In Guts and Glory

The football team sat on the bleachers in full attention, like they had just found life’s true meaning. “Girls, looks like we have an audience” Diamond Tiara informed the cheerleading team “let’s give them a show”. The simple order resulted in cheers from the entire football team “do it, do it, do it” the football team chanted. The cheerleading team started their ‘show’ for the football team, all were in perfect attention. “That’s my mare” Thunder Lane called out to Diamond Tiara, who blushed at the comment.

The cheerleading team was doing amazing acrobatics and the like, all just a big show to impress the football team. Rumble leaned over to Hammerhead “yo see Scootaloo?” Rumble as Hammerhead, Hammerhead looked through the cheerleading team “who?” he asked. Rumble rolled his eyes “the cute Pegasus, see her?” Rumble chuckled. “Man I see a lot of cute mare’s be more depictive” Hammerhead sighed, Rumble scoffed “the REALLY cute one”, Hammerhead once again scanned the cheerleaders for the one Rumble was referring to.

“Nope” Hammerhead told Rumble, “oh forget it, anyway I’m thinking of asking her to the prom… think she’ll go for it?” Rumble asked his friend, “well I’ll be honest with you” Hammerhead began and Rumble nodded in attention “if she’s as pretty as you say she is” Hammerhead continued and Rumble was in close attention. Hammerhead thought for a moment and took a quick glance at the cheerleaders “which one was she again” Hammerhead asked jokingly “oh FUCK OFF” Rumble laughed out loud and Scootaloo, who was at the bottom of the cheerleader made pyramid, lost her concentration at the outburst. She wobbled and the entire pyramid collapsed.

There was an eerie silence that filled the gymnasium, the football team sat in total silence, and the cheerleading team sat in silent agony, their attempt to show off to the football team ruined. Hammerhead smirked “is that your mare?” he whispered to Rumble, who buried his face in his hooves in embarrassment. Hammerhead chuckled “you two have a lot in common”, Hammerhead rose from his seat and started cheering “that was awesome, wooooh yah” Hammerhead cheered, the rest of the team looked at Hammerhead and shrugged and followed his lead. The gymnasium was filled with cheers from the football team and the cheerleaders looked at each other in shear astonishment that despite their utter failure the team was cheering for them.

Hammerhead left the bleachers and headed back to the change room, eventually the rest of the team returned to the change room. The cheerleading team, scolded by Diamond Tiara for their failure, also returned to the female change room. “Scootaloo get over here” Tiara scolded and Scootaloo made her way over to Tiara shamefully. “What the hell was that? Stage freight?” Tiara scolded, “I’m sorry, I just lost concentration is all” she told Tiara rather sheepishly. Tiara fluffed her hair out of her face “if you can’t perform properly tomorrow I’ll have you benched for the tournament” Tiara threatened. Scootaloo gasped but Tiara was already leaving the gymnasium, Scootaloo dropped her head in shame and sighed as she made her way to the female change room.

“Hammerhead, why the hell’s yah cheer?” Masterson laughed, Hammerhead looked up and raised an eyebrow “is that a rhetorical question?” Hammerhead asked in curiosity. “Whoa, no offence man just asking” Masterson exclaimed, Hammerhead rolled his eyes and sighed “I cheered because that was the best damn performance I have ever seen” Hammerhead told Masterson. “Seriously” Masterson exclaimed, “yeah well it was also my only performance I’ve ever seen, well in person anyway” Hammerhead informed Masterson and the team burst into laughter.

“Man, Hammer, that was a botched performance” Thunder Shot laughed, “so what made it so ‘botched’” Hammerhead asked curiously. The team went quiet, they looked at each other than back to Hammerhead if he was actually serious about wanting to know what went wrong with the performance. Minty Jack, a defensive lineman, laughed “man didn’t you see that one mare screw up and make the entire pyramid topple it was priceless” Minty Jack laughed. Hammerhead gave him a cold expression “what’s so funny about that?” he asked seriously, Minty Jack went silent. Hammerhead rose from his seat, no fully changed and ready to head home for supper.

Thunder Shot laughed “man H, if you and I weren’t buds I’d think that you were insane or something… or liked that mare that toppled the pyramid” Thunder Shot laughed. Hammerhead looked at Thunder Shot with a plain expression “meh, mares cost too much money and besides they never shut up about going shopping for stuff at the malls” Hammerhead laughed. Thunder Shot let out a sigh “shut up, you know that Diamond Tiara loves shopping” Thunder Shot chuckled. Hammerhead passed Thunder Shot and hit himself in the forehead like he had just realized something so simple “ah durr” Hammerhead laughed and left the change room.

Hammerhead looked both ways in the hallway, either way he went was the same distance to his locker, “right way” Hammerhead chuckled and decided to turn right. Hammerhead slowly walked with a sway in his pace and eventually made it to his locker. Purposely fumbling with his locker he dropped the lock to the ground and let his locker sway open, he was sore from practice but then again it felt kind of good to be in a bit of pain, made him know he was alive. Grabbing his old cow-pony duster coat he muttered to himself “we may not have to dress, but this thing is comfy”. He slid the coat on and looked around the dimly lit floor for his lock he had purposely dropped.

“Where the fuck’d that thing go?” he cursed to himself. He spotted the lock and bent down just a little and grabbed the lock “bloody harder than finding a needle in a hay stack” he muttered as he stood back up. He turned to his locker but there was a dark figure now in front of him.

“HOLY FUCK” Hammerhead yelled as he threw his lock up in the air and hopped back in shock. “Oh sorry” Scootaloo apologized as she stepped into the light of the hallway, “shit you could give some-pony a heart attack like that” Hammerhead muttered as he bent over and grabbed his lock. As went back to fumbling with his lock Scootaloo stepped forward “uhm listen I uh wanted to tell you something” Scootaloo said sheepishly, “huh, what’s that?” Hammerhead said leaning back so he could see Scootaloo. Scootaloo blushed, she had never really talked this close to Hammerhead and his very presence near her made her feel… strange. “I uhh well uhm you see” she stuttered, Hammerhead closed his locker and tossed his bag over his shoulder “listen uhm… Scootaloo right?” Hammerhead asked to which Scootaloo blushed and stepped back sheepishly.

Hammerhead looked down the hallway to see Rumble fidgeting with his own locker “one sec Scoot” Hammerhead told her and jogged brisk fully down the hallway. Scootaloo looked at herself ‘did he just call me… Scoot?’ she thought to herself and blushed. She looked down the hallway and saw Hammerhead and Rumble having a friendly argument about something, Hammerhead smacked Rumble upside the head and pointed to Scootaloo, Hammerhead looked to Scootaloo then said something else. They continued arguing then Hammerhead stood on his hindlegs and threw his forelegs into the air with frustration “fine I’ll do it then” Hammerhead scowled and made his way back to Scootaloo.

“Uhm listen I just wanted to uhm thank you for cheering for us back there… even if we kind of screwed up” Scootaloo told Hammerhead rather sheepishly, “huh?” Hammerhead replied a little confused. Scootaloo rolled her eyes and stepped shyly forward “even though we messed up you cheered, and after you cheered the rest of the football team cheered” Scootaloo thanked Hammerhead. “Eh don’t mention it” Hammerhead replied bluntly, “no really thank you, you might have saved my flank” Scootaloo laughed softly, Hammerhead leaned sideways and peeked at her flank “bah it looks fine to me” Hammerhead chuckled and Scootaloo blushed furiously.

“Anyway, listen uh Scoot, this may sound weird coming from me but I need to ask you something very important, uh do you have a date for the prom?” Hammerhead asked curiously, and rather bashfully. Scootaloo blushed again ‘was he asking me to prom’ Scootaloo thought to herself “uhm no why do you ask?” Scootaloo asked, “oh well I was just wondering if” Hammerhead began but Scootaloo interrupted him before he could finish “I’d love to” she exclaimed. Hammerhead brushed the top of his forehead in relief “thank Celestia I thought you might say no” Hammerhead sighed and let out a deep breath. “Why would I ever say no to a football player” Scootaloo said in excitement, Hammerhead pointed to Rumble “ha told yah so, you’re set man” Hammerhead yelled to Rumble. Scootaloo looked back and forth from Rumble to Hammerhead as Rumble approached, “wait what” Scootaloo gasped.

Hammerhead kissed Scootaloo on the cheek but her expression never changed ‘what exactly is going on here?’ she thought to herself. “Yo thanks H” Rumble called out to Hammerhead as he walked away “what friends are for right?” Hammerhead asked rhetorically. Rumble placed his right foreleg around Scootaloo’s neck and nuzzled his muzzle into her neck “I’m so happy you said yes” he whispered but Scootaloo’s expression still hadn’t changed from that blunt clueless expression of ‘what just happened’.

“Man what the fuck is this shit” Honey Lick yelled as he tried to slam through the front door. “Man this is some bullshit prank I’m telling you” Blitz said as he tried to open the door civilly, “why can’t we leave” Diamond Tiara scoffed with Thunder Shot’s foreleg wrapped around her neck. “Yo T? What’s this shit all about?” One of the defensive linebackers asked. “How should I know” Thunder Shot replied as her approached the group that had accumulated at the front doors, which coincidentally happened to be locked. Thunder Shot took his foreleg off Diamond Tiara and tried to open it, when it wouldn’t budge he tried giving it an aggressive nudge.

He stood back and Hammerhead rounded a corner from another hallway, “what’s the hold up, it isn’t raining is it?” Hammerhead laughed but they all shot him pissed off looks. “Whoa, something I said?” Hammerhead asked as he approached the group of every-pony on both the cheerleading team and football team, minus Rumble and Scootaloo who were still upstairs. “Some mother fucker locked us in the school” Molasses sauce said irritated, “whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa… how do we get locked inside?” Hammerhead asked curiously, “doesn’t matter, what matters is that were locked in here” Diamond Tiara scoffed.

Hammerhead sighed and walked up to the door and tried to open it, the door wouldn’t budge. “We already tried genius” Tiara taunted. Hammerhead stepped back “sorry Celestia, desperate times call for desperate measures” Hammerhead muttered as he punched the glass window of the door. The glass broke but was held together by wires that helped prevent break-ins. “Oww fuck” Hammerhead cursed as he withdrew his hoof, it wasn’t hurt bad minus a badly bruised knuckle. “Like I said genius” Tiara once again taunted, Hammerhead gave her an irritated look “if I wanted shit from you I would’ve taken a job as you’re toilet” Hammerhead laughed, Thunder Shot chuckled at the insult.

Tiara looked to her colt-friend, “you think that’s funny?” she asked, irritated by his chuckling. “A little” he laughed, Tiara swung her head away “fine no sex for a month” she threatened, every-pony gave them an astonished look and the football team all chanted ‘Ooo’, Thunder Shot got an embarrassed look to his face. “Hey Thunder, didn’t coach give you a key for the outside doors?” Hammerhead asked, taking the attention away from Thunder Shot’s relationship with Diamond Tiara, “huh… oh yeah he did they’re on the coach’s desk” Thunder Shot stuttered and Hammerhead rolled his eyes “sometimes yah need a genius” he laughed and both Hammerhead and Thunder Shot ran for the Coach’s office