“Hi Mrs Bones,” the anthropomorphic cat said sheepishly.
“Miss Jekyll, I’ll give you three seconds to give me an excellent reason not to drop you and put you in detention until the Halloween Holidays,” Mrs Bones droned.
“It wasn’t her fault; she fired a bolt of magic at her!” Another voice interrupted.
Another scream, this one slightly different to the last.
“Isabella, detention tomorrow after classes,” Mrs Bones droned once more. “And put your head back on.”
“But, but…” Isabella began before conceding defeat. She’d learnt from experience that arguing with Mrs Bones was a futile endeavour and would only lead to heavier punishments.
“Now, now Elizabeth, is that really necessary?” The witch with ginger hair asked. “The poor girl has only just arrived.”
“Mrs Poppycock, I will not have my authority questioned. Every year one of us has had to tell Isabella not to arrive with either her head under her arm or something else for her head and every year she doesn’t listen, turns up and scares the new arrivals. The girl, like those miscreants on the broomsticks, needs strict discipline to help mould them into responsible members of society and prevent this whole school from falling into anarchy and chaos,” Mrs Bones lectured, still holding the anthropomorphic cat in her arms.
“Nonsense,” Mrs Poppycock retorted. “What these girls need is guidance, not to be turned into braindead robots, afraid to put even a foot wrong for fear of punishment. They need to learn for themselves what is right and wrong with only a gentle nudge from us to help steer them on the correct path.”
“A gentle nudge, a gentle nudge,” the skeleton exclaimed, dropping Miss Jekyll unceremoniously onto the floor in the process. For a split second, her empty eye sockets blazed with fire and then it was gone as she said in a monotonous drone, “Fine, deal with them how you see fit, just don’t come crying to me for help when they progress from vandalising the school to blood sacrifices under the full moon or worse, loving the colour pink. Octavius, if you wouldn’t mind, please bring my bags to my quarters when you are ready.”
And without waiting for a reply, Mrs Bones departed up the stairs, not bothering to look back even once.
“I think that’s a new record even for you two,” Miss Grimwood said with a sigh walking over to Mrs Poppycock.
“I’m sorry Griselda but you know me and Elizabeth never see eye to eye,” Mrs Poppycock replied turning to face her boss.
Both witches just looked at one another for a moment before doubling over with laughter.
“That was utterly terrible,” Miss Grimwood eventually wheezed.
“I know but true. I swear if she had her way, she’d happily force feed the students’ fresh fruit and vegetables whilst making them watch Happy Horses or some other ghastly tv show the humans make their offspring watch,” Mrs Poppycock stated before hastily turning to Apple Bloom and Sweetie. “No offense, it’s just most of us monsters have a preference for the more macabre. We like a good stretch on the rack or a nap on a bed of nails, that sort of thing. Anyway, might I ask what’s wrong with your poor friend there?”
“None taken,” Apple Bloom replied as Sweetie continued to cower between her legs. “As for Sweetie, she suffers from Ailurophobia.”
“Ailuro-what-now?” Isabella interjected.
“Ailurophobia,” Apple Bloom repeated. “It means she has an extreme fear of cats. From what she told me a stray bit her when she was two and it led to an elongated stay in hospital and numerous shots in case of a possible rabies infection. It’s why she also has needle phobia as well.”
Sweetie tentatively poked her head out from under Apple Bloom.
The anthropomorphic cat tried to smile and look as friendly as possible. Big mistake.
“Hi there Sweetie Belle, I’m Harriet Jekyll, daughter of…” Harriet got no further as Sweetie fired of another bolt of magic that resulted in Harriet having to take evasive action. “Woah, cool it, I’m a, wait, why does it suddenly smell like something’s burning?”
Unbeknownst to Harriet, whilst dodging the first blast Sweetie had swiftly fired of a second that had caught the end of her tail.
“That’s because your tail’s on fire,” Apple Bloom deadpanned.
“WHAT! MEOOOOOWWW,” Harriet screamed leaping into the air as Sweetie made an attempt to run away only for Elsa to grab a hold of her.
“Oh no you don’t,” she said, grasping the struggling unicorn to her chest as Harriet doused her tail in a bucket of water conveniently supplied by Mrs Poppycock.
“Thank you, Elsa,” Miss Grimwood sighed. “I feel it might be best…”
The entranceway was abruptly filled with a blinding white light. As it slowly dissipated, one thing became immediately clear: Sweetie was gone.
Elsa stared at her hands in bewilderment, unsure at just what had transpired.
Apple Bloom’s eye had gone wide. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO SWEETIE!” she finally hollered ready to leap at Elsa, only for Miss Grimwood to step in.
“She’s done nothing. Sweetie simply teleported away somewhere.”
“Teleported? But only extremely talented unicorns can master that,” Apple Bloom exclaimed.
“And the same goes for witches as well, which means that this has most certainly been caused because Sweetie was under significant duress,” Miss Grimwood explained.
“Okay, why am I not liking where this is going or your tone of voice,” Apple Bloom stated flatly.
“Because of three things. One, the spell requires a significant amount of energy, so wherever Sweetie now is, she is likely extremely weak. This leads onto number two, we have no idea where your friend teleported to and likely, neither does she but I doubt it could have been far due to the amount of energy required. Three, she is under extreme stress and isn’t thinking clearly,” Miss Grimwood clarified, deciding not to alarm Apple Bloom further by telling her of some of the more interesting creatures that inhabited the Grimwood grounds.
“So, what are we doing standing here, we need to find her!” Apple Bloom exclaimed racing for the door. “I’ll take outside. Hey, let go of me,” Apple Bloom huffed turning to face Isabella who was holding her by the tail.
“Not, without a partner you don’t. The last thing we need is anyone else getting hurt.”
“Thank you, Isabella. You and Apple Bloom take the coppice at the back of the property along with Harriet, Me and Mrs Poppycock will take the rest of the outside grounds. Phantasma, Tanis and Elsa, comb the house from top to bottom. And Harriet,” Miss Grimwood said, taking charge.
“Yes, Miss Grimwood.”
“If you are the first to come across Sweetie, please stay back and let the others approach her. I know you want nothing more than to help but trying to solve this problem by yourself is likely just going to worsen the situation further, understood?”
Harriet reluctantly nodded before replying, “Understood.”
*
“Got any mummies?” Scootaloo asked.
“Go hunt,” Winnie replied.
“Damn,” Scootaloo said, taking a card from the pile in the middle of the three girls.
Scootaloo, Winnie and Madeline had taken refuge in Winnie’s secret hiding spot, a large hollowed out bush located in amongst the coppice at the very edge of the Grimwood estate. From here, Madeline had produced a deck of cards of one of her favourite games, Go Hunt, a monster rendition of Go Fish/Happy Families.
“Eugh, this is so boring,” Scootaloo groaned. It had only been five minutes. “And my wing’s getting cramp.”
Although a good hiding place for one, the bush had been an extremely tight squeeze for three.
“Would you prefer being grounded for life?” Winnie retorted. “Because you not only broke into the broomshed, a big no, no, but proceeded to then give a broom to a friend with no prior broomstick flying experience, inadvertently putting them in serious danger and resulting in significant damage to the school. Oh, and you also broke me out of detention. Thanks for that by the way.”
“Anytime and when you put it like that, I guess I see your point. Miss Grimwood must be furious with me right now,” Scootaloo responded, suddenly looking extremely worried.
Winnie couldn’t help but let out a chortle. “I never thought a pony could look so scared. Don’t fret, I know Miss Grimwood. Give her a few hours to calm down, then we can go grovelling to her for forgiveness and the worst we get is doing the dishes after dinner and a stern lecture, trust me,” Winnie finished with a toothy grin.
“I do but could you not have found us a more comfortable hideout to ride out the storm?” Scootaloo grumbled.
“Thirty-two,” Winnie replied.
“Thirty-two?” Scootaloo said confused.
“That’s the number of different hiding places I’ve had over the past two years before this one. Every time Bones found me and tripled my punishment. I even hid in the dirty laundry once and she still found me! Another time, I sat on the weather vane atop the school all night after the window I’d climbed out of locked behind me. Turned out Brutal Bones had found me after half an hour and locked the window to teach me a lesson and that was only the start of my punishment! In short, this is the only safe spot I know for certain Bones won’t find us,” Winnie explained.
“Erm, sorry to interrupt but if we’re just going to get into even more trouble from hiding, what’s the point?” Madeline asked. “Not that I regret what you did back there, I owe both of you massively otherwise I’d be stuck doing chores until bedtime right now.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Winnie responded.
“Yeah, it’s what friends do,” Scootaloo added.
“As for your question, simple, because most adults aren’t Mrs Bones. Most will act in the heat of the moment and thus dish out a heftier punishment on you. Give them some time to calm down and think and often you can get away with little more than a talking to and making a promise never to do what you did wrong again,” Winnie explained.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Scootaloo supported. “All we need to do is avoid Bones when we reappear. I honestly can’t believe she’s just as bad as you told us Winnie.”
“Well, I hate to tell you I told you so but…”
“I told you so?” Scootaloo finished for her new friend.
“Precisely. Now, who’s turn is it?” Winnie enquired.
“Mine,” Madeline replied. “Got any mummies Scootaloo,” the snake-haired girl said wickedly.
Scootaloo looked less than pleased as she forked over her near complete set of mummies that Madeline then immediately completed and added to her already large pile of completed sets.
“Eugh,” Scootaloo groaned again. “there’s got to be something more interesting we can do.”
“Well, we could just talk,” Madeline suggested. “I do want to learn more about this Equestria you… hey, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Scootaloo mumbled staring at the hard earth beneath her hooves.
“You dingus,” Winnie chastised Madeline.
“What?” Madeline said indignantly.
“Are you really that dense? She’s barely been here a week, the last thing she wants to be reminded of right now is her old home and all the friends and family she’ll…”
“I’m an orphan,” Scootaloo cut in sombrely.
Winnie’s face dropped.
“Well, look who’s put their paw…”
Winnie shoved said paw into Madeline’s mouth.
“Well, maybe I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t brought it up first,” Winnie retorted before turning to Scootaloo. “Hey, sorry about that. I won’t lie I’m not a great listener, I get distracted way to easily but that doesn’t mean I can’t try if you ever want to talk to me about anything.”
Something that sounded roughly like “Me to,” came from Madeline’s mouth, although it was hard to tell considering her mouth was still filled with Winnie’s paw.
“Eww,” Winnie griped, removing her paw from Madeline’s mouth and wiping it on her dress.
“Well, you’re the one who shoved it into my mouth in the first place,” Madeline countered before spitting out some fur.
Scootaloo let out a chuckle causing both her newest two friends to redirect their attention back to her. “Thanks girls, for everything. I know with you two, Apple Bloom and…”
A blinding burst of white light cut Scootaloo off and a minute later, the already cramped hideout became impossible as Sweetie landed atop the three delinquents.
“Sweetie, how, what, where,” Scootaloo stammered, unsure just what to ask her friend first as she tried, unsuccessfully, to get one of Sweetie’s hind hooves out of her left eye.
“Cat,” was all she got in reply from Sweetie. “Big, scary cat.”
“Oh great. Which one of the other students has a pet cat?” Scootaloo sighed, forcing her way out of the bush.
“Erm,” Winnie replied following Scootaloo out of the bush, “No one but…” she paused, a little unsure of how to finish that sentence.
“But what?” Scootaloo pressed as Madeline helped a clearly traumatised Sweetie out of the bush.
“Well… SQUIRREL!” Winnie suddenly exclaimed.
“Squirrel?” Scootaloo asked looking totally lost, only to find Winnie was no longer where she had been just a moment ago. “Winnie, where’d you…”
THUMP.
Scootaloo twisted her head around and immediately wished she hadn’t. Winnie had run head first into a tree and was now sprawled on her back, out for the count. Looking up, Scootaloo’s eyes widened at the sight of a lime green squirrel with three heads chittering angrily down at the now unconscious werewolf.
“Big, scary cat,” Sweetie Belle repeated as Madeline, with one final heave, at last managed to push Sweetie out of the bush.
“Just brilliant,” Scootaloo bemoaned, shaking her head to clear her mind of what she’d just witnessed before turning to Madeline who now lay sprawled out on the ground, panting heavily. “I guess you’ve not got any idea what might have spooked Sweetie? Winnie got distracted.”
“What do you mean?” Madeline eventually managed to force out.
Scootaloo thrust a hoof in the unconscious werewolf’s direction.
Madeline managed to force her head up and stared in disbelief at what had become of Winnie. “What happened to her?” she finally managed to question.
“Squirrel,” Scootaloo deadpanned in reply. “And that was before she told me just what exactly spooked Sweetie.”
“I’d like to help myself but I’m new here to and still don’t know everyone either,” Madeline explained sitting up. “Must have been something really frightening though if she’s as traumatised as that.”
“Cat,” Sweetie repeated, eyes wide and staring off into the distance.
“Not exactly. Sweetie has a couple of extreme phobias, specifically cats and needles from a traumatic early life experience,” Scootaloo explained.
“Needles?” Sweetie exclaimed before looking like she was about to bolt.
“No Sweetie, there are no needles here, or cats for that matter,” Scootaloo tried to reassure her friend.
“But cat. Huge cat, massive teeth, wants to bite me, infect me, needles, shots, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH” Sweetie screamed as she bolted only for Scootaloo to attempt to tackle her to the ground.
“Sweetie calm down, there is absolutely nothing here that will hurt you,” Scootaloo tried again to get through to her friend but it was futile as Sweetie wrestled free of her grasp and sped off into the distance.
“Come on, we’ve got to catch her before she hurts herself!” Scootaloo exclaimed, not waiting for a response from Madeline as she galloped after Sweetie.
“But, but,” Madeline tried to argue before giving up and racing after Scootaloo.
*
“Apple Bloom slow down,” Isabella called after the clearly panicking pony. “Rushing head first into this is going to get us nowhere, we need to formulate a plan of action.”
Apple Bloom barely broke her stride as she turned her head back to address Isabella. “What’s there to plan, we’ve just got to find Sweetie.”
“Well for one the coppice is home to the fracture and a number of peculiar things you are likely not used to, such as the Venus fly trap that is looking at you a little to eagerly,” Isabella explained.
Apple Bloom abruptly halted and only just managed to dive out the way as the Venus fly trap lunged for her.
“Secondly, you don’t know the grounds very well yet,” Isabella went on approaching Apple Bloom and helping her back to her hooves. “Let me take the lead and I promise, if Sweetie Belle is out here, we will find her.”
“Fine,” Apple Bloom conceded as Harriet approached, looking like she was about to have a heart attack.
“Could…you…. two… slow… down… a… bit… please,” she rasped, doubling over with her hands/paws resting on her legs whilst taking several deep breaths.
“Sorry Harriet, I’m just really worried about…” Apple Bloom began only to pause as Sweetie Belle streaked past faster than lightning followed by Scootaloo, who froze in her tracks when she saw Harriet.
“Oh buck,” the Pegasus swore, before swiftly taking of again.
Apple Bloom didn’t waste anytime with words and took off after her two best friends, Isabella hot on her hooves.
“Not again,” Harriet groaned, preparing herself for more of her worst nightmare, physical exertion. That was until another voice she didn’t recognise called out from the gloom.
“Hey, I know this is going to sound crazy but have you seen two small horses run by… woah,” Madeline finished, staring wide eyed at the anthropomorphic cat in front of her.
“They went that a way along with Apple Bloom and Isabella,” Harriet stated, pointing with a digit the direction in which everybody else had run off in.
“So, they’ve got it covered?” Madeline wheezed, trying to get her breath back.
Harriet smiled, maybe she wouldn’t have to do anymore exercise today after all. “I think so. Name’s Harriet Jekyll by the way. Long story short my father’s a mad scientist and accidentally ended up splicing my DNA with our Havana Brown, Cherry. Havana Brown is a type of cat by the way, just in case you couldn’t guess.”
Madeline tittered before responding sardonically. “I would have never have guessed. Mine’s Madeline Medusa by the way. If there is enough of them to help Sweetie, would you mind helping me with Winnie, she ran into a tree chasing a squirrel and knocked herself out.”
Harriet’s face dropped, maybe not. And she also stood corrected, her second worst nightmare. Her worst nightmare currently lay knocked out under a tree. “Fine,” she replied sharply, “Show me where that imbecile is and we’ll try and carry her back between the two of us.”
“Erm, is something wrong? Would you prefer if I went and fetched Miss Grimwood?” Madeline responded, taken aback by the sudden change in tone of Harriet’s voice.
“Look, it’s complicated but in spite of the fact I’d love to leave her out here for chasing me all over the place over the past two-years, I know it wouldn’t be right and I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself for doing so. So please, show me where she is,” Harriet admitted.
“Ahh, I didn’t know you cared so much kitty and you know I only chase you so much because it is a lot more fun than those pesky squirrels who just dart up a tree or breathe fire at me.”
Harriet’s face dropped like a stone. “Oh no.”
“Oh yes,” Winnie replied.
Harriet scarpered.
Winnie chased.
“Hey you two, wait up,” Madeline called, racing after Winnie and Harriet.
*
“Any luck?” Miss Grimwood asked walking round to the back of Grimwood Manor.
“None,” Mrs Poppycock replied. “But from what I’ve been able to establish, she most certainly didn’t fall in the moat.”
“Well, to some extent that’s a relief but the longer she remains missing…”
“The more we begin to fear that something bad has happened to her,” Mrs Poppycock finished for Miss Grimwood.
“Precisely.”
For an awkward moment a grim silence hug in the air between the two teachers as the sound of thunder rumbled in the distance to indicate an incoming storm. And then, out of the corner of their eyes they caught the most peculiar of sights heading straight towards them.
Out in front Sweetie was setting a blistering pace, dragging Scootaloo through the dirt as she did so, the Pegasus desperately holding onto a rope that had been thrown around Sweetie’s neck for dear life. Miss Grimwood guessed it had been thrown by Apple Bloom, who, despite being in clear discomfort and trying desperately not to put weight on her left foreleg, was still right behind them, neck and neck with a panicking Harriet who had Winnie on all fours right on her tail, literally. Some way behind them were Isabella and Madeline, the two girls having pretty much given up trying to keep up with their school mates.
“Sweetie,” Scootaloo tried to call out to her friend, only to receive a mouth full of mud for her troubles.
“Bad werewolf, sit,” Harriet pleaded desperately with Winnie to no avail, only receiving a gnashing of jaws that was way to close to her tail for comfort and made her double her effort whilst praying for Sekhmet, Mafdet, Bastet and whatever other cat gods she could think of to help her.
“Well, I see the girls had a lot better luck than we did,” Mrs Poppycock commented.
“Indeed, although I was hoping Winnie might have matured a bit over the summer,” Miss Grimwood sighed.
“Well, she’s still only ten, give her a few more years,” Mrs Poppycock defended the young werewolf.
“Fair point,” Miss Grimwood responded. “I suggest we brace for…” she paused as magic started to spark on the tip of Sweetie’s horn. “Or not.”
“Indeed, three,” Mrs Popycock began as the magic grew at the tip of Sweetie’s horn.
“Two,” Miss Grimwood continued as Sweetie prepared to fire, only for her magic to suddenly falter.
“One,” Mrs Poppycock finished as Sweetie collapsed and went sliding through the mud landing perfectly at Miss Grimwood’s feet.
“Magical exhaustion. Poor dear must have…” Miss Grimwood began only to find herself interrupted.
“LOOK OUT!” Harriet cried.
Unfazed, Miss Grimwood simply looked up and plucked her frightened pupil out of the air and brought her into her chest.
“Uh oh,” Winnie said, unable to slow her forward momentum she tripped over Sweetie’s unconscious body and sent herself, Harriet and Miss Grimwood flying into the moat.
An upstairs window flew open.
“Just what…” Mrs Bones looked down at the scene of chaos below her in the moat. “Winifred, I might have known. Ten thousand lines starting tomorrow after class and cleaning duty for a month.” And without another word she slammed the window shut.
“So much for keeping a low profile,” Scootaloo winced, rising gingerly from the dirt.
The window flew open once more.
“And that reminds me. For your two delinquent friends, five thousand lines each.”
The window slammed shut once more.
Scootaloo groaned.