It was a very busy morning here in Canterlot High. All the students were busy setting up for the big event, The Friendship Games. Some students were setting up banners, sweeping the hallways, cleaning the windows, etc. They were trying to keep their school tidy before the arrival of their most hated long-time rival, the Shadowbolts from Crystal Prep.
The Wondercolts have been rivals to the Shadowbolts for years. Every four years, the Wondercolts competed against the Shadowbolts, only to be beaten by them every time. It wouldn’t be so bad, except the students of Crystal Prep were not the friendly bunch. The Shadowbolts would contently reminded the Wondercolts that they are better than the Wondercolts and like to rubbed their wins against the students faces of Canterlot High. They even went as far as disrespecting the Wondercolts by messing up their horse statue as a prank.
But this year, they’ll have a fighting chance! It was thanks to the motivation speech by Rainbow Dash that their spirits were up and felt confident that they can beat the Shadowbolts this year instead of the other way around. If they can overcome a She-demon at the Fall Formal and the Sirens hypnotic spell during the Battle of the Bands, no doubt they can overcome the Shadowbolts at the Friendship Games.
Flash was walking down the hallway with his guitar case, ready to head to another class. He was thinking about what kind of games will there be at the Friendship Games and who will be picked to compete. But the one thing, or someone he was thinking about the most, was her.
He sighed as Twilight’s angelic smile appeared in his thoughts. It was months ago during the Battle of the Bands was the last time he saw her. He didn’t remember much during the event, but what he did remember, was a lot of cruel things he said to her.
And he made her cry.
He frowned when he recalled the things he said and accused her for things Twilight did not do, all because of those three Siren’s spell. He still felt guilty for what he did and would beat himself over it every time he remembered that awful moment. But then he quickly smiled when he remembered what happened afterwards.
He remembered giving her a brief hug after they beat the Dazzlings. He remembered caught up with Twilight and apologized to her for his behavior during the time of the Dazzlings spell. To his amazement, he remembered Twilight forgiving him and did not hold any ill feelings towards him. He even remembered…Twilight giving him a peck to both of his cheeks and promised him that they will go out for milkshakes at the Sugar Cube Corner Café the next time they’ll meet again. Flashed smiled softly at that particular memory.
As his memories were playing in his mind, he didn't payed attention to someone coming towards him. As a resort, they bumped into each other and then they both crashed into the ground.
Flash groaned as he was lying on the ground. He turned his head so he could identify the person he crashed into. His heart suddenly stopped beating and his eyes were wide.
“Twilight?”
He quickly got up and helped Twilight off from the ground until they were both standing.
“I almost didn’t recognize you!” Flash said with a smile.
He frowned in confusion when Twilight eyes were squinted for some reason and moved her arm around as if she was trying to find something. Flash looked down on the floor behind him and found a pair of glasses.
He cocked an eyebrow at it before turning to Twilight. “When did you start wearing glasses?” he asked before fetching her glasses.
“Um…like since forever,” Twilight replied awkwardly with a shrug.
“Oh,”
Flash picked up Twilight’s glasses from the floor. “So how long are you here for?”
“Just for the Friendship Games,” Twilight answered.
Flash smiled wide in realization. “Right, of course! We’ll totally win with you here!”
Flash gently slid the glasses back on Twilight face. Flash smiled softly at her. It didn’t matter to him if she wore glasses or not, Twilight is still the most beautiful girl to him. They were both staring at each other for a moment until they heard beeping sounds from Twilight’s strange looking locket.
“Uh…I gotta go!” Twilight said quickly before she ran off down the hall, away from him.
“Oh okay…bye?” Flash called out to Twilight’s retreating figure.
He sighed dejectedly while covering his face. He felt someone walked up behind him and patted his back. He uncovered his face to see it was none other than the most ditzy, yet likable blonde girl, Derpy Hooves.
“Was I too strong? Was I too close to her? Did I said something…wrong?” he asked her quietly.
Derpy shrugged with a look of sympathy, causing Flash to sigh again.
Did she forgot...about our promise? He thought sadly.
During the party, Flash was sitting on the bleachers along with the two girls, Lyra and Bon Bon. Those two have been friends since forever and it’s pretty rare to see one separated from the other, except when they had to head for their own classes.
The trios were still seething at the two Shadowbolts students for the way they acted towards them earlier; despite trying to give them their welcoming smile.
“Those two are horrible!” Lyra spat. “It just makes me questioned why are we here with these people, even though they don’t want to be in the same room as we do!”
Bon Bon grunted. “From what I heard, the main purpose of Friendship Games was to get along and make friends with them.”
“How ironic,” Lyra muttered, rolling her eyes.
“Well, we’re not gonna let those Shadowbolts creeps psych us out before the games start,” Flash said with determination. “This is the year we’ll finally beat them!”
Lyra raised her eyebrow skeptically. “And how are we gonna do that? Especially that your girlfriend is competing with them?”
Flash blushed. “H-hey! She’s not my—”
Flash suddenly turned to Lyra with his eyes widen in shock. “Wait what!? Twilight’s with the Shadowbolts?”
Bon Bon frowned. “You mean, you didn’t know?”
Bon Bon received her answer when Flash's gave her his blank look. Bon Bon buried her face into her hand and sighed. “I swear, you’re a real dense sometimes Flash.”
Flash frowned deeply. “Now what does that supposed to mean?”
“Lyra and I were outside by the front entrance earlier to hang out,” Bon Bon began, ignoring Flash’s statement. “And that’s when we saw her heading into the school building. We tried to say hi to her, but she was in deep thought to hear us. I was about to call her again until I noticed her uniform. It was the same uniform that the Crystal Prep students were wearing!”
Lyra frowned. “At first, we thought that maybe our eyes were playing tricks on us, until we see her again outside, talking with Principle Cinch. THE Principle Cinch from Crystal Prep!”
Flash shook his head. “That can’t be right! Just because she’s talking to the Principle of Crystal Prep, that doesn’t mean she’s from Crystal Prep!”
“I’m afraid it’s true Flash,” Bon Bon said solemnly. “I even talked to the other students who were there when the Shadowbolts arrived. They confirmed that the bus Twilight came out of was exclusively for Crystal Prep.”
Flash was stunned, progressing everything what he just heard. The two girls looked at the other with their concerned looks, feeling guilty for being the ones who told him the news. Then they turned back to Flash.
“So…what are you going to do now?” Lyra asked hesitantly.
Flash snapped out of his thoughts. “W-what?”
“What are you going to do now?” Lyra asked again.
Flash said nothing for a moment, trying to come up with a right answer. Finally, he replied, “I’ll still compete in the Friendship Games as originally planned.”
Lyra cocked her eyebrow. “And Twilight?”
“I’ll still talk to her and give her my support, even if she’s from another team.” Flash answered without hesitation.
Both the girls eyes widen in surprised, nearly dropping their jaws. “Are you serious?” Lyra exclaimed. “Twilight comes from Crystal Prep! Are you saying you rather support our enemy instead of us?”
Flash eyes narrowed. “First of all, I never said, I’ll support the Crystal Prep. I said I’ll support Twilight! I’m still going to compete for the Wondercolts so don't you worry! Second; yes, Twilight is from Crystal Prep. So what? Just because she goes to that school full of jerks, that doesn’t mean she's also a jerk. Even this morning, she’s still the same Twilight I know months ago!”
“I don’t know Flash,” said Bon Bon, not meeting Flash’s gaze. “What if Twilight put on an act this whole time, just to spy on us and feeding the Shadowbolts information?”
“Did you seriously just said that?” Flash said hotly in anger. “Twilight would never do that! She risked her life for us, twice! I’m sure no one at Crystal Prep cared about what’ll happen to us. But do you truly think, that Twilight, the same girl who saved us from a She-Demon and three magical Sirens, is a spy?”
Lyra and Bob Bon looked down in shame. “No, we don’t,” Bon Bon said quietly.
“Please don't take this the wrong way Flash," Lyra pleaded. “We’re just so confused about her. She’s a Crystal Prep student, that’s a fact. But then we remembered how friendly and nice she was to us when she visited us. It’s like we’ve been friends for a long time. But...”
“But?” Flash pressed.
“But…the way she's acting now...is odd.”
“And by odd, we mean she’s a bit more anti-social and distant, than how she was the last time she visited. We know what we saw is Twilight, but at the same time…she’s also not Twilight.” Bon Bon finished.
Flash gave them his confused look, as if they grown two heads. “What do you mean she is and not Twilight? That doesn't make any sense!”
Just before they can answer, they heard Principle Celestia started her speech about welcoming the Crystal Prep students for coming to their school. She went on about the Friendship Games, then she mentioned they picked out the twelve best students that represents the sportsmanship of CHS (and Flash did a sly pose on that cue).
But for the most part of Principle Celestia’s speech, he really didn’t pay much attention to it. He was busy thinking about Twilight again. Is the reason why she did tell him that she’s a Crystal Prep student because she’s afraid that he’ll hate her? If it was because of how he acted to her last time, he won't hold that against her. If that was the reason, then he'll let her know that the fact that's she's a Crystal Prep student won't change anything in between them.
But, what if that's not the reason?
Then he thought about what Lyra and Bon Bon had said to him, something about what they saw is and not Twilight. This all sounded crazy to him, but as he played back the memories of Twilight’s visits again, something does seem…off about her.
He remembered Twilight was very shy and awkward, but also nice and cute girl. When he later went to the Fall Formal with her, he learned that’s she’s also fun to hang out, very caring, a very bad dancer, but overall, she’s a great person. On her second visit, after the Battle of the Bands fiasco, he felt that they had gotten closer than before after he made that apology.
But this time, she acted…differently. She barely said hello to him, wears glasses for some reason, acted like she doesn’t remembered him and ran off before he have a conversation with her. It was odd to him because she wasn’t acting like the Twilight he knew last time. It’s almost as if he was speaking to…a different person.
This whole Twilight thing was really starting to confuse him.
Before he thought of this further, the lights were suddenly went off and the music started playing. Everyone in the auditorium, both CHS and Chrystal Prep students, went on the dance floor and started dancing together, forgetting about their diversity. He also noticed that disco lights were on, a huge tray of cupcakes mysteriously appeared on the snack table and confetti suddenly went off out of nowhere.
Flash shook his head in amusement. Looks like Pinkie Pie had struck again!
This party looked pretty fun, so he decided to come down from the bleachers and started dancing with the others. He wasn’t exactly the best dancer in the world, especially the way he awkwardly stepped back and forth with both of his fist held up like he's some kind of boxer. He didn’t care though; he was having a good time!
He kept on dancing until he stopped the moment he saw Twilight standing by the bleachers. She looked stumped as she was inspecting her locket that was resting on her hand. Flash smiled at the sight of her. This was the perfect opportunity to talk to her and figured out what was going on.
Just as he was approaching her, the lights in the auditorium suddenly turned back on, the music stopped playing and a very loud echo sound came out from the microphone. He than turned to see Principle Cinch who did her own speech, something about "this doesn’t change a thing," and "the CHS should prepare for the inevitable outcome," or whatever garbage that was coming out of her mouth. Flash paid no mind to Cinch and look around for Twilight, but to his dismay, she disappeared.
As both the CHS students and Crystal Prep students stood at opposite sides of the auditorium away from each other, Flash's mind went back to Twilight again in concern.
Twilight, what’s going on with you?