“Seriously, is the dress thing really necessary?”
“Of course it is, darling. We’re playing a proper sport, and if you want me to join you, then we’re going to look the part.”
Rainbow raised a white tennis dress with blue hems by the tip of her wing. She gave it a plaintive sniff, then wrinkled her nose. “Eugh. It’s so girly.”
“It’s a tennis dress, Rainbow,” Rarity retorted, already wearing hers. Unlike Rainbow’s, Rarity’s was a solid royal purple with white filling the spaces between pleats around her flanks. She turned away from her mirror and seized the article from Rainbow’s wingtip, smoothing out the wrinkles and stretching it in front of the pegasus. “It’s proper attire for playing the sport, made of lightweight fabric and designed to be as minimally restricting as possible. Besides, it even has wingslits for you.”
“Or I could just go naked and not wear the stupid dress,” Rainbow grumbled.
Rarity sighed. “Rainbow, stop being such a foal.”
“I’m not being a foal!” Rainbow exclaimed. “I just don’t want to wear the dumb thing!”
“I’ll show you a dumb thing,” Rarity hissed. Then her magic assaulted Rainbow, and the pegasus squawked and fluttered her wings as Rarity attempted to force the dress on her. After a lot of noise and a few spools of thread and fabric falling onto the floor, Rarity claimed victory, holding a now-limp pegasus in midair by the dress she reluctantly wore. Giggling, Rarity brought Rainbow closer to the mirror so that she could see herself. “See, Rainbow? That wasn’t so hard! And I do say that you look absolutely fabulous.”
Rainbow and her reflection gave each other deadpan looks. “You are so going to regret this,” she muttered, still hanging limply in Rarity’s magic. She flailed her limbs and gasped as that magic suddenly disappeared, sending her falling to the floor. Groaning, she rubbed her jaw and stood up on her other legs as Rarity marched to the door. “Sabotage? Really?”
“Rainbow, I don’t think there’s much left inside that head of yours that isn’t concussed,” Rarity teased. Her hoof worked the handle, and she stood in the doorway, holding it open for Rainbow. “It’s not like I’m doing any lasting damage.”
“You’re making it really hard to not spike a tennis ball between your eyes,” Rainbow grumbled, shouldering past Rarity. The white mare giggled and rolled her eyes, then shut the door and locked it behind her.
The two friends surfaced deckside, where most of the ponies who had been listening to Jetstream’s little farewell speech had dispersed to various locations on the ship. Many lounged on the deck, enjoying the high-altitude sun free of obstructions like buildings, and others walked or jogged around the track outlining the boundaries of the deck. Rainbow and Rarity made a quick beeline for the tennis court, with Rainbow taking wing to claim it before anypony else could.
“Well this is a nice little court!” Rarity exclaimed, trotting into the cage surrounding the court and shutting the door with a quiet click. Her magic took hold of two racquets and a tennis ball, and she gave them all a keen inspection. “And the racquets are freshly strung, too! Oh, this is perfect!”
“Since when did you become such a tennis pro?” Rainbow asked, trotting up to Rarity and taking the offered racquet.
Rarity shrugged and twirled the piece of equipment in her aura. “Oh, I used to play a bit when I was on the varsity team in high school. It’s been ages since I last played, though, so I’m bound to be a bit rusty.”
Rainbow held a hoof up. “Wait wait wait wait wait, you were on Ponyville’s tennis team?” She blinked. “What was a froufrou pony like you doing on a tennis team?”
The unicorn scoffed and bounced the tennis ball off the ground a few times, testing its elasticity. “Rainbow Dash, I am not ‘froufrou’. Elegant and sophisticated, yes, but not froufrou.” She harrumphed and looked away, but shrugged a second later. “And if you must know, tennis dresses were in vogue at the time, and I figured the only way I’d know what a mare really wants in a tennis dress was to learn the sport myself.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. Cradling the racquet in the crook of her foreleg, she took wing and glided over the net. “You can have first serve. You’re gonna need it,” she said, a glint in her eye.
“Magic or mouth?” Rarity asked, slipping into her singsong voice to shout across the court.
Rainbow shrugged. “You can use your magic if I can use my wings.”
“Sounds fair,” Rarity said. She cantered over to the back-right corner of her side of the court and bounced the ball on the ground. “Just no flying over the net.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Good.” Rarity said, and she twirled the racquet in her magic. “Keep your eye on the ball, darling,” she proclaimed, then positioned her racquet. “Zero serving zero!” And her racquet collided with the back of the ball in an expert swing.
Rainbow Dash knew when the ace slipped by that she was in trouble.
The bright tennis ball ricocheted off of the cage wall and nearly plunked Rainbow in the head on the way back. She stared at it as it rolled across her side of the court until it came to a stop against the net. Blue shimmering magic wrapped around it, and she looked towards the caster in shock.
Rarity smiled right back at her, but it was cunning, dangerous. She was the cat, and Rainbow felt a lot like a mouse. “Advantage: moi,” Rarity teased, bouncing the ball on her racket. “I’m sorry, did you need a serve to warm up?”
“I… uh…” Rainbow stumbled over her words. Who could have guessed that the slim white unicorn knew what she was doing when it came to tennis, let alone any sport?
But still, this was a challenge, and Rainbow Dash lived for challenges. Her shock disappeared, replaced by determination and excitement. She knew she was much faster than Rarity, especially on the wing, and she could use her speed to her advantage. Besides, she wanted to wipe that smug look off Rarity’s face in a splash of color.
Grinning, Rainbow readjusted her grip on her tennis racquet, sliding it into the bars of her jaw. “Uff ot Ad ayk e eie on yew.”
“I’m just going to assume that was a poor excuse for a taunt or something,” Rarity said, shaking her head. Rainbow frowned, and Rarity smiled back at her. Bouncing the ball a few times off of the court, she tossed it high, shouting, “Fifteen-love!”
This time, as the ball came flying across the court, Rainbow was ready for it. She darted forward, lining up her shot and swinging her neck to put the ball as far away from Rarity as possible, in the front-left corner of Rarity’s court. But the unicorn was already on the move, expecting the shot, and the ball barely bounced before her racquet propelled it back in the other direction.
Rainbow cursed and contorted her body to dive backwards, her wings shoveling the air. She spun the racket in her teeth to switch sides, then dived forward to make the save. Her last-ditch effort was just enough to connect with the ball, and send it back to Rarity—who was already rushing the net. With a flourish of her racquet, Rarity lightly tapped the ball to her left, leaving Rainbow to try to scramble to her hooves only to watch the ball bounce twice on her side.
“Really, Rainbow, I thought you were going to put up a better fight than this,” Rarity teased, leaning over the net. Her magic snatched the ball, and she began to trot back to her corner.
“Meh… friggin’ magic,” Rainbow grumbled, climbing onto her hooves. “It gives you reach.”
“I asked ‘magic or mouth’, and you said magic was fine,” Rarity said, lining up in her corner. “I can do mouth if you want, but you can’t fly.”
“Might as well be on equal hoofing,” Rainbow said. She turned around and backed into her corner, snatching up her racquet along the way. Spreading her hooves wide, she readied herself for Rarity’s serve.
Rarity dropped the tennis ball into her hoof, shouted, “Thirty-love,” and snatched the tennis racquet in her mouth. She tossed the ball into the air, positioned herself, and swung hard when it dropped in front of her muzzle.
Without the precision or power afforded with Rarity’s magic, Rainbow found herself better able to adjust to the incoming projectile. She returned the serve, watched as Rarity scrambled across the court, and then positioned herself for the next hit. This time, Rarity’s return hit didn’t blow by her or send her diving for the save. Still, as she found herself darting back and forth a little further each time, she knew control of the point was slipping between her hooves.
Just as the ball seemed out of reach, Rainbow found a surge of speed, launching herself forward to try to close the gap. Almost in slow motion, she realized her jump was going to fall short, and without even thinking, her wings extended the tiniest bit. The additional lift was just enough to get her in range of the tennis ball, and with a powerful swing, sent the ball speeding across the court, where it bounced off the corner and into the cage behind Rarity’s surprised swing.
A brash grin found its way onto Rainbow’s muzzle, and she picked herself up off of the ground and trotted over to the net. “Ha!” she exclaimed, “No shut-outs this game!”
Rarity, however, was angry. “We agreed no wings, Rainbow!” Her hooves took her over to the net, where she leered at the pegasus. “I’m not going to play with a cheater.”
The accusation stung, and stung deep. It reminded Rainbow Dash of her first Running of the Leaves with Applejack, except coming from Rarity, it was somehow worse. Wincing, Rainbow backed up and held up a hoof. “Err… sorry, Rares. Instincts, you know?” She chuckled, trying to defuse the tension. “I can slip my wings under the dress thing if you want.”
Rarity’s eyes narrowed. “That would make it fair.”
Shrugging, Dash did as she said, concealing her blue feathers beneath the white tennis dress. She frowned and shook the dress around, trying to get it to sit comfortable atop her wings, and rolled her shoulders. “Better?”
The dour expression on the unicorn’s face disappeared after a moment’s delay. “Better!” Rarity sang, picking up the tennis ball and trotting back to her corner. Dash blinked in confusion, feeling a little mood whiplash, as Rarity bounced the ball up and down. “Aren’t you going to get ready, darling?”
Rainbow blinked. “Oh, uh, don’t I get to serve now?”
“Rainbow, have you ever seriously played tennis before?” Rarity raised an eyebrow. “One player serves each game, and it rotates between games in the set.”
“Oh.” Rainbow shrugged. “Duh.” She bent down and picked up the racquet between her hooves, and readied herself for the incoming serve.
As the game wore on, Rainbow finally felt like she was falling into a rhythm. Rarity’s serves were very controlled and accurate, but she lacked the raw muscle power behind her swings that Rainbow carried in her athletic frame. She couldn’t send the ball flying into Rainbow’s court as fast as the pegasus could, but she could dance the ball from one side of the court to the other, hitting the lines and using every inch of the court available. Rainbow simply struggled not to hit it out of bounds, giving Rarity a narrower field to cover.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rarity won the first set, game-thirty.
“That was fun!” Rarity exclaimed, trotting over to the net after the game was finished. It took Rainbow a little longer to meet her; she was splayed out on the ground, tennis racquet a few inches in front of her muzzle, the aftermath of a failed dive to keep the game alive. “Want to go again, or are you ready to call it quits?”
“Gnnf… A pegasus never calls it quits,” Rainbow said, slowly crawling to her hooves. “…unless you’re Fluttershy. But no.” She grabbed her tennis racket and began to retreat to her corner. “A ot iheshe ih uh eh.”
Rarity facehoofed and shook her head. “Right, Miss Tennis Talk, it’s your serve anyways.”