E.q.Gee Rule Sixty-three

"There you two are." Hissed Sundown's voice.

Teneberia and Tristan didn't turn around.  "I take it you want us to do something, sir?" scowled Teneberia

Sundown walked in front them, a look of confidence on his face. "You two are to keep an eye out for anyone entering the gym, during sixth period.."

Tristan and Teneberia looked at each other, confused  The gym was meant to be off limits for all six periods of the day so that no one could tamper with the decorations or the food. "You don't want us to spy on Dusk or Faye or any of those other guys?" Tristan wondered.

"Nah, the girls are doing that already." Sundown replied "I think I'll go easy on you guys until Fall Formal - a gift for joining me."

I bet its the only gift he's only bother to give anyone in his life "And after Fall Formal?" Teneberia wondered

"That would be telling." Sundown stated, waving a finger in front of Teneberia. "See you at the gym."

Some time later....

Dusk Shine marched through the hallways, dressed in the tie-dyed, winged-jersey and wearing pony-eared-headband with Barbra and Faye (dressed similarly) walking beside him. Wearing the vibrantly-colored-and-winged-outfit made Dusk uncomfortable as more student began to stare at him, similar to his first day as an alicorn Prince.

~

...The crowds were cheering, and throwing flowers to his left and right.  Fillies and colt glued themselves to his four legs and tail.  As Dusk kept marching on through the crowd with a fake smile, tears were shown on his eyes.

Tears of feeling sorry for himself, for he could never go back to being the pony he once was....

~

Inhaling and exhaling Dust assured himself, "Its just for probably thirty minutes to an hour - then you'll have all the supporters you'll need, and then you can get the crown tomorrow night , and just go home."

Faye pulled out her phone and read the text message on it "Richie says he is ready. He and the rest of the gang will be in the cafeteria.  They've also have chosen a song and have gotten a radio so we should be -"

"- In deep trouble."

Sundown Shimmer happened to be in front of them and jabbed a note into Dusk's face "Vice Principal's Office. Alone. Now."

Confused, Dusk took the note  and read.  His face soon twisted into shock "I...I don't get it...why...why is this happening?"

"I did give you multiple warnings, from the moment you trotted your dim-witted flank into this world, alone, clueless, and unprepapred" Sundown grinned "You won't talk yourself out of this one, Dumb Shine.  That crown is mine."

Reading the note over Dusk's shoulder, Faye jabbed a finger into Sundown's face, causing him to flinch back "What did...you..do, you monster?!"

"What I'm gonna do - give you more warnings until you give up too." Sundown smirked.

Too upset to speak, Dusk walked to the vice principal's office.

Some time earlier...

"...Stay outside - and whatever you do don't leave or come into the gym. I'll be as quick as I can." Sundown said.

"Whatever, sir." Teneberia sighed.  Tristan closed the doors to the gym, a wary look on his face. Once they were out of sight, Sundown smiled, facing the decorations and stands, all prepared for the party tomorrow night.

"Now, too business my little friend...." Sundown hissed to the Carnelian Key, which began to illuminate the entire gym in a lime-green light.

Sundown closed his eyes, feeling his anger for Price Solaris of Equestria, Dusk, and Faye, surge through every limb of his body.  His nails extended into sharp talons from red hands that were once fair-skinned like other humans. A fiery tail erupted from behind him, covered by the shadow of two large bat wings.  His nose strunk into his face, with his chin protruding outwards, his ears twisted into triangular shapes, and his green eyes increasing to twice their size.  And finally, his yellow and red hair suddenly caught fire, yet remained intact. And surprisingly, so did all of his clothes, (Minus the two holes made for the wings now on his jacket)

There is too much power in such a key... Price Solaris would say ..You should know better to seek friendship, Sundown.  You are NOT ready to harness its power!

"Hmph, not ready...my flank!." Sundown hissed, channeling his anger for Solaris in swiping his claw at the crates of soda.

Fool! Throw yourself out of my castle and my school until you have learned a thing or two about friendship for once and until you have ridden your arrogance and impatience!

Sundown then hurled one of the broken crates towards the disco ball at the center of the ceiling.  The ball broke in half upon impacting the ground.

Sundown....you're just trouble!  Every prom we go to have good time you just do whatever you can to make yourself the star of the show! What about me? What about us?

Remembering Faye's words, he kicked over a dessert stand and continued to to do the same with others next to it.

“Maybe he's got a cuter face than yours...”

Sundown rammed his fist down on punch blow, breaking shattering it into pieces and breaking the table in half...

Dusk coughed “They will never follow you.”

After he was done with the tables, Sundown's eye caught a green-screen background. He remembered that every year at fall formal, he and Faye would get their pictures taken here. This year there was no way of that happening this year though....maybe forever...

The thought of that made the fire on Sundown's head send spark into the air.  Some caused balloons to pop, others set the streamers on fire, till they became nothing but ashes.

"Go ahead Sundown...give up everything and go home....let me steal Faye's heart and bask in Solaris's Pride..." Said a voice that sounded and awful lot like Dusk Shine, even though he had never said those words.

After punching many holes in the green-screen and setting it ablaze, Sundown sat in the center of his mess, smelling ash and food around him.  The voices in his head were gone.

"Good...good..." he assured himself, sounding uneasy in his new voice "Once Dusk comes back, I'll present this to him and then....and then I'll get what I...deserve....and I'll then be happy...."  He glanced at the key on his chest, which had  been glowing ever so brightly. He brought up to his forehead and closed his eyes. "...Thank you..."

The key glowed intensely before blinding him completely.  Once it ceased to glow, Sundown found himself exactly back in his normal human form. However, kept touching his face in disbelief, wondering if he had become a monster- no....a master of magic - for a few seconds due to the Key's power.

Sundown rushed past his two confused henchmen, and towards the Vice Principal's office.

Faye approached the gym, she was in awe at the destruction Sundown had caused. The rest of the gang and a several other students gathered around at the entrance. Many were furious, and one was crying about how she stayed up late making some of the spoiled food.

"That dirtbag." Richie hissed.

"This...is just too much to bear..." growled Ben, who held back his tears.

Just then Dusk arrived with Vice Principal Artemis, both of them looking grim. "Unfortunately, Fall Formal will be delayed until next monday.  In the meantime,  Principal Solaris offers his most sincere condolences to those who worked so hard to make this happen and to those who were expecting it."

"And what about the prom king thing?" Faye asked.

Artemis sighed "All activities will be moved to Monday.  Dusk and Sundown will continue to run as candidates." And the he left.

"Its not all that bad, bro..." Austin assured "...This weekend, I'm sure people will make it look as good as new.  And we'll also have time to do that dance on Monday, what could go wrong?"

"Sundown's invasion..." murmured Dusk.

"Huh? Didn't catch that - Sundown's what?"

Dusk didn't answer and walked over to the boy's bathroom with Barbra right behind him.

"Sundown did this just to make sure that even if we got the crown...we can't go back. Not if fall formal has been moved one day over." Barbra stated

"Yeah....he did win..." Dusk replied, rinsing his face. "...its nice that you are here, Barb.  I just wish the same for my other friends back in Equestria..."

"..What are you talking about?" Barbara said "These people are just like your pals back in Equestria! Just cause they walk on two legs, have pink or brown skin colors, and wear pants doesn't make them any different from those ponies back home...Heck even, Elusive still looks...dashing in this world."

"But how can I tell them I need Fall Formal to continue without telling them why I'm here.  In fact, who would believe I'm a Pony Prince?"

"No one ever needed to believe that you were pony prince to get this far into winning that crown." Assured Barbra. "Sundown may have made the game more difficult for us, but he hasn't changed it completely."

Dusk looked into the mirror, realizing he never did have time to appreciate his Human since he first set foot into this world.  The longer he looked at it, the more he did remind himself of his pony form.  He smiled, seeing how tiny the nose and eyes were and how big his head was.

"What's so funny?" Barbra asked.

"Mom would always warned me that if stayed up late to study, my brain would grow so big and my eyes, ears, mouth, and nose would become so small..." chuckled Dusk

Walking out, he found Faye was right in front of the door.

"Uh...hi?" Dusk said.

"Hey, Dusk." Faye replied. "The gang is practicing the dance on the gym stage.  Wanna join?"

As Dusk and Barbra followed Faye into the gym, he paused to kick away some of the shards of the punch bowl away.

"That'll do no good, son...." Said a old-aged-janitor.  Her eyes were golden, but her skin was heavily wrinkled and pale, almost as if someone squeezed the color out of her. Her hair was silver in color and was braided in a simple fashion. She also carried a broom in her hands, which she lent to Dusk.

"Oh - thanks." Dusk replied "Ms...?"

"Swirl.  Call me Swirl, son."

"Swirl? As in Star Swirl the..." Dusk was amazed. Back in Equestria, Star Swirl the braided was a famous wizard-unicorn-mare of the past. She was also a close friend to Solaris and Artemis, and was the longest living unicorn ever to have lived.  But here...

"...the custodian of Canterlot High, Son." Swirl replied trying to turn a table over. "I hear you are going against that Sundown fella...heh, nothing really changes...youngsters come and go, win and lose, cheer and cry, but I always stay here and watch them grow..."

"...uh...yeah..." Dusk said, focusing on sweeping away the pieces of glass.

"Thank you offering your help to an old soul. Not many would even care to do such a thing..." Swirl commented, smiling.

"What are you doing?" Barbra hissed.

"I don't know! I was just moving glass out of the way so no one got hurt!" whispered Dusk back.

"Talking to your dog I see?" Swirl stated, still trying to lift the table. "That's cute. I used to have a frog I would talk to all the time.  I named Franklin. We used to do all sorts of things together - play wizard, play leapfrog, read books.."

"I...see..." Dusk replied, unsure of what else to say as the old lady rambled on.

Seeing Dusk helping out, Bobby jumped offstage and rushed over to help Swirl.

"Aw thank you too, Bibby...." Swirl chimed

"Bobby" Bobby corrected picking up the table and help turning in over.

"Right...uh, Robby..." Swirl said.

As a result of seeing their friends working, Richie and Austin then pulled out more brooms to clean up the burnt steamers, pieces of food and other small items.

Faye, Elliott, and Ben also took notice.

"Should we?" groaned Elliot.

"Why not? It is the right thing to do..." Ben bought up, stepping offstage moving towards the trash can.

"If you don't wanna help call up everyone to help prepare food and drinks for Fall Formal." Faye shrugged.

"But Fall Formal has been delayed." Elliot reminded.

"Only because we don't have anything ready for tomorrow! Now just do it." Faye stated.

"And if they say 'no'?"

"Tell them that Dusk is doing it." Faye insisted.

"Are you saying there was evidence of a fire there?" Solaris's eyes winded.

"I smelled a bit of ash and smoke." admitted Artemis "I'm thinking we should add security cameras sir.  If this incident happens again-"

Solaris shook his head "The debate class would just protest through the halls, like the last time I proposed the idea.  Beside, the only Security Cameras we can afford are from the Royal Guard's Incorporation.  And they are very low in quality I assure you."

"So what should we do, then?" Artemis shrugged "I have a feeling that things looked too perfect and peaceful for a while."

"Yes..." Solaris said, itching his red-orange beard. "While we are thinking about it, maybe we should take a look at the damage before alerting the police..."

Artemis seemed puzzled "As Vice Principal of this school, I strongly suggested that-"

" - we leave its safety up to others?" Said Solaris, standing up and marching out the door "I think we've spend too much time inside our offices, assuming that student population was okay.  No...I have a terrible feeling, we are failing as Principals and we must attend to our own problems..."

"...okay then...but if its out of control, I'm calling the police." Artemis informed, following his fair-skinned brother out of

"Fine - just call someone other than Officer Gleaming Shield." Solaris shuddered. "She find outs, that a there was possibly of student doing this, she'll have policemen patrolling every street within half a mile of this school..."

"So its just two brothers doing this on our own instead of getting the professionals involved..." Sighed Artemis.

"...How nostalgic." Smiled Solaris warmly. "It is just like old times..."

Artemis smiled "Of course...man we did everything together...hide-and-seek, dragons-and-dungeons, Haystation..."

"Yeah..." Solaris smiled. "Don't forget, your gamername was Moon-butt."

'What do you mean - It was 'Kingofthem00n' - yours was definitely 'solarbutt'..." chuckled Artemis.

"Oh please," scoffed Solaris "I beg to differ- oh...my..."

Solaris and Artemis and then entered the gym in the middle of Solaris's sentence. Only to find in now being cleaned up by Swirl, Dusk, and all of his friends.

"Coming through, sirs." Said Macy, Austin's sister, carrying three boxes of Cider and walking between a surprised Solaris and Artemis.

"Ditto." Commented a blue-haired DJ,  hold two loudspeakers in each of his arms.  Curious, Solaris stepped in and approached Swirl. "What's all this about?"

Smiling, Swirl bobbed her head towards Dusk, who was was struggling to hold up a heavy trash bag.  Solaris walked over to Dusk and snatched the bag with his powerful arms.  He tossed it seven meters into the trash can, earning cheers from the other students in the room.

"You look like you could you use a workout, Dusk." joked Solaris.

Dusk shrugged. "I didn't expect to see you still here after school was out."

Solaris grinned, patting Dusk's head "I didn't expect anyone to be here, helping old Swirl out. Especially a new student like you, Dusk Shine..."

Dusk smiled, but was approached by Macy. "Hate to bring it up, Dusk but we don't have anything to replace the decorations or the all of the spoiled food.  And the green screen is beyond repair..."

"Why tell me?" Dusk wondered

"Well...You are incharge this? Right?" Macy stated, then patting his head, causing Dusk to blush. "Ah whatever, see you later Duskie. I'll try to see what I can do..."

"Well..." Solaris thought "...if you could bring something to replace the green screen, and maybe some more food, by tomorrow Fall Formal will go on Friday night.  Some decor would be nice also...."

Dusk's eyes beamed. "Oh thank you, Price Solaris! We won't let you you down."

"Of course Dusk, but you'll have to leave soon I'm afraid. School has to be be closed within ten minutes." Solaris stated. "I'll see you you tomorrow morning...."

Then, Faye pulled Dusk back by his collar back onstage.  "C'mon - you've got a dance to practice for...let other students deal with making sure Fall Formal goes on tonight..."

Dusk got on stage with the other five boys. Meanwhile, Faye was readying a video camera on a tripod she set up next to Barbra.

"Why the recording?" Dusk wondered.

"Oh nothing, just keep in mind that if you do mess up make it look hilarious or at least that you are having fun..." Faye winked.

"If you post this on the internet...we'll find you." Bobby hissed

"Um...if that's alright with you...." Ben shrugged.

Elusive sighed "To be seen on the internet in this garb?  I do wish I had cleaned out that stain earlier-"

"Boys, we've got less than minutes up here to practice and that camera is recording. DJ, Let's do this to the beat!"

As if on cue, The DJ that had entered earlier with subwoofers had pulled out a CD player and attached it to a loudspeaker. Faye started to clap and stomp according to the beat and she indicated the boys to do the same.  With Dusk, Ben, and Bobby on her right, and Elusive, Ben, and Austin on her left, she began to sing.

"Hey, hey, Everybody!

We got somethin' to say!

We may seem as different as the night is from day!

But if you look a little deeper and you will see, that I'm just like you and you are just like me, yeah!

Finally the boys joined in.

Hey, hey everybody,

we're here to shout!

That the magic of friendship is what its all about....

"What do you mean something went wrong?" Teneberia asked Tristan in an alleyway with Sugar and Spice.

"He told me he was headed to the junkyard for the afternoon and didn't want to speak to anyone." Tristan Shrugged "And then he started to groan and growl into the phone until he just hung up."

"Why in all places would Sundown go to junkyard?!" Teneberia demanded "Its not like Solaris or Artemis even have a clue that he ruined Fall Formal!"

"About that...what concerns me is...how did he ruin it?" Sugar asked. "It looks like he had to turn into the hulk or something in order to do that kind of damage in a few minutes...."

"I have no clue, but that key around his neck has to go." Teneberia declared.

"What do you know about it?" Spice wondered.

"I don't know anything about it. And that's we're going to find out." Teneberia demanded "We're all going to the junkyard to find out what in the world is going on with Sundown..."

"Why we?" Spice asked.

"Because Sundown won't take to kindly with anyone else he sees. because we work for him we at least have a slim chance." Teneberia said. "Tristan we're taking your car."

"The great and powerful is blushing..." Tristan chuckled. Teneberia rolled her eyes.