Dash sat in the locker room in her hoofball gear. She took a breath as her hooves rubbed against each other nervously. 'Today is the day. My day.' Dash told herself. She glanced over at Gilda, who sat nearby steadfast. Gilda turned her head to her and smiled cooly with confidence. Dash faked the same look. 'All my hard work is for nothing, all my team's work is for nothing if we don't win this.' Dash's shoulder's felt heavy and she felt like throwing up, but she hid it will.
"Rainbow Dash! You've got a visitor. Make it quick please." Coach Star called out.
Finding the callout odd at first Dash then realized it could only be one pony. Dash hurried to the door and into the hall. Rarity stood in before her in a Junior Speedsters' jersey. "What are you wearing?" Dash almost laughed not believing Rarity was wearing something so not her style as she would probably put it.
"it's who am I wearing. It's Dash. I could see it is becoming very popular here in Cloudsdale and I'm not one to miss out on a fashion trend. So . . . what do you think?" Rarity turned, showing off that the jersey indeed a Dash jersey with her name and number on it.
"Huh, well . . . I look good on you." Dash guessed was the appropriate answer, but couldn't help but show a cheeky smile.
Rarity froze, blushing. "Y-yes, well . . ." She stuttered then got back on track. "Dashie . . . I just wanted to let you know that you can do this. You and the rest of the Speedsters are going to win this. I believe in you."
"Thanks, Rarity. I know we'll win. This one's for you." Dash promised. Relief washed over her to know Rarity had faith in her.
"Oh? Well then, I'll see you after the game, and we can celebrate." Rarity said with a suggestive tone. She couldn't help but flirt a bit.
"Can't wait." Dash swallowed.
"Yes, me too. See you after the game."
"See ya." Dash watched Rarity's sway as she walked away. 'I gotta win this game.' She told herself.
* * *
It was slow going in the first half for the Speedsters. Dash and the rest of the offense spent most of their time watching from the bench. Largely thanks to short drives all ending in punts. Their opponents, the Earthquakes, were managing on the offensive end, putting up two touchdowns. It wasn't till late in the second quarter when the Junior Speedsters had their first good drive that was capped off with a short pass to a wide-open Dash in the endzone.
"Woo! We're still in this!" Dash cheered, racing over to Gilda for a celebratory hug.
"Our turn to take this game over now!" Gilda shouted over the cheers in return.
There wasn't enough time left on the clock for a response by the Earthquakes and the Speedsters went into halftime down seven but with the momentum on their side. The home team fans had their hopes up. They, Rarity included, let out a small breath of relief.
Spirits raised, the Speedsters went out to start the third quarter with high energy. A second good drive was stopped short for a field goal. The Earthquakes took a long drive down for a field goal of their own. Not to be discouraged, the Speedsters took the following possession aggressively. A pass from Gilda to Sunbeam was going big, he had taken it down to the redzone, suddenly turned disastrous. A big hit on Sunbeam knocked the ball out of his grasp. Dash was too far away to make a play on it and could only watch helplessly as an Earthquake defender fell on top of it. And while the Earthquakes failed to capitalize on the turnover, Dash had another painful scene unfold on their following possession. This time it was right in front of her. On a pass down the sideline to her, a safety jumped the route and intercepted the ball right before it reached her.
'Unbelievable!' Dash smacked the ground in frustration after the play was over and then headed for the sideline.
Their defense, with some big plays by Misty Dawn, stopped the Earthquakes from advancing the ball any. Now with a long way to get to the endzone and down seven, the clock had also become quite the issue as well. The bad news was that it was slow going and the minutes ticked off the clock.
Dash wiped the sweat away that was from both wear and stress. Pressed with little over a minute on the game clock, she had just made a catch that set them up in the redzone. Coming off a timeout they got set for the next play. A quick pass to Sunbeam, who got nowhere with it.
Gilda gave a nod to Dash in the next huddle. "Let's go for it." She said as quietly as she could while still being heard over the crowd.
Dash nodded sternly. At the snap, Dash raced for the endzone with a defender right on her. The ball still came her way but was a laser that soared overhead and out of reach. 'Buck!' Dash hurried back to the huddle.
"Fake to Nimble, who cuts a slant route to the right, pass to him." Gilda called it.
The play was a bust and the following huddle was short. Everyone goes endzone with only Nimble staying back at the first down marker. Dash knew chances were that the ball was going to come her way. Fourth down on a do-or-die play? It had to be her. At the snap Dash sped to the endzone and cut across it once inside before checking back for the pass . . .
* * *
"Oh no." Rarity gasped as Gilda never even got to make a play, taking a sack right before she could chuck it. Her eyes darted back to Dash who seemed frozen in place in the endzone, her and the crowd both stunned at the outcome.
"Such a shame." Hondo muttered as the Earthquakes' offense got set in victory formation.
"Poor Dashie . . . She must feel awful." Rarity said mostly to herself as she watched Dash head, not for the sideline but rather straight for the locker room. As she disappeared into the tunnel 'boos' filled the stadium as a knee down brought the game to a close. "I have to go check on her!" Rarity jumped from her seat and raced toward the halls.
"Okay! I'll be waiting by the main exit!" Hondo called after her.
Rarity spared no time getting to the locker room. She had broken a sweat when she turned the corner and came to a sudden halt when she caught a glimpse of Dash out of the corner of her eye. She wasn't by the locker room, but further down the hall where it was cloud-only. She was already out of uniform and clearly headed for the back exits. "Rainbow, wait!" Rarity cried out and Dash stopped a moment later. "Are you okay?" She asked just loud enough for her to hear. There was a long pause before Dash turned around. Rarity watched painfully as Dash broke down before her.
Her eyes flooded with tears, overflowing down her cheeks as she flew back to Rarity and threw her arms around her. She sobbed heavily into her shoulder.
Rarity was taken aback at first. She was in disbelief before she relaxed, putting her hoof around Dash in return and stroking her mane comfortingly. "Shhh . . . it's alright. Just let it all out." Rarity told her softly.
A minute or so passed before Dash spoke in a cracking voice. "I'm sorry Rarity. So sorry. I-I let you down. I let everypony down. I- . . ." Rainbow squeezed Rarity into a tight hug, unable to go on.
"Rainbow . . . you didn't let me down or anypony else." Rarity pushed Dash back a little to look her in the eye. "Dashie . . . I- . . . I love you, and anyone game won't change that." Dash didn't seem to react much to this and began to shrink back into Rarity's embrace just to have Rarity place a hoof on her cheek to keep their eye contact. "Nothing is going to change that." Rarity told her, tearing up herself.
Rainbow managed a smile. "Thank you." Dash whispered, holding her close.
Rarity nuzzled Dash. "Dash, I have to get going, but would you like to come with me?" Rarity asked pulling out of the hug.
"Uh . . . nah. I better go back and face the team." Dash said rubbing the back of her head embarrassed.
"Oh, okay. Don't be a stranger, okay? See you, darling." Rarity kissed Dash's cheek before walking away.
Dash took a moment to let that sink in before she returned to the locker room, where coach Star was trying to lift the mood as the team mourned their season.
* * *
The next day at school Dash was walking through the halls between classes. Her mind filled with thoughts about how horrible the game had gone. Not only had it been in awful loss where they had always been trailing the whole game, but after the game Rarity had told her she loved her. 'Like love loves me?' To think how badly she had wanted to hear her say those words. . . but it had all been wrong. 'I was supposed to win, be triumphant. Not a crying loser. I would rather pretend it had never happened.' Lost in thought as she rounded a corner, she bumped into the last two ponies she wanted to see; Hoops and Dumbbell.
"Nice going Rainbow Crash!" Hoops laughed insultingly and push Dash away.
"Yeah, you and your griffin marefriend blew it for us. Choking when it really counts like you always do." Dumbbell imitated the act of choking.
"Good thing we're keeping the basketball team on top!" Hoops added in.
They didn't let Dash reply as they bumped past her to go on their way. Dash scrawled, glaring after them. 'I'll show them. Next year will be different. This season is over and as far as I'm concerned, season two starts now.'