Unexpected Changes

"Seriously, I'll be fine," urged Lily through the bag of ice water on her face. "As long as nopony kicks the ball right into my face again, I can still play."

"Are you sure?" asked the coach. "That was a pretty hard blow. There's no shame in going home and coming back tomorrow."

"Maybe not," answered Lily, "but why go home when I'm fine? I can just sit back for a few minutes and go right back in once my lip stops bleeding."

With a sigh and a nod, the coach turned and walked back onto the pitch. Lily had been brought off the field and onto one of the benches to rest, cool her face and rehydrate. Snapdragon was with her, as the coach had allowed one friend to leave practice to make sure Lily was alright, and Daisy was still needing to practice. The filly that had kicked the ball at Lily's head had been given a five-lap penalty. She'd claimed it was an accident, and since she was new, the coach had to give her the benefit of the doubt. If it was an accident, she'd take steps to ensure that it didn't happen again. If it was malicious, she'd do it again and receive a harsher punishment, and be kicked from the team. But for now, five laps was an appropriate punishment while the rest of the team finished up the dribble slalom and started in on the next practice task: repeatedly passing the ball back and forth.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" asked Snapdragon once they were out of earshot.

"I'm fine," urged Lily. "She just kicked the ball right in my face, is all. I wasn't ready, and I will be next time. All of the professionals catch the ball with their head sometimes, and it's mostly just a problem with unicorns."

"Yeah, but what if you fall on your belly next time and squash the feta?"

Lily slowly turned her head to face Snapdragon. "I think maybe you were the one hit in the head. I'm not carrying any cheese on me."

"Not that kind of feta, the other one!"

"What are you talking about?"

Snapdragon leaned in and whispered, "The B-A-Y-B-Y."

Lily scoffed. "It's too early for that."

"But it won't be too early forever. Someday, it'll be too late."

Lily took a deep breath. "I know. I'll be out of the game by then, though."

"Are you sure? You took a nasty blow to the face, darling. What if the next one hits you in the stomach and pops the baby?"

Lily was silent for a moment, then stood up, walking onto the pitch as the next activity was about to be announced. With the conviction in her walk, Snapdragon thought Lily was about to tell on her, and followed from a short distance, but on arrival, Lily said nothing.

"Okay, girls," instructed the coach. "We're going to practice shooting now, as well as blocking. I want all goalies by the post, and all forwards here at the twenty-five metre line." He turned to Lily. "You sure you're alright?"

Lily nodded. "I'm a forward. I should be fine."

"Okay. Take your positions."

As Lily had surmised, there were a lot of goalies. Out of the twenty fillies trying to join the team, twelve of them wanted to be goalies, and there were only two forwards; Lily and Daisy. Even if they both made the team, there weren't enough forwards to constitute a full team.

"Okay," sighed the coach. "Is there anypony else interested in playing a forward? We need at least three, and we only have two."

"Four," corrected Lily. "We need a fourth in case somepony ends up injured." She pointed to her face.

"Good point. Anypony?"

Looking around, nopony else wanted to play as a forward. Even without a backup, they couldn't play.

"I'll do it, I guess," sighed Snapdragon. "I don't enjoy the position, but we need an extra. Somepony else will have to play defender."

The coach clapped his hooves. "Very good, very good." He'd been coaching the team for a few years, and he knew that Snapdragon wasn't particularly good at the game. It was obvious that she was more into the uniform, and was better at keeping the team looking good than winning. Still, she wanted to be on the team. Perhaps she'd even be okay as a forward. "Anypony else?"

Unlike before, nopony came forward. None of them wanted to be a forward, because that meant comparing themselves to Lily, and she was the best.

"Alright, fine. Goalies, take turns blocking the ball, forwards, try to score."

With a toot from his whistle, the forwards started launching balls toward the goal in stages. They would try to catch the ball, have their success or failure recorded, then throw or kick it back to whichever forward was shooting next before moving to the back of the line.

Daisy managed to make about a third of her shots, give or take a few. Snapdragon was lousy, only making one shot go in because the goalie tripped on the ball while trying to kick it back, and it went in.

Lily was fantastic, though. More than eighty-five percent of her shots resulted in a goal, either because the goalie was unable to catch it, or because her shots were strong enough and well-placed enough to push them back a step or two. She wasn't unblockable, as some of her shots did manage to be caught or deflected, but she was making the goalies look like fools.

One, having been unable to block her twice, was so frustrated that she kicked the ball back at Lily, hard. Snapdragon saw it coming and immediately leaped in the way, thinking it was going to hit Lily right in the gut. The ball ploughed into her chest, hard, but not nearly as hard as Lily's hoof struck her back. Just as she'd promised back at the bench, Lily was ready when the ball had come sailing at her, and she was prepared to return it to the goal. Instead, what she'd done was kick Snapdragon in the back and send her careening into the dirt.

The coach blew his whistle as he came running up. "Okay, girls! Practice is cancelled today. You can all head home, and we'll try again tomorrow..."