Chapter 3: Crystal Prep Academy
Before the school day had even begun for Rainbow, she was struggling to get herself moving. She really didn't want to go to school ever since she and her Rainboom associates got their comeuppance. But she knew one way or another it wasn't something she could avoid, and she would have to get out there.
Still dressed in her normal gothish/punky clothes, bookbag slung over her back, she tramped down the stairs heavily. The day had barely begun and already she wished it was over.
Quickly, she stopped by the kitchen. Her parents were there – her mother was making some breakfast over the stove, and her dad was seated at the table with the paper.
Her father looked up, noting Rainbow was moving into the room. “Oh! Uh, morning Rainbow!”
Windy was a bit concerned, and turned to look back at her daughter with a slightly awkward expression. “Did, did you sleep well?”
Rainbow's face didn't change. “I slept fine.”
Bow cleared his throat. “You uh, sure about that?”
“I’m fine, dad.” Rainbow Dash grabbed a bagel and an apple, a quick breakfast to eat on the go. After grabbing what she wanted she adjusted her backpack before she started to head out. “I’ll see you guys later…” She stopped for a moment, sighing, and remembering the reality. “After detention…”
“Dashie? Honey?”
Rainbow's shoulders tensed up, expecting something negative to come out of her parents mouths.
“…Yes?”
“…You know that you can talk to us, right? About anything?” Rainbow's mother said.
Rainbow didn't look back at her. “…Right.”
Windy could feel the frustration and sadness blending in Rainbow's voice. Knowing that she wasn't going to get Rainbow Dash to open up any further this morning, she just sighed. “Be good today, sweetie.”
“Right, right…”
And with that, Rainbow Dash stepped out the door and is on her way to school. While she’d normally take the direct route, she goes a different way, favoring a street away from the main road. As she walked, Dash quickly munched on her bagel and starts on her apple.
Rainbow hummed slightly as she walked along. In spite of everything happening, she did appreciate the quiet morning and the pleasant solitude of her walk, school was nowhere in sight yet. This meant she had all the time in the world to enjoy the peace while it lasted.
“Hey Rainbow Dash!!”
Rainbow turned in surprise as she heard the hum of an approaching car, followed by screams and flinching. She prepared to cover herself, immediately pelted by incoming projectiles. Students drove by, pelting her with water balloons that drenched her entire body. She looked back to see there were classmates of hers who were the source of the attack, all of them cheering and whooping for victory. Rainbow looked back down and frowned, her food was dropped in the assault and were now into the street, worthless.
“Rot in jail with Sunset Shimmer, you freak!! You've got it coming!”
As soon as the car was out of sight, she was left alone, clothing soiled and icky. Rainbow's fists clenched up and she raged futilely.
“GAH!!”
Rainbow growled, her teeth clenched hard.
But suddenly, her angry expression crumbled and she cried in shame, misery, and helpless frustration. She cried for a moment, a minute, trying to suck it up, and forcing herself to slog onward. She wouldn't turn around and go home, no matter how much she wanted to. She didn't want to give them the satisfaction. Miserable and angry, Rainbow Dash kept marching.
“W-well, at least I packed a change of clothes this time…”
The school wasn't too far now, just up ahead.
As she pushed through the front doors of the school, she felt daggers pointed at her neck as all eyes watched her move past them, still soaking. She listened to some of them whisper, some out loud, but she knew all words were directed at her. Some of them were demanding she shouldn't have come, some were saying she should just leave and never return, and others were filled with a lot of profanity that she dared not to say out loud.
Not wanting to draw more attention, she just kept walking forward, avoiding all eye contact at least until she could make it to the change room. When she made it inside, quickly she changed out of her soaked clothing and into a fresh set. Clear of her wet clothes, she made it back into the hall. She suffered through stares, snickers and taunts to get to the bathroom and wash up, having a change of clothes and a towel to help wipe off with.
It stunk and she’s upset just as she was when she lost the Battle Of The Bands, but all she could do was keep trying to just power through it all. Ignore them, ignore them, she told herself again and again.
“Rainbow?”
That was a voice she recognized, one she didn't mind hearing. That high pitched voice came from none other than Pinkie Pie, still maintaining some of the gothic and mean looking attire.
Rainbow looked down, not even looking to the party animal. “Hey, Pinkie.”
“I saw you come in… I’m sorry," Pinkie sympathized.
“Feh. Whatever…”
“…Do you want to talk about it?”
Rainbow shook her head and sighed. “No. I just wanna get this over with…”
“Mmhm…”
Without another word, the two girls headed off to class.
Later That Day
Crystal Prep Academy. The most prestigious school in all of Canterlot. Almost everything about it was just amazing. The students were social and friendly, it's staff and principal helped when students needed them to, food was divine, there was no way to describe it.
But one of the things that stood out, at least for the students was they had the option of wearing casual wear. Some of the students did wear the uniforms, but most of them wore what they wanted to their heart's content.
One student in particular took as much advantage of that rule as she could. Dressed with a white shirt and skirt, and a black jacket over top. Her skin was light blue, with long purple hair that flowed behind her back. She also wore some light pink bracelets on her wrists, and a graphic of a sun trying to peer through a cloud on her skirt.
The lunch hour was drawing near, and she was heading to her locker to get her things. After putting all her belongings away, she pulled out her phone, flipping it around. She pressed the record button and focused the lenses so she was in the center.
"Dear Future Sunny Flare." She flipped the phone to face her locker. "This is your locker." Then back to her face. "It's where you used to keep your belongings when you were in class. If anyone tried to break into it, it would probably be either a friend who left something of hers to you, a thief wanting to steal your belongings, or probably the crazy ex-boyfriend. Main reason why locks exist, but yet people still complain about their stuff being taken from them."
She turned her head away from the camera, looking down the hallway. She smiled before turning the phone around and recording the girl going to her locker. A girl with a yellow t-shirt, jeans, pale skin and indigo colored hair (obviously). The other pieces that stood out were the fingerless gloves on her hands and the aviator goggles resting on her forehead.
"This is Indigo Zap. She is your best friend in the world."
Indigo Zap turned her head and paused. She saw Sunny Flare holding her phone, obviously recording her.
"Ah, oh, um... hi?" She stuttered, nervously waving hello. "S-Sunny, what is this?
"Video diary." Once again, she flipped the phone around so it was facing herself, talking to the screen. "If Indigo offers you help, it's okay to accept it. You can trust her with your life, and she does a lot more for you than I can even begin to imagine."
Indigo's forced smile changed into a genuine smile.
"That was... pretty nice of you. Thanks."
Sunny winked back to Indigo.
"I'll meet you down in the cafeteria."
"Okay."
When Indigo Zap got her things and left the hallway, Sunny Flare leaned in closer to the camera to speak a little more quietly, and whispered, just in case Indigo would be listening.
"But between you and me... never leave her alone in your house." She shook her head with a deadpan expression. "An hour of my life I can't turn back to fix."
Just then, she heard a locker open up behind her. She looked back and smiled, seeing another friend of hers. A girl with cherry hair and a mint streak, wrapped up in a ponytail. Yellow skin with a few freckles, dressed in a pink tank top and green skirt, and green heels.
"This is Sour Sweet. She's another one of your friends. Extremely sweet but if you turn her the wrong way--"
"--okay what the heck, I'm gonna crimp your face!" She growled turning to look at who talked. But her anger was wiped in a mili-second seeing that it was Sunny Flare recording her. A sharp blush of embarrassment washed over her face and she chuckled nervously. "Oh, hey, Sunny, um... I didn't see you there. S-Sorry..."
"Hungry?"
"Yeah, I'm starving!"
"Okay, well, Indigo is already heading down to get food. I'll meet you there."
"Okay, see you soon!" Sour chirped.
Sunny Flare turned to her locker and closed it before grabbing her lunch in a small lunch box. And just before she flipped off the camera, she looked back to it again.
"Sour can get a bit cranky. Mostly if she's sleep deprived, hungry, or some drama going on at home. But she can punch, don't mess with her," Sunny shivered. "Just remembering what happened when she lost that tournament match against Celery Stalk... ooh."
She turned off her phone and made her way down to the cafeteria. Once inside, she saw one of her friends wave to her, urging her to sit with them. She sat herself down, sitting in front of a girl with dark pale blue skin and snow white hair. A pair of glasses were hanging from her yellow t-shirt,
"Hey Sugarcoat," Sunny smiled.
"Hey Sunny. Were you making another video diary again?"
"Um... yeah. How do you know?"
"Because the last few times you came in last was either because teacher held you in class til everyone was gone, or you were making another video diary for yourself in the future." She said with a deadpan tone.
Sunny chuckled, "Yeah..."
"Hey girls!"
The last friend in their social circle finally came in; Lemon Zest. Lemon Zest was not like the others, more energetic and wild. The resident party girl in their group, loving rock and roll. Her hair was spiked up and all over the place, skin was pink, she wore yellow short shorts, a pink tank top with a black sleeveless hoodie and fingerless gloves.
"What's up dudes? I've got some good news!"
"Yeah, what is it?"
"I just checked the big board in the main hall... we have made it onto the team for the Friendship Games!"
"Really?"
"Awesome!" Indigo cheered. "Anyone else, who else is on there?"
"Well all I know is Neon, Suri, and Jet have made it on. There's still a few more days for tryouts."
"Well, obviously, but the question is, who's going to make it on the team?" Sugarcoat pondered.
"You think Twilight will make it on there?"
Everyone at the table just stopped eating and looked at Sour awkwardly.
"What?"
"I wouldn't exactly put it past her to be a part of the games," Sugarcoat nodded, sipping her drink. "She's too quiet and jaded."
"Yeah...", everyone nodded.
Sugarcoat sneezed a brief moment before speaking. "You heard the rumor right, about Sunset Shimmer?
"What?"
"Remind me again?" Lemon asked.
Indigo's head tilted. "Who is she again?"
"The mean girl all over the news, from Canterlot High."
"What happened to her?" Sour asked.
"Jail time." Sugarcoat's face turned to gaze off at the distance with a flat looking expression. " Locked up for assault, battery, thievery, you name it."
"Ooh..."
"Oh boy."
"Tough."
"Well when you commit crimes and make everyone fear you... bad things happen," Sugarcoat shrugged.
"That's putting it mildly," Sour replied.
"Still though, if that's what's been going on at CHS, I'm almost curious as to how they've been keeping stable these past few weeks," Sunny thought.
"My question is what did they do to finally get rid of the mean girl," Indigo stated. "I mean, it's not like you can just get rid of a bully just like that," she said snapping her fingers.
"Maybe they just found enough evidence from the outside world that proved she finally did it," Sunny nodded.
"Yeah but I'm more curious about those awesome monsters seen roaming around the city! Come on, just look at them, they were so cool!"
"You sure they were real? I'm still trying to wrap my head around them," Sour rolled her eyes.
"I'm telling you, these. Were. Real. You can't just digitally make a bunch of explosions in the front of the school or take on a she-demon can you?"
Indigo blinked. "Unless you are a wizard at computer animation, I am going to say no."
An awkward fall of silence hushed over the table. Everyone was trying to think of what to say, unsure of how to even continue the conversation even further. Not really much was going on at CPA currently, and the news with the monsters was a few weeks old at this point.
"... You think those girls who were fighting that she-demon are superheroes?" Lemon pondered out loud.
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Ooh boy. Yeah, life is definitely hell right now for the Rainbooms. You might say that they are definitely due some comeuppance but still - oof…
Glad to see a look into some happier content in the other half of this chapter. As weird as it feels to say that about Crystal Prep XD Still, glad to see that it is a really awesome place here. Loved the Shadowbolts' introductions here, they were really fun and added a lot of character to them!
Huh, so that's Crystal Prep huh? Interesting. And Dash... Definitely a lack of communication in that house, then again I'm not sure how I'd be able to tell my parents I was an absolute bitch to six girls for years. Would like to see more of her home life for sure, see how this develops.
I feel sorry for the Rainbooms and the students of CHS are falling to their level.
Even though Rainbow Dash was a villain from A Shattered Rainbow Rock, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her.
On a lighter note, it was a nice introduction to this universe version of the Shadow Bolts!
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Rainbow and her fellows may have been awful, but at the same time, seeing people being awful to them just leaves an ugly taste in my mouth, you know? It just becomes a vicious cycle - people hurting people.
You and me both.
Nice chapter!!
9407571
One of the ways that you know this really is an AU is when Crystal Prep is definitively an awesome high school to be at.
And also, yeah, I'd like to see some more stuff done with the Rainbooms and their home lives. Dash in particular is one subject that interests me, because we know from canon that her parents practically worship her. Depressingly, if that carries over to this universe, it'd explain a LOT about why there was so little done to discipline Dash.
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Now that you mention it... That would explain so much.
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Constants and variables really, eh? One universe, it was Sunset. Another, it's the Rainbooms.