Ten More Yards

by 5aszs

STRONG I

“Did you really think we weren’t gonna celebrate?!”

The sun was close to setting but the party on Mayfield Avenue was still going strong. All of the snacks that had been put out were finished in a matter of minutes, and parents were more relaxed with their children, allowing them to stay up for a while longer. The music (a playlist put together by one of the residents) was blaring from speakers controlled by the hired DJ, and the atmosphere was warm, everypony enjoying themselves. Atomic had spent most of the party hanging out with Thunderhoof and the other foals his age, and they were currently passing the ball to each other in a circle.

Thunderhoof threw the ball to Atomic, who caught it and passed it onto the pony opposite him.

“I just never thought I’d have a party dedicated to me,” he pondered.

“Everypony, can I have your attention for a moment please?”

Tea Rose tapped the microphone again and gradually the ponies fell silent, and all eyes were on her. Syracuse, who was standing a little behind his wife, gestured to Atomic that he join them at the front.

“I would just like to thank everypony who helped in the search for Atomic,” Tea Rose paused whilst the ponies applauded, before continuing.

“If it wasn’t for you, then...then…”

Tears began to cloud Tea Rose’s vision, and she stopped to wipe her eyes. Syracuse hugged her and she gave the microphone to him, Pumpkin quickly comforting her sister.

“What Rose and I want to say is that we don’t how we would’ve coped without Atomic in our lives, and it’s thanks to you that he’s home safe and sound. We will forever be in your gratitude, and we wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in Equestria. Thank you.”

Loud cheers erupted, and Syracuse mumbled a quiet thank you. Atomic wet back to his friends. The DJ announced that he was taking requests, and the foals began shouting out the names of their favourite songs.

“Alright, the ponies have spoken and the first song will be…… Good Times by Sapphire Shores!”

The fillies cheered and the colts groaned. A few seconds later, the speakers blared out the electronic track, and the fillies quickly taking up the space in the middle of the road as they danced. Some of the adults also joined in, with Pumpkin’s voice being the loudest as everypony joined in with the song.

“And all I wanna do, before the night is through, is share these good times with you…”

Atomic turned to throw the ball back to Thunderhoof, but was shocked to see that he was mumbling the lyrics and slightly nodding his head.

“Thunder, what are you doing?”

Thunderhoof let out a small gasp as he looked up, and he quickly tried to compose himself.

“I was-was doing, nothing!”

“Are you a Sapphire Shores fan?!”

“No! What the hay, she’s so annoying!”

“Okay, if you say so.”

Atomic walked away and joined the other colts, watching Thunderhoof out of the corner of his eye.

When he was sure that nopony was watching him, Thunderhoof dropped the ball and wandered closer to the dancing fillies, singing along as the song reached the beat drop.

“Woah!”

Thunderhoof was dragged into the crowd, and he found himself in the middle of everypony.

Atomic was talking to his father about the Dragons when he realised that Thunderhoof had disappeared, and he asked the other foals if they had seen him.

“Don’t worry about Thunderhoof, he’s having a good time,” Tea Rose said with a laugh, pointing to Thunderhoof, who was happily dancing with the others.

---

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

The Eagles were well into their training session, which today focused on endurance. The team had been put through several physical drills to improve their fitness, and a brief break in between drills had finally given Helios a chance to check up on Atomic.

“When I saw your face on the front of the newspaper, I thought you’d won some science quiz or something.”

“Imagine that!”

The two laughed quietly, before falling silent as Coach Bouncer came back with two receivers.

“This is the tipped pass drill.”

Coach Bouncer explained the drill to the defensive unit, and he told them that they would have two turns each. Helios was the first pony up.

The two receivers had lined up on either side of Coach Bouncer, and he moved back with the ball and threw it to the receiver running to his right. The ball had deliberately been thrown a little too high, and as instructed, the receiver jumped up and batted the ball. Helios had set off as soon as the snap to catch up to the receiver, and he jumped into the air and grabbed the ball.

“Atomic, you’re next.”

Atomic took his starting position opposite Coach Bouncer. When Coach Bouncer got up and prepared to throw the ball, Atomic dropped back, following Coach Bouncer’s eyes and shoulders to try and figure out where he was throwing the ball.

Coach Bouncer threw a forty-yard pass to the receiver on the left and Atomic sprinted after the ball, trying to judge where it would be batted. The targeted receiver batted the ball high into the air, but as Atomic sprinted to it, he tripped over his own hooves and fell down.

Brilliant, I just completely embarrassed myself in front of everypony.

Atomic slowly got up and went back to his starting position as the receiver threw the ball back to the defensive coordinator. Atomic was able to catch the deflected ball on his second go, but he was still embarrassed about how his first turn had ended.

“Watch out!”

A badly-thrown hoofball was headed towards the defensive unit, who were trying to move out of the way. Atomic saw what was happening and pushed himself to the front of the group.

“Woah!”

Atomic had jumped up into the air and stretched his forelegs backwards to catch the ball, coming down with the ball in his right hoof. As he tossed the ball back to Alizarin, he realised everypony was staring at him.

Must’ve been a good catch.

Training resumed as normal and at seven o’clock, Coach Stargaze announced the starting lineup for the team’s next match, and whilst he was disappointed to be on the bench again, Atomic was relieved to hear that the match did not clash with Sycamore’s match against Thunderhoof’s former team.

“Coach is definitely gonna consider you as a wide receiver now,” Helios told Atomic as they headed into the changing rooms.

“I dunno, he’ll probably see it as a lucky catch.”

As they left the premises, Helios pointed at somepony waving at Atomic.

“Your mom sent me here to get you,” Pumpkin explained as Atomic reached her.

Atomic said goodbye to Helios and headed home with his aunt.

---

“Hurry up and get your books out, you’re behind.”

Amber grumbled under her breath as she sat at the front of the class. It had been over a year since she had attended school, and she was struggling to adjust to the daily routine of having different lessons in different classrooms.

As Ms Ivory instructed the class to complete two pages of questions on the blackboard as a revision activity, Amber turned around and tried to get Atomic’s attention.

“Hey, Atomic.”

Atomic looked down and felt a quill hit his leg. He picked it up and tried to find the quill’s owner.

Ms Ivory was busy marking exams and Amber slid out of her seat and walked to the back of the classroom, looking backwards to make sure she hadn’t been caught. When she reached Atomic, she picked her quill up and smiled.

“You have a death wish. If Ms Ivory catches you, you’re finished.”

“Can you help me with the questions?” Amber asked, looking at Atomic’s answers.

Atomic sighed and turned his book around to let Amber see his answers. Amber memorised as many of the answers as she could before going back to her seat.

Fifteen minutes later, Ms Ivory told the class to pause so that they could go through the questions they had answered. She picked up her quill and wrote numbers 1-5 on the blackboard.

“Atomic, come and answer the first question.”

Atomic took his exercise book with him as he went to the front of the class, and Ms Ivory gave him the chalk. Atomic explained his calculations to the class as he wrote on the blackboard and when he finished, he gave the chalk back to his teacher.

“And for the last question….Amber, come up and answer the question.”

“Huh?”

Amber finished the fifth question in her exercise book and went up to the board.

“So for question 5, I got 18.”

Amber wrote the answer on the board, but My Ivory wasn’t satisfied.

“And how did you get that?”

“Umm….I added the….”

Amber desperately tried to come up with a response, but she was clearly struggling. Atomic held up his exercise book and pointed to the relevant working out, but Ms Ivory saw him and he quickly put his book back down onto the desk.

“I just guessed,” Amber finally said.

“Guessing is not going to get you full marks in an exam.”

Ms Ivory told Amber to go back to her seat and the foals continued answering the rest of the questions. Just before the bell rang, Ms Ivory gave the class their weekly homework and set it's completion deadline for next week.

“Hey, Atomic.”

Amber followed Atomic out of the classroom and showed him her timetable.

“Do you know who this is?” she asked, pointing to her next lesson’s teacher.

“That’s your PE teacher, you just have to line up with the fillies. Come, I’ll show you.”

On their way to PE, Thunderhoof and Chestnut joined Atomic and Amber.

“What are you guys doing in PE right now?”

“Hoofball, and I think the girls are doing dance,” Thunderhoof replied, and Amber groaned.

“Dance?! But I’d rather play hoofball! Can't I just join you guys?”

“I don’t think our teacher would allow that,” Chestnut said.

“I’ll ask nicely, then he might let me,” Amber decided.

The foals fell silent as they saw their classmates waiting outside, and Amber suddenly remembered something.

“Atomic, you never told me about when you saw the Dragons play.”

Memories of the Dragons’ season-opener win against the Cloudsdale Hawks flooded through Atomic’s mind, and he gladly retold the story to Amber as they walked.

“I’d love to see the Dragons live, it’d be my dream come true. Plus I’m Nick Foals’ biggest fan.”

“Oh really? I wouldn’t be so sure if I was you,” Atomic replied.

“Whoever gets this right is the bigger fan. when’s his birthday?” Thunderhoof asked.

“20th of January,” Amber and Atomic replied at the same time.

“Okay…..what college did he go to?”

“University of Fillydelphia.”

“um….Chestnut, can you think of anything?”

Chestnut shook his head after a few seconds, and Thunderhoof declared that both Atomic and Amber were equal superfans of Nick Foals, and this did not satisfy either of them.

“Hurry up, everypony’s already gone into the changing rooms,” the fillies’ PE teacher yelled, and the group quickly split up to head into their respective changing rooms.

As Amber entered the fillies’ changing room, she was hit was a gust of perfume, and the filly who had sprayed it apologised profusely, asking if Amber was alright.

“I’m fine,” Amber said, and she found an empty space at the front bench. As she put her bag down, the teacher came up to her and told her that since she did not have a kit, she would have to sit out and watch for today.

By now, most of the fillies had finished getting changed and they headed through the changing room’s back door and into a neighbouring building, where the dance studio was located.

“Excuse me Miss, could I go to the toilet?” Amber asked politely, and quickly ran off when she was granted permission. She sprinted through the open gate outside the changing room and slowed down when she saw the colts warming up on the field.

Here’s my chance.

Amber trotted through the buckball courts towards the gate that separates the courts from the field. She placed a hoof onto the sliding lock and kept a lookout for the colts’ teacher as she unlocked the gates.

When she had fully unlocked the gate, Amber slowly pushed it open and slipped through the gap, closing the gate behind her.

Now, how should I do this?

The colts had finished their warmup and Mr Cobalt was in the middle of splitting them up into small groups for the first activity.

“.....There's not enough of you,” Mr Cobalt muttered to himself, realising that the final group had only four ponies instead of five.

“I could join their group, if you don't mind.”

“What the-”

All eyes were on Amber as she smiled sweetly at Mr Cobalt.

“You’re supposed to be with the girls what are you doing here?” the teacher asked.

“It's just….I love hoofball but my class is doing ballet. Miss said I could come and join you, I asked her first.”

Pablo pushed through the other colts to get to the front and give his opinion.

“You can’t let her join, she’s a filly!”

Pablo suddenly fell silent when he saw Amber properly for the first time. His mouth hung open slightly and his eyes widened.

“You know what sir, you should let her join us, it’s fine.”

Pablo quietly rejoined his group, sneaking glances at Amber every few seconds.

“Are you sure your teacher allowed you to come here?”

Amber nodded eagerly, and Mr Cobalt added her to the final group, telling her to ask the others in her group for an explanation of the drill. One of Pablo’s friends was in the same group as Amber, and Pablo was able to switch groups with him so that he could team up with Amber.

“When I blow my whistle, you’ll have one minute to get through three turns in your group. 3, 2, 1, BEEP!”

The first activity was a repeat of one the class had done a few weeks ago; the ponies in every group would line up ten yards away from each other and they would have to each throw and catch a pass without dropping the ball. Every time a group completed five passes, the first pony would shout the number of perfect turns they had completed, and the P.E. teacher had promised to award the winning group with a prize.

Atomic caught a perfect pass from Thunderhoof and he threw the ball to the pony in front of him. As the ball was moved down his group, Atomic checked on how the other groups were
Doing, and he was shocked to see that Pablo and Amber were surprisingly working we'll together.

“Atomic!”

Atomic was able to catch the ball just before it hit the ground, and he tossed it to the next pony in their group.

Most of the groups were on their second turn, and Atomic was confident that they would win. As the last pony threw the ball back to the pony in front, he told his peers that a perfect third turn would confirm their victory.

“3! We’re done!”

Mr Cobalt blew his whistle to end the activity and declared Pablo’s group as the winning group.

“And the prize is…..an afternoon cleaning the changing rooms with the janitors!”

The winning group paused mid-celebration. “What?!”

Mr Cobalt grinned. “I’m just kidding. You guys are gonna get your prize at the end of the lesson.”

As they gave the balls to Mr Cobalt, Amber tapped Pablo’s shoulder.

“Er, yeah, how can I help?” he gabbled, kicking himself for sounding so nervous.

“You know, you weren’t that bad. We should pair up more often,” she said, patting his shoulder before walking away. Pablo watched her go with a dazed smile on his face, before suddenly shaking his head and rejoining his friends.

Atomic and Thunderhoof watched Pablo join his friends. “He’s acting weird, even for him.”

“I bet he has a crush on her,” Thunderhoof claimed, and Atomic scoffed.

“Pablo having a crush?! Now that would be hilarious!”

“AMBER BREEZE!”

The fillies’ PE teacher stormed onto the field and Amber ducked behind one of the colts.

“What seems to be the problem, Miss?”

The young teacher looked for the truant filly, but when she couldn't see her, she told Mr Cobalt had disappeared after asking to go to the toilet.

“Amber, come here now.”

Amber sighed and revealed herself to the two teachers. She cringed under the mare’s glare and laughed sheepishly.

“I can explain……”

---

“And it's that time of the week where our presenters will give their postseason predictions! Stay tuned folks, you won't want to miss this one!”

Thunderhoof had come over to Atomic’s house after school and they had revised together for an hour before turning on the radio to listen to the latest sports news. Atomic had informed Thunderhoof that the Canterlot Knights would be playing the Cloudsdale Hawks after the show, so they both agreed to listen through the current show.

“Right guys, who do you think’s making the Sugar Bowl?”

“First of all the Knights; I don’t even need to go into why they’re making it, La Salle’s MVP-caliber season alone should speak for their chances of repeating as champions.”

“I agree, the Knights will be there but I also think that the Dragons are gonna make it. They might have slowed down this season but I wouldn’t count them out, especially when they have Nick Foals.”

“Oh yeah, who are you gonna give that third ticket to?” Thunderhoof suddenly asked.

“.......No idea, and the match is this Sunday.”

“We’re gonna take a quick break, but when we’re back, we'll be going live at Aero Arena to provide you live commentary of the Cloudsdale Hawks-Canterlot Knights match; a match we hope will live up to its billing of a Sugar Bowl preview.”

---

“And that’s the final whistle; the Knights win 29-21!”

“That was one of the best matches of the season in my opinion, and the Knights have definitely strengthened their case to be the first repeat champions in over a decade. Polo, what did you think of their performance?”

“Excellent from start to finish; the stellar Cloudsdale defence that we’ve been seeing all season were nowhere to be found in the fourth quarter when the Hawks were up by , and as a result their secondary was easy pickings for La Salle, who had a great game.”

Atomic turned off the radio and fell back onto his bed.

“Do you think the Dragons can win the Sugar Bowl this year?” Thunderhoof asked, and Atomic nodded.

“We will.”

There was a knock at the door and Tea Rose came into the room.

“Atomic, the police are here to speak to you.”

Atomic rolled off his bed and as his mother had said, saw the two officers that had brought him home waiting in their living room. Tea Rose told Thunderhoof that he should go home as it was already dark, and the two friends said their goodbyes before Thunderhoof left. Butterscotch awoke from her nap with a loud cry, and Tea Rose rushed upstairs to calm her down as Atomic continued to the dining table.

The female officer smiled as Atomic sat down opposite her. “How are you doing, Atomic?”

“I’m okay now.”

“That's good.”

The male officer took out a newspaper from his saddlebag and showed the front page to Atomic, which told yesterday’s breaking story of the arrests the Fillydelphia Police Department had made in the local area.

“Atomic, we think we may have found the ponies that foalnapped you. Do you recognise any of these ponies?”

Atomic quickly picked out Marble and one of the two suited stallions that had been involved in his foalnapping.

“That's great Atomic, but we’re going to need you to come down to the station with us now and officially identify these ponies. If you can identify them for us, then we can officially charge them and they’ll go on trial,” the mare announced.

“Right now?”

The officers nodded, and the mare went upstairs to tell Tea Rose the news whilst her colleague led Atomic over to the front door. Atomic was understandably anxious that he was going to be seeing the ponies that had taken him from his home, and he voiced his concerns to the officer.

“They’re not…..gonna do anything to me, right?”

“Atomic, you’ll be behind a glass screen and we'll be there with you the entire time. You'll be safe, trust me.”

“Pumpkin, I need you out of the bath now.”

“Why?”

“I need to go to the police station with Atomic, so watch over Butterscotch, make sure she’s alright. When Syracuse comes back, tell him where we went.”

Pumpkin came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her head, and she headed straight for her niece’s room.

The officers stepped aside for Tea Rose, who took out her key and unlocked the door. “Okay, we’re ready to go now.”

---

“Okay, tell them we’re ready.”

Atomic and Tea Rose had been waiting in the lobby for ten minutes when they were informed that the officers were waiting for them, and they were led to a different part of the station. As they followed the officer, Atomic was panicking; he thought that once he had come back home, he would never have to deal with his ordeal again, and despite the reasurances from his mother and the officers that had come to their house, he was still anxious to identify his foalnappers.

The mother and son entered a room similar to the one Tea Rose and Syracuse had to wait in when they came to identify Atomic; there was a blind covering the glass screen and another officer was already waiting for them.
“Okay Atomic, we can start whenever you’re ready.”

“.....I’m ready,” Atomic nervously replied, and the officer pulled up the blind. Behind the blind, there was six hoofcuffed stallions waiting in a line, all of them either staring blankly or appearing nonchalant about the situation. They all had fur in different shades of grey, and their heights were mostly the same, with only a few standing an inch taller or shorter than the others.

“Okay Atomic, which one of them do you know?”

Atomic looked at each stallion carefully, trying to determine which one was his foalnapper.

“......I don’t recognise any of them.”

The officer frowned. “Are you sure, Atomic? Take another look.”

Behind the screen, a door suddenly opened and another officer dragged somepony in.

“Sorry Misty. This one tried to get out of this by locking himself in the toilet.”

The seventh stallion joined the line as instructed, keeping his head down. Atomic prepared to check the first six again, and an idea suddenly came into his mind.

“Can i get them to say something?”

“Of course, what do you want them to say?”

Atomic whispered into the officer’s ear and she repeated the request to the stallions behind the screen, nistructing to step forward when it was their turn.

“Number one, step forward.”

The first stallion stepped forward.

“You’re not going anywhere for a long time buddy, so don’t think you’re gonna get out of this!”

One by one, the stallions spoke, but Atomic didn’t recognise any of their voices. Finally, it was the seventh stallion’s turn.

“Number seven, step forward.”

The seventh stallion kept his head down as he stepped forward.

“Head up, please.”

Atomic gasped when the stallion did as instructed, and his fears were confirmed when the stallion spoke.

Marble deliberately spoke in a morose tone so that Atomic didn’t recognise his voice. “You’re not going anywhere for a long time buddy, so don’t think you’re gonna get out of this,”

“It's him, he’s the one that foalnapped me.”

The officer nodded and told the officer who had brought the seventh stallion in to take him away.

“IT WAS YOU!”

Tea Rose suddenly barged past the officer and stormed into the room where the accused were, charging towards Marble. It took the efforts of three officers to calm Tea Rose down and she was dragged outside.

“Mom!”

Atomic ran out of the room and saw his mother receiving a stern lecture from the officers, warning her that she would be arrested if she pulled another stunt like that again.

Tea Rose hugged her son tightly and asked the officers when Marble would be charged, and the officers replied that he would officially be charged very soon. The officer that had collected them from the front lobby escorted them out of the station.

Suddenly, at least four police carriages pulled up on the pavement outside the station, and the passengers doors were opened one by one.

“This is unnecessary roughness, and my lawyer will hear about this!”

Atomic and Tea Rose watched the police officers drag the arrested out of the police carriages, and Atomic recognised some of the ponies.

“Mom, they’re the one who operated on me!”

“Get them in, they’ve got a long night of questioning ahead of them!”

The officers that had come to Atomic’s house to inform them about the identification parade came out of the station and offered to take the mother and son home.

---

CARE SYSTEM AND DRUG TRAFFICKING: FILLYDELPHIA SCANDAL

Last night, there was a raid at a private hospital in the outskirts of Fillydelphia and the majority of the doctors, surgeons and nurses working there were arrested in connection to Atomic Tangerine’s foalnapping. At the same time, care workers at a foal’s home a few miles away from the hospital were also arrested, accused of being linked to the recent foalnapping case. The foals living at the home have been transferred to other homes nearby on emergency fostering placements, and it was one of the care workers that broke down and finally told police the horrible truth: the doctors at the private hospital had inserted packages of narcotics into the foals living in the home as instructed by generous benefactors who frequently donated money to the hospital. Later in a police interview, the same care worker explained that she and her other colleagues had been forced to take care of the foals and keep silent, or they would be killed.

In an official statement released this morning by the Fillydelphia Police Department: “We can confirm that we have apprehended all of the ponies involved. The foals that were living in the care home have been put into emergency placements, and we are working as hard as possible to get to the bottom of what has happened.”

Pumpkin finished the last sentence and put the newspaper back down onto the table.

Atomic swallowed a spoonful of cereal. “So everypony has been arrested?”

“Looks like it,” Syracuse replied as he sat at the dining table with a mug of coffee.

Tea Rose tossed Atomic’s saddlebag to him as she loaded Butterscotch into her pushchair.

“Mom, where are you going?”

“Oh, I found a playgroup for Butterscotch so we’re gonna go and check it today.”

Pumpkin got up from the dining table. “Oh, that reminds me. I’m meeting up with a few friends from high school, so I’ll be back late.”

Tea Rose nodded and Pumpkin took her bowl to the kitchen.

“Atomic, have you given the third ticket yet?”

Atomic shook his head, telling Syracuse that he still hadn’t decided.

“The match is this week, so if I were you, I’d decide today, son.”

“I will.”

“Right everypony, I’m off. Love you all!”

---

“Ms Ivory, can I go to the toilet, please?”

Atomic thanked Ms Ivory and quickly left the classroom. Ten minutes ago, two police officers had come to their class to speak to Amber, and Atomic wanted to know if they had asked her about last night’s arrests.

Okay, if I was the police and I wanted to have a private conversation, where would I go?

Atomic figured that the police would want to go upstairs to one of the empty classroom, and he slowly walked up the stairs. When he reached the top of the first flight of stairs, he saw the officers sitting in front of Amber in the classroom on his right, and he approached it, keeping an eye for any teachers nearby.

Why is she crying?

Atomic placed an ear against the door and heard Amber’s muffled sobs. He peeked through the small glass pane on the door and saw that the officers were comforting her. One of the officers suddenly got up and headed towards the door, and Atomic swiftly moved to stand behind the corner.

“I’m fine, I’ll..be fine.”

“Are you sure? You can talk to us, remember that.”

The officer that had left came back into the classroom with a box of tissues, and he gave it to Amber. A few minutes later, Amber told the officers that she wanted to go back to her lesson.

Now’s my chance to ask her what happened.

The officers went downstairs whilst Amber ran to the fillies’ toilets, slamming the door shut. Atomic came out from his hiding place and gingerly approached the fillies’ toilets.

No-one can ever know I went in here.

Atomic gently knocked on the door. “Amber, are you in here? It's me, Atomic.”

The door swung open and Amber stepped out. Her eyes were red and sniffed loudly before blowing her nose into a tissue.

“Are you okay?”

Amber shook her head. “Do you remember I told you about my friend, Daisy?”

Amber’s friend in the care home.

“Those officers came to tell me that….that….they found her body in a ditch near the home. She’s dead.”

Amber broke down into tears and Atomic was quick to sit down next to her, holding her tightly.

“I can't stop thinking about...how much she suffered. I should’ve been able to save her but I…..”

“Amber, you and Daisy were in a situation that you should’ve never been in, and you both did the best you could to get out of it. Daisy wouldn’t want you to be sad all the time, okay?”

How can I cheer her up?

“You know what, I have a present for you.”

Amber rubbed her eyes and looked up.

“My dad got three tickets for the Dragons’ game on Saturday. Me and Thunderhoof took the first two tickets, and I was wondering if you wanted to have the third ticket and come with us to the game.”

“You’re not playing a prank on me, are you?”

“Nope, I’m being 100% serious.”

The corridor was silent, before Amber suddenly nodded.

“Okay, I’ll go with you guys.”

Atomic smiled. “You won’t regret it.”

The two got off the carpet and quickly went back downstairs to their lesson; Atomic deciding to go inside first.

“Sorry I took so long Ms Ivory…..all of the toilets were blocked and the janitor told me to use the toilets upstairs.”

Ms Ivory watched Atomic sit in his seat.

“I do not appreciate lies, Atomic. You’ll be staying back after school.”

“But-”

Atomic stopped himself from protesting the detention, resigning himself to the fact that he wouldn’t be leaving the classroom when the bell rang.

As they had agreed on their way back, Amber came into the classroom two minutes after Atomic, and Ms Ivory simply told her to copy down the missed classwork from the filly sitting next to her.

Fifteen minutes later, the bell brought an end to the school day, and when she had packed up her belongings, Amber walked over to Atomic’s desk. “I would wait for you, but my care worker will be waiting outside.”

“It's fine. I shoulda known Ms Ivory wouldn’t let me get away with missing twenty minutes of the lesson.”

“Oh yeah, one more thing. Your dad has to ask permission from my social worker.”

“He does?”

“Yeah, it's the rules. Your match is on Friday, right?”

“Yep.”

“Okay, after the match I’ll come home with you and then I’ll tell my social worker to take us to my home. Your dad can sign the papers there.”

Ms Ivory came back into the classroom. “Amber Breeze, if you do not want to be leaving here at four o’clock, then I suggest you head out now.”

“Tell Thunder I have to stay behind.”

Amber shut the door behind her, and Atomic was alone with Ms Ivory. Atomic decided to get a headstart on his homework and he took out his English book to complete the comprehension questions.

“Atomic Tangerine, you’re free to go home,” Ms Ivory announced at four o’clock, and Atomic eagerly put his books away and left the classroom.

“Atomic, wait up!”

Thunderhoof galloped to catch up with his friends and they trotted towards the gates together.

“Didn’t Amber tell you that I was in detention?”

“Yeah, but I figured I’d do some revision in the library.”

The pair passed through the school gates and waited at the pedestrian crossing for the road to clear.

“You know how you had to identify that guy at the police station last night?”

“Yeah?”

“Are they gonna go to trial?”

“Trial?”

“Yeah, because if they’re gonna be charged with foalnapping, then they have to go to court.”

The foals reached the other side of the pavement and Atomic suddenly stopped.

“So I have to tell the judge what happened.”

“Probably.”

Atomic exhaled loudly. “I’ll worry about that later. Guess who I gave the third ticket to?”

“Chestnut? Your mom? Somepony on the Eagles?”

“Um, promise you won’t get angry.”

“Why?”

“You see…..I gave the third ticket to Pablo.”

“You did what?!”

Thunderhoof lowered his voice when he felt the stares of ponies passing by.

“Why the hay would you do that?!”

“Because we were talking and we actually get along, he’s a nice guy deep down.”

Atomic had to bite down on his lip to not laugh as he watched his friend lose it.

“Brilliant, so now we have to spend what could’ve been the best day of our life with the worst pony in the world! Thanks a lot, Atomic!”

Atomic burst out laughing and Thunderhoof immediately realised he had been tricked.

“Thunder, you’re so gullible!”

Thunderhoof pushed Atomic. “Whatever. So did you actually give the third ticket to?”

Atomic eventually calmed down enough to answer the question. “Amber.”
“So are we gonna pick her up on Sunday?”

“Yeah, after Dad gets permission for her to come with us.”

Five minutes later, the two colts reached their houses and arranged to practise outside together for their match tomorrow.

---

“Night, Mom!”

Atomic closed his door and headed over to his calendar, crossing off the 29th of November. In the box next to it, the school team’s first match took up all of the space and in Sunday’s box, the word ‘DRAGONS LIVE’ had been written into the box. Atomic turned his light off and settled into his bed, pulling his duvet over his head.

If all goes according to plan, then we'll win tomorrow and the Dragons will get into the playoffs.