Monday
Sunny Flare stopped behind a row of lockers, placing a hand against it to steady herself as she peeked her head around the corner. Silver Rose had her back to her, recently leaving her chemistry classroom and heading towards the restroom before the bell.
Sunny saw no better opportunity to start her plans. She had roped Sour Sweet in as well, the other girl currently behind her, pressing her back against the lockers.
“Are you sure we should be doing this now?” she asked Sunny. “We’re going to be late for class. If we are, it’s all your fault.”
“Relax.” Sunny waved a hand at her. “We’ll just make sure she can’t come back, then we’ll go back to class. Either that or you can say you were helping me to class. Easy.”
Sunny still had her crutches for her sprained ankle, but she’d recovered enough to began taking slow steps.
The mulberry haired girl watched as Silver Rose pushed the restroom door open, then beckoned to her friend. “Come on, she’s in. Let’s go.”
She picked up her crutches and headed out through the crystalline hall, stopping outside the girls’ restroom door.
“Come on, come on, give it to me.”
Sour Sweet, who had a plank of wood behind her back, passed it over to Sunny, who lodged it between the door’s handle and the walls. She tried pushing the door a few times to make sure it worked before stepping away, a mischievous smirk on her face.
“There...” Sunny dusted her hands. “Let’s see her find her way out of that. No way she’s going to be making it back to class in time.”
The two Shadowbolts stepped back and marveled at their handiwork, snickers escaping their mouths.
Just then, the door wobbled. Someone was trying to open it from the other side.
“She’s trying to open it!” Sour Sweet whispered through quiet laughs. “No way she’s getting out of this one.”
“Yeah!” Sunny covered her mouth with a hand. “Now shh! She’ll hear us.”
The rattling of the door continued for another ten seconds before stopping for a longer time.
“She gave up already?” Sunny folded her arms atop her crutches. “I thought she had more spirit than that.”
“This seems a little mean, even for us,” Sour Sweet said. “But who cares. She deserves it.”
“Ha, well, we better head back to class soon. We don’t want to be late ourselves.”
“Need a hand? I can walk you back.”
“No need,” Sunny shook her head, her eyes still on the boarded up door. “Sour Sweet and I can manage…”
Then her pupils shrank down to dots. That voice…
Sunny Flare turned around to see Silver Rose standing behind them, her arms behind her back and a long smile on her face.
“S-Silver Rose?” She almost fell to the floor. “What- How… What are you doing here?”
“Well, the door was blocked, so I went out the window. I was wondering what happened to the door. You girls fooling around out here could really inconvenience someone.” Silver Rose seemed to eye Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet with a quizzical expression.
“Yeah, well…” Sour Sweet fought to find the right words. “Whatever.”
She turned and ran, leaving Sunny alone with Silver.
“Really?” Sunny looked back at Sour Sweet’s disappearing shape. Then she began moving back to class as quickly as she could, trying to get away from Silver Rose. “Y-You… This isn’t over, Silver Rose!”
She left Silver standing there, wondering just what she did to deserve so much hate from these girls.
Tuesday
“What are you even doing, Sunny?” Sugarcoat folded her arms, unimpressed.
Sunny Flare leaned up from the paper she had been writing on, smiling to herself. “Sometimes, it’s the simple things you overlook.”
On the piece of paper, Sunny had written three simple words, ‘Kiss my butt’, in thick black ink, making sure people could see it for miles.
Sugarcoat sighed and went back to reading her book. “I’m not even going to bother…”
Sunny turned to Sour Sweet and handed her the paper after adding a piece of tape behind it. “Alright, Sour Sweet, it’s all yours. Go do it. Make sure she doesn’t know.”
“You can count on me, Sunny,” she said, taking the paper. “I’ll make her regret messing with the Shadowbolts.”
Sunny followed her friend out the door, watching from the corner as Sour Sweet walked to Silver Rose, who was grabbing something from her locker.
“Heeeey, Silver! Do you need some help?” Sour Sweet said almost sickeningly sweet voice.
The pink haired girl looked at her, then looked back at her locker, which allowed Sour Sweet to stick the paper on her blazer without her seeing it.
“You want to help me?” Silver asked her.
Sour Sweet nodded, then warped her expression. “Yeah right, like I want to help you.”
Then she walked away, coming back towards Sunny.
Mission accomplished, the mulberry haired girl said in her head, smirking from ear to ear.
Sunny quickly made her way back to her seat, wanting to look like nothing happened when Silver came back. She lifted a hand in front of her mouth when the girl did return, carrying her chemistry textbook with her, concealing her snickering smile.
Class went on like normal, with Mr. Beaker handing out worksheets for the class to finish by the bell. Sunny never really had any problems with chemistry, so she soon found herself halfway done with the paper, not even breaking a sweat.
Indigo Zap had begun pestering her for answers, as usual. Sunny didn’t know how she could manage through class with her answers alone, but she just shook her head and whispered them over.
When the bell rang, Mr. Beaker asked for the students to turn their work in to the front, where he was standing. Sunny was going to get up and turn hers in, expecting full marks, but Indigo used the commotion to sneak to her table, asking for the answers.
“Come on, Sunny, I don’t know these last few! You gotta help me out,” she begged.
Sunny relented and looked to Mr. Beaker. Thankfully, he was focused on collecting the papers, so he didn’t look over to Sunny or Indigo.
“Fine, just hurry up,” she told her friend.
“Speed is what I do!” Indigo spun her pen once, then got to copying Sunny’s answers as fast as her hand could go.
Sunny kept glancing to her teacher, willing his attention to be elsewhere. After a few more gruelling seconds, Indigo held her worksheet high, happy with her answers, rushing to the front to turn it in. Sunny blew out a sigh of relief before getting to her feet, pulling her crutches up under her arms. Mr. Beaker noticed her and came over, taking the paper from her.
“Apologies, Sunny,” he said, adjusting his spectacles. “I had forgotten you sprained your ankle. No worries, you don’t have to come all the way to my desk.”
“Thanks, Mr. Beaker,” Sunny smiled.
She was about to pick up her bag when Sugarcoat picked it up first.
“You’re only going to slow yourself down with so much weight. I’ll take it to your next class for you.”
Sunny shrugged. “Sure, if you want to be so helpful, go ahead.”
Swinging her crutches out, Sunny Flare slowly made her way out of class, following behind Sugarcoat. She had PE next, so she decided to stop by a water fountain to rehydrate herself. Even if she couldn’t participate, she was still going to be out under the sun, seeing as they had soccer today.
She heard a few students snickering behind her, but she was too lazy to turn around to see what they were laughing at. Her crutches just made traveling around and moving so much more cumbersome.
Just work with it, Sunny. In less than a week, you’ll be good as new.
Detouring from the locker room as Sugarcoat headed in to place her bag, Sunny bent down and pushed the button, opening her mouth as the water started spouting out.
She had only been there three seconds when she felt someone lift her skirt from behind. She stopped the water’s flow and straightened up, but she couldn’t stop Trenderhoof’s lips as they planted a kiss on her butt.
Sunny’s face instantly grew red as her eyebrows began to tilt down closer to her nose. “T-TRENDERHOOF! What do you think you’re doing!” She clutched at the hem of her skirt and put her back against the wall, dropping her crutches.
“It said to do it.” The brown-skinned boy polished his glasses with his blazer, not looking one bit remorseful. “And might I say, Sunny, you have a very lovely behind.”
“S-Shut up, I don’t! I mean, I do- bah!” Sunny patted the back of her skirt. She felt like his lips were still there. “Why would you even- what said to do it?!”
“The paper on your back. I’m just doing what you asked.”
“Paper?” Then it dawned on Sunny. Reaching behind, she felt the sheet on her blazer and pulled, looking at the exact words she had written before class. “Now why would I put this on my own back?! Someone’s played me!”
“Oh, that’s true… Why would you?” Trenderhoof scratched at his beard. “Though I didn’t mind doing that. You’re one of the prettiest girls in school. Perhaps you’d like to-”
Then Sunny slapped him in the face.
“I-I can’t believe it!” Sunny clutched at her bright red face, hiding behind her fingers. “Trenderhoof, that boy… And how did the paper even get behind my back? Sour Sweet?”
The Shadowbolts sat around a table in their usual cafe, their drinks already ordered.
Sour Sweet looked just a bamboozled as Sunny did. “I don’t know! She must have stuck it on you when you weren’t looking.”
“How did you do it, slapping it on her back?” Sunny shot back. “Somehow Silver Rose knew you had put it on her and put it on me instead!”
“What even happened?” Indigo Zap slurped from her soda. “I heard you screaming after chemistry class, but I missed it all.”
“I’m not going into it,” Sunny grumbled.
“Trenderhoof kissed Sunny’s butt, because a piece of paper told him to,” Sugarcoat supplied.
“Sugarcoat!” Sunny covered her face with her hands completely.
“He what?” Indigo burst out laughing.
“Stop! Stop it!” Sunny stomped a foot, her burning face still hidden from her friends. “It wasn’t supposed to happen to me!”
“I can’t believe someone would actually do it,” Lemon Zest grinned. “Just goes to show, guys will be guys.”
“Hey, lots of guys are attracted to you, Sunny, I’m sure you know that,” Indigo added, still in the process of calming down. “But yeah, like Lemon said. I can’t believe one of them actually had to guts…”
“This is an outrage!” Sunny exclaimed. “By tomorrow, everyone’s going to know what Trenderhoof did.”
“You only have yourself to blame for this,” Sugarcoat got to the point. “You wrote that paper.”
“And I expected it to stay on Silver Rose’s back, thank you very much!”
“Well it didn’t. I hope you’ve learnt your lesson, Sunny. Stop with all this… revenge scheming. You’re doing nothing but harm yourself and your reputation.”
“I’ll stop when I’m good and ready, Sugarcoat. Alright, Sour Sweet. What’s the next item on the list?”
“You have a list?!” Lemon said with a whistle. “Sugarcoat’s right, this is becoming an obsession.”
“Well, now more than ever, I’m going to get her back!” Sunny balled her hands into fists. “Y-You see what she’s done to me. I don’t know how I’m ever going to live this down, but Silver Rose has to pay, okay?”
“You keep telling yourself that, Sunny.” Sugarcoat got up and packed her things. “I don’t want any part of this. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The white haired girl squeezed past Lemon Zest and strolled out of the cafe.
“Fine. Not like she helped out anyway.” Sunny folded her arms. “So what are we doing tomorrow?”
Sour Sweet pulled up the list on her phone. “It says, ‘water in a bucket prank’.”
“That’s what we agreed on, huh?” Sunny rapped her fingers on the table, in thought. “Scrap that. It’s too simple. After today, we need to pull out the big guns.”
“What do you suggest we do then?”
“Hmm…”
Seeing as Trenderhoof had kissed her butt just because the paper on her back said to do so, maybe the rest of the student body would be easy to manipulate too. She just needed to think of a way that Silver Rose wouldn’t be able to turn against her so easily.
“Really, Sunny, this needs to stop.” Lemon Zest interrupted her thought process. “Silver’s not that bad of a person.”
“You see?” Sunny yelled at her lime haired friend. “She’s already corrupted you. We’ve always worked with each other, until now. She’s torn us apart, she’s torn the Shadowbolts apart.”
“No, you have done that yourself.” Indigo sided with Lemon. “Sure, we do have each other’s backs from time to time, but your vendetta against Silver Rose is keeping you from seeing sense.”
“Well if you want to protect Silver Rose so badly, then you can leave too!” Sunny narrowed her pink eyes at her friends.
Lemon Zest and Indigo Zap stared at her in silence for a few seconds. Then they picked up their bags and stormed out of the cafe as well.
Sunny watched the door close and exhaled. “Alright, it’s just you and me now, Sour Sweet. Not like they did anything anyway.”
“I feel sorry for them…” Sour Sweet bowed her head, then lifted it again with fire in her eyes. “But then again, they don’t want to help out? Some friends they are…”
“Right?” Sunny massaged her forehead and got back to planning. There had got to be something she could do to Silver without the tables turning.
“We could always just stick with the bucket prank,” Sour Sweet suggested.
“That’s not enough.” Sunny shook her head. “That would get us nowhere. My butt got kissed. I want hers to get kissed twice more! But we can’t do that same prank again.”
“We could always pay someone to do it. That’ll show Silver Rose.”
“Why not we just do it ourselves?” Sunny rubbed her hands together, a plan in her mind. “Seeing as I can’t even walk normally right now, Sour Sweet, I’ll need you to do the work.”
“What do you have in mind, Sunny? I’m sure it’s a brilliant plan. Unless it backfires again like the rest of your plans.”
“Oh, I’ll just need you to embarrass her in front of the others, simple as that. During PE class, I want you to pull her shirt off, then I’ll quickly snap a picture from where I’m sitting. Class embarrassment, plus a picture for her to remember it by. Sounds easy enough, hmm?”
“Won’t I get in trouble for doing it so openly?” Sour Sweet questioned.
“Just make it look like an accident. Teachers buy any excuse.”
“That sounds super easy. Pssh, how am I supposed to make it look like an accident?”
“You can figure it out, Sour Sweet.” Sunny Flare waved her hand. “Fall, try and wrest the ball from her, however you think you can play it out. Just get it done.”
“Then I’ll try my best, Sunny!” The pink haired Shadowbolt saluted.
“You better.”
Wednesday
Sunny Flare sat out to the side as her class played a game of football. They were out in the field again, with the sun shining down over the entire length.
Sunny was seated partially in the shade, trying to bend her foot, hoping to get out of her brace soon. With the upcoming Friendship Games, she needed to make sure she was in her best game to participate. She wasn’t going to let the common Canterlot High School beat them. She had seen the awards down near the school’s entrance. Crystal Prep Academy had won every single one of the Friendship Games. She wasn’t going to slip up and ruin it for their school because of the lack of exercise.
Looking back up from her foot, Sunny watched Silver Rose swoop past Neon Lights and Golden Gavel, scoring a touchdown already.
Sunny deepened her frown. Catching Silver off guard during the game wasn’t going to be easy, but she trusted Sour Sweet would find a way to get it done.
The next round, Sour Sweet’s team had the ball. They started with Neon Lights, sending him forward as Sour Sweet drew back, ready to throw. She was tackled down just as she threw the ball, sending it flying up and then down into Neon Light’s hands.
That was a pretty good throw…
But before he could even get a meter ahead, he was tackled down by none other than Silver Rose.
Sunny blinked her eyes a few times. She swore she just saw Silver back where the others were. There was no way she could’ve reached Neon Lights so fast.
The rest of the class went on, with each team doing as much as they could to stop the other team’s advance. Sunny kept watching as Sour Sweet had tried to get in Silver Rose’s way many times, but the pink haired girl was just too slippery and agile for Sour Sweet to grab.
“Darn it, Sour Sweet.” Sunny already had her phone ready, but she still had to wait for her friend to enact her plan. “Come on, get her!”
Silver moved left and right, dodging all the others as she ran to the touchdown line with the ball. Then almost by pure luck, Sour Sweet had caught up and lunged for Silver, grabbing her around the waist as she went down.
Sunny covered her mouth to mask a smile as Sour Sweet pulled Silver Rose’s shorts down. It wasn’t what she wanted, but it worked out even better. Silver had on a pair of pink panties, which were now exposed to the class.
The pink-grey haired girl’s cheeks turned bright red and she pulled her shirt down, trying to cover up her bottom. She reached down for her shorts, but Sour Sweet was still holding on to them, her face planted in the dirt. The Shadowbolt made no move to get up.
“Oh man, oh man!” Sunny couldn’t contain her excitement. “You’ve gone and done it, Sour Sweet! I couldn’t have asked for a better scene!”
A part of her couldn’t believe her plan actually worked. After all the failed attempts to humiliate Silver Rose, this one finally did it. She nimbly lifted her phone and snapped a few pictures in succession, completing her plans.
“I’ve done it! I’ve finally gotten Silver Rose back!” she cheered.
The other students, mostly the guys, were gawking at Silver Rose, likely taking in the beauty of her slim legs as she tried to get Sour Sweet up to get her shorts back up. Sour Sweet seemed to have knocked herself out. She still wasn’t moving from where she lay.
Sunny didn’t care. She had done her job and she had done it perfectly.
“Umm… Silver Rose fidgeted with her shirt. “Could you all look away, please?”
“Right, right, apologies, Silver Rose.” Coach Mustang had also been looking. That made Sunny laugh harder. Even a teacher couldn’t resist the daughter of Ebony Wings’ bare legs and underwear. He turned away from her and waved the others back. “Come on, everyone, you heard her. Turn around, stop looking. Silver Rose, please check on Sour Sweet for me and do put those shorts back on.”
“Yes, coach, thank you, coach,” Silver said. Sunny could still see her red cheeks from here. Everything had really gone so well.
Sunny watched the scene, now grinning like someone who just escaped from an asylum. Coach Mustang might’ve shooed them all away, but the damage was done. This was something the other students were going to remember for a while. At least she hoped they would remember this instead of Trenderhoof kissing her butt.
Silver Rose prodded at Sour Sweet’s head. The girl didn’t even move. She must’ve been out cold.
“Hey, Sour Sweet?” she tried asking nicely. “My shorts, you’re h-holding them. Could you, you know, let go? Please?”
There was still no reply.
“Come on.” Silver didn’t wait any longer.
Bending down, the young changeling lifted Sour Sweet by her shoulders, first checking on her face. The Shadowbolt had a gash in her head, with blood trickling down her face and dirt all over the rest.
“Oh, that looks serious.” Silver turned Sour Sweet over and placed her back on the ground, then quickly pulled her shorts back up.
She spied Sunny watching and laughing from where she was sitting at the edge of the field. No doubt she had found the entire scene entertaining, especially after what had happened to her yesterday.
It was a certainty that Sour Sweet had tried to do something on Sunny’s orders, but instead, ended up hitting her head. Silver was mostly embarrassed about what had just happened, but she was also mildly irritated. She wanted to just leave Sour Sweet where she was, but in the end, she picked her up under her back and legs and walked over to their coach.
“Coach Mustang?” Silver called. “Sour Sweet’s injured, so I’m going to take her over to the nurse’s.”
“Hmm, oh, okay, you may go.” Coach Mustang nodded and tipped his cap to her.
Silver Rose walked past Sunny on the way back to the main building, giving her a warm smile. Sunny folded her arms and looked away, disgusted. Once Silver had passed by the snooty girl, her faced warped to match her expression.
Perhaps if it were up to her, Silver would lead Sunny somewhere isolated and choke her, but as Aunt Ivory had said, she wasn’t here to make war.
Silver went down the hall, remembering where the nurse’s office was from her last visit there. Nurse Cardiac looked at her as she entered, then stood up to help her carry Sour Sweet to one of the beds, before examining her head injury.
“Is it serious?” Silver tried to look more concerned.
“Thankfully, no.” The nurse shook her head. “She just had a little scrape when she hit her head, but she might’ve gotten a slight concussion.”
“She’ll be okay, huh?” Silver let out a fake sigh of relief, but convincing enough to fool the nurse.
“You’re welcome to wait with her if you like, Silver Rose.” The nurse returned to her table. “She might need someone to tell her what happened when she wakes up.”
“Okay. I guess I’ll stay.”
Silver pulled up a chair from the side and sat beside Sour Sweet’s bed. She figured this was a good chance to continue befriending the other Shadowbolts.
Take away your enemy’s support and what does she have left? Nothing… Silver smiled. All she needed was time.
The young changeling watched as the nurse got to cleaning Sour Sweet’s head, before putting a square piece of dressing over it. She finished up with a roll of bandage around the girl’s head, dusting off her hands.
“There, this’ll have to do for now,” she said. “I’ll be at the desk if you need anything, Silver Rose.”
“Gotcha. Thanks, Nurse Cardiac!”
Silver sat and watched Sour Sweet. This girl had caused a lot of problems for her alongside Sunny Flare. If she could befriend Sour Sweet, then Sunny was going to lose a lot of support, more so than the other Shadowbolts.
It was relatively quiet for another seven minutes before Sour Sweet began to stir, slowly lifting an arm to rub at her head.
“Hmm? What’s going on…?” She blinked and looked up at the ceiling.
“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Silver said, injecting some relief into her voice. “You hurt yourself rather badly back there.”
“Wh-What happened?”
Silver reached over and poured Sour Sweet a glass of water from a jug on a bedside table.
“You… erm, pulled down my shorts and concussed yourself on a rock in the grass. I swear, there are rocks everywhere. Someone should remove them.”
The nurse looked over and raised an eyebrow, then went back to work.
“Pulled down your shorts?” Sour Sweet leaned her head up, but then shut her eyes and rubbed her head. “Your shirt was the objective. Gah, blasted rocks, I tell you. They ruin everything.”
“Quite.”
“I’m sorry about your shorts,” Sour Sweet apologized. “Not really. I hope you were embarrassed.”
“Yeah, I figured as much.” Silver sniffed. Not an ounce of regret. “Tell me something though, why do you and Sunny have it out for me? What did I do wrong?”
“Well…” Sour Sweet put on an empathetic face. “It’s because you’re trying to be better than us Shadowbolts. No one in school has ever tried to do that. No, I’m not saying anything more to you.”
“I thought the whole point of this school was to show off and be better than others,” Silver grumped.
“Not when you’re besting the best this school has to offer. It’s just that the others will start thinking badly of us. We’re supposed to be the top, Silver Rose.”
“That’s not fair.” Silver pointed out. “I just want a level playing field.”
Sour Sweet accepted the glass of water from Silver and scooted back against the post. “Why are you here, Silver Rose?”
“I brought you here. You needed medical attention.” And to remove the strongest pillar of support from Sunny Flare, she thought.
“How’s your head, Sour Sweet?” Nurse Cardiac walked over and patted her on the shoulder. “You should be thanking Silver Rose here. After all you said to her, she’s the one who brought you here.”
“Mmmggh…” The Shadowbolt rubbed at her head again. “It hurts when I shake.” Then she lifted the glass to her lips and drank. “Why would you help me, Silver? What are you after?”
“Sour Sweet!” The Nurse looked at her with a shocked expression. “She brought you here. She was just trying to help you. Right, Silver Rose?”
“Uh, sure, I guess.” And because without you, Sunny Flare will be that much easier to conquer.
“So really, you should be thanking her,” Nurse Cardiac finished. “Oh, and Sour Sweet, I think you should stay here for a while until your head’s better. I’ll let your teachers know.”
“If you say so, doc.” She closed her eyes. “You’re a strange character, Silver Rose. Definitely stranger than me.”
Silver smiled and rotated her eyes around the room. “I just want to be friends, Sour Sweet. Simple as that.”
“Friends, huh…” Sour Sweet pondered, then shook her head and held it with a hand. “Let’s start out as acquaintances first.”