//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 - Immoral Lows // Story: Immortals: Book One - Immortal High // by Lastingimage24 //------------------------------// Immortals: Book One - Immortal High Chapter 4 - Immoral Lows “Alright, it’s due at the end of class tomorrow.” There was a simultaneous uproar of groans from the entire class which made Mr. Compass frown with indignation. “Don’t ‘BLEGH’ me! This is a relatively easy assignment and I’m giving you two FULL class periods to do it.” He trotted back to his desk with his nose in the air. “You should be glad I’m giving you this opportunity to raise your score,” he grumbled quietly. Mr. Compass was a silver unicorn with a greyish-black mane and a silver streak running through it. He obviously didn’t dye his hair which was weird, given the unique style. Gods were kind to him, that mane looks absolutely gorgeous. Luna leaned forward laying her chin on the desk. The day had been relatively tame, aside from the horrid bus ride. Unsurprisingly, most days weren’t so calm. One can only be around both Discord and Tia for so long without something blowing up. However, today, Tia was quiet (that usually happens when she actually gets enough sleep, or have slept with somepony the day prior) and in a good mood, something that almost never happens. Well, arguably, her mood was always good, but today it was the peaceful kind of good. Not the slutty and loud kind of good. Discord was incredibly exhausted for some reason and kept drifting off to sleep in the middle of class. Miles was, well… Miles. It occurred to Luna that Miles was the only relatively normal person she knew. Luna was glad she had a project she could work on, it was much better than the usual lectures that she was used to getting from Equestrian History class. Alright, time to pour my heart into this assig- “Oh, and you’ll need a partner or you won’t get credit.” …Dammit. Luna looked around her. Mr. Compass gave out a seating chart the second day of school and she was seated on the other side of the room of Tia. Tia had found a partner within a few nanoseconds, given her popularity. Not that having her as a partner would be a good idea by any means. Luna looked to her right to evaluate the mare she was sitting next to, only to find the mare had trotted across the room to her more familiar friend. Egh, she was a bitch anyway. A few moments passed. Luna found her possible partner numbers slowly dwindle. Luna began to get a little frantic. She had only received one zero her entire life and that was in the seventh grade, when Tia had convinced her that a vocabulary worksheet wasn’t worth doing. Luna hated herself for that now and she sure wasn’t going to do it again. Alas, it had finally appeared that all available partners were taken, and poor Luna still sat with a frown on her face, awaiting the failing grade she was about to receive. That is until Luna spotted a lone stallion leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed and the angriest look one could muster whilst sleeping. His posture just screamed, ’I JUST DON’T GIVE A FUCK.’ It didn’t look promising, but it was all she was able to manage. She trotted towards him at a brisk pace, not wanting to lose the opportunity. That was when Luna started to notice some things. There’s no one sitting next to him, and I don’t think there was even before this partner project. And it doesn’t look like he particularly cares either. There was a certain vibe that he radiated off him which made Luna extremely suspicious. I don’t like this. Ponies that were near him avoided him like the plague. It was as if there was this bubble of impersonal hatred around him. It wasn’t like Luna had much of a choice anyways. She took the seat next to him and looked straight forward. The red unicorn with the dark grey mane didn’t seem to notice her. Luna eyed him without turning her head and stared at him. After a couple moments, his eyebrows furrowed even more, making him look even more pissed than he already was. Luna didn’t break the stare. Finally, after a couple of minutes, he broke the silence. “What?” he spat. His word shot out like a lead cannonball and nearly knocked Luna out of her seat with its weight. “Erm…” Luna um’d. All of her words were taken out of her mouth by that single flat what that could have pushed back an army. The stallion opened one eyelid to examine the small alicorn that sat next to him. He honestly hadn’t expected a girl to have the balls (metaphorically speaking) to actually approach him. He tried to soften his words a little, since this girl looked and sounded so innocent. He didn’t really care about anypony, but to hell if he was going to make a pretty young filly cry. “Why are you talking to me?” he said as softly as he could, which still sounded like he was ready to stab her with a rusty fork. “I… umm… this project. We need a partner and it, uhh, looked like you could use one.” Luna was having difficulty actually speaking to this guy. Her throat flexed in nervous apprehension and she actually began to sweat. She wasn’t the most sociable pony in the world, but she was far from being a nervous wreck. She had never found it hard to talk to someone, until she met this unicorn. “Heh,” the pony chuckled without a smile ever touching his face. “You sure you want me? You do know who I am, right?” “Eh, no… what’s your name?” Here goes, the unicorn thought sadistically. “The name’s Amp.” The alicorn didn’t respond so the red stallion elaborated. “Wave Amplifier.” And that’s when ponies start walkin’ away. The formality of the name eased Luna’s mind a little. “Oh, okay. Well Amp, if you want, I can do this project by myself.” Amp’s eyes widened. She was being… nice? “I just don’t want to lose my credit.” Amplifier was labeled as the school douchebag. He just didn’t like ponies. They were ignorant, cruel, and altogether unpleasant slabs of meat that let themselves get too influenced by society. They couldn’t think for themselves and it made him sick. He had tried to make friends before, but he didn’t talk much. If there’s nothing important to say, why talk? It wasn’t necessary to talk; but ponies thought he was awkward because of this. Then those ponies would tell other ponies how weird and rude he was, and soon other ponies would become poisoned by the same societal standards that he had grown to hate. There were rare exceptions, though, and he felt as if this mare was one of them. He had been completely impersonal and somewhat rude to her, and she still tried to make nice. In fact, it didn’t look like she felt offended by the lack of communication, but rather she was comforted by it. “Whatever,” he finally spat. Luna smiled and hoof pumped. Sweet! Amp opened his eye to inspect the mare again. A feature stood out that he hadn’t noticed before. An alicorn? Hm. That must mean… Amp closed his eye once again, this time to drift to sleep. Now he understood why he could tolerate this girl. King Josephner. Heh. “Hmm, so I can put this toothpick here and…” The assignment was to make a diorama of one of the battles of The Great Equestrian War of 1812. Luna was in the middle of making a model of the battle Bruhtinhamm, a small, decently made scene indicating two sides of a battlefield with tissue explosions and red marker blood spraying all over the land. Amp noted it was very good and artistic, if not a little foalish. Amp hadn’t touched the model at all, and didn’t plan to. He wasn’t into all this artsy fartsy crap. Luna sighed and put down her toothpick. “Ugh, I think I’m gonna take a little break.” Amp’s silence almost sounded like he acknowledged her, if that makes sense. She took another look at the grim diorama. “Huh. We’re lucky ponies won this war, eh?” “No,” Amp answered darkly. Luna nearly jumped from the sudden voice. He hadn’t spoken since she first sat next to him. “No? Whatddya mean no?” “It woulda been a whole lot better if the oxen won that war,” he stated, eyes still closed and brows still furrowed. “What are you, crazy?” Luna yelled, her inner patriotism boiling over. “We wouldn’t be Equestria if we didn’t win tha-“ “If the oxen won, they would have had access to more farmland, and then the great famine of 1825 wouldn’t have killed so many of their people. When we got that land all we did with it was build housing and communities, and if you recall, Bruhtinhamm revolted against the mainland in the year 1824. That revolution would’ve never happened and we wouldn’t have been any worse for wear because of it. If your father was there, he would have called off the war, not only because he loves peace, but because it would’ve been the smart thing to do, and also the right thing.” Luna’s jaw nearly hit the floor. He was right… “But… how come the history books…?” “History books don’t like to make the mainland look bad,” Amp said with resentment. “It’s negative propaganda.” DING DING DING DING “Oh, class is already over…” Luna looked at Amp and he nodded. Luna got up and started stuffing her model in her saddle bags. “I guess I’ll finish the model tonight and do the report tomorrow.” Amp sighed and jumped off his chair. Luna was shocked to see that he was more than twice her height, even taller than Tia. She soon deduced that he was a northern pony; they’re the ones that have that tall, slender, and skinny build. Yup, I’m certainly thicker than him, Luna noted begrudgingly. She thought abou- Hey! He’s just walking away from me! Oh no, I did all his work, the least he can do is talk to me a bit. Luna increased her gait to catch up to the velvet red unicorn. “Hey,” she said. “Want to hang out at lunch?” “Tch,” the pony grumbled. Luna waited for him to follow up with his rude noise, but all she heard was silence. “C’mon, it’s not like you got anyone else t-“ “No,” the pony replied flatly. “Well why not?” Luna asked, her anger boiling up. “Because I don’t like you,” he deadpanned. Luna scoffed, speechless. “And I hate Celestia. And Discord. And everyone else, for that matter.” “Wha- Well, what did I ever do to you?!” Luna yelled. All the ponies in the hall started to look at her, and then quickly looked back as soon as they saw she was yelling at Amplifier. “I don’t understand why you’d hate me, I just did our model in History al-“ “I said I hate Discord and Celestia,” Amp said as-a-matter-of-factly. He then repeated what he said earlier. “I said I don’t like you.” Luna shut herself up, strangely feeling complemented. “There’s a difference,” he added before walking off into the crowd of students. He doesn’t hate me, huh? Well I guess that’s progress. “He sounds like a dick,” Celestia deadpanned while laying upside-down on the couch Luna was sitting on. Luna shook her head. “No, he’s not. At least I don’t think he is.” Luna tapped a hoof on her chin in intense thought. “He just seems angry. Maybe something happened to him.” “Possible,” Celestia admitted. “Or he could just be a dick.” Celestia thought a bit more, and added, “And not the good kind, either. The kind that gets shoved up your ass when you’re not looking.” Luna sighed and turned to Discord. “Discord what do you think? Surprise, bloody butt rape, or just violent, but voluntary sex?” Celestia let a chuckle escape her mouth. Discord responded with a snore. “Ugh, what’s wrong with Discord?” Luna asked, stuffing her muzzle into the couch in frustration. “Remember? This happens once every couple of years,” Tia reminded Luna. Luna nodded. “Dad says it’s because Discord suppresses his urges to be chaotic or some shit, and that gets him tired. “Okay, then…” Celestia stared at the ceiling, lost in thought. There was one question that still gnawed at the back of her head. “Luna?” Luna sighed and turned to her sister once again. “Yeah, Sis?” “Do you think one day Discord isn’t going to be able to resist those temptations?” When Luna raised a brow in question, Celestia elaborated. “I mean, that prophecy crap said that the son of Chaos was going to be evil? That’s why Chaos ran away, right?” Luna shrugged. “I dunno, I wasn’t there.” It was Celestia’s turn to sigh. They stared at the wall for a couple more minutes before departing to do something slightly more interesting. 11:23 pm. Amp sighed and took off his headphones. He started sifting through his head if there was anything important he had needed to do before he went off to bed. After realizing he did all of his homework in class, he started trudging away from his computer and into bed. He froze when he saw his History textbook sitting on his desk, gathering dust. He looked at it for a couple of minutes, deciding on what he should do. He sighed again when he chose. He opened his desk, grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper (with his magic, of course), and began to write. “He sounds like a dick,” Miles deadpanned while shoving a plastic spork into his mouth. “Y’know that’s what Celestia said,” said Luna. Miles cringed at the white princess’ name and shoved another helping of mashed potatoes into his mouth. “Yeah, Celestia…” “Miles, look, the way you act towards her is just unhealthy.” Luna poked Miles with a accusing hoof. “You’re gonna have to meet her sooner or later.” “I’d rather it be later,” he replied while scratching the back of his mane and looking at a particularly interesting cloud. “C’mon Miles, I never get to hang out with you outside of first period and lunch!” “But, Luna! She’s scary!” Miles whined, which made Luna look at him with irritation. “Seriously, Miles? Grow a pair.” “Wait, you mean it’s not a girl?!” A voice called behind Luna’s ear which made her jump in astonishment. Miles froze up and nearly choked on the mashed potatoes he was currently gnawing on. He turned ever so slowly until he met up with the face he had been dreading, a white alicorn muzzle with a pink mane and green eyes. “Hey guy, how ya doin’?” Miles just sat there for a couple seconds, frozen stiff from fear. Miles stammered, “H-h-hey Celest-“ He violently and spontaneously turned, which made Luna flinch back. Tia however stayed completely still until she saw the pony scrambling out of his seat and almost run away. Celestia, however, caught his tail in her mouth. “Nar whrer doo yah think yer goin’,” Celestia said through gritted teeth. Celestia wasn’t fazed at all, even though he was struggling beyond all reason. Luna was shocked; Miles was an incredibly athletic pony, and he ran marathons regularly. The fact that Celestia’s jaw was stronger than Miles’ whole body was quite… daunting. Eventually Miles realized his efforts were futile, and just deflated in defeat. Celestia spat out his tail and helped the poor guy up. “Chill out I ain’t gonna eat you, or anything,” Celestia said through stifled laughter. “So what’s your name?” she asked while stretching out a warm hoof at which Miles winced. Celestia frowned. “So…?” Miles apprehensively opened his eyes to see a white hoof being offered to him. This wasn’t the Celestia he had heard about… “M-miles… Marathon Miles.” Miles reached out to meet Celestia hoof. “Alright James Bond, scooch over.” Celestia dropped her saddlebag underneath the table and settled herself between Miles and Luna. Luna looked uneasy, and Miles appeared skeptical. But after a few minutes of idle conversation, Miles began wondering. Maybe she’s not as bad as everyone says. “So, Miles, are you a virgin?” …Well at least there’s no frozen burritos. Luna scoffed as she dug in her saddlebags for her history book. She was not having a good day at all. Unlike yesterday, Tia was back to her old, really loud self, and Discord blew up something as predicted. Luna wasn’t there to see, but she heard Discord drank the carton of a milk (Yes, he drank the carton), and tossed the chocolate milk behind his back which made an actual explosion. Some crazy shit went on, apparently. Luna had also tried to hunt down Amp at lunch, but to no avail. He simply didn’t want to be found. God, I really don’t want to write a report today, Luna thought as she opened the door to Equestrian History. Half the kids were already in their seat, chatting their life away. The other half hadn’t arrived yet, no doubt procrastinating the class they had to endure ahead of them. Luna caught sight of Amp and made her way towards the desk. “Hey Amp,” Luna said as cheerily as she could. Amp simply opened his left eye and closed it in response. Well, at least he’s acknowledging me, Luna thought. Wait a second, when did I start caring about how much attention I’m getting? “Well, I guess I’ll get started on that report.” Amp opened both his eyes this time and began looking through his backpack with his magic. He pulled out a small packet of about twelve pieces of loose-leaf paper. He handed it to Luna (Y’know, with magic) and went back to his usual posture of his not-giving-a-fuck-ness. Luna started to look through the papers, astonished at the fact he was willing to burn more than a calorie of energy to hand her something. She picked a random place and began to read. …what we don’t know about the fact is what we assume about the opinion. History is written by the victor, as they say, and as much as much as we may think that to not be true, it at least has been influenced by the victors. The victors in this case, were us ponies. The battle was won over the fertile ground of Bruhtinhamm… Wait! This is the report! He did the entire thing. Luna started flipping through the pages. She noticed that Amp’s penmanship was amazing and organized, never going out of line and staying consistent between letters. Twelve pages. That’s two over the minimum. He didn’t just throw this together. “Uhh… thanks,” Luna slowly said in disbelief. Amp nodded. “Sir?” Advisor asked, approaching the king with a nervous step. “Yeah?” “Is… there something wrong?” “No… at least… I don’t think so.” Chaos brewing. A lot of it. “But there might be… Soon.” Fear what we will, will makes us fear. To be continued… Chapter 5: Bomb Shelter