Prologue (Twilights P.O.V)
“Nerd!”
“Freak!”
“Loser!”
“Moron!”
Laughs, chuckles, giggles. Sneers, glares, and frowns. I see and hear it every single day of my life. I never get a break. Sometimes I wish I could just disappear. Run away. Say goodbye to everything. This endless mind game other students like to play is, well, endless. There’s something about me that makes them wonder just how far they can actually go before I break down. Before I collapse. I don’t know why. People at this school just don’t except anyone apart from their little circles. No one steps out of them. Those are the rules of Canterlot High. If everyone sticks to their own kind, no one gets hurt and no one bothers you.
If you’ve been here since freshman year, then you would know that. If not, then you don’t belong anywhere. You’re not treated like a true Wondercolt by the students. Your treated like a fly on the window that should not be there. And therefore, needs to be squashed. Terminated. Cast out. I should know, because when I moved here just last year and started school, that’s how I was (and still am) treated. With no clique to protect you, you’re on your own.
I don’t need friends. I never have, and I thought that I never would. But at this school, it’s a requirement if you want to survive. It makes things easier when someone has your back. But I’m always on my own, so my survival is at stake. The thing is, nobody even cares. Teachers seem to be nonexistent besides during class hours. People here treat bullying as an essential routine. They believe in the motto “Sticks and Stones will break your bones but words can never hurt you.” But their wrong. Oh, so very, very, WRONG. Because words do hurt. A lot. Ever since I entered middle school, I have been made fun of and laughed at just because I’m different. I’m not out-going like everyone else. I don’t believe in that stupid saying. When I went to Crystal Prep I wasn’t even close to being accepted by others. It was a private school, filled with a lot a of fancy kids who take their education to the next level of seriousness. It made them pretty stuck up. The kids at Canterlot High are even worse, the only difference being that they couldn’t care less about their grades. Instead, they care about who’s the coolest and why, who’s dating who, and of course, who doesn’t fit in. CHS is a kingdom. Commit treason or break the rules and you get beheaded. So, I’m pretty much being made a laughingstock because apparently, I don’t follow the rules. I am an outlaw that doesn’t belong anywhere. At least that’s how I see it. If there is another reason, I have no idea what it is. I never bother anyone. I’m usually able to just hide out in the library. If I don’t, either they don’t see me and I remain invisible for a few hours, or they do see me, and I basically get verbally tortured, all throughout the day. I literally mean nothing to them. I’m just that nobody who lives next door, the one who doesn’t fit in and who never will no matter what happens.
Not only that, but when I come home things aren’t easy either. My parents died six years ago, and since then, my older brother, Shining Armor, has been looking after me. Every day he is worried about something new, usually something to do with his job. He’s a police officer, and it seems to be pretty stressful. He’s not usually there when I come home from school because he works late, but when he is there, he’s usually really tired or really busy with some sort of paperwork that needs to be looked at, or bills that need to be paid. When mom and dad died he promised he would take care of me, and he is taking his new job very seriously. With hardly anyone there to help him since his wife, Cadence, is gone most of the time, he has to do it alone. We moved to Canterlot so that he could be closer to work, so I don’t to complain, even though I don’t like it here. I try my best not to make things hard for him, and I’m positive not having any friends makes things easier. He never has to worry about making sure I get good grades, because I’ve been a straight-A student since I started school. My brother loves me a lot, and I think he is so protective because he doesn’t want to lose me and end up breaking the promise he made. Shining Armor hates breaking promises, especially when there towards someone he cares about, like my parents. I don’t tell him about the things that happen in school, since it will only cause more trouble. If he asks how school went, I just say it was fine, it went well, splendid, blah bah blah.
I don’t like lying to anyone, let alone someone as special as Shining Armor, but I’d do anything to get him to not feel the need to worry about something. Besides, I don’t need him coming to school with me and complaining to the principal on my behalf. He has enough to worry about, and it would only make things at school more unbearable for me. Even though I can act like I can handle the taunting, it does hurt. I have stayed up late multiple times, crying until I fell asleep, thinking about how much better things would be for me if I was respected and adored by everyone. If I had more power than any of them ever could have dreamed about. If things weren’t so difficult for me, and so stressful for Shining Armor. How much better it would be if my life was perfect. How much better things would be, if I was one of them.
Or better…
“Hey there, Twisight!”
Twilight rolled her eyes. It was Sunset Shimmer. Self-proclaimed queen of the school, Sunset had lots of spunk, a fiery temper, and intense dislike for Twilight. She was queen and the students were her subjects. If they didn’t follow her rules, they get punished. Sunset Shimmer used every possible opportunity to make fun of Twilight, and she made sure that everyone else did too. Twilight looked up from the book she had been writing in to face the girl standing before her. Long red and yellow curled hair, black boots, black leather jacket, fuchsia shirt and a confident smirk on her face.
“It’s Twilight, actually. But I think you know that already. Can I help you? I’m kind of busy right now.” Twilight said.
Sunset laughed. “Busy? Busy doing what? Trying to be an even more useless nobody than you already are? I honestly don’t think that’s possible.” By then everyone in the hall had stopped to watch the scene.
Twilight pushed her glasses up on her nose. “Nothing important.”
“Really? Then you won’t mind if I have a little peek?” Sunset Shimmer said, snatching the notebook out of Twilight's hand. Inside were a bunch of scrawled history notes, along with random drawings of stars and planets along the sides.
“Hey! Give that back, it’s mine and you have absolutely no right to take it!” Twilight yelled. It was 8:00 in the morning, and she really didn’t want her day of torment to begin so soon. She was actually hoping to hide out in the library or the back of the classroom, hoping no one would notice until maybe later on in the day when she had more energy to try and ignore people. But here was Sunset Shimmer, determined to be the first to annoy her, as usual. Something as silly and useless as Twilight’s hopes and dreams couldn’t get in the way of Sunset’s daily routine of making her life as miserable as possible.
“Give it back? Or what? You’ll bore me to death with a history lesson?” Sunset Shimmer sneered, “I think I’ll take the easier option.” She said, walking over to the nearby janitors’ garbage can and then dropping Twilight notebook in with all the smelly trash. “There you go. I put your piece of junk with all the other trash. Now, if you want it back you’ll have to get it back yourself. Oh, and take your time. After all, it’s probably the only place that you’ll ever belong to anyway,” Sunset Shimmer said before laughing and walking away.
Just then, the janitor came out of the lunch room with a smaller trash can and dumped all the food and trash into the larger can before rolling it away.
****
Twilight sighed as she walked through the now quiet hallways. She should be getting to class, but that was pointless. She was already late and getting scolded by the teacher would only give her peers yet another reason to laugh and make fun of her. Besides, it’s not like she would have paid attention anyway. She was a straight-A student and the teachers rarely had anything to say that she didn’t already know. So instead, Twilight headed toward the library. As she walked through the doors, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. This was the one place where she could get some peace and quiet. She loved everything about it, the rows and rows of books, the sweet smell, and the fact that she was away from everyone else. The library of Canterlot high school was a large place. As soon as you walk through the doors, you see large tables with shining computers waiting to be used. Because class was in session, Twilight had the library all to herself. She walked up to the front desk, where the librarian, Ms. Pommelway, was sitting in her cozy swivel chair reading.
“Um, excuse me?”
The librarian looked up in surprise. When she registered that it was Twilight, she smiled.
“Yes, dear?” she asked.
“Oh, well, uh, sorry to interrupt your reading, but is the new book I ordered here yet?” Twilight asked?
“Why yes, it is. It arrived just this morning.” Ms. Pommelway replied before opening a drawer in her desk. “But shouldn’t you be in class? This is the third time this week you have been over here during class hours. Usually it’s a goal for students like you not to miss classes.”
“I don’t see any point in going. I know all the lessons and get all the answers right. Besides, if I go into class now, everyone will laugh when the teacher lectures me about how important it is not to miss a minute of his precious class. I rather just not go at all. I’ll just catch the next class.” Twilight said with certainty, taking the book the librarian was handing to her. “Thank you!” she said before walking away.
“It’s nothing, Twilight, but you really should think of attending all of your classes one of these days.” The librarian called after her. Twilight just smiled and made her way to the back of the room to a table that already had stacks of books that she looking through.
“…But, alas, its magic was never completely destroyed, as the task was to difficult for even the strongest wizards and magicians. Legend says that Starswirl the Bearded hid it deep in the Everfree forest thousands of years ago, in order to ensure that it would not fall into the wrong hands. However, there are certain documents that say that a mysterious force took control of it, waiting for someone to come and claim the magic inside. Whoever the force chooses will get unspeakable power, but only if they have the right intentions. If not, then the magic can go out of control, and—”
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnng!!!!!!!
Twilight looked up with a start. Her next class was about to begin, and she was going to be late. Hurriedly, she gathered her books and shoved them into her light blue backpack and swung it over her shoulder before rushing past the librarian.
“Bye Ms. Pommelway!” Twilight said before racing out the door. Ms. Pommelway smiled at the student, watching her rush off to class.
Author's Note
Please leave comments!! I hope you enjoyed the first part of my story. Let me know what you think!!
Twilight sighed as she dropped onto her bed. She had managed to get through the rest of her classes without much trouble from the other students, although she did have some extra homework. After a short break, Twilight sat up and looked around her. Her bedroom wasn’t large, but it wasn’t exactly small either. It had everything that Twilight needed. Her computer, desk, pencil box, beanbag, alarm clock, and dark purple comforter on her bed with a large, pink six-pointed star with five smaller white stars in the center. The roof was painted dark blue, and had white dot representing distant stars in the solar system, along with comets and planets. Purple curtains covered the windows, and graphs, notes, and awards that she had won over the years were pinned to a small wooden bulletin board on the wall.
But the most important thing in the room was the large bookshelf. It contained lots of books, obviously, but also many worn out journals that contained notes from different classes and results from experiments that she had conducted. One journal, however, was not kept on a shelf. It was one that Twilight kept with her at all times and paid careful attention too. People might think that this was because it was some sort of diary, but it was much more than that. It was more of a secret keeper. This book had information from “observations” that Twilight had made about the other students of CHS. Information that a lot of the students would want to know, but didn’t. For this reason, the book was always with her. If someone else knew what was in the book, then she would be in trouble.
Twilight sighed again, then dragged her backpack with her towards her desk and sat down. She pulled out her now smelly history notebook and looked at. She had managed to convince the janitor to get it out for her by telling him that it had all the answers to her homework, which wasn’t a lie, because it did. Mostly. It took him a while, but in the end, he was victorious. Twilight opened up the books she needed one by one, and then got to work.
***
“Find me, I’m standing right here where you left me. Still shredded and bruised but I’m breathing. Be brave for me….”
Twilight looked up from her textbook and fished around in her backpack for her phone. A picture of Shining Armor filled the screen.
“Hello?” Twilight said.
“Hey Twilight. What are you up too?”
“Nothing interesting,” she said.
“How was school?” Shining Armor asked.
“Fine, I guess. Same as it usually is.”
“Are you sure? You sound kind of down.”
“It’s high school Shining Armor, I’m not exactly going to be ecstatic about it,” Twilight replied.
Shining Armor laughed. “Ok, well I’ll be home in little while. See you soon.”
“Yeah, see you,” Twilight replied before hanging up the phone.
***
About 45 minutes later, Shining Armor walked into Twilight's room.
“Hi Twilight. What are you up to?”
Twilight looked at the pile of text books on her desk and sighed. “Homework,” she replied.
“This late?” Shining Armor asked. “You always finish your homework in like 2 hours.”
Twilight looked out her window. It was getting pretty late. The sun was setting, but with the bright light streaming through her window, she hadn’t noticed.
“Well, I never said that I was doing my homework,” she conceded.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Shining Armor said.
Twilight sighed. “It means that someone at school didn’t feel like doing their homework, but they need to have it done if they want a C average,” Twilight explained. “Anything lower and they get kicked out of whatever team or club their in. So, they decided, ‘Hey, let’s make Twilight do our homework because she totally has no plans or life whatsoever after school and doesn’t deserve any free time after school.’” Twilight finished, anger slightly growing visible in her voice.
“What were your plans?” Shining Armor asked curiously.
Twilight stared blankly at her brother before replying. “Oh, well actually I didn’t have any,” Twilight admitted. “But that’s not the point. They didn’t know that. The point is that even if I had plans I wouldn’t have gotten to do them because I’m stuck doing someone else’s homework!”
“Oh-kay. Have you told the principal?” Shining Armor asked.
Twilight looked at him like he was crazy. “Are you kidding? You’re kidding right?” Twilight asked. Shining Armor shook his head. “If I tell the principal then things at school will be even worse for me than they already are!”
Now it was Shining’s turn to look at Twilight. “What do you mean by worse?” he asked.
Twilight realized her mistake. “Did I say worse? I meant thing will just get, err, difficult between me and the other students. Nothing will get worse because everything is perfectly fine and I get along perfectly with the other students and nobody hates me because we’re all just best friends and you totally don’t have to worry about anything!” Twilight said quickly, adding a large smile at the end. “The homework is just a little favor for someone,” she said more quietly.
Shining Armor raised an eyebrow at her. “Well, you still shouldn’t be doing someone else’s homework Twilight, even if it is a favor,” he said.
“Yeah, no kidding,” Twilight grumbled under her breath.
“The best thing that can be done is to work with them after school, like a study-buddy or something. I think that I can arrange-”
“NO!” Twilight interrupted. Shining Armor looked at her strangely. “I, mean, you really shouldn’t. It’s perfectly fine. I really don’t mind. It’s not like I really had anything else to do anyway,”
“Well ok then. Are you sure?” Shining Armor said.
Twilight nodded her head. “I like studying.”
“That you do. Ok then. Pizza for dinner?” Shining Armor asked.
“Yes please!” Twilight replied.
Shining Armor nodded and then left the room. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. She had almost broken her rule and let her problems slip. She made a mental note to be more careful of her words and anger next time, then sighed and got back to work.
Author's Note
The song for Twilight's ringtone is called Strangers, by Scratch21. I recently watched this video and now the song has been stuck in my head for 2 days. 
Scratch21 - Strangers [PMV Animation] - YouTube
YouTube · Mr KupKake
Next time on The Nobody Next Door:
“Wait, don’t tell me.” the boy said, putting his hand on his chin in concentration. “Sunlight? No. Starlight? No, that’s not it. Hmm…” he studied the girl in front of him. Something about her was familiar, but he didn’t know what.
“It’s-” Twilight tried again.
“I got it! Twisight!” he exclaimed, obviously proud of himself.
Twilight shook her head. “Not exactly.”
The boys face fell. “Well then what is your name?”
Please leave comments! Hope your enjoying the story!! I know this chapter wasn't much, but I hope you liked it anyway!! Please Leave comments!!!!
Also, special thanks to my editor, TheMysteryMuffin
