Scootaloo's Years

Chapters

Ch. 1 Moving In
Ch. 2 Friends
Ch. 3 Un-expectations
Ch. 4 Orientation
Ch. 5 Room-mate, how?
Ch. 6 Reunion...Sorta...
Ch. 7 Confessions and Concerts
Ch. 9 Pixels
Ch. 10 Lunch, Frisbee, and bullies
Ch. 11 Athletics and War
Ch. 12 Afternoon
Ch. 13 Guy Time
Ch. 14 Recap
Ch. 15 Happy Endings
Ch. 16 Guy Time
Ch. 17 The Bridge
Ch. 18 Paintball
Ch. 19 Concert
Ch. 8 Day 2 Morning.

Ch. 1 Moving In

I looked up at the massive complex of buildings, I was standing only thirty meters away from the place I'd be living for the next four years, the FillyDelphian Academy of Fine Arts. The dormitories were the closest to Rainbow, Fluttershy, and I, so we decided to visit the offices to find out what Dorm I would be staying in.

As the three of us approached the building, we noticed dozens of other families with colts and fillies my age walking the grounds together, including a certain colt that I hadn't seen since the last time I was in Trottingham. I saw him crossing a large open area to a dormitory and then disappear inside.

"Scoots, over here!" Rainbow called, I had apparently stopped walking to look at him.

I trotted over to my parents as they reached the office door. The three of us shuffled inside and Fluttershy went to the front desk and had a small conversation with the mare who was situated there.Not long after she went up there, she returned with a small set of information papers.

"Alright, we just have to fill these final papers out about your characteristics, and then we'll get your dorm number." Fluttershy said as she sat down near me and Rainbow.

"Favorite music, favorite sports, sexual preference?" What kind of questions are these?" Rainbow scowled as she shuffled through the papers.

"They probably just want to make life as comfortable as possible for her." Fluttershy said to Rainbow, glancing at me.

"I don't know....." Rainbow elongated her phrase, which was silenced by a smug look from Fluttershy.

"What?" Rainbow asked quizzically.

"It's so cute that you're looking out for Scootaloo." Fluttershy said, Rainbow failed at suppressing a blush.

'Alright, time to fill out the forms." We all sighed as we started to file through the questions, Rainbow or Fluttershy occasionally asking me things that they didn't know how to fill out.

"Ahem," Fluttershy cleared her throat, "Preference?"

"What?" I asked her, she was blushing, so naturally Rainbow took over the job.

"Scoots, what are ya into? stallions, mares?" Rainbow asked simply.

"Uhh, colts?" I half asked/answered.

"Simple as that." Rainbow checked a box on the form.

The rest of the form signing went quickly, once I had signed my name on the bottom of the third paper, Fluttershy h\slid the paper over to the information mare. She looked up my name and handed me the key to my room.

"Anacrusis, room 44." I read aloud as the three of us headed for the first dorm.

"Alright Scoots, you know how to defend yourself and stuff, right?" Rainbow asked nervously.

"Rainbow, I know this stuff, you don't have to worry." I said, she was so nervous!

"Looks like you're on the 4th floor." " Fluttershy said as the three of us looked around the lobby.

"Now where is the elevator." I asked, not fully realizing my own abilities.

Fluttershy and Rainbow both looked at me, and then Rainbow slowly gestured to her wings, and then Fluttershy's, and then finally mine. We silently flew up the stairs and arrived at my dorm room.

"Do you need help moving in or?" Rainbow asked with a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder.

"I've got it from here, I love you guys." i said, a tear came to each of their eyes.

"We love you too." Fluttershy said.

"Alright, I 'll call you soon!" I said as they started walking off.

Rainbow trotted up to me quickly and gave me an extra kiss on the cheek, "Stay safe kid."

"I will." I said as she left me.

With that, the two of them left the floor and exited the building, and then finally the entire campus. I slid the key into the door and clicked the lock, when I opened the door there were two sides of the room, one had a few bags covering the bed, so I assumed that was my room mates belongings.

The walls of the room were white, and one was a window facing the grounds in the center. The rug was a dark blue with occasional black star pattern across it. I left the room with the key tucked under my wing as I headed towards the common grounds.

I passed a few groups of fillies along the way, each of them contained in their own conversation, paying no attention to the outside world. Once I reached the bottom floor, I looked along all of the fliers, each talking about a club, dance tryout, play trout, or something else like that.

I flew outside and examined the grounds from above, there were about 20 buildings, each of which was in a specific area. I was in the split dorm between the dancing and singing areas, there were also orchestral, theatre, and art areas on the campus.

I flew around the campus, high enough where I wouldn't be noticed by anyone but other flying pegasi, yet low enough where I could still see details of the grounds. Not only was I looking for any interesting things on campus, but i was also looking for Red, I knew I'd seen him earlier.

After a few minutes of searching around the campus, i decided to make a stop by the theatre area to see if anything was going on in the performance hall. I walked through the doors of the hall and sat near the back as he drama colts and fillies were trying out some skits.

I sat there and watched about half a dozen skits before the ponies were dismissed, one filly stood out to me in particular, she had a blonde coat and a matching light orange mane. As she approached the exit, I stopped her.

"Hey, you were great on stage!"

"Oh, thanks!" she smiled, she looked to be about my age.

"My name is Scootaloo, yours?"

"Peachy King." she hoof-bumped me.

"Sweet, wanna hang out?" I asked.

"Sure!" she said, and then the two of us trotted out of the door.

Author's Note

This is the Sequel to Scootaloo's dreams, if you haven't read it, link is in the story description.

Thanks for sticking through everypony, hope you like it!

Ch. 2 Friends

Peachy King and I walked along the campus pathways, we'd have flown if Peachy hadn't been a unicorn. She had told me that she always wanted to be a professional actress and how she got her Cutie Mark.

"I went to an audition for a role in my school play, and then all of a sudden in the middle of my performance, this appeared." Peachy gestured to her flank, it had the masks of commedia and neutrality.

"That's awesome!" I jumped a bit, "what did the judges say?"

"Well, I got the part!" she smiled.

"And then you came here?" I asked.

"Actually, a couple of scouts for the academy came to my play! They talked to my teachers, who talked to me and my parents!"

"Wow." i couldn't lie, I was jealous of her.

"I didn't see that earlier!" Peachy yelled as she pointed at a huge fountain, I actually didn't see that earlier either so I decided to check it out.

As the two of us were running, I saw him, his dark coat stood out against the brightly colored areas of the school. I stopped Peachy with a hoof on the flank, she turned around and eyed me questionably.

"Peachy, Anacrusis, room 44, 5 p.m." i said simply.

"Got it!" she turned tail and trotted along towards the fountain. It took me a moment to find him again, but he walked onto a path near mine, so I started following him.

I stated sprinting after the dark coated colt, just as i was about to reach him, he walked into a concert hall.I had to slow down not to look too suspicious. As I entered the double doors, I noticed that the concert hall was nearly full of every color and specie of pony that was possible, but there was a band of a few ponies in particular on stage.

I sat in the back, scanning the room for him, but once the lights turned to a very low setting, I had no hope of finding him. I just sat back and listened to the music start to play.

I was actually liking the music to a point that I wanted to cheer, but it seemed that everypony in the audience was waiting for a certain point in the song. All of a sudden, the guitar and the drums kicked in, sending the entire audience into a fit of cheering, which soon died down once the lead singer started.

"This is amazing!" I said loudly.

"It sure is, isn't it?" I turned my head to see none other than the very colt that I'd been chasing the entire day.

He must've recognized me because his eyes went wide with shock, yet he didn't seem displeased with my presence. He looked at me for several seconds before he even took a breath.

"You're the filly from the train in Trottingham!" he said, somewhat happily, yet still in shock.

"Yeah! You're Red tear, right?" I said, hoping to be correct.

"Yeah, but how did you find me?" he asked, somewhat concerned.

"I saw you on the grounds earlier! I had to see if it was really you." I said, a small shudder crossed across my body for some reason.

"Yeah, this is my first year here! I'm in the Anacrusis dorm." he said happily.

"Which room?" I asked, hoping i wasn't being too nozy.

"Forty-something, it's on my key." he said.

"No way! me too!" I said excitedly.

"You're just a filly full of energy, aren't you?" he joked, which caused me to immediately blush, but I'm pretty sure it was hidden by the dim light.

"I guess, I'm just really surprised that i met you here."I said, he might've blushed too.

"Well, let's say we put that energy to work." he said happily, not realizing the innuendo he stated.

"Uhm." I covered my face in an attempt to hide my blush, but he must have realized what he said because he immediately started laughing.

"Sorry Scootaloo, I just didn't...." he continued snickering.

"It's okay." I continued to cover my face.

"What I meant was that we should do some thing appropriate that would burn off your energy." he paused for amoment, "Ever raced a pegasi?"

He flared his wings, they were so....big! They had different layers for different colors of feathers and they probably were for a pegasus about twice the size of Red.

"Only the fastest flyer in Equestria!" I flared my own, average sized (FINALLY) wings.

"You're on!" he challenged, "After the concert."

I had forgotten that we were in the middle of a concert. I say middle even though the two of us were sitting in the back, completely alone for a few seats in every direction. The two of us sat back down and watched the concert, I looked around for a clock and when i found one, i saw the time,

1:37 p.m.

i had time to enjoy the concert, my room was only a fifteen minute fly from the theatre, and the concert and race should only go for three hours max. I sat back in my chair and let the sweet melodies of this band soothe my ears. It wasn't too long until I had gotten so into the music that I didn't want to leave the hall, but once the concert ended around 2:45, i had to leave with Red.

"Alright," he started as we were leaving the theatre, "First one to Anacrusis dorm wins, alright?"

"Right." I echoed.

"3...2...1..." I etched my wings and prepared to beat Red to the dorm.

Author's Note

The Red Tear character is based off of my friend's OC

Honestly, i don't know i he's even alive right now...so yeah.
Dude, Grif Bro, R.I.P. man

Ch. 3 Un-expectations

Red and I shot into the air, each of us flying and banking to avoid the clouds. Although he had much larger wings than me, I was more slender than him, allowing me to keep pace with him. the two of us rocketed past cloud after cloud, building after building. I looked down at the campus below and saw pones staring in awe at the speed we were racing at.

I started to see the dorm out in the distance, probably about a quarter mile out, I started to descend, and Red followed. We were still dead even by the time we were only five seconds from the building. I knew I had to think of something quick, so I opened my wings for a split second, and then closed them again.

My action caused me to shoot a few feet forward and win the race just as he was about to touch the building's side. He stopped dead and his jaw dropped.

"How'd, why....when did you learn to do that?" he asked while he set himself down on the grass near me.

"I told you, raced with the fastest flyer in Equestria, I picked up on a few tricks." I said loosely.

"I thought you were just joking." Red said, still in amazement.

"I don't joke about flying." I said, I'd gone far too long without flying to joke about it now.

The two of us trotted through the open doors at the bottom of the building, we parted ways. Red had to go and try out for something across campus, and I had to take a nap, taking a train across Equestria and then going to a concert with a race involved was hard work.

I trotted upstairs, I was too out of energy to fly. Once I arrived at my floor, I walked a couple rooms down the all and unlocked my door. I noticed something completely different about my room when I walked in. My roommate had unpacked most of their things, they had put three of four posters along their back wall, and put some other items on their bed.

I saw some letters on the bed, so against my good morals, I peeked at the letter...it read;

"Dear Mr. 544T54ar

We regret to inform you that your friend, Subtle Rampage, has passed away at the age of 16 due to an undecided cause. His funeral will be held on June 6th, 2010. Thank you for understanding and his family hopes to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Trottingham Coroner's office

The letter was really old, it was shipped to my roommate before I'd really made an impression on Ponyville. It was sent a few weeks before I became great friends with Sweetie Belle.

The name was too small and crossed for me to read, but I got the message of the letter. I set it back into place and went over to my bed to sleep. As I was about to lay my head on the pillow, I saw something that I had only heard ofin Ponyville. A large television set was instilled in the wall beside my bed, it could even be adjusted so that I could watch it while I laid down!

I pressed a button on the TV and it switched channels. I sped through a lot of channels, seeing stuff like "Know your Mare, Tip-Top Trottingham", and even independent channels that were run by other students from the academy. It was amazing, I could even watch a recording of some of the drama tryouts that had been going on all day. I kept looking for Peachy as I started to doze off, i thought I'd seen her a few times, but no, it wasn't her.

As I fell asleep, I saw Peachy announce herself to the audience, but I fell asleep before I saw any more of her audition. I fell asleep just after setting my alarm for 4:30, which would give me about 45 minutes of sleep. i didn't dream at all, but I did get some nice rest in before I spent my first night this far from home.

My bed was so comfy, it had to be the softest, or at least one of the softest thing that I had ever slept on. I sunk into the bed and I embraced the warm fabric of my blanket, I almost purred because it was so comfortable. As the alarm blared, I shot out of my bed and latched to the ceiling, which itself was surprisingly soft.

I quickly ran into the shower in my room and cleaned up, and used my wings to dry myself off in seconds, the old rainblow dry that Dash taught me. As I looked at the clock, I heard a small knock at the door. I unlatched it and opened the door.

Outside was Peachy, she looked like she had been running for a while, and she was panting a bit.

"Sorry...I didn't want to be late." she said in between breaths.

"Want to use my shower?" I asked, she nodded without an instant between my words.

After she went into the shower, i looked out of the window at the common grounds, I noticed a banner that wasn't there earlier, it had a Freshmen orientation that was tonight at 7:30. I heard the water stop, and then i saw a semi-dry Peachy King step out of the shower. Peachy's golden mane looked amazing when it was wet, it shot beams of reflected light allover the blank walls around us.

"You look nice!" i said in a probably overly friendly way.

"Thanks, so whats up?" Peachy said, her hair now almost dry.

"Well there is a freshman orientation tonight, i think we have to go." I said, she looked out the window.

"Oh yeah, I saw a banner in the back of the theatre, I guess there goes our night." she said glumly.

"Nah, we can still have fun.." I said.

"How?" Peachy seemed curious.

"Follow me," I said as i opened the door and ran out.

Ch. 4 Orientation

Peachy and I darted from building to building on campus. We stopped by the Art, Literature, and Dance areas in our quest to learn as much about the campus as possible. We spent a little time in the first two areas, but then we arrived at the dance area;

"Wow...." I said as the two of us looked up at the massive dancing complex.

We walked through the front door of the large studio, inside were lots of separate floors with glass walls on almost every room. We looked for the sign that showed what was what on each floor. After searching around the lobby for a moment, we saw the sign, it read:

Year 6---Floor 1

Year 5---Floor 2

Year 4---Floor 3

Year 3---Floor 4

Year 2---Floor 5

Year 1---Floor 6

Open

Courts---Floors 7-10

"That;s what we need!" I said excitedly.

"What?" she turned to me.

"I've seen you act, you should see me dance!"

"Cool! Let's do it!" The two of us looked up.

"Well darn, the floor is 7 stories up, I don't wanna make you walk......I have an idea!" I said even more excitedly.

"What is it?" Peachy said, still looking at the 7th floor landing.

"Well, I could fly you up there...I've flown with some of the fastest flyers in Equestria."

"I don't know Scootaloo, that sounds dangerous."

"Come on, trust me."

Peachy sighed as she walked over to me, i wrapped my front hooves around her and gripped her tightly, I opened my wings and I looked at her,

"You sure?"

"Go for it!"

I closed my eyes and shot off of the ground, propelling the both of us evenly straight up into the air. Peachy was a very light pony, so lifting her was no problem, even for me. I flew the both of us to the seventh floor and landed smoothly. Peachy hugged my tightly even after I landed, she was almost chocking me when she realized it was over.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Peachy said as she unlatched herself from me.

"It was nothing, you're really light." i said, walking forward.

"Really? I used to be really big." Peachy said as we walked into the first open studio.

"Really?" I asked, I'd have never guessed.

"Yeah, I'll tell you about it later. I want to see you dance." She said happily.

"Cool, let's find a song first!" I said as we dove into the racks of music that was placed aside.

Peachy and I looked through dozens of CD's and records before she found a record, while she put it in the record player, i took my position in the center of the room.

I heard the music start, and I was off!

I slowly moved around the room, slipping from hoof to hoof. I slid my head from shoulder to shoulder, moving with the music. i jumped and spun as the chorus set in, opening my wings to provide a balance. I almost fell as I landed, but I kept through. My body felt alive as I moved, more alive than it had felt in a long time.

As the music reached its climax, I spun quickly, and slowed to a stop within seconds. I looked at Peachy as she stopped the music.

Stop the music

Peachy was silent, I looked at her, she seemed uneasy. I noticed that the door was open and a mare was standing there, a cold look on her face.

I dropped from my stance and walked over to Peachy. i grabbed her as the mare approached the two of us. She stopped at the record player and eyed me cautiously.

"I've seen your kind before." She spoke, her long black mane moving from her white and coat, echoing off of her golden eyes. "You're from a small town, you think you're special, I will let you know something, you are not."

I wanted to speak out, but something inside me told me that I shouldn't. I let the mare continue.

"By the end of this year, you will either be a dancer, a failure, or long gone." She paused for a moment, "Now leave my studio."

I was torn to pieces on the inside, but I held myself together long enough to leave the room and make it to the stairwell. When I made it there with Peachy, I started crying slightly. Peachy tried to comfort me, but I wouldn't let her see me like this so i hid my face from her.

"C'mon Scootaloo, we have to go to Freshman Orientation." Peachy said, patting my back as we walked.

"I guess." I said, I wiped my eyes as we entered the lobby.

We walked slowly across campus towards the large open noel in the center, hundreds of chairs were lined up in sections that extended from near the center to the sidewalk. We sat in the middle, surrounded by other fillies and colts of assorted colors and talents.

Once the lot of us were settled in our seats, the very center of the meeting place lit up to show on mare. I recognized her, she was the one i saw in the Headmaster's office when I first arrived.

"Hello new Freshmen!" She called out, some cheering was heard, but it died down quickly.

"I'll be your year's leader in your studies at the academy, but tonight i'll be helping you understand the rules of the campus."

The mare grabbed a small booklet, and held it up with her magic.

"You'll find a handbook below each of your chairs, I'm going to make this quick so I'll only be covering the basic points of the rules."

All of the ponies in the audience pulled out their handbooks. The Headmaster continued,

"Big Rules;

Any Sexual Misconduct will result in immediate expulsion from my Academy, I'm looking at you boys. An additional note is that public display of affection is not allowed in classes themselves, but life on the campus is normal. Violence, threats, and profanity will be dealt with by me personally, anywhere from a small mark on the record to expulsion depending on severity should be expected."

The Headmaster paused for a moment, and then concluded her tiny lectern with one sentence:

"Please enjoy your year, we can't wait to see you all grow."

As she left the stage, hundreds of ponies started getting up, which caused a miniature rush, Peachy and I would just have to sit here until everything was finished...

Ch. 5 Room-mate, how?

Peachy and I sat as hundreds of other Freshmen walked out of the paths, it took almost fifteen minutes for everypony to clear out, yet the two of us just stayed in our seats, looking up at the sky. I couldn't believe that I was in FillyDelphia! After everything that happened over the years, I was finally living my dream.

"Hey Scoots?Do you ever think that we're just dreaming...like that none of this is real?" Peachy asked as we saw flights of pegasi passing overhead.

"If it's a dream, I don't want to wake up."

"Do you mind if i spend the night in your dorm, I don't want to walk home alone." Peachy asked, she her voice shuddered.

"Yeah! It'll be like a sleepover." I said happily.

"I've never had a sleepover before!" Peachy beamed, the two of us started walking away from the rows of chairs towards my dorm.

The two of us started running towards our dorm in excitement. We ran up the staircase through the main lobby and stopped on my floor. We slowed to catch our breath as I pulled out my key.

"You know, I don't even know who my room-mate is yet." I paused before inserting the key into the lock.

"Maybe we'll find out." Peachy said as I opened the door.

"Hopefully." I said, I was tired of waiting.

"So, what if she doesn't like me here?" Peachy asked, feeling spiritually dampened.

"Then I guess we'll have to stay at your room for tonight."

I opened the door and to my surprise, my room-mate was in their bed, sleeping with the blanket over them, disguising their identity. Peachy and I jumped onto my bed, and after a while, decided that it was too early to go to bed. we had to find out who my room-mate was and fast.

"Peachy, let's move the blanket." i whispered, edging closer to the pony.

Peachy followed my lead, the two of us slowly made our way to the side of the bed with the loose blanket. Once there, I poked the flank the was under the blanket to make sure they wouldn't wake up.

"On three," I looked over to Peachy, we both grabbed opposite sides of the loose area, "One....Two... Three!"

We ripped off the top blanket only to reveal something that we never expected, something the made us kind of angry for being so careful:

Another, more tightly wrapped blanket.

"Great, now what d we do?" Peachy asked, looking at me.

"We wake them up or we get the blanket off of them." I said, focusing.

"I guess we'll wake them up." Peachy said, once I agreed, the two of us took our positions and prepared to wake the pony up.

With a small nudge, I awoke the pony(Who started shuffling in their bed) and he sat up. The blanket still covered most of his body, but the bottoms of his forelegs stuck out the sides, showing his bluish red coat. As he pulled the blanket off of him I saw Peachy blush and turn away....I didn't even see it in the first place, whatever it was.

Once his cutie Mark was exposed, I knew it was him, the colt I'd been looking for for a long time, the colt who i'd found...it was Red.

_______________________________________________________________________

Rainbow dash looked up at the night sky, gazing upon Luna's moon as she thought about Scootaloo. She was alone, Fluttershy couldn't make the 6 hour flight home, so she took the train which wouldn't arrive until tomorrow.

' 'From friend to big sister to mom, what is with this little filly' Rainbow thought of her relationship with Scootaloo and how it evolved over the years. The thoughts of the bubbling little filly made her happy, but the thoughts of her in FillyDelphia, probably scared of everypony and sad to be away from her friends quickly hushed away the happiness.

"No..." Rainbow Dash said aloud, she knew that Scootaloo would be strong in FillyDelphia, she probably was top of the class and had tons of friends, she was probably more happy than she'd been here......

She regretted the thought of the last few words and walked into Fluttershy's cottage, greeted and hugged by the animals as she went to bed. There were only two animals that were allowed into their room; Tank the turtle and Angel Bunny *Demon cough bunny* when she first met him, but he was a good friend to her now.

Rainbow laid down on the soft bed and quickly went to sleep, six hours of flying in a row was tough and tiring work. The two pets laid beside her, comforting her in her time of need, just like usual.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sweetie Belle and AppleBloom were having a sleepover in the CMC tree house when Sweetie brought it up;

"IO wonder what Scoots is thinking of right now."

AppleBloom looked over at Sweetie belle with somewhat sad eyes and she responded,

"She's probably enjoying FillyDelphia with her new friends!"

Sweetie could tell that AppleBloom was deeply saddened because of Scootaloo's absence from everything around the CMC...which was back down to three members, with 1 alumni.

"AppleBloom, it will be okay, Scootaloo will come home some times, and then all of summer break!" Sweetie cheered, but was semi deprived of cheer herself.

"Ah guess..." AB said sadly.

The two of the fillies continued their sleepover with various activities that would take their minds off of Scootaloo for the night. Sweetie belle wanted to make Applebloom happy, mainly to have somepony who was happy to motivate her.

Author's Note

Finally, geez.

Ch. 6 Reunion...Sorta...

I back up a few paces and kept my eyes on Red. He started to sit up as Peachy backed away from him. It took him a moment to realize who I was, but I saw his eyes open wide once he did.

"Scootaloo?" he asked, still sounding tired.

"Red?" I doubled back.

"What's going on? Why are you in my room?" He rubbed his eyes again and looked back at me.

"It's my room too..." I said slowly.

"Wow, that's......"Red paused for a moment, "Funny."

"Funny? How?" I asked.

"Who'd imagine that after not seeing each other for more than a year, we'd wind up meeting each other, and then room with each other." he laughed a bit.

"It's weird!" I said, somewhat happily.

"Who's she?" Red looked at Peachy.

"A new friend of mine, mind if she stays over tonight?" I made sure that Red was alright with the idea.

"No problem," he looked over at the clock, "I'll be leaving for the night in a few minutes, you can take my bed."

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Nowhere important,"he studdered his words, "Just going to meet some friends in town.

"At midnight?" Peachy questioned.

"Look, I'm going out and you can't say anything to stop me so just back off." Re took a stern voice against the two of us, backing us up against the wall almost.

"Red! Calm down, you're scaring us!" I yelled as him.

"Please stop questioning where I go at nights then." he said calmly.

"Okay, we'll stop questioning you." Peachy said, her voice waving in and out.

"It never hurts to be early, I'm going to leave early, night Peach, night Scoots." Red walked out of the room and shut the door lightly behind him.

"Sooo...." Peachy said.

"So....?" I echoed.

"Follow him?" she offered.

"Follow him." I accepted the offer.

The two of us giggled as we waited for Red to be about three stories down before we left. I closed the door and glided us down the stairwell,making us almost silent as we closed in on Red.Once we reached the ground floor, Peachy opened the door as I flew out of it.

"Do you know the cloud walking spell?" I whispered, not wanting to be caught by Red.

"Yeah, I did it when I was on the way to the academy." Peachy whispered back, "It's required for being in a few plays.

"I'm gonna land us on a cloud, and then we'll jump from cloud to cloud following him." i made the plan whilst going for a cloud.

"Sounds good, just make sure i don't fall." Peachy warned.

"No problem." I whispered a final note before I landed us on the first cloud, we had a view of Red, and the walkways that extended almost 300 feet in front of him. All he did was walk, so we glided to a cloud about a half mile from where we started, we were now between Red and his destination so we had to be extra careful not to give ourselves away.

"What do you think he's going to do?" Peachy whispered to me, the two of us kept our heads down.

"I don't know too much about him, he could be doing anything." I said, barely peering over at Red walking by.

As he neared an alley, he suddenly turned and ran down and out of our view, Peachy jumped on my back, and we shot off behind him. I soared above the alley, as I caught sight of Red, i landed ten feet above him on a building's roof.

By this time, we were well away from the campus, so I had almost no idea where we were...other than the small trace of clouds we had hopped in and out of.

Red paused at the end of the alley and knocked on a door twice, a small slit in the door opened, revealing a large set of eyes behind the door. Red said "Harbor" and walked through the open doorway, sounds of music echoed out of the door as it closed.

"Should we go in?" Peachy asked, looking over at me.

"Let's go through the roof, nopony will see us easily if we go that way."

We jumped the alley and opened the door on the roof of the building that Red was in, we opened it quickly and went inside, trying not to let too much music out into the open FillyDelphian sky.

I walked around the party, or so i seemed as one, there were tons of colts and fillies there, most of them looked like they were Musical, but a few had dancing or acting Cutie Marks.

The music stopped all of a sudden ad a voice blared over the speakers,

"Let's pump the music louder!"

Some sort of rap song kicked in as the two of us explored the large multi-story building, searching and hiding from Red, we searched the three floors of the building and we couldn't find him, but then we saw it:

A basement hatch, it didn't look soundproofed, so Peachy and I jumped into the opening. We landed on a concrete floor, it felt soft, yet hard...it was hard to describe.

There was a long and large tunnel before us, and lights every few feet, it led to an open area that was filled with even more, and somewhat older colts and fillies, each one of them all looking at the stage.

Red was at center stage, a guitar in his hooves, and he raised his hoof in the air when the lights went out.

Ch. 7 Confessions and Concerts

Two small spotlights lit up the area around Red and one other pony, the other one was a much older, matured stallion. The crowd grew silent as the two motioned, as the area went silent, the two started to preform a song.

I listened to Red's guitar more than the vocals of the stallion beside him, although Red seemed to be focusing on quite the opposite. the stage lit up, revealing the other stallions on stage, yet the lights shown most around Red and the stage. Many ponies in the audience waved lighters or lit up their horns, including Peachy.

"Wow Scoots....he plays really well." She said in amazement.

"I didn't know he could play that well either." I said, I was still wrapping my head around the whole situation.

As the song pressed on, the words of the lead pony flowed through my ears, he was singing of love and loss and of sadness and frustration. When i listened to him I felt an inner crunch, almost as if I felt a connection with him through our mentalities.

The song kept going and going, soon enough ponies were cheering and whistling for the band, once the music STOPped, the stage went dark and Red was gone. Peachy and I found ourselves between a couple hundred ponies and the exit, so we simply shrank down and followed the back of the crowd as we looked around even further.

Peachy and I were some of the last ponies to leave the underground area, once we were away from the basement, we headed for the exit with most of the other ponies around. Peachy and i trotted into the open alley, she jumped on my back and we shot into the sky and landed on a cloud a few hundred feet above the ground.

"Do you think we'll find Red out here?" Peachy looked over to me as we saw the few hundred ponies leave the area.

"I don't think we will, but it never hurts to try." I said, continuing to scan the crowds.

"So, since neither of us are really tired, what'cha wanna do next?" Peachy questioned, also looking through the crowd of ponies.

Now that she mentioned it, I was't tired at all, I still felt as if I could fly to Canterlot and back. I guess the concert revamped my energy, or maybe I was never tired, I couldn't remember.

"I don't know,want to just talk up here for a while?" I offered.

"Sure, what do you want to talk about?" Peachy asked, stopping her search to look at me.

"Why don't you tell me about when you were supposedly 'fat" I suggested.

"Oh yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Peachy sat on her haunches and we faced each other.

Peachy looked towards the sky for a moment as she thought about her story, I wondered what she was going to say, or if she would be sad at all recalling on her younger years. Just as I was about to say something,Peachy turned to me and took a deep breath.

"Okay, about two years ago, I weighed about 50 pounds more than I do right now...you wouldn't have been able to fly me up here back then." Peachy chuckled and sighed. "I was constantly made fun of for my weight, and even though I tried to hide it, it really tore me up, literally."

Peachy showed me her clean foreleg, I was puzzled at first, but then she wiped back some of her fur, exposing several scars along the length of the area. She sat back and covered her scars again, she looked up at me after a second or two and continued;

"Ponies were so mean to me back then that I honestly wanted to die, but a couple of my friends encouraged me to put the bullies aside and try to show them i had power. I lost most of my weight within two months, and I started acting not long after that..now look where I am." Peachy flung her forelegs out to the sides, gesturing to all of Fillydelphia.

"Wow, I think that's amazing, I admire that you came over all of that." I said,she really did have guts.

"What about you, what is your story?" Peachy asked.

I hadn't really been prepared to tell my story, but I guess now was a better time than ever. I thought about what I was going to say for a moment, and then I started,

"I was born to no parents, or at least i never knew them, I was raised in an orphanage until I was six, then my friend and I escaped. The two of us jumped off a six story building, a two story building, and a moving train." Peachy's mouth was in an"o" shape, I continued, "I arrived in Ponyville a few weeks later, I thought Star had been killed in the train jump, so I started a new life."

"I'm sorry Scootaloo!" Peachy had a tear in her eye.

"I lived in that town alone for a couple years before I lived in a tree house. A mare, now my mother, discovered that and took me back to the orphanage to adopt me, I saw Star, he hadn't died but had only lost a leg in the jump."Peachy regained some spirit, "Eventually a friend of mine from Ponyville adopted him and he and my friends all get along great. My mom married her wife a few months after they adopted me, actually it was the night that I was accepted here." I ended my story with a smile.

"Your moms wife?" Peachy questioned.

"Yeah, I was raised by a fillyfooler, I don't see anything wrong, do you have a problem with that?" I suddenly became very defensive of my parents.

"No, I mean just, you're okay with that kind of stuff?" Peachy questioned.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" I was unsure of how this would be playing out.

"Well, I mean, from where i grew up not many ponies liked that, they all hated coltcuddlers and fillyfoolers." Peachy said, she looked a little red.

"That really stinks." I said.

"Yeah, especially when you are one." Peachy said so nonchalantly, it almost went right over my head.

"What?" I looked at her, the blush in her cheeks was huge, she just spilled her deepest secret to me.

"Uh well, I'm a..uh...Fillyfooler?" She looked sad and scared.

"Really?" I asked, I don't know why i questioned her.

"Yeah, you're mad at me, aren't you?" Peachy put her head down.

I couldn't think of any words so I grabbed her in a hug and I said;

"Just because I'm not a fillyfooler doesn't mean I can't support and care about one." I felt a few tears land on my coat as Peachy sobbed into my neck.

Ch. 9 Pixels

I trotted around to the theatre i hopes to meet Peachy. As I walked along the grounds, I noticed a large number of things that I hadn't noticed yesterday. There were tons of other, much less major subjects to study at the school. I saw buildings that were for studying things like Dressmaking, orchestral creation, and other minor subjects.

Now that I took the time to walk around, I noticed that we had a sports complex for our apparently "Well-Known" hoofball and baseball teams. There were black and red banners hanging around the stadiums, as well as walls showing off our recent national and regional championships.

“Wow...” I said to myself as I gazed at the school’s accomplishments. “The last six years in a row we’ve won regional championships.”

“This year will be different,” I looked over to see a colt, about my size, approaching me. He had a grey coat and mixed blue and light blue hair that were accompanied by green eyes.

“What do you mean?” I questioned him.

“We’re going to win the national championships for the first time in nearly ten years,” he said, pointing to our last national championship title, which happened to be ten years ago.

“What’s so different about this year?” i asked, still gazing at the wall of our hoofball team.

The colt looked over at me like I was an idiot, or at least that’s what i got from it. He pulled out a slip of paper from one of his saddlebags and read aloud;

“New freshman sizes...we have three that are 4 foot 7, two that are 4 foot 8 and six that are 5 even, that’s almost twice our height....uh, what’s your name?” he paused and looked away from his paper towards me.

“Scootaloo,” I answered plainly.

“Nice to meet you Scootaloo, my name is Pixel Sync.” he held out a hoof to me, I shook it before he continued.

“I’m from the videography department, I help with the behind the scenes work, anything to do with effects, directing, you name it!”he placed the papers back in his saddlebag, “I have the info for the hoofball players because I’m the one who videos them for the school’s sports channel.”

“Oh that’s cool.” This poy was very interesting, weird and quirky, but interesting.

“So what do you do?” he asked, giving me his attention.

“I uh, I’m a dancer.” I said, how do i really answer that question? I haven’t even been to one class yet.

“Sounds interesting! I just have four left hooves.” Pixel wobbled around for emphasis.

“Yeah, I haven’t really been to a class yet though.” I said, rubbing my foreleg on the ground.

“Ah, so you’re a first year! Don’t worry, i’m only a second year.” Pixel said, producing a camera from his other saddlebag.

“What’s that for?” I pointed to his video camera.

“I’m getting some shots for the intro to the game next week. I gotta have something for the pre game time.” he aimed the camera at the top of the wall and panned down to the last of the school’s achievements.

“Next week? School hasn’t even started yet!” I said, dumbfounded.

“For you, the hoofball team has been working for nearly two months by now, I have for about three weeks, and the drama department has been for a week or two, oh and I also help over there as well.” Pixel put the lens cap on his camera and put it back in his bag.

“What do you do over there?” I asked curiously.

“I work with the actors mainly, introducing the new ones to the public, I’ve got a few to do today, perhaps you’d like to join me?” Pixel looked over at me as he offered.

“I don’t know, i have to meet my friend Peachy for lunch.” I said sadly, Pixel’s ears perked up.

“Hold on a moment! Peachy King?” he asked, his eyes wide.

“Yeah, why do you ask?” I questioned.

“She’s first on the list for today, in fact I better get over to the drama department or else I’ll be late,” Pixel started to walk off, but stopped as he remembered me, “Wanna come?”

“Yeah, i was on my way there already.” I said as I trotted over to him.

“Awesome,” Pixel said as the two of us started walking over to the theatre.

We walked in through the back entrance of the theatre, which was through the makeup and set department.each of which had its own studies. Pixel and I arrived backstage just as Peachy was exiting. She noticed the two of us and ran over and gave me a hug.

“What are you doing here Scootaloo?”

“I followed Pixel, he said he had to like introduce you to the school or something,” I said, gesturing to Pixel.

“Oh yeah!” Peachy cheered, “Why don’t we do that right after lunch, I’m starving!” Peachy rubbed her stomach as it growled.

“I’m afraid not, I have to do this now.” Pixel said as he took out his video camera.

“Are you sure?” Peachy hoped.

“Yeah, we’ll film over in the lighting room.” Pixel pointed to a well lighted room just out of the theatre.

“Alright then.” Peachy said and the three of us walked over to the room as Pixel set up.

Peachy ran her hooves through her mane in an attempt to straighten it before she was on camera. Pixel was messing with the settings on his camera as Peachy was doing so. As the pair finished, she sat down on a couch that was placed at the back of the room.

“Sorry Scootaloo, you can’t be in here while i’m filming, it’s in the rules.” Pixel said, putting on a straight face.

“Alright,” I said as i closed the doors.

I heard the filming start as Peachy talked about herself and the projects she would be involved in this year. After five minutes of filming, the two of them walked out of the room, Pixel placed the camera in his bag, and Peachy walked up to me,

“Great, now let’s get some lunch!”

Ch. 10 Lunch, Frisbee, and bullies

Peachy and I walked along the sunlit paths to the Student Union, during the trip we passed hundreds of students along the way, all moving in their own little groups.

“I haven’t been to the Student Union yet, what’s there to eat?” I asked as the very building came into our view.

“There’s a buffet of everything you can think of, and there are a couple shops and meeting places,” Peachy said, eyeing the Student Union building.

“Awesome!” I said, our target about thirty feet ahead of us at this point.

The two of us, along with a dozen other ponies, entered the building through its glass doors. Once inside, I saw four open areas on the first floor, all were carpeted, each with a couple couches and chairs surrounding a wooden table.

“Follow me, the food is upstairs,” Peachy grabbed my hoof and the two of us walked up the large staircase in the center of everything.

As we were about to reach the end of the staircase, the smell of all the wonderful cooking and baking food hit my, which in turn nearly made me fall down the stairs. We walked on to the second floor and I noticed that the buffet surrounded the entire room, which had to be at least 75 by 75 feet!

“Plates are over there, meet me back here in five, we’ll sit at that table,” Peachy pointed to a nearby table that sat by the glass wall that contained the staircase.

The two of us walked off and got trays, complete with a couple plates, but then went we parted ways momentarily, as she went to the salad bar as I headed for the baked goods. They had more sweets than Pinkie could ever imagine! hundreds of choices, and just as many options with the salads and other areas!

I loaded up my tray with pancakes, waffles, and a few other things I hadn’t seen before. I met Peachy back at the table we’d picked out. Peachy’s tray was much different from mine, hers was covered with salads and sandwiches.

“Like what you see?” Peachy asked, a smirk on her face.

“It’s amazing!” I said, a pancake halfway out of my mouth.

Peachy giggled and pointed at the pancake that was sliding out of my mouth, just in time for it to splat onto my plate. i blushed as I ate it more formally with some plastic utensils.

“So what was the whole thing with Pixel?” I asked after I had finished my pancake.

“Every beginner in the class gets a TV spot on one of the school channels, I was just one of the last ones to be assigned a time,” Peachy said through a napkin on her mouth.

“Cool.,” I said, I started on some of the newer things I’d picked up.

“I think dance gets them at the end of the year,” Peachy started the conversation up again.
“Really?”

“Yeah, that’s what what was playing when I toured the place at the end of last year.,” Peachy concluded.

We ate in silence, only taking occasional looks around. After a few minutes, Peachy broke the silence,

“So....”

“So?” I questioned.

“What?” Peachy was trying too hard to start a conversation.

“Okay,” I tried to continue it.

Peachy tensed up and brought her tail up over her Cutie Mark as she covered her head. I looked around to see a group of fillies and colts walking towards us, but they weren’t walking straight at us. They looked to be older and some had expensive looking jewelry and jackets on.

“Peachy, who are they?” i whispered her, too low for them to hear.

“They’re some year 5’s from my class, they always act like I’m nothing and that they’re better ponies than I am.” she said sadly.

“Darn, I can’t do anything Peachy, i’m sorry.” I said sadly, the group walked by us without noticing the covering Peachy beside them.

“C’mon Scootaloo” Peachy said, noticing that my tray was empty, “Let’s get out of here,”

“Okay,” the two of us took our empty trays to the revolving tray cleaning wall, once we dropped them off, we left the building.

We walked outside and listened to the rings of the bell tower, after only one ring we realized that we’d eaten much earlier than we had planned to. The two of us walked to the park and decided to watch a small team of ponies play frisbee.

Many of the ponies playing had sports Cutie Marks, but a few had dancing Cutie Marks, those ponies were the ones who were able to do the most with their bodies to throw and catch the frisbee.

“ That looks like fun,” I said to Peachy.

“I probably would fall on my face if I tried,” Peachy laughed.

The ponies playing stopped for a moment to take a break. Peachy and I were about to leave when one of the pegasi from the group walked over to us. She had cream colored coat and a dark purple mane that was down to her forelegs.

“Hey you, I see you have a dancing Cutie mark,” the older filly, probably a year four or five, said to me.

“Yeah, you too,” i said to her,she had a cutie mark that shuwedapony doing a twirl.

“Do either of you want to come and play some frisbee?” the filly-mare offered.”

“I’m alright, i’ll just watch,” Peachy said shyly.

“I will,” I said happily.

“Awesome, we’re on a fifteen minute break, my name’s Twirl by the way,” Twirl said, blowing her mane out of her eyes.

“Okay,” I said, looking over at Peachy.

“Just come over when you want to, I’ll tell the group about you...?” Twirl started.

“Scootaloo!” I chirped.

“Scootaloo, nice.” Twirl said as she walked back towards her group.

“Wow Scootaloo, you’re getting in good with some of the older ponies, that is probably a good thing.” Peachy said cheerfully.

“Yeah, hopefully,” I said, looking out at the midday sky.

Author's Note

It is here...

Ch. 11 Athletics and War

I started walking over to the frisbee team through the soft grass. As I approached, Twirl turned (twirled) around to face me. Her friends eyed me with some question as to how well I would be able to play.

“You saw the basics out there right?” Twirl questioned.

“Yeah, catch the frisbee with my mouth, throw it with my hoof.” I repeated.

“Awesome, we’ll go slow so you can catch on,” Twirl smiled and closed her eyes.

The group, about eight ponies in all, walked back onto the field. Twirl and I followed them to our outer positions. One of Twirl’s friends, a colt with a brown coat and red mane, threw the frisbee to another pony. The other colt threw it to Twirl quickly, and then she threw it to me.

I jumped up and caught it, I pulled it out before I landed and threw it to another pony. The group looked over to me in amazement, they obviously hadn’t expected me to do so well and neither did I.

“Nice one Scootaloo, let’s go a little faster now,” Twirl said to the group.

The group had a collective nod before the frisbee was passed around again. The ponies moved more this time, doing small tricks to throw the frisbee. A random pony from the group threw it to me very quickly.

I kept my eyes on the frisbee as it came closer and closer, I angled my body just enough to be able to catch and throw the frisbee in one quick motion. The frisbee made contact with my mouth, i closed upon it and spun about 270 degrees and released it, sending it towards another pony.

“Now, let’s move,” Twirl called out, the eight other ponies started running with their own teams after the frisbee.

The teams threw the frisbee in between each other as Twirl and I watched, she poked my shoulder with her hoof as she spoke,

“Join one of the teams,”

I ran out to the all fillies team, they seemed to understand because once I was on the field, the frisbee came towards me. I tried to catch it, but it was intercepted by one of the colts who then passed it away.

“It’s alright! It happens to everypony!” Twist called from the sidelines.

I kept up with the ponies, although they were much more efficient and skilled than i was. My team passed me the frisbee about as much as they did each other, but I was usually slower to return the throw. The nine of us walked off of the field after about thirty minutes of practicing.

“That was fun Scoots,” Twirl said, “You should come again sometime, we practice every Wednesday right here.”

“Totally!” I said, I had a blast playing with the ponies.

The group walked away as I headed back to a smiling Peachy. She hoof-bumped me as she got up. the two of us walked around the campus a little before deciding one one thing.

We were bored.

Very, very bored.

“Well, we could do one thing...” Peachy started.

“Like what?” I asked curiously.

“Remember how when we were following red, we went up into the clouds?” Peachy looked at a fairly large cloud above us.

“Yeah, you want to go up into the clouds?” I wasn’t sure if I was right or not.

“I’d love to, it is amazing up there! I’d do anything to be able to fly like you!” Peachy said, jumping into the air.

“Well, it’s better than nothing, climb on,” I said happily.

Peachy excitedly climbed onto my back and I opened my wings. I let the cool breeze roll under them before I took off.

“Scootaloo, what are you waiting foooooooooooooooooooooo.....” Peachy said as I shot off the ground.

I flew past the low cloud as I increased speed. I took us much higher in the atmosphere than Peachy had been, she looked around in amazement as we continued to gain altitude.

“This is amazing, I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Peachy said, she saw the higher, more secure layer of clouds approaching us from above.

I popped through the layer with Peachy on my back. I landed and she dropped onto the clouds below our hooves.She looked around at the crystal clear sky above and around us with her mouth open.

“This is my favorite place to fly to,” I said happily.

“Why?” Peachy questioned.

I picked a piece of cloud from the main mass and chucked it at Peachy. the cloud made a small ‘poof’ as it disappeared, leaving a small wet spot on her mane.

“What was that?” Peachy turned as she felt her wet mane. A devious smile appeared on both of our faces as we realized what was about to happen.

We dashed to positions about ten feet from one another and stacked up sections of cloud to protect us from each other. I had a very large surprise in store if I happened to be overrun by Peachy’s barrage.

“PREPARE TO BE DEFEATED!” Peachy shouted as hundred of pieces of cloud form the surrounding areas were thrown at me by magic.

The fire from her magic was eating away at my fort, I dug into the cloud about 2 feet just as the cloud pieces sawed my fort in half. I decided to use my secret weapon.

I conformed a small cannon out of clouds to fire a cloud the size of me at Peachy. Once her barrage stopped, I popped out of my foxhole and fired my cloud cannon.

The cloud hit Peachy square, she tumbled backward into another pile of cloud. She started laughing as she removed her wet mane from her face. not only was her mane wet, but the two of us were both completely soaked.

“C’mon, we might want to get dried off,” Peachy said as she approached me.
Peachy jumped back onto me as we descended from our cloud warzone. We flew down onto the balcony at the end of my hallway and landed smoothly.

Ch. 12 Afternoon

We ran down my hallway towards my room. We passed room after room on the way, most of which were open and had ponies filtering in and out of each one.

Without caring, we slid into my room and closed the door quickly. i fell onto the floor and started laughing, Peachy followed suit.

“We seriously need to do that again sometime!” Peachy giggled.

“Yeah,I’m glad my mom showed me how to do that,” I said, laying out on the floor.

“Your mom sounds really cool, well, both of them do,”Peachy sighed, “I’d like to meet them sometime,”

“They’ll come and see me sometime, then you’ll be able to see them, maybe allof my friends sometime too,” I said happily.

“That would be awesome,” Peachy said.

“What about your family and friends?”I asked, Peachy paused for a second.

“They aren’t near as cool as yours, most of them are either snooty or they’re bigots,” Peachy sighed sadly, “my family isn’t much different, all except for my grandma,”

“What is she like?” I asked as I rose off the floor, my coat and mane nearly dry from the light shining through the window.

“My grandma was always so supportive of me, she would always tell me to be who i truly was or to follow my dreams, something nopony else had even tried to tell me before,”
Peachy had a smile on her face now,

“And none of your friends were like that?” I questioned, Peachy stood beside me as she continued to speak.

“A few were, but I was never very close to anypony back home, i was always too busy with school and family times.”

‘That stinks, but you’re going to make tons of friends here, right?” I asked, beaming at her.

“Totally, I’ve already made more in a month here than I did with years there,” Peachy said very happily, her mane and coat almost dry as well.

The sun was now high in the sky as the school bell tower rang three times, signifying that the evening schedule was starting. i looked out of the window to see several hundred ponies head for the drama departments, athletic departments, and the gymnastics areas.

“Scootaloo, I gotta go, practice starts in twenty minutes!” Peachy yelped as she ran out of the door.

I realized that I now had nothing to do, I picked a paper with a set-up list for my career at the Academy. I read the list of things I still needed to do;

Set Up mailbox downstairs in lobby

Get Class schedule

DON'T FORGET CLASS STARTS AFTER 4 DAYS AT THE ACADEMY!

i looked away from the letter, I would set up my mailbox and and get my class schedule today. I would walk around tomorrow and visit my classes.

i walked out of my room and closed my door.I then proceeded to glide down the stairwell into the front lobby. i landed and walked around the corner to the postmaster’s desk.

“How can i help you?”the older student asked. He had a short brown mane and a light brown coat, the colt had large hazel eyes as well, his Cutie Mark was hidden by a desk.

“Umm, I’m supposed to setup some sort of mailbox,” I said, confused as to why a student was working in the postmaster’s area.

“Right, freshman?”he eyed me while he questioned.

“Yeah...” I said, I was a little embarrassed.

“I remember when I was a freshman, three years pass by really quickly,” he said as he pulled out a list of names.

“You’re only a year 4?” I questioned.

“Yeah, name’s postal, yours?” Postal questioned.

“Scootaloo,” I answered happily.

“Ah yes, Scootaloo...your number is 616,” Postal inquired.

“What?”

“Mailbox,” Postal said happily.

“Thanks, and I thought only freshmen were allowed to be in Anacrusis,” I half questioned Postal.

“Nah, there are a few upperclassmen, you have to be in the dorm to work the mail,” Postal saw that i was in a hurry, “See you around Scootaloo!”

“See ya!”

I walked away from Postal and the mail desk and headed towards the main information offices across from my dorm. i trotted through the door and walked up to the same mare that Fluttershy and Rainbow dash spoke to when i was signed up for the year here.

I talked to the mare and received her class schedule for the year, it showed both semesters and the times of every class.

Dance I -11:00 a.m. Semester 1 & 2

Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat

General Education -1:00 p.m. Semester 1 & 2

Mon, Wed, Fri

Study Hall -1:00 p.m. semester 1 & 2

Tues, Thur, Sat

Health/Sex Ed -3:00 p.m. Semester 1

Sat, Wed

Dance Theory 3:00 p.m.Semester 1 & 2

Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri

Personal Finance 3:00 p.m. Semester 2

Wed, Sat

I looked over my schedule a few times, it seemed pretty relaxed, but I’d heard that we were supposed to practice our dance at least 1 extra hour per day, and that Gen. Ed. had a ton of homework.

I listened for the bell tower’s number of rings. Once all four had passed, I continued on my way around campus. i trotted up to the large stadium in hopes of finding either Pixel or somepony from the spirit pony group that I had seen from the club fair earlier.

I walked inside the stadium to see several dozen large colts and a few older stallions on the field doing drills for the upcoming hoofball game. I trotted up to the enclosed area that was at the top that read ‘Media’ on the front of it in big bold lettering.

I opened the door to see Pixel operating a very large camera that was pointed at the players below while a couple of other ponies were on machines that were processing the film. After Pixel was finished filming, he jumped off of the camera and trotted over to me and gave me a hoof bump.

“Hey Scoots, so you could join me after all,”Pixel smiled.

“Yeah, so what are you doing?”I questioned, looking over to the other ponies in the room.

“Filming for a commercial about our team.” Pixel said, “Actually, my part is done so we can go hang out if you want.”

“Sounds great!” I said as the two of us left the building.

Ch. 13 Guy Time

Pixel and I flew off of the stadium and we headed towards the Fillydelphian town square. Pixel had said that it was the centerpoint of everything in the city; Shopping, socializing, even events for schools.

I had never realized how far the academy was from the center of town: We’d been flying for almost ten minutes and it wasn’t even in sight yet.

Something I had noticed is that Fillydelphia had a much larger suburb than I had previously thought, there had to be at least a million ponies living around the city. there were streets that had house after house-most o which had a small yard- and they extended forever it seemed.

As the city center came into view, I realized what Pixel had said was ture.There were hundreds of ponies and what looked to be a few griffons walking the streets, some shopping, and some just having fun.

Pixel and I descended as we drew nearer to the city center. we landed about two blocks from the official start of the square, although ponies were still cramming themselves into shops and clubs where we landed.

“So where exactly are we going?” I asked as the two of us edged closer to the main plaza.

“There’s a really nice snack place I want to show you, it’s at the end of the next street over. The place isn’t usually busy-but they do make a good fritter,” Pixels licked his lips.

“Sounds fun,” I said as the two of us pushed our way through the crowds of ponies.

We mosied our way onto the next street. The street had almost no traffic (compared to the others anyway) so we walked quickly to his snack cafe.

True to his word, there was a small cafe at the end of the street. It had a single glass window and a door on the side. It looked like a diner from fifty years ago, yet had a futuristic feel to it.

Pixel held the door open for me as it sounded with the tingle of a bell. I walked in and the smell of baked goods and fruit made me flutter. Pixel walked up to the counter and tapped a bell with his hoof.

Not half a second later did a colt who looked to be about our age spring out of nowhere to land in front of Pixel and I. I jumped back and nearly fell onto a table that was behind me.

“What’s up Drizzle?” Pixel said to the new colt.

I looked closer at the colt, he had a light blue coat and a black mane. those features were accompanied by green eyes and a Cutie Mark that showed a drizzle of icing on a pastry.

“Oh you know, just working at the shop before school starts,” Drizzle looked over to me, “Who’s this?”

“This is Scootaloo, she’ll be a freshman this year,” Pixel said simply.

Drizzle appeared in front of the counter now, making me fully stumble into the table behind me.After I regained my balance I looked at Drizzle.

“Hi, my name’s Drizzle! I’ll be the pony you come for for snacks, meals, cheats on diets, cakes, sweets, sours! Everything!” he held out a hoof,”Oh! Also, I’m fun to hang out with, I like having tons of fun and I’m available anytime! Well, outside of school at least!”

I shook his hoof slowly, but he had a much better idea of shaking my hoof fast enough that i didn’t know when it was over.

“So, what do you like to do?” Drizzle asked happily.

“Well uh, I like dancing and hanging out with friends,” I said, not sure if that was a good enough answer for his question.

“That’s awesome! i wish I could dance, but ponies tell me that when i try to dance it makes them cry, wanna see?” Drizzle was across the room by now.

“Sure?” I half answered.

What I saw next was the single most horrifying, magical, and amazing thing I’d even seen.It literally brought tears to my eyes. By the time he was done, I was nearly sobbing out emotional confusion.

“I don’t understand, why do ponies do that?” Drizzle asked sadly.

“I don’t understand what you just did, but it was both terrifying and amazing,” i said, not sure of my emotions.

“Ditto,” Pixel wiped his eyes.

“You thought it was amazing?” drizzle literally had hearts in his eyes.

Before I could muster a response, he had both Pixel and I in a death hug. I could tell that I was not the only one who was having trouble breathing by the sounds that Pixel was making. The second Drizzle released us we gasped for air, taking in as much as possible.

“Drizzle, please, no more hugs,” I said in between breaths.

“Aww, maybe some other time then?” Drizzle resolved.

“Sure,” I said, finally catching my breath.

“So what’ll it be Pixel?” Drizzle was back behind the counter by now...somehow.

“Hmm, well I really just came by to introduce you two, I think you’ll get along great. I guess I’ll have two of those daily specials,” Pixel said surely.

“Coming right up, and the one for the pretty filly is on the house,” I blushed at Drizzle’s words.

“So that’s what, two bits?” Pixel questioned.

“Yeppers, it sure is!” Pixel gave the money to Drizzle and Drizzled gave him the food.

The three of us sat at the bar type area where the customers in a hurry would eat. Each of us had our own little special, it was some sort of fudge-chocolate-sundae-cake type item. The only thing I was for sure on is that it tasted amazing.

“Well, we gotta go, see you around Drizzle!” Pixel said as we left the diner.

“See you two around,” he gave me a wink, which again made me blush.

After a minute or two of walking, I started up a conversation.

“So i think Drizzle might like me,”

“What makes you say that?” Pixel laughed a little.

“He gave me a ton of compliments and winked at me as we were leaving,” I said, again unsure of my emotions.

“I seriously doubt that Drizzle likes you as more than a super-duper friend,”Pixel said, completely straight faced.

After i gave Pixel one of those ‘What didja just say’ looks, he continued;

“His definition of more than a best friend but less than a partner,”

“What makes you say that anyway?” I questioned as we neared our original landing zone, we were now completely surrounded by hundreds of ponies again.

“I’ll tell you when we get into the air,” Pixel said a moment or two before he took to the skies, I followed almost immediately after.

After we escaped the chaos of the city, Pixel continued,

“Drizzle Only makes a running joke about flirting with all the new fillies he meets, he is probably the single most flamboyant coltcuddler out there,”

“He’s a coltcuddler?” I questioned, why did it seem that almost everypony around me was not straight.

“Yeah, and I already know that Peachy is a fillyfooler, it seems you attract even the most hidden of ponies around here. What surprises me is that you couldn’t tell by his hyperactive attitude and his interest in hugs,” Pixel laughed.

“So like, the odds of me knowing both of them?” I questioned.

“Amazingly slim, now let’s talk about something else,” Pixel said as a gust of wind hit the both of us.

“What is there to talk about?” I questioned.

“Well you could start by telling me why you’re rooming with a colt,” Pixel said simply as he looked over to me.

I deadpanned, I also dropped in altitude a few feet before recovering. I wasn’t even sure on how to answer this because I didn’t know why I was rooming with a colt either.

“I don’t....how did you?” I questioned him, he already had his answer prepared.

“Red is a friend of mine, I met him at the beginning of the year,”

“Really?”

“Yep, now, let’s get back before the six o'clock bell rings,” Pixel said as we neared the school.

“Why so soon?” we’d only been hanging out for an hour or so, maybe two.

“Gotta get to class by six, i would have stayed longer if I didn’t have class,” Pixel said plainly.

“Speaking of classes, what’s Drizzle studying?” I asked.

“He does the Culinary Arts across campus, it’s more of a smaller field here,” Pixel responded as we started descending towards the school.

“That’s what I figured, when do his classes start?”

“I’ll have to check with him, but I think they start about a week from now,” Pixel said as he landed on the soft grass.

“Well see ya later Pixel,” I didn’t bother landing, I just went into a low glide before climbing back into the sky.

Ch. 14 Recap

I rose out of bed and rubbed my eyes. The sun was already high in the sky. It shot beams of light all around the room, except for my bed which was behind a set of closed blinds.

"Hello?" I questioned the empty room.

"Scootaloo! Let me in!" Peachy called as she tapped her hoof on my door.

I jumped out of bed and arrived at the door. I clicked the handle and Peachy leaped in with a huge smile on her face. She jumped around in circles in the middle of the room as I closed the door.

"Peachy, what's going on?" I said as I held her front hooves.

"Remember that filly I showed you after you and Pixel hung out?" Peachy said happily.

"No, the last thing I remember was flying away from Pixel," I said, confused.

"Oh yeah, you hit your head, but you seemed fine," Peachy said sadly.

"How did I hit my head?" I questioned as I felt my head for any bruises or cuts.

"I think you hit a tree or something, because you fell right in between the two of us," Peachy said, a smirk appearing on her face.

"I didn't interrupt anything, did I?" I smirked, causing her to blush.

"Well, that's what I was gonna tell you about!" Peachy had a full smile again.

"Tell me about her!" I shouted happily.

"Well, she has a blue coat and a dark grey mane! She's into drama like me! Oh, and she s a really smart unicorn, like she can do all of these spells that I've never even thought of!" Peachy machine-gunned to me.

"Neat, do you like her?" I questioned, taking in Peachy's thoughts on the filly.

"That's the awesome part! She asked me out!" Peachy said happily.

"That's great!" I started, "i'm really happy for you!"

"There is only one problem..." Peachy said slowly.

"Oh no, what?"

"well, I've never dated anypony before, I don't know what to do," Peachy said sadly.

"Aww, well if it makes you feel better, neither have I!" I noticed her zero change in expression, so I changed my tactics, "Peachy, just make her feel loved, if she asked you out, you could probably make her feel just as loved,"

Peachy's face lit up, and i swear her coat reflected golden light on to my white walls again, "That's a great idea, thank you!"

She pulled me into a hug, which I gladly accepted. After a moment or four, she broke the hug, a smile on her face once again.

"Well, when are you gonna see her again?" I asked.

"Actually, I'm not sure," Peachy said, sounding confused and sad.

"Well, do you know what her dorm name and room number is?" I questioned, making sure that the filly wasn't just playing with Peachy.

"Yeah, she's in Julliard room 20, Julliard has most of the drama students in it, it's the closest dorm to the theatre," Peachy said simply, "I'm in room 16,"

""I just realized I didn't ever bother to learn what dorm you were in," I said, knocking a hoof against my forehead.

"Well come on, it's time for you to help me!" Peachy waved her hoof to signal me to leave my room with her.

I followed her leadership and the two of us set out to find the filly that was now Peachy's fillyfriend.

As the two of us exited the front door of my dorm, the light of the Sun hit me with full force, causing me to have to cover my eyes with and turn away. After I recovered the two of s continued on our journey.

"So what's this filly's name name anyway?" I asked Peachy.

"She's here for writing, her name is Happy Endings," Peachy blushed a little.

"Aww, here, jump onto my back, I'll get us there quickly," I said and Peachy followed my instruction.

I unflared my wings and leaped off of the ground and flapped them wit enough force to send the two of us into the clouds above the campus..Once we were flying above the ground at a much higher speed, I continued to ask Peachy questions,

"What year is she?"

"She's a year 1 or 2 I think." Peachy responded.

"Well I'm glad you like her," I said as we neared the theatre area.

"The dorm is over there," Peachy pointed a hoof at a very large building that almost rivaled the size of the theatre itself.

I slowed down quite a bit before I descended and touched the soft grass beside the building. The two of us walked through the bottom floor of the building as we looked for room 16. The halls were very different than mine, they had brown tiles and light brown walls, the lights cast a cool feeling throughout the building.

"Over here Scootaloo," Peachy said as she knocked on a room that had a '16' above the door frame.

I trotted over just in time for te door to open and a filly about our size to appear in the doorway. She didn't look like what Peachy had described, she had a dark grey coat and a red mane that followed purple eyes; she looked pretty glum. Peachy Peachy noticed this, she spoke to the filly,

"Is Happy Endings here?"

The filly immediately piped up and she started speaking, "You're the filly that she couldn't stop talking about last night! Yeah, come on in, she should be here any minute!"

"Awesome!" Peachy said as the two of us walked into the filly's dorm room.

The inside of the room was very different than the outside, this room had about the same colors of my room, except it had a lot of camera equipment on one side and a lot of notepads and scripts on the other side.

"So she's a playwright?" I questioned the filly.

"Yeah, she's been working on a few in the past month," The filly answered while she checked some of her camera equipment.

The three of us heard a small knock at the door, Peachy smiled at me as the other filly went to answer the door.

Ch. 15 Happy Endings

A filly with a dark grey mane and a blue coat, the filly that Peachy had described, walked through the door carrying her saddlebags. As she walked in, she noticed Peachy and ran up and nuzzled her.

"Peachy, I was really worried," the filly's voice reminded me of a mix of a younger Princess Luna, "I forgot to tell you the time for our next time meeting each other."

"It's okay, my friend Scootaloo helped me find you here!" Peachy pointed to me, Ending's gaze followed.

"Thanks Scootaloo," Happy gave me a hug.

"No problem!" I said as she broke the hug.

"So, what are y'all doing here?!" Happy said excitedly.

"We never really said anything about a second date," the two fillies were smiling as Peachy spoke.

"Sorry Peachy, I forgot, I'm really new at this whole dating thing," Endings said.

"Same here," Peachy said somewhat sadly.

"Maybe we could go to FillyDelphia's town square and have a date there," Endings suggested.

"I have the perfect place for you two to have a date!" I said excitedly, the three fillies in the room turned their heads towards me.

"Where?" Endings questioned me.

"It's right off the square, it's a really nice diner style place," I said happily.

"Hmm, could you show us where on a map?" Peachy questioned, the two other fillies nodded.

"Yeah, it's hard to miss."

"I'll get my map, and then you can show the two of us where it is," Endings said as she went into her beside drawers.

After the unicorn moved the items in her table around for a few moments, she pulled out a folded map with her magic and placed it on the table. She opened it and took out the creasing with another spell.

"Here's my map of all of FillyDelphia, now, there square's over here," Endings pointed to a rather large section of the city that was filled with shops.

"Let me see..." I looked around the map of FillyDelphia for the street that the diner was on.

Once I located the street, I slid my hoof along it until I found the labeled diner, once located, I showed the other fillies.

"I think I've hear of that place, the worker there is a student here," Endings said, trying to place hi name.

"Yeah, his name's Drizzle," I said as a matter of factly.

"Well, that sounds like fun, what do you think Peachy?" Endings looked over to her.

"That sounds great!" Peachy said ecstatically.

"Well, I'm going to go and see if I got my letter from the FAA Spirit Group," I said as I started to leave.

"Alright, thanks Scootaloo," Peachy said happily, I paused by the filly that was room-mates with Endings.

"What's your name?" I asked the filly.

"Presence," she replied.

"Nice to meet you Presence," I said as I exited the room and headed towards my own dorm.

I trotted out of the building and shot from the ground into the clouds above the campus. The sky was really cool today, a lot colder than usual. The wind swept under my wings and I glided for most of the trip back to my dorm. The sun was high in the sky now as I descended onto the lawn around my dorm.

I landed lightly and came to a complete stop before the doors of the building. The ground was fairly warm compared to the sky today.

I walked inside of my building and headed towards the mail desk. I could see Postal's hooves moving fast to sort the letters and put them in the right places from around the corner.

I walked around the corner and looked at him, he was shuffling hundreds of letters with his hooves faster than I could think about what he was doing. it took him a while to even notice me, he was very focused on his work.

"Howdy Scootaloo, what brings you over here?" Postal asked happily.

"Did i get any mail over the last couple of days?"

"Actually, a group of ponies cam by earlier and dropped a few letters off, I think a couple of them were yours," Postal went back to my post box and opened it.

"I was right, you've got a couple in here," Postal walked back to me and handed the letters over.

I looked at the letters, both were from the academy, I set them on the desk and opened them with a nearby letter opener. The first was from the FAA Spirit Ponies, it read;

Dear Scootaloo,

We are happy to inform you that you have been accepted into our program, as a prerequisite, we ask that you attend some of the cheerleading practices to learn the cheers for our group once we are in the stadium next week cheering on our hoofball team.

Sincerely,

FAA Spirit Club

I looked at the second letter, it only had a reminder that my classes started tomorrow. I kept the letters and threw their envelopes away, Postal was still shuffling through hundreds of letters when I was finished.

"Thanks Postal, we should hang out sometime when you're not working," I said as I walked off from his desk.

"Totally, I get off in a few hours, want to tonight?" Postal half shouted from across the room.

"Maybe, see you ten," I started up the stairwell.

It felt like forever since I'd been to my room, even though in reality it had barely been more than an hour. I unlocked the door and walked in to find Red snoring loudly on his bed.

I sat down on my bed, clicked on my TV and set it to a low volume. I watched the school's news network as i dozed off into a light sleep.

Ch. 16 Guy Time

I was awakened by a hoof poking my nose, causing me to punch myself in the face and fall out of my bed, and onto the floor.

"Waaaa!" I jumped into a fighting position to see Red standing beside me, a smirk on his face.

“Hey!”, I called at Red, watching as he fell over laughing.

“Well, at least I know how to wake you up,” Red said as he calmed down from his fit of laughter.

“Why’d you wake me up anyway?” I inquired, my voice sounding grumpier than I had expected it to be.

“Well, I figured I’d get to know my room-mate for the first time this year,” Red said simply, as if it justified the rude awakening.

“Sounds like a plan, but you could’ve at least woken me up more...gently,” I rubbed my face where I had punched myself.

“Sorry Scoots,” Red paused for a moment and unfurled his very familiar, very large wings, “Wanna go up into the clouds and just hang out?”

I tossed the idea around in my head for a moment before I looked out of the window. The sky was dark and Luna’s moon shone brightly against through the night, reflecting off surfaces and casting shadows everywhere.

“Sounds like fun! Let’s go, I can’t stay out too late though, since I have my first day of class tomorrow,” I said as I face Red again.

“Let’s go!” Red flew out of our dorm room door and I quickly followed.

The two of us flew into the lobby and in my haste, I flew right into Postal, knocking the both of us into a nearby set of chairs.

Red stopped when he heard the sheer noise of the collision, and flew back to help Postal and I up off of the floor. Postal held his head with a hoof and started to smile,

“Well, looks like you made it on time,” he laughed and held his head.

“Made it on time?” Red sounded confused.

“Crap, sorry, I had plans with Postal,”I gestured to the now-recovered Postal.

“Nice to meet you, sir!” Postal shook Red’s hoof politely.

“Nice to meet you too,” Red followed Postal’s lead.

“Well, what should we do now?” Red asked, looking from me to Postal and back.

“We could all just hang out,” Postal suggested.

“I guess that sounds good,” Red seemed sad that we wouldn’t be able to fly into the clouds.

“So, where do you guys want to go?” Postal asked as he fixed the chairs around the group.

“Can you teleport?” I questioned him, taking account of his unicorn horn.

“Yeah, I had to be able to do it for quick mail delivery back in Las Pegasus,” Postal replied.

“Can you take us all to the square in FillyDelphia?” I asked excitedly.

“Yeah, grab my hoof,” he extended a hoof to both Red and I.

As we grabbed his hooves, I felt a strange feeling come over me for a split second as his magical energy engulfed us both. All of a sudden, we were in an alley right off of the square of FillyDelphia.

“Whoa!” Red landed on the ground beside Postal and I, struggling to comprehend what just happened

“That was awesome!” I hugged Postal.

“No problem, I love it when I get to do that,” Postal said as the three of us walked onto the busy street.

“So where are we going?” Red asked as we turned off onto the street where Drizzle’s restaurant was located.

“I know this little diner over here,” I said as the lights from the front of the diner started to show.

“I think Pixel told me something about this place and about somepony named Drizzle,” Red said as we neared the restaurant.

“Then he probably did,” the three of us stopped to see if we could see Drizzle through the window.

We saw something very different though, we saw Peachy and Endings sitting at a table for two, kissing. Drizzle was avoiding looking at them but was still making an attempt to keep working.

“Howdy everypony!” I said as I popped through the door, startling everypony in the diner.

Peachy and Endings jumped out of their chairs and blushed, Drizzle sighed in relief that he wasn’t a third wheel anymore, Red and Postal walked in behind me. and the restaurant calmed back down as the ponies inside returned to normal.

“Hey Scoots, what’s up?” drizzle said as the five of us sat at the counter; Peachy and Endings on the end, then Red, then Postal and I.

“I brought some friends to show them the diner,” I said, Drizzle smiled.

“Did you like it that much?” Drizzle asked, delighted as he brought Peachy and Endings their sweets.

“I guess I did, so...what’s up?” i asked as i looked at a menu.

“Not much really, I’ve just been getting loads of mail from the school, I’ll be in the advanced culinary class next year! They loved my samples!” Drizzle fluttered.

“You deserved it!” Endings said, wide eyed after her first bite.

We all laughed for a while before Red, Postal, and I decided what we were ordering.

“I’ll have the Deluxe Daisy Special,” Red said as his stomach growled like a ravenous Diamond Dog.

“Postal?” Drizzle questioned as he looked towards him cheerfully.

“I’ll take the Veggie Burger with hay fries,” Postal said, as he set his menu down.

“And you, beautiful?” Drizzle questioned me so seriously that Red and Postal didn’t know how to react, so they just dropped their jaws. I could detect a certain miasma emanating from Red, like gears clicking into place. I’d wonder about that later though.

“I’ll have what Postal ordered,”I said, covering my face with a menu to hide my smile and blush.

“Well, I’ll be back with your orders in a few minutes,” Drizzle said as he hopped into the kitchen.

Endings and Peachy chatted and Red and Postal were having a conversation and I wasn't a third wheel, but a fifth wheel now. I trotted back to the kitchen to find Drizzle to see if he could talk.

I slowly peered into the kitchen to see Drizzle putting together the sandwiches and getting some of the fruits out for what Peachy ordered.

“Come on in, I’m almost done anyway,” Drizzle said as he noticed my observations.

“So, what’s it like to work at this place?” I questioned him.

“It’s a lot of fun, usually a lot of ponies come through here and I have to move fast, but it’s been slow lately with the senior class leaving,” Drizzle said as he put all of the meals on a tray.

“Cool, I’ll get out of your way so you can get them their meals,”

Ch. 17 The Bridge

Drizzle, Postal, Red, Peachy, Endings, and I all walked away from the restaurant after our meals and conversations. The night was still young so naturally we were looking for something to do.

"Hey Drizzle, you work in FillyDelphia, where is there to have fun?" I asked him, and then looked around.

"Well, not much is open on Wednesday nights, usually the night life is alive from Friday to Sunday. There are a few places I can think of though," Drizzle said as the six of us rounded the corner onto to the somewhat lively square of FillyDelphia.

"Like where?" Red asked as he hovered above us.

"Well, there's a place called the Bridge, its got a skate park, concert hall that usually has either live or recorded music playing at all times, a rock climbing wall, and an indoor paintball field," Drizzle said as we moved closer to the town center.

The five of all nodded and agreed with the idea Drizzle had suggested about going to the bridge. We went westward from the town center towards the said complex.

Once we started towards the Bridge, we all saw the large building with the name displayed on the front. The building was as big as almost ten dorms back on campus. It had to be 6 stories tall too!

The six of us either walked or flew into the large building. Inside were a simple set of four doors of which ponies were walking from one to another.

"Let's split up, what do you guys want to do?"

"Paintball!" Postal and Drizzle said almost simultaneously. The two then looked at each other in shock, and then they looked back to us.

"We'll go to the music hall," Peachy said as Endings nodded at her words.

I looked to the side for Red, who was standing beside the skate park door. I turned back to the group and spoke;

"Looks like Red and I will take on the skate park for now, where do you guys want to meet up?"

"If nothing else, meet back here at closing time," Drizzle said happily.

"When's closing time?" I asked curiously.

"About three hours from now, nine o' clock," Drizzle responded as he and Postal walked towards the paintball door.

As the group split into its respective groups, Red and I walked into the skate park room. I opened the door and the music hit the two of us. The skate park was huge! They had a DJ in the center controlling lights and music and the entire room. There were dozens of ponies around, some using skateboards, some using bikes, and some using scooters.

Red and i walked over to a rental booth to borrow a skateboard and a scooter. The booth was a smaller open building on the far side of the skate park. We had to maneuver around the ponies, the dips, handrails, and huge half pipes.

We passed the DJ stand and arrived at the rental booth not a minute later. We walked through the open doors up to the booth with its one worker.

"How much for a scooter and a skateboard?" Red asked the pony.

"Wednesday and Thursday nights are free, take 'em bro," he pointed to a few racks of each.

Red and I took our gear that we needed and set out for the half pipes. We flew up to the top of one of the more average sized ones and we set our boards on the edge.

"How do you want to do this?" Red asked, looking into my eyes.

"Hmm, how about whoever can get the best trick done at the other end wins?" I offered, Red smiled deviously.

"Deal, but you are gonna lose," Red said, competition was in his eyes.

"Try me," I said as I moved myself and my scooter away from him.

Red balanced on his skate board over the edge of the half pipe, he opened his wings and propelled himself, he descended and then ascended on the other side very quickly.

He shot from the opposite edge of the half pipe into the air and angled his wings enough to send him into a spin as he descended slowly. There was a moment in time that I saw his eyes glow as he looked at me in mid spin, they felt so hurt, so loving, and so loyal all at once.

Red's skateboard touched the edge of the ramp and he opened his wings fully to balance himself on the edge, he pointed a hoof at me, signaling me to go.

I jumped over the edge of the half pipe and set my scooter under me. I shot down the ramp just as fast as Red had, but I pulled back on my scooter and left the ramp before Red did, sending me backwards.

I let go of the scooter and did a back flip in midair, the scooter set itself under my feet as I pushed and went over the handle bars and pulled the scooter along with me as i landed on the ramp.

I skidded down the ramp and landed on my front hooves beside Red.

"Boom, what now?" I said to Red as he looked at me, wide eyed.

"I...I think that that was awesome," Red said as he raised his skate board in the air with a foreleg.

We spent the next hour or two grinding, messing around, and doing tricks around the skate park. The room closed a half hour before everything else, so we were stranded outside with nothing to do.

"Well, what do we do now?" I asked as he and I stood outside The Bridge.

"Follow me!" Red said as he flew up to a cloud above the building.

I did as he said, and I met him at a stationary cloud above the building. he was sitting on his haunches and he was leaning over the cloud.

"Why'd you want me up here?" I questioned Red.

"Close your eyes," Red said,his voice somewhat shaky.

I closed my eyes, I didn't expect what happened next;

Red Tear kissed me on the lips.

Ch. 18 Paintball

(Postal’s POV)

“Postal, right?” Drizzle questioned as the two of us entered the paintball arena.

“Yeah, and you’re Drizzle, right?” I said back.

The two of us looked through the clear plexiglass wall at the many ponies competing in a free for all game. Their playing field was a simulation of a jungle area mixed with an old Zebra settlement.

“What should we play?” Drizzle asked excitedly, I looked up at the listings of game types and scanned them.

There were only three that even looked interesting; free for All, Capture the Flag, and Survival.

“What about Capture the Flag?” I offered to the almost buzzing pony beside me.

“I’m great at that game!” Drizzle ran off to the CTF gear area.

I followed him slowly, I examined the gear, most of it clean or having very little paint on it, but the Flag carrier’s uniforms were completely covered in a variety of paint colors, and inside one of them was Drizzle.

I looked around us as I put a face mask on, there were about 16 other colts and fillies. They were wearing either a blue sash or a red sash that connected to their face mask.

Drizzle and I both clicked on a blue sash and ran it along our bodies.

“I'm so excited!” Drizzle said as he strapped the paintball tube around his foreleg.

I smiled and nodded as I strapped the tube around one of my own forelegs. The timer on the wall sounded as the flag carrier of each team was to step forward.

Drizzle stepped forward for our team, as well as a smaller pink filly for the other team. they stepped onto a platform and after a moment or two, were teleported away from us.

“You will be facing each other in the urban environment of Apocalypto,” a suited unicorn said to us as his horn glowed.

The red team disappeared first, and then I felt my own body be moved by another unicorn’s magic. I went from being in the paintball bullpen to inside of a small shack in an unfamiliar environment, AKA Apocalypto.

Most of the ponies were already gone or fleeing from the shack, but Drizzle stood beside our flag, he was thinking hard on what he would do, or so it seemed.

“Let’s go Drizzle!” I said strongly as i placed myself to leap out of a window.

“WOOO!” Drizzle ran through a wall at such a high speed, it threw me through said window.

I lost contact with Drizzle as he shot across the playing field. I walked slowly through the shadows as I looked for the other team.

I walked around a corner and the small filly appeared, but I was hidden from her view by some debris.

She and a larger pegasi walked slowly through the alley, I raised my foreleg with the paintball tube and aimed for the pegasi, as I was about to fire, a stream of paintballs flew into the egasi, causing him to shriek and fly up into the air, leaving the filly alone in the alley.

I aimed at the filly and fired several shots at her, they impacted along her flank and neck, sending her spiraling into a wall.

“Red Flag Carrier down!” A voice boomed from the sky.

Three Red teammates can and grabbed the special piece of armor from the filly and attached it to one of their own as they ran off.

I edged towards the filly from mycover as the colts left her behind. Once close enough to her, I poked her with a hoof.

She turned her head and had fear in her eyes. I backed up a few paces as she struggled to stand, a mix of paint and blood coming from one of her legs.

“Are you alright?” I questioned the filly as she finally stood up.

“Yeah, I’ll be alright, thanks though,” she said, she gritted her teeth.

“Why’d those guys just leave you?” I questioned her.

“I don’t know them, just how the game works I guess,” she responded with some more confidence.

“Oh, that sucks,” I said, I felt kind of bad for spraying her with paintballs.

Just then, drizzle appeared around the corner with the Red team flag, a few paintballs hitting the wall behind him as he sprinted past the two of us.

The pink filly aimed at him, but before she could fire, two of my teammates had appeared and started covering his escape.

“What’s your name?” i asked as she and I took cover from each other’s teams on the opposite sides of the same wall.

“My name is Style Sense, yours?” Style asked as a few paintballs hit around us.

“Call me Postal,” I rose up from cover and fired at the ponies on her team, I ran around a corner of a building as my team covered me.

I saw Postal running towards our base, as I neared him, he was hit several times with red paintballs. he fell to the ground nd dropped the flag.

“Blue Flag Carrier down!” the same voice boomed.

I ran to him and grabbed the flag, an enemy pony appeared and I pelted him with paintballs as I continued towards our base.

I reached the our flag just in time as several dozen paintballs shattered the windows and colored the walls of the building I was in.

I crawled to the flag placement as raised the Blue Flag, immediately after an alarm sounded, signaling a victory for Drizzle and I.

“Blue Team Wins,” the voice boomed, I felt my body be teleported back by the same unicorn’s magic.

I looked around me, most of the ponies were hit several times, some (including Style) had some blood mixed in with the paint. i was the only pony on my team that had not been hit, surprisingly there were two on the Red team that had not been hit as well.

“Congrats Blue Team,” the unicorn said to us as Drizzle and I took off our CTF gear and headed for another station.

He and I went through FFA, where he single hoofedly eliminated everypony, and then to survival, where he and I survived the longest against animated manakin ponies wielding paintball launchers.

In the end, he and I were covered in different colors of paint, ranging from the darkest blue to the lightest pink, which Drizzle loved.

We exited the paintball arena about ten minutes to closing time, we met Peachy and Endings in the common area, and now we were waiting on Scootaloo and Red.

The two fillies looked so in love, it was almost funny, they kept looking at each other differently than they had been earlier, as if something had happened at the concert.

Ch. 19 Concert

(Peachy's POV)

"C'mon Happy! Let's see who's playing!" I said excitedly as I darted ahead of her.

"Definitely!" She matched my pace as we moved down a very wide, very tall hallway.

We walked around the section of hallways for awhile, making zero progress.

"You think they'd have this more easily accessible." Happy pondered.

"Totally." I agreed.

The two of us, after searching for what felt like several minutes, reached a small door that read 'STAFF ONLY'. I stopped dead in my tracks and Happy ran right into me, knocking us both to the ground. I settled into a position where i half sad on my haunches and half on my stomach.

"What do we do now?" I asked, looking from her to the sign posted.

"We have an adventure." She said as she rose up and offered me a hoof.

"I don't know if that's a good idea...what if we're caught?" I said uneasily.

"We're lost,what's the worst that could happen?" Her rhetorical question worried me.

Happy poked the door with her hoof, but it didn't budge. She looked at the lock and smiled.

"Hey Peachy, do you know how to do lock spells?"

"I think so, why?" I looked at her, turning my head to the side.

"This door has a magical lock on it, and I'm no good with this type of magic. Try it!" She backed away from the door, allowing me to fit my horn into the "key-hole".

After a few moments of concentrating my magic to examine each part of the lock, and then moving the individual mechanisms, the door clicked. I backed away and it opened slightly.

"Nice! Where'd you learn that?" Happy said, amazed.

"Well, I had to do a play one time where i was a robber, so I had to learn locksmith basics so that I could deliver my best performance!" I said happily.

"That's really cool," Happy said as she hugged me and then opened the door.

The door opened into a room filled with tons of overhanging wires and very dim light. Happy and I moved in closer to each other as we walked through the room to another doorway. This one was unlocked, s naturally we just walked through it into the next room.

I found a light switch on the wall beside the door, Happy had already wondered off by the time the lights came on. She turned around a corner and I followed.

"Wow..." Happy said as she inhaled in astonishment.

"Yeah." I agreed.

The two of us had stumbled into a room that held equipment for the entire complex. We saw dozens of everything the place needed:

Chairs

Tables

Full Music Racks

Cushions

Paint

Tons of Promotional Equipment

"Check this out!" Happy called as I walked over to her. I looked over and there was a massive robotic dragon in front of her, it was grey and you could see the bolts protruding from its metallic skin.

There was a flash of light and Happy reappeared atop the massive machine.

"Help! Help! For I have been captured by this awful east!" Happy giggled her Maiden in distress voice.

"Don't worry!" i giggled, "I shall save you from this dragon!"

"Be gone foul creature!" I waved an invisible sword at the machine.

Happy smiled openly as I leaped from one stack of supplies to the next. I jumped onto the dragons arm and the pile of chair behind me toppled and fell. The crash was loud as it was nearly a 20 hoof drop.

Happy looked over the side of the dragon with a look of horror, one that was quickly relieved as she saw that i was okay. She watched as I leapt ever closer to her.

"I will destroy you, beast!" I made a final leap towards Happy.

I landed beside her atop the dragon's head. I stomped a few times to ensure that the beast was indeed slain.

"My hero!" Happy shouted.

"M'lady,"I sad as I lightly held her face with my hoof.

I felt a chill go up my spine as she put a hoof to mine as well. I looked into her eyes as our mouths neared each other.

As our lips touched, my eyes went wide with amazement. there was s much passion and feeling behind it.I wanted it to last forever, but after a few, very intense moments Happy broke the kiss.

"Peachy?" Happy said solemnly.

"Yeah?" I looked back at her.

"I know I've only known you a few short days, but..." She broke off.

"Yes?" I asked hopefully.

"I think i love you." Happy blushed.

I smiled, I moved her head to face mine as I spoke,

"I love you too."

I kissed just as she had done to me not a minute before, and I could tell her eyes were wide open with delight. Her smile almost broke the kiss before i did.

"Now, as much as i hate to say it, I think we've been gone way too long. We need to get back to the group." I said halfheartedly.

"Yeah, I know what to do!" she grabbed my hand and teleported the two of us to the ground below the dragon.

"There's no reason that we have to hurry you know." I said smoothly as we passed from the supply room back through the dim room and then finally into the hallway that first entered us into the complex.

We walked slowly back into the lobby, where surprisingly, nobody was waiting. We sat on one of the benches and nuzzled each other. After awhile, Drizzle and Postal emerged from the paintball arena.

"Hey guys!" Happy called.

"Hey ladies!" Drizzle said as he and Postal sat a bench next to us.

"Guys?" Postal questioned.

"What?" I looked over to him, along with Drizzle and Happy.

"The skate park closed 15 minutes ago, where are Red and Scoots?"

"Outside?" Drizzle suggested as he looked out the glass doors and windows. We all shuffled outside.

After looking around for awhile, I spotted Scootaloo and Red, perched on a cloud very high up in the sky. They looked to be doing something;

Kissing.

Ch. 8 Day 2 Morning.

Once Peachy finished crying, she climbed on my back and I flew us to my room, hopefully we'd get there Red. Peachy was on the verge of sleeping when i was in the air, I felt her breath on my fur as the air outside grew colder with the dew finally setting in on the ground below.

As the dormitory came within sight, I suddenly felt myself get just as tired as she was. I glided right up to the front door and then I half carried her up the stairs. Once in my room, she laid on the bed and almost instantly fell asleep. I looked over to see that Red's bed was still empty.

I moved Peachy over a little and crawled into bed next to her and I looked out of the window: The sky was still dark, but a light blue and pink area was becoming visible on the horizon directly in front of my window. I looked at the clock beside my bed,

4:00 a.m.

I laid my head down and, like Peachy, fell asleep almost instantly. i can't remember if I dreamed or not, but I slept for almost 6 hours before I was woken up by a hoof to the nose.

I shot out of my sleeping position, only to see Red in front of me, suppressing a laugh with his hoof.

"Red! Why did you poke my nose?" i half whispered.

"Why did you follow me last night?" Red smiled deviously.

My face went pale, and I'm not even sure if my coat covered it, but after a few seconds of silence, I spoke,

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Haha Scootaloo, I saw you and Peachy there last night, went in through the roof to avoid the security did we?" He joked.

'What?" i hoped me playing dumb would help avoid the subject.

"Scootaloo, you came down to the basement, you watched my last song." He did have a point, and there was not a point of even trying to get out of this.

"Okay, we followed you, we just wanted to see where you were going, and we were very very bored." I finally gave up, he wouldn't do anything.

"Wasn't so hard now,was it?" He put on a half smile as he looked out the window.

"Oh shut up." I teased.

"Well, did you at least like what you saw?" Red questioned whilst he headed for the shower.

"Actually, I liked all of the things you did underground." I said, hoping not to sound too...ish.

"Great, maybe you can some with me next week." He closed the bathroom door and I heard the shower turn on before I could answer.

"Yeah, that'd be great." I said to myself, knowing he could't hear me.

I spun around to look at Peachy. She was still laying on the bed in the same position as i put her last night. I figured that i better wake her up so she doesn't get screwed by sleeping habits right before school was supposed to start. I walked over to her and nudged her shoulder, she moved her other foreleg to swat me away.

"Ooh.." I said, this should be fun.

I used one of my wings and slowly edged it to her face. When it was about to touch, i aimed at her nose. Me tickling her nose caused her to very quickly punch herself in the face and fall out of bed,essentially waking her up.

Success.

She jumped to her hooves and looked at me with the thoughts of sleep still in here eyes.

"Morning sleepyhead." I said cheerfully.

"Why'd you wake me up? I've been asleep for like an hour." Peachy rubbed her eyes.

"You've been asleep for six hours.." I said as a matter of factly.

"It felt like only an hour." Peachy said, looking out of the open window.

"Tell me about it, i basically carried you home from the cloud."

"Thanks Scoots." Peachy said, hugging me.

"No problem." I said as we broke the hug.

"Well, what do you want to do today?" Peachy asked.

"After I take a shower I'm going to see who that mare yesterday was, and then I'm going to go flying." I said, waiting by the bathroom door to take a shower.

"Sounds great, I'm going to go to the theatre and catch a couple rehearsals. Once that's over I'll probably just go around the club fair that is supposed to end today." Peachy said, the sleepiness finally starting to leave her voice.

"I might go to that too, what do you say, lunch?" i offered.

"Yeah, what time?" Peachy said cheerfully.

"Umm, let's do 1." I said as the shower stopped.

"Okay, Starswirl Student Union?" Peachy questioned.

"Yep."

Red walked out of the bathroom, he was nearly dry, all except for his mane, which for some reason wasn't dipping water. Red noticed that we were staring and he took the towel laid over his back and dried his mane.

"Shower is all yours." He said as i closed the bathroom door.

I turned on the water and let the cold stream that Red used turn much warmer for my liking. Once it did so, the water flowed through my fur and mane, dropping my mane over my face.

I reached over and put some shampoo in my mane and coat, rubbing it so that I would soon be covered in bubbles. After a few seconds, the amount of bubbles on me showed to be far too little. i rubbed around more and more until there was a near seven feet tall pile of bubbles around and on me.

I let the warm water rinse me off and the bubbles away and down the drain. It took almost a minute to them to disappear, and once they did, I turned off the shower. the water stooped pouring and i opened the shower curtain and grabbed a towel.

I dried myself off and walked outside of the bathroom. When I got out there Red wasn't there and Peachy was watching the TV above my bed.

"Shower is all yours." I said, she bounced out of bed and walked to the bathroom.

"I don't have my shampoo." Peachy realized.

"You can use mine." I said, "When you're done, close the room door after you leave, I'm going to head to the dance studio."

"No problem." She said, then I heard the shower start up.

i closed my dorm door and once again, glided down the stairwell and out of the door in the lobby. Today there were hundreds of ponies along the paths and in the noel in the center,many of them either attending or on their way to the club fair. I flew up to cloud level while I was looking for the dance studio.

There were dozens of pegasi flying around in the sky, some watching the grounds below, some racing, and some sitting on clouds, talking. Not long after I started flying did i actually reach the dance studio.

I walked through the open doors and walked to the information desks and found a 'Know your teacher' pamphlet. I opened it to show seven different dancing instructors.

I looked for the black mane, white coat, and golden eyes, yet I couldn't find them in the pamphlet. I flipped over the pamphlet and saw here, Madame Ceili, she was the overall coordinator and year 1 and 6 teacher, great.I set the pamphlet down and walked out of the building. Finding information about her would be easier than i thought.

I heard the bell tower from across campus, i listened to the number of chimes it sounded.

ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding

Eleven, I still had two hours to go around campus before i was supposed to meet Peachy for lunch. I took off and flew towards the skies, looking for something to do.

We never did say we would go to the club fain together, I guessed i could go there. I touched down in the middle of the hundreds of ponies who were shuffling around the dozens of clubs. I looked around, there were singing groups, dancing groups, movie making groups, and even groups about sports teams like the Canterlot Colts or The Mustangs.

As i walked by one of the singing groups, I saw a larger mare talking to two skinny mares.

"You call yourself fat pony?" the leader, and the skinnier one, questioned.

"Yeah, so twig bitches like you can't say it behind my back." the larger pony....Fat Pony responded.

I continued looking around the large fair, i even saw the marching and concert bands were trying to recruit ponies for their own. I passed most of the clubs with no interest, right up until i saw a club that I figured i would hate so much that i would love it. The FAA spirit club.

I decided to sign up without anypony noticing and I walked off to meet Peachy at the theatre instead of the Student Union. In total I had signed up for one club, not bad for a first year here.