See How the Night Sky Glows

One of the nicest things about Canterlot High was that Sky got an extra hour of sleep, as the school day started at 8:30 AM as opposed to 7:30. At 8:25 on Monday morning, Sky's mom dropped him off in front of the school. Sky took his backpack and climbed out of the front passenger seat. "See you, Mom." he said as he walked toward the doors of his new school.

The student body at Canterlot High was clearly considerably larger than the one at Manebridge High, because Sky soon found himself in a gigantic crowd of boys and girls all around the same age as him. Then again, Sky had heard that Canterlot High was actually a five-year high school, so that likely explained the larger number of students.

Since he didn't want to get lost in the crowd, Sky found a bench in the main atrium and sat down until the crowd dissipated. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his class schedule, which he'd received via email and printed yesterday. According to the schedule, his first class would be English in room number 112. Once most of the other students had left the main atrium, Sky got up from the bench and began walking down the nearest corridor, scanning the number on each door so he would find the right one. When he found one with the number 112 on it, he opened it and walked into the room.

Although the teacher hadn't arrived yet, many of the students already had. Sky looked around and saw that many of them were casually chatting with each other, and seemed to be pretty friendly, even if none of them really noticed the new guy. Sky felt slightly left out, but he figured that was only natural since he'd never even met any of these people before. Spotting an empty seat in the back of the room, he walked over to it and sat down.

Sky looked to his left and noticed that the student next to him was literally asleep, with their head down on their desk. Sky couldn't tell if they were a boy or a girl, because while they did look to be considerably taller than the average girl, their light green hair was very long. Sky chuckled to himself just as the door opened and a man with black hair walked into the room. He stood before the chalkboard and all of the students in the room turned their focus to him.

"Good morning, class." he said. "As most of you already know, I'm Mr. Thomas Trope, but you can call me Double-T, as most people do. I'm the main English teacher here at CHS." He wrote his name on the chalkboard. "Anyway, I'm introducing myself today because today we have a new student joining us!" He looked out across the room. "Is Sky Scraper here?"

Sky looked up and raised his hand. "Yep, that's me."

"Good to have you with us, Mr. Scraper." said Double-T. "Now then, can you please stand and introduce yourself to the class?"

Sky sighed. He didn't particularly like introducing himself to large numbers of people. He made his way to the front of the room and stood facing the rest of the class. "Hi. I'm Sky Scraper, but you can just call me Sky." he said. "There's not a whole lot to say other than that I just moved from Manebridge, so this is my first day here."

"Thank you for telling us that, Sky." Double-T said with a smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, and I hope you enjoy your time here at Canterlot High."

Sky and Double-T shook hands, and then Sky walked back to his seat.

"Now then," Double-T said to the class, "I didn't really have much planned for today except for you to read the first three chapters of the new book that I introduced yesterday." He walked back to Sky and placed a paperback book on his desk. "This is the new book that we're starting today." Double-T explained. "We're just reading the first three chapters, which shouldn't take you that long."

"All right." Sky said. "That sounds good." He was glad that he didn't have to do anything else.

Double-T then walked over to the student on Sky's left, who was still asleep, and tapped them on the shoulder. "You awake, Emerald?" he asked.

Emerald looked up. "Oh, sorry." he said with a yawn. "Just zoned out a little bit back there."

"That's all right. Do you have your copy of The Klugetown Files with you?"

"Oh, yeah. It's in my backpack." said Emerald. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a book identical to the one on Sky's desk.

"We're just reading the first three chapters today." Double-T explained. "And there's no homework."

"Okay, good." said Emerald. He then looked at Sky. "Who are you?" he asked.

Sky sighed. "I'm Sky Scraper. I'm the new guy. Let me guess, you slept through my introduction."

"Well... yeah." said Emerald. "I'm Emerald Leaf. Nice to meet you, Sky."

"Nice to meet you too, Emerald." Sky said as he shook Emerald's hand. "In case you were wondering, I moved here from Manebridge last week."

"Cool!" Emerald replied. "I actually moved from the Neightherlands at the start of this year. And I tell you, the first few months here were the craziest of my entire life."

"Well, I guess moving to a new country is always difficult." Sky remarked.

Emerald chuckled. "It wasn't just that. Did you hear about the Fall Formal or the Battle of the Bands?"

"Oh yeah." said Sky. "I heard they were both pretty sketchy, but I'm not sure what actually happened."

"Trust me, if I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

"That's all right. I'm sure I'll find out soon enough."

A few hours later, Sky was making his way to the cafeteria for lunch. So far, he'd enjoyed his first day at CHS. After going through the lunch line and paying for his food, he began looking for a place to sit.

As Sky walked through the cafeteria, he noticed several people who he'd talked to earlier in the day, but all of their tables were full. He was about to just go find an empty table and sit by himself when he heard a voice behind him.

"Hey, Sky! Over here!"

Sky looked behind him to see Emerald sitting at a table with three other guys. Emerald motioned for Sky to join them and Sky did so, sitting next to Emerald and across from a boy with orange hair and a kilt.

"So, how you been, Sky?" Emerald asked. "I haven't seen you since first period."

"I've been pretty good," Sky replied, "but I gotta say this place is a lot bigger than my old school, and there are a lot more people. Everyone here has been pretty nice, though."

"Weel, that's guid." said the boy with orange hair. He spoke with a deep, smooth Scottish accent. "Name's Sherbert Music-Guard. Nice tae meet ye."

"Nice to meet you too, Sherbert." Sky replied. "My name's Sky Scraper in case you were wondering. Speaking of which, nice kilt!"

Sherbert smiled. "Thank ye, laddie! It's me family tartan. I muived here fae Scotland a couple years ago. Since muivin' here I've been a huge hit wi' the lassies - an' the laddies."

"Wait, you're bisexual?"

"Aye. This school's full o' hotties, an' I love it!"

"Yes, as you can see, Sherbert's the romantic one in our group." said one of the other guys. He had a dark brown bowl cut. He was very short and skinny, smaller than Sky, who was of fairly modest height himself. "I'm Wiz Kid." he said. "Well, that's not my real name, but I hate my real name, so everyone just calls me that."

"The name fits him perfectly." said the last remaining guy at the table. In contrast to Wiz Kid, he was very big and tall, with curly blue hair. "He's a real MVP - he's saved me from failing so many math tests. Anyway, the name's Curly Winds. I play a lot of sports, but I'm not so good at school."

Sky wasn't sure how to feel about that. Most of the jocks at Manebridge High were either bullies, delinquents, suck-ups or all three.

"Don't worry, man." Curly said with a smile. "I probably sound like, you know, that kind of guy, but trust me, I'm not."

"Yeah, Curly's a funny dude." said Wiz. "And to be honest, the vast majority of people here are pretty nice and accepting. I mean, there are a few problem people, like those three," Wiz pointed to a trio of girls seated in the opposite corner of the cafeteria, "but they won't talk to you, anyway."

Sky looked over at the three girls that Wiz had pointed to. The first had poofy orange hair, the second had straight purple hair tied into a pair of pigtails, and the third had blue hair tied into a ponytail. All three were sulking and glaring at anyone who passed by their table.

"What's up with them?" Sky asked.

"They're hot but verra nestie," said Sherbert, "an' there's one hell o' a tale aboot them. Are ye shair ye want tae hear it?"

Sky thought for a moment. "You know what, why not? Tell me the story!"

"Richt then." said Sherbert, and began telling Sky the full story of the past six months at Canterlot High. He started by explaining Sunset Shimmer's reign of terror up until her defeat at the Fall Formal at the hands of a magical girl from the same alternate dimension that she was from, and then moved on to the trio of troublemaker girls who attempted to brainwash the school with their singing. They essentially staged a Battle of the Bands, which Sherbert had competed in with his set of bagpipes, and nearly won it, but were ultimately defeated by that same magical girl and her friends, only this time with assistance from a reformed Sunset Shimmer. After that, things returned to normal in Canterlot and the Dazzlings, as the three bad girls called themselves, were left with no choice but to simply finish off high school and live the rest of their lives as social pariahs.

"An' they dinna even seem tae care about schuil." Sherbert finished. "They niver dae ony o' the wurrk, an' sometimes they leave in the middle o' the day tae dae guidness kens whit."

"Okay, two things." Sky said, having let all of what Sherbert told him sink in. "One, I see why these girls are trouble, as Wiz said. Two, HOLY SH*T!!!"

"Aye, that's hou nearly everyone reacts when they hear that story." said Sherbert.

"Yes, when I say these past few months were crazy, I'm sure you see what I mean." put in Emerald.

"Oh hell yeah." Sky agreed.

"Oan a completely unrelated note, I'm still pissed that I didna get past the first round o' the Battle o' the Bands." said Sherbert. "Whit's wrong wi' people if they dinnae appreciate traditional Scottish songs?"

Sky had always loved bagpipes and Scottish music, and he agreed that a great injustice had been done to his new friend. "I know, right!" he said. "Scottish music is amazing! What's your favorite song to play?"

"Och, there's tae many tae choose!" said Sherbert. "Flower o' Scotland, Scotland the Brave, Will Ye No Come Back Again, I love all o' them!" He sighed. "It's tae bad Principal Celestia an' Vice Principal Luna liked Lyra an' Bon Bon oan the piano ower any o' those songs. I dinna see why, though. I mean, they warna that great."

At the mention of Lyra, Sky felt his heart beat that bit faster. He felt a sudden urge to come to Lyra's defense. "Hey, I know Lyra and Bon Bon." he said. "They're both really nice, and I'm sure they can play a mean piano."

"Mebbe, but pianos are niver better than pipes, iver!" Sherbert said firmly. "Wait, ye ken Lyra an' Bon Bon?"

"Well, yeah. They gave me a tour of the school yesterday."

Sherbert smiled. "Weel then, congrats, Sky!"

Sky was confused. "What for?"

"It's yer first day an' ye ken twa lassies awready! I coudna wurrk that fast!"

Wiz rolled his eyes. "It's always about relationships with you, isn't it?"

Sherbert ignored Wiz. "Juist sae ye ken, if ye iver need romantic advice, ye can ayeweys count oan me!" He winked at Sky.

"I appreciate that, but I think it's a little too early for it." said Sky. "Besides, I just said I knew them. What makes you think I like either of them that way?" He blushed a bit. "Well, maybe one of them, but whatever."

Sherbert raised one eyebrow and smiled a bit. "Which one?"

Sky scratched the back of his head. "I'd... rather not say for now."

"That's awricht." said Sherbert with a nod. "Juist ken that whoever it is, I'll hae your back."

"All right." said Sky. He looked to his right and saw that Emerald didn't seem to be paying much attention to him or any of the other guys. In fact, he seemed to be daydreaming, staring past Wiz and Curly into the distance. Sky followed Emerald's eyes and found that the Dutch boy was focused on a group seated two tables behind them. This group, as Sky had learned that morning when he shared the same History class as two of its members, called themselves the "eco-kids". More specifically, Emerald's eyes were gazing straight at a girl with long, stringy red hair.

Sky tapped Emerald on the shoulder. "Um, Emerald?" he asked quietly. "What are you looking at?"

Emerald blushed violently and shook his head. "Nothing! NOTHING!" he quickly blurted out.

"Um... okay." said Sky.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period. "Well, peace out, boys." said Curly. "I gotta go - the last time I was late to History, Miss Harshwhinny got so pissed!"

"Yeah, she's pretty strict." Sky agreed. "You should have seen her go off on Flash Sentry this morning."

"Guid!" said Sherbert. "Flash desers all the shite that comes his wey!"

"You know, I've known you for a year and a half now, and I still don't understand why you hate him so much." said Wiz.

"Acause he's a wee prick, that's why!" Sherbert replied. "He thinks he's sae cuil wi' his guitar an' his band, when he's no! He's naething but a pompous arse! No tae mention he asked Twilight tae the Fall Formal afore I coud git tae her."

"Well, I guess I can understand that." said Sky. "Wait, isn't Twilight that magical girl from another dimension?"

"Aye, an' she wis verra hot!"

"Sherbert, I think it's time to let her go." said Emerald. "You had your chance, and she's probably never coming back here anyway."

"Fine, I'll try." Sherbert replied. "I juist canna help but feel that she shoud hae been mines."

"Maybe, but not too long after that you started dating Applejack, so obviously missing your chance with Twilight didn't bother you as much as you say it did." said Wiz. "And Applejack was your fourth girlfriend in the past year and a half, so I'd say you're pretty good at moving on quickly."

"And good at getting girls to like you." added Emerald.

"Awricht, ye got me there." Sherbert conceded. "Weel, I've got tae gae tae class nou. Guid meetin' ye, Sky!"

"You too, Sherbert." Sky said as the Scottish boy headed off. Emerald and Wiz left the cafeteria as well.

Sky was heading out of the cafeteria himself when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see Lyra and Bon Bon standing behind him, smiling. "Hey, Sky!" said Lyra. "What's up?"

"Yeah, we haven't seen you all day." said Bon Bon. "How's your first day been?"

Sky blushed lightly. "It's been pretty good so far." he said. "I've made a few friends and everyone I've met so far has been pretty nice."

"That's great!" said Bon Bon. "Say, what class do you have next?"

Sky pulled his schedule out of his backpack. "I have Chemistry with Dr. Hooves."

"Hey, so do we!" Lyra exclaimed. "You wanna walk there together?"

Sky smiled. "Sure! Let's go!"

And the three friends walked down the hall, enjoying each other's company.