Ten More Yards

by 5aszs

THE SEVENTH DOWN

The academic year was now in full swing, which meant that several teachers were beginning to give out mid-semester class tests, and as they left Miss Ivory’s classroom to go to their first lesson, Atomic and Thunderhoof were doing last-minute preparation for their History pop quiz.

“Wait, so what year was Nightmare Moon banished?” Atomic opened his history textbook and desperately tried to find the section on Nightmare Moon. “Wait, I found it, it doesn't matter.”

“Did you get any revision done yesterday?”

“After the tryou-”

Atomic stopped mid-sentence but luckily Thunderhoof was looking through his saddlebag so wasn't paying too much attention to what he was saying.

“After I came back from the dentist’s, I just couldn't be bothered to do History.”

The two colts entered their History classroom and found that the tables had been separated out for the test and after guessing where they usually sat, they sat down in their respective seats, waiting for their teacher to arrive.

“No I can't come over today, I have to go to the tryouts. Obviously the Eagles’ one, I’m not on any other team am I, you idiot!”

Atomic overheard the backend of Pablo’s conversation with one of his friends, and he inched forward in his seat so that he could keep listening.

“But it's not like I need to worry anyway, I'm definitely still gonna be on the team.”

Wait, does he think the Eagles’ tryouts are today?!

Atomic suddenly leaned back into his seat when his History teacher entered the classroom. Miss Chrysanthemum was a fairly new teacher that had joined the school at the end of last year, and her positive demeanour combined with her entertaining methods of teaching history made her well-liked among her classes. She sat down at her desk and placed her folder onto her desk. She took off her thick-rimmed navy blue glasses and smiled at her students.

“Good morning. Are you all having a good day?”

There was a loud reply of ‘yes’ from the pupils. Miss Chrysanthemum smiled before taking out a large pile of papers from her folder and walking through the classroom, handing two sheets of paper to each student face down.

“There are thirty questions in this quiz, so I’m gonna give you thirty minutes to complete it. You can start once I’ve given out a quiz to everypony.”

Miss Chrysanthemum handed a quiz to the final student at the back of the classroom and went back to her desk, waiting her students do the quiz.

Atomic turned his paper over and his mood immediately deflated when he realised that he was going to fail this quiz.

Question 1: In what year was the city of Fillydelphia founded?

Atomic answered the first question with his best attempt at an educated guess, and struggled through the rest of the first page, giving a random answer to each question.

Question 16: How many Elements of Harmony are there?

Finally, a question I can actually get right!

Atomic answered the second half of the quiz quickly, using his usual method of random guesses to answer each question. He put his quill down and watched his peers tackle the quiz, and he wasn’t surprised to see that Thunderhoof was racing through his quiz. Atomic spotted the pony in front of him hold their paper up in front of them, and he could see a glimpse of some of their answers. Atomic slowly moved his head to his left, checking where his teacher was looking every few seconds. Once he had moved his head far enough, he began to lean forward and try and read some of the answers: and he was able to change a few of his answers.

“Right, that’s thirty minutes up! Quills down, please!”

Atomic moved backwards and leaned back into his seat, dropping his quill onto the table.

“Swap with the pony next to you. You’re going to mark this with your red quills, so take them out please.”

Atomic turned around to swap with Thunderhoof, but he found that his friend had already swapped with the pony next to him. Undeterred, he picked up the quiz on Thunderhoof’s desk and replaced it with his own, smiling innocently at him.

“Go easy on me.”

Thunderhoof shook his head with a smile as he pulled Atomic’s quiz closer towards him.

Miss Chrysanthemum went through the answers with her class, and ten minutes later, she told her students to get their quizzes back so that she could record what they got.

Atomic turned around and handed the quiz he’d marked back to it's owner, and he looked at Thunderhoof expectantly.

“I got at least half, right?”

“You’re so lucky I’m in the same History class as you,” Thunderhoof remarked as he handed Atomic’s quiz to him.

Atomic turned back around and read his score, his mouth wide open.

“Okay, when I say your name, call out your score,” Miss Chrysanthemum opened her planner and turned to her current class’ pages, holding her quill above the first name on the register.

“Atomic.”

“Twenty three.”

“Well done Atomic, that’s a great score!”

“Anything higher than a zero is great for him!” Pablo whispered, and his friends giggled. Atomic glared at him before looking to the front again.

The rest of his classmates called out their scores, and whilst Atomic wasn’t surprised to hear that Thunderhoof had got the highest in the class with a score of twenty seven out of thirty, he was surprised by the fact that his friend had bumped his score up so high that he had got one of the highest scores in the class.

“Okay, that’s everypony done, now, let’s get on with the rest of the lesson.”

When the bell rang at five past ten, the colts and fillies packed up their belongings and took their homework from Miss Chrysanthemum, who was waiting at the door to hand it to each student.

“What d’you have next?”

“Science, in, wait lemme find it….room 33,” Atomic replied as he checked his timetable.

“We’ve been at school for like a month, you should know what lessons you have by now!”

“At least I don't sit on my bed and memorise my timetable, unlike some ponies!”

“I only did it once last year, it's not like I’ve done it every year!”

Atomic laughed as Thunderhoof pushed him, and the two said goodbye to each other before heading their separate ways; Thunderhoof joined a few other colts in his Prench class, and Atomic joined the crowd heading up the stairs. He split from most of the ponies that continued heading up the second flight of stairs and turned to his right, walking down the corridor and coming to a stop outside room 33, his Science classroom. Atomic looked through the small pane of glass that was next to the door and saw that some of his classmates had already entered, and he opened the door to enter his classroom.

“Good morning Atomic! How are you this fine morning?!”

“I’m good, sir,” Atomic smiled awkwardly at his teacher before making his way to his seat. Mr Silver Shine had been the school’s science teacher for over thirty five years and was still just as energetic now as he had been when he had started teaching at the school. His flamboyant manner opposed his aging appearance and Atomic found his over-the-top mannerisms embarrassing. The last few members of the class entered the class and took their seats, and Mister Silver Shine closed the door loudly.

“Right, let’s get started with today’s lesson! Everypony, out of their seats!”

The classroom had been set up with the table at the front being moved into the middle. On the table, there was five jars labelled A, B, C, D and E, each filled with a different coloured powder.

“Today we’re finally going to be doing the flame test! Sounds fun, right?!”

When he didn’t get a reply, Mister Silver Shine shrugged and continued.

“Each of these jars contains a different element, and it is your job to find out which element each powder. How are we going to do that, I hear you you ask? Well, let me show you. Everypony take a step back, please.”

As the colts and fillies took a step back, a pale blue aura surrounded Mister Shine’s horn as he used his magic to slowly open the lid of jar A. He levitated a clean flame test loop over from the other side of the table and dipped it into the jar, twisting it a few times to ensure that some powder latched onto the loop. The flame test loop was levitated out of the jar and placed onto a clean metal tray.

Mister Shine walked over to the open cupboard behind him and took out a laboratory burner. He walked back to the desk he was using and connected the burner’s rubber tube to the gas tap on the desk.

“I will set up the burners for all of you, so when you get to that step, call me over and I’ll light it up for you.”

Mister Shine used his magic to light the burner and it burned with a blue flame, and he carefully levitated the flame test loop over to the burner, holding the loop over the flame. The blue flame suddenly changed colour to lilac.

“Woah!”

“That's not all! Can anypony tell me what element this is?”

The class was silent, each pony desperately trying to think of the answer in case they were picked on. A filly standing at the back of the group put her arm up quickly.

“Potassium, sir.”

“Correct! Did anypony do the extra reading I set last week?”

When everypony put their arm up quickly, Mister Shine decided to put this to the test.

“Atomic, what element burns with a brick-red colour?”

You just had to pick on me, didn’t you?

“Umm…...is it....sodium?”

“Nope, it’s calcium.”

Atomic’s face burned red with embarrassment.

“Right, I’m gonna switch this off, and I’m going to split you up into groups of threes to do this experiment yourselves. There aren't enough jars for all of you, so you’re going to have to share them. When I put you into a group, get some goggles on and get started.”

Atomic found himself in a trio with two other fillies, and he thought of asking to be put into a different group before deciding against it, believing that Mister Shine wouldn’t listen to him.

“So, do you know what we’re supposed to do?” one of the fillies asked, and Atomic shook his head.

“We'll just wing it. What’s the worst that can happen?”

---

“We finished the experiment, and we got colours for each jar, so that's good.”

“You almost burnt my mane! How in Equestria is that good?!”

Atomic shushed the filly, looking for Mister Shine to make sure he didn’t hear her. He then moved the burner towards him and turned it off.

“I’ve said sorry like ten times now. It was an accident and I didn’t mean to do it. Anyway, did you guys write down all of the colours?”

“Yeah, but I’m not sure that they're all right,” the other filly admitted.

“It doesn't matter, everypony probably got a few wrong. Besides, it's not like he’s gonna-”

“Right, let’s go round the class and hear what colours you go for each element. Um, Atomic’s group, what colours did you get?”

“Umm, well, we got orange, purple, red, green and for the last one we, uh, didn’t get anything.”

“Okay then, next group, what did you get?”

“I swear, this is the last time we ever do an experiment with you!” the fillies hissed, and Atomic shrugged.

“I didn’t choose to work with you, he put us together.”

When the last group had read out their results, Mister Shine picked up a chalk from his desk and wrote the names of the elements in each jar and their colours.

“Great, so we got nearly every colour wrong,” one of the fillies remarked, picking up one of the jars.

“I mean, it could’ve been worse, he could’ve made us do a surprise test or something,” Atomic replied.

“True.”

The colts and fillies cleared away the equipment and put their goggles back into the blue plastic tray at the front of the classroom, before sitting back in their seats for the last five minutes of the lesson as Mister Shine led them through an explanation of why metal elements burn with different colours in the flame test. As the bell rang to signal breaktime, Mister Shine wrapped up his explanation and dismissed the class.

Atomic headed out of the classroom with the rest of his peers and headed downstairs to ground floor to find Thunderhoof. He walked past several classrooms, keeping a lookout for room 17; Thunderhoof’s Prench classroom.

“Hey, let’s go to the hall, it’s raining outside.” Thunderhoof came out of his classroom and walked alongside Atomic.

“Wait, it’s raining? I didn’t even notice,” Atomic looked through the large door at the end and saw that it was pouring down with rain outside.

“Anyway, what class is Chestnut in? I saw him come into school late during Prench but I don't know where he went.”

“Look, he’s over there!” Atomic pointed outside to a shivering Chestnut, who was waiting outside alone. The two pushed the large door open and approached their friend.

“Hey, how come you're waiting out in the rain?!”

“Pablo told me you have to wait outside for ten minutes before they let you into the hall.”

“That jerk was trying to mess with you. Come on, let’s go.”

Atomic and Thunderhoof led Chestnut back inside, and Chestnut told his friends to move back as he shook his head to dry himself.

“So is everypony going to the hall?”

“Yeah, that's where most ponies go if it's raining. If we hurry, we can get a good seat at the back.”

The three colts hurried through the corridor, their wet hoofprints leaving wet marks on the grey carpet beneath them.

“Are you gonna come over after school to listen to the Dragons play the Manehatten Mustangs?” Atomic answered Thunderhoof’s question with a nod, and Thunderhoof turned to ask Chestnut the same.

“Do you wanna come to my house after school to listen to the game?”

“My mom probably won’t let me. Sorry.”

“It's cool. Next time, we'll just go over to your house when the Dragons and Mustangs play again. I think they play again in the last week.”

The three colts followed the stream of ponies heading to the hall, and they all ended forming a line, the teachers at the hall entrance being slow to allow students to enter the hall.

Atomic listened to Chestnut and Thunderhoof discuss recent tests, unwilling to join in with the conversation.

“That comprehension test was actually pretty hard. When did Miss Bellflower say you were going to do it?”

“Next week after school,” Chestnut replied. “I know she’s gonna give me a different test, but what sort of questions came up?"

Tea Rose’s hour-long lecture yesterday evening came rushing back into Atomic’s mind, her mother’s angry tone ringing loud and clear in his mind.

I can’t believe you’re failing English!

You promised that hoofball would not get in the way of your studies, and it has!

You better get your act together Atomic, or you won't be playing hoofball again any time soon!

“Atomic!”

“Huh?” Atomic looked up at Thunderhoof and Chestnut.

“We can go in now, come on!”

Atomic followed Chestnut and Thunderhoof and Chestnut into the hall, which was made up of several rows of plastic blue chairs, most of which were by now filled up with students. There was a projector to the far side of the hall that was displaying a picture of the front of the school onto the large whiteboard at the front of the hall. The large dark green curtains were drawn shut and all the side doors in the hall had been locked shut to protect from the rain. Most ponies had sat together in groups, filling the hall with conversations and laughter, with a few sitting at the back by themselves either reading a book or doing their homework.

Atomic followed Chestnut and Thunderhoof to the back of the hall and they sat down in three empty seats.

“Do you guys have your cards with you? I wanna see what sort of cards you have.”

Atomic shook his head but Thunderhoof opened his saddlebag and took out a plastic bag containing his trading cards. The other two looked at him curiously.

“What? I don't want them to get bent, and this keeps them safe.”

Atomic spotted Pablo and his friends sitting a few seats away from them, engrossed in their own conversation, and remembering what he overheard in History, he told his friends that he was going to look for a quill that he had just dropped. The two absent-mindedly nodded before resuming their conversation. Atomic got up and moved closer to Pablo, tuning out Thunderhoof and Chestnut talking about hoofball to try and listen in to Pablo.

“Wait, so would your coach let us on the team too, if we came with you today?”

“Nah, don’t think so. Most of the time, Coach Stargaze chooses the ponies that are already on the team, so he probably wouldn’t chose you guys. Me on the other hand….”

Atomic listening to Pablo brag about his hoofball abilities, the idea that Pablo had already missed the tryouts becoming a source of great amusement to him, and he couldn't help but snicker.

Pablo looked over his friends and saw Atomic struggling to hold in laughter. “What’s so funny?! Jealous that you're never gonna make it to the league?!”

“Trust me, I’m not jealous of you. If anything, I feel sorry for you, man.”

Atomic quickly erupted into full-blown laughter, drawing the attention of his friends and others sitting nearby.

Atomic took deep breaths to try and compose himself. “Man.. all I have to say to you is...good luck at the tryouts. You’re gonna need it.”

Atomic gave Pablo a smirk before moving back to his previous seat, relieved that Chestnut and Thunderhoof were still engrossed in their own conversation, oblivious to what had just happened. Atomic joined the conversation and the three friends continued talking about hoofball for the rest of breaktime. When the bell rang at the end of breaktime Atomic, Chestnut and Thunderhoof left the hall together before separating; Atomic and Thunderhoof set off to their Maths lesson with Miss Ivory and Chestnut headed upstairs for his Science lesson.

“I bet you she’s gonna give us a surprise test,” Thunderhoof predicted, and Atomic groaned.

“I swear, if she does, then I might just walk out.”

“You’d never do that! Besides, it's just a prediction, it's probably not gonna happen.”

The two colts joined the back of the queue outside Miss Ivory’s classroom, and after a two-minute wait, Miss Ivory appeared at the top of the stairs, holding a large stack of papers with a small key carefully placed at the top of the pile. She quickly made her way down them and placed the papers down in front of her door before using the key to unlock her classroom door and let her students inside.

“Equipment out. You’re going to be doing a test this lesson.”

Atomic looked over at Thunderhoof, who shrugged his shoulders. Atomic sunk down in his seat and his head banged against his desk loudly.

“Is there a problem, Mister Tangerine?”

Atomic’s head shot up and he realised that everypony’s eyes were on him, including a stern Miss Ivory. “No, Miss, there’s no problem at all. Everything’s perfectly fine,” Atomic laughed nervously and Miss Ivory frowned.

“Then you should be able to reflect that in your test scores. Right, there are sixty-five marks available, so you’ll have the rest of this lesson to complete it. Begin.”

Atomic headed straight to the back of the test paper to deploy his usual tactic when it came to Maths tests; starting with the most difficult papers and going backwards through the paper to make sure that he didn’t run out of time to attempt the hardest questions. Despite skipping a few questions, Atomic was able to mostly finish the test in fifty five minutes, and he spent the last five minutes finishing off the questions he had deliberately left out.

The bell rang just as Atomic was writing his name at the front of the paper, and he put his quill down and waited quietly.

Miss Ivory walked around the classroom and collected all of the tests. Once she had placed them back on her desk, she dismissed the class.

“You know what, that test actually wasn’t even that bad. For once I might actually get a good grade in Maths,” Atomic declared, his buoyant mood juxtaposing Thunderhoof’s stress.

“Are you kidding?! That test was so hard!”

“Wait, what answers did you get?”

Thunderhoof and Atomic headed outside to the beaches outside the hall, and they compared answers for the rest of break time, and with each different answer Thunderhoof got, Atomic became more and more worried.

“We got different answers for every question. I can’t believe I thought the test was easy. I’m gonna fail!”

Chestnut came outside to join them just before the end of break.

“Had to stay behind to do a Maths test,” he explained.

“I can’t fail another test, Mom’s gonna stop me from playing hoofball!”

“Atomic, this is probably just a small test, it won’t matter!”

“I thought the same thing about the comprehension test on Monday, and Miss Bellflower sent a letter home!”

“She did what?!” Thunderhoof and Chestnut exclaimed.

“Yeah she did, and my mom’s totally on my case now about my studies. She’s gonna try and stop me from playing for the Eagles!”

“What?”

Atomic stared at Thunderhoof open-mouthed, praying that Thunderhoof hadn’t heard the end of his sentence.

“The Eagles?”

“Um…….you see the thing is, I went to the Eagles’ tryouts yesterday.”

“The what? I can’t hear you.”

Atomic sighed. “Yesterday I went to the Eagles’ under-thirteen tryouts. That’s why I didn’t come to training.”

“The Eagles? Isn’t it super hard to get on their team?”

“Yeah, it is. But I’m on the team now.”

Thunderhoof sat silently, absorbing the news.

“So you’re gonna play for them now?”

“Yeah, I will.”

“Oh.”

Thunderhoof sat silently and Atomic watched him nervously, waiting for his reaction.

“......At least you're not a reserve anymore,” Chestnut nervously piped up, and Atomic nodded slightly.

“Yeah. Chestnut’s right, I'm happy for you. You deserve to be on a good team,” Thunderhoof smiled, and he patted Atomic on the back. “But you better watch out for our team, I think we’re supposed to playing you soon.”

Atomic inwardly sighed in relief, and he smirked. “What, do you really think I’m gonna let you beat me?!”

“We'll see.”

Atomic and Thunderhoof bumped hooves and the awkwardness that was previously present disappeared as if it had never been there.

“So, what were the tryouts like?”

“They were intense. I thought the Buccaneers’ one was bad, but the Eagles were on another level. They checked random things like how high we can jump, and most of the colts there were at least a year older.”

Atomic re-told what happened at the tryouts for the rest of breaktime, and just before the bell rang, he wrapped up re-telling the moment he was chosen for the team.

“And then he said my name. At first, I thought it was just a mistake, but he really did say my name! I’m still kinda surprised that he picked me over most of the colts that were there.”

“Thunderhoof shook his head. “It’s not surprising to me. According to what you’ve told us, you played out of your mind yesterday. If I was the coach I’d definitely pick you.”

“That is kinda biased, but thanks, I appreciate it,” Atomic smiled and put his arm around Thunderhoof as they walked inside to their next lesson, Chestnut following right behind them.

“Wait, Chestnut we have training today, right?”

“Yeah, at five o’clock.”

“Where do you live? We can go to training together if you want.”

“Okay, I’ll give you my address.”

Chestnut took out a piece of paper from his saddlebag and a quill, and he pressed the paper against the wall behind him as he wrote down his address.

“Here it is. Is this close to where you live?”

“Yeah, it's like fifteen minutes away from my house. I’ll come to you and then we can go training together.”

Chestnut nodded and the three headed off together to their third lesson of the day.

---

“Come on boys, lets go! We don't have time to be standing around! If you don’t want our lesson to run over into after school, get into your groups from last lesson, and do it quickly!”

Mr Cobalt clapped his hooves as he came out onto the field, holding a bucket of hoofballs in his mouth.

“Hurry up! We’re gonna start with something a little different today!”

Atomic, Chestnut and Thunderhoof joined three other colts that were in their group, and they waited with the rest of their class for further instructions from their teacher.

“In your group you're going to split off into threes. In each trio, there’s going to be a passer, a receiver and a defender. The passer is going to throw the ball, and the receiver’s job is to catch the ball whilst the defender’s job is to stop the receiver. After each play, you all switch positions until each of you have played all three positions twice. Right, split up and get started!”

Atomic decided to get into a three with his friends, and Thunderhoof went over to Mr Cobalt to get a hoofball.

“D’you wanna be the receiver or the defender?”

“I’ll be the receiver. Both of you are taller than me and I'm not a good defender,” Chestnut replied sheepishly.

Thunderhoof returned to the group and told Atomic and Chestnut to move back, and as a pale green aura surrounded his horn, Thunderhoof lifted the ball up with his magic and drew it back. Atomic began to try and get in front of Chestnut, who was trying his best to keep Atomic behind him. Thunderhoof threw the ball with his magic, and the ball flew high into the air, heading to the right of Chestnut, who quickly ran towards it with Atomic trailing behind him. Chestnut leapt into the air and caught the ball before Atomic could intercept it.

“I almost got it that time, almost,” Atomic lamented, and Chestnut threw the ball back to Thunderhoof. When Thunderhoof threw the ball to Chestnut again, Atomic was able to get in the way and smack the ball aside.

“I’ll be the receiver now. Chestnut, you can swap with Thunder.”

Thunderhoof and Chestnut swapped positions, and Atomic smirked as Thunderhoof stood in front of him.

“You’re not gonna be in front for long, Thunder.”

Thunderhoof turned around and smiled. “What makes you think I’m gonna let you catch that ball?”

Chestnut leaned back to balance on his two hind legs. He took a few seconds to adjust his balance. Once he was stable, he drew his arm back and threw the ball far. Atomic tracked back quickly to keep up with the ball as it flew through the air. Thunderhoof set off after Atomic, aiming to barge into him so that he couldn’t catch the ball. The ball began to fall and Atomic prepared himself to catch the ball by quickly moving to where he believed the ball was going to land. He jumped up into the air at the same time as Thunderhoof, and despite his height disadvantage, Atomic was able to get the ball and grab it first.

Atomic was also able to catch the second ball and four minutes later, the three colts had finished rotating positions, and they waited for their classmates to finish.

“I'm gonna get this with one hoof! Just watch!”

Pablo’s group was playing a few metres away from Atomic, Chestnut and Thunderhoof, and their quarterback threw the ball to Pablo.

“I’ll get it just like Onyx Bolt did!” Pablo called out, referring to the one-hoofed catch that the Vanhoover Giants receiver had made a few years ago in the regular season, which was instantly hailed as one of the best catches ever, and it also boosted his team’s profile and cemented Onyx Bolt’s place as one of the best wide receivers in the EHL.

Pablo threw himself backwards to reach the ball, with only his right arm being outstretched to catch the ball as he had promised. To the shock of the colts that were watching, Pablo was able to get a grip on the ball. However, as he pulled the ball inwards, the ball slipped out of his grip and tumbled onto the grass, quickly followed by a hard landing.

“My back!”

Pablo cried out and rolled around on the grass, one of his hooves holding his back. Coach Cobalt saw the commotion and ran over.

“Pablo! What happened?!”

“He was trying to do a one-hooved catch like Onyx Bolt,” answered one of Pablo’s friends.

Mr Cobalt knelt down and asked Pablo where it hurt the most, frowning when Pablo tearfully gestured to his lower back.

“Legs...can’t..feel ‘em,” he grunted out, shutting his eyes tightly.

“You, go get the nurse! And tell her it's urgent!”

One of Pablo’s friends dashed off to the nurse’s office, and the rest of the class were told to move away from Pablo to give him some space. Five minutes later, the school nurse came sprinting out onto the field, with her two assistants holding a stretcher right behind her. Mr Cobalt moved back when they reached Pablo.

“I actually feel kinda sorry for him,” Thunderhoof said, and Chestnut nodded. “Hopefully it isn't too serious, and he’ll be alright,” he added.

Mr Cobalt and his class watched Pablo being gently placed onto the stretcher.

“At least we know now that we shouldn’t try anything crazy,” Atomic stated.

Pablo was fastened onto the stretcher and was then slowly wheeled away.

“Sir, is Pablo gonna be alright?!”

“Yeah, he said that he couldn't feel his legs!”

“I'm sure Pablo will be fine. Now, we were gonna play another practise match but I don't feel like we should.”

Coach Cobalt led the class through some passing drills for the rest of the lesson, and as they packed up the equipment to take back to the changing rooms, one of the colts spoke up.

“Sir, why don't we have a hoofball team? All that stealing stuff happened years ago and most of the other schools have a team. If we have a team, we could be in the local league!”

Coach Cobalt stopped in his tracks. “I think that's something that you should take up with the principal.”

“That's actually a good idea. The only place we can play for a team is outside of school, and you have to tryout for them most of the time,” Thunderhoof added, and a few other colts agreed.

“We can go the principal tomorrow then,” Atomic concluded. “Who wants to have a hoofball team?”

Ten colts had put their hooves up, with the rest either claiming that they already played for teams outside of school or did not have time for hoofball.

“Alright, we’ll go to the principal’s office tomorrow morning. Make sure you all come to school early, and we can meet up at the front gate,” Atomic decided.

The other colts nodded and Atomic headed back to his place at the back of the changing rooms to get changed.

“Guys, I don’t think I'm gonna try out for the hoofball team,” Chestnut admitted.

“What?! Why not, you’d totally make the team!” Atomic and Thunderhoof cried.

“Maybe I could join the school paper and try and get a column on the team to be printed? It would mean that more ponies know about the team.”

“That's…..actually a good idea,” Thunderhoof nodded at Chestnut, and he promised to get an article on the new school hoofball team as soon as possible.

---

“Atomic! Dinner’s ready!”

“Coming Mom!”

Atomic finished his last sentence in his notebook. After his success at the Eagles’ tryouts, he had decided to write out a detailed plan of how he was going to get to the league and play for the Fillydelphia Dragons.

Stage 1: Get onto a good team.
Stage 2: Win the local youth league and get noticed by scouts.
Stage 3: Go to a good high school and play god enough to get college scholarships
Stage 4: Go to a good college and win the College Bowl
Stage 5: Get drafted by the Dragons
Stage 6: Win the EHL championship/ Win MVP (each more than once)
Stage 7: Become the greatest Dragons player of all time.

One down, four to go.