First Practice

Well, that was a lot easier than Nar had thought it would be. When his old teammate, Red, told him that Ponyvillle High was looking for a new hockey coach, he had expected there to be some sort of test or something. Instead, when Nar walked into the office of the administrator in charge of appointing a new coach, he got a short interview, and was asked a few questions. At the end he was told “You’re the only applicant who’s even played hockey before. When can you start?” Turns out, there was a good reason the school was so desperate. With coach Flurry retiring, he left the school’s hockey team with a miserable 6 year losing streak. In the past half a decade, the team has only won 4 games. The school board was starting to think the hockey team’s budget could be better used elsewhere. On top of that, the team had a few new additions in a few boys from Prince Dusk Shine’s Academy for Talented Individuals. A fairly prestigious school that had started out as a school that taught selflessness, kindness, and community. Using one’s talents to help those around them. The moment the prince stopped directly overseeing the school though? Oh boy. Did they become one of the most uptight, entitled schools in Equestria.  Nar pulls up to the Ponyville Rec Center on a Wednesday evening. Ponyville high school doesn’t have its own hockey rink, so they’ve been using the rec center as their practice rink, and to play games for as long as Nar can remember. As he enters the rec center, he can see a small group of teenage colts gathered in the rink already. They wear what looks to be well used practice gear with the Ponyville high school logo on them. It looks like they’re preparing the rink for practice. As he approaches, one of the colts looks up. He spots the school branded jacket Nar is wearing, and calls out to the others. They all gather, and welcome Nar warmly. “Hey! You must be Mr. Yakushi, our new coach!” The colt who looks to be the team captain holds out his hand, which Nar shakes. “That I am.” He looks over the group for a moment. This looks to only be about half of the team. “Are you the students from Ponyville High?” The captain nods. “Yes sir.” Nar raises an eyebrow. “Have any of you heard from the guys from Dusk Shine Academy?” They all shake their heads. With a short nod, Nar raises his voice. “Alright! Let’s finish getting things set up! Practice begins the moment the rest of the team his the ice, and not a moment sooner!” The starting time for practice comes and goes. Yet, no sign of the rest of the team. The ones who are already here sit on the bleachers outside the rink, growing more and more annoyed as the minutes pass. Nar opens his phone, and calls one of the parents numbers he was given, only for it to go to voicemail. He tries another, and this time, someone actually picks up. “Hello? Who is this?” An impatient, snobby voice snaps. “Hello Mrs. Goldensnaps. This is Coach Yakushi. Ponyvillle High School’s hockey coach. I’m calling to inform you that your son, Glint, had not shown up to practice yet.” The woman on the other end huffs. Nar expects her to start going off on him, and her tone does get more aggressive. To his surprise however, the anger is not directed at him. “Hello hasn’t has he?! What does he think we bought all that expensive equipment for!? I will be calling him right away! You be sure he receives proper punishment for his tardiness! We expect better of him!” Nar opens his mouth to respond, but the mare on the other end hangs up before he can speak.  A few minutes later, another group of teenage colts enter the rec center. Notable, they all wear sports jackets with the Prince Dusk Shine Academy logo on them. They have an air of superiority about them that makes Nar have to fight to keep his nose from scrunching. A Quick Look at the rest of the team shows his sentiment is shared. The boys aren’t doing nearly as good of a job at hiding it though. That must be the rest of the team. Nar can already tell that they’re going to be trouble if he lets them. So, it looks like he me got some work to do before the team can practice in earnest. “You’re late!” Nar calls out as the group approaches the rink. A unicorn with perfect, golden blonde hair puts on the most sickly sweet smile Nar has ever seen. “We’re very sorry coach. Practice at Dusk Shine Academy is usually on Mondays!” Nar does not respond. Instead, he reaches into his satchel, and begins removing dozens of practice uniforms from inside. He calls out a name, and hands the gear to the corresponding team member. The Fusk Shine Academy boys wait for Nar to come to them, but instead, he simply tosses the uniforms at them. Once they everyone has their uniforms, the Dusk Shine Academy boys begin to protest. The uniforms are all Ponyville High branded.  “Go and get changed!” Nar calls out. “From this point on, you’re all a part of the Ponyville High Hockey Team! No more wearing other school’s uniforms!” The perfect golf haired colt looks at the practice uniforms with disgust. “I won’t be wearing the uniform of a country hick!” The others behind him all agree. Nar stands his ground. “Then you won’t be playing hockey at this school.” Glint’s eyes harden. “You can’t do that!” He snarls. “The school board gave me full reign of the hockey team. My job is to make sure this team does well enough this season so that this school still has a hockey team next season.” He pauses, then projects his voice for the whole team using Thaumaturgy. “But sports are a privilege! Not a right! I want this team to live on, but if you all don’t work with me to make that happen, there won’t be a hockey team next year!” The guys from Ponyville High begin to exclaim their commitment, and determination. The others don’t seem to care. “And just think about how badly that would look to the scouts. Your high school hockey team did so poorly that it got phased out entirely! Scouts want talented players, yes, but they also want team players who will work well with others! If you let the team die, you’re showing those scouts they can’t trust you to play well with their team!” Not entirely true, but it gets the Dusk Shine boy’s attention.  After a few moments of tense silence, Nar claps his hands together. The clap booms through the rec center, scaring the others inside. “Now go get changed! Today we’re doing conditioning only! I need to see how well you all have the fundamentals down before we do any sort of drills! And because half of you were late, you’ll all be skating triple the amount of suicides!” Many in the team begin to protest. The Ponyville team captain standing to defend the other ponyville boys. “But coach! We weren’t late! Why do we have to do suicides?!” “Because you’re all a part of the same team now! You’re all responsible for helping each other, and keeping each other out of trouble! If one of you messes up, everyone messes up! If one of you does good, you all do good! Now get changed!” For the next 2 hours, Nar puts these boys through the wringer. Non-stop skating practice, and conditioning. By the end of the night, they’re all too tired to complain. Nar can tell some of the team resents him for punishing all of them instead of just the ones who were late, but others seem to respect the decision.  Later that night, after Nar arrives home, he gets quite a few phone calls from parents. Some yelling at him for pushing their children too far, others thanking him for enforcing discipline. One stallion threatens to have Nar fired. Another offers to buy him a beer. It’s a bit of a rocky start for the hockey team, but Nar is confident these boys can really turn things around. He just had to make sure to guide them in the right direction.