//------------------------------// // Chapter 18: The Doghouse // Story: Equestria Girls: A New Generation // by Naughty_Ranko //------------------------------// Sunset was rapidly approaching, tinting the western skies in hues of reds and oranges. Not that Ms. Sunset could tell, seeing as she was stuck in the cramped, windowless backroom of the chemistry classroom. Sighing, she loosened the string that had held her hair in a ponytail for the duration of her task, letting her long hair fall free once more as she picked up the last set of beakers and test tubes to be put away. “Ms. Shimmer.” “Gah!” Startled by the sudden voice, she nearly dropped the fragile containers but just about managed to hold on to the wooden rack they’d been placed in. She shot the man standing in the door a look. “Why do you always sneak up on people like that?” “Apologies,” the man with the long, white beard said while she stowed the teaching implements safely away in a cabinet. “It’s a force of habit from my youth. … I could wear some bells on me if that would make it better?” “With you, I’m not actually sure they’d jingle unless you wanted them to.” He cocked his head slightly and furrowed his brows, almost as if he was considering how to make that work exactly. Eventually, though, he simply shrugged. “At any rate, this will be all for today. I appreciate the help, Ms. Shimmer. It’s not often that Principal Celestia asks one of the teachers to assist me with my more mundane tasks. It leaves me free to catch up on the more important things.” “Yeah, she’s a regular philanthropist, our principal,” Sunset replied sardonically. “So while I was washing up all of Mr. Turner’s chemistry kits, you were doing what exactly?” “Checking all the salt shakers in the cafeteria, of course,” he replied with an absolutely straight face. “… Right.” Sunset began packing up her stuff. “Hey, can I ask you something? I know I’ve long since passed the point where this question wouldn’t have been awkward, but what’s your name?” He shrugged. “Lars Writs.” She turned and looked at him, blinking a couple of times. “Something the matter, Ms. Shimmer?” he asked as he sat on a nearby stool and folded his hands in his lap. “No, it’s just … mostly everybody just knows you as the ‘Phantom in the Halls.’ So I guess I wasn’t really expecting a straight answer like that, if that makes sense.” He nodded sagely. “I’m aware of the nickname I go by among the student body. It suits me. I think most of the faculty only knows me by that name as well. Names are like coats. As we go through life, we tend to collect a few of them, and we put on whichever one suits the occasion.” “Well, I’ve only ever had one name, unless you count the tag for my defunct gaming channel.” Mr. Writs squinted and looked her straight in the eye. “Are you quite sure about that, Ms. Flanksy?” Sunset opened her mouth to respond, then just snapped her jaws shut and shook her head. “And even the same name can be different names,” he went on while stroking his beard thoughtfully. “Do you not think there’s a difference between Celestia calling you Ms. Shimmer and a student calling you Ms. Sunset? And then, of course, there’s the names not of our own choosing that others bestow on us. Princess of the Fall Formal. Biggest Meanie of Junior Year. … Anon-A-Miss.” “Alright, you made your point,” Sunset said, a little unsettled. “You seem to know a lot about me, Lars.” He shook his head slowly. “No more so than about anyone else who walks my halls. There’s just a lot more to know about you comparatively.” He tapped his ear. “The halls speak if you know what to listen for. For most, it’s only whispers. But your names, they echo through the hallways as if they were being shouted down from the stars above sometimes.” “Well,” she replied, stepping closer to the door. “Drama is a teenage girl’s game. I’m just a teacher now, just the one name.” He nodded at that. “And I’m just a janitor. But we don’t always get to choose when fate calls us by one of our other names.” He cocked his head slightly, looking into the distance, almost as if he was listening for something. “Seeing as you are a teacher, would you do an old man a favor and lock up the library on your way out? I’ll do the rest of the building.” “Sure.” “My old knees and I thank you, Ms. Shimmer.” Sunset made her way over to the library annex and began the laborious process of checking all the aisles on the second floor and closing the windows. She then repeated the process on the ground floor, which had no windows on account of light being supplied by the overhead glass dome. So it was a slightly faster, albeit no less dull, affair. All was quiet, until a flash of light caught the edge of her vision. Coming to the door of the side room near the exit, she could hear the telltale whirring and clacking of the photocopier for a bit until it stopped. Approaching quietly, she observed a young man with green hair standing in front of the machine. “Why did you stop? Come on,” he said, spreading his hands and looking at the blinking lights on the control panel. Sunset walked up behind him, looked over his shoulder and gave the machine a kick. “Whoa!” Startled, the young man jumped to the side just as the copier sprang back to life and continued its run next to her. “Ms. Sunset! You scared the crap out of me.” “Sorry, Hitch,” she said, “I guess sneaking up on people by accident happens more easily than I thought. Anyway, the thing always freaks out if you set it to more than ten copies. A round of percussive maintenance usually does the trick.” “Yeah, I can see that.” Sunset lightly furrowed her brow. “It’s unusual for you to still be in school after lunch, much less this late.” “Yeah, I know.” He scratched his head. “But someone recently gave me the advice that there’s more to school than just doing the homework. So I rearranged things a bit to have at least one day of the week devoted to school activities.” Grabbing a piece of paper from the tray, he handed it to his teacher. Sunset turned over the still warm page in her hand and looked at what seemed to be the finalized version of the poster for their play, an artistic rendition of Sunny and Pipp in full costume in front of a crashing wave taking up most of the center space. “Looks awesome.” Hitch nodded. “I know, but I can only take credit for the layout. Can you believe Sprout drew that in an afternoon?” “I can, actually.” Silently, she added: Harder to believe they’ve got clothes on. “Are you done? I’m about to lock up here. Wouldn’t wanna lock you in.” Hitch nodded and began stowing the posters away in his backpack. “You wouldn’t actually lock in a student by accident, would you?” “This may come as a shock to you,” Sunset replied dryly, “but teachers are fallible human beings that can make mistakes. I’ve never locked a student in here myself as far as I know, but I’ve been the student locked in. Well, technically on the roof. Come on.” “What were you doing on the library roof?” Hitch asked as he followed her outside. “Isn’t that off-limits?” “It is now for that very reason,” Sunset replied with a chuckle as she locked the main library doors. “Luckily, it was a warm summer night, and there was school the next day. I’m just glad it didn’t happen on a Friday. And to answer your first question, I was singing a song.” He gave her an incredulous look. “On the library roof? Were you shooting a music video or something?” She shrugged. “No, I was just feeling it. Don’t give me that look, this was literally the year before TikTok came out. My generation, we just used to randomly burst out into song in odd places for no reason.” Thankfully, Hitch changed the subject as they walked outside together. “I was gonna ask, how is the dog?” “He’s doing fine,” Sunset replied, stopping at her car. She considered for a moment and then offered: “Wanna see him? I’m actually about to pick him up from the clinic. He was getting the last of the stitches out today.” There wasn’t even a hint of hesitation in the initial answer. “Sure! … If it’s alright. I mean, I don’t want to get you in trouble, Ms. Sunset.” Sunset opened the car door with a chuckle. “School day’s over. This is just me giving a student a ride, so I’m pretty sure this one doesn’t constitute a possible felony charge. Hop in.” As she pulled onto the main road, the interior of the car was silent for a bit before Sunset’s curiosity got the better of her. “Hitch, I think it’s great that you’re making more time for school activities. Why are you working so much after school anyway?” The teen turned to look out the passenger window, avoiding his teacher’s side glance. “Ms. Sunset, the last time we talked about this, you said you’d only make this your problem if my grades started slipping.” “I remember.” “Have they?” “… No,” Sunset admitted after a moment. “Has the deal changed then?” Sunset sighed and kept her eyes on the road after that. Ten minutes later, they’d arrived at their destination. When the double doors to the animal clinic swung open, they were both greeted by a bark and the scampering of little paws on tiled floor. Sunset got on one knee and held out her arms as the green puppy ran straight past her and towards Hitch. “Nice to see you, too,” she muttered dryly. The puppy gave a few happy barks and jumped once or twice up on Hitch’s leg, who knelt down with a smile and gave the dog a few scratches behind the ears. “Hey, buddy. You look healthy. Has Ms. Sunset gotten around to giving you a name yet?” “It’s Sparky,” Sunset said as she got back up. “Sparky,” Hitch said, and the dog gave a happy bark at hearing the name while wagging his tail. “I like it. It suits you. Sparky Sparkeroni.” “Sparky, is it?” Fluttershy asked as she came out of the back office into the otherwise empty reception area in response to the commotion, her hands in the pockets of her white lab coat. “Can I put that on the official paperwork then?” “Yes, you can,” Sunset replied, standing next to her friend. “Don’t read too much into it,” she added after a pause. *Stare* Sunset fidgeted a bit, then took her friend by the arm to pull her out of earshot of her student who was busy playing with his canine friend. “Look,” she whispered, “do I realize it’s weird that I named my new dog after my ex-girlfriend? Yes. Yes, I very much do.” *Stare* “It’s just that I kept calling her for advice about dogs, and at some point he just started responding to the name, probably because he kept hearing me say it while talking about him.” *Stare* “It doesn’t mean Twilight and I are getting back together or anything. We made a mutual decision after college, because we both needed to focus on our respective futures. Now would you please turn that off?” Sunset booped her friend’s nose gently, leading Fluttershy to involuntarily cross her eyes for a moment before shaking her head slightly. “Alright, if you say so. I’m just glad that you remained friends this time around, not like the first time you broke up when, you know.” “You mean that time where we got into a shouting match in front of all of you, and I hurt her feelings so badly that I fled to another continent for half a year out of shame rather than having to face her?” Sunset asked, remorseful of infractions long forgiven but not forgotten. “Yeah, I do know. I do know all too well.” “Hey, Ms. Sunset,” Hitch interrupted, “he seems to be a little restless. Is it alright if I take Sparky for a walk around the block?” Sunset smiled and went to pat Hitch’s shoulder. “Of course, Hitch.” Just then, her index finger brushed against some exposed skin at the back of his neck, and Sunset immediately tensed up. It was as if she’d been struck by lightning, and yet the feeling wasn’t altogether unfamiliar. Broken and disjointed images flashed in her mind while her head spun. … a hand putting some money into a box and shoving it under a bed … suddenly the point of view changed, staring into a dark room behind metal bars … just as suddenly a kitchen table with a mountain of official looking documents on it … and then just darkness. “Ms. Sunset?” Hitch’s concerned voice brought her back to reality. “You alright? You just kinda zoned out there for a moment.” Sunset put on the most convincing smile she could muster and replied: “Yeah, just had a long day.” She pulled a small pack of dog treats out of her pocket, the rustle of which immediately had Sparky barking in excitement, and handed it to Hitch. “You go take that walk with Sparky while I finish up the paperwork here with Ms. Fluttershy. Thanks.” Hitch nodded and beckoned the puppy to follow him outside as he opened the doors. Meanwhile, Sunset just stood there in a complete daze until Fluttershy walked up to her, concern written all over her face. “Sunset,” she whispered, “did you just?” “Did I what? Don’t know what you mean.” Fluttershy frowned at her friend. “Bullshit,” she stated with the certainty of someone pointing out that water was indeed wet. “We all know that look you get when it happens. What did you see?” “I … I don’t know, Flutters,” she replied, pulling out her geode pendant and staring hard at it. It remained as dull and inert as it had for years. “It felt … familiar but different. I used to get something coherent. This was just … fragments.” Fluttershy pulled up the sleeve on her lab coat and held out her forearm. The two women stared at each other for a moment, and Fluttershy nodded. Hesitantly, Sunset reached out her hand while hanging on to the geode with the other and touched her friend’s skin. “Anything?” Fluttershy asked after a moment. Sunset shook her head and let go. “Nothing. Nothing at all.” “Well,” Fluttershy said, pulling down her sleeve again, “maybe it’s like an old flashlight, you know? Sometimes it’ll turn on for a brief moment before sputtering out again, even if the batteries are empty.” “Yeah,” Sunset replied, “probably something like that.” Or maybe fate just walked up and started screaming in my ear.