"And then… and then the prince said, 'Oh no! Somepony, rescue me!' and the valiant mare galloped across the grounds of the castle to the tower where the handsome prince was being held captive!" announced Sun Rider with great dramatics, taking her doll of the mare in armor and moving it across the play set. "And there was a great, fire breathing dragon!" said Moon Pool, adding more suspense to their pretend as she took a gigantic dragon doll out of the closet, "ROAR!" "But the mare, who has a cutie mark in sword fighting, uses her brilliant tactics and well-trained wings to pierce the dragon's shiny scales and kill the dragon, saving the prince from his ivory-walled imprisonment!" exclaimed Sun, flapping the doll's wings and giving her a sword, which clipped into her mouth. She pretend-sliced a spot on the dragon's chest, and Moon Pool stopped holding the dragon upright and it fell onto the castle, destroying it because it was made of building blocks. "And they fly away into the sunset, the mare having saved her prince from the fiery keep where he had been condemned!" said Sun. "Uh… Sun?" asked Moon Pool shyly, "What does condemned mean?" "It means…" started Sun, looking for a way to say it. "It means 'to sentence somepony to a particular punishment'!" shouted Wind Rider up the stairs to her foals. "Thanks mama!" shouted Moon Pool, despite their age of nearly 13 years she still had a high-pitched, shy voice.
Suddenly they heard the door creak. "Moon Pool, honey," tapped Wave Pool, "Get ready for skating!" "Okay, mommy!" tapped Moon. She rushed over to get her skating dress out of her closet, she adored wearing it. It was blue with teal sequins on it in a spiral pattern; before that she got on her tights and afterwards put on her sneakers. "I'm ready, mommy!" tapped Moon. "Okay, sweetie. Let's get going, we don't want to miss your 2:00 skating practice!" Moon looked over at the clock, it was noon. Then they rushed out the door.
"Mama!" shouted Sun Rider down the stairs, grabbing her tennis racket and balls, "Let's go to the court now!" "Okay, sweetie, I'll be right there," said Wind, "Do you have your racket?" "Yes." "Your tennis balls?" "Yes." "Your sneakers?" "I'm getting them on right now!" "Great. Let's go!"
Wind Rider grabbed her racket and got on her sneakers, and she walked out the door. Not a mile away, there was a small tennis court where they practiced. Although Wind couldn't see, she could hear where the ball was. Sun would shout out when she served the ball, and they would play it out.
They arrived at the tennis court, and they took their usual sides. "Go!" shouted Sun as she tossed the ball in the air with her hoof and hit it hard with her racket, which she held in her mouth. Her mother hit it back, and this continued for maybe five minutes until one or the other didn't get to the ball on time. This was a great place for Sun to practice her moves, and for Wind to hear her daughter play and play with her. "Want me to take the machine out of storage so you can keep practicing? I'm tired," Wind told Sun. "Okay, mama!" shouted Sun across the court, and Wind got the machine and dumped a crate of balls into the hopper. "Ready?" she shouted across the court to Sun, who said, "Yeah!" Wind pressed the power button, and the machine started serving balls across the net and to Sun. Wind sat in a corner, she heard Sun doing various moves. "What are you doing?" Wind asked. "I'm doing front and back passes, mama. I also perfected my spin technique, listen to this."
Wind listened as her daughter switched the machine off, turned it to serve really high over her head, switched it on again, and flew quickly back over. It served a single shot, she ignored the first one. Then it served another, she twirled up and hit it while she was twirling, then she stopped, looked where the ball landed, pumped a hoof that it would've scored, and landed. "Great job, Sun!" said Wind. "Thanks, mama!" she said back. "You're going to kick flank at Nationals this weekend!" Wind said with a smile. "I know! I'm the best tennis player in all of Fillydelphia, soon to be best tennis player in all of Equestria!" bragged Sun, and rightfully so.
"Don't brag so much, Sun," Wind warned her, "You'll make your competition jealous. Do what I do: tell them 'good luck' before the event, then beat them and know that, even with good luck, they can't be nearly as good as you." Putting a huge grin on her face at the idea of that, Sun said, "Good idea, mama. Now, want to hear my last winning trick that'll beat even the unicorns?" "Sure, Sun!" exclaimed Wind, "I'm listening!" She went over and hit a button that Wind didn't recognize, and then she walked over and hovered. She built up speed, flying in a square. Then she flew in a cube, covering every possible inch of space in every direction on her side of the court. It was then that the machine fired. It shot a hail merry of balls everywhere, at least a cart-full, all at once. But with her racket flinging in every direction, Sun hit every single ball into the scoring zone of the other side. "Wow, Sun! There's no way anypony could beat you with that move!" "I know!" said Sun, grinning smugly.
Moon Pool laced up her skates to go out for her 2:00 practice. Wave sat in her usual spot in the stands. There was never anypony on the ice for these sessions; most ponies were in school around now. But since their parents taught Moon and Sun, Moon got to skate on this one. Once she got on, Moon warmed up her skating moves. She got ready for her routine, and then signed for Wave to fly over and turn on her CD music. Wave nodded, and she flew over to the other end of the ice rink. She put the CD in the rink's music player and hit the play button. Then Wave watched her routine. The music was a song called 'Heart of Courage'; it was cut by Moon down to 2 minutes, 30 seconds for her short program. In the middle of her program, though, Moon heard the blades of somepony else on the ice.
After she finished her program, Moon looked over to the other skater. She was a unicorn, her cutie mark was a horn crossed with a skate. She stroked around the outside of the ice, and instead of doing a simple jump to start out with, she performed a perfect Axel. An Axel i revolution jump that is the first big hurdle in becoming a world-class skater, or a good skater of any magnitude. Moon stood there with her jaw dropped. The skater then started warming up double-rotation jumps, and then within 5 minutes of getting on the ice she started her short program. They shared two things: they both seemed to know the same jumps and they both had cutie marks that were skating related.
There was a 2-second lead on her music, which gave the unicorn enough time to teleport over to her starting place. Moon was smart about having another skater on the ice doing her program, and she backed over to the boards and watched. She started on three legs with her right forehoof extended in front of her, and the second that the music started Moon recognized it. It was a well-known and slow song called 'Halleluiah'. She pushed forwards two times and then went right into a double Axel, which was 2 ½ revolutions. She landed it perfectly, but Moon could do this jump too. She went into a spin; she changed position at least four times and then pushed out. "Camel… sit… back sit… layback…" muttered Moon, saying the names of the separate positions as the unicorn performed them. She pushed out and went into an elaborate hoofwork sequence which covered the entire diagonal length of the ice. Her power was absolutely amazing; it was at least three levels above the rest of the program.
She performed another jump right at the end of the footwork; through the entirety of the program she looked sad and longing. Her extension was the best part of it; it kept the tone of the music despite how fast she was skating. She ended the program with another double jump. Her ending pose was on her knees, forehooves extended in back of her and looking down at the ice. The CD stopped, and it was then that the unicorn recognized that Moon had been watching her program. The unicorn fetched her CD and skated over to Moon. "Hey," she said shyly, "Uh… how was that?" "It was… amazing," Moon told her quietly in awe. The unicorn blushed, and then remembered why she'd skated over to Moon in the first place. "Um… What's your name? That is…" said the unicorn before she was cut off by Moon, "My name's Moon Pool," she said, "What's yours?" "I'm… I'm Morning Ice," she said. Smiling warmly, Moon said, "Your program is gorgeous. I especially liked your double Axel." "Oh, thanks," Morning told her, tilting her head down and to the side, "It's not normally all that good, I'm normally a hoofwork kind of pony. So… I'm glad you like it."