//------------------------------// // Sportsday Part 3 - A Rival // Story: Equestria Girl. Wait, What's Equestria? // by Bysen //------------------------------// Dash was the most athletically fit person in this school. And aside from Spitfire and the up and coming Scootaloo, and Gilda now too, she was probably the only athletic female in the school. Not to sound sexest but… with only one male on her team, she could already imagine the outfit Soarin’ would make her wear. In fairness, looking over them it appeared she had some of the better displays of feminine sporting prowess on her team at least. Including Gilda. She didn’t want to look disappointed but it was kinda hard not to as she approach her team. In all honesty, she knew the others would let her trade for some better players from their teams even with their bet going on, but her pride wouldn’t let her do that. At least not before seeing these girls play. A minute or so had passed since Dash had first seen her team forming around AJ at the far goal net of this field. There had been a few more guys at first but after seeing how many females had decided to take this team all but one had left. A mistake Dash couldn’t wait to rub in their faces after she led this team to a flawless victory by the end of the season! “H’alright! All of you are in luck. I, Rainbow Dash, the one and only, am your new team captain!” hold for applause. She actually got some for once which did wonders for her ego. A little too much actually as it boosted her confidence enough for her to say “What do you think you’re doing?” to the three guys and a girl that came over from the nearby other field, Soarin’’s field. “Uh… I just wanted to joi…” “No ship jumping! You chose a team, stick with it! Now get off my field!” she yelled and pointed back towards the other set of goals. She turned and saw a couple of people down the other end of the field she was on, Spitfire’s team, stopped in place before turning back to their goals having heard her speech too. “Now! We’re playing a half field game for the next however long! You get the ball, your team runs it to half field then back before you can score! Everyone to the right of you…” she pointed at Cloudkicker in the middle “are one Team 1, everyone else Team A. You got two minutes to remember who’s on your team and then we start!” The plan was to start off with a bit of practice play to check out everyone’s skill and a bit of mingling amongst her players to learn all their names. She walked into Team A began introducing herself, shaking hands, getting names, kissing babies, acting a total poly. After a few minutes she went over to Team 1 and did the same. There where a few note worthy people on her team. First of which was Note Worthy. Turns out there where two males on her team. The second and foremost was Applejack, then Gilda, Scootaloo, Applebloom, Cloudchaser, Flitter, Ditzy ‘Derpy’ Doo, Lyra, Bonbon, Zecora and of course the other guy: Snowflake. Once she was done introducing herself to both teams, the match began! Queue soccer montage set to this song. Right, well about an hour or so later while that was all happening, let’s talk to Gilda seem that was the whole bloiting point of this side story and it’s gotten horribly off track! Gilda certainly lived up to Dash’s expectations, even surpassing them slightly. She’d thought Gilda was a ringer, but she was more than that: she was a rival! She was damn good. Maybe even as good as Dash herself was. Maybe better. Maybe… of course that just meant their team was all the more assured to win. Gilda had just finished running around after scoring two goals, one for each team, running to the half field and back each time and was now taking a breather off to the side when Dash walked up to her. “You tired already?” Dash laughed as she puffed a little herself. Gilda just smirked as she approached. “Heh, haven’t lost it either. You’re good.” she said as she stopped and stood beside her. “Ya know, I haven’t seen ya in ages. We should hang out after school, catch up on what, three years?” Dash added, putting a hand on her old friend's shoulder. Rainbow Dash hadn’t really thought about until now, but she’d missed Gilda. “Yeah, that’s cool.” Gilda replied, trying to act nonchalant. She wouldn’t admit it, but she’d missed Dash just as much, if not more. Infact, defiantly more. Even though technically she wasn’t part of the defiantly/definitely running gag. “Doin’ anything tonight? Head ta the mall, catch up and see a movie or something?” “Tonight? IIII’m a bit busy tonight. Besides, it’s a school night.” Dash replied. She was about to suggest Gilda tagging along with her and the others over the weekend when she noticed it. Despite Gilda’s attempt to hide it, it was evident by the look on her face that Gilda was disappointed to say the least. “Actually, you know what? I can deal with that stuff later, tonight sounds good.” she said, smiling at Gilda who briefly returned the smile too. It was odd, she didn’t remember Gilda being that attached. Then again, a lot can change about a person in three years. “Awesome!” Gilda squarked. “Can’t wait ta show you my ride, it’s tota…” she was cut off by a very loud, very pink cry. “Rainbow Dash! I’m here!” Pinkie Pie shouted across the field. Of course Gilda didn’t know her name so let’s just ignore that this is meant to be from her perspective now and just name characters or otherwise there’ll be like seven paragraphs of ‘the yellow girl with pink hair’ and ‘the redhead with a sun on her shirt’ and blah blah blah. And as you guessed by those two descriptions, Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer where with Pinkie Pie too. However, unlike Pinkie, neither of them were wearing a cheerleading outfit. And she’d actually remembered to put a top on this time. Much to Soarin’’s disappointment. “‘Bout time my cheer squad got here. I was wondering when you’d show up!” Dash called back. Sunset and Fluttershy were still a ways off but naturally Pinkie closed the gap between them at a speed Dash herself couldn’t match. “Hey, Pinks, this my old friend Gilda.” she said happily. Then remembered how bad of an idea it was to introduce Pinkie to a new person. Not to mention they’d learnt their lesson about trying to force people to be friends with Pinkie’s older sister Maud. “Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?!” she said, running right up to Gilda and standing invasively close to the larger girl. “Uh… RD just said it. It’s Gilda.” she replied as she leant her head backwards, away from this other girl’s face and raised an eyebrow, wondering if she was for real. “Well any friend of Dashie’s is a friend of mine!” “Hms hms… ‘Dashie’?” Gilda said with a snicker. Her expression then sombered quickly. She half step backwards and sideways away from Pinkie and towards RD. Pinkie just closed that gap again though. She wasn’t standing as close as she was before, but she was once again inside Gilda’s personal space. “So, anyway…” Gilda began. She didn’t get any further than that though before Pinkie practically shouted right in her face “You should totally join us after school today! We’re going to do stuff! Oh I love stuff! It’s like, the bestest stuff to do! All of Dash’s best friends’ll be there. Including me. And Applejack. And Rarity. And Fluttershy. And Sunset. And me. And… um… oh! And you! You’ll be there too! It’ll be so much fun. So whadya say? You wanna come do stuff with us?!” “Uh, about that Pinkie.” Dash said for the fifth time, finally getting heard now that Pinkie had stopped listing friends. “I actually gotta bail on this afternoon, me and G are ganna hang out together and catch up.” “Oh that sounds fun, can I come?” “Uhhh…” Dash said as Pinkie Pie’s smile seemed to extend well past the limits of her face. Dash looked over to Gilda and got a stern ‘What do you think’ expression followed by her shaking her head to say no. “We’ll see. Talk to me later, k?” “Sure thing!” Pinkie chirped. “Oh, Gilda, come meet Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer!” Pinkie exclaimed as the two neared the gathered girls. Pinkie reached out and grabbed them both, speeding them up and pulling them over. “I want you two to meet my new friend Gilda!” “I, um, hello Gilda. it’s, it’s good to see you again.” Fluttershy muttered. “Wait just one minute! You know each other?” “Yeah, me and Dash know Flutters here from way back. Ain’t that right?” Gilda said, stepping forwards and intentionally making Fluttershy feel uneased by throwing an arm over her shoulder. Sure they’d caught up this morning already, but it was still fun to unsettle this shy little nervous thing. “I am so super jealous right now! You never told me you knew one of Rainbow Dash’s friends!” Pinkie Pie pinkied. “Oh, that reminds me. We’re not too late to try out for the team are we?” “I thought you said you were just going to be cheering us on?” Dash asked. “You can’t be both a cheerleader and a team member. We tried it last year remember, and you nearly got expelled for forgetting your top when you switched uniforms. Twice.” Dash snickered at the memory of the other fic I wrote months ago. “Not me silly, Sunset and Fluttershy, duh, they want to be on your team, isn’t that right guys?” she said looking towards them. Sunset raised a finger in minor protest and Fluttershy just remained still and silent within Gilda’s grasps. “I don’t know Pinkie. I’ve already turned some people away. It’d be a little unfair to let them join now after they’re so late. I mean, just because I’m the team captain, doesn’t mean I can do whatever I want afterall.” “Yes it does.” Pinkie replied. “Yeah it does.” Dash replied in turn. “Alright get in the field and show me what you’ve got. But I’m not going easy on you just because we’re friends. And I know you wouldn’t expect me too either.” Dash said boldly, lying through her teeth. Even if she didn’t consciously know it. “You too Gilda, break’s over. Get out there!” she shouted aloud upwards to everyone. Gilda smirked as she removed her arm from the dumbstruck Fluttershy and took off. Fluttershy, not-shortly-but-less-then-eventually took off as well. Sunset took off two but not before saying to herself, just loud enough that Dash just barely caught it “So that’s what gryphons look like here…” she muttered under her breath. “What was that?” Dash asked. “What? Oh, it was nothing. Just, I don’t think I’ll be trying out.” she told Rainbow Dash, expecting her to be disappointed. “I’m not exactly the most coordinated with my feet… still.” it wasn’t exactly a lie, she just didn’t mention the ever present death sentence that was breaking your leg as a pony was permanently seared into her mind. “Don’t sweat it.” Dash reaffirmed her. “I got tons of good players already. Don’t feel obligated to just because you tried to kill me that one time. It happens…" “Thanks.” Sunset replied, not sure if Dash was being sincere or trying to guilt trip her. “Well I’ll be over here watching.” she said as she began off. Dash just turned and nodded her head once before returning to watching over the field in front of her. Dash stayed off to the side for a while, looking over her players, analysing her team’s moves and skills. Despite her first impressions she had some pretty good players. She also had some pretty crappy ones too. But all in all, she had the team she needed here. Stand out amongst all of them was of course Gilda. Dash couldn’t keep her eyes off of her. She was amazing! The girl would run right at someone with the ball, kick it just over their heads and then re-dribble it off from right behind them then skilfully double step another person and shoot from quarter field for a goal. “Ya know, ah kinda want'a see her go off an’ join one’a the other team.” Applejack said as she suddenly stepped up beside Rainbow Dash. She hadn’t snuck up on her at all, Dash had just been so focused on her old friend she hadn’t noticed this friend approach. “You know, actually give yur team a run fer your money fer once” “Heh, sure.” Dash mocked. “You just don’t want the competition.” “Do you mean competition on the team, or on you?” Pinkie Pie asked as she cart-wheeled past the two of them. Dash ignored her but they both got what Pinkie was getting at. Of course Pinkie also thought Dash’s pet tortoise Tank and Rarity’s cat had the hots for each other too so she wasn’t exactly what they would call an expert on the matter. Not to mention she was completely blind to Pokey Peirce’s crush on her. But that’s a story for another filler arc. “So you remember her right AJ?” “Uh, sorta.” the country girl said, taking off her hat with one hand and scratching her head with the other. “Ah vaguely remember her beatin’ me in shot-put one year during the sports carnival.” “Beat ME that year too.” Dash added. “Yeah I did.” Gilda acknowledged as she stepped back up beside the two. No where near as close as Pinkie had been though. She planted her hand on her knees and panted deeply. She was an amazing player but no where near as lithe as Dash or Applejack and all that running took a lot out of her. She had the power, but not the energy to keep it going for this long. Probably her only weakness. That and kittens. She was allergic to adorableness. “And why aren’t you off practicing?” Dash replied teasingly. “Just ‘cause you’re good, doesn’t mean you don’t still have to earn your place on MY team G.” “Fair comp.” Gilda said and began to walk back towards the field. She stopped though, then turned back and asked “One thing though. Why aren’t you off practicing? Just ‘cause you’re good, doesn’t mean you don’t still have to earn your spot on YOUR team RD.” Gilda said with a snicker. “You know, what? You're right.” Dash said before completely stopping the conversation as she grabbed her whistle and blew it as hard as she could. It made absolutely no sound. Only the near by dogs could hear it. She then blew it not as hard and it made sound. “Right in the ears!” Gilda groaned as she ears rang with her new tinnitus. “Alright, Listen up!” Dash yelled. “The bad news is there’s only 11 spots on my team. That means more than half of you are gonna be cut. And a fifth [20%] of you already have, you just don’t know it yet. The good news is chances are Spitfire or Soarin’’ll take you on theirs. Might as well be bad news though, ha’am I right?!” Dash proclaimed. “Yeah!” came one person: Scootaloo. She was the smallest in this group by far. Most of the junior students were off on the netball or softball or football teams. You know, the lame stuff. [lulz i cooled futbaal laimz!] “And to show solidarity, even MY spot is not assured. I mean, it’s assured, but you can TRY and be team captain if you want. Does anyone wanna try out against me?.” Two hands went up. “Put your hand down Scootaloo." Scootaloo did as told. "Pinkie, you’re not even trying out.” Dash said as Pinkie continued to circle the group like a shark… a shark standing on a ball. Ball Sharks: the deadliest kind of shark alive! “That’s everything then. Okay, it's time for the easiest part of any coach’s job.” “The cuts!”