Wonderball

by ff0000

Third Play, Day of Tryouts

-=≡Third Play, Day of Tryouts≡=-

It was a lovely and wonderful day to feel the cool breeze and bright sun. The temperature wasn’t too hot or humid. Everything was just perfect for holding the tryouts for the Ponyville Wonderball team. The location was their makeshift playing field. It used to look pretty large when only six ponies and a dragon was using it, but seeing many Ponyville ponies waiting made it feel like a real sports field. A minefield of obstacles had been set up already. No longer was the flat grassy land just a location for hanging out with friends. Now, it was a launching point to something great.

Unicorns and earth ponies were all gathered on the ground. Some of them were waiting in colorful groups, others were doing some light exercise instead. Pegasi flitted through the sky, occasionally blocking out the rays of the sun.

Rainbow Dash peeked out from a tent flap, where all the documents had been kept to prevent them from flying away in the wind. Her widened eyes took in the numerous ponies wanting to try out. “This is fantastic,” she squealed.

Below her appeared Twilight and Spike.

“This is quite a large turnout,” Twilight said. “Your flyers really did the trick.”

“I know. It’s great! And look, there’s Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity. But,” Rainbow’s voice fell low as she scanned around the field, “I don’t see Applejack anywhere. She’d better show up.” Her hoof ground into the dirt nervously.

Twilight glanced over at the clock on the table with all the documents. “We’d better start. We’re already five minutes late.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow mumbled. “You’re right.”

The pegasus stepped out in front of the large gathering. A whistle was around her neck, and a cap was on her head. A loud blast of noise caught everyone’s attention. “Alright, gather up. Movers on the left, bouncers in the middle and snatchers on the right.”

Once the three groups had settled down, Rainbow Dash began to pace back and forth. Occasionally, she stopped to give an evil-eye to those near the front. “You are all here because you desire glory! You desire fame! And a select few of you will get it! I am aiming to create the greatest Wonderball team in all of Equestria. Whatever the EWE decides, my goal is to win it. It will be ours!”

“You should all know me. I mean, I am the most awesome pegasus in town, but I am the captain of the team, Rainbow Dash. This is Twilight, the vice-captain. We will look through all of you and choose the remaining members of the team. What I want isn’t just ability, but guts, determination and persistence.”

The gathering of ponies had their entire attention fixed on the captain. Not one eye went astray. They were filled with a burning determination.

“Any questions so far?” Rainbow Dash asked.

A yellow pegasus with long flowing pink mane raised her hoof just barely above the heads of others. “Um, since you seem to have a lot of participants, can I go home?”

Rainbow Dash’s hoof shot out like a spear. “No, Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy sank back down and peeped, “Okay.”

“Anypony else?” When no one said anything, the captain turned to her second-in-command. “Alright. You tell them all the technical stuff.”

Twilight stepped up now to look out at the crowd. Even after speaking at her coronation, a relatively small group of people still caused her mouth to dry and heart to beat faster. The words of the book ran through her mind, over and over again. She knew what needed to be said. Now to get it out there.

“I’ve been reading the latest edition of the Wonderball rules. It’s quite fascinating how the sport is still evolving. Did you know it’s about fifty percent thicker than the first edition. Many rules were changed, some were removed-” The captain nudged Twilight to make her get back on track.

“Right. The game of Wonderball. First off, the basics. There are two teams of six, though we can have a total of twelve ponies for backup purposes. Each team has a goal and a hoop suspended off the ground. The object of the game is to get the ball through the goal or the hoop. One point for a goal shot, and two point for a hoop shot.”

Twilight used her magic to project an image onto the air. It currently showed what she was talking about at the time, which was the method of scoring. Her hooves motioned to the image at times to emphasize certain aspects of the game.

“There are three positions, the mover, the bouncer and the snatcher. Other than that, there are no official positions such as goal defenders or attackers. The game is very fluid and dynamic. Strategies can change from second to second. A team doesn’t even need to field all three positions. You can have all bouncers, a split of snatchers and movers, or anything else.

“The bouncer can be anyone that flies in the air. Flying skills and willingness to get hurt are a must. You’re job is to help move the ball down the field in more unpredictable ways. The only way you can move the ball is by bouncing it off a body part, hence the term bouncers. It is considered a foul to hold the ball at any time. Based on my research, bouncers are also expected to tackle the opposing teams’ bouncers and keep them away from your teammates.

“Movers are anyone that does not fly and cannot use magic. They are the main way to move the ball down the field. Ability to control the ball is important as the entire other team will try to steal the ball from you. There are rules against touching the movers while they have the ball, however. To get the ball away from them, you need to slide in between their legs without touching them. A mover without the ball is free to be blocked.

“Lastly, there are the snatchers, anyone with magic. Only a very limited amount of magic can be used, however. Magic can only be used on the ball itself. No targeting the other players. Also, magic cannot be used on the ball if its in possession of an opposing player. What you need is the ability to snatch the ball while its in a pass. Snatchers are allowed to use their bodies to steal a ball too. One more rule, a snatcher cannot move while they have possession of the ball.”

Twilight wiped her brow as the image flickered away. “Whew. Hope everyone got that. I distilled it down as much as possible. Don’t even get me started on what constitutes a penalty. There are pages upon pages-”

“Thank you, Vice-Captain Twilight,” Rainbow Dash cut in before the winded explanation became a storm. “A total of twelve players to a team. I want six bouncers!”

“What?” Twilight asked.

“It could be just like the Cloudsdale Wonderbolts!”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. Training to be as good as the Wonderbolts on their own strategy is going to be near impossible. I think we need a more balanced approach, something like four of each position.”

Rainbow Dash rubbed her chin. “Well, I can see that.” Her voice dropped low. “There probably aren’t five pegasus around that can match me in Ponyville anyway.” And then it returned back to a volume where everypony could hear. “I’m going to be a bouncer, and Twilight is a snatcher. That leaves three bouncer positions, three snatcher positions and four mover positions. We’ll start with the bouncers!”

All of the pegasi flew over eagerly, all except for one. Fluttershy carefully scooted over on the tips of her hooves, trying not to make a sound at all. Maybe if she stayed low enough, no one else would notice her.

Rainbow Dash flew a circle around her prospective bouncers with a great grin. Waiting underneath with pads and pens for recording information were the team vice-captain, Twilight and the team secretary, Spike. They started handing out information cards for the participants to fill out.

“Let’s see if anypony can keep up with me,” the captain challenged.

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“Hurry!” a small filly said.

“I’m hurrying, I’m hurrying,” her friend responded.

The two young ponies zipped along the ground on a board of wheels. A white unicorn was crouched in the front while the orange pegasus provided movement. Her tiny wings buzzed with power as they flapped faster than the eye could see. A set of handlebars helped them control their means of transportation.

Their scooter went so fast down the winding road that the wheels left the stone several times. It wasn’t any time to go slow, however. The tryouts for the Ponyville Wonderball team was starting, and they didn’t want to miss a thing. Safety was still important, so both of them had on helmets.

The cottages and well-made pathways were slowly replaced by open space and dirt roads. A large hoop extending into the sky by a pole appeared as the hills rolled away. Sparkles appeared on both ponies’ eyes as they approached the field. All of the pegasus had been gathered while the unicorns and earth ponies were waiting off to the side.

“Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo, the pegasus powering the scooter called out.

Rainbow Dash, who had been flying through the air, landed next to them. “Hey, squirt.”

“Did you start the tryouts yet?”

“We were just about to. Waiting for everypony to finish filling out their information.”

The two fillies stopped at the main tent.

“I still can’t believe you got Rarity to come here,” Sweetie Belle said.

It was her older sister that answered. “Why, Sweetie Belle? I’m not that much of a stickler for keeping clean. I learned that a bit of excitement and messiness can be good, at certain rare times.”

“Uh, yeah.” Sweetie Belle rubbed the back of her head. “Anyway, good luck, sister!”

Rainbow Dash looked between the two fillies with a frown on her face. “Where’s Apple Bloom?” she asked while trying to sound nonchalant.

“We haven’t seen her today,” Scootaloo said. “In fact, we have no idea what she’s doing.”

“O-oh. Okay.” The brief moment of doubt soon disappeared. “Well, get ready for a show then! The bouncer tryouts start now!”

A sharp whistle blast called all the pegasi over to the field, where an obstacle course had been set up. Rainbow Dash landed at the start line. Looking down, the test was primarily that of power and accuracy. Sandbags with straps were piled up near the start. From there, the potential teammates needed to charge through several weighted bags hanging from a beam. At the end were three painted targets. Twilight was waiting with one of Pinkie’s cannons that had been modified to shoot out whatever random balls they had acquired. The goal was to bounce balls to as many targets as possible.

First up, Rainbow Dash demonstrated what they had to do. A sandbag was strapped onto her back to make things extra hard. But even the added weight was no problem for her. In less than a second, she had accelerated to full speed. Wind blew through her mane, and a trail of rainbow followed behind.

Spike was at the side, making notes on times.

Coming up ahead was the line of hanging weights that had to be muscles through. Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes as she sped up. A howl shrieked in her ear as the first hanging bag came upon her. She raised her hooves and plowed right in.

The initial impact came with a loud thud, but Rainbow Dash didn’t relent one bit. Her body was a missile, and nothing was going to stop her. The rainbow trail behind her had vanished, but she reached through the heavy obstacles, sending them flying off to the side. Getting through was not as simple as just charging in at full speed, however. The wings had to be retracted at the right time, or they would get caught along the way. The times when she could flap were narrow and precise, but Rainbow Dash made it look easy.

Finally, she came to the last part of the course. Hovering above the spot designated by a table, Rainbow Dash waited for Twilight to start the barrage. The pegasus completely missed the first shot, however, as a bunch of streamers and confetti blinded her. The ball caught her in the gut, nearly bringing her to the ground.

“Woopsie,” Pinkie Pie said from the sidelines. “Guess I forgot to unload it.”

As Rainbow Dash flew back into position with limp wing flaps, she raised a hoof. “One more time,” she choked out.

Without anything in her way, Rainbow Dash bounced three balls onto three targets, the last one going off her rump. The crowd let out an appreciative sound as the last ball hit the red center.

With a smug smile, the pegasus returned to the others. “Now, I’m not looking for that exactly. Just be as awesome as possible.” Rainbow had all of the ponies’ information on a clipboard on whatever order they were handed back. “Alright, first up is Snowflake.”

“YEAH!” a burly white pegasus roared. His muscles alone were almost larger than most of his peers, and veins were crawling all over them. His wings were absolutely tiny when compared to the norm.

“Go get ‘em, big guy!” Rainbow Dash said.

He put up an impressive showing, nearly knocking over the hanging weights with his girth. The bag wrapped around his body didn’t seem to affect him any, either. When it came to actually bouncing the balls to the target, the massive pegasus was not good. In fact, he was pretty horrible. The balls went so far off course, they weren’t even in the field anymore. All the while he was going through the course, Spike had been at the side, with pen diligently scratching against the evaluation sheet.

“Not bad on the power front,” Rainbow Dash said. “But you could still use a lot of work. Alright, next is..."

One by one, the pegasi went through the obstacle course. Not one of them came close to matching Rainbow Dash’s performance, but a few weren’t too bad. They had to pause the trials to reset some knocked over obstacles when a grey pegasus with yellow eyes somehow knocked over the support beam holding the weights and then bounced the ball right back into the cannon.

While two members of the team were attempting to push the support beam back up, Twilight said, “Rainbow, I’m a bit worried about Snowflake.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” she started uncertainly. Her eyes shifted sideways to the muscular pegasus, “doesn’t it seem like he uses muscle enhancing supplements? The EWE doesn’t allow certain substances to be used.”

“Let me ask,” Rainbow Dash said. She quickly planted the post into the ground before flying off towards him.

“Hey, Snowflake.” The team captain tilted her head, trying to think about the best way to word things. Unable to come up with any, she went straight in with, “You’re not juicing, right?”

“YEAH!” Snowflake responded with such force that his tongue flapped out in the open.

“Uh, yeah you don’t use performance enhancing stuff or yeah you do?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“YEAH!”

Rainbow Dash held her mouth crooked as she stared at him. The burly pegasus recoiled a bit from the, Are you serious? stare. Letting out a sigh, the team captain turned away. She would deal with it later if she had to.

For now, the pegasus she wanted to see the most was coming up. Turning to the group, Rainbow Dash called out, “Fluttershy, you’re up!”

It wasn’t immediately apparent where the meek pegasus was, however. Only when the crowd parted was she revealed to be huddling near the ground, long pink strands over half her face. Fluttershy looked around at the others before realizing they were all looking at her.

“Come on, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said, “show them how it’s done.”

“Meep,” Fluttershy meeped.

Comments

[Boop-Happy Lass]

I totally like this story