The School For Good And Evil

The Great Mistake Part Two

On the other side of the moat, Twilight had nearly killed a breezie. She had woken under red and yellow lilies that appeared to be having an animated conversation. Twilight was sure she was the subject, for the lilies gestured brusquely at her with their leaves and buds. But then the matter seemed settled and the flowers hunched like fussing grandmothers and wrapped their stems around their wrists. With a tug, they yanked her to her hooves and Twilight gazed out at a field of mares, blooming gloriously around a shimmering lake.

She couldn't believe what she was seeing. The mares grew right from the earth. First heads poked through soft dirt, then necks, then chests, then up and up until they stretched their legs into fluffy blue sky and planted delicate slippers upon the ground. But it wasn't the sight of sprouting mares that unnerved Twilight the most. It was that these mares looked nothing like her.

Their faces, some fair, some dark, were flawless and glowed with health. They had shiny waterfalls of hair, ironed and curled likes dolls', and they wore downy dresses of peach, yellow, and white, like a fresh batch of Easter eggs. Some fell on the shorter side, others were willowy and tall, but all flaunted tiny waists, slim legs, and slight shoulders. As the field flourished with new students, a team three-winged breezies awaited each one. Chiming and chinking, they dusted the mares of dirt, poured them cups of honeybush tea, and tended to their trunks, which had sprung from the ground with their owners.

Where exactly these beauties were coming from, Twilight hadn't the faintest idea. All she wanted was a dour or disheveled one to poke through so she wouldn't feel so out of place. But it was an endless bloom of Rarity's who had everything she didn't. A familiar shame clawed at her stomach. She needed a hole to climb down, a graveyard to hide in, something to make them all go away-

That's when the breezie bit her.

"What the-"

Twilight tried to shake the jingling thing off her hoof, but it flew and bit her neck, then her bottom. Other breezies tried to subdue the rogue as she yowled, but it bit them too and attacked Twilight again. Incensed, she tried to catch the breezie with her magic, but it moved lightning quick, so she hopped around uselessly while it bit her over and over until the breezie mistakenly flew into her mouth and she swallowed it. Twilight sighed in relief and looked up.

Sixty beautiful mares gaped at her. The cat in the nightingale's nest.

Twilight felt a pinch in her throat and coughed out the breezie. To her surprise, it was a boy.

In the distance, sweet bells rang out from the spectacular pink and blue glass castle across the lake. The teams of breezies all grabbed their mares by the shoulders, hoisted them into the air, and flew them across the lake towards the towers. Twilight saw her chance to escape, but before she could make a trot for it, she felt herself being lifted into the air by two girl breezies. As she flew away, she glanced back at the third, the breezie boy that had bitten her, who stayed firmly on the ground. He crossed his arms and shook his head, as if to say in no uncertain times there'd been a terrible mistake.

When the breezies brought the mares down in front of the glass castle, they let go of their shoulders and let them proceed freely. But Twilight's two breezies held on and dragged her forward like a prisoner. Twilight looked back across the lake. Where's Rarity?

The crystal water turned to slimy moat halfway across the lake; gray fog obscured whatever lay on the opposite banks. If Twilight was to recue her friend, she had to find a way to cross that moat. But first she needed to get away from these winged pests. She needed a diversion.

Mirrored words arched over golden gates ahead:

The School For Good

Enlightenment And Enchantment

Twilight caught her reflection in the letters and turned away. She hated mirrors and avoided them at all costs. (Pigs an dogs don't sit around looking at themselves, she thought.) Moving forward, Twilight glanced up at the frosted castle doors, emblazoned with two white swans. But as the doors opened and breezies herded the mares into a tight, mirrored corridor, the line came to a halt and a group of mares circled her like sharks.

They stared at her for a moment, as if expecting her to whip off her mask and reveal a princess underneath. Twilight tried to meet their stares, but instead met her own face reflected in the mirror a thousand times and instantly glued her eyes to the marble floor. A few breezies buzzed to get the mass moving, but most just perched on the mares' shoulders and watched. Finally, one of the mares stepped forward, with waist-length gold hair, succulent lips, and topaz eyes. She was so beautiful she didn't look real.

"Hello, I'm Sunshine," she said sweetly, "I didn't catch your name."

"That's because I never said it," said Twilight, eyes pinned to the ground.

"Are you sure you're in the right place?" Sunshine said, even sweeter now.

Twilight felt a word swim into her mind - a word she needed, but was still too foggy to see.

"Um, I uh-"

"Perhaps you just swam to the wrong school," smiled Sunshine.

The word lit up in Twilight's head. Diversion.

Twilight looked up into Sunshine's dazzling eyes. "This is the School for Good, isn't it? The legendary school for beautiful and worthy mares destined to be princesses?"

"Oh," said Sunshine, lips pursed. "So you're not lost?"

"Or confused?" said another with an Arabian coat and jet-black hair.

"Or blind?" said a third with deep ruby curls.

"In that case, I'm sure you have your Flowerground Pass," Sunshine said.

Twilight blinked. "My what?"

"Your ticket into the Flowerground," said Sunshine. "You know, the way we all got here. Only officially accepted students have tickets into the Flowerground."

All the mares held up a large golden tickets, flaunting their names in regal calligraphy, stamped with the School Master's black-and-white swan seal.

"Ohhh, that Flowerground Pass," Twilight scoffed. She dug her hooves in her pockets. "Come close and I'll show you."

The mares gathered suspiciously. Meanwhile, Twilight's hooves fumbled for a diversion - matches... coins... dried leaves...

"Um, closer."

Murmuring mares huddled in. "It shouldn't be this small," Sunshine huffed.

"Shrunk in the wash," said Twilight, scraping through more matches, melted chocolate, a headless bird (Reaper hid them in her clothes). "It's in here somewhere-"

"Perhaps you lost it," said Sunshine.

Mothballs... peanut shells... another dead bird...

"Or misplaced it," continued Sunshine.

The bird? The match? Light the bird with the match?

"Or lied about having one at all."

"Oh, I feel it now-"

But all Twilight felt was a nervous rash across her neck-

"You know what happens to intruders, don't you?" Sunshine questioned.

"Here it is-" Do something!

Mares crowded her ominously.

Do something now!

She did the first thing she thought of and delivered a swift, bright spark from her horn.

An effective diversion creates both chaos and panic, Twilight delivered on both counts. Vile sparks ripped through the tight corridor as squealing mares stampeded for cover and breezies swooned at first sight, leaving her a clear path to the door. Only Sunshine stood in her way, too shocked to move. Twilight took a step towards her and leaned in like a timberwolf.

"Boo."

Sunshine fled for her life.