//------------------------------//
// Chapter Eleven: Competition 
// Story: CRISIS: Equestria - Divergence 
// by GanonFLCL 
//------------------------------//

A turquoise pegasus stallion with a stark white mane, which he kept slicked back and relatively short, walked through the streets of Mid-South's Central Plaza. It was late morning, which meant the streets were busy and the airways already cluttered with traffic. He'd made good time getting here all the way from Mid-East's West Square, so he didn't mind walking the rest of the way to his destination: the Central Plaza Recreation Center.

It wasn't far from where he was now, actually; he could already see it just up ahead, a large, two-story building that could house a fully-stocked gymnasium and plenty of room for local ponies to participate in all sorts of activities and sports. Most of the city's rec centers were large enough to at the very least include a skyball court, since they could be converted into other sport courts easily.

He adjusted his faded sport jacket and tie and entered into the building, making straight for the aforementioned skyball court. He had some reliable information that if he came here today and watched one of the early local pick-up games, he'd find some new talent for the Mid-East Rockets. Normally he preferred to scout new talent himself, but Lockwood had been rather insistent that he show up, and Lockwood had always been a rather pleasant acquaintance, so he felt he'd give him the benefit of the doubt.

The first game of the day—there were always plenty more—hadn't started just yet, but he could see the two teams beginning to form up; it wasn't exactly a neat or organized process, since pegasi just walked up to one of the two teams and asked if they could join in, but what could you do? He was used to watching these games unfold, sometimes with players switching out at random because some pegasus in the crowd wanted to play, or one of the players had to leave. 

Everypony was wearing simple jerseys or exercise shirts, either their own or ones that they rented from the establishment. That was a more recent development, actually, the results of a number of charity drives to fund the rec centers so they could provide comfortable clothes for visitors that lacked their own. He'd shown up at some of those fundraisers himself; the catering was always fantastic.

He took a seat in the bleachers, separating himself from the other ponies that had gathered to watch the game. He scanned the current selection of players to see if he could spot anypony that stood out to him; Lockwood hadn't given a physical description of who he was supposed to be watching, just said that "he'd know her when he saw her", so that at least narrowed it down to a mare. That helped things a little bit, since there were only about four mares taking the field at the moment.

"Well well well, look who showed up," came a voice all too familiar to him. "Rainslick, how are ya? So desperate to find another loser to fill out your team that you're jumping District lines?"

The stallion—Rainslick—groaned and turned to see another pegasus stallion, this one with a broader build. The other stallion's coat was charcoal gray, his mane a silvery blue that he kept in a trim crew cut; he also wore a sport jacket and tie, though his were in much nicer condition and clearly cost much more money. If he didn't hate the other stallion's guts so much, he'd find him attractive.

"Thunder Guns! Hey, good to see you!" Rainslick lied, putting on his best fake smile. "I don't know anything about finding 'losers'. Why, if I was here to pick some of those up, I'd ask why you're here."

Thunder chuckled. "Oh, if there are any good players here, I'd be sure to snag them up before you could even breathe. You'll just have to pick up the sloppy seconds. But I'm sure you're used to that."

Rainslick barely contained a snarl. "Looking good, by the way. That is a nice jacket. It probably looked better in your wife's closet, though."

"Ah ah, look, but don't touch," Thunder said as he straightened the jacket, giving off a cocky smile, either unbothered by the quip or oblivious to it. "Wish I could say the same for yours. Did you get that rag of yours out of the city landfill? Oh no, don't tell me you bought it? I mean, I guess that's all you can afford on the kind of salary the Rockets pay you: third-hoof rejects. Just like your team."

"Oh, I make due," Rainslick said, keeping his teeth clenched so that the words he wanted to say would stay down. "But really, what are you doing here? I thought your team was already filled out for the season?"

"It is, but I like to keep my options open. You never know when you might find a good reserve pick to keep in the wings, right?" Thunder clapped Rainslick on the shoulder. "But you wouldn't know anything about that. You barely manage to field a full team some seasons. It's a shame, really."

"Be a lot easier if we didn't have certain other teams poaching our talent," Rainslick quipped.

Thunder hoof dug into Rainslick's shoulder. "Oh, careful there Rainslick. You wouldn't want to be throwing around base accusations without any proof now, would you? You know that poaching talent is against league rules and is a serious allegation."

Rainslick glared at Thunder. "Yes, I'm sure that all of my best players over the past eight years have just decided entirely on their own whims to violate their contracts and sign with the team that could afford to pay them off. Silly me, why would I think anything else?"

"That's a good colt."

A whistle sounded from the court below, signaling that the game was finally underway.

"Well, I'll leave you to your… work," Thunder said with that same cocky grin of his that Rainslick hated oh so much. He then strode off down the bleachers to take a seat, also separating himself from the others in the crowd.

"Pompous ass," Rainslick muttered under his breath. "It's always the good-looking ones."

He turned his attention to the game now, and watched to see which of these mares was supposed to be this potential star talent that Lockwood had indicated that he absolutely needed to see so badly that he had to dirty his hooves in Thunder Guns' territory.

Luckily, it didn't take long to figure it out.

The cyan-coated mare with a rainbow-colored mane was both impossible to miss and impossible to see at the same time. Basically, she was moving so quickly through the air above the court floor that it was hard for Rainslick to keep track of her, but during the brief lulls in action or whenever she wasn't in possession of the ball, he could see her clear as day. 

Rainslick had been a talent scout for a decade at this point, and he had never seen a pegasus move like this before.

For one thing, she was quick, that was easy enough to notice; all anypony could see was a blue-and-rainbow blur streaking across the court to gain possession of the ball whenever it was fumbled. She was fast enough to save her team from fumbled penalties even when the ball was down in the red zone—the portion of the court closest to the ground where the ball was still in legal play, so-named because a fumble was guaranteed to result in a penalty. She even did it from the other side of the field more than once.

For another thing, she was coordinated. There were plenty of fast flyers in the sport—it was practically required of any pegasus who wanted to play in the striker position—but only the best strikers could play keep-away for more than a few seconds from even an average blocker. It wasn't a simple matter of holding onto the ball, since strikers had to dribble or pass it if they wanted to move more than five feet at a time. But this mare was so quick that she was able to perform feints that Rainslick had only seen in professional games.

She was a surprisingly good team player, too, a rarity amongst players with that kind of talent. Sure, the other two strikers on her team weren't anywhere near as fast or dextrous as she was, but she passed the ball to them all the same when one the better opposing three blockers managed to keep her cornered. Sure, the other strikers often only kept possession for a few moments—that was the nature of the sport—but then the blue-and-rainbow blur was always quick to recover it.

By the end of the first period, Rainslick was positive that this rainbow-maned mare was the one that Lockwood had suggested he come and see.

A glance towards Thunder Guns told Rainslick that he'd obviously noticed the mare's talent as well, which Rainslick knew did not bode well. Even if this mare was friends with Lockwood, would she pass up an opportunity to play with Thunder's team just because Rainslick knew Lockwood? He certainly hoped so; Lockwood was always a good judge of character, after all. He still needed to talk to her first, before Thunder did.

As expected, in between periods there were a few players here and there that left the field to go do something else. Others would move in to replace them, of course, typically because pickup games cycled players in rotations to give everypony a shot. The rainbow mare stayed on her team's lineup, though; even if this was just a friendly pick-up game, that team clearly saw they had a better chance to win with her on the field.

When the second period finally got started, it proceeded much as the first period had, at least for a few moments: the blue-and-rainbow blur got possession of the ball almost immediately and went about setting her team up for points, kicking the ball into the centermost ring of the opposing team's goal to earn the most points possible. 

Then, on the next play, the game changed completely.

One of the opposing blockers actually managed to tackle the rainbow mare, taking possession away and costing the rainbow mare's team a fumble penalty for the first time of the game. Neither of the rainbow mare's striker teammates were fast enough to reacquire possession, and the opposing strikers went with the tried-and-true strategy of letting the ball hit the floor so their opponents would lose a point.

The new blocker hadn't been playing during the first period, which Rainslick found to be a shame since if she had, her team wouldn't have the frankly embarrassing point deficit they did at the moment. She was a sporty red mare with a black mane with a streak of white through the middle, a somewhat scrawny-looking thing but looks were apparently deceiving, because she packed a lot of punch.

Now, the game got much more interesting. 

Until now it had basically been a standard game of skyball with one really good player making lots of outstanding plays, and thus the game itself wasn't very fun to watch. The rainbow mare was too quick for the blockers to catch, too nimble to screw up a dribble or a pass, too accurate to miss even the harder centermost goal ring.

Then this new mare entered the fray and turned the game from a team sport into essentially a one-on-one match. 

The rainbow mare zipped around the court in an attempt to keep away from the red-and-black mare. Ball passes were becoming increasingly rarer as red-and-black was attentive enough to keep the ball in rainbow mare's possession, since she could outrace any pass and tackle the target of said pass; rainbow mare had to keep the ball with her to avoid losing control of the court.

The rainbow mare was certainly faster, enough to keep her opponent from completely dominating her at every turn, but one mistake was all she needed to lose control. So now the game had become this fascinating back-and-forth as the pair constantly one-upped one another. 

Rainbow mare would feint to get around red-and-black long enough to either get the ball into the goal or otherwise pass it to somepony else if only for a brief moment; other times, red-and-black would spot the feint coming and tackle rainbow mare hard, and nopony on rainbow mare's team was quick enough to regain possession.

Still, none of the red-and-black mare's team strikers were anywhere near quick enough to gain possession of the ball after penalties and scores. It wasn't their fault, of course; they couldn't have known that they, a bunch of casual amateurs, were thrown into a game with two mares that could be in the pro league.

Best of all, it didn't take long for the two mares to start trash-talking one another like a pair of colts on the schoolyard. It was an essential part of the game, after all, but typically one couldn't hear it over the crowds. These two were loud enough that everypony could hear it.

"Too slow, shorty!" called rainbow mare as she twisted around red-and-black in a truly masterful feint, tossing the ball up and over her opponent in a fake pass to catch it behind her. "If you were any slower, you'd be moving backwards!"

A goal was scored for rainbow mare's team, the ball was reset, and the game continued.

"You'd have a better chance scoring with your dad, chump!" red-and-black shouted after she tackled rainbow mare hard around mid-court, barely avoiding a penalty for an illegal tackle.

The ball hit the floor, the rainbow mare's team lost a point, the ball was reset, and the game continued.

"Boom!" the rainbow mare cheered after she scored another perfect goal directly through the center ring. She got right in red-and-black's face. "The trash gets picked up tomorrow, shrimp! You'd better be ready."

The ball was reset, and the game continued.

Red-and-black tackled the rainbow mare later in the period, causing yet another fumble penalty to deduct from the rainbow mare's team. "I think I must've heard dinner bells, dork, 'cause your ass just got served!"

The ball was reset, and the game continued.

It went on like this for the remainder of the game, and despite the fact that this was just an amatuer pickup game held in a rec center in front of maybe two dozen ponies at best, it was probably the most entertaining game Rainslick had seen in years. The quips fired back and forth between the two alone could fill a book.

He wasn't sure which of these two mares had been the one that Lockwood wanted him to see, and that really didn't matter anymore. The rainbow one was the best striker he'd ever witnessed outside of professional play, faster than the eye could see; the red-and-black one was easily as good as some of the pro blockers despite her size, quicker even than most strikers and super aggressive.

Rainslick knew then and there that if he could get them both on his team, well, that'd just be perfect.

But a glance in Thunder Guns' direction told Rainslick that the other stallion was clearly thinking the same thing. If the other scout got to them first, Rainslick knew he'd never have a chance to recruit them, and worse, they'd be on an opposing team for the entire upcoming season; the Rockets would have yet another losing season for sure, no question about that, and that was if he could even field a full team.

So he knew that he had to figure out something, fast. The fourth period was nearly ending, and Thunder Guns, ever the professional even if he was an underhanded slug, would be waiting to approach them after they'd had a chance to shower and change after the game was done. Rainslick had to get to them first, or he'd be screwed.

With a glance towards the mares’ locker room door on the opposite end of the court, Rainslick came up with an idea. A risky, horrible, wonderful idea.


*****


Rainbow dried her mane out with a towel after leaving the locker room showers, thankful that they were free to use since she hadn't brought her own. She'd worked up quite a sweat out on the court, much more than she'd been expecting to, and so had actually opted to shower up a bit after the game. 

It felt good, actually, to get cleaned up in a proper shower; she hadn't bathed since before that stupid portal had whisked her and her friends away, and hadn't found the time to do so since arriving, not with all six of them living the same cramped apartment. Part of that was Rarity insisting on being clean herself and spending too long in the bathroom; part of it was that there just hadn't been an opportunity; part of it was wanting the others who needed it to use it to make good first impressions at their new jobs today.

Let nopony say that Rainbow didn't care about her friends.

Rainbow had thought she'd been the last one to leave, if only because she'd taken a longer time to clean up and relax, but apparently she was wrong. When she approached her locker, clad in nothing but a damp towel around her neck, she saw that another mare was using the locker across from hers; well, not her locker, since it wasn't like they were labeled or anything, but the one that Rainbow had rented. 

It was that red-coated mare with the skunk-like mane from out on the skyball court. The other mare had also showered up—Rainbow hadn't been looking while showering herself, and the showers were actually pretty big—and was currently drying off her wings. Rainbow couldn't help but check her out, even if just for a second; the other mare had a lean, athletic figure like Rainbow did, but she was a few inches shorter.

The other mare noticed Rainbow's arrival, and her mouth curled in a little grin, but she just kept going about drying off. "Oh, hey. I thought I was the last one here."

"Yeah, same," Rainbow replied.

"Hey, you were out on the field with me, right? Striker position? Good game out there."

Rainbow smirked. "'Good'? We beat you guys by like thirty points."

"Pfft, yeah, but that's only because I wasn't in the game during the first period," the other mare scoffed, twisting her towel to clean out her ears. "You'd have never scored so many points if I'd been blocking you all game, lamewad."

"Keep dreaming, shortstack," Rainbow mocked, tossing her towel into a bin designated for dirty rental laundry. "If you were in charge of blocking me all game, I'd be in the Hall of Fame by morning. They'd tell stories about the schooling I gave you."

"Ha! You're yesterday's news, dipstick," said the other mare as she got right in Rainbow's face, strangely unbothered by the fact that they were both naked; Rainbow didn't mind, but she thought ponies from around here did. "Maybe you oughta find out when the cheerleader tryouts are, see how you look in pom-poms and a skirt. The only balls you oughta be handling are in the stallions' locker room."

Rainbow paused, then smirked; this other mare had one hell of a mouth on her, that was for sure, and Rainbow loved having a verbal sparring partner that didn't shy away from dishing it out full throttle. "You know what, you're alright, dude. What's your name?"

"Havoc," the other mare said, offering her hoof. "You?"

"Rainbow Dash," Rainbow replied, shaking the other mare's hoof. "Good game out there, though, really. I mean it. You hit like a train for such a little filly. You're sure you're old enough to play?"

Havoc rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, you know dynamite comes in small packages, right? That's me: dynamite city." She grinned, patting Rainbow on the shoulder. "You're not a bad striker, though. I've never met anypony faster than me, but damn if you didn't make me work for those tackles."

"Yeah, not to toot my own horn, but you're looking at the fastest flyer in Equestria," Rainbow said, a smug grin on her face. "If you want my autograph, though, you're gonna have to get in line."

"Heh, your ass must get jealous of all that shit coming outta your mouth," Havoc retorted.

"Ooh, nice one. Not often I meet anypony that smack talks like you do and actually backs it up."

"Same to you, Rainbow… Crash," Havoc said, looking mighty proud of herself.

Rainbow snorted. "Yeah, never heard that before. I take it back, your smack talk sucks."

"Aww, what? Somepony else used that already? Damn. Sorry, it was just off the top of my head. How about Painbow Dash?"

"Heard it."

Havoc tapped her chin. "Rainbutt Dash? Does that sound too forced?"

"A little."

"Ooh, here we go: Rainbow Ass."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Sounds more like you're complimenting my awesome butt. I don't have a problem if you were checking me out in the shower; I am pretty hot."

Havoc stuck out her tongue. "Whoa whoa, no, that's not— ugh! Dammit, why'd the easy ones already get taken?" She jabbed her hoof in Rainbow's chest. "I'll think of a better one, don't you worry. I just need some more material to work with."

"Well, just don't hurt your brain trying to come up with something clever," Rainbow chuckled. "It's not really fair that I can't do the same for your name. I mean… 'Havoc'. Cool name, seriously, but I've got nothing to work with there."

"Yeah? Tough shit."

A cough from nearby drew their attention to a turquoise pegasus stallion with a stark white mane wearing a faded sport jacket. "Excuse me, ladies, if I could just have a moment of your time—"

"Dude! What the fuck?!" Havoc snapped, her face somehow getting redder and throwing her towel over her flanks. "Get out of here, you fucking perv!"

Rainbow was quick to close the distance between herself and the stallion, lifting him off the ground a little with one hoof and pushing him against the wall. Nudity taboo or no, this was the mares' locker room, which meant mares only, which meant this guy was snooping around where he didn't belong. Even in her own world, this guy would be deserving of a butt-kicking.

"What's the big idea, huh?" she asked him, angling her other hoof to clock him across the jaw. "Nosing around in the mares' locker room? Hoping to catch a look at us showering or something?"

"Whoa whoa, let's calm down now," the stallion said, holding up his hooves defensively. "You've got me all wrong—"

"Deck him, Dash!" Havoc snarled, grabbing her clothes out of her locker; Rainbow noticed it was a black varsity jacket with white sleeves and a big letter H on the chest. "Break his jaw! Break his nose! Feed him his own teeth for lunch!"

"H-hang on! It's not what you think!"

"Yeah? Well then how about you explain it to me?" Rainbow said, moving her free hoof slightly to make him flinch. "Give me one good reason. If I don't like your story, you're getting a hoof sandwich."

"Okay, okay, let's not get too hasty here," the stallion said. "First of all, no, I am definitely not here to snoop around and peek at mares for any reason whatsoever. Mares aren't my thing, alright? I prefer stallions."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Oh sure, good excuse. So what, you think if you say that you're gay that we're just gonna let you peek at our privates? 'Oh, it's alright, he's gay, we'll let him touch us because he'd never do anything funny'. Sounds like the plot to a weak porno."

"Yeah yeah, like he gets a peek at us and 'sees the light' or whatever and asks us to help him 'cure the gay away'?" Havoc suggested, rolling her eyes. "Nice try, dude, but I've seen that one. We're not that gullible."

"N-no, that's not what I'm getting at," the stallion said. "I'm not here to gawk at mares, I swear. I'm specifically here because of you two, actually."

"What, like you're some kind of stalker?" Havoc asked, teeth clenched, approaching the stallion as well and prodding him in the chest. "Yeah, that sounds way better."

"What? No! No no, you've got it all wrong. Look, my name's Rainslick. I'm a talent scout for the Mid-East Rockets, a semi-pro skyball team, and a friend of mine called me last night and told me there would be some talent here at a pickup game that I should see and would be interested in."

Rainbow raised her eyebrow. "Oh yeah? Who's this 'friend' of yours?"

"Lockwood. Do you know him? One of you has to."

Rainbow relaxed her grip just a little. "Yeah, I know him. He said he'd let somepony know to be here to check me out on the court today. On the court," she emphasized, poking him in the chest, "not in the locker room. What are you doing here? You could've waited outside instead of spying on us like a pervert."

"W-well, you see, there's a rival team's scout out there that I know would probably be interested in picking you girls up for his team. I… I had to at least try to talk to you first so that I could give my team a chance to hire you. If you're interested?"

"Pfft," Havoc scoffed. "Let me get this straight: you snuck into the mares' locker room and surprised us while we were naked just so you could try and recruit us to your skyball team?"

"That's exactly right."

"I'm not buying it. You know that sounds incredibly stupid, right? Right on back to the cheesy porno idea. ‘Oh yeah, you can join my team but you gotta let me tap that first’. Seen that one, too."

"I didn't have a choice! Thunder Guns would push me right out of the way to talk to you first, and then I'd never have a chance to try." He hung his head and sighed. "Look, if you don't want to play for the Rockets, fine, I understand, and I have nopony but myself to blame. But if I didn't at least try, I'd be just as much to blame for that too. You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take."

Havoc rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. As if we'd—"

"You said you were friends with Lockwood, right?" Rainbow asked.

Ranislick nodded. "Yeah?"

She let him off the wall and offered her hoof for him to shake. "Count me in then. You've got yourself a new striker."

He stared at her hoof, wide-eyed. "R-really?"

"Yo, Dash, what gives?" Havoc blurted, looking between the two like Rainbow was crazy. "This is skeezy as all hell. You're buying this dude's bullshit just like that?"

Rainbow turned to Havoc and grinned. "Look, this Lockwood guy I know seems to be on the up-and-up so far. I don't really trust him just yet, but my friends do, and they're giving him a chance to help us try and settle into things. I figure I might as well give him a shot, and I'd be a real jerk to spit on his friend's offer here and sign with a rival team. That's skeezy.

"Even though Mister Peepers here did sneak into the locker room just to make the offer," she noted, turning back to Rainslick. "I'm willing to look past that. But I'm warning you now, bucko, if you tried that whole 'I'm gay' excuse on us and it turns out you're lying, you're gonna have to call a proctologist to get my horseshoes out of your butt. Got it?"

Rainslick grinned. "Deal." He took her hoof in his and gave it a brisk shake. "Welcome to the Mid-East Rockets. I'll have a contract drawn up once I get back to office and get in touch with you for signatures and such." He then turned to Havoc. "How about you, Miss?"

"Me?" Havoc asked, pointing at herself, lost. "I'm not friends with this Lockwood guy like she is."

"Irrelevant. I saw you—both of you—on the court today, and you were both some of the most amazing players I've ever seen. I'd be a damn fool to pass up a chance to sign both of you. Until this moment I didn't even know which of you knew Lockwood, anyway."

"You want to sign me to the team too? Really?"

"Yes, really. Having the two of you on the team—an ace striker and an ace blocker—might just propel us straight into the playoffs. If you're interested, the offer's open. I won't force you into it or anything."

Rainbow smirked and nudged Havoc gently. "C'mon, Havoc. What's the harm? Hey, look at it this way: we'll get a chance to play together some more, and on the same team even! How cool is that?"

Havoc tapped her chin, then nodded. 'Yeah… yeah, alright, I'll do it. I've got nothing better to do with my time, and getting to hang out with this spaz," she said, gesturing at Rainbow, "sounds like it might be fun."

"Fantastic!" Rainslick exclaimed, a wide smile on his face. "Oh man, this is just what the Rockets needed. Wait until I tell the team. Thank you. Both of you," he said, shaking Rainbow's hoof then Havoc's. "Let's set an appointment for tomorrow afternoon, say, two-o'-clock, at the team headquarters. We're located in the Mid-East's West Square."

"Sounds good to me," Rainbow said with a nod.

"Yeah, I'll see you there, I guess," Havoc agreed.

"Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'll see you two later, then. Thank you!" Rainslick waved and made his way for the exit, being careful not to let anypony see him leaving the mares' locker room.

"Huh. Well that was interesting," Rainbow said with a shrug. "So I guess we're teammates now?"

Havoc nodded. "Yeah, guess so. Neat. Oh, and Dash?" she added, averting her gaze.

"Yeah?"

"Put some fucking clothes on already."

Rainbow glanced down, realizing she was still nude. "Oh. Right."