//------------------------------//
// 2. Friends or Foes? 
// Story: Ponyville Elementary 
// by Giboy 
//------------------------------//

Chapter Two: Friends or Foes?

After the first shock of the class, the new students went to the empty desks. Softstone sit in front of Scootaloo, Scarlet get one between Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Shadowself went to the nearest desk to Cheerilee's, and Darkgold got the desk in the end of the class, between Snips and Snails. Sweetie watched all of them and thought wich one of them she should start with. After the his encounter with Diamond Tiara, she decided to leave the black pegasus later. The other two of them were too far, so that leave Softstone for first. She looked at her friends and nodded towards him. They nodded in approval. She bent forward and poked his back.
"Umm... Hi. My name is Sweetie Belle. Nice to meet you," she said with a smile. He turned back, eyed her suspiciously for a few seconds and smiled.
"Hello Sweetie, what can I do for you?"
"You look so friendly and I thought that maybe we can be friends," she said nervously.
"Of course! I like to make new friends! But my other friends will not be so fast about making new friends..." he said with a sight.
"So you are friends?"
"Yes, we came here together, with Dg's parents," said Softstone" and we know each other for a very long time."
"Dg? You mean Darkgold? And why do you come here for the first place?"
"We can continue this conversation after the class, because I don't like to get punished in the first day" he said smiling. Sweetie nodded and sat back to her chair. She looked at the other newcomers: Scarlet is grinning and chatting with the two girls next to her. Shadowself is sitting still and looking ahead of him and finally Darkgold trying to ignore the talking colts next to him. The talking ended when miss Cheerilee clapped her hooves.
"Alright class, lets start the lesson. Today, you will write down your experiences about the summer," she said, and started to give paper to everypony. The students started to write, and done this until the bell started to ring.

Cheerilee collected the papers and started to read through them. She quickly went to the new ponies writings, and read them. First was Scarlet's. It was long, detailed and happy. She spend almost all the time with one of hers friends, a surprising one indeed. The second was Shadowself's paper. It was really sort but everything was there. He spend his time with his friends, but very little detail about his family, home. Then come Softstone's. He write like any other pony, but a little sorrow about some of his other friends was perceptible. The last one was the dark pegasus paper. It was medium length, detailed, and every little thing was there, except one thing. There were almost no emotion in the whole thing. It looked more like a report than essay. The only emotion what was there was hatred about an other feeling: love. Every time one of his old classmates fall in love, or somepony started to feel something for him, the text turned into a lecture about how folly thing is this. It was well hidden, but she noticed it. This was another thing she needs to confront him about. At least she have some information about them, and she know what to do with them...

Sweetie Belle trotted next to her two friend as they followed Softstone to a tree. He sat down and looked at them.
"There, now you can ask your questions, but I warn you, I'm not going to answer some of them." he said, as he gestured them to sit down as well.
"Why did you come here?" asked Scootaloo.
"All of us have his or her reason," came the answer.
"What was yours?" asked Apple Bloom.
"Before I answer, can you tell your names?"
"Ops, sorry. My name is Apple Bloom, nice to meet you!"
"And I'm Scootaloo!"
"Softstone, nice to meet you too. As for the question, I came here because my friends came here." he said, smiling.
"That was the only reason?" Sweetie asked confused.
"Of course not, but that was what you need to know."
"What do you mean?" asked Apple Bloom.
"I meant that I'm not going tell you everything about me just now, because I have bad experiences about this kind of things,"
"Okay..." she said, a little taken aback.
"Don't worry, if everything is going right you will know it, if not, well, it wouldn't matter." he said, thinking.
"And what about the others?" Sweetie asked.
" Wich one of them?" 
Sweetie looked down and kicked some dirt. She stayed like this for a few minutes then said: "Darkgold"
Softstone eyed her for a few seconds, sighed, and started to talk.
"He come here because of his middle brother, and some things about his class, and that is all I tell you."
"And Scarlet? And the quiet unicorn?" asked Scootaloo.
"Scarlet came here to make new friends, SS because of his family,"
"And would you like to join our club?" asked Sweetie.
"What kind of club?"
"We want to find our cutie marks!" they said at the same time.
"That sounds interesting, however, only me and maybe Scarlet will be interested."
"Why is that?" asked Apple Bloom confused.
"Shadowself didn't good at making new friends, Dg just don't care about his cutie mark" he said. 
"How is that even possible?!" Sweetie asked alarmed" Everypony want to find out what his or her special talent!"
"Well, he didn't. He knows that it will appear in time, so he didn't pay attention to it."
"Wow... he really weird..." Scootaloo said.
"You can put it that way, but that dosen't entirely true." 
"Yeah, but..." Sweetie started, but the ringing of the bell stopped her. They get up and went back to the class, without a word.

The second half of the class went without any complication. After the school, they discussed a meeting with Softstone, about joining the Crusaders, and they agreed to meet at their clubhouse at four o'clock. After that, they all went home.
At four o'clock, they all gathered at the bottom of the tree. Sweetie nervously looked at them. They looked like when they stood in front of the class. Same faces and emotions. Finally, Sofstone broke the silence.
"All right guys, we came here to decide to join with their group or not. They call them self the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and they want to find their cutie marks, hence the name. So, what do you think?
"YES!!" "I don't know" "No" came the answers.
"I think it's a good idea, we can make new friends, and have fun!" said Scarlet.
"I don't know if this is a good idea..." said Shadowself.
"You know my opinion" said Darkgold.
"Oh come on Darki, it will be fun!" said Scarlet as she leaned at his back.
"No. I don't care about what my special talent is. I will know it when I'm ready. It is no use to rush it." Darkgold said without a frown.
"You could at least try to be friendly!" shouted Sweetie Belle in rage, before she could control herself. Darkgold turned to her and watched her with his stony expression. Then he said.
"Why? I don't want to be your friend, you are the one who want us in your group. What the others do, that their business. But I. Don't. Care. About. You. Leave me alone, I do the same. Do we have an understanding?"
"No! Why are you doing this? You must have a reson to be so mean!" she shouted.
"Yes I have!" now he shouted too, his face twisted in anger. The others looked at him shocked. He exhaled quickly, trying to calm down. A few seconds later his stone mask was back on, turned around and gone without a word.
Sweetie, still paralyzed about what happened, just looked at the direction where the black pegasus has gone. Softstone was the one who broke the silence.
" Sweetie Belle, can we talk? Alone." he said. It was more like an order than a question.
"S-Sure" she said. They went into the woods. When they were out of earshot, he turned around and hugged her. She was so shocked, that she can't do anything just sit down. A few seconds later he released her and explained why he do it.
"This was the first time for almost a year that he showed some emotion except his cold stare. I don't know how did you do it, but thank you. Now we need to go back to the others, and please don't tell them what I said, it is a tabu between us." he said and started to walk back.
"Wait! Why is this tabu?" Sweetie asked as she got up and get next to him.
"You will know it in time..." he said. The rest of the way they were silent.