Chasing The Stars

‘Come on, come on…’ Shadow thought while looking at the clock, not bothering to listen to what Miss Cheerlie’s talking about. Sweat dropped from his forehead.

‘Three.’ He count downed in his mind.

‘Two.’ Shadow could feel that his heart was beating faster and faster.

Just then, he felt a hoof patted his shoulder. He turned and looked at the pony who patted him. It was Star. Shadow gave her a confused look. Star just looked at him and in front of him. Full of curiosity, he turned and looked in front of him. It was Miss Cheerlie.

“Ahem.” She coughed.

“I asked, do you know that who are the ones that saved Equestria from eternal winter?” She repeated the question she asked him while he was dazing.

“Uh…” Shadow stammered. It wasn’t that he didn’t know what the answer was, it was a very simple question. It’s just that he couldn’t remember the answer.

“Well?” Miss Cheerlie asked him impatiently.

And after a second, the school bell rang.

Miss Cheerlie sighed.

“Okay class, its recess now. You can go out and play but don’t go too far and remember to come back before eleven o’clock.” She reminded all the fillies and colts in the class.

After that, everypony rushed to outside the classroom. They wanted to treasure all of the recess time to play with their friends and to have a rest. It was pretty tiring while listening to Miss Cheerlie talking about the history of Equestria.

Shadow sighed of relief as Miss Cheerlie announced the recess time. He was kinda scared that she would give him a detention. Well, it wasn’t his fault to forget the answer to that question that Miss Cheerlie asked just now. It just…well, slipped off his mind…

“Shadow is it?” A familiar sound came from his back. Just by then, a cold chill went through his spine.

He turned around and saw that it was Miss Cheerlie.

‘Please don’t give me a detention; please don’t give me a detention.’ He closed his eyes, ready for his punishment.

“Well, all I wanted to say is that you should cool down Shadow.” She said softly.

Shadow opened his eyes slowly and took a peek at her.

“I know you’re nervous because you just came in this school but try to keep calm. I know that you are a special colt.” Miss Cheerlie added with a friendly smile.

Shadow could feel that his cheeks were burning red.

“T… Thanks Miss Cheerlie.” He said quickly and ran outside the classroom.

‘Phew, that was close. I thought that she wanted to give me a detention…’ He thought.

‘But still, she is a kind pony though. But Miss Starshine was still way much kinder than her.’ Shadow thought again as he trotted towards the playground to find Star.

But then, he hesitated. He couldn’t just stick with Star for the whole day. She has her own friends. He just can’t go and ruin everything. He took a step back. Suddenly, he felt that he knocked over somepony at the back.

“Hey!” the pony he knocked yelled.

“I… I’m so sorry.” Shadow apologized as he turned around and saw a small sized unicorn colt with a turquoise colored fur.

“Don’t you look when you go backwards?” The colt yelled at him again.

“I…I…”He stammered, not knowing how to answer the colt’s question. He didn’t knew that he was at the back of himself.

“Hey, Snips! Miss Cheerlie called you to see her just now.” A familiar voice came.

Shadow turned his back and saw that it was Star. She gave him a wink and turned back to Snips again.

“She said that she wanted you to help her with something.” She continued.

“Oh okay.” The colt who was so-called Snips by Star quickly went into the classroom to find Miss Cheerlie.

Shadow looked at Star with a grateful expression.

“Thanks, Star” He said thankfully.

“Don’t mention it, friends always help each other.” Star said with a smile.

Shadow smiled back and asked her:

“Aren’t you playing with your friends?” He asked her curiously.

“I was, but then I saw that you were having some trouble with Snips. So I came to help you out.” She replied him immediately.

“Oh…” Shadow murmured while bowing down his head. He implicated Star again.

“Don’t feel sorry, we were almost getting to an end anyway.” Star comforted him while patting him with a hoof.

"Well, it's just that I don't want to involve you in my problems. Again..."Shadow blurted out something that he wanted to say for a long time. He didn’t like watching people involved in his mess.

“Friends always help each other.” Star told Shadow seriously.

“And I won’t just sit there and eat popcorn while my friend’s got problems.” She continued.

“So don’t be silly and think that you’re implicating me in your problems. “ She finished.

After listening to Star, Shadow’s eyes were filled with tears. He hugged Star with excitement. He was touched by Star’s words. It was his first time to meet a friend like Star. His friends in the orphanage always dumped him when he was in some kind of trouble.

“Uh…Shadow, ponies are looking at us.” Star told Shadow while slightly blushing.

“Oh, I…I’m sorry.” He apologized as he realized what he was doing.

“You know, you’ve already said a lot of ‘Sorry’s today.” Star teased him.

The duo laughed loudly.

Just then, the school bell rang again to signal the students that it was time to go back to the classroom again. Everypony rushed into the classroom as they didn’t want to get scolded by Miss Cheerlie. And then, Shadow and Star also walked into the classroom to start their classes.

Then, when Miss Cheerlie started teaching, Shadow saw a piece of paper in front of him.

It said: “Good Luck!”

Shadow turned to look at a winking Star. She smiled broadly at him. And the, he smiled back at her too.

“Okay class, let’s start now!”

                                                                                 * * *

“Okay class, that’s all for today.” Miss Cheerlie said while keeping her books in a saddlebag. “Be sure to finish your homework and pass it up by tomorrow.” She added.

Ignoring her, the students quickly stuffed their textbooks, papers, notebooks and other things into their saddlebags and rushed outside the classroom. Miss Cheerlie could only smile and sigh.

After keeping her textbooks, Star turned to Shadow excitedly” Hey, wanna walk home together?” Perhaps she could meet Shadow’s parents. She was extremely curious about Shadow, she hasn’t heard of anypony moving into Ponyville recently.

“Uh…Well…” Shadow stammered, not knowing how to reply Star. Finally, he thought of an excuse. “Well… My parents are still busying in organizing our new home and plus our home is still messy, so they told me not to invite my friends home yet.”

Star looked at Shadow suspiciously.

Shadow gulped. Cold sweat was dripping down from his forehead slowly.

‘Great excuse, Shadow.’ He thought to himself.

“Oh well, I guess I’ll walk home with you some other time.” Star said, slightly disappointed.

Shadow sighed of relief. Then, they waved goodbye to each other and went back to their homes.

The sun was setting slowly. Shadow walked leisurely towards his “home”. He took a deep breath and sighed. It has been a long time since he had been so relaxed. He never did fit in when he was in the orphanage. Everypony seems to think that he’s weird or something. They seem to avoid from him.

When he arrived at the cave, he began to settle down and have some rest. It was quite a tiring day for him. Within minutes, Shadow began to fall into a deep sleep.