“I’m sorry, you said what nonsense, now?”

Cranky had finally broken the silence that had reigned in the faculty lounge for a full minute after Celestia finished briefing the staff.

“Precisely what you heard, Cranky.” the principal replied calmly. “The Canterlot High pack is currently host to an alien from another universe.”

The old omega glared at her, then stood and strode up to her chair. Celestia had to admit, of all the other staff, Cranky came the closest to actually intimidating her. A survivor and veteran of the Holocaust War, he actually had a higher body count than most Alphas. And for all he had cause to hate all betas for The Pact costing him his family and nearly the love of his life, he managed to treat Alphas, betas, and omegas with the same irascible, grudging respect. He leaned in close and growled, “Say it again, to my face.”

She raised an eyebrow.

He snorted and grumbled, “...please…”

A corner of her mouth quirked up just before she said, “Sunset Shimmer is a sapient being from another universe that operates by different rules than ours. Her method of transit, through some means unexplainable by our science, converted her body to that of a human, specifically an Alpha female girl. She will be here for the foreseeable future and we will be integrating her into the pack.”

Cranky hovered before her, sniffing the air subtly.

Finally, he turned around and waved his hand dismissively. “Well, y’aint lyin’, so I’ll go with it.” As he dropped into his seat, Celestia noticed the rest of the pack in the staff office also seemed to…unclench; relaxing subtly, as though they, too, hadn’t quite believed what Celestia was saying, and having Cranky vouch for her was enough to ease their concerns.

Reasonable, she thought to herself, If my old Alpha had told me a similar story, I might have tried to challenge his leadership on mental illness grounds. “We’ve all noticed her…unusual scent…”

“It’s like a campfire,” whispered Cheerilee. When she noticed that nearly the whole room had heard her, she jumped, flinching slightly at the unexpected attention. Cheerilee was a fairly young Alpha, and Celestia could see her running her own pack one day, possibly even partially composed of the students she was helping teach and raise now given the care she put into her teaching and the loyalty and devotion it inspired. The teacher cleared her throat, “It’s like…burning. Warm, comforting, but you need to treat it with respect.”

As though Cheerilee’s observation was a missing clue, more of the staff began muttering similar observations.

“Like lava flows on an island…”

“Finding the perfect spot under the heater in winter…”

“Walking across hot sand on the beach…”

Even Celestia found herself making the connection, Hot desert at high noon, seemingly hostile to survival, but teeming with life if you know where to look… She cleared her throat and the murmuring subsided, “It’s not just the…we’ll call it ‘hot’ scent. Did you notice? She has two scent profiles.” At the poleaxed expressions on her staff’s faces and the miasma of scents that all combined to mean, ‘confused and incredulous,’ Celestia prompted, “Wet grass after a rain.”

Another wave of murmuring, more hesitant than before then growing in pitch and volume as more of the pack made the connections spread across the room.

“Sipping tea in a rainstorm…but how…?

“A mountain stream…”

“The wheat fields on the farm after the irrigation’s been run…”

Realizing that this flash of conversation wasn’t about to die down on it’s own this time, Celestia flicked a hand in Luna’s direction. The vice-principal growled low and stomped twice, her boot heel clacking loudly on the tile floor.

Silence returned to the room as Celestia waited a few moments to be sure she had their undivided attention. “I have a means of communicating with Sunset’s home, but we have no means of returning there for another two and a half years.” she began, “And before any of you raise the possibility of her presence being a threat of some kind and ejecting her from the pack,” as much as she hated to admit the possibility that one of her pack would behave in such a xenophobic way, the reality was that there was a solid reason for her people to be suspicious of the new and strange. Even as she spoke she saw a few people averting their eyes, and as much as she wanted to reassure them that they weren’t being taken to task, there were higher priorities, “Imagine being in her shoes. Imagine you made a mistake and stumbled through a door that closed and locked itself behind you. Imagine that as soon as you went through the door, your sense of smell was ripped away and you were left crippled of the ability to make sense of the world around you using the senses we all take for granted. Imagine losing the use of your hands and having to walk around on all fours, and worse, your body has been reshaped so that’s now normal for you. Imagine not being able to wear clothes, or grip toilet paper, or having to eat with your feet.” A wave of disturbed, frightened, and even nauseous scents permeated the room, accompanied by expressions of mingled horror and disgust on faces all around, “Now imagine you had all the skills and experience of being an adult, but all of that meant nothing because your body and mind have been regressed to that of a preadolescent for your new species.” She leaned forward, clasping her hands and settling her elbows on her knees and moving her gaze about the room, locking eyes briefly with every member of her staff that she could, “Imagine you suddenly can feel the world around you through a brand new horn on your head, but you have absolutely no idea what you’re sensing because you don’t even know it’s the horn that’s giving you that sense and don’t realize that the sensations you’re experiencing are normal but they’re always on and you can’t identify them, like whispers in a language you don’t understand that you cannot escape.”

“Now imagine realizing that your second gender is missing,” the flinching horror that spread through the room in an instant, “Not because of a birth defect, or an accident, or someone castrating you, but because it was simply never there.”

She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs, “This is Sunset’s reality. She’s in a foreign world in a foreign body. Some senses she always took for granted are simply gone, and replaced with others she has no idea how to process. She’s dealing with a flood of new sensations and will shortly be starting her second round of puberty, this time dealing with twice the hormones and sex organs as she did the last time. We,” she emphasized the word with a hand gesture that included the entire population of the room, “Are going to treat our unexpected guest like she’s just as worthy of the love and respect that you’d give any cub in the pack.”

Nagatha spoke up at that point, “I believe you were implying that she was an adult where she came from. How old is she? Are we to treat her as a child?”

Celestia had known Ms. Harshwhinney for long enough to recognize a prompt; the social studies teacher made a fantastic advisor but not a great leader, a failing she was well aware of and was more than happy to let Celestia run the pack so she could focus more on her personal interests. She was also absurdly observant, scary good at getting information subtly, and one of the best lieutenants she had ever taken out in a hunting party. If Nagatha was asking the question, it was because more than one member of the pack was thinking it but unwilling to speak up.

She nodded, “Yes, treat her as an exceptionally gifted 12-year-old. Both her…mentor and I agree that she will need the educational environment to adapt to our world. Additionally, Redheart’s preliminary report confirms that every aspect of her body seems to match that of a child, and that likely includes her brain, so I expect that she’ll be dealing with the usual impulse control issues, susceptibility to peer pressure, and ‘teenage-itis.’” she quirked a smile, “Probably worse since she used to be an adult that paid taxes and could vote.”

Iron Will spoke up from the back, “I don’t think she’ll miss the ‘paying taxes’ part.”

For the first time since the meeting started, the tense, somber mood broke and laughter rippled across the room. Celestia beamed at the man, grateful for his perfectly timed quip. She let the laughter die down and said, “For Sunset’s safety, as well as the pack’s, we need to keep her nature a secret. You all know I hate keeping secrets, you also all know we have plenty that we must keep for the good of the pack and its members. As far as the world beyond the pack’s borders is concerned, Sunset is just a runaway stray Alpha with a unique scent profile.”

“And the students?” asked Mr. Nexus, “Some of them will be curious after we’ve asked them to…’surveil’ Miss Shimmer.”

Luna finally spoke up, “We respond with the truth…or at least a version of it. Sunset is a new student, separated from her home pack and can’t return for some time and recently experienced severe trauma and has to re-learn how to be a person. We do not need to tell them that her need to re-learn is due to being a different species or that the trauma involved being cut off from her own world. Let the rumor mill do the rest.” a wicked grin split her face, “Within a week the idea of her being an alien from another dimension will be the least unbelievable story.”

Another round of laughter, this time more boisterous, was interrupted by the first bell of the day. “Alright, we all know the situation, Luna will be available to ask questions and I’ll do my best to be available as well. We all still have cubs to raise and homework to assign, so keep on task. Thanks for meeting early today, let’s get to work.” She permitted herself a proud smile as the skepticism and worry from her pack earlier was replaced with optimistic confidence, “Dismissed.”

Sunset Shimmer’s morning had been fairly pleasant, all things considered. With the exception of a couple of teachers giving her extra homework to learn more about the world she now lived in, it hadn’t been all that different from when she was a regular student at CSGU. The notable exception was the smells, or rather scents, and how her brain was constantly changing her perception of the space around her. An empty classroom felt like the comfort of the library stacks at the Canterlot Archive. When a teacher walked in, the stacks were suddenly next door to a linen warehouse. Then a student would come in and the experience of the sounds of fillies and colts playing between the Archive and the linen warehouse would come to mind even though no such youth ever played in the non-existent space. By the time the class filled, Sunset’s sensorium was filled to the point of distraction with an almost alternate reality that managed to be a reflection of the actual classroom she was sitting in, each component a representation of the individual people in the room. If she closed her eyes she could almost imagine a surreal environment where she was experiencing just the sensations of the people. The next teacher became writing on the announcement chalkboard in the Archive. The students would be the scent of cinnamon on a breeze or the smell of fresh new tires on a market cart or a host of other things.

She surprised the language teacher by reciting the poem he’d been reading by some human that had died 150 years ago by simply reading off the chalkboard in her mind. The teacher responded that it was nice that she wasn’t sleeping like he thought she was, it wasn’t polite to attend class with her eyes closed. I think I unnerved him when I said it would probably only work like that in his class anyway. The thought with a chuckle to herself.

By the time lunch rolled around, the ‘beast’ that was now Sunset’s stomach was making its displeasure known at not being fed to a distracting degree. When she arrived at the cafeteria and greeted the sturdy-looking older woman with the… strong(powerful/controlled/dominant/parental?) scent that seemed to underly the principal’s and a few of her teachers’ scent profile (she was beginning to think this was the “Alpha” that Celestia had described the previous day), the old lady just grinned back at her and, instead of handing her an empty tray for her to fill from the steam tables, handed her a completely full tray that she had apparently prepared beforehand.

“Nurse Redheart said that y’might not have a good idea ‘bout what constituted ‘extra helpin’s’ a good red meat, and Celestia thought y’may not be ready fer solid muscle yet, so I made this here tray up so you’d get what y’need. Doctor’s orders and chef’s recommendation!” the lady said with a wink.

Quelling her surprise, she smiled up from her tray and replied, “Thank you! Miss…?”

The matron’s face crinkled into a sunny smile, “Jes call me Granny, everyone else does, no need to stand on manners, but it’s nice to know you got ‘em.”

She couldn’t help but grin even bigger at the infectious ‘down-home country’ mannerisms, “Well thank you, Granny! And you’re right, I don’t know the first thing about ordering meat, I’d have been completely lost.” She looked back down at the (frankly) enormous pile of food on her tray, “...though I may need to call for reinforcements to finish this.”

Granny just cackled at that and ushered her through the line so she could feed the rest of the students.

Sunset found a seat, finding that she was starting to get overwhelmed again. She had taken it as a point of pride that she hadn’t used her inhaler all morning and didn’t want to break the streak now. Still, as she sat down and started eating, trying to consume the meat that she still had a visceral reaction to even thinking about consuming, it started to get to be…just too much. Taking a bite and refusing to think about what she’d just put in her mouth, she scrambled to pull out her inhaler, her hands starting to shake. Too much…too much…too loud, too many scents…

She had gotten the plastic tube out of her jacket pocket and was fumbling to remove the cap when suddenly a small blue person with a bob-cut shock of rainbow-colored hair slid down the bench at her table and practically cuddled up to her. “Hi!” came the chirping, gravelly greeting.

“Gah!” was the only response Sunset could produce, immediately fumbling the inhaler and dropping it on the table. It rolled across the laminate surface but was stopped by a delicate-looking yellow hand.

“Rainbow Dash,” came the gentle voice with a chiding tone, “We’ve talked about how you introduce yourself to people!”

To her credit, the now-named Rainbow Dash blushed slightly and sat up straight. She was still well inside Sunset’s comfort zone, but at least she was no longer touching…all over.

“I’m sorry about Dashie, she means well, but she’s…enthusiastic.” Sunset looked up to see the speaker was a fairly tall girl with yellow skin and long pink hair. “I’m Fluttershy and…well…it looked like you needed help.” She reached the hand holding the inhaler across the table to offer it back to Sunset. “Is it your rut? Are you scenting too many omegas in one room? I can help…”

Suddenly, Sunset’s mind seemed to clear, the cacophony of sensory input falling away to…a cloud mattress nestled in an apple tree?! Odd… She sat up, blinking as though waking from a nightmare. She glanced around and everyone in the cafeteria was still where they had been moments ago, but it was like all their scents were suddenly gone. Within a few moments, though, a few students at the nearby tables also started to react as though they noticed something similar.

“What…what happened?”

Fluttershy blushed, “I…have strong pheromone glands. I learned a while ago that I can kind of…calm down other Alphas. It only works if I’m close enough and only if the other Alpha wants me to.”

Sunset breathed in deeply through her nose, and to her relief, the flood of her sensorium didn’t return. “Oh, well thanks! And I’m Sunset Shimmer.” she replied with a wan smile.

Fluttershy blushed and smiled in return, “You’re welcome,” she turned to the blue girl, “Rainbow, can you please get our lunches while I keep Sunset company?”

Dash practically hopped up from her seat and saluted, “Sure thing!” She immediately darted off to the lunch line. As she left, Sunset noticed the scent signature that reminded her of a cloud mattress faded, leaving just the scent of trees, the earlier note of apple fading as well.

Fluttershy smiled at her, somewhat awkwardly, “So is it your rut? I know mine can be a pain to deal with…”

Sunset mentally scrambled through her lessons from the previous day as delivered by the principal. Rut…rut…oh, right! Like an Alpha's period! “Um, no,” she replied with a blush, “I haven’t had my first rut yet.”

Fluttershy's brows crinkled, “So why do you need the inhaler?”

Sunset’s blush deepened, “I’m…not supposed to say why.”

They wound up sitting across from each other in silence, Sunset put the inhaler on the table next to her tray and began to slowly work her way through the pile of food on her plate.

Abruptly, Rainbow returned carrying two plates and dropping one in front of Fluttershy and quickly scooting next to Sunset again. “Gah!” the former pony blurted, jumping slightly in her seat.

“So you’ve been here a week, huh?” started Rainbow, ignoring Sunset’s startled reaction and already picking up a burger and tearing off a bite before a slightly exasperated Fluttershy could pull her tray in front of her properly.

Sunset distractedly shoved the rest of her burrito into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed quickly before replying, “Yeah, it’s…new. Lots of this…school is completely new to me.”

Rainbow snickered as she ate, speaking around the bite in her mouth, “Yeah, y’been kinda a fish outa water the last few days.” with a gulp she waved her burger in Sunset’s direction, “We were gonna see if we could help ya out, but…”

“I didn’t think it was a good idea to try and offer you help when you looked so…” Fluttershy interjected, shrugging slightly.

“Yeah, you looked like other strays the pack’s taken in from abusive Alphas, and you gotta give ‘em space to feel safe.” Rainbow took another bite of her burger and grabbed a bundle of fries, clearly getting ready to assembly-line her food.

“Dash, slow down and chew your food,” Fluttershy said sternly before continuing with Sunset, “When you were called into the principal’s office yesterday and then came back to school today with her scent, we thought she probably helped you feel safe enough to accept pack membership, so figured that we could approach without...” the other girl trailed off with a slight blush.

To Sunset’s surprise, Rainbow Dash actually did slow down her eating after Fluttershy’s chastisement, but still talked with her mouth full of fries, “Without goin’ feral on us.”

Fluttershy continued to give Dash an annoyed look, but smiled at Sunset. “Except for…well…” she waved at the inhaler, “...that, you seemed to be doing so much better.”

Sunset shrugged and nodded and began working on her second burrito, deciding to leave the salad she really, really wanted to be eating right now for after she finished her meat as a reward. “Yeah, Celestia made me a member of her pack. Spent most of the time telling her about…” she frowned, “...ah, stuff she asked me not to tell anyone else, sorry. Also told me we’re going clothes shopping after school today, she didn’t like that I only had the one outfit…”

Fluttershy gasped, “Your last pack didn’t make sure you had enough clothes?”

“Oh, well, no, I didn’t have a pack before…” both Fluttershy and Rainbow gasped at that.

“What about your parents?” asked Fluttershy softly.

“Oh, yeah…uhm, I’m an orphan.” Sunset filled her mouth with more food to keep from saying any more.

“Woah, you were a rogue Alpha?! Cool!” Rainbow pumped her fist, “AJ owes me ten bucks!”

Fluttershy gave a sighing chuff and shook her head.

Before any further conversation could happen, the little bubble of mostly pheromone-free space that Sunset was enjoying was pierced by another student. A girl, taller than Vice-principal Luna but still not as tall as Principal Celestia, with a shock of white hair, pale skin, and just enough make-up to look punky but not slutty strode up to the table. Her brown leather jacket covered a faded white muscle-shirt and the pair of jeans she wore had holes in the knees and her shoes were showing signs of fraying. The pleasant scents that reminded Sunset just a little of Equestria were suddenly interrupted by the icy smell of a mountain wind undercut by…what is that, flop sweat?! thought Sunset. Whatever the scent was, it was setting something off-kilter. She was aware her breathing was becoming a bit ragged and suddenly everything seemed so bright. Her neck itched and she was starting to feel little tremors in her belly. It was all she could do to keep from just curling up under the table with her hands over her ears. And she was suddenly so very angry, and as soon as she consciously realized that, it was like the bubble Fluttershy had made for her just…popped. The overwhelming everything of all the scents from the students and staff in the room slammed into her at once. She was distracted enough she didn’t notice the quiet whine that escaped her throat.

All this happened before the girl even spoke, “Hey, Dash, who’s the new dweeb?”

Fluttershy didn’t snarl, but the muscles in her face were clearly twitching to do so, “Gilda, we’ve told you before, Rainbow Dash doesn’t want to be your omega anymore. You need to listen and respect her wishes and please leave.”

The scent of ash drove in on the mountain wind and suddenly Sunset was even angrier. She’d never been so angry in her life and didn’t think it could get worse. Get out, bite her, get out of this room, hurt her, gotta get out, drive her away from my pack, out, out, outoutout… she was starting to feel vertigo and her hand started twitching toward the inhaler.

“Nah, you don’t get it. I like Dash, even if she doesn’t wanna mate, she's cool and I want her in my pack.”

Rainbow was glaring at Gilda by this point, “‘Your pack’ are a bunch of jerks, Gilda! I’ve been packmates with Fluttershy all our lives. She doesn’t care about cool, and yeah, I thought that was lame at first, but then I started hanging around with you and Lightning Dust and the others and found out how you treat people, especially betas, and if that’s what ‘cool’ looks like I don’t want it either!”

She hurt my friends, make her hurt back! her inner voice seemed to be saying, Hurt her, drive her away, drive her out… Sunset felt a trickle of sweat dripping down the back of her neck and felt like it was a forty-pound hoof weight being dragged down her spine. The horrible sweaty scent mixed with the ash to create a nauseating combination that simultaneously made Sunset want to vomit and kick something hard enough to shatter bones. The thought that all the food, especially the animal product, that she had eaten could come back out the hard way finally made the decision for her. She blinked to clear her vision and shook her head, looking down to find her inhaler.

“Hey, what’s this?” A hand snatched up the plastic tube.

MINE!!! snarled the inner voice Sunset had been trying to ignore just before her world went red.

Dash was growing to be just as concerned about Sunset as she was irritated at Gilda. The acrid scent of fresh ozone that seemed to follow Gilda around wherever she went was particularly strong, but then the girl always did seem to have an anger issue, especially if she felt something that belonged to her was being taken away. It had started out strong when Gilda approached them, and only doubled when Fluttershy had told Gilda to back off. She saw the same pinched look in Sunset’s face that had been there before she and Flutters introduced themselves return with a vengeance, like the Alpha was trying to remember how to breathe.

Gilda seemed to have dismissed Sunset’s presence until Dash had told her off about her pack when the tall girl’s eyes landed on the inhaler. She saw Sunset start to move to grab it when Gilda said, “Hey, what’s this?”

In that moment Dash realized that if she could scent Gilda’s anger through Fluttershy’s pheromone cloud, so could Sunset, and it was clearly triggering whatever had been giving the new Alpha problems before. “No, wait!” was all she got out before the inhaler was suddenly in Gilda’s hands.

“Oh, wow, what a loser, needs an inhaler to…”

Two things happened at once.

An absolute explosion of pheromones blanketed the cafeteria, immediately silencing all conversation. Every Alpha tensed on high alert and, for the first time for many of them, their inner Alpha was screaming at them to get away from a predator bigger, meaner, and nastier than they were. All omegas, including Rainbow, suddenly felt the need to find the nearest Alpha and hide inside their protection, crawling under the table to get away. Even the betas seemed to sense that something big and scary was suddenly in the room with them and they were far too far away from the door to escape in time.

Sunset had launched herself over the table so fast that even Dash, CHS’s rising star track student and acknowledged fastest omega in the entire pack, faster even than all the pack’s Alphas, could barely track Sunset’s moves as she launched herself up off the bench, propelled herself over the table and vaulted over Fluttershy, and tackled Gilda to the floor, pinning the much larger girl. Gilda’s jacket collar was gripped in Sunset’s balled-up fists, one knee on the larger alpha’s sternum and the other on the floor next to Gilda’s abdomen.

Sunset’s growl, a nearly bass note that Dash practically felt in her chest, rumbled through the dead-quiet lunch room. Sunset’s lips were peeled back in a vicious snarl, a look of fury so intense that Dash nearly fled right then.

“Whoah!” she barked out breathlessly, “Sunset, what the heck?!” As she scrambled around the lunch table, she wondered why it was so quiet, why nobody seemed to be moving to at least clear space for the fight, and why Gilda was just laying there, not even trying to fight back, just staring up at Sunset with a slightly horrified shock. By the time she got over to the two Alphas, she saw why Gilda wasn’t moving.

Sunset’s eyes changing color and her fangs dropping were expected. She was an Alpha, that was how they fought. What wasn’t expected was the color of the irises and the shape and quantity of Sunset’s dropping fangs. Sunset’s cyan eyes didn’t turn the usual red, they were a golden color so bright they nearly glowed! That Rainbow had never even heard of such a color shift was secondary to the clearly visible teeth. Sunset’s canines, her two outside incisors, and her premolars were all dropped. In addition to being six more dropped teeth than humans were even supposed to be capable of presenting in an Alpha fighting fury, they were shaped…wrong. Like a shark’s, but completely smooth, much more narrow, and curved back slightly.

As Rainbow blinked in confused astonishment, another growl split the air, and now she was so close she did feel her chest shiver in sympathetic vibration. Either that or pure, gut-quaking terror. Still, she was Rainbow Dash, and she wasn’t going to leave a friend hanging! “Sunset…?” she managed to squeak out.

The Alpha’s breath, ragged and fast, hissed through her bared and clenched teeth. Another growl came, this time accompanied by words, “Rainbow…” Dash had never been pants-wettingly terrified in her life, but being right next to an enraged Alpha and hearing her name spoken like that she came darn close. After another breath, Sunset continued, “...please…stop me…”

At that moment Dash, realized that her fear response had nearly blinded her to tears starting to pool in Sunset’s eyes. The vibrations shaking the Alpha’s body weren’t from her growling, she was shivering, and she could see blood squeezing out from Sunset’s clenched hands, and since they were only gripping Gilda’s jacket lapels meant that she was gripping so hard her nails were cutting through the leather and piercing her own hands.

Dash took a breath, glancing back to Fluttershy. The other girl shrugged in bewildered fear and confusion. Rainbow turned back to Sunset and put her hand on the Alpha’s shoulder and shook. There was barely any give and the girl’s growling amped up in volume and Dash flinched back in reflex.

She breathed in through her nose and heaved out the breath through her mouth, “Well, nothing else for it..never been asked by an Alpha to break up their fight…or not-fight,” she mused noting how Gilda was still under Sunset, eyes flicking from the golden-colored irises to the teeth and back repeatedly. “Sunset,” she paused briefly at the renewed growl that came as a response, “Just remember, you asked for my help, and I can’t think of any other way that won’t lose me a hand, so…sorry ‘bout this.” So saying, she cocked her arm back, balled up a fist, and drove it into Sunset’s temple.

The growl cut off almost immediately and the oppressive layer of scent that held the population of the room still and quiet disappeared with a nearly audible snap. Sunset gasped, her eyes suddenly losing the golden glow and her hands loosened from Gilda’s jacket collar. The teeth were still extended, though, so she put a foot on Sunset’s shoulder and kicked the Alpha off Gilda.

Sunset seemed to roll into a wobbly crouch, eyes fixed on her own hands. Now that they weren’t clenched shut, Rainbow could see that there weren’t the usual Alpha claws, which were really just the fingernails extended out a bit over the fingertips to make them into weapons, these were practically talons, very sharp and twice as long as they should have been.

Gilda had started to slowly push herself up, but stopped when she saw the claws that had been just inches from her throat moments before.

The tableau was broken when an orange hand grabbed a handful of Gilda’s jacket and hauled her up to a standing position. Applejack had pushed her way through the crowd and was holding Gilda off the ground with one arm. Considering Applejack was shorter than Gilda, this was a pretty impressive display of strength. “What did Ah tell you about makin’ trouble around Dash?!”

“Indeed!” came a voice in a High Canterlot accent, “That is hardly how a lady, especially an Alpha, ought to act!” A couple of tables over one of the girls Dash rarely interacted with due to different social circles stood and marched over to point a finger in Gilda’s face, just inches away from the Alpha. “You respect an omega’s wishes! And the new Alpha, she’s a newly arrived stray, and you know Principal Celestia’s standing rules on adopted strays is to give them space and do not try to pick a fight with them!” There was no wave of pheromones accompanying the angry tirade, so Dash assumed she was a beta. The girl’s white skin contrasted with her purple hair and matching colored nails was definitely memorable, but Dash couldn’t remember her name off the top of her head. She seemed to remember her dad dragging her out to meet the girl’s family shortly after they had moved into the territory. Their parents got along like a house on fire but the girls had so little in common and the beta had already been surrounded by other kids from the neighborhood Dash just hung out on the periphery and never really spoke to her. Rabbit…Radiant…no, Rarity! For her part, Gilda didn’t even seem to register the two girls who were holding and chastising her, still staring in shocked fear at Sunset.

Satisfied that Gilda was well in hand, Dash kneeled down next to Sunset and gently touched her shoulder and was mildly surprised at feeling trembling under her hand and heard a quiet sobbing coming from the Alpha. Before she could do anything else, a poofy shock of pink hair suddenly flopped next to her. Surprised, Dash leaned back to take in the new presence to see a girl, about the same size as Sunset, with bubble-gum pink skin and poofy pink hair and clothes that looked like they belonged to a grade-schooler sized up for a high school girl. Contrary to her bright, bubbly appearance, she had a stricken look on her face as she reached out to touch Sunset’s other shoulder, “Oh no, don’t cry! I’m sure Gilda was just trying to make friends like Alphas do. I know you’re an Alpha but sometimes even Alphas get scared of other Alphas and that’s okay and…”

“Yo, pink!” interrupted Dash quietly.

The new girl, an omega by her scent, blinked and turned, “It’s Pinkie, actually.”

“Yeah, okay; Pinkie…shush!” she tilted her head at Sunset, who hadn’t even looked away from the still extended talons.

The population of the room started murmuring and moving, recovering from the shock of…whatever it was that had stilled them. A loud, “THOOM,” split the air and the crowd went silent again, this time a respectful quiet and almost as a single unit the crowd of students parted, letting Rainbow Dash see the Pack Alpha standing in the doorway, hand still on the door, whose handle was now partially buried in the cinderblock of the wall, the hold-open arm at the top of the door snapped off its mount and swinging free. Principal Celestia’s face was thunderous and a wave of power that wasn’t so much as a scent that she could identify with anything but more a feeling of being a lit candle in a hurricane pressed down on the room.

After taking in the state of the room and spotting Sunset, who was the only person not looking at Celestia, the Pack Alpha strode through the room, not rushed, but as inevitable as a landslide. She stood over the three girls huddled on the floor, her expression unchanged as she looked first Rainbow Dash, then Pinkie in the eyes. Without a word, the two of them scooted away from Sunset.

Celestia squatted down and took Sunset’s hands in her own, almost dispassionately examining the unusual features and the bloody punctures. She then lifted the girl’s hands up and moved them around her neck, pulling Sunset into a hug. The younger Alpha pulled herself up to bury her face in Celestia’s neck, nose right over the principal’s pheromone glands, and the principal slipped her arms under Sunset’s knees and around her back and stood, clearly no more burdened than if she had lifted a feather off the floor.

Celestia made a slight turn back and forth, eyes roving over the scene and its players. “Miss Dash, Belle, Shy, Apple, Griffin, and Pie; follow Raven to Vice-principal Luna’s office,” she nodded at the door to indicate her secretary, who had arrived sometime when everyone’s attention was on the principal, “You will explain to my sister what happened here. You will tell the truth, you will explain the complete situation, and you will face whatever judgment Luna deems appropriate.”

Responses were immediate; “Yes’m,” “Yes, principal,” “Yuppers!” “Sure,” “Okay…” and a nod from Gilda.

Celestia nodded at the group still standing, gave a second nod to the three sitting on benches or kneeling on the floor, and carried Sunset out of the room.

Silence reigned for several moments, Raven standing at the door to the cafeteria expectantly.

The quiet was broken when Gilda blurted out, “I didn’t know Celestia had a kid!”

Celestia, you idiot! the Alpha thought to herself as she marched into the infirmary with the same student in tow as the day before. Yes, you trust your students but they’re still students; they’re just as young and dumb and impulsive as you were at that age and you knew Sunset wasn’t able to handle her new senses, yet you just launched her out into a whole school full of hormones and drama and…

Her self-flagellation was interrupted by a surprised, “Hello, what do we have here?” from Nurse Redheart. The woman snatched up her stethoscope from her desk as she rose, then plucked a pair of nitrile gloves from their mounted dispenser on the wall. “Even I can smell the blood and,” the beta tsk’d as she circled around Celestia and pulled the Alpha’s hair out of the way to examine Sunset’s face, “You’ve got some on your jacket.”

“Jackets can be cleaned.” replied Celestia in a no-nonsense tone, “Look at her hands.”

It took a moment to untangle Celestia’s pastel strands from the girl’s fingers. Redheart finally got the hair pulled aside to reveal Sunset’s hands, crossed behind Celestia’s neck at the wrist, and lightly oozed blood from four puncture marks on the pads of each palm. “Goodness!” she exclaimed, “What caused this? They’re not the right shape to be bite marks and they don’t look like claws did it…”

“Are Sunset’s nails retracted?” asked Celestia, turning her head to look back as best she could without shifting Sunset.

“So there was a fight,” the nurse deduced, “Yes, they’re retracted, why?”

“Those marks are from Sunset’s…claws. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Redheart’s eyebrows shot up. “Well, take a seat, she’s calm in your arms and I want to get these cleaned before we add any additional stress.”

Celestia nodded and perched on the leading edge of the same clinic bed Sunset had her exam on the day before and gently rocked the girl while Redheart went about gathering her supplies. The principal looked down at the former pony in her arms and could only imagine how terrifying it must have been for someone who grew up as a prey creature to suddenly have predator instincts telling them to do the very things they’d sought to avoid on a base-instinct level their whole lives. Equines are some of the most skittish creatures in our world, almost unrideable by an Alpha unless an omega is present to calm them, she mused, And now she’s got an Alpha riding in her own head…

Sunset had stopped crying while they were en route to the infirmary, and now just clutched to Celestia like a cub in need of soothing. She wondered idly if ponies shared as physical contact with each other as humans did, though perhaps for different reasons, as Sunset seemed to find Celestia's presence and contact to be soothing. She closed her eyes and leaned her head down to rest her cheek on the top of Sunset’s head, just listening to the girl’s breathing and feeling her heartbeat through their contact.

She was startled out of her quiet contemplation by Redhart’s giggling, “Are you purring?”

Celestia’s eyes snapped open and her head came up. Redheart’s grin was on a level of “shit-eating” that Celestia had only seen a few times before on the beta. She growled lightly, “Her hands, Redheart.”

“Of course,” she said with a languid smile as she hustled around to the side of the table and laid out her supplies, “Of course.”

Celestia felt and heard more than smelled or saw Redheart’s progress, the lifting and setting down of supplies on the paper-covered vinyl cushion, the sloshing of the disinfectant bottle as she uncapped it, the gentle up-down pressure as the liquid was pumped onto a cleaning pad. Redheart began humming lightly as she worked, beginning to sing-song under her breath after some randomly selected number of notes, “Big bad Celestia, Alpha of the strongest pack in the Canterlot region, purring over a cub with tiny little puncture bleeding…”

Celestia chuffed loudly in irritation and knew she’d been heard when Redheart giggled.

A few minutes later, the nurse tossed the bloody swabs in the biologicals disposal bin, yanked off her nitrile gloves with a “snap” and tossed them in the waste bin, then gathered the rest of the supplies. “All set,” she reported, “Now let’s talk about what happened. How did her claws make puncture marks like she was stabbed with a large gauge needle?”

“I didn’t see it as it was happening,” Celestia began, “But when I got there, Sunset was curled up on the floor, being attended to by a couple omegas while Miss Griffin was being held off and scolded by Miss Belle and Granny Smith’s granddaughter. I could smell the blood and traced it to Sunset’s hands and saw…” she paused for a moment to compose her thoughts, “Her claws…well, they weren’t claws, not like we have them.”

Redheart tilted her head slightly in an almost canine fashion. Celestia wasn’t sure if it was instinct or just something betas picked up from Alphas and omegas as they grew. “Imagine a raptor’s talons.”

The school nurse tilted her head the other way, “Like the movie dinosaur?”

Celestia rolled her eyes, she knew Redheart knew better but played along anyway, “No, like a bird’s talons. They were black, narrow, and wickedly pointed. They looked like those vanity nails some kids get at the mall when they hit their goth phase, only sharp, shaped to slice as well as pierce.”

Now Redheart was genuinely puzzled, “How is that possible? Especially for them to retract into normal human nails after the Alpha fury…”

“I have no idea,” replied the principal, “I’ll check with the princess when we get home and I can write in the journal again. I only hope there’s some aspect to their world that will make this make sense.”

Redheart hummed in agreement, “Well, that’s a matter of inter-pack politics, so I’ll leave it to you, oh mighty Alpha.”

Celestia rolled her eyes and gently lowered Sunset’s legs until her feet were touching the floor when suddenly the girl dropped her arms to clutch the older Alpha in a tighter hug and shifted her upper body to bury her nose in Celestia’s armpit. “Wah!” came the inarticulate reply from the older woman as the girl practically crawled into her lap. That’s what toddlers do when they’re scent bonding with their parents! Why is she doing it to me?!

Redheart’s eyebrows shot up and she began snickering, “Well, well; looks like you’ve bonded yourself a cub there, Puh-rincipal. Congratulations, it’s an Alpha girl.”

Celestia stifled a growl as she felt Sunset starting to purr even as the girl’s breathing slowed and she curled up even tighter on Celestia’s lap. The principal wrapped her arms around Sunset again to make sure the girl didn’t slip off in her sleep.

“Redheart, help me get her untangled from me. Now that she’s asleep we can…what are you doing?” her directive was interrupted by Redheart clicking off the light in the medical bay before pulling a pillow out of the cabinet over the sink. “Redheart, help me get Sunset into bed.” The nurse started humming that same tune from early, ever so often singing, ‘Big, Bad Alpha Celestia,’ as she put the pillow down on the head of the bed and gently guided the principal to the horizontal, adjusting the pillow so it was under Celestia’s neck and Sunset’s arms so they wouldn’t be pinned behind Celestia’s back. Redheart then moved to the foot of the bed and lifted Celestia’s legs to get clearance for the extender that turned the short exam bed into a full-length, if narrow, sleeper bed. “Redheart!” she snapped quietly.

“Oh, relax, princess.” Redheart pulled a blanket out from under the sink and spread it out to cover the two Alphas. “I’m always telling you to take it easy, I’m using this to make sure you follow doctor’s orders.” She plucked the supplies she had gathered earlier and strode to stand in the door, she turned to flash her signature impish grin and said, “Besides, we both know if you were really objecting to this, you’re more than capable of resisting my efforts and putting her to bed yourself.” With that pronouncement, the doctor with the title of nurse stepped through the doorway and slid the privacy screen shut.

Celestia sighed into the darkened room and thumped her head once against the pillow. Well, she’s right about me needing to take some time to myself, I don’t think I’ve paused for rest more than five minutes in the last 24 hours and I only got about four hours of sleep last night… The protective Alpha in her kept trying to keep her awake to keep watch over the cub in her care. That it was an unnecessary vigilance was lost to her instincts, of course. She used the time to get ahead on some paperwork the district would be needing her to file for a new stray in her pack and trying to figure out how to fudge Sunset’s records so nobody would try to hunt down her origins. She caught herself mentally reviewing the work she had done the previous night and sighed, trying to release the worry over her responsibilities with the expelled breath. She tried to distract herself by listening to Sunset’s breathing again, this time accompanied by the sound of the first purr she’d heard from the former pony.

It took her about a minute to realize she was purring, too.

Author's Note

Suddenly, Sunset’s mind seemed to clear, the cacophony of sensory input falling away to…a cloud mattress nestled in an apple tree?! Odd…

Yes, you probably guessed 100% correctly what this means.