Mysterious Ways

by Peridork

Tricks Are For Kids

Fluttershy would have been trying to sleep a little bit. Sure she didn't really have to anymore thanks to vampire fun but sleep felt nice every once in a while. And anyway, she hadn't heard anything about the uniforms from Rarity for a bit. Sure she was a complete workaholic and a perfectionist but Fluttershy didn't expect having two whole uniforms completely finished after eight hours. Rarity did have a life to attend to.

So she didn't expect to be bombarded by text messages or anything forcing her to be awake at four in the morning.

But her phone buzzed her awake, its quieted sound making it move a little where it was. Which so happened to be right on her coffin. Fluttershy had a good system there- she rarely had to get out of bed to answer her phone. Sure Nurse Tenderheart had a few of her medical tirades at the Canterlot High students about how horrible that was to do for 'developing hearts and minds' but Fluttershy guessed it was a bit of a hard sell for most of her friends. Pinkie's Instagram was on at anytime of the night. Rarity had her own Etsy shop and even Applejack had a Facebook.

Sure Applejack rarely used it, but the idea that even the most technology illiterate person was connected to the world 4/7 and how phones were dangerous was a bit weird. School full of monsters? Dangerous phones. Fluttershy knew what was more relevant. Fluttershy stretched, cursed her mental tangent thanks to four am boredom, and checked her phone.

Dude Rarity is such a bitch. Why'd you leave me anyway cause dresses are not cool. She can blackmail me now and knowing Rarity I can see her do that to me.

Fluttershy winced. Okay maybe ditching Rainbow was not the best move on her part. She quickly sent herself a mental note to apologize to Rainbow before they got into Crystal Prep.

Fluttershy checked her phone for any other texts. One from Pinkie about her new cake recipe, save for later when it wasn't four am. One from Rarity. She quickly opened it and saw a picture with some text.

Done. Also you can pick it up whenever. My sister and her friends are doing some scouting trip and parents out on an adventure- their words not mine of course. Decided to bring my ideas home with me. And maybe I commandeered some club members of mine.

Fluttershy sat there in shock. Sure she had no idea how long it took to make uniforms but the sheer force of will that she had to make the things from scratch and make them look like the real thing. Real props to her. And while Fluttershy did not see the use of a uniform for a school setting, at least she might look okay in their weird purple plaid dress, purplish vest, blue bow getup that the Academy was known for.

Well besides the possible monster hunter thing.

"Well crap. I don't have other things to do tonight."

Pulling herself out of her coffin, she quickly dusted herself off. Sleeping in a coffin was a hassle when you were a vampire. Had to have the whole works really- dirt and all.

Slowly she walked over to her closet and pulled out her nightly attire- sweats and a sweatshirt. If nobody was awake at four am to see her 'destroy fashion' as Rarity put it, at least she was comfortable.

***

Walking from her house to Rarity's took no time at all. Well more like twenty minutes at a slow pace. Canterlot was nice this time of night and having her headphones in listening to the student radio felt nice. Relaxing after all the running around and figuring out what was what. Stargazing while listening to Vinyl's own homebrew mix of electroswing was rather something else. Something she could get behind- though Rainbow would probably call it boring or too slow. It was just right to her though.

Sighing to herself she texted Rarity. She couldn't just enter somebody's house. She had to be let in. It was a courtesy. She never tested if it was a lie or not but breaking and entering wasn't the greatest thing.

Can I come in?

Rhetorical question. Of course you can.

Fluttershy felt better and quickly shifted into a mist. Sliding under the door, she shifted right back into a human form. Vampirism had some weird perks and she didn't question how her things were both able to shift with her and not be adversely affected by the change. She just chalked it up to some weird magic thing.

Turning around she came face to face with Rarity. Who was wearing some diamond patterned pajamas.

"Well I know I'm both awake and that that just happened. Great. You know I was going to open the door for you."

"Well I didn't want to impose too much on you. Especially since you did make the uniforms I told you too."

"Well I do like a challenge and I am a hopeless romantic. And since I know that you used to not be able to do that I might guess you were too."

"Well that's one way of putting it."

"And I thought I had a weird time recently."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Fluttershy." Rarity turned around to turn on a few lights. "Well the uniforms are up in my room. You kind of have to be quiet though. Photo Finish and the other club members are having a sleepover."

"You have sewing sleepovers?" Fluttershy liked mending some of her clothes, but having sleepovers focused on sewing felt strange.

"Well its more of a talk about gossip, watch a movie, and then sew. Its more than just the name implies. I do have to keep things quiet. I don't want my fun gatherings to turn into some unruly house party. It isn't my style."

"Fair enough point."

Fluttershy followed her up the stairs. Rarity's room was right next to them and as Rarity opened the door, Fluttershy saw a room filled with fabric. And on top of the fabric was Pixel Pizzazz and Violet Blurr, Photo Finish's friends.

"Are they okay?"

"Oh, them? Yes. They just didn't have a cup of coffee to offset their exhaustion. Give me a moment and I'd say the uniforms are around here somewhere," Rarity dug around in the piles of fabric for a minute or two, "Aha, here they are."

"Well they definitely look like the picture that's for sure."

Rarity frowned. "Well that is to be expected. But no surprise or shock at the sheer accomplishment? I mean finding the correct fabrics to use took me a while. And that involved going to Featherweight and having him give me some of the reels of film that contained the Friendship Games. And then I had to figure out the texture and how to put the clothes together from a picture. Sure it was like following a pattern but it took time."

"Now that's impressive. I think. I mean I haven't ever heard of investigative sewing before."

"Well that's one way to put it. I just found the exercise to be so very out there. I mean mixing fabrics like they did, synthetics with natural fibers and different fabric textures. And plaid. It's an eyesore. A rich, well dressed eyesore."

"Well I appreciate it. Do I have to like pay you or anything?"

Rarity waved her hand. "I don't need payment. Generosity can be a good thing and you are my friend. And I did finally get Rainbow's measurements. Do you know how ridiculous it is that she hates dresses? If she didn't she would be able to be some model or something what with her physique."

"I don't think she has the right attitude for it."

"Well we all have to start somewhere." Rarity glanced at the clock near her bed. "Sorry Darling, I would love to talk to you all night but it really is getting late."

"Sure, see you around."

***

The quiet Canterlot night was nice to Fluttershy's ears. The echoing of the music from the nearby nightclub became as Pinkie would say "background music to an episode of your life"

Fluttershy didn't exactly know what she meant by that but it was something unique that was for sure. The echoing music followed her as she got closer to her house. She was having an okay day all things considered. Sure it wasn't the best of days but waking up and getting an early start to the day wasn't bad.

But that wasn't what her week had been.

Coming up to her house, she quickly grabbed her keys and began to turn the lock. But then she heard something out of the ordinary. Something soft and padded, like feet walking up slowly. And not just one pair of feet but pairs of them in a close to perfect rhythm of near silence.

But one pair of boots was off. And that was both a tell and just plain annoying to some perfectionists. If Rarity was here, Fluttershy guessed that she would comment on how loud the silence was.

Fluttershy herself was going to comment on that as well- but her week was being her week. Right as she turned around she felt both a stabbing pain and an electric shock. Being tased was almost nothing to a vampire, Fluttershy had been trained by Sombra who was a sadist in his training methods.

Still she hadn't been electrocuted in public before. That was new.

"Glad to see that electric arrow didn't hurt you too much, vamp bitch."

"Come on, I don't know who you are and I was just trying to get inside my house can I please go to bed or something. Had a bad week."

"Oh vampy says she's got a bad week? What do we say to monsters that had a bad week, Bolts?"

"Could be worse." Five other voices echoed out.

Fluttershy froze. Six on one fights were just a horrible prospect. Even in her vampire state, it was a numbers game. Thinking quickly she felt her wound and noticed that it was more of a flesh wound than a killing shot. Of course, why would you use a deadly arrow to electrocute someone? Probably to show off. Grabbing onto the arrow and digging in to find the arrowhead was painful, but thankfully her healing factor worked.

Useful but it still sucked. Healing wounds still hurt horribly. But the usefulness of showing off could be useful- it could throw some of her attackers off. Turning around, she saw what her gang of heavies were dressed in and almost started laughing.

Form fitting black and purple tracksuits with lightning bolt motifs? Were they silly vigilantes or something out of Rainbow's comic book collection? Well looking at how they were she guessed they were all female. Hard not to notice that.

The six surrounded her in a semicircle and began to close in walking ever closer until the leader told them to stop.

"Start situation: Vampire Hunt"

Fluttershy noticed the two in the middle pulled bows off their backs and readied some arrows, while the other four readied large blades that three of them used well. The other one stood there visibly shaking in her boots. Well Sombra did have a few rules on how to fight- one: there are no rules in fighting, two: don't be stupid, and three: find the weakest one there.

Fluttershy shifted quickly into her vampire form, batperson hybrid with large yellow wings and the piercing red eyes of a vampire. Sure fighting as a human was viable, but running away was easier when you could fly away from the horrible things.

Fluttershy thought back to her training and began to get into what Fleur sometimes called the dance of death. her movements were graceful and used her enemies motion to weave in and out of battle quickly and without much lasting damage.

Seeing a quick opening she ducked under a blade with a turn and came up face to face with the weakest link here. Fluttershy gently took the weapon out of that girl's hand and snapped the blade in half. Taking the girl in her strong grip, she had a way out. Taking hostages was not Fluttershy's way. She'd much rather attempt to talk out her issues or run the complete other way and watch youtube videos of cats or something much calmer than fighting a brawl.

But she also didn't want to die. Glancing down to make sure the uniforms Rarity made were fine and dandy, she flapped her bat wings and got a new perspective on the fight. Fluttershy felt a nice connection to the sky, she felt almost right in the sky and anyway, fighting in multiple directions was more to her liking than ground battles anyway.

"Don't worry, I don't want to hurt you. I just don't want to die right now."

Her hostage quieted down, her struggling didn't completely stop but the attempts to punch her in the throat sure did.

"Come on down, vamp. We just want to talk and rescue our newbie friend here now. Well and murder you but that's not related to saving the newbie. That's just business. The cops don't do what needs to be done. No they just sweep monsters and all that stuff under the rug. But here we are dealing with the problem. We are saving the day. We are the good guys here. And anyway, if you don't come down I don't know whbat I'll do."

"I just wanted to go to bed and go to sleep and get on with my day."

"And I want to as well. See we aren't all that different. Same goals all all that. But common ground isn't my strong suit. I mean look at us. We're all human down here. We can't fly on bat wings and all that shit. But look at you lording right over us. Sure would make the most normal person right jealous."

"I didn't ask for this."

"Well that's cute." She glanced down at a nonexistent watch and looked back up at Fluttershy. "Oh well look at the time. I just ran out of patience. Sure you did make the hunt fun and all but also I have a tight schedule- five minutes until death is preferable. I could just burn down your house to prove a point."

Fluttershy shivered at the thought of all her animals and things just being hurt for no good reason. But she was stuck. She also didn't want to die. So she stood there in the air stock still and full of worry on the inside. Sure she looked calm, cool, and collected on the outside but she was having a really bad panic attack on the inside.

"Shit. That threat usually works. Somebody finally called our bluff. Man that's thirty wins for that line and one loss. Sweet, just shoot her down, okay. I love tricking these things for a laugh but I'm just getting tired and bored."

Fluttershy felt an arrow woosh past her ear. Thinking quickly yet again was not a habit of Fluttershy, but surviving was in the best interest for everyone. She thought of the first place that wouldn't mind Fluttershy hiding out for a bit.

Rainbow's house. Flying as quickly as she could, she flew off in the direction of her house.

***

Rainbow turned in her sleep, nightmares of dresses in her head.

"No, not the catwalk, I'm too awesome for that." Right as the world almost learned her secret of being the most awesome soccer player in the world by day, and model by night, Rainbow woke up.

Her phone began to play the ringtone that she had set for Fluttershy. Getting woken up by the first few bars of some happily depressing song that Fluttershy chose never was Rainbow's favorite thing to have happen at five in the morning. She kicked the covers off and lunged at the phone before the stupid song started singing depressing love song lyrics at her, she put it up her ear and heard just the wind.

Did Fluttershy get her phone stolen by the wind?

"HELLO? CAN WE COME IN?"

Well being screamed at by some unknown chick wasn't the weirdest thing to have happen. She was friends with Vinyl and that chick got into some weird ass situations. At least this chick sounded hot.

"Sure."

Rainbow almost fell back asleep but a shattering noise woke her up completely.

Rainbow really didn't want to check if it was a robber or something like that. But she decided against hiding in the closet again. That thing was cramped and just not fun. So she ran downstairs in just a shirt and some boy shorts. Sleep was supposed to be comfortable anyway..

Running down her stairs two at a time, she slid into the kitchen. The sliding door stood there with shattered glass with Fluttershy looking like an adorable idiot and hot chick looking like a weird cosplayer.

"What did you do to my house?"

"Well the trajectory that we embarked on was hampered by this vampire getting an arrow lodged in her wing and then we had to have emergency maneuvers, which then caused us to start careening into your house your door. Sorry for any inconvenience."

"Fluttershy why is the hot chick speaking like an egghead nerd?"

"Well that's a long story."

"Well fill me in. I got time to kill and you broke my door." Rainbow slowly began to whip up a few spells so the major kitchen catastrophe could be fixed in a few minutes."

"Do you have any duct tape?" Fluttershy quickly glanced at her hostage.

"I mean its right in that drawer. Mom keeps it there cause she thinks having a drawer full of random garbage is useful."

Fluttershy quickly rummaged through the piles of receipts and restaurant menus. Taking the tape in her hands she quickly tore off a foot of tape and began wrapping her hostage's hands.

"Seriously? I'm not going to escape. I don't even know where I am."

"Well its a safety measure, and anyway I still don't know who you are." Fluttershy pulled off the mask of the girl. "Well that's anticlimactic. I have no idea who you are."

"What? You expected to have a giant reveal and know who attacked you at your house? Do you even know how convenient that would be in a town the size of Canterlot?"

Fluttershy rubbed her temple. "Fine. Can I at least know your name?"

"Twilight Sparkle. And I was the one who called you a few days back."

Fluttershy thought back. She would have known a voice like that. And then it hit her. "Wait, you mean the scary Moondancer call? Why in the world would you do that? That was actually horrible."

"I do not know what you mean. I thought it was pretty neat. I mean it was pretty easy to splice recordings I made of Moondancer into a software program and make a robot version of her."

"And egghead's lost me. But why would a purple smart like you even want to hang out with those weirdos?"

"I really am new to all this. Moondancer used to be the tech person for them and they found out she wasn't human. They recruited me after Moondancer died. I had to warn you about stuff and I was planning to tell you about the ambush but Lemon Zest pulled me into it before I could. "

"Wait you started training after Moondancer died? That was like a few days ago."

"Fluttershy, that was a week ago. Your days are all off remember."

Fluttershy nodded. "Oh yeah, thanks Rainbow. Still that's not a lot of days to learn how to fight."

"Well that is what happens when you get dragged into your first hunt and then kidnapped. I tried to tell them that I didn't want to but they said they would have Starlight Glimmer cancel my research into the supernatural. And the Shadowbolts are the best students there anyway. I'd have been forced to join sooner or later. They are the leaders in Crystal Prep. Why do you think they can just hunt things for fun? It's the school sport."

"Rainbow, I think we might have to push up our infiltration into Crystal Prep. Are you ready for today?"

"I mean just give me a few minutes to change and practice my happy go lucky mom voice and I'd be ready to do anything. I've been ready for an adventure for like forever."

"Well that's good. I'll keep talking with Twilight about things and we're going today. I need to see if Moondancer's things can tell me what happened and figure out which of those five did it."

"I mean my money's on the most horrible one. But yeah, no problem. At least this is more fun than most days of school." Rainbow grinned and glanced over to the now pristine glass door. "Man I do that trick and it's still so cool."

"Yeah." Fluttershy tossed Rainbow her fake Academy uniform. "See you in a bit."

Author's Note:

Remember to save your progress or else you lose some sleep over rewriting parts. Oh well that was the most productive two hours I've ever had. Still not happy I did that by accident.

Comments

[Wolfcape]

I have to comment the banter from the Shadowbolt monster hunters are really artificial. I get you're trying to give off a badass vibe to both parties, but perhaps it's a little too far. The monster hunters must be rather dense to get a 6-on-1 advantage, element of surprise advantage, and blow it all by cracking jokes and giving off one-liners.
Conveniently, they decided against burning Fluttershy's house down? I hope there's a good explanation for that.

Please don't take it too hard, I hope I can help with some critique.

Since I'm following, I do have some curious questions:
As far as we know, Rarity is totally human, right? Is everyone at Canterlot High a supernatural entity and/or aware of its existence?

[Peridork]

Well I do like the critique. Actually guessed some kind of that critique would happen since its very overblown dialogue. But think of it this way- the Shadowbolts in EQG canon are this weird sports/ academic decathalon team who's rich and rather haughty besides Twilight. So there's that basic idea of them there. But also realize that outside of a few team chants, all of the rather goofy dialogue is from their team leader. You always have a few superfans of sports. If your "sport" is hunting monsters and you know you are good at it you might start acting like a pompous idiot. The vigilante justice has been going on for a while- probably since before Cinch got replaced by Starlight Glimmer. It's hard to change the mentality of a school sports team that is "the best." Especially since canon Crystal Prep is almost a parody of school rivalries anyway.

Twilight is the newbie in this. Lemon Zest is the leader who takes it way too far. The other four didn't have much dialogue. They know they are good but not to the star quarterback believing the hype good.

Onto the useful question about Canterlot High's population of students. Everyone from both schools now knows about monsters. Hard not to notice when you have video of a demon burning down the school on video. Now Crystal Prep is overwhemingly human. Hence why they can have vigilante idiots running around. Canterlot High is now 75 percent monster, 25 percent human. They existed before but Sunset's portal opening and wrecking stuff happened but after that point things really started tipping in the monsters favor. They don't have to hide anymore. On the idea of knowledge about monsters- well they do have a library that is pretty old. Crystal Prep is the newer school and even it is old.

On the question about Rarity. well that's for later. And now for the next arc it might be some weird reverse Ferris Bueller's Day Off thing since they go to school on their day off.