As the train made its way into the station, the eager curly mane mare was ready to set off for the campus. As she exited the train, Twist blindsided by an energetic mare who wasn't paying attention. The impacted sent both fillies crashing onto the station platform. Rubbing her head Twist looks to see who plowed into her. It was petite, slender unicorn. Her light brown coat made her a sight to behold, as it was complemented by her long, flowing honey blonde mane and her Cutie Mark which was a sun with a smiley face. Almost instantly the energetic mare bounced to her hooves and looked around to see what she plowed into. She soon turned to see Twist lying on the floor, she lets out a huge gasp.
“OHMYGOSH! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?” she asked, with an apologetic face.
She then extended a hoof to help the curly-maned mare up. Accepting her offer, Twist rose to her feet. Once on her hooves, the honey blonde mare began to apologize.
“I'm sosososososososo sorry for running into you,” said the young mare.
“It's okay,” Twist said, waving off the whole ordeal.
“You're not hurt are you?” she asked in a worried tone.
“No, I'm fine,” she emphasized by moving her limbs. “See...nothing's broken,”
“Good...” she said, breathing a sigh of relief.
“What got you so excited?” inquired Twist.
Apparently, that question opened the floodgates of her excitement.
“It's my first time in Canterlot. I'msoexcitedtobehereandwhenIsawthetrainstopped...” the mare stated without taking a breath.
As she continued on, she began to bounce in front of the curly mane mare. Still speaking at hyper speed and now bouncing with such energy made it impossible for Twist to keep up. How one could possibly speak that fast without taking a breath was beyond her comprehension.
'She certainly is an energetic mare,' she thought, trying to figure out how to get this mare's attention.
But how could she? She didn't even know her name. It was then that Twist lifted her hoof to cover the hyper mare's mouth. This seemed to have stopped the bouncing mare. Seeing that she had gotten the attention of the energetic mare, Twist removed her hoof from the mare's mouth. It was then a small tint a red sprawled across the hyper mare's face.
“I started talking fast, didn't I?” she asked with a sheepish smile.
“Yes. Sorry for doing that, but it seemed the only way to get your attention,” answered the curly-maned mare.
“Sorry about that. I have a bad habit of talking super fast whenever a get excited about something,” replied the honey-blonde mare.
“It's not a problem at all.”
The two shared a small laugh together.
“I'm Twist. What's your name?” asked Twist, as she extended her hoof.
“Oh, my name is Cheerie Days! But you can call me Cheerie,” she responded, shaking her hoof in return.
“Please to meet you, Cheerie. So what brings you to Canterlot?”
“I'm gonna be going to school here.”
“You're enrolled at Canterlot High too?”
“Why yes, I am!” Cheerie replied, with a puffed up chest.
“I'm enrolled there as well. Maybe we can be friends,” Twist smiled.
That statement activated a reservoir untapped energy. As if she was a rocket, Cheerie shot into the air. And after a few seconds, she exploded (figuratively, not literal) in an array of colorful fireworks. After the display, she gently floated down and rested next to a very confused Twist.
“Is that a 'yes'?” inquired the curly-maned mare.
She was then greeted with the toothy grin of the honey-blonde mare.
“Of course it's a 'yes'! We're gonna be the best of friends,” she exclaimed as she enveloped Twist big hug.
As she was in her new friend's unexpectedly strong hug, Twist saw that some of her belongings had fallen out of her bag.
“Oh dear...”
“What's wrong, Twist?”
“Some of my stuff fell on the ground.”
Cheerie then turned to see various school items that lay on the floor. Remembering that she was the one that crashed into Twist, a sheepish smile flashed across Cheerie face.
“Oh sorry about that,” she said, placing her bespectacled friend on the ground.
Before Twist could walk over to pick up her things, she saw they were engulfed in a harvest gold aura. As they were lifted off the ground, the items were then carefully placed into bespectacled mare's bag. Twist then turned to her energetic friend.
“Thanks, Cheerie,” she said, with a small smile.
“Don't mention it! What friends for, right?” she responded with a toothy grin.
“Shall we get going?” asked the curly mane mare.
“You bet. So, let's...” Cheerie said taking a weird stance.
By the way, she was positioning herself you would swear Cheerie was racing pony. Before she could question her friend's awkward stance, she was startled by the booming voice.
“...GO!”
As if she had a rocket strapped to her back, Cheerie bolted for the station's main gate. Befuddled at what she just witnessed, Twist soon realized that Cheerie was almost out of sight.
“Cheerie...wait for me!” called out the bespectacled mare.
As she ran to catch up with her new, overly energetic, friend Twist let out a small chuckle.
'It's sure gonna be an interesting school year,' she thought, with a small smile on her face.
A few moments later, the train from Ponyville had just pulled into the station. As the passengers were exiting, Snips and Golden Belle were looking for their seafoam maned friend.
“Where did he get off too?” inquired Golden Belle, as she walked down the aisle of seats.
“There he is!” Snips responded, point to the back row of seats.
“Aw, he fell asleep...” cooed Golden Belle.
As they trotted to the sleeping colt, Golden Belle's mind began to wonder.
'Why did that silly colt sit way over here instead of with us?' she thought.
Upon reaching Snails, Golden Belle began to gently shake him.
“Wake up, sleepy head!” whispered the cinnamon mane mare.
“Gooaway....needmoresleep....” slurred the sleepy colt.
She giggled slightly at how cute he sounded.
“Snails, come on. It's time to get off the train,” she spoke softly.
“I don't wanna...”
He then rolled over so that his back was facing her. Slightly annoyed she began to shake him again, with a little more force.
“Wake up!” she said, this time a little louder.
“I will when we reach Canterlot...”
“We are in Canterlot,” she added, slightly irritated.
“Then gimme five more minutes, eh...” he groaned.
With her patience at its limit, she leaned in next to his ear.
“WAKE UP!!”
That last vocal jolt was enough to make the sleepy colt jump out the seat and fall to the floor. Rubbing his ears the drowsy colt rose to a somewhat vertical base.
“What's with the yelling, eh?” asked a half-asleep colt.
“Sorry for yelling in your ear, but you wouldn't have gotten up otherwise,” she huffed.
Snails looked around the cabin to see that everypony was gone.
“Where'd everypony go?” asked a confused Snails.
“We're at Canterlot, Snails. Everypony's already gotten off except you,” said a mildly annoyed Snips.
A faint blush grazed across in simple-looking colt's snout.
“Oh, sorry about that, eh. I guess I must be more tired than I thought.”
“Yeah...yeah. Come on, we don't wanna miss the opening ceremony,” Snips said, walking toward the door.
“Sure thing.”
Snails then grabbed his belongings and followed the two off the train. Once off the train, the three are greeted by the founding member of the CMC. Applebloom grew into a fine young mare, with the same physical build as her sister. Her large bow is now replaced with a smaller bow tied off to the back of the head. Her long crimson mane draping slightly over her shoulder. With her trademark grin, Applebloom waved to the group.
“Hey, y'all!” she smiled.
“Hey, 'Bloom,” answered Golden Belle.
“What took you so long?” huffed Scootaloo.
The group then turned to an agitated Scootaloo. Wanting to be like her mentor/big sister, Scootaloo grew out her magenta mane to match that of her beloved idol (but still maintaining its original spikiness). Her form was slightly slender and sleek (as one would expect for a racing pony). Her wings (which are now twice in size) began to fluttered slightly as the mare let out a deep sigh of annoyance.
“Sorry, Scoots. Mr. Sleepyhead here fell asleep on the train, so we went to get him,” Goldie Belle spoke.
“Well c'mon. We're wasting time when the ceremony is about to start in a few minutes,” Scootaloo responded, trotting to the station entrance.
“She's just as impatient as Rainbow Dash,” chimed Sweetie Belle.
“Uh-huh,” replied the rest.
With that, they all follow after Scootaloo and headed for the school.
“Hey, Twist! Hey, Hey! Over Here!” Cheerie called out.
Twist then looked over to see Cheerie Days jumping in the large, packed auditorium. It wasn't hard to see or hear her over the chattering crowd, considering she had somehow acquired a rather large megaphone.
Twist merely shook her head at her friend's antics. It was still somewhat new to find such energy in a pony to her.
'But what can you do? You can't change your friend's personalities,' Twist thought, as she made her way to her friend.
But you can, however, change your friends. This wasn't a policy that Twist would ever adopt. However, she was soon to find out that not everypony had her mentality. Twist was approached by a unicorn mare and her two earth stallion companions. Her name was Honey Bee, a junior at the school. She was honey yellow and black accents around her hooves, a brown mane, and a Cutie Mark with nectar drooping from a honeycomb and three of honey bees beneath it.
“Hey there, filly. My name is Honey Bee,” spoke the mare. “Why don't you come sit with us?”
She then looked over to see Cheerie Days waving.
“Instead of hanging out with weirdos like her,” she said with a sassy smirk.
“No thanks,” Twist replied calmly.
“You're rejecting an offer to sit one of the most popular mares in the school and two hot stallions, just so you can hang out with that weirdo?” Honey Bee sneered, with genuine disgust.
“Yes, now if you'll excuse me,” Twist said, without looking phased.
“Do you realize what you are passing up? You could be a popular pony that has the teachers in their hooves? I'll give you another chance. Come join us,” Honey Bee seemed to say the last few words with complete sincerity and glow.
“Look, I don't know what makes you think I’ll change my mind. But I think I'll be going now,” Twist said, walking to her friend.
As she sat beside her friend, Twist felt that she was going to be a problem in the future. She thought that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were bad enough when she was a foal, now she has to deal with Honey Bee.
'So much for a pleasant school life,' Twist sighed.
As the seafoam green-maned stallion made his way through the crowd, he found himself staring at the crowd of freshmares and freshstallions. Every once in a while he caught a glimpse of a mare with a red mane, but it was never Twist. As he looked around he saw his friend gathered in one spot toward the center of the auditorium. Snips then motioned over to him.
“Hey, Snail. Over here! Hurry up,” he called out.
“Calm down, I'm coming, eh,” he called back, as he walked over.
“Come on, bro. I know you're groggy and tired, but that's no reason to move at snail's pace,” Snips joked, the chubby stallion smiling.
Snails groaned as the group chuckled at the silly comment. Their fun was interrupted however by the appearance of a certain a pink mare with purple and with a swirly mane, the was draped over her left shoulder. She wore a condescending smirk on her face as she spoke.
“Well, well, well. Look who we have here. The mentally slow, physically slow, and talentless mares all gathered in one place. No wonder I felt like skipping the opening ceremony.”
“Not like that will help them out much DT,” came a familiar voice her following comment. “We'd probably still see them in class.”
From behind the pink mare stood a tall grey mare with two-toned gray mane braided into a ponytail that draped over her right shoulder and light blue glasses on her snout. They knew all too well the ponies that stood before them. It was none other than the infamous twosome, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon. It had been two years since their families moved to Fillydelphia, and they figured that they would never see those two again. Ironically it was after the two of them had left Ponyville, that the CMC got their Cutie Marks. As she saw her old nemesis before her, Applebloom's eye slightly twitched. Adjusting the bandana around her neck, Applebloom quickly jumped in to defend her friends.
“So, I reckon we're looking at daddy' little filly and her pretty lackey,” said Applebloom.
Following her lead, Scootaloo chimed in.
“Nice to know you two are still around. So, how'd you to get Canterlot High? It sure could have been because of your grades? Was it daddy's money, or that big mouth of yours actually being put to work?” Scootaloo asked.
This obviously made Diamond Tiara livid. The surrounding a crowd started to circle the fight. Various ponies yelled “Ooh...burn!” while other simply laughed. Not wasting a second, Diamond Tiara scoffed,
“This coming from the closet fillyfooler?”
“Hold it right there. It'd be best if y'all just walk right away now Diamon' Tiara. Or y'all might not be able to, ya hear,” Applebloom growled.
As the two mares continued, Snails merely sighed at the spectacle before him. He was at a loss trying to figure out how to handle the situation. It was no secret that the CMC and the Troublesome Twosome were bitter enemies. He knew that he'd have to be the one to break up the fight. As he glanced at the clock, he noticed they had maybe five minutes before the opening ceremony started. He then tried to get their attention.
“Maybe you guys should...” Snails started to speak.
“Congrats, Applebloom. You can speak Equuish. I thought you were only able to speak in Appleloosan like the rest of your inbred family,” Diamond Tiara commented, with a superior smirk.
It was obvious what she was doing, she's trying to get his friends in riled up. The bad thing about it though, it was actually working. As he saw the rage in Applebloom's eyes, he knew that the verbal fight was soon to become a physical one. With a quick glance to Snips, the two knew that they needed to step in before things got out of hoof.
Before she could pounce her prey, Snails jumped in between Diamond Tiara and the now fuming Applebloom. He tried the best that he could, but Snips barely managed to hold back Applebloom due to the famed Apple Family strength. Diamond Tiara just grinned at her work of getting under the farm mare skin. With momentum on her side, she decided to change her target.
“So, Tweedledee and Tweedledum are finally useful for something. Good to see you aren't a brain-dead mistake Snails. Too bad you're still probably too dumb to figure out what I'm saying.”
The farm mare wasn't gonna take it. Even if her Granny Smith and her siblings scolded her later, she was gonna make Diamond Tiara pay for insulting her friends and especially the Apple family name.
“Let me at 'er Snips! Lemme go! Lemme go!” Applebloom shouted as she was thrashing about.
Snails turned to face Diamond Tiara. His actions made her believe that she had struck a nerve. But instead, she saw the stoic glance that appeared on the young colt.
“You haven't changed at all, Diamond,” Snails spoke in a calm tone.
She was completely caught off guard by this. She expected him to be like the enraged mare behind him. But instead, his face showed no signs of anger or rage, but rather an impassive stare. It was as if he was silently scolding her for her actions. This was something that Diamond Tiara didn't like because it made her feel like a lowly mare before a king.
"Come on, Silver. We're leaving." Diamond Tiara said as they left in a huff.
With the fight now over, the crowd began to dissipate with low murmurs and odd glances at the group.
"Um... Snails... How did you...? THAT WAS SO COOL!” Scootaloo said as she tried to form a proper sentence.
She couldn't believe what just happen. The only other stallion she ever saw do that was Big Macintosh.
"Y'all should've just let me buck 'er right in 'er ugly mug,” pouted Applebloom.
“That wouldn't be good to get in trouble on the first day, would it?” Snails stated.
Applebloom just huffed at his statement.
“There you guys are,” said a voice approaching the group.
Applebloom's eyes lit up as she saw her coltfriend Featherweight and his buddy Pipsqueak trotting toward them. Snails sighed as the near-crisis that was just adverted. Unknown to him, a certain light brown filly saw the whole thing.
Wow, he's so cool, thought Cheerie Days.
As Cheerie made her way to the back to her new friend, she was still in awe of what happened. Never before had she seen a fight end like that. As she sat down, Twist noticed her shocked expression.
“Something the matter, Cheerie?” she asked.
“No, I'm fine. But you won't believe what I just saw,” she answered.
“What happened?” Twist asked, with an arched eyebrow.
Cheerie then began to explain the fight that had taken place. After a few minutes, she came to the conclusion of the fight.
“And get this, there was a single stallion that was able to end it before it got violent. He got both of those meanies away with a look that said, 'I'm above this by now, you should be, too'. It was awesome,” she concluded.
“Really?” Twist said, in a state of disbelief.
“And now that I think about it, he was actually he was kinda cute in that 'deep' sense y'know,” Cheerie said, with a smile.
After Twist hearing, most of it, figure that the mares that started it were probably Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.
'As if Honey Bee wasn't enough to deal with, now I'm gonna have those two as well,' thought Twist.
As for the other mares, she knew that it had to be her friend Applebloom and Scootaloo. But the stallion she mentioned, that caught her attention.
“So, this stallion? What did he look like?” Twist asked.
“Lemme think,” said Cheerie, as she tapped her chin with her hoof. “Well, he was tall and had a golden coat. He had a seafoam green mane and a Cutie Mark of a pink snail with purple shell,” Cheerie explained.
She then heard a gasp escape from Twist lips. She turned to her friend and saw that Twist had a massive grin spread across her face.
“You okay, Twist?”
“That was Snails,” Twist said with glee.
“Snails?”
“Yes, he's a very close friend of my mine,” Twist explained. “Where did you see him at?”
As she stood up, Cheerie pointed towards a bundle of several ponies toward the center of the auditorium. Twist saw Scootaloo, Pipsqueak, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Featherweight sitting with each other. To the left of them, she saw Snips, Golden Belle, and the colt she's been longing to see Snails.
It's really him. He still looks as handsome as ever, she thought.
“Did you see'em?” asked Cheerie.
“Yes,” she smiled.
Before she could get up from her seat, Princess Celestia entered the auditorium. Upon her entry, Twist knew the opening ceremony was about to start. As she reached the podium, she greeted the student body.
“Good Morning Students, I am Princess Celestia, the founder of this school...” began the regal alicorn.
As she continued her speech, Twist's mind was raced at the thought the moment when she could be reunited with her dear friend.
Soon Snails, I promise.