Luna hated being called by parents. If she had her way the last time Celly and her had a real talk about who wore the pants in this power dynamic- she almost won. Sure she went on an alcoholic bender, ranted about her night life, and crashed her sister's car into the horse statue. But she was on meds now. Everything was peachy keen. Besides being the only authority figure in a fifty mile radius who knew the ins and outs of women's prison, everything was fine.
Sure the parents all talked their horrible talk about how she was a terrible role model, but they never knew why little Twist was being such a tardy student. Oh no it wasn't because she was horrible, that was just Luna having some fun with teaching children. Celly was sunshines and rainbows at school events. Luna was the realist.
Luna was ripped out of her happy daydreams by a soft but firm knocking on the door. "Come in."
Luna almost grit her teeth in the sheer amount of joy that was stuck on her sister's face.
"Luna isn't it a good day?"
"It's like any other one."
"I mean come on, its your day to run the whole school running."
"Dear sister, I do not share your enjoyment. First of all, I have to deal with having all the sick kids have their parents call me about how they are sad that their little bundle of sunshine is sick. And secondly, I haven't had my coffee. It's seven am. I hate every minute I'm here before I have caffeine coursing through me and giving me a fake shot of joy. It's really the only thing that keeps me from having a meltdown."
Celestia's smile faltered a bit. "Luna, you aren't a morning person. But think of this. We are almost done with the semester. And I trust you enough to think you'd have a perfectly fine and dandy day dealing with children. I'll be right next door if you need anything." Celestia heard the faint bubbling of a coffee machine working on overdrive. "And it seems like you are perfectly prepared to handle anything the wonderful parents of our students could throw at you. Just remember- smile, don't say you are their worst nightmare, and definitely don't leave the school. You don't want a repeat of last time."
"Yes, sister. I remember the last time."
"Good, well, I'm going to take a well deserved break and watch my shows. Doctor Pill is having an interesting episode soon. And Luna, cheer up. I believe in you."
Celestia walked out whistling to herself some tune she made up on the spot.
Luna groaned. Celestia was too damn happy at too damn early. Getting up to pour herself a cup of coffee, she glanced over at the quietly flashing lights of parents calling about little Lassie being home sick with the trendiest disease possible. Looking at that epileptic seizure of annoyances, she glanced at the pot and the now comically undersized cup emblazoned with a nice image of the moon landing on it. It was a comically oversized cup to be sure since Trixie was a great gift giver and rather prone to showing off but no.
Luna shrugged. She grabbed the entire pot of coffee. A pot of coffee could be a cup if you didn't care enough.
Sitting back down, Luna pressed the button that started the worst part of her day.
"Hello Sir, what are you calling about today? Oh well that's just horrible-"
***
Rainbow Dash had to think of something that would get both Fluttershy and her out of school. Some kind of illness that would trick people into thinking they were dying but not dying too hard. That would cause issues.
Putting on her best airs and hype for how extra awesome she was wasn't too difficult, changing her voice after a quick shift into her mother's vocal tones wasn't hard for a fairy. But being convincing about how sick she was? That was difficult.
"Oh yes, thanks for answering my call, Miss Luna. This is about my daughter Rainbow Dash and her friend Fluttershy. . .yes I know I'm not that child's mother. Her mother is a bit flighty. But no matter, you see the two of them caught this horrible disease that's all new I guess. Heard about it from one of those doctor talk shows you know. It's called like, Stickittothemaneosis or something. Totally a horrible disease where its just constant horrible stereotypical flu symptoms mixed with hallucinations of grandeur. And maybe a bit of sleepwalking. Yeah it totally sounds made up. Oh but you know the government, they got all those scary things in the air. Oh thank you. Have a nice day."
Rainbow Dash quickly hung up the phone. Awesome. Making up fake diseases was easy. "Hey Shy, we're golden. Let's get this thing started."
On the other side of town, Luna seethed. She knew that had to be a fake disease. She had the internet and the "disease" came up with no results besides some stupid parody film. Luna marked the two kids absent and turned back to her phone. She'd figure out how Dash faked a parental call. There had to be a way. No parent in their right mind would let their student be tardy nine times. That was just grade suicide.
***
Crystal Prep was not like Canterlot High. For one, the cold and sterile metal exterior like some beached spaceship on loan from the retrofuturistic ideal of the past cut into the town's quiet demeanor. It glared down disapprovingly upon any who tread into the metallic halls.
"Are we really sure we want to go in there? Cause I really have the jitters just looking at the school." Rainbow and Fluttershy were in their fake uniforms. Fluttershy was out in the open like a normal person. Dash was peering out at the school from behind a bush.
"Rainbow, I need to do this. And you are my ticket in. Can you stop looking like you are going to rob the place?"
"Couldn't you have just used Twilight? I mean she was a egghead weirdo but come on."
"And walk up to the people that jumped me? With someone that I met and kidnapped just the other night. Of course that's a good idea."
"Okay, okay. I just don't want to go in there."
"Well don't worry. I'll be right next to you Dash, just make sure your magic doesn't crap out on us and we'll be okay." Fluttershy smiled.
"Damn it. If the school comes alive and eats us though, that's completely on you."
"You should stop watching horror movies, Dash."
Rainbow sighed. "Let's get this over with. What do you want? Similar disguises or wildly different?"
"Well go with the easiest so we don't walk in looking so out of place."
"Sweet." Rainbow begin slowly chanting in a mix of Latin and Gaelic to begin her magic. Slowly her magic started working, giving her an angled face that looked on the edge of pretty and strangely off, and her rainbow hued hair shifted into a bright orange. Fluttershy would have commented on how Rainbow looked but she felt a widespread tingling throughout her body as her body shifted into a a different form.
"Okay, here we go. Shy, I made us look enough alike to make this work. Hopefully, this won't take long at all because I might have misjudged how much magic it takes to do two of these full body things."
"Great, how much time do we have then? Five minutes?"
"Probably an hour."
"Okay, I can work with that. Let's go break into Moondancer's stuff."
Fluttershy turned and quickly pulled Rainbow Dash by the arm. If she had to do this quick, she had to make this at least look convincing. Hopefully, her improv lessons from two years ago could still work.
***
Lemon Zest breathed in slowly. She loved the way the whole world looked to her. Sure people were completely alien to her. But hey the world made sense in a big, abstract way. Things worked out in the end and sure the hunt yesterday really didn't work out the way she wanted but the Art of War's nice methods on how to deal with battle always felt nice. That's why she always did her playacting. Sure, Sugarcoat called her out about it once but superheroes were to be admired. And anyway people made less sense than comic books.
She absentmindedly rubbed her temple. Her head had been hurting continuously outside of the times she felt something close to an actual human emotion. She didn't know exactly what those were but people told her that things felt something nice or bad and she aped that idea over and over.
Better to use someone to your advantage than show your true self. Especially when they would probably call you crazy. She didn't want to go to the doctor again anyway. The last doctor's prognosis was that she had one too many concussions and that was why she was off. Lemon may have lied about the number of concussions she had by a factor of more than a few.
But she didn't care. Sports were amazing. Hunting made her feel alive since she was saving the city from monsters that she learned about thanks to the magical influence of old school VP Cinch and her great idea to make something out of the Shadowbolts beyond just the Acadeca Champions of old.
It brought her life purpose. It made her do something other than hate everyone around her for being alien weirdos who made no sense.
She felt a massive bump on her shoulder and it broke her out of the daydream that she had been in.
"Oh I'm sorry. Are you okay?"
Lemon Zest brushed herself off. "I'm fine." Zest looked up to make sure who to murder for later. She really didn't like having her perfect routine broken by anything. Seeing two almost identical looking bitches surprised her though. "And who are you? Never seen you two around here before."
"I'm Fire Opal and this quiet one here is Citrine. Sorry for bowling you over. You see, my sister her just didn't pay attention to her alarm clock and decided that being nearly tardy to school would be so much more appropriate for the first day in this private school." She glared over at her sister and pushed an orange lock of hair out of her face.
Citrine stammered out her reply. "Oh, well, you see I really was into this one dream and I just wanted to see how it ended and all that."
"Mother has told you before Trini that you need to grow up a little bit."
"Well I'm sorry about forgetting our things. I was half awake when you forced me out of bed I'm not a morning person."
"Oh and who's fault is that?"
Lemon Zest hated arguments. It just seemed so pointless. "Well that's perfect. But where are you even from? I would have guessed I would have seen you around somewhere in Canterlot."
Citrine quietly replied. "Well you see, we literally just moved in from Philadelphia and therefore we hadn't had the time to see people."
Fire Opal grabbed onto her sister. "Oh yes, I mean our family really came into money recently you see and therefore our overbearing mom wanted to really get us into a school that really would make us the movers and shakers and get us contacts as she hoped it would."
"Well I don't know." Lemon Zest envied them. That kind of mother sounded amazing. "You know you two seem more like the types in Canterlot High, so wouldn't you two be better suited there. Private schools are hard."
"Oh but we are smart and totally ready to learn and it won't be that hard." Citrine sweetly added.
"Okay, but don't come crying to me when you find private school is more demanding than what you think it is."
Lemon Zest was ready to go. Her schedule of perfectly normal routine did not account for talking to these kinds of people. Sure it had a perfectly good five minutes of talking to her friends before school started but these people weren't her friends.
"Can you help us find where to go to sign in?" Citrine tugged on Zest's arm. "I mean if its not too imposing."
Zest fumed. It was. The only person Lemon cared to help was herself. Thinking quickly though, she did realize that people liked getting help and then they might help you out later."Sure, that'd be awesome. It's just this way." Those idiots didn't know where an office was? How stupid of them.
"Anyway I didn't catch your name." Fire Opal cocked her head slightly.
"Lemon Zest. Don't wear it out."
"Oh well that's a good name. Fire Opal gripped her sister in a death grip as they walked towards the office. Fluttershy grimaced under her disguise. She remembered last night well enough.
Zest noticed Twilight walking briskly nearby. "Thanks. You know you two can easily find your way. Just walk in the nearest place and ask around. I just remembered I had something come up." Lemon Zest knew Twilight enough and having her come back to school after being kidnapped by a horrible, evil monster- she needed information on that vampire bitch that ruined her otherwise nice night.
"Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Thanks." Citrine waved as the athletic soccer player turned a corner. Breathing to herself, she turned and talked to her disguised friend who dragged her into this adventure. She didn't like this adventure. Spying was way more tense than Dash would have liked. "Dude, what the hell was that about?"
"We'll think about that later, Dash. Let's talk to Cadance so we don't get detained for something dumb she thinks we might be doing." Fluttershy didn't want to be reckless with anything here. And Cadance kind of scared her.
***
Cadance loved her job. It really gave her something to do outside of being the most important Fairy Queen ever and while she did just love that- it did really get boring. There was only so much banquet having and general merriment to go around. Schools gave her normal constant overlording some kind of flux.
And not being in direct contact with students was just fantastic. Scrolling through her phone and watching some self help videos about matchmaking was her state of bliss. She didn't want to completely talk about her lists of different ideas of weddings and matchmaking ideas of all of the people she ever came in contact with. That was her hobby. And after a few thousand years, it was nice to have a hobby.
Scanning through the new additions to the Ship Folder, she heard a knock at her door. Which surprised her because her meeting with Sombra was after lunch and it was only nine. Quickly gathering the most incriminating evidence from her desk, she placed her hobby away and tried to look as presentable as possible.
The door opened and two girls that she had never seen before entered. Strange, one smelled very familiar. Which was strange because it most definitely was a smell that reeked of fairy and yet something akin to Sombra.
"Now ladies, I do want to welcome you here in my humble place of work but I do have to ask first one measly question. I know you two somehow and its just bugging me because your faces do not match your smells."
"Well that's horribly forward Cadance. Also creepy. Thanks for that image, it's not like you gave me nightmares before."
The one girl who was speaking waved at her friend and they dissolved their disguises for just a few seconds before putting them up again.
"Oh it's you. Where's your demon friend and look at that, Windy Whisper's lackluster daughter. What is that spell? A quick illusion with only two layers of disguise. I mean that's almost juvenile though impressive for one who's only so much a fairy." Cadance looked at her nails. They were far more impressive than any magic done here.
"Well thanks for that talk. But we are here to take Moondancer's stuff. I mean I would look in her locker but I would think a person of such renown would at least think ahead and get her stuff collected."
"Oh yes, we did that already. Just ask the desk and it's all right there. Is there anything else you want you rather small thorn in my side? Or is that all because that'd be just wonderful."
"Well maybe you could apologize to Dash. I mean it'd only take so much time."
Cadance grimaced. "No. I do not take back many statements and there would have to be some amazing feat for me to recognize her beyond some halfbreed. And since that won't be anytime soon- most definitely not. Also I will just love to talk to Sombra about your insolence that you've shown me. And Fleur as well. Or maybe you forgot about her? You've been a bad vampire. Or at least an indiscreet one."
"Sure would be hard to forget. But if we are talking about indiscreet actions- what about your crack team of Shadowbolts? I mean they do come from here and run around like they own the place."
Cadance stopped. Shadowbolts? Now where did that name pop up again? "I would hardly believe a group function that we banned ever since Cinch stepped down would be vigilantes. I mean the whole idea of Cinch's whole idea of using students to hunt our kind was some kind of stupidly idiotic gesture. But they lost their clandestine funding. And the idea of anybody wanting to be in anything that is an expulsion level offense would be stupid."
Fluttershy crossed her arms. Cadance was a extremely powerful creature to be sure, but she didn't understand human nature. Put a person in front of something and tell them that they can't do the thing- and what was the normal result? /they did the thing. That's just the idea of reverse psychology right there.
"Well ask Lemon Zest. Maybe she might say something. But I think we are done here since you told me where Moondancer's stuff was. Dash, let's go." Fluttershy turned and walked out of the room and Dash stayed for just a few more moments.
"If there's anything you need me to do to be able to be something in your fairy world, you know where to find me or my mom."
"Quite. I might have to commend you for even speaking in my presence. How charmingly novel."
Rainbow Dash squinted her eyes to block back a few tears that almost wanted to come. But that was decidedly uncool, so she quickly trudged out of the room with a slam of the door.
"Like I'd ever need a fairy that is outclassed by a child." Cadance lounged back on her chair and jotted a quick note to check on Lemon Zest in a bit. Seems like some idiot had the wrong mind to cross her rules.
Fluttershy was waiting for Rainbow Dash. "You okay?"
"I'll be better in a bit. But we really need to get out of here before my magic goes down. It's been quite a while since I put two decent illusions up.
Fluttershy nodded and quickly came up to the front desk of the school. A quick conversation to the assistant later, Fluttershy and Dash held the last things that Moondancer had in her locker. It wasn't much but it was something.
Deciding that the mission was pretty much over at that point and wondering if Dash's illusions would hold, Fluttershy and Dash walked out of the room and out into the yard. Getting out of here fast was the safest way out. There was nothing really wrong with today. Fluttershy opened her eyes and wanted to smile. Things were looking up.
And as she turned to say goodbye to a school that just felt too preppy and fake, Fluttershy saw her very recent friend Twilight fall off the roof. She saw Twilight fall in what felt like extremely slow motion, her arms flailing as she tumbled down to the ground and Fluttershy could not move.
If Fluttershy was stock still, Dash was full of speed. Before she could even blink, Dash was there. Fluttershy blinked again and Dash was holding an unmoving Twilight.
"Shy, call an ambulance or something. Okay."
Nodding to herself to get some courage, Shy dialed and somebody on the other line picked up. "Yes can you get to the Prep School as soon as possible? A kid almost fell off the roof." Fluttershy hung up.
"Shy, she looks mostly okay- though she really has a nasty bump on her head. Looks more like she got pushed off then. At least she's breathing."
Fluttershy sat down on the grass and breathed. At least she didn't go the way of Moondancer. Fluttershy felt exhausted. A day off from school should never have turned into this. After she got the person who highly likely killed Moondancer and pushed Twilight off a building- then she could take a break.
She heard the coming sirens in the distance and just stared up into the bright blue sky. She couldn't take a break just yet. Keeping her friends safe was a better idea for now, they needed the protection.