Twilight gripped the glass of pineapple juice tightly, trying not to lose control of her anger. She knew it wouldn’t help her situation but darn it all she was so mad! Huffing, she set the glass down, not wanting to break it (although she was getting there) and glared hotly at the Vice Principal who just finished explaining the bizarre situation.
“You mean to tell me that because of some dumb competition related to Nutrition Month, that Principal Celestia kept on winning the previous ones, the entirety of CHS had a day dedicated to speaking in banana and celebrating said fruit?!”
“Bananash, the language that Celestia had the students speak for today. It’s Bananash.” Luna corrected as she calmly took a sip of her own pineapple juice.
“Banana,” Twilight swore, not even minding the pointed look shot her way as she waved her arms in frustration, “and to make things more complicated, the only way either of you could win is if you somehow convinced the new student to side with you?”
Luna set down her glass. “And steal the trophy from the last competition’s winner.” She clenched her hand into a fist as she muttered, “which I will win this time.”
“This is crazy!” Twilight shouted, before slumping back into her chair. “But more importantly, why wasn’t I told any of this!?”
“Make no mistake Twilight Sparkle,” Luna began as she eyed the other with an apologetic frown, “it’s tradition to not let the new student become aware of such things until the awaited day come and even then, wondercolts could only do nothing but go about their day.”
“And completely freak out the new student too, I bet,” Twilight muttered bitterly.
Luna managed a small smile. “I can see how upsetting that must have been but do know, if I was the winner, I would not subject any of the students to this convoluted culture.”
Twilight nodded before she stared with unimpressed amethyst orbs. “That doesn’t mean I’m siding with you.”
At this, the vice principal frowned. “But you have no choice. Sooner or later, you will embrace your title as the Ananab as Sunset inevitably did.”
Twilight groaned before she sighed and sharply asked, “and what does that mean?”
“Ananab, ‘the Chosen’ or simply ‘One who is chosen’ if my translation’s correct,” Luna stated as she flipped the pages of a brightly yellow covered book with a frustrated huff. “Honestly, to publish a dictionary even. Celestia’s milking her victory for all its worth.”
The bespectacled girl allowed her eye to lightly twitch before she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Okay, so say that you do win this time. What would you do differently?”
Grinning, Luna aptly threw the dictionary away and brought out blueprints. Granted she first blew away the dust that gathered and few cobwebs before she unfurled it across her desk. “First of all, I would have the students make their own pineapple juice stand. Like a lemonade stand but only the proceeds will be used as funding for future school event projects, school trips, and clubs.”
Twilight nodded her head, liking the idea so far.
“Then, when it’s not used for consumption, I propose it’ll be intended for decorations. Of course, I will have a meeting with the head of the arts and crafts club but I’m confident it’ll be something they can handle without strict supervision.”
Again, Twilight nodded along. Maybe siding with Luna would be better than siding with Celestia.
“Of course, there is an opportunity to brew poisons from unripe pineapples, just in case some nefarious evildoer decided to interfere with our celebration, but I would like to volunteer my sister as a test subject for that. Serves her right for hoarding that trophy for so long.”
Welp, never mind.
Twilight cleared her throat to butt in, stopping the elder woman’s frightening train of thought. “Vice Principal Luna, I can honestly say that I like your ideas (except the poison one) and I can see now that with you in charge, it’ll benefit CHS and by extension, everyone’s sanity, more as well.” She offered a purple hand, to which Luna enthusiastically shook.
When it was done, another question came to Twilight’s mind. “So, if Sunset was the last Ananab, then why did she tell me to find you? Shouldn’t she be like, the second-in-command in this crazy day?”
Luna smiled sadly. “She managed to see the corruption within the Banana Supreme and prior to this day, she sought me out and we made a truce.”
“And by Banana Supreme, I guess you mean Principal Celestia?” Twilight stated with an unimpressed expression before it morphed into confusion when the vice principal shook her head.
“The Banana Supreme is no sister of mine.” She raised a dramatic fist, closing her eyes in frustration. “I have unfortunately lost her to the temptation of power. I’d go and say that she completely went bananas upon the proclamation of her new laws.”
Twilight rolled her eyes but said nothing.
Luna, oblivious to the other’s action, turned as she gripped the picture depicting her and her sister and stared at the smiling face of the latter with a sad frown. “That is what’s at stake here. This war, this ‘dumb competition’ as you stated, goes beyond my desire to win-
The elder woman turned to Twilight, dropping her dramatic aura for a moment, to say, “and I do love to win.” She returned to staring at the framed picture.
-but I also wish to see my sister returned to me…and if she happened to admit that pineapples are better than bananas, that is simply a bonus.” Luna placed the picture down. “But, above all else, I do wish to end her tyranny, and bring forth a new celebration of peace, one that does not require a person to converse using her made-up language and ‘freak out’ the new student.”
The last part caught Twilight’s interest. “So, you’re saying, that with you winning this time; you’ll completely end this competition? Just like that, never again?”
Luna nodded. “Never again. Unlike the Banana Supreme, I know when things have gone too far.” Luna narrowed her eyes. “And this goes beyond the boundaries of ‘too far.’”
Twilight huffed, processing everything that was said to her. Really, all of this was just absurd!
“But,” she thought as she finished her glass of juice, “by siding with Luna, I can end this all. If we manage to steal the trophy, we can get everything back to normal.” Amethyst orbs stared determinedly at desperate cyan ones as Twilight stood up.
“Okay, what do we need to do?”
Vice Principal Luna smiled, nodding with a silent ‘thank you’ to the younger before turning serious once again. She brought out another set of blueprints, before she opened a small notebook. “First things first, we need more recruits.” She clicked her pen open, writing on the paper. “Luckily, Sunset and I managed to find students who share the same grievances as us.” The elder woman then pursed her lips. “But unfortunately, they’ve been discovered and captured before they were taken in to be Re-Bananad, which could prove to be difficult in breaking them out undetected.”
Twilight matched the elder woman’s expression before she tapped a finger to her chin in thought. Drat, with just the two of them, the chances of success were smaller, no doubt about that. If the rest of the school were proud supporters of the Banana Supreme, then stealing the trophy (that she could only guess was hidden somewhere near said crazy tyrant) would be harder than she thought.
Unless they have help.
Nodding, the bespectacled girl came to a decision. “Alright, then we need to save the captured anti-bananas.” Twilight paused before she groaned. “I feel like I lost a lot of IQ points just by saying that.”
Luna smiled empathically. “You’ll get used to it. Trust me.” She then pointed to the blueprints. “I have been gathering where they could be keeping them, but it’ll be harder to enter and considering that everyone knows you’re ‘Ananab’ and I’m ‘Bananad’ we’re painting ourselves a huge target if we simply walked in.”
Crossing her arms, Twilight mulled the elder’s words over. She found herself peeking through the smidgen of a view of the courtyard through the blinds until her eyes spotted the same three hooded figures from before dragging a struggling Sunset.
A very dumb idea came to mind, one that not even Twilight minded that she concocted.
“I know of a way we can get in, but we need to use unripe pineapples.” She smiled madly as calculations and measurements appeared in her mind’s eye, fueled further by the desire for a little payback. “Lots and lots of unripe pineapples.”