//------------------------------// // Chapter 24: Clash Of Knowledge // Story: A Shattered Rainbow Rock // by FourShadow //------------------------------// Thursday 8:00 The Dazzlings agreed to come back to school with their friends, and help each other prepare for the Battle which would take place on Friday evening. Plenty of time to prepare, and plenty of time to get their act together. And they knew just what to do for that day... Pinkie Pie leaned against her locker, talking with Applejack and Fluttershy. "Tomorrow's the day girls, you know what that means?" "A massacre of everyone around us who did absolutely nothing and some who will become mindless disciples to obey our will while we go to take over the world?" Pinkie asked. "Well, I wouldn't exactly put it like that but, yes. Plenty of slaves and... possible, end of the world." Fluttershy said, contemplating. "Maybe we should--" The three girls were hit by an explosion of confetti. The little pieces of paper rained on them, and rained on the once spotless floors around them. "Whoo-hoo!" The girls and saw a girl moving down the hallways, shaking maracas and with a sombrero on her head, and a poncho around her neck. They recognized the positive energy and familiar blue ponytail. They would know that look anywhere. "Vamanos chicos, ¡la fiesta se mudó al auditorio!" "We're right behind, Senorita Sonata!" Right behind Sonata was a small group of students, huddled together with mariachi costumes. All together they were playing music together. You can talk about cha-cha, tango, waltz or the rhumba. Senora's dance has no title. Jump in the saddle hold on to the bridle. "Come on, we're almost there!" Applejack, Pinkie, and Fluttershy watched as the band walked down the hallway. No context, no rhyme, no reason, no clue. "What the heck did we just watch?" 9:00 Gym class was usual for everyone. Nothing new, nothing exciting. Well, it would have been exciting, but sadly, having the Rainbooms in each class with them, and even some being a part of gym didn't help their enthusiasm. "Alright dweebs. Today we're going in the exercise room, and you know we've got to push hard, or I will!" Everyone groaned in horror. "NOW!" Everyone rushed into the weight room, to an unusual surprise. The lights were out. Strange, the lights were always turned on, even when it wasn't being used at the time. Who could possibly be using it right now? The lights flickered on, and everyone nearly gasped. Someone was waiting for them to come into the room, and she was in front of the mirror, sitting patiently on an exercise ball. A pink leotard on, blue high fitness briefs over spandex pants, a lime green spandex shirt underneath her unitard, and leg warmers. In addition, she had a headband, and her clothes were all in bright neon. Outdated in clothing; was Aria Blaze. A smirk crept on her face as everyone's attention glanced onto her. "Good morning, everyone! I hope everyone has slept well." Rainbow Dash glared and flashed her teeth. "What the flying feather are you wearing? And what are you even doing?" Aria smirked, and took a sip of water. "Well first thing is, I'm following in Amy's footsteps by wearing my old gym outfit. I wore this whenever I went to gym, and I'm glad it still fits! Second, I talked to Principal Luna, and I asked if I could fill in for the gym teacher for the day." Rainbow raised a finger. "I'm sorry, who?" "Amy. Amethyst ring a bell?" Rainbow grit her teeth. "Right... stuck in the 80s..." "But you're a student here." A classmate asked. "True, true. But I brought up some points, and she agreed that some changes needed to be made. So she agreed to let me take over as gym teacher for the day. And while we are going to be working out, we're going to be doing something different." Rainbow crossed her arms. "What?" "We're all gonna be working out, but I'm going to help you all with your strengths and weaknesses. What you all need is some positive reinforcement. Use your strengths and your weaknesses to your advantage, and you can't do it without what?" A classmate raised a hand. "Positive reinforcement?" "Yes! You got it! Now, for this first set we're going to be doing a few exercises on some exercise balls like the ones I'm sitting on. Everyone, grab an exercise ball and find a spot where you have plenty of space. We're gonna try some leg exercises..." Rainbow rolled her eyes and groaned. This day was going to be terrible for sure... 10:00 Sunset closed her locker door and she sealed it up tight with the lock. She was about to turn around when-- "Hello Miss Shimmer." "DAH! Don't do that!" Sunset swayed behind her, and looked at the girl in the purple clothing, leaning against the locker. A voluptuous grin and half closed eyes locked onto her, while she adjusted her hair. "Adagio!? What are you doing here? I thought you were scared off for good." "Aww, you remembered my name, that's so sweet... but I couldn't just leave now could I, Sunset? I missed you girls..." Adagio giggled. As Adagio looked at her own nails, analyzing the shiny polish on the ends of them, Sunset just scowled at her. "How can a girl like you not have run off from town by now? I got the dirt on you, and the entire school's gonna find out about your big secret." "Because my dear, even if you did, your actions didn't drive me, my friends, or my family apart. I dare even say because of you, you brought us all closer together." Sunset's nostrils flared. "What!?" "Did I mumble dear? I said--" "I know what you said! Just... ugh! I will never understand." "And I won't understand why you're trying to push people away from you. What's so wrong with the people around you? Don't you want friends?" "I've got friends, Adagio." "You mean those Rainbooms you ask to follow your orders?" Adagio raised a brow. Sunset scowled back, but pushed back her anger. "They only follow me because I know what I'm doing. But it doesn't matter what goes on between me and mine, you and your friends and everyone else around here is gonna be gone by tomorrow night." "Oh, Sunset, surely not everything will be gone," Adagio asked, leaning her head back. "What even is your so called, plan?" "Like I would tell you," Sunset barked back. "Come on, what do I have to prove? What evidence can someone like me provide, my word means nothing. And please, if you can, tell me in an explanation that will make you talk the longest." Sunset blankly stared at the Siren. "I can't tell if you're joking, or if you're just that stupid... Well you're not gonna get any information out of me or my friends." "Very well then Sunset, I'm sure I can wait for your grand diabolical plan to unfold before my eyes, or perhaps you could just, tell me right here..." Adagio pushed herself against the locker next to Sunset, blinking at her as seductively as she could. "Surely you could tell little old me..." Adagio brushed the hair out of her eyes, and she let out a little purring sound at Sunset. Her right hand sliding up the locker, like rubbing massage oil over one's back at a spa. "Come on Sunset... you know you want to..." She winked, smirking ever so alluring. Sunset's cheeks were on fire, but her snark was present. "You... You have issues. I'm leaving now." Sunset turned away, not looking back at Adagio, and just went around the corner. Adagio pouted and hit her head back against the locker. "Well. You're no fun." Adagio looked down the hallway, and then down the other hallway. No one around. But would she get caught? She stepped down to the corner of the hallway, no one in sight. Then back around, still no one. What if there were cameras around? She looked at all possible corners of the ceiling, no cameras. No eyes watching her. No student in the hallway. And with the free time she had right now... that meant plenty of time for her to go snooping. Carefully she looked down at the lock on the locker. Moving her gloved hand up, she put her finger on the knob, and moved it as fast as possible to open it up. Once she got the right combination, she pulled down on the lock, opening up the locker. Inside, she could see it was nothing but a mess! There were so many items scattered about in there, lots of books, pencils, markers, and other weird supplies in there. Heck even at the bottom there was a book stacked on some others labeled 'Revenge Tactics'. On top of the book was a folded up piece of paper. Unfolding the picture, there was a photo snapped of Adagio, which she could clearly tell was tagged by Sunset Shimmer. A twirly mustache was drawn on her lips, devil horns on her head, along with a devil tail on the back of the picture, and a big caption that read 'Die, Adagio, Die!!!' in giant text. Heck, she even found some profanity followed after the photo, but she was not going to repeat any of it! Adagio hissed. "Mature Sunset, real mature of you." She just simply folded the picture up and put it back down. "Alright Sunset Shimmer. Lets see if you kept anything juicy in here, and hopefully find something before anyone else sees me." Adagio sighed, "If Aria could see me know..." She pulled out the Revenge Tactics book, and flipped open to the first page. "If anyone takes this book, drop it or die." Adagio looked up with a deadpan look. "Rude." She flipped through several pages of the book, and found a page that had been bookmarked. "Locker attacks. Ways to fend off any stalkers or enemies without doing complete physical damage... Why does she even have this book?" She closed it and threw it on the side, next to her. She grabbed the book underneath it, nothing important. Just a textbook. She threw that to the side as well, along with two more textbooks. Eventually she found a book at the bottom of particular interest... one that was graced with scary text writing on the front cover. "Diary, huh? Hmm..." Adagio giggled. She stopped her giggle when a thought entered her head. "No, no. Her diary is filled with her deepest darkest secrets, I can't just read them! But then again, she could have information worth knowing..." With hesitation, she picked up the diary, and opened it up to the first page. "September 2nd, 2013. Its been two years since I've been in this backwater alternate reality, but being here is much better than spending what could be an eternity at Princess Luna's castle, locked away... That old hag will never see my master plan coming. I just need to get that last piece..." Adagio looked up from the diary, her mind left blank in confusion. "Princess Luna?" She had no idea how to process this. Was there more to Principal Luna they didn't know, did she have a secret identity? She flipped to another page, and she gasped seeing a very interesting picture that would most likely would not be allowed on school grounds. "Oh my goodness! I..." Her face went from panicked, to slowly becoming more calm. Her mouth turned into racy grin, looking at the picture. An imitation of a cat purring escaped her breath. "Oh my, Sunset... you sly girl, you, I didn't know you had it in you... Okay, I am soooo taking this." She carefully took the picture out of the page and tucked it away in her vest pocket. If Aria could see her now, she'd be grinning down at her, mischievously. Curiosity still enticing her to look, she flipped through another page and found the latest entry. "September 1st, 2017... But that's this month!" Adagio noticed. "Successfully made it through the portal with the Element I need, sadly it left my hands upon the trip. Its now mistaken for the missing piece of the trophy. No matter, we just need to get that trophy and we'll get it back..." She closed the book and looked up. Suddenly things made sense now. The pendents around the girls necks, Sunset's weird discussions with her and the girls, the threats. Unsure, she closed the diary and pulled out another book that was hidden in the stacks. "Starswirl The Bearded's Guide To Everything You Needed To Know About Magic." She opened up the front page. Not even one second of opening it, and her face dropped to angry. Her eyes become voids, her teeth were daggers, and it was like she turned into a giant ball of flame. "HIM!? HE'S THE ONE!?" She was about to scream some more when she caught herself. What if someone heard her? Someone would hear her for sure. Looking around, she checked for anyone else around. Thankfully she didn't alert anyone, giving her time to calm down to assess the situation. Not to say she wasn't angry, in fact, she was infuriated about it. The identity of the individual who banished them hundreds of years ago, and she wanted to meet him face to face. "Okay, I'm going to have to punch something later, because I am not going to stay calm about this! I swear if I ever meet you, Starswirl, I am going to slug you, hard." Flipping the page over, she found more pictures and words, all transcribed in an ancient text. It was a language that was indistinguishable to her, even for someone as ancient as her. She was about to close it, but not until she saw a few bookmarks above. She flipped the page over to the first one, and her eyes bulged. A picture in what looked like Egyptian hieroglyphics displayed five black and dark pendents in a circle, and in the middle was a crown that had a blue jewel in the middle of the crest. "Wait... that's the crown from the trophy. But why is..." She flipped over to the next bookmarked page, and suddenly the grin drove away. Her face dropped in horror and it was like she had just found something completely gruesome and horrifying on her front doorstep. "Oh my goodness!" She slapped the book closed. "Why would you keep that!? That's disgusting!" She stopped for a moment, taking a chance to catch her breath and calm down. "Some things I wanted to not see in the hundreds of years I walked on this Earth... and they just had to show that. Thank you, Sunset, why did you... why am I talking to myself? Its not like an audience is here and its a sitcom. I'm starting to look crazy!" She looked back down at the book, flipping back to the big circle in front of her. "I knew it. I knew you were after something Sunset Shimmer, but now its time we put an end to it. I have to take to take this to the girls." She closed the book and she opened up the bag beside her. She set Sunset's diary, the spell book, and the book with all of the entry dates with her. "Sunset's not going to miss a thing! Just a few minutes is all I need." Adagio slammed the locker and darted down the other end of the hallway, starting to run. For about five seconds. She slowly walked back, with her shoulders hanging and her head hunched forward with a deadpan look. "Why did you not put things back, so stupid..." Adagio opened up the locker again, and put the books that she took from the locker back inside. Surely she would not want Sunset to see some things out of place. Well, she was gonna see some books out of place, but at least covering her tracks would do something beneficial. Once her tracks had been covered, she walked down the other hallway as briskly as possible. She had struck gold... and she was loving it.