Day Shift in Equestria

I got quite a sleep, but I had sadly slept through the entire day as well. I was woken up by Twilight the next morning. Here's a tip:never do that with her!

"Five more minutes! I wanna get this cookie." I mumble to the pillow, as something continues to prod at my side.

"WAKE UP!!" I go flying off the couch and slam into the floor. I look up and see Twilight smiling on the head of the couch. "Good that's better. You slept through the whole day, Nick. You might as well get your stuff ready because the match starts in a few hours."

"Wait..what time is it?" I ask in my daze.

"Well it's 8 A.M," she replies.

"So I only got six hours of sleep, great."

"Well you got about twenty-six hours of sleep actually!"

"What?" I ask, surprised.

"You're a very heavy sleeper, you missed work and everything yesterday."

"Oh joy...you ready for the tournament today?" I ask her.

"Yep! But are you ready?"

"I'll be ready whenever I need to be, now let's get out of here. We have like what, two hours before it starts?"

"Yeah, we gotta go and get everypony else ready, then we shall head over to the alley and crush Filthy and his team." We start out and gather everyone and head over to the alley. When we walk in my heart drops at the site before us. Three lanes are lit up, seats and bleachers lining behind the approach and down the other lanes, multiple cameras line the ceiling above us with reporters announcing the same thing over and over. We rush into the pro shop and find Driller inside reading a newspaper.

"I'm surprised you guys weren't grabbed by the idiot reporters out there. They've been running everywhere asking where Filthy was and what not. How is everypony? Are y'all ready to win?" He asks us, setting the paper down with a smile.

"Yes!" we shout together. But before anything else can happen, somepony starts knocking at the door behind us, we turn around to see two ponies with PBA shirts on, one with a pink mane the other yellow, both mares and both wearing black shades.

"Are you, Nick?" the pink one asks.

"Hello, nice to meet you too." I reply. "And how may I help you two today?" I cross my arms and lean up against the counter behind me.

"We need to see the ball that you brought here to Equestria. We want to see what the difference is between your world and ours." the yellow one stepped back and shut the door as Driller pulls out my Deadly Aim. The two mares take it and start examining it very, very slowly, from rolling it to feeling it all up, it took forever for them to finish. Then they set it on the counter and a drill magically appeared above it!

"WHOA! What are you doing to my precious ball?" I grab it and pull it from under the drill, then they yank it from me with magic and held me back. Then the pink mane started talking.

"The ball has an illegal coverstock and is white dot. You will get it back but it must be drilled completely through the core to be unusable." the drill makes contact with the surface of the ball and starts cutting into it.

"How is my coverstock illegal?"

"We don't have a coverstock like this in our world, plus we have no clue what else you have in it." The drill gets deeper inside.

" The coverstock is a Primer Reactive Hybrid, the core is set at dead center with the rest of the ball filled with carbon fiber. The reason carbon fiber is because it's light weight and stronger then the basic gell that a lot of Equestrian balls use today. The ball is sixteen pounds so I already knew going in that it was banned, I have a back up thank to the amazing Driller behind me, so please stop destroying my ball..." The magic holding my body fades off me and I grab my ball back.

"May we see the other?" Driller lifts out the other from behind the counter, it's shiny blue surface glistening in the light. The two mares take the ball and start examining it. I turn around to the others and tell them to go out and get ready, as they leave Rarity tosses my shirt to me and I quickly slip it on. I turn around to see the two examining my bowling shoes as I sigh in anger. Eventually they finish and leave me and Driller alone. Driller starts laughing like mad as I just shake my head.

"Oh my Celestia, that was so freaking funny! I mean I'm sorry for you ball but lord they were stupid looking, doing all that pointless stuff to your shoes!" I pick up the new ball and start spinning it on the counter. "You won't have to worry about adjusting to that by the way, I just converted the specks of your ball and made a copy, but I used the Equestria equivalent for it so it'll preform exactly the way you like." Driller smiled to me.

"But how did you get my fingers measured without needing me?" I asked.

"Gee I don't know, magiiiiiic."

"Ohhhh yeaaaaaaah...forgot about it! Anyways, thanks again Driller I'll repay you later."

"Beat them and we're even." I nod and walk out to the rest of the alley, then the front doors fly open and Filthy walks in with his team behind him.

"EVERYPONY MAY I INTRODUCE THE STORMING STRIKES!!!" An announcer booms over the speakers, filling the alley. "GIVE IT UP FOR THE ANCHOR PDW, FOLLOWED BY BARN STRIKES, RERACKING, DEADSHOT, AND FINALLY SNOWFLAKER!"

"Seriously, Snowflaker. Why?" I ask. The pink unicorn picks a ball up in her magic and fires it into a rack of pins, as the ball hits the pins it disintegrates them into dust. "OK I stand corrected!" I hold up my hand in defeat. "Sorry, nice to meet all of you and good luck!" As they walk past me the gray colored earth pony, PDW shakes his head and sighs. I walk down and join my team and we wait until they decide to start practice.

As practice commenced, I only shoot two balls on each lane to allow everyone else to waste their energy. However, I noticed Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Twilight picking up more spares and strikes then normal. Just as I noticed Twilight sat next to me on the bench, so I figured I'd ask.

"What got into you four? How much did you guys practice yesterday?"

"Well, since you decided to go and sleep away for the day, we decided to go and practice. Driller helped us with our spares and made us custom balls with the Elements of Bowling on it! They really work well with the lanes and each one matches our fur color and it has our own Cutie mark on it."

"That looks amazing Twilight, honestly I'm jealous because mine's only a dark blue ball with no real markings on it." I turn around and look across the crowd, and very shortly I spot Pinkie, Rarity and the CMC, all holding signs cheering us on. I smile and wave to them as practice eventually end. Then everyone sits down as a anouncer steps up onto the lanes.

"WELCOME EVERYPONY TO THIS WEEKS TEAM CHALLENGE. IT'S THE MIGHTY STORMING STRIKES VS THE ELEMENTS OF BOWLING!" The crowd goes wild for Storm but only a few clap for our team. "First round will be both teams best bowlers in a head to head scratch match. Round two will be a doubles match with handicap if a bowler has it; where as round three will be a triples match with handicap; and the final match of the day will be a five pony Baker style match."

"What does that mean?" Rainbow Dash asks.

"It's simple," I reply. "In the doubles two people take the shots of a frame and work together for a total score. For example, if I shoot first and hit nine pins then you gotta pick up the spare, however if I strike then you start the next frame. It'll be the same for the triples just with a different starter each frame. Now the baker style is nice, with five people everyone will have two frames to shoot, You'll have the first and sixth frames to shoot and you'll be able to shoot for your spare if you missed your strike. I myself, don't like this style of bowling because I always get into a groove then if someone takes their time it throws me out of it."

"Well thank you mister human!" the announcer yells at me, " If you didn't hear what he said this is what the matches are..." The announcer copies everything I say and then finishes with the point scoring. "If a team wins either singles, doubles or triples, it's only one point each match, where as the baker match will be three points total. Whoever has the most points wins. If a tie breaker is to happen we will do a ten pin roll-off with the top bowlers of each team. So let's get this started!!!!" The crowd goes wild as PDW steps up to the approach.

He must be the only pony I've ever seen to actually use their hoof to shoot a ball. He steps forward, crowd going silent, foreleg pull the ball behind his head then coming down and firing the ball down the lane. It glides across the second mark and snaps into the pocket. Everything slows down as the ball makes impact, pins scatter all around and the rack is cleaned,crowd going nuts over the shot. Pdw turns around and bows to them with a smile and goes back to his seat. I get up and get ready.

The crowd once again becomes silent as I set my feet, then slowly insert my fingers into the ball. I take a slow, deep breath in and then take my shot. The ball easily flies off my hand with ease and flies down the lane, but the ball snaps to early and hits brooklyn, my eyes widen as the four pin starts to stand out. But from no where the ten pin flies from behind and knocks it out!

"Boom! Messenger!" The announcer shouts across the alley, crowd clapping for me as I walk back to my seat. PDW gets up and walks past me, not saying a word, which is how I like it. I sit down and the other start patting me on the back, then we all turn our attention to, PDW once more.

His ball flies down the lane and sweeps the rack clean again. I go up and take my shot and do the same. We go like this until the seventh frame. I set up and throw my ball, it hits the third arrow but suddenly snaps to early.

"Come on, brooklyn!" I shout at the ball. It hits the brooklyn pocket but the pins go flying, leaving the five pin behind, "Well hello again mister five pin..." I mumble to myself. I convert the spare but it costs me a lot of pin count.

"Well at least ya hit it partner." I turn and round to applejack and smile to her.

"Yeah but that cost me, easily twenty pins."

"What?" she asks me.

"Welcome to bowling, Applejack. It's very weird on scoring. If you hit nine and spare every frame you'll end up with a score of a hundred ninety. See the difference of score? From three hundred to that just by missing one pin every time."

"Well that's mean."

"Oh well, anyway let's be quiet for, PDW here..." I turn around and watch him close his frame and we continue and we eventually head into the tenth frame. I begin the frame and I will say this much, if you think or say I felt pressure, you're making a understatement.

I take my first shot and strike with ease, while my second strike was a little off, I still got it. I stand up and fire my final shot, I instantly turn around, trying to not watch. I hear it collide with a solid sound, I turn and see the rack gone. I smile as my score pops up at a 279. I sit down and let out a huge sigh of relief as PDW takes his turn.

"You gave it your best and that's all we need." Twilight whispers to me. I shake my head as PDW shoots his frame. His scarlet red ball rotates down the lane and crashes toward the pocket, however at the last second it hits to hard into the head pin leaving the four-seven-six-ten split or as I call it, the big four. The crowd gasps in fright and turn back to Twilight with a grin.

"He's gotta make this to beat me. If he doesn't, he won't break 270 so I'll win"

"Oh wow..." PDW mumbles to himself as he picks up his spare ball and shoots to the six-ten. His ball slides the six pin into the seven and leaving the four pin behind! The crowd cheers PDW on trying to make it and then the annoying announcer walks back to the approach.

"And the winner is...Nick of the Elements of Bowling!" The crowd cheers as I wave back to them, "And now we shall start round two, doubles! Will the contestants please come to the lanes to see who you're battling." Deadshot and Reracking walk up. I turn around to see Applejack and Twilight go up as well. "Here are the contestants and lets begin!"

At first it was even competition. Both sides started striking hard, I also found out why the two on Storming get their names from. Deadshot magicly shoots his ball fast and straight into the head pin, whereas tracker copies PDW but must reset the pins every time because he wants a clean set, I see why Filthy would use these two, both work well at keeping a fast past and tripping up the opponents,

Twilight steps up for her shot on the ninth frame, she fires the ball with her magic but it doesn't hook until the last second and sadly hits the six-nine-ten. Applejack goes up and bucks the ball and slams the rack clean. In the end they ended up with the same score as mine and the others shot a perfect game. After the total handicap's added, Deadshot pulls his team to victory by one pin.

Now tied the Triples come up, Barn Strikes, Snowflaker, Reracker vs Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack. All three work their stuff and easily take Storm down with Flutters massive 145 handicap added to their 269 score, giving us another win. With that there's a break to re-oil the lanes and give the bowlers a chance to rest. We go back into the pro-shop and chat with driller, trying to past time when all of a sudden Filthy walks in.

"What do you want Filthy?" Driller asks.

"I have another proposition for you guys." he replies.

"We don't wanna hear it!" Rainbow Dash shouts back.

"Yeah we're about to beat your team so you might as well hang it up!" Applejack joins Rainbow.

"This doesn't concern you two, it's between me and the human!"

"What is it you wanna say, Filthy? Just say already." I ask him. Rainbow and Applejack step behind me as I step up to him.

"If you remove your teams handicap: I will double your winnings. If you don't, then I shall have fun satirizing you and your team in the papers: saying how you need to gather the worst bowlers to beat a great team with only handicap!"

"I'm not surprised, honestly; that you need better chances at beating me. I guess you finally realized that my team is a challenge now..." I smile down to him, "If I even take you up on that, I'll still win. I hate to say it but your team is disappointing me, I was expecting more!"

"What the hay do you mean?" he asks me.

"Well the name of your team and your anchor are similar to a team in my world; but the team from my world would have beaten us before we started." I replied, "I'll take you up on your deal Filthy. I believe in my team and I don't have to try to turn the odds in my favor like you." He shakes my hand, very displeased at what I said and leaves. Minutes pass and we are greeted by a few PBA officials talking about the deal with Filthy once more. Eventually the call us back and we head out to the crowd again.

"Everypony, we're ready to start this final match winner takes all baker style bowling. We oiled the lanes in the infamous Chameleon pattern! So bowlers will have to be careful on where they throw. Now lets get this match started!" The announcer finishes and we begin the match.

Rainbow Dash was up first she took the first frame. She picks up her ball and spins around and slides it down the lane. Just as the ball makes it down about forty-feet it snaps and cleans the rack. Snowflaker takes her shot as well and strikes. Frame two comes up and its Applejack and Rerack. Applejack easily hits her mark and strikes for us. Rerack shoots but leaves the ten pin, he makes the spare with ease. Third is Fluttershy and Barns and they both strike. Twilight and Deadshot hold up the fourth frames with strikes too. Me and PDW don't fail the crowd and strike as well and eventually the tenth frame creeps up with strikes all the way through.

"And we are now entering the tenth frame everypony," the speakers boom, "Will this be the end for Storm?!" the crowd gasps as PDW takes his shot. The ball flies down and crushes the pins with great force. He turns back to me with a evil grin as I step up for my shot. Needing two strikes to shut them down.

I fly forward and throw my ball, instantly turning back around not wanting to watch. I hear the sound explode behind me so I turn back and see the rack is gone. I step back and wait for my ball to return. Once it does I pick it up and set up, I take a deep breath in and walk forward. The ball shoots off my hand and hits my mark.

"BRING ME HOME BALL!" I shout down the lane. The ball slams the pocket high, the four and seven start to stand tall from the crowd of pins. Just when I thought it was over the ten pin shoots from the back and knocks them down! I fall to my knees in shock as the crowd behind me falls completely silent. I stand up and turn back to them, then the crowd explodes with applause and cheers.

"They have done it! The Elements of Bowling have defeated the Storming Strikes and have ended their win streak!" I turn around and throw my final shot. The ball snaps and hits brooklyn getting another strike and giving our team a perfect score! After everything settles, Filthy gives me the bits and walks out angry with his team right behind him. We get our stuff put up and head to Pinkies to celebrate.

As we partied for hours a surprise knock came from the door. Pinkie opens it to see both Luna and Celestia behind it. They came to join in the celebrations as well. They both came to me and congratulated me on the win but I tell them it was all our hard work as a team. Then Luna tells me some interesting news.

"We have made a spell to send you back to your world too." I fall back in my chair at the news and everyone around stops.

"Wow..so I have to go back, huh?" I ask. Celestia decides to answer me this time.

"I gave some thought to this and here are your choices Nick. You can stay and live here but you would have to get your own house and with the bits you just won you can easily buy a nice place to live or you can head home."

"Well you seem very strong in making me leave. But I will have to say...I'll"-everyone gathers around- "go home..." If I had a dollar for every pony that gasped I would be rich.

"But we thought you liked it here with us!" Dash starts. I wave my hand to calm her.

"I do love it here and to be here with all of you is great. However this isn't my world and I don't need to be here and drive you all crazy."

"Are you sure Nick? I thought you liked my couch." Twilight laughs to her joke.

"I would at least think you would want me to leave Twilight. I mean I wouldn't want people thinking there was something up with me being here all the time. Anyway I need to head over there and get somethings before I leave." I head over grab my little stuff like my bowling gear and stuff. I head upstairs and write down everything that happened in my journal. Then I hide it on a book shelf next to me and run down stairs.

When I walk out I see a spiraling portal behind Luna. I wish everypony goodbye and give hugs to everyone there. I step to the portal and turn back to them one more time.

"I enjoyed it here everyone and I will miss all of you. You all were the greatest friends I ever had. So see ya!" They wave to me as I fall backward into the portal. I close my eyes as the pressure around me felt like I was falling from the sky. I feel the spell stop and I open my eyes to my cars headlights. I get up as the moon light falls on me. I open my car door and toss the stuff inside and start up the car with my spare key. The radio turns on with the date and it was exactly the same date as Equestria. I look over to the passenger seat and see a note on it.

"If you are wondering where your stuff is. I put everything in you glove box for you. I have a feeling you'll find your car before anything else since it's your baby and what not I hope your ok though. Call me- Darius."

I call him and thank him for what he did. He tells me about a search went for me for about a day or two but it was called off since my family didn't seem to worried about me. He also reminds me about a deal I needed to get for him and since he kept my car safe and stuff I needed to get it done for him. So we end the call and I take off into the night. Not expecting everything to flip upside down as they did that night...