The Exchange Student

Shamus was still working. He found himself extremely lucky to still have his job. After the incident a month ago, he wasn;t allowed to have any candles anymore. He now had to use either air fresheners or flameless candles. He still went out of his way to change the flame though.

Today's flameless candle was lavender scented with a purple-ish light.

He finished yet another form and started entering another. He couldn't help but think of what exactly happened to the the form that had vanished. He told his coworkers about it, and now he feared he would never hear the end of "the one that got away." It was a good thing it did disappear though; his manager barged in and started yelling after he had smelled the smoke and seen the overturned candle. There was no evidence that anything important had been destroyed, but his manager decided that the risk was no longer worth it.

As Shamus finished this form, he set it into the pile for these when yet another very peculiar thing happened.

The -flameless- candle became practically engulfed on flames.

He panicked. This shouldn't be happening! The bulb he used to replace the old one was a LED! Those didn't burn! Had he wired everything entirely wrong? Maybe he shouldn't have followed the instructions he found on the internet after all.

The only reason the fire alarms hadn't gone off yet was because he had gone under the company's nose and disable the ones in his office so he could have his candles. His manager walked in, and was about to ask what he wanted for lunch from Wendy's. (He owed Shamus a favor.) Then he saw the ball of fire on the wooden desk.

"WHAT THE HELL? WHAT'S GOING ON?!" he yelled.

"I DON'T KNOW! I REALLY JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT WENT WRONG!" cried Shamus.

The manager (we'll call him Steve) did some quick thinking and grabbed the cup of water conveniently placed on the desk, which was actually less than a few inches away from the candle.

Steve strode up to the desk, sure that his plan would work. He had taken the fire safety seminar, and this was not a grease fire. he could handle this. He valiantly threw the water on the fire, when it suddenly began pouring smoke into the room. (Oddly enough, it wasn't smoking before.) It seemed to cover every surface in the office within moments. Just as quickly as it came, however, it seemed to disappear.

No, not disappear. Disappear was a pretty strong word. "Condense" was a word more fitting to what happened to the smoke. It condensed in the center of the room.

Even though everything from the time the air freshener set aflame up until now had taken only a minute or two, the next moment seemed to last an hour.

"Tell me where a so-called 'Connor M. Jackson' resides."

Ugh. Why did she have to do this? She didn't get the letter, her sister did. She didn't particularly want to go find him, her sister did. However, Luna knew that Celestia did have a lot of important dudties during the day, so she had been sent to find this "Connor". Why not a guard? Too intimidating. Why not a secretary or somepony who had a job for this sort of thing? Too confidential. Why? She couldn't get a straight answer.

So now, dressed in borrowed robes, she walked up to the front door of this Connor's supposed home.

What?

You want to know why they were borrowed?

Why do you think?

Upon arrival at the office she had ended up in, she found that the royal clothing she wore was a bi too high-profile for what she was doing, judging from the wide eyes and the nosebleeds. So she asked one of the gentlemen there for his suit; he gladly gave it up even before she offered him monetary compensation.

She was already wearing clothes.

What did you expect?

When she DID pay him, he looked like he had won a billion bits.

Really? Admittedly, she HAD paid him quite generously based on the typical price of suits back home, but she didn't think she was THAT generous.

Maybe gold was not as common here.

After a quick spell to adjust the size of the suit, she was on her way. It took a minute or two to get used to two legs, but she got the hang of it eventually. Now that she was at the front door, she was actually quite excited. after living for two thousand... no, three thousand....

...a very long time, she cherished any entirely new experiences with all her heart. So she gathered the courage, took a breath, and knocked on the door.

Instead of the teenager she was expecting, she found instead a woman, looking to be in her early 40's, answer the door. "Can I help you?" she asked.

Right. Her sister had gone over this with her.

"Yes, is there a Connor Jackson here?" she inquired, as politely as possible.

The woman almost frowned. "What for?"

"I've come to pick him up. He signed up for the exchange student program, right?" said Luna.

"I don't recall ever getting a letter that he was accepted. What was your name again?"

Think fast. "Lu- uh, Lucy." stuttered "Lucy."

"What's that name tag on your shirt then?" the woman inquired suspiciously. Luna looked down. Pinned to her shirt was a name tag labelled "Shamus".

"Uhhhhhh...."

"Did you steal that?"

Now Luna was panicking inside. As Luna began deciding on what she should do, Celestia's voice echoed, Luna, there's a time and place for everything! But not now.

Shut up, Dearest Sister.

She suddenly yelled, "Look! Over there!" pointing somewhere behind the woman.

She fell for it. Luna quickly cast a spell. When the woman looked back, her eyes were clearly glazed over. Now to have a little fun. Deception spells were always fun. "I bought it off a stallion I have never seen before, and he is currently looking for another suit."

The woman smiled, clearly way out of it. "Your husband? Oh, I see..."

"Marry HIM? We would never marry such a mortal named 'Shamus'!" Oh dear, I thought I had gotten rid of that speech problem. Oh well, she can't really hear it, thought Luna.

"Oh, that's a cute nickname then. How long will he be gone?"

"A year."

"Three months? That's nice. Would you like me to get him?"

"Yes, please."

Connor had seen the entire exchange. It had started out wierd, and had only got worse as time went on. He had also been unintentionally fooled when she had pointed behind his mother, and when he looked back the conversation almost kind of split, as though there were two people having a similar conversations with two other people. It was quite humorous though; it took someone special to pull a fast one on his mother. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skc9bfnTCUw) It almost looked as though 'Lucy' had her in a trance. Even if she didn't it was very convincing.

"Connor! The exchange people are here!"

He got closer to the door, but he stayed out of both the women's eyesight; he wanted to see where this was going.

"So where is he going?"

"Somewhere you don't know much about."

"Thailand? Oh, I don't know much about what's there."

Luna decided to use one of her favorite things about the spell. "Joke."

"Ha ha ha! That's pretty funny!"

Meanwhile, Connor was now beyond bewildered. The conversation was now some kind of terrible practical joke on him, or one or both of them had gone very, very insane. He decided to make an appearance. "What's so funny?" he aked, trying to sound sincere (In retrospect, it wasn't very hard to do this because he really didn't know what was so funny. Who was he trying to convince?). He go this first look at the strange woman at the door. She was pretty tall, about six feet maybe. Her long, flowing hair was black, but it almost looked as though it had been dyed blue. Midnight blue, Connor decided. Her suit was clearly not designed for women, yet somehow it fit her perfectly, like it had been tailored that way. Her eyes were blue, and looked so old that they had seen everything, yet she herself didn't look to be older than 20.

Lucy smiled. "Hello, I presume you got the letter?"

Connor decided to be blunt about it. "You mean the one that flew in my window?" His mother, upon hearing this, burst out laughing. She really is out of it, thought Connor, that wasn't particularly funny. It wasn't even a joke! "Oh, that was a good one!" she said, playfully punching his arm. So she would believe anything Lucy said, but anything he said came through, loud and clear? Interesting. Right now, he should probably be asking- no, demanding answers out of this woman, but he still figured this ha to be some sort of elaborate joke to upload to Youtube. This couldn't REALLY be legit, right?

"Well, I suppose we'll be off then!"

At this point, since this was all one big joke anyway, Connor decided to spice it up with his own. "Great! I'll grab my stuff!"

Right on cue, his mother replied, "There is no time. Your sword is enough."

What.

Hold up, his mother never got his jokes! Never! In fact, nobody else did either, unless they had had a severe overdose of internet!

"No, there's enough time," said Lucy, "Go ahead and get your things, and then get in the carriage."

"Carriage?"

"Connor, she said car! Don't keep the woman waiting, grab your stuff and go!"

He did as his mother was told, and said goodbye. As he walked out, he couldn't help but think that this was definitely not the way student exchange programs worked. Didn't you, like, get on a plane and then meet whoever was housing you at the airport or something? Considering panicking to be a very reasonable option right now, he followed Lucy to an SUV parked at the street. She didn't get in the driver's seat though; there was already someone in it.

He looked like one of those bouncers you might find in front of a club or something. Big and burly, and all that. The only thing that Connor really noticed about him were the pair of pretty badass shades he was wearing. Wonder where I can get those, he thought.

Lucy got into the shotgun seat. "Just drive aournd the block a few times," she told the guard.

"As you wish, Princess."

"I told you to downplay the Princess thing!" she said in voice that was hopefully low enough so Brian wouldn't hear. (He heard anyway. What was up with this chick?)

"Very well, your majesty," replied the guard, with the faintest trace of a smile on his face.

She groaned.

Now Connor was starting to go into panic mode. "Did he just call you Princess?" he asked nervously.

"Yes. On a completely unrelated note, could you smell this towel for me?" she retaliated, shoving a damp, orange sham-wow in his face.

It's a sham! Wow! Oh wait chloroform sh- was Connor's train of thought before it got derailed. (I guess you could say he was going off the rails on a crazy train? Right?)

(Do you geddit? Cuz.... cuz...train of- ah, never mind.)

He slumped back in his seat, unconscious.

"Well, We do not know why sister dearest ever made this seem as a massive ordeal! 'Twas easy! And fun!" Luna exclaimed.

"I believe she also mentioned not to harm him..."

"Just get us back home," she said, preparing the necessary spells.