//------------------------------// // Crystal Prep's Turn // Story: Equestria Girls: Secrets Beyond the Stars // by GoldenGoomba900 //------------------------------// Canterlot High was now not only completely clean, but on the way to being rebuilt with local construction crews working to carefully replace the plate glass window with a temporary, normal one. While Celestia's initial plan was to give the students a speech about helping their community, the news that traveled the pipeline was that the students were already doing that. All across town the names of the Canterlot High students were on everyone's lips, for helping everyone from the war veterans at the old folks home to the moderately attractive school teachers at the Elementary School. While most people were overjoyed with these acts to help save the Earth others were decidedly less so. A school assembly had been called at Crystal Prep, but as was the case since Principal Cinch had lost control of her domain, only the kids already in the gym and too lazy to leave attended. "Students of Crystal Prep High," she began. Since the incident, students who'd ignored her assemblies in favor of the computer lab, the library, or illegal gambling in the parking lot had found that she found away around this. By hooking her mic to the intercoms across campus they may be able to escape her sight, but they could never truly ignore her. "I have called this assembly for one reason: Mandatory Community Service." Students all gave one unanimous groan that echoed through the large school. "Now, you might be asking me "But Principal Cinch, why should we listen to you now?" To that I say "because that would make your parents sad". For the first time in a long, long time I have called ALL of your parents, and ALL of them have agreed to chaperon your services. They arrive in five minutes. So I suggest you go to your homerooms, sit down, and wait for them to arrive, or I will spill every single one of your permanent records before them. And to show I'm being serious, I'm going to read the first file in my stack." She cleared her throat and pulled out a file. "Zest, Lemon..." By the time the five minutes were up, Every single student were in their homerooms, unhappy that they had been blackmailed. Although, as many of the nerds pointed out, it's less blackmail and more Cinch actually doing her job. Of those in their homerooms were the five girls Principal Cinch had read the files of (which was probably not a coincidence); Lemon Zest, Sugarcoat, Sour Sweet, Sunny Flare, and Indigo Zap. "She's doing this on purpose you know." Sugar said to her companions. "Ever since we lost the games she's wanted our heads on pikes." "I wanted to move to another school, but I'd miss you guys too much," Sour began. "Because you still owe me about twenty bucks, each." "I paid you back, you just lost it to that kid in the parking lot." Indigo rolled her eyes as Zest continued rocking out, unaware of her surroundings. "We should probably do it anyways, the school's been falling to pieces since the games. Can you imagine what it'd be like if we're the reason Earth's gone?" Sunny reasoned. "Don't Fear the Reaper," Zest chuckled. "We'll be fine. You can't seriously believe this chick has the touch, right?" "...I'm sorry, were you asleep when the giant dome came from the sky? Or when she called us twice?" Indigo asked. Before Zest could answer, the door to the classroom opened and a group of adults entered. "Ah, so she wasn't bluffing." Sugarcoat concluded as the students got up and got divided into groups of five. "Do you think she planned this, for us to be together constantly? Because I don't even like you guys." "Oh, you don't? Because the feeling's mutual." Sour shook her head as they began leaving. "I don't even remember your guys' names." Lemon confessed. "Can we please stop arguing in front of the parents?" Sunny was clearly annoyed. "She's right. We just gotta think of this as another contest! We just gotta beat everyone else!" Indigo smiled. As the girls cleared out of the school, their parents oddly silent, actual locations that needed to be cleaned and fixed up were shockingly low. First they tried the local arcade (that had somehow managed to stay in business, just to spite the 30+ years since it was opened), which usually had stacks of gum and torn tickets littering the floor that the janitor had neither equipment nor time to deal with. They found that the geeks of Canterlot High had already come in and undone about 30 years of filth in two days. They then tried the mall, with so many shops, fountains, displays, and vending machines, surely there would be one place untouched by the members of the community? Well, the was one, but it was the creepy shop that sold novelty products and looked like it was a slasher villain's den. The only people who dared enter there were goths, a group who attended neither Canterlot nor Crystal Prep, but just seemed to appear whenever they felt like. Finally, they tried the Motel Bates, a creepy old hotel on the outskirts of town run by one really wormy guy who kept the place in top shape. As the group broke for lunch it became clear that the entire town had been doing this job now, and the only place the students were allowed to tread was Crystal Prep! All while this was happening the parents made small-talk, discussing things like "my little girl did the cutest thing" or "did'ja see the game last night". While the groups were separated at the local burger joint, the students came up with a plan. "We need to get out of here." Indigo mumbled, groaning. "But I haven't finished my burger." Zest said, upset. "She means away from our parents. They've just been suggesting the same locations over and over again while talking about things literally nobody cares about." Sunny began. "If I hear one more argument about Liberals and Conservatives I think I'll snap." Sour stabbed a fork into her chicken nuggets to punctuate her unhappiness. "Where too though?" Sunny asked. "It'd have to be somewhere secure, well silenced, without access to the outside world." "The forests, maybe?" Zest asked. The group stared at one another and then at their parents. "Nah!" They unanimously shouted. "Who lives closest to here?" Indigo pondered. "Zest does, but I'm fairly sure that her house is just a pile of Dedwach memorabilia with a door on it." Sugarcoat shook her head. "I resent that, my favorite band's been A Flock of Griffons since I was a kid." Zest countered. "Wouldn't it be A Herd Of Griffons, since they're part lion?" Sunny mused. "But whatever, we can brainstorm new ideas once we're there... grab your stuff, girls." As the group sneaked away from their annoying parents, who were discussing something about the mayoral candidacy, the girls in the forest discussed what Shining had told them. "Gosh Shining, that's a bit hard to swallow." Sunset explained. "I probably wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it either." His phone rang and he pulled it out, a text from Cadence telling him to return to town. "I gotta go, sorry I couldn't help you guys out any more... Oh, before I go, can one of you guys give me one of your numbers? Twilight's phone doesn't seem to be working." "We'll call you if something happens, darling!" Rarity called to him as he left, the group alone once more. "Looks like it's a change of plan then." Twilight shook her head. "We can't wait, we have to sneak in and get all that stuff. Sunset, you call up Flash, Rarity and Applejack, we're going to the pods, Fluttershy can come as our contingency plan." "Oh, and me?" Pinkie asked, nervicited. "Keep Spike away from the mask." "That doesn't sound very fun..." Pinkie sighed and sat down beside Sunset. "It's not, but it's important. Sunset, tell Flash that Rarity will sneak in as one of the sisters, and if he wants to know for sure, have him ask the code phrase "What's for dinner?" and Rarity will reply "bacon and spam"." On the ship, Flash sat in his car, listening and nodding as Shimmer explained the situation. "Alright, bacon and spam, got it." "Wait!" Sunset said before he could hang up. "...Flash, we probably should talk." "No, I already told you, we can ta-" "Do you love her?" silence followed, he wasn't expecting that question. "Flash, do you love her? Do you still love me? I-I don't understand you Flash, you're staying with her and not calling and don't want to talk to me but this is important, Flash! Lives are in the balance! Even if you don't love me, at least tell me! Tell me so we can get this stupid sexual tension off our chest and get on with our lives!" "I d-" Flash felt a bolt of pain and dropped his phone to clutch his skull, moaning in agony while Shimmer's voice echoed. Pushing himself out of his car, as if it would help, he left his phone behind, trying to make the pain stop. As the pain reached a climax, his shouts of agony had attracted the attention of many of the robots, who called for their superiors. With Flash laying on the floor, Inapan approached him, leaning down to see him eye to eye. "Flash, Flash are you okay?" Sunset repeated as Flash's shrieks grew more and more muffled. "Flash, I'm sorry, is something happening, please tell me!" Flash lay on the cold metal floor as Tested entered the room, leaning down at his side to look him over, reading his thoughts in hopes to find a source. "An unfortunate event, it seems his human mind could not take your control for so long..." She turned to a robot. "Bring him to a healing chamber, before his brain suffers embolisms." The robots did as they were told with Inapan following as Tested approached the car, taking a look inside. Frowning, she picked up the cell and hung up, pocketing it. "Well well, I suppose my sister was right about your cheating heart... it would break many of hers to find this out." She got up and headed for the laboratory, readying herself to program a new Sentry.