"I've been thinking," Senketsu started, his voice speaking clearly to me as if in my head despite the roar of the motorcycle engine. "What exactly was the point of that stunt yesterday?"

I gave a low sigh, turning right at the stop light before it turned red. I didn't answer, dreading the conversation at hand. I knew he was eventually going to bring it up, but he had kept quiet on it for the entire day since. It wasn't like I could talk to him while on my bike, I could barely hear even myself speak as it was. It gave another minute to myself, Senketsu staying silent as he waited for me to reply.

I pulled into the parking lot, setting the kickstand and turning the engine off in one fluid movement.

"The point of that was to throw them off balance," I said, flipping my phone open and pressing it to my ear as I took off my helmet, "And keep them that way. I don't really know how they'd react to me if they really knew about me. About what I am, and the troubles I've brought to their peaceful little school. And town, I guess."

"But how does this make it any better? As far as I can see, you've just drawn their attention all that much more towards you. You could have just avoided them, but you went and confronted them. You really are a special kind of fool, aren't you?"

"Why you," I snapped, almost breaking the phone in my grasp. I had forgotten how much guff he had given Ryuko in the show. A couple remarks as to how 'fat' she had been getting, eating an unhealthy diet. Suffice to say, he wouldn't be having that problem with me if I fell back into my own comfortable routine. Of course, I'd have to step up my exercise regimen to keep up with my new body. I probably wouldn't be gaining any noticeable muscle mass, but I would still get stronger. "Just because I didn't really think that far ahead, doesn't mean you should get to insult me. That's just plain rude."

"Rude or not, what you did was just plain foolish. Where are we, anyway?" Senketsu asked, his eye swiveling around to look at our surroundings.

"The next phase of our plan," I stated, unmounting from my bike, "Can't just let all my begotten treasures sit and languish," I looked up at the sign of the shop I had parked in front of.

Crystal Flasks'; Jewelers and Goldsmith

"Gotta sell them somehow."

"Ma'am," the elderly gentleman said, squirming in his seat. He was a squirrely looking fellow, ochre-ish skin with a long pointed face. It was like someone had taken a wax sculpture of him and melted the face for a bit. He had a ridiculous silver grey combover, a vain attempt to stave off a large bald spot. It wasn't working. He should just shave it off and Picard it. "I don't... really... feel comfortable about this..."

"What exactly?" I asked cockily, "The part where a little girl comes in with a shitton of jewels there's no way she could have gotten? Or the fact that all of these," I drew an invisible box around my displayed gems, displayed as they were on the table between us, "Are perfectly cut, better quality gems than most of what's in your store?"

"Now look here, little lady," he said, trying to make himself look imposing. It failed miserably. "I have half a mind to call the cops on you-"

"But you won't," I cut him off, standing up. "Because, number one," I reached over and popped the nob on my glove, allowing Senketsu to transform us.

"Fuck you I'm magic."

His eyes shrank to pinpricks, and they darted over every inch of me. He was frantic, trying to decide between ogling my lessened attire, screaming for help, and simply gasping out a squeal.

He went with the squeal, a piddly little noise that trickled out of his mouth with no volume or bass behind it.

"Number two, I know where a magic portal is where I can simply cross over and pluck these things right out of the topsoil." His gaze locked onto mine, desperately wanting to believe me. I guess his greed superseded all his other inhibitions. Goody for me. "That's right, precut and just waiting to be taken. All you have to do is be able to perform magic, go on over, and cast a little spell to lead you to gems. A little out of your league," he gave a slight hiss, his burgeoning smile faltering for a split second, "But hey, all you have to do is buy them from me, and then sell them for a profit."

He wore a contemplative look, eventually meeting my gaze again. "A hundred for the lot."

I let out a derisive bark of a laugh. That little shit. "Unless you mean a hundred thousand, then I believe you have missed the point and DON'T want a continuous stream of money flowing into your place of business. Or should I say, my place of business?"

"You can't-"

"I am offering you the chance of a lifetime, and yet you seem to keep wanting to throw that away. I can literally go over there, and pick these up off the ground. I am basically offering to give you a retirement package that'll allow you to end up in some high rise living like a king. Quit trying to cheat me out of helping you, or I will take my business elsewhere. All I'm asking is that you keep selling stuff, just like you have before. I'll give you the jewels," I made a gesture out of it, sweeping my hands to the sides away from the pile, "and give me a third of the price. No more, no less. Then you sell the little bastards, and invest in gold. Gems over on the other side, they're almost worthless because of how plentiful they are. Actually I take that back. Just do things as usual, and I'll find out what they're yearning for as an import. I was gonna say get the gold so you could give it to me to buy a crapton of jewels, but this way sounds better to me once I think on it. They use gold coins as their currency. Solid gold coins. Can you smell the moolah yet, Flasky? Yes? Then help me out. Give me a good deal so I actually want to come back here."

He looked back and forth from the pile on the table to the back of the room, as if he were contemplating asking the wall to help him out. He chewed at the ends of his nails, a disgusting habit. "Ten... thousand?" he asked hopefully. Still trying to swindle me, the gall of this cheeky toad.

"Seven hundred," his eyes lit up momentarily, then his face fell into a scowl as he finally heard the unspoken 'thousand'.

"I... I... I can't-"

"Flasky, this entire pile is obviously worth half a million. Are you seriously going to sit there and try to insult me with a measly ten k?" I asked, letting out a low sigh.

He stammered and tried to formulate a response, finally settling on, "One... one hundred thousand?"

"Six fifty," I countered. If he wanted to haggle, then I might as well give him that as much. I felt momentarily ashamed for asking for so much, but this pile was actually more in the millions if my guess was correct. This guy full well knew that.

"I... one fifty?"

"Six."

"Tw-two!" he belted out.

"Five fifty."

"Two... twenty five?"

"Five twenty five," I retorted.

"Th... three... hundred... thousand," he wheezed out, his flesh showing a reddened tinge.

"Four hundred," I confirmed, pleased that he was finally getting serious.

"I can't go above three hundred and forty!" he called out in desperation, "I literally can't go above that, I don't have any more funds!"

I gave him a wide smirk. "Fine then. It sounds like a good enough deal to me," I stood up at the end of this sentance, giving a long stretch of my arms. "But if you try to lowball me in the future," I unfolded my scissor in one swift motion, cutting the table in half and sending the pile scattering in all directions. "You'll find out just how fucking magic I am."

I drove down the road, a comfortable weight on my wallet. That Crystal Flask guy had caved, wiring twenty thousand to my bank account. Seems he had been saving that in his 401k, but he wouldn't have agreed if he didn't think he couldn't make a killing off of them. Thankfully, it seems my bank accounts and all my other stuff tied to my credit cards followed me, albeit in my new name.

I first made my way to an IT&P -good god, I really hope the rest of this world didn't have such copywrite dodging names as AT&T had gotten saddled with, that was just embarrassing.- and got myself a smart phone. I had never been able to justify spending over a thousand dollars on a phone, but this seemed like a good chance to see what all the fuss was about. Phone acquired, protective case -CraneCase. Freaking cranecase. my god.- enclosing it. It was an ugly thing, a flat rectangle of metal and plastic.

I used my new found connection to the internet to find a better hotel to park my behind at. God knew I wasn't going to spend another night at the place I had for the last two nights. Only double the price, and in a much better location and with a score of three stars. Whatever that meant. Probably put on their own webpage by themselves.

I went and bought some bread, peanut butter and jelly. I could use the minibar to keep my bread and jelly refrigerated. I'd go tomorrow and buy some better food, but anything was better than that swill Canterlot High were forcing on their students. I arrived, putting myself down for a weeks worth of residence. I'd have to look around for a place I could actually rent, staying in a hotel was expensive.

I quickly made a couple sandwiches, putting them away in a plastic bag from the box I had also bought. It wasn't the roomiest, but I put it in my puke green fanny pack. There was much more room after I had gotten rid of all the stuff I took from Rarity.

I drove to Canterlot high, aware that I had missed almost the entire day. Happily, it seems I had arrived just in time for lunch. Joy.

I made my way through the lunchroom, conscious of the fact that the main six were trying their damnedest to avoid my gaze. Looking every which way but at me. Whatever, suited me just fine. I plopped my behind down at the table of a certain guitar wielding lad. I suppressed a smile as out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Sunset Shimmer lurch to her feet and throw a furious glare my way.

I found Flash Seeentry~

"Uh... hi?" he tried to introduce himself, the other members of his clique staying quiet as their unspoken leader welcomed a newcomer.

"Hi! My names Ryuko. I'm new in school, and I couldn't help but admire your lovely guitar, is that a Les Paul?" I asked, trying to direct his attention off of me and onto his material possession.

"It is, actually!" he said, a smile on his face as he looked down at the guitar around his midsection. "Lost Paulie has some of the best stuff for cheap," I mentally gagged, 'Lost Paulie'? kill me now. "And the sounds that come out of this thing are simply awesome. Are you a guitar player?" he asked, his gaze dipping back to me.

"Kinda sorta. I dabble. Never anything close to professionally, and I haven't really tried since I... finished my growth spurt. Having all my fingers continuously hit the wrong strings and frets even when I do the same dang thing I always did, that's just an unwanted bowl of frustrating." I wanted a believable reason for why I would potentially miss notes. Not like I could just say 'I used to be a guy! My hands are smaller now!'.

"Whoa, bummer," he said, reinforcing his 'surfer-brah' image to a T. "Well you should get back into it, if you really liked it. No sense in letting a growing body keep you from enjoying the bliss of music. Hey, you should totally ask the rainbooms if you can borrow one of their backup pieces, they keep a couple just in case that I know of."

"You mean... the group giving me the stink eye from that table over there?" I asked, innocently pointing them out with a subtle jab of a finger.

Brad bland -also known as Flash Sentry- followed my point, settling on the table the main six were sitting at. They'd been watching us intently, upon being discovered they all turned their attention elsewhere in varying fashions.

"Huh. Weird," he mentioned, seeing as Sunset Shimmer was giving him all kinds of indecipherable hand signals.

"I don't know why, but I don't think they like me," I said with as much childish innocence I could lather on, "I wanted to ask if any of them knew where a girl named Rarity had gone, why she wasn't at school. But I don't think they'll talk to me now," I added, trying to make my tone sound sad.

"Rarity? Well hey, I know that chick!" he belted out, giving me a wide smile. "She hasn't been in school for a couple weeks... haven't seen her around, at least. Don't know more than that though, sorry," he said sheepishly, scratching at his head in an anime-ish manner. "I could always just ask the girls for you, if you want,"

"Would you? Oh thank you!" Against my better judgement - and because I wanted to sell the performance as far as I could. Also, the hope of seeing their faces was a bit of a bonus- I half stood up, hugging Flash Sentry and turning my face so none of them could see my attempts to hold back a manic smile. If this worked, it would be so damned worth it. I let go, leaning back and gave what I hoped was a sheepish grin. "That would mean a lot to me, I've been friends with Rarity for like forever, but her new friends won't talk to me. I just hope nothing bad has happened..."

"Just leave it to me," he said confidently, slinging his guitar around to rest on his back. He made his way to the girls table, so I finished up my sandwiches. I said a short goodbye to his silent friends, raising my phone to my ear and placing my hand over my other one. The perfect cover. 'Oh no, its much too loud in here, I'll just step out for a second so I can hear myself think,' One of my ex's had used this out almost religiously, you could have set your watch by it.

I left the lunchroom, trying to keep myself from laughing. Sunset Shimmer had looked like she was going to explode. I'd call that a win.

I retreated to an out of the way classroom, watching through a crack in the door as a familiar tangle of pink hair flashed by. Seems I had ducked into this classroom just in time. If Pinkie Pie was on my tail, there was nothing I could do to evade her once she set her sights on me. Good thing she didn't see me go into this room.

I pulled out my second sandwich, and dug into it.

"You know, if you eat like that all the time, pretty soon you won't be able to put me on," Senketsu chastised me. Little brat. Now he was going to lay into about my eating habits too? I knew what I was doing.

"Oh shut your face."

"I don't have a real face to shut."

Crystal Flask tightened the magnification on the glass he was using to inspect the facets of the jewel before him.

That girl... she had no idea what she had come across. This one solitary diamond was of a size to be worth at least five times what he had given her for the entire lot. Perfectly cut. a certain shine that seemed to glow from it's inner depths. It was perfect.

And that was just one of the smaller ones.

Crystal Flask let out a half delirious laugh. What a stupid little girl, what a monumentally lucrative situation that had just dropped into his lap. It was as if the goddess herself had come down and given him a second chance.

He had been the victim of a cruel joke of fate. He had wasted his life in medical school, and even years past that before he had finally been given the chance to become an actual Doctor.

Doctors get more money, after all.

It had been fine for twelve years after that. Everything was fine, he had been raking in obscene amounts of money. All that had changed with a little girl. She had had the purest cream colored skin, and hair the deepest chestnut. He couldn't forget her eyes.

A deep, piercing aqua blue. He'd never forget those eyes. That fucking bitch went and died under his care, ruining his fucking life.

Her parents had immediately cried fowl, blaming him of all things. It wasn't his fault they hadn't told him about an obscure allergy she had. They were her parents, it was their damn responsibility to inform her DOCTOR of such a fact. They didn't. Did the courts care? Fuck no.

He had been charged with malpractice, and effectively blacklisted from any potential jobs. That wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but god forbid a hospital continue to employ a doctor with an alleged malpractice charge. To hell with all the years he had faithfully served them, screw the fact that he had been the best doctor in the whole fucking hospital.

'Wasn't worth the bad press', they said.

Fucking bitch. Why couldn't she have just died somewhere else.

He had no luck finding a place that would take him, no one wanted to be associated with 'Doctor 007'. He had finally gotten work from his cousin, a lowly entrepreneur that dabbled in jewelry. His own sizable funds had been drained by the girls parents, sucking out his money as surely as their daughter had slaughtered his dreams and career.

His wife had left him, calling him a failure of a man. She was a bitch too, she had only married him for his money and position. Gold digging whore.

His life after had been dull and listless, barely making enough to equate to a fraction of his previous life style. He paid for a run down shack to live in alongside his multitude other renting neighbors, and barely had enough left for a crappy car and microwave meals.

He had finally saved enough money to strike out from under his cousins eye, opening his own to distribute and repair jewelry. He had miscalculated on the ferocity of the multitude of loans, burying him under crippling debt. He was going to lose the only thing he had managed to build up for himself, the only money he had was that he had stolen from his investors. Sucked for them, but he'd be out of the state before they even knew.

And then she walked through the front door of his shop.

A dumb little girl who was as she said 'fucking magic. She had the ability to fill his bank accounts like no other. Finally the ghosts of his past would be left in the past.

"Stupid girl," he drawled, sifting his hands through the pile of gems. "Bring me more..."

"Bring me more."

I finished my sandwich, brushing the crumbs off of Senketsu onto the floor. That was how you got ants, but oh well. I hope they had a good janitor. A quick peek out the door clarified that the Pink Terror known as Pinkamena Diane Pie was nowhere to be seen.

I slid into the hallway, flinching as a hand snaked its way over my shoulder.

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~" a sugar laden voice trilled from behind me.

"I... how did... I didn't..." Senketsu choked out.

I slowly cranked my head to look behind me, tracing the length of the pink arm that had a nigh iron grip on my shoulder. Well she wasn't really holding me, but the light pressure was just as surely a hobble as the real thing.

"Uh... hi there Pinkie, didn't see you there-"

"I know!" she chirped back at me.

"Well... uh... did you need to talk to me about something?" I asked in a quiet tone, careful to not let my voice break. What was she up to?

"Hmmmmmmmmmmm," she hummed, looking me over from head to toe.

"Does she know?" Senketsu hissed at me, needlessly whispering. It wasn't like she could hear him, right?

I said nothing in response, giving Pinkie a sheepish grin as she hemmed and hawwed.

"Nope!" she finally belted out, as she let loose with a gigantic smile. "But I know what you are," she said in a suddenly flat tone, ice in the phrasing as her smile disappeared. For a second and a half. Then her brilliant smile returned, and she hummed to herself as she skipped off down the hall.

Senketsu and I stood in silence for a good minute or two, neither of us willing to speculate on the current events.

I finally broke the silence, the cold aftereffect of that little... bizarre occurrence becoming too much to bare.

"Wanna go to Equestria?"

"She can't follow us, right? ... Right?"

"Honestly, don't know. But at least if we're there we can expect the locals to do weird ass shit. Instead of here, where they do it just to mess with you, I swear to god."

"Anyplace is better than here if SHE'S anywhere near here," Senketsu said miserably.

"Good, we're in agreement. We can't go now though, Twilight's probably gonna be up and monitoring the portal for anything new right now anyway. Plus I don't wanna risk anyone seeing me walk straight through a rock. They might go off and tattle to the Rainbooms," I reasoned.

Instead of giving said Rainbooms more chances to piss me off for the rest of the day, I just went home. Er, hotel. Kinda like home, I guess. Both started with an 'h'.

Really, what more could you ask for?

"Whaddaya mean she skipped out?"

Pinkie Pie gave Rainbow Dash a bemused smile. She had just told her that she had seen Ryuko getting on her motorcycle and driving off before final period, hadn't she? Silly Dashy, she couldn't spend all day repeating EVERY single thing she said.

"Does she even actually go here?" Sunset Shimmer asked. "I've snooped a bit as an aide, and I have yet to see her on any of the attendance forms for any of the classes she's been in."

"What, so she's just showing up? Without even trying to register? Not too smart, is she?" Applejack suggested, "Even the sirens went an' got all registered as ac-tchull students. Or maybe she went and done got herself registered, but she's been goin' to the wrong classes without realizin' it?" Applejack looked around the group, seeing if any of the others agreed with her.

"I... I went to the wrong classes for an entire week my first week of high-school," Fluttershy admitted, a flush of red flashing across her face. "No one bothered to tell me, all the teachers just thought I was a placeholder to check on their performance and report back to the principle."

"Is that why Mrs. Piccadello is always giving you dirty looks?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yeah..."

"So it's possible," Sunset confirmed. "We should still run this by Principle Luna and Celestia, what us being right about the sirens, they should at least give us the benefit of the doubt to start off, right?"

A round of nodding went in a full circle, and their choice of action was made.

I shivered for a moment, snuggling down deeper into the sheets around me.

"Everything all right?" Senketsu asked, hanging from the bedpost above me to drape over the bed.

"Yeah," I said, kicking off the sheet to let the cold night air wash over me. "Just for a second had a chilling thought what Twilight might do if she found us out. Can you say, 'eternal test subject'?"

"Eternal test subject," Senketsu cheekily replied.

"You little brat."

A good nights sleep greeted me thereafter, allowing me to get rest I oh so desperately needed. I ate a brief breakfast of cereal, making my way to the school and the portal on campus. It was apparently Saturday, according to my new phone. No students to be wandering around and making it harder to get in and out of the portal, yay. Still a few teachers here and there, but easily enough avoided.

I had Senketsu transform before I dashed through, hopefully to make it harder for Twilight to see what the hell came through the portal at near warp speed. Thankfully from the flash of the room I saw, both Spike and Twilight were fast asleep. I stuck my head back in to double check, and sure enough. Snoring like babies. Must have had a late night, waiting to see if anyone came through. Sucks for her, if she'd been well rested she might have seen me.

I left the castle, making my way into town. I stuck to back ways and alleys, watching the ponies go about their daily lives. Senketsu had long since turned back to normal, leaving me to jump up on the roof of a building under my own power. I could probably have just normally jumped the two stories on my own with Ryuko's body, but the addition of pegasus wings made it easier than getting booze with a legal ID. Just a couple flaps, and here I was. Man, having wings rocked. I hope Senketsu unlocked 'shippu' mode soon. Being able to fly in both worlds would be so fricken cool.

"Hey! You up there!"

I craned my head downwards, looking for whoever called me out. The voice sounded familiar enough... and sure as rain, guess who it was.

No really, guess.

Made your guess yet?

If you said the Cutie Mark Crusaders, give yourself a cookie. Specifically, Scootaloo who had called me out.

"Hmmm... Hello there girls," I started, giving them my biggest smile. Might as well not make them suspicious of me, right? "Hooooooooows it goin'?"

Author's Notes:

To anyone interested in participating, Feel free to leave a question for Ryuko and/or Senketsu in the comments! They'll be more than willing to answer in the authors notes of the next chapter, and give you each a shout out!

Edit- Apologies, aparently an edit I made and which it SAID IT SAVED didn't save. 20k is now 340k.