> This Is A Bad.....minton Fiction
>  by Brian Jacko
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Experiment
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	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.

> Getting the Ponies to Play
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A few weeks went by and the two Princesses stood outside their brand new sports arena. Luna was carrying two small blue treasure chests with her and Celestia had a golden whistle around her neck. Inside the treasure chests were a special creation that they needed Discord to help them create. 

"Hey, what are we even going to call this sport, Celestia?" Luna asked.

"I have been thinking about this much. How about we call it, Badminton?" Celestia asked.

"Sounds great! Let's go inside and check it out," Luna replied.

The sound of hooves clopping against the bright colored floors resonated throughout the building.

Luna stomped her hind leg and tried to drag it across the floor. "These floors are nice and players should get very good traction. No need to worry about slipping around," she said.

"We are going to need new players to try out this new game and the Wonderbolts aren't supposed to be ready to play yet," Celestia said.

"Well, why don't you invite Twilight Sparkle and her friends over today? What is that cyan colored Pegasus's name who loves sports? Rainbow Dash is it?" Luna asked.

"Yes, that's correct," Celestia said. She used her magic to bring out a quill and a pen and began writing a letter. She said the words she was writing down out loud.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity. We have a special surprise and it is a brand new sport that we have created. We need all of your help in testing this game out. It will be for science, and we have beautiful courts that practically shine. This place is like candy for the eyes and this game is about beauty, grace, and even at times, gentleness. We could also use a pony who is strong and does hard back breaking labor to try our game out. There is no rush to get here, but at your convince if possible. The sports arena is located right next to the Canterlot Gardens. Yours truly, Princess Celestia."

When she finished writing, she used her magic to make six copies of the letter and sent them away. 

Within ten seconds flat, a certain cyan colored Pegasus burst through the doors and said, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! You all have sports here!?"

"Princess Celestia leaned over to her sister and said, "I guess I did quite well on making my letter tempting, didn't I?"

Luna giggled.

Celestia turned back to Rainbow Dash and said, "Yes! We have invented a new sport and we need your help to test it out. We should probably wait just a little longer to see if any of your friends are coming."

"I love sports, and I'll make this game at least twenty percent cooler!" Rainbow said.

Suddenly, a pink pony burst through the door and started yelling, "Surprise? Surprise? Where? I got your letter and I just love surprises! Can we throw a party?"

"Maybe after we all play and have some fun. You do like fun, don't you, Pinkie Pie?"

Pinkie Pie began to bounce around in circles and giggled madly.

Twilight Sparkle came through the doors with books, note pads, and some other materials. "Science! Science! Where? I want to help! Can we study this new sport?" she cried out.

Celestia smiled and said, "Of course we can! But we need you to learn and play the game first!"

A few moments later, Applejack came barreling through the doors and said, "I'm here fer ya, Princess! Ya have the strongest and most dependable pony at yer side, Ma'm!" 

"Thank you so much for coming, Applejack. Your strength will be needed and we'd like to see how hard you can smash the shuttle," Celestia said.

"Applejack blushed at the compliment and said, "Why that's mighty kind of ya to call me out fer this. I may not be known fer sports like Rainbow Dash, but I'll give it my best shot. Say, what's a shuttle, anyway?"

Luna tossed her a shuttle and said, "This is a shuttle. It's called a shuttlecock, but we call it shuttle for short."

"I can only imagine the kind of jokes that will come from that kind of name," Applejack said. 

The door to the arena opened up slowly and in stepped Fluttershy. She nervously made her way over to the group of ponies. "Um, Hi Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. I got your message and I heard you made a new sport that requires gentleness and grace?"

"That's correct, Fluttershy," Celestia said. This sport is a bit of a mixture of all kinds of things and we feel that each one of you has a special unique talent and that you will all shine with this new sport in unique ways," Celestia said.

"Oh, that's wonderful," Fluttershy said. "I'm already the worlds best at one sport."

Rainbow Dash hovered in the air and put her two front hooves on her hips and said, "Fluttershy? Worlds best at a sport? I don't believe it!"

Fluttershy pulled out a picture and showed the group of ponies. "I'm the worlds greatest player at Curling."

Rainbow Dash threw herself to the ground and began cracking up. "Curling is a sport? Are you serious? What a joke! No wonder Fluttershy can actually win at something."

Fluttershy put her head down and sighed with sadness.

"Curling is a sport, Rainbow," Twilight said. "You're being very mean and cruel to Fluttershy. Curling takes skill and just because you may not be as good at it, doesn't mean that you should trash Fluttershy for her sport."

"Rainbow Dash, if you don't apologize to Fluttershy right now and congratulate her for her achievements, then I shall ban you to the Everfree forest and you'll have to write me quite a few letters about what you have learned, "Celestia said.

"Ok, ok, ok," Rainbow said. "I am sorry. I just thought Curling was a joke. Congratulations Fluttershy. I didn't know there was a sport out there that you would actually be good at."

The door opened once more and in stepped Rarity wearing her most favorite dress. She had her mane done to look extra fancy for this occasion. "Show me this sport of beauty and grace. I am a lady and I have come dressed up to entertain the crowds," she said.

"Um, Rarity," Celestia said. "Maybe the best kind of clothing you should have worn would be gym shorts. Yes, this is a game of grace and beauty, but it's not based entirely on those aspects alone. There are brutal smashes, and this game is incredibly demanding of stamina. You might want to take that elegant dress off so that you don't get caught on it and trip and fall."

Rarity sighed and used her magic to take her most gorgeous dress off. 

"So what kind of game is this and how do we play?" Rainbow asked. 

Celestia smiled and said, "We use rackets to play this game, it's like Tennis, but the birdie, or more proper term, shuttlecock, has to stay in the air and..."

Rainbow Dash started giggling. "You call this thing a shuttlecock? Wow, I can only imagine the jokes that will come out of that," she said.

Luna spoke in her traditional royal Canterlot voice, "DO NOT CUT OFF A PRINCESS WHILE SHE IS SPEAKING! DO YOU KNOW THAT WE USED TO BEHEAD PONIES WHO DID THAT?"

Rainbow Dash gulped and said, "I'm sorry, Princess Celestia. Please continue."

"As I was saying," Celestia said. "The goal of the game is to place the shuttle inside your opponents court. The games are a best out of three and you can only score a point on your serve. Serving must be done below the waist, and you have to serve on the opposite side of where your opponent is standing. So if you are standing on the left side of the service area, you will be serving to your opponent who would be standing on the right side of the service area. Would you be so kind as to demonstrate a serve, my dear sister?"

"Princess Luna strapped her racket to her front leg and picked up a shuttle. She stood on her hind legs and gently tapped the shuttle over the net and into the opposing service box.

"Wow, so you can't throw the shuttle high into the air and just smash it like they do in Tennis? This game looks like it would be a Fluttershy centered sport. You're just putting it into play."

"That's only one type of serve, Rainbow Dash," Celestia said. "There are other tricky serves like the flick, or lobbing it. You can be very deceptive with your serves and you can make like you're going to tap it gently, and then hit it harder at the last second to throw your opponent off guard."

Rainbow Dash didn't look too impressed. "This game is going to be totally unfair because some ponies can use their wings or magic to get around the court quicker and ponies that don't have either ability will not be able to compete."

"I'm glad you brought that up, Rainbow," Celestia said. "During a match, Pegasus ponies can not fly, nor can unicorns use their magic to gain any sort of advantage. We have some options that we can use. Obviously, we could cast a spell on the sports arena or on each individual who plays so that they are void from flying or using magic, but if others want to play this sport around the world, then we wouldn't be able to do this for everypony. We thought about tying a Pegasus ponies wings together, or to place some kind of shield on a unicorns horn, but that might feel terribly unnatural. What we have planned is that we have gotten Discord to help us make new necklaces that are powered with a special magic that will not let a pony fly or use magic while playing. They are specially made and we will craft them to represent each players cutie mark. They will be required to be worn by each player at all times. They are light in weight and should not be a distraction to the player. Luna, please put the necklaces on the ponies."

Luna brought out the small blue treasure chest and opened it up. She used her magic and placed a necklace on Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity. 

The girls all stared down at their necklaces. They were mesmerized at how beautiful and well crafted these were. They were made of gold and the gems were crafted into each players cutie mark. They looked very similar to the elements of harmony necklaces. 

Applejack and Pinkie Pie's eyes opened wide at the sparkling gems. 

"Say, Princess Luna," Applejack said. "I know I'm just a simple earth pony, and I'm really not much into fashion like Rarity, but I wish I had a necklace to wear like that too."

"I want one too!" Pinkie Pie yelled out. "Those gems look so shiny and new. It's like they are candy for the eyes, and you know how much I love candy!"

Princess Luna smiled and brought out two more necklaces. "We didn't want you to feel left out, Applejack and Pinkie Pie, so we made these especially for you. Do know that the effects may not allow you to break physics, Pinkie Pie. Twilight Sparkle told us in a letter all about how science can not explain your bizarre ways." Luna used her magic to attach the two necklaces on the earth ponies.

Both girls stared down at their new necklaces and thanked the Princess.

"Rainbow Dash," Celesta said. "You're the most competitive pony in our group. Why don't you have a little volley with my sister? We know you like fast things, and this is going to be the worlds fastest racket sport. We believe that a pony can smash a shuttle at over two hundred miles per hour." 

"Or more like the world's fastest decelerating sport," Rainbow said in a mocking tone of voice. Rainbow came up to the net and picked up a racket. She strapped the racket onto her front leg and stood on the opposing side of Princess Luna. 

Celestia walked over to the side of the net and sat down on her golden royal chair. This was the official umpire's chair and she would make any controversial calls that may happen. Her ruling on the court was the final word should the referees disagree. Next to the umpire's chair were two boxes full of shuttles. The Princess made sure to have their royal servants collect as many feathers from the left wing of a Pegasus pony in order to create these shuttles.

Rarity came over and looked inside of the two boxes full of shuttles. Something clicked in her mind and she had an amazing idea. "Princess Celestia. Would it be ok if I took a look at some of these shuttles?" she asked.

"Sure," Celestia said. "Just make sure not to bend the feathers. These shuttles are very fragile and in very competitive games, I'm sure we will go through many."

"Thank you," Rarity said. "I'll be careful. Could you please, give me a paint brush, a can of water, and a bunch of different colors of paint?"

Celestia eyed Rarity suspiciously, but used her magic and summoned a can of water, a paint brush, and a few colorful paints to work with.

"Could you also take the necklace off of me for a moment?" Rarity asked.

Celestia did so and Rarity used her magic to take the shuttles and paint supplies with her. Rarity called over for Twilight to come help her with her project, and the two mares left the court.

Luna scooped up the shuttle with her racket and hit the shuttle over to Rainbow. 

Rainbow made a rather sloppy return, but as she did her best to keep it into play, she began to hit it with more accuracy. "Wow! This sport is painfully easy!" she said. "I don't even think I have the power to make a sport like this twenty percent cooler. This sport, if you can even call it a sport, is more like twenty percent lamer than all the other sports."

"Ok, Rainbow," Luna said. "I'm obviously making this too easy for you to return. Try to return a little something my sister and I like to call, the super mare smash!" Luna waited for Rainbow to return the shuttle, and when she did, the Princess of the night leapt high into the air.

Rainbow Dash's mouth was hanging open at how high she could jump.

Luna smashed the shuttle with all of her might and the loud sound of the shuttle being struck resonated throughout the entire arena.

Before Rainbow Dash could even blink, that shuttle came hurling to her at such speed, that not even she could react in time and the shuttle went right into her mouth and was lodged in her throat. Rainbow sat down on the ground and began to struggle for air.

Applejack came up from behind her and turned around. With one mighty buck to her friend's back, the shuttle went flying out of her mouth and landed on the floor. Applejack laughed and said, "I wanna say an inappropriate joke here, but I think I'll pass."

"A wise decision, Applejack," Celestia said.

Luna scooped up the shuttle with her racket and then hit it off to the side. "It looks like the shuttle will be unfit for play now that the feathers are all mangled." Luna looked over to the boxes of shuttles and realized that they were gone. "Where did all of the shuttles go?" she asked.

"They're just about done!" Rarity cried out. "I made sure to use my magic so that they would dry faster! I may not be well known for magic, but that's why I had Twilight Sparkle help me out with a very special effect that I had in mind. Here you go, Rainbow! I made this one for you!" Rarity used her magic to levitate a new shuttle onto Rainbow Dash's racket. 

Rainbow Dash looked at the new shuttle.

The shuttle was designed just for her. Each feather was colored in a rainbow like pattern just like her tail and mane. The band around the little cork was the same color as her eyes and the rubber cork was the same color as her body, cyan. On the cork was a picture of Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. 

"Wow, Rarity! I know I said this sport is lame, but this is just awesome! Especially since it's designed for the most awesome pony, me!"

"The shuttle's design is just half the fun, Rainbow! Go on, give it a whack and see what Twilight Sparkle helped me with."

Rainbow Dash whacked the shuttle and it went flying through the air. 

Everypony's jaw dropped as they now understood what Rarity meant by special effect.

The shuttle left a trail blaze of rainbow through the air and the trail blaze dissipated quickly. The trail effect itself was transparent, so you could still see the other player's body and racket positioning through the trail.

Princess Luna was so shocked that she failed to even return the shuttle and it scuttled across the floor.

Celestia put her hoof to her chest in shock and said, "Rarity! This is the most brilliant idea and you have just made this sport a million times more enjoyable for the spectators! This also makes it easier for the players to keep their eye on the shuttle during play, and would help me as well as our referees to spot the shuttle."

Rarity's cheeks turned red from receiving praise from the Princess. "And now I have one for Princess Luna!" Rarity hovered a shuttle over to Princess Luna.

The shuttle was a deep, dark blue, almost black in appearance. The feathers all had sparkling stars that actually twinkled. The band around the shuttle was the color of Luna's eyes, teal, and the rubber cork had Luna's cutie mark of the moon and a star.

Luna hit the shuttle hard and the shuttle left a trail of dark space and twinkling stars behind it for a moment. 

Rainbow Dash hit it back and fourth with Luna.

"I could also design shuttles for each and every pony for when it's their turn to serve. I could even create shuttle inspired by doubles players and could mix up the colors on a shuttle. I could place two cutie marks on each side of the shuttle too. Maybe you could pair me up with a handsome stallion to play doubles with, Princess Celestia?"

"We'll see what we can do about that Rarity, but I would be more than willing to pay you some bits for your work. If you could design shuttles for our players, that would make the sport become so much more interesting."

Rainbow Dash tried to return a trick shot and she tumbled to the ground and missed. She then looked up at Celestia and said, "But what if I don't want to play this game anymore? I don't think I like it enough to become dedicated, even if the shuttle designs are wicked awesome."

"I think you haven't given the sport enough time, but I have some information that might change your mind. The Wonderbolts will be playing this game."

Rainbow laid there on the floor in shock. "Y-y-you mean the Wonderbolts as in Spitfire, Fleetfoot, Rapidfire, and..." Rainbow paused for a moment. Her cheeks turned bright red with blush and she finished her sentence. "Soarin'?"

Celestia laughed and said, "I knew that would change your mind. Yes, the Wonderbolts will be hired to promote our sport."

"Maybe this sport isn't so bad after all!" Rainbow Dash said as she picked herself up off the floor.

Just then, the door opened and in stepped the Wonderbolts.

Rainbow Dash became excited for a moment and then became depressed because there was one key member from the Wonderbolts that was missing.

Spitfire turned around and poked her head back out of the door and yelled, "Hurry up and finish your pie! You know that you're not supposed to eat before an athletic competition!" Spitfire held the door open, and in came Soarin' with pie crumbs stuck to his face.

Soarin' licked his whole face clean and joined the rest of the team. 

The Wonderbolts all approached the Princesses and bowed low before them.

"We hope that you do not mind our intrusion, but we had some free time and decided to stop in a little bit early to check this place out and perhaps try a few games," Spitfire said.

"Not at all!" Celestia said. "We are more than happy to have you come by! Please, feel free to play! We have more than enough rackets and courts for everypony to play on."

Rainbow Dash put her front hoof to her mouth and her mind began racing with thoughts. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! They are here with Soarin'. I wonder if he'll think I'm cool. I'd better go find a mirror and fix up my mane so I may look pretty, but then that might make Rarity laugh at me and I may look uncool. I wonder if I should go over there and say hi or if I should..." Rainbow's thoughts were put to an end when Soarin' came up to her and stuck out his hoof to shake. 

"Hi, I'm Soarin'. Aren't you Rainbow Dash? I think we have met a few times before."

Rainbow's mouth was agape and it took her a few moments to reach out and shake hooves with Soarin'. She perked up and said, "Hey yeah! I'm like your biggest fan, and don't tell any of the other Wonderbolts this, but you're my favorite by far."

Soarin' stuck his front hoof slightly above ground and turned his head to the side. There was some bright blush that could be seen on his cheeks. "D'awww! I never knew I was your biggest fan. I remember seeing you so many times sitting in the front row in the stands." Soarin' looked back to his team mates and then back to Rainbow Dash. "Would you like to try to play this new game together? Princess Celestia sent me a rule book with her letter and I read over it a few times before I came here today."

Rainbow's heart went pitter patter in her chest. "Of course I want to play with my most favorite Wonderbolt of all time! Let's go find a court!"

Celestia blew loudly into her whistle and said, "Alright! I want you all to split into groups. The Wonderbolts to the right side of the court, and Twilight's group to the left. I want to see this game get played by the top notch athletes. Luna, do you have the necklaces?"

Princess Luna nodded her head yes and brought out that second blue treasure chest. She opened it up and used her magic to place each necklace around the Wonderbolt's necks. 

Rainbow Dash trotted over to Princess Celestia and said, "Um, Princess Celestia, I really wanted to play with Soarin', so could you let us play together?"

Celestia shook her head no and said, "I want to see the top athletes perform right now. No ponies are in better condition than the Wonderbolts. Princess Luna will be watching your games and I will be spectating the Wonderbolts."

Rainbow Dash was about to protest, but she had to obey the Princess. The worst thing that could happen was that she would be thrown out of this little sports arena.  Rainbow walked over to Luna and said, "Who will I be facing?

Luna pointed her hoof over to where Applejack was standing on another court. 

Rainbow sighed and said, "Old rivalries again."

The other four mares came over and asked who they would be facing. 

Princess Luna put Pinkie Pie against Twilight Sparkle, and she had Fluttershy go up against Rarity. 

Each pony stepped onto the courts. The sound of the whacking of shuttles would be very pleasurable to the Princesses ears.
> Rarity Versus Fluttershy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Oh, darling, I wouldn't be the element of generosity if I didn't allow you to serve first. Please, Fluttershy, the serve is yours," Rarity said.

"And I wouldn't be the element of kindness if I didn't allow you to serve first. I want you to serve first," Fluttershy replied.

Rarity knew that they weren't going to get anywhere because of their conflicting elements that they represented. "Or how about this, Fluttershy. I'll throw the shuttle high into the air, and when it hits the ground, whatever side the cork part of the shuttle is pointing to gets to serve."

Fluttershy nodded her head with understanding and enthusiasm as Rarity tossed the shuttle high into the air. 

The shuttle made a soft thud sound when it hit against the gym floor. The cork side of the shuttle ended up pointing towards Rarity.

Rarity scooped up the shuttle and waited for Fluttershy to get into position to receive the serve. Rarity put the shuttle into play and a long trail of sparkling diamonds followed behind it. Fluttershy returned it very gracefully and with such precision that it hit the net.

Rarity stumbled and dived at the shuttle. She managed to hit the shuttle, but it went into the net and landed back on her side of the court. Rarity picked herself up and dusted herself off. 

It was now Fluttershy's turn to serve and she grabbed her own shuttle and pushed Rarity's shuttle off to the side so it wouldn't be a distraction. She tapped the shuttle into play and a trail of butterflies that flapped their wings followed closely behind the shuttle. 

Because Rarity had the eye for things, she watched the shuttle fall onto her side of the court, and it just barely missed the service box line. The shuttle did not go into Rarity's service box nor did it hit the line. It was just shy, or more like just Fluttershy of a point.

Rarity retrieved her special shuttle. She tried the same serve and got a similar result that made her stumble to the net and she failed to return the shuttle. Rarity picked herself up off of the floor and said, "Oh, it is on!"

It was now Fluttershy's turn to serve and Fluttershy picked her shuttle up and put it back into play. 

Rarity watched the shuttle closely. She could have sworn that it was not going to make it into the service box or onto the line, but at the last second she swung her racket and the shuttle went high into the air into Fluttershy's court. 

Fluttershy backed up and prepared to hit the shuttle. She had plenty of time since it was a rather sloppy and awkward return from her opponent. Fluttershy was positioned slightly behind the middle of her court. Her heart was fluttering with excitement as she got ready to try her first super mare smash. 

Rarity stood in the center of the court and spread her hind legs out further to the sides. She braced herself and prepared to dive to the floor at any moment, because the shuttle wasn't terribly deep into Fluttershy's territory.

Fluttershy inhaled as much air as she possible could. She puffed her cheeks out and her hooves just barely left the ground. She hit the shuttle with all of her might. The second she hit that shuttle, she exhaled and let out what in her mind was a battle cry, but she ended up letting out a soft sounding "yay." Fluttershy was not a very strong pony and jumping into the air threw off her precision. 

The shuttle left Fluttershy's racket and hit the net. The shuttle fell back onto her side of the court. She had failed to make a super mare smash return.

Rarity picked up her shuttle and got into serving position. She took notice that Fluttershy was unusually close to the net and decided to take advantage of her positioning. Rarity made like she was going to serve the shuttle gently, but at the last second she lobbed it high into the air and the shuttle went back towards the out of bounds line on Fluttershy's court. 

Fluttershy was caught off guard and stood there in shock for a split second. She raced over to the back of her court and just barely managed to return it.

The shuttle came back very high for Rarity and it wasn't even going to land past halfway of her own side of the court.

Fluttershy ran back to the center of the court and prepared herself.

Rarity jumped into the air and unleashed the most powerful smash she could muster up with all of her strength. 

Fluttershy let out a loud "Eeeep!" and turned her body to the side. She put her two front hooves over her eyes and cowered low to the ground.

The shuttle came hurling down from the air and hit Fluttershy's flank.

Fluttershy let out another "Eeep!" and looked at her flank. Exactly in the middle of the picture of the three butterflies was a tiny red mark. Fluttershy looked back over to Rarity and had tears in her eyes. "Y-y-you couldn't just gently put it away, Rarity? I'm injured now."

Rarity put her hoof to her chin and said, "I'm terribly sorry that I hurt you, Fluttershy. It's just that I was getting agitated at all of those net shots you were getting and I had to take my aggression out on that shot and to make sure that you wouldn't return it. I guess I should have done the gentlemare's smash and returned it just over the net since you were rather far away. My apologies dear. Come on, let's continue the game."

"I can't," Fluttershy said. I'm injured and I'm a sensitive pony. I need to treat my injury."

Rarity's eyes open wide in disbelief. "Fluttershy, I know you're sensitive and everything, but being hit by a shuttle can't hurt that much. You act like you got hit with a Tennis ball or a Squash ball," she said.

"I-I-I need an ice pack," Fluttershy said. 

Rarity sighed and walked over to Princess Luna and explained Fluttershy's terrible injury.

Princess Luna looked over at the fallen yellow mare and face hoofed. She used her magic and summoned an ice pack for Fluttershy.

Rarity came back over with it and gave it to her friend.

"Thank you so much for being kind and generous, Rarity," The yellow Pegasus said. "I may need to ice myself for about an hour and then I'll try to walk it off. If I feel better than maybe we can play again."

Rarity face hoofed and said, "Of course, Fluttershy. Of course." 

In the mean time, Rarity would be painting more shuttles and fixing up all of the mangled feathers if they were able to be salvaged, while Fluttershy was tending to her injury. She noticed that before, Rainbow Dash and Soarin' were talking to each other and she decided to make a little something special for them. 

When Fluttershy was finished tending to her wound, she went back to playing with Rarity. Fluttershy realized that Rarity was constantly changing shuttles or fixing up their feathers so that they could have that perfect feel for the game. She was even putting away shuttles that were perfectly fine into a bin near by to dispose of them. She also realized that every time a drop of sweat would fall from Rarity's body and hit the ground, Rarity would have to take a special time out and dry the floor with a special broom so that she wouldn't feel like she might slip. She couldn't imagine how much more sweatier Rainbow Dash, Applejack, or the Wonderbolts would get during their games.
> Pinkie Pie Versus Twilight Sparkle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle were currently having a volley. 

Twilight Sparkle came rushing towards the net and gently tapped it over. 	

Pinkie Pie came bounding over to the net. 

Twilight Sparkle smiled because Pinkie Pie would be forced to make an awkward return.

The shuttle was most likely too low for Pinkie Pie to make an accurate lob, so she would be forced to return it gently over the net.

Twilight Sparkle inched her way a little closer and held her racket up as she prepared to punish Pinkie Pie for being out of position.

They were both on the far left side of the court

Pinkie Pie had her racket tilted to the left side and made like she was going to return it like she normally would, above her waist line. At the very last second, she twisted her front leg and hit the shuttle with the opposite side of the racket, under her waist at such an angle that it completely threw Twilight Sparkle off guard. 

The shuttle went spinning to the opposite side of the court and went right over the net. It landed very close near the right side of the boundaries lines.

Twilight Sparkle stood there for a moment as her mind tried to comprehend what had just occurred and then she jolted to the side for a moment, but then stopped because she realized that returning such a shot was not worth expending all that energy. She probably wouldn't have even landed her racket on the shuttle even if she tried to dive for it. Twilight turned her attention away from the shuttle and stared at Pinkie Pie with her mouth hung open.

Pinkie Pie was rolling around on the floor giggling. 

"How in Equestria did you manage to pull something like that off? How did you even imagine to do a move like that?" The lavender mare asked.

Pinkie Pie continued to giggle for a little while and said, "Oh Twilight! This pink pony has a bag full of tricks and crazy random plays. You'll just have to expect the unexpected." Pinkie Pie got her shuttle and smiled a great grin because every time she would hit her shuttle, a trail of colorful confetti and streamers would follow behind the shuttle.

Twilight got herself into position and began making crazy mathematical calculations in her head. She had a pile of scientific books about sports and aerodynamics on the side lines that she would read almost every time she lost a point or a serve. "There is no knowledge that is not power, Twilight," she said out loud to herself. Twilight happened to be standing very close to the net, but she kept all of her weight on her hind leg that was behind her other hind leg. She was going to do a little trick on Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie was not a pony known for her focus skills and she was so manic and high that she didn't even pay close attention to Twilight's hind legs. All she saw was that she was close to the net. Pinkie Pie made like she was going to serve it short, then at the last second she popped it high into the air. 

Now was her chance. Twilight was prepared for this and pushed back on the hind leg that she was leaning heavily on. She was able to reach the back end of her side of the court and jumped into the air. Her eyes locked onto the shuttle.

Pinkie Pie came close to the net and prepared herself for a hard smash.

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight noticed that Pinkie Pie was a bit closer to the net than usual. At the very last second, Twilight lobbed it back high over Pinkie Pie's head. 

Pinkie Pie stumbled for a moment. The shuttle was so far behind her that she actually had to turn her back to Twilight and run for it. Pinkie Pie threw herself at the ground and managed to return the shuttle. It was a very weak return, but she made it happen. She picked herself up and made a great recovery, but Twilight Sparkle was already waiting at the net and she performed a gentlemare's smash. She had her racket waiting patiently for the right moment to strike, and she tapped it quickly, but lightly. Pinkie Pie couldn't even get there in time. 

The shuttle landed just a few feet away in front of Pinkie Pie

Pinkie Pie stood there hunched over and panting.

Twilight Sparkle pushed the shuttle away and walked over to get her own shuttle that was designed after her. As she was walking over she said out loud, "It looks like I know a few tricks myself, Pinkie Pie." Twilight Sparkle picked up her shuttle and continued. "So you think you can out smart the smarty smart pants....Why, I would bet that..." Twilight cut herself short of her sentence when she realized that Pinkie Pie was not standing where she should have been, but was on the side lines and was hunched over. She could hear her snorting loudly. Upon closer inspection she was horrified to see that Pinkie Pie was doing some illegal doping. She was snorting Pixie Stix. "Pinkie Pie! Stop that this instance or I'm reporting you to Princess Luna! That's called illegal doping!"

Pinkie Pie finished snorting her Pixie Stix and giggled madly. "Oh, Twilight! It's just sugar, and it's only fair because I saw you doing some illegal doping when you would go to the side lines and read your books! Don't lie to me, Twilight! I know you get high when you open a book."

Twilight dragged her hinds leg across the ground and said, "Ok, I won't lie. I do get a high when I open a book. I guess I can let it pass, but only this once. I promise not to take a half hour every time I lose a point and need to read a book."

"How about not reading a book until the game is actually over, Twilight?" Pinkie asked.

Twilight sighed and said, "Ok, ok, ok. I won't read until the game is over. Twilight smiled and got into service position. She put the shuttle into play.

Pinkie Pie was now super charged and was positioned in a way that gave her an advantage to get to the net faster as she put the shuttle away quickly. 

Twilight flinched and tried to connect her racket to the shuttle, but she missed and the shuttle hit her hind leg. 

Pinkie Pie began to giggle madly.

Twilight fumed and said, "No more sugar, Pinkie. Never again!"
> Applejack Versus Rainbow Dash
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Applejack served the shuttle and watched a trail of apples and hay come from the shuttle. She gave the flick serve, but Rainbow Dash was prepared and returned it with ease. Applejack and Rainbow Dash continued to volley it at lightning fast speeds back and forth. They were both fairly close to the net. 

Rainbow Dash hit a fast shuttle over Applejack's head. It wasn't a lob, but it was just high enough so that Applejack couldn't reach it.

Applejack flailed her front legs around in the air for a moment and then ran at full speed back to the court. She managed to connect a shot by swinging the racket close to the ground. She was able to send the shuttle back over to Rainbow, but Rainbow Dash was waiting close to the net and jumped high into the air for a super mare smash. Rainbow Dash could jump higher than any other pony out of her group of friends and whenever she would jump, her wings would flare out in extreme anticipation and excitement. However, the necklace that she was wearing voided her of gaining any extra altitude from flapping her wings. She reigned down terror from the skies with these kinds of shots because of the extreme angles she would be able to work with. Rainbow Dash was a hard smasher, but Applejack was by far the best at it, even if she couldn't jump as high. 

Applejack gulped and prepared to defend at all costs. She had most of her weight leaning on her right hind leg as she took note that Rainbow Dash was closer to her right side of the court. She knew that smashing a shuttle was quickest if smashed straight down the line because the shuttle would decelerate in speed if she would attempt a cross court shot, which would still an be effective shot, but not as effective in this kind of situation.

Rainbow Dash struck the shuttle with all of her might. She would show no mercy for her friend. 

Applejack estimated that she'd put it to the right side of the court, which she did. Applejack dove to the side of the court and returned it. She got up as fast as she could. 

Rainbow Dash quickly struck the shuttle to the left side of the court.

Applejack hurled her body over to the shuttle and barely managed to return the shot. She got up again and tried to get herself ready to run to the right side of the court again.

By now, Rainbow Dash was enjoying this cruel game of cat and mouse and made like she was going to hit it to the right corner of the court, but at the last second she changed the angle of the racket and hit it back to the left side of the court where she had placed it before.

Applejack stopped dead in her tracks and fell to the floor a third time and managed to make another return.

Now Rainbow Dash was starting to become impatient. She saw that Applejack was fairly close to the net and she decided to lob it high into the right corner of Applejack's court. 

Applejack grinded her teeth and lunged with all her might towards the back corner of the court. 

Rainbow Dash stood on her tippy hooves in anticipation to see if the shuttle was going to land inside the court or not. 

Applejack hit the floor hard and watched as the shuttle landed close, but still outside of the out of bounds lines.

Rainbow Dash began to fume. "It was in A.J.! I saw it with my own eyes! Don't lie and tell me that it was out."

Applejack picked herself back up and used her front leg to wipe off the sweat away from her forehead. She scooped the shuttle up with her racket. "I reckon yer full of horse apples and ya know how much I hate dishonesty, R.D.," Applejack said. "That shot was clearly out and yer not gettin' yer special shuttle back to serve."

Rainbow stomped on the ground and said, "But it was so close! I worked so hard for that point, and I deserve it!"

"Ya think ya worked hard fer that point?" Applejack asked. "Hah! Ya were standin' close to the net and punishin' me the entire time. Ya hardly did any work! I was the one makin' dives and amazin' plays! I reckon yer just jealous of me. I know that a lil' hard work always pays off no matter if it's on the job, or on the courts!" 

Rainbow Dash growled and said, "I guess I'll let it go this time, but don't you dare make anymore amazing plays like that again!"

Applejack and Rainbow Dash continued to play, but they had arguments when Rainbow Dash tried to scoop up Applejack's shuttle and hit it back to her after she won a point. The shuttle hit Rainbow's side of the net and Applejack was far away from the net and expected Rainbow Dash to come over and push it over closer to her. 

They both ended up in an argument over who should go over and get the shuttle. 

Applejack and Rainbow Dash went over to Princess Luna and explained the problem. 

Princess Luna ruled that a pony should go back and push over a shuttle if he or she had failed to return it to their opponent. 

Applejack stuck out her tongue at Rainbow Dash, and this little rule only made Rainbow fume more with anger.

The competitiveness and rivalry didn't stop there when Rainbow Dash would hoof pump her front hoof in the air right in front of Applejack's face whenever Applejack bent over close to the net to push the shuttle back to Rainbow's service box. 
> Princess Celestia Trolls Rainbow Dash
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Each pony had finished their games except for the Wonderbolts. 

Fluttershy was a master at fineness and net play. She had defeated Rarity despite her severe injury that happened earlier. Rarity was known for her grace and perfect form when playing. Rarity did have to make Fluttershy stop her screaming whenever she attempted to smash the shuttle, even though they were just soft sounding "yays." They were still too distracting for her.

Pinkie Pie had defeated Twilight Sparkle, thanks to that illegal doping and her random crazy plays. She was totally unpredictable, although for some reason she couldn't break physics. Maybe that had something to do with the necklace that she was wearing. Twilight Sparkle's best chances of doing well relied purely on intelligence and estimations. 

Applejack had beaten Rainbow Dash with hard work, dedication, and pure raw power. Even though Rainbow Dash was in a demanding lead for most of the match, Applejack had caught up in score after that epic point that she won and it left a bitter taste in Rainbow Dash's mouth. Rainbow Dash became more reckless with her shots because that loss of a point was so upsetting to her. There were quite a few instances where Princess Luna caught Rainbow Dash cheating by striking the shuttle above her waist line on her serve which resulted in a penalty for Rainbow Dash, and Rainbow Dash had to forfeit her serve over to Applejack and lost out on some opportunities to score some points because of her desperation and recklessness. Rainbow Dash was known more for her speed and agility, and also her super mare smash.

Each pony reported who won to Princess Luna. 

Everypony went to take a break except for Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash walked over to Celestia and said, "Princess Celestia. I finished my match and I'd really like to play with the Wonderbolts."

"Oh?" Celestia asked. "Well, I heard how much you love them. Why don't you play with Fleetfoot since she is finished with her match?

Rainbow Dash looked over at Soarin' who was still playing and said, "I'd prefer to play with Soarin', if that's ok with you."

"It's not," Celestia said.

"What!?" Rainbow cried out. "Why not?"

"Because he's still playing and I want to watch him play more against Lightning Streak after this match. I want to see the most competitive games, and competitive games will only be mares against mares, and stallions against stallions."

Rainbow was deep in thought about how she could play with her crush. "How about if we try our very first mixed doubles team? One stallion and one mare."

"That's a great idea, Rainbow, and that would be fair! I will have Soarin' and Spitfire play on the same team against Lightning Streak and Fleetfoot!"

Rainbow Dash shook her head no quickly several times. Princess Celestia wasn't getting it. "But Princess, I'm super awesome and how could you not want to watch me instead?" she asked.

"Because you're not a Wonderbolt. You act like you're the best at everything and I don't think you're very interested in this sport. The Wonderbolts are having such a great time and they are a pleasure to watch. Please leave so I can focus on the match."

Rainbow's ears lowered with great sadness. "But I like this sport too, Princess Celestia."

Celestia laughed and said, "And you were the one to call my sport twenty percent lamer than all the other sports. Why should I believe you now?"

Rainbow Dash suddenly threw herself at the hooves of Celestia. She put her two front hooves together as if she were in prayer or begging for mercy. "Princess Celestia! I am so sorry for how rude and obnoxious I was about this sport, but I am begging you to show me mercy and let me play with Soarin'."

"Just tell me why you want to play with Soarin' so badly, Rainbow Dash," Celestia said.

"Rainbow felt beads of sweat fall down the sides of her head. Could she really do it? Could she admit her true feelings for a certain stallion? Rainbow felt like it would ruin her reputation, but she was so desperate to play with Soarin'. "I-I-I....I really like him," she said. 

"But don't you like all of the Wonderbolts?" Celestia asked.

Rainbow looked back at the Wonderbolts for a moment and then back to Celestia. "Yes Princess, but this is different. I...." Rainbow paused for a moment. She shut her eyes tightly and finished her sentence, "I think he's really cute." Rainbow Dash turned her head away and put her front leg over her eyes as if the Princess of the sun was going to cast brilliant rays of sunlight and judgment on her. 

Celestia started giggling. "Oh, I knew that already about you, Rainbow Dash. I just wanted to beat it out of you and hear you confess it to me." 

Rainbow Dash put her front hoof down and opened her eyes. "Huh? You knew all along?" she asked.

"Of course, Rainbow Dash. I still have that picture of you from the Grand Galloping Gala when you and Soarin' were dancing together and were having so much fun. I also heard rumors that you sleep with a Soarin' plushie doll every night at bed time. Is this true, Rainbow Dash?" Celestia asked as she winked one eye at Rainbow.

Rainbow Dash bit her lower lip hard. She sure as heck wasn't the element of honesty, but she also couldn't tell a lie to the Princess. "Yes.....yes. That is true. I own all of the Wonderbolts plushie dolls, but I do sleep with the special limited edition Soarin' plushie doll every night. Please don't judge me," she said. 

Celestia giggled and said, "Oh, I won't judge you, but I hope your friends understand."

"Huh?" Rainbow said.

The sound of giggling could be heard.

Rainbow Dash turned around and was horrified to see that all five of her best friends were standing behind her and giggling.

"No way!" Rainbow Dash cried out. "Please tell me that you did not hear what I just confessed to Princess Celestia!"

"I reckon I can't tell a lie Rainbow, but I heard everythin' ya said, and I think everypony else did too. Ain't that right, gals?" Applejack asked.

The rest of the ponies nodded their heads yes and continued to giggle.

For the first time ever, Rainbow Dash put her front hoof to her forehead and fainted. 

Rarity took out a fan and began waving it in front of Rainbow's face. 

Rainbow Dash woke up and rubbed her front hoof against her forehead. She let out a nervous little laugh that they had caught her acting out a behavior that would normally be reserved for Rarity only. "So, I take it that my reputation is totally ruined now and that you all don't want to be my friends anymore?" she asked.

"Absolutely not, Rainbow!" Rarity said. "In fact, I took special notice of how your face was so full of blush while you were talking to Soarin'. I have the eye for things like this and I know a good pairing when I see one. I made this especially for you and Soarin'. Rarity took out a new shuttle and showed it to Rainbow Dash. 

The shuttle was like a combination of Rainbow Dash and Soarin' inspired colors. The feathers alternated between the colors from Soarin' and Rainbow Dash's manes and tails. For one feather that was colored after Rainbow Dash, the feather next to it would be colored after Soarin'. Half of the little cork that was connected to the shuttle was the color of Soarin's coat and the other half was the color of Rainbow's coat. On Soarin's side of the cork was Rainbow Dash's cutie mark, and on Rainbow Dash's side of the cork part of the shuttle, was Soarin's cutie mark. The band around the shuttle was also half colored with the same color as Rainbow's eye color, and the other half was colored with the same color as Soarin's eyes.

"I like to call these my shipping shuttles," Rarity said. Rarity threw it up into the air and batted it with her front hoof. 

The shuttle left a trail blaze of rainbow and during that trail of rainbow, were epic bolts of lighting that came out of it, representing Soarin's cutie mark. 

"Wow! That is totally awesome, Rarity," Rainbow said. "But just don't tell Soarin' that I like him and please don't..."

Before Rainbow Dash could finish her sentence, Pinkie Pie took out a mega phone and yelled into it as loud as she possibly could. "Hey Soarin'! Rainbow Dash has a raging crush on you and she wants you to be her mixed doubles partner and her somepony special."

Rainbow Dash fainted again and fell back down to the floor. 
> Mixed Doubles and Mixed Feelings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	She awoke several minutes later and when her vision came into focus, she realized that Soarin' was sitting in front of her and staring down at her with a smile. Her two front legs were crooked like that of a Praying Mantis as she laid there on her back.

"I-I-I...What just happened?" Rainbow asked.

"Pinkie Pie screamed out that you liked me and wanted to be my mixed doubles partner and I think you fainted," Soarin' said.

"Oh yeah. I'm really sorry about that. Pinkie Pie gets a bit over zealous sometimes and she can't shut her loud mouth for more than two seconds," Rainbow said.

"But is it true?" Soarin' asked.

"Is what true?" Rainbow replied.

"Do you like me as your somepony special?" he asked.

Rainbow's heart was pulsating rapidly in her chest. Her mind began to race with all kinds of ludicrous ideas. "What if he thinks I'm lame or I'm some kind of rabid and desperate fan girl? What if he laughs at me or doesn't want to see me ever again?" Rainbow thought to herself. Rainbow Dash figured that if there were a time and place to tell him how she truly feels about him, then now would be it. She gulped loudly and said, "I do."

Soarin' bent down and kissed her on the cheek. He then picked his head up and said, "And I like you too." He then winked at her and trotted over to a court near by. "Now, do you want to be my somepony special in mixed doubles partner or not?" 

Rainbow Dash's face was bright red. She quickly got to her hooves and instantly raced over to her newly acquired Badminton partner. "I do!" she squealed with delight. 

Rainbow's friends, the Princesses, and the Wonderbolts were sitting on the bleachers and drinking refreshments. 

Applejack rolled her eyes and said, "I bet the only reason why Rainbow Dash wants Soarin' on her team so badly is so that she can bash his shuttle..." Before Applejack could finish her sentence, Rarity had stuffed a shuttle into Applejack's mouth. 

"Applejack, we know you're being brutally honest, but that's not a lady like thing to say nor is it appropriate to discuss such matters at this time. Leave them alone and let's enjoy how adorable they look together."

Applejack took the shuttle out of her mouth and said, "Let's just hope Rainbow Dash isn't as fast in her special relationship like she is with her sports and games."

"Oh, Applejack. You're not jealous are you?" Rarity looked over to the far side of the bleachers at a certain Wonderbolt. She then turned back to Applejack and said, "Why don't you talk to Lightning Streak? His mane and tail compliment your colors. His tail is orange like your coat, and he has these streaks of yellow that looks similar to your mane and tail."

Applejack glanced over at Lightning Streak and said, "Nah! I'll pass. I want a stallion who is into farm work and gets paid for real work. Not somepony gettin' paid to play fun games and have races with each other. That ain't real work!" 

Rarity shrugged a bit and watched the couple in the distance. They were now batting that special shipping shuttle that Rarity had made them, back and forth. They were mesmerized by the trail of rainbow and the flashing lightning bolts that came out of it. 

Princess Celestia sighed and said, "I guess Rainbow Dash finally got her wish. Are you all still tired? Would anypony be interested in playing the very first mixed doubles game?"

None of the Wonderbolts admitted that they were still tired. 

"Rarity, you have the best eye for detail when it comes to just about everything. I want you to pick out a Wonderbolt and one of your friends to go up against Rainbow Dash and Soarin'," the Princess of the sun said.

Rarity clapped her two front hooves with delight and stood before them all. "I already know who it will be. Applejack and Lightning Streak!" she said.

Lightning Streak got up and picked up his racket. 

Applejack didn't budge.

"Applejack, aren't you going to play?" Rarity asked. 

"Nuh-uh!" the farm girl said. "I didn't agree to play and yer just pickin' me just so you can try to get me interested in a somepony special, aren't ya?" 

Princess Celestia pointed her hoof at Applejack and said, "You're playing because I left Rarity in charge of who would be playing. If you disrespect Rarity's orders, then you disrespect me as your Princess."

Applejack grumbled some words of disapproval, but got up and picked up her racket. 

"Can I paint you two a special shuttle so that you won't feel left out now that Rainbow Dash and Soarin' have their own special shuttle? I think it would be really cute," Rarity said as she batted her eye lashes at the new duo.

Lightning Streak smiled and was about to say yes, but Applejack cut him off and said, "No! A plain old white shuttle will do fine, thank you!" 

Lightning Streak frowned and then headed over to the court. 

The rest of the ponies, including the Princesses, went over to the court. 

Twilight Sparkle had set up a special instrument to detect the speed of the smashes, and the Wonderbolts sat all around the court and would be the line judges. 

Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy, sat next to Twilight Sparkle as she calibrated the instrument, and Princess Celestia sat upon her umpire's throne. 

The doubles out of bounds lines were different from the singles out of bounds lines. The court was shorter length wise, but was longer in width to make doubles play fair and interesting. 

Both sides were warming up and hitting the shuttle back and forth.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack positioned themselves near the net. They would be mostly in charge of returning shots close to the net and also lightning quick volleys. Soarin' and Lightning Streak positioned themselves near the very end of their courts. They would be in charge of brutal smashes and returning shots that went deep into their own territory.

Celestia took out a coin when she saw the two teams take a break from volleying. "Manes or tails?" Celestia asked from her royal umpire's throne.

"Tails!" Rainbow cried out.

Princess Celestia flipped a bit high into the air and watched it land on the floor. 

The coin revealed that tails was showing.

Princess Celestia used her magic to hover the special Soarin' and Rainbow Dash shuttle over and placed it on Rainbow's racket. She blew into her whistle and then said, "Left side is serving. Love all. Play!"

Rainbow Dash waited for Applejack to get into ready position and then put the shuttle into play. 

Serving a lob in doubles could be done, but it often was very dangerous to do so since the courts were a little bit shorter in length. 

Applejack returned the shot with a soft and gentle hit, but Rainbow Dash was on her tippy hooves and was prepared for this. 

Rainbow lunged at the net and tapped the shuttle very quickly.

The shot came close to Applejack's body as she tried to swat at it, but her racket completely missed the shuttle. She turned and watched the shuttle go right passed her.

Lightning Streak threw his body to the floor and managed to save the shuttle.

The shuttle went soaring for Soarin' to smash. It wasn't terribly far deep into their side of the court, but it was well over Rainbow's head.

"I've got it! I've got it!" Rainbow cried out as she began to walk quickly backwards. She bumped into Soarin' and they both fell to the ground.

The shuttle landed right in between Rainbow's two eyes.

Rainbow's cheeks were bright red with embarrassment. 

"That shot was clearly for me and I could have put it away easily," Soarin' said. "If the shuttle goes over your head like that again, then please allow me to deal with it."

Rainbow Dash nodded her head in understanding and apologized. She got back up and stood inside of her receiving box.

"I reckon Rainbow Dash just likes to be the center of attention and hog all the action fer herself, Soarin'," Applejack said. "Why do the stallions play in the back and we're in the front up here? I reckon it's because they get the best view point of our backsides."

"Actually A.J., I think they tend to play in the back because they are stronger with the smashes," Rainbow replied. Rainbow Dash jolted up a bit when she suddenly felt a hard slap from Soarin's racket on her cutie mark. Rainbow let out a nervous little laugh and said, "I guess there are additional benefits to playing in the back of the court too." 

Applejack rolled her eyes and grabbed a plain old white shuttle from the sidelines. She noticed the positioning of her receiver and she decided to try something risky. She lobbed the shuttle high into the air. 

It threw the receiver off guard and the shot came back high, but not very deep into Applejack and Lightning Streak's court. 

Applejack bent down low and let her stallion partner take care of the work. She didn't want be greedy and hit the shuttle like Rainbow Dash was being.

Rainbow Dash now positioned herself right next to the side of Soarin' in the center of the court.

Lightning Streak ran up and jumped high into the air. He reigned down terror with a fierce shot. 

The shuttle came hurling down at such high speed towards Soarin'. Soarin' quickly reacted and made an incredible save. 

The shuttle came flying back high into the air, but not very deep into the opposing team's court. 

Lightning Streak jumped up into the air again and smashed the shuttle to the exact same location. 

Soarin' stumbled a bit, but was able to save it once more. He angled his racket so that the shuttle would go cross court.

Lightning Streak hurried over to the opposite side of his court and jumped smashed the shuttle at Rainbow Dash. 

Rainbow Dash's reflexes were very quick and she made a brilliant save. 

The shuttle flew into the center of Applejack's and Lightning Streak's court. 

Lightning Streak raced over and jump smashed the shuttle yet again. Instead of hitting it to either opponent, he decided to hit it straight down the center line of the opposing court. 

Rainbow Dash saw it coming and lifted her racket out to the side slightly, but paused when she realized that Soarin' was closer in her peripheral vision. She decided to humble herself and not be the center of attention. 

Soarin' made another brilliant save and the angle of the racket that he positioned, sent the shuttle flying in one corner of his opponents court.

This caught Lightning Streak off guard and he threw himself to the corner of the court and made a desperate save. 

Applejack caught a glimpse of his fall and backed herself up away from the net and into the center of her court. She prepared to defend at all costs until her partner could recover and get back onto his hooves.

The shuttle came high for Soarin' and he jumped into the air and he smashed the shuttle at Applejack. 

Applejack barely got her racket onto the shuttle and managed to return it back high into the air. She positioned her racket so that the shuttle would land closer to Rainbow Dash. Applejack hoped Rainbow Dash would be the smasher and not Soarin' since he was so powerful.

Rainbow Dash backed up a bit and leapt into the air with such agility. She smashed the shuttle to the left side of Applejack. 

Applejack stumbled a bit and returned it. She landed on all four hooves to make that save. 

The shuttle went soaring high into the air and was going to land close to the center of Rainbow Dash's and Soarin's side of the court. 

Rainbow Dash humbled herself and stepped further away from the side of Soarin'. 

Soarin' licked his lips in anticipation.

By now, Lightning Streak had recovered and was standing next to Applejack's side. They were both standing in the middle of their court, but were rather far away from each other. 

Soarin' jumped high into the air and gave it his best shot. 

The whacking sound that came from striking the shuttle resonated through out the entire sports arena and the shuttle was headed straight down the center line of their opposing team.

Both Applejack and Lightning Streak hurled their bodies to the floor in order to save the shuttle and they just so happened to find themselves in a rather awkward position. They collided against each other and had their lips pressed against each other's lips. 

The shuttle landed directly on the center of the court line, in front of their faces, and the cork part of the shuttle was pointing at them.

Applejack pulled herself away and turned her head to the side. A great amount of blush could be seen on her face. "I'm awfully sorry about that. I knew I should have let ya have that shot," she said.

"We may have lost the point," Lighting Streak said. "But I'm not complaining about it."

That comment only made Applejack's face turn as bright red as the picture of her cutie mark of red apples.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna began applauding. For that was the most epic volley they had seen so far.

Twilight Sparkle raced over to the Princesses with her device and showed them the numbers. She spoke loud enough so that everypony could hear her. "SOARIN' JUST MADE THE WORLD'S FASTEST SHUTTLE SMASHING CLOCKING WELL OVER TWO HUNDRED MILES PER HOUR!"

Pinkie Pie zipped over to Soarin' and threw a party hat on his head and blew a party horn near his ear. She threw her front legs around him and started talking as fast as she possible could. "Oh, I'm so happy for you, Soarin'! We should throw some kind of special party at Sugar Cube Corner. We could all have cake, play games, dance to music, and..." Pinkie Pie paused when she noticed that Rainbow Dash was tapping one of her back hoofs on the floor and looked rather agitated.

"Pinkie Pie, hooves off of Soarin'. He's my somepony special, you know. You can congratulate him from a distance," Rainbow said.

Pinkie Pie let go of Soarin' and bounced away. She came back shortly with her party cannon and knocked Soarin' off his hooves from the powerful blast of confetti and streamers. "Is that better, Dashie?" she asked.

Rainbow Dash face hoofed and said, "Not really."

"Hey! I have a question!" Pinkie Pie yelled out. "Does Soarin' get sore after a good work out? Does he get..." Pinkie Pie paused for a moment and reached behind her. She pulled out sunglasses and put them on her face. She then finished her question. "Sore-IN his muscles? Did you see what I did there? Soarin'. Sore-in. Get it? Maybe you can rub Soarin's muscles after this match so he won't be so sore-IN them later on, Dashie. You don't want him to be Sore-IN the morning." Pinkie Pie pushed the sunglasses down on her nose with her front hoof so that her two eyes could be seen by the others. She looked around at the ponies faces in hopes that somepony would laugh at her little joke. "Hey Dashie, are you soarin' for Soarin's heart?"

None of them seemed to enjoy her little puns except for Soarin'. He was the only pony to have a smirk on his face. 

"Pinkie Pie. Stop. Please," Rainbow Dash whined. "You are such a corn ball sometimes! Where did you get those sunglasses from anyway?"

Pinkie Pie giggled madly. "I borrowed them from you," she admitted.

"It figures. Don't touch my stuff again," Rainbow Dash said.

"Can I tell you all another Pinkie pun?" the manic pony asked.

"No! Stop! No more Pinkie Pie puns," Rainbow said.

Princess Celestia blew into her whistle and said, "Enough celebration and chatter. We can hold a special party for Soarin' after this match is over. I demand to see more action!"

The four ponies on the court got back into position and began to play. 

Now that Applejack was all perked up from that accidental collision, she was more motivated to play and try harder. 

Many times, it was desirable to move an opposing player out of position and force the mare player to the back of her side of the court and the stallion player up front. Many crazy and random position switches happened during play and the Princesses were very pleased to see how amazing the very nature of this game was. 

As Rainbow Dash continued to play, she began to fall in love with this sport, not just because of Soarin', but also because she was starting to realize how much skill was involved when playing this sport. 

The match was like a battle that raged on. Many of the volleys lasted for entire minutes and never got stale nor boring for the spectators or players. 

This was now the final match point yet again. It seemed that the two teams would go back and forth to who was just one point shy from taking the game. 

Applejack and Lightning Streak would win the game if they succeeded in getting one more point, which would give them the two point lead that they needed.

Applejack got into serving position and flicked the shuttle towards Soarin'. 

Soarin' hit the shuttle quickly at Applejack, and she then returned it to Rainbow Dash. Applejack kept volleying it to Soarin' and Rainbow Dash and she was quick like a Ninja with her rapid shots. She hit the shuttle a few times to the same opposing player to try to throw them off. She wasn't playing so much to win the game now. It had nothing to do with winning the game. It was more to win Lightning Streak's heart. 

Rainbow Dash returned the shuttle high over Applejack's head and Lightning Streak sprung into action. 

The volleys continued back and forth and was by far the longest volley anypony had ever seen before. 

Applejack had made a soft touch against the shuttle and the shuttle went to the opposite side from where Rainbow was standing near the net. 

Soarin' was way too far in the back to even bother to try to retrieve it.

Rainbow Dash figured that her partner was out of position so she hurried over and she made like she was going to lob it. At the very last second, she gently tapped it in an attempt to fool Applejack. 

The shuttle hit the top of the net and then stayed there for a second. 

Rainbow began to blow into the air on the shuttle so that it would fall on Applejack's side, but it was too late. 

The shuttle fell back down on Rainbow's side and she watched it fall to the floor. It was almost like a slow motion video of watching the shuttle fall, because it was so painful and agonizing for Rainbow, that she couldn't hit it again.

Everypony spectating and both Princesses began clapping their hooves together in celebration. 

Applejack unstrapped her racket from her front leg and threw her front legs around Lightning Streak. "We did it! We did it! We really are the best mixed couples doubles players!" she cried out. 

Lightning Streak embraced his partner for a moment and then broke free because it was a little awkward for him that they were both sopping wet with sweat. "We should shake hooves with them, Applejack," he suggested.

Lightning Streak and Applejack came up to Soarin' who was standing by the net on the opposite side of them. 

The ponies had their rackets taken off of their front legs and were now back on all four hooves. 

Soarin' shook Applejack's and Lightning Streak's hooves under the net and then watched them trot happily away. 

Soarin' looked down at his side and saw Rainbow Dash laying on her stomach with her head burrowed into her two front legs. He came over to her and placed his hoof on her shoulder. "Dash? Are you ok?"

Dash picked up her head and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "You're going to leave me now, aren't you? I'm a screw up and I lost the game."

"Are you kidding me, Rainbow Dash?" Soarin' asked. Soarin' got low to the ground with her and wrapped his front leg around her neck. "I'm not interested in you because of your skills. I could care less if we lost without scoring a single point. I think you let winning get to your head a little too much. Playing a game is about having fun. If you always win your games, then there would be nothing for you to improve on or to learn from your mistakes. I'm interested in you for you alone and it has nothing to do with winning or losing."

Rainbow Dash wiped a few more tears from her eyes and asked, "Really? Do you really mean that?"

Soarin' nodded his head yes and said, "Of course. We may not have played perfectly together, but I think this sport has helped us bond quite well together and I'd love to spend more time with you on the courts or off of them. I think we actually might be a better team than they are. Sometimes the underdogs win once in a while too, you know. I bet we can beat them next time." Soarin' then winked at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash looked up at Soarin' and didn't say anything. 

Soarin' took his front leg off of her neck and sat up. "Come on, Rainbow Dash. Pick yourself back up and smile!" Soarin' said. He spread his front legs out and said, "Come here, sweetie."

Rainbow Dash got up off the ground and threw herself into Soarin's arms. She almost knocked him down. 

They both embraced each other with a sweaty hug. 

Soarin' kissed her colorful mane and said, "Come on, Rainbow. Let's go get some refreshments." Soarin' paused for a moment and said, "I normally don't do this, but you're an exception. I have another big apple pie and I'll share it with you."

Rainbow Dash broke free from the hug and said, "Thanks! We should celebrate your world's record of the fastest Badminton smash too!"

The couple walked over to where Soarin' had left his carry on bag. 

Soarin' pulled out an apple pie from the bag and they both began to feast on it.
> Applejack Gets Flirty
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lightning Streak was staring at a plaque on the wall that spoke about the creation of this sports arena. He had a specially designed Wonderbolts towel hanging around his neck that he was using to dry himself off with earlier. On the towel was the words, DON'T PANIC! in large pink friendly letters and below that, was his lucky number, forty two. There were very few athletic things or sports that had ever gotten him so soaking wet with sweat like this before, but he never went anywhere without his trusty towel. He traveled a lot and whether with the Wonderbolts or not, his towel always seemed to come in handy.

Suddenly, an orange front hoof slammed against the wall near the plaque that Lightning Streak was looking at. 

He turned to see Applejack was leaning against the wall with one front leg and noticed that she was breathing quite heavily. Her hip was sticking out to the side and she had her other front hoof on top of her cutie mark. There was a shuttle that was caught between her hip and her front hoof. 

"Hey there, sugar cube," Applejack said in a flirty tone of voice. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry if I didn't want to play with ya at first. If yer interested, I'd be more than willin' to have a lil' special one-on-one action with ya on the court. I hope I didn't tucker ya out with our game that we just played. This mare can go at it all day without gettin' tired and If ya still got anythin' left in ya, then I'd like to make ya sweaty once more with me." Applejack tossed Lightning Streak a shuttle that she had Rarity paint for them after the match. 

Lightning Streak fumbled a bit when he tried to catch it, but he managed to not drop it. He stared at the shuttle that he now held in his front hoof.

The shuttle was designed for the couple and both Applejack's and Lightning Streak's cutie marks were on the cork, just like how Rainbow Dash's and Soarin's shuttle was.

Lightning Streak looked back up at Applejack with a bit of shock written across his face as if he had just been unexpectedly smacked hard across his face with her front hoof.

The smell of stallion sweat was very pleasing to Applejack's nostrils.

Applejack inhaled the air deeply through her nostrils and then slowly reached behind her head and took out her mane band that held her mane in a pony tail. Applejack's thick and beautiful mane fell onto her shoulders. Her eyelids were halfway shut as if she were drunk with pleasure. "So if yer down fer a little shuttle bashin', I'd be really happy to play with ya. Maybe we could go out later and git somethin' to eat together." Applejack turned her back to him and began to head off to the court. She stopped for a moment and playfully wiggled her flank back and forth a bit and then turned her head around and winked at Lightning Streak. "Ya gotta come and git it, if ya want it," Applejack teasingly said.

Lightning Streak took one last sip of his drink and then chased after Applejack. He did not hesitate on that opportunity.




The ponies continued to play games and hang around.

Rarity was busy painting new shuttles for everypony and she was also swooning over Rapidfire in hopes that she could woo him over for a date.

Princess Celestia had to close the arena and get back to the palace because she and Princess Luna had to take care of some royal duties. 

Everypony had asked if they could come back and play again, but both Princesses wouldn't have time. Princess Celestia used her magic and made duplicates of the keys so that everypony could come back and play again in their free time. 

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna locked the doors and watched everypony leave. 

"It looks like our sport was quite the smashing good time, wasn't it my sister?" Luna asked.

"It sure was!" Celestia replied. "I think we may have invented the greatest sport of all time! Now, let's get back and work on that other sport that we've been creating."

The two Princesses walked back into the castle. It was a successful day for them both.
> Scootaloo is Not Having Fun
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A few weeks went by and the ponies continued to come back and play. 

The Princesses happened to have time to come and watch the games. They wanted to see how much better the players had gotten. 

Applejack brought her little sister, Apple Bloom, Rarity had brought her little sister, Sweetie Belle, Twilight Sparkle brought Spike, and Rainbow Dash brought Scootaloo along with her to see how they would all play this game.

Each filly and Spike picked up a racket and strapped it to one of their front legs. They all tried to play, but the rackets were too heavy and long for the fillies to play with. The fillies were also very rough with the shuttles.

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity both took their fillies over to the Princesses who were sitting near each other and explained the problem. Twilight Sparkle brought Spike too. 

Princess Celestia used her magic and shrunk the rackets down to a junior size. That took care of that problem. Princess Celestia looked at her shuttle bin and realized that she was getting very short on shuttles. She looked at the shuttles that the fillies had and saw that they were all mangled and were missing feathers. Princess Celestia needed to save whatever shuttles she had left for future games. She looked at Scootaloo and said, "Scootaloo darling, you can't fly at the moment, right?"

Scootaloo looked back at her wings and then put her head down and sighed. "I can't fly, Princess Celestia," she said. 

"Would you mind doing me a favor?" the Princess asked.

"Sure," Scootaloo replied. 

"I just need you to turn the left side of your body toward me, so I can grab a few feathers from you," Celestia said. 

Scootaloo turned her left side of her body to the Princess and said, "Sure, as long as it doesn't hurt too..." Scootaloo cut her sentence short when the Princess plucked a single feather from her body. "OUCH! Hey that REALLY hurt!"

"I'm sorry Scootaloo, but this will just take a second. It's not like your wings are of any real importance to you, right? Princess Luna, can you please restrain Scootaloo for a moment. This will be quick, I promise," Celestia said.

Luna bit her lower lip and used her magic.

The magic glowed around all four hooves of Scootaloo and her legs collapsed to the floor. 

"Hey! What are you doing to me?" Scootaloo asked.

"This will take just a moment, Scootaloo. Please relax."

Princess Celestia used her magic and ripped every single feather off of Scootaloo's left wing. 

"EEEEAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHH!" An ear piercing scream from Scootaloo shot out through the entire sports arena and echoed. 

Everypony stopped playing and looked over to Princess Celestia. 

"Just having some technical difficulties with the shuttle making. Everything's fine! Please go back to playing." Princess Celestia looked down at Scootaloo and said, "There!" All done. It wasn't that bad, was it?"

Scootaloo had tears in her eyes and looked at her left wing that was bleeding very badly. Scootaloo sighed and said, "At least I was able to be useful for once, but my wing is bleeding so badly."

"Oops!' Celestia said. "How could I forget?" She used her magic and summoned a single band aid that had a picture of the Princesses cutie mark on it. She placed it on Scootaloo's left wing and the band aid slid off because there was too much blood running down her wing. 

Princess Luna used her magic and summoned several large medical bandages and some medical tape. "I don't think putting a band aid on a bullet wound is going to do the trick," she said. Luna began patching up Scootaloo's left wing.

"What's a bullet?" Celestia asked.

"I don't know," Luna replied. "Just an expression I've heard before."

Luna finished patching up Scootaloo and asked, "Why don't we just use the feathers from the left wing of a duck or a goose?"

Princess Celestia looked over at Fluttershy who was playing with a Wonderbolt. She then turned back to her sister and said, "I don't think Fluttershy would be ok with that. It's bad enough that we use leather to cover the cork parts of the shuttle. We can't even let her know about that. You know she is an extremely sensitive pony."

Luna shrugged and said, "Well, maybe we could have our royal servants stop by the nursing home and pick up all of the loose feathers that fall to the ground that are swept up by the nurses."

"I'm sure those feathers wouldn't last as long. We need ponies who are in the peak of their prime, or else I would imagine that they would break off too easily," Celestia said. 

"There's always our prisoners, right?" Luna asked.

Princess Celestia put her hoof to her chin in thought and replied, "I think we can manage that." 

Luna grinned a rather sinister smile and used her magic to pluck one single feather from her bigger sister.

Princess Celestia jolted upwards and let out a screech in pain. She turned to see her little sister hovering one of her feathers with her magic. 

"We could always use your wing feathers since you have the largest set of wings on the planet," Luna suggested.

Princess Celestia scowled at her sister and said, "My wings and feathers are far too big for a shuttle, and I need my feathers to fly, even if I do get carted around in a chariot all day! Scootaloo's feathers are just right for a junior sized version of a shuttle. If you do that to me again, I'll send you back to the moon for another thousand years!"

Luna giggled a bit and apologized. 

Celestia used her magic and replaced the broken and mangled feathers with Scootaloo's new feathers and then gave them back to the fillies.

Each pony took their fillies over to a court and began to play with them.

Scootaloo stood there on the opposite side of the court from where Rainbow Dash was. She had her head hanging low and didn't look motivated to play.

"Aw, what's the matter, Scoots? Don't you want to play?" Rainbow asked.

"I do, but I'm afraid that I acted like a total cry baby and that you think I'm a wimp now," Scootaloo said.

"Come on, kid!" Rainbow said. "You didn't act that badly. Look, I'll pull a feather out of my own wing right now." Rainbow turned and plucked a feather out. Rainbow's eyes widened. "Mmmmph!" Rainbow muttered. She spit the feather out of her mouth and cried out, "Son of a.....That was terribly painful!" Rainbow looked back at Scootaloo and then changed the tone of her voice. "I mean, I didn't even feel a thing. Come on, you did something useful for the Princess."

Scootaloo sighed and began to hit the shuttle with Rainbow Dash. 

Twilight Sparkle was trying to teach and play with Spike. 

"Heads up, Spike! I'm going to lob it for you!" Twilight yelled out. Twilight lobbed the shuttle high into the air and very close to Spike's side of the net.

Spike backed up a little bit and then jumped into the air. He hit the shuttle with all his might. 

The shuttle went under the net and the cork side of the shuttle hit Twilight's hoof. 

Twilight used her magic and hovered the shuttle in the air. She wasn't wearing her necklace because this game was more for fun and to teach the younger players. "Let's try this once more, Spike." Twilight whacked the shuttle high into the air and Spike prepared himself to smash it. 

Right before the shuttle reached its peak, Twilight used her magic and hovered Spike high into the air. "Do it now, Spike!" Twilight called out. 

Spike smashed the shuttle and it landed inside of Twilight's court. 

Twilight put the baby dragon down and started giggling. "It looks like Spike is too short to spike the shuttle on his own. Spike can't spike!"

Spike put his front claws on his hips and said, "Very funny, Twilight. Very funny."

Applejack and Rarity played with Sweetie Belle for a while until the Wonderbolts showed up. 

Applejack got rather distracted when she saw that Lightning Streak had brought her a bouquet of flowers and rushed over to see him. 

Rarity paired Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom together so that they could play with each other.

Rainbow Dash practically pushed Scootaloo over to where Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were playing when she saw that Soarin' also showed up with a bouquet of flowers for her. 

"But Rainbow Dash, where are you going? I want to play with you only!" Scootaloo cried out. 

Rainbow Dash dragged her front hoof over her own mane several times and replied, "I uh, have some other important business to take care of. You all just play nicely. Remember, winner stays and continues to play until she loses a game! Have fun girls!" Rainbow Dash then zipped over to see Soarin'. 

Scootaloo sighed and stepped onto the court where Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were playing. This was turning out to be a lousy day for the little orange filly.
> New Cutie Marks
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Several hours went by and everypony played the entire time. 

The Wonderbolts and all of Twilight's friends were currently taking a short break. They walked over and got some drinks and watched Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle duke it out on the courts. They were surprised at how aggressive and how well Scootaloo's form was already for just playing for only a few hours. She was a filly who could scoot, or more like, scootaloo over to the shuttle and hit it in time no matter how far she seemed to be away from it. Her recovery time was next to flawless.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were currently having a volley. 

Sweetie Belle lobbed the shuttle to the back of Scootaloo's court. 

Scootaloo ran back and event though she was very tiny, she was inspired by how Rainbow Dash would leap into the air when she smashed a shuttle. Scootaloo did the same thing and hit the shuttle with all of her might. 

The shuttle went hurling down into Sweetie Belle's court as she watched it hit the line. Scootaloo had scored her final point and won yet again. 

Just then, a bright shining light formed around Scootaloo's flanks. 

Everypony had covered their eyes because the light was so bright. 

When the light dimmed down, everypony, including Scootaloo, looked at her flank. They all cheered loudly for her.

Scootaloo now had her cutie mark. It was a picture of a shuttle. She unstrapped her racket from her front leg and ran at full speed to Rainbow Dash. She wrapped her two front legs around Rainbow Dash's front leg. "I can't believe it, Rainbow Dash! I'm not useless anymore and I finally have a purpose in life!" she cried out.

Pinkie Pie was bouncing around the two ponies while blowing into a party horn. She would have to throw Scootaloo a party to celebrate her newly discovered special gift in life.

Rainbow got down low to her level and messed up Scootaloo's mane with her front hoof. "Hey! Way to go kiddo! You were never useless though! You're like my little sister to me and you made us all smile whenever you were around us. It looks like it just took you a little extra time to find out what you shine at. Not even your disabilities got in the way this time." 

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom ran over and hugged there friend. 

"Congratulations, Scootaloo," Sweetie Belle said. "You got your cutie mark sooner than us."

"Yeah, but now we're the blank flanks and we still have to earn ours," Apple Bloom said with sorrow in her voice. 

Pinkie Pie suddenly came out of a closet and was rolling a table that was folded up. On top of the table, were two wooden blades, some sheet rubber, an orange three star ball, and some speed glue. 

Princess  Celestia looked over and said, "Pinkie Pie! How did you know about that? That's our top secret experiment!"

"It was only sitting in the corner under a sheet. My Pinkie senses were going bonkers when I walked near it." Pinkie Pie took off the equipment and placed it on the floor. She opened up the table and then took one of the wooden blades off of the floor. She grabbed the ball and began to bounce it up and down on the wooden blade. "So, who wants to glue some rubber on these bad boys and earn their cutie mark in Table Tennis?" Pinkie Pie asked. 

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked at each other and then ran over to Pinkie Pie.

"Hey!" Pinkie Pie said. "Can we call this sport Ping Pong too? How about, Pinkie Pong, or Ping Pie! Hey Applejack, if we played on the same team together, would we call ourselves, Apple Pie? I bet Soarin' would love our team name." Pinkie Pie started giggling madly.

Applejack face hoofed.

Soarin' let out a little giggle. 

"We weren't supposed to show them this game until Badminton becomes accepted as an official Equestrian sport," Luna said.

"I know," Celestia replied. "But I am curious to see how they react to this game. How did Pinkie Pie even know that we like to call the game, Table Tennis?" Celestia asked.

"Probably just a Pinkie sense or something," Luna replied.

Celestia and Luna walked over to Pinkie who was struggling to open the can of speed glue. 

"Pinkie Pie, you may want to let us open the speed glue. The glue is incredibly toxic, and breathing that in can be harmful, if not fatal to a pony, if they are using this stuff in a place that has poor ventilation," Celestia said. 

"Why is that?" Pinkie Pie asked. "It's not made out of anything crazy like pony glue, is it?" Pinkie pie gasped at the idea. "You don't take poor ponies who haven't earned their cutie marks yet and send them to the glue factory, do you? Well, at least Scootaloo is safe. We wouldn't want to have to say Toot-a-loo to Scootaloo before she gets turned into scootaglue! That would be so sad!" 

Princess Luna looked at her sister and asked, "What exactly are the top secret ingredients when it comes to making speed glue?" 

"Some things are just better off not known," Celestia whispered to her sister. She used her magic and painted the wooden blade with glue and then used scissors to snip away at the excess rubber sheets. She placed the red rubber on one side of the blade and the black rubber on the other side. She took out a rolling pin and began to flatten the rubber out.

Luna did the same to the other paddle as well. 

Pinkie Pie giggled and said, "Now we have a place where we can bash shuttlecocks and balls at the same time!"

Both Princesses face hoofed.

"Ya have to understand Pinkie Pie, my dear Princesses" Applejack said. "She can be a few apples short of a bushel, sometimes."

Both Princesses giggled at what Applejack had said because it was true.

Applejack and Rarity pushed their sisters over to the table. 

"I can't see over this table!" Apple Bloom cried out. 

"Neither can I," Sweetie Belle added.

"Should we shrink the table?" Luna asked.

"No," Celestia replied. "We have this table down to a science and I can't risk not being able to resize it back to normal." Celestia used her magic and summoned two long stepping stools. "That should do the trick." 

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stood on the stepping stools. Both of their sisters helped strap the paddles on to their front legs. 

Rainbow Dash and Soarin' went back to the courts with Scootaloo. They were both trying to teach her more tricks and to see her full potential, since she was the first to ever get a cutie mark in Badminton. 

Some of the other ponies went back to playing Badminton, but many other ponies stuck around and watched this new experimental game. 

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were having a little volley as their two bigger sisters stood closely near by. 

The sound of the ball clicking every time it hit the paddle was very pleasurable to everypony's ears.

Sweetie Belle was already doing crazy things like adding under spin, side spin, and even combining spins like top and side spins. 

Apple Bloom was getting frustrated and yelled, "Can't ya just work with me to keep the dern thing on the table? I can't read all these spins that yer doin'!"

"Give your friend a chance, Sweetie Belle," Rarity said. "It would be a generous thing for you to do." 

Sweetie Belle moaned and began to hit balls with light top spin added to them. 

Applejack put her front hooves on Apple Bloom's paddle arm and helped her close her paddle a little bit, to counter the top spins, in order to block the shots. 

Apple Bloom began experimenting with the positioning of her paddle and sending the ball to different parts of the table. 

Sweetie Belle adapted quickly and moved from side to side as she hit them back very close to the exact same spot where Apple Bloom had her paddle positioned. Sweetie Belle already had wonderful form and would follow through with her forehoof strokes all the way to her forehead as if she was saluting with her paddle. Her backhoof shots to the ball were beautiful and she also made sure to follow through with her backhoof strokes as well.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle volleyed like this for a few hours now and Apple Bloom was starting to get a little braver and began to follow through all the way up to her forehead like Sweetie Belle had been doing. One of the shots from Apple Bloom was so deep into Sweetie Belle's territory and was so full of top spin, that Sweetie Belle had to back away from the table. She seemed to have forgotten that they were both standing on a long stepping stool and it wasn't very long in width as it was in length. Sweetie Belle fell off of the stepping stool and landed on her back on the floor, The ball came down at her and she lobbed the ball high into the air with heavy top spin and a bit of side spin. 

Apple Bloom saw the little bit of side spin on the ball and she moved over to the left side of the table and prepared to smash the ball. The ball came down, just tipped the very edge of the table, and the bounce of the ball was too short and awkward for Apple Bloom to even try to attempt to return it without diving to the floor. 

Just then, rays of bright shining light came off of Sweetie Belle's flanks. 

Everypony covered their eyes from the bright light. 

When the light dimmed down, everypony opened their eyes back up and was shocked to see that Sweetie Belle now had the world's first Table Tennis cutie mark. She had a picture of two Table Tennis paddles, one side of the paddle black, the other side of the paddle, red, and a three star Table Tennis ball in the middle. 

Everypony inside the arena had seen this happen and everypony cheered loudly. 

Sweetie Belle took off the paddle that was strapped to her front leg and ran over to her sister. She wrapped her front legs around one of Rarity's front legs. "Rarity, I did it! I earned my cutie mark! I'm going to be a Table Tennis athlete! 

Pinkie Pie bounced over and began to giggle madly. "It looks like we're going to have to throw two special parties now! One for Scootaloo, and one for you, Sweetie Belle!" she exclaimed.

Sweetie Belle grinned from ear to ear and then looked back at Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom was sitting on the floor with her head hanging low. She had taken off her paddle put it on the ground' She refused to look up.

Swettie Belle came over and asked, "Aren't you happy that I got my cutie mark, Apple Bloom?"

Apple Bloom sighed and said, "I sure am happy that yer happy, but it looks like it's just me and Babs Seed that are blank flanks, and I don't see her very often. I guess I'm just not good at anythin'." 

Fluttershy came over and tried to comfort the little filly. "There, there," she said. "Maybe Badminton and Table Tennis just aren't right for you to pursue as a career, but you can still have fun with the games. Maybe you can play doubles in Table Tennis and invite Babs Seed over and take turns alternating who gets to hit the ball next on your team with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Would you like to come with me to the ice rinks and earn a cutie mark in curling? I'd be more than happy to teach you."

"A cutie mark in Curling!?" Apple Bloom yelled out with disgust. "I think I'd rather shovel horse manure!" 

Fluttershy put her front hoof to her mouth in shock and said, "Apple Bloom! Be careful what you wish for!"




When the time came to showcase this epic new sport called Badminton, the Equestrian game officials deemed that this sport would be played at this years upcoming events when they saw Twilight Sparkle and her friends play with the Wonderbolts. Some ponies would openly mock the sport when they tried it out for themselves and called it a game that could be played in a backyard barbeque party for fillies and colts, but when those same ponies saw other ponies play who actually knew what they were doing, they too became believers that this is one of, if not the greatest sport that had even been invented. The Equestrian games quickly built there own professional sports arena for Badminton alone. This sport had so many line judges and other ruling officials that needed to pay close attention because of how insanely fast this sport was. For the final top tier games, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, and Princess Cadence, would be the umpires. 


Table Tennis was also shown off and many of those same ponies who mocked Badminton, called this sport a basement game for ponies who didn't have enough skill to play real Tennis. There eyes had to be opened once more when they watched or played against ponies who knew how to play the game on a more professional level. Table Tennis would also become a part of the Equestrian games and be hailed as one of the greatest sports ever invented. They also built a sports arena for Table Tennis too. The Princesses were also in charge of umpiring the top and best matches.

Rarity worked so very hard to design both shuttles and Table Tennis balls to be designed after the top players in the games. The Table Tennis balls also left a trail blazing effect like the shuttles. She would make these sports pretty and interesting for the spectators to watch. She loved to create special shipping balls and shuttles for mixed doubles players.

Applejack was happily in a romantic relationship with Lightning Streak and Rainbow Dash was hooked on Soarin' as well. 





Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both stared at a shuttle that was under a glass in the center of their palace. 

The shuttle was so beaten up and broken down, but it had great significance to them. For that shuttle was the very first shuttle that they had ever invented and it was the humble beginning of something that turned out to be huge and epic. 
> Be Careful What You Wish For
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Come on, Apple Bloom!" Applejack called out. "I know ya shoveled all the cow manure, but ya also gotta take care of the pony manure too! We need it to fertilize our crops. Just make a big pile over there near the compost section."

Apple Bloom grumbled some words of disapproval and began shoveling all the pony poo. 

"I can't believe how stubborn she can be with this chore sometimes," Applejack said as she leaned against the fence.

"E-yup!" Big Macintosh replied. "But yer a pretty stubborn pony sometimes too. Ya remember what happened when I was injured during the applebuck season and I couldn't work. Ya thought that ya could harvest all of those apples without any pony's help."

"Aw, shoot, Big Macintosh! Well at least I was actually workin' hard in my stubbornness!" Applejack shot back. "It's almost like Apple Bloom doesn't even want to work right now. That ain't the Apple family way!"

"E-yup!" Big Macintosh said as he nodded his head yes. "She could use a good hard buck to the backside." 

Apple Bloom swatted at the flies with her tail that were biting her. As soon as Apple Bloom shoveled a large pile of manure into the pile, bright rays of light shined from both sides of her flanks. 

Applejack and Big Macintosh put one of their front legs over their eyes because of the brightness.

A few seconds later, they both opened their eyes. 

"I did it! I did it!" Apple Bloom cried out. "I got my cutie mark in..." Apple Bloom cut her sentence short when she turned around and noticed that her cutie mark was a picture of a shovel with horse manure on top of it. On the picture, were three flies buzzing around the manure. She paused for a moment and said, "If there's ever a time in life that calls for suicide, I think now would be an appropriate time."

"Aw hay, Apple Bloom," Applejack said. "Ya may not have an apple fer a cutie mark, but yer still a part of our family and we should have a celebration party cause we know that yer gonna have a real shitty....I mean wonderful time in life. You'll be the best dern horse manure picker upper that Equestria has ever seen yet!" 

"Wow! Really? Do you really mean that, Applejack? Will I be an important pony in life and make a huge difference in our world being the best pony at scooping up pony poo ever?" Apple Bloom asked.

Applejack laughed and said, "Nope! I'm just kiddin'. It's too bad ya didn't go with Fluttershy to try to earn a cutie mark in curlin', but I guess that wouldn't matter anyway since yer ultimate destiny in life is to shovel shit. I guess the moral of this story is, be careful what ya wish fer. Maybe Princess Celestia is trollin' ya or somethin', or maybe we can pray that Twilight Sparkle mixes up some other ponies cutie mark with yers. It looks like fer now you'll have to start diggin'! Who knows, maybe there's hope for a cutie mark change in the future. There's always Discord, right?" Applejack playfully winked at her little sister.

Apple Bloom sighed and began to shovel again. "Just wait until Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon find out about this," she muttered under her breath.

The end.