Scorpan was in his room doing homework. Well that’s what he would respond if anyone bothered to ask him, in reality he was planning his future lessons for the Crusaders. If you wondered why he bothered at all, Scorpan would tell you that it’s because he took studying and teaching more seriously than others.
No wonder why people considered him an egghead.
“Maybe a slide presentation would work better.” The roped-in instructor wondered what tools and teaching methods would be better suited for his so called pupils.
Soon after, Scorpan musings were interrupted when he heard the heavy steps of somebody else inside the house. “Tirek.” It was most likely his brother that just arrived from somewhere. It’s not like he knew what his brother did after school, since he never told him much. He was about to go back to his work, when he suddenly remembered the words of the girls he just met today.
“Do you not get along?” He remembered Sweetie Belle asking. “I also got into fights with my sister Rarity. I still do…but we always reconcile!”
“Yeah! Applejack and I squabble sometimes but that doesn’t mean we stop caring for each other.” Applebloom also said. “Nor we stop calling each other sisters.”
Maybe, it was time to be a little more proactive to reconcile with his brother.
Motivated, Scorpan stood up and exited his room to talk with Tirek. “Tirek, are you…?” but when his eyes fell upon his brother and noticed the bruises, the bandaged and the stitches, he backed down and his previous determination diminished. “A-Are you o-ok?” He asked worried, unable to look away from the injuries.
“I’m fine!” Tirek answered brusquely.
“W-what happened?”
“Nothing.” Tirek evaded the question as well as his little brother when he walked away from him. “What I do or happens to me it’s none of your business.” He reminded.
“But…”Scorpan tried to call for his brother, but Tirek ignored his pleas.
“Stay away from me, if you know what’s good for you.” And with that, Tirek walked up to his room and slammed the door closed.
“Ok…brother…” Scorpan look down sadly, and then returned to room.
Meanwhile, inside of Tirek’s room the so called Strongest of Everfree, sat on the edge of his bed feeling tired. The effects of the performance enhancers he took were going away. Instinctively, his large hand went directly to a hidden pocket and pulled out a blue pill. He had managed to avoid the temptation back when he was at the lunch lady’s house, but now that the ‘high’ of the red and green pills were fading away the desire to gulp down the blue one intensified.
‘You know what will happen if you don’t take it.’ The deepest, darkest sides of his subconscious incited him once more.
“I know what will happen if I DO take it.” Tirek reminded himself combating the temptation.
‘Sure you do. You’ll feel a hell of a lot better.’ The “voice” pressed on. ‘And all those cuts and bruises will disappear. It’ll patch you up real good.’
“I won’t. Not after what happened last time.” He needed to stay strong in his conviction.
‘Last time was just a fluke! Something out of the heat of the moment! It won’t happen again.’
“I won’t any chances. If it happens again…the risk is too high.”
‘The risk is too high?! If you don’t take it you won’t heal, if you don’t heal be sure that any attempt against you will result in defeat. And defeat is a matter of LIFE AND DEATH!’ The “voice” was practically screaming, berating him. ‘And because of what? Because you lost control and you almost…’
“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!”
Enraged, Tirek stood up and punched the nearest wall. In his state he didn’t holdback anything and his fist went through the wall. This act of rage against the structure proved to be enough of a catalyst for Tirek to calm down.
‘Are you done with your temper tantrum?’ His own subconscious mind mocked him.
“Not yet!” Tirek then walked to the other side of his room and open up a window.
‘Don’t you dare! Or you’ll regret it.’
“Too late for that.” What was even more lament in his life? And with an impressive swing of the arm, he threw the blue pill as far away as he could before she slammed shut the window.
“Good riddance.” Then Tirek sat back down on his bed again, his insides still turmoil of doubts. Looking down at the fist he used to punch the wall he noticed that blood was dripping beneath the bandages; his wounds opened again.
With a heavy sigh, Tirek stood up with the intention to look for the first aid kit inside his house.
“Tomorrow everything will hurt like a b*tch!” School was going to be so much "fun". And his visit to the Apple Orchard was going to be "even better".
“Whatever you wanna show me Old bat, better be worth it.”
[x-x-x]
Adagio sighed heavily, tired after a long afternoon of work. Though some said one would eventually grow accustomed to the working life, Adagio was against the idea. She didn’t want to accustom to this sort of life! She wanted her old life back! A more carefree life where she could get almost anything she wanted with a little song. Oh how she yearn the old days! Where it seem she had all the power in the world and the world was at the tip of her fing..erm..fins.
Damn that Starswirl and damn those Rainbooms to hell!
But Adagio couldn’t wallow in the past or in her wanton desire for revenge, she had to worry about dinner and fight Aria for bathroom privileges like hot water for the shower.
With another tired sighed, the leader of the Sirens entered the small rundown apartment she shared with her sisters, expecting the usual: Aria and Sonata bickering like children for any sort of stupid reason, which she would have to deal with for a while before she could finally shut them up.
But instead of screams and objects being thrown around, Adagio was welcomed by the unexpected smell of food.
“Adagio you’re back!” Sonata greeted her excited. Not unusual but it was still weird seeing her this upbeat. “Look, look! Aria ordered pizza!”
“Yep. Got it from the best place in town and it taste so damn good!” Aria said as she took a bite out of a slice. “Come over or we won’t leave anything for you.”
“What are you two idiots doing?!” Adagio shouted.
“We’re eating Pizza! I mean, duh!” Sonata answered all too chipper, not even fazed by Adagio’s angry reaction.
“Why are you wasting money like this?!” With how crappy their current situation was, the leader of the sirens couldn’t believe how these two were wasting money in frivolities! “We need to save our money for the rent!” And for food, and hygiene products, and to help fund their revenge schemes against the Rainbooms if possible.
“That’s the best part! We didn’t, right Aria?” Sonata answered clapping her hands enthusiastically.
“Yep” The twin tailed girl confirmed as she took another bite.
“What do you mean?” Adagio asked two parts confused, one third honestly curious. “Was it something illegal?”
“Don’t know.” Aria shrugged. “How illegal is it to beat up a bunch of punks and steal their wallets?” She acted way too unperturbed for comfort.
“You didn’t!” Adagio shouted alarmed.
“She did! And she got a nice bat too!” Sonata brandished said bat with a big smile, which was kind of disturbing given that it still had some specks of blood on it.
“ARE YOU INSANE?!” Adagio got even more distraught. “What if they call the police?! You’re gonna end up in jail!” She was getting hysterical, and not in the funny way. “What were you even thinking?!”
“That I’ll totally rock the orange uniform.” Aria answered with a laugh. “Make it look real good.” Unlike any other time before, she was enjoying Adagio’s screaming for once.
“YOU!!!”
But before their sister’s head probably exploded, Sonata came to the rescue and tried to calm Adagio. “Aria isn’t going to jail, Adagio! No one is going to call the police.”
“And how do you know that?!” Adagio turned her furious glare towards the dimwitted girl, fortunately she had clearly calm down a notch, thankfully before she popped a vessel.
“Eek!” Still, Sonata wasn’t ready to be at the receiving end of such a terrifying glare.
“What she meant to say…” Aria came to the save, “Is that three punks who tried to assault a girl and got their assed kicked aren’t going to call the police anytime soon.”
“Assault? What?”
Rolling her eyes for a sec and putting aside her slice of Pizza, Aria then told Adagio about how some thugs tried to jump at her and how she curb stomped into the ground, taking with her their valuables as spoils.
“Felt kind of nice actually.” Aria chuckled. “Maybe I should quit my job as delivery girl for the flower shop and start beating up people for their money.” It would be way better than to deal with the antics of the three owners who would faint at the drop of a hat.
“Don’t you dare!” Adagio warned waiving her index finger in front of Aria’s face. “You go to prison, then who’s gonna help us with the rent, huh?” She then crossed her arms in front of her. “Also forget about me paying to bail you out.”
“Gee, thanks.” Aria deadpanned while she picked up another slice of pizza with one hand and the large box with the other. “Just for that you don’t get pizza.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Adagio frown upon her petty child like act, yet her words didn’t make Aria relent. “It’s not like I wanted any.” But her words were soon betrayed by her stomach which grumbled demanding to be feed. This made Aria tilt her head and give the biggest sh*t-eating grin ever.
“Fine! You win!” The so called leader admitted defeat while her face burned red.
“I knew you will come to your senses.” Aria didn’t stop grinning but she did let go of the pizza box.
“You’re off the hook, but just because you got lucky.” Adagio warned her. “I don’t want you to do this ever again.” She said as she sat down and took a slice of pizza.
“Yes, MOM!” Aria replied sarcastically which for some reason sent Sonata into a fit of childish giggling. “What’s wrong with you?” Well besides what was already wrong with her in the first place.
Sonata continued giggling as she was trying to explain what caused her so much mirth. The only thing that they managed to get from her was something that sounded like ‘Mamadagio’ or something along the lines.
It was a true mystery what thoughts pass by in that hollow head of hers.
[x-x-x]
Sombra sat comfortable on a very comfy looking swirly chair inside his personal study, mediating about the day’s events, specifically the hours after the tedious that was school was over.
The attack by Chrysalis soldiers came as a surprise, he hadn’t expected the Dark Queen to make such a move against them so soon, in particular one so sloppy that made him wonder if she was even the one behind the attack.
Well, in the end it didn’t matter really. What mattered was what he was going to do about it; an attack on his person was a great offense that demanded retribution! But how to go about it?
If the small amount of information he managed to gather from his attackers were true, then the rest of Chrysalis’s enemies also came under attack. Despite them not measuring up to him in any way whatsoever, he had no doubts that they also survived their assaults, if barely. That meant they will be looking for some retribution of their own against the fake queen.
Would the others want to share the opportunity to put Chrysalis down? Or would they argue, desiring to be the sole ones to deal the last blow? Even if he, Sombra, was the worthiest to claim the right and the honor, the others could pose interference and cause him trouble; trouble which honestly he didn’t want to deal with.
Sometimes a man had to put aside their rightful claim and opportunity for sweet revenge in favor of dealing with more important and pressing issues.
Sombra would never admit to it out-loud, but his near defeat at the hands of one of Chrysalis’ dogs opened his eyes to the fact that he was at a disadvantage in regards of everyone else in his classroom, excluding both Tirek’s little sibling and the Trio of schoolgirls that arrived late to class.
He had no access to any sort of weapon that he could use or even bring to Canterlot High.
Sombra was a lauded sowrdman, if he said so himself, and he also delved into the study and practice of many other forms of armed and unarmed combat. But he was a sword wielder by heart and soul. And he was strictly forbidden from bringing any sort of weapon or tool for combat otherwise he would be expelled. Something he, unfortunately couldn’t afford.
The idea of ‘convincing’ the Principal to allow him the same liberty he had back in St. Everfree to carry his trusted sword with him came to mind and quickly disposed of. He could already tell that the faculty had well cemented principles that wouldn’t bend so easily. How irritating.
Having this sort of handicap would prove troublesome if the need to fight strong opponents arose again. Meanwhile Discord was allowed to have the advantage thanks to his unorthodox style of fighting what could only be called an unnatural ability with the Hidden Weapons Technique. Discord was the sort of person that exemplifies the motto that “everything could be a weapon”.
If only he could find a way. Otherwise he would be stuck using a can every time he couldn’t defeat his opponents.
In his rising anger, Sombra’s hand instinctively reached for something, anything really, that could trap in a vice grip, and the object was said cane he ‘borrowed’ earlier today. And as soon as he applied some force into his grip, something unexpected happened.
*Swif*
“What the…?” Sombra was surprised initially surprised by the effect his grip had on the borrowed cane. “What…is this…?” Soon after his surprise turned into curiosity when he saw the cane had expanded and broken into segments, held together by a threaded inner mechanism.
“Why…?” He wondered for a second, until he remember where exactly he had gotten the cane, rather from whom he got it. “Trixie…” Sombra remembered clearly the details of her room; specially the many paraphernalia that obviously belonged to an Illusion Maker. And this cane he borrowed was no different; it was a prop! A trick cane that was used for any number of illusion acts! A prop whose main function was to deceive an observing audience!
This gave Sombra an idea, so genius he couldn’t help but smirk. And all thanks to this trick cane he got from her.
“You tricky woman I could almost kiss you.” Yet as soon as those words come out of his mouth, he stopped a few seconds in confusion. ‘Where did that come from…?’ Then again, Trixie proved to be of use, dare say even a potential ally. An ally that screeched, complained a lot, and question every one of his demands but despite being a pain in the neck was useful nonetheless; but she proved enough for him to lower himself to show his gratitude even in front of her friends.
And even now she inadvertently helped him with his current dilemma.
“I suppose that this afternoon was not a complete waste.” Though he didn’t get the book he wanted, he gained something else too. Besides, his quest for Starswirl’s treasure could wait one more day; after all neither the treasure nor she was going anywhere.
[x-x-x]
Sunset brushed her hair one last time before she was officially ready to call it a day and finally get some rest from today. It had been a VERY busy and tiring day with lots of things happening, yet there were still some unanswered questions. Mostly about him.
Discord, or Dizzy as he insisted her to call him. He was still a mystery to her. First he makes this ostentatious entrance trying to make everyone believe he was some sort of crazed criminal, and then he ended up saving her, despite the aforementioned stalking on her part.
‘Is he a good guy?’ Despite coming to her rescue, which she was grateful for, she still had doubts about him.
How he knew so much about the ‘Underbelly’ of the city? How deeply was he involved? Where did he learned to fight like that? Why was he meeting with Adagio, of all people? And what really happened when Everfree crumbled to the ground?
Those and many other questions spiraled in her head, but sadly no answers.
“The only thing I do know is that I can rule him out as a magical tyrant.” That was the only thing she had learned for sure after the events of today. There was no way in Princess Celestia’s name that the chaotic creature could’ve kept up an act like this for so long. Especially when the history books depicted the Draconequus as a crazy being that relished in creating chaos whenever it went; unlike ‘Dizzy’, that Discord would never, ever do something as humane as saving her.
“Guess I let my mistrust get the better of me.” Now that she thought about it. This whole experience would make a nice report for Princess Twilight. Although she would wait until tomorrow to make said report, since she was getting sleepy, not the optimal condition to write a detailed report. Heck, she felt like she could sleep for an entire day.
“Better program an alarm.” The sleepy girl picked up her cell phone. She didn’t want to oversleep and miss school tomorrow. And as soon as she was done programming the alarms, she remembered something.
“Discord’s number…” He had given it to her when she hopped into the cab he called for her. Going for her jacket, Sunset found the piece of paper in one of its pockets. “Here it is.” She said as she pulled it out. But now that she had it in her hand she hesitated.
‘Is this a good idea?’ Sunset wondered. It wasn’t like it hurt her in any way to have his number in her phone; not to mention, he had given it to her in case any of those thugs ever show up again, which was handy. Yet for some reason she had this very odd feeling that if she did something would happen; something that could change things forever.
Why was she feeling like this?
“Maybe, I’m letting those suspicions get me again.” It was just another phone in her contact list; that was all. Clearing away those strange feelings, Sunset inputted Discord’s phone number, but when the screen showed that she needed to name this contact the feeling of uncertainty came back again. Sunset stared at her phone’s screen for about a minute before she settled. “D-I-Z-Z-Y, Dizzy!” she typed. “Just in case.” then she tapped the save option and she was done.
“There! That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Yes it was. But that still didn’t explain that strange feeling. “Maybe I’, just over-thinking things again.” Yeah, that was probably right, not to mention tired thanks to all the excitement of today. “A goodnight sleep is what I need.”
Everything would be fine.
[x-x-x]
It was already dark when Discord finally arrived to the entrance to his home from his first day at his new school. He would’ve arrived sooner, but he needed some time to cool down after saying goodbye to Sunn..., SUNSET! No way! Sunny, was fine.
Discord sighed heavily.
He couldn’t believe he was getting so worked about it. There was no way Sunn… that girl could be the one. It was a mere coincidence, because the damn prediction was vague enough to apply to a vast number of girls. Besides, part of the fortune said that the person should have a ‘difficult-to-tell past’ too. And Sunset didn’t look like the type to have any sort of complicated life or something of that degree. He was just acting paranoid.
Despite devoting his life to prove Fate wrong, he couldn’t let his commitment get to his head too much, otherwise he would start screw things up for himself. Having consequences coming to bite him in the ass for a screw-up was a big NO-NO for him. He just needed to be on his toes for a while, that’s all.
After pulling out a key and unlocked the door, Discord finally entered his home.
“Anyone here?” He called out, only to be greeted by silence. “Pops! Are you in here?” Discord called out again, yielding the same results. Walking deeper into the house, Discord entered the kitchen looking for signs of any other person. There was no one inside, but the boy did found a note. A note placed on the fridge thanks to a color magnet.
“Hm.” Discord took the note, but he was pretty sure what was written on it.
Sorry, Champ. Duty called!
I left you some money on the counter. Order some pizza or something.
See you later:
Dad
“Typical.” Discord said not looking surprised at all. “The one day I need to talk with him and he’s not here.” Then again, why would he expect something else? Work always comes first.
Crumbling the note and tossing it to the side, Discord walked up to the counter and saw a considerable amount of money. “I guess he won’t be home for a while.” If the previous times he received this sort of amount was any indication.
Pocketing the money, Discord then went for the fridge and pull out one of his dad’s preferred frozen dinners with the word “DELUXE” plastered front and center of the cover. “Guess I’m having a party-for-one tonight.” He tried to laugh at his own joke, but he couldn’t muster the strength to bother anyways.
“Happy First Day of School to me, I guess.”
It wasn’t the way he expected to end such an exciting day, but his only comfort is that tomorrow would be a better day.
[x-x-x]
“Is this place fine?” Arachnia questioned as she dragged the unconscious body of the unlucky idiot who received Chrysalis’ punishment for failing. Inside the house, it appeared it was filled with mostly boxes and crates.
“This safe house will serve just fine.” The Gas Masked fighter said as he pulled up the body he was helping carry and put it on a chair. “Get the stuff from that box while I tie him up.” He instructed.
“Whatever…” Arachnia said as he followed his instructions. “For how much longer you’ll keep wearing that ridiculous thing?” She asked pointing at his face.
“For as long as it was necessary to hide.” He said as finished tying the body to the chair, after that he removed the air purifying respirator from his face.
“What about the rest?”
“I was getting to it.” The formerly masked boy then dug his nails underneath the skin of his neck and started peeling of said skin off from the entirety of his face. After grisly display was done, he revealed a new face underneath.
“How do I look?” He turned towards Arachnia, who sent a smirk his way.
“Same as you always do. Morpho.”
[END OF FIRST ARC: THE FIRST DAY]