"Low Caps are Everywhere!"
The infiltration in Principal Abacus Cinch's flat, against all predictions, had been relatively easy, since she had left the keys underneath the doormat.
"I seriously don't get that woman. Why would she keep her house's keys under the doormat, if she plans to go out for a long time?" Rainbow Dash asked to herself, as she lightly scratched her head. Her companion Pinkie Pie shrugged as she pushed the door inwards, revealing a small dimly-lit corridor.
"Less questions, more snooping!" Pinkie Pie said after fully opening the door.
She then pulled out her phone and activated the flashlight app to show the way into the flat that housed Principal Cinch, revealing the presence of a white radiator just next to the door covered with what looked like a red and yellow flag. On the other side from the door, there was a still nature painting. Rainbow Dash, having gotten her curiosity piqued by the flag, walked in and grabbed the flag from the corner, pulling it up to her shoulders, letting it lay out fully before moving it away from her to see the details. It was Spain's flag, but in the yellow band instead the royal emblem there was a bundle of black arrows under a bronze yoke.
This looks real familiar, like something from the History class... Rainbow Dash said, while Pinkie still moved forward, shedding light onto the area in front of her. Isn't that symbol used by some skinheads or so-
"Hey Dashie, come look at this!" Pinkie Pie suddenly shrieked, interrupting Dash's train of thought and making her drop the flag on the ground. "There's a photobook full of weird pictures here!"
"Pinkie, you almost gave me an heart attack!" Rainbow Dash said, as she walked forward down the corridor covered in daubs and display cases of small texts of what - she assumed - were either prayers or quotes from famous people.
Pinkie Pie kept her smartphone hovered over a photo album with a light red cover and bronze angles, on a round table clearly of low quality and covered with a solid light blue sheet. Once she got there, she looked down at the photos contained inside, all of which were either in black-and-white or with their colors washed out by time. They were, unsurprisingly, placed in neat and tidy rows and columns, with tags that were however torn off at some point in time, with the only legible one- and barely so due to the calligraphy- beginning with "My Childhood."
"Would you believe that this girl over there would've become Principal Cinch in the future? " Pinkie said, as she pointed at the black-and-white photo in the top corner of the page on the right, one that depicted a girl- clearly no older than three- wearing a long dress and smiling while standing in front of several pieces of tanned fur hanging by an out of frame thread.
Rainbow Dash shook her head, as she moved towards the next photo in the same row. This one was in colour, and it showed young Cinch bent over a tub, holding up a tiny piece of fur with one hand and dunking it in what looked like white salt into the tub. Similar scenes appeared in the following photos and, in each one, Cinch's smile slowly faded and her clothing's wear grew.
"I'd never guess she would've worked with leather and stuff.." Rainbow Dash said without much thought, her mind focused on the picture of her bent on the tub.
What is she doing here at that age anyways? She wondered. Wasn't felt made with mercury or something? Also, didn't she say that leather scared her, or is that just a rumor?
"Wow, look at this!" Pinkie said, as she pointed at a black and white photo on the third row depicting a probably ten-year old Cinch standing in front of a pedestal, the symbol of the bundle of arrows and yoke appearing behind on the pedestal, the statue's knees just out of frame. As for Cinch herself, she was wearing a long, neatly-folded shirt and a long skirt with a tartan-like pattern, standing upright like a soldier at attention, a neutral frown on her face. "She must've been quite strict even back then!"
"Yeah." Rainbow Dash stated dryly, as she went back to look at the pictures above that one. From the photos, it was clear that Principal Cinch, when she was a young child, used to work in leather tannery, but that didn't completely match up with the Principal's stories about her origins and her rumored fear of leather works.
Maybe she developed that fear while working there? Rainbow Dash mused. Then again, they say that the expression 'as mad as a hatter' was born because hatters became insane after working with felt and mercury for years...
"Bundles of arrows are all over the place..." Pinkie Pie said out loud, as she put a couple of golden cufflinks on the table. "Isn't this stuff banned or something? Like, 'you get arrested and sent into prison' banned?"
"Thought so too, Pinkie." Rainbow Dash said, as she took the link cuffs in her fingers and looking at them more closely. "I mean, I've heard that the Crystal Prep used to have buncles of arrows as part of the uniform and that they stopped when somebody complained about the-"
A sudden sound of tin cans and waste paper falling interrupted Rainbow Dash. she immediately truned her eyes to the sound's source, and she saw- in the midst of a rather large layer of labelless tins, waste paper, used paper tissues and some grey lowcaps- Pinkie kneeling next to an open cupboard.
"Not to mention it's all so messy inside the cupboards!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed "I mean, she stuffs garbage inside them, why's that? And why does she keeps felt lowcaps?"
"For the same reason for why she forced the... 'other Twilight' to turn into a demon?" Rainbow Dash took a guess as she shrugged.
"She's barking mad?" Pinkie Pie said, before letting out a sigh. "Maybe we should take pictures and see if anyone else has any idea what is all of this about?"
Rainbow Dash nodded, as she whipped out her phone and turned it on. "Alrighty then. I think you should take a look in the bedroom now, Pinkie." She said, as she rapidly activated the phone's camera and Pinkie Pie hurried off to Cinch's bedroom.
Felt working... low caps... and doing that a young age... Rainbow Dash thought, as she snapped pictures of the photoboook's pages. I almost pity her.
She took a photo of the first page, before moving to the next page, one full of Principal Cinch holding the same exact position in every kind of place, from the façade of some kind of palace to a hilltop with a view on a lake. Both her expression and her attire never changed, as if the photos had been badly manipulated so that they all contained young Cinch inside them.
Ye olde Photoshoppe? Or was she that good at keeping the same look no matter where? Rainbow Dash wondered, as she took another photo. Then again, it would explain why she chose to create a school that revolves around being stuck-up and stoic all over.
The next photo was a refrain of the previous one, with Cinch only looking a little older than the last one. In fact, in the midst of all those photos depicting Principal Cinch wearing a neutral frown and on the attention, Rainbow Dash noticed one photo in particular.
In the colour picture, Principal Cinch, clearly in her mid-twenties, was standing atop of a small marble podium, holding up a rather large red book- one that Rainbow Dash recognized as the degree thesis. However, the most striking part of it was Cinch's expression, because she was not wearing a neutral frow or an outright hostile grimace, but she was happily and- quite clearly- genuinely smiling, which was something that her current face didn't seem even capable to do anymore. Rainbow Dash stared for a good minute at the photo, surprised by the sight.
Underneath, written in faded red ink with a flowery calligraphy that had nothing on the finest illuminated manuscripts, there was a phrase.
"He triunfado! Ahora tengo el tìtulo para instruir los niños y las niñas los justos y sagrados valores de mis padres adoptivos! Rezo que ahora no debia nunca jamàs temer fracaso por el resto de mios diàs, y de crear un legado que esconderà mea origen oprobiosa y horrorosa."
She slowly rose her phone, brought it over the picture and snapped a good picture of it.
This... is gonna blow everyone's mind, I'm sure of it! She thought as she snapped a photo, before frantically going back to photograph every other page of the photo book.
After he was done with documenting the photobook, Rainbow Dash rose her heead just as Pinkie Pie left Cinch’s bedroom.
“So, did you find anything?” Rainbow Dash asked, as she closed up the book she had been photographing. “Or was it pointless?”
Pinkie Pie shook her head, as she walked towards the exit door. Rainbow Dash sighed, as she turned off her phone and followed Pinkie Pie down the corridor. She looked at her sides, noticing what was written in the dispaly cases.
In one of them, on what looked like parchment, there was a long song lyrics written in Spanish and that Rainbow Dash attempted to read.
“Oponiendo picas a caballos
y fusiles a los fantes del el enemigo.
Con el alma unida por el mismo clero,
que la sangre corre protegiendo el reino…
Hijios de Santiago, grande son los tercios.
Escuadròn de picas
flancos a cubierto.
Solo es libre el hombre que no tiene miedo.
Lucha por tu hermano,
Muere por tuo reino y Franco,
Vive por la paz en este gran imperio,
nunca habrà derrotas,
si nos hacen presos
solo tras de muertos capitularemos.
Levantar las picas y las armas
con un canto al cielo!
Nunca temerès si va en columna
el tercio!”
She muttered, not quite understanding what was that about, only understanding it was some kind of lyrics of a song. Rainbow Dash let out a loud sigh, at the very last hope of find signs.
“So,” Rainbow Dash muttered, as she exited from the flat. “after this, how can we answer to the question 'who is Chinch?' "
“She's just a crazy old woman.” Pinkie Pie said, closing the door behind Rainbow Dash and locking it again with a loud clang.
