Unknown Frontier
My Little Pony Roleplay => Portal to Canterlot High => Community Stories => Areas Near Canterlot High School => Topic started by: Orchid on February 14, 2017, 12:03:08 am
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Morgayne jumped slightly as Lucid addressed her. Perhaps if she just told Lucid the truth, Morgayne could figure out if the other girl was really native to this world. Maybe...
She mentally shook her head. Was she mad? She couldn't tell anyone where she was from, not if she wanted to keep Equestria's guards at bay.
So she laughed lightly. "You wouldn't believe what's on my mind even if I did tell you," she informed Lucid, then quickly changed the subject. "So... Creative Writing. Do you like it?"
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"Say... Morgayne... You seem off." Lucid admitted. "Is everything really alright? I know we just met, but you can talk to me about anything that's on your mind... Especially if it's about me. I don't have many friends, you can trust that anything will stay between the both of us."
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Soredell maintains out of sight until Morgayne and Lucid leave, watching them disappear down the hallway. He steps back into the area, looking around for anyone, which thankfully there isn't. From this point, there aren't any security cameras that he can estimate can see what he's about to do. Looking down on his watch, he has less than a minute left until the bell goes off, signalling the next class commencing. He needed to be quick.
Moving to Lucid's locker, he opens it, giving it a quick once over. Sketches and images of a forest and a town of some kind are the only things that stand out to him, among the other belongings inside her locker. Making sure to not touch anything, he pulls out a phone and takes several pictures using the camera, taking photos of the images and sketches, anything that could help him. '30 seconds left.' he estimates as he finishes taking photos. There's no doubt that there's more to be gleamed from stuff like her books, but with the time he has left, all he can do is get evidence from what he can see in front of him.
From the back he finds one more image, its another image of Everfree Forest, this time from the north side. He could recognize the public walking track from anywhere. '10 seconds.' he estimates as he hears sounds coming from down the corridor. '****.' he thinks as he places the image in his pocket and closes the door, right as a group of jocks round the corner, and the bell goes off. He makes no sign that he was snooping around someone else's locker, and he doesn't think the jocks know either. Good. 'Better get to next class.' he thinks to himself, beginning to make his way back to his locker.
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Morgayne chuckled nervously. "The name just... sounded familiar for a second." She turned and waved to Broadshield as he left, then started walking along with Lucid.
She didn't say anything, but it was clear from her expression that she was puzzled and a bit nervous.
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"Yes Lucid... Am I famous or something? It's a strange nickname I guess, but hey it stuck." She chuckled. Orchid was a little weirded out by the reactions of both Broad and Morgayne after telling them her name but decided to brush it off and try and be friendly. Maybe they see her while she was working at the coffee shop, but that isn't something huge and wouldn't spring that sort of reaction.
"Nice to meet you Morgayne... Seeya later Broadshield. Have fun in class and good luck with the shirt."
Lucid began to walk in the direction of their next class.
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"If you say so." he says, looking at the bloodstain on his shirt. 'Eh, I've dealt with worse.' he thinks to himself. "Well, I'll be off cleaning this shirt, I guess I'll see you two later." he says waving goodbye to them and rounding a corner to hide, at least until the two leave. The evidence he needs is so close he could taste it, but he needs to be patient, at least until they leave, which hopefully wouldn't take long.
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Morgayne waved her hand dismissively at Broadshield's concerned question. "I'll be fine," she said, though her face did still hurt. She noticed the blood on his shirt as well. "Oh... sorry," she said sheepishly.
She turned to the other girl. "Great!" When she introduced herself, however, Morgayne blinked several times in a rapid fashion. She open and closed her mouth a few times before she finally got out, "Wait... did you say Lucid?" Had the thief Morgayne had met traveled through the portal as well? Was Morgayne not alone as she thought? Or was this Lucid's doppelganger?
...Morgayne had to find out. Very carefully watching Lucid for any sort of reaction, Morgayne quickly added, "I'm Morgayne, by the way."
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Lucid could've sworn that she had seen Broad in her Creative Writing class, but brushed it off.
"Oh.. Okay well, I guess I'll see you around broad." She turned to Morgayne. "Really? Well sure! We can walk together..." People so much talked to Lucid and suddenly today it's totally different. "I'm Orchid by the way, but everyone just calls me Lucid."
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Broad stepped back for a moment and let the teacher do their thing. As soon as she leaves, Broad gets back to where he was before. "Are you sure you'll be fine walking around? It wasn't exactly the softest of impacts." he says. He then notices in the corner of his vision, Lucid's locker. Inside were what looked to be peculiar sketches and pictures of a town of some kind. But he saw one thing that was as clear as day. An image of the western entrance into the Everfree Forest. He knew that place like the back of his hand after personally investigating the area after several incidents involving EQUINOX soldiers, but that wasn't the point. What was inside that locker was definitive proof that both pony and 'human' Lucid had the same thought process, which made things easier for Broadshield in tracking down 'pony' Lucid in Equestria.
His attention is turned back to the present when Lucid asks which class they have next. The injured girl gives her own answer, but he was skeptical about her. The way she walked, her hesitation in her response, her reaction to the images in the locker. This girl HAD to have come from Equestria, but she wasn't the target right now. Lucid was. Attention is turned to Broadshield as he realizes he has two options. 'I could either continue to follow Lucid's activities at the school, by going with them to their next class, or I can investigate that locker.' he internally deliberates before coming to an answer. "I can't quite remember off the top of my head, but I think I have Chemistry now." he says to them. 'That's a lie. I have Creative Writing with Lucid now, I saw my timetable, but looking at evidence I know is there is more important than chasing up possible leads.' he thinks to himself. He soon realizes that he has a few drops of blood on his shirt. "Well, I can always double check my timetable when I get to my locker, but I think I should first get myself cleaned off." he says, getting up, while extending a hand to the girl, intending on helping her up.
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Morgayne waited impatiently, stepping back as soon as the teacher was finished. She murmured an obligatory, "Thank you."
"Yes, that hurt," Morgayne realized aloud, rubbing her face gingerly. Still confused and knowing that she should learn more about the creatures she was now one of, Morgayne peered into Lucid's locker. Her eyes widened temporarily when she saw the pictures of the Everfree. Had this girl come from the pony world as well? But she quickly remembered that this was a parallel world, of course they would have an Everfee Forest here as well. She sighed inwardly. She was alone in her origin, wasn't she?
At the question, Morgayne blinked. "Oh..." She needed to find someone she should stick with. For Morgayne's own safety. "I have... creative writing class myself. Perhaps we could walk togehter?" Morgayne put on her most charming smile.
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The teacher gently cleans Morgayne's face before making sure the bleeding stopped which it was slowing down before getting up. He smiled before walking off with the bloody tissues and cotton.
"Jeez you took a huge fall." Lucid chuckled. She looked at Broad. "Do you have any more questions?" She smirked. Lunch was beginning to end as Lucid looked at her half eaten sandwich. "Aw nuts. Oh well I'll save it for soccer after school." Her locker was right nearby as she quickly wrapped it up and threw it in there. The locker door was covered with her sketches of various buildings and larger picture of a map of a town she drew. Taped on the map and sketchers were real pictures of what appeared to be around the Everfree forest. She grabbed her books and gently closed it but forgot to lock it as she returned to Morgayne and Broad. "What classes do you all have after this? I'm headed to creative writing myself!"
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Mixed feelings crossed over Morgayne's face when the boy spoke again and showed alertness. On one hand, that meant she hadn't given herself away. On the other... it meant she didn't have access to her magic while she was in this world, which was... disconcerting, to say the least. She jumped back a little when he tried to wipe the blood of her face.
Before she knew it, a teacher came. "Oh... I fell," Morgayne explained, "...but I'm fine. Really." She didn't like people touching her in the first place, magic or not.
Imitate.
The thought came suddenly, and Morgayne cleared her throat awkwardly. "Well, if you insist," She muttered and stepped towards the teacher before holding still.
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Orchid tilted her head. This one was certainly strange, but Broad was right, she had to find some help.
She nodded and ran off. She didn't have to run far before she swiftly returned with a teacher who had some first aid.
"Oh no, what happened? Never mind that, let's get you cleaned up and stop that bleeding."The teacher waited for the students permission however, before touching her.
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Broadshield couldn't help but feel concerned about the way this girl was acting. She wasn't acting like the other students here, and she was suffering from a potential broken nose, and potential hallucination from the impact.
He quickly pulled out a tissue he found in his pocket and wiped the blood off her, the girl seemingly more focused on him as opposed to herself and her current well-being. With a wave of her hand, he just looked at her perplexed. She needed to be seen by someone. "Hey, uh, Lucid was it? I need you to find a teacher and bring them here. Try and make sure the other students don't find out. We don't want to make a scene." he says to Lucid.
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With the boy reaching Morgayne first, Morgayne automatically grabbed his hand to help herself up. As soon as she was standing, however, alarm crossed over her face, and she moved her hand as rapidly as if she had been burned. She stared at Broadshield intently, not answering the questions. She didn't even seem to notice the red stream of blood coming out of one nostril from her fall. Instead, she suddenly waved her hand very close in front of Broadshield's face, seeing if he would react.
Morgayne wasn't sure if her magic would even work here, but she did know one thing. Back in the pony world, touching somepony while she was that distracted certainly would have led to them getting stuck in an illusion. She could only hope she hadn't given herself away.
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Orchid tilted her head at the strange question but lightly giggled.
"Broadshield.... I never... really had someone come up to me and ask me a random question like that..." She placed her notebook beside her. "If this is for that paper... I'm interested in why you chose me as a topic... Anyways! If you really want a truthful answer I..."
When the girl tripped Lucid's eyes shot open as she was completely startled. She got up and tried to help the girl up. "Oh my god, yeah are you okay?"
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Broad watched as Lucid sketched. He couldn't really tell what she was drawing but from where he was, it looked like... some kind of structure? He couldn't tell. It looked like the structure was at a distance, but not much could be gleamed from where he was standing. Then Lucid noticed him. Yeah... he wasn't good at this, and she definitely knew something was up. "I... I gotta ask, why do seem to... I don't know, isolate yourself?" But before any of them could say anything further, a newcomer had arrived, and fell onto the floor. "Oh s**t are you alright?" he says, helping the newcomer out.
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It was a good thing that there weren’t many students out in front of the school at this time, and the ones that were weren’t paying attention to the prominent horse statue there, because what happen next was very suspicious indeed.
One side of the base of the statue emitted a bright white light and suddenly, a tall figure appeared to fall out of the statue and onto the pavement. With that, the light disappeared and all that was left was a grey-skinned girl on her hands and knees. Her long blue hair blew in the slight breeze, and Morgayne looked frantically around.
Her surroundings were completely unfamiliar, and her shoulders slumped in relief. She had made it through the portal unscathed. That was when she saw her hands, and her eyes widened as she lifted one up, examining it. “Odd…” she commented softly, a slight accent twisting her words.
Just then, coming from the other side of the statue, a couple of girls stopped and looked at her curiously. Morgayne looked back at them, and instinct kicked in. When one was in an unfamiliar place, the safest thing was to imitate, imitate, imitate. How often had her mother drilled that phrase? So Morgayne forced herself to her feet, standing like the two girls.
“…Morgayne?” One of them finally said. “Yes?” Morgayne replied, trying to look confident. “What are you doing here? I haven’t seen you since last year, I thought you moved to Manhattan to finish school because you were offered some swimming scholarship.” Morgayne’s mind raced. Of course, this was a parallel world. She would have a doppelgänger here. “Oh… It fell through..” She said sadly. “So I moved back.” There was a long silence as the girls stared at her. “Oh well, uh… welcome back,” one of them offered awkwardly, and they both rushed away, leaving Morgayne frowning. Perhaps her doppelgänger didn’t get along with people here?
Either way, the others leaving gave Morgayne a chance to look over herself. She had the same coloring as in the pony world, but pretty much everything else was different. She also wore a simple white sundress and a denim jacket, along with some strappy black sandals. She was broken out of her inspection when a thought occurred to her. What if the guards followed her through? The idea had her dancing uneasily away from the statue. She had to get away from here.
Stumbling awkwardly, she made her way into the school. She travelled down one hall, just passing in front of a guy on some small device when her balance got the better of her and she face planted on the hard floor.
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Lucid bobbed her head lightly to the music and actually had a small smile as she took another bite before chewing slowly and doodling further. Broad from a certain angle on her side might be able to make out what looked like a drawing of a town but from a distance. It would look very similar to the town Lucid created in her dimension in the pony world.
However, this version of Lucid was unaware of that obviously and just sighed. She wasn't depressed about the way the school or town was now, but a girl could dream. Dream of a dream house... or rather a dream town that she would love to live in even more. Suddenly she saw Broad again. Something was off... He kept following her all the sudden.
She popped her earbuds out. "Um... Hey... Broadshield is it? Can I help you?"
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If there is a lesson to be learnt from this experience, its to not let Broadshield act inconspicuous while on mission. Subtly was never Broadshield's forte, and this recon was further reinforcing that point. 'The second after I handle the Lucid situation back home, I'm gonna need to take acting lessons, because I can't do this right.' he thinks to himself bitterly. Broadshield was definitely acting out of character, opting not to eat at all, and not talk to his 'friends', instead opting to look out for human Lucid. Only was it after the fact that he realized this. Didn't matter now, he has a mission to do. Eventually, he spots Lucid by a classroom eating by herself. She doesn't seem to notice him, with her earbuds in. Best course of action was to watch and wait, pulling out a phone and pretending to be focused on it, but really focusing on her and what she's doing.
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Lucid would drift asleep but her hands would keep moving as if they were taking notes. She was actually as well as doodling occasionally. The student's eyes gently opened when she felt like someone was looking and indeed it was that Broadshield kid. It certainly felt strange, before today the two barely even acknowledged each other. Finally the bell ringing broke her from her thoughts and she gathered her things and walked out.
The Lunch period was wild as usual. Lucid grabbed a tray and got a sandwich. The cafeteria was full of students and as usual, she had no where to sit. Orchid just left the cafeteria with her tray and found a quiet spot by a classroom and sat down, plugged her earbuds in and began to slowly eat her meal while drawing on a notebook.
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As the class gets underway, Broadshield idly takes notes on the other him's notebook. He wasn't going to screw his other self over with them not being here for lessons. He's barely listening, writing notes that are relevant to the topic at hand, this going on for most of the lesson. Occasionally he'd look back to see what this world's Lucid was doing, taking notes on THAT instead of their work.
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The student that she had seen at her stop certainly looked confused as he was deciding where to sit. There was no assigned seating in this class, but people usually stayed where they were from day 1.
Oh! Broadshield! That was his nameShe thought. She actually had remembered eating with him before to. Not intentionally, she doesn't have a friend group so she floated around.
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Broadshield continues to monitor Lucid as they bus makes its rounds, picking up more school kids from different schools such as CHS and CPA, the students seemingly alright with each other's presence. 'I would've thought that they would be against each other, being in different schools. I must be out of the loop.' he thinks to himself as the bus eventually makes its way to CHS. Hopping up quickly, he makes his way off the bus, ahead of the crowd. There's no way that he doesn't look suspicious right now. Deciding its best to ignore it, he makes his way into the school. Best thing to do is to check what class the other him would have first.
It takes him a little while, but he does find the right locker. Watching his other half and remembering where his locker was helped matters. Only issue now was unlocking it. Unlike some other lockers which used combination locks, this one needed a key, which he didn't have. Pulling out a lock-pick kit, he spends a little time getting it unlocked without breaking it, while looking as casual as possible. It takes a while but he busts in, and figures out his next class. 'I'll just have to do these classes as normal, and continue monitoring during breaks.' he thinks as he grabs the right books for the next class. Arriving at the class, he spots Lucid out the back. He's raised too much suspicion, and he needs to act more like his other half. So as opposed to sitting in the back near Lucid, he sits closer to the front. 'I think this is where 'I' would sit...?' he thinks to himself as he pulls up a seat and waits for the lesson to begin, even though he won't bother listening in too much detail.
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Broad would only see Lucid snoozing until the bus arrived at Canterlot High where she lazily picked up her things. She noticed Broad again sitting close to her. Luckily for him, she didn't care too much and hopped off the bus and headed straight for class where she sat near the back as usual and dozed off again.
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Broadshield immediately grit his teeth at the subtle reactions from not only Lucid, but also the bus driver. He of course kept this to himself and made it discreet. Following Lucid, he sat in the back seat, on the opposite side that Lucid was sitting in. 'That was way too suspicious. No doubt that she and the bus driver know something's up now. I need to be much more careful in the future.' As he sits in his seat, waiting on the driver to get to their next stop, he takes mental notes in his head. 'Seems to be a heavy sleeper of sorts. Definitely doesn't seem evil in anyway, not like her pony counterpart.' he thinks to himself, before chiding himself about this whole situation. 'If me catching a different bus hasn't raised enough suspicion, me following her around is definitely going to do the job.' he thinks to himself.
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Orchid turned and looked at the student arriving. She's seen him around school before but never talked to him. Honestly she also had no idea why he was at this stop and if he is even on her bus, but she wasn't awake enough to question further as the bus arrived. She walked in as the driver nodded but tilted his head at Broad before returning his gaze to the front of the road. Lucid found a seat in the back. She swung her backback off and placed it on her lap to fall asleep on it. She gave a huge yawn.
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"Orchid, aka Lucid. Gotten her alias from the term 'lucid dreaming' perhaps? Lucid dreaming is where you are aware that you are dreaming, and possibly control what happens in your dreams. From what we have on her, she has the ability to make her dreams a reality, nothing more. No known leads on her whereabouts. Her power is immense, and needs to be monitored... but to do that, we need to find her... To find your target, you need to know them, think like them, anticipate their next move, stay a step ahead." Broadshield mutters to himself, looking through a small notepad of notes on this pony - Lucid. A powerful individual, one that could potentially pose a threat. She needed to be monitored so that she doesn't do anything to upset the balance. That's why Broadshield is in the 'Other' world, doing recon on her human half, as his associates on this side called it. Everypony in Equestria had a counterpart, a doppelganger here, and they usually were identical in personality and thought process, which made this operation helpful in tracking the real Lucid.
Right on time, human Lucid had approached the bus stop as she did on school days. 'Celestia forgive me, I'm a stalker.' he mutters to himself before he himself sits on the bench next to Lucid, trying to draw as little attention to himself. In this world, his counterpart was a student at Canterlot High School, but thankfully, he organized that his counterpart and his family go somewhere nice for the next week or so, enough time for him to do what he needed and get out. Hopefully no one caught wind of his counterpart leaving town. To Lucid, he would just look like any other CHS student. Hopefully that wouldn't attract any attention or suspicion to him.
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Lucid's eyes were closed as a there was a gentle smile on her face. She laughed and rolled over. The sun peaked through her cutains giving a small glow to the room when suddenly a loud alarm interrupted the peace making the girl's eyes shoot open as she screamed and flew off the bed. Groaning, she picked herself up and turned off the alarm. She scratched her head through her messy pink hair and dragged herself to the bathroom to get ready.
After brushing her teeth, Orchid got her normal black getup on. She dusted off her black skirt and threw the small top hat on before heading downstairs to quickly down a bowl of marshmallow cereal and heading to her bus stop. Today she was earlier than usual. Her parents are never home and she has no car. To add to that, Orchid did not have many friends so she couldn't find a ride either. Missing the bus means walking to school. So instead of waking up peacefully from her nice dreams, she was interrupted by a violent alarm clock she despised.
At least the weather was beautiful. As of today, she was the only person at this stop. Not that she minded. Lucid popped in two ear buds and turned out relaxing music as she lightly tapped her foot and mouthed the words to herself.