Under the Blue Moon

Chapter 5 – Blue Moon Falling

It’s been a week since Tidal attended CHS, but his progress in opening up has been slow.  Very slow.  And everyone who tried to help him open up were left confused by his behavior.  Celestia was worried that she might have come to his aid too late for him to change for the better.

Rarity was busy drawing some new fashion designs for her friends to wear at the Spring Fling, which was months away.  She always wanted to get a head start when it was to help out her friends.  But she was distracted with Tidal’s behavior over the week, and Clyde, who started to spend his weekends with her, could see it in her face.

“You still worried about him?” asked Clyde.

Rarity snapped her pencil in two.  “Of course I am,” she yelled.

Clyde was taken aback by her remark.  “I’m sorry I asked.”

Rarity realized what she just did and regained her composer.  “I’m sorry, Clyde.  It’s just…I’ve never seen anyone like him keep to himself all the time.  And it’s not just the fact that he’s the principal’s nephew, but the son of a famous female swimmer and a well-known weather man.”

“Well, he’s not the principal’s nephew by blood,” Clyde corrected Rarity.  “Were you able to get the whole story about Tidal’s problems?”

“Well, I-”

Before she could fully answered, they heard the bell ring from the front door.

“Oh, excuse me Clyde.”  Rarity got up and walked to the main room to visit her latest costumer.  “Hello.  How may I help you?”  She stopped to recognize the fiery haired girl with the leather jacket who entered the building.  “Sunset Shimmer.  What brings you here?”

“Needed help clearing my head.”

“Tidal Blue, I presume?”  Sunset nodded.  “Welcome to the club.  Why don’t you join me in the back.”

Both of them walked to the back room where she was working earlier.  When they came in, Sunset was surprised to see Clyde in the back as well.

“Oh, I’m sorry.  I didn’t me to…I’ll just come back some other time.”

“No, no, no.  It’s fine.  We were just talking about the same thing,” responded Rarity.  “Clyde dear?  Can you help me in fixing some hot coco for all of us?  I have a feeling that this is going to be a long day.”

Clyde went with Rarity to the kitchen.  Rarity went to grab some mugs and coco packs while Clyde started to warm up some water to help serve.  They returned to the back room and began to fix some hot coco for all three of them as they took seats near each other.

“So, any ideas on how we can help Tidal open up?” asked Sunset.

“Well, I was about to answer Clyde’s question about Tidal’s past before you came in,” responded Rarity.  “So far, I only got the short version about his past from Principal Celestia.  And you all know about that.”

“And he turns sixteen in how many weeks?” asked Clyde.

“In about two weeks,” answered Rarity.  “Pinkie plans to have a party for him the following Friday, if we can get him to open up first.”

“Have you ever thought about asking Principal Celestia in better detail?” asked Sunset.

“I’ve thought about it, but I didn’t feel like intruding her in the matter,” responded Rarity.  “But now that you mention it, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask.”

Rarity got up and walked to the phone and placed a call.  Once she dialed the number, she made sure the phone was on speaker for the others to hear.

“Hello.  This is Miss Luna speaking.”

“Vice Principal Luna?  This is Rarity.  Is Principal Celestia there?”

“She is, Miss Belle.  Let me get here.”

There was some slight noise in the background before Celestia responded.

“Rarity.  I’m assuming you’re calling me about Tidal, right?”

“Why yes, principal.  I was hoping that you could tell us more about his problems that he encounter last semester.”

“Us?”

“Clyde and Sunset are here with me, and I have you on speaker, just so you know.”

“Well…I was hoping you would finally ask me for the long version.  And I can also guess that you and Clyde are dating anyway, so I’m glad that he’s helping you out.”

“I’m surprised that you knew about that.”

“Let’s just say that it was…obvious.”

Sunset covered her mouth to let out a quiet giggle.  Rarity turned and glared at Sunset, but that didn’t stop her from giggling.

Sunset regained her composure and asked, “Principal Celestia?  We know about Tidal’s parents being somewhat popular.  And yet, the students at the school picked on his for some reason.  Can you explain us what happen that led you to bring him here?”

There was a sigh on the other line and a brief pause before Celestia could respond.

“When Sky called me, he said that his son, Tidal, was being placed in detention every time he got into a fight with another guy.  And this happened for over a month with the same guy.  This never was a problem for him, but because of their jobs, they couldn’t find the time to look into the problem personally.  So I took the week off to head over there and look into it myself.  I had a talk with their principal over there and see what he had say about what Tidal was doing that got him into trouble.

“It wasn’t easy getting an answer at first, but on the second day watching over him from afar, that’s when things got worse.  The guy who was bullying him threw a crunch-up can at the back of Tidal’s head, which lead to some students laughing at him.  Then I see Tidal take the same can and threw it hard back at him, only for him to duck and have it hit the girl behind him in the eye.  The bully sees this and decides to confront him face-to-face.  That was when I ran up and grabbed both of them and dragged them to the principal’s office to report what I saw.  Turns out that this guy was the same one who’s been picking on him for over a month.”

“Was there a reason for this boy to do this?” asked Sunset.

“There was.  Turns out that he was the starting quarterback for the football team.  Or more likely, WAS the starting quarterback.  He kept getting into detention with Tidal every time.  And that lead him to getting benched because he had to miss out on practice.  Then Tidal brings up the boy’s girlfriend and the reason for that was because he was able to ruin her perfect grades, which I found it odd.  I requested that she be brought over to the office, and turns out that it’s the same girl who had the can hit her eye.  And to make matters worse, she received a “B” in the same class that he’s in on some group project.  She complained that she’s never gotten a “B” in her life.  That’s when I decided to have a private chat with the principal on the matter and how they were not doing enough to fix the issue and send a message to the rest of the school about bullying.”

“So you mean to say that some straight-A student gotten a “B” in the same class that he’s in and decides to bring her boyfriend in to teach him a lesson, only for both boys to get sent to detention?  That still doesn’t explain how they got the school into all this,” explained Rarity.

“That’s because they were starting the playoffs with home field advantage throughout the playoffs, only to lose in the first round.”

“Talk about bad karma,” said Clyde.  “Hate to see that happen in person.”

“So, was there any punishment handed out to others?” asked Sunset.

“Tidal was given detention like before, but the other two were handed a five day suspension.  And they would be returning when exams start.  I had to request that Tidal take his exams in private for his safety.  And the fact that the school would have to deal with a bad image to repair if word was to get out on how they fail to deal with bullying.”

“Well, that does clear up some details about what he’s gone through,” said Rarity.  “Now if we can get him to understand that we are nothing like those guys at that awful school over there before his birthday comes up.”

“Let me guess.  Pinkie Pie wants to give him a big birthday party when it comes up.”

“Already in the works.  I just hope he gets to feel better when that time comes,” said Rarity.

“Is there anything that he likes to do during his free time?” asked Clyde.

“He would usually go to the indoor swimming pool where his mother works when no one is around and just lay on the water.  Otherwise, he would just take a walk by himself around town.  That’s what he’s doing at this time.  He wanted to get a layout of the city.”

“Let’s hope that once he sees the city, he can finally open up to us more,” said Rarity.

Tidal was walking around the city, wearing his winter clothes and holding an umbrella open due to the slight rain going on.  He took his time to see the surroundings of the city.  There were places where teenagers were talking to each other, sharing a laugh or exchanging stories.  But some of the images that he saw brought painful memories from his old home, memories of distrust and betrayal that he witnesses months ago.  He can still remember that time when everyone in the school started to show their true colors and go against him.  All because of some group project that was given to his class who didn’t want him in any of their groups.

As he walked on, he saw an old, used bookstore across the street.  But it wasn’t the store that caught his eye, but who was inside the store.  There was an old man behind the counter, but the other man on the other side of the counter had a gun drawn at him.  Tidal saw a dark alleyway, closed his umbrella, and went into the alleyway to watch.  He could see the robber look towards the shelves and make his way there.  The next thing Tidal saw was a couple of teenagers scared for their lives.  But Tidal was able to make out who it was.  It was Rivet and Rainbow Dash.  He could definitely make out Rainbow Dash because of her rainbow hair.

As he was watching in the shadows, he saw the robber hit Rivet to the ground.  Then after getting the money from the old man, he noticed the robber pull on Rainbow Dash’s hair hard before leaving the store.  He knew what he saw and was furious that a bully like him would go that far to get what he wanted.  He’s seen it before.  Heck, he’s experienced it head on.  He knew that this man needed to be stopped.  He figured if he could find out where he was staying, he could notify the cops and see to it that he would be put away for his actions.  So he kept his distance and made sure he knew where the guy was going.

As he was following the robber, he noticed that he was making his way to the park. Tidal knew that he could loss the guy in the park if he wasn’t fast enough to get there first.  Without hesitation, he decided to take the matter into his own hands.  He crossed the street and bumped into the robber hard, knocking his bag that he was holding to the ground.

“Hey watch it, jerk.”

“Why don’t you watch it,” Tidal said as he kicked the bag that was on the ground.  This caused the money in the bag to spill out.

“Now you asked for it.”

The robber began to reach for the gun in his pocket, but Tidal saw this as his opening to strike.  He took his umbrella and swung it at the robber’s arm just as he pulled the gun out, knocking it to the ground.  The robber went down and grabbed the gun, but Tidal was able to do the same and started to struggle with the robber and his gun.  It wasn’t long before a shot went out, followed by a second shot which stopped the robber in his tracks.

The robber fell to ground, barely breathing.  Tidal was trying the gather his breathe and focus when an officer came running up to them with his hand on his holster.  He was able to hear the shots nearby and made his way over.  But before he could say anything, he saw the guy on the ground bleeding with a gun next to him.  He was about to ask Tidal what happened when he was shocked to see blood dripping from Tidal’s side.

Tidal didn’t realize that he was also shot until the adrenaline rush that went through him went aside.  That was when reality set in and he started to collapse to the ground.  The officer grabbed his walkie-talkie and made an emergency call for help to police and medics.  Tidal couldn’t make it out what the officer was saying because he was losing blood.  It wasn’t long before he blacked out.