Chapter 1
Bubble Flurry rolled out of bed with a groan, her five-minute window of lazing in bed already past. Awake well before the sun would rise in the sky and already behind schedule. Her short sea green mane stuck out in various directions, the minty tips lost in the mess. Her wavy tail curled around one of her sky-blue legs and was kinked strangely at the end. She definitely needed tending to. A quick shower, followed by some routine dental care while dancing about to some music, and about five apartment checks to make sure she had everything she needed and she would be off, just like every morning. But, today was not like every morning.
Bubble Flurry didn't have school for once. She had hockey camp, as an actual instructor! Oh, she was so excited and anxious she could hardly function. She had made sure she would get up extra early to get to the rink on time. Double checking her bag had her skates, and not her books, one more time had put her mind at ease.
Locking her apartment door, she walked through the common area, and out the main door. She was absolutely giddy, which would soon fall into anxiety, and the yo-yo effect would continue until she had been there and done something useful. Halfway down the hallway of her apartment complex, she realized she did not have her stick. Staring into the middle distance, like she had meant to do that all along, she turned around, walked back into her apartment, unlocked her door, and grabbed her stick before getting on the road once more. Already off to a bumpy start.
The road to the rink was dark and cool, the gentle morning light giving the sky a purple gray hue. She marveled at it as though she had never seen it before, even though she had spent all of her Fall semester of school looking at a similar twilight world on her way to classes. Bouncing about to music, she finally made it all the way to the new ice rink north of the Thunderhoof University.
Walking in the new doors she realized the rink was dead. Perhaps two or three ponies were practicing on the ice to her left and there was no sign of her coaching acquaintances. A kindly pony at the front desk asked if she needed any help, to which she responded with a panicked question, "Cobalt Drizzle's camp?"
"At the desk behind you," the kindly pony responded with a gesture before returning to her desk work.
No one was there. Nothing was there that belonged to the camp. There were a few fliers for something pertaining to one of the rink's upcoming events, but nothing else. Great, was she too early? Awkwardness began to sink in. Setting her bag down next to the table and situating her stick so nopony could trip over it, she took a seat and flipped through her Strength and Conditioning for Everypony study guide.
Minutes dragged on as if they were hours and the small print on her twenty-page study guide was beginning to hurt her eyes. Bubble Flurry set the paper down and stared off, her green eyes flitting to the door so often that her discomfort would be evident to even the most unobservant pony.
The small trots of a colt rounding one of the corners of the building drew her attention, the tawny blob approaching in a blur. Ad Lib was at the table before she could comprehend who it was. With a flap of his little wings, he lifted off the ground and his hooves wrapped around her neck in a friendly morning greeting.
"Good Morning," Bubble Flurry said through awkward grit teeth, his golden mane tickling her nose.
The colt's father, an earth pony named Cobalt Drizzle rounded the corner. As stoic a pony as ever there was, greeted her in his familiar flat tone, "Hey, you're here." Stern eyes and a mouth set in a resting frown were not aided by his dour dark gray coat and deep blue mane, which made him look like a walking rain cloud. His affect hadn't changed, even with his son flitting about in such an excited manner. "Ad Lib, sit down." His thick accent left little room for argument.
Ad Lib sat next to Bubble Flurry at the table and began asking questions about the camp. When were people coming? What were they going to do? And on and on until his father shushed him once more.
Straight to business, Cobalt Drizzle sat down and showed her what he wanted to do that day. Drawings dotted the page in his hoof and he quickly explained them in such a way that made Bubble Flurry's head spin. Goodness, when were the other coaches getting there?
Practically on cue, Salchow Glamour walked through the doors, saddle bags on each side. "I'm going to need some help," she said, setting her stuff down with an exasperated huff.
Bubble Flurry and Ad Lib zipped out the door faster than anyone could call them back. Each began grabbing bags from her little wagon that she had toted from home. Bubble Flurry gave Ad Lib a light bag packed with apples for the campers to much on when they arrived, while she grabbed the heavier bags full of pucks and cones.
Upon entering she saw that Salchow Glamour had set up at the table and Cobalt Drizzle had vanished into the depths of the complex. Salchow Glamour's snowy white coat was already lightly dirtied by her walk to the complex and her swirly pink mane was a little mussed, her horn barely poking out of it. The sun had barely crested over the trees outside and she already looked like she needed a break.
"You could have asked me to come down and pull your cart for you," Bubble Flurry said, toting the bags from the wagon and picking up the bags that had been brought in on the first trip.
"Oh no, that would have been far too out of the way for you," Salchow Glamour insisted, setting out the jerseys for the soon-to-arrive campers. "Ad Lib, this one is for you," she tossed the white and red jersey at the excited colt.
Cobalt Drizzle soon returned once the table was set up and began talking with Salchow Glamour about their ensuing day. "Where are Mohawk and Deadlift?" he asked in his thick accent.
"Mohawk will tumble in whenever he gets here. Deadlift has to set things in order at work before he gets here. They're both going to be a little late." Salchow Glamour explained all while continuing to get all of the day's paperwork in order.
Leave it to two adult pegasi to be late. Bubble Flurry hmphed and rolled her eyes. She knew both of them and they were very nice stallions, but they both tended to live life on a whim. They were slated to only be half an hour late and they weren't on ice until a little bit after that even, so it looked like they would be lucky this time.
Mohawk was a Pegasus from the same region as Cobalt Drizzle and his accent was even thicker than the latter's. Though for every stern glower that Cobalt Drizzle gave in a day, Mohawk was bouncing around having a good time and making people laugh. He had a slate gray mane, a mossy green coat, and thin rimmed glasses that rested on his muzzle.
Deadlift was a muted purple Pegasus with a two-toned light-blue mane and most importantly was Bubble Flurry's inspiration. Though she had kept quiet about it for a while at the beginning, only letting him find out because she had accidentally confided said information in Salchow Glamour who decided to tell him that information the very next day. He was a Strength trainer from up around Manehattan who had come down to Thunderhoof Bay for school at Hoofbay University, a private school when compared to Thunderhoof University. He was doing something that Bubble Flurry could only dream of… actually working with real hockey ponies. She was so inspired that she changed her major the first chance she got and was working toward following in his hoofsteps.
Colts and fillies began to arrive. Salchow Glamour signed them in and organized the lunch order forms while delegating Bubble Flurry to hand out jerseys. Cobalt Drizzle stood off to the side, mingling with parents and looking overall stern and Ad Lib bounced about counting down his time limit before his father would make him go put on his gear.
Mohawk was the first of the late coaches to arrive, heading straight to Cobalt Drizzle so he could talk about his morning in the language of their homeland. Both were former professional hockey stallions, having played in the top tier leagues in Equestria and back home, meaning their bond ran deep and their preoccupation with not doing menial labor was deeper.
The onslaught of colts and fillies died down enough to where Bubble Flurry could pay attention to who all was there. The sliding glass doors opened once more. A tan unicorn with a bright red mane walked sleepily into the foyer, his goaltender pads draped over his sides and a bulky saddle bag sat on his haunches. His eyes were half closed and his dour expression would rival Cobalt Drizzle's if the young stallion didn't have such soft features.
Bubble Flurry had seen this stallion before at a clinic they had done a while back. They hadn't spoken at the time because it was a hectic day and she hadn't known the other coaches well, except Salchow Glamour, so she kept close to her social safety net. If he recognized her he made no indication. Today he was wearing a Thunderhoof Uni jacket and she could have sworn she had last seen him in Hoofbay gear, perhaps she had been mistaken.
The goalie pony moved to socialize with the pros, while Bubble Flurry and Salchow Glamour tidied up the table and moved stuff to the coaches' locker room. Everything was going smoothly. Cobalt Drizzle had kindly moved her bag and stick to the locker room when she wasn't paying attention, so she found a locker stall already set up for her.
The pros soon followed them in, Deadlift in tow. Everyone got ready quietly, small conversations popping up for those close to one another. Ad Lib's locker was right next to Bubble Flurry's so she helped him tighten his skates after she had gotten hers on. He was still awfully chatty for it being so early, his little pony heart pounding in excitement. She chatted with him, keeping things pleasant and keeping him out of his father's mane.
Because it was the first day the colts and fillies had been helped into their gear by their parents, their way of sending their child off for their first day of camp, so the coaches were free to just hop on the ice. They skated around in a warm-up with the kids for a few minutes before they were called to the center to stretch. The coaches stood around observing except the goalie pony who was stretching so he could teach his two goalie colts.
"Good morning everypony," Salchow Glamour spoke as they were led in stretches by one of the older ponies, "Welcome to Excel Plus Hockey camp. I'm Salchow Glamour. This is Coach Cobalt Drizzle, Coach Mohawk, Coach Deadlift. Over there we have Coach Bubble Flurry and our goalie coach, Coach… Slippy Dip."
The other coaches laughed, having egged her into calling him by their given nickname. While Coach not-Slippy Dip grumbled and said, "Do you even remember what my actual name is?"
Moving on, Coach Slippy Dip took his goalies and started them on mobility drills and Cobalt Drizzle lined up his players by their designated levels and started them on skating drills. He set his stick on the ice while he explained the drill before taking his stick up in his teeth and performing what he wanted them to do. The four lines of young ponies were sent out in waves, more than enough coaches for each line and easy enough drills that there wasn't much to help with.
Bubble Flurry just floated from line to line, skating up and down the ice with her stick clenched in her teeth while she wondered exactly what she could do to help. So far, she'd been practically useless. Lovely, that did wonders for her nerves.
They broke down the drills after nearly an hour, moving into more difficult skating activities. The colts and fillies were jumping, turning, hopping, and overall spastic about their various activities and this was just the beginning of the day. Jumping over a stick on one hoof, jumping and turning in the air and landing backward, dropping to their knees and spinning around a cone, it was all so much and it was only day one.
A young colt stood at a stick near Bubble Flurry, telling her he was having trouble jumping due to an injury to his back. Oh great… That was an awkward position to be put in as her first time being a coach. Should she push the colt and tell him to power through or should she give him a pass? Her hockey experience said power through, her Strength and Conditioning background said to heed the injury. "Ah," she really wanted to go ask another coach, but that would look bad, "Take it slow, make an effort. If it hurts take a break. You don't have to do this drill fast."
Before she knew it the first on-ice session had come to a close and the young ones were sent off the ice to get their gear off for their off-ice training. The coaches threw off their gear and went to help the colts and fillies out of theirs. Most of them didn't need help, so Bubble Flurry went and waited in the off-ice training area so the kids would know that they were in the right place.
She was staring off into the distance, concerned with her lack of use during the first session when the young goalie stallion meandered in her general direction.
"Ya know," he started, "You were going to get a face full of snow, but you didn't get close enough so one of my goalies ate it instead."
The alarms went off in Bubble Flurry's head. Someone was talking to her, what had he just said? She quickly shook herself out of her reverie in time to process that one of the young goalie colts got a face full of snow. She gave a pleasant giggle, "Poor thing."
Bubble Flurry stood next to him for a few moments before asking, "I know your name isn't Slippy Dip, so what is your actual name?"
He glanced at her, a smirk spreading across his face. He sighed, "Slippy Dip, I don't even know where that came from. It's Snowyfly."
"Snowyfly," Bubble Flurry nodded, "noted, I'll try to remember it."
"I swear, next time they introduce me as Slippy Dip I'm going to throw my stick."
Bubble Flurry laughed, "You should just skate off while stripping off your gear."
"Ohohoho," he laughed, "Yes! Just yard sale it." He grumbled to himself while he mimed throwing his gear off.
Bubble Flurry laughed thoroughly at that one, covering her beaming smile with her hoof. It was nice having someone close to her age to talk to. Deadlift was the next closest and he was her inspiration so even he was a little ascended from her social network. This pony was pretty amusing, so far at least.
Soon the campers were assembled and Deadlift swooped down from above. "Alright, this is our off-ice training session. First, we're going to warm up and then we will divide ourselves up by level." With a flick of his head, his blue mane moved away from his eyes, showing he meant business. "Dynamic Warm-Up!"
Snowyfly walked to the end of the warm-up area, watching the kids keenly to make sure they were not cheating their drills, while Bubble Flurry, Salchow Glamour, Cobalt Drizzle, and Mohawk stood at the back and mingled. It wasn't long before the drills grew in difficulty and to Bubble Flurry's surprise she looked up to see Deadlift deadpan looking off into the distance as he led a colt out of the work area. Bubble Flurry recognized him as the colt who said he was injured earlier.
Trotting up, she inquired, "Is your back still bugging you?"
The young colt nodded while Deadlift sighed something about a passive warm-up. He was leaving his designated portion of practice all for one little colt.
"I've learned about that in class already. I can take him and run him through it." She offered, more than happy to lend a helping hoof when he was needed elsewhere. Thank goodness, she had paid attention to Pony Testing and Prescription of Exercise last semester.
They didn't go far, but it was far enough for the colt to look longingly toward his fellows, now ostracized from the group. "This won't take long," Bubble Flurry reassured, "then you'll be back with your friends before you know it."
Her passive warm-up was not as long as the remainder of Deadlift's dynamic one so she walked him back into the line and gave him alternative drills to do so he wouldn't just sit around.
"What is this?" Snowyfly asked with a moderately confused, but pleasantly animated expression. One hoof was extended toward the colt's activity and the other up in a half-shrug.
"Injured, so I gave him an alternative," she explained with a smile.
"Oh, okay," he nodded, going back to being a sporadic slave driver.
The colts around the injured one began to jeer at and tease him, calling him a faker and a whiner. He insisted he wasn't in a higher pitched voice and seemed like he may be getting upset with how his fellows were treating him. Sure, every camp with young athletes seemed to have some level of jeering and rudeness involved in the general social atmosphere, but this seemed a little much.
Bubble Flurry pursed her lips in a small frown. "Be nice to one another," she said before giving him a gentle bump on the shoulder, "I believe you."
They broke off into their groups, the age group with the injured colt was the largest one and was given to Salchow Glamour, Bubble Flurry, and Snowyfly first on the ladder drills. They worked various sport related step sequences while focusing on training the players for speed. It wasn't five drills in before Snowyfly was already sternly speaking and showing them the finer points of the drill.
Bubble Flurry felt a bit odd about how technical he was being. It was slowing the entire drill down, technique was important in kids, but so was actually getting them to move. She kept her line moving, even when some ponies cheated a little bit.
In a blink, the drills moved on, Snowyfly floating with the larger group while Bubble Flurry and Salchow Glamour stayed on their station. More kids cheated and Bubble Flurry continued to not know what to do. She wasn't really established that well with the coaching staff to feel even less like a real coach. The uncertainty was mounting once more.
Lunch arrived in time to prevent some little colts from getting punished with star planks, much to their joy. An army of little ponies rushed off, grabbing their lunches and making their way to the party rooms to eat. Others had ordered their lunch and Salchow Glamour was busy trying to get their lunches out to them, apparently, there had been a miscommunication with the kitchen and everything was slated to be late. Snowyfly sat on the counter near her while eating his food and Bubble Flurry joined him, nibbling on a plum she brought.
Bubble Flurry had thrown on her program jacket from school and Snowyfly still wore his jacket from the hockey program, which lead to Ad Lib pointing out that they matched while he waited near Salchow Glamour for his food. This prompted more conversation, laughter was had and jeers and jabs were thrown in the most pleasant way possible. The kid coaches were having fun with each other and to their surprise, the older ones had taken notice.
Lunch came to a close, with Bubble Flurry and Snowyfly being sent to gather the campers. They went different directions, Snowyfly heading to the locker rooms and Bubble Flurry to the lunch rooms, and the lunch rooms were a mess, with only a couple colts still sitting and eating away from the mess.
Picking up a broom in her muzzle and began tidying up. She swept food and trash into separate piles around the room due to the rubbery floor and then Snowyfly walked in.
"Put that down right now," he said with an aghast tone.
Bubble Flurry dropped the broom for long enough to return a short and amused, "No."
Snowyfly glared a little bit and began to ask the other kids about what had happened in there and gave them a lecture about cleaning up messes, ensuring that those who caused this mess were going to clean up the next one that that room made.
Bubble Flurry shuffled around cleaning, laughing through the broom at Snowyfly's dated pop culture references. Kicking about the dust pan, she got to the final pile of refuse, which Snowyfly was standing over, so she shook her head back and forth to gently whack him with the broom.
"Hitting me now? If you keep up this physical abuse they'll think we're dating." He said in a playful and snarky tone with a slight ear wiggle.
Having swept up the rest of the garbage and disposed of it Bubble Flurry retorted, "You're single?"
"Yeah," he said flatly.
"Funny, so am I," she responded, goading the remaining colts from the room.
"Now that surprises me," Snowyfly said, heading out of the room to go find his goalies for the off-ice session.
Off-ice puck handling went smoothly. With so many coaching ponies, Bubble Flurry wasn't needed and instead went off with Snowyfly to play with the goalie colts. Their game ensued, with the loser having to perform an exercise of Snowyfly's choosing for a minute, which from the grin on his face said that it was going to be miserable.
It wasn't long before Bubble Flurry and Snowyfly got caught up in their own mutual competition and trash talking, with the young colts between them acting as collateral damage to their personal war.
"Oh, come on Slippy Dip, you're supposed to be aiming for the goalies, not me," Bubble Flurry would say as she scooted away from the balls projected path lackadaisically, not terribly interested in risking losing.
"Well, why don't you go for the ball and try to get them out, Trouble Blurry," he teased.
They kept on like that for a while, laughing and trash talking back and forth with the colts looking on in amusement while they tried not to lose the game. Time had passed in a blur and before they knew it the other campers were coming in, sticks in muzzle, to get ready for the second on-ice session. The younger goalies were saved by the bell, so to speak, because no one had technically lost.
Once they took to the ice for their final session of the day, Bubble Flurry skated around with the other ponies. When Salchow Glamour, Deadlift, and Snowyfly started chatting in front of one of the nets Bubble Flurry took that as a sign to go over and see what they were doing. She didn't skate fast, figuring they would just give her the short version, but once she arrived by the other ponies skated away, leaving her and Snowyfly standing there.
"Uh, so what are we doing?" she asked with a slight frown.
"No idea," Snowyfly responded flatly.
"Lovely," she responded, resuming her skate.
Soon enough drills started and Bubble Flurry was on the furthest station with Salchow Glamour, Snowyfly, and Deadlift. Salchow Glamour and Deadlift demonstrated the drills and Snowyfly stood near the net to talk his colts through their positioning. So, as with the day's general feel, Bubble Flurry stood next to Snowyfly like a bump on a log, occasionally fishing pucks from out of the net when the other coaches were getting low.
Snowyfly ended up talking to Bubble Flurry more than his own colts. They laughed and smiled at nerdy references as the session went on. Finally, Snowyfly offered to hang out with her on campus if she was interested.
Bubble Flurry told Salchow Glamour almost right away, and she was encouraging it enthusiastically. Looking down at the experienced show pony, Bubble Flurry couldn't help but smile a little at the thought. Salchow Glamour had been trying to find her somepony to flirt with for months.
The day ended in a blur, ponies heading home in a rush, coaches zipping around to figure out what to do with equipment, and a pair of young coaching ponies waiting to be told what to do while Ad Lib pestered them both.
"Can you two watch the table?" Salchow Glamour said rather than asked as she rushed out the door after one of the campers.
"Keep out of trouble, you clowns," Deadlift said on his way out.
Mohawk was nowhere to be found, likely flitting off the second the day was over.
Cobalt Drizzle spoke with parents, being perfectly civil without breaking his stoic demeanor.
Bubble Flurry and Snowyfly leaned back on the circular couch they had taken a seat on, shoulders touched due to the angle but neither one made a move to end the contact.
Snowyfly pulled his water bottle from his bag with his magic and squeeze his eyes closed in concentration. His horn glowed a strong light green before it dimmed down to a standard magical glow. He poured half of the water from his bottle into an extra one and set it in front of Bubble Flurry.
"Here," he said coolly, "If you ever need or want to chat about anything then you can use this to get in contact with me. Not that I expect you would need to, but just in case."
"It's water," she said with a confused frown.
"It's enchanted water. If you speak to it, the vibrations from your voice will send a ripple through the water which will then appear in my water until I get around to responding. It's a spell I worked up a while ago to keep in contact with old teammates who had to go a long distance away. Try it."
Bubble looked at the water. Her mouth contorted in a small pout of doubt before it twisted into a smirk. She whispered quietly into the bottle so Snowyfly couldn't hear. Looking toward his bottle expectantly, she waited.
Snowyfly looked on as black inky words formed in the water. It wasn't long before he let out an amused scoff, "My name is NOT Slippy Dip!"
Bubble Flurry giggled.
Salchow Glamour was back in almost no time, which meant that the two of them could leave. Snowyfly picked up all of his gear, some of it floated around him with magic while some sat on his haunches. Bubble Flurry tossed her bag over her back and the two of them walked out the door together.
They chatted their way down the road until they hit a fork in the path. Bubble Flurry looked toward Hoofington Terrace where she shared an apartment with three of the most obnoxious ponies this side of Equestria, while Snowyfly looked toward Oatz where he lived and commuted from to attend school.
"Well, I guess this is good bye," Snowyfly said with a smirk.
"Until a few days from now, when we'll both be back here to help with camp. Unless you wanted to go to work out tomorrow morning," Bubble Flurry was fishing a little bit and figured he'd say no, but she figured she'd take the shot.
"Now why would I want to do that," he said as he walked backward down his road, that way he could still see her response.
"I don't know. You're the one who said we could hang out," she retorted with a smile.
Snowyfly stuck his tongue out at her. His last interaction with her for the day was him being a little snarky dork. Watching and waiting as she turned and walked away, he smiled to himself and wondered about how the day had gone.
Bubble Flurry took to the road, a song in her heart and a bounce in her step. It had been a while since she had been so excited about meeting a new pony. She was already rehearsing how she was going to tell her friends about this new pony. Surely, she was jumping the gun a little bit, but she had never warmed up to a pony as quickly as this dorky unicorn. She sprung over puddles and did twirls around fallen branches. There was nothing in her way that could put a damper on her day. The walk home would be over quickly.
She had been out of view for a while before he got up the nerve to let loose. A green swirl of magic engulfed his body, fading to show the shining black carapace of a changeling. Large hazel eyes were partially hidden under his unruly wispy auburn mane. The feeling of the wind blowing through the holes in his legs was freeing, helping him realize he was back to being himself. With a stretch of his auburn tinted wings and his enchanted water tucked snugly in one of his leg holes, he took to the air with all of his belongings in tow.