Dear Mom and Dad,
I know I haven't written to you in a few weeks but it's been pretty hectic since school started. I've told you about some things already but the police said that I should tell you everything. I think this is the easiest way so I'm writing it all into a letter. This is also in part to the constant whining of my friend from school. I mentioned her to you before but I don't think I managed to convey the full sense of annoyance she can bring to any situation. I suppose I might as well start at the beginning of the school year and detail all the events that led to this letter and subsequent police custody.
Everything began two days before classes started. The carriage dropped me off Saturday morning and I moved into the dormitories with a bit of help from the driver. He was really nice about it too. I think he knew I was a scholarship student because I was actually polite. Not to say the students here aren't polite but that's something that I'll write about later.
Moving in was easy with his help so I got done in no time. I did want to get the lay of the land so I wouldn't spend my first day completely lost in the halls though. I know we saw it a bit during the tour but you just can't tell how big Clementine's Academy for Girls is until you've been lost looking for a specific classroom. The other girls must have a map on standby because I still got lost but it didn't matter on a Saturday. Still, the entire school was absolutely beautiful. Well, it was clean and really well taken care of unlike Rising Acres Public was. The halls were all shiny white and black tile. It made me feel like a chess piece and I couldn't help but play the knight.
Playing knight through the school halls got boring after a bit, also embarrassing. So I went outside to look at the greenhouse and all the other things they had. Oh it was so beautiful, you both would have loved it. I saw every type of blooming flower. There were roses and bluebells and daisies. I thought about getting a few seeds to send back to you, dad, but I decided against it. I'm pretty sure you don't have some of these back home though. I want to show you when you get here if you don't ground me forever. Please?
Anyway, it was on my way back from the greenhouse that I met her. And if she'd stop looking over my shoulder and poking me I would get on with it. Sorry, she's rather insistent and impossible to deal with. She also needs a breath mint.
I was leaving the garden via the outdoor activities area. I hadn't bothered changing into the school uniform for various reasons. I didn't really want to get it dirty was the logical one but the lack of uniform is probably part of why they pegged me for the new scholarship student. I had hoped to keep my status as a scholarship student a secret, but I learned later that keeping a secret in the Academy is near impossible for a lot of reasons, one of which being the pony breathing down my neck. I had also hoped that my status wouldn't matter much once I proved that I was worthy of a place in the school. Turns out I didn't have the chance to prove myself to anyone.
I was passing the tennis courts by the track where some ponies were running when I suddenly found myself surrounded between the bleachers by a group of fillies. The ringleader, an earth pony, stepped out to talk to me. “Well well, I know most of the students at the school and I don't know you. Guess that makes you a new student.” She was smiling but it wasn't a friendly smile. She had her cutie mark already too, it was a gold ingot which I suppose just enforced her place in high society.
“Yes, I've only just arrived this morning.” I replied You know I've never been cowed by anyone, let alone the rich. Still, it never hurts to be polite.
“Well, I've never met you before today, how about you girls?” She turned back to the other ponies with her, all of them were smiling as they shook their heads and said no. That wasn't friendly either. “So that makes you the school's new charity case. Not sure why the school is letting itself sink so low but what can you do?” She laughed and her entourage obediently laughed with her. She was starting to get on my nerves and I couldn't help but defend myself.
“You can trot somewhere else. I worked hard and I got in because I deserved it, what did you do to get in here?”
She laughed at me and her group laughed dutifully along with her. “Nothing so dull as work. Why bother when I can get anything I want already. It's only you poor, destitute types that have to get your hooves dirty and I'm happy to let you dirty yourself up for me. How about it, you like work so much, why not work for me? I'll even pay you.” She grinned at me and I was just about ready to punch her. “You'd have to dye your mane and tail of course but that pales in comparison to the benefits I could provide you with.” That was when the she I keep mentioning showed up.
At first I thought she was a pegasus, the way she soared over the other ponies and landed next to me. She was an earth pony though, a bit smaller than me, possibly because I haven't lost all my foal fat. Someday. Anyway, she had the cockiest look on her face I've ever seen. “Hey this looks exciting, haven't seen you all summer Carat, it's been a real vacation.” The head filly, whose name I now knew as Carat, was staring daggers at the newcomer. She'd finally lost that annoying air of superiority and I wasn't sure I wanted to be there anymore. .
“I thought they'd finally kicked you out, now push off Pusher.” Carat ordered. Pusher laughed right in her face.
“You all are looking the wrong way, track's over there.” She nodded over at the track. “If you wanted to see brilliance, that's where I was. Setting records and kicking flank. So leave the filly alone and pay me some attention.” I was about to object but thought better of it. These two obviously had some history and if they wanted to fight about something they could leave me out of it. I didn't want to get targeted any more than I already was.
“Or what Pusher? You'll go tell on me? Maybe you should go to the police.” She laughed and, unsurprisingly, her posse laughed with her, more surprisingly, so did Pusher.
“You've always been a poor wit.” She reached up and seemed to brush her hoof against Carat's mane, Carat flinching away from the touch. Then she suddenly jerked away as Pusher pulled several hairs from her mane and held them up. “What have we here?”
“You bitch, you pulled out my hair.” Carrot whined. “Does it still look OK? Did she mess it up too badly?” She tried to look at her own mane by spinning in circles. “I'll report you to the dean.”
“Calm down, I didn't pull...oh I guess I did but that's not what I meant to do. Look at this.” She held up several hairs. “Such a beautiful chestnut color aren't they, well, most of them. But this one, this one is seems to be rather blonde. Strange for one who wouldn't share a moldy apple with a starving pony to share her hairbrush.” I saw Carat's expression change from angry to something altogether different.
“What are you talking about?” She asked.
“Only this, these hairs don't match up. Looking closely, this blonde hair was rather recently dyed too. That means a pony who's recently changed mane colors.” She smiled and I wasn't the only one who who started looking at the other ponies in the group to see if there was one with dyed hair, not that I could tell, I'd never seen them before and it wasn't obvious. There were a lot of fillies with golden manes though.
“I don't know what you mean.” Carat said. “Stop making things up.”
“Oh you may not know yet, but I'm not done.” She held the hairs close up to her eye. “Judging from this I'd say the color underneath is rather brown, darker than yours but still near enough. You never could stand anyone sharing your mane color, always wanted to stand out in the crowd but never wanted to change yourself.”
“So what, I deserve to stand out. I'm amazing.” She snarled, not at all acting amazing.
“Well nothing to get in trouble over, but you know, sneaking a colt into your dorm room is bad enough, but what would daddy dearest say if he found out you were bringing one of your little hangers on to bed with you every night. School's a place where you learn but I don't think that would be a lesson he'd want you to know.” She smiled at Carat and took a deep breath.. “Amazing what you can learn from a stray hair, isn't it?” She flicked them up and the hairs blew away into the wind.
“I won't forget this Pusher. You'll regret it if you ever breathe a word about this to anyone.” She turned and stamped off, the others followed her at a distance.
“Thanks for that.” I said to her and she smiled at me, a friendlier smile than I'd seen all afternoon. “You're brilliant, I couldn't even see that hair.”
“Yeah, me neither.” She laughed. “Four years and she hasn't realized I'm in the room behind her and you have no idea how easy it is to hear things through the walls if you have a rig for it.”
“You mean that was just a trick? You didn't figure any of that out?” I was completely fooled. She'd seemed like a genius.
“I could have figured it out with the hair, there just wasn't one, so I improvised.” I felt rather cheated though I'm not sure why. “Don't look so down kiddo, I'm still a genius.”
“Don't call me that, you cannot be older than me.” I said to her. “And you could try some modesty.”
“Modesty is for people who have modest abilities. Welcome to the Academy, nobody here, pony or griffon, is modest so you better start learning how to brag.” Pusher grinned at me. I guess I smiled back a little and that seemed to encourage her. “There you go cloudy-flank, show me a few teeth and the world smiles at you...or something. I'm Shallo.”
Of course you are is what I didn't say, what I did say was “Pleasure to meet you, I'm Grace.”
“Well that's good to know, course it hardly matters.” She was smiling at me not unlike she had smiled at Carat. It was a predator smile and it made me nervous. “See, I know you're a new student easy enough, same as those idiots earlier. And if they can figure something out, it's only because it's more obvious than the muzzle on your face. Come, walk with me to the lunchroom while I tell you all about yourself.” She started walking off before I could even say yes or no, and she kept on talking. “See, the way you carry yourself is just so different. You're all shy and anxious. Most of the fillies here act like they belong even on day one. They're just so used to being special especially when they aren't, and believe you me, most of them aren't. You walk differently, it's all in the flank. Speaking of, there aren't many at the school who haven't got a cutie mark by now.”
“Well neither have you.” I said in my defense. I get a bit self-conscious about my blank flank so she got me blushing.
“Now there's no need to get snippy. Just saying, most of these girls already found their place in life, even if that place is in the shadow of daddy's bank account.” She shrugged. “Idiots.”
“I see, but that can't be the only thing.” I said. I was only partially listening though, mostly I was just following her. I knew where the cafeteria was but she was going around in a completely different direction than I had expected and I wanted to remember it.
“Of course not. See, looking at your hair I can deduce that you're from Hoofington, not exactly high society.”
“Maybe I had my mane styled, did that occur to you?”
“Oh please, that's got self styled written all over it, I bet your mom taught you because you don't find that in a salon.”
“Yeah, she did.” I looked at my hooves, she knew me at a glance, and I wondered if I was so out of place at this school.
“Oh come on, don't look so depressed, it's adorable. Looks very show pony-ish.” She pushed open a door marked employees only and I hesitated for several reasons. Part of it was my mind processing what she said and the other was me being a good filly. “Well come on. I know people here, it's all good.” She kept walking and, against my better judgment, I followed. “So there's your hair all figured out. Moving on, I'm pretty sure that you were also aiming at a lot of schools and the best one that gave you a scholarship was this one. We took you in so you probably got in to a lot of them but couldn't afford Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Youngsters which is why you aren't there.”
“Hold on, how'd you know about that.” I had been looking at the kitchen we were walking through, there were a lot of people running around cooking and cleaning the chrome but none of them paid us any attention once they saw Pusher.
“Simple, it's the best school for unicorns like yourself and yet you're here.” She shrugged as if it were nothing. “Also I read the files on everypony that comes into the school. I've got a key to the offices and the superintendent just loves me.” I followed her through the kitchen doors and into the cafeteria. It was pretty empty right now, only a few tables had anyone sitting at them.
“What!” Once again, she floored me. “You can't-that's private. You're just a huge fraud. This whole time you let me think you were some kind of genius and the whole time you were repeating things you read.” I don't know why I felt betrayed, I'd only known her for ten minutes. I thought it was just because she'd gotten into my private files.
“Come on, give me some credit, the stuff about Celestia's wasn't in there. I got that how I said. Our school offered you a rare scholarship, that means they wanted you so you must be a great magician. Celestia gets all the best magicians in general but the fact that you're here means our offer was better. Also I can tell you a few other things I learned on our walk just to prove my magnificence. Your favorite food is candied apples. When we passed the cook making them you drifted over and your nose went right to them. However you pulled away real quick when you saw the same cook making the hayseed cake. That doesn't indicate a dislike, that indicates an allergy, a bad one too.”
“Yeah.” I said, a bit abashed. She had caught some things with some legitimacy so maybe she was right. She finally stopped walking at a table and turned to face me. “The brand of alfalfa he was using is one that messes me up pretty bad. It's expensive so it wasn't really a problem before. I guess you are pretty smart.” I conceded. She positively beamed and then I heard a groan from the table. There on the other side was a griffon, I'd never seen one before and I hadn't realized the school had griffon students, she was obviously a student since she had the uniform on.
“Grace, this layabout is Gabrielle.” Pusher said with a brief gesture.
“Nice to meet you.” She said. “You've complimented her, bad idea. She'll be floating away for months.” I looked at Pusher and she did seem sort of out of it. She had a rather smug smile and a far away look in her eyes.
“It's nice to meet you. I've never met a griffon before.” I said, trying to be polite.
“Yeah, some ponies haven't. That's why I get to sit way over here all by my lonesome. My feeding habits tend to offend some of you veggie types.” She snorted and that's when I noticed what she was eating. It was a fish, seeing it lie there half eaten left me a bit queasy. “Still, Shallo doesn't mind it much and we work well together.”
“What do you mean by work well together?” I had to ask, it didn't make sense.
“Well she's the laziest griffon you'll ever meet.” Pusher said coming down from her joyful high.
“Yes I am, but it's my last year so I've got to take at least one gym class. I thought a martial arts class would be the easiest. Shows what I know.”
“She was awful, but she ended up in my class somehow. She can be terrifying so people think she can fight.” Pusher laughed. “Basically she failed at everything. Still, I'm pretty awesome so it turns out that I can make her look really good. So we made a deal. She becomes my wings and I help her pass gym class.”
“So far it's been real easy.” Gabrielle said and finished off her fish. I still felt a bit ill about it so I focused my eyes a few inches from her head.
“Well that doesn't make sense but I guess I understand.” I took a seat by the lunch table and Pusher sat right next to me.
“So Gabby, any juicy new gossip come around the grapevine since this morning? I need to start the new year with a scoop.” Pusher licked her lips.
“Sorry Shallo, only the new filly, I assume that she happens to be the one you've attached yourself to.”
“Well you'd be right. I just can't keep her away from me. She's obsessed.” She stuck a foreleg over my shoulders. I glared at it, then at her. Gabrielle just laughed.
“Stop that, you've been dragging me along. Don't make me out to be weird.”
“She does that and she'll probably never stop.” Gabrielle stood up and picked up her tray. “You caught me at a bad time, I've got stuff to do. So I guess you'll have to deduce things on your own. Shortcuts lead to failure you know.” She walked off laughing and Pusher shouted something obscene after her.
“I said that to her once when she asked for my help in gym. Hasn't stopped her laziness yet and now she won't let me forget it.” She rolled her eyes at me. “Well kid, I've got to do a few counts of breaking and entering or something, so forgive me but I must say goodbye. What's your room number so I can say hello again later?”
“Oh, um, I think it's room nineteen C.” Her question caught me off guard. I really shouldn't have told her.
“Ah, well I'm looking forward to seeing you tonight then. Sweet dreams kiddo.” She hopped up and trotted off in another direction before I could react.
“Hey,” I shouted after her, “you cannot be older than me!” It didn't matter, she was already gone.
Well despite what she said, I didn't actually see her later that night. I didn't see her on Sunday either. I think it's because I went into town to pick up a few things that I'd forgotten, there's always something. I also saw a show while I was there, none of the unicorns there could hold a candle to you mom. Still, it was a lot of fun and it wouldn't be the last time I would go see it. That's later though.
So that Sunday was uneventful except for meeting the two ponies who lived in the rooms next to mine. On the left was a rather quiet yellow earth pony named Blissful Jazz. I really like her, in part because she doesn't talk very loudly and sometimes I hear the most beautiful music coming from her room at night. It's a far cry from the pegasus on the right. Starry Romp is one of Carat's crowd. She's an earth pony but I don't think she's as brainless as the others in the group, at least, as brainless as they act. I'd say she was the political adviser or whatever. I do my best to avoid her. She tried reporting me twice already for playing my music too loud. I do not play music too loud, it was Blissful Jazz and it wasn't loud. Also she ends up having loud and late parties in her room all the time so she's just a pain.
Classes started Monday so I had to get up early which wasn't really pleasant but there's nothing I can do about that. The first class was math and the teacher started with a few basics I already had down pat. That was going to be an easy start at least, not like history. That's a bit later in the day though so I'll get there.
I was in the halls after math when I ran into Pusher again. She looked absolutely awful. There are all sorts of reasons a pony can look poor on a Monday morning, staying up all night, being sick, general laziness, that sort of thing. Pusher looked awful because, as she explained, she had slept through her alarm and had to be roused from her room by another student. She complained to me about how it was always one of Carat's crowd they sent and she wasn't nice and all sorts of things that were really her own fault. I pretended to have some sort of sympathy and resolved to never sleep through my alarm.
“So, what's your next class?” she asked.
“Intro Magic, apparently it's required for unicorns until they can be placed proper or some nonsense like that. I deserve to be higher but I've got to deal with this for now.” I sighed. I really wasn't looking forward to the class. I had assumed it would be boring and I could do everything they'd teach before they even taught it like back at Rising Acres. I was right, kind of.
“If you say so.” said Pusher in the middle of a yawn. “I've got History. Not even the good sort of History either.” She looked at me through half open eyes. “Want to skip with me? I need a nap and they wouldn't find me in your bed.”
“What? No. Just no.” I said. “And they'd look there for me so it wouldn't work.”
“You're right.” She frowned and looked at the floor. “Guess you'll have to go to class then, give me your room key.” Pusher held out a hoof.
“No. Dear Celestia, what is wrong with your head? Just go to class.” I sighed.
“Fine, you'll regret it though. Someday you'll wake up all ugly and wrinkled and will dream of the days when you could have had your beauty sleep.” She yawned right in my face and trotted off. I just rolled my eyes and went to class. Nothing else to do really.
The teacher was a unicorn named Flicker Sugarcube. She opened up the class with a rather distressing statement. “Well students, welcome to Magic One-oh-nothing. I expect you to excel out of the class or drop it, I don't want a single one of you left in here by the end of week six. Any questions?” One filly in the back of the class raised her hand. “Good, now for your first lesson, prove you know how to read a room number.” She started reading off the attendance sheet, not really waiting for a here or not before jumping to the next name. Then she paused on my name.
“Here.” I said, raising my hand.
“Oh yes, I can see that.” The teacher stepped out from behind the desk and gave me a look I couldn't decipher. “So nice to have you here, imagine my surprise to find you in my class. It's like an early Hearth Warming gift.”
“Do I know you?” I asked. It was kind of weird and I didn't like it.
“Oh no, you wouldn't know me, but I know of you. At least, I knew your mother.” That was my first clue something wasn't good. I swear mom, you made a lot of ponies angry at you in your wild years and they always seem to end up teaching me. “I expect” she paused, “great things from you. If you aren't the top, be assured you will be on the bottom. That goes for the rest of you too.” She roared at the rest of the class, all of us jumped in surprise. “Be the best or the worst, and if you're the worst don't expect any coddling.”
The rest of the class went about the same way. She scolded us when something didn't work and just moved on when it did. I did my best to avoid any attention but she kept pointing me out. All the tasks she asked for were easy enough, mostly thanks to your tutoring, mom. Still, every little imperfection was pointed out. By the time the bell rang I was totally wiped out mentally. I was even starting to think Pusher had the right idea. This was twice as unfortunate because my next class was science. I had been looking forward to it but now I wasn't feeling up to learning a thing. That changed when the professor walked in. He was an absolutely gorgeous gray stallion in a white lab coat. It was dirty but that just showed he had experience. I wasn't the only one who noticed him though, most of the class was following his movements like a hungry hawk.
“Good morning class. My name is Professor Ether and I will be teaching you science. With my help I hope you will find science to be the same fascinating and joyful experience that I do.” He smiled at us and we were putty in his hands. We began with a small experiment that was really simple, but you'd think it was turning dirt into diamonds for all the help everyone wanted. He seemed really impressed when I told him I wanted to be a doctor.
I came out of that class revitalized and ready for lunch. It's so nice to be able to pick and choose everything on the plate, and to get it made special. The rare bonus to having an alfalfa allergy I suppose. So once I got my food I had to find a place to sit. Most of the tables were full of ponies in their own groups, most of them doing their best to ignore me. I could already tell the cliques had formed. Carat and her crowd had their own table of course, off in the back I saw a group of griffons all keeping to themselves and eating distressing things. Then one of them waved at me. I trotted over with my tray and she switched to an empty table which I was glad at. I will get over my squeamishness someday but I still don't like seeing creatures eaten.
“Hey there Gabrielle.” I said as I set my tray down and took a seat.
“Hey yourself Grace.” She said back. “And hay seems to be all your eating. You ought to branch out a little.” She smiled at me, I think to show she was joking but I still shuddered.
“No way.” I shook my head and looked around. “Is this the only lunch? I don't see Pusher anywhere around.”
“What? Oh, well I don't know where Shallo is.” She shrugged and frowned at me. “Pusher, interesting. So how've your classes been? Getting used to the school alright?”
“Yeah, but I think Professor Sugarcube wants to flunk me out of spite.”
“I'm sorry, it's been one day. How can you make any teacher hate you in one day?”
“She really hates my mother apparently.” I said with a sigh and bit in to an apple fritter. “Just like everyone else who ends up teaching magic.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm no snoop or detective or whatever, but you've got to be exaggerating a little. My family isn't exactly low profile but I still run into a lot who've never heard of us.”
“I wish I was exaggerating. My mom pissed off a ton of ponies before she was married. Most of them were in the magical community and now that time has passed, her magical generation is teaching the next.”
“Is that so? Who is she, maybe I've heard of her.”
“Oh, her name's-”
“Well if it isn't my two favorite girls.” Pusher slammed into the table at near full gallop. The whole thing shook and I barely caught my drink before it tipped over. “You won't believe what I found.”
“What is it?” Gabrielle leaned over the table and Pusher joined her. “It better not involve me flying you anywhere.”
“What?” I said. They could whisper and be all secretive if they liked but the lunchroom was loud and I was pretty sure nopony would overhear us unless they were really listening.
“For Celestia's sake, you haven't got any sense of dramatics. Look, I've found the greatest opportunity of our lives and I want you both to join me.”
“No.” Gabrielle said and leaned back in her seat.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, because somepony had to.
“Us, together. Don't be so quick to judge it Gabrielle. See, now it's all coming together. All my life has been coming down to this moment.” She looked between Gabrielle and me. “You can fly, I'm a genius, and our newest member can do magic.”
“Oh no.” Gabrielle put her claw to her forehead.
“Member of what? I didn't join anything.”
“Together, we can do it. We'll have a threesome.” Pusher was grinning like a loon and Gabrielle slumped all the way to the table.
“Sometimes I wonder how smart you really are.” Gabrielle muttered into the table. “I'm not doing it.”
“Too late, we're going out after school.”
“Hold it,” I said, quite loudly in fact, “hold everything. What the heck are you talking about? Use your words.” I don't mean to be bossy but sometimes you have to be firm with ponies. Not that it helps much with Pusher.
“Look, we've got all the areas covered. I can't fly which is a huge detriment and I can't do magic which might be useful.”
“What?” I interrupted. “Magic totally beats flying.” She ignored me.
“So that's why I need two best friends to help me out. You two are my best friends.”
“I just met you yesterday.” I protested. Gabrielle still hadn't moved from her face-down position.
“Doesn't change anything, best friend. We're going into business together. Where do you think I've been all day.”
“In class.” I answered.
“Wrong, I've been scouting out locations and I've found the perfect little niche for our new detective agency.” She laughed. “It was hard but I got it, paid asking price too. Expensive but what's a little money between friends?” Gabrielle hit her head against the table again and I was a bit too stunned to speak. “Oh come on, it's not that much. We'll make it back in no time at all, you can even pay me back out of your wages.”
“I'm not paying you anything, I didn't agree to any of this.”
“You know if you don't pay they can sue you. You signed the contract after all.”
“I signed nothing.” I was getting really loud now. Gabrielle hit her head again.
“Well I signed for you so you don't have to worry about doing the paperwork yourself.”
“That's forgery.”
“Oh what's a little forgery between friends.” She was still smiling.
“You are...I don't know what you are. You're a terrible pony. How dare you do something like this? You are beyond evil.”
“What's a little evil between-”
“No.” I shouted. “Just no!” I stood up and backed away. “You are the rudest and most infuriating pony I've ever met. I should report you to somepony. I thought that Carat was bad but you're the worst Pusher.”
“What did you say?” She had been smiling but suddenly she was glaring at me as much as I was at her.
“You're the worst and I never want to speak to you again.” I turned away and stalked off.
Behind me I heard Gabrielle berating Pusher but I was too mad to care. I was so mad I didn't know what to do, I was ready to cry but I held that in until I got to my room. The end result was me missing my Equestrian class and arriving late to my History class. It wasn't the impression I wanted to make. Apparently I hadn't done the reading I was supposed to and she started the class off with a pop quiz to make sure we had. So not only do I miss the first part of the test but I had no idea what the answers were. It was awful and I almost broke down crying right there in class. Good thing I didn't since I shared that class with Carat. She kept shooting me dirty looks and I could tell she was whispering to her friends about me. I probably looked awful and they certainly seemed to agree with me from what I could hear. After class I finally lost it. I skipped my last class as well which was just a wonderful addition to a perfect first day of school.
I was in my room, crying into my pillow when there came a knock at the door. I really wanted to just ignore it until it finally went away but when the knocking got louder I forced myself up and answered it. Knocking at my door was Blissful Jazz which was rather unexpected. I almost shut the door on her but my polite nature stopped me. “What do you want?” I asked, my being polite has its limits.
“I was the one they sent to see why you weren't in class.” Suddenly I remembered what Pusher had told me earlier and my promise to myself. I'd broken that faster than a Solstice resolution. “That said, they sent me because I've pretty much got a guaranteed A so if you'd rather avoid Public Speaking and just talk to me I'd be happy to listen. You look pretty rough.” She smiled at me and I nodded. I felt the tears building up in my eyes again and I didn't like it. Still, she seemed to understand. “Come on to my room and let me cheer you up some, I've got something that'll help.” She stepped over to her door and unlocked it. She even held it open for me as I went in. Her room was amazing though. It was so decorated. There were posters everywhere and musical instruments on stands in all corners and against walls. It was not what I had expected from the soft spoken pony. Of course my opinion changed as I got to know her but she seemed really quiet at first.
“I like your room.” I said, and I wasn't lying either. She just brushed off the complement.
“It could be better.” Bliss answered and guided me through the maze of sheet music all over her floor to her bed. She patted it and I hopped on. She got up next to me. “Alright, so obviously something has gone wrong for you and you've ended up in tears. I'm here to make you feel better so you should probably start with why you're crying and missing class.”
“It's stupid.”
“Probably, but it doesn't have to be logical to be a problem.” She smiled at me and patted my shoulder.
“Well I only got here three days ago and I'm already a target for that bitch Carat and her friends.” I heard her giggle. “It's not funny, she's a bitch.”
“I'm not denying that. She doesn't much like me either. I just think she's too stupid and spoiled to worry about.”
“It's not just her. I agree with you, she's stupid. It's not her though, not really. She's not helping me though. I think the worst part is Pusher. Do you know her?”
“You mean Shallo?” Bliss asked. “Yeah I know her. So you've gotten caught up with her then?”
“Yeah I guess I have. She's just so pushy all the time. I don't think she knows the meaning of the word no.”
“She wouldn't be the only one.” Bliss rolled her eyes. “Still, I can see why that's a pain. Is that it?”
“No, she's pulling me into something and I don't know.” I didn't want to come out and say what she'd done, it was illegal after all, but it was just so completely wrong. “I just don't want to get forced into whatever fantasy she lives in.” I was starting to cry again. The emotion just kept building up inside me and try as I might, it always seemed to boil over.
“Now now, don't cry. Here, I'll be right back.” She pulled away and stepped off the bed. I watched her go into the bathroom. With nothing to do but wipe my eyes I took a better look around the room. It was set up like mine, with a small dresser next to the bed, but it was the decorations that made it stand apart. The walls were almost covered in paintings and photographs of colts and stallions. I didn't recognize most of them and the few I did were music stars from a couple different genres. However there was a rather obvious blank spot in the pictures. It was obvious that something that was missing there, the space didn't have any tack holes or anything to indicate the picture there was taken down. It was strange. I happened to glance up and there, above the bed, was a large, signed poster of DJ Pon-3 and Octavia. It was a rather strange thing to see above the bed. Off on the dresser was another, smaller signed picture of the two mares with Bliss in front of them. Obviously she was a really big fan, though I'm not sure how good a giant poster of your heroes staring down at you while you sleep is for your sanity.
“Alright, I've got some tissues and the answer to your emotions here.” said Bliss as she stepped out of the bathroom with a box of tissues and a rather odd looking sock. I really noticed it because she was walking on three legs to keep it off the ground. She tossed the tissues at me which I snagged out of the air with magic. “Fancy.” She hopped back onto the bed with me. “Can you magic that acoustic over here?”
“Yeah, I guess.” I did but I wasn't sure why she wanted it. “What's the sock for?”
“It helps me hold the pick so I don't lose it when I get intense.” She held up the covered hoof and I saw the guitar pick. “Now I want you to be comfortable. So feel free to cry on my shoulder because I'm about to play all your troubles away.” She strummed a note. “You know they say Jazz is the sound of the soul.” She strummed a few chords. “But what about when the soul hurts like yours.” She kept strumming between each sentence. “Jazz can be sad, it can be happy.” She strummed once and then placed her hoof against the strings. “But it don't ever beat the blues.”
Then she began to really play. I've listened to a lot of music. The popular sort of thing you hear on radio or at parties. I hadn't heard playing like this before. Maybe it's because I stuck with one or two genre's of music but I'm pretty sure even if I knew a lot about the blues I would still have been impressed. At the time I was more than impressed. The music seemed to fill me and then trickle out, dragging the tears with it. I started sobbing again. I'm not sure if Bliss started crying too but I really think she had. The music just felt so powerful, so passionate, so sad. I don't remember how long she played it but at some point I cried myself to sleep right there on her bed while Jazz played the blues.
