Sunday, December 11th, 12:00 Brace Isles Time (BIT)

The Pond has been nothing but loud for the past month. The Green Ducks’ stadium sits on a plain perched between a mountainous forest to the north and the rocky ocean to its south. Every day, you could hear the fans inside The Pond cheering and stomping for their team. Nature reacts outside The Pond, with nearby animals braying or flocks of birds scared away.

This next week could only get louder. A gaggle of marbles descended from the outside world, packed on ferries or driving through heavy traffic. The last week of the 2022 Marble League drew closer, and this weekend would start the buildup with a bang: Collision practice.

Platforms were placed like a grid inside the stadium. To cheers from the crowd, athlete after athlete collided with each other and tried veering away from the dominoes on the edge. There was an old Fruit Circuit rivalry practicing formations with each other: the Raspberry Racers thought sparring with the Limers would charge themselves up. There was Clutter who, after falling off their stage and hearing boos from the Balls of Chaos crowd, yelled back: “Hey, I don’t care! You’ll cheer for me next season anyway!” 

But most fan marbles were looking at the central platform, where Team Galactic’s Starry and the O’rangers’ Clementin had been dueling since the start. While Clementin would add some spin out the gate to practice dodging direct hits, Starry kept shooting straight at their opponent: with force and with intention.

Every few rounds, Clementin would call out, “Whew, Starry, I think I need a break. You’re usually not this aggressive!” All Starry would reply with was: “No, let’s try again.”

Clementin finally had some relief when Starry’s practice time in the stadium ran out, and they rolled out with only Coach Black Hole at their side. But there was no rest as the rest of the O’rangers rolled over, and the whole stadium hollered for the main event: practice duels between the O’rangers and the Pinkies.

Glimmering in the light, the Pinkies danced around each other as they rolled up to the Collision gates. Over the announcer system was Skipper, the Marble League mascot. They belted: “Let’s get Quacking!”

To the loudest cheers, the gates opened. The Pinkies rolled out, shouting a common cry: “WE’RE ALLL INNNN!”

Day in and day out, attending fans at The Pond kept chattering about Rosaka’s finest. Sometimes they were drowned out by the big screens in the sports complex, on which marble sports media figures would straight-up yell: “How do you expect me to say nice things about the Pinkies?!”

It wasn’t just the Pinkies: there was disbelief towards the Shining Swarm, debates over Team Galactic, and confusion over the Bumblebees. The Speeders and O’rangers played second fiddle to the four teams near the top of the League standings. Fans were amazed: what secrets made these teams so competitive compared to last season?

That afternoon, the Captains of those teams were amazed for a different reason. Coming out of practice, each captain found a letter tucked in their locker rooms. Past the letterhead, with a familiar maroon and yellow team logo, each read the message:

“To make this a fair competition, I feel I must offer you advice on managing these final events. None of you have been in this situation, unlike me and my team.

Meet me Tuesday morning at Grayfowl Hill, a decent hike away, for my advice. May the best marbles win.”

– Speedy, of the Savage Speeders

Pinky Toe, however, crumpled the letter up and shot it across the room. “Who do they think they are?” said the Pinkies captain with a laugh. “Speedy has no right to talk down to me!”

Sunday, 15:25 BIT

Shiny would have read Speedy’s letter a second time if not for the blimp. Glimmer, Shimmer, and all of them had just run past and out of the locker room. “Look at those reporters on the grass!” shouted Glimmer. “And those fans in the stands! And the MarBlimp!”

“Hold on! This next gig is a big deal, we need to huddle about it…” Nobody heard Shiny’s words, and the Shining Swarm Captain had to give chase. The letter flew out, whirled in the air, and landed in a pile of athlete uniforms on the floor.

The last event of the day was this spotlight on the Swarm. This was a team just wrapping up four consecutive medal finishes, the best performance streak in Marble League history. Swarm team management agreed to an exhibition sand rally, giving Marblearth a second taste of their record-breaking skill.

What instead awaited the team was having to stand next to the starting gate while a circle of marbles surrounded Shimmer. Skipper, the Mascot of the Marble League, shoved a microphone right up against Shimmer.

“Well, that was a Quacking performance on the sand rally this weekend,” asked Skipper. “What we want to do here is to dive into how you felt in the moment. Was there a sinking feeling as Team Primary overtook you in that last second? Or did the competition buoy you to race harder?”

“Um, Aryp and I are friends,” said Shimmer. “I don’t know… I thought I would just race for you on this sand track.”

“Ah, no need to play chicken about your feelings!” said Skipper. The crowd was quiet now, with only the MarBlimp above humming – and Skipper refusing to stop, with questions like: “Would you call the rally fair when an early obstacle hurt so many racers’ chances?”

Shiny and Coach Gleam had rolled into view. “If you excuse us,” whispered Shiny to Skipper. “Let’s just start the race.” Skipper glared at them and turned back right toward Shimmer, tongue-tied.

Shiny was about to just grab the microphone away – if not for a voice that turned everyone around. Shimmer turned and saw a small marble rolling on the edge of the stands toward the whole team, belting out: “Let’s go, Shimmer! Shining Swarm forever!”

“Hey, we need a security marble to catch that kid!” Called out Shimmer. A few seconds later the little marble indeed wobbled, rolled outwards and fell – until two security marbles caught them in time.

Now the stadium was livened up with applause; with Skipper looking the other way, Shiny snatched the microphone. “I’m very happy that that fan is safe,” they said. “Could we just bring them up here to show their stuff?”

The fan gave the Swarm athletes big hugs once brought up to the starting gate. Their name was Sirius; they lived in Galeem all their life; and their parents, along with their bestest of best friends, followed the Swarm back when they performed as The MarBeats.

Before Sirius could list every MarBeat concert they saw,  Shimmer asked: “Do you want to race next to me?” “Oh gosh, of course!” replied Sirius.

Shimmer took the microphone: “So, to answer what makes me want to race harder… I race for Sirius.” And thankfully, finally, with a fan smiling next to them, Shimmer darted out onto the kinetic sand.

“What you witnessed was how our team ‘freestyles’ when we practice,” said Coach Gleam to the press afterward. “They are musicians by training, so they practice by feeding off of each other’s energy, with passion, out of love for all our fans.”

Of course, next to the Coach the team members were all chuckling: they knew Gleam was making things up. But maybe Gleam was onto something.

To be continued…

Credits

• Writers: Fouc
• Artist: Toffeeshop
• Photographer: Jelle’s Marble Runs
• Reference: Marble League 2022
• Release: 13/12/2022