Good morning students! a voice over an intercom called out to the wave of students now entering the building. “As many of you well know, I am Principal Luna, here to welcome you all to another exciting year here at Canterlot High! I’m glad to see so many familiar faces, as well as a whole slew of new ones! Let’s all work together to make this year another great one for CHS! the voice of Luna exclaimed as the intercom went dead.
All through the school, freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors were all finding their way to their lockers, their classes, and even their groups of friends from the previous year. The halls of the school were filled to the brim with the sounds of laughter, talking, and gripes for it being the first day of school. As CHS felt now, an overwhelming feeling of friendship and comradery could be seen from every angle in the school. Well...almost every angle. Outside of the school building where many student were still entering, one lone girl was standing before the large horse statue on the front lawn. This girl had periwinkle skin and black hair with a single pink streak running through it done up in a ponytail. She was currently wearing something that seemed similar to a schoolgirl’s uniform, with a dark maroon button up shirt and a crimson tie along with a black and red checkered skirt. The young girl had her backpack slung over her shoulder, and the way she was standing was conveying her overall feeling of “God, I don’t want to be here.” She stared up at the statue and the school with a look of disdain in her deep purple eyes.
“SIGH....God dammit…” the young girl muttered under her breath as she started walking into the building. Once inside, she glanced around at the huge amount of students in the main parlor, she sighed as she took a glance at the piece of paper she had in her hand. “Locker A73...alright then.” she muttered under her breath as she began walking through the huge crowd of students. As she was walking through, a couple of the students noticed her.
“Hi Eve!!” one girl called out to her as she waved.
“Yo! Eve! Totally awesome to see you again!” one guy with dreads said.
“Oh dang, it’s Evening Glimmer.” one guy wearing a letterman jacket said to his group of friends.
“Dude...is it just me, or does she get hotter every year?” his friend asked as the young girl named Eve walked past them.
“Bro, she totally does.” another friend said as he and the rest of his buddies stared at her rear end. Eve continued to walk through the halls of the school, in search of her locker’s location, during which many a student gave her a glance, or even a hello which she didn’t return. After a few minutes of searching, Eve found the locker she was looking for. She quickly tried entering the combination, she tried opening it, but it wouldn’t budge. The girl tried entering the combination a few more times as she kept pushing the device that was supposed to open the locker. After about the seventh or eighth failure, Eve grunted as she slammed her fist against the green box.
“God dammit, this thing is busted!” Eve hissed as she angrily tried opening the locker another time. While she was trying to angrily open the box, footsteps could be heard walking up to her, stopping just short of her. Eve glanced over her shoulder and gained a look of disgust as she saw who was standing behind her; a girl about her age with long yellow hair and bright pink skin wearing a bright yellow sweatshirt over a white button up with a cream colored skirt. The girl looked at Eve with a smug grin on her face.
“Having trouble there Evening?” the young woman asked in a mocking tone. Eve rolled her eyes.
“Ugh, none of your business Dawn.” Eve hissed as she turned her attention back to her locker.
“Gasp! Evening Glimmer! Is that any way to speak to a fellow colleague? Within a school that’s core philosophy is friendship no less?” the girl named Dawn asked in an attempt to sound like she was shocked.
“I’m not speaking to a colleague, I’m speaking to you.” Eve deadpanned as she kept trying to put her combination in.
“You know you have to turn the lock right then left then right, correct?” Dawn asked, to which Evening stopped trying to input the combination and instead clenched bother her fist and her teeth.
“Dawn, what exactly are you doing here?” Eve asked through her teeth.
“Oh, I just wanted to see what an old friend of mine has been up to, are you prepared for the school year?” Dawn inquired, to which Eve rolled her eyes.
“I’m about as ready as anyone else in this damn school.” Eve said as she went back to her combination.
“Well I for one am ready to take on all of the year’s trials and tribulations! I’m going to retake my spot as the student at the top of the academic charts here at CHS, to be the bet unlike anyone else here!”
“Wow Dawn, that’s really admirable, if only we all could share your love for learning, we’d all be Einstein's here.” Eve said in an overly sarcastic tone.
“I know, if only.” Dawn agreed. “Well then Evening, I’d love to stay and chat, but I’m afraid that I need to go reconnect with some of my friends, it’s been forever since we’ve seen one another, and I’m dying to tell them how my summer vacation was.” Dawn explained.
“Yeah, you go do that, have fun telling all of the teachers about your summer.” Eve said with a grin on her face, as if she could feel the scowl that Dawn was giving her.
“Tch, whatever Eve, goodbye.” Dawn grunted, clearly feeling salty about what Eve said as she walked away. Eve turned her attention back to her locker as she heard more footsteps coming towards her.
“Gah...this locker is busted.” Eve stated.
“That old thing? It still hasn’t been fixed?” an older female voice asked from behind Eve. Eve looked over her shoulder once more to see there was an older woman standing behind her this time. She was wearing a black pantsuit with an image of the sun pinned to it, as well as a magenta dress shirt under it. The woman had light orange skin and bluish-green eyes with long red and yellow hair. For the first time of the day, Eve quickly gained a smile on her face.
“Oh, hi Aunt Sunset!” Eve greeted happily.
“Hello Eve, it’s nice to see you again.” Sunset greeted back. “But you know what Principal Luna says about formalities during school hours.
“Right, right.” Eve as she rolled her eyes. “Sorry Vice Principal Shimmer.”
“Heh, you know you don’t have to use my full title, Ms. Shimmer is fine.” Sunset said as she grinned at the girl before her.
“I know, but I think Vice Principal Shimmer sounds much cooler.” Eve stated.
“Can’t argue with that I suppose.” Sunset said with a nod. “Now here, let me help you with this thing.” she said as she took the paper from her niece and quickly inputted the combination. “This thing is a bitch to open, you gotta be forceful in opening it up.” as she said that, Sunset gripped the top part of the lock and pushed it up with all the force she could muster. Quickly, a loud clank could be heard as she opened the door. “God this lock is rusty! I’ll have to talk to somebody about replacing the lock, or at least putting some oil into it.”
“Thanks Ms.Shimmer.” Eve said as she dumped her backpack into her locker.
“So how was your summer Eve? I didn’t get to see you during much of it.”
“Oh, it was great! I spent a lot of time with family during the summer, visiting my uncle Armor and auntie Cadence, got to spend time with my parents for vacation at Miami, even just simple stuff like playing video games was great! I won a Pokemon tournament!” Eve stated proudly as she put a thumb to her chest.
“Oh, that sounds great Eve!” Sunset said with a smile. “So umm...did you hang out with anybody who wasn’t a family member during your vacation? Like a friend or something?”
“Heh, you’re funny Ms.Shimmer.” Eve said with a smile, to which Sunset’s disappeared. “You know me, I’m the lone wolf, I can do anything and everything I set my mind to by myself, plus I’ve never really had friends, so why would I just suddenly get one?”
Sunset Shimmer sighed. “Eve, that’s not a very good way to think. I mean, being able to do stuff by yourself is great and all, but well...In my experience at least, everything becomes easier, and a lot more fun to deal with when you have friends to go through it with you. I mean, I should know, I was a high schooler too you know.”
“Yes Ms.Shimmer, you were part of the group that ushered in a whole new age of love and friendship and junk when you came here with my mom and all of my unofficial aunts.” Eve acknowledged.”But I don’t know, I went through freshman year without friends, and all the years before it, why would I need to start now?”
“Well..I’m just saying that if you had friends, school would be less boring for you, as you kept reminding me how dull it is during the times you had lunch with me in my office, which was kind of sad when you think back at it…” Sunset said in an awkward manner.
“It wasn’t sad! I wanted to spend time with my favorite non-related aunt...a lot…” Eve said sheepishly.
“It’s still kind of sad Eve.” Sunset said with a nod, to which Eve crossed her arms and looked away.
“Sigh...I know, I know...it’s just...ugh, I’m not good with people! I don’t know what to say, or how to break the ice or whatever, it’s much easier to just walk past someone than say hi to them…” Eve said with a note of sorrow in her voice.
“I know Eve, trust me, I was there. I wasn’t really the social butterfly when I started going here, but eventually, I made one friend, and that on friend helped me make other friends, and because of that, I’ve learned a lot about life, and myself. So please Eve, this year will you at least try to make an effort to make some friends.?” Sunset asked, to which Eve stayed silent for a few minutes before answering.
“I...ugh...I guess I could try...talking to somebody.” Eve said in a hushed tone, because of which Sunset smiled once more.
“That’s all I ask Eve.” Sunset said as she pulled Eve into a gentle hug.
“EEgh….hugs…” Eve groaned as she tried worming her way out of her aunt’s grip.
Sunset giggled. ‘’Alright Eve, I’ll see you later, have a great day today!” she said as she released Eve and walked away.
“Yeah, I’ll try.” Eve said to herself as she watched Sunset walk off.
________________
After many tedious hours of going through the first day of school, Evening Glimmer was finally free of her own personal Tartarus, at least for the day. With little more to do for the day, she gathered her things and started out on the long trek back to her home. While she could’ve taken the school bus and have been at her house in about five minutes, Eve decided to walk for fifteen minutes to get to her house, at least then she had less of a chance to talk to people. After walking for a bit, she eventually reached her rather bland looking home; a simple two story building with a light mocha roof and cream colored siding. Eve quickly walked inside.
“Hey, I’m home” Eve called out from the seemingly empty house. After a few seconds, Eve heard what sounded like tiny footsteps running down stairs. Not long after, Eve saw a small purple dog with some tufts of lighter purple running towards her excitedly. As the dog came up to her, Eve crouched down and held out her arms, which the dog jumped into. Eve brought the dog up to her face, which meant getting a barrage of kisses from it.
“Hehehe, hello to you too Ammy.” Eve greeted as the dog kept licking her face excitedly. After a few more licks from Ammy, Eve put the dog down and made her way upstairs to her room with Amy following close behind. She eventually reached her bedroom, which was rather well decorated. Posters and wall scrolls for various animes and video games were plastered over the dark lavender walls of the room. Eve dumped her backpack on a swivel chair in front of a desk that had a desktop computer on it. She quickly made her way to her bed and flopped onto it face first, with Amy following close behind and hopping onto the bed next to her person.
“Uugh..Ammy...I’ve had such a long day….why do I have to go to school? It’s so...boring.” Eve said as she lifted her head up to look at her dog, who was currently looking at her wide eyed while panting. “Heh...sometimes I wish I was a dog and not have anything to worry about. It’d be great, though I do think that I’d have a problem with the whole using the backyard as my bathroom thing.” she said as she scratched behind Ammy’s ears, making the dog have a blissful look on her face. “Oh well, at least since it was the first day of school, I have no homework. Time to do something actually worth my time!” she exclaimed as she reached under her pillow and pulled out a red rectangular device and opened it to reveal that it had two screens. “Time to do some EV and IV training!!”
___________________________
After a couple of hours of nothing but training her Pokemon to be the very best, she was...still training them to be the best, like none ever were, as if to train them was her cause. Whilst she was working, Ammy, who had been sleeping by her feet the entire while, suddenly raised her head and opened her eyes.
“woof…” Ammy made a quiet bark, to which Eve looked up from her game and to her dog. “WOOF! WOOF!” Ammy barked more before suddenly jumping off of Eve’s bed and dashing out the door.
“Oh, Mom must be home.” Eve guessed as she glanced over at her bedroom clock, which read 6:27 in bright red letters. “Yup, it’s just about time.” she said as she closed her gaming device and got off of her bed. leaving her room and going down the stairs, she saw a familiar woman standing at her front door. She had lavender skin and darker purple hair with a pink streak going through it tied up into a bun as well as having curls of hair in front of her ears. She was wearing a bright pink sweater and dark brown khakis, and had thick black rimmed glasses on her face.(Eve knew the woman wasn’t really much for fashion, and well...neither was she.) she used one hand to hang up a purse she was carrying, and the other to pet Ammy, who was pawing at her legs, looking for the woman to possibly pick her up like Eve did hours ago.
“Hello there Amethyst, it’s nice to see you too!” the woman greeted as she continued to pet the dog. After she got done petting Ammy, she looked up at Eve and gave her a smile.
“Hi honey!” the woman greeted.
“Hey mom, how was work?” Eve asked her mother.
“Oh, it was nothing major. Still trying to prove string theory, still having the same amount of luck.” the woman said nonchalantly.
“Still as dull as usual?” Eve asked.
“Nope! Even though we haven’t made any significant strides as of late, trying to discover more about our world and how we exist is still the most exciting job in the world, to me at least.” Eve’s mother said with a smile. “But enough about me, it’s pretty late. Are you hungry?”
“Yeah, sure, I can eat.” Eve said as she nodded.
“Great! I’ll cook something up right away! And they you can tell me all about how your first day of school went!” Eve’s mother chirped as she walked off into the kitchen.
“Heh...yeah...that’ll be great.” Eve murmured as she followed her mom into the kitchen. After about a half an hour or more of preparing dinner, the two sat down at the dinner table, setting down their plates of sirloin steaks and microwaveable mashed potatoes with butter. The two began eating dinner for a few minutes until Eve’s mother cleared her throat.
“So Eve, how was your first day of Sophomore year?” Eve’s mother inquired. “Anything interesting happen?”
Eve swallowed her mashed potatoes. “Eh, somewhat. Near the beginning I ran into freaking Dawn Bringer while I was trying to open my locker.”
“Oh, does she seem any different from how you last saw her?” Eve’s mom asked.
“Hardly, she looks just the same. Acting all high and mighty, cynical, she’s made it her goal to be Twilight Sparkle MK.II.” Eve explained, to which her mother chuckled.
“Pfft...Twilight Sparkle MK. II? The way you describe her, she sounds more like a different student who used to go to Canterlot, not me.” Twilight said with a laugh.
“Mmhmm, aside from that school went on to be pretty uneventful, oh! wait, I did get to see Aunt Sunny too, that was good.”
“Oh really? That’s cool! What’d she have to say?” Twilight said, her interests piqued.
“You know, just the usual ‘Hi, hello, welcome back, I missed you,’ that sort of stuff, and her usual spew on friendship and stuff but hey, what’re you gonna do?” Eve asked her mother, who looked at her with a straight face.
“Well Eve, I would agree with Aunt Sunset here, friends are pretty great.” Twilight said to her daughter. Eve looked like she was about to speak again, but Twilight stopped her. “And I know what you’re going to say, ‘I’m fine mother, I don’t need friends.’, we’ve been through this before. I know I’ve told you about what it was like for me going to Crystal Prep with the same mindset, I did that and well...long story short, I was miserable, I dreaded going to that school every single day, and some days I even thought about staying home just because I worried about what the other students thought of me. I mean, I didn’t, I had to go to maintain my perfect attendance.”
“Mmhmm, I know this part.” Eve groaned as she rested her head on her hand.
“But then I went to Canterlot High during the Friendship Games and found some of the kindest people I’ve ever met. Sure, we had a rocky start due to our schools being rivals, but after the games, I chose to transfer there, and by doing so, I’ve made wonderful friendships that have lasted for years and years.” Both Twilight and Eve said at the same time. Twilight looked at her daughter wide-eyed, while Eve looked back at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Wow...how many times have we had this conversation?” Twilight asked in slight bewilderment.
“Every few months...for the past five years or so.” Eve deadpanned. “Mom, I’m fine, like I’ve been telling you for the past couple of years! I don’t get why you have to keep bringing this whole friendship thing up!”
“I just want you to be able to make the most of your remaining years in high school, I mean, you only have three years left at Canterlot High, isn’t it hard for you to go through the school year without a single friend?”
“I’ve been dealing with it just fine mom, can we please drop the subject?” Eve asked rather coldly as she cut up a piece of steak and popped it into her mouth.
“Well...I suppose we could leave the subject alone for now.” Twilight murmured as she looked down at her own plate as she picked at her own food. The two ate dinner in silence for a few more minutes until Eve cleared her plate and tossed it into the trash.
“I’m going to be in my room if you need me, okay?” Eve told her mother as she started walking of the kitchen.
“Alright...hey, umm...Eve?” Twilight asked as she looked up at her daughter, who turned to look at her.
“Yeah mom?”
“If...anything was going with you yourself, or if you had some sort of problem at school, you’d tell me….right?” Twilight asked with a note of uneasiness in her voice. Eve looked down at her.
“Mom, of course...if I ever had a problem that was out of my hands, you’d be the first to know.” Eve replied with a faint smile on her face.
“Alright then, thank you.” Twilight said as she finished her dinner.
“No problem Mom, love you.” Eve said as she left the kitchen completely.
“Love you too sweetie.” Twilight replied as she glanced over at the chair at the spot on the table that was between her and Eve. She sighed before getting up to put her own trash away. After that, Twilight walked into a different section of the house that had a small room with a desktop computer by it. She plopped her butt down onto the seat and began typing. After a few moments, she clicked on a number of pages before finding what she was looking for. Seeing that what she wanted was available, she clicked on a camera shaped button and waited for a few seconds. After a small bit of time, a woman with red and yellow hair came onto the screen.
“Hi Twilight!” the woman greeted with a cheerful smile on her face.
“Hey Sunset...how’re you?”
“Busy. The school year just kicked off, which means the workload has just kicked off as well.” Sunset explained eagerly.
“You say that like it’s a good thing.” Twilight giggled.
“Well it kind of is a good thing, I like that things have started up again for the year. Working with Luna to help make Canterlot as great a school as it’s always been is hard work, but doing it gives me a real feeling of pride.” Sunset beamed.
“Heh, nice.” Twilight said with a nod.
“So what’s up? Usually we don’t talk this late unless it’s by text.” Sunset pointed out. Before answering, Twilight took off her glasses and rubbed her temples.
“It’s Evening, I...I just don’t know Sunset. I know there’s something that's troubling her, I can feel it, but...she doesn’t want to open up, or at least...not to me anyways.” Twilight explained with a clear note of sorrow in her voice.
“Well that’s a sixteen year old for you, never wanting to talk to their folks about anything, always preferring to keep their problems to themselves.” Sunset explained. “It’s typical for a girl her age to do that sort of thing Twilight.”
“I know that, but still…” Twilight said as she glanced over on her desk. Sitting at the end of it was a small framed picture of her and Eve when her daughter was only ten years old. Twilight remembered when the picture was taken, back when she and her husband took Eve to a local observatory. The young girl was staring up at a diorama of the solar system above her, her eyes were wide open and her mouth was agape, showing multiple missing teeth. Twilight was crouching down next to her and pointing out all of the planets to her. Looking at the picture both struck her with fond memories, but also feelings of sadness. “These past few years...as Eve’s been maturing, I...I just feel as though we’re growing apart, we just don’t seem to share any of the same interests anymore. I’m just finding it harder and harder to talk to her about things nowadays. Usually her father works as the icebreaker between us, but ever since he left for that case a month ago, It’s been painfully obvious how distant we are, today when I tried asking her about any friends she had proved that much...”
“Hey, that’s alright Twilight. It’s just a part of Eve growing up. She’s sixteen, she’s still growing into a woman, trying to figure herself out, and learn where she wants to go in life. Chances are, she will face problems and challenges like she hasn’t seen before, and when those come up, I’m sure she’ll come to you if she has any of them.” Sunset assured her lavender skinned friend.
“I hope you’re right about that Sunset, I really hope you are…” Twilight said with a sigh. “Do you know if anything’s been going on with her at school?”
“Not...really...I mean, today was just the first day.” Sunset pointed out.
“Right, right, sorry. I guess I’m just overly worried as usual.” Twilight said as she rubbed her forehead.
“It’s fine Twilight, everything will be okay. Though...is growing further away from Eve the only reason you’re stressed?” Sunset questioned. Twilight looked away from the computer before answering.
“She’s sixteen now Sunset...the same age I was when...you know what happened.” Twilight pointed out. “I mean...what if since she’s getting closer to the age when I had..that...what’s to stop her from getting it as well?” she asked in a concerned tone, to which she was surprised when she heard a chuckle coming from Sunset.
“Hehehe, Twilight, are you still worried about that? Geez girl, it’s been years since we had anything come up since what happened at Canterlot all of that time ago. Nothing super out of the ordinary has happened since our time as students in CHS, it’s been fine! Besides, Eve has nothing that extremely sets her apart from any other normal person, right?”
“Right.”
“See? It’s fine, you don’t need to worry about Eve having any sort of supernatural problems, just be thankful she only has regular ones.” Sunset said in an attempt to put Twilight’s fears at rest.
“I suppose you’re right...things have been relatively calm these past few years in the magic department.” Twilight agreed. “Thanks Sunset, I’ll try not to think about it as much.”
“No problem Twilight, now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get ready for school tomorrow.”
“Alright, goodnight Sunset.” Twilight said with a wave.
“Goodnight Twilight, everything will be fine.” Sunset assured her with a wave of her own before the window with her face on it went dark. Her conversation with Sunset over, Twilight slumped back into her chair, her eyes settling upon the picture she was looking at before.
“I sure do home so Sunset, I sure do hope so.”
______________________________
Far away from where Twilight and Eve were living, in a seedy part of Canterlot City, there was an unremarkable bleak alleyway enshrouded with darkness. All of the normal aspects of an alley where there, trash cans, stray cats, it had it all. However, whilst in the calm of the dark alleyway, something odd occurred. In the middle of the alleyway, what appeared to be pink flames of some sort appeared out of nowhere. As time went on, the small ball of pink flames grew, and began to spread out into a ring, within which, one could see what appeared to be a forest was within it. While that in of itself was shocking, something else happened; something fell out of the picture with a thwump, and just like that, the ring of flames with the forest inside of it disappeared into thin air. What was left was a small black….thing of some sort. After a few seconds, the thing unraveled itself and began to stand up. The creature sniffed around for a few minutes around the alley before stopping. It perked its ears up, as if hearing something. Staying still, the creature watched some other creature walk out in front of the alley. It was a tall, lanky young man with blue spiked hair, the likes of which the bug like horse creature had never seen. It watched the creature curiously, as the lanky young man was talking into a cell phone.
“Heh yeah, don’t worry, I’m fine. Uh-huh, yeah, I’ll be home later, I can’t wait to see you again! Yeah, it’ll be great, alright, I have to go, love you too, bye.” The young man said as he hung up the call. He took a deep sigh as his gaze turned to the alleyway. He was about to walk away until something caught his eye that was standing in the darkness. He squinted in order to get a better look. “Huh? What the hell is that?” he wondered aloud as he walked slowly towards the creature. As he got close, he bent down to the creature’s eye level, squinting in order to make out what it was. As he was doing so, he heard some hissing coming from the creature in question.
“Woah...nice...whatever you are..” the man said as he slowly got up. “Just stay here..while I walk back, and call animal control-
HIIIIIISSSSSSS!!!! the creature cried out. Then suddenly, whatever the beast was jumped out of the shadows were the man briefly got a look at it, a small equine like creature with a black body, a horn, and huge fangs, The man tried to act, but the creature was too fast, quickly latching itself onto him.
“HUUGH! AH! AAAAHHH!!!! HELP!!” he screamed in agony as the creature attacked him. Throwing it off wasn’t an option as it was holding its ground. The man tried stepping back until he tripped up on some slippery mud, making him fall to the ground as the creature kept attacking him. The young man’s screams echoed through the streets as the creature fed off of him.