"Wallflower Blush, please report to the vice principal's office."
Trixie frowned at the PA speaker. "Who?"
Someone sighed at Trixie's left. "We've known each other since third grade," said a green, earth-aspected girl. "My cousin is one of your best friends."
Trixie considered her for a few moments. Finally, she said, "Cloud Kicker?"
"That's Lavender's cousin," Fuchsia Blush said from behind Trixie. "Wallflower's one of mine."
"Oh." Trixie blinked. "Who were we talking about again?"
"If you are all quite finished?" said Ms. Harshwhinny, glaring down at the unbridled unprofessionalism on display. Her expression relaxed a fraction as she nodded towards some green girl Trixie didn't recognize. "Wallflower, you are, of course, excused. Be sure you cover the rest of this material on your own. It will be on the final."
"Yes, Ms. Harshwhinny."
Trixie watched her go, then looked back at Fuchsia. "Who was that?"
That got a flat look for some reason. "You have the ego of a cat and the memory of a goldfish."
"And the attention span of a caffeinated monkey," added Ms. Harshwhinny. "Fuchsia, please keep your comments to yourself during class, no matter how merited. Now, as I was saying..."
Wallflower bit her lip as she knocked on the vice principal's door. Somehow, the whole hallway had been cloaked in shadows, and it wasn't even due to faulty lighting like that one row of lockers.
"Enter," Vice Principal Luna said from within.
Wallflower entered. If the hallway had been shadowy, then the office itself was a slice of night. The only sources of anything even resembling light were the stark white crescent moons scattered about the room and the glow of the vice principal's headgem.
"Y-you wanted to see me, V-vi-vi..." Wallflower trailed off, the words catching in her throat as the eyes beneath that gem pinned her down like a butterfly on a display board.
After a moment, the eyes blinked and the cerulean magic snuffed itself out. Light returned to the office, muted by the window blinds but still showing that the sun was up. "My apologies, Wallflower. When my mood darkens these days, so does everything else. Please, sit."
Wallflower swallowed against the tightening lump in her throat. "Y-yes, ma'am."
The vice principal smiled. "Do relax. You're not in trouble. We've just encountered a small... hiccup in the system."
"Hiccup?"
"Indeed. For whatever reason, the student database simply cannot retain your information." Only when Vice Principal Luna turned her laptop to face Wallflower did the girl even realize said laptop was there. And there, clear as day, was a window open to the online CHS directory with Wallflower's name in the search bar, right above a big bold No Results Found.
"Thankfully, we still have physical records for most matters, as I insisted." Luna drew herself up with that, though the show of pride didn't last long. "However, I'm sorry to say that the system lost your yearbook photo."
Wallflower just looked at the floor. "Oh." She knew it was far too late to get in a replacement; the things were probably being printed as they spoke.
"You have my sincerest apologies, Wallflower." Wallflower looked up. Vice Principal Luna had gone around her desk, now sitting on its edge and offering a sad smile. "I assure you, we will get to the bottom of this. And I do mean 'we.' As I recall, you are on the yearbook committee, yes?"
"Yes, ma'am. And the Gardening Club."
Luna's eyebrows rose. "Really? I don't think I've even seen you at their meetings."
"I'm usually off on my own." Away from the three co-heads and their tendency to share panic attacks, Wallflower didn't add. "I've been focusing on clearing this one area behind the school. There are these rocks—"
"Three standing stones?"
Wallflower blinked. "Uh, yeah."
Luna nodded. "I know where you mean. Back when I was a student here at CHS, I used to use the place as a way to forget my troubles for a time." She put a hand to her chin. "And apparently, that included forgetting about the clearing itself until you mentioned it now."
"That's... basically what I do there. Sometimes I just sit there and... stuff doesn't seem so bad."
"You rather remind me of myself at your age," said Luna. "I trust you at least joined the others for the club photo?"
"Yeah. Along with Rainbow Dash, for some reason. At least, I'm pretty sure it's Rainbow Dash. In the photo, it's just this blue blur..." Wallflower's expression twisted into a grimace as the photo came to mind. "And it covers most of my face."
"I see." Luna sighed as she returned to her chair. "In any case, I truly do apologize for not discovering this issue while we could still do something about it."
Wallflower shook her head. "It's okay, ma'am. I should've been looking myself."
"Regardless, we must ensure it does not happen again." Luna turned her attention back to her computer. "You may return to class for now. I still have to figure out just why this infernal contraption refuses to remember you." The shadows around her began to deepen again.
Wallflower bit back her first thought on that matter as she stood up. "Thank you, Vice Principal Luna." She hesitated for a moment. "Um, may I ask you a question?"
"Of course."
"You said I reminded you of yourself. Does... does it ever get any better?"
Luna just looked up at her for a moment, not seeming to see Wallflower at all. Finally, she said, "It can, if you don't get in your own way."
Wallflower sighed as she walked home. Today could've certainly gone better. Trixie alone managed to bump into her so often that Wallflower would've thought she was doing it on purpose if it weren't for Fuchsia's apologetic expression. Today was definitely a cookie day.
The convenience store was only a block away from her route home, and a welcome one on days like this. Sure, the cookies were terrible for her, but a few seconds in the microwave turned the chocolate chips in the soft, hand-sized treats into one of the most effective antidepressants she knew. She'd garden her way to calm, but this late in the year, there just didn't seem to be any point. She'd barely even cleared the place out since discovering it a few weeks ago. Thus, chocolate therapy it was.
At least, that was the plan up until Wallflower walked face first into glass.
"What?" She rubbed her nose, less in pain than just surprised. Sure enough, she stood in front of the Zippy Mart, with its cheery colors, stocked shelves...
And automatic doors. That weren't automatically opening.
Wallflower felt an eyelid twitch. "You can't be serious. You're telling me doors don't notice me anymore?"
As if in response, the doors slid open. A spike of surprise and embarrassment went through Wallflower's mind, and she had enough experience with the latter to know it wasn't hers. "Um, no hard feelings?" she said as she entered the Zippy Mart. She blushed when she realized several people were watching her, including the girl at the register.
There was the familiar embarrassment she was used to.
Wallflower grabbed her cookie as quickly as she could, looking at everything but the cashier as she waited in line. Eventually, her eyes settled on the television showing footage from the security camera pointed at the cash register. Mostly because she wasn't showing up on it, only a gap in the line.
"Hey! You gonna buy that or what?"
It was only then that Wallflower realized she was at the head of the line. "Sorry," she mumbled, eyes locked on her backpack as she dug through it for cash.
"Whatever," the cashier said with a roll of her eyes. "Weirdo. You want a bag?"
"Okay." Wallflower took the offered bag in a white-knuckle grip. It took everything in her power not to rush out of the store at top speed.
It was a good thing she didn't. She had to yell at the doors again to get them to let her out.
She raced out of the Zippy Mart, blushing hard enough that she felt like she was going to burst into flames. She ran for home, which was thankfully just a few more blocks away. The dead bolt didn't need convincing that she was there, though she did fumble with the key for a few moments.
"Fuchsia? Is that you?" came a voice from the living room.
"Just me, Aunt Magenta," Wallflower wheezed, her breathing heavy from half-formed sobs as much as the run. She slumped to the entry rug. "Just me."
"Wallflower?" Magenta Blush, a unicorn-aspected woman who greatly resembled her daughter, helped her back to her feet. "What happened, dear?"
"Just... stuff."
"Ah, stuff." Magenta nodded. "I remember what stuff was like at your age."
Wallflower glowered. "Really? Do you remember Mom? Because you're ahead of me there."
Magenta just raised her eyebrows. "My, you have been through a lot of stuff." She looked at the bag and smiled. "Cookie day?"
The anger drained out of Wallflower as quickly as it had come. "Cookie day."
"I'll heat it up for you, dear."
Shame came in to fill the void as Wallflower trudged to the kitchen table. "Thanks, Aunt Magenta."
Magenta sat on the opposite side of the little table, headgem glowing as she set the microwave from her seat. "Never think Chartreuse forgot about you, Wallflower. After the divorce—"
"She left to go find herself. In Zebrica. Without a satellite phone." Wallflower slumped in her seat until her chin rested against the table. "I know, Aunt Magenta, we've been over this."
The microwave beeped. As Magenta got up, she said, "Then you know this is the part where I tell you I'm here for you whenever you want to talk. So is Fuchsia."
Wallflower sighed, not really looking anywhere. She smelled the cookie in front of her more than she saw it. "Yeah," she said. When prompted by a kiss on the top of her head, she added, "Thanks." She said nothing else, focusing on the treat.
After the chocolate therapy, Wallflower made for the room she shared with Fuchsia, feeling up to confirming her suspicions. Fuchsia herself still had band practice, or possibly a magic recital; whatever Trixie had her doing, Wallflower had the room to herself for now.
First was her phone. Wallflower wasn't exactly the selfie type; she'd never used the user-facing camera on the thing since the world changed, and she preferred an actual camera for yearbook photos. Once she turned the camera on, all it showed was a vague, teal blur. She held it back and tried waving an arm. The blur waved a hazy tendril in time with her. "Seriously?"
The image flickered when Wallflower voiced her disbelief, briefly showing her in full resolution, only to quickly fuzz out again. She angled the phone, checking the room. Everything else in the shot showed up clearly; she was the only blurred out object.
Her frown softened. "That's the best you can do, isn't it?"
For a moment, she felt foolish, but that sense of embarrassment crept back into her mind, somehow gentler and warmer than with the automatic door.
"Well, let's see if anything else behaves like that." Wallflower closed the camera, sat on her bed, and pulled up Immediagram. Or tried to. The screen stayed on the logo and a spinning circle for half a minute after she opened the app. Wallflower sighed. "Please tell me I don't have to say something to get stuff to—" Her phone cut her off, going to the login page. "Great."
MyStable, TackNote, and her web browser followed suit; she had to speak up to get them to notice she was trying to access them, and nothing seemed to remember she'd been logged in for more than a few minutes. Even the once eerily appropriate ads now offered her everything from motor oil to ridiculously niche dating sites.
"Okay," Wallflower said to herself, "now what?" She could try looking for answers online, but it wasn't like anyone understood this stuff better than she did.
Well, almost anyone...
Wallflower dismissed the idea almost as soon as she had it. Sunset Shimmer had much more important things to worry about than some girl having tech troubles. "Even if I don't have anyone else to turn to," Wallflower said to herself. She shrugged. "Not that different from usual."
"What's not different?" said Fuchsia.
Wallflower bolted up from her prone position, bobbling her phone for a few moments before she held it against her chest. "Nothing! How long have you been there?"
"Just got home." Fuchsia smirked and leaned towards her. "Why? What were you looking at?" She waggled her eyebrows, only to duck out of the way when Wallflower threw her pillow at her. "Okay, fine, leave it to my imagination."
"I..." Wallflower took a deep breath. "Sorry. It's just been a long day."
Fuchsia frowned, all humor leaving her expression and voice. "You okay, Wallflower? You know I'm here for you, right?"
"Yes," Wallflower said with a roll of her eyes. "Your mom gave me the same speech when I got home."
"Oh, now she's 'my mom'?" A bit of playfulness came back to Fuchsia's voice as she tossed the pillow back. "Come on, it wasn't Trixie, was it? Because I totally understand if it was Trixie. I can only do so much with her. It was hard enough keeping her and Lavender grounded before we all had actual magic,"
"It's fine, really."
Fuchsia crossed her arms. "You're walling me off again."
"That's still a dumb joke."
"Yeah, 'cause it isn't one. You've gotta open up with stuff or it's going to eat you alive."
"It's just dumb magic stuff," Wallflower said with a shrug. "I'll figure it out."
Fuchsia gave her a long, appraising look. Finally, she said, "If you're sure." She knelt and wrapped an arm around Wallflower. "Love you, Wall."
Wallflower returned the hug without hesitation. "Love you too, Fyoosh."
The weekend came and went, Wallflower focusing on the last chance to prepare for her finals rather than her magical issues. And, as she noted to herself several times during her study, it wasn't like she had any better options.
Finals at CHS were divided between the third- and second-to-last days of the school year, with the last more an excuse for everyone to sign everyone else's yearbooks than anything. Wallflower went through her Monday exams smoothly enough. No one could prove she took any pleasure in seeing more social and popular students still struggling when she finished.
Near the end of the last test period, the phone by the classroom door rang. After Ms. Cheerilee answered it, she said, "Wallflower Blush, after you're through with the test, please go to Vice Principal Luna's office. Don't worry, you aren't in trouble; she just wants to see you about something the two of you discussed on Friday."
"Who—"
"Trixie, I love you like a sister, but I will take Wallflower's birth certificate and beat you bloody with it."
Wallflower couldn't help but smile a little. "Thanks, Fuchsia. I think."
"Quiet, please, girls!" said Ms. Cheerilee. "You're still taking a test."
The trip to Vice Principal Luna's office was a lot less stressful this time. No shadows clung where they shouldn't have. However, there was one notable change in the vice principal's office, a shaggy-haired man dressed in a blue suit a few shades darker than his skin and standing to one side of Vice Principal Luna's chair.
Vice Principal Luna smiled at her. "Ah, Wallflower. Do come in. I'd like you to meet Vice Principal Beleren of Ravnica High."
He smiled and extended a hand. "Please, call me Jace."
Wallflower hesitated for a moment before shaking it. Luna shook her head with a grin. "Don't mind him. He's trying to be 'cool.'"
Vice Principal Beleren looked over at Luna, who met his gaze. His headgem started glowing, and the two kept staring at each other.
"Um..." Wallflower squirmed as the impromptu staring contest stretched on for an uncomfortable length of time.
Finally, Luna broke the stalemate and rolled her eyes. "Don't mind us, Wallflower, this is a longstanding debate. It's just that Jace can conduct it telepathically now." She straightened up. "In any case, I asked you here today because I discussed the database issue with some colleagues this weekend, including Vice Principal Beleren. He thought he could offer some insight on possible magical causes for the database issue."
Wallflower looked around. They were the only three people in the room. "Shouldn't Sunset Shimmer be here?"
Luna gave her a knowing look. "As I said on Friday, you remind me a great deal of myself at your age. Something tells me you won't appreciate the sunny, popular girl trying to fix you rather than your problem."
Vice Principal Beleren quirked an eyebrow. His headgem lit up again.
Luna looked back and said aloud, "If you want to tell Niv-Mizzet that you were the one who convinced me to call in Sunset—"
He leapt back as though slapped, hands waving. "No! No, that's fine, point taken, moving on." He cleared his throat. "In any case, Luna called me in since my own magical abilities have some similarities to what we've seen with you. Have you noticed anything else over the weekend?"
Wallflower nodded. "If I don't say something, a lot of electronic stuff doesn't seem to notice me, even if it doesn't have a microphone."
"I see." Vice Principal Beleren's headgem glowed once more, followed by his eyes. He stared at Wallflower, putting a hand to his chin. "I see."
"Do you want to share what you see with the rest of us," said Luna, giving him a flat look, "or would you rather savor the mystery?"
"As I was about to say, Wallflower, you appear to have... call it a second form of magic, one most often seen in the students and faculty at Ravnica High."
Wallflower's mouth worked silently for a few moments as she processed that. "I do?"
"Yes. We're still cataloguing it ourselves, but yours is..." Vice Principal Beleren waved his hands about with no apparent meaning. "Well, call it blue, for lack of a better term. Similar to my own. But, and this is purely hypothetical at this point, it's possible that your earth aspect is causing the magic to express itself subconsciously, or at least involuntarily. It's doing so along the channels of your normal magic—for the new definition of normal—which means interfacing with technology and possibly your own body, at least based on the thaumological findings established thus far."
After another few moments of thought, Wallflower decided there was only one way to respond to that. "What?"
"Put simply," said Luna, "Vice Principal Beleren has a better idea of what's happening than almost anyone in the area."
He looked almost physically pained by the summary. "Yes, but the specifics—"
"Are irrelevant to the discussion at hand." Luna turned back to Wallflower. "Obviously, we want the best for every student at CHS. Sometimes the best means no longer attending it."
A chill ran down Wallflower's spine. "What are you saying?"
"I truly do think that Ravnica High may be a better fit for you, Wallflower," said Luna.
"But... it's in another town."
"Closer than you may think," said Vice Principal Beleren. "The bus would only take twenty or thirty minutes from your address. You might have to get up a bit earlier, but it should prove a small adjustment."
"I... I don't—"
Luna held up a hand. "No one's expecting you to make the decision today."
Vice Principal Beleren nodded. "Especially not literally in the middle of your finals. Why don't you come to Ravnica High on Wednesday? I can have one of the students show you around the campus, give you a sense of what it's like. Even if you'd rather stay at Canterlot, we can arrange one of the faculty to help you better control these abilities over the summer."
Wallflower gulped, wringing her hands. "I... guess that could work."
"Excellent! I assure you, Wallflower, you won't regret this," said Vice Principal Beleren, beaming and offering his hand.
She could only nod as she shook it.
Canterlot High had always struck Wallflower as open and friendly in architecture if not in student body. The wings on each side of the entrance were like open arms welcoming students inside. From pictures she'd seen online, Crystal Prep came off as harsh and imposing with all of the sharp angles. And Ravnica High...
There was no other word for it. Ravnica High sprawled. It wasn't even symmetrical, instead an irregular collection of angles and curves bulging out seemingly at random, with entrances scattered about like there had been a sale on doors. It almost looked like a living thing, and not a healthy one. In terms of attitude, it struck her as... indifferent. To everything. Certainly to her.
Wallflower gulped as her aunt pulled up to what was allegedly the front entrance. "Call me if there's any trouble," said Aunt Magenta.
"I will." Wallflower got out of the car, surprised to see her hands weren't shaking. She waved her aunt goodbye, then turned back to the behemoth before her.
A few people noticed her as she approached, most hanging out on the lawn and wearing awfully thick-looking plaid in the June heat. Many just watched, but one girl waved as she moved towards Wallflower, her cobalt hair and dark dress stark against her white skin and equally white newsie cap. Pinned to the cap was a trio of computer cursors in an uneven stack, white in front of gray in front of black, their pointers aligned horizontally. "Hey there," she said once she was close enough. She extended a wide-nailed hand. "I'm White Hat."
"You are?" Wallflower gasped and brought a hand over her mouth. "Sorry! I just..."
"Figured everyone here had weird, Eastern Stirropean names? Same."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. Freshman year, I figured I'd be the weirdest kid in school. And I wasn't too far off, but it wasn't because of my name." White winked. Wallflower found herself giggling. "But yeah, not everyone here has parents or grandparents from the old country."
"Oh. That's..." Wallflower bit her lip. "Is it wrong to say that's good?"
"Why are you saying it?"
"That means I wouldn't stand out as much if I transferred. Um, not that I stand out normally. I mean..." Wallflower trailed off and stared down at the cement.
A hand on her shoulder made her look back up. Amazingly, White was still smiling. "It's okay. I'm in one of the computer clubs, I'm so used to social awkwardness."
"You are?"
White smirked and started walking towards the entrance. "Let's put it this way; you've managed to say two sentences to me that weren't about computers in one form or another. In a row. That puts you ahead of, like, eighty percent of my social circle. Most of them find it easier to find a girl's Social Security number than actually talk to her."
Wallflower considered this for a moment as they went inside. "Uh... exactly which club are you in?" She found herself in an open area filled with wheeled folding tables and chairs. Hallways and staircases branched off in almost every direction, and where they didn't, there were doors or lockers.
"We call it the Ismeri Project after where we meet," White said as she sat at one of the tables, "but you can think of it as the Hacking Club."
"Is that even legal?"
White snickered at that. "See, that's why we call it the Ismeri Project. But yeah, we're strictly... well, white hat. You know, finding holes in firewalls, then telling the owners that they're there. Totally on the up and up." She got back up "If you'd like, I can take you to meet the faculty advisor."
"I, uh, I'm not that great with computers." Wallflower sighed. "These days even they ignore me."
"Don't worry, we've got some great tutors, especially for earth aspects." White grinned and waggled her fingers. "Some of us don't even need keyboards anymore."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. Thought to text. It's incredible. And even the boys can talk to you if they're teaching you." White Hat sighed, then gritted her teeth. "But try to ask them out, no matter how many times he's stared at your butt when he thought you weren't looking, and he doesn't even realize what you're trying to do, Dovri."
"Uh..."
"Sorry, personal drama. But yeah, don't plan on finding a boyfriend in the Ismeri Project unless you plan on clubbing him over the head and dragging him back to your place. Personally, I leave that to the Gruul girls."
Wallflower blinked. "The what?"
White opened her mouth, but hesitated before saying, "What do you know about Ravnica High?"
"Uh..." Wallflower racked her brain. She had done a bit of research on the place, but she hadn't been able to sift the facts from Fuchsia's rumors and the school website's positive spin. "You have really big cliques?"
White sat back down. She patted the chair next to her. "This may take a bit. They're not cliques. They're guilds."
"'Guilds'?" Wallflower said as she sat herself.
"Yeah. Guilds are what happen when cliques get so big they eat all the smaller cliques and clubs they want to be part of them. So you've got groups like the Gruul, where the dudebros and the physical bullies and the people who draw anarchy symbols on their cheeks in marker all come together and steal people's lunch money. Or sometimes just their lunch." After a moment of thought, White added, "Basically, try to avoid anyone in torn flannel."
Wallflower thought back to the people who'd watched her come in and shuddered. "You're not exactly selling me on this place."
"Don't get the wrong idea, the Gruul are maybe the worst example. The Boros are the friendliest jocks you'll ever meet, and the Rakdos and Izzet are different kinds of fun personified. You just missed the last robot fight of the year."
"So everyone's part of a guild?"
White shook her head. "Not unless you count everyone left coming together, which I don't."
"So you're in one of them?"
"Yeah. I'm..." White trailed off and glanced away from Wallflower. "Okay, so every guild basically ate the smaller cliques, right? So they all have some weird elements. The Boros have their hot-blooded anime geeks, the Simic have a furry contingent, even the Gruul have people who'd rather smoke pot behind the bleachers than hit people. Or things. Or people with things. Seriously, stay away from flannel."
Wallflower nodded. "I got that much."
"I'm part of the Dimir, and we put our weirdest face forward," said White. "As far as most of the school is concerned, the Dimir are a bunch of people in trenchcoats and heavy makeup who have midnight Bloodsucker: the Facade LARPs."
"You don't seem to fit that mold."
"Yeah, because we're like a Goth iceberg. Under the eyeliner, we're the guild for people who don't really like groups, but still want human interaction."
Wallflower felt her jaw drop. "You just described me to the letter."
White beamed and squirmed, barely able to stay in her seat. "I know, right? There's a reason Vice Principal Beleren asked me to show you around. And we're not just LARPers and hackers. School newspaper? That's us. Yearbook? Us too. We even handle a lot of the school's official social networking."
"I'm actually on the yearbook committee at CHS," said Wallflower.
"See? Perfect!" White leaned in and stage-whispered, "Though if you ever do want to try out the LARPs, let me know. They're actually pretty fun. Heck, I'm pretty sure your vice principal has been to one or two."
"Vice Principal Luna?"
"Yeah! Or Nightmare Moon, the Prince of Canterlot, if you want to talk to her in character."
Wallflower tried to imagine that and found it all too easy. "I really don't know how to feel about that," she said, trying to get the sound of imaginary cackling out of her head.
"It may be one of those things you shouldn't think about too hard." White got up again and made for one of the hallways. "Come on, let me show you around. Should've been doing that the whole time."
"Uh, about that..." Wallflower looked around. They kept going straight, but passed numerous offshoots and staircases as they did. "Just how big is this place?"
White stopped and looked at her surroundings as though seeing them for the first time. "Oh. Right." She laughed a bit and resumed her walk. "Yeah, the school district decided way back that it'd be cheaper to just expand Ravnica High than build a new school, and they've stuck to their guns for decades. So we've got, like, four gyms, three auditoriums, two libraries, I don't even know how many classrooms and lockers..."
She stopped as they reached a plaster pillar nearly as wide as the sitting area right in the middle of the hallway. Glass doors revealed a number of desks within and people of all ages milling about. "This is the administration center," said White. "Well, part of it. It ate the original teacher's lounge a long time ago. There are so many students to keep track of that there's a whole guild devoted to helping the faculty keep them straight. The Azorius... Well, we call them Az-kissers for a reason. Fortunately, they're easy to recognize. The school may not have a uniform policy, but they do." Indeed, all of the teenagers within were in stiff looking white suits.
"Does the school make them wear those?" said Wallflower.
"Nope. Weird, right?"
Wallflower could only nod.
White started walking again. "We've covered the Gruul. They hardly ever go in the actual building if they can help it, so once you're in, you're generally safe. Don't think Borborygmos has been in here in years."
"Who?"
"The one-eyed twentysomething who still hasn't graduated yet. Trust me, if you see him, you'll know."
"They haven't expelled him?"
"I think they tried. Either he didn't notice or he didn't care." White pointed down an archway that seemed ripped out of a steampunk convention, given the sheer number of gears, pistons, and chambers full of colored liquids. "Down that way's the science wing. Izzet has physics. They're the robot fighters; I'll show you their EweTube channel later. Simic's in biology, but if you need a tutor for just about anything, go to them. They're cool like that. The chem labs are neutral ground. They're just too useful to too many people. Speaking of, don't go in the basement."
Wallflower looked at the carpet and tried not to imagine what might lie beneath it. She almost succeeded. "I didn't know there was one."
"If you believe the rumors, it's bigger than the rest of the school." White's voice came from further away than Wallflower expected. She hurried to catch up as White said, "Whether it is or not, it's strictly Golgari territory. They're kind of like Dimir in terms of welcoming outcasts, but they care a lot less about whether you shower regularly."
Wallflower shuddered. "Ew."
"Yeah. They actually help the janitorial staff pick up the place, but they don't always make it to the 'throw stuff away' step of the process. Nice folks, usually, just... really enthusiastic about recycling."
White pointed down another hallway, this one surrounded by a blocky, stylized mural of various sports. "The gyms are where the Boros hang out. Again, super-nice people most of the time. You only have to worry about them if you're a bully and they know it."
"Not an issue for me, then."
"Yeah." White frowned. "On that note, if you see someone wearing gold? Like, not the color, the actual metal? Try not to make eye contact. The Orzhov don't really have territory in the school itself, but everyone steers clear of them. They know people, their parents know people, and sometimes it's not even the same people. Ms. Karlov tries to keep them in line, but she can only be in so many places at once." She gave an uneasy smile. "Still, we haven't had to do a fundraiser in years."
Another hallway looked covered by either a painted rose bush or a heavy metal band logo in serious need of pruning. The horned skull at the top had Wallflower leaning towards the latter. "Over here," said White, "we have the auditoriums. Auditoria? Whatever. The Rakdos hang out here. Sometimes they join in the LARP sessions, but they always insist on doing Hellspawn: the Corruption crossovers. Which, to be fair, are kind of more my thing with the cyberpunk part of it. But yeah, they do plays, and they do them amazingly. Just be prepared for a full production if you bump into one in the hallway; they don't break character very often."
Wallflower frowned, silver hair and obnoxious shouts coming to mind. "I know a few girls like that. I think you get a bigger kick out of it than I do."
White shrugged as they continued on their way. "Eh, fair enough. Then there's Selesnya. They... well, they have a lot of places they hang out: wood shop, history, language arts... They need the space, since there's a lot of them. Don't ask me why, but there are. They—"
"Hello, world-sisters!" A woman with skin like polished maple and hair greener than Wallflower's smiled at them from a pit in the floor. A carpeted pit with a blackboard, desks, and students, but a pit. "Would you like to join our feelings forum?"
"Uh..." White gave an awkward smile that felt all too familiar to Wallflower. "No thanks. We're good."
"Goodness comes from your connections to those around you," the woman said, completely straight-faced. She waved as they turned the other way. "But have a nice summer!"
"You too!" White called over her shoulder. She kept up the plastic smile until they more than halfway back to where they'd come in. "Yeah, that was Ms. Trostani. Well, a Ms. Trostani. They're triplets, they all teach here, and I have no idea which is which."
"Was she serious about..." After a few moments, Wallflower started over. "Was she serious?"
"I'm pretty sure she was."
"Okay, speaking as a CHS student? You know, literal home of friendship and harmony? Yikes."
White nodded. "Agreed. So, back at the cafeteria—"
Wallflower looked around. Tables aplenty, she supposed, but still. "This is the cafeteria?"
"Technically, wherever you can sit is the cafeteria, but lunch lines feed into the doors there, there, there, and there," said White, pointing at a different nearby door in turn. "Anyway, that's the really quick rundown, aside from the Dimir area. Spoiler: Libraries." She pointed at a pair of double doors decorated with pointy abstract designs that suggested books, along with a dozen other possibilities. "Apparently we used to meet in part of the basement, but the Golgari squeezed us out." She looked expectantly at Wallflower. "So, what do you think?"
"It's..." Wallflower chewed her lip for a moment. "Well, it's a lot to take in all at once, and you didn't even show me the whole school."
"You want a map? The Az-kissers can get you a map, and it'll only take them ten minutes. For them, that's lightning speed. What I showed you was the unwritten information every Ravnica High student needs to know."
"If you say so." Wallflower sighed. "You know, I can't help but think how this never would've happened if the world hadn't changed. I mean, even Vice Principal Beleren basically said I'm only welcome here because of my weird magic. You've been really nice, White, but we wouldn't have even met if I could actually log into MyStable without yelling at the computer."
White shrugged. "Hey, there are worse ways to kick off relationships." A scowl flashed across her face. "Or not kick them off."
"I guess. It'd be nice if something good actually came of this, after the magic and getting used to these nails and this stupid thing on my hips..." She glanced at her jeans. "You know, I'm not even a Harmonist?"
"Shimmerist?"
"Please," said Wallflower. "After the way Sunset Shimmer used to act? Yeah, I'm not worshiping that. I'm actually an Asterist, but you wouldn't think it if you saw me in a swimsuit. Ever since I got the big nails, I've had this picture of a vine creeping along my hips and I don't know why. There's this one design on my backpack that I kind of relate to, but this..." She shook her head. "I have no idea what it's supposed to mean."
"Huh." White leaned in her seat, as though she could make out the icon from a different angle. "You know, I never thought about how that might work for non-Harmonists."
"Well, for me, it's just kind of... there. Not like the Stars are ever going to tell me. I even did some research on it. There's this flower in the middle of it, some kind of orchid that looks like a spider so parasitic flies try to lay their eggs on it and end up pollinating it." Wallflower shook her head. "Nature is weird sometimes."
"Just wait 'til you meet some Simic students. But an orchid..." White Hat hummed to herself. "Icons can be deeper than you think. You could be good at manipulating the manipulators. Or there's that whole 'language of flowers' thing."
"Looked that up too. Orchids mean beauty and refinement." Wallflower gave a sad smile and gestured at herself. "About as accurate as a newspaper horoscope. Given how the vine's in this squashed infinity shape, I'm pretty sure it just means I'm going to go unnoticed my whole life."
"I guess that's one way to look at it," said White. "But you know what I think?"
"What?"
White threw up her hands. "Who cares? Go make your own destiny."
"Uh..." Wallflower's gaze shifted to the three-cursor pin on White's hat. "That's a... really weird thing to hear from a Harmonist."
"You have to understand, these things don't just pop in your head one day. When you do something that you know feels right, when you find why you were put here, you know it's time to find your icon. Some people call that destiny, but I say it's just figuring out who you want to be. The icon itself just confirms what you already know and gives you something cool to work into your outfit. A year and a half ago, I figured out that I want to be someone who tears apart cybersecurity measures and puts them back together better than before. You want to be..." White rolled a hand as she thought, then shrugged. "Something. I don't know what, but you do, or it wouldn't be there. All you need to do now is remember what you decided, or maybe even change your mind. If anyone asks, figure out an explanation that fits. Or heck, if you're not going to get it put on anything, just tell them you're an Asterist. And to stop looking." White winked. "Unless you don't want them to."
Wallflower blushed and cleared her throat. "I mean, that's a nice way of looking at this sort of thing, but there are three freshmen at Canterlot High who are literally the embodiments of destiny."
"Screw 'em when they turn eighteen, then. Are you gonna let three freshmen tell you who you're meant to be?"
"That's not exactly what I meant?"
White slammed her hands on the table and leaned over until she was inches from Wallflower. "Are you?"
"No," Wallflower squeaked.
White nodded and straightened up. "Then there we go. Come on, I'll go show you the club room."
White led Wallflower inside a library. She barely got a glimpse of it—only one story, but likely forming one of the squarer protrusions in the school given its size—before White pulled her into a side room filled with monitors, keyboards, and mice. The people almost seemed an afterthought.
"Shut the door!" three voices shouted in tandem.
White shoved it closed, plunging the room into a darkness broken only by glowing monitors. She nodded to each of the seated boys. "Tarem. Circuit. Dovri." After a deep breath, White guided Wallflower out from where she'd been hiding behind the other girl. "This is Wallflower Blush, the girl the vice principal told us about."
This got a few vaguely acknowledging sounds amid clacking keys and humming cooling fans, but no one looked up. One boy, Tarem, just stared at his monitor, making no motions. Wallflower wasn't sure if he was even blinking. White scowled and hit the light switch.
"Ah!" All three flinched and covered their eyes. Their skin tones were the greys and vague dusky blues they had appeared to be in the darker conditions, though Circuit had surprisingly vibrant copper hair in brighter conditions. He proved to be a unicorn aspect, while the others were earthen. "What the crap, White?" said Dovri, slipping on sunglasses. "This is the one day a year we can use the room the whole..." He trailed off, looking at Wallflower like she was going to pounce on him. Then, for the first time in her life, she made a boy blush.
"You'll have to excuse them. They're... really committed to the club." White turned back to her fellow club members, moving in front of the light switch to block Tarem's approach. "Guys, this is the girl who's invisible to technology."
As one, they said, "Ohhhh." All three went back to their computers and started typing frantically.
Wallflower looked to White. "Uh..."
"We had a test set up for you. Just give them—"
"Okay!" said Circuit. "Server's set up, currently reading three connections. Wallflower, sit anywhere. White, guide her through accessing it. And someone get the lights already."
"You got it." White sat Wallflower down at one of the computers near the door. The lights went out as she said, "You ever used a command prompt before?"
Wallflower shook her head.
"I'll talk you through it, but our working hypothesis is that you need to perform all the inputs. And try not to talk. You said that affects this."
Less than two minutes later, White called, "She's connected." More softly, she added, "I can almost feel what you're doing. It's like you're a whisper in another room."
After a few keystrokes, Circuit sucked in a breath. "Still only reading three connections," he said.
Chairs bumped against one another as the other boys bolted to their feet. Both looked over his shoulders. "Holy crap," said Dovri. "Holy crap!"
White grinned, her teeth eerily bright against the monitor's light. She nudged a fist against Wallflower's forearm. "I think you just made three new friends."
Light sliced into the room from outside. "Sounds like something momentous happened."
Wallflower winced along with the others. When her eyes adjusted, she saw a peach-skinned, purple-haired woman in a lab coat smiling at her from behind round-rimmed glasses. "Ah, you must be Wallflower. A pleasure to meet you." The woman extended a hand. "I'm Lazav, the faculty advisor for... well, a lot of things actually. You might say I'm the one in charge of the Dimir, inasmuch as anyone is."
Wallflower stood and shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Ms. Lazav."
"Just Lazav is fine." As Wallflower watched, Lazav's modest bust drew inward, her proportions shifted, and she grew an inch or two. In a deeper voice, he said, "Being part of the Wholesome means you don't bother much with titles. Don't worry about pronouns; use whatever I am at the time, or whatever you'd like if I'm not in the room."
"Uh..." Wallflower bit her lip and nodded. That seemed safe.
"Excellent. Now, what do you think of our school so far?"
"Well..." Wallflower thought about it. Students had passed them by along the way, occasionally glancing at White Hat playing tour guide, but never bothering them. "Most people looked happy, and White Hat seems really nice. The place is huge, but it doesn't seem nearly as hard to navigate as I thought."
"Do you think you could see yourself here next year?"
"Well..."
"Lazav, there you are. I—" A bronzed Adonis poked his head into the room. His golden, slit-pupiled eyes locked onto Wallflower, prompting a smirk that sent tingles down her spine. "Why, what is this?" he said, his voice tinged with an accent that Wallflower would've happily spent hours trying to place.
"Hello, Mirko," said Lazav. "Wallflower, this is Mirko Vosk. If you like role playing games, he's the Prince of Ravnica High. If not—"
"He still has the ego of one," said White.
"Ah, White." Mirko glanced at the other Ismeri Project members, who had gone back to whatever they'd been working on before Wallflower had come in. "Still chasing after your fellow code monkeys, I see."
"Says the bonobo."
Mirko turned to Wallflower, taking her hand and laying a delicate kiss on it, his ebon tresses brushing her wrist. "So lovely to see a vision in green in all this gloom."
Wallflower wasn't sure if she actually said anything in response, but sounds definitely came out of her mouth.
"We’ve talked about this, Mirko," said White. "That’s chromist."
He drew back, the perfectly sculpted image of innocence. "Is it? I make no claims about the color of Wallflower’s skin defining the nature of her character, only that it is a shade as lovely as she."
"Argl."
"At least wait until she transfers before you seduce her." White turned to Wallflower. "Seriously, you won’t find a bigger womanizer at Ravnica High."
Mirko tossed his head back. "You wound me."
White took Wallflower's elbow and started dragging her out of the library. "Come on, Wallflower." She sighed. "At least he's wearing a shirt today."
"Guh."
After a few moments, White said, "Okay, yeah, even I can't complain when he doesn't." She waved at the club room "Thanks for coming to see us, Lazav!"
"My door is always open, girls."
White snickered at that as they returned to the cafeteria. "Running gag. Lazav's door is always open, but no one's quite sure where his office is. The size of the place doesn't help."
"Unf."
"Don’t worry, you get used to Mirko with exposure. And I’ll show you some pictures of what he looked like in sixth grade; that always helps.”
Wallflower blinked. “Huh?”
“Hey, that was almost a word. Good recovery. But yeah, two words: Crater. Face. First lesson of the Ismeri Society, Wallflower: Information is the second greatest weapon of all."
"What's the first?"
"Controlling that information. And you? With a few lessons, you'll be armed to the teeth."
Wallflower frowned. "You say that like it’s a good thing."
White wrapped her in a one-armed hug. "It is! Do you know what I’d give for your abilities?"
Wallflower just slumped and shrugged. She could see where this was going.
White stepped back, frowning. "Darn it, that isn't what I meant. That's not the only reason I hope you transfer, you know. That wasn't the full membership back there, but the Society is pretty low on girls. It'd be nice to balance the scales a little, you know? And..." She took a deep breath. "Well, if I'm being honest? This bit's kind of selfish."
"How do you mean?"
"See, Dimir kids... Well, like I said, if most people find out what guild I'm in, they want to know where I left my trenchcoat, or ask when Agent Smith is coming to get me if they know what club I'm in. People are part of Dimir because they don't make a lot of friends... but once they're in it, they definitely won't make a lot of friends outside of it." White looked away, rubbing an arm with the opposite hand. "Even girls they thought were their friends in freshman year."
Wallflower took White's hand, making her look back at her. "I'd be happy to be your friend."
White grinned and gave a little laugh. "Can't believe I told you all that the day I met you. Your Canterlotiness must be rubbing off on me."
"Pretty sure that's not a word."
"Well, it is now. And hey, you are coming over from Canterlot, so we’ve got rebuild that huge social network of yours, right?"
Wallflower couldn’t help it. She burst into laughter, clutching at her sides. The laughs went on until she fell to her knees, unable to support herself. At some point, they partly gave way to shuddering sobs, the two blending until Wallflower had no idea what her emotions were even doing.
As she recovered both breath and composure, an uncertain White looked down at her and said, "Uh… is that a yes or no?"
Wallflower sprang up and wrapped White in a tight hug. "Besides my family, you are literally the first person who’s actually cared about me since fifth grade."
White patted her on the back. "We are so making up for lost time when you transfer."
"If," said Wallflower, stepping back.
"When. Canterlot is killing you. You can’t see it, but it is. You need us as much as we need you."
"I'll... think about it. But thanks, White. If nothing else, I'll keep in touch."
A few hours later, as the last day of school drew to a close, a presently female Lazav sat with White Hat in one of the Ismeri Library's more secluded reading nooks. "So," said the teacher, "what do you think of Wallflower?"
White beamed. "She'll love it here. I really hope she'll decide to transfer."
"I see. Please close your eyes for a moment, White." There was no visible sign of magic from Lazav's headgem. Not to human eyes. Once the low-ultraviolet nimbus faded from both her gem and White Hat's head, she said, "And now how do you feel about her?"
White's eyes fluttered open. She tried to stand, staggered back into her chair, and put a hand to her forehead. "Ugh. Right now, I feel like I got hit by a truck. Seriously, those identity shell things need work."
"They are in an early experimental stage. Your thoughts on Wallflower?"
After a few moments, White straightened up again, adjusting her hat. There was a hardness to her eyes and a firmness to her posture that hadn't been there before, as though some of the laughter had been scrubbed from her soul.
In a sense, it had. In a sense, it had been sprayed on to begin with. "Honestly?" she said, then smirked. "Whatever that's worth among us? Pretty much the same. She's way too useful to pass up, and she really is someone I wouldn't mind hanging out with." White bit her lip. "Especially since I may have said a bit too much at a few points."
Lazav simply nodded. "I thought we'd need to add mnemonic layers. I'll make a note of it. Anything too critical?"
"No, ma'am. Mostly stuff the rest of the school already suspects."
"Then the test was more successful than I'd initially hoped." Lazav smiled more openly and genuinely than White had ever seen from her. "We can do so much with these. And with her."
A few weeks later, at a location so thoroughly undisclosed that even narrators weren't privy to its location, Lazav made a phone call. "She's accepted. We'll be seeing her come September."
The other person on the call smiled. "Excellent. Thank you." He hung up and leaned back on his beach chair, skin not sunburnt but still red as a lobster, his close-cropped hair a pale blue that could've been natural as easily as the product of age. His body had the weathered tone of one that had been carefully kept healthy for decades. "In theory," said Niv-Mizzet, principal of Ravnica High, "one down, four to go. In practice? I suppose we'll find out."
Author's Note
I would've made Wallflower a one-girl Gardening Club... but then I remembered that Ditzy refers to it in One Day I Found a Multiverse in My Pajamas.
Even without excavating it, spending enough time near the Memory Stone can have some interesting side effects...
I believe the other puns are straightforward enough, but know that TackNote is meant to be Pinterest.
Jace and Luna's argument about his actual level of coolness was originally going to be out loud... but this is Jace Beleren, the man who redefined "private conversation." Also, I grew thoroughly sick of the phrase "vice principal" by the time I finalized that scene.
The layout of Ravnica High is partially based on my own high school, which has grown in a similarly organic fashion over the years. Not to so extreme a degree, but I'm pretty sure the extensions' surface area now exceeds that of the original building. And yes, there were classrooms in a pit.
Asterism is what Sunset wishes Shimmerism could be: The Stars made the world, people to inhabit it, and a grand destiny for mankind to fulfill. (What that is precisely is a matter of some debate.) They rarely ever intercede on something so minor as a single event in a single person's life.
The flower in Wallflower's icon is the brassia or spider orchid. Here's an extremely rough approximation of her icon:
Yeah, there's a reason I usually just manipulate preexisting images. I'm working with Seashore and a touchpad here. And yes, the vine is supposed to suggest a domino mask; she's just interpreting it in a rather negative light.
Lazav's capabilities are far from typical for the Wholesome, but most people don't know that. Why, it's almost as though he weren't a member at all...
Also, any resemblance to certain gender-fluid webcomic characters is entirely intentional.
Shameless womanizer Mirko Vosk is a carry-over from The Implicit Neighs, because it amuses me.
White really did mean what she told Wallflower. Indeed, she was more genuine in those moments than she usually wants to be. The identity shell adjusts parts of your personality and can bring repressed ones to the fore, but it can't make a new one whole cloth. Not this early iteration of it, anyway.
And as for Niv... Well, it always safe to assume that he has a plan. And that it's more convoluted than almost any other human mind can fathom. Suffice to say, Wallflower will enjoy her senior year. She'll just be taking some... novel electives.
