> Mysterious Ways
>  by Peridork
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Red Eyes At Morning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy was not having a good night. Fridays were her nights to watch  her shows she put on her DVR, and she hadn't caught up with her nature documentaries. That would have been the highest point of her problems if the Canterlot Vampire Coven hadn't chosen her to figure out who was murdered earlier today by what seemed to be a rogue hunter in their midst. It was a rather weird crime since wooden stakes were not a common thing for a murderer to be carrying about.

Fluttershy hadn't personally known Moondancer but she had heard that Moondancer had been a vampire for at least a decade if not longer.

Which was impressive since most vampires didn't last past their five year anniversaries without being found out and killed. There were cases of vampires living to a thousand years or more, but modern vampires were more brazen- thanks to that movie series that the whole world loved. Made being a vampire easier, but also more difficult when the fact that that movie pretty much lied about vampire powers.

Fluttershy sighed and walked into the nearby convenience store to grab a soda- vampires still needed some form of sleep, so staying up late usually needed a pick me up of some kind. Fluttershy didn't care. She'd done this routine so often since Fall Formal, that the whole idea of being a vampire caused more problems than it was worth sometimes. Like the ungodly amount she shelled out to get sunscreen. In boredom, she turned on her phone which picked up Canterlot High's radio signal.

The voice of Vinyl Scratch came over the radio waves. Fluttershy never knew why Vinyl didn't like to speak in public but was a radio announcer. Maybe she just felt more at home behind a microphone.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Mixer, the station where Canterlot High's prime students with an interest in radio and musical happenings gather and jam. I'm Vinyl and my co-host and bodacious friend is Octavia."

Fluttershy grinned at this as she walked out of the store. The radio station had nobody there now, but the automated system gave the station a sense that the most well known pair of hosts were still at the school and relaxing in the media room that seemed like the size of a closet.

"Yes, well, thank you Vinyl but I don't think that is the right thing to state on air. Since we do have time to kill, it is now time for the news. Police have released the fact that the found a body near the Cash Grab, owned by Flim and Flam. When questioned, the police sergeant, Shining Armor had to say that it was too early to tell if this was related to the spring of animal deaths in the area- but he believed that it was not. Adding that don't be alarmed since the Canterlot Guard is on the case."

Fluttershy waited to see if anything else important was said, but besides Vinyl's explanation that any words said by an interviewer did not mean that the Mixer supported this cause for alarm. Fluttershy hadn't remembered this kind of warning before so she chalked it up to Vinyl covering her bases if an angry parent called in about a scared kid or something.  

Turning towards the center of town and over the imaginary line that separated Crystal Prep kids from Canterlot High, Fluttershy got to the alleyway that Moondancer was found in. The thing about the police in this town was that they worked quickly, so there wasn't much to go on but even a scrap of information was better than nothing. She had prepared for the nasty part of the search for evidence, dumpster diving, by getting in an old hoodie and sweatpants. It wasn't completely flattering but she sacrificed some of her fashion sense for comfort and the ability to throw these old clothes away if she had to.

She tied back her pink hair into a bun with a scrunchie she pulled out of her pocket and went to work. Scanning through what seemed to be weeks of trash was a problem but Moondancer was at least a good victim of a random person- she knew when to have evidence stashed away. And the idea of a vampire going behind a pawn shop to meet someone meant that it had to be either a set up that Moondancer walked into blindly or that the murderer was a person that she knew well.

That would not be ideal. Either Moondancer knew a hunter, or she was killed by a vampire.
***

Fluttershy slinked back to her house, she hadn't found much of anything in the dumpster. A crumpled up address written quickly, half of Moondancer's glasses, and lots of blood greeted her when all was said and done. Which wasn't a bad haul for a quick look around Moondancer's last place she was found, but she didn't know where she lived. Fluttershy groaned. That meant that she was going to need to go into the library.

"Cheerilee is going to kill me." The Math Teacher/Librarian of Canterlot High was known for making sure that students did not use the computers for personal use. And her definition for "personal use" included everything that didn't involve sanctioned homework. 

Quickly jotting a note to herself and getting out of clothes that smelled like garbage, Fluttershy sat down on her coach in bunny pajamas. She may have been a bloodthirsty vampire, but she still enjoyed animals and cute things- she was just a bit different than what she was before in that she had been trained in the arts of vampirism by the leader of the Canterlot Coven himself- Superintendent Sombra. That had not been a fun experience but she grew to respect his own sense of teaching. 

Angel Bunny hopped up to see his owner and perched himself on her head. Angel was a silly bunny sometimes but Flutteshy didn't mind, he was just showing that he missed her in his own special way. Yawning, Fluttershy turned on her TV and queued up the first of her nature documentaries. The girls might not understand why she was an eco kid, well except for Applejack, but they begrudgingly let the yellow skinned human do what she wanted to do on Fridays. 

She just wished that the Friday marathon started sooner, but what was a vampire to do when she was called to coven business?
> Hunger
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The library. Known for three things- the computer laws that made students only search for the most necessary information with express permission from the librarian, the librarian herself, and the Canterlot High Secret Archives. Not so secret in the modern sense of the word but moreso in the old time version where it meant more like 'private.' 

And anyway it was at this point well known throughout the school that the reigning Queen of Hell walked amongst them thanks to the mess that Sunset caused in the Fall Formal. 

Actually as Fluttershy wondered more and more about her own powers as a vampire, it seemed to coincide with the opening of that book of Sunset's. Chalk that up to circumstance. 

"Yo, Flutter what are you looking at?" Fluttershy snapped out of her quiet state of boredom looking at the results for the address that Moondancer's last note had given her. Searching up a house's address thanks to a search engine was simple but most of the nearby area was a literal dump right next to a river. Ironic with water being a general dislike for vampires.

"Nothing, Rainbow. Just looking up some locations for a eco project I might make for my club."

Rainbow sighed and turned back to her five page english paper and moaned as she had to read her least favorite type of poetry- poetry itself.

"What is this crap? Fluttershy why did Mr. Doodle assign us some nonsense poem about fairy queens? I thought it would be awesome. But nope this is complete nonsense. Screw this assignment, I'm using the good old fashioned way to learn."

"Rainbow, if you say Spark Notes, I think the teachers might give you retroactive detention."

"But Fluttershy! Think of how much time all of us spend doing some boring assignment when we could go on a magical adventure to wherever  magical adventures are! Like totally seriously, my mom has this awesome house in the country and we could have a party and she wouldn't even know cause she's on business. Don't know exactly what she does yet but it seems like some overseas junk. My mom doesn't really talk about her work. Whatevs. I get a cool place to hang out while she's away."

Fluttershy quickly closed her desktop when she caught the eye of Cheerilee who had been listening to the entire conversation since Rainbow opened her mouth. Wouldn't be fun to get sent to detention for searching up a river. Well, okay more like actually getting a concrete lead where Moondancer might have chilled out for a bit to get away from Crystal Prep. 

Dunno. Couldn't understand dead vampires.

Fluttershy packed up her stuff and left without saying much to Rainbow. Kind of hard to do it when the athlete was getting dragged off to the Principal's office by the deceptively quick and strong librarian that everybody was somewhat terrified of.

At least she didn't see her other friends. Applejack was usually busy helping out at her family farm nowadays and Rarity was trying to get into the realm of high fashion under the wing of Suri Polomare, Pinkie was Pinkie, and Sunset was dealing with her magical problems thanks to Fall Formal's shenanigans.

So Fluttershy and the girls didn't talk much after school all in one large group. It was the issues of growing up and having responsibilities.

And Fluttershy's current responsibility for the current moment was probably saying hi to the other Coven members and saying that she was actually on the case. Some of the other vampires were a bit too hands on with their sense of importance. And some were miffed about how quickly Fluttershy had been rising in importance since her new life. Being a direct pupil to Superintendent Sombra can do that and vampires could be as bad, if not worse, than the cliques in Canterlot High.

She still remembered when they stranded her in the middle of nowhere and left her to get back to the mansion before sunrise. That was a pain.

Slinging her backpack over her shoulder, Fluttershy briskly walked out of the library before Cheerilee could ask her about Rainbow's conversation with her.
***

Blut Manor was not a small place on the outskirts of Canterlot's city limits. It was a house that imposed itself on the landscape, with a design that hearkened bake to Gothic architectures and cold hard stone. It was a cold place to most people but it grew to become a home away from home for the Coven and a gathering spot to share information on the wider world. The building was meant to show the wealth of one man- Sombra- and his family's wealth that had accumulated throughout the centuries. What the humans didn't know was that it wasn't really a family affair if "each generation" of the family was actually the same vampire living different lives as he grew bored with them. He had been many things in his one thousand years of existence and had come from the Old World when the New World was discovered- seeing of course unlimited potential in monetary gain.

He had been everywhere across the world and decided that being a school superintendent with a rich family heritage suited him best in the current situation. Nobody minded and with the secrets that Canterlot High and Crystal Prep held in their secret archives. so he said, there was almost no need to worry. There were much stranger things in the archives than a vampirism cure.

Opening the heavy door to the manor, Fluttershy walked in the halls of the ancient building. Her footsteps echoed as she passed room upon room of coffins and a pool that was filled with blood. An expensive treat for a coming banquet or just a way to spend money since Sombra did have more money than even he could spend in his lifetime. Paintings lined the walls of each member of the Coven painted in the attire of the decade that they had been turned to the cause. Starting from the Middle Ages to the present day, it was a collection of portraits that showed where everyone was from and when. It was a nice homey touch for such a large place- and the walls would have seemed bare without some sort of decoration. Or that's what Fluttershy had picked up from Rarity during the few months she was modeling her designs. Fashion and aesthetic were somewhat important. 

Rarity and Fleur would get along great, Fluttershy realized.

Fluttershy liked the manor. Its large size left her mind time to wander and collect her thoughts in the moments before reaching the true heart of the Coven, the basement. Because, while blatant blood pools and coffins were acceptable above ground, the real magic happened in the basement, A library that rivaled and in some regards even surpassed the Secret Wings of the schools hid below. Ancient tomes from olden times were carefully preserved to keep them usable and intact. Some of them were original copies of tomes bound in human skin- those were the ones with the real power. Summoning things from beyond the human realm involved some powerful charms and binding rituals and the dark magic tomes made it possible to summon things.

There were more than just that. Items procured from magical creatures, scrolls, alchemy equipment- Sombra had been busy his whole life trying not to become bored with what he sometimes called the curse of idleness. Near immortality was useful, but boredom could really drag it into a mess of tangled up feelings of nothing to do. 

After a couple minutes of navigating the catacomb-like basement wondering where everyone was, Fluttershy gradually saw a dim light at the end of the hallway that she was walking towards. The light beckoned her in and it illuminated the throne room of Sombra. Somhow being a superintendent of a school district didn't temper his well earned vanity as the chair was seemingly covered in precious metals and gleamed in the candlelight that gave the room its light. Comfortably sitting in the chair. Sombra glanced up at his youngest, and in some ways, most promising apprentice.

"Hello. Fluttershy. Any progress on the Moondancer affair?"

Fluttershy decided to quickly fill him in on the details and her assumptions of the case in as few words as possible. And that took only a couple minutes with Sombra's questions about clarification. After the debriefing was over, Sombra steepled his hands and lay back in his chair. 

"So you think either a hunter or a vampire did the deed. How troubling. Because this causes me trouble on two fronts. Either there's a hunter in Crystal Prep that takes their job even more fanatically than the rest of them and actively plans hunts of monsters or I have a vampire that doesn't want to follow MY leadership. And that's even worse."

"Well its more of a hunch. . ."

"Of course. Of course. But I rather don't like to entertain that possibility. And after replacing Principal Cinch recently with Starlight Glimmer, I don't want to have to continue telling the parents that the schools are safe. Because this is just a little bit. . .embarrassing that I can't control a thousand students." Sombra just calmly massaged his temple because the memory of the last schoolboard meeting was just annoying. 

"Yeah. Don't worry though. I'm on the case or something, either way. . .I'll get this solved." Fluttershy just nervously waited to be dismissed. 

Sombra waved a hand and turned back to his book. "Go. I need some time to ease my head."

Fluttershy walked away and went down the hallway. She could heard muttering from Sombra as she left that sounded like, "And it's these moments I wished I chose my Plan B- leader of a dictatorship sounds easier than teaching."
> Unfortunate Situation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was not Fluttershy's best idea. Now stealing something from Crystal Prep was usually hard. They had been on edge after the whole night sky exploded in hellfire last Fall Formal. Sure they were hyper paranoid monster hunters anyway, but having their theories that had been hypothesized for a few hundred years paying off in one blast really made them notice the rivalry between the schools. But the schools weren't always segregated into Monsters at CHS and Hunters at Crystal Prep. Fluttershy knew that the Drama Club led by that Trixie girl was full of humans. Humans were fantastic in covert missions. 

She just wished that the fastest one at that job wasn't Trixie.

***

The thing about Trixie wasn't that she was full on annoying per se. Her family life was just really weird. Being the adopted daughter of the Vice Principal of the school could do that to a girl. All in all, she learned how to be a complete and utter mess at social interactions, but she really knew how to shine in drama. At least Fluttershy liked that she was super easy to bribe- she absolutely adored peanut butter crackers. 

Walking up to the attached house of the Principals always felt weird to Fluttershy. Mostly because it wasn't school related and that the whole family dynamic was now insane. A Demon Queen of Hell, a School Principal, the Vice Principal in Alcoholics Anonymous, and a drama nerd could do that.

She chalked up the crazy to stress related to deal with schools being dumb.

Ringing the doorbell and waiting was the worst because seeing teachers after school doing normal things like having lives and families was not on the normal list of things that students would love.

Having the door opened by Vice Principal Luna while she was wearing bunny pajamas? That was unexpected. 

"Fluttershy? What are you doing here at this time of night?" Luna peered out behind Fluttershy to check if she was being 'punked' as her sister liked calling pranks nowadays. Luna's eye twitched. She had been on edge ever since she had tried to crash her sister's car into the school. She had only wanted to host a school dance that lasted all night long and her sister said no. Sure then she got wasted on moonshine and then tried to commit manslaughter with a car.

She did laugh about the whole experience after she went to prison for a while.

"Oh is Trixie here cause I have this project for class that I wanted her to look over." 

Fluttershy hated lying to Luna about why she was actually here but time probably was of the essence with this and getting Trixie to come out to her was easier this way.

"Sure, why not? Its not like I thought you were the pizza man." Luna trudged in the house dejectedly- her ankle bracelet faintly beeping as she went back towards the center of the house.

Fluttershy tried to strike up conversation with the Vice Principal. "So seen any good movies lately?" 

Luna looked askance at the girl. "Not really, but my life was a prison drama for a year."

"Ouch?"

"That's what my cellmates said when I showed them my hygiene regimen."

"Who are you talking to, Luna? You know how Doctor Turner said you needed your antipsychotics. . . oh Fluttershy what are you doing here?"

Principal Celestia was not much better than her sister in her choice of attire. Sun polka dots did not do great things for her. Though she did have good poise for being surprised by Fluttershy.

"Need Trixie for something." 

Celestia groaned. Of course. There weren't many reasons why students would come to her inner sanctum away from the kids unless they needed her daughter or her sister's. "Back room." Celestia wanted to watch her nightly soap opera and go to bed. Temple of Desire was having a great arc with Sapphire Shores guest starring. "Why can't I go on magical adventures like those characters? All I do is get paperwork and whatnot."

***


Fluttershy glanced into Trixie's room. For being Luna's daughter, she was rather boring with her room choices. The room was just a bed, a desk, a dresser, and not much else. Though what dominated her room were total nerd things. Action figures and statues dominated a wall showing off her different likes. A strange purple and black dress hung up on another wall near black boots and gloves. Putting that up to Trixie recently watching a few too many superhero movies- she nudged the hyperfocused drama nerd awake.

"Trixie was not asleep, she was carefully watching for intruders." 

"Uh huh. Well I won't tell your Drama geek clique that anytime soon if you get me some information on the whole mess going on with this Moondancer murder that just happened. You have to know at least something since everyone knows how involved the Drama Club is in literal drama."

Trixie moved some of her hair out of her face to better present herself and rubbed her hands together. "The club is only for Drama. We never said what kind or how far. I mean if you really need anything little Battershy I really don't doubt I could find it out for you."

Fluttershy winced at the nickname. First of all, she hadn't told humans about her vampirism and yet here's probably the most conniving witch in the school knowing her personal secret. "How did you even know?"

"Trade secret. But no matter you rather fine specimen of unfortunate implications- I bet you want to see what everybody knows about this little mess." Trixie grabbed her smartphone and held up a finger to stop Fluttershy from interrupting her. "I wouldn't want to do that if I were you. Messing with my concentration makes hacking into some fun sources so much harder. Go see what my hellish sister is doing cause this is going to take a while. 

Fluttershy shrugged and walked out of Trixie's room. At least there could be a lead soon. And Sunset was rather fun now or at least much more relatable to a vampire like her.

***


Fluttershy found the Queen of the school in the backyard. 

"Hey."

"Sup? What brings you into my Faustian presence mere fledgling?"

"Cut it vampout. I know its just you at the moment Sunset. Full demonic presence I can actually smell."

"Man I thought you'd at least be able to joke about something instead of being unable to take a joke like my aunt. What caused you to be in such a nit, your bitchiness?" Sunset grinned.

"Vampire crap."

"And that's nothing new. At least not to me since you talk about it everyday when you can. And come on vampires are so small fry anyway. You at least don't have to deal with all the demon hormones and infighting when you are the only Queen of Hell. Real boys club down there." Sunset slid a cigarette out of her black jacket and offered it to Fluttershy. 

"Nah I'm good. Fire isn't my favorite thing to go near." 

"Your loss." Sunset snapped her fingers and a small flame danced on her hand. Quickly aiming her cigarette towards it, she quickly took in a puff of air to let the fire catch. Puffing out, she deftly let smoke rings dance on the air. "Man I love how fun fire powers can be. Makes things so much easier." 

"Well is this Sunset or Belphegor I'm talking to?" 

Sunset's demon pal that shared her body now was known to a lot of people in the school. It was an unspoken nonentity that existed. It helped that a few youtube videos had surfaced of Sunset opening a portal to Hell. It didn't really matter to Fluttershy if that event caused a lot of kids to start carrying crosses and rosaries and all that. Vampires actually rather liked having religious symbols near them anyway- made people complacent and easygoing since movies spread that whole vampire weakness checklist. Sombra just called that the "Anti-Italian list of weaknesses. There was some fallout about opening up another plane of existence on the news but most outside of the school thought it was some found footage CGI practical joke. And no, no angels were seen in the making of that movie.

Crystal Prep took all the signs of Canterlot High being a literal den of demons super seriously though. Sunset chuckled loudly the next week when people started throwing salt on her or trying to trap her in hastily drawn demon traps.

Sunset laughed. "Why not both of us?" Her eyes flashed red and she hummed to herself. "But seriously deal with your stuff. All of us are in highschool come on- live a little Miss Stick in the Mud. Or don't. Just don't come crying to me when your fun meddling with the natural order of school starts wrecking house. Trust me. It isn't always a blast finding some secret that is trying to remain buried. Really harshes my mellow."

Fluttershy lightly hugged Sunset and the two almost had a tender moment before Trixie barged in.

"Eww gross. . .also Sunset I'm telling your mom that you haven't stopped smoking."

Sunset just showed Trixie how much she cared about that threat with a few choice gestures.

"Well okay then whatever. Breathe in that smoke, see if I care. Fluttershy, the great and wonderful Trixie found a lead at least."

The vampire raised an eyebrow at this. "Really its only been like twenty minutes."

Trixie groaned. "And half that time was just me hacking into the records of the police department and both schools to see records as to who didn't call in on Moondancer's death. After checking the records I found some juicy stuff my club can use to stir up drama. But that's super not necessary for your purposes. The only person I could find that was conspicuously absent that didn't call in at all was Nurse Fleur from Crystal Prep. And I could have checked all the student records as well but  it'd take me hours to skirt through that."

"Damn it. Fine. I'll start there." 

Fluttershy really didn't like dealing with Fleur. Not that she was a snooty rich lady that overlorded over everyone- no. It was because Fleur was a crazy insane nurse that just so happened to be one of Sombra's favorites. The prim and proper nurse hid some crazy tendencies that really didn't come out unless other people knew about them. And while Fluttershy liked some history lessons- thankfully since all the long lived vampires loved talking about the things they saw- Fleur took it to a whole other level of obsession. Fluttershy shivered at the thought of the last meeting the two vampires had.

Sombra had to pay her well for finding this murderer cause this search for answers wasn't shaping up well.
> Coffeehouse Dues
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy stretched out and got comfortable. She tried to stop being nervous around older vampires but the older one was, the more likely they commanded some form of respect. And this one was one of the most powerful in terms of age. And yet in some perverse way, Fleur did not look like some old lady but was only in what some would call middle age. She briefly swirled her coffee around and smiled at Fluttershy.

"Oh this establishment is so quaint. I don't often go in coffeehouses anymore. Not since the good old days."

"I mean you only talk about the good old days once in a blue moon, why not start now?"

"Oh you are so testy. Its rather unbecoming of a lady. But blame the feminine things of the last hundred years here in your little world and I'd turn to see all your leaders bow before Robespierre as he deftly talked about the necessity of terror. The guillotine was partially a pastime. You have your talent shows. We had capital punishment. Violent behavior is unbecoming of females but we are the daughters of previous generations. Isn't some kind of male influence a good thing?"

"I used sarcasm. Don't go off the deep end now."

Fleur stopped stirring and opened her eyes. "If you don't want this spoon in your arm, I would suggest shutting your mouth. I have tried every way to figure out how this curse given by God works. I know how you tick. I know exactly where every nerve ending is, I know how to keep an immortal alive and conscious while I work on them. I have honed all my skills for hundreds of years."

"I mean all I want is some information. If you want to then try to beat me up, be my guest. Sombra did train both of us- I wonder who is better anyway? I mean he trained you like two centuries ago. I trained under him like a year ago. What do you even do? Look pretty and work out the entire brood's stress level?"

Fleur's coffee mug shattered. Joe looked over. "Oh sorry monsieur, I guess it broke. I can pay for the glass." Fleur quietly whispered to Fluttershy. "I will break your spine. But yes we can talk. Just you know, I'll talk while destroying you."

Joe just shook his head. He knew to let things go. He had many coffee mugs anyway. What was one broken one. He knew when a bad time entered his shop. Except this time it wasn't named Celestia.

***


Roseluck's days off were relaxing to her. Being in nature was soothing, even if cities were not her ideal habitat. She liked the untainted glens and dales of small town life. Seemed more attuned to her aura. But she dealt with her isolation from the earth in smaller ways. Teaching students weren't the most fun but planting a seed of knowledge was rather nice and tending to that made her work bearable. But what really made her happy was tending to her garden and feeling a bit of connection to healing the earth of its pollution one seed at a time. She was busily gathering her seeds from the local store when one of her students crashed through the building and out the other side in a flash.

Pulling out her phone, Roseluck quickly dialed her emergency contact. After the muffled voice came on the line she broke down the situation.

"Yeah. It's Rose. Oh you know nothing much. Oh I mean there was this one thing. You know that whole keeping magical creatures on the down and out secret thing you guys all kind of made. Yeah well the vampires broke that shit. Yeah I know that should be  impossible at this time of day . What will I do about it? Fine. Fine. You owe me now."

Hanging up and in now a bad mood, Roseluck cursed her luck. 

"Fine. if Queenie wants me to deal with this, I will." Roseluck snapped her fingers and vanished. 

***


Fluttershy dusted herself off and quickly checked how her body was doing. Opening her eyes she saw that both of her arms were sticking at unnatural angles and she winced at the thought of having to push them back into place to let her body heal. Looking for a nearby tree, she quickly sprinted towards it, one shoulder aimed straight at the hard trunk and as she heard the bone snap back in a semi normal place she held in a scream. She may have had healing powers, but it didn't mean she had pain free healing. After her arm started working as best as she could hope for in the moment she used it to put the other arm back in place as well.

"Tres bien! Now that made me feel a rush- while your manners are complete and utter. how do you say. garbage fire when compared to the ideal lady, you aren't an imbecile. I remember a lot of fun times in French Indochina when I used to have fun with all these humans and they never could bounce back as good as us. I would give you a D minus in vampirism."

There was Fleur flapping away on her bat wings. 

"Well okay compared to a dusty old lady like you, but who's really comparing."

"And there we go again with the whole mouthy thing. This is why I preferred Moondancer anyway. She knew how to deal rightly with people. And no I actually liked her. Why would I murder a vampire I liked? It'd be antithetical to my own purposes. I like civil behavior and she was the best at what it truly meant to be a vampire. No whining, no talking back. She was perfect. Hiding her vampirism while manipulating all she could."

Fluttershy hated hearing Fleur talk. The woman loved the sound of her own voice and her own thoughts that once she started speaking crazy, she really was unable to stop until some sad sack decided to shut her up. Fluttershy hated this so much.There were so many better things she could have done to really not have to talk to Fleur. She could have had Trixie to spend hours searching the files of the highschool registries for students who were absent. she could have said no to Sombra's task, she could have ate a whole tub of chocolate ice cream while watching Titanic.

She'd have to file that idea away for later. 

But what she loved about Fleur's crazy talk was that she really did get caught up in her own thoughts. And Sombra did teach her to attack while her opponents were weakest.

Quickly fashioning a tree branch into an aerodynamic weapon would have taken too long. So Fluttershy had the next best idea she could think of. 

"Hey Fleur, there's something on your shirt."

"Au contraire, I keep my linens completely immaculate. If there was a piece of dirt on my clothes I would know. I mean- give me a moment." Fleur looked down and saw that there was nothing on her shirt.

"Made you look." Fluttershy tossed her tree limb as hard as she could. She really hoped she had thrown it correctly or that the idea of a "stake" that kills vampires did not include hastily improvised javelins. 

Fleur screamed as the wooden spear impaled her. "Are you trying to murder me you little freaking upstart! Mon Dieu, this hurts. And this was my favorite shirts. Once I get this out of me I will show you the true meaning of pain if that's the last thing I ever do."

With a loud pop Roseluck gracefully tried to hop into the clearing. "Now girls can we all act like the totally rational people I hope you are. Though with how Canterlot currently is having a hissy fit having a city block explode thanks to you stroking each other's fragile ego- we have a problem."

Fluttershy blinked. Sure she knew of Roseluck, since she was one of the teachers in Canterlot High that she actually liked since she was the advisor of the Ecology Club. But she appeared out of nowhere. That wasn't supposed to happen for magical creatures that she knew of.

"Hey you threw off my moment of vowing vengeance. Fleur was seething while trying to pull out the branch as delicately as possible,

"Oh I'm sorry your majesty. I don't care. First of all, you destroyed the peace in the city that has been on a tenuous balance ever since the Accords of 1692 banning any and all conspicuous  supernatural abilities."

"Yeah well she was sarcastic and completely unlearned in manners."

Roseluck laughed at that. "Seriously? You fought her over that? Have you seen the student population here in this here town. Feels like 
I'm back in the days of King Arthur with how full of themselves these humans are. And to stand up for my student- she's probably not all that bad. I'd say blame the vampire curse cause all of you are insufferable."

"Thank you Miss Roseluck." 

"Oh that doesn't mean I'm letting either of you off the hook though. Let's just say your internal vampire problem has been getting out of hand. The establishment I work for has been looking for Moondancer and her little shenanigans for a while."

Fluttershy tilted her head. "She's been dead almost a week now. Shouldn't you have done this sooner?"

Roseluck chuckled. "Shy, that the Court for you. They live in their own little world. Time dilation and all that jazz. But yeah I'm just the enforcer bringing you two in. Sorry."

"What are you doing?" 

Roseluck whistled long and slow. Fluttershy shivered as a breeze quickly picked up and she was confused when she felt the grass move as one undulating wave. A small circle of light slowly surrounded the three and they winked out of existence for a brief moment.

***


Fluttershy opened her eyes and was greeted by twilight. The grove that they had been in before was lit by a noonday sun but here in a land where it seemed a few hours had passed. 

"Where are we?" 

"Oh now where are my manners? Vampires- or most haven't been here for quite a while. Welcome Vampires of House Tepes to the Seelie Courts. Sorry for the silence. Our lady is rather livid right now."

Quick trumpets were heard in the distance and as Fluttershy turned, she saw a single train of people walk up towards her. They did not look the part of happy fairies, but more angry and holding silver spears that glinted in the twilight. 

A booming voice that was feminine and full of power echoed through the silence.

"That is an understatement. And I hoped my school's nurse wasn't such a  pain in the rear but now we have a problem on our hands."

The train stopped and a thin and graceful lady stepped towards the pair. Fluttershy glanced over and saw Fleur visibly shaking in terror.

"Oh don't worry. If I was going to kill you, I wouldn't have brought you here."

"Sorry Vice Principal Cadance. I should have been more tactful."

"Oh Fleur. How nice to see you actually having some decorum for once. But when you are in my presence and realm call me Queen of the Shining Throne, Benevolent Ruler of the Seelie Court. Oh an Fluttershy- if you want to ask around in my school's files don't send a crowbar when you could just ask nicely."

Fluttershy froze.

"Oh but don't worry. We won't kill you. Our handmaiden's daughter is one of your friends. She speaks highly of you. We can talk of your punishment later. Windy Whistles wants to see how her daughter's doing now. I said that she could just ask during a parent teacher conference, but you know how long distance parenting is."

A muffled female's yell could be heard echoing through the glade. "I know my daughter- Dash is too awesome to do great in school, milady."

Fluttershy shivered at the thought of talking to Rainbow's mom. Also finding out your friend is a literal fairy took some getting used to. She would have to ask to ask her when she got back. Fluttershy thought that maybe Dash's strange iron allergy made some sense now. She blankly followed the procession to the large palace in the distance.

> Personal Space
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy shifted nervously in her seat. It was not that it was uncomfortable in any way but having an entire race of beings- and one of your teachers- stare you down and offer you food was rather intimidating.

"Don't you want some more water or something. Probably not cream though. I don't know how that would react with your biology but it is something of an alcohol to one of our kind." Cadance gently spoke; her voice echoing through the hall. 

Fleur just had stayed completely silent since Cadance had talked to her so Fluttershy had to speak for the both of them.

"Oh no. I think we're fine and I don't want to really be a rude houseguest or whatever this is but I really have to get back. It seems like my phone isn't working. Must be bad service or something but I bet my family is totally worried that I am missing."

"But you haven't even touched your food. You know how much work it is to prepare for an unexpected visitor. And anyway, I always think that polite conversation is better with food. I mean you wouldn't want to cause a scene."

Fluttershy really hated that tone of voice she was hearing, and she always liked being at least a little courteous in these types of situations but it seemed too risky to even touch that food.

"Oh I almost forgot that Fleur and I had food right before we fought and got sent here so yeah. Can we leave? I mean you have a really nice place and I'd love to see all the strange animals you probably have here but I really have to go home. It's Sunday. I think? I have to get up early in the morning for like school."

Cadance smiled. "Well aren't you a punctual student you little saint. But no. You broke the Accords of 1692 those that totally are about no supernatural business in the town. And anyway since your friend Moondancer is dead and you two are here right now," Cadance glanced over at Fleur as well, "I bet your cute little coven with a man who only saw the Renaissance can bargain with one who saw the beginnings of the cute species you call humanity." 

"So we aren't leaving at all. This really messes up my tutoring sessions with Rainbow about her English paper."

"Can't you let her go then? My daughter isn't completely the greatest with papers, milady."

"That's the price she pays for your insolence, Windy, you know the rules I set about intermarrying with the dust of the earth. Now be silent because this is my court and while I think little miss vampire here is noble. . .it doesn't mean I excuse her friend's actions for weakening the power of my court and too bad this Moondancer is dead and gone because i have a special place for those that turn Seelie into Unseelie."

"I have no idea what you are even talking about cause I got this mission from Sombra and I don't really think vampires can turn fairies into. . .anti-fairies? Is that even a thing. And anyway I don't really want to even be here."

Cadance flicked her wrist and Fluttershy's chair slowly began to rise into the air. "Do you know how hard it is to be listened to when all I hear from every coven of little creatures how unfair it is to be in the shadows and be hunted down by my students in Crystal Prep? Every day I get some voicemail from some werewolf or ghoul or whatever you like and its all so trivial. I'm the one the everyone complains to. I know how bad it is to be imposed upon by all these supplicants. But we have rules. And your little dead friend upset the natural order."

Fluttershy quietly started praying that maybe just maybe the weird situation of being stuck in a hellish wonderland of horribleness would maybe stop.

"But no. I have a war against the Unseelie myself and your friend upset the apple cart."

"But Cady I don't think playing games with a dumb vampire will make you fill the hole where your empathy should be." Fluttershy heard the faint clicking of boots upon stone as she tried to see who it was who talked back. But before she could, Cadance dropped the chair she was in hard and Fluttershy really wasn't having it.

"You." 

Fluttershy opened her eyes and saw that her savior was Sunset. Currently holding a plate full of food and almost grinning with how much she tended to steal the show.

"Sorry for ruining your villain speech there good Queen of mine. Or at least maybe least stabby evil. Though I heard Chryssy has gone some good real estate. Better than the worst time of night forever and ever."

Fluttershy stood up and ran as fast as she could towards Sunset. "Sunset what are you even doing here?"

"Well let's see first I heard that a city block kind of exploded in the city- good job getting on the news by the way- and then you didn't show up for school for like two days. Oh and then Rainbow begged me to find you cause female bond or something. And also I put a tracking spell on you after you left my house. You've not been yourself since you got your vampire powers and that makes you a complete hyperfocused idiot in how amazingly overpowered you think you are. But no you'll just go traipsing around being reckless after I told you to be careful." Sunset sighed.

"Well those are good points."

"Don't worry Shy. All my friends seem to be some kind of moron with their ideals. Now can you please go be hiding somewhere so Fairly Awful and I can have some kind of discussion. But yeah later you and I? Need to have some kind of talk about this. I don't like being the angel on your shoulder. Not really my type of gig."

Fluttershy nodded weakly and looked around quickly to find some kind of hiding spot. Quickly seeing a waving Roseluck she tilted her head a little at the confusing detail. Roseluck shook her head and cupped her hands to start yelling at the girl.

"Fluttershy do I have to grade you more harshly to get you over here. I actually kind of like you as a student okay? And anyway I'd much rather be as far away from a war of words between those two. Way too far above my pay grade."

***


Sunset hated even trying to reason with some of these supernatural leaders. They were always so full of themselves. Or maybe she was just so new to this whole thing that maybe, just maybe, they weren't that bad. She just was the new kind on the block. Closing her eyes for just a moment she reached deep within herself to pull out her "formal attire" as Rarity termed it. Though Sunset always hated the first part of it. Horns were kind of hard to regrow every time you had to make a statement. Those hurt.

She flicked a hand over herself and began quietly chanting Enochian to herself to make her normal clothing at least more presentable than just her jacket, skirt, and boots combo that she tended to prefer thanks to Celestia being rather bad at shopping for anyone beyond a biker chick. Must have been Celestia expecting a rebellious phase out of her. How useful. Though she did like some dresses sometimes. So thinking up one off the top of her head was pretty simple. Just a yellow dress that at least tried to match some of the styles of the cowering fairies in the place. Too bad they all looked like something out of Medieval Times. 

The dress formed around her and too make a point that she wasn't quaking in her boots now she looked over her clothing change and smiled at the nice set of shoes she got out of the deal, she sat down and waited for Cadance to make the first move.

Cause that lady just loved to hear herself talk.

"Are you done admiring yourself?"

"Oh sorry about that. Rarely get to wear a dress. Plus if I always showed off my demon side I'd probably stand out like a burning torch or something. So unlike you I know some kind of restraint. But my devil on my shoulder tells me you always liked to lord over people and all that. Though I guess being an observer really has some advantages."

"Well why are you even here? Cause I really was enjoying myself a little bit and you came in and ruined my moment."

"Well I tend to dislike having a friend of mine- and that school nurse of yours I guess," Fleur winced and began to scoot as far back as possible from the two staring directly at her. "be unable to defend themselves in this kangaroo court scam you have going. I mean those "Accords" you keep lording over as proof that its an open and shut case- those have been amended like five times in like the last four decades. Come on."

"I don't recognize those as legitimate laws."

Sunset rubbed her temple. "That's amazing. A fairy queen not wanting to face reality. You can't just say laws don't apply to you and yet lord over some broken idea of the past. First of all, you totally have technology right? That makes everyone a blurry mess in videos. Seriously, if you wanted to hide like the old days- no pictures or video for you and that doesn't include all the cameras and things that are everywhere. People know you exist. Just nobody cares."

"Well Moondancer ruined the balance of the whole fairy war that's been going on since we got stuck in this plane of earth."

"Where's the proof? Seriously. Could have been anyone since we have people chasing each windmill they see. Could have been anybody. Could have been humans for all I know. I don't know how science works on magical fairies. And anyway you already ruined my friend's week. Let her go. Or else."

"Or else what. demon?"

"I call tithe on you. I mean I checked the records I keep in my own personal space in Hell and looks like you've been skimming a bit off the top. For like the last five hundred years." Sunset made an ornate book appear and quickly flipped through it. "I think ten percent of all that sounds about right in trade for my friend here."

Cadance gripped the side of her ornate throne and stared off into space. Her mid swimming with the possibility that she, the greatest and most important ruler of Canterlot's movers and shakers, could even be wrong made her livid. The upstart demon that had messed with the nice old ways that nobody ever questioned made her look like a fool. And while comedy was well known to fairies for centuries- she was nobody's fool.

"Come on take the deal. It'd be much easier than giving me all that nice money." Sunset's eyes glowed a deep red in anticipation.

Cadance broke. "Fine. What else do you want?"

Sunset yelled at Fluttershy. "Hey, Shy got anything else you want cause I'm fine with this trade. But its so tempting to really get my claws in for the trouble I went through."

Fluttershy thought about her mission and why she even got to Fleur in the first place. It wouldn't hurt to get into Crystal Prep at some point. "Can I get into Crystal Prep and look around and see Moondancer's things?"

"You heard the mild mannered, highly unreasonable chick."

Cadance nodded and pointed to her door. "Get out. I agree to your demands. Take your friend and leave. Just go before I change my mind."

Sunset knew a good deal when she saw one. Beckoning to Fluttershy, she quickly looked for the weakest place in this twilight realm of fairies and aimed some quick words to open up a portal. Bleeding red pierced the veil between Avalon and Earth. "Fluttershy, I think we overstayed our welcome. So let's get up and leave."

Fluttershy didn't have to get told twice. Running as fast as she could, she jumped into the portal and disappeared.

Sunset turned and bowed to Cadance. "Thanks for having me. We should catch up again. Maybe in some better times, Cadance.  See you around." 

She quickly stepped into the portal and it disappeared with a faint pop and faint smell of brimstone in the air.

"Well I liked them. Seems like my daughter's totally got some neat friends."

Cadance rubbed her head. "Yes she does Windy. Though I'd rather call them annoying."

"I mean at least somebody seems to care about her compared to some people here."

"Can we talk about this later?"

"Sure, milady."

***


Sunset stared at Fluttershy.

"I told you. You had to be careful to not stand out too much. Sure Cadance is haughty and all that but seriously you are not acting like yourself anymore. Why are you even doing this Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy looked up at the starry sky and shivered. "I mean its kind of my duty to deal with this."

"Well yeah but that's not enough. You have been acting weird all week. More than usual and so not like yourself."

"It's just I was close to Moondancer. And now she's gone. Is that enough?"

"Sure. I mean for now. This isn't done but I have a busy week not having our little friend group run around and be in danger. Things aren't doing well here. And I actually don't know why."

Before Fluttershy could ask what that meant, her phone rang and after a quick mix of surprise and joy that her phone was working again, she put it up to her ear and heard Moondancer's voice. Which should be completely impossible. But somehow it felt tinny and distant as well. Wrong and chopped up between reality and some mixed facsimile of her voice.

"I hope that was fun. It really does surprise me that there's this whole other world out there. Though I guess I should know about that now. Cameras are so useful for  that kind of proof. Sorry for messing with your day. I just love seeing what's out there.  And I think you are one of the more interesting things I've seen."

"Who is this?" Fluttershy looked around quickly to see if there was any cameras that she could see or if she could hear any nearby footsteps. Silence and Sunset's confused face greeted her for her troubles.

"Just call me a curious observer. See you around."

Then the line completely went dead.

Fluttershy put down her phone and looked at Sunset. "I think I just got a hint in the worst way possible."

"Well that's better than running around like a crazy person." 

"Thanks for the confidence there Sunset."

"No problem. Seriously though let's deal with that tomorrow. I think even I have had too much excitement for one day."

Fluttershy nodded and quickly noted exactly what the call exactly said in a note to herself. Better to be prepared for a later review than forgetting what was said. Looking at her phone again to check any messages she missed, Fluttershy saw that there was none from her family.

How unsurprising. At least there were a few people that cared. Quickly writing a text to Rainbow to say she was okay- she nodded at Sunset and walked off into the darkness. At least she now had some idea that there might be somebody out there that might know what happened to Moondancer. And had the time to find using her voice to talk with her as a fun time. Fluttershy shivered at the thought.
> Rainbow Soul
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy opened her locker. She had to be careful since she had been unfornately gone from school for three days. Time magic shenanigans and all that. That and weirdly legalistic fairies. But Fluttershy had other things to worry about now besides having some existential crisis over magical fairies and her friends also being magical creatures. No, she also had to think about the message she got from that Observer person that actually gave her a very difficult nights sleep.

“Flutters, what’s up and why are you looking so deeply into your locker. It’s not Narnia or something.”

Fluttershy turned and found Rainbow Dash in her soccer uniform with a concerned look on her face. 

“Just trying to figure out what to do with all this homework. I mean Reachbottom is fine since she just game me a PE makeup sheet and all. But what about Harshwhinny’s History paper that’s due in like a few days, that’s ten pages right there. And then this new Miss Eris and her Physics homework and Mr. Doodle’s paper and all that.”

“I dunno. Do what I do. Put it off and procrastinate and then do it in a blaze of glory. Works well enough for me.”

“I don’t think that would work since my mom kind of expects more than an okay grade. I mean my brother squeaked by in school and look where that’s gotten him.”

Rainbow Dash thought long and hard about that. “I didn’t even know you had a family, Shy. I thought you were some state sponsored kid making her way in the world.”

“What gave you that idea?”

“I dunno. I’ve seen movies with that kind of feel good message and all that. I for sure wouldn’t get it out of a book. I mean waste of my time really.”

“Rainbow I do have to say at least your family seems okay. Or at least your mom does.”

Rainbow stopped rocking back and forth on her feet. It seemed to Shy that her friend was always in some sort of constant motion and seeing a stock still Dash kind of worried her.

“So you know that I’m totally a fairy then? And you met my mom? I don't know what's worse.”

“Does it really matter cause I don’t think so since I’m just a vampire and Sunset is a demon. Seems like you are in good company. And also we went to summer camp when we were kids. Of course you being a magical fairy doesn’t matter. And your mom seemed at least better than my parents.”

“That’s good to- wait. You are a vampire? You are kidding right? The whole Dracula 3000 thing and Blackula?”

Fluttershy laughed. “What movies have you been watching?”

“All of them mostly. Local library is stocked with all the weird movies and my mom is never really home. Also I get homework done in literally a second.”

Fluttershy raised a eyebrow at this thought. Rainbow Dash wasn’t really the lying type. “That seems impossible.”

“Well its more like I spend eight hours on a thing like homework and it passes in an actual second. My mom calls it some fairy magic. I call it my way out of having to balance my social life, homework, and sports. Though it always has some side effects.”

“So I’m guessing that’s why you sleep so much during some of our class periods.”

Rainbow Dash nervously chuckled. “Yeah well try having forty eight hours in a day and see how tired you can get. But yeah didn’t know you went into that fairy realm anyway. I sure wouldn’t unless I had to. All the people in there aren’t rad at all.”

Fluttershy shivered at the recent memory. But thinking about how awful that place was jogged her memory about her conundrum. Sure Cadance gave her the way into Crystal Prep to see what was up with that school and Moondancer’s death but those preppy people knew who was who in their own school. The only way to into eithHer er Canterlot High or Crystal Prep was either by bribing people or having some underhanded way to make people like you or go in disguises.

And Fluttershy was terrible at dressing up. Her complete fear of Halloween attested to that fact. 

“Rainbow. I think you just gave me an idea. You know how to do illusions and all that?”

“Well I don’t know all that much compared to the really good ones but I sure can do some pretty basic stuff like that yeah.” Rainbow Dash concentrated and with a little sparkle, which Fluttershy hoped wasn’t fairy dust, Rainbow Dash’s face morphed into Applejack’s. “I mean I don’t believe this here face of mine can lie. That’s the honest truth.”t

“Wow that's pretty good. . . also please stop that. That’s really unnerving.” Fluttershy watched Rainbow smirk before the illusion washed away. Sure wasn’t an Applejack expression but it was really convincing.  “But we’ll need Rarity for the make or break bit.”

Rainbow Dash shuddered at the thought of being forced to wear another one of Rarity’s revealing dresses. “Sure why not. Wasn’t like I needed to question the way I look in a dress.”

***


"Shy do we really have to go in here. I really don't like this at all." 

The door that Rainbow was staring at held the Fashionista part of the school hierarchy. Some would call them divas and overblown with majesty. Some would think they held the hottest girl in school. Rarity would think that the title of "fashionista" would be not entirely apt. More of a business club focusing on fashion. 

Or at least that was what Fluttershy had heard when Rarity had brought her along on a spa date or two. 

"It's fine Rainbow. And anyway I kind of need to do something about the uniforms that Crystal Prep has. They have a standardized set of clothing. We don't."

Rainbow stared at Fluttershy. "You know you could just mug someone for their clothes."

"That's illegal, Dash, and you know it."

Pssh. It's less horrible than stepping into glittertown."

"Well my plan does involve you too so I really need a favor for this whole thing to work. I mean I can't perform illusions. You can."

Rainbow crossed her arms and pouted. "Well I mean its not too hard. You can totally do it if you practiced enough."

Fluttershy knew of one way to get her stubborn friend to actually do something. Sadly it was called a bribe. "Well I bet I could and that would be pretty awesome. But that would take months of training and that would take way too long. But if you do this for me I would take you out to see that new Daring Do movie and I know you want to see it."

Rainbow Dash picked her head up at the thought of seeing a Daring Do movie on the big screen again. Fluttershy saw the indecision on her face as she weighed her options. Enter the fashionista club or see the blockbuster movie that she had been hyped about for a year and a half? And Fluttershy was a little right. She couldn't teach her illusions. She could hide in plain sight if she tried. 

"Fine. I won't like this part. Shy, you are going to buy me whatever I want at the theater- okay?" Rainbow Dash slowly opened the door of Rarity's little slice of the school and crept inside. Flutteshy shook her head at her friend and she followed.

***


Rarity's establishment took up a section of the basement of the school. Sure it was a dangerous proposition to have flammable material near a old rickety boiler some supposed but unlike Crystal Prep they worked with what they were given. Though expecting a cold and empty place with just scraps of fabric lying around to get this Fashion Club going would be wrong since Rarity knew how to make do with what she was given. Sure it still looked like a sort of large and empty place but filling it with light and airy wall hangings and a fainting couch or two did give it some character. Not to mention the full length mirrors and mannequins that filled the space with Rarity's own idea of fashion. 

And that fashion was on full display. And she wasn't the happiest customer today.

"Darling if you want me to do all the dresses for the formal I would be honored but that's a lot of time and I am just one person here, Silver Spoon, that's a bit far fetched even for me."

"Sure. But going through the expense account for students here I could see that somehow our finances couldn't make up for having to rebuild from last year's fiasco." Silver Spoon pushed up her glasses cautiously. 

Rarity crossed her arms. "Oh of course since I'm friends with the person that did that, you expect to use that as some kind of blackmail. Who put you up to this? Because it sure wasn't Photo Finish. She knows how I work and I do not work well with some person blackmailing me."

"Oh no. It's just that we don't have the money. And if we want to do a formal again, we can't. We just can't."

"Well ask around. Bring it to the parents or something. Why not get the Riches into this. You are friends with the richest family in school- ask them. I like helping the Student Council since you and Photo Finish are on it. But I just can't do everyone's attire. That's a miracle and I do try to balance my time."

"Fine. This isn't completely over." 

"Is that you or Amethyst Star talking because it sure doesn't sound like you."

Silver Spoon gathered her clipboard of the school's finances and left the room never looking once at Rarity or the two girls that had just entered. She luckily didn't run into them. 

"Dude Rarity, that was kind of rad." Rainbow Dash said begrudgingly. 

"I don't even know what that slang really means but it sounds nice, so thank you." Rarity sighed. "But seriously the Student Council has been on my back lately since our friend burned down the school. Makes the soirees and cotillion balls I sometimes attend to get some contacts a headache to get through."

Fluttershy shrugged. "Well it seems like Sunset feels bad about doing it so isn't that enough."

"Well in theory, yes. But also Amethyst Star has a chip on her shoulder. Sunset did ruin her chance to be Homecoming Queen by burning down the gym. But it doesn't matter now. I'll deal with it to be sure. What can I do for you girls? Especially you Rainbow. I mean I can do things for Flutteshy's beauty slump but I know she knows what fashion is. You on the other hand wouldn't know the difference between high top boots and crocs."

"I stopped listening after you said fashion." Rainbow backed away from all the mannequins that she felt had started to surround her since she was worried that even walking in here would destroy her awesome cred by months of hard work.

"One of these days I am doing to make you wear a dress since I know a lot of people have feelings for you."

"Eww. What did you do to figure that out? Bribe them with fashion tips?"

Rarity sighed. "I have my ways Rainbow." Shaking her head, Rarity turned to Fluttershy. "So what can I actually do for you besides catch up on gossip, which would be truly nice in my opinion. But you don't normally come to me in school hours and want to hang out so there has to be a reason."

"Moondancer." 

Rarity picked up slightly at that name. "Sounds familiar. Wasn't she your date or something during Sunset's fit of anger?"

Rainbow looked at Fluttershy a little. "Dude, Shy. You just got me out of ten bucks. Man, I thought my mom told me I would be great at gambling. Well Flash will be happy about this. Though I think you just destroyed most of the boy's dreams in the school."

"Dash please. If Fluttershy prefers the fairer sort, I don't blame her. I still haven't found the right date myself. Haven't found Prince Charming myself. And anyway it might make together time fun since I wouldn't have to care so much about athletics."

"Girls, I'm fine about it. Yeah. Moondancer was my date for Spring Formal."

"Bummer, Flutter. Heard that party was totally lit." Rainbow laughed.

Fluttershy did think back. It was rather fun. And she did have good memories of it. Though that was also one of the last days she was a normal human. She didn't blame Moondancer though. She didn't like bringing up that she was a vampire now either. And the continuous hassle of not being burned by the sun was really annoying. 

Things were different now. Moondancer wasn't here anymore. 

"Yeah it was Dash. Too bad things didn't exactly work out for the best and I hadn't seen much of her since this week."

"Darling, how was she? "

"Well kind of dead." 

Rarity's smile faltered. "Oh well that's awful."

"Oh yeah I saw that shit on the news. That Cloudchaser has got a nice look to her. Canterlot's Channel Five news is nice some days. That Shining Armor looked sweet in that uniform."

"Yeah, that's the one. And I need to get into Crystal Prep."

"Um. Sure. But Fluttershy that's going to be difficult since they have a defined uniform. And that usually takes a while. I mean there's the fitting, and cutting of the fabric, and then I have to do both a top and bottom ensemble to make it work and then there's my tendency to spruce up designs."

"I mean if Rarity says we can't do it, then we can't. That's that now can we please get out of this glittering evil place." Rainbow slowly began to walk towards the door.

"That would mean I wouldn't take you to the movie."

Rainbow Dash stopped and groaned. "Oh come on. Okay, Whatever." Dash angrily sat down on one of the couches and waited.

"Actually we need two uniforms."

"Good heavens, whatever for?" 

Fluttershy gestured at Rainbow and shook her hand over her face. Rainbow just stared at her. Dash thought everybody knew that she was not a charades superstar. It wasn't a sport.

"Dash show her your magic."

"Why didn't you say so? Rarity, have you ever thought how fun it would be to see yourself be athletic? Well wonder no more with my own patented brand of awesome." Waving her hand over her body, she shifted into Rarity.

"Impressive. Truly a cool party trick. But I don't think you got all the bits of me that boys tend to notice." Rarity laughed daintily at that little jab at Rainbow.

Rainbow blushed. "Well it was a fast thing okay? And anyway I haven't got the whole create something from nothing thing down. I can do faces and most things well but I am sorry I didn't make me look like a model. Did you have like two puberties or something Rarity?"

"Why thank you for that compliment. I mean at least I don't have to hear how I look like a boy." 

"Girls." Fluttershy frowned. "Come on."

"She started it." Both quickly chimed in. 

"Well Rarity. I need you to make one uniform for me and one for Rainbow."

"Ohoho. This I can totally do. I mean this has a possibility forming right up there in my mind's eye. I can see it. Dash's measurements. And that means I can make a dress for her anytime I want."

"Uh can we leave now. I think you broke Rarity with that thought, Shy. I mean I don't have to see the movie. I can like look up the plot online. Totally a fair trade for that." Dash started towards the door. Dash had better things to do than wait for Fluttershy to get the same idea as her and run away from the Mayor of Glittertown. 

"Dash." 

Rainbow turned her head and stared directly into Rarity's eyes. Not the locking eyes from across the room kind of way that she saw in movies. The kind that was more like she was six inches away from her face. "Holy shit." Rainbow glanced at where Rarity had been standing before and she compared that to where her fashion obsessed friend was now. "How did you do that?"

Rarity put a firm hand on Rainbow's shoulder. "A lady never reveals her secrets. Though I would have to say that I didn't like that athletic comment you said while wearing my face with your trick."

Rainbow squirmed under the stare that Rarity was giving her. And somehow she couldn't mover under the deceptively strong hand of her friend. What was Rarity made of? Exercise tapes and steel? "It was a joke, Rare."

"Now Dash if you have to explain that you were joking about something to my face after I didn't laugh. It wasn't a joke. It was mean. And I would say that you should apologize. But I have a better idea. Fluttershy, did you change any in your measurements?"

"I don't believe so. If I did I mean I could stay and wait."

"No. I don't think that would be a good use of your time. I mean it kind of was news that you hadn't shown up to class for three days. My sources all told me that the boys were wondering where you went. Which I have to say was a bit creepy but yeah catch up on your homework."

"TMI. I don't even know how you know all the gossip in the school. Don't tell me you have a spy network too. Trixie would start a smear campaign on you."

"Funny. I don't have a spy network. I just know what to pay attention to. And anyway, a lady wouldn't get into hurting people's reputations. That would soon catch up with them and destroy their own."

"Okay. Well have fun with Rainbow. Are we on for a spa visit for the weekend?"

"Yes. And have a nice day, Fluttershy. If you want to talk about Moondancer, you know where to find me."

"Shy, don't leave me here with this maniac."

"You did tell me there was a lot of homework while I was gone, Dash and Rarity is not going to torture you. She's just going to take your measurements is all."

"Which is relative torture. I just know she'll put me in a dress. Just look at that face."

Rarity began to whistle and carry Rainbow to the measuring room. "See you later Fluttershy. Now Dash, have you ever wanted to be a model? I mean you do have that rare athletic body that I don't see all that often in these parts. Gives me a new challenge to work with."

"Oh goody. Have you been looking forward to this possibility?"

"I mean its good practice to work with all body types and you girls are my friends I might have had some free time and done a few basic dresses for you."

Rarity set her down and quickly pulled out a rack of dresses. 

"And all of them look like something Sapphire Shores would wear in her artsy music videos. Not cool, not cool."

"Well okay. I could figure out what you would prefer in clothes while I measure you. All I could guess was that it involved sports, showboating, and awesomeness."

"Fine. But don't make this weird okay. And no pictures. I still have an image to protect."

"I promise."
> 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."
> Protection
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna hated being called by parents. If she had her way the last time Celly and her had a real talk about who wore the pants in this power dynamic- she almost won. Sure she went on an alcoholic bender, ranted about her night life, and crashed her sister's car into the horse statue. But she was on meds now. Everything was peachy keen. Besides being the only authority figure in a fifty mile radius who knew the ins and outs of women's prison, everything was fine.

Sure the parents all talked their horrible talk about how she was a terrible role model, but they never knew why little Twist was being such a tardy student. Oh no it wasn't because she was horrible, that was just Luna having some fun with teaching children. Celly was sunshines and rainbows at school events. Luna was the realist.

Luna was ripped out of her happy daydreams by a soft but firm knocking on the door. "Come in."

Luna almost grit her teeth in the sheer amount of joy that was stuck on her sister's face. 

"Luna isn't it a good day?"

"It's like any other one."

"I mean come on, its your day to run the whole school running."

"Dear sister, I do not share your enjoyment. First of all, I have to deal with having all the sick kids have their parents call me about how they are sad that their little bundle of sunshine is sick. And secondly, I haven't had my coffee. It's seven am. I hate every minute I'm here before I have caffeine coursing through me and giving me a fake shot of joy. It's really the only thing that keeps me from having a meltdown."

Celestia's smile faltered a bit. "Luna, you aren't a morning person. But think of this. We are almost done with the semester. And I trust you enough to think you'd have a perfectly fine and dandy day dealing with children. I'll be right next door if you need anything." Celestia heard the faint bubbling of a coffee machine working on overdrive. "And it seems like you are perfectly prepared to handle anything the wonderful parents of our students could throw at you. Just remember- smile, don't say you are their worst nightmare, and definitely don't leave the school. You don't want a repeat of last time."

"Yes, sister. I remember the last time."

"Good, well, I'm going to take a well deserved break and watch my shows. Doctor Pill is having an interesting episode soon. And Luna, cheer up. I believe in you."

Celestia walked out whistling to herself some tune she made up on the spot.

Luna groaned. Celestia was too damn happy at too damn early. Getting up to pour herself a cup of coffee, she glanced over at the quietly flashing lights of parents calling about little Lassie being home sick with the trendiest disease possible. Looking at that epileptic seizure of annoyances, she glanced at the pot and the now comically undersized cup emblazoned with a nice image of the moon landing on it. It was a comically oversized cup to be sure since Trixie was a great gift giver and rather prone to showing off but no.

Luna shrugged. She grabbed the entire pot of coffee. A pot of coffee could be a cup if you didn't care enough.

Sitting back down, Luna pressed the button that started the worst part of her day.

"Hello Sir, what are you calling about today? Oh well that's just horrible-"

***


Rainbow Dash had to think of something that would get both Fluttershy and her out of school. Some kind of illness that would trick people into thinking they were dying but not dying too hard. That would cause issues. 

Putting on her best airs and hype for how extra awesome she was wasn't too difficult, changing her voice after a quick shift into her mother's vocal tones wasn't hard for a fairy. But being convincing about how sick she was? That was difficult.

"Oh yes, thanks for answering my call, Miss Luna. This is about my daughter Rainbow Dash and her friend Fluttershy. . .yes I know I'm not that child's mother. Her mother is a bit flighty. But no matter, you see the two of them caught this horrible disease that's all new I guess. Heard about it from one of those doctor talk shows you know. It's called like, Stickittothemaneosis or something. Totally a horrible disease where its just constant horrible stereotypical flu symptoms mixed with hallucinations of grandeur. And maybe a bit of sleepwalking. Yeah it totally sounds made up. Oh but you know the government, they got all those scary things in the air. Oh thank you. Have  a nice day."

Rainbow Dash quickly hung up the phone. Awesome. Making up fake diseases was easy. "Hey Shy, we're golden. Let's get this thing started."

On the other side of town, Luna seethed. She knew that had to be a fake disease. She had the internet and the "disease" came up with no results besides some stupid parody film. Luna marked the two kids absent and turned back to her phone. She'd figure out how Dash faked a parental call. There had to be a way. No parent in their right mind would let their student be tardy nine times. That was just grade suicide.

***


Crystal Prep was not like Canterlot High. For one, the cold and sterile metal exterior like some beached spaceship on loan from the retrofuturistic ideal of the past cut into the town's quiet demeanor. It glared down disapprovingly upon any who tread into the metallic halls. 

"Are we really sure we want to go in there? Cause I really have the jitters just looking at the school." Rainbow and Fluttershy were in their fake uniforms. Fluttershy was out in the open like a normal person. Dash was peering out at the school from behind a bush.

"Rainbow, I need to do this. And you are my ticket in. Can you stop looking like you are going to rob the place?"

"Couldn't you have just used Twilight? I mean she was a egghead weirdo but come on."

"And walk up to the people that jumped me? With someone that I met and kidnapped just the other night. Of course that's a good idea."

"Okay, okay. I just don't want to go in there."

"Well don't worry. I'll be right next to you Dash, just make sure your magic doesn't crap out on us and we'll be okay." Fluttershy smiled.

"Damn it. If the school comes alive and eats us though, that's completely on you."

"You should stop watching horror movies, Dash."

Rainbow sighed. "Let's get this over with. What do you want? Similar disguises or wildly different?"

"Well go with the easiest so we don't walk in looking so out of place."

"Sweet." Rainbow begin slowly chanting in a mix of Latin and Gaelic to begin her magic. Slowly her magic started working, giving her an angled face that looked on the edge of pretty and strangely off, and her rainbow hued hair shifted into a bright orange. Fluttershy would have commented on how Rainbow looked but she felt a widespread tingling throughout her body as her body shifted into a a different form.

"Okay, here we go. Shy, I made us look enough alike to make this work. Hopefully, this won't take long at all because I might have misjudged how much magic it takes to do two of these full body things."

"Great, how much time do we have then? Five minutes?"

"Probably an hour."

"Okay, I can work with that. Let's go break into Moondancer's stuff."

Fluttershy turned and quickly pulled Rainbow Dash by the arm. If she had to do this quick, she had to make this at least look convincing. Hopefully, her improv lessons from two years ago could still work.

***


Lemon Zest breathed in slowly. She loved the way the whole world looked to her. Sure people were completely alien to her. But hey the world made sense in a big, abstract way. Things worked out in the end and sure the hunt yesterday really didn't work out the way she wanted but the Art of War's nice methods on how to deal with battle always felt nice. That's why she always did her playacting. Sure, Sugarcoat called her out about it once but superheroes were to be admired. And anyway people made less sense than comic books.

She absentmindedly rubbed her temple. Her head had been hurting continuously outside of the times she felt something close to an actual human emotion. She didn't know exactly what those were but people told her that things felt something nice or bad and she aped that idea over and over.

Better to use someone to your advantage than show your true self. Especially when they would probably call you crazy. She didn't want to go to the doctor again anyway. The last doctor's prognosis was that she had one too many concussions and that was why she was off. Lemon may have lied about the number of concussions she had by a factor of more than a few.

But she didn't care. Sports were amazing. Hunting made her feel alive since she was saving the city from monsters that she learned about thanks to the magical influence of old school VP Cinch and her great idea to make something out of the Shadowbolts beyond just the Acadeca Champions of old.

It brought her life purpose. It made her do something other than hate everyone around her for being alien weirdos who made no sense.

She felt a massive bump on her shoulder and it broke her out of the daydream that she had been in. 

"Oh I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

Lemon Zest brushed herself off. "I'm fine." Zest looked up to make sure who to murder for later. She really didn't like having her perfect routine broken by anything. Seeing two almost identical looking bitches surprised her though. "And who are you? Never seen you two around here before."

"I'm Fire Opal and this quiet one here is Citrine. Sorry for bowling you over. You see, my sister her just didn't pay attention to her alarm clock and decided that being nearly tardy to school would be so much more appropriate for the first day in this private school." She glared over at her sister and pushed an orange lock of hair out of her face.

Citrine stammered out her reply. "Oh, well, you see I really was into this one dream and I just wanted to see how it ended and all that."

"Mother has told you before Trini that you need to grow up a little bit."

"Well I'm sorry about forgetting our things. I was half awake when you forced me out of bed I'm not a morning person."

"Oh and who's fault is that?" 

Lemon Zest hated arguments. It just seemed so pointless. "Well that's perfect. But where are you even from? I would have guessed I would have seen you around somewhere in Canterlot."

Citrine quietly replied. "Well you see, we literally just moved in from Philadelphia and therefore we hadn't had the time to see people."

Fire Opal grabbed onto her sister. "Oh yes, I mean our family really came into money recently you see and therefore our overbearing mom wanted to really get us into a school that really would make us the movers and shakers and get us contacts as she hoped it would." 

"Well I don't know." Lemon Zest envied them. That kind of mother sounded amazing. "You know you two seem more like the types in Canterlot High, so wouldn't you two be better suited there. Private schools are hard."

"Oh but we are smart and totally ready to learn and it won't be that hard." Citrine sweetly added.

"Okay, but don't come crying to me when you find private school is more demanding than what you think it is."

Lemon Zest was ready to go. Her schedule of perfectly normal routine did not account for talking to these kinds of people. Sure it had a perfectly good five minutes of talking to her friends before school started but these people weren't her friends. 

"Can you help us find where to go to sign in?" Citrine tugged on Zest's arm. "I mean if its not too imposing."

Zest fumed. It was. The only person Lemon cared to help was herself. Thinking quickly though, she did realize that people liked getting help and then they might help you out later."Sure, that'd be awesome. It's just this way." Those idiots didn't know where an office was? How stupid of them.

"Anyway I didn't catch your name." Fire Opal cocked her head slightly.

"Lemon Zest. Don't wear it out."

"Oh well that's a good name. Fire Opal gripped her sister in a death grip as they walked towards the office. Fluttershy grimaced under her disguise. She remembered last night well enough.

Zest noticed Twilight walking briskly nearby. "Thanks. You know you two can easily find your way. Just walk in the nearest place and ask around. I just remembered I had something come up." Lemon Zest knew Twilight enough and having her come back to school after being kidnapped by a horrible, evil monster- she needed information on that vampire bitch that ruined her otherwise nice night.

"Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Thanks." Citrine waved as the athletic soccer player turned a corner. Breathing to herself, she turned and talked to her disguised friend who dragged her into this adventure. She didn't like this adventure. Spying was way more tense than Dash would have liked. "Dude, what the hell was that about?"

"We'll think about that later, Dash. Let's talk to Cadance so we don't get detained for something dumb she thinks we might be doing." Fluttershy didn't want to be reckless with anything here. And Cadance kind of scared her.

***


Cadance loved her job. It really gave her something to do outside of being the most important Fairy Queen ever and while she did just love that- it did really get boring. There was only so much banquet having and general merriment to go around. Schools gave her normal constant overlording some kind of flux.

And not being in direct contact with students was just fantastic. Scrolling through her phone and watching some self help videos about matchmaking was her state of bliss. She didn't want to completely talk about her lists of different ideas of weddings and matchmaking ideas of all of the people she ever came in contact with. That was her hobby. And after a few thousand years, it was nice to have a hobby.

Scanning through the new additions to the Ship Folder, she heard a knock at her door. Which surprised her because her meeting with Sombra was after lunch and it was only nine. Quickly gathering the most incriminating evidence from her desk, she placed her hobby away and tried to look as presentable as possible.

The door opened and two girls that she had never seen before entered. Strange, one smelled very familiar. Which was strange because it most definitely was a smell that reeked of fairy and yet something akin to Sombra.

"Now ladies, I do want to welcome you here in my humble place of work but I do have to ask first one measly question. I know you two somehow and its just bugging me because your faces do not match your smells."

"Well that's horribly forward Cadance. Also creepy. Thanks for that image, it's not like you gave me nightmares before."

The one girl who was speaking waved at her friend and they dissolved their disguises for just a few seconds before putting them up again. 

"Oh it's you. Where's your demon friend and look at that, Windy Whisper's lackluster daughter. What is that spell? A quick illusion with only two layers of disguise. I mean that's almost juvenile though impressive for one who's only so much a fairy." Cadance looked at her nails. They were far more impressive than any magic done here.

"Well thanks for that talk. But we are here to take Moondancer's stuff. I mean I would look in her locker but I would think a person of such renown would at least think ahead and get her stuff collected."

"Oh yes, we did that already. Just ask the desk and it's all right there. Is there anything else you want you rather small thorn in my side? Or is that all because that'd be just wonderful."

"Well maybe you could apologize to Dash. I mean it'd only take so much time."

Cadance grimaced. "No. I do not take back many statements and there would have to be some amazing feat for me to recognize her beyond some halfbreed. And since that won't be anytime soon- most definitely not. Also I will just love to talk to Sombra about your insolence that you've shown me. And Fleur as well. Or maybe you forgot about her? You've been a bad vampire. Or at least an indiscreet one."

"Sure would be hard to forget. But if we are talking about indiscreet actions- what about your crack team of Shadowbolts? I mean they do come from here and run around like they own the place."

Cadance stopped. Shadowbolts? Now where did that name pop up again? "I would hardly believe a group function that we banned ever since Cinch stepped down would be vigilantes. I mean the whole idea of Cinch's whole idea of using students to hunt our kind was some kind of stupidly idiotic gesture. But they lost their clandestine funding. And the idea of anybody wanting to be in anything that is an expulsion level offense would be stupid."

Fluttershy crossed her arms. Cadance was a extremely powerful creature to be sure, but she didn't understand human nature. Put a person in front of something and tell them that they can't do the thing- and what was the normal result? /they did the thing. That's just the idea of reverse psychology right there.

"Well ask Lemon Zest. Maybe she might say something. But I think we are done here since you told me where Moondancer's stuff was. Dash, let's go." Fluttershy turned and walked out of the room and Dash stayed for just a few more moments.

"If there's anything you need me to do to be able to be something in your fairy world, you know where to find me or my mom."

"Quite. I might have to commend you for even speaking in my presence. How charmingly novel."

Rainbow Dash squinted her eyes to block back a few tears that almost wanted to come. But that was decidedly uncool, so she quickly trudged out of the room with a slam of the door.

"Like I'd ever need a fairy that is outclassed by a child." Cadance lounged back on her chair and jotted a quick note to check on Lemon Zest in a bit. Seems like some idiot had the wrong mind to cross her rules.

Fluttershy was waiting for Rainbow Dash. "You okay?"

"I'll be better in a bit. But we really need to get out of here before my magic goes down. It's been quite a while since I put two decent illusions up. 

Fluttershy nodded and quickly came up to the front desk of the school. A quick conversation to the assistant later, Fluttershy and Dash held the last things that Moondancer had in her locker. It wasn't much but it was something.

Deciding that the mission was pretty much over at that point and wondering if Dash's illusions would hold, Fluttershy and Dash walked out of the  room and out into the yard. Getting out of here fast was the safest way out. There was nothing really wrong with today. Fluttershy opened her eyes and wanted to smile. Things were looking up.

And as she turned to say goodbye to a school that just felt too preppy and fake, Fluttershy saw her very recent friend Twilight fall off the roof. She saw Twilight fall in what felt like extremely slow motion, her arms flailing as she tumbled down to the ground and Fluttershy could not move.

If Fluttershy was stock still, Dash was full of speed. Before she could even blink, Dash was there. Fluttershy blinked again and Dash was holding an unmoving Twilight.

"Shy, call an ambulance or something. Okay."

Nodding to herself to get some courage, Shy dialed and somebody on the other line picked up. "Yes can you get to the Prep School as soon as possible? A kid almost fell off the roof." Fluttershy hung up.

"Shy, she looks mostly okay- though she really has a nasty bump on her head. Looks more like she got pushed off then. At least she's breathing."

Fluttershy sat down on the grass and breathed. At least she didn't go the way of Moondancer. Fluttershy felt exhausted. A day off from school should never have turned into this. After she got the person who highly likely killed Moondancer and pushed Twilight off a building- then she could take a break.

She heard the coming sirens in the distance and just stared up into the bright blue sky. She couldn't take a break just yet. Keeping her friends safe was a better idea for now, they needed the protection.
> Break Free
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight woke up. Trying to move hurt right now though she did not know why until she glanced down. Little bits of tape kept monitors on her body and the slightest move made them irritate her arms and legs. Blinking to clear some of the confused mess her head was she heard a faint noise to her right and she turned to see two girls that now seemed familiar.

Fluttershy rested her head in her hands as she quietly listened to the Mixer to catch up with the news. Rainbow was laying her head on the back of the white walled room and snoring. Twilight could make out the radio station's DJs at this level of silence.


"Octy, haven't you heard about the strange happening at Crystal Prep today? It's all over Twitter and that's news here. Heard it might be the new Captain, or was it Lieutenant, of the Police. You know that one you are kind of crushing on."

"Vinyl, I never said that and if I ever would have, I said that in a moment of complete and utter confidence."

"You know I can't keep a juicy secret like that. And anyway people saw Shining Armor yelling at the current heads of the school- Dean Cadance and Starlight Glimmer. Seems like he has a stake in this somewhere. Let's check the amazing new aggregate site Twitter to see any new developments." 

"I have told you time and time again that Twitter isn't a news site."

"Whatever. Looks like the damsel in distress is one new chick. Sounds like she got into some trouble then. See Octy, this is why I always say Canterlot High is the best. We don't have kids jumping off roofs like daredevils or something."

"Show some tact. Do I have to put you in timeout for being one of those shock jock types I find so repulsive?"

"Pssh, you know you like it-  next up on our show, first world problems and existential angst. But before that I do have to mention the school dance and I don't have a date. How about you Octy?" 

The quiet broadcast soon was put out of its misery once Fluttershy glanced over and noticed Twilight was awake. FLuttershy fumbled for the pause button on her. Ipod and nudged Rainbow awake.

"What is going on? I was having a great dream."

"Dash, she's awake."

Dash looked and almost fell out of her chair. "I mean I was having a bad dream so waking me up was a good idea. How are you anyway?"

Twilight shrugged. "Could be better since it feels as if I was hit by a truck but it's completely satisfactory all things considered."

"Yeah sorry about that. I mean I tried the thing that happens in superhero movies where I'd save you from your death and you'd be super fine but I guess catching you still broke something."

"Did any of my family come in yet?" Twilight wondered out loud.

"Well they haven't come by yet. Though your brother has his life together well when compared to mine." Fluttershy tried to be a calming influence on her new friend. "He said he'd be by later since he had to gather evidence and have a talk with the faculty about this."

"That's Shiny for you. We've always been pretty close and I hope he's not being too harsh on the faculty. I rather liked them letting me do what I like." Twilight sighed.

"Actually Twilight, we were kind of confused why you'd even be up on the roof in the first place. Isn't like that school policy to not let students on the roof?" Dash scratched her head in confusion.

"Well that's where my lab is. I can't just do science in the science lab. I mean I could but that's not what science I'm doing."

The two of them tilted their heads at their purple acquaintance. Fluttershy spoke first to break the awkward silence. "Really? Because that's exactly where to do science and that includes all types."

"Not if it involves magic and anti-monster serum."

"Woah, wait what? Run that by me again cause that sounds like something you just made up."

"Dash, maybe we should hear her out. I mean she did fall off a roof like two hours ago."

Dash crossed her arms and pouted. "I will since you are asking but seriously anti monster serum? What does that do? I don'r know. I can't figure out if its a thing that causes or cures monsters. Either way, she's been running a lab that does crazy experiments. Are we sure we befriended a good guy, cause by action movie roles, she'd be an evil scientist."

Twilight frowned and fidgeted in her bed. "Well, I mean I'm the mission control and weapons guy in that kind of scenario- though I always did wonder why my friends called me a mad scientist. I guess that is a reason. Though I don't get what's really wrong about it. I did the correct lab safety requirements and made sure my science was sound."

"But isn't there like a board of super scientists talking about the ethics of not doing magic research?" Dash waved her arms around in emphasis.

"Dash, I don't think magic has been on the forefront of science since Isaac Newton studied alchemy. And magic is one of those things that any self respecting scientist would normally stay far away from." Twilight rested her head in her hands thinking of the possibilities of magical research. It was almost endless in scope.

"Then why would you study it?" Dash let that thought echo through the room. Fluttershy wondered herself. It was a valid point.

"Well I guess its just who I am really. Always been interested in the possibilities of science upon our world and discovering another aspect of our universe and proving something out of myth and stage acts as a perfectly valid area of study would be really helpful of the world. I mean think of all the possibilities magic has with work efficiency, medicine, food preparation, et cetera. Maybe my methods are unorthodox, but the best thinkers thought of things outside of the box and the broke free of their constraints."

"Fine. But you went on my list of crazy. I'm watching you." Dash crossed her arms. "Are we done here cause I feel like we are, unless you want to here the next coming of a supervillain."

"Wait, Dash, you didn't even ask Twilight if she saw who hit her." 

"Thank you, Fluttershy." Twilight smiled, "Now that is truly a pertinent question and not one that questions my moral right after I fell off a building. But, sorry. I didn't see who did it since I was lost in thought and working on a new serum or two. Had my back turned the whole time. Though I'd guess it had to be one of the Shadowbolts. They are pretty much the only ones besides Starlight Glimmer who know I have a lab up in the rafters. And I highly doubt a teacher would throw me off their own building. That'd just be reckless."

"Well that's understandable. And thank you for your time. I hope you do get better, but it seems that Dash really wants to go now."

Dash crossed her arms and looked at an invisible watch. She grimaced at Fluttershy and tapped her foot impatiently.

"Yes, well. I hope we see each other in better circumstances. Oh! I know! I could put my number in your phone, so we can hang out more. That sounds like a friend thing to do." Twilight motioned for Fluttershy's phone. Fluttershy quickly gave it to her and waited as Twilight geeked out over how awesome friends and friendship activities could be. Getting her phone back, Fluttershy quickly smiled as she was pulled out of the room by Dash.

With a slam of the door, the two girls were walking out in silence until they got to the elevator.

"So?" Fluttershy asked.

"So what?" 

"I mean you did kind of freak out about Twilight for a few minutes."

"Well, Shy, if you stood in my place I think you'd be mad too." 

"I mean she's helping us and all that, that seems like a pretty okay thing to do. It's not like she's the next coming of Doctor Frankenstein."

"She has a lab where she experiments with magic. And you don't think she has a lab full of magical creatures. Magic has to come from somewhere. It's not just a thing you can wish up and it exists. Yet here she is thinking this new thing could fix every problem ever. That's impossible."

"Well Dash, I don't have a lawbook of magic in front of me every day."

Dash turned and looked at Shy. "It's something I just know okay. I just look at something and see the magical amount of everything. It's kind of obnoxiously loud when things are just shooting a laser light show everywhere. And I know. Twilight would think that's so cool. But its not. Everyone has a color of magic. And they have a limit. I tried once to help someone with magic, okay."

"How did it work out? Did they do well?"

Fluttershy looked at Dash and the vampire could see the beginnings of tears in the corner of her friend's eyes. "No, Shy it did not. Okay? It kind of backfired."

"Well what happened?"

"I figured out I was a magical creature at six years old. Just took my brother going into the hospital to figure it out."

"Wait, you have a brother?" Fluttershy wondered why Dash had never brought up the fact that she even had a sibling. And then she thought about all the things her friend had said and it clicked. "Oh."

"Yeah, I had one. He was pretty awesome and I tried to cure him. Do you know what happens when you add a new magic user and their magic to a wound? It's pure chance. I saw my brother- well, it wasn't pretty. And here's Twilight saying how awesome magic can be in a hospital setting? She's crazy. I know what happens in that situation. I think about it every day."

"I didn't know Dash." 

"Yeah. Can we go do something fun? I want to enjoy my day off of school, not think about something I can't change."

"What about the new Daring Do movie? Would that be a good idea?"

Dash smiled. "Yeah."

***


Applejack sighed. Working at the movie theater was not her favorite rodeo but it gave her something to do. She had to pay off Granny Smith's car repair after it got hit by a really large animal a few weeks back. At least that was what Granny said. All Applejack remembered of that night was waking up with a splitting headache. 

She stretched her aching muscles and glanced up. Printing off tickets and working the cash register was not her preferred line of work because it was just so clean.

"Well at least it's not so bad. I mean I could be in one of those frilly stores. Rares would love that." Leaning on the desk, she noticed Fluttershy and Dash from across the street- Fluttershy lazily walking, while Dash was running as fast as she possibly could. 

"What's got into Dash?"

Applejack quickly found out as Dash tried to slow down as she met the other side of the street and almost ran smack dab into the ticket booth.

"Two for that new Daring Do movie-" Dash paused as she figured out who she was talking to. "Applejack, I didn't think you worked here. Is this a new thing?"

"Yeah, have to help my family with some car problems."

Fluttershy finally caught up to Dash and waved at Applejack. "Oh so this is why you haven't been at any Eco Club meetings."

"Yep. So two? That'd be fourteen fifty. Enjoy the movie."

"Thanks. Have some fun here, I guess." Dash shrugged.

"Yeah." Applejack looked up and the two of them were gone. "Now back to figuring out Google again. Ah, here we go. 'Why I am attracted to the moon' Ten Reasons Why? That has to be a joke site. . ."

***


Lemon Zest stared at the collection of things that Twilight held in her lab. Seriously this bitch had been holding out for so long if she'd been doing this kind of research. Glancing at the labels, she saw things like a whole number of salts and what they did to magical creatures, wolfsbane, silver compounds and if they could be added to food, gases and what they did.

She wasn't Doctor Frankenstein. She was a complete and utter genius.

Lemon Zest noticed one vial with DO NOT TOUCH!!!- This means you! written on it and, well, if Twilight wasn't here it was something fun to see.

"Now what do we have here? Gas version of anti magic weapon? Twilight you just bumped yourself up my list of usefulness. I almost feel bad about what I did." Grabbing a few other vials, just in case, Lemon Zap smiled.

Lemon Zest sauntered out and left Twilight's refuge from normal life open. 

She pulled up the radio app on her phone and started to listen to the Mixer.

"Octy, why don't you and I go to the dance? It's coming up and all the cool kids will be there."

"Fine. This gets you off my back about it."

"Wicked. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Remember kids, the Canterlot High dance is coming up in a few days. Don't be square."

Lemon Zest smiled. Those three girls she met in the diner were right. She was special. She was the good guy. She glanced at the vial again and knew exactly what to do. They had told her what to do so far and they'd been right. Everything was awesome.