Poor Reflections

TWILIGHT

The day had not gone according to plan.

Twilight had spent the rest of the morning getting lost while trying to find where all of her classes were. To her dismay, most of her friends’ schedules didn’t line up with each other, and only one or two of them would be in any given class she had. She had hoped that she would be able to find them during lunch but, again, the school was so massive that the student body used the cafeteria in shifts. Allison and Rebecca didn’t have the same lunch period as Twilight, and when she had scanned the cafeteria for Felicity, Penny, and Rachel, they were nowhere to be found.

Only at the end of a day of tiresome syllabi and wasted time did Twilight finally catch up with the one student who didn’t actively avoid talking to her: Felicity.

“Hello, Felicity. How did your first day of classes treat you?” Twilight beamed at her, pleased to see her looking a bit less haggard than this morning.

“Oh, hello, Twilight,” she said pleasantly as she stashed the rest of her books in her locker. “I think it went well. The first day of classes is never really demanding, though.”

Tell me about it. “Yep, it all seemed pretty straightforward.” Speaking of straightforward… “Say, you mentioned earlier today you had to work this week. I was just curious, where do you work?”

Felicity smiled brightly at this. “Oh, I work for–”

A tone from the PA system cut Felicity off as it echoed through the crowded hallway. A bored, nasal voice echoed tinnily, a few decibels too loud for comfort. “Talia Singh, please report to the Vice Principal’s office. Talia Singh to the Vice Principal’s office, please.”

Felicity’s eyes went wide. “Wow, what did you do?”

“I– I’m not sure,” Twilight replied as her mouth went dry. Have they already figured out I’m not supposed to be here?

Seeing her discomfort, Felicity reached out a hand and touched Twilight lightly on her forearm. “Well, you’re a foreign exchange student – maybe they’re just checking in on you after your first day.”

Twilight blinked, then shot her a nervous grin. “Right! I’m sure you’re right, haha. Nothing to worry about,” she said with more confidence than she felt.

“Well, I won’t keep you, then. Best of luck!” With a friendly wave, Felicity joined with the roiling mass of students as they surged towards the exit doors, yearning for sweet freedom.

The walk to the Vice Principal’s office was long – Twilight almost got lost again trying to find her way to the main hall – and the closer she got, the more trepidation she felt. She had barely started learning about her friends, and she worried now it was all about to fall apart before she could even truly begin.

She arrived at the thick oak door that led to the vice principal's office. She swallowed as she cautiously opened the door and poked her head through it. “You… you wanted to see me?”

The office was of a decent size, filled mostly by a wide expanse of cherrywood desk. Unlike so many other rooms in the high school, this room was lit only by a pair of mismatched light fixtures resting on the corners of the desk. Behind it was a massive, high-backed, burnished black leather chair, back facing the door.

The vice principal raised a hand and waved Twilight forward, so she entered the room and let the door thud shut behind her. After a long pause, Twilight cleared her throat. “H–hello?”

The chair slowly spun around, and Twilight gasped when she saw the occupant.

“Discord?!”

“Hello, Twilight! How was your first day back at school?” Discord, still in his oddly normal human form, now wore a worn and patched tweed jacket with leather elbows. He leaned forward and steepled his fingers, an excited grin etched onto his features.

Aghast, Twilight looked down and read the plaque on the desk. “‘Vice Principal Stryfe’?” She frowned at her fellow outsider. “Subtle.”

“Isn’t it? I certainly thought so.” Discord’s grin turned sly as he adjusted a lampshade on his desk. “Surprised to see me?”

“In a word? Yes! What are you thinking? Are you trying to blow my cover?”

“Far from it! How did you think a dead girl managed to keep her place at this school?”

“I–” Twilight stopped as she realized the glaring incongruity of her presence. She narrowed her eyes. “How did a dead girl keep her place here? What have you been up to?”

“Oh, a modified memory or three, a corrupted data server. Foal’s play, really.”

“Discord!”

“That’s ‘Vice Principal Stryfe’ to you, young lady,” Discord said with mock indignity as he stood up and straightened his jacket – which somehow only rumpled it further. “Speaking of young ladies, how goes your mission? Has friendship won through and solved all of your erstwhile friends’ worldly problems?” There was a twinkle in Discord’s eye that made Twilight’s blood boil.

“No, as a matter of fact, it hasn’t. They don’t want anything to do with me.”

The grin fell from Discord’s face. “What, you haven’t even spoken to them?”

“Not really! They’re all either completely self-absorbed or all twitchy and paranoid – Rebecca never looks up from her phone, Rachel and Allison are deliberately ignoring me, and I haven’t even seen Penny since this morning.” Twilight huffed as she continued, “The only person I’ve made any headway with is Felicity, and you just interrupted me with her when you summoned me here!”

Discord frowned at her. “Well, it sounds to me like you haven’t been using your time very wisely.”

Twilight's heartbeat pounded in her ears. “Perhaps if you told me what it was, precisely, you did, I would have a better idea of what I need to do!”

Discord shrugged. “Not that much, really.”

Twilight’s jaw clenched so tight the cords in her neck stood taut against her skin.

Discord hastily backpedaled. “Honestly, I did nothing that would cause this level of damage. Certainly nothing like the outright mental manipulation I pulled with you and your friends in Equestria.”

“That’s not helpful!”

“That’s all I have! I visited a hundred worlds when I first escaped – you should be grateful I even remembered that I did anything here, let alone what.”

Twilight advanced and slammed her hands down onto the desk. “No! Don’t you dare get flippant with me! I’m only here because you asked me for help! Or have you already forgotten that, too?”

Discord had backed into the filing cabinets lining the far wall in surprise at Twilight's outburst. Once the shock of the moment had passed, he slumped forward, head bowed. “You’re right, of course. You don’t deserve that kind of attitude when you’re only here as a favor to me.” He returned to his chair and leaned heavily on his elbows, seeming weighed down. “But that doesn’t alter the fact that I don’t really remember what I did. You’re going to need to figure that out yourself.”

Twilight’s heartbeat no longer pounded in her ears – it had shifted behind her eyes. “Can you at least tell me why you think they so desperately need my help? I mean, Felicity was a bit twitchy this morning, and Penny is behaving… oddly, but the rest of them seem fine, if a bit full of themselves.”

Discord returned to his original pose, steepled fingers pointing to his chin. “That, you’re going to need to find out on your own as well, I’m afraid.” He held up a hand as Twilight balked. “Twilight, no offense, but you’re almost as bad at lying as Applejack. If I just told you what was going on with them, do you really think you would be able to maintain a facade of ignorance?”

“Yes!” Twilight’s stern expression faltered as Discord raised a bushy eyebrow. She glanced at the floor. “... if I had to.”

Discord leaned forward to catch her eye again. “As I understand it, one of the cornerstones of friendship is trust. How do you think they would respond if you, a total stranger, suddenly acted as though you were privy to their darkest secrets?”

Twilight sighed. “Badly.”

“That’s right,” Discord said with a nod. "You're going to need to wheedle their stories out of them yourself. Besides, you know how much I hate spoiling the ending of a story." His grin slipped towards sly once more.

The headache started to sap Twilight's strength. She shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, to no avail. She half-asked, half-stated, “So I’m on my own, then?”

Discord shifted in his chair. “Not entirely. I’ll still be around for the most part to keep an eye on you, and to maintain pretenses around here.”

Something in his tone made Twilight look back up. “What do you mean, ‘for the most part’?”

“Well, I’ll be popping back over to Equestria from time to time as well; I can’t miss afternoon tea with Fluttershy, after all.”

Twilight stared in disbelief as she shook her head. She stood without another word and headed for the door.

Discord blinked as she left. “What? Did you want me to bring you back some scones?”

Twilight’s pace quickened as she heaved the heavy oak door open and slammed it shut behind her. As she stormed into the now-empty hallway, she heard Discord’s muffled shout, “Was it something I said?”