A Zesty Valentine’s Day

It’s the beginning of another day for the next year of being at Crystal Prep Academy.

You hear your alarm clock going off, but you turn it off and try to get some more sleep but that turns out to be your biggest mistake of many.

“GET OUT OF BED MARINE!!” You dad barged into your room with you falling out of your bed.

Rubbing your head and getting grips of reality, you being to complain “Dad! What the hell? It’s 6:00am!”.

“Quit complaining, kiddo! I’ve been awake for more than 72 hours and get rudely awaken almost on a daily bases, you want to enlist into military? Get better get used to this sort of awakening” Your dad tells you, sure you always wanted to follow your dad’s footsteps and join the armed forces, just as he did for your grandfather, so you’re pretty much a military bloodline and one of the most known, since your dad reached the rank of Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps.

“Get dressed, your mother has made you breakfast” he orders you as you force yourself up.

After a shower you get dressed in your school uniform, always prepared for your senior years of high school, you soon look out of your bedroom window and you see the girl of your dreams walking to the bus stop and always rocking out, it was Lemon Zest.

Ever since you meet her in 9th Grade, your heart melted as you had classes with her, she was also not completely like the other Crystal Prep students of the days of Cinch, sure Lemon can be competitive and determined when it is required of her, but she mostly cares about her music, which is probably why she broke free of her indoctrination faster than everyone else.

However sometimes you felt inferior towards her, mainly because you didn’t qualify to participate in the Friendship Games, but what most don’t know is that you deliberately failed on purpose, due to you believing that the Friendship Games between Crystal Prep and Canterlot High, has felt pointless and completely missing it’s point and above all missed the true purpose.

When you put your name down to qualify for the games, each participant had to research the Friendships Games, but when you look at other schools Friendship Games and compared them to your school’s games you become confused, the other Friendship Games were comprised of members of each school mixing students together forming co-oped groups, showing the values of the games; Companionship, Unity and above all Friendship, and when you looked at your school’s version of the Friendship Games, you see that Crystal Prep had a different approach, by constantly showing; supremacy and domination over everything. And what made you found is that despite Crystal Prep being the overall winner, they still had to brag and gloat about your school’s supremacy.

When You head to the training grounds the next day, you saw some trainee getting harassed and abused for achieving only average scores. This was when you realised that being part of the Friendship Games will turn you into something you’re not.

When it was your turn to qualify for your chosen area of superiority, you saw Lemon Zest doing incredibly well, you felt so bad that she was participating in something that was against what the Friendship Games were really about, but you stood to your beliefs even if it meant being shunned by the girl of your dreams.

When it was time to finalise your qualification, you had to participate in a 200m sprint and if you finish 4th or below, you will be unable to be part of the Friendship Games, when the race began, you took flying gaining a small lead, however when approaching the finish straight you become exhausted and three participants overtake you and before you could react the race was over.

The primary leader of overseeing the participant was Indigo Zap, though she complemented you on having a fire to win, she criticises you on how you use it, but it didn’t matter to you, all you cared about was what Lemon thought of you, but to your relief she was rocking out on her headphones to notice your performance.

After having your moment on remembering the events of prior to the Friendship Games, you soon realises that your mother had made breakfast, and you quickly head downstairs, where your parents were waiting for you.

“What took you so long?” Your mother asks you.

“Sorry Mum, I was having deep thoughts” You reply back to her.

“What were they about son?” Your Dad asked, while having a coffee.

“It’s nothing to worry about” You say back, you know far too well if you tell your parents about Lemon Zest, you mother would go on and on about her being your first crush and all that embarrassment, and your father would go on saying that it’s good having someone to fight for and to be the best soldier you can be and all that.

“Anyway here’s your breakfast” Your Mum sang as she puts a plate of ham and cheese toasties in front of you, then for some odd reason you see a jelly doughnut in front of you.

‘What the hell?” You wonder, then you turn and see your mother grinning and your father’s eyes going big, ‘oh not this again!’ you mentally complained.

“What is that?! What the fuck is that?! What is that Private Pyle?!” Your Father boomed, quoting one of the Marine Corps most favoured films ‘Full Metal Jacket’.

As your parents re-enact the doughnut scene, you turn your thoughts back to Lemon Zest, and remember how she and the other Shadowbolts were treated when they returned.

After the Friendship Games resulted in a tie, between Canterlot High and Crystal Prep, most of Crystal Prep didn’t approve of the result and labelled the participants as failures and stating the team Shadowbolts has been disgraced. Unlike most you and a handful of students didn’t take part of it of berating the Shadowbolts, but you saw that Lemon Zest, Indigo Zap, Sugercoat, Sour Sweet and Sunny Lane were the primary targets. It was disgraceful to see some of Crystal Prep Academy’s top students reduced to targets of discrimination.

Each Shadowbolt became blacklisted; Indigo Zap was stripped of her rank and removed from every team she was a part of despite being a valued member ever since she enrolled at Crystal Prep.

Sunny Lane was ushered out of the fashion group and was replaced by Suri Polomare, and all of Sunny’s creations were taken and burned, hours of inspiration, hardwork now became ash, one member of the Fashion group named Coco Pommel stated her objection but led her to be also removed from the Fashion Group.

Sour Sweet was forced out of the Archery Team, with her teammates and coach calling her mentally unstable to use a bow, which confused her, her medical certificate approved her using a bow and arrow, but whatever she said, the Archery Team ignored and broke her bow in a million pieces.

Sugercoat was once a proud member of the debate team and various other groups, but now was reduced to nothing as her team disowned her, ignoring anything she had done for her teams.

You knew what everyone in the music department would do to Lemon Zest, using whatever you could get my hands on, and with some help from the new techie group, You did something completely illegal; You broke into the school and Infiltrated the music room, Splinter Cell Style.

Behind the Music Room, there was the digital archive, and took a 2 terabyte hard-drive and began transferring everything Lemon has made, remixes and personal creations. Once you had everything Lemon had done, including something from Indigo, Sugercoat, Sour Sweet and Sunny Lane, just in case, you left the school and put the hard-drive in your personal safe at home.

And the following day, your prediction was correct, everyone in the music department was about to terminate all of Lemon’s creations, despite Lemon pleading to them to at least get a copy of everything she made as she didn’t have the backups, but they refused and purged all her creations, you were about to enter the room to comfort her, but you knew that if you try, you and Lemon will be disowned and bullied to the music groups content.

A part of you wanted to take this up with Dean Cadence, but when you go to see her in her office, you overhear Cadence and Cinch arguing.

“You can’t hold the participants responsible! You can’t just allow your students to treat some of our best like they’re trash!” You hear Cadence roar.

“They all betrayed me! Every last Shadowbolt who participated will receive their punishment for disloyalty!” Cinch responded back.

“By encouraging all of our students and staff, to treat the girls like nothing?!” Cadence asked in disgust.

You never heard Dean Cadence feel so disgusted by such behaviour which was possibly why Dean Cadence took all of it to the school board before the school year ended. When Dean Cadence reported the situation at Crystal Prep Academy, Cinch was declared unfit for working in an educational environment, the Staff were sent to other schools across the state, and newer staff took over. The School Board then decided that Dean Cadence should become the new principal of Crystal Prep, shocking Cinch, the School Board then blacklisted Cinch and stripper her of her certification to be a principal, and thus ended the Regime of Cinch, something you and a few came up with after the Friendship Games.

Soon you realise that you have gone into a deep thought (again), and your parents took notice, “Hey are you okay?” Your mother asked you.

“You seem to be having a lot of deep thoughts, think you should take the day off?” Your Dad asks you.

“No I’m good” You look at your watch and see it’s almost 8:10, the time you need to be on the bus, “I gotta go get ready!” You shout out to your parents, then head upstairs to brush your teeth, then grab your bag, your phone and all the other stuff you need and head off to school.