Equestria Hockey League

by XFizzle

EHL Part X - One Rotten Apple...

Equestria Hockey League Part X – One Rotten Apple…
by XFizzle

The Ponyville Golden Leafs’ next contest versus the visiting Appleloosa Black Apples was rapidly approaching. Still reeling from their third period collapse in Cloudsdale, Twilight and her friends did not meet once for practice. Depression and lethargy were lingering like a bad illness as the Golden Leafs finally scavenged up enough energy to meet the night before game day to scout the Black Apples. As Twilight prepared her review notes, Spike and the others were calmly chatting away. No pony dared to say a peep about hockey and they all cautiously covered a variety of other topics. Twilight closed her scouting journal and was ready to inform her team. Everypony kept to their conversations, ignoring Twilight standing before them. Twilight had to clear her throat loudly to receive the Golden Leafs’ attention.

“Ahem! Thanks for showing up tonight. I know it’s been a rough week, but if we gather up enough information on Appleloosa and review what went well our first game against them, then we can forget all about Cloudsdale. We’ll be back to our winning ways in no time!”

“That’s great Twilight dear. But if you don’t mind me asking, what is there to review?” asked Rarity.

Rainbow Dash was casually lounging on the sofa when she chimed in. “Yeah. I mean, we totally destroyed them! They’ve only lost twice and we’re one of those losses. We’ve got this in the bag.”

“Yep, cain’t argue with them facts, Twi,” contributed Applejack.

Twilight was a little taken aback by her friends’ overconfident words. “But that was early in the season. Who knows what Appleloosa has changed since then! They could have a new playing style, new plays, maybe a new player. We need to study them if we want to have an edge!”

Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack blankly looked back at Twilght, showing their boredom. Fluttershy was next to voice her opinion. “I hope Chief Thunderhooves isn’t still playing for them. I bet he remembers that hit I gave him. Oh my, he’ll probably want revenge! I’m doomed! *squeak*”

“You’ll be fine, Fluttershy. It was so long ago he’s probably forgotten about it,” said Twilight reassuringly.

“But what if you’re wrong, Twilight. What if I really am done for?”

Twilight was about to provide a rebuttal but Pinkie Pie jumped in. “Don’t worry Fluttershy! If that big, bad bully buffalo comes near you, you bet we’ll be right there to knock his socks off!”

Rainbow began laughing. “Haha Pinkie, buffaloes don’t wear socks!...Or do they?”

“I believe they have to during a game, it is EHL uniform code,” said Rarity.

“How ‘bout shoes? Do they wear shoes?” asked Applejack eagerly.

Rarity paused for a moment. “I think that would be most uncomfortable considering the shoe would not provide proper support for hooves.”

Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie Pie stirred up a debate while Fluttershy listened intently. Twilight began to turn red with frustration as the tangent about buffalo footwear had taken over her scouting session. She yelled to bring everyone back together.

“ENOUGH! We need to focus on how to beat Appleloosa if we want to win!”

Rainbow smugly let out a snort. “Get the puck. Shoot it around a dumb tree. Score. Win. Done. Can we go now?”

“Hey! Bloomberg ain’t dumb! He was a part of my family!” yelled Applejack.

“Oh Applejack, that is simply ridiculous. How could a tree be part of a pony’s family? It’s not even a living creature!” chimed Rarity.

Applejack stood up to defend her tree friend. “Well he just was! I cain’t explain it. We took care of him and he took care of us by givin’ us healthy apples.”

“I’d…like to be a tree,” said Fluttershy softly.

Pinkie sat up quickly as if an idea popped in her head. “If Fluttershy is a tree, can I be a gazebo? I would be so large and beautiful that everypony would be able to host giant parties! Oooh! They can use Fluttershy to build me!”

Fluttershy squealed in fright as Rainbow began cracking up with laughter at Pinkie’s remark. Everypony carried on the conversation and the silly talk continued. Twilight gave up on getting her friends to focus and just sat in front of them with a very disgruntled look on her face. The conversation carried on into the late hours of the evening before the Golden Leafs grew tired and departed for bed. Although the depression of the Cloudsdale loss appeared to have dissipated, nothing of real merit was discussed in regards to Appleloosa. Twilight began to worry that her team’s lack of focus and urgency will become a major hindrance when it’s time to drop the puck. She went to bed mentally exhausted and irritable, hoping her mood would improve in the morning.

---

Twilight woke up the next morning still annoyed and with anxiety growing for the night’s game. In hopes of easing her concern, she tried convincing herself that maybe the team will be focused and ready to listen in the locker room. Twilight spent the afternoon completing and then took off for Ponyville Pond with Spike. She was the first of her friends to arrive. The hollowness of the locker room made her feel uneasy and enflamed her anxiety. With full uniform on, Twilight paced while waiting for the rest of the Golden Leafs to arrive. Finally with only a small amount of time left before introductions, the remainder of the Golden Leafs nonchalantly strolled into the locker room. They all stopped to watch Twilight pace the floor but Twilight stopped when she noticed them.

“Would any of you care to explain why you’re so late? We’re going onto the ice in five minutes! I won’t have time to give the usual pre-game speech!”

Rainbow brushed Twilight off as she and the others trotted over to their stalls to get dressed. “Relax Miss Bossyhooves, we’re here now aren’t we? We don’t need your boring speech tonight anyways. We know what we’re doing.”

Twilight’s anxiety converted into frustration. “No we don’t! We WOULD be ready if we scouted Appleloosa last night but NOOOOOO. You all had to go on and on about SILLY things!”

Twilight’s complaint fell on deaf ears as her friends were too busy putting their uniforms on. Twilight stomped her skates down on the floor when she realized no one heard her. As Twilight attempted to vent her ever expanding anger, the one-minute warning horn blared throughout the arena. Twilight instead let out a boisterous grunt and trotted out of the locker room defeated, her carefree teammates trailing behind.

---

It was another hockey night in Ponyville. Throngs of Golden Leafs fans occupied Ponyville Pond and were buzzing with anticipation. Even though the Golden Leafs’ season was inconsistent thus far, the fan support continued to steadily grow as more ponies took notice to Twilight and friends’ accomplishments. After the usual pregame pageantry and introductions, both teams were on the ice and warming up. Appleloosa was getting in some final shooting practice as Bloomberg was being magically lowered into place by the ice crew with help from some unicorn ponies. The Golden Leafs were not moving as fast as the Black Apples, listlessly floating around their end of the ice. Twilight was the only player not going through the motions and she skated circles around all her friends.

The referee grabbed the game puck and headed for center ice. Both teams came together and set themselves for the faceoff. Applejack and Braeburn stood beside each other and gave each other playful jabs with their sticks and knees. The ref checked with Pinkie Pie for her ready signal. Pinkie waved to the referee enthusiastically and immediately after, the clack of the puck hitting the ice echoed out into the arena.

---

Little Strongheart won the opening faceoff and helped Appleloosa begin a very long, sustained offensive series in the Ponyville zone. The Black Apples were able to get off five shots before the Golden Leafs had their first touch of the puck. After another Appleloosa shot on net, Pinkie pushed the puck to Twilight who passed it up to Applejack. Applejack didn’t move any faster and soon she was met at the half boards by Apple Fritter. Rainbow was slow in getting to the tangled Apple kin and watched as Fritter poked the puck back toward the Appleloosa end where Sheriff took control. Sheriff brought the puck into the Ponyville zone unopposed because the Golden Leafs sagged back on defense. The Black Apples zigged and zagged all over the zone, shifting positions and getting open. Sheriff held the puck at the blue line while Braeburn cycled out from behind the net. Sheriff fired the puck through the Golden Leafs’ defense and placed it perfectly onto Braeburn’s stick on the side of the goal. Braeburn immediately shot on net while Pinkie shifted over and hugged her left post. It was no use as Braeburn deftly aimed the puck at the other post, clanging it in the goal at just the right angle. The goal light spun and the Ponyville crowd began booing.

”Appleloosa goal scored by number 2, Braeburn! Assisted by number 11, Sheriff Silverstar, and number 16, Apple Fritter!

Twilight angrily looked away from the Black Apples’ celebration and skated up to her goaltender.

“What was that Pinkie? Did you even try to stop it?”

“Sure as sugar Twilight! It was a neat goal, wasn’t it? It helped that the puck totally went through the defense.”

Twilight twitched at Pinkie’s last sentence. “Excuse me? What did you just say?”

Pinkie began to back down into her net. “It was a nice goal because the puck went through the defense?”

“Are you saying it’s my fault they scored? How could it be my fault? I’m not the goalie here! You are!”

Before Pinkie could defend herself, the referee broke up the conversation so play could resume at center ice.

Twilight growled as she waited for the faceoff. Once again, Appleloosa won the draw and controlled the puck on the offense. Chief Thunderhooves dumped the puck into the corner and Fritter raced in to fetch it. Rainbow met Fritter at the corner but did not exert enough effort to try and win the puck. Fritter easily broke out of the corner and passed it to Sheriff at the point. Sheriff shoveled it over to Chief who then pushed it onto Braeburn in the other corner. Strongheart skated up the center of the zone and was open for a pass. Braeburn slapped it toward her but Rainbow sniffed the play out and intercepted the pass. Rainbow took her sweet old time skating it up the ice. Had she skated at full energy, she would’ve easily had a breakaway but Braeburn caught her and stole the puck back. While Braeburn brought the puck in the zone, Strongheart repeated her stride to the net. This time Braeburn fed it to Strongheart cleanly and she rifled the puck on net. The puck zinged past Pinkie’s blocker hoof and into the back of the netting. Appleloosa celebrated their second goal of the evening much to the chagrin of the Ponyville fans and Twilight.

”Appleloosa goal scored by number 7, Little Strongheart! Assisted by number 2, Braeburn!”

Twilight stormed over to Rainbow. Rainbow attempted to skate away but Twilight cut her off.

“What kind of effort was that? You had a clear breakaway but you moved too slow and lost a scoring opportunity!”

Rainbow rolled her eyes at Twilight. “Whatever. We still have two periods and their goalie is an inanimate object. We still have this.”

“We don’t have anything! We don’t have a shot! We don’t have a faceoff win! We don’t have a chance!” shouted Twilight furiously.

By this time, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy were in on the conversation and awkwardly stood before Twilight’s ridicule of Rainbow. Ignoring Twilight’s rambling, Rainbow drifted toward the center faceoff circle with Twilight following behind closely, continuously calling out her lack of effort.

Play resumed and the rest of the period carried out as Appleloosa took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission, not allowing a single shot on their net that period. Golden Leafs fans were silent and apathetically watched as an irritated Twilight led the way back to the locker room.

---

The Golden Leafs each sat their respective stall except Twilight who was thrashing about until it came time to talk.

“That was the worst period I’ve ever seen! The practice dummies would’ve done a better job than what I saw out there! What do you all have to say for yourselves?”

No one stepped up to take the floor. Applejack was feeling more uneasy with each passing second but couldn’t bring together words to say. Rainbow stared down at the carpet in a daydreaming state. Rarity was levitating a mirror in front of her and was fussing with her mane. Pinkie was busy gulping down an intermission cupcake while Fluttershy hid in the hallway after being yelled at by Twilight. Twilight impatiently tapped her hoof on the floor, waiting for one of her friends to claim responsibility. The locker room remained eerily silent. Finally the sound of the one-minute warning horn broke the awkward atmosphere and Twilight had no use but to let the team go back out on the ice. Not a single word was said nor was any adjustment made.

---

The second period was underway as it began just like the first. Appleloosa won the faceoff and kept it in the Golden Leafs’ zone. Little Strongheart had the puck on the right wing boards where Applejack came in to apply pressure. Strongheart flung the puck around the back of the net to Apple Fritter who now had it on the left wing. Fritter passed to Chief on the blue line and he charged towards the net. Fluttershy, fearing for Chief’s revenge and her life, jumped out of the way, leaving Pinkie high and dry. Chief Thunderhooves barreled into the crease and pounded the puck almost through Pinkie’s body and into the net for another Black Apples goal. Chief rammed into the boards in celebration as the Black Apples came together.

”Appleloosa goal scored by number 40, Chief Thunderhooves! Assisted by number 16, Apple Fritter, and number 7, Little Strongheart!”

Fluttershy was still trembling on the ice with her skates shielding her eyes. Twilight skated to Fluttershy and looked down upon her with disgust. Fluttershy looked up and was relieved when she saw it was just Twilight. Fluttershy got up and was about to skate away until Twilight started to spout off.

“Fluttershy! Why did you move out of the way? You gave them an open shot!”

Fluttershy began trembling again. “Um, I didn’t want to get hurt by Chief Thunderhooves. He was skating at me so fast.”

“That’s no excuse! You have to braver! Now we’re down by three goals! Ugh!”

“I’m…sorry,” squeaked Fluttershy as she fought back tears.

Applejack saw Twilight’s talk with Fluttershy and came over to direct Twilight away from Fluttershy. Twilight brushed Applejack’s skates off of her and went to her spot for the faceoff.

Rainbow finally won a faceoff and Ponyville brought the puck into the Appleloosa zone for just the second time in the entire game. Twilight dumped the puck in and had Applejack chase after it. Applejack was hit hard into the boards by Sheriff and they tussled for the puck. Rainbow swept by and poked the puck out of the scrum and now had it. Rainbow curved to face the net and shoot, but Chief stormed over and laid her out with a violent hit. Rainbow crashed into the boards as the home crowd gasped. Sheriff grabbed the loose puck and found a streaking Apple Fritter heading up ice. With a brilliant pass over center ice, Apple Fritter was in all alone on Pinkie. The crowd stood up to watch the breakaway attempt. Pinkie skated out a bit as Fritter closed in. Apple Fritter arrogantly pointed her right forehoof to the top right corner then snapped the puck on net. Sure enough, the puck clanged in over Pinkie’s shoulder in the top right corner for the fourth Appleloosa goal of the evening. Immense booing showered down from the stands as the Black Apples were in celebration once again.

”Appleloosa goal scored by number 16, Apple Fritter! Assisted by number 11, Sheriff Silverstar!

Twilight furiously snapped her stick with her magic and lit it on fire, prompting Spike to rush down from the announcer’s booth to hand her a new one. Twilight was tired of trying to get through to her friends’ heads and vowed to take over the game herself.

“If they don’t want to win, fine. I’ll do everything myself. I don’t need them. I’ll bring us back and then I’ll be the big hero. Not Rainbow or Applejack or anypony!”

The faceoff at center ice was won by Appleloosa and somehow Strongheart split the defense and was quickly off on a breakaway from the faceoff. Twilight, desperate to stop Appleloosa’s rout, stuck her stick out and caught Strongheart’s skate. Strongheart tripped and crashed into Pinkie as they both got caught in the net. The referee blew his whistle and hurriedly skated to the net and pointed his hoof at the goal.

“Penalty shot awarded to Appleloosa!”

Twilight immediately went up to the referee to protest. “WHAT? A penalty shot? She wasn’t even going to shoot!”

“Keep moving, Sparkle. I’m not going to hear it,” replied the ref.

Pinkie helped Strongheart up and adjusted her padding as the referee set the puck up for the penalty shot. Strongheart skated to the blue line as both teams watched from the opposite sides. With a blow of the whistle, Little Strongheart was off on her penalty shot. She tapped the puck side to side as she came up to the crease. Not knowing which way to move, Pinkie stayed still and squared with the shooter. With a quick flick, Strongheart aimed straight at the five-hole. Pinkie was late in squeezing her pads together and the puck bumped the back of the net. Pinkie toppled over as Appleloosa now scored their fifth goal of the game. Pinkie was beginning to feel unhappy and her bright pink coat was starting to darken.

”Appleloosa goal scored on the penalty shot by number 7, Little Strongheart!”

The Golden Leafs turned to Twilight to give her a taste of her own medicine.

“Oh nice tripping there, Twilight. The penalty shot wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t get burned off the faceoff!” shouted Rainbow.

“Yeah Twi, what a mighty foolish thing ta’ do,” said Applejack.

Rarity smiled at Rainbow and Applejack and pitched in as well. “Oh now we’re never going to get back into this game. Good going, Twilight!”

Twilight was bewildered that her friends had the nerve to blame her for the latest goal when they have been playing poorly the whole game. Twilight tried to defend herself but her rage turned her words into indistinguishable gibberish. Fluttershy began to giggle at Twilight’s verbal struggle but stopped immediately when Twilight turned around to face her. Twilight gave up trying to speak and skated to the faceoff circle.

The rest of the second period featured more possession by Appleloosa and they let the clock run out on the second period. The Golden Leafs’ faithful loudly voiced their displeasure and began filing for the exits. Twilight bolted for the locker room while her teammates lazily lagged behind.

---

Twilight waited for her friends to walk through the door so she could lay into them again for a horrendous second period. She waited and waited but there was no sign of her team. She whipped her head around the corner to look into the hallway. Off in the distance, she saw the tip of Fluttershy’s tail sticking out from a parallel hallway. The other Golden Leafs met to talk about Twilight’s sour mood and came up with a plan to get her to lighten up. Twilight angrily stomped down the hallway, making her near presence known. The Golden Leafs ceased their discussion and quickly turned to start walking toward the locker room. When they ran into Twilight, they all acted oblivious and were talking about how they were just about to go inside their locker room. Twilight saw through their poorly veiled plan and trotted to the ice alone, clearly disappointed, angry, and hurt by her friends’ behavior.

---

Ponyville Pond was almost empty because a good majority of the fans left after the second period. Appleloosa’s dominance also carried over into the third period. Braeburn made an amazing defensive play to steal the puck from Rainbow and went coast to coast for an unassisted goal, making it 6-0 Appleloosa. Pinkie Pie was showing frustration and was deviating away from her happy-go-lucky self. The next series when Appleloosa was on offense, Apple Fritter had the puck along the left wing boards and was cutting toward the net. Apple Fritter passed the puck to the point but kept skating toward Pinkie and the crease to screen. Pinkie Pie sprung out from the net and decked Apple Fritter to the ice. The referee rushed over to call the interference penalty on the rapidly deflating Pinkie Pie. Since goalies cannot serve penalties, the referee asked the Golden Leafs who should serve the penalty for Pinkie. Almost as if it was rehearsed, everyone shouted “Twilight!” except for Twilight of course. Twilight’s jaw dropped as the referee brushed her toward the penalty box to sit for the next two minutes.

The Golden Leafs slacked off on the penalty kill and allowed another Appleloosa goal while Twilight stewed in the penalty box. The game was clearly in hand and the remaining handful of Golden Leafs fans booed before leaving. The final horn sounded like sweet release to the Golden Leafs who just wanted to go home. The victorious Appleloosa Black Apples met at Bloomberg and tapped their sticks against the tree. Ponyville was about to head toward the locker room but Twilight blocked the door, keeping her team in the rink as Appleloosa exited. With Ponyville Pond emptied, she yelled up to Spike in the announcing booth.

“Spike! Keep the lights on! We’re going to be here for a while!”

The other Golden Leafs all had a puzzled look on their face for what Twilight has planned for them.

Twilight took off her helmet and nudged her stick aside. “Well, if you didn’t want to work during the game, we’re going to work after the game. I want everypony to line up along the red line. We’re going to skate until our legs break off. When I blow the whistle, skate to the blue line and back, then to the center line and back, then to the other blue line and back. We will continue to skate until you take this game seriously and want to work hard.”

Twilight’s friends shot her an angry look and floated over to the red line to line up. Twilight skated to center ice and faced them with whistle at the ready.

Tweeeeeeeeet

Twilight blew her whistle but nothing happened. Her friends stood still at the line and plopped down on the ice in defiance. Twilight’s anger flared up and she bolted toward her friends.

“Oh, I see how it’s going to be. Do you all want to be kicked off this team? I can find some ponies who would jump at the chance to play.”

Rainbow and Applejack stood up together and Rainbow shouted back at Twilight.

“No, I don’t want to be kicked off the team because I QUIT! This isn’t a team! This is Twilight being a complete mule because she has a hard horn for the Princess and will do anything to not disappoint her. You’ve been a bossy pain all night. You single-hoofedly made this stink and not fun anymore. Anypony who wants to join me come on. We’ll leave Miss Egghead all alone.”

Rainbow flew through the door leading to the locker room. Applejack began skating toward the exit as well. “I quit too! Rainbow’s right. This ain’t fun anymore. It’s bad enough we keep losin’ but it doesn’t help gettin’ yelled at neither.”

Twilight was miffed but didn’t show it. She brushed them off and remained cold. “Fine. We don’t need sore flanks like you! We’ll be just fine, right girls?”

Rarity and Pinkie Pie scowled at Twilight while Fluttershy was quivering in fright. Rarity was next to stand up and skate toward the exit, whipping her mane into Twilight’s face as she drifted past. Pinkie Pie, who was now completely dark and her mane straightened out, also stood up and quietly left the ice.

“Oh yeah, go on and leave! You two hardly ever contribute to the team anyways! You never want to play physical Rarity and you’re a sieve Pinkie!”

Twilight watched as Rarity and Pinkie left. She turned toward Fluttershy, causing Fluttershy to fly up and let out a frightened yelp. Before Twilight could speak again, Fluttershy closed her eyes and flew away from the rink. Twilight was left all alone with her team deserting her. Spike began to turn the lights off in Ponyville Pond. Only a single spotlight shone on Twilight who fell to the ice in lonely despair.

To Be Continued

---

Three Stars from Appleloosa @ Ponyville
* Braeburn (APP)
** Apple Fritter (APP)
*** Bloomberg (APP)

Other Scores Around the EHL (Home Team in CAPS)
---
CANTERLOT 5, Manehattan 2
CLOUDSDALE 4, Fillydelphia 0

EHL Standings (with Projected Playoff Seedings: 1 & 2 byes, 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5)
---
(1) Appleloosa 6-2
(2) Cloudsdale 5-3
(3) Canterlot 5-3
(4) Manehattan 4-4
(5) Ponyville 3-5
(6) Fillydelphia 1-7

Comments

[Professor Donger]

woah

[Wanderer D]

Sorry to say it but I'm with Twilight on this one. If they don't care, why play?

[Dragondash12]

10097 In my opinion, Twilight overreacted. Remember what Celestia told everyone? She told them they should have fun, not just win.