Amethyst Star Isn't Prepared For This

by MagicS

Amethyst Star and the Bocce Champ II

After sleeping on a bench that sat on the side of one the village’s streets, Amethyst Star was not very relaxed or comfortable. The soreness she was hoping to remove with a nice night in a bed was even worse and her mood was doubly foul thanks to the cause of it all. How could her trip to such a nice and friendly village be ruined by one big jerk? She shouldn’t let it get to her. She should just move on and try to enjoy the rest of the day here. Amethyst Star could go watch that Bocce tournament or whatever and spend the whole time rooting against that guy. Sounded like a fun enough way to spend the day.

“You’re lying on my bench.”

Amethyst Star’s eyes snapped open and she looked up to see the Bocce champ staring down at her. “What?”

“This is my bench. It is part of my daily routine to come relax on it every morning. Remove yourself,” he told her.

“Excuse me?! After what you pulled yesterday now you’re doing this?” Her eye was twitching something fierce as she sat up on the bench.

He was smirking at her but her words caused him to raise a questioning eyebrow. “Pardon? I don’t believe we’ve met.”

Amethyst Star sputtered, completely disbelieving. Was he telling the truth? Was it even possible for a pony to be that self-absorbed? “Are you kidding me? We met last evening, you forced me out on the street practically when you took those rooms for your minstrels or whatever!”

“Hmm,” he thoughtfully searched his eyes. “I vaguely recall something like that but I’m not in the business of bothering with the concerns of others. Anyways, this is still my bench.” His horn glowed and Amethyst Star felt herself lifted off the bench and deposited on the ground, the champ then jumped up on it right after and spread himself out so he took up the entire thing. “Clearly you don’t know how things work here. The champ gets what he wants. If you have a problem with that I suggest learning Bocce and then practicing for one hundred years so you have a chance at beating me, hahahaha!”

He laughed as Amethyst Star growled at him, grinding her teeth together and desperately holding herself back from starting a fight. That’s not the kind of thing a good hero would do, even if this pony totally deserved it.

“Fine! Learn Bocce huh? Thanks for the advice!” She nearly spat on the ground as she turned away, absolutely outraged by his behavior.

---

As Amethyst Star seethed walking down the cobblestone streets of the town her mind racked itself on how she could teach that obnoxious pony a lesson. She didn’t know what Bocce was. So first she had to learn Bocce. She knew that this tournament was played with teams. So she had to find a team to attach herself to. And then she had to beat that smug jerk into the ground at his own game. It was gonna be tough but she was sure she could do it, what was this compared to fighting a monster or solving a generations-long feud?

The fact that she failed at both of those things too was irrelevant.

The problem was if she could somehow even get a way into this tournament on the very day it started. She didn’t even know how to begin at that so the best she could do was try to find someone who did or someplace that looked like it was associated with the Bocce tournament.

She was grumbling to herself something fierce when she rounded a corner and ran right into another pony.

“Oof!” Amethyst Star grunted as she fell to the ground.

“I’m sorry, I—oh, hello again.”

Amethyst Star looked up to see some familiar bright green eyes. Instead of apologizing herself like she should have done, Amethyst Star jumped up and shoved her face right into the stallion’s. “Tell me how to play Bocce!”

He backed up with a weirded out look on his face. “Uh, what?”

“You were going to tell me what Bocce was before that jerk interrupted us, what is it?” She asked again.

“Did something happen?”

“Yes!” Amethyst Star screeched. “That “champ” is a colossal jerk! I want to teach him a lesson by beating him at Bocce in the tournament today, I want to show him that you shouldn’t be a rude, selfish, jerk like that to everyone just because you can!”

“Well I definitely understand that,” the stallion gave her a bit of an awkward smile. “But beating him is probably going to be impossible for a beginner like you, even if you didn’t already need to be on a team to participate.”

“Ugh, I know, I know, but I really want to beat that guy! He said he was about to make history with ten straight wins. Wouldn’t it be perfect to ruin that for him and then make him have to go through what he does to everyone else here?” Amethyst Star said.

The stallion hummed to himself as he mulled her words over. “You do make quite a good point...” A grin appeared on his face. “I suppose this might be a bit of good fortune for the both of us then. What’s your name?”

“It’s Amethyst Star.”

“Pleased to meet you, Amethyst Star. My name is Lorn. Would you like me to introduce you to my Bocce team?”

Amethyst Star’s eyes widened in surprise. “You play Bocce too?”

Lorn chuckled. “I happen to be team captain actually. You should come to my store, my teammates are always hanging around in there.”

“I-I will!” Amethyst Star couldn’t believe her luck.

“Great, come on then, if you really want to play in the tournament today and beat the champ we really can’t waste any time.”

Lorn led her down the road to his place, he told her on the way that the furniture store he owned also doubled as his house with his living space on the second floor. Amethyst Star was pretty excited right now, it was like her luck was actually turning around. Someone was actually taking her seriously! She was going to be a part of something and she got to overcome an opponent at the same time. As far as villains go the Bocce Champ certainly wasn’t a very serious one but Amethyst knew that Twilight and her friends dealt with all kinds of jerks and bullies in their lives and either stopped them or reformed them. Now she had the chance to do the same!

The furniture store was situated close to the field Amethyst Star had briefly looked at yesterday. Lorn told her that out on the grass there is where the Bocce tournament would be held. He specifically chose to live somewhere where an appropriate Bocce playing course was practically in his backyard. The front of his store had large glass windows that Amethyst could peer inside of to see what kind of furniture he sold but she wasn’t here to go shopping. He pulled open the door to his own store and a bell on top jingled but no one greeted the two of them, did he always leave the store unattended? Well, it was a small town so he probably had nothing to worry about.

“Hey, anybody else here?” Lorn called out as Amethyst Star followed him inside.

There wasn’t anybody in the front room of his store, Amethyst Star could plainly see that as she quickly glanced around at the various furniture sitting around them, but the sound of ponies moving came from a closed door that led to a back room that itself probably led to the stairs and anything else not for customers.

The door was opened up and two new ponies were standing in its frame with cheerful smiles on their faces. A long-horned unicorn mare with a snowy white mane tied in a long ponytail and a very deep blue coat stood next to a tall and broad-shouldered unicorn stallion with a brown buzzcut.

“Lorn! Welcome back!” The mare standing there said while the stallion next to her waved to the two of them.

“Hey Mavis, Balt,” Lorn waved back to the two of them. “I’ve got some good news.”

Amethyst Star and Lorn walked into the back room, like Amethyst had expected there were some stairs leading up to the second floor and also a table with four chairs placed around it with a counter and some cabinets to her left and another door on the far wall that led to an alley behind the building. Mavis and Balt both looked at her with curious expressions. Curious but still friendly, as Amethyst Star had already come to realize was the norm for this place.

“This is Amethyst Star,” Lorn said as they all took a seat at the table. “She’s going to join us for the Bocce tournament today.”

Both of the new ponies perked up in surprise at that.

“Really? I thought we were just gonna sit out this season,” Mavis tilted her head.

Now that was a surprise to Amethyst, she didn’t know they weren’t planning to play at all. “How come you weren’t going to play until you ran into me?” She asked Lorn.

“That’s because Bocce teams are teams of four,” Balt answered instead. “Our other friend came down with the flu last week and he’s still holed up in bed.” The big stallion shrugged. “There are tournaments every few months so we didn’t mind missing this one, not really. You can always just play a pick up game around here for recreation if you want. There’s more than enough ponies who play.”

“There are more than enough ponies who play but you didn’t want a substitute?” Amethyst Star raised an eyebrow.

Lorn nodded. “Most just play for fun in the first place, even if everyone takes the results of the tournaments very seriously, it’s just ingrained in the culture of the town. And there’s sort of an unwritten rule about hopping to another team if you’re already on one, for any reason. So that rules out most of the other serious players in town.” He shrugged too. “I didn’t really give any thought to missing this tournament until I bumped into you earlier.”

“What about her changed your mind?” Mavis asked.

“She happened to run afoul of our obnoxious current champion and brought up the good point that he was about to win the tournament for the tenth time in a row. So I’d really like to put a stop to that. And secondly she was really determined to play and beat him personally, but that would’ve been impossible without our help,” he said.

“Impossible?” Amethyst Star furrowed her brow. Her naive confidence and annoyance at being doubted temporarily flaring up.

“Teams of four remember?” Lorn smiled at her. “And the fact that normally the town wouldn’t let just anyone or any group join the tournament at literally the last minute. But our team has a bit of clout around here, we’re usuals and we always place. Never been able to beat the champ’s team but we’re liked a whole lot more for obvious reasons.”

“Oh, thanks then,” Amethyst Star blushed and sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. “I guess it would have been pretty embarrassing if I marched out to that field trying to get into the tournament only to be turned away.”

That sounded like something that would happen to her.

“We’ll head out in a second to notify the Bocce association,” Lorn said to her. “But first I think we should probably tell you what Bocce actually is and how it’s played.”

“Wait,” Balt raised a hoof. “She doesn’t even know how to play Bocce?”

Mavis sighed. “I figured as much, an out of towner unfamiliar with our rules and everything...”

“Ehehe...”Amethyst Star nervously chuckled. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine everyone, it’s not like Bocce is complicated or especially difficult for a first-timer. The rules are simple and even if you’re bad at it your teammates can carry you just fine,” Lorn optimistically said and then turned to Amethyst. “Alright, let me explain things. Like I said it’s pretty simple and all you really need is a good grasp of the rules to succeed.”

Amethyst Star nodded, “Okay, I’m all ears.”

Lorn clapped his hooves together. “Great! So the very first thing for you to know is that Bocce is a sport, some naysayers would say a game, played with balls on a “court”. The court is any flat rectangular area cleared of obstacles divided into three sections.” Lorn’s horn lit up and a drawer on the counter was pulled open and out floated a ball about the size of an apricot. “This is called the “Jack”. One team throws the Jack anywhere onto the court as long as it passes the line making the first section. Then, the same team that threw the Jack throws another larger ball and tries to roll it as closely to the Jack as possible. After that it’s the next team’s turn. Now, after those first two rolls whoever is furthest from the Jack rolls again until they’re closer than the opposing team’s ball. It’s possible, and happens fairly often, that a team will roll all their balls in a row without ever getting closer than that first one. But basically you just need to remember that you roll balls until you get one closer to the Jack than the other team. Each team gets eight balls total and each teammate rolls two.”

“Hence the teams of four specifically,” Mavis cut in.

“Right,” Amethyst Star nodded again, following along well enough so far.

“And now the way points are scored,” Lorn continued. “Naturally only the team that’s closest to the Jack will get any points for the round, they could get as low as one or as high as eight, it all depends on the other balls. You see, if the next closest ball is also your team’s then you get two points and so on like that. But once a ball from the opposing team is closer than one of yours that’s it. So you could have three balls closest to the Jack while the next closest one is your opponent’s. That would give you three points. It doesn’t matter if all the rest of your balls are closer than any of the other ones on the other team, because they have that one ball in the fourth position it negates the rest of your points. And you play rounds like that until one team gets to twenty-one points.”

Once Lorn had finished up, Amethyst Star stared at him for a second before tilting her head with a blank look on her face.

“That’s it?” She asked.

“That’s it.”

Amethyst Star looked at the other two in turn before returning to Lorn with a frown. “That’s kind of lame.”

Balt grumbled under his breath while Mavis sighed and rested her chin flat against the table. Lorn just grimaced.

“It’s a very fun sport that takes a deceptive amount of skill to excel at,” the green eyed stallion responded to Amethyst Star’s less than impressed view.

“Hey, more power to you if you like it. I’m just a little surprised it’s not something a little more intense considering how seriously you all take it. And considering how smug and arrogant that guy acts just because he’s won a few tournaments of it,” Amethyst Star shrugged. “You’d think he was putting life and limb on the line each time he plays a game.”

“Bocce is our culture here,” Balt gruffly said, obviously not the happiest with Amethyst’s reaction to their pastime either.

“It’s whatever, Balt. Don’t get too upset at her. I don’t blame someone for not being impressed with our sport from first appearances,” Mavis more glumly stated from her depressed looking spot. “Not everyone can be passionate about Bocce like us.”

“Sorry...” Amethyst Star did feel a little guilty now.

“Well regardless of how you feel about the sport you still really want to beat the champ and rub it in his face, right?” Lorn asked her.

Amethyst Star’s eyes narrowed and she enthusiastically nodded. “Yes. He deserves it.”

“There’s something we agree on at least,” Balt said.

“Yes, now that we’re all on the same page about that I want to go over a couple additional rules with you and then we can all have breakfast and head to the field. No good playing on an empty stomach,” Lorn smiled and patted his belly for emphasis, Mavis and Balt grinning in anticipation as well.

“More rules, huh?” Amethyst Star hoped she didn’t accidentally break any.

“These concern how you play and the strategy involved in the sport. Makes it more interesting than you might have first thought,” Lorn winked at her. “So you can throw the Jack anywhere on the court after the first line as long as it doesn’t go out of bounds, any point balls you throw can go anywhere except out of bounds too. But. If a ball is hit by another ball and goes out of bounds it’s still in play. As long as it didn’t go out of bounds on the initial throw it’s always in play. And there’s also no rule against hitting an opponent’s ball or the Jack.”

That got Amethyst Star’s attention, her eyebrows rising into her hairline. “So I can intentionally hit someone’s ball away from the Jack? Or hit the Jack itself to a better position for ours...” She smirked. “Heh, guess you’re right, that does make things a bit more fun.”

“Right?” Mavis said, looking more cheerful now.

“And that’s pretty much it,” Lorn shrugged with a smile on his face. “Anything else you can pick up as you go one. And honestly I don’t think you’ll have to do to much, the three of us are more than enough to beat most teams here. Now let’s have some pancakes!”

Amethyst Star was both happy and unhappy to hear that. She wanted to do something to prove that she could. If she just sat back and let these three carry her to victory what would be the point of this in the first place besides just beating some jerk? But the fact that they had never beaten his team before at least implied that they would need her help for him at least. So she was hopeful that she would get to contribute a whole lot more to these games than they thought. It wouldn’t be nearly enough to just sit back and be irrelevant in all their matches. This wasn’t much of an adventure but it was at least something and it would kind of work to prove she was sportier than anyone previously thought of her. Probably.

Lorn and Mavis made the pancakes together while Amethyst and Balt waited. Balt asked about where she came from and she was more than willing to regale him with stories of Ponyville. Stories that made her look particularly good but where was the harm in that? Once Lorn and Mavis finished all four of them had huge stacks of pancakes in front of them, enough to make Amethyst Star gulp.

“Do you really eat this much all the time?” She asked the others.

“Hey, can’t win a tournament on an empty stomach,” Lorn replied with a mouth stuffed full of pancake.

She had to admit that he had a point there, and like the rest Amethyst Star began to chow down, looking forward to beating that huge nincompoop Bocce champ later today. The pink and purple unicorn grinned as she stuffed her mouth, oh how much she would relish her victory.