A Shot in the Dark

Chapters

Dawn of the First Day: 8,760 (ish) hours remaining
Detained in a Nightmare
(After)shockwaves

Dawn of the First Day: 8,760 (ish) hours remaining

The bedroom was silent, save for the gentle snores of Jack Psychiro, and an unusually quiet hum that came from the large fan on the other side of the room. While opening the window may have been more energy efficient, it would have served little to keep the room cool enough for sleep, which was usual, considering it was August in Canterlot.

Still, at half six in the morning, an old and battered alarm clock began to play the wondercolt's theme tune, waking Jack up. His hand went to press the snooze button to silence the clock and avoid waking his sister, but it wouldn't cease its tune. Making a mental note to fix the snooze button, Jack got up to get ready for school. He was dark blue and quite tall, with messy, dark black hair, and brown eyes. He wore a black t-shirt, blue shorts, and had a sports watch on his left wrist.

Jack was about to go down for breakfast, when his pet cat Ugin strolled in, purring as if wanting something. After stroking him for about five minutes, Jack’s stomach growled quite loudly. At this point, his cat also started to go to the door, as is wanting breakfast. So, with some effort, Jack and Ugin went downstairs for food.

Bounding down the stairs and jogging into the kitchen to feed the cats, Jack noticed an empty wine bottle and a glass with some rosé in. Thinking it was his sister, Flamecaller, having her hangover cure, he took a cheeky sip, then proceeded to feed the cats. Due to his fascination of mythical creatures, he named his four cats after some fictional ones. Ugin, after the Spirit Dragon in Magic, the Gathering. Spyro, a dragon from the game with the same name. Rapidash, a horse/unicorn Pokémon. And Norbert, who was Hagrid’s dragon from Harry Potter.

After giving each cat a healthy amount each, Jack went to do his own breakfast: some Porridge with banana chopped into it. Jack had just finished making it when his sister walked in.

“You know you could’ve waited for me to make you a fry up to eat!” His sister, Flamecaller, called out in what was clearly a New York accent, as she entered. She was nearing her thirties, with bright orange skin. She had red eyes, and short, spiky, fire-red hair. While normally she wore a black shirt with a flame on it, and black shorts, she was instead wearing her cop uniform. However, she did have a necklace with a flame hanging from it upside-down – a gift from when she was eight. While Jack had a similar necklace, his got lost through no fault of his own.

“I can easily eat my porridge, and then have some of the fry up sis,” Jack replied. This was a normal conversation starter each morning, yet they both didn’t care. All they cared about was eating something for breakfast, whether it was a small bowl of Coco Pops, or a full English breakfast. And Jack tended to eat a lot for breakfast.

“Ok greedy. You should be glad I’m a little hungover, or I wouldn’t be doing a fry up!” Flamecaller replied, a bit cheekier than intended. “Mind you, it was quite a party last night.”

Jack shrugged his shoulders. Yes, it was a good party, yet neither of them could understand what they were partying about. The Cakes just suggested a get together, and Flamecaller just chose to invite as many people as her house could fit. Some stayed for one drink, while Shining Armour, Flamecaller’s boss, stayed pretty much until gone one in the morning. Jack didn’t really care. He was too busy looking up the legend of King Arthur that night.

“Can you remember what’s going on this semester at Canterlot High Jack?” In an attempt to break the silence that followed, Flamecaller tried to bring the subject round to the school term.

“Only things I can think of are the Hallowe’en dress-up and the Fall Formal” - came Jack with some porridge in his mouth. He swallowed before continuing. - “The former I’m looking forward to and the latter I’m going to skip if at all possible.”

“Ah yes, I think I can guess why -” Flamecaller began, yet stopped after seeing the face Jack made, one that didn’t want to continue with that particular conversation. Daring not to speak, Flamecaller and Jack ended up eating in silence.

After quick goodbyes, Jack went off to have a stroll around town before school. It was customary for him to take a stroll through the town if he was early for school, as he made daily visits to Sugarcube Corner to buy a breakfast muffin. However when he arrived, he ended up bumping into Pinkie Pie as she was leaving. Quite literally in fact.

"Sorry about that, Pinkie." Jack started apologising to Pinkie Pie, offering a hand to help her up, which she accepted. "I...wasn't watching where I was going."

"Not to worry!" Pinkie replied, grabbing Jack's hand to get herself up off the ground, smiling as always. "Say Jack, whatcha doing?"

Jack chuckled. "Just getting my breakfast muffin. What about you? You're quite early leaving, considering I normally see you inside Sugarcube Corner when I get here."

"I'm on my way to band practice with the girls!" Pinkie explained, keeping a smile on her face, and causing Jack to look at Pinkie in shock.

"W...what?" questioned Jack, checking his pocket watch to make sure of the time. It was only quarter past seven, and school would be starting at half past eight. "This early? Why?"

"Oh, y'know," Pinkie began, maintaining her smile, "the early bird catches the worm, right?"

"Oh, so you and the girls are just preparing ready for the concert together?" Jack asked, to which Pinkie simply nodded with an audible "mhm". There was a music festival event being held at the school in December, something all the students were excited for. While it would be their second annual event, it was being advitised as being better than ever. Especially since last year had some sirens try and ruin things and were stopped.

"Speaking of which," Jack restarted, chuckling as he spoke, "what's the plans for Halloween at school. Even though it's over two months away?"

"Well..." Pinkie looked like she wanted to tell him all of the plans for Halloween, how they planned to make it haunted, and how they planned some scary goodies. However, it would ruin any surprise that was planned. "It's meant to be a super-secret thing. Buuut -"

"But what?" Jack replied quickly. "If it's meant to be a secret, why tell me?"

"Err..." Pinkie struggled for a good enough answer, before looking at her phone and realising the time. "Because I need to get to school now for practice ok bye." And with that, Pinkie rushed off.

"Bye Pinkie," Jack tried to call back, not knowing whether or not Pinkie would hear. He then turned around, and entered Sugarcube Corner. Upon entering, Jack noticed Mrs. Cake at the counter, organising some of the food that was baked that morning. The absence of Mr. Cake kind of made him assume he was looking after the Cake Babies, Pound Cake and Plump Cake. None of the tables were occupied, which wasn't unexpected seeing as they had just opened up the shop, and were setting up ready for a good day of trading.

"Oh hi there, Jack," Mrs. Cake called out, noticing Jack enter. "Your usual morning order then?" Because of how frequently Jack came, he had managed to agree to have a monthly tab which got paid by his sister, who agreed to pay as Jack didn't have a job yet. It covered a muffin each morning, and any drinks and snacks he had there.

"What's the flavour then?" Jack replied, finally making it to the counter. "If it's something boring I'd rather not have it."

"Oh, Pinkie and I made a treat for you then!" Mrs. Cake was pulling a muffin out from the display, which was golden-brown with what looked like bacon and sausage mixed in.

"I'm assuming Bacon and Sausage flavoured?"

"And Hash Browns. We agreed to try it with them because we tried bacon and sausage alone once." Mrs Cake was busy bagging up the muffin, almost as if Jack was going to have one anyway. Almost as if it was some kind of routine.

"Go on then!" Jack finally answered, more in a giving in kind of way. After all, he was up for the experience of eating something different. "So," he went on, hoping to get a quick conversation in, "how are the babies? Last time I saw them they were maturing fast for their age."

"Oh...they're fine..." - Mrs. Cake sighed, realising that one of the babies was ill. “Pound’s got chicken pox, so Mr. Cake's looking after them."

"Ah." Jack had a good think about what he was going to say, but found it hard to think of anything else. So, he wished Mrs. Cake a good day, and left.

It was nearly 8 when Jack had arrived at Canterlot High School, his muffin half-eaten. On his way, he took a stroll through the park, noticing different couples either chatting as they went to school, or sat down. He could've sworn he saw some of them kissing, which he didn't mind. He didn't really care either.

Upon getting to school, he went to his locker, and put his bag in temporarily so that he didn't have to carry it around everywhere. He did, however, take out a small book with no title written on it from his bag first, before he went to a bench, sat down, and happily munched on his muffin while reading. It was nice and peaceful, until more students came in, bringing noise and the general hustle and bustle that came with it. Taking this as his cue to get ready for his first class, he got up, and went back to his locker for his first lesson's book: 11th Grade American History.

Walking into the classroom, he found nobody present just yet. So, with the freedom of choice, he took a seat at the back, near a window overlooking a beautiful lake with a waterfall at the top. He didn’t really pay much attention to the other students in his class filing in, nor did he hear the teacher announce that a new student had joined them. As much as he loved history, if he needed to know about anything that happened in America, all he had to do was take a three hour car drive to a museum which had records and objects that had existed since the 17th Century. A museum that also was about one of the oldest American families. His.

One boring hour later, Jack was glad to be at his locker, getting his gym clothes ready. He turned and was about to head right there, where he bumped into the second person today, knocking her to the ground. She had yellow skin, with what looked like fire-coloured hair, similar to Jack's sister. She was wearing some kind of blue gym wear, and had white trainers on.

"Hey, watch it!" The voice sounded feminine, yet it was one Jack didn't recognise. It didn't help that he knew hardly anyone there anymore, seeing as he now kept himself to himself and any lucky people he called friends.

"I'm sorry, but you kinda went into me." Jack responded, hoping to stay calm. He knew it wasn't a good idea to get detention on the first day.

"I did?" The voice replied, getting up. "You weren't looking where you were going!"

Jack started to lose his cool. "Well how do you explain me walking into someone when I WASN'T EVEN WALKING?"

This was too much for the female who he knocked into, who started to throw some choice words at Jack. He then responded with a few choice words of his own. A load of the students were gathering around them, hoping to see a fist fight start. Before one could start, Principal Celestia had arrived to see what all the commotion was about.

"I think," She began, "that both of you would like to spend some time in detention. Now."

Detention. The one word that Jack didn't want to hear. The one word nobody wanted to hear. And now he would be missing lessons because of someone who couldn't keep their temper, and caused him to lose his. And now he was walking with Principal Celestia and the girl he had rowed with to detention.

"This...is going to be a fucking nightmare," Jack thought to himself.

Author's Note

Right, first of all I want to issue some thanks:

Thanks to PyraFlare Bullet for naming Jack Psychiro.
Thanks to Ragga_Muffin for helping me with Jack's and Pinkie's interaction.
Thanks to everyone in the PoME skype group for helping me get ideas for not only this chapter, but a lot of chapters I have planned.
And Thanks to everyone for reading and giving me suggestions!

(And for those who are interested, there are 8760 hours in a standard calendar year, and 8784 in a leap year. I did the maths :twilightsmile: )

Detained in a Nightmare

Detention wasn't what Jack had planned on getting on his first day back. And if he was going to tell anyone about why he was there, they'd never believe him. Considering how shy and reserved he normally is around people he doesn’t know. And even if he was to talk, it’s normally an apology or him talking back at someone like a bully.

Jack was now sitting in what he thought was the detention room. Normally, detention was held in a room with all the seats facing towards the front of the room. No talking, no doing homework, no doing anything really. If neither Principal Celestia nor Vice-Principal Luna were watching them, the covering teacher usually allowed some conversations, more out of their boredom than anything else. If that was what Jack was expecting, he had another thing coming.

Instead, Jack was sitting face to face with the girl that was part of the reason he was here. Principal Celestia was to his left, acting as sort of a mediator of sorts. After about 3 minutes of the three of them sitting in silence, she was the one to break it.

"Well then," Celestia began, her arms crossed, "it seems that you both have had a bad start to your first day back." Celestia then turned to face the girl opposite Jack to speak with her. "Given your track record here I’d expect you to at least avoid detention. But since you can’t seem to get along with others,"- Celestia paused, then turned to face Jack to talk to him, -"and you weren’t able to be the better person and keep your cool," Celestia was now looking at both of them, as if talking to them both, "I want you both to talk this out like adults for as long as I feel necessary."

Both Jack and the girl groaned. This wasn’t what they wanted to do.

"Well go on then!" Celestia restarted, a smile still on her face. "Introduce yourselves to each other. Because you’re both not leaving until I’m happy."

Both of them stayed silent. It wasn’t until after about ten minutes, did anyone speak up.

"Fine, if it gets us out of here sooner!" Spitfire yelled out of impatience. She definitely didn’t want to be here, thinking it as being a waste of time. "My name’s Spitfire!"

Jack didn’t answer: he was too shy to. There was an awkward silence for what seemed like an eternity, but was more like a minute. Then, Jack finally spoke.

"My n…name’s Jack." Jack’s reply was barely audible, but just loud enough for both Principal Celestia and Spitfire to hear.

"Well then, you’re both acquainted," Celestia replied, finally happy that they both at least told each other their name. "Now, you need to sort this matter out. No violence, and no raising your voice either." Celestia looked at both Spitfire and Jack, as if warning them that more punishment was coming if they disobeyed.

"You bashed into me!" Spitfire was the first to reply, her voice raised.

"How when I wasn’t moving?" Jack responded, his fury overcoming his anger at the sound of Spitfire’s tone.

"I see that this is going to get us nowhere," Celestia interrupted as Spitfire rose from her seat. "Miss. Fire, could you please sit down." Although Spitfire wanted to leave or, better yet for her, punch Jack, she reluctantly sat down.

"Now," she continued, Jack and Spitfire looking ready to kill each other, "I want you to apologise to each other. Clearly this was an accident."

Neither Jack nor Spitfire apologised. To the both of them, the other person was in the wrong. The reality was, they both were. It took nearly 15 minutes until Celestia got restless, and got out of her seat. She walked over to the teacher’s desk, and logged into the computer.

Switching on the projector, a picture of Celestia and Luna cosplaying as some kind of sexy Wonder Woman and Batgirl respectively showed up, causing the pair to laugh hysterically. Celestia, seeing what was being shown, grew more and more embarrassed as time went on, and proceeded to remove the picture from the screen.

Celestia then proceeded to open a folder, which contained CCTV footage of the school hallways. Opening the most recent file, Jack and Spitfire saw that it wasn’t either of them to blame. It was both their faults, and completely coincidental.

"I...I'm sorry," Jack was the first to speak up, noticing he knocked into her as he was shutting his locker. "I didn't –"

"It’s not just your fault, Jack," Spitfire interrupted, noticing how she wasn’t seemingly paying attention to where she was going when she bashed into Jack. "If you look, you’ll notice me walking right where you were, and not looking where we were going."

Jack simply chuckled. "Huh, I guess we could say it’s both our faults then, right?” Spitfire nodded her head, and gave a small "mhm".
Celestia clapped her hands. "Well, I guess you’ve achieved more than what I wanted you to do. I merely wanted you both to leave on neutral ground. So, allow me to give you both the rest of the day off, as long as you stay together. Strengthen your friendship a bit."

Both Jack and Spitfire were relieved. Sure, they had to stick together, but that was worth it for no school for the rest of the day. They both thanked Principal Celestia, before leaving to do whatever they wanted to do.

"So," Jack began, eager to leave. "With everything that’s happened so far, and what we’ve been given, what do you want to do?"

Spitfire thought hard about it. "Err...I fancy something energetic. Sittting about arguing kinda makes me want to do something sporty."

"You up for Basketball then at the Sports Centre?"

"I’m not the best, but sure!"

As Jack and Spitfire walked of, discussing interests and things they liked, Principal Celestia looked out of her window, Vice Principal Luna in the doorway of the office.

"You do realise Superintendent Discord will kill you for letting them go off like that," Luna said simply.

"Only if he finds out, he will," came Celestia’s reply. "Only if he finds out."

Author's Note

Aaand a ship is potentially born....and then shot down again! And a lot of convenient things being made. I didn't want Jack and Spitfire to be together instantly, but I also wanted them to have some kind of bad start.

So, a detention chapter over a session of Dodgeball, which seems to be the norm for the CHS stories in this universe. And yes, it was Spitfire he bumped into in the last chapter.

Apologies if any of the characters went a bit out of character here too.

(After)shockwaves

"Flamecaller, I'm home!" Jack called out, closing the door of his house behind him. He felt a presence gather around his lower body; looking down, he saw his cat, Rapidash, trying to rub against his leg. He knelt down to stroke Rapidash, but noticed a lack of a response from Flamecaller.

So he called again.

Again, no answer.

Cautiously, Jack got up, and walked into the kitchen, looking for his sister.

When he entered, to his surprise, he saw his sister sitting at the table, wine glass in hand, and a pair of earphones in her ears. Relief flowing over him, he walked up to the table, and rested a hand on his sister, making her jump.

“Who goes...oh,” Flamecaller yelled quickly, more out of instinct. She removed an earphone from her ear before continuing. “It’s you. Next time, yell when you get in.”

“I did, and you didn’t reply. I was starting to worry.”

Jack then took a seat at the table. One of the three seats that were vacant. An awkward silence ran through the air save for the annoying ticking of the clock in the kitchen and the occasional slurp that was Flamecaller having a sip of wine. Neither spoke a word, so as Flamecaller continued to listen to her music, Jack let his mind wander, looking nowhere and everywhere. He didn’t look at the same space for long, nor did he look there again.

It wasn’t until after Jack ended up looking at his sister that he decided to speak again.

“So...how was work? Solve any cases?” he tried asking eagerly, but it ended up sounding a bit forced.

Taking her earphones out, Flamecaller put her glass down and replied, “It wasn’t too bad. Nothing to do, so I came home early.”

“So you took that as your cue to have some booze?”

Again, the room fell into silence, the ticking of the clock louder and clearer than before. With both of them trying to ignore it, Flamecaller had some more wine, while Jack allowed his mind to wander again. This time, he just stared out, thinking over the day’s events. Thinking about what he had learned. And thinking about Spitfire, and the trouble they ended up in, the detention that they had, and whether or not he would end up speaking to her again.

Finally, Flamecaller broke the silence. “Dinner is takeout tonight. Shall I order your usual pizza?” Jack nodded, when suddenly, his phone vibrated with a text. Looking at who sent it, Jack was a bit puzzled. There was no reason for her to be messaging him, especially now of all times.

You free to talk? It’s kinda urgent.

Jack quickly, but hesitantly, replied back.

Yeah, I’ll be 5 minutes!

After sending his reply, he got up and proceeded to leave. The sound of the chair squeaking against the floor made enough noise for Flamecaller to notice.

“Going anywhere?” she asked.

“Someone wants to talk. I was planning on not doing it here so as not to disturb you.”

“Fair enough. Enjoy!” Flamecaller’s tone told Jack that he could leave, yet as he got to the door out of the kitchen, she spoke again. “And if you get detention again, I’ll be removing all of your allowance, including the money mum and dad give you. I know this is your first time, but this is unacceptable, ok?”

Shit; she knows, Jack thought. All he could say was “Sure. It was a one-off. A slip up. Won’t happen again.” Making a hasty retreat to his room, Jack switched on his laptop, ready to do some work after the call.

Before he had the chance to log in, his phone rang. Even though it was the boring ring that he used for other contacts, he knew who it was before he even looked at his screen. Jack picked up his phone and answered. “Hello?”

“Hey Jack,” Spitfire replied. Her voice sounded scared, as if something was going on on the other line. “I know we only properly met earlier, but I need your help.”

Jack thought for a moment. Why was his help needed, and not Rainbow Dash’s? Or even her boyfriend, Rivet?

She didn’t give him a chance to respond. “Dad’s mad with me,” she continued. “I need you to come over and help smooth things out,.”

Jack was confused. “Smooth out what? Spitfire, what’s going on?”

“Smooth out why we were in detention,” she replied. As soon as she said ‘detention’, everything else made sense to Jack.

“Hold on.” Jack put a hand to where the mic on his phone was, and rushed downstairs. He nearly hit the wall as he leapt down the stairs, the noise he was making was enough for Flamecaller to take out her earphones, get up, and head to the kitchen door to ask Jack what was going on. As she opened the door, Jack rushed in, knocking them both to the ground, and sending Jack’s phone skidding across the floor to the table. After an awkward moment, and both of them getting up, Jack spoke again.

“Sis, are you sober enough to drive me to Spitfire’s place please? It’s urgent.”

“Yes,” Flamecaller replied, one hand to her head, and some kind of confused look on her face, “but the concussion you nearly gave me on the other hand...” She trailed off, expecting Jack to apologise. When Jack didn’t, she continued. “I’ll be fine. Tell her we’ll be over in 5 minutes.”

Jack, however, wasted no time looking for his phone. After a minute’s search, he found it near the oven, the call disconnected, and a message from Spitfire with her address. A quick “I’ll see you in the car” later, Jack left the house and got into Flamecaller’s car.

Flamecaller quickly followed, getting into the car, and started the engine. Try as she might, the car didn’t start, sputtering as if it was out of fuel. Swear words were quickly exchanged, before she decided to take Jack’s car instead. The drive wasn’t going to take long, but there was still enough time to talk.

“So,” Flamecaller started, looking at the satnav, and sitting in the passenger’s seat since Jack didn’t trust here at the wheel of his car. This fear was understandable, given Flamecaller was a bit of a speed demon. “Where are we going, why, and why am I tagging along?”

“Like I said,” Jack replied, concentrating more on the road than anything else, because he nearly ran over a stray cat that was in the way. “Spitfire’s house. I apparently need to help clear up what happened with us earlier. And I need you in case things get hairy.” As he finished, the satnav chimed in the female British accent that was set that they had arrived.

After finally finding a parking space, Jack and Flamecaller got out of the car. Careful as to not look stupid, and with some determination, Jack went up to the front door, and knocked.

Author's Note

There were two ways I wanted to go with this chapter: either introduce another character, or have Jack see Spitfire again because...plot reasons. I chose this route because I wanted to include the stuff I removed in chapter 2 elsewhere. Just felt this is the best option.

Special thanks have to go to Jarvey Jared for helping with ideas and proofreading.

Also, sorry for the long delay. Finally got around to writing this