It’s the same thing every day. The racial comments, the ridicule, the heartbreak. It’s obvious. I’m not welcome here.
“You made it in?!” Twilight Sparkle, my mom, exclaimed in happiness, “That’s amazing!”
“Yeah it is, great job Dawn,” my brother Sparx said.
My name is Dawn Shine. I’m the daughter of Twilight Sparkle and Dusk Cloud. I’m not like most ponies though, mainly because I’m blind and that I’m also the Element of Trust. I recently made it into the same school my mom went to as a filly, Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. But I’m not there to take classes, I’m there to give them.
“Oh, I wish your father was here to see this,” Mom thought out loud, like she usually does.
“I’ll go get him,” My grandpa said as he went out the door. Recently, my grandpa, formerly Shadow Blade, Dusk Relic married Princess Luna.
There was a bunch of controversy about Luna now being the dominant sister. There was almost a civil war between Celestia’s followers and Luna’s. But that was settled when Luna announced that she will have the same amount of power as she did before the marriage.
I didn’t know where he was, but my guess was that he and Pyro were meeting up with John and Tech. Tech recently moved into town. He’s a pegasus and he’s taught my mom and I magic we’ve never even heard of! He even enhanced my sight spell so I only have to cast it in the morning.
As you may already know, I’m blind because i was born without irises. The thing with the sight spell is that, if you can see, you can see through objects; but if you’re blind, you can see, but only he outlines of objects.
“Oh this is so exciting!” my mom nearly shouted, jumping like she had drank a whole gallon of coffee, “What are you going to teach first?”
“Well, I guess, uh...” I stammered, “maybe I’m gonna-”
Luckily I was interrupted by the door opening.
“There she is!” I heard my dad’s voice call through the house. He came up to me and hugged me, ”I knew you could do it.”
“Thanks Dad,” I said as I kissed his cheek. He booped my nose in return.
“So, Dawn,” my other brother Pyro said, sounding annoyed as always, “What is it you’re teaching?”
“Oh, um,” I looked at my paper that I had received, “I’m teaching Enchantments.”
“Your sight spell is an enchantment,” Luna said knowingly, “You should teach that first.”
“That sounds good, thanks Princess Lu-”
“Dawn, I’m your grandmother,” Luna interrupted, “how many times do I have to tell you that? Anyways, I teach Astronomy there, so I'm sure see you when you get there.”
“Um, Grandma?” Sparx said, looking over my shoulder at the paper, “she’s supposed to be there today.”
“Well in that case, we should go,” Grandpa Dusk said, “Dawn, pack a few things, the chariot awaits.”
I was very excited to start teaching, but I was also nervous. It had always been my dream to be a teacher, but I didn’t know if I could go through with it. Many thoughts rushed through my head as I packed a brush and some other things that could help. What if something goes wrong? What if I end up messing up and killing somepony? These were just the few thoughts ravaging my mind as I stepped out of the house/library.
I followed Luna to a large chariot, pulled by four very strong looking pegasi, all clad in heavy armor. It was a miracle they could fly, much more that they could pull a chariot. I climb in the back and sit behind Luna. The ponies in the street cleared the road and bows as we pass. I knew none of them were bowing to me, but it still filled me with pride. I mean, I’m the Night Princess’s granddaughter, why shouldn’t I imagine that from time to time?
As we were flying, I saw a few pegasi I recognized. And by that, I mean I “saw” the outline of ponies I knew. Raindrops, Derpy (who was flying upside down), and even my Auntie Scootaloo. I waved to her, and she did the same.
As I look ahead and see Canterlot coming into view, then looked at the Castle, where I had only been in once in my entire life with wonder. It was an amazing sight from the sky. If there’s one species of pony I envy, it would be the pegasus. They get to see everything from a different angle. I would give nearly anything for a chance like that.
A mirror floated in front of me, ”you should brush that mane of yours, Dawn,” Luna said, forgetting I couldn’t see reflections, “you want to look professional for the first day, don’t you?”
I ran my hooves through my mane and found it was rough and greasy. I began to charge up my horn as I prepared a small spell I call the Shower-in-a-spell. I’m still working on the name. Basically, what it does is pull off all the dirt, grime, sweat and anything else off the caster and anything within five feet of the one who casts it, and puts it into a ball. Then the user can send it to another location of their choice. Plus, it’s completely untraceable.
Before I knew it, we were landing in front of the academy. My mom had never taken any pictures of her time there, not that I’d be able to see any details (or anything at that). All I could see were the trees, streams, bridges and many other things that I don’t have enough time to say, unless you want it to be the whole story. I saw many unicorns walking the campus also. Some were big some were small. Some short and some tall.
Then I saw the only thing that seemed not to belong, like in one of those “find-it’s” I’ve been told about. A lone pegasus sitting in the shade of a smaller tree. I didn’t have enough time to register this when I felt a brush in my mane.
I took the brush and began brushing my own mane. when everything was smoothed out, I styled it with a small flip at the end.
“You look amazing Dawn,” an elegant voice came from behind me.
I turned around to see a form I could never forget. Princess Celestia, my mom’s former teacher. And my great aunt, and Aunt-in-law.
“Princess Celestia,” I said and bowed, “good to see you again“
“Dawn,” she chuckled, “I’ve known you since you were a filly, you don’t need to bow.”
I sighed and stood up.
“Your class is going to start soon,” Luna said, looking out from behind Celestia’s flank, “that stallion over there knows where your classroom is,” she pointed at the pegasus under the tree.
“Okay,” I nodded and walked over to him, standing next to him. He didn’t seem to notice as he casually eats his apple. to be honest, I thought he was a mare, “Hi,” I said quietly.
The stallion coughed and makes a "shoo" motion with his wing.
“I was told to come to you.”
“Oh great,” the pegasus got up and tossed his apple in the trash, “another student that needs to get to their class?”
“Close,” I was starting to get annoyed with his disrespectfulness, “I’m the new Enchantments teacher.”
“Well there’s a room for that, it’s called Enchantments 101. Just head to the door, take a left, go find the Magic’s Wing and then-”
“I’m blind,” I interrupted, “I can’t read.”
“Who made a blind teac-” he shakes his head, “alright fine. Follow me. And don’t bump into any walls,” He gets up and heads into the building.
“I may be blind, but that doesn’t mean I can’t see,” I followed him, watching the other unicorns stare.
As we were going into the building, some of the students and even the faculty glared at the pegasus. I could hear them making nasty comments under their breath.
“Is that a new student? Why is she following that thing?”
“Hey look, there’s that [pegasus]. why Celestia chose him to teach here, is beyond me. Nothing so dirty should even be on campus.”
We entered the building and the comments were no different.
“Can you hear what they’re saying?”
He makes a few (not very convincing) coughs, “Yeah, yeah. Here’s your room. And I’m not a tour guide.” as he goes back to his classroom, he muttered about something.
“Thank you Mister, uh,” I began, “What’s your name?”
“Says it right here on my I.D. It’s really a cheap one though. Soul Light. Mister Light, Teacher Light. Whatever floats your boat.” He went inside his classroom and gently closed the door.
“Soul Light,” I said to myself, committing his form and voice to memory.
I looked into the classroom to see it was filled with students already. I took a deep breath and cast a quick spell. make it flashy to show your expertise in the subject Soon an exact copy of myself formed. I moved my right hoof and it moved its left. I began to walk in place, but when I did so, the clone began to go into the classroom. I did one more little spell, more of an enchantment and the clone began to multiply.
I could hear the students murmuring in confusion as I made them do a little march into a square. I took out a small pouch of rocks I had gotten from Pyro as a birthday present, and cast another enchantment that makes them explode like mini fireworks. I threw them into the classroom, and listened to the explosions.
I walked in right as everything subsided. The copies dissipated and the clone disappeared.
“Does anypony know what I just did?” I asked loudly to get over their loud chattering.
“That was a cloning spell,” a young mare said, raising her hoof.
“You are only partially correct,” I closed my eyes and started going toward the group, “the first one to come in was a clone and the re-”
“The rest were mere illusions,” a very nasally colt said, “anyone knows that.”
“Yes,” I said as I levitated him out of his seat and down to the middle of the floor, “now, I want you to tell me, what this one is.”
He instantly collapsed and layed down on the ground, “who knows what I just did to him?”
“You cast a hex on him,” the same young mare said, “didn’t you?”
“Close but no apples,” the students looked at each other for someone who understood that, “I just cast a defensive spell that disables all muscles in the body except for the lungs and the heart. He will recover soon.”
“You never told us who y’are,” a colt said. He had a heavy Mannesotan accent.
“I am your new teacher,” I looked at all 43 students, “Dawn Shine. But while class is in, you will refer to me as Miss Shine. Understood?”
They all nodded.
“Good,” I said, and opened my eyes.
They did exactly what I wanted them to do. Gasp.