Friday Night

I look up at the man in front of me, sweat stinging my eyes. I don't care about the pain anymore, all I want is to win. To put forth so much resistance, that those who oppose me, fall underneath my enormous force. I will protect my men with my life, and they will bring glory to our homeland. In all reality, I'm not talking about some European war, I'm talking about football. Good, painful, American football.

My name is Thomas Stone. I am the left tackle on the Redtown Raider's Varsity football team. I am six foot four inches tall, I weigh two-hundred and twenty-four pounds, and I am mad. It's the fourth quarter, six minutes left to go. We're on our second down, eight yards from the first down marker. God am I angry. This is the first real struggle we've had to fight, our first six games equaling a fight with pie. A piece of cake. I can't even think straight I'm angry! Anyways, back to the game.

I put my left hand down, and slide my left foot back a tad. I lean forward with just the perfect amount of weight , and listen for the snap. "Ready..." I hear. My heart is thumping fast. This is it. A few more milliseconds pass, but leave feeling like minutes. "Go!" I snap out with my left foot, squatting below my opponent. My hands meet his chest, share a few words, talk about the weather, and then the rest of my body makes the connection. He grunts, my body decimating any power his own had, and I send him back three feet to land on his back.

Now for the hard part... I think to myself. With their right end out of service, I now have to protect the running back from the middle linebacker, who incidentally, was headed right towards me. "Thanks!" I yell at him, before squaring my shoulders at him. The horror and fear etched onto his face is by this point, very apparent. He knew what was coming, and knew there was nothing to stop it. I squatted my hips, and threw my arms into him, making the connection. I then forced my entire body weight into him, sending us both crashing to the ground, taking out the left dog who was trying to catch up to the ball along for the ride too.

"GUUUUUUFHH!" He let out as a muffled scream/cry. Still not sure which. It sure was funny though. I stood up, and offered my hand to him. He looked around for a second, noticing the play was over. He grabbed my hand and pulled himself up, giving me a pat on the back, which I returned. The running back, Garcia, had taken it to the house. I smiled, and ran down field. I got into position for the extra point, and noticed a bright flash off to my left, behind the bleachers. I thought nothing more than Oh cool. I'll be in the newspaper. The kick sailed through, and we were now up 42-35. Four minutes and thirty seconds left in the game.

I jogged off the field, and stood on the sideline. Coach Meyer walked up to me, and slapped my shoulder. "That was one hell of a block, Stone! You made that play for us!" He screamed at me, a grin on his face. I smiled in appreciation of his compliment.

"I try coach. Thanks!" I said with a jump in my step. I walked over to the trainers, and grabbed a bottle of water. I removed my helmet, and raising it to my face, I squeezed the bottle and began to waterfall. I was god dang thirsty. I received multiple pats on the back and butt, and many "great job out there"'s from my teammates. I smiled. These are my brothers.

I set the bottle back down, and noticed something a little odd. Another bright flash, but this time it wasn't behind the bleachers or anything. No, the bright flash had appeared around me, then went away. Nobody seemed to have noticed though, so maybe I was just really tired or something. I shrugged. Better get back to watching our defense hold them for the game.

Four minutes and twelve seconds later, we ran onto the field celebrating our seventh victory.

I put on my jacket, the red 'R' on the front left displaying who I was for, and walked out of the locker room, and onto the football field. I walked onto the black track, and then onto the green turf field. The smell of sweat, pain, and victory was still present. With the turf squishing beneath my feet, I walked over to the silver bench and sat down. With my hands in my pockets, and my gray beanie keeping my head warm, I leaned back in a very exposed position.

I breathed deep and smiled. This, was what I lived for. To fight others, and to win with my team. I relished the scent of turf, and the oncoming rain storm made its own scent present as well. This is one beautiful night. I heard the sound of footsteps behind me on the concrete bleacher foundation. Probably just some janitor coming to clean up the mess, or a kid who forgot their coat. Eh, whatever.

Then the footsteps stopped, and I swear I could hear the sound of wing beats and electricity. I pushed it aside in my mind and looked up at the stars that were slowly becoming covered by the clouds. Then a noise was heard so faintly, but yet it held so many images. Click. I jumped up and turned around, expecting to see some rival school junkies facing me with their trademarked switchblade out. I raised my fist in a defensive posture, ready to fight. Needless to say, it wasn't necessary as I was easily lifted into the air, and put right at eye level with a flying rainbow haired girl, who I must say, was very attractive, minus the blue wings.

"What the hell?" I questioned aloud, laughing my head off. Either I was really, really tired, or someone secretly drugged the water. I continued laughing, and the confused expression appearing on it's face made it even worse. "BAHAHAHA! What are you?!" I screamed out, laughing my ass off. This is great.

"Me? I'm the great flyer and future Wonderbolt Rainbow Dash!" It said in a rough female voice.

"You are huh? Well, I'm the fastest flyer in the world. I bet you can't beat me." I challenged, my lip curling.

"You're on."

"Okay then. Just let me down, and we'll begin." I answered sarcastically. This chick is pretty gullible I thought, As soon as she lets me down, I'll just take her down full nelson style and..Oh great there's two of them. I touched down on the squishy turf, and saw another girl with dark purple hair with two pink stripes, but with a horn and a pair of wings, looking at the turf with a disgusted expression.

"How do you eat this grass?!" She questioned me with a full mouth. I fell over and began to laugh my ass off again. God dang, this is great! "What..Rainbow, what's it laughing about? Is it something I said?" She asked her rainbow headed friend.

"I dunno Twi.. but it's pretty contagious." She snickered. The purple one shot her a look of pure, unadulterated hate.

I finally began to calm my laughing, with only my side in stitches. I put my knee on the ground, and stood up to my full height. The winged human things looked at me, fear now present on their faces. They stood about five foot six tall, which was a little near my chest. "You were eating turf there, little lady." I answered to her question.

"Tur..turf? What's t-that?" She stuttered, "You're tall..." She squeaked out. Her pupils looked like pins, and I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Turf, my friend, is fake grass. It's made of artificial fibers that are woven into a field," I gestured around with my hand, ignoring the comment about my height, "like this one."

She spit out the grass, and began rubbing her abnormally long tongue off. I laughed at the display. Suddenly, the rainbow one appeared in front of my face, a scrutinizing look on her face. "What?" I asked.

"We're gonna race, remember! C'mon, lets go!" She said and then sped off into the air. About thirty feet away, she looked back. "You comin' or what, ape?"

I did not like being called an ape. Or anything other than a human for that matter. "First of all pipsqueak, I ain't an ape." Oh god my southern side began to show. "I'm a human being, a homo sapien. Secondly, does it look like I have wings?"  Luckily she got the message and flew down to her friend who was still trying to clean her tongue. Did I mention it was a really, really long tongue?

An awkward silence ensued, with me slowly beginning to process what these things were. A winged girl and a horned girl with wings. Huh. That's different. Finally, the purple one finished cleaning her tongue, and began to hit at the ice with a rubber chicken in an effort to break it. "So...ummm... Mr. Homo... I mean..sir..I mean...Oh what is your name?!" She asked rather loudly, angry at her own stuttering.

I chuckled at her stumbling, and decided formalities were in order. "My name is Thomas Stone. I'm a football player, a student, and a huge supporter of joking around." I smiled, and she smiled back. Good. This is going well.

With her smile wide on her face, her mind began to crank gears, and after processing what I said and what was needing to be said, which only took about two seconds, began to speak. "I am Twilight Sparkle. I am the, or, er, was the personal protege of Princess Celestia." She said with a cute smile, her cheeks a slight red.

"That's really cool, actually. Y a ti?" I asked the rainbow one, who only looked at me with a confused expression. I sighed. "And you?"

"Sure!" She answered, her face lighting up. "I am the fastest flier in Equestria, the future Wonderbolt Captain, and the extremely good looking, Rainbow Dash!" She answered while beginning to fly in the air. "I am sure, you have heard of me." She smiled, landing on the ground.

I put my finger to my chin, and let out a long sigh. I moved my finger, and answered, "Only one of those things is something we can agree on. Your name doesn't ring a bell."

Now right now, I could say the expression on her face was funny, because it really was. She did not expect me to not know who she was, but something else caught me off those tracks. It was the purple one, and her horn was glowing. Her face was pale.

"What's wrong, er, miss Twilight?" I asked, my heart beginning to beat quickly. The glow around her horn began to stop.

She gulped, and her eyes became even smaller than they were before. "Rainbow.. we're not in Equestria anymore."

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