Pipp Petals was happy that Sunny and Izzy and Hitch and herself and Zipp were able to unite all the ponies and bring magic back to Equestria.
However, something had been bothering the princess. Back when Izzy was singing that one song, where she was teaching them all how to be unicorns, she had casually produced a basketball out of nowhere and sunk a backwards shot in all of their faces. While she was singing.
It was talent like Pipp had never seen. Which was upsetting, because talent was what made her popular. And if there was a talent as great as Izzy's that Pipp didn't have, she needed to get it. So later that day, she had gone to Izzy's cottage to ask her about it.
"Hi! What can I do for ya?" asked Izzy happily upon opening the door.
"I was wondering..." said Pipp awkwardly, "how did you learn to hoop?"
"Oh, that?" Izzy giggled. "Sorry, unicorn's secret! Did ya think it was cool?"
"Well, it was interesting," Pipp replied. She didn't want to sound too envious.
"Hmm.." said Izzy, eyeing Pipp closely. Poker face, Pipp thought.
A moment later, Izzy's expression returned to normal. "Well, you're always welcome to learn some other stuff!" she chirped. "Or anything else ya need!"
"Thank you," said Pipp. "See you later, Izzy."
And with that, Pipp Petals set off to learn how to hoop.
Zephyr Heights did not feature many basketball courts, nor did Bridalwood (which confused Pipp greatly), or Maretime Bay. It took her around an hour to finally locate one, near the outskirts of the pegasus city. She flew down to it, grateful to see a young male pegasus sitting on a bench on the side of the court. He was holding a phone, with a basketball resting on the ground next to him.
As she approached, the stallion looked up. "P-Princess Pipp!" he said with a start.
"Yes, that's me," she replied with a small smile. "I wanted to ask you a question."
"Uh, okay," said the stallion, bewildered as to why one of the princesses of Zephyr Heights would want to ask him a question. "What is it?"
"Do you know how to hoop?"
For a moment, the stallion was silent. Suddenly, he burst into laughter, unable to stop himself.
"What's so funny?" Pipp asked, feeling slightly embarrassed.
"Nothing, it's just that we usually refer to it as 'playing basketball,'" the stallion replied, regaining himself. "'Hoop' is more of a slang term, which is why it was so funny to hear you say it."
"Right," said Pipp. "But you know how to play, right?"
"Yeah," replied the young stallion. "Why?"
"Well, a friend of mine is really good at...playing basketball," Pipp answered. She had almost said 'hoop' again. "I was just hoping to learn as well."
"So...are you asking me to teach you?"
"It would be great if you could," said Pipp, grateful that he had caught on. Then, realizing that she was probably going to have to do something in return, she added, "I'll owe you a date." She figured that would seal it.
"Oh...I'm alright," the stallion replied, blushing. "I can teach you, though. All I need from you is your time."
"No problem!" said Pipp, relieved.
"A lot of it."
"Right."
"Well, the name's Sky Hook," said the young pegasus. "Ready to get started?" Pipp nodded.
"I would have wanted another ball for this," said Sky Hook. "But I guess we'll have to roll with just one. Okay, here we go."
And so it began.
"First lesson," said Sky Hook, pacing back and forth in front of Pipp like a war general, "is to not get distracted." He stopped and shot a dirty look at a group of pegasi giggling at the scene, all with their phones out.
Pipp did her best not to turn and acknowledge them. She always acknowledged her fans, but this was important.
"Second lesson," Sky Hook continued, resuming his pacing, "is to know how to move with the ball. And tempting as it might be, your wings aren't really part of that."
"Noted," said Pipp.
"Dribbling is pretty easy," said Sky Hook. "All ya gotta do is take the ball, and bounce it. Like this." He picked up his basketball and bounced it a few times.
"So that's dribbling?" Pipp asked.
"Yep," said Sky Hook simply. "That's dribbling. Ready to try it?"
"I guess," Pipp replied. She took the ball, bounced it on the ground, missed it when it came back up, and was promptly smacked in the face with it. She scrunched up her muzzle in pain as the ball began to bounce away.
"Are you alright?" Sky Hook asked, approaching Pipp with concern.
"I'm fine," said Pipp, shaking it off. "Let me try it again."
Still looking concerned, Sky Hook went and retrieved the ball.
A good twenty minutes later, Pipp was no longer getting smacked in the face, and though she felt a bit sore on the nose from the first impact, she could dribble the ball quite well.
"The next level in the world of dribbling is ball handling," said Sky Hook, "but we don't need to worry about that. Now you need to learn how to shoot." He picked up the ball, turned toward the basket, which was a good distance away, took aim, and launched it. Pipp watched as it sailed in a perfect arc and practically floated through the net.
"Wow," said Pipp, surprised, "how did you do that?"
"Practice," the hooper pony replied. Pipp noticed the basketball cutie mark on his flank. Guess he really loves basketball, the princess thought.
After retrieving the ball, Sky Hook held the basketball up with his hooves in a shooting stance. "This is how you shoot," he said. "You use one hoof to push the ball, and one hoof to guide it. That's really important."
"Got it," said Pipp, "but how do I do that?"
"I'll show you," Sky Hook replied. He placed the basketball in Pipp's hooves. "Hold it up," he said, then proceeded to correct Pipp's stance by adjusting the position of her hooves on the ball.
At that moment, a pegasus not much older than Sky Hook that was passing by shouted, "Woah! Tryna take home the princess, Hook?"
Going red once again, he ignored him. "Like that," he said, stepping away from Pipp. "You don't have to aim for the basket, just try launching the ball."
Pipp pushed the ball up into the air, and watched as it traveled in a sort of wobbly arc back toward the ground. "Good!" said Sky Hook. "Pretty good start! Let's do that a few more times, and then we can start aiming for the hoop."
The process of teaching Pipp Petals how to shoot was more exhausting than anything Sky Hook could have imagined. She was a good listener, and was trying her best, but she somehow couldn't get it right. Finally, after much repetition and hassle, Pipp launched the ball in a clean arc into the hoop, which was a few feet away.
Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Sky Hook smiled. "Awesome! Now we can work on your aim, and try to expand your range!"
Pipp picked up the ball and tried again from a bit deeper, and sighed as the ball rolled in and out.
"It's alright," said Sky Hook. "It'll just take a little bit of practice."
And so practice they did. Pipp was shaky to start off, but quickly began to improve. Sky Hook watched in amazement as Pipp began to shoot bombs from pretty far out, including the spot he had shot from. Clearly, things had clicked for the princess.
"That was incredible!" said Sky Hook as Pipp drained another deep shot. "I think you've finally got it!"
Both of them were sweating profusely, one of them from exhaustion and the other from effort. The sun was finally beginning to set, and Queen Haven was going nuts up in her castle.
"Where is she??" she asked her guards for the sixty-fifth time.
"We don't know, Your Highness, as we've been standing here guarding this door for the past four hours." Thankfully, the Queen was too busy stressing about her daughter to notice the pony's smart comment.
At that moment, Zipp Storm flew into the throne room. "I haven't found her," she said immediately before her mother could speak.
"Where could she be?? Has she run away? Am I that bad?" Haven cried.
"Calm down, Mom," said Zipp with a sigh. "She'll turn up soon."
"Oh, I hope so," said the Queen. "Because if she doesn't, then I'm reporting her missing."
"The media will love that," Zipp muttered.
Meanwhile, a good distance away from the castle, Pipp Petals was laying against the wall of a building near the court, draining a fairly large bottle of water. "Goodness," she said, putting down the empty bottle, "that was tiring."
"Tell me about it," Sky Hook muttered. Night was beginning to fall. "You know, you should probably get back home." The stallion noticed how truly messy Pipp looked. Her mane was disheveled and her tiara was askew. "And freshen yourself up a bit," he added.
Pipp had never had such an abnormal day. She seldom spent so much time away from her fans, let alone her mother. She began to fear how that conversation would go.
"You're right," she replied, standing up. "Thanks for the help." She embraced Sky Hook in a quick hug before flying off.
"Damn," said Sky Hook to himself with a sigh as she disappeared. "She's cute."
Queen Haven did not take her daughter's disappearance well at all, and upon her return there was a lot of questioning, which put Pipp in an extremely awkward position. It didn't help that when she mentioned Sky Hook, Zipp adopted a devious grin that did not suggest that she was going to keep quiet about what had happened.
The next day, Pipp visited Izzy and brought her to the court she had learned to hoop at. She noticed Sky Hook sitting on the same bench, once again immersed in his phone. As they neared, Pipp watched the stallion set his phone down and begin to dribble the ball in impossible ways, messing up here and there as he continued to work on his handles. Looking up, he noticed the two mares before him.
"You're back?" said Sky Hook with a start. He hadn't expected to see her again, let alone with a friend. Was he about to have to teach another pony the same stuff?
"Yep!" said Pipp. "I just came to show my friend Izzy something."
"Gotcha," Sky Hook replied. "I'll just head home, leave you guys to it." And with that, he picked up his basketball and began to fly away, feeling slightly sad. Remembering that she didn't have a ball, she turned to Izzy.
"You don't happen to have a basketball, do y-" she stopped, shocked at the fact that Izzy was now spinning a basketball on the tip of her hoof.
"Where'd you get that?" Pipp asked.
"Magic!" said Izzy, continuing to spin the ball.
"Right, can I see that?"
"Sure!" Izzy tossed the ball off of her hoof toward Pipp, who caught it. Turning to the basket, she shot the ball without hesitation and watched as it sailed through the net.
She then turned to Izzy, smiling proudly. "What'd you think?"
"Pretty good!" Izzy replied. "It's a great start!"
Pipp froze. Start?
Seeing the look on Pipp's face, Izzy grabbed the ball. "Observe," she said, and, standing a little further from the hoop then Pipp was, turned her back on it and launched the ball over her shoulder.
Pipp's jaw dropped as she watched the smoothest shot she'd ever seen fly through the hoop, barely touching the net.
"HOW??" said Pipp, purely shocked.
Izzy just smiled comfortably. "Unicorn's secret!" she said, then trotted off. "You coming?"
Pipp began to follow her, highly disappointed at being shown up twice. Show off, she thought bitterly. How was she supposed to shoot like that backwards??
One day, she was going to beat Izzy.
Hopefully.
Author's Note
I had way too much fun writing this.
