//------------------------------//
// Getting the Ponies to Play 
// Story: This Is A Bad.....minton Fiction 
// by Brian Jacko 
//------------------------------//

	A few weeks went by and the two Princesses stood outside their brand new sports arena. Luna was carrying two small blue treasure chests with her and Celestia had a golden whistle around her neck. Inside the treasure chests were a special creation that they needed Discord to help them create. 

"Hey, what are we even going to call this sport, Celestia?" Luna asked.

"I have been thinking about this much. How about we call it, Badminton?" Celestia asked.

"Sounds great! Let's go inside and check it out," Luna replied.

The sound of hooves clopping against the bright colored floors resonated throughout the building.

Luna stomped her hind leg and tried to drag it across the floor. "These floors are nice and players should get very good traction. No need to worry about slipping around," she said.

"We are going to need new players to try out this new game and the Wonderbolts aren't supposed to be ready to play yet," Celestia said.

"Well, why don't you invite Twilight Sparkle and her friends over today? What is that cyan colored Pegasus's name who loves sports? Rainbow Dash is it?" Luna asked.

"Yes, that's correct," Celestia said. She used her magic to bring out a quill and a pen and began writing a letter. She said the words she was writing down out loud.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity. We have a special surprise and it is a brand new sport that we have created. We need all of your help in testing this game out. It will be for science, and we have beautiful courts that practically shine. This place is like candy for the eyes and this game is about beauty, grace, and even at times, gentleness. We could also use a pony who is strong and does hard back breaking labor to try our game out. There is no rush to get here, but at your convince if possible. The sports arena is located right next to the Canterlot Gardens. Yours truly, Princess Celestia."

When she finished writing, she used her magic to make six copies of the letter and sent them away. 

Within ten seconds flat, a certain cyan colored Pegasus burst through the doors and said, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! You all have sports here!?"

"Princess Celestia leaned over to her sister and said, "I guess I did quite well on making my letter tempting, didn't I?"

Luna giggled.

Celestia turned back to Rainbow Dash and said, "Yes! We have invented a new sport and we need your help to test it out. We should probably wait just a little longer to see if any of your friends are coming."

"I love sports, and I'll make this game at least twenty percent cooler!" Rainbow said.

Suddenly, a pink pony burst through the door and started yelling, "Surprise? Surprise? Where? I got your letter and I just love surprises! Can we throw a party?"

"Maybe after we all play and have some fun. You do like fun, don't you, Pinkie Pie?"

Pinkie Pie began to bounce around in circles and giggled madly.

Twilight Sparkle came through the doors with books, note pads, and some other materials. "Science! Science! Where? I want to help! Can we study this new sport?" she cried out.

Celestia smiled and said, "Of course we can! But we need you to learn and play the game first!"

A few moments later, Applejack came barreling through the doors and said, "I'm here fer ya, Princess! Ya have the strongest and most dependable pony at yer side, Ma'm!" 

"Thank you so much for coming, Applejack. Your strength will be needed and we'd like to see how hard you can smash the shuttle," Celestia said.

"Applejack blushed at the compliment and said, "Why that's mighty kind of ya to call me out fer this. I may not be known fer sports like Rainbow Dash, but I'll give it my best shot. Say, what's a shuttle, anyway?"

Luna tossed her a shuttle and said, "This is a shuttle. It's called a shuttlecock, but we call it shuttle for short."

"I can only imagine the kind of jokes that will come from that kind of name," Applejack said. 

The door to the arena opened up slowly and in stepped Fluttershy. She nervously made her way over to the group of ponies. "Um, Hi Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. I got your message and I heard you made a new sport that requires gentleness and grace?"

"That's correct, Fluttershy," Celestia said. This sport is a bit of a mixture of all kinds of things and we feel that each one of you has a special unique talent and that you will all shine with this new sport in unique ways," Celestia said.

"Oh, that's wonderful," Fluttershy said. "I'm already the worlds best at one sport."

Rainbow Dash hovered in the air and put her two front hooves on her hips and said, "Fluttershy? Worlds best at a sport? I don't believe it!"

Fluttershy pulled out a picture and showed the group of ponies. "I'm the worlds greatest player at Curling."

Rainbow Dash threw herself to the ground and began cracking up. "Curling is a sport? Are you serious? What a joke! No wonder Fluttershy can actually win at something."

Fluttershy put her head down and sighed with sadness.

"Curling is a sport, Rainbow," Twilight said. "You're being very mean and cruel to Fluttershy. Curling takes skill and just because you may not be as good at it, doesn't mean that you should trash Fluttershy for her sport."

"Rainbow Dash, if you don't apologize to Fluttershy right now and congratulate her for her achievements, then I shall ban you to the Everfree forest and you'll have to write me quite a few letters about what you have learned, "Celestia said.

"Ok, ok, ok," Rainbow said. "I am sorry. I just thought Curling was a joke. Congratulations Fluttershy. I didn't know there was a sport out there that you would actually be good at."

The door opened once more and in stepped Rarity wearing her most favorite dress. She had her mane done to look extra fancy for this occasion. "Show me this sport of beauty and grace. I am a lady and I have come dressed up to entertain the crowds," she said.

"Um, Rarity," Celestia said. "Maybe the best kind of clothing you should have worn would be gym shorts. Yes, this is a game of grace and beauty, but it's not based entirely on those aspects alone. There are brutal smashes, and this game is incredibly demanding of stamina. You might want to take that elegant dress off so that you don't get caught on it and trip and fall."

Rarity sighed and used her magic to take her most gorgeous dress off. 

"So what kind of game is this and how do we play?" Rainbow asked. 

Celestia smiled and said, "We use rackets to play this game, it's like Tennis, but the birdie, or more proper term, shuttlecock, has to stay in the air and..."

Rainbow Dash started giggling. "You call this thing a shuttlecock? Wow, I can only imagine the jokes that will come out of that," she said.

Luna spoke in her traditional royal Canterlot voice, "DO NOT CUT OFF A PRINCESS WHILE SHE IS SPEAKING! DO YOU KNOW THAT WE USED TO BEHEAD PONIES WHO DID THAT?"

Rainbow Dash gulped and said, "I'm sorry, Princess Celestia. Please continue."

"As I was saying," Celestia said. "The goal of the game is to place the shuttle inside your opponents court. The games are a best out of three and you can only score a point on your serve. Serving must be done below the waist, and you have to serve on the opposite side of where your opponent is standing. So if you are standing on the left side of the service area, you will be serving to your opponent who would be standing on the right side of the service area. Would you be so kind as to demonstrate a serve, my dear sister?"

"Princess Luna strapped her racket to her front leg and picked up a shuttle. She stood on her hind legs and gently tapped the shuttle over the net and into the opposing service box.

"Wow, so you can't throw the shuttle high into the air and just smash it like they do in Tennis? This game looks like it would be a Fluttershy centered sport. You're just putting it into play."

"That's only one type of serve, Rainbow Dash," Celestia said. "There are other tricky serves like the flick, or lobbing it. You can be very deceptive with your serves and you can make like you're going to tap it gently, and then hit it harder at the last second to throw your opponent off guard."

Rainbow Dash didn't look too impressed. "This game is going to be totally unfair because some ponies can use their wings or magic to get around the court quicker and ponies that don't have either ability will not be able to compete."

"I'm glad you brought that up, Rainbow," Celestia said. "During a match, Pegasus ponies can not fly, nor can unicorns use their magic to gain any sort of advantage. We have some options that we can use. Obviously, we could cast a spell on the sports arena or on each individual who plays so that they are void from flying or using magic, but if others want to play this sport around the world, then we wouldn't be able to do this for everypony. We thought about tying a Pegasus ponies wings together, or to place some kind of shield on a unicorns horn, but that might feel terribly unnatural. What we have planned is that we have gotten Discord to help us make new necklaces that are powered with a special magic that will not let a pony fly or use magic while playing. They are specially made and we will craft them to represent each players cutie mark. They will be required to be worn by each player at all times. They are light in weight and should not be a distraction to the player. Luna, please put the necklaces on the ponies."

Luna brought out the small blue treasure chest and opened it up. She used her magic and placed a necklace on Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity. 

The girls all stared down at their necklaces. They were mesmerized at how beautiful and well crafted these were. They were made of gold and the gems were crafted into each players cutie mark. They looked very similar to the elements of harmony necklaces. 

Applejack and Pinkie Pie's eyes opened wide at the sparkling gems. 

"Say, Princess Luna," Applejack said. "I know I'm just a simple earth pony, and I'm really not much into fashion like Rarity, but I wish I had a necklace to wear like that too."

"I want one too!" Pinkie Pie yelled out. "Those gems look so shiny and new. It's like they are candy for the eyes, and you know how much I love candy!"

Princess Luna smiled and brought out two more necklaces. "We didn't want you to feel left out, Applejack and Pinkie Pie, so we made these especially for you. Do know that the effects may not allow you to break physics, Pinkie Pie. Twilight Sparkle told us in a letter all about how science can not explain your bizarre ways." Luna used her magic to attach the two necklaces on the earth ponies.

Both girls stared down at their new necklaces and thanked the Princess.

"Rainbow Dash," Celesta said. "You're the most competitive pony in our group. Why don't you have a little volley with my sister? We know you like fast things, and this is going to be the worlds fastest racket sport. We believe that a pony can smash a shuttle at over two hundred miles per hour." 

"Or more like the world's fastest decelerating sport," Rainbow said in a mocking tone of voice. Rainbow came up to the net and picked up a racket. She strapped the racket onto her front leg and stood on the opposing side of Princess Luna. 

Celestia walked over to the side of the net and sat down on her golden royal chair. This was the official umpire's chair and she would make any controversial calls that may happen. Her ruling on the court was the final word should the referees disagree. Next to the umpire's chair were two boxes full of shuttles. The Princess made sure to have their royal servants collect as many feathers from the left wing of a Pegasus pony in order to create these shuttles.

Rarity came over and looked inside of the two boxes full of shuttles. Something clicked in her mind and she had an amazing idea. "Princess Celestia. Would it be ok if I took a look at some of these shuttles?" she asked.

"Sure," Celestia said. "Just make sure not to bend the feathers. These shuttles are very fragile and in very competitive games, I'm sure we will go through many."

"Thank you," Rarity said. "I'll be careful. Could you please, give me a paint brush, a can of water, and a bunch of different colors of paint?"

Celestia eyed Rarity suspiciously, but used her magic and summoned a can of water, a paint brush, and a few colorful paints to work with.

"Could you also take the necklace off of me for a moment?" Rarity asked.

Celestia did so and Rarity used her magic to take the shuttles and paint supplies with her. Rarity called over for Twilight to come help her with her project, and the two mares left the court.

Luna scooped up the shuttle with her racket and hit the shuttle over to Rainbow. 

Rainbow made a rather sloppy return, but as she did her best to keep it into play, she began to hit it with more accuracy. "Wow! This sport is painfully easy!" she said. "I don't even think I have the power to make a sport like this twenty percent cooler. This sport, if you can even call it a sport, is more like twenty percent lamer than all the other sports."

"Ok, Rainbow," Luna said. "I'm obviously making this too easy for you to return. Try to return a little something my sister and I like to call, the super mare smash!" Luna waited for Rainbow to return the shuttle, and when she did, the Princess of the night leapt high into the air.

Rainbow Dash's mouth was hanging open at how high she could jump.

Luna smashed the shuttle with all of her might and the loud sound of the shuttle being struck resonated throughout the entire arena.

Before Rainbow Dash could even blink, that shuttle came hurling to her at such speed, that not even she could react in time and the shuttle went right into her mouth and was lodged in her throat. Rainbow sat down on the ground and began to struggle for air.

Applejack came up from behind her and turned around. With one mighty buck to her friend's back, the shuttle went flying out of her mouth and landed on the floor. Applejack laughed and said, "I wanna say an inappropriate joke here, but I think I'll pass."

"A wise decision, Applejack," Celestia said.

Luna scooped up the shuttle with her racket and then hit it off to the side. "It looks like the shuttle will be unfit for play now that the feathers are all mangled." Luna looked over to the boxes of shuttles and realized that they were gone. "Where did all of the shuttles go?" she asked.

"They're just about done!" Rarity cried out. "I made sure to use my magic so that they would dry faster! I may not be well known for magic, but that's why I had Twilight Sparkle help me out with a very special effect that I had in mind. Here you go, Rainbow! I made this one for you!" Rarity used her magic to levitate a new shuttle onto Rainbow Dash's racket. 

Rainbow Dash looked at the new shuttle.

The shuttle was designed just for her. Each feather was colored in a rainbow like pattern just like her tail and mane. The band around the little cork was the same color as her eyes and the rubber cork was the same color as her body, cyan. On the cork was a picture of Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. 

"Wow, Rarity! I know I said this sport is lame, but this is just awesome! Especially since it's designed for the most awesome pony, me!"

"The shuttle's design is just half the fun, Rainbow! Go on, give it a whack and see what Twilight Sparkle helped me with."

Rainbow Dash whacked the shuttle and it went flying through the air. 

Everypony's jaw dropped as they now understood what Rarity meant by special effect.

The shuttle left a trail blaze of rainbow through the air and the trail blaze dissipated quickly. The trail effect itself was transparent, so you could still see the other player's body and racket positioning through the trail.

Princess Luna was so shocked that she failed to even return the shuttle and it scuttled across the floor.

Celestia put her hoof to her chest in shock and said, "Rarity! This is the most brilliant idea and you have just made this sport a million times more enjoyable for the spectators! This also makes it easier for the players to keep their eye on the shuttle during play, and would help me as well as our referees to spot the shuttle."

Rarity's cheeks turned red from receiving praise from the Princess. "And now I have one for Princess Luna!" Rarity hovered a shuttle over to Princess Luna.

The shuttle was a deep, dark blue, almost black in appearance. The feathers all had sparkling stars that actually twinkled. The band around the shuttle was the color of Luna's eyes, teal, and the rubber cork had Luna's cutie mark of the moon and a star.

Luna hit the shuttle hard and the shuttle left a trail of dark space and twinkling stars behind it for a moment. 

Rainbow Dash hit it back and fourth with Luna.

"I could also design shuttles for each and every pony for when it's their turn to serve. I could even create shuttle inspired by doubles players and could mix up the colors on a shuttle. I could place two cutie marks on each side of the shuttle too. Maybe you could pair me up with a handsome stallion to play doubles with, Princess Celestia?"

"We'll see what we can do about that Rarity, but I would be more than willing to pay you some bits for your work. If you could design shuttles for our players, that would make the sport become so much more interesting."

Rainbow Dash tried to return a trick shot and she tumbled to the ground and missed. She then looked up at Celestia and said, "But what if I don't want to play this game anymore? I don't think I like it enough to become dedicated, even if the shuttle designs are wicked awesome."

"I think you haven't given the sport enough time, but I have some information that might change your mind. The Wonderbolts will be playing this game."

Rainbow laid there on the floor in shock. "Y-y-you mean the Wonderbolts as in Spitfire, Fleetfoot, Rapidfire, and..." Rainbow paused for a moment. Her cheeks turned bright red with blush and she finished her sentence. "Soarin'?"

Celestia laughed and said, "I knew that would change your mind. Yes, the Wonderbolts will be hired to promote our sport."

"Maybe this sport isn't so bad after all!" Rainbow Dash said as she picked herself up off the floor.

Just then, the door opened and in stepped the Wonderbolts.

Rainbow Dash became excited for a moment and then became depressed because there was one key member from the Wonderbolts that was missing.

Spitfire turned around and poked her head back out of the door and yelled, "Hurry up and finish your pie! You know that you're not supposed to eat before an athletic competition!" Spitfire held the door open, and in came Soarin' with pie crumbs stuck to his face.

Soarin' licked his whole face clean and joined the rest of the team. 

The Wonderbolts all approached the Princesses and bowed low before them.

"We hope that you do not mind our intrusion, but we had some free time and decided to stop in a little bit early to check this place out and perhaps try a few games," Spitfire said.

"Not at all!" Celestia said. "We are more than happy to have you come by! Please, feel free to play! We have more than enough rackets and courts for everypony to play on."

Rainbow Dash put her front hoof to her mouth and her mind began racing with thoughts. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! They are here with Soarin'. I wonder if he'll think I'm cool. I'd better go find a mirror and fix up my mane so I may look pretty, but then that might make Rarity laugh at me and I may look uncool. I wonder if I should go over there and say hi or if I should..." Rainbow's thoughts were put to an end when Soarin' came up to her and stuck out his hoof to shake. 

"Hi, I'm Soarin'. Aren't you Rainbow Dash? I think we have met a few times before."

Rainbow's mouth was agape and it took her a few moments to reach out and shake hooves with Soarin'. She perked up and said, "Hey yeah! I'm like your biggest fan, and don't tell any of the other Wonderbolts this, but you're my favorite by far."

Soarin' stuck his front hoof slightly above ground and turned his head to the side. There was some bright blush that could be seen on his cheeks. "D'awww! I never knew I was your biggest fan. I remember seeing you so many times sitting in the front row in the stands." Soarin' looked back to his team mates and then back to Rainbow Dash. "Would you like to try to play this new game together? Princess Celestia sent me a rule book with her letter and I read over it a few times before I came here today."

Rainbow's heart went pitter patter in her chest. "Of course I want to play with my most favorite Wonderbolt of all time! Let's go find a court!"

Celestia blew loudly into her whistle and said, "Alright! I want you all to split into groups. The Wonderbolts to the right side of the court, and Twilight's group to the left. I want to see this game get played by the top notch athletes. Luna, do you have the necklaces?"

Princess Luna nodded her head yes and brought out that second blue treasure chest. She opened it up and used her magic to place each necklace around the Wonderbolt's necks. 

Rainbow Dash trotted over to Princess Celestia and said, "Um, Princess Celestia, I really wanted to play with Soarin', so could you let us play together?"

Celestia shook her head no and said, "I want to see the top athletes perform right now. No ponies are in better condition than the Wonderbolts. Princess Luna will be watching your games and I will be spectating the Wonderbolts."

Rainbow Dash was about to protest, but she had to obey the Princess. The worst thing that could happen was that she would be thrown out of this little sports arena.  Rainbow walked over to Luna and said, "Who will I be facing?

Luna pointed her hoof over to where Applejack was standing on another court. 

Rainbow sighed and said, "Old rivalries again."

The other four mares came over and asked who they would be facing. 

Princess Luna put Pinkie Pie against Twilight Sparkle, and she had Fluttershy go up against Rarity. 

Each pony stepped onto the courts. The sound of the whacking of shuttles would be very pleasurable to the Princesses ears.