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An umamusume coming to see a derpy race wasn’t out of the ordinary, especially for a girl who loved to think about how her inventions could help train her kind to reach for the stars and past their limits in the race.
Having such a dream is probably what attracted such an energetic trainer to want her as her trainee, someone with the name Ramune Direktorin.
Her messily layered wolf cut was a nice purple, accompanied by two cyan streaks; her ears and tail were the same purple. Her right ear, that faded into a cyan tuff, had a blue piercing as well, and it wasn’t uncommon to see a pair of inventor goggles perched on her head when she was in her ‘lab’ area. A yellow ribbon was tied around her long tail that typically swished around when she was intrigued by something.
Her attire when racing helped accentuate her eccentricity; she wore a black vest over her dark blue shirt, with another pretty yellow ribbon tied around her collar. But the main point was her overcoat, adorned with pinks and purples and yellow splotches, a chequered yellow design on the inside of the coat, her cuffed sleeves with white frills, and the white that matched her half-gloves and white knee-length shorts.
Right now, she was wearing something simpler but no less atrocious to those who took fashion much more seriously.
“Ehe, Ramune-chan is always gathering data even on her off days,” her trainer, Emu, says with glee, “Or perhaps you’re looking for a certain someone?”. The tease doesn’t rile Ramune up, because both of what her trainer had said was true.
“Mhm, I figured after indulging yourself so much at those food stalls that this activity would be perfect” Ramune remarks, which causes Emu to let out an offended gasp.
“You said you didn’t mind me eating!” she frowns, causing Ramune to laugh “I didn’t mind, Trainer-kun, I just want an excuse to be here since you forbade me from touching any experiments today aside from data collection”.
Her trainer nods in triumph before turning her head back to all the girls lining up.
Emu waves to a specific blonde with a pretty white bow and peach tips, the umamusume in gate 8, and she waves back proudly, the drills in her high ponytail seemingly bouncing. When she makes eye contact with Ramune, her wave gets more energetic, and the purple-haired umamusume happily waves back.
Pegasus Sora is her name.
On her left ear, she wears a smaller white ribbon adorned with small gold chains, similar to the white ribbon with golden accents she wears to keep her high ponytail in place.
Her outfit consisted of a white high-collared smallish coat with blue cuffs and yellow accents, some areas being blue with hints of silver, accompanied by a cravat with an amber gemstone in the middle. Looking at her, one would think she was wearing a corset under her top, but she just had that type of figure, making it seem as if her skirt was way bigger than it actually is. Her black skirt is a bit puffy, with white frills at the hem, safety shorts underneath, and large silver chains in the shape of diamonds and stars that fall securely around her waist. On the one side was fabric that extends toward her knee, blue on the outside and yellow on the inside.
Her eyes are a brilliant amber hue, and she has distinct star-like patterns in her irises.
She looks like a performer and it looks perfect on her in Ramune’s eyes.
But perhaps the most charming detail was the wings attached to the back of her race wear; a pair of wings to match the colors of her hair and her name. Small enough not to cause any problems while running, big enough to be shown off to the crowd.
“A wonderful start from all around!”.
Ramune and Emu see this in action as the gates fly open, a total of 16 racers all aiming to win and gain the velocity they need to get ahead.
“Let’s see who takes the lead first!” and the two are happy to see Pegasus is moving to the front “We’ve had an umamusume rise more in popularity with her star-like confidence. Can Pegasus Sora live up to everyone’s expectations today too?”. A few other promising candidates are named, but Emu yells for the blonde, “SHE CAN!”.
Pegasus manages to maintain a good position for a majority of the distance so far, being second behind someone who was her senior. Honestly, seeing such energy makes Ramune want to hop over the railing and observe even closer with her own stopwatch.
Yet when there are 400 meters left, it seems that Pegasus’s mind wanders for a brief moment, causing the two other racers she was neck to neck with to pull up nearly a whole length in front of her. She tries to put on the pressure, but it ultimately fails as she doesn’t cross over the line before them.
After crossing the finish line, her run ultimately turns to a jog as she slows down, still waving to the crowd, but her smile has a somber tone to it.
Emu frowns when she sees Pegasus’s name only in the top 5 “Oh no!”, not out of disappointment but out of sympathy for the runner. Ramune is in the same boat; she knows that Pegasus always aims for the top 3, at the minimum, not just for the concert but to show that she can rise amongst the ranks as a promising star destined to one day win the Ura Finale, even if they weren’t in their senior year yet.
Everyone would feel sad when not meeting their own goals, especially an umamusume and her trainer. It also helps that she knows Pegasus’s trainer, Nene, and how, by working alongside Pegasus, her own self-esteem has improved.
They are a good duo, but Pegasus’s emotions have always taken a bigger hit compared to Nene’s, and she may not always understand her trainee in those moments.
That’s where Ramune, her girlfriend, comes in. She's sneaking off to go find Pegasus, after informing Emu about where she was going, and waits for her to finish talking with her trainer to make her presence known.
She hears Pegasus’s high, long whine before she turns the corner, and she suppresses a chuckle at the blonde complaining. “Good work out there, Pegasus-chan” her voice is kind in its tone, and blonde ears point backwards before moving sideways as she turns around.
Pegasus looks like she wants to say something, but her lip quivers for a moment, prompting the director to open her arms and await the inevitable tumble into them. Pegasus can slam into people hard, but right now in her arms it’s soft and gentle.
“I didn’t pace myself,” she mumbles into Ramune’s shoulder, “And didn’t do a billion other things because I got overly cocky again. It’s only my first year and it still feels like I can’t keep up, no matter how many wins I have to show for it”. Her rant dissolves from there as Ramune gently rocks them until she sees her girlfriend’s tail swish leisurely and her ears fall slowly.
She rambles a bit further, ears flat on her head, before she ends it with “She said it’s not my fault, but if I am messing up here, how will I make it to the top in all the classics?”.
“It’s just another bump in the road,” Ramune hums thoughtfully, “A journey is not without its failures, and I am sure Nene already told you so, there is nothing to be ashamed of. Just think about how you’ll give it your all again next time”.
Pegasus grips her back a little tighter at that.
“Actually, this is one of the first times my sister has had the chance to come to one of my races. She was already upset that she missed my debut race…” her ears flattened on her head “How can she stay confident with saying she wants to race alongside me, if I can’t even beat the odds when it matters?”.
“Well, I am sure, while you did not score in the top 3, she was happy to witness your efforts in achieving your dream, no?” Ramune suggests, “And if you feel you lack in certain areas, I can assist in training you sometime”.
“Train more? As in you help me, not just Nene?” Pegasus questions and then grows flustered when Ramune suggests taking her out on a date to clear her mind first.
“Fufu, if your trainer can take you out on a date, why can’t I?” Ramune says in a light teasing voice, causing Pegasus to stutter, “It’s not dates! It’s hangouts! It’s recreation time, so I can preserve my energy”.
“Last time we went shopping for ingredients to make the most fabulous nutrition bars fit for a star!” a large swish from her tail accompanies her triumphant smile, “I even taught my trainer how to make the best ones ever!”.
Ramune puts her hands up in surrender “Alright, then an outing shall do. Then I can help you with training some of your stats at the academy from an umamusume perspective, with approval from our trainers, of course”.
It was important to switch up, in Ramune’s opinion, so the understanding between trainee and trainer became stronger. And well, Ramune just got lucky that Emu doesn’t mind trying to imitate umamusume-kind in order to help Ramune’s future projects.
Once she is done with racing, she may take on her theatre work full-time while incorporating what she has learnt and will learn.
“You’ll really help me while you're busy?” Pegasus asks, eyes clearly darting to the hand on her shoulder in a not-so-discreet way, “Even so, I have to go see my sister first, and we have to be back in time for the nighttime curfew!”.
She places a strong hand on Pegasus’s shoulder “Of course, it is no different than us hanging out and helping each other during class. It’s fair we help boost each other’s weaknesses”.
“And then, when you win, you’ll be center stage,” she adds and Pegasus gets one of the brightest smiles she has ever seen, “And you better be by me in second place! Although I am sure you’d make it a challenge”.
“Fufu, I would or perhaps you’d be accompanying me as I steal first place,” Ramune sneakily says as she begins to walk to the exit, Pegasus right on her heels, shouting about how Ramune could never maintain stamina like she does for the lengthier races.
It’s funny since Ramune has the potential to be a better pace chaser than Pegasus, something Nene finds hilarious.
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Ramune fiddles with a pen against the hard cover of the book on the desk the two are sharing, Pegasus about to scream at words she hadn’t seen before.
Pegasus knows for a fact her trainer weeps with joy when she sees Ramune helping her with knowledge relating to the track; Pegasus is smart, but sometimes she just doesn’t know where to apply what she has learnt.
Plus, she likes applying theories more than having to learn them.
That’s why she and Ramune were also study buddies, even if it initially started because the purple-haired umamusume was getting too creative with her explosions during school time. Ramune typically just helps her; her ears sometimes flicker to show she was alert, but she simply was just smarter and didn’t need as much time to soak in the information.
“Ramune!” Pegasus says when she can’t take the silence anymore, “Are you reading a Trainer Handbook?”.
Ramune hums, “Of course, at this point, Nene will have to surrender her position to me and you’ll become my trainee”. Pegasus’s ears drop as a show of disappointment, “You wouldn’t”.
She laughs “Fufu, I’d never do that to you or her, regardless, this book is offering a lot of insight into my own notes on our kind — and by extension my notes on your capabilities".
Her tail gives a swish of excitement, “You’re my favorite actor after all”.
Pegasus poses, book carefully falling out of her hands, “Naturally!”.
From there, Ramune takes the time to point out certain skills and areas she needs to focus on to become an efficient late surger, while also pointing out articles she thought were interesting but áo helpfully.
Pegasus is proud she is even retaining this information and resisting spinning a pen in a mindless circle between her fingers. But that concentration is broken when someone peers into the room.
“Oh! Pegasus! Ramune!” Fancy seeing you lovebirds here,” comes the voice that interrupts their conversation, an umamsusne with light pink hair that reached her back with a half-up half-down braid. She had a cute red ribbon around one of her ears and a matching one on her tail, similar to Ramune’s yellow ribbon.
Ribbon smiles “I don’t have much time but I wanted to tell you that your commission is done! You should be able to pick it up at my dorm tomorrow, just don’t try at 6am and then we’ll be a-okay, senpai”.
Pegasus clasps her hands and bows in her seat, “Thank you, Ribbon! I’ll throw in a tip for how fast you were. Everyone will be amazed at the new improvements of Pegasus Sora’s racewear!”.
Ribbon laughs, a hand in front of her mouth, “It’s a pleasure, senpai”.
“Oya, what did Pegasus-chan ask you to make, Ribbon-chan?” Ramune asks as she absentmindedly rubs the page with her thumb.
“Bigger and better wings are coming to the race as soon as possible! And I'll be happy to review your costume again, Ramune, we gotta make you as fast as can be” Ribbon beams before looking into the hallway, “Eh? I lost my cute little trainer; she might have tripped on her hair when I wasn’t looking. Ehe, sorry, but we were on our way to a store to get me some new materials for customizing my shoes! See ya later!”.
“Tell Kanade we said hi!” Pegasus replies happily and Ribbon makes her exit.
“Have you ever trained with Ribbion-chan?” Ramune asks quite suddenly and Pegasus doesn’t know why “Mmm, only when us three trained together at camp, never just us solo. I am not sure if Kanade knows Trainer...".
She proudly sprawls a hand on her chest, touching her customized brooch on her uniform “Are you jealous? Ha ha, you shouldn’t be!”.
“If Pegasus-chan made a friend closer to her than me, I’d definitely–” Ramune places a hand under her chin “Yoyoyo…”.
“Ramune?” Pegasus questions and Ramune just laughs, “Hehe, no need to worry. Training with other umamusume is good, but Pegasus-chan should stay by my side”.
Pegasus just smiles and places a hand on Ramune’s unoccupied one “Of course! You, alongside my trainer, are the ones who’ll truly make me shine!”.
“But in hindsight, did you really think you could distract me from the fact that you have been zoning out? I chose that book to help you with your new strategy vision in mind” Ramune pushes the book Pegasus thought she had discreetly closed.
So Pegasus resigns to her fate, thinking of the fact that she’ll be out on the track soon. She does nearly whine happily when she feels Ramune begin to play with a few strands of her hair and she does thank her because the book is really helpful.
She shouldn’t have expected anything else from her!
“What do you know about velocity in relation to your speed?” Ramune asks while still messing with her hair. While Pegasus doesn’t remove her hand, she still fires back with “I know about it, I am not dumb!”.
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This morning, Ramune had tutored her to ‘get her wits up', Nene's words, not Pegasus’s, so as of this afternoon, she was going to help Ramune with her stamina! Her speed was unmatched with those long, pale legs of hers, but she ran out of breath so easily. She had the skills to become the ultimate pace chaser, but so far only for shorter distances.
She has taken Ramune’s advice to heart and is dead set on improving her speed and power. She had gleefully informed Nene and she had nodded and told her to go for it with a monotone voice and a thumbs up.
She had hmpfed and looked to the side before catching up to Ramune on the track. Since Ramune’s wits were already good enough and her speed was even faster than Pegasus’s, she needed to focus on her stamina.
“You should wear shorts in this heat,” she comments while stretching, pointing out Ramune’s choice of longer tracksuit pants, “You even wear shorts in your racing costume!”. Ramune just laughs and asks if she was ready to do warm-up laps, as encouraged by their trainers.
Eventually, their training does reach a point where it's Pegasus looking at Ramune’s stats to return the favor.
“Come on, let’s go Ramune! Let’s go Ramune!” Pegasus cheers as she maintains a steady pace, watching as Ramune seemingly regrets all her choices right now by trying to match her, especially as her trainer Emu cheerfully yells the same thing so far away from them.
It had been going on for several laps and minutes now, even if they were not running at their maximum capacity. She jogs up to Ramune when the girl stops, hands quickly finding their place on her knees, “Eh?”.
“I can’t,” Ramune says throughout huffs, leaning her body further on the hands on her knees, “Just give a minute”.
“You should tell Emu to focus more on your stamina, even if you stick with sprints, it’s still good for if you decide to switch to being a front runner,” Pegasus suggests as she finally comes to a stand still “Do you want to stop? We can always take a break”.
“I–” Ramune starts, “I want to do one thing before my adrenaline goes back down”. She stretches and straightens her back, arms up in the arm, before settling them back down. “We are focusing on you, Pegasus-chan, so let’s take the focus off of me for now,” she says once she has caught her breath, "Unfortunately, I don’t have any interesting experiment to enact today, even if the future may provide a different story fufu”.
Ramune deliberately ignores the visible shiver and the straightened tail from Pegasus. “So, listen up,” she says, voice suddenly turning serious, before she childishly slaps Pegasus on the back and yells, “You’re it! Try to catch me before I turn the final corner”.
Pegasus’s moment of shock from the slap gives her a late start, Ramune is already lengths in front of her. She wasn’t giving up, a sprint distance was as easy as cake to her–-
“Why?” she finds herself shouting as she turns another corner much quicker this time, much more efficiently.
“It’s all for your acceleration!” is the answer from a voice that was still too far. Seeing how Ramune was laughing as she ran, how her tail was flying along her hair, made Pegasus happy, even if she couldn’t see her face, still not catching up to her, still not understanding when she had been so tired moments ago.
“Ramune’s speed is too spectacular,” she thinks “She really is amazing… but right now isn’t the time to be thinking such things”. She shakes her head as she runs to where Ramune had stopped. She frowns when she sees Ramune standing almost smugly next to her trainer, ears twitching at the sound of Pegasus’s running coming to stop “You’re unfair, Ramune”.
“But Pegasus-chan, your energy is so high! Both you and Ramune-chan’s ears are even all mimimimi no mi!” Emu happily says as she passes Ramune a water bottle, Nene does the same with Pegasus, and comments on her form.
The break is welcome and Pegasus greatly appreciates the shade and the notes Nene was offering her, telling her that being a late surger may be better for her in the long run (no pun intended).
The looks on the audience’s faces as she suddenly made her way to the front and gracefully won by surpassing the head of the herd, even in the last 200 meters, was certainly going to be worth it.
Both trainers had apparently been discussing how much more energised both of them had been when training together, and how their moods hadn’t dampened even a bit. Nene laughs, “Well, Ramune’s mood is certainly up when training with her favourite loud horse”, ignoring Pegasus’s “HEY!”.
“How does Pegasus-chan get her mood up?” Emu questions and Pegasus knows it’s her time to shine – except as she opens her mouth, she gets cut off by her own trainer.
“Don’t be fooled, Pegasus has a plushie of your beloved trainee Ramune Direktorin in her room. I got it for her and her mood instantly jumped to a great one,” Nene says, shocking all three of them, “What? It’s one of the bigger siz–”.
“RAMUNE!” Pegasus shouts, ears flickering, “LET’S PUT OUR TRAINING TO USE TODAY AND RACE AGAINST EACH OTHER AGAIN! A STAR’S WORD!”. She grabs her hand and brings Ramune away from their trainers.
She feels a ribbon brush against her tail and a squeeze with the hand linked in hers “So, from what distance? I am good as long as it’s not a mile race yoyoyo”.
Pegasus hums thoughtfully before telling the race details to Ramune, stretching her arms, “Is that good with you, Ramune? I see our trainers are ready too, so let’s do our best!”.
“Yo yo yo, why should I race after such grueling training? My legs are already so so sure, shiku shiku” she drapes an arm over her forehead “Maybe I need a reward to motivate me~”.
Ramune was being so blatantly obvious that Pegasus just decided to give in, a hand on her chin as if she were actually contemplating what her girlfriend just said.
“If you beat me, when I reach the end, I’ll give you a kiss right here,” Pegasus announces, fully confident in this way of getting Ramune to race her seriously.
The deep stare she gets in return, burning at the idea of being able to get a kiss from the gorgeous Pegasus, no doubt, and she gets into position while sending a smirk, “Ready when you are, Pegasus-chan”.
She gulps before centering herself again; she has no reason to be worried –
– Is what her past self had thought before regretting it, although for training, they hadn’t raced and she truthfully can’t recall the last time they properly raced either. Although she supposes, as she sees Ramune already turning the final corner, that a desired prize problem boosted her resolve.
She’s somehow lengths in front of her!
Ramune reaches the finish line but doesn’t reap in her victory, even with her trainer cheering from behind the fence, because she swiftly turns around and starts charging at Pegasus. She has to slow down so the collision isn’t dangerous, but she still tries to stop her.
“HEY! You didn’t even properly pace yoursel— UWAH!” she’s effectively cut off as Ramune launches herself at Pegasus, causing both of them to topple onto the track. She feels a soft feeling on her legs and sees a slightly manic smile up close.
“I won, first place,” Ramune states as if she were pinning Pegasus to the ground, “I want my prize”.
Pegasus’s ears flick for a moment as her cheeks are adorned with a ferocious blush “You cheated!”. Ramune’s smirk only gets more mischievous “I simply showed my full capability. Are you going to deny that?”.
Ramune allows her to sit up once she comments on how dirty her tail will be, but sticks close to her side and starts to impatiently tap her cheek.
Pegasus starts to grumble, even though she wasn’t even against it, and brings a hand to the cheek Ramune wasn’t aggressively tapping. She uses her hand to pull the purple-haired girl’s face closer and gives her a soft kiss that lingers for a few moments.
She hears a happy “Fufu” and assumes Ramune is now satisfied.
So her objective changed; she was at least going to get to the finish line, even though Ramune had already crossed it.
She tries to lightly push Ramune off, but she is having absolutely none of it, and Pegasus curses the fact that her grip was somehow weaker than her girlfriend's. But Pegasus wants to at least touch the finish line; she knows Nene was recording her time, so it felt like a waste not being able to see her progress for today.
“I still haven’t reached the end! Ramune, the training!” she tries to double down, but ultimately laughs when the peppering of kisses persists and Ramune’s calloused hand comes to rub one of her ears in a soothing motion. Her waist is effectively trapped.
At least she knows what she made Ramune do works, even if letting her in proximity closer to a vegetable dampens her mood quickly and effectively.
Pegasus lets herself become oblivious to the world around her; thankfully, she and Ramune were the only two on the track. She feels as if she could race the world and win now.
“So, all you have to do to make your umamsusne win is to have mine at the finish line,” Nene remarks as Emu giggles to herself “Love is wonderful motivation! Maybe we should train together more often!”.
Nene watches the two umamusumes nuzzle into each other and listens to how Emu remarks that Pegasus has helped Ramune realize where she can improve for her races, even before their debuts, and now she was doing the same for Pegasus.
Then again, their bond may not be comparable to the ones they have with their trainers. Nene can easily remember how Pegasus made her friendship chocolates for Valentine’s Day, which were heavenly in her mouth, and made romantic ones for Ramune that had the umamusume crying on the ground out of pure joy after one bite.
And it seems Emu feels left out because she grabs Nene’s arms to wrap around her waist and nuzzles their cheeks together, causing the trainer to unconsciously tighten her grip and take a deep breath.
“So, what do you think, Nene-chan?” Emu asks, blinking all innocently, as if she knows she’s making Nene a nervous wreck right now in her presence.
“Maybe if we can figure out a schedule… we could meet up sometimes,” Nene blushes at the close proximity “Although they specialise in different areas and have different races lined up for their plans… we’ll definitely see them side by side at some point, right?”.
At that, Emu nods enthusiastically and, despite not being loud with their conversation, Nene can see that, based on Ramune’s ears, she had heard the whole thing. It doesn’t matter, though, because she knows both of them will grab any excuse to see each other.
Sometimes, she still grimaces from the massive voice projection Pegasus used to encourage Ramune during the races she could catch. But she doesn’t regret becoming a trainer.