"So is this the place that might get us to your home?" The girl asked the man she was standing with as they looked at the high school with a horse statue in front.
"Maybe." He said before adding, "And it will be your home too."
She didn't say anything for a moment as she looked at her feet. "Are you sure? Their all dead because I wasn't strong enough. She killed them all because..." With that she began to sob as he awkwardly reached out and hugged her.
As he held her he said, "It isn't your fault Jenny." Stroking her hair he held the crying girl. "No one person could have stopped what happened alone." For a moment his blue/grey eyes flared with rainbow colored fire as he remembered the past. "Trust me, I know better than anyone. I was at least 40 years old and had my friends and 3 armies behind me when I faced her. They sent a child alone into an impossible fight and expected a miracle." Shaking himself out of it he handed her a handkerchief and said, "Here, dry your eyes and we'll go get some pizza." At the mention of food her stomach growled and they both had to laugh as they started walking down the street.
"Hello Mr. Corwin, this is Principle Celestia at Canterlot High School. I know you were not suppose to start until after the holidays, but could you be able to come in as a substitute history teacher? I know you were hired as our new science teacher, but 5 of our teachers are in the hospital with a bad case of food poisoning and we are one teacher short... You will, thank you, you're a god send... Oh. Well I can see how that could be a problem. Hmm... Well I guess we can bend the rules and I think I know the perfect girl to watch over your daughter... Yes, her name is Sunset Shimmer and I am sure she will get along well with your daughter Jenny... Thank you again and goodbye."
Sunset Shimmer had just grabbed her books and was about to rush down the hall when Applejack called out to her, "Hey Sunset, can we talk fer a second?"
"Can it wait until after I find out what Principle Celestia wants?" Sunset asked. "She kind of made it seem important, something about several teachers being sick and whoever our new science teacher is going to be."
"Umm... Maybe we should wait until lunch to ask her if it's that important." Fluttershy said.
"I reckon it can wait for a bit." Applejack said.
"Thanks guys." Sunset said as she ran down the hall towards the Principle's office.
"Pinkie darling, did you leave your cell phone on vibrate or something?" Rarity asked as she watched Pinkie Pie vibrate past her.
"Noooopeeeeer Rooooneeeey!" Pinkie Pie said as the others watched her vibrate past them. "Whaaaat eeeeveeeer iiiit iiiis ~iiiit's aaaa doooozy~" She sang out before vibrating down the hall and around a corner.
"Yeah, after that I vote we just let it be until lunch." Rainbow Dash said as the others just nodded in agreement.
"Hi." Sunset said to the 9 year old girl sitting at Ms. Cheerilee's desk. "Are you Jenny Corwin?"
"Yes, Principle Celestia said I get to be the substitute librarian with someone called Sunset Shimmer." Jenny said with a smile.
"Well good thing I'm Sunset Shimmer." Sunset said only to get a strange look from the girl. "What?"
"You got the same hair color, but the girl in the picture that that girl name Trixie gave me looks like she was one step away from going full on mad scientist with a dooms day device." Jenny said as she showed her the picture from the fall formal Trixie had given her.
"Yeah, I may have had a few issues last year." Sunset said as she tried to laugh off everything that had happened.
"Daddy says most super villains forget that they can't take over the world if they or someone else blows it up first." Jenny said as she scooted over so Sunset could pull a chair over and sit down beside her.
"Oh trust me, I know." Sunset said as she looked over Cheerilee's desk for something for them to do and then thought of just the thing. "Have you ever read any of the Daring Do books?" Jenny just shook her head no and Sunset then smiled as she opened the book app on her phone and said. "Then you're in for a real treat because I'm going to read Daring Do and The Quest For The Sapphire Stone to you the way the person who raised me read it to me. Trust me, it's much better if she is a pegasus pony than if she is a woman."
"Consarn it, where is she so we can ask her about all of this?" Applejack complained as her and the other girls sat at their usual table eating lunch.
"Well she wasn't in English class this morning darling, but neither was Ms. Harshwhinny." Rarity said as they ate. "In fact Vice Principle Luna had to teach English class and told us that several of the teachers are in the hospital after eating some bad Mexican food."
"Umm... Ms. Peachbottom was also out and Principle Celestia taught us how to make red velvet cake with Pinkie Pie's help in Home Economics. " Fluttershy said while Pinkie Pie put a red velvet cake onto the table.
"Yeah well.... I got a double dose of missing teachers..... since both Mr. and Mrs. Doodle are.... also in the hospital." Rainbow Dash said between bites of food. "Trust me... that guy taking over for..... Mrs. Doodle in history class.... must have radar.... Gilda was going to throw... a paper wad at him.... The guy not only caught it.... but nailed her with an... eraser right between the eyes."
"Who's teaching math then Dashie?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Would you believe that it was the janitor?" Rainbow Dash said after she finished her lunch. "Turns out Discord was a college professor specializing in something called chaos theory before having a nervous breakdown after his wife left him for his sister, Eris, who is also the CEO and owner of the Cotton Candy Cloud brand chocolate milk company."
For several seconds they all digested what Rainbow Dash had just said before finally one of them had to ask. "Exactly how do you know all that?" Rarity asked.
"He wouldn't shut up about it." Rainbow Dash told them. "Seriously, he went on and on while teaching us an easier way of doing certain problem, ranting about the education system failing us by teaching us needlessly complicated ways of solving equations, grading our homework and explaining how we got the problems wrong and how to do it better next time, used a video of me playing soccer to show how everything he had explained to us was part of our every day life, and going on a tangent about how an anime called 'Kiki's Delivery Service' was one of the greatest movie he ever watched." She then began pulling her hair in frustration. "And the worst part is he did it in such a way that I understood everything perfectly, want to now watch that movie, and also find out if I really could kick a ball so hard that it would make a sonic boom like he said I could!"
Once again the table fell silent as the girls tried to wrap their heads around what they had just heard. A minute later Granny Smith called Applejack over and handed her two trays of food. "Take these here to the library fer Sunset Shimmer and Mr. Corwin's kid since they're watching the library fer Ms. Cheerilee while she's out sick."
"And so, with Ahuizotl defeated, and the sapphire statue secured the world was safe and sound once again, thanks to Daring Do!" Sunset Shimmer read out loud to Jenny. "So what do you think? Was I right about her being even better as a pony?"
"Yeah, but what are we going to do now?" Jenny asked as her stomach voiced it's opinion on the subject just as Applejack came into the library with the two trays of food.
"Hi Applejack." Sunset said as she got up and took one of the trays from Applejack. "Jenny this is Applejack, one of my friends and one of the most honest people you will ever meet." With that she put the tray down on one of the tables for Jenny. "Applejack meet Jenny, the new science teacher's daughter."
"She doesn't look like a cross eyed, buck toothed, inbred, illiterate hick." Jenny said as she looked at Applejack.
"Now wait a goldarn minute!" Applejack exclaimed only to stop when Sunset held up a hand and turned to Jenny.
"Let me guess, Trixie again?" Sunset asked
"No." Jenny said, "A girl named Diamond Tiara returned a book when you went to the restroom earlier and warned me about the Apple family. She said the grandmother was a drunken hill billy who made moonshine and wouldn't know real cooking if it bit her, the brother was so dumb he only knew two words, the older sister was a cross eyed, buck toothed, inbred, illiterate hick, and the younger sister was actually the older sister and the brother's baby and would end up living in a trailer with a fat, beer drinking truck driver and a dozen kids." She then thought about it and added. "Also a girl came in to check her mystable page, but I didn't get her name, and another girl named Wallflower Blush returned a book on rocks, a book on folk lore, and 3 gardening books. She was very nice, but she looked kind of sad and lonely."
To say Applejack was mad was the understatement of the year. "When I get my hands on that little bi... snake." She said as she remembered that Jenny was there as the girl began eating. "On second thought, Granny will probably just have a few words with her dad about this. Just a word of advice sugar cube, some of the people around here like to stir up trouble and you might want to take anything they tell you with a pinch of salt."
"So the girl in the restroom who said Rainbow Dash is awesome might have been lying?" Jenny asked between bites.
"Scootaloo exaggerates things a bit when it comes to Rainbow Dash." Sunset said as she took her tray from Applejack and sat it down on the table before asking. "Hey Applejack, you said you wanted to ask me something earlier, so what's up?"
"Umm... Did you by chance lose your phone?" Applejack asked.
"No, it's over there on the desk charging since I was reading Daring Do to Jenny all morning. Well at least when someone wasn't checking in or out a book that is." Sunset told her before asking. "Why?"
"You remember that Anon-a-miss post the other day? Well this morning they posted all of those pictures and videos you took at the slumber party last night." Applejack told her.
"What?!!" Sunset exclaimed.
"Yeah, just check it out and you'll see." Applejack told her.
"That might be a problem, my mystable account got flagged and suspended before the fall formal." Sunset told her.
"Why? What did you do?" Applejack asked.
"I may have threatened to shave Trixie bald and break Octavia's cello over her head if they didn't withdraw from the fall formal as well as shove Photo Finish's camera so far up her... well she would have had to hiccup to take a picture if she didn't get a good picture of me winning this year." Sunset laughed nervously as she rubbed the back of her head and glanced at Jenny.
"Yeah, that would do it." Applejack said before asking, "And you haven't made a new account?"
"I kind of been busy with you girls and a month of detention after that. Then there was the battle of the bands, tutoring people after school, practicing with you girls for the next time the Rainbooms play, keeping my grades up so I can stay on the honor roll, and everything else that I just haven't had time." Sunset told her. "In fact this is the first time I have had time to do anything like that and I've been reading Daring Do with Jenny all morning."
After thinking about it for a second, Applejack nodded and said, "I can see that, I mean I get pretty busy with school, all of you girls, and all the work we do out on the farm that there are some days when I feel like I am running myself ragged and it sounds like your doing twice that much everyday."
Between bites of food Sunset said. "Tell me about it. The weekend before last I had to push helping Rarity back to Sunday because I promised to help Fluttershy at the animal shelter on Saturday."
Just then the warning bell rang and Applejack had to run off to class, leaving Sunset and Jenny to finish their lunch as more students came into the library to check out books.
"Hi Sunset! Hi newgirlfromapost-apocalypticalternativetimelinewhoisnowtheadopteddaughterofanoldermaleversionofyourselffromyetanothertimelinewhereeverythingwentrightohandbothofyouhavesuperpowersbutdon'tthinkofyourselvesassuperheroes.Also,IamnotSunset'sdrugaddictedpsycopathicminionlikeSilverSpoontoldyouIwas. (Gasp!) Not that I am suppose to know any of that, but the readers might find it useful to know, so just forget what I just said because I know I have." Pinkie Pie said with a huge smile as she handed them both cupcakes and gave you a wink.
"Hi Pinkie Pie." Sunset said before looking at a very worried looking Jenny. "Jenny, this is another friend of mine, Pinkie Pie. As for what she just said, it's best to just ignore it since the last 4 therapists to try to figure her out are now in the insane asylum as patients." She then turned back to Pinkie Pie and missed the brief flare of rainbow flames in Jenny's eyes as she glared at the pink menace. "So what do you need Pinkie?"
"Oh I just wanted to ask if your Anon-a-miss?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Pinkie, I Pinkie Pie Promise that I am not, have never been, and will never be Anon-a-miss." Sunset said before doing the hand motions while saying, "Cross my heart and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye...Ow!!!" Unfortunately she ended up poking herself in the eye. As she rubbed her eye she didn't see Pinkie Pie's colors get darker, her hair go straight, and her smile become razor sharp and sinister. Nor did she see Jenny's shadow split into 7 shadows, with only one belonging to a little girl while her eyes flared yet again as they glared at each other. Just as quickly they both went back to normal as soon as Sunset was able to see again. "Does that answer your question Pinkie?" Sunset asked.
"Okie dokie lokie Sunset." Pinkie Pie said before skipping out of library and back to class.
"The big public break up of their friendship didn't happen because of several teachers being in the hospital and Sunset being put in charge of running the library first thing in the morning."
"Several one on one break ups might not be as fast, but that just means it will be more crushing when word get's out."
"Well so far Applejack is on the fence about her being Anon-a-miss and just one childish promise involving sticking a cupcake in her eye convinced Pinkie Pie that she wasn't Anon-a-miss."
"Hmm... We'll have to push the time line up, focus on the other three more, and also specifically target those students that will either be very loud and vocal or lash out."
"What about our other surprise?"
"It took a while, but it will be ready."
"Good." Suddenly there was the sound of a bell. "I'll keep you up to date, but I need to go."
"Then I will talk to you later."
"Sunset Shimmer! How dare you humiliate the great and powerful Trixie with that picture of her with her arm stuck in a vending machine!" Trixie yelled as she stomped into English class before looking around and yelling. "Where is she? Where is Anon-a-miss?"
"She is currently running the library due to Ms. Cheerilee being in the hospital due to food poisoning as well as watching the new science teacher's daughter while he fills in for Mrs. Doodle in history class." Vice Principle Luna said from the door. "Also, Ms. Lulamoon, you now have detention this evening. I will not have you coming into a class room I am teaching and disrupt it with baseless accusations." See then glared at all the other students in the class room. "That goes for the rest of you as well. Are we perfectly clear?"
"Yes, I understand and thank you for trying... Yes and Merry Christmas to you to." Principle Celestia said before hanging up the phone. Sitting there at her desk she unlocked the bottom drawer and pulled out a stack of folders and looked at them. Each one had the exact same word stamped on them, 'Expelled'. She then went down the list she had written down and pulled out the files on the list before putting the rest back into the drawer and locking it. Calling her secretary into the office she handed over the five folders and said. "I have been informed by the school board that these five students will be returning to this school starting tomorrow."
Raven Inkwell looked through the files and frowned before nodding. "Do you want them to have a standard schedule or do you have something in mind?" She asked.
"I will leave it up to you." Principle Celestia said before Raven left the office. Somehow this felt off, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
"Do you know who my father is? I demand to see the principle right now after what Anon-a-miss posted about me!"
Oh joy, Celestia thought to herself as Diamond Tiara stormed into her office, as if I didn't have problems already. "Diamond Tiara, I am already not in the best of moods, so I suggest you apologies to Ms. Inkwell now or else." She said in as calm of a voice as possible.
"Yeah right, my daddy..." Diamond Tiara started, only to be cut off.
"Has given me a letter saying that I have full permission to discipline you in any way I see fit, up to and including spanking you with a paddle he personally gave me after he divorced your mother and you began acting up. I have never used it, but as you can see, it is also a lovely hand carved and engraved wall hanging." Celestia said as she got up and walked over to the paddle with intricate vines, flowers, and lady bugs carved into it and framing the words engraved into it. "Do you know what the words on it says or means? It's Latin, it says 'Vastata puer vel vastata virga?' which roughly translates to a simple either/or question." Reaching up and taking it down, she turned to the girl who was suddenly very aware that this might not go the way she thought it would. "So you can either apologies to Ms. Inkwell or we can answer a simple...."
Celestia chuckled as the girl ran out of the office and began profusely apologizing to Raven while she put the paddle back on the wall. "I guess we will have to wait to find out for now." It really was a lovely piece of craftsmanship.
Gilda punched the locker next to Fluttershy's head as she intimidated the girl. "Listen up dweeb, I want you to deliver a message to that Anon-a-bitch, Sunset Shimmer, I don't give a flying fuck...."
Fluttershy blinked as Gilda got shoved to the floor by her younger brother, Zephyr Breeze. "Back off my sis skank."
"Well if it isn't the return of the Y-boner." Gilda said as she got up. She then tried to punch Zephyr Breeze, but he just gracefully spun out of the way. "Hold still you little fag so I can pound you into the ground."
Zephyr quickly ducked, weaved, and pirouetted out of the way of every single punch. "If you were a guy and talking about sex maybe, but you would have to buy me dinner first." He then slapped her after spinning out of the way of another punch.
With that she screamed and tried to tackle him, but he just twisted out of the way while slapping her on the ass. The next thing she knew she had ran into another locker. "You are so dead." She grumbled as she got up and turned around.
"Yeah right." Zephyr Breeze laughed as she saw a very angry Fluttershy and several members of the wrestling team and the swim team glaring at her. "Funny thing, big sis might not stand up for herself, but mess with her baby brother and all bets are off." He then kissed the captain of the wrestling team. "Also I thought everyone knew I was dating the captain of the wrestling and that I am a member of the swim team." He then smirked and said, "You done goofed."
Lightning Dust couldn't help but smile as she read the text message and the smile only got bigger as she walked down the hall and got nods from certain students. She was coming back, the gang was ready, and this time that bitch of a student council president wouldn't be there to stop them.
The student council sat in stunned silence after the text had been read out loud. Then one of them smiled, followed by another and another as they realized that she was coming back. At the head of the table the acting student council president slumped in his seat and said. "Thank god, finally someone who can deal with all of this magical nonsense."
Granny Smith grumbled as she hung up the cafeterias phone and grabbed her coat before heading for the back door. Of course that was tomorrow's lunch, it been the same for the past 10 years. With that she flipped the lights off and walked out to the truck where Big Mac was waiting.
The two figures stood in the old abandoned factory, facing each other. "Are you ready?" John Corwin asked as both of them circled each other.
"It's seven on one." Jenny said as parts of her shadow drifted away from her and pooled on the floor. "I am so going to win this time."
"So far the score is 43 to zero." John said as he noted where each one was at. Suddenly a woman in green armor with a sword and shield leapt out at him, only to be wrapped up and slammed back into the floor by a chain of hundreds of small green disks. Spinning her around at Jenny, John watched as a red female luchador caught her with a smirk. Realizing what was going on he suddenly became a blue blur as a blue chain, yellow bullets, and orange beams hit where he had been. "Nice trap, but I now have a good ideal where three of them are." John said from behind some old machinery. "So unless you give in and release the restrictions on them you have only the last one left to protect you."
"Yeah right and let you use your full power to curb stomp me again, never!" Jenny yelled as she hid behind another machine.
With a smile he summoned an orange portal beneath himself and dropped down beside her and tapped her on the nose. "Gotcha." only to feel a finger on his nose as well.
"I do believe that our mistress has finally gotten a tie." said the purple clad female ninja as she rose out of Jenny's shadow.
Tempest Shadow, she refused to even acknowledge that stupid name her parents gave her, reached up with her scarred hand and touched the eye patch where her eye use to be before grabbing her leather jacket and getting out of her car. Shrugging on her jacket, she then frowned as she reached back in, grabbed her cane, and made sure the tag was hanging from the mirror. Closing the car door she sighed as she looked at the reflection of the scarred side of her head while reaching down and touching one of her leg braces. Sad part was that it took the searing pain and the two years of humiliating therapy just to learn to walk, cloth, and feed herself again to not only make her realize how lucky she was not to have died with him in the car wreck, but also how screwed up their relationship had been.
Finally she pulled up her hood, walked through the door of the school, and started down the hall towards the Principle's office. All around her the students suddenly stopped talking and just watched her. She was almost there when the whispering began and she turned to see Lightning Dust and the others coming towards her wearing their jackets, his jacket. "Tempest I missed..." She didn't even think as she smacked Lightning Dust hard enough to knock her to the floor.
"Don't you dare." Tempest Shadow hissed at her. "Don't you dare act like nothing happened and that we are best friends. For two years I waited and only Grubber ever came to see me. Where were you when I was crying after seeing this?" With that she used her scarred right hand to pull off her hood. "Where were you when I went through painful treatments and humiliating therapy just so I could walk to the restroom and wipe myself afterwards? I took all the blame and was expelled for every single one of you, yet Grubber was the only one out of all of you who was there for me. So don't you dare wear those jackets and act like nothing happened. I can still feel the flames and hear the sound of Storm King choking to death on his own blood whenever I close my eyes. Do any of you even know what it is like to feel your eye being pulled out of your head when you force yourself to do it just to get free so you can live?" She then turned and just walked away while saying, "Just take those stupid fucking things off and let the Storm Kings die."
"I could suspend you again for that." Vice Principle Luna said as she looked at the girl.
"Will you?" Tempest asked as she pulled her hood back up.
"Vice Principle Stygian didn't after I slapped the living daylights out of my sister, back when I still called myself Knightmare Moon, but only this once and because both Lightning and Tia deserved it." Luna said as she held the door open for Tempest Shadow. "Like he said to me, my door is always open and it helps to have someone who has been there to talk to."
"I'd like that." Tempest said as she walked through the door.
John pulled into the parking place at the school as Jenny glared at him while finishing putting band-aids on her knees, elbows, hands, and face. "'Feel all of them and pull their power into you.'" She grumbled. "'Push beyond those limits you place on yourself and tap into your true power.'" Getting out of the car and slamming the car door before yelling at him. "Next time let's try putting cans of WD-40 and hairspray in the microwave and see what happens." With that she stomped her way towards the side door of the school while grumbling every step of the way.
Getting out of the car and shaking the dust off of his jacket and checking the band-aids on his face and hands before licking his fingers and putting out his still smoldering brown hair. Feeling he looked less front row seat to an explosion and more just a really rough morning he finally walked into the school.
In the teachers lounge Principle Celestia caught up with him and asked, "Mr. Corwin, could you tell me why you and your daughter look like you got into a fight with a wild animal?"
"Would you believe in a bizarre series of events involving several squirrels, a ceiling fan, a burned breakfast, cracking open a window, toast, and an open jar of peanut butter." John asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
"You too huh?" Discord asked as he walked in with a few less band-aids and a squirrel sitting on his head and eating a piece of toast with peanut butter on it.
"I'm not sure what worries me more, the fact that both of you have the same excuse or that I actually believe it." Celestia said as the squirrel on Discord's head waved at her.
Starlight Glimmer watched as her one time rival walked into the office after hearing what happened in the hall. For a brief moment they just looked at each other before Starlight just moved over and made room for Tempest Shadow on the bench as they waited. "I take it life decided to literally beat you over the head with a two by four to get you to listen?" Starlight asked.
"Yeah." Tempest responded before asking. "You?"
"Expelled for trying to recruit the student council and several dozen other students into my Aunt Starlight Shine's social/political/semi-religious brain washing cult. Spent a year and a half in mental hospital that specializes in deprogramming brain washed cult members." Starlight then lifted one leg and showed her the leg monitor on it. "Three more months until my 18th birthday and I can finally say goodbye to this."
"So what happened with your family?" Tempest asked.
"Mom went to jail with her sister and dad has gotten real clingy." Starlight said. "Yours?"
"Parents disowned me after the accident and grandma cut them out of her will, paid for everything, and I'm now living with her." Tempest said. "Turns out she's loaded and even gave me a GTO for learning to walk again."
"T.A.C.O. I love to eat them on the go!" Sonata cheered while holding a breakfast waffle taco as Aria grinned while driving them to school. Normally by now she would have yelled at her little sister but...
"Oh god I want to die." A hung over and barely able to move Adagio groaned from the back seat while wearing a purple and green polka dot skirt and a brown and red plaid shirt. Aria wasn't sure where Sonata found them or how she got Adagio's hair up into one of the most impressive Afro's she had ever seen. Sure, she had to actually use her side mirrors and Adagio would kill both of them for this one, but this was going to be so epic that it was worth it.
Aria had only gone along with Sonata's plan because it was hilarious even if it was so stupid it couldn't possibly work, but fucking hot damn, it was actually working. The students were so distracted by Adagio that they barely gave the two of them a second glance. Sure they were so dead for this, but that was future Sonata and Aria's problem. Even better was watching the Principle and Vice Principle trying not to laugh while giving them and two other girls the 'make one mistake and they will never find the bodies' speech they had been expecting.
After they got their new schedules she had expected the hilariousness to end there. Only the fashion club had heard about how Adagio was dressed and, lead by that whinny white girl with purple hair from the battle of the bands, they descended on Adagio like locusts. The last she saw of her through tears of laughter was her being dragged away to whatever fate awaited her.
"That will teach you to throw away my taco mushroom farm!" Sonata yelled as the fashion club dragged Adagio away.
"Wait, did you do this because she threw away that box in the basement you left tacos in for 4 months?" Aria asked.
"My taco flavored mushrooms would have made millions!" Sonata declared loudly.
"They were covered in poisonous mushrooms, mold, and maggots." Aria explained.
"They couldn't have been that bad." Sonata said.
"I looked several of them up to see if you could get high off of them and one of them is so poisonous that one bite can kill an elephant." She said to try and get through to her baby sister.
"But... but taco mushrooms." Sonata said weakly as her eyes began to tear up.
"Fine, we'll look up if anyone has invented them yet and if not we'll hire a lab to create them, patent them, and you can be the first to eat them as a human test subject. OK." Aria said, hoping it would make her happy.
"Like when I helped test that drug in England and had an orgasm every time I yawned?" Sonata asked before hugging her. "Yes! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Adagio said I couldn't test stuff like that anymore unless one of you said I could."
"Good, now we need to get to class before the bell rings." Aria reminded her before watching Sonata take off at a dead run for home economics class while she headed for history class.
Two figures in grey silently moved through the school, studying many of the students frozen in mid motion as they talked, laughed, and went to class. As they glided down the hall they looked at the various mortals and in a few cases made slight changes. A blond girl with grey skin had been reaching for a muffin in mid air as it dropped, but now it was in her hand as dropping it had never happened. A blue skinned girl turning a wand into a bunch of fake flowers now held a bouquet of real roses and was now turned towards the former student council president. A light grey girl dropping her books and scattering her papers in the hall while being hugged by her over excited pink skinned and haired sister now hadn't dropped her books and not a single page was out of place.
Finally there was a gangly boy with a snail on his shirt was holding a few sickly flowers out to an unimpressed young girl wearing a tiara. Only now he was holding bouquet of roses out to her with his shirt tucked in and his hair combed properly. The Man in Grey, as some called the being, whispered into the boy's ear. "Show her a confident and sure side of yourself. Let her see the hidden depths within you and catch a glimpse of the man you will someday become."
The Lady in Grey then whispered into the girl's ear. "He might need a little work, but there is something about him. Maybe it is the sudden confidence or perhaps you are seeing in this scrawny boy the tall, handsome, and intelligent man he will someday be. Besides, you know what they say, behind every great man is an even better woman. With you at the helm this boy could become a leader of men and the envy of women everywhere, only he would be your's and your's alone, but only if you take this one and only chance and let him in past that diamond hard exterior you try to project."
With that the two eternal lovers walked away to continue searching the school some more as time began to move again. Derpy happily took a bite out of her muffin while heading to home economics, Starlight Glimmer was surprised by Trixie giving her roses, and Marble smiled as Pinkie's hug didn't cause her to drop her books like usual. The biggest shock though was when Silver Spoon and Snips watching Diamond Tiara say yes to going out with Snails and the two of them walking away with a smiles on their faces.
The woman sat in her dimly lit office with the beings that seemed to be made from the darkness. As always when speaking to them she felt an unnatural and bitterly painful coldness. "I assure you that we are in the process of obtaining what you desire, but has hit a few snags with assets under performing and events outside of our control." She said with a forced smile as she braced for the pain.
"WE UNDERSTAND." The over loud multi voice said to her. "UNFORTUNATELY WE NEED FOR YOU TO ACCELERATE YOUR TIME LINE AND ARE ASSIGNING ASSETS UNAVAILABLE WITHIN THIS UNIVERSE." Blood began trickling from the corner of her eyes and from her nose. Around them appeared white transparent men and women as the coldness in the room dropped further. "THE WINDIGOS WILL INCITE THE ONES AT THIS 'SCHOOL' TO GREATER AND GREATER ACTS OF ANGER, HATRED, AND FURY." The woman couldn't help but groan in pain as several more people wearing black leather armor appeared. No they weren't wearing armor, it was part of their skin. "AND THE CHANGELINGS WILL SPREAD CONFUSION, JEALOUSY, ENVY, AND SUSPICION AMONGST THEM. YOU NEED NOT WORRY ABOUT CONTROLLING THEM, WE WILL DO THAT OURSELVES." With that all of them disappeared and the woman broke down sobbing in pain.
Reaching over to her cell phone she dialed and spoke. "We need to talk... They were here and things have changed... Meet me after school at my house... Good bye."
"I can't believe she fucking did that in front of the whole school!" Lightning Dust bitched as she grabbed her books from her locker.
"Yeah, well cry me a fucking river." Gilda said as she closed her locker door. "You ask me, this whole school has been fucked up ever since that bitch, Sunset Shimmer, showed up. I mean she just happens to luck out by showing up a few weeks after both Starlight Glimmer and Tempest Shadow end up getting expelled and is not only ruling the school few months later, but manages to snag the crown at the fall formal."
"I told you we shouldn't have waited for Rainbow Dash join and taken over the school while it was still a fucking mess, but no, you were to busy trying to get into her panties to pay attention." Lightning Dust said with a smirk. "Tell me how well that worked out for you? Did she scream your name all night long or....urk!"
Gilda saw red as she grabbed her by the throat, lifted her off the ground, and slammed her into the lockers. "Just keep pushing my fucking buttons and find out what fucking happens bitch." Gilda growled before dropping her. "Besides you didn't do shit either. You just sat around on your lazy ass and expected me to do all the work instead of grabbing all the other Storm Kings and doing it yourself."
"At... least... I... didn't end up getting humiliated by that little fag, Zephyr Breeze." Lightning Dust gasped.
"No, you just got bitch slapped by a cripple." Gilda said before turning to head to class. "Like I said, try dealing with it yourself instead of waiting for someone else to do it for you."
Lightning rubbed her sore throat before saying, "Maybe I will."
"What should we read..." Sunset had been asking Jenny when she just froze up.
Looking around, Jenny saw various students and a book the girl named Lyra had dropped frozen in place. She had been about to do something she wasn't suppose to do unless it was an emergency when the door opened and she smiled as she jumped out of her seat and raced over yelling. "Mr. Grey! Mrs. Grey!" With that she leapt into the Man in Grey's arms before leaning over and kissing the Lady in Grey's check.
"My goodness." The Lady in Grey said as she looked at Jenny Corwin. "Have you shrank since the last time we saw you?"
"I think it is more along the lines of this little Guardian living in linear time while we tend to approach time with more dimensions than she can begin to imagine and the best that a human mind can think of as a way to wrap their heads around it would be the geometric shape called a myriagon." The Man in Grey explained.
"Huh?" Jenny said.
"Just think of it as you seeing time as a straight line and we see it as more than just that. Even something as simple as three dimensional wouldn't even come close since we see pasts that might have been, futures that exist yet don't exist at the same time, thousands of presents that are happening, just not here and that we could skip in and out of whenever we desire as well as shift what didn't happen and what did to suit our needs. To us it is normal, but from your perspective we skip around randomly in time and the last time we saw you was when you are about 15 years old and next time we see you might be when your 39 years old." The Lady in Grey said. "Not that it will matter since the Kessho Gem will stop your aging when you are somewhere around 25 years old, unless you gain it later in life like John who is now permanently somewhere around 40 years old."
"Speaking of John, why did you have him be the one to come for me?" Jenny asked before adding. "Not that I'm complaining, but the guy seems off compared to most superheroes I've met."
Both of them shared a look as the Man in Grey set her down. Finally the Man in Grey said. "John had already been looking into dimensional travel and would have reached your version of Earth eventually. The reality is we only nudged him in the right direction after THEY insisted on it being him to go get you so you would only be alone for a few months instead of years."
"THEY were very insistent that it be him." The Lady in Grey added.
"As for him being off." The Man in Grey continued. "Well it's because his version of Earth is a bit more confusing when it comes to superheroes and supervillains. His world had the usual heroes out to save the day and villains that are just super powered criminals out for a quick buck. The thing is is that His world also had supervillains that follow certain rules and actually did a better job at saving the world than the heroes. Then there were the more numerous superheroes that saw it as a stepping stone to fame, fortune, and careers in politics, acting, or business. Notice I said were, as in past tense, because now there are only a handful of hold outs, but mostly the title of villain and hero has fallen to the wayside after they fought off the Empress and the Fae Invasion."
"Also, with the exception of the Invasion, Corwin Tech, Corwin Medical, Corwin Industrial, and Corwin Inc. saves more people per year than he ever did by putting on the mask." The Lady in Grey explained, "For instance Corwin Tech is responsible for reducing yearly fatal automotive accidents Globally to just a few hundred by creating a force field technology that could actually fit inside of a small car and replaced bumpers, airbags, and seat belts. Corwin Medical introduced the worlds first commercially viable and publicly available cybernetics, artificial blood, and synthetic organs and skin grafts. Corwin Industrial worked out the composition of the materials the Fae ships were made of and not only reproduced it, but improved upon it which aloud them to help rebuild better and fast than before the Invasion. Finally there is Corwin Inc. that made superhero, supervillain, and alien technology available to the public like the deck of cards sized medipacks and cheap contragravity belts."
"So your saying he saves more people by being a business man and an inventor than as a hero?" Jenny asked.
"Sort of, but that doesn't mean he doesn't get involved and deal with things every once in a while." The Lady in Grey said while giving The Man in Grey a look that spoke volumes.
"Yes, but he will still use his powers and wear the mask and suit if needed." The Man in Grey said. "Of course his suit and mask are more for practical reasons like extra protection and he could care less about the psychological effect of seeing him in it has on others." He then tapped Jenny's chest and said. "The Kessho Gem does protect you to a certain extent and, as you found out first hand, it can bring you back from the dead." Jenny couldn't help but shiver as she remembered feeling like every nerve in her body had been dipped in acid and liquid nitrogen before being set on fire while being electrocuted at the same time. Even dying had not been as bad as the Kessho Gem bringing her back to life and she had died of decompression and reentry without a ship and huge tears in her spacesuit and a cracked helmet.
Seeing the distressed look on Jenny's face the Lady in Grey hugged her and said. "THEY made it horrible so Guardians like you and John wouldn't abuse it, but actively try to avoid dying and that is one of the least painful limits THEY put into them. John can guide you through earning the right to not having those limits, just remember that the first Guardian didn't have any limits and went mad with the power. He went from being one of the greatest heroes ever to a tyrannical monster so bad that THEY had to actually deal with him and we still don't know how many universes were destroyed in the fight, but the best guess is somewhere in the trillions."
"Speaking of universe destroying monsters, we need to finish searching for new Guardian candidates so one of them can bear and wield a Kessho Gem. We've found a several good candidates protect this and the surrounding universes before one of the more parasitic, dimension hopping, races realize how long this part of the multiverse has been unprotected and decide it would make a perfect meal." The Man in Grey said.
"Umm... What happens to my universe if I'm not there?" Jenny asked as the Lady in Grey let her go.
"Your's? Nothing, it actually was already protected since it already has a Guardian." The Man in Grey told her. "Your universe got to at once because it's on the priority list and we generally try to overlap Guardians of priority universes long before the old Guardian retires by a few million years." He then explained. "This universe is in a relatively safe area of the multiverse and kept getting pushed back in favor of priority universes until it just ended up with no one for around about a few centuries. We wouldn't have even noticed if it wasn't for all the activity with the portal somewhere around this school. Normally that would be worrying, but the ruler on the other side is good and her people tend to behave themselves, with a few misguided exceptions." With that he looked directly at a frozen Sunset Shimmer and added, "But even then they can eventually be brought back into the herd sooner or later."
"As much as we would love to enjoy staying here for a while longer we need to get back to our search." The Lady in Grey said before handing Jenny a philosophy book and asked. "Could you give this to Sunset for me?"
Jenny went back to her seat and watched as they left before Sunset said "... this time?"
"Well someone asked me to give you this." Jenny said before handing Sunset a copy of The Passion of The Soul by Rene Descartes.
Looking at the book Sunset gave everyone else in the room a flat look and said. "Ha ha ha! I thought you guys got this out of your system months ago."
At first the girl had been gauging the reaction to the return of their little surprise, but they had been more of a fizzle than actually causing any trouble that could be used to oust the principle and her sister. That had been when she saw something odd, Derpy had just dropped her muffin and then she was still holding it as if nothing had happened. She then started to pay more attention and she could have sworn Trixie had been facing the other way with fake flowers, only now she had real flowers and giving them to Starlight Glimmer.
After seeing the new teachers kid change position in her seat and holding a book she didn't have before she knew something strange was going on. Unfortunately she couldn't put her finger on it, but with this school it might just be magic.
As she walked to her next class she wondered what her partner wanted to talk to her about. From the sound of her voice it most likely had something to do with their mysterious backers. She knew something about them scared her, but she refused to tell what it was and she had a bad feeling that she really didn't want to know. She also stop by her locker and grabbed her sweater with an orange rook embroidered on it since she was feeling cold. It and the thought of all of these idiots learning there place beneath her heel just warmed her heart.
Both staff and students knew down to the exact second when the lunch bell was suppose to ring and normally there would be a mad dash to be first in line at the cafeteria, but today something caused almost everyone to pause in confusion. "SONATA!!!!!!" A female voice screaming in fury seemed to replace the usual bell.
Principle Celestia stepped into the hall to find out what was going on when Sonata ran past her with a furious Adagio in hot pursuit. Normally seeing one sibling chasing after another wouldn't even phase the veteran educator, but the fact that the entire fashion club and photography club were chasing after Adagio with all sorts of outfits, makeup, and flashing cameras made her pause. The sight of Pinkie Pie, Derpy, Vinyl Scratch, Berry Punch, and the Crusaders chasing after them with a banner that read 'Yay! Your No Longer Evil!' made her eyebrow raise. It was the laughing Aria with a smart phone being chased by a smiling Discord yelling he wanted a copy of the video and several dozen boys and girls chasing after them yelling about wanting a date with her or her sisters that made Celestia made her facepalm. She had a very strong suspicion that that would soon become her new default gesture when it came to those three.
"In a way it brings back old memories of when we use to prank each other when we weren't trying to kill each other and the ensuing chase would often involve Principle Starswirl also facepalming." Luna said with a chuckle as she walked up as the other students headed for cafeteria. "Complete with one hung over sister finally realizing what the other one did, right party princess Daybreaker? Exactly how many times did you show up at school hung over and smelling of sex and booze? 40, 50, maybe even 60 times total?"
"Oh your one to talk." Celestia said as they headed for the cafeteria. "Goth princess Knightmare Moon." Celestia shot back. "How many tattoos did mom and dad have to pay to have removed? How many detentions, suspensions, and one near expulsions did you get?
"We were both idiots back then weren't we?" Luna asked as she put her hand on the cafeteria door.
"Yeah, but Principle Starswirl never really gave up and look at us now." Celestia said as her and her sister shared a brief laugh before entering the cafeteria.
John had waited until the students had left for lunch before pulling out both of his phones. To say the phone from this world was disappointing was an understatement since his real phone made the smart phone look primitive by comparison. Then again it was very useful since it had given him the SIM and the phones OS which in turn given him a starting place for this worlds technology. He could have tossed it by now, but Jenny needed a way of contacting him after the Greys had shown up and with several upgrades it would do until they got to his home.
It only took him a few minutes to get the smart phone ready before picking up his real phone and whispering his pass phrase into it. With a click the flat black object that look like a deck of cards glowed green before split down the middle and he pulled it apart. Between the two halves was the weak force field that made up the holophones screen lit up, he pulled until the projection was the size of a TV and then let go of the two halves so they could float in the air. He couldn't help but smile at the holographic image being projected in front of him. It was him on one knee holding out a ring to Sheri Gatetree and asking her to marry him during the statue unveiling in Crystal City. Kissing his fingers before touching her image, he then began reprogramming the smart phone via Bluetooth. Ten minutes later he grabbed the two halves and was about to put them back together and shove it into his pocket, only it chirped at him as it received a very weak signal.
No, it wasn't weak, he was picking up a signal from somewhere else and directed somewhere else and had all the signatures of the portal he had been looking for. Only the it was too weak to be fully opened and too defused to get a better reading than just somewhere towards the front of the school. OK, someone is contacting someone on this side, John thought to himself, but the signal is weak and defused... Either the person receiving needs to be really close or have a dedicated system, but what. Looking over the signal it finally jumped out at him, it wasn't weak if it was on a subatomic level and he was picking up it's interactions with the portal... Quantum Entanglement, it was the only explanation he could think of that worked and who ever was talking didn't realize or care that it was causing the portal to resonate like a window vibrating because of sound... So who was receiving it? An explorer, a spy, or someone else and why were they here? Invasion, scouting out the people before first contact, or something else? Too many questions and all he had was this signal, but maybe he could get some clues from that if he... Hmm, there is some distortion and he he could only clean it up so much... What the heck is this jumbled mess and why was it so short? Thinking on it he finally realized the problem, it was text not speech and adjusted for it.
Dear S7%4@ Sh!@@3&
I just w@nt3d to wish you a Happy Hearth #@%$*!# and hoping every76$#6 was going 9K with you and ?+7 friends are doing OK.
At that point the message seem to break down for a bit before continuing.
(66^68732^654#$^*(544 estia here by grants you a full pardon and hopes you will join us for Hearth Warming Eve party here in my castle.
Your Friend Princess Twilight Sparkle Princess of Friendship
John looked at the screen and laughed. Whoever they were they were using advanced technology for texting their friend a holiday greeting and tell them they were no longer wanted by the authorities. It was like a bad joke, like the first sign of intelligent life aliens receive from Earth being someones shopping list. Well whoever this Princess Twilight Sparkle is she at least seems to think a Christmas Card was more important than commanding hidden spies to prepare for the invasion of another universe. With that he put his phone away and got up to go give Jenny her new phone.
"I'm just saying that the more I think about it." Applejack said to some of her friends as they sat at their usual table and ate lunch while watching the 5 way taco eating contest going on between Sonata, Pinkie, Derpy, Snowflake, and Zephyr Breeze. "The more it seems like a load of hog wash. We all remember how it was when she was in control of the school and this is nothing like that. She was all about control and used the secrets she ferreted out to blackmail, threaten, and discredit everyone she could into doing what she said or to get them out of her way, but this is just throwing mud just for the sake of throwing mud and causing trouble and then pointing to Sunset to cover their own tracks."
"Hmm... You know I can see that darling." Rarity said as she watched Derpy put down her taco and push her tray away. "There really isn't any obvious motive for this and even someone trying emulate her would have done more than change the color scheme to match Sunset. They would have matched her..." Rarity froze as something occurred to her. "What if they are emulating her, but we've been to focused on her usual tactics to think about another tactic she used?"
"Huh?" Rainbow Dash asked. "What do you mean?"
"Misdirection and distraction." Rarity said as she looked at the other two. "She also use to use secrets to misdirect and distract everyone away from what she was really doing. What if Anon-a-miss and turning the school against Sunset isn't the ends but the means and something else is the real target? They want us to focus on her and ignore something else."
"Yeah right." Rainbow Dash said with a smirk. "All of this for what? This is a high school, sure we're an awesome high school, but still a high school."
"One that has had two magical light shows in a two month period and a magical portal to another world." Applejack said as she pointed over to where Aria was recording the contest on her phone. "A portal that has been used to dump dangerous creatures into the one place they knew wouldn't have enough magic to make them truly dangerous. What's to say they only ever did it once or that something else around here didn't noticed and are now interested in this place. Heck, the only reason I don't think it's the government is because they would've just march in an take over the whole school and claim somekind of chemical spill or outbreak."
"More than likely claim one of the magical light shows was a terrorist attack and make us all disappear by saying we died of radiation poisoning, darling." Rarity said with a frown. "It's all in the details dear. Chemicals and outbreaks would lead to either family members wanting answers and to see us, but radiation would give them an excuse to make it a closed casket funeral and explain everything away as it being a test run for a much worse attack that they foiled."
"Yeah, I can see that since we here about them stopping terrorist attacks, but never hear any real details due to 'National Security'." Applejack agreed.
"So, that just means they are keeping us safe." Rainbow Dash pointed out.
"We're not saying they are not dear, but who is to say everything is exactly as they say." Rarity explained. "I don't know about you, but I would rather not become one of those tiny details lost in the paperwork because of 'National Security'."
"Of course whose to say they ain't watching us already." Applejack pointed out, not noticing Lyra and Bon Bon suddenly becoming very interested in their meals at a nearby table. "I mean, why screw up something that seems to be working and risk Twilight and the Equestrians on the other side washing their hands of us and leave us high and dry the next time something magical happens over here."
"Then there is the whole risking a war with a world that has already worked out interdimensional travel." Rarity said as they finished their lunch. "I looked up some of the things both Sunset and Twilight have mentioned and we are nowhere near what they can do. Take that story about the Mirror Pool and then imagine if they took their greatest fighter and ran him or her through it a few million times and you have an almost instant army. Then there is weather control and controlling celestial mechanics to the point that they could either fire lightning bolts through the portal to protect it or throw solar plasma through it and wipe out everything on this side. That doesn't even touch upon what we heard about their version of Discord. I highly doubt he couldn't tear the portal between our worlds wide open and do god knows what to us and we would be powerless against him if it wasn't for their version of Fluttershy."
"Hey, where is Fluttershy anyways?" Rainbow Dash asked as Pinkie Pie held Sonata's hand up and declared her the winner.
"She brought her own lunch and decided to take Sunset and Jenny their lunch so she could eat with them." Applejack pointed out.
"So you're the one who ta... mmmph!" Jenny started to say before Sunset clamped her hand over her mouth.
"Just ignore that part Fluttershy." Sunset said with a nervous laugh. "Some people thought it would be funny to tell her the wrong thing about us and our friends."
"Umm... Okay." Fluttershy said as she sat down the trays and pulled her lunch and Angel Bunny out of her backpack.
This Story has been canceled due to major rewrite! Why? I was not happy with it and know it can be a lot better even if I refuse to use a proof reader or an Editor. Will there be parts of the original in the new version? Some, but a lot of it is going to be completely changed. So please checkout: Anon-A-Miss: One Girl's Heroes