Drops started her Monday as she did most weekdays. She woke up early to do some stretches and basic cardio, made herself breakfast while looking over her notes so she was sure of what she had to do that day, and then set off down the road to wait for Derpy.
Their meet up before school had always been nice, but today Derpy arrived with an even bubblier mood, something that Drops was more than happy to see. With a little hello, they set off to school together, exchanging pleasant small talk as they went.
But they hadn’t spent much time walking together before Drops stopped suddenly. She spun around and into a defensive stance, blocking with one arm and pushing the other forward to stop the upcoming threat.
Blueberry, who had now been stopped dead in her tracks by the firm hand of Drops hitting her stomach, gave them both a surprised and pained expression.
Drops’ face flashed with panic. “Oh, I am so sorry.” She immediately lowered her stance and went to help her. “I heard someone running up behind me and just went on the defensive.”
“No, it’s fine, I’m alright,” Blueberry squeaked, hand holding her chest.
“I told you trying to surprise Bon-bon was a stupid idea.”
Drops looked up to see Raspberry walking over to them with Octavia.
“I saw that coming a mile off,” Raspberry continued.
Drops placed her arm around Blueberry to help steady her wobbly movements. Derpy also helped out, letting blueberry lean on her slightly and smiling awkwardly at the students giving the scene an inquisitive look.
“Yeah, probably should have as well,” Blueberry admitted. “I forget you’re like some kind of superhero.”
Drops blushed at the statement. “I’m not sure if punching random people in the stomach is something a superhero would do.”
“Or hitting a teacher,” Raspberry added. “I still don’t know how you got away with that.”
“Wait, that actually happened?” Octavia gave Drops a startled look. “I thought that was just a rumour.”
Drops sighed. “Can we please not go over this now.” She held Blueberry as straight up as she could. “Are you okay to walk?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Blueberry said, her voice still noticeably pained. “You just knocked the wind out of me… Is it okay if you guys walk slowly?”
“Sorry Blue, you dug your own grave,” Raspberry said walking past them. “We had a good run, you and I. There will definitely be moments of sadness before I eventually, but inevitably, forget about you.”
Derpy giggled at Raspberry’s eccentricities, much to the annoyance of Blueberry who shot her an annoyed look after being betrayed in her time of need.
Luckily, Blueberry was just about able to walk, even if she was a bit slow for the next five minutes. Everyone slowed down to walk with her—including Raspberry, despite her jabs—with Drops staying close. She still felt very bad for punching her.
As they approached the school's main door they saw Lyra standing by it while talking to Curly Winds, who was leaning against the wall. Curly was the first to see everyone approach and shot them a smile and a wave, followed by Lyra who turned and joined in. They waited for the group to come over before heading into the school to wait for the bell to ring.
Drops originally stayed silent as the group talked, content by just being in such a cheery group. This was until Lyra made her way over to stand next to her.
“Hey Bon-bon,” she said nonchalantly as to not distract from the other conversations going on around them. “You want to keep practising at lunch?”
Drops did her best to seem casual. “Sounds good. I’ve still got a way to go with some of the verses.”
“Don’t be silly, you’re doing great!” Lyra shuffled a bit closer. “All you need to do is practice keeping your eye on the music sheet instead of constantly glancing at me.”
Drops let out an awkward chuckle but didn’t recline in posture. “That’s big talk coming from the girl who stopped playing because she was staring at me.”
Lyra Blushed. “That’s not fair. I just never knew you were so good at singing. I wasn’t expecting such a beautiful voice. You have to promise me you’ll never learn how to play the lyre.”
Seeing Lyra begin to shyly twiddle her hair, it gave Drops a sudden boost in confidence. “Well, I love the sound of the lyre, so I might have to start learning it myself unless I can find someone who’d play for me.”
Lyra stopped twiddling her hair and raised an eyebrow, seemingly surprised to see Drops play such a game. “You know, I might know someone who’d be happy to help you out there.”
This was when Drops’ confidence wavered. “Oh, I’d… I’d really like that,” she said timidly.
There was a moment when Lyra looked a tad disappointed at Drops’ lost confidence but then gave a genuine smile. “Yeah, that sounds nice.”
They stood silently for a couple seconds, which was how they both realised that the rest of the group was no longer making any noise.
They turned to see that everyone had finished up their conversations and were all giving them both very knowing grins.
“Come on guys,” Raspberry finally said, “let’s give these two some privacy.”
Drops couldn’t help but blush at the statement; the implications laid heavily on her. Lyra, for her part, gave Raspberry a cheeky glare, as if she was half annoyed with her, and half enjoying what happened.
As the group dispersed to their different classes, leaving Drops and Lyra standing awkwardly, Derpy and Curly Winds turned round to give them each a grin and a thumbs up. Drops’ blush deepened while Lyra simply chuckled at the sight.
Lyra glanced back to Drops, letting out a little giggle. “They mean well, I promise. Even if they can be a tad too enthusiastic.” She gave her a playful nudge. “Seems as though Derpy’s got your back anyway.”
Drops felt in over her head but forced herself to remain calm. “That’s one way of putting it. I still haven’t forgiven her for asking Pinkie to put on that song at the party.”
“Ah, so it was her idea all along. I thought the sudden change in mood was a bit suspicious.” She shot Drops a grin. “You should have told me before. I’ll have to thank her sometime.”
There was no reply to that, not one Drops could think of anyway. She gave her a shy smile that Lyra once again giggled at.
There were a few more moments of silence, but they were interrupted by the school bell instructing them to go their separate ways, which they did with a wave and Lyra’s signature finger guns.
The school timetable had slightly changed for the day. The second lesson had been exchanged with poster making for the musical showcase. She spent the time painting with Lyra.
Despite Drops being proficient in the techniques of painting, having needed the skill when camouflaging oneself, she relied heavily on Lyra’s artistic vision. After Drops’ initial idea of black letters simply saying their name and song, all concepts were brought under Lyra’s supervision. She expertly designed the outline for their logo.
Drops was happy using her ability to bring Lyra’s idea to life and made it look professional. It was a lot of fun painting something so unique and personal for once. The logo was a piano combined with a lyre on a bed of sweets—Lyra had obviously not forgotten about Drops’ affinity for sweets.
Mid-way through painting, Drops got a painful reminder that Sunset was still an outcast in the school. She had asked the crusaders if she could help. They declined, seemingly not over the moon about her being here, and she walked over to her friends as the rest of the school jeered at her, something that only increased when Principal Celestia mentioned the Fall Formal.
What surprised Drops most, however, was Lyra’s reaction. She seemed angry at first when she noticed Sunset but did her best to hide that anger, as if not to let Sunset know about it. Her look then changed to one of sadness when she noticed everyone getting angry at her. She definitely felt sorry for the girl, even if she still hadn’t forgiven her.
From there they went to their first break. Her phone’s feed of the hidden camera showed that the Rainbooms had gone to practice together, meaning she only had to bide her time till some lingering questions were hopefully answered.
Break passed fairly quickly. They had met up with Derpy’s new band in their practice room, having been promised a rehearsal of whatever they were going to be performing with cowbell, triangle, and musical saw.
This, unfortunately, didn’t happen as Micro Chips and Cloudkicker stopped by with a bag of biscuits Cloudkicker’s mum had given her. She wasn’t taking part in the Musical showcase so her mum had made them for her to eat so she had something to do, but Cloud got permission to spend the time practising instead and therefore didn’t want any.
Expectedly, after they arrived, the practice room turned into a talking and eating biscuits room. Drops even had one, not being able to resist freshly baked goods, even though she knew she’d have to make up for it somehow. Overall, a pleasant break.
Maths was the last lesson before lunch. With her still being on good terms with her maths teacher, who was just happy having such an overachiever in the class, she was allowed to leave early to get on with practice.
Reaching the practice room, finally alone and with some time to spare, Drops took out her phone. Putting her earphone on, she looked through the footage from her hidden camera. She pressed rewind back to the beginning of break and hit play.
...A Demon. I turned into a raging she-demon...
“Huh.”
...And Tried to turn everyone here into teenage zombies for your own personal army...
“Huh!”
...Princess Twilight Took her crown back to Equestria...
“WHAT!”