//------------------------------// // The Explosion of Youth {Redone} // Story: Aca-decade // by Daxn //------------------------------// That was it. The final moments of the Friendship Games were at hand and Principal Abacus Cinch was watching them from the privileged position at the end of the two rows of students. On her right, the disciplined, steadfast, orderly and well-trained cohort of students from her own school, the Crystal Prep Academy. On her left, the chaotic, unsteady and poorly-cobbled together riff-raff from the rival institution, Canterlot High School. Dean Cadence and the two incompetent Principals running the other school stood at Cinch's opposite end of the rows, and, in the middle of the aforementioned rows, Principal Cinch's living jewel, Twilight Sparkle- a girl as smart and talented as she was weak-willed and submissive- was walking forward towards the designated spot where she was going to unlock the magic-capturing device of her creation, and thusly unleashing the power of magic, which had been used as unfair advantage by Canterlot High School's rabble in the previous challenges. When she was a few steps away from the designated stop, Twilight turned around, looking at Cinch with what the latter could only assume (and hope) were frightful eyes. Principal Cinch smirked and nodded her head, as to give her permission to proceed. The girl, with a visible gulp, turned around again, lifting the amulet-shaped device up in the air, holding it by the leather string. Soon after, Dean Cadence stopped next to the microphone and announced the start of the third challenge, while six girls from the opponents' horde stepped forward, desperately calling out Twilight's name. "I see you do not take gracefully being beaten at your own game..." Principal Cinch muttered under her breath, as she watched the device slowly opening up like a clamshell and one of the girls of the riff-raff trying to make herself way. "Sadly for you, it is now too late for you to back down. You shall suffer my school's superiority!" When it was full open, the amulet released a glowing white ball that floated mid-air and Twilight- much to everybody's surprise and shock- started to hover above the ground. Principal Cinch recoiled, but, with she her shoes' heels firmly planted in the soft muddy ground, she did not flee from the scene. "I must watch, I cannot let such a momentous event escape my eyes!" She said to herself out loud, as the glowing white ball rapidly morphed itself into what looked like an old-timey pocket watch, before hovering away, dragging a shrieking Twilight along. "What is that?" "What is going on?" "Is that supposed to happen?": Those were the questions coming from the stupefied crowds. Thought-much to her delight- Principal Cinch noted that her students, even in the general confusion, still didn't break ranks, while the rival school's mob had started to scatter. Then, all of the sudden, the pocket watch turned into a whirlpool of blinding light, accompanied by a mighty roar of unknown origin. Principal Cinch immediately covered her eyes with her arms, but she stood still, not afraid what was going on in front of her, in spite of the blinding light and the ringing in her ears. Soon enough, she felt some kind of energy flowing in her arms and legs, one that both made them feel less frail and made them feel a slightly shorter. Her skin- especially her face’s- prickled and felt like stretching to a long forgotten past state, while her eyes felt painfully morphing, causing her to moan in pain and bend over, her eyes tightly close shut as her glasses fell off her nose. When the pain and the frolicking died down and fell into nothingness, Principal Cinch opened her eyes again with difficulty, and the very first thing she noticed was the fact that she could limpidly see her orange pinch-nez laying at her feet in the muddy ground. The second thing she noticed was that her clothes felt much looser than usual. Somewhat confused, Cinch bent her right arm in front of herself, and she saw her coat’s sleeve fully covering her hand and drooping compared to her arm. "What. Just. Happened." She said to herself, before raising her head to look upon the carnage. Right in front her eyes, at the explosion's ground zero there now was a baby- one likely no older than six months and looking just like Twilight- curled up and crying under an uniform. Looking at her right, she saw many toddlers and children looking alike to her students, their bodies barely covered by their uniforms- now too big and baggy for them. Some of them simply sat on the ground and looked at them scared and confused, others were huddled together either for warmth or safety, and others- the ones least affected or not at all affected by the apparent regression-inducing explosion- picked up some of their less fortunate comrades buried under the piles of discarded clothes.  Looking at her left, she saw a similar sad show happening for the other side as well, which Cinch took as a sign that, whatever power regressed her and her students, it did not play favourites with Canterlot High School either. There, Dean Cadence, Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna- their clothes now unfitting- stood by dumbfounded, as their regressed pupils were running around or rolling in The mud and crying loudly, chased and picked up by unscathed or slightly-regressed students trying to give to the horde a semblance of order it never had. The sight caused Principal Cinch to rapidly blink, as she bent over to pick up her glasses and slowly clean them up up with her black undercoat’s brim. "Interesting result, I must admit," Principal Cinch muttered under her breath, as her shock and surprise slowly waned, replaced by her rationality reminding her of the final outcome of the predicament and how it fit within her goals "It is such a pity that I did not want this to happen!” She stepped forward, towards Twilight, ready to deliver a long, powerful verbal smackdown to the heavily-regressed girl. However, she stopped herself mid-way in her second step, as a thought struck her mind. Cinch looked back at the students of her school; some of which were now the same state as Twilight. Her gaze was then cast back to Canterlot High, who suffered more than her side, and finally, she returned to Twilight. After seeing everything that had happened around her—the youthening of Crystal Prep, Canterlot High, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and herself, she looked down at her now trembling hands. “This is… This is my fault….” she whispered. She had been the one who backed Twilight into a corner, forced her to compete in the Games, and had turned her prized pupils into infants. “I cannot conceal that we lost, but I’m partially to blame…” She finally stepped over to Twilight, picked her up and gently tussled her hair, quelling the newborn’s sorrow almost instantly. “I’m so sorry, Twilight…” Cinch sniffled, her old voice long gone and replaced with a more teen-like, almost seductive one. “If I had only known that this would’ve happened... I would’ve just thrown that locket away! But now it is too late, and my very own Platonic Academy will go back to its previous mediocrity as Crystal Prep School. Everything I’ve worked on for my greatest creation has been severely setback or outright disappeared, all because of my ambition…” “You did a lot more than that, Abacus Cinch…” Luna marched up to her, her shoulders hunched and her hands tightened up into knuckles as she got right up into Cinch’s face. “You have single-handedly turned back the clock on everyone, us included!” “What was I supposed to do?!” Cinch spat back at Luna, almost wanting to make her attack. “Your school was in danger of winning over mine!” “You called our truce ridiculous, but I’m calling your actions entirely immoral and grounds for arrest!” Celestia charged towards the two of them and stood beside Luna, her arms stretched out to protect her now teenage sister. “Your little reputation has damaged both CHS and CPA’s student body!” “Your impudence was the first thing to harbour my grudge for you all, and now the fact that you would gang up on me makes my blood boil for you even more!” Cinch arched up her shoulders and glared, her vocabulary was still as sharp as ever and her gaze miraculously resharpened just like her strength. “By all means, if you wish to fight me, I shall not stop you. Be aware that I actually used to conform to the fitness standards I used to requires, before finding my life’s calling in humanistic arts.” She banged her chest with her palms twice, before setting herself three-quarters towards the two teens holding her arms up like a boxeur. “I understand your anger,” Dean Cadence said, stepping in-between the three hostile principals. “But I am sure that there is a better time and a better way to deal with it, than right now and with needless violence.” “And when this ‘better time’ would be? And why are you meddling with this?” Celestiale asked while turning her head towards Cadence. Cadence turned her bust towards the students’ crowd, which was in an uproar of crying “We may have lost some years, but many will still see authority in our figures,” Cadence said in a snarky tone. “To have a fight right in front of them would completely destroy any kind of faith they may have in us.” “In short, save the fight for later.” Cinch said, turning back to face her students after picking a distressed Twilight up again. “The best thing we can do now is to get our former students home to their parents.” “You’re right, Cinch” Celestia said annoyed, stepping aside from her previous position. “In their states, it’s impossible for them to drive, let alone take public transport.” She pulled out her phone and started to tap in some numbers. “I’ll do my best to get them all to phone their own parents. I’ll do the ones for the students back in their infant years, since they won’t even be able to hold theirs, let alone type with them.” “Fine.” Luna spat before walking back to the students. “But know this, Abacus Cinch. After we get everyone home, we are not friends,” she said firmly. “We were never friends. We have never met. We have never spoken. And the Friendship Games is null and void this year.” “Not that it matters that much anymore,” Cinch said, walking away slowly towards her students’s slowly reorganizing coorth.