> Changes In A Rainbow > by My Rainbow Dash > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1: Insults, Emotions, and News > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Bitch!" "Insolent!" "Slut!" "Selfish jerk!" "Useless!" "Worthless!" "Asshole!" "Rude!". "Betrayer!" "Freak!" The insults and name-calling were endless. Rainbow Dash kept getting name's called at her from students and they backed her into a wall. Her heart was shattered because her friends were also part of the name-calling group. The teachers weren't even helping. They just stood behind the students as they watched one of their students get insulted. Rainbow was on the verge of crying. She never felt so hurt in her life. Emotionally speaking. She suddenly felt a loud slap and her cheek sting. She put a hand to her cheek where she had been slapped. Tears stung her eyes and she shut them tight as she gripped her geode around her neck and used her super speed to grab her things, get away from the crowd, and run home. The run home didn't fill her with joy as it usually did. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Tears were streaming down her face once she had arrived at her house. As soon as she got there, she ran straight past her mom, who had seen her daughter come close to the house, to her room where she dropped her bag on the floor, kicked off her shoes, and flopped onto her bed crying. She heard footsteps coming towards her room but didn't care. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her in the direction of the hand and saw her mom, Windy Whistles, looking at her. "Dashie, baby, what's wrong?" She asked sweetly. The dam broke and the rainbow-haired girl sobbed into her mother's chest. Windy wrapped her arms around her daughter and rubbed her back. She heard footsteps coming towards the bedroom door and saw her husband come in. His facial expression was saddened when he saw his daughter crying in his wife's chest. He immediately walked over and brought his wife and daughter into a hug. Windy kissed her daughter's forehead as Rainbow's cries became whimpers. Sniffles were heard from their daughter as they slowly released the hug. Rainbow rubbed her nose with her sleeve and looked up at her parents with teary eyes. Bow Hothoof ran a hand through his daughter's hair and spoke. "Kiddo, you wanna tell us what happened?" Rainbow slowly nodded. "I-I w-w-was b-b-being i-i-insulted b-by a-all the-the s-s-students at s-s-school. They called me bad names." Tears were leaking from her eyes. Her parents stared at her in shock. Their daughter was being insulted by the students at school. "Even your friends?" Her mom asked. Rainbow Dash nodded. Her dad squeezed her shoulders. "Well, we have some good news for all of us." Rainbow looked up at him, curious. Your mother and I have gotten new jobs back in Cloudsdale and we end up getting paid more. This also means that you get to see your old friends and go to Cloudsdale High School. And guess what, you pretty much know all the students there. Remember the Wonderbolts?" Rainbow's eyes widened. "You mean Soarin, Fleetfoot, Spitfire, and then others?" Her parents nodded. A huge smile grew on her face. "We're going back?" Her parents nodded again and her smile grew even bigger. She wrapped her arms around her mom, who returned the hug and her dad brought the two of them into a bigger hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" The two adults smiled at their daughter's excitement. They released the hug."When do we start packing?" The two adults laughed. "Easy, Sweetie. But we start packing up tomorrow." Rainbow nodded repeatedly with a large smile on her face. Bow chuckled and ruffled his daughter's hair. "C'mon, Kiddo. Let's go have some dinner and then head to bed because we need let's of rest for tomorrow." Rainbow jumped off her bed and started doing backflips all the way to the kitchen. Bow chuckled. "I wonder where she got all that energy from." His wife smiled. "I'm assuming she's excited to see her old friends again." Bow wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "I guess you're right." "Are we gonna have dinner or what!?" They heard their daughter shout from the kitchen. The two parents rolled their eyes. "We're coming, Sweetie. No need to rush things." "Yes, there is!" Rainbow shouted in return. Bow shook his head, came up from behind his daughter, wrapped his arms around her waist, and lifted Rainbow into the air. She laughed and kicked her legs. "Dad!!" She laughed. "Put me down!" He only held her tighter and spun her around in a circle. Windy smiled at the father-daughter get-along. She turned back to the stove and finished making the meal. After 20 minutes, food was set out on plates on the table and the aroma of the food attracted the rainbow-haired man and teen girl. The family of three sat down at the table and ate their meal while talking about what would be happening in Cloudsdale. After the pleasant dinner, Rainbow walked up to her room and saw a notification on her phone. She took a closer look at it and smiled. "Huh, funny." She said to herself. "Just the one who I wanted to talk to." The message was from Spitfire. She ended up writing this: "Sup Crash, I just wanted to let you know that we all miss you and were wondering if you could visit sometime soon when you're free. Soarin's been going nuts because he hasn't seen you in a while. Hope to hear from you soon. Your friend, Spitfire." Dash smiled and responded. "Sup Shitfire, I got some great news for you and the others. I'm moving back to Cloudsdale because my parents are switching jobs and it's in Cloudsdale. It also means that I'll be attending Cloudsdale High School, assuming that you go there right now. Tell Soar to relax. He can spend all the time he wants with me when I'm back in Cloudsdale. Signing off with awesomeness, Crash." Rainbow smirked as she sent the message. She was about to put her phone back down when it sent out a longer ringtone. Apparently, Spitfire decided to make things easier for herself and call the rainbow-haired girl. Rainbow answered the phone. "This is Rainbow Dash speaking. How can I help you?" She heard laughter from the other side of the phone. "Well nice to hear from you too, Crash!" Rainbow laughed. "How've you been, Spits?" "I've been good. Soar misses you though." "Uh oh. What happened now?" "Nothing really. He just wants to fuck you really badly." Dash broke out laughing. "That bad, huh?"She heard a laugh on the other side of the phone. "You have no idea." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Do me a favor and tell everyone that I'm coming back. I start packing tomorrow." There was a snort on the other side of the phone. "If only it were that easy. I'll try my best but I'm telling you that once I do, everyone is gonna flip and be super impatient until you arrive." "Relax, will ya? It's only a two-hour drive. We just have so many things with us which is why we need a moving truck. But hey, at least I get to see you guys and stay with you. That's awesome, right?" "It sure is. When will you be arriving?" Rainbow put a finger to her chin and tapped it. "Hang on for a sec." Rainbow took the phone off her ear and called her mom. "Hey, mom? When are we leaving for Cloudsdale?" "We'll be leaving in two days, Sweetie." Her mom answered. Rainbow got back on the phone. "We'll be leaving in two days." "I guess we'll be seeing you in two days then, huh." Spitfire responded. "You sure will. Hey, you okay? You sound sad." "Sorry, Dash. We just wish you would get here earlier." Dash stopped. "We?" "Oh yeah. I forgot to say that everyone else is here too. Guys why don't you say our favorite rainbow-haired girl." There was a gasp on Spitfire's side. A whole group of voices greeted her. "Hey Dash." "Sup Dash." "Hi, Dashie!" "Hi Rainbow." Rainbow smiled. "Hey guys. Look, I'd love to stay and chat, but I need to start packing tomorrow. To be honest, I'm very happy about it. Don't ask why. I'll tell you when I get to Cloudsdale." "Alright, bye Rainbow." "Night Rainbow." "Bye-bye." "Bye Dash." Rainbow ended the call and smiled. This was gonna be fun. > Chapter 2: Packing And A Day With Friends > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next morning Rainbow nearly jumped out of her bed in excitement. It was the first day of packing. She bounced around her room like a 5-year-old getting ice cream with chocolate syrup and sprinkles on top. She quickly but quietly ran to the living room, grabbed some boxes, and ran back to her room. She plugged her earbuds into her phone and started playing music. True Original She hummed along to the song while swaying her hips to the beat. She packed up her trophies and put them in multiple boxes. (Due to her having so many). She then picked up her Daring Do books and placed them on their own. While putting other things away, she heard a knock on her door. She turned to see her mom standing in the doorway. She stood up, walked to her mom, and the two shared a hug. "Morning, Mom." "Morning, sweetie pie. Did you have a good night's sleep?" Rainbow nodded. "Nice. Now come to the kitchen. Your father's making breakfast and he wants you to eat it otherwise he'll be eating all of it which we don't want." The two shared a laugh and walked to the kitchen. The fresh smell of pancake made dash drool and her stomach grumble. Once she heard it, her face flushed in embarrassment as her mom laughed. Then her dad's voice broke the silence. "Well, seems like someone's hungry." He chuckled. Rainbow's cheeks turned a darker pink. "Can we have breakfast now? Please?" The two adults laughed at how their daughter acted. "Of course, we can, Kiddo. What, you think we made it for nothing?" Rainbow rolled her eyes but smiled at her dad's actions. After a quick breakfast, Dash was about to head back to her room when there was a knock on the door. Rainbow was going to start walking to the door, but her mom held her back. "You go continue packing. I'll answer the door." Rainbow nodded and headed back to her room. As soon as she walked in she connected her phone to her speaker via Bluetooth and played one of her favorite songs. All Good Rainbow Dash sang along with the song while packing and dancing to it. At the end of the song, two yellow hands covered her eyes. Then a voice spoke. "Sup, Crash." Rainbow froze. Could it be? She turned around and saw a firey-haired girl standing in front of her including a few other girls. "Spitfire? Fleetfoot? Blaze? Misty Fly? High Winds? Surprise? What are you guys doing here? Also, where are the guys?" The six girls from Cloudsdale laughed. "Don't worry," Surprise assured the rainbow-haired girl. "The guys are fine. They wanted to set a surprise for you when you get back." "Well, that doesn't sound good," Dash stated and all the girls broke out laughing. "I think you might wanna help them with that, Surprise." "No worries. I will once we get back. I'll give the boys some tips before everything goes nuts." The yellow-haired girl smiled and patted the rainbow-haired girl's shoulder. Rainbow rolled her eyes. "I don't doubt that for sure." She chuckled and shook her head. They spent the entire morning packing before it was lunchtime and the six Cloudsdale High girls took their friend out for lunch. While they waited for their food, they talked. "So, how's everything at CHS?" Rainbow Dash asked the six Cloudsdale High girls. Fleetfoot was the first to respond. "Oh, everything's fine. We managed to get Lightning Dust to chill out and not be such a bully. She's with us now." She smiled and Dash did the same. Spitfire changed the good mood though. "Can't say the same for Hoops, Score, and Dumbbell. Those three are so hard to deal with. We must keep standing up for other students they bully or tease. It's so annoying." Dash rolled her eyes and facepalmed. "I was one of their favorite targets for the longest time until I left. I was relieved that I wouldn't have to deal with it, but another student came to Canterlot High School and started running things for everyone. Her name is Sunset Shimmer and she comes from a place called Equestria. We end up having a portal that connects to that world in a statue in front of the school. She ended up bringing magic into our world and things changed dramatically. She tore friends apart including mine with my friends. It lasted a long while, but then this girl named Twilight Sparkle came in, also from Equestria, and helped reunite me and my friends back together and help her win the Fall Formal princess crown. That crown belonged to her, but Sunset Shimmer only wanted the magic from the crown which ended up turning her into a demon who wanted to rule over Equestria. With Twilight, we managed to defeat Sunset with the magic of friendship. We ended up growing pony ears, our hair extended and formed a tail at its end, and Twilight, Fluttershy, and I ended up growing wings. It was completely awesome. After that, we defeated Sunset, Twilight asked us if we could watch over Sunset and befriend her. It turned out well for us, but not for everyone else. Not long after, we had some other beings from Equestria come into our world stole our magic with singing, and managed to turn our musical showcase into a battle of the bands. They ended up feeding on our magic by singing. Things didn't turn out so well. I also don't want to talk about it. Then a few months later, we ended up having the Friendship Games against CPA. Then the Twilight from this world ended up taking our magic and turned herself into a magical demon as well. Sunset ended up showing her what friendship was. Then we went camping Everfree and ended up getting these magical geodes." She paused and pointed at her necklace. "Well, we got them after receiving magic powers. What I find awesome about mine is that I have super speed. We ended up getting these geodes after defeating the camp leader who was trying to make it the best week ever, but things didn't turn out that well when she got corrupted by the Equestrian magic. Too much has happened and it's making me get a headache. And now I'm rambling." The girls all laughed. "Wow, you went through a lot." Spitfire joked. The girls all broke out laughing. Their food finally arrived and they are in silence. After they finished eating, they went back to Dash's house to continue packing. They laughed and packed until it was time for the six girls to head home. Rainbow hugged her friends and waved as they drove off. She smiled as she walked up to her bathroom, brushed her teeth, and went to bed with a smile on her face. > Chapter 3: Leaving For Cloudsdale And Enjoying Time With Friends > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow Dash couldn't wait. The moving truck had arrived and she and her parents were already putting things inside it. She was bouncing on the balls of her feet and she placed her electric guitar and duffle bag in the back seat next to her. Her parents had strapped her surfboard onto the top of the car. Inside her bag were her computer, its charger, her phone, and its charger, her song notebook, her guitar tuner, earphones, one of her Daring Do books, a few pens, pencils, and erasers. And of course, she wouldn't forget her hat and sunglasses. (They meant a lot to her). And of course, she couldn't forget Tank. He also meant a lot to her. More than anything else in the world. Including her guitar. Once everything was packed, they soon hit the road. Dash had spent the first quarter of the ride staring out the window while listening to music. The rest of the ride was her sleeping. She was woken up when her mom was shaking her leg. "Wake up sweetie. We've arrived at our place in Cloudsdale." Rainbow blinked in shock. "Already? Huh, that was very short." Her dad chuckled. "That was a two-hour drive kiddo." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Well, it felt short to me because I fell asleep. Duh." Bow rolled his eyes. Rainbow looked around the neighborhood and noticed that the houses were very fancy. "Mom, Dad, Why are we in the rich house neighborhood?" Windy smiled. "That's because we bought a house in this area, and because your father and I were offered different jobs by friends so we took them, which caused us to make more money. That's why we decided to move here. Plus, your friends live close by too." Rainbow facepalmed. "Well, that makes more sense." "Oh, and by the way," her mom spoke about, "your friends are waiting out in front with the moving truck." Rainbow squealed in excitement. Right as they got to the front of the house, there was a large group of teens standing in front. The girls from yesterday were there of course but added to the group, there were 5 boys. Soarin, Fire Streak, Lightning Streak, Wave Chill, and Rapidfire. Once the boys saw the rainbow-haired girl, they froze. "Dash?" Soarin stared at the girl standing in front of him. Rainbow smiled and jumped into his arms, hugging him tightly. Everyone laughed and joined the hug. Once the hug ended, Rapidfire slapped her shoulder. "You are staying with us in Cloudsdale. End of story." Rainbow snorted but smiled. "We moved back here because they found better jobs here than in Canterlot. We're staying put in Cloudsdale. No need to worry about it." Fire Streak noticed her necklace. "What's with the necklace? From what I recall, you never liked jewelry." The rest of the boys noticed it too. Rainbow sighed and shook her head. "It's a long story, but I guess we have time after you help me unload everything from the car and truck." Soarin saluted to her. "Yes ma'am." Rainbow snorted while everyone else broke out laughing. Fleetfoot walked up and punched his shoulder. "Dude. Why do you keep saying that?" The navy blue-haired boy rose a brow. "What. Are you saying I can't be funny from time to time?" Rainbow called from the car. "Oh shut up. Just let him be himself. Isn't that what Cloudsdale High School is all about? A school full of showoffs?" The 11 teens looked at each other and nodded. "Yeah, you're right there, Crash." Dash knew that Spitfire was pulling her leg. She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, Shitfire." Everyone but Spitfire broke out laughing. Spitfire only rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and smirked. "Kay, can you help me unpack now?" They all walked towards Dash's car and helped her pull things out. ~/\~ They were up in Dash's new room when the students from CHS, (Cloudsdale), heard their friend start singing a song. Well, more like humming a song. Unknown to them, she ended up changing the lyrics a bit to go well with Cloudsdale High School CHS Rally Song - Nightcore Crystal Prep students are super athletic Super smart, and super motivated But there's one thing they aren't They aren't Wonderbolts! We've fought magic more than once And come out on top There are other schools, but none can make those claims Together Cloudsdale we are one Come and cheer our name This will be our year to win these games We'll always be Wonderbolts forever And now our time has finally arrived 'Cause we believe in the magic of friendship And you know, at the end of the day, it is we who survive We're not the school we were before Yeah, we're different now We overcame the obstacles we faced We're Cloudsdale united And we'll never bow So get ready to see us in first place We'll always be Wonderbolts forever And now our time has finally arrived 'Cause we believe in the magic of friendship And you know, at the end of the day, it is we who survive At the end of the day, it is we who survive Na, na, na-na-na-na Wonderbolts united together Na, na, na-na-na-na Wonderbolts united forever We'll always be Wonderbolts forever And now our time has finally arrived 'Cause we believe in the magic of friendship And you know, at the end of the day, it is we who survive At the end of the day, it is we who survive! Once she finished the song, she turned around to face her friends. She saw them staring. “What?” She asked. Spitfire stepped towards her. “Was that a song that just popped into your head, or did you already sing that song before?” Rainbow sighed. “I did sing that song before, but I sang it for the students back at CHS, Canterlot High School. We were playing against CPA, Crystal Prep Academy for the Friendship Games. We ended up losing to every game before, until last year when we tied after a magical mishap.” Soarin stepped towards her. “Do you think you can tell us the story that you told Spitfire and the other girls yesterday?” The other boys nodded and sat down on the floor in front of her bed. “Alright. This is what happened. I’ll start from the top and give both of the reasons why my parents and I moved back here.” They were in for a long story. Rainbow started telling it. “This incident happened two days ago, on Friday...” > Chapter 4: The Story And Music Fun > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ""Bitch!" "Insolent!" "Slut!" "Selfish jerk!" "Useless!" "Worthless!" "Asshole!" "Rude!". "Betrayer!" "Freak!" The insults and name-calling were endless. Rainbow Dash kept getting name's called at her from students and they backed her into a wall. Her heart was shattered because her friends were also part of the name-calling group. The teachers weren't even helping. They just stood behind the students as they watched one of their students get insulted. Rainbow was on the verge of crying. She never felt so hurt in her life. Emotionally speaking. She suddenly felt a loud slap and her cheek sting. She put a hand to her cheek where she had been slapped. Tears stung her eyes and she shut them tight as she gripped her geode around her neck and used her super speed to grab her things, get away from the crowd, and run home. The run home didn't fill her with joy as it usually did. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Tears were streaming down her face once she had arrived at her house. As soon as she got there, she ran straight past her mom, who had seen her daughter come close to the house, to her room where she dropped her bag on the floor, kicked off her shoes, and flopped onto her bed crying. She heard footsteps coming towards her room but didn't care. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her in the direction of the hand and saw her mom, Windy Whistles, looking at her. "Dashie, baby, what's wrong?" She asked sweetly. The dam broke and the rainbow-haired girl sobbed into her mother's chest. Windy wrapped her arms around her daughter and rubbed her back. She heard footsteps coming towards the bedroom door and saw her husband come in. His facial expression was saddened when he saw his daughter crying in his wife's chest. He immediately walked over and brought his wife and daughter into a hug. Windy kissed her daughter's forehead as Rainbow's cries became whimpers. Sniffles were heard from their daughter as they slowly released the hug. Rainbow rubbed her nose with her sleeve and looked up at her parents with teary eyes. Bow Hothoof ran a hand through his daughter's hair and spoke. "Kiddo, you wanna tell us what happened?" Rainbow slowly nodded. "I-I w-w-was b-b-being i-i-insulted b-by a-all the-the s-s-students at s-s-school. They called me bad names." Tears were leaking from her eyes. Her parents stared at her in shock. Their daughter was being insulted by the students at school. "Even your friends?" Her mom asked. Rainbow Dash nodded. Her dad squeezed her shoulders. "Well, we have some good news for all of us." Rainbow looked up at him, curious. Your mother and I have gotten new jobs back in Cloudsdale and we end up getting paid more. This also means that you get to see your old friends and go to Cloudsdale High School. And guess what, you pretty much know all the students there. Remember the Wonderbolts?" Rainbow's eyes widened. "You mean Soarin, Fleet foot, Spitfire, and then others?" Her parents nodded. A huge smile grew on her face. "We're going back?" Her parents nodded again and her smile grew even bigger. She wrapped her arms around her mom, who returned the hug and her dad brought the two of them into a bigger hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" The two adults smiled at their daughter's excitement. They released the hug."When do we start packing?" The two adults laughed. "Easy, Sweetie. But we start packing up tomorrow." Rainbow nodded repeatedly with a large smile on her face. Bow chuckled and ruffled his daughter's hair. "C'mon, Kiddo. Let's go have some dinner and then head to bed because we need let's of rest for tomorrow." Rainbow jumped off her bed and started doing backflips all the way to the kitchen. Bow chuckled. "I wonder where she got all that energy from." His wife smiled. "I'm assuming she's excited to see her old friends again." Bow wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "I guess you're right." "Are we gonna have dinner or what!?" They heard their daughter shout from the kitchen. The two parents rolled their eyes. "We're coming, Sweetie. No need to rush things." "Yes, there is!" Rainbow shouted in return. Bow shook his head and came up from behind his daughter, wrapped his arms around her waist, and lifted Rainbow into the air. She laughed and kicked her legs. "Dad!!" She laughed. "Put me down!" He only held her tighter and spun her around in a circle. Windy smiled at the father-daughter get-along. She turned back to the stove and finished making the meal. After 20 minutes, food was set out on plates on the table and the aroma of the food attracted the rainbow-haired man and teen girl. The family of three sat down at the table and ate their meal while talking about what would be happening in Cloudsdale. After the pleasant dinner, Rainbow walked up to the room and saw a notification on her phone. She took a closer look at it and smiled. "Huh, funny." She said to herself. "Just the one who I wanted to talk to." The message was from Spitfire. She ended up writing this: "Sup Crash, I just wanted to let you know that we all miss you and were wondering if you could visit sometime soon when you're free. Soarin's been going nuts because he hasn't seen you in a while. Hope to hear from you soon. Your friend, Spitfire." Dash smiled and responded. "Sup Shitfire, I got some great news for you and the others. I'm moving back to Cloudsdale because my parents are switching jobs and it's in Cloudsdale. It also means that I'll be attending Cloudsdale High School which I'm assuming that you go there right now. Tell Soar to relax. He can spend all the time he wants with me when I'm back in Cloudsdale. Signing off with awesomeness, Crash." Rainbow smirked as she sent the message. She was about to put her phone back down when it sent out a longer ringtone. Apparently, Spitfire decided to make things easier for herself and call the rainbow-haired girl. Rainbow answered the phone. "This is Rainbow Dash speaking. How can I help you?" She heard laughter from the other side of the phone. "Well nice to hear from you too, Crash!" Rainbow laughed. "How've you been, Spits?" "I've been good. Soar misses you though." "Uh oh. What happened now?" "Nothing really. He just wants to fuck you really badly." Dash broke out laughing. "That bad, huh?"She heard a laugh on the other side of the phone. "You have no idea." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Do me a favor and tell everyone that I'm coming back. I start packing tomorrow." There was a snort on the other side of the phone. "If only it were that easy. I'll try my best but I'm telling you that once I do, everyone is gonna flip and be super impatient until you arrive." "Relax, will ya? It's only a two-hour drive. We just have so many things with us which is why we need a moving truck. But hey, at least I get to see you guys and stay with you. That's awesome, right?" "It sure is. When will you be arriving?" Rainbow put a finger to her chin and tapped it. "Hang on for a sec." Rainbow took the phone off her ear and called her mom. "Hey, mom? When are we leaving for Cloudsdale?" "We'll be leaving in two days, Sweetie." Her mom answered. Rainbow got back on the phone. "We'll be leaving in two days." "I guess we'll be seeing you in three days then, huh," Spitfire responded. "You sure will. Hey, you okay? You sound sad." "Sorry, Dash. We just wish you would get here earlier." Dash stopped. "We?" "Oh yeah. I forgot to say that everyone else is here too. Guys why don't you say our favorite rainbow-haired girl." There was a gasp on Spitfire's side. A whole group of voices greeted her. "Hey, Dash." "Sup Dash." "Hi, Dashie!" "Hi, Rainbow." Rainbow smiled. "Hey, guys. Look, I'd love to stay and chat, but I need to start packing tomorrow. To be honest, I'm very happy about it. Don't ask why. I'll tell you when I get to Cloudsdale." "Alright, bye Rainbow." "Night Rainbow." "Bye-bye." "Bye Dash." Rainbow ended the call and smiled. This was gonna be fun." ~/\~ "And that's what happened." The rainbow-haired girl finished off her story. The eleven teens sitting on the floor stared. Spitfire growled and clenched her fists. "What the fuck!! What kind of friendship is that?!" Fleetfoot crossed her arms and frowned. "That's not even friendship, Spits. That's betrayal. And it happened right in her face. Not to mention all that name-calling business. Such morons. I mean seriously. Who does that shit?" Soarin spoke next. "Assholes. That's who." Rainbow smiled. "That's why you guys are my friends. Not them." The twelve Cloudsdale High students all smiled. Surprise popped up next to Dash. “You coming to CHS with us tomorrow?” Rainbow gave her a confused look. Surprise must have read her mind. “Not Canterlot silly. I meant Cloudsdale. Are you coming to Cloudsdale High School with us tomorrow?” Rainbow nodded. “Uh, yeah! You don’t expect me to stay home, do you?” They all shrugged their shoulders but nodded happily that their friend was going to join them in school the next day. “But to be honest, the reason why I say that is ‘cause it’s all-all-all-all good, and I feel abso- absolutely amazin'.” Her friends gave her a confused look. “It was a song I wrote that ends up with me going all out on my electric guitar. I can play it if you want.” They all cheered. Rainbow grabbed her guitar and pick. All Good The students from Cloudsdale stared in awe as their friend ponied up. Once the rainbow-haired girl finished the song, she looked up at her friends who stared at her. “Why didn’t you tell us more about this?” Misty Fly asked as she waved her arms around, gesturing to Dash’s new look. “You never asked much about my magic so I just didn’t say anything about it.” They all nodded, understandingly. High Winds got on the other side of Dash. “Do you like Post Crush?” Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, why?” “Can you play “True Original”?” Rainbow nodded. “Yeah sure. I can play it on my phone if that’s what you’re asking.” The boys and girls nodded and Rainbow connected her phone to her speaker via Bluetooth. A song started playing and all the girls sang along. True Original Everyone was laughing with one another throughout the song. Only smiles were seen in the room. Sadly, the fun had to come to an end because the next day was Monday and school started. All the friends filed out the front door till only Spitfire and Rainbow Dash remained. The firey-haired girl put a hand on the rainbow-haired girl's shoulder. "Fleet and I walk to school together each morning and your house is a stop on the way to school. Would you like us to walk you there?" Rainbow chuckled. "I would say that I would do things by myself back in Canterlot, but since I'm in Cloudsdale, I could use the guidance on where to go. So yeah, sure. I'd love to join you two to walk to school tomorrow." Spitfire smiled and the two exchanged a hug. They pulled apart and Spitfire ran off in the direction of her house. She stopped and turned back to wave and shout, "See you tomorrow morning at 8:15!" Returning the waving and watching her friend head home, Rainbow sighed, turned around, and walked back inside the house, excited for the next day. > Chapter 5: School Day 1: A Rally Song > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- An alarm rang through Rainbow’s room (Please tell me that someone caught that pun. I accidentally wrote it without even knowing). and she immediately jumped out of her bed and started randomly bouncing around the room. (Okay, not literally.) She ran to her attached bathroom and took a shower. After she finished, she jumped into a clean outstanding outfit. (That being the one up below.) She ran down to the kitchen and ate her breakfast. She looked up at the clock. It read 8:00. Only fifteen minutes before she had to meet Spitfire in front of her house. Once she finished her breakfast, she ran back up to her bathroom, brushed her teeth, did her hair, and grabbed her backpack, phone, and earbuds. She ran back down to see her parents in the kitchen. She kissed them a quick goodbye. "Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!" She called. "See you later, Kiddo!" "Have a nice day at school, Sweetie!" Rainbow smiled and opened the front door to see two girls in front of her house. "Morning Spit. Morning Fleet." The two teens looked at their friend. "Looking good in that outfit you got there, Crash," Spitfire noted. "Yeah. Gonna attract lots of boys with that ass of yours." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "I'd like to see them even try to get a single finger on it. If they did manage, they would either get a broken wrist, hand, finger, a black eye, and the list can go on and on and on." The girls burst out laughing. "What about the other girls with the big asses? What are you going to tell them?" Rainbow smiled. "I'd tell them not to be afraid of their looks. The boys can stare all they want, but they can't have anything." Fleetfoot slapped her shoulder. "Now that's girl talk." "Yeah shut up. I can see your asses sticking out from those skinny jeans of yours. Don't even think of hiding them." Spitfire rose a brow but smirked. "We missed having you and your attitude around for the longest time." Rainbow punched her shoulder. "Oh shut up will you!" The rest of the walk was filled with laughter and playful pushes and shoves. Soon the school came into view and Rainbow gasped. It was bigger than Canterlot High School. Well, to be honest, it wasn't very surprising due to Cloudsdale having more money than Canterlot. Once she, Spitfire, and Fleetfoot got to the front of the school, lots of other students stopped what they were doing when they saw Rainbow Dash and started whispering. "Oh my gosh, is that Rainbow Dash?" "She looks so different I barely recognize her." "I can't believe she's back in Cloudsdale." "Ooo!! School's going to be so much fun with her around." "From what I heard, she was the captain of every single sport back at Canterlot High School." "Do you think that will happen here too?" "I hope so. Our captain right now sucks at their job." Rainbow couldn't believe her ears. She was that popular? They had heard of her all the here when she was back at CHS? Wow. She was in shock. Then one female student walked right up to her. She had turquoise skin and yellow hair with two lighter stripes in it. "LD? Is that you?" LD, or Lightning Dust, smiled. "Nice to see you too, RD." The two shared a hug. They pulled apart. "You need your schedule don't you?" Rainbow nodded. She looked back to Spitfire and Fleetfoot. "I'm going to grab my schedule with LD. See you at lunch?" She nodded. "That or if we share any of the same classes." They nodded and split off in opposite directions. Lightning Dust turned to look at Rainbow Dash. "What caused you to come back to Cloudsdale? I mean, from what I heard, you guys have lots of awesome things, not as awesome as Cloudsdale though." Rainbow snorted. "Let's just say that every student, teacher, and staff member turned against me and insulted me because I'm being, well, me. I mean, sure, sometimes I can be a showoff, sure I might take things a bit far, and I'm always loyal to my friends. But, to keep that friendship, I need their loyalty in return. It can't just be one-sided. That reason and my parents found a better job here in Cloudsdale than Canterlot." The turquoise-skinned girl stared. "That's just, wow." Rainbow nodded. They then reached the principal's office and Lightning Dust knocked on the door. "Come in." Came a voice from the other side. Lightning Dust opened the door and the two girls stepped inside the room. The principal brought her papers down to look at the two girls in front of her. Her eyes widened and she smiled at who she saw. “Lightning Dust, what are you doing here?" Lightning Dust cleared her throat. "Well we have a new student transferring her and-" "Rainbow Dash. Yes, I know. Where is she?" Lightning Dust stepped aside and let the principal look at the rainbow-haired girl. "You must be Rainbow Dash." It's a pleasure to meet you." She walked around her desk and shook hands with Rainbow. "It's a pleasure to meet you too, Principal..." The principal's eyes widened and let out a quick laugh. "My apologies. Where are my manners? I'm Principal Cloudy Skies. You can call me either one of them. And yes here's your schedule." Principal Skies handed Dash a paper will all of her classes enlisted in it. "From what the students and I have heard, you were the captain of every single sport back in Canterlot. Is that correct?" Rainbow nodded. "We were wondering, since our other captains are so bad, and the students are complaining about it, would you like to take their places?" Rainbow smirked. "I'd have to see it for myself first." Both the principal and Lightning Dust smiled. The two students waved at the principal and exited the office. " Can I see your schedule?" Dash handed Dust her schedule. As Lightning Dust looked over the sheet of paper, her eyes widened. She looked up at her friend. "You're not going to believe this." Rainbow blinked and gave her a curious look. " What is it?" Lightning's smile grew. " We have the same schedule!" Rainbow's eyes widened at what she had headed. "You're kidding?" Lightning shook her head. " Come with me. Let's head to class." Their first class was still pretty empty, seeing how long they were talking in the hallway and being in the principal's office. About five minutes later, students came filing into the room a few seconds before the bell rang. To Dash, she noticed that they seemed stressed and very focused. More than usual. They also had books in their hands with files on top. She looked over at her friend. "What's going on?" She asked. "We're preparing for the next Friendship Games which will be taking place here." "Against who?" Her question was answered by the teacher. "We have been working hard but I want a few more of these long equations answered. We all know how students at Crystal Prep Academy are." Rainbow's eyes widened. Crystal Prep Academy. They were playing against Crystal Prep Academy. For her, it would be the second time. But what would they think of her when they see that she switched over to Cloudsdale? "We've won every single time except once. But at their last Friendship Games against CHS, Canterlot High School, they ended up tying and their top student transferred there. Lucky for us, we have a student in this who transferred from Canterlot and most likely knows the Shadowbolts better than we do. Rainbow Dash." Everyone gasped as the rainbow-haired girl stood up. "Is it true about the Friendship Games against CPA when you were back at CHS?" Rainbow Dash nodded. "That is true. How we ended up tying is something that will time to explain. But yes their top student transferred to CHS. Though, something that could help us gain our confidence is something I've done before back in Canterlot. Is there a chance that we could get all the students into the gym right after lunch? I would like to announce something." She looked up at her teacher who put a hand to her chin. "I'll talk to Principal Skies about it, but I'm sure you can." Rainbow smiled. This was going to be fun. ~/\~ After four classes, it was finally lunch, and Dash and Dust walked over to the table with the twelve other Wonderbolts. "Hey, guys." She said as she and the turquoise-skinned girl sat down next to each other. Spitfire noticed her happy mood and spoke. "Hey, Dash. You look happy. What's gotten you in such a good mood?" She was about to speak when suddenly the was a loud squeak from the speakers. "Good afternoon, students," Principal Skies' voice was heard, "I would like for all students to head to the gym after you finish your lunches. Rainbow Dash has an announcement to make for everyone. I'll see you in the gym later." The speakers shut off and the thirteen friends looked over at the rainbow-haired girl. "I did this with the students back in Canterlot but I changed the lyrics a bit to match it for Cloudsdale instead. It's gonna be so awesome!" Fleetfoot smiled "You gonna give us a hint?" Rainbow smiled and shook her head. "Sorry. It's a surprise for everyone." ~/\~ All the students were in the gym, but Rainbow Dash was nowhere in sight. "I wonder where she went." Fire Streak said. The others, including Lightning Dust, nodded. That's when they saw the polychromatic-haired girl walk up onto the stage with a microphone in hand. "We all know how Crystal Prep Academy is, right?" Everyone in the room nodded. "Well, that's gonna change. Back in Canterlot, I sang this song that got everyone motivated to win against Crystal Prep Academy and they loved it. Here I'm not saying you have to like the song, but this time will win against Crystal Prep. We'll show them who's really on top. And here's how. (AN: Forget about what the lyrics are in the actual song and pay attention to what's written here. It will make more sense to how the story fits compared to the actual song.) CHS Rally Song - Nightcore ”Crystal Prep students are super athletic Super smart, and super motivated But there's one thing they aren't They aren't Wonderbolts! We've never fought magic before But come out on top There's other schools, and all can make those claims Together Cloudsdale we are one Come and cheer our name Once again, we will win these games We'll always be Wonderbolts forever And now our time has finally arrived 'Cause we believe in the magic of friendship And you know, at the end of the day, it is we who survive We're not the school we were before Yeah, we're different now We overcame the obstacles we faced We're Cloudsdale united And we'll never bow So get ready to see us in first place We'll always be Wonderbolts forever And now our time has finally arrived 'Cause we believe in the magic of friendship And you know, at the end of the day, it is we who survive At the end of the day, it is we who survive Na, na, na-na-na-na Wonderbolts united together Na, na, na-na-na-na Wonderbolts united forever We'll always be Wonderbolts forever And now our time has finally arrived 'Cause we believe in the magic of friendship And you know, at the end of the day, it is we who survive At the end of the day, it is we who survive!” By the end of the song she had ponied up and everyone cheered. “Now how does everyone feel about that?” The cheering got louder and rainbow laughed. "Now this is loyalty. Staying close and having your friends believe that they are more than they think they are. Now, are we ready to take down CPA?!” The teens whistled and cheered. "Now that’s more like it,” Rainbow said to herself as she watched the students around her. > Chapter 6: A Private Love Talk and A Surprise (or two) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It’s been a day since the motivational song Rainbow Dash sang and the students at Cloudsdale High School were more motivated than ever thanks to their friend. But none of them were more thankful than a very familiar blue-skinned boy. Soarin was completely fascinated at what the love of his life had done for the entire school. Yes, it was very clear that Soarin was in love with Rainbow Dash and was very bad at showing it. So he did the only thing he could think of. It was the end of the day and Rainbow was talking to the seven girls in the group when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Soarin standing behind her. “Oh hey, Soarin. What’s up?” She turned back to the girls. “We’ll continue the conversation later.” She turned back to the navy blue-haired boy. “Sorry, you were saying.” Soarin rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I was wondering if I could talk to you. Privately. If that is okay with you.” ’ He seems hesitant. Act casual.’ Rainbow thought to herself. “Sure. Where do you have in mind?” “I know that the field is free at this time. We can go there.” Rainbow nodded. “Sure. Wanna race there?” “I’m not sure we’re allowed to run in the hallways.” Rainbow pouted. “You’re no fun. Alright fine. We’ll walk there. Happy?” Soarin smirked. “I prefer to save my energy. I use most of it for track, sports, and games.” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Good for you, Soar. Good for you.” Soarin froze for a moment and his cheeks turned a light pink. Rainbow turned around to face him. “You okay?” He shook his head. “Yeah. Let’s just go to the field.” Rainbow stood there for a moment before shaking it off. Once they reached the field, they dropped their bags on the bleachers and sat down. “What do you wanna talk about?” Rainbow asked. Her tone of voice was calm and showed kindness. “Well, how should I put it? Ever since I first met you, you’ve always shown this energy, this passion that no other girl I’ve met had. I’ve always been fascinated by your personality and how you act. It’s just, oh god I suck at this.” He heard a giggle from his left and turned to see Dash covering her mouth with her hand. Most likely trying to hold back a laugh. “Oh, what’s so funny?” She snorted. “You. No offense in any way but, you’re really bad at confessing your love for me. You know that right?” He blinked. “Wait. Did you know? How-“ “You’re making it very obvious right now, doofus.” She scooted closer to him. She fiddled with the collar of his shirt. “You’re terrible with romance, but I’m perfectly fine with it. Because here’s why.” She leaned in closer to him and pulled his collar towards her. “Dash, what are you- mmph!?” He was cut off by the rainbow-haired girl kissing him on the lips. He put his hands on her hips and shifted so she was sitting on his lap. He wrapped one arm around her waist and the other up against her back. She placed her hands on his cheeks and drew him closer to her. He gently bit her lower lip and she slowly opened her mouth to grant him access to her mouth. He slipped his tongue inside her mouth and she returned the action with her tongue meeting his. Rainbow tilted her head a bit to press deeper into the kiss. By then the two were swapping saliva but didn’t care. Their love was the only thing that mattered at the moment. Unfortunately for them, they still needed to breathe. With a final moan from Rainbow, the two separated and took deep breaths of air while pressing their foreheads together and looking each other in the eyes. Soarin brought Rainbow into a hug which she returned. “I love you, Soar.” She said sweetly. Soarin gently squeezed. “Love you too, Baby.” Rainbow squeaked in surprise at the name but relaxed knowing that she’d only allow him to use the name. They parted the hug and Rainbow playfully squeezed his nose. “You know, you’re the only one who I’m going to allow to call me that. M'kay?” Soarin’s answer was a simple kiss on her nose. She stood up and lent a hand out to Soarin who gladly took it. “Would be a chance that I could take this lovely lady back to her house?” He took her hand and kissed her knuckles. Rainbow giggled. “I’d love that very much. Now, shall we get going?” “We shall.” Soarin went to grab his bag, but before Rainbow could grab her bag, a light blue hand got to it before hers. She looked up to see Soarin holding the top strap of her backpack. “Must my boyfriend do everything for me?” Soarin smirked, set his bag down, and lifted her chin with a finger. “Boyfriend, eh?” Rainbow returned the smirk. “What? Too much?” Soarin grabbed his bag and gave her a quick kiss. “Not at all." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes but smiled at him. "So where are we going? Are we going to my house, or are you going to be taking me somewhere else?" Soarin smirked at her. "I have something in mind for us. That is if you're willing to come with me." Rainbow's eyes filled with lust. "I'd love to come with you." She leaned in closer to him and played with the collar of his shirt. "The longest time I've known you, you always do something wonderful for me." He chuckled. "I think the better word for it would be, 'awesome'." The prismatic-haired girl covered her mouth to hold back her giggles. "You know me so well, don't you?" Soarin smirked down at her. "Hmm. That I do." Rainbow nuzzled against him. "Just take me to that damn surprise already, will ya." The navy blue-haired boy smiled and kissed his girlfriend on her lips. Then something popped into Rainbow's head. "I've had something on my mind since I got here. Where are Hoops, Score, and Dumbbell? I haven't seen them once." Soarin sighed. "This happened before you arrived. Those three ended up transferring to a different school." Rainbow's eyes widened. "Really? Which one?" "They transferred over to CHS. Canterlot High School." Dash didn't know if she should have laughed or gasped at the bad position the six girls were in. "Well, that's something. But hey, at least we don't have to deal with them." Soarin nodded in agreement. "At least I think so. I'm not entirely sure. C'mon. Let's take you to that surprise." Rainbow was bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Ooh! This is going to be so much fun! What's the surprise?" Soarin laughed. "If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise." Rainbow slouched, unhappily. "You're no fun." She pouted with her arms crossed. Soarin kissed her forehead. "I'm sure the surprise will be." Rainbow perked up again and followed Soarin to his car. Upon arriving at the car, Soarin put both bags in the trunk while Dash sat in the passenger's seat. Once the sky-blue boy sat down in the driver's seat, the two drove off in the direction of the place Soarin wanted to take her. "Mind if I play something?" The rainbow-haired girl asked while pointing to her phone. Soarin nodded. All Good “You wrote that song, didn’t you.” It wasn’t a question, but Rainbow nodded. "That I did. Did you like it?" Soarin smirked. "Indeed I did. It was quite the impressive song." Rainbow batted her eyelashes. "Well thank you dearly." Soarin looked over at her again and shook his head while looking back at the road. "You're too much, you know that, right?" Dash snorted. Then her mind drifted to something else. She was friends with a few of the Crystal Prep students. What would they do if they found out she was a student at Cloudsdale High? Her smile faltered and Rainbow sighed. It was going to be hard. Soarin saw her discomfort. "Hey, you okay?" Rainbow turned to look at him. She shook her head now. "I'm just thinking about the Games against CPA. I'm friends with a few of them and am now thinking about what they'd do, what their reactions would be, and how they'd treat me, seeing that I go to another one of their rival schools. This is going to be tougher than I thought. I hope I can still be friends with them, but I have no idea if I still will be. Also, how will the games be ending? With Canterlot, we ended up having to deal with Twilight becoming a demon who wanted to learn about magic and take it, but what's going to happen here in Cloudsdale? The only person who has magic is me. I hope that no one takes it away. The only way for it to get stronger is that I stay by your guys' sides. I don't know who I'm going to be handling this." She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "What have I gotten myself into?" She felt a hand on her left thigh and looked up at Soarin. "Don't worry. You have us whenever you feel like you need help. As you said before, you're magic gets stronger when the thirteen of us are together. I'm sure we'll find a way to solve this and make sure things don't go out of hand. Sometimes some of us were just born to break free from our problems." Dash nodded. "Yeah. I guess you're ri- wait, hold on. Thirteen? How can there be thirteen of us? I thought it was fourteen." Soarin nodded. "Yeah, you know. Fleetfoot, Spitfire, Misty Fly, Surprise, Blaze, High Winds, Fire Streak, Lightning Streak, Wave Chill, Rapidfire, Lightning Dust, me, and you. That's thirteen people, Dash. And all of us are going to stay together." He looked back up at the road. "Oh, hey look. We're here." Rainbow blinked. "Uh, where are we?" Soarin smirked. "At Surprise's place. Knowing that you wouldn't want to go to Sugarcube Corner, we decided to make the surprise here." Rainbow held her confused expression. He chuckled. "Follow me." He opened the door and walked into the dark house. Rainbow followed, still a bit unsure of what was going on. As soon as she stepped inside the house, the door behind her slammed shut. She froze. Then, all of the sudden- "Surprise!!" Dash turned around to see her friends standing behind her. She slapped a hand over her heart. "Geez, you guys gave me a heart attack. But, what is this about in the first place?" Spitfire walked over to her friend and gave her a back hug. "It's a "Welcome-Back-To-Cloudsdale" party. Remember when the girls and I told you that the boys were planning a surprise party for you? Well, that's what this is." Fleetfoot walked in front of Dash. "While you were gone with Soarin, we took the time to finish planning and preparing the party. Do you like it?" Rainbow looked around at her friends, then the decorations. "No, I don't like it." The twelve other friends stared at her. Surprise went right into her face. "WHAT?!?! How can you not like it?!?! We spent so much time and-" Rainbow glared and slapped a hand over her friend's mouth. "I wasn't finished talking, Surprise. As I said before, I don't "like" the party. I love it!" Everyone immediately relaxed. Lightning Dust walked over to her friend and gave her a hard slap on her shoulder. "Don't scare us, bitch." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, dumbass." The two cracked up. "As I've said before, "I feel abso-absolutely amazing"." Lightning gave her a confused look and Rainbow shook her head. "It's part of a song I wrote," LD smirked. "Is it okay if I hear this song?" Rainbow smiled and nodded. "Sure thing." RD looked over at the party girl who was busy eating cake in the corner of the living room. "Hey, Surprise." The yellow-haired girl looked up. " Mind if I use your speaker?" She shook her head and went back to eating cake while Rainbow stood the advantage to plug her phone into the speakers. She looked over at Lightning Dust. "Trust me, you're gonna love this song. "As soon as the rainbow-haired girl hit play on her phone, the music began and she began singing as soon as the lyrics started. All Good Just like the first time she sang the song to her friends, she ponied up at the end of the song. The turquoise-skinned girl stared at her friend. "What was that?" Dash rose a brow and tipped her head to the side in confusion. "What do you mean?" "I mean this." LD waved her arms around Dash's whole body. "Your look. The ears. The wings. The tail. What is all this about?" Rainbow sighed and shook her head. "I guess I owe you an explanation. As well as-" There was a sudden knock on the door. The teens all looked around. "Are we expecting anyone?" Surprise shook her head. "Well not that I know of." Rainbow nodded. "I'll go take a look." She felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at Soarin. "Would you like some company?" Rainbow shook her head. "No, it's fine. I'm good on my own." She then turned around and headed for the door. She opened the door. "Alright, who is it and what do you whaaa......." Rainbow stared at who was standing in front of her. They looked like strangers but had something very familiar. Then it hit her. Six ponies and a baby dragon. "P-P-Princess Twilight?!?!" The violet alicorn princess smiled and waved to her with her five friends behind her as well as Spike. The rainbow-haired girl fainted. The rainbow-maned pegasus looked over at Twilight. "Well, that went well." The alicorn sheepishly smiled. "This is going to take a lot of explaining." The six mares and dragon looked forward as they heard footsteps coming towards them. The twelve teenagers stared at the ponies and dragon in front of them. "This, even more so." > Chapter 7: Meeting The Mane 6 And A Little Talk > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Previously: "I mean this." LD waved her arms around Dash's whole body. "Your look. The ears. The wings. The tail. What is all this about?" Rainbow sighed and shook her head. "I guess I owe you an explanation. As well as" There was a sudden knock on the door. The teens all looked around. "Are we expecting anyone?" Surprise shook her head. "Well not that I know of." Rainbow nodded. "I'll go take a look.". She felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at Soarin. "Would you like some company?" Rainbow shook her head. "No, it's fine. I'm good on my own." She then turned around and headed for the door. She opened the door. "Alright, who is it and what do you whaaa......." Rainbow stared at who was standing in front of her. They looked like strangers but had something very familiar. Then it hit her. Six ponies and a baby dragon. "P-P-Princess Twilight?!?!" The violet alicorn princess smiled and waved to her with her five friends behind her as well as Spike. The rainbow-haired girl fainted. The rainbow-maned pegasus looked over at Twilight. "Well, that went well." The alicorn sheepishly smiled. "This is going to take a lot of explaining." The six mares and dragon looked forward as they heard footsteps coming towards them. The thirteen teenagers stared at the ponies and dragon in front of them. "This, even more so." ~/\~ Six ponies, a baby dragon, and twelve teens were sitting in Surprise's living room. The two who were missing were EQG Rainbow Dash and Soarin. The two of them were in Surprise's bedroom. Due to Dash fainting, the blue-haired boy carried his girlfriend up to their friend's bedroom where she could rest. The entire living room had been quiet for over an hour which caused the rainbow-maned pegasus' eye to start twitching. She then took a deep breath and broke the silence. "Are we done playing the silent game with one another? It's getting very annoying not being able to do what we were supposed to do. Though we kind of blew it." Spitfire's head popped up. "What do you mean by that?" Rainbow sighed. "We originally came here to talk to her about her opinion and side of the story with the students getting upset at her. Sunset Shimmer had sent a message to Twilight saying her side of the story about your friend being selfish and constantly bragging. The only way to get here from our world is through a portal that connects this world to ours, but I have a connection with your friend so it was easy for Twilight to make a portal and bring us here. But now that she's in this position, it's gonna be kind of hard getting that information. The only way we can get it is if she wakes up. At this point, we'll never get it." Before anyone, or anypony, could say anything, voices were coming towards them from the hallway. Everyone smiled when they saw the rainbow-haired girl walking towards them. Following behind her was Soarin, who turned to glare at the rainbow-maned pegasus. The pegasus glared back. The two looked away from one another and Soarin sat down in an armchair and pull his girlfriend down to sit on his lap. Rainbow snuggled into his chest and relaxed. Soarin wrapped his arms around her. Rainbow rubbed her eyes with her hands and looked over and the pony princess. She turned her head to the side and everyone froze. On the left side of her neck, was a large purple bite mark. More precisely, a hickey. Rainbow noticed all the stares and spoke. "Are you all done staring at me? It's getting a bit uncomfortable." Everyone said their small apologies and went quiet again. She then turned to the six mares and baby dragon. "So, what brings you all here? From what I recall, the only connection from here to Equestria is through the portal at the front of Canterlot High School." Twilight shook her head. "Your geode somehow has a magical connection with Rainbow Dash," she said while pointing to the pegasus, "which ended up allowing me to use that magic to bring us to your location. I also ended up receiving a message from Sunset Shimmer saying that you did something that they didn't like. By then, I mean all the students at CHS. We heard her side of the story, so we also wanted to hear yours." The rainbow-haired girl sighed. "Alright, here's the story.” ~/\~ Rainbow's day was going perfectly fine. She spent my first four classes doing the usual boring school. She, for some reason, ended up spending lunch alone. After that, she had her free period and started writing new songs to sing because she found that it was a better thing to do. Finally, she had her last class which was also boring. The incident ended up happening when she was packing up after school ended. There was nothing wrong. She finished packing and closed her locker when she suddenly felt a hand pushing her shoulder and her head hitting metal. A wave of pain rippled throughout Rainbow's head and she clutched it with her eyes squeezed shut. She leaned against the locker for support, only to be shoved down to the ground. The rainbow-haired girl cracked her eyes open to see what was going on around her and froze at what she saw. Every single student, teacher, and staff member at CHS glared down at her. Six girls stepped out of the crowd and walked over to the girl on the floor. Sunset Shimmer, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle glared down at her. "I can't believe you!" Sunset cried in anger. "You promised us you'd come to spend the day with us and you flat-out lied to us. You betrayed us and you're the element of loyalty. That's not even loyalty." She gave Dash a quick kick to the stomach and the rainbow-haired girl curled up into a ball. Rarity spoke next. "Oh, now she's afraid and shy. The poor dear could be braver, but she's weak." The others nodded. So did the other students, teachers, and staff members. That's when the name-calling began. "Bitch!" "Insolent!" "Slut!" "Selfish jerk!" "Useless!" "Worthless!" "Asshole!" "Rude!". "Betrayer!" "Freak!" The insults and name-calling were endless. Rainbow Dash kept getting names called at her by students and they backed her into a wall. Her heart was shattered because her friends were also part of the name-calling group. The teachers weren't even helping. They just stood behind the students as they watched one of their students get insulted. Rainbow was on the verge of crying. She never felt so hurt in her life. Emotionally speaking. She suddenly felt a loud slap and her cheek stung. She put a hand to her cheek where she had been slapped. Tears stung her eyes and she shut them tight as she gripped her geode around her neck and used her super speed to grab her things, get away from the crowd, and run home. ~/\~ "So yeah. That's what happened. I'm really happy I moved back to Cloudsdale. One is because my parents found a better job, and two is that I get to stay with my real friends. But it's in the past now, so it's fine." Rainbow Dash looked over at the violet alicorn and her friends who stared at her in shock. The rainbow-maned pegasus stared, but then furrowed her brows. She muttered something under her breath “Pfft. Lame teens. We should accept our differences. They’ve different. So am I. What’s so bad about that? I guess that’s just the rhythm of friendship. We’re chained to it.” Rainbow Dash, (EQG), stared at her before snapping her fingers. She looked over at Surprise. “Do you have a pen and notebook I can borrow?” The yellow-haired party girl nodded and left the room. A minute or two later, she returned with a pen and notebook in hand. He handed it over to Rainbow Dash who took it gratefully. She tapped the end of the pen before she began scribbling in it furiously. After about five minutes, she looked up at everyone and smiled. "Who would like to hear a brand new song? And no it isn’t about me. I got inspired by RD,” she pointed to the pegasus, “and decided to make a song out of it.” Everyone nodded and smiled at her as if telling her to continue. So Am I Once she finished, she looked up to see wide eyes and shocked faces. She gave them confused looks. “Uhh, you guys okay.” RD looked back at the alicorn princess who nodded and levitated a mirror over to the rainbow-haired girl. Once she saw her reflection, she gasped in shock. She had ponied up, but to top it off, she had the outfit that she wore when she and the other girls all activated their geodes altogether. She looked up at the other teens in the room and gasped again. For they too had ponied up except they didn’t grow tails. Rainbow shook her head and pinched her temples. She looked up at Twilight. “Do you have any idea how magic works in this world? It’s been on the back of my mind ever since we first started using the magic of friendship, as well as when we sing.” Twilight sadly shook her hand. “The magic here is different from the magic we have back in Equestria. I’m sorry. I could probably do some research on it, but it would take a lot of time, as well as a blood sample. I honestly don’t want to risk having an overload with figuring out magic from a different world. Sorry. If I did, I would be talking for who knows how long and I’d probably bore you to death.” She sheepishly smiled at the last bit. Everyone rolled their eyes and either giggled, chuckled, or snorted in response. Rainbow sighed. “I guess it’s a mystery then, huh?” The princess nodded in response. “It has been wonderful talking to you again, but I’m afraid we all have our things to do back in Equestria.” Applejack chuckled. “Yeah. And RD will enjoy spending time with her coltfriend. Huh.” She looked over at the pegasus who blushed a furious red. “H-hey!!” The teens all chuckled and waved goodbye as the baby dragon and six ponies all walked into a portal that led back to their world. The house was once again quiet once they left. Fleetfoot broke the silence. “I know this is a topic we don’t want to talk about right now, but don’t you think we should probably get ready for the Friendship Games?” The others looked around at each other before nodding. Rapidfire spoke next. “Didn’t Dash say that she was friends with some of the Crystal Prep Students though?” Dash choked on her saliva and froze. All of the teens looked at her, remembering that she had told them that before. Misty Fly then brought up something else that made Rainbow’s heart clench. “Not just that, she made a dance video with them as well.” The rainbow-haired girl facepalmed in frustration. “Gee. Thanks for making me feel so much better.” Blaze shrunk back a bit. “Sorry.” Dash shook her head. “No, it’s fine. Would you like to hear the song we sang?” The Wonderbolts all nodded. She searched through her phone ‘till she found the song she was looking for. Dance Magic The song ended and everyone was quiet. Twelve teens looked up at their rainbow-haired friend. High Winds spoke. “Did you write that song?” Rainbow shook her head. “No. Fluttershy did. Everyone accepted and agreed that she’d be the one to write the songs. Not me. They thought that all the songs I wrote were about me being selfish. I tried writing another song and showing it to them, telling them I wasn’t like that anymore. They didn’t accept it. I was heartbroken. It hurt badly and it still does. The only ones who accept the songs I write, are you guys. I’m really happy that you do. Thank guys, it means a lot to me.” Tears were leaking out the sides of her eyes and everyone immediately grouped around her and brought her into a group hug. They felt bad for their friend and how poorly she was being treated by others. The crying calmed down to whimpers and sniffles. The girls kept Dash in their arms while the boys stepped aside. Fleetfoot looked outside to see that it was already dark out. “I hate to break it to everyone, but it’s already dark out. Tomorrow we’re gonna have to study for the Friendship Games. Woo. That’s gonna be lots of fun.” She cheered sarcastically. She turned to Soarin. “Yo, Clipper. You mind dropping Spits, Crash, and me off at our places.” The sky-blue-skinned boy nodded and waved as the quartet left the house. Others filed out behind them and they all waved at the party girl as she watched everyone leave. > Chapter 8: School Day 2: Prep For The Games, Better Than Ever, & Powers > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The sound of birds chirping in the morning awoke the sleeping polychromatic-haired girl. She groaned and opened her eyes. On the second day of school and all of the students were supposed to start preparing for the games coming up in a week. She rubbed her eyes with her fists and walked over to her bathroom. Her hair was a mess and her eyes looked bloodshot. Rainbow sighed and went straight for the shower; most likely the one thing that could wake her up. After the nice steamy shower, she grabbed her towel and walked back to her room to change into her clothes. (The one underneath) After getting dressed, she ran downstairs to the kitchen where she saw her parents getting breakfast ready. Her dad saw her first. “Hey, look who it is.” Her mom poked her head out from around the corner and smiled when she saw her daughter walking toward the kitchen. “Good morning, Sweetie. How’d you sleep?” She gave her daughter a quick kiss on her cheek. Rainbow smiled. “I slept well. It’s still different from waking up in Canterlot. I like it better here though. I feel more comfortable with the other people around here. Homier.” She went to the topic of why she was there. “What’s for breakfast?” Her dad chuckled. “Breakfast’s on the table. It’s your favorite.” Rainbow Dash looked towards the table to see a plate of waffles. They then looked at the clock to see it was only 8:00. She blinked in surprise. “Wow. I woke up early.” She snorted to herself. Her dad brought her into a one-armed hug. “I can agree with you there. Now start your breakfast otherwise you’ll have less time.” Rainbow gave him a small two-fingered salute with a smirk on her face and dug into her meal while her parents laughed. After a few minutes, the rainbow-haired girl ran up to her room to grab her things. When she came back down, with her bag, shoes, phone, and bag, it was 8:10. She smiled at her timing. She turned towards her parents. “I’ll see you later.” She gave her parents each quick hug and ran outside just in time to see Fleetfoot and Spitfire walking toward her house. Hey guys.” She ran up to them and gave them hugs. “Hey, Crash. Feeling better?” Rainbow nodded. Fleet squeezed her shoulder. “Great. Today we’re gonna need all the good energy because we’re gonna have to start preparing for the games.” The three girls groaned. Spitfire elbowed Dash. “Hey. Who knows. Maybe we can make you our top student. Then CPA will have a real challenge against us.” “Top student, eh?” Rainbow rose a brow. “Hate to break it to you Spits but, I’m not the kind of person who gets top grades here.” Fleetfoot playfully pushed Rainbow. “Well, now you will be. Besides, we’re gonna help you get to that spot. It’s what friends are for after all.” Spitfire nodded. “Fleet’s got a point. You’re gonna take down those Crystal Prep students like they’re thin paper and you’re the heavy wind. Good simile, right?” Rainbow and Fleetfoot both rolled their eyes and sighed. “Whatever you say, Spits. Whatever you say.” Rainbow looked over at the yellow-skinned girl next to her and shook her head while giving her a slight shove. A small thought popped into Fleetfoot’s head. “Say, Dash. What exactly happened between you and Soarin? He looked very happy holding you. Also, what was with the hickey yesterday? Someone got excited.” Rainbow’s cheeks flushed a bit. “He’s terrible when it comes to hiding his feelings for me. He also had a hard time spitting the words out of his mouth which made it even more obvious. In other words, we’re dating now. Also, a boyfriend can get touchy with his girlfriend so no big issue there.” The two girls walking with her gaped in shock. Then Fleetfoot squealed and started bouncing. “Oooh! I’m soooo happy!!” Spitfire only slapped Dash on the back and smirked. “I’m happy for you, Crash. Congrats.” She gave Dash a side hug and the three friends walked onto campus. ~/\~ The three girls ended up catching up with Lightning Dust as she dragged Dash to their first class of the day. The turquoise-skinned girl looked over at her friend. "What were the three of you talking about?" Rainbow snorted and rolled her eyes. "Those two want to make the top student of CHS. I told them that that's probably not going to happen because I'm not one of those kinds of students." Lightning shrugged her shoulders. "Who knows? It could happen. Besides, if you were, we could kick their butts. After all, we are better than ever without us now." Something flicked on in Rainbow's head. "Don't we have a free period with everyone?" Lightning Dust nodded. "Let's all meet up in the band room. I want to talk about something." The turquoise-skinned girl nodded her head and the two girls walked to class. ~/\~ “Since we're close to the games,” Rainbow’s math teacher had been going on about different ways to beat the CPA students in math,” we’re going to start practicing more challenging math equations. Now, who can answer this equation?” She wrote a question on the board. Rainbow looked over the problem before her eyes widened and she raised her hand. “Miss Dash,” her math teacher called on her, “would you do the honors of answering this question?” Rainbow stood up, walked up to the blackboard, and grabbed a piece of chalk. It only took her thirty seconds for her to finish the question before turning back towards the rest of the class with a smile on her face. “Well done,” her teacher said before she walked back to her seat. Lightning Dust, who was sitting next to her, slapped her on the shoulder. The two cracked a smile. ~/\~ Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash walked over to the band room after they had finished two of their other classes after math which made them sigh in relief. “So, what exactly did you want to say to the whole group during the free period? I mean, we still have to wait a little bit longer till they get here, but what was the main reason?” Rainbow walked over to one of the back corners of the room and grabbed a guitar case and brought it over to her friend. She set it down and opened it revealing her guitar. Lightning Dust gasped in awe at its beauty. “Is that...?” “This is my baby. My favorite guitar that I rock on. Well, sometimes. Other times, I play calmer songs like the one I wanted to sing with you guys. Do you play an instrument?” The turquoise-skinned girl nodded her head and walked over to another corner to pick up her guitar. “Yeah, this is mine. Though, I don’t think it’s as nice as yours.” Rainbow snorted. “You kidding? It looks awesome on you.” Lightning blushed. “Heh, thanks. Now I wonder if -“ She was cut off by Surprise entering the room. “You need a drummer to play your song?” She walked up to the drums behind the two girls. LD and RD blinked before shrugging their shoulders. “You know,” Dash said while putting a finger to her chin, “we could let ‘em know that we’re still rock n roll.” Lightning Dust’s eyes widened. “You mean “Rock N Roll” by Avril Lavigne?” Rainbow nodded. The two girls looked at Surprise. “Hit it,” Lightning called to her, and the two guitarists began to sing. Nightcore - Rock 'N Roll By the end of the song, Surprise, Lightning Dust, and Rainbow Dash had all ponied up. They heard clapping and turned to see the rest of the group applauding for their little performance. The three girls gave them small waves. "When did you guys get here?" Dash asked. "Oh, not a long time," Fleetfoot responded, "just long enough to hear the end of the song." The three girls holding instruments blinked before shaking it off. "Anyway, why did Dash want us over here?" The rainbow-haired girl cleared her throat. "Well, something reminded me about getting back together and being better than ever which reminds me of a song I sang back at Canterlot High. The song only had five singers, but the instruments were one electric guitar, one bass, one keytar, one tambourine, and one drum set. Though, later on, our band ended up having two electric guitars. Just a little heads up." Rainbow scratched the back of her neck. Misty Fly stepped forward. "What was the name of your band?" Dash sighed. "It was called ” The Rainbooms”, but no doubt that the girls ended up changing the name so... I'm out of options for a good name for this band." The other thirteen students looked at one another before nodding. Blaze laid a hand on Rainbow's shoulder. "You said it yourself, Dash. If the other students from your old school changed that band name, why not call this band “The Rainbooms” instead?" The rainbow-haired girl could only stare. "But why?" High Winds slapped her on the back. "Because you're our friend and we respect you, Dash." Dash smiled. "I guess it is better than ever than ever now, huh?" They all nodded. "Well then, what exactly are your instruments?" Fleetfoot, Misty Fly, and High Winds picked up their own tambourines, the Streak twins, and Wave Chill picked up their own keytars, Blaze and Rapidfire picked up their own basses, and finally, Spitfire and Soarin picked up their electric guitars along with Lightning Dust who stood next to them. Rainbow smiled. Her new band, with a total of thirteen members who appreciate her for the way she was. Her boyfriend walked up to her. "So, what's the new plan? You are the lead member after all." Rainbow blinked. She was the lead band member. Hopefully, she wouldn't abuse the spot again. "No. I'm not going to follow that path again. I saw what happened last time, I'm going to be a good leader who cares about her band members before herself. You can do this, Dash. Let your friends help you through tough times." She nodded to herself before walking over to her guitar case. The other twelve band members looked at one another, wondering what their lead member was grabbing. She came back with sheets of paper. Music sheet paper to be exact. She handed one to each member. They looked at them before understanding what she was trying to say. "Was this the song you were talking about?" Blaze asked. The rainbow-haired girl nodded her head. "Yeah. This song is called Better Than Ever. I mainly sang it after my friends and I reunited again after Princess Twilight helped reunite us again after Sunset Shimmer had torn us apart due to her mean words. It's a song about proving that we managed to show that, well, we're better than ever. Saying we're more powerful than before and we're not hiding anymore." She looked up at her friends who smiled at her. "Shall we start?" They all nodded. Better Than Ever One! Two! Three! There was a time we were apart, but that's behind us now See how we made a brand new start, and the future's looking up Ah-oh ah-oh And when you walk these halls you feel it everywhere Yeah we're the Wonderbolts forever Ah-oh yeah They all began to pony up. We are all together Ah, ah, ah-oh-oh-oh Now it's better than ever Ah, ah, ah-oh-oh-oh You can feel it, we are back And I'm so glad that we're better Better than ever Whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh Oh yeah, we're better than ever whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh" Rainbow took a solo. "There was a time we couldn't see Past the differences" Blaze stepped in next. "That separated you and me And it left us on our own" Surprise took the final solo. "But now you walk these halls And friends and everywhere" Everyone joined together. "Yeah, we're the Wonderbolts forever Ah-oh, yeah! We are all together Ah, ah, ah-oh-oh-oh Now it's better than ever Ah, ah, ah-oh-oh-oh Now that we are back on track Yes, I'm so glad that we're better Better than ever Whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh Oh yeah, we're better than ever Whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh Oh yeah, we're better than ever Whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh Oh yeah, we're better than ever!" The ears, wings, and, for Rainbow Dash, tail, all magically disappeared. Surprise was bouncing in her seat. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!!!! We need to do that more often! It feels so AWESOME!!!!!!" Rainbow and the others in the room shook their heads and chuckled. 'Oh, Surprise." Spitfire shook her head. While the others were grouped, talking, Rainbow walked away, Deep in thought. "Don't let selfishness take control of you like it did last time. Stop it. Stop it! STOP! IT! You're not that person anymore. You made that mistake once before, don't let it happen again. Control your emotions, Dash. You know what happens when fear takes over you. Conceal it and they won't find out. On both of those things. Your powers will only grow stronger and you need to keep them under control. With your friends by your side, they will make sure you are safe. Same thing with your boyfriend. He loves you. He trusts you. THEY trust you. But at the same time, you need to trust them. You can do this as soon as you feel ready to do so. Be the awesome girl everyone knows you are. You're mother fucking Rainbow Dash after all. You can do this, Dash. Believe in yourself." After giving herself the pep talk, she turned around to face her friends who were staring at her. She blinked. "What?" Fleetfoot pointed at her hand. "What happened to your hands?" Dash looked down at her hands and gasped. "Shit!" "Uh......nothing?" She removed her guitar from around her body and set it back in the case. Then looked down at her palms. They were covered in small snowflake patterns. She looked at the back of her hands to see that they too were covered in little snowflake patterns. She took a deep breath and clasped her hands to her chest. "It's okay, Dash. Breath. Just breath. It'll be over soon. One more class, and then you can go home, put on the satin gloves, and act like this never happened. But this is happening in front of them! Oh, why now?! WHY NOW?!?!" Her breaths became ragged and she began panicking. She pressed her back against the wall, trying to calm down. Nothing helped. Her hands felt cold. The chill began climbing up her arms to her shoulders. Something warm was placed on her shoulders and she looked up. Soarin had his hands on her shoulders. "Dash," he whispered, "what's going on?" She looked away. "There's a secret I've been hiding. A big one. Only my parents know about it because I was born with this, I don't know, power. This other kind of magic. I can make ice and snow appear out of nowhere. It comes from my hands. I've been able to control it for years, but sometimes, when my emotions get the best of me, especially fear, my magic goes out of control. My parents were always by my side to comfort me when I lost control, but I never expected that it could happen at school." She sighed. "We still don't know where these powers came from and how I got them. It doesn't make any sense." She looked down. "They're going to leave me. I know it." Two arms suddenly wrapped around her midsection. She blinked in surprise to see Surprise hugging her tightly. "We don't care about that silly. Okay maybe we do, but we're your friends. We love you no matter what." Her heart swelled as the rest of her friends circled her. They broke the hug, only to have Fleetfoot latch back onto her friend. Dash sighed and hugged her back. "I love you, Dashie." Rainbow smiled. "Love you too, Fleet." They separated. Soarin wrapped an arm around Dash's shoulders and the two shared a brief kiss. Fleetfoot blinked for a moment and pouted. "Wait. How come I don't get a kiss." The other twelve friends broke out laughing. The teal-skinned girl joined. ~/\~ School had ended and everyone had their own plans and things to get to. Dash sighed as she watched her friends and boyfriend leave for their own things. She turned and walked home while holding her hands to her chest. The rest of the school day had been quiet. Dash didn't say much because she was afraid that she could lose control of her emotions again. Thoughts of what happened back in the music room scared her. What would have happened if she had lost it right then and there? Most likely a complete disaster. She picked up her walking paise, hoping to get home sooner than later. She saw her house up ahead and began running towards it, only to stop. She looked down seeing ice starting to form on the ground. Tears welled in her eyes and she slipped her phone out of her pocket. Opening her phone, she opened her mom's contact and clicked the call button. She felt her heart racing as she waited for her mom to pick up her phone. She heard a response from the other side of the line. "Dashie? Sweetie, what's wrong?" Rainbow began panicking again. ""H-hey, m-mom, I think it's coming back again." Her mom must have heard the cracks in her voice. "How far are you from home?" "Only a few houses down. If you look in the direction of the route I take to school." "Alright, Sweetie. I'll be right here." Rainbow looked up the street to see her mom coming out of her house and heading towards her. When Windy saw the look of fear in her daughter's eyes, she immediately pulled her into a hug. "Oh, Sweetie. Come on. Let's get you home and comfortable." ~/\~ As soon as the two entered the house Bow Hothoof saw the look of discomfort on his daughter's face. He looked at his wife. "Is it the magic again?" She nodded and he sighed as he brought Rainbow Dash into a hug. "It's okay, kiddo, you're gonna be okay." Rainbow shivered. Her mom brought her into the living room and wrapped her in an extra-thick blanket and sat down next to her. Rainbow sighed in relief at its warmth. Her dad walked into the living room from the kitchen and handed his daughter a nice mug of hot chocolate. Dash looked at her dad. "Hey, Dad, can I have my gloves? They make me feel a little bit more comfortable." Bow kissed his daughter on her forehead and nodded. "Sure thing. I'll be right back." Windy, who was still sitting next to her daughter, wrapped her in a warm hug in a loving manner so her daughter would know that no matter what, even with these powers, she'll still be loved. The two heard footsteps and they turned to see Bow holding a small box. He held it out to his daughter and opened the lid. Inside laid a pair of satin gloves that had always kept Rainbow's magic at bay. She took a deep breath before slipping them on. Once she did, she looked at her gloved hands. She smiled, clasped them to her chest, and laid her head on her mom's shoulder. Her mom rubbed her arm. "Do you want to lie down, Sweetie?" Rainbow nodded and her parents both lead her to her room. Once they got there, Windy, being the kind mother she was, opened up the duvet on her daughter's bed. Rainbow gladly laid down on her mattress as she brought a pillow to her chest. After a few seconds, her eyelids fluttered shut, and she was out like a light. ~/\~ Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles watched as their daughter slept. She'd had strange magic pop-ups before, but this one caused her to panic and need assistance to walk home. Panic attacks were rare to ever pop up inside their daughter, This one made them realize that they needed to watch over her very carefully. They walked out of the room and gently closed the door. Windy looked at her husband. "Honey, what are we going to do? You know what happens when her powers get out of control." Bow Hothoof sighed. "You're right. She needs to be safe and when she's around other people, her fear could take control of her and who knows what damage could be done. From now on, she's staying home. She needs to be comforted and loved that way she has more of a chance to be out in the open and not be afraid, especially around other people. We have to protect her." Windy listened to her husband's words and realized he had a good point. She nodded. "We'll let the teachers know tomorrow that she won't be attending school. It's for her own safety.” The two nodded before walking away from their daughter’s room. Little did they know that there was ice showing underneath the door crack. > Chapter 9: Ice, Crashes, and the CMC > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~/\~In Rainbow Dash’s head~/\~ I’m standing on a mountainside with every mountain around me covered in ice and snow. The air is freezing and I’m shivering furiously. My teeth are chattering and my legs start to feel numb. The feeling begins crawling up my body. By now it’s at my waist. I try moving, but I feel frozen in place. I look down at my hands, the snowflake pattern returns on them and my fingertips began turning a darker blue. I pull down some strands of my hair to see that my hair had gone white. I look down at my body to see that ice had started crawling up my legs. By now, the numbing feeling has reached my head. I look down again to see that the ice has already reached my chest. I had nowhere to go. The ice had moved to my arms and face until I’m fully frozen. I take my final breath before my life ends... ~/\~ It was about eleven o'clock in the morning when Rainbow shot up, screaming. She looked down at her body to see that it was normal. She looked around the room, and what she saw frightened her. A thin layer of ice covered the windows, walls, and floor. Large icicles had grown from the cracks in the ceiling. They only grew larger when the girl's fear grew into terror. Rainbow gasped and held her pillow close as tears rolled down her cheeks. She heard footsteps reaching her room and opening the door with some force. She saw the looks on her parent’s faces. Terror filled them and they looked at their daughter who was clutching her pillow while sitting in a fetal position. Windy approached her daughter, who immediately jumped back, scared that her mom would get hurt because of her. Her mom saw the look of fear in her daughter’s eyes and immediately wrapped her in a hug. Rainbow blinked in surprise, before melting into it and sobbing into her mom’s shoulder. Bow saw the look in his daughter’s eyes and pulled his wife and daughter into a stronger embrace. The rainbow-haired girl slowly began calming down as her dad rubbed her back in a soothing way. The family of three broke the hug and Rainbow laid her head on her dad’s shoulder. Her mom came closer to her and wiped the tears that were rolling down her rosy cheeks. She leaned in and kissed her daughter on her forehead. “How are you feeling, Sweetie?” Rainbow looked around the room. Her parents followed her gaze and sighed. “You know what, don’t answer that question.” “How do I control this? I had it contained for so long. Why is this happening?” The rainbow-haired girl began panicking again which caused the ice around the room to begin to become thicker. Tears started falling again which caused the air to become colder. Windy stood up and closed the door so the cold air couldn’t escape the room to the rest of the house. Dash took deep breaths and slowly calmed down her racing heartbeat as well as the ice from spreading furthermore. She looked down at her gloved hands. 'Get control of this fucking situation! Do it for yourself, for mom and dad, for your friends, for Soarin! You can do this, Dash! You can-' She stopped talking to herself when she heard her phone ring. Her mom grabbed it and passed it over to her. "Hello?" She spoke on the phone after she had accepted the call and put it on speaker. "Rainbow Dash?" Rainbow froze. She knew that voice anywhere! "Scootaloo?" Her parents also stared at each other after their daughter had said the name. The family of three looked at each other in confusion. "Hey, Dash. I was wondering if we could speak to one another. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom are also on the line with me." The family of three blinked at each other once again, confused at what was going on. Weren't the three girls also part of the bunch of students hurting Dash? "Umm, sure? I guess? But hey, weren't the three of you there when all the students were insulting me?" Scootaloo must have been drinking something because she spat out the liquid in her mouth. "Why would they do that? What day was that anyway? We might have been on a field trip or something." Rainbow thought for a moment. "It was about a week or two ago." The three girls were whispering in the background. "I think we were on a field trip that day, RD." Apple Bloom had taken the advantage to speak. Dash put a hand to her chin to think, then snapped her fingers. She was right. The middle schoolers at Canterlot High were on a field trip the day that she was being insulted. "Oh. I guess I kind of forgot that the middle schoolers went on a field trip that day. My bad, girls." The three girls giggled on the other end. Little did they know, the ice in the room had magically disappeared due to the comfort and love the rainbow-haired girl was receiving. "It's fine, but would it be okay if we came over to your place to have some fun?" Rainbow blinked for a moment before looking around the room. Seeing the magical ice gone thanks to the love she was getting, she smiled. "Sure thing. But I'm gonna have to pick you girls up to take you to my new place. I'm living back in Cloudsdale and it will take some time till I get back into Canterlot." The three girls squealed in excitement. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, Rainbow Dash!!!" The three girls cheered at once. Windy giggled, Bow chuckled, and Rainbow snorted. Three silly girls. What fun. "Alright. Just let me know where you are and I'll be there. It'll be a two-hour drive though." "Sure thing." The call ended and the rainbow-haired girl sighed. "Those three are going to be a handful. Well, I'm gonna get ready so I can pick them up. Can I use your car, Dad?" He chuckled. "Take these keys," he said while holding out a set of car keys that he'd pulled out of his pocket, "and look in the garage." Rainbow blinked but nodded. She then shooed her parents out of her room so she could change, but not before taking the keys that her dad was handing her. (Into this outfit bellow) (She also grabbed her sunglasses to go along with it.) She walked down to the garage and gasped at what she saw. A beautiful sapphire blue convertible with her signature tricolored lightning bolt was parked inside next to her dad's wagon. She smiled and made a note to herself that she'd have to thank her dad later. She (not literally) jumped into the car and noticed something immediately. It wasn't a combustion engine car, it was electric. Her smile grew. "Heh. Gee, thanks, dad. Thanks a lot. And it's not even my birthday." She saw the garage door opener was a simple remote form and opened the door while starting the car. She easily pulled out of the garage and rode right out onto the empty street. Right before she drove off, she closed the garage door. She had a feeling that if she didn't, she wouldn't be hearing the end of it from her parents. ~/\~ She was halfway from Cloudsdale to Canterlot when she got an incoming call from Fleetfoot. "Hey, Fleet. What's up?" "Hey, Crash. Just wanted to ask you something." "Sure, go ahead and ask." "Well, the entire group and I were wondering if you were up for going out to the mall with us. What do you say?" Dash paused. "What time?" "We're planning on meeting each other up at the mall at around 2:30." Rainbow chuckled. "Hate to break it to you and the others, but I might not make it." "What do you mean?" "I'm on the road right now to pick up some friends from Canterlot who don't hate me and who didn't insult me that day. They were on a field trip so they had no idea what had happened. I'm halfway over to Canterlot right now, but it takes a total of four hours for a round trip. I'm probably not going to make it home till either 3 or 4 PM." "You could bring them along. Also, what's with the loud noise in the background?" Dash cracked a grin. "My dad got me a new convertible. That's the reason for the loud noise in the background. I have the roof open and listening to you on my earphones." "Ahh. That makes sense. Soooo... Maybe see you around three or four?" Dash shook her head. "Maybe, Fleet. Maybe." She could hear Fleetfoot sigh from the other end of the phone. "Alright. Talk to you later, Dash." "Talk to you later, Fleet." The phone went quiet, meaning the call had ended. Dash smiled. It was either Fleet or Surprise who were inviting her to crazy events. Those two were two beings that couldn't be held back. It reminded her of Pinkie Pie. She shook her head, trying to get rid of the image of the pink-skinned and pink-haired girl who'd hurt her. Luckily, one of her favorite songs on her phone popped up and canceled out every thought in her head so she was focused on her surroundings. ~/\~ It felt uncomfortable being back in the city where she'd been hurt in. Dash pulled over and pushed a button in the car so the roof would be pulled up. She pulled out her phone and clicked on her honorary sister's number. She waited as the familiar beeps of the phone went off, waiting for the middle schooler to pick up. Lucky for her, she didn't have to wait long when she heard Scootaloo's voice on the other side of the phone. "Hello?" "Hey, Scoots. I just arrived in Canterlot. where exactly are the three of you girls?" "We're at Sugercube Corner." Rainbow's throat ran dry. "Do you think that the three of you could head down to the park a few blocks down? I can meet you there. I just don't want to be seen by the girls." She could sense the purple-haired girl nod her head. "I'll let the girls know and we'll be down there in ten seconds flat." Rainbow snorted at the use of her catchphrase. She heard talking on the other side of the phone. "Alright. We're leaving for the park now. See you soon." "See you soon squirt." The call ended. Rainbow started the car and drove to one of the many parks in Canterlot, the one she told Scootaloo to meet her at. The ride was quick and she stayed inside the car as she waited for the girls to hopefully contact her again. The tension in the car felt too thick in the car with no music playing. She held her breath. Her trademark lightning bolt wasn't a large one that was plastered on both sides of the car, it was medium-sized and sat in the center of the driver's seat door. She clicked the radio on and let the music play. Circus by Britney Spears was the first song to play. The teen girl sighed. Circus "There's only two types of people in the world The ones that entertain, and the ones that observe Well, baby, I'm a put-on-a-show kind of girl Don't like the backseat Gotta be first I'm like the ring leader, I call the shots I'm like a firecracker, I make it hot When I put on a show I feel the adrenalin moving in through my veins Spotlight on me and I'm ready to break I'm like a performer, the dance floor is my stage Better be ready, hope that you feel the same All eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus When I crack that whip, everybody gonna trip just like a circus Don't stand there watching me, follow me Show me what you can do Everybody let go We can make a dance floor just like a circus There's only two types of guys out there Ones that can hang with me, and scared ones So baby I hope that you came prepared I run a tight ship, so beware I'm like a ring leader, I call the shots I'm like a firecracker, I make it hot When I put on a show I feel the adrenalin moving in through my veins Spotlight on me and I'm ready to break I'm like a performer, the dance floor is my stage Better be ready, hope that you feel the same All eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus When I crack that whip, everybody gonna trip just like a circus Don't stand there watching me, follow me Show me what you can do Everybody let go We can make a dance floor just like a circus Let's go Let me see what you can do I'm running this Like, like like a circus Yeah, like a what Like, like like a circus All eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus When I crack that whip, everybody gonna trip just like a circus Don't stand there watching me, follow me Show me what you can do Everybody let go We can make a dance floor just like a circus All eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus When I crack that whip, everybody gonna trip just like a circus Don't stand there watching me, follow me Show me what you can do Everybody let go We can make a dance floor just like a circus" By the time the song had ended, there was a knock on the window. Rainbow blinked and looked over to see Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom. She smiled and unlocked the car so the three could climb in. Scootaloo in the passenger's seat and Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom in the back seats. "RAINBOW DASH!!" Scootaloo cried as she hugged the rainbow-haired girl sitting next to her. "Heh. Hey, kid. Hey, girls. How have you been?" Apple Bloom crossed her arms. "School's been borin'. The three of us asked lots of people where ya went, but at the mention of yer name, they growled and walked away, not answering the question." Rainbow shook her head. "Snobby students." She muttered under her breath and started the car. "Nice car you got, Rainbow." Sweetie Belle complimented. Rainbow smiled. "Heh, thanks. My dad got it for me. It's a convertible, so if you want the roof down, just let me know."The three squealed, but before one of them could ask her to pull down the roof, Rainbow's phone rang. She blinked in shock and answered the call. "Hello?" "Sup, Crash." Dash sighed, knowing who was calling. "Yeesh, Shitfire, you scared the hell out of me. What's up?" "Flatfoot told us what happened. When are you planning on coming back?" Dash sighed. "Like I told Fleet, it takes two hours to get from Cloudsdale to Canterlot and the same the other way around. That's a total of four hours of driving for me. Sorry. I also just got back onto the freeway. I'm headed back to Cloudsdale now. No worries." She heard a sigh from the other end. "Alright. But once you get back, we're spending lots of time together. Especially since you weren't at school today." Dash shook her head. "If you heard from Ms. Skies, she said that I was a bit under the weather. At least that's what my mom told me she told her." "Alright. But once you get back can we please hang out?” Rainbow punched the bridge on her nose. ” Let me get back to Cloudsdale first. Then I will decide. Okay?” Spitfire sighed on the other side of the phone. “Works for me. Bye, Dash.” The phone beeped signaling that the call had ended. “Well, that was something.” She looked back at the three other girls in the car. “Sorry about that. These friends of mine are a bit coo-coo.” Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom giggled. Sweetie Belle spoke up. “Hey, Dash,” the rainbow-haired girl looked at the curly-haired girl through the rearview mirror and nodded her head, “is there a chance that you could play “Hair” by Little Mix?” Rainbow blinked before smiling. “I don’t see why not.” She pulled out her phone, but before she could do anything with it, a large shadow cast down upon them and the other cars on the bridge. Rainbow looked out the window to see a giant meteorite come shooting down out of nowhere. Rainbow’s eyes widened with terror and she screamed. She turned to the girls. “Get out of the car!!! NOW” The four girls got out of the car and ran to the side of the bridge. The meteorite was getting closer. She grabbed Scootaloo and Apple Bloom’s hands. Apple Bloom grabbed Sweetie Belle’s hand. ” JUMP!!!” The four girls ran to the side of the bridge and jumped off into the water. Rainbow looked up just in time to see the giant space rock destroy the bridge, a large chunk of surrounding land around the structure, and crash into the water. Lucky for the four girls, they were a good distance from where it hit. The rainbow-haired girl could only stare in disbelief at what had just happened. She sighed. ~/\~ Windy Whistles and Bow Hothoof were watching the news on tv when they heard about the incident. A news reporter was speaking. ”There was a surprising crash on the east side of Cloudsdale that connects to the west side of Canterlot. There were quite a few people either injured, dead or found missing. The bridge was destroyed by a meteorite that appeared out of nowhere. Apparently, people first started getting out of their cars as soon as someone had screamed for the other passengers in their car to get out. Luckily, Windy Spectrum, an injured woman, saw the person who had screamed.” The screen changed to a new woman, most likely considered Windy Spectrum, who spoke to the camera. “I didn’t know about the meteorite coming down on the bridge until I heard a scream coming from farther back on the bridge. I got out of the car to see four girls getting out of a car and looking up at the sky. I turned my head and saw the shadow coming down. When I looked back at the girls, I took some mental notes about them. My best guess at who had was most likely the oldest one. She had blue skin and rainbow hair. As for the other girls, one had red hair with a bow, another had pink hair with stripes, and the last one had purple hair. They were all younger than the girl with rainbow hair. I took a final glance at them to see that they had jumped off the side of the bridge. By then my husband and I had run off to the side of the bridge.” The two adults stared in shock. There was a sudden knock on the door. Bow got up from the couch and walked over to the front door. He opened it to see his daughter’s friends. Soarin spoke up. “Is okay if we, umm, come inside?” The rainbow-haired man blinked before stepping aside to let them in. Once all twelve teens entered, they spotted Windy passing back and forth. She heard them and stopped to look at them. “What brings all of you here?” She asked. Misty Fly rubbed her arm. “I’m assuming you saw the news?” The two adults nodded. Five minutes of silence passed. “But she jumped into the water. She’ll be okay, right?” Surprise quietly spoke. They all looked at one another before understanding what she meant. The two adults had led the twelve teens into the living room where they sat down on either the couch or the floor. They all crossed their fingers, hoping Dash was okay. About fifteen minutes later, there was a knock on the door. The twelve teens and two adults all looked at one another in confusion. Windy got up from her spot on the couch and walked over to the door. She opened it and stared at what she saw. “RAINBOW DASH?!?!” > Chapter 10: The Aftershock > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Previously “But she jumped into the water. She’ll be okay, right?” Surprise quietly spoke. They all looked at one another before understanding what she meant. The two adults had led the thirteen teens into the living room where they sat down on either the couch or the floor. They all crossed their fingers, hoping Dash was okay. About ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. The thirteen teens and two adults all looked at one another in confusion. Windy got up from her spot on the couch and walked over to the door. She opened it and stared at what she saw. “RAINBOW DASH?!?!” ~/\~ Rainbow and the three middle schoolers all stared as the bridge collapsed into the water. Lucky for them, they were a good distance away from not getting hit. Dash was bummed. She'd just gotten a new car and now it was destroyed. Rainbow sucked in a breath through her teeth. ‘Okay, let’s see. What’s the best way to get home? Cloudsdale is still a while away so it will take a while to get home. No car, no money so there’s no way to get a Lift, Uber, or bus, no phone to call mom, dad, or friends. Great. How can we get home now?’ Rainbow was treading water while trying to find a good transportation home. She sighed and shook her head. She felt a poke on her shoulder and turned to see Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo shivering in the water. ’oh, right. The cold doesn’t bother me, but it gets to others. Cold! That’s it! She turned to the girls. “Come with me. We’re gonna swim to the other side.” They did exactly as she said. As soon as the three middle schoolers climbed out of the water, they were shivering. The water was cold at this time of year so they weren’t able to get any heat. Scootaloo looked over at the rainbow-haired girl and was surprised to see that she wasn’t shivering unlike them. She was looking at her hands that were... gloved? The three middle schoolers were confused by why she had her hands gloved. The rainbow-haired girl clenched her fists and slowly removed her gloves. She looked at her hands and held them to her chest. “U-umm, R-rainbow Dash?” The older teen turned to them. “H-how come you’re not sh-shivering? I mean, it’s f-freezing.” The polychromatic girl sighed. “I’m immune to the cold. It doesn’t bother me. In other words, I can’t feel anything cold. Which I why I have the power to create ice. That as well as communicates to the natural elements. Earth, wind, fire, and water. But that’s beside the point. We need to get back to my place.” She whisked her hands around her body and a dress made of ice surrounded her body. The three younger teens gasped at its beauty. She sighed in relief at not having to wear wet clothes and ran her fingers through her hair. Little snowflakes entangled between the strands of the polychromatic locks. “Now. About getting home. Hmmm. Let’s see. Perhaps a boat made of ice that could travel on an ice track that could get us back to my place? That would be one of our best bets. Alright, let’s go with that.” She turned to the girls and waved her hand again to create a small boat. The girls stared in awe. Rainbow smiled before looking at the street and stomping a foot on the ground. A thick sheet of ice made a track all the way back to the house of the rainbow-haired queen (teen). Lucky for them, the streets were clear. "Climb in," Rainbow said to them as she, herself, climbed into the ice boat and crouched down. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo were fascinated at the sight before them and they did as they were told. The wind suddenly picked up and pushed the ice boat on the track. The middle schoolers squealed in delight while Rainbow Dash smiled at them. A sudden strong gust of wind blew and the boat began its trip along the ice path. Rainbow looked around seeing that they were getting closer to her neighborhood and smiled as her hair was being blown back by the wind. She heard a squeal and looked behind her to see Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo laughing in excitement as the wind blew their hair She took a deep breath and hesitated. What was going to happen once she got home? She shook it off knowing her parents wouldn’t mind. The wind slowed down and they stopped in front of the rainbow-haired girl’s house. The four girls stepped out of the boat and Rainbow Dash whisked her hand again and the boat and track disappeared. The wind spirit whirled around the magical girl and Rainbow giggled. “Thanks, Gale.” Gale spun around her once more before leaving the four girls in peace. Apple Bloom stepped forward. “Who or what was that?” She asked with curiosity. Rainbow smiled. “That was the wind spirit. Her name is Gale. She’s friendly once you get to know her. When I first met her, I was sucked into a tornado created by her. Heh, not the best experience I’ve had. Eventually, I managed to calm her down. Now we’re best friends. So, ready to get inside. I bet you’re freezing.” The three girls nodded with their arms wrapped around themselves and followed the rainbow-haired girl as she knocked on the door. They heard footsteps and the door opened revealing a woman with cerulean skin a bit darker than Rainbow’s. She gasped when she saw Rainbow. “RAINBOW DASH?!?!” More footsteps followed and a man with rainbow hair stared at the scene before him. Rainbow gave them sheepish looks. “Hey, mom. Hey, dad.” The two adults saw the three shivering girls behind her and immediately pulled the four girls inside the house. Knowing their daughter’s immunity to the cold they still grabbed a towel for her and the younger girls. Dash puffed her cheeks out as her mom looked her over while her dad led the middle school girls to the living room. Windy Whistles touched her daughter’s face. “Oh, baby. Are you okay?” Rainbow sighed. “I’m fine, Mom. Really.” Windy sighed and brought her daughter into a hug. “I’m sorry, baby. You know how much I worry about you." Rainbow nodded her head and broke the hug. “Yeah, I know. You’re my mom after all.” Windy smiled and brought her daughter into another hug. Rainbow rolled her eyes but returned it. Her mom led her to the living room where everyone else was sitting. As soon as her friends saw her, they broke into gasps. Rainbow smiled and waved. She swished her hand next to her and an ice couch with pillows was created. The teen girl flopped onto it and sighed. The three middle schoolers sat on the couch next to Spitfire and Soarin. The room went quiet. Rainbow sighed before feeling something crawling on her stomach. She looked down to see the fire spirit, Bruni, crawling on top of her. She smiled and picked him up. “And where’d you come from?” The teen sat up and whisked her hand over the lizard creating snowflakes. Bruni stuck out his tongue and caught one. Rainbow Dash giggled. Everyone in the room, (besides her parents, who were smiling), stared at her in complete confusion. Surprise cleared her throat, causing the rainbow-haired girl to look over at her. “Umm, Dashie? Who or what’s that?” Rainbow smiled. “This is Bruni. He’s the fire spirit. If he does spit out fire, don’t worry, I’ll put it out for you.” Her friends were still confused but kept quiet. Fleet put a hand on her chin. “But wait.” Dash looked up at her. “If that’s the fire spirit, aren’t there like three more or something? You know, the other elements of, what is it, nature or something?” Rainbow nodded. “That is correct. There are three other elements. They’re earth, wind, and water. The earth spirits are earth giants and they prefer to remain isolated because of how big they are. The wind spirit, Gale, is a small part of the wind that can travel without moving everything around it. The water spirit, or Nokk, takes the form of a horse. It took quite some time to tame him. He was wild when I first met him. The water he was in was also wild which made it a lot harder. Though, there is a way for him to travel on land. I just need to freeze him so I can ride him on land. And now I’m rambling.” Everyone in the room laughed. Rainbow rolled her eyes. This was what happens when she explains how the natural elements work, what they are, and what they do. Bruni climbed onto the polychromatic girl and sat on her shoulder blade; a comfortable spot for him. Soarin hummed to himself which caught everyone’s attention. “Would there be a chance that you could do a “Snow Day” at school sometime soon?” Rainbow rose a brow, remembering the time she got the idea of doing a snow day to skip school and a test. “Define “Snow Day” for me.” Spitfire must have caught on because she stepped in next. “I think he means like maybe have fun in the snow at school. That kind of “snow day”. What do you think of that?” Rainbow put a hand to her chin. “We’d still need to ask the teachers for permission to do so. Who knows what could happen." Windy Whistles and Bow Hothoof nodded in agreement. The teens looked at each other, realizing that she was right. “Would that mean we’d have to convince them?” Surprise asked. Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. “I honestly don’t know. Though I do like using my powers either for fun or for certain purposes. It only makes sense that way. How about this. I’ll send an email to Principal Skies and what she thinks of it. If she agrees, then sure. If not, no. End of story. K?” They all nodded. There was a thick pause. Rainbow thought to herself for a moment. 'Would it be okay if I contact my friends from CPA? Maybe let them know what's going on before the games start? I probably could since I have a second phone in my room. Maybe it would be for the best. What would they think of me though? A traitor? For moving to a different school where they're rivals?' Rainbow sighed and whispered something to the fire spirit. Bruni smiled and climbed off of the couch and crawled to her room. When he returned. he carried a phone on his back. He stopped in front of the polychromatic girl and she picked up both the fire spirit and the phone. She hesitated for a moment before clicking on one of the contacts of her CPA friends, Indigo Zap. "Hey, Indigo, I just wanted to send you and your friends a quick note. I'm not going to CHS, Canterlot High School anymore. There was an incident that happened that caused all the students at school, including my former friends, to join up against me. I have moved from Canterlot not just because of that, but because my parents had found a new job in a different city. The high school I go to now is a rival against CPA. I'm sure you remember the other CHS school, CLoudsdale. Yup. I transferred to Cloudsdale and I'm not sure what's going to happen now. I don't know what we're going to do and how everyone's going to react when they see me at a different rival school. Hope to hear from you and the girls soon. Your, hopefully still friend, Rainbow Dash" Rainbow reread the message a few times to make sure it sounded okay. With a final nod, she held her breath and hit the send button. She sighed and laid her head back on the couch pillow behind her head. A minute or two after, she got a reply from the other student. She looked down at her phone to see the returned message. "Hey, Dash, I never thought that something like that would ever happen to you. I'm sorry about that and I'm sure you've heard that Cloudsdale is playing in the friendship games against Crystal Prep. For now, why don't we pretend that we're still rivals because we're at different schools and make the whole reveal thing happen when the games end? What do you think of that? I think that it will be a surprise and a good one too. Maybe our schools can come together as friends as Canterlot did with us. What do you say? Your friend, Indigo Zap." Rainbow smiled. "Perfect! See you then." "You too." The polychromatic girl sighed that there would be a plan between her and the other CPA girls. Someone cleared their throat and she sat up. "So, what's the plan?" High Winds asked. Rainbow let out a sigh. "Well, I'm still friends with the five girls from CPA and for the games, we're going to pretend that we're still rivals until the end of the games. That's our plan and I'm hoping that It works. I don't want there another magical attack to happen like last year. That would be a disaster. Honestly, I don't want to know what could happen. Anyway. Since we're all here, would it be best to do a little bit of studying?" All the Cloudsdale High students groaned." Hey! I'm not the organizer of these games. I just want to make sure that we win! Is that what you want too?" The other twelve teens looked at each other before nodding their heads in agreement. Dash looked over at the three Canterlot students. "As for the three of you, I think you should head back. We don't really want you to get caught up in things that aren't really necessary for you. I hope to talk to you girls soon though." The three middle schoolers sadly nodded their heads in agreement before running up to Rainbow, and hugging her. She returned it. "Now, how about you tell one of my parents where you live so they can drop you off." She looked up at the two adults. "Is that okay?" They nodded their heads before leading the three girls to their car in the garage. While they did that, The other thirteen teens went up to Rainbow's room. "Fun." Fleetfoot groaned as she flopped down on one of Rainbow's many large beanbags. The others either sat on the other beanbags that the polychromatic girl had, or sat on the floor. Rainbow flopped onto her bed. “This is going to be very fun,” Fleetfoot complained. “Dash now has to fake that she’s enemies with the other school, and now we have to study. Ugh!” Spitfire walked up to the teal-skinned girl and slapped her across the face. “Would you shut up already? With the help of Dash by our side, we’ll be able to defeat them. We won’t if you just sit and do nothing. That’ll just show them that we’re lazy and don’t even care. We’re just gonna lose that way. So get your ass up so we can win these games.” No one had any idea of what to do next until Dash spoke up. “Why don’t we use our skills to help us study? That can always help. Even if we don't like it.” Everyone looked around at one another and nodded. That was actually a good idea. They spent the rest of the week studying for the games. The closer they got to it, Dash's stomach continued to drop. Farther and farther with each day. > Chapter 11: The Friendship Games: Part 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- One Week Later This was it. The day that Rainbow dreaded the most. The day of the Friendship Games. Rainbow Dash tried to swallow the large lump in her throat but had no luck in removing it. She bit her gloved thumbnail as she watched the CPA bus pull up in front of her school. She watched the bus door open and students in uniforms wall out of it. She and the other Cloudsdale students all wore yellow lightning bolt pins with wings on them on their shirts over their hearts. Every student from both schools glared at one another. Well, every student, except six of them. Indigo Zap, Sour Sweet, Lemon Zest, Sugarcoat, Sunny Flare, and Rainbow Dash. The six students were staring at each other, a look of concern and uncertainty. Rainbow's eyes flicked around at all the other students around her. She felt a bit more comfortable with her gloves on because, with this amount of fear running through her, she would've probably frozen the entire courtyard within seconds. She sucked in breath after breath, trying to calm herself. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Soarin smiling at her, before looking back up at the Shadowbolts, glaring. Rainbow took a breath and closed her eyes before looking back up at the other students with a death glare. She could have sworn she saw some of the other students flinch at the action. The newest student in the friend group, Spectrum Crystal, was curious why Rainbow was wearing gloves in warm weather. She intended on getting a reason why. Principal Skies, Vice-Principal Firefly, and Dean Cadence all walked the students into the school building. "Good morning students. I'm sure you're all thrilled to start the first day of the Friendship Games. Our competitors will face off in every aspect of the CHS curriculum combating the equation elimination finale. "Welcome to the first event." Dean Cadence spoke as the schools glared at one another. "The academic decathlon. You'll be scored on chemistry, Home Ec, and everything in between. But remember, only the six students from each team with the most points will move on to event number two. Good luck." (AN: Just a quick note for everyone, don't pay much attention to the actual lyrics in the video, pay more attention to the one in the story. There will be some changes to the lyrics just like in the CHS rally song and Better Than Ever. Sorry if I didn't mention that earlier, but that's just the way it is. Please note that the changes will be fixed to fit Cloudsdale better than Canterlot. Also, I'll be color coating the different schools with blue and purple for the Wonderbolts and Shadowbolts. The last few lines for the two separate students at the end of the song will be sung by my Crystal Prep student OC, Spectrum Crystal, whose text will be in yellow because it's her skin color, and Rainbow Dash, whose text will be in magenta. The text color when everyone sings at once will be black (or white if anyone is reading this in Night Mode). As for the equation elimination finale, the equation will be at the bottom of the song lyrics. Love you guys!) ACADECA Ho! We're gonna take you down Ho! We're gonna take you down! Take you down! (Ho! We're gonna take you down!) Take you down! (Down, down, down) (Oh oh!) We're here to take you out (Aw aw!) We're here to take you out (Aw aw!) Take you out! (We're here to take you out!) Take you out! We're not about to let you win, so get out of our way Think you got us beat, but we're here to stay United strong, yeah, you’re goin’ down You're not so tough, now you're in our town Never once have we lost before We’ll never give up, we'll only bring some more We can smell your fear, we can see your sweat Hope you didn't spend money 'cause you're losin' this bet! You've got nothin' on us Na, na, na-na-na, na Let's go, Wonderbolts! You've got nothin' on us Na, na, na-na-na, na Let's go, Wonderbolts! The streak is lost, for a school that always wins Maybe you should just stop 'fore you even begin We are Crystal Prep High and we have a reputation Every little moment is about our education Put your ear to the ground Listen to that sound Lot of gravity And it pulls you down (pull-down) Pull you down (pull-down), hit the ground You've got nothin' on us Na, na, na-na-na, na Let's go, Shadowbolts! You've got nothin' on us Na, na, na-na-na, na Let's go, Shadowbolts! Pressure's on, now we're gonna beat you Move aside, cause now we will defeat you Crystal Prep yourself 'cause you're about to go Down, down, down, down Pressure's on, now we're gonna take you Just give up before we have to break you Cloudsdale will fail, you're about to go Down, down, down, down Going up to the top 'Cause we know we can win Maybe you should just stop Since you never give in We have faith in ourselves And we've got what it takes. And we're not gonna stop I can't wait 'til this is all over There's so much more that's going on Before these games are finally over I'll find out just what she's done Can she do it? Will she make it? Who will win it? Who will take it? Can she do it? Who will take it? Did she win it? Did she make it? Who's the winner? Who's the reject? How did she answer? Vice-Principal FIrefly pointed at Spectrum. Incorrect! Rainbow sighed in relief when Vice-Principal Firefly pointed at Spectrum instead of her. Spectrum hung her head in defeat, knowing what was going to happen next with the rest of the school. Something flicked in Rainbow's head. Six students would be chosen from each school. Six. Six out of thirteen. She and five other friends would be competing in the next event. 'Great. What next? There's no Equestrian magic in this situation. What's gonna happen now? Am I gonna lose a glove and the ice is going to go out of control? Will the natural elements go out of control? I hope not. She sighed and shook her head. Fleetfoot, Spitfire, Blaze, Misty Fly, and High Winds all ran up onto the stage and hugged her. "You did awesomely!" Fleetfoot cried as she squeezed her friend. Cadence stepped forward in front of the crowd again. "After a careful tally of the points, we'd like to present the students moving onto the Friendship Games' second event." All the students from Cloudsdale cheered, while the students at Crystal Prep clapped very unenthusiastically. The six girls from CHS bit their lips, as did the remaining seven friends. > Chapter 12: The Friendship Games: Part 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The thirteen CHS students all walked out onto the field, only to be stopped short. Their hearts raddled inside their ribcages. This was definitely something they weren't expecting. All five boys and the two remaining girls cheered for the six who got to participate. Surprise kept jumping in place. "Awe yeah! you guys are so lucky! This is going to be the best thing ever!" She suddenly stopped jumping and turned to the rainbow-haired girl who continued to look down at her hands. She smiled. "Don't worry, Dashie. The motocross suits come with gloves. That way, you don't touch anything." Rainbow looked up and smiled. So, it was a good thing that the outfits come with gloves. Dash and Spitfire had motocross, Fleetfoot and High Winds got speedskating, and Blaze and Misty Fly got archery. Another thing that made Dash smile was that she was on motocross again. Just like last time they went against CPA. ~/\~ Meanwhile, the students at CPA were being given their parts. Cadence walked forward to address each of them. "Indigo Zap and Sugarcoat will handle the motocross." Indigo cheered. "Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare have requested the speedskating." The two fist-bumped. "Since archery is a standard requirement at our school, any of you should be able to do it. Sour Sweet and Spectrum Crystal will start us off." Sour Sweet and Spectrum smiled and gave each other a high five. ~/\~ All three teachers sat in their secluded areas away from the students. When everyone was ready, Dean Candence stood up and walked right up to the microphone. "Welcome everyone to the Friendship Games tri-cross relay. All the students cheered. "In this event, our qualified competitors will face off in archery, speedskating, and finally, motocross." Rainbow revved her engine as she and Spitfire looked over at the other two. She met the eyes of Indigo Zap and Sugarcoat and mouth "sorry" to them. Cadence spoke again and held a small horn in her hand. "So, if the competitors are ready..." She pressed the small button on the top of the horn, causing the sound to be heard all across the field. Misty and Sour Sweet jumped over a few hay mails to reach for their bows and arrows and did a final flip to find their target. Right before Sour Sweet could shoot, Misty flipped and launched a single arrow, hitting the bull's eye directly. "Heh, showoff," Dash thought to herself. Right after her, Sour Sweet also hit the center of the target with the help of three arrows, with only one hitting the center. Both teams cheered. Blaze and Spectrum did the same, making the shots directly at the center of the targets. After the last two arrows made the center, Fleetfoot, High Winds, Lemon Zest, and Sunny Flare sped off. Rainbow was impressed. Spectrum Crystal was obviously more talented than Twilight. Twilight was also very inexperienced in it, so, that was why Crystal Prep had a slow start. She watched as the four speed skaters sped around the track. She had to admit, Pinkie and Rarity we good, but Fleetfoot and High Winds were fast. As a matter of fact, they were beating the Crystal Prep students. The speed skaters needed two laps to make their team's motocrossers start. Rainbow looked down at her gloved hands. She was wearing the gloves that had come with the motocross outfit. She wasn't too happy about it, but it was better than nothing. She took a deep breath before putting her hands back on the handlebars and looked up. She felt a squeeze on her shoulder and turned to see Spitfire smiling at her. "Let's take 'em down!" She said. The two fist-bumped and looked back at the speedskaters. The two Cloudsdale students were in the lead, and at that moment when they crossed the finishing mark, Spitfire and Rainbow Dash sped across the dirt path. The two girls looked behind them to see that Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare had caught up to the two skaters which made Sugarcoat and Indigo Zap behind them. Rainbow continued taking deep breaths. "Easy does it." She told herself. "Breath. Focus on what you're doing and win it." She took another deep breath, clenched her fists around the handlebars, and zoomed away from the CPA students who had apparently caught up to her due to her blanking out for a moment. When she pulled up next to her friend, Dash saw Spitfire give her a concerned look. "You okay?" She asked over the loud noises. Dash shrugged and looked back in front of her. "Doing my best to remember what needs to be done compared to what isn't important." Spitfire nodded and the two continued racing, still ways from the other students. Dash was surprised at the fact that the bikes were giving such strong stamina."How are these things going so fast? We're so ahead of them." She pointed out to her partner. Spitfire was about to say something, but the sound of motors from Sugarcoat and Indigo Zap began to come closer. The two Wonderbolts looked at one another and nodded. They kicked into the highest gear and continued racing. The sound of beeping was heard from one of the bikes and the two looked down. Spitfire's bike was running low and they both knew it wasn't going to last longer. Then the two did something no one ever thought of. Still holding onto the handlebars, Spitfire had jumped onto her saddle while keeping the bike on balance. She let go of it and stood up fully, then jumped off the bike and landed right behind Rainbow as her bike fell off the edge. The two rode to the finish line together with the CHS students cheering loudly. They were only a few feet away from it when something very unexpected happened. Though the gloves managed to keep Dash's magic at bay, they weren't the right ones. Dash felt something coil around her wrist to see that her gloves were destroyed. She screamed in shock and let go of the handlebars, causing the bike and both girls to fall over. There was a gasp over the crowd, but then a cheer erupted from the CPA bleachers. The fallen cyclists looked up to see that the two CPA cyclists had run through the finish line, making them the official winners of that round. Rainbow looked down. This was all her fault. She should have kept her eyes on the road! Not her hands! 'STUPID!' She cursed to herself. 'SO FUCKING STUPID! WHY DID I DO THAT?!?!' She felt arms around her. Spitfire's embrace made her feel comforted. The two girls removed their helmets and walked away, ashamed. At least that's what Dash felt like. The four other relay girls either ran or skated over to them. Fleetfoot skates over and hugged her after Spitfire had let go. Blaze handed her her gloves which Dash gladly accepted. "I'm sorry." She whispered in a small voice. The six looked up to see that the Crystal Prep students actually looked happy. She sighed, a single tear rolling down her cheek. "C'mon. Let's go." With that, the six girls left the field. ~/\~ While their school cheered for them, the six CPA contestants were still confused about what just happened. Sour Sweet, Sugarcoat, Sunny Flare, Lemon Zest, and Indigo Zap all worried for their friend. Even though they saw Dash as a "rival" because she was from the other school, she was still their friend from before she moved. Indigo bit her lip and took a breath. "I'm going after them," she told her friends. They stared at her in shock. Sunny Flare walked in front of her. "Are you crazy? She's with five of the most competitive female Cloudsdale students. And you want to go up to them as if nothing happened? Have you lost your mind?" Indigo put her hands on her friend's shoulders. "I just want to talk to Rainbow Dash for a little bit. After that, I'll come back." With that, she ran through the doors that the six CHS girls had walked into. Sunny Flare clenched her fists and ran after her. Sugarcoat, Lemon Zest, and Sour Sweet followed behind her. They quietly opened the door and hid around the corner that the six were standing in. They heard Dash speak. "I'm sorry I made a fool of you guys out there. If I'd kept my eyes on the road and not my hands we would have won. Why was I an idiot to not do what was necessary? I'm sorry." The five friends looked at one another. So there was a reason why she and Spitfire fell. "It's okay, Dash." They heard Spitfire speak. "We all make mistakes. What happened happened. Besides, there's the third round. Lucky for us, we're in it. Heck, maybe you can prove to everyone that you're friends with the CPA students then, that way the games can end happily. At least, I hope that that can happen. I hope nothing too serious happens." Dash snorted. "Like my powers going out of control? The games would end similarly to how they ended last time. I really don't want that." Indigo decided it was time and walked around the corner. "Hey, Dash." Rainbow's eyes snapped up to the CPA student. The other four rounded the corner and stood next to her. Dash smiled, then frowned. "Congratulations on winning that round." The five students looked at each other, then back at the saddened girl. Sour Sweet cleared her throat, causing the other girls in the room to look over at her. "I know that this would probably hurt our school's feelings, but honestly, I think it would've been better if you won that one. You should have crossed that line before us. But, what happened to you that caused you to fall? I mean, last time, you turned around to save a friend, but this time, you fell off. What caused it?" Silence filled the room. The other five rivals bit their lips. "It's fine if you don't want to say-" "It was caused by me getting scared because my magic managed to tear the gloves of the motocross outfit. Once I noticed it, it caused me to panic and let go of the bars which caused us to fall. I can keep the magic under control a lot of the time, but when I'm nervous about something, like the games, it's best for me to wear gloves to keep the magic at bay, that way I don't cause a snowstorm or freeze everything around me. That's why I was so scared earlier." She shook her head. What was something that could cheer her up? She felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked over to see Indago Zap standing next to her. "Remember when we said that we'd show everyone we were friends at the last event?" Rainbow nodded. "Well, why not do it now?" Dash rose a brow. "Uhh, how exactly?" Indago smiled. "What about a performance?" Dash's brow stayed raised. "A performance? Of what?" Sour Sweet smiled. "How good are your dancing skills? I mean, we know how everything was in our music video of “Dance Magic”, but you’ve gotta have more than just that. Am I right?" RD opened her mouth to speak, but Blaze beat her to it. "You kidding? Dash is an awesome dancer. Probably one of the best." Something came into her head. "Hey, speaking of dancing, there's a talent show coming up after The Games. Maybe she should sign up." The others spoke in agreement. Rainbow smiled. She was happy she had such amazing friends. Dash put a fist to her chin. "I've choreographed dances before. It is pretty easy and I could teach it to you guys." The other ten girls looked at each other, then back at the rainbow-haired girl. "How easy is it?" Lemon Zest asked. Rainbow Dash smiled and began teaching the dance. ~/\~ After ten minutes or so, the eleven girls walked back onto the field. Baby One More Time (I recommend watching the official video first and imaging Dash being in Britney's place and the other girls being the background students from that school.) After the girls finished dancing, both schools roared in excitement soon realizing that the rainbow-haired girl was friends with the five CPA girls. Sunny Flare looked over at Dash. "Honestly, I don't think it's necessary to have a final round. I mean, c'mon, we literally just showed them that we're friends. There's no point in having something else after this." The other four CPA girls nodded in agreement. Rainbow smiled at them. She had such amazing friends. Speaking of friends, the other seven friends who were sitting on the bleachers walked over to them. She felt a hand on her shoulder a looked to see Spitfire looking at her. "You do realize what you did, right?" Dash cocked a brow. "It means you brought our schools together. You did that, no one else. You're super special and have the power to bring others together. That's why you're our best friend." Spitfire smiled a warm smile and hugged her friend tightly. The other nine teens cheered for her and Rainbow's cheeks darkened. "Hehe. Thanks. It means a lot." The polychromatic girl turned around to face Spectrum Crystal and walked over to her. Spectrum was surprised but stayed in place as Rainbow Dash walked towards her. Dash stopped in front of the CPA student. She gave her a smile and reached out a hand. Spectrum was surprised at first. The CHS girl was accepting her with open arms. "I'm not gonna hurt you, I just wanna be friends." Crystal hesitated at first, before placing her hand in Rainbow's. The two girls smiled, and to the CPA girl's surprise, the prismatic girl pulled her in for a hug. Spectrum warmly accepted it and returned the gesture. The seventeen teens all cheered and came around the two girls. Rainbow smiled as she released the hug. "Welcome to the group," she said and Spectrum's heart swelled with excitement. > Chapter 13: The Friendship Games Part 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow sat happily with her eighteen friends, (nineteen including herself), in front of Cloudsdale High, enjoying the time to get to know one another. By then it was early evening. Rainbow was laughing as she told her friends about her story of how she tamed the water spirit. The others around her laughed along. "That happened?" Indigo Zap asked. Rainbow nodded. "Hehe. Yup. It took some time wrangling him before I could finally tame him. He's nice once you get to know him." The others around her smiled. "What about the other spirits?" Blaze asked?" "Ah, yes, the others. Gale, the wind spirit is another. She has an interesting story. I remember it well. I was relaxing in an empty grassy park, enjoying the sun, when the wind had strangely become stronger. Knowing that that wasn't how the wind worked, I noticed that the wind spirit controlled it. Especially when a tornado appeared out of nowhere." Her friends gasped in shock and horror. She only smiled and continued. "I had no idea what to do. There was a tree branch headed right for me and I had to blast it away with my magic. It seemed as if the spirit knew about my magic so the tornado turned into a ball of wind, trapping me inside it. I had nowhere to run so I decided to use my magic to separate the ball into two wind balls and push them away from me. Throughout the entire time, I thought of my friends and how I could help them, and with that in mind, I was able to break the wind apart. After that, I named her, and I became her best friend." The other eighteen students sat in awe. Surprise ran up to her face. "You were seriously trapped inside a ball of wind?!" Rainbow rose a brow and leaned back. "Didn't I just say that?" Surprise blinked and stood there for a moment before smiling and sitting back in her seat. No one noticed a strange opening behind them. Out of it fell a strange red and black necklace. Misty Fly felt something in her hand and looked down to see the necklace resting on her fingertips. She held it up to take a closer look at it and a flash of red filled her vision before everything went white. ~/\~ Misty was floating in a weird boid of white with nothing around her. She panicked before seeing something red glowing in front of her. "Misty Fly~" It called, drawing her closer. Her mint green eyes changed to scarlet red and had no control over her body as she was being drawn to the strange object. It was that strange necklace that she'd been holding earlier. Now it seemed to be calling to her and nothing could stop it. Her pupils shrunk to pinpoints, she wore an evil smirk on her face, and she cackled evilly. She put on the necklace and her body became consumed with magic as she absorbed it. Her outfit changed to a strapless red dress that went down to her knees, knee-high stockings that matched her dress, stilettos, red fingerless gloves that went up to her elbows, and her hair changed from blue and white to dark purple and white as it stuck up like a still flame, her skin changed to rusty orange, a rusty orange colored horn, and large pair of bat-like wings. The magic surrounding her body then exploded. ~/\~ The newfound demoness floated in front of the entire school. The students from Crystal Prep and Cloudsdale were horrified at what they saw. Rainbow couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Seriously," she grumbled to herself, "why does there always have to be a monster at the end of every good situation? What is this, another fight like with Gia Everfree? The Fall Formal incident? The last Friendship Games?" Rainbow groaned and looked back at her friends. The four boys had to hold back Fire Streak who was trying to run out to his girlfriend. Dash looked back at the demon in front of her and watched as she illuminated her fists and magic burst from them in different directions, opening up different portals to Equestria. Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Okay. This is exactly like the last Friendship Games I had against Crystal Prep." She looked more closely at the demon, trying to find something that could have possibly started this. Her eyes suddenly landed on the necklace. She'd never seen it on her friend before nor had she seen that piece of jewelry at all. She looked down at her own necklace, then her gloves. She nodded her head, removed her gloves, tossed them aside, and gripped her geode tightly. She looked up at the sky. "Misty Fly, this isn't you! You need to stop this. It's complete chaos." Misty Fly cackled. "Says who? I have all this power and it's mine to control. No one can stop me now." Rainbow took a few steps back when the demon neared her. She began levitating herself into the air as she was lifted by the magic she wielded. "Yet you're not in control. It's controlling you. You can't control it. You only say it because you're overwhelmed with the dark magic. It makes you feel too powerful but it only leads you nowhere. You need to stop. This also isn't true magic. True magic comes from others who are around you and are with you every day. It's the magic of friendship that's the most powerful of them all!" She lifted her arms above her head and around her body. A beautiful blue light surrounded her body and she was engulfed in a blue orb of magic. Her skin color changed from blue to white, her outfit changed to a sky blue, strapless dress that matched her sky blue knee-high stockings, fingerless gloves that reached her elbows, and white stilettos. As for her hair, it rose and moved as if it were a living flame. Upon her head, she wore a crystal headband. Right behind it sat a crystal blue horn. Her eye color changed from its normal magenta pink to a vibrant ruby red. She grew a pair of beautiful feathered wings that looked like they belonged to an angel. The magic bubble around her burst open, showing everyone her new transformed look. She stole a glance at her friends who smiled at her in awe. She looked back at the demon who glowered at her. With the demon angered for a moment, Rainbow took that time to illuminate her horn and hands and sealed the portals. Misty Fly growled at the rainbow-haired girl who floated in front of her. The two girls opened their wings and clashed, a rippling shockwave hitting the students around them. "Don't make me do this, Misty," Rainbow warned. Misty Fly smirked. "Oh, is someone afraid to hurt me? HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!" She shot a large blast of magic fire at the other girl who shot out a large blast of ice. The two different blasts of the natural elements clashed with a strong force which caused another shockwave to hit the students around them. Suddenly, the wind around her and the demon became stronger and just for a moment, Misty Fly lost control of her fire blast. She growled and refocused her beam on Dash, stronger than it was before, and just like the demon, Dash lost her shot and got blasted by the fire and got sent flying back. "Woah!" "Dash!" Soarin cried out, scared of what was going to happen next. Rainbow took a deep breath and hovered back in front of the demon again who'd paused her fire. "You don't have the power and strength to control this, Misty Fly! It's corrupting you!" Dash cried out. Misty rolled her eyes. "Oh, and you have the power to control it?" She retorted. "I have control because I've used magic for a little over a year now. I've also been able to control it. The magic is affecting your train of thought. It's consumed you when you should be the one controlling it! Misty Fly, this isn't you! Listen to me. I've seen and dealt with these kinds of things before. This isn't the way to learn about magic. If you want to learn, you can always ask me. I'm completely fine with it, but you're spreading fear to others with what you're doing right now. Look around you!" The demon looked around her and saw she was correct. She saw fear in all their eyes. "Misty Fly!" A voice cut through the air. Misty Fly looked to where the voice came from. Her eyes widened and her pupils dilated. Fire Streak looked up at her with sad eyes. "Fire Streak?" She whispered, losing her concentration on beating Dash. Seeing the Streak twin distracting her, Rainbow opened her hands and let out large bursts of ice, freezing the girl on the outside, and creating a statue that landed on the ground. "NOOOOO!!!!" Everyone who watched the scene before them gasped at what they were seeing. Fire Streak was about to run up the frozen statue of his girlfriend, but Soarin held him back as if knowing what Dash was planning. Rainbow hovered over the frozen demon. She held one of the hands belonging to the statue, closed her eyes, and the two were gone in a bright white flash. ~/\~ In a field of white, Misty and Rainbow hovered in midair. Misty looked around the room, frustrated, but calmer than before. "Come back with me, Misty," Rainbow spoke calmly. The demon turned around. "Take my hand and let me show you the truth of what we can be." Rainbow held out her hand and Misty hesitated, holding herself back. She reached back scared at what'd happened. Tears welled in her eyes and she placed her hand on the one belonging to the rainbow-haired girl. Magic flowed from Dash's hand and swirled around Misty's arm which moved to her entire body. As the magic reached her face, her tears dried. She looked back at Rainbow, who smiled at her. "C'mon. Let's head back. I'm sure everyone would want us back by now. Plus, I think that Fire Streak isn't gonna let you go for a while." Misty Fly let out a small giggle, hugged her friend, and the two disappeared from the white field. ~/\~ A blinding white pillar of magic shot down from the sky and hit the center of the school's front courtyard, causing all the students to shield their eyes. From the center, two girls were lowered to the ground. The magic disappeared and two girls stood where the magic once was. Misty looked down in embarrassment. "I'm so sorry." Rainbow smiled. "It's okay. Plus, you should know by now that you have friends who care and will be by your side." Misty Fly smiled at her friend. "Misty Fly!" She got tackled in a hug by Fire Streak. "Woah!" Rainbow giggled and felt an arm around her shoulder. She turned to see Soarin and the rest of her friends around her. Someone cleared their throats and they all turned to see Vice-Principal Firefly standing next to them, smiling. "Ms. Dash?" Rainbow blinked and nodded her head for her to continue. "A word if you please." Rainbow bit her lip and looked back at her friends. They nodded and the rainbow-haired girl looked back at the teacher. She nodded her head and both teacher and student walked away. The eighteen remaining students looked at each other in confusion. ~/\~ Once they were at a faraway distance, Firefly looked down at her students. "Before you ask, no you're not in trouble." Rainbow rose a brow. "But, if I'm not in trouble, why did you call me over?" The teacher smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You have talent, Rainbow Dash. You brought our schools together by showing your friendship with the other students in the relay races. You also have talent through dance. I have a friend who's a dance teacher, and I'm sure that I can sign you up to join it if I talk to her. The choice is yours to make." Rainbow bit her lip, closed her eyes, and sighed. She nodded. "I'd love to join. I think it would be a good idea." With that, she smiled at her teacher who smiled in return. "You may go rejoin your friends." Rainbow nodded thanks and ran to her friends. ~/\~ The eighteen students smiled as their nineteenth member joined them. Spitfire walked up to the polychromatic girl. "So, what'd you get called for?" Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. "Eh. Nothing much. Just the teacher complementing about me bringing the two schools together as well as my dancing skills. She said she has a friend who is a dance teacher and is sure that it would be a good idea for me to join her class due to how good I am." Lightning Dust chuckled. "Well duh. You choreographed that dance after all. That takes talent. You, for one, have it. A lot of it." Rainbow smiled. For one, these games were more fun than the last one. Indigo Zap walked up to her. "Umm, we just wanted to say that, in a few months, Cloudsdale will be participating in another Friendship Games." Dash blinked. 'Another one?! Really?!' Rainbow groaned. "Against who?" The six CPA girls sighed and Sour Sweet spoke. The three words she spoke knocked the air out of Rainbow's lungs. "Canterlot High School." ~/\~ Rainbow’s stomach dropped like a stone. She blinked a few times before stuttering. “I-I’m sorry. C-can you run that by me again?” Sour Sweet nodded and spoke again. “in a few months, Cloudsdale High School will be participating in another Friendship Games against... Canterlot High School.” Rainbow sighed. “This is bad. I’m gonna have to surprise them with a little something when we run the relay races. But for now, let’s enjoy this remaining time with each other. What do ya say?” The eighteenth students nodded. They heard the sound of clacking heels and turned to see Principal Skies, Vice-Principal Firefly, and Dean Cadence walking up in front of all the students. Firefly spoke. “Due to the actions happening here, we’ve decided to call these games a tie!” All the students cheered and applauded for joy. “But one more thing, I believe it’s best to thank Rainbow Dash to bring our schools together due to her loyalty to her friends from both schools. So it’s most likely best that we give her our best regards for what she did.” She walked towards the smiling girl and put a medal around her neck. There was another roar of applause, but this one was being directed to the rainbow-haired girl. The teachers then had all the students form a single file line and put a medal around each of their necks. The nineteen friends smiled as they watched both schools interact with one another. Rainbow closed her eyes as she felt the wind blow in her hair having it flow for a moment. She felt a pair of arms wrap around her and turned to see her boyfriend smiling at her. He gave her a small kiss on her forehead. “You do have lots of talents. This included.” Rainbow Dash sighed and laid her head on his shoulder, smiling. He was right. He was definitely right. Then something hit the polychromatic girl in the head, (not literally), and she looked at the ground. It was the necklace Misty wore when she was that demon. Rainbow didn't know what its powers were, so she walked over to it, kneeled, and sealed it into a ball of ice. She took a slow breath and picked it up. She closed her eyes for a moment, waiting to see if it would bring magic into her body... nothing happened and she sighed in relief. Soarin walked up to her. "What are you going to do with it?" Rainbow bit her lip. "I'm gonna see if I can contact my counterpart from Equestria so she can bring Princess Twilight. I believe this is best to be stored back in Equestria, where it belongs." Soarin nodded his head. "That's a good idea. You should also do it sooner than later. You saw what it did to Misty, it could happen to anyone and that's a bad thing." Rainbow nodded and looked back down at the necklace. She quietly muttered to herself. "I think I'll do it later tonight. Maybe tomorrow even Or later." She nodded to herself before walking to her other friends alongside her boyfriend. > Chapter 14: Returning the Amulet and A Surprise Between Counterparts > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It had been a few days after the Friendship Games, and one sunny afternoon, Rainbow Dash was in her room, sitting on her bed while staring at the necklace that was still trapped inside the orb of ice that sat in her hands. She sighed and closed her eyes. She remembered that Twilight had told her that the Rainbow Dash from her world had a connection with her and had a way to bring her to her world. "I hope this works," she muttered to herself. She held the orb of ice in one hand while the other held her magic geode. She closed her fist around the magical stone and took a breath. "Rainbow Dash. I could use your help right about now. I need you, Princess Twilight, and the rest of your friends to come here. Now." She opened her fist. ~/\~ Scene transitions to a portal going to Equestria ~/\~ The mane 6 were relaxing at Twilight's castle when Rainbow Dash felt a weird feeling tugging in her chest. She looked down to see a weird glow coming from it. She blinked in confusion. "Uh, hey Twi?" Twilight looked over at her friend. "Yes, Rainbow?" Rainbow bit her lip. "Do you have any idea what this is?" She pointed at the weird glow coming from her chest, unsure what to do. The alicorn and the remaining mares in the room all looked in confusion. They all shrugged their shoulders until Spike spoke up. "Hey, maybe it's your human counterpart trying to contact you. That could be a reason. After all, you two are one and the same. You are each other's counterparts." The six mares blinked in surprise and Twilight smiled widely. "That's it! I know how to get to her!" She dragged the prismatic mare out of her throne room by magic with the remaining four ponies and one dragon tailing her. They stopped in front of the mirror portal that led to the Canterlot High School statue. Rainbow rose a brow after the princess and set her down on the crystal floor. "Uhh, how are we going to reach her?" The alicorn removed the magical book that was sitting above the mirror and set it aside. Rainbow felt a lump form in her throat. "Uhh... Twi? What are you doing?" The lavender mare shot a short stream of magic from her horn at the nervous mare, then turned to the mirror and shot a stream of magic at it as well. For a few seconds, there was a strange magical connection between the mirror and the cerulean mare. Eventually, the portal's spiraling pattern began weaving and there was no more light coming from the mare's chest. The baby dragon and six mares all cheered. Pinkie bounced in place. "Can we see her now Twilight? Can we? Can we? Can we?" Twilight giggled. "Yes, we can see her now, Pinkie. As long as Rainbow's with us, we'll be able to return to Equestria. Ooo, I have an even better idea. Why not give her a magic book so she can contact us when she wants t? I can even make two copies of the one that I have so I can have one for myself, and one for her." The five mares and baby dragons all cheered. Twilight took the magic book that she kept keeping in contact with Sunset and made two copies of it. One copy showed her cutie mark on its cover while the other had Rainbow Dash's cutie mark on its cover. Spike put a claw to his chin. "You know, compared to the last time we visited, I'm pretty sure she'll be happy to see us." The mares laughed. "Twilight, darling," Rarity spoke. Twilight turned to her friend. "Yes, Rarity?" The albino unicorn cleared her throat. "Are we going to turn into humans like her, or will we stay in normal pony forms?" Twilight put a hoof to her chin. "Well, we're not going through the portal that connects to the statue at CHS, and this one is connected to the Rainbow Dash in that world and our Rainbow Dash herself. And both of them are in their true forms, which means that the seven of us will be staying in our true forms as ponies. Does that answer your question, Rarity?" The white unicorn nodded and the six mares and baby dragon all one by one entered the portal. ~/\~ Scene transitions to a portal going back to the human world ~/\~ Human Rainbow Dash sat on her bed with the fire spirit, Bruni, resting in her hand, and the frozen water spirit, Nokk, laying behind her and she laid back against him. She heard a small crackling sound in front of her bed and she sat up so her legs dangled over the edge. The crackling started swirling around in a spiral and soon became a portal. The ice queen smiled. "The message worked then," she told herself as she watched a lavender alicorn step out of it. Twilight looked up at her friend, smiling. "It's good to see you again, Rainbow." Rainbow's smile grew. "It's good to see you too. This time I managed to call you. Was my call a bit much?" The alicorn giggled and sat a few feet away from the portal. "No. It was probably better than entering a house very unexpectedly." The two shared a laugh when out of the portal fell, Spike. The dragon looked up at the teen and smiled. He began running towards her. "Hey, Dash." He said excitedly. Rainbow set Bruni on her calf and picked up the dragon from the floor as he reached the edge of her bed. The teen gave the dragon a good squeeze before setting him back on the ground. "Well, it's good to see you too, Spike." She looked at the portal. "Are the others coming?" Right as she spoke, five bodies all fell out of the portal. The alicorn, dragon, and human all laughed. Pinke, who was on top of the pony pile, looked up at the ice queen and smiled. "Hi Rainbow!" She squealed, bouncing off the pile and towards the teen girl. Once in close range, the pink pony jumped into the girl's arms and hugged her. She was tempted to go for a bone-crushing hug, but the polychromatic girl squeezed her tightly before she could do anything. Pinkie Pie squeaked in surprise and the ice queen dropped her onto the ground. Laughter rang through the room and Fluttershy slid out of the pony pile with the three remaining ponies and sat next to Twilight. "It seems like you managed to get away from Pinkie's hug." The girl rolled her eyes. "I know how to deal with bone-crushing hugs especially knowing from Pinkie Pie and my Wonderbolt friend, Surprise." The dragon and mares all nodded in agreement. Apple Jack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash released themselves from the pony pile and sat next to their friends. "So why did you call us?" The polychromatic mare asked. Her human counterpart picked the fire spirit off her leg and onto her shoulder and stood up to get to her bedside table where the ice orb sat. She sat back on her bed and held it out to the princess. Twilight lit her horn and used her telekinesis to lift the orb. She looked at the object inside the ice and gasped. "This is the Alicorn Amulet!" She looked back up at the rainbow-haired girl. "Where did you get this from?!" Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. "According to my friend, said she heard something weird behind her and felt this necklace fall onto the back of her hand. That's all she told me which is all she knew before she got corrupted." Twilight hummed to herself before nodding her head. "Well, like before, there have been a few Equestrian artifacts that have been found in this world. For instance the Memory Stone." The teen groaned. "Ugh. Don't remind me. The girl who had it ended up removing the good memories we had with Sunset Shimmer. And before that sunset, the girl wielding the Memory Stone erased all of Sunset's memories of what happened in this world." She snorted. Twilight blinked in shock. "And from what Sunset told me the next day was that the memory stone was no more. I'm assuming you destroyed it?" Rainbow nodded and smirked. "Well, duh. And we used our geodes to destroy the stone and got some super awesome outfits to match the fighting. Anyway, yeah, we did destroy it which gave us all our memories back. Everything went happily that afternoon, except when our school yearbook showed the seven of us on one page being titled "Best Friends", and the page next to us was a picture of Bulk Biceps whose title was "Best Muscles". It was like we were kissing him. Legh." The mares all giggled. Twilight spoke up again. "Yes, and there was another Equestrian artifact called the Time Twirler which is known to go back in time with a touch of a button." Rainbow put a hand to her chin. "Oh, so that's why Sunset got so upset. It's because she was stuck in that time loop while no one else knew what was going on. Including myself. Then Pinkie and Sunset managed to stop one of our favorite music bands from making a whole month-long cycle of the same day over, and over, and over again. Man, I definitely wouldn't want to go through that." She looked down at the mares and dragon. "But I'm pretty sure you guys have lots of totally awesome adventures filled with crazy amounts of magic in them." Twilight shrugged. "Not all of them are filled with crazy magic, but yes, magic is involved." The ice queen chuckled. Apple Jack cleared her throat. "Ah have a quick question for ya. May I ask?" The ice queen nodded. "You may." "How did ya get that amulet into that orb of ice without touchin' it? It would take magic like Twilight's to get it in there. So how did ya do it?" The teen smiled a sly smile. "Oh, it was simple really." AJ rose a brow. "Really, how?" The teen nodded her head. "Yes, it was. As a matter of fact, I didn't even touch the necklace. Just the orb of ice." "But how did you get the necklace into the orb of ice, darling?" Rarity asked. The teen girl's smile grew. She held both fists to her chest before opening her hands and arms, creating a small flurry of snowflakes. The mares and Spike stared in awe. "This was how I was able to pick it up." Rarity looked down for a moment before her head popped back up and she spoke. "Can you make outfits with that kind of magic?" Both the country mare and polychromatic pegasus sitting on either side of her groaned and rolled their eyes. "Really, Rarity?" The pegasus complained. "Is that all you think about?" The farm pony added on. while the earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus kept bickering, the lavender alicorn, the pink earth pony, the butterscotch pegasus, and the baby dragon all kept their eyes on the ice queen as she stood up and whisked her arms around her body and particles of crystals and ice surrounded her and a dress formed over her body in place of the sweat pants and crop top she'd been wearing. She sat back down on her bed. The baby dragon and three mares stared in awe. "That's beautiful. Should we call you the ice queen now? Maybe even "Your Highness"?" Fluttershy joked. The Ice Queen, baby dragon, and three mares all laughed as the mares and dragon all bowed to the teen girl. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Apple Jack stopped their bickering. Once Rarity laid eyes on the dress she gasped loudly. "Th-that is-is..." The rainbow-haired teen giggled. "Awesome?" The two Rainbow Dashs in the room giggled. The polychromatic pegasus then turned to her alicorn friend. "Hey, Twi?" The alicorn looked over at the pegasus. "Aren't you going to give her something?" Twilight gave her a confused look at first before her eyes widened, remembering what she was going to give the rainbow-haired teen. "Oh, hehe, right. I forgot that I was going to give you this." She pulled a book out from under her wing and hoofed it over to the Ice Queen. Said girl took the book in her hands but gave the alicorn an unsure look. "What is it?" She asked. "You know how Sunset Shimmer sometimes sends me messages through her magical book?" The rainbow-haired teen nodded. "Well, this is a copy made just for you so you can contact us any time you need to." Rainbow's eyes widened and she looked back down at the book. She smiled. "Heh, thanks. That means a lot coming from a princess." Twilight giggled. "And that's coming from a queen." The teen snorted. "You do know that I'm not an actual queen, right?" Everyone in the room laughed. A thought then popped into Spike's head. "But, wait," he spoke up and the laughter stopped. "If we ever wanted to talk to her one-on-one, wouldn't it be best to maybe make a portal that connects here to Equestria? I mean, the other exit portal to this world is the statue in front of Canterlot High School. So what can we do?" The prismatic girl put a hand to her chin and looked down at the book. She felt something brush against her side to see the Nokk nuzzling his muzzle against her side. She stroked his head as she looked back down at the book in her other hand. She could practically feel the magic radiating off of it. Her eyes shot open. "Magic!" She thought to herself. "That's it!" She got off her bed and walked to the empty wall in her room that faced the backside of the house. The water spirit got off the girl’s bed it was sitting on and stood next to the Ice Queen. Rainbow placed her free hand against the wall and pressed it. There was a sound of a breaking wall and she pushed harder. She felt the wall loosen and she watched as she pushed the wall away, the flooring, walls, and ceiling of the new space were ice. She felt her powers become stronger as she pushed the wall with them and kept her hand out. After she felt the new room big enough, she hesitantly started walking inside it. Her slow steps continued as she looked around seeing a few columns and large crystallized snowflakes implanted into the walls, ceiling, and floor. She sighed at its beauty but suddenly stopped as she reached the end of the room. In one of the far back corners sat a giant pool of water, perfect for the water spirit to stay in. What surprised them was that standing in front of the back wall stood a giant mirror. The dragon and six mares stared in shock. "That looks like the mirror back at my castle," Twilight quietly spoke. The ice queen looked over at the alicorn. "Really?" The princess nodded her head. "If that's so, then maybe it acts somewhat the same way. Here, place the book on that stand on the top. Let's see what happens." The teen did as she was told and something magical happened. The book and crystallized ice both began to glow and the book shot down a blast of magic that created a swirling pattern inside of it. Everyone gasped. "It worked," Twilight exclaimed excitedly. The rainbow-haired girl put a hand to her chin. "Do you think that if you were to visit me one on one, you'd have to put your new book on top of the mirror so you could visit me here and not at Canterlot High School?" She growled the last three words and looked away. She felt Nokk brush his muzzle against her cheek and she gently brought his muzzle closer to her as she nuzzled him back, smiling. Twilight put a hoof to her chin. "You know, now that I think about it, I think that to reach you, I'd have to use my new book, to reach Sunset I'd have to use the one Princess Celestia gave me! Thanks for the thought! Plus, when we want to see you, we can get to stay ponies! Or dragons, in Spike's case." The teen nodded her head. "Yup! Though, I think it's best to take the portal you came from and then twitch books to visit me otherwise who knows where you'd end up." Everyone laughed. Twilight walked closer to the polychromatic girl. "Thanks for holding onto the alicorn amulet for us. It was probably the best thing to do than keeping it here." The ice queen sighed. "It's not a problem at all. Now I just need to figure out how to -" "Rainbow Dash?" A male voice interrupted her. Everyone in the room turned to see the pegasi from the Equestrian aerial flying team walk into the room. The ice queen leaned over to the lavender alicorn. "So those are the Wonderbolts from your world?" The princess nodded her head. "Yup." Rainbow sighed. "Well, I'm going to put Nokk into the water and you guys can handle this." Twilight nodded and kept her eyes on the Wonderbolts. While the rainbow-haired girl walked away with the water spirit, the rainbow-maned pegasus walked toward her teammates. "Hey, guys," she spoke hesitantly, "what are you all doing here?" Spitfire walked up to her. "We were looking for you. The 'Bolts were planning a big meeting together but with you went we had to cancel it." Rainbow put a hoof to her chin, suddenly remembering that meeting. "But, how did you find us? How did you get here?" Fleetfoot cleared her throat. "We were looking around Ponyville until we crothed one of your friendth who I believe wath named Thtarlight Glimmer. Thee told uth that you had created a portal and we found that it wath thtill open tho we entered it and found you here." Once she finished, the six mares blinked in shock. "The portal was still open?" Pinkie asked no one in particular. "I guess so," Twilight answered the question. While the ponies all stood quietly, Spike walked over to the human in the room who'd turned to the large pool in the far back corner, the water spirit following her. She stood in front of it and when the Nokk stood on top of the water's surface, the ice queen whisked her hand in a small semicircle, and the ice she'd covered him with disappeared. He gave a whinny of excitement and dove into the water. Spike walked next to Rainbow and placed a claw on her leg. She looked down at him before she reached down and scooped him into her arms. The dragon gave a small chuckle before Rainbow Dash turned around. All of the ponies in the room were still silent. She frowned and set Spike on the ground before she shot two blasts of ice into the ceiling, creating two large chandeliers. One above her, and the other above the large group of ponies. "Are we done giving each other the silent treatment here?" She asked as she walked to the center of the room. The polychromatic pegasus sighed and walked over to her counterpart. She rested her forehead on the girl's side and sighed. She took another breath before turning back to her teammates. "Look, I'm sorry for not showing up to the meeting, but I got sidetracked with something else, and that caused me to miss it." She looked away from them. Spitfire pursed her lips and looked away before looking back at her teammate. "It's okay, Dash. But first, could you introduce us to your friend here?" She pointed to the teen with her hoof and said the girl's face became pale. She then turned around to cover her mouth with one hand and the other clutched her stomach. Her eyes were wide. She leaned against the wall as she felt sick to her stomach. She held up one finger before sprinting out of the room. She ran to her bathroom and emptied the contents from her stomach. After she finished, she coughed a few times before flushing the toilet, rinsing her mouth, washing her hands, and walking out of the room towards the one with her new guests. She took a few deep breaths before entering the room. Everyone was still in the same place where they were when she left the room. She walked to the middle of the room and conjured and couch made of firm yet soft snow and flopped on top of it. She sighed before looking at the captain of the Wonderbolts. "Do I really not remind you of someone? Or somepony in your case?" It took some time for Spitfire to understand what she was saying before her eyes widened. She looked at the polychromatic pegasus before looking back at the human. She looked them back and forth a few times before receiving a slap on the face from Soarin with his wing. "I'm surprised it takes you ten minutes or so just to realize that they're one and the same. Seriously?" The ice queen sighed in relief. "Thank you for that, Soarin." The stallion blinked in shock, not understanding how she knew his name. "How do you know my name?" He asked. The high schooler smiled. "It's just like how I'm your Rainbow Dash's counterpart. There's a counterpart for you and the rest of your team in this world too. Even them." She gestured to the other members of the mane 6 and Spike. "Twilight was the first to meet me and her friends' counterparts. Or in other words, my former friends." Her smile turned into a frown. 'Can't say that I'm still friends with them after what they did to me.' It came out almost as a whisper. She cleared her throat. "Ahem, anyways. Speaking of your guys' counterparts, they should be arriving soon. I nearly forgot I had invited them for dinner." Everypony, and dragon, blinked. "YOU CAN COOK?" They asked at the same time. Rainbow shook her head. "No. Well, I kind of can…but it’s not the greatest. Anyway, since my parents are out of town for the night, we're getting take-out food and having it delivered here." Fluttershy quietly spoke up. "What are you having for dinner?" The teen bit her lip and closed her eyes, knowing what was going to happen when she'd tell the pegasus what she and her friends would be having for dinner. "Well, we're still deciding, but we're thinking between burgers," the shy pegasus let out her first gasp, "sushi," a second, "crab," a third, "or-" Fluttershy screamed and tackled the teen to the ground. "How could you do such a thing!?" The ice queen blinked. "Do what?" she asked. Fluttershy screamed again. "Eat animals!!" Rainbow sighed. "Look, 'Shy, I'm an omnivore. It's my nature. I eat plants and animals. In better words, I eat greens and meats. I apologize that the first one came out a bit too intense. It's just the way it is. Some people are vegetarians and only eat greens. I'm not one of those people." The butterscotch pegasus took a few breaths before getting off of the teen. She looked around to see a whole bunch of eyes on her. She whimpered and her ears went flat against her head in embarrassment. Rainbow stroked her mane and the mare relaxed. Rainbow walked out of the ice room and the ponies and dragon followed her out. After she exited the room and entered the one that held her bed, she turned around to face the room of ice. She opened her hands which were glowing white and pulled them towards her. Two doors of ice burst from the edges of the walls and gently closed, obscuring the room of ice from view. She turned around to see all the ponies in her room. Seventeen of them to be exact. And of course, one baby dragon. She bit her lip, but before she could say anything, a ringing sound filled the room. Rainbow turned to her bedside table to see her tablet vibrating. She jumped onto her bed, grabbed her tablet, and clicked the answer button on the screen. Twelve heads popped up on the screen. Rainbow smiled. "Hey, guys!" "Hey, Dash!" They all replied at once. "Where're you guys? You seem to be on a tight screen." She joked. Her boyfriend rolled his eyes. "We're all speaking from my phone. That's why." Rainbow nodded. "We're at the mall now. Making final decisions on what we want for dinner. We found it easier just to come here instead. Anyway, a few of us are going to have burgers, some are having sushi, Fleetfoot, and Surprise are even going for crab which surprises me." Rainbow chuckled as she looked up and saw the flabbergasted looks on the 'Bolt's faces. She looked back to the screen. "Was that a pun that he just said?" Rainbow asked herself. "What are you having, Soar?" There was the sound of someone either gasping or choking. She couldn't tell which one. "Aww, how sweet. My girlfriend's asking what I'm having for dinner. Are you an option?" Dash snorted and covered her face with one hand because of how red it was. She looked up to see every pony in the room staring at her in shock. She shook her head to calm herself down. She looked back at the screen to see her boyfriend laughing. "Dash, you should know that I'm messing with you. Anyway, I'm having sushi with Misty Fly, Fire Streak, Spitfire, Wave Chill, and Lightning Dust. Like I said before, Fleetfoot and Surprise are having crab. Lightning Streak, Rapidfire, Blaze, and High Winds are having burgers. What do you want?" Rainbow put a hand to her chin. "You know what, give me a burger with a side of french fries and a coke." Her boyfriend nodded. "Anything else?" He asked. Rainbow shook her head. "No, and if the others think about dessert, tell them I have plenty of ice cream here." Soarin smiled and saluted her. "Yes ma'am." Rainbow giggled at his actions. "Love you, Soar." He smiled at her. "Love you too, Dash." She smiled back at him. She ended the call and set down her tablet. She looked up at everypony and smiled at their reactions. They all stared at her with slacked jaws. The pegasus version of her boyfriend walked up to her. "I'm sorry, am I hearing things, or did he say "I love you" to you?" The ice queen giggled and covered her mouth with a hand. "Hehe, yup, I told him "I love you" and he responded with "I love you too". So to answer your question, I have a boyfriend and I love him. That's why he said that to me." The stallion puffed his cheeks out and looked away. "What's it like to be in love?" He asked. Everyone in the room stared at him in shock. Rainbow looked away, trying to think of an answer while her counterpart's face had turned red and her friends were giggling at her. Noticing what was happening, the polychromatic pegasus covered her face with her wings. The ice queen looked back at the stallion. "Honestly, love is an amazing thing. I never wanted to tell myself that, until I found out I was in love with one of my childhood friends." She giggled and looked away when she had to shut him up when he was trying to confess his love for her. "I remember when he was trying to confess his love for me. Heh, it was pretty funny really. He was pretty shy about it until I had to shut him up with a kiss. Ahh, besides seeing my old friends from Cloudsdale, that was probably one of my favorite moments." As she spoke, the teen's cheeks tinted pink as she continued to think about the boy she loved. She looked at her phone to check the time and saw that it was already 6:30 pm. She blinked in surprise. "Oh wow," she said aloud, "it's already 6:30. I guess time flies when you're having fun talking to your counterpart." A ripple of laughter rolled through the room. The ice queen looked over at the pony princess sitting a few feet away from her. "You could always stay for dinner. You'd just have to bring what's best for you to eat since you're not humans." Twilight nodded. "You're right. And it may be a good idea to test out that new book and portal." Rainbow Dash nodded and the dragon and all the ponies all walked into the first portal they created. Pinkie went in last, but not before turning back to the teen. "See you soon!" Rainbow chuckled. "See you soon, Pinkie." The pink party pony nodded her head and she disappeared into the portal. Once the room was empty, she opened the ice door to the new ice room." I think this will be a fun dinner for us all." With that, she turned back to her bed and flopped onto her bed before falling asleep. > Chapter 15: Dinner With Friends and Their Counterparts > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After a good thirty-minute nap, the rainbow-haired girl began reorganizing her room to fit thirteen teenagers, including herself, seventeen ponies, and one dragon. She sighed. "This is going to be rough," she told herself, "and how many beings is that? We have eighteen beings from Equestria and thirteen from here. But wait, that's a total of thirty-one beings! How the fuck are they going to all fit in here? I could always open the ice room. Plus, they're going to have to exit the portal from the ice room so maybe it's best to have dinner in there. Plus, it doesn't seem that cold in there. Well, at least for me, that is." She took a breath. "I don't know what I've gotten myself into." There was a knock on the front door and she knew who it was going to be. She ran down the stairs to the door and opened it to see her friends from CHS, (Cloudsdale High School obviously), a few of them carrying bags of food. As they all entered the house and Dash closed the front door, she bit her lip and kept quiet. Her friends quickly noticed it and Spitfire walked up to her friend. "Dash, are you okay?" Rainbow looked away and rubbed her arm. "What are they going to say once I tell them that their pony counterparts were going to be joining them for dinner?! Dash, you've got to say something, and you've got to say it now!" She sighed before speaking. "Umm, well, you see..." Surprise interrupted her. "Ooh ooh! You invited our counterparts for dinner so they're going to be joining us and now you're super scared of what we're going to say when you tell us about it. Plus, you also created a room made of ice that holds a portal that connects to Equestria." Rainbow's jaw dropped, then again, Surprise acted just like Pinkie Pie so it wouldn't be that surprising. Pun intended. Rainbow's friends looked at her. "Is she being serious about this, Crash?" Fleetfoot asked her friend. Rainbow looked away and nodded her head. "Yes, what she said is true. From the room made of ice; to the portal to Equestria; to me inviting our counterparts over for dinner. All of it is true." Blaze spoke up. "But wait, don't they eat things that don't involve meat or anything like we humans eat?" Rainbow nodded her head. "Yes, they went back to Equestria to pick up some food they could eat while they have dinner with us." She led her friends up to her room. "Anyway, let's get this place set up for thirteen teenagers, seventeen ponies, and a baby dragon. That leaves us with a total of thirty-one beings in a single room. How are we supposed to handle that?" Misty Fly put a hand to her chin. "Why not use that new room you added? That could help with the spacing issue, right?" Rainbow bit her lower lip again and nodded. "Follow me. I'll show you the new room." She walked up to her room with her twelve friends trailing behind her. Once they reached her room they entered the large living space which seemed to have been rearranged a bit to fit the newcomers. What surprised them all were the two large ice doors that stretched to the corners of the wall. Rainbow opened the doors and stepped into the glaciered room. She stopped in midstep and turned around to grab something in her room. A few seconds later she walked back and continued walking to the back of the room where a large mirror of ice stood. She stopped in front of it and reached up to grab the book resting upon the mirror. She turned around to face her friends and opened the book, pen in hand. She took a breath before writing something inside it. "Ready when you are." Was what it read. A minute or so later, the book glowed and vibrated and Rainbow Dash opened the book. "Perfect," was the response, "now just place where the book was before and we'll be coming through shortly." Rainbow smiled to herself as she closed the book and placed it where it stood before the mirror. A blast of magic shot down from the book and hit the mirror. The crystallized ice started to glow and a spiraling pattern began forming in the center. The polychromatic girl and her friends took a few steps back so anypony who exited the portal wouldn't crash into them. She remembered from when Twilight exited the portal at Canterlot High she'd always end up flying out of the portal. Rainbow bit her lip and looked down at her outfit, remembering that she was still in the ice dress that she made. She used her super speed to go to the other side of the room. Once there, she spun on one foot on point, and her outfit changed to a pair of ice-blue sweatpants and a sports bra. She heard chuckles behind her. The rainbow-haired girl turned around to face her friends. "What?" She asked. The boys continued to chuckle, and the girls rolled their eyes at them. They then looked back at Dash. Spitfire stepped forward. "What's with the outfit change?" Rainbow shrugged. "I wanted to change into something more comfortable. Wearing a dress isn't always the most comfortable thing." The girls all nodded. Fleetfoot smiled. "Does that mean that we can all remove our tops, cause we're all wearing sports bras?" Rainbow chuckled. "I honestly do not care at all," Soarin spoke up. "Does that mean that we gentlemen can do the same?" The boys broke out laughing and the girls gave them a deadpan look. While the boys were distracted, the girls removed their shirts and tossed them aside. "Don't forget to pick them up before you leave," Rainbow muttered to them and they all giggled. They turned to the boys, wanting to see what they were up to, but Dash instantly regretted doing so. The boys had all stripped of their shirts, and Rainbow found herself staring at her boyfriend's muscular form. He noticed her staring and smirked. Dash instantly turned away, covering her burning red face in her hair. Spitfire and Misty had the same reactions to their boyfriends. The boys and remaining girls laughed at their actions while Dash, Spitfire, and Misty fell to their knees, their faces still red from embarrassment. They too began laughing after realizing what they were doing was pretty stupid. Eventually, the room was filled with laughter and happy tears from thirteen shirtless teenagers. Soon the room of ice became like a lounge room filled with pillows, large beanbags, and shirtless teenagers. Food was placed for everyone but was waiting to be touched once their remaining guests arrived. And as if on cue, the portal began to glow once again and somepony stepped out. A mare with a rainbow mane and tail and a saddlebag on her back. She shook herself for a moment before turning towards her counterpart and smiling. The ice queen returned the smile. But once she saw how they were dressed, she rose a brow. The thirteen teens noticed it and chuckled. "Do ignore how we're dressed right now," Spitfire told the Wonderbolt mare as she walked over, set her saddle bag down, and sat down next to her counterpart who was sitting on an oversized beanbag. "Honestly, I don't care much about my looks so I'm completely fine with it. Rarity, however, will flip once she sees this." Everyone laughed. "So are the others coming?" Surprise asked. Rainbow shrugged her shoulders and snorted. "Yeah, just taking their time. Honestly, I thought we would have been quicker about this, but it seems I was wrong. I'm surprised the 'Bolts are even taking this long. Strange cause from what I recall, they're considered the fastest fliers in Equestria. Besides me, of course." She put a hoof to her chest and smirked. Everyone broke out laughing. Fleetfoot snorted. "Ahh. Classic Rainbow Dash." The ice queen's eyes widened and her face burned bright red. "FLEETFOOT! WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN!?" More laughter rang through the room. All of the sudden, a loud shriek filled the room everyone turned to see the pegasus mare's friends standing next to the portal. Rarity had her hooves over her eyes, Fluttershy covered her red face behind her mane and the rest of the mares shook their heads and giggled as they began walking over to their friend. Spike was nowhere to be seen. Twilight sat down next to her pegasus friend. She looked over at the rainbow-haired girl. "So....the outfits?" Blaze snorted. "Ignore it." She pointed at the rainbow-maned pegasus. "She didn't mind it so we didn't go into detail." Twilight smiled. "That's fine by me. I'm also pretty sure that AJ and Pinkie don't mind." Said mares shaking their heads. The alicorn, pegasus, and two earth ponies looked back at their remaining friends. The alabaster unicorn was still in the same spot, covering her eyes, while the shy, butterscotch pegasus began to walk over to the group. Fluttershy cleared her throat as she sat down next to Twilight. "So, umm, where are the Wonderbolts?" "We're right here." The teens chorused and the polychromatic girl smacked her forehead. "No, guys. She's talking about the aerial flying team Wonderbolts. You know, from Equestria?" The twelve teens groaned. "We're idiots," Soarin complained. "That's not our title, Soar." The rainbow-haired teen joked. The six mares giggled and the group of teems blinked, before shaking their heads. The sound of the magic portal opening was heard and everyone turned to see eleven pegasi exit the portal without their latex flight suits. The polychromatic pegasus, sitting next to her counterpart, smiled and galloped over to her teammates. "Guys!" She cried and tackled Spitfire and Fleetfoot into a hug. The three mares chuckled and the pony pile grew with Misty Fly, Blaze, High Winds, and Surprise. The stallions all chuckled in amusement. The stallions, being Soarin, (obviously), Wave Chill, Fire Streak, Lightning Streak, and Rapidfire. The remaining five members of the mane six all chuckled at their sixth member's actions, her tail and flanks still high up in the air. The ice queen saw it and covered her mouth with her hand, trying to suppress her laughter. Sadly, a snort slipped through her closed lips. Her eyes widened and clamped her mouth closed and she looked back at the seven mares. They didn't seem to notice, luckily. She cleared her throat and the stallions looked over at her. "Would you like to sit down, or are you just going to stare at them all evening?" The five stallions rolled their eyes and walked over to the large group. Soarin sat down next to her. "I feel like this is one of those times where you feel out of place yet you're right at home where there are friends around you. Have you had that feeling before?" The sky-blue stallion spoke as he looked up at the teen girl. The polychromatic girl put a finger to her chin. "You know, now that you mention it, that feeling would probably be this moment right now. You're in a group with your friends, your counterpart, and their friends. It feels weird yet at the same time safe because you're surrounded by those you don't know yet know at the same time." Her boyfriend chuckled in agreement as he took the seat originally belonging to the rainbow-maned pegasus. "You do know that Dash is going to be pretty upset with you for doing that, right?" The teen boy chuckled. "I know, mainly because she's your counterpart and she's exactly like you." Rainbow rolled her eyes and smacked his shoulder. The three looked around to see that the seven Wonderbolt mares had gotten out of their pony pile and had split off to either talk to their counterparts, (besides the polychromatic pegasus mare), or talk and eat with their friends. The Surprise from Cloudsdale High and Surprise from Equestria we’re happily talking with Pinkie Pie. Not very surprising. (Pun intended). As they scanned the room, they saw that the polychromatic pegasus was not where she was when they last checked. They shrugged their shoulders. That mare was always on the move. The ice queen felt something heavy on her back out of nowhere and turned to see a rainbow mane enter her peripheral vision. She smiled as the mare clung to her as if she were a backpack. Rainbow felt something poke her side and she turned to see the sky-blue pegasus sitting next to her bite his lip. "I noticed when you first mentioned your friends, you seemed a bit, what's the word, maybe frustrated? Angry even? What happened?" The room went quiet and she looked up to see all eyes on her. She sighed. "I have no idea how many times I've told this story." She took a breath. "Okay, here's how it went. And by the way, none of the things they say is true." ~/\~ Rainbow's day was going perfectly fine. She spent her first four classes doing the usual boring school. She, for some reason, ended up spending lunch alone. After that, she had her free period and started writing new songs to sing because she found that it was a better thing to do. Finally, she had her last class which was also boring. The incident ended up happening when she was packing up after school ended. There was nothing wrong. She finished packing and closed her locker when she suddenly felt a hand pushing her shoulder and her head hitting metal. A wave of pain rippled throughout Rainbow's head and she clutched it with her eyes squeezed shut. She leaned against the locker for support, only to be shoved down to the ground. The rainbow-haired girl cracked her eyes open to see what was going on around her and froze at what she saw. Every single student, teacher, and staff member at CHS glared down at her. Six girls stepped out of the crowd and walked over to the girl on the floor. Sunset Shimmer, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle glared down at her. "I can't believe you!" Sunset cried in anger. "You promised us you'd come to spend the day with us and you flat-out lied to us. You betrayed us and you're the element of loyalty. That's not even loyalty." She gave Dash a quick kick to the stomach and the rainbow-haired girl curled up into a ball. Rarity spoke next. "Oh, now she's afraid and shy. The poor dear could be braver, but she's weak." The others nodded. So did the other students, teachers, and staff members. That's when the name-calling began. "Bitch!" "Insolent!" "Slut!" "Selfish jerk!" "Useless!" "Worthless!" "Asshole!" "Rude!". "Betrayer!" "Freak!" The insults and name-calling were endless. Rainbow Dash kept getting names called at her by students and they backed her into a wall. Her heart was shattered because her friends were also part of the name-calling group. The teachers weren't even helping. They just stood behind the students as they watched one of their students get insulted. Rainbow was on the verge of crying. She never felt so hurt in her life. Emotionally speaking. She suddenly felt a loud slap and her cheek stung. She put a hand to her cheek where she had been slapped. Tears stung her eyes and she shut them tight as she gripped her geode around her neck and used her super speed to grab her things, get away from the crowd, and run home. The run home didn't fill her with joy as it usually did. It was the exact opposite. Tears were streaming down her face once she arrived at her house. As soon as she got there, she ran straight past her mom, who had seen her daughter come close to the house, to her room where she dropped her bag on the floor, kicked off her shoes, and flopped onto her bed crying. She heard footsteps coming towards her room but didn't care. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned in the direction of the hand and saw her mom, Windy Whistles, looking at her. "Dashie, baby, what's wrong?" She asked sweetly. The dam broke and the rainbow-haired girl sobbed into her mother's chest. Windy wrapped her arms around her daughter and rubbed her back. She heard footsteps coming towards the bedroom door and saw her husband come in. His facial expression was saddened when he saw his daughter crying in his wife's chest. He immediately walked over and brought his wife and daughter into a hug. Windy kissed her daughter's forehead as Rainbow's cries became whimpers. Sniffles were heard from their daughter as they slowly released the hug. Rainbow rubbed her nose with her sleeve and looked up at her parents with teary eyes. Bow Hothoof ran a hand through his daughter's hair and spoke. "Kiddo, you wanna tell us what happened?" Rainbow slowly nodded. "I-I w-w-was b-b-being i-i-insulted b-by a-all the-the s-s-students at s-s-school. They called me bad names." Tears were leaking from her eyes. Her parents stared at her in shock. Their daughter was being insulted by the students at school. "Even your friends?" Her mom asked. Rainbow Dash nodded. Her dad squeezed her shoulders. "Well, we have some good news for all of us." Rainbow looked up at him, curious. Your mother and I have gotten new jobs back in Cloudsdale and we end up getting paid more. This also means that you get to see your old friends and go to Cloudsdale High School. And guess what, you pretty much know all the students there. Remember the Wonderbolts?" Rainbow's eyes widened. "You mean Soarin, Fleetfoot, Spitfire, and then others?" Her parents nodded. A huge smile grew on her face. "We're going back?" Her parents nodded again and her smile grew even bigger. She wrapped her arms around her mom, who returned the hug and her dad brought the two of them into a bigger hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" The two adults smiled at their daughter's excitement. They released the hug."When do we start packing?" The two adults laughed. "Easy, Sweetie. But we start packing up tomorrow." Rainbow nodded repeatedly with a large smile on her face. Bow chuckled and ruffled his daughter's hair. "C'mon, Kiddo. Let's go have some dinner and then head to bed because we need let's of rest for tomorrow." Rainbow jumped off her bed and started doing backflips to the kitchen. Bow chuckled. "I wonder where she got all that energy from." His wife smiled. "I'm assuming she's excited to see her old friends again." Bow wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "I guess you're right." "Are we gonna have dinner or what!?" They heard their daughter shout from the kitchen. The two parents rolled their eyes. "We're coming, Sweetie. No need to rush things." "Yes, there is!" Rainbow shouted in return. Bow shook his head, came up from behind his daughter, wrapped his arms around her waist, and lifted Rainbow into the air. She laughed and kicked her legs. "Dad!!" She laughed. "Put me down!" He only held her tighter and spun her around in a circle. Windy smiled at the father-daughter get-along. She turned back to the stove and finished making the meal. After 20 minutes, food was set out on plates on the table and the aroma of the food attracted the rainbow-haired man and teen girl. The family of three sat down at the table and ate their meal while talking about what would be happening in Cloudsdale. After the pleasant dinner, Rainbow walked up to the room and saw a notification on her phone. She took a closer look at it and smiled. "Huh, funny." She said to herself. "Just the one who I wanted to talk to." The message was from Spitfire. She ended up writing this: "Sup Crash, I just wanted to let you know that we all miss you and were wondering if you could visit sometime soon when you're free. Soarin's been going nuts because he hasn't seen you in a while. Hope to hear from you soon. Your friend, Spitfire." Dash smiled and responded. "Sup Shitfire, I got some great news for you and the others. I'm moving back to Cloudsdale because my parents are switching jobs and it's in Cloudsdale. It also means that I'll be attending Cloudsdale High School, assuming that you go there right now. Tell Soar to relax. He can spend all his time with me when I'm back in Cloudsdale. Signing off with awesomeness, Crash." Rainbow smirked as she sent the message. She was about to put her phone back down when it sent out a longer ringtone. Spitfire decided to make things easier for herself and call the rainbow-haired girl. Rainbow answered the phone. "This is Rainbow Dash speaking. How can I help you?" She heard laughter from the other side of the phone. "Well nice to hear from you too, Crash!" Rainbow laughed. "How've you been, Spits?” "I've been good. Soar misses you though." "Uh oh. What happened now?" "Nothing really. He just wants to fuck you badly." Dash broke out laughing. "That bad, huh?"She heard a laugh on the other side of the phone. "You have no idea." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Do me a favor and tell everyone that I'm coming back. I start packing tomorrow." There was a snort on the other side of the phone. "If only it were that easy. I'll try my best but I'm telling you that once I do, everyone is gonna flip and be super impatient until you arrive." "Relax, will ya? It's only a two-hour drive. We just have so many things with us which is why we need a moving truck. But hey, at least I get to see you guys and stay with you. That's awesome, right?" "It sure is. When will you be arriving?" Rainbow put a finger to her chin and tapped it. "Hang on for a sec." Rainbow took the phone off her ear and called her mom. "Hey, mom? When are we leaving for Cloudsdale?" "We'll be leaving in two days, Sweetie." Her mom answered. Rainbow got back on the phone. "We'll be leaving in two days." "I guess we'll be seeing you in three days then, huh," Spitfire responded. "You sure will. Hey, you okay? You sound sad." "Sorry, Dash. We just wish you would get here earlier." Dash stopped. "We?" "Oh yeah. I forgot to say that everyone else is here too. Guys why don't you say our favorite rainbow-haired girl." There was a gasp on Spitfire's side. A whole group of voices greeted her. "Hey, Dash." "Sup Dash." "Hi, Dashie!" "Hi, Rainbow." Rainbow smiled. "Hey, guys. Look, I'd love to stay and chat, but I need to start packing tomorrow. To be honest, I'm very happy about it. Don't ask why. I'll tell you when I get to Cloudsdale." "Alright, bye Rainbow." "Night Rainbow." "Bye-bye." "Bye Dash." Rainbow ended the call and smiled. This was gonna be fun." ~/\~ When she finished there was complete silence. Some ponies, or people, who were eating, stopped mid-chew. Twilight frowned. She couldn't believe Sunset would do such a thing. She, herself, was the one who talked to the red and yellow-haired girl that friendship is the most powerful magic ever, yet she'd hurt her friend. Twilight sighed and shook her head. She illuminated her horn and looked to her right where her saddlebag sat. She pulled out the magic book which she kept in contact with Sunset and sighed as she looked at it. The Rainbow Dash from Equestria and the human world both wielded the Element of Loyalty, and she knew that neither one of them would do such a thing. Twilight shook her head and put the book back in her bag. She looked down at her meal and picked up her fork and began eating again. The remaining ponies and people did the same. A hum broke the silence in the room. It was more like a song being hummed. Everyone looked over at the ice queen as she ate her meal. When she felt two dozen more eyes on her, she stopped eating and looked up. "What?" She asked. "You were humming." Her boyfriend pointed out. Rainbow gave him a deadpan stare. "Yes? And your point?" Twilight spoke. "What's its name?" Rainbow blinked and looked over at the princess. "I beg your pardon?" "The name. What's the name of the song?" Rainbow snorted to herself. "Oh, sorry. The name of the song is "Me". It's a song my boyfriend and I recently wrote." "Can you sing it?" Pinkie's squeaky voice entered the conversation. Rainbow bit her lip and sighed. She looked over at her boyfriend who nodded. “I suppose so. I’ve nothing better to do.” She took a breath before singing. Taylor Swift - ME! (Lyrics) Ft. Brendon Urie By the time they finished, both Surprises and Pinkie were bouncing in place. Everyone else was either staring in awe or smiling. The polychromatic teen smiled. “Thanks, but I promise that you’ll never find another like me-e-e!” She winked. Soarin rolled his eyes. “Sure thing, Dash. Sure thing.” Rainbow giggled in response. There was a large pause of silence while everyone sat quietly, eating their meals. A quiet humming sound filled the room just like what happened to the ice queen. Everyone looked at her but she only shrugged, as if saying, "it wasn't me". The humming became clearer and the rainbow-haired girl instantly pinpointed the source of the humming came from Spitfire. Rainbow created a small chunk of ice and tossed it to her friend. "Ouch!" Spitfire cried out after the chunk of ice had hit her head. She looked up at her friend. "Why'd you do that?!" "You were humming," her friend pointed out. Spitfire nodded. "Yes, and your point is...?" Rainbow rolled her eyes. "What song were you humming?" The yellow-skinned girl smiled. "It was one of your new songs. You know, "Good is the New Bad"?" Rainbow blinked in surprise. "You put together a tune for that song? I only put together the lyrics. Hmm, impressive. But wait, I had the thought of having six people sing that song. Have you chosen a part to sing already?" Spitfire nodded. "Well yeah. I thought it would be best for six of us to choose parts and then begin singing." Rainbow placed a fist to her chin as she thought through the idea. She nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. But what would be a good group for this?" Giggles were the next sound to enter the room and Rainbow looked over to see Fleetfoot covering her mouth with her hand. "That's easy. Why not use the group from The Friendship Games? We already had six people picked out." The remaining five girls who participated in the games blinked in surprise before nodding. (I believe it's best to watch the video to this song before reading this so it makes sense of what they're dancing) Good Is The New Bad lyrics RD & S: Call it bad, call it good Call it even if you could Call it good, call it bad It's the best you ever had We know what's hot, what's not We strike a pose and then they take a shot They get in close, they try to run the spot We come to show 'em what we got, we got Fleetfoot and High Winds stood up and joined in. FF & HW It's time to make a stand We breaking through and now we in demand We here for good, it's really not so bad So shout it out and give it all you have Blaze and Misty Fly stopped whatever they were doing and joined their friends. All 6: Bad was all the rage last week But good has got a wicked beat. The six girls began dancing together. All 6: Good is the new bad Good is the new bad We can feel the mad love Gi-gimme more of Bad is the new good Bad is the new good We can feel the mad love I think that we should I think that we should I think that we should Call it bad, call it good Call it even if you could Call it good, call it bad It's the best you ever had FF & HW & MF: We used to love the dark but then we saw the light and felt a spark RD & S & B: We bring the fire and make it better and better Cause good is back and now it's badder than ever All 6: Bad was all the rage last week But good has got a wicked beat. Good is the new bad Good is the new bad We can feel the mad love Gi-gimme more of Bad is the new good Bad is the new good We can feel the mad love I think that we should I think that we should I think that we should Call it bad, call it good Call it even if you could Call it good, call it bad It's the best you ever had Call it bad, call it good Call it even if you could Call it good, call it bad It's the best you ever had Call it bad, call it good Call it even if you could Call it good, call it bad It's the best you ever had Good is the new bad Good is the new bad We can feel the mad love Gi-gimme more of Bad is the new good Bad is the new good We can feel the mad love I think that we should Good is the new bad Good is the new bad We can feel the mad love Gi-gimme more of Bad is the new good Bad is the new good We can feel the mad love I think that we should Call it bad, call it good Call it even if you could Call it good, call it bad It's the best you ever had There was a roar of applause from both humans and ponies. Some even whistled. > Chapter 16: Memories and Dance > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow Dash stood hesitantly in front of the dance studio her vice-principal told her about. She was slowly having second thoughts about doing this, but then recalled what had happened the night before. ~/\~ The ice queen's counterpart, her counterpart's friends, and her friends were sitting in the new ice room, spending time with one another while cracking jokes and telling stories. She remembered when they all decided to all play Truth or Dare and she was being called. The Surprise from her world had dared her to kiss her boyfriend in front of everyone. At first, she couldn't take it seriously due to her laughing so hard until she got a slap in the face from her yellow-haired friend. It took a minute to calm down her laughter, and when she was calm, well, calmer than before, she grabbed her boyfriend by the collar of his shirt and slammed her lips on his. What made it even funnier was that the kiss became something even more leading to them making out and the eleven remaining teens cracked up while the ponies had no words. Her counterpart and her boyfriend's counterpart had both gone red to the face and averted their eyes from looking at each other. When the two teens broke their kiss, they too broke out laughing with the rest of their friends. The ice queen looked over at her counterpart and smirked. "Hey, baby bolt!" She called out. the members of the aerial 'Bolts looked at each other, confused. The ice queen kept her eyes locked on the polychromatic pegasus mare. Her counterpart locked eyes with her and her eyes widened. The mare's face flushed. "Yes?" She asked. The ice queen's smirk grew. She turned to her boyfriend and whispered something into his ear. Soarin's eyes widened as his girlfriend removed her mouth from his ear. His look of shock grew to a smirk. He nodded and the polychromatic girl looked back at her counterpart. "Truth, or dare?" The pegasus looked over at the spot the navy blue-haired boy once sat, but then saw that it was empty. She looked over to see him and his friends whispering to one another. The seven girls giggled. madly. The five boys chuckled. The polychromatic pegasus mare took a breath. "I...choose dare." The teens all had to either hide back their giggles, squeals, or chuckles at what was going to happen next. The ice queen could barely keep it in. She snorted as she spoke. "I *snort* dare you *snort* to kiss *snort*-" She couldn't finish her sentence as she covered her face with her hands. She took a breath and whisked a hand around and created a message on the floor. "I dare you to kiss your co-captain" The mare's eyes widened in shock and horror. All the ponies gathered around her to see the message and either gasped, giggled, snorted, or chuckled. Dash bit her lip, not knowing what to do. she bit the inside of her right cheek. She felt something soft cover her back which caused her to turn in the direction it came from. She turned over to her left and saw the co-captain of the 'Bolts giving her a heart-melting smile, his wing draped over her back. She returned the warm smile with a slight tinge of pink on her cheeks and the two blocked out what was going in around them. Soarin wrapped his second wing around her back, pulling her closer to him as she rested her hooves on his shoulders. The stallion held her cheeks in his hooves as the two continued to smile warmingly. Their faces inched closer, and as they did, their eyes began to flutter shut. Then, it happened. The moment Rainbow's lips touched Soarin's, she felt as if she'd been taken to heaven. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him close, afraid he was going to slip away. The two broke the kiss and sighed. The two pegasi pressed their foreheads and smiled at one another. Soarin playfully growled causing the small pegasus mare to giggle as he pulled her so she was sitting in his lap, her back to his chest as she rested her head on his chest while he rested his head upon hers. It was only then that they noticed that the room had gone quiet. They opened their eyes to see their counterparts smiling at them, sitting in the same position they were in. The ice queen cleared her throat. "You're probably wondering why the room went quiet and why we're the only ones here?" The two pegasi nodded. "Well, I had the others leave the room to go to my room. Anyway, I wanted to ask, how did that feel?" The two pegasi gave her questioning looks. The navy blue-haired boy took over. "She means, 'how did the kiss feel'?" The two pegasi looked at each other for a moment before smiling. The polychromatic pegasus mare blushed a little bit as she spoke. "It was...nice? I suppose." The stallion sitting behind her nuzzled her ear with his muzzle which caused a shiver to run down her spine. "I could say the same thing." He chuckled as he whispered into her ear." Rainbow's cheeks darkened. The two teens sitting in front of them smiled. The ice queen closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again. "I guess it just takes time for your feelings to show themselves which reminds me of the time I had to find the truth about my powers and where it was calling me to." The pegasus mare snorted. "I'm assuming there's a song hidden in there?" The ice queen rolled her eyes and nodded. "Yes. Yes, there is." Idina Menzel, Evan Rachel Wood-Show Yourself (From “Frozen 2”/Lyric Video) (Just listen to the song. I'm not going to put the lyrics in.) Once she finished there was a large moment of silence and the ice queen cleared her throat. "Sorry, that was a bit much," which caused her boyfriend and the two pegasi to laugh. She joined in on the laughter. "But, yeah. That's where I found where my magic was calling me and I found the truth about myself." The polychromatic pegasus put a hoof to her chin and looked away for a moment before looking back at the girl. "But how did you leave your house without your parents noticing?" The girl's cheeks darkened. "I, uhh, snuck out one night when the calls became too strong." The stallion in the room rolled his eyes. "Well, that seems like the greatest thing to do, doesn't it?" The girl rolled her own eyes, knowing that he had a point. "Well, mister smartypants, what would you have done if it was calling you?" The stallion remained silent, realizing that she had a point. "I rest my case." The mare and navy blue-haired boy chuckled in amusement. The navy blue-maned stallion shook his head but smiled. ~/\~ After recalling the memory, the rainbow-haired girl opened the unlocked door. Once she entered the large dance studio, she saw a woman dancing in the middle of the wooden floor. She turned around from her dancing to look at the newcomer. She smiled at her. "You must be Rainbow Dash, am I right?" Rainbow nodded her head. "Yeah, that's me." The woman nodded her head. "Wonderful. You may set your things down against the back wall and we can do some introductions." Rainbow nodded her head once again and set her things down against the back wall. After taking her shoes off, she walked to the center of the wooden dance floor where the young woman was sitting. She sat down with her. "Since I already know who you are, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Morning Mist and I'm a friend of Firefly, who's your Vice-Principal." Rainbow nodded. "When Firefly told me about your dancing skills, I was surprised and wowed. There aren't a lot of people who can stand and dance on point. The majority of people who can are ballet dancers but it's a talent not all people have. So tell me, how did you get into dancing?" Rainbow put a hand on her chin, trying to rewind when she started dancing. "Well, one of the most recent dance pieces I've done, besides the one that I did at my school was with a group of girls when we were doing a fundraiser which involved us creating a dance video. At first, on the first try we didn't turn out too well, but then we got some help and made our dance moves nicer. Then, I found that I had a talent for breakdancing because of my flexibility. After that, I decided to try other types of dance styles that are now built into my body, allowing me to choreograph my dances. Now I want to continue doing that because it's fun. I also made a new dance with six of my friends which turned out enjoyable." Mist put a fist to her chin and smiled. "That's a fascinating story you have and I believe that it's always nice to create new work. Since you're describing choreographing excitingly, you must enjoy it." Rainbow nodded her head. "Yeah, I do like it. It's a workout, but it's the kind of workout that you get to create." Mist nodded again. "Wonderful. Now, shall we get started?" This time, Rainbow nodded. "Now, knowing that you've done a group dance before, I'm going to teach you one that will put your flexibility to the test." The rainbow-haired girl nodded her head. She was always up for a challenge. "Oh, and before you do, I recommend putting your shoes back on. They help." Dash nodded and slipped back into her shoes. DJ Snake - Taki Taki ft. Selena Gomez, Cardi B, Ozuna - Dance Choreography by Jojo Gomez Ft. Nat Bat It took the teen about an hour and a half for her to master the small dance. This was the kind of movement she liked. To expand her movements instead of keeping her arms and legs close to her body. She also liked the speed of the dance and how it matched the music. Since she was an athlete she loved speed. She also liked how she could add her touch to the piece she was taught. To make it even better, she went all out on the dance to show that she was really into the dance and the music. Morning Mist was impressed. "I take it you liked it?" Rainbow nodded her head. "Yeah, I have to admit. That was pretty fun. Puts up challenges and I love them. I'm sure my friends would too." Morning Mist smiled. "You have lots of talent, more talent than I'm seen in any other teenager I've taught. Shall we try something different?" Rainbow smiled excitedly. Another dance to learn? She was soo in. "I'm in." Mist smiled wide JASON DERULO feat. FRENCH MONTANA - "TIP TOE", Choreography by @nikakljun Dash gasped for air. Another hour and a half had passed and she was exhausted but happy. She couldn't believe she was nervous at first when she just had one of the best experiences of her life. She walked over to where she'd left her bag and grabbed her water bottle. After gulping down about half of her bottle, she walked back over to Mist who'd also gotten a drink of water. She smiled at the teen. "So," she spoke slyly with a smirk on her face, "do you have songs you've already written that could become a dance piece?" The rainbow-haired girl put a finger to her chin. "I do have a song that I wrote and was thinking of making choreography too." She looked up at the woman next to her. "Could we spend time thinking of some ideas?" Mist chuckled. "I don't see why not. I have a lot of fun choreographing dances." Dash bounced on the balls of her feet. This was going to be so much fun! It wasn't the first piece she choreographed since she performed it with the girls from Crystal Prep, but still, it was fun no matter what. ~/\~ The two had spent a lot of time figuring out the motions for the dances, the tempo, the transitions from each little bit that she created separately, and so much more. By the time the rainbow-haired girl checked the time on her phone again, it was already about three in the afternoon. She sighed in shock but let out a deep breath and sighed happily. She turned around to face Morning Mist. "Thanks for today. It was really helpful and now I made a mental note to myself to expand my movements in my dancing."Mist smiled. "Oh, it wasn't a problem. I'm just glad you had fun. That's the most important part about dancing." Rainbow nodded her head. "Yeah. I guess so." Dash bit her lip. "Is there anything you need now? Do I have to give you something in exchange?" Mist chuckled. "Oh, no. It's fine. This class was more about getting to know you and your flexibility. I'm glad you had fun though. I wish you lots of luck, Rainbow Dash." Rainbow smiled as she collected her things. "Thank you," she said as she walked out the door. ~/\~ As Rainbow drove to one of the many parks in Cloudsdale to get ideas, her mind raced with different thoughts about how to start her dance classes. If they were going to be her dance classes, she needed the classes to match different personalities like the ones she already made. Once she reached the park, she walked out onto the grass with her bag and sat down. She pulled out a notebook and pencil and began writing a brand new song. After a few failed attempts, ripped pages, and groans of frustration, she wrote a few songs for the five boys and a few songs for the girls and herself. Boys: -What Makes You Beautiful -Best Song Ever -Drag Me Down -Live While We're Young -They Don't Know About Us -I Want It That Way -Gold -Love Me Again -Blame -Safe And Sound Girls: -Kiss Me More -Die, Young -Toxic -Break A Sweat -You Need To Calm Down -Good 4 u -Ugly Heart -Shake It Off Dash: -Up -Shower -No Excuses -Me Too -No Good -Gold -Levitating -Ain't Your Mama -Alejandro -Sorry Not Sorry -I Need Your Love -Freak The Freak Out All or some: -On The Floor -Dance Again -Just Dance -Stay With Me Okay, maybe more than a few. This is what happens when she's in the zone of writing new songs. Rainbow smiled at her work and sighed before snapping her book closed. "My god, I just wrote thirty-four new songs. How is that even possible? You know what, I'm not even going to try to answer that question. Okay, let's see, first things first; get everyone together so we can talk about me becoming a dance teacher. Then tell them about the fifteen songs I wrote. Finally, start choreographing new dances." Dash flopped down on her back on the grass. "Am I doing all of this? Will I have time to teach dance classes with sports and music? Maybe I should do classes on days when I have nothing going on. That's probably the best thing to do." She sighed. "How did I get myself into this mess." She closed her eyes before taking a deep breath. She opened her eyes and reached into her bag to grab her phone. She turned on her phone and saw on the lock screen she'd two missed calls from her boyfriend, two missed video calls from her boyfriend, eight missed group video calls, and about fifty group texts from her twelve friends. Dash sighed. How had she not seen the texts and not heard the calls? Oh, wait. Now she remembered. She was in a dance class learning two dance pieces and choreographing one more. She shook her head before opening a new video call with her friends. A few seconds after she started the call, twelve faces popped up on her screen. All of them wore frowns. Rainbow's expression saddened and she spoke. "Hey, guys." Surprise's voice was blared right out of the speaker "WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T YOU PICK UP YOUR FUCKING PHONE?!?!" Dash gave her a deadpan stare. "Did you guys forget that I had a dance meet-up with the dance teacher Vice-Principal Firefly recommended? That's why I couldn't pick up your calls. I didn't have my phone right next to me because it was in my bag. Only saw the messages now." Soarin pinched the bridge of his nose through the screen. "Ugh! We're such idiots for forgetting that. I remember that it was on the top of my head, then it slipped. Sorry that you had to see these crazy texts." Rainbow smiled and chuckled a bit. "Heh, it's fine. I didn't even look at them so thanks for giving me a hint on what they are." Everyone laughed. Blaze spoke next. "How was dance class anyway? Was it good?" RD nodded. "Yeah, it was good. I learned a few dances, she helped me choreograph another dance, and talked about my talent for dancing." They all smiled on her screen. Something clicked in her head. "Hey, just out of curiosity, where are you guys right now? I would like to share some news my dance teacher told me about." Spitfire easily named everyone off. "Blaze is with High Winds at my place due to us being half-sisters, Fleet's at her place, the Streak twins are at home, Lightning's at her place, Rapid's at his place, Surprise's at her place, Misty's at her place, Wave's at his place, and finally, Soarin's at his place." "Wow. Smart one." Dash told herself. "What about you, Dash?" Rainbow laid back onto the grass and sighed as the wind flew past her. She quietly thanked Gale for the breeze. "I'm at one of the many parks in the city. Maybe we should meet somewhere private so we can talk without any eavesdroppers. I think it's something worth talking about so I'm thinking we could meet up at, well, you know what, fuck that earlier thought. Meet me at Cloudsdale Central park close to CHS. You'll find me sitting on the grass." Everyone nodded and waved goodbye. > Chapter 17: Our Music Brings Us Together > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow Dash laid down on the grass patiently as she waited for her friends to show. Just as she was about fall asleep, she heard someone speak to her. "So what's this big news that you have for us, Dashie?" Rainbow turned around to see her boyfriend standing behind her. She smiled, stood up, and walked over to hug him. The couple shared a sweet embrace for a minute before separating. "So the surprise?" Soarin pushed again. Rainbow giggled. "I'll tell you when the others get here." "Well lucky for you, we are here." Dash turned around to see the remaining eleven members of her friend group. She sighed and sat back down on the grass. Her friends followed. "So what's the big surprise, Dash?" Fleetfoot asked her friend. Rainbow bit her lip. "Well, I kind of already told you guys the news on the video call." Everyone gave her confused looks." Surprise pushed in. "And that is...?" Dash chuckled. "We performed two choreographies together, and we started working on another one." Misty clapped her hands excitedly. "Does that mean you're going to teach us the dances?" The rainbow-haired girl nodded her head. "Yup. That's exactly what I mean." The girls then squealed in excitement while the boys cheered for her. Rapidfire gently slapped her shoulder. "It'd better be fun." Dash rolled her eyes. "That's what dance is all about. And if it weren't, I wouldn't be doing it." Spitfire wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Well, thanks to you, we love music and dance. You have the talent to write songs and create crazy choreographies. And, hey, speaking of which, do you have any new songs for us?" Rainbow smiled and pulled out her notebook to show to her friends. When they saw all the new songs, they were flabbergasted. Misty nearly choked on her spit. "How is it possible that you could write that many songs in one day?" Rainbow smirked. "Talent my friend. It takes talent. And because I had a lot on my mind to give lots of inspiration." Everyone broke out laughing. None of them noticed that one of the voices of laughter had died down. Soarin turned away and bit his lip. It was only when the laughter had died down, did Rainbow notice her boyfriend was not part of the group. She and the others looked over at him, concerned. Dash put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, you okay?" Soarin shook his head no. "What's wrong?" The boy took a breath. "Well, I just wanted to ask, are the rest of us allowed to write songs for the band?" Dash stared at him incredulously. Was he serious? "Soarin, of course, the rest of you can write pieces for the band for everyone to share. I'm completely fine with it. Why do you ask?" Soarin took a breath. "I...uuhhh...I wrote a song for the band if that's okay with you." Rainbow smiled while Blaze burst out laughing. Rainbow’s expression flipped as she turned to her and frowned. "You? Hahaha!" Blaze laughed."Did you write a song? Hahahaha!! I would've never imagined the day you'd do that. Hahahaha!!!" Rainbow growled. Spitfire walked over to her half-sister and smacked her upside the head. "OW! What the fuck was that for?!" Spitfire crossed her arms. "For being a bitch and practically saying that Soarin can't write songs." Blaze rolled her eyes. "Well sorry. I didn't mean it." Spitfire shook her head. "Well, that's how it came out as. So how about you calm down so we can hear what he says?" Blaze grumbled something under her breath before turning back to her friend. Soarin cleared his throat. "Well, I kind of represented it kind of like how we're facing things. It's kind of like an adventure of a lifetime. Heh, that's the name of the song." Rainbow held her boyfriend's face in her hands. "Soar, that's wonderful! Can you show us the song?" Soarin bit his lip. "Eh, hehe. I kinda left my songbook back at home," he chuckled embarrassedly. Everyone chuckled. Misty jumped in. “Now that you mention that we can write songs for our group, I also wrote a song or two.” Dash clapped her hands. Wave stepped forward. "Yeah, same. I just finished writing one before we arrived." Rainbow blinked. "Really?" Wave nodded. "Mmm-hmm. And I was thinking that maybe Soarin could take the part as lead singer. I realized that only us guys would sing the song, but you girls could play the instruments because we're all Wonderbolts, and Wonderbolts look out for one another." He looked towards the navy blue-haired boy. "So what do you say? Are you okay with that?" Everyone went quiet as they looked over at Soarin. Soarin bit his lip, unsure how to respond. But when he looked over at his girlfriend and saw her nod, he knew she was supporting him 100%. He took a breath. "Okay. I'll be the lead singer for that song. And, well, the song I wrote would be for us guys only, so I could probably take the lead there, too. The girls could still play their instruments in the band if that's okay?" The girls nodded their heads. Rainbow placed a hand on Soarin's shoulder. "You'll do great! And, umm, I was thinking." She turned around to face her friends. "Would it be okay if we changed our band name to the Wonderbolts? I mean, I know we already are the Wonderbolts, it's just that it feels a bit better now that we're all here." Surprise squealed excitedly. "Well of course we can change it! We're Wonderbolts and nothing's gonna get in our way!" Everyone laughed and Rainbow bit her lip as she thought to herself for a moment. She shook her head and turned back to her friends who kept laughing and telling jokes. "What's so funny?" She asked. Misty snorted. "Oh, we're just laughing at how lame the Wondercolts are. I mean, they even stole our name. For one, Cloudsdale was founded before Canterlot, giving Cloudsdale High School the right to name itself the "Cloudsdale Wonderbolts". But about two years after our CHS was built, Canterlot built their high school and decided to call themselves the "Canterlot Wondercolts". They took our name and swapped one letter out for another changing Wonderbolts, to Wondercolts. I mean seriously, come on." Misty looked back at her friend. "And, uuhhh, sorry. We forgot that you used to go there." Dash shrugged. "It's fine. I just now know the truth about my old school and how it's kind of like a lame knockoff of Cloudsdale." The other students around her nodded in agreement. "It's a pretty stupid, idiotic, dumb move to just take something from one school and change it before making that part yours. It's completely wrong. I mean, Canterlot didn't even ask permission to take something that was originally made in Cloudsdale and then change it to make it theirs. That's just mean." Everyone nodded. "But the one thing I know about us Wonderbolts is that we're better than we ever were before and we aren't backing down from the next Friendship Games." Misty ran up to her friend and wrapped her arms around her. "Oh hell yeah. We're so gonna beat Canterlot's butt." Everyone laughed but agreed 100% with what she said. Rainbow shook her head. "Anyway, should we focus on the task at hand?" Everyone blinked for a moment before Dust slapped her forehead as the others stared in complete confusion. "Ugh, assholes. She's talking about the dance class. She was asking for help on putting it together and you decide to sit there like idiots?! What the fuck is wrong with you people?!" Dash smiled as she facepalmed, shook her head, and quietly chuckled. Soarin cleared his throat before speaking. "I agree with Lightning Dust. Besides talking about the next Friendship Games with Canterlot, we should help Dash out with her new job as a dance teacher." They all nodded and turned to their polychromatic friend who'd grabbed a notebook from her bag and had begun writing in it. They all watched in amazement as she worked so fast. She then moved to the ground as she began to sketch something out. They all sat down around her as she held up her finished drawing. It was more of a mini sign than artwork that read "JWDC", and right below it read "Junior Wonderbolt Dance Center". The twelve teens were impressed. "Is that the name of the dance center you've come up with?" Rapidfire asked and Rainbow answered with a nod. The boy nodded. "Sounds nice. Do you think that it would be okay if we helped you teach dance classes?" Rainbow Dash snorted. "You guys are my best friends. I would love to have you guys help me with this. It's the whole reason why I asked you to come here in the first place." Soarin wrapped an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders. "I think that it's a wonderful idea." Everyone nodded and smiled in agreement. This caused the rainbow-haired girl to sigh in relief and she smiled. “Great. I was worried for a moment. Now, maybe I could teach you guys the songs I wrote. We can worry about the choreography later. I’m not in a rush about that.” Everyone nodded and Dash began showing them the songs she wrote. She tore out the pages of her notebook with the songs for the boys, and the songs for the girls, and kept her songs in the book. They were all impressed. And while they all looked through the songs, Dash began making small movements while mumbling to herself. “A sidestep here, then a hip roll. Maybe a jump. A few hits and some more sharp movements here too. Now, what about-“ she stopped herself. With a second Friendship Games coming up, maybe there should be a different rally song. Something to pump up the students and have her friends join. Some dancing too would be fun. She snapped her fingers and ran to grab her notebook. Her friends stopped talking to one another when she sat with them. "How about a new kind of rally song? Unlike the one I performed for the last Friendship Games, why don't we sing one together? Maybe add some choreography to it as well. What do you think?" Surprise and Fleetfoot squealed, Misty Fly clapped her hands in a quick pattern, Blaze and High Winds high-fived one another, Spitfire and Lightning Dust fist-bumped one another, and all the boys cheered in excitement. "Alright," Rapidfire spoke up, "let's get this song started." Dash nodded, and since this song was meant to get the other students pumped up for the games, the song had to give that motivation. They spent a short time outside writing the song before deciding to head to Dash's place to continue. After they had the touch of lyrics, they decided to leave it at that. It was Saturday night so they still had time to practice on Sunday before school started again as well as the beginning of studies for the upcoming Friendship Games. They spent all of Sunday together before heading their way to get ready for Monday. ~/\~ Monday came, and just as they all expected, they'd begun studies for the games. The first three classes dragged on for what felt like forever until they finally met up together in the cafeteria. The rainbownette took a large gulp of the coffee she'd brought with her, knowing she'd feel tired no matter how much sleep she got. She set down her thermos and began eating her lunch again. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to the body to where the hand was attached to. Her boyfriend looked down at her with a concerned expression on his face. "Hey, you okay?" Dash sighed and shook her head no. "I'm just stressed. Why restart our studies when we can just use the info that we learned from the last event?" Fleetfoot nodded her head. "Yeah, I agree with Dash. Why restart the process when we still have the facts that we last used in our heads? Is facing Canterlot that different from Crystal Prep? I doubt it." Fire Streak shook his head. "As much as I'd like to agree with this, there is a reason for this." Rainbow and Fleetfoot looked over at him, confused. Fire Streak sensed it and continued. "Sure we're performing the same event, but it's a different school. Rainbow Dash, when you last played against CPA, were the things you did previously the same as the ones we did here?" The girl in question hummed to herself before she gasped. She spoke quietly to herself. "How did I not realize it sooner?" She looked back up at her friends. "The things we performed were the same, but the last bit, which was solving the equation on the chalkboard, was the one different. The only different thing was the equation. Other than that, nothing changed." Her friends looked at one another. Surprise spoke next. "So why restart the studies in the first place?" The rainbownette sighed, shrugged her shoulders, and held her head in her hands. "I don't know, Surprise. I don't know. However, the next time we have a chance, I want to create the melody of our song and record it. Does that sound like a plan?" Her twelve friends nodded. ~/\~ After the three remaining classes passed, the school bell rang and the day ended. As much as the friend group would have wanted to hang out with one another, they all knew that it was best to head separate ways to do their assignments. As it was something she didn't want to do, Dash kept her nose in her textbooks given by her teachers to finish jotting down notes and other important work that would possibly be necessary for the games. She was about finished when she began humming the tune of one of the songs she'd recently written. Becky G-Shower (Lyrics) She sighed and smiled in satisfaction when she finished all of the chunks of work that needed to be completed. She thought of calling her friends, but she'd most likely interrupt their studying so she pushed the thought aside. There was no point in writing more songs since she didn't have any inspiration on her mind, and she was too tired, meaning her choice of playing with her magic was a no-go. However, when she looked over at the large, double-ice-doors, a thought did cross her mind. Maybe there was something for her to do after all. > Chapter 18: The Friendship Games 2.0: Part 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday. Today was the day. The day of the second Friendship Games. There was about an hour and a half before the buses arrive and for everyone to depart to Canterlot High. Word got out that Dash and her friends were performing a new rally song and everyone was now gathered in the gym. The group had divided into girls and boys. Soarin walked in front of the boy's group. "Alright, Cloudsdale. Are we ready to win this game?!" Everyone cheered in excitement. "All right! Let's get fired up!" Surprise clicked a button on Dash's phone which turned on the music to the song and the boys began the song. Cast - ZOMBIES - Fired Up (from ZOMBIES) (Official Video) By the time they finished, all the students and staff were cheering. Dash stepped in front. "What do you say, Cloudsdale! Are we ready?!" Everyone cheered again before they all got ushered out of the building to the buses outside the school. When the thirteen students found their seats, they all high-fived one another in accomplishment, finally relieved that that was complete. Dash bit her lip as the buses departed the school. ' Now I just have to deal with going back to my old school.' ~/\~ On the way to Canterlot, the buses had to take a detour along the way due to the main bridge that directed most of the traffic on the freeway, and quite a bit of the surrounding area was destroyed when the meteorite hit a few months prior. Rainbow was sitting with her friends in the middle of the bus. She was listening to music through her earbuds, trying to relax. it was working and she sighed in relief. At least there was something that calmed her down besides being hugged by her boyfriend. She didn't know when it happened, but she'd somehow fallen asleep on the ride to Canterlot High. She shook her head, happy that her thoughts had been cut off that way she wouldn't have to worry throughout the entire ride. She looked down at her shirt and smiled. She remembered wearing the fake ears and tails that Rarity made, but the gold-plated pins they wore, which were a lightning bolt with a pair of wings, made her heart warm, made her smile, and made the weight of discomfort on her shoulders remove. She looked out the window, watching the neighborhoods become more and more familiar. She sucked in a deep breath, let it out, and leaned into Soarin's embrace next to her. He looked down at her and she looked up at him. They smiled at one another and gave each other a gentle kiss before the boy looked back down at his phone and the girl looked back out the window. After some time, Soarin looked back down at her. "How are you feeling?" Dash only shrugged her shoulders, not wanting to elaborate any further. Soarin nodded his head, not wanting to push her. He knew Dash had a sensitive side and that she disliked bringing it out, especially in front of a large group of people, like a school, so he didn't say anymore. Soarin looked back at the rest of their friend group to see them talking loudly to each other, enjoying their presence, even though they hung out together every single day. The blue-haired boy only chuckled and smiled at their connection to one another and noticed that they'd gotten even closer when they got Rainbow back. Speaking of Rainbow, he began hearing her hum a small tune to herself and he began to listen. It was a calm song, probably trying to reassure herself of what would come next. After all, visiting a school that hated you is something that isn't fun at all. "What song is that?" He randomly asked. Dash blinked in surprise before responding. "It's one of my new songs. It's called "No Good". The meaning of it is about knowing that someone isn't good for me but wanting them anyway." Soarin blinked. "Is...is that how you..." Rainbow shook her head. "No, no! To be honest, I think I wrote it because it just felt good to dance to." Her boyfriend nodded, relaxing a bit. The ride lasted some time longer before Vice-Principal Firefly spoke. "Just a quick heads up, we'll be approaching Canterlot High School shortly so I hope everyone's ready for the second Friendship Games of the year." Rainbow let out a heavy sigh. The second event in a single year. Things were really going her way. (Note the sarcasm). Dash looked down at her hands. She'd decided to wear gloves just in case anything got out of hand, and she meant literally. She then crossed her arms and looked out the window again. She just wanted it to end so she could head back home so she wouldn't have to deal with this. ~/\~ By the time the busses stopped in front of her old school, Dash felt as if her lungs had collapsed. She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder to see Lightning Dust. The two walked out of the bus they were riding in together. "Freak the freak-out, Dash! We can do this! We wonderbolts are going to win this shit! Can't believe Canterlot took our name and "edited" it. It's fucked up. Plus, the upside is that they haven't even one a single game against us!" She put her hand between the two of them. "You ready to take them down?" Rainbow Dash blinked at first, then smirked and put her hand on top of her friend's hand. "Oh yeah. No one gets past the Wonderbolt's territory. We're so gonna win." A baby blue hand was placed on top of hers. The two girls looked over to see Soarin. "Wonderbolts for life!" More hands were piled on top. The thirteen teens smiled and cheered. "GO WONDERBOLTS!!" They all broke out laughing and followed the other students into the high school that took their name. As soon as the thirteen friends walked inside the building, they stopped cold. Inside the main entrance were all the students from Canterlot. The students from both schools glared at one another. Rainbow didn't see her former friends yet, but she knew they'd come into eye view soon. Her eyes kept scanning the crowd of students, and soon, she finally found them. Six girls, grouped, glaring at the other school but not her. Rainbow looked away. She took a breath, closed her eyes, shook the nervousness and magic, clenched her fists, and looked back at the opposing team with a death glare. She could've sworn she saw some of the students flinch in fear The two principals and two vice principals stood between the two groups. "Good morning students. I'm sure you're all thrilled to start the first day of the Friendship Games. Our competitors will face off in every aspect of the Canterlot High curriculum combating the equation elimination finally. "Welcome to the first event." Vice-Principal Firefly spoke as the schools glared at one another. "The academic decathlon. You'll be scored on chemistry, Home Ec, and everything in between. But remember, only the six students from each team with the most points will move on to number two. Good luck." (AN: Just a quick note for everyone. Just like the last games, don't pay much attention to the actual lyrics in the video, pay more attention to the one in the story. There will be some changes to the lyrics just like in the last Friendship Games. Sorry if I didn't mention that earlier, but that's just the way it is. Please note that the changes will be fixed to fit Cloudsdale better than Canterlot. Also, I'll be color-coating the different schools with blue for the Wondercolts and yellow for the Wonderbolts. The last few lines for the two separate students at the end of the song will be sung by Sunset Shimmer, whose text will be red because it's one of her hair colors, and Rainbow Dash, whose text will be in magenta. The text color when everyone sings at one will be black. As for the equation elimination finally, the equation will be at the bottom of the song lyrics. Love you guys!!) MLP/Lyrics: Acadeca (You’ve got nothing on us) -EQ/Friendship Games Ho! We're gonna take you down Ho! We're gonna take you down! Take you down! (Ho! We're gonna take you down!) Take you down! (Down, down, down) (Oh oh!) We're here to take you out (Aw aw!) We're here to take you out (Aw, aw) Take you out! (We're here to take you out) Take you out! We're not about to let you win, so get out of our way Think you got us beat, but we're here to stay United strong, yeah, we'll take you down You're not so tough, now you're in our town All of the times we lost before Not about to give up, we're bringin' it more We can smell your fear, we can see your sweat Hope you didn't spend money 'cause you've losin' this bet You've got nothin' on us Na, an, na-na-na, na Let's go, Wondercolts! You've got nothin' on us Na, na, na-na-na, na Let's go, Wondercolts! Talk a little too much for a school that never wins Maybe you should just stop 'fore you even begin We are Cloudsdale High and we have a reputation Every little moment is about our education Put your ear to the ground Listen to that sound You're a house of cards And it's about to fall down (fall down) About to fall down (fall down), hit the ground You've got nothin' on us Na, na, na-na-na, na Let's go, Wonderbolts! You've got nothin' on us Na. na, na-na-na, na Let's go, Wonderbolts Preasure's on, now we're gonna beat you Step aside, it's time that we defeat you Cloudsdale will fail 'cause you're about to go Down, down, down, down Preasure's on, now we're gonna take you Just give up before we have to break you Canter-not-a-lot, you're about to go Down, down, down, down Take it up to the top 'Cause we know we can win Maybe you should just stop 'Cause we've seen you give in We believe in ourselves And we've got what it takes And we're not gonna stop I can't wait 'till this is all over There's so much more that's going on Before these games are finally over I'll find out just what she's done Can she do it? Will she make it? Who will win it? Who will take it? Can she do it? Who will take it? Did she win it? Did she make it? Who's the winner? Who's the reject? How did she answer? Vice-Principal Firefly pointed at Sunset Shimmer. Incorrect! Rainbow sighed in relief when Vice-Principal Firefly pointed at Sunset instead of her. Sunset hung her head in defeat, knowing what was going to happen next with the rest of the school. Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Twilight walked to their friend. "I can't believe I lost to Rainbow Dash! How did she get so good?" Fluttershy cleared her throat. "Well, she did join one of the most competitive schools so it would make sense that she was able to get good grades and answer that question." The girls all nodded, then looked over at the rainbow-haired girl who was surrounded by five other female Cloudsdale students. Something flicked in Rainbow's head just like the last games. Six students would be chosen from each school. Six. Six out of the thirteen. She and five other friends would be competing in the next event. 'Great. What next? There's most likely going to be Equestrian magic in this situation. What's gonna happen now? Am I gonna lose a glove and the ice is going to go out of control? Will the natural elements go out of control? I hope not. Not like with CPA. She sighed and shook her head. Fleetfoot, Spitfire, Blaze, Misty Fly, and High Winds all ran onto the stage and hugged her. "You did awesomely!" Fleetfoot cried as she squeezed her friend. Vice-Principal Firefly stepped forward in front of the crowd again. "After a careful tally of the points, we'd like to present the students moving onto the Friendship Games' second event." All the students from Cloudsdale and Canterlot cheered. The six girls from Cloudsdale bit their lips, as did the remaining seven friends. Dash looked over at her old friends for a brief second before looking away. She felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and looked to see Blaze smiling at her. Dash knew what it meant. It's going to be okay. Rainbow nodded and smiled as she took a breath. Yeah. Everything was going to be okay. Hopefully. > Chapter 19: The Friendship Games 2.0: Part 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since they had time before the tri-cross relay, Dash decided to show her twelve friends around the Canterlot High School campus. Surprise almost fell asleep a few times while resting her head on Soarin’s shoulder because she kept complaining about how the school wasn’t as awesome as theirs. Rainbow had to agree. Even after being at the other CHS for a few months, even she could say that her new school was much better than her old school. Soon the tour was over and she lead them to the field. It was set up like the last time Rainbow remembered when she first played against CPA. All five boys and the two remaining girls once again cheered for the six who got to participate. Surprise kept jumping in place. "Awe yeah! You guys are so lucky! This is going to be the best thing ever! Maybe even better than the last games!" She suddenly stopped jumping and turned to the rainbow-haired girl who continued to look down at her hands. She smiled. "And don't worry, Dashie. You’re doing the motocross with your gloves this time around. I’m positive nothing will go wrong." Rainbow looked up and smiled. Just like the games with CPA, Dash and Spitfire had motocross, Fleetfoot and High Winds got speedskating, and Blaze and Misty Fly got archery. “Just a heads up, last time, when I was at this school, Applejack, the country girl, was doing archery. CPA’s transfer student, Twilight Sparkle, the girl with glasses, will take her place next to Fluttershy. The speed skaters are the same girls from last time. Rarity and Pinkie Pie. And for motocross, we have Sunset Shimmer and Applejack.” She looked back at her friends who nodded. “Let’s go change for the relay.” The six participants waved to their other seven friends and went to get ready while the remaining seven went to sit on the bleachers. Spitfire and RD grabbed their motocross gear, Fleetfoot and High Winds grabbed their bag for speed skating, and Misty Fly and Blaze grabbed their gear for archery. The six friends met outside and smiled confidently. She heard someone clear their throat and looked around at her group of friends. They all shrugged their shoulders. The sound came again and they turned around to see Dash’s former friends standing behind them with their arms crossed all dressed in their gear for the relay. Rainbow gritted her teeth and walked away, the other five Cloudsdale girls followed. She felt someone grab her right wrist which caused her glove to slip off her hand. Rainbow’s eyes widened as she dropped her helmet from under her arm. “Hey! Give me my glove!” She tried to grab it back with her left hand but Sunset pulled her hand and held the fabric tightly. “What’s your plan, Dash?! What’s so important that you have to wear these silk gloves?!” Rainbow was about to speak, but Rarity beat her to it. “They’re satin gloves, darling.” Sunset rolled her eyes as she looked back at the fashionista. While she had focused more on her friend and less on the glove, Misty Fly snatched the glove and gave it back to the polychromatic girl. Said girl gladly took the prized piece of clothing and slipped it back on. Dash growled, picked her helmet up from the ground, and walked away. Blaze slightly pushed Sunset aside as she and the other girls walked away toward the starting lines. Spitfire, Fleetfoot, High Winds, and Rainbow Dash clipped their helmets onto their heads as Misty Fly and Blaze readied their bows and arrows. The two opposing team members from the opposing team got in their places next to their rivals. Dash stayed on the right with Spitfire on her left so the two Canterlot students couldn’t attack her again. ~/\~ All four teachers sat in their secluded seats away from the students. When everyone was ready, Vice-Principal Firefly stood up and walked right up to the microphone. "Welcome everyone to the Friendship Games tri-cross relay.” All the students cheered. "In this event, our qualified competitors will face off in archery, speed skating, and finally, motocross." Rainbow revved her engine as she and Spitfire looked over at the other two, glaring. Firefly spoke again and held a small horn in her hand. "So, if the competitors are ready..." She covered her left ear with her left hand and pressed the small button on the top of the horn, causing the sound to be heard across the field. Misty and Fluttershy jumped over a few hay bails to reach for their bow and arrows. Misty did a final flip to find her target. Right before Fluttershy could shoot, Misty flipped and launched a single arrow, directly hitting the bull's eye. “Heh, showoff,” Dash thought to herself. After two hesitant arrows, the shy girl made an arrow hit the center of her target. Both teams cheered. Blaze did the same as her teammate, making her shot directly at the center of her target. After the arrow made the center, Fleetfoot and High Winds sped off. Like Fluttershy, Twilight took two tries to make the target. After she made it, she and the shy girl gave each other a high five and waved as Rarity and Pinkie sped off to try and catch up to the two racing Wonderbolts. Rainbow bit her lip and clutched the handlebars of her bike tightly. She watched as the four skaters sped around the track. She had to admit. Pinkie and Rarity we good, but Fleetfoot and High Winds were faster. They were beating the Canterlot High students. The speed skaters needed two laps to make their team's motocrossers start. She felt a squeeze on her shoulder and turned to see Spitfire smiling at her. "Let's take 'em down!" She said. The two fist-bumped and looked back at the speedskaters. The two skating Cloudsdale students were in the lead, and at that moment when they crossed the finishing mark, Spitfire and Rainbow Dash sped across the dirt path. The two girls looked behind them to see that Pinkie Pie and Rarity had caught up to the two skaters who made Sunset Shimmer and Applejack behind them. Rainbow smiled. This was going to be a good race. She felt a warm tingling feeling inside her and saw that her suit was starting to change. It had the same blue as the original one, but it had more of an icy wintry look with no yellow. She smiled seeing how cool, no wait, that wasn’t the right word, how awesome it looked. She sped up to Spitfire who also took a glance at her uniform. She looked at her friend. “Nice edits. Say, isn’t good the new bad?” Rainbow blinked. “Depends on what you mean.” Spitfire smiled. “You know that song you wrote that we sing in front of our counterparts?” Rainbow nodded. “Well, you also know how we’re such big show off’s, right?” Rainbow nodded again. “Well, why don’t you warn the other girls that we’re gonna sing that song, and we’ll show off and dance on our bikes?” Rainbow’s jaw dropped. “Are you crazy?! Why would you even think of doing something like that!?” Spitfire cleared her throat. “Why not bring a little fun into this?” Dash sighed. She lifted her left hand off the handlebars and pulled off the glove with her lips. With her powers, she threw a snowball at each of her friends on the field. After it hit them, it left a message in the air before the wind carried it away. The words read. “Good is the New Bad” and their eyes instantly widened. They watched the two bikers and nodded. With the help of Spitfire holding one of her handlebars, Dash was able to put her other glove back on. They smiled at each other and nodded. They looked back at the dirt path and crossed the finish line before the two Canterlot students. Cloudsdale cheered and the two teens smiled and they began to sing. Good Is The New Bad (From “Descendants: Wicked World RD & S: “Call it bad, call it good Call it even if you could Call it good, call it bad It's the best you ever had” The two girls jumped onto their bikes so one foot was on the center of the handlebars while the other was on the saddle. They faced each other and began dancing. RD & S: “We know what's hot, what's not We strike a pose and then they take a shot They get in close, they try to run the spot We come to show 'em what we got, we got” The two girls sat back on the bikes, slid off to the side, and jumped off while throwing off their helmets. They walked closer to where their friends were standing. Fleetfoot and High Winds also threw off their helmets and skated to where they were standing. FF & HW: “It's time to make a stand We breaking through and now we in demand We here for good, it's not so bad So shout it out and give it all you have” Blaze and Misty Fly tossed their bows to the ground, unstrapped their quivers from their shoulders, tossed them aside, and walked to their friends. All 6: “Bad was all the rage last week But good has got a wicked beat” The six girls began dancing together. All 6: “Good is the new bad Good is the new bad We can feel the mad love Gi-gimme more of Bad is the new good Bad is the new good We can feel the mad love I think that we should I think that we should I think that we should” “Call it bad, call it good Call it even if you could Call it good, call it bad It's the best you ever had” FF & HW & MF: “We used to love the dark But then we saw the light and felt a spark” RD & S & B: “We bring the fire and make it better and better Cause good is back and now it's badder than ever” All 6: “Bad was all the rage last week But good has got a wicked beat” “Good is the new bad Good is the new bad We can feel the mad love Gi-gimme more of Bad is the new good Bad is the new good We can feel the mad love I think that we should I think that we should I think that we should” “Call it bad, call it good Call it even if you could Call it good, call it bad It's the best you ever had” “Call it bad, call it good Call it even if you could Call it good, call it bad It's the best you ever had” “Call it bad, call it good Call it even if you could Call it good, call it bad It's the best you ever had” “Good is the new bad Good is the new bad We can feel the mad love Gi-gimme more of Bad is the new good Bad is the new good We can feel the mad love I think that we should” “Good is the new bad Good is the new bad We can feel the mad love Gi-gimme more of Bad is the new good Bad is the new good We can feel the mad love I think that we should” “Call it bad, call it good Call it even if you could Call it good, call it bad It's the best you ever had” All the students from Cloudsdale cheered at the performance. Canterlot, on the other hand, didn't know what to do. The other six competitors from the other school were confused. Rainbow Dash had written a song that didn't brag about herself. That was unexpected. The six Cloudsdale competitors sashayed or skated over to them. "How's that for a song I wrote, huh? It isn't about me bragging. That better?" Rainbow smirked and flicked her hair over her shoulder so it fell over her back. Her five friends laughed. Spitfire turned to look at them. "We're definitely looking forward to seeing you at the next competition." She followed her friends as the six of them walked away from the Canterlot group. She looked at the bleachers to see the boys and Surprise and Lightning Dust and nodded to them. They got the gesture and climbed off the bleachers to meet up with the rest of their friends. ~/\~ Sunset glowered at the six competitors who were walking or skating away. "This has to stop. I mean, look at her," she pointed to the prismatic girl, "She's obviously up to something." The other five team members looked at each other with unsure expressions. Twilight spoke first. "Do you think that? I mean, with me I was wearing that necklace that absorbed magic, so that was kind of obvious to see that I was hiding something. But, Dash is only wearing a pair of gloves. Maybe she decided to change the motocross gloves with those? It doesn't seem that bad." She looked over at the other four girls who nodded. Sunset began getting upset. "Are you guys seriously not noticing that while she went to Canterlot with us, she never wore those gloves? Plus the ways she acted when I removed one of them?" The other girls sighed. "Sunset, darling, perhaps you should take a quick breather." Rarity spoke in a calm voice as she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. Sunset closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. She opened her eyes and looked over at the fashionista. "Thanks, Rarity. I needed that." She sighed again. "Okay, let's start this over. Do you girls find it strange that Dash is wearing gloves? I've never seen her do that before." The other five girls looked at each other and nodded. "Now that you mentioned it," Fluttershy spoke, "I've never seen Rainbow wear gloves when we were younger." "Could it be for style or design?" Rarity asked. Applejack frowned and crossed her arms. "What?" Applejack crossed her eyes. "It was obvious that when Sunset took off RD's glove, she seemed desperate to have it back. Maybe fear has somethin' to do with it?" They shrugged their shoulders and looked back at where the Cloudsdale girls were. When they found them, they saw they were with two more girls and five boys. When they found Dash, they found her standing in front of one of the boys with her arms wrapped around his neck and his arms around her waist. What surprised them was when Dash cupped his face and locked her lips with his. The other eleven teens all cheered and clapped at the scene. The two broke the kiss and smiled at one another. A girl with yellow skin and blue hair walked over to Rainbow Dash and whispered something in her ear. When she finished, Rainbow nodded and she whispered it to another girl next to her who was on the motocross next to Dash. She also nodded and the three girls laughed before the girl with blue hair smirked and slapped Dash's ass causing the rainbownette to squeak in surprise and turn to the girl at fault while the other friends laughed at the scene. Applejack snorted. However, when she realized what she did, the Cloudsdale students had already turned their heads to see the six Canterlot students standing behind them. Dash sighed before putting her hands on her hips and flipping her hair over her shoulder. "You know, I really dislike it when you act like this. Let me give you a reason why and my solution to it." She then began singing a new song she'd written. Freak The Freak Out Lyrics The rainbownette danced with her female friends and the smile on her face grew even more. She looked back at the six Canterlot students. "You don't know the real me." Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Sunset, and Twilight looked at each other before looking back at the rainbownette. Twilight spoke up. "So who is the real you? Who's the person we don't know?" Rainbow Dash sighed. She took a moment to think about who she truly was. A few seconds passed before she spoke once again. "I'm a girl with a talent for singing, songwriting, instrument-playing, dancing, and choreographing. I'm a good band leader too. I love being myself and not having others telling me what I can and can't do. It holds back who I am. They're the exact same as me." Her friends nodded in agreement. Dash cleared her throat. "Now, if you'll excuse us. We have to get ready for the last event. See you later." She waved her hand and she and her friends turned away from the six Canterlot students and headed back inside the school. > Chapter 20: The Friendship Games 2.0: Part 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just like in the last competition, Rainbow sat with her friends. Just six fewer people which was fine with her. She let out a heavy sigh and tapped her foot on the ground impatiently. Was there going to be a real competition between them and Canterlot, or would it end in some magical disaster? She felt a gentle hand on her leg to see Blaze gazing at her with a soft smile. "Hey. It'll be okay. This round will be better than the last." Dash let out another sigh before nodding. "Yeah, I hope so." She felt someone rub her arm and looked in that direction to see Soarin sending her a smile this time. This time, Rainbow returned the smile and moved to sit next to him to lean her head against his shoulder. ~/\~ The six Canterlot students looked across the courtyard and watched the thirteen Cloudsdale students laugh with one another. Rainbow Dash wasn't as loud but she still talked to her friends with a smile on her face. However, they frowned when the group of friends across the courtyard looked over at them. It looked like their fun time came to a bust. Rainbow looked away and her facial expression dropped. The six Canterlot girls looked at one another with a bit of, (what was it), sympathy. However, before they could say anything else, their vision turned white. They opened their eyes and found themselves floating in an open space. Twilight panicked and Sunset gasped, both knew what was going on. The six girls cried out in pain as they felt as if thousands of needles were poking them all over. Dash stared in horror at the scene before her. Then she growled. "SERIOUSLY?!?! AGAIN?!?! WHY IS IT HAPPENING AGAIN?!?!" She stood up and watched as a black sphere of magic surrounded the six high-school girls. Suddenly, that black sphere burst open, revealing six demons with different outfits. Dash took a closer look at them and saw that their geodes had all turned black and cracked. She looked at hers, and to her relief, it was still in its natural sparkling blue. She bit her lip. "Could I save them using the same thing I did with Misty? Would it work if I did? The only way to stop them is to use magic. The only one that isn't part of theirs is my ice magic so it has to work. Right?" She sighed and looked back up as they all began opening portals to Equestria. Dash facepalmed. "It's always the same thing." She blew back some of her bangs and hesitantly stepped forward. "So. I see that taking control of Equestria is something every monster we've faced at school has done, right? First Sunset with the Fall Formal." The stated demon growled. "Then the Dazzlings who wanted control of us. Next was Twilight who ended up wanting Equestrian magic at the Friendship Games against CPA." Midnight Sparkle crossed her arms. "I had one against CPA at Cloudsdale not too long ago. And now this? What's wrong with you people?!?!" She took a deep breath. The six demons were silent. The entire courtyard was too. Then the demons growled and Midnight Sparkle shot a blast of magic at the polychromatic girl. Dash jumped in surprise and did a few backflips to escape the beam. Students from both schools backed away to the sides of the school to move away from the fight. Dash crouched down as she looked up at the monsters hovering in the air. The rainbownette stood up but couldn't stay up for long when she got punched in the jaw and was knocked back. She groaned and rolled onto her stomach as she stood up again. She turned around and everyone saw the grass and dirt that smudged the side of her face. "Fine, it seems things will have to be done the hard way then." She slipped her gloves into her pockets and readied her magic when Sunset shot a blast of fire at her. She wasn't the only one either. The remaining five demons did the same Rainbow gasped and she created a wall of ice to protect herself. It didn't help when she saw the demons circling her before shooting fire at her. This time, she created a dome of ice to protect herself as the fire didn't seem to end. She was about to let the magic take over her when she remembered what she did with Misty. "Use you're magic, you idiot. Show them how strong you truly are." She crossed her arms over her chest and then opened them forcefully, opening the dome and sending the demons back. Dash slowly lifted herself into the air and her magic flowed freely as she was consumed in a blue sphere and the magic change her. She smiled as she felt her outfit change into the one she wore when she fought Misty when she was corrupted. She did a small spin on point before letting the bubble containing her burst. The Canterlot students gasped in shock while the Cloudsdale students only smiled, thankful that their savior had arrived. Then the cheering started. " Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!" The polychromatic angel smiled and rolled her wrists, magic swirling in her palms. She watched the six demons before spinning around and blasting Twilight and ducking Rarity's blast before turning to hit Sunset, turning her to ice, then doing the same to Rarity. She folded her wings and flew back to hit Fluttershy and Pinkie in the back, turning them to ice. Applejack flew toward her and the two blasted their magic at one another. The demon gritted her teeth as she tried to push her magic, but it was no use when Dash's magic became stronger than hers and she got turned into an ice statue. Rainbow heard a chuckle behind her and saw Twilight getting closer to one of the portals. Dash refused to let that happen and instantly closed the portals around them. "You won't get away with this, Rainbow Dash." The last demon growled at the angel. However, her reflexes were too slow and by the time she finished speaking, she was also turned to ice. The rainbownette then lowered herself close to the ground and closed her eyes as she and the statues all disappeared. ~/\~ The six demons all gasped when they found themselves in a large field of white. However, the other surprising thing they saw was a beautiful rainbow-haired angel. She crossed her arms. "Explanation?" The six demons bit their lips. Rarity hovered forward. "Well, we've noticed that our geodes had been acting strange after you'd left, and I assume that when you returned, all that magic that had been released returned to us which may be why they came back painfully and why our geodes turned black." Sunset moved toward the duo. "Yeah. Something had happened, and not even Princess Twilight had an idea of what had happened. But, yeah. I guess Rarity has a point." Dash sighed. It did make sense. But wait, Princess Twilight didn't help them? Why? She shook her head. Nevermind. "You know what, forget it. What I do want to know is why I was targeted that day before I left Canterlot." The six girls sighed. Twilight came over. "Honestly, I'm not sure. However, I do remember my geode acting up and I had a weird feeling in my body. Then suddenly my mind feels weird and I have no control over myself." The others nod in agreement. Dash sighed. "Okay then. But why did it make you target me?" Fluttershy spoke. " Well, we were going to talk to you about something, but that's when our geodes took over us." The angel nodded her head and took a breath. It did make sense. Pinkie spoke next. "We never meant to hurt you. We just didn't have control of ourselves and then got the whole school to go against you. We're sorry." It was understandable. "Well, great. Now, let's get out of here. I want to go back to my friends." The demons looked down sadly as they heard Dash call the students from Cloudsdale her friends instead of them. But, then again, they did hurt her and she did transfer so it did make sense. Applejack spoke next. "Ah suppose we should get goin'. Right?" Everyone nodded. They grouped in a circle and held hands, much to the angel's dismay, and the seven teens disappeared from the white field. ~/\~ A blinding white pillar of magic shot down from the sky and hit the center of the school's front courtyard, causing all the students to shield their eyes. From the center, seven girls were lowered to the ground. When they opened their eyes, Dash immediately stepped back closer to her Wonderbolt friends. The six Wondercolt friends were heartbroken as they watched the rainbownette turn her back to them and walked to her friends. Sunset stepped forward. "Dash-" She was cut off. "It's going to take more than that to rebuild our friendship." The twelve Wonderbolts looked over at the six Wondercolts with frowns. The seven girls shook their heads and put their hands on their hips while the five boys crossed their arms. The seven girls sashayed over to the six girls from the other school. Spitfire growled. "I cannot believe what you did to Dash. I may not know the exact story, but what you did was completely unacceptable." The rest of the girls nodded in agreement. "We never meant to hurt the dear. We didn't have control." Rarity tried to explain. "What do you mean by 'you didn't have control'?" Blaze pushed. "We were planning on talking to Dash about a new performance that we could perform at and I guess our geodes started acting funny." Sunset continued. Misty raised a brow. "Really?" Twilight pushed. "Yes! And the next day we came to school we found out that Dash had switched schools. We felt ashamed but knew that we couldn't take anything back since she'd already left." The Cloudsdale girls looked at one another with unreadable expressions. High Winds spoke next. "You're serious?" The Canterlot girls nodded. The Cloudsdale girls bit their lips, unsure what to say. They looked over at Dash who was talking with the boys and sighed. Did she already know about what they said? Did they tell her when they were in that magic area for the amount of time they were gone? Spitfire turned to Lightning Dust. "Hey, Dust." The teal-haired girl looked over at her friend. "Hmm?" "Ask Dash what they," she pointed to the Canterlot girls, "told her when they were in that magic area. Or whatever you want to call it." Dust nodded and walked over to where Dash was talking to her boyfriend and the rest of the boys. The remaining six girls from that school turned back to the rival students. They remained quiet as Dust talked to Dash. The two girls talked and made hand gestures as the rainbownette explained what happened to her friend. They noticed how she was getting frustrated as her gestures became a bit aggressive while Lightning Dust calmed her down. After letting her friend explain what happened, Dust let Dash go back to talking with the boys as she returned to the girls. "Dash said that they," she motioned to the students from the other school, "mentioned what had happened and why they were attacking her. It's the same thing as what they told us." Spitfire nodded her head. She then looked back to the Canterlot girls. "So, according to Dash, you weren't lying about what you told us." Applejack was about to jump at her, yelling that they'd been telling the truth and that she couldn't lie so they had to believe them, but her friends held her back, preventing her from doing so. Sunset sighed. "Yes. That's true. We never wanted to hurt Dash. She was just the first person that was on the top of our minds which is why we went after her." Spitfire sighed. "Well, you're going to give Dash a huge apology about what happened and earn back her trust. She's taken this extremely hard and feels like she's not being appreciated by you guys." Sunset, Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack simply stared at her. All Dash wanted to be appreciated? Was that why she wrote those songs about herself? To make herself feel better? What for? Before any of them could say anything, the seven Cloudsdale girls had walked back to their friends. The six Canterlot girls looked at each other. "What can we do to earn her trust back? I mean, she is the element of loyalty after all so it will be really hard." Fluttershy pointed out. They all sighed knowing that she had a point. Sunset bit her lip before snapping her fingers. "That's it." Her friends turned to her. "What's it, dear," Rarity asked. Sunset smiled. "What if we wrote an apology song and sang it to Dash? Could that work?" Everyone hummed in thought. It could work, it would just have to be a really good and thoughtful apology song. Twilight spoke next. "Yeah, I guess that could work, We'd just need the right song." Fluttershy bit her lip as she put a finger to her chin. "Maybe we could write one together, that way she can know that we all mean it." Everyone hummed in agreement. Now they just needed to write the right song for the rainbownette. Sunset bit her lip. Then her eyes widened. "Oh, how about this." Her friends all turned to her. "So look, we all know that Dash's gone through so much so we need to explain to her that we understand that she's gone through so much." The five other Canterlot students looked at each other. Sunset sucked in a breath through her teeth. "So? What do you think?" Fluttershy sighed before slowly nodding. "I think that that would be a good idea. What about you girls?" She turned to the remaining girls who'd remained silent. Twilight also sighed before speaking. "I might not have known Rainbow as much as you guys, but I believe that we deserve to give her an apology and that idea of a song is a good one, Sunset. I'm in." Sunset and Fluttershy nodded before they looked over at the three remaining girls. Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie bit their lips in hesitation before eventually nodding their heads. Sunset took a breath. "Alright. Here we go." It took some time to come up with the song, but they eventually found a good way to express their emotions through the song. The six girls took deep breaths before turning back to their friend who was chatting with her friends. Girl On Fire As Rainbow listened to the song, she began questioning if she should forgive the six girls, but her heart kept telling her that it wasn't the right move. She sighed and lowered her head. Just hearing the song made her want to change her mind, but she could still feel the pain they gave her physically, mentally, and verbally. She looked back at her friends who were also questioning how they truly should be feeling. They turned to her and everyone shared the same expression. Confusion, doubt, uncertainty,...forgiveness? Dash groaned as she facepalmed and dragged her hand down her face. She had no idea how she should be feeling and she was getting frustrated at that. Soarin watch his girlfriend's expression and how she was trying to figure out the true emotion of how to react to the song. She groaned, facepalmed, and dragged her hand down her face in frustration. Knowing that the situation wasn't going to be getting any better he decided to break the ice. However, before he could, he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Wave Chill leaning over to him. The dark blue-skinned teen spoke quietly. "I have a bad feeling about what's going to happen next." Soarin sighed, nodded his head, and looked over at his girlfriend. This wasn't going to end well unless any of them didn't do anything. Soarin looked back at his friend. "Hey, remember one of the songs we wrote together?" Wave nodded. "Why don't we direct it at Dash so she gets more confident at the moment since it seems like she's having a bit of a hard time?" Wave bit his lip for a moment, thinking through what Soarin was suggesting, but then realized he was right when he saw the state Dash was in. He turned back to his friend. "Okay. Let's do it." Soarin smiled. "Thanks, dude. I'll do something for you the next time either you or Spitfire are in a tough situation." The two chuckled. Soarin then pulled out his phone, pulled a speaker out of Surprise's hair, connected the devices, and began playing a song. Hall of Fame This time when Dash's head popped up when she listened to the song, she smiled. The song's meaning warmed her heart. She always wanted to achieve great things in life and her boyfriend just gave her even more confidence. It was as if he knew that she had more in her and he wanted her to let it out. It was also nice that he had Wave Chill to back him up. She was going to thank him later and give him tips on songs whenever she could and much more. She giggled. "Do you have any other songs like that up your sleeves?" Soarin chuckled. "What, do you want another one?" Rainbow shrugged her shoulders slyly. "Maybe~" The blue-haired boy chortled. "I think I can come up with something." Dash shook her head. "If you don't I have one that could help." Soarin rose a brow but Rainbow only smiled. Unstoppable Soarin smiled when his girlfriend sang her song. So did the rest of their band. In fact, all of the Wonderbolts were smiling. She was a truly talented girl, she sometimes just needed a push in the right direction. This was definitely the right direction. When she finished, there was complete silence, then there was a roar of cheers and applause for the rainbownette. Rainbow smiled, a bit embarrassed, but happy that everyone was cheering for her for showing them that she wasn't giving up yet. She turned to her friends who were whooping, clapping, and cheering her on. She then turned to her boyfriend who gave her the biggest smile of encouragement and love. Not being able to hold back, she ran into his arms, wrapped her arms around his neck while he wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled him into a deep kiss. All of the Wonderbolts from Cloudsdale cheered in excitement for them to celebrate their happiness and Rainbow's confidence. After some time, they broke the kiss but remained in each other's arms, refusing to let go. The Canterlot students knew that they'd lost considering they were the ones who'd started the fight. However, the ones who felt the most awful were the six members of the Rainbooms. They knew that they'd not only lost the games but they'd also lost their friend even more than they'd had before. However, everything changed when Vice-Principal Firefly spoke up. “Due to the actions happening here, we’ve decided to call these games a tie!” All the students cheered and applauded for joy. There was less excitement coming from the Wondercolts, but they were still happy that they'd also won the games in some particular way. Yet, Firefly wasn't done yet. "But one more thing, I believe it’s best to thank Rainbow Dash due to her loyalty to her friends. So it’s most likely best that we give her our best regards for saving all of us.” She walked towards the smiling girl and put a medal around her neck. There was another roar of applause, but this one was being directed to the rainbow-haired girl. The teachers then had all the students form a single file line and put a medal around each of their necks.