Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony or Equestria Girls, and I am not making any profit from this fanfiction. This fanfic is being written solely for the purpose of my amusement (and hopefully that of my readers' as well)


Chapter 6

POV: Twilight

Canterlot High was every bit as horrible as I'd anticipated. The classes were dull, the material basic, the library poorly stocked, and the people…

It was strange how everyone seemed to be divided into these categories, with specific stipulations for how you should act. If you were a fashionista, you were to dress in the most trendy clothes, conceal your face in a thick layer of make-up, and heavens forbid if one single word unrelated to fashion were to come out of your mouth. Then, there were the musicians, who would all have their brightly dyed hair gelled in ridiculously high spikes, and would lug their instruments with them wherever they went. Meanwhile, the jocks would all be wearing jerseys or muscle shirts as they boasted boisterously about the latest three-pointer they scored... Well, you get the idea. The school was the living epitome of stereotypes.

I briefly mused to myself where I would be categorized one day, then promptly dismissed the notion. To be honest, I really couldn't see myself fitting into any of these groups.

At the current moment, I seemed to occupy an entire category all by myself. Name of the category: new girl. Requirements: to not fit in.

I must say, I seemed to be excelling at this.

So, the bottom line of all that was that by lunch of the first day, I still had not made any friends, or even acquaintances for that matter.

As the lunch bell rang, (a loud, horrible clattering sound which hurt my ears), I gathered my books disinterestedly into my blue backpack, clasped it shut, and walked out of the door. All around, everyone was talking animatedly, content that classes were done for the morning.

I'd done a bit of research on Canterlot High before coming, since I always preferred to be prepared, and from the information I'd amassed, I knew that Canterlot High boasted an impressive cafeteria. With this thought in mind, as I walked towards the cafeteria, it was with a touch of hope, that perhaps the cafeteria would be the first spot of brightness in what has so far been a disappointing first day.

I approached the cafeteria doors. Seeing as I was relatively late – I liked to take my time when I walk – the halls were already cleared, as everyone was already gathered inside the cafeteria. I took a deep breath as I came to a halt in front of the doors. It felt like déjà vu from this morning when I stood outside the school doors, except, the earlier apprehension was now replaced by anticipation. Well, this was it. The famous cafeteria.

I opened the doors, and was blasted backwards by the sheer noise. Everywhere, everywhere, people were yelling, hollering, and shrieking as they banged their plates against the tables excitedly and socialized happily. As if that wasn't enough, a few music guys decided it would be a good idea to tune their guitars in the cafeteria. Screechy, often discordant music and raised voices blended together in what was – and there really was no other word for it – complete cacophony.

People rushed about, jostling each other as they approached and returned from the lunch line. Many had heavily laden trays balanced precariously in their hands, and charged through the crowd without even bothering to look where they were going. It was, in short, a disaster just waiting to happen. Meanwhile, as if to add to the mayhem, a few jocks were casually tossing bulky sports equipment across the table at each other in order to flaunt their athletic abilities, while completely unmindful of the many potential victims situated all around them and what would happen to these said victims if one of those heavy footballs were to, say, hit a victim on the head.

I stared at the scene in front of me in horror, and easily reached this conclusion: the cafeteria was downright chaotic. In other words, it was my worst nightmare.

I stepped back out of the cafeteria, and slammed the door for good measure. I shuddered. No way was I going to spend my lunch there.

Thankfully, being ever prepared, I had 'Exegesis of the Ancient Scrolls' with me to keep me company. Besides, I was not feeling particularly hungry, and at any rate, the chaos of the cafeteria sufficed to make me lose my appetite. I glanced out of a nearby window. It was nice outside, and the lush green grass of the back field beckoned me with its promise of peace and quiet. I headed for the back door.

The back field was practically empty, save for one lone girl kicking a soccer ball around. Perfect. I settled down near one end of the field, took out my book, and allowed myself to be lost in its pages full of detailed illustrations and illuminating texts.

All of a sudden, my peace was shattered when a large object fell out of the sky and knocked the book right out of my hands.

I shrieked in surprise.

"Oops!" A cheerful voice called. I looked up, and found the girl I'd previously spotted practicing with her soccer ball jogging towards me. Oh, her soccer ball. I only then realized what the mysterious meteor-like thing was. Before I had time to wonder how her ball could've found its way to me when I had purposefully found a spot nowhere near the goalpost, the girl had already arrived.

I studied her.

Had I not seen her manoeuvering the soccer ball with finesse a few minutes ago, there would still have been no doubt in my mind about her identity as an athlete. The soccer girl was tall and lean, and had large violet eyes. She also appeared to have an affinity for rainbows, considering the matching pair of rainbow bracelets on her wrists, her rainbow socks, and the rainbow lightning bolt on her shirt. Of course, there was also her hair, which was dyed in, you guessed it, every colour of the rainbow.

"'Sup," She grinned at me. "I'm Rainbow Dash."

And there that word was again. Rainbow, rainbow, rainbow. "Rainbow Dash… now why does that not surprise me." I muttered to myself.

"What?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Nothing." I said. Then, in a clearer voice, I said, "Hi Rainbow Dash, I'm Twilight. Twilight Sparkle."

"So you're the new girl!"

I frowned at the title. "I actually prefer Twilight Sparkle, so if you would be so kind to address me as such, it would be very much appreciated." I told her.

"Sure, sure." Rainbow Dash acquiesced airily. "So what'cha doing, new girl?"

The continued use of 'new girl' bothered me, and I gritted my teeth. Then, I reminded myself that this was practically the first real conversation I've had all day (I didn't consider the encounter with Sunset Shimmer and Applejack this morning to be a real conversation) and that it would probably be a good idea to not cut it short by losing my temper. And so, I took a deep breath, and forced a smile back on my face.

"Well, I wasreading actually…" The frown crept its way back onto my face once I'd remembered why I'd stopped reading. "…until someone's soccer ball knocked my book out of my hands."

"Oh." Rainbow Dash chuckled, not sounding the least bit remorseful. "Oops."

I glowered at her, annoyed by her nonchalance, before remembering that my book was still on the ground. I went to retrieve it, brushing a few stray grass strands off the cover carefully. Seeing Rainbow Dash's soccer ball lying around nearby, I decided to be the bigger person, and picked it up as well. I then threw the ball to her – or, at least, I tried to throw it. The ball missed the target by about four metres. Predictably, Rainbow Dash snickered at this. Meanwhile, as if to add salt to the wound, she strode over to the ball, expertly dug her feet beneath it, and with a casual flick, sent it flying upward so that it landed right in her hand.

Stupid showoff.

Abruptly, she stopped snickering, and stared wide-eyed at my hands. Or rather, what was in my hands.

"You're reading that thing?" Rainbow Dash gaped at the tome in I held. Then, she seemed to catch herself, and smirked. "I should've known you were an egghead."

"Excuse me," I was now truly vexed. "just because reading happens to be one of my preferred avocations does not automatically make me an egghead, and you have no right to –"

A peal of laughter interrupted my tirade.

"Aw, Twilight, you're so easy to wind up. Come on, it was just a joke!"

I blinked, completely thrown off by her laughter. "A – a joke?" I asked uncomprehendingly.

"Yeah, hasn't anyone ever joked around with you?"

"I – well, yes, I suppose. I mean, my brother – Shining Armour – used to um, joke around with me when we were younger… and Cadance – that's my old babysitter – used to as well… That's right! There's such things as jokes!"

I looked up to see that Rainbow Dash was now staring at me strangely. "Um. Twilight? Have you been living on an island isolated from the rest of civilization for the last, oh, I dunno, sixteen years of your life?"

I flushed. "I haven't had many friends growing up. I was more of a – what do you call it – a loner. Well, I still don't have many friends now, as you can see."

Rainbow Dash muttered something in a small voice. I think it might've been 'that makes two of us'.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing." Rainbow Dash said quickly. "So, your brother. This, shining something person. What happened to him?"

"Shining Armour," I corrected automatically. "And he went to university years ago." I added, trying not to sound too downcast.

"And you're telling me that ever since, you've never interacted with anyone else?" Rainbow Dash demanded.

"Of course not! If that were the case, I probably would have lost the ability of speech a long time ago. I talk to my parents."

"No, but I mean, have you talked to anyone within ten years of your age?"

"…No?"

Rainbow Dash gaped at me some more.

"Hey, that doesn't mean I don't know anything." I quickly said. Her prolonged stare was starting to make me defensive. "I read a lot of books, and now, what with the internet and all –"

Rainbow Dash seemed to realize she was staring, and looked away.

"That's not what I meant, Twilight. I didn't mean to say there was anything wrong with not talking to anyone for ten years – well, no, I mean, there are a whole lot of things wrong with that, but – Okay, look, Twilight. About the not having any friends thing… I know how that feels. So what I mean to say is, well, you can talk to me. We can be friends."

She said this last part in a nervous rush, then quickly looked around at anything besides me.

I was speechless.

"Or, you know, if you don't want to, then that's totally ok too –" Rainbow Dash hastily started to say, completely misconstruing my surprised and gratified silence for polite refusal.

"No. No, no, no, no, no, that's not – no –" Now, it was my turn to hastily speak, except I was speaking in protest.

A hurt expression crossed Rainbow Dash's visage.

"One no would've done it." She said dully, before starting to turn away.

"No! I meant, no, that's not what I meant." I said, my voice subconsciously raising in frustration. "As in, I was saying no to your if you don't want to statement. What I really meant is, yes, I would love to be your friend."

Rainbow Dash turned back to me, a bright smile lighting up her face.

We spent the next ten minutes making conversation. I had originally anticipated it to be awkward, considering we were still practically strangers, and from her athletic dispositions and her scorn for books and eggheads, it was quite apparent that we had very little in common. To my surprise however, the conversation flowed very smoothly. In fact, I felt every bit as ease as if I were talking to my parents. This new revelation both pleased and gratified me.

I found that Rainbow Dash was not a demure person. The brief flash of nervousness I'd seen from her when she'd previously offered to be my friend seemed to be a rare chink in the armour. I quickly realized that that was the last bit of nervousness I was going to see from her for quite a while.

In fact, far from shy, Rainbow had a very flamboyant personality. She took no small pride in boasting about her achievements, and indeed, those achievements were numerous and impressive. For one, I discovered that my new friend happened to be the captain of every sport team in the school.

"You're the captain of every single sports team in the school?" I repeated back to her, incredulous.

"Yep. I'm that awesome." Rainbow grinned.

"Every single sports team –"

"Relax, Twilight. Ok, technically speaking, I'm not the official captain of everyteam. The thing is, a lot of sports are separated by gender. For example, there's a boy's soccer team and a girl's soccer team. Obviously, I'm the captain of the girl's team. The boy's team has their own captain, since the team needs their captain to be on the field with them during the games. Anyway, our two teams play against each other sometimes, cause it's good practice, and from our time together, everyone's gotten to see my awesomeness. I mean, I've kicked all the guys' rumps more than once, including their captain's, cause –".

"Cause you're that awesome." Our voices sounded simultaneously. I rolled my eyes, but at the same time couldn't help but smile affectionately.

"- so now, all the guys are in awe of my awesomeness, which is how I got nominated as honorary captain. Same thing basically happened for all the other boys' teams."

"So, for all the girls' teams, you're the official captain?"

"Well duh!"

"Not to mention honorary captain for all the rest of the teams?"

"Yep!"

My mouth fell open in utter amazement.

Rainbow Dash burst out laughing again. "Oh, you should see the look on your face, Twilight, you look like a goldfish –" And then, she started laughing again.

I quickly snapped my mouth shut, flushing. To my chagrin, this was not enough to convince Rainbow Dash to stop laughing.

Finally, I decided that enough was enough. "I'm afraid I must ask you to desist." I told Rainbow Dash, trying to sound as authoritative as I was capable of.

"What?" Rainbow Dash asked, stifling her laughter with palpable effort to be able to hear my question.

I repeated what I said, then narrowed my eyes when I saw Rainbow Dash on the verge of laughter again.

"Now what?" I demanded.

"Nothing." Rainbow said, still breathless from her previous bout of laughter. "It's just that, you talk funny."

"I talk funny?" I asked indignantly, and drew myself to my full height. "I'll have you know, Rainbow Dash, that I make it a point to speak utilizing perfectly fine English –"

I was once more interrupted by Rainbow Dash's hopeless sputters.

"See?!" She gasped during one of the intervals between her laughter. "That's exactly what I'm talking about!"

I was by now very much affronted.

Rainbow seemed to derive endless amusement from my displeasure, and started chuckling again.

I just stood there, hands on my hips, fixing her with a steely glare as I waited impatiently for her to finish laughing. It took a while.

Finally, Rainbow calmed down sufficiently to explain the cause of her amusement.

"Sorry Twilight," She told me, not even having the decency to look sheepish. "It's just that whenever you talk, you always use these big words that no one else ever uses, so that it sounds like you're reading right out of a textbook."

I blinked, slightly taken aback.

"Oh. Well. I, uh, talk the same way people do in the books I read…" Never before have I given much thought to the way I talked, but now that Rainbow brought it up, I immediately felt self-conscious, and felt the need to defend my way of speaking.

"Yeah?" Rainbow Dash snorted. "And what books do you usually read? 'Lemme guess, they're all big, boring, stuffy textbooks."

"Hey, that's not true!" In truth, I did enjoy a good textbook every so often, but Rainbow Dash's scorn was making me defensive.

"Oh yeah? Name one YA book you've read in the last month."

My eyes narrowed at the challenge. "That's easy. For one, there's the new Daring Do book that just came out –"

I was curtailed midsentence by a strange choking sound.

"- Rainbow? Rainbow Dash!" I said loudly, alarmed at the red hue swiftly overtaking said person's habitually pale visage. I recognized this as a result of lack of oxygen. At a loss of how to help, I settled on thumping her on the back. Thankfully, that seemed to suffice, as she coughed a few times in response, and spat something out. With the expulsion of this object, she was able to breath freely again, and the colour slowly drained out of her flushed cheeks. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Now certain that my new friend wasn't about to perish of asphyxiation any time soon, I bent down to examine the thing Rainbow had spat out, which now laid harmlessly on the grass. It was a wad of gum.

I shook my head disapprovingly. Wasn't Rainbow Dash aware of the hazards of chewing gum? I resolved to give Rainbow a lecture on these very hazards, only to have her speak first.

"You read Daring Do?" She gasped out.

"Certainly," I replied, confused. I couldn't see where this was going. Was this the preamble of another attack on my being an egghead?

Rainbow Dash's next question put a halt on my mental pondering.

"Have you read the whole series?" She eagerly persisted in this strange interrogation.

"Of course. It's one of my favourites." I said matter-of-factly.

"Then you must've read the part where…" And here, she launched into an extensive rant featuring a particularly heroic exploit of Daring Do's. From the ramblings of the next five minutes, I gathered that she was not just a fan, but a very avid fan of the entire Daring Do series. When I realized that this avid fan was the very same one who had been teasing me about being an egghead not ten minutes ago, I felt a rather foreign feeling begin to take over me. I quickly recognized it as mischief.

"Rainbow Dash," I interrupted, not even pretending to hide my glee. "you're an even bigger egghead than I am."

Rainbow Dash abruptly stopped midsentence, and colour once more began rising to her cheeks. This time though, embarrassment, rather than asphyxiation, was its cause.

"I – I –" She stammered.

"Relax, Rainbow," I laughed. "I promise not to tease you about it too much."

Before Rainbow Dash had a chance to respond (though it was obvious she for once had no comeback ready) a loud ringing echoed across the field.

"Lunch is over!" Rainbow Dash announced, looking relieved. "We should get going, Twilight. While I don't care about being late, I have a feeling you would."

I went along with her to collect her soccer balls from inside the soccer net, and dropped them off inside a shed stocked with sports equipment. Then, we headed inside. All the while, we talked, laughed and threw jibes at each other. I don't remember the last time I'd enjoyed myself so much.

And as I stepped back into the school, I felt much more optimistic than I did when I was last in there. For while it was still the same school, with the same defects that had bothered me so much before, at least this time, I was going to be facing it together with a friend.


Wow, that was the longest chapter yet... One thing, about Twilight's description of the cafeteria... it's slightly exaggerated. in the movie, the cafeteria was actually pretty peaceful, but I figured that Twilight would like a peaceful atmosphere. also, keep in mind that she's been homeschooled, so its probably her first time in a school cafeteria, so it would makes sense if she's a bit overwhelmed. at least, I hope that's a reasonable explanation... :P