"Seriously, you need to see a doctor or something. You look like crap," Rainbow Dash reminded Sunset, whose answer was consumed by a large yawn.
"Way to be smooth about it, Rainbow," Applejack said with a glare at Dash, who shrugged her shoulders in response. Sunset Shimmer simply grunted as she and her friends walked down the street, each of them keeping their eyes on her while Sunset tried her best to keep her eyes open.
"Doctor...can't help nightmares," Sunset grunted in a sleepy tone before yawning again, obstructing her vision and nearly making her walk into a pole in the process.
"Maybe not, but perhaps you can get some sleeping pills or something," Rarity added as she pulled Sunset to her side, helping her to avoid the pole. Sunset grunted in response before her head dipped down slightly and she started to snore.
"Seriously, why won't see she a doctor or something? She's sleepwalking at this point," Rainbow pointed out to her friends while the sleeping Sunset walked along.
"Maybe I could do a brain scan or something. See if there's a magical reason that she's having such a hard time sleeping," Twilight suggested, but the conversation was stopped when Sunset let out a yelp and woke back up with a start. She clutched at her heart as her eyes shrunk down, her friends giving her worried looks while she began to shiver slightly.
"Come on Sunset, tell us what's the matter," Applejack suggested as she placed her hands on Sunset's shoulder, but Sunset averted her eyes and pushed past her friends.
"You can't help me," she whispered loud enough so that they could barely hear her, glancing up to see that they had arrived at the high school. "No one can." Sunset bolted ahead into the crowd of people and her friends quickly lost her amongst the other students.
"Well, that went well," Dash remarked, getting her numerous stares from the others.
"She's getting worse. I can tell," Twilight observed as she pushed her glasses back up onto her face. "Why won't she tell us what's the matter? We can help her if she'd let us."
"Because she's scared." All eyes turned towards Fluttershy, who wore a sympathetic gaze upon her face. "I know that look all too well. Something has her terrified out of her mind, something that she feels that she can't share. It might just be a nightmare to us, but to her it's as real as, well, us."
"So what should we do then?" Rarity asked her friends, none of whom had an answer at the moment. The bell to the school rang to break their thoughts, causing the group to split apart as they rushed to each of their classes. Only Fluttershy didn't head into the school. Instead, she glanced around to make sure that she was alone before racing over to numerous bushes by the school, where she sat down and slipped her backpack off of her shoulder.
"It's okay everyone. You can come out now," she said as she unzipped her bag, allowing numerous critters to crawl out. Mice, a rabbit and even a baby raccoon emerged from her bag. Fluttershy then reached inside her backpack and pulled out a bottle before whistling to the raccoon. The baby gingerly walked over to her on three legs, allowing Fluttershy to pick it up and gently cuddle it in her arms.
"Oh please, don't be fussy. You need to drink up if you want to regain your strength," Fluttershy whispered to the baby as she gently pushed the top of the bottle into its mouth. She giggled as the raccoon began to drink away at the milk happily, making Fluttershy happy as well. That was, until, her bunny raced up to her with wide eyes.
"Angel, what's the matter?" Fluttershy asked the bunny, but the question was answered a moment later when she spied a pair of feet standing in front of her. Fluttershy's eyes widened when she turned her gaze upward to find that a new teacher was looking down at her with a quizzical expression. The animals all raced around Fluttershy as she remained frozen in place under the teacher's gaze, her voice barely a squeak while Diana walked up to Fluttershy.
"Hello, Fluttershy. Quite the assortment of animals you have." Diana then sat down across from Fluttershy and held out a hand to the mice, who sniffed at her once with hesitation before racing back to Fluttershy. Diana said nothing about the mice, but instead lifted her gaze to the girl with the pink hair who was still completely frozen.
"Don't worry, you're not in trouble. And I'm not going to tell Celestia about the animals." Fluttershy finally let out a sigh of relief, which Diana noticed also caused the animals around her to become more relaxed as well. Except for the bunny, which seemed to keep an eye on the sky with dread.
"You're...you're not?" Fluttershy meekly asked Diana, who smiled as she shook her head. "But animals aren't allowed in the school. And you're a teacher."
"Yes, but we're not in the school right now, are we?" Diana asked Fluttershy, whose eyes widened before a small smile spread across her face. Diana then glanced at the baby raccoon, who was still happily drinking away at the bottle. Then her eyes caught the hind leg of the creature and her experience told her that one of the legs was injured. "It's nice of you to care for a wounded animals, but wouldn't it be better if you took it to a vet?"
"Well, I wanted to, but this little guy was in such bad shape when I found him on the side of the road that I couldn't risk making the trip," Fluttershy explained as the raccoon finished the drink, letting out a small yawn before it fell asleep in Fluttershy's arms. "So I've been taking care of him, even having to sneak him into school so I could always keep an eye on him."
"That's noble of you. But shouldn't you be in class right now?" Diana asked Fluttershy, who hid behind her hair for a moment.
"Well...my first class is one that I generally do really well in and the teacher, Discord, doesn't seem to mind me being late...or not showing up," Fluttershy nervously stammered out, hiding even deeper in her mane as Diana raised an eyebrow at her. "But what about you? Shouldn't you be teaching right now?"
"Oh don't worry. Athena is teaching for me right now." Fluttershy was tempted to giggle at Diana's joke, but the laugh never came out when she realized that Diana was being dead serious. Upon hearing that the owl was nowhere near them, Angel finally stopped staring at the sky and hopped over to Fluttershy, while giving Diana a nasty look. "I don't think your rabbit likes me."
"That's Angel. I'm really the only one he likes," Fluttershy explained as the rabbit hopped over to Fluttershy's backpack and began to toss out books in search of food. The two then sat in silence for a few minutes before Diana decided it was time to ask a question.
"Fluttershy...have you heard anything about there being magic at this school?" Diana was keeping a close eye on Fluttershy's face and the moment the word magic left her mouth, Fluttershy's eyes widened. She then hurriedly started to get the animals back into her bag, gently resting the sleeping raccoon inside as well before slipping the backpack over her shoulder and hopping to her feet.
"I'm sorry but I've really got to go to class and everything you understand bye!" Fluttershy then turned and ran as fast as her legs could carry her, racing to the side of the school and giving Diana one last look that the teacher read as uncertainty before turning the corner.
"Well, Fluttershy was the wrong one to ask," Diana muttered to herself as she leaned up against the building, glancing down to see that Fluttershy had forgotten the bottle for the raccoon. She picked it up and gazed at it, going over her plans once more. 'She knows something. That much is clear by her reaction. But I don't want to force the truth from her. Not like that. But I've seen and felt the magic here...maybe one of Sunset's other friends will be more cooperative. Applejack seems like a reasonable one. Maybe I'll try-'
Diana's thoughts were cut off as the sound of space and time ripping apart caused her to spin around. A vortex that was at least twice as big as the one she had found the other night greeted her, making her eyes narrow when a creature that she had never seen before emerged from within. It was a wolf that was covered in bark and twigs, green eyes glowing with ferocity as they locked onto the teacher. Diana read the look in the predator's eyes and cracked her knuckles in response.
"Trust me. You don't want to do this," Diana promised the creature as she rolled up her sleeves to reveal two silver bracelets. The creature ignored her warning and lunged towards the teacher with a snarl, fangs and claws outstretched as it went in for the kill. But instead of striking flesh, it ran into a right hand that cracked its wooden face and sent it hurtling across the school yard. It kept going until it slammed into a stop sign, twisting the sign as it collapsed to the ground.
The wolf let out a weak moan while it looked up to find that Diana was already upon it. She grabbed it by the throat and hoisted it into the air, giving it a cold stare before hurling it back across the street and next to the portal. She then glanced at the twisted sign before plucking it from the ground. She gripped it with both hands and with a little bit of effort, straightened it out once more. She planted the sign back into the concrete before leaping across the street and landing next to the wolf.
"You're not getting away. You're going back in the portal," Diana promised the wolf as it scrambled to its feet and raced around the side of the building. Diana took after it with incredible speed, but the moment she turned the corner she was greeted by a sight she did not expect to see.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," Fluttershy promised the wolf as she gently walked towards it, unfazed by the fact that the creature snarled at her and backed away. Diana narrowed her eyes as she spent a quick moment debating whether she would interfere or not, but then the wolf let out a low howl and staggered over to Fluttershy. Fluttershy then cradled the head of the wolf in her arms, humming to it gently.
Then it happened. For a brief moment Fluttershy glowed with a golden light that covered her whole body. Diana watched with wide eyes as her mane grew longer and wings grew out of the back of Fluttershy. And in that moment Diana sensed the same magic that she had felt when she had first gotten there...which made her uneasy. A moment later Fluttershy returned to normal, smiling down at the wolf.
"You came through one of those portals, didn't you? Come on, let's get you home." Fluttershy turned with the wolf and headed in the direction from where it came, but neither of them bothered looking up to see Diana floating far above their heads. Her face looked like it was chiseled out of stone and with crossed arms she watched as Fluttershy helped the wolf into the vortex, waving to it as the portal closed behind the creature.
'No wonder she was so worried about me finding out about the magic. She is magical,' Diana deduced as Fluttershy glanced around to make sure that she wasn't being watched before she turned and raced into the building, leaving Diana alone with her thoughts.
'Athena will want to hear about this,' Diana mused. 'But I'm still not sure what this means. Fluttershy has access to magic. That's fine, I've been near plenty of people that can call upon magic at will. It's also clear that she wants to keep it a secret or else she wouldn't have reacted the way she did when I asked about magic. But then, add Hades into this equation and things take a turn for the worse. Hades is looking for six elements of magic, six items that he told me will win back Steve's life. But is this what he was talking about? Instead of magical trinkets...is Fluttershy one of the items that he wanted?'
Diana shook her head as she descended back onto the ground, glancing at a clock to see that it was almost time for class to wrap up and she still needed to make sure that everything was going right with her class. She rolled down her sleeves once more to hide the bracelets while calming her emotions at the same time.
'I need more information. But Celestia was right. Sunset's friends do seem to be in charge of the magic around here. But why keep it secret?' Diana asked herself as she walked into the school and headed for her classroom. 'And do the other students know about it? And what does Hades really want with the magic? Things just keep getting more and more difficult.'
Diana opened the door to her classroom and walked in to find that Athena held a piece of chalk within her talons, writing out instructions and questions upon the board. Every eye in the room fell upon Diana, who gazed over her morning class to find that each of them had expressions of disbelief and some of fear.
"What? None of you were taught by owls growing up?"
-w-
-W-
"Honestly, I was not expecting to hear from you again so soon," a voice that sat behind a large desk in a revolving chair said in her phone. "No, not that it's a problem at all. I'm always delighted to talk to one of the most generous donators to our school."
"I am glad to hear that, Principal Cinch. Because I have a favor to ask of you."
"A favor? Well, I can't turn down any request of yours, especially after you helped me regain my reputation after those disastrous Friendship Games," the principal said into her phone with a laugh, but then she heard the request from the other end and her face fell slightly. "You wish for me to transfer the three students you hand picked to Canterlot High? But there are so many other students...no no, I'm not arguing. If you wish for me to, I am certain that it will be no problem. Goodbye."
Principal Cinch then hung up the phone and crossed her fingers, wondering to herself why he would ask for those three students in particular. She shrugged it off and pressed a button on her machine, which caused Dean Cadence to enter into her room a few moments later.
"You called for me, Principal?"
"Indeed I did. Here is a list of three students that I wish for you to bring to my office at once," Cinch instructed to Cadence as she held out the names of the students to her, making Cadence raise an eyebrow before nodding to the principal and leaving the room. "I may not know what the full plan is, but as long as it can help me to get back at those blasted magic users for humiliating me, I do not care. For I will show that my school is supreme, as we've always been."