“You think she’s okay?” Ditzy asked with worry, pointing at the sleeping form of Applejack on the bench of Ponyville’s pit.
“I don’t know…” Vinyl replied, glancing at her sister with puzzlement. “I guess she’s just...tired.”
“Yeah, but.” Redheart scratched her brow in confusion. “She’s never been tired to the point where she just falls asleep in the middle of the day!”
“Well, we can suppose that her classy girlfriend kept her ‘’busy’’ all day and night yesterday,” Allie suggested uncertainly.
“Huh… How do you explain that Rarity’s up there fresh as a daisy?” Cloud asked, pointing at the Princesses’ private box.
All her teammates looked up where the lieutenant pointed, noticing that white dress and purple, curly hair that accompanied their sleeping partner’s lover. From what they could see from their pit, any sign of fatigue was absent on the Council Member’s face, though she looked a bit put off to say the least.
“You think she outlasted AJ?” Raindrops asked slowly.
“........Not a chance!” The entire team, minus Applejack who was still sleeping, coaches, nurse and masseuses in the pit replied in unison.
“Then she probably had trouble sleeping last night,” Redheart supposed. “And, definitely not the kind of trouble Cloud is used to cause.”
“You know, someday I’ll start to get offended by those implications,” Cloud commented in an angry tone.
“One can’t be offended by something she’s proud of, Cloud,” Turner chimed in playfully. “Extremely proud of in your case.”
Cloud simply crossed her arms with a sour pout before slowly, and discretely smirking to herself. She was indeed immensely proud of of the sleeping troubles she could cause, especially since they disturbed one of the greatest intellect’s in the country’s sleeping pattern.
“Hey, guys!” Rainbow called as she walked up to Ponyville’s pit, a gold medal hanging from her neck. “What’s so interesting to look at inside your pit?” she asked with no small amount of curiosity.
“Do you have to still wear your medal?” Raindrops asked the Cloudsdalian with a cocked eyebrow.
“What?! It’s awesome!” Rainbow argued with a dismissive snort. “And there’s no problem with awesomeness!”
“Well, some might think you’re rubbing your victory from yesterday in their faces,” Allie suggested with slightly disapproving stare.
“Oh…” Rainbow let out sheepishly before scratching her cheek in embarrassment.
“Allie, don’t be mean!” Ditzy chastised softly. “Renée had an excellent performance in the race yesterday and managed to beat Spitfire by a hair,” the bubbly blonde reminded with with an approving nod at the Cloudsdalian. “She has earned the right to show off a little.”
“As long as it remains a little,” Cloud added with a wink. “Otherwise, we’ll ask AJ to bring you back down to earth,” she warned the rainbow-haired girl playfully.
“You think she’d even manage to catch me?” Rainbow asked with a cocky grin, while nonetheless hiding her medal beneath her jacket. “At least not in her current state.” She stared at the sleeping blonde with a hint of worry making its way on her face. “What’s wrong with her? I’ve never seen her even yawn past eight in the morning, and now she’s dead asleep around eleven!”
“We don’t know,” Vinyl replied softly. “She arrived about twenty minutes ago, asked Ditzy and I how we did yesterday and just fell asleep while we were answering.” She didn’t want to let it be known, but she was kinda hurt that her sister fell asleep during the tale of her dressage qualification.
“We’ve been trying to wake her up since then,” Roseluck commented slowly. “Without much success, sadly.”
“Well, the hurdles finals are nearly over,” Rainbow stated slowly. “You think she’s gonna be okay in time for the start of the Blitz-ball tournament?”
“We can only hope so,” Redheart replied softly.
~~~~~~~~
“Do you think Applejack’s okay?” Fluttershy asked in her usual, barely louder than a whisper, tone, pointing at the Ponyville Pit after resting her binoculars on her armrest. “I don’t think I’ve even seen her looking so exhausted before.”
“True,” Twilight commented slowly. “She’s always full of vitality… not like Pinkie, but she’s always looked above the simple concept of tiredness!”
“Probably too much celebration with Rarity yesterday,” Cadence supposed with a soft giggle, glancing knowingly at the seamstress.
The fact that the purple haired Titanian wasn’t even listening to her would have been enough to cause the princess to frown in confusion, but the fact that the same Titanian was throwing a dark stare at a rather concerned Celestia was clearly more confusing. Rarity’s lack of response caused all the gazes to turn in her direction.
“What’s going on?” Octavia asked Twilight softly. “Why is she staring at Celestia like that?”
“Not a clue,” Twilight replied with a puzzled frown.
Luna, did you overdo it with your sleeping spell? Celestia, ignoring the curious gazes and the angry stare, asked her sister telepathically.
No, sister, I’m pretty sure I didn’t…. Luna thought her reply slowly. … I can only suppose that it’s the aftermath of your ‘’Research on her power’’ that’s finally kicking in!
That doesn’t make any se…
Don’t you remember Uncle Puddinghead and Aunt Cookie? Whenever they pushed themselves too hard, they’d sleep through the entire day after. Even days for Uncle, sometimes. Luna interjected in a low thought, similar to a whisper. And, with what I saw in her memories before her Guardian ‘politely’ kicked me out, your fight with her was certainly the most excruciating one she ever had.
Celestia frowned uneasily for a mere moment, merely more than a blink of an eye, -Rarity had almost missed it, almost- before she glanced at her sister.
Do you think she’ll be back to her usual self for her team’s game today? The Sun Princess asked with a hint of worry in her thoughts.
We can only hope so, Tia. It’s not like we can fly down there to give her a boost with our Magic, Luna replied slowly. It’ll do more harm to her team than good… That is if Rarity allows us to come near her in the first place.
Indeed… Well, let’s hope she can rest as long as she need it.
“Those were very exciting hurdles races finals!” Pinkie shouted in her megaphone from her Pink-Zep. “While Princess Celestia will give our great Champions their respective medals, the first matches for our the most great, awesome, fun-a-fun-fun magical team sport in all Equestria are about to start!” The flying announcer yelled in excitement. “The BLITZ-BALL TOURNAMENT IS ABOUT TO START!” The crowd responded by roaring and clapping in obvious excitement. “I invite the teams selected for the opening match to head for the Blitz-ball terrains the town installed outside the stadium!”
Pinkie’s words were followed by a rather unusual reaction from the athletes and the spectators: They all looked at each other in confusion, asking about which teams were concerned by that announcement.
“Did I forget to say the names of the teams?” Pinkie asked sheepishly in her megaphone, causing Twilight, who had stopped paying attention to Rarity glaring at Celestia, to face-palm while the her friends and the crowd giggled softly.
It turned out that tradition wanted that the hosting town had to participate in the opening match of the Equestria Games’ Blitz-ball competition, much to the concerned team’s great displeasure as they’d have to play without the powerhouse of their team who they had failed to wake up.
Zecora and Redheart auscultated Applejack repeatedly, but never managed to spot any relevant symptoms to explain the otherwise healthy blonde’s state. After trying the most extreme measure, that only cause their Zebrican coach to crush on a very rare and tough fruit from her homeland on Applejack’s thick skull, the team decided to let the blonde rest under the close watch of the twins and was about to head out of the stadium.
It was at that moment that Pinkie span the “wheel of teams”, as she called it, to choose the host-town’s opponents. The matchups being established randomly for the tournament, and while the officials normally established them in advance by drawing lots, Pinkie explained that it would be more fun to do it in front of the spectators, so she managed to impose it to the officials. How she had pulled that off, nobody knew for sure, but those who were friend with the pink-haired announcer were convinced it involved baked goods at one point or another.
After a good minute of intense spinning, the wheel started to slow down. Everyone held their breath at the suspense of waiting to find out who’ll face Ponyville’s team until the wheel stopped on the symbol of a winged lightning bolt.
“....And the first match of the Blitz-ball Tournament will oppose Ponyville to Cloudsdale!” Pinkie shouted, her excitement matching the ones from the City in the Sky’s supporting crowd. “Now, that the first matchup is done, let’s watch the other ones before I remind you all of the rules of the game…..”
~~~~~~~
Blitz-ball: An Equestrian National Sport
~~~~~~
“Oh, my gosh! The two teams are warmed up and ready to start!” Pinkie exclaimed from her zep, which she had flown out of the stadium to comment on the game. “What’s probably shocking is the lineups chosen by the two coaches as the players the crowd wanted to see after their respective gold medals yesterday, namely Renée “Rainbow” Dash and Jacquelyn “Applejack” Apple, are both not in the active roster.” Pinkie stated in a pensive tone. “Is that a secret tactic from their coaches? Do they have plans for two of the many rising stars of this year’s Equestria Games? Only time will tell!”
The lineup for Ponyville’s team did trouble the town’s supporters, as it didn’t include Vinyl or Cloud, both known for their respective prowess. Instead of those two, rather famous athletes, the other four members placed themselves for the kick-off.
Roseluck was wearing the brown band indicating her position as the Ground Player around her neck, like a scarf, while Allie twirled her Magic Player, blue band around her wrist in the center circle. Raindrops and Ditzy both attached their band, respectively green and yellow, around their waists before they took their starting positions: in front of the goals for Raindrops, and in the left flank of the terrain for Ditzy.
Cloudsdale team had decided to place Snowflake as their Keeper, while the Streak twins occupied the position of Ground and Magic players, leaving the Wing Player position to Lightning Dust.
“Alright, guys,” Rainbow called her teammates before they stepped in the terrain. “Keep calm, play just like practice and it’ll be okay!” she advised slowly.
“Please, Dash!” Lightning Dust rolled her eyes at her team captain. “Look at them! Apart from that Derpy girl, their lineup is nothing but a bunch of nobodies! Not a problem at all!”
“Her name’s Ditzy, LD,” Rainbow reminded with a frown. “I thought you had learned the lesson to not underestimate that team when she beat you on the obstacle course, or when Roseluck passed you and Fleetfoot on the first day.”
“Yeah, right,” Lightning Dust snorted in annoyance. “Also, the flower girl didn’t get past me on the first day! She choked when she was about to!” she added with dismissive smirk.
“Whatever! Just play good, all of you!” Rainbow said softly before sending her teammates on the pitch.
The players from Cloudsdale slowly took their positions; the massive Snowflake flapped his rather small wings to keep himself in the air before the central ring of his team’s goals; Fire Streak positioned himself just before the penalty line, his blue bandana wrapped around his forehead; his brother joined Allie in the central ring for the throw in and Lightning Dust hovered a few feet behind him.
“WOOOOHOOOOO! The rings are starting to glow,” Pinkie let out, her voice trembling in excitement as the two upper rings glowed in a brownish shade of light while the lower ones shone in a bright yellow hue and the center rings surrounded themselves by a blue aura. “Are you all ready?”
The team of referees waved their approval at Pinkie as they scattered around the pitch to watch over the game with attention. Allie and the blond twin leaned forward to the center of the pitch as Pinkie, still high above the terrain, pulled out her cannon and aimed at it.
“LET’S GO!”
In a loud bang, the cannon shot a leather, maroon ball at top speed right in between the two player at the center. After a sharp whistling sound, the ball touched the exact central point of the pitch. As soon as it did, a bell rang to indicate the start of the match.
Allie’s arm glowed in her cyan, magic hue before she tried to grab the rebounding ball in her magic grip before Lightning Streak took it in his right hand. The blonde Jupitarian then lunged forward, shoving the opposing Titanian out of the way with his shoulder.
“And, Streak takes the ball after a rather strong tackle on his rather small opponent and makes way towards Ponyville’s goals,” Pinkie commented as the Ponyvillians groaned while the supporters of the City in the Sky cheered.
The trio from Cloudsdale continued their advances Allie following them far behind after recovering from her hit. Ditzy and Roseluck placed themselves in defense while the three Jupitarians passed each other the ball at an incredible pace.
The blonde from Ponyville licked her lips before charging between the two twins, hoping to catch their pass midair, only to miss it by a millimeter. Fire Streak caught the ball in a small twirl of wind and ran closer to the goals.
Raindrops flew in front of the central goal in which Fire could score before he passed the ball back to his brother, who threw to Lightning Dust. The Wing player from Cloudsdale hovered close to the ground to reach for the lower rings before Roseluck came between her and her objective.
“Out of the way, Flower girl!” Lightning smirked as she feinted to aim left, only to shoot at the right, wrong-footing Raindrops and knocking the maroon-haired girl away with her wing. She threw the ball which passed through the undefended, lower-right, yellow ring.
“And, Cloudsdale opens the score after twenty seconds,” Pinkie commented, hearing the distant crowd roar and cheer from the stadium.
“Was there ever any doubt?” Lightning smirked at her teammates who high-fived her in response.
~~~~~~
The first quarter of the game pretty much went like the first twenty seconds. Cloudsdale was leading fifteen to zero; Lightning Dust had scored half of those goals herself, and had kept bragging about it to Roseluck whenever she tried to stop her from shooting.
Only good side, sort of, to the first part of the match was that Cloudsdale didn’t manage to score triple. On the five times would have been possible, they hadn’t anticipated the switch of aura on the rings. Matter of fact, they have more tried to shoot before the change to take Raindrops by surprise, something they succeeded two times out of five.
Applejack’s absence was a great disadvantage for Ponyville: since they didn’t have any reserve player, unlike Cloudsdale, they couldn’t switch lineups during the game. Things weren’t looking good for the hosting town, for now.
“Shouldn’t we change the lineups?” Allie asked uneasily. “If Vinyl replaces me, that will bring more power to our game…”
“Kiddo, you’re our best shooter,” Vinyl reminded with a gentle smile.
“But, I lack speed and strength compared to you,” Allie argued with a sigh. “I’m not cut out to play against Cloudsdale,”
Vinyl’s response was to flick the nose of her youngest team member, making her yelp softly before covering her reddening appendage with her hands.
“That’s for the loser talk!” Cloud explained to her teammates. “It’s an Apple Family disciplining tradition,” she added with a shrug.
“How do you know that?” Ditzy asked curiously.
“I’ve been on its receiving end so many times that the skin of my nose lost all its sensitivity,” Cloud replied with a chuckle. “That’s mainly why I don’t nuzzle anymore!”
“Kid, you’re gonna do great if you just believe in yourself,” Vinyl advised, ignoring the interesting fact about Cloud’s nose.
“Yeah, but it's not that ea…”
“That’s it, girls,” Turner interrupted her, lifting his eyes from his note-pad. “It took longer than I thought, but I have it all figured out!” he said with pride, tapping his pad which was full of inscriptions and calculuses.
“Really?” Roseluck asked with interest.
“Trust me on this, Rose. I’m a doctor after all!” Turner winked playfully.
“Doctor of what exactly?” Ditzy wondered out loud.
“That’s for another day!” Turner waved off before signaling the girls come closer. “So, what you’re going to do is….”
~~~~~~
“And, after a deserved break, our players are back on the field,” Pinkie announced excitedly. “Seems like Ponyville didn’t change its lineup, much to everyone’s surprise… Maybe it’ll pay off in the end!” she added pensively as the players were taking positions. “For now, it’s Roseluck Greentouch vs Lightning Dust for the throw-in!”
“What’s so funny?” Roseluck asked with a cocked eyebrow as Lightning Dust snorted at her.
“Just imagining you trying to get the ball before me,” Lightning replied through her giggles. “Hilarious!”
Roseluck humphed angrily before leaning forward the center, immediately imitated by the orange haired Wing player opposite of her. Pinkie shouted in excitement the start of the second period before the bang from her cannon resonated across the pitch, followed by the whistle of the ball coming in their direction.
“Say, Dust,” Roseluck whispered. “I have something I’ve been wanting to remind you for a few days now….”
“Huh?!”
The ball flew between them and touched the ground with a low thud, and as soon as it did, Rose took action. She extended her right arm between the ball and Lightning, and with a subtle movement of her wrist, the ball rolled up her lithe arm to her shoulder.
The florist/gymnast rolled her neck forward smoothly so that the ball could pass from her right shoulder to her left one. As it kept its momentum along her left arm, Rose raised her head to face her surprised opponent.
“You owe me three medals,” she let out in a low tone. “Allie!” she shouted before ‘’slapping’’ the ball when it passed her left wrist.
Lightning Dust yelped loudly when the ball flew straight to her forehead before bouncing in Allie’s direction as the blue-haired was standing behind Roseluck’s right side. Her teammate caught the ball in her levitation field and started to run forward.
While the Cloudsdalian recovered from the ball meeting her forehead, Roseluck skipped past her along with Ditzy, who flew above them with a pleased smile on her face.
“Yeah!” Cloud called after Roseluck. “Show her who’s got the bigger thorns, Rose!” she added while Vinyl and the coaching team chuckled softly.
“Hey, Ref!” Lightning shouted angrily. “Isn’t there a fault?”
“I didn’t see any.” The referee waved off before focusing back on where the ball was. “Keep playing.”
“Way passes the ball to Doo, who passes to Greentouch… OH MY GOSH!” Pinkie shrieked loudly.
Roseluck had just run up to Fire Streak the ball under her arm before she tossed the ball above the other redhead and slided between his open legs while his eyes were on the ball. As it fell behind him, Roseluck kicked the ball to pass it to Allie. The diminutive Ponyvillian quickly feinted a shot and threw the ball at Ditzy.
The Jupitarian with grey wings gave them a powerful flap and flew straight toward the the high, right ring which was glowing in a yellow hue. Snowflake positioned himself in Ditzy’s trajectory, his wings flared open on his back.
“Huh…. Doo’s not changing her course…” Pinkie commented uneasily. “Huh…. she keeps going straight to Snowflake….” Pinkie pulled her hair in frustration. “.... I can’t take it!” she covered her eyes with her hands, only to part her fingers to peek at the action.
Snowflake licked his lips, slowly starting to sweat at the red and grey cannonball flying straight at him. Ditzy’s face grew bigger in his eyes as she came closer. He began to notice the details of her face’s structure… the small expression wrinkles around her mouth that showed she smiled a lot… the white surrounding her crossed, golden eyes. Out of reflex, he snapped his own shut.
He felt a strong gush of wind passing right in front him before he heard the bell indicating a goal ring loudly. Snowflake opened his eyes and look around, his gaze falling on Allie jumping in Roseluck’s arms to congratulate her, only to be joined by a crashing Ditzy.
“Wow! That was amazing!” Pinkie announced in awe. “At the last second, Ditzy Doo flew vertically and passed the ball to Roseluck who dunked in the central ring!” She pinched her cheek in disbelief. “Nope… I wasn’t seeing things. Are we sure it’s the same lineup as before?”
The trio from Ponyville walked back to their side of the terrain for the throw-in. Lightning Dust glared at Roseluck the whole way while the florist simply smiled at her. The Cloudsdalian clenched her fist strongly, small sparks of lightning coming from it in anger as the maroon-haired girl turned her back to her.
That was a second before a sudden gush of wind came from behind her and forced her hair in front of her eyes. Lightning Dust looked around in puzzlement after noticing that the soft wind seemed to affect only her. She glanced behind her, and saw that many of the other teams came to watch the second and following periods from closer.
Her eyes fell on a violet pair that was staring straight at her through long, pure white locks of hair. Confusion replaced the anger she was feeling when Fleetfoot of the Wonderbolts slowly and discretely waved her forefinger from right to left repeatedly.
Lightning Dust turned away from the celebrity, a strong feeling of uneasiness filling her mind before she took her position. Unbeknownst to her, Fleetfoot stopped looking at her and glanced at Roseluck who noticed the Wonderbolt’s attention was on her. The Canterlotian gave her a short nod with a thumb-up, earning a sincere smile in response just before the game started again.
~~~~~~~~
The Ponyville team did a great match starting from the second period: They scored nine tenths of their attempts at a triple goal along with quite a number of regular ones as well. The Ponyvillians seemed to know wherever to aim to get the triple. Though the Cloudsdalians didn’t let them do as they pleased.
The match was now in its last quarter and there was only less than a minute left before the end of the game, and Ponyville was in the lead by two points. There was only one opportunity for a triple and Cloudsdale had reinforced its defense by switching their keeper and by bringing Rainbow Dash on the pitch.
Their star player and Midnight, their new keeper, had given back the City in sky’s advantage in the second part of the third and the final quarters. With less than half a minute before the end, Ponyville had only one chance of winning: taking the last triple point which would only be possible during the last few seconds of the game.
“You think she’ll make it, Vi?” Cloud asked nervously.
“Don’t you trust her?” Vinyl asked back.
“She has trouble handling stress, Vinyl,” the blonde reminded.
“She’ll do great!” Vinyl assured. “The kid’s a tough one and she’s the only one who can pull it off.”
“Let’s hope you’re right.”
On the pitch, Allie took a deep breath before the resumption of the game after Turner’s last time out. She gave a final glance at the only man of Ponyville’s team who brushed his nose with his thumb two times in response.
Licking her lips, the cyan-haired girl nodded and stood ready along with her teammates. Fire Streak kicked the ball to pass it to Rainbow Dash before she slammed her right wing in it to pass it to Lightning Dust, who was now occupying the Ground position.
But, like many times before, Roseluck jumped above the orange-haired Jupitarian and caught the ball in her hands and ran for the goals, a frustrated Lightning Dust on her tail. Allie came closer as Lightning Streak pulled back in defense to back Roseluck’s charge while Rainbow was trying to get away from Ditzy.
Roseluck was at a few yards from the goals when she realized that she would be blocked if she continued further along. She threw the ball at Allie, much to the surprise of Midnight, Lightning Dust and Lightning Streak, who clearly hadn’t expected it.
Allie caught the ball in her magic and glanced at the goals. She still had a few seconds before the switch, so she decided to come closer.
“Gotcha!” Rainbow’s voice rang in her ears before a light blue blur passed above her with a strong gush of wind and she felt the ball escaping her grasp.
Rainbow flew straight for their goals at top speed and rapidly took a shot at the lower, right ring. Raindrops had anticipated that shot and dived to slam the ball away with her wing, only for it fly back at the Cloudsdalian.
Rainbow kicked the ball on-the-fly to the high left ring, which was completely undefended, but the teal-haired woman from Ponyville turned around during her dive, took a deep breath, and spat a large water bullet to intercept the ball.
Diverted off its course, the crimson, leathery sphere bounced away from the ring. Rainbow was about to go catch it when Ditzy flew past her at top speed and kicked the ball toward the center of the terrain with the back of her heel.
It rebounded a few times on the ground before Allie caught it back in her magic grip. She faced the Cloudsdale side of the terrain, seeing that Roseluck was trying to distance herself from her opponents with a large amount of acrobatics worthy of her performance in gymnastics.
Allie also noticed that aura around the rings started to fade as well as she heard Rainbow flying in her direction. She didn’t have time to come closer to assure a clean pass to Roseluck.
“SHOOT, ALLIE! SHOOT!” Vinyl roared from the replacement bench along with Cloud, Redheart and Turner.
Allie’s magic field shone brighter than before as she took a bowling stance, the ball starting to spin on itself quickly. The bell indicating the change of rings rang through the pitch a tenth of second before she threw the ball with all her might and a loud groan.
The ball flew rapidly toward the lower left ring which had lost its brown color while the ball was halfway to it. Midnight had started to fly in its direction, extending its arm to save the goal, and thus assuring Cloudsdale’s victory.
Both the ball and the keeper were a meter and half away from the ring when all ten of them started recover a neutral, white magic glow. Everyone held their breath, waiting for it turn from white to one of its three normal colors.
All the Cloudsdalians smiled in relief when the lower left ring turned yellow; the Wing player color, and all started to relax.
But that was before the effect Allie had put in her throw kicked in. The ball started to follow a rising trajectory, much to Midnight’s dismay. It flew straight in the higher, left ring which had been glowing blue for merely a second and a half.
“YES! YES! YES!” Allie shouted, jumping on the spot repeatedly when the results table displayed the following score a few seconds before the bell ringing the end of the game:
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