//------------------------------// // The Experiment // Story: This Is A Bad.....minton Fiction // by Brian Jacko //------------------------------// Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were standing in the royal gardens with their brand new experiment that they had created. The markings were written all over the ground, that were used to see how big the out of bounds box would be. They were currently off duty and Princess Cadence was left in charge of taking care of any royal duties. "How high should the net be?" Princess Luna asked. "Four feet?" her sister asked. "How about five? Every time you smash the darn thing, the angle is too sharp and I can't possibly return it," Luna said. Celestia sighed and said, "Very well, although I do love to spike it on you." Luna used her magic to raise the net a little higher. "There, five feet seems more reasonable," she said. Princess Celestia strapped the racket onto her dominant front leg. "This game is difficult to play without wings or magic, and it's even harder to stand on your hind legs the entire time when playing too, but if we want to create a game for earth ponies, unicorns, and Pegasus ponies to play, then we have to do it this way. This could be our newest hit for the Equestrian games!" Celestia said. Princess Luna held the little rubber-like cork with her front hoof and tossed it into the air, she then smashed it with full force. Princess Celestia couldn't even react because the cork had landed at her hooves so quickly. "We need to try to slow it down and we need to make a rule that you can only serve below the waist," she said. Celestia picked up the tiny cork and tried to get a volley going with her younger sister. They did well for a while when they both worked as a team to see how many hits they could connect without missing a shot, until Celestia tried to lob the rounded shape cork and it went way out of bounds. Princess Luna came back with the cork and said, "It seems that if one of us tries to make a strategic shot or place the cork somewhere else, then it's just too unfair and the cork can't be returned in most cases. I think we should just give up on this sport and try to finish that other sport we made on the table." Celestia sighed and said, "I guess you're right. It's just that this seemed like such a good idea." Celestia then began to unstrap the racket from her front leg. Suddenly, a bunch of feathers fell from the sky from a flock of Pegasus ponies flying over head. The two sisters watched the feathers fall from the sky and onto the middle of their experimental court. Celestia began thinking. "If we could somehow figure out a way to make the cork decelerate after it is hit, then maybe we could make this game more reasonable and competitive to play," she said. Luna picked up a few feathers and used her magic to stick them inside of the little piece of cork. She bounced the new creation on her racket up and down a few times and then swat at it across the net to her big sister. The projectile failed miserably. Celestia scratched her chin with the tip of her front hoof as she thought more about the matter. "If we want to make this perfectly aerodynamic, then we have to use the left wing feathers only." She used her magic to levitate the projectile in the air and take out all of the right wing feathers and replace them with feathers from the left wing only. She strapped the racket back onto her front leg and bounced the projectile up and down. "It seems much better now. Let's give it a few volleys. Here it comes!" Celestia served the new projectile below her waist and put it into play. The two sisters began to volley it back and forth with much greater ease. "Try some new tactics, Luna!" Celestia yelled out. Luna gently tapped the projectile and it just skidded over the net. Celestia lunged in and then lobbed the projectile high into the air. The wonderful thing about this new projectile, was that a pony may now lob it, without making it so easy to go out of bounds. Luna ran backwards and then jumped high into the air in order to give her more options and angels to place the projectile. Because she jumped so high she could now put a much sharper downward angle on the projectile. Luna smashed it with full force and the projectile hurled down from the air. Celestia stumbled a bit as she tried to react in time, but she had just barely managed to get there in time and the projectile bounced off of her racket and hit the net. The projectile tipped over and landed on Luna's side of the court. Luna fell to the ground and tried to make a saving play, but it was too late. Her racket hit the projectile and it landed into the net and then came back down and hit Luna in the forehead. "Wow!" Celestia said. Now we have so many more options and we can actually return smashes since the projectile will decelerate faster. What should we call this projectile?" Luna picked herself up off of the ground and thought for a moment. "How about a birdie?" she asked. "That can work, or how about shuttlecock?" Celestia asked. "That's fine, except that we might want to say shuttle instead, because I can only imagine the inappropriate jokes that would come from using the term shuttlecock," the Princess of the night said. "That's a good point, we can call it shuttle to shorten the name too," Celestia said. Luna picked up the shuttle and put her front hoof on the very tip of the service line. "Are you ready for this my big sister?" she asked. Celestia got into ready position and waited patiently to return the shuttle. Luna tried a new tactic. She did not simply put the shuttle into play or lob it high into the air towards the out of bounds line. She flicked the shuttle from below her waist line and it came hurling towards her sisters face. It was such an awkward return for Celestia, but she quickly put her racket to her face and blocked the shot. It was such a sloppy return and it was a little high. Luna came charging over to the net and smashed the shuttle to the opposite side of where Celestia was standing. Celestia tried to react, but it was too late. Celestia had made a poor return and she got punished for her mistake. "That was a great trick serve, Luna! That's going to make me stay on my tippy hooves!" She scooped up the shuttle with her racket and put it into play. They continued to experiment with all kinds of strategies and tricks that they could think of. One problem they encountered was that the wind would often make the shuttle drift away during a volley. Hours went by and they both sat there on the ground and were out of breath. "So, if we were to make this a more competitive match, do you think a best out of three would feel right?" Celestia asked. "And we can make this game more demanding on the players stamina by making it so that a pony can only score a point on his or her serve, and to get the serve, you must win a rally," Luna said. "And we should make it so that the winner has to win by at least two points just like our other experimental sport that we play on the table," Celestia recommended. A royal guard approached them and bowed low to the ground. "My Princesses, we have prepared your baths. We also have your spa session ready for when you are finished," he said. "Did you make sure to add extra bubbles to my bath?" Luna asked. "Of course my Princess," the guard said. "Did you remember to add my favorite rubber ducky, Xuxa?" Celestia asked. "He's floating in the warm water and awaits for you squeeze him, and make him squee, my Princess," the guard said. "Excellent," Celestia said. The guard began to lead the two Princesses back into the palace. "So what are we going to do about that wind?" Luna asked "I think we'll have to make this an indoor sport. I know we have limited funding, but if we are going to win hearts to this sport, then we need to make it more competitive and fair. Ponies need to see that while this sport may look easy at first, but at the higher skill levels, this could be one of, if not the most physically demanding sports ever made. We need to find a team to play this game. We need to find a group of ponies who are in tip top condition." "How about we get the Wonderbolts to play and promote our new sport?" Luna asked. "That sounds like a wonderful idea!" Celestia said. "The Wonderbolts are the most well known group of athletes in all of Equestria, but we should also find others to play that aren't the Wonderbolts too. I'm sure we wouldn't be able to pay them enough money to play all of the time." "What about your most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle?" Luna asked. "That's a wonderful idea," Celestia said. "We can also get her five other friends to play as well. I'm sure she would like to help us out being that she loves to come visit me and learn new magic." Princess Luna stopped when they reached their two separate bathrooms. "We really need to get working on this project and speak with some construction workers. We can't afford to make this place very large. I am imagining about six courts at most." "We would also need to make the ceiling very high because players need to have enough height to lob the shuttle or else it may hit the ceiling," Celestia said. "We both need to think of a name for this sport as well." Princess Luna nodded her head in agreement and then headed off into her own bathroom. Celestia also went into her own private bathroom. She sat down in her tub and gave her rubber ducky, Xuxa a playful punch on the beak with her front hoof.