many cupcakes as she could. One by one, she swallowed whole cupcakes into her mouth. There was no discrimination of cupcake style or flavor. The closest one to Miracle's mouth was to be inhaled within a few seconds. She alternated her hooves, one lobbing a cupcake into her mouth, the other reaching for the next one. Occasionally, when she had the tenacity to do so, she found herself able to throw several cupcakes in the air and eat them at the same time.

She kept going and going. She knew no boundaries. Her stomach bottomless, her mouth unhinged. Then she stopped. "Oh no!" Miracle was stunned, and had been halted by something that had discouraged her from continuing. Miracle put down her current cupcake and walked a few steps to the right, reaching into her saddlebag she had brought with her from Canterlot. She pulled out a bottle of clear water, which was labeled to be melted from the fresh melted snow from the mountain that Canterlot is set on. She took a few swigs, and then replace the cap to the bottle. Returning to her post, she breathed calmly and began inhaling the cupcakes again, remaining ever so consistent with the rate of cupcakes she was devouring.

Miracle then got aggravated. The assistants around the contest were not helping her enough. They were not delivering the cupcakes to her fast enough. "Come on, guys, you're gonna make me lose!"

Meanwhile, Applejack was seen in the competition, but she was not having as much fortune. She was gasping for breathe, trying to make room in her tiny little body for more cupcakes. She couldn't believe how full she had gotten. "I told you, Applejack, you can't eat all these cupcakes," a nearby spectator pony had said.

Applejack straightened back up as much as she could and pointed towards the pony who doubted. "Forget you! I can eat all these cupcakes!" Applejack began shoving cupcakes into her mouth, cramming them with her hooves, despite the dizziness and and lack of coherence her body endured. Shortly after a few attempts at coping with a severe tummy ache, she collapsed. She would be fine, however.

Miracle looked next to her, where a stetson-wearing pony had given up eating cupcakes. She took the cupcake out of her hoof and put it into her mouth. Miracle shook her head in disappointment. "Some ponies just don't have what it takes." Miracle kept on eating and eating and eating.

When the whistle blew again, it signaled that Miracle's time was up. She wasn't sure exactly how many cupcakes she had eaten, but she was sure that she ate the most. And if there was a pony who ate more, she would surely love to meat this pony, to ask them how they did it, and to follow them to the next restaurant. Miracle was asked by a pony as she stepped down when she would have her next cupcake. Miracle looked back at them and grabbed a cupcake, taking a large bite out of it. She spoke with her mouth full, "Right now!"