Sophomore year of High School. Finally, we are no longer freshmen who have no idea what’s going on. We now know where each building is and don’t need to ask around anymore. We know what to avoid when buying lunch and who are the good or alright teachers. There was only one problem, no pony cares about sophomores. We’re just there. It was nice to know that no cares that I’m a prince for once.
It was the same as last year. Find the table with my schedule, wait for the teacher behind that table to stop bowing, and then compare my schedule to my friends. By some sick twist of fate, each of have only one other pony from our group in our class, except for Shining and Vinyl, but that was because Shining was on the Griffin Hoofball team.
The good news is that we all start off with Home Economics. I then have Chemistry with Octavia. My next class was Algebra 2 with Shining. Cadence and I have Language Arts together and Vinyl and I have the same Ancient History class. Finally, Spitfire and I are joining the Hoofball team. We’re excited to join. Our coach last year basically told us that we were going to make the varsity team. We were all disappointed, but we really didn’t have a choice.
On our first day of Home Economics, we were paired up. This person would be our partner for the rest of the class. Since there was an even amount of mares and colts in the class, each pair could only consist of one colt and one mare. Since there was four mare and only two colts, we deiced to pair up randomly. The mares wrote their names on pieces of paper and we mixed them up. I ended up being Cadence’s partner and Shining drew Octavia. Spitfire found a light blue pegasus freshman named Soarin’ and Vinyl ended up with a black pegasus named Thunderlane. All we really did with our partners was “raise” an egg. It was convent for me and Cadence, seeing as how we lived together. Octavia and Shining got along pretty well together. Spitfire really clicked with Soarin’. Vinyl was the only one that had problems. She ended up keeping the egg the entire time. The rest of the class was just cooking and the six of us could pair up.
Every day, the six of us would split off to our next class. Octavia and I would walk across the campus to her locker and then to our class, which gave us plenty of time to talk. The first few weeks were a bit awkward because of the incident at Octavia’s show, but we were able to put it behind us. Octavia was a gossiper. She has eyes and ears everywhere, but I could never understand how. Everypony says that they don’t tell her anything. Usually she would talk about small things. Sometimes it was something about who had a crush on who or who had a one night stand. One conversation, towards the end of the year, in particular caught my attention.
“So who is asking who to the Sadie Hawkins Dance?” I asked Octavia as we walked.
“Oh, just the ponies you would assume. Spitfire already asked Soarin’ and Fleur is planning on asking Fancy Pants soon.”
“You’re hiding something.”
“Why do you always assume that I’m hiding something?”
“It’s been ten years. I’ve picked up some stuff. I know when you’re not telling me something. What is it?”
“Alright, but it involves Shining, so you can’t tell him anything. Do you promise?”
“I promise.”
“Cadence is planning to ask Shining to the dance.”
“Come on, Octavia. Tell me the truth.”
“You think I’m lying?”
“Cadence would tell me if she was going to ask Shining to the dance. We’re that close of friends. There is no way the she would tell you before she would tell me.”
“Well to be honest, we’ve been talking about it since last year’s homecoming. We were trying to figure out who was going to ask who to last year’s Sadie Hawking’s dance, but since we ended up not going because we couldn’t figure it out. This year, however, Spitfire asked Soarin’ and Vinyl is going to DJ the event, so that left the four of us. Cadence and I talked it out and she wanted to ask Shining because she wanted to get to know him a little better.”
“Oh. Alright.”
I was a little disappointed. Since Angel left, Cadence and I grew closer. She, and Celestia, were the only ones that comforted me. Our bond grew stronger and stronger every time we talked.
“Now, I guess it’s time for my part. Golden, will you go to the dance with me?”
Octavia and I haven’t really talked about what happened that one night. It’s not that we wanted to pretend it never happened, although there are times I wish it didn’t, we just want to put it behind us. It was just me helping a friend and it was just her at a weak point. After that night, there was a little part of me that made me think that she might have a little crush on me. With Angel around, or even the thought of Angel, I was able to suppress that little part of me, but I haven’t even seen a letter from her in a month.
I like to think that a good school year is one where you make a stupid mistake. Whether it’s something you said, agreeing to do something, or just being at the wrong place at the wrong time because you were somewhere you shouldn’t have been. A good school year should always come with a story.
“I would be honored,” I said. Octavia dropped the binder she was caring and hugged me. The binder hitting the ground caused some ponies to look at us. Some ponies applauded as they realized what happened, while others talked silently to their friends. They couldn’t believe that a prince would even consider saying “yes” to a musician. Especially when I’ve received numerous invitations from many mares. I didn’t care. Octavia is a close friend of mine and I would hate to disappoint her.
Things started to get weird after that. Usually, hanging out with Octavia was fun, but she got clingy after that. Our Chemistry class labs were usually something fun, but now Octavia wouldn’t stop saying how much of a chemical genius I was. There were times when she would insist on holding my hand or she would rest her head on my arm while we were sitting. I was giving obvious signs that I was still in love with Angel and I didn’t want anything beyond a platonic relationship. I was able to deal with all the little stuff, but then she gave me a quick kiss. We split off to go to our next class. Octavia seemed to have a spring in her step, while I was a bit shocked.
My Algebra class wasn’t too far away from my last class. I was walking a bit slow because of what just happened. By the time I got to my class, Shining was already sitting at his desk. I took my seat next to him, still in a bit of a daze of what just happened.
“What happened to you?” Shining said, “You seemed so happy this morning.”
“It’s Octavia.”
“Yeah, what’s been going between you two? I thought that you were still ‘in love’ with Angel.”
“I am. There’s nothing going on between us. She asked me to go to the dance and I said yes and now she’s acting like we’re a couple.”
“You need to do something about that. Why don’t you show her the last letter Angel sent you?”
“The last letter I got from her was months ago and I sent her obvious signs that I still wanted to be with her.”
“How obvious was it?”
“Remember when I said ‘I miss Angel. The only thing keeping me sane is this last letter I got from her. Man, I love her.” And then I inhaled a fake sent from the letter and pretended that it smelt like her.”
“That was a little creepy and now I’m putting it all together.”
“It shouldn't have been that hard. It’s right there. Everypony else asked me about it.”
“Alright, final piece of advice. Just tell her the truth. Octavia doesn’t want to be treated like a child. All you have to do is be up front with her.”
“Thanks man.”
“What else are guy friends for?”
The class was pretty boring. Something about graphing something. Shining and I were half awake through the whole thing. We jolted up when the bell rang. We started to pack up our stuff.
“Hey, Shining,” a mare said as he was putting his textbook in his backpack.
“Hey, Star Heart.
“I was wondering if you would go to the Sadie Hawkins Dance with me.”
“Sorry, Star. I’ve already promised somepony else.”
“Oh, okay. Bye.”
“Alright, that’s the fifth mare you’ve turned down. Who is this other mare?” I said as we started to walk to lunch. Usually, we would meet up with our friends, but I had to tutor a freshman in Language Arts today in the library. Our lunch table and the library were in the same direction, so I still walked with Shining.
“There is no other mare. I don’t want to go to this dumb dance.”
“Come on, Shining. You want to go and you want a specific pony to ask you.”
“No, I don’t…”
“It’s Cadence.”
“No, I just don’t want to go to this thing. I’m a stallion and I want to feel like a stallion. If that means that I am the one that asks the mare, then so be it.”
“Please, Shining. I know you better than you know you. I know that you want Cadence to ask you and if you could, you would ask her.”
“Golden, do you know who you’re talking to. I’m the most straight forward pony there is. You should know by now that when I say something, I mean it.”
I like to think that a good school year is one where you make a stupid mistake.
“I don’t think she’s that into you,” I said as we started to split off. “Later, man.”
“See ya around.”
I walked into my Language Arts class when the bell that ended lunch rang and waited for Cadence. She wasn’t too far behind me and she took the seat right next to me. She was as always as happy and had a bounce in her step. Her step seemed more genuine than Octavia’s.
“What’s wrong?” She said as she took a seat.
“Who said something’s wrong?” I said. I knew that she knew that something was wrong. She could read me like a book.
“There’s just something about you that says, ‘Something’s wrong, Cadence. Please talk to me about it.’”
“It’s Octavia. She kissed me this morning.”
“What?”
“Don’t make me say it again.”
“Hey, Cadence,” A random colt said. Word had gotten around that Cadence still hasn’t asked anypony to the dance. When they found out that I was going with Octavia and not Cadence, all the colts started to come after her. They started dressing nicer, wearing cologne, and doing anything to catch her attention. We knew that all they wanted to do was get into her pants. She would usually brush them aside.
“Hey,” She said to the colt before turning her attention back to me. “Now was it…”
“So, you still don’t have a date to the dance.” The colt said. Cadence gave me a familiar look and I nodded my head.
“Was it a kiss like this?” Cadence leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “Or the other one.” Cadence and I get hit on all the time at school. Cadence wanted to find the love of her life and I was still with Angel, but no matter what we said or how many times we said it, somepony still wanted to flirt with us. We came up with a plan one day to try and stop it. Whenever we need to, we would act like a couple. We made sure to tell our friends, so they wouldn’t think anything of it and we told them that there may be times were we throw them under the bus. They were surpassingly okay with the whole thing. It worked too. The second we started acting like a couple, ponies would back off.
“The other one.”
“That bitch. I’ll show her. No pony kisses my man, but me.” Although we seemed serious and Cadence had a little look of anger in her eyes, both of us were cracking up inside.
The class started and we were assigned a new book, Of Mice and Stallions. Our teacher started a lecture and gave us the rest of the time to ourselves.
“So, when are you going to ask Shining?” I said making sure that none of the other colts were in earshot. Thanks to all the other ponies talking, no pony could hear what we were saying.
“I’m not sure. It has to be soon though. The dance is in two weeks.”
I like to think that a good school year is one where you make a stupid mistake.
“You have him next class, right? Surprise him there. I’m sure he’ll say ‘yes’. What’s the worst thing that could happen?”
The bell rang and we left the class. Cadence’s next class wasn’t too far away from mine, so I walked her to her class. I was hoping that somepony wasn’t going to try and influence Cadence into asking him, but there was. The second she saw the first well-dressed colt with a look of lust in his eyes, she grabbed my hand. We didn’t let go the entire time. When we did let go, she gave me a kiss on the cheek and went into her class. I continued to walk to mine, which was right around the corner.
I beat Vinyl to our history class, but that’s nothing new. She’s the type of pony that’s just on time. You tell her that you’re leaving at noon, she will be there at noon. I walked into the class and heard something that I think everypony else was ignoring. I walked over to crying Fleur-De-Lis and sat next to her.
“What’s wrong, Fleur?” I asked.
“It’s nothing. Please don’t worry about it.” She looked at me and tried to smile. Her ruined mascara made it hard to believe that she didn’t want somepony to talk to her.
“No, Fleur. You’re my friend and I hate it when my friends cry. Please tell me what happened so I can help.”
“Alright,” She said after a shedding a few more tears. “I asked Fancy Pants to the dance and he said no. He said that a Sadie Hawkins Dance was too juvenile and he didn’t want to have any part of it. I begged him, but he still wouldn’t go.”
“I’m sorry Fleur.”
“Do you think I should break up with him?”
“Over one dance? Come on, Fleur. You two are perfect for each other.”
“It’s not just this dance. I had to talk him into going to Cadence’s party. He’s been like this since last year. I just don’t know what to do anymore. I want to be with him, but I don’t want to have to force him to do things.”
“You shouldn’t have to force him, Fleur. If Cadence has taught me anything it’s that you should be willing to do anything for the pony you love. I can see the love in your heart and I know you would do anything for him. I don’t know if he would do anything for you. I know it’s hard to hear, but it’s the truth.”
“Thanks, Golden,” She said after a few more tears. She stopped crying, but she was still upset. “There’s only one problem. I still want to go the dance, but not alone.”
I like to think that a good school year is one where you make a stupid mistake.
“Ask me,” I said.
“What?”
“Ask me to the Sadie Hawkins Dance.”
“Aren’t you going with Octavia?”
“I think she’ll understand.”
“I don’t want to make Fancy jealous. I still love him.”
“We’re not trying to make him jealous. I just want to help a friend go to a dance. So, ask me.”
“Golden, will you go to the Sadie Hawkins Dance with me?”
“Yes.”
A smile grew on her face. We stood up and hugged each other. Our teacher let her go to the rest room to fix her make-up. Vinyl came into the class with about a minute to spare. I told her what just happened and she was shocked. She started asking questions, but I didn’t have time to answer them. Fleur came back a few minutes after the class started. The class was another one of our teacher’s long lectures. The one thing I liked about this teacher is that she lets us use our notes on the test and quizzes.
When the class ended, Fleur hugged me again and thanked me. Vinyl went off to her class, I was walking to my next class by myself. It was a little nice being by myself. I got a chance to think about what happened today. I was still a little shocked from this morning. I walked to the school’s locker room to get ready for Hoofball.
Spitfire and I have been playing Hoofball since last year. We worked well together and made co-captains of the freshmen team. We lost only one game last year, and that was because of bad calls by the ref. We were invited to try out for the varsity team this year and we both made it. So far, we are the youngest ponies to ever play for the varsity team in the school’s history.
Our team met on the field and we started warming up. I decided to tell Spitfire about Fleur and how I’m taking her to the dance.
“What about Octavia?” She asked
“She’ll understand. Besides, I can take both of them. We’ve done it before, remember. Last year’s homecoming I took Cadence and Octavia and Shining took you and Vinyl.”
“Yeah, but that was just between friends. Fleur doesn’t hang out with us that much, so don’t you think that ponies will talk.”
“Ponies always talk. Besides, Fleur is my friend. What if Soarin’ told you that he was taking another mare and you?”
“I wouldn’t mind. We’re just friends. It’s not like I own him or something.”
“Exactly. It’s the same way between me and Octavia. We’re just friends.”
“I don’t know. Lately, she’s been all over you. What if she thinks that you two are going out now and would kill you for even talking to another mare?”
“Then you get my records.”
“Alright,” said our coach. “We’re going to self-scrimmage today. Your captains will pick your teams.”
I like to think that a good school year is one where you make a stupid mistake.
We just got a senior earth pony that transferred from Baltimare and join the team. His name is Bicycle Kick and he was big and looked like he should be playing Griffin Hoofball, but he insisted on trying out. He was really good and gave the captains a run for their money. For this scrimmage he was on the other team. I had the ball and was about to kick it into the goal, forgetting to check around me to see if any other pony was open and had a better shot, when he slid in to steal it. The only problem was that he hit my hoof in the process. A sharp pain shot through my hoof and up my leg. I immediately dropped to the floor. I tried standing back up, but it just hurt too much. I ended up having to go to the hospital.
They gave me some pain killers and took an x-ray of my leg. It turns out that he accidently broke my leg. It wasn’t anything to bad, but I do have to wear a cast and The Doctor wants me to be in a wheel chair for the next two weeks, at the most. He also wanted me to stay in the hospital for at least the next few hours.
“Where is he?” I could hear Celestia’s voice from the hall way. A nurse pointed her to my room. The next thing I heard was her hooves running towards my room. She didn’t wait to open the door. “Are you alright?”
“No, but I will be.”
“What happened?”
“It was just a Hoofball accident. Another colt tried to steal the ball and accidently hit me. I’ll be fine, mom.”
“I know you will, Golden. Is there anything I can do to help him, Doctor?”
“I would try the soup thing again. This time, however, add a bit of your magic. Nothing works better than a hint of motherly love. Now, if you would excuse me, I have other patients to get to.”
“Thank you, Doctor. You’ll usual check will be in the mail.”
“No need, Princess. I’m happy to do this for free,” he said as he left the room.
“Are you going to be alright?” Celestia asked me. She pulled up a chair to the side of my bed. “I’m just so worried about you.”
“I’ll be fine. Ponies break their legs all the time.”
“Yes, but it’s never happened to ponies this close to me. And not just anypony, it’s my own son. I’m not completely sure what to do.”
“Don’t worry, mom. I know that you’ll be fine. You’ve been a great mom so far and I’m sure that you can do even better in the years to come.” There was a knock on my door and Cadence pocked her head in.
“Is it okay to come in?” she said.
“It’s fine,” Celestia said. Cadence and my other friends came into the room. “I’ll let you be alone with your friends.” She leaned in and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. I didn’t notice it at first, but she was wearing a fresh coat of lipstick. It was a little hard to see, but you can if you look for it.
“You did that on purpose,” I said to her before she left the room.
“I know.”
“I love Auntie Celestia,” Cadence said with a smile while she finished signing my cast. I didn’t notice, but all of my friends had already signed it.
“Thanks for coming guys,” I said.
“You know we would come,” Spitfire said. There was another knock at my door.
“Can I come in?” Bicycle Kick said.
“Of course,” I said.
“I just dropped by to say that I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you in any way. Please tell me that you understand.”
“It’s fine,” I said, “It really was my fault. I should have looked around and seen you coming.”
“Well, sometimes you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess. You know this might make a funny story one day.” Bicycle Kick left the room. He said that he was taking somepony on a date and had to get ready.
“He really is a nice guy,” Spitfire said, “He’s always there to make sure that he doesn’t hurt anypony’s feelings. Hint, hint Golden.”
“What are you talking about?” Shining asked.
“Octavia, do you mind if Fleur comes with us?”
“Isn’t she going with Fancy?” Octavia asked.
“You haven’t heard?” Cadence said, “They got into a fight and Fancy doesn’t want to go.”
“I told her to ask me and she did. So, what do you say, Octavia? Can she come with us?”
“I don’t see why not. I feel bad for her. She really likes Fancy Pants and to think that he doesn’t want to do anything for her makes me a little sad. Oh, and thank you so much for playing along the past few weeks. I know what I did this morning was sudden, but it did the trick.”
“What?” I said.
“He started to back off after that.”
“Who?” I said, still confused.
“Come on, Golden, don’t act dumb.”
“I’m not acting. What have you done, Octavia?”
“Oh, sorry. I just assumed you saw him too. You remember that colt from the homecoming dance? The one that wanted to ‘roll in the hay’? He’s been stalking me since this year started. I might have told him that I was already in a relationship with you, so I had to act like it. I thought you blew our cover when you had the whole thing about Angel, but he didn't hear it. That kiss was the final piece and he promised to back off.”
“That explains so much,” Vinyl said. We all started to laugh as we talked about all the crazy things Octavia did the past few weeks.
“I think cuddling against his arm was cute,” Cadence said.
“It was a little embarrassing,” Octavia said. “Would you do it?”
“Well…” Cadence said. “I have something to tell you.” Shining put his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him and then put her hands on his. They both started smiling and I was too. “We have something to tell you. Shining and I are a couple.”
“What?” Vinyl said, almost as if she was speaking another language.
“During fifth period, I asked him to the dance. He said yes and then we talked a bit more.”
“We figured out that we both like each other, so I asked if she wanted to start dating.”
“Congrats, guys,” I said, “I just wish that you could have told us somewhere besides a hospital.”
We continued to talk a little more before I was discharged. My mom was waiting outside my room the entire time. I told her that she could have came in, but she said that she was fine meeting her subjects. I used my magic to wheel myself out of the hospital. Using magic for long time periods puts a strain on an unicorns mind and causes migraines, so Cadence, Celestia, and I switched off. Everypony else went home to get ready for dinner.
The next week and a half was interesting. There were mares all over me, asking how it happened. I felt like a bad flank telling ponies that it was a Hoofball accident. Most of the ponies that I talked to signed by cast. None of us saw or even heard from Fancy Pants. Fleur still had hope that he might come back and apologize. The only thing I’m disappointed about is that I didn’t get to play in the Hoofball game against our rivals, Star Swirl Academy. We still won, 3-4, but it was a hell of a game to miss.
The Doctor’s soup idea worked again, but it was awful to eat nothing but enchanted soup. I was limping a bit for a day or two, but I was fine by the time of the dance. I put on a suit and Cadence wore a new dress. It was a light blue, strapped dress that looked amazing on her. We walked to Octavia’s house, then Shining’s, and finally Fleur’s. We walked to the school, where they transformed the gym to match the theme.
All of us enjoyed the dance. We had fun dancing and hanging out with the ponies around school. Even Vinyl, who would have enjoyed herself on the dance floor, enjoyed DJ-ing the thing. When it came to the slow dances, I danced half of them with Fleur and the other half with Octavia.
“That was so much fun,” Fleur said when we sat down to take a break. “Thank you so much, Golden.”
“You would have done the same for me.”
“So, if you don’t mind me asking,” Octavia said, “What are you going to do about Fancy Pants?”
“I’m not sure. I want to be with him, but not if he’s going to if he’s going to insult everything I want to do. I don’t know. Maybe we should…” She was interrupted by a colt yelling her name. The dance floor parted and let Fancy Pants come down the middle. Fleur stood up as he came closer. He was completely dressed up in a suit, but that was nothing new for him. Fancy always liked to dress up a bit.
“Fleur, I’m so sorry.”
“What?” Fleur said.
“I’m sorry. I should have known that this dance meant something to you. I shouldn’t have been so worried about what other ponies think about me going to a place like this. All I care about is you and what you think about me. I love you, Fleur.”
“I love you too, Fancy.” The two hugged and kissed each other. It was sweet to watch and made me smile.
“That’s not all,” Fancy said. He continued by getting down on one knee and pulled a small felt box out of his back pocket. He opened it to reveal a small gold ring. “This is a promise ring. It’s a symbol of our love. Will you accept it?”
“Yes! Yes! A million times, Yes!” Fancy slid the ring on her finger. The rest of the night was a bit magical. I later learned that Cadence set him straight that morning.
The rest of Sophomore year was more or less the same as Freshmen year. Work on projects, do homework, projects, dealing with social life. Octavia and I pretended to be a couple for the rest of the year so that stalker wouldn’t come back. We didn’t kiss again, but we were just as convincing. We were lucky that the colt was a senior and we would never have to see him again.
After the last day of school, Cadence wanted some alone time with me. Tomorrow was mine and Angel’s one year anniversary, and I still haven’t heard from her. We went to the park and sat under out favorite tree.
“How are you holding up?” She asked me.
“I’m alright, I guess. I just wish that she would write back.”
“Does this mean you two are…?”
“I hope not, but her not writing back might mean that she wants to.”
“I know it must be tough, but look on the bright side. For one glorious summer you had somepony to call your own. You had somepony who loved you and cared for you. You had what other ponies wish they could have.”
“I like to think I have more than what other ponies wish for. I have a friend as great as you. You’re always there for me and know how to make me smile.”
“It’s what we promised each other last year. And I plan to keep that promise forever. So, it’s the start of a new summer. What do you want to do?”
Just then a pair of white wings blocked my vision.
“Guess who,” a feminine voice said. I didn’t wait. I turned around and hugged Angel.