Unexpected Changes

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Daisy, tugging on Lily's shoulder. "There's nothing wrong with skipping a year. You can work on your muscles and come back some other time."

"There's no time like the present," argued Lily. "I'll be fine."

"Will you, though?" agreed Snapdragon. "You said it yourself, darling; this year, everypony's going to be bigger, stronger, and meaner."

"Myself included," nodded Lily. "Trust me; if there's one thing I know, it's how to play hoofball."

"We just think you might end up hurt, and we don't want that," stated Glory bluntly. Her friends all turned to look at her with fire in their eyes. While Daisy and Snapdragon were upset that she'd just blurted it out, Lily was personally insulted.

"Do you really think I'd be so clumsy as to let myself be injured by playing a simple game? It has rules! Rules that are put in place to protect the players! There is a clause of how rough you can be, for pony's sake!"

Glory reached up and scratched the back of her neck. "Right. Sorry. My bad."

With a nod of acceptance for her apology, Lily continued toward the field. As she approached, she unrolled her jersey and slipped it on. She had yet to grow at all over the last month and a half, so she was able to fit into it with no issues. "We're here, coach!"

The stallion that led the team turned as she walked up. "Lily! Glad to have you back! And Daisy, you too."

"Glory and I are also here," noted Snapdragon.

"So you are," he nodded. "Are you all trying out, or are you just here to check out the team?"

"We're definitely looking to be on the team," nodded Daisy. "We all have different reasons, though."

The coach turned and glanced at Snapdragon. "I'll bet you do..." He returned his gaze to Lily. "So, it seems you're ready to go. We were going to change colours for the jerseys this year, so yours is out of date, but that's alright. We don't have the fabrics in yet, so you can just wear that one; it's fine for now." He turned once more to the others. "Do you have your jerseys?"

Daisy had hers, but the other two did not. As Daisy slipped into hers, Glory and Snapdragon were fitted with mesh vests to make clear their positions.

Once everypony was assembled, The coach had them do some very basic exercises. First was three laps around the pitch, then leg lifts, and it ended with some stretching. All the while, Daisy was thinking to herself that abdominal crunches or sit-ups would be a bad idea. What if Lily crushed the baby? When Snapdragon vocalised this to her, Glory reminded them that hoofball was a leg-centric sport.

The coach blew his whistle. "Okay, girls, gather 'round." They all filed in, With Lily being one of the first to make it in, and Glory being the last. "Okay. We're going to do some tests to see where your aptitudes lie.

"My mom said I need to keep a positive aptitude!" said a filly in the back. To Daisy's shock, it was not Glory.

"That's attitude," corrected the coach, "but that's important, too. A positive attitude means you're going to try harder. In fact, let's all say right now, "I'm gonna be the best," then the position you want, okay? On three. One, two, three!"

All of the girls called out their desired positions. There were a lot of goalies. They only needed one in the best case. Two, at most, if their first choice was injured.

"Okay, everypony that didn't say "goalie," line up by those cones." He pointed to some cones at the north end of the field. "Three lines, try to keep them even."

About a third of the girls filed down there, where a hoofball was waiting for each line.

"Alright, raise your hoof if you don't know how the dribble slalom works." There were a few ponies that raised their hooves, so the coach turned to Lily, who was at the front of the center line. "Lily, would you like to demonstrate?"

With a nod, Lily rolled the ball back onto her hoof, then rushed forward, dribbling back and forth.

"When you have the ball, you dribble it, keeping it close to your hooves, moving it down the field. Here in practice, you're going to weave between the cones. Lily went right then left, you can go left then right, it doesn't matter. As you can see, when she reaches the end, she's coming back. If you're at the front of the line, be ready to go, because she's going to pass it to you."

Lily passed the ball, and it went right to the next filly in the line. It bounced off of her legs and went flying toward the next line, where Daisy caught it, and passed it back to the front of the center line.

"You're supposed to receive the pass," explained the coach. "As soon as you do, you do what Lily did. Dribble down to the end."

As Lily took her place at the end of the line, the three leaders just kind of stood there.

"Are there questions you have?" asked the coach. No response came for several seconds, until Glory raised her hoof. "Yes, Morning Glory."

"Aren't we supposed to go?" she asked from the middle of her line.

"If you're ready," shrugged the coach. "Lily demonstrated, there aren't any questions... Go."

When nopony moved for another ten seconds, Glory stepped out of line and snagged the ball from her leader. Seeing this, Daisy did the same, as did the pony standing in front of Snapdragon.

"There we go," clapped the coach. "Good form, girls. Way to take charge!"

As the girls began to pass the ball and run with it, it was made obvious to the coach, as well as some of the players, that some of these girls would not make the team. Dribbling the ball and maintaining control of it while running was one of the most basic aspects of the game, as was passing and receiving. The pony that passed to Lily was really bad at passing, though, and as she was readying herself to take her second run, a pass that was poorly aimed and coming in too hot smacked right against her face, and Lily was knocked to the ground.