The Backstory

Before the move to Equestria City happened, it was a well known fact in Panem City that Cato Hadley, his adopted younger brother Cameron Spears, Urchin Hook, and Marvel Sanford were very close best friends. Friends since childhood, the four of them were at times inseparable. Due to the fact that their parents were friends with each other, it was perhaps, in the eyes of some, only natural that these four distinct kids would become friends. Due to the four’s shared love of music, they formed a band called “The Careers”, a reference to their nickname in school due to them seemingly making it a Career out of being perfect honor students, despite the occasional bumps in the road.

Of the four of them, each had their own unique personality quirks and traits that made them more of a oddball combination of friends than anything else. Cato was the oldest of the group, at 17 years old. A nerd who almost always had his head stuck in a book or was swinging a sword around, he was by far the smartest and strongest of the bunch. Yet, despite being the intimidating mass of muscle he had developed himself into since fifth grade, he had a soft side to him as well that almost no one except his family, and on some occasions his friends in private, ever saw. In the world of Panem High, showing your emotions was viewed as a sign of weakness, and Cato found it way easier to hide his emotions behind the calm, collected, and confident mask he had developed in between school years. Little did anyone ever realize though, that he also had a bit of a psychotic monstrous side to him, that he almost never shown because it scared him to death about what he could do if he let his dark side take control. He was in short, the intimidating kind hearted boy scared of his own shadow in a sense.

Cato’s adopted younger brother, Cameron, was the loose cannon of the four and perhaps the crazy guy of the group as well. At 16 years old, he didn’t have as much muscle as his older brother, but he had the brain power to match. Due to having Autism and ADHD, Cameron’s a bit of an impulsive teen, reined in only by the respect for his older brother’s decision making. He, too, had a bit of a dark side, but for the most part, kept it hidden beneath a mask of always staying positive 99.9% of the time. Yet, when people asked him about why he had those black scars running up and down his arms and legs, he would always give them an intimidating look, which meant that he really didn’t like people asking him that question. Not matter the circumstances though, those violet eyes of his always meant that there would be plenty of girls attracted to him, much to his discomfort at this point.

Urchin Hook was, by all accounts, a small, curly haired boy with a big heart. Born and raised by a loving family in Panem City’s District 4, otherwise known as the fishery district, he has always enjoyed fishing with his father and due to the enormous amount of time he spent going fishing with his father which by the time he reached age of 14 years old made him the youngest of the group, he now has rather abnormal muscle compared to other scrawny kids his age. It wasn't as much as Cato's, but it fell between Marvel and Cameron. At school, the kids all called him "The Little Shark" because of how short he was compared to his three other friends. It was a nickname that to be honest, he really didn't mind it all that much. Either way, it didn't stop him from being the most empathic person of the group. While Urchin can handle a sword well, he prefers the trident and spear since he used those two most.

Last of all, there was Marvel Sanford. A tall, lanky brunette, he had been taught how to hunt by his dad since they lived on the more rural, poorer edge of Panem City's District 1 near the forests. As the nearest supermarket was two miles of notorious highways known for traffic jams from Marvel's old home, his dad taught him how to use the spear and knife for hunting. He mainly used a spear while training since he was most familiar with it. He was a bit of a joker, albeit a better one than Cameron. Like Cameron, while he could be funny at times, he can become really serious when the situation called for it. Before he met Cato, Cameron, and Urchin, Marvel was called "Beanstalk" in elementary school up until fifth grade, a nickname he really didn't like. After he met them, however, much to his relief, barely anyone has called him that since.

It was pure coincidence that their parents all found better jobs over in Equestria City, so by chance, the four of them found themselves moving to Equestria City, where also by chance, their new homes made them next door neighbors. It only took a day for their parents to enroll them in Canterlot High, on a Saturday, the day after they moved in, which gave the four at least a little bit of time to adjust to their new homes. On Monday, though, none of them could ever have imagined, as Cato's dad drove them to Canterlot High in his car, what would await them. They had been used to the competitive nature of Panem City's school system, and even though they really didn't like it that way, they put up with it because they really didn't have any other choice. Even so, when they arrived at Canterlot High on Monday, August 23rd, none of them could have imagined the series of events getting out of Cato's dad's car would set in motion. On that day, their whole world... changed.

Author's Notes:

Bit of an age lift for Urchin here, but otherwise he remains the same.

Hope

Author's Notes:

Given how Sunset Shimmer basically ruled the school at the start of Equestria Girls, I think this chapter title is pretty fitting given how the rewritten version of the first chapter of "The Transfer And The Farmgirl" is going to go.

The moment the four stepped out of the car, it was like every eyeball had decided to zero in on them. All of that, just instantaneously. The four boys all scan the area, and feel like they've stepped into something way worse than Panem High. Except for a few, malicious snickering students, the area is mostly full of emotionless and sad faces. It's too much, even for Cameron, who can feel the doom and gloom hitting him emotionally full force.

"W-What the h-hell is going on here?" he gasps, stuttering in despair. Marvel doesn't say a word, and no matter how much he wants to, he can't because the scene in front of him is just heartbreaking. For the first time in his life, the lanky brunette is just speechless. Urchin is trying hard.. really, really hard to prevent himself from collapsing into despair like Cameron, but he finds it harder and harder to do so as time goes on. Somehow, it's Cato who doesn't feel paralyzed by the doom and gloom around him. As he looks around, his brain is trying to process what he's walked into. Okay.. this is definitely bad.. like real, real bad.. my family really wouldn't have tolerated this. The school looked much nicer from what my parents were saying, guess that wasn't the case really. No matter.. guess I have to find and end this suffering.

At the moment, all four boys are drawn by a girl's scream to a pack of malicious brats surrounding a group of girls, all terrified at their tormentors. In an instant, Cameron goes from despaired to enraged for some reason, and takes off running at them. The sudden change of mood electrifies Marvel and Urchin and soon, they're running at them mad with a bear's fury. Cato only sighs before he gets struck by a flash of howling manic enraged red and then he's joining them in the mad rush at the girls' tormentors. Those malevolent dudes were too busy focusing on thinking about how they would torment their bullying victims today that they didn't see the four angry, silent teens barreling down on them until it was too late.

Cameron slams into the back of the student closest to him with his shoulder very, very hard, causing the kid to fall over in agony. Another one tries to go after him, but gets kicked in the nut sack by Urchin and thrown down to the ground by the 14 year old before he gets kicked in the nut sack again, this time even harder than the last. Marvel shoves one to the ground, then trips the other one coming at him with his leg, before punching the first one in the nose very hard and kicking him in the balls hard, and as the one he shoved goes down, he ducks to avoid the second one swinging his backpack like a club at him and hits the second guy with his own backpack, knocking him out of the fight. Cato immediately grabs the closest perp he can find, a senior, and immediately to punch the dude in the jaw hard with his fists, before flinging him to the ground, leaving the senior groaning in pain while clutching his jaw. Another one of the bullies swings his backpack at Cameron, who to everyone's amazement, literally stops the swung backpack with his hand like it was nothing, then uses the backpack to fling the kid onto the ground, who then takes a stomp to the balls by the violet eyed blonde. Cato slings his backpack at two more perps, knocking out both of them. The sound of the brawling attracts the rest of the group of perperators, and they scramble into the fight. A black haired angry senior gives Cato a left hook, causing the blonde to stagger a little. The perp smirks, and prepares to strike Cato again, only to tackled to the ground and have his head slammed into the ground twice by Cameron.

Marvel karate kicks one in the side in the stomach hard, causing his opponent to fall to the ground in pain, clutching his side. The lanky teen is then tackled by another kid and punched in the face, but this only results in said tackler getting head butted by Marvel and then overpowered by the tall teen, who then repeatedly punches his face. Cameron, meanwhile, is busy giving one dude the biggest wedgie of his life when another tries to hit him from behind. Cameron ducks, causing the one trying to punch him to eventually end down on the ground due to him getting dizzy from spinning around after his punch missed. Soon enough, he's clutching his nut sack in pain after Cameron stomps on it twice. By now, there's only a dozen bullies facing the four savage transfers. All 12 of them go on the attack, expecting them to finally show these four their place. Unfortunately for them, it doesn't go that way.

Cato and Cameron, who are set upon by 9 of them, don't hold back in their brutal smackdown of their opponents. Soon, 2 kids are knocked out cold, 3 are clutching their nutsacks in pain, one is clutching their face, another is clutching his side, and the last two have been scared by the beatdown so much that they crapped their pants. Marvel takes the two coming at him in style, wedgie-ing one kid and tossing him to the side before jabbing his extended arm into the other's ribcage hard, causing the teen to fall down to the ground before Marvel hauls him up by his shirt collar and proceeds to kick the boy in the nut sack twice, before repeatedly punching his face so much that by the time he tosses the kid back down to the ground, it's a swollen mess. As for Urchin, he only has to swing his backpack hard into the kid's face to knock him out of the fight.

Finally coming down from the raging brutal high, the four teens stare in disbelief at the carnage around them and what they had done. That is, until Cato starts laughing and the other three join in and hug him.

"Not bad, not bad at all.." he says.

"Yep, we're still a team to the very end" Marvel says as he and the others walk inside the building, not knowing that someone had filmed the savage brawl in front of the school and was now sending it to the rest of the student body.

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Needless to say, no one seemed to want to be even near the four teens in any of their classes for the first part of the day up until lunch. For their part, Cato and his friends didn't do anything, even though deep down in their hearts, they felt pity at those emotionless and stressed kids that didn't come near them, enough that it caused their hearts to ache. They were still aching as the four of them sat down for lunch at an empty table.

"Seriously though, what the hell have these kids been before? The pain I'm sensing feels so great it's enough to break my heart!" Cameron said, as they all ate their lunch.

"Yeah, same. Like, I feel fucking worthless for not being able to help them" Marvel replied, while Urchin nodded.

Cato was about to respond but then, the sound of a loud sustained crash filled the room. All four turned around. There, a few of the girls from earlier were on the ground covered in their lunch on top of each other while the others stood frozen in fear as the ones the guys had beat down earlier had tormented them. Cato looked at the other three, and they nodded. They got up and walked over to the spot, angry looks on their faces. Once again, their leader, the one who had managed to punch Cato in the face, didn't realize what was coming towards them until he felt Cato's breath on his neck. He turned around, and stared back with anger on his face.

"Is there a problem here?" Cato asked, with an extremely angry look on his face that made their leader audibly poop his pants. Embarrassed, he and his friends ran off without saying another word. But as Cato and his friends went to help the girls up, they heard the sound of clicking heels behind them. Turning around, they could see other students cowering in fear as a girl in a biker's jacket with red and yellow hair like a sunset walked towards them, a malicious smirk on her face.

"Here comes more trouble" Cameron whispered to Cato as the girl deviously laughed.

"Well, well, well. Seems like someone's dumb enough to help the loser crowd. Boys, if I were you, I'd do the smart thing and abandon those losers and join the popular kids with me."

Her smug smirk was completely shattered by Cato's response.

"You can go to hell and fuck off."

She turned angry and ran off, shouting, "I hope you four recognize your mistake! Because if you don't, you'll rue the day you messed with Sunset Shimmer!"

All eyes in the Cafeteria, except for his younger adopted brother and their two friends as they helped the girls that saved earlier up off of each other, turned to Cato. The tall blonde just sighed before he looked down and smirked.

"Hanging out with Sunset fucking Shimmer, my ass. That girl is a bitch."

In two sentences, a feeling that hadn't been present in the bulk of the Canterlot High student body made its presence felt. A feeling so unfamiliar that its presence was like a lifesaver.

Hope.