It was near the end of Sunset’s Sophmore year when everything went to hell.
That was almost literal. She’d been bored of the basketball game. Really, she would’ve left, but keeping on top means showing a proper amount of School Spirit, which meant showing up to sports games. Still, she hadn’t expected this.
There was a guy, a college student really, who was shadowing the theatre teacher so that he could be the teacher next year after his own graduation. Of course, somehow he ended up in a passive aggressive prank war with the Principal and Vice Principal.
It had been minor things at first. Mixed up powerpoint slides, salt in the sugar cup in the teacher’s lounge, that sort of thing. This, however, was major. The gym looked a wreck. Sunset wasn’t even sure what had happened, but she decided to remember this. It might make a great prank, maybe in her Senior year. Then again, she couldn’t pull it off as well as the Counterpart of the Lord of Chaos himself.
Speaking of, he was the only one moving. More specifically, he was laughing. Everyone else seemed to be in shocked silence.
“The looks on your faces!” Discord cackled.
In the corner of her eye there was movement. A girl with yellow skin and pink hair was walking toward him. Sunset had seen the girl before, since they shared a few classes, but she remembered the girl’s friends more. What was her name? ‘Butter…scotch’?‘Butterfly’? Fluttershy, that was it.
She watched as Fluttershy marched right up to Discord. She’d never seen the girl not looking for a place to hide, so she watched in expectation of what would happen. The sight was almost hilarious, considering their height difference. Fluttershy was fairly short, even for her age, and Discord was about the same height as Principal Celestia, so she barely reached his chest.
“How dare you!” Fluttershy shouted.
“It’s just a bit of fun,” Discord replied. “Really, you don’t need to get that upset. Your gym will be back to normal in time for class!”
“A bit of fun?!” she screamed. “Rainbow could’ve gotten hurt because of you!”
“But she didn’t,” he said.
“But she could have!” she retorted. “What were you thinking? How could you think this was a good idea?!”
“I’ll admit, it did get a little out of hand,” he said, his grin a bit less manic now.
“Out of hand?!” she screamed. “The hoop and backboard are on the floor! There’re balls everywhere! And is- is that frosting on the ceiling?!”
“Yes it is,” he answered.
“Why?!” she demanded. “Why in the world would you even consider doing this?”
“It’s just a prank,” he shrugged. “Okay, it got out of control, but it’s hardly different than the fake spider in Tia’s office. Besides, it was one of the better ideas. Plenty of students accidently gave suggestions by whispering about what I might do next. Figured I might as well go for the most fun one. Really, you all have such active imaginations, and probably spend way too much at certain ‘edgy’ stores.”
Fluttershy just sputtered with anger for a moment. Sunset was almost sure she’d end up jumping him. Discord didn’t change. He just kept smiling as if there wasn’t a chance of murder. She wondered if Fluttershy was tall enough to strangle him, but then again, he’s sunk low enough for her to reach.
“I can’t believe you!” Fluttershy finally screamed. “It’s ‘just a prank’? Seriously? What would you have done if that thing landed on someone? Maybe there’s a reason people think you’re dangerous enough to get someone killed, because you almost did and all you can say is ‘it’s a prank’! I can’t believe I defended you from that!”
“You did?” he asked, his smile dropping completely. “Why-?”
“Because at the time it was cruel!” she shouted, beginning to cry. “No one should be talked about like that! Even if they ended up being right about what you could do, everyone deserves a bit of Kindness! So I’m going to do the kindest thing for you and tell you you’re a big, dumb, MEANIE!”
Fluttershy was panting, shaking with rage. Discord looked almost sad. He muttered something, but Sunset wasn’t close enough to hear. A few of Fluttershy’s friends snapped out of their shock, walking up behind her. She finally seemed to notice how many people were staring at her.
Fluttershy walked off, her friends close behind, leaving Discord staring at empty space. Other students had gotten up now too, leaving the gym. Sunset took the cue to get up herself, walking down the bleachers to get to her boyfriend.
“Hey,” Flash greeted, meeting her half-way. “You okay?”
“I think I should be asking you that,” Sunset smirked, leading him out of the building. “You were a lot closer to the explosions, so to speak.”
“The actual one or Fluttershy?” he asked.
“Both,” she said. “Honestly didn’t think she had it in her to yell at someone.”
“To be fair,” he said, “Rainbow did almost get hit with the backboard. Not to mention her and the other three were in the front row.”
“Yeah,” she agreed.
It was a bit terrifying. When everything went down, she’d instinctively tried to put up a shield spell. It hadn’t worked, of course. There wasn’t any magic in this world. Still, it didn’t stop her instincts.
“Kinda wonder what’ll happen to him,” Flash said.
“Worried about him?” Sunset wondered.
“A bit,” he admitted. “Sure, he was kind of a dick about it. Okay, very much an ass about it. But he hadn’t intended for anything to happen.”
“You’re too nice for your own good, but at least you’re not a complete fucking doormat,” she sighed. “Hey, you were closer to them. Did you hear what Discord muttered when Fluttershy went off on him?”
“It was hard to hear,” he said. “It might’ve been ‘Flora’, but I’m not sure.”
“Flora,” she repeated, trying to put a face or legend to the name.
“Maybe it’s his ex?” he joked.
“Maybe,” she laughed again. “Then again, I don’t think a guy in that outfit is straight.”
“You would know,” he laughed.
She stuck her tongue out at him. It only made him laugh harder. They made their way to Sunset’s home, attempting to forget the night.
First day of Junior year, and it was going well. Then again, it was still early. She’d just walked into her second class of the day, which happened to be in the auditorium.
Sunset had taken Musical electives her first two years in High School. Freshman year she’d taken Guitar, just to help her figure out how to make her hands more dexterous. After meeting Flash and getting lessons from him, she dropped it for Chorus classes. This year, she decided to take Theatre instead. After all, she already was a decent actress, but a few lessons couldn’t hurt.
The teacher wasn’t in the auditorium yet, probably waiting to make a dramatic entrance as theatre people tend to do. It was one of the few new teachers, but she didn’t know who. All the information on her schedule gave was ‘D. Immortalem’. Instead, she focused on other things.
Equestria. Her home. While she couldn’t go back for another year, she did have her ways of learning what had happened. She knew she’d been replaced as the Princess’ student. That wasn’t too surprising, as she doubted Princess Celestia had really planned on keeping the position open for long, even if everything had gone right.
The thing that had surprised her was that the replacement had found the Elements of Harmony, and defeated Nightmare Moon. She’d suspected Nightmare Moon was real after meeting Vice Principal Luna. And after last year, well, she wondered who else was ‘real’ instead of ‘legend’.
Since then, a plan had been forming in her mind. When the portal opened again, she could go back. She could take the Element for herself. She could prove to Celestia that she was worth something.
Her only problem, of course, was someone stopping her. Once she got back to this world she’d be fine, but if she ran into her replacement’s Counterpart, there could be trouble. Still she knew she could handle it. Easiest plan was to distract the other five Elements. But her information didn’t give her anything on that yet. Not even any names.
She snapped out of her thoughts when the teacher walked in. He was a surprise as well, considering he was hard to forget. Still, she didn’t expect him to ever return.
“Hello everyone!” Discord cheerfully addressed the class. “Guess who’s your new teacher?”
“Didn’t you get kicked off campus last year?” a student shouted from the back.
“Incorrect!” he laughed. “Though, yes, many of you might remember me as the guy who trashed the gym last year! Still, apologizing and offering to pay for damages helps. If you’re that paranoid, check with dear old Tia. She’ll assure you I’m in the clear.”
He waited, but no one said anything. A few people shuffled nervously though.
“Anyway,” he continued. “Today’s your standard ‘let’s get to know each other’ day! So first things first, do not use any of the ‘Mr. Immortalem’ here. Or even ‘Mr. Discord’. Ugh, really I don’t know how Tia puts up with that.”
“You’re not that professional,” a student said, disapproval obvious in their voice.
“Never have been,” he shrugged. “Really, did you expect a theatre teacher to be ‘professional’? Or did you think this was going to be your ‘easy A’ class?”
Sunset barely suppressed a snort of laughter as the kid shut up. After that, Discord handed out a sheet of paper with a few basic questions on it. They were supposed to fill it out, and then the answers would be read out and everyone would try and guess whose paper it was.
Sunset didn’t pay too much attention to the question sheet as she filled it out. Instead, she watched Discord walk to the girl sitting in the row in front of her. Sunset had seen her many times before, though their first true encounter had been the Freshman Fair two years ago. This girl was all pink, and a lot of hair.
“Hello,” Discord said, oddly quiet. “You’re friends with the girl who yelled at me last year, right?”
“Yeppers!” she answered, oddly loud. “That was Fluttershy. I’m Pinkie Pie!”
“Nice to meet you,” he smiled. “I wanted to talk to your friend, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to see me.”
“No, not really,” she shrugged. “She’s calmed down now, but she’d probably be upset if you, like, just showed up at random. That is, if Dashie and AJ don’t get mad at you for her and try to fight you before realizing you’re a teacher now. Rares might be able to rein AJ in, but good luck with Rainbow!”
“Right,” he laughed. “In that case, can you tell Fluttershy I wanted to apologize and thank her?”
“You want to thank her for yelling at you?” she tilted her head.
“I’ve always been the weird one of the family,” he said. “But yes, I do. She smacked a bit of sense into me. Though I am glad she didn’t literally slap me!”
“Okay, let’s make a deal then!” she said, offering her hand. “I’ll tell her that, but you have to let me in on what play we’re doing this year before anyone else!”
“You have yourself a deal!” he agreed, shaking her hand. “And you know, if you want to try out for a part in the play, I think you’d make a great Puck.”
Sunset covered her ears as Pinkie let out a high pitched squeak of glee. Discord seemed unphased by it.
She went back to the assignment. Or, she tried to. Her mind kept wandering to Equestria, to what happened last year, and to the Freshman Fair.
She remembered Fluttershy and Pinkie’s friend group helping Luna throughout the Fair, and her showing up as Vice Principal the next week. And now, a member of this group apparently got Discord to change his ways. A group of five girls. What was it Fluttershy had said last year? ‘Everyone deserves a bit of Kindness’.
She’d found the other five. Now, the only question was what to do with them.