Chapters A Spark Is Lit
It was 2009. I was just starting out as a freshpony in High School. The feelings were mixed. I was in a new school, there were people I never met, I wasn't even ready for what could happen. Thankfully though I wasn't alone. There were a whole slew of Freshponies who were clueless on what was about to happen next. I had noticed some old friends from middle school like Twilight. She was a real help to me when I needed to pass my graduation exam. She really knows a lot of things that I don't even know to this day. It was a relief to see her. After we had finished with orientation we were assigned lockers, I got locker 331 which was close to the computer lab. That was a massive plus considering that was my safe haven for getting away. The bell had rung and everypony was getting out of their classes and heading to their lockers when I saw a member of the Canterlot High Football team. He had a locker right next to mine and honestly I was scared. He looked my way and asked me if I was a freshman. I told him yes and he proceeded to introduce himself. "Hey, I'm Shining Armor. What's your name" he asked. "Hackalot Spark, Nice to meet you" I said sticking my hoof out. He shook my hoof and we started to talk about random stuff that we apparently both had interest in. He told me that he one day wanted to work for the Royal Guard, yeah living the dream, and I told him that I just wanted to be successful in the technology world. He later called me a nerd and laughed, then proceeding to tell me that if I were to survive these hallways that I needed to be popular. "Great Advice" I thought to myself me being so naieve.
The warning bell rang and it was time for me to head to my first class. Luckily I had a class I loved, Computer Applications, on my roster. I immediately went on my way to class when I ran into a cute girl and accidentally knocked her books off her back. I was so embarrased and proceeded to help her. "I am so sorry, really I am" I said stuttering a few words. "It's ok, really" She said looking at me. "Never seen you here, you a freshpony" she asked. "Yeah, The name's Hackalot Spark" I said. "Cool, I'm Cadence" She said as we shook hooves. After that we both went on our way and I made it to my class on time. The class was great because there were a lot of ponies who, like me, love computers and spend a lot of time on them. After class I went to my locker and saw a note. It said "Here's your first opportunity, take it. -Shining Armor". Attached was a flyer for tryouts for the Football team. Now you guys know that I'm not very athletic, but I had to do something in order to survive. I decided to give it a try considering my non-athletic figure, and the fact that I had NO IDEA about the plays that were in the playbook. I'll be honest with you, I thought my first day in High School, was going to be my last day in Equestria.
Tryouts
It was I think Saturday afternoon when I got to the tryouts. There were a lot of hefty colts out there just waiting to beat the living crap out of other colts, big surprise who was one of them...yep Shining Armor himself. "Hey Hackalot! You made it" he said coming toward me. "Yeah I made it...although I don't think I'm ready for this" I said shivering. "Don't worry about it, this will be cake, all you gotta do is throw the ball as far as you can and then go long and try to catch it while dodging the defenders. Should be a piece of cake" he said trying to build my confidence. I'll be honest with you I had little to no football experience, closest experience I had was playing Madden 2000 for the PlayStation one. That's all the knowledge I had so I decided to put it to work. As the coach came and talked to us about what was going to happen, he mentioned that Shining Armor was the captain, that's right, CAPTAIN of the team. I was in massive shock and was hoping that I could do well enough to impress everypony.
The coach started calling us out one by one until he got to me. "Now listen, all you got to do is throw that ball as far as you can toward the endzone, dodge the defenders, and then catch it at the endzone. You got that" he asked. "Yes sir, I got you loud and clear" I said still nervous. I looked at Shining Armor and he told me I could do it. I composed myself and threw that ball as far as I could, later running down the field trying to dodge all the defenders. I was doing well as I had ran into no defenders and I was waiting patiently for the ball at the endzone. Unfortunately I didn't throw the ball hard enough to make it past midfield, which was where we started. I had felt so humiliated that I didn't talk to anypony else throughout the entire tryout. The coach later made his final decisions and told me that I wasn't good enough to be quarterback, however I was good enough to be a Runningback for the team considering I could run really fast. That made both mine, and Shining Armor's day as we went over to Canterlot Cuts and got us some pizza. I told him how I was both mega nervous and mega humiliated about what happened at the tryouts. He told me that there was nothing to worry about considering I already made the team. He later gave me a binder with the full playbook and told me to memorize it because we had scrimmage that next week. Considering I have great memory skills I wasn't to worried and was ready for the big day.
First Game of the Season: Locker Room
First Game of the Season: Locker Room
It was I believe a Friday Night, I had originally made plans to watch the season premiere of Doctor Whooves, but with me making the team I had to say no. It was the first game of the season and we were up against the Powerhouse from Ponyville High. Those guys looked tough, their quarterback was a giant red work horse, I think his name was Big Mac and he looked scary. Nonetheless I managed to keep my composure and get myself in the zone.
The team and I were in the locker room getting geared up for the game. Shining armor came to me and said "Good luck tonight, and a word of advice, watch out for Big Mac, the quarterback. He's as strong as they come." with that he went back to his spot and prepared for the game. Those words "He's as strong as they come" were etched into my head, I'm not that bulky, I couldn't even throw a freaking football. But I had to keep my composure and get myself into the game...all those years of playing Madden on PlayStation 1 are about to pay off, I hope.
So since I'm closing my account on January 17th I'd thought I'd end this story for you. Here's what happened:
Shining Armor, Hackalot, and the team would win the (now Hoofball) game and would later move on to the playoffs and then the championships where in the final few seconds, Hackalot breaks his leg close to the end zone. Unfortunately he couldn't recover the ball and the team would not win the championship. Nothing really major happened in his Sophmore or Junior Year...but in his senior year he managed to make an impact by winning the Equestria Young Businessmen of the year award when he started the Sparkade franchise, his first location being Canterlot. In the end Hackalot continued to make millions of bits with the Sparkade franchise and has opened a new one in Ponyville where he resided in book 1.
That's his back story...hope you enjoyed.
