Friday, November 20, 2015

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Today's Horoscope (Virgo): Today you will realize the impact you have on the lives of those close to you.

Early Morning

Tomorrow is Rainbow Dash's birthday. The fourth Zodiac Shadow...

Will we run into that other Persona user again?

...will we find out whether or not it's Sunset Shimmer...?

After School

Tennis practice...

Coach hustles up to us. "Alright everybody, listen up!" she calls. "I've got the results of the vote." She smiles. "Congratulations, Pommel. You're the new team captain."

Coco gasps, covering her mouth with her hands. Everybody applauds.

Coach claps loudly for attention. "I'll be getting Pommel settled in today. Guys, pair off for singles practice. Girls, drills. You know the routine. Let's go!"

After a long, tiring practice, Coco walks up to me. The others are congratulating her and patting her on the back as they head to the lockers.

"Congratulations," I say.

"Thanks," Coco says. "I'm a little nervous, but..." She smiles. "I owe this all to you. You've...you've really helped me." She looks up at the sky. "Just a couple months ago, I...I didn't have any confidence. I let other people push me around."

"You just needed someone to believe in you," I say.

"Someone to believe in me..." Coco echoes. She nods. "You believed in me, even though I didn't believe in myself...I just want to thank you for that." She wrings her hands. "I still don't know for sure what I'll do after high school and college, but..." She shrugs. "You've helped me realize that...that I don't have to..." She looks at me. "That I don't have to hide away from other people. That I can stand up and face the world. That nobody can walk all over me unless I let them. And I'm not going to let people walk all over me ever again.

"Oh! There's something I wanted to give you." Coco rummages through her sport bag, producing a pair of dark blue tennis gloves. "I noticed you play without gloves...you'll probably need these soon. The weather's getting colder, and the boys' season runs through the coldest part of winter." She smiles. "Besides, it's better to play with gloves anyway..."

Now that I think about it, I've noticed Coco wearing gloves lately... "Thank you," I say, accepting the gloves. "You really shouldn't have..."

"Oh, it's nothing," she says, blushing. "It's the least I can do after all you've done for me." She gives me a sudden, fierce hug, then backs away.

---

"Good luck tomorrow!" Coco says, waving as she heads off. I put the gloves in my bag, shower and change, then head back to the dorm.

Evening

Rainbow Dash is in high spirits about her birthday tomorrow. I can tell Twilight and Pinkie Pie are apprehensive.

After dinner, I pull the two of them aside. "The attack could happen during the tennis match," I say quietly. "Be on your guard."

They nod. "But...we'll all still be in the same place, right?" Pinkie asks. "I mean, we'll be at the school watching the match..."

"You'll get pulled into Zodiac with us if it happens, right?" Twilight asks.

"As far as I know," I say. "But we won't have our weapons, and I'll be separated from the group. I don't...I don't want you to have to fight without me."

Twilight squeezes my hand. "We'll be fine. Whatever happens, we'll hold out until you can reach us."

I decide to go to bed early, because tomorrow's going to be a busy day. Just as I've finished stripping down to my boxers, my door opens, and Celestia peeks in. "I hope I'm not dis...turbing...oh," she says.

I hastily grab some pants and a shirt from the closet and throw them on. "Come on in," I say.

"I'm sorry, I should've knocked first," Celestia says. "I just...wanted to tell you something important."

"Don't worry about it," I say. "What's up?"

Celestia sits down in my desk chair and looks down at her lap. "I...can no longer ignore the evidence that Sunset Shimmer is involved in the recent incidents at CHS," she says.

"What happened?"

Celestia grimaces. "What I'm about to tell you...you're not to repeat to anyone. Especially not any of the girls here." I nod. She takes a deep breath. "You're familiar with a freshman by the name of Snails, correct?"

I nod. "He's one of Sunset Shimmer's flunkies."

"He was caught leaving one of the girls' restrooms at the school this evening," Celestia says. "He was installing miniature surveillance cameras."

Holy shit...!

"Luna and I interrogated him thoroughly. He was nervous, of course...anyone would be, under the circumstances." Celestia frowns. "Luna asked him straight out if he had been coerced by another student. Then we had to explain to him what 'coerced' means."

I snort.

"Luna dropped Sunset Shimmer's name directly after that. She told him that all he had to do was implicate her, and he wouldn't be expelled from school." She looks down. "He insisted he was acting alone, that he just wanted to watch girls using the bathroom, and accepted expulsion."

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Of course."

"Ordinarily, that would have been the end of it, but..." Celestia looks up. "When Luna tried to get him to rat out Sunset Shimmer, I saw real fear in his eyes. And it wasn't because of us, or because of the trouble he's in. He's afraid of her." She shakes her head. "Unfortunately, because he confessed to planting cameras for his own enjoyment and wouldn't implicate Sunset Shimmer, my hands are still tied. I can't do anything except watch and wait." She looks me in the eye. "But I wanted you to know...all this time, you've been right to suspect that girl, and I see that now."

She stands to leave. When she reaches the door, however, she pauses. "Oh, and what Luna said, about me looking at Sunset Shimmer and seeing her at that age? She's wrong. That's not it at all. It isn't because she reminds me of my sister...it's because I genuinely want to believe everybody is a good person at heart. Even though I know how naive that is."

Once she's gone, I strip back down to my boxers and crawl into bed, mind whirling.

Sunset Shimmer was really going to go that far...?

What power does she have over Snips and Snails, that Snails took the fall for her?