//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: The Chapter In Which A Little Salt Flows… Into Some Old Wounds 
// Story: Caverns & Cutie Marks: High School, High Stakes 
// by TheColtTrio 
//------------------------------//

“-and saving the best for last, the school statue,”  Sunset said, waving her hands at the statue like a game show host presenting a prize. She gave a weak smile, knowing her gesture was a cringe-worthy attempt at flair. Her smile grew even weaker when she noticed the looks of disbelief or raised eyebrows amongst the group.
“The school has some of the best classrooms I’ve ever seen,” Wits End began. “I-”
“Computer labs that would put some of the colleges I’ve seen to shame,” Light Patch threw in, ignoring the glare from Wits for having interrupted him.
“Solid theater center and well maintained sports fields,” Purple Heart added.
“Don’t forget our awesome gymnasium,” Rainbow said smugly.
“Or the marvelous science labs,” Twilight said.
“And our cafeteria who’s lunches make some local restaurants green with envy,” Applejack said with a smile.
“And yet the best part of the school is this statue?” Rarity finished, looking at the now sweating and nervously smiling Sunset.
“Well I think it’s at least a nice statue,” Fluttershy said quietly, only to jump when Pinkie’s hands grabbed her shoulders.
“And it beats the pants off the lockers!” Pinkie threw in, receiving general, yet hesitant, agreement.
“Seriously though, why save the statue for the last?” Wits End said, taking back control of the conversation with a huff.
Sunset shrugged, started and stopped her reply a couple of times before finally saying, “I don’t know. It just felt like a natural place to end. A kind of ‘end on a slightly low note to leave them wanting’?” She noticed the still disbelieving looks on most of the teens’ faces and continued. “I liked the small irony of ending the tour at what might be the first thing most people see when they come here.”
“How poetic,” Purple Heart drawled, leaning against the statue’s base, folding his arms across his chest. “The first and last thing seen when passing through the courtyard. Charming.”
“Charming as it may seem, it is still a nice sentiment,” Rarity soothed. “Though I am curious, Sunset, why end here?”
The redhead shrugged, smirking. “Oh, no reason,” she hummed as a purple hand stuck itself out of the statue’s base followed promptly by a body. Twilight Sparkle of Equestria shook her limbs out to rid them of the numbness that came with portal travel. She shook her head, hair swaying back and forth, all the while ignorant of the audience she had.
“Nope,” Wits whispered, pulling Purple Heart and Light Patch with him to hide behind the girls. “Nope nope nope soooooo much nope.”
Sci Twi and the rest of the girls blinked in surprise. “Twilight,” she greeted, stepping forward to embrace the girl. “What brings you here?”
“Colt trouble,” the other Twilight replied, accepting the hug briefly before stepping past Sci Twi.
“Colt trouble?” Applejack echoed. “You mean, these boys?” She jerked a thumb at where she thought the three boys were. Turning, the girls noticed the boys’ absence and all eight of them looked around.
“YOU~!” Twilight cried, seeing the three teenage boys scrambling back towards the main school building. Whether it was the shout itself or the body freezing quality it possessed, Light, Wits, and Purple stopped momentarily to look over their shoulders.
“CARP~!” the trio bawled, resuming their flight.
“Why are we going back to the school?!” Light asked manically. “They know this place like the backs of their hands! We’ll be found and drawn and quartered in no time!”
“Less talking! More running!” Wits snapped.
“STOP!”
The three boys froze in place, feeling a cold trickle of dread run down their spines. Slowly, they turned back to the girls, meeting the gaze of a very stern, yet unreasonably cute Fluttershy.
“We’re dead,” Purple Heart whimpered. “So very, very dead.”
“HERE! NOW!”
Like dogs on a retractable leash, the three boys scurried back to the pink haired girl, eyes down, bearing slumped, fearing retribution that would befall them should they not return immediately.
“SIT. STAY. GOOD BOYS.”
“Debatable,” Wits muttered.
“What,” Twilight asked slowly, “are you three doing here?”
Wits looked at the sorry state of himself and his companions. “Cowering, I think.”
“You. Shut up.” Twilight turned to Light Patch. “You. Explain.”
“Why me? Why is it always me?” Light Patch muttered.
Twilight narrowed her glare at the grey teen. “Because of the three of you, you break fastest.”
Light Patch looked like he was about to dispute it but then remembered past experiences.
“Fair enough I guess. This time though it’s still not our fault. We were just going to do fencing. I was cleaning the mirrors so I could start practicing ballet and just fell through them. Purple and Wits followed and the mirrors closed behind us. I swear!” He said telling the story quickly and succinctly, leaving out a few things he wasn’t sure he was ready to share.
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Did you get the mirror from Discord?”
“You do ballet?” Rarity interjected.
“That’s the one ya latch onto?” Applejack asked.
“No, no,” Pinkie said, holding up a hand. “She’s got a point.”
“Did, it’s been awhile but I’ve been thinking about kind of picking it back up for exercise,” Light Patch quickly answered before looking at Twilight. “And no, the mirror wall was built by my parents ten or twenty years or so ago for my bother to use while he practiced his dancing. Years before-” he looked out of the corner of his eye at the group around them, “-we even knew your world existed,” he finished slowly, picking his last few words very carefully.
“So your brother does ballet?” Rarity continued.
“Rarity,” Twilight said sharply. “Not the time.” She turned back to boys. “And so you what, just happened to fall through a magical mirror portal that wasn’t magical nor a portal until just a few hours ago, and just happened to end up in Canterlot High?”
“Technically, we ended up in a dance studio,” Wits End added.
“Oh!” Twilight said in mock shock. “Well that makes it alright then!”
Wits leaned over to Purple Heart. “I don’t think she’s being truthful there.”
“Y’think?” Purple Heart snarked. He looked up at Twilight. “Would my saying that I was shoved through the portal make this hurt a little less? For me?”
“No,” Twilight retorted.
“Worth a try,” he mumbled. “We are innocent though. We were just minding our own business and then the mirrors ate Light. Then Wits shoved me through. Then he landed on me on the other side. That’s the extent of my knowledge regarding our inter-dimensional travel. We suck at thinking with portals.”
“If ya were sent through by pony magic or Discord, wouldn’t ya have come out of the portal from the statue instead of a dance studio?” Applejack asked.
“Only if the portals connect to each other in the same way, I’d assume,” Wits posited. “For example, if I went through the front door of the school, I’d be in one position. I wouldn’t expect to end up in the exact same position if I try to enter the donut shop.”
“So ya’ll’re sayin’ your dimension is a donut shop?”
Wits opened his mouth before closing it again. “She’s got me there,” he said to the other boys. “I set myself up for that one.”
“In any case,” Twilight said, desperately trying to keep control of the situation, “we need to figure out how to get you three back to your weird dimension, and to keep you three from running into your counterparts in this world.”
“How bad could that be?” the science edition of Twilight asked.
“Remember what happened when you got your hands on pony magic?”
“...Good point. Let’s get these three back home ASAP.”
“And how, praytell, do you intend to do that? Storm the dance studio and throw us at the mirrors until something gives?” Purple Heart snorted sarcastically. Twilight and Sunset shared a look and they smirked. The three boys blanched.
“Aw fu-”


* * *


“GET OUT!” Hortensia screeched. “GET OUT! I’m trying to go to my happy place and you insufferable teenagers are ruining my groove! GET! OUT!”
“Well, now what, o’ fearless leader?” Purple Heart asked as they were dragged out by a fuming Twilight.
“Maybe she’ll finally let us go,” Light offered weakly. Immediately, Twilight’s grip loosened and the three boys collapsed to the ground, sprawling on the grass of the park across from the dance studio.
“There are kinder ways to let us go, you know,” Wits groaned.
“And I should care… why?” Twilight snapped. She folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot on the ground, brow furrowed. “Well, girls, any ideas?” She looked at her double and the rest of the girls.
“Why are you so angry?” Wits End asked, picking himself up. “I thought we were friends last time we met. Did we interrupt your alone time with books and lotion?”
Pinkie Pie’s hair quivered. “Whoop, that’s gonna hurt the rating.”
A moment later, Twilight sighed, dusting her hands off after having slammed a certain mint-colored teen face-first into a wall. “I’m angry because you three could do some real damage in this world. Based on the last four times I came here, this place doesn’t do well with extra-dimensional interference.”
“I taste lime mortar,” Wits murmured, licking at the blood leaking from his lip. “And… QuickTime?”
“That might be blood, ”Light Patch replied, helping Wits off the pavement where he’d fallen to. “In any case, we seem to have really upset her, so it might be best to send the most diplomatic of us in to try and get her to calm down and let us check the mirror wall.”
“Not it.” Purple Heart backed up, finger on nose. “I have a habit of pissing her off with the smallest arguments. I’m saving my hide.”
Twilight swung around and glared at the purple teenager. “I still don’t like your logic about good and evil,” she sneered.
“Case and point,” the purple teen said.
“Okay so those two are off the list,” Light Patch said, ignoring the glare from Princess Twilight. “I was thinking Rarity, Applejack, or Fluttershy, and me or Wits End.”
Wits shook his head. “I think the coach is gonna bench me on this one. Am I still bleeding?”
Pinkie Pie shook her head. “Nope, but you should probably get checked for a concussion!”
“Actually, we should start working on a back-up plan in case we can’t solve this in one day,” Sci-Twi said. “If these three need to stay in this world for a couple of days, or possibly weeks, we’ll need to be prepared so the don’t run into our world’s version of them.”
The ex-pony Twilight crossed her arms, turning to her counterpart. “What do you suggest?”
“They’ll need a place to stay, clothes, food, and the like.” The other Twilight pushed her glasses up, writing items down on a notepad as she listed them. “Not to mention we need to finish Wits’ transfer, or at least make Canterlot High think it’s gone through. I think I can hack it so that Daring Doo’s and DigiQuill send an acknowledgement to C.H. without affecting the Purple Heart and Light Patch for our world, but I’ll need to get into a teacher’s office at Crystal Prep to spoof the message for Wits.”
“Wait, what?” Wits End blinked. “You mean I did all of that work breaking out of Crystal Prep, and now we have to walk back in? All of the blood, sweat, and tears I shed to escape, all for nothing?”
“Didn’t you say you climbed a tree to get over the wall?”
“I got a splinter.”
“... Regardless-”
“It really hurt.”
“REGARDLESS.” Sci-Twi turned back to Pony-Twi. “I can see how he gets on your nerves. I need to get into Crystal Prep, and I need a lookout who won’t raise suspicion there. Can he be sneaky?”
Twilight shrugged. “He was the closest thing we had to a Rogue, so I guess so.”
“...I’ll just take that at face value for now. If we leave now, we can sneak in while everyone’s wrapping up for the day, before campus security starts locking everything down.”
The other-world princess turned to Wits End. “Do you think you’d destroy the space-time continuum while in there?”
“Is that a question,” Wits asked, “or a challenge?”
“Considering that I’m pretty fond of living here, I’m gonna have to say it was a question,” Rainbow chimed in.
“Right. So, I guess I’ll be a part of team diplomacy,” Light Patch threw out. “Good luck to the two of you and please try to not end the world. I’m not even remotely dressed to meet the doctor today. No fezzes, or bowties, or biker leathers.”
“And not a police box in sight,” Purple Heart added. “Anyways, while Wits and Sci Twi go a stealthing, the rest of us will try to get back into the dance studio without incurring the wrath of Ol’ Iron Feet. I think we’ll be fine, so long as we don’t throw off her groove.” He looked suspiciously at Princess Twilight. “You aren’t gonna manhandle me again, are you? I like my ears close to my head, not five foot elastic bands.”
“Don’t worry,” Pinkie Pie chirped, clapping Purple Heart on the shoulder. “You don’t have gauges so you’ll be fine.” A shiver travelled up the purple teen’s body and he glared irritably at the bouncing pink hairball.
“So,” Sunset barked, commanding the group’s attention, “to recap, Wits End and Twilight are going back to Crystal Prep to confirm his transfer. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Princess Twilight, and Light Patch will try to get permission to examine the mirrors in the dance studio. Finally, Pinkie, Purple Heart, and myself will go searching for lodging for the boys.”
The girls blinked in confusion. “Since when were we giving them a place to stay?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“It really is our answer to everything,” Light Patch muttered into his hands before Rainbow’s words registered.
“That’s a little harsh, Rainbow, ” Applejack replied. “They’re possibly stranded for who knows how long from their own homes in another world.”
“Yeh, we’re poor, lost circus performers,” Purple Heart wheedled, “Sure, there’s a town nea-”
“There’s nothing nearby,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Not for miles.” She paused, seeing the blank stares from the other ponies. “What? I like the sword fighting!”
Purple Heart’s face split into a wide grin. “She gets us,” he said happily.
“Inconceivable!” Pinkie cried.
Sunset cleared her throat, glaring down those who interrupted her. “As I was saying,” she continued, “Pinkie, Purple Heart, and I will look for lodging to put the boys in. Any more questions?”
“Why does everything we touch shatter!” Light Patch mock shouted while falling to his knees.
“Anyone got anything less potentially existential on their minds?” Sunset said, trying to not grit her teeth.
“Anyone have any requests for supplies?” Sci Twi asked.
“Well, we could probably use some spare clothes,” Wits said. “I wear men’s smalls, at this age. And I think Princess Twilight could use a dictionary and some lot-”
Applejack winced as the reverberating cracking sound that came from the wall. “Ah’m not sure which is gonna break first: the wall, or his face.”


* * *


Just Duty leaned back in his chair, away from the paperwork he’d been forced to start catching up on. He wanted to say he missed this part, but considering he was the chief, this was well over fifty percent of his job; along with meetings and hard decisions. It was the patrols that he tended to miss; least ‘til his feet began to hurt, he thought with a frown as he wiggled his toes and made a note to try and get back in shape during his retirement. He turned to look at the last report for the day. A faint smile ghosted across his face as he thought about the awkward encounter.
Few teens liked running into family friends at the best of times, let alone when they are with friends, or when the cherry on top is that the family friend is an officer. Or the chief of police as the case today was, he added mentally with a chuckle. He sat back up in his chair and looked over the sheet of the report to check for any final revisions before marking it as finished.
‘How odd for him to have been out during class time,’ a small voice in the back of his mind spoke up, causing him to frown.
“Well, he and his friends were looking to transfer,” he reasoned aloud.
‘During school hours?’
“Well, you know how Light Patch can get. When he wants something done, he does it himself and he does it right then. He was probably the one to drag those other two into the whole thing.”
‘Away from his own projects?’ the voice asked, following a different track and bringing a deeper frown to Just Duty’s lips. He hates to leave projects unfinished, even if it wasn’t his own work to begin with.
“He did say he’d burned out hard,” Just Duty reasoned weakly.
‘You’ve seen his burnouts’, the voice replied, prompting Just Duty to think back to the last burnout Light Patch had. It had taken him a couple of weeks to actually recover. And while he’d promised to do better about dealing with stress and overwork, it had only served to make him more stressed after he’d recovered. Mostly because he was trying to catch up on all of the work he’d fallen behind on. Maybe this one was bad enough to force him to change, but if it had forced him to change, how had he recovered so quickly? Just Duty sighed and marked the report as part of an ongoing investigation, as he resolved that something was going on that still merited investigating.