Buckball

A poster hung silently in the main lobby, idly blowing in the soft breeze of the air conditioner. Crudely drawn and taped to the plaster rather than being pinned to the bulletin board, the one-of-a-kind poster held details for an enticing event. Rainbow Dash and Applejack stood by it proudly, welcoming anyone that was walking through the main lobby. By lunchtime, a crowd had formed around the poster.

Pushing himself out of the way, and covering his ears from the massive amount of mixed voices going around, Diddy Kong wanted to get a better look at what all the hubbub was about. Crawling under Ridley's wings (who had no interest in the event, just in blocking everyone's view), he saw the poster clear as day.

*Buckball! 3v3. Prove yourself! Can you defeat the all-star team of Rainbow, AJ, and Rarity?*

Diddy Kong took off his hat and scratched his head. What on earth was Buckball?

"That's you, Rainbow!"

Applejack always had a forte in Buckball. When she wasn't working on the farm or hanging out with her friends, she'd set up targets around the field and sharpen her skills by bucking apples at them. She was quite proficient on the offensive side of things, having honed her abilities as an earth pony since birth.

"Nice try!" Rainbow Dash taunted as she smacked the ball back to the other team.

Rainbow's buckball experience wasn't as good as Applejack's, though being deemed the best flier in Equestria meant she had unrivaled agility and sharp reflexes. These attributes made her a great candidate for playing defense on a Buckball team, allowing her to block every shot coming at her with proficiency. Applejack caught the ball and passed it to the hooves of their trump card.

Compared to the other two, Rarity had almost no experience in Buckball, and had scarcely heard of the sport even back home. But being a seamstress had its perks, as it gave her such precision and efficiency in her magic. Naturally, this carried over to tasks outside of dress making, allowing her to move the basket in such a way that a flying ball would always go into it. All they'd have to do is communicate to Rarity where Applejack would shoot the ball, and the white unicorn would do the rest.

Which would have worked if a Poochy-Pup had not smacked the ball away. He passed it to another Poochy-Pup, who was sitting on the actual Poochy who was doing his best to block Applejack's advances with his big size. The Poochy-Pup successfully got the ball and passed it to the third Poochy-Pup, who was using his tail as a propeller while carrying the basket in his mouth. Sadly, he wasn't able to keep yup with Rainbow Dash's fast flying, and she smacked the ball back to Applejack. The country pony made one final shot, and Rarity moved the basket to successfully catch it.

A whistle was heard from the sidelines as Isabelle stepped in. "Six to two! We have a winner!"

The three mares cheered, basking in their victory. Poochy and his Poochy-Pups, truthfully, had no idea what was going on the whole game, so they just decided to see if Yoshi had any food he had to share.

"Don't you two feel at least a LITTLE bad for dunking on puppies?" Rarity inquired.

The women's locker room was the trio's place to relax between games. Initially they didn't think many teams would join considering the sport hadn't been heard of outside of Equestria, but they were pleasantly surprised. If they were winning against everyone (which they planned to), they'd be playing until sundown!

"Puh-lease, that was just a warm-up," Rainbow cocked. "Next match is where things are REALLY gonna heat up!"

"Besides, they DID sign up for it," Applejack pointed out.

"You do have a point," Rarity said. "So, which team is next?"

As the trio of Buckball players took on bigger and tougher opponents, the crowd grew as well. There was now mild interest among the Smash Mansion, now that the residents had a decent grasp on how the sport worked.

"AJ, get it over there already!" Rainbow called as she blocked the incoming ball once again.

"Ah'm tryin!" Applejack yelled back.

Rillaboom's massive arms covered just about every option Applejack had. His limbs were much bigger than hers and he could reach farther too, so in most cases he would smack the ball away before Applejack had a chance to reach it. Dark Samus wasn't half bad at defense either. She wasn't as fast as Rainbow, but her unique ability to split into clones helped her keep the ball away from Rarity.

Unfortunately, their Achilles' Heel was Rambi. It was very clear that having to carry the basket on one's back left them at a significant disadvantage as opposed to being able to move the basket freely. The rhino needed to essentially predict where the ball was going and get in position quick enough for the ball to land in it. And his bulky body made it nothing short of difficult.

It was a long, arduous game, but eventually the ponies pulled through. Applejack juked Rillaboom out just enough to get the ball passed him, and Dark Samus was too slow to react, letting the ball sink right into Rarity's basket.

"Six to none, the ponies win again!" Isabelle cheered.

As the matches continued, the opponents got tougher and tougher.

Lilac, Carol, and Milla were definitely the most competent players the girls had faced so far. Carol played offense rather well, being able to shoot the ball with a good amount of precision. Milla's ability to carry the basket with her green orbs allowed for just as much mobility as Rarity's magic. And lastly, while unable to fly or float, Lilac's jumping ability and long dragon ponytails proved to be just fine for handling offense.

It was just a shame they had a difficult time communicating.

"Milla, when I say go left, I mean GO LEFT!" Carol groaned as the ball flew out of bounds.

"I did go left!" Milla argued.

"I mean MY LEFT!" Carol yelled back.

"Girls, we're not gonna get anyhwere if we argue!" Lilac said, trying to simmer everyone down.

A whistle stopped the argument in its tracks. "Six to four! Our pony team has won again!" Isabelle called.

Apparently the three were so distracted in their argument that they let Rainbow, Applejack, and Rarity score the winning point. The trio walked off the court in defeat, Carol cursing under her breath and Lilac covering Milla's curious ears.

Each Buckball game seemed to bring with it a new challenge. Bowser Jr. was arguably one of the best players of the sport on defense, as the Jr. Clown Car had a lot of weapons for a lot of situations. For a quick and simple block, a boxing glove would punch a ball back to his team. For something more controlled, he could grab the ball with its robotic claw and throw it. Cannonballs could go a long distance if need be, but he needed to be precise. Needless to say, he as an invaluable addition to his team.

The same could not be said for his teammates. Duck Hunt would have been a good offense, but the dog was more concerned with his sleeping schedule than actually playing. This just left the duck, whose weaker power made it harder to get the ball in the basket. This was further compounded by the basket having to be handled by Blathers. Though an owl, he wasn't all that experienced in flight, so he had to stay on the ground and chase the ball down. It didn't help he wasn't all that athletic either.

Soon, Rarity snuck the basket around Bowser Jr. and helped score the winning point. The crowd was massive at this point, and they were cheering on the reigning champions. Could no one dethrone them!?

"Lucina, Chrom, and Byleth... Link, King Boo, and Shulk... Alice, R.O.B., and Rundas... Pit, Palutena, and Donkey Kong..." Rarity said as she recounted all their previous matches.

By now, the women's locker room had the team's smell of victory all over it. They battled against more than half of the entire roster at this point, and haven't suffered a single loss. Rainbow was quite proud of herself, and Applejack was prepping herself up for the next match.

"Alright, who's next?" the country mare asked.

"Let's see," Rarity said, looking through her notes. She skimmed down the list of crossed-off names until coming to the next un-crossed one.

Rarity chuckled. Then began to laugh. Then fell onto the ground in a fit of laughter.

"What's so funny?" Rainbow Dash asked, taking the paper away from her magic grip.

Then she saw what was so funny.

"Chomper, Beady Long Legs, and Engineer Monkey!?" Rainbow said, laughter finding itself in her too. "Oh man, they really saved the best for last, didn't they?"

The three then burst out into more laughs.

The ponies taking their positions on the court, they were rather confident for this match. Engineer Monkey seemed to take offense, while Chomper took defense, and Beady Long Legs balanced the basket on its head.

"Some team you got here," Rainbow taunted.

"Just to be nice, we'll take it easy on ya'll," Applejack said.

The opposing team shared a glance between themselves.

Isabelle walked up to the court and gave the same speech about the rules and fair play she had given at least 30 times that day. Not that she minded. It was her job as referee, and she was intent on doing it to the best of her ability.

"One, two, thee... PLAY BALL!" Isabelle said as she threw the ball into the air.

Applejack readied, then bucked her hind hooves over to the basket for an early point.

...or, she would have, if the ball had fallen down.

"Huh!?" she exclaimed. "What in-" Before she knew it, the ball was shot into Beady Long Legs' basket, and a point for their opponents was scored. She looked back at Engineer Monkey, who spun around his nail gun and blew into it.

"Hey, that's cheatin'!" Applejack hollered.

"Actually, there's nothing in the Buckball rulebook you three gave me that says the players aren't allowed to fire nails at the ball to send them straight at the basket," Isabelle said, reading through a pretty large book.

"That's because- oh, never mind. We still got this!" Rainbow Dash said as she took the ball and passed it to Applejack. She bucked it at Rarity's basket. Because of the lack of competent defense, it went in easily.

...or, it would have, if Chomper hadn't burped and caused Rarity to faint.

"OK, that HAS to be cheating, right!?" Rainbow asked.

"Sorry, but the rulebooks say nothing about burping on the opponent," Isabelle said.

"You'd better sit tight, girls," Chomper taunted. "This is gonna be a fun game!"

"You should have seen the look on their faces!" Chomper proclaimed. "It was priceless!"

Satisfied with their victory over the ponies who had been so dominant before, Engineer Monkey, Chomper, and Beady Long Legs all treated themselves to a night on the town, gorging themselves on food of all kinds from the local buffet.

Sometimes, cheaters *did* prosper.