It was finally time. Rainbow Dash was going to put on a legitimate Buckball game at the army base.
They had a real ball, better and wider buckets, and they were going to play it inside the large mess hall with a perimeter of tables making up the field. The ball bounced a lot better on the mess hall’s floor than just the other clouds outside too and here they had hundreds of chairs for ponies to sit in if they didn’t feel like flying around and watching the whole time. Her squad had practiced well and both teams would’ve been legitimate opponents back in Equestria, even Crescent Moon took his duties as referee seriously.
The teams had mostly kept their same positions from the very first practice too, with only Skychaser and Flashbolt swapping positions. Rainbow Dash had a good sense for this kind of stuff so she wasn’t surprised that what she had chosen worked almost perfectly.
Now she could look out at all the other soldiers that had come to watch their game and just feel proud. She was happy, for them and for herself, that the soldiers were genuinely interested and they weren’t just being sheep for once and following the same routine everyday. It was kind of a trick since for the most part they didn’t know the game’s true origins but it was a step in the right direction. They trusted Rainbow Dash and they wanted to have some fun.
“Alright, are you guys ready for some Buckball!” She shouted to the assembled soldiers from the middle of the ring of tables.
It was an attempt to fire up the audience but they weren’t exactly sure if this was something that should be cheered for. All she got were a few half-hearted yells and woo-hoos. They had never really seen a game so even if it was something new they weren’t quite excited enough to cheer as if they were about to watch a major coliseum fight.
“Okaaay… we can work on that later,” Dash awkwardly grinned as she looked around the mess hall.
The soldiers looked like they still wanted things to begin already so Dash flew over to her squad that was huddled up on one side of the ring. None of them were wearing their armor of course but they didn’t have uniforms either. Rainbow wanted to requisition some from Snowshine and her sewing circle but she had thought about it too late. Next time, definitely. The best they could’ve done right now was togas or something but she didn’t see the point of that.
“Are you guys ready to go?” Rainbow asked the seven of them.
“I think so. There’s nothing really left to go over and we’re practiced enough,” Wild Wind answered for all of them. He glanced at the others. “Any objections?”
Flashbolt raised a hoof. “We never decided on what the score was to. Or if we’re playing on a time limit and whoever has the most points by the end wins.”
“Oh yeah, good point,” Rainbow Dash nodded. “Heh, hold on one second.”
Rainbow Dash flew up to the ceiling of the mess hall to get everyone’s attention. “Hey! The game is whoever scores three points first wins! So keep that in mind, better be on the edge of your seats when one team has two points and they’re about to win!” She flew back down and grinned at the seven participants. “Alright, get in there and get into position, then we can start!”
The others shrugged and did as she asked, with Wild Wind and Skychaser getting their buckets and moving to opposite ends of the court while Summer Rains and Clear Skies took up their Guard positions. Flashbolt, Fierce Current, and Crescent Moon walked out into the middle with Crescent holding onto the red, rubber ball that they’d be using. Clear had finally managed to bring one back from his house, with the promise to one of his younger little brothers that he’d eventually bring it back. Rainbow Dash flew around the ring of tables once to make sure it was sized perfectly and nothing else was off.
It looked ready. The other soldiers flying or sitting around it to watch looked ready. Her squad was ready. And she was ready.
“Okay! The game is about to begin!” She yelled and flew to the far side of the court from the doors to the mess hall, floating at the edge of the court between the two teams and giving herself a good vantage point. “Crescent!” She shouted down to the Lieutenant. “Throw that thing whenever you want and start us off!”
Crescent Moon looked up at her and nodded, a small smile on his face. He turned to face Flashbolt and Fierce Current while holding the ball between them. “I hope you two teams put on a fantastic first game of Buckball for the Empire.”
He threw the ball up high into the air and fluttered backwards to get out of their way.
Instantly the two Attackers shot up towards it, with Flashbolt making it to the ball a split second faster. However Fierce was right on him so he couldn’t easily get to his own bucket. Instead of trying to directly fly back and throw his ball, Flashbolt hit the ball to the ground with his wing and dove after it. Fierce Current wasn’t totally thrown off by this maneuver and he dove down to try and claim the ball on its bounce before Flashbolt could.
The audience watched as the two pegasi raced to the ground for the red ball. When it struck the floor it bounced two feet high, and at the apex of that bounce Flashbolt grabbed it and sharply turned up out of his dive to barely avoid hitting the floor. Fierce Current came up right on his tail but Flashbolt still now had a clear shot at his goal.
Or at least as clear as he was ever going to get with Summer Rains defending it.
Flashbolt frowned and flew side to side, trying to juke the defender out and trick him as to where he was going to throw the ball from, but Summer always kept his mind on where the basket Skychaser was holding was behind him.
Skychaser angled the basket low and Flashbolt threw the ball towards the ground, trying to bounce it at an angle so it would go right under Summer Rains and into the basket. Well unfortunately Summer Rains was too quick for that ploy, his tail lashed out below him and smacked the ball away from their team’s basket, towards Fierce Current. And now the other team was on the offensive.
“Tch,” Flashbolt clicked his tongue and flew after the cherry pegasus now.
Fierce didn’t play around or try anything sneaky maneuvers like Flashbolt did. He flew straight towards his basket even with Clear Skies floating right in front of it. At the last second he tossed the ball in front of his face and spun, smacking it with his wing and shooting it past and to the right of Clear Skies’ head. The speed the ball was propelled at by Fierce’s wing took Clear completely off guard. Wild Wind’s quick reflexes put him and the basket into the perfect position for the ball after the corporal predicted his teammate would do something like that.
And unfortunately Clear Skies was just a moment to slow to defend in time and the red ball slipped by him and into the basket.
The were a couple of cheers from the soldiers watching, some claps, some stomped hooves, as the first point was scored and the action momentarily stopped. Rainbow Dash had a big grin on her face as Crescent Moon went to retrieve the ball and get things started up again.
“Alright everybody so that was the first point!” She yelled across the mess hall. “Fierce Current, Summer Rains, and Wild Wind are up by one!”
She heard some mumbling from the crowd as they seemed to be getting into it more after seeing what a game was like.
Rainbow Dash grinned. “Next time I should get them to start making bets, really get them into it.”
Crescent Moon brought the ball and the two Attackers back to the middle again. He glanced at each team to make sure all six of them were ready and once all of them gave him a nod in acknowledgment the ball was thrown back into the air and the fight for the second point began. Rainbow Dash could tell that with their soldier nature they had to consciously hold back from getting a bit more physical as they fought over the ball. This time the two reached it at basically the same time and they kept swatting it up and around the air with their wings and hooves, neither able to get full control just yet and make a dive for their basket.
Finally Fierce was able to get the tips of one of his wings around it, but this time instead of going for his basket or anything like that he threw it straight towards Summer Rains.
The unorthodox strategy surprised even Rainbow Dash. Normally you wouldn’t want the ball anywhere near your opponent’s basket but with Summer’s reflexes he was able to safely catch it. Fierce Current then took off and Summer tossed the ball in the air towards him, now he’d have more room to make a run on their basket and evade Flashbolt.
“Funny that the team without the two cousins that do everything together has better teamwork,” Dash wryly noted to herself. “Maybe I should change the teams for next time.”
Fierce tried another strong launch of the ball at his basket but Clear Skies was better prepared now. The surprising throwing speed Fierce had wasn’t enough to get it past the large orange pegasus on this occasion. His wing blocked it and bounced the ball back onto the ground for Flashbolt to recover. The Attacker made it in quick time to grasp the ball and darted around the other way to take it back to his basket. Flashbolt didn’t just hold it though, he dribbled it as he flew, bouncing it from hoof to hoof off the ground. Maybe it was a ploy to confuse Summer Rains as to which hoof he would throw the ball from trying to score.
In the end it seemed like he was definitely going for confusion as on the final bounce he tilted his head down and headbutted it towards the goal. Summer’s eyes went wide as he saw the ball launched high over his head, where Skychaser was already flying to make sure the ball went into the basket.
“Not good enough,” Summer Rains narrowed his eyes and he flew up, barely hitting the ball just on the edge in time to make sure it didn’t go into the basket.
The deflected ball instead bounced off the ceiling and then back into the court. Both Attackers zoomed over as fast as they could to make sure they got the ball. Fierce Current’s recovery speed turned out to be better than Flashbolt’s and the cherry colored pegasus grabbed the ball that was practically the same color as him. With a grin he turned to take it back to his basket, determined to get it past Clear Skies this time.
Clear Skies was keeping a close eye on the ball while also listening intently to Wild Wind’s positioning behind him. He was pretty sure he had a good read on the situation. There was no way he was going to let another ball past him.
Or at least that was the thought until he heard a sudden swishing sound from behind him as Wild Wind threw the basket into the air and Fierce Current lobbed the ball into it, Wild Wind grabbing it back on the descent. Clear Skies too confused and surprised by the tactic to do anything about it.
“Wait. Is that even allowed?” The orange Defender frowned.
Wild Wind shrugged. Fierce shrugged as well. They had just done it because they wanted to get a point without thinking about if it was against the rules or not. The other three were similarly baffled.
So all eyes turned to the referee.
“Umm...” Crescent Moon looked back and forth between the two teams, obviously not a fan of being put on the spot like this. He may have been the ref but it’s not like he was any more familiar with the game than they were. Finally, he shrugged too. “Eh, I’ll allow it. Point to Wild Wind’s team, two to zero.”
Skychaser threw up his hooves in frustration as the crowd cheered the next point. Things weren’t looking good for his team.
“Heh,” Rainbow Dash chuckled as she watched. “Never went over anything like that but I guess there’s nothing wrong with it. If they can already fly around with the basket then why not? And back home it would be a unicorn floating it with magic anyways. This makes it more exciting!”
The possible final round began shortly after Crescent gathered up the ball again.
“So are we pretty much just making up rules as we go along?” Flashbolt asked him before the toss up.
“Well what do you expect? I’m not an expert, as long as it seems okay I’ll allow it. Just don’t fight each other,” Crescent said and threw the ball into the air for maybe the final time.
The two Attackers again shot for it with Flashbolt getting to it first and knocking it up so it bounced off the ceiling. Fierce Current wasn’t expecting him to do that so he fell behind trying to chase after the ball while Flashbolt went down for it. The cousin kicked it off the ground to his basket, forgoing anything else to make a quick attack and potentially take Summer Rains off guard. He definitely was surprised that his opponent was making such a straight-forward attack after the last two tries were a bit more unconventional. But at the same time Summer Rains was just too good of a defender.
The soldier easily blocked it with one of his legs and rocketed it back to Fierce Current. The attacker grinned as he got it, bouncing it between his front hooves as he flew towards his basket and the one defending it. Fierce gave it another strong throw as he tried to curve it around Clear’s body and into the basket. The rubber ball instead ended up bouncing off the wing of Clear as he successfully defended it this time around.
Both Attackers had to scramble for it again as it rolled across the floor. Crescent Moon made the smart move of flying up out of the way the moment the ball starting rolling close to him. Right before the ball rolled under one of the tables lining the court the two pegasi crashed down next to each other trying to get their hooves on it.
They didn’t look to be fighting or intentionally hitting each other so the ref wasn’t calling foul on anything. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but wince slightly, although there was still a smile on her face, this was a little more physical than the Buckball games back home got.
The other soldiers in the crowd seemed to be enjoying it though, the cheering had escalated and they were definitely far more into it than they had been at the start of the game.
Rainbow Dash would’ve cheered a little more too but she didn’t want to take sides, instead opting for some noncommittal hoots and yells.
Despite Flashbolt’s best efforts it ended up being Fierce Current that got the ball again. This was turning into even more of a one-sided affair with the dominance his team was showing. The cherry pegasus flew low to the ground with the ball in his hooves as he tried to score the final point his team would need for victory. Clear Skies of course really didn’t want to let another point in so he was practically mobbing the basket to make sure the final point didn’t get through.
“Sorry, Clear, but we’re ending this game right now!” Fierce shouted.
Clear narrowed his eyes as he heard Wild Wind moving behind him, glancing over his shoulder he saw the corporal still holding onto the basket. “You’re not going to get the same thing to work on me!”
Wild Wind flew up with the basket in hoof and Clear Skies mirrored him, constantly alternating his view between basket and ball, not blinking for even a second. If Wild Wind threw the basket again or if Fierce tried another one of his high-powered throws Clear Skies was certain he’d be able to react in time.
So instead of throwing it or trying to out-fly Clear Skies, Wild Wind calmly dropped the basket onto the ground while blankly staring at the orange pegasus.
“What?” Clear Skies stuttered as Fierce gently lobbed the ball into the wobbling basket.
It was a rather anti-climactic ending and the silence of the audience reflected that.
Crescent Moon blinked a few times at the basket before he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. “Oh, right. Er—point to the uh, that team, they win!” He shouted.
“Wooh!” Fierce Current cheered and flew over to Wild Wind, the two of them hoof-bumping.
“Dang,” Clear Skies frowned.
Now with the official word that the match had ended the audience… didn’t quite erupt but they were much more celebratory and excited to see the victors. There was some more cheering and clapping from the crowd and Rainbow Dash smiled as she flew down into the center of the court while the rest of the squad gathered together as well.
“Well how did you like that?” Rainbow Dash said to the whole crowd in the mess hall. “Things’ll get even better once everyone has more experience and we iron out the rules some too. I know you guys will be excited to see a really high-level game with every player flying around and going crazy!”
“Sorry it couldn’t last longer,” Flashbolt cynically said as well.
“Yeah, we got destroyed, three-zero!” Skychaser scoffed as he walked up to his cousin.
“Better luck next time!” One of the soldiers watching yelled out to the players, starting a good-natured round of laughter and cheering while Skychaser blushed.
Rainbow Dash grinned. “That’s right! There’s gonna be a next time, count on it!”
The eight members of Rainbow Dash’s squad shared a few hoof-bumps and wingshakes between each other while the rest of the soldiers in the mess hall talked about the fun event they had just witnessed. It may not have been perfect, and there were some definite bumps, but Rainbow Dash was really proud of what she had accomplished. She’d keep pushing it too, push it until there was a Buckball game going on in the coliseum. If she happened to be here for that long. She was pretty proud of her friends too. Regardless of how long she was here or what else she could do she had planted the seed in all of them, changed them for the better, that alone was worth a lot.
Ashen Evening was a soldier of no special standing, nor ability, nor appearance. The pale grey and black pegasus was the definition of an average and loyal soldier to his superiors. And of course, Commander Blizzard was most superior of all. Because of his low station and middling abilities he never thought he’d be personally tasked with anything nor that he would ever have to stand before the Commander himself in all his glory and terror.
The Commander gazed down at him with cold eyes, but Ashen could see past the surface and into the anger that those eyes contained. Anger that was barely contained. The soldier was afraid to speak at all, worried that a single word would set the invincible Commander off and he could say goodbye to his unremarkable life.
“What-” the Commander started in a deceptively calm voice. “Is Buckball?”
It was an almost comical question. The Commander of the Eternal Pegasus Empire asking about a silly sport that some pony from Equestria had taught them. But Ashen Evening found absolutely nothing humorous about the question.
“It’s a sport from Equestria that Rainbow Dash taught her squad. They recently had a game in the mess hall,” he answered.
Blizzard’s left eye twitched. “From Equestria? She is supposed to be forbidden from teaching anything about that accursed land. Does she no longer care about the consequences?” He stared ahead in deep thought.
Ashen Evening’s wings shuffled about uncomfortably. Biting his lip he spoke up again. “Umm… there’s something else, sir.”
The Commander’s eyes darted back to the soldier without the rest of his face so much as moving. “What?”
“I heard that supposedly… the game was originally played with a pegasus, earth pony, and unicorn all playing and working together on the same team. That’s the rumor,” Ashen Evening squeaked out.
At first it seemed like there was no reaction from the Commander, but as Ashen stood there he noticed the Commander’s body quaking and a low rumbling growl gaining in volume pouring up from his throat. A grinding sound broke out as Blizzard threatened to crush his own teeth into dust out of anger and his eyes began to bug out in his head.
Ashen Evening was fairly certain he was about to be killed.
“That… that—how dare she. How dare she do this!” Blizzard thundered, his wings shot open and the whirlwind they brought forth shattered the windows of the office while Ashen Evening was thrown backwards. “You disgusting traitorous Equestrian! I let you live your life here, I gave you more freedom than you deserved, and yet you betray me like this?! It wasn’t enough that you hold onto your pathetic ideals but you have to try and destroy my Empire too?!” He nearly frothed at the mouth as he raged, muscles clenching, veins popping out of his neck. “This will not stand! You have crossed the line, Rainbow Dash!”