New students
Dear princess Twilight,
It has been a while since I talked to you and I am sorry for that. I've been a little busy with school but recently something happened. And I hope you don't mind me telling you the story.
It was a normal day in Canterlot high as we were about to enjoy lunch in the cafeteria but suddenly we heard Principal Celestia on the loudspeaker. "Sunset Shimmer, report to the main hall immediately!"
I knew it was most likely because I had volunteered to guide new students around the school. But for some reason, it felt like half the students were looking at me and wondering what I’d done this time.
Fluttershy looked at me and picked up on it right away, bless her heart. "I'm sure that they're just curious and they don't think you've done anything wrong."
"Yeah," Rainbow Dash added as she leaned back in her seat. "It's not like Celestia told you to report to her office. THAT would have been bad news."
"All right, darling, let's not go there. We'll let you run along." Rarity gave Rainbow a glare as she narrowed her eyes.
"Thanks, Rarity." I thanked her as I stood up and abandoned my food tray.
"Say 'Hi" to the newbies for us!" Pinkie Pie stood up and waved her hand at me as I was walking away with her mouth half-full of food. THANKFULLY Applejack pulled her back to her seat quickly.
On the way there I wondered what the new students looked like? Or from where they have been transferred? Since the last year that the school had to deal with my shenanigans in fall formal and various magical events, paired with what happened with the sirens, Principal Celestia and Vice principal Luna haven't become careful with the transfer students.
I got to the main hall where I saw the two new students, a couple of boys. One of them was tall and was standing behind the other one. I got closer and introduced myself.
"Hello, I'm Sunset Shimmer." I waved my hand at them. "I'll be guiding you around the school today."
The one who was wearing a leather jacket stepped forward. "Hi, I'm Flaming Star and this is my buddy Steely Armor." He pointed back at his friend. Steely Armor said nothing and just raised his hand and nodded. "Nice to meet ya!" Flaming Star added with a smile and brought his hand forward to shake.
"Oh uhm..." I had to work around shaking hands. Ever since the summer I realized I could read people’s thoughts just by touching them. I've been having some issues in certain situations. Especially around strangers. "Yeah, uhm...likewise." I nodded at him with a smile and kept my hands behind myself.
The smile faded away from Flaming Star's face and he pulled her hand back and scratched the back of his black and blue hair as he looked away. That was very awkward.
"This place is bigger than I'd thought" Steely Armor said as he was looking around the room. I noticed there were some stains on the blue shirt and the white T-shirt he was wearing under that.
"CHS is the main high school of the city. Of course it's big." I added. Trying to start a new conversation and forget the awkward first encounter.
"I...suppose you are right." He rubbed his chin. I noticed that he was wearing both a snapback head and some yellow glassed goggles that were resting on it. I already knew if Rarity was seeing that she was going to pass out. But other than that, some strips of his yellow hair were sticking out like spikes.
"Follow me. Let me show you how big CHS really is!" I started moving and moments later, I heard the footsteps of them walking behind me.
"So you are seniors?" I asked.
"Yes." Flaming Star responded.
"I don't usually see senior students transfer here. We had some juniors though." I looked back at them. "Where was your last school? If you don't mind me asking."
"Falcon Stone." Steely Armor answered.
I almost jumped. "Really? Wow, uhm-"
"It's not really as good as you think it is." Flaming Star cut me off before I could finish processing.
Falcon Stone is the best school in Canterlot city. Also the priciest. But all the rich kids attend there. It's not really just one school either. People put their kids there from first grade. Granted it has two separate buildings for those students but they are next to each other! I started to wonder whether they got expelled or something. I doubted anyone would decide to leave that for no reason. But from their expressions I could tell it was something else.
"Sorry, but may I ask why you decided to come here?"
Steely Armor raised his hand to answer. "Well-" But Flaming Star cut him off too.
"Honestly, if we could have left there sooner, we would have." He raised his tone and frowned. "But let's just say we...faced some issues and decided to come here."
"..."Before I could continue that conversation I had to show them the lab. "Uhm, Here is the science lab! it's accessible on Tuesdays and Thursdays but you can visit here at every break or even at lunch time if you are a member of the chemistry club." I went and opened the door. As I had expected there really wasn't anyone there at lunch time.
We all stepped inside and I let them look around there a bit. Steely Armor in particular was quite into looking at EVERYTHING in the room.
"Oh...It seems that it has all the tools needed," he said as he leaned forward and inspected the microscopes and the different boiling flasks. "It looks cleaner than the one we used to have, too Flame!" I could tell right away that he was going to sign up for the Chemistry club. "Look! They even have a whole set of glassware!" His eyes were filled with glee!
"I mean, I guess." Flaming Star leaned on the door. "I wasn't really in them most of the time and I doubt that I was paying attention to its state to be perfectly honest." He followed his friend by his eyes, inspecting the lab equipment one by one.
Even though Steely Armor seemed to be enjoying what he was doing , Flaming Star looked unimpressed. "you know...I had more important stuff to take care of," he said with a specific tone, as if he was trying to implement something.
Steely Armor got snapped from his state the moment he heard that. After letting out a sigh he came back and stepped out of the lab. "Yeah, you're right. Let's not get distracted."
I felt like there was something going on between them, however, I didn't really want to interfere. "Well, if you are done with here we can move on." I suggested. "There are other places with other tools to check." I said with a grin.
As we started walking again, I pointed at some of the doors, following it by explaining that those were classrooms. And it was then that they gave the first red flag.
"Hey so...are there any...unusual students in here?" Flaming Star asked.
I paused for a moment and looked back at them. "What do you mean?"
Steely Armor clenched his teeth and gave Flaming star a nudge with his elbow. But it didn't seem like Flaming Star cared. "Like, are there any...students with some...special abilities?"
"You mean gifted students?" I was getting concerned by what he was trying to get at.
"Not qui-"
"HEY!" Steely Armor jumped in and cut him off while giving him another nudge. "Where is the bathroom?" he put on a forced smile that revealed his teeth.
I paused before answering. "Down this hallway to the left."
"OK. That's good to know." He said again keeping his awkward smile up.
I just looked away and continued showing them around. I could hear their low voices whispering to one another when I wasn't looking at them, however, I couldn't make out much. They were acting very suspicious and this situation felt very familiar.
Up next was the Music room that, unlike the lab, caught Flaming Star's eyes.
"Here in our music room we have provided some instruments such as the grand piano, a few guitars, drums, etc." I said as I pointed at each one and showcased them all. "Though, it is recommended that you use your own instruments if they are transportable." I took another look at the grand piano that rarity ended up dumping here before continuing. "And by that I mean small things."
Flaming Star looked around the room. "We didn't have a music room back in Falcon Stone did we?" He asked unsure.
"No. We didn't." His friend responded.
Flaming Star stepped closer to the piano and rubbed his hand on it. "This...is actually a Panama 340! How did this get in here?"
"Let's just say one of the students just dumped it in here." I looked away rubbing the back of my head.
"So, uhm," Steely Armor tried to gain my attention. "I think it would be nice to know what the schedule is here. Right Flame?"
I chimed in since it seemed there was finally something that he was interested in. "The schedule for here is almost determined by the students themselves. It's always accessible and anyone who comes first gets to have the room. Bands have priorities over alone students though havi-"
"OK. I'm done. What's next?" He said and dashed past me outside of the room.
My eyes were widened. I was both shocked as to how fast he left the room and how he kept on interrupting me. I was trying to make sure they knew their way but he didn't give a shit.
"Do you really wanna see the rest of the school?" I grunted at him as I stepped out and took the lead again.
Flaming Star said nothing. Instead he frowned and looked away.
I made some distance between myself and them.
The workshop was occupied so I just showed its location to them, "The workshop is here at the end of the hallway away from any other classes to avoid disturbing students and teachers. It's open on Fridays for everyone but the workshop keepers can enter and allow entry at any time." I pointed towards the door.
"How can we become a workshop keeper?" Steely Armor raised his hand.
"You'll send a request to the principal Celestia and judging by your activity there they will accept or deny your request." I moved away from there since the noise was quite loud. "If you want to be one, I suggest waiting a couple of weeks and showing your interest by actively visiting there on Fridays."
"Noted." Steely Armor nodded.
Finally, the tour ended back at the cafeteria. "It's still lunchtime, so it's kind of busy. But it will still be available if you want to grab something after you check in with Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna".
Steely Armor nodded and thanked me. "Well, thanks for showing us around."
"Don't mention it." I brought my hands in a gesture of stop. Although it seemed your friend wasn't quite interested." I smirked and switched my look to Flaming Star's orang-ish face and back to Steely Armor's silvery pale.
Steely Armor looked back at his friend who was still looking away and had quite the long face. "S-sorry, it's...uhm-"
"Let's just go Steely." Flaming Star took his friend's hand and pulled him to the principal's office.
I found my friends still sitting in the cafeteria.
"Welcome back darling!" Rarity greeted me again as I sat down behind the table.
"Thanks Rarity."
"So where are the newbies?" Pinkie leaned forward right up to my face!
"WooaH!" I jump in my place and fall on my back. "Jeez...Pinkie."
"Oh sorry!"
"It's alright." I smiled at her. In return she gave me one of her big smiles from ear to ear.
"So ya were sayin." Applejack reminded me of the question.
"Right. Well..." I paused to gather my thoughts for a second. "...Two seniors. Both boys."
"Seniors?" Rarity jumped back. Narrowing her eyes trying to make sense of what I just said. "Why would someone transfer somewhere else as a senior?" She shook her head. "Wait, where were they coming from?"
I clenched my teeth before responding. Knowing she would make a dramatic scene the moment I say it. "Falcon Stone."
"WHAT?" Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Rarity all asked and leaned forward on the table. Meanwhile, Fluttershy and applejack were clueless about what was happening. And pinkie didn't seem to care that much as didn't show any particular emotion.
"Wh-wha...who the...huh?" Rarity struggled to process what I just said as she muttered and blinked rapidly.
"That's...very odd. Falcon Stone students never get transferred." Twilight pondered and rubbed her chin. "Unless...they didn't quite...fit"
"What do you mean?" Fluttershy asked.
Before Twilight got to say anything, Rainbow Dash beat her to it. "That school is for the high classed individual who should not be associated with others that are not their class. If they think you are not high class enough for them they will expel you." She said with a salty tone.
"Not quite." Twilight corrected, raising her finger. "They do charge a lot but other than that they also have very high and strict rules. Much like Crystal prep."
Although I too was surprised students from Falcon Stone's seniors were transferred here I felt the more important discussion was the questions that Flaming Star asked. "There was something else."
They all looked at me.
"One of them was asking...odd questions. And that is beside how they acted."
"Oh, Ah don't like where this is going." Applejack shook her head and looked down. "the last time ya said that about newbies we had to deal with some siren bastard manipulative creatures that came from another world and were turned into humans."
"I hope this doesn't end up like that honestly. They asked about whether there were any students with...special abilities or not, which, at first I thought they meant gifted students or something..." I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes, "...But apparently that wasn't what they meant. The other one changed the subject afterwards."
"This isn't how it was with the sirens, was it?" Twilight asked.
"No, but there is something kind of off about those two. Whatever it is, it doesn't feel like Equestrian magic," I admitted. “Their current actions at least.”
"Well." Rainbow Dash straightened up as she spoke up. "Here is your chance to find out." She nodded her head toward the door as the boys came in.
They entered through the lunch line and sat by themselves, spending a lot of time talking to each other. I wished I could have understood what they were saying, but I promised myself that I wasn't going to use my telepathy for personal reasons.
"Welp, so far they haven't started singin' and hypnotyzin everyone to fight one another so that's somethin'." Applejack added as she followed them with her eyes.
After lunch, we had to get separated to go to our own classes, but we agreed to meet up in the music room after that. We tried working on a new song but we didn't get very far with it. Still, we were together and we were happy even if we didn't make progress with the song.
But suddenly the two boys came into the music room and shut the door behind them! That was shocking enough, but then Steely Armor clarified why, "Girls, we need your help."
We were all staring at each other for a while till Flaming Star spoke up. "We know you have powers, all of you," Flaming Star went on as he nervously scratched his head. "And…and so do we."
"Wait, doesn't that make them the bad guys?" Pinkie slowly whispered into my ear.
I shook my head to shove the confusion away. "What? No- I me-"
Before I could finish my whisper to Pinkie, Flaming Star said the last thing I expected. "Do you know how to remove it?"
"What?" Rainbow Dash shouted. "Why would you want to remove them? The ones we got are pretty awesome!"
Flaming Star answered her with a somber tone, "Because we don't want them…I don't want them."
"Wait a minute," Twilight said as she was trying to process this. “We just met you and we don't know anything about you or your magic. Plus how do you know we have magic? Who even are you?" She stopped everyone from speaking.
"I'm Flaming Star, and this is Steely My friend. I don't know how to explain this." He held his head with his hands. "You have necklaces right? How can we get rid of them? Do you know any way?" He started to breathe rapidly.
"I...I don't know. I mean, I have to know more or else l...I could make a huge mistake." Twilight explained, looking nervous at the prospect of this. I could tell she was remembering what happened at friendship games when she tried studying Equestrian magic and it got out of control. "I...look this is just so much to take in right now can we just slow down a little bit."
Steely Armor stepped forward and put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Hey, calm down. We can figure this out."
Flaming Star took some deep breaths and steadied his breathing. Meanwhile Pinkie whispered into my ear once more. "So should we blast them or not?"
"Wha? No!" I whispered back.
"Hey, is it just meh or these two are the first two boys we've seen with magic?” Applejack joined the whispering.
"What even is their magic?" Twilight asked and joined the whisper.
"Oh, yeah. Ask them whether they can shoot lasers too!" Rainbow Dash suggested. Pushing onto Apple Jacks back to join the whispering discussion we just started.
"Not sure if it's the right time, darling." Somehow, Rarity squeezed herself through and chimed in.
I saw that Flaming Star was feeling better so I shushed them.
Steely Armor took out his necklace from his pocket and showed it to us. It looked identical to the ones we had. Though, his was silvery. "It was this summer that we were walking together and saw two shining things come towards us from the sky. We thought it was just some rays of the sun but..." He sighed and continued. "We got these and...our powers."
We all stayed silent and let him speak. Thankfully Applejack held Pinkie's mouth so she wouldn't keep whispering.
"Summer?" Twilight rubbed her chin.
"I've tried everything." Steely Armor continued. "They can't be broken...no matter how far away they get from you they somehow appear around you. These are what gave us our powers, and getting rid of them should solve the issue. Do you know how?"
"About that!" I said. Pointing at him. "No." I saw the disappointment emerge in Steely Armor's eyes as soon as I said that. "But we learned that yo-"
"YOU DON'T KNOW?" Flaming Star raised his voice.
"Flame...calm down." Steely Armor looked back and tried to calm his friend a second time. But it was too late.
Flaming Star was shaking and suddenly, light sparked around Flaming Star's hand and they ignited. He held his hands up and looked at them in fear. His hands were on fire!
We too were all shocked. Fluttershy and Rarity gasped and the rest of us just stared at his hands in silence.
"No. NO. NO!" Flaming Star shouted. His whole body was trembling.
"Flame, don't panic. It's alright. Just...calm down!" Steely Armor stepped forward and tried to keep his friend calm for a second time.
"NO! STAY BACK!" Flaming Star shouted at Steely Armor and ran out of the room.
Steely Armor paused mid run and dropped on his knees. "There is no hope." He sighed.
After a long awkward silence I walked up to him. "Hey, Are you...alright?"
But no response came. He was staring at the ground. His golden eyes had lost their shine.
I suddenly changed my mind about using my own power. I had to know why this was so important to them. What happened that they don't want this magic? Without saying anything I took his hand in mine.
It took me a short time to focus on his memories. They were clear enough for me to find what I was looking for. But for some reason, I felt a headache from the start.
Flaming Star was talking to his friend, looking extremely nervous. “I don't think this is a good idea."
"Don't worry," Steely Armor tried to assure him by giving him a pat on the back "Nothing bad is going to happen."
The uncertainty was visible from Flaming Star's eyes. He held up his hand to say no, but a ball of fire came out of his palm!
The headache stopped me from concentrating on his memories and I had to let go. I took a few steps back and looked back at Steely Armor.
"What did you do?" He asked.
Before I could answer the rest of the girls came to me and asked whether I was alright or not, I had to get back to Steely Armor. I gently pushed them aside and walked back to him. "I saw it."
"What?"
I pointed at his right shoulder. "Your...shoulder." The headache was fading but the pain was still quite severe and it made it hard to put words together.
"Sunset, are you feeling fine?" Fluttershy put her hand on my back and looked me in the eyes.
"Yeah, yeah." I shook my head and looked back at Steely Armor who was now standing.
"H-how do you know?" He asked.
"Uhm know what?" Applejack switched her sight from me to him.
I took a deep breath. "You are right about us having powers." I gave a smile to rarity and assured her that I'm fine. "Though we call it magic but anyway. Mine is telepathy." I put my hands on my chest, "I can read people's thoughts and see their memories when I touch them. That's...how."
Steely Armor sighed. "you might as well see the rest." He pulled up the sleeve of his shirt. Revealing a recently healed burn. Nobody said anything as they stared at the burn in shock. "You were our last hope to get rid of this..."magic..''power" thing we got ever since that day. But now...there is no hope."
"Wait," Twilight asked, "How did you know to look for us here?"
"There was a lot of news about strange things going on at this school on the net." He said as he pulled her sleeve back down "It was a shot in the dark. The dates on the news were way before summer so we thought it might be the source."
"Well you got that right." Rainbow Dash replied.
Applejack gave her a nudge and shook her head at her.
Steely Armor adjusted his hat on his head and turned back to walk away. "Thanks for...listening."
"Wait!" Twilight said quickly as she reached over to stop him. "Maybe we can help?"
"Can you get rid of this?” Steely asked hopefully.
"I have something else in mind. We’ve all been through this. We didn't want ours at first but we learned to accept the powers we have, and then we learned how to control them instead of letting them control us."
Steely looked confused by this description. "Control you?"
"If you are afraid of your power, it’s the fear that controls you.” Twilight explained, looking embarrassed at the memory of her fears.
"Been there, done that" Rainbow Dash added. "When I discovered that I could be super fast, I kind of poked along like Tank."
"Who?"
"That's her pet turtle," I explained before Dash turned to me with a huff.
"Tortoise!!"
"Oh, sorry."
"The important thing is getting you comfortable first." Twilight went on, "The first thing you need to do is not be afraid of it. Then you can begin to control it."
Steely Armor paused for a minute, taking it all in. Then he looked at us. " I doubt that can work. Flame is...different."
"I know how you feel," I told him, trying to comfort him. "We all do." I said looking at Twilight and giving her a smile.
We had to leave then since the school was about to be closed for the night so we told him that we will address it tomorrow. Besides that, we needed to address something about the situation we were in so we decided to head to Twilight's house.
On the way to Twilight's house, Twilight asked me a bunch of questions "What exactly did you see in his memories?"
"I saw Flaming Star use his magic and the result of it was the burns on Steely Armor's shoulder."
"What exactly is his magic?"
"It seems like he can shoot fireballs." It was when I said that, that Rainbow jumped in between us.
"SHOOT FIREBALLS! THAT. IS. AWESOME!" she shouted in the middle of the street with her hands all the way up in the air, a few of the people who lived there opened up their windows to check outside. It was kind of embarrassing.
"It might sound like a cool thing to you but remember how hard it must be for him to live with the guilt of hurting his friend!"
She stayed silent after that and left us alone to continue.
"Also I need to point out this, when I held Steely Armor's hand, I had trouble focusing on his memories. I felt a really painful headache right from the start and it just got worse as it kept going."
"You've never had that type of headache before when you look into people's memories?" She raised her eyebrow and turned her head to directly look at me.
"No, I mean I get a headache when you know: we overuse our magic and I end up hearing everyone's thoughts! But not when I am looking at their memories."
"Is anyone of ya curious about how they found out about our magic?" Applejack gathered our attention as she opened her hands wide open.
We all turned back and looked at her, but I doubt any of us had an answer.
"She has a point too, how did they find out about our magic on the first day? Did they ask other students about our magic?" Twilight asked again while wondering out loud about it herself.
"Maybe." Fluttershy answered.
We reached Twilight's home! We all went in one by one, saying hi and walking up the stairs to reach Twilight's bedroom. Rainbow took a moment to call her parents and inform them that she will come home a little late. Fluttershy and Rarity sat on Twilight's bed with Spike next to them. Pinkie Pie and Applejack sat in a corner and I sat on Twilight’s desk chair. She herself just walked around wondering. Classic.
We started talking again but I felt I needed to readjust the topic, "look guys, however they found out that our magic is not our problem to worry about right now. First we need to figure out a way to help them!"
Fluttershy stood up, "I agree! we have to help them," Fluttershy said softly. "Flaming Star seems to be going through so much."
"But how In tarnation can we help?" Applejack asked as she looked concerned about helping them.
"Look, we've all had to wrestle with these powers and the fear of letting them get out of hand." I responded , turning the chair to face her. "We've been through this! If we can't help them, who can?"
"And that's not even counting the times we dealt with others who had magic and wanted to do some damage." Rarity said.
"Yeah," Pinkie pie added, "There were the sirens, Gloriosa at the camp Everfree, Juniper Montage, Wallflower Blush...."
Maybe I was imagining things but I thought Pinkie was growing extra fingers on her hand as she needed. But then she said, "Aaaaaand of course you and Twilight." We all paused for a couple of seconds to stare at her. "WHAT?" Pinkie asked as she gave an unwitting shrug.
"Look, Ah know honesty is a serious thing, but Ah wouldn't have gone that far." Applejack patted her on the back.
I wanted to say something, but Twilight beat me up to it. “She is right. I was so fixated on studying the strange power coming from Canterlot high, that I almost destroyed two worlds and put all your lives at risk when I got the taste of power. I can imagine how guilty Flaming Star must feel."
She stopped to wipe her eyes, and Spike jumped on her lap and started licking her face. "Imagine how scared he was at the time," I pointed out. "But it looks like he's forgiven you."
That was enough to break the ice and change the mood.
"So what are we going to do,?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yeah, It's like we can blast the magic out of them and suddenly he can control it. Though that would be awesome!" Rainbow Dash added.
I stood up and looked at them all. "I think I have a plan."