“Kids, please get to your seats! We have a busy day ahead of us.”
Through the door I could hear the woman raise her voice. A bit insulting, wasn’t it? To call teenagers kids? Whatever. A few moments from now she would call for me to enter the room. It was a ritual I knew well. Felt like I had done it a few hundred times. This time something was different though; there was a fresh breath in the air, and the building I was in was made from wood. Outside I could hear the birds, rather than the masses of people, break the silence.
There was a mirror on the wall for whatever reason. Could just as well make sure my hair was looking okay when I got in there. Not that it mattered. I wouldn’t see much of them anyway. My reflection was as it had always been; grey coat, midnight blue mane, grey eyes and a horn. Nothing special where I came from. I had a pair of small, square glasses, in gold casing. Looked pretty good with the hoodie and jeans. Somewhere between smart and rebel.
I stretched my arms above my head. There was a creaking sound from my fingers as my bones adjusted to the pressure. The sound never bothered me. I ran my hands through my hair, making it a little messier than it was before.
I threw a glance at my tail too. It was a little more kept than I would’ve liked, but whatever. Again, I didn’t plan on spending a whole lot of time with these people.
“Okay, you can come in now,” the door opened and a dark purple coated woman with a mane in two colors of natural pink stuck her head out. “And don’t be nervous, all my students are very welcoming to newcomers. I’m sure you’ll fit right in!”
“Right,” I mumbled to myself. She had mistaken me looking in the mirror with me being nervous. In truth I was bored. So very, very bored.
“Alright, Class, we have a new student that will be joining us today. Please welcome Tux Runner!”
I walked in the door, finding exactly what I expected to see; a great deal of indifferent people, a few exited ones and a few that were entirely bored of the idea of a new addition to the class.
There were three exited girls; an orange one with a violet mane, a yellow one with a red mane and a snow-white one with a mane that looked like Cheerilee’s, though maybe a tad darker. A pegasi, earth pony and unicorn in that order.
The bored ones were a couple of earth ponies; a girl with a pale magenta coat and purple and white mane, wearing a diamond tiara of all things, and another girl with a blue-ish grey coat and white-ish grey mane, kept in a single braid over her right shoulder. Both of them were resting their head in a hand and studied their fingernails.
“Okay, Tux Runner, what can you tell us about yourself?” Cheerilee smiled at me. I had almost forgotten she was there; it felt like an eternity had passed.
“Can we just skip this part? I’m really not that interested in being your Show-and-Tell object.”
A silence fell over the class. Last time I had used that one I had gotten a little bit of laughter and chuckling, so this was telling. This teacher had to be well liked by the class. Interesting. Could just as well save myself from the stares this would lead to.
“Just kidding,” I said, with a twinkle in my eye. “I’m from Manehatten.”
Instantly the bored girls looked up. I ignored them. Well, tried to. My eyes returned to the one with the braided hair a couple of times.
“And why did you come to Ponyville?” Cheerilee continued. More Show-and-Tell.
“Because of some people at my old school,” with a glance at the teacher, I continued. “I don’t want to get into it in front of class, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course. Now, I haven’t been able to get a new desk for you, but we had a reserve chair in the backroom. Anyone who want to share their desk with Tux Runner for the rest of the day?”
As expected Orange, Yellow and Snow-White raised their hands right away. Surprisingly the Bored Ones did too. I could see Yellow give them a nasty stare for it.
“Okay then, you can just sit down with Sweetie Belle.”
Snow-White waved me over to her. So Snow-White was Sweetie Belle. She and her friends seemed happy enough about it. Bored #1&2 weren’t.
“Hi, I’m Sweetie Belle,” she squealed as quietly as I had heard anyone do it. “And these are Applebloom and Scootaloo.”
“Girls, please pay attention. I know it is interesting with the new guy, but we have a project we need to work on,” she turned to the rest of the class. “I want you to divide yourself into groups of four. This will be a group project, on the event we now call the Return of Harmony, when Nightmare Moon returned.”
The room became a small chaotic explosion, with people trying to find their friends in the mess. I got snatched up by Yellow, Orange and Snow-White right away. Ten or so minutes later order had been established, and ever group sat around a table with their textbooks open.
“Could I speak with you, in private?”
Cheerilee came over to me, and gestured for me to follow her out in the hall. I shrugged my shoulders and followed. What about the mandatory teacher-student talk was it this time?
“I’ve gotten a minute to look over your report from your last teacher,” she began and I had to hold back a roll of the eyes. “And I became worried when I saw that your attendance was less than 20%, but your grades were above average. Is there something you want to talk about?”
No degrading remarks about “typical city kids”? I felt honestly taken aback by her reaction. I just shrugged again. I still wanted this to be over with.
“Okay then. Just remember that I’m here if you feel you need to talk to someone.”
She smiled. It made me uncomfortable. A teacher that actually cared about the students? Sounded like a good dream. And I weren’t sleeping.
**
“It was set at the Summer Sun Celebration, so we should make something that has to do with that to go with our report!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
“Or we should go and interview Twilight Sparkle. She was part of it, after all,” Sweetie Belle countered the point. I had heard that the princess lived here, but would she be willing to let us interview her? Struck me as a waste of her time, she had already written a lengthy tome on the subject and her hypothesizes around it.
“What do you think we should do, Tux?”
“Take a nap.”
“That’s rich,” Applebloom rolled her eyes. “Seriously, what do ya think we should do?”
“Is everything going okay here?” Cheerilee was back, after a round at the various tables.
“We’re just stuck on ideas for what to do,” Sweetie, with a somewhat nasty glance in my direction. I didn’t see it though, as I opened my bag and pulled out a roll of parchment. I handed it to Cheerilee.
“My report on the Return of Harmony. Can I go now?”
“We don’t accept papers from other school here...” the scroll was handed back.
“I wrote it last night.”
“… and this is a group project. You have to make a joint report, or you’ll all fail the assignment.”
She was less pleased to be in my presence than she had been earlier. I just shook my head and handed the scroll to Sweetie Belle, mumbling something about “source material”. A little confused she and her friends started to read it, leaving me free to observe the rest of the class.
The Bored Ones glanced over at me from time to time, adding not so kind, and not so subtle, glares to my study partners. After I grew bored of watching the others, I followed my own advice, kicking my chair back and “rested my eyes” as I would say if I got in trouble for it.
