Twilight felt as if she could burst like a bubble. She wore an extremely annoyed expression and her face was red from anger. This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't supposed to happen at all! Her new high school life was supposed to be about excelling in her classes and preparing for college, not tagging along with a group of "friends." She flashed a bitter expression at Celestia, who looked at her with pleading pink eyes.
Seeing the look on her face made Twilight's shoulders sag with guilt. Her agitated expression fell from her face and she sighed softly. Celestia is only trying to help me. If I don't make friends sooner or later, getting through high school will be impossible. Twilight thought to herself. She looked over at the group of girls, who were all looking at Twilight expectantly. All eyes were on her. Even Fluttershy had peered out from behind her hair to look at her.
It was impossible to make a clear-headed decision when she was being put on the spot like this. Nonetheless, she knew that Celestia would be able to make it happen even if she declined. Swallowing nervously, Twilight mustered the most sincere smile that she could. "I'd be glad to become friends with all of you." She finally said. The girls all simultaneously smiled, looking genuinely happy with Twilight's decision. Fluttershy had finally looked up, a smile present on her face as well.
Applejack put a hand on her hip, approaching Twilight. "Lookin' forward to gettin' ta know ya, Twilight! Trust me, all of us are really nice people." She pat Twilight's shoulder.
"If you have any questions about Equestria Academy, you are more than welcome to ask us, dear." Rarity added. She batted her thick eyelashes and laced her fingers together. Twilight was taken aback when Pinkie Pie practically tackled her in a hug, squeezing her so hard that she was surprised she could still breathe.
"I'm so so so so so excited to be your very best friend, Twilight! This is gonna be so so so so so fun! We can have awesome parties with cake and cupcakes and really good music, oh, and don't forget balloons! Every party has to have balloons! They also need clow-" Pinkie Pie was cut off by Rainbow Dash, who covered her mouth with her hand like she had done before. Just as she had done previously, Pinkie Pie continued speaking as if people could still understand her.
"You're gonna like being friends with us, Twilight." Rainbow Dash insisted, before casting an annoyed glance at Pinkie Pie. "At least, you will if you can deal with Pinkie yakking your ear off every second of the day." After hearing Rainbow's words, Pinkie Pie finally stopped talking. She simply shrugged in response. After a few moments, Rainbow let her hand fall from Pinkie's mouth. To no surprise, the bubbly girl carried on talking from where she had last left off.
"Yeah, this is gonna be...great." Twilight sounded extremely unconvincing, but she hoped that the girls hadn't noticed. She looked at Celestia in annoyance, who smiled at her gratefully. Twilight jumped when she heard the bell ring, the loud sound echoing throughout the classroom. She heard Celestia gasp gently and watched her quickly stroll to the door.
"Thank you girls so much for helping make Twilight feel welcome," She beamed. "I was hoping to give Twilight a tour, but I suppose that will have to wait for another time. Would one of you girls be so kind as to show Twilight to her first class? I believe that it's Language Arts."
Pinkie Pie jumped up enthusiastically, bouncing up and down. "Oh, I can, I can!" She bellowed. Twilight's disappointment was clear on her face. Now she'd have to listen to more of Pinkie Pie's yammering! She would have preferred that Fluttershy had offered to show her instead, who hadn't said a word since her arrival. Twilight caught sight of her. She hadn't moved from her spot away from the group and had hidden behind her hair again.
"Perfect. I'll see you girls later." Celestia winked at Twilight, before quickly exiting the classroom and jogging down the hall. The other girls began to gather their bags and belongings, looking unenthused about another day of classes. Meanwhile, Pinkie grabbed Twilight's wrist with both hands and tugged her so hard that she was surprised her arm hadn't ripped off. "Come on, Twilight! You don't wanna be late on your first day, do you?" Not letting go of her arm, she used her foot to open the door and took off down the hall. Twilight noticed that Pinkie Pie hadn't even grabbed her backpack.
Twilight attempted multiple times to release herself from Pinkie's grip, but to no avail. With a loud groan, she opted to go over some of the information she had studied in her book. Okay, so, I'll be in a classroom. I'll most likely have an assigned seat and have to sit next to someone. Hopefully not. The teacher is going to go over the plan for that day, then give us a lecture and/or make us take notes or do worksheets. On a rare occasion, the teacher may shown an informative movie or video. Seems easy enough. She thought. Twilight went over the information multiple times. She wanted to be perfectly prepared for her first real class.
Her first real class. Saying it in her head felt weird. Exciting. Refreshing. She had liked her homeschooling program just fine, but this would be an amazing new experience. She couldn't wait! Pinkie Pie stopped running once they reached the classroom and finally let go of Twilight's wrist. Twilight shook her wrist a bit, which now had red marks on it from how strongly Pinkie had held it. "Well, this is Language Arts! It's pretty boring if you ask me, but you look like you really like this kind of stuff!"
Twilight tilted her head to the side. "I'm not sure whether to take that as an insult or a compliment."
"Both!" Pinkie said cheerfully, leaning in so close that their noses were almost touching. Pinkie adjusted her bag on her shoulders. "Well, gotta go! Biology awaits! See you later, Twiligator!" She waved obnoxiously, before taking off down the hall in a blur of pink. Almost instantly, she turned back to run the other way. "Went the wrong way!" She exclaimed. Twilight watched her run, a bit astonished by how fast she was. She shook her head and grumbled.
"I can't believe that I have to try to be friends with that person." She grumbled. Twilight took a deep breath as she turned her attention to the door of the Language Arts classroom. She did her best to look confident, holding her shoulders in the air, before grasping the handle and turning it. She pulled the door open and stepped inside of the classroom.
Not all of the students had arrived yet from the looks of it, but most of those who had looked at Twilight curiously. She suddenly became very self conscious, trying her best not to draw any more attention to herself as she went to speak with the teacher.
"Hi, uh, I'm Twilight Sparkle. I just transferred here." She greeted. The teacher had been writing notes on the board, but turned his attention away from the board when he heard Twilight's voice. He put his chalk down and clapped his hands together. "Well, hello there, Twilight! Welcome." He greeted. "I'm Mr. Inkblot. I know that you just came here from homeschooling, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask."
"Thank you, Mr. Inkblot!" Twilight responded happily. "Um, I was made aware that I may have an assigned seat?"
"Oh, yes!" The teacher scanned the room. More students had arrived since Twilight had come to class, so the room was a lot more full than it had been before. The teacher then pointed at a girl in the second row. She was one of the only students with an empty seat next to them. "Why don't you sit next to Diamond Tiara?"
"Okay, thank you." Twilight quickly went to take her seat. Not even a moment later, the bell rang to signal the end of passing period. Twilight began to take her materials out of her bag for that class with her magic. It'd be a bit annoying have to lug such a heavy bag with her to every single class, as Equestria Academy didn't invest any money in lockers since using them took up too much time during passing period. Twilight put the materials on her desk and began organizing them on the tabletop. She was careful not to take up too much space on the desk, as she had to share it with Diamond Tiara.
She was aware that Diamond Tiara had been watching her unpack. Twilight looked over and gave an awkward smile. Diamond Tiara smiled in return, before exchanging a look with a silvered haired girl behind her. Both snickered quietly and Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes, before going to unpack her own bag.
Twilight felt a bit confused as to what had been so funny, but shrugged it off and decided to forget about it. Mr. Inkblot turned away from the board and began to shuffle papers on his desk while simultaneously addressing the class. "Hi everyone! We have a lot to do today, so please no slacking off. There's a test on Wednesday and a project due Friday, which I do hope that some of you guys are at least close to completing." He eyed a specific student sitting near Twilight, who had nothing out on his desk and wasn't even wearing the uniform shirt. She felt a bit appaled that someone could care so little about their academics.
"By the way, we have a new student." He pointed to Twilight and all eyes fell on her. Instantly, her face became red and she hid behind her hair, awkwardly waving to everyone looking at her. "She's been homeschooled for her entire life up until this point!" Mr. Inkblot added.
Twilight heard a few gasps of amazement, but pretended not to care as she arranged the pencils on her desk. A few people began to whisper some questions to her, but Mr. Inkblot ordered them to be quiet. "Anyway, please take out your notes. We'll be reviewing for the test. If you know an answer to a question, don't raise your hand and just shout it out."
The teacher began to ask questions, which were replied to by a bout of shouting from the students. Since Twilight had no notes, she used her magic to take the guidebook out of her bag and look over it again. The shouting was rather distracting, but she was still able to focus nonetheless. However, she couldn't help but listen in as Diamond Tiara turned around and began to speak to the silver haired girl in a hushed voice.
"Did you hear that Luna is coming back to school tomorrow?" Diamond Tiara asked. The girl gasped quietly.
"Oh my gosh, no way! Wasn't she like, kicked out at the beginning of last year for attacking a teacher?" She asked in amazement. Diamond Tiara nodded.
"Yeah, that was her. She like, got charged and went to juvi and everything. She just got out last week." Diamond Tiara sighed. "I can't believe they're letting her back after everything she's done."
Her friend nodded in agreement. "I know!" She said in disbelief. "I mean, she does come from that super rich family. Her mom probably threatened to, like, sue the school or something if they didn't."
"That totally sounds like something she'd do." Diamond Tiara smirked. "I can't believe that someone like her could be Celestia's sister."
Twilight froze, wondering if she had heard Diamond Tiara correctly. Celestia...she had a sister? How come Twilight had never known? She was her best friend, and she didn't even bother to tell her something so important? Twilight had to confirm this. She turned to look at Diamond Tiara. "Wait, Celestia has a sister?"
Diamond Tiara rose an eyebrow at her. "You didn't know that? With how much Celestia talks about you, I'm surprised." She put her arm on the back of her chair. "Then again, Celestia pretends that she, like, doesn't exist."
"Yeah, she's ashamed of her own sister." The silver haired girl explained. "You can't really blame her though. Luna was the biggest troublemaker in the school. She even has a criminal record. I'd be ashamed, too."
"When Luna did go here, it was like she and Celestia didn't even, like, know each other." Diamond Tiara said.
"Girls, I hope that you're talking about the test." Mr. Inkblot's voice caused Twilight to jump and her face to heat up. Was she really already getting in to trouble on her first day? She began to stammer nervously, but Diamond Tiara looked at Mr. Inkblot with bright eyes.
"Sorry, Mr. Inkblot! Silver Spoon and I are just helping Twilight out. It's her first day at a real school and all, so she has a lot of questions."
Mr. Inkblot's stern expression changed to one of happiness. He wore an ear to ear grin. "Well, that's very nice of you." He sure was easy to fool. "In the future, just please save such questions for later and participate when we're having a class activity such as this."
"Of course, Mr. Inkblot!" Silver Spoon said. She waited until he turned his attention back to the review, before looking at Twilight again. "We'll tell you more later, okay?"
Diamond Tiara began flipping through her notebook, ripping out a couple of pages. Judging by the lack of contents from the notebook, Twilight assumed she hadn't taken any notes and decided to jot down some during the review. "Not that we'll have to. You'll find out all you need to know by tomorrow."
Twilight was still rather stunned by the conversation she had with the two girls. The shock from learning that Celestia had a sister, a delinquent one at that, was still evident on her face. The two had been friends since childhood and she was just finding out now? Why Celestia hadn't told her sooner was beyond her. Even if she was ashamed of her sister, Celestia should've known she could trust Twilight with something so big.
Twilight let out a soft sigh and stared at the wooden tabletop. She was definitely going to confront Celestia about this as soon as she could. And as soon as she could happened to be at lunch.
Though she still completed her work correctly and diligently, Twilight could hardly focus in Algebra and even zoned out a couple of times in Biology. The closer that lunch got, the more Twilight found herself thinking about the situation with Celestia. She wasn't even sure how she was supposed to confront her about it. Heck, she didn't know if Celestia would even admit to having a sister! If she had kept such a thing from Twilight for this long, she didn't really see why she would tell her now. Twilight was pulled from her thoughts as the lunch bell rang.
She swallowed nervously, standing up and grabbing her backpack from the side of her desk. She slid her arms through the straps and made her way toward the door. However, she was stopped by Applejack, who she shared the class with.
"Whaddaya think about sittin' with us, Twilight?" Applejack asked. "Lucky fer you, we got an extra empty seat at our table already. And, uh, just so ya know, the other tables aren't exactly welcomin' to new people sittin' with em."
Twilight was going to decline Applejack's offer, before thinking back to this morning. She had agreed to try to become friends with the girls, even though some of them were too obnoxious and stuck up for her taste. "Uh, sure!" Twilight nodded.
Applejack nodded. "Come on, I'll show you where the cafeteria is." She left the classroom with Twilight right behind, her blonde hair swaying from side to side with every step she took. Twilight looked around at the passing people, still not used to being surrounded by so many people for all hours of the day. Were people staring at her? Was it obvious that she was as new as new could get? Twilight bit down on her bottom lip nervously, doing her best to hide herself behind Applejack.
A breath caught in her throat as she saw Celestia walk by her, talking to a small group of people. Twilight stopped walking, watching her mingle in to the crowd of people. Applejack noticed that Twilight had stopped walking and looked over her shoulder, turning around to face her purple haired friend. "You alright, Twi? What's the holdup?"
Twilight took a moment to reply, seemingly caught in a daze. She shook her head and forced a half-hearted smile as she locked eyes with Applejack. "Oh, I'm, um, I'm fine. Just--" She glanced over again quickly, making sure that she knew where Celestia was. "I gotta go, need to um, talk to a teacher. I'll catch up with you later." She practically leapt forward, doing her best to make her way through the bustling crowd without bumping in to anyone. She put her hand on Celestia's shoulder when she finally caught up, causing her to stop walking. The people she had been conversing with stopped walking as well, looking behind them and letting their eyes fall on Twilight.
"Oh, well hello, Twilight." Celestia smiled, tucking a lock of thick, poofy hair behind her ear. "How are you doing?"
"Can I talk to you?" Twilight pleaded. She glanced over at the others that were watching her, narrowing her eyes. "In private, please?"
Celestia seemed taken aback by Twilight's request. She hesitated a bit, struggling to get her words out. "Well, erm, I suppose," She looked at her friends apologetically. "Let's go somewhere that isn't as full of people. Follow me."
Celestia brushed past Twilight, the large group of people making their way to lunch seemingly parting to make a path for her. Twilight hurriedly followed, keen to get to the bottom of this whole sister situation. The mass of people seemed to recede as more and more people reached the cafeteria, making it much easier for Twilight to move. When they reached the end of the hallway, the mob had died down completely. Celestia turned the corner, then stopped in front of a group of lockers. She turned to face Twilight.
"What is it that you need?" She asked. Twilight frowned a bit, leaning against the lockers.
"Celestia...I am your best friend, aren't I? And you trust me more than anyone?" She asked, hurt audible in her voice. Celestia rose an eyebrow, tilting her head to the side.
"Of course you are! Twilight, what's going on?" Celestia furrowed her eyebrows, looking more and more and confused as the conversation continued. Twilight shook her head softly, looking at Celestia with dejected eyes.
"Then why didn't you tell me that you have a sister?" She asked accusingly, folding her arms. "I mean, we've been friends since before I could even walk. I've told you everything about me and you didn't even tell me that you have a sister? What else are you hiding?"
The look of horror upon Celestia's face was unmistakable. Her jaw slightly fell open and she placed a hand on her cheek. "I...how...who told you that?"
"Two girls in my Language Arts class were talking about it. They said that your sister used to go to this school, but got kicked out for assaulting a teacher and was put in juvenile detention. They said that you were ashamed of her." Twilight explained, looking at Celestia expectantly. Celestia was silent for several moments, before she let out a long sigh. She lowered herself on to the polished tiles of the floor below, patting the spot next to her.
"Sit down, Twilight. I have a lot to talk to you about." Celestia's voice was distant. Twilight was momentarily bewildered, but sat down nonetheless. She looked over at Celestia, who looked both afraid and upset. She locked eyes with Twilight.
"Twilight, I am truly sorry for never telling you about Luna." Her voice was extremely sincere. She reached out, squeezing Twilight's hand softly. "You are and always will be my best friend. It's just that...there are some things that I'd prefer to keep hidden."
"But I've never hidden anything from you!" Twilight objected.
Celestia sighed. "It isn't just you. I hide the fact that I have a sister around anyone possible." She reasoned. "You see...Luna...we've never seen eye to eye. I excelled in school and focused on perfecting my grades, while she hardly attended her classes and barely passed each year. I made sure that I abided by all of my parent's rules, while she constantly stayed out past curfew and got in trouble with them. I was always on my best behaviour while she caused trouble and was placed in a juvenile detention center more than once."
As Twilight listened to Celestia's story, she felt the anger and betrayal inside of her being replaced with interest. Celestia took a deep breath, before continuing. "Luna and I argued a lot. We even got in to physical disputes. I was so ashamed and upset that I had such a careless, angry, chaos inducing sister that I never told anyone that I had one. Luna and I never went to the same school; she attended an alternative school for people who had been kicked out of their schools for behavioural problems. Because of that, it was easy to hide the fact that I had a sister. Then, my parents got Luna in to Equestria Academy.
I really don't know how they did it. They never told me. They just explained to me that Luna and I would be attending the same school. When she arrived, she continued her usual trouble making antics and caused havoc throughout the school. I pretended that I didn't know her. I didn't even look at her or speak to her once for the duration of time she attended. However, word somehow got out that she was my sister.
It was very damaging to my school career. Not only did my reputation take a large hit and some of my friends began to distance themselves from me, but my teachers became suspicious of me and gave me lower grades. It was terrible, Twilight. It was embarrassing. Soon enough, she was expelled from school for assaulting a teacher who gave her a bad grade. Shortly after, my parents split. My father won custody of me while my mother won custody of Luna. We haven't spoken to each other since. I'm not even sure where she is right now."
Twilight was dumbfounded for a moment. She rose her eyebrows, trying to make eye contact with Celestia. "You haven't said anything to her since your parents split? Not one single thing?"
Celestia shook her head, refusing to meet Twilight's eyes.
"And you don't even know where she is right now?"
Celestia replied with another shaking head.
Twilight paused. "...Do you even know that she's coming back to this school tomorrow?"
The colour completely drained from Celestia's face. She slowly looked over at Twilight, her eyes wide with horror.
"Luna is coming back?"