//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The Unexpected Player // Story: The Wonderbolts Cup // by Albi //------------------------------// Chapter 2: The Unexpected Player That night Ponyville town hall was filled with a plethora of pegasus ponies. Every stallion and mare who was a resident of Ponyville had shown up for the emergency meeting. Rainbow Dash was both flattered that the pegasi looked up to her like a leader, and impressed at how quickly they could gather on such a short notice. When she had made the fliers that afternoon she had expected some of her fellow pegasi to show up, but not all of them. Of course, she hadn’t exactly specified the details of the meeting. All of the papers she had printed simply said, “Super important emergency pegasi meeting!!! Please attend! (Snacks will be provided.)” Pinkie Pie had been all too willing to bake six dozen cupcakes despite the limited amount of time she had been given. “A pegasi party?! Oooh, oooh can I come too, pleeeease?” Since Rainbow Dash had felt a little guilty over asking Pinkie to bake such a tremendous order she had allowed the pink earth pony to join. She now sat in the back munching on her tasty treats. Dash made her way to the podium at the front of the room and cleared her throat for silence. The chatter amongst the ponies immediately died out and silence gripped the room. “Ahem, thank you all for coming on such short notice,” she began. “What’s wrong Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy who was sitting in the front of the audience asked, her voice quivering with fear. “Is there another hurricane coming?” “No,” Rainbow scoffed, “There’s no hurricane coming. The only way a hurricane could hit Ponyville is if we made it. No, the reason I have called all of you here today is for this.” She pulled out the tournament flyer from her saddlebag and held it up for all to see. “As I’m sure some of you know, the princesses are putting on a tournament for Skyball and each town is allowed to have one team. The winner of the tournament gets 1,000,000 bits in prize money and the chance of a lifetime; to play the sport of kings against The Wonderbolts!” Putting the flyer away, Dash began to pace the front of the room. “Of course all of you know it’s my lifelong dream to be a Wonderbolt, so this could be my perfect chance to really show ‘em what I’m made of. That’s all I want; for the eight who join me, the prize money is totally yours.” Well that wasn’t entirely true. Dash thought she might take a teeny tiny percent of it. Weather pony wages only paid for so much. “But it’s not just about that!” she continued. “Most of Equestria thinks Ponyville is just a one horse town next to the Everfree Forest! This is our chance to show everypony that there is greatness sleeping right here in this town! That the next generation of great fliers is gonna soar right out of Ponyville! I mean, you guys are great fliers aren’t you!?” There was a loud cheer of, “YEAH!” “That’s what I thought! This is our time to make history; Skyball’s no longer just a recreational activity or a college sport. The princesses are about to take this thing to the next level. There’ll be team from all over Equestria, and according to the flyer, maybe even all over the world! And we’re going to be the ones to bring home the glory first! Who wants to tell their grandkids that they won the first Skyball tournament?” There was a loud cheer. “Who wants to play for fame and fortune?” The cheers raised an octave. “Who wants to follow me down victory road and totally crush any team that gets in our way?” The crowd went nuts, cheering and stomping there hooves at the prospect of glory and fame. Rainbow Dash mentally patted herself on the back. Man, can I give a speech or what? She waited for the euphoria of the crowd to die down a little before she finished her speech. “Alright-y then, all teams have to sign up on August 10th, that’s a little more than three weeks from now so I’ll be having tryouts this Friday starting at nine o’clock on the dot. Bring your game face!” With that the meeting was adjourned and the pegasi began to clear out, all of the murmuring with excitement. Rainbow began heading out herself before she was stopped by a very bubbly Pinkie Pie. “Wow Dashie that was such a good speech! I totally felt super inspired to play with you so can I play huh, can I, can I?!” Dash blinked a few times. “Uhh, Pinkie, you’re not a pegasus so… yeah you kinda… can’t really play.” Pinkie stopped her bouncing and looked crestfallen for a moment. “Oh yeah.” Her smile returned in the blink of an eye and she began to bounce around again. “Oh well, maybe Princess Celestia will hold a Hoofball tournament I can play in instead.” Dash let out a breath of relief, glad to see that Pinkie didn’t take the revelation too hard. She motioned to leave again when she was stopped this time by Fluttershy. “Umm, Rainbow?” She turned around, “Oh, hey, ‘Shy. Did you like my awesome speech?” Fluttershy nodded, “Oh yes, I was very moved. Didn’t you hear me cheering with everypony else?” “Uh, of course I did,” Dash lied. It was well known fact that Fluttershy wasn’t the loudest pony around. “Anyways, did ya need something?” Fluttershy pawed the ground nervously, opening and closing her mouth repeatedly like she was trying to find the right words to say. “Um, well, you see… I was wondering if… you know if you don’t mind…” Dash gave a quiet groan. “’Shy, no offense, but could you tell me what you’re going to say sometime before midnight?” “Iwannaplayskyball,” she spilled in one breath before hiding her face in her mane. “Come again?” Fluttershy took a deep breath. “I want to p-play Skyball. On your team. I-if you don’t mind.” Rainbow Dash stared at Fluttershy for the longest time unable to fully comprehend what she had just heard. It was another well-known fact that Fluttershy wasn’t the bravest or the most outgoing pony around. Rainbow was glad she had showed up with everyone else, but she hadn’t expected Fluttershy to actually want to play. “Wait a minute, you want to play Skyball?” “Um, yes, that’s what I just said.” “Fluttershy, why in Equestria, would you want to play Skyball? Do you even know how to play?” Dash wasn’t even sure if Fluttershy had ever played in type of physical sport in her life. “Oh, well, I know the basic rules… and stuff,” Fluttershy said less than confidently. “Uh huh, “Dash nodded unconvinced. “And again, why would you want to play? You’re like, the least competitive pony I know.” Fluttershy took a deep breath, prepared to give her explanation. “Well, you remember my parents, right?” “Yeah, nice folks.” Like their daughter, Fluttershy’s parents were some of the nicest ponies you could find, but Rainbow Dash was having a hard time seeing what that had to do with anything. Fluttershy nervously rubbed her forelegs together. “You see, they retired to Baltimare last year and… well… you know what happened.” Rainbow gaped at her. “Oh geez, Fluttershy, that’s terrible. How much did they lose?” “In a word, um, everything.” Dash felt horrible. How could two of the nicest pegasi she had ever met lose everything? It wasn’t fair. Gentle Wing and Sunny Sky had always been quick to lend a wing to anypony in need. They had even let Rainbow stay with them when she and her own parent had had their… disagreement about Rainbow dropping out of school. To know that they were now homeless seemed like a pretty cruel joke by the universe. “I’m sorry ‘Shy, I can’t imagine what that must be like. Do they have a place to stay?” The yellow pegasus nodded. “Yes, they’re staying at a hotel until I can clear some space in my house. First I have to find some new home for my animal friends, but that shouldn’t take too long… I hope.” “Well that’s a relief,” Dash said, wiping some nervous sweat off her brow. “But I don’t see what that has to do with…” Her eyes widened as the last piece of the puzzle fell into place for her. “You want the prize money to give to your parents!” she cried with realization. Fluttershy nodded, “Yes.” “But wait,” Dash said, thinking aloud. “Won’t the relief fund help them out or something?” “Not exactly, the relief fund is more for the city itself than for everypony there. Everypony affected will get a small share, but I doubt it’ll be enough to cover everything that was lost.” Dash bowed her head. “I see,” she said solemnly. “Fluttershy, what you want to do is completely awesome and sweet of you and I’m sure your folks would be proud. But there are two problems with your idea. First of all, can you even play Skyball?” “Yes… no… kinda?” Fluttershy gave a sheepish grin. “’Shy-“Rainbow began until the other pegasus threw herself at Rainbow’s legs, pleading her case. “Oh, please let me play Rainbow, please, please, please. I’ll do whatever it takes, I’ll play any position; just let me help mom and dad pleeeease!” She looked up at Rainbow Dash with watery eyes. “See that’s the other thing, I kinda can’t just let you join the team; it wouldn’t be fair. You’d have to try out just like everypony else otherwise they’ll think I’m playing favorites.” Dash was moved by Fluttershy’s desire to help her family, but she was still an athlete who valued fair play. Fluttershy chocked out a soft sob. “B-but Rainbow-“ “Hold on, I’m not done yet,” she interrupted with wing since her hooves were occupied. “I can’t pick favorites come tryouts, and you can barely play the game in the first place. Clearly there’s only one solution to this.” Fluttershy’s eyes widened with fear believing that her dreams were about to be crushed in an instant. Dash looked down at her and smiled, “I’m just going to have to train you so hard, that I’ll be forced to pick you to join my team!” Fluttershy leapt up and threw her hooves around Dash’s neck. “Oh thank you Rainbow, thank you, thank you, thank you! And my parents will thank you too, just you wait! Oh, they’re going to be soooo happy!” she bubbled. “Hold on their girl,” Rainbow Dash choked. “First, you still need to make the team, and second, we need to actually win and that can’t happen if you kill me first.” Fluttershy let go and blushed furiously but was unable to stop smiling at her best friend. The smile was infectious; as Rainbow caught a case of the grins as well, sharing in her friend’s happiness. “Alright, ‘Shy, training starts tomorrow at nine, meet me in the southern field and be ready to work your flank off.” Dash was halfway to the door before she stopped and looked over her shoulder, “Actually, make that noon, tomorrow’s Sunday and I need to sleep in.” ****** Fluttershy arrived in Ponyville’s southern field a few minutes to twelve, sweatbands and goggles ready to go. Some distance away from her, two very tall poles stretched up into the sky. They stood in opposition to each other with about three hundred yards of grass in between them. At the tops of both poles sat five large hoops arranged with the largest one in the middle, big enough that a pony could fit comfortably in it; starting from the three o’clock position, each hole got smaller and smaller; the smallest being at the twelve o’clock position. Dash showed up a few minutes later wearing her coaching uniform: a black and white striped shirt and hat and a whistle around her neck. Tucked under one leg was a large blue ball with a rough looking surface and four hoof sized indents around it. The ball was sized so that it would just barely fit through the smallest goal hoop. She dropped it to the ground before landing in front of the yellow mare. “Alright, Fluttershy are you ready?” “Yes,” Fluttershy said with a confident nod. “I went to Twilight and got a rule book last night and spent all of this morning reading it.” “Excellent, then let’s see how much you’ve memorized. Start from the beginning.” Fluttershy cleared her throat. “Okay then, um, each team has nine players total, but you don’t need all nine to play the game, just to start it. Technically the game could go on even if one team was down to only one player,” she recited. “The object of the game is to get the skyball through any one of the five hoops and score more points than the other team. The middle hoop is worth one point, the three o’clock hoop is worth two, six o’clock is three, nine o’clock is four, and twelve o’clock is worth five points.” Rainbow nodded clearly impressed. “Very good, now let’s talk about passing and scoring.” Taking another breath, Fluttershy continued, “The ball must be carried by your front hooves, or um, in some cases claws, but can be passed anyway as long as it does not deliberately hurt another player. Scoring works the same way, except the pony scoring can’t move inside the goalie’s zone to score which is ten feet from the goals.” “Alright, name and define the positions.” “Well, first there’s the goalie who, well, guards the goal. Physically hitting the goalie is an automatic penalty. Then there are the two defenders for each team, they try to stop the ball before it gets to the goalie. Finally, there are two high-fliers, two mid-fliers, and two low fliers who do most of the actually playing.” “Now, if the other team has the ball, how do you take it back?” “Um, well, you can knock the ball out of the other player’s hooves, but if you hit their wings or face it’s an automatic penalty. Most of the time players just intercept the ball during a pass.” Rainbow clapped her hooves together. “Very good, Fluttershy, I’m impressed.” Fluttershy blushed, “Thanks Rainbow.” “Yeah,” she rubbed the back of her chromatic mane with a hoof. “So, I did a lot of thinking last night about all this, and I’m totally psyched you wanna play. Not just because you wanna help your parents, but because… well, we don’t spend a lot of time together like we used to and I miss hanging out with you,” she finished quickly. “Aw Rainbow-“Fluttershy smiled, moving in for a hug. “Nope,” Dash stopped her with a hoof. “Not turning this into a sappy moment, that’s all I wanted to say. No hugs.” Fluttershy looked crushed. She rolled her eyes and groaned, “Fine, one hug-“Fluttershy nearly tackled her. After a moment of reluctance, Dash returned the embrace while in her head she counted to five. “Alright, hug’s over.” Fluttershy let go, still smiling widely at her. Dash cleared her throat, getting serious again. “Now after much thought…” she paused. “Actually it only took me like ten seconds to think of this,” she confessed, “I realize that the perfect position to train you in is the goalie position. They have the lowest chance of getting injured.” “Oh good, so it’s safe?” “For the most part.” Dash looked the other mare in the eye. “But it’s probably the most important position on the team. How well you defend those goal posts means the difference between victory and defeat.” Fluttershy gulped. Rainbow pointed up to the west goal hoop. “Now get up there and take a position. I’m going to throw the ball at you and you have to block it, understand?” Fluttershy nodded and took off to the skies, placing herself in front of the middle goal hoop. Rainbow scooped up the ball and followed after her. Placing about a hundred feet in between them, she shouted, “Ready?” She saw Fluttershy give a weak nod. Blowing on her whistle to commence the practice, Dash took off forward at impressive speeds. Stopping about twenty feet from the goal, she hurled the ball forward. With a loud ‘eeep’ Fluttershy covered her face with her hooves as the ball struck her in the gut and sent her sailing through the hoop and to the ground below. Rainbow Dash facehoofed; she could tell this was going to be a long week.