Chapter 2
Foggy’s day had started just like any other. Wake up, eat whatever expired or leftover food he could find with Scoots, drive to school, do most of his homework in or before class, probably get caught, etc. What he didn’t expect to happen was feel a deep vibration in his pocket.
A text? Who would text h-
Oh. OH.
Sunset went through the portal last night! How had he forgotten?! Sure, she’d told him that he wasn’t needed for that step, but to completely forget? He frantically pulled out his dingy, worn phone and checked the screen.
Three messages from Sunset Shimmer, it read. A lower notification warned him of Increased levels of energy emitting from area 1.
Yeah, Foggy was actually pretty good with tech. He’d managed to create a small radar that would just detect levels of electrical energy near the portal and a few other places. A simple receptor, paid for by Sunset of course, transmitted data to his phone directly. Pretty useful, and it showed that Sunset indeed passed through, and returned via, the portal. Surprisingly, there was a third surge; someone was in the process of following her back! The transition was not instantaneous, so it would be an hour or so until she popped through.
Foggy was not happy that he wasn’t there for it. He’d been thoroughly assured that nobody would notice for a few days at least, letting him sleep easy. Apparently, Sunset had at least partially failed. He would have to have a… talk with her later.
Back to the texts. The first one simply read “Going in. Let you know how it goes later.” Simple enough. Second one was “I’m back. Get your ass down here, we have a situation.” A bit more worrying, something definitely went wrong. The final one said “Meet me by Cranky’s class after first period.”
Needless to say, Foggy very nearly broke the law multiple times getting to school as soon as possible.
“Uh, Foggy? Why’re you so tense? And why are we going so fast?” Scoots was obviously confused as to the rush.
Foggy took a long drag of a cigarette, leaning his arm out the window. “It’s nothing, kid. Just something very important happened last night, and something went wrong and I’ve gotta knock some skulls around and fix it.” Scoots quieted down, subdued by his fierce tone.
He’d thrown on his only pair of clean clothes; most of his winter clothes were all dirty though, so he just threw on a slightly-too-large grey hoodie, a gold basketball jersey for some team he’d never heard of, and old jeans to combat the cold. He wore his sunglasses everywhere, so they were a necessity to complete the slightly grungy look. Foggy tried his best not to look like a classic homeless person, but some days he just couldn’t help it.
The two got to school well before the bell, and Scoots vanished the moment they entered the bustling school. Foggy himself skipped first period, favoring just heading straight to the aforementioned hallway, finding it empty. He leaned against the wall, checking his phone here and there for any updates. Whatever followed Sunset through the portal had finished entering the human world, and he could no longer detect where they were. He waited until the bell rang, and within a minute he saw the familiar leather-wearing girl heading towards him. He stalked up to Sunset, anger visible in his stance.
“Sunset. What. The fuck. Happened last night?”
She turned, and gave him a fake smile. “Well, I got the artifact.” She paused.
“Well… where is it?”
“That’s the thing. It went through the portal before I did, and that girl Fluttershy got to it before I did. And I worked so hard to dismantle her social life, too…”
“Hold up. You lost the artifact that your entire plan depends upon… to Fluttershy? The timid girl who’s terrified of me? Easy, I’ll just go take it from her. She’s too much of a wuss to stand up for herself.”
“It’s not exactly that easy. You see, this Element of Harmony looks exactly like the Fall Formal Crown. So, I snagged it and switched the two, so they wouldn’t know. There was a tiny dragon or something in the room-”
Foggy’s eyes burned with rage. “A dragon, you say. What size? Age? Capabilities? Appearance? Tell me more about this dragon, please.” His voice was thick with sarcasm at the end, but beneath it all his desire to know his quarry was genuine.
“Calm down, man. It was tiny, like a hatchling. Purple, and I don’t know what it can do but probably not a lot. Anyway, so I somehow tripped on a lamp or something, I’m not quite sure, but the owner of the Element woke up and chased me. I ran back, but it went through before me. Because the artifact looks like the Fall Formal crown, Fluttershy thought it was, and… well, she turned it in to Principal Celestia.”
“WHAT?!” Foggy roared, drawing a bit too much attention from the students roaming the halls. He quieted down and moved closer. “You lost the crown?!” This was…less than ideal. He could still try to make the jump with whoever followed, but that was highly hypothetical. “Okay, okay. There must be a way to get it back. I haven’t gone to the Formal since my first year, but I know you have. What is there to know that could help?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot that you never go. Why is that?” She gave him another fake grin, a hint of malice behind it.
Foggy sighed. “I’m not the most liked around here, as I’m sure you’re familiar with. I went the first year, but I stole some guy’s wallet, and he found out, and well… he had some bigger friends, and they took it back and some other things with it. That’s when a lot of the rumors about me being a weirdo and a scumbag started circulating. They’re kinda true, but still. I just kept my distance after that, and it’s worked out fine so far. Anyway, answer the question.”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine. I win like every year so it’s not a problem at all. The elected winner gets the crown, so once I win I’ll just use it then and there. Shouldn’t be difficult at all.” She glanced past him at something in the hallway.
Foggy turned as well to see Fluttershy standing there, timidly watching them. When their eyes met she squeaked and turned away.
“Hey, Fluttershy! C'mere for a sec.” Foggy called out, walking forward and relishing the way she stopped dead in her tracks and shook with fear as he rested a hand menacingly on her shoulder. “Relax, we just want to talk. Yeah, just a talk.”
Fluttershy weakly nodded and turned to face them, keeping her eyes down.
“So, you think you can just take the crown like that? You couldn’t have waited a couple minutes or anything?”
“I-I’m really sorry… I just found it and thought I should give it to her. I didn’t know you had dropped it.”
Sunset stepped forward, and Foggy let her take the lead. “Well, I did. I was about to get it before you swooped in and ruined everything! You shouldn’t pick up things that don’t belong to you.” At this, Foggy resisted a chuckle. He and Sunset weren’t the most morally correct duo, and she was lecturing timid Fluttershy on the subject?
“I-It doesn’t really belong to you either,” Fluttershy whispered.
Aha, good one. Finally starting to grow a backbone? That might be a problem...
Sunset slammed her hands into the lockers on either side of the poor girl, and Foggy cracked his knuckles.
“Excuse me?!” Sunset shouted, and Fluttershy sank to the ground.
“N-nothing…” She mumbled, near tears.
Oh, never mind. She’s as shy as a newborn fawn.
“That’s what I thought. It’s as good as mine, and you know it. You really are pathetic; it’s no wonder all your friends are stray animals.”
“How dare you speak to her that way?!” A new voice exclaimed from down the hall. Foggy turned in surprise to see a girl he’d never seen before; lilac skin with two-tone purple hair and a strange dog at her side.
“What did you say?!” Sunset retorted, her face twisting in anger.
“We gonna have a problem here, new girl?” Foggy took a step forward, his hands curling into fists at his side.
“I said, how dare you speak to her that way!” The two girls marched forward to face each other, glaring daggers at one another. Surprisingly, Sunset’s frown turned to a sleazy smile.
“You must be new here. I can speak to anyone anyway I want.” She turned and focused her ire on a passing student, who jumped into a locker in fright as Foggy glared at him as well. Sunset walked off, leaving Foggy to lurk behind in the shadows.
Fluttershy and the new girl spoke for a moment, but his attention wasn’t focused on something as small as that, instead taking in all the new information and failures of the day. His attention only snapped back when Fluttershy leapt towards the new dog, his street instincts kicking in at the sudden movement. He relaxed when she only pulled out a dog treat, but still scoffed at her.
“Probably a damned dragon-lover.” He muttered under his breath, not catching the sharp look the new girl, ‘Twilight’ apparently, gave him.
He waited until their discussion ended, and Twilight dashed around the corner. “Hey new girl! Wait up a second.” She slowed her pace, and turned to face him. He looked down at her through his dark sunglasses, and she instinctively shrunk in response to his intimidating presence. “You may not know this, but Sunset Shimmer is in charge around here. If you make trouble for her, then I gotta do something about it, if you catch my drift. Whatever you have against her, just drop it. It’s for your own good.”
And with a narrowing of his eyes, Foggy walked to first period.
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The school day until lunch passed fairly fast, with Foggy finishing up tweaking the blueprints for his project in class instead of doing his work. He’d be gone before he graduated, anyway.
The only remarkable event happened during the last class before lunch, which was math in his case. He just sat in the back and worked on a plan for what to do next. It mostly just entailed him meeting the new girl at lunch by the portal and trying to jump through.
He’d lifted his head to give the appearance of doing his work when he noticed the new girl staring at him. She, Fluttershy, and some athletic girl named Rainbow Dash all had class together with him. Foggy kept his distance, as he didn’t really know them, but Rainbow Dash was one of the ones who was mostly immune to bullying. However, she had a deep desire to be “cool”, so he’d used that to his advantage in the past.
Anyway, he glared at her enough to make her look away in shame, but a few moments later she turned to her new buddies, the aforementioned duo, and unsubtly jabbed a finger in his direction. The two turned to look at him as well, and he scowled in their direction.
Foggy decided that he would use his honed skills of being a sneaky scumbag to listen in, if only for the sake of knowing what he was getting into.
Rainbow was speaking when he managed to hear them. “That’s Foggy Horizons, he’s Sunset Shimmer’s henchman of sorts.”
That was totally untrue! Sure, he did a lot of the more physical threats (or would it be promises?) and beatdowns, but… woah, actually now that he thought about it he was pretty henchman-esque. He’d need to fix that…
Rainbow continued. “He mostly does her dirty work; roughing people up a bit, threatens people physically, all of that stuff. Nobody likes him at all, not even Sunset! Everyone does what they can get away with, ‘cause Shimmer won’t let people openly slander him, but here and there she doesn’t really mind.” Okay, that part was true.
Fluttershy piped up shakily. “Um, he’s not the nicest. I f-found something this morning Rainbow, and gave it to P-Principal Celestia, and he was super mean to me about it!” Foggy was very pointedly staring at the worksheet in front of him, but he imagined her lip trembled with fear.
At this, he felt the hot glare of an angry girl burning into his head, and he glanced up to meet Rainbow’s gaze as she melted a hole through his face with her stare. He simply smirked and gave a sarcastic wave, returning to his work.
They didn’t do anything to him in class though, and it was definitely, totally just a coincidence that he left class really fast and nearly ran to his usual spot.
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During lunch he did something different than sitting by himself, as he always did. Everyone knew not to disturb him during his work, mostly through a promise or act of pain. So, his corner was free for himself. He never really ate lunch at school; a combination of a lack of money and (though he’d never admit it) a desire to give more to Scootaloo. He got hungry, sure, but after school, he went to work and his boss always gave him the leftovers from various customers.
Today, though, was different. He’d gotten Scoots to anonymously give Twilight a note telling her to go to the portal/statue at lunch.
After a few minutes of waiting impatiently, the girl stumbled out of the building, the strange dog peeking out of her bag.
“New girl! Over here. Mind if we talk for a second?” He gestured with a smile, and she nervously made her way over to him.
“Uh, what can I help you with? Oh, you’re that guy! I’ve been meaning to talk to you; are you from Equestria too? And aren’t you supposed to be mean? Why are you being so nice?” She practically beamed with excitement at meeting a fellow ex-pony.
“Sorry, we got off to a rough start. Sunset runs things around here, and she bullies everyone; it’s terrible! How about this; if you do a little something for me, I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Okay?” Inwardly Foggy smirked at his little bit of acting. After so long of manipulating and pulling the strings of those around him, it finally came in handy when he needed it the most.
Twilight grinned at him. “Sure! What do you need?”
“Well, I just need you to stand right by the portal and close your eyes for a second.”
She tilted her head, confused. “A bit odd, but it couldn’t hurt, I guess. Sure!” She did as he asked, and Foggy smirked. After so long, he might be going back! He took a deep breath, positioned his feet...
And tackled Twilight into the portal.
She let out a soft eep as they passed the threshold, and the familiar rainbows surrounded them. Foggy let out a victorious yell as they continued tumbling through the beams of light, successfully venturing past his previous boundaries. Twilight began to land soft blows on his back and try to extricate herself from the situation.
A large grin stretched onto his face. His bag held the prototype for his master plan, but if he waited until it was finished Twilight would be turned against him. The warm nothingness of the portal seemed different than his entrance all those years ago; it was like soaking in sunlight on a hot beach, something he hadn’t had many chances to do.
For a moment, in the comfort of the portal, he almost felt like he was back in his mother’s hooves again.
Then the pleasant light changed to burning fire.
Heat arced through his blood as he felt himself being forced back, Twilight with him. All he could do was not scream out as the burning pain intensified.
For a moment Foggy’s mind flashed to another time of similar agony; pulsing through his eye and the entire right side of his face.
She seemed to suffer no ill effects, continued to attempt to push away from him as he writhed in agony. He let go of her in favor of wrapping his arms around himself in an attempt to forestall the pain, and with that he popped back out of the portal, crashing back down on the concrete with a sick thud. His entire body felt crispened, his hoodie smoldered, and his entire head ached. Twilight dashed away from him, grabbing her bag and stopping a good twenty feet away.
“What is wrong with you?!” She yelled at him. “What was that f-”
“Get away from her!” Another voice screamed out, causing Foggy’s head to pound even harder. He managed to pull himself into a sitting position, his pain fading to a dull throb in his skull. Clutching his head, he shakily stood. After a moment he shook his head to clear it, landed his hands at his sides, and glanced around.
Before him stood Rainbow Dash, with both Fluttershy and Twilight behind her. Rainbow’s eyes were narrowed in anger, and Foggy glared back at her in full force.
“You think that just because you’re the henchman of Sunset that you can threaten one of my friends and do god knows what with the other?” She spat out, bringing her fists up into an offensive stance.
Foggy cracked his neck. “You wouldn’t understand. This goes beyond you. You want a fight? You’ll get one.” Still slightly disoriented, he surged forward to attack.
His first swipe was deftly dodged by Rainbow, but her blow landed in his ribs. Propelled by the weight of his attempt, Foggy body-checked the slightly smaller girl, sending her stumbling for a moment. Taking advantage of how off-balance she was, he slammed a kick into her leg.
She surged back up without another moment wasted, and glanced a blow off his shoulder. Foggy responded with an uppercut that was dodged, causing his fist to slam into the stone statue.
“OW!” He yelled out, still managing to dodge her next swipe while cradling his bruised fist. Using his larger, bulkier stature, Foggy advanced upon Rainbow with rage in his heart.
That hurt like a bitch! She’s gonna pay for that…
He leaned forward and shoved the smaller girl, sending her sprawling on the ground. He kicked her in the side, causing her to wince in pain.
“Face it Rainbow, you lost. Just give up-”
However, Foggy didn’t anticipate how quickly she could recover. The moment after his kick connected, Rainbow darted up, swift as lightning, and sucker punched him in the right eye.
For a moment it felt numb, and then hot pain lanced in where the fist had landed. He stumbled back, his sunglasses very much broken from the impact, and just in time remembered to cover his eye to hide the burn scars. Although some people had noticed, they were mostly covered by the shades, and the majority of the school were still unaware, including Rainbow. She’d hit the same eye that had the distorted, stretched skin of the scars around it, which had caused a quick flare of pain. He couldn’t really distinguish the two through the stinging pain of the punch, though.
The fight was obviously over as fast as it had begun, with Rainbow as the winner. Foggy crouched low, cradling his eye as it pulsed in agony. He could already feel it begin to swell. That… was going to leave quite a mark.
“Not so tough now, are you?” Rainbow crowed victoriously.
Foggy sneered at her through his pain, managing to stand up, grab his bag with his bruised hand, and don a spare pair of shades from it’s front pocket while covering his eye and its surrounding skin with his palm. “Oh, this isn’t the end. I’m still good for another-”
“Stop! Just… stop.” Foggy whirled around to blearily see Scootaloo staring at him with an indiscernible emotion on her face.
“This doesn’t involve you, Scootaloo. Just let me teach this punk a lesson, then-”
“Can’t we just let it go for now? Please? Dash?” She looked past him at Rainbow, who seemed confused by her intervention.
Foggy sighed, and with it all the tension in his body flew out, leaving only an ache in his eye and hand, scorching pain all throughout his body, and a strange sadness deep in his bones. “Fine. I’m out of here. This isn’t over, fuckface.” He snatched up his bag, glared daggers at Rainbow Dash the growing crowd, the latter of which clearing a path for him as he stormed into the school.
“Y-Yeah, that’s right, leave!” Rainbow called out behind him, but Foggy was no longer in the mood for fighting. His head hurt, his eye ached, and his smoldering clothes brought back some rather unpleasant memories. He just wanted to go back to sleep, but he had work right after school. Ah well, no rest for the weary.
All the while, he didn’t glance back to see Scootaloo watching him with a mournful expression.
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Foggy found solace in a small deserted courtyard near the edge of the school campus. He eased himself onto a chair at a shaded table, and dropped his head into his hands.
How did everything go so wrong today? First Sunset failed her task, then Foggy found out he couldn’t get back the way he wanted. Then he got beat up by Rainbow Dash, of all people?! Good thing he kept a spare pair of sunglasses in his bag in case the first pair got lost. It had happened before, and he certainly didn’t want a repeat of that.
Still, today had been a hot mess.
Why was the world out to get him? All he wanted was justice. He wasn’t the bad guy here. He would get through that portal, and they would burn for it-
“Hey.” A quiet voice called out to Foggy. The injured teen turned to face the intruder, tense and ready for a fight, but relaxed somewhat when he realized who it was.
“Hey, Scoots.” He grumbled, motioning towards a chair near him for her to sit in. The two were fairly close, but Foggy knew that if it came to it, he would leave her behind without a thought if it meant going him.
And knowing that didn’t even scare him a bit.
“So, all done talking with your hero?” Foggy muttered, as Scootaloo took a seat across from him.
“Uh, I brought you some ice, for that bruise you got.” She held out a small ice pack, probably borrowed from a friend’s lunch, and Foggy snatched it. He tore off his sunglasses, eliciting a small gasp from Scootaloo, and pressed the ice onto his eye. The numbing pain was nearly euphoric for Foggy, whose eye had been constantly throbbing.
“Thanks, I guess.” He grumbled, turned towards Scootaloo. She simply nodded at him.
Scoots was used to his angry demeanor, and it rarely fazed her anymore. She just… understood him in a way almost nobody else did. They were both homeless and without families, after all.
“Is there something you need?” He drawled, noticing how she remained to hang nervously about in the courtyard with him,
“W-Well, would you mind not attacking Dash again? You’re both really good friends to me, and I hate to see you fight…”
Yeah, more like you don’t want to pick a side. Neutrality is cowardice; action is bravery.
Still, Foggy relented. “Fine, but tell her to stay out of my way. If she antagonizes me, the only thing I’m giving her is a knuckle sandwich. Okay?”
Scootaloo practically bounced in happiness. “Thanks so much! I’m just glad you two aren’t going to keep fighting.” Scootaloo turned and dashed out of the courtyard, leaving Foggy to sulk in silence.
I got careless. It won’t happen again. The subservience of the students has made me lazy, I need to hit the gym again, and soon. Maybe after school tomorrow…
“Hey, how’s the big fighter of the day?” A voice rang out from the door. Foggy growled and turned his head to see the familiar leather clothes of Sunset at the edge of the courtyard.
“How’d you find out so fast?” Foggy grunted, and Sunset sauntered forward to take a seat across from him.
“I’ve got my connections. Being well informed is the key to success, isn’t that what you said?” That was correct, one of his prime philosophies was to stay in touch with the world around him. “Anyway, nice job getting beat up. I thought you were supposed to be my enforcer?” Sunset chuckled.
Foggy’s eyes narrowed in anger. “First off, I’m not some sort of pet to you. Our relationship is that of symbiosis, don’t forget that. Without me, you wouldn’t be half as successful as you are now.”
Sunset laughed and poked him in the shoulder, watching the way he hissed in pain. “Relax, I’m just joking. We’ve done a lot for each other; I wouldn’t just throw it all away now. Cmon, I’ve got some cream in my locker for those bruises. Nothing we can do about that bruiser on your eye, though…” She stood up and began to make her way out of the courtyard.
Foggy stood to follow her. His glasses would conceal most of the bruise, as they did with the stretched skin of his burns, but the skin around the black shades was still a deep shade of purple.
You know, I can come back from this. Simple bruises and some heat aren’t going to stop me. I’ve been to jail, for crying out loud! I’ll be ready, and stronger than ever now.
And when I get through that damned portal, the world will have hell to pay.