Twilight Velvet quails as she skitters away from the shady cottage, the eagle eyes of the dozens of perched creatures still flapping about in her mind as they gander at her. If Princess Celestia hadn’t badgered her to fish out the crazed connoisseur of Kindness she would have skunked her responsibilities and batted away the Princess’s request for being as cuckoo as the mad master of Malevolence.
She can’t quite steer herself to duck out and grouse with the Princess’s decision to use Kindness to monkey around with an animal’s acuity, though. They shouldn’t ram it down a lesser creature’s throat, of course, to be foxed into aping ponies and serving as spies! And yet their tactical value cannot be dismissed on a lark; few beings, pony or otherwise, can rat out the conspiring critters ferreting information from their innocent brethren.
None of them have ever railed against the transformation. At least, that’s the line Fluttershy hawks. Hmm, this could bear investigating, on the mare who radiates Kindness wherever she swans around. And she can hardly bitch against Fluttershy for the incidents that have cropped up before. She was just turtling for her friends, after all. Fortunately Razer was easily cowed into not wanting to crow about his incident; it would louse up everything if the dragon parroted his exposure to the Malevolent Stare with anypony else. Their allies certainly would find a lionized account of the terrible magicks difficult to swallow.
Her half-trot, half-gallop towards Sweet Apple Acres slows as the playing field comes into view. In the center of the circular arena crouch Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Both blue vested ponies eagerly await the elderly green mare, clad in a black referee uniform, and the red ball she is about to toss into the air. On the outer ring rests an orange vested Trixie, her magenta aura surrounding an apple basket and lazily swinging it this way or that. On the opposite side of the field rest Shining Armor and Doug, both panting in their orange vests. Rarity, in a blue vest, levitates a basket in her light blue aura, ready to catch the ball should it come flying her way again, though she barely moves on her newly manicured hooves.
Facing away from her and intently focusing on the game are Twilight Sparkle and Night Light. Both have dozens of pages floating around them, held in either a pale blue or raspberry aura. Wait, raspberry? What had happened to her daughter’s aura!?
Velvet slowly calms herself; Princess Celestia had mentioned something about an incident involving Rarity, and they seem to be getting along. Nothing to worry about. She gets a little closer to the game, listening to Night Light and Twilight Sparkle argue about the statistical ramifications of a game they both had likely never heard of before today.
Night Light points his hoof at the orange team, “Of course it’s unfair! Doug has blocked forty percent of Applejack’s shots, and she’s blocked exactly one of his! And he’s intercepted just under a quarter of Dash’s passes, and while his shots then are half as good as they are compared to when Trixie passes him the ball, he still makes a lot more than Applejack’s steals.”
Twilight Sparkle shakes her head, “But Dash is starting to compensate for that a lot better than she was initially; she’s gone from nearly sixty percent of her shots being stolen to just twenty, purely because Applejack is moving around more. Doug still has her beat on stature, but her faster hoof speed and endurance is winning out.”
Twilight Velvet moves between the two, glancing at the lists that detail every pass, shot, and score. “Hey there! So, what’cha two jabbering about?”
Sparkle points a hoof at Doug. “Buckball. Whether or not Doug best qualifies for the earth pony, pegasus, or unicorn part of a team. He’s tried each of them, and definitely does best as earth pony.”
Night Light continues, “You could too easily buck the ball over him when he is the pegasus defender, and he has a hard time keeping up with the speed of a levitated basket. He did well as a unicorn; very good hoof eye coordination when he is catching. But his movement with the basket is very telegraphed and slow, which makes it quite easy for Dash to cover him. But he’s just a monster as an earth pony.”
Applejack lets loose another frustrated grunt as Doug knocks aside another pass. Rainbow Dash is quick to scoop the ball from its low bounce along the ground before Trixie can get the basket in the way. A sharp underwing flick rockets the ball straight back to Applejack. The earth pony drops down, a flailing kick before Doug can recover from his lunge. Shining Armor’s horn flares as he tries to maneuver a shield close enough but the ball is too fast, Rarity swinging her basket to snag the wayward shot.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash grin as they bump hooves, trotting back to position. Doug pants as he wipes the dust off his hands and knees, doggedly getting back to the center. Behind him Shining Armor grunts, glancing to his dam as she walks up. A short exchange between the two gets Shining Armor moving towards the other end of the field, a grateful Trixie taking a break by Twilight Sparkle.
“Ooh, this is so exciting!” Velvet exclaims as she dons the orange vest Trixie left, cinching it tight. “So, how does this work?”
Doug huffs out between deep breaths, “As the honorary pegasus of the team, you try to block the balls Applejack bucks towards the goal, then pass me the ball.”
“O-kay!” Velvet crouches down as Granny Smith chucks the ball at the ground. On the bounce up Applejack swings a hoof forwards, Doug cautiously pulling his bruised arms away to try to block the immediate shot. The ball ricochets up and away but still towards Rarity, a high arc through the air. The sounds of mass scribbling comes from Sparkle and Night Light, the two watching intently.
Rarity levitates the basket up to catch the ball, though she huffs as Velvet’s cerise aura overtakes her light blue, deflecting the ball back towards the center of the arena. She groans as she starts shuffling her hooves, “You are going to make me work for this, aren’t you.” She daintily stretches one hoof, then another, watching as Applejack and Doug vie for position.
Doug reaches up, a single fist pounding the ball off to the side. Rainbow Dash yelps as she guesses the wrong way; Shining Armor sprints forward, the basket scraping the dirt as he scoops the ball up. Rainbow huffs off to the side, forelegs crossed as she returns to her starting position.
Doug cooly regards Twilight Velvet until the mare smiles at him, offering a hoof. He smiles back, bumping with a fist. “You make a pretty good pegasus,” he remarks with a smirk, a quick glance and wink towards Rainbow Dash.
“And you make a pretty good earth pony!” Velvet exclaims, her whole body vibrating with excitement. Her gaze shifts to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, “You two ready to get whaled on again in round two?”
“Oh yeah!” Rainbow Dash shouts, her wings buzzing. “Bring it on, Velvet!”
The game rapidly gets more intense between the six as Doug and Applejack play brutally against each other, hard sprints around the arena before knees and elbows jostle for position on nearly every pass. Soon Applejack holds nothing back, her hip checks against Doug every opportunity she gets going from playful to firm to downright Applebuckin’.
By the end of an hour the diving blocks and kicks leave Applejack and Doug completely covered with dirt from head to hoof. Rainbow Dash has fared no better, making multiple full speed dives into the ground in order to save goals from Shining Armor. The occasional dash from the three unicorns has left them comparatively clean, just a layer of sweat and dust on their white or gray coats.
They lost track of the score almost immediately, neither side bothering outside of who won the last, or possibly last streak, of points. Except for Twilight and Night Light, who have adapted differing versions of the Equestrian Hoofball statistical metric system to try to determine who is the most valuable player. Which mostly means they keep arguing minutiae until they are blue and purple in the face instead of purple and blue.
Rainbow Dash tackles Doug as soon as Granny Smith whistles that the game is over. Doug groans as he fails to cushion yet another fall on his sore muscles, yet quickly finds his mouth enveloped by Dash’s. “Now that’s what I’m talking about,” she sultrily says between sloppy, mud tainted kisses. “How hard you pushed yourself! The energy! The fierceness!”
Dash glances up with a frown at the other ponies that are still around them. At least Shining Armor, Granny Smith, and Applejack are walking back towards Sparkle and Night Light, pointedly looking in any direction but theirs. Trixie out cold on the ground. Rarity and Velvet, though… She snorts, her muzzle dropping back to Doug. Her hooves run over every inch of his body, lingering on the mottled bruises just beginning to darken to the same shade as the dirt streaks. She firmly presses into them as she presses her lips against his, a light moan rumbling in the back of her throat.
“Oh, golly, would the two of you like a little privacy?” Twilight Velvet asks with that same chipper smile always plastered on her muzzle, her eyes twinkling. She ignores Rainbow’s slight turn of the head and narrowed eye, “Oh, this takes me back to the time when little Twily was conceived. Her brother had been horsing around with some of the other guards. Well, they were all newbies at the time, not even joined Celestia’s Cadets!”
A loud groan comes from Twilight Sparkle, the unicorn slowly regaining her normal color as she huffs. “Dam! They don’t want to hear that story!” At Applejack’s raised eyebrow and cough she appends, “I don’t want you to tell them that story!”
“Aww, rats!” Velvet exclaims with a smirk, her eyes tracing over Rainbow’s forward facing ears. She winks, “We’ll have to squirrel away sometime, yak about it later.”
Rainbow grins at that, though her presses into Doug’s body have gotten less grinding and more kneading. She lightly kisses him again before pulling away, a hoof helping Doug get to his feet. Her wings and coat blur around her as she shakes the dirt off, a sheepish smile at Doug as he wipes the dirt out of his eyes. Velvet drops her hastily cast shield, the dirt falling to the ground.
Rarity nuzzles Doug and Rainbow, though her eyes cross at the slight streak of brown now studded on her nose. She smiles, shaking her head as the four walk towards the remaining ponies. “Oh, this takes me back,” she says with a glance to Velvet. She explains, “When Doug and I first met I couldn’t stand the dirt on those two ruffians. My first interaction with them was telling Rainbow to wash them both off! She did, of course,” Rarity pointedly looks at Rainbow, then at her nose, then back to Rainbow, “and ever since then we have all been the best of friends.” She coughs, getting Rainbow to turn and look at her, repeating the motions.
“Oh!” Rainbow says, briefly concentrating. A small cloud condenses in front of her, just large enough to mash into Rarity’s muzzle. She rubs the cloud around before pulling it away, roughly smacking it with a hoof and disippating the brown cloud. Her tail wraps around Doug’s arm, gentle stroking up and down.
“Mm,” Velvet grins, eyes fixed on the rainbow tail, “You better treat my Twily the same way, Doug. Give me lots of grandfoals!”
“Enough!” Sparkle shouts, throwing her hooves into the air, though she isn’t facing Velvet. “Without more data, this whole discussion is meaningless! It could all be statistical noise that we’re looking at, especially with such new players!” She huffs, “I’m going back to the library to record all this.”
“Oh, dearie,” exclaims Velvet, a brief flash of nervousness breaking her smile. “Are ya sure? Maybe we can all go down, take a quick dip in the pond?”
“Aww,” says Twilight Sparkle, glancing back towards Ponyville. She groans to herself before reluctantly saying, “I mean, I guess we can.”
“Yey!” exclaims Velvet, her smile beaming as she raises her forelegs to the heavens. “This is going to be so much fun!”
Velvet somehow buffaloes the rest into staying at the pond. Doug, accompanied by Rainbow, goes back to the farmhouse to retrieve some of his work materials. After about twice as long as it should have taken they return, joining the others for the next several hours, just relaxing and sunbathing in the warm air. Over time they are joined by various fillies of the herd, Rainbow getting up to chase Scootaloo around.
It isn’t until Fluttershy, accompanied by Meringue, flies by with a wave to Velvet that the gray unicorn gets up. She walks over, sitting next to Sparkle. “Not that ya need me to tell ya, but you made a right smart choice there.” She nuzzles her filly, Sparkle beaming up at her. “You go and make me the proudest damn dam there is, ya here?”
Twilight Sparkle gasps at her dam’s choice of words, quickly recovering. “O-okay. I will.”
“Good.” Velvet briefly relaxes before she gets back up. “We better be heading back to catch the train. Now, Princess Celestia and I went halfsies on a gift for ya. You’ll find him back at the Library.” She winks at Sparkle, “And I betcha he’s a hoot!”