A few days later, once school was back in session…
Aidon would arrive at the campus a few hours before school was set to begin so that he could meet with Celestia and Luna and discuss the nature of their temporary vacation along with the substitute he’d be working with while they were away.
“Alright…” The shadowman looked at himself in the rearview mirror of his SUV and took a deep breath. “Let’s go teach some kids how to magic.”
He got out, and went inside the campus building from the employee parking lot. From there, he knocked on the door to the principal’s office and he’d get a response within a few moments.
“It’s open,” said a voice from inside.
Aidon opened the door, and walked in to see Celestia and Luna wearing casual clothes, preparing to leave for the day. The former was wearing a red floral polo and the latter was wearing a blue one.
“Ah. There you are, sir,” Celestia noted as he entered the room, “Alright. Luna should’ve gone over everything with you the other day. Is there anything you’re confused about?”
“No, I think I understand everything quite well,” he replied as he looked over a checklist that he had brought with him into the room. “I’ll be acting as Sub-Principal for a while as I teach Magic Training. And a substitute will take over my duties for math. Where is this individual, anyway?”
Luna looked at her watch. “She should be arriving at about…”
Tap-tap-tap.
Someone knocked on the door, to which Luna looked up and replied, “Speak of the devil--come on in.”
Aidon turned his attention to the door as well.
Once it opened, a rather tall woman about Celestia and Luna’s age stepped through. Her skin had a gray tone with black, horizontal stripes that went up her legs, arms, and face--akin to that of a zebra. She wore a black, form-fitting business suit-skirt combination, white heels, and a few bracelets on her wrists. She was also rather curvaceous--a trait that stood out to Aidon rather immediately.
“Hello,” she spoke in a somewhat husky, yet feminine tone, “I’m here for the position of substitute math teacher. My name is Parabola.”
“Quite nice to meet you, Miss Parabola,” Celestia replied, “We aren’t going to be gone for too long, but I hope the students can warm up to you.”
“Oh don’t worry about that, ma’am,” Parabola replied with an easy-going smile and half-lidded eyes, “I’ll make sure they listen.”
For a moment, Aidon was speechless--unable to take his eyes off of her. “Quit staring! Stop staring!” Luckily, he caught himself, and blinked his eyes a few times before looking at her directly to address her. “Ahem. Nice to meet you, miss.”
“Nice to meet you as well, Mr. Iota--hope we’ll get along nicely,” she said with a nod. “I’ll be off to the classroom to set everything up.”
Celestia grabbed her belongings and prepared to leave for the time being. “Alrighty. Seems as if everything is working out just fine. Right, sister?”
Oddly enough, Luna responded with an apathetic roll of her eyes and a flat tone. “Hm? Oh yeah…just great.”
Aidon was quick to point out how estranged her response was. “Are you sure? Do you want to talk about something?”
“No. It’s nothing,” Luna shook her head, and got ready to leave as well. “We’ll leave everything to you, Aidoneus. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call us.”
“Understood,” he replied as the sisters left the office, “I’ll take care of everything.”
“Goodbye, Aidon,” Luna left the room with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
As they walked down the hallway and out of the school, Celestia could sense something wrong with her sister and decided to ask, “...Something eating at you, Luna? Worried about all this?”
Luna relaxed a bit as she rubbed the back of her neck. “...I suppose you could say that, yes.”
“Don’t worry…” Celestia put an arm around her shoulder. “I won’t abandon you like I did before. That’s a promise.”
Those words gave Luna extra confidence as her face lit up with a bright smile. “...Thank you, Celly.”
A few hours later, once school began…
Everyone would approach the campus as usual, and interestingly enough, there were places for the students to sign up if they wanted to join Aidon’s class to learn how to make better use of their magical abilities.
Sunset was the first to sign her name, and Sci-Twi was the second.
“You’re interested too, huh?”
“Obviously,” Twilight chimed back while adjusting her glasses, “The professor is going to need as much help as possible to teach everyone about the Aether and the magic they’ve obtained from it.”
“You’re right. Still…” Sunset rubbed the side of her head, “Can’t believe we were duped so easily by another Equestrian invader…one who forced us into a love-based coma to boot.”
“Love magic is rather common in Equestria, huh?” Twilight asked as she pulled out a pencil and paper to take notes.
Sunset shook her head. “Not really, no. It’s kinda like dark magic and soul magic--love magic is a biiiig taboo back home. It’s one of those things you just aren’t supposed to mess around with.”
Just then, a familiar voice would enter the conversation, “Oh don’t I know it. It’s the exact reason why my sisters and I were banished here in the first place.” Adagio walked past them and wrote her name on the board. “So many rules that you have to follow. It’s much easier living here than there.”
“Got that right,” Sunset agreed, then asked, “Also--how are ya? Have you and your sisters managed to recover as well as the rest of us?”
“Something like that,” Adagio replied while looking at her nails, “No amount of corruption-based magic will keep us down forever. Though, I was impressed by the fact that Keiji and the others managed to save us. Have any of you seen him around? I’d like to thank him more personally.”
“Nope,” Sunset replied with a perplexed look on her face, “Haven’t seen him.” She then looked in Twilight’s direction, “How about you, Twilight?”
No response.
“...Twilight?”
The purple nerd was busy writing down notes from their conversation with a wide, ecstatic smile on her face.
“...Even after a near-death experience, she’s already looking to study it,” Adagio commented with her arms folded and an impressed grin on her face, “She sure is something, isn’t she?”
“You could say that,” Sunset replied with a giggle, “Go on ahead. We’ll meet you there.”
“Alright then,” Adagio responded as she began to walk off towards the classroom. “...I just hope Keiji is alright.”