Carbon

"Good morning students and parents and/or guardians. Now, I know that usually at the stat of the year the returning students don't have to bring somepony in, but as many of you know a lot has changed over the summer. With the funding boost Princess Twilight Sparkle has put into the school systems we are happy to let eveypony know that the schoolhouse now has two new rooms. One of these rooms will be an office for our new staff member. And now I suppose I should let him introduce himself, Professor Paradox."

The classroom remained politely silent as the town's fuchsia earthpony schoolteacher, Cheerilee, finished her little speech. Their was a few more desks filled this year, and next to every desk that had a colt or filly in it, stood a grown pony(barely in some cases). In total their was about thirty-two ponies in the classroom, that included the two teachers up front. The second of the two teachers, a deep blue unicorn with a white mane and tail. Despite the coloring of his mane, he was quite young, in his early twenties(most ponies were fully-employed and moving out at eighteen).

"Hello!" His overly joyous greeting drew the attention of nearly eveypony in the room. "I don't like being called Professor. I haven't earned my degree yet and I don't have anything but my transcripts to prove I've taken any class that can prove I can teach. I've got a bit of a Papa bear mentality thing, so trust me when I say that the happiness is the most important thing to me. That being said, I want all my students to call me Parry."

At this a few of the foals started to giggle. "I know, I know, its a silly name, but that's why I like it. Now I know that some of you are worried that I'm going to run Miss Cheerilee out of a job. I assure you that is not the case. She will get paid the same, which will be more than I'm gonna get. I'm only going to teach the math portion of your classes, and maybe sciences later on. The main reason I'm here is the fact that I will serve as the Special Education Aid."

As he said this one of the parent/guardians ducked slightly and moved behind her daughter. This was do to the almost involuntary glances she got from others all through the room. Being new to the town, Paradox looked around with a curious expression.

"Hold up!" Everyponies attention was now back on the blue unicorn. "Why is everyone looking at her?"

The gray pegasus with the blond mane started to stutter and shake now that the attention was back on her. "I-I-I'm-"

"Pardon my slight rudeness, but I'm not on the floor. I understand that your nervous for some reason, but until you look at me and explain I can't make anything of this" Cheerilee was giving Paradox a questioning glance, but he ignored her acting as is just he and the pegusus were chatting and nopony else was in the room.

"I'm Ditzy Doo, my eyes cause me a lot of problems. I went to a mentally deficiency school. I-It wasn't very nice so I dropped out a-and I still h-haven't p-passed my g-gadu-ation test. Don't r-r-report me." She got more frantic as she went, despite her attempt to not make a scene.

While It wasn't a crime, not finishing basic education was necessary for many things like holding a job and owning a house. These were not a problem for Ditzy because she was employed with her uncle in the postal service and lived with a friend. It did however make It easier to bring into question how well she could take care of her daughter. Word had gotten around town, but, it being a small town, everypony knew her personally and just kept it quiet, including Cheerilee.

"Well, that's a shame. I'm gonna have to do something about that." Paradox stated as he furrowed his eyebrows in thought.

"NO!" this particular shout coming from the small periwinkle unicorn in front of Ditzy. "You leave my mommy alone!"

"Dinky, do not shout at Mr. Paradox," chided Cheerilee.

"No, It's alright Cheerilee." Paradox was smiling at the incident. "Dinky, where do you and your mom live?"

"Not telling," she 'hrumph'ed crossing her arms. I was quite cute.

"Then how am I gonna tutor you mom?"

"W-w-what?" Almost everypony was suprised by that remark, but none more so than Ditzy herself.

"Well, we can't have you going around without a GED now can we."

"B-but Cheerilee said that she isn't in a position to give me the test."

"True she doesn't, but I do." he ended his statement with a huge grin.

"Thank you so-"

"Don't thank me yet, I'm not gonna lighten your homework load because you work."

Ditzy nodded. "Cheerilee should have my address."

"So, who in the class is going to get your tutoring?" A florescent orange unicorn stallion towards the back asked, reminding the two that they were not the only ones in the room.

"Right, so if you think your foal need to be taken aside during tests and classwork time you can make an appointment with me for some time after class next week. This week I will simply sit in and help those that need it. If you want to make an appointment you might want to bring in some paperwork if you foal has a disability." Paradox seemed to go back into a lecture mode as he addressed the older ponies. "That being said, If they are failing any subject and we haven't talked I will have you brought in to discuss it. Also, if the student is in perfect health and is failing do to any other reason, like lack of focus or family troubles stopping them from completing their work, they will also be in my class. Any questions?"

"I, um, was wondering if, maybe, if it was possible, that you could have a handout or note with this information, if its no trouble that is?" asked a yellow pegasus.

"What for, exactly Miss..." He what leaning forward because of how quite she was.

"...tter..hy" she somewhat mermerd.

"Hold on." He lit up his horn in a green light and his ear along with it. "Okay, now repeat that."

"Her name is Fluttershy."

"YOW"

While the white unicorn filly was not loud, she was still closer and the spell Paradox had on his ear made it like a sonic rainboom. He also forgot to end it before he shouted, and damaged his ear more in the process. Clutching his head he ended the spell.

"Sorry," said the filly sheepishly, "but her name is Fluttershy. She came instead of my sister, Rarity, because she is busy with a fitting she couldn't skip today."

Paradox seemed to freeze for a bit as the filly spoke.

"Right." He pause for a second before continuing. "Will your sister picking you up?"

"Umm... no?" She couldn't read his face and was lost slightly. "I usually walk home myself."

"Well, we can't have that. I'll walk you home and talk to your sister Rarity myself."

"Uh, Okay." Her face saying otherwise.

After a few questions on contact information and qualifications, Cheerilee saw the adults out. She then started up the first class, history. The students were extra quite during the lesson, mostly do to the new teacher sitting in the back of the room. He tried not to appear like a hypocritical adult and not be friends with the foals after saying he would. He would occasionally walk around and point out mistakes on his students papers. A misspelled griffin name here, a incorrect statement there. The part that made the foals most confused was the fact that he just pointed out the mistakes and didn't correct them.

"Nope," he stated bluntly over Apple Bloom's shoulder, "Wrong mountain range. Think more 'griffiny'."

"What?"

"The battle wasn't over the Haymalayans. That's not 'griffiny' enough." Then he went on leaving the young filly even more confused than before. This continued for the next four classes until lunch. That was the point were the fouls acted as they usually did. The groups of fillies and colts when of to fill the little niches they had made for themselves last year. Of course, for on pink filly and her grey follower this meant tormenting another set of students.

"Hey, blank flanks!"

"What ya want, Tiara?" Apple Bloom knew what was coming and wanted it to be over with.

"Just coming over to see if you losers are going to get in trouble again,"she stated with a smirk.

"What do you mean?," asked Sweetie Belle. "We haven't gotten in trouble...yet."

"Then why does the new teacher want to talk to your sister in person?" This was what she was planning to bring up from the start. "Is it because he though you were stupid the moment you talked? Maybe he wants you to go into that 'special' class of his."

"He's just here to help us, Tiara," stated the orange filly.

"Yeah, and my sis' said theirs no problem takin' help when ya need it."

"Maybe if you weren't so dumb you would you wouldn't need his help," mocked the pink one.

"Yeah, he helped you on, like, every problem," backed the grey filly.

"I ain't dumb!" shouted Apple Bloom at the sky.

"Besides, me and Scootaloo had just as much trouble as Bloom," said Sweetie trying to help the situation.

"So your all as dumb as the farmfilly?" Asked the pink menace, reveling her trump card.

"No!" shouted Scootaloo and Sweetie without thinking, but it was to late. The implied insult was picked up on by the filly in the bow, and her eyes started to water.

"Y-you think I'm not as smart as you two? Then maybe I shouldn't hang out around you guys anymore." She spoke slowly and softly, but fast enough to were they couldn't interrupt. Then she walked away at a pace just below a jog. Nopony knew, but she turned away to hide her tears.

"Tiara!" Scootaloo yelled accusingly.

"What, you two are the ones that didn't think you were as dumb as her." The bully smirked and turned to her only friend. "Come on, Spoon. We're done here."

When the two-thirds of the trio were left by themselves they were at a loss.

"What just happened?"

"I think Tiara just tricked us into losing 'Bloom, Sweetie," said Scootaloo, stating the sad truth.

"We should go after her!"

"And say what? 'Sorry, I didn't mean to call you stupid.' Yeah that wont work."

"Cheerilee would know but she's in her office."

"Mr. Paradox said his door was open. We could go to him?"

"I don't know..."

"Com'on Sweetie, he's all we got."

"Fine, but your talking."

"Deal."

The two walked over to the new side of the school house. Most of the students were on the other side of the building because the playground equipment got moved all to one side during the construction. They found that his door was indeed open, as they expected. What they didn't expect was the new teacher to be drinking from a flask and the small office to smell like alcohol. Sweetie didn't recognize the smell and container, but Scootaloo did.

"Are you allowed to Drink on the job?" accused Scootaloo as she scrutinized the teacher.

Not noticing the fillies in the room, he quickly put the flask away. "Uh, but if I didn't drink anything then I would get dehydrated and that's not healthy at all."

"That's not what I meant and you know it." Scootaloo mumbled as she turned to leave. "Never mind Sweetie he can't help."

"Wait!" They both stopped and turned just in time to see him pull the flask back out. "I didn't know how much you to knew about alcohol. Scootaloo." He paused to sigh and gaze comfortingly at the filly, "how did you recognize the smell?"

"My mom drinks on the weekends. Don't worry though she tells me not to be in the same room as her when she's drinking. She always afraid she's gonna hurt me."

"Does she?"

"No, she sits by my door sometimes and tells me how worried she is about Dad being in the Guard, but most the time she's puking in the toilet as soon as she gets home."

"She uses drinking as mental medicine, but she could use other things. I, on the other hoof, need It for physical medicine. I have a condition. I take pills to keep my mind clear so I'm not 'drunk'. So, to answer your question, Yes, I am allowed to drink on the job, but that doesn't mean I want you to think its okay." The little speech he gave seemed to put the filly at ease, but she still didn't trust him completely. "So, did you two come here to share lunch with me or did you need help?"

"It started when Diamond Tiara came over and started to make fun of us, which happens all the time and doesn't really bother us, but today she mentioned how much you were helping Apple Bloom with the classwork and said she needed so much help because he was stupid and so I mentioned how me a-and S-Scoots had just as help f-from you a-and then D-D-Dia..." Sweetie tried her best to explain what happened, but was caught up on the thought that her dear friend Apple Bloom would not forgive them. So Scootaloo picked up the slack.

"Then Diamond Tiara asked if that meant we were as dumb as Bloom and we said 'no' and Bloom thought that we meant that we thought she was dumb and didn't want to be compared to her and ran off crying and we don't think she will let us apologize and we just want our fiend back"

By the end of the rushed and slightly confusing explanation, both the fillies were almost to tears. Explaining the problem made them realize how serious it could be. Paradox, after piecing things together, had, roughly, a plan on how to fix it. He grabbed a pencil in his magic and started to write a note to his co-worker.

"Okay girls point me in the direction she went and then give this note to Miss Cheerilee. Lunch is just about over and I don't know how long this will take. She will deal with Tiara after school."

"Thank you Mr. Paradox." said Sweetie quitely.

"You're welcome," He grimed or the next part. "And call me Parry"