Draft day is super exciting if you're going as a prospect, but also pretty scary, as there's always a chance nobody will draft you.

Usually, when players go undrafted, they enter the NBA G League. If you go into the G League as an undrafted prospect, any team can call you up into the NBA. But that didn't mean I wanted to end up there.

The draft was kinda cool at the beginning. I got to meet with some of the other prospects, like a pretty funny guy named Donovan Mitchell. He was going as a top prospect, though, so I knew he was a higher level than me.

I also got to meet the guy who was going as the first overall. His name was Markelle, and he seemed pretty cool. I hoped that I would get to play with some of my college teammates.

"With the sixth pick in the 2017 NBA Draft," said the commissioner, Adam Silver, "the Orlando Magic select Jonathan Isaac."

I clapped just like everyone else in the room. I was happy to see Johnny get drafted. When you think about it, the nickname Johnny really didn't fit him at all, but that was what we called him and that was what he answered to.

I wondered if I would be picked next.

"With the seventh pick in the 2017 NBA Draft," said the commissioner, "the Minnesota Timberwolves select Lauri Markkanen."

Guess not.

I waited a little bit longer. DB was picked twelfth, by the Detroit Pistons, and Sutton was picked sixteenth by the Bulls. All of my teammates had been picked before me, and it wasn't a good feeling.

"With the twentieth pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, the Oklahoma City Thunder select Philip Booker."

There was an absolute rush in my heart as I walked up to the stage, and I was handed a Thunder hat. I made it, mom, I thought. My mom never supported my dreams. I knew that she had no idea I was here. But it was still the best night of my life. Also, the Thunder had players like Paul George and Russell Westbrook! I would get to play with superstars, and that thought could have lifted me a hundred feet off the ground.

After the draft ceremony finished, I congratulated DB, Sutton, and Johnny and we talked for a while before heading home.

I had taken the bus to the draft, so I had to take it back home. I rode it to the bus stop near my neighborhood. I put my hoodie over my head and started walking toward my home. As I was passing the woods area outside my neighborhood, I heard a rustling from within the trees.

Most people would've stopped walking and looked. But even though my heart started pounding, I kept walking. Then I heard it again, this time closer to the sidewalk. This time I stopped walking. My curiosity was getting the best of me. I felt like I was really going to regret it, but I turned around and looked.

Then my life changed.

I saw something light blue in there, but I couldn't tell what it was. What was weird was how clearly I could see it, even though it was nighttime and the woods were pitch-black. Still though, I didn't trust the situation. After a short internal debate, I decided to take a closer look. I began to step cautiously toward the blue figure, and as I approached, I heard another noise.

It was a whimper.

My initial thought was that this was somebody's dog that had gotten lost in the woods and cut on a tree branch.

I was half right.

A moment later, the figure emerged. My heart gave a jolt, and I almost fainted. What I was seeing couldn't have been real.

It was a light blue horse with a rainbow mane and tail, but it didn't look like a regular horse. It looked like a cartoon character. After a moment, it saw me. It jumped and tried to run away, but fell to the ground on what looked like a bad leg. I noticed a sizable cut along its rear right leg. As I approached it, it said, "Stay back!" in a half whimper that I'm assuming was supposed to be a brave voice, based off of the look it was giving me. I just stood still, staring at it. I had never seen anything like this before in my entire life.

I took another step toward it, and again it told me to stay back, but I continued. Whatever this thing was, it was injured, and I guess it was the Good Samaritan in me or something that made me want to help it.

I bent down on one knee in front of it and inspected its leg. It was a pretty bad cut, tantamount to a gash. I studied it and concluded that whatever it was, it was a female, given the rainbow mane and tail, the way the eyes looked, and the voice. I reached out to feel the cut, and it attempted to kick me, which only resulted in it whimpering in pain again.

"Easy," I said. "Don't move."

"W-What are you gonna do?" it said.

I took off my jacket and pressed it against the wound. It was freezing cold, so I instantly regretted it. The creature let out a cry of pain, and tried to push my hand away. "Stop!" it said.

"I need to apply pressure," I said. Then, without thinking, I picked it up and walked home cradling it in my arms the way my mom probably cradled me when I was a baby.

Once we were inside, I laid it down on the couch, and headed to the bathroom to grab some alcohol, peroxide and gauze. I then returned to the creature. "This might hurt," I said, and put some peroxide on the gauze. I then pressed it to the wound. The creature yelped again. After a few seconds, I removed the gauze, then took a new piece and put some alcohol on it. Again, I pressed the gauze to the wound, and again, the creature yelped. Once I removed it, I took a look at the wound. It was still bad, but much cleaner. I then wrapped the leg in gauze, then picked the creature up and carried it to the guest room. I laid it on the bed. "You need to rest," I said, then walked out. "Holy shit," I said, leaning against the wall. I couldn't believe what I had just done.

I checked my phone. 2 missed calls. One from DB, one from Sutton. I texted both of them back, telling them I'll talk to them in the morning. Then I threw my now-bloody jacket in the washing machine and let it run. After it was dry, I hung it up. I went back into the guest room. The creature was sleeping. I decided now was the time to try to figure out what it was. I went onto my laptop and searched "rainbow horse" on Google. The first result I got was a baby's show, so I clicked images. After scrolling for a bit, I found what I was looking for. It was a picture of the same creature. I checked it out, and figured out that it was a pony by the name of Rainbow Dash. This was a lot to unpack for my tired and stressed brain, so I shut off my computer and decided I would stop there. I couldn't let her know I knew these things, though.

I set my alarm for 7:00 so I could be ready for the draft combine, then fell into my bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

Author's Note

So!

This chapter was a loooooooot of work!

I put a ton of effort into it, so please comment and tell me what you think of the story so far!