//------------------------------// // Locker//Door // Story: Love’s a Witch (and a She-Demon, Too) // by RB_ //------------------------------// “Who would do something like this?”  Sunset Shimmer, standing next to Twilight and Vice Principal Luna in the hallway, could only echo Twilight’s sentiment as they gazed in mortified awe at the crater that had once been the other girl’s locker It was just after fourth period. Normally, the hall would have been filled with students heading to their next class, but given present circumstances the hall had been cordoned off by the janitors with cones at either end, which made the whole thing feel just a little bit too much like a crime scene. The onlookers on both ends of the hall, craning their necks to get a good view of the carnage, did not help matters. Carnage was an appropriate word. Another appropriate word would have been savaged. Twilight’s locker had been savaged, the metal walls bent and pulled out of shape, its contents spread all over the floor, and most of it in pieces. This was to say nothing of the door, which itself was quite mangled, but this was far less interesting than the fact that it was quite literally embedded into the front of a locker on the other side of the hall. It stuck out from the wall like some kind of demented street sign. The padlock that was supposed to have prevented this sort of thing from happening lay on the ground by Sunset’s foot. The U-shaped steel bar that bridged the two sides of it now more resembled an S. Messing with people’s lockers was a high school tradition—one she’d even participated in, on occasion, back when she’d ruled the school’s social pyramid with an iron fist—but this was way out of her league. If this was supposed to be a prank, Sunset thought with a scowl, it had been taken way, way too far. “To be entirely honest, we were hoping you had some idea,” Vice Principal Luna said. “Destruction of school property is a serious breach of the Code of Conduct, not to mention an unneeded strain on the school’s budget—as I believe you are both well aware.” The statement was accompanied by a very brief (and very familiar) glare at the both of them. “You don’t have any idea who might have wanted to break into your locker?” Luna continued. “I… N-no, not really,” Twilight stammered, shaking her head. “I don’t know why anyone would want to get into my locker in the first place. I don’t even keep anything valuable in there.” “That was going to be my next question,” Luna said. “Nothing it all? No electronics, jewelry, cash…?” Twilight shook her head again. “No. About the most valuable thing I had in there were my physics notes—” She gasped. “My physics notes! We have a test tomorrow! I needed those to study!” Ah, there it was: a classic Twilight Sparkle freak-out coming on. Sunset smiled knowingly and put her arm over Twilight’s shoulders. “Relax. I’m pretty sure you could teach that class if you wanted to.” She turned to the Vice Principal. “Doesn’t the school have security cameras? Have you checked those?” Luna pointed behind them. The two girls turned their heads around and looked up at the ceiling where the vice-principal had indicated. Sticking out of one of the ceiling tiles was a dome-covered surveillance camera. Or, well, what had until recently been a dome-covered surveillance camera. There was now significantly less of both the dome and the camera. “Oh,” Sunset said. As she turned her head back, she caught a brief whiff of something. Her eyebrows furled. Smoke? “Now, I shouldn’t have to remind you,” Luna said, derailing that particular train of thought, “but the Fall Formal is on Monday, and given your track record with school events over the last several years—” another glare at the both of them “—I will request that if this is the start of another ‘incident’, that you deal with it quickly and outside of school. Understood?” “Yes, Vice-Principal Luna.” “Clear as crystal.” “Good.” Just then, the overhead bell rang out, signaling the start of the new period. Luna sighed. “Go on to class, you two,” she said. “I’ll get the janitors to clean this mess up, and you may pick up what remains of your locker’s contents from my office later.” She pulled a pad of paper out of her back pocket and scribbled a note on it, then tore the sheet off and handed it to Twilight. “Here’s a late pass.” She turned sharply to the peanut gallery at the end of the hall. “The rest of you don’t have an excuse! Get to class before I give you all detention!” The crowd scurried off like a bunch of rats caught in the pantry. Sunset and Twilight shared a chuckle, then headed off themselves after Sunset took the chance to snap a picture of the carnage with her phone, her arm still around Twilight’s shoulders. The two had been dating for almost three months, now. Since mid-August. Which was kind of crazy to think about, Sunset often reflected, because it simultaneously felt to her like no time at all and like they’d been together forever. It had started out surprisingly casually. The two of them had been watching a movie at Sunset’s apartment, some cheesy sci-fi thing Sunset had only really been half paying attention to. Partly because it was boring, and partly because Twilight was sitting very, very close to her on the sofa. She’d had her hair down, and it had just framed her face so perfectly, the formless, multi-coloured projection of the TV washing over her cheeks, those soft and intelligent eyes focused so intently on the screen. So, on impulse, she’d reached over and put her arm around the smaller girl’s shoulders, much like she was doing now. Twilight had started, but after a moment of each of them staring blankly at the other (a very long moment, from Sunset’s perspective) she’d given her a small smile and a blush, and leaned into it. The sudden warmth had made Sunset’s heart flutter. And that was how it had started. Not with a bang, not with a heartfelt confession or an impromptu musical number, but with a simple gesture of affection on a whim. When they’d told their friends, not a single one of them had been surprised. And it was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Twilight Sparkle didn’t feel perfect. She didn’t feel anywhere close to perfect. She felt like a bunch of worms had taken up residence in her stomach and were now beginning to set up a colony. “Freaky!” Pinkie Pie said, a sentiment the rest of the girls seemed to agree with. It was lunch time; the general bustle of the cafeteria droned on in the background, but the group’s attention was focused on the picture on Sunset’s phone. “Yes, ‘freaky’ is certainly one word I’d use to describe that,” Rarity said, relaxing back into her seat. “Are you alright, darling?” “I’m fine,” Twilight said, even as her left hand twisted in her lap. Her right busied itself with her fork, spearing a piece of broccoli. “Really.” She looked up. “I just don’t get why anyone would want to do this to my locker. Everyone around here is so nice!” “Some people are good at hidin’ their true colours,” Applejack said. “Can’t say I can think of anyone who’d do somethin’ like this from around here, though. What about one of your old friends at Crystal Prep?” Twilight shook her head. “Wanton destruction isn’t exactly the Crystal Prep style. Besides, that was almost a year ago! Why wait until now?” No one seemed to have an answer to that. She sighed. “I just hope I haven’t hurt someone without knowing it. Whoever did this must be really upset…” “Hey,” Sunset said. Sitting beside her, the sudden gruff assertion almost made her jump. Sunset’s expression was fierce, but the hand that slipped into her own under the table was warm and firm. “This isn’t your fault.” Twilight could feel her cheeks colouring slightly. “Yeah!” Pinkie chirped from across the table. Wresting her eyes from Sunset’s face, Twilight could see she’d at some point begun constructing an (actually quite impressive, she had to admit) edible model of the Eiffel Tower out of carrot sticks. “This is just some meanie being a meanie.” “And we’re gonna make ‘em pay!” Rainbow punctuated the statement by slapping her fist into her palm like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon. The others nodded their approval (though a little warily, perhaps not in support of something quite as violent as Rainbow might have been suggesting). A smile snuck its way onto Twilight’s face. “Thanks, girls.”  It slipped a little a moment later. “But Vice-Principal Luna didn’t sound very confident about catching whoever did this in the hallway.” Sunset’s grip on her hand grew a little tighter. “Then we’ll just have to catch whatever ruffian is behind this ourselves,” Rarity declared. “I’m sure that, between the seven of us, we can discover something the administration cannot. Someone at this school must have seen something.” “I think all those crime novels she’s been reading have gone to her head!” Pinkie mock-whispered to Rainbow, who nodded knowingly. “I am going to pretend I did not hear that, darlings!” “Well, I appreciate it,” Twilight said. The worms that had been crawling in her stomach finally began to dissipate. Some of them, anyway. “All of you.” “Don’t sweat it!” Rainbow said. “That’s what friends are for,” Fluttershy added. “Now,” Rarity said. “Besides the locker, was there anything else that was out of the ordinary? Anything at all?” Twilight couldn’t think of anything, but Sunset’s brow furrowed after a moment. “Well, there was one thing,” she said. “When we were about to leave—I could have sworn I smelled smoke.” “What, like cigarette smoke?” Rainbow asked. “No, more like… like a charcoal-y smell. Like a wood fire.” “Weird.” “Maybe it was an animal,” Fluttershy said. “Some of those gashes look a little like claw marks.” Sunset’s mouth turned sideways. “I dunno… It would have had to have been a pretty big animal to do that kind of damage. Like a bear or something.” “Bears sneak into schools sometimes,” Fluttershy said, idly twirling her fork. “They smell the lunches and just can’t help themselves. Poor things.” “I’m pretty sure someone would have spotted a bear running around the school by now,” Rainbow said. “That would be kinda hard to miss.” “Maybe it was a teddy bear,” Pinkie suggested. “Yeeeeaaaah, I don’t think so.” “Hey,” Sunset said. “Around here? Stranger things have happened.” “Speaking of stranger things,” Applejack said. “Have you written to Princess Twilight about any of this?” Twilight stiffened. She felt Sunset’s grip tighten, just for a moment. “You think this might be Equestrian?” Sunset said, frowning. “Well, that is where most of the, uh, ‘freaky’ things that have happened to us have come from.” Sunset’s other hand went to the back of her neck. She sucked in her lips and said, “I don’t know if this is really the sort of thing we should bother the princess about. Not until we have some evidence that it’s magic-related, at least.” Applejack raised an eyebrow at her. “Considerin’ it’s us? I don’t think we can rule magic out. Besides, since when do you need a reason to write to the Princess?” Sunset shrugged. “She’s a busy mare. I haven’t talked to her in a while.” A group of assorted students walked past, chattering loudly. Those around the lunch table quieted down for a moment. Magic wasn’t something you talked about openly at Canterlot High. “Well, I think it might be a good idea,” Rarity said. “Just in case. In the meantime, the rest of us can ask around on our own.” Sunset nodded. “Yeah. And who knows? Maybe Vice-Principal Luna will come out ahead of us for once.” This earned a snort from Rainbow. “Yeah, that’ll be the day!” They all laughed at that. It wasn’t even that funny, but it dissolved the tension in the air like sugar. The conversation drifted onto lighter topics from there. School. Work. A particularly unruly new dog at the animal shelter where Fluttershy worked. Pinkie topped her carrot Eiffel Tower with a tiny carrot flag. The bell rang. There went the lunch period.  As the others said their goodbyes and melted into the crowd, Sunset kissed Twilight lightly on the forehead. “See you later,” she said. “I love you.” “I love you too.” Twilight’s smile lasted just long enough for Sunset to get out of view. Sunset inserted her key into the lock on her apartment door and paused. The rest of the day had passed without incident; she’d seen Twilight off once school had ended and then headed straight home herself, to her one-room apartment in one of the less well-kept neighborhoods of the town. But what had happened at Twilight’s locker earlier had been pulling at the back of her mind, and now, so was something else. Leaving the key unturned in the lock, she ran her fingers over the red-painted door. It looked newer than the rest of the doors in the hallway, and for good reason: it had a fresh coat of paint over every other apartment in the building. And the reason for that was what was bothering her now. Almost a week ago, she’d come back from school, much as she had today, to find that someone had vandalized her door. It wasn’t anything major; the lock hadn’t been tampered with, nor had the door been broken off of its hinges. No one had gotten into her apartment, and there were no signs that anyone had attempted to, either, which made it all the more unnerving. What had been done to it was that someone had scratched into its surface, just below the peephole in bold, angular letters, a single word:  ‘LIAR’. Of course, she’d brushed this off; one of her crazy neighbors, obviously. Celestia knew she had plenty. The landlord had taken care of it before the day was over. She hadn’t bothered telling the girls or even Twilight about it, either. Why worry them over nothing? But now, with what had happened… …and that smell that had been in the air… Brow furled, she shook her head. Her hand returned to the key in the lock, and she let herself into her apartment. As the door closed behind her, a few flecks of paint peeled off and fell to the wooden floor below. The next day passed relatively peacefully. It wasn’t until the day after—Friday—that the next two incidents occurred. “So then Rainbow Dash says, ‘The Fourth of July!’” Sunset said, as they made their way down the hall, threading their way through the crowds of other students that congested the arteries of the school like blood clots. “Like that’s even close to the right answer.” Twilight giggled. It was heading towards the last period of the day; she and Sunset had calculus together. Unlike most of the other students at the school, it was actually a class she looked forward to, and only about half of that was because it was one of the only classes she had with her girlfriend. “So,” Sunset said, switching topics entirely. “How’d you do on that physics test?” Twilight stiffened. The good feelings went away, replaced once more by the wriggling in the pit of her stomach. “Fine,” she said, just a little too quickly. She shifted the strap of her bag on her shoulder. “A+, same as always. How about you?” “B-,” Sunset said. She let loose an annoyed snort. “Even after all these years, I still can’t get used to the physics in this world. Your constants are all wrong.” They hooked a right into the classroom. “I could tutor you… you know, if you wanted to—” The words died in her throat. Sunset and Twilight sat next to each other in this class, at a pair of adjacent desks in the front row. Twilight had just noticed something that sent her nerves right back to the edge. “S-Sunset!” Twilight gasped. “Your desk!” “Hm?” Sunset, perplexed, looked down and immediately saw what Twilight had been talking about. A single word had been carved across the desk’s surface in deep gouges, and underlined by further scratches.  ‘LIAR.’ Sunset took in a sharp intake of breath. “Alright!” she declared, whirling around. “Which one of you creeps thought this was—” But they were the first ones into the classroom. They were alone. That was the first incident of the day. The second occurred much later. The final bell rang, signaling the end of school and the start of the weekend. Everywhere, books went into bags, binders went into lockers, and plans went into brains as the promise of a night and two days away from school enticed the student body’s imaginations. And there was the Fall Formal to look forward to. Sunset and Twilight, of course, already had after-school plans, as they always did on Fridays. Friday after-school meant band practice. Joining a band had not really been something Twilight had ever seen herself doing before coming to Canterlot High. Particularly not singing in one—she’d never really considered herself to be a great singer. So the invitation to join the band had come a bit out of the blue, but with some convincing, she’d promised to do her best. It was only later that she’d discovered that the reason they’d asked her was because of her Equestrian counterpart, but by that point the deed had already been done. Of course, at the moment, there were bigger things on her mind, so she shoved the thought aside. “Why ‘liar’, do you think?” she asked, as they made their way through the rapidly emptying halls of the school. “I don’t know,” Sunset said. “I can’t think of anyone who’d want to call me that.” As with Twilight’s locker, no one had actually seen anything—or, at least, no one had admitted to seeing anything. The Vice-Principal hadn’t had anything new to add, either. “Do you think it was the same person who broke into my locker?” Twilight asked. “Two points of data aren’t a good basis for a scientific conclusion, but…” “It has to be,” Sunset said. “There’s no way this is just a coincidence. Besides, there’s the smell.” “Wood smoke.” Twilight said. She’d caught a whiff of it too, this time. She frowned. “Why wood smoke?” “Beats me.” After a few more moments of walking, Sunset abruptly grabbed Twilight by the arm and stopped in the middle of the hall. They were completely alone, now. “You know what this means, though, right?” she said. Twilight glanced down at Sunset’s hand on her forearm, then back to the girl’s face. She had a stern look about her. Like a mother lion. “It means someone’s got something against us. Specifically,” Sunset said. In some odd, twisted way that she wouldn’t want to admit, Twilight was glad it wasn’t just her. She nodded. After a moment more, Sunset released her arm and they resumed their walk. As they neared their destination, Twilight began to hear something odd: a sort of crashing thump, every few seconds, getting louder with each step they took. “What’s that banging sound?” Sunset said. She’d heard it too, evidently. “I don’t know,” Twilight said. “We’d better hurry.” They quickened their pace. As they turned the corner, the source of the noise became apparent. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had beaten them to the practice room. This was not unusual. What was unusual was the fact that Rainbow Dash was currently trying to break down the door. Rainbow rammed her shoulder once more into the door and bounced off, her efforts ineffective. She swore loudly, then readied to repeat the maneuver.  Sharing a quick glance, Sunset and Twilight hurried forwards. “What’s going on?” Sunset called out. “Someone’s in there!” Rainbow said. “And they don’t sound like they’re making music!” Pinkie shrieked. This was accompanied by a muffled crash from inside the room. “Son of a—” Rainbow rammed the door again. “Whoever you are, you’re gonna get it!” Sunset grabbed her by the shoulder before she could try again. “I’ll get it open, hang on.” She fumbled in her pocket for the key. The key had originally been given to Rainbow Dash, as leader of the band, but after her fifth time losing it (she’d only left it in her other pair of jeans, as it turned out, but the point had been made), ownership had been transferred to Sunset. As the school’s somewhat-semi-officially-endorsed band, they’d been given a spare room to practice in and store their instruments, and a spare key. As it turned out, being involved in saving the student body from enslavement on multiple occasions came with some perks. She pulled the key out and, grabbing the handle tight, fitted it to the lock. It turned with a click and she threw open the door, revealing— “Our instruments!” —the utter devastation that awaited them. The practice room had been completely trashed. Shelves had been knocked over.  Books and papers lay scattered across the floor.  That wasn’t what had the girls staring, however. That was Applejack’s bass, broken into two pieces connected tenuously by its strings. That was Rarity’s keytar, now conspicuously key-less, the black and white pieces spread across the floor with the rest of the detritus. That was Pinkie Pie’s drum set, sticks jabbed through the snare, hi-hat stand toppled over and bent in half, their band’s horseshoe logo split with the skin of the bass drum. That was Rainbow’s electric guitar, sticking out of the bass drum. That was Sunset’s guitar, sitting in a pile in the middle of the floor, neck broken to splinters, strings cut, body snapped in half, loose wires off the pickups hanging out like intestines in some grim horror film, but this was very much real. Twilight looked over the carnage with her hand to her mouth. The one observation that came to mind from this quick survey was that whoever had done this had been methodical, thorough, and very, very angry. Who that someone was would remain a mystery, it seemed. While the room contained plenty of debris, it was conspicuously devoid of culprits. Rainbow was the first to break from the trance they’d all fallen under, barging into the room without much care for what might be underfoot. She whirled around, looking in each corner as if expecting someone to pop out from the shadows, but there was no one. The others followed her lead almost in a daze. “Ugh… what’s that smell?” Rainbow asked, her nose wrinkling. “Ozone,” Twilight was quick to reply. “O3. It forms from O2 when exposed to UV light, or if there’s a large electrical discharge, like a bolt of lightning.” She hung back by the door, not really sure what to do. Sunset, on the other hand, went straight to what remained of her guitar. She knelt down by the wreckage, picked up part of the neck and examined it for a moment before letting it drop back down to the pile. Her face was turned away from Twilight, but she could imagine the expression she had to be making. Footsteps, in the hall outside. “Sorry we’re late!” came Rarity’s voice from the doorway. “Applejack needed help explaining to Mr. Doodle that not all students have the luxury of…” Her words died off. Fluttershy’s hands went to her mouth with a gasp. Applejack, the last in, narrowed her eyes, as if she was having trouble processing what she was seeing. “What…” “Someone broke into the practice room!” Rainbow exclaimed. “And then they kept breaking!” Pinkie added, standing behind her ruined drum set. Her hand traced the ridge of a broken snare. “Broke in?” Rarity said. “How? Wasn’t the door locked?” “It was locked when we got here,” Sunset replied, standing up. “They must have come in through the window.” Applejack strode across the room to the glass panes in question. She peered out, apparently saw nothing of note, and then noticed something far more interesting when she pulled her head back. “That ain’t possible. The window’s latched shut,” she said, pointing to the lock. “From the inside.” Sunset stared at her. Twilight’s mind reeled. “My tambourine survived,” Fluttershy said, smiling and hugging the instrument to her chest. “Thank goodness.” “We can’t go on stage at the Fall Formal with just a tambourine!” Rainbow said, throwing her hands into the air. She fell back and sat down on the edge of the raised half of the room that Pinkie’s drums sat on, putting an arm out to steady herself. “It’s official! We’re ruined!” The other band members shared a glance. Playing the Fall Formal had been a big deal, especially to Rainbow.  “Could you borrow someone else’s instruments?” Twilight suggested. “Darling, we’re usually the ones other people come to when they need to borrow instruments,” Rarity said. “And while I can certainly afford another keytar, they aren’t exactly the type of instrument you’ll find at your local music shop. I’d have to order it over the internet, and it most definitely wouldn’t be here in time for the dance.” “I can’t afford another guitar right now,” Rainbow said. “I’m broke.” “Ditto,” Pinkie said. “Party supplies are expensive!” Applejack sighed. “Looks like the Rainbooms are going to be out of action for a little while.” This earned her a groan from Rainbow. “This sucks! If I find out who did this…” “Probably the same person who trashed Twilight’s locker,” Sunset said. “And who vandalized my desk today.” This caught their attention. She relayed what had happened earlier—and threw in the story about her door, too. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Twilight asked, when she was done. Sunset shrugged. “It didn’t seem important.” “I reckon you were pretty far off on that,” Applejack said. “Well, you know what they say about hindsight.” “We need to tell Vice-Principal Luna about this,” Rainbow said, standing up. “The school’s gotta be able to do something, right? Security cameras, or something!” Twilight shook her head. “They were careful enough to break the cameras last time, I doubt they’d be any more careless now.” “Hey, they might have slipped up,” Sunset said. “Especially on their way out—however they managed that. Rainbow was literally breaking the door down, they would have been panicking.”  “Either way, darlings, we still need to report this,” Rarity said. “Shall we head down to the office?” “Some of us should stay here,” Applejack said. “Just in case the crook comes back.” “Agreed,” Sunset said. “Rainbow, Rarity and I will go face Luna’s wrath. The rest of you stay here.” Everyone nodded, and so off they went. “I just don’t understand it,” Twilight heard Fluttershy say, as Sunset and Rainbow headed for the door. “Who would want to do something like this to us?”