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by Eyeswirl the Weirded

Chapter 1: Chapter 1: First Days (Part 1)

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Standing in the living room one Monday morning, Adagio found herself nearly overwhelmed with a torrent of feelings. She couldn't identify many of them, but she was sure some kind of pride was in there somewhere and she could probably ask Sunset about the rest. The source of these feelings came from the girl in front of her; standing before a full-length mirror and wearing her new, long-sleeved Crystal Prep uniform. Sonata looked so sharp, so smooth, so... professional!

At least when she stopped picking her nose.

"This is really it," Sonata said with a nervous grin as she turned to face Adagio, "we're really going! Our first day at the super school!"

As she wouldn't be joining Aria and Sonata where they were going, Adagio wore her old, purple dance outfit with the jumpsuit and spiked heels. "It is not a 'super school,' but they will have higher expectations from you than what we glimpsed in CHS." She winked playfully. "So, put in about half as much effort as you did back home and you should be fine."

As Sonata giggled, Aria trudged in, looking a lot less enthused about her new outfit. "Ugh. It ain't a belly-shirt, but... Plaid. Do we really have to wear these?"

Sonata looked her over, looked over herself, looked at Aria again, crossed her arms, and huffed. "Well, one of us is gonna hafta change."

Aria facepalmed. "It's a uniform, stupid. We wore one when we were CHS's cheerleaders?"

"Just because we're in uniform, doesn't mean we have to look the same!"

"That is exactly what uniform means!"

"Nuh-uh! The Crackhead Prep kids we saw had all kindsa different outfits!"

She chose to just let Sonata get in trouble if she said that when they got there. "No they didn't!"

"Did too! Some had short sleeves, some had miniskirts, and there were a bunch of different sock lengths! I know my clothes!!"

"Er..." Her memory on what the other team was wearing not being in crystal clarity, she looked to Adagio for a 50-50 shot at being backed up vs. Adagio taking Sonata's side just to mess with her. Somehow, she got neither, the two finding Adagio to be holding a tissue and looking back at them with watery eyes.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry," she said with a wobbly smile, "j-just..." Sniff! "They grow up so fa-ha-haaasst!!" She loudly blew her nose, even if Aria wasn't the least bit fooled by her routine. Luckily, it appeared that Sonata was, as ever, less perceptive, the most adorable little blush blossoming on her cheeks as she awkwardly brushed the back of her neck.

"Jeez, Dagi..."

Aria's head tilted. "'Grow up'?! We've been together for over a century!!"

Dropping the act, Adagio giggled. "You're sure you have everything you need?"

"We're good. You gonna be okay all alone at CHS?"

At this, Adagio stopped smiling. "I'll be fine. It might get a little boring during the day, but I'll be here when you get back."

Besides, I'll have Sunset and the rest to talk to, so it's not like I could get lonely.

She was startled by Sonata latching onto her in a hug, looking at her with soft, tender eyes. "Don't get in trouble, okay?"

"Hmph," Adagio answered with an amused smirk, "I'm not the one going to the stricter school. See that I don't need to pay bail on top of your tuition."

"Ack! Uh..." Sonata took a step back, wearing that smile that said she was already cancelling certain plans in her head. "Um, haha... right, we'll be-WOAH!"

Aria dragged Sonata towards the door. "We gotta catch the bus. Later!"

Adagio gave them a little wave as they left, resisting the urge to follow them out to the bus stop, wait until it pulled up, then smother them both with hugs and kisses. She felt a just little guilty for even dreaming up such a thing, but this far from Crystal Prep, it was doubtful many of their classmates would see it anyway.

Double-checking that she had everything she needed too, Adagio set out on her own for CHS. She was the head cheerleader now, which seemed to give her a surprising amount of... not power, but, maybe influence, because other students acted like she had some kind of authority over the gym, which happened to be the area she was given for cheer practice if anyone joined. She was treated almost deferentially by students in sporting clubs, even though so far, she was a cheer-squad of one. It was a good thing cheerleading had kind of grown on her, because she had never known it was such a respected position!

Well, that, or they're all afraid of me because of the first time I visited their school.

...Come to think of it, that sort of explained why, in the past week or two since the Friendship Games, no one had joined. Not that she was complaining, especially since, as she told Aria and Sonata, she was trying to learn to be more subordinate herself. Or, at the very least, adapt out most of what she learned in The Hadal Zone. That should be easy enough, surrounded by the Friendship is Magic crew.

It was while waiting at a crosswalk that Adagio first turned her head.

"Aria, do y-...?"

She was alone.

...Well, that was fast.

She wondered how their bus ride was going. If they were arriving at Crystal Prep without incident. If she missed something on one of the forms she'd had to fill out and they weren't being admitted to the school. They would call her if that happened, right? It wouldn't be entirely out of character for them to shrug their shoulders, go home, and spend the rest of the day goofing off, but she wanted to think they would at lea-

"-ight is green now."

Quickly turning her head, she accidentally startled the human Twilight Sparkle. "...I'm sorry, what was it?"

Smiling sheepishly, Twilight pointed at the traffic lights. "I said, the light for our side is green now, you can safely cross the street."

A quick scan of her surroundings revealed this to be the case. "Ah, yes."

There was an awkward pause as the two stood there, but Adagio set off before the light changed again, taking the sound of nearby footsteps to mean that Twilight was following. Made sense, they were almost certainly going to the same place.

"So, you're not wearing the cheerleading outfit today."

"No, the belly-shirt and miniskirt are not my default wardrobe."

"Haha! I-I guess not."

"Any reason you're still wearing your uniform?"

Twilight glanced down at herself. "Um, well... habit, I guess."

"Hm." Small-talk initiated, Adagio seized the opportunity to get some perspective. "How have things been for you in Canterlot High thus far?"

"Great, actually! Everyone's been really friendly and welcoming." Her smile took a slightly rueful turn. "Almost as if I didn't come from a rival school, or possibly endanger the entire universe."

"You did," Adagio said so casually that Twilight flinched, "but CHS has had a bit of a warm-up to these sorts of shenanigans in the form of Sunset Shimmer and my group, so forgiving you probably wasn't much of a leap for most of them." She chose to leave out her suspicions that Twilight's likeness to the princess that came before may have swayed a few minds much faster, as it was something Twilight was probably worried about already.

"Yea, I... guess so. Are you worried about how the other two will do at Crystal Prep?"

Caught off-guard for a split second, Adagio schooled her features before Twilight reacted. She made the mental note that the girl was sharper than her innocent, naive demeanor would suggest. "They'll be fine, I'm sure."

Crystal Prep might not be quite as welcoming a place as CHS, but if one school can put aside such a long-held hatred for its rival, perhaps the other can too?

She was confident that she'd be able to gauge the day Aria and Sonata had had by the looks on their faces when she got home, and spent the rest of the walk to CHS thinking up countermeasures for various outcomes.

Walking beside her, Twilight wasn't sure if they were done talking now, or if she was supposed to say something else. Would they be considered friends at this point? She hadn't really spoken to Adagio much since the sportsmanship-slap was met with a painful (and mortifying, once Cadence heard about it!) face-slap at the Friendship Games after-party, and given what she'd heard about this girl from the others, wanted to make sure there was absolutely no bad blood between them. No topics came to mind until they arrived at the school, where the pristine replacement statue proudly stood. She smiled. "Thanks again for helping with that project, the cement bags were a lot heavier than they looked!"

"Mmhm."

They kept walking, Twilight's smile gradually slipping away as they stepped through the front door.

Is it me, or is this person just hard to talk to? Am I doing something wrong?

Maybe if she tried some physical gesture of companionship, something other than butt-slapping! She stepped closer to touch Adagio in one of the four or five friendly ways she could recall Sunset and her friends casually demonstrating, but her lack of coordination struck with poor timing, which left Twilight to unintentionally throw her full weight into the contact. The next thing she knew, she was lying partly on top of Adagio, hands on the back of her (soft, but firm!) thighs, one of Adagio's spiked heels scraping against her stomach as the older girl lay face-down in the middle of the school lobby.

Horrified to find herself in this situation (again!!) though she was, Twilight felt the temperature of her insides drop a little further when she looked up to see the rest of her newfound friends at Canterlot High.

"Wow," giggled Pinkie, "first thing in the morning, huh?"

"N-no," Twilight stuttered as she quickly hopped up, "I, it wasn't, I-I didn't mean t-"

Her attention was quickly seized, along with the collar of her shirt, when Adagio got to her feet. It was not thermodynamically conceivable to get hypothermia from fear and distress alone, but the glare on Adagio's lightly flushed face almost made her forget this as her internal organs grew just a little colder.

"Twilight Spark-"

"Wait," Sunset interjected while gently pushing Twilight and Adagio apart, facing the latter with a warm, earnest smile. "I don't know what she was trying to do there, but it probably wasn't to feel you up. Forgive her, please?"

Adagio opened her mouth, but Twilight immediately jumped on the chance to apologize, doing so repeatedly and at slightly higher volume than was called for. The pitiful display mixed with Sunset's Magic of Friendship™ grin made her relent, sighing. "Alright, alright. Wasn't going to hurt her anyway."

Sunset smiled wider. "Great!" It weakened a little when she looked at Twilight. "You could really stand to be more careful, though."

Blushing brightly, Twilight folded in on herself as she studied the floor. "I know." The quiet giggles from the others, and Sunset in particular, didn't exactly make her feel better, but they were leaps and bounds ahead of the mocking jeers she'd experienced elsewhere.

Enjoying the adorable sight of a flustered Twilight though she was, Sunset figured it would be best to limit the poor girl's humiliation as much as possible, especially so early in the day. "C'mon, we should get to first period."

As Sunset started off, Twilight turned to everyone else. "Hello! I mean goodbye! I mean... both!"

The other five Rainbooms, and Adagio, watched in mildly perplexed silence as Twilight sped off in the same general direction as Sunset, but she was fortunate enough not to trip again. And then they looked at each other, that feeling of Our Mutual Friend Has Left fully sinking in on both sides, leaving them in a lasting, awkward silence. Rarity opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the warning bell.

Rainbow scratched the back of her head, an almost apologetic look on her face. "Well, like, class, so..." She smiled a little. "I mean, unless anyone feels like playing hooky?"

She was lightly thwapped on the back of the head by Applejack, which at least let everyone part in a giggly, light-hearted atmosphere. It wasn't until she was sitting in class that Adagio pondered whether or not Rainbow did that on purpose.

Author's Notes:

It sounds a bit cheesy, I think, but I really wanted to use the "take each day as it comes." bit to drive home the slice-of-lifey-ness this thing is supposed to be about. I'm going with the series of vignettes idea someone proposed rather than a full, continuous story; just scenes of their lives I felt like writing, with and without an overarching narrative.

I know I said I should probably finish another story or two before starting this one, but given that I've found it much, much easier to just write wherever my drunken, wandering, ADD-addled muse goes, maybe that was wrong. Besides, I tend to say things like "This story won't be very long" and "Oh, this part will just be a quick chapter" too. :applejackunsure:

An advantage of the 'chapters' that I write out in full and chop up into parts for easier digestibility is that I can release those segments quickly and give previews for them. Ahem.

Join us tomorrow as Aria and Sonata start their first day at Crystal Prep, the Shadowbolts pop in to say hello, and the truth of Rarity's gut fetish is fully revealed! :pinkiehappy:
Like a cheerleader's belly!

Next Chapter: Chapter 2: First Days (Part 2) Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 45 Minutes
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