“I can’t believe this.” Storm said shaking his head. “We have been partners for three years and I’m just finding out about it now?”
It was the day of baseball ball game in Ponyville. Both teams were in their dugouts waiting for the start of the game. Everyone was preparing to strategize against their opponents. However, things were a bit more important for Nights team.
“Because,” Star said annoyed. “I knew you would frack out like your doing now.”
“There are just something that you don’t hide from your friends and this is one of them Star.”
“Me and my family went to games all the time. We go to at least one home game a season.”
“Seriously the Giants?” Storm exaggerated. “If you would have said that in my mom's house you would have been tied up and thrown out.”
“Don’t you thinking that’s a little too far?” Phantom asked.
“No” Storm replied. “My family are die hard Eagles fans and so am I.”
“Is this gonna put a dent into y'all's friendship?” Phantom asked.
“For some yes but most times I forgive Star when he does or says something worse.”
“It’s true.” Comet confirmed.
“Well at least your not a Jaguars fan.” Lyra said. “If you were. You would have a hard time here.”
“Wait so does everyone in this town go for the Colts?” Clover asked.
“Yes.” Rainbow Dash confirmed. “Hey Phantom who do you go for?”
“Bengals.”
“Aww.”
“Dude.”
“Are you joking?”
“Ain’t this about a …”
“All right enough about hoofball.” Night announced when she walked in the dugout. “Here’s the batting order. For both us and the other team.” Night placed a paper on the wall.
Everyone gathered around to look at the list.
PVPD
S.STORM SS
L.HEARTSTRINGS 2B
G.CLOVER RF
P.PIE CF
SPIKE 3B
COMET 1B
PHANTOM C
R.DASH LF
L.STAR P
PVFD
BERRY C
EMBER 3B
A.JACK LF
Z.BREEZE 1B
B.BON RF
MAC CF
OAK SS
S.BLACK P
S.WHITE 2B
“I think we got this.” Star said looking over the list. “The only good player they have is Big Mac and Applejack.”
“Never underestimate your opponent. Night warned. “Treat this like a game on the playground. Your group of fillies against another group of fillies that you don’t like.
“Yeah.” Comet said. “The only problem is that these fillies have a dragon and two farmers who work out pretty much every single day.”
“But we have a Griffen, two of the fastest pegasus in town and two psychopaths.” Clover reminded.
“Enough.” Night said. “Were on defense so everyone to your position.”
The team ran out to their position on the field. The PVPD uniforms were black and blue. While the PVFD uniforms were white and red. The stands were pretty full for just a baseball game. Then again it’s not every day a sport is played by two jobs that protect the community and kind of hate each other at the same time.
“Welcome ladies and gentlecolts.” A voice said over a PA system. “This is Discord the king of chaos. This is my co-host, Vinyl Scratch.
“What’s up Ponyville?”
“We got a crowd in a frenzy Vinyl. Let’s go down to our mare on the ground. Octavia, how is it down there?”
“How did I get here?”
“Oh sorry, Octavia were gonna have to do that check up another time.” Discord interrupted her. “Because the first batter is stepping up to the plate.”
Berry walked to home plate looking at the crowd behind her.
“First up is Berry. She is one of the eight pegasuses in the Ponyville Fire Department. She’s been on the job for seven years and she’s single.”
“PLAY BALL.” The umpire shouted.
“All right.” Star said twisted his hat backward. “Let’s play some baseball.”
Bottom of the first PVPD 0 - PVFD 2
“Well, Discord half of the first inning is in the books.” Vinyl said when Star struck Bon Bon out. “What do you think Discord? Is this the start you predicted for the game?”
“No.” Discord answered. “I didn’t think that the Fire department was skilled enough to get a home run on the first pitch, followed by LoadStar getting three strikeouts in a row for the PVPD.”
“Well, we saw our stallions in red now let’s see our stallions in blue.” Vinyl said when the PVFD was going on the field.
“Up first is Shadow Storm. He is the leader of the detectives that solve crimes in town. He is single as well and a former member of the royal guard and soon to be married to a princess from another land.
“You ready for the heat?” Sparkly Black asked.
“If you pitching that is going to be easy.”
Sparkly Black throw what looked to be a slider. Instead of it going down it when right and hit Storm right in his wing.
The crowd gaps as the ball hit Storm.
“What the hell was that Firefly?” Someone shouted from the dugout.
Storm ignored the comments that were being said. He tossed the bat and walked to first base.
“You alright?” Night asked when Storm arrived at first base.
“Peachy.” Storm replied.
“Next up.” Discord voice returned over the PA system. Lyra Heartstrings.
“Let’s do this.” Lyra said pointing her bat string ahead.
“Hey, coach. What’s the plan here?” Storm asked.
“Just win.” She replied.
“Got it.”
Right when Sparkly Black pitched Strom ran for second base.
“Look at this.” Vinyl shouted. “Storm is stealing second base.”
Storm slide and touched the base before the ball arrived.
“Safe.”
Storm hopped back to his hoofs and dusted off the dirt on his uniform. “Well, that was easy.”
“You got lucky.” Sparkly White whispered. “Bet you can’t do it again.”
Just like the late time when Sparkly White throw the ball Storm ran for third base. And the same as last time he was safe. The crowd went wild.
“Holy cow.” Vinyl said. “Since when can cops do that?”
“Let’s see. They chase criminals on hoof, they slide and dive to catch them and they basically steal from the robbers so there whole career?” Discord said.
“What do I win.” Storm asked Sparkly White.
“Storm stay in one place already.” Berry said from home plate.
Sparkly Black throw the ball again but this time he kept a close eye on Storm. That didn’t really help him at all when Lyra smacked the ball. The bounce once in the infield and continued into the outfield but it was soon caughted by Bon Bon.
“HOME PLATE.” Sparkly White called out.
Storm was already making a Beeline towards home plate. There was only one thing blocking him and that was Berry. She already had the ball so there was no way he was going to get caught in a rundown. So he decided to go through her.
BAM. The two bodies collided as Storm ran full speed into Berry causing them both to hit the ground.
“Safe.” The umpire shouted.
“POLICE BRUTALITY!” Discord shouted.
“But she was blocking him and She didn’t yield to an emergency pony.” Vinyl said looking at the rule book.
“Oh… GENDER EQUALITY.”
“Really?”
“I just wanted to shout at something.”
Storm jumped up and walked into the dugout.
“Was that necessary?” Night asked once Storm was in the dugout.
“We both know this game is lowkey bragging rights chief.”
Top of the fourth PVPD 3 - PVFD 4
“OUT.”
“Dammit.” Berry whispered herself when she was striked out. “Ever since second ending Star’s been pitching around all of us.
Berry placed her bat on the wall and sat down to rest before she had to go back out and play catcher.
“Don’t worry.” Oak said taking a seat next to Berry. “You’ll get him next time.”
“Yeah, I know.” Berry said with a smile. “I just don’t understand why we're doing this. I know it’s for charity but couldn’t we do something else?”
Oak raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean something else?”
“I don’t know A bake sale or just donate.”
“Oh,” Oak said as she had just understood something. “I know what’s going on.”
Berry turned to Oak. A face that could only mean trouble was on her. “It's about Shadow Storm isn’t?”
“What?” Berry asked nearly spilling her water. “What about him?”
Oak lend in and whispered to Berry so that only that she can hear. “Somebody has a crush.”
“What? No, I don’t.”
“That blush on your face says otherwise.” Oak pointed out.
Berry quickly looked at the mirror on the other side of the dugout. Even when the mirror was far away Berry could clearly see that she was blushing.
“Told you.” Oak said when Berry didn’t say anything from a while.
“I’m just… tired.” Berry managed to say. “Besides why would I like him? Isn’t he going to marry a thirteen-year-old or something?”
“Ok, first of all, you know just as well as everyone else in town. It was an accident. He saved her from being crushed.”
“Well.” Berry begin. “What would I see in him?”
“If there’s one thing you two have in common is that he doesn't take shit from nobody and neither do you. Also, he’s pretty strong I bet he can help you put out that certain fire you have.”
“OAK!” Berry shouted getting the attention of the entire dugout.
Before anyone could ask why Berry another yell came from the field. The umpire shouted “Change” for both sides to switch positions.
“See? Just look at him.” Oak placed both hoofs on Berry’s face and force her to turn to the field where Storm was walking back to his team dugout. “His body, that face, and his wings.”
“What do his wings have to do with anything?” Berry asked pushing Oak’s hoofs off her and grabbing her catcher mask.
“You know what they say big wing big…”
“Ok.” Berry said cutting Oak off. “We're done here.”
Bottom of the 6 PVPD 7 - PVFD 7
“My chest.” Phantom grunted. “This sport is violent.”
“No offense Phantom but you're the weakest and nicest griffin I’ve met.” Rainbow Dash said.
“Hey, I can be mean if you give me a reason. Plus, I haven’t had time to get back in the gym.”
“Right.” Everyone said.
“I’m serious.” Phantom assured. “Besides I like to see one of you guys get up right after you've been run over by a pony who spends her whole life on the farm practically working out every day.”
“Yeah, she is a hard hitter.” Star agreed. “However, if I was the catcher and AppleJack hit me. I wouldn’t have been thrown all the way to the dugout when I got hit. It was like watching a ragdoll being thrown to a wall. How many times did you flip, four, five?”
Phantom eyes cut to Star. “Don’t you have to be at bat or something?”
Star looked at the batting order on the wall. “No,” Star answered. “But I am next after this one.”
Star levitated his bat, helmet and when he went to the spot near home plate where the next batter practice.
“Alright, we are at the bottom of the sixth. The teams are tied at seven this should make a good ending isn’t that right Discord?”
“That’s right Vinyl.” Discord agreed. “And if nothing crazy happens then we should go into extra endings let’s see what happens.”
“Hey, Spike.” Storm said tossing his glove on the bench. “It just occurred to me. Discord is announcing play by play with Vinal Scratch, the DJ. Isn’t there something wrong there.”
“Oh yeah, that,” Spike said. “The girls told me to keep this a secret but since you had your fair share of running into Discord I guess I can tell you. Apparently, Discord has the power to make copies of anyone he knows by name and by touch.”
Storm blinked. “Wait. So he can make a clone of anyone?”
Spike nodded.
“And that doesn’t scare you?”
“Oh, it scares me,” Spike admitted. “I just try not to think about it.”
Bottom of the ninth PVPD 8 - PVFD 11
“Oh, mama what a game!” Discord shouted. “Forget charity this is a battle for Ponyville.”
“I agree with you, buddy.” Vinyl said. “If it wasn’t for Pinkie Pie robbing AppleJake of that home run this game could have been over. Who knew she could jump that high.”
“Fun fact, Pinkie Pie hops 800 times a day.”
“I don’t think I can do this.” Phantom said. “What if I strike out.”
“Then we lose bragging rights till we do this again and we're going to hate you.” Star admitted.
“Shut up Star.” Everyone shouted followed by a barrage of hoofs hit the back of Star’s head.
“Relax Phantom.” Clover said. “You got this worse case scenario you make a double play. Now go hit a home run.”
Phantom nodded and walked to home plate bat at hand or claw. He stared into the infield. Lyra was at third base, Spike was a second and Comet was on first. Phantom wasn’t to former on the rules of baseball. What he did know was that with only one out he could just swing away and as long as it’s far enough, better yet a fly out in the outfield the score can be cut down to three runs.
Sparky Black got ready to sent a pitch. Phantom took a deep breath he saw that Sparky Black had already tossed the ball there was no time to second guess. Out of pure luck and lot of power, Phantom swung the bat sending the ball flying towards the wall.
“Oh no he didn’t!” Vinyl shouted.
The ball continued to the wall. All of the players ran full speed towards the ball maybe hoping to rob Phantom of a home run just like Pinkie did.
“IT’S GOING.” Discord said watching the ball travel from the box. IT’S GOING… THAT BABY’S GONE. GRANDSLAM PVPD WINS.”
Phantom ran to first, second and third base nearing home plate. There the whole team was waiting for him cheering. Before he could step on home plate the team jumped on him causing a dog pile.
“I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT ALL ALONG.” Star shouted.