> Canterlot High's Newest Student > by Darth Severus > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Barb's Confrontation > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Barb was in her room working on her entry exam for Canterlot High. She didn't want to go to the same school as her older brother Dusk Shine, but she didn't really have a choice. She took a break from the test and went out to the back yard and sat down on the swing that they used to play on when they were young. Those were the good days, before she realized the truth. She swung back and forth slowly until her older sister Gleaming Shield came out and said, "Is everything alright Barb? You look down." Barb sighed, "Gleam, you don't think I'm stupid right?" Her sister raised an eyebrow and asked, "Are you having self-esteem issues or something? Why would I think my baby sister is stupid?" Barb scoffed, "If you don't think I'm stupid, then why do you guys keep lying to me? I found out the truth a long time ago. I know I'm adopted." Gleaming Shield leaned her head back with her hand on her forehead moaning, "Oh for the love of God, I should have seen this coming. Listen Barb-" she said sitting down in the swing next to her and saying, "Mom and dad knew your parents very well. Your dad didn't live to see your birth, and your mom... she didn't make it." Barb took the news hard, her real father died before she was born, and her mother died giving birth. "So, why you guys? Why didn't I get sent to foster care or an orphanage?" "Because we didn't want you jumping from home to home. The doctors said you had some health problems that wouldn't go away until your early teens. Mom and dad didn't want you to be abandoned by parents who took you in and then found out about your health problems. That's only one reason, the second one is more important." Barb looked at her sister and said, "What's that reason?" Gleaming Shield looked at her younger sister and said, "Unlike the people who take in foster kids, mom and dad love you for you, not the money they'd get paid for taking care of you. You need to remember that while you may be adopted, you're still a member of the family. Mom and dad love you, me and Dusk love you. Remember that Barb." she got up off the swing and went back inside, but not before leaving something on the table on the patio. Barb got up and picked up what she had left on the table, it was a pack of cigarettes with a note that said, "With love, from Mom and Dad." she had just turned old enough to smoke, and her parents bought her a pack of cigarettes a few days after her birthday. That made her feel a lot better, her parents letting her experience something new for her age. It meant what Gleaming Shield said was true, even if she was adopted, they still loved her like their own flesh and blood. She went back to finishing her entrance exam when Dusk came up and said, "Barb, dinner's ready." Barb didn't look up from her paper but said, "I'll be down when I finish my exam." Dusk's eyes went wide and he yelled, "Who are you and what have you done with my sister!?" Barb, still not looking up from her paper, gave a sarcastic laugh. "You still have a horribly dry sense of humor, I still have a recording of that train wreck of a prank call. Maybe I should show it to Flare Warden?" Dusk slammed his hands on her desk saying, "You. Wouldn't. Dare." Barb looked up to her brother with a grin and said, "Try me." Their mother Moon Light called them down saying, "If you two don't get down here in the next 10 seconds, I will come up there and pull you down here by your ears!" The two quivered in fear and said in union "Coming mom!" and then whispered to each other, "This ain't over." before running downstairs. After dinner was finished, Barb went back to finishing her entrance exam, and when it was finished, she put it in the envelope and put it on her nightstand before going to bed. The next day, Barbara was up bright and early to put her exam in the mailbox and put the flag up. She pulled her roller blades out of her bag that she always carried with her and put them on. She put a note on the door that said, "Going to the skate park, be back at 3." and skated towards the skate park to meet some of her friends. When she got there, she saw Lil' Pip and Bright Shine already there. She skated up to her friends and said, "Hey girls, ready to get whooped again?" Bright Shine gave a smug smile and said, "Don't think you'll beat me this time Barb, I've got a new strategy." Lil' Pip sighed saying, "How did I get stuck in this?" Barb looked at her younger friend and said, "If you don't want to race, you don't have to, you can just judge. Not that this race will end any differently." Lil' Pip smiled and said, "Thanks Barb, my ass is still sore from the last race." Bright Shine said, "So, same course as usual?" Barb shook her head saying, "Nope, we're doing a new course this time. Start at the top of the half pipe, ollie up the corner quarter pipes with a grind in between, three laps on the wall of the bowl, and then back to the top of the half pipe. Too challenging for you Shiny?" Bright Shine growled and said, "I told you to stop calling me that! But fine, I'm up for a new run." The two got to the top of the half pipe and as Lil' Pip yelled out 'Go!' they took off down the half pipe. Bright Shine flew off the other side while Barbara did a 360 and skid down the other side. She laughed at her friend, who had landed in an open dumpster and said to her mockingly, "Guess that new strategy of yours didn't take into account how fast you'd go down the half pipe!" and continued on her way down the course. As Bright Shine got back on her feet and went after Barbara, she said, "Don't think that's gonna slow me down Barb!" A while later the two were trying to gain the air the needed to get back to the top of the half pipe. Bright Shine went for more air so she could finish up with a 1080, but to her surprise, Barb had already gotten to the top when she landed, "W-What!? How'd I lose again!?" Barbara chuckled and said, "I'm not gonna lie, if you hadn't been so focused on that 1080, you might have beaten me. Well, let's go get something to eat, on me." The girls went out for some burgers before parting ways. When Barbara got home, she noticed the red flag on the mailbox was down, and picked the mail that was delivered and went into the house saying, "Mail's here!" Gleaming Shield came downstairs and said to her sister, "You look like you had fun today. I hope our chat yesterday made you feel better." Barbara hugged her sister and said, "Yeah it did. A lot." > Barbara's Disorder > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Barbara hadn't been feeling so good the last few days. She had been waiting to hear from Canterlot High about her entrance exam, and it was killing her. She couldn't even watch her favorite TV show without thinking about it. Something was definitely wrong. She decided to try to forget about it by going outside and lighting a cigarette. As she inhaled and exhaled her smoke, her father Star Shine came out and asked, "Something wrong Barb?" When her father came out she said, "I can't stop thinking about the Canterlot High entrance exam, I can't even watch TV without thinking about it. It's not normal, I could care less if I got accepted or not!" Her father sighed and said, "Maybe it's from stress? Why don't we take you to the doctor and see what he has to say?" As much as she hated the doctor's office, her father had a point, she'd been dealing with a lot of stress lately, her long time crush Elusive had a girlfriend now, and Dusk wasn't exactly helping. Gleaming Shield seemed distracted by something, and whenever she tried to ask about it, she got extremely defensive. She finally said, "Fine, I'll go to the doctor's." Her father called the doctor and scheduled an appointment for the next day. When dinner came along, Barb had barely touched her steak, and it was her favorite meal. Her mother asked, "Is everything alright sweetie? You've barely touched your food." She sighed and said, "I'm just not that hungry I guess. Is it ok if I go to my room?" When her mother nodded, she went back to her room and looked out the window. She could hear the late night birds chirping, and it seemed so loud that it was painful. "How the hell can a bird be that loud!?" she said as she tried to get some sleep. The next morning, the family got ready to go to Barbara's appointment. Barbara couldn't help but notice lots of little details as they went down the road and towards the doctor's office. When they got there and the doctor called her in, she decided to go alone. The doctor asked her questions about how she'd been feeling the past few days, and she seemed to answer that she felt distracted and stressed. The doctor ran some tests on her, some of which to her seemed pointless, like those stupid ink blot tests. The doctor called her family into his office and said, "After some careful consideration, I believe that your daughter has attention deficit disorder." That was worse than what Barbara was expecting when she came to the doctor. She had been diagnosed with a mental illness. In her mind that made her a freak who needs pills to function normally in society. But she kept herself from crying and asked, "So am I going to need to take medications?" The doctor nodded and said, "Yes, there's plenty of medications that work wonders for ADD, but I'll write a prescription for the one I've found most effective." before printing out a piece of paper and handing it to them. When they were done at the doctor's office they went to pick up her pills. Her mother said, "Honey, I know what you're thinking, you need to erase those thoughts from your head. You're not a freak, but you are special. Everyone is special in their own way, some more than others. Having a mental disorder is nothing to be ashamed of." Gleaming Shield nodded and said cracking her knuckles, "And if anybody at school gives you a hard time cause of it, come to me and I'll teach them a thing or two." Dusk Shine rolled his eyes at his older sister, but then looked to his younger sister and said, "Listen Barb, not a lot of people know this about me, but I'm a high-functioning autistic. Most people consider autistic people to be dumber than a bag of bricks, but I've gotten to where I am in life because of my autism. And nobody can say that I'm not smart" Her family's words actually made her feel a lot better, she didn't need to feel like a freak, her mom was right, she was just a little more special than other kids. And it made her feel even better when her brother said he had a mental illness too. She giggled at her sister's words and said, "Thanks Gleam, I'll be sure to do that." When they got back home, Barbara went out to get the mail and saw a letter from Canterlot High for her and yelled out to her family, "It's here!" Her family rushed downstairs and into the living room as she opened the letter and read it. "Dear Miss Barbara, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Canterlot High! We look forward to seeing you freshman year." Her family congratulated her on her acceptance, and she seemed genuinely happy she was accepted > The Boy With No Memory > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Barbara's family had planned a trip to the beach. She had just bought a new swimsuit, and was hoping to try it out. They set up a towel, umbrella, and some beach chairs in an empty spot on the beach. Barbara took out her tanning mirror and sunglasses and worked on a nice even tan. While her brother was doing the same old thing, reading, and her sister was swimming with her boyfriend Bolero, she heard somebody screaming. She asked, "Mom, do you hear that?" Moon Shine looked at her daughter and then listened closely, and she too heard the screaming. She took out her binoculars and looked at the water, "Oh my gosh, there's somebody drowning!" Barbara got up and ran towards the water, jumping in and swimming towards the drowning person. As he started to sink, she went under and tried her hardest to drag him back to shore. She finally got him onto shore and he was out cold. She started panicking and asked, "What do I do!?" Her family ran over to her and saw the boy who didn't appear to be breathing. Dusk Shine said, "Push down on his chest and give him mouth-to-mouth!" Barbara blushed at the thought of mouth to mouth, but she didn't have a choice. She pushed down on his chest, and water started to spew out of his mouth. She then pressed her lips against his and blew air into his lungs. When she heard the boy coughing, she got up off of him and let him wake up. The boy rubbed his head and said, "W-What happened?" Dusk Shine told him he almost drowned and that Barbara had saved him. He then asked, "What's your name?" The boy opened his mouth, but then closed it and scratched his head and said, "It's the weirdest thing... I... I can't remember! I don't know who I am!" Barbara put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down, "Calm down, you went through a lot almost drowning. Let's get you into a warm towel, you look like you're freezing." The boy shook his head, "No, I'm always like this, that much I can remember. Even if it's a 100 degrees out, I'm always cold and shivering." The boy's statement came as a shock to Barbara and her family, a person who was always cold no matter how hot it was? That didn't sound normal, but they didn't question it. They brought him back to their house and offered him something to eat. The boy said, "Thank you for being so kind to me. I don't want to impose though, so I guess I should be going..." He got up to leave when Barbara stopped him. Barbara was trying to form words, rubbing her arm while blushing. Finally she got the words out, "We can't just let you go out into the world without any memory, why don't you stay here? We've got a fold-out couch you could stay on." The boy smiled lightly and said, "If it's not too much of a bother." Moon Shine said, "It's no bother at all, I could never turn away somebody who needs help. But do you think we should come up with a name for you?" The boy thought for a while before saying, "Wait, let me check my pockets..." he felt around his jean pockets and found a wallet. It didn't have any cash in it, but it did have a Canterlot High School ID card and he said, "Apparently I'm a freshman at Canterlot High School, and my name is Lightning Rider." They smiled and Barbara said, "That's a start, at least we know your name, and you're going to be in freshman class with me." Rider smiled at Barbara and said, "That's great, I think I'll enjoy that."