The girls had something of a difficult time getting to grips with life at Yancy Academy. Mostly because it wasn’t exactly fun with all the “troubled kids” they had to deal with, and also because they had discovered some… unusual attributes about themselves; they seemed to jump at every small movement as if something was going to happen, and the writing in the books Mr. Brunner had somehow snuck them seemed to float off the pages sometimes. Twilight diagnosed this as some sort of combination of ADHD and minor dyslexia, both of which were conditions she wasn’t exactly happy to have, being a star pupil back home. Thankfully, she also theorized that these conditions may have been tethered to this world and would simply disappear when they returned to Equestria. Though she wished she could say the same for Percy Jackson; he had been born with these faults.
While they were there, they started to see why their first interaction with Percy had gone the way it had; he had been a near-constant target of minor bullying from some of the other students. One of his only friends was a disabled boy with brown eyes and hair named Grover Underwood… who looked rather unusual; for a boy supposedly around Percy’s age, he seemed to have some minor acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. None of the girls could understand that, nor the fact that, despite being crippled – walking like every step caused him pain – he ran like a mad dog when the cafeteria served enchiladas.
Either way, it had been two weeks since the girls had been transported to this world and they had found themselves, along with Percy, Grover, and twenty other mental-case kids with two teachers on a bus to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to look at ancient artifacts from Greece and Rome. Rainbow Dash moaned in agony when she heard this announcement, as it must’ve felt like torture to her. According to Percy, most Yancy field trips were. But with the Latin teacher Mr. Brunner leading this trip, the gang was hopeful.
Mr. Brunner was a pretty cool teacher by Rainbow’s standards, which meant – also by Rainbow’s standards – they could be friends. The old man would tell stories and jokes in class and allow them to play games from their desks. He also had a pretty sweet collection of Roman weaponry and armor, so Rainbow never slept through it. Then again, she never really paid much attention to it either as her eyes were always transfixed on the blades mounted to the walls and how awesome she would look wielding those weapons.
Anyway, the entire trip to the city was hell as Percy and the girls were forced to put up with the school kleptomaniac Nancy Bobofit; a redheaded girl with freckles who kept throwing chunks of sandwich at Grover’s head. Rainbow and – surprisingly – Fluttershy had half-wanted Nancy to be the thief they were in this world to stop, if for no other reason than to kick her butt, mostly because Percy couldn’t; he had been threatened by the headmaster with – in his own words – “death by in-school suspension” if anything happened on this trip, so he was forced to stew in anger in his seat as Nancy kept it up.
“I’m going to kill her,” he growled under his breath.
“It’s okay. I like peanut butter.” Grover reassured… before ducking another chunk of sandwich.
“Okay, that’s it.” Rainbow snarled as she moved to get out of her seat before Applejack grabbed her shoulder and forced her back down.
“Nuh-uh; no way, Nelly,” she ordered. “You’re on thin ice with Dodds as it is for blowin’ her class; you make a scene, she’ll rip your lungs out.”
She looked like she could do it too; Mrs. Dodds was the school’s pre-algebra teacher, having joined halfway through the year after the last teacher had a nervous breakdown. She may have looked to be in her fifties, but she still constantly wore a leather jacket. Rainbow might’ve liked the intense vibe she put out if only it were a bit more… restrained. But yeah; Rainbow had been failing the math class for some time, so she knew that Applejack was right; if she started anything, Mrs. Dodds would have her head. She looked over and saw Grover talking Percy down in a similar fashion, but if she’d known what was about to happen, she would’ve let Percy up and let him deck Nancy in the face right then and there, consequences be damned. In-school suspension would’ve been paradise compared to what he was about to go through.
Either way, when the bus stopped, and everyone was off, Mr. Brunner began leading the group through the museum, pointing at large marble statues and orange-and-black pottery. It blew minds left, right, and center in the group that this stuff had managed to survive two or three thousand years.
Roughly midway through the discussion of an ancient Greek grave-marker called a stele – this one with a naked man on top – Twilight and Percy heard Nancy snicker something under her breath about the figure, so Twilight simply glanced across at her. “Nancy, do you mind? Some of us are trying to listen to the lecture.”
Nancy either didn’t listen or didn’t care, and finally Percy broke. “Will you shut up?” It came out louder than he probably meant it to; all eyes locked onto Percy as the group laughed while Mr. Brunner stopped his story midbeat.
“Mr. Jackson, did you have a comment?” he asked.
Rainbow swore Percy’s face was redder than the red in her hair. “No, sir.” he returned simply.
Mr. Brunner simply pointed up to one of the images on the stele. “Perhaps you’ll tell us what this picture represents?”
Percy looked and the girls swore they could feel the relief in his mind at his actually recognizing the carving. “That’s Kronos eating his kids, right?”
“Yes.” It was clear Mr. Brunner wasn’t satisfied with that answer. “And he did this because…”
“Well…” Percy said, trying his best to try and remember. “Kronos was the king god, and-”
“‘God’?”
Twilight elbowed Percy beneath the ribs to help him remember correctly. “Titan.” Percy corrected. “And… he didn’t trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-”
“Eeew!” one of the girls behind him remarked.
“Hey, you mind? This is actually pretty cool.” Rainbow returned bitterly.
“-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans, and the gods won.” Percy finished.
The group snickered behind Applejack and Rarity. “Like we’re going to use this in real life,” Nancy muttered to a friend. “Like it’s gonna say on our job applications, ‘Please explain why Kronos ate his kids’.”
“And why, Mr. Jackson,” Mr. Brunner smirked. “to paraphrase Ms. Bobofit’s excellent question, does this matter in real life?”
“Busted,” Grover muttered.
“Shut up!” Nancy hissed, her face turning redder than her hair.
That was another thing Rainbow and the others liked about Mr. Brunner; he was the only one to ever pick up on anything Nancy said. Applejack had sworn at least once that he had radar dishes for ears.
Still, Percy didn’t seem to have an answer to Mr. Brunner’s question as he simply shrugged. “I don’t know, sir.”
“I see.” The old teacher looked disappointed. “Well, half-credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan’s stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld.”
“His own weapon? Talk about poetic justice.” Rainbow remarked.
“Indeed. And on that happy note, I’d say it’s about time for lunch.” Mr. Brunner joked. “Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?”
The math teacher did just that as the group drifted off toward the door, the girls holding their stomachs and the guys shoving each other around like idiots.
Twilight was just following the other girls when she spotted Percy and Grover lagging behind a bit. “Mr. Jackson.” Mr. Brunner stopped the two, which piqued Twilight’s attention. She couldn’t help herself and ducked behind a pillar to listen in.
“Go ahead, Grover; I’ll catch up,” Percy assured as Grover moved to join the girls. "Sir?”
“You must learn the answer to my question.” Mr. Brunner said simply.
“About the Titans?”
“About real life. And how your studies apply to it.”
“Oh.” This only confused Twilight more; she hated to agree with Nancy Bobofit, but she had a point; how could these sorts of studies apply to real life in this world?
“What you learn from me is vitally important.” Mr. Brunner continued. “I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.”
Twilight knew Percy wanted to get angry; Mr. Brunner was a great teacher and a fun person, like when he dressed up in his Roman armor on the school’s tournament days and shouted “Whatho!” and challenged the students, sword-point to chalk, to run to the board and name every Greco-Roman person who had ever lived, their mother, and what god they worshipped.
But he pushed the group really hard; expecting Percy, herself and the other girls to be just as good as everyone else, despite the impediments this world had presented the girls with… and the ones Percy had been born with, combined with the fact that Percy had never done better than a C- in his life. No, scratch that; Mr. Brunner didn’t expect Percy to be as good, he expected him to be better. And Percy could barely spell all those names and facts correctly, let alone name them.
“I’ll try harder.” Percy muttered. But he and Twilight apparently noticed the same strange thing about Mr. Brunner looking at the stele next to him; almost like he’d been to this girl’s funeral.
“Go out and eat, Mr. Jackson; I’ll join you shortly.” he assured. Percy nodded and walked out toward the door. Twilight did her best to stay out of sight until he was out the door before she tried to sneak out after him. “And what I expect from him, I expect double from you and your friends, Ms. Sparkle.”
Twilight was more than frightened that Mr. Brunner had managed to notice her. Especially since when she looked, she saw he still had his eyes locked onto the stele. “I’m sorry?”
“In regards to real life.” Mr. Brunner said simply, still not taking his eyes off the stele. “After all, all stories have some basis in truth.”
The way he said that seriously confused Twilight; it was almost like he knew about the book that had brought her and her friends to this world. She shook it off and simply made her way out, to see the class gathered on the steps of the museum with even more heavy clouds like just two weeks prior. Percy and Grover had said the weather all over New York state had been like this since last winter; white-out snowstorms, floods, lightning-sparked wildfires, things like that. Twilight wouldn’t have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in… and only loathed that if it was, Rainbow Dash couldn’t do anything to avert its course.
Even so, no one else seemed to notice; she could see Percy moving over toward the fountain and decided to join him, where they found Fluttershy trying to work up the nerve to stop some of the guys from pelting the pigeons with small crackers and stop Nancy Bobofit from pickpocketing something from a lady’s purse… with Mrs. Dodds not even noticing the latter. Big surprise there; ever since she arrived, Percy had said she treated Nancy like an angel, and himself like the spawn of the devil.
Still, she tried to avert her gaze as she joined Percy in sitting with the others. “Hey Twi, where’d you go?” Rainbow asked.
“Uh, restroom.” Twilight shrugged, trying not to sound guilty of eavesdropping… though she was fairly confident that Applejack figured it out anyway.
Percy didn’t seem to care as he sat next to Grover. “Detention?” the scraggly-bearded boy asked.
“Nah, not from Brunner.” Percy assured. “I just wish he’d lay off me sometimes. I mean, I’m not a genius.”
“He’s just trying to push you to do your best.” Twilight said, trying to sound reassuring.
“Yeah Percy-Wercy, turn that frown upside-down. Who knows; maybe one day, you’ll be as big as the heroes in that exhibit.” Pinkie smiled.
“Pfft. Yeah, like that’s gonna happen.” Percy scoffed as he opened his lunch.
Grover was quiet for a second, which wouldn’t have mattered much if he didn’t keep his eyes locked onto Pinkie as if she’d just unlocked one of the greatest mysteries in the world. Twilight was confused, but it was abated when he turned to Percy. She thought he was going to say something deep and philosophical, but… “Can I have your apple?”
Figured. Percy clearly wasn’t too hungry as he handed it over, his eyes watching the stream of taxis going up and down the street, and thought about his mother Sally’s apartment, which he had told the girls was only a few miles uptown from the museum. They’d been apart since the holidays, so Twilight and several of the others could understand why he probably wished he could just run away, flag a cab and head up there to say hi. They all knew she would hug him and be happy to see him as only a mother would, but they also knew she’d be disappointed and send him right back to Yancy, reminding him to try harder… even if this was his sixth school in as many years. None of the girls dared ask why, but they all knew it probably wasn’t for very flattering reasons, which was probably why Percy was certain he’d get kicked out of Yancy too.
Rainbow was leaning against the side of the fountain and glanced over at Mr. Brunner, parked at the base of the handicapped ramp near the stairs, eating celery as he read a book with the tiny red umbrella sticking up from the back of his chair making it look like a motorized café table. “Hey, so I know I’ve asked this before, but what’s Brunner’s deal? I mean, he shows up out of nowhere and just gets handed a job as a teacher? What’s that about?”
“Yeah, I don’t understand it either.” Percy shrugged. “But hey, he’s nice so I don’t push the problem.” He was just about to unwrap his sandwich when Nancy materialized in front of the group with her ugly friends – clearly bored of robbing tourists – and proceeded to dump her half-eaten lunch in Grover’s lap.
“Oops!” she grinned mockingly through her crooked teeth, her spraypaint-like freckles dominating her face.
“What is your problem, girl?!” Rainbow asked in annoyance as she stood up and glared at Nancy.
Nancy was about to say something when it happened. No one really understood exactly what happened or how – no one touched her – but the next thing the gang knew, Nancy was sitting in the fountain, soaking wet. “Percy pushed me!”
“Ohhh boy…” Applejack was right to be scared, especially when Mrs. Dodds materialized right next to the group.
Twilight was overcome with fear, but her sharp ears locked onto some of the other students whispering amongst themselves… about how it looked like the water from the fountain had grabbed her. Twilight wasn’t sure what to make of it, and clearly neither were any of the others. All they knew was that Percy was in deep trouble.
As soon as Mrs. Dodds made sure Nancy was okay – promising her a new shirt from the gift shop and all that – she turned her wrath on Percy, with an almost triumphant fire in her eyes like she’d been waiting for this moment all semester. “Now, honey-”
“I know; a month erasing workbooks.” Percy groaned.
Rainbow could easily tell from her eyes that that was the exact opposite of the right thing to say, and she was fairly certain Percy could see it too. “You really need to learn when to shut up.” she remarked quietly.
“Come with me.” Mrs. Dodds hissed.
“Wait! It was me. I pushed her.” Grover yelped. The girls and Percy were all surprised; Grover was terrified of Mrs. Dodds, which was evidenced by how his whiskery chin was trembling under her glare, and yet here he was, trying to cover for Percy to her.
“I don’t think so, Mr. Underwood.” she said simply.
“But-”
“You. Will. Stay. Here.”
Grover looked at Percy desperately, but he simply shrugged in return. “It’s okay, man. Thanks for trying.”
Rainbow finally shook off her shock and stood up next to Percy. “What’re friends for, right?” she assured. “I mean, I would’ve done the same thing if Grover hadn’t beaten me to it.”
“Honey. Now.” Mrs. Dodds barked.
Percy sighed as the whole group glared across at Nancy, Percy’s most definitely telling her that if he survived this little run-in, she was next to die. When they turned back towards Mrs. Dodds, they were surprised to see that she had somehow reached the top of the stairs in the blink of an eye, gesturing almost impatiently to Percy for him to follow her.
“What’n the…?” Applejack asked in confusion as Percy went up after his teacher.
“Did we miss something? How did she get up there?” asked Rainbow.
“I don’t know, but I get the feeling she’s not the only one keeping secrets from us.” Twilight remarked as Spike poked his head out from her bag.
“What does that mean?” asked Rarity.
Twilight quickly explained what had really happened in the library, including how Mr. Brunner had referenced the story, as if he knew what the girls were really doing here. “What? How could he know that?” asked Rainbow.
“I don’t know. But there’s only one way to find out.” Twilight remarked as she glanced back toward the museum, only to see that somehow Percy had made it halfway up the stairs and appeared just as confused as the girls to see Mrs. Dodds somehow inside the museum’s entrance hall.
“Oh, maybe she’s just making Percy buy Nancy’s new shirt.” Pinkie remarked. “That’s nice.”
“Yeah, but she isn’t.” Rainbow remarked. “Okay, I’m with Twilight; we gotta figure out what’s going on here.”
“So we’re gon’ sneak in behind Percy and eavesdrop on ‘im again?” asked Applejack.
“Unless you have any better ideas.” Twilight shrugged.
“Oh, um, well, we could always wait here. Maybe things won’t be so bad.” Fluttershy suggested… only for a sudden crack of thunder to change her mind. “Okay, let’s go.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and followed Fluttershy as she led the group inside, motivated only by her fear. Once they were inside, the girls cast a sidelong glance into the gift shop but saw no sign of Percy or Mrs. Dodds. “Well, so much for the theory of Percy losing a few extra bucks on this trip.” Rainbow remarked.
Spike sniffed the air. “They’re heading back toward the Greek exhibit.”
“What’s she gonna do; grab a sword and stab him with it?” asked Rainbow, half-joking.
“Let’s not wait for the police to find out.” Twilight assured as she led the group toward the exhibit, where they saw the two standing in the middle of the atrium, as Mrs. Dodds glared up at a huge marble frieze of the gods, with a noise that sounded like snarling coming from her throat almost like she wanted to pulverize it right then and there.
“You’ve been giving us problems, honey.” she remarked.
“Yes ma’am.” The girls could tell Percy was trying to do the smart thing by saying that, but it didn’t look like it was working all that well as Mrs. Dodds tugged at the cuffs of her jacket, like she was getting ready to crush Percy barehanded.
“Did you really think you could get away with it?”
“Get away with what?” Rainbow asked in confusion. But that confusion was replaced with fear when she saw the teacher’s eyes as she turned to face Percy; it was beyond mad and into straight-up evil now.
“I’ll- I’ll try harder, ma’am.” Percy said shakily, before a thunderclap shook the building.
Rainbow quickly slammed a hand over Fluttershy’s mouth to keep her from squeaking; she hated thunderstorms and now was really not the time for them to blow their cover.
“We are not fools, Percy Jackson.” Mrs. Dodds assured, her voice sounding almost… monstrous. “It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain.”
“What’n the hay is she talkin’ about?” asked Applejack.
“Do you think this is about that stash of candy he and I have been selling out of his dorm-room?” Pinkie asked innocently.
“Something tells me it’s worse than a few misplaced chocolates, Pinkie.” Rarity countered.
“Well?” Mrs. Dodds demanded.
“Ma’am, I don’t…”
“Your time is up.” she hissed.
And that’s when the weird stuff started to happen; Mrs. Dodds’ eyes started glowing like burning coals, her fingers stretched into black talons, and her jacket melted against her skin into large, leathery bat-wings. She wasn’t human anymore; just a shriveled hag with bat-wings, claws and a mouth full of yellowed fangs, like she was about to slice Percy to ribbons.
Rarity couldn’t help but faint. But not any of her usual over-dramatic fainting; this was real and she hit the floor with a thud, making Percy’s head snap towards them. “What’re you doing here?”
“Oh, just wondering exactly what the heck is happening!” Rainbow explained as Applejack quickly roused Rarity from her blackout.
Then things got really weird; Mr. Brunner, who had just been outside not two minutes ago, wheeled into the gallery with a small ballpoint pen in his hand. “Whatho, Percy!” he yelled and tossed the pen clear across the atrium.
Percy ducked under Mrs. Dodds’ talons and snatched the pen out of the air. But as soon as it touched Percy’s hand, it wasn’t a pen; somehow it had transformed into a three-foot bronze sword. The same sword Mr. Brunner always used on tournament days. One look at the sword and somehow the look in Mrs. Dodds’ eyes became even more murderous as she charged. “Die, honey!” she snarled.
Percy was shaking like a leaf, almost so much that he couldn’t even hold the sword properly as he did the only thing that came naturally. With a terrified shriek, he swung the sword hard from his shoulder and the blade collided with hers, cleaving through Mrs. Dodds like she was water.
With a strange hiss echoing through the air, Mrs. Dodds exploded into yellow dust and vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but a strong smell of sulfur, a dying screech, and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing eyes were still watching the group.
The girls quickly regrouped with Percy in the middle of the atrium, seeing nothing but a ballpoint pen in his hand, and no sign of Mr. Brunner… or anyone. “Okay so… does anyone have an explanation for that?” Percy asked. “Because my theory is that our lunches were spiked with magic mushrooms or something.”
“I don’t have anything better.” Twilight remarked.
“Whatever the case, let’s get outta here before someone decides on an encore.” Rainbow noted as she led the group back out of the museum into the rain that had started.
They saw Grover and Nancy still near the fountain, and when her eyes locked onto Percy, she smirked. “I hope Ms. Kerr whooped your butt.”
Percy froze and looked at her seriously. “Who?” The girls were just as confused.
And it only got worse when Nancy said “Our teacher. Duh!” The group just blinked; as far as they knew, there was no Ms. Kerr.
“What’re you talkin’ about?” Applejack asked seriously, only met with an eye-roll from Nancy as she and her friends left the group alone with Grover.
Rainbow slid over to Grover in confusion. “Dude, where’s Mrs. Dodds?”
Grover paused for a second and wouldn’t look at the group before he said “Who?”
Percy knew from those giveaways that he was messing with them. “Not funny, man; this is serious.” he assured as another thunderclap boomed overhead. Rainbow was half-expecting Fluttershy to jump again, but surprisingly… nothing. She was probably too freaked from what had just happened to worry about anything else, which was totally understandable.
It was then that Percy noticed Mr. Brunner, still parked right where he was before and reading his book as if nothing had happened. The group went over to him and he looked up, a bit distracted. “Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson.”
Percy seemed like he hadn’t even realized he was still holding the pen, so he handed it over as requested. “Sir… where’s Mrs. Dodds?”
Mr. Brunner just stared at Percy and the girls blankly. “Who?”
“The other chaperone.” Twilight reminded. “Mrs. Dodds, the pre-algebra teacher. Is this ringing any bells?”
Mr. Brunner just frowned and sat forward in his chair, looking mildly concerned. “Kids, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling alright?”
Twilight rubbed her head as she saw similar vacant expressions on the faces of Percy and her other friends. “To be honest… I’m not really sure.”