WARNING: mild, off screen violance, References to a Mature rated Fan fiction, strong language, threats of more highschool violance
"Thank you all for coming" an enthusiastic guy with two toned mop of hair adressed a small group of students and one young teacher. "It means alot to me to see you all giving up part of your Saturday to help clean up the mess someone left at our school…"
Late night on Thursday, it seemed that someone spraypainted images all over the entire campus with various warped rainbowswoth clouds, monstrous laughing faces, and tages of 'Rainbow Factory', 'Not a single soul gets through', and 'Remember the Rainbow Factory', all marked with the initials C.S. at the bottom. The local authorities already took pictures, searched for evidence, and told the school it was ok for them to clean up the mess. Unfortunately, most of the janitorial staff seemed to come down with the flu. Which would have meant that the responsibility for the clean up would fall on the Student council. But this all happened the week that most of the students, especially members of student council, were taking a trip to Washington. Knowing how hard all the students worked to raise money for the trip, that the tickets and hotel was nonrefundable, and how much everyone was looking forward to the trip, Sunny Knight, a junior who recently transfered to the school, stepped forward and offered to get a rag tag team togeather to clean up the mess so the students going in the trip didn't have to cancel.
"Any idea on who did this?" A tall and muscular student by the name of Big Macintosh asked, raising his hand. He and Sunny met the first day in Advanced Algibra class. Right of the back the two were like best friends, spending weekends togeather either playing Ogers and Obliets, watching old time Clint Eastwood westerns, or even just chilling at the creek with Big Mac's sisters and grandmother. It was an oddly comforting thing when they hung out. Like they could just sit and talk about anything with one another. A brother from another mother, as one could say. Sunny would often drag Big Mac into events and school functions that the gentle giant would never go to on his own, to which Big Mac would end up having a memorable and enjoyable time. And when Sunny needed counseling from a cool headed guy his own age, Big Mac would always lend an ear and throw in his two cents, when Sunny asked for it. And Sunny always did. Sunny appreciated Big Mac and his input. And it made Big Mac happy to be a source of wisdom.
"The police didn't say, but I know they did look into every student with the initials C.S." Sunny told everyone.
"Despite the crude and rather poor choise of execution, whoever did this certainly had some artistic talent… such a waste…" Octavia spoke up, looking at the closest painted wall sporting a warped image of a cloud with a rainbow emerging from it in with a vicious, toothy grin and maroon eyes. Octavia and Sunny met in ceramics class. While Sunny had to take a humanities class just to meet the required nessisary credits to pass highschool, Octavia had taken several humanities and art related classes to be awarded with a full arts scholarship to Yale. She worked diligently over every summer of high school, even taking up classes at some local community College to earn above and beyond the requirements needed. She was going to go to Yale if it killed her. But luckily she had frinds who helped to destress her when she needed it. Like Vynal Scratch, her best friend since kindergarten, Brass Beauty who was the first friend she met in highschool, and Sunny, who she grew to admire for his enthusiastic, if not odd way of looking at things. She found it refreshing how he always tried to find a bright side to things or to see if there was more going on to a bad situation. Which also, she noted, caused some problems for him from time to time.
"You gunna tell us how you got that shinner yet, pal?" Thunderlane called out loud enough that his voice echoed through the entire campus. Thunderlane and Sunny met in gym when they were playing a game of kick ball. Sunny had kicked a ball low enough to where it skittered right to Thunderlane at second base, but not before Sunny made his way past first base. Trapped between first and second, with Thunderlane holding the ball ready to tag Sunny out if he tried to advance to second, and Sorin at first ready to catch the ball and tag Sunny out, the orange haired junior didnt have many options. But his option he made for himself Thunderlane or the rest of their class would never forget. Sunny made a B-line for the outfield, hopping to put distance between him and the ball. Not expecting this, Thunderlane went after him. He needed to tag Sunny to get him out. If he didnt, Sunny could just run back to first and be safe. Thunderlane didnt expect what happened next. Sunny changed direction quickly and was heading right for Thunderlane like he was about to tackle him. Thunderlane put the breaks on, not sure what to make of this, but readied the ball to tag Sunny out. At the last possible moment, Sunny ducked and rolled to Thudnerlane's side that didnt have the ball! Thunderlane turned just in time to see Sunny roll back onto his feet and run like heck to second base! Thunderlane wasn't about to let him get to second base, and bolted after him! Unlike Sunny, Thudnerlane was on the track team, Basketball team, Soccer team and even did a year on the football team. Everyone watched as Thunderlane closed in on Sunny. Last minute, Sunny slid in an attempt to reach second base before Thunderlane could tag him. Unfortunately, Sunny came up just a little short, got the worst wedgie of his life, and was tagged out by Thunderlane. Its true Thunderlane did tag him out, eventually, and Sunny's team did lose, but their little go around was the talk of the locker room thst day. Since then, Thunderlane got Sunny to join him on the track team and the two continue to push eachother to their limits.
"Thats not important right now" Sunny cleared his throat, he had hoped no one would notice his black eye. "But as a small thank you, and to keep us all hydrated while we work, I bought us a pack of Hyper Sports Drinks. There's more then enough to go around. And after we clean this mess up, Pizza's on me. Again, I really appreciate you guys coming out and helping with this. And I know the teachers, Staff, and Students on the trip appreciate it too. With you guys here, I know we can knock this out in no time."
Finishing his speech, Sunny began passing out cleaner, rags and mops to every volunteer. One of the volunteers happened to be a young teacher who just started working at the high school, a young, enthusiastic and very odd. His full name was Doctor Whooves, but he asked all the students and staff to just call him by his forst name, Doctor. Sunny just handed him his cleaning supplies and told Sunny "You're doing a good thing. I hear all the time from your mother how proud she is of you."
Hearing that praise, especially from a colleague of his mothers, made Sunny chock back a tear in his eye, a little embarrassed but also happy to hear it. "Ugh, thank you, Doctor, w-why dont you work with Derpy on the graffitiby the office?"
Taking a deep breath to fight back the emotional tears, Sunny forced a smile as he passed out more cleaning supplies to the students who came up next after Doctor, who happened to be his assistant, Derpy Hooves. No relation, or so everyone was told. The blond girl was as sweet and kind as anyone could be, but she was very clumsy, and due to some medical issue, her eyes were always looking in opposite directions. Combine that with her clumsiness, and you have the ingredients for a rather rough start in life. She had been teased all throughout elementary school, junior high, and her first year of high school. But the cross eyed girl did manage to make a few friends, like with the school's number one athlete, Rainbow Dash, and with the new teacher Doctor Whooves, who had somewhat taken her under his wing and was educating her in science. But Sunny was her latest friend. They had met one morning, before school started, So they could work on a book report togeather. Unfortunately, Derpy bent over to pick up her phone she had dropped and tore her skirt! Poor Derpy was on the verge of tears, not knowing what to do, when Sunny ran over to the janitors closet and grabbed a few rolls of Duct tape. He helped Derpy tape up the tear in her skirt… which looked kind of funny. So Sunny and Derpy ended up taping her entire skirt so no one could tell it was torn. But that one piece of clothing alone looked kind of off. They then defined to make Derpy an entirely new top and matching jacket ojt of duct tape, but Derpy still felt embarrassed and worried others would make fun of her. Not wanting to force Derpy to tackle the day duct taped all by herself, Sunny did the same to his cloths! From head to shoe, their cloths were entirely tapped or made of duct tape! When school started, there were more then a few snickers, but Sunny reassured Derpy to just act cool and walk with confidence. By lunch time, the snickering comments and jokes had stopped. And better, by the next day, everyone had either a duct tape jacket, duct tape purse, duct tape shoes, duct tape hat, duct tape hair bow, or duct tape tie! Derpy and Sunny set a trend that lasted for week and inspired a duct tape company to offer a scholarship to two students who dressed for their prom in the best duct tape attire! Derpy was glad she had that study session with Sunny. Although, looking backon it, he probably could have just sewn her skirt up. He would have owed less tape to the janitor.
"Thank you for coming, Derpy" Sunny smiled at the blond girl, who simply smiled back and nodded before heading off to the spot where Doctor was cleaning up.
After everything was passed out, Sunny grabbed a rag himself and a pocket of soapy water and began cleaning a wall with a very angery looking cloud spraypainted on it.
"So, you gunna tell us what happneed?" Big Mac appeared to Sunny's left, scrubbing away at the angery cloud with Sunny.
"Yeah, out with it!" Thunderlane appeared to Sunny's right side, mirroring Big Mac's cleaning. "Who hurt ya? Do I have to put the hurt on them? I got some pals who got my back! And I got yours! We can take 'em! Who was it?"
Sighing in defeat, Sunny thought it was a more appropriate time to tell two of his closest friends what had happened. Its better they heard it from him then down the highschool grape vine after its been twisted into something it wasn't. Thats how high school was, sometimes. One minor thing could happen, like borrowing a pencil and by the end of the day, you're being called up to the office for stealing someone's wallet. Like a large scale game of telephone. "Guilda and I got into a little... argument."
Hearing the female bully's name made Big Mac and Thunderlane stop cleaning and look at their friend. Sunny saw the look in Thunderlane's eye and quickly put a hand over his loud mouth friend's pie hole. " and before you go shouting about me fighting Guilda, I didn't. So don't turn this into another 'Trixie' incident, ok!?"
Pulling Sunny's hand away from his mouth, Thunderlane asked "how many times do I have to appologized!? It was my bad! I thought she was making a move on you!"
"She was giving me a hug because I found her phone" Sunny's tone went flat. "You blabbed to Big Mac loud enough for half the school to hear, and by lunch my girlfriend had Trixie up against a wall!"
"And I appologized to both of them" Thunderlane whined as he went back to scrubbing.
"So what did happen?" Big Mac asked, while continuing to scrub a wall.
Sighing heavily, Sunny rinced out his rag then followed Big Mac's example of 'talk while you work'. "I was talking with someone about a movie called 'Wayne's World'. Some movie that came out in the 80s I think, and I said and I quote 'that looks like an enjoyable, stupid movie. I really want to see it.' Then Guilda turned the corner, slammed her fist into the wall and asked me 'what did you say about 'Wayne's World'!?' And I just repeated what I said without showing any fear. Guilda has a bad reputation for picking on guys who show fear, and I have better things to do then be some bully's afternoon appointment. "
"So instead, you became her punching bag" Thunderlane added with a half smile. "You're a bold kid, Sunny. Bold and dumb."
"And you got Detention for it?" Big Mac pressed. "Did you fight her back?"
"You know him better then that, Big Mac. I bet Sunny never raised a fist" Thunderlane answered for their friend. "If he did, do you think he'd be standing here right now? No offense, Sunny, but you ain't really built to withstand a one man army like Guilda."
"Thanks for the load of confidence" Sunny shot Thunderlane a cold stair, but relaxed his eyes after a moment. "But you're right. She socked me once then the Vice Principal stepped in. Unfortunatly, because of the new Anti-Bullying law, anyone involved in a fight is considered just as guilty as the other. So I got detention just like she did."
"Those new anti-bullying rules are wack!" Thunderlane said between his teeth. "First the teachers think by pulling the bully aside and talking to them and getting them to appologize will make the situation better, then they decide to just punish both parties!?"
"Its not fair" Big Mac added flatly.
"No its not, but that's the way it is" Sunny finished scrubbing off some evil smiling cloud from the wall. "If we want anything to change, we have to step forward and say something. The Principal had already talked to the school board before all this happened and they are trying to come up with a better solution. But its not easy with all the fights that break out at other schools."
"Well… want me to get thrown into detention with you?" Thunderlane asked plainly. "I always wanted to put a tack on Ms. Harshwhinny's chair and claim it like a boss!"
"Dont get throan in detention for me" Sunny told his loyal, chaos loving friend. "Its just a one time, 30 min after school detention. I'm serving it in Monday."
"You're a bold kid, for sure, Sunny" Big Mac said and let the conversatiin end there so he made his way to another graffitied image.
After a few silent moments of scrubbing, Thunderlane spoke up with "I might do the tack thing anyway. Save me a seat in detention."
"Have you given much more thought about what you're going to do after High School?" Doctor asked Sunny as he steadied the ladder Sunny was on. They needed a ladder to clean a large wall that had the biggest image spraypainted on it of a bleeding cloud with a rainbow on it.
"I… kinda have a few ideas…" Sunny admitted, but didn't sound like he was sure or wanting to share his ideas.
"You're thinking of going into the army, arent you?" Doctor asked, is expression deadpan. Sunny didn't answer and just continued to clean. "Have you talked to your mother?"
"Not really…" Sunny sighed as he dipped his rag into the bucket he had and continued scrubbing away the evil looking cloud. "I just… i want to do good for my fellow man. Serve to protect, like my dad did."
"Yes, yes, very noble. Fightingthe good fight, and what not" Doctor sounded less then enthusiastic about the topic. "You could become a cop if you wanted that, you know? And it would be more local, you could work your way up to Detective even. You have a brilliant mind, you could do wonders solving crimes."
"Yeah, but cops have such a bad reputation" Sunny added, his heart racing, nervous about thinking of the ever aproaching future. "And… what if something were to happen to me out there. My mother would be constantly worried…"
"And you're girlfriend?" Doctor added. "She'd be worried too. You're right about that. But didn't Big Mac's family offer you a job with their Apple Far.ing company? You could go to collage and major in agricultural science and marketing. Its not exactly 'serving your fellow man', but it is a noble profession, and you wouldn't have to worry about someone threatening your life."
"I thought about that too…" Sunny's shouders sunk even further, his heart becoming heavy with uncertainty.
"You could become a teacher" Derpy popped up, carrying a few more buckets of water and paint remover. Unfortunately, she failed to see the crack in the sidewalk and tripped. The clumbsy girl accidently dropped the bucket of water, splashing poor Doctor with it. The young teacher was soaked from head to shoe. But Doctor wasn't mad, he actually liked how imperfect and human Derpy was. It made him appreciate all the little mistakes one can make and how one can like something for how perfect it is, but love it for its imperfections. "S-sorry Doctor! I'll go get you some towls! Be right back!"
As Derpy ran off, Doctor pulled a cloth from out of his coat pocket and did his best to whipe some of the water off his face. "Derpy is right, you know. I've seen you helping others with their school work from time to time. You glow like no other when you do so. You hesitste on topics you aren't familiar with, but you are honest and direct them to others who have better knowledge of the topic. Some teachers at this school could learn from your example."
Thinking about it, Sunny did really like helping others succeed. Just a few weeks ago, Big Mac asked Sunny ifhe could tutor his little sister and her friends in math. He helped them everyday for almsot a week, and by that Frieday, they all presented him with their passing test papers. Sunny was very proud of them for their hard work and glad it payed off. But was that really what Sunny wanted? To just be a teacher? Maybe a cop was the best rout? Or maybe he should play it safe with becoming a farmer? It was all overwhelming for the highschooler.
Seeing the worry that surrounded his young friend, Doctor cleared his throat and told him "you know, when I was younger, i wanted to become a traveler. Go out and see the big, wide world. And all the good and bad it had to offer. I may have gotten a teaching degree and majored in physics, but that doesn't mean i ever gave up on my dream. And I actually have tickets to Brizill. When school lets out for the summer, I plan on going with a few of my colleagues on an expedition of sorts of their mountains and jungles. "
Smiling at his teacher friend, Sunny told Doctor "I'm glad you found a way to live out your dream… maybe I will look into collage before the Army."
"Atleast talk with your mother, first" Doctor added. "She worries about you. I reasure her all the time that you're doing just fine. Ugh…despite the recent incident with Guilda."
"Thanks, Doc" Sunny rolled his eyes then put a hand up to his blackened one. It was still pretty sore.
"Then I told her it was all about atmosphere" Octavia continued. Pausing her work as she spoke to make emphasized hand gestures. "But she said 'why would we need to go to some fancy resteraunt and pay out the nose when I can just warm up some of those burritos you like so much?' Ugh! Its like she doesn't even listen to me! I HATE BORRITOS! Especially those cheap ones she buys frozen at the gas station! Those are HER favorite, not MINE!"
"Vynal isn't the best listener" Sunny admitted, remembering how the girl with the electric blue hair just tunes everyone out half the time, keeping her headphones a on and her music set to low. "But she has a good heart, right?"
"She does…" Octavia released a heald breath, then took another in as she picked the cleaner soaked rag and started to scrub the graffiti away again. "I just wish she used that brain of hers for more then just, ugh, dub step music."
"I prefer pop rock myself" Sunny chuckled, causing Octavia to lightly laugh in response. "But you know, maybe you could try and see if she'll go half way? There's a nice Mexican restaurant a few blocks from here. They have borritos and an awesome taco salad."
Shaking her head with a smile, Octavia responded "You and your taco salads. But… maybe she'll go for it. Heck, I'd be happy if she just wanted to make a meal at either of our palces… just so long as it wasn't frozen and cooked in the microwave."
"Best of luck" Sunny was glad that Octavia felt comfortable enough to talk to him about her relationship issues, and vise versa. Sometimes its good to have the perspective of the opposit gender help out. Even though Vynal is a girl, she could out belch any guy Sunny ever met, even Big Mac after he chugged a dozen bottles of fizzy apple cider!
The group had started the clean up bright and early, but by noon they feel like they barely made any headway. About 3/4 of the school still had graffiti on it, and everyone was tired and hungry.
"If we don't finnish it all today, I'll work on it tomorrow" Sunny told his friends and the other volunteers.
"By yourself?" Big Mac raised a brow at the notion.
"I'm sure I can drum up some more help" Sunny answered his friend. "Its not fair for me to keep you guys any longer then this. Let's take a break, I'll ,order the Pizza, then we can just pick our stuff up and enjoy what's left of our Saturday."
There was a pause as Sunny pulled out his phone and started to dail the pizzeria he and his friends often ordered from.
"Ah ain't gunna leave ya with all this" Big Mac spoke up, putting a hand on Sunny's shoudler. "Ah ain't got nothin' else planned. Ah'll keep goin' with ya all night if ah have ta."
"Me too, all this cleaning is great for the muscles" Thunderlane added while flexing. " 'sides, my girlfriend is out of town till tomorrow anyways. So I be bored if you and Big Mac are both here. I might as well help."
"I got nothing else planned" Doctor added with a smile. "Well, say for a sci-fi movie marathon, but thats later tonight anyway."
"If Doctor's staying, I will too!" Derpy cheered, blushing through a smile herself.
"It would be rude to leave my friends like this" Octavia commented. "Though, I will need a good, long bath after this. The combination of sweat and cleaner, ugh, such a terrable smell."
"Swesting is good for you!" Thunderlane chuckled as he threw an arm around Octavia, who nearly gagged when she smelled his pungent oder.
"So is deodorant" the Cello player coughed out as she slipped out from under Thunderlane's smelly pit.
The group chuckled for a moment, giving Sunny the perfect mental image that he would always cherish. High school may not be the easiest thing to survive, but there are some moments that make it all worth while. Even if his friends and him do go their separate ways, following their own destinies, he knows that, deep down, they will always remain friends.
"Well, well, well, lookie at Mr.Goodie-two-shoes over here" a familiar, and unwelcome voice caught the attention of Sunny and his whole group of friends. Guilda appeared standing just at the gates of the highschool, not more then ten feet from Sunny. A smug grin on her face as she looked over at them all. "What a bunch of model students you all are. Makes me kinda sick."
"What are you doing here?" Sunny aked, his tone sharp but not threatening as his eyes locked with hers.
Gulda was tall and well built, like one of those female fighter characters from the old arcade video games with the 8bit graphics. She was strong, and easily made captain of the karate team. But despite all the 'focus' and 'discipline' they tried to drill into her, Guilda still was a bit of a hot head. She's been in more fight in school then anyone else in the three years she's been there. The anti-bullying law only works during school hours, and Guilda makes sure to fight either after school hours elsewhere, or on campus on the weekend. Her little brawl with Sunny was unplanned but she didn't care about one little detention. Especially when it involved taking a goodie goodie like Sunny down a peg or two. People as sickeningly sweet as him normally made her sick to her stomach.
"Its Saturday, Karate team just finished their class, so we thought we'd pay you a little visit" Guilda snapped her fingers, and on cue, a good two dozen students in karate uniforms appeared seemingly from out of nowhere, surounding all of Sunny's friends.
Sunny didn't think Guilda would ever stoop to this, so he never planned for a full on attack from the whole Karate team! All he could think to do was stand between Guilda and his friends. Stairing her down he told her "I dont care what beef you have with me, but leave my friends out of this."
Gulda casually let out a pfft of air from her lips as she walked up to Sunny. "Like I need them to kick your ass. I'm not here to fight you. This school is a dump, but its our dump. And I don't like other people messing with my stuff. We're here to help."
Guilda then extended a hand to Sunny, shooting him a more relaxed look. Sunny looked from her hand up to her casual gaze that often said 'I really don't care', but today, Guilda's care free expression had a fire behind it burning with pride and determination that Sunny recognized. He smiled back and shook her hand.
"I was just about to order pizza. We've been working all morning. Your guys want to join us before we get back to cleaning?" Sunny made the offer.
"Sounds good, we need the carbs after a work out" Guilda half smiled. "And on your tab, I want extra beed crumbles and sausage."
"Deal" Sunny agreed and finished dialing the pizza place, ready to pay for the entire order. It was a small price to pay to have the school cleaned up and for everyone to work togeather. The latter was worth its weight in gold to him.
Just out of sight and ear shot, a grey skinned boy with white hair tossed an empty can of spray paint on the ground. "Always the hero, aren't you, Sunny?"
He watched from afar as Sunny and his friends, along with Guilda and the Karate team chowed down on pizza, joked, and all around had a pretty fun time before they went right to work cleaning up the rest of the school.
The grey skinned boy narrowed his black and yellow eyes on the sight. "One day, we'll meet. Maybe here. Maybe Equestria. Maybe somewhere inbetween. But we will meet. Someday..."