Author's Note

Just the same. Leave any helpful advice, thanks.

When Worse Comes To Worse

The Next Day, Canterlot High School. . .

The first thing that Twilight Sparkle did was seclude herself in the confines of the third floor science lab. It really was the only place besides being with her friends that brought her peace. Walking out from the back with a fresh change of her shirt and long skirt with her own emblem, a bright white lab coat, protective googles, face mask and her hair tied up in a tight bun, she was ready to work.

"Hopefully I can finally make headway with this experiment of mine," Twilight put on a pair of gloves, adjusting them until she felt comfortable. "If only the girls and Spike could see that this is the only way to prove my point is right."

Twilight worked endlessly to try and draw a conclusion to a very big question that she had to know. Every moment since Sunset Shimmer came through the statue of her school and wrecked havoc, nothing had ever been the same.

Day in and day out, her mind would play tricks on her, her mood would change, and she always felt that her actions were somebody else's. She chalked it up to sleep deprivation, but it got worse.

"These. . .visions have to be linked to Sunset Shimmer in a way. . .along with the new guy we saw today." Twilight said. "If only I could make the connection of how it affects me. Hopefully this vial of Sunset's blood provides some clues," Twilight examined the petri dish with her blood, looking to anything strange.

"Okay, I cross-referenced her blood, and it looked regular," Twilight mumbled, holding her chin. Then she introduced the blood samples of her friends and put in small amounts as it was very hard to get this, especially from Fluttershy. Splitting the blood into different dishes and exposing each to Sunset's blood, it each reacted in about the same way, however when she used her own, it remained the same.

"Auuugh! Why is this happening to me?" Twilight slammed her fist on the table, shaking the foundation a tad. "Something. . .something! Is wrong, and I can't figure out what it is doing this," Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat, laying her head down. She had been experimenting with this for a solid week. Day in. And day out. Nothing.

"Maybe I should give up," a thought began to pick at the back of her mind, though she dismissed it as phooey. Though she did begin to feel sleepy all of a sudden. Her eyelids weighted against her like a grip, Twilight spoke again but failed to understand her own words or fully realize the black mist slowly making its way in front of her face.

". . .Don't worry. . .I will take care of everything. . .Lesser."

The bright, decorated halls of Canterlot High's main entrance were adorned with the various lanes of the trophies of the Wondercolt's football, basketball, soccer, and track achievements. Bulletin boards with the events for the month of October were planned out. Students walked by to get to their classes with a certain mirth about them. The atmosphere was wonderful and calm.

In that one moment, Alister frowned, but whatever reason, he couldn't place a cause for why. But his reason for being here was anything but reason.

"Why are we here?" Lucy spat with a tongue of acid, grimacing at the fact she had to leave her items which included her sword at the front desk so nobody would feel threatened. That was already one strike in her books, the second was for being here at all, and the third. . .she didn't know yet. But it was bound to happen quick! "What do you need us here for, anyways?"

Io walked ahead, ignoring Alister as he explained the situation to them. It sounded silly to her. She only followed them because she knows not to leave her sister alone with him and it would be boring otherwise to be at home.

Seeing something move around in the edge of her eye, Io turned to see a woman who looked like a lawyer; she had pretty two tone hair, she wore a fancy-looking suit and her eyes were shiny like a pearl.

"So that's your idea of a plan? Be a student here? Are you sure that you're even able to be registered here?" Lucy doubted Alister's ability to make a sound decision. It all seemed too good to be true.

"I don't think that you have much room to talk, Lucy. Who are you to say that this won't work? Anything could happen, you know," Alister reached into his pocket, pulling out a ragged piece of paper, waterlogged. Staring at it for a few seconds, he asked Lucy for the time.

"9:30 in the morning, why?"

"You'll see in a few seconds; hopefully," Alister put on his best smile, but with the sharp jawline and loose head of black, dirty hair and somewhat long ears gave him the appearance of a elf. "I just hope I look decent enough."

"Well, given the fact we had to wash your clothes at my place and use my detergent, which I bought," Lucy jabbed a thumb towards herself, making Alister focus. "And I had to scrounge to get you some cargo pants and a decent looking jacket with some insulation, I would call myself pretty good at picking out clothes."

Alister groaned, biting his tongue until Io pointed out what Lucy did not know about fashion.

"The colors are wrong," Io pouted, tugging at the black and blue striped jacket with too many pockets to count. It clashed heavily, which gave Alister an uncomfortable vibe. He settled for borrowing a dark brown compression shirt from Io that fit him smugly. "See? Kinda better."

Lucy turned her head to the side, unamused. Her legs shook with impatience as she propped up her cowlick with some of her spit.

"Well, well, well; and who might the three of you be?" The woman Io looked at was walking towards them, smiling. In one hand, she held a couple of folders, certain pages sticking out. "It's time for 2nd Hour, students," then the woman paused. "
. .You are students at my school, correct?"

"No, absolutely not, nononono. Me-" Lucy gestured to Io and herself. "-and my sister are not interested in this school, and we do go to our own school, but Dark and Depression over here may be one of yours."

"Hmm? And what is your name, young man?" the woman stared at Alister, her focus making it seem like she had seen a ghost.

"Alister Wolf, Principal Celestia. And I should be a senior here if my credits got sent over right."

Celestia gasped. How did this young man know her name? And why was he smiling? And who were these other two? Did she accidentally lose the enrollment papers or worse, did she-

"By the way, it was on your name tag, Ma'am, I wasn't guessing," Alister smiled, offering to shake hands when she looked utterly conflicted.

"Yes, of course." Celestia said, breathing the longest breath and clutching a piece of her hair. Whenever trouble struck, things would fix themselves in some way. "So, Mr. Wolf, you are indeed enrolled in our school. But you will have to be given a tour of the school by one of your peers."

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously, Mr. Wolf. Canterlot is a very spacious school, so it would be in your best interests to acclimate yourself with your new surroundings. Hmmm, let's see. . .oh! Sunset Shimmer, are you busy?" Celestia down a student who walked by herself, scaring off or prompting students to talk about her. Her head was hung low, but her eyes suddenly perked up when her name was called.

"Yes, Principal?" Sunset asked, shifting her weight to one foot when she thought something was amiss.

"If you wouldn't mind; could you show our new student around the school while I head to the office to get his schedule in order? I've been running back and forth, planning events for the seniors, and a few things here or there have slipped my mind."

Alister looked at the girl in front of him, and took in the picture before his eyes. The last time he saw this girl was seemed so long ago, that he doubted his own memory. Different he knew she looked, but to the degree of a few changes from the last time prompted him to almost do a double-take, but he had to remember that he was here for a certain reason, and he could not waver in the face of getting what he wanted more than anything. From her black biker jacket to her bright skirt that would always be her most defining quality by all that who knew her.

. . .Like most things, it would be something that would change the way he would see things.

''Uh, are you sure that I'm the best person to be showing anybody around the school? I don't really fit in with anybody here, and I did have something else I needed to do.'' Sunset said, checking her watch for the time; 9:35, which was five minutes too long for her to chatting up somebody who would just end up hating her like the rest of the school. "Can I just go-'' Sunset looked at Celestia giving her a particular frown, making her groan. "Do I really have to?"

"Sunset, I believe that you can function at your best if you are exposed to stimuli that you can handle. I have no doubt that this is well within your scope of doing, as well as it is no mere chance of luck that you have been trying to wiggle out from my eye, and we did talk about how you can make things here at CHS better. . .as well as pay off the damages if you do this."

"Damages?" Lucy asked.

Celestia draped her arm around Sunset, turning her towards Alister. ''Now, Mr. Wolf here is indeed a new student here, though his transcripts do explain his absence for the past month, which is excused. Now, won't you give him a tour of our wonderful school and explain to him what is to be expected of him while he attends Canterlot?''

"Blackmail much, Ma'am?'' Lucy asked, folding her arms in wonder. "Or selective power?''

''I have no idea to what you are referring to, young lady. Now, if you and your sister are indeed not of this school, I will have to politely ask that you vacate the premises as we are in the middle of 2nd-''

''Got you, no problem at all,'' Lucy speed-walked to the entrance. "We will talk to our friend later when school gets out, we just wanted to make sure that he made it."

''Hour. . ." Celestia pointed to the door, causing Lucy to turn around and shoot the peace sign. "Well, that was strange. Sunset, if you would? And you will also be excused from today for the two of you. I wish I could aid you on the tour, Sunset, but I have a meeting to attend. May you enjoy your time at our institution, Mr. Wolf."

Seeing her walk off, Alister began to fidget, the click-clack of her shoes long going silent with a turn of the corner. The corners of his mouth began to curl into a smile. He was internally shaking with joy and looking around, he began to understand bit by bit; things were going his way. He got his foot in the door thanks to dumb luck, and he needed to push on.

"H-Hey! Where are you going?" Sunset jogged after the boy, upset that he just took off without notice. "Do you know where you're headed?"

Alister smirked, turning to head down to the courtroom, somewhere he was certain to have some quiet. "I know this school like the back of my hand."

"And why do I feel like this will eat up my whole day?" Sunset mumbled, only to remember something important. "And how did you know Celestia's name when she didn't introduce herself?"

"I know," Alister said. "And if you think about it or if you paid attention, you'd know that she never had a name tag to begin with. . .connect the dots on that one, Sunset."

Alister and Sunset ventured down the hall, the subtile squeaking of their shoes on the ground. The first part of his plan was more or less done, and it was only a matter of time before the rest of the pieces fall into place.