The final warning bell rang a few minutes before class was set to start, and thirty seconds later, Rainbow Dash sagged casually in through the front doors of the school and made her way in through the vestibule.
She zipped over and slipped beneath the front office’s low windows, crawling on her hands, knees and elbows.
She would have made it too, if the door hadn’t opened right in her face and knocked against her skull.
“Owie,” she grunted, rubbing the sore spot on her head.
A crazy-awesome set of legs in slacks towered over her, and her magenta eyes slowly blinked up to the woman who owned them.
Ms. Tia blinked in surprise, then smiled down at her.
“Thought you could just sneak by, hm?” came her soothing voice.
Frick.
“N-no, ma’am,” Rainbow said, grinning cheekily up to the superintendent.
She stood at a giant six feet two inches. Rainbow Dash was rather tall for her age, but even she could barely look the woman in the eye without raising her chin. And when she wore that smirk on her face, even she knew better than to go mouthing off. She was practically royalty amongst the school staff, and godly to the student body for her fair demeanor but firm enforcement… and sense of humor.
Rainbow had also been the subject of many disciplinary actions. They’d met before.
“Did you drop something then?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow beneath that hair of hers that never seemed to stop flowing, as if it were adrift in a permanent breeze.
“Uhh… would you believe me if I said yes?”
“Not even for a minute,” she said with a warm smile.
Rainbow pouted. “Darn. You know me too well.”
Ms. Tia smirked in that odd, comforting-yet-ominous way she had that could calm any student with but a glimpse. “Well, since you’re spry enough to go sneaking around the halls, I’m assuming you’ll feel well enough to make it to your detention tomorrow?”
Double-frick.
Rainbow shot her most pitiable expression in her arsenal at her and lamely clutched at her stomach. “U-umm… actually, I did feel kind of queasy a little while ago when I-”
“Don’t even bother finishing that sentence, young lady.”
Well, it hadn’t exactly been a lie. Spin-outs could make anyone dizzy!
Changing gears, Rainbow’s face brightened as she bolted upright. “Awww, c’mon Ms. Tia.” She clutched at her arm, provoking another raised eyebrow. “Can ya get me off the hook? For old-time’s sake?” She flashed her teeth with her best smile and fluttered her eyes spiritedly.
The superintendent smiled and chuckled, pressing an index finger to the girl’s forehead and pushing her away.
“A for effort, Rainbow Dash. Now if you’d apply those efforts to your studies, you could improve your punctuality.” She reached over and picked up a briefcase she’d been carrying, then turned her eyes back to her. “Remember, tomorrow. Saturday at eight. Does that ring a bell?”
Sighing, she nodded in defeat. “Yes, ma’am…” she muttered.
“Good,” Ms. Tia said brightly. “See you then!” she chirped, heading for the front doors.
“You’re a cruel mistress, y’know!” she shouted playfully after the woman, who merely waved over her shoulder in reply.
The familiar tone of the one-minute warning rang through the loudspeakers.
Ah, triple frick on a dick!
Rainbow looked up to a clock jutting out of the wall. She had fifty-seven seconds between then and the start of first period. She felt the urge to run to her locker, before she remembered she hadn’t even brought her school bag along. Sighing, she turned around and headed back the opposite direction towards her class.
A gray-haired woman with indigo eyes smirked at her as she passed.
“Hope you’ll be joining us for detention tomorrow, Miss Dash!” Principal Meyer purred with a smirk.
Go eat a fart ya old bag.
Rainbow raised her index finger and twirled it over her head with a roll of her eyes. “Yeah… it’s gonna be sooooo much fun.”
“Look on the bright side!” she heard behind her, “At least now you’ll get to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance in the evening!”
She ignored her and just kept pace towards Miss Cheerilee’s homeroom.
“Rainbow! There ya are!” came the familiar southern accent from behind her.
She barely had time to blink and turn around before she was yanked on her arm by a blurring, blonde angel. She nearly lost her footing and stumbled to try and keep up with the quick-paced Applejack.
“Whoa, whoa! Slow down, girlfriend! A little early to be rushing off to the altar, isn’t it?” Rainbow asked with a wicked smile.
“Hush yer yap and pick up yer feet! We’re gonna be late!”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and chased after the farmgirl, overtaking her and pulling her along. The two jockeyed for first place, but her experience with the track team meant that she edged her friend out. Just as the tail end of the starting bell rang out, the pair rushed in the door, and blocked Applejack’s entry obnoxiously until being elbowed out of the way.
Miss Cheerilee scowled at the two as they caught their breath.
“We’re… here… Miss Cheerilee!” Applejack panted, smiling sheepishly.
“Glad you two could join us,” she frowned at them amidst the collective chuckle of their classmates and motioned to their seats in the back of the room. “Hurry up and take your seats.”
“Yes ma’am,” the pair replied simultaneously.
The two shuffled to the back of the room and walked along the wall, while Cheerilee returned to the front of the class. “Now, everybody open your books to page…”
Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash collapsed into their chairs. The latter cast a smug little smile her friend’s way. She returned it with an annoyed roll of her eyes.
“What?” she whispered softly as Applejack dug through her bag in her lap. “We made it on time, didn’t we?”
“Barely. We cut it awful close,” she muttered, pulling out her Literature book and plopping it heavily onto her desk while the instructor continued at the front of the room. She flipped to the indicated page.
“Yeah, but we still made it.”
“You wouldn’t have if it weren’t for me.” Applejack paused and looked up from her book. “Hey, where’s your stuff?”
Rainbow smiled as innocently as possible and touched her index fingers together timidly.
“Seriously?” asked her bemused friend. “What number is this?”
“Hey, at least I never forgot to wear pants to school!” Rainbow hissed from behind a playful, lackadaisical smile.
Applejack made to backhand her, causing her to flinch and hide behind her arms.
“Yer lucky Ah’m such a good friend,” she sighed, sliding the book to the closer edge of her desk.
Rainbow grinned and picked up her desk, before stealthily scooting it over on the carpet. Miss Cheerilee didn’t take any notice.
“Have I told you lately how much I love you?”
Applejack frowned. “Shut up. Ah’m tryin’ to hear the lecture.”
“What good’ll it do ya? You always get C’s.”
“Shut up. Ah got a B.”
“Yeah. A B-. Once,” Rainbow countered, ribbing her friend softly with her elbow. “And that was with the extra credit question.”
“Well, maybe Ah’d get better grades in this stupid class if’n ya’d shut up and let me concentrate!” Applejack whispered angrily, trying her best to concentrate on the part of the book the teacher had moved on to.
“What are you wearing to the dance tomorrow?”
A pause.
“Dance?”
“The Sadie Hawkins Dance? Tomorrow night at seven o’clock? Any of this information fluttering around in that space between your hat?”
“Rarity’s gonna help me with a dress tonight,” she said, followed by tapping one of the students in front of her and asking for the information she’d just missed.
“Y'know what you need?”
“Ah'm sure yer gonna tell me...”
“You need to get laid.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Hell, if Ah thought it'd shut ya up fer a minute or two, Ah'd do you, ya crank.”
Rainbow knew she was just being facetious, but the way she balked at Applejack's words caused the other girl to smirk triumphantly and go back to scribbling on her notepad. She was at a loss for a reply, and frowned in her defeat.
“Yeah, well... I'd do me too,” she said lamely and flopped onto her elbow on her desk.
A pause settled over them while Miss Cheerilee continued her lecture.
“Hey,” she started.
Applejack sighed in frustration and continued scribbling. “Yeah?”
“Do you have today's math homework?”
Her friend reached down swiftly and pulled out a folder labeled “Algebra”.
“And my pencil?”
She produced a rainbow-designed pencil and rolled it across the desk into her waiting hand.
“And-”
“Ah swear to Christ, just make a list for me already,” Applejack growled and yanked a sheet of paper out of her notepad, passing it to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow grinned down to the sheet and took it for herself, hiding it behind her arm and shoulder as she scribbled on it with her barely-used pencil.
She slid the sheet of paper back to the farmgirl.
Her friend flipped it over and read the list.
One word was scribbled on it.
Spooge.
Applejack fell out of her chair and filled the classroom with her raucous, musical laughter, while Rainbow smirked victoriously.
***
“Sleepover at Dashie's place.”
Rainbow looked up from her plastic tray filled with questionably comestible items, and stared at the pink-haired girl for a long several moments. She narrowed her eyes and looked around at the rest of the group curiously.
“Did anybody else hear that?” she asked. “It sounded like I was getting drafted for something.”
The others ignored her.
“I second that,” Twilight said with a smile, before chowing down on her burger.
“Well, somebody has to clean the pig sty she calls a home, so I suppose I'm in support of it as well,” Rarity said as she powdered her nose.
“Hey!” she shouted, glaring at each of the girls in turn.
“You got mah vote,” a familiar accent said as it chewed around a mouthful of apple. Applejack smiled mischievously at her. “Just 'cause Ah wanna piss 'er off.”
“Excuse me, but I think I've got some kind of say in this!” Rainbow protested.
Fluttershy chuckled quietly and raised her hand in support of the proposal.
“Helloooo? Got detention in the morning? Remember?” she frowned. “I'm gonna have to get up early and leave.”
“How's that affect us?” asked the farmgirl.
“Come on, Dashie!” Pinkie said warmly. “We haven't had a sleepover in a really long time!”
“Since middle school, if memory serves,” the fashionista recalled.
“It would be nice to get together again... umm... that is, if that's okay with Rainbow Dash, I mean...”
“Come on Rainbow Dash! It can be your happy-party-night-before-your-execution-AKA-weekend-detention party!”
Rainbow shoved her head into her hand.
“How did we decide it had to be my place, again? Can't we just do it at Rarity's place? She's got a huge house! Or Twilight's? Heck, even Fluttershy's house is bigger than mine?”
Rarity sniffed. “The last time we all stayed at my house for an evening, I spent the better part of the next morning cleaning up the mess. And since it's not possible to make a pig sty a mess-”
“Stop calling my apartment a pig sty! It's not that messy!” she snapped.
“Sugar, the last time Ah came over, ya had a penicillin-covered pizza layin' on yer coffee table, and not a single clean dish in the whole house.”
“So? Why would you guys wanna come over anyway if you thought it was such a wreck to-”
“Toga party!” Pinkie randomly proposed as she clattered to a standing position.
The group paused, looking at her, before ignoring her and moving on.
“I wouldn't object to a sleepover. And if it helps Rainbow Dash's living conditions if we help her clean up a bit, so much the better,” Twilight said over the book she held in her hands
“And while Rainbow Dash is serving her sentence, I can put the finishing touches on everyone's ensemble for the dance tomorrow. Then once time rolls around, we could all just pile into my daddy's SUV and go to the dance together.”
Rainbow frowned. “Who said I was even going to the dance? What if I don't wanna?”
“Aww c'mon Rainbow. It wouldn't be half as much fun if ya missed out,” Applejack smiled up to her. “And it ain't like you're gonna be doin' much else.”
“...I could play video games,” she huffed.
“Besides, darling!” Rarity continued, grinning widely, “it's a Sadie Hawkins dance!”
“Yeah! You could just grab your partner and skip to my lou!”
Rainbow turned the thought over in her head. Rarity wouldn't have the time to pull together a dress for her in the short amount of time between now and tomorrow, so if she wanted to go ahead, she would have to figure something else out.
Besides, it wasn't like the thought of going with the girls the next day was a bad thought; she liked the thought of going. It was the thought of everyone seeing her laundry-covered apartment covered in moldy food and dirty dishes and trash. She may not have cared much for what other people thought, but the sleepover made her gut wrench when she thought of Rarity's and Twilight's inevitable scathing remarks.
She couldn't fight the group off forever, however, and would just have to rush around doing what she could to make it all a bit less disgusting.
“I'd still rather play Grand Theft Auto...” she muttered, leaning back and crossing her arms as she braved a bite of her cafeteria food, then choked it back with a swig of her sports drink.
“Than spend time with us?” Applejack asked, softly elbowing her in the shoulder.
Rainbow sighed. “Okay, if you guys are coming over, then you gotta promise to take it easy on to take it easy on the bashing and fun-poking.”
“That's a reasonable proposal,” Twilight said, smirking with an evil grin. She clapped her book shut after marking it. “I reject it.”
“Heeheeheehee!”
She frowned and looked over to Applejack for help, but she ignored her as she pitched her apple core in the trash.
“I thought I was already being punished,” she pouted, sliding down in her chair.
Still, a glimmer of hope danced on the periphery of the proposal. If she was hosting a sleepover, that at least meant she'd be sleeping under the same roof as Applejack... and whatever that entailed.
She tried to keep up the act of reluctance as she inhaled and released an exhausted-sounding sigh. “Alright, fine. Whatever...” she moaned.
While the others seemed to get excited outwardly over their plans for the evening, internally Rainbow Dash was already skipping happily to a tune that only she could hear.