9. No More Games
I leaned forward on the bench, putting my hands onto my forehead and letting them slip through my already matting hair, wet with the sprinkling rain and blown about by the winds of running. The mud under my cleats squished about uselessly, dragging me down like anything else out here on the field seemed to do. The crowd was cheering despite our awful performance, sure, and the team was playing despite our losing score, though that was nothing new to me. Those meaningless things were not what mattered to me, but they should have been. They usually were. I had nothing else but this game, and I knew it. I wasn't particularly adept at school work, spent most of my class time sleeping. I didn't spend long hours on work or talents, all I had was my speed, my agility, my ability to play a stupid damn game. And even that, the only thing I was known for, it waned when my head was out of the soccer field and in a crop one.
"Get back in there, Dash!" the coach yelled the same few words that I had been telling myself, and now I was forced to listen.
I picked myself up as if I was on strings, my body just sort of listening to the commands and being pulled about. I knew the team needed their ace striker, but today I did not feel like that player any more. I barely got back on to the field as the ball whizzed passed me, and I just let it go. Before I could even think to control myself properly, another goal was scored against us. I swore I must have even been able to hear the scoreboard flip over, and still I did nothing. It was so miserable, watching my team just jog back away from the goalkeeper as he picked up the ball, though not his head. One of my midfielders came right up to me, and through the slick squishing of the mud under his shoes I made out his words.
"Yo Dash, what's with you? I thought you were our star player?" he asked me, and I could hear that he was more angry than concerned, they all were. Our season was about to end, and on such a bitter note as this.
"That hasn't changed, I'm just having an off game, that's all," I heard myself almost yell back at him, getting defensive as if it was my place. He just put up his hands like he didn't want to get me all riled up or that he didn't care to hear any reason.
"Well get it together, I shouldn't have to tell you how important this game is," he reminded me anyway before he ran back out to keep up with the game, leaving me grinding my teeth and scowling. I just wanted to smack myself, to kick myself in the butt and get going again, but something was keeping me down.
I ran up to the opponent's side of the field, pretending that I was watching where the ball was. I could hear the grass scratching at my cleats, and all I could remember was racing through it on horseback with Applejack. I don't know if I had just stopped caring about soccer or if it was these damn teenage hormones that everyone had been complaining about that finally got to me, but either way I was struggling just to keep light on my feet.
The cheering of the crowd used to fill me with verve, inspire me to run as fast as I could and destroy anyone who stood in my way with expert manoeuvres and confidence, but now all it did was remind me that everyone was watching me, looking at me, judging me. That sort of thing never bothered me, hell I was awesome and no one could say any different, but here I was hiding something that was supposedly shameful and letting it get to my game. I breathed heavily in the dark air, the overcast skies and slowly approaching dusk casting some veil over the field.
If I listened closely, I could hear the cheers of my friends in the stands, but even that seemed to get quieter as the game dragged on. I looked over to be sure they were even still there, and it seemed even Pinkie Pie was losing her will to shout, and that said something. They looked at me and could clearly tell something was wrong with me. Twilight sat on the bench near the coach, and her expression was not much better. Here I was, out in the middle of this giant muddy field with my future on the line, and neither me nor my friends had anything good to say about it, no comforting words or praise, nothing but the dull roar of the already feigning crowd.
I flinched a bit as the ball hit my foot, rolling back slowly in the mud like it was begging me to kick it. Looking up, I saw my midfielder stumbling after the pass, crowded by three of our opponent's players. The crowd called out again, and louder, as I felt my body move on its own. Despite the troubles in my heart, my body carried on and took control, saving the ball from another opponent's swipe. I took it up like every time before, dodging their midfielders and defensive line like they were no match for me, not for my speed and agility. I could see the goal from here, their goalkeeper nervously backing into his place and his feet stumbling around in the mud like they always did. Seeing my confident smirk, that always got them shaking. I was close now, the goal posts like arches targeting my shot for the perfect goal, but as my last step hit the slick grass I noticed one last obstacle catching me.
Their sweeper raced in front of me, and though I did my best to avoid it, his elbow hit me in the shoulder and his foot hit mine as he brushed me off without difficulty, his size an easy defence to my skill. I tripped over his outstretched leg as he made the stolen kick, and for a second I thought I could feel him push me off my feet. Though the air was so comfortable and kind as I soared through it, the mud was cold on my hot hands and arms, boiling from the exercise.
I just stayed there for a minute, lying on my stomach in the grass and dirt with the rain still falling gently around me. I felt awful, covered in mud and embarrassed in front of my entire team and all my friends in the stands. I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees, watching the way the mud slid between my fingers where even the grass could not clean it from. The rain ran down over my head and dripped from my nose, the splashes on my cheeks turning the cleansing liquid a dirty colour. I heard the call for a foul go out, but the crowd had become rather quiet compared to my own heart beating. The referee came over to me and tried to touch me, but I shoved him away, nodding that I was fine despite the burning of my hands and the fluster on my face.
It was just so humiliating lying there, and even if I got up everyone would see all this mud and think of me as dirt. I was supposed to be the star player, and here I was beaten and demoralized by some guy who was not even twice my size. I heard the rest of my team run over to this side of the field, and I knew that someone was going to have to make a penalty kick. Usually it would be me, and I would jump at the invitation, but now my pride was dashed and it surely wasn't just because of the game.
I felt like screaming at myself, too distracted to avoid such a blunt and immature move from the other team. They knew we weren't going to beat them, so now they were just taunting us about it. I could feel the mud sticking to that wound on my leg, as it wasn't quite healed yet after the fall off that horse. But this time, I was all alone in the dirt, with my once friendly team ready to rear up and stomp on me and these coyote foes ready to eat well at my expense. My trembling hands dug into the mud, and I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling the mud on my face slip about with the expression.
"Hey, Rainbow! Rainbow Dash!" rang out over the otherwise quiet crowd. I could barely hear as the blood rushed to my ears, but I listened closely for it again, to be certain I heard what I did, "Rainbow Dash!"
"Applejack?" I asked aloud as I recognized that same old way she put my name together with her southern accent. I looked over my shoulder into the stands and searched for the source.
"Rainbow, over here!" She waved at me from the front bars in the bleachers, like she had just got there and hadn't even tried to find a seat yet. I sat up as I looked over at her, and though this was not how I wanted her to see me, I was almost beaming just to know she was there. Applejack's smirk caught on mine and she put a hand to her mouth to call out to me again, "I thought I done told you it's yer feet that should be fallin' in the mud, not your head! Now dust yourself off and get back into it, will ya?"
"What took you so long, Freckles?" I shouted back, barely able to keep my voice steady, much less keep my body from rushing off of the field to meet her.
"Yer lucky I showed up at all, that's the most pitiful score I ever did see!" She sure was right about that, we were quite a ways behind and there wasn't much time to pick it back up. "That ain't the Rainbow Dash I know!"
I pushed myself up off the ground and to my feet once again, the rush of blood to my body like a surge of strength, a second wind. I grinned under the still fresh mud on my cheeks, knowing that sort of daring, challenging statement was the best thing to get me going again, and through my teeth I spoke, "It sure isn't."
I walked right through the penalty area towards my team mate who had stepped up to take the shot, and shoved him out of the way. Stumbling a bit, he let me take over as I always did. The goalkeeper shuffled again, and I could see his eyes shifting about like he wasn't sure what going on. That same old confident grin returned to me between the splatters of dirt, and I could almost feel the fear in the rest of their team gripping them as mud dripped from my brow. Without a second though, I drew back and smashed the ball with my kick, launching it through the air with no resistance to speak of, so fast it as as though it was on fire. It flew into the net behind the goalkeeper, his face astonished and his body still frozen in the same position he had poised himself in before I even shot.
I extended my hand towards him, my index and middle fingers pointing at him together while the rest curled up into my palm. I winked and drew the hand upwards like a gun had just gone off, and the crowd grew mad with cheers. It was only a matter of time before they saw my true speed, and none of them could even hope to keep up when I was on a roll. I pulled my hand back and blew on the tops of my fingers, backing up into a jog then turning back around into a sprint to high-five my team.
"Come on boys," I shouted to all of them as they fell in around me and we readied for an attempt at a counter attack. "We've got a score to settle."
The entire momentum shifted with that, that small act which motivated not only the crowd, not only the scoreboard, but the whole team. The ball was like a torch, a brazier in the night which called us all to it, sprinting, running, galloping and forcing us all to take the fire and force it to our will. I snatched it without dispute from their own striker as he tried to come across our line, sneaking it around behind me and around my feet like it was something alive on its own. With my confidence and motivation restored, I doubt there was a player alive who could have stood opposite me. I dashed around them all, leaving their team in shambles with every play, knocking the ball about like a minion of my own command and shooting it like it knew my will itself. I did not even have to say what edge we gained on them, because nearing the end of the game the score did not matter as much as the fact we had gained our ground back.
There was never a moment before that captivated me like that one, where I raced across the field utterly unopposed, and what drove me on was the constant cheering of someone I knew so little of but held so dearly. I spun around my competition like they were stationary obstacles, the ball following my every whim and slashing through their defences time and again, rolling the scoreboard onto its back. I raised my hands up as the goal was scored, shouting and trotting about as my team came around me again with supportive efforts, passing to me time and again at last, blocking offences like they were just absent rolls of our practise ball. I raced towards their goal once more, and though they admirably tried to sneak it away from me as usual, I avoided every attempt. The goal lit up in my eyes, the spirit of competition driving me to kick with the strength of my whole team, nearly ripping through the net with a final goal.
Before I knew it the final whistle called out, and I threw both hands up and shouted, running backwards until my team grabbed me from behind and called my name to the stands. Me being the only girl, it was hardly a challenge for them to lift me up and let me see the field around me I had just conquered, see the stands, see the girl who leapt over the bars and hurried out to me. I struggled until they put me down, too focused on the victory to drag me around to their celebration.
My heart raced as I ran to her at first, but seeing no one else on the field I slowed, letting our reunion drag on. I flipped my tangled hair over my shoulder as I grinned, enjoying the victory as long as I could before she brought be back to Earth. We came up to each other, our gazes for once equally held and acknowledged. She smiled and touched her hair so she would have something to do, her other hand tucking into her rear pocket like it was more comfortable there than it was around me. We stopped a few feet away, smiling like fools.
"So, what, you had a minute between picking apples and milking cows to stop by?" I asked her with a lazy roll of my neck, trying not to sound quite so appreciative and glad.
"I made the time," she told me in that same old accent, her slight dimple appearing with her cute smile, spreading her freckles around the way the splashes of mud on my face moved around with my words.
"I'd say you should come closer, but, uh..." I chuckled a bit as I looked down at my horribly muddy uniform. "I guess it can wait."
"Ah, a little dirt ain't never hurt no one." She ran right up to me then, throwing her arms around my neck like they belonged there.
It felt so damn good, having her wrapped around me the way I had anticipated. I couldn't even keep from picking her right up and spinning her around, hearing the way she laughed into the embrace, squeezing tighter and faking some complaint until I put her back down. She reached up and tousled my hair for that one, roughing it up so it nearly went into my eyes and caused me to close one up.
"Do I get a hug next!?" We both flinched a bit at the sheer volume as Pinkie Pie ran over to me with her arms out like some airplane.
The wind was quite literally knocked out of my lungs as she hit me, and my face contorted into this terrified expression as she squeezed me harder. I hardly noticed Rarity and Fluttershy come up behind her, considering I was still trying to pry Pinkie Pie off of me. Her arms were around my diaphragm as if she had planned to suffocate me, and even as she pulled away I was tensed up and frozen in this broken looking position.
"Who's this?" Pinkie asked as she tilted her body around me to see Applejack properly, and I nearly choked myself to respond promptly.
"Oh, uh yeah, she's my," I started, but paused as if she didn't know how I should introduce her. I mean, I wasn't sure if she would be okay with me telling my friends about everything, it wasn't only my secret to tell. She seemed to butt in to fill the void.
"Friend, I'm her friend from over spring break." She smiled nervously as Pinkie's face lit right the hell up. I looked over at Applejack with a confused expression though, I mean, was she embarrassed by me? She didn't look embarrassed, more like supportive or something.
"Oh my gosh! This is so exciting! It's so good to meet you, I'm Pinkie Pie!" She went right in for a hug but Applejack instantly stepped back and extended her hand for a handshake instead, stopping her mid-tackle. Pinkie accepted it anyway, grabbing it with both hands and jumping around with it instead of properly shaking it.
"Pleasure's all mine." Applejack watched the girl bounce around in front of her, grabbing her same old cowboy hat by the rim and picking it up while introducing herself, holding it over her heart sincerely, "I'm Applejack, but most folks call me A.J."
"Your southern accent is just so darling, where ever did you pick it up?" I heard Rarity ask, and I think it was supposed to be a compliment.
"Uh, the farm?" Applejack responded simply as if she wasn't sure if that was a good enough answer.
"You're from a farm? Like, big crop fields, long dirt roads, far away from the city?" Pinkie spoke up in something of a gasp, and everyone looked at her in wonder. "Then why are you all the way out here? Just to see a soccer game?"
"Yeah, somethin' like that." Applejack nodded surely as she slipped her hat back on, like it was a good enough reason. I found myself unable to stop smiling at that moment, with all my friends around me and Applejack. If I hadn't been so tired after the game I might just be running around cheering.
"So you've met Pinkie already." I laughed as she waved again in case anyone could ever forget. "This is Rarity, and the girl shying away behind her is Fluttershy. And you already know—" I looked around for my eggheaded friend, but she was not to be seen. "Hey, where's Twilight?"
"I saw her talking to this very august older gentleman by the stands, his ensemble simply inspired," Rarity responded, and Applejack sort of looked at me as if she wasn't sure if Rarity was joking, but I just smirked a bit. "Speaking of which, that dishevelled appearance may look somewhat droll on you, dear, but we should get you cleaned up before you catch a cold."
"I vote we go out for pizza first," I spoke up loudly, my will to sit down a relax, not to mention gobble up some greasy food with my favourite girls, controlling my actions.
"Might want to wait a minute on that one," I heard Twilight's voice come up from behind me as she approached us after talking to the coach, walking right up to me and Applejack. "I have even more good news."
"Who was it you were talking to in the stands, Twilight?" Rarity asked, and I wanted to know too. Even Fluttershy came out of hiding a bit to hear the answer.
"That's the news, he was a scout from Quest State." I really hoped Twilight wasn't just pulling my leg, I could feel myself eagerly anticipating the end of this story. "He saw you play, and he said that he wants to recruit you for their soccer team, he can offer you a full scholarship if you'll play for the Wonderbolts!"
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh oh my gosh—no freaking way! This so so awesome! The Wonderbolts, Quest State Wonderbolts!" I actually screamed, I had always wanted to play for the Wonderbolts! Something else occurred to me in my cheering and shouting. "Quest State, isn't that where you're going A.J.?"
"Sure is." She smiled with a few quick nods, and I just started beaming like a crazy person. This day could not have got any better! Applejack put her hands on her hips and smirked. "I guess we're gonna be spendin' a lot of time together, then?"
I had to bite my lip from screaming again, and I could feel my heart rattling around inside of me like it was going to burst. I could hear Pinkie rambling about victory parties from beside me, and though there was so much commotion I just kept on staring at Applejack, her green eyes drawing me in.
"Kiss her already!" Twilight said from behind us, putting her hands together in front of her with her eyes glistening in anticipation. She must have been kidding, but I was not.
Applejack smiled a bit, but the way she tipped her cowboy hat down a bit over her eyes told me she was still a little nervous about the whole thing. She pretended to take it as a joke, I could tell from the way she shook her head and kicked at the dirt. This really sinister grin crept across my own face as I got the idea, and I stepped closer. Her eyes flickered back up to mine intently, and she watched as I reached up with my right hand and grabbed the edge of her cute little hat. I snatched it from the top of her head and flipped it over my wrist, putting it backwards onto my own head. Sufficiently moving it out of the way, I put my other hand against her hot cheek and pulled us into a kiss right then and there.
This time she did not move away or go still, she actually moved her own lips against mine with the same ferocity as I did. It was amazing, easily the greatest moment of my whole life summed up in one perfect act. As my arm wrapped tightly around her waist and pressed the girl against me, I felt nothing but pride and joy. I finally let her go, our lips still lingering an inch apart until our eyes opened back up. The rest of the world came back around us, the noise and the bustle and the voices. But still, we stood there grinning at each other.
"Wait a minute," I heard Rarity speak up first, her usual over the top melodrama absent for once. "What just happened?" I saw Fluttershy flash bright red and try to look away, having no idea how to respond to the situation.
"Since when did you like girls?" Pinkie questioned, and I almost fell over as the bluntness of it struck me. I glared over at her like I was about to snap.
"What kind of a question is that?" I growled with somehow an angry, confused and surprised expression.
"Pinkie, dear, you can't just ask someone questions like that," Rarity told her in a simple tone, and I wondered if they had realized it before I had.
I guess I hadn't really told them that I hadn't made up my mind for sure before then, but this should have made it pretty obvious. They never really asked me, though, and I guess I didn't think I was into girls until I went to the ranch. Pinkie, not getting a good enough answer from me, directed her expectant expression to Applejack for some kind of response. She flinched with the attention, looking around at my friends' curious gazes before speaking.
"Well don't go lookin' at me, truth be told I don't know spit about it either." She put her hands up defensively, before she glanced over at me and noticed I still had her hat. Snatching it back from me and positioning it the correct way on her own head, she continued, "Till Rainbow came around I was still stridin' the straight and narrow, far as I thought."
"Ooh," Rarity balled up one fist and slapped it onto her open palm, as if something just made sense to her. We all looked over for her explanation, "So that's what you meant when you said Rainbow had met someone special on the ranch, Twilight?" I blinked, hearing for the first time that Twilight had figured it out before the rest of them.
"You knew?!" Applejack and I both shouted as we turned to look at Twilight, who just stood there with this great big toothy grin and this nervous stance.
"I thought we had a deal that you weren't going to use your freaky genius powers on any of us?" I growled with a grouchy expression, crossing my arms in defiance.
"Oh come on, anyone could have seen it," Twilight tried to defend herself, using logic as her weapon of choice. "You guys argued constantly, yet you were always hanging out alone, there was that constant evasive flirting, not to mention that cute little pet name. It was written all over your faces!"
"No pizza for you," I told her as he started off towards the parking lot to go get that pizza I had been craving, Twilight following after us.
"You guys!" she called as she came back into the group, pouting.
"You can have some of my pizza, Twilight," Fluttershy offered kindly as she always would, though it was apparent we were all just joking about it. "Pinkie made me eat so much of it last week I can hardly look at it."
"And cheeseburgers, and french fries, no, waffle fries! And ice cream, and cupcakes, and grilled cheese sandwiches!" Pinkie Pie started ranting, but none of us were sure if she was listing what else she had forced Fluttershy to eat while they hung out or naming food she was planning on eating tonight.
"I know it's your big day Rainbow Dash." Rarity looked over at me, and I could tell from the way she scanned my clothing she was not too happy. "But I am simply not going to allow you in my car looking like that, all covered in mud and grass."
"Don't you worry, I'll give her a ride in my pick-up," Applejack offered as she grabbed my hand, the first move on me she had actually made despite my wishful accusations earlier on.
"They probably do need some alone time," Twilight muttered, though we all heard what she said and knew what she implied. Applejack laughed about it, taking it in stride with that good nature of hers.
"That's it, no bread sticks either." I smiled back at her, sticking my tongue out.
We all laughed that time, Fluttershy included. Though the skies above were still dark and the future mostly uncertain, I didn't have a thing to complain about. Perhaps it had been a good idea that Twilight had taken me on that spring vacation after all, and I think that I owed her more than a few bread sticks for it. After all, if I hadn't gone all the way out to some farm in the middle of nowhere, rode a wild-rearing stallion, gave myself a wicked hang over and crept into a strangers house, I wouldn't be holding Applejack's rough, working ranch hands.
~~The End~~