//------------------------------//
// Beginnings 
// Story: Miss Grimwood's Finishing School for Girl Ghouls 
// by SamuelK28 
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“LET GO OF ME YA GREAT GALOOT!!!” Applejack screamed, tears streaming down her face as she tried to slip from her brother’s strong hooves.

Big Mac didn’t budge. Forcing back his own tears he held his head up high and stared at what once was his youngest sister’s and her new friends’ clubhouse, now engulfed in flames. “And lose my other sister? Not a chance. She and her friends are gone Jackie. We need to be strong and focus on making sure the fire doesn’t spread to the entire orchard. It’s what she would have wanted.”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Applejack screamed trying one last time to push herself past her brother so that she could get at the fire raging behind him. Having finally exerted every last ounce of strength she had, she collapsed into her brother’s chest and wept. “It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault. I gave them the treehouse for their clubhouse. I reluctantly let them have the sleepover in the treehouse. I-I-I…”

Big Mac grasped his last remaining sister’s head in his forehooves and rose it until her eyes locked onto his. “Look at me. You are not to blame. You were just doing what any loving and caring big sister would do. No pony could have foreseen this.”

“B-b-but we know what the Everfree is like,” Applejack sniffled, barely able to hold her brother’s gaze. 

“So? That stray lightning bolt could have hit anywhere, it just…” he stopped as his voice broke and lip quivered. A solitary tear slid down his face. 

“Hit the exact spot our sister and her friends were camping out. I’ll make it bucking pay,” Applejack growled as a huge snapping sound reverberated in the background and another huge branch of the ancient apple tree fell with an almighty crash to the earth below.

“That’s my sister,” Big Mac replied with a warm smile. “Let’s get some buckets and water,” 

He placed a comforting kiss on his sister’s forehead as almost in response the heavens suddenly opened up above them.

“Saw the bolt from my…” Dash began, appearing out of the darkness to land next to the grieving siblings. She stopped mid-sentence as she saw just what the large rain cloud she had rapidly acquired from the emergency stores was slowly putting out.

“No, son of a bitch, please tell me…” she bolted straight for the flames only to be tackled to the ground by Applejack. 

“LET ME GO!!!!” Rainbow screamed as Applejack pinned her down. “SCOOTALOO!!! I’m coming for you, just hold on.”

“They’re gone Rainbow,” Applejack sighed, slowly coming to terms with everything as the rain began to get heavier. 

“No, no, let me go. I have to save her. I just have to,” Dash cried, not even trying to hide the tears that were now streaking down her face as she struggled valiantly but pointlessly to free herself from the much stronger earth pony. 

Carefully Applejack manoeuvred her forehooves around the Pegasus mare and brought her up into a tight hug that was immediately reciprocated. It was here that both mares remained, sobbing into one another’s shoulders while the rain plastered their fur to their skin.

Neither of them knew how much time had passed before their sombre embrace was broken by the sound of hoofsteps approaching from town and the fluttering of wings above but it must have been at least thirty minutes as the fire had, by that point, been reduced to no more than a smouldering pile of ash by the raincloud. Both mares closed their eyes, took a deep breath and waited for the inevitable.

“Girls, girls, where are they? Where is Sweetie… No. It can’t be true. It just can’t be. SWEEEEEETIEEEEEEEEE!!!” Rarity wailed as the reality of the situation hit her. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were dead. 


*


Apple Bloom awoke with the most side-splitting headache imaginable. “Core blimey what hit me?” She groaned as the world slowly stopped spinning around her and came into focus. Wherever she was, it was still dark.

“Sweetie, Scootaloo?” she called into the darkness before doubling over with pain and throwing up. 

She knew listening to her two new best friends and eating all those sweets before bedtime had been a bad idea. Agonisingly slowly and painfully she tried to piece together just what had happened and more importantly where she was right now. Her head throbbed once more causing her to wince with pain. One thing at a time. 

Firstly, what happened? All she could remember was slowly drifting off to sleep next to Sweetie and Scootaloo in their new clubhouse after an evening of idol gossip, games and eating sweets when she had been abruptly awoken by a loud boom and then everything went white and… the next thing she remembered was waking up here, wherever here was. Had there been an explosion of some sort? She couldn’t be sure, but from what she could make out in the darkness, that was a real possibility. She certainly wasn’t in the treehouse anymore and that would explain her mighty headache. As if in reply her head throbbed painfully once more and she followed up spitting up vomit with some blood and fell against a tree, panting heavily.

Swell, that certainly wasn’t good. Heck, she’d probably be in a lot worse state if she wasn’t an earth pony with...

Sweetie, Scootaloo. If she was this bad. 

“SWEETIE, SCOOTS!” she yelled at the top of her lungs causing her to slump to the ground and cough up even more blood. Great, just great. 

As the world started to spin once more and inky blackness seeped into her vision, the last thing Apple Bloom saw was a peculiar looking green lizard followed by a female voice she didn’t recognise.

“OVER HERE. Octavius hurry, she’s in an even worse state than her friends.”


*


Apple Bloom was next awoken by something tickling her nose and two light-hearted giggles she knew only too well.

“Eugh, go away Scootaloo, I’m trying to…” 

Apple Bloom’s eyes shot open. She seemed to be in a bed of some sort, possibly back at Sweet Apple Acres? No, from what she could see this definitely wasn’t her home. 

“I told you that would work,” Scootaloo giggled causing Apple Bloom’s attention to turn to both her friends who were stood at her bedside, Scootaloo holding a feather in her left forehoof that was dangling tantalisingly close to Apple Bloom’s nose. 

Not that Apple Bloom had noticed. Her eyes had shot straight to Scootaloo, then Sweetie Belle, and then back to Scootaloo’s left flank which was covered in bandages. 

“Your…” Apple Bloom began before doubling over in a coughing fit.

“Woah, easy their Bloom. You’ve been delirious with a fever for four days. Shattered multiple ribs and punctured a lung along with a very nasty bump to your noggin.” She tapped her own head to emphasise her point. “Think you got it the worst out of all of us.”

“Says you,” Sweetie grumbled turning herself around for Apple Bloom to see. 

Apple Bloom’s eyes went wide. Sweetie Belle’s entire right side was nothing more than bare skin and her formally green eye was now red whilst a large scar travelled down it from the top of her head to the bottom. 

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Seriously, how many times has Miss Grimwood reassured you that your fur will grow back as long as you take your medicine and that your cyber whatever eye is good as new if not better than the original.”

“Probably the same amount of times I’ve told you not to disturb your friend if you want her to heal properly and to remain in your own bed so that you can also heal fully,” a voice Apple Bloom vaguely remembered said in a scathing tone causing Scootaloo to gulp in fear. 

After seeing Sweetie, Apple Bloom didn’t feel her eyes could go any wider. She had been mistaken as an enormous bipedal creature appeared in a puff of smoke on the opposite side of the bed she was in to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. She only had black fur atop her head along with a hairband that was similar in colour to the bow in her mane, wore a pink dress and walked on only two hooves that featured red shoes. As neither of her friends batted an eyelid at the newcomer though she was guessing they were friendly and not about to cause her more harm.

“Although, I am glad to see your fever has finally broken. It was touch and go there for a while. And please dear don’t speak. Although my magic did its best your lung is still recovering and speaking will only aggravate the injury further. I’m sure you’ve many questions and I’ll try to give you as many answers as I possibly can. First of all, though, how about something to eat? Your friends have taken a particular liking to my caterpillar and cricket soup,” the stranger stated, sitting down in a rickety old rocking chair she’d pulled up as she did so.

As if on cue, and to Apple Bloom’s astonishment, the door to the bedroom slammed open and an Octopus wearing a bow tie walked in pushing a trolley with a serving platter atop it. Walking over to the bed he lifted the platter up and placed it on Apple Bloom’s lap as Scootaloo and Miss Grimwood helped her sit upright. 

“Thank you, Octavius. I’ll call you if I require anything else,” Miss Grimwood said politely before the octopus removed the lid to the platter, bowed and took its leave. 

Apple Bloom’s rational mind wanted to ask several questions surrounding the octopus butler, most notably how he was able to breathe out of water but her stomach had other ideas as it let out a mighty growl. So instead, she looked down at the green slime with floating “things” inside it and immediately wished she hadn’t. Her stomach growled again.

“Trust me, it tastes better than it looks,” Scootaloo stated bluntly seeing Apple Bloom’s hesitancy. 

“Agreed,” Sweetie seconded with a nod.

Apple Bloom let out a sigh as her stomach growled for a third time, closed her eyes and then, cusping the bowl in her hooves, dove her muzzle into it. In less than a minute she’d licked the bowl clean and eaten every last caterpillar and cricket that had been floating in the so-called soup.

“My oh my, you were hungry weren’t you. Here, have some water to help wash it down,” Miss Grimwood commented holding out a glass of water to Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom took the offered glass and downed it in one to before letting out a mighty yawn.

“Seriously Bloom. You’ve been asleep for the most of four days, how can you still be tired?” Scootaloo admonished before receiving a sharp look from their host. “What?” 

“Ignore her dear. Now, before I let you rest, let me put your mind at ease a little. My name is Griselda Grimwood. I’m a witch of human origin and alongside running my school for ghouls I also monitor and maintain a fracture in the fabric of my world. Although it might be hard for you to grasp, there are countless worlds similar to your own that live independently without any knowledge of each other, as it should be. Bizarrely, a large proportion also seem to share similar languages and that is how we can understand each other right now and have this conversation. You still with me so far?”

Apple Bloom nodded, concentrating hard despite her slowly drooping eyelids. 

“Excellent. Unfortunately, every world has weak spots, often locations where a high amount of magic resides in the air. Think of them as a small crack in an otherwise perfect glass. Over time due to further wear and tear that crack slowly grows until finally…”

“The glass breaks and anything inside spills out,” Apple Bloom interrupted unable to stop herself. She was rewarded with yet another painful coughing fit.

“Yes, very good,” Miss Grimwood continued once Apple Bloom’s coughing fit had subsided. “But, as I said earlier, please don’t strain yourself. So, you and your friends fell through a widened crack that buckled under magical pressure in your world and miraculously made it here, with a little help from myself. I say miraculously because you see, no one is supposed to be able to traverse between the worlds. I’d say ninety percent of those who are unlucky to do so will either get stuck in limbo between worlds, suffer severe physical injuries during the journey and arrive dead or practically dead in your cases in the new world or, failing that, arrive in one of the worlds with, well, I’d rather not give you nightmares. There are some rather nasty worlds out there.” Miss Grimwood paused for a moment and shuddered just thinking about them.

Not wanting yet another coughing fit Apple Bloom turned and looked expectantly at her friends. Sweetie turned away unable to face her, the tears in her eyes the only answer Apple Bloom really needed.

“I can read you like a book Bloom. Yes, you’re correct, there’s no way back home,” Scootaloo deadpanned with a shrug of her shoulders having already come to terms with the news. “Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, they’ll believe we’re dead and as Miss Grimwood said just now, we would be if it hadn’t been for her observing our arrival in her crystal ball, recovering and then healing us. We owe her our lives and, in a moment, she’s going to give you a contract and tell you it’s either stay here and study at her school permanently or, well, simply put, get sent to this world’s Tartarus. What?” Scootaloo exclaimed seeing the disproving look Miss Grimwood was giving her. “She was going to find out sooner rather than later and she’d already worked it out anyway. Fine,” And with that Scootaloo turned and was just about to make her way back to her own bed when a meek voice squeaked. “No, please, stay, I…” Apple Bloom’s voice broke as the tears started to fall from her eyes. 

Applejack, Big Mac, Granny Smith, she’d never see any of them ever again. Was it really better to be alive knowing she’d never see any of her family again? As she pondered that thought a pair of hooves wrapped themselves around her and Scootloo’s voice whispered softly in her ear.

“I’m going to miss home to but at least I get to enjoy banishment with you two knuckleheads,” Scootaloo whispered into Apple Bloom’s ear. 

No sooner had she finished in her attempt to cheer Apple Bloom up then the Pegasus filly found the empty soup bowl atop her head.

“I heard that,” Sweetie stated sternly. “Room for one more?”

Before either Apple Bloom or Scootaloo could reply they found a third body joining in the hug. It was not long until all three were fast asleep, Scootaloo with the bowl still atop her head.

Miss Grimwood smiled as she rose from her seat and put the contract back into her robes as she made for the door. There’d be time for talking more later. For now, she would let the three girls’ rest. They’d been through enough already.


*


Over the course of the next week the girls slowly grew stronger and stronger as their bodies recovered from the ordeal of traversing between dimensions. Yes, there were times when they sorely missed the comforting hoof of a loved one or remembered a particularly painful memory but, with each other’s support, they slowly managed to return to a somewhat normal life at their new home, opting to keep themselves busy to prevent their minds from wandering.

After a few more days in bed Apple Bloom felt as good as new thanks to all the herbal medicines and remedies Miss Grimwood had made her drink, even if some did taste like sheep’s dung. The poultices their host had also applied hadn’t smelt much better either. Anyway, growing restless from inactivity and boredom Apple Bloom had finally managed to coax a reluctant Miss Grimwood into allowing her to help with odd jobs around the school. Any fears the headmistress might have had were swiftly alleviated as she witnessed first-hand just how much of a help an earth pony can be, lifting things effortlessly that she and Octavius would have struggled with between them! 

It also provided the two with some time to get to know one other and their worlds. It was during one of these earlier conversations that Apple Bloom told Miss Grimwood about each of the main pony races, their special skill sets and magic, and how they reaped the benefits of working together in harmony. It was from here that Miss Grimwood learnt of Scootaloo’s disability and, how, even with both wings, Scootaloo almost had no chance of ever being able to fly. Her heartstrings tugged, this possibly led to the biggest mistake Miss Grimwood had ever made, giving Scootaloo a magical flying broomstick. On the plus side the girl kept out of everyone else’s way, gone from practically first light until Miss Grimwood demanded she come in at dusk for dinner. But on the downside, as Apple Bloom tried to warn Miss Grimwood before she gave Scootaloo the broomstick, Pegasi are notorious for impulsive and reckless behaviour. Miss Grimwood had lost count over the course of the week just how many times Scootaloo had nearly given her heart failure. How the filly had managed to get out of the week without breaking at least one bone had to be classed as nothing short of a miracle considering some of the stunts she’d pulled and attempted. Unfortunately, there was also no chance of her getting the broomstick back or preventing Scootaloo from riding it so Miss Grimwood had eventually had to simply turn a blind eye to what could only be categorically described as “dancing with death itself.”

As for Sweetie, after four days of alternative medicines the singed half of her coat had slowly begun to grow back, a light pink, much too her ire. It hadn’t helped that upon seeing her new look later that evening Scootaloo had immediately sniggered and commented that she looked like a two-toned marshmallow. The marshmallow nickname had immediately stuck. Thankfully, due to two new arrivals that day the Crusaders were under strict instructions from Miss Grimwood to behave themselves, and, as Sweetie found herself pre-occupied by one of them, she was unable to react.

It was nearly summer and for Grimwood’s that meant the start of a new school year, the first term running from June to October for any girl ghouls aged between eight and sixteen. This year would also mark Grimwood’s highest intake ever. Including the three latest arrivals, eleven girl ghouls in total would be studying under Headmistress Grimwood and her staff, the first time ever the school had reached double figures in a single year for students in its history. It was only a small school, but that was the whole point of Grimwood’s. It was designed with two key purposes in mind, to provide anything that slips through a fracture between worlds and that wasn’t extremely dangerous an education, and now it seemed also their children, and to act as a cover in case anything extremely nasty did try to seep through the fracture the school sat on and into this world. 

Anyhow, the rest of the staff, aside Octavius the butler, and Matches the guard dragon, would not be here until the start of term next week the Crusaders had been informed. Even so, over the coming days their fellow students would be filtering in from around the world. The first of these had been the youngest two and fellow newest arrivals, eight-year-olds Tanis and Madeline Medusa.

Tanis, a shy young girl who looked like the human equivalent of one of the Neighgyptian mummy’s Miss Cheerilee had taught them about back in Equestria, had initially been extremely reluctant to leave her mummy daddy’s side until she’d spotted a disgruntled Sweetie Belle trotting down the stairs. Aside from trips to the bathroom, the scared younger girl had refused to let the unicorn go for the entire day. Although initially reluctant, Sweetie, alongside Apple Bloom, had been only too happy to make a couple of new friends alongside the other new arrival. To begin with both fillies had been taken aback by Madeline, who had snakes instead of hair. After being assured though they would only turn them to stone if she commanded them to do so or if she was extremely emotional, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle soon found themselves happily spending the entire afternoon getting to know their new acquaintances, much to Miss Grimwood’s delight. 

Of course, nothing is ever smooth sailing in a school full of monsters and, even if Sweetie had been unable to react to Scootaloo’s teasing at dinner that evening, Madeline hadn’t. In a flash Scootaloo had been turned into nothing more than a garden ornament. Caught in a multitude of emotions Sweetie Belle had ended up simply staring at Scootaloo gobsmacked until Miss Grimwood had reappeared and promptly scolded Madeline for her actions, instructing her to turn her fellow student back immediately. Thankfully, Scootaloo had simply played down the whole incident with a devilish smile and the two girls swiftly became firm friends because of it. Alas, sadly for Miss Grimwood, she could already tell that those two were going to be trouble with a capital T throughout their time at the school. 

A few days later the group were joined by a twelve-year-old goofy phantom called Phantasma, who had given Sweetie such a scare she’d dropped in a dead faint, and an almost normal looking human thirteen-year-old girl Elsa, aside from the bolts in her neck and stiches that were dotted all across her body. Elsa had proven to be just as strong as Apple Bloom, the two girls deadlocked after a two-hour arm/foreleg wrestle. Next up had been Winnie the werewolf, who had proceeded to wake everyone up in the middle of a night with an almighty howl before attempting to chew Scootaloo’s leg off. The Pegasus had not been amused and Miss Grimwood had promptly set Winnie a thousand lines before the term had even started. You must not wake other students up in the middle of the night or use them as chew toys.  

Unfortunately for Miss Grimwood, the troublesome twosome was about to become a troublesome trio. 

“Ah, Mrs Bones. It is so glad to see you once more. How was your trip to Hawaii?” Miss Grimwood asked as she answered the door for the latest arrival. 

“Exquisite, just what I needed,” the other teacher replied emotionlessly, removing the sunglasses that adorned her face as she did so. 

Two gaping holes appeared where the woman’s eyes should be, as, you see, Mrs Bones was exactly that, a pile of bones, or, in other terms, a skeleton.

“And how was your break? I’m hoping there were no further unexpected arrivals?” Mrs Bones continued. 

“Three actually. Arrived just over a week ago now. Poor things were at deaths door when I found them,” Miss Grimwood explained.

“Three?” Mrs Bones replied with clear surprise and despite the fact she had no vocal cords. “You mean to tell me not one, not two, but three monsters managed to seep through the fracture and survive! And not only that but you chose to save them! Are you mad woman?” 

“I can assure these are no ordinary monsters. In actual fact, I wouldn’t call them monsters at all,” Miss Grimwood replied, firmly holding her ground.

Mrs Bones looked at her fellow teacher for a moment with an unreadable expression, well, she was a skeleton, before saying, “Okay, I’ll bite. What are they then? Ghosts, robots, a…”

“Race of sentient horses or as they prefer to be known as, ponies. One is a unicorn, another is a Pegasus and the final one is a normal pony except she has more strength than me and Octavius combined despite only being ten years old,” Miss Grimwood interrupted flatly.

Silence engulfed the entrance hallway until finally Miss Bones managed to utter, “I must be mistaken, I thought I just heard you say that three horses managed to survive the journey across dimensions whilst having there bodies, genes and goodness knows what else, stretched, pulled, sliced, cut, stabbed,” she stopped mid-sentence with a shudder as the memories of her trip across the void between worlds became all too real in her mind.

“Well, the earth pony did suffer some severe internal injuries but a combination of my magic and her natural regenerative magic helped save her. The unicorn also lost an eye that I’ve managed to replace and suffered severe burns on nearly half her body that are currently healing. As for the Pegasus…” Miss Grimwood began only to be halted by a spindly white hand.

“Stop Griselda, please. This joke of yours is not funny. Next, you’ll be trying to convince me the Pegasus had a wing sawn of or something equally…”

One of the front windows next to the door shattered and Madeline came flying in. Well, to describe it as flying wouldn’t have been totally accurate or truthful. More like hanging onto a broom for dear life whilst screaming her lungs out. Almost as soon as she had appeared though she disappeared through the window on the other side of the door. Perfectly timed, the heads of the one-winged Pegasus and Winnie, on two more broomsticks, appeared through the first window.

“Hey, either of you two seen a… Winnie, why are you looking like that all of a sudden?” 

“T-t-that’s Mrs Bones,” the usually rambunctious werewolf whimpered pointing a shaking paw at the aforementioned teacher.

“Ah, you mean the mean old crone who kept giving you detentions for howling last year?” 

Winnie nodded rapidly, her eyes going wide. 

“Tactical retreat?” Scootaloo suggested. 

Winnie nodded rapidly once more before both girls turned and shot of on their broomsticks. 

For a moment Miss Grimwood and Mrs Bones simply stared at each other utterly flabbergasted at what had just transpired. 

Eventually Mrs Bones said, “Would you like to do the honours or should I.”

“Be my guest,” Miss Grimwood replied, a smug smile slowly crossing her face. 

“WINIFRED WINONA WOLFMAN, YOU GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!” Mrs Bones bellowed so loud the house shook and everyone came running to the entrance hall, including, much to Mrs Bones disbelief, two more horses.

“Oh Elizabeth, is there really the need to be so dramatic,” a voice cooed in reply.

The next moment a witch with frizzy ginger hair and wearing a lime green dress and pointed hat appeared in the doorway on a broomstick. A black cat wrapped itself around her neck whilst a petrified Madeline hung on tightly to her midriff. 

“Girls will be girls after all,” the newcomer continued whilst sipping a cup of tea. “It’s alright dear, we’re back on the ground now, see.”

Slowly one of Madeline’s snakes opened an eye and, after a moment, the girl opened both of her own and carefully manoeuvred herself of the broom and onto the ground.

“There we go, no harm done. Now, you go find your friends whilst me and the rest of the grownups tidy up this mess.”

Madeline was about to bolt when a cold bony hand grasped her arm and thrust the broom she had previously been riding into her chest. 

“Oh no you don’t. Under my watchful eye you shall sweep up every last shard of glass and then, once that is done, you shall be writing lines until dinner after which you’ll be spending the evening cleaning the dishes before an early night in preparation for school tomorrow,” Mrs Bones sneered cruelly. 

Madeline’s face dropped and she looked like she was about to burst into even more tears.

“B-b-but I didn’t mean to. It was an accident. I just really wanted to learn how to fly and…” 

“Enough, I don’t want to hear anymore excuses. Less talk more…”

Miss Bones was cut off by a sharp breeze and the sudden disappearance of the girl she had just been punishing for her part in this needless vandalism. 

“Where?” 

“YOU SNOOZE YOU LOSE BONES!” Scootaloo’s voice echoed from out one of the broken windows. “THE THREE MONSTETEERS RIDE AGAIN! ONE FOR ALL, ALL FOR ONE OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT!”

Before Mrs Bones had a chance to decide whether it was worth going after the three misbehaving miscreants, a scream, followed by an explosion and then what sounded like a screeching cat sounded behind her. She turned just in time for said cat to leap into her chest. 

“Just what is the meaning of this!” she demanded.

End for now