//------------------------------//
// Cinch: Annoyance and Anger 
// Story: Contest of Rivals 
// by Moon-Lite 
//------------------------------//


Cinch: Annoyance and Anger


           Cinch stared at the grouping of three women, laughing at some sort of pointless joke or equally worthless tale that Cadence had shared. She grimaced as she watched the three in their merriments, why did she have to be surrounded by such idiots?

           For some reason the students flocked to Cadence, a lot of the teachers doing naught but singing her high praises. But why? What had the Dean of students done for Crystal Prep? Cinch had saved the Academy, raising its academic and athletic scores to the highest in the province, and among the highest in the whole country. It now had a reputation of excellence! And it was all thanks to her.

    So why was Cadence the one that was so well liked? Coddling students did not help them. You had to be strict, cleaver. Dangling a carrot off of the end of a stick was a good way to motivate them, but making them compete for something greater was an even better plan. Make them fight one another on the battlefield of knowledge, and you shall separate the strong from the weak. And then you further temper the strong, moulding them in the crucible to become better than all others.

    Friendship was a weakness, and strength made right. Not the baseless notion of raw brawn, but rather intellect. Knowing how to use those around you, that was proper strength. To achieve a position of power and prestige involves sacrifice, but none of it needs to be yours.

    All of this was slowly imparted on the students of Crystal Prep Academy by Cinch. She smiled cruelly as she looked over her various students that had been… convinced to join the team, to show off just how superior they were over the lowly vagrants of Canterlot High.

    But Cadence was proving to be more trouble of late. She was comforting the students too much, making them grow lax and weak. Inspiring them to look into the falseness that was friendship. Cinch had been keeping an eye on the Dean over the last months, noting how she acted, trying to spot any sort of mishap that could be used to replace her with someone more suited for the glorious Academy of Crystal Prep.

    And if Cadence wouldn’t reveal something, Cinch would just have to find something. Just like she had with that Sunset Shimmer girl. She stared coldly at Sunset and the group around her, noting a few students of Canterlot High actually laughing and smiling with Cinch’s superior specimens.

    Sunset Shimmer was a unique young woman. Utterly brilliant, yet for some reason was shackled to the epidemic that was friendship. After Cadence was… dealt with, Sunset would need to be next.