“Let’s go, we don’t have all day!”
The under-thirteen West Fillydelphia Eagles ran out onto the pitch for the beginning of their first training session of the season, and they assembled into a line in front of Coach Stargaze and two other coaches. The pitch had been split into two by a line of cones along the middle of the pitch. After completing their warm-up and stretches, the team gathered in front of their head coach.
“Today, as you know, is the first training session of the season. This means that the hard work starts now- not in a few weeks, not just before the end of the year- but now.”
Coach Stargaze turned to the two coaches and introduced each of them.
“For those of you that are new here, I’m going to introduce you to Coaches Persimmon and Bouncer. Persimmon is our offensive coordinator and will be working with the offensive players, and Bouncer is our defensive coordinator who will working with the defensive players.”
The two coaches stepped forward one by one and nodded when their names were spoken. Bouncer, true to his name, was a heavy, thickset dark grey earth pony. He had a large whistle hanging around his neck and his white cap protected him from the sun’s harsh glare, which was still pretty high in the sky considering that there was less than three hours left before sunset. Persimmon was a small orange unicorn with a skinny build, and he was also wearing a white cap for protection from the sun’s rays. Unlike Bouncer, he was not wearing a whistle but was instead using his magic to hold a clipboard next to his head.
“Ponies that are new to the team, stay where you are. Everypony else, you know where you need to go.”
Most of the team went to stand next to their separate coaches, with Atomic and a few others staying put.
“Right, I’m gonna put you with a coach today based on where I thought you played best at the tryouts. Atomic Tangerine, you’re with Coach Bouncer.”
Atomic was surprised to hear that he had to work with the defensive coordinator when he played best as wide receiver, and when the remaining colts had been designated to their coach, Atomic approached Coach Stargaze.
“Coach, can I ask you a question?”
Coach Stargaze didn’t look up from his clipboard. “What is it?”
“I play wide receiver…..so why did you put me in defence?”
Coach Stargaze finally looked up from his clipboard. “You don’t decide where you play, that’s up to me.”
“But-”
“You are going to work with Coach Bouncer today, and that is that. Understand?”
“.......Yes, Coach.”
Atomic walked away and joined the others in his group, irritated that he was being forced to play defence. As he joined the others, he spotted Helios, who he had become friendly with at the tryouts, and he moved to the back to stand with him.
“Hey Atomic,” he greeted earnestly.
“Hey-”
“Right, let’s get started with the zone drill. The zone break drill is designed to teach you how to read a quarterback and gauge where they're going to throw the ball. In a game, being able to anticipate where the quarterback is going to throw the ball could be the difference between conceding a first down and forcing a turnover.”
Coach Bouncer asked Coach Persimmon if he had a quarterback and two receivers they could use for the drill, and a tall colt was quickly sent over. Coach Bouncer directed the quarterback to stand twenty yards away from the others, and the receivers were instructed to stand twenty yards opposite him.
“Your job is to read the QB’s movements and try and figure out which player he’s going to pass to. Once you’ve figured that out, try to make the interception. Each of you are gonna get two turns. Right, Helios, let’s go!”
Helios moves to the front of the line and the others moved to the side. Helios lined up in front of the two receivers, who were standing five yards apart. When Coach Bouncer blew his whistle, he threw the ball to the quarterback, and he moved the ball between his two front hooves quickly. Helios spotted the quarterback drop his right shoulder slightly just before he threw the ball, and Helios darted to his right to cover the receiver, managing to swat the ball away before it could be caught.
“Good, but try and catch the ball on the next go.”
Helios nodded and moved back to his starting position. When the whistle was blown again, Helios was able to pluck the ball from the air.
“Good job. Next pony, go!”
Atomic watched his teammates do the drill one by one, and he was surprised by the fact that nearly everypony had at least one interception.
How the buck am I supposed to do better that these guys?!
“Next!”
It was finally Atomic’s turn and he slowly made his way to his starting position, trying his best to hide his nerves.
BEEP!
The ball was thrown to the quarterback and he threw the ball straight to the receiver to his right almost instantly. Atomic was rooted to the spot and only started moving once the ball was well on its way to it's target. He desperately dove forward to try and hit the ball away, but he fell short and he landed roughly.
“You need to be quicker than that. By the time you moved, he could be ten, fifteen yards away with the ball.”
The ball was given back to the quarterback for Atomic’s second turn and the exact same happened again, with Atomic being too slow off the mark to have any effect on stopping the ball being caught.
“Right, let’s move on. We’re gonna be doing the stance and take-off drill next.”
Coach Bouncer led the group over to the other side of the pitch, and he split them up into groups of four.
“This drill is going to help strengthen your leg muscles and get you used to executing a proper take-off from the defensive stance. Right, first group, let’s go!”
Atomic had been put into a group with three other colts that he wasn't familiar with, and as they lined up to start the drill, Atomic tried to strike up a conversation with the colt next to him.
“So, what position do you play? I'm a wide receiver but they put me in this group for some reason.”
The colt stared at him silently with a blank expression before turning away.
Is everypony here like this all the time?!
“You’re gonna go on the second count, and you're gonna charge forward for five yards. Make sure that you maintain a low take-off.”
Coach Bouncer walked in front of the first group and stood ten yards in front of them, placing a cone down at the five yard mark.
“Green 80! Green 80! Hut Hut!”
On the second hut, the colts took off. Atomic, expecting to hear the number two, was caught out of place when he saw the others in his group already two yards ahead. He leapt forward from his spot and was just able to catch up with the others in his group before they reached the end of the five yards.
Oh, when he says hut that’s when I'm supposed to go!
Coach Bouncer frowned as he watched Atomic wall over to the side, beginning to think that Coach Stargaze had made a mistake in putting Atomic on the team.
“Hey, are you alright?” Helios asked Atomic, concerned.
“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just that I’m not a defender so I’m sorta out of my comfort zone right now.”
“Hey don't worry about it, I’m sure Coach will put with the offensive team soon. Just ask me if you don’t get anything, alright?”
Atomic smiled gratefully and nodded.
“Hey you two over there, to the front, now!”
Both colts were startled by Coach Bouncer, and they slowly made their way to the front as instructed.
“So you think you two can get away with gossiping in the back, huh?”
“No, sir,” they replied at the same time.
“You’re both gonna do three laps of the pitch after practise, is that clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
Atomic and Helios went back to their spots. Soon enough, it was Helios’ turn to do the drill and Atomic watched him charge carefully, making a note to make sure that he maintained a low take-off just like Helios.
When the last group had done the drill, Coach Stargaze came out onto the pitch and blew his whistle loudly.
“Let’s get into a 7 v 7 game.”
The colts from both groups quickly joined Coach Stargaze in the middle of the pitch.
“Those of you on the special team, you’re gonna work with me over on the next pitch.”
About fifteen colts left their respective groups and left the pitch with Coach Stargaze for their training, leaving Coach Bouncer and Persimmon in charge of the remaining colts. They split the colts into two teams, with those left over bundled into a team and told to sit on the sidelines. To his disappointment, Atomic had been into a different team as Helios.
“Hey little guy, looking forward to playing with you!”
Alizarin bounded over to Atomic and put a foreleg over his shoulders.
“My name’s Atomic, not ‘little guy’,” Atomic said, shrugging off Alizarin.
“Okay little guy, no need to get aggressive,” Alizarin smirked, before joining the rest of their teammates, who had yet to split from the other team. Coach Persimmon stepped forward and began to explain the rules of the game.
“Before you split off into your huddles, we’re gonna tell you the rules of this game. First downs are gonna be fifteen yards, which means that you’re gonna have to move the ball upfield as far as possible to avoid turning the ball over. A touchdown will be worth seven points instead of the usual six, the QB must remain behind the line of scrimmage and they also have to release the ball within four seconds. Only running plays, no special team plays, interceptions will be called dead and first team to score a touchdown wins. Winning team will stay on, and we'll keep switching over until the end of training. Understood?”
“Yes, Coach!”
“Right, Alizarin’s team, go sit on the sidelines for now.”
Grumbling in annoyance, Alizarin’s team sat down on one of the benches, which was long enough to occupy all of them comfortably.
“Sir, I just remembered, I have a dentist’s appointment in half an hour!” one of the colts on the pitch suddenly said.
“And why didn’t you mention this at the start of training?”
“Sorry, it completely slipped my mind,” the colt said as he used his magic to open his saddlebag (which was on one of the branches at the sidelines) and take out his appointment card to show the coaches.
Both coaches looked over the card for a few moments before nodding, and the colt thanked them before packing up and leaving the pitch quickly.
“Crap, the teams aren’t equal now.”
Atomic stood up. “Coach, I’ll play for them, if that’s okay.”
“Alright, join their team. Okay, let’s get started, we don’t have all day!”
The two teams walked onto the pitch and split off into their huddles. The quarterback on Atomic’s team was none other than Tiny Thunder, and he was quick to assert himself as the pony in charge.
“We’re gonna run a singleback trey PA boot. Everypony knows where they’re playing right?”
“He should be one of the receivers, he was insane at the tryouts,” Helios said, smiling at Atomic.
“Okay then, but singleback trey PA boot. Break!”
Wait, what the hell did he just call?
I’ll just wing it, it’s worked before.
The two huddles broke and both teams lined up into their respective formations, with the line of scrimmage being at the thirty yard line. The ball was snapped to Tiny Thunder, who faked handing the ball off to the running back before retreating, waiting for his receivers to become open for the pass.
Atomic quickly set off from his starting point, and without having a clue on what route he was supposed to run, he sprinted aimlessly ahead, hoping to outrun his cornerback. Fortunately for Atomic, his cornerback eventually burned out and Atomic turned around to open himself up for the pass, preparing himself for the easy catch.
The ball was instead thrown to the receiver on the far right of the field, who had run a slant route as instructed. When he was tackled at the forty seven yard line, Atomic stormed over to Tiny Thunder.
“What the hell?! Did you not see that I was clearly open?! If you passed it to me, i would’ve got the touchdown!”
Tiny Thunder sneered. “Do you know what the buck the play I called was?! You were supposed to run a slant route, not straight bucking ahead!”
“Whatever.”
Atomic walked away, making a note to change where he ran next time.
The two teams went into their huddles again and this time Tiny Thunder called a play action short pass play, in which he instructed the running back to move with the ball for a few yards before tossing the ball to him.
“And remember, don't make it obvious,” Tiny Thunder instructed his teammates, who nodded before breaking from the huddle. Atomic headed over to the scrimmage line, confused about what a play action pass meant.
“Hey, Helios!” he hissed. After saying his name the third time, Helios heard Atomic and left his place on the offensive line and quickly went over to him. Atomic moved away from his cornerback and motioned for Helios to follow him.
“Yeah?”
“What’s a play action pass?” Atomic asked, but unfortunately his question had not gone unheard, and the cornerback closest to them listened carefully to Helios quickly explaining how the play worked. Once Helios went back to his place, the cornerback sprinted over to the middle linebacker and spoke to him quickly before heading back to Atomic to mark him. The middle linebacker alerted the rest of his teammates to what was going to happen.
The ball was snapped and as the defence expected, Tiny Thunder feigned handing the ball off to the running back before the ball was thrown back to him. The linebackers had quickly set off from their starting points and one of them was able to poke the ball out of Tiny Thunder’s hooves before he could retreat with it. The hoofball tumbled to the ground and several players piled on top of it to desperately recover it. Both coaches blew their whistles and ran out onto the pitch, ordering the ponies on the pile to get up. One by one, the pile reduced in size before a grinning linebacker remained on the ground, his hooves tightly wrapped around the ball.
“Defense’s ball!”
The defending team celebrated the interception, with the other team silently going into a huddle.
“What the hell, how did they know what we were gonna do?!” some of the colts cried, and before Tiny Thunder could reply, the linebacker that had intercepted the ball swaggered over to them, looking particularly at Atomic.
“Hey, thanks for the heads up on the play, couldn't have done it without you,” he smirked, slapping Atomic on the back before walking away.
The others instantly turned on Atomic, ganging up on him. “Why the hell did you tell him the play?!”
“Hey, it's not Atomic’s fault!” Helios stepped forward and pushed his teammates back away from Atomic. “He wanted to quickly go over the play with me, that's all. If anything, it's my fault, they must have overheard me.”
“So both of you made us lose the ball?! Gee, thanks, we all really appreciate it!” Tiny Thunder sneered, stepping up to Helios. The two glared at each other silently, their teammates watching them with bated breath.
“Hey, this isn't the time to turn on each other!” Atomic stepped between the two and pushed them apart. “Okay, we just lost the ball, but that doesn't mean we’ve lost the match! Coach said that three touchdowns wins the game, so are we really gonna let them get three touchdowns? Are we?”
Atomic looked at each of his teammates, waiting for somepony to speak up and agree with him.
“Atomic’s right. Let’s just go out there and do our best to get the ball back,” Helios said, putting his hoof in the middle.
One by one, everypony on the team placed a hoof in the middle, until there was only one pony left.
“Come on Tiny, I know you don’t wanna lose,” Helios said, and Tiny Thunder grumbled before putting his hoof in the middle.
“Don’t ever call me Tiny again.”
“Whatever you want.”
Helios quickly drew up the first defensive play that the team was set to run, and as the team broke from the huddle to get into their positions, Atomic went up to Helios.
“Hey, Helios can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“How come they didn’t listen to me when I basically said the same thing as you?”
Helios sighed. “You’re new to the team Atomic, and it’s gonna take time for them to respect you. But don’t let that get to you, just keep working hard okay?”
Atomic nodded, and the team lined up into their positions. Helios has deliberately made himself and Atomic linebackers so that he could watch out for him. The other team snapped the ball and the quarterback quickly retreated away from the struggle between the offensive and defensive lines.
The three linebackers charged forward to try and sack the quarterback, and Atomic struggled to get his way through the offensive line and tight end, feeling the disadvantage of his height when he was thrown to the ground by the tight end.
BEEP!
Coach Persimmon blew his whistle again to stop play and ran out onto the pitch to the quarterback, who was still holding the ball.
“You were holding it for too long. I said four seconds and no more. Your team gets a five yard penalty. Right, move back to the forty yard line, all of you!”
“See, I told you we could get them on the back foot,” said Helios, leading his buoyant teammates back to the forty yard line.
Once they got into their huddle, Helios stood in the middle. “We need to cover everypony on this play, you all saw what happened when there was nopony open to pass to. Let’s keep up what we’re doing and we'll get the ball back. 1, 2, 3, break!”
The two teams lined up again and when the ball was snapped, the quarterback was quick to dish the ball out to the open tight end waiting in the middle. The tight end spun to avoid the incoming Tiny Thunder and he made a dash for the forty five yard line. Atomic pushed himself off the ground and watched two of his teammates bring the tight end down at the forty yard line.
“Crap, they got the the first down,” Atomic muttered as he joined the huddle.
Five minutes later, the opposing team scored their first touchdown and the defending team headed off the pitch for the other team.
“I swear, if we didn’t have that kid on our team, we’d still be on the pitch,” grumbled Tiny Thunder, deliberately sitting far away from Atomic and Helios.
Helios sat next to Atomic at the end of the bench.“Word of advice? Read up on the different types of plays when you get home.”
Atomic nodded. “Yeah, I definitely need to do that.”
It had just gone shy of seven o’clock when Atomic finished his dinner and excused himself from the table, rushing upstairs to his room.
“Atomic, come back down, I have a surprise for you!”
Atomic stopped himself in front of his door and headed back down the stairs.
“Yeah, Mom?”
Tea Rose was standing in the hallway, with an oven tray in her mouth. As Atomic came closer, he spotted the rows of brownies.
“Did you make these?!”
“Yeah, whilst you were at school. Go sit at the table and I’ll get a plate.”
Whilst Atomic went to the living room to sit at the table, a set of keys twisted through the keyhole and unlocked the door.
“Syracuse, is that you?” Tea Rose yelled from the kitchen.
“Yeah, it's me.” Syracuse put his saddlebag in his study before going into the living room and sitting on the sofa to turn the radio on. “How was practise, Atomic?”
“It was okay. Can I ask you a question?”
When Syracuse nodded, Atomic sat next to his father. “Could you teach me about plays and stuff?”
“About plays?”
“Yeah, in practise today the quarterback was calling different plays and I didn’t understand any of them.”
Before Syracuse could answer, Tea Rose came into the living room, holding a plate of chocolate brownies in her mouth. “Here you go Atomic, eat them and tell me how they taste.”
Atomic took two brownies from the plate and gave one to his father. The two put the brownies into their mouths at the same time.
“.........This is amazing, Mom!” Atomic quickly chowed down the first brownie and reached out to take two more.
“You should make these more often, they're delicious,” Syracuse said with a smile, making Tea Rose blush.
“Oh come on, they can't be that good. The last time I made brownies must have been a year ago!”
“Are you kidding?! They’re amazing, everypony at the bake sale is gonna love them!”
“What bake sale?” Syracuse asked.
“Oh, we’re having a bake sale next next Thursday for the hoofbal- for the library, to raise money for like, new books and stuff.”
“Oh, okay, that's really good. And how’s school, are you doing better now?”
Atomic groaned. “You don't need to bring it up twenty-four seven, it's not like I'm failing every subject!”
“Yes we do need to bring it up Atomic, we just want you to do well enough to go to a good high school,” Tea Rose interjected.
“Mom, I'm not gonna fail this year, don’t worry.” Atomic reassured, and the living room was silent for a few moments before Tea Rose left to check on Butterscotch.
“Dad, will you teach me? About the different types of plays?”
“Alright, let’s go to the study, it’ll be quieter there.”
As Syracuse went over to his shelves to take out a playbook, Atomic was beginning to regret asking for the lesson on plays. The amount of information that he had been bombarded with for the last ten minutes was enough to make his head spin.
“Okay, here it is.”
Syracuse blew on the cover of the book to remove the thin layer of dust that had gathered on it.
“This….is gonna help you understand what I’ve been talking about for the last ten minutes. It helped me a lot when I used to play quarterback for my high school.”
The book that Syracuse had taken out claimed that it was a simplified guide to hoofball and everything you needed to know about it. Syracuse opened up to the contents page and after finding the number of the page he was looking for, turned to Section 3 on page 57, which was titled ‘Offensive Plays.’
“I’ll get you started with the types of plays that you can run, it’ll make things much easier later on.”
Syracuse turned a few pages and came to a stop on the rushing plays page.
“Rushing plays are simple. When the ball’s snapped, the quarterback hands the ball off to the running back behind him, who then runs with the ball.”
“I get that Dad, but what’s a PA play? My team tried running it in a game today and it…..didn’t really work.”
“PA stands for play action. It’s basically the quarterback tricking the offense by pretending to hand the ball off to the running back before pulling the ball back and passing it out. It’s especially useful after you’ve run a few running plays, because the defence will be expecting another running play, so it makes much more effective.”
Atomic nodded. “Okay, now it makes sense.” He raised a hoof to his mouth to stifle a yawn.
Syracuse closed the book and put it back in the shelf. “You’re looking tired, Atomic. You should head up to bed, you don’t want to be half-asleep in school tomorrow.”
Atomic said goodnight to his father and closed the study door behind him.
“Mom, can I take the rest of the brownies to school tomorrow? You know, for the other guys to have?”
“Sure. I’ll wrap them up in some tissues for you and you can put them in your bag in the morning.”
Tea Rose kissed Atomic goodnight and he headed upstairs to his room.
“We’re gonna make like a thousand bits with these brownies!”
“Yeah, your mom’s brownies are amazing!”
Atomic watched his friends eat their brownies, a small smile on his face. As soon as the break time bell had rung, they had all met up on the field to receive Atomic’s surprise.
“So Banoffee, are your parents down to make a few things to help out?” Thunderhoof asked as he wiped a few crumbs off his face.
“Sorry, they said that they’re really busy baking this huge wedding cake for a client, so they’re not gonna have time to help us out.”
“It doesn't matter anyway, these brownies will be enough to make the money we need.”
“Hey, guys!”
Spade Ace, Moondust, Maverick and Jackpot yelled again and Jackpot brandished a radio from his saddlebag with a grin.
“The Dragons’ game is gonna kick off in two minutes, so I thought you guys would appreciate getting through the first quarter.”
Jackpot sat in the middle with Moondust next to him, and Jackpot put the radio down on the grass.
“Moondust, do your thing.”
Moondust lowered his head towards the radio and a dark blue aura surrounded his horn. A thin line of magic shot out of his horn and it hit the antenna, travelling down it before moving back up to the top of it. The radio then suddenly came to life, and Jackpot turned the dial to the appropriate sports channel.
“And you’re joining us live from the Almerald centre, in a twelve thirty kickoff between two of the best teams in the league, the Canterlot Knights and the Fillydelphia Dragons. We’re definitely in for an exciting match, folks, so grab your popcorn and get settled in for what will hopefully be one of the best matches of the season.”
“It's definitely going to be a good one, especially since it was the Canterlot Knights that stopped Fillydelphia from reaching the Sugar Bowl. So the Dragons are definitely going to be looking for revenge.”
“Especially Nick Foals, seeing as his drop at the twenty yard line was what threw the game away for them last season.”
“Yeah, he definitely choked on that last play, and I don’t think he’s ever going to hear the end of it.”
“Why are they still talking about that?!” Atomic cried, and most of the younger colts agreed with him.
“They're gonna keep talking about it until we beats the Knights in the playoffs,” Moondust declared, turning up the volume dial on the radio.
The colts continued listening to the pre-game commentary and the game was moments away from kicking off when the end of lunchtime bell rang.
“Come on guys, we have to go to lessons now,” said Chestnut, and Blaze, Starburst and Banoffee began to get up.
Jackpot looked up. “Wait, where are you guys going? Don't you wanna stay and listen to the match?”
“Yeah, but we all have lessons right now, so we have to go.”
“Me and Thunder skipped English like three weeks ago and we never got caught,” said Atomic, and Chestnut shook his head.
“I don't wanna risk it.”
“He’s right, if we stay here, we’re gonna get caught. Let’s go somewhere else,” said Moondust, turning off the radio and putting it back into his saddlebag.
“What are you kids still doing on the field? Come on, the bells already gone, get to your lessons!”
A teacher had come out onto the field and he put a foreleg over his forehead to block out the sun. “Come on, get to lessons before the second bell goes.”
The colts got up and headed off the field, with most of them walking at a leisurely pace to the displeasure of the teacher.
“You guys have five seconds to get off this field and inside or you’ll all be going to the principal’s office!”
As they all galloped as fast as they could to get off the field, Atomic recognised the teacher as being the same teacher who had caught him and Thunderhoof on the field after lunch, and he tried to warn Thunderhoof.
As they came off the field, Atomic and Thunderhoof avoided looking at the teacher.
“Have I seen you somewhere before?”
“Who are you talking to sir?” asked Spade Ace, and the teacher looked at Atomic and Thunderhoof.
“You two. Are you in any of my classes?”
Thunderhoof gulped. “No, no sir, we’re, uh, not in any of your classes.”
The teacher focused his gaze onto Atomic. “Are you sure?”
Atomic nodded quickly. “One hundred percent. We should get to our lessons now sir, we don’t wanna be late.”
The colts hurried past the teacher to get inside, Atomic and Thunderhoof particularly quickening their pace. The group split into two to avoid being seen by teachers; with Thunderhoof’s group headed to the library based at the centre of the school, whilst Atomic, Chestnut, Moondust and Maverick ran into the colts’ washroom.
“We should go to lessons, we’re gonna get caught and then we’re gonna get into so much trouble,” Chestnut gabbled, breathing heavily.
Atomic placed a hoof on Chestnut’s shoulder. “Chestnut, will you relax?! That teacher that was talking to us is the same one that caught me and Thunder on the field. So if he doesn’t remember us, why would anypony else be on our case?”
Spade Ace stuck his head out to check if the corridors were clear, and he led the others out one by one, emphasising that they should make as little noise as possible.
“This isn’t a frickin’ secret mission, you don’t have to be so over the top about it,” Moondust remarked as he left the washroom last.
“What are you all doing out of lessons?!”
Moondust squeaked and quickly slapped his hooves over his mouth. The others sniggered and tried their best to hold in their laughter and stay composed as a door was opened.
The teacher was an elderly unicorn mare and she frowned as she came out of her classroom nearest to the toilets and saw the colts standing outside the washroom.
“Miss, we’re just helping our friend, he’s having some……”
“Problems!” Spade Ace said, interrupting Moondust. “He’s just tryna do something in there and we don’t know if he’ll be able to do it by himself.”
The mare raised an eyebrow skeptically. “So this...friend of yours…...is in the toilet right now?”
“Yes, Miss. Come on Chestnut, you can do it buddy!” said Spade Ace with a nervous laugh, looking at Chestnut who was standing in front of the sink.
A filly burst of the classroom panting. “Miss, they’re fighting again!”
The teacher saw the commotion happening inside her class and quickly headed back inside, slamming her door behind her.
“Alright guys, let’s go to the library,” said Moondust.
The others looked at each other for a few seconds before bursting into laughter, with even Chestnut sniggering.
Maverick wiped a stray tear from his eye.
“Dude, you sounded like you’d wet yourself when she came out of the classroom!”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
Moondust pushed a cackling Spade Ace away from him as they got close to the library doors.
“Do you think the other guys made it without getting caught?” asked Chestnut, and Atomic shook his head.
“They’re probably already waiting for us. Come on, the match’s already started!”
The colts entered the library quietly and saw their others waiting at the tables towards the back of the library.
“Guys, hurry up it’s nearly two o’clock!” hissed Thunderhoof, getting up and adding four chairs to their table.
“By the way, we told the librarian that we all failed last year and that we’re doing extra revision, so we have to keep quiet,” Maverick explained, gesturing to the several open books on the table.
Atomic, Chestnut, Spade Ace and Moondust sat down in their respective seats. Moondust took the radio out of his saddlebag as Jackpot peered over the bookshelves to make sure that nopony was looking at them.
“And Nick Foals is brought down at the twenty yard line, granting the Dragons yet another first down! This is a brilliant first quarter showing from the Dragons!”
“That’s right, I did not expect them to come out of the gates this quickly. We’re in for a much closer game than we thought.”
For the rest of the lesson, the colts quietly listened to the match commentary, trying their best to keep their voices down when anything exciting happened.
“Ten yards, five yards…...touchdown, Fillydelphia Dragons!”
As the others celebrated quietly, Jackpot checked if anyplace my could hear them, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a familiar teacher enter the library. “Ms Ivory just came in!”
“Yeah, nice joke,” Spade Ace replied, still engrossed in listening to the match.
“I’m not kidding, look!” he hissed, ignoring the protests as he turned the radio off. He lifted his head up slowly and pointed to the main desk, where Ms Ivory was talking to the librarian.
“We need to get outta here, she’s gonna see us,” whispered Jackpot, and the colts quickly and quietly packed up their books into their saddlebag.
“Right, hide behind the bookshelves and we'll wait for Ms Ivory to leave,” Spade Ace ordered, and the others spread out and hid behind the bookshelves.
After what seemed like forever (but in reality was only five minutes), Ms Ivory finally borrowed a book and left the library just as the bell rang.
“Let’s wait for the corridors to become packed, and then we’ll leave,” said Spade Ace, stepping out from behind a bookshelf and inching towards the door.
“Excuse me, why are there so many chairs around this table?! Come on, get back here and clean up after yourselves properly!” the librarian exclaimed, pointing at the mess that the colts had left behind.
“Miss, we’re in a rush-”
“No, no, no, I don’t wanna hear any excuses. Get back here and put the chairs back properly. Now.”
“Come on, let’s just do it, and then she’ll leave us alone,” said Spade Ace with a sigh, heading back to the table.
Nearly a minute later, the chairs had been tucked in properly and the colts left the library swiftly.
“I feel like I’m forgetting something,” Atomic mused.
“We don’t have any overdue homework if that’s what you’re asking about,” replied Thunderhoof, trying to put his friend at ease.
“I dunno…..like there’s somewhere that I’m supposed to be……..”
The group reached the school gates and said their goodbyes as they headed their spectate ways.
“We’re so lucky Ms Ivory never saw us, imagine what she’d would’ve done to us,” said Chestnut, and Atomic gasped and suddenly stopped in his tracks.
“Ms Ivory! I was supposed to do to her after school for the progress meetings! Oh man, she’s gonna kill me! I gotta go, I’ll come to your house later!”
Atomic turned around and sprinted back to school. He barged past the students heading in the opposite direction, and he almost managed to get hit by a carriage as he crossed the road to get back into the school.
The carriage driver stuck his head out of his window. “Watch where you’re going, kid! I coulda killed you!”
“Sorry!” Atomic yelled back, before pushing the gates open and running inside.
“......So you mean to tell me that the reason you forgot to attend our last two progress meetings….is because your aunt is in hospital?”
“Yeah, she, uh, broke both of her hind legs,” Atomic replied. He was admittedly feeling guilty about lying, but when Ms Ivory asked (rather aggressively) why he hadn’t come to the progress meeting, it wa the first thing that came into his mind.
Ms Ivory took out a quill from the drawer next to her. “Take out your diary, and turn to where we last left off.”
Once Atomic had opened up his diary to the correct page, Ms Ivory turned the book around and read through the page’s contents.
“Have you made any progress in finding a team to play for?”
“Yes, I went to the under-thirteen tryouts for the West Fillydelphia Eagles, and I got onto the team.”
“Good, we can tick that off then.”
Ms Ivory lifted up her quill and drew a small box next to the step regarding joining a team, filling it with a large red tick.
“Have you got your cutie mark?”
“No...not yet, anyway, Miss. I know I’ll get it when I start playing some matches.”
“We'll see about that. Do not cut off any other options, however. Make sure that you are trying other things that will help you get your cutie mark.”
“Yes, Ms Ivory.”
Fifteen minutes later, Atomic was dismissed from his homeroom and he left school in a hurry, eager to get home.
“Hi, is Thunder in?”
“Yep, he’s just upstairs in his room. Come on in.”
Thunderhoof’s mother stepped aside to let Atomic into her home, and he ran upstairs to his friend’s room. He knocked on the door loudly, and without waiting for a reply, burst into the room.
“Hey, Thunder. Nopony’s at home, so I’m gonna wait here until my mom and Butter get back.”
Thunderhoof didn’t look up from his work. “Okay, that’s cool.”
“Wait, are you doing your homework now?”
Thunderhoof turned around. “Yeah, I always do it as soon as I come back from school, except for when I have to go to training, on those days I do it after I come back.”
“No wonder you’re so smart.”
Thunderhoof blushed slightly. “I’m not that smart, I'm only average in Maths.”
“You’re like the smartest in every single subject, who are you kidding? They're gonna put you in the top set for Maths soon, I'm telling you.”
Thunderhoof laughed and closed his book. “I’ve finished anyway.”
The two chatted about hoofball for another ten minutes before Atomic headed out to check if his mother and sister had come back.
“Oh, Atomic, could you give this to Thunderhoof? I think it’s the list of his team’s fixtures.” Thunderhoof’s mother handed an envelope to Atomic, and he went back upstairs.
“Thunder, your mom said that the Broncos' matchups are in this envelope. Here you go.”
Thunderhoof took the envelope and ripped it open, carefully taking out the white piece of paper. He read down the list of matchups slowly.
“So who do you play first?”
“.......You.”