//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: School Daze Part 1 // Story: How A Realist Saved The Show // by Mare Of Mystery //------------------------------// I've gotten quite a journey ahead of me, and I've already got my first target to reform; Cozy Glow. She first appeared in Marks For Effort where the Cutie Mark Crusaders helped her with her friendship homework. After that, she was being set up to be the main antagonist of season 8. Who could have believed a filly being a hardcore villain? So I expect her to be at the school already plotting her scheme. I just have to attend orientation and I'll do some snooping. "So tell me about yourself Mobius." asked Sandbar, walking alongside Mobius to the school, "Where did you come from? Not from Ponyville since I've lived here all my life." "Good question," Mobius took a while to think of something, "...In a calm place called Sire's Hollow, very nice place." "Wow, pretty far then? So what's the deal with your parents? Do they work there?" "Hmph I wouldn't say they work their persay..." huffed Mobius with his nostrils, "Their workplace switched ownership to Manehatten, so they had to move. Since I needed to attend school, they suggested I should attend this school about friendship. I wanted to go to the magic academy at Canterlot, but they say the tuition is way too high." Sandbar sympathized. "I could feel you man, well, I wouldn't know much since I'm an earth pony. What stopped the were the crowd gathered near the front entrance of the school. James couldn't believe he's actually at the school of friendship in person; it's quite bigger than he'd imagined. By his looks, he can see familiar faces already; Smolder, Ocellus, Gallus, Yona, and Silverstream were waiting silently at the front. They're not part of his mission, so he decides to let them be for now. Just with magic, the doors magically opened with the aid of Twilight's magic and the crowd rushed in. James would follow Sandbar silently to check out the main hall but kept him alone to let the events go through. For most, creatures were frolicking around the halls finding the place to go. But for James, he was nearing proximity with a particular pony of his greatest interest. Locking eyes on her and heartbeat increasing. My god... Twilight Sparkle as a living breathing being, In close distance away from me and 100% real!? Don't scream out her name, don't scream out her name, don't scream out her name! "Princess Twilight!" with his lungs at high capacity, Mobius screeched out. That caused the students to pause for a second. Crap... "Hey! Who screamed Headmare Twilight's name?" The voice of Rainbow Dash came alive hovering above everypony to spot the suspect, "I want answers! Now!" Now, nearly everypony in the room pointed a foreleg at James, still in his Mobius guise. He was completely ashamed of what he did. Now would be a PERFECT time to rewind time right now... Any moment now... ...Come one... Time powers go! ...Just kill me now... "Hold it Rainbow Dash, it seems this young colt is quite happy to see me up close." the princess of friendships' gorgeous smile, radiated off of the background in Mobius' eyes, "You must be a huge fan of me, I presume." Listen here, James! You've spoken to many girls in your life, but NOTHING can compare to the most magnificent pony in all of the series; lifetime. Yeah, most of my brony friends would pick Rainbow Dash or Starlight Glimmer. But I was faithful to her 100% Taking a big gulp, Mobius answered, "Yes! I've been a huge fan of yours for a long time! I've watched you everywhere you go!" "You... watch me?" she turned her head, confused at his remark. Another slip-up! Save this, James! Composing himself, Mobius took a deep breath to start over, "I mean, yeah. I travel a lot and I've seen what you've done to save Equestria countless times. My favorite is your epic battle against Lord Tirek; using the princesses' magic to duke it out. How can one pony handle such magic? Is it like being full from a meal?" Headmare Twilight turned away for a second, "Hehe, you're exactly like me when I was just a student. I was so fed up with the studies that I forgot about making friends. Now, I'm running a school of my own. What's your name kid?" "The name is Mobius! At your service!" he bowed down to her, which made her cringed a tad bit, "Oh, I was told by a friend of mine he would refer to me to attend this school at no cost." "Mobius?" she pondered long and hard at the name he gave her, "That's odd, I thought you already registered to attend here. Must be your parents doing then," "A-Already?" "Ahh, here you go!" Twilight carefully levitated the purple agenda folder with the label Mobius on it. "You're from Sire Hallows, and your parents made you attend the school instead of the Canterlot school of magic. I know those tuition prices are steep. Sad that your parents aren't able to see you off on your first day." I'm not even gonna ask... "So they already registered me without my knowledge?" Mobius went with the flow, murmuring. "They don't even bother seeing me off." "I know it's hard barely seeing your parents, but please understand that this school will help you learn the value of friendship," she assured Mobius, soothing him with a head pat. "I'm about to announce something important, you just wait here." She touched me! Twilight Sparkle just touched me! Can't wait to tweet this out! Taking deep breaths, James took this extra time to scout the area for the first target. Headmare Twilight had just begun her speech for the students as she began calling their attention. Mobius was situated among the crowd, still vigilant as ever muttering to himself. "I don't see her anywhere with this crowd. Perhaps she attended later on? Makes viable sense the least. Even then, I would have to wait a long to for her to arrive here. Till then, I guess I can blend in for now until I've reached that point." Strangely, we didn't get to do a musical number about the first day of school, but I'm happy that I don't have to sing. I guess the real world doesn't break into song now and the songs aren't canon? It can't be because It's a cartoon show, but now I'm inside it? Gah! This is getting over my head! It's passing period and I'm on my way to my next class, I've slept for the first time as a different creature. It was okay, just needed time to adjust to it. I'm not bunked with any creature, making it easy for me at the very least. Even when the battery on my phone died from watching YouTube videos, I was still in my pony form. Two things I've learned today; 5G service in Equestria, and the battery life isn't tied to the transformations but still needed to revert. Fortunately, I calculated the phone's charging speed based on estimations and my previous charging records. It should charge back to full in about 3 hours. Enough of that, there's still so much I needed to do; Find Cozy Glow, research more in the library, and learn how to use my time powers. Maybe after this episode, I'll start to do some practice. For now, I need to stay away from Sandbar and- "Oh hey, It's that Headmare Twilight obsessed pony." came a voice from behind Mobius. He directed his attention to Gallus, Sandbar, and Smolder walking miserably with their faces all discomforting. "Oh hey Sandbar, you don't seem like yourself." "I still can't get over your two freakish eyes!" Smolder stopped the group, pointing her claw at the unicorn's pair of eyes, "They look pretty cool, to be honest." Next came Ocellus, explaining to her about his eyes, "It's a rare genetic mutation called heterochromia; usually tends to be cosmetic and doesn't affect the creatures eyesight. It's quite a marvel seeing some creature at school having it." James was just about to say her name, but he realized he never met her as Mobius. "Oh... a changeling I presume? I don't recall ever attending class with you three?" "It's Ocellus..." she answered timidly, introducing herself to the two next to her, "To my right is Yona from Yak Yakistan and Silverstream from Seaquestria." Saves me the trouble of introducing them to me. "WOW! Your eyes are weirdly colored!" cried the hippogriff with her energetic smile, "Do you see this Yona!?" The rambunctious yak ignored her questions when she angrily exclaimed. "Agh! Pony school waste of time! yak school teaches how to braid yak hair! Braiding yak hair is best!" "Hey, calm down Yona. The headmare and her friends are trying their hardest to run this school." Sandbar's chill personality tried to simmer down the yak, "So how's the school doing for you so far?" Hold on, this wasn't in the show; Yona would've tripped on her braid and roll into Smolder which in turn cause turmoil within the group. Since they approached me first, that never happened. I hope this doesn't mess their friendship in the future. "Her friends looked overwhelmed at the guidelines given to them by the EEA guidelines." answered Mobius, sounding displeased, "If only Headmare Twilight could realize her friends' struggles..." "Quite so, still we can't do anything about it." sighed Ocellus. "Perhaps we can tell her—" "—Enough of your yammerin' everyone! Off to your next class!" Just on time when Applejack broke the group's chit-chat and scurried them off to their next class. Just as James predicted, Gallus came and stepped up to her. "No biggie, Professor Applejack— We were just having friendly discussion on the magic of friendship. Maybe even better than what you're teaching us—" Soon after, Gallus' torso was completely wrapped in a thick lasso thrown by Applejack. Even though James may alter the scene a bit, he still got the short end of the stick. He groaned as the rope caught him off guard. "I wouldn't want an accident happenin' on the second day, so back to class will ya!" just stared daggers right at the frightful griffon, letting him go from the rope. The whole group broke off into different directions leaving Mobius following Sandbar in the meantime. He had a bit worried look after Applejacks threatening aura around her. Geez, this is a kid's show! What did it go dark all of a sudden? I had enough time waiting around, I want to take my time powers for a spin and do more research. I need to get out of this school in the meantime, and I happen to know the best window of opportunity... When Sandbar and Mobius arrived just arrived at a nearby staircase, they spotted Smolder and Gallus with their gloomy faces shared among all students. Mobius of course played the role and frowned alongside them. When they were passing by them, Sandbar caught a glimpse of their strange detour, "Hey! Professor Dash's class is this way!" He waved over at them, seeing them taking the wrong turn and catching worried faces with Silverstream, Yona, and Ocellus. "Where are you going? You're not skipping, are you?" the changeling was generally worried about their odd behavior. Alright, so they're still skipping class to go check out the lake for a while. Hilarity ensues, and they end up ruining the festivities and shutting down the school. I would help them prevent that accident, but I needed to make that happen. "I guess I'll tag along too..." Sandbar's uncomfortable tone agreed to Gallus and Smolder's plan to ditch class. Just before he turned around to Mobius, "Are you coming with me?" "We're planning on checking out the lake if you're still not looking like zombies all the time," joked Smolder behind Sandbar's back, waiting for an answer from him. He shook his head. "Guys..." Mobius looked away from the curious group, staggering in his words, "I-I don't think this school's working out after all," "Huh!? I understand it isn't to all of our likings. But you're leaving?" the green colt was shocked at his decision. The others felt saddened too. "I'm just going back home to Sire Hallows and contact my parents; If they ever reply to me..." The group understood where he was coming from; someone with a lack of parents by their side. No one to support them or see every day. The worse part is that it's 100% true and isn't part of his fabricated background. Following the events of the show, Ocellus did her thing and transformed into Rarity to trick Fluttershy into taking them on a generous field trip. After passing the gullible pegasus, they all ran in the hallway out the exit where they came in. Mobius said his farewell and deviated from the group and rushed behind a place good enough to revert. He knows exactly where... "Maybe I can get more research done in Princess Twilight's castle library," he spoke to himself, huffing every breathe he has in him as he makes his way to the front door. Pushing and pulling, the door didn't budge. "Crap didn't think this through. It must be locked with a key or some type of spell. Now how do I even get ins-" Hang on! I know what to do! Pulling out his phone from the bag, he hovered it at just the right height to open the map app added by Discord. The map was a detailed area of Ponyville and all the waypoints he can warp to. Checking the blue arrow indicating his location, a waypoint inside Twilight's castle was seen. As he tapped his foreleg on the diamond icon, he quickly noticed a blue swirl of energy behind him. It formed a perfect circle that left sparks of blue dripping to the ground. The next thing was a visible image of Inside the castle's library. This must be one of the warp gates set up by Discord. No hesitations and he jumped through the gate, causing him to land safely inside the library. It was both a magnificent sight to behold; being inside his pony waifu's home has to be a check-off in his bucket list. The warp gate vanished from thin air, leaving no traces of him ever breaking in. "Still awesome that I'm still here," he spoke to himself, staring deeply at the vast sea of books on the shelves, "Alright, now would be a perfect time to change back." He navigated to the disguise app and tapped the End Transformation button. Just like last time, he was covered in a greenish circle that shot up in the air and changed him back to his original self; black duster coat and everything. James had to adjust back to his old self as he stood up on two's. "Argh! My back is killing me!" he groaned out of misery from his long transformation as a pony, stretching out the pain. "I'll get used to it. So I'm finally inside Twilight's castle, and I can see the portal to the other world just out in the open." He would love to enjoy visiting the Equestrian human world and act like his normal self, maybe obtaining items that will help him in the long run. Nevertheless, he had to focus on now; estimating the last class is about 50 minutes or so. He opened his phone to see the battery at 40%, enough for one more transformation. He navigated to the notes app and see there's already a document filled with information. This looks like all the stuff I need to know about my time powers; casting, duration, applications, all of it is here. But there's still a lot I need to know. Swiping up from the bottom to enter the home screen and tapping the phone icon, he went to his recent call history and chose Discord. He didn't believe it would work, but he managed to get an answer from him "Hello there!? Oh, It's just you! So how was the first day of school?" "It went fine, about that. Was that whole parent's thing you're doing? Did you register me into the school?" James asked calmly, leaning his back towards one of the library shelves. "Oh that little thing? Yes, I have, and even matching your family's descriptions to a tea!. All three of your forms have different backgrounds. I just made sure the very first one you chose was attending the school of friendship. Anything else should I be aware of?" "Second question, how do you know so much of my time powers even though it was something special I had?" "Easy enough. I can sense magic in any living creature, and you stuck out like a sore thumb! The time magic you have in you resemble some spells and other advanced magic from scrolls and books. So I just referenced all the spells you needed for the job. You can only cast them in your original human self, unfortunately. Restricting your powers to reverse time wasn't easy for me. Now are you done with asking anymore questions?" "I have one more question for you and I'm done." he stood up from his leaning position, and proceeded to sit down at the nearby table, "Where is Cozy Glow? I've looked everywhere for her but she wasn't there at all. Do I have to wait until she appears in that one episode?" "There's the question I'm looking for! I won't ruin all the fun so I'll give you a hint; Take the Manehatten assignment for Professor Fluttershy's class..." James hissed over the phone, "Manehatten assignment? What are you talking about?" "That's all I'm giving you; good luck!" The cryptic message he left James with lingered for while after Discord hung up. Sighing, he switched back to the notes app and stood up from the seat, "Something about an assignment? I'll keep that in mind. Twilight should arrive at the castle to cry about her school's closure in an hour. For now, let me see what I'm capable of..."