//------------------------------// // Chapter 22 - War with Words. // Story: The Students from St. Everfree // by Morex25 //------------------------------// For the second day in a row, a crowd formed on the school’s front yard. Today, the subject of interest wasn’t the Principals waiting on the sidewalk; today the stares were directed to the overly formal dressed Transfer Student who, like the statue he was standing in front, waited unmoving. No one dared to call for his attention let alone approach him. That is until a certain someone finally arrived at the scene. “What’s going on here?” Trixie Lunamoon asked out-loud as she made her way through the crowd. “What are you people looking at?” And once she reached the front of the crowd she got her answer, and she wasn’t too thrilled about it. “Him again?” Just what was he up to this time? “You should go talk to him and ask him what’s up.” Lavender appeared right besides the magician girl. “And why should I?” “Because out of everyone here, you know him the most.” Fuchsia answered appearing to the other side of Trixie. “Not because I want to.” If anything, Trixie wanted to know even less of him. “After yesterday’s events I’d like to never spend time near him.” “Really? Because yesterday you two seem very close, with you and your hands on his…” “I told you to never mention that again, Feebee!” The mortified girl reminded. “I’m serious, never mention it again!” “Fine! I won’t tell anyone.” Fuchsia promised to drop the thing for now, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t bring it up again in private. It was good material to rib on Trixie. “We could go and ask him together, the three of us.” Lala proposed which made Trixie looked at her with narrowed eyes. “I mean, aren’t you the little bit curious?” “Not really.” Trixie huffed. Whatever nonsense that jerk was up to was none of her business. “I vote in favor of Lala’s idea!” Feebee raised her hand. “So that’s two to one. That means we three should go talk to him!” “Wait! I never approved of a democracy!” But Trixie’s protests fell on deaf ears as her two friends started pushing her up to the still unmoving Sombra. Once Trixie was shoved right in front of him, she had no other option than to talk to him. “H-Hey! What are you up to?” Sombra stood silent while looking at Trixie and then at her friends for a few seconds before he opened his mouth. “Isn’t it customary to greet someone before you question them?” “Good morning Sombra.” Lavender was the first to properly greet him, which earned her a nod and a ‘good morning’ from him. Fuchsia not to be left behind followed suit. “Hello Sombra! Hiya doing!” Unlike Lavender, she tried to sound cute and chipper. And for her effort she also got a nod and a greeting. “Yeah, Good Morning…whatever.” Trixie said with no spirit whatsoever, wanting to get it over with. “Now, can you please tell us what you are doing? You are putting the rest of the school on edge.” She pointed with her thumb at the gathered crowd who were looking expectantly at Trixie and her friends, waiting to see what would happen. “Good Morning to you too, Miss Trixie.” Sombra replied with a tone that made it difficult to tell if he was been sardonic or not. “As for your query; I am waiting.” “I can see that.” Trixie said fighting against the desire to facepalm right then. “Why are you waiting? And why are you dressed like that?” Seriously, he dressed like he was on his way to the prom. “You look good by the way.” Feebee cut in just to make that compliment. “Thank you.” He accepted the girl’s compliment. “I decided to dress in accordance to the cane I am using. A dissonance between my attire and the walking aid would simply attract unwanted stares.” ‘And dressing so formally wouldn’t?!’ Trixie wanted to shout those words but she contained herself. “And to answer your first question; I’m waiting attentively for the arrival of the one responsible for the events of yesterday.” “Yesterday…? Wait, you mean…?!” “I’m waiting for the person who ordered the attack.” Sombra said coldly, looking at the distance eager to see that person arrive. “I’m ready to confront her.” “What do you mean by that?” Now it was Lavender who spoke. “Are you planning to get into a fight?” “It’s against my nature to hurt a woman but in the case of Chrysalis, exceptions must be made.” Sombra answered somewhat arrogantly, until he noticed the look the blonde gave him. “Alas, now we are all prohibited to clash in combat under the threat of expulsion. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t wage war with words.” ‘Wage war with words…? Alliteration much?’ Trixie couldn’t help but think he may have practiced that one. “Despite how much I appreciate your company…” Sombra said with that same difficult to read tone. “I suggest you three to stay away from this place.” “Huh? What do you mean?” Not that Trixie even wanted to stay, she was asking just because she was curious. “After your help yesterday, you and your friends could end up targeted.” He informed. “So it is best for you if you leave for now, while you are safe.” If Trixie ended up compromised then the con’s of having her as an ally would out weight the pro’s, especially if she ends up constantly in need of help or rescue. “That’s… so cool of you.” Feebee couldn’t help but admire him with stars on her eyes. Not only was he hot, had a nice body, had gorgeous hair and dressed sharply, he also had this sort of knightly attitude that show he was courageous and unafraid of anything. “I appreciate your words, Miss Blush.” Sombra accepted her praise without a sign of self-effacement on his face, not that anyone noticed besides Trixie. “Oh you can call me by my first name, or Feebee!” She smiled by trying not to live up to her last name. “I’ll have that in mind.” Noticing what was happening, Trixie immediately dragged Fuchsia away from Sombra, not wanting to see her friend go gaga on the guy. “ ’Key! Thanks for the advice, bye!” She hurriedly said while she struggled to walk away. “Lala you come too!” Lavender looked at Trixie dragging Fuchsia away, then at Sombra. “Uhm…excuse us, we’ll see you later…probably.” She awkwardly waved him goodbye and then she follow her friends leaving Sombra “alone” again. “Hn.” Sombra watch them go not at all bothered by the interruption of his mission. But now it was time to focus once more, he was eager for Chrysalis arrival. “I’m ready for you, Chrysalis.” [x-x-x] “And here we are!” Discord announced as he parked the car on the parking lot to the side of the school. “Smooth ride, right?” “It was so fast!” Sonata hopped out of the car excited, it had been a long time since she experienced such a rush. “I want to go again!” Aria was the next to climb down the car. “I wouldn’t mind either.” She agreed with a respectful nod acknowledging the boy’s skill behind the wheel. “Although I would much prefer being the driver next time.” “Well, if nothing happens to the car, I could pick you up every morning if you want.” Discord offered to Sonata before he turned to Aria. “And maybe I can let you drive too once in a while.” “For realsies?!” Sonata was even more excited after hearing that. They would no longer have to wake up early and walk all the way to school. “Dude. You just make it into my ‘Cool’ list.” “I aim to please.” He indulged again in their compliments. “What do you think, Adagio?” He asked as he saw her closed the car’s door. “I…” “She thinks it’s a cool and she accepts your offer, don’t you sister?” Aria cut in and put a firm grip on her sister’s shoulder. She wasn't gonna let her sister ruin such a great opportunity for them just because Adagio disliked the guy. “Of course.” The leader ‘accepted’ his offer, really feeling her sister’s grip. “It’s a very nice gesture on your part.” And as she said that, she managed to shrug the offending hand off her shoulder. “I know.” Discord said with no sense of modesty while twirling the car keys on one of his fingers. “So how about we…?” but before he could finish something caught his attention. He saw several students hurrying up, not to enter the building but to go and form into a crowd. “What’s going on over there?” Sonata wondered having also noticed the crowd. “Whatever it is, it’s none of our business.” Adagio warned, her tone turning a little cold. “We better not involve ourselves.” Had this been before they lost their pendants, she would’ve been the first one to go towards the crowd for the chance of creating conflict and feed on the negative energy. But now that they had no powers and were considered pariah by the rest of the students, getting mixed in a crowd of people who hated and mistrusted you was a bad idea. “Aah! Where’s your sense of adventure and inquisitive curiosity?” Discord turned at her and give her a silly look. “Lost and shattered into pieces.” She answered with loathe very clear in her voice. What those despicable Rainboom had done to them was unforgivable. “Ok…?” Discord said sounding less silly, leaving aside the jokes and sobering up just a bit. He hadn’t expected this sort of shift in the mood. It would do him no good to mess around for now. “I’ll see you three inside, I’ll go and check out what’s going on.” With any luck by the time class started whatever funk had gotten into her would’ve dissipated. “Sure, see you inside.” Aria answered for them, having also noticed the dark cloud that formed atop her sister. “Thanks for the ride.” “Thanks for the ride, Discord! See you inside!” Sonata waved with her usual smile, yet it was noticeable less chipper than she has been before. It seemed that she also noticed. “See ya!” Discord waved back, not expecting a ‘See you later’ from the moody orange haired girl and walked off. Once Discord was out of earshot, Aria quickly questioned her Sister. “What the heck is up with you?” “Are you ok?” Sonata was also curious, except she showed far more concerned than Aria. “I’m fine!” Adagio answered rather curtly. Having been so thoroughly reminded of all she had lost since the Battle of the Bands had left her somewhat mad. “Let’s go inside already!” she then stomped her way towards the building, leaving her fellow sirens behind. “Geez, the PMS is getting her hard.” Aria said, assuming that the mood swings were caused by their newly physiological functions acquired when the giant alicorn manifestation shot them with a rainbow light and transformed them into ‘regular’ teenage girls. “I didn’t know the Powerful Men Society was after her!” Sonata said alarmed, making her twin tailed sister face palm. “Sonata…” “Yes?” “Stop reading webcomics.” [x-x-x] Discord walked towards the crowds of students having a just an inkling of what could be causing a scene. But before he burrowed himself into the crowd, he spotted a familiar face. “Yo, Scorpy! How you doing?!” Discord appeared right behind the unsuspecting boy and quickly put him into a playful neck hold from behind. “D-Discord?!” Poor Scorpan cried in surprise. He hadn’t expected been assaulted this early in the morning and by Discord himself or to see him dressed so differently. “Yep, that’s me. How’s my favorite little egghead doing?” The older boy asked as he gave him a nuggie. “F-Fine!” The short boy struggle against the hold but it proved futile. “H-How are you doing D-Discord?” Thankfully his question made the nuggie stop. “Could be doing better.” With how things had been going strangely sour ever since yesterday, his statement was clearly an understatement. “Now brighten up my day with some good news, Scorpy.” He commanded twisting his knuckles on top of classmate’s head once again. “Ow! L-Like what?” Honestly Scorpan had no idea what Discord wanted from him. All of yesterday he had been dismissed or ignored and now he was on the receiving end of Discord’s grade school “affectionate” gestures. “Like, tell what is going on with this here crowd.” He said and once again stopped with the nuggie. “I-I don’t know…” the younger boy answered somewhat scared that his answer may upset him. “All I saw was Sombra standing in front of the statue not moving a muscle the entire time. I don’t know why he's doing this, but it’s creeping the rest of the students.” After saying this he closed her eyes expecting another round of painful round of his head against Discord’s knuckles. “Mmm…Interesting…” Discord rubbed his chin. He had suspected that it was one of his fellow transferred classmates who were causing a scene that would attract a crowd. But now he knew it was Sombra up to another one of his eccentricities, he had a clearer picture of what could be going on. “Thanks for the info, Scorpy!” then he let the poor guy go. “Huh? That’s all?” Scorpan looked at him surprised that he had been let go so easily. “Don’t know, was it all?” The older boy couldn’t help himself from teasing the little guy. It was so funny to see his reactions. “N-no! I mean, y-yes, YES! That is all!” Scorpan put up both his hands in front of him flinching back just a little bit. “Good. Now mosey along and stay in school, do your homework, eat your veggies and don’t do drugs.” He gave him a good guy pose by flashing him a smile and giving a thumps up. “Huh?” “It’s the trench coat.” Discord explained as he put on his dark glasses. “Makes me feel like one of those PSA mascots that spreads crime awareness.” “Ahh.” Scorpan nodded understandingly, and then a big goofy smiled formed on Discord’s face. “Now YOU know!” He said with a very distinct tone hoping that Scorpan would catch on what he was referring to. Scorpan in turn just stared at him with a look that clearly said: ‘Really? Are you really asking me to say that?’ Discord put up the biggest eyes he could muster, asking for cooperation: ‘Come on, it’ll be fun.’ After a few seconds Scorpan finally gave in and humored the older boy. Besides he didn't want to risk upseting him if he didn't comply; those nuggies were lethal. “And knowing is half the battle.” “G.I JOOOOOOEEEE!!!” Both of them raised both arms into the air and shouted, earning quite the number of stares from those who hear them. [x-x-x] “And then I helped Maud to set up my video game console in her room!” Pinkie Pie had been telling the girls an interesting story about something that happened with her elder sister Maud yesterday. “Then I stayed with her helping her get accustomed to the controls.” Apparently, some of Maud’s friends from college had pressed the not-to-emotive girl into playing a videogame all of them seemed love; so Pinkie ended up lending her gaming console, which the girls played with during her slumber parties. It was a nice, funny story. Especially since Maud wasn’t the type of girl who would give into peer pressure, let alone play videogames. Of all the times they had invited Maud to come and play with them, she had always declined. So the image of the quiet girl sitting for hours next to Pinkie Pie trying to learn how to play was sort of amusing. Unfortunately, it seemed that the only one paying attention to the story was Rarity. “That’s great, Darling.” Rarity responded cordially. Of everyone of their group of friends, she was the less ‘adept’ when it came to the topic of video games, and whenever someone pass her a ‘controller’ she would halfhearted play only to lose unceremoniously every single time. “Isn’t it, girls?” The Fashionista not wanting to upset Pinkie by suddenly changing topics, turned to the rest of her friends hoping someone else would say something, otherwise she would only made of fool of herself. But what she found was Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy with different degrees of a ‘long face’ each. “Did something happen to you three?” “Huh? Oh, well… something happened back on the farm…ehm…nothing big just…unexpected.” Applejack said, not really lying about what had made her upset, but not giving much details either. “It’s nothing we can’t deal with.” Or so she hoped. Just what in the hay was Granny Smith thinking, offering employment to someone so…intimidating? “Uh-hu.” Rarity could tell that Applejack was clearly leaving important details out, and wanted nothing more than to pry in to see what got the cowgirl upset. But with many experience of similar situations on the past where they ended up arguing endlessly, Rarity decided to leave it for now and asked later. “What about you, Flutttershy?” “Uhm…I-I…just…” The shy girl mumbled and statured badly, not liking being the center of attention. “It’s okay Fluttershy, whatever it is you can tell us.” Rarity offered the support the poor girl obviously needed. “We won’t judge.” “Unless is some sort of super embarrassing secret that could totally make everyone change the way they look at you and…” “Eek!” “Pinkie! Not helping.” The most mature one of the group reprimanded Pinkie. “Don’t listen to her, Fluttershy. You know that Pinkie doesn’t really mean it.” “I know…” If only the secret she was holding back was hers. It would make things a bit easier. What worried Fluttershy was instead a secret she had “found out” yesterday about their friend Sunset Shimmer. Well, not exactly found out per se, more like inferred based on little bits and pieces of a conversation she happened to overhear after her fainting spell. So her “discovery” wasn’t at all validated by concrete fact or evidence; that meant that she had to keep her theory secret while she talked to Sunset about it to either confirm or deny her suspicions. And that was something she wasn’t really looking forward to. “Are you okay, Darling?” Rarity asked once again, growing a bit worried by her silence. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, but I think it would make you feel better if you do.” “I-I…” Flutttershy knew that she wasn’t all that good at keeping up a lie for prolonged periods of times, and if pressured enough she would surely spill the beans, so the only way out was to give a response that was typical from her. “I’m s-still worried about those transfer students.” Thankfully that response was satisfactory for the girls. “I know they look scary, dear. But I’m sure they aren’t as bad as people think they are.” Rarity tried to reassure Fluttershy, to help her see that there was really nothing to be afraid of, but instead her words of encouragement only help to riled up Rainbow Dash. “No, they are worse!” The cold anger in Rainbow Dash’s words was enough to freeze everyone in place. “Rainbow Dash! Fluttershy doesn’t need to hear…” “You’re right Rarity. This has to be heard by all of you!” Dash gave them all a very serious look. “What’s wrong Dashie?” Pinkie asked softly, her previous energy and cheerfulness zapped away by her friend’s sudden cold turn. “Yeah, what’s gotten in you?” Applejack also looked at Rainbow finding this very outta place. “Those transfer students are bad news!” There was no hint of doubt behind her statement. “So you all better stay away from them.” “What makes you said that, Rainbow?” AJ narrowed her eyes. “ ‘Cause if this is about you wanting to fight…” “It’s not about that Applejack!” RD cut her off. “It’s because yesterday I saw what they are truly capable of.” Or at least for one of them. “What do you mean by that?” “Yesterday over a dozen people was taken to the hospital; all of them suffered from several injuries and at least five of them ended up hospitalized.” “I’m guessing your mom told you that.” AJ concluded since Rainbow’s mother worked as a Paramedic. “Yes…” RD admitted somewhat irked to be reminded of Firefly; specially the lecture about lack respect and stuff. But putting aside that, she continued. “All that people were badly beat up, and those transfer students are the ones responsible.” “Then the police should take care of them.” Rarity pointed out. “No they are not.” Rainbow crossed her arms in front of her. “I don’t know why, but my Mom said that the police will likely not follow this up with an investigation.” And when Rainbow tried to press her for a reason, her mom refused to answer. “Hold it! If there’s no investigation, how do you know it was the transfer students who did it?” Now it was Pinkie who pointed out the inconsistencies on her friends statements. “Because I saw one of the victims being dragged by the police shouting it was them.” She explained. “But do you have concrete proof that what that person was saying was true?” Pinkie questioned again, while her hairs suddenly turned spiky for a moment. “I don’t need proof! I know he’s evil!” Dash said frustrated that her friends where doubting her. “He?” Pinkie rubbed her chin pensively. “I thought you were talking about the whole group, not just one person.” This caused RD to flinch once she realized her slipped up. “Also, you still haven’t mentioned why you were present at the scene of the crime.” “W-why should that matter? I’m telling you all, you all better stay away from them.” RD answered slightly flustered. “Why are you girls on the fence about this? As your friend I expected you to believe me!” After those heated words, the group fell into a small silence. “We can see that you are most serious about this.” Rarity broke the silence. “You must really believe this to be true.” “I know it’s true.” Rainbow said defensively. “If you don’t want to believe me, then expect me to say ‘I told you so’ when those thugs strike again.” “It’s not that we want to doubt you Rainbow…” AJ tried to reason but she was cut up by the upset girl. “It’s fine! Just ignore them like you said yesterday, but I’m keeping an eye out on those guys.” Rainbow Dash declared and she started walking away. After a few seconds of awkward silence, the rest followed her a few steps behind letting the girl cool off. [x-x-x]