//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - Bowling with a Best Friend // Story: Bucky's New Year // by Yosh-E-O //------------------------------// *** 3 **** “Woo-hoo!” cried Bucky upon rocketing a bowling ball down the lane so hard that the pins made an almost explosive sound as they flew towards the back. “Beat that!” “You missed one,” stated an Earth Pony while gesturing towards the back of the lane. “Ha, ha,” teased Pint. Bucky snorted, narrowed his eyes, and rolled the ball from the ball return. “A spare is just as good,” he stated. *** Fall watched Pint, Bucky, and the older children laugh and taunt each other from the neighboring pair of lanes. Since every pony believed Fall to be younger than Candy Cloud, who had just started at Ms. Star’s Schoolhouse, they had her with the younger party guests with lanes that had these things called ‘bumpers’ so nobody got what was called a ‘gutter ball’. “He-he-he,” Candy Cloud whinnied as she playfully clapped her hooves and flapped her wings. “Those boys are always so silly!” “Yeah,” stated Fall simply. “Candy!” cried her mother. “Your turn!” “Be right back, best friend!” the young, pink Pegasus with the white mane proclaimed while galloping to the lane and rolling off a powder-blue colored ball. “Watch me, Fall! Watch me!” The little, brown Pegasus looked toward Candy and watched as a bunch of magical lights shined all about her from the ceiling. She then saw her friend trot closer-and-closer to the part where the lane started before tripping, falling on her stomach, and pushing the ball haphazardly down the shimmering lane. BOMPF… …BOOMF… KA-TICKA-TICKA-TICKA Candy stood up just in time to see her ball finish rebounding off the bumpers and gently press against the pins. Her smile widened as her wings flapped over how excited she was to have knocked over more than half the pins. “Good job, Candy!” cheered a colt that Fall didn’t quite remember. “You did good!” “Yes, dear!” cheered her mom, Strawberry Cloud while clapping her front hooves. “Now get the rest of them.” *** It wasn’t long before it became Fall’s turn to bowl. “Remember!” cried Candy from her seat. “We’re sharing the blue ball that looks like our headband and pigtails!” Fall nervously looked at the line of bowling balls that were being lit various colors by the multi-colored, shaped lights from the ceiling. “You can do it, Fall!” Strawberry Cloud cheered. “Go, Fall!” shouted Bucky from the other set of lanes. “Pint and I are watching you!” The brown Pegasus blushed nervously as she felt all eyes upon her. She had never gone bowling before. Pint and Bucky told her to watch all the other ponies to see how it was done. They also said the goal was to roll the ball as fast as you could down the lane to knock down all the pins. Still, it didn’t feel as simple as they made it sound. “First time?” asked Candy as she galloped up onto the lane. “Want help?” “If you wouldn’t mind,” Fall replied. “Let’s do it together,” grinned Candy. Candy helped Fall roll the ball off the ball return and onto the lane. They then ran together up to the lane and pushed the ball down towards the pins. “Now watch!” beamed Candy Cloud. “I think you may get a strike!” “A what?” asked Fall with widened eyes. “A strike,” replied Candy. “It’s when you get all the pins in your first try.” Fall felt a sense of relief as, at the orphanage, strikes were often what she’d get for not doing her chores on time. She’d also get them for being accused of things she didn’t do, too. These were, of course, figurative and not physical. However, the more she’d get the less she’d be allowed to do. Since she was often kept from doing much of anything by the other kids such punishments often didn’t really phase her. However, it did keep her getting yelled at by the caretakers and she never liked the nasty things they’d say. Especially when they’d throw in that horrible nickname they had for her, ‘The False Foal’. TI-PADDA-BADDA-PADDA-BLADDA “Whee!” cried Candy. “You got more than I did on my first try!” “Great job, Fall!” Pint exclaimed. “You can get those last two real easy!” Fall felt a smile form on her face upon hearing the praise. She also liked how all the pretty, magic lights made it look like they were in some sort of magical world that was far, far away from the orphanage. “Here it comes!” announced Candy as she retrieved the ball from the return and rolled it up towards her friend. “Let’s get those pins!” *** As the older kids and younger kids bowled, their parents talked. “Have any of you ever met Fall’s parents?” asked Moon Cloud curiously. “My daughter says she is new and will be coming to Ms. Star’s class next year. However, I can’t find out anything about her parents and there’s no record of a matching family moving into the area in the past year.” “Really, Moon?” asked Bucky’s uncle, Touchdown. “Can you ever get your head out of your work?” “I just want to know who my daughter is playing with,” the Detective replied. “I don’t want my sweet Candy being soured by bad influences.” An Earth Pony mother looked out as Fall and Candy finished Fall’s turn up at the lane. “She seems fine to me,” she stated. “I don’t know…?” questioned Moon Cloud as he looked towards his daughter and the toddler-like Pegasus. “Something just isn’t right about her… “Hey!” a Unicorn stallion growled. “That is not appropriate at all, Moon!” “We’ve never met her parents,” stated Pint’s dad, Blissy. “But that doesn’t really matter, I trust my son to make the right choices.” “Leave the poor filly alone,” grumbled Bucky’s mom, Bright Skies. “Tonight is a night for celebrating. Not worrying.” “Except for me beating you and your team when league starts back up!” announced Pint’s mom, Patches. “If anyone should be watching themselves, it’s you and your talent for throwing gutter balls.” “Patch has a point,” stated Touchdown. “Our team is undefeated and, well, we can hear you get a gutter ball from across the entire alley.” The grown-ups chuckled as Patches and Touchdown teased Moon Cloud. “I’m just perfecting my hoof hook,” he stated proudly. “The New Year will ring in my name being put on that wall over there for the ‘300 Club’.” Strawberry Cloud had been listening in on the conversation and was glad Touchdown and Patches managed to distract her sleuthing husband. “Thank goodness,” she said after telling another of the foals that it was their turn to bowl. “That poor girl seems to have enough going on with those itty-bitty wings to have my husband doubting her ability to be a good friend to our precious Candy.” Candy’s mom looked over to where her daughter and Fall were sitting. The pair were smiling and looking so adorable with their matching headbands and pig tails. “It’s every mother’s dream to see their foal happy,” she thought. “And I’ve never seen our Candy happier than when she’s with Fall.”