//------------------------------// // The Initiation // Story: Love Behind a Lie // by Heavenly Quill //------------------------------//         Quill quickly found out what kind of class archery was—his favorite! The bow felt so natural in his hands, and his aim was good. His arrows came to the second ring from the bullseye. Each time he took a shot, he wore a happy smile on his face. His class’s instructor, a tall man with a purple crystal prep jacket on and hair that stuck out and resembled small horns, smiled slightly at the sight of one of his students enjoying the class for once. Quill handed the bow off to the student behind him for their turn to shoot and headed to the back of the line. The instructor held him back. “You’re new here, yet your skills are well above average for a freshman. You must’ve taken lessons before now, right?” Quill shook his head and he smiled. “No sir, Coach Aspen, this is my first time picking up a bow. I guess it’s just beginner’s luck.” Aspen raised an eyebrow before tapping the frame of his glasses. “Are these prescription?” “N..no sir, t...they’re just for show,” Quill said, looking away from Aspen. “You should consider taking them off when shooting. The curve of the lense is throwing off your aim. That is all the criticism I have for you Heavenly Quill. Head to the back of the line and consider my advice.” Quill nodded and headed to the back. At the front of the line, a girl with pale yellow skin and purple hair in a large pony tail with a blue band going down the middle stood with her bow in her hand. She notched three arrows at once and let them fly, one arrow stabbing directly under the bullseye, one directly above it, and one in the dead center. She tossed the bow at the student behind her and walked to the back behind Quill. “You are really good, but you’ll never be better than me,” she said, going from a happy tone to a very angry and cocky one. Quill just looked at the girl before slowly turning to face the front of the line. He did not want to make any enemies on the first day, especially not enemies with mood swings. Quill tried to ignore the girl’s cocky stare burning a hole in the back of his head as he stepped back up to shoot. He glanced around to make sure no one would see his eye before raising his glasses over his head. He notched an arrow and let it fly right into the bull’s eye. He notched a second and shot it right into the first ring around the bull’s eye. As he prepared to fire the third, the girl behind him let out a fake sneeze, throwing off Quill’s shot and sending it into the grass. Aspen glared at the girl who just shrugged at him. “Sorry Coach, I guess it's allergy season!” she said with a kind smile. Aspen sighed and shook his head. “Sour Sweet, you can collect the arrows and put the bows away when class ends.” He turned to Quill, who had quickly put his glasses back over his eyes. “Quill, if you are not busy at the end of school, I hope you will consider joining the archery club here.” He looked out to the rest of the students. “Good day everyone. Pack up and go change back for your next class.” Quill walked by Sour Sweet as she picked the arrows out of the targets and out of the ground. She glared at him and Quill quickly backed away from her. He nearly ran into the locker room. He changed out of his purple gym uniform and pulled on his normal uniform. He collected his stuff and straightened his glasses. “Ok, class number one done. I made an enemy, but I’m sure she'll get over it,” he said to himself as he walked out of the locker room and down the hall. Lemon Zest sat in Principal Cinch’s office with a wide smile on her face. “So that’s our plan ma’am. If he can pass the Shadow initiation, he’ll be worth keeping around.” Cinch looked at her student and raised an eyebrow. “And how will this initiation prove that he is worthy?” “He’ll need to be quick, smart, and strong to get by the Wonderdolt jocks, and he’ll have to bring his A-Game to get through the initiation trials. The only obstacle is his motivation to do it, but the girls and I already have a way to fix that.” “And what will this reason be?” Cinch asked as she looked down at Lemon Zest. “He’s new to the school, so he needs a group to fit in with. With a little smooth talking and some empty promises, he’ll do whatever it takes to join us. We’ll have a new Shadow and a new player in the games.” Cinch pondered this for a moment before giving her student a slight nod. “Make it so Ms. Zest, but do know this: If your little initiation fails and something happens that ruins my school’s reputation, you and your friends will be punished. Is that understood?” she said in her cold voice. Lemon Zest’s smile left her face and she nodded. “Y...yes ma’am understood!” “Good, now get to it Ms. Zest. I expect results by the end of the day.” “You won’t be disappointed ma’am, that's a promise.” She stood up and headed out while looking up at the clock. It was nearly lunch time. “Nearly time for things to kick off,” she said to herself as she left Cinch’s office. Quill’s next class had been history, a subject that was one of the hardest at Crystal Prep. Even the best students struggled with remembering every little date, name, and historical site that was needed for the class. Quill had finished his work early and was allowed to spend the rest of class in the library. He smiled as he walked up and down the rows of books, fiction and nonfiction, action and adventure, mystery and horror. Quill felt at home around all of the new reading material. He closed his eyes and ran his hands over the books. He grabbed one and pulled it down. He opened his eyes and smiled when he found a Daring Do book in his hand. “Ohhh this one is new. ‘Daring Do and The Dark Ones.’” He turned the book around and frowned. The back of the book didn't have a story synopsis like it should. A voice spoke up behind him, making him jump. “Could you please move over?” Quill turned around to see a girl with violet hair and a dark purple and light pink streak. He moved aside and watched her take the Daring Do book that came after the one he was holding. He smiled a little. “You like Daring Do?” The girl looked at him and she nodded slightly. “Yes I do. T..the book you’re holding is a good one too,” she said a little awkwardly, like she wasn’t used to talking to people. Quill looked down at his book and he smiled. “Can you tell me what it's about? Without any spoilers, of course.” “Daring Do has just met a man who's an adventurer like she is. Deciding that an adventure with someone would be a nice change, they go together on an expedition to a hidden temple, but the man isn’t all that he appears. Is the man as kind as he seems, or is there something dark under his kind words?” she said with a slight smile. “I’ve read all the books at least six times. I wrote a summary for all of them when I had a little down time.” Quill just stared at the girl for a few moments before speaking. “You read and wrote a summary for all 25 books in the series?” The girl nodded and looked at the book in her hands. “I really like reading. It's a big hobby of mine.” Quill smiled and he held out his hand. “Same here. I’m Heavenly Quill. It's nice to meet someone who loves books as much as me.” Twilight looked down at his hand and blushed slightly in embarrassment before she shook it briefly. “M.. my name is Twilight Sparkle. It's nice to meet you too, Heavenly Quill.” She looked down at her book. “I... I have to go and get some work done so.....bye!” she said before hurrying off. Quill blinked in confusion at the girl before shrugging it off. “She must be shy. At least I know there's someone here who reads the same books as me.” He checked the book out and headed out to lunch. Lemon Zest, who was also headed to the cafeteria after her talk with Cinch, noticed him in the hallway and hurried over. “Yo! Quill wait up!” Quill turned and he smiled a little. “Hey Lemon Zest, what do you need?” “You actually. You’re the new kid here, so we have to put you through the initiation.” “What initiation?” “Well, all new Shadowbolts have to do it. I did it when I came here. It's not that hard. Come with me. I’ll explain everything on the way.” “But…. it’s lunch ti—” Quill remembered that he forgot his wallet and his lunch money. “Never mind, lead the way Lemon Zest,” he said,following behind her with a sigh. Quill was led to a room occupied by four girls all in the standard girl’s uniform. Lemon Zest walked over to them and smirked. “Quill, I’d like you to meet my friends. They're some of the smartest and most athletic girls in Crystal Prep. Their names ar-” “Thank you for bringing him here, but we can introduce ourselves.” Quill looked to the girl that had cut Lemon Zest off. She was the girl from his archery class, Sour Sweet. Sour Sweet smiled kindly at him. “I’m Sour Sweet! We met this morning, when you made me look bad in front of everyone!” she said, her smile turning into an angry glare halfway through. “Excuse her, darling, she’s like that to everyone. I’m Sunny Flare, Crystal Prep resident fashionista! I make all of the sports teams’ uniforms,” she said, looking very prideful. She had light purple hair with pink streaks cut short in the back and long bangs, Quill turned his head to her and he nodded a little. Other than looking a bit too proud for his liking, she seemed normal enough. The girl next to her rolled her eyes. “She means that her sewing club makes the uniforms while she sits around ‘supervising.’” She had long hair brushed back in a wave-like style. It was multiple different shades of blue, and a bit of it stuck up under the orange goggles she wore over her head. “I’m Indigo Zap, captain of the track team, and best athlete this school has ever seen!” The last girl rolled her eyes and spoke bluntly. “Coach Aspen competed in the Olympics, and you only do track, so you can’t talk about the other sports.” Indigo glared at her and crossed her arms. “Shut up Sugarcoat!” The girl, Sugarcoat, had white hair styled in three large ponytails with two on the side and one in the back. Quill wondered how long her hair was without the ponytails and smiled slightly at the image of her hair completely hiding her body. “Well, it's the truth, deal with it,” Sugarcoat said with a bored look. Lemon Zest cleared her throat. “Anyway, like I said, we’re some of the best here. People like to call us the Shadow 5. We’ve seen your old test scores and your skills with the bow, so we think you have what it takes to party with us.” Indigo walked over to Quill with a smirk. “All you gotta do is pass the initiation.” Quill nodded slowly as he smiled. A chance to become friends with the best of the best in the school on the first day? This was better than anything he could’ve expected. “W.. what do I have to do?” “Head over to Canterlot High and plant these,” she held up a large sticker with the school’s Shadowbolt logo, “On every locker in the school. They’re all on the bottom floor, so you should be good. Oh, and you have to write ‘Shadowbolts rule!’ in big purple letters on their statue.” Quill frowned and he looked up at Indigo. “Wouldn’t that get me in a lot of trouble?” Sunny Flare shook her head. “There's an agreement between our schools about these kinds of things. As long as it's not permanent and no one gets hurt, we’re free to pull as many ‘friendly pranks’ as we want.” Quill raised an eyebrow. “A..are you sure about that?” Indigo smirked. “Of course we are! The pranks are like a tradition!” Quill looked down and thought about what he was just asked to do. Lemon Zest walked over to him and smiled. “Look Quill, it’s not that hard, just a few stickers on their lockers and paint on a statue. Do that and you can be one of us. Your first day and you’ll already be a part of our group!” “I...I don’t know, it still sounds weird to me.” Lemon Zest looked back at the girls. All of them motioned for her to continue. “Well, we wouldn’t ask you to do it if the Wonderdolts hadn’t started messing with us first!” “W..what do you mean?” Quill said, looking up at her. Indigo spoke up. “Yeah, ever since our school won the first Friendship Games, the Wonderdolts have been messing with us. They’re such sore losers!” Sour Sweet nodded. “Yeah, it’s so mean! All we did was royally beat them at everything! It’s not our fault we’re good at the games.” “The last time they pranked us, they defaced our precious Crystal Heart! They painted it black so it couldn’t shine in the sun like it usually does.” Quill looked at the girls, each of them with a sad and depressed look on their face. Quill felt something inside him click. “I..If that’s the case, then I’ll do it! You don't deserve to be bullied like that just for winning some game.” Indigo smiled and slapped him on the back in a playful and slightly painful way. “There we go! That's the kinda thing we’re lookin’ for in a Shadowbolt! The Wonderdolts should be having lunch by now, so most of them will be in the cafeteria. Lemon Zest can drive you there. If you're quick, you can be there and back before you know it!” “Not unless he runs into Rainbow Crash or that idiot Zero,” Sugarcoat said with an eyeroll. “Oh yeah…. them. If you meet up with these two, you better hope you can run like hell. They’re fast—not as fast as me of course, but still—and they’re dead set on stopping any of our good-natured pranks.” Indigo held up her phone and showed Quill a photo of a tall, black-haired boy standing beside a girl about a head shorter than him with brightly colored rainbow hair. Both were in what looked like Wonderbolt track uniforms. The boy wore a third place ribbon, and the girl had a second place ribbon. “I took this the day our school beat theirs in the last track meet we had, so be ready, Quill.” Quill looked at the picture and he nodded. “She’s smaller than he is, so she could probably move a lot quicker than him. He looks fast, but I’m sure I can outsmart them both if I need to.” Lemon Zest looked surprised and smiled. “Well, if you're so confident, let's go!” Quill nodded and took the box of Shadowbolt logo stickers and spray paint cans. “Lead the way.” Lemon Zest let Quill out first before looking to the girls. “We got him good. If he actually gets this done, bonus asset for us. If not, he gets sent off and no harm done!” She laughed before leaving with Quill. Indigo watched them go and smirked. “Can’t believe the idiot bought all that!” “Even if he does manage to pass the initiation, he's still not smart enough to see when he's being lied to,” Sugarcoat said with a small smile. Sunny Flare shrugged. “Then we just make him do what we want. We are some of the smartest girls in the school. Well….most of us are.” Lemon Zest sneezed as she drove Quill over to Canterlot High in the lime green Camaro her dad bought her. “Ah, someone’s talking about me.” “Bless you. Oh, and if you have your own car, why did you take the bus to school this morning?” “I let Sour Sweet borrow the car yesterday so she could take Sugarcoat out, but then she decided that I didn’t need my car to get to school and drove it there herself!” “Judging from that and what I saw of her this morning, she seems like a….a bad friend.” “She seems like that, I know, but sometimes I think she's the only one out of the girls that's actually my friend. I’ve known her since kindergarten.” “You’re lucky then. I never had a lot of friends growing up.” He sighed and looked down at the box in his lap. “You were my first real friend, Lemon Zest.” Lemon Zest glanced at Quill for a moment. She felt…..sorry for him. She had never felt bad for anyone before. She sighed and reached over to pat his shoulder. “Don’t get all mushy on me, ok? After you're done with this, you’ll have the rest of the 5 as your friends.” As she spoke, she began to feel even worse. She knew she was lying to him; it was the plan to begin with. Cinch told her to test him...so why did she suddenly feel bad for this guy she just met? They pulled up in front of Canterlot High and Lemon Zest forced a smile on her face. “We’re here Quill. I’ll be down here waiting for you to get out, ok?” Quill smiled as he got out of the car. “Just wondering. I’ll try and be as quick as I can.” He looked around the courtyard before running into the school. Lemon Zest watched him go off and sighed. “Why do I feel guilty?” Quill encountered a problem as soon as he walked in: He could hear someone heading towards the front doors from a nearby hallway. He looked around and hid himself beside a set of lockers and waited for them to pass by. When they did, Quill saw that it was a guy and a girl. The guy wore a grey t-shirt with a basketball and a music note on it. On top of that, he wore a grey hoodie and matching jeans. He was holding hands with a girl with dark purple hair in a blue blouse and a purple skirt with a trio of diamonds on it. She wore a golden bracelet on both hands and she smiled at the guy. “I hope you brought your appetite darling, because I spent all morning making a wonderful lunch for us!” the purple-haired girl said. “If it’s your cooking, I’ll always have an appetite, Rarity,” the grey guy said. “Oh, you're so sweet Clyde. Come on, let's go eat out on the grass. It’ll be much more romantic.” Quill watched them go before he left his hiding spot. “Huh, must’ve been a couple.” He hurried and began placing the stickers on the lockers. As he moved into a new hallway, he heard another set of voices and he ducked into a janitor’s closet. “So much for everyone being at lunch,” he mumbled to himself. “Ok, so I would be a Jedi Knight, you would be a former Inquisitor, and we would totally kick Vader’s ass together.” “You chose me to be an Inquisitor to have a reason to put me in a leather uniform, didn’t you?” “No…..maybe…...yes.” Quill smiled slightly from the exchange and he opened the closet door just enough to see a guy with white hair, a grey collared jacket, white undershirt and grey jeans walk by with a girl with red and yellow hair that resembled bacon. She was wearing a dress with a purple top and an orange skirt with a purple and yellow stripe going down the side. She had a sun symbol on the chest of her top. All this was underneath a black leather jacket. She wore odd-looking high-heeled boots with a purple flame pattern. As Quill walked out of his hiding place, he could hear the white-haired guy’s voice from down the hall. “Who put all of these Shadowbolt stickers here!?” “Another one of the Shadowbolts must’ve snuck in and put them here. They still might be here! We should tell the others before things get out of hand like last time,” the bacon-haired girl said. “I know. I still can’t believe they stole our poor mascot.” Quill’s eyes widened and he hurried to complete his task. It was not long before he had nearly all the lockers done when he heard a loud voice behind him. “Hey Shadowbolt! Quit putting your stupid logo on our lockers!” Quill spun around to see the source of the voice and came nearly face to face with an angry-looking boy with black hair, blue skin, and a white shirt under a blue jacket. Quill slowly backed away from the boy, but before he could say anything, a very strong sweet smell came to his nose. He looked back to the source of the smell to find a girl with bright pink fluffy hair. She wore a white shirt with blue sleeves and a heart over her large pink chest. Her pink skirt had a pattern with three balloons on it. She was in the process of slipping a brown dye pack into his pants when he quickly grabbed her arm, took the pack out of her hand, and tossed it at the blue-skinned boy. It burst on impact and stained the boy’s face and clothes in brown dye. Quill took a spray paint can from the sticker box and dropped the rest of the stickers and the box on the pink girl’s head and sprinted away toward the front doors as quickly as he could. The boy wiped his eyes free of the dye and he called out, “SOMEONE GRAB THE SHADOWBOLT!” The pink girl took the box off her head and frowned. “He caught me! No one ever catches me!” Quill ran down the hallway, passing another student in a bright red shirt with burgundy hair and dark purple skin. Behind him was a girl with pale yellow skin and light pink hair. she wore a white dress with a green skirt with a trio of butterflies on it. The burgundy-haired student watched as Quill ran by. “Who the hell was that?” The yellow-skinned girl hid behind him. “I...I don’t know, and I'm to afraid to ask.” Quill looked back to see if he was being followed. Before he could look forwards, he slammed right into someone. They both fell to the ground. The person grunted as they hit the ground. “O...ow, hey man, ever heard of slowing down in the hallway?” Quill pushed himself up and quickly put on his glasses that had fallen off. He looked to the other person and saw another boy with brown hair and tanned skin. He work a dark green jacket over a grey t-shirt with a white cog in the middle and grey jeans. “Sorry, in a hurry!” Quill said as he scrambled out the front door. He made a beeline to the statue and climbed up. He found himself standing beside the stone horse’s flank. “Hey! What do you think you're doing?!” said a young man’s voice. Quill turned around and his eyes widened. Standing at the door were the two people he was told to watch out for, Rainbow and Zero. “Are you the one who put all those stickers on all the lockers?!” Rainbow shouted. Quill held the can in his hand and he slowly backed into a better position to paint over the stone horse’s stomach.. “Y...Yeah I am, just a harmless prank.” “True, but you’ve got a lot of nerve coming here,” Zero replied while crossing his arms. “Besides, you should have been smart and just come after hours so you wouldn’t get caught.” Quill glanced at the statue, then back at the duo before an idea popped into his head. “True yourself, but if I did that and got caught, then I’d be in even more trouble,” he said with a smile. “That should be obvious, right?” “Not really,” Rainbow added. “The school’s security isn’t exactly high class, y’know. Anyways, now that you’re caught red-handed, why don’t you take the nearest bus back to where you came from or you’ll have to deal with me.” He looked to Rainbow and sighed. “Well, I would go back to where I came from, but my family is originally from Saddle Arabia, and that's on another continent, so it’ll be hard to take a bus there. Unless you’d be kind enough to pay for a plane ticket,” he said as his right hand moved against the stone horse’s stomach, taking the time he had gained by distracting them to paint the statue like he was told. “Quit being a smartass, I mean Crystal Prep. But I’ll gladly kick you there if you don’t beat it in the next ten seconds.” Quill glanced at his work on the statue to see he was only halfway done. He needed more time. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m surprised you can count to ten, judging from what i’ve heard about you…..Rainbow Crash,” he said, trying to hold a cocky smirk. “That’s it!” Rainbow charged at him. Quill looked to the statue quickly. He had just finished tagging ‘SHADOWBOLTS RULE’ on the statue. He didn’t expect someone as short as Rainbow to jump up and grab him so easily. “I’ll give you one last chance to walk away, NOW!” Rainbow growled. Quill had never been in a hostile situation like this before. His arms moved before he could register what he was doing and he accidently shoved Rainbow off the statue. She landed hard on her back, and Quill’s eyes widened in fear and concern for her. He jumped down to check on her when he heard someone charging towards him. “YOU PUNK!” Zero shouted while grabbing Quill by the shirt and pushed him against the statue’s base. “What the hell did you do that for!” The student that Quill had run into earlier ran over to Rainbow to see if she was ok. “You ok, Rainbow!?” “Y...yeah, just hurt like hell.” Quill looked at Zero. He was shaking badly. “I..It was just an accident! I.. I didn’t mean to push her!” Zero furrowed his brow as he tightened his grip on him before shoving him to the side. “You’re lucky she didn’t fall far, or that it wasn’t Fluttershy or Pinkie. Otherwise I wouldn’t let you off so easily. Now beat it before you really piss me off.” Quill bolted for Lemon Zest’s car, which was parked a little down the road to hide it from view. Quill got in quickly. “D...drive!” Lemon Zest had been listening to music when Quill got in. She took her headphones off and looked to him. “Did you have an-...are you crying?” she said with a serious look on her face. Quill wiped his eyes and he nodded. “I...It went bad! Very bad!.... I accidently pushed Rainbow off the statue!..a..and Zero pinned me to the statue…” Quill looked at her, his iris-less baby blue eyes shined with his tears. Lemon Zest found herself blushing at the sight of them. She seemed to get lost in them. “Y...you lost your glasses.” Quill’s eyes widened when he finally realized he wasn't seeing the world through green tinted lenses. “T….they must’ve fell off.. I.. I need those!” Lemon Zest put her hand on his shoulder. “Whoa, calm down, ok? I’ll get you a new pair, ok? We’ll go get them right now. S..so cheer up! You did it! You're a Shadowbolt now! You have the Shadow 5 with you now, ok?” Quill looked down to hide his eyes. “...P...promise?” Lemon reached out and ruffled his hair. “Yeah man, you're one of us. Now…, stop crying, ok?” she said in a surprisingly warm tone. She started up her engine and headed back to Crystal Prep. She put her headphones on Quill's head and let him lose himself in the beat. As she drove she glanced at him and felt her cheeks get warm. “Those eyes, the way he talks, how nice he is...a..am I really feeling sorry for the new guy?” she asked herself as they drove to Crystal Prep. She felt guilty again. She knew that they would end up using him when they got back. She was a part of it, but now…. now….she wanted to get to know Quill. For the first time since she met Sour Sweet, she felt like she actually met a real friend.