//------------------------------// // Game of Stones // Story: Three More Things! // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// As Jade took her seat in the classroom, Scootaloo quickly noticed that she seemed to be put out about something. Deciding to find out what was bugging her, she scooted her desk closer to Jade's. "What's bugging you?" she asked curiously. Jade groaned fitfully. "I spotted a new Talisman on TV this morning, and Jackie's investigating it while I'm in school so I can't go with him." "Really?" Apple Bloom asked curiously as she nudged Audrey to bring her closer. What with how anything made of dead wood reacted to her, Audrey served as both chair and desk while in class. A statement to the teacher that she 'couldn't sit on wood' had been all it took for that to be allowed, much to Scootaloo's frustration as the same didn't allow her to sit on Cumulo. "Which Talisman, and where is it?" "It's the Rabbit Talisman, according to Jackie," Jade explained. "It's in the back of a giant tortoise at the aquarium named Aesop." "Well, that's rather blatant," Sweetie Belle grumbled, rolling her eyes. "What do you mean?" Jade asked curiously. "Aesop was an ancient Greek philosopher who wrote a number of tales meant to teach a moral," Sweetie Belle explained. "So many, in fact, that stories of that type are now known colloquially as Aesops. One of the more famous of 'Aesop's Fables' is about the Tortoise and the Hare. And now the Tortoise named Aesop has the Rabbit Talisman." "Uh...that's probably why the folks who found him called him Aesop," Apple Bloom pointed out. Sweetie Belle blinked. "Oh...yeah, right." She blushed slightly in embarrassment. "I keep forgetting that natural animals get their names from humans..." "Jade!" Mrs. Hartman snapped out from the front of the class, her eyes narrowed through her glasses as the four jumped. "Perhaps you or your companions can answer the question for us?" A long division problem was written out on the board behind her. "Uh..." Jade began nervously. "That question, or the one before it?" "The question you would have heard if you'd been paying attention," Mrs. Hartman replied, glaring around at each of the four. Unlike previous teachers Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had been taught by, the pendants made Mrs. Hartman see them as just her students...and as such, she pushed them as hard as they could be pushed to excel. As a result, they couldn't coast as they had been anymore. Sweetie Belle was the only one happy about this, as it gave her motivation to excel again, which had been lacking before. Unfortunately, long division was an area Sweetie Belle struggled with...mostly because she could do those computations in her head too quickly to figure out how to show work. As such, none of them were able to answer the question in an acceptable amount of time. "Perhaps you four need an extra credit group assignment," Mrs. Hartman suggested firmly. A grin slowly spread across Jade's face. "Dibs on the topic?" she suggested, leading to matching grins on the fillies' faces. Jackie was startled out of his examination of Aesop's shell and the Talisman embedded therein as one of the scientists called out, "Little girls! This area is off limits!" "Little girls?" Jackie asked, startled. Turning, he caught sight of a cyan cloud and sighed. "Did you get your homework done?" he grumbled out. "Doing homework!" Sweetie Belle piped up. "Extra credit group project on Aesop!" "Did Uncle approve this outing?" Jackie demanded. "Yup!" Apple Bloom confirmed. Jackie sighed, knowing there was no way to win this argument with Jade if Uncle was approving of it with the fillies. "Jade, stay with the group, and don't run off on your own," he instructed before going back to examining the Talisman as he plotted how to remove it. Despite being told they didn't need to worry about Aesop's shell, he still wanted to be careful...and get the job done before any Dark Hand thugs showed up. Just as that thought crossed his mind, a wall of the aquarium was blasted open. Jackie quickly positioned himself between the girls and the flying rubble, even though the distance was such that they likely weren't in danger from shrapnel. When the smoke cleared, Tohru, Ratso, Finn, Chao, and someone else they didn't recognize were standing in the hole that had been made. "Get out of the way!" Jackie immediately ordered the girls, pushing Cumulo out over the water surrounding the little island that Aesop was resting on. "Go! Go!" he shouted at the scientists, though he didn't have to tell them twice as they were already racing out of the room. Jackie quickly struggled to get the Talisman out of the shell with his hands, but before he could manage anything of the sort, Tohru had tossed him aside bodily. Jackie quickly leapt to his feet, ready to do battle with the Dark Hand agents...only to see the first get sucked up by a mud funnel and hurled against a nearby wall and into the water. Turning, he followed the funnel out to where it was taking shape out of the water. Scootaloo was buzzing her wings rapidly as the three fillies focused all their attention on the funnel, keeping it under control as all three of them poured magical energy into it, Sweetie Belle keeping it contained as Scootaloo shaped it and Apple Bloom kept the dirt from flying around. "So cool..." Jade murmured as she watched. Turning, she gasped. "Jackie! Tohru!" Turning, Jackie saw what Jade meant. Having apparently decided that the magical interference had prevented any sort of numerical advantage, Tohru had simply decided to pick up Aesop and take him with them, to figure out separating out the Talisman later. Jackie quickly raced up to stop him, only to get backhanded into the water with the other Dark Hand agents, who promptly moved to keep him from interfering with Tohru. When the Dark Hand thugs pulled off, Jackie and the girls raced out after them, only to see a sea plane flying off into the distance.