Last extra one for a while. Vignette — Final Goal · 12:50am Apr 12th, 2023
August 19 — Friday
Rainbow Dash slipped the soccer ball out of Astroturf’s control, smoothly reversing direction and driving the ball towards the other goal. She chipped it to Sour Sweet to get it around a defender. Another defender got in between the goal and Sour Sweet, forcing her to kick it back to Dash. The ball went high in her haste and Dash performed a bicycle kick to redirect it. The goalie reached for it, but couldn’t block the goal. They celebrated the goal with a fist bump.
It was just a friendly match at the end of Soccer Training Camp. Everyone at camp was on a school soccer team; namely the Wondercolts, Shadowbolts, Commanders, Boltcasters, Minotaurs, Griffons, and Spellshields. Usually they were pitted against each other, but Soccer Training Camp was about the game and developing skills, not school teams. Rainbow Dash would be missing the fall soccer season and, as a senior, she wouldn’t get to be scouted by colleges. However, compared to the others around her, Dash’s college resume would look a lot better and she could be a walk-on player and pick up scholarships after she got onto a team. It also meant she got to pick what school she went to, not based solely on who was offering her scholarships.
Sunset was already in Japan. Twilight and Rarity were on their way. Pinkie and Fluttershy were leaving tomorrow morning. Dash would get back from soccer camp tomorrow and leave the day after, on Sunday. Everything was timed around training camp and tomorrow would mean a lot of work to flip everything so she could leave for Japan on time.
For now, Dash got to enjoy the last day of her last year of soccer training camp with her fellow athletes and friends. Sour Sweet, Indigo Zap, Astroturf, Lightning Dust, Tempest Shadow, and Rainbow Dash had been going to this training camp since middle school. It was their seventh year at the training camp and fourth in the same cabin. The cabins had four bunk beds, but they were the camp’s senior cohort. No one else were seventh year campers, most were third and fourth years, so the six of them had scored a cabin of their own. At camp, they were best friends, but as soon as they went back to their teams, all bets were off. Dash didn’t really speak to anyone outside of camp, or things relating to camp, except for Astroturf and Lightning Dust. Dash always forgot that Sour Sweet and Indigo Zap attended Crystal Prep, because they didn’t play soccer for Crystal Prep. They were Griffons since Crystal Prep’s Shadowbolts were horrible at soccer. They were able to do that since Crystal Prep was a private school and public schools had to allow kids who would attend their school the fair opportunity to play sports the same as their students; be they home schooled students or private school students.
This was the best way to spend the down days before leaving. Dash didn’t want to sit around the house with her parents lauding her for getting into the exchange program. They had done enough of that already. She was thankful for their support, but they could go too far. There was a concern that they would follow Dash to Japan if something big happened where they could cheer her on. That would be an expensive trip for them. They didn’t have passports, at least not that Dash knew of.
The rest of the soccer match was average performance for Dash. It went down to a shootout. This year, their goalies were very good at stopping penalty kicks. Dash was the only one to score. Red Shirts, the team Dash was on, won because of it.
The camp was mostly training and soccer. It wasn’t a summer camp feel, although some things did feel like a camp. Most nights they went to bed early because they were up early to start training, but the last night ended with a campfire and star watching, including s’mores and other “unhealthy” things the camp didn’t put on the menu. They were athletes, but they also were kids and they had worked hard all week. Cracking open a soda on the last night wasn’t going to harm them.
“So, Dash, ready to live abroad?” Astroturf asked as the six of them sat on their cabin steps, looking up at the stars.
“Sort of,” Dash admitted. “It’s going to be interesting to do school in Japanese. Their school system is similar, but very different. The teachers move, not the students. As long as one of my friends is with me in case I miss something the teacher says, I’ll be good. Hopefully at least Fluttershy will be in the same room. She’s really good at Japanese.”
“It’s going to be interesting to face the Wondercolts without you, Dash,” Lightning Dust said. “Winning won’t be as sweet.”
“That won’t be a problem. They’ll make sure you lose,” Dash shot back. It elicited a round of laughs.
“And you will have to get used to it as football, not soccer,” Astroturf added.
“Eh,” Dash shrugged. “I’ve been watching the British teams on and off for a while and recently started watching JFA games. Both use football. Soccer actually is British. They started the first Football Association to standardize the rules between the schools in the group and make it unique from rugby football. The slang they made was ‘assoc,’ for association, then they added the ‘er’ and we got soccer.”
“You’re an egghead,” Indigo shot. “Use that head to bounce the ball into the goal.”
“Come on,” Dash groaned. “The head is Tempest’s specialty. Mine’s the bicycle kick and you know that.”
“Yeah,” Tempest said, lightly shoving Indigo Zap. “She needs the brain cells for her second language.”
“Ha ha,” Dash sarcastically laughed. “I do it when I need to, but using my head usually leaves me with a headache and less ability to react for a minute or two. Especially if Astro kicked it.”
“I always tell you to go long,” Astro shot back. “I didn’t expect you to need to leave the country.”
“Will you get to see any games while there?” Sour Sweet asked.
“They’re on break in the fall,” Dash explained. “Soccer is a spring and summer sport there. I'll be trying out for volleyball. They have club volleyball and a competitive club at the school. Everything is a bit weird. Students do one or two clubs, not sports. Plenty of the clubs are sports, but they don’t represent the school, not like ours do. Also, their schools tend to have more limited resources, specifically for space. Soccer pitches are bigger than most schools can do. Volleyball courts are small. Same with basketball and tennis. After all, Japan is a small group of islands with a large population.”
“Are you the last one to make it there?” Astroturf asked. “Cause you're going with school friends, right?”
“I’ll be the sixth to arrive,” Dash answered. “AJ will be last.”
“Any good updates from the ones there?” Astroturf asked.
“Sunset posted some pics,” Dash said. “Nothing really to pass on to you guys. You already follow our social media page. Rarity and Twilight haven’t had time to post anything other than departure photos and being stuck in airports. Tokyo is like fifteen hours ahead of us, so Sunset is just waking up on Saturday morning. When we wake up tomorrow, we’ll get to see her Saturday adventure with her exchange family.”
“It has to be weird to go live with strangers for four months,” Lightning Dust said.
“I’ve exchanged emails with my exchange family,” Dash said. “I’ll admit, it is a bit weird, but they seem like cool people. They're excited to have me join their family for the semester. Honestly, I’m excited. Being here, at training camp, it makes me miss the upcoming season, but soccer will be here when I get back. So will you guys. I only get one opportunity to do high school in another country. As big as some of my reservations are, like doing another language full time, I know they are nothing compared to what I’ll get to experience. The hard work will pay off and then I can cruise through graduation and then onto college sports! Maybe we can all team up together and crush the opponents of whatever school we choose.”
They all laughed at that idea. After getting to only spend a week together for seven years, the idea was enticing, but finding a school that would accept all six of them to the soccer team would be the hard part.
“Well, Dash, we should send you off with a toast,” Astroturf said. Everyone raised their cans. “To Rainbow Dash and her success in another country! Since she can’t grace the soccer pitches with us, may she dominate the volleyball courts of Japan!”
I’m interested in the reason Fizzlepop Berrytwist goes by Tempest Shadow here
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Fizzlepop Berrytwist makes for a horrible soccer name! Or any athletic name for that matter.
I'm guessing that the next one has to do with the group in school when they discover the nerve gear?
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Nope! Next and final one is AJ and leaving. Then the week of the launch I'll reveal the cover art. And then launch! We already saw Pinkie Pie and Maud and her contemplation. We also saw the same for Rarity.
IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOOooowwwn! *kazoo solo*
I'm hoping you'll devote more than a couple chapters to their recovery after they escape Aincrad. Dealing with the muscular atrophy and PTSD is a would be an important arc on its own.
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I've already been sketching out some of the end chapter, back in the real world.
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Wait, hold the phone are you telling that every single one of these that I have ignored because it wasn't an update or release has been THE PROLOGUE this entire time????
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The vignettes fell into a weird category. They were written as bridges, little posts to keep me and the waiting readers connected as I wrote. But they have expanded quite a bit. The plan had always been to send the girls to Japan as foreign exchange students, so the vignettes cover how they got into the program and fundraising, etc.
They are not required to read the story or understand it. The official start is the first Pilot Episode. The story will launch with the vignettes compiled into four arcs, plus every single Pilot Episode (yes, there are multiple), and the first five chapters. Even ignoring the vignettes, that's a lot of reading material to jumpstart everyone. And the launch is April 28, my birthday.
I hope that clarifies it. If not, ask more questions!