Frost, wearing a blue sleeveless shirt, black track bottoms, and white sneakers, sat on the bed in his new room, unpacking his suitcase. Relay, wearing a green shirt with a white power sign on it, black jacket and trousers, and a brown boots, leaned against the doorframe. "Hurry up," she pleaded. "I really wanna see how many people are out there."
"Relax, Re," Frost said, bringing out a stack of clothes and arranging them in his wardrobe. "Just give me a minute."
"You get half," she replied. She saw Zecora walking down the hall to meet her. "Oh, hey, Miss Zecora."
"Hello, Relay," she replied. "Do you like the place? Yay or nay?"
"Yay," she replied. "Definitely yay. It's got everything!"
"And what of you, Frost? Is it worth the cost?"
"Yeah. It's a nice... wait, COST?!"
"WE'RE PAYING FOR THIS?!" added Relay.
Zecora laughed. "Calm down, I only jest. We pay for accommodation and the rest." Frost and Relay breathed sighs of relief. Zecora saw a student coming down the hall and gestured for him to come over. "This is one of whom you will be sharing your room."
"A roommate?" asked Frost. "I'm cool with that." A groan escaped from Relay, followed by a gasp. The young man was about 6'5" and wore a tight fitting white shirt, army green combat trousers, and black zip-up boots. He had blonde buzz cut hair, bright red eyes, and an earing in each ear. "Uuuuh..." Both Frost and Relay were lost for words at the sight of the large teen.
"His name is quite the rep, this is Bulk Biceps."
Frost stood up to shake his hand. "Uh... p-please to meet you."
"YEAH! SAME HERE!" Frost's ear rang from the loud greeting and felt his entire arm would break like ice in a snow cone machine with the force of the handshake. Relay opted for a fist-bump, but felt like she had just tried to punch a steel door.
Zecora's phone rang. She looked at the message and said, "Excuse my hurry, but I have to run. I hope you all have fun. Frost your other roommate will arrive soon. Relay, yours should already been in your room."
"Saw her stuff, but not her," she said. "Whoever she is, she's got a thing for magic tricks and magic shows."
As they made their way across the courtyard, the six girls and one guy passed by many different metahumans. One was levitating rocks, another tensed up and turned his skin to some kind of metal, and another's hands looked like rocks with lava streams. Sparks struggled with himself not to confront him. Soon, they reached the back of the school, which was almost twice as big as the front yard... and with just as many people. "Great. More people," Sparks thought. "This is a terrible idea," he said. "Maybe I should watch from the back."
"Oh, come now, darling," said Rarity. "You did well in meeting us. Why would this be any different?"
"Remember what I said about me being nervous around new people?"
"Yes."
"And you remember I absorb energy?"
"So, what?" questioned Rainbow. "You powers go berserk whenever you get nervous?"
"Something like that. The nervousness make it a bit hard to contain energy my body builds up due to adrenaline."
"Come on. How bad could it be?"
"You had to ask? About a week after getting my powers, I got invited to a party. I was on the dance floor for two minutes when someone bumped into me and annoyed me by making a big deal out of it. Everyone around me got a crash course in flying about a dozen feet."
"Oh..."
"Yeah. Adrenaline is helpful in a fight, not so much in a meeting area... or any crowded area."
"Well, it's just one person speaking into a microphone," said Twilight.
Sparks sighed. "Whatever happens is on you guys." They finally made it to the crowd who were waiting for the Principal to arrive. When Sparks saw the sea of people, his stomach lurched. "Oh boy."
"You'll be fine," Rarity said.
"Gimme a second," he said as he pulled his headphones over his ears. "And yes, I can still hear."
"Greetings students, new and old," Celestia started. "Welcome to the Royale's School for the Gifted. My name is Celestia Royale, but you may call me Principal Celestia. This is my sister, Vice-Principal Luna." She gestured to a younger looking woman wearing a purple shirt with a white collar, black trousers, and black shoes. She had midnight-blue hair and cerulean eyes. She waved at the crowd. "You are all here for different reasons. Some of you felt out of place where you were, some of you were made to feel out of place, some of you just wanted a change fitting of your own change. Here, you will find what you're looking for: harmony. Here, the only difference between you and the person sitting next to you may be your newfound talent... your gift. And in some cases, I'm quite sure they aren't so different." She noticed two people sitting next to each other holding a ball of energy in their hands. She smiled, then coughed to get their attention, at which they stopped and looked back at her. "Many of you saw your new powers as a curse. I founded this school to show you how much of a gift you can be, and not just because of your powers, but what you choose to do with what you have; how you handle the cards you're dealt. Your teachers will teach you many things. They will teach you normal subjects, as well as more... unorthodox ones. They will show you when to use your powers and when you should not. They will show you how to use them."
"What if we already know how to use our powers?" came a question. All the students turned to see a girl with pale blue and white hair and light purple eyes wearing a light blue shirt and skirt, blue stockings and boots, and a dark blue jacket.
"Do you?" Celestia asked, smiling.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie," she rolls the "r", "has already mastered her many talents."
"Well then, care to give us a demonstration?" Trixie wasted no time accepting the offer. She pulled out a cloak and wizard hat from her backpack. She wrapped herself in the cloak and vanished, reappearing moments later on the stage. Celestia moved a few steps back. "Would you need a volunteer?"
"Trixie is humble enough not to ask her principal. Would anyone care to step up?"
A hand went up. It belonged to a girl with mint green hair with white highlights and golden yellow eyes wearing a pink halter top, dark teal shorts, and pink boots and a lyre-shaped pendant around her neck and a red hairband with a flower on it. She got up and headed for the stage. The girl sitting next to her, with blue and pink hair and light blue eyes wearing a blue, shin-length dress under a yellow knee-length hoodie with light blue arms and sweet-shaped buttons, and light blue sneakers, whispered, "You've got this."
"What's your name?"
"Lyra," the girl responded confidently. "Lyra Heartstrings."
"Well, Lyra Heartstrings, just don't feel too bad if you can't handle my powers." She opened her cape and a bolt of energy flew out. Lyra dodged it and spread her arms like wings. The motion produced a burst of sound that faintly sounded like that of a lyre. Trixie disappeared once more and reappears behind the girl. Lyra turned around and found a ball of energy, held in Trixie's hands, hovering in front of her.
"That didn't take long," said Rainbow.
Lyra stood, surprised. She ducked and crossed her arms, aiming to hit Trixie with another sound wave, but the wooden floorboard flipped and sent her flying over Trixie, off the pedestal, and landing on the grassy ground below. The pink and blue-haired girl ran to her side as Trixie took a bow and disappeared from the stage, reappearing at her seat and receiving attention from a number of boys in the crowd around her. "Thank you, thank you. Trixie already knows how great she is, but feel free to rub it in."
Celestia returned to the microphone. "Interesting introduction and good control. But as you can see, not all of us can be as... "Great and Powerful" as others. Which is one of the reasons we want you all to see this as a family, where you can trust and help each other when and where necessary. You will meet your teachers as time goes on. Some of you may have met them already. But we do hope you all enjoy your stay here and feel right at home. WELCOME!" There was a loud applause as she finished with a flourish and golden sparks shot from her hands, creating the impression of wings behind her.
As each of the students left, they took a chair with them and headed for their dorm rooms. "You see?" Rarity said to Sparks. "That wasn't so bad." She patted Sparks on the back, but her hand was thrown back. She grabbed her hand winced in pain.
"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!" Sparks said, debating whether or not to hold her.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Rainbow cried.
"Sorry," Sparks said guiltily. "Guess the energy hasn't died down yet."
"It's... quite alright," Rarity said, shaking her hands. "Like pins and needles."
"Yeah. Again, sorry. Last time someone tapped me on the back when I was edgy-"
"He got crash course in flying?" Rainbow finished.
"No. Different time. This guy got sent flying across a department store. Think it was about a hundred meters or so."
"Can't you control it?"
"Not when I'm edgy or anxious or anything like that. The adrenaline just makes my fight-or-flight reaction a lot more powerful and a lot less... controllable. It's active all over. Sorry."
"I said it's fine," Rarity said.
"You apologize almost as much as Fluttershy," said Applejack.
"Yeah. I tend to do that... Come to think of it, why Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy looked between the girls, who all nodded, confusing Sparks. Fluttershy turned around and from the opened area of her sweater, a pair of wings appeared. They were sleek with yellow feathers. "Oh. Bird wings." She began to beat them, picking up speed until they were blurs as she levitated off the ground. "Hummingbird wings."
"The one power she tends to use quite often," said Rarity. "Mostly because of me."
"Huh? Why?"
"Well," Rarity started, smiling sheepishly, "I have this cat, Opalescence. She keeps jumping into trees and on top of things whenever I want to wash her or groom her and Fluttershy always has to help me get her down. Then she offered to just do the grooming and bathing for me. A true heroine in my book." Fluttershy began to blush and hid her face with her sweater neck as her wings retracted into her back.
"Does it... hurt?" asked Sparks. Fluttershy shook her head. They made their way to the entrance. A large ten-or-so-foot-tall mahogany door stood before them. "Well, this is the start of a new, and hopefully better, chapter of my life." They opened the door and were met by a glorious hall. The floor and walls were all mahogany and a dark blue carpet covered most of the hallway, leaving a few feet from the walls. There were pictures and paintings lining the walls of people, historical events, and objects. At the sides were doors leading to different rooms; the kitchen, living room, dining room, etc. At the end was a flight of stairs, followed by another set of stairs leading it opposite directions. There was a door in front instead of just a wall. Three chandeliers lined the ceiling above the hall. They went up the first flight and found another set of stairs leading in different directions which they took, leading to the dorm rooms. Each of the new student's bags and suitcases was in front of their door. "Well, this is my stop," Sparks said as he found his suitcase.
"Hope you like your roommates," said Pinkie. "Speaking of which, you have roommates. About two or three I think."
"Oh... great..."
"You'll be fine," said Applejack. "Just introduce yourself like you did for us and it should be fine."
"I'm not always that lucky," he mumbled. "Well. Thanks."
"No problemo," said Pinkie.
"If you ever need anything, our rooms are the last two at the end of the hall," said Twilight.
"Just... knock before entering," said Rarity.
"Or I'll knock your teeth out," Rainbow said, cracking her knuckles.
"I live with two sisters and my mom," he said. "You don't think they knocked that sense into me already?" They laughed and waved goodbye as they went their separate ways. On instinct, he opened the door. The room was quite spacious. There were two bunk beds on the opposite ends of the room, to the right and left of the entrance. There was a window on the wall opposite the entrance and a fairly wide desk below it, big enough for two people, one side of which had been taken and had a stack of comic books on it. There was a desk at the foot of the beds, one of which had been taken up by a backpack. There were two wardrobes on each side of the entrance and drawers fitted onto each of the desks. The top and bottom bunk of one bed had been taken, and had a dumbbell and a set of smaller weights at the corner behind it, freeing the top bunk of the other bed for him. "I call top bunk," he said out loud as he tossed his bag up to the top. He noticed the person on the bottom bunk had posters of comic book superheroes like Superman and Shazam from DC Comics and the top bunker had a lot of posters with snowy backgrounds. He rolled his suitcase in and put it into one of the wardrobes, planning to unpack a bit later. "First, let's get a layout of the house."
He walked out and headed for the stairs. "This summer may actually be fun to spend in school... hot damn, I must be losing my mind."
RSG, 16:00...
The girls were discussing the new arrivals and were discussing Sparks. "I think he's quite nice," said Rarity. "He at least had the courtesy of introducing himself."
"And he seems pretty cool," said Rainbow.
"But not as cool as you?" asked Applejack.
"You know me so well."
"But he seems kind of... odd," said Fluttershy. "You could hardly tell he was nervous. But when I felt his heartbeat, it was like he was fighting for his life. But he seems so friendly."
"He is," said Twilight. "He's just had some bad past experiences. He actually went through an identity crisis about a month or two after getting his powers."
Fluttershy gasped. "Really? That's terrible."
"But some of the other's were pretty okay," said Rainbow, "Like the ice guy's sister or friend or whatever."
"They're just close friends," explained Twilight. "But with the amount of time they've spent together, they are practically brother and sister."
"That thing she did with the lights was pretty sweet. And the replicating guy? That guy could win almost any race..." she puffed out her chest, "Almost..."
"Yer fast, we get it," said Applejack. "Besides, wouldn't that technically be cheatin'?"
"My interest is in Sparks," said Rarity.
"Well, well, well. Miss Hard-to-Get's been got," Rainbow teased.
"Don't be ridiculous," Rarity said sternly. "I think we can all agree that Sparks is a code that anyone would want to crack."
"What of Digit?" All stared at Rainbow. "COME ON! You can't say you didn't see that coming."
"Fair point," said Rarity.
Twilight felt uneasy. She wasn't sure whether or how their reaction would change if they new about Sparks. "Maybe some secrets are best left unknown. Curiosity killed the cat... except if you're Opalescence." Rarity giggled.
"You aren't the least bit interested?" asked Applejack.
"I am. But from experience, if someone has a secret he or she is trying to hide, he or she must have a good reason."
"Ah guess..."
Suddenly, Pinkie burst into the room. "Dinner'll be ready in about..." she paused to look at her watch, "Fifteen minutes and thirty-two seconds."
"Wow. When it comes to parties, you are always organized," said Rainbow.
"Of course. Someone has to be. If even one detail is off, the whole party could be a disaster! Then everyone would be unhappy. And what kind of party would it be if everyone was unhappy?" Her hair went wild as if she was being electrocuted.
"True. Good thing we've got you around, huh."
"Yep. Now who wants to help me carry the food out when it's ready?"
So far so good. Sparks had loved what he'd seen so far around the house. Most of the people there were pretty nice. The second floor was where most of the classrooms were. Most looked like actual classrooms, others looked like living rooms. There was a science lab that was well equipped with standard materials for physics, chemistry, and biology. As he walked towards the stairs, he met the six girls he had met earlier. "Oh, hi."
"Sup," Rainbow replied. "Enjoying the house?"
"Yeah. It's pretty much got everything a school should have."
"Glad you like it," said Twilight, "But you haven't even seen the best part."
"The living room?"
"Nope." They went downstairs and opened the door at the landing before the first flight of stairs. Sparks' jaw dropped. He was staring at the largest library he had ever seen. The shelves were over 20 meters tall and almost just as wide. There were several ladders and stairs that led to upper floors filled with even more shelves.
"What...?"
"I know right?" commented Rainbow. "The egghead thinks this is the best part of the house. I mean, what about the-"
"How big is your history section?" Sparks asked rapidly, warranting a look of utter shock from Rainbow. Twilight pointed at a large shelf just behind the one in front. Sparks' jaw dropped even lower.
"Great," said Rainbow. "She got to him. Coolness factor just dropped by half."
They walked out and started down the hall. The door on the right before the first flight of stairs were the living room, which had a wall-mounted 48" LCD TV, three sofas, many beanbags, cable and a PS4, and, somehow, enough space for twenty, possibly thirty, people to stay comfortably. There were desks and chairs and windows lined the walls, letting the sun light up the room with a beautiful golden glow blended with the glazed mahogany floor and walls that made the room look almost heavenly.
There was a door on the wall on the right that led to the next room, which was about half the size, and had a similar set-up: TV, sofas, beanbags, cable, but instead of a PS4, there was an X-Box One. They left the room and were back in the hall. Opposite the first living room was a large, well-stocked kitchen. Next to it was a massive dining hall with two long tables with chairs and chandeliers decorating and lighting the room.
"Okay," Sparks said, "So three of my favorite places are literally a few feet from each other. It's like the architects knew I was coming here."
Next, they went into the computer/game room. There were several computers mounted on two fairly large tables, about ten systems in all. There was a slightly smaller 32" TV in a corner of the room with an empty cabinet. Rainbow explained that for convenience, when they want to have a videogame night, they use this room if it's a fairly small group and a both TV's are in use so as to not inconvenience the others.
They also explored the sports closet and a small study in a room under the stairs big enough for five.
"I'm sold," Sparks said.
"What do you expect when this place is funded by MLP and MLP is funded by both the principals and the government," said Pinkie. "I heard that they're actually the descendant of some super rich family that's practically royalty. I didn't know either of these things till about a few months ago."
"Same here," Sparks said. "The first time she asked what I thought she did with her spare time, I said-" His train of thought was disturbed by the sight of two people: a dark-skinned boy with black hair and blue eyes wearing a blue sleeveless shirt, black track bottoms, and white sneakers and a girl wearing a green shirt with a white power sign on it, black jacket and trousers, and a brown boots walking next to him, apparently just leaving the computer room.
He could hear the girl say, "Twelve Gigabyte RAM! I didn't even know those existed without my tweaking!" Then she gasped. "Mabye I could try tweaking it to sixteen!"
"Yeah, well just don't hog it or break it," the boy said in response. "You'll make a lot of enemies that way." He stopped when he saw Sparks, the girl stopping soon after. The girl looked between the two boys.
"You?" Sparks asked, confused.
"YOU?!" the other said a lot less calm.
"Ho boy," the girl said.
"But why me?" asked Sunset. She was sitting in Principal Celestia's office and discussing a matter she found rather important. "Why am I the one watching out for them?"
"Because I feel you are most capable," Celestia replied.
"Sparks is pretty capable."
"Sparks has... issues. As does Frost. You have a good relationship with Sparks and should get along quite well with Relay."
"I've got not problem with Relay. From what I've heard from you about her, she's fine. But my problem is that you're grouping me with, literally, fire and ice. I don't-"
"There's more than one way to draw a square and a triangle can have more than three lines."
"Wha..." Sunset was confused. "Same old Celestia, never giving a clear answer when you need it most," she thought. "I'm not sure I follow."
"Don't worry. You'll be fine," Celestia said, reassuringly.
"Yeah... I hope so."
"I want you to bring them closer together," continued Celestia. "You're among those I would like to send on missions when necessary. You're among the most experienced but it amounts to nothing if you can't work together as a team."
"I guess..."
"So?"
Sunset thought for a while. She had made friends with Twilight and the others, but that was with their help. This time, she had to make two opposites become friends. But it would be a nice feeling if she did. "Okay. I'll try my best."
"That is all I can ask of you."