Diving Deep

Shoeshine gave a sigh as she hoisted the backpack onto her shoulders. She ignored the angry glares she was receiving. She was used to being disliked, so this was nothing new to her. She survived being hated back then in middle school, she would survive this. Approaching her locker, she rolled her eyes at the graffiti on. She was used to the words like "bitch" or "cunt" being wrote on it. She knew Sunset, Sea Swirl and Berry were getting similar treatment. It pissed her off beyond words could describe. At least she was getting it worse than Berry and Sea Swirl, she mused. Berry only had words like "jerk" or "meanie" wrote on her locker, but it still affected her pretty heavily she knew. She put the combination into her locker and slung her backpack into it. She grabbed her book from the top shelf needed for environmental science and tucked it under her arm. She slammed her locker shut and turned the lock so no one could know the last number of her combination.

"I'm really sorry." She turned her head to where she heard a voice coming from and strained to listen. "We didn't mean for it to go that far." She recognized the voice and growled softly. She quietly walked over around the corner where she heard the voice and glared. A girl with purple hair and green skin who she vaguely recognized as Starlight was standing over a slumped down Sea Swirl.

"You guys are awful. You enslaved the whole school!" Starlight snapped. Shoeshine's blood boiled as she watched Sea Swirl lower her head. She marched up to Starlight and tapped her on the shoulder. Starlight turned around and when Shoeshine saw the opportunity, she punched her in the face. Starlight staggered backwards into a locker and put her hand up to her nose and pulled it back, staring in shock at the blood on her fingers.

"Y-you can't do that." The girl stammered out. Shoeshine folded her arms and glared at the girl coldly.

"Yet I just did it, didn't I?" She said coldly. "Now get out of here. If you have a issue, bring it up with me. Don't go after Sea Swirl." Starlight rolled her eyes and stomped off, holding her hand to her nose to stop the bleeding. Shoeshine held her hand out.

"Want a hand?" She asked coolly. Sea Swirl gave a nod as she accepted it and was pulled to her feet.

"You didn't have to do that, you know?" Sea Swirl mumbled. Shoeshine rolled her eyes.

"What kind of girlfriend would I be if I just watched and let it happen?" She retorted.

"You have such a martyr complex." Sea Swirl chuckled. "I was thinking, do you wanna go out on a date this Saturday? If you're free that is."

Shoeshine nodded.

"Sure." She answered. Sea Swirl smiled and gave her a hug. Shoeshine froze for a second before cautiously returning it. She usually hated physical contact and being hugged. Giving out hugs for everyone didn't really give off a cruel and strict vibe to people. Sea Swirl let go and gave her a wave.

"Gotta get to class, see ya. Try not to hit anyone else today." She walked down the hall, bouncing as she entered her tech class. She reminded Shoeshine of Pinkie Pie somedays, with how energetic she got. Nothing like Pinkie levels, thank god. She gave a grimace as she thought about the new group she and the others now associated with. In a way, her and Rainbow Dash were the most alike and got along the best. Both were fiercely loyal to their friends, just went about showing that loyalty in different ways. Rainbow stood up for her friends with words, whereas Shoeshine used violence to demonstrate her loyalty.

Berry mainly got along with Fluttershy, both shy and soft-spoken until they absolutely needed to step up. Sunset really enjoyed hanging out with Rarity, which had honestly surprised her. She didn't take Sunset for the fashion type. And Sea Swirl regularly helped Pinkie plan parties and hung out with her. Shoeshine was grateful that even though they had a new group of friends and more people to associate with, the original friends spent most of their time together.

In a way, she was disgusted. In her eyes, the school never really got what they deserved for bullying Berry and not many standing up for her. At first, she was completely against being friends with the ones she had fought so hard to tear apart. Felt like a downgrade from their previous position in the school. She walked through the door to her first hour class when the bell rang. She typically sat in the front of the class. Sitting in the front gave a strong appearance that she didn't give a flying fuck what the other classmates thought.

She saw her normal seat and noticed Sunset from the back waving to her. Sunset went the complete direction from her and sat in the back always. Rolling her eyes, Shoeshine passed her normal spot and took the seat next to Sunset.

"Why do you always sit back here? It doesn't give a strong aura of not caring about the others opinions." Shoeshine immediately jumped to the first thing on her mind.

Sunset gave a sigh.

"I got really tired of people throwing stuff at me. Especially when a ruler gets stuck in my hair." She admitted. "At least they haven't tried throwing staplers yet. I know you get the same treatment as I do, how you tolerate it is beyond me."

Shoeshine gave a shrug as the teacher walked in.

"I don't care about what the others think of me. It's just worthless opinions by weaker beings." She told the other girl. Sunset frowned at that, but didn't say anything about it.

"How are you and Sea Swirl?" She tried for a topic change.

"Fine." Shoeshine answered. "What about you and Berry?" Sunset's eyes lit up.

"We are doing great. We went out to this really nice restaurant the other day. I'm usually not one for fancy places, but she was excited. She doesn't really do fancy places either, but it was our anniversary so I had to do something nice." Sunset said eagerly.

Shoeshine gave a faint smile. She had a idea of where to take Sea Swirl for their date. Sea Swirl always was more extravagant seeming than her so a fancy restaurant must be up her alley.

"What was the name of this restaurant?" She asked.

"Mario's Pasta. It's Italian." Sunset answered. Shoeshine nodded as the teacher turned the projector on.

"Alright everyone, please turn your books to page one hundred and five please." Mr. Whooves announced. Ignoring the glare she received from Lily, she opened her book.

Shoeshine plopped down at the lunch table. She made sure to sit where everyone in the school could see her as part of her plan to show them she could care less about them.

"Hey Shoeshine." Berry greeted as she slid into the seat to her right. Sea Swirl sat down next to her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Shoeshine grunted in response.

"Hey you two." She finally answered. She glanced down to the other end of the table where Pinkie was making a house out of everyone's forks. How she managed that, Shoeshine had no clue. She was about to stab her pasta and take a bit when Pinkie appeared behind her.

"Hey! Are you using that? Thanks!" She pulled it out of her hand and bounced to the end of the table and placed it on top of her house. Shoeshine slammed a hand down on the table in frustration. Rarity gave a smirk and subtly handed her a fork under the table.

"We always carry extra silverware around Pinkie, just in case." She whispered.

"Thanks." Shoeshine grudgingly accepted the fork and began eating. She quietly listened to her friends and acquaintances talking about their day.

"Uh oh, who has one star?" Rainbow asked, gesturing with a thumb to the uniformed police officer walking up to them. Shoeshine stifled a groan. Ever since she, Berry, Sunset and Sea Swirl had introduced the others to Grand Theft Auto, Rainbow had been referring to everything with the wanted level system from the game. Getting yelled at by a teacher? One star. Having a police officer come up to you? Also one star. Getting chased by teachers? Four stars. Getting suspended? Getting busted.

"Hey Shoeshine." The officer gruffly greeted them. Shoeshine swallowed her pasta and looked up.

"Hey Dad." She greeted.

"Dad?" Rainbow echoed.

"Can we talk in Shining Armors office?" Shoeshine's dad asked. She groaned in response. She really didn't want to go to the school resource officers office. The last time she had been down there he lectured her about being kind. That and to not shoot rubber bands at people's heads. Thunderlane still tried his best to avoid her after that.

"I'm in the middle of lunch dad, I really don't want to leave." She grumbled.

"Fine." He sat down across from her. "Why am I hearing about you punching another student today?"

Sunset stared at her.

"You did what?" She asked in surprise.

Shoeshine gestured at Sea Swirl.

"She was being rude to Sea Swirl. What would you expect me to do, just leave it alone and let her get away with no consequences? If I did that, she would think she can get away with more." Shoeshine snapped. Shoeshine's dad groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Look, I respect you for standing up for your girlfriend and all, but punching her wasn't the best idea. She's not pressing charges thankfully. You're seventeen, you could be charged as an adult potentially." He pointed out. "You really need to be more careful. I worry about you. One of these days, you're gonna pick a fight with someone bigger and stronger than you and they could kill you. I've been to enough crime scenes where that's how some fights have turned out. I really don't want to respond to a call one night and find you lying dead on the ground because you decided to fight the wrong person."

Sea Swirl choked on her chocolate milk at the thought of Shoeshine getting killed. The thought of that was enough to make her shudder.

"What would you have me do then dad? Sing a song, hold hands and have a tea party with Starlight? That totally solved everything." She said sarcastically.

"Go to a teacher? Go to Principal Celestia? She's very reliable." He pointed out. Shoeshine snorted at that.

"Teachers are stupid here. They don't do shit. We reported how they treated Berry and they never did anything." She growled while Rarity and Applejack shifted nervously in their seats. Her dad narrowed his eyes.

"You don't talk like that, young lady. Not in front of me, am I understood?" He said sternly.

"Yes, sir." Shoeshine mumbled. Sunset raised an eyebrow. She had never heard Shoeshine say sir once.

A lunch tray hit Sunset on the back. Shoeshine instantly stood up, glaring at the boy who did it. He instantly shrank back in his seat as she took a step towards him.

"Don't." Her dad said warningly. "I'll take care of him, I saw it and so did my bodycam. I'll see you at home, love ya Shoeshine. " He stood up and strode over to the boy. Shoeshine could her a faint "get up" from her dad and the boy reluctantly comply as he slapped handcuffs on him and started to escort him out the lunchroom.

"Why me and not the one who was rude with the entire school?" The boy demanded.

"Well, she didn't just throw a lunch tray at a student and hit them so." Shoeshine could her dad reply. The lunchroom door slammed shut as he kept walking the boy out of the school. As she glanced outside through the glass doors at the other side of the lunch room, she could faintly see her dad putting the boy in the backseat of his squad car. She always did love the look of the Charger he was assigned at the police department, with it's black paint job and the white stripes on the side.

"Ya dad seems like a mighty nice fella." Applejack announced smiling. "Seems to care about ya a lot."

Rarity nodded.

"Indeed darling." She concured and a series of different voices saying their agreement rang out.

"Wait, your parents know about me and you dating?" Sea Swirl asked in surprise. Shoeshine paused with her pop halfway to her lips.

"Of course they do, why wouldn't they?" She asked as she sipped her pop. Sea Swirl didn't say a thing, she just gave a massive smile to Shoeshine.