TCSW Side Story: The Stone Guardian

Chapter 1: A Normal Day

"It seems that ya made it home in one piece." Anteous walked up his school steps to find his friend greeting him. "Those Current sisters are going to eat their words."

Anteous smirked, "Yeah I made it home alright, no thanks to you."

The pegasus shrugged as they made it into the building. "I figured that ya could handle 'em. I wouldn't of betted on ya if I didn' have a chance ta win."

"Wasp, hold the phone. You made a bet on safety?"

The black stripped pegasus gave a devilish grin. "Yah. With 'em Current sisters. I can' wait ta see the look on 'eir faces when they get a look ach ya. How did ya escape anyway mate?"

"While you were betting on my on whether I LIVE OR NOT," Anteous gave Wasp a stare in which the pegasus looked away and whistled, "I ran until I got to the side roads and manage to make a quick disguise to fool them."

"Hold on. That actually worked?"

"They fell for it as easily as I would fall in Cloudsdale."

"That's a hoot!" The two friends laughed as the reach their classroom. Much to the two's chagrin, the three pegasi were waiting at the door. The biggest one, whose name was Snap Corn, gave a creepy grin, one the earth pony would rate in a scale of 'one' to 'terrifying' as a 'What? Are you an idiot? RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!'.

"Hey blank-flank, we missed you the other day."

"If you missed me so much you could of sent a letter." Anteous immediately wished he wasn't born with such a big mouth.

"Ha, funny. Will see whose laughing as I knock your teeth to the floor. We owe to you since you skipped out yesterday on your weekly pulverizing."

"What's this I hear about 'pulverizing'?" The three bullies turned ghost white, as they turned to see Mr. Math, the class teacher and the only teacher in the whole school that wasn't afraid to stand up to the them standing behind Anteous and Wasp.

"Nothing Mr. Math. Just giving some friendly greeting to these two."

Mr. Math clearly was not buying it, the teacher continued to make a scowl at the three. "As I recall, Only Miss Pop is in my class. Miss Snap, Miss Crackle, I suggest you make haste to your classrooms, don't want to be tardy now do we."

Snap turned to face the brown colt and stated, "We'll see you after school." and promptly left, with Crackle Corn in tow.

Anteous and Wasp were about ready to celebrate another victory, the familiar older voice of their teacher began behind them, "You two better take your seats as well."

Anteous and Wasp made it to their seats as the rest of the classroom started to settle down. Anteous noticed that in his peripheral vision Wasp confronting two mares, who both had the look of utter disbelief as they looked his way. Anteous made a mental note that he should get Wasp to split his winnings, after all, it was his tail that was on the line.

As the classroom finally quieted down, Mr. Math began his daily routine by starting with the roll call. "Let's start with Pop Corn."

The begrudged mare replied, "Here"

"North Current."

"In the House." replied the energetic mare.

"South Current."

"Present." stated the twin sister, barely taking her eyes from a book that she was reading.

The teacher continued down the line through the students, each giving their normal call until he finally called Anteous name. "Anteous."

"Rather be nowhere else." The colt stated eliciting a couple of chuckles through the classroom. Mr. Math ignored them and went right ahead into the first subject of the day, history. Yep, today was turning out to be a normal day at the Hoofington School House.

A cloaked figure stood on a hilltop overlooking the city of Hoofington. In his hand was a strange white staff with a grey stone unicorn's horn bolted to the end. The cloak figure wore a strange white mask with black lines going down from its eye holes like tears.

He stood there for what it seemed like an eternity. The figure several times consulted his watch as he waited, and ended up having to sit down on the hill after a couple of hours past.

From his high viewpoint, the figure finally saw something that caught his attention. A short distance away, the air seemed to twist and shimmer, looking almost as a mirage in the grassland. The phenomenon continued forward at a slow pace toward the city.

The cloaked figure looked at the event and picked up his staff. "Finally." a voice spoke from the mask, unnatural in its tone. "I mean, seriously. It shouldn't take this long for them to get here."

The figure tapped his staff into the hill below him, the horn on the end glowing with a black aura. The ground violently opened up and swallowed the figure. The ground reclosed and left no sign that it had been disturbed. Meanwhile in the distance, the mirage continued its advance toward the city.