Canterlot High Magic Club

by Luminous Comet

Team Spirit

P.E. used to be Fluttershy's least favourite subject. She didn't have a lot of stamina, her reaction time was bad, and even when she could catch a ball, she was just as likely to flinch away from it if it was coming at her too fast. It was the eyes, all the eyes on her, when she was out on a playing field. And her teacher's attempts at trying to get her more pumped and active ended up having the opposite effect.

But halfway through the previous year, P.E. had actually become one of her favourites. Ever since she had come to an agreement with Mister Will and Vice-Principal Luna, to take on special responsibilities instead of standard participation. Cheerleading, refereeing, score-keeping, it sounded like a lot put in a list - and especially on the extra credit section of her report card - but what it really meant was that she got to sit at the sidelines and quietly shout encouragements to her friends.

So as the others changed into their gym clothes, Fluttershy did the same before putting on her cheerleading uniform; a short skirt over her gym shorts with a fake horse tail, a blue sweater with the team logo on it, and a horse-ear hairband. She loosely tied her hair back and followed everyone out of the changing rooms and into the gym, getting started on bringing out the equipment for today's class, while Mister Will addressed the other students.

"Remember, kids! They try to score," He flexed his pecs for emphasis. "SHOW THEM THE DOOR!"

Fluttershy giggled to herself and waited for the teacher to conclude his pep talk, with two soccer balls under her arms. It felt like today was going to be another good one.

=====***=====

When the bell rung, a lot more than two balls had ended up spread across the gym. As usual, Iron Will's class had turned somewhat chaotic. He then had to quickly excuse himself for a teacher conference and left Fluttershy in charge of cleanup. Others might have acted annoyed, but Fluttershy liked being trusted with tasks she knew she could handle. Even if preferably not on her own.

"Um, could someone help me clean up? Please?" she asked quietly. It didn't carry far over the louder conversations of everyone heading to the showers, but as per usual, at least one person was already at her side.

Rainbow slung her arm over Fluttershy's shoulder, making her subconsciously hunch a little more to make up for the height difference. "Come on, you don't need anyone else, the two of us will handle this in no time flat."

"Well, I could still help." Fluttershy shrank a little closer against her friend as she saw who else had stayed behind. Sunset Shimmer stood in the doorway, halfway out, like she wasn't entirely sure of the offer herself.

It had been three days since their talk in the lunch hall. Since then, they hadn't crossed paths more than usual. But the tension had been different whenever they did. Instead of the mutual silent treatment, they had both tried to make small talk at least once, but attempts from both sides had failed quickly.

She wasn't sure if she did want Sunset helping out, but she could already feel Rainbow straightening herself next to her, like a bird puffing its feathers to try and be more intimidating. If she didn't say something, the two of them would argue again.

"Okay. Th-thanks, Sunset." She lightly tugged Rainbow's arm to get her to back off and quickly hurried over to the first ball to pick it up. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw her friend kicking another towards Sunset, maybe a little more forcefully than necessary, but the redhead caught it with no issue.

=***=

There was a good amount of force behind the ball. If she hadn't caught it in her hands, it might have nailed her in the chest pretty hard. Evidently, getting on friendly terms with Rainbow Dash wasn't going to be easy.

You don't need to be her friend, Sunset reminded herself, Just keep it up and don't mess up again.

She tucked the tip of her sneaker underneath another ball and lightly kicked it up to herself, catching it in her free hand, then brought both balls back to the equipment room, just as Fluttershy came back out. They both pushed themselves to the edges of the wide doors as they passed each other in silence.

Great. This isn't awkward at all.

She glanced into the equipment room, stacked to the walls and the ceiling. It was rather small for holding all of this stuff. She'd never been inside before, since she had never volunteered to clean up like this. There were hockey sticks, baseball bats, jump ropes, several crates of balls, rolled-up badminton nets, but the one thing that caught her attention was a big, yet sunken, hollow figure stuffed into one corner.

"Since when did our school have such a big mascot suit?" she asked out loud as she came back out of the room.

"No idea," Dash said curtly, throwing another ball at her.

"Oh, um... that's Commander Hurricane," Fluttershy said quietly, carrying a jump rope back while rolling it up. "I think they still bring him out sometimes, but Crystal Prep used to steal the costume after competitions, so..." She trailed off, her enthusiasm dimming out again quickly.

"Huh. Never knew that," Sunset said in what she hoped was an encouraging tone. She shrugged and turned to bring the ball in, Rainbow catching up with her after a moment with two hockey sticks.

"The hell are you doing, Shimmer?"

"I don't know, trying to be friendly?"

"Yeah, well, you make her uncomfortable, so-- agh!" She flinched back, almost dropping the sticks. Sunset followed her eyes and spotted the puffy humanoid pegasus mascot she had asked about not even a minute ago, rising up out of the corner, awkwardly shifting and stumbling. Its ridiculous headpiece was more like a parody of a horse, with a flattened muzzle and eyes too big for comfort, wearing a felt recreation of a roman legionnaire helmet. Its wings seemed proportionally too small and stuck out stiffly from the back.

Rainbow Dash recovered quickly and groaned, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, very funny, Pinkie, you got me."

Sunset scoffed but smiled for a second, then reached to take the sticks out of Rainbow's hands, but stopped with only one when realisation struck. "Pinkie isn't in this class."

They looked back to Commander Hurricane, finally squeezing himself through the very tight gap between a shelf and a ball crate, dragging behind him an unravelled badminton net that had gotten caught on his wing.

"Okay, then who's pranking us? Thunderlane, if that's you again--" Rainbow reached over and yanked off the goofy head. Their screams were almost in sync when no one appeared underneath.

Sunset stumbled back in shock, regaining her composure only after dropping the stick in her hands. Rainbow's first response was to instead grip hers tighter and slap the blade against the mascot's chest. The chest caved with no body inside, but the rest of it lurched forward, pushing its hoof-like arm against Rainbow's face to shove her out of the way and into the corner behind the door.

It was heading in Sunset's direction now, stepping awkwardly, like something had filled its insides the way a body should, but imperfectly. Still reeling a little from the surprise, she finally pulled herself together and tried to reach out with her mind. The thumping came in heavy. The suit practically reeked of enchantment, in addition to sweat.

Fleece and cotton, if her best guess was right. One good hit with a flame and the whole thing would light up. She raised her hand, but before she could do any more, Rainbow shoved herself back against the thing, trying to grab the arm and pull it back.

"How the hell is it this strong!?" she grunted, getting dragged over the gym floor. But its gate didn't take it towards Sunset, but on a path directly past her. She glanced behind her and a second, weaker feeling entered her mind, a pulse like a string leading straight towards...

"Fluttershy!" Fluttershy hadn't screamed. Instead, she stood stock still, covering her mouth with both hands, her eyes fixed on the empty suit coming her way. Sunset's voice seemed to shake her out of a stupor, but her legs still trembled. "It's the costume! Take it o--oof!"

Having managed to shake off Rainbow Dash, Commander Hurricane pushed into a stumbling sprint, shoulder-checking Sunset with surprising force, shoving her to the ground. Fluttershy let out a short shriek and finally found the strength to turn and run towards the other end of the gym hall, grabbing at the edges of her sweater, but no amount of tugging got it away from her waistline.

"I- I can't!" she cried, reaching the back wall and pressing herself against it.

Sunset pushed herself to her feet and darted after the mascot, but was overtaken by Rainbow on the way there. The athlete skid to a halt just past Hurricane and slammed the shaft of her hockey stick against its chest, glaring intently at the empty hole between its shoulders.

Sunset hesitated for a moment. She might have a shot, but with both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy so close, setting it on fire would just end disastrously. She could only hope that her contingency might work. "Rainbow Dash! I have a plan, but can you hold it on your own!?"

=***=

"Whatever it is, hurry up!" Dash kicked at the mascot's leg to try and put it off-balance. It worked, somehow, but it seemed to re-balance on a single hoof quickly. Still, enough of an advantage to push it back a few feet.

At her response, Sunset turned and ran for the door to the changing rooms. Rainbow couldn't guess at what her plan was, but that didn't matter now. All she could do was keep this thing from getting to Fluttershy.

With some footing regained, she swung the stick wide, trying to get the other leg. Again, it stumbled but re-balanced, its empty body staggering like a puppet with tangled strings. Dash ducked away from a wild hoof-swing. This wasn't like fighting a normal opponent and she wasn't even sure what to do to win, other than tear it up. But the further it backed away, the better. And now that she was over the initial shock of what she was looking at, she could get her head in the game.

Getting her bearings, she shot a look over the floor, at what was still lying around. Darting to the side, she stepped behind a soccer ball and went for a goal shot. It slammed into what would have been the wearer's stomach, making Hurricane stumble again, then bounced back and rolled in her direction. Now this she should could work with.

"Hey, Flutters, give me some team spirit!" she called behind her. Her answer was a scared whimper, but followed by an almost whispered setup.

"Th-they make a push..."

"We kick their tush!" She kicked the ball again, hitting Hurricane's shoulder. Spitfire might be captain, but she was the team's striker.

"They d-dare attack...!"

"We force them back!" She caught the ball with her foot on the rebound and struck a leg this time.

"G-go, Wondercolts!" Fluttershy stammered, raising her voice into a squeaky shout.

There was her opening. Taking firm hold of her stick again, she rushed to close the distance and swung... through the empty space above the shoulders.

"Shit!"

The stiff weight of Hurricane's body slammed into her chest and knocked both the wind out of her lungs and her back onto the floor. The hockey stick went clattering aside. Awkwardly, Hurricane pushed itself back up to lurch in Fluttershy's direction again...

=***=

...just as Sunset came sprinting back across the court. She leapt onto the back, dropping her notebook and brandishing her black marker like a knife. She managed to draw a shaky half-circle on one of the wings, before the thing shifted back, trying to shake her off. Her free hand gripped tufts of faux fur and she grit her teeth as she went for the final line, roughly smearing it downwards through the curve. It was scraggly, but hopefully it would work with even this vague a shape.

Something sizzled loudly as she pressed her palm on the rune. Hurricane trembled and tumbled forward, the stiffness vanishing as it collapsed onto the floor, no longer providing much padding for Sunset's knees as she hit the floor after it.

Relief washed over her when the distinct sense of magic vanished and she let out a mix of a groan and a gasp, her breath going heavy from sprinting all the way to her bag and back. She quickly looked up at Fluttershy, then back towards Rainbow Dash. "You girls okay?"

Fluttershy whimpered, sliding down the wall and onto her trembling knees. Rainbow Dash took a few deep breaths of her own. "That... was... so awesome!"

=====***=====

As soon as the tension started to go, Fluttershy couldn't stop the tears, but they came softly and quietly. She was sitting in the girls' changing room on a bench, clutching the arm of Rainbow Dash to one side of her and with Sunset on the other, only sitting close enough so she could carefully draw a rune on the sleeve of her sweater, more smoothly now.

With her fingertips briefly touching the mark, the sizzling sounded again. "I think you can take it off now."

Fluttershy quickly peeled herself out of the sweater and took off the hairband as well, before pushing herself back against Rainbow's arm with a soft "Thank you..."

Sunset slid further away again, closing her marker and putting it back into her bag alongside her notebook. "I... bet you have a lot of questions right now." Great start. "I'm not sure where to begin. But I promise I'll tell you as much as I can. I'm sorry you had to go through that, I hope..."

She stopped rambling when Fluttershy's hand briefly found her arm. "Thank you," she said again, smiling hesitantly through her drying tears, not quite looking her in the eyes.

Sunset smiled back awkwardly, fidgeting with the edge of her gym shirt. "Yeah, sure..."

The door flew open, a girl bouncing in on her heels. "Hey, you guys! You were late to lunch and so I remembered you all have this class together and I figured I should totally check on you and help you with whatever amazing thing is happening, so I don't miss it this time!" Pinkie's eyes darted from one friend to another, her smile slumping into a pout. "Aww man, again!?"

Comments

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

"Oh, um... that's Commander Hurricane," Fluttershy said quietly, carrying a jump rope back while rolling it up. "I think they still bring him out sometimes, but Crystal Prep used to steal the costume after competitions, so..." She trailed off, her enthusiasm dimming out again quickly.

That explains things...

They looked back to Commander Hurricane, finally squeezing himself through the very tight gap between a shelf and a ball crate, dragging behind him an unravelled badminton net that had gotten caught on his wing.

Welp, the magic is back!

Sunset hesitated for a moment. She might have a shot, but with both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy so close, setting it on fire would just end disastrously. She could only hope that her contingency might work. "Rainbow Dash! I have a plan, but can you hold it on your own!?"

Something tells me she's gonna be screwed if the mascot gets destroyed.

The stiff weight of Hurricane's body slammed into her chest and knocked both the wind out of her lungs and her back onto the floor. The hockey stick went clattering aside. Awkwardly, Hurricane pushed itself back up to lurch in Fluttershy's direction again...

https://m.

As soon as the tension started to go, Fluttershy couldn't stop the tears, but they came softly and quietly. She was sitting in the girls' changing room on a bench, clutching the arm of Rainbow Dash to one side of her and with Sunset on the other, only sitting close enough so she could carefully draw a rune on the sleeve of her sweater, more smoothly now.

I don't blame Fluttershy for feeling that way. Seeing something like that must've been scary as hell. I'd probably react the same way she felt.