//------------------------------// // How to explain current events to Humanised Technicolour Ponies // Story: An Open Heart in a Closed City // by Jubei Yagyu //------------------------------// “And you can see the artists pain in the brush strokes” the woman said, as she traced her hand over the painting. Of course, I was half asleep at the back of the class and not paying attention to the shenanigans going on around me. People were throwing paper, talking, and generally fucking around. Pretty much anything but what they were supposed to be doing. The only plus: It was a joint class with the year above, so I got to watch Jen bored out of her mind in front of me. “Kill me, bro” she whined quietly. “No can do… Who’ll kill me if you’re dead?” I sighed, letting go of my head and allowing it to hit the desk. I look over to the side at the girls. Dash and AJ seem to be bored beyond belief, Rarity was drawing sketches for dresses in her notebook, Pinkie was scratching a self-portrait into the desk with scalpel she procured from god knows where, Fluttershy was sitting quietly and looking at all the paintings of animals, and Twilight was trying to take notes. I turned back to Jen, who was light banging her head on the table. Ryan, who was sitting to my left, tapped my arm. “I’ll kill you” he offered. I laughed and shook his hand, then tapped Jen on the back. She turned around. “I’ll kill you, he kills me, and then he kills himself. We all win” I grin at her. She bursts out laughing. “Jennifer! Be quiet while I’m talking!” the teacher yelled. Jen sighed. “Sorry Miss Worth” she rolled her eyes as the teacher turned back to the painting. I chuckled, which caused Jen to turn around a glare. I shrunk back into my seat. “Alright, class. It’s free draw time. Supplies are in the cupboards, so have fun” Miss Worth said, before quickly hurrying behind her desk and playing around on her computer. The students all pushed their desks into 2 large rectangles and started to talk, completely ignoring the art supplies. The girls joined us as we made a smaller rectangle with 6 desks. “So what do we do with the rest of the day?” Ryan asked, leaning back in his chair. Jen shrugged as she rummaged around in her bag, which was now sitting on the table. “Should we be drawing something?” Fluttershy asked meekly. She was rewarded with a sideways glance from Ryan. “Sure, as long as you don’t mind getting shown up by Jen. She does design clothes” he raised an eyebrow. Rarity piped up. “I design clothing as well” she exclaimed, extremely proudly. I looked over at Jen, who was staring at me. She motioned towards the door with her head, and I nodded. I tapped Ryan on the shoulder, and did the same. He nodded. “Girls, let’s go sit outside for a bit” I yawned. All six of the girls nodded, and Jen stood up. “Miss, do you mind if we go outside for a bit? Our creative engines run better in a more natural environment” Jen lied, smiling sweetly. The teacher looked up from her computer with the brightest grin anyone had seen on someone other than Pinkie. “Oh yes, of course dear! Get those creative juices flowing!” she laughed and went back to her computer. Jen, Ryan and I stifled our laughter as we led the girls outside. Jen had her bag slung across her shoulder as we made our way across the oval to the fence bordering the school. “So why did we come out here?” Dash asked. Jen reached into her bag and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. “Because that class is absolute shit?” Jen said, mockingly. She opened the packet and held it out. Ryan and I took one each Ryan reached into his jacket and pulled out a lighter, while I just put the cigarette in my mouth. As Ryan lit his, Jen now had a cigarette in her mouth, and she had taken a zippo lighter out of her pocket. She flicked it open and lit it. She brought it to the cigarette and inhaled slightly, before blowing out a steady stream of smoke. She handed me the lighter, and I did the same thing. As I inhaled, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I stopped abruptly, and started coughing. After a few seconds, I turned around with tears in my eyes to a sheepish-looking Applejack. “What are those things?” she asked. Jen piped up before I could answer. “Very bad for you, can’t recommend them unless… well, not at all” she sighed, as she took another drag on her cigarette. We continued past the fence outside the school, and sat down at the playground just outside. “So, why did we come out here?” Twilight asked. Pinkie was getting extremely close to me, and making me edge around the slide I was sitting on. Every time she caused me to move, she would start giggling. “I thought it would be our chance to fill you in. You’re obviously not from around here, so you don’t know the customs, special laws, and some more… shady circumstances we’re involved in” Jen said seriously. “First off: Customs. Pretty basic. School is mandatory, passing is not. Move away if you see anything dangerous. Most importantly: don’t be a hero” she grinned. “Special Laws. Here’s where we start to differ from other places. Residents of the city must be armed at all times. Carry a weapon. If you see a dark follower, call for Guardian. They’ll take care of it before it can harm anyone” Ryan said, actually looking like a teacher (complete with know-it-all smirk and upturned nose). “Finally; circumstances. The only one I can think of is-” I began, but Jen held her hand up to stop me. The remaining eight of us followed her gaze just past me. Four young men, wearing dark grey school uniforms were standing across the street. Jen, taking a last drag on her cigarette before dropping it and stomping it out, stood up and walked towards the men. Ryan followed, but I stayed behind with my head down. “Just stay with me, looks like you’ll be learning our circumstances first hand” I said softly. Lemme at ‘em, I’ll fuck ‘em up! And get me killed in the process. Not to mention give me a panic attack before I die. I’m afraid I don’t really care. I die, you die. Shit. Fluttershy had taken up a spot behind me, with her hand on my shoulder. Applejack and Rainbow Dash continued sitting on either side of me. Fluttershy was soon joined by Rarity and Twilight, and Pinkie just continued to swing on the swings. “Hey! You guys are from Demon High, right?” Ryan called out, alerting the men to their presence. “Yeah, what’s it to you?” one of the men, wearing a bandana that covered his brown hair, called out rudely. Jen stepped forward. “This is Dawnstar territory. You’re breaking the treaty. You get one warning, before we break you” she said, glaring at the men. They laughed. “Just go back to your tea sets, girly. We’re busy” the man laughed, causing his friends to start laughing. Jen laughed dryly before taking out her phone. She dialled a number quickly. “Oh yes, hi Wynston. Yeah, some of your Neanderthals have set foot in our territory again. One more time and you’ve broken the treaty. You want to speak to them? Alright, I’ll put him on. Hey fuck-knuckle, it’s for you” she grinned, holding the phone out to the man. He took it and as soon as he brought it to his ear, an angry yelling could be heard. “B-but sir, we didn’t know this was their- yes sir. No, we didn’t mean to break the t-treaty. S-s-s-she’s who?! Oh god, I’m so sorry sir, I- no, no, we’ll leave immediately” the man stammered. He handed the phone back to Jen. “Thank you Wynston. No, no trouble at all. But since they came into our territory, we have to send a message. Sorry about this hun, I’ll buy you something nice at the next meeting to make up for it. Alright then, I’ll talk to you soon. See ya” she smirked as she hung up, and put the phone away. “So, you’ll be leaving immediately, then?” Jen asked, cracking her knuckles. “What’s the rush?” Ryan asked, grinning. The four men all swallowed at once. “Look, we didn’t know, please just let us go” the man with the bandana pleaded. Jen simply laughed. “But we need to send a message. This is the last chance we’re giving you guys. Stay off our turf” Jen grinned as she placed a hand on the back of the mans’ head. She quickly pulled down, causing his face to impact with the concrete. This left a splatter of blood, and the man had stopped moving. The other three men, all with black hair of varying lengths gasped. Ryan stepped forward and kneed one of them in the gut. As he doubled over, he was met by Ryan’s right fist impacting into his jaw, knocking teeth out. Before he passed out, he was met by a left hook which would leave him with an amazing black eye. “We need to leave at least one of them conscious to drag their friend’s bodies back” Jen said, yawning. Ryan nodded, picking a tooth out of his right fist. One of the remaining two men had pulled a knife from his pocket. “Lights out for that guy then” Jen shrugged. The guy cried out and lunged. She easily dodged it and jumped into the air, slamming her knee into his face. Blood arced backwards as he fell, and crumpled into a heap. The last man standing was now a shivering mess. “Now get out of here. Take your dumb ass friends with you. I wouldn’t come back, either” Jen glared at the man, who nodded quickly, and started to drag his friends away. I sighed and looked around me. The colour had drained from all the girls faces. “What you just saw… that was justified” I said, Twilight looked at me angrily. “No matter what, nothing like that could ever be justified!!!” she yelled, causing me to wince and shrink away. She instantly felt bad. “T-these are the c-circumstances we were talking about” I said, still slightly nervous from Twilight yelling. “A few years ago, two rival schools were locked in an all-out war. Dawnstar, our school, and Demon High, their school. The fighting got so bad, that it even lead to the deaths of some students and teachers. The Student Council Presidents of both schools decided that was the last straw, and decided to attempt to work everything out. With that notion, the Treaty was created. Dawnstar stays off Demon High territory, and Demon High stays off Dawnstar territory. To cross into a territory, you have to contact a member of the school board, and have them give you permission. If not, then it can be seen as an attack, and may be acted upon. If students are spotted in the wrong territory five times without a permit, the Treaty is broken, and the war begins again. A new Treaty will be written up immediately, but there will be a few days of fighting, and that’s enough for the deaths to start again. That was Demon High’s fourth strike” I said quietly. The girls listened intently as Ryan and Jen sat back down. “Right, now we’ve explained everything, we can just relax” Jen continued, smiling as though nothing happened. She took another two cigarettes from the pack and handed one to me. I dropped the used butt at my feet and stomped it out. Jen flicked her Zippo, and I leaned forward and lit mine on the same flame as she did. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ We spent about two hours doing nothing. We would watch Pinkie and Rainbow Dash play around on the playground, and talked with the girls. Jens looked at her watch. “Oh shit, the bell’s about to go. We gotta head back, then we can go home” she smiled. She reached into her bag and pulled out a pink can of deodorant. She gave herself a quick spray, before turning it on me. I coughed a few times and shielded my face. When she stopped, I sniffed the air a few times. “I smell fabulous” I smirked. Jen laughed at me as she put the deodorant back in her bag. “Oh right, a question from before. If those things are so bad for you, why do you have them?” Twilight asked, stopping Ryan, Jen and I in our tracks. “We… don’t know…” Ryan said, looking at Jen, who just shrugged. Twilight did not look impressed as we made our way back to the classroom. Jen stretched as she entered the room. “Oh wow, nature sure has fired me up!” she said loud enough for the teacher to hear. I quickly ducked past her and sat in my seat. “Wonderful!” Miss Worth exclaimed. As she did, the bell rang. I grabbed my bag, and Jen slid her arm through mine. “Let’s get our hot asses back home! We’ve got TV to watch, and stuff to drink!” she grinned as she dragged me behind her again, drawing attention. I began to have a small panic attack as she continued to drag me through the school, with the six girls and Ryan in tow. “It’s like this every Friday… she’s gonna end up killing him one day” Ryan said, causing the six girls to laugh. “Help me!” I looked back pleadingly at the small group. They all shrugged, and left me to my panic attack. Good luck getting out of this one. FUCK YOU!!!