The first day of the Friendship Games

The first things Silver Rose noticed that morning when her aunt stopped her outside Crystal Prep Academy were the multiple purple buses parked along the road. She spotted the drivers hanging about outside, some of them drinking coffee or reading newspapers.

“Have fun, okay sweetie?” Ivory Wings stretched a hand out and rubbed her niece on the shoulder. “It’s a big day today. If you see the sirens over at CHS, say hi for me, alright?”

Silver nodded happily and waved goodbye to her aunt, skipping off to join the rest of the students who were streaming into Crystal Prep. She passed by Neon Lights and Trenderhoof on the way, with the brown-skinned boy giving her a wave and a thumbs up. Silver waved back and went on, first heading to her locker to dump her books. Supposedly, there were going to be no lessons today, so she could leave everything she had in her locker, except for the homework she had to turn in. She didn’t know how it was going to work, seeing as they were going to be leaving at third period. Perhaps Mr. Beaker was just going to collect their homework and pass it to the rest of their teachers himself.

When she was done, Silver walked along to homeroom, settling herself down before taking her phone out. Deciding to text Home Run, she brought up her messages and began composing one to him.

Hiya Home Run! She added a kissing face emoji. Friendship Games today huh? Best of luck 2 u! Ill be rooting for my sis of course but i hope ur school does well too!!

She clicked off her phone’s screen and looked up at the front of class, daydreaming about Home Run and the many kisses she had shared with him. She figured it was only for a few seconds and her aunt and mother weren’t around, so she let Silver’s mind drift, thinking about the boy. Could it really be love she was starting to feel towards him? Silver knew she shouldn’t get too attached to her prey, but she was. Home Run was nice, caring, funny at times, cute, and then not to mention he wasn’t too bad on the eyes too. She really liked him and the time she spent with him. She just wanted it go on forever.

She sighed as she looked back down at her desk. Would life with Home Run be so impossible to achieve?

Just then, Sour Sweet stomped into the classroom, her footsteps echoing around the class’ crystalline floor with clinks, and behind her followed a very afraid and worried looking Twilight Sparkle, who averted her eyes from the rest of her class. She had on a weird looking amulet-like object, attached to a string around her neck.

“What is she thinking?!” Sour Sweet asked the class, getting even Ms. Post Script’s attention. “Why would Principal Cinch choose her to be on our team?!”

The cranberry haired girl pointed a menacing finger at the retreating Twilight Sparkle, who quickly sat down at her table and pulled out a book to cover her face.

“And I thought Principal Cinch wanted us to win! How are we going to win if we have someone like Twilight on the team?!”

“Sour Sweet, I believe that is enough.” Ms. Script got up and glared at her. “There will be no yelling and accusations in this class.”

Sour Sweet grumbled all the way to her seat and as she sat down.

When everyone returned to whatever they were doing, Silver took the chance to turn around and look at Twilight, who still had her book up. So this was Crystal Prep’s twelfth and final member to the team? Silver knew Twilight was smart and all, but did she have the physical ability the others had?

“Hey, Twilight,” she whispered over. When the book was lowered, she caught a glimpse of the girl’s purple eyes. “Hey, you okay? That wasn’t very nice of Sour Sweet.”

“I’ll be fine now…” Twilight answered meekly.

“Did Principal Cinch really pick you to participate?” Silver was curious. Twilight never seemed like a team player.

“Yeah, she did…” Twilight lowered the book a little more. Only then did Silver notice the book was upside down, but she didn’t say it out. “Principal Cinch thinks I would be a good addition to the Shadowbolt team. I disagreed, but… you know what, I can’t change anything now, forget about it.”

“Well, um…” Silver smiled her sweetest smile. “Go out there and do your best, huh?”

“I’ll try,” Twilight sighed unhappily.

Silver returned her attention back to the front of class as Ms. Script got up to take their attendance. After they were done with that, they turned in their homework, which was an essay about poetry and a few questions about some readings. After that, they simply sat around, not doing anything until the bell. Silver found that to be incredibly time wasting and boring and she couldn’t even take her phone out to message Home Run, because they still weren’t allowed to use their phones during class.

Which meant when the bell finally rang for class to be over, there was an enthusiastic scuffle for the door, with a bottleneck of students crowding around the exit trying to escape. Her next class was Mr. Fowl’s, which was almost just as boring because there wasn’t anything to do. They had turned in all their homework here too, but other than that, it was just a free and easy period. Thankfully, Canvas Splash had been there to relieve the dreary mood with a few splashes of paint on a small canvas. By class’ end, she had finished a picture of Mr. Fowl, which the teacher had gladly accepted.

“I’ll see you later, maybe?” Canvas slung her bag over one shoulder. She hadn’t punctured any tubes of paint in her bag recently, which was good. Silver didn’t quite like the smell, nor did she like Canvas’ bag dripping with paint. “They’ll tell us the bus assignments later, so maybe we’ll get to sit together.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Silver waved goodbye and proceeded to chemistry class, where Mr. Beaker was already waiting with a clipboard in his hands.

He looked at Silver and ticked off something on his clipboard as she walked in. The science teacher hadn’t said anything, so Silver just walked over to her seat and sat down, taking her homework out in advance. Soon, Trenderhoof was in, finding his way to the table beside her and sitting down.

“Hey, Silver Rose,” the boy greeted and pulled his stack of homework from his bag. “We’re almost there now. Mr. Beaker’s just going to collect our work and make sure we’re all here, then we’re off to the Friendship Games! Oh, this is exciting! It’ll surely make a good read in my magazine.”

“Yeah, looks big.” Silver nodded and waved to Sunny Flare and Sugarcoat as they entered the class. Sunny seemed to shy away when waving back, but Silver guessed she still was partly afraid of her. “Hey, Trenderhoof, do you know what we’re doing with the rest of our homework? Are we just handing it all to Mr. Beaker?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s what all the teachers are doing today,” he shrugged. “They’ll probably just sort it out later or something.”

“Interesting…” Silver stacked her work neatly. “I don’t see why they won’t just wait till after the Games to collect them all.”

“They want to make sure we did it on time.”

“A lot of trouble to go through for that, isn’t it?”

As they had talked about, Mr. Beaker called out for all their homework to be passed down to the front, also asking for them to be placed together by name. Silver did as she was told, watching as the class noisily began putting all their papers forward.

When they were done, Mr. Beaker checked them all off again, then cleared his throat and straightened his black framed glasses. “Okay, class, listen up. When I release you, you are all to go to the buses by ten-fifteen, got it? Dean Cadance will be there to tell you which buses you are to go on. Any questions?”

No one raised their hands or said anything.

“Good,” Mr. Beaker said, putting his arms behind his back. “Then you may leave. Remember, ten-fifteen.”

By the time Silver Rose picked up her things, Trenderhoof was already out the door, smelling like he was really excited to start the Games. Silver didn’t blame him. They’d been preparing way before she even enrolled here and they had waited so long for this day to prove they were the better school. Today, they would finally get the chance.

She noticed that Sunny, Sugarcoat and Indigo had already left as well, likely already at the front of the queue for the buses.

Seeing no point in rushing, Silver took her time in leaving the class, not bothering to push through her classmates like the others were doing. She found Canvas on the way out, putting some of her paints into her locker.

“Hey, Canvas. Not bringing your paints?”

“Oh, no. Just not bringing the unnecessary ones.” The artist closed her locker. “I’m thinking of sketching the Games out. I won’t leave without my stuff.”

“That’s neat, Canvas.” Silver walked alongside the girl as they began making their way out of the hall. There were a few other students still around, but it was mostly empty, with all the others rushing out to the buses as soon as they were able to. “How do we know which buses we’re on?”

“Dean Cadance will let us know when we get outside. We’ll just need to find her.” The painter shrugged and pointed to the main doors. “One way to find out. I hope I’m in the same bus as you, Silver. I don’t have anyone else to sit with.”

“Alright, let’s see where they’re going to put us.”

After getting their bus assignments from Dean Cadance,who was smelling of excitement and anticipation, they went back to the buses. They had been assigned to the first bus in the row of buses. Silver spotted Sunny and Sour Sweet by the front. At least there were others on the bus she was familiar with.

Finding the line to the bus, Silver stood at the back, humming to herself alongside Canvas Splash. This would be the first time Silver Rose had officially visited CHS. Her times as Moonglade didn’t count. She looked forward to seeing the intricate details of their campus and comparing it to Crystal Prep’s own. As the queue moved further a bit, she could hear Indigo Zap yelling, “Are we gonna win?” at some hapless bystander.

Gee, tone it down a bit, Indigo.

The line crawled forward as more and more students boarded the bus. Finally, Silver and Canvas were on board, sitting next to each other at a seat near the front. Silver looked over at the bus driver, who somehow reminded her a whole lot of Home Run. He had the same hair and skin color, pretty much, and his facial features were quite similar too. Now that she thought about it, she had never asked about the boy’s parents. She had no idea what they worked as. She made a reminder to do so the next time they were to go on a date. The next time he and Moonglade were to go on a date, she corrected herself.

Sunny and Sour Sweet were near the middle, while Sugarcoat, Twilight Sparkle and Lemon Zest were at the rear. Sugarcoat was saying something to Twilight and she didn’t look too pleased about it. Lemon Zest, was as usual, headbanging to some music on her headphones. Silver wondered just how her ears never got damaged by all the loud music she had on that thing. Indigo was still hopping up and down on the seat opposite side of Silver and Canvas’ seats, across the aisle. She looked to be the most excited student aboard.

“Hey,” Silver said to Canvas once the last few students got on. “How far is it to CHS anyway? They’re not in the city, are they?”

“More in the suburbs, I think,” Canvas replied. “Never actually been there myself, but I saw a it on a map once. Shouldn’t take more than half an hour.”

“Half an hour?” Silver said, shocked. “I thought it would just take ten.”

Canvas laughed. “Do you know what kind of driver you’d have to be to make it to CHS in ten minutes? You’d be running a lot of red lights.”

Silver rubbed her other hand unconsciously. “Heheh, yeah… that’s, uh, very true. You’re probably right about that.”

Just then Indigo Zap had reached over and began tapping Silver furiously on the arm to get her attention. “Hey, Silver! Too bad you’re not part of the team, but we’re still going to win this anyway. We’ve been training for so long now! Cheer for us as loudly as you can, huh?”

“You got it, Indigo.” Silver nodded. Indigo pressed a small flag into her hands. It was purple and had ‘CPA’ printed on both sides. “Looks like everyone on. What are we waiting for?”

“Sorry for the delays!” Quillion Riposte stepped into the bus. “Just had to pack the last of the fencing gear into the bus. Never know what the Games might bring, so better safe than sorry.”

After him, Mr. Fowl got in, with the doors closing behind him and the bus engine beginning to rumble.

“Okay, settle down, students.” Their hawk-like teacher waved both his hands around. “Now the ride there won’t be too long, but I want you all to be on your best behavior when arriving. Wouldn’t want to damage the reputation of our school, now would we?”

More like damage the reputation of our foul tasting principal. Silver was glad that she would not have to share a bus with Cinch; it probably would have made her sick, even with all her training.

Quillion sat down behind Silver and Canvas, beside Royal Pin, while Mr. Fowl took the lone seat up by the front, a book already out in his hands.

“Dude! You have gotta hear this!” Silver heard Lemon Zest yell at the back as the bus began to move off. She was probably sharing her music with some unfortunate soul. Silver hoped it would be someone who actually liked Copperrear.

Canvas suddenly tapped her on the shoulder, then leaned in to whisper, “Silver, Quillion’s sitting behind us!”

“Um, yes, I can see him.” Silver looked at her funny.

“He’s so cool and handsome.” A pencil and sketchbook suddenly materialized in Canvas’ hands. “I think I’ll sketch him! I’ve never been this close to him.”

“Okay, you uh, you do that, Canvas,” Silver answered, unsure of what else she could say.

Canvas opened her sketchbook and began scribbling furiously in it while Silver set the timer on her phone. She wanted to see just how long it would take for this bus to reach CHS as opposed to her usual ride’s speed.

Thirty-two minutes and forty-nine seconds later, the bus pulled up alongside Canterlot High.

“Finally,” Silver Rose grumbled. “I thought I was going to die on this bus, it was taking so long.”

“What, for real?” Canvas looked up, then added one last touch to her work and held it up for Silver to see. “And I’m done! What do you think?”

The sketch was of Quillion’s face, ending just at the neck. It was well done, but it wasn’t as sharp, seeing as they were in a moving vehicle, but still, it was quite the masterpiece.

“That’s really nice, Canvas, but…” Silver looked back to make sure Quillion wasn’t looking. “Maybe you should keep it before Quillion sees it. It’ll seem kinda creepy to him.”

“What was that?” Quillion turned to look at her.

Silver quickly pushed Canvas down below the back of the seat and smiled. “Um, nothing! Don’t you worry about a thing! Just glad we’re finally here!”

“Be nice to stretch our legs,” Quillion agreed. “I wonder if they do fencing here. Let’s ask around, why don’t we.”

“Okay, kids.” Mr. Fowl got up right after the bus came to a complete stop, with the driver shutting off the engine. “We’re going to alight from this bus in a neat, orderly fashion. We’ll start from the front. Let’s move it, kids.”

Indigo Zap and her neighbor were the first ones out, followed by Silver and Canvas. As soon as she stepped out of the bus, Silver looked around, spotting the school’s horse statue, followed by the school itself. It was all familiar to her, but this was Silver’s first time here, so she pretended to look like she was taking in her new surroundings.

“Hmm…” Canvas stuck out a hand and made an ‘L’ shape, moving it around with one eye closed. “The shape is nice, but it doesn’t look nearly as nice as Crystal Prep does.”

“It’s definitely not as shiny,” Silver agreed as they began walking, now heading past the horse statue. As she did so, something drew her eye to the white stone. She reached out a hand to touch it. The statue felt faintly warm under her fingers, something which she was unaccustomed to feeling. Shaking her head, the girl took her hand off the statue and skipped after Canvas, managing to keep to the line, while Quillion and Royal Pin came along behind her.

There was a muffled thud, and Silver looked around just in time to see Sunny and Twilight on the ground, the latter being glared at by the former.

“Seriously?” Sunny asked, a scowl on her face.

“Oh, sorry!” Twilight squeaked. “I didn’t mean to.”

Silver figured the Games were having them all on edge, especially the usually timid and lonely Twilight. In a way, she felt sorry for her.

Sunny Flare had gotten to her feet and walked away, and as Twilight rose to her own feet, she almost bumped into Sour Sweet.

“Sorry. Why don’t you go ahead?”

Sour Sweet’s face arranged itself into a radiant smile. “You are such a sweetie!” Almost immediately it changed. “I’m watching you.” And she and Sunny went on ahead.

Silver turned back to move on, turning around again as Lemon Zest jumped out of the bus, rocking out to some tune on her headphones.

“Usual,” Silver muttered, then resumed her walk to the school building with Canvas. She wanted to go back and ask Twilight if she was okay, but she could already imagine the reply she would get, so she gave this one a pass.

Dean Cadance and Principal Cinch were already there by the school, talking to two other women, whom Silver guessed were Canterlot High’s leaders. Indeed, her aunt had spoken about impersonating one of them before. She wondered how well that had gone down.

Reaching the front steps of the school, the line dispersed, with the Crystal Prep students going around to look at the place.

Silver quickly found the rest of the Shadowbolts, all crowded together and examining the exterior of the campus, with either derisive smirks or looks of extreme boredom. Canvas already had her sketchbook out and was drawing the school building with her pencil.

“This place looks like trash,” Sour Sweet guffawed. “I hope the students here aren’t the same. But highly unlikely, right?”

“We’re going to squash Canterlot High like bugs!” Indigo emphasized this by smashing a fist into her palm.

“Oh, come on, girls,” Silver said, regretting it when all their eyes turned to her. “Um… they’re, um, still people. We can just play this… um, nicely, right? Heheh…”

“Nicely?” Sunny Flare scoffed and rolled her eyes. “We don’t have to, Silver. They’re our opponents. We’re aiming to win, not to make friends.”

“Oh.”

Silver lowered her finger and returned her hand to her side. Clearly the Shadowbolts had a very different opinion about what ‘Friendship Games’ meant.

“So what now?” Sour Sweet sighed and sat down on the school steps. “Are we supposed to just sit around and admire their school? Because it isn’t working.”

“I’ll go ask Dean Cadance if you like,” Canvas offered.

“No one’s asking you, paintbrush,” Sunny snapped at her. “But since you asked, then go on.”

After the pink haired artist left the group, the Shadowbolts began muttering amongst themselves, but Silver had excellent hearing, able to hear what they were saying.

“Why is she even hanging around us for?” Sugarcoat whispered. “She doesn’t even consider us friends.”

“She’s such a complete weirdo!” Sour Sweet replied. “If only she’d stop talking to herself and stop being such a klutz.”

Silver Rose frowned slightly at the abuse of Canvas. She considered saying something, but then something bumped into her from behind. “Hmm?”

“Sorry to intrude on you, Silver,” Quillion said, his arms loaded with a stack of fencing helmets. “But we’re a bit overloaded with gear right now and I can’t find Fleur. Would you mind grabbing that bag of foils and carrying them in? I think Dean Cadance has a place for us to put this stuff.”

“Oh, um, sure Quillion.” Silver got the Shadowbolts’ attention. “Excuse me, girls, I’ll go help Quillion. I’ll see you later, hmm?”

“Right.” Sunny looked at her up and down, then quickly looked to the side. “Uh, we’ll see you later, yeah.”

Silver nodded and waved, then followed after the fencing team captain. “Hey, Quillion? Did any of the other teams bring any gear? Just curious. I haven’t seen any of the others carry anything.”

“Well…” Quillion started, pushing a hand through his purple hair. “The teams like basketball and soccer don’t need anything. As for the motocross team, their bikes were already brought here yesterday, so I’ve heard.”

“So it’s confirmed that there’ll be motocross?” Silver asked as she hefted the bag of foils. For such thin swords, in a bunch like this they were surprisingly heavy, at least when she wasn’t expending any love.

“Yeah, I thought that’s why you and the Shadowbolts were practicing that day?”

“Well, yeah, but I thought that officially, we wouldn’t know what the events were until they happened.”

“That’s what’s supposed to happen, but you know…” Quillion shrugged, even with the bags around his shoulders. “There are always ways people will find things out. I guess someone did some digging and figured that out.”

“Isn’t that kind of, you know, cheating?” Silver asked. “Does the other school know about it?”

“Well, they came to spy on us, right? So I’m guessing they must know something.”

Silver nodded. It was true. “So where do I put this bag?”

Quillion scratched his head. “Just hold onto it for the time being. I’ll tell you where to put it later. I need to go check in. You should too.”

“Guess I should check in with him…” Silver said, hefting the bag and listening to the swords clatter around inside. It was a bother to lug the bag around with her, but she decided to ignore it after seeing that Quillion had three other bags with him. If he could handle it, then she could too.