The Crystal Prep Files

by FoxMcCloud7921

Chapter 3

Author's Note:

If anyone wonders why these chapters are coming out so quick, I'm bored. Horribly, horribly bored.

The following day at about eight o’clock, Sunny was already dressed in casual ware, which for her was rare. If there was one thing she learned from last night, it was that a blouse and skirt in the woods didn’t make good bedfellows. She had waited until her mother had left for work before changing. Instead of her schoolwork, her bag contained items as if she was going on a camping trip. Of course, she would never dream of spending the night in the wilderness.

It wasn’t long before the Mercedes pulled up and Sunny got into the front seat. “This is a terrible idea,” Sugarcoat said to her automatically.

Sunny looked in the mirror and saw the other girls were all wearing the same attire: t-shirts and shorts. “If you think so, why’d you pick us up then?” she asked.

Sugarcoat suddenly smirked. “Well…I suppose breaking the rules now and then isn’t so bad…but if this car gets even a scratch on it I’m holding you responsible.”

As they made their way out of town once again, Sunny discussed the plan with the others while Lemon insisted on playing her mixtape in the car, much to Sugarcoat’s annoyance. “I did some more research last night,” Sunny said. “I don’t think what happened in the woods was an aftermath of what happened at CHS. Even while being there for a short while, something felt very off about that place. Even the inhabitants there seemed to pick up on it.”

“Well, if you have something unnatural like a manticore in the woods, then yes I think that would feel rather off,” Sour stated.

“I didn’t mean just that. I think there’s something there…something that’s contributing to these unnatural occurrences and we’re going to find out.”

“Just one little problem,” Indigo said. “How are we supposed to explain ourselves to the camp staff if they happen to notice us?”

“There’s nothing wrong with taking a hike in the woods,” Sunny said innocently.

“Did you forget there may be CHS students there that might ID us?” Sugarcoat pointed out.

“I’m…pretty sure they forgot about us.”

“Yeah, if Sugarcoat decided to let her hair down for once,” Indigo quipped.

Sugarcoat rolled her eyes and with one hand undid the bands in her hair. “There. Satisfied?”

Lemon let out a small whistle. “Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sugar with her hair down.”

“Or wearing shorts either,” Sour said. “Don’t worry, it won’t change the fact that she’s still going to turn down every guy who asks her out…unless it’s Royal Pin of-”

Suddenly Sugarcoat hits the brakes, causing Sour to hit her head off the back of the seat. “Oh sorry,” Sugarcoat said, adjusting her glasses. “Thought I saw something on the road.”

“Bitch…” Sour grumbled.

“Wait…ohhh! So she likes Royal Pin and he hasn’t asked her out yet?” Lemon asked.

Indigo facepalmed hard. “Just…listen to your mixtape Lemon.”

It was quiet for the next ten minutes. Sunny then looked at her phone. “Okay, we’re almost at the entrance. It’s just across this bridge and then we-”

The view of the front entrance of the camp was suddenly cut off as giant green vines shot up from the ground. This time, Sugarcoat slammed the brakes as the SUV slid around, almost fish-tailing before it stopped.

“Is everyone alright!?” Sunny said loudly.

Everyone responded with an affirmative as Sugarcoat got out of the car. The rest followed and stared up at the new wall of green. “Well, that’s one way of keeping trespassers out,” Sour commented.

“What the fuck!?” Indigo yelled, gesturing at the vines. “Seriously!? How are we supposed to get in now!?”

“Well…we could try to ram through it?” Lemon suggested. Getting a vicious glare from Sugarcoat, she stammered, “What? It was just an idea!”

“I don’t think anything’s getting in or out,” Sunny said, tapping at the base of the vines. “They’re as big and tough as redwoods.”

Indigo took a deep breath. “Okay. Then what do we do now?”

“I think school at this point isn’t an option,” Sugarcoat said regretfully. “Do we have any other leads?”

Sunny thought for a moment. “Well…it’s not so much a lead but…there is one place I’m kind of curious about.” She looked up at her friends guiltily. “You’re not going to like it though…”

---

The girls were sitting in the car outside of a place they thought they’d never return to in their school career. “Area looks clear,” Sunny said, looking through a pair of binoculars. “No cameras either…which is odd.”

“Look, I’m not saying this as an excuse not to be here but…couldn’t we have just waited back at the camp for the situation to resolve itself?” Sour asked.

“You mean for those girls to resolve it?” Sunny asked. “Maybe, but I don’t think we should be drawing attention to ourselves, especially if Cinch hears about it.” She looked around one more time. “Okay, I think it’s clear.”

They got out and walked up to where the statue or rather the statue of CHS’s mascot used to be. The girls glanced around. “This is where it all started huh?” Indigo asked.

Lemon shivered slightly. “I’m not getting good vibes from this…partly because of what happened but also because we kind of pushed Twilight into peer pressure.”

“We were only following Cinch’s orders,” Sour stated.

“And that makes it better?” Indigo asked.

Sunny was slightly ignoring the chatter but like Lemon she was feeling chills as well. None of them knew what they were dealing with that day and it almost cost them everything. “Hey, look at this.” She was standing in front of the monument. “Doesn’t something seem…off?”

The rest of the girls stood at her side and looked. “Looks normal to me,” Indigo said.

“Wait…” Sugarcoat said slowly. “It’s hard to see but if you focus on this side…the wall looks like it’s…shimmering.”

Sunny smiled. Nothing ever got past Sugarcoat. “I think we just discovered a big source of Twilight’s magic.” She went up to the wall and put her hand to the wall. Or at least she thought she did when it suddenly went through.

“Okay…I kind of wasn’t expecting that…” Lemon said.

“Forget magic, we found the source of everything!” Indigo grinned.

“Aren’t you girls curious though?” Sunny pulled her arm back and saw it was unharmed. “I mean, what’s on the other side?”

“Well…I remember seeing buildings and trees…” Sour commented.

“It looked kind of rustic but…not a bad place,” Sugarcoat said. “You’re not suggesting…”

Sunny shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt could it?”

“Oh no…no I’m not going in there and I certainly won’t volunteer as a guinea pig,” Indigo said. She then turned to Lemon and the rest of them followed suit. “Hey…no sorry I’m not-hey!” She was suddenly grabbed and pushed forward. “This isn’t funny guys!”

“Stop struggling, it’s all in the name of science!” Indigo snapped.

“You don’t even like science-ahh!” Lemon suddenly tripped and fell in. It was quiet for the next few moments.

“Um…maybe this was a bad idea after all,” Indigo said.

Suddenly the portal reacted and Lemon shot out, landing fully on her butt. “I guess Lemon isn’t worthy…” Sugarcoat said, looking amused at her own joke.

“Hey, you okay?” Indigo said, helping her up.

Lemon glared at her for a moment. “Yeah…not really sure what happened though. I fell in one second and the next I was back out here.”

“Could be that the exit point was closed off and the portal bounced you back here,” Sugarcoat theorized.

This was an important clue, but Sunny was starting to realize they weren’t getting anywhere on their own. They needed someone who could better understand this, since Sugarcoat could only guess from her standpoint; someone who had the means and the equipment to track down these occurrences…someone like…

“We need to get a hold of her,” Sunny said.

The girls looked at her. “Who?” Lemon asked.

“There’s only one…well maybe two people who understand this more than us,” Sunny said. She then grimaced slightly. “I admit none of us will probably be comfortable doing this but-”

“What are you getting at?” Sour snapped. Suddenly realization dawned on her face as her eye twitched. “No…no! You can’t be serious!”

---

The girls were eating lunch at one of the fast-food restaurants while Sunny made a call. “Are we feeling better now?” Indigo asked.

Sour sat there looking like a kid who had just been put in time-out. “It’s a bad idea…a really bad idea,” she murmured.

“Well…she’s not wrong,” Sugarcoat said. “You really think after everything we did that Twilight would even want to talk to us?”

“Hey, the only ones who treated her bad were you and Sour,” Indigo argued.

“Because she’s an idiot!” Sour snapped.

Indigo groaned. “Lemon…”

Lemon nodded and started rubbing Sour’s shoulders. “There, there…happy thoughts now…” It seemed to calm Sour down a little bit.

“I may have been a little too honest…” Sugarcoat said. “I still have no idea why Cinch even made her come. We could’ve won without her.”

Sunny then came back and sat down. “Bad news. Twilight isn’t going to be back until Saturday.”

“So she is there?” Indigo asked. “Why am I not surprised…?”

“You think it was her?” Sunny asked.

“I dunno but I know those girls are involved somehow.”

Sunny then looked at Sour. “You know, you’re going to have to put this whole grudge thing aside.”

“Oh don’t worry I will!” Sour said. “After I stab her eyes out first that is!”

“Honestly, I believe her too,” Indigo added.

“Okay so when she does get home how are we going to ask her?” Lemon asked.

“Twilight and I didn’t interact very much so I think I should talk to her,” Sunny said. “At least that way she won’t feel threatened.”

“Peer pressure,” Sugarcoat said simply.

Sunny rolled her eyes. “Whatever. If we’re all there she’ll feel uncomfortable.” She glared at Sour this time. “And you’re going to behave yourself!”

Sour stuck her tongue out at her. “Fine…”

“Wait, didn’t she have a lab or something at the school?” Indigo asked.

“Yeah, but both she and Dean Cadance cleared it out before she transferred,” Sunny said. “Now it’s just another storage room.”

“I have to admit I was kind of impressed with her little gizmo she had,” Sugarcoat said. The same gizmo that started all of this.

Sunny looked at her watch. “We still have about three hours…what are we going to do?”

“We could go to the beach?” Lemon suggested.

“Eh…tempting but I didn’t bring any sunscreen,” Indigo asked. “Or, we could go to my place and binge on Game of Thrones.”

That piqued Sugarcoat’s interest. “You watch it too?”

“Of course! I love violence and gore!”

“And sex too apparently,” Sour grinned.

“W-Well that’s just part of the show…ya know…”

“Exactly,” Sugarcoat added, a slight blush on her face.

“Your parents are gone?” Sunny asked.

“Won’t be home til five.”

Sunny shrugged. “Guess it couldn’t hurt. But no one, and I mean absolutely no one finds out about this.”

It took a few minutes for Lemon to comprehend something. “Wait…that show has nudity and sex!?” She looked genuinely concerned.

Indigo grinned. “Oh you poor innocent soul…”

“D’oh, I knew there was a reason why we didn’t have HBO!” Lemon said miserably.

Comments

[Wildcard25]

Still looking good.

[EchoWing]

Well, we know a certain pair will get involved at some point.

[BenRG]

Sour Sweet is really going to have to get over it Having a grudge against an alpha-level telekinetic with poor control is likely to make any attempts at revenge short-lived and intensely painful for the perpetrator.

[Dan]

READ THE BOOKS BITCH!

[Csquared08]

Now that I'm three chapters in, I'm pretty confident in this: A large part of the issue with the dialogue isn't even the dialogue itself. It's the dialogue tags. They're often unnecessarily wordy, and you replace "said" too much. Part of the reason why "said" is used so often is because it's boring. It's unassuming. And so the focus is on the dialogue instead. When you change things up or when you add adverbs and/or extra phrases, the focus shifts to the tag. This works really well when used in moderation. However, you're using it frequently. This leads to the dialogue feeling crowded and clunky.

[Bookwurm666]

“Stop struggling, it’s all in the name of science!” Indigo snapped.

Suddenly the portal reacted and Lemon shot out, landing fully on her butt. “I guess Lemon isn’t worthy…” Sugarcoat said, looking amused at her own joke.

Return to sender