(Premier League State – Home Stadium)

The day had come, the first match of the Charity League and the first of the three matches was at PLS’s home stadium, the whole stadium was almost the size of a world class juggernaut stadium and the Canterlot High Wondercolts were already making their preparations. Upon arrival the Wondercolts took no waste and got down to training, preparing all their techniques, that said not everyone was doing...... that.

“Pinkie Pie! What are you doing?” Rainbow Dash asked as Pinkie Pie was messing around with their goal.

“Come on Dashie, we gotta have some fun when you slam those goals, and my confetti cannons are perfect for the job!” Pinkie Pie explained as she rigged the confetti cannons to blow when a goal made them was made.

Rainbow Dash groaned in annoyance, but Sunset was there to calm the situation down, “It's all good Rainbow Dash, you know how Pinkie is, and you know she’ll put more effort in the training once she’s done” Sunset explained.

“I know, but we have to bring our best against PLS! So come on everyone! Let's get into it!” Rainbow Dash boasted as the team doubled their training efforts.

(Two hours Later – Match Time)

The crowds began to fill the stadium and the buildup was immense, the Wondercolts’ changing room was all mental preparations, the players began to straighten up their blue and gold jerseys and boots, Rainbow Dash gave one of her notable sports speeches as the team cheered and readied up and awaited in the hallway where the players walk from.

Soon they saw their rivals, the Premier League State players in their purple and green jerseys and all were stoic and mentally hardened as they awaited the signal to head to the field, but then someone had to ruin the silence.

“Hem a der, Charles a Dickens, double decker buses!” was heard by the players and everyone in the PLS team, all responded in their united frustrated tone.

“SHUT UP TOTTENHAM!” The players shouted as Tottenham’s shoulders slumped, it was clear that Tottenham was the PLS punching bag.

“Hey! That wasn’t very nice!” Fluttershy squeaked out.

“We put up with that every day at PLS, so you tell us how we should respond” West Ham pointedly states, which none of the Wondercolts gave a response.

However, there was no time for that, the marshals gave the word, and the players began to walk out to the field. The PLS anthem was played as the players entered a line to drink the atmosphere in, the stadium was packed, but there was barely any blue and goal in the crowd, just purple and green and signs showing immense love and support to the PLS players.

“And here we are, the first match of the anticipated charity league, it's the Canterlot Wondercolts against the PLS Premiers! And it’s a match so many are awaiting to see, the Wondercolts being the loved underdogs here going up against what is considered the elite of the elite”

The commentators began to announce the game as the crowd cheered in joy, waiting for the match to begin.

“And here we have the line up for the Wondercolts, its Sandalwood in the keeper position, followed by the center backs of Twilight, Pinkie and Fluttershy. Napalm and Burns on the left and right mid to support their centers Rarity and Applejack. Rainbow Dash assuming the captain spot in the center attacking mid and up the front; the two strikers of Sunset Shimmer and Flash Sentry, a solid 3-4-1-2 lineup”

“That may be well and true, but the home side is not to be trifled against, it's a solid 5-3-3 for the Premiers, Chelsea in the keeper position, augmented with Newcastle, Crystal, Arsenal and Tottenham as the center backs. West Ham, United and Everton in the center positions, lastly the wings of Aston Villa and Liverpool, led by the indominable leader and striker of Manchester City. It’s all to play for the first impressions here at PLS stadium.

Soon as the PLS anthem ended, the players began to shake each other's hands and headed to their respected positions. The referee places the ball down for the Wondercolts to kick of the match, the Wondercolts soon saw what Liverpool mentioned at the party, each of their faces devoid of emotion as they prepared to make their move. The referee moved back a few steps and put the whistle to their mouth and blew; the match had begun.

Sunset Shimmer passes the ball to Rainbow Dash, and she went on a solo charge; she avoids City and Liverpool as the two players closed in, but as soon she encounters West Ham, she loses the ball. West Ham took no chance and passed to United, the red girl maneuvered around the Wondercolts, found an opening to Aston Villa, she makes the pass stick and Aston Villa charged down the field in dominate fashion. The Wondercolt center players desperately tried to hold the line, but the PLS winger made a pass to Manchester City and took off at lightning speed. Fluttershy saw the charging blue juggernaut and dove out of the way in fear, the Wondercolts were speechless as Fluttershy made such a cowardly move. City soon bore down towards the goal, but Sandalwood was waiting, City passes the ball to Liverpool to fool the Wondercolts, and it gave them the opening they wanted. Liverpool soon volleys the ball upwards to City and in a legendary move, Manchester City jumps and goes for the bicycle kick and slams the ball past Sandalwood, into the goal.

The crowd went wild, less than 10 minutes into the first half and PLS scored the first goal and in a dominating fashion.

“Absolutely brilliant from City!!!”

The commentators announced to the crowd, as Manchester City did a victory pose to the crowd before getting surrounded by his teammates in absolute joy. The Wondercolts were staggered, both at City’s goal and Fluttershy’s cowardness.

“What was that Fluttershy!? You let him right through!” Applejack stated in concern.

“I couldn’t stop him; he was a massive beast charging at me!” Fluttershy defended her actions.

“Come on guys! It’s less than 10 minutes and we’re already a goal down!” Rainbow Dash complained.

“HEY! Enough! Stop complaining, we still got a game to play!” Flash called out and tried to get the team back to focus on the here and now. The Wondercolts shook off their concerns and headed to their positions for the next kickoff.

However, Rainbow Dash tries the same tactic as before and loses possession of the ball faster than before, however the Wondercolts harden their defensive line and intercepts the ball before another goal by PLS could be made, Applejack and Rarity passed to each other to mess with the PLS lines, Applejack sees an opening to Rainbow Dash and passes the ball to her, in her excitement; Rainbow Dash charged on and goes for goal and slams it in.

“And a goal!!! But it will not count! Offside is called by the referee!”

It was an absolute punch to the gut for the Wondercolts, they claim it was a clean goal, but then the VAR soon shows Rainbow Dash was a foot ahead of the onside line and the ruling was final. Rainbow Dash could only groan in annoyance at the result. The entire first half would go to be absolute domination from PLS, the Wondercolts grew more and more desperate to stop them, making countless mistakes. PLS’s Liverpool and Aston Villa would score a goal each, bringing the score to 3 goals before the first half came to an end.

In the changing room, the Wondercolts were beaten and demoralized by the result.

“What are we doing wrong?” Rarity asked, cleaning her face with a towel.

“I’ll tell you Rarity, we’re getting smashed harder than a bunch of apples turned into apple sauce” Applejack responded in her apple loving fashion.

Flash and Sunset saw the turmoil in the Wondercolts and tried to make sense of the situation. “Hey come on! It’s only the first half” Sunset tried to cheer the team up.

“Yeah, and look we’re playing one the best teams around, we just need to change up our strategy for the second half” Flash adds, trying to inspire the team.

“Hey! I’m the team captain, Sentry!” Rainbow Dash barked.

“Yeah; we know, and your strategy is always trying to solo charge everything, we’re meant to be a team!” Applejack argued, “At least Flash is trying to help us!” she adds, throwing a mental stick to Rainbow Dash’s head.

“Look, let's not fight about this okay, but Flash is right” Sunset tried to calm the situation down, “What can we do in the second half Flash?” she asked her striker partner.

“Easy; Twilight, what have you seen which can build an advantage over the Premiers?” Flash turned to Twilight.

Twilight beamed in a smile, “For now, we see its just raw power from them so far, but they do have a lot of openings, if City or the wingers get past our midfield, we have out center backs pull back towards the goal, PLS may be good on stats, but we see only solo efforts from them so far” Twilight explained her strategy.

“But we do need to have a counterstrategy in place, if PLS sees through the plan” Flash adds, knowing that PLS didn't become an elite team with just one strategy.

However, Rainbow Dash took over, “Its easy, if the strategy doesn't work, we revert to our starting one and I'll take us to victory” Rainbow boasted, but the Wondercolts had concerns, but there was no time to think about that, the coaches call the Wondercolts to return to the field.

The players soon return to the field and went into position and mentally prepared for the second half, the Wondercolts hope to implement Twilight’s new strategy and as the second match began, the new strategy seemed to show much promise, but it gave no goals to the Wondercolts, even the strategy soon developed a crack and PLS’s United took a chance and slams a goal in.

The crowd cheers as PLS showed no signs of being stopped, Rainbow Dash tells the team to revert to the old strategy and it would be the Wondercolts complete downfall, Manchester City would score two more goals and bringing home the hat trick, the game soon ends a soul crushing defeat for the Wondercolts, with a 6-0 clean sheet victory for Premier League State.

The Wondercolts head back to the changing room in absolute pieces, morale was at an all-time low, the Wondercolts never felt such a defeat like this, and the crowd showed no remorse to them, the crowd cheered for PLS and even the Wondercolts could hear the cheers from the PLS chanting Manchester City’s name in cataphoric joy, surely the other teams could mount a better chance.

(Bundesliga Academy Stadium – Two Hours Later)

Word of Canterlot High’s defeat had reached the Maretime High Pegistars, surely it couldn’t be possible, but none of them had time to think of that as they prepared to challenge Bundesliga Academy.

In the changing room, the Pegistars adorned their orange and blue jeseys, but as the team prepared for the upcoming match, Pipp soon gets a message.

“Oh look at that, just saw a post from Liverpool, looks like they’re really enjoying that win!” Pipp stated as she showed her phone to her friends.

“Though Manchester City looks a little uncomfortable being raised on their shoulders” Misty mentions, looking closely at the photo of the PLS team.

“He did score the hat trick, but I understand how he feels, to be the absolute best and trying to be as humble as he can” Sunny states, giving her opinion.

“Not like his sister United, that’s for sure” Hitch chuckled.

“Well let’s hope, none of us turn out like her” Zipp states, as she straightened her jersey, but having issues with putting the captain band on her arm, as she trying to also do up her boots at the same time.

“Here, let me” Hitch said as he walked over and fixed up the captain’s band on Zipp’s left arm, Zipp was quiet as she watches Hitch delicately set the band up properly.

However, Pipp had to open her mouth, “Wow, Zipp is just as quiet as she was talking to City” she giggled.

Hitch felt a pinch to his heart as he heard Pipp’s words and once he finished the band, he quietly did up his boots and straightened his jersey. Zipp didn’t think anything of Pipp’s words and just looked at Hitch as he seemed to be holding something in, but she couldn’t think more about it as the coach tells the Pegistars it was time, the team began to walk out into the hallway, next to the Bundesliga Academy players to wait for the moment.

The Bundesliga Academy anthem begins to play to excite the crowd as they wait for the players to walk onto the field. The coaches and referees gave the players the nod and they all began to walk out onto the field; however, the crowd soon began to sing the chant for Borussia Dortmund, BA’s captain and striker. Despite the crowd seemingly only focused on Bundesliga Academy, it didn’t damp the spirits of the Pegistars. The players began to line up on the field, however to the Pegistars surprise, they saw the PLS Players in the crowd and even a few of them were wearing orange to show support for them, the Pegistars felt an ounce of support, knowing that PLS showed them some support.

“The second match of the league is here; we have seen the Wondercolts felt the full fury of Premier League State, but could we see a turnaround as Maretime High challenge Bundesliga Academy?!”

“Too right you are, here we have the starting lineup for Maretime High Pegistars, a 4-2-1-3 formation with Misty Brightdawn in the keeper position, augmented with the row of center backs of Izzy Moonbrow and Jazz Hooves in the mid and on the left its Rocky Riff and the right Posey Bloom, following them is the center mid defenders of Zoom Zypherwing and Thunder Flap. Taking up the attacking mid is Sunny Starscout and lasty the front row, the winged sisters of Pipp Petels and the team’s captain Zipp Storm and lastly the striker of Hitch Trailblazer”

“It's quite the line up, this team who went from a rough start to regional champions in an epic season for the Pegistars, but will it be enough to compete against Bundesliga Academy? Their 4-2-3-1 formation has the talented Leverkusen in goal, she had made quite the transition from being a former striker to keeper, the siblings of Augsburg and Frieburg on the right back line and Hoffenhiem and Union Berlin on the left, the center mid defense of the older triplet Wolfsburg and Stuttgart with RB Leipzeg and Ein Frankfurt on the outer mid positions, Bayern Munich in the center attacking and the captain; the hometown star, Borussia Dortmund taking up the captain spot in the striker position”

The crowd grew more and more excited as the chant for Borussia Dortmund came to an end as the players took positions for kick off, both the Pegistars and Bundesliga Academy drew breaths as they waited for the referee to start the match, Bayern Munich took position to start the match, the referee blows the whistle, and the match began.

Bayern passes the ball to Borussia who only has the ball for a few moments before passing to Stuttgart who signaled the team to move forward, the Pegistars knew what Bundesliga Academy were doing, the center backs moved to defend the keeper, but the forward players moved to intercept, Hitch charges and takes the ball from Bayern, he maneuvers around the Bundesliga players, he takes a chance to pass to Pipp, who manages to get a good run for the goal, she decides to take a chance and shoots for goal, however Leverkusen deflects the ball away to Hoffenhiem who moves up the field, and gets the ball to the forwards.

The ball gets back to Borussia Dortmund, and he charges forward, none of the Pegistars rear players could mount a challenge against the Bundesliga striker, as he charged at the goal, Misty was nervous as Borussia kicks the ball to goal, Misty closes her eyes and dives and to her surprised, she deflects the ball.

“AND MISTY BLOCKS THE GOAL!!!”

The crowd cheers for Misty, not many players who played in keeper position, had ever deflected a shot from Borussia Dortmund. “Great block Misty!” Borussia said, despite being their competition, he just gave Misty a smile.

But the ball went out of play, showing it would be a Bundesliga corner kick, Stuttgart runs to prepare for the kick, the crowd awaits in anticipation, Stuttgart goes for the kick, the ball flies towards the players, despite holding the line well, Borussia jumps for the kick, and he slams the goal in.

“AND IT’S DORTMUND!!! WHAT A GOAL!!!”

The crowd cheers in joy, and a tune is played as Borussia runs to the crowd and cheered, with his teammates following in tow. However, the Bundesliga players except Bayern, walked to Misty.

“Hey, you blocked the first one, keep at it, Misty!” Stuttgart said in a supportive tone and Misty nodded in agreement.

“Great sportsmanship by Bundesliga Academy, they may be winning the match, but they will always show love and respect to their rivals”

The players all ran back to position for the next kick-off, as Zipp ran back, the PLS players in Maretime High orange, shouted to her.

“It’s only one goal, keep strong guys!” Liverpool cheered.

“You got this Zipp!” Manchester City cheered also as Zipp nodded and waved, thankful for their support.

However, Hitch saw the interaction and again his heart stung, but he tried to give no mind as he took position. Sunny moved up to start the kick-off, the referee blows the whistle and Sunny kicks the ball to Pipp. The left winger charged the field; however, Leipzig was charging at her to intercept, Pipp passes the ball to Hitch who charged forward. Zipp calls Hitch to pass, but for some reason, he ignores her calls. Hitch manages to maneuver around the Bundesliga players and in a solo effort, Hitch dummies a kick to the right and manages to slam a goal into the left.

“AND A GOAL!!! IT’S BACK TO LEVEL, NO SIGN OF SLOWING DOWN!!!”

Hitch cheers as he slams a goal in, the crowd cheered his name in cataphoric joy, the Maretime High Pegistars showed that it's possible to challenge the elites, while a few players cheered Hitch for his goal, Zipp and Sunny felt off, normally Zipp and Hitch had the best chemistry and always communicated well on the field, but Zipp knew Hitch ignored her, but had no idea why he would, Zipp managed to see the bright side as they were level with Bundesliga Academy.

The rest of the first half managed to be a stalemate, with both teams deflecting shots and interceptions of the ball in rapid succession, the match was intense, and the crowd was loving it. The first half ended with 1-1, and the teams headed back to the changing rooms to prepare for the second half.

In the changing room, Sunny and Zipp worked with the rest to think on strategies, however Pipp noticed Hitch was outside drinking a water bottle.

“What's going on with me?!” Hitch asked himself, he hoped no-one noticed, but Pipp arrived to see him.

“Is everything alright?” Pipp asked in concern.

Hitch shook his head, “It’s nothing” he replies but Pipp wasn’t having it.

“Yes, there is, you ignored Zipp during your run, you never do that, so something is wrong!” Pipp explained, knowing that this wasn’t normal from him.

“It’s fine Pipp, let's get ready for the second half” Hitch stated as he went back to the changing room, Pipp started to remember that something similar happened during the Preseason Party, was it because Manchester City? Was Hitch jealous of Manchester City? She wondered but had to disregard the thoughts as the marshals called the Pegistars back to the field.

The players returned to the field and got into position, Bayern was again starting the kick-off, the whistle is blown, and the ball is kicked, and the game is back on. The second half was mostly a stalemate like the first half, however Zipp managed to get the ball. However, the Bundesliga players stole the ball away and Bayern knocked her to the ground, the referee blew the whistle and called a foul.

As the players prepared, Izzy was chosen to kick the ball, the whistle is blown and Izzy kicks the ball to Sunny, who manages to evade the Bundesliga players, but as she ran for goal, she passes to Hitch, and he goes for another goal, and it goes in.

“And another goal!!! It’s two for him today, now the Pegistars are out in front!”

Hitch and the players cheered as they now taken the lead of the match, they just had to maintain the momentum for the remainder of the match. The players prepared for the kick-off and Bundesliga Academy showed their full force, Bayern passed it Borussia and the striker player charged in his dominant fashion, he blew past everyone in his way and while Misty was waiting to deflect the ball, Borussia kept charging at her, but when Misty runs up to dive for the ball, Borussia volleys the ball and it goes in goal.

“And it’s a second for Borussia Dortmund!!! They are level again!!!”

The crowd cheers and the Borussia’s tune is played as the Bundesliga players cheered as the match was now level again, the Pegistars were shocked at how Borussia Dortmund showed dominance. However, Zipp tries to get everyone to focus. “Come on guys! We gotten the lead before!” she states.

Soon the match arrived at the final moments and the second half had an extra two minutes, the rules of the charity league had removed the penalty shootout to save time, so both teams knew how important winning the first set of matches would be, it was a Bundesliga corner kick, with Stuttgart once again performing the kick.

As the whistle blew, Bayern runs to Stuttgart which made Zipp and Hitch run after her, but it was a trick, Stuttgart volleys the ball, Zipp tries to run back, but she soon runs into Hitch. As the two fell to the ground, Borussia Dortmund jumps and like his rival/friend Manchester City, he performs the bicycle kick and slams the final goal of the match.

The crowd goes wild, Borussia’s tune was played on repeat as the Bundesliga players celebrate their win, the Pegistars were shocked, they had a chance to win the match, however they look at Zipp and Hitch who were still dazzled by their collision with each other, however Hitch gets up and just sighs, Zipp also gets up and feels disappointed. As the Pegistars walked off the field, they were soon met by Manchester City and PLS who were supportive and encouraged the Pegistars not to give up, Zipp thanked the PLS players, however Hitch felt something burning inside him.

In the changing room, the Pegistars had to feel the weight of their defeat, however no one was upset as Posey Bloom was, who went on a rant on their lost, despite ignoring everyone who stated, she didn’t do much in the match, but then for one of them, it caused him to snap.

“WHY ARE YOU SO MISERABLE, EVEN BY YOUR OWN STANDARDS?!” Hitch shouted in anger, everyone looked at Hitch, who also was surprised at his outburst.

“Hitch! Are you okay?” Sunny asked, worried about her childhood best friend.

“I’m.... I’m okay... I don’t know where that came from” Hitch explained, he never felt that angry before and had no idea what made him snap, Posey Bloom even shrunk and even when Hitch apologized to her for his outburst, she felt unnerved and worried about angering him again, though some members of the team believed it was a solid way to shut Posey up as she always had to find a way to complain.

The first set of matches were not going well for any of the standard teams, they even heard Ligue 1 High had also defeated the Shadowbolts in a 3-1 in favour for Ligue 1 High, as their game had to be moved up due to a scheduling issue. But surely, things had to turn around at some point in the league, as there were still 9 more matches for each team to face.

Standings:
Premier League State: 3 points
Bundesliga Academy: 3
Ligue 1 High: 3 Points
Maretime High: 0 Points
Canterlot High: 0 Points
Crystal Prep Academy: 0 Points

Author's Note

After getting a review on my story, I have removed the videos, due to copyright concerns