*February 6* *Six days since end of Estrus*

I can't believe it has been almost a week since Estrus ended for Rainbow. While those were the five hardest days of my life, the following week was certainly worth the wait. After not seeing each other for almost a week, Rainbow and I became even closer than we had ever been. While we haven't... ahem, done "it" since that incident in the bathroom, we've definitely been a lot closer, both relationship wise, and physically. Nobody knows about what happened in the bathroom that day, save for the both of us. I almost slipped up and told Alex, but I was able to lie my way out of that one.

Now, Valentines day is coming up soon, and I have to plan something special. I have some ideas, but nothing is really final yet. But, today is a big day for Alex and I. With the spring quickly approaching, baseball is starting up again, which means tryouts, which means getting my ass up to the field as fast as I can. We both passed tryouts, and today is our first official practice. I almost didn't get up this morning for practice. Its Saturday morning here in Jacksonville, Florida, and let me tell you, it is absolutely miserable out here. Its only about eight in the morning, but it is colder than it has been out her in a long time. All I have on is a t-shirt and a pair of baseball pants. It looks like I'm not the first one here, but I'm definitely not the last, as people are still pulling up in their cars.

As soon as I hop out of my truck, the cold air hits me hard. I shiver immediately, and I can already feel my entire body going numb. My hands shoot into my armpits, and I can see my breath in front of me in the cold air. What the fuck nature, this is Florida! Why the hell is it so cold! I walk around to the other side of the truck and open the door. Out pops a rainbow pegasus, and she falls on top of me, only for me to almost fall backwards before catching myself. I insisted she stay home, but as soon as I told her I was doing some kind of sport, she insisted on coming. Whatever, if she gets bored, that's her problem not mine.

Alex's truck is already here, so I guess he got here earlier than we did. I grab my gear out of the bag of my truck, and lug in behind me. Luckily its one of those sports bags on wheels, so I don't have to carry it through the freezing cold. Rainbow jumps up on my back when she sees me shivering.

"You cold Matty?" She says with an obviously tired voice. She isn't used to waking up this early on Saturdays, and truth be told, neither am I. But we have to be ready for out first game on Wednesday. We won state last year, and I still have the ring to prove it, so every team in the state is out to get us. I don't mean to brag, but uh, we're kind of a huge deal.

"Fuck yes I am!" I say as a cold gust of wind passes over us. I shiver again, and mumble a few words that would make even hardened soldiers impressed. Rainbow quickly takes notice, and wraps her wings around my chest. Her body heat on my back, and the warmth of her feathers are enough to keep me sane until I reach the dugout.

"Well well well, at least one of us is warm." A voice says from the other side of the dugout. I turn around to see all my friends there, shivering like I am.

"Hey, Trevor wassup man!? I haven't seen you for like two weeks." I say as I walk up to the guy who called me out. We fist bump, and both recoil at the pain that shoots through our hands. Probably shouldn't do that when its so damn cold out.

"Nothin' much. She keeping you warm there?" He points to Rainbow, who has almost fallen asleep on my back. Curse her fur coat, what I wouldn't give to switch bodies again right now.

"Well, shes certainly tying to, but truth be told, I don't think any of us are going to stay warm today." I go around the rest of the dugout after dropping my back, and greet all my friends. While most of the people in here are pretty good friends of mine, none of us really keep up outside of the sport. Alex is the only one here that I really know personally. Speaking of Alex...

"Man, you two can't go anywhere without each other, huh?" He asks with a chuckle as we fist bump.

"Blame her, not me. She insisted on coming, even though she'll just be sitting here in the dugout. Too bad she can't play with us."

"Hey, I can play." Rainbow says, sounding drunk since she just woke up.

"No you can't. No offense Rainbow, but you don't have hands, so you can't wear a glove, nor can you swing a bat."

"I can totally swing a bat."

"Not fast enough to hit the ball anywhere... Oh, Rainbow, get down, the coaches are coming." Our three coaches walk onto the field and stand in front of the dugout. They talk with each other for a minute before telling us all to sit down. He does give a quick glance at Rainbow, but doesn't say anything about it. They give us the same old speech we always get. After about twenty minutes of them rambling on about the same stuff as always, they decide we'll play a scrimmage game. They split us up into two teams, and Alex and I are on the same team. He sends us out onto the field to stretch and throw, but I catch him while everyone else gets warmed up.

"Hey, Coach, can I ask you something?"

"Whats up Matt?" He asks with a still serious tone.

"Is there anything my friend here can do to help?" I point down at Rainbow next to me. "She wants to be a part of the team, but she doesn't seem to understand that she can't play with us."

"Hmm..." The coach rubs his chin for a second. "You know, we ARE the Stallions." Oh yeah, I forgot about that. The school's sports teams go by that name, and everyone identifies us as the Stallions.

"So, what does that mean?" I ask, still confused at what he is getting at.

"He could be our mascot, of course, we would have to get him a uniform and hat, but I could arrange that."

"I'm a mare..." Rainbow says with a confused look on her face. My coach just looks down at her with an apologetic look. Everyone around here knows she exists by now, but I guess that not everyone knows her gender. I mean, when your hair looks like that, how hard is it to tell that she is a girl?

"Oh, my apologies Mrs..."

"Dash. Rainbow Dash." She holds out a hoof to him. He kneels down and shake it. He puts his team hat on her, and pulls it down over her head.

"Welcome to the team Rainbow Dash." He says kindly. I guess we can find her a uniform later on. Man, she would look SO good with that blue and gold hat as well as one of our white and blue jerseys. My coach regains his professional composure, and looks back at me.

"Now get out there Green! Hustle!"

"Yes sir!" I quickly pat my glove and sprint out to the rest of my team. I can hear them both laughing quietly behind me, but that's none of my concern right now. Right now, I got a team to beat. Its about time I kick some ass!

"Son of a bitch..." Alex says as he rubs his hands together furiously. We've just finished warming up, and we're ready to start the game. A lot of family members showed up to watch, despite the fact that this is still technically a practice. If it were a real game, the stands would probably be filled completely, and then some.

"I... I can't believe how cold it is. I thought this was Florida!" I say as I shiver while sitting on the bench. Even with Rainbow wrapped around me, it is still freezing out here. We found her a little jersey in the storage shed, and it seems to fit Rainbow. I had cut two slits in the hat for her ears, and two more slits in the shirt for her wings. Her bottom half is still showing, but I doubt we would be able to fit human pants on her. We're lucky that our shirts fit her.

"You're so cute in that outfit." I whisper in her ear. Can't let my teammates hearing me so mushy with her, but its true, so I gotta at least tell her.

"Cute? I'm not cute Matt. If anything I just look like one of the guys y'know?"

"Nah, you're still a girl. A beautiful one at that." I kiss the top of her head quickly after making sure nobody was watching.

"Matt!" She giggles and pushes into my side.

The game starts quickly after, and we've actually drawn quite the crowd of family members. I feel jealous of them, especially when I see Emily and my parents wrapped up in big coats and blankets. Here I am in a jersey and thin pants. SO unfair...

"Matt, you're pitching, get out there." One of the coaches says as he reads the lineup off a clipboard. I lift Rainbow off of me and place her down just outside the dugout so she can watch. I'm lucky that I get to start, as there are a good thirty people in total on the team. You have to be good here to start.

"Wish me luck." I say as I pat Rainbow on the back. She gives me a smile and waves as I walk out onto the mound.

"Go get em!" She says in that little raspy voice that I love. I jog out to the mound, and pick up the baseball waiting for me. I toss it around in my hand while watching the batter take some warm up swings. I don't know how well I'm going to be able to throw right now. Not only am I out of practice at the moment, but there's also the fact that it feels like Antarctica out here right now. I can already feel my entire body becoming numb. I just want to go home where its warm... Oh well, gotta do my job I guess. I throw some warm up pitches and try to take my mind off the cold. I glance over at Rainbow, still jealous of her warmth. Images of our little incident flash back into my mind quickly. No! Bad brain! Not now you little shit!

Whoa when did the umpire get here? Did my coach really have to connections to just call some up like that for a non-official game? Gees, we really were big deals I guess. He blows a whistle to signal the start of the game, and the batter walks up to the plate. I nod at Alex, who is my catcher, and get into position to pitch. I bring the ball over my head, and let go at just the right angle. BAM! Smack dab into the center of Alex's glove.

"Strike!"

"Yeah! Go Matt!" I hear Rainbow cheer from the dugout. A couple of the guys on the bench cheer and holler as well, which makes her cheer that much less awkward. We really are a close team, considering we all cheer for each other when something good happens. I hear stuff like "Nice pitch!" or "Two more like that!" from the dugout. Good thing I taught Rainbow a lot about the rules of baseball, or else she would have no idea what is going on right now.

Alright, lets kick some ass.

"Alright guys, top of the seventh, two outs, and we're down by one. Matt, this is all you bub." Our coach says as we stand in a huddle. Its my turn to bat. My teammates slap my helmet as I walk out to the plate. Rainbow is still cheering for me from in front of the dugout. She can't see over the fence like my teammates can, so she's sitting on Alex's shoulders. Alex cheers with her as I walk up to the plate. If I get a good hit, we win, if I don't we lose. Here goes nothing.

The pitcher looks at me before nodding to his catcher. I'm distracted as I look at the air around us. I call for time-out, and step out of the batters box. Is that... snow? Is it really that cold!? I haven't seen snow in Florida in YEARS, and it was never this heavy. Wow, a truly splendid sight. Now, lets get back to this game. I wrap my hands around the handle of the bat as hard as I can. I can't even feel my hands at this point.

"Strike one!" The umpire yells. Bullshit! That was totally way too low. Whatever, next pitch.

"Strike two!" What the fuck? That ball curved so hard, I thought it was gonna hit me! This guy is good.

The next pitch seems to come at me in slow motion. My hands grip the bat even tighter as I watch the ball approach me. My sore muscles scream in protest as I bring the bat around as hard as I can. The bat makes hard contact with the ball, but I drop to my knees and let out a short scream. Holy shit, the cold makes vibrations even more intense, so making contact like that left my hands feeling like they were broken. I should be running right now, but I can't even get up as I push my hands into my armpits. Rainbow is quickly right in front of me, already freaking out with tears in her eyes. Guess she doesn't know that my hands just vibrated violently, nothing serious, but man did it hurt!

"That's game!" The umpire yells. Ugh, I guess I'm out. Great, we lost thanks to me. Whatever, at least now I can go ho-

"Matt! You did it!" Alex and the rest of my teams runs out the plate and jumps on top of Rainbow and I.

"What? We just lost, what's going on?" I say in confusion on the bottom of the pile. Alex comes into view a few seconds later.

"Dude, you didn't see? You hit it right outta the park! That ball is probably still flying!"

"Wait, we won!? Alright!" I scream in celebration, forgetting my aching hands. Rainbow finds her way towards me, and wraps herself around me, and plants a kiss right on my lips. A little public, but alright.

"You did awesome." Rainbow says as she hops into the truck next to me. I turn the engine on and crank the heat up as far as it will go.

"Holy crap... I'm in heaven." I say as I close my eyes and place my hands in front of the heater.

"I can help you warm up." Rainbow quickly gets in my lap and presses her lips furiously into mine. Good thing the windows are tinted.

"Whoa Rainbow, a little aggressive don't you think?" I say as I pull away after a minute or two.

"What can I say, I like athletes... Maybe later we could..." Her hoof slowly drags down my side and then down the side of my leg. I quickly grab her hoof and bop her own nose with it. I give her a little chuckle as I buckle her in.

"Maybe later... If I feel like it." I say with a wink as I start driving. "So, how do you like being our mascot? You know, we are the most popular team in the state right now."

"It is so awesome! AND I get to watch you play? That makes it even better!"

"You somehow made a miserable day into a fun one Rainbow, how do you do it."

"By being the best marefriend ever!" We both laugh and I lean over to ruffle her mane.

"Well, best marefriend ever, wanna go snuggle up and watch a movie?" I can already feel myself wrapped up in the warm covers of my bed. God, I would give anything to just be home already.

"You know it!"

And with that, we quickly rush home in anticipation of spending the day together, snuggled up in bed.

Could life get any better!?

Author's Notes:

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