Chp 4: Election and Nightmare Night pt1
Manticore Ville was experiencing a lovely sunny day. The citizens were enjoying the sunshine and everypony else were decorating for tonight’s events. Over at Manticore Academy however, there was what seemed to be a giant storm looming over the school. The dark clouds hovered over the entire school, except there were no clouds over the football field. Above the storm cloud, an aging, custodian pegasus was hauling a wagon filled with the dark clouds. He stopped when he was over directly over the field, sweating profusely. He let go of the cart, which somehow did not go plummeting to the ground, and he wiped the sweat from his forehead. He flew higher, adjusting his hat, as he scanned the surrounding the clouds. His eyes finally stopped when he saw the pegasus that was supposed to be helping him. Grunting, he flew to her. As he got closer, the custodian heard his assistant snoring and realized she was taking a nap. He landed on the cloud next to her. Now completely annoyed, the custodian gave the cloud under the assistant a sharp kick. The cloud immediately produced a bolt of lightning and shocked the assistant awake.
Her eyes bolted wide open and she cried in pain. She quickly scanned her surroundings, and saw a very unpleased custodian.
“What’s the big deal Grey?!” she said as she stood up, patting all of the smoldering parts on her clothes and hair.
“Oh you know,” the custodian Grey said, “just trying to get a certain lazy pegasus to do the job she is paid to do.”
The assistant quickly looked around the sea of clouds,
“Aren’t we already done?”
“Darn it Rainbow Dash!” Grey quickly grabbed by the arm and flew her toward the clear football field,
“We still need to finish this whole section before lunch! Now,” Grey cracked his back, “I’ll start on the left and you start on the right. We’ll meet in the middle.”
He turned and realized Dash was preparing another nap on a nearby cloud.
“What are you doing?!” Grey demanded.
“Relax Grey,” Dash said as she plumped her cloud pillow, “We still got plenty of time and I could really catch on some sleep.”
The last part was completely true. Ever since their first spy mission on Gilda, Lightning Dust had insisted on spying on her 2-3 days a week. At first, Dash was eager of finding a way to stop Gilda, but as the days droned on, Dash was becoming less and less enthusiastic. The day before, Rainbow and Lightning Dust watched Gilda spray paint something on one of the parking lot walls. They kept watching until Gilda finished. The end result was a crude drawing of Prof. Spitfire in a vulgar pose. It was 2 am when they went back to their rooms. Dash only got 4 hours of sleep as she promised Grey to help with the covering the sky for some bits.
Grey pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, “I cannot believe I got help from the laziest and slowest pegasus in the school.”
Rainbow immediately got up, looking straight into Grey’s eyes. Besides her fighting and sheer awesomeness, her speed was one of the things Dash prided herself in.
“Now hold up! Did you just call me, the fastest flyer you’ll ever meet, slow?!”
“Yes! If you want to prove me wrong, then help get some clouds and start covering.”
“I’ll do you one better.” Rainbow quickly survived the field, “I can do this myself.”
Grey scoffed, “Yeah right. If you do it by yourself, it will take 10 hours at the earliest.”
“Not 10 hours,” Dash flew over to the still floating wagon in the middle of the field, “10 seconds.”
Grey laughed, “And I’ll be the next president of Equestria.”
“Care to put your bits where your mouth is. If I cover the field in 10 seconds flat, you double my pay. If I can’t, then I don’t get a single bit.”
“Deal!”
Grey changed the settings on his wristwatch and now had 10 seconds on the screen. Rainbow Dash stretched her arms, wings, and necked. She had one hand on the wagon.
“On your mark,” Grey looked up to make sure there was no cheating, “get set,” Dash’s whole body tensed, “Go!”
Grey blinked and saw Rainbow Dash and half of the clouds on the wagon had disappeared. He turned his head and saw dark clouds forming at the far end of the field at break-neck speed. After closer inspection, Grey saw a rainbow trail under the clouds. He quickly looked at his stopwatch and saw 4 seconds had passed. He looked back up and saw over half of the once open sky was now covered. He now focused on his stopwatch.
5…4…3…2…1
Grey looked up the moment the watch beeped. He recoiled when he saw Rainbow Dash standing in front of him, panting.
“Like I said *huff* 10 *huff* seconds *huff* FLAT! *huff*”
Grey’s expression was stoic.
“So,” Dash wiped her forehead and she regained her composure, “about our little deal.” She smiled and held out her hands.
Grey stared at the hand for a couple of seconds, his expression unchanged. He then took two small bags from his pocket.
“You know,” he said as he tossed the bags of bits to Dash, “I don’t know whether I should be impressed by your speed, or angry that you didn’t use it earlier.”
“All I need is the right motivation.”
“Whatever. Now get to class, you’re late.”
Dash pushed some clouds aside and slipped inside. Once she was under the clouds, she closed the hole and the world grew considerably darker. No sun light entered the school and the only source of light was from the hundreds of floating lanterns and jack-o-lanterns surrounding the school. Dash grinned when she saw the scenery and quickly made her way to her dorm to retrieve her satchel bag.
It has been a month since Dash started school. Since then she has grown to like the academy. Most of the teachers care about the students and there are always new and interesting ponies to meet. The only gripe she had were the bullies that keep pestering her. With good reason, as Rainbow Dash always showed them she can’t be so easily intimidated.
Dash left her dormitory with her bag and began to walk leisurely to the academy. It was very serene as everypony was already in class. She smiled as she walked down a path of jack-o-lanterns and live bats flew overhead. It was one of her favorite times of the year: Nightmare Night.
Ever since she was a kid, Rainbow has loved the holiday. The prospect of getting free candy had always intrigued her. However, as she got older, her motives had changed. Instead of getting candy, she spent the night pranking any and every pony. This year, it won’t be any different. To make things even better, M.A holds a huge Nightmare Night festival at the football field every year. The fun will begin at 7’o clock and keep going until midnight.
She began to walk the steps to the academy, a big grin on her face.
‘Nothing,’ she thought, ‘is going to ruin this day!’
“Hey Rainbow Dash.” Said an all too familiar voice. Rainbow ignored it.
‘Nothing can ruin this day.’ She thought again.
“Don’t ignore me!” said the same, impatient voice.
‘Nothing. Can. Ruin. This. Day.’
“Hey Rainbow Prick. I know you’re mentally challenged, but even you have to understand Basic English.”
Dash’s calm mind was shattered with the last remark and she finally turned around. She saw Berry Punch at the entrance of the courtyard that lead to the academy building and adjacent routes. She was hiding something behind her back. Dash walked back down the steps.
“What do you want Berry?”
“What do you think? I want payback!”
“You’ve got to be more specific because I can’t keep track of every single time I teach you ponies a lesson. I got Lyra mad at me for punching her into the fountain and I ticked off Daisy for ‘accidently’ dumping a bucket of paint on her head. What did I do to you again?”
“A better question would be what didn’t you do?” Berry snapped.
“Well I try to do as much as I can.” Dash said modestly
Berry smiled and revealed what she was hiding; a baseball bat.
“I have been waiting a long time for this.” Berry gave the bat a couple of swings.
“If you wanted to play baseball with me, all you had to do was ask. Although to be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of baseball. Now if it was soccer, it would be a completely different story.”
Berry merely stared.
“I’m going to enjoy this a lot more than I should.” She deadpanned.
Holding the bat with one hand, Berry ran toward Dash and Dash ran toward Berry. When they were a couple of feet from each other, Berry raised the bat overhead and brought it down. Dash quickly grabbed the arm holding the weapon and gave it a sharp twist. Berry cried out in pain and dropped the bat. She tried to punch Dash, but was stopped when Rainbow’s knee connected with her stomach. Rainbow Dash then twisted the arm to Berry’s back and began to walk her to the steps.
“What the Tartarus are you doing?” Berry asked.
“I’m just trying something out.” Dash replied casually. “You see, the other day I was watching an old sitcom with Scootaloo. In it, the son was having a huge tantrum so the mother put him in a time-out. When it was over, the boy was no longer angry. So that got me thinking; why don’t I try that?”
Dash had lead Berry to the right side of the stairs, where a large waste basket was idly sitting. Dash grabbed Berry’s shoulders and turned her around so they were both looking at each other.
“Remember Berry, this is for your own good.” A small smile began to form on Dash’s face. “And this is gonna hurt you more than it hurts me.”
Rainbow shoved Berry flank first into the waste basket. Her arms now stuck to her sides.
“Let me out!” Berry growled.
“Not until you learn your lesson.”
“You little bi-”
Dash clamped her hands over Berry’s mouth.
“There is no need for that language.” Dash scolded as a parent would do to their child, “Now, you’re going to stay here until lunch. That should be enough time for you to learn your lesson.”
Dash began to walk up the steps to the school as Berry yelled out a string of insults. Rainbow’s spirits began to dwindle at the thought of more attacks from the bullies. But as she opened the door to the academy and saw all of the Nightmare Night decorations, her spirits sky rocketed.
________________________________________
Lunch time was nearing its end. The students were either finishing their meal or trying to score one more point in whatever game they were playing. On the second floor of the academy, a certain unicorn nerd was hanging a poster on a wall. The poster had an image of the unicorn holding a book across her chest and giving a thumbs up and wink to whoever was seeing the poster. Below the image was:
VOTE TWILIGHT SPARKLE
FOR
STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT
“Nothing wrong with some last minute propaganda.” Twilight told herself. “Now, I better go re-check my speech in case I missed something in the last 10 proofreads.”
Before she could turn to leave, Twilight heard two ponies chuckling and felt somepony put an arm around her. She turned around and sighed when she saw who it was,
“What do you want Lily Valley?”
“Oh, nothing much. We just wanted to see how our favorite punching bag was doing. Isn’t that right Score?
“Exactly” Score replied.
Score was a pegasus. He was a head taller than Lily, had budging muscles, had dark hair that always seemed to cover his eyes, and was part of the varsity football team. Lily valley was an earth pony. She had pale amber hair that always had a lily on her head and was also part of the football team. Both were jocks and they simply loved feeling superior, so they harass weaker students. Mainly the nerds.
“Well as much as I love to stay and chat,” Twilight said as she took Lily’s arm off her shoulder, “I have some preparations to review.”
“Hey Lily,” Score said as he looked at the poster, “What’s this all about? I thought no one else was running for president.”
“You’re right Score.” Lily glared at Twilight, “I thought we told you not to run.”
“Well I’m sorry but that was an impossible request. I’m clearly the obvious choice for president as I know this school like the back of my hand. I’ll know what to do to improve this school ten-fold.”
“And I thought we told you not to run.” Lily repeated, “Now it looks like we’ll have to resort to a more persuasive approach. Maybe some time in a locker will change your mind.”
“Ha! Is that the best you guys got? What’s next: Swirly, tossing my books, putting a kick-me sign on my back? I know this is hard for you two, but please use your brains and be more creative.”
“O.K then,” Lily grabbed Twilight by her arms, “How about we tie you by your feet and leave you hanging from the chandelier on the fifth floor.”
“See, now you’re being creative. But, I cannot allow that.” Twilight’s horn began to glow, “So I’m gonna ask you one time; Let-me-go.” She emphasized the last words.
There was silence between the 3 of them. Neither one was sure if they should make the first move. Time slowly ticked by as they all stared daggers at each other. As Lily began to scoop Twilight off the floor, they heard footsteps from the end of the hallway. Everypony turned and saw Rainbow Dash walking toward them. She was whistling joyfully to herself and didn’t realize what was happening until she was mere feet from the little commotion. As her eyes scanned each of the ponies and what they were doing, her whistling slowly stopped and all that was left was a bemused look on her face.
“Huh, looks like I should start coming early to English class more often.”
“And you are?” Lily said, still not letting go of Twilight.
Rainbow smiled and pointed her thumb to her chest, “The names Rainbow Dash: the fastest flyer, best fighter, and most awesomeness pegasus in this school. I’m pretty sure you all heard of me.”
“No.” Lily said.
“Nope.” Score agreed.
“Yes.” Twilight said with a frown.
Dash shrugged, “I guess 1/3 isn’t so bad. Anyway, I’m gonna have to ask you to let go of the nerd.”
“Excuse me,” Twilight interjected, “but we ‘nerds’ prefer to be called academic buffs.”
“Are you sure? It doesn’t really roll of the tongue. How about eggheads?” Dash added helpfully.
Twilight sighed, “Just stick with nerds.”
“Perfect. Now, let her go.” Dash warned the jock.
“Or what?” Score said as he stepped forward.
“Or else this isn’t going to end pretty.” Rainbow Dash turned sideways and put her fist up. Lily pushed Twilight aside and began to crack her knuckles.
“Come on Score,” she said, “let’s show this wannabe what it means to miss with the rulers of the school.”
Dash wasn’t the least bit scared of fighting opponents that were taller and more muscular then her. This was noted by the jocks, who weren’t pleased they their prey wasn’t intimidated. As the 3 ponies got closer, there was the sound of somepony else approaching. They turned and saw it was the chemistry teacher Dr. Whooves.
“Hello everypony, enjoying another day of your minds being molded?”
“Yes Doctor.” Lily said, putting on an innocent appearance, “Score and I were just having a little chat with Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash.”
“Splendid. I would let you get on with your discussion if I didn’t need your help. Lily, Score, would you mind helping me lift some equipment to my classroom? I need it for my next class.”
Lily shot a quick look at the girls before telling Dr. Whooves, “No, we don’t mind at all.”
“Fantastic,” the doctor grabbed both Score’s and Hoop’s shoulders, “let’s not dilly-dally.”
He led the two ponies around the corner, but not before giving Rainbow Dash a knowing wink.
“Huh,” Dash thought aloud after the 3 ponies left, “looks like the Doctor is a pretty cool teacher. Anypony else would have given us all detention.”
Dash turned around and saw Twilight was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.
“You O.K?” Dash asked.
“I’m fine.” Twilight replied, her eyes trained on Rainbow.
Dash noticed Twilight’s calculating eyes on her and she started to feel unnerved. It was as if she was being judged on everything she did, even her breathing. Rainbow began to search around the empty hallway, trying hard to get Twilight’s attention on something else. She noticed the poster and pointed at it,
“What’s that?”
Twilight looked and saw the poster,
“That’s one of my campaign posters.”
“Campaign for what?”
“It’s on the poster. It’s for student body president.”
“Really? I didn’t know there was an election coming on.”
“How? There have been announcements for the election for the past 2 weeks during afternoon classes.”
Rainbow Dash quickly thought about her afternoon classes. She was either dozing off during English or was too busy focusing on Gym class to pay attention to announcements.
“Must have slipped my mind. So, when can I cast my vote?”
“Tomorrow. Today is the day for the runners to give their speeches.”
Twilight looked at her poster for a few seconds. She then put her left arm across her chest, inhaled, extended the arm, and exhaled. Seeing Dash’s confused look, she explained,
“The thing I just did was a stress-relieving exercise.”
“Why are you so stressed?”
Twilight didn’t respond. Rainbow thought she didn’t hear so she was about to ask again when Twilight spoke up,
“Somepony is going to sabotage my speech. So forgive me if I’m not in the most peaceful of moods.”
“How do you know?”
“The jocks have been relentless in trying to stop anypony else run for office. They will no doubt do anything to discredit me during my speech.”
“Can’t you have some of the other nerds keep a look out.”
“That’s not possible. They’re going to be in the actual audience. They’re job is to discreetly encourage the audience to pay attention to the speech. If somepony sees them nodding their heads at something I say, they will follow suit. Eventually, everypony will be listening and will no doubt be won by my speech. But, that won’t happen if the jocks intervene.”
Twilight did the stress-relieving exercise again and was silent. Even though Twilight tried to hide it, Dash saw the unease in her eyes. Smiling, Dash patted one of Twilight’s shoulders,
“Don’t worry Twilight, I’ll keep the jocks off your back.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow,
“Why?”
“Why not? I’m not about to let some meat heads terrorize one of my friends.”
“Who said we were friends?”
“I did.”
There was a moment of silence that followed this proclamation. Then Twilight said, “I have an idea on how you can be of use to me. Meet me on the third floor as soon as your afternoon class ends.” Twilight began to walk away, but not before turning around,
“Thanks, I appreciate the help.” She smiled, “You know Rainbow Dash, I might have been wrong about you.”
Dash raised an eyebrow, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Twilight either didn’t hear or ignored the question. She then walked around a corner and left.
________________________________________
The school bell rang, announcing the end of school. As Rainbow Dash and her classmates packed up their supplies, Luna stood up for an announcement,
“Remember young ones, today is the day that the candidates for student body president will be giving their speeches in the auditorium. Extra credit will be given to those who attend and write a page about the positives and negatives of each representative’s speeches. Let me not remind that some of you are in desperate need of a boost in your grades.” Luna glared at a couple of students at the back. All of them gulped and sprinted out of the classroom and to the auditorium. Dash exited the classroom and instead of following the stream of ponies going downstairs, she made her way to the 3rd floor.
The 3rd floor wasn’t anything special. It was almost identical to the floors blow it. The only difference was that there were more doors and the classes were different. As she searched for Twilight, she noted that some of the classrooms doors read Equestrian History, Physics, and Introduction to Arithmancy.
Rainbow Dash made her way through the hallways until she found Twilight leaning against a pair of double doors. Hanging on the doors was a ‘Do Not Enter’ sign. Twilight turned her head toward the sound of Dash’s approaching footsteps.
“Where have you been?” Twilight demanded in an annoyed voice.
“What do you mean?”
“The candidates are supposed to be giving their speeches in a couple of minutes! You were supposed to meet me here immediately after classes ended. So much for being the ‘fastest pegasus in the school’.”
“You know,” Rainbow Dash said, not appreciating Twilight’s use of air quotes, “most ponies are generally nicer to those helping them.”
“I don’t have time to be nice right now.” Twilight did a quick stress-exercise, “Now just listen. Before the afternoon classes started I put this on the door.” She pointed to the sign, “The doors lead to the highest balcony in the auditorium. You should have a perfect vantage point to keep an eye on things. Most importantly; be discreet. If you cause a commotion, then the speeches will be postponed and that will give the jocks more time to think of a plan to win.”
“Don’t worry your nerdy little head.” Dash patted Twilights head and was met with fierce animosity, “I’ve got your back.”
“One more thing,” Twilight said, still mad at being patted, “Do you have something that will help you keep the jocks at bay.”
“Oh yeah.” Dash grinned and rooted through her saddlebag. She then pulled out her wooden slingshot and a bag of marbles and spherical rocks. She gave the slingshot a little shake, “As long as I got this baby, nopony is going near you.”
“Mind if I see that?” Twilight stuck out her hand.
Dash passed her weapon to Twilight. As Twilight was inspecting it in her hands, Dash reminisced on the times she used it. She couldn’t help but grin when she thought of all the times she fired rocks at bullies in passing. She actually grew somewhat attached to the thing.
After a couple of seconds of reviewing the slingshot, Twilight levitated it with her magic. It was airborne for a second before being snapped in two.
Dash’s mouth was agape as she saw Twilight toss the now useless slingshot to a nearby trashcan.
“Why?” that was all Dash could muster.
“That slingshot was in terrible condition; it was already practically broken. You must have been used for a long to get in that condition.”
“So?” Dash spat, “Now how am I supposed to take down the jocks quietly?”
“With this.” Twilight rummaged through her purple satchel and tossed something metal into Dash’s hands. Dash was confused. She was holding what seemed to be the handlebars of a bike still connected to the neck. She saw that it had a rubber band, which didn’t feel like any rubber band Dash knew, tied to the handles. Giving it a stretched she noticed that it didn’t wobble or shake like her old slingshot, As she aimed, she saw a small device on the left handle. Peeking through it, she realized it was a scope.
“O.K, what the Tartarus is this?”
“That is your new slingshot.” Twilight said proudly, “I made it during auto-shop. I couldn’t shake off the feeling that you would need some help with protecting me so I said, ‘Why not?’. Now,” Twilight pushed Rainbow through the doors, “do your thing and please be discreet.”
Twilight closed the door behind Dash and she was now in partial darkness. Rainbow made her way through the small corridor until she found another door. She opened it and entered the 3rd floor balcony. It was filled with rows of velvet red seats. She made her way to the edge of the balcony and saw the entire auditorium. Slightly below her were other balconies, but not as big as the one she was on. On the ground floor were countless rows of seats filled with ponies. Dash couldn’t make out their faces as the only source of light was coming from the stage. The red curtains started to part which revealed a single podium. There was the sound of footsteps echoing in the silent auditorium. Twilight appeared from the right side of the stage and she was greeted by polite applause. Once Twilight was at the podium, she pulled out a stack of flash cards, used both her hands and magic to arrange them neatly, and began to read off them,
“Fillies and Gentlecolts, my name is Twilight Sparkle and I want you to help me, help you.”
From the corner of her eyes, Dash saw movement. Turning her head, she saw a pegasus jock on one of the lower balconies. He pulled out a slingshot from his pocket and aimed it at Twilight. Thinking fast, Rainbow aimed her new and improved slingshot and fired at the jock’s forehead. She expected him to recoil, as most ponies did when hit by a slingshot. She, however, didn’t expect the pegasus to drop to the floor the moment the rock connected.
‘Wow,' Rainbow Dash thought, ‘This thing is amazing! It’s almost as if he’s… he’s…’
Dash suddenly felt cold. She quickly flew over to the balcony to check on the pegasus. She was relived to find him in pain.
“Phew,” Dash said softly, “I thought you were a goner. Leave it to a nerd to create something so devastating.”
Dash then looked down at the audience below, looking for other miscreants. At first, all she could see were the faces of half-asleep ponies. It seemed that this wasn’t how they wanted to spend their Nightmare Night.
Suddenly one of the ponies got up. She began walking toward the stage and pulled out a carton of eggs from under her sweater. Luckily, she was directly below Rainbow. Dash quickly grabbed the suspect and flew back to the balcony. Once they landed, the suspect began to struggle so much that Dash hit her over the head with the butt of the slingshot. When the suspect fell to the floor, Rainbow saw that it was Lyra.
‘Great,' Dash thought sarcastically, 'not only do I have to feel with jocks, but also bullies.'
All in all, this wasn’t how Rainbow Dash expected her day to go. In the morning, she never thought she’d find herself sneaking around a dark auditorium; silently taking down bullies and jocks. Although, Dash couldn’t help but feel awesome while doing her little covert mission. It was as if she was part of the secret service and was protecting the president (which wasn’t too far from the truth.) The downside was that nopony was watching her being awesome.
As Dash continued her little escapade, her eyes kept wandering back to the audience. In the beginning, the students looked bored and half-asleep. Now, however, all the students were attentive. Dash saw that the students that were the most interested in the speech were the ones nearest to the nerds. It seems that Twilight’s plan actually worked.
After a couple of minutes, there was no sign of anypony trying to humiliate Twilight. Dash decided that the bullies and jocks realized that some invisible force was stopping them. Feeling pleased with herself, Dash flew to one of the balconies nearest to the stage, which was filled with unconscious ponies, and made her way down the stairs. After a couple of turns, she found herself backstage. She walked as close to the stage without being seen. From there, Dash was able to see Twilight, looking more calm then she did before.
Everything seemed O.K, until Dash heard a snicker. Looking up, she saw something that made her heart stop.
Above Twilight was a small, unseen, platform where the stage lights were hanging from. Standing on the platform was a pegasus with hair covering his eyes, wearing a football jersey, and carrying a bucket of unknown content.
Rainbow Dash quickly flew up to the platform. As she got closer, the pegasus, who she recognized as Score, saw her and raised the bucket threateningly,
“Any closer and your nerd friend gets doused in red paint.” Score said.
“It’s over Score. Twilight has the crowd eating out of the palm of her hand. Nothing you do can change that.”
“Oh really?” Score smirked and dumped the paint over Twilight.
Time seemed to slow down as the paint fell. Rainbow had to act quick, but couldn’t think of anything. Deciding that desperate times called for desperate measures, Dash soared below the paint. Turning her body over and spreading her arms, she waited for the impact. Red paint splashed all over Dash’s face and torso, but not on Twilight.
“What did you do that for?” Score spat.
Dash didn’t reply. She slowly wiped paint of her eyes and mouth. She flew to Score and yanked the bucket from his hands. She then proceeded to beat the living Tartarus out of Score with the bucket.
Dash didn’t know whether the red she saw was from the paint, or her blinding fury. She was surprised but pleased that nopony heard the sound of Score’s cries of pain and the sound of a metal bucket colliding with a skull.
With all of her strength, Rainbow brought the bucket down on Scores head, causing the jock to slump to the platform floor. Taking some deep breaths, Dash picked up Score and flew to the left side of the stage. As she dropped Score to the floor, not to gently, Dash heard the ending of Twilight’s speech.
“Remember comrades; a vote for T is a vote for victory!”
Dash poked her head from the side of the stage to see the cheering crowds. Most of the students were standing as they applauded in approval. Twilight gave a small bow and walked to the left of the stage, the place were Dash was. As she walked toward Rainbow, Twilight gave the unconscious, bucket wearing, pegasus a look over before saying to Dash,
“Great job Rainbow Dash; looks like you are trustable.” Twilight saw the paint and gave Dash a small smile, “Trying a new look? I like it; it really brings out your inner angst.”
Dash raised an eyebrow, “W-was that a joke?”
“Yep. Now that I’m no longer stressing over the speech, I can joke again. By the way, I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier.”
“It’s cool; it happens to the best of us. Well, except for me.”
“Right.” Twilight said, rolling her eyes good naturedly.
“I suppose you’ll want this back.” Dash took out the super slingshot from her pocket.
“Nah, you keep it. Think of it as payment.”
“Sweet.”
Twilight looked at the other side of the stage and did the stress relieving exercise.
“Now what’s wrong?” Dash asked curiously, “I thought you weren’t stressed anymore.”
“I’m just wondering if my opponent will top my speech.”
Dash blew a raspberry, “Don’t worry Twi. The audience loves you. You’ll be fine.” She gave Twilight a reassuring pat on the head. Dash took it as a good sign that Twilight didn’t give her a look of malice as she did with the previous pat on the head.
“It’s not that simple Dash. The thing is I have no idea who my opponent is. Actually, nopony knows who else was running.”
“Wait, how is that possible? How is the other pony supposed to get support if nopony knows who it is?”
“They no doubt are extremely confident they will get a lot of support from this presentation. That confidence is what worries me.”
After about a minute of waiting, two ponies walked from the right side of the stage, wheeling something. As they got closer, Dash noticed the ponies were cheerleaders and the thing they wheeled was a brightly colored cannon.
“Oh no.” Twilight groaned.
“What is it?” Dash asked.
“It’s… It’s…” All Twilight could do was close her eyes and pinch the bridge of her nose.
The cheerleaders set the cannon at a 90 degree angle. After putting it in front of the podium, one of the ponies pressed a button from the back of the cannon. There was the sound of a cartoonish explosion and confetti, steamers, and a pink blur flew out of the cannon. The pink blur did a couple of flips in the air before landing perfectly in front of the podium. It turns out the blur was an earth pony in a cheerleader outfit and very bouncy pink hair.
“SURPRISE!” The pony yelled and the audience erupted in a deafening cheer. Dash and Twilight covered their ears as the audience was practically foaming at the mouth.
“Who the Tartarus is that?” Dash demanded.
“Pinkie Pie.” Twilight moaned.
“Is that bad?”
“You have no idea. Pinkie Pie is the most peppy, cheery, charismatic pony you will meet. Normally this would be a good thing, except that Pinkie has a scatter brain. That isn’t something a president should have.”
“If that’s the case, then I doubt Pinkie will be able to top your speech.”
“We’ll see.” Twilight said mournfully.
Twilight was right when she said Pinkie Pie was charismatic. After the first part of the speech, in which Pinkie talked about how she would do her best as president, Dash was inclined to vote for her. Pinkie just gave off this sense that everything will be great and wonderful. She continues her speech with promises of raising school spirit and making every day fun.
“Well,” Pinkie said after a couple of minutes of talking, “that’s enough from this little old filly. I hope you all vote for me and I’ll see you all tonight.”
Dash found herself clapping with the rest of the audience.
“Told you,” Twilight said as Dash continued to clap, “Pinkie will probably win now.”
The two cheerleaders wheeled the cannon to the left side of the stage. As they passed Twilight and Rainbow Dash, the cheerleaders gave them smug smirks.
Pinkie Pie, who was skipping behind them, stopped in front of Twilight.
“Hi Twilight!” she said cheerfully, giving Twilight a big hug, “Your speech was super-duper awesomely terrific. I know who I’m voting for.” She finished in a sing song voice, giving Twilight a small wink. Pinkie Pie then noticed Dash,
“Hi there, I’ve never seen you before, I’m Pinkie Pie.”
“Hey, I’m Rainbow Dash.”
“Your face is all red. Are you mad?”
It took a while for Dash to realize that she was still covered in red paint.
“Oh no, it’s just-”
“I know what will make you feel better.” Pinkie grinned while Twilight sighed, “A PARTY! And since it’s Nightmare Night, we can have a themed party. Speaking of which, I should get back to the Nightmare Night committee. I still need to approve of a couple of things. See you guys later.”
Pinkie Pie skipped merrily away, leaving Dash slightly dumbfounded by Pinkie.
“Wow,” Dash said, “She’s pretty-”
“Random” Twilight said helpfully.
“Yeah that. Well, I should probably get this paint off before tonight. Later Twilight.”
“Wait Dash. I need to tell you something.”
Dash turned to face Twilight and was surprised to see a grave expression on her face.
“What’s wrong Twi?”
“You hang out a lot with Lightning Dust, right?”
Dash thought about how the only time she and Lightning Dust hang out is when they spy on the Gilda.
“Yeah. You can call it hanging out. Why do you want to know?”
“Be careful Rainbow Dash. Be careful when you’re around Lightning Dust.”
“W-what do you mean?”
Twilight didn’t reply immediately. When she did, her voice was still grave,
“A lot of the student here have been in Manticore Academy since we were in middle school. Myself and Lightning Dust included. My point is that I know more about Lightning Dust than you do. So I’m warning you; be careful around Lightning Dust.”
On that dark note, Twilight gave Dash a pat on the shoulder and left.
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AWESOME YAY
So half of the mane six have met. I wonder what part two will hold?
2536452 rairty for prep and aj for greassers xD
So we've met Dash as the new kid, Twilight as the nerd leader, Rarity most likely the preps leader, AJ most likely the greaser leader, and Pinkie as a cheerleader I believe. So how will you introduce Fluttershy? Will you make it as them knowing each other from before, like the show?
And I see you've put in the bullying moves in the story, when Rainbow pushed Berry in the waste basket. What else will you put in I wonder?
Anyway, you did a good interpretation of the election, which isn't something easy to do, since you have to differentiate it from the game a bit instead of just shooting people. Nice work.
2536516
I'm just wondering when RD will meet them officially.
I know who and where they are. :
Ah, so we finally meet Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie scattered brain really? It's bad enough she's a cheerleader now she's a ditz
now tell me this isn't a jab at how the show makes her. I can see twi being a total nerd but not pinkie as a ditzy cheerleader I just find that insulting to her character sorry its how I see it
2550800
To Twilight in the story, Pinkie seems like a scatter brain.
In reality, Pinkie is focused on what is going on, but just tries to go at it the most fun/sillies way possible, which is why most of the students like her.
2554208
Oh I see now that makes sense.
Love it! MOAR please. I can't wait!
man im sooooooo late in reading this chapter
whenever you mention the doctor being a teacher all i can think about is two things
one
and two