Each one of us had a basketball when we jogged out onto the court. We were nearly deafened by the tremendous roar and cheers from the homeside of the gym. I felt my heart race and by blood flow, and my nervousness swelled. No doubt almost all of the campus stayed a few hours after school to watch us play. Well, minus Flash and his boys for obvious reasons. I looked over to see Rarity and Rainbow Dash sitting with their best friends. Since Flash wasn't around I figured no harm, no foul. I looked around for Sunset and found her on the top of the bleachers leaning against the wall by herself. She didn't look lonely, but she only gave me a smile and a thumbs up.

We started taking shots at one side of the court while Cloudsdale took their shots. We were concentrating on what was about to happen. Next to the scores table was two guys with microphones. The younger man of the two had the sad, longing look on his face as if he should have been playing in the pros and not broadcasting a high school game.

"So, Winning Shot, we have talked about Cloudsdale for weeks now. What can be said about their first opponent?" The older man asked.

The younger man cleared his throat. "Let's be honest here: This is nothing more than a warm-up game for Cloudsdale. Canterlot is not returning any of its starters, players, or even their coaching staff. This is brand new to everyone and this year will not be a banner year for Canterlot. In fact, last year's winless team would do better than this year's team."

I had to fight the urge to slap him in the mouth, but I kept shooting my practice shots. I couldn’t help but feel that there was a high chance I might not get to shoot the entire game, especially with our game plan and how it was set up.

"Don't listen to the wash-up," Masse said as he took his shots next to me. "The way I see it, it makes me want to play better to shut him up."

"Even worse, looks like the two females are starting! I don't want to be that guy, but..."

I took Masse's advice and tuned him out, especially with how wrong he was going to look in a few moments since the referees finished their pow-wow with the head coaches and were ready to start the game. We all lined up in position, with our big guy Mikuki in the center going up against their center, ready to jump for it.

The music was loud and the crowd was jumping up and down on the bleachers, almost in unison. The house was rocking and we were the main act. The crowd somehow went even wilder when Rainbow Dash and Tala took their spots. For a school comprised of more girls than guys, it was expected for them to cheer for their own joining the boys. I looked over to the bench to see the coaches of Cloudsdale smirk amongst themselves. Talalah and Rainbow Dash looked at me at the same time from their positions. I gave one last thumbs-up before the madness started.

The refs blew their whistle, and threw the ball up in the air for the centers to jump for. And with that, Canterlot High's Boys Basketball season started.

Mikuki lucked out and snatched the ball from their center and passed it to me. I made a slow jog to the Cloudsdale side. My two defenders were backing up, waiting for me to slip up to take the ball. I scanned the playing field to see that they had doubled teamed the guys, Dash and Tal were on their own. I raised the ball above my head and slapped it three times, signaling the setup. Masse ran across the court, breaking free of his defenders and allowing me to throw the ball to him with no issue, once he had control of the ball he jumped twisted his body and tossed it to Talalah. There were no Cloudsdale players near her when she took the three-pointer, which bounced off the top of the trim and rolled into the net.

The crowd erupted when the shot was made. Immediately we ran back to our side of the court and began to organize our defense. As Cloudsdale grabbed the ball and began to jog their way to us, the crowd began to jump around and make noise, hoping that would mess with Cloudsdale's coordinating. It somehow worked because in their attack, the ball was tipped and Rainbow Dash intercepted the ball. She was steps ahead of her defenders as she sprinted down the court and placed a perfect layup that went in. Somehow, they didn't learn their lesson by the time the first quarter ended.

"Don't look now, but Canterlot High didn't did not pay attention to the memo that they were supposed to lose this one! Here we go!"

By the time we were given the ball in the second quarter, they changed their strategy and started covering Dash and Tal, which meant they were defending one on one.

Here we go.

"Run the normal offense!" Coach hollered.

We ran our offense which was near undefendable. We were quick, we were physical, and we were scrappy. Even though we distributed the shots equally, masse was racking up the points and was fired up . They also had a tough offense to defend. the game had switched leads throughout, like two racehorses fighting for the finish line.

I didn't know this, but CHS had a tradition in the fourth quarter; well, borrowing it from a university on the other side of the country. Between the third and fourth quarter, they played an old school rap song, which told the audience to jump around.

And boy did they

Everyone was jumping, and everyone was singing along to the lyrics. Even I was joining in on the fun of it. It was still a close game and we felt like we could pull off the major upset.

Throughout the game, we would get cute jabs to our elbows and back, and stinging slaps that were well concealed. Even our coach had to take a time-out to talk to the refs about it, but unless they saw it they couldn't do anything about it.

"Look guys! Yes, I'm seeing it too. They are trying to draw technicals from the starters. Just take it and don't fall to their bait!"

It continued to the last minute of the game, with thirty seconds left. Coach called his last timeout with us down by one.

"We got one shot for the upset. Get the ball to masse and let him take the shot. Screen if you need to!"

Masse had the ball and was dribbling down the court while looking at the clock as it counted down. By the time he was on the Cloudsdale side he only ten seconds left. In the nervousness and the anticipation two of Cloudsdales, defenders charged him, hoping that our point guard would make a mistake. masee passed it to me, and while the two defenders were trying to rush to masse who was at the three point line I launched the ball back to him and over the head of my defender. massee took the shot with five seconds left

It was nothing but net.

The crowd erupted, many were on their feet and close to the first row, ready to storm the court in case we won. We ran back to our side of the court, ready for our last stand. The star player, someone who was good enough to go pro out of high school, decided to do it all by himself. As soon as he reached the three-point line, he made the shot. Masse knew that he couldn't tip the ball, so he had his hand in front of the player’s face so he couldn't see the ball. The ball was still in the air when they both landed, and both turned around to see the ball hit the rim in front of them and bounce off.

The sound of the buzzer was loud, but it could barely be heard with the roar of the crowd. Everyone on the field all ran to Mikuki and so did our bench and coaches in a giant dogpile. We found ourselves surrounded by the crowd who stormed the court in celebration. It was hot and sticky inside the celebration, but it was a rush. In the celebration, I saw the coach of Cloudsdale with a wry smile as she shook the hand of our coach, and muttered something to him. Some "good game" or something like that.

"Hey!" Sunset hollered. "Congrats!"

"Thanks!"

"Where's the after party?"

"We were thinking the park! iIt still has a few more hours until they turn off the lights!"

"Alright! Let me know and I'll bring the booze." She said as she merged back in the crowd.

"We did it anon! We did it!" Rainbow Dash said as she jumped on me, I was still holding her when the rest of the girls arrived, joining in the pandemonium. Right behind them was our coach with Majorette. She was following the game ball, looking for someone's dick to ride that night.

"Where’s Masse?" Coach said. "He has a ball to collect!"