Excitement swept over the crowd.

Music blared through the speakers.

And the Wonderbolts soared across the field.

With the match nearing the bottom of the second half, the Canterlot High soccer team had managed to charge their way through the opposing midfielders. And now with the action growing ever closer to the other side’s goal, it was only a matter of time before the Wonderbolts scored once again and take the lead.

“Come on! Keep pushing!” Coach Spitfire shouted over the sound of the roaring fans. “We can’t let them get ahead!”

As the cacophony of kicking and screaming continued, the audience cheered wildly watching the ball suddenly shoot straight up into the air. “Ooohhh!” And again as it fell back down into the huddle of players fighting over it. “Ooooohhhhh!”

It was an awesome game to behold. Unfortunately, not for Rainbow Dash.

All the way across the field, she paced up and down the goal box, waiting impatiently to get a taste of some of the action. Judging from how pumped up the crowd sounded, it must’ve been thrilling to watch. But that only made it more frustrating for her having to miss out on whatever was going on.

After being forced to move from her usual midfield position to goalkeeper this season, Rainbow never realized what she had until it was taken away from her. Without that rush of running down the field and dribbling the ball, she felt like she was trapped behind the white line. Even more egregious was the fact that the coach will not even allow her to leave her position, thinking Rainbow was too slow and sluggish to make it back to the goal in time.

Though, from the way her whole body bounced with every step, Rainbow couldn’t exactly disagree with that sentiment. At 300 pounds, she was easily the heaviest player on the team. And despite her best efforts to keep her weight, she still ended up putting a couple extra pounds. So it’s hard to blame the coach for making these decisions.

As tough as she was, Spitfire at least tries to be fair. Even with a decent number of players being on the heavy side, she knew how to play to everyone’s strengths. The season may have had a rocky start for the team, but it didn’t take long for the Wonderbolts to find their stride.

Besides, Rainbow couldn’t deny she made for a pretty good goalie. Even if she really only got a few minutes of gameplay every match, when the ball came her way, she was always ready to give it her all.

Still, it’s difficult for her not to be frustrated by all this. So much work she’d been putting in even before she had put on all that weight, and it was all going to waste if she had to stand by and wait any longer. But as tempting as it was to break out and speed her way through the field, she figured it wouldn’t be worth it. Especially since the coach has been threatening to have her benched after already giving her one too many warnings.

But Rainbow couldn’t always help herself. She always felt the need to prove her worth.

She just had to.

Suddenly, as the crowd burst into screams of joy, Rainbow brought her head back into the game. She looked up just in time to see her teammates cheering and hugging each other. She smiled as it quickly dawned on her that they managed to finally pull ahead. “Let’s freakin go! Woo!” She shouted and clapped along.

Now filled with determination, Rainbow steadied herself as silence descended upon the soccer field. Though she couldn’t get a clear view of what was going on past the other players, she knew the opposing team’s goalie was setting up for a shot. Rainbow was prepared for whatever happened.

After a moment-long pause, a loud kick sounded off as the ball came flying down the left side of the field. Rainbow watched the ball closely and attentively as another opponent jumped up and head-butted the ball straight across to their teammate, who in turn bicycle-kicked it towards Rainbow’s goal.

She was in the perfect position to simply catch the ball and toss it to another teammate. But Rainbow wanted to push it even further, to show she was just as good as the rest, if not better.

As the ball came shooting her way, everything that followed went by in a flash.

Rainbow leapt to the side, twisting her hefty body as her right foot lifted off the ground. Then following through with her left, she swung her foot forward ready to scissor-kick the oncoming ball. Rather than hitting her foot, however, the ball instead slammed into her stomach. It bounced off, not only knocking the wind out of her, but throwing her off balance. As her right foot stumbled onto the ground, she quickly tried to shift her heavy weight around in hopes to correct herself.

It was too late…

CRACK!!!