New Kids

"I don't want to do this." Applejack muttered, arms crossed firmly over her chest. Fitted in tight, jean shorts and an even tighter tank top, she looked pretty - in a simple, country girl sort of way. Her thick braid hung over her shoulder, the tip held in her right hand. If one were to pay close enough attention, they'd notice the way her fingers ground into it. It wasn't that AJ didn't want to do this; it was that she was a little bit afraid to do this. Not that she'd ever admit it.

Beside her, her brother shifted. To him, she would never have to admit it, because he just knew. He cocked his head to side, almost lazily, listening to the whispers behind them. His own blond hair fell into his face, but he didn't bother to push it back.

Big Mac - or Mac, as her family called him - was wearing faded blue jeans and a white top with a plaid sweatshirt tossed on over it. Loose and un-tucked from his pants, he imagined he did look like a - as the snobbish girl across from him said - country bumpkin. He didn't particularly care though. Half lidded green eyes slid to his younger sister and slowly, he raised an eyebrow. "Don't got much of a choice now do we?" He rumbled in a deep voice.

He looked closer to twenty three than seventeen, but no. He was still a high school boy, and despite his "slow" appearance, a pretty damned smart one too.

"I can't believe they're making us do this." Their youngest sister, Apple Bloom, chirped from behind them. Carelessly, she reared onto her knees, leaning over the back of their seat and in between them. Her bow was beginning to flop as it always did after she started playing with it. It was a familiar sight, one that soothed AJ's frayed nerves.

Crimson bangs tickled at Mac's shoulder. "S'not fair. We was doin' real well right where we was."

"Were." AJ corrected automatically, grimacing at how much she sounded like Granny Smith. "We were doing really good where we were." She added in a mutter, cheeks flushing hotly as the same snobbish girl who called Mac a country bumpkin twisted to sneer at the sibling trio.

Eleven year old Apple Bloom dug her fingers into the collar of her hand-me-down dress. AJ had always been fond of that dress, but at sixteen, her body had filled out too much to fit into it. That was the dress Granny Smith had made her for her eleventh birthday. It was red gingham, the bow around her waist matching the one in Bloom's hair.

They were going to a new school. It wasn't the new school that bothered them. It was the fact that this school wasn't in their dinky bit of a ghost town - the town that only survived thanks to their apple orchard. No, it was an hour and a half bus ride away in a larger town. A town that they considered a city.
Granny Smith said they used to sell their apples there, when AJ and Mac were just babes. But this town had big grocery stores that sold hundreds of different types of apples. They had no use for the Apple Family's Apple's any longer.

Granny Smith said they'd get a better education here, like the kids from the next town over. AJ shot the snobbish girl a dirty look. She was from the next town over, where they had two clothing factories, an orchard and a big, big bakery. The kids from there were better off.

Still, Granny had asked them to go, and go they would, even if - like so many other young folk from their area - they had no intention of continuing school past grade twelve. They all had little family businesses that scraped them by, that they knew inside and out.

As they passed the city line, Bloom gasped and pushed her face against the window. "Wow, AJ, do you see that?"

Under his breath, Mac chuckled. It was fifteen more minutes before the school bus pulled up. There were two separate buildings - one from kindergarten to grade eight, where Bloom would be going, and the other from grade nine to twelve. Where AJ and Mac would be going.

It was the first time they'd ever been separated and, excitement gone, the color drained from Bloom's face.

"We'll have lunch together." AJ said, swallowing her own worry. She had to be strong. Not for herself and not for Mac because lord knows her brother was strong enough for all of them, but for her sister; her sister who looked up to her, who thought of her as a hero. "I promise." She added hastily, before the girl could ask.

They waited until the bus was fully unloaded before Mac stood. He excited, hunched over a bit so his head didn't hit the ceiling. AJ and Bloom followed, albeit at a slower pace. Neither wanted to leave the safety of the bus, to have to face what would be their new school, so far away from home in case anything went wrong, in case Granny Smith needed them.

Standing in front of his sisters protectively, acting as a shield to the gawking faces of the other students, Mac pulled Bloom into a light hug. She burrowed her face against her brother's midsection and softly, he murmured that it'd all be okay. Reluctantly, he let his youngest sister go, watching as she dragged herself to the smaller school on the left.

Taking a deep breath and steeling himself for the taunts that he was sure were to come, he nodded at AJ. "You ready then?"

Glancing around and repeating her mantra of gotta be strong she blond nodded. Yeah, she was ready. Bring it on.

ZZZ

Not a single person had talked to her since they had entered the school, and she was pretty okay with that. If they just ignored her, she could go about her day, get good grades, and focus on getting home to her Granny and her apples.

They all seemed more occupied with whispering about someone named Rainbow Dash who appeared to be rather infamous. AJ didn't know the person, obviously, but what she gathered was that Rainbow Dash was a force to be reckoned with. Someone you scuttled by in the halls.

Apparently Rainbow Dash had been off sick, and was now back. Great. Just Great. AJ thought.
If one were to encounter Rainbow Dash, they should bow their head, keep silent, and turn in the opposite direction. Or so she'd heard, anyway. Maybe this Rainbow Dash fellow wasn't someone AJ needed to worry about. These girls all seemed afraid of their own shadows. Not to mention the gasp spider that had been in her English classroom.

Although...some of the boys did seem a bit frightened of the scary Rainbow Dash. Oh well, she thought, It's not like I can't handle my own. Plus no one'd be dumb enough to start anything with Big Mac around.
She had seen the way the hallways parted and cleared out when her insanely huge - yet oh so gentle - brother passed through. No. No one would be dumb enough to bug her around Big Mac. That and she had grown up as a working girl. AJ was certain she could hold her own. She was done thinking about it.

Slamming her locker with a thud, AJ hoisted her backpack over her shoulder and turned towards where she remembered the front doors being.

"Hi! You're new here! I've never seen you yet, so that means you're new because I know everybody and I mean everybody" The girl chirped. She was shorter than AJ, but standing on the tips of her toes so they were pretty even. "My names Pinkie Pie, what's yours? I like your eyes they're puuuuuuuuuuurdy." She was tilting her head to the side, so far so that AJ thought it might end up being upside down. Vaguely, she was reminded of the old barn owl that had taken roost in one of their apple trees.

"AJ?"

"Hey Mac." She said without thinking, mind still working over time in an attempt to process what the girl - Pinkie Pie - was saying. "This is Pinkie." She added, hoping that another new face would distract the girl.

It didn't.

"So you wanna have lunch with us? Huh? Huh? Huh? Do ya?"

"Us?" AJ asked wearily, stepping backwards into Mac's space. He settled a hand over the curve of her shoulder, and she could feel him shaking with silent laughter. His stoic mask never left his face.

"Yeah, us, silly! The giiiirls." She dragged the word out, eyes widening with each passing i.

"Uuh. What girls?"

"My girls!" Pinkie laughed, grabbing AJ's hand. The blond nearly flinched, not used to anyone aside from Bloom touching her.

"I promised my sister I'd eat lunch with her. She's a grade six." AJ hoped that the mentions of younger folk - so uncool - would deter Pinkie Pie.

It didn't.

"Oh that's fine! That's great, actually! The more the merrier, and Sweetie Belle will have someone to talk to then." Pinkie gushed, tugging insistently on AJ's hand.

Unable to help it, AJ laughed and nodded. "All right, s'long as you don't mind this eye sore tagging along." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder, pointing at her brother. In retaliation, he swatted her in the back of the head.

She growled and gave him a glare but he shoved at her shoulder, pushing her closer to Pinkie.

"Oh don't worry, I'm sure no one will mind. Well, come on then silly! We only have fifty minutes for lunch, don't want to waste it by not eating!"

Shrugging, AJ followed the girl outside.

It was a five minute walk around the school to the back, where a small group of girls had gathered. The picnic table they sat at was atop a little hill that over looked the track shared by both schools.

"AJ!"

"C'mon over Bloom!" She hollered at her sister, grinning as the girl broke into a dead run. Bloom attached to her sisters free arm, eyeing Pinkie's hand cautiously. The nails were painted cotton candy pink, yellow and blue balloon stickers on each one. "Who -"

"Pinkie Pie! I have math with AJ and I thought I'd say hi cause it didn't seem like she had any friends and everyone deserves to have friends and oh - Hi everyone this is Applejack, Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom!"

How in the heck Pinkie Pie knew all their names, AJ didn't know. And she would never find out, either.

The three other girls waved, the one with light pink hair shrinking down against the dark, dark, purple haired girls side.

"Pink hair is Fluttershy, dark hair is Rarity, and last but not least, Twilight Sparkle." Pinkie introduced. She seemed almost...calmer?...around the other girls, as if they presented enough of a distraction that her mind had to actually slow down for a change.

Smiling awkwardly, AJ waved. Mac simply sat at the end of the table and pulled out his home packed lunched. Ham sandwich, slice of apple pie, a - haha granny, so punny, he muttered - big macintosh apple, and a slice of brownie. AJ and Bloom knew they had the same thing.

"Oh, oh, oh!" Pinkie jumped on the table, one hand flying to Mac's head to keep her standing. "Go Dashie! Go!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, ignoring how Rarity smacked her leg with a textbook when she nearly trampled her delicate looking salad.

"Pinkie." Twilight sighed, exasperated. She gave AJ a sympathetic look. "Sit down and stop climbing on everything."

"Awwh, Twilight. You're no fun." She whined, dropping to sit where she had been standing. Mac pulled his apple pie a little closer in fear of it being crushed and becoming inedible.

"Who's Dashie?" AJ asked, thinking that perhaps with Pinkie Pie, no question was a stupid question.

"She's on the track, she's my bestest best friend in the whole wide world." Pinkie said, eyes never leaving the running girl.

"Oh."

"Mhm! Do you like sports or anything?"

AJ shrugged "Usually I don't have time for that sorta stuff."

"Why not?" Rarity asked, forkful of lettuce halfway to her mouth. She was staring at the slice of apple pie hungrily.

"Usually workin'. Our family runs an apple orchard, always stuff to do." She explained.

"Rarity?" The voice was sweet and innocent, so AJ turned to stare at the new comer. Her skin was pale, as if she'd never spent a day in the sun and her hair...it hung in gentle, whispy curls around her face, streaked the softest looking pink and purple. "You don't mind?" She asked, eyeing the Apple siblings as she held up her own lunch box.

"No, come on Sweetie Belle, sit down." Rarity patted the spot beside her and Fluttershy, who hadn't yet spoken, shifted over to make room. "This is AJ, her brother Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom."

"You can call me Bloom, and him Mac, we don't mind." Bloom was putting on her fiercest face, not wanting to seem weak in front of another student.

Sweetie merely smiled at her. "Hi. I'm Sweetie Belle, Rarity's little sister. It's great to meet you!" She thrust a hand across the table, which Bloom took, keenly aware of the muck under her own nails when they were compared to Sweetie's gorgeous french manicure.

"Oh, ah...Hi?"

"The hell's this?"

Growing dizzy from all the new people and spinning, AJ turned once more. She came face to face with a pair of breasts and tilted her head back to stare up at the person who owned said breasts.

Loose shorts, baggy t-shirt, worn out sneakers and hands on her hips. Her hair fell straight around her lightly tanned face, a rainbow of colors visible. Around her neck hung a pendant. A storm cloud with a rainbow streaked lightning bolt coming out of it. Pierced ears, pierced nose, pierced eyebrow, AJ knew who this had to be.

Pinkie Pie's cheer confirmed it.

"Rainbow!"

This was the one she'd heard whispered about in the school hallways all day.

This was Rainbow Dash.