Chapter 27 School's Out Forever

Ravager Blitzfire

The wasteland here was dark and without an artificial sun or moon. Instead it was a cloudy Veil, casting the world in darkness. We passed the castle and rounded a bend, leading down a path heading toward the school.

"I don't know…about all of you…but I'm looking forward to introducing the Prince to my Magistrate." said our synth in his computerized tones.

"I'm not…" grumbled Buck. I'm sure he thought, just as we all did, just how precarious this situation truly was.

"It will be great! I just know it!" the synthetic pony was surprisingly optimistic. Quite the contrast from the one who had attacked OJ, Wonder, Capper and I on the train. I wondered if the explosion had damaged its artificial brian.

The halls of the School of Friendship were scorched with long before dowsed fires. It did seem surprisingly pristine clean for the wasteland. Perhaps the synths took great care in keeping their place of residence clean. There was some litter and debris, but that wasn't completely unexpected for the wasteland. I wondered what secrets lie within these halls, this location was listed on my Stable-Tech maps. However, I don't think the synths would take kindly to any of stealing from them. We were vastly outnumbered anyway.

"I don't like this…" Pumpkin Spice voiced as we walked. She was looking around as she spoke. We passed a row of lockers, all of them shut and locked except for one that had its door swinging open. A synth slammed the door shut and stared angrily at us.

"I feel ya there," said Combat Zone. A collective shiver must've went down all our spines. It sure did mine.

We turned the corner and came to a broad double door. The synth leading us bowed his head and touched his horn to the doors. A burst of light caused the doors to slowly creak open. It sounded like a drawbridge being lowered. They banged to a halt revealing a large Atrium. I imagined this would've been the cafeteria, but either all the tables were gone or I was wrong. Now, instead of tables and chairs, there was a huge makeshift throne at the end of the room. The Magistrate Courser was sitting in it.

"Prissy!" OJ galloped forward but the Colonel and the Guardian threw up their arms and stopped him from approaching any further.

Priscilla frowned and blinked a couple times, seeming to wonder at the name. "My name is Priscilla. I do not go by Prissy," she finally said.

OJ broke free of Erza and Buck and went to stand before the Magistrate. "But you used to! Don't you remember?"

"I remember nothing of consequence." she waved her hoof.

"Then why did you bring me here?" OJ trembled. I couldn't tell if he was angry or sad or both.

"I wanted to see the so called Prince of Friendship for myself." she eyed OJ over her nose, looking as though she felt superior. Sitting on a throne, she probably did. "Now that I see you with my own two eyes, I see you are of little consequence. Gallopers, to attention!" two synths that had been standing idly by unnoticed by the rest of us suddenly snapped to, bringing up weapons I had never seen before. Some sort of white energy gun.

We all snapped to attention, in preparation for a battle. "No, wait!" OJ cried. He started digging into his saddle bags. "I have this!" he withdrew a pink ball, I recognized it as a memory sphere.

"What of it?" Priscilla looked bored. She picked up an apple from a basket on a side table and ate it gingerly, her head tossed back lazily.

"Just…watch it…please?" OJ presented it to her, trying to gain her favor.

"Fine, if it amuses me." she tossed the apple aside and reached down to pluck the orb from OJ's grasp.

Orange Juice

"UP-25, how I've missed you!" Prissy smiled as she came to pick me up from my cell. She was always gleeful when she queued me.

I had the same elated mood when I saw that it was her today. "Oh, Prissy!" I exclaimed and blushed. I really liked her and was glad to see her today.

"Today I have something special in mind for you." she winked, then looked around to make sure we were alone. "Why don't you follow me?"

She led me down the twisting turns of the Stable 28 tunnels. The shadows weren't so dark when she was around. I beamed as we trotted down the way. We passed a few mares who scoffed at us, most of them didn't like the fair treatment Priscilla gave me. I liked it just fine. I was sensitive and she knew that. It's what made her such a good pony. It's what taught me good existed in the world.

"Where are we going?" I asked her as we rounded another corner.

"It's kind of a surprise, but you'll know everypony there." She winked at me over her shoulder and we came to a door. "Ah yes, here we are." I was giddy with anticipation.

She scanned her identification card and the door slid open on its hydraulics. Inside it was dark. I bit my lip, growing nervous. Was today the day Prissy finally showed her true colors and turned mean like all the other mares? I highly doubted she was even capable of being mean. I was chewing subconsciously on my tongue as we entered and it was sticking out of my mouth at a weird angle.

The lights flicked on and a couple mares popped up from the blue. Prissy had invited Bookworm and Lens Cap along with a couple other ponies in the Stable to this small party. There were decorations hung up and I read out loud, "Ha-ppy birth-day U…P-twenty….five…" I sounded the words out.

"Well done!" everypony cheered and clapped. Bookworm looked proudest of them all.

"Th-thank you!" I sniffled, my nose running as I cried happy tears. "I've never had a birthday before."

"We thought it only right," sighed Lens Cap.

"Yeah, you've come so far UP. We're all proud of you."

Prissy stared at the UP designation on my hip which had just been updated to 25 recently, "Just wish you had a cutie-mark so we could celebrate that too…"

Prissy dropped the orb and it shattered on the floor. Her eyes focused in and out several times before she finally looked down at me. She looked at my fruit orange cutie mark surrounded by a wave of my turquoise magic on my hip. She took note of my wings and my horn and she stared slack jawed in awe. "Orange Juice…" she whispered.

"Yes…?" was she coming around?

She stood stiff and erect suddenly and snapped at the guards, "Gallopers, take these miscreants to the dungeons and don't even think about harming a hair in their manes."

"Yes, Magistrate," they both said in unison. Raising their guns they said to our group, "Surrender or die, by decree of Circle of Ash Magistrate Courser Priscilla Pen-Rose." we had no choice but to surrender. Priscilla oversaw the whole thing.

OOO

Ravager Blitzfire

"Great, look where we are now," I rolled my eyes and turned away from the bars.

"Don't blame me!" OJ whined, "I thought I could get through to her."

"You very well may have," said Ashe Erza. "Something about her demeanor changed when she finished viewing that orb."

"You noticed that too?" Buck asked.

"What was in the orb?" Pumpkin Spice called from the opposite cell.

"Yeah, do share, colt," Combat said from the adjacent cell.

OJ went to the bars and called back, "It was my memory of my first and last birthday party, when I turned 25. I really wish she hadn't broken it though." OJ turned back to us. He looked somber, his face droopy.

"Hey wait a second now y'all," Capper said, moving around Pumpkin Spice and heading toward the back of their cell. "This here brick looks awfully suspicious."

"Ooh ohh, press it in!" Pumpkin Spice was bouncing up and down.

Just then the doors to the dungeons burst open and in came Priscilla. She looked around at all of us then she spun and closed the doors. She wasn't using any magic, and I wondered what was up. She came to our cells and looked to each of us. She was chewing on her lip. "OJ! Oh thank the stars." she came to our cell and stared at him. "I don't know what you did but you broke the hold the moonstone had over me. Its lure draws ever more persistent however, I don't know for how much longer I'll remain like this."

"I knew I could get through to you!" OJ cheered, going to greet his old friend at the bars.

"I only hope you can do it again." Prissy said. "Sorry I broke your orb."

"It's okay." OJ smiled, "I'm just glad you're you again."

"How can we be so sure?" came Cherry's voice, "She could be deceiving us."

"It is no deception," said Prissy. "I come to you as I am, as I once was before all this. Granted I don't know how long it will last so if there are any further questions?"

"None!" I said.

"Good. Here, take this," she passed something to OJ, "It'll act as a key to the teleporter when the time comes. It's your only way out of here. I recommend taking the secret passages to escape."

"So I was right!" Capper smirked.

"I didn't lock you up for the fun of it," said Prissy. She looked from me to OJ back to Capper, "I knew you'd be able to escape, but you must go quickly. I will leave you now." she pulled a blue potion from her pocket.

"What's that?" I asked her.

"The only way to ensure I won't remember your escape when I become Magistrate once more."

"There's really nothing you can do?" asked OJ.

"No, dear UP…I do apologize."

"My name is Orange Juice now."

"And I am happy to hear that."

"How do we save you?" he asked, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Only the Maker can do that, and only Magistrate Priscilla knows how to make the teleporter to get to the Institute." she had mournful eyes; they were big and round.

"Don't you have any way to give us that information?" asked Buck. "That is not our only mission."

"What do you need to get to the Institute for?" she asked and began rummaging through her pockets for something.

"There is a colt, one that was kidnapped by ashlings. We believe they are hiding out there."

"You must speak of the radstag colt. You are mistaken on who kidnapped him." said Prissy. From one pocket she pulled an orb. She lowered her head to it and it slowly filled with a bluish murky color. "Take this memory sphere. It contains the teleporter specs." OJ took the orb. "I really must go now, I already feel the draw to power grow more overwhelming each second."

"Fight it!" cried OJ.

"I cannot, but maybe you can find the Maker. He will know what to do." with that she backed away, back to the staircase. She chugged the memory erasing potion and then she was gone. We heard her hooves beating heavily on the stairs as she went full gallop away.

We all found each other in the secret passage and there was a staircase up ahead. The floors were wet and somewhere in the distance I could hear the steady drip drip of water. This place was more a cave now than a part of the school. I wondered how we were meant to escape from these tunnels when my answer was found for me. There was a huge crystal at the top of the stairs. It was gold in color and I assumed it was locked, which is why OJ was given a key.

"We better not lose that," Ashe Erza commented when OJ brought it to bear. "It is a teleport stone, the only way to open one of these crystals. Where the Magistrate got a teleporter is beyond me."

"What is it?" Pumpkin circled around it, her eyes googly as she stared in wonder.

"It is a teleportation crystal, imported from Dalemasca. Must've been Pre War, my country was an ally to Equestria. I'll just have to make a few configurations so it won't consume the stone. I'll make it more a gate than a stone…" there was a glow on her horn and the room filled with amber light. We were all blinded for a moment as Erza did her thing. "It is safe to use now. OJ, when you're ready."

"I'm always ready," he yipped. Then he brought the stone down on the crystal, which was glowing with a reddish light instead of golden, Erza's magic. It was so pretty, it looked like a giant uncut ruby with golden stripes. However, the light emanating from it the closer Orange Juice brought his stone was hard to look at and I shielded my eyes. I noticed I wasn't the only one in the room doing so.

When next I opened my eyes I found that we were all in Sanctuary. Erza's magic lit on her horn again and she swiped it through the gate. A flash of red later and the gate lowered. Then she rebuilt it from new magic. "I had to ensure nopony else could follow us through the crystal."

OJ held up the stone he had been given. It was red as a ruby with golden stripes in it. "It changed!" he gulped. "Is that bad?"

"No colt, it is actually very good." said Erza. "It means when we build our teleportation gate only we can go through it."

"You're all back!" Press came galloping toward us. "How did it go?" he asked.

"It was splendid!" Erza boasted with a big smile on her face. She cantered off, followed by Buck and Cherry.

"Splendid isn't the word I'd use. Faust, am I hungry." said Combat Zone, moving off to find some food.

"I say it went better than expected," said OJ, always optimistic.

"Eh…" I followed after OJ and Wonder, Capper on my tail. My stomach was growling. "You guys have any grub?" I asked Press.

"Of course! Mimi can whip you up something good." Press nodded towards the Community Center and I headed that way.

"I could use a cat nap," Capper said behind me. "Wanna find me when you're finished?"

"You're not hungry?"

"I have a snack," said Capper, and when I looked back at him I realized he was chewing on some crackers. I shook my head but chuckled.

"I'll find you, don't worry." I saw Cheshire swirling around Capper as he walked away.

"One of us better tell Riggs Bailey the good news!" Pumpkin Spice bounced along beside me. I jumped, startled at her sudden appearance.

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about him!" I bit my lip and smiled at her slowly.

"Best not to!" she winked and went bouncing off. I went inside the Community Center where a smell of roasted herbs hit my nose. I saw a banquet laid out and my mouth watered. I hadn't realized it had been so long since I last ate, but my stomach was angry with me for it.

"Wow! Way to go Mimi!" I said as I got a dish and let her put some vegetables on my plate.

"Oh, no need to thank me," she blushed. "I had help!" she nodded to the other ponies that were serving food as well.

"I'm glad we made it back in time for dinner." I smiled.

"School's out right? How'd your visit go anyway?" she asked me.

"Oh, it went better than we all expected." I mulled it over, "Prissy may be able to be saved."

"Oh? That's good!" Mimi smiled as she put some hay on my plate.

"Thanks Mimi," I nodded to her and went on my way. School was out…forever if we didn't stop the advancing ashling and darkling forces. I only hoped whatever we found in the Institute would help us end this crisis. Prissy had told us ashlings weren't the ones who'd kidnapped Ethan. I wondered what had happened then. I contemplated as I ate my salad, but nothing came to mind.