Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were standing in the royal gardens with their brand new experiment that they had created. The markings were written all over the ground, that were used to see how big the out of bounds box would be. They were currently off duty and Princess Cadence was left in charge of taking care of any royal duties.
"How high should the net be?" Princess Luna asked.
"Four feet?" her sister asked.
"How about five? Every time you smash the darn thing, the angle is too sharp and I can't possibly return it," Luna said.
Celestia sighed and said, "Very well, although I do love to spike it on you."
Luna used her magic to raise the net a little higher. "There, five feet seems more reasonable," she said.
Princess Celestia strapped the racket onto her dominant front leg. "This game is difficult to play without wings or magic, and it's even harder to stand on your hind legs the entire time when playing too, but if we want to create a game for earth ponies, unicorns, and Pegasus ponies to play, then we have to do it this way. This could be our newest hit for the Equestrian games!" Celestia said.
Princess Luna held the little rubber-like cork with her front hoof and tossed it into the air, she then smashed it with full force.
Princess Celestia couldn't even react because the cork had landed at her hooves so quickly. "We need to try to slow it down and we need to make a rule that you can only serve below the waist," she said.
Celestia picked up the tiny cork and tried to get a volley going with her younger sister. They did well for a while when they both worked as a team to see how many hits they could connect without missing a shot, until Celestia tried to lob the rounded shape cork and it went way out of bounds.
Princess Luna came back with the cork and said, "It seems that if one of us tries to make a strategic shot or place the cork somewhere else, then it's just too unfair and the cork can't be returned in most cases. I think we should just give up on this sport and try to finish that other sport we made on the table."
Celestia sighed and said, "I guess you're right. It's just that this seemed like such a good idea." Celestia then began to unstrap the racket from her front leg.
Suddenly, a bunch of feathers fell from the sky from a flock of Pegasus ponies flying over head.
The two sisters watched the feathers fall from the sky and onto the middle of their experimental court.
Celestia began thinking. "If we could somehow figure out a way to make the cork decelerate after it is hit, then maybe we could make this game more reasonable and competitive to play," she said.
Luna picked up a few feathers and used her magic to stick them inside of the little piece of cork. She bounced the new creation on her racket up and down a few times and then swat at it across the net to her big sister.
The projectile failed miserably.
Celestia scratched her chin with the tip of her front hoof as she thought more about the matter. "If we want to make this perfectly aerodynamic, then we have to use the left wing feathers only." She used her magic to levitate the projectile in the air and take out all of the right wing feathers and replace them with feathers from the left wing only. She strapped the racket back onto her front leg and bounced the projectile up and down. "It seems much better now. Let's give it a few volleys. Here it comes!" Celestia served the new projectile below her waist and put it into play.
The two sisters began to volley it back and forth with much greater ease.
"Try some new tactics, Luna!" Celestia yelled out.
Luna gently tapped the projectile and it just skidded over the net.
Celestia lunged in and then lobbed the projectile high into the air.
The wonderful thing about this new projectile, was that a pony may now lob it, without making it so easy to go out of bounds.
Luna ran backwards and then jumped high into the air in order to give her more options and angels to place the projectile. Because she jumped so high she could now put a much sharper downward angle on the projectile. Luna smashed it with full force and the projectile hurled down from the air.
Celestia stumbled a bit as she tried to react in time, but she had just barely managed to get there in time and the projectile bounced off of her racket and hit the net. The projectile tipped over and landed on Luna's side of the court.
Luna fell to the ground and tried to make a saving play, but it was too late. Her racket hit the projectile and it landed into the net and then came back down and hit Luna in the forehead.
"Wow!" Celestia said. Now we have so many more options and we can actually return smashes since the projectile will decelerate faster. What should we call this projectile?"
Luna picked herself up off of the ground and thought for a moment. "How about a birdie?" she asked.
"That can work, or how about shuttlecock?" Celestia asked.
"That's fine, except that we might want to say shuttle instead, because I can only imagine the inappropriate jokes that would come from using the term shuttlecock," the Princess of the night said.
"That's a good point, we can call it shuttle to shorten the name too," Celestia said.
Luna picked up the shuttle and put her front hoof on the very tip of the service line. "Are you ready for this my big sister?" she asked.
Celestia got into ready position and waited patiently to return the shuttle.
Luna tried a new tactic. She did not simply put the shuttle into play or lob it high into the air towards the out of bounds line. She flicked the shuttle from below her waist line and it came hurling towards her sisters face.
It was such an awkward return for Celestia, but she quickly put her racket to her face and blocked the shot. It was such a sloppy return and it was a little high.
Luna came charging over to the net and smashed the shuttle to the opposite side of where Celestia was standing.
Celestia tried to react, but it was too late. Celestia had made a poor return and she got punished for her mistake. "That was a great trick serve, Luna! That's going to make me stay on my tippy hooves!" She scooped up the shuttle with her racket and put it into play.
They continued to experiment with all kinds of strategies and tricks that they could think of. One problem they encountered was that the wind would often make the shuttle drift away during a volley.
Hours went by and they both sat there on the ground and were out of breath.
"So, if we were to make this a more competitive match, do you think a best out of three would feel right?" Celestia asked.
"And we can make this game more demanding on the players stamina by making it so that a pony can only score a point on his or her serve, and to get the serve, you must win a rally," Luna said.
"And we should make it so that the winner has to win by at least two points just like our other experimental sport that we play on the table," Celestia recommended.
A royal guard approached them and bowed low to the ground. "My Princesses, we have prepared your baths. We also have your spa session ready for when you are finished," he said.
"Did you make sure to add extra bubbles to my bath?" Luna asked.
"Of course my Princess," the guard said.
"Did you remember to add my favorite rubber ducky, Xuxa?" Celestia asked.
"He's floating in the warm water and awaits for you squeeze him, and make him squee, my Princess," the guard said.
"Excellent," Celestia said.
The guard began to lead the two Princesses back into the palace.
"So what are we going to do about that wind?" Luna asked
"I think we'll have to make this an indoor sport. I know we have limited funding, but if we are going to win hearts to this sport, then we need to make it more competitive and fair. Ponies need to see that while this sport may look easy at first, but at the higher skill levels, this could be one of, if not the most physically demanding sports ever made. We need to find a team to play this game. We need to find a group of ponies who are in tip top condition."
"How about we get the Wonderbolts to play and promote our new sport?" Luna asked.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea!" Celestia said. "The Wonderbolts are the most well known group of athletes in all of Equestria, but we should also find others to play that aren't the Wonderbolts too. I'm sure we wouldn't be able to pay them enough money to play all of the time."
"What about your most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle?" Luna asked.
"That's a wonderful idea," Celestia said. "We can also get her five other friends to play as well. I'm sure she would like to help us out being that she loves to come visit me and learn new magic."
Princess Luna stopped when they reached their two separate bathrooms. "We really need to get working on this project and speak with some construction workers. We can't afford to make this place very large. I am imagining about six courts at most."
"We would also need to make the ceiling very high because players need to have enough height to lob the shuttle or else it may hit the ceiling," Celestia said. "We both need to think of a name for this sport as well."
Princess Luna nodded her head in agreement and then headed off into her own bathroom.
Celestia also went into her own private bathroom. She sat down in her tub and gave her rubber ducky, Xuxa a playful punch on the beak with her front hoof.
Well, this story certainly seems interesting. I'll be looking forward to giving it a read.
3142528 Awesome! Glad to hear it! It should be a "smashing" good time!![:pinkiehappy:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/pinkiehappy.png)
AJ, you are one badass pony.![:rainbowderp:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/rainbowderp.png)
![:rainbowderp:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/rainbowderp.png)
![:rainbowderp:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/rainbowderp.png)
![:rainbowderp:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/rainbowderp.png)
3146113 A.J. had to eat her own words soon after though since she wanted to do a little shuttle bashing with a certain stallion afterwards....
![:raritywink:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/raritywink.png)
The most hilarious part is when Pinkie Pie said " Now we have a place to bash shuttlecocks and balls! " I started cracking up. Good story btw! Nice job on the comedy button also, you probably had the best comedy story ever! I will probably re-read this everyday for a few laughs! Also I just love the ending.
3148150 Thanks so much! Pinkie Pie can sure be a few apples short of a bushel sometimes!![:pinkiehappy:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/pinkiehappy.png)
Oh god, the groanworthiness of this title is intense.
I'll have to read this...
So many fics on my read later list @_@ I'll get to it eventually...
3153523 Glad to hear it! Hope you may enjoy it!![:pinkiehappy:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/pinkiehappy.png)
Aw Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell NO!!!![:applejackconfused:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/applejackconfused.png)
Now Ah know ya'll didn't just ship mah sweet Applejack with sum unknown, un-canon, pansy-wansy Pegasus from the Wonderdolts! And what was goin' through ya mind makin' a good wholesome country lass like that shake her flank like some nasty dancer in one of em' stripclubs on Clop Avenue? Dat ain't da Applejack Ah know!![:flutterrage:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/flutterrage.png)
She's mine ya hear? MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!
Seriously though, I won't pretend to understand all those sports terminology despite being from a country that loves badminton. Not really big on sports meself... heheh... I guess this is another one of your sillier fics judging from the content and the ending... poor Applebloom... :(
I do however, fancy the idea of multicolored shuttles and Ping-Pong balls, I can imagine them being gloriously animated! Someone on youtube do it now!
Alright, I remember you said something about this fic having a more gruesome ending originally, I want to see that version! Plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz???![:raritystarry:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/raritystarry.png)
3213462 Un-canon? He is canon! Look him up. He's an official Wonderbolt. I didn't make that name up and he appears in the show several times. The only official Wonderbolt who hasn't made an actual appearance in the show as of now is Rapidfire, but he is mentioned by Fancy Pants in the episode Sweet and Elite. Maybe in future seasons Rapidfire will appear. It's not really a big deal though. I just want to see Soarin' in the show again, really. It was disappointing enough that he wasn't in the Wonderbolts Academy episode in season three.![:rainbowkiss:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/rainbowkiss.png)
I'll admit it. I really had Applejack pull out all the stops when it came that shipping bit. It was partly for humor, and partly because she felt like she had to work extra hard to get him interested in her because of the hostility she gave him before. It was really silly, I know, but it was really fun to see her behave that way. Right, Applejack?![:applejackunsure:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/applejackunsure.png)
I wish you didn't bring up the part I cut out in the story here. I cut it for a good reason.
It's ok though. I'll send it to you in a private message on Facebook. Thanks for reading. ![:pinkiehappy:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/pinkiehappy.png)
3213527![:twilightsheepish:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/twilightsheepish.png)
Oh I know of that Wonderbolt member, just kept mistaking him between Fire Streak and Lightning Streak.
The point was, AH WILL DEFEND MAH APPLEJACK TO MAH DYING BREATH!!!
(Applejack: ...ya'll need ta get out more...
)
Ahem... well, now after reading the original ending, I'm glad this one happened instead! At least it wasn't Sweet Apple Massacre! I still haven't got the guts to read that fic yet, and judging by what I've heard, I'm not sure if I ever will... 0_o but who knows? curiosity right...?![:pinkiehappy:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/pinkiehappy.png)
3215960 I haven't read any mature fics aside from my own that I write. However, I have been tempted to read Cupcakes and the Rainbow Factory story, but I have been putting it off and I don't know if I will ever read them in the future. I saw the Cupcakes video on YouTube a few times and that was kind of enough for me. Right now, I'm too focused on writing anyway.
Oh no...
PRINCESS CELESTIA IS TORTURING RUBBER DUCKYS!
GET THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY!
That is one of the funniest stories you've ever made!![:rainbowlaugh:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/rainbowlaugh.png)
![:yay:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/yay.png)
Need I say that you really got Dashie and Soarin' together very well?
There are a couple of words that need to be fused, like "Spitfire," "eyelid," "halfway," etc. Plus, there need to be dashes between certain words, such as "rubber-like." A couple of quotation marks are either missing or added in by accident.
3290856 Oh, I'm glad that you really liked this one.![:twilightsmile:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/twilightsmile.png)
I'm so busy with my newest (SiC) story that I'm working on right now. It should be out within a few days from now. I'll try to remember to go back and find those little errors. Thanks for pointing them out. My editor really needs to catch up with my stories. He has like twenty more stories of mine to read or so, but I keep making so many and he has been very busy with school.
I'm already well over 40,000 words into this new story and I just want it to be done because I have been working furiously on it and it's getting tiring. Prepare for more Soarin' and Dash! This will be by far my longest fic to date. Lots of comedy in this upcoming one too.![:pinkiehappy:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/pinkiehappy.png)
I'm guessing that this new story will end up being another mature rated fic though. I'll have to see what the admins think. Certain flashbacks happen from a previous (SiC) story.![:raritydespair:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/raritydespair.png)
3295985
Sounds good!
Well, my best guess is that he was the Wonderbolt with the white mane who appeared in "Sonic Rainboom" with Spitfire and Soarin'. He was in "Sweet and Elite," too, if I recall. That's why the collar on the puppy in My Little Puggy was white.
You know, when I saw Celestia reprimand Dashie for laughing at Fluttershy, it kinda reminded me of this:
Uh oh. Mom heard that.![:raritywink:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/raritywink.png)
Celestia: Rainbow Dash, if you don't apologize to your little sister right now, I'll have you banished to the Everfree Forest for a month!
Dashie: Okay, okay, okay! Geez, you sound like my mother.
3369888 That was terribly adorable.![:pinkiehappy:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/pinkiehappy.png)
By the way, that new (SiC) fic I have been working on is finally up. It's called, "They Will Know By Our Love."
3373773 Glad you see the similarities.
I noticed. Reading it now.