//------------------------------//
// First impact 
// Story: It was the Zest of Times 
// by Sir Doodlington 
//------------------------------//

As the coach stopped, Lemon and Twilight had to finish up their conversation on muffins. Somehow, they'd managed to get through a whole host of topics ranging from alternate universes to more mundane things like ponies. For some strange reason, Lemon felt the two had an odd connection but she had no clue why.

"You go on ahead," She said to Twi as her friend stood up and looked over to her with a hopeful look on her face, "I'll be there in a sec. What I'm about to do might not be legal. You're gonna need plausible deniability, right?" Twi looked confused for a second and opened her mouth as though she were going to say something but quickly shut her mouth and left as Lemon proceeded to pull a series of cans, each with different labels, out of her pockets and arranged them into a pyramid. She continued to watch for a moment, shocked, until the stack of cans reached her thigh level. Her perception of reality thoroughly shattered, she turned and left.

Lemon grinned as she saw her friend leave. She then checked to see if Cinch was still on the coach. She wasn't. She was outside. Pulling up her headphones, she put all the cans back in her pockets except a single can labelled 'Smile' which sat in her hand for a moment before she opened it up and pulled out a small device and admired her handiwork. The bug, when activated, would temporarily change all of Cinch's ringtones on her phone to a song that would surely make Cinch stressed. It wasn't like there would ever be a better chance than now as, looking out the window, Cinch was talking to the principal of CHS. Serenity, or something. She grinned again and got in the zone. She let the music take hold and started to dance out of the coach and towards Cinch and Serenity, not noticing Twi standing outside the coach.

"...improvements to the school since the fall formal." Serenity was saying as Lemon danced over and 'accidentally' knocked into Cinch.

"SORRY MA'AM!!!" She yelled.

"Take off your headphones." Said Cinch.

"WHAT?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Lemon shouted as she took off her headphones. "That's better. What's up, Ma'am?"

"Take more care with where you walk, Miss Zest."

"Yes Ma'am!"

Lemon saluted and ran off towards the front of the school, hiding behind a pillar as Cinch turned back to Serenity. She grinned, her blood pumping and her breath heaving for a moment, she'd done it. The bug was in Cinch's bag. She pulled out the remote for the bug and stared at it for a moment. Was this really a good idea? She was on thin ice as it was. Would Cinch be able to tell who had planted the bug? Lots of things could go wrong. Then again, Lime had had a point when she'd told her Cinch deserved it. She had blackmailed at least three students and was potentially going to hold at least two students back if they failed to win the games. Lemon included.

She was decided. She was going to do it. She pressed the button on the remote. There. Done. She forced herself to breathe out a breath she hadn't noticed she was holding in.

After a moment of silence in Lemon's world, the sound of rock music penetrated her bubble and brought her back to reality. She smiled. She grinned. She'd gotten her revenge.

As she basked in success, she walked back over to the line to sign in, the music forming her world around her. Her mind was racing. She'd managed to pull one over on Cinch. The demon of Crystal Prep! It was a first in the school's history as far as she knew.

So why did she feel guilty? All she'd done was change the principal's ringtone! For the love of- IT WAS A RINGTONE!!!

And for some reason it was tearing her apart. In her mind she knew she'd done the right thing but her body was rebelling by making her feel this weird sensation in her stomach. It was strange. Invasion of privacy based never affected her before. Was it because Cinch had shown her her softer side? How did that change anything?! She was sure it would come back to haunt her later but for now she put it to one side and tried to focus on the entertainment in front of her.

There was a strange looking girl with ketchup and mustard hair over by the CHS Wondercolt statue wearing a leather jacket that really didn't go with the shirt she was wearing. But the entertaining part was the fact that she was possibly attacking the podium with her palms. She had possibly the strangest look on her face though. It was like a llama had had its cheeks pulled back and was forced to try to bleat anyway and was failing. The strange thing was the girl actually looked like she was trying to break through the base for whatever reason. It was just a solid marble podium.

That said, there was that one time that Lemon had gone over to CHS and dressed up the statue and she'd given it shoes that really shouldn't have been possible to get on the horse's hooves. But she had managed to do it. Maybe there was some sort of doorway in the base of the statue.

For the next ten minutes, Lemon watched as the girl went through the all five stages of grief before she went inside with a frown on her face. 

After that, she got herself through the check in, even with the guilt in her stomach she put a half genuine smile on her face that got Dean Cadence to give her a look of concern and an offer to talk at any point in the future.

She was then shown the way through and to the gym by a pretty awkward looking blue haired boy with a symbol of a lightning strike over a blue shield on his shirt. She had only been with him for two minutes and he'd walked into her at two times and if she were right, he'd tried to hit on her on the both times before she told him to shove it.

In short, she found the guy insufferable. And she was a people person. If that wasn't a sign then she didn't know what was.

As she walked into the gym, the douche walked off and over to a pair of girls who looked like the personification of mints and luxurious confectionary. Instead of going in the other direction like she'd planned, she began to take in the look of the hall. It had the potential to be a real blast of a party but the atmosphere wasn't helping at all. The music was nearly unbearable and the lights were so bright she could probably blind herself with them. If this was CHS's version of a party then Lemon wasn't sure she'd survive to the end of the day, let alone the whole week.

Lemon breathed in.