Maple had fallen out of the race for the longest time after tiring herself out with her opening charge. She wasn't a sore loser in most circumstances, and she had joined the race late after all. However, the mixture of the rain, the trembling of her legs, and a bunch of ponies too sweaty to talk to her just seemed like too much for the mare. Instead, she decided to canter back home, into the Whitetail Woods. It was quite a long journey, yes, but Maple's hooves were used to distance walking. Running, on the other hoof, had turned out very differently. With no creatures in sight a few kilometres from home, Maple jumped a bit to notice a low grumbling noise. In all of the dashing and sweating she had done, Maple hardly noticed the repeated growling of her stomach. Without even a second thought she slid the silver spigot off its holster with a shwing, and tossed it at the nearest maple tree with dart-like precision. Once it had stopped bouncing and was thoroughly buried in the tree's bark, Maple turned tail and gave the spigot a quick but firm buck. The metallic binka-bonka of sticky maple sap droplets slowly flowing into the closed faucet only made Maple's mouth water even more. Sad thing is, you can't eat pure maple sap - it's so bland and boring it's just like drinking sticky water - so you have to cook it first. Normally, one'd pour the stuff into a bucket and put it under a low simmer for a couple of hours, but Maple was impatient, not to mention skilled, so a sly smirk crawled across her face as she mumbled, [colour=red]"But I don't have a bucket..."[/colour] Yes, in her many years of making this sweet goo, Maple has figured out the fastest, most efficient ways to make her product without harming the quality at all. Sometimes, these techniques take a dive into the unorthodox. And right now, her hooves took a dive to pick up a hoofful of large rocks, and a tuft or two of grass. Sandwiching the blades between the stones, she began smacking them together repeatedly and rubbing, and later rather than sooner, the stones shot out a tiny spark the grass burst into a very minuscule flame. Quickly, the mare grabbed some more grass, and expanded the fire. Pressing the flaming bundle to the thin spigot, as it turns out, cooks a small amount of maple syrup in very little time. However, when things get warmer, they expand, and that means... [colour=red]"Uh-oh..."[/colour] Just as soon as the revelation dawned on her, a pressurized stream of amber, ooey-gooey liquid began spewing out of the spigot's orifice. But, like Maple quoted, she didn't have a bucket, nor bowl, neither a Trixie cup to catch all of the maple syrup. Stupid reflexes... Maple now has very sticky, but delicious, front hooves. Just perfect for running. A sigh. A gasp. With all of the work she'd been doing, she didn't even hear the stampede coming behind her. And now it was getting closer! With wide, blue, eyes, she craned her neck around to see the herd of beasts coming towards her, to trample her. Maybe it was fear, maybe it was the syrup, but Maple seemed stuck to her spot. And that's when she saw it. A raging river of- Ponies. The Running of the Leaves, of course! It was running through all the forested areas of Equestria! The runners were certainly doing a good job - Maple noticed quite a few trees being shaken loose of their leaves - but that could only mean one thing. She was still in this! With one last energy-giving swipe of her syrupy hooves, she planted them down, and began to run headlong into the race. May fortune be upon dear Maple this day...