After her first three classes went by, Twilight was back in her element. Her classes had been enjoyable without being too challenging, now just one more and then off to lunch...
Before Twilight could finish that thought she heard a familiar voice, "I-I'm really sorry..we just found it and she went to give it to her...I didn't know you had dropped it..." Twilight quickly peaked her head around the corner and saw Fluttershy being cornered by the same fire-headed girl from the pictures, now donning a leather jacket and boots to match.
"Well, I did! And I was about to get it before you swooped in and ruined everything! You shouldn't pick up things that don't belong to you!" The girl sneered.
"I-it doesn't really belong to you either..." Flutershy responded in a hushed voice.
"EXUSE ME!?" the girl demanded, placing her hands on the wall behind Fluttershy, trapping her. "N-n-n-nothing!" Fluttershy whimpered before dropping to the floor.
"That's what I thought. It's as good as mine, and you know it. You really are pathetic. It's no wonder your best friends are all stray animals." The girl said mockingly. By this point Twilight was furious. As much as she had been bullied back at Crystal Prep, she couldn't stand to see anyone else be a victim, especially now when it was happening to the same girl who had been so nice to Twilight earlier. Even Spike, who had popped his head out to see what was happening, was growling. Deciding enough was enough, Twilight stamped around the corner toward the girl.
"How dare you speak to her that way!" The girl turned around, revealing a pair a cyan eyed that were currently glaring daggers at her. "What did you say!?" She and Twilight both stalked towards each other.
"I said, 'How dare you speak to her that way!'" Twilight and Sunset were now face-to-face, glaring into each other's eyes to see who would break first. After a moment Sunset just smirked.
"You must be new here." As she said that she pointed a finger to Twilight's blouse. When Twilight looked down to check, the girl quickly flicked her nose. The girl then began to strut away confidently. "I can speak to anyone any way I want." The other teens in the hall quickly moved out of her way, fearful of her wrath. When she was finally gone, Twilight helped Fluttershy up.
"I can't believe you did that!" Fluttershy said with awe, staring wide-eyed amazement at Twilight.
"I couldn't just stand there." Twilight shrugged. She wasn't a hero, she was just doing what any decent person would do.
"Yeah but nobody stands up to Sunset Shimmer."
"Sunset Shimmer!?" Twilight couldn't believe it. It couldn't be, could it? As a wave of memories flooded she reprimanded herself for not recognizing her earlier.
As Twilight continued to stare blankly down the hall where Sunset went off, Fluttershy spoke up. "Umm...are you ok?" Twilight was once again brought back to reality and she gave Fluttershy another nervous smile, "Yeah, I'm... fine."
Fluttershy wasn't buying it, but before she could ask further, the bell rang, causing both girls to widen their eyes with worry. They were both late for class and rushed off.
Thankfully Twilight's teacher let her off with a warning when she got there, so she was in the clear. After that class she followed the crown of students to the cafeteria. Looking around she could make out the various cliques at each table; one with eco kids, one with fashonistas, another with rockers and so forth. Guess high school's the same wherever you go.
Just then she heard her name being called and was greeted by Fluttershy. Twilight smiled at her as they stepped in the line together. As they got their food (at least it looked better than at Crystal Prep), Twilight decided to ask about Sunset Shimmer.
"What was she so upset about earlier?" Fluttershy looked down before replying,
"Well, she was asking about the crown we found earlier and got upset when I told her we found it and that you brought it to Principal Celestia."
"Why would she get upset about that."
"Probably because she's running for fall formal princess." Twilight was shocked. The Sunset she remembered was never into that kind of stuff. "Why?"
"She runs every time we have something like this, and always wins because she usually runs unopposed. You should have seen what she did with the girl who ran against her for the spring fling."
Twilight went back into seep thought. Why would Sunset get so upset over a crown for a stupid school dance? Did it have something to do with the gem on it and the visions Twilight experienced? Twilight decided to ask Celestia if she found anything as soon as school was over. She and Fluttershy reached checkout where the grandmotherly lunch lady provided both of them with a nice red apple, and went to look for a table to sit. Twilight wasn't paying attention to what was in front of her when...
*crash*
She collided with another student, dropping their trays and getting food all over her clothes.
"Oh my stars I so sorry!'
"No. No. It's my fault."
As they both reached for the spilled trays, they banged their heads together and quickly stepped back in pain, each rubbing the spot that had been hit.
Twilight looked at who she had run into and saw a handsome teenage boy with electric blue eyes and and matching spiky hair and felt her heart skip a beat for some reason. Like her, the boy was looking at Twilight and felt himself starstruck, even with the food on her clothes she was still the most beautiful girls he had ever seen. When their eyes met, they both blushed and looked away, chuckling nervously.
"I'm sorry again, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and..." Twilight rambled, trying to bring herself under control. What is wrong with me today? Boys never looked at her back at Crystal Prep, at least not in the way he was looking at her.
"No, it's my fault I should've been looking where I was going." the boy rambled too. Being the lead guitarist of a popular school band, hew was used to being flocked by adoring girls, but Twilight was different and he felt his own nerves get jittery. Hoping to make things less awkward, he decided to introduce himself. "I'm Flash Sentry."
"Twilight Sparkle."
"Oh my stars! Are you two ok?" Fluttershy, hearing the crash and noticing that Twilight was no longer following her, went back to see if she was ok. But before they could give her an answer, another voice made itself known.
"Oh my goddess darling! Look at your outfit!" They turned to see a very beautiful girl with pristine white skin, dark purple hair in curls rush up and began examining Twilight's ruined outfit. The girl herself was dressed impeccably though that didn't seem to deter her from her work. She then took out a measuring tape and began getting Twilight's measurements. When she was done she momentarily stepped back and examined Twilight herself through narrow eyes.
"Hmmm, petite frame, dark coloring....Yes I should have something that should fit you."
"Oh, no it's fine, I have a spell that can..." But before she could protest further, the girl began to drag Twilight away out of the cafeteria.
"Oh nonsense darling! I have this blouse that would really make your eyes POP!" and just like that, both girls were out of the cafeteria, leaving a confused Flash and Fluttershy behind.
"So..um..is she gonna be..?" Flash tried to ask Fluttershy.
"Oh, you know Rarity, she can be a bit...overbearing, but she means well."
Flash nodded and the two teens parted ways. Spilled lunch forgotten he took a seat with the other rockers. Flash was thinking about Twilight when he heard someone call him.
" Dude...Dude? DUDE!" Flash broke out of his daydream and turned to see his bandmates looking at him funny.
"Dude, i've been trying to get you attention for like..five minutes now..are you ok?" His drummer Brawly Beats asked.
"Yeah I'm fine." Flash tried to wave his friends concern off.
"You still thinkin' about the new girl you ran into?" asked Ringo, his keyboardist. Flash stared at him in shock. "What? Your not exactly hard to read. Now don't get me wrong, she's not bad to look at, but she doesn't exactly fit your 'look', you know?"
"And what 'look' would that be?" Flash asked, his voice tinged with anger at his friend's somewhat shallow remark.
"The rockstar look. Now dude let's ignore Ringo for a sec and just listen." Brawly tried to reason, "I know you can't help it but you tend to fall hard and fast. Remember what happened with Sunset?"
But Flash wasn't listening anymore. He didn't care about his rockstar 'image' and 'reputation' like some of his friends did.
He could also feel that Twilight was different from Sunset. He wasn't sure how exactly, but he just knew it.