//------------------------------// // Ch. 2 - Morning Challenges // Story: Equestria World, Book 1: Surviving Canterlot High // by Gear Works //------------------------------// Twilight and me were outside the girls’ restroom looking over my schedule while waiting to Rainbow Dash to finish changing clothes. Twilight wanted to make sure I know where to go after the lunch hour for 5th Period. “So your 5th Period class is in the music room that’s across from the band room.” “The band room is next to the basketball gym with the low stage, right?” “That’s correct, Jack. I think Octavia takes that class as well this year.” “Octavia? She’s a friend of yours?” “You could say that. We have had some classes together in the past two years. You’ll notice her when she’s carrying her cello on her back. She always takes it with her, most of the time.” “Let me guess, she OWNS her own cello, right?” “WOW! Great guess. You must be into a lot of music.” “You could say that.” I let out a small laugh after saying that. “I like listening to various kinds of music, depending on my mood.” “Then you are going to like her a lot. Once you get her to start talking about music, she never stops. Oh, I even need to return some of her CDs she let me borrow over the summer.” I soon then heard a soft voice nearby. “Um, hello, Twilight.” I saw a shy, yellow girl with pink hair approach us. Twilight looked over and said, “Hello, Fluttershy. I’m glad you made it.” She looked over to me and continued. “This is Jack. He just moved here.” “Um, hello…Jack.” “Hello, Fluttershy?” I noticed she was acting a bit shy and I wasn’t sure how to react. In fact, I can just sense that she was afraid from within her. Twilight whispered into my ear and said, “She’s always like this to new people. Just give her time and she’ll open up to you.” “Um, Twilight, is there a reason you and your friend are standing outside the girls bathroom, if you don’t mind.” Twilight replied, “Oh, it because we’re waiting on-” “Waiting on the awesome ME to appear!” said Rainbow Dash as she jumped out in front of Fluttershy. Fluttershy was surprised when Dash came out, but then caught her breath and said, “Dash, you scared me. You know how I don’t like that.” “Come on, Flutters. You need to loosen up. It’s the first day of school and the gang’s getting back together.” “Then I guess you’re not worried about Coach Goalkeeper leaving, right?” Twilight waved her hands like crazy, trying to stop Fluttershy from bringing up the coach, but it was too late. Dash’s high spirit disappeared in an instant, like a dagger to the heart. “Oh, I’m sorry, Dash. I didn’t mean to bring her up.” “It’s OK, Fluttershy. I’ll just have to start over again and hope I can make it to college with what I need.” “Maybe Coach Spitfire will come in and take over for Goalkeeper. You know you liked her since we both lived in Cloudsdale years ago.” “Are you kidding me, Fluttershy? She coaches at Equestria University. It’s not like she’s going to just quit her job, move to Ponyville, and take over for Goalkeeper.” Dash looked down and said, “It’s hopeless. I’m never going to get that scholarship that I wanted.” Just at that point, I started to have this feeling that someone was hiding somewhere and was about to just pop out of who-knows-where. “What you need is a PARTY!!!!!” A pink girl with puffy reddish hair popped out of the girls’ restroom behind Rainbow Dash. “PINKIE PIE! I didn’t see you in the restroom.” She spoke in a whispered tone, “I was hiding like a ninja.” She stuck her head out to look at the rest of up, saying, “Hi, Fluttershy. Hi, Twilight. Hi, um, mystery man.” “Pinkie Pie,” said Twilight, “he has a name, you know.” “I know. I’m just waiting for you to introduce him to us.” She let out a squeal with a grin after that. Twilight let out a sigh and said, “Pinkie Pie, this is Jack. He just moved here.” “Oh, oh. Let me guess.” Pinkie Pie took a glance at me, then said, “You’re from Manehattan and moved here on short noticed because your father just became the new manager at the new store that he’s overseeing and don’t have any friends here because you keep moving from city to city to city a lot because of what your dad does for a living and that’s why you are new attending our school.” –takes a deep breath- “Am I right?” I was stunned for a moment before I could speak. “I believe so,” I said. “Darling, whenever Pinkie Pie makes a good guess, she’s always right.” “At least I know who to go to if I need some building supplies for the farm now.” I saw two more girls walking towards us. The white casual girl with purple hair to my left, and an orange country girl with a blond ponytail to my right. “Rarity, Applejack, I’m glad you could join us,” said Twilight. “This is Jack Diamond.” “Nice to meet ya, partner.” The orange girl reached out to shake my hand. “Name’s Applejack, but you can call me AJ if you like.” “Nice to meet you too, AJ.” “I’m guessing’ ya father is the manager of the new D.I.Y. Home store that’s being built here?” “That is correct. My father said it would be open in about a month.” “Well, you’ll have to invite me to the opening when that happens. I want to see what they have that can help me out on the farm before winter comes. I’m not sure if the old barn can hold up any longer.” “If you like, I can have my father come over one day to take a look at it. He’s also an experienced foreman and construction worker. He can figure out what needs to be done to your barn.” “That be great, sugercube.” The white girl decided to come up to me and place her hand on her chin while she was studying me all over. “Rarity, what are you doing?” said Twilight. She paused for a moment, gave me a big stare, and said, “Your not here to take away Flash’s girlfriend, are you?” “RARITY!!!!” Twilight yelled. “What? I’m trying to make sure that no harm comes between you and Flash, since you are both an item anyway.” Twilight told me about her boyfriend, Flash Sentry while she was giving me the tour of the school last week. She said that he’s on the school’s football team and that they have been dating for about a year and a half. “He’s NOT my new boyfriend, Rarity. What gave you that idea?” “Well, I noticed last week while I was in the fashion club’s room that you were walking around the school with some new guy, Twilight. I figure it was him.” “I was showing him around the school while my mother and his mother worked with Principal Celestia on getting him registered.” “And how does your mother know his mother in the first place?” as Rarity stared at Twilight. “Maybe he was your old boyfriend before you came here.” Twilight flew her hands in the air, and then said, “Because his mother makes the candles you like that you order from my mother.” Rarity pulled back after hearing that. “You mean, from the Queen of Hearts online store?” “Yes, Rarity.” She looked at me a said, “So you’re not her…?” “Yes,” I said. She then looked at Twilight. “And you were just…?” “Yes,” said Twilight. “So you two are just…?” We looked at each other, then looked at Rarity and said, “YES!!!” Rarity took a moment to process all this and replied, “OH MY GOODNESS!!!” –repeated bowing- “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so very, very, sorry.” Applejack decided to step in. “I think that’s enough, Miss Drama Queen.” “Really, Applejack? Miss Drama Queen? I am NOT a Drama Queen.” “Well, ya sure sounded like one a moment ago.” Twilight sighed and shook her head. “Come on. We got eight minutes before classes start. I would like for all of us to make it to English class early so we can make sure we sit close to each other.” “You mean your friends are in the same English class as the both of us?” I replied. Pinkie Pie came right between us and said, “That’s right. We’re, like, the bestest of friends.” “And any friend of Twilight’s is a friend of ours,” said Applejack. So my first new friends that I was able to make in this school are six girls. No doubt my dad is going to ask which one is my new girlfriend, not counting Twilight because she was already taken. But maybe this could be a good thing. We make it to our first class with five minutes to spare. And it looked like two of the guys there were already saving some of the seats for us. I recognized the light orange guy with the blue spiked hair as being Flash Sentry because Twilight showed me a picture of them on her cell phone, and the Letterman jacket he was wearing proved that he’s part of the football team. But the light blue guy in the gym suit was new to me, but I can only guess that Rainbow Dash knows him best. “Morning, Twilight,” said Flash. “Morning to you too, Flash.” Twilight went up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “This is why they are an item, darling,” whispered Rarity. “I heard that.” Rarity’s eyes went wide open when Twilight glanced straight at her. Note to self, Twilight has great hearing reception. “Flash, I told you about Jack, right?” “You sure did, Twilight.” Flash came up to me a shook my hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Jack. Twilight told me about your move here.” “Thanks,” I replied. “And Twilight told me about you too. Maybe a little too much.” I decided to shoot a look at Twilight about that comment. Twilight twirled her finger around the tips of her hair and said, “I…might have gotten carried away about that.” “Gotten?” I said. “More like you couldn’t stop talking about him every time you bring him up.” “OK, OK, OK. I guess I did get carried away about us.” I heard the other girls giggle when she admitted that, expect for one. Rainbow Dash just decided to sit down in one of seats in the front row, still feeling bummed out. No doubt she’s still dealing the Coach Goalkeeper ordeal. “I guess what you told her was true, right Twilight?” The light blue guy came up to us, worried about Rainbow Dash. “Yea. I wish she didn’t, just, freak out about all of this. I know how important it is to her. Her future. Everything.” Twilight just realized that she never introduced me to the other guy. “Oh. Jack, this is Soarin. He’s a good friend of Dash’s.” “Nice to meet you, Jack” “You too, Soarin.” I placed my focus back on Rainbow Dash. “You were there when it all went down?” “Yea,” replied Soarin. “We always been there for each other since 7th grade when she moved from Cloudsdale. We both promised that we would be the best soccer players in Equestria University when we got there.” “I guess you two were best friends and teammates at the same time,” I said. “I can understand how that feels.” “I think we all know as well, sugercube,” said Applejack. Just then, we heard the one-minute bell ring, so we decided to take out seats. Twilight recommended that I sit somewhere besides her, in case I needed any help. So I decided to sit in the front row next to the wall, with Twilight sitting at the desk to my left. I saw that Rarity sat behind me, and Applejack sat behind her. Flash went to sit behind Twilight and Fluttershy went to sit behind Flash. No doubt Rainbow Dash was next to Twilight, so Soarin decided to sit behind her, and Pinkie Pie went to sit behind him. Everyone else in the classroom was going to his or her seats as the orange teacher was walking in. Her name was Mrs. Harshwhinny, and I was told that she was more of a professional in her teaching job than any other teacher in the school. As the final bell rang, an amber girl with fiery hair was just walking in. She had this glare in her eyes that made everyone scared. Well, not quite everyone. But there was something different about her, something that came…from within. “Psst,” whispered Rarity. “That’s Sunset Shimmer. And just so you know, she’s bad news around the school.” “How bad?” I replied. “Very bad. When we find some time away from her, we can tell you all about it. For now, just stay away from her if you know what’s best for you.” Twilight was able to hear what she said and gave me a nod. The others were able to look at me to agree on the issue. I was most curious about her and wonder why everyone believed that she was nothing but trouble. When Sunset Shimmer went to sit down in the back corner of the room, I noticed that she was glancing at the other students in the classroom. Soon then, she stopped and looked straight at me. At that point, I started to get the strange feeling coming from her. Something that was very strong. But I couldn’t figure out what it was. It was much stronger than Fluttershy’s shyness or Pinkie Pie’s surprises, or anything else I have felt in the past. All I know is that there was some strong feeling that she was hiding, but behind a brick wall. If that sounds strange, then it isn’t. You see, I have this ‘gift’ that came to me back when I was in the 7th grade. I’m not sure how I got it. All I know is that it just happened. It doesn’t have a name that I could find, but all I know is that I can sense kinds of feelings that are hiding in plain sight, so to speak. It took me some time to understand this ‘gift’, and by the time my freshman year in high school came around, I started to understand how to use it. If someone was scared, but tried to act normal, or if someone had evil feelings but tried to keep a straight face, I can sense it. It’s like having red flags going off inside my head. I can even sense when someone is behind a wall or corner and plans to do something when me or someone else was about to come by. I’ve never told anyone, even my parents, about this gift expect a few trusted friends who were willing to keep it secret so that I would be safe from those would use it for the wrong reasons. They even tried to find out what I had, but came up with no info about it. The best thing to do was go with the flow and make sure no one else realized about this ‘gift’. My focus on what I was feeling got sidetracked when someone spoke on the intercom speaker. “Good morning, Wondercolts. This is Principal Celestia welcoming you back. And for all you freshman students, welcome to Canterlot High.” She went through her morning announcements, and then said something that I wasn’t expecting. “And I want to welcome a new transfer student to our school, Jack Diamond. Please give him a warm welcome to our school.” I slammed my head to the desk. Twilight leaned next to me and said, “This happened to me and my brother when we moved here 2 years ago. I think she likes to do this because we get to see new faces after moving.” “You could have given me a heads up about that.” “Better to be surprised about it. That’s what happened to me.” One more announcement came through the intercom. “We also have some sad news. Coach Goalkeeper had to resign a week ago after finding out that her only daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer and has to go through therapy. Coach Goalkeeper wanted to put her focus on family first. Please keep her and her daughter in your prayers. That is all.” We all went silent for a moment before Mrs. Harshwhinny broke the silence. “Can’t believe what I’m hearing. I’m guessing her 2 grandchildren are going to some hardships with this.” “Um, excuse me,” said Fluttershy, “but how old are they?” “I think they are in their teens, Fluttershy.” I can see that Rainbow Dash was trying to take it all in, wondering how to react to all of this. I remember a classmate years ago that when through this and figure if I can tell this story, maybe she can finally understand. “Mrs. Harshwhinny, I remember someone who when through this phase back then. If it’s OK, I would like to tell the story to the class.” “Certainly, Jack.” I told my story of a classmate I knew back in the 6th grade who lost his mother to breast cancer just weeks before the end of the school year. He was one who had a hard time in school with the fact that he had been bullied because he had a “learning disability” and his mother was a volunteer helper at school. Turns out that his mother was fighting cancer for 13 years. “13 years?” said Rarity. “If your friend was 12 years old, wouldn’t that mean that she was diagnosed before he was born?” “That’s right,” said Twilight. “And she would have to make a choice on the birth of her son, knowing that he would be born with some kind of birth defect.” Rainbow Dash started to understand and said, “So that could explain why Coach Goalkeeper had to resign. Her daughter would need help with the grand kids while she went through therapy. I guess family is the most important thing to her, and I’m just going to accept that.” “Rainbow Dash, I know how important she was in helping you with your future scholarship,” said Mrs. Harshwhinny. “I can ask the principal for the coach’s contact info and she if she can still help out as a reference when the times come.” “You mean it? That’s awesome.” I figured that story would help get Dash back on track. Twilight looked at me and gave me a wink and a thumb up for what I have done. “Now that we have gotten that out of our way, let’s get class started.” Mrs. Harshwhinny handed out books and some paperwork on what we would be reading during the school year. Afterwards, she took us to where our lockers would be for the year. Our class got lockers 1 thru 30, which was near the entrance and across the school office. All of the lockers were single stack lockers, while my last school was dual stack lockers. “All right, everyone. Which lockers do we want to be close to?” said Twilight. Twilight wanted Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Soarin, Flash, and me to have our lockers close to each other. “Since Jack’s the new guy here,” said Rainbow Dash, “why don’t we let him pick the area?” “Well, how about the ones closest to the lobby entrance?” “I got number 7. I got number 7.” Pinkie Pie was excited as she went to locker #7. “Um, I’ll go with number 8,” said Fluttershy. If you’re taking number 8, I’ll take number 9,” said Dash. “And Soarin can take number 10, right?” “As always,” replied Soarin. “I might as well take number 6, if you want number 5, Rarity,” said Applejack. “Number 5 will do just fine, darling,” replied Rarity. “Twilight, you want to take number 4, I’ll take 3, and Jack can have 2?” said Flash. “Sure, Flash. I can handle Rarity better than you or Jack,” said Twilight. “Then I guess we have out lockers selected,” I said. As we were putting away some of our stuff into our lockers, we noticed that Sunset Shimmer was being called to the school office. “Looks like someone’s in trouble, again,” said Rarity. “I think she’s just being called in as a reminder about what would happen if she causes any more problems again,” said Applejack. “By the way, I would figure you go for number 1, Twilight.” “I’m not one who likes to stand out like a drama queen,” as Twilight was staring at Rarity. “Ha, ha, ha,” Rarity replied in a sarcastic tone. “I was not acting like some drama queen earlier.” The girls and me stared at Rarity, trying to make her admit that she was acting like one. Rarity noticed the glares and said, “OK, maybe I was acting like one. But that was just out of panic. I didn’t know all the details in the first place.” Flash and Soarin were wondering what we were talking about, and Flash asked, “Can someone fill us in on what you girls are talking about?” “I’ll fill you in on the details later, Flash,” said Twilight. “And I’m sure one of the other girls can explain to you, Soarin.” As we were finishing up on out lockers, the others decided to head off to their classes expect for Twilight and Applejack. I asked Applejack, “Are you in our history class, AJ?” “Yep, I hope you don’t mind my company a bit longer.” “Not at all, AJ. Not at all.” “Well, Twilight and I are going to the restroom for a bit. Think you can wait for us?” “Sure. I’ll be here.” While Twilight and Applejack went to the girls’ restroom, I started to think who was taking locker number 1, since the class was full in the first place. Then I remember that Sunset Shimmer didn’t get her locker selected before hand. I had a feeling that his would be her locker, if no one else chose it. I soon then heard a voice behind me. “Hey, if you’re done with your locker, maybe you can get out of the way so I can get to mine.” Yep, I was right. “I think you can get to your locker without a problem, Sunny.” Sunset went to her locker, flew the door open, and said, “Don’t call me Sunny, Jack.” “Wow, you already know my name before I can give it to you. I’m impressed.” Sunset looked straight at me, pointed her finger, and said, “Look, I don’t care if your new to this school or not. I’m not here to be your friend. I just want to get through school and get out of here.” “Because you caused a lot of trouble in the past?” “I see those girls told you everything about me.” “Just the cover of the book. I just don’t know whose version to listen to, you or them.” She slammed the locker door and said, “Does it even matter? Look, I got to get to my next class, so if you are done chit-chatting with me, I’ll be on my way.” She started to walk away and dropped a small piece of paper. I picked it up and noticed it was her class schedule, which looked very familiar to me. “Hey, Sunny,” I yelled. “You dropped this.” She stomped her way back to me with an angry face, took the paper from my hand, and said, “Don’t…call…me…SUNNY!!!” She started walking away, and I said, “OK, Sunny.” She stopped for a moment to let off some steam, and then continued on her way. Twilight and Applejack just saw her walk away before coming out of the restroom to talk to me. “I hope you didn’t have any problems with her, sugercube,” said Applejack. “She’s just looking for trouble.” “I think I can handle her just fine,” I replied. By the way, Twilight, can I see your schedule.” “Sure,” as Twilight was getting out her schedule, “but why do you need to see it. We have the same first four classes.” “I saw her schedule, and guess what I saw.” I took her schedule, looked it over, and covered up the last two classes to show her. “This.” Twilight and Applejack looked at what I was showing, and Twilight was in shock. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME???” “If this ain’t bad karma, I don’t know what is,” said Applejack. Twilight continued, “How can we have the same four classes as her,” as she was referring to Sunset. “I can’t believe this is happening to me.” “Well, you got your friends by your side, Twilight,” said Applejack. “And you also have Jack to back you up, if that’s OK with you, sugercube?” “No problem here,” I replied. “Let’s just go to class and we’ll deal with her if that happens, Twilight.” “Thanks, AJ. And you too, Jack. I’ll just have to deal with her if it happens, when it happens.” So we decided to make our way to history class, waiting for what’s to come.