#cmcnext

    “Ponies of Equestria! Your empress has arrived!” The Empress turned to address the audience, and they immediately burst into cheers. With a wave of the hoof, the crowd quieted. “It is my pleasure to introduce the 7th Annual New Ponyville Science Fair! As you all may know, I am here to personally judge the contestants work, starting with today's presentations by the Youth Division of the competition! One young lucky filly or colt will recieve my recognition and support to be refined into one of Equestria’s greatest minds.”

    The crowd lit up again, and Kid stiffened up a bit. As the Empress continued her speech, the little pink unicorn looked like he was doing everything he could to keep it together. “I’m the first up… that means she thinks I’m the one with the most promise.”

    “What? Why are you boasting? I just asked if you could help us with our friend!” Krabby said, and Kid nearly jumped out of his skin. He glanced back at Krabby with a rough glare.     “Don’t sneak up on me!” He squeaked. “I’m not boasting, either, it’s the truth! I wouldn’t suggest that the Empress is impatient or anything, but the pattern is always the same. The presentation she visits first is almost always the winner, it’s happened five times out of the last six science fairs. I’m kinda really feeling the pressure.”

    “Yeah, great, but- you’re not listening to me at all. Guh, forget it, I’ll find someone else- you know what, I’ll ask the Empress.” Krabby started walking toward her, before being lifted up with a surprisingly strong telekinetic grip. A panicked Kid dropped him right next to him, and looked him straight in the eyes.

    “Are you crazy?! You don’t just… walk up to her casually like that! Are you an idiot?”  He vented, and Krabby didn’t even flinch.

    “I’ll walk up to whomever I please if it means it could save my friend. So if you don’t mind-” A shadow loomed over the two colts, and the both looked up to the imposing figure above them.

    “Simple! They’ll be standing right here when that bomb goes off!” The mare declared, and Cheerilee immediately took a step back in shock.

    “Wait! Wait! Hold on! That’s not what kind of bomb that is! It’s just to cause the machine to break down irreparably-” Cheerilee was cut off by a cold, disheartening laughter.

    “To look like a mistake on the kid’s part, right? Well, I mean, yeah, it was. But I… ‘convinced’ command to let us take something with a little more punch. Or a lot more. Enough to kill an Empress.” Truffle could feel ‘himself’ smirk, and Cheerilee looked horrified, which was good, because he couldn’t.

    “Wispy! You dumb- there will be a lot of ponies there, not just the Empress! There will be foals! I’m going to disarm this, working with you was a mistake-” Wispy’s hoof immediately grabbed Cheerilee and forced her to stare her in the eyes. Truffle mulled over the name he just heard for a moment. It sounded pretty familiar.

    “You will not disarm that bomb.” With that forceful proclamation, a jolt of bizzare energy buzzed through Wispy’s body, and Cheerilee looked as if she had been physically struck. When her eyes fluttered back open, they glowed with odd colors. “I said no names! Gah, whatever. Look, I know how you feel, honestly, I don’t like the idea of the kids getting involved in this, but I’m here to kill two birds with one stone. I’m not going to overlook an opportunity.”

    “Opportunity does not give us the right to become cold blooded murderers, you hateful cow!” Cheerilee teared up, her expression equal parts anger, fear, and sadness.

    “Oh, don’t be such a sourpuss. This probably won’t even work, and the Empress will get away without a scratch!” Wispy joked, and Cheerilee just looked angrier.

    “Tha… that’s… I don’t care about the damn Empress, Wispy!” She screamed.

    Truffle opened his eyes, and was greeted by the night sky. As he started to panic over losing so much time for no apparent reason, the fact that he apparently had no control over his body did nothing to alleviate this. He went over the last things he remembered… he was going over to the side of Kid’s machine because he saw something sparkle? He touched a panel on the side of the machine, then there was a flash of light, and darkness…

    “Hey! What’s wrong?” A voice interrupted his thoughts, and he involuntarily lowered his gaze from the sky to follow the voice. More confusingly, is the pony he saw. Miss Cheerilee had stopped what she was doing near the open panel on Kid’s machine. He met her gaze at eye level, which in itself, was a very odd sensation.

    Miss Cheerilee was his teacher back when he went to school, and seeing her here was odd, to say the least. He would say she was his favorite, but she was also the only one. It was actually pretty weird, the entire time he was at school, he only ever remembered having the one teacher. He wondered if that was something true of all schools, or some quirk of New Ponyville.

    Regardless, she was always a sweet and caring mare, and watching her do something that was clearly suspicious put him at unease.

    “Hmm…” Surprisingly, the voice came from his own throat. An adult mare’s voice. “We’re being watched.”     “What? Where? How? You said you’d make sure we wouldn’t be seen!” Cheerilee grew visibly nervous.

“Wis-” The mare’s white hoof shot out and plugged Cheerilee’s mouth.

    “Shooosh! Being watched, remember? No names.” As the mare shifted her balance while cutting Cheerilee off, Truffle was made aware that his back left leg was missing! No, wait, don’t panic, that’s her leg, or lack thereof.

    Convincing himself not to panic was going to be an increasingly uphill battle. It doesn’t help that he was starting to hear other disembodied voices again. They followed him even here?

    He hurriedly tried to convince the mare that he had no idea what’s going on and he would love to leave, but if she heard him, she ignored him.

    “They’re standing right about… here…” The mare shuffled around to stand where Truffle was that afternoon when he presumably passed out. “... at about noon, tomorrow.”

    … tomorrow? Wait, was she talking about him?

    “Good! This problem solves itself! We won’t be caught after all, Cheers!” The mare excitedly exclaimed.

    “Kid’s relationship with his fathers is a bit strained, you’ll have to forgive him for not wanting to talk about it.” An orange unicorn stallion stepped onto the stage from around Kid’s device. Vanilla immediately perked up.

    “Sunburst, you traitorous scum, how have you been?” Despite her words, Vanilla’s tone was quite jovial. Sunburst grimaced.

    “V-Vanilla, please! I still come to your manor all the time to make time for you and Flurry. Just because I can’t be there all the time-” Sunburst was cut off by the filly laughing at his expense.

    “Jeeeeze! Calm down, Sunny-B!” Sunburst’s face scrunched. He didn’t like that nickname. “You’re just a horrible person for abandoning us to work for Prod-whatever Energy to watch over some rich dude’s test tube baby! No big deal.”

    “L-leave him alone!” Kid cried out, and Sunburst sighed as he couldn’t keep himself from facehoofing.  “You don’t deserve having him around, you spoiled brat!”     Vanilla’s features darkened as she slowly turned to the young Prodigy. “Oh… now that’s rich coming from you, Kid. Literally. Your family is probably the only ones that has more money than ours in Dartmoore.”

    “Yeah?! You think that makes my life easy? The kind of pressure that’s on me… your sister would understand what that means. You, on the other hoof, don’t have to worry about a damn thing!” Kid suddenly started and turned back to his machine. “S-stop distracting me!”

    “Kid, language.” Sunburst chided him, and the young unicorn flinched. “Vanilla, knock it off. You know I’ll be visiting the manor in only a couple of days. I haven’t forgotten about you… how could I possibly ever forget about you.” He grinned, and Vanilla stuck her tongue out at him in turn.