South Africa
Shakes stretched out his arms and patted his stomach as he lay on the couch, "Whew! Rasta! Amazing barbecue as always. I'm so full right now!"
Rasta walked in from the kitchen with an apron on and chuckled, "Haha! Thanks Shakes-man. I'm glad we finally got it done without anything interrupting or with someone missing out. Also, Coach-man, I'm glad you could make it"
Coach leaned across Shakes and grabbed a sausage, "It was nothing, I always wanted to join you boys in one of Rasta's famous barbecues, but *sigh* Super League work!"
Shakes groaned, "Speaking of, I wish the season will start again. I'm getting bored"
Next to him, Klaus grabbed the TV remote, "OOO! I wonder when the next episode of Inspector Von Spector is airing!"
The TV flicked on, to the soccer news, but before Klaus could change, Coach snatched the remote from him. On screen, the news anchor was sitting at the desk, with Sultans manager Sheikh Ali Zaman across him.
Coach rested his chin on his knuckles, "Hmm... I wonder what kind of crazy new gimmick the Sheikh has cooked up this time?"
The Sheikh announced, "It gives me great pleasure to reveal that I have been given approval from the Super League to host a new tournament! But there is a twist! the pitches will be twice the size and everything will be doubled! in other words, every Super League team will partner with a school soccer team to participate! Goal posts will be twice the size, to accommodate two goal keepers, plus twice the defenders, twice the midfielders and twice the forwards! All revenue from the tournament will be donated to charity."
"As for the tournament format, all 16 teams will be in a round robin format with each team having one home leg and one away leg. Winning scores three points and a draw scores 1 point. Then, the top 4 teams will advance to the semifinals, and then the final!"
"Thank you Sheikh Zaman, we look forward to seeing whom the Super League teams pair up with."
With that, Coach switched off the TV and paced around the room.
"What are you thinking Coach-man?" said Rasta, "Are we going to be participating?"
He turned, "Yes Rasta, we will, I'm just thinking about which school to partner with for the tournament."
Coach thought, "Hmm... I wonder... It has been a while since we last spoke."
He turned back to the team, "Pack up boys, we're going on a road trip, destination Canterlot City!"
Canterlot, A few days later
"Yes... Yes of course we'll be happy to help.... You've just landed? Of course, you can bring them over and we'll get the teams acquainted with each other."
Principal Celestia ended the call and pocketed her cellphone before turning to Vice-Principal Luna, leaning on the doorway.
"Who was that sister?"
"Does the name David Ledige ring any bells?"
"Oh you mean our old friend who loved soccer?"
"That's the one, he's now a coach for a Super League team in South Africa, called the Supa Strikas. He needed a favour, as the team are participating in a new kind of tournament that requires a Super League team to team up with a school team."
"I see... I'll call Rainbow Dash and the rest of the girls."
An hour later
A red bus with a yellow badge and red lightning bolt, pulled up outside Canterlot High School, prompting Celestia and Luna to hurry out. Following them was a group of 11 girls, with one of them holding a soccer ball.
The Strikas also filed out as the two sides sized each other up. Then, Celestia stepped forward, "Hello Supa Strikas, I an Principal Celestia, an old friend of Coach's. These girls here, are the Canterlot Wondercolts, led by captain and striker Rainbow Dash." As she said the name, she pointed to a rainbow-haired girl, before pointing to the rest and introducing them.
"Our other striker, Applejack, our Right Midfielder Twilight Sparkle, Central Attacking Midfielder Sunset Shimmer, Left Midfielder Starlight Glimmer, Central Defensive Midfielder, Trixie Lulamoon. Right Back Rarity, Centre Backs Pinkie Pie and Tempest Shadow, Left Back Fluttershy and Goalkeeper Barb."
Then, Rasta stepped up and shook hands with each girl, followed by the rest, "Greetings Wondercolts, I am Dancing Rasta from Jamaica, Midfielder and Captain."
"Hey guys, I'm Shakes, striker from South Africa"
"Hola! I'm El Matador from Spain, also a striker"
"Guten Tag, I'm Klaus, Central Attacking Midfielder from Germany"
"Hello, I'm Twisting Tiger, Midfielder from Japan"
"Hey ya'll I'm Cool Joe from America!"
"Sup Dudes! I'm North Shaw from Australia!,"
North then threw an arm around a tall blonde guy, "And this guy here is Blok defender from Brislovia, he doesn't speak English well and very few of us can understand him."
"Hello, I am Eagle Eye, defender from USA"
"Hey there, I'm Rizo defender from Croatia"
"Good day, I'm Big Bo, goalkeeper from USA"
Shakes then pounced on Big Bo, "This guy here is the best goalkeeper in the world!"
Bo simply chuckled sheepishly, "I wouldn't say I'm the best, besides, aren't you forgetting The Mangler and de los Santos?"
Shakes promptly deflated, "Oh... yeah, forgot about those two."
Coach then spoke up, "Alright, now that the introductions are out of the way, why don't you all get to know each other and share information about each others' opponents."
Soon, both teams were gathered together in a big group as Applejack passed around bottles of apple juice. Twilight spoke up, "So, tell us more about yourselves?"
Rasta spoke up, "Aside from soccer, I love mountaineering. Shakes there, is usually never far away from a video game. El Matador, on the other hand, is never far from a mirror," he added, smirking.
"Hey!"
Applejack leaned over and whispered to Rainbow Dash, "Great... we got a Rarity clone.", and Rainbow snickered quietly.
Undaunted, Rasta continued, "Klaus loves detective novels-"
Klaus interrupted, "Especially Inspector Von Spector, which is also a TV series!"
"Anyway, Cool Joe over there owns a disco club."
Suddenly, there was a *whoosh* and Cool Joe's vision was filled with a white-skinned girl with red shades and electric blue spiky hair, and she was grinning widely. "YOU OWN A DISCO CLUB! I'M A DJ! HIT ME UP ONCE! I'M VINYL SCRATCH!"
"Hey yo Vinyl! I'll certainly consider it!"
Off to the side, Big Bo, felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned and looked down a little, to see Barb with a hopeful expression on her face. "I wanted er... to ask you something... You see, I'm not so great in goal and I rely too much on our defence so-"
"-You want me to train you?"
"Yeah"
"Of course! I'll be more than happy to train you, If you want I could fly you back to South Africa to my place as I have a state-of-the-art training course at home."
Shakes, who was passing by, overheard, "Yeah, trust me! that course is brutal! but it helped me out when I had to fill in for Bo!"
Barb looked incredulous, "Really? what happened?"
"Big Bo temporarily got amnesia because of a ploy by one of our rivals, but earlier that day, he showed us his training course and with him out of commission, I took the course and filled in for him"
After some more talking and mingling, Twilight gathered both teams for a strategy meeting. To be precise, she asked the Strikas about their opponents.