It was another day at Crystal Prep Academy. One could say that easily since Crystal Prep was, in most cases, monotonous. Students came to school, the bell rings, students enter the classroom, the process repeats about four more times before lunch, and another three times afterwards until school ends and the student body either goes home or to their respective sport practices. It had been like that for the longest time but now, something was different, minute but still noticeable to some eyes.
Social circles were the standard norm here and while the faculty didn’t exactly encourage it, they certainly didn’t discourage it either. It simply meant students would only hang out with certain other students and everyone else was either ignored or given the cold shoulder. But circles were slowly starting to bump into each other.
Now, the jocks were talking to the techies. Now, the popular girls were listening to the eco-kids. Now, the ones who had parents that were considered “one-percenters” were willing to discuss topics with those whose parents had to scrap every penny they had to get their child into this establishment.
None of it had gone unnoticed, but there was one group who were currently being cautious about mingling with other students. They were currently sitting at one of the tables in the large cafeteria eating their respective meals. Sunny Flare was staring across the room while eating a sandwich.
“I don’t like it…not one bit…” she said. “You can’t tell me one traumatic event caused this!”
“Aw, let it go Sunny,” Indigo Zap replied while rolling her eyes. “Does it really matter? It’s not like it’s a bad thing.”
“Besides, Dean Cadance says this is “a great turning point for our school and student body”,” Sugarcoat stated while eating a salad.
“Why yes it really is great for us isn’t it?” Sour Sweet said, well, sweetly. “Too bad Cinch is being more of a bitch than she ever has been…”
“That’s because she’s still licking her wounds, to put it one way,” Indigo Zap replied. “Of course, if you really want to set her off, just say something with the word ‘magic’ in it.” She grinned. “Hey Lemon, what’s that one song that just keeps repeating the word ‘magic’? ...Lemon?” She looked to her left and groaned. “Oh for crying out loud…”
Lemon Zest was currently, as always, listening to her headphones. Indigo Zap ‘politely’ jabbed her shoulder. “Huh? Oh.” Lemon then took off her headphones. “Sorry, I’ve been head over heels about this playlist that girl gave me.”
“What- give me that.” Indigo turned the volume halfway down and put on the headphones. It was only a few seconds later that she took them off. “What the hell is this shit!? Since when do you listen to dubstep?”
“Is it really that surprising considering it’s coming from Lemon Zest?” Sour asked.
“It sounds like robots having an orgy,” Sugarcoat said. Everyone at the table stared at her for a moment. “What? That’s my honest opinion…”
“Hey, how would you know what robot sex sounds like!?” Lemon snapped.
“Or sex in general…” Sour muttered.
Sunny couldn’t help but grin slightly. Compared to the six girls they met at Canterlot High, they were the complete opposite. Certainly they were all friends but each of them had a knack for being antagonistic to each other, at least to a certain point, and everyone was fine with that.
“Getting back to my point, yes I know it’s been about a month since all that happened but you can’t break down walls so easily like this.” She gestured all around.
“Maybe it’s because most of us actually have a heart or something, despite what other schools may say?” Indigo suggested.
“If that’s so true, then why has no one else talked to us? At all?” Technically that wasn’t entirely accurate. Those that joined them to the trip to CHS still talked to them time to time but the student body apparently wanted to avoid them.
“Alas, it seems our hearts have still yet to grow…” Sour said dramatically.
“Are you suggesting some outside force is responsible?” Sugarcoat asked, who looked somewhat intrigued.
“Perhaps. Maybe. I don’t know.” Sunny sighed as she zipped up her lunch bag. “Look, we all saw what happened. Both Dean Cadance and Principal Cinch decided to downplay the entire thing and everyone else except for those who were there would think we’re crazy. But guess what? Magic exists!”
“You know…that girl I mentioned, Vinyl? She did tell me an interesting rumor about this place called Camp Everfree,” Lemon said.
“And?” Indigo urged her to continue.
“Well, apparently they say it’s haunted by some weird nature spirit,” Lemon said. “She’s actually there now as we speak so I’ll have to ask her about it some more when she gets back. Anyway, we saw that other dimension right…?”
“A nature spirit that may have crossed dimensions…” Sugarcoat said, a finger to her chin as she pondered it. “Well…at this rate it’s plausible.”
“Sunny, if you’re asking us to go all Mystery Inc. then sorry but I don’t do detective,” Sour said.
“Come on, don’t you guys want to be involved in something we can actually be proud of!?” No one was looking at her now. “Look, we screwed up…and I’m not saying we should go around selling Girl Scout cookies to tell the world we’re sorry about contributing to what could be a worldwide disaster but come on! We’re Shadowbolts! We need to be proud for something!”
The girls glanced at one another and then finally Indigo looked at their leader. “You’re right about one thing Sun…we’re proud to serve our school and all that. But to go around chasing ghost stories? We should just act like everyone else and just move on from the Friendship Games.”
Sunny looked hurt and almost betrayed considering this was coming from Indigo of all people. “Fine.” She got up. “Maybe you want to stay in your state of ignorance but I know what could or may happen and when it does happen I’m going to enjoy seeing who has the balls to tell me I was right.”
She then left without another word and the four remaining girls just sat there quietly. Lemon then looked at her headphones and looked over to Sugarcoat. “Seriously though…a robot orgy?”
The Crystal Prep Files