"Low Caps are Everywhere!"
The infiltration in Principal Abacus Cinch's flat, against all predictions, had been relatively easy, since she had left the keys underneath the doormat.
"I seriously don't get that woman. Why would she keep her house's keys under the doormat, if she plans to go out for a long time?" Rainbow Dash asked to herself, as she lightly scratched her head. Her companion Pinkie Pie shrugged as she pushed the door inwards, revealing a small dimly-lit corridor.
"Less questions, more snooping!" Pinkie Pie said after fully opening the door.
She then pulled out her phone and activated the flashlight app to show the way into the flat that housed Principal Cinch, revealing the presence of a white radiator just next to the door covered with what looked like a red and yellow flag. On the other side from the door, there was a still nature painting. Rainbow Dash, having gotten her curiosity piqued by the flag, walked in and grabbed the flag from the corner, pulling it up to her shoulders, letting it lay out fully before moving it away from her to see the details. It was Spain's flag, but in the yellow band instead the royal emblem there was a bundle of black arrows under a bronze yoke.
This looks real familiar, like something from the History class... Rainbow Dash said, while Pinkie still moved forward, shedding light onto the area in front of her. Isn't that symbol used by some skinheads or so-
"Hey Dashie, come look at this!" Pinkie Pie suddenly shrieked, interrupting Dash's train of thought and making her drop the flag on the ground. "There's a photobook full of weird pictures here!"
"Pinkie, you almost gave me an heart attack!" Rainbow Dash said, as she walked forward down the corridor covered in daubs and display cases of small texts of what - she assumed - were either prayers or quotes from famous people.
Pinkie Pie kept her smartphone hovered over a photo album with a light red cover and bronze angles, on a round table clearly of low quality and covered with a solid light blue sheet. Once she got there, she looked down at the photos contained inside, all of which were either in black-and-white or with their colors washed out by time. They were, unsurprisingly, placed in neat and tidy rows and columns, with tags that were however torn off at some point in time, with the only legible one- and barely so due to the calligraphy- beginning with "My Childhood."
"Would you believe that this girl over there would've become Principal Cinch in the future? " Pinkie said, as she pointed at the black-and-white photo in the top corner of the page on the right, one that depicted a girl- clearly no older than three- wearing a long dress and smiling while standing in front of several pieces of tanned fur hanging by an out of frame thread.
Rainbow Dash shook her head, as she moved towards the next photo in the same row. This one was in colour, and it showed young Cinch bent over a tub, holding up a tiny piece of fur with one hand and dunking it in what looked like white salt into the tub. Similar scenes appeared in the following photos and, in each one, Cinch's smile slowly faded and her clothing's wear grew.
"I'd never guess she would've worked with leather and stuff.." Rainbow Dash said without much thought, her mind focused on the picture of her bent on the tub.
What is she doing here at that age anyways? She wondered. Wasn't felt made with mercury or something? Also, didn't she say that leather scared her, or is that just a rumor?
"Wow, look at this!" Pinkie said, as she pointed at a black and white photo on the third row depicting a probably ten-year old Cinch standing in front of a pedestal, the symbol of the bundle of arrows and yoke appearing behind on the pedestal, the statue's knees just out of frame. As for Cinch herself, she was wearing a long, neatly-folded shirt and a long skirt with a tartan-like pattern, standing upright like a soldier at attention, a neutral frown on her face. "She must've been quite strict even back then!"
"Yeah." Rainbow Dash stated dryly, as she went back to look at the pictures above that one. From the photos, it was clear that Principal Cinch, when she was a young child, used to work in leather tannery, but that didn't completely match up with the Principal's stories about her origins and her rumored fear of leather works.
Maybe she developed that fear while working there? Rainbow Dash mused. Then again, they say that the expression 'as mad as a hatter' was born because hatters became insane after working with felt and mercury for years...
"Bundles of arrows are all over the place..." Pinkie Pie said out loud, as she put a couple of golden cufflinks on the table. "Isn't this stuff banned or something? Like, 'you get arrested and sent into prison' banned?"
"Thought so too, Pinkie." Rainbow Dash said, as she took the link cuffs in her fingers and looking at them more closely. "I mean, I've heard that the Crystal Prep used to have buncles of arrows as part of the uniform and that they stopped when somebody complained about the-"
A sudden sound of tin cans and waste paper falling interrupted Rainbow Dash. she immediately truned her eyes to the sound's source, and she saw- in the midst of a rather large layer of labelless tins, waste paper, used paper tissues and some grey lowcaps- Pinkie kneeling next to an open cupboard.
"Not to mention it's all so messy inside the cupboards!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed "I mean, she stuffs garbage inside them, why's that? And why does she keeps felt lowcaps?"
"For the same reason for why she forced the... 'other Twilight' to turn into a demon?" Rainbow Dash took a guess as she shrugged.
"She's barking mad?" Pinkie Pie said, before letting out a sigh. "Maybe we should take pictures and see if anyone else has any idea what is all of this about?"
Rainbow Dash nodded, as she whipped out her phone and turned it on. "Alrighty then. I think you should take a look in the bedroom now, Pinkie." She said, as she rapidly activated the phone's camera and Pinkie Pie hurried off to Cinch's bedroom.
Felt working... low caps... and doing that a young age... Rainbow Dash thought, as she snapped pictures of the photoboook's pages. I almost pity her.
She took a photo of the first page, before moving to the next page, one full of Principal Cinch holding the same exact position in every kind of place, from the façade of some kind of palace to a hilltop with a view on a lake. Both her expression and her attire never changed, as if the photos had been badly manipulated so that they all contained young Cinch inside them.
Ye olde Photoshoppe? Or was she that good at keeping the same look no matter where? Rainbow Dash wondered, as she took another photo. Then again, it would explain why she chose to create a school that revolves around being stuck-up and stoic all over.
The next photo was a refrain of the previous one, with Cinch only looking a little older than the last one. In fact, in the midst of all those photos depicting Principal Cinch wearing a neutral frown and on the attention, Rainbow Dash noticed one photo in particular.
In the colour picture, Principal Cinch, clearly in her mid-twenties, was standing atop of a small marble podium, holding up a rather large red book- one that Rainbow Dash recognized as the degree thesis. However, the most striking part of it was Cinch's expression, because she was not wearing a neutral frow or an outright hostile grimace, but she was happily and- quite clearly- genuinely smiling, which was something that her current face didn't seem even capable to do anymore. Rainbow Dash stared for a good minute at the photo, surprised by the sight.
Underneath, written in faded red ink with a flowery calligraphy that had nothing on the finest illuminated manuscripts, there was a phrase.
"He triunfado! Ahora tengo el tìtulo para instruir los niños y las niñas los justos y sagrados valores de mis padres adoptivos! Rezo que ahora no debia nunca jamàs temer fracaso por el resto de mios diàs, y de crear un legado que esconderà mea origen oprobiosa y horrorosa."
She slowly rose her phone, brought it over the picture and snapped a good picture of it.
This... is gonna blow everyone's mind, I'm sure of it! She thought as she snapped a photo, before frantically going back to photograph every other page of the photo book.
After he was done with documenting the photobook, Rainbow Dash rose her heead just as Pinkie Pie left Cinch’s bedroom.
“So, did you find anything?” Rainbow Dash asked, as she closed up the book she had been photographing. “Or was it pointless?”
Pinkie Pie shook her head, as she walked towards the exit door. Rainbow Dash sighed, as she turned off her phone and followed Pinkie Pie down the corridor. She looked at her sides, noticing what was written in the dispaly cases.
In one of them, on what looked like parchment, there was a long song lyrics written in Spanish and that Rainbow Dash attempted to read.
“Oponiendo picas a caballos
y fusiles a los fantes del el enemigo.
Con el alma unida por el mismo clero,
que la sangre corre protegiendo el reino…
Hijios de Santiago, grande son los tercios.
Escuadròn de picas
flancos a cubierto.
Solo es libre el hombre que no tiene miedo.
Lucha por tu hermano,
Muere por tuo reino y Franco,
Vive por la paz en este gran imperio,
nunca habrà derrotas,
si nos hacen presos
solo tras de muertos capitularemos.
Levantar las picas y las armas
con un canto al cielo!
Nunca temerès si va en columna
el tercio!”
She muttered, not quite understanding what was that about, only understanding it was some kind of lyrics of a song. Rainbow Dash let out a loud sigh, at the very last hope of find signs.
“So,” Rainbow Dash muttered, as she exited from the flat. “after this, how can we answer to the question 'who is Chinch?' "
“She's just a crazy old woman.” Pinkie Pie said, closing the door behind Rainbow Dash and locking it again with a loud clang.
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I am thinking she had lived during Francisco Franco's dictatorship of Spain
What's the translation? It sounds like french a little but I'm not sure
6594220
You mean the song lyrics? It's Spanish, and the translation is:
6594302 Ah that was my bad sounds neat though.
6594205
Realistically, she seems too young for that. Besides, while her strict behaviour and general bitchness was a typical trait in La Sección Femenina (Femenine Division) from La Falange, intellectuality and actual knowledge like the ones taught in Crystal Prep certainly were not (women were raised to become good christians and obedient future wives, not to compite with men)
6594378
Then Cinch is from Spain. I guess...
6594432
If the photo is supposed to be Cinch in her youth, I can assure you no Spanish girl in that time period wore mini skirts.
6594500
Good point.
6594500
Admittedly, The cover art was whipped up in a few minutes by using some Filter Tools on a piece of Ohokokapi (or however it spells), as I could not find somebody that would make me a more accurate piece. Since a somewhat related cover is better than none...
Also, if you pay attenton to The song's lyrics, you'll notice "The kingdom" mentioned just next to Franco. Spain under Franco did not keep the king as Head-of-State, not until it's very final spasms. This, by the way, was very intentional, as I meant to tip off History enthusiast about the somewhat different nature of the Franchist ideology here depicted with the real one.
She was a Spanish fascist? Or at least her family were and brought her up with fascistic values, I guess... Given that the extreme-right worships power and winning to a near-religious degree (to the point where charity and friendship are looked down upon as weaknesses), it might explain a lot about her.
6596571
That is The implication. The other implication is that her work making felt The old-fashioned way made her insane (mercury salts that used to be employed in The creation of felt caps are the reason sometimes we say "mad as a hatter"). Althought, thinking about it, underage work in such condictioned seems a good enough reason to mess up one's psyche
I feel like this fell a little flat. I see what you were going with, but we didn't really learn that much about Cinch; we just learned about her background, and that's not the same thing. The attempt to explain her character a little was interesting, but like others on this page I think she's too young to have been a Spanish fascist. The other problem is that there are several errors, a few of which I noticed in the first two paragraphs:
Interesting idea, though, despite the execution!
6633913
That explains it.
To be honest, I meant this to be a lot more subtle than it actually is now, but, since I was afraid of completely alienate most readers and since I am not exactly a master of characterization, I decided to go onto a different route... which brought us to the incongruence between description and story. I'd be glad to change it, but I currently have no ideas how in mind.
Althought it seems I've managed to mess up the grammar less this time (yes, yes I know, the spit I spat the day before and all). Thanks a lot.
Perhaps not even alive at the time of the Spanish Civil War. However, I think she was born between the 1950 and 1960, which is enough time for her to grow up in Franchist Spain, and doesn' seem overly old to me.
yeah I'm completely lost here. What does any of that stuff mean exactly?
6642889
-The flag described in the beginning has a colour scheme similar to Spain's and The bundle of arrows, originally a Castillian symbol then overtaken by Francisco Franco's regime.
-The fact that young Cinch is in a leather laboratory implies that she was a child worker. The fact that she keeps low caps and The presence of a specific photo specifies a work in felt-making, a profession involving mercury salts and its fumes, and one that causes insanity in the long run.
-Cinch in uniform in several places indicates that she has been brought up with Franchist-or at least Fascist- values.
-The photos of Cinch's graduation is supposed to simply represent the apotheosis and union of both the aforementioned issues. Not to mention, reinforce the notion of success as Abacus Cinch's only true pleasure.
6834037
I take you did not like my idea.
6834258 Well we don't know what the powers that be think. One minute they're pulling the plug on Fighting is Magic, and the next they're giving us a whole season of fanservice.
This is a Twilight's Reviews review:
You need a comma at the end, not a period.
You don't need a comma after "said".
Take out the "n" in "an" and remove the comma next to said.
Here are a few mistakes I've found from the short description:
"Thruth" is spelled as "truth" and "abotu" is spelled as "about".
Overall, this story isn't that bad. It had a decent level of grammar and it was well written. But maybe you should've made the story a bit longer. I feel like it came to a sudden stop at the end. Perhaps if you added more depth into this it would've made a better sad story.