Chapter 8

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“Sir!” a scientist ran into the dimly lit room.

“What is it?” the man replied, his back hunched over as he read several papers. “I’m busy trying to understand the figures we’re getting from subjects G1-26 and A-19. Nothing like this is logical. We need to know why those two are the only ones like this.”

“That’s just it, sir,” the scientist said, pulling out a tablet and tapping it several times.

“What’s “it”?” the man looked over his shoulder angrily.

“They’re not,” the scientist held out the tablet. “There was one other, before them.”

The man took the tablet and watched, his eyes slowly widening as the video of a humanoid female with wings flew past a security camera that clearly picked her up by chance.

“We got a notification of a military report,” the scientist said. “They’d gotten a warning of an unidentified small object flying into the airspace at a high speed and thought it might be a missile, but…”

There was silence for several moments, before he looked firmly at the scientist. “Locate where this was filmed and investigate the area. And be sure the military report is deleted. We can’t have this getting out into the public.”

The scientist nodded quickly and rushed out the room.

The man returned to his desk, setting the tablet by the documents he’d been reading, the video pause on a frame of the firm expression on the face in the video.

“Well, M1-24,” he smiled, folding his fingers together. “It seems you weren’t as much of a failure as we’d first written you off. Perhaps you can help us understand the other failures who survived.”

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I cry out as I burst from the quicksand, immediately turning around and side kicking the giant man-eating plant before it can properly process my arrival.

I whip out the can of weed killer and spray it right in the damn thing’s mouth as I charge in.

The plant shrieks in pain for several moments, before withering and dying.

Pushing myself out of the plant, I launch into the air and, after a quick scan of the horizon, go Warp Drive and rocket across the sea,

It’s been about a week since the events of the Friendship Festival and the late Storm King’s failed invasion.

Yeah… turns out, while I’d been off with Twilight and the others, the Storm King managed to escape and tried to turn Luna to stone… but it backfired when Luna unintentionally knocked the sphere with a wing flap and it turned him to stone instead… and his momentum at the time sent him falling down a great height before Luna could realize it and his statue form smashed to pieces.

Yeesh.

Upon our return, Discord finally showed up and helped reverse the petrification.

Twilight spent the next couple days helping re-establish relations between the Hippogriffs and Equestria.

Then, a few hours ago, she and Fluttershy set off on a Friendship Mission… Twilight being so preoccupied she’d failed to notice Sunset’s Journal vibrating and, a quick read and test of the portal, told me Friendship Games was well underway, with Sci-Twi already having taken the portal’s magic, closing it.

Realizing that, and how Twilight and Fluttershy might not return for days, I decided I’d use my knowledge of Equestria Girls and headed straight for the Everfree to find the natural portal.

Not really sure how I know there’s a natural portal in the Everfree, but my memories of what should and shouldn’t happen haven’t been too clear since I got here.

Either way, after Pinkie Pie stopped me and handed me a rucksack full of cake bars she said were to give me tons of energy for Warp Drive and a can of weed killer she’d said I’ll need, I flew straight to the Everfree, relying on that compass power Max has to know where she’s going to find it.

Now, I’m heading fast as I can towards Canterlot High. I wanna get there as soon as possible.

It takes maybe two hours, I couldn’t exactly keep track of the time, but I manage to get into Canterlot and, choosing to forego stealth, seeing as the girls never cared about it, I shot like a missile through Canterlot, startling a lot of people.

As I near Canterlot, I can see the giant plants from the second round are flailing around… but there’s two more than I remember form the movie.

I increase my speed and slam into a plant that had just been about to eat Dash, who’s eyes widen upon seeing me.

“Wha—?” she starts.

“Questions later!” I shout, spin kicking the head I’d collided with down. “Stop killer plants now!”

The rainbow haired girl stares at me for a second, before nodding and dives down to follow after Sunset, before moving to save Indigo Zap as a plant aims to munch on her, myself drawing the attention of the remaining two others and tricking them into twisting themselves into a knot.

It takes a bit, but the plants eventually go back through the portals as they shrink into nothing, indicating Sci-Twi’s closed her pendant.

“Is everybody alright?” Applejack asks as the rest of the group gathers, before noticing me flying down with Dash. “Wait. Who or… what in the world are you?”

“Huh. You must be Max,” Sunset takes off her helmet and holds out a hand, which I take. “She’s mentioned you a few times. What’re you doing here?” She blinks at something pretty obvious suddenly catches up with her. “Wait. HOW are you here? The portal’s closed!”

“That portal is,” I say, putting my hands behind my head and nodding in the direction of the statue. “But there’s another, permanently open one on a remote island.”

“Then… how’d you get here so fast?” Rarity asks, quiet puzzled.

I do a quick Wrap Drive rush to behind her and back.

Her nod tells me that’s enough of answer.

“Regardless, somebody could’ve been seriously hurt!” Sunset says, folding her arms. “The magic is going haywire and I have no idea how to fix it.”

“Um, excuse me,” we all turn to see Sci-Twi and Spike standing there. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I just wanted to learn about the strange energy coming from your school. I had no idea it was magic or how it works.”

“That’s alright,” Dash starts walking over to the lavender girl. “Neither do we.”

At once, I realize I’d slackened and forgot what happens here.— WE!”

The entire scenes plays out, but I step in just as Sci-Twi asks about Equestria in confusion.

“Whoa, whoa! Let’s take a second and calm down.”

“Calm down?!” Sunset looks at me incredulously. “Because of her, our magic is gone, the only viable portal is closed and she put the lives of my friends in danger in her quest to understand instead of just asking us to explain things to her!”

“Maybe because her bitch of principal wouldn’t have let her!”

There’s a slight pause, but it’s quickly interrupted by a loud “WHAT did you just call me you freak of nature?!”

We all turn as Principal Cinch stomps towards us, her eyes narrowed and aimed at me.

At once, the Twilight goes ridged, before backing behind Sunset, Spike standing firmly in front of them, growling at the woman.

“Did I stutter?” I ask, turning to face her, flaring out my wings.

She pauses, clearly not sure what to make of this.

Good to know the flaring wings for intimidation thing works on humans as well as animals.

“I will not stand for a CHS student insulting me like that!” she points firmly at me.

I smirk. “I’m not a CHS student.”

She hesitates. “Pardon?”

“I smirk. “What, are you deaf, as well as stupid?”

Dash and Pinkie Pie hold back snickers.

“Like I said,” I fold my arms, lowering my wings a little, “I’m not a CHS student. I can call you a bitch if I want, especially when you very much are exactly that.”

The temple of her head twitching gives me joy as she snarls. “Why you wretched freak! Do you have any idea who I am?”

I sneer. “Yeah, a bitch. I thought we made that clear? Do you have a bad memory as well as being a bitch?”

Rarity and Sunset can’t help snickering now too.

Cinch looks like she’s about to pop a blood vessel.

A clearing of a throat causes all of us to look and see Principal Celestia, Vice Principal Luna and Dean Cadance coming over, their eyebrows raised.

Cinch seems to put my insults aside, before pointing at Dash and myself. “You can’t possibly call that a fair race.”

Principal Celestia just gives Cinch a “really, bitch?” look. “Principal Cinch, we all saw what happened. You can’t think CHS had some kind of advantage.”

Cinch looks offended. “Can’t I? Even without your trained attack plants, your students have wings and this one isn’t even a student and still chose to interfere,” she indicates to myself.

“If by interfere you me save your students!” I cut in glaring. “In case you missed it, when Rainbow sprouted her wings, she stopped being in the race. Sunset is the one who crossed the finish line, not Dash. Why? Because she, I were saving your students’ asses! Hell, it was one of your students who, admittedly accidentally, unleashed those plants on the field, not ours! If anyone had the unfair advantage, it was your school, Cinch!”

“Well, the race certainly had some... extenuating circumstances,” Celestia holds up her hands, clearly wanting to keep things from escalating. “Perhaps we should end the games now and declare a tie.”

Cinch scoffs. “A tie? Was this your strategy all along? To force us into accepting you as equals? I think not. The games will continue and Crystal Prep will prevail despite your antics and whatever performance-enhancing regimen your students are on.”

She looks like she’s about to demand Sci-Twi go with her, but a glare from all of us seems to make her think otherwise and she walks off.

Sunset sighs. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop all this from happening.”

Principal Celestia shakes her head, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It’s not your fault, Sunset.”

Sunset pulls away. “Isn’t it? I should know how to control the magic I brought here. But I don’t. I let everyone down. And now Principal Cinch thinks we’re cheating.”

Principal Celestia’s expression becomes stern. “It doesn’t matter what Principal Cinch thinks.”

Sunset shakes her head. “But it does. The students here at CHS don’t just wanna win. They wanna beat Crystal Prep. It isn’t gonna count if the other side doesn’t really think they lost. Crystal Prep is never gonna believe we won fair and square if there’s magic around. And that magic is only around... because of me.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Sunset,” I say firmly, turning to her. “Magic is and has always been around because of the portal. All you did was help it manifest, which is not a bad thing.”

Applejack frowns at me. “And just how would you know that, missy?”

I shrug. “I live in Equestria. You pick up this kinda stuff.”

“I wish I didn’t have to keep competing against you all in the next round,” Sci-Twi looks to the girls “I never really wanted to be in these games and now I want to even less. I just want them to end.”

We all nod.

“So, now that that’s out of the way,” Spike walks up to me and sniffs my feet, “why do you smell like a bird?”

I snicker, folding my arms. “Boy, are you all in for a treat.”

Author's Note

Nowhere near as big or descriptive as i'd wanted, but chapters to set up future events tend to be that way, don't they?

Wanted to get at least one more thing updated before Christmas or New Year, but finding the right drive to push myself kept evading me.

was able to push myself to get this at least, but the fact i started this shortly after 10am this morning when it's literally just changed to 2pm as i'm writing this tells you how long i struggled just to get even this bit done.

Probably doesn't help that i had a late night... not that i'd take it back, as, last night, i was at Gabriel Iglasis' last Don't Worry, Be Fluffy show here in Australia.

Good lord, i've laughed at his jokes before, but I laughed at that show more than any time i've watched him on DVD or online. Even grabbed a couple shirts.

Sadly, he wasn't selling any DVDs with the other merch, which is annoying as the last of his specials i have is The Fluffy Movie and nothing beyond that, so though this was my chance to get more of the not sold in Australia specials on DVD, but no hoy no.

Found out my dad and i agree with Fluffy about the McDonalds Fillet of Fish. very good.

I mean, it's basically just a really big fish finger in a bun with cheese and tartare sauce. if you grew up on fish fingers, Fillet of Fish is nice.

One person in the front of the crowd went "Ew" when he mentioned it thought and, oh, Fluffy wasn't having that. he defended the Fillet of Fish and my dad and i were right there with him, as was a decent amount of the crowd.

well, anyway, Max has shown herself to the EQG world... and it seems someone is aware of her presence she isn't aware of herself.

Who was that that noticed Max flying through Canterlot?

Who are subjects G1-26 and A-19? What's their connection to Max? How can they be connected to Max? She doesn't come from the EQG world... does she?

And might Max have unknowingly opened Pandora's box on more than just her own existence? How? What?

Just wait and see. you might be happily surprised... as it would explain something that's always been up in the air about EQG.

Hope you could at least enjoy this little morsal until i can really get into the meat of things again.

Til next time, stay safe, stay clean and, in case i don't get to update again before 2024, Happy Hearth's Warming and Happy New Year everybody