“Lyra, be courteous towards Vinyl! She didn’t do anything wrong to you!”

Octavia was unsuccessfully trying to calm the mint-haired girl, as the latter was repeatedly punching Vinyl’s shoulder. In turn, the DJ was doing her regular “laugh”, which made several students turn around to check if somebody was having a heart attack. Octavia sure wasn’t comprehending this… game between the two of her friends. Was that something every good friends did between to each others? Was she going to have to be hit, or worse, hit someone?

Once the storm of punches had stopped, Vinyl got back on her seat, panting from her laughter, and massaging her right upper arm and shoulder, which had turned red after experiencing her best friend’s wrath.

“Vinyl, I swear to God, if something like this happens ever again because of you, I’m gonna send fucking fire and brimstone on your ass!”

Vinyl gave her friend an evil smirk, as she was signing to Lyra. That gave Octavia a chance to test her understanding of this new language. The couple of hours she had had with Dana had been productive, but she only understood bit parts of the sentence: “not my”, “you have”, “mouth”...

“Big mouth my ass! I was sent there alone just because you can’t talk! You’re lucky murdering handicapped people is illegal!”

“Um… Lyra, I believe that aggravated assault on anyone is illegal…” Octavia said in a shy mumble, in a desperate try to get her friend’s attention elsewhere.

Lyra turned her head towards the cellist, her eyes still filled with the red taint of sheer anger. Octavia let out a slight scream, before whispering a “I’m sorry!”, face between her hands.

Seeing her interlocutor’s panic, Lyra smiled and sat beside the terrified girl, messing her dark grey hair with her pale hand.

“Goddamnit Tavi! You’re making me feel bad! I’m not really pissed at Vinyl, you know? You’re so innocent!”

She paused mid-sentence to look at Vinyl laughing.

“You’re so cute when you’re scared though, I should do it more often! I’m sure it’d please Vinyl!”

Octavia looked at Lyra in a confused look, putting her now messy hair back in place with both hands.

“Oh… Oh no, please don’t. I couldn’t possibly handle the idea of you not being here for me anymore… You all did so much for me already.”

“You have no idea, Tavi.”

“Speeeeaaaaking of which!” Said Lyra, stretching her arms and legs, producing an unbelievable amount of cracking sounds that made Octavia shiver. “You know what day we are, right?”

“I believe we’re on a Thursday, but I do not see the-”

“Right! And so, that means we have two days before Saturday, you agree?”

“Well, how couldn’t I?”

“Sure. And on Saturday, we haaaaave……?”

“I… don’t think we have any class on Saturday.”

“I’m not talking about classes girl! I’m talking about the party! At that girl’s place, Pinkie Pie! You remember?!”

“Oh, um, well… I have to admit, I was not planning on attending this event.”

“What?!”

“What did you expect Lyra?”

“Why wouldn’t you? It’s gonna be awesome! Bon-Bon told me that Pinkie Pie is the best at organizing parties! Hell, she’s even the head of the party-planning committee! Don’t you think it’s a great occasion to have fun, make some friends, drink all night? I mean, I don’t think there’ll be any alcohol, but since Vinyl’s brother is in town, maybe he can get us some sweet stuff! Right girl?”

“...”

“See?! It’s perfect! Come with us, don’t be a loner!”

“It’s… It’s not that I don’t want to come. I appreciate the invitation, I truly do, but I’ve never been out during the evening, especially not in a stranger’s home. As you may imagine, my parents don’t allow me, but it’s not like this restriction has ever caused me any grief. This is the first time I’ve been invited to something like this and… even though it appears to be a nice idea, I’m afraid I can’t go… Furthermore, with what happened between my father and I yesterday, there is no possible other outcome.”

“Aw crap. That’s right, your parents. Why do they even act like that? They think locking up their daughter in their house is good for her?! Don’t they want you to make any friends?”

“Well, I believe we can all testify that they’re not fond of our newborn friendship…”

“True… So what’s their deal exactly?”

“Their… deal?”

“What’s their problem?”

As Lyra was astonished by the cellist’s parent’s behavior, Vinyl watched at her two friends, legs crossed on her table. Yeah, she wanted to know about the Melody parents as well. How could they even remotely think that’d be good for their daughter? Were they like this with Octavia’s sister too?

“Damn, this isn’t gonna be easy…”

She checked the time on her phone. Two minutes of break left. Today was the first English class, with a teacher they hadn’t met yet: Mrs. Harshwhinny. Probably not from here.

“I… I don’t know Lyra. That is just the way they educated me. It had done me no wrong up until now. But they… ask that if I was to socialize with other students, they should be of a similar social status.”

“What?! That’s complete bullshit and you know it!”

“Lyra, please, watch your-”

“No girl, I won’t! They think they can stop you from having fun? From making the friends you want? From being free?!”

Lyra’s indignation was only met with silence from the cellist. Deep down, even though she didn’t want to admit it, Octavia knew that her friend was right. She had accepted the cellphone, she had watched them beat up that bully,... But this was a more serious affair. She couldn’t just leave her home and meet her friends at this party…

“Hey, you know what? Why don’t you wait until night to leave your home and meet us at the party?!”

“Wha-”

She was cut mid-sentence by the room’s door opening, followed by the sound of high heels knocking loudly against the wooden floor.

The whole class immediately got silent. Every single student, in a heartbeat, ceased their activity or conversation, just as if they got put into shock by the sudden arrival.

The newcomer stepped in the room, not uttering a single word, not making a sound, except for the same sound of heels against wooden planks.
This woman was impressive, to say the least. Not only by appearance, with her purple three-piece suit, completed by a bright white shirt and a few golden pieces of jewelry ; but also her presence, her aura, which was filling every square inch of the room. Her blue eyes were calm yet alert, and her posture was sign of professionalism.
One thing was for sure: this woman wasn’t here for any funny business like Discord, or for creative self-development like Nandermane. She was here to teach, and not in the “teach” sense of teach, more in the TEACH sense of teach.

“Good afternoon students, take your books and open them page five.”

“Oh shit. No time to fuck around.” Lyra whispered at her DJ friend “Now that’s an accent though. You think she’s from the eastern continent? Like that other girl over there, Photo Finish?”

“Excuse-me young lady, are you already breaking the school’s rules and having your private conversations during my class?”

“Lyra, I swear to God…”

“Well, I, uhm…”

“Hello Miss! Why don’t we start by introducing everyone?! Every other teacher does that!” yelled a high-pitched girly voice. Saved by Pinkie Pie.

“We will start by setting things right: my job is to make you succeed. If you don’t succeed, what kind of teacher would I be? And... what kind of students would you be?”

“Aw great. Perfect. A stuck-up strict teacher. We now officially have all the stereotypes. This school is a fucking zoo of teachers if I ever saw one.”

“But, if that is the way you can find motivation on this first day, so be it: I am Mrs. Harshwhinny, and I’ll be teaching you the twists and turns of English language. I am from Horseburg myself, and I certainly hope you’ll be as fast at learning as I was.”

“Concerning the rules in class…” She continued, taking a disdainful look at Lyra, “I have a zero-tolerance policy about delays, chatting and misbehaviors of any sort. I hope I will never have to take measures against any of you.”

“Great!” Pinkie Pie smiled, obviously not realizing the current situation, nor the teacher’s dark glance, “Our turn! I’m Pinkie Pie, and-”

“I know who you are.” She said, leaning forward on Pinkie’s table, “And let me tell you something: you seem to be the troublemaker kind. The other professors may not care, but I do. I’ll be keeping my eye on you.”

She uttered every single word, overly articulating and casting her shadow over half the class.

“Sure, she doesn’t look straight up mean like Sombra, but I sure won’t be looking forward to going in English class in the future.” Lyra whispered, getting an approving nod from Vinyl. Octavia seemed to have absolutely no problem with that, probably because of her past years in boarding schools. Every teacher there must’ve been the same. Poor Tavi.

“I already put a name on each and every one of your faces, students. Why waste time on that?” She took a brief break to search through the crowd, stopping on Vinyl. “I also learned that we have some sort of… special situation this year.”

Vinyl got tempted to sign something like “Hello bitch”, but if Discord had taught them anything, it was that some teachers knew sign language. Better just introduce herself. She did a few signs, starting gasps of admiration from her fellow students.

“No, Ms. Scratch, I do not understand sign language. I sure hope you got something planned to make yourself understood in class.”

Lyra rose her hand, not waiting for an answer to talk:

“Well I’m always here to translate, and Octavia over here is also startin-”

“When I want a student to talk, Ms. Heartstrings, I interrogate him! Remain quiet, we’ll talk about your behavior later!”

Lyra’s face turned red. She was about to blow up. Vinyl put her hand on her friend’s lap to calm her down, not looking away from the teacher’s gaze.

“Concerning your… handicap, Ms. Scratch, I certainly hope you’re not planning on using it as an excuse to skip oral classes. Now from next week onwards, you’ll be sitting in the first row, and will be answering my questions on paper.”

She stopped for a moment, before smiling:

“But at least we won’t have any problems of you chatting.”

No one laughed at the joke.

“I’m on a Hiiiighway to Hell….”

This song was great. Discord had always liked it. It was both classy and dynamic, and pretending he was a twenty-something rebel in his convertible, driving at 75 mph, without a care in the world, was a guilty pleasure of him. He was trying to keep himself in good shape, but he was getting old, and feared the limitations that would come with the age.

He shook his head and sighed. No need to think about this. Time was a precious thing, and his shouldn’t be wasted. He thought about the new generation, these young girls he was helping. With their lives and their issues. One of these issues in particular required his doing, and he was more than decided to help them with it.

His ear twitched as the small phone laying on the passenger seat emitted a small beep. Keeping his left hand on the wheel, he opened the flip phone with the right, and saw a couple words under the name “Tempest”:

“ 5 days”

He smiled, closed the phone and accelerated, with a few cars honking behind him.
This was going to be fun.

“And I’m going down…”

“All the way…”

Author's Notes:

WELL LOOK AT THIS!

I'M LATE AGAIN!

(No news of the week this time, don't really have anything important to tell you guys, except thanks for the love )

Bisous,

Saga.