“I’ll go wait at the check-in line to see if your friends at the hotel have made it here yet,” said Rio as Clyde, Rarity, and himself walked into the locker room. There were other members of the team gathered around in the room, some talking, others drinking, or some doing both actions. Rio turned back to Clyde. “Give me a list of names I should be looking for. If, or when, they are here, I’ll show them to you two.” Clyde and Rarity gave a quick rundown of the others, including name and a brief physical description of each one. Rio nodded and cleared his throat and turned towards the locker room.
“Ey yo fellas! We got some fans here that saved my life!” The locker room roared. “Be sure to welcome them to the great locker room of the reigning back-to-back champions!” The others gave a cheer by raising their bottles and resumed talking amongst each other.
“That wasn’t what happened,” said Clyde to Rio.
“Nah,” replied Rio, giving him a pat on the shoulder, “I’ll return when I find your friends, get to know these ballers while I’m gone.” He left the room and headed towards the main entrance.
Clyde looked around the room. He knew some of the familiar faces of the team, as he watched the Flamers during the Finals last season. Before he could think of any names, someone in a suit walked up to him.
“Ah, nice to meet you two,” said the stallion in the suit, “I’m the head coach of the Flamers, Coach Frogstra. Since you saved our point guard, if you need anything, like season tickets or a signed LeBrony jersey, I’ll be sure to get them for you.”
“Thanks for the offers, but we aren’t from here,” said Clyde. He looked around and saw that LeBrony wasn’t in the locker room. “Where is LeBrony anyways?”
“Ah. He was here earlier, but he told us that after saving a kid around your age in the streets, he was going to take his talents elsewhere and become a savior and help as many ponies as he possibly can.”
“So, he thinks he’s a superhero now?” Clyde sighed in disbelief.
“I guess so...,” Frogstra walked away as another pony in the locker room walked up to Clyde and Rarity.
“Hello,” said the pony. “I’m known around here as Bird Hoss.” Clyde looked at him and saw that his mane was gelled up into a massive mohawk. He also was covered in tattoos from head to hoof.
“Um, hello there,” said Rarity nervously.
“I’m guessing you like tattoos, huh?” asked Clyde.
“You bet I do! I get a new tattoo after every game we win. I also have an addiction to meth, cocaine, and heroin.” He began to chuckle.
“Lovely...” said Rarity, as Clyde dragged her away from Bird Hoss. They made their way to the group of three players near the back of the locker room.
“Ah, some college aged fans!” said the one in the middle of the group. He was wearing his jersey and a backwards hat. As he turned around, Clyde saw the name “Shuttlesworthless” on the back of the jersey. Shuttlesworthless turned back around and handed Clyde and Rarity a beer bottle. “I know how crazy you kids get these days, drink up.” Clyde took one, while Rarity refused. “Alright, more for me then.” He quickly chugged the bottle.
“Damn it, Jesús,” said the stallion on the right of him. “You don’t have to drink that if you don’t want to. The name’s Duane.” He extended his hoof.
Clyde returned the shake and saw that Duane had the number “3” everywhere on his jersey. “Why the love of three?”
Duane laughed. “I’m a three time world champion baby! Three is the meaning of life for me man!” He laughed again and saw Clyde’s mark. “You have a basketball. You a baller?”
Clyde shrugged. “I’m not on the skill level of a professional yet, but I know how to do one or two things.”
“Come on,” said Shuttlesworthless, “you can’t be any worse than Shane over here.” He laughed and patted the stallion on his left.
“Hey!” yelled Shane Floppier, the most notorious member of the Flamers. Everyone in the world knew him because of his lack of basketball skills other than flopping every possession of the ball. “Flopping is a skill!”
“Yeah, okay,” said Duane, “if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have those two rings.” Shane, Shuttlesworthless, and Duane walked away leaving Clyde and Rarity to stand there. Clyde looked at the bottle of beer he was given.
“Are you going to drink that?” asked Rarity.
“Probably not.” Clyde set the bottle down on the floor. “Why, did you want it?”
“No.” Clyde was confused on the serious tone of her voice, but he ignored it and looked at the last stallion in the room they have yet to talk to. He was sitting against his locker, eyes closed and listening to music.
“No way...” said Clyde dumbfounded.
“What?” asked Rarity.
“There his is. There is my idol, Chris Boshasaurus.”
“I thought you said Rio was your idol.”
“They are both my idols.” Clyde continued staring when suddenly Boshasaurus opened his eyes and looked up at them. He took off his earphones and stood up. He smiled.
“What is going on, my two, never before seen, new friends!” Boshasaurus looked around. “No, but seriously, what did I miss?”
“Well, my name is Clyde and this is Rarity, and we are in here because Rio saved us from a zombie down by the docks behind the arena.”
“What were you two doing down there?” asked Boshasaurus.
“Well Boshasaurus-”
“Just call me CB.”
“Well CB, we walked, ran, and swam, from a hotel down a few blocks from the arena because the hotel was running out of supplies. Our friends are still there. This was the only safe place I could think of to take her.”
“Her?” asked CB. He looked at Rarity. “Ah, so you two are a couple?”
Clyde flushed red. “Er, well-”
“Yes.” Rarity’s comment made Clyde turn around and look at her. He noticed the serious tone again in her voice, that was perfectly clear that she meant it. He looked back at CB.
“Well, I hope everything works out for you two.” CB began to walk past them. “I also have to ask, do you want some towels or something to dry yourselves off?”
“Yes please, that would be wonderful,” said Rarity. Just then, Frogstra returned into the room.
“Guys, since our court in now home to the citizens of this city, we have to move our practice to the secret practice court under the arena. Everyone, let’s move out and begin.” The locker room roared again, as the members of the Flamers rushed out of the room and into the hallways. CB turned around.
“I’ll get the towels first for you two first, give me a few minutes. I ain’t going to practice. Like come on, practice?” He walked out of the room, talking to himself about “practice” very loudly.
The room was silent as Clyde and Rarity were the only two in the once jubilant room. Clyde stared at the floor as Rarity sat down against the wall and took off her bag. He sat down beside her. “Did you really mean it?” asked Clyde, “the couple thing?”
Rarity looked at him strangely. “Of course I did, why would I ever lie about it? Unless, you don't want to be with me?" Rarity pouted at him.
“What? No, it's just, well, we never had an official first date, nor did I ever ask you out or anything so-”
Rarity laughed. “Clyde darling, that doesn’t matter. We can worry about that when we get out of this city. All I know is that we both want to spent more time with each other so I said we were together.” She smiled and looked at him with her lowered eyes and began batting her eyelashes. "You can ask me out now if you want to.”
A feel of nervousness came across Clyde. He didn't know why he was so nervous, as he knew Rarity now for over two weeks almost. "Um, Rarity?" he asked.
"Yes?" she asked in an excited tone.
"Will you, uh-" Clyde stopped and looked over at the Flamers' decor painted on the wall.
"Don't look over there darling. Look at me when you ask."
Clyde turned his head towards her and felt nervous again. "Rarity, would you like to be my...girlfriend?"
Rarity giggled and closed her eyes and put her head in the air. "Well, I normally wouldn't answer a bold request like that on such a short notice"–she opened one eye to look at him–"but, since you are very compassionate towards me and I think you are handsome, I suppose...yes!" She quickly hugged him and kissed his cheek as Clyde felt his nervousness go away. After she let go of him and smiled, she pulled out a towel from her bag, which Clyde noticed that both were completely dry.
“How is your stuff dry?”
“It’s an enchanted bag I made myself. It’s waterproof, fireproof, and pretty much indestructible.” Rarity looked over to him. “Do you honestly think I would be so careless with my belongings?”
“No, actually.” Clyde looked at the bag. The bag looked normal, but no one could see any enchantments on it with a normal eye. “Wait, you said you didn’t want to get it in water because your stuff would get ruined.”
Rarity laughed again and pulled the towel around her. “I did. I wanted to see what your reaction was. Looks like you’re going to buy me some new clothes anyway. That can be one of our dates!” Clyde sighed as she gave a sly giggle.
They both sat there waiting for CB to return. To pass the time, Clyde close his eyes and sang a song in his head while Rarity fell asleep on his shoulder. After another ten minutes passed, CB returned.
“Sorry, I’m late. I was having a real good argument to a fan who kept calling me a dinosaur. I told everyone, including the media, I’m only part dinosaur.” He saw that Rarity was sleeping, so he quietly tossed Clyde a towel.
“Still would be cool being part dinosaur.” Clyde opened his bag that was to the other side of him and took out a bottle of water. Unlike Rarity's enchanted bad, his bag was still wet from the plunge into the bay earlier. The water was sealed so it didn’t matter to him.
“So, you ball with your friends? You got a team?” asked CB, sitting down on a chair near Clyde.
“Yeah, I play point, so all I really do is pass, which is fine by me. Cannon plays the two, as all he does is jack up three pointers. I mean his name even implies that.”
“Yeah, I see.”
“Tyrone, who is our small forward, is probably better than all of us combined. That dude was meant to ball. Some Drake dude is our power forward. He’s not really that good, just more of rebounds and screens. Other than games, we don't really talk to him. Lastly, Sticky is our center as he’s the tallest one of us.”
“Sounds like you guys mostly play for fun and dicking around?” asked CB.
Clyde laughed. “You could say that.”
CB smiled. “Maybe you guys could play against us while we wait for this zombie thing to pass.”
“That would be cool, but none of my friends are here yet.” As Clyde finished his sentence, Rio barged back into the room. Behind him was the others from the hotel and the scavenger team.
“There’s that asshole!” yelled Cannon. Cannon walked over to Clyde and took the bag beside him. He looked at the stallion beside him and immediately dropped the bag. “Chris Boshasaurus!”
“What’s up man,” said CB waving. Sticky and Rivs both ran over to CB.
“CB, you’re the best player on the Flamers,” said Sticky, “I’ll follow you anywhere.”
“I appreciate it.” The four of them continued the conversation while Patel, Wahlburn, Jeb, and Twilight’s group walked up to Clyde and Rarity.
“Clyde, what did you do to her?” asked Twilight.
“What? She’s sleeping, wake her up if you want to talk to her.” Twilight shook Rarity until she woke up.
“I’m sleeping...” said Rarity groggily, waving away Twilight. She grabbed onto Clyde’s arm.
“Get up, we need to talk to you.” Applejack came over and helped Twilight pull her off of Clyde’s arm and dragged her away from the others. Clyde was about to get up and go after her, but Wahlburn pushed him back down.
“What?” asked Clyde.
“You know how much shit you caused in the past few hours?” asked Patel.
“No, I don’t really care.”
“That’s the thing, you don’t care,” said Jeb, speaking up for once.
"Shut up Jeb, what did I do to you?”
“Well, after you left and these guys left, zombies attacked the hotel. We had to get escorted over to here while Poncho and Tyrone are still at the hotel.”
“Wait, are you serious-”
“But wait! There's more,” said Patel in a joking manner. “Pharlin died on the way here. Turns out he’s a smart dude and not a douchey evil bitch like his brother.”
“DID YOU JUST SAY PHARLIN!” Suddenly, Bird Hoss ran back into the room. “MY SON IS DEAD!?” Bird Hoss began to cry and bang his head on the floor.
“You just what, mate?” immediately replied Patel.
“What the fuck is up with that guy?” asked Wahlburn.
“Long story, but we have to go back and save Poncho and Tyrone!” yelled Clyde.
“We? I think it’s time you did something besides hang around with those other ponies nobody likes and do something good for your friends. Remember, we were here first.” Patel then walked away towards CB. Clyde stood up.
“I guess I do have to do something.” Clyde walked over to CB. Without saying anything, CB nodded to approve of Clyde’s new task. He looked over at Twilight’s group and saw that they all were talking to Rarity about something, but from what he could tell, she was ignoring them. He walked over to Wahlburn and Spike who were near the door to the hallway.
“Good luck, my non-drug influenced friend,” said Spike.
“Thanks, but I’ll be back soon. I’m not stopping for anything.”
“SHIT!” yelled Wahlburn. He place his bag on the floor and dug out a small glass bottle, “I gotta give this to someone here.” He quickly ran out of the hallway.
“Alright, I’m outta here.” Clyde walked into the hallway and read the signs leading to the back door Rio first took them through. He opened it, and quickly felt the cool breeze of the ocean air.