> Perfect Game
>  by Player 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's a beautiful Sunday in Appleoosa, the traditional off-work day. With that, the city's residents have taken the streets to gather for their favorite Sunday tradition: playing the iconic country game of horseshoes. 

This game was more than just a product of the Appleoosa residents' culture; it was deeply ingrained into their history! Sunday Game-Day was started by the first ponies who settled into this city; they decided that after six hard days of work, they would end it off with some leisure! (In Equestria, they consider Monday the start of the week). And the tradition has remained ever since! Every week, having that one day for games instead of work garnered immense excitement and participation among the country folk.

But today was even better, as two special Ponyville residents, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, had come to Appleoosa today. Their visits to the city were well-known, but at this point, it hadn't happened in a while. Both of them had busy work schedules where their times off usually didn't overlap. But today they did, and they were here at the apple town to play some horseshoes.

There weren't any big tournaments going on today; just little groups of friends lining up for their own competitions. There were some solo players too. The brown street looked like a bowling alley in horseshoe version, which always was the case. Nothing special.

But today, that is about to change... a lot. Little did the townsfolk know that today would be the day their beloved game would become even more beloved!

As Applejack and Rainbow Dash finished their first game (Rainbow Dash had won on a last-second ringer), a pony named Shoeshine approached.

Shoeshine is also a Ponyville resident; she has a light blue coat, a curly grayish-white mane, and two interlocking horseshoes as her cutie mark. And when she goes to Appleoosa, which she does fairly often, she dons a pink cowgirl hat, which seems to always attract good attention. Ponies like the combination of pink and blue.

Given this pony's name and cutie mark, there was no guessing as to why she was here, but what was not known is that she would become the one to change the iconic game forever.

"Hey there!", she says to AJ and Dash.

"Oh, hi Shoeshine!", Rainbow Dash says. "You're here too?"

"Yup! But I'm not just here for basic play. In fact, I think it's possible that what I'm up to right now could become an iconic game-changer."

The two ponies had a pause there, realizing that Shoeshine may have chosen them as the inaugural players for her potentially iconic game-changer!

"And... you're starting with us?", Rainbow Dash asks.

"Yes! I feel like you two should be the first to know!"

What? Them? Out of all the possible ponies this could have happened to, they were going to be the ones?

Yes! They were!

"Well, we'd be honored!", Applejack says.

"Yeah! If it does improve the game, I love a good changer! Let's see what it's about!", Rainbow Dash adds.

"Alright!", Shoeshine says.

She then commences the first explanation of her creation.

"What I've got going on here is an add-on to the game of horseshoes where you can now score more points than ever before. The rules up to this point have been one point for ground hit, two points for stake hit, and three points for ringer."

"But if we doubled or tripled that?"

"That's what I've come up with! Right here, you can see three different colors of horseshoe; bronze, silver, and gold. The bronze shoes keep the same point scheme as usual. But with a silver shoe, it's now doubled! When you throw one of these, you'll get two points for a ground hit, four points for a stake hit, and six points for a ringer."

"Then, with a gold shoe, you'll get three points for a ground hit, six points for a stake hit, and nine points for a ringer."

"As usual, we'll play to ten frames, and if you can get a gold ringer every single time, that leads to a best possible score of 90."

"How does that sound?"

Rainbow Dash and Applejack are pleasantly stunned.

"That's a great idea! I like that!", Rainbow Dash exclaims.

"Ah have always wanted to score more points!", Applejack adds.

"I have too! The more the merrier!", Rainbow Dash says. "But," she says, "How do we know what color horseshoe we're supposed to throw?"

"Ah-ha! Important question!", Shoeshine says.

"I've got that covered. You start with a gold shoe. If you get a ringer and thus nine points, you get to throw another gold shoe. If you hit the stake which gives six points, you'll get a silver shoe for the next frame. Then if you hit the ground for three points, you get a bronze shoe next."

"It works the same way the other way around. Say you have a bronze shoe and you hit the ground, for one point. You get another bronze shoe for your next throw. But if you hit the stake (two points), you upgrade to silver. Then if you get a ringer (three points), you upgrade to gold."

"So it's really simple. It's just determined by the result of your throw. Ringer, throw gold next. Stake hit, throw silver next. Ground hit, throw bronze next."

"Okay, that makes sense!", Rainbow Dash exclaims.

"So," she then adds, "Do we get to test out this new version of the game? You came to us with it first!"

"You certainly can! I'll play it with you too; in fact, even I haven't actually played this yet! I created the rules with only my imagination!", Shoeshine exclaims.

The three ponies play the first-ever game of the new horseshoes. Rainbow Dash started; the first gold horseshoe thrown under these new rules landed on the ground. So she got downgraded to bronze. Applejack went next; her first gold hit the stake, giving her silver for Frame 2. Shoeshine got a ringer; more gold for her!

The new rules made for an extremely fun game. The fact that how well you did on this throw also affected your next throw created new, uncharted excitement. Having every throw only have the possibility for one, two, or three points started to get old after a while. And as the ponies had predicted, scoring more points indeed made it more fun.

The scores tallied up at the end. Rainbow Dash had 34 points. Applejack had 38. Shoeshine had 45, giving her the honor of being the first to win under her own rules. But even with Rainbow Dash getting last, which she hated, her score number still got her energy up. 34 is not a number that could have possibly been scored under the old rules! With the highest throw point count being 3 and there being 10 frames, the highest possible score was 30. Rainbow Dash had lost this game and had more than that!

With Shoeshine's new scheme receiving extremely positive reviews from her first two testers, she felt she had the green light to bring it to a larger group.

A larger group that will hopefully lead to an even larger, then an even larger group.
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The trio head over to the busy horseshoe-throwing streets, looking for more ponies to introduce the game to. Still in the early stages of their journey, they looked for a solo player. There weren't that many of those, so they'd have a reasonably small selection to avoid getting overwhelmed with choices.

"Oh, look!", Applejack says, pointing to a familiar pony. "That's one of mah cousins'; let's go to her!"

The other two agree.

This pony is named Autumn Apple, indeed she is a cousin of Applejack. She has a brown coat, bright yellow mane, and an orange leaf for a cutie mark. She primarily works as a session musician around town; she can sing and play any country instrument you can think of. It has been reported in the news that she is the most in-demand session musician in Appleloosa.

But today, like everypony else, she was off work playing horseshoes, but unlike most of them, by herself. Despite being very extroverted and group-oriented, Autumn lives alone, and feels lonely sometimes.

Good thing what is happening today is happening today!

"Hey Autumn!", Applejack says.

Finally having this opportunity, the brown Earth pony runs up and hugs her cousin.

"Applejack! So glad you came! I don't like playing solo!"

Applejack hugs back.

Autumn then notices the other ponies.

"Oh, I see you've got some friends over too!"

"Yup!", Applejack says. "But we're not just here for any old game, Shoeshine here just introduced a twist to it!"

"Oh? Let's hear about it!", Autumn says.

"Good, good.", Shoeshine responds. "So this addition I've got makes it possible to score more points, by way of silver or gold horseshoes. Rather than always 1, 2, or 3 points, silver goes 2, 4, 6, and gold goes 3, 6, 9. Bronze stays as normal. It's decided what color you get next by what you landed on at your last throw; a ground hit gives you bronze, a stake hit gives you silver, and a ringer gives you gold. If you can get 10 gold ringers in a row, that gives you a perfect score of 90."

"Oh, wow! That sounds really cool!", Autumn says.

"It is very cool!", Rainbow Dash exclaims. It builds up more energy, because you know what you throw now affects what you can do next! And more points gives more energy too! I came in 3rd on the first game, but still had 34 points! More than what was possible before!"

"Alright! Let's try it then!", Autumn says.

The now-quartet of ponies play together; Shoeshine again won with 47 points, breaking her record, but Autumn came in second on her first game! 42 points. Rainbow Dash managed to beat Applejack this time, with 39 points, to Applejack's 36.

Autumn's enthusiasm carried over to the actual playing; the third consecutive pony to give the new game a positive review.

"Wow! This is amazing! You should bring it further!"

"That's our plan!", Shoeshine says. "We're going to introduce it to more and more ponies here on this street, then to the wider city, and if it gains enough steam, we'll introduce it to the EHA and ask if they'll adopt it!

*EHA stands for Equestrian Horseshoes Association, the governing body of the game with regards to general rules, leagues, tournaments, etc.

"That sounds great!", Autumn says. "I will certainly join!"

"Good!", Shoeshine says. "And who will we introduce it to next?"

"How about those over there?", Autumn suggests, pointing at a band she had been touring with.

The ponies proceed.

The streak continues; these ones too loved the new rules! The band then goes and introduces it to another band they co-headline on tours with, who also loved it. The game is growing!

The word starts spreading around the street quickly. With the band ponies telling others about what was happening, and those ponies telling others, it eventually gets to a point where nearly all the players have gathered around Shoeshine and Co. to hear about it and play! It's like the whole place is now in a group! Ponies are gathering around the inaugural players, looking to play a game with them, asking about the new rules, talking about officially bringing them in through the EHA; this was more than just an ordinary Sunday game-day here in Appleloosa. This was a party!

Shoeshine managed to ease up the craziness; now ponies were waiting in line to play with the her and the others. Not all the inaugural players played every game; they wanted to make sure there was enough time for everypony in line to get a turn. After all, work would start back up again tomorrow. With a rotating lineup, many matches were played, and the bronze-silver-gold rules continued to get positive reviews!





For more excitement, some more Ponyville residents start showing up, bringing the cities together more. Some of the Ponyville ponies who knew Shoeshine had heard about her creation, so they decided to come up to Appleloosa and see what was going on.

The first one to arrive was Cherry Berry, Shoeshine's best friend. Cherry doesn't play horseshoes much, but since her favorite pony in the world was up to something cool, she decided to join in.

"BFF! You're here!", Shoeshine says with a sprint + hug that was even faster than Autumn's. "I didn't think you would come up! I thought you were waiting for me!"

"I was!", Cherry Berry says. "But I ended up getting interested in playing horseshoes with your rules, and since I had free time, I figured why wait?"

"Great choice, best pal!"

The hugging eases and Cherry Berry enters the game. The inaugural group asks the crowd to disband for a bit, so they can play with just them and Cherry, which they agreed to do. The other ponies went to play their own games (with the new rules), leaving a five-player game right here. Shoeshine had her first non-first outside of the street-wide games, losing to Autumn with 43 points to 46. Rainbow Dash came in 3rd and broke 40 points for the first time, garnering 41. Applejack fell short with 39 points, and Cherry scored just 22. But that was to be expected; she hardly ever played this game.

Later, someone of a different species shows up: myself. I live in Ponyville, but this past week I had been in Appleloosa for a project. Every time I came here, I would go to the horseshoe streets to watch some action. I sometimes play, but not often. I prefer spectating.

"What's happenin'?", I said loudly, hoping that ponies would notice me.

"Oh, howdy there, Player 4.", Applejack said. "Shoeshine here just introduced a change to horseshoes where we now throw bronze, silver, or gold, for more points!"

"That's really cool!", I said. "Just like Shoeshine, I've always loved the bronze, silver, gold thing. In any capacity. Cool to know it's being brought to this great game!"

"Nice to hear! Will you try playing the game?", Shoeshine said.

"Erm, I'd love to", I said, "but I have to go back to Ponyville for a work project. What I was doing here in Appleoosa has just been finished. But I'm sure I'll play it eventually."

I did indeed have a lot of work to do most of the time; I've often been compared to Applejack and Rarity in this regard since arriving in Equestria.

"Oh, okay.", Shoeshine said. "I understand; work comes first. But let me know when you're available to play; I'd like to do it with you!"

"Sounds good!", I said. "I think this project will be pretty short, so I should be available on Tuesday. Also, I'll tell my coworkers about it for more spread! Bye everypony!"

"Bye, P4!", Rainbow Dash said.

I headed off to the train station.





What a morning this was! A creative new version of an iconic game had commenced, and gained a great deal of popularity. And it was still morning!

For even more, a news reporter showed up to document this event and spread the word to the rest of the city.

So far, so good!
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After collecting the fun information, the news reporter didn't want to have to wait until tomorrow morning, when all the ponies would be working again, to deliver it. So he went over to the printing press building and asked them to extend the daily newspaper period for an extra breaking news story, which they agreed to do.

After enough newspapers were printed, the reporter, taking the role of a deliverer, trotted all over Appleloosa, handing over late-in-the-day newspapers to the residents, using the phrase "breaking news you must know about now." The Appleloosa ponies who weren't in the game street that Shoeshine and Co. were at had no idea what had been going on over there, and the news reporter felt like they really needed to. After all, if the ponies who were there loved the new rules, why wouldn't these folks?

As the news pony hands out papers, the word spreads across this other street, with the Appleloosa residents talking to each other.

"So it says that a Ponyville mare has created a new version of horseshoes, and it is rapidly gaining popularity over in this city.", one mare said.

"I saw that too!", another mare said. The rules are explained right here in this column, it sounds really cool!"

"They also posted which street this is happening on.", a stallion said. "Let's go over there!"

As the word spreads further, the ponies in this area disband from their own horseshoe competitions (those of them who were still in a game at the time finished it first), and head over to the street in question to see what the excitement is about.





Over in the aforementioned street where the new rules took off, the ponies in already jam-packed area started to notice a crowd of new ponies walking over.

"Well! Looks like the news pony wasn't kidding when he said he would spread the word!", Shoeshine exclaimed.

Cherry Berry looks over. "Oh no, he really wasn't!", she says. "Look at all these ponies coming to see the game!"

Shoeshine gulped. It was her goal to get this game a lot of attention, but she still had a strike of nervousness upon seeing the large crowd.

She became even more nervous upon realizing there was a bit of a problem here. With this big of a pack, Shoeshine wasn't sure how to get the word out all at once. It would be exhausting to go around explaining to only a few at a time. But a microphone was nowhere to be seen. Or a stage.

The crowd was approaching ever closer, and Shoeshine was getting worried.

Luckily, an Appleloosa local came up to give help.

"Here, you can stand on this barrel.", the mare says, pushing over a brown barrel. "It might be hard for the ponies in the back of the crowd to hear you, but as long as you stand at a higher elevation, they'll know they must be quiet and listen. I mean, it makes sense, right? If a pony is up on stage, or something resembling a stage, they're going to be listened to."

A relieved and grateful Shoeshine hugged the helpful pony. She then got up on top of the barrel and waited for the crowd to stop walking.

As they do so, Shoeshine wants to get confirmation first as to whether they'll be able to catch the information.

"Can you all hear me?", she shouts. "I don't have a microphone!"

Most of the crowd nods and holler yes, but Shoeshine knew she was in for a voice-killer. If she wanted to be heard the whole way through, she would have to keep speaking loudly. And thus she would have to temporarily pass the baton to another one in her group after this.

"Alright!", the blue mare begins. "I here, the name is Shoeshine, have just invented a twist to your favorite game where it now features bronze, silver, and gold horseshoes."

The crowd sounds interested; a good bit of "huh"s, "oh, wow"s, and the like can be heard, along with smiling.

"Yep!", Shoeshine says. "What the horseshoe colors indicate is how many points you can score from them. You see, if you throw a bronze shoe, the score goes 1, 2, 3 like you're used to. But throw a silver shoe and it goes 2, 4, 6. Then throw a gold, and that gives you 3, 6, 9. So if you can get 10 gold-horseshoe ringers in a row, that's a perfect score of 90!"

The crowd sounds impressed! Their faces look even happier, some of them are jumping, and even the ones in the front are trying to move closer to Shoeshine.

"You're probably wondering how you know which color you're supposed to throw.", the inventor continues. "Well, it's simple. You throw a ringer, you get to pick up a gold horseshoe for your next throw. Throw a stake hit, and you'll be given silver. Throw a ground hit, and you've got bronze. Oh, and you always start with gold."

A pony in the crowd speaks. "Do we get to play?"

"Of course!" Shoeshine says. "Be respectful, like, don't push around, wait for your turn, but otherwise, go ahead! Jump right in!"

The close-together crowd starts to flood to the stakes to experience the new game.

"However", Shoeshine adds, stopping the crowd for a bit, "This constant shouting has worn out my voice. So I'm going to pass the guide crown to Applejack right here. She'll walk you through the game and answer any questions you have."

The crowd nods and runs onto the street for the excitement. Applejack begins her new role, going from stake to stake and clearing things up, while Shoeshine heads over to a green-and-white striped lawn chair to rest. She is graciously given a fresh bottle of apple cider by another local, and then notices that the crowd has avoided gathering up on her to admire her invention. They're being nice and letting her have a break.

The extremely crowded street goes gaming, with the new rules earning more and more admiration by the minute.

Little did they know, they wouldn't have to go up to the EHA's office and report about this; the league of leagues had saw the newspaper and was headed down here!

Shoeshine looks over at the approaching EHA staff. 

"Looks like I have succeeded.", she says to herself.
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The EHA staff arrive onto the scene.

"We have been informed that a lovely and creative pony from Ponyville has invented a change to our iconic game of horseshoes, and that the change has garnered very high ratings. We would like to see it for ourselves, so we can decide if we want to take into consideration making the change official.", one stallion said.

Shoeshine heard this and burst right out of her chair and in front of them. She was tired, but had to be right there. Her invention was being taken into consideration by the actual EHA; she couldn't rest on this.

"Of course!", the blue mare quickly says. "Head on over here."

The ponies walk over to a stake, where the EHA staff take on throwing the bronze, silver, and gold. Despite the extremely positive reactions Shoeshine has garnered from the Appleloosa folk, she was nervous here. After all, these were ponies from the EHA. The official governing body of the game. If they didn't like it, it wouldn't go into effect.

But those worries were melted away when Shoeshine heard one of the stallions say "Oh wow! I've never felt like this when playing horseshoes before!"

"Neither have I!", another stallion said.

Shoeshine begins to realize that her home-made, one-pony, random creation was really going this far. It was her goal to make it this far, but she kept holding onto that thing called "realism", where she acknowledged that it was likely a pretty low chance the EHA would actually adopt it.

But it seems like they will, as the stallions continue having fun, competitively telling each other "I've got gold!", "I'm going to get this!", among other things. When one of the players got a gold ringer, there was some big celebration!

Most of the appeal of Shoeshine's invention seems to have come from the fact that there is a hierarchy of horseshoes that determines how many points you can get, and your next color is decided by what you just threw. More points, more risk, more suspense, more fun.

After the game, the EHA staff members walk up to the inventor with smiles; a sign that they have made the decision she was looking for.

"You are the designer of this new game mode, correct?"

"Correct."

"And your name is...?"

"Shoeshine, your honor."

"Miss Shoeshine, we have experienced many amazing horseshoe games in our careers of governing the rules."

"But never have we experienced a game like that."

"We would like to give you a big thanks for inventing that game mode, and we are going to put it to a city vote on whether to adopt it. The vote will be done today; polls will open in just a few hours.

This was something that had never been seen before. Prior to this, any changes related to the game were voted on only by EHA staff. The league has always had the protocol that a major change would be put to a vote by the Appleloosa residents, as it's mostly their game, but since this was the first major change that been put on the game, this was the first time that protocol has ever been used.

Shoeshine is stunned, realizing the longshot accomplishment that she had achieved. "Thank you!", she says.

Despite being one of the wealthiest ponies in Ponyville, due to her work with valuable materials like gold and silver, this is the biggest success that Shoeshine feels she has ever experienced. While the vote still had yet to be held, it was practically guaranteed the change would win by a landslide. The crowd in this street was over 70% of Appleloosa's population, and they had yet to find a single negative review.

To think that something she just came up with on the spot while sitting at home made it this far; not to mention that it did so this quick! It immediately garnered high praise and pounded right through each step to official EHA adoption that would normally take a while. 

Shoeshine has no words. Needing time to process this, she heads back to her lawn chair, hoping to get a good chunk of rest in before votes start being cast.





It's time. Ponies begin heading to polling stations to check boxes and drop them in a box.

As expected, the implementation of Shoeshine's invention won by a landslide. Or rather, a mountainslide. 94% yes to 6% no. How crazy is that?

So there it was. Bronze, silver, and gold was now the official, standard way of playing horseshoes.

Ponies are back at the streets playing more of the game, but they soon realize the sun is setting. And tomorrow is Monday, so they'll have to go back to work tomorrow.

Or will they?
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the ponies on the street brings up the possibility of suspending work tomorrow in order to focus on the game.

"Well, couldn't we like, maybe, take an extra day off? I mean, this is really big and all... and not every work task needs to be done immediately", the mare says nervously.

She was right to be nervous. On a surface level, that seems blasphemous to the city's culture. Appleloosa is a city built off of work. Taking unscheduled time off doesn't make sense, let alone having the whole place do it.

But the significance of this event could change that, at least for this one day. After all, the game of horseshoes was iconic to the city, and it had just become even more iconic, with the new rules gaining uncharted enthusiasm in a game that already seemed to have garnered maximum enthusiasm. The Appleloosa ponies never thought they could have even more fun with the horseshoes game. Plus, it has been officially adopted by the EHA. That is big, and definitely not something they thought would happen either. A change to a game whose basic rules had remained static for centuries.

Oh, and didn't all this happen on the same day? Yep, it did.

This was a massive historical event for Appleloosa; why wait a whole another week to take it to the next level?

This suggestion of taking tomorrow off was met with confusion from the crowd at first, unsurprisingly. But after further thinking, they agree with the mare.

"I suppose we could do it. You're right, not every work task is super urgent. Some of us are able to put it off a bit; I sure am."

"Yeah! Why wait to do more of this? The rules of horseshoes have been changed! That's not something any of us have seen in our lifetimes!"

"I agree. But, not everypony can take tomorrow off work. There is urgent work happening; some things just can't be postponed."

The crowd takes this into account, seemingly about to backpedal. But one pony quickly comes up with a balanced solution.

"How about we split up; some of us go back to work tomorrow, while others get time to play the game.", she says. "I mean, we do live in Appleloosa; plenty of ponies would be willing to wait for more gaming."

This idea generates a good response from the crowd, with a mix of "Yeah"s, "I like that"s, and such being heard.

"Good idea! We can go with that!", Shoeshine says.

"But, how exactly do we decide who goes to work and who doesn't?", another mare asks.

"I have an idea!", Shoeshine says. She draws a line through the ground, giving ponies a hint of what she's up to.

"We'll split ourselves up into two groups.", she says. "If you would like to continue playing tomorrow, head over this side.", she says, pointing to the right from her view, and left from the crowd's view. "If you would like to return to work, head to this side.", she says, pointing in the opposite direction.

The crowd follows the instructions, and wow, they have almost a complete half-and-half! Perfect!

"Okay, there we go!", Shoeshine exclaims. "Tomorrow, those of you who chose this side, head back to this street, and we'll play the first day of the new rules being official!"

The crowd cheers in excitement.





It's the next day, and such half of the gathering is back. The half-and-half split also occurred with the inaugural group; Applejack and Rainbow Dash had to head back to Ponyville for their jobs, but Shoeshine and Autumn Apple took the day off for some more horseshoes.

They meet up on the same street they were at yesterday.

"Good morning, Autumn!", Shoeshine says. "You ready?"

"You bet, Shoeshine! Looks like they are too!", Autumn says, pointing to the crowd.

"Alright, everypony! Game on!", Shoeshine shouts.

The playing starts, for more shining-horseshoe fun.





Over at the EHA offices, their plan was to begin the new era with a knockout tournament. Starting with a qualifying round, anypony who signed up would get to play, and when it was determined who the qualifiers were, the tournament would start. Beginning with 64 players, then going to the round of 32 players, then 16, then 8, then 4, then 2. That was what the EHA wanted to do.

But upon some of the staff's arrival at the street, they saw a different environment.

"Oh, not quite! I had five gold in a row, but alas, I have to throw silver now. I didn't get a ringer there."

"I had 35 points; I mean, that's halfway there, right? Maybe I'll get it soon!"

"Is it even possible to get a perfect game?"

It seemed to the EHA members that the players' top priority at this moment was to get a perfect game. 10 gold 9-point ringers in a row for the magic score of 90. That was what they were focusing on; what they were trying to do. Not playing a tournament.

They walk up to the inventor for an opinion about this.

"Excuse us, Miss Shoeshine, it appears to us that most of the horseshoe players here are focusing on getting a perfect game. Is that the top priority for y'all right now?"

"Well", Shoeshine says, "I didn't decide on or command for that, but yeah, it does seem correct, looking around here. They're all trying to get that 90."

The stallions look at each other, feeling they have the means to decide something big.

"So then", one of the staff members says, "Here at the EHA we always set a top priority for the game of horseshoes at any moment. An agenda for what we would most like to accomplish first. Do you think getting a perfect game is good for that status right now?"

"Sure! I can roll with that!"

"Good. We will officially announce that in the next newspaper. Thank you, Miss Shoeshine."

"No problem! Let's get that agenda down, and go for perfect!"





Back at the offices, the EHA's writing team has finished penning down a newspaper article that will be published tomorrow.

By observation of what ponies' most popular efforts currently are down at horseshoe-playing streets, we at the EHA have declared getting a perfect game to be the top priority for horseshoes at this moment. On this day at 1:00 PM, we will gather together at Shoe Stadium to see if one of us can get 10 consecutive gold ringers for that perfect 90 score. And if none of us do, well, we take on it another day. We will keep going with this project until somepony gets a perfect game. The first to do so will receive a big trophy.

We look forward to seeing you there!

So... can anypony do it?
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's now the next day, and Shoe Stadium is receiving a great influx of spectators, and players, for the first stadium match of horseshoes under the new rules. Per the EHA's declaration, getting a perfect game is what they will be aiming for.

Despite today being Tuesday, a work day, there was still a good turnout in the stadium. Not everypony could make it, but it seems that they had spontaneously decided to extend the "extra day off" to an extra two days. And luckily, not a lot of must-do-now work was going on at the moment. The fact that this whole thing happened outside of applebuck season seems to have benefited.

With a big game upon the horizon, the announcer starts speaking.

"Welcome, everypony, welcome! We are about to play the very first official, organized competition of horseshoes under this new bronze, silver, and gold scheme! A total of 24 players will be competing today; they will go at the stakes one at a time for that perfect 90 score. Will any of them be able to do it today? Claim the trophy right at the beginning?"

The crowd finds that very ambitious, but they cheer nonetheless.

"Alrighty then! Please welcome Contestant #1!"

Contestant #1, the first to go at it, is Autumn Apple. It was originally going to be Shoeshine, the inventor, but she decided to be a co-announcer instead. She's up high in the booth with the main announcer. So Autumn, the only other member of the inaugural group who was available today, was going to be the debut.

Despite not believing it was really possible that a perfect game would happen this early, let alone by her, as her best score so far was 42, Autumn's mind starts to swirl as she walks up towards the stake. The initial cheering had died down and now the large crowd was watching closely at the brown-coated mare, holding out hope she would get perfect. Autumn wasn't used to having that much pressure on her. 

But she knows she wants to do this; why would anypony pass on the opportunity to be the debut player in the very first official game under brand new rules?

Autumn looks up at the crowd, who now seem more encouraging, rather than pressuring. She can notice it from their faces; they seemed to have noticed that Autumn was feeling a bit anxious.

The smiling faces make it happen. Overpowering her nerves, Autumn picks up the starting golden horseshoe and prepares to throw. The shoe firmly secured in her mouth, here comes the beginning bang.

Turning her head to side and giving the gold horseshoe a powerful release, the first stadium shoe just barely nicks the top of the stake in order to produce a ringer. Nine points, and on track!

The crowd cheers at Contestant #1, with the first throw having become one that is getting them where they need to go.

Autumn gets to throw another gold, and continues giving it her all.

On the second throw, if you were to slow down the footage, the horseshoe appears to be in prime ringer position, but ultimately, the opening part just barely missed and a stake hit ensued. Six points.

The crowd reacts in kind, a perfect game already gone. Yes, it was the very beginning, but a perfect game is what ponies had come to see. It was their goal. They give Autumn the sports treatment, and it gets to her. She hangs her head down in shame.

"Goodness, I didn't think it would become this intense this quick.", the main announcer said.

"Well, it is sports, after all.", Shoeshine adds.

"Sports are really harsh on the ones that cause them to exist, aren't they?"

"Yup."

But Autumn won't let this take her down. Invoking her resilience, she keeps going and throws the next frames. It was predicted by the ponies following this story that it would eventually get to a point where as soon as a gold ringer did not happen, the player would start over, to save time. If you're serious about going for perfect, no need to continue on after you've already failed it.

But at this early stage, they wanted to see how many points they could get right now; how close they were to getting to perfect before they actually got there. An average score of 65 today, rather than 45, would show better progress, and likely a more-soon perfect game.

Next, Autumn hits two consecutive silver-shoe stakes for four points each, bringing her score to 23 after four throws. That isn't bad at all. She continues on an impressive streak of mostly ringers and stake hits, with only one ground hit, for a final score of 56.

"I mean, that's the highest we've seen so far, isn't it?", the main announcer asks.

"From what I've witnessed, yes.", the helper Shoeshine says.

The crowd cheers at Autumn for her currently-exceptional score. It was far away from 90, but this was the very first big game, and nopony had yet seen this number until now. They hadn't even seen a score higher than in the 40s!

Autumn walks off the field, and the next contestant steps up to play. The pink-coated mare starts off with three consecutive gold ringers, earning her a big roar from the crowd.

But her fourth throw... didn't quite make it. A stake hit came there.

So there goes the perfect. But still, she's in great position to break Autumn's record already. She hits a ringer with the silver horseshoe to upgrade back to gold, where she gets another nine-pointer. She then continues on a streak of 6s and 9s, with the lone stand-out being a 4.

At the end, her final score tallied 70! Now that was something!

"Wow! Like everypony else here, I was figuring we'd be taking baby steps here at the beginning, but it seems we have made a lot of progress in just these three days!", the announcer exclaims.

"It sure does!", Shoeshine says.

Still with 22 more contestants to go, the crowd starts to feel they might end up seeing a perfect score today after all!

With the ponies celebrating Contestant #2's astonishing score and, as a result of the quickly rising numbers, thinking somepony might get to that 90 on this day, the stadium is really feeling the heat!

But... the thermometer then starts to go down after none of the next four contestants are able to crack 65 points. Their scores (in order) were 55, 49, 51, and 61.

"Uh, well... There is such a thing as speaking too soon; everypony does it.", the announcer says, trying to make the earlier prediction sound less ridiculous.

"Well, hold up. It's too early to know if we've spoken too soon", Shoeshine says. "We still have 18 more players to go."

Upon hearing Shoeshine's words over the microphone, the crowd starts to regain their perfect game energy. But then they lose it again. Out of the next six, one of them bumps up to 67 points, but most of the other players hovered in the 50s.

"Maybe we'd be seeing better results here if Contestant #2 got to play again. So far she has been the best.", the main announcer says.

"I was thinking that too.", Shoeshine says.

"Still believing in it, though. We're only halfway through.", the primary announcer responds.

They indeed are still only halfway through; 12 contestants down and 12 to go, the ponies still hold out hope, but ultimately, nopony was able to break #2's score of 70, and thus, they're still 20 away from perfect at best.

All the players having played, the game is over.





"I don't get it; we jumped straight from the 40s to 56 to 70! We were soaring! Where did it all go?"

"Totally beats me."

"As the announcer said, maybe Contestant #2 is the best player. Had she been allowed to go again, we might have broke 70."

"She will get a chance to go again next game. Although, I'm not sure when the next game will be, given that there's a lot of urgent work that needs to be done tomorrow, and... now that I think of it, on Thursday too..."

This was true. Based on what Appleloosa was going to be up to tomorrow and Thursday, it seemed unlikely that there would be another stadium game until Friday at the least.

"Well, some gaps were bound to happen eventually", a stallion says. "The initial shock wave of this new game wasn't going to last forever; eventually we'll have to stop doing it every day."

"But then that will make it take longer to get perfect!", a mare responds.

The stallion rethinks. "Okay, maybe the shock wave hasn't died yet."





Maybe it's receding, but it definitely isn't dead. Some of the contestants begin talking on the streets about holding an organized meeting where they try to analyze the game, figure out what they did wrong, try to improve. Practice does make perfect, after all.

And they might be getting some added help too.
> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later in the day, a couple hours after the game, a few of the players arrange a meeting to hold an analysis session. They meet at the Appleloosa street where the game started, and proceed to try and school themselves.

"Okay, players," one of them says. "We need to figure out what went wrong."

"Yes, we do. Let's do it. But before that; before we try to figure out what went wrong with us, I say we give an inquiry as to what went right for Contestant #2."

"I agree. We need a comparison."

"Okay. Any ideas as to what #2 did right?"

"Well, for starters, I think her unique throwing style helped a lot. Most of us throw straight at the stake, where it could easily take a hit. But #2 makes her shoes fly further upwards into the air, causing them to come down above the top of the stake. As such, they have a better chance to score a ringer."

"Maybe that is true, but the rest of us trying to change our styles would be counterproductive. We're in a race here, after all. Everypony is trying to be the first to get perfect, and trying to learn a new style of play would slow us down.

"Hmm, you're right. It would adversely affect our chances."

"Indeed it would. So I suggest we analyze the playing style we have right now and figure out how to fix it."

"Yes."

"One thing I noticed by looking at the angles in which the shoes landed after hitting the stake is that many of them just barely had their opening parts miss. As in, if they had been angled just a little bit to the other direction, it would have been a  ringer."

"If all, or even just most, of such shoes did become ringers, the scores would have been much better."

"Ah."

"Okay, that makes sense. So now, how do you suppose what exactly went into our throwing that caused them to do that, and how do we fix it?"

"Hmm... unfortunately, I can't answer that. We would need a professional game analyzer to tell us that."

"Well, let's go find one then!"

"Okay."





Over on the other side of town, Autumn Apple had gone back to her house with a mixed range of emotions running through her. It wasn't clear to her why, as she had been void of all her worries upon the conclusion of her turn at the game. For some reason, what she felt during the time she got a bad reaction from the crowd, and the complicated feelings that came with being Contestant #1 during Game #1 started creeping back up on her.

Feeling the need to practice for improvement, Autumn does so, but not with much effort. She just throws and throws, unable to shake off her mysterious ill-feels. This causes her to question if she will even be able to continue playing the game. "What if I still feel like this tomorrow?", she thinks to herself. "If I can't play at my best, I'll have to drop out of the competition! But I wouldn't want to!"

Yeah, being #1 isn't always good.

Meanwhile, Shoeshine was also having an internal conflict. She wasn't sure if she wanted to join in on the actual games or continue being the co-announcer. On one hoof, she wanted to play, but on the other hoof, she felt that joining in one some games but not others left her with barely any chance of winning the competition. She could give herself that chance by playing every game from here on out, but she wanted to be the announcer in some games too; not discontinue that.

As if that weren't enough, Shoeshine remembers that one reason she wanted to start playing is that she did indeed want to win the trophy. Be the first to get perfect. One reason she opted out at first was because she thought it would be weird to have the inventor be the winner of a tournament, but she started to question those feelings and wonder if anypony would really care about that. But of course, to have a chance at the trophy, she would need to stop being the co-announcer, which she didn't want to do.

"I mean, I could balance it and play some games but not others; I'd still have fun even if I wasn't competing for the trophy, but... I think I want the trophy."

"But is it appropriate? What would ponies think of the inventor being the winner?"

Oof. This was going to take a while to figure out.

But on the bright side for Shoeshine, she gets some company.

I, having just finished with my work project, come back up to Appleloosa to get a taste of the new game. Because of the project, I had yet to play it once.

"Shoeshine! You've got a first-timer here!"

"Oh, Player 4! I was wondering when you'd be here to try it out!"

"Well, um... I knew the project would be over today, but I forgot to tell you."

"That's alright. All that matters is you're here now."

"Thanks for your patience. I know how the rules work, so there's no need to explain it."

"Good."

As I play, I love the new scheme just as much as the next pony (Well, I'm not a pony, but you know what I mean), and from what I can tell, Shoeshine seems to be doing fine. She's smiling, congratulating me, excitedly talking about the last few days; nothing out of the ordinary here.

But Cherry Berry, who was back in Appleloosa and had noticed her bestie's sad-looking expressions prior to my arrival, walked up and started speaking to her.

"Hey Shoeshine", she said, "is there something wrong? You looked a bit down before P4 arrived, and, sorry if I sound harsh, but I don't believe that the sudden change of mood was legit. It's like you just suddenly perked up."

Shoeshine sighs. "Yep, you caught me. I'm not doing well right now."

"Really?", I ask. "Well, are you comfortable telling us what's wrong? We can help."

"Yeah, we're your friends!"

After giving it some thought, Shoeshine decides to spill it. "Okay, I'll tell you."

"So, when my change to the game of horseshoes was officially adopted by the EHA and they started holding a race for being the first to get a perfect game, I decided to not be a player, but instead a co-announcer in the booth. My thought process was that it would be weird for the inventor to compete, much less win! What if I won the title? Would others consider it illegitimate, because I was the inventor and thus had a built-in advantage?"

"But later on, I started to reconsider that position. For one thing, built-in advantages will always happen in sports. Some players have better body figures for what they're playing that gives them a natural advantage over other players, like, on P4's world, in basketball, where taller players have an edge. But we don't penalize them for that."

"So at that point I started leaning towards wanting to be a player, but then I ran into another problem: I had already not played the first game. I'm not sure if we're allowed to join in later. Even if we are, it wouldn't make much sense for a new competitor to join in the middle of the tournament. How could they possibly have a chance at the title? In my case, I don't think that would apply, as it's just one game, but then that leads me to another problem: I don't want to stop being the co-announcer! I enjoy it! Now, I could split it; be a player in some games and the co-announcer in others, but again, I'm not sure if we can do that, and how would I, playing only half the games, have a shot at the title? As if the problems don't keep piling up, I do know I would have fun even without competing for the trophy, but at the same time... I want it..."

Shoeshine begins struggling to articulate her words and lays down on the ground with a sad face. Cherry Berry and I react in kind, going up to pet her, and waiting to respond. We needed time to think, anyway.

Eventually, I come up with something to say, and start speaking.

"So you want to do two things that clash with each other. That's a hard situation to be in. I'm sorry you have to go through this."

"For starters, give it time. You might not feel the same way next week, or even tomorrow, as you do today. You might eventually end up leaning towards one side, and then it will be an easy decision. So hold off on making one now."

"Right", Cherry Berry responds. "It takes time to make a decision. Also, it's harder to make a decision when you're stressed out over it. So yeah, give it some time, and you'll feel better."

"And about the not knowing if new players can join while the competition is in progress, well, ask the EHA about that. As you said, further in might be off limits, but since only one game has passed, I don't see why they wouldn't let you in, should you decide to go that route."

"And even if you can't join in on the playing, remember that you started this new version of the game. That's a title you already hold, and it's an extraordinary thing to hold. Think about how long this game has been ingrained into Appleloosa's culture, and how long the original rules remained in place!"

"Oh, for certain! Did anypony expect the official rules to ever be changed?", I said.

Shoeshine gets hit by our words and stands back up. "No, they definitely didn't.", she said. "Thanks, you two, I really needed to hear that. Help from friends is always great."

"It is a perfect stress reliever," I say, "talking it out to your friends."

"Yes it is. I think I'll go home now, with what you said in mind. Thanks a lot!"

"Bye, Shoeshine!", Cherry Berry says.

Well, this was quite an experience for me. I like comforting others, but never really considered myself to be that great at it. But it does appear I affected Shoeshine quite well. And I'm sure having Cherry Berry, Shoeshine's best friend, by my side, helped a lot. I didn't do it all alone.

With a good and altruistic accomplishment in our day diaries, Cherry and I head off.





Back at the group of players trying to fix their game, they were looking for a pro analyst who can tell them how to improve their throwing. Not as easy to find in Equestria due to the lack of Internet, but there had to be somepony; this was a sports-crazed city, after all.

Eventually they find a paper advertisement hanging on a pole for an analyst. 

"Hey! I found a jackpot!", one of the ponies says.

The word "jackpot" ringing what it will, the other ponies run up. "Where? What did you find?"

"Here on this pole. It's an advertisement for a pro analyst."

"Oh yeah, that is a jackpot! Let's head on over!"

"Here we go!"

They head off to the provided address, open the door, where the analyst is laying back in a chair, eyes closed.

He then quickly emerges. "Hello there. You looking for some sports study?", the stallion says.

"Oh yes!", one of the players says.

"Full explanation: We are part of the horsehoes new-rules perfect game competition. We are players, who a couple hours ago finished the first game. You see, at first, it appeared that we were on track for a perfect score within the first few games. When the new scheme was still in the trial stage, no score of 50 or higher was attained. But then the first pro player managed to get 56. And then her successor got 70. But after that, nopony else was able to match or surpass that latter score."

"What she said. It feels like we were taking off, up up high in the sky, then suddenly flattened out."

"Hmm. Well, do you ponies currently have any analysis for yourselves on why that happened?", the analyst said.

"Yes, in fact. We discovered from slowing down the game footage that many of the horsehoes just barely had their opening areas miss the stake. Like, a ringer failed by virtue of it being off 10 centimeters too far to one side."

"But we haven't been able to figure out exactly why they were doing that. And that is why we have come to you."

"Okay. I can help."

The sports analyst, who seems to also be a scientist based on his knowledge of body physics, uncovers the unexpected truth; many of the ponies had already been putting ever-so-slightly too much spin on the horseshoes while releasing them.

"So you see, the shoes were often slipping around in your mouths while you were making the throw, causing the trajectory to get messed up. Like, see right here: this horseshoe was on the verge of being straight, but it slid to the right just before it got released."

"The best solution to this is to learn how to keep the grip steady."

"But... how are we going to do that? I can only guess it's our saliva that makes the shoes slide around."

"It is partially that, but also because you're rapidly turning your head from one side to another, something that will always have fluctuations, while trying to keep the shoe going out at the same slant every time. It's not easy to do that, much less get it exactly right ten times in a row."

"So, how do you suggest we improve?"

"I would start by gripping the shoes tighter. Press your mouths down on them harder. Then to fix the angles, maybe try throwing a little later, like when your head is straightened out. That would help curb the curve."

"Got it. Thank you so much."

"Any time, players. My office is open many hours."

"I'm sure you will see plenty more customers during this race! See you later!", one of the players says, giving the analyst a hoof-bump.

The players head out of the building, and return to the streets to practice with the analyst's tips. They headed their own advice of not making a big change to their style of play, as that would push their perfect game back, but they are using the analyst's techniques of gripping tighter and throwing later, as they were just little changes. And they're not caring about score right now; just trying to get used to the new throws.





Later on in the day, at about the evening-night transition, Shoeshine and Autumn Apple started to have racing minds again. Shoeshine, who had gone back to Ponyville, began anxiously wondering how she would feel by tomorrow and beyond. While Cherry Berry and myself had cleared some things out for her, Shoeshine started to worry about a new thing she discovered: the possibility that she would be left without a decision until much later. "There's no way I'm going to decide which way to go tomorrow. Think about a week", she thought, "and, by then, it will be too late for a new player to join."

At the same time, Autumn couldn't stop thinking that her stage freight wouldn't let up. That she'll have to drop out. "I don't like being number 1. Too much pressure. I wish I had been later on, then I'd be playing well. Blame the order for why I can't play this tournament anymore."

So yeah, there are some things going on here. It really makes you wonder what the next game will be like.

But more importantly, how Shoeshine and Autumn are feeling. They clearly needed help; Shoeshine had already gotten some, but she needed more. And Autumn hadn't gotten any. But who would help them?

Oof, this is a headache. But keep going. We will pull through this.
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's the next day, and close to time for the second game.

Some good updates have been made from yesterday. While Shoeshine was still undecided on where to completely go from here, and was still in doubt she ever would decide that, she did decide to be a player for today.

Well, provided the EHA allows it.

Hopefully they do. But either way, Shoeshine's choice came from the realization that making a decision wouldn't make sense if you haven't experienced all the options. She had to measure being a co-announcer up with being a player in order to figure out which path she wanted to take. And yesterday she was a co-announcer, so today, player it is.

And Autumn Apple, who was already a player, decided to push past her nerves and continue playing. She did indeed discover that bad feelings always wane over time, and you'll no longer agree with the things you said. Such is the case today. Autumn knew what she was getting into, but she definitely didn't want out of the competition anymore. So she holds her head high and does her practice, then heads out for the game.





Shoeshine's original plan for today was to head back to Appleloosa and go into the EHA's office building to ask if new players can join starting from this second game. But it seems she has been beaten to that.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who were very luckily able to get a day off work today, decided that they wanted to join in on the competition, and they were here at the EHA hub to ask if they could before Shoeshine even boarded the train coming from Ponyville.

AJ and Dash walk into the dark building. "Oh, hello there!", the front desk pony says. "You two are part of the inaugural group that brought this new horseshoes scheme to the forefront, aren't you?"

"That is correct", Applejack says. "And we're here to ask if new players can join this 'ere competition in spite of it havin' already started."

"Yes! We couldn't play the first game because we had to work.", Rainbow Dash adds.

"Well, you're in luck, because the question board workers are free right now. Head on over there."

"Thanks a lot!", Applejack says. "Have a swell day there!"

The front desk stallion smiles.

"Oh hello!", one of the ponies working at the question board says. "I know you two! You were part of the inaugural group."

Applejack and Rainbow Dash look at each other in slight surprise. They expected ponies referring to their group to fluctuate with their names, but they clearly aren't. "Inaugural group" has been firmly cemented.

But that doesn't really mean anything, and Applejack strikes up the intended conversation. "Howdy there!", she says to the EHA worker. "So, we are here to ask, can new players join this perfect game competition even though it's already in progress?"

"What she said. There are qualifying players, such as us two, who couldn't attend the first game because of work commitments."

"Thank you for the question. We here at the EHA have been expecting somepony to ask about this. So we worked a lot on it, and we decided that yes, as of now, because it is so early on, new players can join the competition as of this moment."

AJ and Dash give each other a high-hoof in happiness.

"The only catch is, notice my use of the phrase 'early on.' This competition will eventually get to a point where adding new players wouldn't make sense. Like, if the majority of ponies are scoring in the 70s and 80s, with great evidence that a perfect game is about to occur soon, then it will be closed off."

"But since the current highest score is 70, well away from the maximum, you two and others are welcome to join."

"Thanks so much! We were worried!"

"Anytime, my ponies. Just present me your qualifying documents, sign onto this paper, and you'll be good to go. And, on a last note, make sure to tell any other players who didn't make to the first game that they can do this. Because eventually, it will have to be closed off. They have limited time."

"Will do! Thank you so much!", Applejack says as she and Rainbow Dash show their qualifying papers and sign themselves on to the player list.

They then excitedly head out to the streets to practice for their first pro game. "Thanks again!", Applejack says.

The EHA stallion feels good. "I love seeing happy customers.", he says to himself.





As they are in game mode, the Ponyville Express arrives at a station that Applejack and Rainbow Dash are close to, with Shoeshine being one of the ponies that comes out.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash are excited at this, knowing they had the answer to the blue mare's burning question. Good thing she had arrived now and not earlier, because now, she doesn't need to go to the EHA to know if she can join or not!

Rainbow Dash flies up to her for the news. "Hey there, Shoeshine! Applejack and I have got great, great news!", she says with a smile.

After a brief buildup pause, Applejack finishes off the sentence. "You can join!"

At that moment, Shoeshine develops a facial expression that looks like a mix between happiness and surprise.

Well, maybe it was mostly surprise, as she needed further clarification.

"You said... I can join in?"

"Yep! The EHA said that since we're still early in the competition, it is still open to new players.", Rainbow Dash says.

At this moment, Shoeshine closes her eyes in a smile, feeling a great deal of relief. She feels like she had bunch of dirt inside her that got suddenly cleaned out in a second.

"Wow! Thank you so much for getting that info, AJ and Dash! I thought I was going to have to ask the EHA at their office, but you beat me to it!", Shoeshine says.

"You're welcome! Oh, and did I mention that AJ and I are playing in today's game?"

"You are? Great! And that leads to me to tell you... I'm playing too! I decided to give it a go at least once to see where I'll be going from here."

"Great choice! Can't know where ya wanna go next if ya haven't tried both options!", Applejack says.

"Indeed.", Shoeshine responds, hugging the two ponies.

"Now, let's practice! I see you two were already doing it, well, let's do it with three players now!"

"Alright! Game on!", Rainbow Dash says, high-hoofing Shoeshine.





Later in the day... it's game time! The stadium starts filling up, with ponies hoping to see some shining improvement from yesterday.

Over in the tunnel, the players, whose numbers had been extended to 28 due to Shoeshine, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and another new player joining, tried to jumpstart each other.

Shoeshine, who seems to have been dubbed the "locker room leader" due to her role in starting these new rules (even though this wasn't a locker room, ponies have no need for it in this game), puts her hoof on a bunch of other ponies' hooves that are hanging out close together, and gives out a short motivational speech.

"Alright, players! We're going to believe in ourselves and play our absolute best today, yeah?"

"Yeah!", the players shout in unison.

"Great! Awesome!", Shoeshine says. She then hears the stadium's signature horn. "It's time, so Contestant #1, go out there!"

Contestant #1 was no longer Autumn Apple, but one of the ponies in the group who had visited the analysis center. One of the youngest players here, the teenage colt ran out onto the field, excited to use the new techniques he had learned.

At the stake, the young player remembered to grip his teeth tighter on the horseshoe, and throw a bit later when his head was closer to straight at the stake, rather than releasing it at a curve.

Well, it seems to have worked! His first throw hits a gold ringer, good good. He throws his second shoe with the same style, and it lands another gold ringer. So does his third one! And his fourth one!

...But not the fifth one. That one hit the stake.

The pony was frustrated, but kept going by telling himself that it probably wasn't going to be perfect the first time. He keeps throwing. His silver-shoed fifth throw leads to a ringer, giving him gold back. Then that gold sixth throw lands a... ground hit?

Huh.

This was a rare sight in the professional sphere; a grand total of two ground hits were seen in the previous game.

The crowd gives Contestant #1 the crowd treatment, and he decides to respond. That was even rarer!

"Well, y'all, let me tell you that was an outlier!", he shouts into a microphone. Then he proceeds to throw the bronze horseshoe and gets a ringer with it, bumping him back up to gold.

The crowd realizes they have been defeated, and start cheering for #1 again.

In the end, he managed to accumulate a score of 72! The record had been broken right off the bat!

The crowd cheers, and the players start to feel that they have the proper momentum. Already a new record, and they had the techniques.

Some players were skeptical, given what happened last time. But they decide not to say anything, because they don't want to kill the excitement that's beaming inside the player tunnel and on the field.

"There we go!", #1 says excitedly. "The analyst was right! Go on, Contestant #2, we've got this!"

Contestant #2 was also a member of the analyst-visiting group, and a classmate of #1. Feeling the heat, she goes out.

#2 manages to get a score of, wow, 75! It looks like they do have the momentum!

"Well, we all know what happened last time, but that doesn't mean it will happen again! There's definitely a chance here, am I right?", the announcer says.

The crowd lets out a loud "Yeah!", signifying that they are feeling that a perfect game is incoming.

Now it's time for Contestant #3, who was none other than Shoeshine.

A player this time around, Shoeshine didn't expect to top the 75 score, as she hadn't played the last game, nor did she even know if she would actually be competing for the trophy, but she is ready.

The bronze-silver-gold scheme's inventor manages a 65 score. Not bad at all, at least as of right now, and given her situation. Under normal circumstances, a 10-point drop like that would send the crowd into a "boo", but they seem to understand why Shoeshine wasn't quite as advanced. Many of them even give a cheer.

Feeling happy, Shoeshine heads back in to make way for Contestant #4, who was Applejack. And then #5 was Rainbow Dash! Three members of the inaugural group consecutively, and it wasn't intentional! Totally a coincidence!

Applejack, a popular figure in Appleloosa despite not living there, feels the heat from the crowd and gives her first pro go at the game. Her score adds up to 68.

Coming up next, Rainbow Dash gets 71. None of the three inaugural group members who had gone as of yet were able to crack the highest score, but they still did marginally better than the average at the previous game.

Going from Contestants #6 to #13, the scores tend to hover in the mid-to-high 60s with a few 70s and one outlying 50. Not bad scores overall, especially not compared to game one, but kind of a disappointment because of the scores that had been happening earlier. Just like last game, it seems the early players were building up red-hot momentum, only for it to flatten out later.

"Does this happen because the two best players tend to go first?", the announcer says over his microphone.

Mmm, it's possible. But the momentum could go back up, as there's still lots of players to go. Contestant #14 gets 73 points; okay, that's an improvement.

#15, #16, and #17 all get their scores in the 70s, with one 74, but no 75 and up. Better...

#18, #19, and #20 get 68, 69, and 70 respectively. Interesting how they went in order...

Then, Contestant #21 is about to be a game-changer. The yellow-coated mare, with the beautiful look of gold on yellow as she throws, accumulates a score of 80.

The crowd goes loud. Finally, they were starting to see a comeback, and they were a mere 10 points away from perfect!

Contestant #21, with a great treatment from the crowd, encourages her successors in the tunnel to go for that perfect!, in which they say "Yeah!", to her in response.

Contestant #22 got 79 points, only one behind #21. Great; the progress is still showing!

#23 and #24 slip down to the mid-70s. Okay, it's a small decline, but it doesn't mean a downward trend, right?

...Or maybe it does. Contestant #25 manages only 68 points, in which case, the word "only" wouldn't have been used there had he been an earlier player. Back then, 68 was average. You can see how quickly the bar for a "good" score has been raised.

Contestant #26 shoots up to 74 points, maybe that's a sign of further change!

Now, with only two players left, here comes Contestant #27, who was Autumn Apple. Yes, she really was all the way down here at #27 after being #1 in the last game. She did that on purpose, thinking that being number 1 contributed to her ill feelings the past day.

But on the bad side, it had given her more time to anticipate what she would be feeling during play. She starts to wonder which is worse: getting it over with quickly and feeling the potential bad feelings afterward, or delaying them and letting them run through your mind for a while, regardless if they were going to come true or not?

In either case, though, Autumn couldn't dwell on that right now. She had gone this far; there was no turning back now. She had to give it her all.

Autumn muscles herself out there with all the emotional strength she can muster. Trying to feel good about herself and feel the crowd's cheers, makes the throws, and scores...

61?

You could say "well, at least it's higher than the 50s", but, remember that there were 80s being scored in this game. The bar had been raised high.

From the disappointing score, Autumn receives a loud "Ooo...", from the crowd... and it's too much. She can't hold it in, and runs off to the tunnel. It's unclear if she was crying or not, given the noise, but either way, she was not good.

The crowd notices this and they start to feel bad for her, with more sad faces coming in.

It affects the announcer too, who says, "Yikes. I do not like the look of this, folks. It is clear that we have upset somepony, and with that, I'm not sure if it's appropriate to continue the game."

It surely wouldn't feel good or organized, with only one contestant being left, but the crowd seems to agree with the announcer, as a bunch of nodding is present. However, not wanting to make a decision just yet, the announcer goes with "this game has been paused until further notice." The crowd nods in support of this.





Over in the tunnel, the players, all of whom were still there, felt the need to go up, but realizing that swarming would make the situation worse, let only the closest friends to go up to try and comfort the sad Autumn, at least for now.

She wasn't crying hard, but it was clear the crowd response to her score got to her.

Feeling a bit scared about proceeding, but knowing it needed to be done, Shoeshine walks up to Autumn and starts with a good starter for comforting somepony.

"Just let it all out. Say what you need to say. We'll listen." Shoeshine had correctly guessed that Autumn was trying to bottle up something.

The sad mare starts speaking. "Oh my ponies, I don't think I can play this anymore. I'm too emotionally fragile to handle the inevitable that comes with being an athlete. You don't play well, the fans let you know. Only ponies with thick skin can handle that."

Shoeshine, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash are unable to respond to this, so they give a go-ahead to Contestant #28, who walks up and starts patting Autumn on the back.

"First of all, Autumn, there is nothing wrong with being more sensitive to criticism and reactions. Different ponies handle it differently. And even if you are 'emotionally fragile', that doesn't mean you can't be a great athlete. I have seen plenty of athletes overcome big adversaries to become greats, sometimes one of the greatest."

Autumn takes this in. "Okay, I guess that's true, but I don't think I can apply that to myself. I just don't feel up to being in this competition anymore."

Shoeshine, remembering her decision-making situation that's still ongoing, responds to this.

"Let me tell you, Autumn, from something I'm going through right now, you must give it time before you make a decision. You never know how you'll feel in one day, two days, or a week's time. It especially wouldn't be good to decide to leave right now, because your emotions are fresh. Whenever something like this happens, after it wanes off, you don't still want to do the things you said you would do when you were upset, right?"

"Yeah, that is right", Autumn says, seemingly doing better now. "I should give it time, and, thank all of you for being so kind. I could see the rest of you in the back there feeling for me and wanting to go up, but realizing that making a frenzy would make me worse. Y'all did so well."

"And those of you who talked, thank you for your words. I needed them."

Wow, that was successful! Fast!

The ponies give happy faces, some of them holding their hooves over their hearts. A friendship symbol.

Autumn then bravely goes out onto the field and has a microphone put up to her. She then says something big.

"Now, about y'all out here, as the pony who got upset, I request that the game be finished. Seeing a great game finished, especially when we have just one more player, makes me feel good. So please do it."

The crowd cheers, and the announcer perks up. "Okay, so there we have it! She said it! Alright then, Contestant #28, come on out whenever you're ready!"

Contestant #28 being the only one not in the inaugural group who talked to Autumn, gets a short hug from the comforted brown-coated mare as she heads out onto the field for the last round. She scores 68, but doesn't really feel anything; all she can feel right now is that she successfully helped a sad pony.

The feeling of that great and altruistic accomplishment combined with a completed game flourishing across Shoe Stadium, the ponies at the place cheer as the closing horn is sounded.

And that's it for game two.





After the game, Autumn, walking out of the stadium with quite a lot of ponies, including her friends (and cousin, Applejack) from the inaugural group, thanks everypony for today, as she obviously would do, but also asks for more, because she needs more.

"Again, I can't stress this enough, y'all did so well at making me feel better. But unfortunately, that's only temporary. I know almost for sure that the bad feelings are going to creep back up on me again, probably at night when I'm alone, so I need more help. I'd like y'all to schedule a meeting where I head to a place to sit down, and those of who are available to and want to come can head over and talk to me. That would mean a lot."

A bunch of ponies nod, fueling Autumn's confidence that she would receive an invitation soon enough.





So, this was pretty interesting! A semi-repeat of the first game that featured momentum seemingly signifying a road to perfect that later falls down, only to have it come back later, which was different from the first game. And then for even more, game two's momentum fell back down later, and then... yeah, that. Sad, yes. But it got solved, or at least it had been solved enough for the time being. And this experience will definitely make Autumn stronger.

"Hard times lead to good times.", a pony says.
> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Realizing it was something they had been planning to do but had almost forgotten about, a couple of ponies who had been down in the players' tunnel supporting Autumn Apple walked up to the EHA office and asked if the third game could be postponed in favor of this help event for Autumn. It was well-known by this point that the EHA has a kind heart, and its fans do too, which was nothing short of on full display in the last game with what had happened.

But still, since when does a major sporting league ever postpone an event in favor of somepony's emotions? Definitely not that I've ever heard of...

Well, the surprises continue to come in, and they agree. They also have a reasoning for it.

"We think Autumn has great potential in this competition. And unlike in other sports, players cannot be replaced with backups here. This is a competition to see who can be the first to get perfect; it wouldn't make any sense."

"We want every contestant to be able to compete at their full potential, which Ms. Apple cannot do right now. So yes, please hold this help event for her; game three can wait."

Well then! Surprising and sweet!

With the extra day, any ponies who were going to this event were going to make sure Autumn got treatment. The treatment she needs to feel better and play the game better.





It's time.

Autumn was feeling a bit better today. Shoeshine was right; give it some time. Autumn still was reeling from the crowd treatment and still thought she wanted to drop out of the competition, but unlike in the previous day, she felt motivated to practice again, and she did so.

There were no colored horseshoes and no scores being added up in the practice room; that had to be saved for game day, but it can't help but be noticed that Autumn getting a lot of ringers. That's definitely an improvement!

After practice, Autumn's emotional state changes a bit in that she feels... complicated. Right now, she has no active desire to stay in the tournament, but she also doesn't feel stressed about the crowd criticism. She feels... nothing.

Well, good thing she's getting this help event! Remembering this, she starts to feel blessed. Ponies were really doing this for her; an entire, organized event just to help her. My goodness, how kind.

The struggling mare heads out of her home to many smiles from passing-by ponies. Even though some of them couldn't attend the event, mainly for work reasons, that didn't stop them from giving Autumn all the support they could give.

She eventually finds the red barn where her help meeting is taking place. Feeling eager to give her emotions the release they so need, she heads in, to a group of kind-hearted helpers.

"Welcome, Autumn! Come over here, have a cookie, and talk what you're feeling out to us. We will do our absolute best to help."

Touched by this, she heads over and sits on the special chair, but doesn't eat yet; she just wants to focus on the talk.

The meeting starts.

"So, how are you feeling today?", one pony asks.

"I feel a bit more motivated to play; I was practicing before I got here and felt good doing so, but when I envision myself playing in an actual game again, I don't believe I can. I just can't shake off those memories of the crowd treatment. I don't think I can continue playing in the tournament."

The helping ponies need a bit of time to come up with a response, but it's not too big of a gap.

"Okay", one mare says. "Where I'd start off with, we must distinguish between not wanting to do something because you're not enjoying it, versus feeling like you can't do it."

"Oh yes. What she said. You still want to play, don't you, Autumn?"

"Absolutely!", she responds. "I love the game of horseshoes; it's my second passion behind music. Since none of the bands I work with need me at the moment, I knew it was a perfect time to put horseshoes at the front. Little did I know that it would coincide with a change being made to the game, and a competition! I have had great fun in this tournament, and I am on a mission to win. I want the title. I want to be the first to get perfect. But that crowd treatment..."

"Okay. So clearly, what you need help on is dealing with the crowd treatment. But remember what I said earlier about there needing to be a distinction between losing interest in something and being pushed out of it?"

"Yeah."

"Did you realize there was such a distinction?"

This question makes Autumn's eyes widen, because as she discovers, she was missing something big here.

"I guess I didn't.", she responds. "And now that I think of it, it seems that the impact I got from the fans was trying to shut down the reality that I still wanted to play in the tournament. I never lost interest in the actual game or the journey to the championship at all. But I felt like I needed to leave for my sanity, and to some extent I still do."

"But, is that ever a good option?", a stallion asks. "When has anything good ever come from giving up something you love because of an outside impact?"

"I can't respond to that saying there ever has. I have experienced being pushed away from something I love, and I know there's almost no feeling worse than that.", another stallion adds.

"Autumn, your sanity is important, of course, but pleasure also is. And you would have pleasure taken away by quitting the competition.", a mare says.

"And here's the thing with pleasure vs. sanity: there is no need for there to even be a versus. We can fix your problems with crowd treatment. That is reparable. But leaving is not. We're far enough in at this point that no new players can rejoin, and that includes drop-outs. What happens if you end up wanting back? Then the damage is done. It can't be fixed.", she continues.

Autumn agrees with this pony's words completely. It was clear to her at this point that dropping out of the tournament would not make her feel good. By this point, she had rejected the idea.

But she's unsure how she can become thick-skinned to criticism, so she asks.

"Okay, so how do we solve the crowd response problem?"

After a brief silence, a green-coated stallion offers something up. "Here's what I think.", he says. "The way I handle it is by thinking of the crowd treatment not as a criticism, but as a push. They're giving out a negative reaction to bad play because they want you to play well. If they had bad intent, they would cheer at poor play."

"I do get that", Autumn says, "but where I have a problem is, how harsh the treatment gets. Like, a messy painting wouldn't get a loud 'oooh' from a crowd."

"No, it wouldn't. You're right. But it's different in the sports world. It's a disadvantage to ponies who don't take criticism very well, like you, but it definitely can be done."

"I have something to ask you. Remember when one of the contestants threw a ground hit, and the audience reacted in kind to that, then the player responded to them, both verbally and with a play?"

"Oh yeah! He got a ringer after that! He used the crowd treatment as a catapult, and he defeated them! The crowd went silent after he scored that ringer!"

"Exactly! What we're getting at here, is turn negatives into positives."

Autumn doesn't quite believe this will work.

"But how will that work if my response to the negative is... negative?"

"Well, doesn't feeling that make you want to play better?"

"Of course it does. That's the only way to curb the criticism."

The helpers start to see a big opening here.

"So, you said you were practicing this morning; how well did you do?"

"Oh, that. Um, it turns out, I did really well. I threw ringer after ringer. If there had been a score count there, I bet it would have been much higher than 61..."

At this moment, Autumn's head had a bomb go off in it. She had realized something big.

She then speaks. "Everypony! I think I get it now! I did start playing better after what happened yesterday! I didn't consciously realize it, but it was motivating me!

"That's what it does, Autumn! The only way to stop the criticism is to do what it says, or prove that it's wrong. In your case it's the former, and your mind obviously didn't want that criticism, so it got energized to play the game better!"

"...Yeah! That's right! It certainly did set my subconscious off!"

With Autumn realizing an uptick in her playing, something that should work in the long run, the helper ponies believe they have seen a success.

"So, do you feel better, Autumn?"

"Overall, yes! Thank you so much everypony; it's really hard to describe how much I needed this! I would definitely describe talking it out as medicine. It really works.", Autumn says as she bites into a cookie, which she had been delaying for the whole meeting.

But it's not quite over yet. One pony who had witnessed what happened to Shoeshine a while ago chimed in with a comparison.

"Hey Autumn, did you hear what Shoeshine was going through just a little bit ago?"

"Yep. She was conflicted on whether to be a player or the co-announcer, which further led to a concern about her not being able to win the title if she didn't play at all, but wanting to not only play, and the eligibility, yeah, I remember that."

"Now do you remember what was the catalyst for her getting out of that situation?"

"Uh, no, I don't, actually. I wasn't there."

"Well, she got a very similar treatment to you. Two of Shoeshine's friends showed up, let her vent out what she was feeling, and calmly helped her by giving advice."

"Oh wow, that is how she got out of it? I guess that proves my statement even more!"

"Yes, it certainly does. Talking it out is nothing short of medicine."

The conversation begins dying down, Autumn finishes her cookie, and she and the others can feel the event has run its course.

"Well, looks like we're done here. I'm going to head home and practice more, which I feel motivated to do thanks to y'all here! Again, I cannot express my gratitude."

"Any time, Autumn. We could never let something like this go free. We were very happy to help."

Beautiful.





It's difficult to describe how much closure Autumn has seen today. Her desire to leave the tournament is gone. She got opened up to hidden brain activity that revealed an improvement in her playing. It felt so good. Autumn, feeling wonderful at home and practicing, consistently gets a lot of ringers.

Could this mean something?
> Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Following Autumn's help event and the remaining hours of the day, which, due to the lack of a game, also featured a lot of practicing, another classic cycle of sunset-moonrise and vice versa ensued. Upon the dawn of the morning, the residents of Equestria turn their calendars to Friday.

It has now been five days since the beginning of this whole new-horseshoes-and-perfect game saga. Outside of Appleloosa, nothing has really changed, but inside the city, these have been a historical, unprecedented five days. A legendary game that had been active with the same rules since the dawn of the city's existence got a real, official revamp. As if that weren't enough, the revamp garnered so much enthuasiasm that the traditional Monday-Saturday work schedule, which had also been active in Appleloosa for an incredibly long time, had been temporarily abandoned. Horseshoe games were being held at times where work would typically happen.

In the midst of this party, it felt like Appleloosa was holding its own personal Equestria Games. Only one city and only one sport, but the magnitude of how much attention was being given to it, and the fact that the city's seemingly rock-hard schedule had been paused, it really did feel like the Equestria Games here in the countryside town.

To Appleloosa's residents, these last few days seemed like way more than a mere five days. Because of how eventful they were, time seemed to go by slower. When it gets hit with a barrage of new information, your brain takes more time to process it. Due to that, the Appleloosa folk felt like they had been here for a month.

But it really was only day six of this, and with yesterday's postponed game now about to take place, players and fans begin taking their trips over to the continuous destination: Shoe Stadium.





Even if this whole thing overall has been incredibly eventful, the last two days seem to have been more so, making their events quite a headache to remember, and making the three beginning days seem like a distant memory. Even some of the players were thinking "Wait, what happened last game?", as one of them did while on his way to the stadium.

What happened was that they started inching closer and closer to perfect, with scores in the 70s becoming common, and a few in the 80s occurring. But then seeing an abrupt slowdown that caused a good deal of confusion.

However, that seemed to pale in comparison to what happened next... what was it again? Oh yeah, right.

The sad situation that Autumn Apple was going through had been taking up most of the memory room for that day, leaving the game to fade away a little.

On top of that, yesterday completely lacked a game due to that help event for Autumn. A whole day without a single trace of the game to be looked at, plus the most recent game having been overshadowed. No wonder ponies were forgetting about it.

I mean, that is good thing; it shows they really care about others' feelings. Being willing to put a sporting event aside in favor of sending out help to a struggling citizen; that spoke for itself.

And it worked just as well as they had hoped. Autumn woke up this morning feeling super motivated. She now completely rejected the idea of leaving the competition. She was 100% in it. And even if she were to play poorly and get another "oooh" from the crowd, well, now she was feeling armored against that! "If that happens, I will silence that crowd by playing better!", she thought to herself.

Autumn was also trying something new this game. She didn't like being Contestant #1 because of too much pressure, and she also didn't like being #27 because it gave her more time to be anxious. While she doesn't think she'll be experiencing that level of anxiety today, she still decides to go in the middle. This game, she is Contestant #13.





Over at Shoe Stadium, the clock turns closer to game time. Autumn and the other 27 players head into the stadium's player tunnel for game number three. They can hear the excitement from out in the field, which rubs off on them.

"Alright, y'all! Let's do this!"

"Yeah!"

Right after that motivational, the opening horn sounds. "Here I go!", Contestant #1 says.





Although a flattening-out of their scores had indeed happened in the last two games, the players had decided not to set out in a search for something wrong with their playing like they did last time. They didn't think there really was anything wrong at all; they just figured that they had to practice more. They also thought that since last game had seen a comeback, things could easily go differently this time in regards to scores going up or down.

Contestant #1, agreeing with this, says to the crowd, "You're about to see the basics succeed here!"

The announcer begins speaking. "Hopefully he's right! Can these ponies defy their gaming demons and keep the scores going up here?"

"I sure hope so!", Shoeshine says, back in the co-announcer position.

With the competition now having progressed to the point where new players can no longer join, and Shoeshine realizing that she definitely did want to be the co-announcer again, not just a player, she dropped out of the playing field. It was difficult for her to do so, as she did love the game and wanted to win the title, but hey, she had invented the new rules in the first place, and plus, they were official now, for the whole thing. It's not like the end of this tournament was going to change the game back to the old scheme. At this point, that was good enough for her.

Shoeshine got to the other side of her struggles by following her own advice to Autumn: give it time.





The game commences. Contestant #1 heads on up to the stake, goes at it, and scores 72 points. Not a bad start.

Contestant #2 then scores 81. Alright! Looks like we're going up!

After that, a big one happens; Contestant #3 pulls off an amazing 84! Only one gold ringer was missed; #3 hit the stake once and had to go back down to silver as a result, but then threw a 6-point silver ringer, and then went all-gold from there on out!

Two five-point upgrades in a row, and a new high score that's also just one gold ringer removed from the big goal! The crowd goes loud!

And so does the announcer! "My goodness, everypony! We're only one more throw away from perfect!", he exclaims.

Shoeshine wants to be excited at this, but feels the predictable skepticism coming on. "Erm, yes, this is very exciting, but I wouldn't get optimistic just yet. Remember what has happened before.", she says.

"Yes, you're absolutely right. But it's hard not to be excited!", the announcer responds.

The crowd cheers in agreement with that, and both them and the announcers hope that Contestant #4 would outscore #3 and keep the rise going.

Ultimately, Contestant #4 ends up with 81 points, due to throwing two stake hits. That's a fallback, but it's still more than #1 and #2 scored.

"To be honest with y'all, I don't really see a problem if the score flattens out.", the announcer says. "That's sure better than going down, and the 'flattened' score averages have been consistently going up higher than they were in the preceding games."

"Hmm, now that I think of that, you might be right.", Shoeshine responds. "We all got frustrated at the scores going up and then failing to go more up, but even when that happened, the average score in every game was still higher than it was in the last game. Like, in the second game, a score of 65 was seen as bad, but remember, that same score was considered good in the first game. Progress was being made regardless."

Much of the crowd touches their hooves to their faces, seeming to think about this new opinion for a moment. But it might have to be saved for later, as Contestant #5 emerges.

He scores 79 points. Worse than the last few players, but like Shoeshine said, this is a higher average. Back in the first game, a score of 79 would have been seen as extraordinary. The players are moving upwards.

After #5 finishes, contestants #6, #7, and #8 score 81, 81, and 73 points respectively, giving credibility to what the announcers were saying. No fast upgrading of the numbers, but this many scores in the 80s was not something that had been seen before.

Contestants #9, #10, and #11 come along and do a bit better, scoring 81, 81, and 84 respectively.

Contestant #12 then scores 84 as well. He had the same result as #3: eight ringers and two stake hits.

Now it's time for Autumn. Having received the effective help from yesterday's meeting, she feels great. She is confident that even if she doesn't play well, it won't kill her mood.

Feeling this newfound confidence generated by what she had been through, Autumn eagerly runs up to the stake and starts going at it.

She proceeds to score 80 points. Okay, there we go! No fallback like last time! This is about where the score has been hovering for most of the game; the crowd cheers for her!

With this, Autumn can declare that her stress outbreak is over.

After a relieved Autumn returns to the players' tunnel, Contestant #14 follows. She scores 83 points. #15 and #16 score 81 and 82.

The next ten players, #17 through #26, all score between 80 and 85. The numbers in this game have remained very close to each other. Yes, it was still a much higher average, but both the fans and players were unsurprisingly hoping for more.

Now, only two players are left. Only two left to lift up the static scores and bring this saga ever closer to its completion.

Contestant #27 takes his turn and, wow, does just that! 84 points! Only one missed gold ringer!

"Amazing! That's two who got just one away! Now we need that last one!", the announcer exclaims.

"Yes! Let's go!", Shoeshine responds.

#28 does not get perfect, but still manages 84. That's three one-miss games; it's a bit disappointing that none of them could get perfect, but the fact that three came so close is a good sign.

With the strong ending, and the average scores being in the 80s, the crowd cheers for the overall good result. Even though the scores had remained flat for most of the game, they widely regard it as a success!

The announcer lets the skepticism go a bit. "I take it we might see perfect in the very next game!"

Shoeshine does the same, trying to let some confidence shine through. "You know what? I think so too! We just might!", she adds.

The closing horn sounds; it's the end of game number three.





The emotional environment from this game being much more positive than the last one, the players and fans make their way out of Shoe Stadium feeling great about today and their chances tomorrow.

"I don't think we need any more new techniques! Just keep doing what we've been doing and we're good!", one player says.

A fellow player high-hoofs him.





So, is he correct? Are the players good to go at that perfect with the style they've got? Is it now only a matter of time?
> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The day has now flipped to Saturday, and with no stress situations or the like blocking its path, another game is about to be held.

Seeing as how the highest score reached 84 yesterday, just six points removed from perfect, the players are feeling pretty confident that they will achieve their goal today. Somepony will get 90. The trophy will be awarded.

They share their excitement on their way to the stadium.

"If today is the day, it's going to be one of Appleloosa's best days ever!"

"Yes! And if we want it to be the day, well, let's get it done!"

"Oh yeah! We're going to work as hard as we can to get that perfect!"

"I think today is the day, personally!"





It's time. The instantly recognizable horn at Shoe Stadium sounds, beginning the game. Hopefully the game to end this saga.

The crowd hopes for a strong start; if a perfect game was going to happen today, they needed to get some momentum going first. A score of, say, 75, would not look promising for the future.

Contestant #1 walks out into the noise, and does deliver. 82 points. Nopony really expected a perfect there; neither did #1 himself. He considered himself to be there to provide a promising start, which he succeeded in. He doesn't even think he's going to become the champion, nor did he even care about it that much. He was mostly here for fun.

Contestant #2, somepony who is in it to win it but has been lagging behind most of the players, and thus doesn't really have confidence that she'll be the champion, comes up next.

The announcer speaks. "The goal is to keep up the gold. I repeat. Keep up the gold."

The crowd agrees with him and does a louder version of his statement.

"Keep up the gold!", they chant several times.

#2 ends up doing so quite a bit, firing five gold ringers in a row at the start, for 45 points at the halfway point. Halfway to 90! She then hurls a stake hit, bumping her down to a silver horseshoe. However, she then sends out the silver ringer for six points, getting back the gold. Now at 57 points after seven throws, she flings two more gold ringers. Then a gold stake hit at the last frame.

Final score: 81.

A decrease from Contestant #1. The crowd didn't feel that demotivated, seeing as it was still early in the game, but this wasn't a great sign. They were looking for improvement.

But #2 feels good, and leaves the field with a smile.

Now, hopefully Contestant #3 can give the fans that improvement they want. But before heading out to attempt to do so, he makes an observation.

"I think the last thing we're missing here is staying consistent. You see, if you want 10 gold ringers in a row, the error margin in between throws needs to be very small. You have to make each throw nearly identical to the last.", he says.

"We have that mostly locked down, but since we're still missing a few throws, a few very crucial throws at that, there's still a bit of slip-up.", he continues.

The players in the tunnel go into a bit of a thinking session. This is something that surprised them a bit. Their thought process up to this point was that they had all the techniques and style stuff down, and just needed more practice to get perfect. But they take #3's words into account, wondering if consistency had indeed been blocking out a perfect game.

One of the players ends up agreeing.

"Yeah! That's definitely the last loose end we need to tie up! Thinking of it now, I do believe that some of my throws were ever-so-slightly off, and that's why they missed!"

Some of the other players agree as well after hearing this, with a few "yeah"s being heard around the tunnel's interior.

Contestant #3 smiles at his peers and sends himself out. With his opinion spreading around, he hopes to practice what he preaches, and trots out over to the place for that.

His first and second throws appear incredibly similar. Good, good. The third is a little different, but it still gets lucky and manages a ringer.

Then, the fourth throw... the fourth throw looks perfect, but it somehow hits the stake?

Contestant #3 is dumbfounded.

Despite being the one to bring up an idea about why a perfect game wasn't happening, he completely fails to think of a reason why that throw could have possibly missed.

"I could have sworn my head was at the right angle. I also could swear that the shoe didn't slip in my mouth. And that I threw it nearly the exact same way as the last few throws that did get a ringer.", he thinks. "This makes no sense."

Although disappointed by his failure to get perfect, #3 decides to keep going. With scores very close to perfect becoming more common, it will eventually get to the point where the players move on after one miss in order to speed things up, but Contestant #3, because he is only #3, continues on so he can hopefully get a better score than the last two players and provide the fans a sense of progress.

He does so, scoring 84 points. All gold ringers except for the aforementioned one with the stake hit, and the succeeding throw where he threw a silver ringer, which is also a six-point play.

He then heads back into the dark gray players' tunnel, where Contestant #4 is about to rise. She begins walking out towards the light at the end, but then is stopped by #5, who has something to point out.

"Alright, y'all. We're really, really, really close here. Several of us have gotten 84 points. I know 84 seems like it's still a bit of a hump from 90, but it's not. Because throwing a stake hit pushes you back to silver, you can't make a gold stake hit and then a gold ringer immediately afterward. This means that 84 is the second-best possible score. We're one away."

The other players had known they were only one away, but they now think that the numbers did indeed fool them a bit.

#4 responds in agreement. "Hmm, you're right. Thanks for pointing that out; now I feel like we're even closer! And I do agree with Contestant #3 that consistency was the problem, so I'm going to do my best to fix that!

"Yes! We just need to get a grip on those one or two throws that we miss. Go out there and get it, #4!"

"Words heard!", #4 exclaims as she steps out onto the field.

At the brown stake, her first three throws all hit gold ringers, thanks to good-old consistency. So does her fourth.

...But not the fifth.

If you were watching, though, the throw looked fantastic. And just like the others! What happened to #3 also happened here!

"Um... I know I definitely threw it the same way...", she thinks.

She then makes an observation that sounds exaggerated, but given the nature of this game, may not be.

"Was there some teensy-tiny little mini-fractional variation in that throw that caused it to miss?", she thinks in frustration.

Not feeling that it was worth it to keep playing at this point, she goes back into the tunnel, where she vents to her fellow players.

"Ugh! I almost had it!, #4 says. "I missed that one throw by a teensy-teensy bit!

Not feeling capable of soothing somepony, nor even thinking that was helpful in a "frustrated gamer" situation, at least not with the common techniques, Contestant #6 responds with a statement that, at first, seems like providing help to Contestant #4.

"Well, I think we can confirm now that consistency was the problem. As long as our throws don't miss by a teensy-teensy bit, we'll get perfect!"

"Yeah! You helped us!", another player adds.

But little did these players realize at the time that by "helping" Contestant #4, they were actually helping themselves and weakening her!

"But I want to be the first perfect!", #4 says. "This is a competition! We're competing to be the first to get it!"

The players have their minds refreshed by this. Indeed that was how it was working. They knew about that, but it had been escaping their minds these past few moments. As soon as somepony gets perfect, the competition will immediately stop and they will be declared the champion. They will get that shiny, shiny trophy. It is a competition.

One of the players, after processing this environment-changing info, draws in the technique of using it against Contestant #4.

"You're right, #4! By all-but confirming what our weakness was, you just decreased your chances of winning this thing! Because, now the rest of us know, and there are plenty of us left!"

#4 doesn't respond, not wanting to escalate this beyond friendly competition. She also was still feeling the effects of her failure at the field, so she felt it was too big of a risk. She didn't want to snap at somepony.

And luckily, #5 decides not to do anything either, instead choosing to bring this whole thing out to the field. Which she is about to do right now, as she is up next.

"Alright, y'all! I've just grabbed some important info, and I'm going to put it into action! You might be about to see the perfect!", she confidently says into the microphone, sounding it all over the large stadium.

But ultimately, she ended up missing two gold ringers. She got the gold back immediately after both times; no 4-pointers or below, but still, two missed gold ringers. 78 points.

Contestant #6 then did the same thing.

Contestant #7, feeling very determined, goes out there, stays consistent with the tossing, and, oh, look here! Seven gold ringers in a row! This might be it! He just needs three more!

"Could this be it?", the announcer says, leaning forward and looking closely at the stake.

#7 hears the announcer's words, and hoping to answer his question with "yes", #7 brings all his adrenaline, all his strength, all his gaming power into this throw, throws it, and...

No good. A stake hit.

Frustrated, he doesn't even bother finishing the game. Like #4, he runs back into the players' tunnel. However, this was to be anticipated. With the players being so close to perfect, this time would eventually come.

"We'll let this go. It had to happen eventually.", the announcer says.

"Yes.", Shoeshine responds.

Contestant #8 then steps up.

He hits the stake at throw three. Not even close. He then leaves right afterward, continuing the new practice.

#9 comes up. Four gold ringers, and, now five? ...Nope.

#10, #11, and #12 don't make it past their fourth throws.

Now it's time for Contestant #13, who is the same as before: Autumn Apple. The pony who had been given extra attention throughout this competition, due to her unique reactions and resulting help event that postponed game three.

Because of those hardships, the fans were putting extra fan confidence into Autumn. While a perfect game in general was their goal, they had some heartfelt hope that Autumn would be the one to do it. A pony who's had to go through all that; it would be really nice to see her win it all!

Firing the shoes forward, she seems to be on the brink of it! Four gold ringers in a row. Now five. She has surpassed the last few players. And she keeps going with that! Now she has six in a row! Seven! Eight!

Nopony has made it past eight gold ringer throws yet. Will Autumn be the first one to do that? Make it nine?

She takes the throw, and... yes! That's nine in a row!

Here we are! We only need one more!

"One more! One more!", the crowd chants. 

Indeed! Just one more and we've got perfect!

This was Autumn's moment right here. After all that she's been through; all of the mistakes, all the agony, all the perseverance, this was her moment. Standing in the middle of this loud stadium, filled with fans who were so, so passionate about this game, feeling, just feeling this was going to be the moment, Autumn just had to fulfill their dreams. And fulfill her own as well!

All she had to do was throw this right. Do it the same way as the others, keep it tight, throw it at the right angle, and the championship is hers.

Autumn shivers from the anxiety, but tries to calm herself down, as this obviously would affect this last throw that she so desperately needed to be good.

But this was such a nerve-wracking moment! How could she stop shivering?

She tries to remedy it by looking at the fans and taking in what they're feeling. This seems counter-productive based on Autumn's past experiences. But the crowd has now quieted down, and they are closely looking at her, showing that they believe in her, and putting their trust in her to get this perfect game. Autumn, using this as fuel, starts to stabilize.

She picks up the should-be championship-clinching shoe in her mouth, turns her head to the left side, and gives it a throw.

The angle seems good.

It's flying closer, and seems good.

It's getting closer and closer...

Here it comes. Here it comes. A perfect game. A perfect game. Here it comes.

Oh, wait... um, it might be turning a bit too much now?

Shoot. This doesn't look good now...

No, no, this last gold shoe, the one that was going to do it, it's not going to. It's not going to ring it!

Nope, it's definitely not going to. It hits the stake...

No good.

The stadium drops into a near-complete silence.





What's this environment here right now?

It's surely nothing but shock and numbness. What else are you supposed to feel when the last throw fails? The last throw! You had it there! You had it! Nine in a row; you needed one more! How could you not get that one more?

The stadium is dead silent. Nopony was able to process this.

Still in the silence, and wanting to do so before it ended, Autumn quietly walked back into the players' tunnel.

Which was also quiet.

The other players knew Autumn was vulnerable, and they didn't want to take the chance of upsetting her, so they just sent out Contestant #14 to play his game and basically act like nothing happened.

The announcer tries to initiate that too. "Folks, we still have a while to go. That was... um, probably going to happen, so, let's see what the other players can do.", he says, trying to push away the emotions.

The crowd agrees, and they cheer for #14, trying to get back to normal.

But it's clear that they're forcing it. Attempting to shove away emotions that aren't going to go away until you let them flush out. The cheer sounds artificial, and it's not as loud as usual.

#14, also trying to power through, doesn't even make it to his third throw. He hit the stake after one ringer.

He goes back into the tunnel, but #15 doesn't emerge, and the crowd doesn't sound normal. They were still feeling that big miss at the end from Autumn. The great miss, as it might as well be called.

"Alright folks. I will acknowledge it now. No use bottling up our emotions. It must be said: That was awful to see. We've all been really, really wanting to see a perfect game. We've been waiting and waiting for it. And it seemed like we were going to see it there. Just one more ringer. One more. And it didn't happen."

Shoeshine nods. "Yes. This really sucks.", she adds. "I was feeling so confident that Autumn would get that 10th gold ringer. Confident that the big moment, the moment were we'd let out a thunderous, roaring cheer, sound the champion's horn, set off the confetti, all that great stuff, was imminent. I was ready for it, my mates."

"Yeah. I was too.", the announcer responds.

"But we can't let this game go to waste.", he says, trying to pick up his emotions. "We're only halfway through. We'll take time to process this, and we'll let Contestant #15 come out when she wants to. But this game will be continuing. We still could see perfect."

That is true; there are still plenty more chances.

Eventually, #15 does emerge to start those new chances. But she doesn't come close to the goal. She manages four gold ringers in a row, but misses the fifth.

#16, #17, #18, reach three, four, and five in a row respectively.

#19 reaches six; that's more progress, but... misses the seventh.

#20, #21, and #22 reach their sixth, seventh, and sixth in a row respectively.

#23 reaches his eighth, but misses the ninth.

After a lot of players, things are pretty much back to normal now. The crowd's cheering volume has turned up back to normal, and the scores have been falling down. The suspense that comes with the potential perfect-clinching throw isn't coming up.

But in terms of the game, that's a bad thing, of course. And the frustration that is normal, but doesn't seem to have appeared in the announcer yet, shows up in him.

"I swear! There's always just that one miss!", he barks.

"I know!", Shoeshine responds. "We keep thinking 'we're gonna get perfect, we're gonna get perfect!' Because it seems like we will! We're so close; why wouldn't it happen? But it isn't happening!"

"Well," the announcer says, trying to calm down, "it still could happen. There's five more players left."

"There are.", Shoeshine says. "Let's hope. Let's hope."

The first of these last five players, Contestant #24, shows up and builds excitement by reaching his eighth gold ringer in a row. Can he be the second to make it nine?

He throws it, aaannndd it's... no good.

"Dang it!", #24 says, running back into the player tunnel.

Contestants #25 and #26 are unable to capitalize, not making it to the halfway point.

Contestant #27 makes it to seven in a row, but not eight.

Now there's just one more left. One more player left to try and deliver on the player's promise to get a perfect game on this day.

#28 gets four in a row. Five in a row. Six in a row. Okay, maybe this is it!

...or not. Seventh throw missed.

The crowd lets out a loud "aww" in disappointment. Last chance gone.





They thought today was going to be the day.

But it wasn't.

The announcer feels it as well.

"Well folks," he says to a sadness-filled stadium, "sports are full of disappointment. We have to reckon with this. It's really hard to get a perfect game here. You have to be incredibly consistent in a way that doesn't sound living-creaturely possible."

"Now that you say it, yes. The margin of error you can have is so small that it sounds like something only a robot could do.", Shoeshine says.

The crowd really hears this, and keeps it in their heads as they make their way out of the gates.
> Chapter 12
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Only a robot could do."

"Only a robot could do."

This sentence that had been uttered by Shoeshine, at the end of the crushing-defeat game that was, rings around in the players' and fans' heads like a telephone that's constantly being activated by random numbers. Except for them, the ringing won't go away. It just stays there, long enough that they begin to believe what it's saying.

"You know what, she's right. There's just no way a living creature could ever achieve such ultra-consistent accuracy for so many throws in a row. It's hopeless. Let's just end the competition here before it gets any worse.", one player says while in his medium-brown home and trying to practice.

"I think it's true! Living creatures have too much variation in their throws. And we can't fix that; it's just our nature. We are simply not capable of throwing something exactly the same way every time, let alone ten times! Screw this whole thing!", another player says as she chucks a horseshoe at the wall in frustration.

The ponies who were thinking this way weren't being hyperbolic. While the negative feelings will probably wane soon, and most of them know that, at this point, they really did think the competition should be given up. Convinced by their buzzing minds that a perfect game was simply not possible for an actual being to achieve, something, as Shoeshine said, only a robot could do, they get drowned in the sea of no-confidence.

Having fallen down there, they also start to feel sad. They begin grieving, if you will, for the great moment that they now don't think will ever come.

"We won't experience it. We'll never experience that moment of golden glory; the moment that magical 10th gold ringer hits, the confetti goes off, we make that thunderous, roaring cheer; it's not going to happen! We won't be able to make that cheer. We'll never see what the trophy looks like. We'll never get the ultimate, amazing satisfaction of seeing a perfect game.", one of the players thinks as she sadly lays her head down on a pillow.

It surely would be a massive hole to be left with, especially with how close it was last game. Autumn had nine in a row, all she needed was one more, and it just barely missed, agh!

"The Great Miss" stopped the filling of a deep hole. The deep hole of dissatisfaction that can only be filled up by seeing that awesome, amazing success that is a perfect game. Or, would be.

"This is like having a jelly doughnut with no jelly in the middle. And knowing that the jelly will never appear.", one player thinks.

Admittedly, these players are not ready to play again. They'd like to go the EHA building and ask if the game can be postponed, but they're feeling so... broken, if you will, that they don't feel like leaving their homes. They still feel unable to fully process what had happened.





However, not everypony is feeling this way. Some are keeping their heads up and telling themselves and others that it had to happen eventually. That a miss at the end should have been expected.

"This happens in sports, my friends.", one of the players says to the ponies beside him as they practice, which is something most of the players were not doing.

"Plenty of times, he continues, "I have seen players right there, on the brink of a grandmaster achievement, who fell short at the end. Rugby players miss the game-winning try. Buckball players miss the game-winning bucket. And sometimes they do it at the end of the championship game! Remember when Trottingham lost the Equestria Series to Fillydelphia on a last-second missed buck of the ball that would probably have scored? And it happened in Game 7?

The other ponies listen to this, and agree.

"You're right. I was fully expecting a miss after nine in a row, at some point."

"Yes. This is normal, and it's also normal for whoever failed to succeed afterward. That Equestria Series I was talking about, well, in the next series, Trottingham didn't just win it, they also got their revenge on Fillydelphia, and the series ended in a sweep! 4-0 Trottingham!", the very confident pony says.

"We're going to get it! We just are!"

"That's the spirit!", one of the other players responds.

Indeed, these ones are quite resilient.





Then, there are some ponies really aren't feeling anything at all, including Autumn Apple, who is the one that threw "The Great Miss." The one who failed to make that one last throw.

Autumn never really felt sad. She just felt numb, because of how shocking it was. Her mind could not process it. She had been repeatedly thinking "Did I really miss the clincher?". And even when it had fully cemented in her that yes, she did miss it, her only thought was "Well, better try again."

Autumn was in her light blue practice room, just throwing. Not thinking about what happened, just throwing the shoes. Her results do not seem to have downgraded at all. Many ringers, including some long streaks, can be seen.





Meanwhile, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who had been instrumental in starting this competition in the first place, were experiencing doubt as well. But not because of their game performance; neither of them have yet surpassed 81 points, and thus are probably not going to win the championship. Rather, because they're thinking about the things they sacrificed in order to fully participate in the game. They begin to feel that, because it's taking so long for this whole thing to finally finish, that they should have stayed home, where their hearts are.

"I missed a Wonderbolt show because of this. Really, I missed a show! I wasn't there for the team and the fans! And I was absent for a competition that I'm definitely not going to win, and it seems nopony will! Why didn't I stay loyal? Loyalty is my element!", Rainbow Dash says to herself while in her Appleloosa vacation house.

And then Applejack, laying on the hotel bed she's growing tired of sleeping on, questioned if being away from her beloved home for so long was worth it.

"Ah miss Ponyville. Ah miss Sweet Apple Acres. Ah miss my family! Ah didn't think this tournament would take so long, and now, it seems like it's gonna take a lot longer! When can ah go home?", she says with a drop of tears.

The game really should be postponed. Today is an emotions day.





Luckily, it seems to be working out that way. Some members of the EHA staff take notice that the streets are mostly empty. Only a handful ponies are practicing. It's so quiet that you can hear the ultra-light winds. A tumbleweed even rolls by in the background.

That was definitely strange, as there was supposed to be another game in just a few hours from now. You'd think the players would be preparing like mad.

But they're not, really at all.

The staff members walk up to one of the players who is practicing, hoping to get information from him. Information that should help them decide whether to postpone game four.

"Excuse us sir, do you have word on what a lot of the other players are doing right now? We can't help but notice most of the practice stakes here are not in use, and we'd like to know if there's something large going on that's major enough to necessitate delaying the next game."

"Yes, I do have word.", the player responds. "Most of them are in their houses feeling their feelings about what happened last game. That huge miss. They're taking the time to heal from it."

"I know this because one of my buddies is experiencing it; he said to me that getting a perfect game is impossible and that if we keep trying to get it, the competition will go on forever. Then he sprang onto his bed, said 'I'm not leaving my house today', and hung up."

"Oof. That's definitely feeling feelings!", one of the staff members says.

"It is. And we have heard this loud and clear.", one of the other ones says. "Do you agree that they should get time before playing again?"

"Oh yes, for sure. I'm feeling okay, but it's clear most of the competitors are not, and we want every game to be played with the highest level of preparedness and passion from every player. So yes, please postpone it."

"There we go. Thank you, sir."

"My pleasure."

The extra newspaper protocol in Appleloosa was activated for the second time in this saga; the initial newspaper route of the day was done, as it was well into the afternoon right now, but since the next game was originally due to have been held today, and now is being held tomorrow, the news couldn't be waited on. The residents of Appleloosa received a late-in-the-day paper delivery that announced the EHA's decision.

"It's been postponed! Yes!", a stallion says. Now we get the time we need to recover and play at our best!"

Indeed. They get their much-needed break.





Even with the break, though, this will definitely affect things. Of course, these are professional sports players; they've been through this kind of thing before and they do know that the right way to succeed is to believe in yourself. But believing in yourself can be hard to do, especially in this situation. Most of the players are struggling to believe in themselves, and yes, they probably will feel better tomorrow, but full recovery usually takes longer than one day, so it's possible that the effects could still be lingering a bit in these players tomorrow, which might give them a disadvantage.

Because, in sports, capturing a title isn't just about playing great. It's also about what you feel in your heart. Whoever has the heart of a champion becomes a champion. And who has the strongest heart of a champion right now?
> Chapter 13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, that is about to be tested today, as the day of reckoning with emotions, which fell on a Sunday, has now come to end. The day flips over to Monday, marking 8 days since the beginning of this saga, and the day for game number five.

The extent of how much the ill feelings of yesterday have remained in the players is difficult to measure, at least from what can be seen right now. Some of them do feel better, uttering out sentences like "I just needed some time. It heals wounds." 

Others feel doubtful or in-between. "I don't want to say it's impossible to get perfect, but part of me still believes that, and whatever way, I don't see it happening today, to be honest.", one player says. This state of mind appears to be common, as many of the other players nod yes in response to this sentence.

And then some of them never felt bad at all. One such player says "I don't really care about what happened in the last game. Let's just focus on this one."

One can only guess who has the best shot at the title.

Because, even if the players who felt bad have recovered, it might be reasonable to guess that they still underdogs against the ones who completely dodged the ill feelings, because, well, things do linger.

Only one way to know for sure, though!





But wait. There's more to it than that. What is separate from if a player feels good about this or not is whether they even should. Owning up to, you know, what happened in the previous games, the players experience a weird see-saw between confidence and no confidence.

"I want to say we have a good chance at ending it today, but at the same time, I don't want to say that."

"I agree. I'm not really much for superstition, but I feel like saying 'we'll get it this time' would be jinxing it."

"Same here, my fellow cautious player."

These ponies don't sound unreasonable. This whole competition had been full of rising, cheer-generating optimism that was then brutally crushed. Game after game, the players were rising the numbers like fire, only for it to suddenly burn out and leave the rest of the game to have static, similar scores. The concerns about this had been cooled down with the realization that the scores were still getting better overall compared to the preceding game, and as such, they would eventually get to the point of almost perfect. Sure enough, they did.

But then that brought a new wave of extinguished optimism. All that was needed to get a perfect game was just a little bit of a push, but it wouldn't budge. The players kept failing. Even when it was that close, with Autumn Apple having nine in a row, needing just one more ringer, she still couldn't pull it off.

Needless to say, more ponies than these three believe that getting excited will hurt their chances.

"Maybe the right way to do it is to be pessimistic?"

"Why not try it, at least? It sounds ridiculous at first, but considering what we've been through, I wouldn't hesitate to take it into consideration."

So yeah, a good chunk of the players have the thinking that feeling positive makes their game worse.

Meanwhile, other players are in the middle. They're holding out optimism, but cautiously.

"Look, let's not overlook the possibility that we could think we're about to get it and we don't. That has already been a reality plenty of times; there's no reason why it can't happen again today. But, I don't believe that telling yourself you can't do it is going to help you do it. When does that ever help? A middle ground is what we need."

Then, for the third category, some players really just seem to not care about that stuff. One such player being Autumn.

"I'm not going to think about what happened last time or anything like that. I'm just going to play and see how it turns out.", she says to one of her friends as they walk into the players' tunnel.

Out in the field, where Shoe Stadium is in the process of filling up with fans, the announcers don't want to make predictions of their own. Instead, they just ask the crowd.

"Will today be the day? Or will it be another disappointment?", the main announcer says.

"I'd rather not try and answer that question. I'll just wait for the result.", co-announcer Shoeshine responds.

"I agree.", the main announcer says back.

The crowd doesn't seem to have an answer to this question; many of them shrug or put their hooves to their faces for an extended period of time. They're not sure how to feel about the perfect game chances today either.





This game had a unique environment. The cautious optimism and such was nothing new, but today was different in that it was more widespread. Back in the earlier days, nopony other than Autumn Apple really considering dropping out of the competition for a gameplay reason. Sure, the feelings of yesterday have mostly waned off, but this was the first time it had been experienced by so many players. Prior to game three, the attitude of everypony other than Autumn was "Maybe next time."

But yesterday, "Maybe next time" was hardly spoken by anypony, and it still wasn't being spoken today. The pessimistic ones, despite not feeling as bad as before, were still feeling bad about the chances, thinking to themselves things like "I'm not going to win it. There's practically no chance." Then the optimistic ones were trying to keep their cools by saying "Hey, this happens." And then the numb ones were saying, well, nothing.

Looking at that, there are fairly clear-cut categories as to how any given player is feeling about this game's potential result. Whether a perfect will be seen today or not. There are the low ones, the middle ones, and the high ones.

And the ponies who are most likely to win the title, it's easy to guess what category they belong to.





The odd environment is about to be put into action as the stadium's iconic game horn sounds, beginning the fateful game five. Contestant #1, who was more in the optimism category but also felt a bit neutral, steps on to the familiar field and close to the memory-triggering stake.

Putting into use the phrases "Failures will happen" and "Let's just do it, don't overthink", a mixture of the high and medium categories, Contestant #1 tightly grips the starting gold horseshoe in his mouth, taking care not to let it slip around, angles his head so that there's not too much curve, and gives the sucker a throw.

It hits straight at the ringer! Perfect!

The same becomes true for his second, third, and fourth throws! Four in a row!

...But then, on his fifth throw, #1 makes a costly mistake. He takes the throw very quickly, scooping up the next shoe like a starving pony's spoon dipping into a delicious bowl of cereal. Then his throwing speed did not settle down from that at all. The amped-up force sent the horseshoe flying to the right, where it had practically no chance of making a ringer.

Upon observing the stake hit, Contestant #1 seemingly falls off a cliff into the pessimism category. "Oh, well I guess getting too excited affects things inside of the game too, huh?", he says as he sprints off the field.

Back in the darkness of the players' tunnel, the upcoming players don't think #1 ever really got excited, but they map out a plan to use his words to their advantage anyway. After all, they'll take anything they can get in order to achieve a perfect game.

"Take things slow.", Contestant #2 says to her fellow players as she heads for the lit-up pathway to the field.

At the stake, taking things slow, #2 gets one ringer, two ringer, three ringer. Four next?

Yes! Four in a row!

With her strategy appearing to be working, Contestant #2 cracks a smile on her face, building up optimism. But then she tries to shake it off (literally), concerned that it will negatively her game and prevent a perfect, as many players are.

Using this common technique, she takes her fifth throw, and wow, another ringer! That's more than #1 scored!

Will she get the sixth too? Aww yeah, she did!

That's six out of ten! Contestant #2 needs four more and she'll be the champion! She will be the one hoisting that trophy!

The pink mare with a yellow mane, who had been Contestant #2 for a while, takes her lucky seventh hurl, and, ooh, it was lucky! A bit shaky, but it makes the ringer!

Seven in a row now! Three more to go!

Just trying to keep her cool and not let her brain go too wild, #2 throws her eighth shoe.

Uh-oh. It looks a bit off to the right, and the spinning looks inaccurately timed...shoot, it's no good.

"What?", the mare shrieks. "W-w-what did I do there? I had the emotions perfectly under control, I took the throw just fine... hello?

"Oh... maybe it was that consistency thing! Ugh... whatever!"

Coming up with a game plan as he heads for the field, Contestant #3 thinks that #2 was primarily focusing on keeping her reactions in check, and less about her playing, and that was why she failed.

But on the other hand, she still made it to seven in a row, so it's not like the emotions could be overlooked at all.

Luckily for #3, he was in the neutral category, never experiencing a strong reaction to the last-throw miss of the previous game. So feelings might not matter too much in his case. He's just going to focus on the throwing.

Doing so, #3 gets a ringer. Then two. Three. Four. Five.

But six?

Somehow, no. The sixth throw results in a stake hit that can't be explained.

I mean, it really can't be explained. What could have possibly gone wrong there? The throw looked precisely on target, and it's not like #3 was experiencing anxiety or anything.

Contestant #4, who had been in the pessimism category, sees this unpromising play and thinks "Well, as Shoeshine said, only a robot could do this, and I'm not even that great, but I might as well play."

Stepping up to the stake with that kind of attitude, she doesn't even get to four in a row. Is that really a surprise?

Hopefully we'll get more confirmation on our suspicions in a bit, as Contestant #5 thinks similarly to #4. "Consistency really is the thing. Getting 10 gold ringers in a row requires ultra-accuracy that living creatures just don't have. I'm not going to win it; I'll just play for no reason!"

Result: not even three in a row.

As #5 returns to the players' tunnel, Contestant #6, noticing a sea of frowning faces that looked just like #5's, starts to sense a trend towards pessimism among the entire club. Whether that's accurate or not, she attempts to fix it.

"Everypony, listen to me. We can do this. Look at it this way: The fact that Autumn got to nine in a row and only just barely missed the tenth, that proves that it's possible. What's so far-removed about just one more, especially when it was that close? If it is possible to get that close to perfect, it's possible to get perfect."

#6's words do seem to perk up the disbelief-washed players a bit, however, some of them don't believe her, and upon it becoming rapidly remembered that the latter category of players there might have an advantage, because of optimism apparently hurting your chances, the players who were beginning to feel happier revert back to sad.

Hopefully #6 can avenge this. She goes to the stake.

Oh look, she just might do it! She accomplishes six in a row, fitting her number.

Now for the seventh throw!

...What? That - that's not even close! That throw failed by... um, quite a bit! It drifted off so far to the right that had it been a few centimeters further to that direction, it would have been a ground hit!

Unsurprisingly, many of her fellow players want to chalk it up to optimism, and are planning to let her know about that in the tunnel. But #6 just sees it as a slip-up that will happen in sports, and she vocalizes this before the other players can say "optimism."

"So my seventh throw wasn't good. I messed it up.", she says as she goes back into the players' tunnel. "But let me tell you, I would have failed earlier if I thought negatively. Pessimism gets you nowhere."

Of course, plenty of players don't see it that way, but they soon have that put into question when Contestant #7 goes to the stake. He had been very much on the optimism side, and is doing incredibly well. All his throws end up extremely on-point, more so than had been seen this whole competition. He makes it to seven in a row, all while saying "Yeah!", and "Let's do this!", between every throw.

But then he doesn't get eight in a row.

Okay, now this is just confusing. First it's bad to be overconfident, then it's bad to be underconfident. The solution there seems to be being neutral, but even when you're neutral, consistency is going to bite you. It did so to Contestant #7, after all his previous throws had been remarkably, unbelievably consistent. And apparently it can't be fixed.

What can possibly be done here?

Contestant #8, walking up to the stake, doesn't think anything can be done. "I have no confidence here!', he says into a microphone. "Because it's true! Only a robot can do this!"

Up high in the announcers' booth, realizing how far her over-the-top statement had spread, Shoeshine addresses it after the low-feeling Contestant #8 fails to even make it to three ringers in a row.

"Okay, look everypony. I don't actually believe that only a robot could get perfect.", she says. "I said that out of frustration, just like you guys said pessimistic things out of your frustration. It was knee-jerk. The fact that Autumn got so close last time proves that it's possible. So forget about my robot statement. I fully retract it."

So now here comes the conundrum of whether it's better to be confident or non-confident, and then the whole thing about consistency being impossible, even though Shoeshine retracted that statement... ugh, such a headache! What kind of game is this?





Well, there is now hope that a new game plan can be installed, as it is now Applejack's turn. Numbered Contestant #9, Applejack had been recently going through doubt as to whether playing in this competition was worth it, due to how long it had kept her away from her home and family. The hope is that the strong feelings generated by that situation will give her extra power that will lead to a perfect game. Surely missing your home pushes you to do the thing you need to do in order to get back there faster, right?

Applejack feels the same way. Upon her arrival at the stake, she thinks to herself "If ah want to go home, ah need to get this perfect game. Let's go, self."

Hmm, it could be working! Applejack manages five in a row; halfway there!

"Alright, let's just do this.", she says as she throws her sixth.

It's a ringer!

Trying for seven in a row, Applejack makes sure to stay in check. She holds the gold horseshoe to her chest and thinks "All you need to do is not get heated up. Just like on the farm, take it slow and you'll succeed."

When she's ready, Applejack tosses out number seven.

The throw looks on-point... oh, wait, no, now it doesn't. It's lowering too fast, and it's at a messy angle...

Oh, noodles. It's no good.

Looks like that didn't work after all...

Except, hold on. It still has a chance. Because there's another homesick pony in this competition: Rainbow Dash. She is in this situation too. Maybe the emotions felt from missing a Wonderbolts performance will propel her to a perfect game. Maybe it will work this time. But she's Contestant #12, so there's a few players going before her. Let's see if those ponies can make the homesickness strategy unnecessary.

Those players, Contestants #10 and #11; they can't really describe how they're feeling. Having had enough time to look at the rotating wheel of approaches their predecessors tried to use to no avail, and thus not being able to tell what is useful and what isn't, they can't come up with a game plan. There's too much to consider.

Despite no apparent pessimism or optimism (apparently) blocking their paths, neither of these two players can make it to six in a row. Maybe the lack of a game plan was the reason.

Now it's time for Rainbow Dash.

Hopefully, her desire to get back to her Ponyville team will help her in getting a perfect, as doing so will end the competition and allow her to fly home. And Rainbow Dash is a top-tier athlete, so why not?

She's doing well! Five, six, seven in a row. Seven in a row is more than most players this game.

Eight in a row now! First time today! Alright, just two more! Rainbow Dash could be the one!

Ringer number nine?!

....

Oh, come on!

Yep, you guessed it right. It's a stake hit. Barely. A little bit short.

"AGH!", Rainbow Dash loudly sounds out.

"Alright, now I don't believe it's possible either!", she shouts. "If anyone wants to prove that it is, you have to do it!"

She is technically right. We won't know 100% if a perfect game is possible until somepony does it.

Who will that somepony be, though?

Well, let's look ahead to the next contestant: Contestant #13, who is still Autumn Apple. She had grown fond of this placement.

Autumn, probably the most notable pony in this competition, feels absolutely nothing. Really, just nothing. Her brain video player shows a white screen. She's just going to play, and not think about anything else.

A new game plan could be used here. Autumn was the most recognizable pony in this competition for a reason. She had been through a emotional pond of mud; troubling reactions to crowd treatments, thinking about dropping out, the help event, etc. Even after desires to give up had been experienced by other players at this point, Autumn's situation is still unique, as she was the only one to need an organized help event, and had been through this longer. Autumn had something that none of the other players had.

As mentioned before, Autumn isn't thinking about that, but you don't have to be thinking about something for it to have an effect on you. And there's no doubt that Autumn's more-different-than-different experience of this tournament is having an effect.

Here she comes.

Her first throw is good. So is her second. In fact, they're great. Perfectly on point.

And then the third throw is the same. And the fourth.

She keeps it up! Five in a row.

Then she has more. Six in a row!

She doesn't stop! Now she has seven in a row! Eight!

Nopony but Autumn has ever gotten nine. Will she expand upon that further?

She does! Nine in a row!

At nine in a row, here we are. Once again, the one and only Autumn Apple is at this one and only moment. The moment where she has the chance to prove all the doubters wrong. To finally give the fans what they've been clamoring for. To satisfy their constant craving for that one last hole to be filled. To unveil the trophy that she will get to show to the world and then have for herself.

Not doing any heavy thinking, Autumn simply puts the moment into action. Surrounded by bleachers filled with completely silent, eyes-glued-to-her fans, standing right in the middle of this extremely intense, gut-wrenching moment, Autumn grabs the fate-sealing gold horseshoe in her mouth, gripping it tightly, very tightly. She turns her head to the left side, moves it back in a snap, waits until she's returned to a straight angle, and gives the shoe a release.

Here it is right here.

The potential. The possible.

Oh? Is it looking more possible?

Yes, it is! As gold horseshoe #10 flies toward the stake, it looks absolutely perfect. The middle of the shoe is hovering in a position where a trajectory arrow would show it landing right at the top.

Getting closer, it still looks perfect. No negative change; the shoe begins its descent exactly where it needs to. It shows no evidence of falling short.

Even closer, it still looks perfect...

It still does!

It's getting so, so close! Super close! It's almost there! And it looks like it's going to ring! Is this the one?! Is it?! Is it?!

...
> Chapter 14
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes! Oh my goodness, yes, it is! A ringer! A ringer! That's a perfect game! A perfect game!

"Yeaahhh!", the crowd explodes with almost ear-piercing levels. In fact, it might not entirely be a "yeah" that they're saying, but more like a scream, or screech, or both at the same time, maybe. And it's no wonder why! At last, it has been done, my friends!

In conjunction with the intense crowd oviation, the buttons on the confetti cannons receive a swift, hard press, shooting a barrage of golden confetti from every corner of the stadium. It pours down all over the victorious arena.

"Yeah!" "Wa-hoo!" "Alright!", members of the crowd shout as they get covered with the celebratory confetti.

Before she even had time to process what had just happened, the incredibly eager ponies that were responsible for the awarding of the treasures skip over to Autumn and position the champion's medal around her neck. The medal is gold and reads "champion" on the front. In addition, they award her a white baseball cap with the text "perfect game" written on it in gold.

The exciting symbolism kept the crowd's red-hot energy burning. They continue to shriek. A loud horn also gets played.

Reporters then approach the winner for a post-game interview.

"Alright, Autumn, you did it! You accomplished the seemingly impossible! How does it feel?"

Having not been able to fully think about that due to the spectators' screaming and the shock of winning it all, she responds with a lot of stuttering.

"I... I really don't know right now. The shock is still, um, active. I need time, if that's alright."

The reporter giggles. "Okay, champion. We'll give you time."

"Thank you.", Autumn says as she walks away from the microphone in a sea of deja vu.

As she does so, Autumn's friends, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and later Shoeshine, who made the trip all the way down from the announcer's booth, show up to give her a hug. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were competitors in the game who had lost, but that didn't take away from the proud feelings they had.

It really is deja vu. Finally, after all those failures, the success had been achieved. Somepony got a perfect game. 10 gold ringers in a row were made.

Autumn takes a real-life look at this, observing the brown stake, with that completed stack of gold horseshoes circling around it. All ten of them, thrown by her.

She is unable to handle the tsunami of excitement in her and lowers herself to the ground while crying a few tears of joy. Her friends use this as a reason to only embrace her more, piling up into a hug puddle, still with the confetti coming down.

"Cry the happy tears all you need to, Autumn", Shoeshine says in a slightly-joking manner while smiling. "You deserve it."

This pattern continues for a long while.





Eventually, after the shockwave wears off and Autumn gains enough composure, she heads toward the microphone-holding ponies for an interview.

"Okay, I think we can skip the question of how did this feel.", the reporter begins. "We all know that. Instead, I'll ask: how did you do this? Out of all the 28 competitors here, what caused you to be the one?"

"I definitely have to say that the bad things I went through helped me in the end.", Autumn says. "By experiencing an adverse reaction to the crowd criticizing me for bad play, I was able to find a way to turn that on its head. If you don't go through an emotional hardship, how can you possibly amend it?"

"And, I just overall used the knowledge that ponies were thinking that event disadvantaged me. I made that into an advantage. I used the power of the underdog.", she says happily.

"Great words, Autumn. Now, only one more question: What are you going to do to celebrate?"

"Well, we still haven't done the trophy part yet, so I think I'll start with that."

"Great choice. See you later, Autumn. Congratulations."

"Thank you so much."

Another hug between Autumn and her cousin Applejack ensues.





After all the confetti in the big cannons has been exhausted, Shoe Stadium lines up for what they've all been waiting on: the trophy presentation.

With a stand set up for the trophy and its winner to be on, and with the path clear, the moment begins.

A horn tune courtesy of the Shoe Stadium Band sounds off as the trophy presenters walk out of blackness with the Perfect Game Trophy. At last, the appearance of it is revealed. It is a gold trophy with a stake poking out from the middle of the bottom foundation and featuring a horseshoe around it. Fitting!

As the presenters make their way to the top of the stand and the last horn notes fizzle out, the announcer gets to vocalize the sentence he had long been holding in.

"Alright, everyone! Here we present to you the winner of this amazing trophy. Autumn Apple, please come up!"

The crowd erupts into a loud cheer as the trophy's winner emerges onto the white stand that has extra confetti shooting out from its sides.

Starting off the next phase of the celebration, another microphone is pointed Autumn's way.

"To begin here, what would you like to say to everypony before the trophy raise happens?"

"All I want to say is that this is for you, the fans.", Autumn passionately says into the microphone. "You waited a long time for this. You were hungry for it. And I gave it to you. This trophy may be technically mine, but it's yours too."

"Yeah!", the crowd responds, with even more extra confetti shooting out.

"Now for part two, can both you and I pose with the trophy for a bit? It's tradition in sports."

"Sure!", Autumn responds. "It will look great on picture."

"Swell."

The leading presenter and the champion put their hooves to the trophy simultaneously and raise it up slightly. They pose for a photograph, which is taken by the camera team.

"Alright, now we have the best part, part three! Give it a raise!"

With no hesitation, Autumn performs the legendary trophy raise, to the appropriate roar from the audience. Clutching it with both of her hooves, she snaps them high above her head, displaying the horseshoe trophy in championship fashion.

Equestrian sports' traditional champions' song plays over the stadium as Autumn continues to hoist the grand prize. With these two things combined, the deja vu creeps back up and Autumn lowers down, starting to shed the happy tears again. She then pushes her head deep into the side of the trophy, signaling just how much this meant to her. It should mean a lot! Winning a professional sports championship is not something many ponies will ever accomplish. If you become among the ones who do, no reason to take it lightly! It's a massive thing to have written in your life record, and this pony here will have it there. Forever.

This couldn't go on without even more hugs. Shoeshine, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash got invited onto the champion's stand to give out some more proud-of-you affection to their first-place friend, while the crowd happily cheers for it and the trophy shines.

The beautiful moment continues on for as long as it needs to.





At last, it has been done. A perfect game has been achieved. 10 gold ringers in a row. Some ponies thought it wasn't possible, but it was. Somepony did it. They got that trophy. 

And it turned out to be Autumn, who had faced so much adversity that she could have easily gotten sunk, but instead, she chose to use it to sail to this point.

She truly is a champion.

The End
> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I bet I can sort these faster than you!"

"Challenge accepted!"

"I also bet I won't miss a single one!"

"Go for it! But here's the deal; the challenge only applies to you! One red apple in the yellow container and you lose, regardless of what I do!"

"Um... you two know the tournament is over, right?"

This was the aftermath of the perfect game competition that had raged a competitive cloud over Appleloosa during the past eight days. Ponies giving it their all to be the first to achieve a perfect game, trying to keep others from doing so, exercising their self-confidence; the long ordeal had changed the city's emotional landscape during its run. And currently, it's only the first day post-competition, so it's easy to see why the ponies, who are just starting to return to work, are being competitive with each other in their job tasks. The competition fuel they built up from the perfect game period had not been exhausted yet.

And then there's the sheer difficulty of processing the fact that it's over. That competition, being what it was, had gotten cemented into the routines of the Appleloosa residents. Whether they were a fan, a player, or something else, it was something that they were preparing for every day. Keeping track of the times. Pouring their heart and soul into it. Waking up with it in mind. Packing their purses for the game. There also wasn't much else to to think about besides the competition, given that it paused most other activity.

"Alright, I guess it's time to wake up for the next game... oh, right.", one pony says in the morning.

"We still don't have a perfect... oh no, wait, we do.", another says.

This happened at work too!

"Shoot, I think I have slightly forgotten how to work this thing.", one mare says at her apple juicing job.

You can't blame these ponies. That competition definitely was something! The starting point that featured sudden, rapid excitement for the new scheme that later generated a very swift adoption from the EHA and Wonderbolt-fast entry into a competition that interrupted Appleloosa's centuries-old work schedule. The beginning of the competition that was plagued by uncertainty, tough decision-making, and sadness from its inventor. Then came the period of ponies constantly coming up just short... it was an absolutely wild ride that didn't seem like it would ever come to an end.

But it has. All has been said and done. The perfect game has been achieved, the trophy has been awarded. Those eight days of chaos: gone. In the history books. Something that is now being looked back upon, rather than currently happening.

However, as we said earlier, the effects of it are still lingering. One such thing being the disappointment of the ponies who had lost. Especially for those who had gotten very close. While Autumn was the only pony to hit nine ringers in a row, let alone ten, many ponies almost got nine, and some of them might have if they had kept playing after one early miss.

A few of those players had set up places for the trophy to go in case they won, and those players look at the empty spaces with tears. They now have a hole in their lives. After all, they are pros. They get paid to do this. And they missed an opportunity to have the greatest sports achievement ever on their resumes.

Because of this, not everypony has returned to work yet. Some of the players don't feel like getting out of bed, because they're too stung from the loss.

All that makes for a perfect landscape of a situation like this. If you were to go to Appleloosa today, you would notice that it looks like a place that's in phase 1 of returning to normalcy after a history-changing event. It was history-changing. The ponies living in the countryside town are confident the tournament will be remembered for generations to come.

Now, what about the aftermath with the pony who won? Autumn Apple? How's she doing right now?

She's about to have a nice hangout. Autumn's friends Shoeshine, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash had to go back to work as well, which in turn meant going back to Ponyville, as that's where they live. But they couldn't leave just yet; they had to stay one more day for a close moment with their trophy-winning friend. But without the craziness of yesterday, as Autumn's initial tear-dropping reaction to the top-tier achievement she had reached yesterday has now mostly waned off. The deja vu is gone. All Autumn feels now is happiness. After the unprecedented night ran its course, she kicked off the new day by making an update to her "life achievements" book. In the sports section, she was able to change the number beside the word "championships" from 0 to 1.

Yes, it was the first time she had made it to such a monumental high. Autumn had a won a few division and conference titles while playing in horseshoe tournaments that used such a format, but never an entire league championship.

That is, until yesterday.

The trophy also found its home; it was placed in the top row of the brown shelf that sat behind Autumn's bed. She would get a view of it, and in turn a reminder of what she had done, every single day upon waking up.

She did so this morning, and is keeping the emotions in her as she hangs out with her friends.

"All I can say is that I'm intensely grateful.", she says after walking out into her frontyard. "How many ponies will ever win a professional sports title? That's right, not many. I must keep in mind that I am blessed to be one of them."

"That's right; you really are blessed!", Rainbow Dash says. "That's something I have to remember too; only a tiny percentage of student Wonderbolts actually become Wonderbolts!"

"But it's not just a blessing; you earned it!", Shoeshine says.

"Aww," Autumn says as the four of them pull into a group hug. If there was a camerapony around, this would make for a great picture. In addition to the hugging, Autumn's house was in the background. It has a brown wood structure decorated with red, orange, and yellow highlights; that and a four-way hug would make for a social media-worthy image. If Equestrians had social media.





After the hug, something else pops into Autumn's mind, which she then proceeds to vocalize.

"However, there is a caveat to this.", Autumn says.

"Yeah?"

"The thing is, during that whole endeavor, with the tournament, we were talking about that 'perfect game' stuff in terms of getting those 10 consecutive gold ringers for that perfect 90 score. That is a perfect game, and of course, I am the one who did that."

"But I couldn't have possibly done it without the support of the wonderful ponies around me."

"I know that sounds obvious and cliche, but just think about it."

"Starting off at the beginning, Applejack, remember how at the time when you were just testing out the new scheme, you noticed me playing on the streets and decided that you should introduce it to me? I heard you say 'That's one of my cousins; let's go to her!'"

"Yup."

"While I'd still be your cousin regardless, I don't think I would have accepted the invitation, much less been so eager about it, if you hadn't always given me so much love over my life. Even though we don't see each other a lot, we capitalize on the times that we do!"

Applejack smiles and tips her hat to Autumn, after which Rainbow Dash speaks.

"Right! If you two were on bad terms, I don't think Autumn would have wanted to play with us.", Rainbow Dash says.

"Probably not!", Autumn responds.

"And then when we got to the tournament, I of course had that incident where I hung my head down in shame because of a bad play and the ensuing crowd reaction. And then fell into a puddle of doubt and sadness."

"Remember how I considered dropping out there? Well, I'm almost sure I would have done so had it not been for the intensely generous hooves I was lended."

"That organized help event, where I got to sit down and receive a gentle, heartfelt talk... I can't comprehend it. It was so sweet of those ponies to do that for me."

Yep! And then after that help event, she ended up the champion!

Rainbow Dash chimes in again with this fact. "You have a situation where perseverance got you to where you wanted to go!"

"Yes!", Shoeshine adds. "And as you said, it probably helped you get there, because you used the bad feelings against themselves!"

"I hear ponies say this a lot: 'One day you will look back on this and be glad you didn't give up.' Couldn't be more true!", Rainbow Dash adds.

"Absolutely!", Autumn says. "All that stuff that I spoke of, the kindness, it did help get me to the championship. But that's not what matters the most."

"Even without the championship, overall kindness and willingness to put aside your own schedule to help somepony else is still incredibly important to me. I need it in my life regardless, especially when I struggle with loneliness. I still can't find a good roommate, and I don't always have any music tasks."

"My overall point is, you three and many others have been nothing but great at showing true love for me, and that is the real perfect game."

Wow. This statement hits the others' hearts hard.

"Aww, come here.", Shoeshine says, touched by Autumn's deep, rich comment.

The quartet of ponies stand on their hind legs, wrap the front ones around as far as they could stretch, and lovingly gather in a tender group hug. Beautiful.





Whether familial, platonic, or romantic, (the former two in this case), love makes the world go round.

It did throughout that competition, and will continue to do so.

As Autumn said, the championship is less important, but of course, it's still awesome.

Looking back on the tournament itself too, it's definitely not something that will be forgotten about!

What a journey this was.

What a ride.

What a life.