Neo Tastsuji aka Zeta Master: Accept OC? You mean like incorporate someone else's OC into a story? No, I don't really do that.

Awesomo3000: I don't really like giving out what happens later on in a story, so I'm just going to make no comment.

UsagiAngelRabbit: I'd say to not think of Chase and Faith as direct counterparts of Alex and Spirit/Athena. In hindsight, they're their own person.

Shadow Solaris: I actually kind of liked writing this. Besides the stuff that already takes place in the movie, a lot of stuff here is pretty original. In the movie you pretty much see things through CHS for the most part, but here, I'm able to mostly show Crystal Prep's side, if you know what I mean.

Foreststar of WindClan: Funny that you mention that. Before, when we only had news about Equestria Girls, but no footage or anything, I actually thought that. "Are they going to have human names? I think it'd be so weird if they keep their pony names." Either way, when the movie came out, despite having pony names, it sort of still fit. I'm pretty sure there's people out there that'll whine if an OC has a 'human' name despite being in this human world. I'm surprised that I haven't heard any whining about pony names being in Equestria, but I suppose the movie is official material, and critics in this fandom sure love their cherry-picking and double standards. All in all, we aren't given much information about how things like magic would translate into this world. We don't even know how Sunset Shimmer is able to exactly live in this world, despite coming from another world. Like did she get a house all on her own or something? Who knows if we'll ever know. It's things like this that makes writing a fanfic kind of hard. It's possible to write in your own lore, but it wouldn't be great in the end if the show just completely shatters it. Sorry, if I kind of started rambling there lol. It's late as I'm writing this and my eyes are pretty tired.

---

After Faith and I checked off our morning preparations and had our usual breakfast, we headed over to school. However, since we really didn't have anything else to do and didn't have to go to class today, we decided to move over to the back where the buses were supposed to be.

There were indeed stationed there, but it didn't look like anyone bothered coming early. It was understandable, I suppose. Especially if you were in the cafeteria having breakfast. Faith and I decided we'd wait for Dean Cadance to show up since she would be the handling the bus situation.

"Cool buses." Faith commented on the look of our transportation as we took a seat on the pavement outside the school doors.

"Only the best for Crystal Prep, I guess." I added, taking notice on how the buses actually looked like the charter ones used for long distance travel. Funnily enough, we were only going a fairly short distance to Canterlot High. I turned to her. "How are you doing?"

She released a calm deep breath. "I'm trying not to think about it."

"If it helps, maybe they won't even recognize or remember you?" I offered.

She chuckled at that. "Yeah, like they're gonna forget about the girl with different colored eyes who caused a scene at the big Freshman Fair."

She had a point… "Who knows?" I hoped. "Maybe big things have happened there that caused them to forget about what happened? After all, Cinch mentioned about some kind of 'change' in that school."

Faith returned a sigh. "I just hope everything goes well."

"Yeah, me too." I agreed and stared at the buses with her silence.

Soon enough, we heard the school doors open, but it was still a little too early for everyone to be coming out. We turned to see Dean Cadance focusing her attention on a clipboard as she walked towards the parking lot.

"Good morning, Dean Cadance." I greeted.

She stopped in her tracks when she noticed us out here already. "Chase. Faith. You two are…early."

"We didn't really have anything better to do." Faith admitted with a sort of shy smile.

"I hope you didn't skip breakfast." Dean Cadance began concerning herself.

We shook our heads.

"We're fine." I said.

"Good. Let's see if we can board you two already." Dean Cadance began walking towards the bus we were supposed to get on, having us follow behind her.

As we came close, I noticed that there was some kind of mounting on the back of the bus. I only realized a short time later that these buses were equipped with a bike rack.

"No way. This bus can hold bikes too?" I mentioned out loud, letting Faith know of my astonished discovery.

"You want to go back and get it really quick?" She asked.

"Nah…" I responded after thinking for a second. "I wouldn't really know where to leave it over at Canterlot High. I'd think they'd have bike stands or something, but I'm not too sure. I guess we can just take a look over there first, and then I could probably bring my bike tomorrow."

"Last I remember, I think they did." Faith believed.

"Well, I guess we'll just make sure." I crossed my arms and waited for Dean Cadance to return to the front of the bus doors.

She had moved around to the driver's side of the bus to presumably ask the driver if we could board now. It didn't take her long to get an answer and come back.

"You two can go ahead and get on. Just take your seat and wait patiently for the remainder of the time. If you have any questions or concerns, I'll be right here checking with other students, okay?"

"Okay." I answered.

"Thank you, Dean Cadance." Faith expressed with a smile as she held her hands behind her back.

Dean Cadance smiled back as she turned around towards the school and rummaged through the papers on her clipboard. The bus doors opened, and we walked up the steps inside. The bus driver didn't look too friendly or in the mood to talk, so we headed directly for our seats. The great thing about being early was deciding where in the entire bus to sit. Nevertheless, Faith and I decided to take the seats right in front of the very back, hugging the entrance side of the bus.

Faith sat by the window. "This is pretty cool." She said as she shared a smile back to me. "Kind of reminds you when my mom would take us out of the city, right?"

"Yeah." I formed a warm grin on my face, almost beginning to reminiscence over the times we'd sort of go on "vacation" during the summer and winter with Faith's mom. "It sort of has that cozy feeling, but I'm sure that's soon to go away when people start boarding."

"True…" Faith admitted as she stretched her connected hands between her legs. "Guess we should enjoy it while it lasts, huh?"

"Yeah." I agreed and felt a sudden idea pop inside my head. I pulled out my phone and tapped the camera app on the screen. "Why don't we take a picture together before people get on and think we're weird?"

Faith's face immediately lit up. "You're assuming people don't already think we're weird. But yeah, okay!"

I held the phone up with my left hand and pointed the camera at us. Faith grabbed the right side of the phone with her right hand to help me steady it. She scooched a lot closer to me until she could see herself within the frame. She positioned her shoulder behind mine so her face could move in. Her cheek was within range to touch mine, but her chest didn't hesitate to press against my arm. Normally, I'd most likely be a nervous wreck if a girl got that close to me, but this was Faith. The two of us have always been physically close, even when we weren't taking photos, so it was a pretty normal thing between us.

As we composed our natural silly smiles, I took the picture shortly after. I lowered the phone and brought it closer so we could look it over. Faith placed her left hand on my shoulder and brought her right hand over to my leg, allowing her to lean in further to have a closer look at my screen.

We took a moment of silence to observe our picture before any words were to be spoken.

"I really like it." Faith was the first to say as she continued gazing at the screen.

"Really?" I felt the need to clarify, even though I heard the genuine tone in her voice.

"Yeah! I don't know what else to say." She took the time to turn to me now. "Whenever we take pictures like this, or even when I look back at them, I always can't help but smile. It's always a good memory!"

"You're right." I approved, feeling a happy warmth from Faith. "I guess it's just one of those things that have got us through the bad times, right?"

"Totes." Faith beamed and turned back to my screen. "Send it to me!"

"I know, I know." I smirked as I tapped Faith's contact and sent her the picture.

Faith pulled out her phone and looked as if she could literally glue her eyes to her screen as she waited to receive the message. "This is going to be my new wallpaper!"

As I observed her mess with the contents of her phone, I carefully noticed her hair. Faith always had the tendency to change her hairstyle often. In fact, it was as if she had some sort of pattern, cycle, or schedule she followed. But for some reason, I took more time to notice her hair during the moment. Even though she liked changing her hair, I believed her neutral/normal style was having it rest over her left shoulder. This time, she tied the long side from the left over to the opposite side on top of her right shoulder. It provided a nice new fresh look without taking too much away from the original. Another thing I loved about her was her creativity with things like that. In this case, it was her hair.

Faith noticed me somewhat gawking at her and began to redden up. "Wh-what?"

"You look really pretty today." I shared honestly.

Faith jumped a little as she must have not expected me to say that all of a sudden. "O-oh, really? Thanks!" She quickly expressed before she sort of immediately turned towards the window.

I chuckled and took a glance out the window myself to notice students beginning to appear in the area outside the bus.

"Looks like everyone else is coming out." Faith noted, returning to a calm voice.

"Yeah." I added, watching alongside her.

"Guess we don't have the bus all to ourselves now." Faith sighed lightly, beginning to look like she wanted to sulk in her chair.

"Yeah, but it had to happen sometime. If we come early tomorrow again, maybe we can have the bus to ourselves one more time?" I offered a hopeful smile.

She rolled her eyes in sort of a playful manner. "Yeah." She then turned back to observing out the window.

Students lined up at their supposed buses including ours. Every now and then, a student or two would come aboard. Faith and I remained pretty quiet until we noticed Suri Polomare board with a familiar friend behind her.

"It's Coco!" I informed Faith.

Faith immediately sat up to spot her walking in the middle of the bus. "Hi, Coco!" She waved energetically.

Coco's eyes lit up when she heard Faith's voice and turned towards us to notice us sitting at the end of the bus. She held up her hand to return a waving motion with her fingers while forming a timid grin. However, Suri had been giving Coco a soft glare as if she had been expecting Coco to take her seat already. Coco realized this and sadly took her seat next to Suri.

"I guess they're participating in the games too?" I assumed.

"That or they're just watching. It sucks that she has to be with her though…" Faith continued observing the two in their seats. They didn't seem to make any bit of conversation with one another, but that was pretty expected.

"Yeah…" I merely answered with, resting my cheek on my fist.

Faith leaned over by the window to continue observing what was going on outside. "…hey!" She lightly bumped me with her elbow. "Twilight's getting on this bus!"

"What? Really?" I immediately sat up and leaned over Faith to get a look by her.

Twilight had been standing in front of Dean Cadance. I couldn't help but notice Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare were behind her and appearing to send disgusted glares. Dean Cadance walked away with her index finger up as if verbally placing Twilight on hold. Sour Sweet exchanged some words with Twilight, and if I knew her well enough, they weren't pretty ones. This, in return, caused Sunny Flare to flip her irritated frown upside down.

Twilight turned back as she pushed her glasses up against her face and responded.

Sour Sweet wrapped her hands in front of her body in a ladylike and sweet manner and spoke again. I was able to get an idea with what she might have been saying to Twilight. Nevertheless, Sunny Flare remained looking like she was enjoying the show Sour Sweet was putting on.

Twilight reacted a bit defensively before Dean Cadance came up behind her.

Twilight and Sour Sweet exchanged a few more words before Twilight approached the bus doors and stepped on. Before she could turn towards us, a student lunged out towards her in surprise.

"Are we gonna win?!" The major jock of the school, Indigo Zap, I think, yelled out to her.

"I...I don't know." Twilight answered, fixing her glasses.

"Wrong answer! Try again! Are we gonna win?!" Indigo Zap repeated.

"Um...I guess?" Twilight tried to answer correctly. "I-It's just...I mean...I heard that CHS is doing well now. With their reputation. And, I mean, it's not better than ours, of course. But we can't let them do it, you know? Win, I mean? Right?"

After her guess, everyone else in the bus looked at her strangely or seemed to have not been able to care less about what she had to say. It wasn't until the bus driver, who I had not even noticed leave before, opened his side of the door and climbed on. "You're gonna have to take a seat!" He directed bitterly after noticing Twilight stand at the front of the bus.

With her head facing downwards in shame, she began walking down the aisle. As she did, I noticed how mostly everyone with a free seat moved aside to prevent Twilight from sitting down near them. I noticed a place she could sit down behind us, so I called her over.

"Twilight, over here!" I waved, catching her attention.

She looked up, but she didn't exactly smile.

"Hi, Twilight." Faith greeted with a smile as Twilight walked by towards the free seat.

"Hi, Faith." Twilight managed to lift up her frown. "Hi, Chase." She told me before she sat and turned to Sugarcoat, whom was at the opposite side of her. "Hi, Sugarcoat."

"That was a really bad speech." Sugarcoat turned back to immediately lay her unrestricted thoughts on Twilight. "You should consider not speaking in public." She finished before she turned back to the bus.

Twilight shut her month and faced her eyes on her backpack with an upset look.

Feeling my eyebrows furrow in irritation, I wanted to follow up on Sugarcoat's annoying personality. "You know, maybe you shouldn't consider speaking in public, Sugarcoat."

Sugarcoat only glanced over at me with her eyes, but she didn't bother responding back as she carelessly turned back to the front.

I sat back with little satisfaction from her response.

"I don't think there's any point in arguing with her…" Faith mentioned softly.

Remembering the person that I had been defending, I slightly stood up and turned over to the back of my seat to face past the headrest.

"You alright, Twilight?"

"I'm fine, really." She returned back after having stared into her backpack.

She genuinely didn't sound too affected by Sugarcoat's unnecessary harsh words, so I decided to take my seat again.

Faith decided to mischievously smirk and lean in towards me. "Maybe you want to sit next to her and comfort her, hm?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" I almost shouted out loud from embarrassment. Remembering how Twilight was right behind us, I had to constantly make sure my voice stayed pretty low when the subject of the conversation was about her.

"Ch-ch-ch-Chase!" Faith and I were surprised to hear a familiar voice swing in a rhythm at the seat in front of us. She removed her hot pink headphones and hung them around her neck, allowing us to hear somewhat of what she had been listening to. "Have you heard their new album?! It totally kicks asphalt!"

I had to admit that Lemon Zest was one of the only few girls in Crystal Prep who wasn't too stuck-up and obnoxious to make friends around her. In fact, the two of us had met at a music store back when I had been looking for information over a band we found that we both liked. Nowadays, she likes to share her excitement and enjoyment over music with me every now and then.

"It's already out?" I questioned in light surprise. "I haven't been keeping up with them lately."

"What?" She turned out to be slightly taken aback from my answer. "I've got to get you up to speed sometime, dude!"

"Yeah, sure." I accepted her offer with an appreciative smile before another voice cut in.

"Could you two over there please keep it down?"

I looked past Lemon Zest's way to see Sour Sweet working her obviously forced politeness as usual. She had already been sitting with Sunny Flare, and I believed our insanely short-lived conservation got to her.

Lemon Zest pointed her fingers towards me and winked before grabbing her headphones. "I'll text you later." After, she sat down on her seat and continued to rock her head and jam out to her tunes.

Last, but not least, Sunny Flare managed to catch me glimpsing back to her and Sour Sweet and sent a little wave of her fingers, along with a flirty smile.

"Lemon Zest can be a little loud…" Faith mentioned beside me. "But she's still a better love option than Sunny Flare." She searched through her bag and pulled out a pair of earbuds. Poking them into the phone she had on hand, she raised her phone towards me. "Speaking of music, how about we listen to some while we're waiting?"

As far as I knew, Faith was the only girl I knew that also liked to listen to soundtracks from certain games we'd play together. A lot of people liked to listen to hot hits from the radio and stuff, but, to me, video game soundtracks were more than often underrated.

I happily accepted her offer and placed an earbud to my ear. "Sounds good."

Faith giggled as she began flicking her finger across her phone screen. "Pun intended?"

Truth be told, I hadn't even realized what I said. "That's up to you." I responded, regardless.

By the time we had begun listening, the bus had been running its engine while waiting for the last of the students to board. Eventually, we began moving, and for a short moment, it sort of felt as if we were heading on a field trip together.

---

Even though Faith and I had been staring out the bus windows for some time, it seemed the both of us had been stuck in our absent thoughts. We hadn't been truly paying attention to what was going on outside the windows, so it took us a while to realize when the bus had stopped.

Faith began removing the earbuds from our ears once we noticed the majority of people lining up to get off the bus. As she wrapped up the wires to place them back in her bag, she turned towards the window and remained uncomfortably quiet. The two of us were probably supposed to be getting ready to get up, but I remained sitting down until she'd say or do something first.

"It's really strange…" She finally spoke as she kept her eyes calmly glued to the glass. "While we were still at Crystal Prep, I didn't feel all that worried, but now that we're here, I can't help but start feeling a little nervous." She turned her head to face me. "It doesn't help that the more I try not to think about it, the closer my stomach is to doing somersaults."

"Just keep what I said in mind." I advised. "If anyone does recognize or remember you, I don't think they'll be bothering you."

"Mm…" Faith pursed her lips to the side, revealing an expression of doubt. "I'm going to stick to you like glue. That's for sure."

"Hey, that's what I'm here for." I stood up from my seat and held out my hand. "Come on."

Faith had been staring back at me with a slightly agape jaw as she hugged her schoolbag close to her chest. Afterwards, she managed to form a small smile as she accepted my gesture. "Okay." She returned as she clasped my hand with hers. "I'm counting on you."

We hadn't even noticed that Twilight and the others had stepped off the bus until we were already out of our seats. There was hardly anyone left, so the good thing was that we were able to walk through without any trouble.

Outside, Faith attempted to calm and release her nerves by taking in a few deep breaths and slowly exhaling them out with closed eyes. "I'm fine." She repeated. "I'm fine." Once she opened them, she appeared to look over her old school once more. "Geez… It feels like it's been forever, but I can almost remember my first day here. I was so excited then…"

"Before what happened happened," I began to subtly recall the event that caused her to move schools. "How was being at this school like?"

She turned to me as she recollected her thoughts of her past life here. "I could say it was a lot friendlier than Crystal Prep, that's for sure. Still, you had your usual cliques and groups of people who shared the same interests and stuff. Either way, my time here was almost what I dreamed it would be. I had joined the baking club because it was one of the few things I really enjoyed doing. I met a couple of cool friends there, and eventually, I came across that one guy I had a crush on. I had even thought that it was only a matter of time before we'd…you know…go out. I never thought my dreams would come spiraling down like that, so I had been really caught off guard. I guess you could say I even almost thought it was the end of the world for me. Other than all that baggage, this school was seriously pretty cool, but you know what? I'm glad I left it all because I got to meet you." She decided to grin heartily as she spoke the next few words. "We had been best friends before we even actually officially met, remember?"

"How could I forget?" I stretched out my arms and placed my hands behind my head. "I never thought we'd meet in real life like we did, but I can't tell you how grateful I am. I guess you could say you brought color into my life."

Faith adverted her eyes towards the ground and lightly rubbed her right arm with her left hand. Her cheeks softly began to glow before she noticed our classmates to the side. "We can reminiscence later. I think we need to line up with the others."

"Oh, right." I agreed as soon as I had noticed the other students waiting around as Dean Cadance spoke with someone else that I assumed was a staff member of this high school. Dean Cadance began walking aside the line, poking her finger out as she counted each of the students and compared them towards what had been on her clipboard.

She unexpectedly paused in front of us and turned left and right before she faced us. "Have you two seen Twilight around?"

Faith and I took the time to look at our surroundings to notice that Twilight wasn't anywhere near us.

"She was with us in the bus…" Faith mentioned.

Dean Cadance sighed as she crossed her arms. "Oh, Twilight…" She turned her head towards the school and tapped her chin. "I wonder if she went to go find a bathroom or something… She could have at least told me."

"You did look like you were a little busy." I brought up the fact that she had been speaking with someone else earlier pretty intently.

"I'm sorry to ask, but could you two see if you can find her? Every student from Crystal Prep is going to have to check in at the gym shortly, and I can't have anyone lost or stuck somewhere they're not supposed to be."

"What if we don't find her?" I considered the possibility.

"Hopefully, it doesn't come to something like that." Dean Cadance trusted as she placed her hands on her hips. "We know that Twilight isn't the type of person to cause some kind of mischief or anything, so if you can't find her, I'm sure she'll find her own way back here. Either way, we can't have any students wandering around without any supervision, understand?"

"Yeah, I guess so." I answered. It was a good thing that Twilight wasn't known for causing trouble, so I'm pretty sure she had her reasons for leaving unexpectedly. "Let's get going, Faith."

Faith remained heavily silent for a moment before she revealed a hesitating expression to me. "Can I just, you know, hang around here and wait for you to come back?"

As much as I understood Faith's worries, I kind of needed her to come with me. "If Twilight went to go look for a bathroom, you're the only one who can go inside the girls' restroom to check, you know?"

Faith sighed and nodded. "Right…" She kept to herself for a few seconds before she opened her bag and maneuvered her hand through a few things. When she caught a hold of something, she pulled it out and stretched it over her head. It was one the designer caps she'd wear occasionally when we'd go out in the city during our days off. However, she purposely pulled down the bill as much as she could towards her face without looking too out of place. "Do I look okay?"

"Um…" I rubbed my chin as I didn't know exactly what to say. "You're…trying to hide yourself from everyone?"

"Duh…" She shifted her eyes towards the side as she crossed her arms and looked visibly upset. "I don't want to do this…but I'd really rather avoid any attention from anyone I might've known here from before."

Seeing how the way she positioned her cap was enough to make her presence uninviting, I decided to fix her hair a bit myself so it wouldn't seem that bad. "Aside from looking a little…weird, I guess it's alright. I don't know what you're going to do later, though. Grinch isn't going to be happy to see you ruining dress code with that cap."

"This is just for right now." She explained. "We're the only Crystal Prep students that are going to be in there, so we're going to stand out a like a couple of peacocks. Once we're back with the others, I'll blend in a little more, right?"

"I guess so." I responded. "Let's go try to find the bathrooms, come on." As soon as I had begun walking, Faith immediately wrapped her arms around mine and huddled behind me like an extremely shy girl. I found the way she clung to me a little uncomfortable, and it was probably because of the position my arm had to be in for her to hold on to. Nevertheless, if any of it helped her feel less nervous, I wasn't going to complain at all. Faith kept her head down as we passed a few students at the front of the school building. They seemed to glance towards us, but it was only for a few seconds before they looked straight ahead.

Surprisingly, we didn't attract any more attention than we usually would with people we didn't know. The majority of students walking inside usually kept to themselves or were too busy talking with their friends. Every now and then, a stray student would notice us walking, but they didn't seem to make anything of it. After having walked in the halls with Faith for a while, I figured that they probably already knew that Crystal Prep was coming for a visit for the competition that was apparently such a big deal. I didn't bother going through any flights of stairs and continued roaming through the hallways. We were bound to come across the bathrooms at some point.

I pointed the doors out when I believed I finally found them. "Oh, look, they're right there, Fai—" I unexpectedly felt a hard tug on my arm and found myself practically being thrown against the lockers nearby. I looked past my shoulder to find Faith keeping an eye out straight across me. She had completely buried herself behind me for some odd reason. "What was that for?!" I softly exclaimed.

"It's him…!" Faith pointed out in front of me. I faced my eyes in her direction and noticed someone headed in the opposite direction. He had been focusing on what looked like to be his guitar case. I was pretty sure that he wouldn't have noticed Faith, had she been standing right next to me, but it didn't look like she was taking any chances whatsoever. "That's the guy…that I used to like."

"Huh. Really?" I found myself observing his appearance. I supposed I was curious in learning the kind of guy Faith was into at the time. His blue hair appeared to be styled back with gel, and he wore a light unzipped jacket with a white shirt underneath. From what I could see, there was a symbol of lightning and shield on that shirt.

"Quit looking!" Faith gave me a push from behind. "He'll see us!"

"You keep whispering like that, you'll probably get his attention for sure." I warned over my shoulder.

It didn't take long for him to grow safely out of range. When Faith felt it was good enough, she scurried out from behind and sighed lightly. "Let's go. I don't want to be here any longer than I need to be."

"Door's right there." I pointed out the door with the dress-wearing stick figure. "Just take a quick look around and see if there's any stalls closed, you know."

"Yeah, yeah…" She mumbled under her breath and nearly dragged her shoes as she uncertainly walked towards the door. I carefully watched after her until she was past the swinging door. As much as I didn't want to leave her on her own, there might as well be a magical barrier keeping me out.

I looked around for a while and took notice on how friendly every student was toward each other. It was so unlike Crystal Prep, I actually felt kind of jealous. At the same time, I even felt a little angry when I started to remember how badly my parents pushed me to go to Crystal Prep.

I felt my hand balling into a fist, but I was able to calm myself down when I remembered one of the main perks of being at Crystal Prep. That was being with Faith. I wasn't sure if I would have been as close to Faith as I was now, had I not attended Crystal Prep. Nevertheless, I found myself shaking those kinds of thoughts away as they were beginning to feel troublesome.

Soon after, I found Faith cautiously stepping out of the bathroom and returning to me.

"Find her?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I don't think she's in there."

"You think she already found her way back to the group?"

"I really don't know." Faith responded.

Wondering what we should do next, I looked around and thought silently to myself for a bit. "Alright. Let's just circle around and see if we find her on the way back. If we don't, then I guess we'll just check back with Dean Cadance. If Twilight still isn't there, well…guess we'll see what happens then."

Faith nodded her head, but I could tell she just wanted to get out of the school as soon as possible. She continued to huddle close to me as I led her through the many locker-sided hallways. We didn't find much of a lead on Twilight's whereabouts until we suddenly heard a somewhat familiar sound of a dog barking.

We turned towards a room with an entrance holding double doors. However, one of the doors had been completely opened, and we were allowed a look inside once we reached the doorway. There had been a girl just past this open door that was unmistakably Twilight, seeing as she was wearing our school's uniform. But, for some reason, a group of girls wearing out of the ordinary outfits surrounded her, and I began thinking that maybe she wasn't exactly so immune to causing some kind of commotion with the rival school.

"Twilight." I called, hurrying inside the room just in case she was in some kind of pickle. "Dean Cadance is calling for you outside. We have to check in with the other students."

It wasn't uncommon that anyone in a room would immediately look at the person coming in, but I found myself in a pretty uncomfortable situation when all the girls that had been huddling around Twilight were now staring directly at me. It was almost as if they had seen a ghost.

Before I could possibly say something, they strangely began speaking within themselves.

"No way. Do you think it's…?"

"What? No. He looks way different."

"What about the girl behind him?"

"Wait a second!" A loud one that wore some kind of western get-up shouted and pointed a finger straight at me. "I remember him! He was the delivery guy back when we had that sleepover at my place!"

"What?" Another girl with a southern accent questioned. "How in the hay do you know that?"

"His eyes! Duh!"

As soon as that girl had mentioned me having delivered something to them, I immediately began realizing why that sounded so familiar. It wasn't a job, but I had actually delivered a pizza as a favor for my sister. She worked at this pizza place part-time, and she needed someone to do a quick delivery because the guy that normally did those left his shift early. Seeing as I had been visiting her at the time, she asked me to do it since I had my bike with me. In exchange, Faith and I earned ourselves a free pizza.

The girl that pointed me out was the one that answered the door when I arrived with the pizza, and the girls around her must had been her friends that were causing quite a commotion in the background. I suppose it made me all the more recognizable since I still had been wearing my Crystal Prep uniform at the time.

"Oh, yeah! You're right!" Another shouted out.

I wasn't as sensitive as Faith was with my eyes, but I wasn't exactly found of being the center of attention like this.

"What about her?" One of them pointed past me. "She looks like Spirit!"

"Spirit?" Another inquired about.

I turned back towards Faith to see how she had been handling the situation. She had slightly lifted her head up to see who had been asking about her, but her eyes widened and she grew uncomfortably still for a silent moment. In the next second, she immediately removed herself out of sight and hid behind the column at the side of the doorway.

"Is your name Alex, by any chance?" The ecstatic one approached me a little too closely and asked.

"Alex, what?" I had been absolutely puzzled by what they had been blabbering about and by the names they oddly brought up. I couldn't help but think that they were a part of some fanatic fiction club, and that they had been obsessing over possibly some characters they were far much into. "No!"

Just before things could escalate into an abnormal amount of crazy, we heard a strict voice calling out at Faith.

"Faith Meadows? Just what are you doing here?" I quickly turned around and found that the Grinch had been walking with another staff member presumably from this school. "And just what are you wearing? You should know that that is not acceptable according to the dress code."

"I was—"

Faith tried to explain herself, but the person Grinch had been walking with noticed Twilight nearby and unexpectedly called her as if she had known her. "Twilight?"

I didn't blame Twilight when she groaned in frustration. "This is getting ridiculous!"

Taking notice of Twilight's presence among us, Principal Grinch seemed to let Faith off the hook for now. She walked over to Twilight and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I must apologize for the curiosity of my prized student."

"Your student?" The one that accompanied our principal questioned oddly.

"The smart ones are always curious." Grinch attempted to explain while managing to keep her cool and sharp composure. "I'll return her, along with the rest of these stray students, to check in with the rest of their classmates." As she led Twilight along, she glanced towards us. "Come along."

Only we were able to decode the disappointment and anger that had been hiding behind that sophisticated and professional look on her face she always wore, no matter the occasion. Obviously, it would be foolish to make her even angrier, so we decided to follow along until she took us back to the front of the school.

"I'm sorry, Principal Cinch." Twilight apologized as we exited the front doors and headed towards our group. "I was just following these strange readings. Actually, they led me to those girls and—"

"Go on, you two." Grinch held Twilight back as she turned towards us. "I must speak to Twilight privately."

I wasn't sure if we were going to get scolded later, but we didn't want to make things worse for us any more than they probably were. We didn't question her order or hang back. As much as I didn't like leaving Twilight alone like that, I knew that she'd be alright, seeing as she was our principal's most "prized" student.

"You think we're in trouble?" Faith asked as we returned to the group.

"Us, probably." I looked over my shoulder to find Grinch possibly lecturing Twilight behind us. "Twilight will be fine." I turned back to Faith and noticed that she had still been wearing her cap. "You might want to take that off before she comes back."

Faith shifted her eyes upwards and took notice of the bill personally providing shade for her pupils. "Oh, yeah. Right." She grabbed ahold of her cap and removed it to stuff it inside her bag. "I wonder what those 'strange readings' Twilight mentioned are all about."

"Just more of her science projects." I almost instantly returned. She was always spending her time on research and the like, so it wasn't at all a surprise for me. Nevertheless, I was more concerned about Faith after remembering the kind of reaction she had with the girls. "What about you? Why'd you go and hide like that with those girls? Did you see someone you knew?"

She anxiously rubbed her arm as she looked away. "Yeah... You could say that."

I tried thinking back and remembering how those certain girls looked. The only one I could quite clearly remember was the pink one who pointed me out and answered the door back during my delivery. But there was another girl that was there that wouldn't get out of my head. I couldn't clearly remember the way she looked, but there was something about her that seemed familiar. However, I couldn't pick what it was at the moment, and it began to bug the heck out of me.

"Hey, you two." We found Dean Cadance approach us. "How did it go? Did you find her?"

"Just about." I answered. "She's over with Principal Cinch right now."

"I hope she isn't in any kind of trouble." Dean Cadance worriedly looked over us to find Twilight beginning to walk past Grinch and head our way. "You two go on ahead and follow your classmates to the gym. I still have a few things I need to check off here, but I'll be sure to let Twilight know where she needs to go."

We took notice of Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare heading off in a certain direction, so we prepared to follow along after acknowledging Dean Cadance. "Yes, ma'am."

---

Inside the gymnasium, we found a bunch of students from both our schools scattered about. Nevertheless, it appeared that everyone from our school was keeping to themselves. There was a huge banner on top of the stage between both of our school flags, and, by the words that were literally painted on there, it was supposed to welcome our school's arrival. But, it was pretty clear that no one from Crystal Prep was willing to return the friendly gesture.

"Oh, geez…" Faith squeaked once she was able to get a good look around. "Um, let's go over there…" She pointed towards a particular corner of the bleachers they had. Before I knew it, Faith grabbed ahold of my hand like a lost little girl and guided me to where she wanted to sit. Once we were there, she wiped the back of her skirt and sat as she held it against her thighs.

The two of us looked at the center of the gym and observed how the other students behaved down there. Our school practically looked miserable to be here, and Canterlot High appeared as if they had no idea how to react properly. In a way, I was pretty glad that we were out of our classes, but at the same time, everything here was kind of a drag.

"What was the point of coming here, anyway?" Faith poked her eyes over her knees as she hugged her legs towards her chest. "This looks like it's supposed to be a welcome party, but our school looks like they want to rip everyone else to pieces."

"They're super competitive, I guess." I assumed. "These 'Friendship Games' start tomorrow."

A heavy sigh came shortly after.

"I just want to go home already." Faith admitted. "I want to change out of this stupid uniform and just fall on my bed."

I couldn't imagine how hard it was for her to come to the school she grew to dread. I tried thinking of ways to cheer her up, but I was sort of drawing blanks. My eyes roamed around the gymnasium and found that they had set up a few snacks and drinks on different tables. Although, they were mostly vegetables and cheeses. "You want anything here to eat or drink?" I asked.

"Mm-mm." She mumbled as she softly shook her head.

I wasn't sure if she just didn't have an appetite, or if she found the choice of food pretty bland, but all I could do was sit back and wait for things to move along. In fact, I didn't even know what exactly we were waiting for. Based on how the stage had been set up, I assumed someone was supposed to come up and talk.

I decided to pass the time by continuing to watch everyone else. Faith, on the other hand, appeared to be listening to music on her phone to most likely keep her mind off her current worries. Eventually, I noticed Twilight finally come into the gym, but she was keeping herself busy was something else entirely.

I didn't pay too much attention to it before, but I had noticed that she had been wearing some kind of electronic device around her neck. Based on her track record, it was probably something that she had made during all those hours of studying and researching stuff that you normally wouldn't think a teenage girl would be all over about.

She had been staring so intently at her device as if it had been some kind of magical compass, and she continuously bumped into different things, including other students, in the process. I remained in my seat as I found no point in even trying to walk down and talk to her as she'd most likely just excuse herself to continue with her work.

However, it wasn't until a familiar-looking girl approached her with arms crossed. I noticed that this girl had been accompanied by those other girls I had come across earlier today with Faith, but my eyes were particularly set on her. She was the one I couldn't quite get out of my head, and seeing the kind of attitude she appeared to give Twilight, something immediately clicked in my head.

I remembered the video I forced myself to finish watching back on Faith's laptop. This same girl had been crossing her arms like she had a sense of superiority. I didn't have concrete evidence that this girl and the one that framed Faith as a thief were the same person, but I was still more than sure it had to be. She looked like she was ready to bring trouble, and I couldn't let Twilight be a victim of that too.

"I'll be back." I told Faith as I stood up and began making my way down the bleachers. I watched that one specific girl as if everything else in my peripheral vision was blurred and out of focus. They didn't seem to notice me until I stepped in and made myself heard. "What's going on here?" I asked a little defensively.

"Oh, hey!" The pink one pointed out. "It's him again!"

"Yeah," I pushed myself to take on a friendlier tone. "I was just wondering about something." I looked straight towards my intended target. "You wouldn't happen to be Sunset Shimmer, would you?"

It wasn't a surprise when she turned towards her friends as she most likely found it a strange thing coming from me.

"…have we met before?" She asked.

So, it's a yes then, huh?

"Of course, we did! Remember?! Back in the music room?" Her energetic friend reminded.

"I know that, Pinkie." She responded. "I'm talking about before that." She shook her head in frustration and looked back at me. "How do you know my name?"

I felt the tone in my voice constrict as I also felt the bottled aggression in me slipping out bit by bit. "Do you know a girl named Faith?"

I wasn't sure what kind of reaction I had been expecting, but she only stared at me in silence for a moment. I couldn't tell if she honestly didn't remember Faith, or if she just didn't know what to say. Either way, I wasn't going to budge until I heard some kind of answer come from her lips.

"Her name…sounds familiar." I finally received.

As much as I wanted to, I couldn't start badgering at her in front of every single person in this gym. If anything, it'd probably make it worse on Faith, and we'd find ourselves being the subject of another video online.

"Who are you?" She added, looking at me as if I had been causing some unwarranted complications in her life.

Before I could decide on how to respond to that, someone else unnecessarily butted in as if we had been in a heated argument. "Who wants to know?!" It was Indigo Zap from the bus ride, and she had been pointing out an aggressive finger towards Sunset Shimmer.

I wasn't sure if she was defending me or more likely the school in general.

"Um, we do." That rainbow-haired girl in Sunset Shimmer's group brashly countered.

"All right, everyone." Another with the southern accent stepped in as if to deescalate the situation before it got any worse. "Let's not get too competitive before the games even start."

At that point, I didn't think that my one little confrontation would spark a firestorm between Canterlot High School and Crystal Prep.

"The games aren't really competitive since we've never lost." Sugarcoat bluntly threw in.

"That's not a very nice thing to say." From the other side, a girl with a soft-spoken voice responded while adverting her eyes away.

"Sorry, dearie." Sunny Flare had found her way in and placed a hand on my shoulder as she turned towards the competition. "But these games aren't about being nice."

"Well, you might use a little tact." A girl that I'd label as a 'fashionista' tossed her cards onto the table.

"You know what? Forget what I said." The girl with the cowboy hat seemed to regret. "How about we introduce ourselves? My name is Applejack, and these here girls are Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie-" She pointed out her respective friends, but her sentence was cut short all of a sudden when it looked like she couldn't find the last girl she stopped at. "Well, I don't know where in the hay she ran off to." She observed her surroundings as she scratched her head.

For some reason, Sunny Flare felt the liberty to plant her arms on my shoulders and lean against me. "I'm afraid introductions are a waste of time, dearie."

"There'd be no point if we're going to forget about you when the games are over." Sugarcoat shared.

"If you think you're going to win so easily, think again!" Rainbow Dash appeared to make a beckoning gesture towards us.

"Oh, we are going to leave you in the dust!" Indigo Zap emphasized.

Before I thought their competitive spirits could even get more annoying, we heard the stage microphone being tapped until a new voice was being broadcasted to everyone in the gym.

"Hello, everyone! I'd like to take this opportunity to greet all of our visitors from Crystal Prep Academy and welcome them to CHS." The same woman I had seen walking with Principal Grinch was the one in front of the microphone. "And lastly, I would like to recognize the twelve students that CHS has elected to compete. I don't think we could have chosen a better group to represent the excellence, sportsmanship, and friendship the games stand for."

When she had mentioned about 'representing friendship', I couldn't help but think back to the exact reason Faith and I had been chosen to represent Crystal Prep. It ticked me off a little knowing that that's what we were only good for, apparently according to our own principal, but in the end, this competition didn't mean much to me to begin with.

Faith and I had been through a lot of out of the ordinary events throughout this day so far, but before a few calm minutes could pass, there was a spontaneous change to the party environment. The lights had suddenly dimmed, and there was now a revolving disco ball hanging from the ceiling. There was a change in the music and atmosphere, and before I realized it, students from Crystal Prep seemed to be getting along with Canterlot.

It was hard to believe what I had been seeing, but I was most definitely awake. How was it that they hated each other just a while ago, but now they were sharing cupcakes that appeared out of thin air like magic?! If that wasn't enough, there was yet another surprise that literally made an explosive appearance. Confetti fell from the sky, and everyone I could see was on the dance floor having a good time.

What the what?!

Having to squeeze through a few people, I immediately made my way back over to Faith. She hadn't moved from her seat, but she appeared to be staring at the sight I had witnessed up close just a minute ago.

"Faith, are you seeing this?!" I asked for confirmation.

"How can't I?" She answered without looking away. "We're not dreaming, are we?"

"As far as I'm concerned, we're not."

We continued observing the crowd for a short moment of silence before Faith spoke up again.

"Everyone's so distracted… I might just sneak down there and get one of those cupcakes that appeared out of nowhere."

Before Faith could even have the chance to follow on her wish, there was a loud feedback noise coming from the microphone onstage. I had almost been expecting for it to be the same woman. Instead, this magical improvement of the old dull and bland party came to stop once we heard the mean Grinch speak.

"I'd like to thank Principal Celestia for her unconventional welcome. It's been four years since the last Friendship Games, but it feels as though nothing has changed. Canterlot High continues to pick its competitors in a popularity contest and Crystal Prep continues to field its top twelve students." Haha. That's rich. "It is a comfort to know that even after so many years of losses, your school remains committed to its ideals, however misguided they may be. I wish you all the best of luck, regardless of the inevitable outcome."

And just like that, the atmosphere returned towards it's dull and even hostile state. I looked around and found Sunset Shimmer sticking with her friends. I didn't know what her game was, and I didn't know what I was going to do about her. On one hand, I wanted justice for what she had done to Faith, but I didn't know how to come about that in the first place. When I really thought about that, I didn't even know if it was possible. We were just guests from Crystal Prep, and after the Friendship Games, that would be the end of it. I supposed all I could do was bottle up my anger and give it to her straight if I was ever allowed the chance.

I caught Faith staring worriedly at me the entire time I had been eyeing Sunset Shimmer from the distance.

"Chase. Why were you talking with that girl?" She asked as if I had been having malicious intentions.

At that point, I was conflicted over a couple of decisions. I wasn't sure if I should just lie to her and tell her it was nothing, or if I should just tell her the truth. With the kind of friendship we had, I wasn't sure if I could keep my feelings to myself. The two of us told each other practically everything, so I felt that telling her the truth would be the best thing to do.

"I know who she is, Faith." I turned to her with a serious look on my face.

"W-what do you mean?" She questioned, but I believed she knew what I had been talking about.

"She's the one who ruined your life here in CHS." I reminded directly. "She's the one who had you move to Crystal Prep, and she's the one who screwed things up with that boy you had a crush on."

I heard her gasp both sharply and softly. There was somewhat a look of horror on her face as she stared at me for a few silent seconds, but then she slowly turned away and stared at the floor. "Just leave it be… What happened happened."

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think there's much I could honestly do." I told her. "But, I can't promise that I won't hold back if she pushes me over the line." Faith remained silent, whether she was waiting for me to say anything else, or if she just didn't have anything to say at all. "I won't let her hurt you or anyone else again."

---

Aside from a few mundane things, we didn't really do anything else with our first trip to Canterlot High. It was somewhat of a good thing that, from what I saw, no one really bothered Faith in regards to being here the first half of her freshman year. I can't read minds, so I can't say that no one possibly remembered Faith and talked behind her back. I can't guarantee that there aren't any rumors and gossip being spread around the school now. Sunset Shimmer may even be working on an attempt to ruining my school life too somehow. However, despite my first impression being dragged down by Crystal Prep, I hoped that Canterlot High wasn't all bad as Sunset Shimmer made it seem.

Faith and I were pretty much quiet the entire bus ride back home. She offered to share her music with me again, but she didn't say much after that. Dean Cadance was right when she said that we'd be back at the end of the day, and we were already getting ready to leave school once we got off those charter buses.

As I walked silently towards my bike, Faith lagged a little behind like a stray puppy instead of being by my side like usual. I had been unlocking and fixing up my bike for us to ride before Faith spoke up all of a sudden.

"I'm surprised you hardly talked to Twilight today." She mentioned.

"Am I supposed to?" I responded, aware that that may have come across a little too cold myself.

"Just thought that you might have wanted to try talking to her more since she was practically with us the entire day." I heard her shoes kick the ground below us.

"It doesn't matter." I furrowed my eyebrows in anger as I pulled my bike out of the stands. "Even if she's not locked up in that room of hers, she's still too busy with whatever work she's always making up." I stared at my seat for a moment before I continued speaking. "I'll probably just give up with her."

There was a short gasp behind me. I turned and noticed Faith remaining still as her concerned gaze had been fixed on me. I had been waiting for her to take her seat on my bike, but I supposed I had also been waiting for her response.

"Are you sure that's what you want to do…?" She finally asked.

I released a heavy felt sigh and turned away. "I don't even know. I guess I just don't want to think about her right now." After thinking to myself absent-mindedly for a minute, I turned back to Faith. "Come on. Let's go home."

Once she accompanied me on the back seat of my bicycle, I began pedaling down the sidewalk towards the direction of home. As I felt the surprisingly cool breeze brush against my face, I could feel Faith's arms tighten around my waist. I thought I began to hear depressive noises come from her, but with the sound of traffic and the wind, I couldn't be sure.

---

After Faith threw on her 'at-home' clothes, she laid on her bed with her body sprawled out. I took notice of the uniform she left messily piled up at the side of her bed. With a little sigh, I decided to crouch down and pick those clothes up. Faith wasn't a messy person or anything. I assumed she just didn't really care much for her uniform.

I began to fold them up as neatly as I could, but I had been shortly taken aback when I found an extra piece of clothing hidden underneath Faith's shirt. I wasn't expecting to see that among the group of her uniform, but I decided to just man up and finish what I started. It wasn't exactly the first time I had to do laundry for someone other than myself.

Once I was done with her used clothes, I placed them away and turned back to the bed to see Faith in the same position. I wasn't sure if she had fallen asleep. Before I could check on her, I heard of whip of thunder off in the distance. I turned towards the window to notice that the sky had suddenly grown dark, and it only took a short while before rain began falling against the glass.

"I wasn't expecting it to rain…" I stated softly. Having received no response from Faith, I walked over to the side of her bed and sat down. There, I gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "You still awake?"

"…mm…"

I knew she hadn't been acting as chipper as she usually was, but I was stuck wondering if what happened at her old school today was more of a bother for her than I thought. "You okay?" I asked.

She managed to pull up her head and turn to the side to look at me. "I'm just tired… I kind of want the week to end already. No. I want school to be over already."

"It'll be over before you know it." I told her. "We've made it this far without too much of a problem. We can handle the rest."

She began to push herself up as a heavy sigh escaped from her lips. "I think I'm going to go take a bath…" She removed herself from bed and began searching through her drawers for a change of clothes.

"Try not to fall asleep in there." I mentioned, noticing how much she looked like she wanted to keep her eyes shut.

After Faith moved to the bathroom, I decided to roam around downstairs. I kept an eye out of one of the windows at the front of the house and just let myself be hypnotized with the rain. The week was nearing its end, and all we had to really worry about was the Friendship Games, if anything. Faith had really been bummed out about the entire situation with her old school, and I wanted to do something to cheer her up. After doing a little thinking, I decided that I wanted to take her out for ice cream or something when school finishes for the week. Usually, when we went out to find something to do together, I would normally try inviting Twilight every now and then, but after so many failed attempts, I considered not even bothering at this point anymore.

If she wanted to be alone with work and research, then I'll just let her be.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard the sound of car beeping right outside on the driveway. Making sure I hadn't been seeing things, I scanned the area outside the window and realized that Faith's mom's car had been there. I wasn't sure if she had an umbrella with her, but I raced over to the corner near the front door and picked out one of the umbrellas stationed at the stand.

Afterwards, I jogged out the front door and opened the umbrella up above me. I noticed that her mom had already been opening her door and stepping out, so I quickly made my way over to her, almost slipping along the way.

"Wasn't expecting you to be home so soon, Mrs. Meadows." I surprised her as soon as she had just finished stepping out and closing the car door.

"And I wasn't expecting you to rush out here all of sudden." She chuckled as soon as her eyes had relaxed after being shot open by my sudden appearance. "You weren't doing anything bad with my daughter, were you?"

A wave of heat suddenly hit me as I unnecessarily stammered in responding back. "W-what?! Of course not!" Even though I had already expected it to be a joke, just the thought of it caused fragments of uninvited images.

She laughed out loud this time, due to my reaction, and seemed to notice the umbrella I had been carrying. "How sweet. You were going to escort me in?"

"I just thought it'd be a nice thing to do." I responded after brushing off any other unwanted emotions.

"You didn't need to, but thank you very much."

I hovered the umbrella a little more towards her side to make sure she was covered as much as possible. She still had her suit on for work, so it was better that she didn't get too wet. I had already taken off my blazer inside, so it wasn't such a big deal for me.

"I'm home, Faith!" Her mom exclaimed from the front door.

"I think she's in the bath." I mentioned, remembering what she had told me before I came down here.

"Anything happen at school today?" She asked a little oddly, as if what I said was some kind of clue.

"What makes you ask that?" I responded.

"She usually doesn't bathe this early." She explained. "It doesn't look like you two were caught in the rain before getting here," She observed my uniform as she said this, "so I'm thinking she probably wanted to calm herself and relieve some stress."

"Well, it's kind of complicated." I tried explaining the situation. "You see, we sort of got roped into this competition called the Friendship Games, and it's a thing between Crystal Prep and her old school Canterlot High."

"I got a call earlier today." She mentioned as she placed her bag away. "I didn't know you two had entered those Friendship Games."

"Our principal promised that she'd make sure we'd graduate as long as we still worked hard." I crossed my arms as I thought back. "Before we accepted, I asked Faith if she was cool with it, since we'd going to her former school, but she said she was fine with whatever I wanted to do. I thought it'd be nice for us to have a worry-free chance at graduating, so…I accepted it. But, I'm a little worried for Faith. I wouldn't have an idea on how she feels about this overall, since I've never experienced what she went through. We visited the school today, and she was trying so hard to hide from anyone that might've recognized or known her."

Faith's mom gave a slow sigh through her nose as she adverted her eyes to the side and appeared concerned. "She's always thinking about others over herself… I wish I could have done more for her."

"You do way more than enough." I felt the strong need to assure to her.

"I just wish I wouldn't have to work so much." She confided. "I'm glad that you're around to watch over her and be there when she needs someone."

"Of course…" I tried to express as if it wasn't a problem whatsoever. "What do you think I should do? Tomorrow's the day of the Friendship Games. I don't know what's going to happen, but I have a feeling we're going to interact with the other school a lot more than today. I don't know how she'll handle it."

"Hmm." She closed her eyes as she thought. "All I can really tell you is…just be there for her every second of the day. Make sure she doesn't think she's ever alone. If need be, tell her that I'd be happy to take the both of you out somewhere to eat once the week is over. I'm sure she'll be excited for that."

That offer earned a chuckle from me. "That might just do the trick. Yeah. No worries. I promise I'll stick with her."

She exchanged a warm smile with me before we heard someone at the top of the stairs.

"You're already home, mom?"

Having been at the very top, Faith began to walk down the stairs as she massaged her hair with a white towel. She had been wearing a fresh set of comfortable clothes.

"I got off early today." Her mother clarified with a bright smile.

"I wouldn't exactly call it early…" Faith met us at the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm here right now, aren't I?" Her mom attacked her with an unexpected hug, causing Faith to drop the towel she had been carrying. "What do you want for dinner? I'll make anything you want!"

"It's…a little…hard…to tell you…if you're hugging…like—"

I felt a smile stretch at my lips. It was good to see Faith getting along with her mother so perfectly. I had to imagine that they had to be close, considering that it was just the two of them here.

"I'll go get started." Her mom began heading towards the kitchen as Faith picked up the towel that had been dropped on the floor. She noticed me and approached me as she seemed to stare more at the towel on hand.

"Hey." She greeted. "Um, sorry for before. I'm feeling a little better now, I guess."

"I don't know what you're apologizing for." I replied. "You know that's one of the reasons why I'm here, right?"

"Hm." The corners of her lips lifted upwards as she appeared to think for a short moment. "I noticed you picked up my clothes and folded them. Thanks for doing that."

"No problem. It's really nothing."

She managed to brighten up her smile before she appeared to suddenly remember something. "Uh…um… Did you happen to see my…mm…?"

I couldn't help but let out a somewhat nervous laugh. "Uh, yeah. No need to get embarrassed about it though. My sister would always leave her clothes all around the bathroom for me to pick up. It's not exactly anything new."

"I better not hear any 'small' jokes from you…" She muttered as she pouted her lips and looked to the side.

"Huh?" I inquired, not quite hearing her clearly at first.

"Nothing. I'm going to go see if my mom needs help in the kitchen." She mentioned and left in a slightly hurried manner.

---

After dinner, Faith and I hung around in her room as her mom got some well-deserved rest. Faith was pretty quiet for the most part as she messed with her laptop. I, on the other hand, just kind of hung around her bed.

All I could hear were the soft taps and clicks from her keyboard until she finally spoke up. "What do you think we're going to do tomorrow, Chase?" She asked. "It's the day of the competition, right?"

"Yeah, I don't know…" I thought. "I don't think we were ever told anything about what we were going to do. Is it supposed to be a surprise or something?"

"Maybe. I guess." She decided before closing the lid of her laptop and turning her head to find me laying on her bed. "I'm a little nervous. I don't want it to be some crazy thing I know nothing about."

"It can't be that bad." I believed. "We're just students, after all." I started thinking about the situation that seemed to be more distracting for Faith. "What about…the other thing? I figured you'd be more nervous about that then what's going to be in the competition."

"I need to stop worrying about that." She responded after sharing a heavy sigh. "It's so dumb. I just need to focus on the Friendship Games for both of our sake. I don't want to let you down because of me…"

"You won't." I assured and then shook my head. "I'm sure we'll do great. It is called the Friendship Games after all. The activities we'll have to do deal a lot with teamwork, I'm betting."

Faith nodded her head. "Yeah. I'm sure everyone will be too busy trying to win instead of remembering that one girl from freshman year. You're right. It's stupid to be fussing over that. I'm just making it out worse than it actually is."

"Remember." I reminded. "It's just one day, and then we're back to Crystal Prep. What can happen in one day?"

After fetching a look of determination, she smiled with fortitude. "Mm-hm." Afterwards, she surprised me when she lunged at me all of a sudden. "Thanks, Chase!"

"Anytime." I somewhat wheezed, seeing as she almost knocked the air out of me from her attacking embrace.

Once she pulled away, I observed her as her bare feet slightly dragged the bedsheets when she maneuvered across the bed. "I'm totes in the mood to shoot some zombies." She mentioned as she grabbed a couple of controllers by her TV. "You in?" She held one at me as she sent me the most inviting grin.

Being given the inspiration for an immediate 'yes', I happily accepted her offer.

If Crystal Prep always won these games every time for being super competitive and serious, then I had a feeling that we'd be just as good, if not better, for the crazy amount of teamwork we'd be willing to put in. If I can't get back at Sunset Shimmer myself, then at the very least, I can get back at her by creaming her in the Friendship Games.

We'll do great, Faith. I know we will.