//------------------------------// // Explanation // Story: Mannequin Sparkle // by Draxonos135 //------------------------------// Sunny was sweating bullets - no, bombs. Nukes, she was that nervous - nukes! Well, maybe not nukes. Or bombs. Definitely bullets though - and if she wasn’t sat across a remarkably ostentatious desk from Principal Cadence herself, she’d have sniffed her coffer; she didn’t put on deodorant today, did she? Never mind. There were more important things to worry about. At least the office itself was the same comfortable pocket of gloom it had been when Cinch was in charge. Mostly, anyway - the windows were now open a crack and the curtains were drawn likewise apart: in the dim light, a trio of shelves containing every textbook and setwork in a subject the illustrious school offered and then some, a globe, an ornate cabinet of trophies, and finally and the most bittersweet of them all, a framed picture of Sunny’s grandmother alongside the other portraits of retired principals could all be seen. Apart from that, the only other suggestion that the room had changed since the past forty years of Cinch’s tyranny was the woman in the armchair behind the desk - but right now her expression was exactly the same as that of her predecessor’s portrait, and Cinch hated being painted. Cadence sighed deeply, clicking closed the Pinterest tab on her laptop before closing its lid to stare down the two offending teenagers like a judge in court. Sunny, seeing as Midnight - um, Star Gazer - still lazed in her chair without a care in the world - began, "U-Um, P-Principal Cadence, I-I can explain-" "Oh, I'm certain you can, Sunny Flare," Cadence answered. Her tone didn't hold any actual malice, but it still got the point across that the pink lady wasn't someone to screw around with. At all. The sudden surge in detentions proved that much, even if they were just for genuine offenses like bullying and theft. "But for now, I want to focus on this supposedly "magical" student that appeared to be carrying you like a bride," she continued, pointing a perfectly manicured finger at the cocky ghost and her mannequin body. Sunny gulped. "Y-Yes, ma'am. Understood, ma'am." "Okay, so... Star Gazer, right?" Cadence asked, earning a nod from the living dummy. "I wasn't informed we'd be getting a transfer student... Where are you transferring from, anyway?" Sunny eyed the living mannequin. Even if her appearance was completely different, Star was still Midnight, and thus still utterly unpredictable. Come to think of it, they really should’ve thought this through. Like, at all. Even a- "I come from Witching Woods Institution!" the ghost interrupted. Or she could just make up a school! That works too! "Oh, you mean the school that's located close to Camp Everfree?" Cadence smiled then, with a mixture of fond nostalgia and total skepticism. “I was the student president there, back in my day. Good times.” Wait, it actually existed?! Not that it was a problem, in fact, it was perfect for the charade, but still, it existed?! And Cadence went there!? "Yep! That very same one! Saw your plaque on the wall too." Star blushed, somehow, and scratched the back of her head. "You see, I decided to transfer here in order to live closer to the city, but it seems that the dossier the school admin sent never arrived." Cadence hummed. "I guess that's to be expected, there was an incident at Camp Everfree not too long ago, so maybe they got tangled in the mess." How was the mannequin able to blush, Sunny would never know, but the more important thing was that things were going well for once! If only her girlfriend could keep it up... "Although, that still doesn't explain how you’re able to fly, or use magic at all," the principal continued, folding her arms atop the desk and fixing Star with a glare that could stop a train. And there was the roadblock. Sunny winced and tried not to show it. "Well, you see, this is kinda personal," Star bluffed. What, did she have an actual story planned? "You see, during an attack at Camp Everfree, by someone named Gaea Everfree I believe, magic was used to such an extent, some of it leaked into our school, and caused all of us to become empowered by magic. Yeah, really." That’s right, Sunny remembered - Midnight was actually there for that fateful school trip. Admittedly, from her own understanding of the event; what little her girlfriend had bothered to tell her; the spirit had mostly stayed haunting the sidelines and/or the girl’s locker rooms, but she definitely had seen the whole thing. Combine that with the fact that the Crystal Prep students were almost all too self-absorbed to even care about Star’s flight earlier, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue to convince Cadence of the truth. Still, Cadence wasn’t a student, and Sunny did have a twinge of doubt that the lie might be a house of cards just waiting to collapse here. "Do you know the people who helped save the camp? It's kinda like them!" Star continued. "I think they were called Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie...Rarity...” she paused for a second before the final pair of names, “Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle. . A hint of sadness trailed at the last part. Guess Star wasn't over those two yet. Come to think of it, Sunny wouldn’t be either in her position. Hey, even she still actually felt some guilt over the way she’d treated Twilight for the past four years. "Hmm, well, that's certainly unfortunate," Cadence rested her chin on the back of her hand as she scrutinized the luckily living and breathing mannequin. "I assume the principal of your school managed to help you deal with the sudden rise of powers? Last I checked, Ms Glimmer was quite the mentor figure." "Nope! She retired! Sudden kite flying accident put her right out of commission. I had to figure totally everything out on my own!" Star chirped. "But the vice-principal did keep an eye on everyone for everything else, so I guess you could say he did help us." Cadence took a deep breath. "Alright, your story sounds logical enough, and I have too much work for today to give it a closer look,” she said, referring to the ten pages of kitten memes she had left to browse, “However, I will look at it in-depth later, and if I find any holes in it that reveal it to be a lie, I hope you have an explanation. Until that point, you may attend classes as normal. But, please, please do not abuse whatever powers you have. We do not need the media coming over here… again. That goes for you too, Miss Flare." Great, the principal was wary of Sunny too. And what's worse, it had nothing to do with Cinch! Thanks Midnight, and no, you don't get to be called Star right now! "For now, classes are about to start, so get going you two. I don’t want to see you in here twice in one day, and certainly not over a lateness complaint." "Yes, Principal Cadence," Sunny said as she stood up. "Come on, let's go Star." "Got it!" the ghost cheered, springing to her feet and earning a glare from the principal. Sunny grinned more sheepishly than a lamb on Passover night and placed a cautious hand on her girlfriend’s shoulder, and pressed until the mannequin’s heels touched the ground again. Sunny held Star's hand as the two walked over to the lockers, the former keeping her head low with an exasperated expression, while the latter cheerfully strolled without a care in the world, occasionally leaving the crystal tiles in an oblivious hover before being tugged back down to the grim reality of the American school system. "That too came out way better than expected!" Star cheered. "I almost thought she would..." A sudden ray of insight hit her then and the ghost eyed her surroundings, then leaned closer to Sunny's ear and whispered, "The you know what, right?" "We're not in the clear yet, Midni-em-Star" Sunny sternly pointed out. "She's going to look at the story you gave her later, and if she finds any holes in it, she's no doubt going to call us to explain ourselves. We need to think of something to say when that happens. I mean, this Principal Glimmer person didn’tactually retire, right?" "And I agree, but for now, I wanna greet all of my new classmates!" Star spotted Lemon Zest in the distance. "Hi new classmate!" she waved, hard enough to nearly unscrew her own hand. The greenette rolled her eyes and went back to pretending to study, a Switch hidden in her textbook and her head hidden underneath a curtain of lime hair and a pair of pounding headphone boths. Busy - Exams, she signed to no avail. "I think she likes me!" Star whispered to Sunny, a grin nearly splitting her plastic face in half. "Sadly for her, though, I'm already taken. If you know what I mean." "Okay, first, you're not going to get into anybody's good side that easily here at Crystal Prep; you're gonna have to earn their trust first," Sunny sighed. "And second, even if she did like you, she wouldn't know you're dating someone." Star frowned. "Why not?" Sunny took a deep breath, brought Star to a shadowy corner so nobody would see them, and she confessed right to her ear: "I... haven't... told any of my friends that we're dating… Also… ‘Star Gazer’ only, like, started existing today, remember?" Sunny separated and prepared for anything that Star would throw at her, flinching slightly and realizing that, yeah, she probably should’ve showered last night. A scolding, a puppy dog eyed look, even a magical blast since her being magical wasn't exactly hidden right now - no matter what Cadence said - neither was off the table. She certainly didn't expect confusion, though. Midnight, somehow, blinked. "Why would you? I mean, I just recently became Star Gazer." "No, you don't understand, I haven't told them I had a relationship with you, as Midnight, nor as Star, or, like, with anyone. Ever." Sunny calmly explained. "Not only did I never find the time, but you have to admit, who would believe me if I told them that I was dating a… somebody, like, literally made of magic." "Well, why not tell... Sunset and her friends?" Star shrugged. "One of them is in a similar situation, even. And I mean, for all their faults they’re not bad people." "Yeah, but I didn't know that until last night," Sunny put a hand on Star's cheek. "Look, just, don't tell anybody okay? I don't think they're ready to know I've been dating a magical being capable of destroying the universe. I swear Sour Sweet still thinks I’m straight. Either that or a furry. Actually forget I said anything. Can we just be subtle, okay?" "Well, when you put it like that..." Star flashed a little smile. "Alright, Sunny dearest, the secret is safe with me." Midnight-as-Star was surprisingly calm and understanding. Sunny honestly expected she would go back to her chipper sociopathy as soon as they left this conversation, though. Oh joy. "Okay, so, let's go to class, we're gonna be late,” Sunny said, a bell’s ear-stabbing chime ringing the pair out of their conversation and back into school. "Sure, lead the way!” Star cheered, springing into the air and clapping her hands, “Like, please do. 'Cause I have no idea where anything even is!" Sunny couldn't help but release a chuckle as she grabbed Star's hand, and the two walked to the first class they'd have, exchanging little smiles as the people around them mostly ignored them or stared on in social media infused disbelief. Meanwhile, at Canterlot High, Rarity walked through the door and caught her breath as she headed for her class. On the way there, however, she bumped into Twilight, who was looking at some sort of gadget. "Oh sorry, sweetie, I didnt watch where I was going!" Rarity apologized, though she got no response from Twilight in response. "Um, Twilight, darling. We talk to people in this school, remember? Sociability, you know?" "This doesn't make any sense," Twilight eventually muttered. "No, darling. Its sort of the basis of modern culture. Actually, hello, Earth to Twilight?" Rarity snapped her fingers twice, finally getting the girl's attention. "What's got your mind covered, sweetie? What’s that odd widget there also?" "Well, remember that science fair where I invented a gadget capable of detecting magical alter egos?" Rarity couldn't honestly remember, but she nodded just in case. "Well, it activated on my last visit to your Boutique, and..." Twilight showed the gadget to Rarity, revealing the screen had a flashing image between Rarity... and Nightmare Rarity. "You appear to have an evil twin."