Perfect Game

by Player 4

Chapter 1

It's a beautiful Sunday in Appleoosa, the traditional off-work day. With that, the city's residents have taken the streets to gather for their favorite Sunday tradition: playing the iconic country game of horseshoes.

This game was more than just a product of the Appleoosa residents' culture; it was deeply ingrained into their history! Sunday Game-Day was started by the first ponies who settled into this city; they decided that after six hard days of work, they would end it off with some leisure! (In Equestria, they consider Monday the start of the week). And the tradition has remained ever since! Every week, having that one day for games instead of work garnered immense excitement and participation among the country folk.

But today was even better, as two special Ponyville residents, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, had come to Appleoosa today. Their visits to the city were well-known, but at this point, it hadn't happened in a while. Both of them had busy work schedules where their times off usually didn't overlap. But today they did, and they were here at the apple town to play some horseshoes.

There weren't any big tournaments going on today; just little groups of friends lining up for their own competitions. There were some solo players too. The brown street looked like a bowling alley in horseshoe version, which always was the case. Nothing special.

But today, that is about to change... a lot. Little did the townsfolk know that today would be the day their beloved game would become even more beloved!

As Applejack and Rainbow Dash finished their first game (Rainbow Dash had won on a last-second ringer), a pony named Shoeshine approached.

Shoeshine is also a Ponyville resident; she has a light blue coat, a curly grayish-white mane, and two interlocking horseshoes as her cutie mark. And when she goes to Appleoosa, which she does fairly often, she dons a pink cowgirl hat, which seems to always attract good attention. Ponies like the combination of pink and blue.

Given this pony's name and cutie mark, there was no guessing as to why she was here, but what was not known is that she would become the one to change the iconic game forever.

"Hey there!", she says to AJ and Dash.

"Oh, hi Shoeshine!", Rainbow Dash says. "You're here too?"

"Yup! But I'm not just here for basic play. In fact, I think it's possible that what I'm up to right now could become an iconic game-changer."

The two ponies had a pause there, realizing that Shoeshine may have chosen them as the inaugural players for her potentially iconic game-changer!

"And... you're starting with us?", Rainbow Dash asks.

"Yes! I feel like you two should be the first to know!"

What? Them? Out of all the possible ponies this could have happened to, they were going to be the ones?

Yes! They were!

"Well, we'd be honored!", Applejack says.

"Yeah! If it does improve the game, I love a good changer! Let's see what it's about!", Rainbow Dash adds.

"Alright!", Shoeshine says.

She then commences the first explanation of her creation.

"What I've got going on here is an add-on to the game of horseshoes where you can now score more points than ever before. The rules up to this point have been one point for ground hit, two points for stake hit, and three points for ringer."

"But if we doubled or tripled that?"

"That's what I've come up with! Right here, you can see three different colors of horseshoe; bronze, silver, and gold. The bronze shoes keep the same point scheme as usual. But with a silver shoe, it's now doubled! When you throw one of these, you'll get two points for a ground hit, four points for a stake hit, and six points for a ringer."

"Then, with a gold shoe, you'll get three points for a ground hit, six points for a stake hit, and nine points for a ringer."

"As usual, we'll play to ten frames, and if you can get a gold ringer every single time, that leads to a best possible score of 90."

"How does that sound?"

Rainbow Dash and Applejack are pleasantly stunned.

"That's a great idea! I like that!", Rainbow Dash exclaims.

"Ah have always wanted to score more points!", Applejack adds.

"I have too! The more the merrier!", Rainbow Dash says. "But," she says, "How do we know what color horseshoe we're supposed to throw?"

"Ah-ha! Important question!", Shoeshine says.

"I've got that covered. You start with a gold shoe. If you get a ringer and thus nine points, you get to throw another gold shoe. If you hit the stake which gives six points, you'll get a silver shoe for the next frame. Then if you hit the ground for three points, you get a bronze shoe next."

"It works the same way the other way around. Say you have a bronze shoe and you hit the ground, for one point. You get another bronze shoe for your next throw. But if you hit the stake (two points), you upgrade to silver. Then if you get a ringer (three points), you upgrade to gold."

"So it's really simple. It's just determined by the result of your throw. Ringer, throw gold next. Stake hit, throw silver next. Ground hit, throw bronze next."

"Okay, that makes sense!", Rainbow Dash exclaims.

"So," she then adds, "Do we get to test out this new version of the game? You came to us with it first!"

"You certainly can! I'll play it with you too; in fact, even I haven't actually played this yet! I created the rules with only my imagination!", Shoeshine exclaims.

The three ponies play the first-ever game of the new horseshoes. Rainbow Dash started; the first gold horseshoe thrown under these new rules landed on the ground. So she got downgraded to bronze. Applejack went next; her first gold hit the stake, giving her silver for Frame 2. Shoeshine got a ringer; more gold for her!

The new rules made for an extremely fun game. The fact that how well you did on this throw also affected your next throw created new, uncharted excitement. Having every throw only have the possibility for one, two, or three points started to get old after a while. And as the ponies had predicted, scoring more points indeed made it more fun.

The scores tallied up at the end. Rainbow Dash had 34 points. Applejack had 38. Shoeshine had 45, giving her the honor of being the first to win under her own rules. But even with Rainbow Dash getting last, which she hated, her score number still got her energy up. 34 is not a number that could have possibly been scored under the old rules! With the highest throw point count being 3 and there being 10 frames, the highest possible score was 30. Rainbow Dash had lost this game and had more than that!

With Shoeshine's new scheme receiving extremely positive reviews from her first two testers, she felt she had the green light to bring it to a larger group.

A larger group that will hopefully lead to an even larger, then an even larger group.

Comments

[Bronycommander]

interesting start