If there was something everyone knew about the students of St. Everfree was that they were never silent. Since no one really got along with anyone, students were always on each other throats or making snide remarks or throwing insults at each other. It didn’t matter if they were a lot or just a few, students of St. Everfree were always vivacious.
That is why the complete silence inside the bus was filling a young boy with dark brown hair with dread.
Scorpan was so accustomed by the yelling and the insults being thrown around him that this silent spell that was cast during this ride felt unnatural and put him on the edge.
And he wasn’t the only one. All around him he could see his fellow students sitting quietly, several seats apart of each other, but he knew that everyone was waiting for someone else to make a wrong move first. It was a powder keg ready to blow-up at any moment.
Knowing which school he attended, people would always assume that Scorpan wouldn’t be worried about a fight breaking out since it was a daily occurrence where he came from and had a track record claiming he had participated in over 30 school fights. But in reality, he was a nervous wreck.
Scorpan didn’t like to fight, not only because he followed the pacifist ways his mother had taught him, but because unlike his big brother, he was kind of a wimp. In fact, if it weren’t for his big brother he would’ve been seriously injured a long time ago.
Scorpan tried his best every day to try and avoid getting involved with the many instances of violence that occurred in his school; be running away, hiding, and using alternative routes to avoid gangs’ hangouts. But no matter what he did, his luck always made him get into trouble. The latest of which, was being kidnapped and use as leverage against his brother.
His brother Tirek. Well actually his step-brother after his mother married Tirek’s father. But they have grown together since they were little so neither of them made any distinction.
Tirek was the more…physical of the two, and the better suited for the school life in St. Everfree. His strength and resolve was what Scorpan most admired about his brother, and by trying to be more like him was the reason why he enrolled in the same school as him.
One of the biggest mistakes of his life.
Combining his tendency to unintentionally walk into trouble plus his pacifist was and lack of significant physical strength, school life at St. Everfree was a road filled with adversity and misfortune.
And time and time again Tirek would be there to bail him out.
Scorpan was grateful to his brother, but even he could see that Tirek did it mostly out of obligation with their parents than out of genuinely love or care. Sure, they had grown together as brothers in a stable family and they shared lots of good moments, but over the years there has being growing this space between them that slowly separated the two.
Even now, inside this bus ride towards the school they would be attending from now on until St. Everfree is up and running again, Tirek was sitting rows away from his brother with a frown on his face and his arms crossed.
Scorpan wanted nothing more than to be in good terms with his brother once more, but he find it difficult to even approach him in and out of school. But now, with this new change of scenery and a school full of people who didn’t want to fight each other all the time, there could be the possibility that the brothers could be friends once more.
“Let’s hope our Canterlot High is as friendly as people say.”
[x-x-x]
“This is the worst thing that could happen!”
“I heard ya the first five times Rarity, there’s no need to keep repeatin’ it.”
“But you know I’m right, Applejack.” Rarity said to her country loving friend, as the both keep walking down the road towards school “I mean…thugs at our school? And from St. Everfree? Our school will crumble in shambles!”
“Now there,” Applejack cut in before Rarity could continue with her rant. “It’s all just rumors about them demolishing their own school.” She shook her head from side to side at the incredulity of some people. “Besides, according to Principal Celestia, there are only six students transferring in, hardly enough to make the school fall down.”
“Well…that’s true.” Rarity admitted. “Still, just imagine the trouble they could cause. I don’t want my school to end up being plagued with juvenile delinquents!”
Applejack raised an eyebrow at the term ‘juvenile delinquent’ but chose not to comment on that. “I don’t think it’s fair to assume that every single student from Everfree is a delinquent and even if they were I’m sure Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna have put into action some sort of measures to ensure nothing bad happens.” She had plenty of faith in that. “Besides, our school had being the victim of two different attacks from evil magical creatures from another world and we came out on top, I’m sure six troublemakers from another school aren’t as dire as those situations.”
“You might be right.” Rarity sighed as she relaxed a bit. “It’s not like these ruffians can use evil magic like the sirens.”
“Yeah, they’re probably just troublemakers with bad attitudes.” Applejack said very sure of herself. “Why don’t we just stop worryin’ and just try to stay clear away from them if they look like trouble.”
With a nod of agreement, both girls continue to make their way towards school.
It didn’t take long for them to arrive to the front lawn of the school where the school statue was located. If it were any other day, they alongside many others would’ve continue their way towards the main building, but today of all day a small crowd was forming.
The cause of this event was the strange sight of both Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna standing on the sidewalk, waiting for something.
“What is going on over here?” Applejack asked out-loud as Rarity and she walked up to the crowd. Fortunately for them, the rest of the friends were already there to answer their questions.
“We are waiting for the new transfer students of course!” Pinkie answered in her usual happy humor, bouncing up and down with unlimited energy. “Oooh I’m so excited! This is going to be great. Maybe I can host a ‘welcome to Canterlot High’ party!”
“B-but they are from St. Everfree.” Rarity was aghast as to what her rambunctious friend was saying. “They’re not the type of people we should mingle with.” Despite Applejack’s assurance that her initial reaction to the news was exaggerated, Rarity still had reservations towards meeting these new students.
“Oh! I’m sure that all those stories about St. Everfree are exaggerated.” Pinkie said dismissing Rarity’s worry. “There’s no way those rumors are true! Otherwise they would’ve expelled them a long time ago! They are probably misunderstood.”
“Pinkie Pie’s right.” AJ said, “At least on the part about them being expelled. No faculty could tolerate acts of violence and use of weapons inside the school.” Then she crossed her arms and nodded to herself. “If you ask me, I say that the school thugs just exaggerate things just for reputation.”
“That’s what I being saying too.” Pinkie nodded too before turning to Fluttershy who was doing her best to make herself look small. “See, Fluttershy! Even Applejack agrees with me.”
“Oh…I-I hope your right…” she answered, her voice just above a whisper. “It t-terrifies me that people that bad could come to our school.” The idea of the rumors being true made her tremble, thankfully Rainbow Dash put a hand on her shoulder to calm her.
“Don’t you worry Fluttershy, if any of those thugs even thinks of doing anything to you I’ll deal with them personally.”
“B-but you could end up hurt!”
“Heh, I’m the most athletic person in this school and I’m a black belt in Karate. I beat Bulk Biceps at arm wrestling all the time.” Rainbow smiled as she pointed herself with a thumb. “Heck, I kinda wish the rumors were true, otherwise those two-bit punks wouldn’t last a minute.”
“What are you even sayin’ Rainbow Dash?” Applejack scolded Rainbow for such claim. “Haven’t you heard of the saying ‘Careful for what you wish for’?”
“I have to agree with Applejack.” Rarity said, “That’s no way to reassure someone. Let alone poor Fluttershy.”
Rainbow Dash scratched the back of her head having the decency of showing she recognized her goof-off, but soon after she defended her claim. “You guys worry too much. I said I can take out those thugs easy.”
“Yes, then you’ll be suspended or worse for fighting when you do.” Applejack pointed out, but Rainbow’s response was to shrug.
“Hey, Sunset Shimmer and the Sirens not being expelled after what they pulled off, it would be ridiculous for them to suspend me for defending my friends and myself.” She countered. “Fighting in school grounds isn’t as bad as going crazy and using dark magic to brainwash people into servitude.”
“Gee, thanks for reminding me.” Cut off the voice of another arriving friend, Sunset Shimmer.
“Oh, hey Sunset.” Rainbow blush in embarrassment. “Um…no offense…?”
“None taken.” Sunset said rolling her eyes at the whole routine. “I’ll take you girls are talking about the new transfer students.”
After a few minutes of explaining and retelling thanks to Pinkie Pie, Sunset Shimmer was caught up with the whole situation.
“So? What do you think?” asked Rainbow.
“I think we should save our opinions of the new students after we meet them.”Sunset finally said. “It’s silly to drive ourselves up the wall in worry when we don’t even know anything about them besides rumors.” Sunset felt strongly about this since it would be hypocritical of her to do the same thing people did to her when she began to turn a new leaf. “I think we should give them the benefit of a doubt.”
“Well I think we shall find out soon enough.” Rainbow said as she saw something in the distance. “Look here they come!” Her proclamation caused her friends and everyone around who was unaware to turn around and look towards she was pointing. And soon enough, a not so great looking bus coming from the city, stopped right in front of the school, where Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna had been waiting this whole time.
“Shouldn’t we tell the students to disperse?” Luna asked her sister who hadn’t done anything about the crowd of curious students that had formed on the lawn behind them.
“Let them be.” Celestia said not too concerned about the issue. “Even if we tell them to go inside, since the bell hasn’t ring yet, they will just crowd in the main hall.” She couldn’t fault them for being curious. With the reputation St. Everfree has, there was no way they could treat this whole transfer thing as something remotely normal.
“I don’t think they would appreciate being looked at as if they were a freak show.” Luna pointed out only to remember the records of some of them. “Or at least some of them.”
“Let’s just all act natural, and see how things go from there on.” Celestia said as the door of the bus opened and let the first student step down.
He wasn’t like anyone the entire student population of CHS could’ve ever imagined.
“Um…G-Good morning…”
Because when someone thought of St. Everfree, nobody imagined a short, innocuous looking boy with dark brown hair. In fact, in the back of many students’ minds, he was kind of a letdown.
“Good morning.” Principal Celestia greeted back accordingly. She recognized him by the picture of his file as Scorpan; the one who, along his brother, had participated over 30 fights in and out of school grounds. “Please step over there so you can form a line.” She asked nicely enough and the boy rapidly complied, surprising both Principals.
“Y-Yes of course!” He said as he took his place. If anything he wasn’t anything like his profile painted him to be.
“Is he from St. Everfree?” Rainbow Dash who was watching from afar with the rest of the crowd, asked quietly enough for only her friends to hear her. “Man, what a letdown.” He really didn’t look like someone who would be capable of the rumors that surrounded the infamous “delinquent school”.
For their part, the rest of the girls were relieved that the rumors appeared to be mere exaggeration.
“See Fluttershy? He looks like a regular student. He doesn’t look scary at all.” Applejack reassured her trembling friend who had gotten very anxious when the bus came to a stop. “Those rumors were just a bunch of hooey.”
“I-I guess you’re right…” Fluttershy said as she stopped cowering a little and gave the new student a decent look. “There was nothing to be scared abo-abo-abo….” She started stammering as her eyes suddenly widen in shock.
“Fluttershy? What’s wrooooooo…..whoa nelly!” Applejack was also lost of words when she finally turned and saw what terrified her friend.
From the bus it stepped down a mountain of a man. He was a head taller than Principal Celestia, and she was pretty tall to begin with, and not only that but he had a massive build that put Bulk to shame.
“T-that’s a s-s-student?!” Rarity stuttered as she too was horrified by the arrival. “Th-there’s have to be an error.” But her hopes were dashed when Vice Principal greeted him and didn’t immediately question this man’s arrival.
“Good morning. Tirek I presume.” Luna greeted instead of her sister who was still recovering from the shock of seeing a student with such an imposing appearance. The files didn’t lie about his statured but one couldn’t fully grasp the extent of the numbers and photographs without seeing it in person.
When Tirek didn’t respond and opted instead to just frown. Luna just pointed at where Scorpan was standing still. “Just walk over there and stand next to your…”
“Don’t you dare say it.” The massive “boy” didn’t yell, roar, or hollered, heck he didn’t even raised his voice, but the effect was the same. Both principals flinched back at the “cold” intensity of his words. “He is nothing to me.” He said before taking his place next to Scorpan, who lowered his face with a sad look. Without even turning to look at his brother, Tirek said in a low voice only for Scorpan to hear. “From now on, don’t talk to me, get near me, or even talk like you know me. We are strangers, do you understand?”
“Y-Yes…” Scorpan replied feeling hurt by his broth…I mean, his classmate’s words.
The shock over Tirek’s demand soon wore-off and Celestia turned and whispered to her sister. “Th-that took us by surprise, b-but from now on we won’t let him get away with talking to any of us like that.” If they let him go scot-free then it would only be encouraging that behavior for the rest of them.
“Of course.” Luna agreed trying to put on a tough front, but she was still intimidated by the build of the student. At least she took it better than Celestia who never had to look upwards to see someone’s face before.
With the crowd, students were still stunned by Tirek’s appearance. One of them being Rainbow Dash whose eyes looked like platters. Next to her, Sunset finally managed to recover from the shock and elbowed her friend.
“Still wishing that the rumors were true?” Sunset tried to jest to liven up the mood that covered the whole crowd, but instead it came out somewhat desperate. On her end, Rainbow bit her lip trying to think of something to say that didn’t made her sound like a flip-flop and save face, but instead she pointed out the bus door and say.
“Hey, here comes the next one.”
Indeed another student had stepped down and thankfully her appearance was more “normal” than the mountain that came out before.
“Starlight Glimmer. Welcome to Canterlot High.” Celestia greeted a lot more relaxed now that the shock from earlier had passed on.
“It’s a pleasure to assist to this lovely school of yours Principal Celestia.” Stralight greeted courtly with a smile like a refined lady. “I can’t wait to see what this excellent school has to offer and meet other students.”
“It’s nice to have you too. Please step over there and wait in line with the rest.” Luna said trying to assess the well-mannered girl. It was true that she was a “role model” student at St. Everfree, but she was also responsible of forming her own gang under the guise of serving and protecting the school; still the Vice Principal was having trouble judging if Starlight’s attitude was genuine or just an attempt to suck-up to both her sister and she.
Stralight kept smiling even as she took her place standing beside a delinquent scum like Tirek. Even when the idea of being in the same vicinity as the rest of her classmates filled her with a sick feeling and her fingers twitched wanting nothing more than to grab her trusty “disciplinary baton” (which she currently didn’t carry) or lunge for the nearest blunt object and beat them down into obedience, she had to keep up appearances and act like a respectable School body president should.
“Well, at least she looks normal.” Applejack commented to Rarity who was looking at the trio who didn’t seem to have anything in common. Not even in the way they dressed.
The first one wore pretty common clothes, nothing really special or even noteworthy about them. The second one was dressed in all black: black tank-top, pants, boots and spiky leather wristbands, making him look more intimidating, and the tank-top really showed off his massive physic. And the girl was dressed in a “uniform” that consisted in a dark purple shirt and a short black tie, black skirt with a belt and boots and surprisingly enough, an armband with an sign of equal ( = ) on her right arm and on the borders it said “Student Body President”.
All in all, it was a very uneven group.
“Here comes the next one.” Applejack said making Rarity turn to look at the next student coming out.
“Oh my god…” Rarity so surprised she brought a hand over her mouth. “He’s soooo handsome!” her eyes turning into hearts.
Indeed the next student transferring in from St. Everfree had a certain “royal” charm to him. Chiseled face, expressive green eyes and majestic long flowing ebony hair; all of this things made him look like a prince of some sort.
“Sombra. Welcome to CHS.” Celestia said looking at the handsome young man. She was having some trouble connecting such a good-looking boy with the reports of his behaviors from her profile…that is until he opened his mouth.
“Yes, it is I, Sombra! I’m sure it’s your pleasure to have me here. I expect everyone’s applause to last at least 10 minutes.” He demanded with such pretentiousness you could feel the slime coming out of his person. “Quitters shall be flogged publically!”
“Yes… uhm…” Celestia was having a hard time trying to articulate words to form a response to whatever was what came out of the boy’s mouth. Luckly, Luna had her back.
“If it pleases ‘your highness’ could you please move and form with the rest.” Luna said with sarcasm oozing out expecting anything but the reaction she got.
“It pleases me not, but even royal has to do things that are distasteful or that are below him. But all is good for I can overcome any obstacle that appears before my glorious being!” He finished by making an exaggerated hand motion and quickly took his place beside Starlight Glimmer giving her a sneer.
“What was that?” Celestia wondered confused by the boy’s words.
“I guess that explains the bit about megalomaniac speeches.” Luna muttered back. She could already see it becoming really old really fast if he did that every time he opened his mouth.
Back in the crowd, Rainbow couldn’t help but elbow Rarity after the display the boy just showed. “At least he’s handsome, right Rarity?”
The fashionista tried to cover her burning cheeks of embarrassment. But Rarity’s shame faded away soon after the next person stepped out of the bus.
The crowd, especially the male population, was amazed by the girl’s appearance. Not only she was as tall as Principal Celestia herself, she was wearing a very tight and skimpy green top that left her abdomen exposed, alongside a very short black miniskirt that left almost nothing to the imagination.
“Chrysalis!” Celestia called out appalled by the girl’s choice of wardrobe. “I cannot allow you in with such attire!” Sure the dress code at Canterlot High wasn’t very strict, but this girl was way past the line of acceptable.
“Well then, I guess I shall go home now.” Chrysalis said with a mocking smirk on her face. It appeared that being denied entrance to the school was her plan all along.
Unfortunately for her, Vice Principal Luna intervened. “I suspected someone would try something like this, that’s why I have this prepared.” She said while taking out an old looking shirt that said “Proud Student at CHS” in bold letters. “Put this on and keep it for the rest of the day.”
“I’m not wearing that.” The girl said crossing her arms in front of her and stepping back away from such an ugly looking shirt.
“Oh you will. And tomorrow you will wear something more appropriate for school or I’ll not only give you indefinite detention but also have you wear the school’s mascot suit for the rest of the school year.” Luna threatened with a hard look on her face to show that she was indeed not joking about the matter.
Chrysalis stood there looking from the shirt to Luna’s face and back to the shirt a couple of times before she reluctantly snatched the shirt from the Vice Principal and reluctantly put it on.
“Now that wasn’t too hard wasn’t it?” Luna smiled while the girl just muttered under her breath. “Now go and take your place with the rest.” She commanded and watch smugly as Chrysalis did what she was told.
“That was a very nice tactic you had there, Vice Principal Luna.” Celestia said amazed by her sister cunning method.
“Having her go back home or having her suspended doesn’t work against girls her type. So the prospect of public humiliation is a good tactic to have them on the line.” Luna explained only to receive a smirk from her sister.
“I shouldn’t have expected less from you, especially since you…”
“Forget it sister!” Luna rapidly interrupted with a hush not wanting to hear what her sister had to say. “Let us bring the next one so we can get this over with.”
“Very well.” Celestia agreed dropping the subject from before.
Both Principals waited for a whole minute but nobody else came out from the bus. Then they waited a bit more and still nobody came out.
“What’s taking him so long?” Celestia asked confused before walking up to the bus door and hopped in. After another minute the Principal finally stepped out but nobody followed her. And as soon as she was out, the bus took off leaving the school behind.
“Sis…I mean…Principal Celestia! Where’s the final student? Where’s Discord?”
“He wasn’t in the bus.” Celesita informed with a frustrated look on her face. “I asked the driver but he told me he only picked up five of them.”
“So, Discord decided to play hooky?!” Luna asked indignant although they should’ve seen it coming that at least one would just refuse to show up. “What are we going to do?”
“I guess we should continue and later I’ll try to contact Discord’s…”
But before she could even finish, the sound of a police siren interrupted her. Then out of nowhere a police transport van parked just where the bus was a minute ago and two police officers stepped out of the vehicle with metallic poles on their hands.
“Is something wrong officers?” Celestia asked a little alarmed by the sudden appearance of the police. And she wasn’t the only one, the crowd of students also started talking amongst themselves wondering just what the heck was going on.
“There’s no problem Ma’am! Just a simple Transport.” One of the officers informed before he and his partner walked towards the back of the van and opened small panel showing a double key lock.
Both officers put aside the pole arms for a moment and pulled out their respective twin keys, inserted them in the lock and then turned to look at each other. “At the count of three. One. Two. THREE!” they called out and turned their keys at exactly the same time to open up the doors of the van.
Inside the vehicle, there was a figure sitting chained in a seat with heavy chains and covered in full body restrains, a prisoner’s mask with a lock. The Police officers then used their pole arms to hook them to the special locks that chained the prisoner to the chair to set him free and allow him to stand up, but at the same time they allow the officers to drag him at a safe distance.
Once they pulled the prisoner out with the help of two other officers carrying shotguns that had come out from inside the van behind the prisoner, one of the officers walked towards the restrained prisoner and unlocked the face mask that prevented the criminal to see, talk, or open his mouth.
Once the lock was off, the officer stepped back and turned to his comrades and gave them a signal. The signal indicated to release the final Locks of the body restrains to that the prisoner could move his arms and finally be set free.
With one swift motion of the pole arms, the final locks were off.
“EVERYONE BACK IN THE VAN!” one officer yelled out and the rest rapidly jumped back into the van and stepped on the gas to leave as fast as humanly possible. Not ten seconds had passed and traces of the officers or the police van were no longer to be seen. Just leaving a prisoner who was finally taking off his full body constraints.
“Ha! That’s better!” The Prisioner, now identifiable as a boy with grayish skin and very bushy eye brows, said while stretching his arms. “So this is my new school huh?” he wondered out loud only to be received by silence.
Complete and utter silence.
The crowd of students and the members of the faculty were left literally speechless to the evets that took place in less than two minutes.
“What? Was it something I said?” Discord asked with a cheeky grin.