Three
Chapter 8: Chapter Seven: As Teachers, We Fight!
Previous Chapter Next ChapterClouds. High altitude. Not a single pinch of sunlight shone upon the school. The perfect hiding spot, the perfect watch out. We patiently awaited the changelings.
Who were we? The Principal, the artist and of course, the student, me. We had eyes everywhere, darting left and right, scanning for movement throughout the vast sky. Actually, the only thing that should move were ponies, flying animals and of course, our enemies as of yesterday, changelings. Nope, clouds are pretty much inert until disrupted by any creature that possessed the ability of flight.
For the life of me, I couldn’t think of any possible way that one, two, three, SIX ponies: Charge, Shadow Mark, Chaser, Omnius, Anarchy and myself could handle Chrysalis’ entire army, especially with those... Behemoths. It would be a miracle if I get out of this alive, let alone, unscratched.
Yeah, have you forgotten the size of Chaser’s scar?! That thing is bucking huge, like just in your face! Kill said, remembering the perfect details of Chaser’s scar. Honestly, Kill was over exaggerating, he always over exaggerated... actually, the scar did look kind of cool, well, at least that’s my opinion. I think it’s so close to his heart, it throbs he commented once more.
Kill may be an ass, but he is, as of right now, a correct ass. You do not want to get one of those, Joy added, agreeing with Kill’s disrespectful way of laying it down subtly. I’m not even sure you can survive one of those! I’m not trying to discourage you, Graze... Joy sighed, slowly shaking his head in doubt. I’m just trying to show you the reality of the situation... it took only one of those Behemoths to place two ponies into a situation of life and death. Chaser is brutally scarred, and Principal Shadow Mark is permanently handicapped. That was just one, he repeated once more the dangers of the Behemoth.
But, no matter what, we’ve got your back! Kill butted in, interrupting Joy’s demotivational speech. We see any bugs, we’ll tell you right away! There’s no need to fear, Graze, we’ll be your wingmen! Seeing him so charismatic, could have only brought a faint smile to this face, challenging the lack of hope Joy had brought upon me.
“Hey, Graze, you alright? You seem a bit worried,” Chaser asked, concerned about his pupil’s blank expression.
“Oh yeah... I’m fine,” I replied, hopefully reassuring the teacher.
“Ohoho! No need to worry, Graze! Charge and Omnius are on the ground, if things get a bit too much up here, all you need to do is swoop down, and we can handle the rest!” Shadow Mark informed me, returning to his upright position upon his haunches. Smiling at both the teachers, a shadow quickly whisked its way passed our cloud. The moment of shade was brief, but it was desperately needed.
From his stance, he momentarily gazed upon the school’s grounds, tracing what had seemed to be the same shadow encircling an empty spot upon the compound. Our ears cocked straight up at the sudden screech of what could have only been an eagle. At the edge of our cloud, Shadow Mark smiled, protecting his eyes with a hoof to shade him from Celestia’s harmful rays, glancing at the flying messenger.
It took a day, but Rarity’s banshee call finally worked! Kill laughed, while Joy and I simply ignored.
Standing tall with confidence, Shadow Mark stared at the eagle, awaiting its next cry.
SCREE!!! The blood curdling screech pierced through the silent air, signalling Shadow Mark. Signalling him what? The only thing I could have guessed, was suicide, seeing the robbed stallion as he tipped over the clouds.
Leaning over the cloud, Shadow Mark allowed gravity to take its place, as the earth relentlessly brought him forth to its surface. No wings, he executed a backflip in mid air, landing not unto the ground, but a perfectly convenient, flying changeling.
“C’mon Graze, lets go!” Chaser commanded, bucking the cloud beneath us, disappearing upon contact. Thanks to my wings, I hovered, watching as the two pegasi progressed towards... towards Chrysalis’ swarm. The battalion did not look to consist of one thousand, but it was definitely more than we can chew. From one changeling to another, Shadow Mark kicked off his host, sending their bodies spiralling to the ground as he followed up with a glide using his handicapped wing. Through mid-flight, the principal performed various skilled flips, forehooved bucks and reversals to any passersby. Landing on another of his moving targets, he was set to repeat this process once more.
Holy shit! Look at him go! Kill exclaimed, amazed at the elder pony’s skills as Shadow Mark jumped from one changeling to another, bucking two in the throat before he successfully landed.
He’s going to need backup, Graze. Get the bricks out of your pants and lets go! Joy was right. Alone, the principal barely made a dent to her army, taking out at least twenty or so. There were still too many.
Flying at top speeds, Chaser and I fought through the oncoming onslaught Shadow Mark had missed. We endlessly fought, bucking through the crowd, countlessly jabbing, hook bucking and kneeing the changelings that dared to progress onwards, the outcome was the same for everyone of them, unconscious. “There’s still too many!” I shouted, worrying over the fact that we still haven’t passed a collected total of one hundred changelings. Honestly, who’s counting?
“I KNOW! I KNOW!” Chaser replied while hovering on the spot, quite aware of the fact that some had gotten through. “Don’t worry, we’ve got a plan!” Chaser reassured me, which for once, didn’t work out so well. Everything was going to shit.
Just by looking at the crowd, it didn’t seem to have ever ended. If the three of us up here were having such difficulty, I only had to wonder how two ponies, Charge and Omnius, handled the situation below.
Click-Click
“Rarity, I hate you,” Twilight Sparkle precognitionaly said, within the forehooves of Mr. Charge as he ‘loaded’ her ammunition while standing on his hind.
RATATATATATATATATA!
Endless rounds of violet magical blasts scattered from Twilight’s horn and throughout the field, hitting numerous grunts of Chrysalis’ army “WAH! WAAAH-AHAHAHAHAHA! CRY SOME MORE!” Charge battle cried, as he progressed, alone through the changeling’s onslaught of suppressing fire. “AHAHAHAHAHA!”
“So, so much.”
“GO CHARGE! GO!” Omnius supported from the back, approaching the suited, ying-yang coated teacher.
From the school’s rooftops, Anarchy had been appointed to lookout duty with Rarity as her assistant, both of them having that special keen eye. The draconequus quickly spotted a second Omnius exiting the school with Grim in his hooves, as one would hold a weapon. She gasped, “That janitor is a changeling!”
“Wait! Ms. Anarchy, what are you-Eee!” Rarity screamed from suddenly being picked up by the draconequus, and held in such a position that Rarity’s horn was used for more of an... accurate tool, aiming down the sights at the janitor’s head before Charge. Gripping Rarity’s tail, Anarchy straightened all the curls as she yanked upon it. “WHY WOULD YOU DO SUCH A HORRID THING!? Do you know how long it takes to get the curls done in a tail?!” She whined. “It took hours, and hours, and hours! Oh, do not get me started on how hard it is to get that special herbed shampoo from Zecora, which you just completely wiped off! Every single morning, I comb my mane and my tail one hundred times, each! That’s a complete total of two hundred brushes per day! Thank Celestia I am a unicorn, I absolutely do not know how I would make it if I was like Applejack, by the way, have you seen her--”
“Ugh,” Anarchy disgustingly grunted, deeply breathing in and out, tolerating each ongoing word of the mare. Rarity continued. Anarchy gritted her teeth. Rarity didn’t stop. Something broke in Anarchy as she twisted a smile, grating her teeth, and fangs against each other in annoyance. She snapped, in a very calm, soothing manner. “Rarity, darling?” The draconequus called the pony in her arms.
“Yes, Ms. Anarchy?” Rarity answered.
“I shit you not, and on my very eternity, that if you don’t give me twenty seconds of silence, I will shave you bald with a spoon.” Rarity opened her mouth to respond, but was quickly hushed by the teacher. “I’m a draconequus, I have my ways.” With a whimper, Rarity hushed as she allowed herself for Anarchy to merely use the pony as a weapon, aiming down her the horn as her sights and onto the approaching Omnius’ head.
With a steady and firm grip, Anarchy pulled down on Rarity’s tail as a bolt with a sound of an audible Click.
Steady... Steady... she yanked on the tail, and from the horn released a single, pressurized round with a trace of blue magic, dispersing in the air. BOOM HEADSHOT! Anarchy smiled in success as the phoney janitor was shot directly in the head.
“Alright, Charge, I got Grim as you asked, and is that a dead changeling?” Omnius said, observing the slow breaths of the bug-like pony. “Nope, it’s still breathing.”
“AHAHAHAHA! ANARCHY IS GREAT CREDIT TO STAFF!” Charge shouted with a crazed look in his eyes as he continued firing his Twilight Sparkle. “JOIN ME, JANITOR!”
Shrugging, Omnius had that usual look of ‘why not?’ which every member of the school’s staff adopted to use on a daily basis. “So, what can you do?” Omnius asked Grim, flicking the student’s horn.
“Please, don’t touch my horn like that, it’s very sensitive. All you need to do is ask, you know?” the shaded pony insisted, as he concentrated upon a flare of black ember on the tip of his horn.
Omnius was not in the slightest amused at the tiny flame. Standing on his hindlegs, Omnius’ hooves wrapped around Grim, yanking upon his tail, releasing a widespread burst of flames. “Hahaha, that’s more like it!” The janitor quickly remarked, before he was shot in the mouth by a drifting round of changeling’s goo. He pulled effortlessly on the slimy substance but simply forfeited to its reinforced elasticity, sending his hooves smacking into his face.
“MEDIIIC! JANITOR HAS BEEN SHOT!” Charge shouted, seeking aid for the wounded janitor.
“Mmmhmm mm mpmh!” Omnius muttered through the goop.
“What do you mean, you are the nurse!?” Charge asked. “Never mind that, can you still fight?”
“Mmmhm!” Omnius nodded.
“Good janitor!” Charge laughed, continuing his onslaught of magical bullets.
And they call me, crazy. Omnius sighed, picking up Grim as he entered the battlefield, decreasing the numbers with his newly found flamethrower, which surprisingly didn’t really burn them, but more so, kept them at bay.
Very few changelings escaped Grim’s range, his radius unable to cover the entire battle field. Two of these brave changelings managed to charge through the flames, forgetting Omnius as they galloped towards the gatling pony, wielded teacher, Charge. Their sizes were unmistakably too large to be called an average changeling, there was a much more unique term for changelings of their standards, Behemoths.
Slowing their trot, Charge held his fire as the two approached him. This was the gentlecolt’s way of handling situations: if they didn’t attack, or prove any threat such as an assault, he won’t have attacked either. “Get behind me, Twilight,” Silent ordered as she answered him with a nod, once laid down. “So, what can I do for you two lovely stallions, hm?”
“We’re just wondering, are you going to hide behind your little weapon or face us like stallions?” the one on the right said. “What say we get rid of that little filly.”
“Well, if you touch her, then I would have no choice but to kill you,” Charge warned, moving to the side as he presented the lone mare. “ I dare you, take one step towards her and I will personally knock you out in ten seconds flat.”
“Deal,” the Behemoth on the left said, accepting Charge’s warning with confidence. At the very trot forward, and upon landing his hoof, Silent swept the floor with his hindlegs on a pivot, tripping the Behemoth, allowing gravity to take its course. Charge did not give gravity permission to do so. With the Behemoth stunned in mid-air, Charge flapped his wings, giving him the necessary burst of speed to rush the changeling with a knee directly to the forehead. Juggled in mid-air, Charge’s black and white streaked tail constricted the Behemoth’s neck. With an aerodynamic loop and flick of his tail, the once confident Behemoth was defeated, smashed into the ground as the teacher roughly landed on all his fours, beside the newly formed crater.
“Hey look, I made a hole, just like what you guys have!” Silent said, ignoring the whimpering, traumatized and half-beaten changeling in the newly designed floor. “I can’t believe you guys gave Shadow Mark and Chaser so much trouble...” He commented, watching as the remaining Behemoth slowly retreated, backwards as his focus remained on the bat-winged teacher. “Yeah, I’m not going to allow that to happen,” Charge said with a whistle, watching as the changeling now retreated at full speed. “I’ve marked you for death.” A shadow pursued the Behemoth. “Shadow Mark’d, to be precise.”
From the rooftops, Anarchy watched a certain hoodied principal glide through the air, as his robes frantically flailed about to the powerful force of air resistance. She spotted something sharp, shimmering through the daylight, once concealed by the robe’s sleeve. A knife.
Shadow Mark arched his back, taking proper aim with his right foreleg using his left to counteract for perfect striking position and balance. He landed on the Behemoth’s back, executing a perfect air assassination, jagging the blade through its right wing. The changeling was snared, pinned to the ground and unable to move with the blade through his wing. “What’s your name?” Shadow Mark asked.
“H-H-Hyperion,” the Behemoth answered as the pain coursed through his vessels.
“You’re leverage to us now, Hyperion,” Shadow Mark smiled, as he then spoke to himself. “Thanks for the knife-wrench, Omnius, I’ll make sure to clean the blood off it.” He then watched the blade and laughed. "Hohoho! It has two parts, a knife and a wrench!"
With two ponies, Chaser and myself, the airfield was getting a bit too... restricted. Restricted as in, we couldn’t move or think properly with every passing changeling, we were doing a terrible job at this. “WE COULD REALLY USE THAT BACKUP PLAN NOW, CHASER!” I shouted through the buzzing of passing changelings. Fighting them were a bit futile at the moment seeing how many had already gotten through.
Yeah, I give up... Joy admitted.
Yeah, me too, maybe we can ask Chrysalis to enroll in her school, Kill said, agreeing with Joy.
“Argh! I KNOW! I KNOW!” Chaser replied, looking at the rooftops of the school. “WHERE IS THAT DAMNED HYBRID!” He gritted his teeth. “ANARCHY, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, DO IT BUCKING NOW!’ No response. “Argh! That’s it, I’m taking control of this!” Chaser exclaimed aggravatingly, ripping a cloud into two, rubbing the pieces together as the once white fluffy clouds turned dark, surging electricity surging through its matter. “I’m going commando!” he shoved both his hooves into both pieces, wearing them as boxing gloves.
“How did you do that?” I said in awe, watching the electrically nature derived boxing gloves.
“It’s my own little trick, and you know... basically, it’s how pegasi make thunderstorms since clouds can’t actually, you know, touch themselves... I just use this for an offensive purpose. Now, stay back, and watch this,” Chaser said, flying towards the oncoming wave of changelings. Alone, the jacketed equine hovered in the middle of the crowd as their potential target. With a smirk, Chaser slowly rose both his hooves, grabbing the attention of his assaulters. “CLEAR!”
CRACKLE-BOOM! He smashed both clouds together, releasing a violent stream of lightning, coursing through the bodies of every changeling within its range. The thunderous roar came afterwards, showing perfect contrast between then, and now. No buzzing. Complete and utter silence.
“Awww bene!” Chaser pumped his hoof in victory, exasperatingly.
AWWW BENE! Kill and Joy followed the teacher in his celebrations.
And then, more changelings. The entire battalion of the sky, even those who had passed, were now aiming at us. “These things don’t know how to give up!” I exclaimed.
“ANARCHY! QUICKLY, BEFORE THEY COME, DO IT NOW!” Chaser desperately shouted for help.
“--and that’s why ponytails are better than curls,” Anarchy finished her explanation to the the white mare, pointing to her hair, held snug by nothing more than a pony tail.
ANARCHY! QUICKLY, BEFORE THEY COME, DO IT NOW! An echo trailed through the air, caught by the ears of the draconequus.
“Stand back, Rarity, and cover your eyes. Things are about to get a bit... colorful,” Anarchy warned the mare, pulling out of thin air, a bottle of soapy water. Dipping the stick into the bubbled water no more than three times, the draconequus placed it before her mouth, and simply blew. “Scatter,” Anarchy commanded, sending forth the bubbles towards the playing field, as she had so called it.
Hundreds of tiny bubbles aimlessly drifted throughout the sky, untouched by anypony or changeling. Some had flew past me, others came before the changelings, not a single bubble had been disrupted, we all simply watched in awe. “Bubbles, are you freaking kidding me? BUBBLES?!” This must have been the greatest distraction ever!
Of course, there will be that one idiot amongst the rest who just had the desire to poke a bubble when they see it. Sadly, it wasn’t that way, this time around, it was the idiot amongst bubbles that poked the pony, me.
“Hehehe, I’m gonna boop your snout,” I imagined the bubble saying, in a cute, low pitched voice.
When you see bubbles, do not poke them I remembered Cloud Chaser’s advice.
“I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna boop your snout!” Of course I would let it boop my snout, it was so cute!
Boop* KA-BOOM! The bubble detonated upon contact, setting off a chain of detonations, setting the sky ablaze, painted with various explosions, wiping out every other changeling and inert cloud in its path.
Call it lucky or not, but that was a very miniscule explosion I received compared to the fireworks every other changeling was caught in. In fact, because of that bubble, II was lucky NOT to be caught in that explosion!
Nevertheless, my body was dropping... fast, a trail of smoke behind me.
Weightless.
I’m going to make it.
Clouds beating against my back.
I’m don’t think I’m going to make it.
Consciousness fading.
I’m not going to make it.
Thud.
Didn’t make it.