//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - Rumors // Story: Our Winter Story // by Meteor_Mirage //------------------------------// “Did you hear?” “I’ve heard quite a few things. Care to be more specific?” “About the transfer.” “Oh yes. Him. From Celestia’s own academy, if I recall correctly.” “Kicked out and came running here with his tail between his legs.” “Kicked out? And how did he even manage that?”  “Well, I heard…”   “Ugh, can’t they shut up?” Shining Armor quietly asked, the following hot sigh sending a puff of fog in the cold winter air. He glared over at Blueblood and Fancy Pants as they gossiped on and on about this prospective transfer student.  A student who’d made the grievous error of… changing high schools in the middle of the year. And thus, as The Popular Students, it was up to them to point laugh and ridicule. Apparently. “Cady, can you even believe them?” Shining asked as with rolled eyes, looking over to the pink mare to his side. If Cadance noticed, she didn’t make it known. Instead, the alicorn princess stared intently at the two gossiping stallions with ears perked, her horn lit to scribble hasty notes in the notebook sitting between her forelegs. It was then that Shining was reminded that, despite everything, his best friend was a part of the popular crowd too. And so was he, he supposed. The four ‘popular’ teens lounged lavishly in the courtyard of the Canterlot private academy they were enrolled in. Making use of their excessive hour-long lunch period, Blueblood had laid down a blanket beneath the largest tree in the center of the courtyard so that he and his friends could chat comfortably. Which, of course, meant another run of the rumor mill between Blueblood and his boyfriend. Meanwhile, Shining had been made to sit - a little awkwardly, he felt - beside his high-bred best friend, without having much to add. Fortunately though, Cadence wasn't the problem, despite her status as his ex. Following a few heart-to-heart talks in dorm rooms and on park benches late at night, it had just turned out that they shared their taste in stallions as well as everything else, and if anything their rapport was better than it had ever been. Giving Cadance a nudge with his elbow, Shining sighed again. “Hey, are you even listening to me?” Her head popped up, note taking scratching to a halt as she sheepishly looked over to Shining. “Yep! Sure is fucked up! Or, uh…” Looking at Shining’s semi-miffed expression, she quickly realized that probably wasn’t the right response. Ears flicking back, she lowered her head. “Sorry, I’m just… trying to get caught up. Prom planning for the first two periods and an exam in third didn’t leave me much room for… studying.” “Geeze, prom planning already? Thank Celestia I’m not on student council.” Shining sighed, eliciting another puff of fog, as he crossed his forelegs and laid his head upon them. “Well, what’d you learn? Is he as bad as those two are making him out to be?” With a lazy gesture towards Fancy Pants and Blueblood, he could now see they had gone from gossip scholars conversing to lovers canoodling while he wasn’t paying attention. He couldn’t help but crack a smile as he saw Blueblood genuinely enjoying himself for once. “Well, it takes a lot to be kicked out of Aunt Celestia’s school.” Cadance said with a shrug, sighing as she too lay down fully upon the blanket. “That one mare, Sunset something, is still enrolled even after what happened. Add in the bullies, curses, and magic fights, and…” Covering his head with his hooves, Shining let out a pathetic whimper. “I’m pulling Twily from that school. If someone tries to curse her, I don’t know what I’ll do.” Placing a comforting hoof on Shining’s shoulder, Cadance snickered a little. “Don’t worry. She’ll just curse them back worse. I mean, remember what happened to the colt who tried to trap Spike in a mirror?” Shining paled. “I try not to, but it still comes to me in my nightmares.” “Exactly! Twilight is fine.” Cadance beamed, which contrasted with the uneasy frown still written across Shining’s face. “Anyway, what I’m saying is that it’s not easy to be kicked out. And I’ve heard that this new guy is… a bit dark and edgy. Which means-” “Everyone steer clear?” Shining asked. “You steer clear. Don’t think I don’t know your type.” Cadance prodded with a smirk. “I mean, remember Mr. Steele?” As much as Shining didn’t want to remember, memories still flashed despite himself. A musician by trade, Mr. Steele joined the Canterlot Academy staff the year prior to help train the musicians of tomorrow.  But that wasn’t important to Shining. No, that year he was instead fixated on the stallion’s easy smile, dry wit, and alternative sense of style. Most stallion teachers in the school wore their hair cut short and styled while Mr. Steele let his messy red mane loose to hang on svelte, feminine shoulders. That, plus his penchant for eyeliner, made Shining as excited as could be to attend every class of his for the entire year. Despite lacking any talent with the flugelhorn. Or any idea he was attracted to stallions until the tail end of the year. Snapping himself from his steely daydream, Shining turned away from Cadance with a huff and a bright red blush. “Shut up!” Crossing his hooves even harder in front of him, he sighed out a pout. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be? I mean, as our illustrious school’s one-mare welcoming committee, shouldn’t you be touring the dude around the school by now?” “‘Illustrious’, huh? Seems like a pretty big word for a doofus like you." Cadance smirked, raising an eyebrow. Shining huffed again. "If you have to know, I had an English test last period." "And did you pass?" Cadance asked. "Let's…get back to your tour." Fighting back the urge to laugh, Cadance shrugged. "We were supposed to do it this morning, but he never showed." "He's late? On his first day?" Shining asked, stunned, with wide eyes. "Or truant.” Cadance decided with another shrug as she relaxed down onto the ground again. “They’re supposed to call me to the office when he shows up, but-” A loud, yet pleasant tone rang out from the intercom system, drawing the attention of every student and interrupting Cadance as she spoke. “Could Princess Mi Amore Cadenza please report to the front office? Your package has arrived.” Immediately, Cadance deflated as all eyes fell on her. There went any hopes of a relaxing rest of her lunch break. Now fighting back the urge to laugh himself, Shining nudged her with an elbow. “You’d better go and pick up your ‘package’. Don’t want anyone else getting to him first.” “You can try if you’d like.” Cadance said as she finally stood up. Suddenly, her eyes brightened asan idea came to her. Looking down at Shining, she smirked mischievously. “Hey, maybe you want to tag along? It’ll make the whole thing much quicker.” “I’m good.” Shining said simply, flopping over onto his side and shutting his eyes. “I’d rather use my lunch for better things, like napping and watching the resident gossip mongers get lost in each others’ eyes.” “You’re just afraid you’ll be into him.” Cadance smirked. Shining’s eyes shot open, the stallion lifting his head to glare at Cadance with a white face flushed bright red. “Nuh-uh!”  “Yeah-huh!” Cadance snickered, sticking her tongue out at the embarrassed stallion.  “Let the poor boy rest, dear Cadance.” Fancy Pants smirked, his mustache bristling as he was finally drawn from his own little world with Blueblood. For the most part, at least. With his back pressed against the trunk of the tree behind him, he still maintained a loving gaze down onto the blond stallion still caught between his forelegs. His dark blue eyes locked onto Blueblood’s pale, beautiful ones. Looking away from this display and back to Shining Armor, Cadance shot him a concerned look. “You sure…?” Still staring at the stallions in loving embrace, Shining sighed. “Absolutely not, but it’s probably better than getting my hopes up.” “Like with Soarin’, or Golden Grape, or Caramel.” Blueblood mused with a wry grin, closing his eyes as he enjoyed the warmth of Fancy Pants’ embrace. “Though why you ever broke up with my dear cousin still confounds me to this day. You two seemed almost as perfect as Fancy and I.” “Blue…” Fancy Pants grumbled warningly down at the stallion.  This stopped Blueblood before he could continue, offering a semi-apologetic look over to Shining and his cousin before leaning up to nuzzle Fancy Pants. Again looking down to Shining, Cadance stared down at him. “Are. You. Sure?” With a playful laugh, Shining waved off any of her concern. “I’ll be fine, Cady! I’ve dealt with Blueblood before and, thankfully, lunch is already half over as it is.” With a hoof, he gestured gently towards the direction of the school’s front office. “Go on, don’t keep the dude waiting.” There was a moment of hesitation, but Cadance finally nodded with a sigh. “I’ll see you at class then, Shiny.” Finally, wrapping her scarf around her neck, she sauntered off towards the front office at a leisurely pace. “Don’t be late!” Shining said towards her as she turned to leave. “I heard from Gizmo that we’re picking partners for that project today!” Cadance gave no signs of acknowledgement, leaving Shining to only hope that she heard him. With her gone, it left Shining alone with the entangled unicorn stallions. “You’ve still got a chance, I think.” Blueblood smirked.  This earned him a quick swat on the muzzle by Fancy Pants. Despite this, Shining smirked. “Hey Blueblood, what have you heard about Soarin’ lately?” Blueblood’s eyes snapped open at that, and a mischievous grin pulled across his face. “Well, if you have to know…” Thankfully Shining Armor was well aware that one of the quickest ways to get through a lunch was to get Blueblood going on a topic and just hold on for the ride as the stallion gossiped up a storm. Sadly, it’s also how he found out that Soarin’, who he’d thought was straight, was now dating Caramel, who he’d also thought was straight. As he walked into his history class, it was all he could really dwell on. He flopped into his seat in the front row, quickly laying his head on his desk and hoping that maybe Ms. Copper Vase would just let him sleep the class though. Though last time he tried that, he’d ended up with a stick of chalk flying just inches past his face.  As the rest of the students filtered in, Shining decided that perhaps staying awake was the better idea. And as the class nearly fully entered, he was able to see that, besides the unoccupied seat to his left, the seat to his right was empty. But, with the last dregs of the class, Princess Cadance also came stumbling in, panting and breathing heavy from the exertion of running. As she uncharacteristically flopped into her seat, she crossed her hooves across her chest and breathed out a heavy sigh. “So, how’d it-” Shining asked, before quickly being interrupted. “He doesn’t care!” Cadance exclaimed, perhaps a bit too loudly, as she threw up her hooves. “Not a single thing about the tour seemed to interest him at all! He just followed behind me and barely said a thing.” Shining pursed his lips. “Maybe he’s just shy?” Cadance shrugged, laying her head on her desk for a moment. “Well, maybe, but usually the dorks are at least interested in the library. Just detached disinterest all the way down.” “Well…” Shining hesitated for a moment. “Was he…” “Yes, very cute. Spindly, kind of feminine. Complete dork, but he was a real asshole about it.” Cadance rolled her eyes. “I thought I was used to it from Bluebutt, but-” A loud bell rang out throughout the school, spelling the beginning of class and sealing the fates of those not present yet. “Alright, alright, settle down.” Copper Vase sighed as she stood up from her seat to begin teaching. The short and stout mare still managed to glare down at all her settling students as she gestured towards the desks. “Everyone to your seats. There’s a lot to cover today, and I do not want to be interrupted.” Fearing for the worst, everypony not seated scrambled to find theirs before their teacher got too annoyed. The faintest hint of a smile pulled across Copper Vase’s lips, only to fall as she looked to the seat at Shining’s side. Shining, who thought she was looking at him, shrank in his seat. But thankfully he was saved from her supposed ire. Pressing through the doorway with light hoofsteps, a new pony entered the room.  Shining had never seen a pony darken a room by merely making their entrance before. He could feel the class' collective attention focus on the doorway as the slight figure floated in, a black hoodie hanging from their head and torso like a shroud. The snowy-white colt did his best not to make it too obvious he was watching as the slouching youth shuffled between the desks towards the vacant spot, as oblivious to the stares of their occupants as if he was moving through an empty room. Despite a blank, tired expression, the look in the strange, young unicorn's eyes was communicating something very clearly - that he didn't care about this place, he didn't care about the ponies in it, and there was precious little chance of that ever, ever changing. Shining tore his eyes away and focused them on the somewhat-adjacent wall as his new classmate stopped beside him, throwing the chair back with a forceful kick and unslinging the saddle bag from his shoulder, letting it slip - carefully, Shining noticed - to the floor by his side. Flopping indifferently into the seat like a bag of depressed potatoes, the apricot-colored unicorn dragged his seat back up to the desk, reached an arm forward and planted an elbow onto its surface, resting his chin on his hoof as he cast his quietly judging gaze around the room. Copper Vase balked. For the first time in a while, she was completely taken aback. But, knowing that teenagers can sniff out weakness like a pig sniffing truffles, she maintained composure and sighed. “With that over with, let us continue in our studies on Ancient Equestrian Mythology.” A groan erupted throughout the class, with even Shining joining in with the chorus. But, even still, Shining couldn’t help take a peek at how his new orange neighbor was reacting to the curriculum.  Lazily, the stallion sighed and dug a hoof into his saddlebag. For a moment, Shining expected him to pull out the textbook or perhaps his own annotated book on Equestrian Mythology. But instead he pulled out what looked like a deck of cards. Setting the deck to the side, he dealt himself five cards and inspected them with more interest than Shining had yet seen from the stallion. His eyes moved over to Shining. He’d noticed him staring, and squinted at Shining with a frown. The power of the glare, intensified by the dark circles under the stallion’s eyes, made Shining turn away and look stock forward as class truly began. And yet, as the class continued on, Shining found himself less able to focus than ever. Being more careful this time, his eyes flicked back to the stallion beside him occasionally and he just watched the orange stallion at work. Shining had no idea what he was doing as he laid cards down or brought cards to his face as he considered moves, but it was all so enticing and engaging. It was easy to say that Shining didn’t absorb anything from that class period, as he was far too engaged in puzzling what game the stallion was playing. Or, more likely, just eyeing his messy orange mane and fluffy looking goatee as they poked out of his black hoodie. As such, he jumped in his seat when Copper Vase slammed a ruler against the stallion’s desk. While the stallion didn’t acknowledge it, just flicking his eyes up towards his teacher with a bit of a nod, Shining moved to obediently stare forward as his teacher backed away. “Now that everypony is paying attention,” she shot a withering glare towards Shining before turning it to the entire class, “It’s time to have the most fun I’ll ever allow you to have in this class “Pair up into groups of no more than two and just… make something relating to an Equestrian myth of your choice. Be it a paper, two-pony play, poorly written song, or… interpretive dance.” She sighed, the wind leaving her sails as she looked out onto a crowd of ponies who were mostly disinterested. “Whatever you decide, you’ll present it next month and be graded together for it. With that being said…” She gestured out towards the class. Desks moved in an instant, surprising Shining who hadn’t quite yet gotten what the gesture meant. Turning around, he could see that his classmates were already pairing off into their own groups. Friends with friends, nerds with nerds, and the rest just scrambled to find anyone else they knew to pair with. Shining just watched them struggle with a smile. He didn’t have to worry at all. Turning to his side, he looked to Cadance and… Saw her pulling towards Fleur, who seemed as surprised as Shining. She shot a sheepish, apologetic look at Shining, but quickly went to working with Fleur as her partner.  Shining blinked, then looked back around at his class. Much like Cadance, everyone had already begun work with their partners and left Shining to struggle with who exactly to partner up with now.  Everyone except… Looking again to his left, Shining saw that his neighbor was still playing his card game, hardly even raising his head as the classroom had briefly devolved into chaos. No one had approached him to partner, nor had he moved to partner with anyone else. Clearly, it was Shining’s time to shine. Leaning out of his chair, he waved a hoof in hopes to garner the orange stallion’s attention. With that proving useless, he leaned in closer and tapped a hoof on the side of his desk. His hoof was smacked away moments later, the stallion lifting a cream-white hoof and bringing it down upon Shining’s own without remorse. He raised an eyebrow, squinting over at Shining as he finally set his cards aside. “Can I help you?” He asked, his voice high and slightly nasal even as he tried to sound annoyed. “Oh, well, I-I don’t mean to bother you.” Shining stammered, pressing his hooves together in immediate apology. “I was just wondering if you’d want to partner for this project. I just thought that, you know, you and I are the last ones to pair up and-” “Sure.” The stallion said brusquely, turning back to his card game without another moment’s regard for Shining. “Sounds like fun.” For a moment, Shining waited for the stallion to say more and perhaps let him in on whatever he had planned. Instead, however, he seemed to just return to his card game without a care in the world.  It took another moment of silence between the two of them, one perhaps a bit too long for comfort, before Shining spoke again. “So, uh, what’ll we be doing for the project…  partner?” Shining asked with a sheepish smile, sounding as awkward as one could be expected to sound in this awkward situation. Looking up from his cards again, the orange stallion tilted his head in confusion as he looked over to Shining. He regarded Shining fully for a moment, looking up and down the large, muscular stallion’s physique before again settling on squinting at his face with a strange look on his face. He held his gaze at Shining, but quickly turned away with a bit of an amused scoff, a genuine smirk pulling across his face. “No, I don’t think that’ll be necessary. I’ll handle it.” He laughed a bit openly as he said this, reclaiming the cards on his desk, reshuffling them, and dealing himself out another five. “I figure you’d much rather spend time on the buckball field than toil in the library with a stallion like me.” Shining blinked. He wasn’t even interested in buckball, but still he took offense.  “No dude, I definitely wanna work on the project too.” Shining said with a laugh of his own, though more awkward and unsure. “Just ‘cause you’ve got the small, dark, and edgy nerd thing going on doesn’t mean you get to do the whole thing. I don’t even know if I can trust you yet.” Now it was the stallion’s turn to blink, setting his cards aside again as he turned to Shining with a bit of a stunned look. Bright blue eyes widening a bit, he regarded Shining yet again. Thankfully for the both of them, the school bell rang again to interrupt their conversation, albeit briefly. The stallion took a moment to compose himself as the class around him got up and moved on with their day. Not he and Shining, though, who remained seated. Breaking his gaze on Shining, he instead looked down and began to pack up his deck into their box, and slide them into his saddle bag. But he gave one last look to Shining as he finally stood from his seat. “Well, ‘dude’, meet me at the library after school then. If you want to prove both of us trustworthy.” With a sigh, he lingered for a short yet noticeable moment, then nodded his head and trotted off at a brisk pace. “Wait!” Shining cried, his gaze following the orange stallion as he made his leave. As he stopped in his tracks and turned back to look at Shining, Shining gave a bit of a sheepish grin. “How are we gonna trust each other if we don’t even know each others’ names?” The stallion stood stunned for a moment, then flashed a bit of a smile at Shining Armor’s sheer brashness. “I’m Sunburst.”  “And I’m Shining Armor.” Shining grinned, extending a hoof. “It’s nice to work with you!”