Hey, King Spike Rules here and her is the next chapter to Spike's Basketball. Training camp has reached it's half-way point and now they have their practice match with Shark's will start, but can they beat a Kingdom or is it hopeless?

Chapter 13: Battling a Kingdom.

After their squarish to decide the ace ended, the team went on to continue the training with Twilight overlooking every moment they did and keep a watchful eye on them as was Luna. She had to admit, they were getting better with their ball handling and moves. And soon, the first two weeks of the had come to an end and just as Twilight had practiced, the Sharks showed up in a team bus parked by the school and fifteen young men all looking from 15 to 18 walked in, they looked at the gym as the coach. A young man smiled as he saw the and walked over to the adults.

"Oh, I am so glad you could make it." Luna said smiling looking at him approach and she could see him. He was really young, looking to be in his mid-twenties with green eyes and fair skin along with blue hair as he looked at her back.

"Thanks for having us Ms. Luna." he said shaking her hand and looked at their side to get a look of their team, his eyes widen when he saw the six of them practicing, "Are the rest of the team not here or something."

"No, we only have six team members at the moment." Twilight walked out and looked at him, smiling as she offered her hand, "Twilight Sparkle, team manager and coach." He looked at her shocked looking at the team and then back to her, taking her hand and shook it. He then turned around and headed back to his team, who were looking at him.

"So, do they really only have those six?" one of them asked motioning to the others working on their stretches.

"Yeah, we might have made a mistake on this one." he said rubbing the back of his head, "Mash, you won't be starting and might not be playing at all." Everyone turned to a young man on the bench, dressed in a white tee shirt with roman on the front and gym shorts, a tan skin complexion and reddish-brown hair along with brown eyes. He was sitting there his face planted into his hand console.

"Don't worry," one of them said looking at the team practice, "We won't be too hard on them." They all agreed as the coach smiled. On the other side, Luna and Twilight watched them as they were too far to hear them.

"You know they're not taking us seriously, right Twilight?" Luna asked and Twilight nodded.

"Of course, they wouldn't. But that would be their mistake." Twilight said smiling as she looked at the guys, who were all finished training while they could see the other team start their practice as Spike watched them in sink of everything that could happen, and he licked his lips.

"The look ready for game." Spike said grinning as Soroan looked at hi concern, he had seen when Spike got completive and he couldn't help but feel uneasy by that.

"Alright guys, line up." Twilight called them to look at her and they all lined up, "Okay. This is a Kingdom Manehatten's Sharks. But I do believe they wouldn't send a first or second string here. So, their all third string."

"Yeah but being in a third string of a Kingdom would be starts on most other teams." Soroan said and Twilight nodded as she looked at them.

"Very true, but I believe in you six that you could give them a good show." she said smiling looking at them and they all smiled back at her, looking at her with pride in their hearts, "Snails, you'll start on the bench with Snips and Sandbar joining Spike, Soroan, and Mac with Sandbar playing point guard." His eyes widen and nodded, hearing how important that was and see that the others were smiling as they looked at him, and nodded.


On the second story of the gym Gallus was watching the teams practice, he shook his head as he watched the boys team try to Alley oops and failing as the other teams continued to practice from their side of the court.

"Oh, i see I'm not the only one scouting." a voice called out and Gallus turned to see a young stallion his age walking towards him. He was wearing a normal tee shirt and jeans with messy red hair and a goatee with round glasses over his clear blue eyes.

"Who are you?" Gallus asked looking at him and wondering who he was, "I've never seen you around here before."

"Oh, that's because I don't go here and came to check out a player that might be playing as this practice match." he said standing next to him and peaking out over the court, his eyes gazing before he saw him. "Ah, so I'm here just in time before they use him?" Gallus wondered what he meant and looked closer when the ref blew his whistle.


The ref stood in place looking at the two as Mac came face to face with a student about his size as they smiled at each other. The ref looked at them both and then blew his whistle while tossing the ball into the air. The two jumped with all their might and the student watched Mac's fingers touch the ball first. It was enough to throw the ball back into Spike's waiting hands who drove forward.

"Come on," one of the others said putting his arms out and smirking at him, "Show me what you go..." Spike nearly instantly rolled around him and their backs where against each other before he took a shot, which landed in the net for three points. The team cheered as the Sharks looked at the net in shock as the coach stared at the net shocked with his team.

"That good enough?" Spike said smiling as he went to defense and the others looked at his team. The guy got the ball and began to make their move, driving forward with two other at his sides to wing out. He came up to Mac, who was blocking his path and the guy grinned wide staring at him.

"I admit, he surprised us." he said before passing to his left, "Yet one lucky shot..." He was cut of by Mac swapping the pass out of mod air and Soroan grabbing it. moving forward with the others shocked as he weaved around them quickly before ducking under any and went for a second three points.

"Oh, no you don't." the tall player said reaching out and tapping the ball, throwing it off line and was heading for the back board. Only for Spike to grab it with his left arm, swung it under his leg before dunking it. Spike landed as both teams were shocked at that move and a loud whistle came from the ref.

"Time out, black." he said pointing to the Sharks side and both teams ran to their benches, resting for a moment as the coach looked at his team.

"Alright, I think we all underestimated them and should take them serious from here on." he said looking over to the other team and his eyes locked onto Spike, "And keep out for him, we need to make sure he doesn't pull off moves like that." They all nodded as they looked at Spike drinking his water and they all knew he was not one to take lightly anymore.


"Whoa, that was cool." Gallus said having saw Spike over the top alley oop and smiled as he looked at the game.

"Indeed." the guy said pushing up his glasses and looked at them all, "I'm not sure how we missed scouting a guy like him."


Spike sat there with his team and looked at all of them staring at him with look of shock on their faces.

"What?" he asked confused as to what they were staring.

"Don't give us that." Soroan said and the other four nodded, "You just pulled off a really high end move that is not normally used, and we never saw you use that before."

"Oh, that." Spike said realizing what he meant, "I was told to show off." He said and they all looked at him confused before they all turned to look at Twilight.

"I knew they would see it sooner, so I decided to have Spike give them a show." she said as she looked at the other team staring at them, "They looked down at my team and I want show them it was a mistake." The ref blew his whistle and both teams walked back up onto the court with all of their eyes locked onto Spike, who noticed their gaze and smirked back at them. The guy held the ball and bounced it before they charged all at once, passing the ball at ranbom to make it hard to see who had it and they were soon in the paint with one trying a lay up only for Mac to knock it down to the court and Sandbar picked it up.

"Alright, let's go." Sandbar said charging forward when the ball was knocked out of his hand bu one of the other player. They grinned taking a shot and getting a three pointer with the other excited that he got it. He turned to look at Sandbar and continued to grin.

"I see that your not as skilled as your captain." he said in a mocking tone and ran off as Spike smacked his back.

"Don't sweat it." Spike said smiling looking at Sandbar and the guy was running off, "We expected them to put up a battle, they're a kingdom for a reason."

"Y-yeah." Sandbar nodded and took the ball from the ref, yet something in his stomach told him had to step up and so he bounced the ball a few times before starting to dribble. He looked at the other team as they grinned looking at him and had one guy stand over him to keep him in place.

"A four one set up." Twilight said looking at them and was confused before something could happen, the whistle was blown.

"Eight second rule, ball turn over." he said and Sandbar was shocked, looking to his feet to see he had never crossed the half of the court and Twilight crossed her arms over her chest.

"They could see Sandbar's nerviness and used that to get the ball back without effort." Twilight said looking at the coach, who looked back at her smiling and she looked back, "They could see the weaker points of Sandbar and Snips, and figured out how to exploit in under three minutes?"

"I guess they are a Kingdom for a reason." Luna said noticing it too and looked at the court, "Is the match hopeless because of that?"

"No, since we have some time before the worse setup." she said narrowing on her thumb, "Plus they think we're just a one person team."

"What do you mean?" Luna asked looking at her confused as she wondered what she could be planning.

"You'll see." she said looking at the court and the clock, "Spike wasn't the only one I told to do something." She said a smiled forming as she watched her team move around the court with the clock ticking down, "The goal is to have them get better, but not to show everything in the first quarter." Luna was shocked as she looked from her to the court and than back to her, what did she set up and why was it not time yet to do it.

TBC.