“There they are, Snips. Get a good look at them.”

Snips’s followed Scootaloo’s pointing hoof and his eyes fell over a pack of stout looking fillies with manes cut and shaved in all sorts of abstract ways, decked out in striped socks, spiked helmets, and knee pads.

“Those are the Horn Crushers.”

The sound of that name was the first hole punched into Snips’ boyish confidence. It was clear that the practice games were going to pale in comparison to the real thing. One of them, a gnarly pink earth pony with a serious under bite, looked their way and she scowled. Or at least Snips thought she was scowling. It was possible her face was just kind of stuck that way.

“Horn Crushers, Really?” He groaned.

“Don’t let the name scare you. I mean there’s a team called the Wing Twisters but they’re nothing special.” Scootaloo brought his attention back to their opponents. “ But today you’d better watch out for that one, the pink mare. Her name is Starkicker.” “She’s their pivot.”

Snips saw Starkicker’s striped helmet and Starkicker must have noticed his, her scowl turned into a grin of anticipation.

“What dark shadow of Manehattan did she spill out from.” He wondered to himself.

“She’s also their star player. Not the fastest pony, but she can knock you back harder than most. Also she’s, uh, got this weird issue with unicorns so…”

“What do you mean by issue?”

“That’s not important.”

“Yea it is, I mean, do I need a horn guard?” Snips was suddenly very aware of the Horn Crushers, eyeing him keenly. “Cuz I’m starting to feel exposed.”

“If they try anything stupid this match, they’ll be kicked out the league,” Scootaloo draped her foreleg across his shoulder. “So don’t worry, you’re gonna be safe! For the most part!”

Snips was too busy feeling through his gym bag with his magic for his horn guard to really register her comforting words. “Uh, yeah. I’ll take your word for it, Scoots.”

_ _ _

I ship deese two. And one day they will make a babeh. But for now they’re just goofy kids getting their butts kicked in roller derby. I guess the basic scenario is Babs Seed got some of the Ponyville kids into roller derby. But out of the CMC, Scoots is the only one who really took a shine to it. She has a team but oh, poor little Pipsqueak. I mean come on, it’s Pipsqueak! Need I say more? But Snips is here and he’s ready to prove that he is a colt up for the task.