//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: Warning - Contains Glue Sticks and LOTS of Drama 
// Story: The Legend of Spectrum Skies 
// by ShadowStrike11 
//------------------------------//


Warning - Contains Glue Sticks and LOTS of Drama


I dragged my saddlebags through the doorway of my cloud house. Thank Celestia school was finally over, or my mane would officially become part of a miniature windstorm. If there was one thing I learned today, it was that handling elements are not as easy as it seems.

Whirlwind had been right when he said that wind was a lot harder to handle than he thought. We had been forced to stand in front the deadly air-vomiting tubes and try to resist the wind. I was lucky I didn't get as many bruises as him. Water had been no easier. Even Flare ran out of words to say after she had been drenched in cold water (courtesy of prankster Cumulus).

Sighing in frustration, I quietly closed the door and tip-hoofed towards the stairs leading to my room. Although my body did ache in some places, I knew it would be worth it. It was always worth it I could make it to my room without rousing my brother. Quietly spread my wings, I glided up the stairs, remembering not to make any sudden changes in the air. I let out the long breath I had been holding as my hooves touched the floor. 

Yes. I had made it to my room. Smiling in success, I locked the door to my room to ensure privacy and threw down my saddlebags. Then, just as I took out my comic poster and my supplies, I noticed something. Something that made me freak out.

"PRISM BLITZ! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM!?"

Prism yelped and jumped so high that he hit his head on the ceiling. Something flew from his grip and fell to the floor, where it rolled to a stop. He crashed back down onto my chair, hitting his head on my desk. I gasped, fearing my chair and my desk. If I saw ANY damage to my furniture. . . even the slightest bit. . .

"OW! Sheesh, sis, did you have to scare me like that?" Then, he paused and realized what he had just said. "HA! I was just joking! I'm not scared of ANYTHING!"

I was buying none of it. Instead, I walked over to the object that had flown out of his dirty hooves and looked at it. It was a glue stick. And it's lid was missing, so I could see that it was nearly all used up.

Oh, Prism was going to pay for this. With his weekly allowances, of course.

I stomped over to him and growled. "What. Else. Did you touch?!" I demanded, glaring less than a foot from his face. I didn't care that I was being an absolute hypocrite by breaking my own rule on personal space - I gave ponies what they deserved, so screw the rules.

Prism shrugged and kept up with that annoyingly smug smile. "Nothing much. . . JUST USED UP ALL YOUR GLUE STICKS!" And with that, the little rascal burst out laughing at what he'd call a hilariously successful prank.

My eye twitched. No. . . not my glue sticks, too. First my glasses, now my glue sticks. . .

I frantically reached for my drawer of glue sticks and tugged it open. I closed my eyes for a moment, wishing that this was all just a nightmare, and that I would wake up any second, finding my glue sticks safe and sound and Prism nowhere to be seen. But no, when I opened my eyes. . .

. . . all I saw was nothing. Nothing. Just an empty drawer. No glue sticks, only a few swabs of glue stuck to the wood. I blinked and looked over at my brother. He was now rolling on the floor, laughing his head off at what I would call one of "Prism's Particularly Profoundly Poorly Planned Pranks". Yes, that's six 'P's there. Then, I something in the trash can next to my desk caught my attention. I looked in there and saw all of them, all ten of them, laying there in the trash can.

I tried my best to control the rage that was building up inside of me. Nopony, I repeat, nopony messes with my supplies without permission. Even Whirlwind asks to borrow my things before using them. But here, Prism had crossed the line multiple times. And after a day of unintentional Sonic Rainbooms, broken glasses, terrible tardies, falling asleep during class, meeting new mental ponies, getting burnt by fire, battered by wind, drenched in water, and enduring a long flight home, I was NOT going to let him have it.

"Prism, what did you use all my glue sticks for?" I asked veeeerrrry calmly, forcing a small, patient smile onto my face.

He looked up, a little baffled by my kind, patient tone, but remained his usual self nonetheless. "Oh, it's for a project. My teacher told us to make these folded up figures with strange wings out of paper to see how they relate to gliding!"

I kept the nice, calm smile on my face. "That sounds pretty cool! You wouldn't mind if I saw this project of yours, wouldn't you?"

His face lit up with a grin. "Not at all! Ha, you're gonna be sooooo jealous when you see how awesome my project is!" He picked up what I had 'mistook' for a deformed piece of crumbled paper.

I took the strange object in my hoof and brought it up to my face for closer inspection. It looked like a piece of paper folded in half and stuck together, then ripped back apart halfway and folded so that it took the form of a deformed bird with very crumpled wings. The part where the pieces of paper had been stuck together looked extremely lumpy, as though it had gone through an over-usage of glue.

That's when it struck me. All my glue sticks, all ten of my glue, all used to 'create' this failure of a project. Wow. Just wow.

"So, how do ya like it sis?" Prism asked, leaning on my desk with that devious grin still glued(no pun intended) to his face.

That was it. I could not control my rage anymore. I let my anger get the better of me, overtaking my mind. In one swift motion, I crumbled up the piece of junk that killed all my glue sticks - not that it wasn't crumbled enough - and threw it back at Prism, striking him hard on the forehead.

"How do I like it? How do I like it?! Well, I DON'T!" I yelled, stomping over to my saddlebags and my comic poster, just in case he tried to get his treacherous little hooves on them, too. "Do you know how much all those glue sticks cost? TWENTY BITS! And you wasted them all that on that ONE LITTLE PIECE OF JUNK! Did you even think of MY projects, and how I also need them? Well, I THINK NOT!"

Prism suddenly leapt up onto my desk and growled, trying and failing to look intimidating. "WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY PROJECT? HUH? I BET YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE HALF THE GUTS TO FIGURE OUT HOW MUCH WORK I PUT IN TO MAKE MY PROJECT TWENTY PERCENT AWESOMER THAN ALL YOUR PROJECTS COMBINED! TELL YA WHAT, AWESOMENESS TAKES SACRIFICE!"

If I had the ability to facehoof a hundred times in a row without bruising myself, I would so have done it right now. "Prism, if I were to sacrifice my glue sticks, I probably WOULDN'T sacrifice them for your so-called 'project'. And as for you saying I don't even have half the guts to figure out how much work you put in to make your project twenty percent awesomer than all my projects combined, well I'll tell ya what, I HAVE ONE AND A HALF AS MANY GUTS AS YOU DO CONSIDERING MY SIZE AND YOUR PROJECT DOESN'T EVEN WEIGH UP TO A HUNDREDTH OF MINE IN AWESOMENESS! Plus, smart one, did you know that 'awesomer' isn't even a word?"

"OH YEAH? IS THAT A CHALLENGE?" He leaned forward dangerously and toppled off my desk. Not surprising, he face-planted on the floor, then immediately jumped up and declared himself made of 'tough stallion material'.

I let out the longest and loudest groan I had ever heard from my own mouth. And trust me, my average groans are already pretty long and loud compared to most groans. "Even if I WERE to challenge somepony, I most likely wouldn't challenge YOU. I have BETTER things to do than stand here and yell random insults back and forth with you. And since I still have homework to do, WOULD YOU KINDLY GET OUT OF MY ROOM AND LET ME WORK IN PEACE!?"

"Well, YOU destroyed MY project so YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO PAY FOR IT!"

"Sure, no problem," I answered casually. Then, I picked up the piece of paper and glue, somehow crumbled it up even more, and tossed it back to him. "There, does it look better now?"

His reply didn't quite answer my question either way. "PAPER FIGHT!" Prism picked up the paper-and-glue ball and shot it at me hard. I quickly wove to the side as it grazed my ear.

"Look, Prism, I really don't have time for this! I don't know about you, but I have homework to do! So QUIT. MESSING. AROUND!"

"NO!"

"Whad'ya mean by 'no'?"

"NO, I WILL NEVER, EVER QUIT MESSING AROUND! IT'S MY DUTY!"

"Well that's stupid. Fine, you can mess around all you want, just keep it OUT of my room."

"Why SHOULD I?"

"...Why SHOULDN'T you?"

"You didn't answer my question first!"

"Didn't you here me the first three times!?"

"Nope!"

"[INSERT LIGHT SWEAR PHRASE]"

That was when new voice entered. "WHOA, whoa, what is going on here? Prism, why are you holding a trash can above your head? And Spectrum, what did I tell you about language?"

Language would be the least of my problems right now. I faced my mother, who was standing in the doorway with a very disappointed expression, and tried to block Prism from view. Unfortunately, you can guess how well that works out.

"Er, well, I can explain, mom," I tried to convince her truthfully. "It's kind of a long story, but I could explain clear and -

"SHE DESTROYED MY PROJECT!" Prism yelled, grabbing the crumpled ball of paper and glue, and holding it up for all to see. "AND SHE YELLED AND ME AND INSULTED ME AND -

Mom easily shoved his head down, not roughly, but just hard enough to make him shut up. "Gee, Prism Blitz, you really need to simmer down. And I'm serious. You really have to stop yelling or I will make you play the quiet game."

Prism's eyes widened and he made a move as though to whimper in fear. Oh, right. Did I already mention that the 'quiet game' was Pism's biggest fear? I guess I didn't but now you know.

"Now, Spectrum, your side of the story first," she turned to me, ready to hear what I had to say.

Don't worry, mom, I won't disappoint you! I cleared my throat and stood up straighter to make myself presentable. "So I came back from a really long and weary day at school, only to find Prism Blitz at my desk, working on something. I asked him what he was doing, and I found out that he had used all ten of my glue sticks for a. . . project. So I asked to see the project, and this is what I found." 

I picked up the ball of paper and glue, which Prism had dropped, ignoring his protests and threats. 

"Yeah. . . it's a little crumbled compared to the original, but it's not that far off. So, I got really angry and we kinda had a yelling match, and I tried to tell him to get out of my room so that I could continue doing my homework in peace. And then, he tried to start a paper fight with this. . . crumbled ball of paper and glue. So I told him to stop messing around, and he refused, then we kinda had another argument, and that's where you came in."

Awkward silence ensued as Rainbow Dash blinked and tried to process what I had just said. Now I wish Flare was here, then I could leave the explaining to her. But she wasn't here and I had to admit that maybe I said it all a little too quickly. Oh well. At least my explanations were always better than Prism's. . . right?

"Okay, MY turn!" Without even waiting for mom's permission, Prism jumped onto my desk and held up one of my hairbrushes as a microphone. Now I regretted forgetting to put it back in my hiding place after I had used it this morning. 

"This is the story of the great Blitz, and how he struggled to battle the bad guy, also called the Skies of Spectrum! So first, the great Blitz breaks into the dungeon of the Skies of Spectrum to collect the ten sticks of justice! But right when he was about to fulfill his journey, the Skies of Spectrum appears in the doorway and demands that he pass over the sacred treasure! But it was too late! The great Blitz has already hidden it in the mysterious trash can of secrecy, where the Skies will never find it! Then, the Skies unleashes its rage upon the great Blitz, who, using the power of the mighty paper-glue-ball, counters its attacks without fear! The Skies tries to destroy the mighty paper-glue-ball, but fails, because nothing can ever destroy the mighty paper-glue-ball! And so, having no other choice, the Skies tries to kick the great Blitz out of the dungeon, but the great Blitz resists! And stays! And wins!"

...

...

...

You know, the awkward silence was real this time.

Mom was the first to recover. Apparently, she had gone through a lot more weirdness than I have, so it was only natural that she found Prism's 'story' weird, while I found it outrageously false and stupid.

"Whoa, Prism, I never took you for a storyteller," she said amusingly, staring up at him. "You sure you haven't been reading the Daring Do series?"

Prism shook his head vigorously. "Nope! I so don't read! Reading is for eggheads like sis!"

"HEY!" I yelled on instinct. "What do you know about reading, doofus?!"

He crossed his forelegs and tried to look cool. "It's undeniably, unquestionably, uncool." Mom flinched as he said that, having been reminded of something in the past. I remember hearing that she once said that exact same line before she discovered the love of reading.

I facehoofed for the zillionth that day before turning back to mom, who had watched our little exchange with amusement. "So who's side of the story are you going to believe? His little made-up story or my reasonable explanation?"

"You want my honest opinion? Cause both are a little hard to believe," she chuckled. "Prism, your story was exciting, but it didn't need to contain that many exclamation marks. Spectrum, you need to work on your storytelling skills, but at least yours sounds more realistic."

"See, Prism? My explanation is way easier to believe than yours," I announced triumphantly. "So I guess I win?"

A mischievous grin crossed my mom's face. "Eh, don't worry, I have a little reward for both of you."

"OH, OH, EVEN ME???"

"Yes, even you, Prism," she answered astutely. "In fact, your reward will be to use your own weekly allowances to buy your sister ten glue sticks for the ten you used up."

"Whaaaa - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

I grabbed a pillow off my bed and slammed it into my face to muffle my laughter. Now that was the best reward Prism had ever gotten! Yes, yes, he definitely deserved it. Plus, I wouldn't need to use my own allowances to buy my own glue sticks!

"And you, Spectrum, will be in charge of helping your brother recreate the project you destroyed," she added, totally killing my mood.

"Wha - NOOOOOOOOO! . . . I mean, yes ma'am! Er, mom!"

My mother laughed at my embarrassing slip-up. "You know, I always wished you would get along with each other someday, but seriously, you guys make the most hilarious pair when you argue."

"YEAH, SIS! We should TOTALLY start a comedy show!" Prism joined in, trying to fly upside, but ending up crashing into a wall. Yeah, he really needs to work on that.

I flattened my brow. "No."

My mother chuckled again, then sighed. "Okay, guys, fun's over. Prism, go back to your room and start on your homework. Spectrum, do your homework first, then go over to help your brother after you're done. Got it?"

"I BET I'LL FINISH FIRST!" Prism yelled in my face and zoomed away after crashing into my door on the way out. Jeez, talk about rude.

I stomped back over to my comic, grumbling. Laying it out on the floor, I took out my supplies and arranged it around my work space, so that I could reach all of them conveniently. I picked up a marker lowered it to outline a figure that I had drawn in pencil. . .

"So Speck, how was your first day of school?"

"Gah!" I fumbled with my marker, just catching it a few inches above the paper. I glanced up at mom, who was smirking down at me. "Can't it wait until dinner? I don't want to have to repeat the whole thing to dad, when he comes home from work."

"Then it must be long story, right?" she asked. I nodded. "Well, it better be interesting."

"Oh, just you wait," I grumbled. I could totally wait to see the expressions on their faces when I tell them how I fell asleep in class. I'm never going to here the end of it, for sure.

"Then I'll be looking forward to it," she said as she left the room. Then she popped in again. "And in the meantime, you could work on your storytelling skills," she added, before leaving for good.

I sighed. Yes, I was so gonna make them laugh. And laugh. And laugh. If there was one thing I learned today, it was to work on my storytelling skills until I was better then Prism Blitz. I will be better than him, and I was going to prove that tonight.

But first, I need to get this failure of a comic poster done.