3rd Person POV

Ghost came rushing out of the school, looking left and right for his friends, but more specifically, Applebloom. He couldn't find them, instead seeing that same pink coated filly walking up to him, her silver friend in tow.

"Hello there Ghost! Would you like to hangout with us during lunch?" She asked, trying her hardest to whip her hair around, but it didn't go anywhere with all of the hairspray that was applied onto it.

Ghost hummed thoughtfully, until he looked over and saw that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were bouncing a ball between themselves by a tree off in the distance. "Well, I was going to go and hang out over with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Maybe we could all hang out together?" Ghost asked, holding out an inviting hoof towards Diamond Tiara.

She looked as if she got visibly sick at the mention of the CMC, scoffing at the name. "You would rather go and hang out with those blank flanks than hang out with the most popular fillies at the school?!" She asked in disbelief, gesturing to her and Silver Spoon. "Why would you do a thing like that?"

"Well... They're my friends over there. And I barely know you two."

Diamond Tiara giggled and put a hoof onto Ghost's shoulder, making him a bit uneasy. "Well, how about we start getting to know each other? Let's hangout during lunch!" Diamond offered, but with a shake of his Ghost declined.

"Sorry, but you can come over and hang out with us." Ghost once again offered, remembering a lesson that 64 had once taught him.

'Never, under any circumstances, agree to abandon your current allies in an attempt to make more allies. Chances are that they have another agenda.'

"I refuse to hang out with those blank flank losers. C'mon Sil', we're out of here." Diamond called out, leaving in a huff. Silver Spoon followed like a tail, leaving Ghost standing there. He shrugged and made his way towards his friends, who were still playing with the ball. Scootaloo saw him coming, and she just so happened to have the ball in her possession.

"Think fast!" She yelled, tossing the ball into the air and bucking it at Ghost. Unfortunately, Ghost's first thought was to headbutt the ball, so when he made contact with the rubber projectile, it collided with his horn. His eyes widened when her heard the sound of air hissing out of the ball, wincing as he pulled the ball off of his horn.

"Uh... whoops?" Ghost apologized frightfully, seeing the glare he was receiving from Scootaloo.

"Whoops?! that was the last ball I had at home!" She yelled, walking over and swiping the now deflated ball from Ghost's grasp. She looked over the ball and sighed. "Well I might be able to salvage it with some tape from Ms. Cheerilee..."

"Wait! I think I might be able to help." Ghost said, taking the ball back from Scootaloo and laying it on the ground.

"How are ya possibly gonna fix the tear without tape or anythin'?" Applebloom asked, walking up to the Changeling.

He shrugged. "Well, when you have someone like 64 to help you learn magic, you pick up a few things, like patching up wounds. I figure if I treat this tear as a wound, I should be able to fix it pretty easily."

"But if you tried that, wouldn't it be different that fixing up pony skin? Not a rubber ball?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Probably... but I want to try at least." With that, Ghost's horn glowed a dark green, his magic enveloping the deflated ball. The 3 fillies looked on in anticipation, especially Applebloom, who's mouth was agape at the magic. Ghost focused on fusing the delicate tear back together, having to use more focus than magic power here. Another one of 64's lessons played in his mind.

'Not every situation is going to be solved with brute force and a lot of magic. Sometimes when you need to fix something, you have to try and mend it together, not rip it up and start over.'

Trying to follow 64's instruction, Ghost took in a deep breath and closed his eyes, focusing on the tear of the ball. Before the 3 fillies eyes, the tear slowly started to disappear, the rubber fusing back together without leaving as much as a mark. Once the job was done, Ghost opened his eyes and inspected his work. With a smile, he took the ball and found the air nozzle, blowing into the ball to once again inflate it back to a spherical shape.

"Anyone wanna play?" He asked smugly, tossing the ball up and down with his hoof. Scootaloo grinned and jumped up.

"Over here! Toss it!" She yelled, as the game once again continued. None of them saw the 2 pairs of watchful eyes spying on them from afar. Diamond Tiara was squinting her eyes at Ghost, while Silver Spoon just tried to figure what they were doing.

"Umm... why do we need to spy on the new colt? He doesn't seem that bad." she tried to say, but Diamond didn't listen to her.

"Because, if he's from Canterlot, then he has to be related to somepony important somehow! What if he knows somepony famous like Sapphire Shores, or maybe even Jack Nicoltson!" Diamond rationalized, once again peering at Ghost. "The real question is, why is he hanging out with those blank flanked babies over there?!"

"Well he did say he's visiting the Apple family, maybe he's friends with Applebloom?"

Diamond didn't respond, instead opting to continue staring at the colt. "There's just something strange about him... like he's hiding something really important..."

Little did she know how right she was.

Ghost POV

I was having so much fun here! I learned quickly to not use my head to bounce the ball, instead using my forehooves. I was getting ready to receive the ball from Applebloom, but a grey blur flew by and intercepted the ball in midair. I looked around to see where it went, but Scootaloo was already yelling out.

"Rumble! Give us our ball back you dolt!" She yelled, seeing a grey colt with dark grey mane which was blown back, probably from the resistance from flying.

"You gotta catch me first! C'mon Scootaloo! Use your wings!" Rumble taunted, flying over to another group of colts across the field we were in. Scootaloo growled and tried to buzz her wings hard enough to take flight, but as she started to gain leverage, she crashed to the ground in a huff.

The colts just laughed and turned away from us, now bouncing the ball back and forth between themselves. "What's their problem?" I asked, scowling at the bullies.

"Just let it go Ghost..." Scootaloo moaned, crestfallen.

"No! If they have a problem, then I'm gonna fix it."

Applebloom stepped in front of me. "Don't do anythin' rash Ghost. It won't do ya any good ta get in trouble your first day." Applebloom warned, but I just stepped around her and walked towards Rumble and his friends. I recognized Pipsqueak, who was in the group with Pinkie Pie during Nightmare Night.

"Hey! What's your guys' problem?" I called out, as the colts turned around to face me. It was the same lanky orange colt that asked me a question, a shorter greyish opal colored colt with an orange mane, Pipsqueak, and then finally Rumble. "Give us that ball back!"

"I don't see your name written on it." Rumble taunted, but I knew how to deal with a bully.

"Really? Man it must be terrible not knowing how to read..."

The colts in his group started to snicker at my comeback, but a glare from Rumble stopped all of that. "You're the new colt huh? It's obvious that you don't know how things work around here." Rumble boasted, tossing the ball behind him towards Pipsqueak. I decided that I didn't want to deal with him and grabbed the ball with my magic in midair, taking it back to the CMC.

"OK thanks for the good talk see ya!" I called back at him, walking away. All I heard before the bell rang again was the laughter of my friends and the stunned silence from Rumble.