A Rift Between Worlds

by Cinders of War

Chapter 1: School Resumes

“Man!” Rainbow Dash groaned as she bent back in her chair. “More homework already?”

Mrs. Harshwhinny, hearing that comment, turned around. “Well, I can always add on more, Rainbow Dash.”

“No no no…” she said, changing her mind. “I like homework! Homework is awesome! But not as awesome as me, though! Or… you, Mrs. Harshwhinny!”

The teacher turned back to the front to write more notes on the whiteboard, happy that she had gotten her point across to the rainbow haired girl. Again.

“C’mon, Rainbow…” Applejack leaned over and whispered. “How many times have we had to go through this already?”

“Yeah, well… can’t blame me for trying,” the athlete said, leaning back in her chair again.

A knock on the door drew their attention to it, as Mrs. Harshwhinny opened it, revealing Principal Celestia standing outside, wanting a word with their homeroom teacher.

“What do you suppose she wants?” Applejack asked aloud.

“Maybe Mrs. Harshwhinny’s in trouble,” Rainbow jested.

“Don’t say something like that,” Sunset Shimmer said, turning to face her friend. “That’s not nice.”

“Hey, it’s just a joke.”

Mrs. Harshwhinny returned to the classroom, leading a blue haired boy behind her.

“Who’s this?” Rainbow whispered. “A new kid?”

“If it is, be on your guard,” Sunset said under her breath, remembering all the times, including her first time to Canterlot High, where a new student, or students, meant trouble.

The other two nodded and returned their attention to the front of the classroom, watching him like hawks, mindful of the fact that over the past few years, nearly every new student had been a magical creature of some sort. This boy might very well be one of the same.

“Class,” Mrs. Harshwhinny started. “This is Home Run. He’ll be joining our class from today on. I want you all to make him feel as welcome as possible. Home Run, you can sit next to Applejack there.”

Mrs. Harshwhinny pointed to her, showing Home Run his new seat.

“Well, howdy partner!” Applejack said as the blue-skinned boy sat down. “Welcome to CHS. You’re gonna love it here!”

“Thanks,” Home Run replied.

“Alright,” Mrs. Harshwhinny continued from the front of the class. “Time we continue this class. Take out your textbooks and turn to page five.”

Most of the class grumbled as they pulled out their heavy literature books, beginning their first lesson for the day.

---

Applejack brought Home Run along the hallway, showing him a few of the classrooms on their way to the next.

“So this is Mr. Discord’s classroom. He teaches Science, but sometimes, I don’t think he knows what he’s teachin’.”

“Guess I’ll be meeting him later,” Home Run said as he followed the farm girl.

“And this here is the cafeteria,” she showed him as they walked past the huge room. “We’ll be here after fourth period. My granny works in the kitchens here. Makes the best apple pie you’ll ever taste!”

“Can’t wait for some food,” Home Run said enthusiastically.

“You’re a sporty fella?” Applejack said, observing his gait and most likely, his name.

“Sure am!” he told her. “I used to be on my old school’s baseball team.”

“That a fact? Ya can talk to Rainbow Dash. She’s the captain of all the sports teams here at CHS. I’m sure she’ll be happy to have ya on the team.”

“Was she one of the girls in homeroom?”

“Yup! One of mah friends. I can introduce ya if ya want.”

“Thanks,” Home Run nodded. “Would be great to start playing soon.”

“Don’t mention, partner,” said Applejack with a wave of her hand. They stopped at one of the classrooms. Looking inside, Home Run saw a bunch of computers on the tables. “This here’s the computer lab, where we’ll be havin’ our next class. As much as I want to show you all of CHS at the moment, we’ll have to be gettin’ to class or we’re gonna be late.”

“Well, I have all day,” Home Run replied.

---

Home Run learnt two things while in his multimedia class. The first, is that CHS had a pretty fast internet connection. The second, is that the teacher, Mr. Pierce, was one of the most boring teachers he’d ever had the misfortune of having. His eyes were usually glued to his phone, along with his hand as he tapped away on the screen.

“As you can see, I sent your first assignment to your school inboxes,” he said in a voice that made him sound like he’d been surviving on a steady diet of gravel for the past two years. “Open it and take a look. That’s what I need you to do. I’ll be taking a look as you all work on your assignments.”

Groans escaped the students’ mouths as they read the assignment they had to complete.

“Oh, don’t grumble so much,” Mr. Pierce continued. “Consider yourselves lucky. The principal had asked me to tone down the difficulty of your work. Schools these days don’t teach you as much as they used to. Hard work is necessary for you when you move to the outside world. No one’s going to sugarcoat anything for you out there. I’ve seen corruption in the local… marketplaces of technology. Without difficult experiences, you’re not going to know what hit you when you head out there. The people here didn’t even use a secure firewall. I could breach it in four.”

“Umm…” Berry Punch raised her hand. “What did you say, Mr. Pierce?”

“Nothing. I’m saying how important it is that they’re using the firewall that I wrote. The entire school is connected to this one system, ensuring everything’s as streamlined as possible. That’s how you have such good internet here.”

Home Run leaned over to whisper to Applejack. “Doesn’t that mean he has control over the whole school? Literally?”

“Ah don’t know,” she said, scratching her head. “Never been too good at this fancy computer stuff. That’s why ah’m here to learn. And ah do need a computer credit too.”

“I don’t store any of my private information on the school database anyway,” said a small voice from his other side.

Home Run swiveled his chair around to see who had spoken. It was a girl, hiding behind a curtain of soft pink hair. She let out a little ‘eep’ as Home Run turned to her, and returned her eyes to her computer screen.

“Ah, hey there, Fluttershy!” Applejack said, keeping her voice low in case she bothered Mr. Pierce. “This here’s Home Run. He’s a new student.”

Home Run waved. “Hi there. Nice to meet you.”

“N-nice to meet you t-too,” Fluttershy said quietly.

Home Run returned his eyes to his computer screen, looking to complete the assignment Mr. Pierce had given them. They had to make a powerpoint over what they did during the Winter holidays. He thought back to what he did. He had spent most of his time packing his things, getting ready to move to Canterlot and all. Besides that, he had swung his bat a few times, and got a little exercise, running out in the streets in the cold weather.

“I didn’t really do much,” Home Run speculated as he thought back to his holidays. “What did you do, Applejack?”

Fluttershy turned to Applejack, a loaded look on her face.

“Umm… well…” Applejack said, trying to remember what she had done. “Ah worked on the farm, hung around with mah friends. Just all that normal stuff.”

“Ah, I see,” Home Run responded. “So how do we come up with ten whole slides on the holidays.”

“Ah’m sure we’ll think a somethin’.”

“Remember,” Mr. Pierce said from the front, pointing at the projector screen with something that looked awfully like a baton. “I want ten slides. Don’t tell me you can’t come up with ten slides. I would be able to come up with ten slides easily. Over this holiday, I went out of town. Saw many sights, talked… to some people, drove some cars…”

Home Run and the rest of the class listened to Mr. Pierce drone on about their assignment and his holidays until the bell rang, releasing them from the clutches of the tremendous bore that was Mr. Pierce.

---

“Captain Vor,” one of the helmsmen called.

The captain left his position to investigate what the helmsman had wanted to tell him. “What is it?”

“The signal we’ve been triangulating,” he continued. “We’ve narrowed the source.”

“Good,” the captain praised, giving the helmsman a pat on the back. “What do we have?”

“We’ve narrowed it down to a city called… Can-ter-lot.”

Vor turned away as he returned to his post. “It is only a matter of time for the Lotus. We will find her. One way… or another…”

Comments

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

I have a bad feeling about this...

[Lon35hadow]

I'm calling that Celestia's Lotus.

[Hidemain]

How'd they know the cities name was canterlot?

[Noir Moore]

7980795
Grinnier and most factions of the warframe universe have post human technology, spaceships able to travel through the whole solar system in seconds and advance cloning technology.... using scanning drones to spy around equestria and translate the primitive language they use will be take less than a day at most....

[Marcthelightspark2004]

6897656
-Every Star Wars ever made.

[MoonlightRift]

“The signal we’ve been triangulating,” he continued. “We’ve narrowed the source.”

signatures triangulated and aligned, execute.

No one will get this :)

[MoonlightRift]

I've grinded Vor so much for the intensify mod, I hope they kick his ass.

Also, Pierce my beloved