"ENOUGH!!!" shouted Vice Principal Luna as she approached the scene, clearly outraged at this turn of events. "All I wanted was for everyone to have a beautiful night to enjoy themselves before the exams next week... but instead, it turned into a night of violence and horror! What do you have to say for yourself, Mr. Lionheart?!" She was positively dripping with rage. Some even thought that Luna's voice was echoing and reverberating, they were that scared.
Crim let go of the knife that was holding Phantom down, the thug clearly defeated as the fire was being extinguished and the SWAT moved in to take care of him. Orchid vanished again, unsurprisingly, leaving Sunset clearly distraught nearby him. "You should know that it's not my fault, Vice-Principal. Ask the students, they have the evidence. Hell, interrogate the people who attacked me. I have absolutely nothing to do with this!" Crimson innocently defended himself.
"I heard these thugs, Mr. Lionheart," said Luna, "and it seems that had you not been involved in gang-related activities, tonight would have gone smoothly." Her tone shifted from righteous indignation to somber regret. "Now, I do not condone their actions any more than yours," she continued, "but I cannot allow this to happen again. I am sorry, Mr. Lionheart, but I must expel you from Canterlot High School, effective immediately." The jaws and hearts of the other students dropped. The hardest hit by this news were Sunset and Circuit. Crimson had saved Sunset's life, and Circuit had just lost the ability to see his first proper friend in recent memory in person. "As for you three," said Luna, turning to Circuit, Sunset and Rainbow Dash, "while the way you endangered yourselves was admirable, nevertheless, I must adhere to the rules of this school. The three of you will have detention for the next school week." All the while, Principal Celestia watched in disgust. She knew Luna was trying to do the right thing, but in doing so, she was punishing others who had done more for the situation than she ever had. The only reason Celestia wasn't getting involved was that she couldn't change the situation at the moment. She sighed deeply in disappointment nonetheless.
While his heart sank, he knew that deep down, it was for the best. Crimson began to walk towards the crowd of students and police officers, fixing up his tie before heading to the side-walk for the long trip home. Before he left, he stopped for a moment, looked back at his friends and the other students with a bittersweet smile before finally heading back home. The heartbreaking display was made even worse as they watched the man who had just saved their lives walk away, despite his total innocence. About three minutes after he left, Orchid came sliding along a guard-rail from a nearby skate park and walked with him. "Sorry man, I did all I could" Crim just looked at her approvingly. "I did all I could Orchid, maybe it was for the best....maybe things never change afterall." Orchid remained quiet for a moment before thinking about the nightmare that had occurred earlier. "That girl from before....she was your date?" Crim raised an eye-brow. "Yeah...she acted strange around me the moment I met her. Dunno why." Orchid smiled. "As long as you have something to fight for, I don't think anything can set you apart." She said before clearing her throat. "Luckily for you, I think Dad's forgotten about you for a little while. He's busy with a leadership scuffle for the underground, about six dudes want to dethrone him. All because the moment you burnt down his toys and killed some of his men, you opened up the playing field for everyone else." Crim then sighed deeply. "Auntie is going to kill me the moment she finds out...." Orchid then nudged his shoulder in a playful way. "Let me come with you, misery loves company afterall"
----- Over the course of the next few weeks, Canterlot High School had gone from one of the more relaxed schools in the state to one of the most authoritarian. All of this was spearheaded by Vice Principal Luna, who was too afraid of a repeat of the events of the Spring Formal to relent. Many of the other students were afraid as well, so they didn't question it. It was around this time that Principal Celestia finally confronted her sister. "Luna... is any of this really necessary?" she asked angrily one day after she called Luna into her office. "Of course, sister," replied Luna, "All in the name of security." "At what cost, though? The students are miserable, performance has dropped, detentions have increased... If this keeps going, Luna, I shudder to think what may happen..." "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!!! YOU WEREN'T DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!! YOU FLED THE SCENE THE MOMENT YOU COULD--" "BECAUSE IT WAS TOO DANGEROUS TO STAY AROUND!!!" Now it was Celestia's turn to get angry. "I DIDN'T WANT TO DIE!! I COULDN'T RISK MY LIFE TO DIFFUSE THE SITUATION!! I DID THE SMART THING AND CALLED THE AUTHORITIES!! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!?" Now Luna was absolutely outraged. Something about her was beginning to change...
Luna not only had changed into a paranoid mess since the Spring Formal, but now she had changed visibly. Her vibrant blue hair started to darken as she looked menacingly at her Sister, screaming at her as the changes started to overwhelm her.
Her skin also darkened, and her normally blue eyes lightened in color, with her pupils becoming slits. "Luna... what's happening to you?" asked Celestia with concern. "That name no longer has any meaning for me," she replied, in a much deeper voice, "Call me... Nightmare Moon."
Spoiler: Music for scene Since the days since the Formal, and the moment that Crim was expelled, thing haven't been the same along the close friendship group of Rainbow Dash's friends. Things were quieter, but it had been for the entire school as strict rules were now put in place. And the notable absence of Crimson had really left a mark within Circuit and the rest of the group, with an empty seat at the lunch-table where they all sat. Especially Sunset. She was never able to say thank-you to Crimson before he left, nor was she able to truly express her feelings for him. She looked almost constantly depressed now, looking out of the window sadly, wondering what could have been. Crimson didn't just save her, he practically saved the entire school outside of CHS from those thugs, which to her almost felt like her entire world.... Now, Crimson had vanished of the radar again. Nobody knew where he was, and the same went for Orchid, despite not attending CHS. Or any public school for that matter... He was gone, and it was slowly beginning to sink in.
Circuit was also starting to regress into his old habits. He only ever opened up at home anymore, and even then, only to Rainbow Dash. Perhaps it was the pain of seeing Crim get expelled that sunk his heart... So, it was one lunch day, which seemed like any other at Canterlot's strict new regime, when he broke the silence that had long been drifting over the lunch table... "We need to get Crim back..." he said.
Sunset's ears perked up the moment he heard Circuit mention her boyfriend. "How can we do that?" Rarity asked. "There will be noway on earth we can get him back, especially since Principal Luna is now in charge."
"We need some way to prove to the district that Luna's gone overboard," said Circuit, "Once they fire her, we can get Celestia back in charge of the school and Crimson will be back in school!" "Don't think I can't hear you, boy," said a deep, powerful feminine voice from behind him.
Spoiler: Music for Scene Meanwhile.... Classified location; Canterlot USA. 1:21pm, March 28th 2014 Crim and Orchid went through the door quietly of a very large room underground, filled with dozens and dozens of wooden crates. The entire room was completely unprotected, surprising considering the environment occurring within the Canterlot Underground at the moment. In Orchid's hand was a bright orange crow-bar, while Crim remained on look-out by holding Orchid's pistol. As Orchid opened the crate, they found exactly what they were looking for. Rifles, Pistols and enough military-grade weaponry to supply an entire battalion. Hundred's of thousands of dollars of weapons, maybe millions, were inside these crates. And the first thing they seen was a MP5 Submachine gun, silenced and with at least twelve magazines of ammo, before closing the lid. "I like the choice you made with Thermite..." Crimson said before taking a brownish-brick object out of Orchid's backpack and handing it to her. Orchid nodded and took the brick-object and stuck it to the crate. "Dad has contacts in the military that he uses to supply himself and his men. I love the irony of using his stuff against him, it really does the trick. " She continued to stick the bombs onto every-crate in the room. "Dad's going to be hit hard again, like what you did to the warehouse. Try to delay his 'civil-war' as much as possible." "Then after this, we're gonna do what I think we'd do?" Crim asked, to which only Orchid nodded before standing up. "The bombs will be triggered by a light-switch outside the room. Make sure you are not in the room when it goes off. The military uses it because it's good for destroying enemy weapons caches, bunkers and vehicles. Dad said that this can melt through an entire engine in seconds." She said before throwing her backpack on the ground along with the crowbar, while Crim did the same before handing her pistol back. The door closed behind them as Orchid then waited a moment to ensure that the door was shut, then flicked the switch as an extremely bright light escaped through the door. Crim and Orchid just walked away quietly. The two of them have been making preparations to sabotage Orchid's Father's work as much as they could, before they could finally remove this problem from their lives forever. Just as they walked out the door back into the real world above, Orchid stopped for a moment before looking at Crim in the eyes. "I'm going to be the one that kills him...." She told him. "This goes way deeper between me and him then anybody realizes..."
----- As Circuit and the girls sat in detention, Circuit had realized something. He could not voice this realization until detention ended, however, because Luna was right there in the classroom, watching them. Luna had changed. Not just emotionally, but physically as well. It was like she had become an entirely different person.
It wasn't just them in detention, it was about twenty other students who have committed 'crimes' against the School. Nightmare Moon sat at her desk reading a magazine to pass the time, but not before writing up a list on the board. 1: Don't talk during Detention... 2: Don't eat during Detention... The list went on, but it started to include some fairly authoritarian stuff. Until the final one was underlined sharply. 36: NEVER speak about the Spring Formal.
----- Five days later... All of the students were utterly miserable now, compounded by the fact that spring exams were fast on their way. Even the normally joyous Pinkie Pie was rather melancholy. It seemed nobody noticed when a particular student showed their face again... A young woman with lavender skin, violet hair with magenta highlights, and purple eyes walked awkwardly through the halls. Her blue shirt and dark pink skirt were slightly dirty, but otherwise none the worse for wear. Not many people knew much about her, other than that she showed up three separate times during the school year when a major school event had turned awry, only for the situation to be resolved. No one really knew where she came from either, except for six other young women. Twilight Sparkle had no idea what happened to make the other students so miserable, but she had to find out...
Twilight went straight to the source of the problem, which surprisingly didn't look like it was coming from CHS. Instead, Twilight traced her first possibly ally somewhere in Canterlot through the means of Principal Celestia's home. Upon knocking on the door, a very tired and very depressed principal opened the door, dressed in her pajamas and holding a huge cup of coffee in her hand. But seeing Twilight at the door, she had a very small grin on her face. "Please...come in" She said to Twilight. "You might just make a world of difference
Twilight Sparkle stepped inside her home, which looked rather quaint. It had plenty of the necessities one would expect from the home of a high school principal, but it also felt like the home of someone who had grown up in the mid-to-late 1980s. On a shelf stood an old Optimus Prime figure, still in the original box, with several Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges leaning against it. The relatively small HDTV had various game consoles hooked up to it. On one of the walls was a poster for Predator, and if one looked in her garage, they would see that her car was a very refurbished DeLorean DMC-12. Twilight wasn't here to admire the scenery, though. "Why is everyone so miserable?" she asked the Principal with concern, "It's not like them." "It's Luna," said Celestia, head sinking, "she's gone crazy with power and paranoia ever since the Spring Formal. So crazy I could have sworn her body changed color..."
"Well, yes..." said Celestia, "How did you guess?" "Oh no..." Twilight had just come to a realization. "Oh no, no, no no no nonononononono! This can't be happening!" "What's wrong, Twilight? Is something wrong?" asked Celestia. "Is something wrong? THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE!!! Not exactly like this, and not here, but it HAS happened!" "Oh goodness... get the other girls together, if you can. If anyone can fix this, it's you seven."
Twilight quickly headed towards the door, before being stopped. "Bring the other girls here, my sister hasn't been home for many days and nights. Not to mention....she fired me" "Oh....I'm sorry Principal" Twilight said sadly. "Please, Twilight" Celestia smiled softly. "Call me Celestia" Twilight collected the rest of the girls, and Circuit after detention and brought them to Celestia's home. The Principal was still dressed in her pajama's, but now she had made an effort to look nicer.
