See How the Night Sky Glows

It was a cool Friday afternoon in Manebridge, and the last day before the usual February school vacation. At the front door of Manebridge High School, three friends stood together for what would likely be the last time for a while.

"Well, I'd say these past few years have been... interesting, to say the least." said one of the boys to his two friends. He had sky blue hair with a black streak on either side. "Anyway, I've got to go now. Party, Double, see you boys later."

"See you, Sky." said the boy with curly dark blue hair, whose name was Party Favor. "Just don't get into any locker room bust-ups and you'll do okay!"

"Oh, put a sock in it, Party!" Sky Scraper laughed. "That was all the way back in sixth grade. Besides, you're no better. Remember when you punched Feather Bangs because you thought he was trying to steal Sugar Belle from you?"

"He's got you there." said Double Diamond, a boy with white hair. "And that was last year, too."

Party sighed with defeat. "Fine, fine. You got me. Especially because it turned out Sugar didn't like either of us. Boy, I was stupid, wasn't I?"

"Well, to put it frankly... yes." Sky chuckled. "Anyway, I'd best be off. My vacation week of packing and moving awaits me."

Double smiled. "You know, Canterlot's a lot bigger than Manebridge. Try not to get swallowed up in the crowd." he joked.

"Oh, please!" said Sky. "I'm not that incompetent! Besides, there'll be no Starlight Glimmer there, so there's a limit to how bad it can be!"

"True that." Party agreed.

Sky waved goodbye to his friends as he walked down the street to the parking lot. He found his mom's car parked near the entrance and climbed in. Then he was off to go home and begin the long and arduous process of moving apartments.

Sky's father, Air Raider, had recently been laid off at his workplace, which had been forced to cut many employees to avoid going bankrupt. However, it wasn't long before he found a new job in the city of Canterlot. As a result of this change, the family had to move from Manebridge, because not only were the two towns very distant from each other, but virtually the only way to commute between them was via Highway 131, which was well-known across the state of Manesachusetts for being incredibly slow and crowded during rush hour.

Sky had actually lived in Canterlot once before, because when he was very young, his father had also had a job there. But by the time Sky had started school he'd moved to Manebridge. Now he was moving back to Canterlot, and in an odd way it felt like coming home again.

By Tuesday of February vacation week, Sky and his parents had finished moving into their new apartment. It was located in the Somnambula Building, a twelve-story glass apartment building situated on the outskirts of the urban side of Canterlot. The apartments themselves were quite large, with tall ceilings, and each floor only had two. Sky's apartment was number 17, on the ninth floor, and had a great view overlooking the suburbs. Sky soon grew to love sitting out on the balcony at night, looking out at the stars in the sky and the lights from the suburbs below.

During the last few days of the vacation week, Sky enjoyed taking long walks through the town, exploring each and every corner and curve of Canterlot. Even after all these years, it was just as beautiful as he'd remembered it. In addition, the weather was unusually warm for February, which made the town seem even more cheerful and vibrant. Day or night, Sky enjoyed himself enormously.

It was now Sunday, and the last day before school began again tomorrow. For Sky, tomorrow would be his first day at Canterlot High, and today he was to be given a tour of the school by two girls. Since the weather was nice and the school was actually only a few blocks away, Sky decided to walk there. As he exited the lobby of the Somnambula Building and walked down the street, he wondered what Canterlot High would be like. He hoped it would be easier to make friends than it had been at Manebridge High.

When Sky reached the front door of the school, nobody was there, so he found a bench and sat down. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and began browsing the Formula One website for the latest news about car launches and winter testing.

"Damn, the new Ferrari looks nice!" he said to himself. He was still browsing various news articles when he heard two female voices in the distance.

"Come on, Bonnie! Don't you want to meet the new guy?"

"Well, Lyra, maybe I just don't feel like running!"

Sky looked up just as a girl with minty green hair came into view, followed by a girl with curly blue and pink hair. As soon as Sky saw the minty-haired girl, he felt his heart skip a beat and he couldn't help but blush a bit. She was really cute, probably the cutest girl he'd seen in a long time.

The two girls sat down on either side of Sky. "Hi!" said the minty-haired one on Sky's left. "Are you the new student?"

"Well... yes." said Sky. "Are you two here to give me a tour of the school?"

"Yep!" the minty-haired girl replied. "I'm Lyra. Lyra Heartstrings."

"And I'm Bon Bon." said the curly-haired girl on Sky's right. "Well, my real name's Sweetie Drops, but everyone just calls me Bon Bon. What's your name?"

"I'm Sky Scraper, but you can call me Sky. It's nice to meet both of you." Sky stood up and shook each girl's hand.

"Nice to meet you, too." said Lyra. "Anyway, we can't wait to show you around the school! I'm sure you'll love it!"

"Great!" said Sky. "It wouldn't take much to be better than my old school, anyway."

"What was wrong with your old school?" Bon Bon asked.

"Well, I moved here from Manebridge earlier this week, which as I'm sure you know is not exactly the nicest town."

"Yeah, I hear it can be kind of rough up there." put in Lyra.

"Exactly. The high school is full of thugs, and they're all led by this one girl named Starlight Glimmer." Sky explained. "She's the most popular girl there, and that's because everyone else is too scared to challenge her. She wants everyone to act the same way, and bullies anyone who steps out of line."

"Well, I can see why you hated Manebridge High!" Bon Bon remarked. "Starlight sounds awful!"

"She was. She never came after me personally, but I'd heard enough stories about her to know to stay well clear." Sky continued.

"Did you have any friends at your old school?" Lyra asked.

"Most of the other people at Manebridge High were pretty boring, so I only had a couple of friends, these two guys named Party Favor and Double Diamond. Those guys were my bros. They stuck by me no matter what, and didn't care what Starlight or any of her idiot friends had to say."

"Well then, I guess it couldn't have been all bad, could it?" said Lyra.

"Well, I guess not, but as you said, Manebridge is just a rough town in general, and I'm glad to be out of there." said Sky.

Both Lyra and Bon Bon nodded in agreement. As they led Sky through the corridors of Canterlot High, they showed him all of the ins and outs of their school, and told Sky some things about themselves as well.

"Anyway, I'm a huge mythology nerd." said Lyra with a grin. "I especially love unicorns, they're so pretty!"

Sky chuckled. "Yeah, unicorns are awesome. To be honest, I think we all secretly love unicorns even if some of us won't admit it."

"That is so true!" Lyra exclaimed. "We'd all love a big fluffy unicorn to cuddle with. Of course, that's what plushies are for!"

"Wait, you have a unicorn plushie?" Sky asked.

"Of course I do!" said Lyra.

"Okay, now you're starting to make me jealous!" Sky laughed. He'd have liked having a unicorn plushie to sleep with at night. It'd make him feel not so lonely.

Lyra smiled. "You're not the first person to say that." She cast a sly, mischievous grin at Bon Bon. "I fantasize about unicorns being real, Bonnie fantasizes about James Bond being real."

Bon Bon immediately blushed bright red. "What are you trying to imply, Lyra!"

"Come on, admit it." Lyra said with a smirk. "You're just about the biggest Bond fangirl on the planet, and everyone at this school knows it."

Bon Bon sighed with defeat. "Yeah. I am." She turned to Sky. "I'm a huge fan of spy movies and I absolutely love James Bond, he's just so awesome!"

"That he is!" Sky agreed. "I've seen a few Bond films, but I really should watch more sometime."

"You totally should, they're amazing!" said Bon Bon. "Speaking of which, what kind of stuff do you watch?"

"Well, I don't watch a lot of TV, but I'm a pretty big fan of Formula One racing." Sky replied.

"Oh yeah, I've heard about that." said Lyra. "Apparently the races have a lot of action, much more than that pointless stock car series where they just drive around in circles. Maybe Bonnie and I should check it out."

"You should." said Sky. "Especially because this year they're changing some of the rules - apparently it's supposed to make the cars faster."

"Cool!" said Bon Bon. The three of them were now back where they started, in the main atrium.

"Well, that's it for the tour." said Lyra. "What'd you think?"

"I think it's nice." Sky replied. "I think I'm going to like it here."

"Awesome!" said Bon Bon. "Anyway, we'd better head off. Lyra and I both work Sunday afternoons. I work at the candy shop at the Canterlot Mall."

"And I work in the music store at the mall." added Lyra. "We both work four days a week."

"You have time to do that?" Sky asked, confused. "Even with homework?"

"Teachers hardly ever give homework here, which is amazing." said Bon Bon.

"Yeah, everyone here is really chill." said Lyra. "The only way you can really fail a class is if you just never show up."

"Well then, I like this school even more now." Sky remarked. "Anyway, you two said you had to be at work soon, so I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye!" said Lyra, and she and Bon Bon turned and headed for the door. As the two girls left, Sky spotted a broken tile in the ceiling that was leaking water into a puddle on the floor. Must be from that storm a couple of weeks ago, Sky thought to himself. Then everything happened at once.

"Watch out!" Sky shouted, but it was too late. Without looking, Lyra stepped into the puddle and her feet slid out from under her. Sky quickly ran to her and caught her before she fell.

As Sky and Lyra gazed into each other's eyes, Sky realized that he was holding Lyra in his arms, and Lyra realized that she was being held in Sky's arms. For what seemed like an eternity, they remained silent and still, their faces inches apart, and both of them couldn't help but blush.

Eventually Sky let go of Lyra, and Lyra stood up straight. "Are you okay?" Sky asked, concerned.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thanks." said Lyra.

Sky smiled. "No problem."

"You all right, Lyra?" Bon Bon asked.

"Don't worry, Bonnie, I'm fine." Lyra replied. "Sky caught me before I fell." She then turned back to Sky. "It was really nice meeting you, Sky." she said. Bon Bon nodded in agreement.

"It was nice meeting you too." said Sky to both girls. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"You too!" said Lyra with a smile. "Besides, you're in tenth grade, right?"

"Yep." said Sky.

"So are we!" Lyra replied. "Maybe we'll have a few classes together!"

"I hope so!" said Sky. "That'd be great!"

Lyra, Bon Bon and Sky all headed out the doors and then went in opposite directions. Lyra and Bon Bon went one way to the mall, while Sky went the other way back to his apartment. As Sky walked home, he couldn't help but smile to himself. Lyra and Bon Bon were both really nice, and he knew he would get along well with them both. Especially Lyra. She was just so beautiful.

As he thought about Lyra, Sky sighed happily and thought to himself, Yeah... I'm definitely going to like it here.