Perfect Game

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue

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 Author's Note

An original character appears in this chapter; a first for me!

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

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

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 Author's Note

A quick release for y'all! I had a big burst of inspiration 🙂

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

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 8 Author's Note

Wow, another chapter where I got it all done in one night!

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

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 10 Author's Note

This chapter was edited after publishing due to my discovery that scores between 85 and 89 aren't possible under this scheme, and for inclusion of how many ringers vs. stake hits the players got, as I thought that because the players were coming so close to perfect, it was too important of a detail to be left out. Apologies for the mistakes!

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

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 12

"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?!

...

Author's Note

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

Author's Note

Actually, it's not quite over yet! This is the end of the main story, but there's still an epilogue chapter to come! Stay tuned! :pinkiehappy:

Oh, and congratulations, Autumn! :heart: 👍

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.

:heart:

Author's Note

There you go! That's it! Writing this story was a long, tough haul, but I still sure had a great time and, as always, will miss it!

If you have made it here to the end, thank you so much for reading this story. It truly means a lot.

Now on to story #4! My number! :pinkiehappy: