//------------------------------// // Chapter 19: Quid Pro Quo // Story: Equestria Girls: A New Generation // by Naughty_Ranko //------------------------------// “Sunset! Just the woman I was looking for,” Cranky said as he entered the otherwise empty teachers’ lounge with a stack of papers under his arm. “Well, you found me in my extremely secret hideout where no teacher ever comes,” Sunset replied before taking another bite from her sandwich while not taking her eyes off the education magazine she was reading. “Let me ask you something that would have been extremely inappropriate to ask when you were my student,” he said while heading over to the counter to pour himself a cup of coffee. “Are you a masochist?” Sunset actually thought about that for a moment. “You mean sexually? I don’t mind being cuffed to the bed or a light spanking on occasion, but I’d classify myself more as a pillow princess.” Cranky guffawed at that. “Okay, not the answer I was expecting, but that’s interesting.” “What can I say? Gladys must be starting to rub off on me,” Sunset pointed out. “Still inappropriate, though, seeing as you’re currently my direct supervisor.” Cranky sat down across the table from her with his coffee mug. “For the record, I wasn’t asking about your proclivities. I was talking about this game of chicken you’re playing with Celestia where she comes up with backhanded punishments for you because she can’t be seen undermining one of her teachers directly in front of the students, and yet you never seem to learn your lesson.” “Ah.” Sunset grimaced, pushing her lunch plate aside. “Heard about my little stunt with the drama club, have you?” “Everyone has at this point. Don’t worry about it too much. Celly really likes you for some reason. She’ll come around.” “Oh, I know. She’s not the first Celestia who’s had to put up with my antics. Trust me, I did much worse by the last one, and she still forgave me. I do feel a little bad about going behind her back on this one, though.” “Well, if you wanna make the apology process go a little smoother, I’ve got an opportunity for you. You know there’s home visits taking place at this time of year?” “I thought that was a problem for the homeroom teachers.” “It usually is. But Cheerilee is out sick this week, which makes it Celestia’s problem. And since I’m currently acting vice-principal, our wise leader has deigned to make it my problem.” “Let me skip ahead in that thought process. Crap rolls downhill, and I’m at the bottom of the cuddle pile not only by virtue of being the newest hire but also for having recently pissed off management, so you’re about to make it my problem.” “Smart girl. I managed to reschedule most of them, but I need you to take two.” He put three folders on the table in front of Sunset. “I’m not a math teacher, but I see three student files here.” “Pipp and Zipp you can check off together. Their mother is extremely busy and a nightmare with scheduling. But seeing as you just played the princess in shining armor by saving Pipp’s school year, you should have this one in the bag.” “And the other?” “Hitch. There’s … different reasons why this one needs to be taken care of and can’t be rescheduled,” he said carefully. “I’m in,” Sunset said immediately, grabbing Hitch’s file and flipping it open. Cranky raised an eyebrow at that but said nothing. “Wow, this file is a mess,” Sunset muttered while scanning over all the crossed out sections and hand-written annotations. “The addresses don’t even match. Mother’s residence: Unknown, presumed abroad? Father’s residence: … Mare’s Island. Isn’t that?” She looked up at Cranky. He rubbed a hand over the stubble of his five o'clock shadow. “I believe the exact address is Cellblock D, Cell 89. Doing ten to fifteen for environmental crimes. It was a little before your time, I think. Maybe you haven’t heard of it.” “Butch Trailblazer,” Sunset said, remembering a term paper on local history she’d written in her second semester at Canterlot U. “CEO of Trailblazer Industries. Chemical spill at Froggy Bottom Bay. Investigation led to the EPA taking a closer look at the company’s dangerous waste storage policies. … That’s Hitch’s dad?” Cranky nodded and gestured towards the folder. “There’s like a three-page CPS form at the back that needs to be signed off on by a teacher.” Sunset leaned back in her chair. “… Fuck. That explains a lot, actually.” The veteran teacher looked at her, then frowned and shook his head. “You know what? This was a bad idea. Forget it, kid. It’s a lot to ask of a newbie, maybe too much. If you take the girls, that’s already a huge help. I’ll take this one.” He closed the folder and began sliding it back towards himself across the table. Sunset’s hand flashed forward, pressing down on the file from the other side and preventing Cranky from pulling it out of her reach. “No,” she said, locking eyes with him. “No, I got this.” “You sure, kiddo?” She nodded silently while holding his gaze firmly. Cranky wordlessly moved his jaw and finally let go of the folder. Standing up from the table, he walked over to Sunset. “I know we all like to joke around about how crappy our job is. But this is the kind of stuff that genuinely sucks.” He lightly punched Sunset’s shoulder and left the room with a sigh. Sunset sat quietly for a few moments before picking up the files and also exiting the room, deciding that she needed some air and time to think. This has got to be connected to the vision I saw, right? If only it hadn’t been so fragmented. “Ms. Sunset! You got a minute?” Sunset turned to see one of her favorite students come running up and forced her mind to go back into teacher mode. “Sunny. What can I do for you?” “I was hoping to ask you a couple questions about something,” the young girl said brightly as she caught up with her waiting teacher. “Of course. Something you didn’t understand in class? I know the irregular verbs are hard to wrap your head around at first.” “Actually, this isn’t about German, or history.” Sunny looked to the left and right to make sure they were alone in the hall before adding in conspiratorial whisper: “I was gonna ask about something you mentioned, Clover’s Second Law of Arcanodynamics.” Sunset now also checked around for curious ears before answering quietly: “What did we say about magic talk at school?” “I just want some clarification on a few things you brought up in passing, that’s all,” Sunny replied innocently. “If you wanna learn about magic, I can recommend a really good book to you,” Sunset said and began walking down the hall. Sunny’s eyes sparkled as she fell in step beside her teacher. “Really?” “Yeah,” Sunset dead-panned, “it’s called the Dungeon Master’s Guide, 5th Edition. Real page-turner.” “Come on, Ms. Sunset. Please?” Rolling her eyes and seeing a couple students rounding the corner ahead, Sunset steered her student into an empty classroom and closed the door behind them. “Why would you need to know? I told you that there’s no more magic in this world.” Although I’m starting to reevaluate that statement, which makes me even less inclined to tell you about it, she added quietly in her mind. “All the more reason that it can’t hurt,” Sunny pointed out shrewdly. “I’m just interested in the theory. You’re a teacher. Shouldn’t you encourage intellectual curiosity in your students?” Sunset crossed her arms in front of her. “Nice try. Last time I checked, I was hired by this school as a history teacher, not a magic teacher, which is a good thing on so many levels. I was barely even a passable student of magic, never mind a teacher.” “What? That’s insane!” Sunny seemed genuinely flabbergasted by that admission. “I’ve seen what you can do. You’re incredible.” “I didn’t say I was bad at magic. I said I was bad at being a student.” She sighed and rubbed her eyes. “You’re not gonna let this go, are you?” “Not likely, and not anytime soon,” Sunny stated in such a way that Sunset couldn’t help but admire the backbone it took to say that to a teacher straight up. Her eyes wandered over to the student files she was still holding, and that’s when a terrible idea came to her. “You’ve known Hitch for a long time, right?” “Uhm, yeah, I guess,” Sunny replied, seemingly confused by the sudden change in topic. “We’ve known each other since kindergarten.” “I’ll make you a deal,” Sunset’s mouth said before her brain had a chance to hit the brakes. “I’ll give you one hour of magic tutoring if you answer some questions I have about Hitch.” “You want to know about Hitch?” What the fuck are you doing, Sunset!? Don’t drag her into this. What would your response have been if someone walked up to you and just started asking questions about your friends? She shook her head. “Never mind. I don’t know what I was thinking. Forget I said anyth…” “Okay!” Sunset looked up and stared at Sunny in disbelief. “Just like that? You must really want to learn about magic.” “What? No! … I mean, yes, I do,” she admitted. “But that’s not it. If this was anybody else asking, it would be really weird and creepy. But since it’s you, you must have a very good reason. You wouldn’t ask me to just tattle on my friend for no reason, so you probably wanna help him.” She shrugged. “I trust you.” Sunset raised an eyebrow at that. “What did I do to inspire that kind of blind faith in you?” Sunny made a face as if Sunset had just asked the dumbest question she’d ever heard. “Really? You literally fought a kaiju-sized shadow monster that threatened to kill my dad and destroy my hometown.” “Oh yeah, that,” Sunset mused wryly. “I should list that as a reference next time I apply for a bank loan.” “Right. Even if I disregard the fact that you’re basically a superhero, I know what you did for Izzy and Pipp. So yeah, I trust you implicitly.” “Maybe you shouldn’t,” Sunset said, resigned to her fate, “but a deal is a deal, so you can stop buttering me up before I turn into a piece of toast. Alright, when do you want to do this?” Grinning like a Cheshire Cat, Sunny pulled a notebook and pencil out of her backpack and sat down at a desk in the front row of the classroom. “I’ve got a free period right now.” “Okay, let’s do it,” Sunset said without much enthusiasm and began to write out a formula on the blackboard. “You wanted to know about Clover’s Second Law of Arcanodynamics,” she began and immediately wrote a second equation that involved more than a few pentagrams next to the first. “It actually derives from Star Swirl’s General Theory of Chronomancy. So you kinda have to understand both if you really want to get to the center of the tootsie pop. Hope you paid attention in Ms. Harshwhinny’s class, cause there’s a lot of math involved with magic, and in a Base 12 system no less.” Sunset turned around to look at Sunny. “You, uh, don’t have to raise your hand. It’s just you and me here.” “Right,” Sunny said, lowering her arm. “What’s a Base 12 system?” Sunset pursed her lips. She’s a sophomore in high school, she told herself, not a magic prodigy who learned calculus from a demi-goddess at age seven. Keep it simple, stupid. “So, usually when we do math, we use the decimal system, right? We call that Base 10, because everything more or less revolves around the number ten. That’s not quite correct, actually it uses ten digits from zero to nine. You grew up in the digital age. Can you tell me how computers do math?” “With ones and zeroes?” Sunny replied hesitantly after a moment's thought. “Exactly. Just two numbers, which is why we call that the binary system or Base 2.” “Oh, I get it,” Sunny said and nodded. Sunset couldn’t help but smile at that. Watching the light bulb go on was her favorite part of being a teacher. Sunny then looked at her hands, furrowed her brow and balled them into fists to approximate hooves in a way that Sunset honestly found adorable. “So … why would ponies come up with a Base 12 system? I could understand Base 2 or Base 4. … Maybe Base 6 if you’re a pegasus?” Chuckling somewhat at the logic she was getting at, Sunset explained: “It’s not about the number of digits you have available for counting purposes. Most ponies in Equestria actually use a decimal system in their day to day lives. But we use Base 12 in Magic Theory because twelve is an inherently magical number.” “Ohhhhh, … Why?” Sunset took a deep breath, looked over her shoulder at the equations she had written, shook her head and picked up an eraser. Once the slate was clean again, she wrote ‘Numerology 101’ and said: “How about we start with the basics?”