Life had been going well for Sunset Shimmer in the weeks after the Battle of the Bands. The entire school had finally seen she was a changed person. They could never repay her for saving the school.
Of course, some people still held a grudge against her, but she knew she would make things right. But for now, Sunset Shimmer had something else to worry about: joining a club.
After she'd joined the Rainbooms, her friends had suggested that Sunset join other clubs. Unfortunately, finding one that suited her interests was proving difficult, even though her classmates would have been more than happy to have her join them.
Sunset kept her search up throughout the day until, as the hours drew on, her options came down to one. In a fit of desperation, she decided to join it no matter what.
"Wait, you want to join?" Rainbow asks her. "The school's football team?"
Sunset had met Rainbow Dash on the soccer field outside the school. The rest of the team was gathered behind her, comprising Gilda, Lightning Dust, Derpy, Spitfire, Fire Flare, Ember, Smolder, Strawberry Sunrise, and Fleetfoot.
Sunset nodded. "I'm getting nowhere with this, Dash," she said, her arms crossed over her chest. "None of the other clubs seem interesting to me." She glances at the ball in Gilda's hands and smiles. "Maybe I can put my feet to use in a few games of football."
Gilda smirked. "Oh, really? Think fast!" She tossed the ball up and headbutted it at Sunset.
Much to their surprise, Sunset caught the ball with her foot and showed off some sick footy skills, keeping the ball off the ground. After a few moments of showing off, Sunset set the ball down with her right foot on it with a confident smile on her face.
Rainbow Dash slowly approaches her in disbelief. "Since when could you do that?"
Sunset shrugged. "Well, when I first arrived here as a human, I had Flash teach me how to play the guitar in order to practice having two hands and ten fingers. I figured playing football would help me get used to having two feet instead of four hooves."
"Wow..." Rainbow was awed. "Now I want to see what you got!" She charged forward to steal the ball, but Sunset dodged and dribbled past her. Lightning Dust ran after her to block, but Sunset passed the ball between her legs before spinning past her and regaining the ball.
Strawberry Sunrise tried to slide tackle the ball away from Sunset, but Sunset kicked the ball high and jumped over her. Spotting the nearby goal, Sunset wound up and fired the ball into the back of the net.
The entire team was impressed and she couldn't help but feel the thrill of playing a little soccer with her friend and her teammates. Maybe this was the place for her after all. "I have to admit..." Sunset began as she turned back to the athletes. "This is...fun." Her smiles brightened. "I'd love to join you girls."
Rainbow Dash was surprised to hear that. "Really?! You mean it?!"
Sunset nodded. "Besides, I might do some good for this school if I help us win."
Rainbow beamed with excitement. "Alright! Sunset, you are going to be the 3rd lead striker! Well, I am the lead striker and captain, and Lightning Dust is the 2nd lead striker."
Fleetfoot came forward. "But if you're going to join our team, you have to prove you're worthy of being one of us."
"She's right, Sunset," Rainbow agreed. "But don't worry, because you're in luck. Tomorrow, Principal Celestia is gonna host tryouts for the new girls. Why don't you sign up? They're tomorrow at 8 AM.
The next day.....
"Okay, is everyone here?" Principal Celestia was checking over the participants for the tryouts. The participants are Lyra, Bon-Bon, Sweet Leaf, and Sunset Shimmer. They were standing by the pitch, looking more ready than ever. "Good. Now, before we begin, I need to make it clear to you all about the four important rules of football; Skills, training, strategy, and teamwork. Keep that in mind, girls."
"You got it, ma'am." Lyra nodded.
"Good. And before we begin with the tryouts. I need you girls to have a ten-minute warm-ups and exercises. After ten minutes, we will move on to the tryouts. The person who gets the highest amount of points will be selected to join the team. Let's begin!" She blows her whistle.
Sunset and her fellow participants spent the next ten minutes of warming up until Celestia blew her whistle again."Okay, girls. Listen up," Celestia announced. She was standing in the middle of the pitch with the participants standing in front of her. Behind her was a set of obstacle cones for dribbling. "Your first part of the tryouts is the first rule of Football; Skills. We need to see how well you can dribble the ball past these cones. If the ball touches the cone, that's minus five points. Ready? Go!" She blows her whistle.
Sweet Leaf went first, dribbling the ball past the obstacle cones with grace and style, avoiding every cone.
Lyra went next. She tripped a few times during her attempt, but made it back still in control of the ball.
When Bon Bon's went, she made it halfway through the cones before tripping over the ball and falling on her shoulder. Lyra rushed forward to help her up and escorted her off the pitch to the nurse's office.
Sunset was last, dribbling past every cone with her own style. Rainbow and her team are watching from the goalpost and they are pretty impressed with Sunset's dribbling skills.
After that, Principal Celestia wrote their scores on her paper. Here comes the next obstacle of skills. She blows her whistle.
Few moments later, the obstacle cones are replaced with training dummies invented by Micro Chips with a controller in his hands. Principal Celestia is standing next to him.
"Your next part of the skills training is making your way past these training dummies," Celestia instructed them. “If the opposition closes down any of your passing options, you need to keep the ball to your feet until you find one. That means you keep the ball away from the opposition. I want to see if you girls can get the ball past these training dummies.”
Micro Chips flips the switch in his controller to activate the training dummies. They are moving left and right. Principal Celestia blows her whistle to start the course.
Bon Bon went first, she dodges the dummies and dribbles the ball past them and succeeds in her first try.
Lyra went next.She carefully not to make the same mistake like earlier. With enough practice, she made it to the end.
Sweet Leaf takes her turn, she kicks the ball high and zooms through. But when she gets it back, the dummy from the right hits her and falls on her shoulder.. Sunset escorted her off the pitch.
After a short while, it was Sunset's turn. But Sunset just stands there with her right foot on the ball with a confident smile on her face. She has something in mind.
"Now, witness this.” She began. And next thing they don’t know, Sunset carries the ball with her left foot and spins at a maximum rate to the point she is in the form of a mini tornado. She called it; The Shimmer Spinner.
Sunset blows through the obstacles with ease and makes it to the end. And ends her signature move with a dab. Everyone watched in disbelief.
Rainbow Dash comes forward in disbelief. “How can you do that??”
Sunset shrugged. “Well, it was hard to explain but,” she said, “not only took my time with soccer but I also went through a lot of intense fitness trying to keep up more than fifty minutes. And since I was so fit, I can somehow do this spin. I called it; The Shimmer Spinner. Cool right?”
“Cool?! I say that was awesome!” Rainbow exclaimed and turned to her principal. “Is that even allowed?! I’d love to try and play teamwork with Sunset and her sick move!”
Celestia thought about it for a moment. "Well, if she gets selected to the team, I might allow it, but as long as it was safe and handled pretty well. I won’t mind like it was nothing.”
"Don't worry, Principal Celestia," Sunset told her. "I know how to do this move."
She nodded in return. "Good, because we are now moving on to the next rule of Football; Training."
So the next training course is Training. The participants will go through intensive training to improve their stamina so they can last for ninety minutes full-time. They spent thirty minutes with the training course, the other three barely passed as they reached their limit. Sunset on the other hand aces it with flying colors.
Next is Strategy; basically, the participants will have to form a game plan on the whiteboard, a plan to bypass the defenders. And execute it on the pitch.
Lyra goes first and draws a strategy on the board. And then executes it, only for Strawberry Sunrise to steal the ball from her. Good plan but badly executed.
The other two each take their turns and form a strategy on the board, and then execute it. Their own game plans seem promising but again, not executed properly.
Sunset is the last.. Her strategy is just as promising as the others. And surprise, surprise, it was perfectly well executed.
And here is the fourth rule of Football; teamwork.
"Okay girls, this will be the last session of the tryouts," Principal Celestia announced. "The last part of these tryouts is the fourth rule of Football; Teamwork. I want you girls to put your trust in the strikers to get past the defenders." She gestures at Ember, Smolder, and Strawberry Sunrise.
Ember scoffed. "Our defense is too tough to break through, Principal Celestia." She bragged.
"Don't get cocky, Ember," Rainbow told her. "Just you wait, Sunset and I will get past you, girls."
"I'd like to see you try," Ember challenged.
"Enough talking," Celestia interrupted them and turned back to the participants. "The stronger your trust in your teammates, the stronger your teamwork has become.” She blew her whistle.
Lyra kicks the ball forward. She nutmegs between Smolder’s legs and passes to Gilda. She kicks the ball but Ember headbutts it away.
Sweet Leaf was marked by Ember and Smolder, but Lightning Dust has space. So she kicks the ball over their heads and to Lightning's feet, but as soon as she gets the ball to her feet, Strawberry Sunrise tackled the pass.
Bon Bon spinned past Strawberry and passed the ball to Derpy. She takes the shot but the ball hits the goalpost. Derpy just sheepishly smiles at her.
Sunset jumps over Ember's slide tackle, and she is immediately marked by Strawberry. But Rainbow Dash is wide open, so Sunset uses her Shimmer Spinner to get the strawberry lover off of her and she kicks the ball while in mid-air. Rainbow Dash leaps and leans back until she is parallel to the ground and kicks the ball bicycle kick style and it hits at the back of the net.
Lyra dodge Smolder and passes the ball to Lightning Dust, but Ember intercepts the pass.
Spitfire raised her to Sweet Leaf for the ball, but instead, Sweet Leaf dribbled past both Ember and Smolder and kicked but she fired it straight to Fleetfoot. Much to Spitfire's frustration.
Gilda is immediately marked by Ember and Smolder, so she passes the ball back to Bon Bon but Strawberry Sunrise intercepts it.
Strawberry and Smolder avoids the mini tornado coming through. Sunset stops spinning and kicks the ball in between Ember’s legs and to Rainbow Dash. She shoots for the upper left corner and Fleetfoot fails to reach that.
After an hour, Sunset and the others are sitting on the bench and they are drenched with sweat. They drank their bottles of water. They began to chat while they waited for Celestia and the results.
After ten minutes, Principal Celestia comes back with the paper in her hands and Rainbow Dash holding a CHS jersey with the number 9 on it. And she looks so happy.
"Girls," She began. "I've been watching carefully during the tryouts. The scores are written on this paper, so listen carefully.”
She clears her throat as she looks at the paper again. "I will say that one of you made it to the team, while the other three of you did not." The participants are feeling a little anxious as Celestia announced. Just after a long moment of silence….
"Sunset Shimmer," she finally announced and showed her the scores, especially Sunset’s. "You were ahead on the points, and you never gave up on the team. So that means you are now the new player of the Canterlot High School team!"
Now this amazed her a lot. Adding to that, Dash gives her the jersey. "You deserve this, Shimmer." Rainbow said, smiling.
Sunset accepts the jersey with tears of joy in her eyes. She wiped them away as she turned to the other three girls. "Look, I'm sorry about you three."
They smiled back at her. "Oh, don't sweat it, Sunset." Sweet Leaf told her. "At least I'm having fun." Bon Bon and Lyra nodded in agreement.
"Hey, Shimmer," Sunset turned to Fire Flare. "If we keep losing, it's your fault."
Rainbow lightly punches her shoulder. "Hey shut up." She turned back to her friend. "Don't listen to her, but don't worry, we got your back. Our first game is against Baltimore High, and I want you to be in the starting line up. Does that sound good to you?"
Sunset nodded back. "Yep, sounds good."
Rainbow wrapped her arm around her shoulder and guided her back inside. "Now come on, let's get a shower. After that, we’ll tell our friends and we will celebrate in Sugarcube Corner.”
Just as Rainbow guided Sunset to showers, she is looking forward to this. Proving the entire school she's changed, and now she just joined Rainbow Dash's team. She may not know what the future holds, but one thing she knew is that her past is not today.
One Year Later.....
Canterlot High visited Georgia, the coldest country on earth. Where they play against a high school team, Georgia High School. Their home ground is very snowy. Meaning the soccer game still carries on as scheduled. Playing in the snow can be tough, and so does fighting through the cold.
Fortunately for them, Rarity had made them warmer kits and Twilight invented them thermal kits and leggings. They wore thermal clothes underneath their normal kits to take the cold. Twilight had also made them spiked grips underneath their shoes to combat against the slippery pitch.
Lightning Dust can’t take the cold until she drops the act and passes the ball to Spitfire and runs forward but she is immediately stopped by the midfielder and the defender. She looks back and kicks the ball all the way to her team's defense.
Strawberry Sunrise catched the ball and kicked it back to the midfield. Rainbow Dash leads the attack. She jumps over the striker’s slide tackle and taps the ball to Lightning Dust. Lightning avoids two midfielders and sends the ball to Sunset.
Sunset receives the pass. She notices the team's captain is catching up with her, so she uses her Shimmer Spinner and blows away from the opposition. She jumps high and kicks the ball to Spitfire. Spitfire dribbled the ball past another GHS player and passed it to Derpy. Derpy slightly kicked the ball high.
Rainbow Dash gets it back. Lightning Dust lures two defenders away, leaving Sunset room to score. So she crosses the ball over another defender's head and to Sunset. She catches the ball with her feet and takes the shot. But as always, the goalkeeper blocks another shot from the strikers. Again. Sunset groans in frustration.
A short moment later, Rainbow gathers the whole team for another plan. Despite Rarity's warm kits she made for them and Twilight's thermal sweater and leggings, some of them are still shivering because of the strong winter.
Gilda, Derpy, and Ember are shivering pretty bad. They can't make it to extra time or to penalties.
"This is way too cool for me," Gilda stammered, hugging her arms.
Lightning Dust just scoffs. "Oh, please. This ain't nothing. Compared to getting bored out of our minds for over a ten-hour flight from Canterlot to here in Rarity's private jet, this is like climbing up a mountain." And then the wind gets stronger, forcing Lightning to drop the act.
"Focus, team," Rainbow told them firmly. "We need to get past that goalkeeper." She gestured to the goalie, using the goalpost for push-ups.
"And how are we going to do that?" Fire Flare asked her. "Can’t Sunset just do her super spin?"
"I already tried a few times," Sunset reminded her. "That girl can still react to that. She has some good reflexes."
"If it carries on like this the game will have extra time," Strawberry Sunrise said.
Ember is still shivering, "And if we don't make the difference," she stammered "we'll go for another extra time until penalties."
Derpy is shivering as well. "I don't think I can last longer until penalties." She whimpered.
"Then we have to finish this now," Rainbow told her team. "It's that, or we freeze to death, or we'll lose our 8th game winning streak if we settle for a draw or a loss."
Lightning Dust got an idea, and she stopped shivering. "I got an idea!" She answered. "Give the ball to me and I'll score past her!"
Spit Fire rolled her eyes. "We heard that one a few times today."
"No!" Lightning objected. "This is good this time! I think I know how to get past her!"
Rainbow sighs heavily. "Then make it quick, we're all freezing here."
And then, five minutes later, the home team were on the attack. Just as the midfielder crosses to the striker, Ember intercepts the cross and headers the ball away. Gilda catches the ball and dribbles past two midfielders. She turns to Derpy and passes the ball to her. Derpy gets the pass and spins past another midfielder and kicks the ball high into the danger zone.
Rainbow Dash catches the ball with her foot and runs straight to the tight defense. She turns her right to see Lightning Dust waving her hand for the ball. Rainbow jumps over the defender's slide tackle and passes the ball to Lightning. Now it was her versus the keeper.
Lightning Dust carries the ball with her feet and flips forward to avoid another slide tackle, and when she stands on her gloved hands, kicks the ball very hard with the back of her foot just as she lands on her feet. The ball flew rapidly to the goal. But as always, the goalie catches it on time.
Lightning Dust just stared at her with disbelief and held her head. Feeling so stupid.
"Really?" Gilda is annoyed. "It's that the best you can do?"
Sunset replays the image in her head about just now.. "Yeah, she does have good reflexes and her reaction time is really impressive."
Rainbow face palms and turns her attention to the rest of her teammates. "Well? Anyone else know to get past her?"
Just then, a lightbulb clicks in Gilda's head. "Ooh! Ooh! I got an idea!"
Her teammates looked at her with uncertainty. "Are you sure it's full proof?" Rainbow asks her carefully.
Gilda nodded with a determined look on her face. "Just give me the ball, and we'll see." She told her captain.
Only five minutes left for this game and either of the two teams must break the deadlock by now. Three strikers repeatedly passed each other the ball to get past CHS' defense. The lead striker gets the ball back and jumps over Ember's slide tackle from behind. She shoots to the right, but Fleetfoot jumps high and slammed it away.
Spit Fire gets the possession and nutmegs between the midfielder's legs. She kicks the ball high to Derpy. Derpy dribbled past two players and kicked the ball high to Sunset. Both Lightning and Rainbow Dash are marking two defenders to give Sunset and Gilda some room. While the two defenders are distracted, Sunset runs straight.. She turns to her right to see Gilda; she passes the ball to her.
Gilda has the ball and her eyes on the target; the upper right corner. There's no way the goalie can reach that, right? Only one way to find out, so she shoots for the intended target, but as soon as she takes her shot, another defender slide tackled her and falls on her shoulder. The ball just hit the post.
Gilda groans in pain just as the referee blows her whistle. The three forwards nearby rushed forward to check on her, worrying she might have an injury.
"Are you okay?" Sunset asked her worriedly, helping her up.
"Never better," Gilda replied dryly. "I was aiming for the right corner until that jerk ruined it for me." She gestured to the defender who nearly injured her and got a red card from the referee. Her school's principal is not pleased with her.
"Well, at least you're okay," Rainbow told her. "But either way, that would not work as you can see. She can reach the top corners.”
Their other teammates approached them. "Then how are we going to get past her?" Spitfire questioned her. Getting irritated that she and her team can't get past the only girl who blocked everything they threw at her.
Rainbow's face hardened. "Then our last shot is a penalty." That's right, since the dirty tackle happens inside the box, it means it's time for penalties. The captain of the team turns to Sunset. "You're our best penalty scorer, Sunset. We [and to beat her."
Sunset stared at her friend for a moment, and then turned her left to the dark reddish haired goalie just stared back at her with arrogance. She turned back to her loyal friend and nodded.
So the penalty is on. Both the home and visitor teams were standing outside of the box while Sunset stood still for the moment with the ball in the penalty arc. Looking for an angle to get past a goalie who stopped every shot no matter how fast, genius, and unbelievable it was. She somehow found the angle, although she wasn't so sure, but it's always worth trying.
So she uses her Shimmer Spinner once more despite the snowstorm slowly freezing her and her teammates. She kicks the ball as hard as she can and the goalie dives right, but the ball went the other way around.
"GOOOAAALLL!!" Both Wallflower and Fluttershy cheered over the microphones.
The CHS team gathered around Sunset and they celebrated their at long last victory. Their schoolmates, Principal Celestia, even the Equestria Girls watching from the audience seats, are cheering wildly as well.
This is Canterlot High School's ninth winning streak after their past eight victories. If they keep this up, they can have a place in the championship match which is still many months away if they don't lose repeatedly.
But the question is, how long can they hold on their own?