Appiano, dressed in a sey of sharp clothes that however retained the colour scheme of his everyday clothes, was fiddling around with his pen, as the brightly-lit sober and yet elegant meeting room of his large house was slowly filled with the members of the Students' Council of his High School, the general murmur and noise of chairs being moved signaling that not everybody was there yet
As Head of the Council, it was his duty to organize the conferences, along with begin the one actually petitioning to the Principal for certain major changed to the school. Appiano also had the duty to organize the events and contests the school was involved in.
The Friendship Games where one of them.
Appiano stopped making his pen click, when he realized that the noise stopped. He lifted his head up, and saw five of the twenty Council Members sitting on poplar chair with green velvet cushions, which were next to the circular oak table of the room.
"Dè, two quarters of the Council is missing," he said out loud, as he opened up the already turned-on red laptop in front of him. Piano quickly opened up the program that connected via bluetooth the computer to the projector encased in the wall at the opposite side of the room and made the projector start up with a whir and a white light being projected.
"Mayhaps be because our attempts to win the Friendship Games have been proven to be a pointless endeavor?" Octavia said with a grumble, as she looked at her right hand's nails while holding her head with the other one. Appiano sighed, as he put up the first image he wanted to show, namely the Wall of Scholarship Honor in Tenochtitlan, a wall covered in bronze plates and symbols, one of which, a golden winged "s," recurred frequently on the wall.
"And yet we beat the rest of the schools without breaking a sweat, how's that?"
"Maybe because the other schools aren't the Crystal Academy, Violet Blurr" Octavia replied, as she looked with half-cloaed eyes towards Violet Blurr, who crossed her arms and sighed.
"Dè, but we beat Acapulco's Minor Officers School last year in sports," Piano said, as he zoomed upon the plates with the winged "s" engraved "I think that we have the cloth to beat, a least in sports, a school supposed to form the offspring of the Old Money."
"That's because the Acapulchians were too tattered and worn out by their teachers to perform well," Octavia commented, as she turned her eyes towards the projector's screen behind Piano "Oh well, let's see what do you have in mind."
Appiano rose up from his seat and then stepped aside to allow the ten councilors to see.
"Dè, as you can see," Appiano said, pointing at the image "of late, the Crystal Academy has had a pretty much an unbroken record of victories in the Friendship Games. Their prowess seems to be based on their morale and number of victories."
Everybody in the room hummed.
"But, after some research, I figured out a system for be the final victors in this competition," Appiano went back to the laptop and passed to the next image, which showed the portraits of twelve different people. "Namely, study our enemy."
"And how that differs from what we have done in the past years?" Octavia interrupted, speaking in a monotonous tone, which made Appiano clench his first before grinning.
"Dè, until now, we just studied their performance, but... did we ever studied their personalities and behaviours outside competition?" Appiano said, putting his left hand closed in a fist over his chest. Everybody in he rooms tilted their heads.
"And how does that help?" Billy Cobra asked, as he adjusted his glasses, before lifting his right index up and hunch forward, as the other councilors nodded in agreement and whispered between themselves. Appiano's smirk grew in size, as result of Billy Cobra's comment, as he went back to the laptop to lick on the photo of one of the people depicted, specifically a girl with lavender eyes, dark pink hair collected in bums with turquoise stripes and light orange skin.
"Dè, it's easier to find exploits. For example," he said, going back to his previous position, while the new image loaded to show off a full-body photo of her leaning against a target pierced by multiple arrows, all next to the center "this is Sour sweet, and she will be the Champion for Footed Archery and part of the team of Horseback Archery."
"And so?" Octavia asked, as Billy Cobra, Carrot Top and Nolan North approved with a "Yeah, so?"
Piano chuckled, as he sat on the table, pointing at Octavia.
"Dè, she isn't one for teamwork, or is ever in a good mood. Pretty much like you" he said with a chuckle, causing Octavia to glare "Anyways, her skills in archery, according to the people she practices with, is strongly dependent on how she perceives somebody's skill to be, as she will be a very fast and precise archer when she feels that the opponent is unskilled, but will easily cower if she feels that her skills may be in any way inferior."
"The problem is, she's really good, and it's difficult to show yourself to be above her level," Nolan North said.
"That is true, unless we hire an ex-olympionic to train us..." Billy Cobra said, the mention of which made Appiano have a sudden idea.
"Or we pretend to have done so!" Appiano said with a snap of fingers that echoed in the room "I was thinking to use her phobia of dogs at our advt age, but I guess that could work too."
Some snickers came from the councilors, while other stared at Appiano with wide eyes. Then Violet Blurr exploded in a roaring laugh as she stated to beat the table with her right hand.
"She is afraid of dogs?! She's afraid of dogs!" Violet Blurr said in-between laughs, bringing Octavia to grit her teeth and poke her annoyed.
"First of all, I am too. Second, maybe she isn't afraid of poodles or chiuauas, just big and mean dogs."
Appiano snickered, as she recalled the incident that made him discover that.
"Dè, actually, Sour Sweet fled screaming bloody murder when she saw me walking my chihuahuas, and, trust me, it was hilarious!"
Octavia groaned and crossed her arms, as she glared at Piano, while the rest of the council started to snicker or laugh.
Once the hilarity died down, Appiano said.
"So, either we pretend to hire an ex-athlete, or we get ourselves on the field with a dog, possibly barking." He said, as he passed to the next slide, while Billy Cobra and Nolan North wrote down on the papers they had brought from home.
"Dè, I think that last year's rooster will be good enough even for this year's competition, so it still will be Jean-Baptiste D'Arc, Apple Fritter and Zipporwhill or however that dog-loving gal is called." Appiano said, as he passed to the next slide, showing a girl with orange-yellow spiky hair and turquoise skin, wearing a blue jumpsuit and looking at the camera smugly "This is Lighting dust, Champion of Horseback Shooting and part of the Motor Horse competition."
Nolan North snorted and crossed his arms, as Lighting dust's picture showed up on the screen. "She used to be my girl. Emphasis on 'used to'."
Appiano shrugged at Nolan's statement, as Violet Blurr whispered towards Nolan North, likely for ask him more information about his relationship with Lighting Dust.
"She's one that studied each and every piece of motorbike, before using it, and there are suspects that she may be rigging her motorbike in ways against the regulations. Should we manage to get her motorbike checked before the actual race or swap vehicles around, if the rumors are true..."
"We would be able to stop her." The rest of the council continued, which made Appiano sigh.
"However, even if the rumors aren't true, we still can play around with her pride, and make her either purposefully damage her motorcycle or do things that would expel her from the race. The Horseback Shooting part, setting aside the solution presented before, is completely crapshoot for now, thought."
And Nolan wrote it down while the rest listened.
"I will be the champion of Horseback Shooting this year, as Blueblood can't directly participate due to trouble with the law," Piano shield gleefully at the last part, remembering how he had humiliated him spectacularly "and I've beaten him. As for the rest of the team, I think that Photo Finish and Noi would be good teammates still. The Motor Horse Competition inevitably will be different, now that Spitfire, Soaring' and Flatfoot have graduated last year, but I think that I have in mind the right people for this, namely Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer."
The councilors nodded, as he then went on to change image still, now showing a girl with bright yellow and green hair and shocking pink skin, huddling together and smiling alongside a burly bald guy with an unkempt black beard.
"This is Lemon Zeist and his adopted brother from Zululand, Intestinal Beetle." Appiano said, as Octavia, Violet Blurr and Coco Pommel, the latter of which had been silent up to that point, gagged loudly and visibly.
"What kind of name is that?" Coco Pommel shrieked.
"What? Just what?" Was Octavia's response, while Violet Blurr simply stuck her tongue out.
"Well, that's just what his name means in his homeland's language." He said with a shrugging motion "Anyways, Lemon Zeist and Intestinal Beetle will both participate in the Flower Wars. Lemon Zeist has a very martial discipline, and Intestinal Beetle, as I've learned by my own expenses, is very tough."
"You know him?" Nolan North said as he recoiled a little, While Billy Cobra tilted his head and Coco Pommel stared. Piano chuckled at this scene, being used to it by then.
"Yeah. We met two years ago, at the gym where I used to and practice my fighting skills, and we've been on pretty good terms since. I'm not sure if he will cede to my requests to let us win, thought." Piano said, which caused the councilors to sigh in defeat. "Hence why I've tired to find a solution."
Then Appiano smiled and hunched his back a bit and spoke up again, a slight hiss of deviousness in his voice.
"However... I have a team composition in mind that will ensure great probabilities of victory."
For of the five councilors went on the edges of their seats to listen, while Octavia kept her demeanor and turned her head around.
Piano spoke up.
"Sunset Shimmer, me and Flameboy Shy are the perfect candidates for that," he said, making some of the councilors to scratch their heads in confusion "While it seems odd, to pitch a disabled into a fighting competition, I've studied it enough to tell that his disability has, indeed, advantages in that kind of fight. I'm one that does not fear a good old club fight, and Sunset Shimmer is a girl that expressed her wish to try."
The councilors looked in-between themselves, still a little confused.
"I don't know, to be honest... sounds like a bad idea..." Nolan North said "I mean, wouldn't let the ones that actually chose to specifically get in this competition do this? I'm sure they know what they were doing when they chose."
Appiano snickered, as he leaned against his chair.
"Hence why no-one besides me and Sunset shimmer has joined up. If we are going to try to be somewhat underhanded, then let us go the full way and try."
Nolan North and Billy Cobra shrugged, while the rest of the councilors shook their heads.
"I take that you'd need more proof, before approving. Oh well, this was the end of our meeting, sadly, as I haven't found any other weak points we could exploit for our own benefit. Consilium Solutum, then."
Nolan North nodded and quickly scribbled on paper, as the others got up from their chairs and left in a hurry.
Sunset Shimmer, Fluttershy, Appiano and Applejack were walking side-by side outside the school into the yard, wading through the crowd of students that were getting out of school due to the end of the lessons.
"So, you are telling me, I should focus myself on grooming the horses, not on training them directly?" Applejack said, holding her rucksack on a single shoulder, as she looked at Appiano with a hint of frown "But why?"
"Dè, don't get me wrong, you're good in taking care of them," he said, closing his left palm to then raise it to the air while opening it up slowly "but you mostly train horses of burden, not race horses."
"And with that?" Applejack asked with a groan "I can change my ways, y'know? Maybe with some help from Fluttershy..."
Fluttershy smiled weakly and Sunset Shimmer nodded. By then, the four students had reached the statue where, Sunset said, she had came from in the first place. As if they had decided so by telepathy, the four stopped next to it, with Fluttershy sitting down on the two steps, Applejack and Sunset Shimmer directly on the ground, and Piano stood up on his legs.
"I think that Fluttershy is better at taking care of smaller animals," Sunset Shimmer said, putting her left hand under her chin and looking at Fluttershy, who silently nodded, which in turn made Applejack sigh.
"Can't I train them with Blueblood?" Applejack asked "I mean... two heads think better than one, right?"
"Dè, Blueblood accepted to do that for me only because he wanted to still feel part of the school, even after getting his police record dirty." Piano said, looking up at the sky briefly, then looking back down "He may be an asshole, but he's good in these things, and, since he hates to work with people that feels of a lower social class than his..."
Applejack crossed her legs and glared at Appiano.
"His words, not mine," Piano said, as Applejack let out a little grunt and looked away.
"Well, see the bright side, Applejack," Sunset Shimmer said with a shrug "you cold've been forced to tame a wild horse and ride it to the competition!"
"But at least it would be something I've done," Applejack muttered, making Piano chuckle a little.
"Okay then," he said "If you really insist, I can make you try to train my spare horse Bucephalus, but I'd rather prepare Akhmad-Daichin myself."
Applejack sighed, bowed her head and moved her left hand forward before retreating it, saying "I'll take it."
"Dè, very well," Appiano said, his hands on his hips as he looked over the four girls "any other questions or requests?"
Fluttershy rose her left hand slowly and with a litte quake in the gesture.
"Yes, Fluttershy?" Piano said with a slight bow, which made Fluttershy let out a high-pitched squeal, before speaking.
"Why am I listed in the singers' group?" Fluttershy asked in a very low tone of voice, which however was not low enough to not be picked up by Appiano's ears. He put his right hand closed in a fist over his chest.
"Dè, I thought you signed up as 'whichever group needs it,' but if I'm wrong, them I'm sorry, and I will try to fix that as soon as I can," he then pretended to dust his shirt's chest "A pity, because you've got quite a good voice."
Fluttershy cowered and blushed, causing Sunset Shimmer and Appiano to chuckle, while Applejack shrugged.
"That's only the truth, sugarcube," Applejack winked "Believe me."
"Um..." Fluttershy muttered, blushing even more "I'm not sure if I can do that, Thoth... I would have really liked to just be an actor for the mime play organized for the Drama Contest."
"Dè, if you want," Appiano said "I can change your listing right away. Naturally, after checking that there's at least one empty spot or that somebody hasn't made a mistake in signing up."
"Okay, very well." Fluttershy said with a nod, as she then got up and looked at her wristwatch. "Oh, it's getting late. I have to go, by-bye!"
"Bye Fluttershy!" Sunset Shimmer said, while Applejack waved and Piano shouted "Vale!"
"What does that mean, Appiano?"
"It means 'goodbye' in Latin and Spanish, no more, no less," Appoint answered to Sunset Shimmer, which made her nod. There was silence, as wind blew in the nearby trees... and a droning sound followed by a jingle came from one side of the statue, putting Applejack and Appiano on high alert and making Sunset Shimmer freeze.
"I recognize that sound..." Sunset Shimmer said, as Applejack and piano turned their heads towards her "That's the sound the portal made when I walked in."
"Walk in? What do you-" Applejack asked, before stopping, raising her right index and mumbling before letting out a "Oh." Meanwhile, Appiano had already walked towards the sound's source, kneeling next to it.
There was another jingling sound, as Appiano spoke up.
"Dè, this jewel looks really weird... the look matches perfectly with the description of amulet that Jacopo the Third of Piombino bought from the count of Saluzzo..."