//------------------------------// // 53. School and Research // Story: Hero Souls: Awakening // by SvenFoxx //------------------------------//  “Really?”  Cheerilee nodded with a smile. She sat in Applejack’s dining room with Twilight, Applejack, Granny Smith, Big Mac, and Applebloom. She was speaking to Applejack. “I’m well aware that your family has issues with accepting charity, but this isn’t charity. It’s half a favor from a friend…” Twilight sheepishly waved a hoof. “And half my belief that all children should have the chance to reach their potential. That means basic schooling.”  “Twilight?” Applejack asked in surprise. “Why are you…?” she was clearly stunned Twilight had done this.  “I remembered you telling me about why you wanted those Gala tickets,” Twilight admitted. “I don’t know what I can do to help Mrs. Smith,” she gestured to the elderly mare, “But I remembered that you wanted to put Applebloom through primary school with the money that contract would have gotten you. Cheerilee insisted she owed me for the help I gave her, so I decided to use that favor to help you.”  Applejack closed her eyes and appeared conflicted. “I… we pride ourselves on being independent and self-sufficient, and I am very flattered about the offer, but…” She glanced at Applebloom, who was watching the meeting with clearly interested eyes. She looked away. Memories of Applebloom being so amazed by Zecora, and her constant questions regarding Earth-Pony magic since that day. Her eyes always shone with passion as she eagerly ate everything they gave her.  There were no “buts”, not when it came to family.  “But Applebloom’s talent… clearly doesn’t lay in apples,” she finally forced herself to say.  “Nor should it,” Granny Smith spoke up, smiling at her youngest grandchild. “All ponies have the right to chase their dreams. We have no right to force our own dreams on ‘er.” She looked Applejack in the eye. “Say yes, Jackie.”  Applejack sighed, but nodded at Cheerilee. “A’right. Ah’m willing to accept this gift.” She paused. “On one condition.”  “Name it,” Cheerilee said.  “Applebloom and Ah will help ya finish the school house. At least this way we’ll feel like we earned it.”  Cheerilee and Twilight exchanged glances. “Well, I don’t personally have any problem with that. You’re family is certainly very good at construction with how often you rebuild that barn of yours. It’s just… Twilight’s already been helping with that. It’s mostly finished. We just need to install the wiring and drywall, then the roof and windows, and I’ve already paid a couple electricians to come down from Canterlot to do the wiring.”  Applejack nodded. “Then call us when you’re ready for the roof. We can do that easily. Wiring and windows… not so much, but shingling a roof is easy.”  “I’ll help pick up the slack around here while you two are doing that,” Big Mac offered, and Applejack nodded in appreciation.  Applejack looked at her sister. “So? How’s that sound, Bloom? You get to go to school like we promised, and Ah can even promise you’ll likely learn more about Earth-Pony magic there.”  “Yes!” Applebloom cried, clearly happy.  “Why don’t you show Cheerilee out, Twi?” Applejack asked her friend. “We gotta talk more about how this will affect the family with Bloom in school most days.” Twilight nodded and stood. “And Twi?”  “Yes?”  “If you ever pull a stunt like this again Ah’ll hogtie you to the flagpole at Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns,” she said with a completely straight face. Twilight gulped at that. “That said, thank you for the help.” She smiled at her friend.  “N-no problem,” Twilight said.  As Twilight left Sweet Apple Acres with her friend, a stray though pushed its way into her mind. ‘I wonder what the others are up to? Maybe I’ll go check in on them.’  ---  Pinkie Pie smiled and breathed in deeply and then let it out slowly. She gazed upon the truly massive five layer cake on the counter. It had taken most of the day, she was sure she had violated a few more laws of physics than usual to do it, and the Cakes were eying her worriedly from the other end of the kitchen. She didn’t care. This… This was a job well done.  “Now to get it to Dashie. I’ve been getting a twitchy ear all day.”  ---  CRASH!!!  Fluttershy, having been about to knock on the door, jumped a foot off the ground at the sudden sound, and bypassed knocking on Rarity’s door to rush through it. “Rarity! I heard the crash! Are you alright?”  A blur of white came around the corner from what Fluttershy knew was the kitchen and shot up the stairs. A moment later another blur, this one slower and tinged with pink and purple, followed the first. The yells of rage it let out gave Fluttershy something of a clue as to what was going on.  Then Rarity cantered from the kitchen. “Sweetie! Leave Opalescence alone!” she yelled, before halting at the sight of a thoroughly confused Fluttershy.  “Not until I get her for clawing my leg!” came Sweetie’s cry from the second story, followed by a yowl and then Sweetie screeching in pain. “Stupid cat!”  “Fluttershy? Er… can I interest you in tea?” Rarity asked, desire for manners overcoming her surprise at seeing her friend ready to fight.  Fluttershy slowly relaxed. “No, thank you. I actually came to see what you were up to when I heard the crash.”  “Cat, I will skin you!” roared Sweetie Belle, which was quickly followed by a loud thud, another screech from Opalescence, and Sweetie suddenly came flying from the top of the stairs.  “I got her!” Fluttershy called, immediately leaping into the air and catching the filly. She brought her down to Rarity.  Sweetie growled as she was set on the ground. “That stupid cat of yours is a menace, sis!”  Rarity huffed. “Well! I have never had a single problem with her!” she replied.  Sweetie showed her leg, which did actually have a decent scratch on it that bled lightly. Nothing that needed stitches, by Fluttershy’s experienced eye, but it probably stung enough to make the filly angry. “Your cat attacked me…” she said slowly, as if the ages of her and Rarity were swapped around.  “You probably stepped on her tail,” Rarity waved a hoof.  Fluttershy winced as the telltale signs of a sibling argument began to show. Not wanting to be involved, Fluttershy mumbled a half-thought out excuse and left, letting Opalescence out in the process.  Rarity was the only one that got along with that cat in any reliable manner. Even Fluttershy had issues with her at times. Unfortunately, it also meant Rarity never believed anyone when they claimed her cat was Grogar reborn.  So Fluttershy did the smart thing. She got out before things turned physical. Her somewhat spotty relationship with her own brother gave her plenty of experience in such, and she didn’t want to have to deal with that anymore than she wanted to deal with her brother in those times.  Maybe she’ll talk to someone else today…  --- “W-why…?”  “Hmm?” A stallion turned at the voice, and found another pony sitting within a cage cell near. “Oh yeah, I forgot about you for a moment.”He refocused on his desk, where a variety of beakers and test tubes, filled with different colored liquids, sat. He was examining a large beaker with a red liquid in it.  “Why… why are you doing this?”  He paused in his study, ear twitching. “Why? I suppose I have been asked that question many times.” He turned around with a flourish, his lab coat flaring out. “Believe it or not, I do have a good reason, though I imagine you wouldn’t believe so.”  He flipped a switch, and a brighter light shone on the pony in the cage. Her coat of grey fur was stretched across visible ribs, her red eyes bloodshot, and orange mane disheveled and dirty.  The stallion held up the beaker he was examining. “See this? It’s a substance that, until roughly a month ago, didn’t exist on Equus. Couldn’t exist on Equus. So, me being the curious little scientist that I am, I got a hold of some of it to study. Wasn’t easy either. My master is very diligent in his note taking and observations regarding resources. He’ll eventually notice it’s missing. Maybe even consider that I stole it. Unlikely, but not impossible. Never impossible. No such thing, you see.”  The grey mare shivered at the slightly demented way the stallion spoke, almost like he was half speaking to himself, half speaking to her.  “On its own it’s not really all that special, I’ll readily admit that. In fact, I almost dismissed it entirely as unimportant.” He grinned a wide, face stretching grin, the glasses on his nose glinting as he shifted slightly. “But then the Princess discovered a delightful new plant species which naturally produces a substance capable of catalyzing incredible physical and magical mutations. Random effects, unfortunately, but methods of predicting and ensuring specific effects are being discovered.”  He removed a small thin vial from his coat, and the mare saw that it was filled with a blue substance. “This is what I call PJ-5, a refined version of that mutagenic substance.” It looked almost like sand. “Combined with this liquid… it suddenly becomes very interesting.” He unstoppered the vial and poured it within the larger beaker with red fluid in it. After a moment of swirling it around, the liquid turned into a sickly green color that almost seemed to glow. Taking out a syringe, he filled it with the fluid.  “To answer your question, this fluid will ensure Equestria will never be threatened by anything ever again. Unfortunately, I need to perfect it. Terrible side-effects, you see. The first two test subjects died. The third lived, but can’t control what it did to him. The fourth was promising… but her intelligence seems to be suffering a slow decline.” He stepped into the light shining on the mare, casting a dark shadow over his face. The only thing the mare could make out of him now was his silhouette, his glasses… and that terrible, wide grin.  “You will be lucky test subject number five, and I have such hopes for you. Please try not to disappoint.”