Once Upon a Nightmare

by Maran

1 - Luna's Emblem

Once Upon a Nightmare

Chapter 1 – Luna's Emblem

Vice Principal Luna sat in her office, reading through her growing stack of paperwork until Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo poked their heads through the open door. She looked up and folded her hands on her desk.

“Please come in and close the door.”

The freshmen crept in, Scootaloo shutting the door behind them.

“Have a seat.” Luna gestured toward the chairs facing her desk, and the girls sat down with great care.

“Do you know why I called you here?” She kept her tone neutral.

Sweetie Bell gave a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders, but Apple Bloom and Scootaloo squirmed and exchanged a look. Luna let the silence hang for a few moments as she waited for an answer.

After thirty seconds of silence, Scootaloo said, “If this is about Rainbow Dash's jersey, I didn't steal it! I just took it home to wash it for her.”

Luna blinked and raised her eyebrows. “No, that's not it at all.” She swiped at her phone - the new one Celestia had bought her - and held it up for them to see. “I called you here because of this.”

The girls leaned forward and peered at the phone; then their eyes lit up with mirth as they snorted.

“That's a nice video of Diamond Tiara, but what does it have to do with us?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“Miss Tiara-Rich claims that you poisoned her soda.”

“Poison!” Apple Bloom shook her head. “Never again!”

Luna's cool facade slipped as her mouth fell open. “Never again?”

Apple Bloom ducked her head and hunched her shoulders. “I was a little kid, okay? And nobody died or nothin'.”

“What happened?”

“Oh, it's a long story,” she said with a dismissive wave. “It'd probably take about twenty minutes to tell the whole thing.”

Luna raised her eyebrow. “Can you give me the abridged version?”

“Well now, I was pickin' berries from the dewberry ditch on the edge of our farm. I wanted to make smoothies for my folks. Trouble was, not all of 'em were dewberries. Long story short, my brother drank a whole smoothie and got sick as a dog. Poor Big Mac was delirious for hours.”

Luna was almost certain that Apple Bloom had made up the word “dewberry,” but she didn't comment on that. “I trust you learned your lesson.”

“You betcha!” Apple Bloom's bow bobbed as she nodded. “Just cause birds eat somethin' don't mean it's safe for people.”

“Ah, yes, those are words to live by,” Luna said diplomatically. “But do you know anything about Miss Tiara-Rich being poisoned?”

“It wasn't poison, it was just ghost pepper sauce...What?” Scootaloo asked when Sweetie facepalmed.

“You guys had one job,” she said, glaring at her friends out of the corner of her eye.

“'You guys'?” Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes. “What, is there a mouse in Scootaloo's pocket?”

“All I said was that it was ghost pepper sauce! I mean, anyone could find that out, right?” Scootaloo wrung her hands.

Luna held up her hand in a placating gesture. “Listen, you're not in trouble. Technically, putting hot sauce in someone's soda doesn't violate school policy.”

Scootaloo sighed in relief, while Sweetie Belle tilted her head.

“Then why interrogate us?” asked Sweetie.

Luna shook her head. “Sweetie Belle, you misunderstand me. This isn't an interrogation. This is an intervention. You see, in light of recent events, I'm making an effort to understand why students behave the way they do, so that I can work with them to resolve their issues before they get out of control.” She wiggled the phone for emphasis. “And right now, I want to know why three young students would humiliate their classmate.”

“You know the screen turned off right?” Apple Bloom asked in a flat tone.

“Oh.” Luna peeked at the front of her phone and tapped it awake.

Sweetie leaned back. “You promise we won't get in trouble?”

After mentally scrambling to cover her bases, Luna amended, “Not for the hot sauce.”

The three girls exchanged glances. “Well,” said Sweetie, “she posted some really mean comments on our Utube videos.”

“She called us babies and nobodies,” said Scootaloo with a nod, “just because we don't have official emblems yet.”

“And that ain't the worst part.” Apple Bloom put her hand on Scootaloo's shoulder. “Is it okay if I tell her?”

Scootaloo sighed. “It's on the internet for the world to see anyway.”

Apple Bloom turned to face Luna. “She said that it was – that it was sad to see a cripple try to dance.”

Luna furrowed her brow. “I don't understand. Why would she say that?”

“Scootaloo used to wear a back brace for her scoliosis.” Sweetie gave her friend a sympathetic look. “She had surgery last spring, and now you'd never know there was anything different about her. But Diamond Tiara first saw her with the brace, and she just won't let it go.”

Luna pressed her lips together in a thin line. She felt like her blood was boiling. How could Diamond Tiara bully Scootaloo for having a health condition?

“Are you serious?” she asked them. “How do you know it was Diamond Tiara?”

“Her username's Diamond2000,” deadpanned Apple Bloom.

“Plus her avatar is her emblem,” added Scootaloo. “She's not an anonymous troll. She wanted us to know it was her.”

Gazing in to each girl's eyes, Luna detected no falsehood. She took a deep breath. “Well then, I'll have a talk with her.” She tried to keep her voice and expression cool, belying her fury. “Thank you all for telling me this.” After a pause, she added, “And as for your emblems, don't worry about choosing them just yet. I think some people get theirs too soon.” She fiddled with her broach, which caught Apple Bloom's attention.

“Why's your emblem a moon, Miss Luna? I mean, what's that got to do with bein' vice principal?”

Luna's mouth twitched. This subject was uncomfortable to her, but if her story would make the young students feel better, she was willing to tell them.

“When I was your age, I was fascinated with dreams and their meanings. I wanted to help people understand more about themselves by decoding the language of the subconscious. That's what the moon represents.”

“Do you still do that?” asked Sweetie Belle. “'Cause I had a crazy dream last night.”

Luna looked at the table. “Well, I never ended up getting much training in therapy or counseling. You see, my...there was a family emergency when I was at Stratton University, so I moved back home to be with them.” There was no need to dump all of her baggage on these girls at once, especially since it might make both herself and Celestia look bad. “When I was finally ready to go back to school, my sister suggested that I get a degree in education and teach at Canterlot High with her. And...” She shrugged. “It's not my dream job, but I'm happy here, for the most part.”

“Well Miss Luna, I understand more than most how important it is to be there for your family.” Apple Bloom leaned forward in her chair and put her hands on the desk. “But that don't mean you should give up on your dream!”

“Yeah, it's not too late to go back to school and finish your Therapy degree,” Scootaloo said with a smile.

Luna shook her head. “There's far too much going on at CHS for me to take time off for classes.”

“How about summer courses?” suggested Sweetie Belle. “You could make it work.”

“Perhaps,” said Luna with a little smile. It was cute, the way these freshmen were giving her career advice. “Thank you for your kind words, girls. Now, I believe Miss Harshwinny is expecting you in her class.”

As the students got up from the chairs and opened the door, a small cloud of smoke drifted in from the hallway. Luna's eyes narrowed, because smoke in the hallway could only mean shenanigans. But when she poked her head out after the girls left, the smoke had dissipated without even leaving a scent, and the corridor was clear. Shrugging, Luna went over to her intercom.

“Diamond Tiara-Rich, please report to the Vice Principal's office.”

Comments

[Supremechief]

looking forward to next chapter

[PinkPearl]

you have caught my interest. please? do go on

[Maran]

5823997 Don't worry, I have the next two chapters written already! Hopefully I'll have enough momentum to keep going after that. It helps that I actually made an outline that plots out the story from beginning to end. I hardly ever do that, and it shows in some of the fanfics I've written for other fandoms.

And part of the reason I started writing this fanfic was because it is so hard to find straight-up magical adventure stories for EG.

[Ri2]

Diamond Tiara is a horrible despicable awful person, no matter what the universe.
What's this about emblems?