Chapter 4- Puzzle Pieces
Chris woke with a start. He looked around his new room as the events of the day before caught up with him. Meeting Bloom and the Elements, his battle with Nightmare and subsequent initiation into the Resistance. Even when Sweetie showed him to the mess hall for dinner after the match…. Chris shook his head and got out of bed. He didn’t have a clock in his room, so he hoped he had gotten up at the right time. He walked over to his closet and opened the door before pulling out one of the drawers below the hanging space. In it were his red shirt, dark pants, and a single pair of socks. Chris let out a sigh.
I’m going to have to find some new clothes, he thought to himself, taking out the outfit and walking towards the bathroom. He got changed quickly and groomed himself. He left the bathroom and sat on the edge of his bed, putting his boots on. He finished, standing up and walking over to the closet again to grab his jacket. As he approached the door to make his way to the mess hall, someone knocked from the outside.
He had a puzzled look on his face as he opened the door to reveal Rainbow Dash in a pair gray of sweatpants, a blue tank top, and some white running shoes. “Nice to see you wake up early,” Dash quipped, giving him a bit of a sour look. “Here.” She held out a stack of papers for him to take. “These are your training regiment, a basic day-to-day schedule for the castle, and request forms for anything you might need or want. Within reason, of course.”
“Thanks, Dash,” he thanked her, taking the papers from her and flipping through them. He stopped at the last packet, concern crossing his face. “Hey, Dash?”
“Hm?” She asked, turning to face him after trying to walk away.
“What’s this one for?” He asked, holding up the bundle in question.
“Oh, that,” Rainbow responded in a bored manner. “That’s for your interview later.”
“What interview?”
“You know, that interview Nightmare mentioned before when she talked about your ‘tests.’”
“Oh, that,” Chris said, suddenly remembering the whole conversation. “Any idea who’s going to conduct my interview?”
“No idea,” Rainbow replied, shrugging her shoulders. “All I know is that it’ll be one of the Councilors.”
This gave Chris reason to pause. “Man, I really should have asked Sweetie Belle more questions during dinner,” Chris stated, rubbing his neck. He walked out of his room and closed the door before he began picking Dash’s brain. “Who’re the Councilors?”
“Geez, you really don’t know anything, do you?” Dash scoffed, turning to walk down the hallway. “There’s one Councilor for each race in the Resistance. Earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, a few minotaurs and griffons, some diamond dogs, the changelings, even a couple of dragons are all a part of the Resistance.”
“Wow, you guys really came together when Mondo attacked, didn’t you?”
“Psh, I wish,” Dash replied, crossing her arms. “Maybe if we had, Equestria, heck, all of Equis, would be a lot better off. Instead, we all tried to fight it out ourselves.” Rainbow moved her arms from a crossed position to holding herself. “King Mondo tore us all apart, one at a time. It wasn’t until a few years after he arrived that the different races finally got organized.”
Chris frowned morously. “I’m sorry to hear all that.” They walked along the corridor in silence, Dash keeping herself withdrawn.
“Hey, Dash?”
Rainbow looked up at Chris to see his face set in stone. The look would have frightened her, but instead, it put a warm feeling in her chest.
“I know we didn’t get off on the right foot, but,” he lifted his fist and stared at his morpher, “I promise I’ll do all I can to put your world back on track. I was given this power for a reason, and I’ll be verdammt before I squander it.”
Dash just stared at him for a while. She didn’t know why, but she believed him. After so long, she felt the one thing that had been covered by all her anger and contempt; hope. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks as they continued down the hall. “Yeah, yeah,” Dash said, smiling and dispersing the blush on her cheeks. “Don’t get too ahead of yourself.”
Chris chuckled in response, oblivious to Rainbow Dash’s reaction to his words. “Yeah, can’t do much of anything on an empty stomach.” They walked for a few more minutes until they entered the mess hall and walked towards the line, grabbing a metal tray and silverware off a nearby cart. They walked through the line, grabbing a few items before they got to the main course consisting of pancakes, hash and hay browns, and sausage for the carnivores of the Resistance. Rainbow went before Chris, holding her tray out to the server, Heavy Ladle, a cream-colored pegasus with a lightish blue mane in a basic server’s uniform. Ladle took the plate and piled it high with pancakes, handing Dash back the tray with a smile. When Chris slid in after Rainbow, the smile on Ladle’s face disappeared and was instead replaced with a stern look.
“You.”
“Me?” Chris blanched, staring wide-eyed at the mare.
“Yes, you,” she replied, pointing a metal spatula at him. “One serving. And ONLY one!”
He gulped in response. “Y-yes, ma’am.”
Ladle gave a small nod. “Good,” she said, taking the tray from his outstretched hands. “Now, what would you like?”
“Um,” Chris hummed, getting over the shock. “Just a little of everything?”
“Even the hay browns?” she asked, raising an eyebrow as she put pancakes on his tray. “Most carnivores don’t like them.”
“Well, if I don’t try’em, I’ll never know,” he replied with a shrug.
“That’s a good answer,” Ladle said, placing the hay browns on the tray and passing it back to him. “Have a nice day.”
“You, too,” he replied before turning and walking away. Dash had waited patiently for Chris to end his encounter with the intimidating lunch mare.
“Given ya trouble?” She asked with a chuckle as Chris approached.
“Not a whole lot,” Chris replied, shaking his head as they walked towards an empty table. “She is kinda scary, though. But that’s my fault, really.”
“How so?” Rainbow asked as they made it to the table and sat down across from each other.
“Let’s just say I went a little overboard at dinner last night,” Chris said simply, covering his pancakes with the syrup provided on the table.
“What did you do?” Rainbow pressed, taking the syrup as Chris passed it to her.
“I, uh, ate several trays of food.”
Dash paused with her fork halfway to her mouth. “How did you even manage that?” She asked, giving him a puzzled look.
“Apparently, I was just as starved as I was dehydrated when Sweetie Belle and the others brought me in. According to Sweetie, Apple Bloom estimates that I was out for at least a few days.”
“Huh, weird,” was the colorful pegasus said in response before going back to her pancakes.
“I know,” Chris said, getting ready to take a bite of the hay browns, “and it felt almost instantaneous to me.”
“Not that,” Dash said, waving her hand. “The fact that, despite all that, you were able to hold your own against Nightmare Moon as long as you did.”
“Ah,” Chris responded, the fork with hay browns frozen in midair. “I’ve always had amazing endurance. Just ask my track-and-field coach.” He finally took the bite of hay browns he’d been holding and munched them for a bit. His face turned into one of silent dislike as he swallowed. “Note to self,” he said, taking a drink of water. “No more hay browns. Want’em?” He asked Rainbow, pointing his fork at the dish.
“No thanks,” Dash replied, digging into her fourth pancake.
“I’ll take them if you want.”
Chris looked up to find Sunset and the other Elements approaching.
“Yeah, sure,” he replied, waiting for everyone to sit down before passing Sunset his tray. She scrapped the hay browns on top of her own and gave his plate back. Sunset and Sweetie sat on either side of Chris, Pinkie taking the seat between Sunset and Rainbow while Mac and Fluttershy filled in the last two chairs between Sweetie and Rainbow.
“So, Chris,” Sunset began, digging into her double portion of browned food. “How’re you liking it here?”
“It’s actually kind of… I don’t know, calming?” He replied, scrunching his brow to think of the right word. “Like, I feel more complete here than I’ve ever felt…. I feel at home.” He looked up to see everypony staring at him with different expressions on their faces, some of surprise or shock, others of respect.
Finally, Sunset let out a small chuckle. “I can only hope you can stay that optimistic.” Her face darkened. “War has a way of changing everyone.”
The faces around the table darkened as heads bowed. Chris looked around at the downcast faces surrounding him, slowly chewing through a bite of sausage. He continued like this for a while before he finally reached Sweetie’s face directly to his left. She looked the worst of everypony at the table, tears forming in her eyes. Chris swallowed hard, letting out a sigh afterward.
“Nope.”
This simple statement shocked everypony out of the stupor. However, it seemed to have the most profound effect on Sunset. She whipped her head around to stare at Chris. “What did you say?”
“I said ‘Nope,’” Chris replied, shrugging and going in for a bite of his pancakes.
Sunset only continued to stare him, dumbfounded. “Wh-What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means,” Chris began, swallowing his pancakes and washing them down with water. “That it doesn’t change everyone.”
“How can you say that?” Sunset demanded, gritting her teeth. “Everyone here has lost something. A home, a lifestyle, a loved one. Tell me, how can that not change someone?”
“That’s not war.” Chris’s usually relaxed face warped into something much more severe. He moved his arms to rest his elbows on the table and folded his hands in front of his chin. “That’s life. Life changes you. Life will take everything you love, everything you believe, and throw it away. It will knock you over and kick you while you’re down. Life is what causes loss. War is simply a tool life uses to continue its cruel regime of taking without giving back.” He looked up to stare Sunset in her eyes. “War… is just an excuse.”
Sunset visibly flinched under his gaze. “Chris….”
Everypony stared at the scene before them, none of them daring to break the silence that formed. Suddenly, Chris smiled and went back to eating. “Besides, you can’t change if you don’t want to.” Everypony blinked at this sudden change in demeanor. It was almost like he had never acted that way.
“Could someone pass the salt?” He asked, pointing to the shaker. Everypony shared a look before Pinkie passed Chris the seasoning.
Chris and Sweetie Belle walked down the hallways of the Castle of Two Sisters, Chris completely relaxed while Sweetie was somewhat tense. Chris’s strange outburst at breakfast had left her stunned, making her rethink what she thought she knew about the man. He carried himself in such a carefree way, and yet, she could feel something else. She kept stealing glances at him, observing the content clear on his face.
“Hey, Sweetie?” He suddenly asked, turning his head to look at her.
Sweetie was caught off guard by the sudden action and turned away quickly with a blush. “I’m sorry,” Sweetie apologized.
“Hm? Oh. Don’t worry about it. I’m used to people staring,” he replied, giving a nonchalant shrug. “But, can I ask you a question?”
“Oh. Yeah, sure,” Sweetie Belle said, her blush deepening from her mistake.
Chris looked forward again and sighed before asking his question. “What exactly is the situation when it comes to the war? How is the Resistance doing against Mondo?” He looked back at her, concern written all over his face.
Sweetie looked surprised at the unexpected question before frowning at the floor. “Honestly,” she sighed, “we’re not doing very well. King Mondo and his compatriots have control over most of Equestria, and even some territories and countries outside our borders. The only place that’s really safe is here in the Everfree. Thanks to Nightmare Moon’s magic, the forest works in our favor and keeps the machines from getting too close while the Mage. Ops. keeps up a cloak around the castle. We barely get by using quick scouting missions. Over the years, we’ve been able to accumulate some of Mondo’s tech and reverse engineer it. We owe our existence to the research and engineering department. Without them and their ability to repurpose Mondo’s tech, we would have been beaten a long time ago.”
Silence fell between them as they walked along, Sweetie downcast while Chris took in and processed all the information he’d been given. Neither of them said anything, and after a while, Sweetie started to get worried that he had gone back to the way he was in the mess hall. She looked up at him to find his face formed into one of determination rather than the dark experience from earlier. She furrowed her brow at this, wondering what was going on in his head. It didn’t take long for her to get her answer.
They stopped in front of the door leading to the interrogation room where he was to conduct his interview. “This is it,” Sweetie said, motioning towards the door. She hesitated for a moment. “I guess I’ll get going.” She turned and began to walk away.
“Sweetie Belle.” She stopped and turned to face him. His face was one of calm, soft compassion. “I will make this world better, even if it kills me to do so. King Mondo will fall. I promise.”
The determination and assurity in his voice caused her to pause and stare as he made his way into the room. Even after he’d gone in, she stared after him with a dumbfounded expression that melted into a smile as she walked away.
Chris sat in one of the two chairs in the interrogation room, waiting for his interviewer to make an appearance. As the minutes stretched on, he started to tap his fingers on the table in front of him in a familiar beat.
He only got through about half of the song before the door behind him opened up with a creak. He craned his neck back and was surprised to find Shining Armor in his captain’s attire closing the door behind him.
“Sorry for making you wait,” Shining apologized while moving to take the other seat across from Chris. “I had to wait for my wife to get back so she could look after our daughter. My name is-”
“Shining Armor, I know,” Chris said, waving his hand. “And before you ask how I know that, I’m pretty sure we’re going to get to that.”
Shining gave him a puzzled look. “O~kay,” he said slowly before clearing his throat. “You have the paperwork from Dash, correct?”
“Affirmative,” Chris said, passing the packet to the white unicorn. “Seems pretty extensive.”
“Well, we want to weed out any possible moles.”
“Understandable,” Chris replied with a shrug.
“So, since you’ve read the packet, do you need me to repeat the questions?”
“That won’t be necessary. I have a photographic memory and perfect recall.”
“Alright. Begin when you're ready.”
Chris inhaled extensively before letting loose with quickfire responses to the questions he had memorized. “Name, Chris Andrew Scott. Age, Twenty-one. Gender, Male. Hair, Blonde. Eyes, Grey. Height, six one. Weight, two-o-seven. Citizenry, not applicable. Race, Human. Magical ability, not applicable. Country/Area of origin, Earth. Combat training, Taekwondo, and Jiu-Jitsu. Talents, computer science, and engineering. Experience in the field, little to none. Preferred equipment, Psycho Morpher. Sub-category, Psycho Ranger armor, Psycho Sword, and Sling. Known family, not applicable. Background, college student.” Chris let out a long sigh, catching his breath after exhaling so much information at once. “Is that it?” He asked, focusing back in on Shining.
Shining blinked his eyes a few times, trying to catch up to the verbal regurgitation mentally. “Um, yes,” he answered, looking down at the form and thanking Celestia that he had enchanted his pen to write along with Chris’ words. Then he spotted something strange. “Hold on. Under ‘known family,’ you put ‘not applicable.’ Are you an orphan?” He looked up at Chris to see a frown stretching across his face.
“I’m not,” Chris replied, discontent in his voice. “However, I only know my father, and I don’t associate myself with him.”
“Okay,” Shining said, feeling uncomfortable under the gaze. “Do you mind if I ask you to be a bit clearer on that?”
Chris let his head fall and sighed heavily before looking back up. “My father took care of me until I was about six. He was… not a good parent. Child services took me away and put me in foster care, where I got bounced around a lot.”
“I’m sorry to hear all that,” Shining apologized, somewhat guilty in making Chris relive those moments. “Well, it seems everything is in order.” He stood and nodded to the recruit. “Enjoy your day.”
“Actually, Shining,” Chris said, getting the stallion’s attention before he could make it to the door, “there was something else I’d like to talk to you about.”
Slightly confused by this turn of events, Shining turned to the man. “It’ll need to be quick. My wife is expecting me home for lunch soon.”
“I need to learn more about this world beyond what I already know,” Chris started, showing a slight nervousness. “And the best place to start is… Twilight Sparkle.”
Shining Armor took a step back at the mention of the name, but it didn’t take long for his shock to turn to anger. “How do you know that name?” He demanded, balling his free hand into a fist.
“In my world,” he motioned to himself, “Equestria is involved in a TV series made for the entertainment of others.” Chris paused for a moment. “Twilight was the lead character. I need to know what happened to her if I’m going to make any sense of what happened to this world.”
Shining hesitated, his face going through several different expressions. He finally stopped and put a hand over his eyes and sighed. He looked up at Chris with a hard look in his eyes. “Maybe you should join us for lunch.”
Chris sat at an elaborately decorated table surrounded by the royal family. Shining had led him to his family’s apartment where they had walked into excited cries of “daddy” and a pink and blue blur that turned out to be Flurry Heart in a pale blue sundress running into her father’s arms. Cadence had walked out of the kitchen in jeans, a pink t-shirt, and an apron, and Shining had introduced Chris. Before he knew it, he was sitting at the table having lunch with the equine family.
“I was wondering when I’d get to meet our ‘mysterious’ recruit,” Cadence said in a sweet voice as she passed out fresh veggie sandwiches. “Although, I didn’t exactly think it would be this soon.”
Chris let out a nervous chuckle. “Actually, that’s kind of my fault. I might have blindsided Shining Armor with a question.”
“Oh?” Cadence questioned, raising an eyebrow. “What question?”
“Uh,” Chris sputtered, throwing a nervous glance in Shining’s direction.
Shining returned the look with one of understanding before turning his attention to his wife. “Maybe we should wait until after we’re finished with lunch.”
“Alright,” she replied, throwing a glance at Chris as he took a bite of his sandwich and tried to look inconspicuous. “So, Chris, we all saw your fight yesterday. Those powers of yours are quite something.”
Chris swallowed and smiled, glad for the change in topic. “Yeah, they’re pretty cool. Haven’t gotten the hang of them yet, though.”
“Don’t worry,” Shining told him, pouring more lemonade into his glass. “We’ll remedy that soon.”
“What do you mean by ‘we’?” Chris asked with a confused look.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t looked at your training regiment yet,” Shining said with a deadpan expression.
“I haven’t had time,” Chris replied, reaching into the pocket on the inside of his jacket and pulling out the stack of papers. He scanned over it quickly while Shining watched and waited, and Cadance attended to little Flurry Heart.
Suddenly, Chris’ eyes opened wide. “No way,” he looked up at Shining and pointed to the page. “You’re my combat trainer?”
“That’s right,” Shining affirmed smugly, taking a drink from his glass.
Chris only stared at him for a moment before leaning back in his chair, a blank expression on his face. “I’m dead.”
The small family let out laughs around him.
Cadence poured hot tea into the cups sitting in front of everyone. After lunch, they had moved into the living room. Cadance and Shining sat on a plush couch in front of Chris, who sat in a wooden chair with cushions, a wooden coffee table set between him and the couple. Shining and Cadance had sent Heart to her room to play so they could talk without having to censor anything to young ears.
“Alright, you two,” Cadence said as she set the teapot down, grabbed her cup, and straightened up. “What’s this all about?”
There was an awkward silence in the room as Chris threw a questioning glance at Shining, who shrugged and nodded. Shining grabbed his tea and took a drink before he started. “He wants to know about… Twily.”
Cadence dropped her cup and started coughing at the sudden shock of the statement. Chris shot his hand out in a static-covered blur and caught the cup, hissing in pain as some of the still-hot tea splashed onto his bare hand.
Cadence finally stopped coughing and looked towards Chris with wide eyes, her expression somewhere between confusion, pain, and anger. “Why do you want to know about her?” She demanded, skipping over every other question in her mind.
Chris let out a sigh as he put the cup down gently. “I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but… this world is not what it should be. Differences and parallels have been drawn where they shouldn’t have. Something went wrong with something at some point, and the most logical point to start at is Twilight Sparkle. If I can find out what happened to her, I might be able to find the deviation, and we can fix it.”
Cadence only stared at him for a moment. “You’re insane,” she finally stated. “How are we supposed to believe any of this?”
“Because it’s true,” Chris argued, getting to his feet and starting to pace. “In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t belong here. This,” he pointed to the disguised morpher on his wrist, “does not belong here. Things are not what they should be. Mondo shouldn’t be here. These powers weren’t made for humans or any other being with a good heart. They were made for evil. To destroy and conquer! What does that say about me!?!” Chris had slowly started devolving into a state of panic as he spoke, and now both ponies could see that he was in the middle of a panic attack as he began to hyperventilate.
Shining got up from the coach almost instinctively and moved to put a firm hand on Chris’ shoulder. “Chris, you need to calm down.” Chris looked up to the stallion, his eyes desperate. “Just breathe, okay? Just in,” Shining took in a deep breath, “and out,” and let it out slowly. He repeated it a few times, Chris starting to mimic his actions. After a while, Chris calmed down and sat down, Shining, removing his hand as he did so.
“Sorry about that,” Chris apologized, rubbing his hands together slowly as Shining went back to his seat. “I haven’t done anything like that in forever.” He let out a sigh. “But, I think you two get the point.”
Shining and Cadence shared a look before looking back to him. “Yeah,” Shining sighed, “We do.” He paused and shared one more look with Cadence before he continued. “Twilight has always been extremely magically talented. She developed her magic almost twice as fast as other foals around her. However, she had a bit of an… attitude problem. She felt superior to those around her, and it didn’t help when our parents set her up to take the entrance exam to Celestia’s School of Magic. She passed the exam after a few tries and hatched a dragon egg. Celestia took her on as her student. This only fueled Twily’s arrogance, and she only got more so over time. She just got so… prideful in her abilities. By Twilight’s fourteenth birthday, Celestia took notice of her attitude, and when she started demanding to learn more and more powerful spells, Celestia refused. Celestia tried so hard to tone down her pride, but it only served to make Twily angry.” Shining breathed in heavily, tears in his eyes.
Cadence put a comforting hand on her husband’s arm, getting a reassuring nod from him in return. She turned to Chris and picked up where Shining Armor left off. “Twilight rebelled against Celestia and tried to steal several dangerous spell books and artifacts, some of which pertained to extremely dark magic. Celestia had no choice but to….”
“To banish her,” Chris finished for her when she couldn’t. Both ponies nodded sadly and got themselves under control. When they had, Chris continued. “At some point, she came back,” he pressed.
“Yes,” Shining answered, “but she wasn’t the same. She was… so much darker. She joined Mondo and took over Ponyville, even creating that twisted castle of hers. She even went by a new name. Midnight Sparkle.”
Chris's face contorted into one of concentration, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin against his interlaced fingers. “So that’s what’s different. Instead of Sunset Shimmer acting out and getting banished, and Twilight becoming the Element of Magic, it happened vice versa.” He paused for a moment, his brow furrowing in thought. “Did she come back before or after King Mondo arrived?”
“After,” Cadence answered without pause.
Chris nodded at the information, running all this new information through his mind to find when or how things had gone wrong in this world’s timeline. After a while, he straightened up and sighed, finally taking his cup of tea and sipping at it to lessen his growing headache. “I’m sorry, guys,” he told them, putting the cup down. “This was helpful, but I can’t see where everything went wrong. Maybe you should go through everything that happened after Midnight joined Mondo?”
“Uh, sure,” Shining said, taking a sip of his tea. “After Midnight joined King Mondo, we were pretty much stuck in our current position. It took a while, but Nightmare came up with a plan and sent an infiltration team to steal a statue in the Canterlot Castle gardens. When they brought it back, Nightmare combined her magic with the Elements of Harmony and released Discord. We tried to explain the situation to him, but he wouldn’t listen. He tried to take them on by himself, but….”
“What happened?” Chris asked, looking from one spouse to another.
“They… did a pretty big number on him. He came back to us in dire need, but his injuries were too extensive for us to handle. He’s currently in stasis.”
Chris was shocked at the news and let out a long breath. He looked up as Cadence continued the tale.
“Not long after that, the changelings joined the resistance.”
“Let me guess. It was right around the time you and Shining got married.”
“Yes, actually,” she confirmed. “Then, almost a year later, the Crystal Empire appeared, and Sombra joined King Mondo. Nothing really happened for a while until Sunset ascended into an alicorn. We thought we were ready to take them on then.” She let out a rhetorical chuckle. “We were wrong.”
“It took a long time for us to get ready for an assault on Ponyville,” Shining chimed in. “And by the time we were, something new arrived. A demon known as Tirek broke out of Tartarus and attacked King Mondo. They… tore him apart. Just like Discord, they decimated him, but this time, he didn’t get away. Sombra hung his head above the doors to Midnight’s castle as a warning.” Shining let out a sigh. “We’ve barely survived since then by scavenging off of the Empire. And recruits come slowly. Honestly, the last recruit to come in that was worth noting was Starlight Glimmer, and that was several years ago.”
Everyone fell silent after this. Chris ran his hands through his hair and let out some air. “I’m sorry, you guys, I just can’t see where the kink in the timeline is.” He laid his head back against his chair. “All we can do is go after Mondo.”
“But how are we supposed to do that?” Cadence questioned in concern.
“With this,” Chris once again held up his morpher. “Its counterparts were made to specifically go up against enemies like Mondo. The only difference is that this will be a little more like fighting fire with fire.” Chris paused before slapping his knees and standing up. “You guys have been really helpful. Thank you for your hospitality. Before I go, is there anything I can help you guys get cleaned up?”
“No, no,” Cadence said with a smile while she stood up. “You were more than helpful, getting lunch cleaned up.” She stretched her hand out for a handshake. “It was nice to meet you, Chris.”
“Nice to meet you, too, Cadence,” Chris replied, taking and shaking Cadence’s hand. They released each other, and Chris turned to Shining.
“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” He asked, stretching his hand towards the stallion.
“Yep,” Shining said, taking Chris’s hand and smiling. “Bright and early.”
They released their hands, and Shining walked Chris to the door. Chris exited, and they exchanged “goodbyes” before Chris turned, and Shining closed the door. Chris walked down the corridors alone, making his way towards his room and thinking about what he would do with the rest of his day.
“Hm….” He hummed to himself as he walked down the hall. He put his hand inside his jacket and pulled out his bundle of paper, flipping through them. “Maybe I’ll make a request for a computer,” he thought out loud to himself.