//------------------------------// // Mystery Inc. (Mane 6 Parents; Slice of Life, Adventure) // Story: Anthology of Graybles // by Str8aura //------------------------------// "All day detention begins now. You are to remain in your seats until the final bell rings, at which point you are dismissed. Please respond when your name is called. Miss Whistles?" "Here!" A teal skinned girl with jagged streaks of orange hair running off her head like flowing water onto the shoulders of her sweater enthusiastically raised a hand. "Miss Quartz?" "Present." A girl in a dismal grey one piece with even dismaller hair that refused to stray past her forehead and golden spectacles raised her arm straight up. "Miss Butter?" "Present." A down home maternal voice tinkled back with a twinge of accent, belonging to an unkempt peach skinned girl with a flower in her hair and dirt on her cheeks politely raised a hand. "Miss Shy?" "Here, sir." A redhead honeycomb haired girl in a modest green button up responded without raising a hand. "Miss Velvet?" "Here! Err, sir!" A velvet hime cut adorned the pale skin of a girl in a school uniform as she raised her hand ramrod straight. "Miss Bouffant?" "Hmm? Oh, here!" A purple haircut wearing a woman half its size, richly dressed in multicolored fabrics raised her hand. The superintendant of Canterlot High looked them all over carefully, monitoring their faces and automatically making assumptions about all of them at first glance. This is natural of course, but for story purposes that detail has been placed here to inform the reader that he is, in fact, an asshole. "I have more important matters to attend to. I shall leave you to your detention. Miss Velvet, please keep them in line." Twilight nodded affirmatively. She still had no idea why she was always seen as the mature one. He shot one more snide look at the group before leaving. They stayed perfectly still until they could hear his footsteps fade, at which point the teal one immediately turned in her seat to face the rest. "Alright Scooby Gang, listen closely. I'm sorry for forcing us all to meet here, but in case it wasn't obvious the teachers here are making us stray further and further apart to keep us in line." The other girls turned to face her, some enthusiastically, some politely, and some obediently. "Let me guess, More magic?" Shy asked, seemingly already tired. "It always is, yellow one. It's about the phylactery we found; It's been stolen, and I have a feeling I know what happened to it." The others instantly perked up. Their routine for the past two years had been the same; Find magical object or creature around school, secure and contain it, and then wait until the portal reopened so they could chuck it back. They had calendars set to its annual reopening and closing for this very mission, and had bonded all those moons ago over being the only humans in school who knew what was really going on. The past few months, they had collected amulets, swords, trinkets, seeds, masks, a family of baby Jackalopes, and a fully grown Manticore that currently resided at Shy's house. However, one item had intrigued them the most- A shard of red crystal locked inside a glass jar none of them could break, discovered just last night. They hadn't a clue what it was (Although elected to call it a phylactery, due to their discussion of it happening over a game of D&D) but all unanimously agreed it was important. After that night's discussion, they had elected to keep it secure at Pear Butter's family barn- an old rickety place with tons of nooks and crannies, and enough items stuffed into it they could lose it for years- after a night staying at Twilight's, reasoning Pear would likely be stopped at the door by her father when she went in, having already stayed up late at Twilight's to discuss it. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Because on the way over to Pear's class that morning, jar tucked under her jacket... "I was pulled aside by the Vice Principal, who wanted to know what I was doing out of class. They took my phylactery up to check it for... Drugs, I guess? She didn't exactly make it clear. What matters is it's in her office. Cloudy, how often does Mr. Suckoff check back up on us?" "Every hour and a half." Cloudy replied succinctly, having been in detention enough times to average her timing - Not by her own volition. It was always for these meetings, and she never got in trouble outside of them. "Perfect. If we sneak out now, we can make it back here before he returns. We all know where her office is?" Nods from all around. "Sounds very." Shy politely replied, not looking very very at all. "Good. Let's go girls!" She smiled widely at all of them. The rest scrambled out of their seats, already headed for the door. Not a single one bothered to question her. They knew she couldn't be reasoned with once she had an idea in her head. Outside, Betty checked the hallway, before nodding the group out. The footsteps had gone left out the door. The Vice Principal's office was just above them. All they had to do was find the staircase, and pray she was elsewhere. Vice Principal Luna was the youngest vice principal in a long time, voted into position by her own sister. Said sister was frequently joked behind her back about being immortal due to the babyface she had kept in all her years of teaching, and Luna wasn't spared, if anything she was torn into more. However, this was less because people simply thought she was funny at times, and more because she had an ass tight enough to grind coal and snort diamonds out of. She was always finding something to call you out on, and was always cranky about something. This did not make her nightly classes very popular, and made the sound of her heels clicking along the halls even less so. All sensible mortals feared the sound. As the group hurried through the halls, only occasionally passing a student who always knew better than to question them when together, they constantly bickered back and forth in the way only teenagers can. "She'd be in the gym with PE, right?" Twilight Velvet asked, racking her memory. "She doesn't do that anymore. The coach asked her to stop." Cloudy droned back. "We should really keep our voices down, girls!" Shy persisted, looking sheepishly at a passing student. "Calm, Shy. We got this." Windy whispered. The voices lowered to murmuring as they approached the office, looking back and forth at each other to see who would take a peek. Rolling her eyes, Pear took charge, picking Cloudy's glasses off her nose and holding them at an angle in front of her. A pale blue moving blob reflected in the lens, sitting just inside the room. More glances were shared, until Betty passed several dollars to Shy from her dress pocket. She sighed heavily, but took them anyway. "Principal Luna?" "Yes, Miss- Miss Shy? You're supposed to be in detention right now." Her face solidified and she stood up from her chair, putting down the papers she was holding. "I know ma'am, and I'm sorry, but there's a stray cat on the grounds. You're the smartest adult I know in this school, and I'm not very good with animals, so I figured I'd come to you! Please, I saw it just outside the classroom window!" As she spoke, nearly losing a few genuine tears with the force of her created sorrows, She crossed the room to stand behind the desk, in case her friends decided to be stupid enough to crawl in. Luckily, they didn't- They hid in a classroom adjacent to Luna's, holding the door a crack open and watching through the windows as the two continued to debate, until Shy led Luna off quickly. The door creaked open as the remaining five made the leap between classrooms, immediately shutting and locking the door. The room was meticulously cleaned, with two filing desks on each of the back corners, on each side of a square window, behind a perfectly rectangular wooden desk in front of a leather chair. A fan and computer sat on the table. Nothing else was in the room. The room didn't remain tidy for long as the girls began to ransack it, scanning all of the desks and filing folder until Betty trilled triumphantly, holding up a basket in the top desk drawer. The plastic basket held a multitude of Walkmans, cigarettes, suckers, and a single jar with a glowing red crystal inside. "You think I could borrow this as a prop? I'm filming a super 8 short film about zombies." Windy asked Velvet quietly as she gingerly lifted. "Probably not. This thing gives me a bad vibe. Besides, I think the portal opens tonight. We need-" "Today." "Hmm?" Windy turned to Cloudy, eyes already widening. "It opens today. It doesn't always open at night. It's been opening about an hour earlier every cycle." She informed dryly. Windy thought for a moment, looking out the window at the horse statue situated on the front of a clean cut field in front of school. "Even better. How much time is left before the teach returns?" "59 minutes." "We're getting rid of this today. Right now. We cannot afford to hold onto this. It's time to make it somebody else's problem." Twilight took it back, tucking it under her jacket, and facing towards the door. Just as the knob began to jiggle, and keys clinked outside. "Fuck me gently with a chainsaw..." Betty whispered. It slammed open, and Luna reentered... with a panicked looking Shy clutched to her waist. "She just turned back! She's not talking, I don't know what's going on!" She cried, trying desperately to hook her shoes onto the floor. Luna lifted her hand, pointing to the phylactery. Her eyes briefly glowed a lime green, tinted with the same red as the crystal. "Return the crystal." "Sorry ma'am, but I'm pretty sure something magical's going on. Grab it Shy!" She chucked the jar at the floor, not worrying if it broke. It bounced across the hall, rolling into the wall opposite them. Shy yelped, pushing Luna into the doorframe before she could react and running for it. The other girls poured out of the classroom like angry hornets, vaulting over the desk and flooding around it, shoving Luna further to the side. Breaking into a run away from Shy, Velvet took the head, cupping her hands in the air and inviting Shy to chuck it like a football, which she quickly did, immediately drawing Luna's warpath away from her. As she chased them through the halls, her movements remained robotic and symmetrical, and her face never moved a muscle. Her arms remained by her side, and only her legs seemed to work at all to carry her forwards, as if she had been turned off above the waist. Velvet passed it to Pear, the fastest runner, and Cloudy Quartz stopped herself to wheel on Luna as soon as she did, correctly predicting she wouldn't stop to fight her. She was right, and Luna plowed into her, collapsing onto her face as Cloudy held her with the grip of an alligator, letting the others get away. Pear bodyslammed open the front doors of the school, breathlessly calling to the others "Hold the doors shut!" The statue was only a few yards away. If Cloudy Quartz was right, they'd just have to toss it through. Possessions from magical objects couldn't hold across dimensions, she knew from experience. It would be over in seconds. A screech called out from inside the school, and black smoke shot out from under the door at lightning fast speed, collecting into a wall in front of Pear. She skidded to a stop, hugging the jar close and wishing she had her bat as the smoke began to solidify. A black armoured knight began to form in front of her, helmet adorned with a ruby red horn that stuck out menacingly, glowing like a stovetop burner. His face was shrouded in darkness, but green eyes with red irises and purple smoke pouring out of them opened in the void, glaring her down. From somewhere in the suit of armour, which she wasn't even sure was being worn by a physical human, a deep commanding voice spoke bluntly. "Return the crystal. If you hesitate or resist any longer, I will kill you." More smoke manifested out of his hand, solidifying into a dull blade twice his size that was pointed at the bridge of her nose in seconds. The doors fell open as the girls let go, watching Pear in shock. Luna's unconscious body fell onto the front steps as they did. "Is she.." Shy whispered, catching her breath. "I don't think so. But we have to do something, quickly." Betty insists, looking around the yard and parking lot. Cars had stopped pooling into the parking lot. A few buses were still on, their drivers gone. "You don't belong in this world. Who are you?" Pear demanded, drawing herself up. Despite her courage, it was plainly clear that talking was her only plan. Still, the knight seemed willing to humor her. "King Sombra, rightful ruler of the Crystal Kingdom, spawn, herald, and harbinger of the Umbra Race. Who are you?" "Pear Butter. Uhh... Heir to the Pear Family, and... Protector of Earth from all hostile magical forces. I will not let you take another step." She raised her fists, as if they could do anything. A deep, poisonous chuckle seemed to emanate from the helmet. "I respect your will, child. But there is nothing you can do. Nothing but death lies ahead for your people. I will snuff out every light, until-" poor old johnny ray... Sombra lifted his head curiously at the sound of a distant radio becoming louder and louder. And a bus slammed into him. "Go, go! Chuck it into the portal!" Windy screamed, backing the bus up to uncover the bare base of the statue. Sombra bellowed as Pear reared her arm, and before she could release he grabbed it, lifting the sword. Pear pulled herself towards him and crouched down, barely avoiding the blade as it came down, and pulled his arm between his legs as she ducked through them. The armour didn't seem to allow him much mobility, and he quickly let go, only to whirl around and swing at her back. Pear leapt forward into the portal, clutching the phylactery close to her and shutting her eyes tight. Never go into the portal. That had been their creed since day one. Any dimension or plane that created monsters and evils as awful as they fought weekly could only be a hell world of brimstone and fire and horrors unimaginable to man. Never, ever, ever go into the portal - or risk leaving yourself behind when you return, not returning at all, or worse, taking something back with you. Which is why she found it strange to be in a musty basement, above which light trickled through a trapdoor. Stranger still, she was a horse. She looked down at herself oddly, shaking her limbs out and getting used to the new limbs... Before suddenly remembering her friends were in danger. She quickly set the phylactery on a wooden crate beside her, turning back to the stat- Mirror. It was a mirror now, reflecting her new muzzle and ears back at her. Shaking her head, she jumped back through. She could return to investigate later. Sombra was gone, the last wisps of smoke trickling back through the portal. Pear took a breath, checking her friends. All of them seemed okay, just exhausted. "What a megabitch..." Betty muttered. "Thanks for that bus move, Windy. It was fetch." Pear complimented. "Don't mention it. But we need to get back inside. I don't imagine we have much time." "Forty minutes, actually." Cloudy affirmed. "It's only been forty minutes? Huh. Who wants to go grab milkshakes?" "What about Luna?" Pear added. "She'll be fine. I doubt this'll have any long lasting affects on her, or her relation with her sister." She replied optimistically. The others affirmed, pulling themselves off the ground and heading to the parking lot, stepping over the black streaks the bus had made in the grass. Pear took another look back at the statue, and bit her lip before following.