//------------------------------//
// Sportsday Part 6 - It's Finally Over. Maybe. 
// Story: Equestria Girl. Wait, What's Equestria? 
// by Bysen 
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Blood was pouring from his face as Dash lightly help him unconscious in her arms. It was clear the Gilda’s trick shot had broken Note Worthy’s nose. It now looks something like This. Blood was seeping out of his nose and both down the side of his face and into his mouth. He began to sputter with each breath, spraying blood all over Dash’s face.

“Lay him down and roll him on his side” Fluttershy yelled as she ran in and power slid onto her knees as she came to rest right beside the two of them. She quickly and calmly, much more collectedly than Dash could manage right now, took him from Dash’s grasp and quickly yet gently lowered him down back onto his back. She then pulled his closest knee up so his leg made a triangle with the ground, put her right arm under his shoulder and her left hand on his knee and rolled him onto his side.

He was breathing, but was still sputtering somewhat as the blood that had pooled in the back of his throat didn’t immediately seep out. Fluttershy, without any hesitation or regard for her own well being over this person's went in and placed her mouth over his nose and sucked. The blood that had been trapped in the back of his throat and nasal passage came out and into her mouth. She pulled away and spat it out, along with the increased amount of mucus production that occurred as a result of this, but let’s ignore that she also got a mouth full of snot. Point is, he was breathing fine again.

Now that the immediate danger was over, all it was now was a broken nose. Still quite serious when you combine that with him having been knocked out but at least he wasn’t going to drown in his own blood now. Fluttershy turned to look up towards the nearest person, who happened to be Dash and yelled “Stop standing around and go get help! Now!” she had his blood all over her lips and chin and a smear going of the side from where she’d wiped her mouth, but how she may’ve looked wouldn’t stop her from helping this person to the best of her abilities. 

“Uh, I uh…” Dash stuttered, shocked that her usually timid friend was suddenly so forceful and in command. It wasn’t exactly surprising that she would take such a role in situation where someone got hurt but it was still quite a rare thing to see. “Someone’s already run to get help.” she told her friend before leaning in and adding “Your… your skirt’s riding a little high. You might wanna do something about that.” skidding in on your knees may look awesome and save some time but it had it’s drawbacks too.

Fluttershy meeped, her self-consciousness coming back in force as she grabbed the hem of her skirt and pulled it down past her knees she was sitting on and held it firmly against the ground. Her white top had a good amount of blood on it and the white frills on the edge of her skirt now had two hand shaped red stains on them too. “I… I’ve got to go!” Fluttershy said as she quickly stood up and and began to walk away at a very brisk pace.

Note Worthy still lay there, blood dripping from his nose but his mouth had emptied and he was still breathing fine. Dash was now the only one sitting on the ground beside him. She waved in Applejack, who after Fluttershy, as far as Dash knew, had the most experience with handling injuries. AJ came down and sat opposite of Dash past Note Worthy. “Y’all ok Dash? Yur lookin’ a li’l pale in the face there.”

“Yeah. Yeah I’m fine, I just… damn it!” she declared as she stood up and turned back towards the goals “What the hell is wrong with you Gilda?!” she yelled and started marching towards the other girl.

“Me? What the hell did I do?...” she said but luckily picked up again before Dash could answer. “Alright… but it’s not like I meant ta do that ta him! You think I intentionally meant break the guy’s face?” Gilda responded.

“Yeah, I do! You hit him right in it, what did you expect ta happen!?”

“The same thing that always happens when you head butt a ball. Just ta bounce off and maybe hurt a little. How was I supposed to know he would get so messed up? Seriously, you intercepted a ball going twice as fast earlier taday! I don’t see you knocked out on the ground!”

“You broke his damn nose, at least have the decency to be sorry!”

“I am sorry!”

“You haven’t said it!”

“He couldn’t hear it if I did so what’s the point!?”

“The point is it’s the right thing to do!”

“Right thing to do? The right thing to do is not be a god damn hypocrite! None of this would’ve happened if you had listened to your own damn speel about being the best instead of intentionally gimping your own stupid team just so you can play favourites with easily the worst players to try out for your pathetic little team!!!” Gilda just roared at her friend as the came face to face. And it didn’t matter that Gilda was a head taller than Dash as she leant down enough that both of their foreheads were pressed hard against one another’s and their scowls matched perfectly for the words they were slinging at one another.

“Wha… I oughta kick you off this damn team for that right now?”

“For what, telling you the truth. Just because you don’t want to see it, this team would be better off without you dragging it down with your dumb decisions!”

“That’s not even what I’m talking about! Maybe if you pulled your head out of your arse G you’d realise that. I’m talking about blatant rule breaking and attacking another player!”

“Breaking rules? Attacking!? I didn’t do jack, you got that! I have NEVER seen a ref give even a card for kicking a ball into some guys face. Ever! And breaking the rules? What I did was pass up field! I did a long shot kick to the other side of the field and the only difference to what I did and passing to another player is that I was the same one who received the pass! It. Was. Legit Dash! And you damn well know it!”

“You call that legit? You call anything of what you did legitimate?!”

“Well actually Dashie…” Pinkie stepped in, forcefully pushing the two of them apart and moving them to a full arms length each away from Pinkie Pie standing between them. “She’s pretty much right. All she really did is pass to herself like I do all the time and I’ve never ever ever seen even a yellow card from a ball-face-contact before.” and while Dash had never seen Pinkie Pie watching a soccer game before, she inherently trusted Pinkie Pie’s impossible knowledge. “However… I would say Note Worthy’s team should get a penalty shot.”

“Hmm, pink one’s got a good idea.” Gilda said, smirking a little as she reach out, put a hand over Pinkie’s chest and flung her out of the way [as she let out a loud 'weeeeeee!'] before stepping back up to Dash. The two of them weren't completely all up in each other’s face any more but their gaze upon each other was just as intense. “Forget this whole three team BS, it was unba anyway! Let’s just settle this with penalty kick offs. Sound fair?”

“Hmm!...” Dash harrumphed. “Fine…” she reluctantly agreed. Steady shots were actually her weakest spot in this game. Oddly enough having time to focus on what she was doing and where she was aiming actually made her worse than when she quickly and without thinking just shot the ball on instinct. “I got first shot. Get in the goal!” Dash stated. This was no longer a friendly competition. She doubted it had been for a while now.

Gilda took her spot in the goals. Snowflake had long since left to see what had happened to the other guy and had nearly passed out at the sight of all that blood. He was off sitting somewhere trying to remain calm and compose himself. A teacher had arrived on the scene now and was taking care of Note Worthy, and another was jogging towards them as well. And likely an ambulance had already been called.

As the second teacher arrived, Applejack gave up her spot beside Note Worthy to them and she along with Scootaloo and a few others of note worth, except Note Worthy of course, turned their attention to Gilda and Dash’s final showdown. It was relentless between them now. It wasn’t a game and they weren't treating it as such. They were already up to Dash’s tenth-odd shot for the goal. All of which Gilda had caught and thrown back to Dash once she had gotten back into position.

It repeated and repeated. Dash would kick and Gilda would catch, ready herself and throw back and wait for the next shot. Fifteen. Twenty… twenty-two is when it happened. Dash shot the ball, heading towards the top right corner in a nine difficulty shot. Gilda leapt for it, her hands fully out stretched finger touched the ball but she didn’t catch it. She only blocked it. It went flying off of her open, out stretched palm and off into the field as Gilda landed heavily on her side once more.

“Go get it!” Dash ordered. “You take a shot, I’m goalie now.” she stated. She didn’t nicely say ‘let’s switch’ or ‘how about you have a try now’ no, this was mechanical and binary. There could be only one winner in this and there was no love lost… not any more… not as far as she knew at least.

Gilda picked herself up and trudged off after the ball. Someone had caught it and as Gilda approached her, she didn’t pass her the ball. Instead she let it go and left Gilda to keep walking to take it. As Gilda had dribbled the ball back to the penalty shot point, she stood there for less than a second before she shot: caught. She shot again: caught. And again: caught.

Surely enough Dash held her ground just as steadfast as Gilda had. Neither would give an inch. Neither could or would let the other win. In both of there minds, this was practically a fist fight between the two of them with how much hostility both had for the other right now. But even still, amongst that hostility and even trace amount of hatred, there was respect. Both of them were the best there was. Neither of them would back down. And the two of them had never had a challenge like they were having right now with each other.

Five shots. Ten shots. Fifteen shots. Twenty shots. Twenty-one… twenty-two… Dash had already beaten Gilda. Gilda had fumbled on her twenty second defence where Dash had taken all of them this far with near perfection. Neither were counting though and with how much it felt that time passed much faster, Dash felt she wasn’t at where Gilda had left off yet and Gilda thought Dash had passed it long ago. Twenty-three… the ball shot off into the field again.

Neither of them said a word as Dash stood up and went off after the ball while Gilda started towards the nets as they switched places. And this was meant to be a faster and easier solution too… both of them had forgotten that this whole thing had started over who would be the team captain. That wasn’t even the reason they were doing this anymore. It was simply who was the best now. Nothing more. But nothing less either.

It was endless… Dash would shoot. Gilda would block. Dash would shoot, Gilda would block. Dash would shoot… goal. Shit! Gilda landed her right side on the ground as she leapt for the ball. She’d missed… she’d missed the ball… she'd, she'd lost. Gilda had lost. Dash had won. Gilda just lay there on the ground for a few seconds. Stunned that she'd failed, that she’d been beaten.

But, she’d been beaten by Dash. She’d been beaten by the only person that she ever considered her equal. She’d been beaten by her rival, her captain, her superior… by her friend. It sucked… but she accepted it and was glad that she’d put up such a strong fight. She absolutely hated losing of course but she was a gracious loser. Well, outwardly at least. Inside she seethed over it just a bit.

She righted herself as Dash approached. “That was a damn good game G.” Dash said as she extended a hand. Gilda took it as her friend lifted her up. “Sure as hell was a close one wasn’t it. I’ll be honest, there were so many time I thought you were about to beat me.”

“Yeah… same here.” Gilda admitted. “Didn’t see it coming when it did though…” she said with a content little chuckle. This may not have been the outcome she predicted but honestly, she was glad that the better man had won. This was about making the team the best it could be, and if the best was Dash then Gilda would follow her as the team’s leader that it deserved.

“You know what G. You where right. I… I want you to be the captain of this team.” Dash said with a smile.

“W-what?” Gilda replied.

“You’ve earned it. You may not have won, but you’ve got so much drive. And I bet that-” Dash was silenced as Gilda’s fist made hard contact with the side of her face. Dash went down. The punch had hit hard and hadn’t quite lifted Dash off of her feet but was hard enough that she bounced off the ground a few centimetres when she landed.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?!?!?!” Gilda absolutely screamed. It wasn’t just shouting. It was a high pitched, voice destroying scream. “You, you…!” Gilda just couldn’t comprehend it… “You did that on purpose you fucking piece of shit! You fucking did it on purpose didn’t you!?” she shouted, her voice already sore and horse.

“Argh… what the… what the hell. I… Gilda, what the hell!?”

“The… the one thing… the one thing that made it alright…” Gilda said in whimpers and gasp. It was clear she was on the verge of tears but refusing to them be seen. “You… you were better. And you deserved to be the captain. And now… you just… you just give it up like it meant nothing. Like all of that… was just so you could let just have anyway and I just could be you your little pity taker!” she screamed. Her words started to barely make coherent sense. But it was all too clear to Gilda. Dash was just taking pity on the loser.

“That’s not what I…”

“SHUT UP!!!” Gilda screamed once more and swung her fist down towards Dash still on the ground, just holding herself up by an elbow. She stopped herself though, but only mere inches away from her friend's… her ‘friend’s’ face. Instead, she just stood back up full, turned around and stepped into the net and picked up the ball before she turned and just started to walk off over the field, back towards the school.

Dash stayed on the ground, trying to understand what had just happened. Gilda kept walking. Out the corner of her eye she saw a pair of paramedics treating a now conscious Note Worthy but she completely disregarded it and just kept on going. She made it to mid field. And stopped. She turned on the spot and placed the ball on the ground. Gilda looked up and made eye contact with Dash who’d spun around but was still otherwise on the ground.

And without a word, Dash understood. She picked herself up off of the ground and took her place in the middle of the goal net: ready. Gilda took a number of steps to the side until she was about five metres from the ball. She made one last look at Dash who simply nodded. Again, there was hostility, anger and rivalry. But above all, there was one thing now. One thing that said this was the decider, that this was more important than any of the other pot shots they had taken up until now. Respect. For another as a skilled, as a player, as people and as friends.

Gilda ran, accelerating to her top speed in that fraction of a second and then in the same second coming to a complete stop as she transferred all of that energy into her kick. It was a clear shot between here and the goal but even with the power Gilda had put into her kick and the speed the ball was traveling, Dash had more than enough time to see that the ball was going too high and too wide.

For the briefest of moment Dash felt sorry for Gilda who’d let everything ride on this last shot and failed. It passed though as the ball got closer. It wasn’t a wiff. It was high and wide, but not too much of either. It was heading for the very top right corner of the net. One of the two hardest shots to make and block. Dash ran! Hitting top speed of her own just as fast as Gilda had and lunged at the ball. She only barely made it, as the ball grazed her fingers. But it slid off of them.

The ball hit the top bar and bounced back out onto the field as she landed hard on the ground. She glanced out at the ball on the field, having feared that it had still gotten past her and breathed a sigh of relief. Then however, she looked past the ball to the open field to see Gilda sprinting at full speed towards it. Dash quickly tired to pick herself up and did so just as Gilda reached the ball. Hitting her top speed Dash ran back towards the centre of the goals as Gilda sent the ball flying back towards the goals again.

It was high and wide again but from this close, only a mere ten metres from the goal posts Dash could tell that it was another ten difficulty shot: very top left corner. Dash made it to the middle of the goals and once again lunged herself at the ball, hands pointed directly out to block it. She was heading directly to where the ball was heading. But she just didn’t make it this time. The very tips of her fingers touched the ball but it was already past her.

Goal.

Dash landed and she felt the ball gently roll into her back after hitting the net. She looked up at Gilda, angry that she’d used such a dirty move agai… no, it wasn’t a dirty move. Just like the ball hitting someone's face, or her passing up field to herself, this was a perfectly fine move to pull. There was nothing to stop a ball that had just been blocked and sent flying back onto the field from being shot at the goals once again. If she, Rainbow Dash, couldn’t handle this in practice than she wouldn’t be able to in a real match. And with that, Gilda had outplayed her.

Dash looked up at Gilda as she lay there on the ground in complete reversal of how if had been when dash had scored against her. She knew how it felt now. She knew how much she had scorned her friend by then laying pity on her and giving her what she’d worked so hard for but knew wasn’t for her. And she felt utterly horrid that she had thought herself trying to be be kind when she’d actually been laying one of the worst insults she could imagine.

For Gilda’s part. She saw it in Dash’s face. That she understood the duel parts humiliation and acceptance. She smiled. She smiled at Dash as she at long last let the tears escape. Dash only caught a brief glimpse of them though before Gilda turned and began to walk away. Dash didn’t call after her though. No matter what she could possibly say to her...

She knew Gilda wasn’t coming back.