//------------------------------// // Four - Flee // Story: The Infestation of Canterlot High School // by Bonster //------------------------------// Four - Flee “Do you read me? Over.” “Loud and clear. We were most definitely overdue for new communicators. A follow up on the last report, correct? Over.” “Yes; it seems it wasn’t a false alarm after all. The anomalous students appear to be on guard, and from the bug I hid in their research lab, I know they’re building weaponry. Additionally, more students are absent than ever before in school records, even immediately following events such as the Fall Formal, the Battle of the Bands, and the Friendship Games, and certain students appear to be experiencing unexplainable shifts in temperament. I can point out a few specific cases of drastic personality change. “I would like to request permission to enter and search the school after hours for additional investigation. Over.” “Are you sure you aren’t over involving yourself for personal reasons? Over.” “Whether I am or not, this is bordering on a Class Three, and I’m already in the location. Over.” “I suppose you’re right. It’s just that you seem to be getting awfully close to that one girl—in more ways than one if I read between the lines. Over.” “C-Chrysalis! Professionalism!” A long pause. “Hello? Chief?” A sigh. “Over.” “And you chastise me for professionalism? Over.” “We both know you only still have that rule because you think it makes us seem cooler. Over.” “And we both know that you agree with me.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway. Permission to search the school granted. Will that be all? Over.” “Yes. Over and out.” Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna had different yet complementary methods of relieving stress after a long day at work—Celestia enjoyed hearing about other people’s lives and misfortunes as a way to escape her own, and Luna found solace in venting about her problems to someone. Thus, they had an easy system where Luna would talk about all the stupid things she had to deal with as head of discipline, and Celestia would interject at all the right times with all the right words. It worked wonders for both of them. “…And Trixie got sent in for the fourth time this month!” Celestia’s heels clicked loudly on the stairs as they ascended to their shared apartment. “Oh, dear. What was it this time?” “One of her ‘magic tricks’ involved making snips and snails’ lunch money disappear. Honestly, I’m surprised those two even noticed.” “Luna!” laughed Celestia. “You can’t say things like that!” “Not on grounds I can’t.” Celestia shook her head as she fished her keys out of her purse. She opened the door to their modest apartment— —only to come face to face with a snarling, bug-eyed creature. That also strangely resembled a horse. The monster shot towards Celestia like a bullet, fangs bared and tongue lashing. Any other principal would have likely fallen there, but not Celestia. “Nope!” Celestia slammed the door into the beast’s snout and bolted after an already sprinting Luna. “Nope nope nope nope nope!” “Celestia, what was that?!” “Hell if I know! Get to the car!” “I swear, if we get killed before our next paycheck…” They could hear a buzzing sound behind them, but didn’t stop to look back as they lept the final few stairs and burst through the doors of Palace Apartments (an awfully extravagant name for an awfully mediocre complex). As they reached their car, Celestia fumbled with the keys, and Luna looked back to see a group of large, bald men wearing sunglasses and dark suits bounding across the asphalt. It was just as stereotypical as it was frightening. “Hurry up!” Luna hissed as she clutched the strap of her purse in a white-knuckled grip. “I’m going as fast as I can!” “Well, go as fast as you can faster!” “What is that even supposed to mean?!” A click resounded from the car door just as the first of the men approached Luna. He extended a muscular hand towards her, but reeled backwards as she delivered an swift backhand across his face with her purse. Before he had time to react, she leapt into the car after her sister, who locked the door and slammed on the gas, seatbelts be damned. Both women were quiet for a minute, panting heavily and regaining their bearings as Celestia wove through traffic, taking side streets and unpredictable turns in the off chance they were being followed. As they slowed to a stop at an intersection, Celestia looked over to her sister. “And you were worried being a principal wouldn’t be very exciting.” “Well, at the time, it sounded even more boring than being a flight attendant. And that was boring.” “Clearly you’re forgetting the flight before we got fired.” Luna hummed. “Ah, yes. That was quite the day for the mile high club.” Another minute passed, and Celestia sighed. “You know, I didn’t expect us to be able to hold this job for so long. After a while, you just get used to the failure, you know?” Luna said nothing and threw her gaze to the window. “But we went for three whole years with bullying as our only major issue. Our scores were high and our students were engaged and I thought it would last forever. I thought we had stabilized. Thought we could move past the job-hopping and the worrying about whether we’d have enough money to get through the month. “This was our chance to start again. To move past it all. And now everything’s falling apart and I don’t know what we can do with monsters on our tail, of all things.” Celestia sighed again; a deep, pained, jaded sigh. “I’m sorry, Luna.” Luna laid a soft hand on her sister’s shoulder. “You’ve done so much for me already, Tia. You can’t always know what to do, even if you think you should.” Celestia only looked to road as her sister spoke. “I think we need to talk to miss Shimmer. If anyone can fix this, it’s her.” Celestia seemed to shrink in her seat slightly. “She’s not going to like that we know her address.” Sunset was reading a magazine on her bed when she heard the knock. Now, that was a problem; she had never told anybody where she lived. Not even her friends, or Flash when they went out. Even though they all knew she lived alone on some level, she didn’t want to bring attention to the fact and have them ask all the related questions: how did she provide for herself, how did she get a house, what about all the stuff adults have to do like pay taxes and schedule doctors appointments and buy groceries—you get the idea. Too much worrying for no good reason. So naturally Sunset was a bit concerned that someone was knocking; it was probably just a door to door salesman, but still. “J-Just a minute! Be right there!” she called down the hall before looking down at herself. I should probably put on some clothes. She never had liked wearing clothes in Equestria. They were far too itchy and generally a nuisance. So whenever she was alone on Earth, she did without pointless inconveniences like shirts and skirts (and bras. Especially bras). But last time anyone else had seen her like that they had called the police and she had to leg it, less they catch her and find out she was one hell of an illegal immigrant. So she made sure to dress around company. She also grabbed her baseball bat. Better safe than sorry. Sunset walked through the drab hallways of her home (well, legally, it still belonged to that guy she had given all those gemstones to. Turns out those things are much less common here), leaning the baseball bat against one wall as she reached the front door. She grasped the handle and took a deep breath before meeting her visitors. Before her stood Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna, smiling widely, as if that would somehow make up for them showing up at their student’s house in the middle of the afternoon with no warning and no foreseeable reason. Loose strands of hair stuck out from their heads, and their clothes were wrinkled and dusty, as if they’d just crawled through ventilation. “Alright,” started Sunset, “I have some questions.” Their smiles wavered. “Firstly. Why do you know where I live?” Celestia’s grin dropped. “Told you so,” she muttered to Luna. Luna ignored her, and spoke with an administrative earnesty it seemed these two retained across dimensions. “After the Fall Formal, Twilight Sparkle informed us of your… unique heritage, so we followed you home to make sure you had hospitable living conditions. We wouldn’t have been able to rest easy if one of our students lived on the streets, no matter how misguided she seemed at the time.” “That makes sense, I guess,” Sunset admitted. “Next question. Why are you here now?” This time, Celestia answered. “We may have a, er, problem. Of the magic variety.” Sunset groaned. “Of course you do. What is it this time? Did the Sun and Moon start calling out to you or something?” Luna raised an eyebrow. “No. Should we… be expecting that? It’s honestly hard to tell when you’re joking.”   “Maybe. You two do raise and lower them, after all.” Luna’s eyebrow climbed higher. “Don’t worry about it. Tell me about this magical problem.” They told her. “Yes. That is a problem,” confirmed Sunset. “We certainly thought so,” Luna agreed. “So what did these monsters look like?” “Well, they were black,” said Luna. “Most evil things in Equestria are, in my experience.” “They were kinda horse-shaped,” Celestia added. Sunset gave her a deadpan stare. “Yeah, that doesn’t really narrow it down.” “They had wings,” Luna offered. “So do you two.” “Excuse me?” “Don’t worry about it. Anything else?” Celestia rubbed her chin in thought. “Well…  They had really big blue eyes. Like, the entire eye was blue.” “I… suppose that helps a bit. There are still a lot of possibilities. We should probably investigate the school, evil things from Equestria tend to gravitate towards it. Give me one second.” Sunset retreated to the kitchen, pulled out her phone, and dialed Pinkie Pie’s number. She was always near her phone, and could gather everyone together faster than should be possible by any reasonable standards, so she was Sunset’s best bet. The phone barely started to ring before Pinkie picked up. “Hey Sunny! I was just about to talk to you!” “That’s great, but I really need—” “Cupcakes, I know! And I’ve got just the ones for you!” “Pinkie—”   “So it turns out you can caffeinate cupcakes with soda, but it ruins the flavor, but Twilight has special and possibly illegal caffeine shots for late night study sessions and I got some of them!” “Pinkie you are going to kill yourself.” “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, Sunny! Here, I brought you one!” “What—” Sunset turned around to see Pinkie standing by the refrigerator, holding a cupcake out to her with one hand and holding her phone with the other. Okay, so who else knows where I live? Sunset hung up the call. “Pinkie, while I’m sure that cupcake would do a fine job of keeping me up for three days straight, there’s something really important you need to do.” Pinkie gasped. “Does it have to do with the conspiracy?” she said, whispering in Sunset’s ear. “Uh, if the conspiracy is what I think it is, then yes. Can you gather everyone at the school? I’ll explain why when we’re all together.” “One group meeting coming right up!” Pinkie immediately dashed from the room, blowing past two very confused principals. Sunset walked after her, grabbing the baseball bat from where it lay against the wall. “Why was she in your house?” Celestia asked, pointing a thumb over her shoulder at where Pinkie Pie had been moments before. “Don’t worry about it. Now come on, we’re going monster hunting.” Celestia and Luna looked at each other and shrugged once before following Sunset to their car.