//------------------------------// // The Home Run // Story: The Greatest Slugger of Them All // by libertydude //------------------------------// “You were amazing!” Scootaloo screamed, hopping down the road. The path curved alongside the town of Ponyville, just skirting the city edges before ending near Lofty and Holiday’s home. The schoolhouse was already disappearing through the trees that followed the road. Lofty grinned at the bounding filly. The box and quilt balanced atop Lofty’s back, swaying with each step. “Tell me something I don’t know.” “But you were! Everypony was coming up to me afterwards telling me how awesome you were and if you could tell some more stories and-!” A sharp squeal escaped Scootaloo’s mouth. “Oh, it was great! Everypony was so excited!” “Everypony except a certain little filly with an affinity for tiaras?” Lofty said, eyebrow arched. Scootaloo scoffed. “Diamond Tiara was hiding with her tail between her legs. She didn’t even talk to Silver Spoon before she left.” “Really?” Lofty said incredulously. “I would’ve thought she’d be excited to see her friend Scootaloo was telling the truth about her Auntie Lofty and provide such a fun experience for the class.” “Blech!" Scootaloo gagged. "‘Fun’, ‘friend’, and ‘Diamond Tiara’ don’t even belong in the same sentence together.” Lofty shook her head. “Hopefully that will change one day. But for now, I think we succeeded in humbling her a little.” “Well, I won’t have to worry about her for a while.” Scootaloo hopped over a rock that jutted from the dirt road. “Applebloom’s family is going to be doing a harvest of Zap Apples over the next few days. Applebloom told me they just started sprouting. Not sure Applejack’s pride will let us help, but I want to be on call in case they need it.” Lofty smiled. “Awful considerate, Scoots! I’m sure they’ll love any extra help.” “Yeah.” Scootaloo nodded, then seemed to stare off in the distance. Her mouth moved, no words coming out, before she finally steeled herself. “Auntie Lofty,” she said, trotting beside her aunt. “Why didn’t you want to talk about baseball? I mean, last night, when I first asked you?” For a moment, silence pervaded the duo and the road they walked along. The sun, already starting to set, began to cast faint shadows across the land. Lofty was caught in the shifting gloom, and her firm face looked even more impenetrable to Scootaloo. “Remember last night when Aunt Holiday and I were talking about how there were a few stallions we knew before we knew each other?” Lofty finally said. Scootaloo nodded. “Well, it was one of those handsome stallions that led me to go into baseball, even though everything inside me told me I should be a quilter. He was that scout that saw me playing and told me to go to the Sluggers tryout.” She sighed. “And after that, we saw each other a whole lot since we were both with the team. And…I don’t know, I felt like I owed him something for getting me into baseball. He never said or acted like I did, but I felt that way all the same and…” Her mouth moved like a baby trying to say its first words. “Well, we were involved for a while. And it wasn’t bad, slugger. Really. It was actually nice to have someone involved in the same business you were and knew everything that came with it. He wouldn’t get mad if I stayed up late training or slept in after a grueling away series. And I wouldn’t get mad when he had to zip off to Vanhoover for a player or spend late nights at the office talking with the coaches. We understood each other.” She looked to the sky. “At least for a while.” “Did he…y’know, leave?” Scootaloo whispered. “We both left, Scoots. The exact same day, he and I woke up, looked at each other, and realized at the same time that we weren’t happy. We couldn’t say why at the time; we just weren’t. So we both got up, said goodbye, and left the same day. Haven’t seen each other a day since.” “You both just… left?” Scootaloo asked. “Yep.” Lofty stared over towards Ponyville, where the faint bustling of late afternoon shoppers filled the air. “I’d like to pretend that it was just me who was hurt. That he broke my heart. But that wasn’t true. We broke each other’s hearts, and that’s the worst thing to ever experience, Scoots. If it was just my fault, I could work to better myself. If it was just his fault, I could play the victim and move on knowing I did nothing wrong. But when it’s nopony’s fault, when it’s just two ponies who changed over five years and wake up one day to find they don’t love each other the way they should, everypony gets hurt.” Silence pervaded the duo for a few moments, only their soft steps in the dirt and the late afternoon chitters of the blue jays in the trees making any noise. Scootaloo still stared up at her aunt, waiting for the story to continue. Lofty gave a mirthless chuckle. “I guess that’s why I didn’t want to talk about baseball at first. I spent the last couple of years thinking baseball was the cause of all those problems, that it had forced me to change myself and dragged me into an unhappy relationship.” She shook her head. “But today, when I saw all your classmates light up when I talked about it, I remembered why I played it so much when I was a filly. Why I kept playing it for five years when I could’ve left anytime. It wasn’t for him, it was for me. And one day, both he and the game just weren’t for me anymore.” Her shoulders bobbed with a shrug. “That’s just how things are sometimes.” Scootaloo gave a subtle nod. “But you were able to find what was for you later. With quilting and Aunt Holiday, right?” Lofty smiled. “That’s right, Scoots. Quilting was always there for me, but Holly took some discovery on my part. That was fine though. I don’t think we would’ve loved each other the same way had we met earlier in life. I needed to discover myself a little more before I knew she was the one.” “I’m glad she was,” Scootaloo said, leaning her head on Lofty’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on having such a great aunt.” Lofty leaned down and kissed the top of Scootaloo’s head. “And I wouldn’t want to miss out on having such a great niece.” Scootaloo beamed and hopped in front of Lofty. “So now that you’re willing to talk about baseball again, are you willing to coach?” she said, walking backwards as she looked eagerly toward her aunt. Lofty guffawed. “Your classmates already begging for me to make them All-Stars?” “Nope,” Scootaloo said, a sly grin upon her face. “But I was hoping you could teach me a few pointers.” “I knew it,” Lofty sighed. “Already taking advantage of your poor old auntie. And after I’d poured my soul out no less!” “C’mon, Auntie Lofty! Pop Fly is still looking for a few fielders for a Ponyville Little League team, and maybe you can help me become good enough to get in.” Lofty gave an incredulous stare. “Did you not just hear my story? Chasing baseball for cute colts is a recipe for disaster.” “He is not cute!” Scootaloo hollered. “He’s cool, and I’m not chasing him! I’m chasing baseball!” Lofty shook her head, giving a deep sigh. “Oh, I suppose I could give you a few pointers. Celestia help me if you fall down the same rabbit hole I did.” “Yay!” Scootaloo squeaked. “Maybe I’ll get my cutie mark in fielding! Ooh, or maybe hitting! I could even get the next Slugger Silver too!” Lofty ruffled Scootaloo’s hair as their cottage came into sight, the golden light leaking from the windows and the distinct scent of Holiday’s gourmet bluegrass sandwiches beckoning them forward. “Maybe you could, slugger,” Lofty said. She gave a loving pat to the box on her back, its heavy contents no longer feeling like a burden. “Maybe you could.”