Cadence frowned “Twilight, I am concerned. You decided to spend a night somewhere else because you had an argument with your mother, not to mention this insistence on another name.”

Nightraven growled “Is this speech about how my friends are a bad influence on me?”

Cadence slumped “No but I must ask are you alright? I’m worried about you and so is your brother. You only just woke up and already doing so much! I’m worried that you are going to hurt yourself.”

Nightraven shook her head “If I go overboard my friends will pull me back, isn’t that reason you and mum asked me to make friends.”

Cadence smiled “That is why I did it, so that you have proper support.” She then frowned “Your mother more wanted you to be social because she hoped you would form stronger connections with others. That your education would be wasted if you couldn't interact with others.”

Nightraven smiled “Thanks, now who else is on the team?”

Cadence frowned “Indigo Zap, Sunny Flare, Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet and Sugarcoat as well as a few others. We need to head to the bus bays so we are ready to go to Canterlot High.” Nightraven nodded and the two were soon at the busy bays, Cadence looked over the other team members “This is your Captain Twilight ‘Nightraven’ Sparkle. I hope you will listen to her on this trip, I expect you all to put your best foot forward today.”

Cadence left as a few other kids had to go to the vent and even for her predecessor drumming them up was like pulling teeth. Sour Sweet smiled “So the smartest girl in the school is leading us to victory?” Nightraven shrugged as Sour Sweet quipped “She will certainly do a good job when she can’t even string a bow properly.”

Nightraven frowned “Okay, do you have any personal quips to throw my way before we go?” She looked towards Indigo “You are probably going to mock about being physically weak” she then turned to Sunny Flare “you are going to glare at me and maybe mock my fashion sense” she finally turned to Sugarcoat “you are going to bluntly point out a flaw of mine.”

They were all shocked, Lemon Zest was too busy listening to her music to pay any attention. Sunny Flare sighed “It’s not as if you are wrong, still you better perform well in these games.”

Nightraven smirked “Well will not be good enough these games, even our best may not be enough. I expect all of you to give it your best.” She then frowned “I was told there were more of us?”

Sugarcoat rolled her eyes “Jet Set, Upper Crust, Neon Lights and Suri Polomare are late again. Neon Lights was informed only this morning by Lemon Zest and the other three believe they are allowed be late because they come from rich families that paid Cinch to overlook bad behaviour.”

Neon Lights ran up and glared at Lemon Zest “Tell me ahead of time when important events are on!”

Jet Set, Upper Crust and Suri Polomare walked up, Upper Crust rolled her eyes “So the Queen of Nerds is the team Captain I see. Yeah that will go well.”

Nightraven’s eyes narrowed as her wings materialised out of thin air behind her much to the shock of her teammates. Her voice boomed “Now listen here you three! You are late and Cinch isn’t here to save your sorry asses, so you better do good today or else there will be trouble!”

The trio flinched as one of Nightraven's hands turned to talons, Sunny Flare looked at her “What the fuck was that?!”

Nightraven smirked as her wings vanished into the ether and her hand turned back to normal “I was investigating those strange incidents around Canterlot High. I’m sure you saw the few surviving recordings of the strange seemingly magical events. It turns out all those strange events were real.”

Lemon Zest’s eyes widened “You’re kidding, that strange demon thing is real.” She then looked at Nightraven “Can you teach me??

Nightraven frowned “I’m a novice myself and magic is hard to control if you lose your temper. I’m not the one to teach you, I do know someone who can but you must willing to study. I have read the book and the formula for even the most basic magic makes even most advanced mathematics looks like child’s play in comparison. I still don’t understand some of the formula yet and the person who taught me see it as no different than breathing.”

Indigo raised an eyebrow “Who is this individual?”

Nightraven smirked “Probably the Captain of the Canterlot High team.”

Sugarcoat responded bluntly as her fellow teammates baring Twilight had their jaws drop “We are so screwed.”

It was at that point Cadence turned up and the small entourage she could collect got on the bus alongside the team. Lemon Zest groaned “I so should have studied more, we are so going to lose this.”

Indigo slapped Lemon Zest over the back of the head “We definitely will with that attitude. We are not going down without a fight!”

Nightraven grinned “Exactly, let’s show them that Crystal Prep is not down and out!”

It was not long before they arrived at Canterlot High, Nightraven led her team off the bus. Sunset was standing there in front of her team, many student commented about the second Twilight as the two captains walked towards each other and slammed their hand together as they transformed Devil and Fallen Angel grinned “May the best team win!”

Celestia stepped forward “I’m glad you are all here to join us for the Friendship Games. I hope that we can all unite ourself in friendship.”

Cadence smiled “I agree, let’s get the introductions underway.”

As they entered the hall there was a huge explosion and the entire room was covered in party decorations. Indigo took a bite of one of the brownies and began crying “Why is this so good?”

Sour Sweet frowned as she approached “It can’t be that good, give me one.” Sour Sweet began crying and soon the whole team was crying as they ate the brownies.

Lemon Zest was crying “This is beautiful.”

Sunny Flare sobbed “Can I hire this person to make my every meal?” Twilight was crying alongside her team.

Sugarcoat was all out of quips, Rainbow was pushed over by Applejack wearing her apron as her face glowed red “This is our head chef. She prepared all the food you just ate.”

Indigo blinked “Rainbow, how are you this good a cook.”

Rainbow rubbed the back of her head “I spent so long trying to keep up the tough girl image but at home I cooked dinner because my parents can’t cook to save their lives.” She shuddered “They burnt water, I don’t know how they did that.”

Celestia, Luna and Cadence were smiling. Luna smiled “I’m glad the students are finally bonding between our schools.”

Celestia closed her eyes “Still Cinch didn’t deserve what happened to her.”

Cadence frowned “That’s true, she may have done some bad things but she didn’t deserve to die. Still we should not let the past weigh us down.” The trio nodded as they prepared to get the games well and truly underway.

Author's Note

There may be one or two more chapters.