Three ponies, Lemon counted, were headed towards them. Exactly what they wanted would soon be made clear. The pony in the middle seemed to be tallest, his black mane looking neatly combed yet high profile, almost like some kind of Elvis horse. This pony also had orange fur and a poorly maintained pair of wings.
The pony to his right appeared to be an Earth pony, he did not have wings or a horn. His white fur blended well with his neat blue mane which appeared to be neatly combed, a complete opposite of his companion's style choice.
To the left of the two was a unicorn with grey fur and a dark green mane, a face being worn that gave aggression yet was not exactly intimidating. It was difficult to be intimidated by a face filled with spots and cracks; honestly, this filly looked like a small witch pony!
It was obvious they wanted their presence to be noticed, what with the fact that they seemed to try and make eye contact with Lemon and Sky while approaching them in a youthful attitude, only stopping a couple of feet away.
"Hey, what are ya doin' in our corner of the grounds?" the orange pegasus asked them, in that tone of voice one could only expect from an 80s sports movie villain, a tone that clearly confirmed Lemon’s belief that these kids were not friendly and it appeared as if Sky felt the same way. Lemon was an introvertive pony, however he felt like he had to stand up for the sake of his friend.
“...Does it matter?” He asked the group, receiving a foul look from the grey pony in response. Lemon took no interest. It was at this moment that he noticed a number of fillies and foals looking over to them out of the corner of their eyes, yet none of them seemed willing to help.
“He asked you a question.” The voice came from the grey pony’s mouth, it was a voice that sounded oddly deep for a female’s voice, it also sounded awkward and bolshy.
"And he gave you an answer." Sky spoke firmly, completely undeterred by the fact that he was facing off against three ponies here, all of which appeared to be older than Lemon and Sky. The grey pony then gave Sky that same look Lemon received, however Sky threw back a dirty look of his own which actually seemed to work in temporarily making her look away.
"It matters because you shouldn't be here," the white earth pony of the group was talking now, he spoke in a strong British accent, not that Equestrians knew what a 'Britain' was. "This part of the grounds is reserved for us only!"
"And who reserved it?" Sky kept his clear tone of voice throughout the whole ordeal, it was as if nothing was intimidating him at all. The pony in the center of the trio was quick to respond.
"We did, now get lost!" Lemon was about to 'get lost' as the orange pegasus pony put it, but Sky remained stood right where he was standing, so Lemon thought it would be best for him to stay beside his blue friend in case a certain pile of manure were to hit a trio of spinning blades.
"You can't just claim a patch of land and call it reserved just because you're too lazy to find some other place to play with your dolls." Lemon envisaged a roaring flame in Sky's hooves, not that ponies knew what a 'flamethrower' was. "We got here first."
The white pony spoke again. "We've been here a whole year, moron, now get out of here." He approached Sky and Lemon, giving them ever-dirtier looks.
"You call me a moron," Sky retaliated with his own approach, "but you gotta be really brain-dead to think I'm gonna shift aside for the Knights of the Stupid Table."
"You talk tough, rookie." The air was tense now. "Let's just wait and see how you stack up when the hooves go flying, huh? Weakling." This last comment got to the blue unicorn.
Out of nowhere, Sky threw a strong right hook.
Lemon heard a satisfying crack as something gave inside the white pony's skull, and he fell to the floor with a loud thud. "AH!" he screamed, writhing on the grass, clutching his face.
The other two ponies stood above him, checking on the fallen bully. Lemon knew what was going to happen next.
"Sky, combat wise, what have you got?"
"... this ballpoint pen?" He pulled out a pen from his pocket using his magic and held it up for all to see.
Lemon facehoofed. "Damn it, Sky," though in hindsight he shouldn't have doubted the capabilities a pen could have when facing off a pair of attackers. Just as the lady of the group locked eyes with Sky and started walking angrily towards him, the pen shot forward like a rocket and lodged itself right in the chest of the pony, causing her to step back and groan in pain.
The orange pony was now heading their way, looking as if he was desperate to attack Sky and save his reputation. Whether or not Sky was going to pull a hat-trick out of the bag was anypony's guess, but Lemon was not willing to take the risk, so in a yellow blur, he darted under the hooves of the attacker and tripped him up in one powerful swoop. By now, however, the white pony that fell victim to Sky's first attack was getting back onto his hooves, the grey filly had gotten the pen out of her chest and both wanted COLD HEARTED VENGEANCE! But instead, Lemon and Sky were going to deliver SWIFT JUSTICE!
Both ponies headed straight for Sky, him being the pony who caused both of them their pain. After tripping the orange pony, Lemon was now side on to the attackers, so he saw his opportunity to run head on into them, knocking both of them over in a domino-effect. Sky, noticing the Elvis haired pegasus getting back to his hooves, charged at him and slammed his face back into the ground by grabbing his mane with his magic and pulling it right into the tarmac. For good measure, he repeated a few times to the point where the orange pegasus was on the verge of not getting back up.
The other two ponies were now groaning on their backs, lying on the grounds like dead bugs. Lemon looked worn out, even after the short burst of adrenalin, and Sky looked like he wanted to kick some more heads in. Probably not a good idea though, Lemon thought; getting expelled on the first day did not seem like a good idea.
Lemon thought it best, at this time, to run for the hills. Unfortunately, there were no hills to run to as it was a playground, so he made do with what he had and ran to the furthest possible corner followed by a certain blue furred unicorn with anger-management issues.
"Okay," he wanted to think of someway of getting out of this without being expelled or without his parents finding out. "Do you have any ideas of how to come out of this clean?"
"Um..." His head flew up. "Yes. Yes, I do have an idea of how to come out of this clean!" Sky made his way back to the colts and filly who attacked them, their bodies looking dusty and worthless. Lemon just now noticed the state of the orange pony who Sky attacked most recently.
"Jesus Sky, we're not supposed to kill them!"
"We weren't supposed to attack them to begin with." He made his way up to the face of the orange pony who stared back at him, a look of evil in his eyes.
"Prick." He spat his words at Sky who -unlike last time- responded with a few choice words.
"You and your goons here were just completely wrecked by a couple of six year olds," Lemon stood beside Sky keeping a close watch on the other two ponies, "how would that sound to your fellow classmates?"
"If you tell anypony-" the orange horse's words were cut off,
"If YOU tell any teachers what we did, we won't tell any students.” The orange pony looked down at the tarmac upon which he lay, “and it will be as if this never happened, your reputation will remain intact. If you DO tell a teacher or two, we are going to tell all the students. All of them. About how you, Mr Orange, were beaten by me and Lemon. Deal?”
The orange pony didn’t even hesitate. “Deal.” Sky sighed.
“Better.” he got up, joined Lemon and headed back to their corner.
“Sky…” Lemon addressed his blue friend, who looked at him out of the corner of his eye, “You are sick.” Sky chuckled slightly.
“Only slightly!”
The rest of school was… not exciting as Lemon expected. Sky knew from the start that school would be a pretty dull place, but Lemon had to face the disappointment of finding out himself. His goal to make a friend was complete, though, even if he also made a few enemies in the process. By the end of the school day, Lemon didn’t want to see Sky go. His presence made him feel secure.
“Hey, Sky…” Him and the unicorn were now stood outside the schoolhouse with a large number of fillies and foals walking by after a draining day of pretending to learn. “Would you like to come over and spend some time at the orchard?” Let’s just assume for the sake of the lazy editor's sanity that he told Sky he lived on an orchard while in lesson.
“Sure, nothing better to do.” The pony shrugged and followed Lemon home. Lemon just now thought about the cray response Sky might have to Pinkie Pie. They entered through a parting in the white fence that surrounded the maze of lemon trees and followed the dirt path that led to the house, however Lemon and Sky did not go in the house, instead Lemon led him into the forest. Judging by the position of the sun, it was around 5 o’clock, Pinkie would be here!
“If we get lost, I’m eating you before you eat me!” Sky told Lemon, who was following his track of rocks he lay and was paying no attention to Sky’s crazy survival ideas. Judging by his earlier escapade, though, he was likely serious.
“Well, we can just chill here for a while.” Lemon saw no sign of a pink ball of fluff and fur, although he didn’t see her last time before she tackled him… she was probably hiding again. And here came his response:
“HEEEEEEEEEEEEY!” A blur of pink fell from a nearby lemon tree and landed directly on Sky’s back, forcing him onto the ground. “Who’s the new kid?"
“Pinkie, this is Sky! Sky, the pink mass that just attacked you is called Pinkie.” Lemon explained. Pinkie got off from Sky’s back and had her face in front of Sky’s, before greeting him with an excited “HI!” Sky had no response for some time, but he eventually spoke up.
“...Well, she’s cute enough.” He got up and brushed some dirt off his orange shirt. "I guess." Pinkie giggled.
“And you’re blue enough! I guess!” Sky clapped.
“Yes, I’m blue. Well spotted!" Sky rolled his eyes. "Have a gold star.”
Lemon butted in. “So… wanna play a game?”
Pinkie seemed enthusiastic. “I LOVE GAMES!” She bounced a couple of times in long bounces that, again, seemed to ignore the rules of gravity.
“I like games slightly less than the next pony. Why the heck not, I guess."
Pinkie spoke before Lemon had the chance to suggest a game of Hide and Seek.
“LET’S CLIMB A TREE!” Sky showed a sudden interest.
“Yeah, that sounds fun!” The unicorn made a quick dash for a nearby tree -nearby trees certainly weren’t in short supply- and Pinkie quickly followed.
"Okay, we'll climb a tree." Lemon approached the same tree the other two stood by. Not many trees in the orchard had grown like this, with many branches sticking out here and then, but there did come the occasional tree that spread out more.
"I get to go up first, excuse me fags." He stood leaning on the tree, and quickly he had made a grab for a branch and was pulling himself up. "Lemme know if any of you two noobs need help up," he continued climbing, right to a high up branch. The place he selected as his seat was ideal, there were a couple of other branches beside it that would also make ideal seats.
Pinkie was next to climb up. Her small size -as opposed to the more muscular body of Lemon and the slightly fattened body of Sky- meant she could nimbly slip through small gaps between branches and easily reach the high up position where Sky sat. She sat on a nearby branch that was slightly further down. Next it was Lemon's turn.
Pinkie called down to the pegasus, "you're next, get up here!" Her words encouraged Lemon further.
"All right, I'm comin'..." Lemon reached out and lodged his hoof in a split in the branch before pulling himself up and wrapping his other hoof around a further back branch. He pulled himself up further, feeling slightly fatigued at the effort, yet he continued. The pegasus could now get a rear hoof up and onto a nearby branch, giving him enough power to push himself up onto the final branch beside where Pinkie sat. Pulling one last time, he made it. Sitting beside Pinkie, he could now see a much higher up view of the orchard, just below where all the lemons hung from their dens of leaves and twigs.
"Wouldn't it be great to fly around this place?" Sky sounded calm and truthful, very abnormal for his character. "The freedom, the wind, the adrenaline... You're lucky, Lemon."
"Hardly, I don't know how to fly yet..." Lemon sighed. "What, you really want to fly?"
"Yeah!" Sky was sat on the edge of the branch, his legs dangling freely in the air, tempted to jump and take his chances, "but... what are the odds, I'm a unicorn! We don't have wings!"
"N'aaaaw, I'm sure there will be some kind of flying spell!" Pinkie reassured Sky.
"Yeah, there is, but it's really high-level magic, you'd have to study magic all your life to learn it." He moved further back on the branch, almost feeling himself give in to temptation. "It's not happening."
Pinkie started merrily swinging her hooves under the branch, occasionally nudging Lemon's leg to get him to do the same. Instead, Lemon gave Pinkie a question.
"What about you, Pinks, anything you'd like to get off your chest?" The pink filly pondered.
"Hm... I live on a rock farm?"
"I already know that." Lemon replied, "you told me earlier to-"
"You live on a rock farm?!" Sky butted in.
"Yeah, a rock farm. I'd much rather live here in Ponyville, but we only come up here every fortnight or so to visit our Grammy Pie."
"...YOU live on a rock farm?" Sky repeated himself.
Lemon stopped history repeating itself. "Okay, the pink one lives with rocks, the blue one wants to fly, case closed!"
"Way to kill the conversation."
So, they just sat there on the high branches of a lemon tree, talking, playing 20 Questions, doing whatever one can imagine three ponies doing in a tree... which actually isn't that much.