Starlight and Twilight could hear Shining Armor's car before they could see it. It was a car that was handed down to him by one of their family members for a very low price and it was highly noticeable by everybody who had ever come in contact with the car. Shining Armor seemed to keep the music up loud to cover up the creaks that the car made.

Despite the fear that the car would not even make it to Crystal Prep, Starlight Glimmer had to admit she was so relieved to see the car finally pull up in front of Canterlot High School because sitting there and thinking about everything going on in with Starlight's notebook and Sunset Shimmer was making her crazy. This was something new to focus on and for that, she really appreciated it.

As soon as Shining Armor's car skidded to a screeching halt, Twilight jumped up and pulled Starlight along with her towards the car and the girls hopped into the backseat.

“Hey Twily! Who's your new friend?”

“Hey B.B.B.F.F! This is Starlight Glimmer, she's new to CHS.”

“Hi,” Starlight said with a shy wave. The human Shining Armor was tall with an athletic body and a friendly face and he seemed to be much younger than the Equestrian Shining Armor as well. Something that shouldn't have truly surprised her because age and time seemed to flow differently between the two worlds, there was seemingly no other explanation for the two year age gap between Sweetie Belle and Rarity in this world, while in Equestria it was closer to three times that long.

Of course, it surprised her every time she ran into somebody she recognized from Equestria.

“Do you mind bringing us over to Crystal Prep?”

“Um, sure Twily, but why? I mean, you hated it there. Did you even have any friends there that you would want to talk to?”

“Um, sorta. Starlight Glimmer just transferred from there and there's some paperwork that she needs to get from Principal Cadance to finish the transfer up.”

“Principal Cadance?” Shining Armor's face lit up. “I didn't realize she got a promotion! Did Principal Cinch finally retire or go to another school? She was a very rigorous person, it worked for me, but it definitely didn't work for Twilight. I think somebody like Cadance would be a much better fit for that position than Principal Cinch ever was.”

“Great, so you can take us to Crystal Prep? We can get what Starlight Glimmer needs and you can catch up with Cadance.” Twilight got in the backseat behind Shining Armor and Starlight followed suit and hopped in next to her.

“What? Oh, no, that's... that's okay. She probably doesn't want to see me it's been like … I don't know, like...”

“It's been a month and a half since the Friendship Games. I'm sure that Cadance would love to see you again.” Twilight turned to Starlight Glimmer. “Shining Armor and Principal Cadance actually met at Crystal Prep and dated all four years of high school.”

“Twily!” Shining Armor yelled, cheeks turning red with embarrassment.

“Why'd you break up?” Starlight asked.

“It's not a big deal...”

“They went to different schools for college and just didn't want to do the long distance thing. He still loves her though.”

“Twily, please! Look, I'd rather just sit in the car while you two go in.”

“No, come on! She's the one that got away! You have to go in and at least talk to her,” Starlight protested. “I bet she's gonna want to see you too.”

“Do you really think so?”

“Shining Armor, I know so.”

Starlight's phone buzzed. She looked at the newly lit up screen quizzically. Twilight's name popped up on the screen with the notification: 1 New Message from Twilight Sparkle.

She fiddled with her phone for a moment before she was able to finally get the message to show up.

Twilight Sparkle:
What are you doing? It's one thing for me to tease him about Cadance, but this is too far. Is it really important for him to come in? All we need is for him to bring us there, he can just sit in the car otherwise.

Starlight Glimmer:
dkfja;dflld kdaflj;d

Twilight Sparkle:
???

Starlight rolled her eyes and leaned towards Twilight and whispered into her ear, “we need a distraction.”

“Oh,” Twilight said quietly.

“Plus, we have no idea how long we're going to be in there,” Starlight added. “Do you really want your brother sitting outside Crystal Prep for who knows how long? He will start wondering what we're up to.”

“Crap, you're right,” Twilight responded. She looked up at Shining Armor who was blissfully ignoring the two girls in the backseat to focus on keeping his car running until they arrived at Crystal Prep.

“I agree with Starlight Glimmer,” Twilight added awkwardly.

Shining Armor glanced back at his sister. “I'm not sure what you mean, Twily.”

“I mean that I think you should come in with us and say hi to Principal Cadance. I bet she would really appreciate seeing a friendly face after her long day of working as a private school principal.”

Shining Armor seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding in agreement. “You've got a point, it would be nice to see Cadance again. I mean, it's been forever, right?”

“Right,” Starlight and Twilight agreed rapidly.

Shining Armor smiled the rest of the silent ride to Crystal Prep while the girls sat in the backseat texting each other their plans that would go straight into effect as soon as Twilight's brother parked his car.

As soon as the girls could see the towering and ivy covered school come in to view, Starlight could feel her heart pound. She had never been to Crystal Prep before, but she knew that behind those walls were more secrets about the other Starlight Glimmer and she was starting to wonder if those secrets were things that she actually wanted to know about her now that she had started to learn about the notebook and some of the things the other version of her did to get back at other people that have wronged her or just did things she didn't agree with.

What else would she find behind those ivy covered walls?

As soon as Shining Armor parked his car, which looked silly compared to all of the high end cars that surrounded it, all owned by the current students of the school, Twilight and Starlight jumped out of the car.

“What's the rush? We're just going in for a little paperwork, aren't we?” Shining Armor reminded them.

“Right. Paperwork,” Starlight mumbled.

“You aren't just a little excited to see Cadance again? I know I am!” Twilight added quickly to cover up Starlight's worried mumbling.

Shining Armor smiled shyly. “Yea, I suppose I'm a little excited as well, Twily.”

Crystal Prep was much bigger than Canterlot High School which baffled Starlight because it seemed like there were fewer students there than CHS had, so why did they need that much space? Every step she took into that large private school surprised her, she had thought the schools in Equestria were well decorated and comfortable, something CHS was not. Not that it wasn't a nice school, but compared to Crystal Prep it was much less fancy.

Starlight had to admit that handing out gift bags to visitors after they signed in was a nice touch. Even if those gift bags only had a visitors name tag and a map of the school to get around.

Still.

Starlight didn't get an opportunity to look at the map because Twilight pulled her and Shining Armor towards the principal's office. The hallway was gorgeous, portraits of successful students and sporting and academic teams lined the hallways along with well watered plants that really added a touch of formality to the area. Starlight liked it.

Principal Cadance's office was just down the hallway by the entrance center in its own little area. The room was spacious and bright with a lot more natural light than Starlight thought would come in this way. The main office had two doors, one that had Principal Cadance's name on the tempered glass, and one that remained empty.

There was one computer in the main area where Starlight guessed the secretary probably sat during the school day, but that had ended a while ago at this point. Luckily, Twilight assured her that Cadance was dedicated to her work and would probably be there for a while. When Twilight knocked on the tempered glass of Principal Cadance's door, Starlight had to admit she was a tiny bit relieved when she heard Cadance's sweet voice usher them inside.

She stayed behind, half hiding from the doorway as the siblings walked into Princpal Cadance's office.

Starlight had a different job to attend to.

* * *

“Twilight Sparkle, how lovely to see you again,” Cadance said with a sweet smile as she saw the former Crystal Prep student walk into her office. Her sweet and assured smile momentarily broke when she watched Shining Armor walk in behind her. “And I see you brought your brother. Shining Armor! How are you, it's been ages since the last time you and I saw each other.”

Shining Armor blushed. “It's great to see you, Cadance.”

She smiled wider. “It's great to see you as well, Shining Armor.”

Twilight Sparkle turned around towards the doorway to Principal Cadance's office and gave Starlight a thumbs up, her brother was the perfect distraction especially since Starlight could only peak into the room. Neither of the girls were sure how well known the other Starlight Glimmer's actions were and the last thing Starlight needed was to get in any more trouble than she was already in. The police officers the other day seemed annoyed with the fact that they had to deal with Starlight Glimmer and her antics.

Twilight backed up slightly and closed the door behind her and her brother. Neither of the adults in the room noticed, they were too busy catching up on lost time to notice Twilight acting stranger than normal.

The closing of Principal Cadance's door served as the sign Starlight needed to enter what she assumed was Abacus Cinch's former office. It was much larger than what she saw of Cadance's office, but felt much darker. She slipped into that office and locked the door behind her, the computer and desk were the only things in the room and the computer gave off the only light in the darkness. Since all of the blinds were tightly closed, keeping the afternoon light firmly out of the room.

Twilight had texted her specific instructions on how to search the office computer for personal student files so she was feeling confident that she might be able to figure it out without too much intervention from Twilight.

She slid into the leather chair and got comfortable before taking a deep breath and pushing the mouse slightly; the sleep screen sprung to life and the computer screen brightened even more and asked Starlight to fill in a user name and password. She held her breath and looked down at her phone and unlocked it the way Twilight showed her in the car where a line of text messages popped up.

She put the phone on the desk and leaned towards the computer and typed in what Twilight had texted her to write in exactly when Twilight told her to do it and then she waited until a new screen came up.

Every few moments as she searched the computer, she would hesitate because Principal Cadance's office on the other side of the wall would go silent and she would begin to worry that she would get caught and that would be a very difficult thing to explain; then the sounds would start up again, usually due to Twilight somehow keeping the conversation going and for that, Starlight was incredibly thankful.

She clicked through the computer a few times, trying to get a sense for what was important and what wasn't, before she found what Twilight had suggested they look for: Student files.

Giddy excitement ran through her as she clicked on the file. There were hundreds of names listed of all the current and former students that had ever graced the halls of Crystal Prep and each name had their status attached to it whether it be grade level, graduation, transfer, or expelled. The curiosity overcame her as she slowly went through the list and took in all of the different statuses, so it took a little longer than she expected to get down to the “S” names, but when she finally did find it, her name stuck out like a sore thumb.

STARLIGHT GLIMMER – EXPELLED

Expelled?

It was plain to see between several names that just said “Graduated” which made it all the more jarring to see something so vile, just tucked away between several other names with good statuses. Anyone else that had come across it would probably just keep scrolling and would think nothing of it, but to Starlight it was painfully obvious. With an emphasis on painful.

That didn't make any sense whatsoever. Morning Dew had said that she had transferred Starlight from Crystal Prep to Canterlot High School because Starlight just clicked better with the students and faculty at CHS, not because she had been expelled from her last school.

It must have been because she ran away. You can't teach what isn't there, Starlight. I bet it will all be explained just like that as soon as you read her private, personal file.

Or...

Or?

Or maybe being expelled from Crystal Prep was the reason she ran away to begin with. Maybe Abacus Cinch scared her somehow after she found out about the terrible things that Starlight Glimmer did to her. You have to read this file. You have to!

Starlight couldn't hold her curiosity back anymore. She clicked on her name and several paper icons popped up; her entrance exam, which Starlight knew she didn't even need to click on, obviously she passed with flying colors, everybody else had already told her that much, but what was more intriguing was a document labeled permanent record which she immediately opened and noticed that, much like Starlight's revenge notebook, this too read like a diary of the other Starlight's life. Only this diary focused more on the academic side of the other Starlight and less on the revenge side.

Either way, Starlight was conflicted about reading it. Finding out about the intricacies of the notebook hadn't exactly calmed Starlight's nerves. Despite this, she printed her permanent record out, just like Twilight had instructed her to do. She would have just stuck it in her bag and be done with it. She knew that's what she should do for her own sanity, but she also couldn't help and take a glimpse for herself and see what the faculty at Crystal Prep had said about her.

Starlight Glimmer
Entrance Year: Junior
Entrance Exam: 93%

Notes from Principal Cinch: Starlight Glimmer is an incredibly gifted student, one of the best I have seen, adding her to our elite roster would make a great addition for the upcoming Friendship Games against Canterlot High School. She might be a good alternate in case I am unable to convince Twilight Sparkle to sign up. My one concern is that, while gifted, she is incredibly lazy. Test proctors mentioned that she spent half the time in the exam fiddling with her pencil until the last twenty minutes of the scheduled hour session. They assumed she was just in over her head, but these test results are amazing, so the most likely conclusion is that she is just lazy. That will not bode well with me, this girl has got to get her act together.

Starlight Glimmer's Schedule

Note from Principal Abacus Cinch: Miss Glimmer came into the main office on her first day of school and updated her schedule. She was supposed to be attending classes for some of our most gifted students, but after speaking with Dean Cadance, the only advanced class she kept was for computers. I tried to argue with Dean Cadance about it, but she tried to assure me that starting Starlight Glimmer off slow would be good for her, her last school was probably very far behind academically and it's already mid-year. We will monitor her progress in a few months time.

Quarter 1 Review: Starlight Glimmer's grades are a delight, but she is frequently uninterested in lessons and spends much of her time looking at her phone instead of paying attention to the board.

Starlight skipped through most of the pages. She had only been a student at Crystal Prep for maybe six months, but there were a lot of pages dedicated to how disinterested of a student Starlight was that it started to get a little boring. So, she skipped to the bottom.

Expulsion note from Principal Abacus Cinch: This little delinquent has no place at this learning institution. She hacked the school's main page, she stalked my home, and she has done everything in her power to try to make me lose my position at this school for no reason. Nothing happened at the Friendship Games, there's no such thing as magic, and I would never do anything to harm a student. This expulsion is for slandering the school principal and using school property to hack several websites. I believe that Miss Starlight Glimmer would be a model student at a Juvenile Detention Facility and I will gladly make several recommendations to her foster parents, Morning Dew and Rondache should they ask for my opinion.

Starlight closed the file and ran over to the printer to grab the papers. In hindsight, she shouldn't have been that surprised based on the information that she had already gathered, but she was still very disappointed in the other Starlight for getting expelled from such a nice school; she would have killed to have gone to a school like this when she was a filly and it bothered her that the other Starlight Glimmer had so many advantages just handed to her and she just squandered every single one of them.

She slipped the papers in her messenger bag hurriedly and stepped back into the main office.

Starlight Glimmer:
Done. Whenever you guys are ready to go, so am I.

Twilight Sparkle:
Okay. Just gotta pull B.B.B.F.F away from Cadance. They really hit it off, they even scheduled a date!

Within seconds, Twilight pushed the principal's door back open.

“Thanks, Principal Cadance for penciling in time for Shining Armor and I! Have a great evening!”

“Of course, Twilight! And Shining Armor, I really look forward to seeing you on Friday night.”

Shining Armor blushed and mumbled some words that were either in another language or completely incoherent altogether, before turning away quickly and ushering the two teens down the hall of the school.

“Thanks for suggesting I come with you two instead of sitting in the car. I hope I didn't monopolize all your time with her. You both got the things you came for, right?”

“Yup,” Starlight nodded. “All squared away. Thanks for the ride, I really appreciate it.”

“Anything for my favorite little sister and her friends. Now, I know my parents would kill me if I didn't at least offer to bring you to our place for dinner; they always love to meet Twily's friends.”

“Yes, please come! Things have been so crazy lately, it would be nice to have an evening of normalcy, don't you think?”

“What does that mean, Twily?”

“It means that with my recent transfer to Canterlot High and all the tests and homework the teachers have been giving out, we just haven't had a chance to relax,” Starlight explained. “No biggie, and thanks for the offer, but I think Morning Dew and Rondache are waiting for me. Morning Dew makes some really great food, and I'd love to tell them all about my day at school.”

Shining Armor nodded. “Right, of course. Where should I drop you off?”

* * *

By the time Starlight Glimmer got home, the sun was just starting to set. She had stayed out later than she intended to, but this morning she also hadn't intended to take a ride to a completely different part of town just to steal her permanent record. As promised this morning though, she kept Morning Dew and Rondache at least somewhat in the loop, something she was thankful for when she walked in the door and they didn't hassle her about disappearing on them.

Instead, Sunset Shimmer was the first person she saw when she opened the door.

“Hey, Sunset. What's up? I didn't expect you to be here... at my house?”

“She came here about twenty minutes ago,” Morning Dew explained. “She said it was absolutely urgent and she really needed you, so we let her wait here. Is that okay?”

“Of course, it's okay. What's up, Sunset?”

“Hey, I didn't mean to bother you,” she responded in a voice hardly above a whisper. “I mean, I know how crazy you and Twilight have been, with running to Crystal Prep and all, but Rainbow Dash and I were looking at your... er... the other Starlight's facespace profile in the locker room after practice and I think there's something you should see.”

“Is it bad?”

Sunset hemmed and hawed before nodding.

“Sunset Shimmer and I are gonna hang out in my room for a little bit before dinner, we won't be long. Thanks guys!”

“But...”

Starlight didn't wait to hear the rest of the sentence, she pulled Sunset Shimmer up the stairs with her and slammed the door behind her.

Author's Note

Since this is written for National Pony Writing Month where the point is to get 50,000 words done in only 30 days. This chapter was just kind of briefly gone over once to make sure I was able to expand on parts that I might have rushed over before and to get rid of obvious mistakes. If something pops out to you that I missed, please let me know!